Matisyahu's Blog

It was a rather uneventful start to the week – work was the usual and nothing out of the ordinary. I have to admit, I did enjoy having a full fridge rather than the last couple of weeks of working through what I had left in my cupboard. After work I went for my nightly walk, 11.6km, the temperature is pretty chilly out there being 6 degrees celsius but I wrapped up warm with my oversized hoodie and tracksuit pants although I’m sure when the weather warms up I’ll be complaining about how it is too hot and I’m sweating too much.

A Chrome update was released today which upgraded it from Version 139.0.7258.67 to Version 139.0.7258.128 which is a bit of a leap when compared to the previous updates. Plenty of bug fixes and security fixes so it is best to get onto it. I also checked my mobile phone and the upgrade to 139 appeared so I updated to that as well. After coming home from my nightly walk I checked for updates and Samsung had released the August 2025 update which is around 550mb or so:

There were also a few updates from Samsung through the Samsung Store so I got that all updated as wel, a reboot and then I was back online again. I haven’t noticed any changes which is a good sign that the update was uneventful just like any good update should be. The Google Play Services update for August hasn’t been released yet but they tend to come out at random times rather than some sort of schedule (even when I had a Pixel they would come out at random times). uBOLite 2025.812.1339 has been released on Microsoft Edge but not available on Chrome extensions store or the App Store.

macOS 15.7 RC2 was released recently so it’ll probably be released either towards the end of this week, assuming there is a critical update that they need to get out to users, but I’d say the most likely scenario is the release being done on Tuesday or Wednesday NZ Time. Beta 6 of the next platform release by Apple was made available but the release date won’t be known until the iPhone event in September so it’ll be interesting to see how. much of a gap between the iOS release and macOS release is – macOS 26 being released maybe at the same time a 26.0.x release is made available could be a possibility.

The weekend ended up finishing a lot quicker than expected. I went for my big grocery shop today and funny enough the amount I spent was less than expected – not because the prices of food went down (wouldn’t that be nice!) but rather because I first of all had something to eat so I wasn’t buying on an empty stomach and secondly I went in with a plan rather than rather than just randomly purchasing things that I thought I need but there was no plan how I would see how it all worked together to make meals. I bought a few extra items for the freezer although I skipped the lamb – I would have loved to get some but the price is too high so I couldn’t justify to myself purchasing it but I’m sure it’ll come on special at some point at which time I’ll grab a few extra items for the freezer so I can use it at a later date.

I went for an 11.6km walk and I thought I would still be sore after the 20km walk on Monday but I actually felt pretty good after wards. I think that with more frequent walking it has allowed my body to recover from exercise sessions with the benefit of walking over running as a big guy meaning the impact on the joints is a lot lower. When I was slimmer when younger I couldn’t stand running – I looked horribly uncoordinated and it was not enjoyable where as a brisk walk at around 5.8kmph is good enough to burn a few calories and get some fresh air.

On Wednesday there is patch Tuesday for Windows 11 24H2 and Chrome – will be interesting to see what Chrome brings with the update. I also checked over on Github and uBOLite 2025.812.1339 has been released which will appear in the Chrome store and Apple store in the next few days. There are a lot of new features along with bug fixes relating to Safari with many features that impact all the supported platforms. It normally takes 2 days for it to appear on their respective stores – for some reason it appears on the Microsoft store before the other two which makes me wonder whether it is due to the volume of extensions that Microsoft receives is lower or Microsoft has review teams in more locations around the world so that there is never a backlog of things needing review and approval.

I woke up early on Monday to jump on a bus to pick up some odd bits and pieces from the supermarket for the day with the big shop being done on Tuesday. On Tuesday I’ll be popping down but this time I’ve made sure I’ve actually got a list of things I need to purchase and if I have some extra money I’ll pick up a few extra items to have some extra food just in case I can’t get down to the supermarket for whatever particular reason. Tonight I went for a 20km walk – I needed a good work out after having a bit of a treat today, some fresh crusty bread along with a sweet treat on the side.

Samsung is looking at releasing One UI 8.0 (based on Android 16) in around September however they’re gradually rolling out the August 2025 update which will probably arrive in New Zealand around mid August or possibly towards the end the of the month. I’ve been watching videos and it is a sad state of affairs just how bad the Tech YouTube scene has gotten with the clickbait content, the hysterical nonsense where on one hand people complain that Samsung released an upgrade too early and how they should have tested it for longer but the moment that Samsung does take its time to ensure the release is solid then the same people are whining and whinging about how it is being delayed.

It is one of the reasons I’ve become less and less interested in those creating technology orientated content on YouTube because the environment has gotten so toxic and filled with people who have convinced themselves that being negative about everything somehow makes them better than those who cheerlead for companies and products that don’t deserve it. Do such people realise that they’re no better than the cheerleaders, that they’re pretty much doing the same thing but in the opposite direction? It reminds me of reactionaries during the COVID pandemic and how they convinced themselves that because they’re doing the exact opposite of what the experts were advising that it somehow made them ‘independent thinkers’. Being a reactionary doesn’t make you some sort of ‘independent thinker’ because ultimately you position regarding something isn’t based on a case by case basis but rather simply shaped by taking the opposite of whatever is the prevailing orthodoxy even if the prevailing orthodoxy is correct.

It reminds me of a YouTuber whining about how the Samsung S25 Ultra wasn’t a big change over last years offering but such people never explain what they actually want. It’s like when a customer complains about something and you ask them what they would like the organisation you for to do for them – a refund? yet they keep whining and complaining but never getting to the point. We’re at peak smartphones, people are keeping their phones for 3-4 years, maybe longer, the changes being made when it comes to the software and hardware is incremental because the heavy lifting/big changes were done over many years to get to this point. Most people who upgrade to the Samsung S25 Ultra are going to be someone who probably bought the S20 (or possibly Apple customer looking to switch) series and looking to upgrade just as people interested in the iPhone 16 or holding off for the iPhone 17 series probably have an iPhone 11 or 12.

Finally a night without rain which has allowed me to go for a 11.6km walk and when I came back I jumped in to have a hot shower. The weather is a bit cold outside but I can handle the cold with a good jumper and I guess it is a good incentive to walk at a fast pace to keep warm. It always feels good after working all day to get out of the house and get some fresh air, see the sights and sounds even if it is at 10-11pm – the night crew is out doing upgrades on the rail lines which is great to see.

I’ll be popping down to the supermarket on Monday to grab a few items to get me through the day and then on Tuesday I’ll do a bit shop because at the moment my cupboards are more or less empty with only a few tinned goods left. On Tuesday the Snakehive case for my phone will arrive which is a bit annoying because at the moment it is at the Auckland sorting facility so I would have thought it would come down on an overnight track from Auckland to Wellington but for some strange reason they don’t have a truck that does it – either that or the courier service I paid for doesn’t qualify for it.

I’ve been following the development of Windows 11 25H2, specifically regarding the work they’re doing around finding a way that security products can operate in user space after the whole Crowdstrike fiasco. What will be interesting is whether we’ll see maybe a solution to the persistent issues surrounding Easy Anti-Cheat causing kernel panics. In a perfect world gamers would flat out refuse to buy games that include Easy Anti-Cheat which would force the hand of the games companis to come up with a better solution but given how so many gamers are like drug addicts needing their fix – perpetually whining about the price, increasing system specs, buggy releases etc but ultimately caving in when push comes to shove.

As for the whole Intel situation – I think the end goal is to spin off the fabrication side of the business into a joint venture with either Samsung or TSMC then Intel signing an exclusive contract with that new joint venture. At the moment I have heard that they’ve got issues with their 18A technology and the 14A is looking uncertain unless they can secure a big customer such as Apple. I could imagine Apple maybe pushing TSMC into buying half of the spun off Intel chip fabrication business which would ensure that TSMC has Apple, AMD, nVidia and Intel locked which would help the tech giants avoid the significant tariffs that Trump recently announced. The benefit to Intel of selling off half of its fabrication division would bring in enough money to make the big investments to catch up to AMD. It will be interesting to see what happens given that Intel has many challenges ahead of itself but then again this is the end result of being at the top for so long that they took their position in the market for granted and are now realising that being at the top doesn’t last forever – you have to continuously fight to maintain that position.

I was hoping to get my power bills under control after having to have my heater turned on more often than I ideally wanted but it appears that mother nature must have shares in Meridian Energy which explains the current weather. I went for a walk last night but not tonight because the weather is too unpredictable – raining then not raining then raining again. I’ve been pretty good with my calorie intake today so I’m not to worried along with the fact that I keep reminding myself of the old adage “you cannot outrun a bad diet” – calorie deficits beat exercise given the amount of exercise one has to do to burn 300-400 calories it is best to control calories and any exercise is an icing on the cake rather than controlling weight being dependent on exercise.

I’ve been tracking my Snakehive wallet case shipping from the UK – it always amazes me how common place it is to simply jump online and buy from overseas where as when I was growing up it was a matter of “if it isn’t here then you’re out of luck”. These days if I can’t get it in New Zealand then I jump online and if they don’t ship to New Zealand then I can go through YouShop either in the US or UK then add on top of that Visa/Mastercard debit cards being available the whole process is as easy as purchasing something locally. I really do hope that one day the mobile handset vendors and mobile carriers get their act together and come up with at least some sort of ‘base level’ VoLTE standard that all carriers around the world confirm to so then it is possible not to he limited to what carriers sell in their country

It’s been a few months since I moved from my Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max to Samsung S25 Ultra – I have kind of floated the idea of maybe going to Pixel 10 Pro XL or maybe a Nothing Phone 3 but they come with their own set of challenges. Sure, the Samsung S25 Ultra have many features integrated into Android that I don’t use but features such as Google Home don’t work well with Workspace where as Samsung SmartThings does a good job integrating my Arlo security camera setup, bluetooth headphones and maybe in the future Samsung television running One UI which all integrates into a single ecosystem.

There is also something that may sound silly but it is a feature of Samsung’s file manager that I like – I can link the Samsung file manager to my Google Drive and then just download my music collection I’ve backed up to the cloud down to my mobile phone. Does it take a while? I’m on a 1gbps fibre connection so so the speed is no worse than if I was transferring it directly on my computer. The benefit of having that feature built into the Samsung file manger is the fact that I don’t need to worry about MTP synchronising applications because everything can be done via the cloud. I’ve got 2TB storage in the cloud, I may as well make use of it given that I do pay for it each month with the added benefit of always having an offsite backup of everything that I consider important.