Hatfield.

I’ve written this post six times over since May.

Ever since I interviewed Nathan McCree back in 2013, we’ve kept in touch and I’ve been aware of just the struggles and the work he’s had to do to get to this point, and it’s been incredible to see it come to fruition.

Since that interview, we met in person at the first Tomb Raider Suite in December of 2016, and then in April of this year, where the first buffet reception of the Tomb Raider Suite Album was held at Hatfield House.
It was mainly an invite and backer-only event, alongside a raffle which, if your Kickstarter-backer number was read out, you had a ticket to attend.

Thanks to Nathan and his expert-raffle skills, I was lucky to attend, by a very odd twist of fate that me and Nathan are still laughing about now.

This is what happened at the Reception.

Continue.

Apple Watch & iPad, sitting in a tree…

I wasn’t hoping for much this year at WWDC. The writing has been on the Apple Wall that there’s been a greater need for improvements in quality towards all of their Operating Systems as of late.

With watchOS, this wasn’t needed, just some features that have been requested since we’ve all become accustomed to those taps on our wrists since 2015.

With version 5 announced at WWDC, the time has now come to say goodbye to a model of the Apple Watch, namely the ‘Series 0’ model, which began the Apple Watch when it first launched, and one that I also own.

To me it’s understandable, but also slightly puzzling, as i was hoping for some kind of service to help update the Watch you’ve spent hundreds (or thousands when it came to the gold edition), so that it’s still relevant on your wrist.

Alas, I’m now looking at current models, alongside the standard rumours of what could be coming for Series 4, to see what these new models could benefit me, to ease the pain of spending all that money on one again.

In all honesty, I’ve struggled.

Continue.

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.