Inside Google's possible future for Gmail, my Claude Code projects, and an organization project
Plus, how I've flown more than one trillion miles, why a billion Windows 11 users are peeved, how to measure how much filament is left, and Game of Thrones goes disco.
I’m David Gewirtz. Welcome to this week’s Advanced Geekery newsletter. It’s been an exciting week. Let’s dive in.
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My articles
Here’s a quick recap of the articles I published in the last week on ZDNET.
Inside Google’s vision to make Gmail your personal AI agent command center: I spoke with Gmail VP of Product, Blake Barnes, to better understand Gmail’s latest AI updates. Behind them lies a much larger idea.
My Claude Code project work
There’s been a ton of interest in Claude Code recently. Here’s a list of my recent ZDNET Claude Code articles. They detail how I used it to build a fairly complex app that runs on Mac, iPhone, and even the Apple Watch.
How to install and configure Claude Code, step by step: Curious about Anthropic’s AI coding tool but unsure where to begin? My walkthrough covers pricing, installation, authorization, and project initialization so developers can get up and running smoothly.
Claude Code made an astonishing $1B in 6 months - and my own AI-coded iPhone app shows why: My complex app, built entirely through agentic coding, reveals the true force multiplier transforming how developers create products at astonishing speed.
10 things I wish I knew before trusting Claude Code to build my iPhone app: Vibe coding sounds effortless, until it isn’t. Building a full iPhone app with Claude Code showed me why baby steps, backups, and testing matter.
I used Claude Code to vibe code a Mac app in 8 hours, but it was more work than magic: The illusion vanished fast once I treated Claude Code like a remote junior developer.
I used Claude Code to vibe code an Apple Watch app in just 12 hours - instead of 2 months: Building my first Apple Watch app with AI felt more like collaboration than automation. Here's why.
Must-watch YouTube
Moving on, let’s queue up some interesting YouTube videos for your entertainment and edification.
I’ve been really curious about how the Bambu Lab 3D printers know how much filament is left on a spool. This is a really good explanation. For non-Bambu filaments, I use a different method.
CNBC gives us an interesting and disturbing look at how AI is changing the value of a college degree.
It’s been a while since I’ve spotlighted a music piece. This is an AI disco treatment of Game of Thrones, which is equal parts unfortunate and amusing. Once again, we see the harbinger of a major fight over the AI use of real person likenesses. YouTube hasn’t taken it down yet, but an argument can be made that they probably should.
Tool organizer and project of the week
This weekend, my wife and I decided that our cleaning tools deserved a long-overdue cleanup. We ordered this 4x4 foot slatwall system from Amazon. It comes as four 1-foot tall strips. We mounted it on the wall. We also picked up an assortment of hooks.
Once you get the bottom strip mounted and level, the other three go in quite easily. The bulk of our project time was spent trying to figure out where the studs are in our wall. Turns out, there is a black plywood or OSB board behind that entire drywall section.
There’s more work to be done. It’s looking like I might 3D print some slats for the small 10-inch wall on the right. And we’re probably going to hang another vacuum to the left of the slatwall. I’ll say this. It sure is nice to turn chaos into organization.
Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Interesting reads
And now, some good stuff from around the Internet, well worth checking out.
Some archeologists now think Egypt’s pyramids are much older than previously thought.
Want to know how far you’ve traveled in your lifetime? Boing Boing spotlights a cosmic odometer that can tell you how far you’ve traveled through the universe on Spaceship Earth during your lifetime. Apparently, I’ve flown more than one trillion miles.
ZDNET’s Ed Bott helps Microsoft celebrate reaching 1 billion Windows 11 users. One billion really annoyed Windows 11 users, that is.
Send in your projects
I’d like to regularly spotlight a reader project or two here. Your project doesn’t have to be a big Kickstarter launch. If you’ve built something cool, it has some pretty pictures, and you’re proud of it, I might be able to share it here.
If you have a photogenic reader project, send an email to me at david@zatz.com with the subject “READER PROJECT,” a few pictures, and a short one-paragraph description. If you have a social media link or a link to the project, include that, too.
Both my EPs are now streaming
Available on all your favorite streaming services.
More clicky
I’ve got a lot happening all over the web. Here are links to my various stuff:
House of the Head: home for my published music
ZATZ Labs: where I host my published software projects
Feel free to dig around, visit, and say hey!
Leave some comments
Substack supports comments, so feel free to leave some. I promise to read them. Just, please, let’s keep our personal politics out of any discussion.
That should do it for this week. This newsletter is really starting to pick up subscribers. Please help it out by sharing links on all your socials.
Have a great week!
Really solid roundup of the Claude Code workflow. The Gmail-as-command-center angle is clever becuase it sidesteps the whole "where do agents live" problem by anchoring them in something people already check obsessively. I've been testing similar agentic setups and the baby steps approach is definitley underrated, most folks try to go to complex right away.