Craig Grannell

#Writer for hire. Mostly #tech, #Apple, #games, #retrogaming, design. Smashes out words for #Wired, #Stuff, TapSmart and others. Writes #DailyRetroGame here on Mastodon. He/him. GF/DF. Likes #Lego and Mini #Schnauzers. Email: hello at craiggrannell dot com // https://linktr.ee/craiggrannell

Website: https://www.craiggrannell.com
Blog: https://reverttosaved.com
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@craiggrannell

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craiggrannell_at_mastodon.social@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2024-08-10 10:43:50

Column! Apple stealing Windows Vista’s worst feature is not a good look. https://www.stuff.tv/features/apple-stealing-windows-vistas-worst-feature-is-not-a-good-look/
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/937/316/607/440/722/original/4a0b13cb44a4a81b.jpeg

2024-06-18 21:31:13

Apple somehow considers this a threat. I mean, come on. #iDOS #retrogaming
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/639/754/520/326/543/original/0e2a4f2bc2703bd6.jpeg

2024-06-18 16:26:26

Still floored that the new iOS 18 #iPhone Home Screen gives you four different options for how your icons can look, at two different sizes, but no sorting options. Apple execs must like busywork and fiddling around, rather than efficiency.

2024-06-17 17:10:57

iDOS rejected from the App Store because it is “not a retro game console”. Nor is the C64, but that has several emulators already on the App Store. Apple rules incoherent yet again. More at 11.
https://litchie.com/2024/04/new-hope
#retrogaming

2024-06-15 17:02:17

Column! Playing my Game Boy Micro again was a reality check about old games consoles – and getting older myself • https://www.stuff.tv/features/playing-my-game-boy-micro-again-was-a-reality-check-about-old-games-consoles-and-getting-older-myself/
#retrogaming

2024-06-10 18:45:45

Note the total omission in this keynote of anything to do with the environment. #WWDC24

2024-06-05 06:33:10

PPSSPP has returned to the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/ppsspp-psp-emulator/id6496972903 #retrogaming

2024-05-25 13:07:21

I hope if Sega gripes about this, someone will ask why it delivered so little on its promises regarding bringing its back catalogue to mobile.
From: @npub1c89…a5l4
https://mastodon.social/@_Davidsmith/112495290720391515

2024-05-23 11:52:34

NeoSprint by Atari looks like someone dug Racing Destruction Set out of their dusty toy box. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6jXTy0_99I

2024-05-21 17:28:04

IGN just ate Gamer Network. :/
The RPS editor’s been fired. Hard to see the voice of RPS and Eurogamer surviving, although fingers crossed both won’t just be mashed into IGN with a fork.
Funny how when I was a kid, I always dreamed of working on a games mag. Now, there are almost no paper mags left and the online ones are vanishing at speed.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/21/24161718/ign-gamer-network-acquisition

2024-05-21 16:14:41

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Older me is currently wondering how younger me ever dealt with that tiny Game Boy Micro display.

2024-05-21 16:14:05

Wondering how big a Game Boy can get before things start getting a wee bit silly. #retrogaming
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/479/957/087/653/507/original/99476e77ce94bfa6.jpeg

2024-05-19 08:16:25

Not even close. In that game alone, there were harder puzzles. But elsewhere in Infocom’s catalogue – and more widely in text adventures – there were tougher tests.
Where the Babel Fish puzzle got things right was through being clever, funny and absurd, and in also deviating radically from expectations. It’s as far as possible from other media, where the fish is simply put into Arthur’s ear. And so that makes it *memorable*. #retrogaming
From: @npub1ltv…pax6
https://dosgame.club/@sqhistorian/112464455745407129

2024-05-18 09:07:38

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I always just wanted the original system but for it to work fully on external displays (ie responsive design). Stage Manager to me always felt weird. It wastes so much space. It’s awkward. It’s fiddly – nothing like eg Moom to quickly move windows where I want them. It feels designed to minimise app numbers due to RAM limitations then, but that seems pointless now. And I wonder whether it was initially an attempt to unify iPad and the Mac – a punt to replace Finder.

2024-05-07 14:18:34

Apple: The M4 is fantastic!
British people: fucking horrible motorway.

2024-04-21 08:55:12

My Delta story jumped to top slot on Stuff this morning. :)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/308/367/220/342/921/original/6524b73e3921af84.jpeg

2024-04-19 21:55:36

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Still number one in the UK! (But we kept hearing people didn’t care about emulators on iOS…)

2024-04-14 12:16:06

It almost feels like Apple is trolling Riley at this point. I was unaware things were quite this bad. None of this is OK. But I can’t imagine Apple will make things right.
From: [@rileytestut](https://mastodon.social/@rileytestut)
https://mastodon.social/@rileytestut/112268412745806214

2024-04-07 12:06:36

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Krasy times!

2024-04-06 09:41:09

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I think there’s something in the effective downgrade we’ve had with the move to homogeneous design. Many people spot things through colour and shape. The Mac made every sidebar/toolbar component mono. All icons are supposed to be the same shape. Neither of these things is overly helpful, but it’s worse when branding dictates that everything within those shapes must look very similar, combined with the ongoing tendency towards minimalist shapes and typography.

2024-04-06 09:00:22

The latest entry in my classic #iPhone #app series is Ferrite, a superb and ambitious podcast creation suite. Have a read to find out from its creator how and why the app was made: https://www.tapsmart.com/features/classics-ferrite/

2024-04-05 08:22:25

From my experience and my talking to devs, I disagree with John and agree with The Ringer. Things really are bleak in mobile gaming. In fact, it’s a worse picture than the piece paints: it’s not only paid-up-front games that are suffering but also quality freemium indies. Sales have tanked in recent years. Discovery is getting worse. (Apple, for its part, has sunk or removed the ‘new’ lists in the App Store.) Not sure what’s next.
From: [@johnvoorhees](https://mastodon.macstories.net/@johnvoorhees)
https://mastodon.macstories.net/@johnvoorhees/112213771006104502

2024-03-27 15:30:26

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lots of:
China: Jump!
Apple: <grudgingly> How high?
Pundits: Just the cost of doing business!
EU: Obey the law. Here is some regulation designed to safeguard markets and consumers.
Pundits: THE EU IS EVIL
Apple: *tries to be cunning*
EU: No. We actually mean it.
Pundits: APPLE SHOULD QUIT THE EU IMMEDIATELY

2024-03-26 20:37:28

Quite something that some people hand-waved away straight-up oppression in China and didn’t suggest Apple should pull out of the region, but the second the EU rocks up with some regulation, folks are screaming that Apple should just pull out of the entire EU.
I mean, really?

2024-03-21 22:18:43

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If it wasn’t for the EU, the US wouldn’t have felt compelled to do this, or something.

2024-03-21 16:35:25

iPhone apparently shocked for the umpteenth time that, yes, I’d quite like the screenshots I just took for an article to sync to iCloud right now, rather than at some random point in the future when it decides it’s got enough battery charge to do so. (68% is apparently not enough. Although when it has 100%, that’s never enough either.)
Would pay actual money for a Settings override for this.