Birchtree

birchtree.me · Personal blog · on HN since 2013

Joe Steel's blog on Apple, Microsoft and consumer tech, including tests of Chrome battery life and explanations of Apple Pay.

What HN saysHN commenters cite it for its Chrome versus Safari battery test, its Apple Pay explanation, and its criticism of macOS interface changes.
38HN people shared it
8linked it in comments
55stories submitted
1.9Kstory points
2 months agolast shared
2013people per year2026

Most-shared posts

  1. 1
  2. 2
    Misunderstanding about the details of how Apply Pay works
    2 people · 277 points · first shared 2024 · 259 comments on HN
  3. 3
    Undiscoverable UI Madness
    2 people · 242 points · first shared 2020 · 228 comments on HN
  4. 4
    The Windows 11 Trash Party
    2 people · 4 points · first shared 2023 · discussion on HN
  5. 5
    A Guy Walks into an Apple Store
    1 people · 569 points · first shared 2020 · 373 comments on HN
  6. 6
    Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?
    1 people · 252 points · first shared 2025 · 230 comments on HN
  7. 7
    A note to young folks: download the things you love
    1 people · 98 points · first shared 2023 · 33 comments on HN
  8. 8
    What If You Used iOS 9's Low Power Mode All the Time?
    1 people · 70 points · first shared 2015 · 62 comments on HN
  9. 9
    Finish the Job
    1 people · 45 points · first shared 2013 · 23 comments on HN
  10. 10
    Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days?
    1 people · 43 points · first shared 2015 · 78 comments on HN
  11. 11
    Is this the slow decline of the Apple "cult"?
    1 people · 39 points · first shared 2024 · 143 comments on HN
  12. 12
    A few thoughts on the DOJ's antitrust case against Apple
    1 people · 35 points · first shared 2024 · 25 comments on HN
  13. 13
  14. 14
    The A19 Pro is a transcription beast
    1 people · 7 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
  15. 15

What HN people wrote when they linked it

lern_too_spel · 2026-05-31
Chrome has used less power than Safari for a few years now. As far as I know, the only good reason to use Safari is to use FairPlay DRM for sites that need it. For all other purposes, Firefox or Chrome is superior. https://birchtree.me/blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-…
socalgal2 · 2025-08-26
AFAICT the comparisons to safari are no longer true https://birchtree.me/blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-… That might be different on other platforms
bombcar · 2024-04-04
See https://birchtree.me/blog/digital-wallets-and-the-only-apple-pay-does-… - the DPAN stays the same at a particular merchant, so Walmart sees all but can't necessarily directly "know" what you're buying at other stores.
Someone · 2016-02-14
MLC (http://searchsolidstatestorage.techtarget.com/definition/multi-level-c… http://birchtree.me/blog/nand-flash-party/), which is used quite a bit in consumer flash, is base n>2. Those links claim devices use n=4, 8, 16,... but apart from practicalities, I don't see a reason why n=3, 4, 5,... wouldn't work. Also, these devices may get produced in power of two sizes units, but they all use error-correcting codes that turn their effective size in something non-power of two.
deanc · 2025-03-03
I see people reporting that the extension has already been forcefully removed (or disabled in some cases) from their Chrome. This hasn't happened to me (v133 on MacOS). I have primarily been using Chrome up until this point as I was under the impression that performance (and therefore battery life) is bad with FF on MacOS. Recent results seem to indicate that Chrome is in fact the worst offender [1]. Yesterday I uninstalled Arc as they have all but abandoned their browser to work on some AI crap browser (after saying they planned to support manifest v2 for the forseeable future). Today I installed Orion Browser [2]. It's using webkit under the hood and seems to be far lighter on battery life than Chrome, Arc (Blink) and Firefox. They fully support FF and Chrome extensions and therefore UBO seems to be working (on the whole) very well. [1] https://birchtree.me/blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-… [2] https://kagi.com/orion/
homarp · 2021-12-29
Maybe the audience of FOSS is "self" and therefore I will obviously write something that matches my need. Can you provide one example ? because gnome is FOSS and I have heard complaint it's 'too simple' and https://birchtree.me/blog/screwing-up-the-simplicity-of-it-all/ : "Most people get maybe 2% of the potential of their Macs and Windows PCs today. Have you watched most people use a computer laterly? Most people I see have all apps in full screen all the time, no matter how big their screen is. Most people I see use keyboard shortcuts for copy and paste, opening new tabs, but basically nothing else. I've seen numer ous Mac users download apps, open the DMG, and run the app from the DMG forever because they don't know you should move it to the Applications folder. Many people have a desktop full of files because the desktop is the file system." (and SAP and any Oracle Enterprise products...)
suby · 2023-04-27
You say that Windows is a Kraken, but it's been on a downward slide in my mind. I don't think Nadella gets enough flak for what is happening to Windows and Microsoft's attitude towards respecting users / privacy in general. Some examples that I've seen posted to HN over the past few months * Microsoft Edge leaks browser history to Bing - https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/25/23697532/microsoft-edge-browser-url… * More ads in Windows 11 start menu - https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/17/microsoft_windows_start_ads/ * Absolute junk shoved into the Windows UI - https://thomasbandt.com/the-day-windows-died? https://birchtree.me/blog/the-windows-11-trash-party/ https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-keeps-feeding-tabloid-news Windows is in a boiling frog situation. It's been slowly accumulating dark patterns and anti-features like mandatory online-only accounts, while at the same time losing quality of life features like the ability to move your taskbar or to not combine apps in the taskbar. I should be using Windows today. I grew up on Windows, I learned to program on Windows, I had a very difficult and bumpy transition in getting off of Windows. But I had to leave their ecosystem because they have absolutely no respect for the user, and at this point I do not trust them. I want to reiterate that these are recent things, I'm not mad at them for what they did in the 90's here. They aren't treating Windows as a serious tool for getting shit done, they're…

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