M. G. Siegler musing about possible next iteration of the Apple Vision:

The most compelling idea would be allowing/forcing the ‘Vision’ to tether to an iPhone or Mac to run the computing of the device. Frankly, I think they should do this. I know they view it as a stand-alone computing device, one that could potentially do it all one day, but that day is far, far away. You already have to use the ridiculous (and ridiculously inconvenient) external battery to power the device. They should either put a Mac SoC in that brick or use their software screen-casting smarts to offload much of the work to an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.

Now that people know they have to live with an external battery pack in order to use the Vision Pro, putting a small Mac-in-that-box to offload some of the weight off the Vision Pro could be a game changer too. Apple is clever at iterating on things to make them better. The Apple Vision is not done yet, just be patient.

In other notes: the Vision Pro is coming to Canada this July and I can’t wait to book myself a 30-minute demonstration appointment.

A new iOS 18 beta should drop tomorrow, where SharePlay improvements and iPhone Mirroring will be included for the first time. Except that they won’t be available for people in EU. Apple made the announcement last Friday. Poor EU users. 🙃 Here in Canada, we don’t have Apple Card nor Apple Cash. But that’s for quite different reasons. When iOS 18 ships, we won’t get Apple Intelligence either, unless we set our phone to English US, which I won’t do, except for testing the thing for a few moments. EU isn’t alone in their “misery”, I guess.

★ The EU Is Reaping What It Sows With the DMA: Uncertainty
https://daringfireball.net/2024/06/eu_reaping_what_it_sows

For once, I’m on Gruber’s side here. But who am I? A clueless north American who doesn’t get the EU’s laws and law’s spirit? Maybe.

For all of its purported goals to 'foster a better digital market', having foreign tech companies delay features into the EU market will have huge effects not just for consumers but for developers. I can't see that becoming an economic advantage to an already-lagging EU tech economy.

Well said.

For my M4 iPad Pro, I decided to skip the Magic Keyboard for iPad purchase. Instead, I’ll be using a Magic Keyboard and a mouse. I think it’s a great compromise and a very light one, by the way.

Yet, iPadOS and many apps aren’t really keyboard aware. As an example, using Micro.blog native app, if I select a few words and hit CMD-B, the command is ignored and I have to reach the screen to select the bold option. This adds friction to my writing experience. Cc @manton

On iPadOS, you can hit CMD-Q on your keyboard to « quit » an app… in fact, only the icon is removed from the app switcher view while pressing CMD-TAB. If you re-launch the app from the home screen, the app is stilll in memory. Who said iPadOS is a strange beast?

Claim of the moment: Perplexity AI ignores robot.txt files and crawls websites even when the site owner says no. https://rknight.me/blog/perplexity-ai-is-lying-about-its-user-agent/

Woah, that is not cool, at all. Even if I don’t care too much for AI bots to crawl and ingest my content, I would expect them to respect those author and site owners who decides otherwise. It’s not the best way to build trust.

📝 Just like my old iPods, the iPod name is just collecting dust, despite being the best name they ever came up with.
https://lmnt.me/blog/ipod.html

I agree. The iPod name more accurately describes the current iPhone. However, it’s unlikely that Apple will revert to this name, despite its strong brand recognition.