Landlords are vermin, AI is peddled by vermin, and spambots are vermin.

I was ok with the Angry Birds franchise right up until the shitty kart racing game they pumped out. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more wretched collection of bare-faced advertising and micro transactions as that fucking piece of shit.

The game was crammed full of new pop songs, and when one would play the game would display a link to buy it from iTunes. I couldn’t let my kid play it, it was just too egregious.

Haven’t touched any of those games since. Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed the original.

I remember buying Bioshock on my iPhone way back in the mists of time, before decent controller support existed for iOS. The on screen controls weren’t great, so I didn’t spend much time playing it, always planning to come back at some point.

Then it got removed from the App Store so completely that it disappeared from my purchased list, and that was that.

Yeah, that’s awesome.

Now, let’s see about Red Dead II…

I have an M2 Air which can run the Windows version of Steam via Whisky. Its ability can be patchy, but the fact it runs any games at all is little short of a miracle. I’ve been playing The Talos Principle II that way, and while my wife thinks the glitchy graphics are hilarious, I’m not too fussed because the gameplay is still there.

Of course, it’s not perfect, and while I can get Fallout 4 to run, it looks like shit even on the lowest settings. However, in the context of the gripes in this thread, it means I can play Portal 2 and its various mod packs on my Mac. And they look great.

Speaking as a macOS user, it’s a relatively straightforward process using a specific version of the Kindle app and a bit of knowledge of how to use Calibre. It can be a bit of a fiddle to set up, but once it is it’s wonderful to be able to take advantage of discounts on Kindle while reading on my Kobo.

I can’t speak for how easy it is on Windows/Linux, mind.

I have 16gb on my M2 Air, and 8gb on my 2014 mini. I’m genuinely surprised at how usable that mini still is. Hell, it’s running Sonoma through OCLP, but it’s only when I boot up the Win11 VM I have installed that it really starts to struggle.

No ublock for Safari, which, yeah, is Apple’s fault for being dicks, but it still sucks.

Oh, it’s a stunning game, and I absolutely adored it. But that final boss is an utter prick.

Bramble: The Mountain King

I ragequit half way through the final boss after having died for the thirtieth time. The game is absolutely beautiful, but fuck me some of it is tough.

Ended up watching the last bit on YouTube. No regrets.

iPhone mini gang rise up!

Eh, I dunno.

I was pondering using the new Journal app on my iPhone, but would far prefer to type with a physical keyboard, so haven’t gotten around to it. Not saying that this particular board would change my mind, of course, but ultimately I do vastly prefer the tactile feel of a real board.

Hell, I’m typing this on my iPad using Universal Control from my Mac.

The second being Safari, right?

Right?

…right…