- Following up on the new phone and telco friction: it’s all sorted now. I didn’t have to switch again, and I fixed the issue by deleting and reinstalling the eSIM on my phone for a $5 fee, thanks to eight (that’s the telco’s name) offering the unpublicized ability to issue you an eSIM QR code online using Singpass — the exact feature I was asking for last week. If anyone needs to know, it’s on their customer portal under “Service Preferences”. Their plans are also quite generous with data and overseas roaming, so I’ll try to stay put as long as I can.
- Last week I said it was very unlike Apple to be promising that older iPhones would soon receive the new Photographic Styles features that were announced for the iPhone 18 Pro, and wouldn’t you know it, I was right! The internet quickly noticed that the suggestive footnote had been amended on their website, clarifying that images could only be captured with Photographic Styles 3 on iPhone 18 Pro models. I did suspect that what Apple meant was older phones would have the ability to edit photos taken with the latest phones, but not actually take photos with the new styles embedded. I regret not having said that at the time. Unfortunately for themselves, Apple has not explained the change of wording, and so people who have trouble understanding how decisions are made at trillion-dollar companies are interpreting this as ‘they were going to, but suddenly got greedy and now they’re not letting us have it’.
- My favorite camera app, Analogue, received a nice update to support the phones’ new aperture controls, develop images with contrast curves reminiscent of physical film scans, and add more personalization for custom presets. There’s still some work to be done to make the whole thing a little easier to use, but it’s certainly better than some of the others I’ve tried recently. The featured image you see on this post above was taken with it.
- Beats released an entirely new pair of headphones, the Beats 360, and it was like waving a block of Kryptonite over Superman’s wallet (I’m Superman in this metaphor). They’re very interesting: the two earcups are essentially separate devices, each with their own chips, batteries, and wireless networking. This allows the headband to be extremely thin, and there’s a range of interchangeable earcups and headband pads that you can snap on to create different color and material combinations. I need to get down to a store to see how they fit my big head, and if they do, it’s bye-bye dollar bills.
- The NYT published their list of the Top 100 TV Shows of the 21st Century (gift link) and it’s predictably made some waves. For one, there’s no anime representation on it, and the top spot went to Breaking Bad, reigniting the tedious war between those in its camp and supporters of The Wire. I’m not about to let the NYT hurt my feelings, but the list is nevertheless a good reminder to stop giving your precious time to trash programs that nobody considers the greatest, and likely never will.
- In a brief discussion of the list with Ted and Lillian, I tried to think of a few shows I’d add. Billions might be one, because the dialogue is often sharp and Paul Giamatti’s performance is over-the-top fun. Poker Face is a Columbo homage that brings the format back to modern screens — I haven’t seen anything else like it. Fringe brings back The X-Files but adds an epic sci-fi mystery arc I’d like to revisit someday. And the most egregious omission might be 24, the real-time antiterrorism adventures of Jack Bauer that defined must-see TV in the early 2000s, holding a mirror up to a post-9/11 world that had one finger ever on the trigger.
- In more recent viewing, I finished Season 2 of Apple TV’s Sugar this week, and I think I could put that in my personal Top 100. Because so much hinges on the plot points of Season 1, I urge you not to look anything up. Just give it a go. Especially if you’re into film noir, Hollywood’s Golden Age, and/or Colin Farrell. The show’s scenes are constantly intercut with analogous shots out of classic cinema — catnip for anyone with a well-used Letterboxd account. As for Farrell, he’s so great in this, and I think of it as an alternate take on Ted Lasso’s conceit: a man who refuses to succumb to cynicism, striving to model the kindness and decency he still believes humanity is capable of.
- Not as great but still fairly entertaining was Lucky, a 7-episode crime drama about Anya Taylor-Joy’s face, namely how her eyes eerily recall Michael Jackson’s as she stares at the victims of her con artist skills, and her creaseless forehead remains dry while on the run from killers in the deserts around Las Vegas. I won’t be thinking about this again after today, but I’ll be thinking about Sugar all the time.
- Album of the week: ear’s Rumspringa, a dreamy blend of pretty indie folk and glitchy electronica. I heard it just once (while on a bus) but its sound jumped out at me as novel, beautiful, and satisfying.
Week 39.26
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