Next week’s iPhone presentation is going to be an interesting one.  Apple has never been shy to ditch features (the 30-pin connector, the headphone jack), but it’s known that iOS 11 is going to mean dropping support for 32-bit iOS applications and it’s heavily rumored that the iPhone 8 is going to remove the fingerprint sensor… something I’m going to be very peeved about if it’s true, as I really rather enjoy the ability to unlock my phone and sign into sensitive applications (banking, etc) with a thumbprint.

Fortunately, the  32-bit application I was most worried about got an update last week, so I won’t need to try to find a new Japanese dictionary.  Imiwa? (formerly Kotoba) was the dictionary that got me through four years of college Japanese and still gets frequent use.  The developer also updated it to add support for all modern iPhone resolutions and screen formats AND added a feature where it automatically auto-translates anything on the iOS clipboard.

That last feature is a lot more impressive if you manage to get the macOS/iOS shared clipboard feature working, because it means that I can have my phone sitting next to the computer, highlight anything on the Mac, press Command-C and suddenly a translation pops up on my phone.

It’s goddamned sorcery, I tell you what.

I had another application update today, one that was TOTALLY unexpected:

Vay was originally a SegaCD title, but got an iOS release in 2008 and a patch in 2009.  I don’t think it’s seen a single update since then, so having it suddenly get a 64-bit patch in 2017 is a bit stunning.    It’s a pretty bare-bones port of a super-obscure JRPG, and I doubt they see a ton of sales from it, so serious credit to SoMoGa there.

Sadly that leaves me with a few things under the gun as the days count down to the appocalypse.  I do have an older iPad that can’t run anything newer than iOS 9.3.5, so I guess that gives these somewhere to live for now…

…but, if a tiny JRPG house from Florida can update their games, it’s really not a good look for a company like Sega to let things wither and die.

Finally, have a picture of a cat. This is Blue. He’s a colossal bully to our other three cats and a bit of a nightmare to anything small and breakable or large and scratchable, but he makes up for it with cuteness.  He likes sleeping on his back a lot and hasn’t seemed to grasp that this is a terribly vulnerable position for any cat.

Of course, trying to rub the exposed belly puts your soft and meaty hand parts directly in reach of all four paws and the teeth, so it’s best not to take too much advantage of it.