Numeric Citizen Blog Posts Monthly Digest

Currently assessing the impacts of unsubscribing from ChatGPT. Image creation is the most obvious impact, but I rarely use it. I could switch to MidJourney for a third of the monthly price. API consumption is another factor, but none of my four API keys have been used in the last 30 days. According to Claude AI’s examination of my current n8n workflows, three are configured with an OpenAI API key. Investigating further.

Done. I exported my ChatGPT memory to Claude. I’m curious to see how Claude’s answers to my prompts will change from now on. Starting March 12th, I’ll be on Anthropic / Claude AI only.

Apple believes low-cost MacBook will be an ‘incredible value,’ tempting switchers: report — 9to5Mac

Internally, the low-end MacBook is being described as an “incredible value,” with Apple believing the launch is going to drive a serious number of switchers from Windows machines and Chromebooks. It could even compel iPhone users without computers to buy their first Mac.

I’m trying to convince my wife to buy one as she finds the iPad to be lacking for certain tasks. I suggested that we buy one of those new entry-level MacBook to try it out without much obligation as we can return the thing in less than 14 days.

Apple Reportedly Expects ‘Major Rush’ of Customers This Week:

The new product likely to receive the most interest is the rumored lower-cost MacBook, which is described as an “incredible value” within Apple, according to the newsletter. Apple believes that a more affordable MacBook will help to “drive a serious number of switchers from Windows machines and Chromebooks,” wrote Gurman.

Somehow, I think that if the price is really competitive, Apple’s bet is that services will subsidize this entry-level MacBook price.

Claude hits #1 on the App Store as users rally behind Anthropic’s government standoff — 9to5Mac

While the long-term consequences of this disagreement are unclear, Anthropic appears to be winning in mindshare, at least for now, in terms of app downloads among iPhone users.

If Anthropic was a publicly traded company ten times their current valuation, would they still stand out against the US government? Asking for a fictional friend at Apple.

Welcome (back) to Macintosh, by Jesper @ Take

“My hope is that, just as Apple crawled out of a hardware nightmare pockmarked by thermal throttling, keyboards incapacitated by strands of human hair and lack of respect for its users needs, it can choose to refocus its software and its humility too, and stop doing this to the bicycle for the mind.”

I think we will have to wait, the upcoming week’s releases are about Apple hardware…

Of course, I had to create my own… miniroll… nice mini webapp… still wondering if I’m going to support Chris. Probably.

Prices of the new iPad Air and iPhone 17e seems in line with previous generation products they replace and not affected by the current tech environment where prices are going up drastically… it looks rather well too for the upcoming entry-level MacBook pricing.

Apple is still proud of Liquid Glass. Found on the iPhone 17e mini website. 😵‍💫

★ HazeOver — Mac Utility for Highlighting the Frontmost Window:

Dim that background for me, will ya?

What HazeOver does is highlight the active window by dimming all background windows. That’s it. But it does this simple task with aplomb, and it makes a significant difference in the day-to-day usability of MacOS. Not just MacOS 26 Tahoe — all recent versions of MacOS suffer from a design that makes it difficult to distinguish, instantly, the frontmost (a.k.a. key) window from background windows.1 Making all background windows a little dimmer makes a notable difference.

For some reason, I forgot about this Mac utility. It was installed on my Mac mini, but disabled. It’s now installed and enabled on my MacBook Air with a 40% dimming value. Makes a big difference.

Apple Does Value (Week) — On my Om

Apple has decided that $599 is the new floor for a “real” Apple device—not a hand-me-down, not last year’s leftovers, but a current-generation product with current-generation silicon.

If Om Malik is right, this would put the new entry-level MacBook price at 599 US$. The question now becomes: what do you get for that amount of money beyond the A18 Pro chip?

2026-03-03 ∞

iBook > MacBook Neo ? 🧐

2026-03-03 ∞

Apple Does Fusion.:

To understand what Apple launched today, we have to go back just over five years, when Apple launched the M1 in November 2020. I wrote then:

“This approach to integration into a single chip, maximum throughput, rapid access to memory, optimal computing performance based on the task, and adaptation to machine learning algorithms is the future — not only for mobile chips, but also for desktop and laptop computers.”

That turned out to be right.

What Apple achieved with their new M5 Pro and M5 Max is quite impressive. Even more impressive is that the architectural decisions made back in 2020 (or earlier) are still paying off today. If only Apple had the wisdom to make similar smart decisions with Siri architecture. Apple seems stuck on redoing its homework forever with software.

People’s reactions to Apple hardware announcements so far have been quite positive, if not enthusiastic, much more so than any software announcements in recent years. The difference is stark.

One vendor doesn’t mind high RAM prices: VMware — The Register

The high price of memory and solid-state storage has almost everyone worried – but not VMware, because the most innovative new feature in the Cloud Foundation 9 (VCF 9) private cloud suite it launched last year is memory tiering tech that allows offload of data from RAM to NVMe drives.

VMware has always promoted VCF 9 memory tiering as offering the chance to reduce infrastructure costs by reducing the amount of RAM needed in new servers, and by creating the opportunity to upgrade the NVMe drives in old boxes and effectively increase their memory capacity.

Well, yeah, memory tiering certainly helps reduce the cost of servers, but even NVMe drives, which are built on electronic chips too, are impacted by price increases. And, servers must be compatible with this feature. No magic bullet here.

Good Job Apple, Now Back to Software?

Ok, Apple did a great job this week. A lot has already been said about Apple’s announcements. The MacBook Neo is a killer, even as an entry device. My wife is getting one. It’s the original Mac mini in a laptop shape. Apple did a great balancing act with the Neo. The only two quibbles: only 8 GB of RAM (I wanted 12 GB) and the lack of a MagSafe port.

Now, I hope Apple can do as good a job on the software as it did on the hardware. There is so much to fix.

‘The Window Chrome of Our Discontent’:

I’m really tempted by the MacBook Neo, but really, it makes no sense as an owner of an M4 iPad Pro with a Magic Keyboard: it’s a powerhouse in a compact design. The only problem: iPadOS. It’s THE biggest issue in this story.

2026-03-06 ∞

A UI should step back and let user content come forward. But Apple often treats the UI itself as a key part of its identity and differentiation. That creates a tension: the more the UI disappears, the harder it becomes for Apple to stand apart from Microsoft or Google.

2026-03-06 ∞

This entire idea that application window chrome should disappear is madness. Some people — at Apple, quite obviously — think it looks better, in the abstract, but I can’t see how it makes actually using these apps more productive. Artists don’t want to use invisible tools.

Well, if window chrome is absent, what’s left for Apple to differentiate itself from others than UI elements inside a window? Buttons!

2026-03-06 ∞

Neon Signs — Take

Let’s leave the software malaise aside for a moment, hard as that might be; the Neo is a scrappy assemblage of parts, that is trying to find a new route to what Apple considers acceptable, and that is a sign of health.

Working on my future bookmarks manager webapp. I’m still refining the specs document. I decided to add the possibility to save text quotes in addition to bookmarks. Quotes might be linked to a bookmark. My specs document is quite long and detailed. I wonder how good Claude Code will be to digest all this from the start.

It’s a good start. Looks quite different than my other web app. Still a lot to implement.

The New Apple Finally Begins to Emerge — Parker Ortolani

Molly Anderson’s already proven herself to be an incredibly talented industrial designer, and if the latest iPhones and the MacBook Neo are the first real fruits of her leadership, that bodes incredibly well for the future.

New product design at Apple takes a long time. How much of influence those two new figures had on the MacBook Neo?

Apple Planning ‘MacBook Ultra’ With Touchscreen and Higher Price:

Lil Finder Guy — Basic Apple Guy

Who is it? What is it? Is it friend or foe? Has it arrived in peace, or is it plotting to corrupt our SSDs and fray our USB-C cables?

I hope Apple keep the little guy for a while. It’s so cute and fun.

2026-03-08 ∞

Instead of succeeding the newly announced M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros, the “MacBook Ultra” will be a new, top-tier Apple laptop. Gurman added that the device is likely to sit above the current M5 MacBook Pros, rather than replace them, suggesting that they will remain on sale.

Well, how many laptops can Apple have in their product line?

2026-03-08 ∞

FBI is investigating breach that may have hit its wiretapping tools — The Register

The FBI identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks related to wiretapping and surveillance systems, marking a significant breach of law enforcement infrastructure.

The same FBI that demanded Apple build a backdoor for them in 2016?

2026-03-08 ∞

I completely put aside OpenClaw experimentation since its creator went to OpenAI. It’s not about OpenAI owning the thing, which seems it’s not the case, I simply decided to let the thing mature while I’m finishing my other projects which consume a lot of AI credits anyway. I’ll get back to it eventually.

The New Apple Finally Begins to Emerge:

The MacBook Neo is a new kind of product for Apple, unveiled in a new way, with new materials, by an array of fresher faces. These new products being unveiled at the same time the faces of the company are beginning to change feels like a turning point. You could argue Neo is one of, if not the first product of this new Apple

I, too, do see a different Apple vibe with the launch of the MacBook Neo. Just using a different name instead of iBook (which they could have done) is sign sign that they are willing to try different things.

Introducing Inkwell: manton.org

Manton Reece https://www.manton.org/2026/03/09/introducing-inkwell.html

I was (and still am) so excited about Inkwell that I created a video tour. Very personal. I originally thought the name would be Micro.ink, but the real name is Inkwell, while the URL is micro.ink. I wasn’t sure when I recorded the video yesterday. Now I know. Thanks to @manton for this!

I need to start organizing a reunion for the university alumni (class of 1990), and the first challenge that arises is: how can we communicate with each other if I don’t want to use a Meta service (WhatsApp, Messenger) and I want to reach as many people as possible without everyone having to become ‘friends’ on Facebook? ☹️

Forty years ago, before the Internet, we used the phone to talk to each other, a service often owned by a single nationwide company. We were okay with that, even if, in some jurisdictions, people talked about a monopoly. Now, it’s very different. What makes this less acceptable to me today? 🤔

For now, we will use Messenger because some people don’t have iPhones and can’t use FaceTime. 🙄

My use case for Inkwell, for now, is to consume content from my blogroll feeds. I asked for a sync option with Inoreader, my beloved RSS sync service, but I don’t want to break the calmness of using Inkwell. 🙏🏻

I didn’t expect Inkwell to come with an API… I’m very curious about that because it could mean that I could replace the data persistence layer of my personal RSS web app with Inkwell’s. Something to think about. 🤔👨🏻‍💻

Anybox date importation is nearly ready, complete with support for tags! I think the weekend I spent building the specs instead of rushing to start coding is paying off. Even using Claude AI for coding an app, some development rules stay the same: think before you code. Or something along this line.

Apple’s new MacBooks have keyboard change you might notice instantly — 9to5Mac

Apple’s new M5 MacBooks drop text labels on several common keys, including tab, caps lock, and more, replacing them with glyphs that have long been the standard outside the United States.

Welcome to 2026.

2026-03-10 ∞

MacBook Neo reviews are very positive. A few reviewers compare the Neo to “comparable” Windows laptops, all of them with 16GB of RAM. At the end of the day, it doesn’t help the Windows story much. Reviewers fail to mention the Windows reality: the need to include security software that will eat up precious CPU cycles in order to keep Windows secure. That’s the reality. Anyway, Apple’s offering is honest and very valuable for a lot of people. I don’t remember the last time a new Apple product generated that level of positive buzz. Bravo.

2026-03-10 ∞

Gruber’s review of ★ The MacBook Neo:

I’ll just say it: I think I’m done with iPads. Why bother when Apple is now making a crackerjack Mac laptop that starts at just $600? May the MacBook Neo live so long that its name becomes inapt.

😳

2026-03-10 ∞

The Essence of a Machine — On my Om

The MacBook Neo is a laptop. A complete, beautiful, sufficient laptop. It costs $599, but the real disruption is not the price. It is the reminder that “enough” is not a failure of ambition. It is often the highest form of design.

I love this.

Grammarly’s ‘Expert Review’ Feature Presents Fake Advice in the Names of Real Journalists and Authors — Pixel Envy

Grammarly’s “expert review” feature uses AI-generated text attributed to real people and deceased figures without their consent or knowledge, merely slapping their names on insights they never created.

Can we say “Corporate slop”? I think we can.

ChatGPT Plus subscription cancelled. Now, I could upgrade my Micro.blog subscription to Studio to support @manton in its mission!

If I were to buy a MacBook Neo, I would turn off Apple Intelligence to reduce resources consumption. But according to the reviews published this week, it appears that this wouldn’t be necessary. The Neo is really a capable machine even with only 8GB of RAM.

The New Apple Finally Begins to Emerge:

The MacBook Neo is a new kind of product for Apple, unveiled in a new way, with new materials, by an array of fresher faces. These new products being unveiled at the same time the faces of the company are beginning to change feels like a turning point. You could argue Neo is one of, if not the first product of this new Apple.

I hope Parker is right. I do too feel something different. Is it only Neo-related or is it more profound?

My personal and web-based bookmark manager was built mainly to support my workflow of creating each edition of the Ephemeral Scrapbook newsletter. And it works great, so far.

Halide Cofounder Sebastiaan de With Joined Apple’s Design Team in January:

When de With published his essay, it was as an idea for where Apple might go. Now that we’ve seen and been living with Liquid Glass, his essay works even better as a roadmap for the direction Liquid Glass should head.

I really hope De With was hired, not only for his talent, but for the work he did behind his essay: Physicality: the new age of UI.

The Essence of a Machine

“Neo does not mean more. It means the return to what is essential.”

— On my Om

The more I think about it, the more willing I am to try it: build a Micro.blog theme using Claude AI. As much as I like my current theme, I want something closer to the usual “Numeric Citizen” branding.

A few notes about the MacBook Neo:

It will be interesting to see in the next 2 or 3 quarters the effect of the MacBook Neo on the Mac sales (harder to tell as low priced Mac won’t make a big difference in revenue numbers) and the IPad sales. If both move in opposite directions then we could potentially conclude on the Neo effect.

2026-03-12 ∞

At the Apple Store for testing the Neo. Two things: I prefer its trackpad over my MacBook Air’s. The speaker grill can easily be bended with a nail. Much faster than I thought. Nice feel in the hands. Great size. Impressed. Bought one for my wife.

2026-03-12 ∞

‘Software Bonkers’:

Don’t get distracted by the mountains of steaming shit that hacks are using these tools to spew. There are amazing things being built by these tools that never would have, or in some cases could have, been built before.

So far, with the help of Claude Code, I have built: a Micro.blog front end, a Scribbles page front end, a perfect RSS feed reader, a personal dashboard, and a bookmark manager. I’me super happy to have tools that really fit my workflows, my working style and my blogger journey. Without Claude Code, I would need to resort to existing but not-as-satisfying tools. Next, I want to build my own Micro.blog visual theme plugin. Plus, this morning, while Things 3 was open on my MacBook, I realized that I could build my very own personal task manager. The only limit is my imagination.

2026-03-13 ∞

Since my bookmark manager is almost complete, I plan to record a demo to share here. I like its integration with my other web apps, such as the Micro.blog front-end for posting linkposts and the feature that exports selected links and quotes to a markdown file, which will be included in an upcoming ephemeral scrapbook edition.

2026-03-14 ∞

Mark Gurman in No Major Changes to Liquid Glass Expected Across iOS 27 and macOS 27 said:

Apple’s new software design chief, Steve Lemay, was “a driving force” behind Liquid Glass and was “deeply involved in its development.”

I’m not sure we are still so excited for Lemay replacing Alan Dye now. 😳

2026-03-15 ∞

Just as streaming services helped lower the cost of music, AI is reducing the price of software even more than the subscription model does. The downside is that AI is driving hardware prices up, and it’s uncertain whether we will ever see the return of the always-cheaper hardware trend.

2026-03-15 ∞

Reuters: Meta Is Planning to Wreck the Lives of 20% of Its Staff Because It Is Spending So Much on Data Centres — Pixel Envy

Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.

Wow, that’s a lot of people! Is Alan Dye in the bunch? 👀

2026-03-15 ∞

I’m not thrilled by the lack of backlighting in the keyboard. Maybe it’ll appear in the pricier model in a future iteration. The keys are white/tinted, so maybe the printing is contrasty enough to make the key symbols visible even in poor light. I was willing to put this in the ‘okay’ category, but I can’t help feeling this was an unnecessary corner for Apple to cut.

My wife also has some negative comments about the keyboard. Not only it doesn’t include backlighting, since the keycaps aren’t pure white, the contrast is lower which negatively affect the readability in low light conditions.

2026-03-16 ∞

It’s Your Fault Really:

It fits the broader pattern of what Meta is becoming. AI slop in your feed, fake engagement bots, insecure messaging. The direction of travel is obvious. None of these things are surprises or mistakes. They are deliberate decisions made by a company that has decided the path forward is to extract as much attention and data as possible, and anything that gets in the way of that, including basic privacy protections, gets quietly deprecated because apparently not enough of you were using it.

And Meta is about to deprecate 20% of its workforce because of… too much spending on AI infrastructure that doesn’t move the revenue needle. What a wonderful American corporation.

2026-03-17 ∞

Apple CEO Tim Cook Responds to Retirement Rumors — MacRumors

“I can’t imagine life without Apple.”

But can we imagine Apple without Tim Cook? Probably yes for many.

2026-03-17 ∞

It’s uncertain whether Apple will keep Liquid Glass unchanged in iOS 27, and it’s premature to conclude. The latest iOS 27 build reportedly doesn’t update Liquid Glass, so no definitive judgment should be made. If iOS 27 is a Snow Leopard release, significant UI changes are unlikely. Gurman should be better than that.

2026-03-17 ∞

The iPhone 5 and the MacBook Neo

One of the best iPhone design, the iPhone 5, is now obsolete for Apple, which means is no longer serviceable. It was one of my favorite design of all the iPhone partly because of the tech context it was living. But iOS 6 on this was pure beauty.

As a side note, it’s funny to see reviews of the MacBook Neo where none of them mention macOS as being part of the machine. What makes a Mac is not only the hardware, but the software. I guess tech pundits had to exclude macOS from the equation. Or is it because the Neo design is so unique, so enchanting that the software story has to be sidelined?

I’m so anxious for Apple to fix macOS.

2026-03-18 ∞

The iPad Pro on The Road for Office Work

Finally, I configured my personal iPad Pro with all my office tools. I certainly wish my job would allow me to use a Mac, but no.

The iPad is very good in this scenario with all the M365 apps (bleh). Battery life is 20 times better than my HP laptop, without the always-on noisy fans. I understand this device is way more powerful than the MacBook Neo, much more compact, three times more expensive for an inferior software experience. That is quite a paradox.

Today, I’m going to the administrative head office, a three-hour drive, using the office’s business bus, specially designed for workers on the road (sure, the Corporation wants always-productive employees!).

Life of an IT worker.

2026-03-18 ∞

A Little Rant about LinkedIn

Rant of the day: Why is Microsoft not caring about making the LinkedIn app a better app, a better mobile experience? Aren’t they using designers? UX specialists? Even AI? Aren’t they taking care of their brand and image? I mean, using this app on the iPad is such a displeasure.

If someone from Microsoft and / or LinkedIn responsible for this app: have tried it once for real on the iPad? Are you ok with this? Really? If you aren’t, and obviously cannot do anything about it, why are you still working there?

Rant off.

2026-03-18 ∞

Gruber’s reaction to Hacker News Discussion on Shubham Bose’s ‘The 49MB Web Page’:

One of the most controversial opinions I’ve long espoused, and believe today more than ever, is that it was a terrible mistake for web browsers to support JavaScript. Not that they should have picked a different language, but that they supported scripting at all. That decision turned web pages — which were originally intended as documents — into embedded computer programs.

It’s hard to imagine the web without JavaScript, only as a collection of static, linked documents served by essentially passive file servers.

2026-03-19 ∞

Mark Gurman (@markgurman@mastodon.social)

Google is ramping up development of a dedicated Gemini AI app for Apple Inc.’s Mac computer lineup, looking to step up competition with OpenAI and Anthropic

Suddenly, building a Mac app is sexy again. Who knew. There is an ad concept, right there, Apple!

2026-03-19 ∞

An unexpected side-effect of the MacBook Neo release on my purchase plans is that going with an M5-MacBook Air, I would rather select a 13-inch format instead of the 15-inch, saving some money that I would rather put on more RAM, instead (24 GB or even 32 GB instead of 16 GB). I think 13-inch is the perfect size for a travel companion. I get the portability of the Neo but the power of the M5 chip. But, I’m not there yet. Still rather happy with my M2 15-inch MacBook Air.

2026-03-20 ∞

It seems I cannot finish this bookmark manager as I always find something to tweak, add or improve. I hope to record the video tomorrow! 👨🏻‍💻

2026-03-20 ∞

It’s rather impressive how slowly things are turning for the worse in the Middle East. It won’t end well. And it will last much longer than originally claimed. I hope this will be all the nails required for his coffin.

2026-03-20 ∞

Many MacBook Neo reviewers are impressed by its ability to open 10 or 15 apps at once without the Neo feeling sluggish. Well, having some basic knowledge of operating system theory would help understand why. Launching 10 apps simultaneously will certainly stress the Neo, but once they are in memory, of course, the Neo isn’t affected; those apps become quite dormant, using very few CPU cycles and less memory (thanks to macOS memory management). Of course, if an app is exporting a video in the background, it could impact the Neo’s overall responsiveness. Big difference.

2026-03-21 ∞

Started working on my next YouTube video. I consider myself not very good at this. It takes way too much of my time to create a single one, but I sometimes want to share things I otherwise couldn’t in written blog posts. One of the things I should do for each video is write a script. I don’t. I never did. I’m a “go with the flow” type of guy when I record. I don’t feel at ease when reading something in front of the camera (and I don’t have the right desk setup for that).

2026-03-21 ∞

“We’re the last people in this business who give a shit about making great computers.”:

I think that this newly discovered footage of Steve Jobs congratulating Apple employees at an outdoor all-hands meeting at the Infinite Loop campus following MacWorld New York in 1999 is some of the most important that exists of him.

I just found out about this clip of Steve Jobs, recorded back in 1999. It was a fascinating thing to watch in the context of the just-released MacBook Neo, while this clip covers the iBooks launch era. I think today’s Apple is staying true to the original vision of the iBook.

MacBook Neo review: I wish this had an M1 inside:

The MacBook Neo is a cool little computer that I like, despite the fact that, on paper, it’s a pretty irrational purchase for most people (including myself). When I take a step back from the current hype cycle, I think this product is a tale of two halves: one outstanding, and the other pretty rough.

Here is an honest review of the MacBook Neo, a review that stands out compared to everything I’ve read and heard about it. I’m not sure that I agree with all of it, like the sound quality, but I think it’s important to amplify this type of review.

Untitled — Manton Reece

NetNewsWire via AppleScript via MCP… I wonder what the future of scriptability is. We’ve got AppleScript, Shortcuts, App Intents, and MCP. But meanwhile you have agents which are fine just firing up command-line tools.

One day, I would argue that most apps will come with their MCP endpoint.

I finally put together a video demonstration of my RSS Reader and Bookmark Manager. It’s a much longer video than originally anticipated, that is why it is being posted on my YouTube channel instead of Micro.blog. You’ll get to see both apps in action. I’m rather proud of thse apps, they are now essential for me.

Steve Jobs Talks iBook, AirPort, and More in Newly Surfaced 1999 Video — MacRumors

The talk outlines Apple’s product strategy at the time, centered on its four-quadrant lineup of consumer and professional desktops and portables. With the iBook, Jobs said the matrix was complete alongside the iMac, Power Mac G3, and PowerBook G3, and noted that several of these products were already on their second or third iterations.

Incremental updates isn’t something new at Apple. Gurman lamenting about recent updates being incremental shouldn’t know better.

2026-03-23 ∞

Micro.blog News:

Added new “OPML Sync…” button on Account for Inkwell users. This lets you set an external OPML file (for example from FeedLand or another feed platform) that Inkwell will automatically import feeds from.

Oh, cool! I updated my RSS reader to generate such a consumable file, making it the single source of truth.

2026-03-23 ∞

Developers targeting Apple platforms, particularly the Mac, are expressing frustration over TestFlight approvals that take over a week. They attribute the delays to Apple being overwhelmed by the influx of vibe-coded app submissions. Is this explanation accurate?

2026-03-26 ∞

Vibe coding SwiftUI apps is a lot of fun — Simon Willison

A full SwiftUI app can fit in a single text file, which means Claude can be used to build complete macOS applications through conversational prompts alone.

How much of that tech Apple will ever adopt inside the company, or let developers take advantage of in Xcode, is yet to be known.

Successful products — Manuel Moreale

A product being popular is an indication of a lot of people using it. Doesn’t necessarily mean that the product is good. Doesn’t necessarily mean it’s successful.

Exhibit A: all Microsoft 365 products, which contain so many paper cuts.

I officially lost my Apple Pencil Pro. This 200 CAN$ doesn’t support Find My??? WTF. This is the second time I’m losing an Apple Pencil. The first time was the original one.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple come up with Siri+ or to take a cut on third party AI offerings that support iOS 27 new AI-related features. I would probably plug my Claude AI subscription into this provided Anthropic support is enacted.

Daring Fireball commenting ‘How Apple Became Apple: The Definitive Oral History of the Company’s Earliest Days’

Apple is at its best when it’s infused with a bit of the spirit of the two Steves whose first joint venture were blue boxes that let you make long distance phone calls for free. The first public phone call Steve Jobs ever made on an iPhone was a prank call to the Starbucks next to Moscone West. I feel like that renegade spirit has been repressed in the Tim Cook era.

Indeed. Ternus could change that; that’s my expectation.

9to5Mac’s article “Vibe coding could mark the end of the App Store review process as we know it”:

Summary

The rise of AI-powered “agentic coding” has overwhelmed Apple’s App Store review process, with developers reporting review times of 3+ days to a week instead of the traditional under-24-hour turnaround. The influx of fully AI-generated apps from new developers has created a bottleneck for human reviewers, making it unfair for established developers whose update submissions are delayed. To address this, the author suggests Apple could implement separate review queues for established developers or automate updates while maintaining human review only for new submissions, though it may ultimately become necessary to reduce or eliminate full human review.

I don’t see the current review process at Apple as sustainable. I can imagine parts of the current workflow being automated (like finding instances of private API usage in application binaries). But, just for vibe coding, reviewing app submissions should be human-gated. An AI agent could even run the app in a simulator for testing.

Apple is sure to release iOS 26.5 beta, when is still an unknown, but also unknown is what Apple Intelligence/ Siri new features Apple will want users to test that cannot wait iOS 27. 👀 We shall see very soon.

Everything New in iOS 26.5 Beta 1:

iOS 26.5 is now available for developers, and while it doesn’t include any new Siri capabilities, there are some major changes for the European Union, and smaller tweaks for features available worldwide.

A meagre release, except for the EU. I find it stupid that Apple doesn’t enable the same feature set in the Americas market. Apple being… Apple.

Apple Maps Is Getting Ads. It’s Apple’s Riskiest Bet Yet — I might like Apple ads, after all. #not