Tech: Videos

In this episode, I speak with Luca Belli about his forthcoming Manning book, “Hidden Influences,” which explains how algorithmic recommendation systems work from socio-technical and ethical perspectives rather than teaching readers to build them. Belli describes how recommenders and users shape each other, why debates about societal harms (including misinformation) often lack nuance, and why “working properly” is hard to define because value is personal and difficult to measure, leading platforms to optimise for engagement as a proxy with harmful side effects like clickbait. Drawing on his background in math, data science, and his work at Twitter, where he co-founded a machine learning ethics, transparency, and accountability team, he outlines the book’s framework-based, timeless structure and its coverage of moderation, measurement, societal impacts, and individual and policy responses.

In this video I experiment with OpenMusicAI to create a 7-minute dramatic, confession-style backing track for a theatre project: a reality TV interpretation of Antony and Cleopatra. Aside from prompt-based music generation tools, and a plethora of other AI music tools of mixed utility, OpenMusicAI has several tools that are actually useful for music creators, such as stem separation and MIDI generation. Is it worth using? I take a look!

In this video, I look at NameQuick for macOS. It connects with local and remote models to help you name files intelligently based on the content of the file. But do you need it? Is it worth it? https://www.namequick.app/

I speak with Ricardo Noriega and Doug Smith from Red Hat at PyTorch Con Paris in 2026 about their experiments using VLLM Omni for video generation. Your journey to stunning videos starts here

A quick walk through a new track from the debut Aeon V EP, "The dark embrace of infinite space" in Ableton Live 12. Listen to the track here:

This episode, I am joined again by Mike McQuaid, Homebrew project leader, amongst many other things, including OSS Resistance, a new quiet call to encourage people to contribute to open source when they feel they should. 100s of amazing Mac apps

In this episode, I speak with Peter Staar of Docling about the wonderful open-source project that converts messy documents into structured data, perfect for ingestion into AI tools and more. Recorded live at PyTorch con in 2026.

Joining me in person (and thus the horrible audio quality) is Daniel Gräfe, independent developer of the amazing apps Timing and CoTypist. Based in Germany, we discuss how he builds his apps, why there are so many independent macOS developers in Germany, demand how the future looks for independent developers.

Let's face it, generating boilerplate tracks before diving into making your next masterpiece is tedious. Twiddling dials to get that perfect sound to realise that where you started was fine, a waste of time. So why not get AI tools to do it for you?

macOS has always lacked the default functionality to control individual app volume, resulting in several third-party solutions such as @RogueAmoebaVideos SoundSource. However, I wanted the ability to control those app volumes with an external controller, and so for a while, I settled on SoundDesk from @LoudLab . It used the fantastic MIDI plugin for the @elgato Stream Deck, and I was happy. Then Elgato released Wave Link version 3, and everything has been simplified. In this video, I show you what I used to do, how it now works in Wave Link, and the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.

Keep the Heroes Out is a cooperative dungeon-defence board game where players control monsters working together to repel waves of pesky adventurers. I don't normally cover video games much, but knowing my love of board games, the designers of this digital version of a popular board game asked me to try it out and see what I thought.

In this hands-on video, I explore how to combine macOS Focus Modes with Raycast Focus Categories for an optimal productivity environment. I explain how these tools can help minimise distractions by managing notifications and application access. Christian provides a step-by-step guide on setting up focus modes in system settings, adding filters, and using Raycast to block applications and websites. I also demonstrate how to use shortcuts to automate these processes, ensuring a seamless transition into a focused work session. Learn how to enhance your productivity by leveraging these powerful tools effectively. Want to try out Raycast? Use my referral link :) https://go.chrischinchilla.com/raycast

In this video, I look at TypeBoost, a cross-platform app that bundles prompts into a system-wide assistant to help you manipulate text and audio with the power of AI. AI-assistants are a busy space. Does TypeBoost deliver and compare with the myriad of other options? I take a look!

In this video, I go hands-on with @Opera's new agentic browser, Neon — a rethink of how we navigate, query, and automate the web. Neon offers several contexts (Do, Research, Make, and Chat) and some miscellaneous other features to bring Agentic browsing to the Opera suite of browsers. I test how Neon handles flight booking, purchase comparison, research, and web page summaries.

In this video, I take a look at @flexclipapp a new service that packs a lot of AI-powered features into an online platform for audio and video generation. I look at text-based editing, video and audio generation, transcription, and other features, and compare them with those in MacWhisper, Adobe Premiere, and Descript.

Discover CleanMyMac's New Cloud Cleaning Feature! ☁️ Running out of iCloud or Google Drive storage? CleanMyMac's latest cloud cleaning feature helps you reclaim valuable cloud space by identifying and removing unnecessary files, duplicate photos, and forgotten data cluttering your accounts.

IFA in Berlin is typically full of dozens of halls of the latest consumer goods, from toasters to robots. I trawled through the vast Messe to find what interested me, which included: @XPPen table screens @hohemglobal AI powere gimble @PlaudAI Note AI assistant @EarFunOfficial earbuds and headphones @ReSoundUS hearing aids Komutr by Artronic earbuds @CoStar Headphones @beyerdynamic Headphones

Use the Vale MCP server to bring Vale's highly configurable offline language linting into AI tools via MCP. https://github.com/ChrisChinchilla/Vale-MCP https://vale.sh

Adding AI to interactive storytelling tools is not new, but so far they’ve generally been aimed more at players doing what they want and not giving storytellers the power to create the worlds they want. Chosen Path takes a different approach, allowing you to use AI to draft and then finesse all the elements of a storytelling world. And for players, it offers rich decisions, character selection, risk mechanisms, and ways to explore the created worlds.

Continue as an open-source extension for #VSCode and ⁨@JetBrainsTV IDEs that lets you use numerous remote, local, closed, and open-source models to help you code with AI assistance. I spoke with Nate Sesti about the project and the company's origins, how it works, and how they intend to remain competitive with new default assistants in editors and IDEs, and a new wave of AI-first editors.

Tired of @grammarly or just curious if there’s something better out there? In this in-depth review, I explore FOUR powerful writing tools that go head-to-head with Grammarly – @languagetool785 @ProWritingAidTV and @JetBrainsTV Grazie. Whether you’re writing blog posts, emails, papers, or code comments, this video breaks it all down for you!

In my unboxing and review video a few months ago quite a few of you asked for more examples of the music I'm making with the @Fishman_Music Tripleplay Express MIDI guitar pickup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAT2XtT7v8Y&t=93s

Finally! Part 2 of my series on learning how to play the drums, based on teaching I've been doing for the past 18 months or so. If you've never played the drums before and want to learn, this series will help you get playing beats quickly. In this second video, I look at how to hold drumsticks, the characteristics of each drum and cymbal and how to hit them, and look at three basic grooves you've heard in countless rock and pop songs.

In this video I share 8 tips to help you write more effectively. Mostly for those looking to up their game with academic, scientific, and technical writing, but there's also plenty for creative writers too. Based on this blog post: https://go.chrischinchilla.com/8tips

macOS has an inbuilt default autocomplete… Kind of… It's quite sporadic, hard to customize, and is inconsistent. From the same developer as Timing, the awesome macOS time tracking tool, comes Cotypist, a locally running, AI-powered autocomplete tool for macOS that offers context-aware suggestions and learns more about your writing as you use it.

Interested in trying AsciiDoc, that flexible and standardised alternative to markdown for documentation, technical content, presentations, and more? In this video, I cover the syntax you need to know to get you started with the markup language, using a new macOS and iOS editing tool called adoc studio.

I take a look at @aquavoice_ , a new Mac Native application that lets you dictate notes, instructions, corrections, and much more. https://withaqua.com

I speak with @awesomekling about his history building browsers, how the Serenity Operating System helped bring peace to a crazy period of his life, and how now the @LadybirdBrowser aims to bring diversity and standards to the world of web browsers. Formed the basis of this article: https://thenextweb.com/news/serenityos-creator-building-ladybird-browser

Mermaid is a popular Javascript-based diagramming tool that renders Markdown-inspired text definitions to create and modify diagrams dynamically. Mermaid enjoys widespread popularity and adoption in toolchains, but the text-based nature has often made it complicated for non-technical people to use.

In this tutorial, learn how to set up a CDC (change data capture) pipeline on your machine to capture and analyze real-time database changes with Parseable using Postgres, Debezium, and Redpanda. When data changes are needed, update easily and without errors + store the data on Parseable for deeper insights.