The Curious Engineer

Birchtree

2026

170 posts

2026 170

October 2026

  1. 🎙️ Apple finally did it
  2. + My custom terminal
  3. The radically more expensive iPad mini
  4. 🎙️ Minis and Mastodons
  5. + Build bigger things
  6. The computer did what we told it to do. Eek!
  7. Boost more cool shit
  8. I spent money on music in 2026
  9. Passkeys are a trap. No they're not!
  10. X has all the jerks
  11. The iPhone Duo is too damn small
  12. Smart person derangement
  13. How to become a mark for con artists
  14. Birchtree is 16 years old today (and the nicest thing someone said to me this year)
  15. (not) solitaire
  16. + Pastry is a privacy-focused clipboard manager coming soon
  17. I don't care what other kids are doing
  18. Why does this chart just go down?
  19. Mac buttons over the years
  20. + Tesla Cybertaxi first impressions
  21. + Do you want to cross the streams?
  22. Basically all my apps support the iPhone Duo Now
  23. What is a developer?
  24. Software authorship
  25. AirPods 5 are better than I even realized
  26. Unread 5.1 adds Birchfeed and Quick Reads support
  27. Hand-drawn Emoji for Chrome and Obsidian
  28. Say hello to "Parakeet Turbo"
  29. The party of making things worse
  30. Fetishizing something most people don't care about
  31. + Gone too far

September 2026

  1. Birchfeed can forward newsletters to your inbox
  2. Birchfeed can be your front page of the internet
  3. App review needs a reboot
  4. Becoming worthless (in a good way)
  5. The Quick Reads CLI
  6. Hidden gems comes to Best-o-Masto on the web
  7. Nonogame has gotten a bunch of new things recently
  8. AppZapper 3000 is incredibly rad
  9. The Register thinks my La Croix benchmark is legit (sorta)
  10. Riley Hill on the Fold8's crease
  11. My phone is clearly listening to me*
  12. + The unbelievable allure of indie software development
  13. Disable the god damned Siri shortcut on Golden Gate
  14. The new AirPods MVP
  15. Resident Evil movie is widely adored and makes an ass-ton of money
  16. An agent skill to help update your app for the iPhone Duo
  17. What my apps look like on the iPhone Duo with zero code changes
  18. Quick Stuff gets more personal
  19. Nonogame will soar on the iPhone Duo
  20. iPhone 18 Pro with La Croix cooling
  21. The iPhone 18 Pro is a transcription monster
  22. + Metal Gear Solid 4 is awful. Truly awful.
  23. Xcode 27.2 is in beta. The 27.1 beta is coming later.
  24. "Apple said they invented this"
  25. Bircharoo is my Obsidian theme
  26. 1,000 hours of nonogame
  27. Chris Lawley's iPadOS 27 walkthrough
  28. The OS 27 updates
  29. Quick Reads now saves multi-page websites
  30. How to release TV shows in 2026
  31. A new retro handheld has my attention
  32. Apple's C2 modem is in the iPhone 18 Pro Max (except in America)
  33. + The iPhone Duo opportunity for developers
  34. We must dream bigger
  35. The iPhone Air seems extremely niche in general, but my users love it
  36. Quick Reads, quicker than ever
  37. The most interesting things in the iPhone Duo (and more)
  38. The iPhone Duo shows Apple at its best
  39. Drawably is a hand-drawn UI library
  40. What's next for the iPhone Air?
  41. The Ocarina of Time remake looks astounding
  42. The Birchfeed CLI
  43. Birchtree goes liquid ass…ahem…glass
  44. My folding iPhone predictions
  45. + Doomscrolling is not an obligation
  46. Comfort Zone is coming back this month
  47. Chill racist games hosted by the US government
  48. The best iPhone lineup ever
  49. 180 merges in 135 days
  50. Arc Raiders has faded away while I wasn't looking
  51. NVIDIA is doing the iPhone thing
  52. The tech Apple will use to make the crease (mostly?) go away in their folding iPhone
  53. Designed in California
  54. Silo…in your browser
  55. Updates to Quick Reads, Reviews, and Subtitles for iOS
  56. Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1 are here
  57. 1Password with an unbelievable own goal

August 2026

  1. You didn't write that, you're just a meat proxy
  2. How my Mac mini turned into infrastructure for Quick Reads
  3. Jason Snell's productivity picks
  4. Introducing Birchfeed, the best RSS app that works in your favorite RSS app already
  5. Face computers just aren't going to be a thing, right?
  6. The unbearable weight of Metal Gear Solid 4's cutscenes
  7. Fancy new crazy new mockup generators
  8. Panic rocks
  9. Trashcan
  10. + Introducing *********
  11. This phone folds. It folds!
  12. Comfort Zone will return
  13. Quick Reads for iOS just got a ton of updates
  14. + Comfortable and uncomfortable truths
  15. Walmart is the last major US company to add Tap to Pay
  16. Apple's obviously going to make a second folding phone
  17. Quick Subtitles 3
  18. Subscriber rot
  19. What is a perversion to writing?
  20. I for one, welcome our nanny state
  21. iPhone pre-orders might be tighter than normal this year
  22. How cooked is Gemini?
  23. + Galaxy Z Fold8 Impressions
  24. Quick Reviews 3 is out now!
  25. Chapterize 2.1: iCloud sync, enhance audio, and more
  26. Quick Reads 1.0.4 is a beefy iPad update
  27. Quick Reads has been getting better all summer
  28. Native app propaganda is working
  29. Not all "vibe coding" is created equal
  30. I was on Hacker News yesterday and didn't even notice
  31. Linus Torvalds lays into anti-AI developers
  32. Benchmarking all the Macs I have around for fun
  33. + Nostalgia for nostalgia
  34. The best watch band for the Apple Watch Ultra
  35. The rules change when you become top dog
  36. Dia becomes Arc
  37. PC gamers just don't want to buy games from Xbox, even to play on their Xbox handhelds
  38. + About the Hank Green situation
  39. No more new apps (in August)

July 2026

  1. Holocloth is the coolest website I've seen in ages
  2. Rosé Pine
  3. Is Apple a software company, hardware company, or rent-seeking company?
  4. Micro app 21: ghosthunter CLI
  5. Xbox goes down. You can't play games you own on disc.
  6. I don't think people are reading every line of code
  7. nonogame is the nonogram app I never expected to make
  8. + It's just tech
  9. Chapterize 2: a new generation
  10. + Previewing my big app updates of the summer
  11. quicksubs CLI gets more models and benchmarks
  12. They’re just so desperate
  13. Obsession and Backrooms are moving the needle
  14. We are not ourselves on social media
  15. Validate those AI answers, people
  16. 2026 is on pace for more than 1 million new app on the App Store. Just like 2016 all over again.
  17. + My beef with The Odyssey discourse
  18. Quick Notes 3.0 is out now
  19. Micro app 20: The Quick Subtitles CLI
  20. Micro app 19: That Guy
  21. X is a platform built for combat (they say they’re fixing it)
  22. Upcoming iPad mini likely to get OLED, retain 60Hz, and probably get more expensive
  23. Quick Reads now does todo items
  24. + Whatever happened to the replication crisis?
  25. My favorite (and least favorite) movies of 2026 so far
  26. Netflix can't keep viewers for season 2, even of their good shows
  27. Xbox had a terrible strategy, and now they're laying off 3,200 people and ditching 5 studios
  28. Ghosty Posty for Obsidian gets edits, visibility, and delivery options
  29. What "reasonable concerns" around trans people really means
  30. Code is easy, writing is hard (for a robot)
  31. Quick Reads keeps getting updates!
  32. Micro app 18: Claude Code Obsidian sync
  33. + Weird nerds
  34. Quick Reads now does newsletters and RSS
  35. Sony is leaving physical games behind in 2028
  36. A blown up iPhone, not the next Mac

June 2026

  1. An update from the study that said devs were actually slower with coding agents
  2. + Why changing your productivity system is good, actually
  3. May 2026 was the worst sales month for Xbox consoles *ever*
  4. Xbox prices jump again, and Microsoft warns they my again next year
  5. Notion Mail is shutting down September 22
  6. Apple raises prices, and it's gonna hurt
  7. Fairly priced and too expensive