The Dent

Published on November 08, 2019

Trying to eat the right thing, and improve my health has been a constant battle for me over the years. As with many things in my life, I often turn to technology to help me through. To this end, I’ve tried a lot of food tracking apps over the years, however none have ever stuck with me for more than a day or two.

The issue with most food tracking apps is that you already have to be very familiar and au fait with the food you’re eating. Unless you’re eating a meal from a packet, in which case you can simply scan the bar code, you need to be able to enter the measurement of what your eating, along with an approximate calorific count. Let me tell you, if you know how to measure an amount of food by sight alone, and know the calories contained within you don’t need to be tracking your calories. You’re already on top of it.

These are the exact reasons why I’ve never stuck with a food tracking app for long, and is also the reason why I was so pleased that Dominic Williams, the developer behind Moderation, shared the details of his app with me.

Moderations tag line is: ’A Radically Simple Food Diary’, which sums it up pretty well actually. Moderation is a food diary for the rest of us. It’s an app for people that are either just starting their journey towards a healthier diet, or for those just looking to maintain some top level detail about how well they’re eating over a certain period of time.

When you open Moderation you’re presented with a very clean, simple, yet beautiful main screen. On this screen, for each meal you have, or are having, throughout the day you simply need to indicate if it was ‘Healthy’ or ‘Unhealthy’, and that’s it! This basic approach to recording how healthy each meal is will likely not be enough for real health freaks out there, but it works ideally for me.

After a few days of use you will start to build up a very clear indication of how healthy your meals have been across breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. With this information to hand you will have a better idea of what needs improving without a large, and laborious, data entry dance after every meal, which you’d have in a more traditional food tracking app.

As well as the main ‘Food’ tab where you record the information about each meal, there is also a ‘History’ that allows you to see a month by month view of your eating habits. The calendar view is colour coded for each day you’ve recorded some information, so you can see at a glance how many red (unhealthy) or green (healthy) days you’ve had in that period along with a helpful bar graph detailing a breakdown of meal healthiness from your entire history. Finally, this page can display a historic view of your best and worst days, which can help you identify which days you’ve really excelled or let yourself down.

I think one of the things I like most about this app is that it’s not there to shame you, or make you over think your dietary short comings. It’s simply there to provide some top level analysis which you then fill in the blanks on. You don’t record what that meal was, or how many calories it included etc. You may, sometimes, mark a high calorie meal as ‘healthy’ because it is healthy in relation to your usual diet, or if you have a reason that you need high calories on a given day. The way you record things in Moderation allows the user to be far more subjective than other tracking apps, in what is healthy or unhealthy for you and your diet, may be completely different for someone else.

There is some light gamification included as well, in that you can start building up a streak after at least two successful ‘healthy’ days which is a nice touch. There are also achievements available as you progress. While the achievements pop up on screen as you obtain them, I don’t believe there is currently a way to view them. It sounds like, however, this is coming soon.

From a design point of view the app is also a joy to use. It’s clean, lightweight and includes a lovely dark mode theme, which is always a winner for me. When Dominic contacted me about his app, he told me he’s working on a big update to Moderation that will include:

• Smarter Notifications: Understand if you have logged a meal already
• Interactive notifications
• Reminder for when you didn’t log your food yesterday
• More variety in notification messaging
• Siri Shortcuts
• Achievement cabinet
• Better Insights: See your 7 day Healthy % Monthly Summary Card
• Meal Summary Card
• Streak Summary Card

That’s certainly a strong development pipeline, so I’m looking forward to seeing how Moderation continues to develop.

While I’m a big fan of the app, one big omission for me is a Apple Watch app. Given the simple ‘healthy’ / ‘unhealthy’ approach to meal logging it feels ripe for a basic Watch app so you can quickly rate a meal at the time of consumption. Including this in the Siri Watch face so it surfaces a button around breakfast, lunch, and dinner time would be really helpful. Interestingly it doesn’t seem to be in Dominic’s immediate development pipeline, but that’s not to say it’s not something that could come at a later date.

The app is currently free, but I would actually like an opportunity to pay something for the app, perhaps in exchange for some custom icons or themes. I’m a real sucker for paying for cosmetic unlocks in an app, as a way of supporting independent developers, whilst also getting something for yourself (beyond the app itself of course). I definitely think Dominic is missing a trick here. He’s built a gorgeous, and extremely helpful app which I’m sure people would be willing to pay for. I can totally understand leaving the core app free, but I would personally look to add some options for those of us that want to give him money and support for his efforts a way of doing so.

Unlike any food tracking app before it, Moderation has slipped easily into my day to day life. Updating my meals is a real breeze and it’s already making me a lot more mindful of what I’m eating. Moderation is a free app, with a rare 5/5 score on the App Store currently, so there’s nothing stopping you from taking it for a spin.

Published on November 04, 2019

To you all U.S. sports fans out there, no I’m not refering to Adobe Photoshop for iPad the Most Valuable Player. I am, instead, refering to the term ‘Minimum Viable Product’.

With Photoshop and many other hugely ambitious projects / releases from large companies, there seems to be a lack of basic understanding for how these kind of things work. It seems to be a growing trend recently, when a big new software release comes out, that people have extremely high and unrealistic expectations on what it may be. The below is one such example of this:

Oh, Photoshop for iPad… my expectations were super-low and you still manage to disappoint. Missing core features, in order of ridiculousness:

Fill layers (srsly)
Paths (wtf)
16 bit colour (omg)
CMYK (bbq)

— Simon Buckmaster (@forgottentowel) November 4, 2019

There seems to be an expectation that from day dot a software release will have every feature you could ever imagine, will never crash, and will do everything another piece of software can do. Photoshop, in this example, has had a version built for a specific architecture that has been iterated on for almost three decades, yet a complete rebuild for a completely different device type should have feature parity on day one? No chance. Beyond that, I don’t understand why someone would expect it.

Is it better to have a product out there, in users hands so it can be iterated in, or kept behind closed doors for years until it’s some product managers idea of ‘ready’? I appreciate there are different schools of thought on this, but this Agile approach has been adopted for a lot of software and development teams for some time now and it works.

After putting a short version of this post up earlier, one of the Photoshop team responded with the following:

Spot on. And you’ll see we’re following up with a release cadence previously unheard of for Photoshop.

— Foster Brereton (@phostershop) November 4, 2019

It’s clear from this that Adobe are serious about this product, and they literally had to start somewhere. My plea to people reading this, and sending out a lot of ill feeling about this release, and others, please consider the following:

• This software doesn’t just appear one day. It’s been built by human beings, with feelings and pride in the hard work they’ve done. If it isn’t exactly what you wanted, maybe consider some constructive feedback, via the correct channels, instead of blanket statements of ‘Wow, this sucks!’
• Consider that the new piece of software is rarely the only way of achieving what you want to do. In this example, the normal Photoshop is still wherever it is you left it. Continue as you were, whilst experimenting with a new version to see if you can help improve it.

An interesting point about this is that it doesn’t seem to be the same when users take part in a TestFlight beta, for example. There, you may get some bad builds along the way, but by testing the MVP and helping the developer iterate upon it via feedback and just using the app you will help drive improvements. An MVP product release is, to me, no different.

Published on November 01, 2019

Unbelievably, it’s November already, so I thought I’d do a quick Homescreen update post. First things first, here it is:

My main Homescreen has remained pretty static for months now, with only a few tweaks here and there. I’ve recently moved from Overcast to the stock Podcasts app for my podcasting needs. While it is, of course, far more basic and sync can be a little flakey between devices, I’ve been enjoying a more integrated experience. I’ve started using the excellent ‘Handoff to HomePod’ feature from iOS 13.2 as well. This isn’t unique to the Podcasts app, however. While I’m trying to spend less time on podcasts, and more time listening to audiobooks, a simpler and streamlined experience has been working well.

I’m also experimenting with replacing 1Password with the iOS keychain, so I have a simple Shortcut, represented by the key icon, that will jump straight to that page in settings. So far, it’s working well.

Lastly, I’ve added Federico Viticci’s excellent Reminders+ Shortcut to my dock, for quick access.

I don’t usually share the second screen, because that’s where my ugly folders or junk is kept, but I’ve been experimenting with more basic, but helpful, Shortcut actions recently so I thought I’d show these too. Currently I have Shortcuts to:

• Switch my current audio output to, or from, one of my HomePods. I can pick the HomePod to send or retrieve audio from within the Shortcut.
• One very simple one that just switches the audio to my AirPods Pro. This is just a quicker way of doing it than going through the Control Center.
• Podcast episodes lets me pick from one of my subscribed podcasts and plays the latest episode.
• YouTube time turns on one of my Apple TV’s, opens the YouTube app and launches the remote on my phone. This works well from my Living Room HomePod also.
• The Meeting Shortcut simply puts my device into DND and turns the volume off at the start of a meeting and reverses this, setting volume to 25% when I leave.
• And, finally, ‘Detailed’ gives me a quick, yet detailed, weather report as and when I need it.

I’ve also started using more Shortcuts widgets in the notification center panel, but that may be something to share another day.

Published on October 31, 2019

Before I get started with this post, allow me to set the scene a little bit. I am, by no means whatsoever, an audiophile. My experience with audio equipment, especially headphones is limited to the extreme. Since I started buying iPhones I’ve been using the supplied EarPods and then the AirPods, since their introduction in 2016. I’m mentioning this early doors so you can get a bit of perspective on what past experiences I will be bringing to bear when discussing the AirPods Pro. If I was a betting man, I would have thought the vast majority of people out there are coming from a fairly similar place, to be honest. With that being said, and assuming you’re still reading, let’s move on.

Hardware

The first thing you’ll notice when unboxing the new AirPods Pro is the redesigned wireless charging case. It’s now a shorter, wider version, but still retains that fairly distinctive look. While it isn’t especially important, I think I prefer the squared off look of the past generations, though perhaps I’m just used to it.

Flipping up the lid gives you your first glance of the new, redesigned AirPods themselves. The snug fit of the AirPods in their case, as seen in the first two generations looked good, but also made it easy to almost roll each bud out. The AirPods Pro doesn’t have either of these things. As you can see from the comparison shot below, the normal AirPods fit into the case snuggly, but leave a nice amount to grip when you need to pull them out.

The AirPods Pro, on the other hand, sit into a space far less moulded to the shape of the bud. I know this sounds pretty anal, and I admit it is, but they just don’t have that same premium feel you get from the standard versions as you put the AirPods back in and they are gently pulled into place. The Pros feel a bit less secure, I’m less confident they are touching the charging area, and they are far more fiddly to remove.

The AirPods themselves are quite different this time around as well. I’ve always been very lucky with the EarPods, and then AirPods, in that they have always fit into my ear perfectly. One way or another they seemed to fit with the contours of my ear and I’d forget they were even there sometimes. The AirPods Pro, on the other hand, not so much. Granted, I’ve only had them for a day or so, so they may just take some getting used to. I used them at work for quite an extended period of time and I think I’m slowly getting more familiar with the feeling in ear. Again, coming from someone with limited headphone experience, I’m used to my ear buds just slipping into the shape of my ear and then thinking noting more of it. Due, in part, to the new shape and new rubber tips, it’s been taking a lot more thought to get them in. When I bring them to my ear they’ve not been slipping neatly into place and so far I’ve not got then in in such a way that has felt instantly comfortable or even secure, more than a handful of times.

Once they are in, so far at least, it’s not been the most comfortable experience, though again it does feel like my ears are, somewhat at least, getting used to them. They certainly haven’t blended into the background of my consciousness like the standard AirPods do. In fact, the feeling that I have something hard and uncomfortable jammed awkwardly into my ear is more prevalent than any sounds I may be playing at the time. This experience is, as you’d imagine, incredibly subjective, however, and your milage not only may vary, it almost certainly will. I’ve been very spoilt so far, having a near perfect fit with everything Apple has supplied or sold up to this point. I am going to keep trying on this front, however. It may just require a new angle of placement compared to what I’m so used to to get the fit I like.

Also, before anyone writes me a letter, yes I have tried different tips. I tried the default medium size first, and have swapped to the small ones to try currently.

Performance and software

So, comfort and fit aside, how well do they actually work? Once again, as a non-audiophile user I have never tried a noise cancelling set of headphones or earbuds so I don’t have a lot to compare it to, but it feels like there is some real Apple magic going on on this front. Once they’re connected you have three options available to you. These are:

• Noise Cancellation
• Transparency
• Off

The noise cancellation is truly a thing to behold. It’s incredibly effective and works like a charm. When I first turned it on it was a pretty strange experience and felt a little jarring to be honest. Initially I had nothing playing, so the almost eerie silence threw me a little. It felt like I was in some kind of vacuum. As soon as I started playing a song, however, it started to normalise a bit. Once I got used to the feeling it felt great.

You can switch between modes via a long hold / squeeze of the AirPods stem, or via a long press on the volume control in the Control Center

I have to admit that despite being very impressed with the technology itself, I’d never personally thought about why someone would want noise cancellation. My main use for AirPods currently has been at work, but while I’m working I’ll often have someone come up to my desk for something, and felt I should always have an ear open, both literally and figuratively. That being said, I used them for most of the day today and have to say I found it pretty incredible. My work is quite technical, and while I have to help others quite a bit throughout the day, sometimes I really need to just concentrate on what I’m doing. Throughout my first day using the tiny buds, I was able to completely drown out the surprisingly loud background noise of my office and really focus on my work. The noise cancellation, combined with a relaxing flowing river noise from Dark Noise was an extraordinary zen experience. I think I’m a convert.

The next option available for the AirPods Pro is the Transparency setting. Once again, this feels like some patented Apple magic at work. Because the new AirPods include rubber tips they, by their nature, already provide a physical form of noise cancellation or blocking. That’s where the Transparency mode comes in. I’ve written about five different paragraphs trying to explain what this mode is, and I’ve fallen short each time, so I’ll let Apple explain it:

“Transparency mode provides users with the option to simultaneously listen to music while still hearing the environment around them, whether that’s to hear traffic while out for a run or an important train announcement during the morning commute. Using the pressure-equalizing vent system and advanced software that leaves just the right amount of noise cancellation active, Transparency mode ensures that a user’s own voice sounds natural while the audio continues to play perfectly.”

This, like the noise cancellation, works incredibly well and really does make the surrounding noise clear and natural, completely mitigating the rubber bud in your ear.

Finally you can just turn it all off completely and the buds will then function just like standard AirPods, though slightly more audibly restrictive due to the rubber tips as mentioned previously.

I’ve heard a lot of people reporting that they think the AirPods Pro sound better than regular AirPods, but I can’t hear that personally. They do sound better with noise cancellation on, but only because you can hear the sound more clearly without as much background noise. Beyond that, however, they sound identical to me, personally.

To sum things up, did I need new AirPods? No, not at all. Do I need noise cancellation on the AirPds I don’t need? No, no I don’t. Am I going to keep them, regardless? Damn right I will. The siren call of interesting and enjoyable Apple tech cannot be ignored, it seems.

Published on October 25, 2019

One of the main things keeping me from posting more, I think, is that I have a bad habit of only ever writing a post / article in one sitting. I can’t remember a time I’ve ever just started writing a bit and then come back to add a bit over a few days. The fact I don’t come back to a piece is probably fairly evident in the quality of my posts, unfortunately.

While doing a post from start to finish each time seemed like it would be a better way of getting more posts out, it’s ended up with me just thinking I don’t have enough time to finish anything of substance right now so I don’t even start. I think this is a mindset I need to get out of. I have plenty of ideas currently, and some reviews to share of some interesting new apps I’ve had shared with me by various developers, nothing seems to be progressing all that much.

Right now, I should have a handful of draft posts somewhere where I can keep adding points as I go along before compiling them into a final post at some point. Instead I have a bunch of emails sitting in my inbox, with Reminders entries attached to them. The closest I get to drafting things right now is writing some posts in my head while I drift off at night.

This is probably where an app like Drafts might actually come in useful. I’ve never been able to find a compelling reasons to stick with it, but this may be it.

I need to stop thinking that I have no spare time to write or podcast, and start making better use of whatever time I do have.

Published on October 11, 2019

It looks like Apple aren’t slowing down with their new Apple Arcade launches quite yet. Just 5 days since the last update Apple has released a further 5 titles onto their subscription service. Judging by the short introduction videos on the App Store, they look to have the same high quality of the previous additions and they bring the total up to 80.

Image courtesy of the Apple Arcade Twitter account

Let’s have a quick look at what has been added:

• ‌Decoherence - This game looks like a bit of a strategic, competitive arena game featuring robots. What game isn’t made better by the inclusion of robots??
• ‌INMOST - At first glance this one looks really interesting. It features a very retro looking graphical style. It’s a ‘story driven puzzle platformer’ which already makes it sound pretty interesting. I’m looking forward to giving this one a go. It’s been developed by Chucklefish, the team behind the amazing Stardew Valley. If that’s not reason enough to jump in I don’t know what is!
• ‌Mind Symphony - This one was developed by Rogue Games, a very prolific App Store developer. A lot of their games are very IAP focused, so I’m interested in seeing one of their games without the crippling monetisation.
• ‌ShockRods - Car-based deathmatches. ‘Nuff said! The preview video makes it look like a mix between PS1 classic Twisted Metal and Rocket League. ShockRods looks like great fun.
• ‌Stella - Stella looks to be a stunning looking 3D / First Person platformer. Of all the new releases this week, this one looks ideal for the Apple TV. Performance on other games I’ve tried has been far from optimal, so I’m keen to give this one a try.

I’m looking forward to jumping into this new selection ASAP. I need to get back to doing some reviews on all of these, but I’m just having too much fun playing them!

Published on October 06, 2019

For those keeping up, it looks like there are some new additions to Apple Arcade that have sprung up overnight, bringing the current total to 75.

The new additions are:

• NIGHTMARE FARM - This looks like an interesting, if not a little strange title. After reading the App Store description it’s a little hard to even see what this ones about, but it’s labelled as a ‘simulation’. You apparently have to visit a farm and give the creatures there food and toys. Fair enough!
• Pilgrims - Again, this looks like an artistic and quirky game. It looks like you need to interact with people you meet as you journey across the land and try to make friends and ‘help them complete their little stories’.
• Redout: Space Assault - This appears to be a space-based action shooter. From the screenshots it looks pretty good, though the early reviews suggest it may be a bit buggy.
• The Bradwell Conspiracy - This one is described as being a ‘highly stylised, narrative-driven experience’, which sounds good to me! The game has an impressive team behind it and looks like the cream of the latest additions crop.

I’m looking forward to diving into this new selection of Apple Arcade games soon.

Published on October 04, 2019

Since its introduction in iOS 11, Live Photo’s has truly been one of the core iOS features that keeps me in the eco-system. While this may sound a bit strange to some of you, I find it to be a truly invaluable feature of my everyday camera. I like to think of it as parent mode because, to be honest with you, I can’t imagine many people outside of this demographic that would find it as compelling feature as I do. I’ve lost count of the amount of mediocre pictures I’ve taken, only to review the Live Photo later to realise I’ve captured something truly special being said, or a reaction, that would normally be lost to the ether.

I found out about an interesting feature that has become available in iOS 13, a rare enhancement to Live Photo’s that I wanted to share. It seems it’s now possible to select multiple Live Photo’s, that were taken in quick succession, and create a video out of them. Apple shared a short ‘how to’ video explaining the process, on their YouTube channel, which you can see below:

This is a seemingly small feature but, for me at least, it’s a really powerful one. I’ve tried it myself and it works perfectly. It doesn’t do much to make the transition between videos all that smooth, but it’s highly serviceable and something I can see myself using a fair bit. Now that I know it exists …

Published on October 04, 2019

To me, a sign of a good review is how much reading / watching it makes me want to go and try out the product that’s being reviewed. Prolific YouTuber Christopher Lawley’s recent Brydge Keyboard review was not only fantastically presented, as always, it also really made me want to use the Brydge Keyboard.

If you haven’t seen the video yet, stop what you’re doing and watch it below:

Normally, there would be nothing unusual about a review making me want to try a new product. What struck me about this review, however, was that it didn’t make me want to try a new product. It made me want to try a product that I already owned, and actually really disliked, which is a first, and a testament to how well Chris reviewed the device.

Why I don’t like the Brydge keyboard

One of the major deciding factors for me choosing to use an iPad as my main home computing device¹ was the flexibility the form factor afforded me. I work a normal full time day job, and much of my spare time is spent with my wife, young daughter and Toy Poodle. I have very little time to fully dedicate to blogging or podcasting and the like, but when I do get the time, I need to be as flexible on where I do these things as possible. The iPad Pro, paired with the fantastic Apple Smart Folio Keyboard, allows for the most flexible computing exerience I could hope for.

I was excited to get my hands on the Brydge keyboard, and quickly ordered one as soon as it became available. After slotting my iPad Pro into the case I was in awe of just how fantastic it made my beloved iPad look. This admiration, however, was pretty short lived. Whilst sat at a desk, the Brydge keyboard looked perfect. When I needed to move away from the desk, however, things got a little less idyllic. The Brydge keyboard is heavy. There’s no getting around it. Strapping that beast of a keyboard to a 12.9” iPad Pro instantly doubles its weight and, in doing so, reduces it’s flexibility and ease of use by the same proportion. When desktop / laptop fans see the Brydge keyboard in use you’ll often get the tired comment ‘Why don’t you just get a MacBook?’ While the answer to that particular question would be best answered another day, in another post, I did get the feeling that I was just using a heavy, cumbersome laptop, which is most certainly not something I would want, or expect, when using my svelte and portable iPad.

Chris touched on the squisy feeling of the keys and I definitely experienced this. They can also, at times, be fairly unresponsive, especially when compared to the excellent keys and travel of the Smart Folio. I’ve never been that fused about my keyboards, though it seems to be very important to many. Now that I’ve been using the Smart Folio, and it’s predecessors, for so long, however, I have gotten used to the low travel and typing noise. I’ve never understood those people that enjoy a loud clack, clack from their keyboard. I’m not sure if it’s down to the Bluetooth connection, the fact the keys are less accurate if you don’t press them perfectly in the center, or a combination of the two, but I definitely have to type slower, and more precisely when using the Brydge. Things aren’t all bad, however …

Things I do like about the Brydge keyboard

While I’ve been pretty negative about the keyboard so far in this post, there are some areas that really do appeal a great deal about the keyboard.

Firstly, as I’ve already touched on, the device looks absolutely beautiful. I won’t dwell on this point too much, but it really is a great looking accessory to an already tasty looking bit of kit.

While the keys are, indeed, squishy, and they miss keystrokes far more often than I’m comfortable with, the addition of function keys to control volume and adjust brightness, among others, is a great touch and it’s something I wish Apple could somehow squeeze into the Smart Folio moving forward. The keyboard also features backlit keys which, despite being a nice inclusion, was ultimately a bit wasted on me. I’ll very rarely write / use my iPad in the dark it seems.

Another thing I found myself liking the Brydge keyboard for was using the iPad on the desk in my study. Whilst only in certain situations, I found myself using the Brydge keyboard, when I knew I’d be sitting at my desk for some time, whilst connected to 4K monitor and my Logitech mouse. While this is very close to the MacBook I wanted to avoid, it is nice for the aforementioned specific situations that call for it.

Ultimately, for me, it came down to the particular way I used my iPad. At the time, I was rarely sitting down for any extended period of time at a desk so using the keyboard made little sense. It doesn’t lend itself well to someone that wants to move around a lot, unless you want to develop arms like Popeye from lugging the thing around.

Going full circle back to where this article started, Chris’ video has encouraged me to dust off the Brydge keyboard² and give it another shot. I’ve written this article using it and, despite the slower than usual typing speed I’ve had to employ, I have to say I’m quite enjoying it. A few months ago, as soon as I got home, my iPhone would be set to charge and my iPad would be my evening companion should I need to do anything. Since getting the new iPad Mini, however, I’ve found I actually am using my iPad Pro in a more static configuration, so I’m presented another opportunity to put it through its paces. I must say I’ve enjoyed my time spent using it to write something a bit different.

This article wasn’t intended to be a review, it started life as just a link post to Chris’ great video. It hasn’t really ended up as a review either, but I would have still liked to have offered up a conclusion to my thoughts on the Brydge keyboard to anyone that had made it this far. As is probably evident from the above, however, I’m still pretty torn. 90% of my time will still be spent with the Smart Keyboard Folio. I just love it. For the rare occasions that I’m strictly desk bound, and equally rare occasions I write anything more than a few hundred words, the Brydge keyboard may well see the light of day.

Published on October 03, 2019

I’m not sure if anyone is interested in following Oprah’s Book Club on Apple TV+ when it launches in November, but for those of you that are, Apple are currently selling the Audiobook of the first book that will be covered, The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates for less than the eBook version.

This is a completely non-staged photo of Oprah loving the heck out of this book.

It’s currently £7.99 for the audiobook, versus £9.99 for the eBook.¹

To be completely honest with you, it doesn’t sound like a book I’d normally be into. I am, however, an Apple sheep as you may well know, so I’ve picked up the book and will listen to it ahead of the Oprah Book Club launch. I’ve always been kind of interested in a book club idea, but I’ve never done anything about it. Now that I’ve been getting into audiobooks more, given my long commute, it seemed like a fair investment.

Having never taken part in a book club before, I’m not entirely sure what to expect from Oprah’s show, but I’m interested in finding out. Assuming I enjoy the book that is …