Author Archives: Jack Wellborn

A Lesson in Tone, as Illustrated by The Legend of Zelda

Spoiler alert: The following contains spoilers for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. If I had to pick one criticism of the New York Times, a paper that I pay for only as a means to help fund journalism, it would be how many of their headlines normalize, flatter and even empower Trump. […]

In Search of the Automatic Platform for Personal Computers

Most people love their smartphones more than they do their personal computers. The biggest reason by far is that smartphones bring the internet to them everywhere, but another less obvious reason is that using smartphones is like driving an automatic1. They are way less demanding than Macs or PCs running Windows, and I don’t just […]

“I Don’t Think About You At All”

Justin Long is back again, this time for Qualcomm. Tom Warren, reporting for The Verge: Apple’s former “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long defected to Intel a few years ago, and now he’s looking to switch to a Qualcomm-powered Windows PC. Which is worse? Being the butt of a joke that is only effective because […]

macOS on iPads Would Be More Like Boot Camp than Classic Mode

In my last post, I likened hypothetical macOS virtualization in iPadOS to Mac OS X’s classic mode. The more I’ve thought about it however, the more I think classic mode isn’t the right analogy. Classic mode was for anyone migrating to Mac OS X, which was practically every Mac user at the time. I don’t […]

Virtualized macOS on iPads? Yes, and…

With the most recent round of “holy shit these new iPad Pros are really powerful” naturally came “I just really wish iPadOS weren’t so limited”. One idea that is currently making the rounds to make iPadOS less limited is to have some sort of virtualized Mac mode a la Mac OS X’s Classic Environment wherein […]

The Long Games of Mixed Reality Headsets

If you told people that Meta would start licensing their headset platform less than three months after Apple released the Vision Pro, most would assume that Apple’s headset must of sold like gangbusters. Not only has that not happened, it couldn’t happen based on supply chain constraints. So why license now? I have two thoughts: […]

Sounding Right with Apple’s Computerized Speakers

I recently connected my AirPods Pro to our Apple TV, something I usually do on the occasion that my wife wants to sleep rather than unwind with some show. The resulting sound is always exceptionally good, even when it’s not immersive. In this particular case, the AirPods didn’t try to envelop me in sound because […]

Shoebox Averted

Someone tried to pull a “shoebox” scam on me while I was traveling in NYC this week for work. By “shoebox” scam, I am referring to Charlotte Cowle’s The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger. If you haven’t done so already, I implore you to read it. […]

My First Macintosh

The Mac turns 40 today, so I figured I’d use the occasion to write about my first Macintosh. Before he retired, my Dad was a consultant at a firm. What he did was niche, but he was top three in his field. While I was in elementary school, my dad threatened to go independent and […]

Apple Vision: The Best Way to Multitask iPad Apps

Since June, I have been thinking of Vision as being more Mac-like, in part because both were built for multitasking1. The more I think about it however, the more I think that Vision is really a rethinking of how multitasking iPad apps should work. Almost a year ago, I argued that multitasking on iPad suffered […]