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Marc Settle

@marcsettle.bsky.social
5.7K followers 121 following 2.5K posts

BBC trainer, not journalist — I train BBC staff (& others) how to use phones for newsgathering. Posts are on mobile journalism, apps, kit, The Wedding Present & Arsenal. My views ≠ BBC. RT = worth reading. Like = read later. Sharing apps ≠ endorse.

PostsRepliesMedia
Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
He’s a cult figure on social media but it’s a shame that whoever filmed this for the Japanese ambassador to the UK doesn’t know the basics of filming on a phone: audio without an external mic in a loud environment will be bad; not locking the focus gives that horrible pulsing effect. 
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
At first, it’s an impressive waterfall…only to be revealed as a weir on the River Gade, on the outskirts of Watford.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Impressive from @vodafonegroup.bsky.social. This email about helping set up broadband arrived 1030 Friday…when the broadband service was installed Wednesday 1130 🙄 The guy installing it flagged up I needed the app, meaning I had service soon after. But if he hadn’t, would I still be waiting?
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I know I don’t use Instagram much but even so I was surprised to see this 11 year old video about Jeremy Clarkson so prominent on the BBC News page. Is there a logical reason for that?
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
They don’t make them like this any more, do they? (Both the illuminated board and the programmes themselves)
The photo shows an illuminated display board outside a television studio with the words “studio 2” on the left. On the right are three sections, showing “rehearsal”, “transmission”, “audience entrance”. Stylistically, it’s from the 1960s or 70s
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Very surreal to be back at TVC, more than twenty years after I first worked here. It’s my first visit since 2010 (?) and while it’s changed a lot, there’s much still eerily familiar.
The main television centre buildingThe main entrance to TVCThe statue at TVC
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Blimey. For once, Dale *doesn’t* back the Ref/VAR.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
What does that kind of money get you…?
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Very tempted to enquire about the retail price for the canine in this shop’s glass-fronted display. (Or is there a better way to ask that question?)
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Much as I love Arsenal, I cannot defend this. I dread to think how many people have received this email and the really terrible spelling error. 
The header of the email says “it starts in Napels”
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Disappointed that the shop wasn’t a lot smaller, to be honest. 
The photo shows the exterior of a shop in central London, with the words on the awning showing: homeopathic pharmacy 
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
A clever cartoon in this week’s Private Eye… even if a pendant would point out that in order for the words on the clapperboard to be filmed by the glasses, the clapperboard would need to be at a very different angle and probably not visible by the woman. 
It’s a hand drawn cartoon showing on the left the woman looking angry and on the right a man wearing
 glasses designed to secretly film her. In his hands, he is holding a clapperboard with the words “random woman on street” written on the front. 
Text underneath reads “and what makes you think I’m covertly filming you?”
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Given the relentlessly hot, sunny and dry summer most of England has had, there must be brides, grooms and wedding parties across the country cursing their luck for scheduling their big day on the last Saturday of August, given it’s chucking it down almost everywhere for most of the day.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I gather it’s raining in large parts of the UK today? I know it’s needed but i like my current view. 20°c and breezy - blissful
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
I realise that Danes are broadly wealthy and they have a good social and healthcare system, but even so I was blown away by this emergency vehicle
The photo shows a Bentley with the registration number 999 
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Bonkers that I’ve got a 5G signal good enough to boast about having a good 5G signal…when it’s so often a challenge in central London.
The image shows a map of southern Norway and northern Denmark with the blue dot showing my location in the middle of the sea separating the two

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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Today I learned that an incredibly still body of water - this happens to be the Skaggerak south of Oslo and north of Denmark - both confuses the lens cleaning suggestion (it appeared even though my lens was scrupulously clean) and the level meter (check the horizon)
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Always look up. Things might not be as bad as they first appear.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Marvelling again at the free WiFi at a Premier Inn
610Kbps0.90Mbps
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
This reply will make little sense to a random American on Twitter, but it amused me which is what it’s all about, I guess.
The text of the tweet reads: 
NATALIE HARP NEEDS TO SUE JON OSSOFF FOR DEFORMATION SUE SUE SUE
Underneath is a photo from the BBC tv comedy Ann Droid showing the main character who has a catchphrase of “Sue Sue Sue”
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
While we’re expecting the weather to break FINALLY and see temperatures in London approaching normal for late August, this doesn’t seem to be wholly accurate?
It is a photo of a screen showing London temperature of -2°C which is predicted to go on for the next few days
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Quite something that the free WiFi on Brittany Ferries as we cross the Bay of Biscay, hundreds of miles from land, is faster than your average Premier Inn
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Day one of force-closing TikTok on seeing this. How long can I do it for…?
It’s a prompt to “pick my plan” - either free with ads or £4 a month.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I’m not saying the Spanish Met Office as is unreliable as the UK’s, but there’s quite a difference between what their app is saying the weather is like here…and what the weather IS actually like here
The app says “cloudless sky”; next to it is a photo of a completely overcast cloudy sky
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I mean…it looks *fairly* green. Not the deepest I’ve ever seen though, but whatever. 
It’s a headline from my BBC News story which shows: “scientists invent world greenest party balloon”. I think it means in an environmental sense. 

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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Yes! We drove south to a small town called Villabermudo a few minutes off the A67 and found a perfect spot. The photo doesn’t do it justice.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
It was all ok in the end I drove 100 miles south. It got darker over the course of an hour and then BANG - a minute and a half of wonder. The photos from my phone do it little justice; i was so glad I was there to experience it. One off the bucket list and one to remember.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Absolutely fantastic conditions for the total solar #eclipse where I am in northern Spain. The eagle-eyed among you (or those who saw the alt text) will have spotted that this is for 8pm *tomorrow* Today, it’s terrible - thick cloud cover.
It shows symbols of a sun and cloudless sky at 8 pm 
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Nope - it’s been upgraded by the Spanish met office to “very cloudy. Tomorrow though…glorious. 🙄
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
We’ve come to northern Spain where the weather is sub-optimal 😢
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
We’ve come to northern Spain to experience 100%….100% cloud, more like 🙄
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
How can two forecasts be so different?! #eclipse
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Come to Northern Spain for the eclipse they said; it’s going to be great, they said.  24 hours before the eclipse, this is “partly cloudy”; tomorrow, it’s due to be “overcast” so I fear we will have travelled this far for nothing. 
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Absolutely crazy machine.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Guess which bit of Spain I’m travelling to for the eclipse next week :-(
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
I’m not sure I have many feelings about the app I use to submit my expenses; were any to somehow develop, I seriously doubt that “love” would be one of them.
It’s a prompt from the Sap Concur app, with text showing “do you love SAP concur” and the options of “no” and “yes” as responses.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Zuckerberg understands me so well. I can think of nothing I’d like to do more with a photo of my kids getting themselves an ice cream than use an AI app to turn it into a tarot card 🤨
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
This is curiously phrased? The next total solar eclipse isn’t “expected” on 23 Sept 2090 - it’s an astronomical certainty. So it WILL happen on 23/9/90 (barring astronomically unlikely events like the Moon moving off its current orbit because of an “accident” at the MuskTrump Space Base ™️ in 2078)
It’s a photo of the BBC News website , with this text: The next full solar eclipse in the UK isn't expected for another 66 years, on 23 September 2090, according to the Royal Museums Greenwich, so it is definitely worth putting this one in the calendar.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Google have recognised their error, slightly
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Finally - an exercise machine at an outdoor gym which promises me less a six pack and more a cup of tea.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Bagged another example for my training courses, where I use Arsenal videos to show basic mojo mistakes.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Took me a moment to get this, as I tried to work out what a “fat clog” was and why anyone would ever cook one.
It was van belonging to Thames Water with the phrase “cooking fat clogs your pipes” on the side
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Late July and it’s chucking it down. Typical British summer 🙄
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
On first reading this headline, did you think: A/ the teenager has started action against Meta B/ the teenager has ended the action against Meta? read the full article find out if you were right here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The headline on the BBC website article reads as follows: 

Teenager drops social media addiction lawsuit against Meta
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I’m sure the Golden Gate Bridge looked more…golden, the last time I was here?
It is in fact a photo of the Humber Bridge near Hull
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Who knew…
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
How many people would be confused that using an iPhone 16e triggers an email about an iPhone 17,5? (And don’t get me started on the abomination that is 08.45pm)
Hi Marc,
An unrecognised iPhone17,5 signed into your account at 21 July 2026, 08:45 pm
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Quite the stat. Not even Spurs are as passive as Argentina.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Which do you prefer? The first one is was taken using Project Indigo from Adobe; then ZeroCam; then the native iPhone camera.
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Marc Settle @marcsettle.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
If only there was a suitable gif to celebrate this achievement with.
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