They make it so easy that the only challenge left is preparing your app for a global audience. Users not only expect the app to be translated into their language but also want it to adapt to their territory’s technical and cultural preferences.

From artificial intelligence-powered translations to different units and calendars, here’s the story of how we used AI to translate FitWoody into 34 different languages while maintaining our sanity.

App translation with AI: managing the never-ending string updates

Unless we’re talking about something basic, apps typically have hundreds or thousands of Strings. Small (or large) text strings that explain everything from what a specific button does to why Heart Rate Variability is so important. Translating them would just be a matter of hours if it weren’t for some software peculiarities, like how it keeps changing version after version or how these text strings live hidden among the rest of the code.

That’s why, until now, managing an app’s translation was quite laborious. You had to go screen by screen retrieving all the text strings, create the translations, and above all, keep it updated. Fortunately, Xcode has, since last year, a new tool to manage much of this process.

Once you activate the new String Catalogs, Xcode takes care of collecting all the Strings from your project and keeping your translation database updated. Every time you add something, it’s automatically created. Every time a string is no longer used, it’s marked as stale. You can even leave comments that make the translation work easier. Because left means something different when we’re talking about a direction versus when we want to indicate the calories remaining to reach today’s goal.

All of this makes translation maintenance much easier, but the real challenge is translating and keeping up to date a short novel that keeps changing. Something that until now was unfeasible for many unless you were an industry giant, had a multilingual team, or were lucky enough to find some super-motivated user to lend a hand. This is where artificial intelligence transforms the app translation process completely.

I still have my doubts about whether ChatGPT or Claude are truly intelligent, but they’ve proven incredibly effective at translating apps accurately and quickly. Especially when you integrate them into an application that takes this Xcode string catalog and handles the entire translation process automatically. From your base language to 33 others in a matter of minutes, artificial intelligence handles what used to take weeks of manual work.

If you look around the internet, there are quite a few alternatives, though my favorite is stringcatalog.com. It connects through GitHub to your repository and takes care of translating new texts as you add them. It has a very competitive cost, and if I had to point out one drawback, it’s that it’s not entirely intuitive for correcting translations once they’re done.

I also recommend checking out swift-translate, a GitHub repository that does the same thing, but in this case, you have to set it up yourself and input your own API Key.

Right to left: mirroring the interface

Unlike English or Spanish, some languages like Arabic or Hebrew are read and written from right to left instead of left to right. This is a significant detail, as the way interfaces are perceived changes completely. The most important elements move from the left to the right, so if you want to properly adapt your app, you need to mirror your interface.

In the era of imperative interfaces and archaic operating systems, this used to involve quite a bit of work, but nowadays, things are much simpler. For starters, if you work with SwiftUI (or Jetpack Compose in Kotlin), you’re creating your UI declaratively for iOS or Android to later adapt it to how it should look on Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, or Mac. And they also take care of automatically reorganizing elements when the user chooses an RTL language.

The magic is such that we barely had to spend a couple of hours reviewing all of FitWoody’s screens and adjusting small details like some icons.

Converting from meters to miles

What did give us some headaches was supporting different units: distance, temperature, weight… Here, the difficulty isn’t in knowing which unit the user prefers and showing it to them, but in being careful not to make double conversions or avoid feeding a function data in the incorrect unit.

For this, we established that all FitWoody’s analysis libraries and data models would be in the Metric System and Celsius. From there, each model would have an additional computed variable called localized that would check which unit the user prefers and make the corresponding conversion before displaying it in the interface.

And the best part is that it’s totally transparent for the user. We don’t have to ask about it in the onboarding since we ask the operating system. One of the many advantages of creating native apps. And here’s a demonstration:

import Foundation

var distanceUnit: LocalizedStringResource {
    Locale.current.measurementSystem == .metric ? "km" : "mi"
}

extension Double {

var localizedDistance: Double {
    let measure = Measurement(value: self, unit: UnitLength.kilometers)
        
    if Locale.current.measurementSystem == .metric {
	// Keep in kilometers and round to two decimals
        return measure.value.round(to: 2)
    } else {
	// Convert to miles and round to two decimals
	let measureInMiles = measure.converted(to: .miles)
	return measureInMiles.value.round(to: 2)
    }
}

}

Here you can also see how Measurement works, one of my favorite Swift APIs. An incredible library that allows you to easily convert between all kinds of units without having to resort to multiplications or divisions where you might make mistakes.

What about the App Store?

All this effort would be in vain if we didn’t take one step further and do the same work on the App Store listing. Here, honestly, we’re still halfway there. On one hand, we are translating descriptions and update notes with the help of Helm, which combines the App Store Connect API with LLMs to optimize the entire process of publishing a new update.

What we haven’t done yet, even though we have it semi-automated in Figma, is translating the screenshots. Since we’re considering revamping the screenshots, this is something that has remained in our backlog for now.

Is it worth using AI to translate your app?

Short answer: Absolutely yes.

One of our goals for 2024 was to get FitWoody to grow outside of Spain and the United States. By leveraging artificial intelligence for app translation and localization, we launched an offer for new users that allowed us to add many users in countries like China, Korea, and Japan. It also had a domino effect in the European market and, as a result, we ended up multiplying our daily active users by 4.5.

While the marketing campaign helped drive these results, the key factor was having our app properly translated and localized for all these markets. Using AI to translate our app not only saved us time and resources but also ensured we could maintain high-quality translations as our app continues to evolve.

The post Translating an app using AI: from 1 to 34 languages appeared first on Microbyte.

Cycling came later, and since everyone seems to have some kind of Garmin, I think it’s time to share my experience cycling with the Apple Watch Ultra.

The Most Extreme Apple Watch

Designing an Apple Watch for the most extreme conditions not only results in a very attractive design but also gives it certain characteristics that make it more useful for cycling.

On one hand, since it’s larger, it has more battery life (double that of a normal Watch), which means you can do a route of several hours, continue with your day, and sleep with the watch (to record your vital signs during sleep) without worrying about looking for a charger every so often. In my case, after almost two years of use, I barely need to leave it charging for the time it takes me to shower and get dressed when I wake up in the morning for it to last all day.

It also has a larger and brighter screen, making it easier to glance at workout data. Although, as I’ll explain later, I have a better trick for that.

In addition, it has dual-frequency GPS that records the route you’re following with much more precision. This is especially useful when you’re riding in areas with tall buildings or many trees. It also comes with cellular data as standard, so if you duplicate your SIM, you can leave your iPhone at home and still receive calls, messages, and notifications.

The only downside is that it’s a bit bulky and in winter, when you’re wearing long clothes and gloves, it can be a bit uncomfortable. Although, you can always roll up your maillot a bit, and you’re set.

Extra Sensors

In addition to GPS, the Apple Watch Ultra comes with altitude, accelerometer, compass, blood oxygen, heart rate, and temperature sensors as standard. This allows it to measure workouts accurately and also record your vital signs during sleep. Ideal for measuring your progress and fatigue. With so many sensors, it’s also capable of detecting if you’ve fallen, automatically calling 112 (emergency services) and notifying your emergency contacts.

And if all this isn’t enough for you, you can also connect cadence, speed, and power sensors via Bluetooth. In principle, any sensor that supports this type of connectivity will work. I have this one from Trek installed on my bike and it works perfectly. You just need to connect it once via Bluetooth directly to the Apple Watch, and every time you start a workout, it will automatically collect the data.

For some reason, the Apple Watch’s Workout app only collects speed data when you do an indoor cycling workout. This doesn’t make much sense, which is why I updated FitWoody to collect speed data for outdoor workouts as well.

Turning your phone into a bike computer

Taking your hand off the handlebar to check how you’re doing is neither the most comfortable nor the safest option. That’s why all cycling computers are placed on the handlebar. So you have all the information at a glance. This could be the biggest drawback when cycling with the Apple Watch Ultra if it weren’t for the workout duplication to the iPhone.

Since last year, both the Workout app and FitWoody allow you to use the iPhone as a cycling computer. You just need to place it on the handlebar, and once you start the workout, the Apple Watch sends all the data to the phone so you can see it without letting go of the handlebar. And the best part is that it works both in a Live Activity and in the app. So you can have your phone locked or unlocked.

Personally, I’m not entirely convinced by the design of the Workout app. The good thing about being a developer and making your own fitness app is that you can do things your way. In this case, FitWoody displays heart rate data as if it were an odometer. This way, you can see your pulse as if it were the rev counter of an engine and see more clearly if you’re overdoing it when climbing a hill.

Nowadays, there are all kinds of mounts to place the iPhone on the bike. I opted for this one from Peak Design. The mounting system is as secure as it is easy to use. You can place (or remove) the phone with one hand in a second, and at no time do you think it’s going to fly off. Plus, the phone case is just as good.

Ah! A small piece of advice, it’s better if you carry your phone in battery-saving mode. Otherwise, having to keep the brightness very high for a couple of hours will likely drain your battery. I have my phone configured to automatically activate when the “Workout” focus mode is turned on.

The Post-Workout

There’s no point in collecting so much data if you don’t pay attention to it afterwards. Right after finishing, you can take a look at the route and the most important data on the watch, but if you want to delve deeper, there’s nothing like taking out your phone.

And this is where I really think the Apple Watch wins over Garmin. The Garmin app has a design that looks like it hasn’t been updated in 10 years and doesn’t give the feeling that they’ve put much love into it. The Apple Watch Fitness app may have its issues, but seeing what’s coming in iOS 18, I think it’s quite a bit better.

Another good thing is that, since all the data collected by the Apple Watch goes to the Health app (and this is fully interoperable), any app can connect to the data to display and analyze it. This is how we’ve been able to develop FitWoody to work so well with the Apple Watch.

Moreover, starting from version 1.4, we added support for all specific cycling metrics. So you can analyze your power, cadence, speed, and altitude simultaneously in each section of the route. You can even check the segments in 1 and 5 kilometer stretches.

The Apple Watch Ultra has surprised me as an excellent companion for cycling. Its long battery life, durability, precise sensors, and seamless integration with the iPhone make it a versatile tool for riders of all levels. While it may not have been designed specifically for cycling, its capabilities rival dedicated cycling computers. So next time you clip in, give it a try – you might just find it’s the cycling partner you never knew you needed.

The post Cycling with the Apple Watch Ultra appeared first on Microbyte.

Since walking around with them on the street or wearing them for a week straight has already been done, I’ve decided to take advantage of this opportunity to write down my first impressions. They’re not the first to be written, but after hearing so much about the Apple Vision Pro on all kinds of podcasts and blogs for so long, the truth is that I’ve had some surprises.

But weren’t they dead?

Reading the media these last few days, it seems that the Apple Vision Pro is more dead than alive, so why buy one? The truth is that we’ve heard that “that Apple gadget is finished” a bunch of times already. It was said at the time about the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad (which they try to kill year after year), and also about the Apple Watch, so why would it be different this time?

Jokes aside, when I saw the Vision Pro presentation last year, I had the same feeling as when I saw the original iPhone presentation. A glimpse into a possible future. A significant leap forward that requires some vision and also a bit of faith.

We don’t remember it now, but that iPhone didn’t even have the App Store, and beyond calling, browsing the internet, listening to music, and watching YouTube videos, it didn’t do much. Although what mattered wasn’t how much or how little it did, but how it did it. The touchscreen, the gestures, those animations… Clearly, it was another way of understanding computing. And time has proven it right.

However, if we look back, it’s not hard to find hundreds of articles, even from Microsoft’s CEO at the time, saying it would be a failure. Too expensive to be a phone. Unable to do X or Y. It didn’t even have a keyboard!

With all this, I don’t mean to say that Vision Pro will become the success that the iPhone has been. Of course, it won’t be with this hardware or this price. But perhaps we are judging too quickly something we don’t even understand yet.

And what happens when something is not fully understood is that it’s very difficult to imagine its potential. If we don’t use augmented reality glasses regularly, how will we know at what moments in our lives it might make sense? If we don’t try to create different types of applications, how will we know which ones are the most useful?

The truth is that I’m not very clear if the Apple Vision Pro will be the cinema par excellence, if they will have the ability to work with total flexibility like a Mac, or if they will be the definitive creative tool like the iPad. But what I am clear about is that I want to learn as much as possible about spatial computing now that it’s taking its first steps. So, if it becomes a successful platform, I’ll be able to say that at Chubby Apps we have great experience developing digital products for it.

And with that said, let’s go with the first impressions

Glasses Apple-style

My first impression, as soon as I saw them on one of the Apple Store tables, is that they are smaller than I expected. I don’t know if it’s because of the photos on the web, the YouTube reviews, or other virtual reality glasses I’ve tried, but they have quite a modest size. They’re the same size as typical ski goggles, but with more depth.

As soon as I picked them up, I also thought they didn’t weigh much, but of course, it’s not the same to hold them in your hands as it is to wear them on your head for a couple of hours. The weight is noticeable especially when you start turning your head or when you’re more than halfway through a movie (especially if it’s a long one).

Hence, the two hours of battery life that Apple announces isn’t as little as it might seem at first glance. Honestly, I don’t see myself wearing this for eight hours a day.

In this sense, and although they are as portable as any MacBook Pro, the truth is that I see them as a static product that will probably not leave home or the office much. Although, well, this is something that can change in the future when new, lighter, and more powerful generations come out.

As for the straps, I love the design and functionality of the braided band. Although it’s true that the weight distribution is much more comfortable with the double band.

For the rest, it’s everything you can expect from Apple in terms of hardware. They are a work of art in engineering. From the finishes to the materials.

VisionOS, a magic trick

But if there’s one reason why the Vision Pro seems to come from the future, it’s undoubtedly because of its operating system. Just like with the original iPhone, every interaction feels like magic. As soon as you start, you feel like the glasses are reading your mind, as they highlight everything you look at. The next trick is when you join your fingers to select a photo, and the illusion is complete when you do it with both hands to zoom.

It’s so incredible that it’s impossible not to smile. The same WOW effect as when Steve Jobs unlocked the iPhone for the first time. By the time you get used to it, you realize that the windows cast shadows in your environment or that you can place a full-size Formula 1 car in your living room, and you’re amazed again at the leap that all this represents.

It’s difficult to explain, but VisionOS is an operating system in three dimensions where you can place things near or very far. All thanks to the sense of depth generated by the screens. Which is especially impressive when you start watching a movie in one of the virtual environments and the screen grows until it becomes a giant cinema.

And it doesn’t matter how much you move, because the sensors and cameras are tracking the space so well that everything is where your brain expects it to be. From that screen you left hanging in the kitchen to that app you were trying out the other day on the couch.

For simple interactions, like choosing a movie, the whole system of control with your gaze and hands is more than enough, but just like the iPad, if you want to do serious things, it’s best to connect a keyboard and even a trackpad to be able to control everything in a much more precise and, above all, faster way. What is a shame is that we haven’t yet seen how Apple Intelligence will work in VisionOS, since being able to speak and have Siri do everything you ask would be incredible. Until then, the closest thing is that you can look at any text box and start talking.

A universe awaiting the Big Bang

Of the whole experience, the ecosystem of applications, games, and immersive videos is, without a doubt, where Vision Pro is currently lacking. If in recent years we’ve gotten tired of hearing that the iPad is not good for work because it lacks X or Y features that the Mac has, I don’t want to imagine what we can expect with VisionOS if Apple doesn’t get its act together.

Right now, the difference between Vision Pro and the rest of the Apple ecosystem is abysmal. The number of native applications does not exceed 400 (compared to the more than 1,000,000 apps available for iOS) and among them are not the usual ones. In fact, not even with VisionOS 2 has Apple finished porting all its apps.

There are some of my favorites, like Things or Fantastical, but Ulysses, where I usually write these articles, is not there. The same can be said for Ivory, Slack, Notion, Linear, Xcode, Timery, Overcast, Reeder, Netflix… Not even apps that I make myself like Cori or FitWoody. And the truth is that I don’t think it’s the developers’ fault. For a product that is crying out for studios to create apps and games for it, it’s at least curious that until a few days ago (a year after its presentation) the only way to get a Vision Pro was to fly to the United States. And no, the simulator is not enough to create an app that makes sense for Vision Pro.

As a small development studio, it’s not a battle that concerns us much, but it doesn’t help that in recent months Apple has been fighting with large studios or hasn’t wanted to give any incentive to port your apps to the platform.

Because if there’s one thing I’ve realized these days, it’s that apps in compatible mode don’t make the grade. They’re a much worse experience than using iPhone apps on the iPad. And although at first glance it might seem that the connection with the Mac can sustain a large part of the experience, in practice, it’s not that much. Taking advantage of Vision Pro to work on the Mac more comfortably when you’re not in your usual workspace is one thing, but having to carry the Mac with you to be able to do something with Vision Pro is something totally different.

A Spatial Computing Developer

There are people who say that to develop for Vision Pro you don’t need to have one, but I can already tell you that the experience of actually using them or using the simulator is not the same at all. The simulator helps you understand how the operating system works on the surface, but it doesn’t teach you what the user experience is like or for what purposes it might make more sense to use Vision Pro instead of an iPad or Mac.

We’re still in the familiarization phase, but even so, I can already tell you that at Chubby Apps we have a project or two in the works for the glasses. For now, I can’t announce anything, but I’m sure that in the coming months I’ll be sharing my experiences here.

The post Vision Pro: First Impressions appeared first on Microbyte.

My little grain of sand to bring us back to a simpler era. To think for a moment that this is 2004 and we’re going crazy about the idea of Apple launching an iPod with a phone. A blog written by a human on his laptop against the giant content farms fueled by the latest ChatGPT model that want to rank TOP 3 on Google. Nothing ambitious, nothing synthetic.

What are you going to talk about?

I would like to fill it with my adventures as an entrepreneur, developer, and Tech Aficionado. These past four years have flown by and I wish I would’ve had some type of diary. I hope this becomes the place where I collect my ideas, experiences, learnings, and things I’m passionate about. To start, here are the main categories:

• Code Chronicles: The adventure of a journalist turned into a software developer.
• The Workshop: A collection of my creative projects and the process behind them.
• Startup Saga: Chronicles of my entrepreneurial adventures and the quest for innovation.
• Gizmodo Grove: A peaceful retreat filled with curious gadgets and other things that spark joy and wonder.
• Miscellanea: For those bits and bobs that don’t fit neatly into other categories.
  

Why a blog?

I know, newsletters are the thing right now. I love them. I even started one a really long time ago when almost no one was doing one. But what I don’t really like is that the content only exists in the subscriber’s inbox. If you discover a great newsletter, it’s really difficult to read previous editions. The content only exists for that day and then is lost.

Also, there is a list of great blogs that have inspired me over the years: Daring Fireball, Kottke.org, David Smith, Nil Coalescing, Pol Piella, Sarunw, Swift With Majid, Six Colors, The Newsprint, 512 Pixels, Birtchtree, Initial Charge, Cabel.com, or Lmnt.me among others. I want Microbyte to be as creative, interesting, eye-opening, and opinionated as them.

I don’t know how much I’m going to publish here. I hope maybe a couple of times a month. I can’t promise a schedule, but what I can say is that I’ll try to make it as appealing as I can.

As an old-school blog, you can subscribe by RSS. But, if you really really want to receive all the content from the blog as a newsletter.

The post Microbyte: A blog written by a human on his laptop appeared first on Microbyte.

This post was originally published on my old blog, El Imperdible.

If you were one of those people who didn’t miss an article from El Imperdible, you surely noticed that this blog has been in a coma for a few months. I could make excuses, like there has been a global pandemic, but the truth is that I’ve found a new hobby: creating apps.

Do you know that list of things you would like to do before you die but never find the time or put enough effort into doing? Well, learn to code had been on my list for so long that the rest of the items were treating it with formal respect. Every year, when the WWDC (Apple’s developer conference) arrived, I’d dust off the list and say that this year, for real, I would get to it. Then I would keep postponing it because it either wasn’t the right moment, I was too busy, or [INSERT YOUR EXCUSE HERE]. And so it went on and on until last November, when a Black Friday deal ended this sort of Groundhog Day.

How I learn to code

Learn to code iPhone apps is like learning a new language. It’s not easy, but with desire, effort, and persistence, anyone can do it. That said, it’s key to know where to start so as not to feel completely lost.

If you search on Google, you will surely find thousands of pages, courses, and videos that teach programming from scratch. Some are good and others not so much, but when you start, it’s not easy to differentiate them. So here’s a list of resources that have helped me learn to code, from I have no idea to well, I know how to manage a bit:

1. Shortcuts. It’s an app that comes installed by default on all iPhones and iPads. It allows you to create small “apps” without writing a single line of code. You just drag and drop blocks. It’s a good way to learn the basics. You can create something simple to really complex stuff.
2. Swift Playgrounds courses (iPad, Mac). It might seem that it’s just for kids, but it’s the best way to take your first steps in Swift. It teaches you the basics from scratch and is very enjoyable.
3. “iOS 13 & Swift 5 – The Complete iOS App Development Bootcamp” by Angela Yu. It’s the famous course I bought on Black Friday for €10. For that price, I didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be a hit. You learn by making apps, starting from the simplest and gradually increasing in difficulty. The only downside is that SwiftUI (which is simpler and faster than UIKit) is barely touched in one module. It has several very important Pros when you start: It teaches you to use Xcode, all kinds of programming concepts and, above all, to fend for yourself.
4. Apple’s SwiftUI tutorials. It may still be in its infancy (we’ll see at WWDC), but SwiftUI is the future. Plus, it’s much more accessible for beginners than UIKit.
5. “100 days of Swift” and “100 days of SwiftUI”. Once you start to go solo, at Hacking With Swift you can find tutorials to do practically anything.
6. Google and Stack Overflow. For when something goes wrong and you don’t know why.

If you’ve been opening the links, you’ll have realized that most resources for learning to program are in English. Although there are websites like Apple Coding that have a lot of information and tutorials in Spanish, English is very helpful. Especially when you’re stuck on something very specific and don’t quite know where to continue.

And now, the million-dollar question. How many hours have you spent learning to program? According to Toggl, about 100 hours (between courses and tutorials). Although, to be fair, another 150 hours that I’ve been developing several apps on my own should also be added.

I won’t deny it, the lockdown has been very helpful in learning to program. That said, what’s really important is the commitment. Just like with the gym, you start to notice the results when you’ve been working for several weeks and months. It doesn’t matter if it’s an hour a day or Sunday mornings, the important thing is consistency.

SafeTimer, My Very First App

Besides continuing to learn, I took advantage of the lockdown to make and launch my first app: SafeTimer, an app we developed altruistically at Hortelanos that helps you control the usage time you’ve given to a mask.

The idea came up when we started looking for reusable masks. Most brands talked about X hours of use before they needed to be washed or have their filter changed. The problem was that, unless you used it for work, most of us use masks intermittently: 30 minutes when going out to shop, 10 when walking the dog, two hours when going for a walk… It’s easy to lose count and if you exceed the usage, the mask loses all its efficacy.

Since there was no simple way to control the use (and I was very into learning to program) I decided to take the plunge and create SafeTimer. Along the way, some friends like Miguel de Andrés, Patricia Bedoya, or Carla Auclair… joined, and thank goodness they did because I wouldn’t have made it without their help.

Four weeks later, here we are. The app can now be downloaded (totally free), all the code is published openly on GitHub, I’ve published the first update, and I have other improvements underway.

Four Things I’ve Learned

That said, here are some things I wish I had known before starting to make the app:

• Spend a couple of hours planning everything more or less. It’s easier to make changes on paper than on code, especially if it’s a foundation decision. The same with the design of the screens, make sketches on whatever (I use Linea Sketch) and try to tinker with it to see if it works before designing it in Xcode.
• Start testing as soon as possible. Try to get feedback from all types of users, this way you’ll discover use cases that hadn’t even crossed your mind. A friend discovered a very serious bug within the first 30 seconds of using the app that I hadn’t even considered.
• Make your app as flexible as possible. It’s easy to overlook at the beginning, but it has to adapt from a tiny screen like the iPhone SE’s to a giant one like the iPhone 11 Pro Max’s. The same goes for languages (texts don’t have the same length) and accessibility. If you start with this from the beginning, you’ll avoid many headaches at the end.
• SwiftUI is the future. It has its limitations, but I wouldn’t have been able to make the app in such a short time without it. It’s so agile and simple that I was able to make the version for the Apple Watch (which is totally independent) in less than 10 hours of work. All thanks to all the code from the iPhone version that I could reuse.

What’s Next?

Well, to continue learning and creating apps.

I have many ideas in the pipeline, some more ambitious than others. Plus, WWDC is just around the corner, and I’m eager to see what’s new in the new versions of iOS/iPadOS/macOS/watchOS and, especially, SwiftUI.

The post How I Learned to Code (And Launched My First App) appeared first on Microbyte.

This post was originally published on my old blog, El Imperdible.

It may not generate as much nostalgia for me as my Yellow Game Boy Color, but the Nintendo DS is the console that got me hooked on these little machines and video games.

Perhaps it was because I was just the right age (12 years old) when it hit the market, but you can’t imagine the hours I’ve spent capturing pocket monsters, jumping from platform to platform, or especially, taking care of my virtual village. Without it, I wouldn’t be the Nintendo geek I am today.

And it didn’t just change me, it also changed the video game industry forever. It introduced dual screens, touch controls… and invited the gamer world to all kinds of casual players who until then hadn’t touched a gaming device (Does anyone remember grandparents playing Brain Training?).

It is, in short, the perfect candidate to continue this journey through gadgets, objects, series, movies, and albums from another time that is Retrovision.

From potato to a design object

I don’t know what you think, but both the Nintendo DS Lite and the DSi are two of the most beautiful consoles ever made. Quite striking if we consider the clunky original DS, a kind of Frankenstein that looked like a GBA SP on steroids.

With such a minimalist and pure appearance more than a “kids’” video game console, it seems like a design object that could appear in art books alongside the works of Jony Ive for Apple. It even seems more suited to the shelves of Muji than to a video game store or a big box retailer.

Fun above all

If there’s something that characterizes Nintendo, it’s that while the rest focus on graphics, they concentrate on creating new ways to play and making their games fun. And as evidence, just press a button.

In 2004, while Sony was trying to create a portable version of the PS2, Nintendo pulled a much less capable console out of its hat that had two screens, and what’s more, one of them was touch-sensitive. At first glance, the battle was lost, but in the end, creativity and fun won over brute force.

I won’t deny it. The Nintendo DS catalog has a lot of filler and weird stuff (that’s what happens when you sell 154.02 million consoles), but also many gems: We’re talking about a console with New Super Mario Bros. or Pokémon Black and White, pinnacle games in their respective series. There are also games like Animal Crossing: Wild World that laid the foundations for the great success the series enjoys today.

The most interesting and different DS games weren’t played with buttons, but with the stylus and touch screen. Nintendogs and, especially, Brain Training were viral games, in an era when that word didn’t even exist, and brought all sorts of people into the gamer universe. Along with other titles, they laid the foundations for mobile gaming. There were so many possibilities that games like Brain Training, Hotel Dusk, or Guitar Hero (accessory included) invented the concept of playing with the DS held like a book.

Better with friends

The Nintendo DS and the PSP were the first portable consoles with WiFi, although back then we didn’t quite understand what it was, and it was used more for playing local multiplayer games than for surfing the internet. You no longer needed a cable to trade Pokémons.

The good thing about that era is that every kid had a Nintendo DS. So, when you went to the park or were on a bus trip, there was always someone to battle, play a match, or race with.

A highly underrated feature, perhaps because everyone ended up with more or less legal copies of the most well-known games, was DS Download Play. Thanks to this feature, if one of your friends had Mario Kart and the rest didn’t, you could download (temporarily) part of the game and race each other.

Nowadays, there’s no console that does this, partly because games have gone from taking up 8 megabytes to several gigabytes and because almost all multiplayer games are either online (like Fortnite) or designed for home consoles. On the Switch, you can share the joy-cons with a friend but not the game itself.

As often happens after great successes, the end of the Nintendo DS was not pretty and left a taste too bitter for what it had been. Piracy, as easy as buying a cartridge, killed many studios’ interest. Smartphones quickly overtook and captured casual gamers… and the Nintendo 3DS, its successor, arrived late and with a very tumultuous launch.

Though, as they say, let’s not forget the fun we had.

The post The game console that got me hooked on video games appeared first on Microbyte.

This post was originally published on my old blog, El Imperdible.

They are comfortable, affordably priced, write well, and, moreover, they feature that distinctive touch of using a piston mechanism for the ink instead of a cartridge.

The GO model maintains the essence of TWSBI and comes at an even more affordable price. I don’t know why, but in photos, I thought it would be the size of the Kaweco Liliput, but it is very close to its bigger sister, the TWSBI ECO. Being made of resin makes it very light, it has the perfect diameter to make writing with it very comfortable for long periods; and the steel nib glides as smooth as silk.

Although what’s really interesting is the way it refills. It uses a spring piston mechanism, so it’s very similar to using a syringe. Moreover, since the pen is completely transparent, it leaves nothing to the imagination.

I had been after the TWSBI GO Clear (€27) for a long time, and it truly has not disappointed me. It’s going straight to the top 5 of my collection. It is the perfect pen for all those who want to start experimenting with different inks (one of my pending subjects, by the way).

The post TWSBI GO Clear, a pen to show off your ink appeared first on Microbyte.

This post was originally published on my old blog, El Imperdible.

No matter how much power and graphics modern video game consoles have, the Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and the like can’t compete with the experience of playing on an arcade machine.

The sound of fingers hitting the buttons, coins lining up on the glass, the rivalry in Street Fighter II, the tension of searching for a coin in your pockets as the Continue countdown mercilessly ticked away, the thrill of entering your initials when you scored a High Score… It didn’t matter if you went to an arcade or just down to the local bar, playing arcade games had something magical.

For many, Pong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Ghost N Goblins, Metal Slug, and the like may have remained a memory of the past, but in Ibi, a small town in Alicante, they are as current as Fortnite.

All thanks to the Vintage Arcade Museum. A time machine where you can not only see arcade machines, pinballs, computers, and consoles from the 70s, 80s, and 90s but also play until your fingers tire.

A Trip to the Past

It doesn’t matter if you go in the morning or afternoon shift, as the opening hour approaches, people start to line up in front of the old Rico toy factory. The older ones do it with the nostalgia of remembering old times and the little ones with the fascination of discovering what the old machines were like.

Unlike the arcades of the 90s, in the Vintage Arcade Museum, you don’t need to insert coins to play. There are also no gangs nor is the atmosphere filled with smoke, although some of the oldest machines still bear cigarette burn marks on their edges. You might lose the tension of not dying and seeing the dreaded Continue countdown, but thanks to this, you can reach levels that you never saw as a kid.

Leaving coins aside, the collection of titles available to play is very varied and includes the biggest hits. From Pinball machines to true classics like Tetris, Space Invaders, or Donkey Kong to more modern games like Metal Slug or Windjammers.

Playing with the buttons and levers of the arcade is much better than any emulator, but my advice is to enjoy as much as you can the machines with special controls. I’m talking about steering wheels, gear shifts, seats, DJ decks, guns, and a long etcetera used to play games like Out Run, Crazy Taxi, Ridge Racer, After Burner Up, Silent Hill…

Although not everything is about arcades, throughout the Vintage Arcade Museum, there are several display cases with classic consoles from Atari, Commodore, Nintendo, Sega, or Sony. From desktops to handhelds. They even have one of the first Macs! Moreover, many are connected to a monitor and can be played freely.

The museum isn’t particularly large, but between the number of machines (over 80) and the number of people coming to play, it quickly feels small. I don’t know what it’s like the rest of the year, but at least when we went in mid-August it was packed. I won’t deny that for the most requested machines there was a bit of a wait, but nothing excessive.

If you ever pass through Ibi or Alicante, it’s definitely worth stopping by to play a few games.

The post A Journey to the Golden Age of Arcade Machines appeared first on Microbyte.

This post was originally published on my old blog, El Imperdible.

With half the house upside down, it might not be fair to say, but I already have my favorite spot in our new house clear: the desk. Big surprise, right? What else could it be, with all my love for stationery, writing, and other knick-knacks…

Adding to that the considerable amount of time I spend on it, between working from home and dedicating time to my personal projects, I have the perfect excuse to indulge in decorating it.

I still have some pictures to hang and need to buy a chair, but it already has everything necessary for me to boast about my favorite corner of the house.

What’s on my desk?

It wasn’t easy to decide, but I think I nailed it with the Janeiro desk from Maisons Du Monde. Its vintage design falls in love at first sight. Especially with those stylized legs and the color of the mango wood. It’s so beautiful that I’ve already forgotten how much it cost me to assemble it…

It doesn’t have much space in the drawers, but it’s enough to keep some notebooks that I don’t use daily or an occasional pencil case handy.

Besides the desk, I have some big accessories like the drawer unit from Zara Home, where I store a part of my stationery knick-knacks: sharpeners, erasers, ink, clips, refills…

I also have several accessories from Hightide Penco, which for something is my favorite brand. The Storage Caddy (S €17 – L €20) acts as a pencil holder and also stores some notebooks, while on the Penco Marbled Pen Tray (€17) I leave the pens I’m using at the moment. The Penco Tape Dispenser (€25) is also a must.

As I tend to go from one place to another, there are some things that come and go from the desk like my work notebooks or the planner.

As for the laptop / iPad Pro, I usually work using the battery. When I don’t need them or it’s time to charge, I leave them hidden in the gap between the table and the drawers. This way, they neither bother nor distract.

Why all this showing off?

I don’t remember if I’ve ever mentioned it, but so far, most of El Imperdible’s interior photos were made on a small set I mounted over my bed with an Ikea board and a white foam board. It’s not that I didn’t like my room or the furniture in my house, but they didn’t fit at all with the style I wanted to give El Imperdible. A nice and cheap solution, though more cumbersome than good. Especially if, besides setting up the stall, I had to cook or prepare other things.

Hence, when decorating our new house, one of my priorities was to have a desk where I could not only sit down to work but also use it to take all the photos.

Now all that’s left is to beautify the living room, dining room, and bedroom to have a magazine-worthy house.

The post This is Where I Spend my Afternoons appeared first on Microbyte.

This post was originally published on my old blog, El Imperdible.

After seeing the Play Date, I couldn’t help but remember my old (and missing) yellow Game Boy Color. It was like a burst of nostalgia. The morning when the Three Wise Men brought it to me at my aunt and uncle’s house, the afternoons playing with my friends in the park, the thrill the day I completed my first Pokédex…

It has been the perfect excuse to start Retrovision, a section I’ve been eager to do for a long time, where I’ll talk about gadgets, objects, series, movies, and albums from another time.

Given the affection with which I’m going to talk about it, you might think my reaction to seeing that the kings had brought me a Game Boy Color was excessive but it wasn’t like that. At that time I was into Legos and not much into gadgets. In fact, my mother enjoyed it the most during the first few months. It’s not just that she played more than I did, but she was as hooked as kids today are to Fortnite.

Thanks to that, I had many more games than usual, and since she bought a lot of magazines, she knew almost all the cheats and it was hard to get stuck. She was like the Wikipedia and every time we went to the park, a crowd of kids would gather around her to ask for advice. I don’t have any photos from that time, but you can imagine the scene.

Although, to be honest, it wasn’t bad having an adult around when we did Pokémon trades. There was more tension than between China and the United States, especially with evolution trades. If someone dared not to return the creature to its rightful owner, trouble ensued. I had to do so many negotiations to complete my first Pokédex that you can’t imagine the joy I felt when I finally did it.

The graphics weren’t much to speak of; in fact, you often had to fill them in with your imagination, but the games were a lot of fun and you could spend hours with them. The most obvious is Pokémon (Yellow, Silver, Crystal…), but it’s not the only one: Super Mario Bros, Wario Land (I wish they’d release a new one), Harry Potter (it was a great RPG)…

What really was crap was the screen. There’s no amount of nostalgia that can save that. Compared to any mobile phone today, the color was almost negligible. Not to mention the positions you had to get into so that the light hit it right and you could see the screen.

And that was just one of many drawbacks of the hardware at the time. There were many limitations, so a lot of imagination was needed to overcome them. You just have to look at accessories and games as ingenious as the Game Boy Camera with its printer, Pokémon Pinball (with vibration) or the magnifying glasses and lights that fixed the screen a bit. I had a case full of these gadgets that would be unthinkable today.

When I was little, I didn’t think much of it, but you don’t know how sad I am now to have gotten rid of that yellow Game Boy Color and many of the games. Thankfully, I have friends like Gotzon or Patricia who let me borrow it from time to time to take photos and play for a while.

It seems I’ll have to spend a lot of time surfing the internet or travel to Japan to recover everything. That or wait for Nintendo to get motivated and launch a Game Boy Classic Mini in the style of the SNES Classic Mini from a couple of years ago.

And if not, there’s always the Play Date from Panic, which is also yellow and surely someone will be motivated to hack it to install an emulator.

The post My First Video Game Console appeared first on Microbyte.