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  • Goodbye Launchpad: Improving the MacOS Tahoe Apps Panel

    Goodbye Launchpad: Improving the MacOS Tahoe Apps Panel

    With MacOS Tahoe, Launchpad has gone. In its place is an Apps panel that shows all your applications, in alphabetical order. No way of grouping. No way of moving apps around. If you’ve forgotten the name of an app, you’ll find yourself slowly scrolling the list until you find it (as I’ve had to do a number of times since installing Tahoe just a few days ago).

    Of all the changes made this, for me, is the biggest retrograde step. For anyone with Neurodiversities, there’ a good chance this new method if going to be a lot harder to use.

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  • Ordering a new iPhone with Apple’s Upgrade Programme

    Ordering a new iPhone with Apple’s Upgrade Programme

    Not many people realise it’s even a thing but in the UK you can get a minty-fresh iPhone every year as part of Apple’s own iPhone Upgrade Programme. You pay a set amount every month and, with that, you can upgrade every 11 months (let’s be honest, you’ll do it every year when the new version of the phone comes out) and you get AppleCare+ included as well. You never have to worry about battery life again.

    I’ve been on it for about 8 years now and, every year without fail, it’s a major PITA.

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  • Using AI to assist with WordPress plugin development

    Using AI to assist with WordPress plugin development

    For the first time I’ve used AI to assist with an update to one of my WordPress plugins. I learnt a lot using it, the conclusions for which I want to share today.

    But first, let’s understood what I was using it for.

    I had some changes to make to the plugin in question, ShareOpenly, but nothing I was rushing to do. They were minor enhancements but ones that would take quite a bit of time to achieve for relatively minimal results. Instead, I wanted to see if I could use AI to analyse my code and the related README and suggest changes – not adding new features, but enhancing the existing code in terms of reliability, accessibility, security and performance.

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  • The plugins I use on this site – the what and the why

    The plugins I use on this site – the what and the why

    This is a snapshot, at time of writing, of what plugins I’m using on my site. And this will vary from one month to the next. I’ve grouped them appropriately too and given an explanation as to what it does for my site and, where appropriate, some additional notes about usage, performance, etc.

    For some other context, this is my personal site and is not a money maker. There are some affiliate links on it, but these are rare. As a result, all the plugins I use are free.

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  • Moving browsers… again

    Moving browsers… again

    It feels like almost an annual event when I shuffle around the browsers I’m using, but I’m sure it’s not that often. None-the-less, Safari has, again, forced my hand,

    A few years ago I was having some odd issues with Safari, my usual browser of choice, which forced me away from it until, many months later, they seemed to resolve themselves. Now, though, an issue that I absolutely cannot find a fix for me, has me re-evaluate again.

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