Announcing ‘The Outpost Issue’.

Even though the site here looks as though its been left alone, you couldn’t be more wrong.

The Outpost Show has been growing faster than I thought it would, and I’m currently in the midsts of finishing off a post about the Tomb Raider Suite Reception from April.

But for a while, I’ve been wanting to do a newsletter of short thoughts, but also with contributors.

Which is why The Outpost Issue is here!

It will be a fortnightly e-mail on a Friday, which will go to your e-mail of choice.

The main themes will be what Outpost has always been.

  • Games.
  • Tech.
  • Gin.

Alongside guest columns from great writers. At least I think so.

Subscribe right here, and you will receive the issue, until you decide its too much to take.

Guesting on Tim Chaten’s ‘iPad Pros’ Podcast.

After a long lull, podcasts have made a massive comeback in the last 2 years. Nowadays, you can find almost any subject matter you like from them, and hear from podcasts that go from 5 minutes an episode, to a 4 hour marathon.

Last week I was asked to be on Tim Chaten’s podcast about iPads, and the episode came out last week.
It was a fun hour, where I explained further about how AirPower could work through an iPad Smart Case and power AirPods when closed, alongside using iPads in the workplace.

You can listen here.

The case for iPadOS. Alongside a Wishlist.

This year, my hopes for iOS 12 will be earlier, mainly because the rumours usually come around this month, and rumours of a ‘Modern iPad’ hinted at from iOS 11.3 has now begun.

Even last week, news broke of Craig Federighi deciding on holding some features back for another year while they fix issues and refine other attributes.

Yet right now, we’re using the latest release of iOS 11, and embracing it. Now that both Christmas and New Year are over, there’s an amount of people who are learning the basics of iOS 11 from their new device given to them over these holidays.

But as I use the iPad and use some of the apps I’ve bought thanks to a post on MacStories, it’s made me think more of how that line between an iPad and a computer can blur.

There’s so many OS types with Apple that one more wouldn’t hurt.
There’ll probably eventually be tableOS, shelfOS, breadOS, everything that will manage what you’re using. It sounds crazy now, but also seems inevitable.

An iPadOS wouldn’t be a bad idea to fully embrace the device as a laptop replacement.

Continue.

Resolutions.

I’ve never really believed in doing ‘resolutions’. I’ve always thought that if you need to do something, just do it. Don’t wait until the end of the year, share a post of ‘New Year New Me’, then give up by February.

This year, I’ve set some goals. Some in the day-life, some in the bank-life, and some in the Outpost-life.

There’s a few games that I’ve either never properly finished, or have been curious to and never had the opportunity.

But we’re in an age of emulators, games from 1997 rendered in 4K and remakes, so the below are what I’m planning to finish by the end of 2018.

Continue.

AGDQ 2018 Charity Stream Launches.

Five years on since I started watching it, and it begins once again this evening.

The latest event began tonight with Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy released last year on PlayStation 4, and ends next Sunday with Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Once again the event is raising money for the ‘Prevent Cancer Foundation’, with the aim to exceed last year’s record of $2.2 million dollars.

The schedule can be viewed here, while the stream itself and ways to donate can be seen here.

Gin Service by App.

Technically, mobile ordering from your phone has been around for as long as the App Store has existed. But not when it’s been for delivering Gin to your table.

Sometimes an app comes along and you think that it’s been there all this time.

Going to a Wetherspoons pub in the week, I felt the same about an app they had released for the iPhone last March, followed by Android.

With Apple Pay launching and now common across the UK, only now the next step was their mobile ordering app.

It’s still not completely known how you use the app, regardless of how the company is pushing it with A1-sized logos of the app in their chains. So I thought I’d help.

Continue.

How I use iPad.

There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t use the iPad.

I spoke about it in detail on an episode of Bring Your Own Device, the initial impressions of when I bought the new model back in June, and The Outpost Show, which is coming back soon.

My MacBook has been reduced to a media centre, a games machine and a backup device. I can’t justify upgrading to a newer model when its only these three things I use a Mac for now.

All of these apps can be used on an iPhone as well, but I find them better suited to the iPad, alongside some methods I use to better differentiate how I use it from the iPhone.

All the posts I write come from the iPad. They’re written, edited, and moved from Ulysses to WordPress to make sure the layout has no bugs in the post.

Below, you’ll not only know of the apps I use, but how I use it on my new workspace, which makes the iPad look like an iMac Mini.

Continue.

A Co-Commentary with ‘NathPlays’.

At the Tomb Raider Suite last December, I bumped into a LetsPlayer I had been watching on his YouTube for years, and in person he was just as decent.

Last week, me and Nathan reunited again for two videos on his channel, where he played through the level ‘Fools Gold‘ from Tomb Raider II: Golden Mask.

We talked about our thoughts of the Suite, its Kickstarter earlier this year, and my ‘polarising’ thoughts on Tomb Raider IV.

It’s in two parts, both of which were released last Thursday and Friday.

You can watch them both below.

The Final Curtain of iPhone.

This is the epilogue of the first chapter of the iPhone as we know it this year.

Some were surprised as to why I wasn’t going to wait for the iPhone X.

It was essentially three reasons.

  1. I’ve never owned a ‘Plus’ model before, and I’ve slightly regretted not buying one last year when I started using the Portrait Mode for customers in the previous day job.
  2. Compared to the iPhone X; FaceID, slight improvements to the same camera as the 8 models and Animoji do not justify waiting and spending money on the model for me. I also imagine it won’t be easy to acquire one until January 2018 at the earliest.
  3. I use the iPhone almost all day, alongside it being connected to my Apple Watch, and now the AirPods, something which will have its own post soon. I needed a bigger battery without purchasing a battery case or having a socket nearby.

Since driving to Lincoln to collect it on Saturday, I’ve been using the iPhone 8 Plus around Manchester and to see how these first impressions would go.

Continue.