I write from my iPhone all the time. Almost everything I publish here starts as a draft on my iPhone.

Most of my link entries are written entirely from my iPhone. My longer articles are generally written on my iPad, but I will occasionally write from my Framework 13 as well.

In terms of my iPhone writing workflow, I run a shortcut that creates a new markdown file in iA Writer — either a blank template if I’m writing a feature article or with the title, link, and optional quote if I’m writing a link entry.

Once I’m in iA Writer, I write out my thoughts, add any other relevant links, update the title, file name, URL slug, and tags.

When it’s ready to publish, I send it to another shortcut using the Share Sheet that will schedule it to publish here on Initial Charge.

➝ Source: brennan.day

I saw a post about this on r/EmulationOniOS and, sure enough, the Azahar core is available in the TestFlight build of RetroArch.

I only have a couple of roms for the system — Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D and New Super Mario Bros. 2. Donkey Kong is a no-go without JIT, but New Super Mario Bros. 2 runs at acceptable speeds in my testing.

I had been using Folium for this, but that app was always a pain to actually use. It would just randomly stop loading my game, not recognize my controller, or some other oddity. Every time the issue was different, but it was always annoying.

RetroArch, by contrast, is always stable for me. I had to work a bit to get my roms setup in a playlist — I had to do a custom scan for them to show up — but once I had them listed, the rest was easy-peasy.

➝ Source: reddit.com

I didn’t know this existed.

I don’t expect I’ll actually use it much, since I generally am not on my phone while riding in a vehicle. But if I ever found myself in a situation where I needed to use my iPhone while in the passenger seat — to look up information during a road trip, for example — I might give this feature a try.

➝ Source: m.youtube.com

It has become an annual tradition to share my device home screens around this time each year. This serves as a snapshot of what I’m using, which allows me to see its evolution over time.

This year, I’ve decided to omit my iPad from the collection because I barely use it anymore. My Framework and iPhone has replaced all of my iPad usage. The only exception to that rule is its occasional use to watch shows from our Plex server at the dining room table. But we don’t even use my iPad to do that anymore, instead opting to use an old iPad Air 2 that’s shared among the family and is used almost exclusively for this purpose.

I’ve also decided not to share my Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Nintendo 2DS home screens this year because their layout has not changed since last year.

iPhone 15 Pro

Some notable changes that I’ve made since the last update:

• Beeper now lives where Messages was. The majority of people I chat with is still over iMessage, but I can still access Messages by tapping on notifications or long pressing the folder on my second Home Screen when it has a notification badge. Becky and I have moved all of our messaging over to Beeper using its built-in Matrix protocol. I wrote a bit about it back in July.
• I’ve written about it previously, but I’ve moved from Wallabag to Linkwarden and from 1Password to Vaultwarden with the Bitwarden app. I’m still enjoying this new setup and don’t have any plans to change again anytime soon.
• I’ve migrated from Apple Mail to Spark. It feels a lot like a lateral change. There are things I like about it and things I don’t. Despite seventeen years of the App Store, I still feel like there isn’t a single email client that truly stands above the rest. But Spark comes the closest, I suppose.
• I fully migrated from Google Photos to Immich over the summer. I’m very happy with the move. I love having one less subscription in my life and further taking ownership of my data.
• I’m using Prism again. It’s the best music app for Plex and has become necessary now that Plex has removed music libraries from their main app.

Framework 13, running Ubuntu 24.04

Very little change on the Framework. I’ve moved to using ArcMenu instead of Gnome’s built-in app launcher. I’ve also set the icon for ArcMenu to Framework’s logo, which looks quite handsome.

The only other change is the wallpaper. I’m now using the Blue macOS Tiger wallpaper from Basic Apple Guy. I love how bright and vibrant it makes the machine feel to use.

I’m not interested in upgrading my devices to iOS 26 yet. My current plan is to stay on iOS 18 until iOS 27 ships next year. I’ve been bit too many times by major operating system upgrades from Apple — I’m tired of the nonsensical design decisions, bugs, and essential workflows that completely break. I’m looking at you, Apple Shortcuts.

But there’s one major problem with this plan — Apple sticks a notification badge on the Settings app and there is no option to remove it. I wish you could just tell the system that you’re not interested in the upgrade and to only notify you of minor point releases, but I don’t have any expectation that something like that will ever be implemented.

I could remove the Settings app from my Home Screens and rely on the App Library and search for opening the app, but I’m pretty particular about the apps on my Home Screen. I’ve meticulously crafted their layout over the eighteen years that I’ve owned an iPhone. I like having the Settings app on my second screen and I’m going to keep it there.

But something has to be done about that notification badge and, luckily, there is a solution.

1. Long press the Settings app.
2. Tap “Remove App”.
3. Tap “Remove from Home Screen”.
4. Save this image to your device.
5. Add this shortcut to the Apple Shortcuts app.
6. With the shortcut open in the Shortcuts app, tap on the downward arrow next to its name.
7. Tap “Add to Home Screen”.
8. Choose the photo option and select the image you saved above as the icon.

We’ve just replaced the Settings app on your Home Screen with a shortcut that opens the Settings app. Now you can keep a nicely organized Home Screen, which includes the Settings app, without ever having to see a notification badge on the icon.

It’s silly that Apple forces us to jump through hoops like this just to feel like we have more control over our devices. Especially when it feels like such a hack solution. But at least we have the option, I suppose.

If you’re still holding off on the iOS 26 upgrade, but are irritated by the notification badge, I suggest giving this a try.

Marius Masalar:

My iPhone 15 Pro is a marvel, but after over a decade of iPhone use, I am, frankly, bored.

Apple products have become familiar to the point of monotony. And, having spent weeks using the betas of the upcoming version of iOS, I can’t shake the feeling that Liquid Glass is a design language at war with itself, contradicting its own mandate to put your content first by drawing attention to itself at every turn.

_So what, it’s a phone—just change it._You’re right, and I did. Twice, actually. I spent a bit of time with the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL a few months back and the OnePlus 13 a little after that. But…at the time, RCS was just rolling out, and since most of my social life relied on iMessage, the friction was too great—if not for me, certainly for my friends and family who I had no desire to inflict turmoil upon.

Even so, to call the experience a breath of fresh air would be putting it lightly. It’s so refreshing to see a fundamentally different take on the same promises Apple makes with its iPhones. Same form factor, same capabilities, yet governed by different philosophies and priorities.

I relish the changes to my routine.

I wouldn’t mind dipping my toes into the Android waters, but too much of my writing and publishing still relies on Apple Shortcuts. Hopefully that will change in the future and I’ll be able to give it a try as well.

➝ Source: marius.ink

From the documentation:

RetroArch Cloud Sync is available in recent RetroArch Nighties and enables a seamless synchronization of the most important system configuration and save data to a dedicated private webdav server, from where these data can be synchronized across Apple devices. The current functionality is limited to Apple devices (MacOS, iOS, tvOS) because it was developed here. It can be deployed to other RetroArch operating systems, if a developer is interested in this work.

This is pretty rad. I just set it up on my iPhone and plan to do so on our Apple TVs later today. It’ll be nice to have all of my saves synced between devices so I can pick up and play from where I left off regardless of the device I’m using.

➝ Source: docs.libretro.com

It has become an annual tradition to share my device home screens around the new year. This serves as a snapshot of what I’m using, which I can use to see the evolution over time.

I’ve add my Nintendo 2DS to the list, which I recently acquired. I’m still playing games on my iPhone using the Backbone One, but i purchased a 2DS to play Nintendo DS and 3DS titles. Emulation for these systems isn’t great on the iPhone. The dual screen of the systems doesn’t make for a great emulation experience and existing iPhones just aren’t powerful enough for smooth 3DS emulation.

iPhone 15 Pro

iPad Pro, 11-inch

Framework 13, running Ubuntu 24.04

Nintendo 2DS

I have dozens of 3DS games installed, but most recently I’ve been playing Super Mario 3D Land, Mega Man X2 in Snes9x, and Plants vs. Zombies through TWiLight Menu++.

Apple TV 4K

I’ve enabled Display Zoom for larger icons on the Home Screen. This can be done in Settings > General > Appearance by setting Display Zoom to “Large”. I’m glad they introduced this as an option because I never liked the move to smaller icons that came with tvOS 17.

Apple Watch Series 5