Yes, I already wrote about the new Apple TV but I had a little more to say now that I’ve been using it a few months.

So far Siri has not been as useful as I thought it would be. The main failing is that we use Netflix profiles a lot and Siri doesn’t understand them. I might tell Siri that I want to watch, say, House of Cards but if it’s currently logged into the kids’ profile it either won’t let me watch it or wants to start it on the first episode. If you’re going to have to switch profiles with the remote anyway…

I needed a replacement for a failing Time Capsule, used to back up two MacBooks. The obvious solution would have been a new Time Capsule but I did a little investigation and found that I could get a two disk Synology (a NAS, or network attached storage) for less than the equivalent from Apple. More features for a lower price? Yes please!

The downside? It’s not plug and play in the same way that the Time Capsule is. I had to install the disk, download the operating system, set up the disks, create users… None of which were really hard but still need to be done.

Buying the Mpow Swift Bluetooth Headphones was an experiment to see if there was a solution to a very first world problem: tangled headphone cables.

Good bluetooth headphones easily go into the hundreds of pounds. These were less than £20 and, considering that, are surprisingly good.

They’re in-ear and block enough sound that I can listen to podcasts on the tube which is my main requirement. The sound quality is fine for music if you’re not too picky.

The Amazon Fire 7″ falls very much into the “good for the money” category. If you compare it to an iPad you’re going to come away disappointed. The screen is terrible. Viewing angles are not great, the colours are washed-out and it’s low resolution by modern standards. Battery life could be better. The case feels cheap and it creaks a bit when you squeeze it. And the app selection is nowhere near what you get in Apple’s (or even Google’s) eco-system.

I wasn’t sure that I wanted a “big” iPhone as I was perfectly happy with the 4” form-factor. But if I was going to get a new phone and the new ones are bigger, I reasoned, I may as well go really big and go for a 6s Plus. On paper it made perfect sense.

Then I played with one in an Apple Store and I laughed. In practice it was comically big. I really didn’t want a phone I could only realistically use with two hands.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Transportation.” Here is my entry. It was taken in Vienna, er, wow, six years ago. Doesn’t time fly?

I read a couple of things about the intersection between technology and the liberal arts today, otherwise totally unrelated but the need for a connection between the two.

# What the humanities can learn

The first was in the conclusion of Walter Isaacson’s “The Innovators,” [affiliate link] a book about the inventors of the “digital revolution.” He started by talking about how engineers need to understand the arts and humanities (as Steve Jobs insisted Apple did) and moves on to how the opposite is also true:

This weeks PhotoFriday challenge theme is “Glass.” My entry is a picture of The Shard in London, from a couple of years ago when I could see it from my office.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Yellow.” I’m entry number 60.

My entry in this weeks PhotoFriday challenge, “Yellow,” is a picture of one of my birthday presents from last year.

A couple of days late, but this weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Minimalism.” Here is my entry. It was take in Littlehampton earlier this year.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Signs of Autumn.” I’m entry number 34.

(Incidentally, this isn’t the first time “Minimalism” has been a theme. My previous entry was here.)