One of these days I’m going to write a blog post of the many interactions I’ve had with Apple’s app review team. I think I have enough content for some kind of a mini novel now. You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll groan!

And yes, I just had such an interaction and needed to vent 🙃

Lately, recruiters have gone from sending me well-written messages to just dumping the title of the position, its requirements, and nothing else. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Saw the new Spider-man film and, to no one’s surprise, it was great. Stay all the way to the post credits scene. If this has anything to do with the fourth phase of the Marvel cinematic universe, I’m interested.

Endgame is still good after a second viewing. Noticed some things that escaped me the first time around.

Yesterday was my last day in the StackPath office. And of course, yesterday was the end of Avengers! 🙃

Now’s the time to begin new things.

Yesterday, during my WiFi-less flight, I discovered that the Apple News+ magazines I had downloaded the day prior had been deleted. I am trying to reproduce this again but now the app is bugging out on me even with WiFi. 😶

Current status: keeping an eye on notifications, looking to see if Apple charges me for a certain golden ticket. Good luck to everyone who applied!

Registered for the annual gathering of the Apple masses at WWDC. How lucky am I feeling this year? My birthday’s June 3; just saying, Apple…

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

I am going to avoid spoilers, but I finally saw Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch movie on Netflix. I am unsure whether this “choose your own adventure” thing is a good one-time gimmick that adds depth to this particular Black Mirror, or actually something for Netflix to continue investing on before it gets old. Who knows! What I know is that I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

There were actually a couple of scenes that had me grinning from ear to ear because of the scenario unfolding: so ridiculous, and a good match to my own equally-ridiculous decisions. But what really won me over was when I finally reached one of the actual endings for the film. Because I was so emotionally invested in the choices made, when that final scene unfolded in front of eyes, it did so in a way that perfectly portrayed the emotion (along with a good song to match the mood). The ending brought immense satisfaction to the story’s “conclusion.”

Granted, I’ve heard that there are a ridiculous number of permutations to the movie and a handful of real endings. Not everyone’s experience will be the same as mine. But if the choices by other people bring a response similar to mine – it is clear that this form of entertainment may be something to keep an eye on.

All this being said, it sucks that the experience is not available on Apple TV, though. I had to mention this because I am an Apple nerd, and tvOS does have access to the same native frameworks that are commonly used for video playback in iOS. And, as far as I can tell, Netflix is making use of these in their iOS app where you can experience Bandersnatch.

Happy New Year!

My family actually did the thing where we synced and watched the Avengers movie so that Thanos’ snap occurred at midnight. Missed it by a couple of seconds because of an uncooperative remote, but close enough!

My favorite games of 2018, in no particular order:

WoW: Battle for Azeroth

God of War

Spider-man

Shadow of the Colossus

Red Dead Redemption 2

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu

Dragon Quest XI

Since I love reading, I am ashamed to say I read less than 10 books this year. So I’ll just mention my favorite book of 2018:

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

My favorite movies of 2018, in no particular order:

Avengers Infinity War

Annihilation

Spider-man Into the Spiderverse

A Quiet Place

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Bohemian Rhapsody

Deadpool 2

Ready Player One

Black Panther

Antman and the Wasp

(Lots of superhero films again)

All day travel thanks to a connecting flight means I get to secure my connection using Encrypt.me at the airports.

I got the keyboard folio for the 11” iPad. It is smaller, so it will take some getting used to, but I look forward to using it for everything (sans coding). I am reminded of the the 11” MacBook Air, which was one of the best Macs I’ve ever owned.

To Apple’s credit, they were able to replace the key quickly without replacing the entire keyboard, as I’ve heard they’ve been doing. And it works again. I would’ve preferred to be able to do it myself without voiding the warranty, but this will do.

I am at an Apple Store trying to get the N key fixed on my ‘16 MBP. Based on reports, I’m surprised it took two years to have one malfunction.