2025-06-25 07:15:28
Ash Parrish: Netflix is letting go of some of its best indie games | The Verge
Several titles like Braid, Katana Zero, and yes, Hades, were available exclusively on mobile via Netflix, meaning that when those games go, that’s potentially it for them on Android / iOS.
The latest gem in the Monument Valley series is a Netflix exclusive on mobile, so it's just vanishing for the time being on July 14. The only silver lining is that a few weeks ago it was announced that Monument Valley 3 was coming to consoles and PC on July 22, 2025.. The bad news is that if you wanted to play this on an iPhone or iPad, you've only got a few weeks to do it. You gotta think it'll be back on mobile sometime, but who knows when that'll be?
2025-06-23 21:00:35
Not everyone liked that Sarah McBride interview I linked to last week, so let's get into the other perspective.
2025-06-23 19:30:36
Corridor Digital with another "we don't think anyone's ever gotten this shot before, so we're going to try and get it" video, and it's amazing.
2025-06-23 07:00:00
There are Windows users out there who prefer or need Windows to do what they do with a computer, but they really like the look of Mac hardware. They like the speed, the reliability, the design, the battery life…they just can't get what they need software-wise, so they find a Windows device that suits their needs best.
Similarly, I love the look of iPad hardware and the convertible laptop form factor that iPad users get to enjoy. My RSI issues also enjoy being able to use my computer with touch rather than mice, trackpads, and keyboards, all of which cause pain with too much use. Sadly, iPadOS still doesn't do dozens of things I need my computer to do, so it's not a good fit for me. The new updates coming this fall look great, but they don't move the needle for me personally.
Since there's only one company who makes computers that run macOS, I'm stuck asking that one company to make the combination of hardware and software I want. It may not be what you want, but I'm here to advocate for myself and what I want from the computers in my life.
It doesn't even need to be a Mac, they could add enough features to iPadOS that I would be happy using that instead, they've just got a lot longer way to go to get all that into iPadOS than to go the other way around.
2025-06-23 04:33:23
Last year I compared the battery life using Safari and Chrome on a Mac. The critical thing that was different from this test to all the others I've seen out there is that this is actually a long term test and it was replicating the same workflow across all browsers AND it was always starting at 100% battery life, which is relevant since Apple holds the 100% reported battery life for a while longer than any other percentage.
Read that post if you want to see the full details, but the gist was that with 36 hours of testing data under my belt, I found Safari burned through battery about 7% faster than Chrome. Not exactly what you would have expected, but it was replicable over many tests.
Today's updated bit of data is less scientific than the last time, but I ran the same tests one a few browsers again over the past few days, keeping every variable the same except for the browser in use: this time testing Zen, Arc, and Safari. This is the macOS Tahoe beta, so not a scientific test bench by any means, but the results after a 5 hour test run repeated twice for each browser was very consistent. In summary, after 5 hours of web browsing (M4 Pro MacBook Pro),
This is actually a bigger gap than we saw previously, although of course now we're using a beta operating system and two beta browsers. The story is the same in my eyes though, use whatever web browser you like because I'm yet to find a browser so much worse on your battery than anything else (and Safari is consistently and inexplicably the hardest).
This is also the point where I say that this test is available on GitHub, so you can run it yourself or tweak it to your liking if you want.
2025-06-20 21:00:00
Matt Alexander writing about his impressions of Dia, the new browser from The Browser Company (aka what they stopped working on Arc to pursue):
In all, I think they've built a decently attractive skin for Chrome. It's somewhat privacy-minded on the surface, but poses a tremendous amount of questions a level deeper. It has a built-in adblocker and compatibility with Chrome extensions, which is handy. But I can't think of any compelling reason to use Dia as my primary browser today. And I do not see a future where this becomes widely adopted.
And:
Arc had an opinion and a point of differentiation. Plenty of whimsy and a-ha! moments. I'd sometimes use it occupying 70% of my display with ChatGPT open in the remaining 30%. Similar experience, albeit with separate apps! I think I prefer it that way. This feels soulless and, worse, pointless.
My A Better Computer season finale was a look at Dia and let's just say I am not currently impressed with it either. I don't doubt that there are people who find this genuinely useful, but I just don't get it. Maybe they'll develop a huge user base and I'll look silly, who knows?
What I will say is that I don't understand their business logic at all here. They had a quite large, die-hard fan base in Arc, but they didn't think they could grow that audience into the hundreds of millions of users. They want to do that with Dia, but they also say they want to make money. Nobody makes a mainstream browser and makes money on it, so I wish them luck. I just think they had a better chance monetizing enthusiasts who adored and relied on Arc paying up than your mom or students (the only users they seem to care about now).
The bright side I guess is that Arc for the Mac was at least in such a good state when they stopped improving it that it still work great as a browser today. Windows users aren't so lucky, but you can probably ride Arc into the ground for a while now if you don't see any good alternatives.