It’s Friday. It’s six o’clock in London. That means it’s time to down tools, pour yourself a drink and look back at what A Prodigal Week it has been. Before all that though, a gift: you can now read The Prodigal Guide in the new Substack app for iPhone.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated inbox for The Prodigal Guide and any other Substack newsletters you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here but, honestly, you’d be better off buying an iPhone.
Now, do you have glass in hand? Let me offer you some canapés of news and views.
BUT FIRST
New for subscribers
🍎 Our despatch from Apple’s March 2022 event is there for you in case you missed it live. It’s all you need to know about Cupertino’s latest releases.
Catch up >
GADGETS
Simple is complex
With all the excitement over new Mac form factors, new chips and refreshed iPads, it’s easy to forget that Apple also released updates for all of its operating systems this week. Along with the usual bug fixes and small enhancements, our friends in Cupertino also - finally - shipped a feature they had trailed back in 2021: Universal Control. The Verge provides a good summary:
If you haven’t heard of Universal Control, it basically lets you use your Mac’s keyboard and mouse or trackpad to control your iPad (or another Mac, though I haven’t been able to test that). Just nudge your cursor to the side of your Mac’s monitor, and it’ll jump on over to the iPad like it was another monitor hooked up to your Mac. But it’s not a Mac monitor — it’s still an iPad. Just one that you can control with the keyboard and trackpad you were using seconds ago with your Mac.
I’ve been using this on my MacBook Pro and iPad Pro for the last couple of days and I’m here to tell you it’s fucking magic. Being able to have these two computers sit side by side, running different operating systems, and yet having full control over both from the same keyboard and trackpad and being able to drag and drop content from one to another as if they were the same computer: it’s truly impressive.
If you don’t stop to think about it, it’s just a simple little thing. But pause for a moment and consider the technical challenges involved. This is Apple at its very best: making the complex so simple that you barely notice it.
Also worth your time
Apple Studio Display praised: “The company's first mainstream monitor in more than a decade is a beauty to behold and packs in unrivaled sound quality.”
Apple Studio fawned over: “It's taken a while, but now Apple finally has a Mac desktop that can go toe-to-toe with PC workstations under $5,000.”
WATCHES
Dive deep
If you love watches, you likely started with a diver’s. Most of us do. And though your tastes may have evolved over time, rare is the watchnerd who doesn’t still harbour a soft spot for this most evocative of tool watches. Blancpain pretty much invented the genre with its Fifty Fathoms (yep, that’s right, before the Submariner) and so whenever the brand puts something new out, I tend to sit up and pay attention. And that’s the position I was in this week as Hodinkee covered the new Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Titanium 43mm:
Using the Bathyscaphe's now-signature 43mm × 13.45mm case profile, Blancpain has once again retrofitted the dive watch by introducing a grade 23 titanium case and topping it off with a sleek grey dial featuring some serious vertical brushing.
It's not just the dial that's grey. The whole watch has been rendered in a monochromatic greyscale, except for the use of off-white Super-LumiNova (it's a lighter shade than what I'd typically characterize as faux-patina) on the hands and hour markers and the red tip of the seconds hand. The case has a slightly darker grey tone compared to the anthracite shade on the dial, featuring a completely matte decoration. The self-winding caliber 1315 inside has the same soft satin sheen, with a soleil finish on the bridges, plus the gunmetal-tone solid-gold rotor. Over on the dial side, even the date aperture is completed by a grey background!
As is often the case with these things, you can admire the pedigree, the technical prowess and the cool new case material but ultimately what gets me about this new Blancpain is just how damn handsome it is.
Also worth your time
New Special Edition Blue/Yellow MeisterSinger Astroscope unveiled: “[It] comes in a new limited edition of 100 pieces with sunray-brushed dial executed in a bright, vivid blue colour, the hour markers and astronomical symbols designed in luminous yellow and the central hand, also luminous, rendered in white. Completing this bold, colourful look is a yellow saddle leather strap.”
CARS
It’s finally coming
You know I’m a fan of Audi’s fast estates. My S4 Avant was great, my RS6 Avant otherworldly. But I also want to save the planet and a twin turbo V10 is, well it’s not really ‘of the moment’, is it? So, imagine my excitement this week as Ingolstadt unveiled their next A6 Avant. The Verge has the story:
The A6 Avant E-tron will earn the distinction of Audi’s longest-range EV to date, with 700 kilometers (435 miles) of estimated range using the European WLTP standard, depending on the drive system and model variant. The sportback will be quick, too, sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than four seconds. And with its 800-volt system and a charging capacity of up to 270 kW, it can take in enough electrons in just 10 minutes at a fast-charging station to drive about 300 kilometers (186 miles).
Just imagine the RS6 version…
Also electric and worth your time
Maserati’s plans to go fully electric revealed: “The Italian automaker will debut its first BEV, the 1,200 HP GranTurismo Folgore, in 2023.”
Next Alfa Romeo Spider transformed: “Turin will reboot the beloved Duetto Spider as an electric convertible fit for these straitened times.”
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🇵🇹 Talking Hands № 25 is about the IWC Portuguese Chronograph, a sports watch that thinks it’s a dress watch. Or is it the other way around?
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