I love that he took it to the Apple Store to make sure it fit and take photos of it.

My dad took delivery of his today, and asked me to help him set it up. I’ve inherited his M1 mini now, which I’m looking forward to finding uses for.

I have basically no need of one of these right now, but damn do I want one.

Imagine what they’d charge for RAM and storage upgrades.

Tim Cook didn’t have to offer congratulations. None of them did, but least of all the head of a company that seemingly prides itself on its inclusivity and diversity.

I wonder what his employees make of it. His gay employees, and trans employees, and employees who are the children of immigrants.

That’s what I wonder.

Cool, you crack on using Twitter then.

I have no strawman. I had a wickerman, but, well, it’s awkward.

It’s not that weird, given that they’re both examples of Fediverse software that can (in theory, though not well in practice) interact with each other.

As for Masto being separate instances; I’ve never really had a problem with that. Follow a bunch of people from different servers and you’ll soon begin to federate and link up with other people.

I see folks posting on Mastodon, griping that it’s failing, that it’ll never be as popular as Bluesky and Threads because of X and Y, and I’m like, I’m over there chatting to people all day, having a fine time, following new people, picking up new followers, and generally enjoying it more than I ever really enjoyed Twitter.

I don’t really understand why those folks want it to be more than it is.

“Oh, but there are no journalists!”

Good? I don’t want endless ragebait posted in my feeds. I just wanna be chill, share music recommendations, and enjoy more people interacting with my radio show than ever did on Twitter.

I think you mean Jeb!

I wish the EU would pass a law making it so that all devices must be unlocked once they stop receiving software updates. How many perfectly usable devices are forced to fall by the wayside because the last supported OS can’t do anything useful. I would love to see a version of Linux running on old iPad hardware.

I couldn’t believe how long I could get out of my 15" M2 Air’s battery when playing No Man’s Sky. A good five hours of gameplay without needing to worry about plugging in. Meanwhile, my previous Intel MacBook struggled to get five hours on standby.

Have you thought about using Arch?

I use Arch, btw.

As a fellow school child in the ‘90s, I can confirm that almost anything anyone did was gay. Holding hands with a girl? Gay. Liking video games? Gay.

Have you considered seeking an ADHD assessment?

You have my empathy, friend. Be strong, and never forget that your inherent value is not tied up in how much you earn.

I’d probably lay on my sofa, mindlessly scrolling, beating myself up for not being more productive. It’s the ADHD way and there’s nothing you can do about it.

My 18 month old 13 mini is running 18.1 and has been off charge for a little over ten hours. I’ve barely used it today as I’ve been at my desk with my iPad and work Mac, but the battery is at 63%.

My year old iPad mini has been off charge for a couple of hours, during which I’ve been typing in a Pages document using a regular Logitech keyboard and mouse hooked up via dongle. The battery is at 58%.

Something ain’t right with the drain in 18.1.

But which is it to be; the simplicity of iPadOS, or cramming iPads with ultra-powerful processors that are hilariously overpowered for what the OS can achieve?

In the case of the iPad mini: it could be an excellent, simple computing device, a la Chromebook. Hook it up to a display, get a Stage Manager-led device that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse and used to get on with simple computing tasks. The iWork suite would be perfect in that setup.

Instead, when you do that you get the regular 8” display blown up to the size of whatever display you have, which adds nothing. The Mini has the capability to be so much more without losing what makes it such a compelling device, but Apple don’t seem to care.

And it’s not like I’m asking for them to make it a Mac replacement. There’s no danger of it cutting in to iPad or Mac sales. It would become its own little niche. Hell, they could make iPhones do the same. But they won’t, because money.

I have the previous gen iPad mini (and iPhone mini as well…), and it’s a genuinely wonderful device. It’s the perfect size for idly reading the internet, PDFs, and books. Also, It’s great for propping up by my Mac at work to show me Mastodon, Lemmy, Messages, etc… that I can control with my Mac’s trackpad and keyboard.

But if I hadn’t got it as a present last year there’s no way I’d own one for what Apple are charging for it. It just is not worth £600+

Partly that’s because of iPadOS as a whole, but also because they’re charging in the region of iPad Air money for it while leaving out several iPadOS features that might make it a legitimately useful tool.

I never use Stage Manager on my Macs, but if I could access it on my iPad, then hook it up to a display and have it as a handy portable computer I’d be all over that. But Apple removed that from the mini, despite it having the guts to support it. Hell, even if activating it turned off the iPad’s display it would still be really handy. Nope, can’t even do that.

I have no idea why Apple keep selling the iPad mini, because they don’t really seem to give a shit about it, and it’s a shame.