I’m currently working my way through the various options for learning how to code via Swift Playgrounds, and branched out recently to the standalone session that lets you adapt a version of the well known game Rock Paper Scissors.

The demo first lets you play the game so you can see how it works, then it asks you to personalise the game with a variety of options. I think it wants you to pick the colours that each player uses and perhaps adjust the hue of the background, but I went for a slightly more ambitious personalisation scheme.

Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock. Sheldon would be proud.

I was all ready to write a glowing post about how much I love the Apple Design Awards that take place during WWDC week, but it turns out I have already done this, two years ago! Back then, I was looking for more from the Apple crew in terms of discoverability of the best apps out there and their update to the app store to include a great Today tab has done just that. Featuring stories, lists, behind the scenes videos and more, it’s a nice way to find new content, or learn more about apps you already use.

So with all that sorted, there’s only one thing left to talk about this year’s Design Awards, and that is Florence.

This is such an incredibly beautiful app, it’s hard to describe it in words. The pictures are so much better.

But to try and sum it up, the app guides you through the story of Florence, who breaks free from her mundane life when embarking on a new relationship, navigates the highs and lows of life with a partner, and eventually finds herself. As the reader/player, your job is simply to interact very briefly with each scene – piecing together jigsaw puzzles or shaking polaroid pictures – to move the narrative along.

I’m not usually too bothered about limited interactivity apps – where it’s not so much a game as a story that you occasionally get to prod at. Even the quite more exciting Back to the Future game series frustrated me by its limitations on occasion.

But this is something else. This is such a simple, lovely, relatable story, told well, with very intuitive actions that help to flow the tale rather than interrupt the story. The clean cello soundtrack adds to the ambience so that you’re invested in Florence and her story. It’s not a groundbreaking story (girl meets boy, mild relationship drama, girl finds happiness), but it’s a groundbreaking experience.

And it’s not by fluke. The behind the scenes story Apple posted told just how much work went into making this app the wonder that it is.

“The story of making Florence was one of discovery. For each moment in the relationship we wanted to portray, we often had to try many different images and interactions before we found the right combination that would evoke the right feeling in the player. These would range from art style tests to storyboards, to fully functional levels that for one reason or another, were cut from the final experience.”

It’s not a long story, really, so you can get through it in one or two sittings depending how long you stop and survey your surroundings, but it’s worth every moment. I’ve played it through once and even though I now know what happens, I can see myself playing it again.

Well, I’ve got to have something to do between now and next year’s Design Awards, haven’t I?

In direct contrast to my post this week about struggling to care for the Westworldian robots, now I’m all over-excited at the thought of this Transformer’s spin-off featuring the one and only Bumblebee.

Of course, part of that is because Haiz is in it, but equally, it’s hard not to love that big yellow beast, isn’t it? I wonder why I care more about the machine with headlights for shoulders than the one that looks and feels and is acted by a human being.

I only had a vague interest in Transformers in the first place, and the previous film efforts haven’t done a huge amount to help. Will this be better? Who knows?

Still, the cassette tape bit is fabulous.

I started watching West World after a recommendation from a colleague. The last time this happened, Mr C and I became totally and thoroughly obsessed with The Big Bang Theory and this time looked set to be no different.

We both sat down to watch it and loved it. The intriguing concept, glossy visuals, great cast, musical puzzles, twisting narrative and never-ending feeling of wondering where it was all going, these all added up to a great viewing experience. Even the occasional overly violent scene was an acceptable compromise for the greatness of everything else.

I was eagerly looking forward to the second series, but it’s been such a let-down. For the first few episodes, I was hoping things would pick up, the story would develop, and we would get more than just Dolores marching about being vague and mysterious. Even the glimpses of different worlds weren’t enough to keep my interest.

The fourth episode almost revived my hopes. It was a wonderful slow burn of an episode with a time-travel style central plot, some fabulous ethical questions raised, topped off with a great couple of reveals at the end. Then the next episode was the exact opposite, introducing new characters we were supposed to instantly care about, ramping up the violence to horrifying levels and moving the plot forward only an inch.

We called it a day there and then.

Upon seeing this review headline for the very next episode, we felt vindicated in our decision.

I think the problems can be narrowed down to two very simple things:

• You’re asking people to care about robots. That works, to a degree. We anthropomorphise everything and I do care about the nice ones. The ethical questions are undeniable. But when there’s episode after episode following a robot searching for a child that doesn’t exist, it’s really hard to jump on board. I don’t know if the inevitable conclusion that the robo-child in question doesn’t recognise or care has happened yet, but those feelings certainly hit us quite quickly.
• The first series didn’t suffer so badly from walk-itis, but that’s all the second series was. It’s a running joke in our, and many other, households that the Lord of the Rings trilogy is boring because it’s just people walking. Series 2 of West World is exactly that. A handful of separate groups of people walking through the western outback, searching for things that are either dull or not clear at all.

It’s a shame because I love a good high-concept TV show. But unlike LOST, we’re not sticking this one out to the bitter end but jumping ship before the disappointment levels get too high.

Credit: Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock.com

I’m pretty in love with Tina Fey as it goes, but watching her episode of the David Letterman Netflix interview show only served to make me love her more. She talks sense, she’s eloquent, confident but modest and a bit of a comedy genius, what’s not to like?

Two highlights from the show, but make sure you watch the whole thing if you can.

On being a woman in comedy and how the culture is starting to change:

I think the great thing about Saturday Night Live, the system is actually very fair because there is a huge table read in the middle of the week… they read like 40 or 50 sketches. You always get to write what you want and you’ll always get your shot to perform it in that table read. And if it plays, it will go, most likely.

What started to improve was, as the chemistry of that room started to become more diverse, things started to play better… there were just literally more women in the room, so they would sometimes laugh at stuff that the guys weren’t purposely not laughing at but didn’t appeal to them.

On bouncing back from a comedy mistake:

So, of course, in our climate, you go “Do I make a Twitter account and apologise?” But at a certain point, I decided that the culture of apology is not for me. So what I do is, I promise, I swear to god, anybody who was mad at me, I hear you and I will learn and I will continue to change… but I’m also not gonna stop trying. You just have to be an athlete about it and go, yep, I broke my ankle on the landing, next time we try again.