Matt Birchler

Back on my Resident Evil Requiem kick. This game rocks.

Nintendo, welcome to the resistance.

www.theverge.com/games/89086...

You know what, it's stupid that we're letting AI own em dashes. They're legit punctuation, and we should be able to use them without thinking everyone is going to yell "AI!" when they see it.

Here's how you tell if a human used one. Is it used incorrectly? Human. Is it used correctly? AI. 😛

+ iPadOS is getting squeezed Tech, Apple, and the vast grey area that is AI

🔗 + iPadOS is getting squeezed https://birchtree.me/blog/ipados-is-getting-squeezed/

1/4 of my social feeds are people who think the MacBook Neo is going to run like ass.

3/4 is people convinced that a single-core Geekbench score means this bad boy is as good as an M4.

This is why my reviews tend to come out after I use the product 😛

If you’re reviewing new Apple devices, I’m just saying I’ve got an app that runs a benchmark that tests performance and thermal throttling.

You can use it for generating awesome subtitles for your videos/podcasts as well 👌

apps.apple.com/us/app/quic...

Hegseth: "Death & destruction from the sky all day. We're playing for keeps. Our warfighters have maximum authorities granted personally by POTUS & yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise designed to unleash American power, not shackle it ... we are punching them while they are down"

Apple releases the MacBook Mini Apple's MacBook Mini is such an awesome computer. No, it's not the most powerful machine Apple makes, but it is very affordable, which makes it appeal to at least two separate groups. The first group is people who would like a desktop Mac, but would not like to spend typical

🔗 Apple releases the MacBook Mini https://birchtree.me/blog/apple-releases-the-macbook-mini/

A webpage displaying an error message with the logo of MacRumors and a prompt to visit the home page.

MacRumors went down in preparation for the new Apple announcements today. Honestly, a very Apple move 😛

How to make Midnight City M83’s Midnight City is one of my favorite songs of all time, and this video recreating it is brilliant.

🔗 How to make Midnight City https://birchtree.me/blog/how-to-make-midnight-city/

It seems good for the type of monitor it is, but OLED surely is still the dream, right?

A user expresses anticipation for the S27 Ultra, accompanied by laughter emojis and engagement metrics from their post.

Man with a Galaxy from 2010 still holding out for the phone people think is worth upgrading to…

My super quick process for adding chapters to podcasts Chapters in podcasts are super important, in my opinion, and I make sure to add them to everything that I create. Here's the process I use to get them into my shows faster than ever before. 0- Have your chapters ready to go The best thing you can do to

🔗 My super quick process for adding chapters to podcasts https://birchtree.me/blog/my-super-quick-process-for-adding-chapters-to-podcasts/

When the words on the page don’t match what you’re trying to say (follow up on the Ben Thompson post) Ben Thompson: Technological Scale and Government Control, Paramount Outbids Netflix for Warner Bros. This is a lot more complicated than the nuclear question, where government control and ownership was a given; the sort of actions taken by the government over the last week fly in the face of the concept

🔗 When the words on the page don’t match what you’re trying to say (follow up on the Ben Thompson post) https://birchtree.me/blog/when-the-words-on-the-page-dont-match-what-youre-trying-to-say-follow-up-on-the-ben-thompson-post/

Apple's new MacBooks: The pinnacle of the generation Apple announced new MacBook Airs and Pros today, and they’re both boring and mostly excellent. MacBook Air This looks like a very basic spec bump, which I’m not mad about. I would like to see this display get an upgrade one day, and I'd love for them to

🔗 Apple's new MacBooks: The pinnacle of the generation https://birchtree.me/blog/apples-new-macbooks-the-pinnacle-of-the-generation/

Apple's new Studio Displays Apple updated both of their monitors today, replacing the Studio Display with a new model that's very similar to the old one, and they've discontinued the Pro Display XDR in favor of the new Studio Display XDR. Studio Display Starting with the updated Studio Display, honestly, I'm incredibly disappointed. I

🔗 Apple's new Studio Displays https://birchtree.me/blog/apples-new-studio-displays/

Just taking a moment to say what ought to be said.

This is really good, thank you!

🔗 "What are you going to do, stop me? I've got the guns," is a wild government argument for tech pundits to support https://birchtree.me/blog/what-are-you-going-to-do-stop-me-ive-got-the-guns-is-a-wild-govargument-for-tech-pundits-to-support/

Continuity Camera is so freaking cool, I wish it fit better into my work About a week ago, I switched on my Canon R6 and went to record something on video. I have the camera hooked up to an Elgato 4K capture card, which my Mac sees as a webcam. However, in this instance, the Elgato was convinced there was no video coming from

🔗 Continuity Camera is so freaking cool, I wish it fit better into my work https://birchtree.me/blog/continuity-camera-is-so-freaking-cool-i-wish-it-fit-better-into-my-work/

In fact, Amodei already answered the question: if nuclear weapons were developed by a private company, and that private company sought to dictate terms to the U.S. military, the U.S. would absolutely be incentivized to destroy that company. The reason goes back to the question of international law, North Korea, and the rest: International law is ultimately a function of power; might makes right. There are some categories of capabilities — like nuclear weapons — that are sufficiently powerful to fundamentally affect the U.S.’s freedom of action; we can bomb Iran, but we can’t North Korea. To the extent that AI is on the level of nuclear weapons — or beyond — is the extent that Amodei and Anthropic are building a power base that potentially rivals the U.S. military. Anthropic talks a lot about alignment; this insistence on controlling the U.S. military, however, is fundamentally misaligned with reality. Current AI models are obviously not yet so powerful that they rival the U.S. military; if that is the trajectory, however — and no one has been more vocal in arguing for that trajectory than Amodei — then it seems to me the choice facing the U.S. is actually quite binary: Option 1 is that Anthropic accepts a subservient position relative to the U.S. government, and does not seek to retain ultimate decision-making power about how its models are used, instead leaving that to Congress and the President. Option 2 is that the U.S. government either destroys Anthropic or removes Amodei.

Ben Thompson making a full-throated case for fascism here stratechery.com/2026/anthrop...

The M4 iPad Air: an update so small, the Bluetooth version gets a shout out In addition to the new iPhone 17e, Apple also announced a new iPad Air, now powered by the M4 processor. I could almost end the post there because we've basically reached the end of the list of differences. As far as I can tell, the literal only other changes are

🔗 The M4 iPad Air: an update so small, the Bluetooth version gets a shout out https://birchtree.me/blog/the-m4-ipad-air-an-update-so-small-the-bluetooth-version-gets-a-shout-out/

The iPhone 17e Last year I was among the more positive people about the iPhone 16e. I spent a couple weeks using it as my primary device, and honestly, it was a pretty fine experience. No, it wasn't as good as my 16 Pro at the time, but it was also half the

🔗 The iPhone 17e https://birchtree.me/blog/the-iphone-17e/

Announcing Weave, a native iOS app for Typefully I'm happy to announce the release of my new app, Weave. As is often the case with my apps, I built this one for myself and then decided it was worth sharing with the world. Weave is a native iPhone and iPad app for Typefully users. For those who don't

🔗 Announcing Weave, a native iOS app for Typefully https://birchtree.me/blog/announcing-weave-a-native-ios-app-for-typefully/

Why killing iPadOS isn't what you think it is In the second episode of the A Better Computer podcast, I talk more about how I think "killing iPadOS" is actually making everything more like an iPad. We look at why, from a developer's perspective, there's already literally no difference between iPadOS and iOS software. And then I give a

🔗 Why killing iPadOS isn't what you think it is https://birchtree.me/blog/why-killing-ipados-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/

Micro app 11: JXR to JPG converter Resident Evil Requiem came out this past week, and I was very excited to start playing it. It genuinely might be my most anticipated game of the year, and I truly relish my first time playing through any Resident Evil game, so I'm trying to really enjoy myself this first

🔗 Micro app 11: JXR to JPG converter https://birchtree.me/blog/micro-app-11-jxr-to-jpg-converter/

Screenshot from Overcast with an episode description: Anthropic faces a standoff with the Department of War, citing legitimate concerns but being deemed misaligned with reality.

Ben Thompson is wild one. He refuses to comment on the illegal Iran invasion (while clearly hinting that he supports it) and then goes on to explain why during the Biden administration he opposes the gov't telling companies what to do, he adores it in the Trump admin. Every…time…

Leon's stuff is also effing awesome, of course.

God damn, Resident Evil Requiem maxed out at 4K on PC is a stunner. One of the best looking games I've ever seen ❤️

The first 2 episodes of the new Scrubs series are better than I ever expected them to be. Honestly amazed they’re pulling it off.