THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Going Blindly Into Python Scripts to Move TV Time Tracking to Sequel

• Jonathan

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about technology in general, but one area where I have a real weakness is coding, scripting, and the like. I’ve played around with it before, but despite some attempts to learn languages like SwiftUI, my efforts have always petered out. That meant the challenge my wife gave me this week took me way outside my comfort zone.

My wife and I watch quite a lot of TV and movies, and we enthusiastically track everything – down to the episode. I’ve been using Sequel, the MacStories Selects Award-winning app for tracking media, for several years, while my wife has been using TV Time. I used the app before Sequel came along and found it to be decent, if not lacking many features. Recently, my wife’s become frustrated with the app’s stability and has been looking jealously at Sequel’s nice UI on my iPhone every time I open it up to log an episode.

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THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Tech Anxiety and Dealing with the News Firehose

• Jonathan

I don’t think I’m the only one who’s recently had the feeling that tech news is becoming more toxic – that more and more product releases have this semi-political commentary or opinion attached to them. What is a photo? Is AI making a positive difference? Should we have more choices regarding what apps we put on our devices and from where? It can become a bit much. Has the joy of tech news disappeared?

Let’s be clear: I love tech. I love reading about it, I love listening to people talk about it, and I love writing about it. I don’t think that will ever go away. But sometimes, I almost feel like I’m punishing myself getting worked up about the latest generative AI slop machine or some new hateful/just plain stupid thing that Elon Musk has said. (And now, he’s crossing over into politics, which is delightful.) These things can build up to the point that I occasionally feel like it’s hard to find the “good” tech stories.

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THE EXTENSION

Exploring topics beyond our day-to-day coverage.

Getting to Grips with the Camera Control and Photographic Styles

• Jonathan

It’s been four weeks since the release of the iPhone 16 lineup. I’m also a week out from a holiday where I used the new camera features, both software and hardware, as much as possible. Now seems as good time as any for me to look at what those new features are, how I’m using them, and how you might consider re-examining the way you take photos in light of these changes.

Camera Control

Camera Control is the iPhone’s new hardware button (yay!) that’s super fiddly to use (boo!). It’s a noble attempt at recreating the classic shutter button on a traditional camera, but it falls over by being way too convoluted. Even beyond the complex swipes and half-presses, it also fails by being hard to find without looking because it’s flush with the edge of the iPhone. Additionally, while everyone’s hands are different, the button’s position along the side seems suited more to Salad Fingers (happy 20th anniversary; I feel very old) than the average user. It’s way too close to the middle of the device.

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