MTG: The Z Fold 8 Test, Too Much Kit and What Claude Apps Have Changed

Watch the video: MTG: The Z Fold 8 Test, Too Much Kit and Claude Apps

We have just got back from a trip to the Peak District, which was lovely. I am now walking around the field : still not mine, and never will be : while one of the cats follows me at a distance.

So naturally, this seems like the right time to discuss the important things in life: foldable phones, too much technology and whether I have finally worked out what equipment I actually need.

The short answer is no.

The Z Fold 8 is a wonderful bit of hardware

We tried to switch to the Galaxy Z Fold 8.

The important word there is tried.

The phone itself is excellent. The screens are lovely, the machine is quick and snappy, and it can do everything you could reasonably want it to do. Any concerns about the crease in the internal display can probably be put to one side. When you run your fingers across it, you can barely feel it.

That is not the problem.

The problem is everything else.

When the rest of your equipment is built around Apple, the Z Fold 8 becomes frustrating. Not because the phone is poor, but because it sits outside the way the rest of the technology works.

It is a lovely device. I wish I could use it properly. But using one part of your technology setup in isolation is not always enough. The question becomes whether you are prepared to move everything else as well.

Do we switch everything to Windows and Android?

There are two possible routes.

The first is to move the rest of the equipment across to Windows and Android. That is possible. I have already been considering the Surface Pro with an X Elite chip as part of that route. It is fanless, the speakers are excellent and the screen is lovely.

The Surface devices have always had very good screens, at least in my experience.

But this is where the history catches up with me. I have tried to move away from iOS several times over the last four years. We tried the Note devices four or five years ago, and it came very close to working.

Close.

But not quite close enough.

There is something about the way the Apple equipment works together that keeps pulling me back. So, despite the Z Fold 8 being a fantastic phone, I have already moved the SIM back into the iPhone 17 Pro.

That decision has been made for me by the simple fact that I have already done it.

The two-phone problem

I would also like to avoid becoming the two-phones person.

There is nothing wrong with carrying two phones. Plenty of people do it perfectly happily. I just find it a faff, particularly in the car.

Because if you have two phones, you can guarantee that the phone which rings is the one that is not connected to the car.

That sort of thing sounds minor until it happens repeatedly. Then it becomes one more small irritation in a system that is already carrying too much equipment.

So the portable device probably needs to be an iPhone. We have tried changing to Android a few times now, and it does not seem to work for me.

That does not make Android bad. It means that, in my particular setup, the cost of moving everything else is too high.

The real problem is that there is too much kit

I think the problem started with YouTube.

We ended up with too much equipment. Some of it is useful, some of it is interesting, and some of it is there because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The next challenge is to work out the minimum amount of equipment needed for a trip coming up in about a month.

That sounds straightforward until Claude gets involved.

I need two Claude accounts: one for my own work and one for business. I am using the computer-based functionality on both accounts, and I need them running continuously because they are doing more than simply answering questions when I open an app.

One option is to keep the 14-inch MacBook Pro on my desk at work, running continuously with a virtual machine and two screens attached.

One Claude account would run in the Mac environment. The other would run in Windows through the virtual machine.

That would give me one machine on the desk, while keeping both accounts available and preserving the systems and software I have been building.

It also means the MacBook Pro has a proper job again.

The MacBook Air, the Neo and the question of enough

When I get home, I need a decent machine to use. I do not particularly want a fixed desk setup at home, so the 15-inch MacBook Air looks like the practical option.

Then there is the MacBook Neo.

I would really like to keep using it, but if the objective is to carry less, do I really need both the Neo and the Air?

The screen on the Neo is just a little too small for the way I want to use it. That means the sensible choice is probably to lose the Neo and stick with the 15-inch MacBook Air.

So, at least for the computers, the plan looks like this:

• The 14-inch MacBook Pro stays at work.
• It runs the Mac environment and a Windows virtual machine.
• Two screens are connected to it.
• Both Claude accounts can run continuously.
• The 15-inch MacBook Air is the portable and home machine.
• The MacBook Neo is probably the bit that goes.

That gets the number of Macs down to two.

Which sounds excessive until you remember that I started this whole thing with a folding Android phone, multiple Macs and a selection of iPads.

What happens to the iPads?

This is where the plan becomes less clear again.

We have the iPad mini, which I love. We also have the iPad Pro with the M4 chip. We did not upgrade that to the M5 because it was unnecessary.

A couple of weeks ago, we had considered dropping the iPads because the Neo was doing some of that work. That remains a possibility. Three Macs already feels like too much; adding an iPad Pro, an iPad mini and an iPhone starts to look like I am preparing to move house rather than go away for a few days.

The question is whether the iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard replaces the need for the iPad mini.

Or whether the iPad mini is small and useful enough to justify keeping.

There is also the possibility of a future iPhone Ultra or a foldable iPhone. But that is speculation, not an announcement or a confirmed product. The question is whether an unfolded phone of that kind would really be large enough to replace an iPad, while still being practical as a phone.

The Z Fold 8 exposed the difficulty quite neatly. The outer screen was not quite large enough for comfortable regular phone use, while the internal screen was not quite large enough to replace an iPad.

My suspicion is that a future iPhone Ultra or foldable could face a similar compromise. It may be very clever, but clever is not always the same as useful.

We will see what Apple announces and then work out what, if anything, changes.

What Claude has changed

The other part of this is Claude.

At work, we created a piece of software for energy consulting. It allows us to load projects, quotes and estimates, and put procedures in place.

That is working well.

At the same time, I was running an interview process for a role in Halifax. I thought Claude might help with that, which was one reason for setting up my own personal account.

What began as a system to help us get through the interview process became a full web application called Sermo.

You can find it here: sermo.seam.systems

Sermo handles parts of the process including:

• Uploading a job description.
• Generating attributes and person specifications.
• Uploading CVs.
• Analysing CVs against the job description.
• Running the interview process.
• Helping an interview panel understand the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate.

This was built from my own experience and experimentation with Claude. It is not independent testing, a formal product review or a guarantee that anyone else will reproduce the same outcome.

I have programmed before, so I was not starting completely from scratch. But the experience of programming with Claude is different from traditional programming, and it has made the process much more accessible.

That is what I plan to explore in the Wednesday follow-up video. It is planned, but it has not been published yet. I want to show what we have built, how we built it and what the process actually felt like.

The practical answer

The useful lesson from all of this is not that everybody needs a Z Fold 8, two Macs, two Claude accounts and several screens.

It is probably the opposite.

The useful question is:

What equipment do you genuinely need to support the work you are doing?

For me, the answer appears to be two computers: one left running at work and one portable machine for home and travel. Then I need to decide whether the iPad Pro, iPad mini and iPhone are all earning their place.

The best technology setup may not be the one with the most capable devices. It may be the one with the fewest devices that still lets you do the work properly.

That is the bit I am trying to work out while walking around somebody else’s field, followed by a cat that appears to believe this is a group activity.

if anything I've said today struck a chord with you and you'd like a chat or if you have a particular challenge with energy, power & infrastructure, business generally or you might like to use the studio, drop me an email at andrew@aelhawley.com - if you've watched the video version of this blog you can drop a comment below and, I think I'm supposed to say like and subscribe but I won't. See you on Sunday in the field.. that to be clear, isnt my garden.