As an Apple observer for more than four decades (yep!), I rarely seen such a public relation mess like the one this week, a week before WWDC. Apple messed up big time with the worst possible timing by alienating their developers. On top of that, their definition of apps that doesn’t work upon startup is already being smashed by so many counter-examples. This is a complete mess and I don’t know how Apple will get out of this shit. If goes far beyond the 30% commission.

**This is not the Apple that I want to see, promote and embrace. **

Here is a MUST READ thread by @dhh about Apple messing around the launch of Hey, a new and innovative email service. I wish Hey gets though this. I support their fight because Apple is fucking arrogant here… I want Apple to open up… or else. Please, share.

twitter.com/dhh/statu…

Fantastical latest update (v3.1) could be the thing that bring me back to it: integrated support for nearly all major video conferencing applications. As a big user of Webex, Teams, Zoom, this could be really useful for me. apps.apple.com/ca/app/fa…

At the very beginning of Apple, their leadership was young and they cared about education. Apple became popular in the edu market simply because they built their products around it. They succeeded.

Now, Apple leadership is getting older and they now care about healthcare. The story repeats itself as they build many products and features around that. Will success follow? It certainly looks like it. How Apple becomes the operating system for health - Philip Elmer‑DeWitt

Question of the day: what’s up with Automattic and Tumblr? 🤨🤔🧐 This question came up to my mind this morning as I reblogged a post from someone I follow on Wordpress. The reblog action was popularized by Tumblr if I’m not mistaken. Since Automattic bought Tumblr for a few pennies, I was just wondering.

Interesting piece (see link below) about software quality going down in a world where hardware quality is culminating to levels never seen before. Here are a few of my thoughts on this subject.

First, I think the law of entropy is much more active in software than in hardware. We are actually witnessing the slow disorganization of software (both in features & code), hence the quality goes down with it.

Second, we are also witnessing the (good and bad) consequences of unsustainable complexity of a growing software ecosystem. The good is the added value of combining things together in order to make the whole greater than the sum of its part. Apple is good at this. The bad is the difficulty to make it all work.

Third, take the Finder in macOS. How many revisions has been done on this essential piece of software and by how many generations and teams of developers? How one company make sure, from one generation to the other, the knowledge about how the Finder is coded doesn’t get diluted? I see this as an important challenge.

Finally, the marriage of hardware with software, the complete integration of the stack that Apple is able to achieve because they nearly own all the pieces pose big challenges. There are so many combinaisons to test and optimize. I can see many bugs falling between the cracks.

I’m not excusing Apple for the fact that their software quality is going down. They must slowdown and consolidate their software assets. In a maturing world, I would expect they do just that.

Brilliant Hardware in the Valley of the Software Slump

iTunes U is the next victim after iBooks Author. I’m not sure Apple’s Classroom and Schoolwork are fully replacing iTunes U’s features set. Let’s wait and see.

Also, this change of direction from Apple creates a big opportunity for Google which is already well established.

Now it’s official, Apple iBooks Author is being retired. Upcoming update to Pages will be able to import Books from iBooks Author. It is a sad day for many content creators, I’m sure, me included.

Well, maybe I’ll keep buying traditional computers after all. 🤓 This iMac mockup by MacRumors is a bit dumb, but we get the idea, right? This iMac would be the quintessential of desktop, all-in-one design Apple has ever made. New iMac With ‘iPad Pro Design Language’ and Thin Bezels Reportedly Coming at WWDC - MacRumors

Seems like ARM-based Macs is a go for this year’s WWDC. The news comes from a source that I don’t like (remember the “Big Hack Story”?) so I’m not sharing the link. In summary: a bit faster CPU, much faster on graphics, ML processing unit, low power hence cooler system, new design enabler. Long transition time expected. Unknown is how are third-parties will transition their apps. Will a DEV kit be made available.