Back in May, 2023, Gruber on Bluesky. ​

John Gruber @gruber@mastodon.social

Bluesky is going to skyrocket to mainstream popularity and actually replace Twitter, and Mastodon cannot, because Bluesky is being designed to be simple, fun, and — most importantly — easy to understand.

5:18 AM • May 5, 2023 (UTC)

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 … read more

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 🙄).

Bye bye Apple frames shortcut¹, hello Shareshot!

I’m currently testing a new blog post editor on Micro.blog. On the surface, everything looks familiar. The preview button behaviour is the one that surprised me the most as it replaces the blog post content with the preview, unlike before where the preview was underneath. Not having “auto-save” functionality is still a bit troubling to me, in 2024, though.

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.

When things go wrong at work, when numbers don’t add up to meet high sales expectations, only then people starts to question things. It’s only in these harder days that we can really start to find new ways, reimagine how we do business. Those hard times are sometimes necessary for a company to … read more

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 … read more

@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.

The United States announces a new tranche of military aid to Ukraine, at the same time as the latter carries out a significant incursion into Russian territory, an unprecedented gesture that could give a new dynamic to this protracted conflict. The signal from the United States is clear: we continue to believe that Ukraine is only defending itself.

The Ukrainian forces have been advancing deep into Russia, in the Kursk oblast, for the past few days, destroying the Russian army on the roads while advancing, without much resistance. They have now progressed approximately 30 kilometers past the Ukrainian border.

This is a major development in this insane war.

Surprisingly, it is not widely covered in the news here in Canada. The Ukrainian army is establishing currency exchange facilities in the near future. I don’t see how Russia is going to “fix” this without a bloodshed, again. Putin must be a little bit upset, I guess. Or maybe not.

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 … read more

Thought of the day: Watch out democrats, Trump and Vance aren’t just weirdos. They are disfigured fascists.

When I read the Threads app data privacy fact sheet on the App Store yesterday night and read a few « reviews », I quickly came back to earth and decided (again) to not join Threads. Time to focus on what I already have.

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.