I always found this picture of Steve Jobs in his home office very fascinating. It’s too bad that we cannot read all the book titles. But there are two pieces of equipment that I wonder what they are. On is something that looks like a Mac Pro but the size of the computer is too small, even though Steve is using a big Apple display (30"?). Next to this is a bigger vertical device which would be a UPS, but also looks like an external GPU (but that wasn’t a thing at that time). Oh and in the left segment of the bookshelf, there are many small bottles of liquid drops. What were they for?

Update #1: This post made it to the Hacker News site.

To me, this animated Apple logo is a clear visual reference to Apple Intelligence¹. Expect to hear a lot about it when Apple shows off their new iPhones.

GM didn’t want to carry CarPlay (and Android Auto!) in their cars because they were dimmed as unsafe. Was GM in fact hoping to open up these, instead, but why? Apple didn’t want to open their platform. Now we have a better idea as to why. In other news, GM is laying off hundreds of software engineers. I guess GM learned that doing software is hard. Well, fuck them. Continue reading →

After Maps, now Podcasts. Apple is opening up more and more to the web. Why?

Side node: ​I cancelled my Pocket Cast subscription (due for renewal in about 11 months 🙄).

I think Apple should bring back the iPod to the iPhone in the form of a virtual device within the Music app. Imagine if each year, Apple would release a new design of its virtual iPod¹. This would add some coolness factor for those who have known and used the iPod.

Forbidden Fruit

Independent developers work for the entire sale, but Apple doesn’t even work for their cut. In many ways, just being on the App Store is incredibly frustrating. We’re paying for pain while Apple gets paid for just relaxing.

People are frustrated with Apple’s behavior regarding the App Store, leading them to make exaggerated claims. While one may disagree with Apple’s policies, stating that the company is simply relaxing is an overreaction.

Forbidden Fruit

Apple used to fight for their lives, but now they barely have to work to make insane amounts of money.

Oversimplifying statement.

Forbidden Fruit

At some point Apple should ask who is in better need of that money. I know they won’t, but I’d like to think we live in a world where they could. They don’t need more money. They don’t even need the money they have

Capitalism 101: Ask the shareholders.

Forbidden Fruit

Apple was a better company when they were an underdog.

Me too, but are we being a bit nostalic here?

Recently some people complained about Apple’s latest ad in the « The Underdogs » series to be offensive, and Apple « promptly » said sorry and removed the ad. If only Apple showed a similar attitude towards developers who are more than fed up with their App Store practices and voiced their complaints so many times in so many ways… many people are noticing and find this shit show exhausting and damaging. Continue reading →

@mcelhearn @davemark Related:

"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.” - Ursula K. LeGuin

I still believe in this. We can (and should) make Apple change course.

Rumors suggest a “finally” moment, with Apple on the verge of completing the redesign of the newest generation of the Mac mini, this time featuring an M4 chip. This could result in the smallest Mac ever. The current Mac mini design dates back to 2010, when Apple was still using more power-hungry and larger Intel chips. The only change over the years has been the back portion to accommodate a variety of port offerings. Continue reading →

What the “can’t do real work on an iPad” narrative is really about

people like me do want a Mac for getting all of our stuff done, but Apple doesn’t make exactly the Mac we want, so we lust after the iPad and lament how it doesn’t get the job done for us. If the Mac we wanted existed, we’d buy that and not have nearly as much to say about iPadOS.

I think Matt is nailing it. Apple doesn’t want to make an iPad run macOS, fine, but are they as much vocal against making a Mac touch-friendly? I don’t think so. Mike Gurman wrote this past week-end that one Mac will see a major redesign in the next 12 months. Could this be to introduce touch support?

Cookie banners show everything that’s wrong with the EU

It makes it hard to cheer for even much-needed antitrust action, like the Digital Markets Act. Because if the EU can screw up something as basic as cookie banners this bad, and prove so incapable and uninterested in re-calibrating its approach, what hope is there for the thornier issues?

A shit show in the making.

Next Apple Watch SE Could Be Made From Plastic

Apple used to sell a plastic ‌iPhone‌ 5c, for example, and it came in vibrant blue, yellow, pink, and green colors. Plastic would also better differentiate the ‌Apple Watch SE‌ from the standard Apple Watch models as the current ‌Apple Watch SE‌ is basically a modified version of the aluminum Apple Watch without the latest features.

I wonder if Apple could use 3D printing for the SE plastic case. There are rumors that Apple might use 3D printing in building devices. That could be it.

I always enjoy MKBHD’s videos, and this one about the Microsoft Surface ARM laptop is no exception. His views are well-balanced and feel honest. Now, about this specific lap, supposedly being fast with long battery life, great built quality and… a touch screen, certainly feels like a leap beyond Apple’s offerings, but… it’s running Windows. And that, is the problem. I wouldn’t buy one of these for the simple reason that running Windows required running a bunch of security-related software to keep it secure. Continue reading →

Apple results: big increase in services, big increase in iPad sales, increase in Mac sales, wearables sales in decline (AVP doesn’t move the needle, Watch in need of a reboot), China in decline. That’s pretty much it.

So iOS 18.1 is a thing, after all. Well, as I live in Canada, I’m not going to set the region to English US on my phone¹. I rather wait and see other devs and YouTubers delve into this beta of Apple Intelligence and see how it goes. That should be fun and interesting.

Update: changing the region of the device doesn’t do much except for date formatting, temperature metric and dollars amount formatting. Oh, and if you set one device (iPad) to use one region, the other device (iPhone) will also use the same region. Why?

In iOS 18 beta 4, look at user ratings in the App Dtore and the choice Apple made for the star’s gray shades… it’s very hard to spot how many actual stars were given out of the five. Is this on purpose? 👀🧐

It’s 8:45 AM. The joy of running beta software. 😱👀