Jun 9Does bitcoin use less energy than Christmas lights? Fact-checking a dubious claimIf there’s one thing that bitcoin enthusiasts are a mite touchy about, it’s people pointing out that their favoured product uses a colossal amount of electricity every day in the pursuit of printing a winning lottery ticket. …Bitcoin8 min read
Jul 9, 2021When every car is electric, what happens to fuel duty and the electricity grid?It’s always fun taking someone as a passenger in a modern electric car for the first time, because you know they’ll be surprised by two things. First: the lack of engine noise, so when you manoeuvre at low speeds, there’s no sound. Second: wild acceleration. Pressing the accelerator is like…Global Warming9 min read
Published in Fanfare·Sep 24, 2020The real mystery about Ted Lasso: why does it work?Let me admit: Ted Lasso puzzles me. In case you don’t know, it’s a new series on Apple TV+ (Apple’s paid streaming service), starring Jason Sudeikis as an American football (ie gridiron) coach who is hired to coach a Premier League football (soccer) team in the UK. When I say…Apple8 min read
Apr 26, 2020Mainsprings and maturity: how ‘Modern Family’ found and then lost its magicThere’s a surely apocryphal story about George Best, the legendary soccer player whose Irish good looks were the perfect counterpoint to his flashing foot skills. As Best’s skills are beginning to wane, he is still a huge hit with the opposite sex. And so it is one morning that he’s…Scriptwriting12 min read
Published in OneZero·Sep 24, 2019Huawei’s Mate 30 Will Be a Disaster Outside China. Here’s Why That Doesn’t Matter.U.S. Intelligence’s aversion to Huawei could help China win the 5G race — The smartphone revolution, now 12 years old, has seen some clunkers in its time. But the newest one is very different from its predecessors. The Huawei Mate 30 launched this month with all the media fanfare that a multibillion-dollar company can achieve. On the surface, the device should be a…Huawei4 min read
Published in OneZero·Sep 10, 2019Apple’s iPhones Hit an Evolutionary StasisThe original iPhone was the consumer tech equivalent of the Apollo mission — but you can’t just keep going back to the moon — Did you enjoy the iPhone launch event? Or did you perhaps feel that it was kinda more of the same — a story we’ve heard before about faster processors, better (and now more!) cameras, smarter things, new colors, and fresh software (apparently hurried along by threatened Trump tariffs).Tech5 min read
Published in OneZero·Sep 3, 2019A Tariff Theory About Apple’s iOS 13 SurpriseApple may have rushed to get its new iPhones shipped to beat Trump tariffs that didn’t come — A little over a week ago, Apple surprised developers by issuing a new beta of its iOS 13 operating system, which will run on the upcoming iPhones expected in September. Every year, Apple releases iOS developer betas for its x.0 …Apple9 min read
Published in OneZero·Jul 12, 2019Jony Ive’s Mistakes: When Beautiful Design Is Bad DesignIt’s past time for a new era at Apple — I interviewed Jony Ive twice: once in 2002, immediately after the launch of the “sunflower” iMac (which looked, at first glance, like an Anglepoise lamp with a screen) and then again in 2014, at the launch of the Apple Watch. …Apple12 min read
Feb 11, 2019‘Link to the rest’: the 12-year journey to 1,000 days of @TheOverspill linksSo today, Monday 11 February 2019, is the 1,000th edition of “Start Up”, a daily list of links plus brief commentary, on my Overspill blog. (Also available on email. Open it in a new tab and keep reading.) Does that sound a lot? The first one in earnest was in…Tech15 min read
Published in Coinmonks·Nov 22, 2018Why (oh why) did Bitcoin crash just in time for Thanksgiving?It’s not hard to think there are lots of stony silences around dinner tables in the US this week. It’s Thanksgiving, when families come together to reflect on the year gone by. Last year, there were lots of excited articles about this new “bitcoin” thing whose value – measured in…Bitcoin13 min read