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Jeff Perry on Reddit deal with Google for content access exclusivity in indexing their content: The Enshittification of Search Continues
This could set a precedent for other sites like Hacker News and Pinterest to start searching for the highest bidder to make their content exclusive on another search engine. Eventually other sites might do the same in hopes to thwart the serial scraping of their content for AI models to learn from and make a few bucks in the process. It is just another byproduct of the Enshittification of the web.
Troubling, indeed. Emphasis is mine.
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Seriously considering closing my Reddit account. It’s not worth it. And their corporate attitude don’t align with my values.
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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? 👀🧐
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👋🏻 I’m a little bit late, but hey, here is the newest edition of my weekly creative summary newsletter. The email edition is coming up later today. 😅
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Today I made a template. Who knows, it might be useful to some big company.
“We will release {insert product or service name here} over the coming months, but not in the EU due to the unpredictable nature of the European regulatory environment,” {insert company name here} said in a statement to {Insert news agency name here}.
You are welcome.
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Today’s CrowdStrike update is probably the most expensive update of all time in IT history. Will we really learn from it? Some big players probably will but in general, I doubt it. #crowdstrike
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In a meeting this morning at the office, I was quick to point out that those running Macs were just fine (we’re a Microsoft shop with a few weird guys like me promoting the Mac). I got booed. I guess people in IT are masochist. #crowdstrike 🤷🏻♂️
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Apparently, a social network like X does not promote posts containing links to external websites. While this policy may be frustrating1, there are possible responses to this practice to consider. If someone shares a post with a link to X, you could choose not to open the link2. Encouraging others to adopt a similar stance can be an effective way to voice your opinion and influence the platform’s practices through your engagement, or lack thereof.3
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Eddy Cue doesn’t lose many arguments but he lost that one. All of the effort spent pushing Apple to support RCS would have been better spent pushing Apple to ship iMessage for Android. And without a supported iMessage client for Android, that role ought to go to WhatsApp, not RCS. WhatsApp is free, secure, and works equally well on all phones.
I think Apple made a big mistake by not shipping iMessage for Android.
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Today’s positive post: I’m happy to have installed iOS 18 beta 3 on my phone. A few bugs here and there and glitches but nothing earth chattering. 🤗
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Tomorrow I’m going to the Apple Store for an Apple Vision Pro demonstration. For some reasons, I’m not that excited for this. And I’m a big Apple fan. I was excited for the AVP when it came out, but like everyone else, the hype is no longer there. Apple is still working to find THE killer app or use case for this. And, something is broken with Apple these days…
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In today’s positive post, it’s about Inoreader filtering capabilities. Without them, cutting out the noise from feeds from AppleInsider or MacRumors just to name a few obvious abusers would be impossible. These feeds are usually filled with ads disguised as posts. Filtering keywords include: Amazon, Deal, Rebate, Gift, Discount, Prime, Amazon. You get the idea.
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Taboola + Apple News? No thanks
Apple’s decision to strike a deal with Taboola is shocking and off-brand — so much so that I have started to question the company’s long-term commitment to good customer experience, including its commitment to privacy. As it chases more and more revenue to appease Wall Street, it’s clear Apple will become one of those companies that prioritize shareholders over paying customers and their experience.
I hate ads. I hate ads. This is a sad day. That is not cool at all. How can Apple brags about protecting user privacy (see that ad on YouTube?) and al while serving ads through an external ads network? More than ever, Apple is becoming like everyone else and IS profiling its users, for money. I’m starting to hate Tim Cook’s Apple. As soon as I see a change in News, I’ll cancel my subscription to Apple One.
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If Apple were to design a new router, the resulting device would likely resemble this one from Ubiquiti. The box has a similar aesthetic to Apple’s iconic networking hardware.
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Apple Is Telling Half the Story
There is something incomplete in how Apple is portraying Safari as a way to stay private when surfing the web. The ad is certainly visually striking, with surveillance cameras flying over people as they browse the web on their non-iPhone devices. It’s a compelling analogy. It reminds me of another Apple ad where a person is in a similar situation, being watched and followed by a group of people who want to know their online whereabouts.
But you know, Apple is mum about its deal with Google as being the default search engine in Safari. The last time I checked, Google isn’t the type of privacy-protection company you might think they are.
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Trying to Find Comforting Thoughts
Manuel Moreale reflecting on one hundred people who took the time to sign his guestbook (I did):
It’s the number of people who have taken a few minutes out of their busy lives to write something on my guestbook. One hundred doesn’t seem a lot in the grand scheme of things, especially on the web. If you have one hundred followers you might as well have zero. One hundred views on a YouTube video? That’s nothing. You need at least one hundred thousand to be part of the conversation. And yet, I find one hundred signatures in a guestbook to be a lot. Can you imagine having one hundred people in front of you, all saying something to you, one after the other? It would feel overwhelming.
I often think about this. Just like Manuel, I have a blog, a YouTube channel, a podcast (sort of). Globally, my follower counts are very low (even lower than Manuel’s) when looked through the Internet scale lens, but if those people were in front of me, in the same room, that would be quite something else. I find this thought to be comforting.
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I 🥰 the new design of Photos in iPadOS 18. Probably the most controversial opinion about iPadOS this year.
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So, iPadOS 18 beta3: nothing obvious, really. Feels snappy. Less buggy than expected. Some rough edges, of course. Autocorrect seems way better. Finally. Tempted by iOS 18 now. 🤦🏻♂️🤷🏻♂️
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But Techies Will Be Happy
But speaking of the DMA, Chromium is, far and away, the most popular browser engine that the DMA compels Apple to allow on iOS. There are legitimate reasons to wish that Apple allowed third-party browser engines on iOS. But there are also legitimate reasons why Apple doesn’t allow them. Chrome really is bad. Better to let the market decide than let clueless regulators decide.
I’m on the side of Gruber here. Governments are usually not very good at tech. We should always be on the doubters side when they want to regulate. Opening up the iPhone will make it weaker than today, not better. I would even argue that the vast majority of users will lose more than they gain. But some techies will be happy.
