MKBHD’s rather unpopular side gig, Panels app is shutting down on coming this December 31. The app has been receiving incendiary receptions to say the least; it charged $50 per year for wallpapers. I have no interest on making arguments for or against the app — I was obviously not in the target demographic. I pay roughly the same amount for Parallels subscription and still call it too expensive. Whether or not wallpapers are worth $50 is a pricing decision I don’t need to comment on.
From Op-ed
IoT, Bluetooth, and WiFi
Few months ago, I wrote a spiel on a new Dyson PencilVac vacuum cleaner. It didn’t merit to be called a full-scale review, as I wasn’t testing the product against any other vacuums in the market, and quite frankly my research was limited to what fits into my needs and routines. Regardless, at the time, I knew the vacuum had Bluetooth capability and an app that were lackluster overall. The modern expectation of IoT apps would be somewhere near or above entry level robot vacuums.
Early Access and Narrative Work
Of all things Valve is pushing, I find Early Access program to be easily abused because it demerits the narrative element of a game. Any games that are heavily based on its narrative or storytelling have limited shelf life; the moment it is released it will slowly sip through any and all social medias. But developers can choose not to use Early Access. The fault truly lies on the games that use Early Access and laser focus on the system’s weakness for its advantage.
Positioning Foldable iPhone
The new onslaught of foldable iPhone rumors have been released: a. it will feature under-display camera for innards, b. it will feature Touch ID instead of Face ID, c. it will feature a larger battery, d. the foldable display will be crease-less, and finally e. it will be priced at $2,399. The prudence dictates we don’t jump to conclusions, but the rumors are suggesting the Californian company wishes to sell one iPhone at the price of two, possibly by bundling the two in one.
Mac Pro, Mac Studio, and Mac Clusters
macOS 26.2 is expected to release a new Mac Cluster feature that runs on full Thunderbolt 5 bandwidth (80Gbps) compared to what is available now at 10Gbps. The coverages surrounding the end of Mac Pro line, which I happen to agree with, suspect Mac cluster update will be the final nail in the coffin for Mac Pro.
Valve Reboots Steam Machine
As many have undoubtedly have seen, Valve announced yet another hardware product. This time it is called Steam Machine, not to be confused with Steam Machine (2015) from the same company. The first Steam Machine was announced DOA by reviewers soon after, even though some had previously expected Valve is finally making a landing in the living room against the console giants. From pure sales figures, the first Steam Machine sold around half a million units. That might mean something in gaming PC arena, but for consoles, where day one sales figure alone goes upward of a million unit, it…
AI Spams and Comment Moderation
Many websites have some common unwritten rules on comment moderation — most common of which is locking or closing comments after certain duration. I believe Reddit has it at 6 months, under some of the news articles they have it at 14 days, and some chatting-like discussions, they keep it tight at 48 hours. The Mad Tea Party is now closing comments (Trackbacks and others still work) after 30 days.
App Review Guidelines, AI Apps, and App Spamming
It has been nearly a year since I wrote about app spamming, in particular, ChatGPT-like apps. Many of them simply used ChatGPT and charged extra to the end users who didn’t know it wasn’t from the official developer. Their icons were often nearly identical to OpenAI’s, and dare I say, deliberately designed to be confused with the original.
How American Media Misshaped K-Pop
There is a running joke in South Korea that not even native Koreans would dare to traverse into the mystic land of Peju, depicted in Hawaii Five-0. Aired in 2010, the show was a remake of the original from 1960s. It had some incendiary scenes for Korean audience. In a decrepit bar in a jungle, a bartender serves literal Bloody Mary with makgeolli and snake blood. Mind you, there is no city named Peju, as far as I know. The show clearly used Pohang as-is, I wouldn’t think they deliberately made a decision to avoid the name of a real…
Apple Intelligence, AI Subscriptions, and AI Store
After the whole debacle I had with Zadok the Priest on the previous post, I received some spams suggesting I should subscribe to their pro or plus models. I take it my search had used up most of free queries I had for the day. As far as I know, neither Google nor OpenAI openly publish the limit of their respective free tiers. From the literature I could find, it appears both companies have no fixed plan for free tier. For those of us who wish to cut subscriptions, having one less pricing info makes it untenable to plan a…
Finding “Zadok” of Handel
Handel’s Zadok the Priest (HWV 258) is such a popular classical piece, I suspect most people would not even notice it is entirely written in English. At the very least, I was bamboozled to learn all the English lessons I’ve had growing up failed to mention it. If it doesn’t ring a bell, here is a version from Westminster Abbey Choir on YouTube. The text is biblical and it is easy to read. The verse that matters today is following:
M5, Mac Mini, and MacBook Air
It has been 5 years since the release of first M1 Macs. M5 MacBook Pro just hit the shelves, and likely MacBook Air and Mac Mini, two popular and highly praised models from M4 will be renewed with m5 in the following year. The benchmark for M5 indicates M5 is roughly twice as fast compared to that of M1’s. It is said average consumers upgrade their computer every 3 to 5 years, so it is likely going to be the first year of major upgrade cycle on Apple Silicon.
Apple Intelligence, Google Gemini, and AI Models
Bloomberg reported Apple is in talk with Google to use custom version of Gemini in the Apple’s servers, named “Private Cloud Compute”. If the deal goes through, Apple would have a default AI model for Apple Intelligence as a service. In all likelihood, it also means Apple would keep many of the AI related features on iOS and macOS to be replaceable by other models or services, much akin to how App Store is reshaping now.
Logitech Harmony and HDMI-CEC
Logitech discontinued production for Harmony in 2021. There were some signs Logitech needed to put in heavy investment towards the Harmony platform, otherwise it will be unsustainable: losing Mac support was one; introduction of HDMI-CEC in 2005 was the other; and most importantly, Smart TV and cord cutting made a universal remote such a niche market.
Apple TV, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro
Let’s begin with Apple TV, a streaming box that is largely unnoticeable when discussing Apple’s sales figures. Of the three devices in the title, Apple TV is oddly the most independent. It is, for the lack of better word, an iPhone of a streaming box. It supports majority of the streaming services via third party app, and the App Store for Apple TV is well populated for an entertainment device hooked up to a TV. However, Apple does try to push for what Apple TV could have been, instead of what it has been so far. With the chipset that…