2026-06-29 08:00:00
# Watch update
I'm now 16 days in and the watch still has 46% battery left!
It was described as lasting 7-10 days but I could get three weeks out of this.
Also, once it runs out of battery for the smart features, it will still act as a normal watch for a further two days.
Colour me impressed.
2026-06-28 08:00:00
# RIP Om
It was so sad to see yesterday that Om Malik — OG tech blogger, founder of GigaOm, photographer, investor, and all round nice guy — passed away at just 59.
I've been reading Om's work for as long as I can remember, but it was the post GigaOm era where I feel he really came into his own. He had a way of writing that conveyed such passion and made you feel like you knew him, even if you had only ever interacted through comments.
He paved the way for so many others and his voice on the web will be sorely missed.
2026-06-27 08:00:00
# Well, my dalliance with Vivaldi didn't last very long; less than 24 hours, in fact.
I had issues with some sites I visit regularly and only turning off Vivaldi's ad blocking fixed it. Not good enough.
# In other news, it's now been a week since I started wearing the Sekonda hybrid watch and I still have 66% battery!
I'm going to get two weeks out of this with room to spare. Very happy.
2026-06-26 08:00:00
# Mobile Browsers
I have documented my search for the 'perfect' email client on many occasions. Spoiler alert: I've largely given up. Now, I've returned to mobile browsers.
I've tried my fair share over the years. When I used an iPhone there was no real discussion — you used Safari.1 It's a different picture on Android.
I gave up on Chrome years ago. I don't use system-wide ad blocking so Chrome is not an option seeing as it doesn't support extensions on mobile. Firefox has never really clicked with me, partly because it always seems to be a laggard when it comes to supporting web standards.
All the alternatives are either based on Chromium or Firefox so it's more a case of comparing additional features; I prioritise privacy and speed.
I used Bromite for a while until the project died. Cromite, a fork, continued the development and I switched to that, but had some issues. Like Firefox, it was also slow to support certain web standards I specifically wanted to use.
So, I landed on Brave and have been using it for quite a while, despite it becoming increasingly bloated. I was, therefore, intrigued when I saw they were offering Brave Origin, a paid version of the browser without all the extras like VPN, crypto wallet, etc. which I never use.
Yes, it's a one time purchase that you can activate across all your devices, but I balked at the price of £53.99.
Cue the search for another browser!
I've tested some and find them too stripped back (DuckDuckGo I'm looking at you) or they seem very opinionated on the default level of zoom, i.e. too much rather than respecting the system settings and viewport instruction from web pages.
I tried Vivaldi when it was first released for desktop; it felt a bit overloaded with features I wouldn't use so never gave it a second thought. A few people have mentioned it recently, and said they were enjoying it, so I thought I'd give the Android version a spin.
There are some features I won't use, but it's not as bad as the desktop version. 2
2026-06-25 08:00:00
# Today marks 23 years since I started blogging! It seems a lifetime ago, but it's less than half my lifetime.
I've been struggling to post lately, only getting going again over the past few days, but I've got some ideas about things I want to do to the site. Not necessarily in relation to what I post, more how it works.
I want to redesign things and simplify the code.
Still, that's for another day. For now, let's just celebrate the anniversary. 🥳