+ Doomscrolling is not an obligation

For the first time in my Mastodon era, I find it's time for me to take a social media break again. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 hour ago

Comfort Zone is coming back this month

Comfort Zone, the podcast I do with Chris and Niléane is coming back later this month! We've had a little time off, which actually was nice, maybe we should take a break every year for a bit…anyway 😅Our new website, comfortzone.rocks says | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 2 days ago

Chill racist games hosted by the US government

Have you ever wanted to play a game of Snake where instead of eating fruit, you took control of a white guy arresting and reporting brown people? Well, the White House website has that for you on their new arcade!The website is just a bunch of knockoffs of other | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 3 days ago

180 merges in 135 days

I officially launched Quick Reads 135 days ago, and to say I've been working hard on it since is an understatement. Obviously, PRs aren't a perfect measure for productivity, but each PR is an instance of me wanting to add or change something, and in less | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 3 days ago

Arc Raiders has faded away while I wasn't looking

Jamie Hore: Are We Really Witnessing the "Downfall" of Arc Raiders?That’s according to a 9 August 2026 Twitter post from content creator ‘Adio’. The post was reacting to the hit extraction shooter’s decline in player count on Steam in recent months, | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 3 days ago

NVIDIA is doing the iPhone thing

Ben Thompson: Nvidia Earnings, Dollars Per Gigawatt, Open and Hugging FaceNvidia right now continues to be like Apple in the early years of the iPhone: for years forecasting was easy and reliable, because the company’s revenue was a function of how many phones they could make and | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 3 days ago

The tech Apple will use to make the crease (mostly?) go away in their folding iPhone

KIMGEON: Google, Oppo and Vivo to Adopt Dual UTG for Foldable Phones – Apple-led dual-UTG design doubles glass content per foldable deviceThe lower UTG supports the OLED panel from underneath. It disperses stress concentrated around the hinge when the foldable phone is opened and … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 3 days ago

Designed in California

Myke Hurley: Designed in California is LIVE!We have published two episodes today in the free feed, which are the first of a seven-part series about Apple’s Mac OS crisis in the ’90s, leading to the company acquiring NeXT and bringing Steve Jobs back.I listened | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 3 days ago

Silo…in your browser

This site is insane. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 4 days ago

Updates to Quick Reads, Reviews, and Subtitles for iOS

It looks like AppReview is clearing the decks for next week's wave of OS 27 updates. Here's what's new from my apps today.Quick ReadsThis update catches the app up with pretty much everything the web app got over the summer.First off, | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 5 days ago

Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1 are here

Anthropic: Introducing Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1 are the same model, but with different levels of safeguards.I think a lot of us believed Fable 5 was the same as Mythos, just with different safeguards, but I | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 5 days ago

1Password with an unbelievable own goal

Andrew Lilley Brinker: 1Password Supports the Ethnic Cleansing of EuropeOmarchy is a Linux distribution created and controlled by David Heinemeier Hansson, usually known as DHH. DHH is the founder and CTO of 37signals (formerly Basecamp) and creator of Ruby on Rails.In the last y … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 6 days ago

You didn't write that, you're just a meat proxy

sf-isms: Meat proxyA person who forwards AI-generated text, code, or other output without reading, understanding, or validating it. The person acts only as a relay between the AI system and the intended recipient.Love this. I mean, I hate this and it annoys me every time someone | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 6 days ago

Jason Snell's productivity picks

Jason Snell was featured on the Mac App Store today sharing a few app picks, which was very cool to see. I'm the sort of guy who likes learning about new apps from people I trust, so this was a fun list.Imagine my surprise when I got | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 6 days ago

Introducing Birchfeed, the best RSS app that works in your favorite RSS app already

I've joked here and there that I should make an RSS app. I genuinely didn't really mean it, but a couple months ago, after doing some work with RSS in Quick Reads, I thought, hey, I think I could do this better in a few ways, | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 7 days ago

The unbearable weight of Metal Gear Solid 4's cutscenes

I posted this weekend about how cutscene heavy Metal Gear Solid 4 is, and a few people went, "yup, that's Kojima for you!" But I want to stress how insane this game is, even as a seasoned Kojima stan who has played pretty much all of | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 7 days ago

Trashcan

Trashcan is a fun little site. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 9 days ago

+ Introducing *********

New thing coming soon… | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 10 days ago

This phone folds. It folds!

If you haven't listened to the A Better Computer podcast, today would be a great day to give it a shot. Today I'm giving some extended impressions of using Samsung's latest folding phone and what I think it means for the iPhone we expect | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 11 days ago

+ Comfortable and uncomfortable truths

I understand being mad, I understand not tolerating it, but I think there's an uncomfortable truth, representing the world being a messy place where few things are completely black and white. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 15 days ago

Apple's obviously going to make a second folding phone

I've been using Samsung's new Galaxy Fold8 for the last week (More Birchtree members can read my initial impressions here). The reason I got this phone should be no surprise – rumors are very strong that Apple will be releasing a folding phone next month that | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 18 days ago

Quick Subtitles 3

Quick Subtitles 3 is out now for Mac, iPad, and iPhone. While this is not the biggest update ever, there's some really good stuff here. More than any of my other apps, this is an app for professionals who just want things to work reliably and quickly. This | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 18 days ago

Subscriber rot

I joined Mastodon way back in 2016, but I dropped off and didn't come back until late 2022. When I came back, I made a new account and started fresh, building up a new followers list. That number went up quick for a while, but it eventually leveled | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 18 days ago

+ Galaxy Z Fold8 Impressions

Samsung's new foldable is an early look at what Apple will be announcing next month. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 22 days ago

Quick Reviews 3 is out now!

Quick Reviews 3 is our now and is an update about giving the people what they've wanted.iCloud syncThis was going to be in v2, but I never really got it working (hangover from my bad data model choices in the v1 app), so I'm | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 27 days ago

Quick Reads 1.0.4 is a beefy iPad update

Quick Reads for iPhone and iPad 1.0.4 is rolling out on the App Store now, and I didn't bump the version that much, but this is the biggest update yet for iPad users.The iPad app got some serious love … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Quick Reads has been getting better all summer

I've been shipping a steady stream of updates to Quick Reads over the past couple months, and while each one got a line in the changelog, I figured it was worth rounding up the highlights in one place.Search is dramatically betterSince launch, search was a simple | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

I was on Hacker News yesterday and didn't even notice

I don't obsessively check the metrics on this blog, but I do every now and again just to see how things are generally going. I don't run ads anymore, so page views don't really equate to much more than a vanity metric. But hey, | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Benchmarking all the Macs I have around for fun

Just for fun, I've use quicksubs' benchmark mode to see how fast the 4 Macs I have access to are and how they heat up when under load.M2 Mac miniA18 Pro MacBook NeoM4 Pro MacBook Pro (higher core version)M5 Pro MacBook Pro (higher | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

+ Nostalgia for nostalgia

Tech, Apple, and the vast grey area that is AI | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Dia becomes Arc

On Friday, I had an automatic update install for Dia, and it brought keyboard shortcut and trackpad gestures for switching between spaces. As someone who uses Dia on a daily basis, this was great news to me. One of the many magical features of Arc four years ago was its | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

+ About the Hank Green situation

Burn him at the stake! (apparently) | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Holocloth is the coolest website I've seen in ages

Good lord, play with this thing. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Micro app 21: ghosthunter CLI

Ghosthunter is a new CLI that lets you browse and search your Ghost site. It’s free and works with any Ghost blog. You can install it via homebrew with:brew install mattbirchler/tap/ghosthunter After installed, you run ghosthunter init to add your site URL and admin key. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

nonogame is the nonogram app I never expected to make

TLDR: You can play three daily puzzles at nonogame.app right now!Here is one I didn't see coming…In the mid-2000s, around the time Sudoku was getting popular here in the US, another game came on my radar around the same time, nonograms. Nonograms were | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

+ It's just tech

Tech, Apple, and the vast grey area that is AI | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Chapterize 2: a new generation

I'm happy to announce that Chapterize 2 is out today, and I think it is an essential tool for anyone who has a podcast. The app is free to try and has a one-time $20 unlock for unlimited use. If you've previously purchased the app, | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

+ Previewing my big app updates of the summer

An early preview of the big app updates I have coming the rest of the summer. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

quickubs CLI gets more models and benchmarks

Last week I solved my own problem by releasing the quicksubs CLI, which allows you to generate transcripts easily from the command line on your Mac. I've used this a bunch myself already, it's been a great addition to my workflow, and I've heard | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

+ My beef with The Odyssey discourse

Tech, Apple, and the vast grey area that is AI | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Quick Notes 3.0 is out now

Quick Notes 3.0 is rolling out now as a free upgrade for all users. This update includes three major changes: a new way to access your notes anywhere, improvements to brainstorm mode, and a top to bottom design overhaul.Notes wherever you want themI think this first feature | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Micro app 20: The Quick Subtitles CLI

Quick Subtitles is a great app for transcribing files on your Mac (and iPhone and iPad), and I use it at least 3x per week for my various projects. It works great, but it's a little limited from an automation perspective.That's where the brand new | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Micro app 19: That Guy

I was at the theater this week seeing Minions and Monsters, and I had this feeling over and over, which was I would hear a voice and not quite be able to place the actor. It was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't quite figure | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Quick Reads now does todo items

Quick Reads has been obsessed with being the best way to save articles you mean to read later, and I think it's done a good job of that. However, there are links I come across that I want to save for later, but they're not for | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

+ Whatever happened to the replication crisis?

Tech, Apple, and the vast grey area that is AI | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

My favorite (and least favorite) movies of 2026 so far

We're just over halfway through 2026, and by my count, I've see 15 2026 releases so far. Here's a from-the-hip ranking what I liked the most to least.Nirvanna the Band the Show the MovieProject Hail MaryObsessionThe Sheep | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Ghosty Posty for Obsidian gets edits, visibility, and delivery options

Ghosty Posty is my Obsidian plugin that lets you writing Obsidian and publish direct to your Ghost blog. In my humble (if biased) opinion, it is by far the best way to publish to Ghost from Obsidian. Here's what's new in today's 1.1 | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 month ago

Micro app 18: Claude Code Obsidian sync

Here's a weird one…I had a situation where I wanted to be reminded what happened in a Claude Code session a few days ago. You can revive old conversations in the Claude Code CLI, but it's annoying. You can go into your ~/.claude/projects | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 2 months ago