FEED Validator

Congratulations!

This is a valid Atom 1.0 feed.

Recommendations

This feed is valid, but interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendations.

• line 13, column 66: Unregistered link relationship: shorturl (48 occurrences) [help]

  	<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdn" />
                                                                    ^

• line 1064, column 0: content should not contain controls attribute (2 occurrences) [help]

  <p><audio
  

• line 1064, column 0: content should not contain preload attribute (2 occurrences) [help]

  <p><audio
  

Source: http://daringfireball.net/index.xml

1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2. <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
3. <title>Daring Fireball</title>
4. <subtitle>By John Gruber</subtitle>
5. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/" />
6. <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/main" />
7. <id>https://daringfireball.net/feeds/main</id>
8.  
9.  
10. <updated>2025-06-06T02:56:35Z</updated><rights>Copyright © 2025, John Gruber</rights><entry>
11. <title>Neven Mrgan on Why Skeuomorphism Is Like a Classic Car</title>
12. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://appdocumentary.com/2015/01/08/neven-mrgan-on-why-skeuomorphism-is-like-a-classic-car/" />
13. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdn" />
14. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/neven-mrgan-on-why-skeuomorphism-is-like-a-classic-car" />
15. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41963</id>
16. <published>2025-06-06T02:56:09Z</published>
17. <updated>2025-06-06T02:56:35Z</updated>
18. <author>
19. <name>John Gruber</name>
20. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
21. </author>
22. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
23. <p>Jake Schumacher, director of the 2017 documentary <em><a href="https://appdocumentary.com/">App: The Human Story</a></em>, sent me a note that Sebastiaan de With’s post this week, “<a href="https://www.lux.camera/physicality-the-new-age-of-ui/">Physicality: The New Age of UI</a>” (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/sdw-physicality-new-age">my thoughts here</a>), reminded him of a clip from the movie where Neven Mrgan compared Skeuomorphic design to classic cars from the 1940s and ’50s. So true. If you’ve got two and half minutes to spare, watch this.</p>
24.  
25. <div>
26. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Neven Mrgan on Why Skeuomorphism Is Like a Classic Car’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/neven-mrgan-on-why-skeuomorphism-is-like-a-classic-car">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
27. </div>
28.  
29. ]]></content>
30.  </entry><entry>
31. <title>The Comma That Might Cost Apple Billions in Europe</title>
32. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://cafetechinenglish.substack.com/p/a-simple-comma-will-cost-apple-billion?r=6gzkf&amp;triedRedirect=true" />
33. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdm" />
34. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/the-comma-that-might-cost-apple-billions-in-europe" />
35. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41962</id>
36. <published>2025-06-06T00:09:24Z</published>
37. <updated>2025-06-06T00:10:26Z</updated>
38. <author>
39. <name>John Gruber</name>
40. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
41. </author>
42. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
43. <p>Jérôme Marin, writing at Cafétech:</p>
44.  
45. <blockquote>
46.  <p>The disagreement between Apple and Brussels centers on Article
47. 5.4. In its English version, the article states that the
48. gatekeeper — the term used by the Commission for the seven major
49. tech companies subject to the DMA — <em>“shall allow business users,
50. free of charge, to communicate and promote offers, including under
51. different conditions […], and to conclude contracts with those end
52. users.”</em></p>
53.  
54. <p>This lengthy sentence creates ambiguity: what exactly does <em>“free
55. of charge”</em> apply to? Apple claims it only applies to
56. <em>“communicate”</em> and <em>“promote,”</em> meaning the right to insert
57. redirect links in an app. But not to <em>“conclude contracts,”</em>
58. meaning making purchases. Based on that, Apple argues it can still
59. charge commissions on those external transactions.</p>
60.  
61. <p>The European Commission interprets it differently: contract
62. conclusion must also be free of charge. It relies on the comma
63. before the phrase <em>“and to conclude contracts,”</em> turning the
64. sentence into an <em>“enumeration.” “That ‘free of charge’ applies to
65. all that is being enumerated after”,</em> it explains in <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/competition/digital_markets_act/cases/202522/DMA_100109_906.pdf">its detailed
66. decision sent to Apple</a> as part of the €500 million fine,
67. which was made public last week.</p>
68.  
69. <p><em>“In other words, the price for app developers to pay [for
70. external purchases] is zero,”</em> writes the Commission. However, its
71. case could be weakened by inconsistencies in the French and German
72. translations of the text, which it acknowledges are <em>“ambiguous.”</em>
73. Still, <em>“other linguistic versions leave no room for
74. interpretation,”</em> notes Brussels.</p>
75. </blockquote>
76.  
77. <p>I understand why EU laws are published in multiple languages, but it’s wild that that can create possible loopholes like this. But it seems rather obvious what the EC’s intention was here, and it wasn’t for Apple to charge commissions — let alone steep commissions — on transactions that take place outside the app after users tap a link to the web. If I were one of Apple’s lawyers, I’d argue about the placement of a comma too, and what it implies about what “free of charge” applies to. But the EC’s intentions are obvious. It’s not really about a comma.</p>
78.  
79. <p>On this particular issue Apple seems to be facing the exact same pushback in the EU <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/apple-appeal-denied-antisteering">as in the US</a>: their anti-steering rules in the App Store aren’t legal.</p>
80.  
81. <div>
82. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘The Comma That Might Cost Apple Billions in Europe’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/the-comma-that-might-cost-apple-billions-in-europe">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
83. </div>
84.  
85. ]]></content>
86.  </entry><entry>
87. <title>9to5Mac on The Talk Show Livestream Returning to Theater for VisionOS</title>
88. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/06/05/theater-the-talk-show-live-3d/" />
89. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdl" />
90. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/9to5mac-on-the-talk-show-livestream-returning-to-theater" />
91. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41961</id>
92. <published>2025-06-05T22:01:20Z</published>
93. <updated>2025-06-05T22:01:21Z</updated>
94. <author>
95. <name>John Gruber</name>
96. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
97. </author>
98. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
99. <p>Nice write-up from Zac Hall at 9to5Mac:</p>
100.  
101. <blockquote>
102.  <p>Theater for visionOS <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2024/06/10/sandwich-debuts-theater-for-vision-pro-with-exclusive-the-talk-show-live-event-in-immersive-video/">premiered</a> a year ago with a clever
103. software launch campaign: exclusively streaming John Gruber’s The
104. Talk Show post-WWDC event live with 3D video.</p>
105.  
106. <p>The Apple Vision Pro app has continued to mature since its debut,<a href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/01/06/the-best-plex-video-player-for-apple-vision-pro-just-got-way-better/">
107. adding extensive Plex support</a> and <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2024/12/23/apple-vision-pro-just-got-a-planetarium-and-its-friggin-awesome/">a full-blown immersive
108. planetarium</a> that now hosts the <a href="https://sandwich.vision/press/partners/resolution-press-release.html">2025 SXSW award-winning
109. “Resolution” music experience</a>.</p>
110.  
111. <p>Next up, Theater is returning as the exclusive home to The Talk
112. Show Live event stream.</p>
113. </blockquote>
114.  
115. <p>First, as Hall points out, if you haven’t heard or thought about the Theater app for VisionOS since my show last year, there is now a ton of interesting immersive content there. Second, I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read commentary, or listened to people on podcasts, wonder why there are hardly any “<em>just make it feel like you’re there, in the audience, for the show</em>” immersive shows for VisionOS.</p>
116.  
117. <p>That’s what Sandwich Vision did last year, and is doing even better this year, with my show. I thought it was kind of odd that me, of all people, and my once-a-year, not-that-big-a-deal-outside-the-Apple-nerd-media-world show, was the first to livestream an immersive show experience for VisionOS. Maybe there were others first for Meta’s low-res headsets, but if there were, I’m not aware of them. My show last year really might have been first for any immersive headset.</p>
118.  
119. <p>Afterward, I figured by this year, while it might not be commonplace — simply because Vision Pro ownership is, you know, not that high — it wouldn’t be unusual. But it still is. I honestly don’t get why that is. Anyway, like I wrote in the previous post, if you can make the show, <a href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2025">you really should attend</a>. But if you can’t make the show, you definitely should watch live <a href="https://theater.sandwich.vision/">in Theater</a>.</p>
120.  
121. <div>
122. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘9to5Mac on The Talk Show Livestream Returning to Theater for VisionOS’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/9to5mac-on-the-talk-show-livestream-returning-to-theater">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
123. </div>
124.  
125. ]]></content>
126.  </entry><entry>
127. <title>Theater Announces Immersive Livestream of The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2025</title>
128. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://sandwich.vision/press/partners/tts-live-2025-press-release.html" />
129. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdk" />
130. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/theater-livestream-the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2025" />
131. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41960</id>
132. <published>2025-06-05T21:46:56Z</published>
133. <updated>2025-06-05T21:46:57Z</updated>
134. <author>
135. <name>John Gruber</name>
136. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
137. </author>
138. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
139. <p>Sandwich Vision:</p>
140.  
141. <blockquote>
142.  <p>Theater, the premier platform for spatial media, cinema and events
143. on Apple Vision Pro, is proud to announce the immersive livestream
144. of The Talk Show Live from WWDC on Tuesday, June 10, 2025.</p>
145.  
146. <p>Following last year’s groundbreaking first-ever immersive
147. livestream of the event from John Gruber, host of The Talk Show
148. podcast and author of the renowned Apple blog Daring Fireball,
149. Theater returns with an enhanced experience that builds on a full
150. year of platform development and partnerships.</p>
151.  
152. <p>“When we launched Theater last year to showcase The Talk Show
153. Live, we weren’t just experimenting — we were inviting people to
154. experience a new kind of immersion. Bringing Apple executives into
155. spatial media wasn’t just a world first; it was a glimpse of how
156. shared experiences can transcend screens,” said Adam Lisagor, CEO
157. and founder of Sandwich Vision. “This year, we’re not just adding
158. features — we’re refining how people can feel connected, curious,
159. and delighted together, again and again. Our goal is to make
160. presence and participation the new standard for special events,
161. where technology fades away, and what remains is the shared magic
162. of being there.”</p>
163.  
164. <p>The livestream will be available in both 2D and 3D formats. While
165. the 2D stream will be offered free of charge, the premium 3D
166. immersive experience will be available for $11.99 for tickets
167. purchased in advance, increasing to $14.99 on the day of the
168. event. All ticket holders will receive permanent access to a
169. pristine 6K version of the event to watch forever.</p>
170. </blockquote>
171.  
172. <p>Make your purchases right in the <a href="https://theater.sandwich.vision/">Theater app</a>. I’m snarky in the press release linked above, but I actually thought doing this last year was incredibly cool. Afterwards it was like I got to watch myself perform my own show, which was a lot weirder than just watching myself on regular video.</p>
173.  
174. <p>If you can make the show, <a href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2025">you really should attend</a>. Everyone tells me it’s fun. But if you can’t make the show, you definitely should watch live in Theater.</p>
175.  
176. <div>
177. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Theater Announces Immersive Livestream of The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2025’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/theater-livestream-the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2025">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
178. </div>
179.  
180. ]]></content>
181.  </entry><entry>
182. <title>Judge Denies Apple’s Appeal; Ordered to Keep Allowing Link-Outs to the Web in the U.S. App Store</title>
183. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/news/679946/apple-rejected-court-attempt-to-stop-app-store-web-links" />
184. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdj" />
185. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/apple-appeal-denied-antisteering" />
186. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41959</id>
187. <published>2025-06-05T21:33:42Z</published>
188. <updated>2025-06-05T21:34:55Z</updated>
189. <author>
190. <name>John Gruber</name>
191. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
192. </author>
193. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
194. <p>Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge:</p>
195.  
196. <blockquote>
197.  <p>In April, a federal judge demanded that Apple begin allowing web
198. links, cease restricting how links are formatted, and enable
199. developers to offer external payment options without giving the
200. company a cut of their revenue. Apple promptly appealed and
201. requested that the order be put on hold until the legal
202. proceedings were finished.</p>
203.  
204. <p>But an appeals court has now denied Apple’s emergency request to
205. block the order. The court said it was “not persuaded” that
206. blocking the order was appropriate after weighing Apple’s chances
207. to succeed on appeal, whether Apple would be irreparably harmed,
208. whether other parties would be hurt if the order is halted, and
209. what supports the public interest.</p>
210.  
211. <p>The rejection bodes poorly for Apple’s chance of overturning the
212. order, which stems from a lawsuit by Epic Games.</p>
213. </blockquote>
214.  
215. <p>Here’s the denial <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/70190916/40/epic-games-inc-v-apple-inc/">from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit</a>, nearly in its entirety, omitting only legal citations:</p>
216.  
217. <blockquote>
218.  <p>Apple’s Emergency Motion Under Circuit Rule 27-3 for a Partial
219. Stay Pending Appeal is DENIED. In deciding whether to impose a
220. stay, we consider: “(1) whether the stay applicant has made a
221. strong showing that he is likely to succeed on the merits; (2)
222. whether the applicant will be irreparably injured absent a stay;
223. (3) whether issuance of the stay will substantially injure the
224. other parties interested in the proceeding; and (4) where the
225. public interest lies.” Apple “bears the burden of showing that the
226. circumstances justify an exercise of [our] discretion.” After
227. reviewing the relevant factors, we are not persuaded that a stay
228. is appropriate.</p>
229. </blockquote>
230.  
231. <p>The earliest this might get overturned, it seems to me, is the end of this year, but I get the feeling this injunction is here to stay.</p>
232.  
233. <div>
234. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Judge Denies Apple’s Appeal; Ordered to Keep Allowing Link-Outs to the Web in the U.S. App Store’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/apple-appeal-denied-antisteering">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
235. </div>
236.  
237. ]]></content>
238.  </entry><entry>
239. <title>Marco Arment on Apple’s Decision to Decline Appearing on The Talk Show Live From WWDC</title>
240. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://marco.org/2025/05/30/retreat" />
241. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdi" />
242. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/marco-apple-the-talk-show" />
243. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41958</id>
244. <published>2025-06-05T20:38:54Z</published>
245. <updated>2025-06-05T21:06:48Z</updated>
246. <author>
247. <name>John Gruber</name>
248. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
249. </author>
250. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
251. <p>Marco Arment, moved to write his first blog post in 11 months:</p>
252.  
253. <blockquote>
254.  <p>For unspecified reasons, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/29/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2025">Apple has declined to participate this
255. year</a>, ending what had become a beloved tradition in our
256. community — and I can’t help but suspect that it won’t come back.
257. (<a href="https://marco.org/2021/06/03/developer-relations">A lot has changed</a> in the meantime.)</p>
258.  
259. <p>Maybe Apple has good reasons. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/03/something_is_rotten_in_the_state_of_cupertino">Maybe not</a>. We’ll see what
260. their WWDC PR strategy looks like in a couple of weeks.</p>
261.  
262. <p>In the absence of any other information, it’s easy to assume that
263. Apple no longer wants its executives to be interviewed in a human,
264. unscripted, unedited context that may contain hard questions, and
265. that Apple no longer feels it necessary to show their appreciation
266. to our community and developers in this way.</p>
267.  
268. <p>I hope that’s either not the case, or it doesn’t stay the case
269. for long.</p>
270. </blockquote>
271.  
272. <p>They’ve invited members of the media to a screening of <em>F1 The Movie</em> Tuesday at 7:00pm in the Steve Jobs Theater. Thankfully, my press invitation from Apple has it marked as “optional”, because I have <a href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2025">a conflict</a>.</p>
273.  
274. <div>
275. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Marco Arment on Apple’s Decision to Decline Appearing on The Talk Show Live From WWDC’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/05/marco-apple-the-talk-show">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
276. </div>
277.  
278. ]]></content>
279.  </entry><entry>
281. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&amp;utm_medium=RSS&amp;utm_campaign=q12025" />
282. <link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wdh" />
283. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2025/06/workos_scalable_secure_authent_4" />
284. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/feeds/sponsors//11.41957</id>
285. <author><name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name></author>
286. <published>2025-06-05T01:52:51Z</published>
287. <updated>2025-06-05T01:52:51Z</updated>
288. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
289. <p>Modern authentication should be seamless and secure.  WorkOS makes it easy to integrate features like MFA, SSO, and RBAC.</p>
290.  
291. <p>Whether you’re replacing passwords, stopping fraud, or adding enterprise auth, WorkOS can help you build frictionless auth that scales. </p>
292.  
293. <p>Future-proof your authentication stack with the identity layer trusted by OpenAI, Cursor, Perplexity, and Vercel.  </p>
294.  
295. <p>Upgrade your auth today. </p>
296.  
297. <div>
298. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘WorkOS: Scalable, Secure Authentication’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2025/06/workos_scalable_secure_authent_4">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
299. </div>
300.  
301. ]]></content>
302. <title>[Sponsor] WorkOS: Scalable, Secure Authentication</title></entry><entry>
303. <title>9to5Mac Reports Apple Notes Will Gain Markdown Export at WWDC, and, You’ll Be Unsurprised to Know, I Have Thoughts</title>
304. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/06/03/exclusive-ios-26-messages-carplay-more/" />
305. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdg" />
306. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/apple-notes-markdown" />
307. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41956</id>
308. <published>2025-06-05T01:44:09Z</published>
309. <updated>2025-06-05T22:28:11Z</updated>
310. <author>
311. <name>John Gruber</name>
312. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
313. </author>
314. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
315. <p>Marcus Mendes, in a piece at 9to5Mac with multiple spoilers for next week’s keynote:</p>
316.  
317. <blockquote>
318.  <p>Apple is working on supporting the ability to export notes in
319. Markdown from Apple Notes, which is something third-party apps
320. have supported for years. Granted, this is a niche feature, but as
321. a fierce participant in the niche, I can confirm: this is huge.</p>
322. </blockquote>
323.  
324. <p>When this story first started spreading this morning, it was getting repeated as Notes “gaining Markdown support”, which implied something like <a href="https://bear.app/">Bear</a> or <a href="https://obsidian.md/">Obsidian</a>, where you can type Markdown syntax characters while editing, and perhaps optionally see the Markdown syntax in your notes. “Markdown notes app” is really like a class of notes apps unto itself.</p>
325.  
326. <p>Some people find this surprising, but I personally don’t want to use a Markdown notes app. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2004/03/dive_into_markdown">I created Markdown two decades ago</a> and have used it ever since for one thing and one thing only: writing for the web at Daring Fireball. My <a href="https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/">original description</a> of what it is still stands: “Markdown is a text-to-HTML conversion tool for web writers.” Perhaps an even better description of Markdown is Matthew Butterick’s, <a href="https://docs.racket-lang.org/pollen/quick-tour.html#%28part._.Markdown_mode%29">from the documentation for Pollen</a>: “Markdown is a simplified notation system for HTML.”</p>
327.  
328. <p>The other great use case for Markdown is in a context where you either <em>need</em> or just <em>want</em> to be saving to a plain text file or database field. That’s not what Apple Notes is or should be. I can see why many technically-minded people want to use Markdown “everywhere”. It’s quite gratifying that Markdown has not only become so popular, but <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2004/03/introducing_markdown">after 21 years</a>, continues to grow in popularity, to the point now where there clearly are a lot of people who seemingly enjoy writing in Markdown more than even I do. But I think it would be a huge mistake for Apple to make Apple Notes a “Markdown editor”, even as an option. It’s trivial to create malformed Markdown syntax; it shouldn’t be possible to have a malformed note in Apple Notes. I <em>craft</em> posts for Daring Fireball; I dash off notes in Apple Notes.</p>
329.  
330. <p>Apple Notes offers a great WYSIWYG rich text editing interface that works great on an iPhone and even better on a Mac, which I think is exactly appropriate. Particularly clever are the limited formatting options, where you don’t pick a font per se, but rather only from a set of predefined styles, like headings, lists, and block quote. It’s not nerdy at all. You certainly shouldn’t need to “preview” (let alone keep a separate preview view open side-by-side with your editing view), nor switch between <a href="https://www.pavley.com/2020/02/20/no-modes/">modes</a> for editing and viewing. That’s the Macintosh way. (But that’s why I think Apple Notes’s use of hashtags, rather than real tokenized tags <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/tag-files-and-folders-mchlp15236/mac">like in the Finder</a>, was an enormous mistake on Apple’s part. Real tokenized tags can contain spaces (so a multi-word tag can just be “Words Written Naturally” not “#WordsCrammedTogether”) and don’t need to be prefixed with an ugly, nerdy-looking <code>#</code> character. Notes using hashtags is like if the Finder disallowed spaces and uppercase letters in filenames.)</p>
331.  
332. <p>But Markdown <em>export</em> from Notes? That sounds awesome. Frankly, perhaps the biggest problem with Apple Notes is that its export functionality is rather crude — <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/export-or-print-notes-iphdf551cfa2/ios">PDF and, of all formats, Pages</a>. Exporting and/or copying the selected text as Markdown would be pretty cool. Very curious to see how they handle images though, if this rumor is true.</p>
333.  
334. <div>
335. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘9to5Mac Reports Apple Notes Will Gain Markdown Export at WWDC, and, You’ll Be Unsurprised to Know, I Have Thoughts’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/apple-notes-markdown">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
336. </div>
337.  
338. ]]></content>
339.  </entry><entry>
340. <title>Apple Might Release an iPhone ‘Air’ Battery Case, But What They Ought to Release Is an Updated MagSafe Battery Pack</title>
341. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-plans-iphone-release-schedule-shakeup-new-styles?rc=jfy0lk" />
342. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdf" />
343. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/apple-iphone-air-battery-case-or-pack" />
344. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41955</id>
345. <published>2025-06-04T22:58:57Z</published>
346. <updated>2025-06-04T23:58:04Z</updated>
347. <author>
348. <name>John Gruber</name>
349. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
350. </author>
351. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
352. <p>Wayne Ma, reporting last month at The Information (a paywalled website so obnoxious that they force $300/year subscribers <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/gruber.foo/post/3lqstgf7nt62r">to click through an article-blocking popover</a> pitching them on upgrading to a $500/year subscription), and <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2025/05/03/iphone-17-air-battery-case-report/">summarized here by MacRumors</a>:</p>
353.  
354. <blockquote>
355.  <p>However, the smaller size of the new thin model will require
356. compromises to its capabilities. The device will contain only a
357. single speaker instead of the two speakers that Apple’s other
358. phones usually have, one rear camera lens instead of the three in
359. Apple’s flagship phones, and reduced battery life. Internal
360. testing shows that battery life for the thin model will fall short
361. of that of previous iPhones. The percentage of users who can go a
362. single day without recharging the thin phone will be between 60%
363. and 70%. For other models, that metric is between 80% and 90%, one
364. of the people said.</p>
365.  
366. <p>To solve this, Apple is developing an optional accessory — a
367. phone case meant for the thin model that also contains a battery
368. pack, according to three people familiar with the matter.</p>
369. </blockquote>
370.  
371. <p>It sort of goes without saying that the super-thin iPhone will have less battery life. How could it be otherwise? If 60–70% of users can still get through the day on a charge while using it, that sounds like it’s the right time for Apple to try such a phone. People who currently run their phones down to the red each day aren’t going to think “<em>Hey, maybe I should try this crazy thin iPhone.</em>”</p>
372.  
373. <p>What disappoints me is Ma’s reporting of an iPhone Air-only battery <em>case</em> from Apple. What I very much want Apple to make is a sequel to its amazing <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111857">MagSafe Battery Pack with a Lightning connector</a> that debuted in 2020 but was discontinued in 2023 (the year that the iPhones 15 switched from Lightning to USB-C). I’ve got two of these and they’re still, by far, my favorite iPhone battery packs. They’re the only Lightning devices left in my life and they’re so good I’m happy to still keep one Lightning cable in my travel bag to use them.</p>
374.  
375. <p>There are a zillion third-party “magnetic” (but not “MagSafe”) battery packs that work with iPhones, and most of them have larger batteries than Apple’s. But part of what makes Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack great is that it’s so small, and shaped so comfortably. I don’t need a magnetic battery pack that tries to double my iPhone’s battery life. I just need like 1.5× on occasional phone-heavy days (like next Monday’s WWDC keynote), and Apple’s does just that. No third-party magnetic battery pack I’ve tried comes even close to attaching as securely to the back of the iPhone as Apple’s. And Apple’s has special integration with iOS, which gives you a cool animation on the screen when it’s first attached, and updates the battery life of the pack in the Battery widget alongside the iPhone’s own battery. (Apparently <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLb5ut2mzf4">some newer third-party packs do now show the full-screen animation</a> when first attached, but none yet integrate with the Battery widget — someone better call the European Commission.) Most importantly, with Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack, iOS is smart, and doesn’t keep sucking juice when the phone has recharged up to 70% or so. By only slurping juice when it’s more efficient to do so, you get more effective battery life out of a noticeably slimmer battery back. It’s just so much better than any other battery pack I’ve tried.</p>
376.  
377. <p>This supposed iPhone “Air” seems like the perfect time to bring back the MagSafe Battery Pack, this time with USB-C — and unlike a model-specific case, it’d work with all MagSafe iPhones, not just the Air. (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/02/the_iphone_16e">Sorry, 16e owners</a>.) See also:</p>
378.  
379. <ul>
380. <li>Chance Miller, writing back in November for 9to5Mac: “<a href="https://9to5mac.com/2024/11/18/iphone-16-magsafe-battery-pack-memories/">Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack for iPhone Shouldn’t Have Been a One-And-Done Experiment</a>”</li>
381. <li>Steven Aquino, writing back in September while he was still Forbes contributor: “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenaquino/2024/09/30/apples-magsafe-battery-pack-is-owed-an-ode-in-terms-of-accessibility/">Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack Is Owed an Ode in Terms of Accessibility</a>”</li>
382. </ul>
383.  
384. <div>
385. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Might Release an iPhone ‘Air’ Battery Case, But What They Ought to Release Is an Updated MagSafe Battery Pack’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/apple-iphone-air-battery-case-or-pack">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
386. </div>
387.  
388. ]]></content>
389.  </entry><entry>
390. <title>Meta and Yandex’s ‘Local Mess’ Exploit Seemingly Only Works on Android</title>
391. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/06/meta-and-yandex-are-de-anonymizing-android-users-web-browsing-identifiers/" />
392. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wde" />
393. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/meta-and-yandexs-local-mess-exploit-seemingly-only-works-on-android" />
394. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41954</id>
395. <published>2025-06-04T22:08:52Z</published>
396. <updated>2025-06-04T22:08:53Z</updated>
397. <author>
398. <name>John Gruber</name>
399. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
400. </author>
401. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
402. <p>Dan Goodin, writing at Ars Technica:</p>
403.  
404. <blockquote>
405.  <p>This abuse has been observed only in Android, and evidence
406. suggests that the Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica target only
407. Android users. The researchers say it may be technically feasible
408. to target iOS because browsers on that platform allow developers
409. to programmatically <a href="https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=279249">establish localhost connections</a> that
410. apps can monitor on local ports.</p>
411.  
412. <p>In contrast to iOS, however, Android imposes fewer controls on
413. local host communications and background executions of mobile
414. apps, the researchers said, while also implementing stricter
415. controls in app store vetting processes to limit such abuses. This
416. overly permissive design allows Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica to
417. send web requests with web tracking identifiers to specific local
418. ports that are continuously monitored by the Facebook, Instagram,
419. and Yandex apps. These apps can then link pseudonymous web
420. identities with actual user identities, even in private browsing
421. modes, effectively de-anonymizing users’ browsing habits on sites
422. containing these trackers.</p>
423. </blockquote>
424.  
425. <p>I’ll note that among the so-called <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/06/apple_appeals_eu_interop_requirements">“interoperability” requirements the European Commission is demanding of iOS</a> is for third-party apps to run, unfettered, in the background, because some of Apple’s own first-party software obviously runs in the background. And I’ll further note that Apple made clear, <a href="https://developer.apple.com/support/downloads/DMA-Interoperability-Dec-2024.pdf">back in its December 2024 report laying out its objections to the EC’s demands</a>, that:</p>
426.  
427. <blockquote>
428.  <p>No company has made more interoperability requests of Apple than
429. Meta. In many cases, Meta is seeking to alter functionality in a
430. way that raises concerns about the privacy and security of users,
431. and that appears to be completely unrelated to the actual use of
432. Meta external devices, such as Meta smart glasses and Meta Quests.</p>
433. </blockquote>
434.  
435. <p>This newly uncovered “Local Mess” exploit — which seemingly only works on Android — is exactly the sort of scheme Meta wants to pull on iOS: to track users across millions of websites while they justifiably believe their web browsing is sandboxed from all native apps.</p>
436.  
437. <p>Back to Goodin:</p>
438.  
439. <blockquote>
440.  <p>Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica are analytics scripts designed to
441. help advertisers measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.
442. Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica are estimated to be installed on
443. <a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/websitelist/Facebook-Pixel%20">5.8 million</a> and <a href="https://trends.builtwith.com/analytics/Yandex-Metrika">3 million</a> sites, respectively.</p>
444. </blockquote>
445.  
446. <p>Every one of the sites that includes these tracking scripts is complicit to some extent in the theft of hundreds of millions of Android users’ web browsing privacy.</p>
447.  
448. <div>
449. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Meta and Yandex’s ‘Local Mess’ Exploit Seemingly Only Works on Android’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/meta-and-yandexs-local-mess-exploit-seemingly-only-works-on-android">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
450. </div>
451.  
452. ]]></content>
453.  </entry><entry>
454. <title>Meta and Yandex Have Both Been De-Anonymizing Android Users’ Ostensibly Sandboxed Private Web Browsing Identifiers</title>
455. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://localmess.github.io/" />
456. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdd" />
457. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/meta-yandex-android-deanonymizing-web-ids" />
458. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41953</id>
459. <published>2025-06-04T21:53:45Z</published>
460. <updated>2025-06-05T00:02:38Z</updated>
461. <author>
462. <name>John Gruber</name>
463. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
464. </author>
465. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
466. <p>A team of researchers has uncovered a scheme they’ve dubbed “Local Mess” — used by Meta since September 2024, and Russian search engine Yandex since 2017 (!) — to de-anonymize Android users’ web browsing across millions of websites that include Meta’s and Yandex’s respective tracking scripts. From their extensively detailed report:</p>
467.  
468. <blockquote>
469.  <p>These native Android apps receive browsers’ metadata, cookies and
470. commands from the Meta Pixel and Yandex Metrica scripts embedded
471. on thousands of web sites. These JavaScripts load on users’ mobile
472. browsers and silently connect with native apps running on the same
473. device through localhost sockets. As native apps access
474. programmatically device identifiers like the <a href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6048248">Android Advertising
475. ID (AAID)</a> or handle user identities as in the case of Meta
476. apps, this method effectively allows these organizations to <em>link
477. mobile browsing sessions and web cookies to user identities</em>,
478. hence de-anonymizing users’ visiting sites embedding their
479. scripts.</p>
480.  
481. <p>This web-to-app ID sharing method bypasses typical privacy
482. protections such as clearing cookies, Incognito Mode and Android’s
483. permission controls. Worse, it opens the door for potentially
484. malicious apps eavesdropping on users’ web activity. [...]</p>
485.  
486. <p>The entire flow of the _fbp cookie from web to native and the
487. server is as follows:</p>
488.  
489. <ol>
490. <li>The user opens the native Facebook or Instagram app, which
491. eventually is sent to the background and creates a background
492. service to listen for incoming traffic on a TCP port (12387 or
493. 12388) and a UDP port (the first unoccupied port in
494. 12580-12585). Users must be logged-in with their credentials on
495. the apps.</li>
496. <li>The user opens their browser and visits a website integrating
497. the Meta Pixel.</li>
498. <li>At this stage, websites may ask for consent depending on the
499. website’s and visitor’s locations.</li>
500. <li>The Meta Pixel script sends the <a href="https://localmess.github.io/#about_fbp">_fbp cookie</a> to the
501. native Instagram or Facebook app via WebRTC (STUN) SDP Munging.</li>
502. <li>The Meta Pixel script also sends the _fbp value in a request to
503. https://www.facebook.com/tr along with other parameters such as
504. page URL (dl), website and browser metadata, and the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20250531104925/https://developers.facebook.com/docs/meta-pixel/reference/">event
505. type</a> (ev) (e.g., PageView, AddToCart, Donate, Purchase).</li>
506. <li>The Facebook or Instagram apps receive the _fbp cookie from the
507. Meta Pixel JavaScript running on the browser. The apps transmit
508. _fbp as a GraphQL mutation to
509. (https://graph[.]facebook[.]com/graphql) along with other
510. persistent user identifiers, linking users’ fbp ID (web visit)
511. with their Facebook or Instagram account.</li>
512. </ol>
513. </blockquote>
514.  
515. <p>The same day the researchers published this report, Meta stopped doing it.</p>
516.  
517. <p><a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Adaringfireball.net+facebook+criminal+enterprise&amp;ia=web">I’ve said it before</a> but not in a while: Meta is a criminal enterprise. What they’ve done here may not have broken any laws, but there certainly should be laws against it. And in terms of simple common sense, the entire elaborate scheme <em>only</em> exists to circumvent features in Android meant to <em>prevent</em> native apps from tracking you while you use your web browser. Saying it’s not illegal doesn’t mean it isn’t theft. It’s like the privacy equivalent of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/29/jamie-raskin-democrat-trump-crypto-investigation">Trump’s cryptocurrency grift</a>, which might not violate any current laws, but clearly exists as a bribery scheme.</p>
518.  
519. <div>
520. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Meta and Yandex Have Both Been De-Anonymizing Android Users’ Ostensibly Sandboxed Private Web Browsing Identifiers’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/meta-yandex-android-deanonymizing-web-ids">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
521. </div>
522.  
523. ]]></content>
524.  </entry><entry>
525. <title>Trump Administration’s ‘MAHA’ Report Cites Studies That Don’t Exist</title>
526. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.notus.org/health-science/make-america-healthy-again-report-citation-errors" />
527. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdc" />
528. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/maha-report-cites-nonexistent-studies" />
529. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41952</id>
530. <published>2025-06-04T20:38:41Z</published>
531. <updated>2025-06-04T20:38:54Z</updated>
532. <author>
533. <name>John Gruber</name>
534. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
535. </author>
536. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
537. <p>Emily Kennard and Margaret Manto, reporting last week for NOTUS (“News of The United States” — a seriously good up-and-coming national affairs publication):</p>
538.  
539. <blockquote>
540.  <p>Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his “Make America
541. Healthy Again” Commission report harnesses “gold-standard”
542. science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up
543. its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from
544. broken links to misstated conclusions.</p>
545.  
546. <p>Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all.</p>
547. </blockquote>
548.  
549. <p>Shocking that these dipshits would generate their report with whatever came out of an LLM and not actually check — let alone, you know, <em>read</em> — the cited studies.</p>
550.  
551. <div>
552. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Trump Administration’s ‘MAHA’ Report Cites Studies That Don’t Exist’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/maha-report-cites-nonexistent-studies">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
553. </div>
554.  
555. ]]></content>
556.  </entry><entry>
557. <title>Joz Teases WWDC on X</title>
558. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://x.com/gregjoz/status/1929558230990049758?s=12" />
559. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wdb" />
560. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/joz-teases-wwdc-on-x" />
561. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41951</id>
562. <published>2025-06-04T18:57:26Z</published>
563. <updated>2025-06-04T18:57:27Z</updated>
564. <author>
565. <name>John Gruber</name>
566. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
567. </author>
568. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
569. <p>Hard not to see the invitation and this new animation as a hint that the much-rumored UI redesign/refresh <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/sdw-physicality-new-age">is, indeed, going to be glassy</a>.</p>
570.  
571. <div>
572. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Joz Teases WWDC on X’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/joz-teases-wwdc-on-x">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
573. </div>
574.  
575. ]]></content>
576.  </entry><entry>
577. <title>James Dyson Proves That Live On-Stage Demos Are Still the Best</title>
578. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ve6JuJV17FQ" />
579. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wda" />
580. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/dyson-demo" />
581. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41950</id>
582. <published>2025-06-04T18:46:18Z</published>
583. <updated>2025-06-04T18:46:19Z</updated>
584. <author>
585. <name>John Gruber</name>
586. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
587. </author>
588. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
589. <p>Dyson:</p>
590.  
591. <blockquote>
592.  <p>Join James Dyson as he introduces the new Dyson PencilVac
593. Fluffycones cleaner. Our latest, most advanced floorcare
594. technology — now available in Japan.</p>
595. </blockquote>
596.  
597. <p>Nine minutes, short and sweet. I watched the whole thing and loved it. If it had been pre-recorded, I bet I wouldn’t have gotten more than two or three minutes into it, even though the video would have been more polished. There’s just something compelling about a live demo, even when you’re watching on YouTube.</p>
598.  
599. <p>(The new PencilVac looks cool too, but it seems too good to be true. I’ll be interested to hear from reviewers whether it, uh, actually sucks or kinda sucks.)</p>
600.  
601. <div>
602. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘James Dyson Proves That Live On-Stage Demos Are Still the Best’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/04/dyson-demo">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
603. </div>
604.  
605. ]]></content>
606.  </entry><entry>
607. <title>One Week From Tonight: The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2025</title>
608. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2025" />
609. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd9" />
610. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2025" />
611. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41949</id>
612. <published>2025-06-04T03:59:14Z</published>
613. <updated>2025-06-04T03:59:34Z</updated>
614. <author>
615. <name>John Gruber</name>
616. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
617. </author>
618. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
619. <p><strong>Location:</strong> The California Theatre, San Jose <br />
620. <strong>Showtime:</strong> Tuesday, 10 June 2025, 7pm PT (Doors open 6pm) <br />
621. <strong>Special Guest(s):</strong> Definitely, but keep in mind <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/29/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2025">what I announced last week</a> <br />
622. <strong>Price:</strong> $50</p>
623.  
624. <p>I’ll have more to announce about the show soon, but one week out, I just want to remind everyone that tickets are on sale now, and selling at about the same pace as the last two years. (In 2018 and 2019, when WWDC was a real in-person conference in San Jose, tickets sold out almost instantaneously.)</p>
625.  
626. <p>Also: at least one sponsorship slot is still available. If you’ve got a product or service you’d like to see me promote at the start of the show, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/contact/">shoot me an email</a>.</p>
627.  
628. <div>
629. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘One Week From Tonight: The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2025’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2025">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
630. </div>
631.  
632. ]]></content>
633.  </entry><entry>
634. <title>‘Physicality: The New Age of UI’</title>
635. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.lux.camera/physicality-the-new-age-of-ui/" />
636. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd8" />
637. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/sdw-physicality-new-age" />
638. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41948</id>
639. <published>2025-06-04T00:37:15Z</published>
640. <updated>2025-06-04T17:40:34Z</updated>
641. <author>
642. <name>John Gruber</name>
643. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
644. </author>
645. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
646. <p>Sebastiaan de With, in a wonderfully-illustrated piece (a) examining, in detail, where iOS UI has been, and (b) speculating, with detailed mockups, where he thinks/hopes it’s about to go, starting at WWDC next week:</p>
647.  
648. <blockquote>
649.  <p>I’d like to imagine what could come next. Both by rendering some
650. UI design of my own, and by thinking out what the philosophy of
651. the New Age could be.</p>
652.  
653. <p>A logical next step could be extending physicality to the entirety
654. of the interface. We do not have to go overboard in such
655. treatments, but we can now have the interface inhabit a sense of
656. tactile realism.</p>
657.  
658. <p>Philosophically, if I was Apple, I’d describe this as finally
659. having an interface that matches the beautiful material properties
660. of its devices. All the surfaces of your devices have glass
661. screens. This brings an interface of a matching material, giving
662. the user a feeling of the <em>glass itself coming alive</em>. [...]</p>
663.  
664. <p>I took some time to design and theorize what this would look
665. like, and how it would work. For the New Design Language, it
666. makes sense that just like on VisionOS, the material of
667. interactivity is glass.</p>
668. </blockquote>
669.  
670. <p>I hope, very much, that what Apple has been working on is along the lines of what de With has mocked up. It both looks great (and better than what we have now) and <em>makes sense</em>. I also agree with him that it would be a competitive advantage for Apple to establish a new visual design language that no existing design tools can create. You can’t make the sort of things de With is describing with Figma. Competitors could (and I guarantee will) superficially copy the look, but not the interactive responsiveness of lighting effects.</p>
671.  
672. <p>In a profound way, a UI language comprised of glossy and matte glass, running on phones and tablets that themselves are made of glossy and matte glass, would hark back to the early days of Mac OS X, when the “lickable” translucent Aqua UI theme felt of a piece with the colorful translucent plastic enclosures of the iMac, PowerMac, and iBook. Right down to the pinstripes. (Apple never did make an Aqua-style PowerBook along those lines, instead going straight from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_180">classic</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_1400">black</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_G3">plastic</a> to <a href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2020/11/20-macs-for-2020-5-titanium-powerbook-g4/">the Titanium PowerBook G4</a>, the styling of which augured the post-Aqua look-and-feel of <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2007/10/mac-os-x-10-5/">Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard</a> and the much-beloved <a href="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6/">10.6 Snow Leopard</a>.) I’ve been clamoring for buttons to look like buttons again ever since iOS 7.</p>
673.  
674. <p>But as much as I truly <em>love</em> de With’s mockups, they’re all for iOS. What I’m left unsettled by is my failure to imagine how this design language could be brought to the Mac. Macs aren’t made of glass; they’re all made of aluminum. But the main difference is that the way many of us use MacOS is with a lot of stacked windows atop each other. The last thing MacOS needs is more transparency/translucency than it already has. Some depth to its UI controls, though? That’s something MacOS is in almost desperate need of. A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a Mac UI theme where you can tell, instantly, <a href="https://erik-engheim.medium.com/big-sur-sucks-817cba889376">whether a button is enabled or disabled</a> or <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/l1avfv/tried_to_make_the_ui_buttons_a_bit_more_defined_i/">which item in a tabview controller is selected</a>.</p>
675.  
676. <p>We’ll soon see.</p>
677.  
678. <div>
679. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘‘Physicality: The New Age of UI’’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/sdw-physicality-new-age">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
680. </div>
681.  
682. ]]></content>
683.  </entry><entry>
684. <title>Event Creation Still Largely Feels Like an Unsolved UI Problem</title>
685. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/05/17/fantastical" />
686. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd7" />
687. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/event-creation-still-largely-feels-like-an-unsolved-ui-problem" />
688. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41947</id>
689. <published>2025-06-03T19:40:46Z</published>
690. <updated>2025-06-03T19:40:47Z</updated>
691. <author>
692. <name>John Gruber</name>
693. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
694. </author>
695. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
696. <p>From my 2011 post linking to Fantastical 1.0:</p>
697.  
698. <blockquote>
699.  <p>Fantastical’s primary innovation is its natural language parser
700. for event creation — you type something like “Yanks-Rays tonight
701. at 6:40” and Fantastical not only parses that into a new event,
702. but, using some very clever animation and design work, shows you
703. what it thinks you mean before you hit return to actually create
704. the new event. Watch their screencast to see what I mean.</p>
705.  
706. <p>Four years ago I wrote a piece called “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2007/03/deal_with_it">Deal With It</a>”, about how
707. some UIs feel like going uphill and some feel like going downhill.
708. An uphill UI feels like you’re fighting against the app; a
709. downhill UI makes it feel like the app is helping you along. The
710. example I chose to illustrate my point was event creation in iCal
711. (uphill, and steep) vs. 37signals’s Backpack (downhill).
712. Fantastical is an even better downhill UI for event creation.</p>
713. </blockquote>
714.  
715. <p>A friend texted me after my post earlier today, in which <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/fantastical-email-event-detection">I wrote about Fantastical’s new AI-driven email forwarding service</a>. My friend wrote that he does this sort of thing with ChatGPT frequently, using photos of event posters he sees on the street or screenshots from event images in Instagram, with a prompt like “Create a Google Calendar link for these.” He concluded, “IMO calendar event entry is one of the most tedious UI problems that we’ve never truly solved.”</p>
716.  
717. <p>I hadn’t revisited my 2007 “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2007/03/deal_with_it">Deal With It</a>” piece in a while, but I just re-read it, and it holds up. I still feel like the UIs that most annoy me are the ones that give me the most fields to deal with. I mention instant messaging vs. email a lot in the piece, coming out squarely on the side of IM for communicating with friends, even for things that I admit probably should have been an email. The predominant messaging platforms of 2007 are now long gone — AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, etc. But those platforms lost only because they were surpassed, not because the basic idea was wrong. Messaging itself — iMessage, WhatsApp, Signal, etc. — is a zillion times more popular today. I almost <em>never</em> today think “Maybe that should have been an email...” when I text a friend. There’s just so much less to deal with. Today it’s more likely that I’ll send someone an email and think to myself “I probably should have just texted them that...”</p>
718.  
719. <p>This is one way to frame the explosion in popularity of ChatGPT and its many competitors. They help you accomplish tasks that would <em>feel</em> far more tedious to do on your own than just telling them to do it for you with a sentence or two of plain English describing what you want done, perhaps including a photo or two. LLM chatbots are able to turn <em>feels like pedalling uphill</em> tasks — often just everyday ones — into <em>feels like coasting downhill</em> tasks.</p>
720.  
721. <div>
722. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Event Creation Still Largely Feels Like an Unsolved UI Problem’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/event-creation-still-largely-feels-like-an-unsolved-ui-problem">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
723. </div>
724.  
725. ]]></content>
726.  </entry><entry>
727. <title>Fantastical Now Supports Event Detection From Forwarded Emails</title>
728. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://flexibits.com/fantastical/forwardemails" />
729. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd6" />
730. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/fantastical-email-event-detection" />
731. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41946</id>
732. <published>2025-06-03T17:56:34Z</published>
733. <updated>2025-06-03T18:26:19Z</updated>
734. <author>
735. <name>John Gruber</name>
736. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
737. </author>
738. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
739. <p>Flexibits:</p>
740.  
741. <blockquote>
742.  <p>Just forward emails to email@fantastical.app from any email
743. address linked with your Flexibits Account and Fantastical will
744. convert them into events or tasks to quickly add to your
745. calendar. After a few seconds you’ll see detected events appear
746. in Fantastical where you can quickly add them as an event or
747. task. [...]</p>
748.  
749. <p>Emails are processed by Flexibits servers and Google Cloud and
750. then deleted immediately after they are processed. Emails are not
751. used or retained by Flexibits or Google Cloud for AI training
752. purposes.</p>
753.  
754. <p>Events that are detected in emails are stored on Flexibits servers
755. and deleted when you add or discard them in Fantastical.</p>
756. </blockquote>
757.  
758. <p>There are a lot of events in email messages that have always been easy to get into Fantastical (or any other calendar app) because they include an ICS file attachment. Like when I book a flight — I always get an email with an ICS attachment containing the flight details, and I just open that in Fantastical to import it. Forwarding that email to Fantastical would take longer than just opening the attachment. But what about a casual email from a friend or family member that doesn’t come with an attachment?</p>
759.  
760. <p>Here’s an example email I sent to myself from a sort of burner account I have for testing and for doing things like this.</p>
761.  
762. <pre><code>From: Heywood Floyd &lt;heywood••••••••@icloud.com&gt;  
763. Subject: Party for Hal on Saturday  
764. Date: June 3, 2025 at 1:22:45 PM EDT  
765. To: John Gruber <••••••••@daringfireball.net>  
766.  
767. Party at my house is on this Saturday, 12-3 or so.
768. You don’t have to bring anything.
769. </code></pre>
770.  
771. <p>That was the entire email, which I deliberately wrote in a very casual way (e.g. “this Saturday” instead of an actual date, and “12-3” as the time, without an explicit “pm”). Forwarded to Fantastical’s new event detection address, well under a minute later I got the following suggested event notification from Fantastical on my Mac:</p>
772.  
773. <pre><code>Title: Party for Hal at Heywood Floyd's house  
774. Location: Heywood Floyd's house  
775. Date: 7 June 2025, 12:00pm – 3:00pm  
776. Note: "You don't have to bring anything."
777. </code></pre>
778.  
779. <p>Also included in the Note field was a link to the original message in Mail.</p>
780.  
781. <p>In Apple Mail, Siri also suggested an event from the original email. After clicking “Add”, that event had the following details:</p>
782.  
783. <pre><code>Title: Party with Floyd  
784. Location: «empty»  
785. Date: 7 June 2025, 12:00pm – 3:00pm  
786. Note: «empty»
787. </code></pre>
788.  
789. <p>Nothing in Siri’s auto-detected event was wrong. Both got the date and time right. Siri’s title is fine — in real life, I’d know what that meant. But Fantastical’s title is perfect — it’s a party <em>for</em> Hal, <em>at</em> Heywood’s house. And Siri doesn’t include anything in the Note field, not even a link back to the original message, so it would be up to my own memory to remember where the party was.</p>
790.  
791. <p>To be clear, Fantastical doesn’t just add these events to your calendar. It shows them as suggestions, and there’s a “Preview” button in addition to “Add”. I’ll still preview before adding, but using this service does seem like a decent timesaver for creating new events from casual emails.</p>
792.  
793. <div>
794. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Fantastical Now Supports Event Detection From Forwarded Emails’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/fantastical-email-event-detection">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
795. </div>
796.  
797. ]]></content>
798.  </entry><entry>
799. <title>Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs, Interviewed in the Financial Times</title>
800. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.ft.com/content/7f0a45b0-a3cc-4e1c-be71-1b7b42958d4d" />
801. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd5" />
802. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/ive-powell-jobs-interview" />
803. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41945</id>
804. <published>2025-06-03T17:11:33Z</published>
805. <updated>2025-06-03T17:35:10Z</updated>
806. <author>
807. <name>John Gruber</name>
808. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
809. </author>
810. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
811. <p>Matthew Garrahan, in the Financial Times:</p>
812.  
813. <blockquote>
814.  <p>Sir Jony Ive remembers the day in 1997 when he first met Laurene
815. Powell Jobs, outside the house she shared with her late husband,
816. Steve. [...]</p>
817.  
818. <p>“I was often at the house,” Ive says. “Certainly on the weekends,”
819. says Powell Jobs, sitting across from him on a long table. Ive
820. nods. “It feels to me like we grew up together,” he says. “We’ve
821. gone through hard things and happy things...”</p>
822.  
823. <p>“... family and children and work,” says Powell Jobs.</p>
824.  
825. <p>“There’s that Freud quote,” Ive says. “All there is, is work and
826. love. Love and work.”</p>
827. </blockquote>
828.  
829. <p>On the device(s) Ive is <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/21/sam-and-jony-io">spearheading development of at io</a>:</p>
830.  
831. <blockquote>
832.  <p>Ive deftly dodges my attempts to get him to tell me what it is but
833. hints he was motivated by a disillusionment with how our
834. relationship with devices has evolved. “Many of us would say we
835. have an uneasy relationship with technology at the moment,” he
836. says. I’m guessing this includes screen addiction and the harms
837. caused by social media. Whatever the device is, driving its design
838. is “a sense of: we deserve better. Humanity deserves better.”</p>
839. </blockquote>
840.  
841. <p>On Powell Jobs as the owner, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/03/26/the-atlantic-has-an-owner-committed-to-the-cause">committed to the cause</a>, of a major US news publication:</p>
842.  
843. <blockquote>
844.  <p>The Signalgate story prompted a furious response from the US
845. president, who called Goldberg a “sleazebag” before inviting him
846. in for an interview weeks later. “It’s very important to emphasise
847. that, despite having the majority ownership stake in The Atlantic,
848. I’m involved in the business side and not the editorial side,”
849. Powell Jobs says. “We feel very strongly that freedom of the press
850. means they are free to write the truth as they find it, and follow
851. a story as they find it. It’s not up to us to approve or
852. disapprove.”</p>
853. </blockquote>
854.  
855. <p>In the years after Steve Jobs’s death, while Ive still worked at Apple, I took note that at keynote events, Powell Jobs and Ive always sat next to each other. Always. The media seats are never all that close to the VIP seats in the first two rows, but both of them are rather easily identified by the backs of their heads. I observed, a few times, that in those anxious moments of prelude before a show, the two generally only chatted with each other. I know those first few post-Steve keynotes were emotional for Ive. But I can’t even imagine what they were like for Powell Jobs.</p>
856.  
857. <p>It always moved me to observe that they went through them together, almost literally leaning on each other in their seats.</p>
858.  
859. <div>
860. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Jony Ive and Laurene Powell Jobs, Interviewed in the Financial Times’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/03/ive-powell-jobs-interview">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
861. </div>
862.  
863. ]]></content>
864.  </entry><entry>
865.    
866.    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/06/apple_appeals_eu_interop_requirements" />
867. <link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wd4" />
868. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.41944</id>
869. <published>2025-06-03T02:38:54Z</published>
870. <updated>2025-06-03T16:26:00Z</updated>
871. <author>
872. <name>John Gruber</name>
873. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
874. </author>
875. <summary type="text">https://9to5mac.com/2025/06/02/apple-eu-interoperability-appeal/</summary>
876. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
877. <p><a href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/06/02/apple-eu-interoperability-appeal/">Benjamin Mayo, writing at 9to5Mac</a>:</p>
878.  
879. <blockquote>
880.  <p>Apple has appealed parts of the Digital Markets Act law citing
881. user privacy concerns. Specifically, Apple is contesting the
882. <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/03/19/eu-order-apple-interoperability/">interoperability requirements</a> that say data like
883. notification content and WiFi networks should be made available to
884. third-parties.</p>
885.  
886. <p>Apple says the DMA as written allows others to “access personal
887. information that even Apple doesn’t see”. This is because features
888. like notification rendering and WiFi network data are currently
889. handled on-device and stored in an encrypted fashion, so Apple
890. cannot see that stuff. However, the DMA does not necessarily
891. require third-party agents who would be able to access this same
892. data to commit to the same standards of privacy and security.</p>
893.  
894. <p>Here’s Apple’s latest statement on the matter, in full:</p>
895.  
896. <blockquote>
897.  <p>At Apple, we design our technology to work seamlessly together,
898. so it can deliver the unique experience our users love and expect
899. from our products. The EU’s interoperability requirements
900. threaten that foundation, while creating a process that is
901. unreasonable, costly, and stifles innovation. These requirements
902. will also hand data-hungry companies sensitive information, which
903. poses massive privacy and security risks to our EU users.
904. Companies have already requested our users’ most sensitive data — from the content of their notifications, to a full history of
905. every stored WiFi network on their device — giving them the
906. ability to access personal information that even Apple doesn’t
907. see. In the end, these deeply flawed rules that only target Apple — and no other company — will severely limit our ability to
908. deliver innovative products and features to Europe, leading to an
909. inferior user experience for our European customers. We are
910. appealing these decisions on their behalf, and in order to
911. preserve the high-quality experience our European customers
912. expect.</p>
913. </blockquote>
914. </blockquote>
915.  
916. <p>Apple’s full statement is worth reading closely. Specifically, this sentence jumped out to me: “In the end, these deeply flawed rules that only target Apple — and no other company — will severely limit our ability to deliver innovative products and features to Europe, leading to an inferior user experience for our European customers.” <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/apple-challenges-eu-order-to-increase-compatibility-with-rivals-products-52082b50?st=gzZzXt">The Wall Street Journal’s story on the appeal</a>, for example, didn’t include that portion of Apple’s statement. But that’s the part that explains what’s going to happen if the EU upholds these “interoperability” requirements, which are intended to require Apple to give away its own intellectual property as though Apple were a public utility. To cite just one example, the Commission’s March ruling requires Apple to make AirDrop available to third-party devices, as though AirDrop was an open standard. (It also requires Apple to allow AirDrop to be replaced on iOS devices, like an interchangeable component, with third-party file sharing software.)</p>
917.  
918. <p>When you think about it, this is nothing like the EU’s recent-ish mandate that most electronic devices must support USB-C ports for charging. I still think that law was unnecessary — the market forces had worked, and the whole world had either already moved (like iPads did starting in 2018) or was on the cusp of moving to USB-C (like iPhones). But at least requiring the inclusion of USB-C for charging is actual open interoperability. USB comes from <a href="https://www.usb.org/">a legitimate industry consortium</a>. Same thing with the Chinese government <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2024/02/eu_rcs_imessage">seemingly forcing Apple’s hand to adopt RCS</a> in order to get the necessary <a href="https://www.miit.gov.cn/gzcy/yjzj/art/2023/art_2d5a7969581b4b12a78cd2c455649a8c.html">certifications for 5G cellular networking in China</a> — RCS is an industry standard protocol. Mandating the inclusion of a standardized port or standardized protocol is the sort of thing government regulatory bodies do. That’s very different than if the EC had regulated port compatibility by requiring Apple to open up Lightning, or if China had regulated messaging by requiring Apple to open iMessage for other companies to use as though they’re open standards.</p>
919.  
920. <p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/03/19/eu-apple-interop-requirements">The EC’s March mandate</a> basically says that third-party devices must be permitted to do everything Apple’s own devices do when it comes to communicating or interoperating with iPhones and iPads, even if that requires allowing those third-party companies to install and run system-level background processes with broad privileges on iOS. In fact, as Mayo alludes to above, in order to have the same capabilities as Apple’s own devices do, third-party system software extensions might need <em>broader</em> privileges.</p>
921.  
922. <p>I’ve long seen that there are two ways Apple can comply with this mandate, if the EU court declines Apple’s appeal. The first is what most people are thinking, and surely what the European Commission’s bureaucrats are thinking: that Apple will somehow make all third-party devices as capable as Apple’s own when it comes to pairing with and communicating with iPhones and iPads. (And that when Apple is set to unveil new devices, they’ll share the details with third parties in advance so they can do the same things.) The second, though, is that Apple will limit its own devices <em>in the EU and only in the EU</em> to the same features available to third-party devices through open standards like Bluetooth. New features and entire devices will either come late, or never, to the EU. We’re already seeing that <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/120421">with iPhone Mirroring</a> — perhaps the single best feature Apple announced (and <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/03/something_is_rotten_in_the_state_of_cupertino">actually shipped</a>) last year. I use iPhone Mirroring every day while I’m working. We’re one week out from WWDC 2025 and iPhone Mirroring <em>still</em> isn’t available in the EU. I think it’s very clear that under the EC’s current DMA “interoperability” mandate, Apple would be required to somehow make it work with third-party devices and PCs. If AirDrop were brand new, users in the EU wouldn’t get that either, I suspect. And if this mandate holds up, EU users might <em>lose</em> AirDrop. The same is true of entire devices like AirPods and Apple Watch.</p>
923.  
924. <p>Apple’s statement doesn’t say that complying with these breathtaking demands will adversely affect their customers around the world. They’re saying it will lead “to an inferior user experience for our European customers”. Mandating that the public has to be allowed to use the same doorways as a (say) hotel’s own staff doesn’t mean those existing doors will be opened to everyone. It could lead to those doors being closed to everyone. And all of a sudden no one staying at the hotel is getting food from the kitchen.</p>
925.  
926.  
927.  
928.    ]]></content>
929.  <title>★ Apple Appeals EU’s March Ruling on ‘Interoperability’ Requirements Under the DMA</title></entry><entry>
930. <title>WhatsApp for iPad, Finally</title>
931. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://blog.whatsapp.com/its-here-introducing-whatsapp-for-ipad" />
932. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd3" />
933. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/02/whatsapp-for-ipad" />
934. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41943</id>
935. <published>2025-06-02T20:17:33Z</published>
936. <updated>2025-06-03T17:38:24Z</updated>
937. <author>
938. <name>John Gruber</name>
939. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
940. </author>
941. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
942. <p>WhatsApp:</p>
943.  
944. <blockquote>
945.  <p>As one of our biggest requests, we’re excited to announce that
946. WhatsApp is now available on iPad.[...]</p>
947.  
948. <p>We’ve made WhatsApp for iPad ideal for multitasking so you can get
949. more done. Take advantage of iPadOS multitasking features such as
950. Stage Manager, Split View, and Slide Over to view multiple apps at
951. once, so you can send messages while browsing the web, or research
952. options for a group trip while on a call together. WhatsApp also
953. works with your Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil.</p>
954. </blockquote>
955.  
956. <p>One of the weird things about Meta’s companywide obstinate refusal to adapt its iOS apps for iPadOS is that for WhatsApp, they’ve had a fairly decent <em>Mac</em> app for years. Surely it was less work to adapt their iOS app for iPadOS than it was to create a passable Mac app using Catalyst.</p>
957.  
958. <p>Famously, Instagram doesn’t support iPad screen sizes. You can run and use the iPhone version of Instagram on iPads — and I’m guessing tens of millions of people do — but it’s the clumsy thing where it launches as an iPhone-sized window in the middle of the big iPad display, and you can hit the “double arrows” button to zoom the window to 2× size. You can also use Instagram via the web, on either Mac or iPad, and it’s a pretty full-featured app-like experience.</p>
959.  
960. <p>What was frustrating about WhatsApp’s lack of iPad support until now is that you just couldn’t use WhatsApp at all from an iPad, <a href="https://youtu.be/lqtR0saaSwM?t=35">other than as a web app</a>. Because of the way WhatsApp handles security, you’re really only able to sign in to one “primary” device at a time, and that device must be a phone. Then, what you do to use WhatsApp on other supported platforms is set up those other devices as “<a href="https://faq.whatsapp.com/378279804439436/">linked devices</a>” from the WhatsApp app on your primary phone. WhatsApp still doesn’t let you use the same account from more than one phone, which is highly frustrating for those of us with somewhat unusual edge cases like writing reviews of new devices. WhatsApp’s phone apps — for both iOS and Android — can only serve as primary devices. There’s no way to use one phone as “primary” and use WhatsApp on a second phone as a linked device. I’d go nuts if iMessage worked that way. But that’s why, prior to Meta creating a proper iPad app for WhatsApp, you couldn’t just launch the iPhone app on iPad.</p>
961.  
962. <p>Mark Gurman reported over the weekend that proper iPad support for Instagram <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-06-01/apple-s-wwdc-2025-plan-macos-tahoe-apple-intelligence-ai-ios-26-games-app-mbdlzqpz">is forthcoming too</a>:</p>
963.  
964. <blockquote>
965.  <p>Fifteen years after the first iPad went on sale, WhatsApp is now on the tablet. And, yes, it’s just a precursor to the most highly anticipated iPad app ever: Instagram. I’m told that employees on the Meta Platforms Inc. campus are actively testing Instagram for the iPad and that development work is full steam ahead.</p>
966. </blockquote>
967.  
968. <div>
969. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘WhatsApp for iPad, Finally’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/02/whatsapp-for-ipad">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
970. </div>
971.  
972. ]]></content>
973.  </entry><entry>
974. <title>Script Debugger Retired</title>
975. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://latenightsw.com/script-debugger-retired/" />
976. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd2" />
977. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/02/script-debugger-retired" />
978. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41942</id>
979. <published>2025-06-02T18:58:36Z</published>
980. <updated>2025-06-02T19:27:13Z</updated>
981. <author>
982. <name>John Gruber</name>
983. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
984. </author>
985. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
986. <p>Mark Alldritt, Late Night Software:</p>
987.  
988. <blockquote>
989.  <p>The day has finally come. After 30 years of continuous
990. development, Script Debugger has been retired and will no longer
991. be available for sale. <a href="https://forum.latenightsw.com/t/retiring-script-debugger">Please see this post for more
992. information</a>.</p>
993.  
994. <p>Over the last few months we have received a wonderful outpouring
995. of well wishes and stories from our customers describing how
996. Script Debugger has helped them over the years, via email and on
997. our <a href="https://forum.latenightsw.com/t/retiring-script-debugger/5071">forum</a>. [...]</p>
998.  
999. <p>Script Debugger is now a free download. Links to all versions of
1000. Script Debugger from 8.0 to 4.0, along with registration numbers,
1001. are available on the <a href="https://latenightsw.com/sd8/download/">Downloads page</a>. These free versions
1002. of Script Debugger are provided AS-IS and without warranty,
1003. maintenance or support.</p>
1004.  
1005. <p>Those seeking a version of Script Debugger for the Classic MacOS
1006. <a href="https://www.macintoshrepository.org/7327-script-debugger-3-0-9">should go here</a>.</p>
1007. </blockquote>
1008.  
1009. <p>That last paragraph speaks to what an incredible run this has been. 30 years ago was 1995 — which was so solidly in the classic Mac era that the OS was still named “System 7”, not “Mac OS 7”. I forget when I first started using Script Debugger, but it was definitely in the classic Mac era. The oldest license number I still have is for Script Debugger 3.0 in 2005, but I’d been using it for years at that point.</p>
1010.  
1011. <p>Script Debugger isn’t just a spectacularly good Mac developer tool. (Indispensable, I would say. A lot of the problems many scripters have with AppleScript aren’t just mitigated by using Script Debugger instead of Apple’s free Script Editor — they go away.) It has also always come with spectacularly thorough and exceedingly well-written documentation — a good user manual describes <em>what</em> a product does, but a great one also <a href="https://latenightsw.com/sd7/support/">explains <em>how</em> to use it</a>.</p>
1012.  
1013. <p>But even better than that, the product always fostered a community of users. You could email tech support for help and get world-class expert personal assistance, or, you could participate in their (still vibrant!) <a href="https://forum.latenightsw.com/t/retiring-script-debugger">user forum</a>. Late Night Software always was a small team — Mark and Shane Stanley for the last decade or so, big contributions from Matt Neuburg, and, for a long (but not long enough) while prior to that, Mark’s late wife <a href="https://markalldritt.com/?page_id=795">Gerry Tubin</a> — whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Macworld Expos of yesteryear. Late Night Software never felt like a “company” per se. It always felt like a team. They exemplified all of the ideals of the indie Mac developer community and culture. At this point, it’s fair to say Late Night Software helped <em>define</em> those ideals.</p>
1014.  
1015. <p>But all good things come to an end. I haven’t really spent much time thinking about “apps” retiring, even while at the top of their game, but here we are. To Mark and Shane, I offer my profound thanks and sincere congratulations. What a run. Script Debugger is going out on top.</p>
1016.  
1017. <div>
1018. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Script Debugger Retired’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/02/script-debugger-retired">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1019. </div>
1020.  
1021. ]]></content>
1022.  </entry><entry>
1023. <title>The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2025: Tuesday June 10</title>
1024. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2025" />
1025. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd0" />
1026. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/29/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2025" />
1027. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41940</id>
1028. <published>2025-05-30T02:50:00Z</published>
1029. <updated>2025-06-03T18:58:14Z</updated>
1030. <author>
1031. <name>John Gruber</name>
1032. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1033. </author>
1034. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1035. <p><strong>Location:</strong> The California Theatre, San Jose <br />
1036. <strong>Showtime:</strong> Tuesday, 10 June 2025, 7pm PT (Doors open 6pm) <br />
1037. <strong>Special Guest(s):</strong> <em>See below</em> <br />
1038. <strong>Price:</strong> $50</p>
1039.  
1040. <p>Ever since I started doing these live shows from WWDC, I’ve kept the guest(s) secret, until showtime. I’m still doing that this year. But in recent years the guests have seemed a bit predictable: senior executives from Apple. This year I again extended my usual invitation to Apple, but, for the first time <a href="https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2015/06/09/ep-123">since 2015</a>, they declined.</p>
1041.  
1042. <p>I think this will make for a fascinating show, but I want to set everyone’s expectations accordingly. I’m invigorated by this. See you at the show, I hope.</p>
1043.  
1044. <div>
1045. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2025: Tuesday June 10’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/29/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2025">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1046. </div>
1047.  
1048. ]]></content>
1049.  </entry><entry>
1050. <title>The Talk Show: ‘Sewing Machine Repair Shop’</title>
1051. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2025/05/29/ep-423" />
1052. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wd1" />
1053. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/29/the-talk-show-423" />
1054. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41941</id>
1055. <published>2025-05-30T02:49:47Z</published>
1056. <updated>2025-05-30T02:49:48Z</updated>
1057. <author>
1058. <name>John Gruber</name>
1059. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1060. </author>
1061. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1062. <p>Patrick McGee joins the show to discuss his must-read new book, <em>Apple in China</em> — one of the best books about Apple anyone has ever written.</p>
1063.  
1064. <p><audio
1065.    src = "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/daringfireball/thetalkshow-423-patrick-mcgee.mp3"
1066.    controls
1067.    preload = "none"
1068. /></p>
1069.  
1070. <p><strong>Sponsored by:</strong></p>
1071.  
1072. <ul>
1073. <li><a href="https://factormeals.com/talkshow50off">Factor</a>: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box.</li>
1074. <li><a href="https://notion.com/talkshow">Notion</a>: Your notes, docs, and projects in one space.</li>
1075. <li><a href="https://squarespace.com/talkshow">Squarespace</a>: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code <strong>talkshow</strong>.</li>
1076. </ul>
1077.  
1078. <div>
1079. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘The Talk Show: ‘Sewing Machine Repair Shop’’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/29/the-talk-show-423">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1080. </div>
1081.  
1082. ]]></content>
1083.  </entry><entry>
1084. <title>Trump’s Entire Tariff Endeavor Ruled Illegal by U.S. Court of International Trade</title>
1085. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/business/trump-tariffs-blocked-federal-court.html?unlocked_article_code=1.K08.Dopk.xjccPnSSgb59&amp;smid=url-share" />
1086. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcz" />
1087. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/29/trump-tariffs-illegal" />
1088. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41939</id>
1089. <published>2025-05-29T16:08:11Z</published>
1090. <updated>2025-05-29T16:37:20Z</updated>
1091. <author>
1092. <name>John Gruber</name>
1093. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1094. </author>
1095. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1096. <p>Tony Romm and Ana Swanson, reporting for The New York Times (paywall-busting gift link):</p>
1097.  
1098. <blockquote>
1099.  <p>A panel of federal judges on Wednesday blocked President Trump
1100. from imposing some of his steepest tariffs on China and other U.S.
1101. trading partners, finding that federal law did not grant him
1102. “unbounded authority” to tax imports from nearly every country
1103. around the world.</p>
1104.  
1105. <p>The ruling, by the U.S. Court of International Trade, delivered an
1106. early yet significant setback to Mr. Trump, undercutting his
1107. primary leverage as he looks to pressure other nations into
1108. striking trade deals more beneficial to the United States.</p>
1109.  
1110. <p>Before Mr. Trump took office, no president had sought to invoke
1111. the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a 1977 law, to
1112. impose tariffs on other nations. The law, which primarily concerns
1113. trade embargoes and sanctions, does not even mention tariffs.</p>
1114.  
1115. <p>But Mr. Trump adopted a novel interpretation of its powers as he
1116. announced, and then suspended, high levies on scores of countries
1117. in April. He also used the law to impose tariffs on products from
1118. Canada and Mexico in return for what he said was their role in
1119. sending fentanyl to the United States.</p>
1120.  
1121. <p>On Wednesday, the Court of International Trade, the primary
1122. federal legal body overseeing such matters, found that Mr. Trump’s
1123. tariffs “exceed any authority granted” to the president by the
1124. emergency powers law. Ruling in separate cases brought by states
1125. and businesses, a bipartisan panel of three judges essentially
1126. declared many, but not all, of Mr. Trump’s tariffs to have been
1127. issued illegally.</p>
1128. </blockquote>
1129.  
1130. <p>Enough with the euphemisms. “Novel interpretation” is shorthand for “bullshit mad-king fantasy stuff”. <a href="https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-there-a-dignified-legal-way-preferably">Paul Krugman, on his blog</a> (which he <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2024/11/regarding_and_well_against_substack">really should</a> move away from Substack):</p>
1131.  
1132. <blockquote>
1133.  <p>The thing is, it has been obvious all along that Trump’s use of
1134. the 1977 International Economic Emergency Powers Act to justify
1135. Smoot-Hawley level tariffs was a massive abuse of power. I mean,
1136. since when are 4 percent unemployment and 2.5 percent inflation an
1137. emergency justifying the reversal of 90 years of policy? But I
1138. guess I just assumed that things like that didn’t matter anymore.</p>
1139. </blockquote>
1140.  
1141. <p>Look past the bluster and Trump <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/28/resistance-is-working">is getting his ass kicked left and right</a>. Every organization — universities, law firms, computer makers — that’s been hesitant to just call his nonsense <em>nonsense</em> and his bullshit <em>bullshit</em> should put their big boy pants on and stand up. The whole thing is falling apart. The system might actually still work. But everyone needs to make their choice known: courage or cowardice?</p>
1142.  
1143. <div>
1144. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Trump’s Entire Tariff Endeavor Ruled Illegal by U.S. Court of International Trade’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/29/trump-tariffs-illegal">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1145. </div>
1146.  
1147. ]]></content>
1148.  </entry><entry>
1149. <title>Apple’s Annual App Store Scam and Fraud Report</title>
1150. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/05/the-app-store-prevented-more-than-9-billion-usd-in-fraudulent-transactions/?1748350751" />
1151. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcy" />
1152. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/28/apples-annual-app-store-scam-and-fraud-report" />
1153. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41938</id>
1154. <published>2025-05-28T23:05:53Z</published>
1155. <updated>2025-06-03T16:39:07Z</updated>
1156. <author>
1157. <name>John Gruber</name>
1158. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1159. </author>
1160. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1161. <p>Apple Newsroom, yesterday:</p>
1162.  
1163. <blockquote>
1164.  <p>Apple’s strong antifraud infrastructure helps ensure that
1165. malicious developer and customer accounts are swiftly flagged and
1166. eliminated. In 2024, Apple terminated more than 146,000 developer
1167. accounts over fraud concerns and rejected an additional 139,000
1168. developer enrollments, preventing bad actors from submitting their
1169. apps to the App Store in the first place.</p>
1170.  
1171. <p>Apple also rejected over 711 million customer account creations
1172. and deactivated nearly 129 million customer accounts last year,
1173. blocking these risky and malicious accounts from carrying out
1174. nefarious activity. That includes spamming or manipulating ratings
1175. and reviews, charts, and search results that risk compromising the
1176. integrity of the App Store.</p>
1177. </blockquote>
1178.  
1179. <p>This report isn’t something new that Apple is doing in the face of increased regulatory scrutiny over the exclusivity of the App Store — they’ve been issuing these reports <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/05/app-store-stopped-over-1-5-billion-in-suspect-transactions-in-2020/">since 2021</a>. <a href="https://pxlnv.com/linklog/annual-fraud-prevention-headlines/">Nick Heer has a good post at Pixel Envy</a> documenting how some of their numbers are seemingly all over the place, year to year.</p>
1180.  
1181. <p>What some App Store critics argue is that if <em>any</em> substantial amount of fraud, scams, or rip-offs occur through apps distributed through the App Store, that proves that there are no protective benefits of the App Store model. That’s nonsense. There are high-crime cities and low-crime cities, but there exist zero no-crime cities. The question is whether Apple is catching most — or even just “enough” — scammers. Scammy apps, pirated apps, fraudulent app reviewers. You name it. I’ve long suggested that <a href="https://daringfireball.net/search/bunco+squad">Apple ought to employ a “bunco squad”</a> to crack down on scammers, focusing first and foremost on <em>successful</em> ones. Better to catch one scam with 1,000 victims than 10 scams with one victim each.</p>
1182.  
1183. <p>I think they could still do better, but I actually think Apple <em>has</em> been doing a better job on this front in recent years. But if your measuring stick is “Are there any successful scams at all in the App Store?” there’s no way Apple is ever going to pass muster. And I think a lot of App Store critics are vastly, vastly underestimating how much fraud Apple is currently stopping that would sail right through if iOS adopted a <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/02/08/snell-ios-direct-installation-of-apps">Mac-like-style</a> of software distribution. The main difference is that iOS is so much more of a juicy target than MacOS. The other is that I think many people underestimate how many software scams there are on MacOS that wouldn’t work on iOS.</p>
1184.  
1185. <div>
1186. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Apple’s Annual App Store Scam and Fraud Report’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/28/apples-annual-app-store-scam-and-fraud-report">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1187. </div>
1188.  
1189. ]]></content>
1190.  </entry><entry>
1191. <title>Gurman: Apple Is Going to Re-Version OSes by Year, Starting With iOS 26, MacOS 26, tvOS 26, Etc.</title>
1192. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-28/apple-to-rebrand-device-operating-systems-ios-26-macos-26-watchos-26" />
1193. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcx" />
1194. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/28/gurman-version-years" />
1195. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41937</id>
1196. <published>2025-05-28T22:32:02Z</published>
1197. <updated>2025-06-03T16:27:37Z</updated>
1198. <author>
1199. <name>John Gruber</name>
1200. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1201. </author>
1202. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1203. <p>Hell of a scoop from Mark Gurman, at Bloomberg:</p>
1204.  
1205. <blockquote>
1206.  <p>The next Apple operating systems will be identified by year,
1207. rather than with a version number, according to people with
1208. knowledge of the matter. That means the current iOS 18 will give
1209. way to “iOS 26,” said the people, who asked not to be identified
1210. because the plan is still private. Other updates will be known as
1211. iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26 and visionOS 26.</p>
1212.  
1213. <p>Apple is making the change to bring consistency to its branding
1214. and move away from an approach that can be confusing to customers
1215. and developers. Today’s operating systems — including iOS 18,
1216. watchOS 12, macOS 15 and visionOS 2 — use different numbers
1217. because their initial versions didn’t debut at the same time.</p>
1218. </blockquote>
1219.  
1220. <p>Now that they’re on a consistent annual schedule, this supposed new version-numbering scheme makes a lot of sense. It’ll certainly be helpful to anyone trying to figure out what’s up-to-date or not, and it’ll make writing about older OSes much easier. Presuming Gurman is right, this is going to seem really weird at first, and then very quickly seem very natural.</p>
1221.  
1222. <p>One of the true oddities of Apple’s OS version numbering is that because they stuck with “10” as the leading digit of MacOS’s version numbering from Mac OS X 10.0 “Cheetah”<sup id="fnr1-2025-05-28"><a href="#fn1-2025-05-28">1</a></sup> (2001) through MacOS 10.15 “Catalina” (2019), before finally turning the dial to 11 with MacOS 11 “Big Sur” (2020), a casual observer would presume that iOS (currently at 18.5) is older than MacOS (currently at 15.5) when in fact it’s the other way around.</p>
1223.  
1224. <div class="footnotes">
1225. <hr />
1226. <ol>
1227. <li id="fn1-2025-05-28">
1228. <p>This was like the ultimate in wishbranding. A real cheetah is the fastest land animal on Earth. Mac OS X 10.0 “Cheetah” was the slowest-feeling OS Apple ever released.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr1-2025-05-28"  class="footnoteBackLink"  title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>
1229. </li>
1230. </ol>
1231. </div>
1232.  
1233. <div>
1234. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Gurman: Apple Is Going to Re-Version OSes by Year, Starting With iOS 26, MacOS 26, tvOS 26, Etc.’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/28/gurman-version-years">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1235. </div>
1236.  
1237. ]]></content>
1238.  </entry><entry>
1239. <title>The Resistance Is Working Better Than You Think</title>
1240. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://politicalwire.com/2025/05/28/the-resistance-is-working-better-than-you-think/" />
1241. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcw" />
1242. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/28/resistance-is-working" />
1243. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41936</id>
1244. <published>2025-05-28T16:25:42Z</published>
1245. <updated>2025-05-28T16:26:26Z</updated>
1246. <author>
1247. <name>John Gruber</name>
1248. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1249. </author>
1250. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1251. <p>Taegan Goddard:</p>
1252.  
1253. <blockquote>
1254.  <p>For all the bluster and bravado, Donald Trump is losing. A lot.</p>
1255. </blockquote>
1256.  
1257. <p>Keep the faith.</p>
1258.  
1259. <div>
1260. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘The Resistance Is Working Better Than You Think’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/28/resistance-is-working">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1261. </div>
1262.  
1263. ]]></content>
1264.  </entry><entry>
1266. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ooni.com/products/ooni-halo-pro-spiral-mixer?utm_source=daringfireball&amp;utm_medium=web&amp;utm_campaign=halo_pro" />
1267. <link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wcv" />
1268. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2025/05/ooni_halo_pro_spiral_mixer" />
1269. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/feeds/sponsors//11.41935</id>
1270. <author><name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name></author>
1271. <published>2025-05-28T01:43:53Z</published>
1272. <updated>2025-05-28T01:43:54Z</updated>
1273. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1274. <p>Established industries don’t get disrupted all that often. </p>
1275.  
1276. <p>We at Ooni are lucky enough to have changed the game in pizza ovens over the past decade by rethinking them from ground up and in the process enabling the home pizza revolution. </p>
1277.  
1278. <p>From our deep knowledge in pizza dough we found our next category: the stand mixer.</p>
1279.  
1280. <p>Domestic kitchen stand mixers have stayed the same for nearly hundred years. There’s a very well established incumbent in the market who only really innovate in color trends. </p>
1281.  
1282. <p>We’re bringing spiral mixer technology reserved only for professional bakeries to your kitchen counter. The journey wasn’t trivial but we’ve created a product that has just the right features and best-in-class performance.</p>
1283.  
1284. <div>
1285. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2025/05/ooni_halo_pro_spiral_mixer">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1286. </div>
1287.  
1288. ]]></content>
1289. <title>[Sponsor] Ooni Halo Pro Spiral Mixer</title></entry><entry>
1290. <title>‘The Future Is Colourful and Dimensional’</title>
1291. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.flarup.email/p/the-future-is-colourful-and-dimensional" />
1292. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcu" />
1293. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/the-future-is-colourful-and-dimensional" />
1294. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41934</id>
1295. <published>2025-05-27T23:46:44Z</published>
1296. <updated>2025-05-27T23:46:45Z</updated>
1297. <author>
1298. <name>John Gruber</name>
1299. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1300. </author>
1301. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1302. <p>Michael Flarup:</p>
1303.  
1304. <blockquote>
1305.  <p>Whatever we call it (Diamorph or otherwise), I’m just glad to see
1306. interfaces getting weird and wonderful again. We’re not going
1307. back. We’re going forward — with depth, with texture, and maybe
1308. even with a little joy.</p>
1309. </blockquote>
1310.  
1311. <p>Depth is good — humans innately understand three dimensions. Texture is good. We’ve lost so much over the last decade. I hope that’s where Apple is heading back.</p>
1312.  
1313. <div>
1314. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘‘The Future Is Colourful and Dimensional’’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/the-future-is-colourful-and-dimensional">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1315. </div>
1316.  
1317. ]]></content>
1318.  </entry><entry>
1319. <title>On the Engineering Talent at io</title>
1320. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2025/05/sam-and-jony-and-skepticism/" />
1321. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wct" />
1322. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/on-the-engineering-talent-at-io" />
1323. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41933</id>
1324. <published>2025-05-27T22:34:14Z</published>
1325. <updated>2025-06-04T17:25:06Z</updated>
1326. <author>
1327. <name>John Gruber</name>
1328. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1329. </author>
1330. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1331. <p>Jason Snell, pouring some admittedly welcome skepticism on the whole LoveFrom-OpenAI IO endeavor:</p>
1332.  
1333. <blockquote>
1334.  <p>I’m skeptical of the composition of <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/22/gurman-io-team">the io leadership team</a>,
1335. which features an awful lot of product designers and not a lot of
1336. hardware engineers. I’m sure there are talented engineers there
1337. too — the OpenAI announcement refers to “physicists, scientists,
1338. researchers” among the team members — but the fact remains that
1339. this is a startup whose leader and key lieutenants appear to all
1340. be designers.</p>
1341. </blockquote>
1342.  
1343. <p>Maybe the whole io thing will come to naught. Maybe it’s all hat, no cattle. Maybe it’s a great idea but a long shot to play out (which is my gut feeling). But there’s a weird internal-to-Apple lingo thing here. At Apple “product designers” are very much engineers. PD at Apple is a hardware engineering discipline, not the kind of “design” you’re probably thinking of as “design”. These are the mechanical and electrical engineers who are doing the “design” work of fitting stuff in the box. The nomenclature is distinct, to the best of my knowledge, from the rest of Silicon Valley, where designers design, effectively, sketches, and then hand those sketches off to engineers to be made. At Apple, and now, io and LoveFrom, “product designers” are part of the sketching process. They’re trying to figure out how to make things real, what’s feasible, throughout the process.</p>
1344.  
1345. <p>I think Snell’s overall take is perfectly measured and probably a perfect chaser to my own <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/21/sam-and-jony-io">at-least-slightly exuberant optimism</a>. But make no mistake: the current team at io is loaded with what every other company would consider mechanical and electrical engineers — they’re just mechanical and electrical engineers who know how to dance with <em>designer</em> designers. Engineers, in that vein, outnumber pure designers at io already.</p>
1346.  
1347. <div>
1348. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘On the Engineering Talent at io’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/on-the-engineering-talent-at-io">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1349. </div>
1350.  
1351. ]]></content>
1352.  </entry><entry>
1353. <title>Apple’s Satellite Networking Ambitions</title>
1354. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apples-satellite-ambitions-threatened-elon-musk-internal-resistance?rc=jfy0lk" />
1355. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcs" />
1356. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/apples-satellite-networking-ambitions" />
1357. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41932</id>
1358. <published>2025-05-27T21:52:43Z</published>
1359. <updated>2025-05-27T21:52:44Z</updated>
1360. <author>
1361. <name>John Gruber</name>
1362. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1363. </author>
1364. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1365. <p>Aaron “Homeboy” Tilley (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/03/11/wsj-tech-layoffs">recently of the WSJ</a>) and Wayne Ma, at the paywalled-up-the-wazoo The Information:</p>
1366.  
1367. <blockquote>
1368.  <p>Starting in 2015, Apple and Boeing held early discussions about a
1369. satellite internet project that would involve delivering
1370. full-blown wireless internet service, not just emergency
1371. communications services, to iPhones and homes, said five people
1372. involved in or briefed on the project.</p>
1373.  
1374. <p>Through the effort, dubbed Project Eagle within Apple, the
1375. companies would lob thousands of Boeing satellites into orbit to
1376. beam internet down to iPhones. For home users, Apple planned to
1377. offer antennas people could stick to their windows to disperse
1378. their internet connection throughout the building. (Satellite
1379. internet requires a device to have an uninterrupted line of sight
1380. to the sky.)</p>
1381.  
1382. <p>For the project’s champions, it was an ambitious gambit to provide
1383. a more seamless Apple experience. Some inside Apple saw mobile
1384. carriers as necessary but inconvenient partners that held the
1385. company’s iPhone plans back. With a global satellite system, Apple
1386. could provide more of the key ingredients for its products,
1387. reducing its dependency on outside partners.</p>
1388.  
1389. <p>The lead executive and architect behind the project was Apple’s
1390. longtime wireless chief, Rubén Caballero. Apple spent around $36
1391. million testing out the concept at a secret location in El
1392. Segundo, Calif., the people with knowledge of the project said.
1393. The team aimed to launch the service in 2019.</p>
1394.  
1395. <p>But eventually Apple got cold feet. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, was
1396. concerned that the project would jeopardize the company’s
1397. relationship with the telecom industry, said people with direct
1398. knowledge of the project. It was also an expensive undertaking
1399. with an unclear near-term business case. At the end of 2016, Apple
1400. canceled the project. (Caballero <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apple-executive-responsible-for-5g-efforts-departs">left the company</a> in 2019.)</p>
1401. </blockquote>
1402.  
1403. <p>The segment I quote here is midway through the article. It leads with purported offers from Elon Musk to Apple to rely exclusively on Starlink for satellite networking. Starlink offers a <a href="https://x.com/jasonfried/status/1873056615345340566">genuinely incredible service</a>. But there’s no way Apple was going to make a <em>get into bed together</em> deal with Elon Musk. Starlink’s technology and satellite coverage are extraordinary, but Musk personally is just too erratic. It’s a bizarre, dare I say unprecedented, combination. He’s like Howard Hughes but with much better tech (and, perhaps, fewer bottles of his own urine strewn about his bedroom).</p>
1404.  
1405. <div>
1406. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Apple’s Satellite Networking Ambitions’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/apples-satellite-networking-ambitions">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1407. </div>
1408.  
1409. ]]></content>
1410.  </entry><entry>
1411. <title>Scott Forstall Has Been Advising The Browser Company</title>
1412. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://browsercompany.substack.com/p/letter-to-arc-members-2025" />
1413. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcr" />
1414. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/forstall-the-browser-company" />
1415. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41931</id>
1416. <published>2025-05-27T21:24:20Z</published>
1417. <updated>2025-05-27T21:24:20Z</updated>
1418. <author>
1419. <name>John Gruber</name>
1420. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1421. </author>
1422. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1423. <p>Josh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company, on their decision to abandon their new browser Arc in favor of going all-in on their newer browser Dia:</p>
1424.  
1425. <blockquote>
1426.  <p>Early on, Scott Forstall told us Arc felt like a saxophone — powerful but hard to learn. Then he challenged us: make it a
1427. piano. Something anyone can sit down at and play. This is now the
1428. idea behind Dia: hide complexity behind familiar interfaces.</p>
1429. </blockquote>
1430.  
1431. <p>Forstall’s advice sounds perfect, but I don’t know how they square this with the people — and I know a few — who went all-in on Arc personally. Like the old “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” adage, how do you commit to a new browser from the same people who just pulled the rug out from under you on their last one?</p>
1432.  
1433. <div>
1434. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Scott Forstall Has Been Advising The Browser Company’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/forstall-the-browser-company">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1435. </div>
1436.  
1437. ]]></content>
1438.  </entry><entry>
1439. <title>Tim Cook Declined Middle East Trip With Trump’s Sycophant Entourage</title>
1440. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/26/technology/techs-trump-whisperer-tim-cook-goes-quiet-as-his-influence-fades.html" />
1441. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcq" />
1442. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/cook-trump-middle-east" />
1443. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41930</id>
1444. <published>2025-05-27T21:18:42Z</published>
1445. <updated>2025-05-27T21:31:39Z</updated>
1446. <author>
1447. <name>John Gruber</name>
1448. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1449. </author>
1450. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1451. <p>I’ve been giving Tripp Mickle quite a bit of grief over <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/05/idiocy_or_jackassery_you_make_the_call_made_in_america_iphone">his dumb “Is Trump’s ‘Made in America’ iPhone a Fantasy?”</a> story, but this is an interesting nugget I haven’t seen anyone else highlight:</p>
1452.  
1453. <blockquote>
1454.  <p>In the run-up to President Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East,
1455. the White House encouraged chief executives and representatives of
1456. many U.S. companies to join him. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief
1457. executive, declined, said two people familiar with the decision.</p>
1458.  
1459. <p>The choice appeared to irritate Mr. Trump. As he hopscotched from
1460. Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates, Mr. Trump took a number
1461. of shots at Mr. Cook. During his speech in Riyadh, Mr. Trump
1462. paused to praise Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, for
1463. traveling to the Middle East along with the White House
1464. delegation. Then he knocked Mr. Cook.</p>
1465.  
1466. <p>“I mean, Tim Cook isn’t here but you are,” Mr. Trump said to Mr.
1467. Huang at an event attended by chief executives like Larry Fink of
1468. the asset manager BlackRock, Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jane Fraser of
1469. Citigroup and Lisa Su of the semiconductor company AMD.</p>
1470. </blockquote>
1471.  
1472. <p>The presumption here is that Trump’s (<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/23/california-ag-trump-apple-tariff-00368619">possibly illegal</a>) threats of applying a 25% tariff on all imported iPhones, no matter where they’re assembled, are payback for Cook declining to attend this trip in Trump’s entourage of CEOs. When you cave to a bully/extortionist, the bullying/extortion don’t stop. Apple doesn’t really have any significant business interests in countries like Saudi Arabia or Qatar, and it’s not hard to see why an even vaguely ethical business leader <a href="https://www.status.news/p/jeff-bezos-jamal-khashoggi-saudi-arabia-ai-deal">would not want to cozy up with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman</a>.</p>
1473.  
1474. <p>Maybe Cook was just busy. But maybe Cook, just 100-some days into the Trump 2.0 administration, is already past his “<em>look, he won the election, let’s give him a chance</em>” stage.</p>
1475.  
1476. <div>
1477. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Tim Cook Declined Middle East Trip With Trump’s Sycophant Entourage’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/cook-trump-middle-east">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1478. </div>
1479.  
1480. ]]></content>
1481.  </entry><entry>
1482. <title>‘Puzzmo Is Not a Good iOS App’</title>
1483. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://maxfrequency.net/2025/05/26/puzzmo-app-not-good" />
1484. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcp" />
1485. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/puzzmo-is-not-a-good-ios-app" />
1486. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41929</id>
1487. <published>2025-05-27T19:47:56Z</published>
1488. <updated>2025-05-27T19:47:57Z</updated>
1489. <author>
1490. <name>John Gruber</name>
1491. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1492. </author>
1493. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1494. <p>Max Roberts:</p>
1495.  
1496. <blockquote>
1497.  <p>I hate to say it, but the Puzzmo app is not a good experience. It
1498. is a real shame that Zach and team launched it in this state. What
1499. makes the shame heavier is that Zach is a superb designer. I know
1500. he works with excellent designers too. The team has fallen short
1501. in an off-putting way.</p>
1502.  
1503. <p>Thankfully, Gruber is not a betting man.</p>
1504. </blockquote>
1505.  
1506. <p>I have to say, I do like having a Puzzmo app, but I don’t think the experience is that much better than the web app version.</p>
1507.  
1508. <div>
1509. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘‘Puzzmo Is Not a Good iOS App’’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/27/puzzmo-is-not-a-good-ios-app">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1510. </div>
1511.  
1512. ]]></content>
1513.  </entry><entry>
1514. <title>The Talk Show: ‘A Monkey on a Rock’</title>
1515. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2025/05/26/ep-422" />
1516. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcn" />
1517. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/the-talk-show-422" />
1518. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41927</id>
1519. <published>2025-05-26T23:35:00Z</published>
1520. <updated>2025-05-26T23:36:42Z</updated>
1521. <author>
1522. <name>John Gruber</name>
1523. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1524. </author>
1525. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1526. <p>Stephen Hackett, proprietor of 512 Pixels and co-founder of <a href="https://www.relay.fm/">Relay</a> (purveyor of many fine podcasts), joins the show. Topics include: IO (or if you will, io), the new joint venture of OpenAI and Jony Ive’s LoveFrom; the sheer fantasy of “Made in America” iPhones; and Fortnite’s return to the US App Store.</p>
1527.  
1528. <p><audio
1529.    src = "https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/daringfireball/thetalkshow-422-stephen-hackett.mp3"
1530.    controls
1531.    preload = "none"
1532. /></p>
1533.  
1534. <p><strong>Sponsored by:</strong></p>
1535.  
1536. <ul>
1537. <li><a href="https://workos.com/">WorkOS</a>: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million monthly active users.</li>
1538. <li><a href="https://betterhelp.com/talkshow">BetterHelp</a>: Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp and get on your way to being your best self.</li>
1539. <li><a href="https://squarespace.com/talkshow">Squarespace</a>: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code <strong>talkshow</strong>.</li>
1540. </ul>
1541.  
1542. <div>
1543. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘The Talk Show: ‘A Monkey on a Rock’’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/the-talk-show-422">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1544. </div>
1545.  
1546. ]]></content>
1547.  </entry><entry>
1548. <title>How to Make Money on Trump’s Memecoin (Short It)</title>
1549. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/cryptocurrency/674327/trump-coin-short-sell-hedge-contest-dinner-winner" />
1550. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wco" />
1551. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/trump-memecoin" />
1552. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41928</id>
1553. <published>2025-05-26T23:34:24Z</published>
1554. <updated>2025-05-26T23:34:49Z</updated>
1555. <author>
1556. <name>John Gruber</name>
1557. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1558. </author>
1559. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1560. <p>Tina Nguyen at The Verge:</p>
1561.  
1562. <blockquote>
1563.  <p>I interviewed an enthusiastic crypto trader who figured out how to
1564. win the contest without losing any money: buy enough $TRUMP to get
1565. onto the leaderboard — and then in a separate wallet on a
1566. separate exchange, buy $TRUMP perpetual futures that would be
1567. profitable if (or as he saw it, when) the value of $TRUMP dropped.
1568. Yes, he did The Big Short, except with Donald Trump’s meme coin.
1569. “Bet you 10 percent of dinner participants are doing this,” he
1570. told me before the contest ended. “Everyone knows $TRUMP price
1571. will fall inevitably as more supply comes online in the future and
1572. gets dumped on retail.”</p>
1573. </blockquote>
1574.  
1575. <p>Fascinating interview — half hilarious, half infuriating.</p>
1576.  
1577. <div>
1578. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘How to Make Money on Trump’s Memecoin (Short It)’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/trump-memecoin">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1579. </div>
1580.  
1581. ]]></content>
1582.  </entry><entry>
1583. <title>‘Sony: Because Caucasians Are Just Too Damn Tall’</title>
1584. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96iJsdGkl44" />
1585. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcm" />
1586. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/sony-caucasions-are-just-too-damn-tall" />
1587. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41926</id>
1588. <published>2025-05-26T22:29:27Z</published>
1589. <updated>2025-05-26T22:34:44Z</updated>
1590. <author>
1591. <name>John Gruber</name>
1592. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1593. </author>
1594. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1595. <p>Here’s a spoof commercial from the 1990 movie <em>Crazy People</em>, starring Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah, <a href="https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/16814-crazy-people">which TMDB synopsizes</a>:</p>
1596.  
1597. <blockquote>
1598.  <p>A bitter ad executive, who has reached his breaking point, finds
1599. himself in a mental institution, where his career actually begins
1600. to thrive with the help of the hospital’s patients.</p>
1601. </blockquote>
1602.  
1603. <p>The New York Times <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/young-chinese-women-have-small-fingers">would have you believe</a> this is relevant to Apple’s supply chain reliance on China.</p>
1604.  
1605. <div>
1606. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘‘Sony: Because Caucasians Are Just Too Damn Tall’’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/sony-caucasions-are-just-too-damn-tall">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1607. </div>
1608.  
1609. ]]></content>
1610.  </entry><entry>
1611. <title>The New York Times Digs in on the ‘Young Chinese Women Have Small Fingers’ Claim</title>
1612. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://bsky.app/profile/joolia.bsky.social/post/3lpw5thw4e22f" />
1613. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcl" />
1614. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/young-chinese-women-have-small-fingers" />
1615. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41925</id>
1616. <published>2025-05-26T22:20:56Z</published>
1617. <updated>2025-05-26T22:59:50Z</updated>
1618. <author>
1619. <name>John Gruber</name>
1620. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1621. </author>
1622. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1623. <p>Julia Carrie Wong, a reporter for the Guardian, has a whole thread over on Bluesky digging into the bizarre “young Chinese women have small fingers” line <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/05/idiocy_or_jackassery_you_make_the_call_made_in_america_iphone">in Tripp Mickle’s New York Times story</a> that tries to pretend that maybe sorta kinda Apple could assemble iPhones in the US. Mickle attributed the claim to “supply chain experts said”. Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander emailed Wong a statement that included the following:</p>
1624.  
1625. <blockquote>
1626.  <p>Our reporting does not make racial or genetic generalizations, but
1627. simply cites experts who have experience with the industrial
1628. process in U.S. and Chinese factories.</p>
1629. </blockquote>
1630.  
1631. <p>I didn’t write my piece on Mickle’s story until about a day after it appeared, and I fully expected while I was writing it that the Times would have removed or significantly edited that goofy claim. But no, it was still there Saturday, and it’s still there today. They’re standing behind it.</p>
1632.  
1633. <p>You know how Peter Navarro — Trump’s <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/peter-navarro-trade-counsel-trump/">crook</a> of an economic advisor who is the mastermind behind this whole tariffs thing — wrote a book that cited a purported expert named Ron Vara, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/18/771396016/white-house-adviser-peter-navarro-calls-fictional-alter-ego-an-inside-joke">and it turns out Ron Vara doesn’t exist</a> and his name is <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/21/cook-trump-tariffs-wapo">just a dumb anagram</a> for “Navarro”? I’m thinking maybe the “supply chain experts” behind this notion that Apple assembles iPhones in China because “young Chinese women have small fingers” are the well-known supply chain masterminds Mipp Trickle and Trick Mipple.</p>
1634.  
1635. <div>
1636. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘The New York Times Digs in on the ‘Young Chinese Women Have Small Fingers’ Claim’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/young-chinese-women-have-small-fingers">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1637. </div>
1638.  
1639. ]]></content>
1640.  </entry><entry>
1641. <title>37signals’s Hey Is Finally for Sale (in the US) From Its iPhone App</title>
1642. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://world.hey.com/dhh/hey-is-finally-for-sale-on-the-iphone-a08cb218" />
1643. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wck" />
1644. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/hey-now-for-sale-from-iphone-app" />
1645. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41924</id>
1646. <published>2025-05-26T16:31:59Z</published>
1647. <updated>2025-05-26T16:58:38Z</updated>
1648. <author>
1649. <name>John Gruber</name>
1650. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1651. </author>
1652. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1653. <p>David Heinemeier Hansson (last week):</p>
1654.  
1655. <blockquote>
1656.  <p>Thanks to their fight for Fortnite, app developers everywhere are
1657. now allowed to link out of apps to their own web-based payment
1658. system in the US store (but, sadly, nowhere else yet).</p>
1659.  
1660. <p>This is all we ever wanted from Apple: to have a way to distribute
1661. our iPhone apps and keep the customer relationship by billing
1662. directly. The 30% toll gets all the attention, and it is
1663. ludicrously egregious, but to us, it’s just as much about
1664. <a href="https://www.hey.com/apple/iap/">retaining that direct customer relationship</a>, so we can help
1665. folks with refunds, so they don’t tie their billing for a
1666. multi-platform email system to a single manufacturer.</p>
1667. </blockquote>
1668.  
1669. <p><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/19/judge-pressures-apple-to-approve-fortnite-or-return-to-court/">Here’s Sarah Perez at TechCrunch</a>, the day prior to DHH’s announcement:</p>
1670.  
1671. <blockquote>
1672.  <p>Following the decision, Apple <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/02/apple-changes-us-app-store-rules-to-let-apps-redirect-users-to-their-own-websites-for-payments/">updated</a> its App Store
1673. policies for the U.S., and apps, including <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/02/apple-approves-spotify-app-update-that-allows-u-s-users-to-access-pricing-info-external-payment-links/">Spotify</a>, Amazon
1674. <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/06/amazon-kindles-ios-app-adds-new-get-book-button-following-apple-payments-ruling/">Kindle</a>, and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/06/patreons-app-can-now-accept-web-payments-after-u-s-app-store-changes/">Patreon</a> quickly rolled out new versions
1675. of their apps to take advantage of the new functionality.</p>
1676. </blockquote>
1677.  
1678. <p>None of these apps were using Apple’s in-app payments. Users simply couldn’t sign up for paid tiers (or in Kindle’s case, buy books) from inside the apps. This is a win for users, and Apple won’t lose a cent from commissions from any of these apps.</p>
1679.  
1680. <div>
1681. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘37signals’s Hey Is Finally for Sale (in the US) From Its iPhone App’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/26/hey-now-for-sale-from-iphone-app">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1682. </div>
1683.  
1684. ]]></content>
1685.  </entry><entry>
1686. <title>Drata</title>
1687. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://drata.com/daring" />
1688. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcj" />
1689. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/25/drata" />
1690. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41923</id>
1691. <published>2025-05-25T22:05:33Z</published>
1692. <updated>2025-05-25T22:05:34Z</updated>
1693. <author>
1694. <name>John Gruber</name>
1695. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1696. </author>
1697. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1698. <p>My thanks to Drata for sponsoring this last week at DF. Their message is short and sweet: Automate compliance. Streamline security. Manage risk. Drata delivers the world’s most advanced Trust Management platform.</p>
1699.  
1700. <div>
1701. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Drata’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/25/drata">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1702. </div>
1703.  
1704. ]]></content>
1705.  </entry><entry>
1706.    
1707.    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/05/idiocy_or_jackassery_you_make_the_call_made_in_america_iphone" />
1708. <link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wci" />
1709. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.41922</id>
1710. <published>2025-05-24T20:16:44Z</published>
1711. <updated>2025-06-03T17:20:14Z</updated>
1712. <author>
1713. <name>John Gruber</name>
1714. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1715. </author>
1716. <summary type="text">My chances of ever landing a job at The New York Times continue to sink.</summary>
1717. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1718. <p>The New York Times ran a really dumb Tripp Mickle piece yesterday under the headline “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/technology/apple-iphone-trump-india-china.html">Is Trump’s ‘Made in America’ iPhone a Fantasy?</a>” The answer should have simply been “<em>Yes, it’s sheer fantasy</em>”, perhaps with explanations why. Instead, Mickle twists the piece into pretzels to make it seem like the answer is <em>maybe</em>, even though there’s not a single fact to back that up. Not one. The only thing that backs up any answer other than “<em>It’s a fantasy, can’t happen, makes no sense</em>” are comments from analysts — named and unnamed — and the bizarre old-school news media practice of treating as fact any nonsense and/or bullshit that comes out of the lips of anyone with the word “analyst” on their business card.</p>
1719.  
1720. <blockquote>
1721.  <p><em>Could Apple make iPhones in the United States?</em></p>
1722.  
1723. <p>Yes. Apple could make iPhones in the United States. But doing so
1724. would be expensive and difficult and force the company to more
1725. than double iPhone prices to $2,000 or more, said Wayne Lam, an
1726. analyst with TechInsights, a market research firm. Apple would
1727. have to buy new machines and rely on more automation than it
1728. uses in China because the U.S. population is so much smaller,
1729. Mr. Lam said.</p>
1730. </blockquote>
1731.  
1732. <p>This is nonsense. The problem isn’t that China has a higher population than the US (about 1.4 billion vs. 340 million, about a 4× difference). <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-factory-foxconn-china-photos-tour-2018-5">Foxconn employs somewhere between 300–500,000 assembly line workers in China</a> doing final assembly for Apple products. It’s that the United States doesn’t have anyone with the necessary vocational skills, who would want to work tedious factory jobs at factory-job wages, and China does. That’s part of the fever-dream mad-king fantasy of this entire cockamamie endeavor by Trump: <em>these are difficult, low-paying, long-houred jobs that Americans don’t want</em>. That these jobs are all in China and India is proof that America is far ahead, not that we’ve fallen behind. (There are nuances to the overall dynamics, like the national security ramifications of our being reliant on Taiwan for leading-edge chip fabrication, but Trump’s tariff nonsense doesn’t address those issues.)</p>
1733.  
1734. <p>Worse: $2,000 is just a made-up number. Lam doesn’t even say which iPhone would cost $2,000. Would it be the iPhone 16 Pro Max (current starting price: $1,200) or the base model iPhone 16e (current price: $600)? Mickle reports that Lam is saying prices “would more than double” so let’s just say he’s talking about the regular no-adjective iPhone models. Today the iPhone 16 starts at $800. If assembling even <em>some</em> of them would result in a retail price of $2,000, Apple would sell none of them. Like, almost literally zero.</p>
1735.  
1736. <p>The math here takes a bit of thinking but it’s not complicated. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/23/trump-cook-apple-india">Trump is claiming he’s going to apply 25% tariffs</a> to India-made iPhones sold in the US.<sup id="fnr1-2025-05-24"><a href="#fn1-2025-05-24">1</a></sup> If Apple passed along the entire 25% tariff on an $800 iPhone to consumers, that would raise the retail price to $1,000. So if stores carried two different iPhone 17 models — same specs, same colors — and one cost $1,000 because it was assembled in India or China, facing 25% Trump tariffs, and the other cost $2,000 because it was assembled in some sort of fantasy factory that somehow popped up in Texas between now and September, how many people would buy the $2,000 US-assembled one? Almost zero. So why even bother? Apple doesn’t even print the “Designed by Apple in California / Assembled in Wherever” small print on the outside of the iPhone any more.</p>
1737.  
1738. <p>Tariffs would have to be 250% for the price of an Indian- or Chinese-assembled $800 iPhone to get to $2,000. And even if Trump <em>were</em> to apply 250% tariffs to smartphones — which isn’t going to happen — it would be far easier for Apple to just sell Indian and Chinese-assembled iPhones for $2,000 than it would be to spin up assembly — factories, employees, training, components — here inside the US. So even though $2,000 is just a number “analyst” Wayne Lam completely made up, and which reporter Tripp Mickle simply quotes as if it had any basis in reality, it still doesn’t make any sense that Apple would do it. No matter how crazily high tariffs go, it only makes sense for Apple to continue assembling iPhones in China and India for now, and passing some or all of the costs along to consumers.<sup id="fnr2-2025-05-24"><a href="#fn2-2025-05-24">2</a></sup></p>
1739.  
1740. <p>Of course, raising the price of a base model iPhone to $2,000 would crater consumer demand. And of course it would create <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/trump-tariffs-smugglers/682303/">a massive gray market bootlegging opportunity</a> where hustlers would smuggle normal-cost iPhones into the US from Canada, Mexico, and overseas. Trump can’t raise the price of iPhones outside the US, and so long as iPhones are priced “normally” everywhere else in the world, the higher Trump’s tariffs might go, the larger and more commonplace bootlegging them will be.</p>
1741.  
1742. <blockquote>
1743.  <p>There would be some benefits to moving the supply chain, including
1744. reducing the environmental costs of shipping products from abroad,
1745. said Matthew Moore, who spent nine years as a manufacturing design
1746. manager at Apple. But the upsides would be trivial compared with
1747. the challenges that would have to be overcome.</p>
1748. </blockquote>
1749.  
1750. <p>Again, just utter nonsense. There <em>might</em> be hypothetical environmental benefits to assembling all US-sold iPhones inside the US, but in the real world, many if not most of the most expensive components would still come from overseas. All iPhone displays come from Asian manufacturers. All A-series chips come from TSMC in Taiwan. (TSMC is building out a chip-fabrication campus in Arizona but even if that went according to plan — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/23/technology/apple-iphone-trump-india-china.html">which it already isn’t</a> — their Arizona fabrication capabilities will remain years behind their leading-edge fabrication technology in Taiwan for at least the next decade, and Apple’s A-series chips are fabbed exclusively on leading-edge technology.)</p>
1751.  
1752. <blockquote>
1753.  <p>Supply chain experts say shifting iPhone production to the United
1754. States in 2025 would be foolish.</p>
1755. </blockquote>
1756.  
1757. <p>Perhaps the one accurate sentence in Mickle’s entire piece.</p>
1758.  
1759. <blockquote>
1760.  <p>The iPhone is nearly 20 years old. Apple’s top executives have
1761. said people may not need an iPhone in 10 years because it could be
1762. replaced by a new device built for artificial intelligence. As a
1763. result, Apple would invest a lot of money that it wouldn’t be able
1764. to recoup, Mr. Lam said.</p>
1765.  
1766. <p>“I would be surprised if there’s an iPhone 29,” he said, noting
1767. that Apple is trying to disrupt the iPhone by making augmented
1768. reality products like the Vision Pro.</p>
1769. </blockquote>
1770.  
1771. <p>The Mac is 41 years old and, last I checked, Apple is still making them. I don’t know if Apple will keep naming iPhones with annually incrementing integers, but I’ll gladly wager Wayne Lam (or Tripp Mickle) any amount of money they wish that Apple will release at least one new iPhone in 2037. Name the wager, fellas. “The iPhone is 20 years old” is the dumbest argument in this entire dumb article.</p>
1772.  
1773. <blockquote>
1774.  <p><em>What does China offer that the United States doesn’t?</em></p>
1775.  
1776. <p>Small hands, a massive, seasonal work force and millions of
1777. engineers. Young Chinese women have small fingers, and that has
1778. made them a valuable contributor to iPhone production because they
1779. are more nimble at installing screws and other miniature parts in
1780. the small device, supply chain experts said.</p>
1781. </blockquote>
1782.  
1783. <p>Well, now I have to eat my own words. “Young Chinese women have small fingers” is in fact the dumbest argument in this entire incredibly stupid article. It might even be the dumbest thing I’ve read this year, and with Trump in office, I’ve read a lot of dumb things. For chrissake I just read <em>this morning</em> that <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/global-trends/us-news-trump-vs-harvard-they-cant-add-22-trump-wildly-claims-harvard-students-cant-even-do-remedial-math/articleshow/121373450.cms">Trump claimed his administration is trying to revoke Harvard’s ability to enroll foreign students</a> because “A lot of the people need remedial math. These students can’t add two and two, and they go to Harvard. They want remedial math and they’re going to teach remedial math at Harvard?” That’s truly profoundly stupid.<sup id="fnr3-2025-05-24"><a href="#fn3-2025-05-24">3</a></sup> But it’s not as ignorant as saying that Chinese women’s finger-size is the reason Apple makes iPhones in China.</p>
1784.  
1785. <p>I’d pay good money to know the names of the “supply chain experts” (plural!) Mickle got this one from.</p>
1786.  
1787. <div class="footnotes">
1788. <hr />
1789. <ol>
1790.  
1791. <li id="fn1-2025-05-24">
1792. <p>Presumably the tariff would be applied to all India-assembled phones sold in the US, because it would be plainly illegal, even in Trumpworld, to put a tariff on the iPhone alone. Tariffs apply to classes of products, not specific brands. But, in practice, a 25% tariff on all Indian-assembled phones sold in the US would, effectively, be a tariff targeted at iPhones alone.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr1-2025-05-24"  class="footnoteBackLink"  title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>
1793. </li>
1794.  
1795. <li id="fn2-2025-05-24">
1796. <p>Spitball idea: Apple could start assembling a completely insignificant number of iPhones in, say, Texas. A complete farce. A few hundred US-made iPhones per day, in a country where they sell 150,000 iPhones per day. Make a big show of it. Invite Trump himself down for a dog-and-pony-show photo op <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/20/apple-ceo-tim-cook-and-preident-trump-tour-texas-computer-factory.html">like Tim Cook did with the Mac Pro plant back in Trump 1.0</a> in 2019. Have Cook emphasize that they’re just getting started and Apple looks forward to ramping up the endeavor. Give Trump the first US-made iPhone off the assembly line. Hope that that’ll satisfy the dumb bastard, he’ll take the tariffs off their backs, and he’ll thereafter start bragging about how he got Apple to start making iPhones in the US even though everyone said it would be impossible, even though, under the scheme I’m spitballing here, Apple would only ever assemble a fraction of a single percent of US-sold iPhones domestically. Trump is so dumb, so prone to succumbing to flattery and the mere illusion that his word is others’ command, and so motivated to declare victory regardless of what’s actually going on, that I bet it would work.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr2-2025-05-24"  class="footnoteBackLink"  title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;︎</a></p>
1797. </li>
1798.  
1799. <li id="fn3-2025-05-24">
1800. <p>From, hilariously, <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/03/how-donald-trump-became-the-short-fingered-vulgarian">a short-fingered vulgarian</a>.&nbsp;<a href="#fnr3-2025-05-24"  class="footnoteBackLink"  title="Jump back to footnote 3 in the text.">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;︎</a></p>
1801. </li>
1802.  
1803.  
1804. </ol>
1805. </div>
1806.  
1807.  
1808.  
1809.    ]]></content>
1810.  <title>★ Idiocy or Jackassery, You Make the Call: Tripp Mickle on Whether Trump’s ‘Made in America’ iPhone Is a Fantasy</title></entry><entry>
1811. <title>Mozilla Is Shutting Down Pocket</title>
1812. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/news/672924/mozilla-pocket-fakespot-shutting-down" />
1813. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wch" />
1814. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/23/mozilla-shutting-down-pocket" />
1815. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41921</id>
1816. <published>2025-05-23T17:11:15Z</published>
1817. <updated>2025-05-23T17:11:15Z</updated>
1818. <author>
1819. <name>John Gruber</name>
1820. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1821. </author>
1822. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1823. <p>Emma Roth, The Verge:</p>
1824.  
1825. <blockquote>
1826.  <p>Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, the handy bookmarking tool used
1827. to save articles and webpages for later. The <a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket">organization
1828. announced</a> that Pocket will stop working on July 8th, 2025,
1829. <a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket">as Mozilla begins concentrating</a> its “resources into projects
1830. that better match their browsing habits and online needs.”</p>
1831.  
1832. <p>Following the shutdown, you’ll only be able <a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/exporting-your-pocket-list">to export saves</a>
1833. until October 8th, 2025, which is when Mozilla will permanently
1834. delete user data. Mozilla says it will start automatically
1835. canceling subscriptions as well, and will issue prorated refunds
1836. to users subscribed to its annual plan on July 8th.</p>
1837. </blockquote>
1838.  
1839. <p>Pocket is one of those apps that obviously doesn’t have a ton of users (presumably?), but those users it has are die-hard read-it-later-ers. Pocket, for example, <a href="https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017763753-Use-the-Pocket-App-with-your-Kobo-eReader">is the only read-it-later service supported on Kobo e-readers</a>.</p>
1840.  
1841. <p>This feels in line, somewhat, with <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/17/mozilla-exits-the-fediverse-and-will-shutter-its-mastodon-server-in-december/">Mozilla shutting down their Mastodon instance a few months ago</a>. When Mastodon took off, I know some people thought a Mozilla-hosted instance would have a good shot to stand the test of time. Instead, they gave up after just a few years.</p>
1842.  
1843. <div>
1844. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Mozilla Is Shutting Down Pocket’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/23/mozilla-shutting-down-pocket">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1845. </div>
1846.  
1847. ]]></content>
1848.  </entry><entry>
1849. <title>Trump Threatens Apple With 25 Percent Tariffs on iPhones Assembled in India</title>
1850. <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114556874484491575" />
1851. <link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wcg" />
1852. <link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/23/trump-cook-apple-india" />
1853. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.41920</id>
1854. <published>2025-05-23T16:47:46Z</published>
1855. <updated>2025-05-24T20:15:08Z</updated>
1856. <author>
1857. <name>John Gruber</name>
1858. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1859. </author>
1860. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1861. <p>The president of the United States on his blog:</p>
1862.  
1863. <blockquote>
1864.  <p>I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their
1865. iPhone’s [<em>sic</em>] that will be sold in the United States of America
1866. will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or
1867. anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25%
1868. must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your [<em>sic</em>] for your
1869. attention to this matter!</p>
1870. </blockquote>
1871.  
1872. <p>Last night Trump held his crypto memecoin grift gala at his Virginia golf club, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/22/us/politics/trump-memecoin-dinner.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JU8.2WwK.JbO61974C_8R">about which The New York Times flatly reported</a>:</p>
1873.  
1874. <blockquote>
1875.  <p>Several of the dinner guests, in interviews with The New York
1876. Times, said that they attended the event with the explicit intent
1877. of influencing Mr. Trump and U.S. financial regulations.</p>
1878. </blockquote>
1879.  
1880. <p>I mean, duh, right? But there it is. The influence peddling is just right out in the open. I’m guessing someone at the event last night put it in Trump’s ear that Tim Cook is making a jerk out of Trump, by trying to shift production to India for most iPhones to be sold in the US. (Why stop with the iPhone? How about iPads and MacBooks and AirPods and everything else? I’m guessing it’s because the iPhone is the only Apple product Trump personally uses and thus that’s as far as his imagination can stretch.) And I’m sure in private, Cook has tried — and will now try again — to explain to Trump that it’s simply not possible to produce in America all iPhones sold in America, and really not even feasible to assemble <em>any</em> of them here, at any sort of scale. Trump saying he wants to see them all assembled here in the US is only slightly more realistic than saying he wants them assembled on the moon.</p>
1881.  
1882. <p>But <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/09/trump-think-us-has-resources-to-make-iphones">Trump wants it to happen</a> so he believes it can happen. It’s utterly fantastical thinking, true mad-king nonsense. Apple sells a mind-reeling <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/04/how_many_iphones_can_fit_on_a_freight_plane">150,000 iPhones in the US every single day</a>. Not at launch — they sell millions a day then — but just on regular days, like now, in the middle of May. 150,000 per day, every day. Even if Apple tried its best to make US production happen, it would take years and a veritable fortune to build out the infrastructure — not mere factories, but literal city-sized campuses, full of highly-skilled employees who would somehow be convinced to take these tedious repetitive jobs at relatively low wages. So by the time Apple pulled it off, <em>if they could manage to pull it off</em>, Trump would either be out of office or democracy would have ended in the US. So there’s no real point to even trying.</p>
1883.  
1884. <p>The whole stock market is down today — Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114556968834547173">also announced</a>, on a whim, 50 percent tariffs starting next week on all imports from the EU this morning — but Apple’s stock is “only” down about 3 percent, suggesting that the market is starting to factor in how little faith they should have in Trump’s erratic tariff threats.</p>
1885.  
1886. <p>I’ve also seen folks cracking wise, wondering if Cook still feels his <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/01/03/allen-tim-cook-1m-trump-inauguration">million dollar contribution to Trump’s inauguration slush fund racket</a> was worth it. In all seriousness, you have to consider that even with threats like today’s polemic against Indian-assembled iPhones, Tim Cook and Apple might be getting highly favored treatment from Trump. That this is what you get when you’re on his good side.</p>
1887.  
1888. <div>
1889. <a  title="Permanent link to ‘Trump Threatens Apple With 25 Percent Tariffs on iPhones Assembled in India’"  href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/23/trump-cook-apple-india">&nbsp;★&nbsp;</a>
1890. </div>
1891.  
1892. ]]></content>
1893.  </entry><entry>
1894.    
1895.    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/05/more_insight_and_not-negativity" />
1896. <link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wbx" />
1897. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.41901</id>
1898. <published>2025-05-19T19:14:41Z</published>
1899. <updated>2025-05-19T19:51:19Z</updated>
1900. <author>
1901. <name>John Gruber</name>
1902. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1903. </author>
1904. <summary type="text">I never linked to the viral blog post where Jobs was quoted recommending my article, I never mentioned it in a post, but I *did* acknowledge it, in what is clearly the most Daring-Fireball-ish way possible: I made it the slogan under the logo banner.</summary>
1905. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1906. <p>Some “<em>thank god some of you remembered because I thought I was going nuts</em>” follow-up regarding my remembrance the other day, “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/05/15_years_later_very_insightful_and_not_negative">15 Years Later: ‘Very Insightful and Not Negative’</a>”. I wrote:</p>
1907.  
1908. <blockquote>
1909.  <p>So, what would <em>you</em> do if Steve Jobs was quoted in a viral blog
1910. post saying, “We think «<em>Your Name Here</em>»’s post is very
1911. insightful and not negative”? I decided to just sit there with a
1912. smug look on my face for a few days (which, arguably, isn’t all
1913. that different from what I do most days) and pretend that it was
1914. no big deal. I didn’t link to it or mention it on Daring Fireball,
1915. and as far as I can tell, <a href="https://x.com/search?q=%22not%20negative%22%20(from%3Agruber)&amp;src=typed_query">I didn’t even tweet it</a>. As best I
1916. can recall, I thought I should just play it cool. I mean of course
1917. my article about why Apple changed Section 3.3.1 was right. Why
1918. brag? Given that Steve Jobs was reading Daring Fireball, I didn’t
1919. want him to read a post from me acting like it was a big deal that
1920. he’d recommended a piece I wrote and agreed with it.</p>
1921. </blockquote>
1922.  
1923. <p>About a dozen long-time readers recalled that I <em>did</em>, in fact, acknowledge it on Daring Fireball — and <a href="https://mastodon.social/@gruber/114523770015232774">as soon as I saw</a> the first message, it all came back to me. I never linked to the viral blog post where Jobs was quoted recommending my article. I never mentioned it in a post. But I <em>did</em> acknowledge it, in what is clearly the most Daring-Fireball-ish way possible: I made it the slogan under the logo banner. That it was only ever a slogan in a PNG logo graphic explains why I couldn’t find it by searching. And I still have that version of the logo (because I keep everything):</p>
1924.  
1925. <div style="text-align: center">
1926.  <img
1927.    src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/df_logo_insightful_not_negative_2010.png"
1928.    alt = "The 2010 DF logo with the slogan “Insightful and Not Negative” underneath in small type."
1929.    style = "background-color: #4a525a; margin-bottom: 1em;"
1930.  />
1931. </div>
1932.  
1933. <p>I can’t remember if I omitted the <em>very</em> before <em>insightful</em> for aesthetic length, humility, or because I somehow thought it was punchier. But my 2025 self thinks it was a mistake to omit it. It surely looks blurry on your screen today, because it’s a 1× graphic scaled to the correct size. In April 2010, 2× retina resolution wasn’t yet a thing — remember, that was the very month that Gizmodo <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkK7_QEIJrg" title="Jon Prosser’s documentary: “The Biggest Apple Leak in History”">published details regarding a stolen iPhone 4 prototype</a>, which was the device that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq8j5vsqCCo" title="Steve Jobs introducing and defining the retina display at WWDC 2010.">introduced “retina resolution” to the world</a>. At 50 percent, you can see it pixel-perfect (the slogan is rendered in <a href="https://kare.com/fonts/">Susan Kare’s exquisite Kare Five Dots</a> pixel font), but small:</p>
1934.  
1935. <div style="text-align: center">
1936.  <img
1937.    srcset = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/df_logo_insightful_not_negative_2010.png 2x"
1938.    alt = "The 2010 DF logo with the slogan “Insightful and Not Negative” underneath in small type. Rendered at half-size to remain pixel-perfect on modern 2× retina resolution displays."
1939.    style = "background-color: #4a525a; margin-bottom: 1em;"
1940.  />
1941. </div>
1942.  
1943. <p>In the very early days, there was always a slogan under the DF logo. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/design/1/">Originally</a>: “Mac Punditry and Curmudgeonry”. Then, for several years, I’d mix it up, with descriptive slogans like “Mac + Web Nerdery, Etc.”, but also with ones that were just there for fun: “Now With Retsyn”, “Simple Tricks and Nonsense”, and, during the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBWg93q9qBA">2008 World Series</a>, “Phillies Fever”. But for the last decade or so, I’ve left the logo banner slogan-less most weeks of the year.</p>
1944.  
1945. <p>Feels like the right time to bring back a little whimsy, so I’ve put “Very Insightful and Not Negative” back as the slogan for now, and I’m thinking I should keep occasionally having some fun up there.</p>
1946.  
1947.  
1948.  
1949.    ]]></content>
1950.  <title>★ More Insight and Not-Negativity</title></entry><entry>
1951.    
1952.    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/05/15_years_later_very_insightful_and_not_negative" />
1953. <link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wbq" />
1954. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.41894</id>
1955. <published>2025-05-16T00:26:20Z</published>
1956. <updated>2025-05-16T03:30:58Z</updated>
1957. <author>
1958. <name>John Gruber</name>
1959. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
1960. </author>
1961. <summary type="text">So, what would *you* do if Steve Jobs was quoted in a viral blog post saying, “We think «*Your Name Here*»’s post is very insightful and not negative”? I decided to just sit there with a smug look on my face for a few days.</summary>
1962. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
1963. <p>Earlier this week Nilay Patel was working on the show notes for <a href="https://www.theverge.com/decoder-podcast-with-nilay-patel/664802/apple-app-store-iphone-ios-fortnite-epic-games-lawsuit">the episode of Decoder I guested on</a>, and he texted me to ask if I could recall the time Steve Jobs sent some random developer a link to an article I wrote about the App Store. He wanted to cite it as an example of Daring Fireball being read, at high levels inside Apple, for a long time. I recalled the whole thing vaguely, as a “holy shit” moment, but not specifically. I hadn’t thought about it in years. But I was sure I could find it in the DF archives.</p>
1964.  
1965. <p>Turns out, I couldn’t find it, because, it turns out, in a fit of inexplicable modesty and humility, <em>I never linked to it</em>. (From <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2010/04/12/gruber-apple-was-right-adobe-get-over-it-video/">a TechCrunch interview I did at the time</a>, after the saga went somewhat viral: “When asked for his response to Steve’s shout-out, Gruber meekly grinned and said, ‘I just smiled.’”)</p>
1966.  
1967. <p>Here’s the rough timeline of events. On Thursday 8 April 2010, Apple updated the App Store guidelines to ban the use of Adobe’s then-new Flash-to-iPhone compiler. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/04/iphone_agreement_bans_flash_compiler">From my post on the change</a> (which, to some degree, broke the news):</p>
1968.  
1969. <blockquote>
1970.  <p>Prior to today’s release of the iPhone OS 4 SDK, section 3.3.1 of
1971. the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement read, in its
1972. entirety:</p>
1973.  
1974. <blockquote>
1975.  <p>3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner
1976.    prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private
1977.    APIs.</p>
1978. </blockquote>
1979.  
1980. <p>In the new version of the iPhone Developer Program License
1981. Agreement released by Apple today (and which developers must agree
1982. to before downloading the 4.0 SDK beta), section 3.3.1 now reads:</p>
1983.  
1984. <blockquote>
1985.  <p>3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner
1986.    prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private
1987.    APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C,
1988.    C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit
1989.    engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may
1990.    compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g.,
1991.    Applications that link to Documented APIs through an
1992.    intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are
1993.    prohibited).</p>
1994. </blockquote>
1995.  
1996. <p>My reading of this new language is that cross-compilers, such as
1997. the <a href="http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcs5/appsfor_iphone/">Flash-to-iPhone compiler</a> in Adobe’s upcoming Flash
1998. Professional CS5 release, are prohibited. This also bans apps
1999. compiled using <a href="http://monotouch.net/">MonoTouch</a> — a tool that compiles C# and .NET
2000. apps to the iPhone.</p>
2001. </blockquote>
2002.  
2003. <p>This was <em>enormously</em> controversial at the time, but I also thought largely misunderstood by developers. Later that same day, I published another piece articulating my take on Apple’s reasoning for the change, “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331">Why Apple Changed Section 3.3.1</a>”. From that article:</p>
2004.  
2005. <blockquote>
2006.  <p>We’re still in the early days of the transition from the PC era to
2007. the mobile era. Right now, Apple is winning. There are other
2008. winners right now too — RIM is still growing, and Android has
2009. grown a ton in the past year.</p>
2010.  
2011. <p>The App Store platform could turn into a long-term de facto
2012. standard platform. That’s how Microsoft became Microsoft. At a
2013. certain point developers wrote apps for Windows because so many
2014. users were on Windows and users bought Windows PCs because all the
2015. software was being written for Windows. That’s the sort of
2016. situation that creates a license to print money.</p>
2017. </blockquote>
2018.  
2019. <p>That seems prescient. (The “license to print money” part — not the “RIM is still growing” part.)</p>
2020.  
2021. <blockquote>
2022.  <p>So what Apple does not want is for some other company to establish
2023. a de facto standard software platform <em>on top</em> of Cocoa Touch. Not
2024. Adobe’s Flash. Not .NET (through MonoTouch). If that were to
2025. happen, there’s no lock-in advantage. If, say, a mobile Flash
2026. software platform — which encompassed multiple lower-level
2027. platforms, running on iPhone, Android, Windows Phone 7, and
2028. BlackBerry — were established, that app market would not give
2029. people a reason to prefer the iPhone.</p>
2030.  
2031. <p>And, obviously, such a meta-platform would be out of Apple’s
2032. control. Consider a world where some other company’s
2033. cross-platform toolkit proved wildly popular. Then Apple releases
2034. major new features to iPhone OS, and that other company’s toolkit
2035. is slow to adopt them. At that point, it’s the <em>other</em> company
2036. that controls when third-party apps can make use of these
2037. features.</p>
2038.  
2039. <p>So from Apple’s perspective, changing the iPhone Developer Program
2040. License Agreement to prohibit the use of things like Flash CS5 and
2041. MonoTouch to create iPhone apps makes complete sense. I’m not
2042. saying you have to like this. I’m not arguing that it’s anything
2043. other than ruthless competitiveness. I’m not arguing (up to this
2044. point) that it benefits anyone other than Apple itself. I’m just
2045. arguing that it makes sense from Apple’s perspective — and it was
2046. Apple’s decision to make.</p>
2047. </blockquote>
2048.  
2049. <p>Two days later, on 10 April 2010, developer Greg Slepak emailed Steve Jobs to complain about the decision, citing negative sentiment on Hacker News (much has changed since 2010, but some things have not), writing:</p>
2050.  
2051. <blockquote>
2052.  <p>Hi Steve,</p>
2053.  
2054. <p>Lots of people are pissed off at Apple’s mandate that applications
2055. be “originally written” in C/C++/Objective-C. If you go, for
2056. example, to the Hacker News homepage right now:</p>
2057.  
2058. <p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/">http://news.ycombinator.com/</a></p>
2059.  
2060. <p>You’ll see that most of the front page stories about this new
2061. restriction, with #1 being: “<a href="http://whydoeseverythingsuck.com/2010/04/steve-jobs-has-just-gone-mad.html">Steve Jobs Has Just Gone Mad</a>” with
2062. (currently) 243 upvotes. The top 5 stories are all negative
2063. reactions to the TOS, and there are several others below them as
2064. well. Not a single positive reaction, even from John Gruber, your
2065. biggest fan.</p>
2066.  
2067. <p>I love your product, but your SDK TOS are growing on it like an
2068. invisible cancer.</p>
2069.  
2070. <p>Sincerely, <br />
2071. Greg</p>
2072. </blockquote>
2073.  
2074. <p>Jobs wrote back to Slepak (starting a brief exchange of emails):</p>
2075.  
2076. <blockquote>
2077.  <p>We think John Gruber’s post is very insightful and not negative:</p>
2078.  
2079. <p><a href="http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331">http://daringfireball.net/2010/04/why_apple_changed_section_331</a></p>
2080.  
2081. <p>Steve</p>
2082. </blockquote>
2083.  
2084. <p><a href="https://www.taoeffect.com/blog/2010/04/steve-jobs-response-on-section-3-3-1/">Slepak posted the exchange to his blog</a>, Tao Effect, and, well, as Jobs himself might have said, “Boom.” (This was <a href="https://www.macstories.net/news/steve-jobs-what-have-you-done-thats-so-great/">a not infrequent thing</a> at the time, where random users or developers would email Jobs, he’d write back with something pithy, and they’d post the exchange. It was kind of crazy — the most famous CEO in the world, just doing customer service email — and his emails were always sharp.)</p>
2085.  
2086. <p>So, what would <em>you</em> do if Steve Jobs was quoted in a viral blog post saying, “We think «<em>Your Name Here</em>»’s post is very insightful and not negative”? I decided to just sit there with a smug look on my face for a few days (which, arguably, isn’t all that different from what I do most days) and pretend that it was no big deal. I didn’t link to it or mention it on Daring Fireball, and as far as I can tell, <a href="https://x.com/search?q=%22not%20negative%22%20(from%3Agruber)&amp;src=typed_query">I didn’t even tweet it</a>. As best I can recall, I thought I should just play it cool. I mean of course my article about why Apple changed Section 3.3.1 was right. Why brag? Given that Steve Jobs was reading Daring Fireball, I didn’t want him to read a post from me acting like it was a big deal that he’d recommended a piece I wrote and agreed with it.</p>
2087.  
2088. <p>That was pretty stupid on my part. Or at least silly. My older perspective, today, is not to overthink such things. If something cool happens, I link to it. It seems ridiculous in hindsight that I didn’t link to Slepak’s post. And, I was thinking this week, if <em>I</em> couldn’t find a link to the overall story because <em>I</em> wrongly presumed I must have linked to it at the time, I wondered how many other readers, over the years, have gone hunting for that “very insightful and not negative” story and couldn’t find it because it was never mentioned or linked to on Daring Fireball.</p>
2089.  
2090. <p>So, today, I wrote the post I should have written back then, and <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/11/very-insightful-and-not-negative">backdated it to 11 April 2010</a>.</p>
2091.  
2092. <p>To complete the timeline, April 2010 was a busy month. That same month saw <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2010/04/28/hp-palm-deal-webos/">HP buy Palm</a> (in a last-ditch effort to remain relevant as the industry rapidly shifted from being PC-centric to mobile-centric), <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/28/siri">Apple acquire a company called “Siri”</a>, and <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/28/slate-iphone">Gizmodo publish details on the iPhone 4 prototype</a> some poor Apple engineer accidentally left in a bar. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2010/04/the_ipad">The original iPad</a> had <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100404043324/http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1976935,00.html">just shipped</a>. And at the end of the month, Jobs published “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/29/jobs-thoughts-on-flash">Thoughts on Flash</a>” on the Apple.com homepage. It’s kind of wild that was all in one month — scrolling down <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/">the monthly archive page for April 2010</a> is just <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/30/cabin-fever">one gem</a> after <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2010/04/30/thoughts-on-horses">another</a>.</p>
2093.  
2094. <p>Re-reading “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100722001052/http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/">Thoughts on Flash</a>” again now, for the umpteenth time, I’ll say this: I think Steve Jobs’s post was very insightful and not negative.</p>
2095.  
2096.  
2097.  
2098.    ]]></content>
2099.  <title>★ 15 Years Later: ‘Very Insightful and Not Negative’</title></entry><entry>
2100.    
2101.    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/05/that_eu_app_store_warning_about_external_purchases_is_not_new" />
2102. <link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wbl" />
2103. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.41889</id>
2104. <published>2025-05-15T21:09:49Z</published>
2105. <updated>2025-05-19T22:45:00Z</updated>
2106. <author>
2107. <name>John Gruber</name>
2108. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
2109. </author>
2110. <summary type="text">Apple proposed a much less objectionable “external payments” disclosure in August, but claims that the EC told them not to implement it.</summary>
2111. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
2112. <p>Some interesting follow-up on <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/14/app-store-eu-payment-warning">that piece yesterday</a> about the warning — with a prominent red “!” icon — in App Store listings for apps in the EU that use their own payment processing. Apple told me that exact same warning has been in place since the very beginning of their DMA compliance, in March 2024.</p>
2113.  
2114. <p>Jacob Eiting, CEO of RevenueCat, <a href="https://x.com/jeiting/status/1922010640539123921">tweeted on X</a>:</p>
2115.  
2116. <blockquote>
2117.  <p>I think this is EU only and might have been around for a while, I
2118. just assumed nobody bothered with the DMA implementation for
2119. external purchases since they were pointless.</p>
2120.  
2121. <p>Fewer than 100 developers have availed themselves of this option
2122. for obvious reasons.</p>
2123. </blockquote>
2124.  
2125. <p>I think this blew up a bit yesterday because, despite the fact that it had been around since March 2024, few of us had ever seen it before because so few apps in the App Store use it. Eiting includes a link to <a href="https://developer.apple.com/support/alternative-payment-options-on-the-app-store-in-the-eu/#user-disclosures">Apple’s own developer documentation for its DMA compliance features</a>, which makes this clear:</p>
2126.  
2127. <blockquote>
2128.  <p>To help users understand whether an app contains an alternative
2129. payment option, the App Store will display an informational banner
2130. on the app’s product page to identify the developer’s enablement
2131. of this entitlement. When downloading an app, users are also
2132. informed if an app uses PSPs or links out on the purchase
2133. confirmation sheet. Apps that contain an alternative payment
2134. option are required to present users with a disclosure prior to
2135. each transaction or link out to purchase to help them understand
2136. that the purchase isn’t backed by Apple.</p>
2137. </blockquote>
2138.  
2139. <p>I actually think that’s very useful information that <em>should</em> be on an app’s App Store listing. Users should know what to expect, and iPhone users’ expectations are that digital goods transactions go through Apple’s IAP. The problem with this disclosure, as it stands, is the way it looks: like a big scary warning. It should be something more akin to the privacy “nutrition label” information.</p>
2140.  
2141. <p>And, it turns out, <a href="https://developer.apple.com/support/alternative-payment-options-on-the-app-store-in-the-eu/#user-disclosures">Apple itself publicly proposed exactly such a change back in August</a>. Apple’s proposed updated disclosure uses a small gray <em>i</em>-in-circle “info” icon (replacing the bigger red !-in-triangle “warning” icon), and the following text (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/user-disclosures-eu-transactions.png">screenshot</a>):</p>
2142.  
2143. <blockquote>
2144.  <p>Transactions in this app are supported
2145. by the developer and not Apple.<br>
2146. <a href="https://apps.apple.com/hu/story/id1726640865">Learn More</a></p>
2147. </blockquote>
2148.  
2149. <p>I would quibble with the fact that Apple’s proposal places that disclosure at the very top of the listing page in the App Store, above even the app’s name and icon, but visually and verbally it’s good. Clear, informative, and non-judgmental. </p>
2150.  
2151. <p>Per what I’ve been told by Apple, they were (and still are) prepared to implement these changes, including the new disclosure screen. The EC raised no objection to the new disclosure proposal, but insisted that Apple <em>not</em> implement the changes at the time. Then, according to Apple, the EC never provided further guidance, until last month when they fined Apple €500M for noncompliance. (And the EC <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/23/ec-clear-as-mud">still hasn’t told Apple</a> what it wants the company to do.)</p>
2152.  
2153. <p>This seems to be the exact dynamic <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/apple-to-appeal-e500m-digital-fine-over-eus-silence-in-compliance-talks/">Politico reported on last week</a> (and that <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/15/apple-ec-proposals-feedback">I just linked to earlier today</a>):</p>
2154.  
2155. <blockquote>
2156.  <p>According to correspondence seen by Politico, Apple offered last
2157. summer <a href="https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=szrqxadx">to drop its rules</a> on how app developers can
2158. communicate with users, but was told by the Commission to hold
2159. off, pending feedback from developers.</p>
2160.  
2161. <p>By late September and following a round of consultations with
2162. Apple critics like Spotify, Match Group and Epic Games, executives
2163. at the U.S.-based firm began worrying that a lack of feedback from
2164. the Commission meant it was teeing up a potential fine and
2165. noncompliance decision.</p>
2166. </blockquote>
2167.  
2168. <p>Heads, Apple was going to get fined by the EC. Tails, Apple was going to get fined by the EC.</p>
2169.  
2170.  
2171.  
2172.    ]]></content>
2173.  <title>★ That EU App Store Warning About External Purchases Is Not New, and Apple Proposed Improving It Nine Months Ago</title></entry><entry>
2174.    
2175.    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/05/single_story_a_classic_mac_system_1" />
2176. <link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wbe" />
2177. <id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.41882</id>
2178. <published>2025-05-14T16:21:59Z</published>
2179. <updated>2025-05-14T17:04:06Z</updated>
2180. <author>
2181. <name>John Gruber</name>
2182. <uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
2183. </author>
2184. <summary type="text">A single-story “a” in Chicago feels more blasphemous than that AI image Trump tweeted of himself as the new pope.</summary>
2185. <content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
2186. <p>Following up on <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/05/12/that-stupid-apple-notes-a">my gripe regarding the alternative <em>a</em> glyph</a> used in Apple Notes, here’s <a href="https://www.threads.com/@kfury/post/DJlFkNfR5ik">Kevin Fox, tweeting on Threads</a>:</p>
2187.  
2188. <blockquote>
2189.  <p>While we’re waxing nostalgic on the Original Mac, a Daring
2190. Fireball post today (below) reminded me of another piece of Mac
2191. 128k trivia.</p>
2192.  
2193. <p>Until shortly before the official release, the ‘a’ in Geneva was a
2194. single story ‘a’ like you see currently (and to some,
2195. infuriatingly) in the Notes app.</p>
2196.  
2197. <p>The screenshots in the original Mac 128k user manual show the OS
2198. using the pre-release single-story ‘a’ before it was changed.</p>
2199. </blockquote>
2200.  
2201. <p>I double-checked using the (amazing) <a href="https://infinitemac.org/">classic Mac emulators at Infinite Mac</a>, and it turns out, Apple actually shipped System 1.0 with a version of Geneva with a single-story <em>a</em> glyph — but only in the 9-point version of Geneva. At 12 points (and larger), Geneva’s <em>a</em> was double-story. Here are screenshots of the Finder showing Geneva 9 in System 1.0 (with single-story <em>a</em>):</p>
2202.  
2203. <p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/system-1.0-geneva-a.png" class="noborder">
2204.  <img
2205.    src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/system-1.0-geneva-a.png"
2206.    alt = "Screenshot of the Finder in Macintosh System 1.0, showing a version of the Geneva 9 font with a single-story “a” glyph."
2207.    width = 512
2208.  /></a></p>
2209.  
2210. <p>And System 2.0 (with double-story <em>a</em>):</p>
2211.  
2212. <p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/system-2.0-geneva-a.png" class="noborder">
2213.  <img
2214.    src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/system-2.0-geneva-a.png"
2215.    alt = "Screenshot of the Finder in Macintosh System 2.0, showing a version of the Geneva 9 font with a double-story “a” glyph."
2216.    width = 512
2217.  /></a></p>
2218.  
2219. <p>And a screenshot of MacWrite running on System 1.0 showing Geneva 9 and 12:</p>
2220.  
2221. <p><a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/system-1.0-geneva-a-macwrite.png" class="noborder">
2222.  <img
2223.    src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/system-1.0-geneva-a-macwrite.png"
2224.    alt = "Screenshot of MacWrite in System 1.0, showing the differences between Geneva 9 and 12."
2225.    width = 512
2226.  /></a></p>
2227.  
2228. <p>Geneva 9 — the eventual version, with a double-story <em>a</em> — is so intimately familiar to me that looking at those screenshots from System 1.0 makes me feel weird. It’s so clearly wrong. (What it feels like, to me, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/retrobattlestations/comments/1e5k4xb/a_few_years_ago_i_bought_a_beautiful_transparent/">is the original Palm OS</a>, from the one-bit Palm Pilot / Handspring Visor days. Palm’s small sans serif font was very Geneva-9-ish, but their single-story <em>a</em> was distinctive.)</p>
2229.  
2230. <p>Fox also posted a link to <a href="https://vintageapple.org/macmanuals/pdf/Macintosh_1984.pdf">Vintage Apple’s high-res scan of the amazing original Mac user manual</a>, which, because it had to go to press before the 1.0 software was finished, contains screenshots of a few icons <a href="https://www.threads.com/@johncsiracusa/post/DJniWZ3NCCR">that changed by the time the original Mac was in customers’ hands</a>. What a remarkably good user manual this is — everything from the typography, to the clarity and tone of its writing, to its comprehensiveness is exemplary.</p>
2231.  
2232. <p>Here’s where it really gets nutty though. Marcin Wichary — <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/02/16/the-hardest-working-font-in-manhattan">whom you may recall</a> from his recent remarkable deep dive on the Gorton typeface (“<a href="https://aresluna.org/the-hardest-working-font-in-manhattan/">The Hardest Working Font in Manhattan</a>”), or from <em><a href="https://shifthappens.site/">Shift Happens</a></em>, his encyclopedic book on the history of keyboards — <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/aresluna.org/post/3lozitikp5k2d">chimed in on Bluesky</a> after observing that a few of the screenshots in that System 1.0 user manual show an early version of Chicago 12 with a single-story <em>a</em>. Seeing a single-story <em>a</em> in Chicago feels more blasphemous than that AI-generated image Trump tweeted of himself <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/04/world/trump-ai-image-pope-intl-hnk">as the new pope</a>.</p>
2233.  
2234. <p>One last note: I of course am not opposed to single-story <em>a</em>’s. Futura’s <em>a</em> is single-story, and <a href="http://neverusefutura.com/">Futura</a>, depending on my mood, might be my answer if asked to name my favorite typeface of all time. I just don’t particularly care for the alternate single-story <em>a</em> in San Francisco (Apple’s <a href="https://developer.apple.com/fonts/">modern San Francisco</a>, not <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/05/system-1.0-san-francisco.png">the one from 1984</a>), and to me it just gives an ever-so-slightly wrong — a little silly or unserious — vibe in the Notes app.</p>
2235.  
2236.  
2237.  
2238.    ]]></content>
2239.  <title>★ Single-Story a’s in Very Early Versions of Macintosh System 1</title></entry></feed><!-- THE END -->
2240.  

If you would like to create a banner that links to this page (i.e. this validation result), do the following:

1. Download the "valid Atom 1.0" banner.

2. Upload the image to your own server. (This step is important. Please do not link directly to the image on this server.)

3. Add this HTML to your page (change the image src attribute if necessary):

   <a href="http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//daringfireball.net/index.xml"><img src="valid-atom.png" alt="[Valid Atom 1.0]" title="Validate my Atom 1.0 feed" /></a>

If you would like to create a text link instead, here is the URL you can use:

http://www.feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A//daringfireball.net/index.xml

Home · About · News · Docs · Terms