Who has time for due process these days?

The Vice President of the United States on Twitter: To say the administration must observe "due process" is to beg the question: what process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 2 hours ago

+ The broken toe

By Matt Birchler | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 3 hours ago

Modding a Nintendo 3DS is precise, but doable in 2025

I went through the act if installing custom firmware on my New Nintendo 2DS tonight, and I wanted to shout out this guide for being absolutely spectacular. Not only does it have the best step-by-step instructions I think I've ever seen, it even has branches off the main | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 1 day ago

Dangerous ground

Zolan Kanno-Youngs: El Salvador’s President Says He Won’t Return Maryland Man Who Was Wrongly Deported In an Oval Office meeting with President Trump on Monday, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador said that he would not return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported from the | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 2 days ago

Who pays tariffs

Lee Morris of Fstoppers on how tariffs impact him, as someone who wants to make his stuff in the US: This is a really good breakdown of how tariffs impact small businesses and why they aren't a great tool for getting manufacturing to come back to America (at | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 2 days ago

A few recent examples of beautiful, distinct TV cinematography

Instead of posting collections of interesting videos every once in a while, I'm going to try treating them like regular old link posts: here's a video, here's what I think of it or what it made me feel. I learn a lot from videos | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 2 days ago

Hark! A new CGP Grey video!

I personally find this argument quite compelling, but I looked up arguments against discontinuing production of the penny and nickel and they basically revolve around fears around prices rounding up more often than down, creating a tax on those who pay with cash. I'm sympathetic … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 2 days ago

Pulling myself out of the pit

I'll be honest, I wasn't an iOS veteran engineer when I started work on Quick Reviews at the start of this year. I'm really proud of what I made, I'm happy with how quickly I was able to get it out there, | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 3 days ago

Say hello to another Quick Stuff app

Another day, another little app on Quick Stuff: Markdown Converter. This one also solves a personal need I have, which is that I write the show notes for my podcast in Markdown, but I need to put them in my podcast host as HTML and my co-host Chris needs them | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 6 days ago

Nothing in your workflow is permenent

My friend and podcast co-host Chris Lawley just posted a video about how his relationship with the iPad has changed over time. I linked to this on social media and got a few replies from folks who said something to the effect of, "we told you so," which | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 6 days ago

You did not put a lot of time into this

Chris has an external drive faster than you’ve ever seen, Matt has a new email app he swears isn’t his new favorite cult, and the whole gang does their best to redesign iOS and iPadOS. Check it out in audio or video! Weekly Topics ACASIS 80Gbps | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 6 days ago

A project to smooth relations with devs

Theo in a video about some recent Visual Studio Code drama: We have to remember the role of VS Code. VS Code was never, ever, ever meant to make money. Microsoft's plan with VS Code was at no point, "we're going to charge for this | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 7 days ago

Tariffs, integrity, and chaos

Ben Thompson: American Disruption (emphasis mine): [T]he most important components for executing a fundamental shift in trade are those that go into building actual factories, or equipment for those factories. In the vast sea of stupidity that are these tariffs this is perhaps th … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 7 days ago

Say hello to Quick Chapters

I said that Quick Stuff was a place for me to put those little web utilities that I just need sometimes, and I've already got a new entrant: Quick Chapters. This little app simply lets you provide it an MP3 file, it will extract the chapters from it, | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 7 days ago

Meta got tricky with LLM benchmarks

Oh boy, Meta released their latest llama models this weekend (I guess because they leaked, hence the rushed weekend release?), and it benchmarked quite well on LMArena. However, as Kyle Wiggers reported for TechCrunch, not all may have been on the up and up: Meta’s Benchmarks for … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 9 days ago

All the Switch 2 pricing questions I had last week are answered

Last week I wrote 2 main posts in reaction to the Nintendo Switch 2 announcement, and today we have new info on some of the open questions that lingered waaaay back then. Game-key cards I saw a remarkable amount of arguments against this new "physical" purchase option based | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 9 days ago

+ Power users need love too

By Matt Birchler | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 10 days ago

Remember when the Switch 2 was *only* going to cost $449?

Nintendo Life: Nintendo Delays Switch 2 Pre-Orders in the US Amidst New Trump Tariffs Nintendo has delayed pre-orders for the Switch 2 in the US while it evaluates the potential impact of new tariffs from The Trump Administration. And A $2,300 Apple iPhone? Trump tariffs could ma … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 12 days ago

Let's move on from post-credits scenes

Director James Mangold: talking about whether he'd want to put a post-credit scenes in one of this movies back in 2018 The idea of making a movie that would fucking embarrass me, that's part of the anesthetizing of this country or the world. That's | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 13 days ago

How Nintendo's "game-key cards" actually work

I've seen a remarkable amount of misunderstanding out there on how Nintendo's game-key cards work. People are losing their ever loving minds over all things Switch 2, but this one really gets me because the people who are the most upset about it seem to not | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 13 days ago

People’s passion for art made by humans persists

M.G. Siegler: A Spirited Debate Around AI This isn’t the end of art. It may indeed be the dawn of a new age for art. And that may not devalue the human-created art as is the clear fear right now. In fact, it may even *elevate* it | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 13 days ago

Peanut butter toast

You never know what moments have staying power until they hit you. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 13 days ago

Some thoughts on the Switch 2

Nintendo finally rolled out the red carpet for the Switch 2 yesterday, and I'll be honest, I'm super excited for it. The hardware The hardware for the new Switch is everything I ever wanted, minus one thing. The performance looks pretty darn good, and it appears | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 14 days ago

A new/old Pokémon game, how Hollywood can make good movies, and a puzzle with all edge pieces

We are so back! Please keep making smaller, original movies so that we get new franchises A puzzle with all edge pieces that looks fun but also very hard Every font is free…as long as you remake it yourself Fellow olds, if you haven't seen this, | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 14 days ago

Introducing Quick Stuff

Today I'm introducing the most side of side projects I've done in a long time, and I'm calling it Quick Stuff. Quick Stuff is a place for me to put all of my little projects in one place, and I'm really happy | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 14 days ago

The post you knew was coming about the Switch 2 display

Nintendo gave the Switch 2 it's grand unveiling today, and I think it looks great. $449 is a steep starting price, but considering the features and the fact we live in a world of inflation and significant tariffs on many goods coming into the US, it's | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 14 days ago

Benchmarks from M2 Pro to M4 Pro

Long story short, I picked up a new MacBook Pro this week. I got the M4 Pro version with the higher core count and 1TB of internal storage. It's the exact same model in the lineup as the M2 Pro I've been using for the last | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 15 days ago

“Retina” is not a static PPI

I’m just going to keep posting about this every few months because people keep getting “retina” wrong. According to this YouTube video that was recommended to me today, retina on desktop monitors is exactly 218ppi (pixels per inch). Now of course the iPhone 4, which was | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 15 days ago

You have got to be kidding me

Mia Sato writing for The Verge: Elon Musk’s $1 Million Handout Winners Are Connected to Republican Causes On Sunday, a few thousand people in Green Bay, Wisconsin, gathered to hear Elon Musk speak — and give away two giant cardboard checks for $1 million. Attendance at the event | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 16 days ago

I've moved to Ghost Pro

Here's hoping this post is short and sweet… Back in 2019 I moved my blog off of WordPress and over to Ghost. In short, I wasn't happy with WordPress and wanted a blogging engine that felt more like it was made for blogging than a | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 18 days ago

Settings > Default Apps > Voice Assistant

Parker Ortolani writing Gemini, Siri, and Default Assistants on iOS, arguing that Apple should allow you to set a different default voice assistant: it would do two things: it would mitigate some of the damage with customer relations while they wait for the new Siri and it sets a … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 18 days ago

Yesterday's 'golden age' turns into today's mess

Nick Timiraos for the Wall Street Journal: Corporate America’s Euphoria Over Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ Is Giving Way to Distress Investors were caught flat-footed by Trump’s animus toward Canada, which wasn’t a part of last year’s election campaign. Global | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 18 days ago

I keep telling people Google TV is better than you think

Jason Snell: Who’s the Laggard? Comparing TV Streamer Boxes In short: Google TV is tasteful, well done, supports live streaming decently if not perfectly, and is a great extension of the Google ecosystem. As someone who does use YouTube TV and YouTube Premium, if I had to stop | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 18 days ago

+ Book and video game review catchup

By Matt Birchler | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 19 days ago

Before you burn it down…

I enjoyed this quote from Casey Newton on today's Hard Fork podcast: Even as somebody who generally likes technology, I think some of these tech oligarchs have this extremely know-it-all attitude that "our tech is better than your tech, yours sucks," and they sort of bluster | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 19 days ago

The Snow Leopard we've built up in our heads

Nick Heer: linking to Jeff Johnson's The myth and reality of Mac OS X Snow Leopard I read an article today from yet another person pining for a mythical Snow Leopard-style MacOS release. While I sympathize with the intent of their argument, it is largely fictional and, as | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 20 days ago

Should we do a Conclave?

Niléane insists she's not bringing another task manager, Chris has a new e-ink toy he loves, and the whole crew finds interesting ways to add some more text expansion to their lives. We want to hear from you! How would you have done our challenges? How | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 20 days ago

Balatro continues to bring a smile

Jay Peters for The Verge: Why Balatro’s Developer Stays Anonymous It’s an arrangement that the Playstack team figured out with LocalThunk ahead of other ceremonies like The Game Awards, where Balatro won three awards and was nominated for Game of the Year. LocalThunk didn’t | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 20 days ago

My job doesn't need to exist?

Rands: The Product Engineer You don’t need Product Managers. There. I said it. As someone who just moved into a product management role, you had best believe this line caught my eye. 👀 The post makes some reasonable arguments, although I think a lot of it is an | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 21 days ago

+ Why don't I post mock ups anymore?

Hey, where did the design concepts go? | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 21 days ago

This alert must die

I really thought that the screen recording notifications in macOS Sequoia would be the bane of my existence, but thankfully those have been changed quite a bit from the early betas last summer and they're totally a non-issue in my book today. However, these god damned "turn | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 21 days ago

The tale of Narcissus

Ted Gioia: What's Happening to Students? I’m dumbfounded when I hear ‘experts’ claim that phones are not the problem. Like tobacco companies—whose hired experts long denied the connection between smoking and cancer—they say that “correlation does not prove causation. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 22 days ago

I feel more empowered than ever

Bryan Irace: Tim, Don’t Kill My Vibe Like it or not, LLMs—both through general chat interfaces and purpose-built developer tools—have meaningfully increased the rate at which new software can be produced. And they’ve done so both by making skilled developers more productive | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 22 days ago

The Gen Z-powered retro gaming revival

Eve Upton-Clark writing for Fast Company: ‘It’s Like Their Escape’: Retro Gaming Is Back Thanks to Gen Z Low-tech holds nostalgic appeal and may even offer a solid antidote to our increasingly fast-paced tech-driven society. For 78% of those polled, one reason they enjoy using re … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 23 days ago

Secretary of Defense put war plans in a group chat with a journalist

Jeffrey Goldberg with an insane story in The Atlantic: The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. > > I, however, knew two hours b … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 23 days ago

OS updates should respect my settings

Tim Hardwick writing for MacRumors: PSA: iOS 18.3.2 Re-Enables Apple Intelligence if You Turned It Off With new iOS software updates, Apple has been automatically turning Apple Intelligence on again even for users who have disabled it, a decision that has become increasingly frus … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 24 days ago

Meta has squandered Threads

Jon Passantino writing for Status: Hanging by a Thread Now Threads feels rather lifeless. While users still post there, for many has become something of a second-tier platform—a place that they dump content out of habit, not because they’re having real conversations or finding me … | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 25 days ago

+ I’m a season 1 sorta guy

Yes, this is about Severance, but it's really about more than Severance. | Continue reading


@birchtree.me | 27 days ago