Top all-time · #1953
Birchtree
Personal blog · birchtree.mehardwareculture
Birchtree is a personal blog at birchtree.me about hardware and culture. Since 2013, 40 different Hacker News readers have linked it 72 times, most often “Everyone says Chrome devastates Mac battery life, but does it? 36 hour test”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-11-01, and you can follow it by feed.
Tech, Apple, and the vast grey area that is AI
Most-linked posts?
- Everyone says Chrome devastates Mac battery life, but does it? 36 hour test5 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2024-09-14
- iPhone 18 Pro with La Croix cooling2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-09-19
- Undiscoverable UI Madness2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-02-27
- The Windows 11 Trash Party2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-04-17
- Misunderstanding about the details of how Apply Pay works2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-03-27
What Hacker News says?
See https://birchtree.me/blog/digital-wallets-and-the-only-apple... - 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.
Comment linking /blog/digital-wallets-and-the-only-apple-pay-does-this-mythology/
on “Anatomy of a credit card rewards program”Submitted A Guy Walks into an Apple Store as a story · 569 points
HN discussionChrome doesn't optimize for battery efficiency like Safari on Macs. It optimizes better than Safari. https://birchtree.me/blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-ma...
Comment linking /blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-life-but-does-it-i-tested-for-36-hours-to-find-out/
on “I Switched to Firefox and Never Looked Back”Submitted Misunderstanding about the details of how Apply Pay works as a story · 277 points
HN discussionAFAICT the comparisons to safari are no longer true https://birchtree.me/blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-ma... That might be different on other platforms
Comment linking /blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-life-but-does-it-i-tested-for-36-hours-to-find-out/
on “Ask HN: Why hasn't x86 caught up with Apple M series?”Submitted Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft? as a story · 252 points
HN discussionCounterpoint: Safari uses more battery than Chrome while providing less functionality: https://birchtree.me/blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-ma...
Comment linking /blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-life-but-does-it-i-tested-for-36-hours-to-find-out/
on “Japan: Apple Must Lift Browser Engine Ban by December”Submitted Undiscoverable UI Madness as a story · 242 points
HN discussionMaybe 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-a... : "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…
Comment linking /blog/screwing-up-the-simplicity-of-it-all/
on “Engineers should invest in decision-making skills early”Submitted A note to young folks: download the things you love as a story · 98 points
HN discussionI 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 uni…
Comment linking /blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-life-but-does-it-i-tested-for-36-hours-to-find-out/
on “About Google Chrome's "This extension may soon no longer be supported" (2024)”Submitted Everyone says Chrome devastates Mac battery life, but does it? 36 hour test as a story · 87 points
HN discussionChromium-based browsers actually have had better battery life than Safari for 2 years (!) now[0]. And perform better. Which is a real egg on Apple's face. The only reason to use Safari is because you're knee-deep in the Apple ecosystem, otherwise something like Chrome, Edge or Brave just makes more sense. [0] https://birchtree.me/blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-ma...
Comment linking /blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-life-but-does-it-i-tested-for-36-hours-to-find-out/
on “An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows”Submitted What If You Used iOS 9's Low Power Mode All the Time? as a story · 70 points
HN discussionIt's a shame what happened to macOs since then. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22434529 https://birchtree.me/blog/undiscoverable-ui-madness/
Comment linking /blog/undiscoverable-ui-madness/
on “Steve Jobs and the usable computer (2011)”Submitted Finish the Job as a story · 45 points
HN discussionMLC ( http://searchsolidstatestorage.techtarget.com/definition/mul... , 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 tu…
Comment linking /blog/nand-flash-party/
on “Base Ten for Almost Everything”Submitted Who's Actually Buying iPods These Days? as a story · 43 points
HN discussionYou 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-b... * More ads in W…
Comment linking /blog/the-windows-11-trash-party/
on “Is Satya Nadella the best tech CEO of last decade?”Submitted Is this the slow decline of the Apple "cult"? as a story · 39 points
HN discussionChrome 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-ma...
Comment linking /blog/everyone-says-chrome-devastates-mac-battery-life-but-does-it-i-tested-for-36-hours-to-find-out/
on “The AV2 Video Standard Has Released (Final v1.0 Specification)”Submitted A few thoughts on the DOJ's antitrust case against Apple as a story · 35 points
HN discussionSubmitted My honest feelings about the Vision Pro after nearly 5 months as a story · 9 points
HN discussionSubmitted The A19 Pro is a transcription beast as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSubmitted The number of monthly active Mastodon users is mostly going down as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted 5,090 days – The Cook era is now as long as the Jobs Renaissance era as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSubmitted I don't care if you force close your iPhone apps as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Windows 11 Trash Party as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted iPhone 18 Pro with La Croix cooling as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted " I've got the guns," is a wild government argument for tech pundits to support as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
