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	<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wmd" />
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Source: http://daringfireball.net/index.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<title>Daring Fireball</title>
<subtitle>By John Gruber</subtitle>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/" />
<link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/main" />
<id>https://daringfireball.net/feeds/main</id>
<updated>2025-10-17T20:15:18Z</updated><rights>Copyright © 2025, John Gruber</rights><entry>
<title>The Base M5 MacBook Pro vs. the M4 MacBook Air</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/uk/mac/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Air-M4,MacBook-Pro-14-M5,MacBook-Pro-14-M4-Pro" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wmd" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/m5-mbp-vs-m4-mba" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42277</id>
<published>2025-10-17T20:11:45Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-17T20:15:18Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
A few readers took exception to this bit from <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/10/m5_chip_launches_with_macbook_pro_ipad_pro_vision_pro">my post Wednesday regarding the new M5 MacBook Pro</a>:
<blockquote>
The base 14-inch model, with the no-adjective M-series chip, is
for people who probably would be better served with a MacBook
Air but who wrongly believe they “need” a laptop with “Pro” in
its name.
</blockquote>
E.g., <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/brianstucki.com/post/3m3d7uv77i22k">Brian Stucki, who wrote on Bluesky</a>:
<blockquote>
A rare disagree with @gruber.foo here. I’m a cognizant MacBook Pro
no-adjective user because the CPU/GPU is more than enough for me.
I buy over Air for
<ul>
<li>XDR display</li>
<li>Battery life</li>
<li>much better speakers</li>
<li>SD/HDMI ports</li>
</ul>
I’m glad to have the option without an adjective markup.
</blockquote>
The <a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/mac/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Air-M4,MacBook-Pro-14-M5,MacBook-Pro-14-M4-Pro">main link</a> on this post is to Apple’s ever-excellent Compare page for MacBooks, comparing the $1,000 M4 MacBook Air to the new $1,600 M5 MacBook Pro and, because there’s a third slot, the $2,000 M4 MacBook Pro with the M4 Pro chip. Stucki’s short list nails the actual advantages of the base MacBook Pro compared to the MacBook Air: much better display (1,000 nits vs. 500 nits, with the MBP supporting up to 1,600 nits for HDR content), better speakers, longer battery life, and SD/HDMI ports. Unmentioned by Stucki is that only the MacBook Pro offers the option for a nano-texture matte display for $150.
In my defense, I did say “probably” in my post. My understanding is that the base MacBook Pro is a huge seller for Apple. So of course some very well-informed users are buying them for good reasons. But I really do think an awful lot of base MacBook Pro buyers are spending an extra $600 and carrying 0.7 pounds of extra weight for features they don’t actually notice or care about. They just think they need a “pro” laptop, and underestimate just how incredibly capable MacBook Airs are.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Base M5 MacBook Pro vs. the M4 MacBook Air’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/m5-mbp-vs-m4-mba"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>United States Mint to Release Commemorative $1 Steve Jobs Coin</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.usmint.gov/news/press-releases/united-states-mint-releases-2026-american-innovation-one-dollar-coin-program-designs" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wmc" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/steve-jobs-coin" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42276</id>
<published>2025-10-17T19:53:58Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-17T19:53:59Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
I’m not really into commemorative coins, and I have to say I suspect Steve Jobs wasn’t either, but it’s a nice little recognition. No mention of it from the Mint, but the $1 value of the coin is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-steve-jobs-scammed-apple-for-free-lunch-with-1-dollar-salary-2017-6">the same as the salary Jobs drew from Apple</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘United States Mint to Release Commemorative $1 Steve Jobs Coin’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/steve-jobs-coin"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Matthew Belloni Interviews Eddy Cue on ‘The Town’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/the-town-with-matthew-belloni/2025/10/14/apples-true-intentions-in-hollywood-with-top-exec-eddy-cue" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wmb" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/belloni-cue-interview" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42275</id>
<published>2025-10-17T13:58:53Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-17T17:39:04Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/apple-formula-1">Speaking of</a> Eddy Cue, he was the guest on Matthew Belloni’s excellent podcast, The Town, this week. (<a href="https://overcast.fm/+AA4DU9C87M8">Overcast link</a>.) Just a great interview in general. Cue doesn’t do many interviews but he’s my favorite Apple executive to hear speak, because he’s the least rehearsed and most straightforward. If he doesn’t want to answer a question (Belloni tried, mightily, to press him on subscriber and viewership numbers), Cue just says he’s not going to answer that question, rather than dance around it with a non-answer answer.
My two big takeaways:
<ul>
<li>Everyone in Hollywood is spooked about what Apple’s intentions “really are” regarding original movies and series. They’re worried it’s some sort of play to polish Apple’s brand, and that Apple is going to get bored or tired of losing money, and pick up stakes and leave the game. Cue emphasized that the answer is simple: Apple thinks it’s a great business to be in (and he also made the point that Apple’s brand needed no polishing) and they’re in this business for that reason, and for the long haul.</li>
<li>Apple is serious about sports rights, but they don’t want to dabble. They want to own the rights to entire sports. Friday Night Baseball was, effectively, a learning experiment. Apple TV’s MLS deal — and the F1 US deal announced today — are the sort of deals Apple wants. (That’s going to make it hard for Apple to get involved with the NFL, because the NFL strategically wants to spread its games across all the major TV networks and streaming services.) Cue is a huge sports fan (as is Tim Cook), and Apple wants to deliver sports on Apple TV that cater to fans.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Matthew Belloni Interviews Eddy Cue on ‘The Town’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/belloni-cue-interview"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Is the Exclusive New Broadcast Partner for Formula 1 in the U.S.</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-is-the-exclusive-new-broadcast-partner-for-formula-1-in-the-us/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wma" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/apple-formula-1" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42274</id>
<published>2025-10-17T13:38:08Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-17T17:38:48Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Blockbuster sports streaming news from Apple Newsroom:
<blockquote>
Apple and Formula 1 today announced a five-year partnership that
will bring all F1 races exclusively to Apple TV in the United
States beginning next year. [...]
Apple TV will deliver comprehensive coverage of Formula 1, with
all practice, qualifying, Sprint sessions, and Grands Prix
available to Apple TV subscribers. Select races and all practice
sessions will also be available for free in the Apple TV app
throughout the course of the season. In addition to broadcasting
Formula 1 on Apple TV, Apple will amplify the sport across Apple
News, Apple Maps, Apple Music, and Apple Fitness+. Apple Sports — the free app for iPhone — will feature live updates for every
qualifying, Sprint, and race for each Grand Prix across the
season, with real-time leaderboards, season driver and constructor
standings, Live Activities to follow on the Lock Screen, and a
designated widget for the iPhone Home Screen.
F1 TV Premium, F1’s own premier content offering, will continue to
be available in the U.S. via an Apple TV subscription only and
will be free for those who subscribe.
</blockquote>
If I’m reading this right, all you need to get access to everything F1-related is an Apple TV subscription (the service <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/apple-tv-minus">formerly known as TV+</a>) and to be in the US. This even includes <a href="https://f1tv.formula1.com/">F1 TV Premium</a> — normally $30/year — which <a href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2025/10/looking-for-the-red-flags-in-apples-formula-1-tv-deal/">Jason Snell wrote about</a> in a piece <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/14/snell-f1-apple">I linked to</a> earlier this week.
Basically, this sounds like the sort of sports broadcasting deal that Eddy Cue has been talking about as Apple’s goal for years — the rights to the entire sport, free of charge if you’re an Apple TV subscriber.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Is the Exclusive New Broadcast Partner for Formula 1 in the U.S.’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/17/apple-formula-1"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>M5 MacBook Pro Does Not Include a Charger in the Box in Europe</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/15/new-macbook-pro-lacks-charger-in-europe/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wm9" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/16/m5-mbp-no-power-adapter-in-europe" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42273</id>
<published>2025-10-16T18:57:15Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-16T20:13:38Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
<blockquote>
The new 14-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 chip does not include a
charger in the box in European countries, including the U.K.,
Ireland, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway,
and others, according to Apple’s online store. In the U.S. and all
other countries outside of Europe, the new MacBook Pro comes with
Apple’s 70W USB-C Power Adapter, but European customers miss out.
Apple has gradually stopped including chargers with many products
over the years — a decision it has attributed to its
environmental goals.
In this case, an Apple spokesperson <a href="https://x.com/LelloucheNico/status/1978510945224688060">told French website
Numerama’s Nicolas Lellouche</a> that the decision to not
include a charger with this particular MacBook Pro was made in
anticipation of a <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:C_202402997">European regulation</a> that will require
Apple to provide customers with the option to purchase certain
devices without a charger in the box, starting in April.
</blockquote>
I’m not sure why there’s no power adapter in the box in the UK (<a href="https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/14-inch-space-black-standard-display-apple-m5-chip-with-10-core-cpu-and-10-core-gpu-16gb-memory-512gb">I double-checked</a>). The <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:C_202402997">cited regulation</a> is for the EU, and the UK, rather famously, left the EU in 2020.
But, still, amazing stuff <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/apple-france-siri-opt-in-recordings">continues</a> to happen in Europe.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘M5 MacBook Pro Does Not Include a Charger in the Box in Europe’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/16/m5-mbp-no-power-adapter-in-europe"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal: ‘A Cartoonist’s Review of AI Art’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wm8" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/16/oatmeal-ai-art" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42272</id>
<published>2025-10-16T13:40:49Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-17T02:00:58Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Good and thoughtful graphic essay by Matthew Inman, expressing why he dislikes AI-generated art. It’s been widely <a href="https://kottke.org/25/10/0047680-the-oatmeals-take-on-ai">linked to</a>, largely approvingly. I fundamentally disagree with the premise. Near the start, Inman writes:
<blockquote>
When I consume AI art, it also evokes a feeling. Good, bad,
neutral — whatever.
Until I find out that it’s AI art.
Then I feel deflated, grossed out, and maybe a little bit bored.
This feeling isn’t a choice.
</blockquote>
I think it very much is a choice. If your opinion about a work of art changes after you find out which tools were used to make it, or who the artist is or what they’ve done, you’re no longer judging the art. You’re making a choice not to form your opinion based on the work itself, but rather on something else. If you refuse to watch Woody Allen movies because of his personal life, that’s a choice, but you’re choosing not to watch <a href="https://www.avclub.com/amc-diane-keaton-annie-hall-somethings-gotta-give-re-release">some</a> of the <a href="https://woodyallen.com/manhattan/">best</a> <a href="https://woodyallen.com/match-point-2/">movies</a> that have <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/crimes-and-misdemeanors-1989">ever</a> been made.
Stanley Kubrick said, “The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good.” If an image, a song, a poem, or video evokes affection in your heart, and then that affection dissipates when you learn what tools were used to create it, that’s not a test of the work of art itself. To me it’s no different than losing affection for a movie only upon learning that special effects were created digitally, not practically. Or whether a movie was shot using digital cameras or on film. Or whether a novel was written using a computer or with pen and paper.
I think most “AI art” today completely sucks. But not because it was made using AI generation tools. It just sucks period. Good art is being made with AI tools, though, and more — much more — is coming.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal: ‘A Cartoonist’s Review of AI Art’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/16/oatmeal-ai-art"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/10/m5_chip_launches_with_macbook_pro_ipad_pro_vision_pro" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wm7" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.42271</id>
<published>2025-10-15T21:04:41Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-15T21:30:42Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">Thoughts and observations on the new M5 MacBook Pro, iPad Pros, and Vision Pro.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-unleashes-m5-the-next-big-leap-in-ai-performance-for-apple-silicon/">Apple Newsroom, today</a>:
<blockquote>
Apple today announced M5, delivering the next big leap in AI
performance and advances to nearly every aspect of the chip. Built
using third-generation 3-nanometer technology, M5 introduces a
next-generation 10-core GPU architecture with a Neural Accelerator
in each core, enabling GPU-based AI workloads to run dramatically
faster, with over 4× the peak GPU compute performance compared to
M4. The GPU also offers enhanced graphics capabilities and
third-generation ray tracing that combined deliver a graphics
performance that is up to 45 percent higher than M4. M5 features
the world’s fastest performance core, with up to a 10-core CPU
made up of six efficiency cores and up to four performance cores.
Together, they deliver up to 15 percent faster multithreaded
performance over M4. M5 also features an improved 16-core Neural
Engine, a powerful media engine, and a nearly 30 percent increase
in unified memory bandwidth to 153GB/s. M5 brings its
industry-leading power-efficient performance to the new <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-unveils-new-14-inch-macbook-pro-powered-by-the-m5-chip/">14-inch
MacBook Pro</a>, <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-introduces-the-powerful-new-ipad-pro-with-the-m5-chip/">iPad Pro</a>, and <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-vision-pro-upgraded-with-the-m5-chip-and-dual-knit-band/">Apple Vision Pro</a>,
allowing each device to excel in its own way. All are available
for pre-order today.
</blockquote>
Some thoughts and observations:
<h2>14-Inch MacBook Pro</h2>
Apple Newsroom: “<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-unveils-new-14-inch-macbook-pro-powered-by-the-m5-chip/">Apple Unveils New 14‑Inch MacBook Pro Powered by the M5 Chip, Delivering the Next Big Leap in AI for the Mac</a>”.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro with the no-adjective M-series chip has always been an odd duck in the MacBook lineup. This “Pro”-but-not-pro spot in the MacBook lineup goes back to the Intel era, when there was a 13-inch MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar. That was the MacBook Pro that, in 2016, Phil Schiller suggested as <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/new-macbook-pro-should-have-been-named-air/">a good choice for those who were then holding out for a MacBook Air with a retina display</a>. (The <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/111933">first retina MacBook Air</a> didn’t ship for another two years, in late 2018.) It’s more like a MacBook “Pro” than a MacBook Pro. The truly pro-spec’d MacBook Pros have M-series Pro and Max chips, and are available in both 14- and 16-inch sizes. The base 14-inch model, with the no-adjective M-series chip, is for people who probably would be better served with a MacBook Air but who wrongly believe they “need” a laptop with “Pro” in its name.
Here’s a timeline of no-adjective M-series chips and when they appeared in the 14-inch MacBook Pro:
<ul>
<li>M1 13-inch MacBook Pro: <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/introducing-the-next-generation-of-mac/">10 November 2020</a>. This MacBook Pro was one of the three Macs that debuted with the launch of Apple Silicon — the others were the MacBook Air and Mac Mini. The hardware looked exactly like the last generation Intel MacBook Pro. The M1 Pro and M1 Max models didn’t ship for another year (well, 11 months later), and those models brought with them the new form factor design that’s still with us today with the new M5 MacBook Pro.</li>
<li>M2 13-inch MacBook Pro: <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/06/apple-unveils-m2-with-breakthrough-performance-and-capabilities/">6 June 2022</a>. This model also stuck with the older Intel-era form factor, including the 13-inch, not 14-inch, display size.</li>
<li>M3 14-inch MacBook Pro: <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/10/apple-unveils-new-macbook-pro-featuring-m3-chips/">30 October 2023</a>. The “<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/10/behind-the-scenes-at-scary-fast-apples-keynote-event-shot-on-iphone/">Scary Fast</a>” event. This model debuted alongside the pro-spec’d M3 Pro and M3 Max 14- and 16-inch models.</li>
<li>M4 14-inch MacBook Pro: <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/10/new-macbook-pro-features-m4-family-of-chips-and-apple-intelligence/">30 October 2024</a>. Exactly one year after the M3, and also alongside the M4 Pro and M4 Max models. What was different in 2024 with the M4 generation is that <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/05/apple-unveils-stunning-new-ipad-pro-with-m4-chip-and-apple-pencil-pro/">the M4 iPad Pros debuted back in early May</a>, all by themselves.</li>
<li>M5 14-inch MacBook Pro: <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-unveils-new-14-inch-macbook-pro-powered-by-the-m5-chip/">15 October 2025</a> (today). What’s different with today’s announcement is that it is not alongside the M5 Pro and M5 Max models, but is alongside the M5 iPad Pros.</li>
</ul>
This raises the question of when to expect those M5 Pro/Max models. The rumor mill suggests “early 2026”. I suspect that’s right, based on nothing other than the fact that if they were going to be announced this year, Apple almost certainly would have announced the entire M5 generation MacBook lineup together.
Basically, this is just a <a href="https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/compare/?modelList=MacBook-Pro-14-M5,MacBook-Pro-14-M4,MacBook-Pro-14-M4-Pro">speed bump upgrade over the just-plain M4 MacBook Pro</a>. But annual — or at least regular — <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2019/05/good_old_fashioned_macbook_pro_speed_bumps">speed bumps are a good thing</a>. The alternative is years-long gaps between hardware refreshes.
<h2>iPad Pros</h2>
Apple Newsroom: “<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-introduces-the-powerful-new-ipad-pro-with-the-m5-chip/">Apple Introduces the Powerful New iPad Pro With the M5 Chip</a>”:
<blockquote>
Featuring a next-generation GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each
core, M5 delivers a big boost in performance for iPad Pro users,
whether they’re working on cutting-edge projects or tapping into
AI for productivity. The new iPad Pro delivers up to 3.5× the AI
performance than iPad Pro with M4 and up to 5.6× faster than iPad
Pro with M1. N1, the new Apple-designed wireless networking chip,
enables the latest generation of wireless technologies with
support for Wi-Fi 7 on iPad Pro. The C1X modem comes to cellular
models of iPad Pro, delivering up to 50 percent faster cellular
data performance than its predecessor with even greater
efficiency, allowing users to do more on the go.
</blockquote>
I think the N1 wireless chip and C1X modem are more interesting generation-over-generation improvements than the M5 chip. Thanks to the N1, these iPad Pro models support Wi-Fi 7 — today’s new M5 14-inch MacBook Pro does not. I would wager rather heavily that the upcoming M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models will support Wi-Fi 7 (probably via the N1 chip, or perhaps even an “N1X” or something).
Other than that, this too <a href="https://www.apple.com/ipad/compare/?modelList=ipad-pro-11-m5,ipad-pro-11-m4,ipad-air-11-m3">is a speed bump upgrade</a>.
<h2>Vision Pro</h2>
Apple Newsroom: “<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/apple-vision-pro-upgraded-with-the-m5-chip-and-dual-knit-band/">Apple Vision Pro Upgraded With the M5 Chip and Dual Knit Band</a>”:
<blockquote>
The upgraded Vision Pro also comes with the soft, cushioned Dual
Knit Band to help users achieve an even more comfortable fit, and
visionOS 26, which unlocks innovative spatial experiences,
including widgets, new Personas, an interactive Jupiter
Environment, and new Apple Intelligence features with support for
additional languages.
</blockquote>
The new Dual Knit Band (<a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/product/DUAL_KNIT_BAND_SA/apple-vision-pro-dual-knit-band">$99 on its own</a>) looks like a hybrid of the more attractive Solo Knit Band (which did not have a strap that went over the top of your head) and the Dual Loop Band (which did have an over-the-head strap, but which looked somewhat orthopedic). It’s a tacit acknowledgement that physical comfort has been a real problem for many people who’ve tried Vision Pro. (Me, personally, I find using it with the Solo Knit Band comfortable for as long as I care to use it — which is typically just 2–3 hours, tops.)
<blockquote>
There are over 1 million apps and thousands of games on the App
Store, hundreds of 3D movies on the Apple TV app, and all-new
series and films in Apple Immersive with a selection of live NBA
games coming soon.
</blockquote>
Translation: Hey, there’s actually a growing library of immersive content to watch, software to use, and games to play for this thing now.
<blockquote>
With M5, Apple Vision Pro renders 10 percent more pixels on the
custom micro-OLED displays compared to the previous generation,
resulting in a sharper image with crisper text and more detailed
visuals. Vision Pro can also increase the refresh rate up to 120Hz
for reduced motion blur when users look at their physical
surroundings, and an even smoother experience when using Mac
Virtual Display. Vision Pro with M5 works alongside the
purpose-built R1 chip, which processes input from 12 cameras, five
sensors, and six microphones, and streams new images to the
displays within 12 milliseconds to create a real-time view of the
world. The high-performance battery now supports up to two and a
half hours of general use, and up to three hours of video
playback, all on a single charge.
</blockquote>
It’s merely another speed bump upgrade alongside the other two speed bump upgrades today, but a bit more dramatic given that the Vision Pro is jumping from the M2 to M5. No price drop, no change to the form factor. But Apple’s interest in the platform is very much alive.
]]></content>
<title>★ The Just Plain M5 Chip Launches in Three Updated Products: 14-Inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro (Both Sizes), and Some Sort of Headset Thingamajig Called Vision Pro</title></entry><entry>
<title>TiVo Stops Selling DVRs</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://cordcuttersnews.com/tivo-stops-selling-dvrs-marking-the-end-of-an-era/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wm6" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/15/tivo-stops-selling-dvrs" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42270</id>
<published>2025-10-15T16:46:12Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-15T17:42:34Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Luke Bouma, writing for Cord Cutters:
<blockquote>
In a seismic shift for the television industry, TiVo Corporation
has quietly pulled the plug on its storied digital video recorder
line, effectively ending an era that redefined how consumers
interacted with broadcast content. As of early October 2025, the
company’s <a href="https://www.tivo.com/">official website</a> has scrubbed all references
to its hardware DVR products, including the once-revered TiVo
Edge models designed for cable subscribers and over-the-air
antenna users. Visitors searching for these devices now encounter
a streamlined catalog that omits any mention of physical
recording hardware, signaling a complete withdrawal from the
retail DVR market.
This move culminates decades of gradual decline for TiVo’s
hardware ambitions, which peaked in the early 2000s when the brand
became synonymous with effortless time-shifting of television
programming. Launched in 1999, TiVo’s DVRs introduced features
like one-touch recording, commercial skipping, and intuitive
search capabilities that made traditional TV schedules feel
obsolete. At its zenith, the company boasted millions of
subscribers, forcing cable providers and networks to adapt to
empowered viewers who could pause live broadcasts or binge-watch
at will. The TiVo Edge, introduced in 2021 as a hybrid device
supporting both cable cards and streaming, represented the final
evolution of this hardware legacy, blending OTA tuners with 4K
support and expanded storage options. Yet, even as it garnered
praise for superior interface design and reliability, sales
dwindled amid the cord-cutting revolution.
</blockquote>
The writing has been on the wall for years. We’ve been a TiVo house for 25 years, but their hardware has gotten worse over the years. I forget what our second-to-last TiVo model was, but it died in 2021, and we bought a TiVo Edge. The Edge was often unreliable, and sometimes needed weekly reboots to keep working. (System software updates eventually fixed that.) But the hardware failed this summer. We’d only had it four years.
And, the Edge system software UI was a disaster, and a huge regression from the old TiVo interface. Almost everything was worse in the new “modern” TiVo interface from the old one: navigating shows you’d already recorded, the live-right-now TV guide, the interface for setting up a show to record — all of that went from really good and intuitive to clunky and confusing and slow. The one and only thing our TiVo Edge remained excellent at was playback. Fast-forwarding, rewinding, pausing — nothing else compares to TiVo for that. Even Apple’s own TV app on an Apple TV box doesn’t fast-forward or rewind with anything close to the precision and low latency TiVo’s devices have always offered. My first TiVo from 25 years ago had better fast-forward and rewind than anything on Apple TV (let alone other, lesser streaming boxes) today.
But the overall TiVo experience has been so bad — and getting worse — for so long that I’m not sad at all that they’re getting out of the game. TiVo’s one job was to provide a best-of-breed experience and they lost the plot on that a decade ago. Fuck ’em.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘TiVo Stops Selling DVRs’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/15/tivo-stops-selling-dvrs"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘Halo Fund Announces Strategic Secondary Investment in 1Password’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251009156976/en/Halo-Fund-Announces-Strategic-Secondary-Investment-in-1Password" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wm5" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/15/halo-fund-1password" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42269</id>
<published>2025-10-15T13:44:39Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-16T14:03:50Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Halo Fund:
<blockquote>
Halo Fund, a new $1 billion growth fund founded by Ryan Smith and Ryan Sweeney, today announced a strategic secondary investment in 1Password, a leader in identity security and pioneer of Extended Access Management. Halo Fund is joined in this investment by legendary technology leaders, including Flume Ventures with Sun Microsystems founder Scott McNealy and former Zscaler Chief Strategy Officer Manoj Apte. This transaction underscores strong demand from innovators and investors to join 1Password’s journey.
</blockquote>
Well I’m sure this will halt 1Password’s <a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2023/06/26/elegy-for-the-native-mac-app/">descent</a> into enterprise/cross-platform shittiness.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Halo Fund Announces Strategic Secondary Investment in 1Password’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/15/halo-fund-1password"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘How to Turn Liquid Glass Into a Solid Interface’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://tidbits.com/2025/10/09/how-to-turn-liquid-glass-into-a-solid-interface/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wm4" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/14/engst-liquid-glass" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42268</id>
<published>2025-10-14T18:45:39Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-14T18:45:40Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Adam Engst, at TidBITS:
<blockquote>
Apple’s new Liquid Glass interface design brings transparency and
blur effects to all Apple operating systems, but many users find
it distracting or difficult to read. Here’s how to control its
effects and make your interface more usable. Although the relevant
Accessibility settings are quite similar across macOS, iOS,
watchOS, and tvOS, I separate them because they offer different
levels of utility in each.
</blockquote>
Comprehensive, illustrated overview of the various Accessibility settings (and, on MacOS 26 Tahoe, hidden command-line <code>defaults</code> settings) that let you adjust the transparency and contrast of Liquid Glass across the various Apple OS 26 interfaces. A useful guide for today — and, I bet, a useful look back at the first versions of Liquid Glass for the future.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘How to Turn Liquid Glass Into a Solid Interface’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/14/engst-liquid-glass"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘Looking for the Red Flags in Apple’s Formula 1 TV Deal’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2025/10/looking-for-the-red-flags-in-apples-formula-1-tv-deal/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wm3" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/14/snell-f1-apple" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42267</id>
<published>2025-10-14T16:39:36Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-14T16:40:49Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Jason Snell, at Six Colors:
<blockquote>
The entire point of a streaming-only product is that once you’re
off traditional TV, you can go beyond the single stream and
provide interactive options. The whole point of streaming TV,
especially sports, should be that you can leave the flat video
stream behind and build something cool using software.
That is, by the way, what F1 TV Pro is: A sophisticated bit of
software that merges track data with multiple cameras to let
viewers choose how they want to watch races. It’s absolutely
the product that Apple should aspire to build, or co-opt, in
this deal.
I understand that Formula 1 owner Liberty Media is reluctant to
lose a profit center, but if Apple’s paying them an extra $50
million, isn’t that the proper trade-off? Also, working with Apple
in the U.S. could be part of a longer-term tech partnership
between F1 and Apple that could extend worldwide.
</blockquote>
I don’t really care about Apple obtaining sports streaming rights if all they’re going to do is stream a traditional linear broadcast of the games/events/races. I want to see Apple do the Apple thing and think deeply about what a software-based broadcast can be and offer — and then create it. So, to me, Apple’s Friday Night Baseball has been a wash. It’s a good broadcast (that, <a href="https://x.com/kendallbaker/status/1957930701086679514">rumors suggest</a>, may be coming to an end), but it’s just a good traditional baseball broadcast. It could be on any streaming service. The only Apple-y aspects are the designs and typography of the on-screen graphics and <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/02/fox_new_scorebug_graphic_design">scorebug</a>. I want something like F1 TV Pro, but for baseball — and eventually, for all sports.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Looking for the Red Flags in Apple’s Formula 1 TV Deal’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/14/snell-f1-apple"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.mux.com/video-api?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wm2" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2025/10/mux_video_api_for_developers" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/feeds/sponsors//11.42266</id>
<author><name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name></author>
<published>2025-10-13T21:42:07Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-13T21:42:07Z</updated>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Modern video should be simple to ship and scale. Mux makes it easy to build live and on-demand video into anything from websites to platforms to AI workflows. 
Upload a video, get back a playback URL. No transcoding headaches. No CDN setup. Go further with the building blocks of your video: thumbnails, transcripts, and storyboards. Use them to create exactly what you want.
Future-proof your video stack with infrastructure trusted by Patreon, Substack, and Synthesia. Get started free, no credit card required. Use the code FIREBALL for an extra $50 usage credit, when you need it.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Mux: Video API for Developers’" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2025/10/mux_video_api_for_developers"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>[Sponsor] Mux: Video API for Developers</title></entry><entry>
<title>Apple Renames ‘Apple TV+’ to ‘Apple TV’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/tv-pr/news/2025/10/apple-original-films-blockbuster-feature-f1-the-movie-from-joseph-kosinski-to-make-global-streaming-debut-on-friday-december-12-2025/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wm1" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/apple-tv-minus" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42265</id>
<published>2025-10-13T16:02:01Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-14T16:23:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
At the bottom of Apple’s press release announcing that F1 The Movie will be available for streaming on December 12:
<blockquote>
Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity.
Ahead of its global streaming debut on Apple TV, the film
continues to be available for purchase on participating digital
platforms, including the Apple TV app, Amazon Prime Video,
Fandango at Home and more.
About Apple TV
Apple TV is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries
and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad,
Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung,
LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices,
Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles,
and at tv.apple.com, for $12.99 per month with a seven-day free
trial for new subscribers.
</blockquote>
In some ways, I get it. Like, if you’re telling someone how much you enjoy Slow Horses and they ask how to watch it, it’s more natural and conversational to just say “It’s on Apple TV”. That’s what most people say. That’s what I say — and as part of my job, I completely understand the difference between Apple TV the device, Apple TV the (free) app, and Apple TV+ the (paid) streaming service.
But right there in Apple’s own “About Apple TV” description, you see just how overused “Apple TV” now is. You can watch Apple TV in Apple TV on Apple TV — the paid service in the free app on the set-top box. But you can watch any streaming service you want on the box, in that service’s own app. But many of those services are also available in the Apple TV app. And the Apple TV streaming service is also available on just about all other popular set-top hardware platforms. So you don’t need an Apple TV to watch Apple TV. It’s a bit like Abbott and Costello’s classic “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYOUFGfK4bU">Who’s on First</a>” routine.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Renames ‘Apple TV+’ to ‘Apple TV’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/apple-tv-minus"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Announces the End-of-Life for Clips</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/123359" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wm0" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/clips-eol" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42264</id>
<published>2025-10-13T13:41:25Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-13T16:30:34Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Apple Support:
<blockquote>
The Clips app is no longer being updated, and will no longer be
available for download for new users as of October 10, 2025. You
can continue to use Clips on iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 or earlier.
</blockquote>
Clips is such an interesting story. It really was a great app. Back in 2017, when version 2.0 arrived (just six months after 1.0), <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/11/10/clips-2-0">I described it as</a> “the single best example of a productivity app designed for iOS”. I stand by that. Clips was a very ambitious app that really pushed the state of the art in iOS UI design forward in so many ways. The general knock on iOS has always been that it’s a platform for content consumption, not creation. Clips was all about creation.
But, for as many great ideas as Clips contained (and debuted), it clearly never clicked with the public. Most people — even just only counting people who create and share edited videos to social media — probably have never even heard of Clips. There was something essential missing: a use case. <a href="https://thatrandomagency.com/2025/06/09/instagram-edits-app-review/">Edits</a>, Meta’s new-this-year video editing app for mobile, has a clear use case: it’s meant for editing videos destined for Meta’s popular social media networks. Clips had no clear target destination. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/01/20/remember-clips">It could have</a>, but never did.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Announces the End-of-Life for Clips’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/clips-eol"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The World’s Largest, Most Disruptive Botnet Is Exploiting Compromised Internet-of-Things (IoT) Devices</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/10/ddos-botnet-aisuru-blankets-us-isps-in-record-ddos/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlz" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/ddos-iot-krebs" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42263</id>
<published>2025-10-13T13:29:35Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-13T13:29:35Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Brian Krebs:
<blockquote>
The world’s largest and most disruptive botnet is now drawing a
majority of its firepower from compromised Internet-of-Things
(IoT) devices hosted on U.S. Internet providers like AT&T, Comcast
and Verizon, new evidence suggests. Experts say the heavy
concentration of infected devices at U.S. providers is
complicating efforts to limit collateral damage from the botnet’s
attacks, which shattered previous records this week with a brief
traffic flood that clocked in at nearly 30 trillion bits of data
per second.
Since its debut more than a year ago, the Aisuru botnet has
steadily outcompeted virtually all other IoT-based botnets in the
wild, with recent attacks siphoning Internet bandwidth from an
estimated 300,000 compromised hosts worldwide.
</blockquote>
I guess those people who were declaring <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2017/02/27/internet-teddy-bear">a decade ago</a> that the Internet of Things would change the world were right.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The World’s Largest, Most Disruptive Botnet Is Exploiting Compromised Internet-of-Things (IoT) Devices’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/ddos-iot-krebs"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Before Taking the Guns Out of the Bond Posters, Amazon Prime Bowdlerized the Poster for ‘Full Metal Jacket’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.warhistoryonline.com/news/full-metal-jacket-born-to-kill-amazon.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wly" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/prime-full-metal-jacket-born-to-kill" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42262</id>
<published>2025-10-13T13:21:00Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-13T15:39:30Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
I missed this story back in 2024, but it’s the same infuriating impulse toward infantilization <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/bond-poster-guns">as with the Bond posters</a> this month. Amazon <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/10/full-metal-jacket-poster-prime.jpeg">restored the correct poster art</a> for Full Metal Jacket, but they didn’t learn the lesson: <a href="https://x.com/MatthewModine/status/1802862920378052877">don’t fuck with art</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Before Taking the Guns Out of the Bond Posters, Amazon Prime Bowdlerized the Poster for ‘Full Metal Jacket’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/prime-full-metal-jacket-born-to-kill"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Let’s Check in on the Mad King’s Spiral Into Dementia</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115359345947837427" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlx" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/trump-dementia-checkin" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42261</id>
<published>2025-10-13T13:10:56Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-13T13:10:57Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
The president of the United States, yesterday on his blog:
<blockquote>
THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If
this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed
big apologies. What a SCAM - DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT
</blockquote>
No president, of course, can be expected to remember everything that happened during his four-year term. But Trump, of course, was still president on January 6, and the events that day were — to say the least — historically significant. The entire point of the January 6 insurrection — for his role in which, Trump was impeached — was to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president on January 20.
The man is obviously unwell.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Let’s Check in on the Mad King’s Spiral Into Dementia’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/13/trump-dementia-checkin"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Drata</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://drata.com/daring" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlw" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/drata" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42260</id>
<published>2025-10-11T22:33:02Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-11T22:33:02Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
My thanks to Drata for once again sponsoring DF. Their message is short and sweet: Automate compliance. Streamline security. Manage risk. Drata delivers the world’s most advanced Trust Management platform.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Drata’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/drata"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Has Indefinitely Postponed Jessica Chastain’s Apple TV+ Thriller ‘The Savant’, for Political Reasons</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://deadline.com/2025/09/the-savant-jessica-chastain-postponed-apple-1236553658/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlv" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/the-savant-apple-tv" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42259</id>
<published>2025-10-11T17:44:41Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-11T17:44:42Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Nellie Andreeva, reporting for Deadline back on September 23:
<blockquote>
The release of Apple TV+’s The Savant has been put on hold. The
decision comes three days before the thriller starring Jessica
Chastain was slated to premiere on the streamer Sept. 26. No new
date has been set.
“After careful consideration, we have made the decision to
postpone The Savant,” an Apple TV+ spokesperson said in a
statement to Deadline. “We appreciate your understanding and look
forward to releasing the series at a future date.”
The streamer would not elaborate on the reasons for the
last-minute change but The Savant’s subject matter is believed
to be behind it, with the storyline about preventing extremist
attacks and some of the imagery considered possibly triggering
following the Sept. 10 assassination of right-wing political
activist Charlie Kirk. The series includes a sniper in action and
the bombing of a government building among other acts of violence.
</blockquote>
Jessica Chastain, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DO_V2EyEZmj/">in a post on Instagram later that same day</a>:
<blockquote>
I want to say how much I value my partnership with Apple.
They’ve been incredible collaborators and I deeply respect their
team. That said, I wanted to reach out and let you know that
we’re not aligned on the decision to pause the release of The
Savant. [...]
I’ve never shied away from difficult subjects, and while I wish
this show wasn’t so relevant, unfortunately it is. The Savant
is about the heroes who work every day to stop violence before it
happens, and honoring their courage feels more urgent than ever.
While I respect Apple’s decision to pause the release for now, I
remain hopeful the show will reach audiences soon. Until then,
I’m wishing safety and strength for everyone, and I’ll let you
know if and when The Savant is released.
</blockquote>
Here we are nearly three weeks later, and it’s still a question of if, not when — <a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/show/the-savant/umc.cmc.aar44keiny3h54xvaakg260q">Apple TV’s page for The Savant</a> still has it labeled “Coming: At a Later Date”. 
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Has Indefinitely Postponed Jessica Chastain’s Apple TV+ Thriller ‘The Savant’, for Political Reasons’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/the-savant-apple-tv"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/dining/saul-zabar-dead.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlu" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/saul-zabar-rip" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42258</id>
<published>2025-10-11T16:17:52Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-11T16:17:52Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Clyde Haberman, The New York Times:
<blockquote>
Saul Zabar, who across more than seven decades as a principal
owner of the Upper West Side food emporium bearing his family name
kept New Yorkers amply fortified with smoked fish, earthy bread
and tangy cheese, not to mention pungent coffee, died on Tuesday
in Manhattan. He was 97. [...]
What did he look for in a fish? His response to The New York Sun
in 2007 was worthy of a cryptic Zen master: “It’s got to have
taste. Not too this, not too that.”
But he was clear about his store’s iconic status. “There’s a
romance about what we do,” he said in 2012. “We have a modern
appearance, but we really do things the way they were done 40, 50,
75, even 200 years ago.” [...]
“We get asked often why we don’t franchise, because we have a lot
of branded products,” <a href="https://www.ediblemanhattan.com/tastemakers/the_brothers_zabar">he told the magazine Edible Manhattan in
2022</a>.
“Money is not why we do this, not why we’re here seven days a
week,” he said. “It’s a way of life for us. It’s kind of
old-fashioned.”
</blockquote>
Many people claim that they’re not in it for the money. Only some of them mean it. And those are the most interesting, and often most beloved, people in the world.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Saul Zabar, Smoked Fish Czar of Upper West Side, Dies at 97’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/saul-zabar-rip"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Amazon Hamfistedly Removed the Guns From Prime’s James Bond Movie Posters</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.darkhorizons.com/amazon-fixes-james-bond-art-sort-of/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlt" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/bond-poster-guns" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42257</id>
<published>2025-10-11T13:56:17Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-11T13:56:17Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Garth Franklin, writing at Dark Horizons:
<blockquote>
Amazon has quietly walked back new James Bond thumbnail artwork on
its Prime Video service following controversy over digital
alterations to the original art. <a href="https://www.darkhorizons.com/amazons-new-posters-disarm-james-bond/">As reported here yesterday</a>,
the art was unveiled on the weekend to coincide with James Bond
Day celebrations on Sunday.
Bond fans quickly noticed that the artwork had undergone some
amateur photoshopping, which either cropped or airbrushed out
his signature Walther PPK gun from the original image in a
variety of ways.
The results were widely derided on social media; films like Dr.
No and Goldeneye appeared to have Bond making a rude gesture,
while others like A View to a Kill elongated Roger Moore’s arms
well past the point of any human.
</blockquote>
The updated ones just kinda suck. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/10/no-gun-bond-posters.jpeg">Amazon’s original “new” posters</a> were downright hilariously bad. This bodes poorly for the Bond franchise’s future.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Amazon Hamfistedly Removed the Guns From Prime’s James Bond Movie Posters’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/11/bond-poster-guns"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Newsroom on the Immersive Vision Pro Lakers Broadcasts</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/10/spectrum-brings-nba-games-in-apple-immersive-to-apple-vision-pro/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wls" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/10/apple-newsroom-lakers-immersive" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42256</id>
<published>2025-10-10T20:24:00Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-10T20:24:19Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Apple Newsroom:
<blockquote>
In addition to live games for fans in the Lakers’ regional
broadcast territory — which covers Southern California, Hawaii,
and parts of southern Nevada, including Las Vegas — full game
replays and highlights will be available to Apple Vision Pro users
in select countries and regions from both the SportsNet and NBA
apps. These live games will be captured using the new URSA Cine
Immersive Live camera from Blackmagic Design, a version of the
camera that launched earlier this year to capture Apple Immersive
for Vision Pro, and will be available for purchase next year.
</blockquote>
I didn’t catch <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/09/apple-immersive-video-lakers">yesterday</a> that these immersive broadcasts would only be available live within the Lakers’ local broadcast territory, which stinks, but alas, makes sense given how sports broadcasting rights work.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Newsroom on the Immersive Vision Pro Lakers Broadcasts’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/10/apple-newsroom-lakers-immersive"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Some Lakers Games This Season Will Be Broadcast Live in Immersive Video for Vision Pro</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.techradar.com/streaming/entertainment/wish-you-could-be-courtside-at-a-lakers-game-put-your-vision-pro-back-on-and-fire-up-the-nba-app" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlr" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/09/apple-immersive-video-lakers" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42255</id>
<published>2025-10-09T21:44:53Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-09T21:46:14Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Jacob Krol, writing for Techradar:
<blockquote>
We’ve seen a broad range of content, but I’ve been waiting for
something live — specifically, live sports. Seeing that <a href="https://www.techradar.com/phones/iphone/exclusive-those-phones-are-being-treated-just-like-any-other-camera-inside-apples-first-friday-night-baseball-broadcast-shot-on-iphone-17-pro">Apple
TV+’s Friday Night Baseball is capturing games with the iPhone
17 Pro and 17 Pro Max</a> gave me some hope, and now we have a
confirmed release. In what might be the start of something new,
select Los Angeles Lakers games will be live-streamed in Apple
Immersive for the Vision Pro this coming season.
It’s not every game, but for those that are streaming — exclusive
to the $3,500 Spatial Computer — you’ll get access to views that
put you right in the middle of the action. Special cameras that
support the format will be set courtside and under each basket to
give you perspectives that amp up the immersion. The Lakers’ games
will be shot using a special version of Blackmagic Design’s URSA
Cine Immersive Live camera.
</blockquote>
Kind of weird, to me, that it wasn’t Apple’s own Friday Night Baseball broadcasts first, but I can’t wait to try this.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Some Lakers Games This Season Will Be Broadcast Live in Immersive Video for Vision Pro’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/09/apple-immersive-video-lakers"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple’s Justification for Removing DeICER From the App Store</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://migrantinsider.com/p/scoop-apple-quietly-made-ice-agents" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlq" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/09/apple-app-store-deicer" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42254</id>
<published>2025-10-09T17:41:57Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-09T21:33:00Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Pablo Manríquez, reporting for Migrant Insider:
<blockquote>
Apple has quietly removed DeICER, a civic-reporting app used to
log immigration enforcement activity, from its App Store after a
law enforcement complaint — invoking a rule normally reserved for
protecting marginalized groups from hate speech.
According to internal correspondence reviewed by Migrant Insider,
Apple told developer Rafael Concepcion that the app violated
Guideline 1.1.1, which prohibits “defamatory, discriminatory, or
mean-spirited content” directed at “religion, race, sexual
orientation, gender, national/ethnic origin, or other targeted
groups.”
But Apple’s justification went further. “Information provided to
Apple by law enforcement shows that your app violates Guideline
1.1.1 because its purpose is to provide location information
about law enforcement officers that can be used to harm such
officers individually or as a group,” the company wrote in its
removal notice.
The decision effectively treats federal immigration agents as a
protected class — a novel interpretation of Apple’s hate-speech
policy that shields one of the most powerful arms of government
from public scrutiny.
</blockquote>
Delicate flowers, these ICE agents are. And it’s a lie, anyway. There’s not one story about any of these apps being used to harm ICE agents. And even if such an attack happened, that wouldn’t imply it’s the purpose of these apps. The purpose of these apps is to protect people — citizens and non-citizens alike — from ICE.
Alas, <a href="https://www.404media.co/google-calls-ice-agents-a-vulnerable-group-removes-ice-spotting-app-red-dot/">there’s no more courage, conviction, or honesty from Google</a> on the Android side of the fence either.
It’d be both interesting and honest if either Apple or Google justified these app bannings by simply saying the Trump administration demanded them and that they — Apple and Google — fear reprisal from Trump if they don’t comply.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple’s Justification for Removing DeICER From the App Store’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/09/apple-app-store-deicer"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.404media.co/apple-banned-an-app-that-simply-archived-videos-of-ice-abuses/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlp" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/09/apple-banned-eyes-up" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42253</id>
<published>2025-10-09T17:31:10Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-09T17:31:10Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Joseph Cox, reporting for 404 Media:
<blockquote>
Apple removed an app for preserving TikToks, Instagram reels, news
reports, and videos documenting abuses by ICE, 404 Media has
learned. The app, called Eyes Up, differs from other banned apps
such as ICEBlock which were designed to report sightings of ICE
officials in real-time to warn local communities. Eyes Up,
meanwhile, was more of an aggregation service pooling together
information to preserve evidence in case the material is needed in
the future in court.
The news shows <a href="https://www.404media.co/iceblock-owner-after-apple-removes-app-we-are-determined-to-fight-this/">that Apple</a> <a href="https://www.404media.co/google-calls-ice-agents-a-vulnerable-group-removes-ice-spotting-app-red-dot/">and Google’s</a> crackdown
on ICE-spotting apps, which started after pressure from the
Department of Justice against Apple, is broader in scope than apps
that report sightings of ICE officials. It has also impacted at
least one app that was more about creating a historical record of
ICE’s activity during its mass deportation effort.
“Our goal is government accountability, we aren’t even doing
real-time tracking,” the administrator of Eyes Up, who said their
name was Mark, told 404 Media. Mark asked 404 Media to only use
his first name to protect him from retaliation. “I think the
[Trump] admin is just embarrassed by how many incriminating
videos we have.”
</blockquote>
Sometimes consistency is a bad thing.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Banned an App That Simply Archived Videos of ICE Abuses’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/09/apple-banned-eyes-up"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Faces French Investigation Over Opt-In Siri Voice Recordings</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-06/apple-faces-probe-in-france-over-voice-recordings-made-by-siri" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlo" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/apple-france-siri-opt-in-recordings" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42252</id>
<published>2025-10-08T14:08:02Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-08T14:08:05Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Benoit Berthelot and Gaspard Sebag, reporting for Bloomberg:
<blockquote>
Apple Inc. faces an investigation in France over the use of voice
recordings made with its assistant Siri. The probe has been
referred to the Office for Combating Cybercrime, the Paris
prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Monday. An Apple
spokesperson referred to <a href="https://www.apple.com/jo/newsroom/2025/01/our-longstanding-privacy-commitment-with-siri/">a blog post</a> the company published in
January about its use of voice recordings, and declined to comment
further.
<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/le-parquet-de-paris-ouvre-une-enquete-sur-siri-lassistant-vocal-dapple/">Politico earlier reported</a> the investigation.
The investigation concerns Apple’s collection of user recordings
through Siri, the digital assistant available on most of its
devices. Apple can record and retain audio interactions through
Siri to help improve its services, a feature the company says is
opt-in. Some of that data can be retained for up to two years and
reviewed by “graders”, or subcontractors, <a href="https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/improve-siri-dictation/">according to Apple</a>.
</blockquote>
Sending recorded Siri voice interactions to Apple is opt-in, and the opt-in screen is very clear and cogent. It’s not just something Apple claims.
Amazing stuff continues to happen in the EU.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Faces French Investigation Over Opt-In Siri Voice Recordings’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/apple-france-siri-opt-in-recordings"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Katie Notopoulos on the Difference Between Sora and Meta Vibes</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.threads.com/@katienotopoulos/post/DPRAi3ZDUfJ" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wln" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/notopoulos-sora-vs-vibes" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42251</id>
<published>2025-10-08T13:57:04Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-08T13:59:35Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Katie Notopoulos, on Threads:
<blockquote>
Me looking at Vibes feed: this is screensaver. So boring. Why
would anyone want it?
Me looking at videos I made of my own face in Sora 2: heheh I love
this it’s funny it’s ME.
</blockquote>
My feelings exactly.
I even like staring at screensavers sometimes. But the screensavers I like watching are Apple’s aerial (and occasionally, underwater) screensavers on Apple TV. They’re slow, peaceful, and real. Vibes is chaotic, fast, and phony.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Katie Notopoulos on the Difference Between Sora and Meta Vibes’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/notopoulos-sora-vs-vibes"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘Sora’s Slop Hits Different’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://spyglass.org/soras-slop-hits-different/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlm" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/mg-sora" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42250</id>
<published>2025-10-08T13:53:41Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-08T13:53:42Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
MG Siegler, writing at Spyglass:
<blockquote>
I think that’s the real revelation here. It’s less about
consumption and more about creation. I <a href="https://500ish.com/wither-on-the-vine-d8893fddf07e?ref=spyglass.org">previously wrote</a>
about how I was an early investor in Vine in part because it felt
like it could be analogous to Instagram. Thanks in large part to
filters, that app made it easy for anyone to think they were good
enough to be a photographer. It didn’t matter if they were or not,
they thought they were — I was one of them — so everyone
posted their photos. Vine felt like it could have been that for
video thanks to its clever tap-to-record mechanism. But actually,
it became a network for a lot of really talented amateurs to
figure out a new format for funny videos on the internet. When
Twitter acquired the company and dropped the ball, TikTok took
that idea and scaled it (thanks to ByteDance paying um, Meta
billions of dollars for distribution, and their own very smart
algorithms).
In a way, Sora feels like enabling everyone to be a TikTok
creator.
</blockquote>
I don’t want to predict if Sora is a fad or has staying power, but so far <a href="https://sora.chatgpt.com/p/s_68e5c38a9d28819193068a89359164f7">I enjoy it</a> in a way that I haven’t enjoyed a new social network in years. It’s just fun to dash off a stupid video with no more work than a quick text prompt, and the friends I’m following are making some damn funny clips every day.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Sora’s Slop Hits Different’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/mg-sora"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Nobel Prize in Physics Is Awarded for Work in Quantum Mechanics</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/science/nobel-prize-physics.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wll" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/nobel-prize-physics" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42249</id>
<published>2025-10-08T13:29:00Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-08T13:29:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
The New York Times:
<blockquote>
John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis were awarded
the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday in Sweden for showing that
two properties of quantum mechanics, the physical laws that rule
the subatomic realm, could be observed in a system large enough to
see with the naked eye.
“There is no advanced technology today that does not rely on
quantum mechanics,” Olle Eriksson, chairman of the Nobel Committee
for Physics, said during the announcement of the award. The
laureates’ discoveries, he added, paved the way for technologies
like the cellphone, cameras and fiber optic cables. It also helped
lay the groundwork for current attempts to build a quantum
computer, a device that could compute and process information at
speeds that would not be possible with classical computers.
</blockquote>
Can you believe these woke dopes gave this award to three people, and not one of them is Donald Trump?
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Nobel Prize in Physics Is Awarded for Work in Quantum Mechanics’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/08/nobel-prize-physics"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>What’s New or Changed in iOS 26.1 Beta 2</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/10/06/everything-new-in-ios-26-1-beta-2/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlk" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/07/new-in-ios-261-beta-2" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42248</id>
<published>2025-10-07T18:19:52Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-07T18:21:08Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Ryan Christoffel, 9to5Mac:
<blockquote>
Alarms and timers are now harder to dismiss thanks to a <a href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/10/06/ios-26-1-beta-2-makes-alarms-harder-to-accidentally-dismiss/">new
‘Slide to stop’ gesture</a>. Both alarms and timers were
updated in iOS 26 to utilize a new design with much larger
on-screen buttons than before. Now in iOS 26.1 beta 2, Apple has
replaced the ‘Stop’ button with a new sliding gesture that
requires a little more intentionality. This should make accidental
alarm dismissals more rare.
</blockquote>
That’s one of several changes that caught my eye. Seems like a great idea. Another notable change: <a href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2025/10/ipados-26-1-beta-brings-back-slide-over-adds-microphone-adjustments/">Slide Over returns to iPadOS</a>.
See also: <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2025/10/06/ios-26-1-beta-2-features/">Juli Clover’s rundown of changes in iOS 26.1 beta 2 for MacRumors</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘What’s New or Changed in iOS 26.1 Beta 2’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/07/new-in-ios-261-beta-2"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>AltStore State of the Union</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://rileytestut.com/blog/2025/10/07/evolving-altstore-pal/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlj" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/07/altstore-state-of-the-union" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42247</id>
<published>2025-10-07T16:35:16Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-07T20:14:39Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Riley Testut, co-founder of AltStore:
<blockquote>
By far our number one request, we’re planning to launch AltStore
PAL in more countries later this year in response to various
regulatory changes around the world. Specifically, we plan to
launch in Japan, Brazil, and Australia before the end of the year,
with the UK to follow in 2026. This is great news for the fight to
open app distribution, as it will give consumers more options to
install apps they otherwise couldn’t from the App Store — such as
my <a href="https://www.macstories.net/reviews/altstores-clip-is-the-best-clipboard-manager-on-ios-yet/">clipboard manager Clip</a>.
While we wait to hear more from Apple on exact timing, if you’re a
developer interested in distributing your app through AltStore PAL
in one of these countries feel free to <a href="https://faq.altstore.io/developers/distribute-with-altstore-pal">check out our
documentation</a> now to get a head start. Overall though, we
couldn’t be more excited to make AltStore PAL available to
millions of more people; we truly believe it’s a matter of time
before alternative app marketplaces are available worldwide, and
each new country brings us one step closer to that goal.
</blockquote>
Apple’s cowardly abandonment of ICEBlock in the face of the first whiff of pressure from the Trump administration is perhaps the best evidence yet that Apple’s arguments in favor of their App Store being the single source for third-party software do not hold water. I’m not going to argue that ICEBlock is an essential app, or super duper popular, but it is a very serious app that aims to address a very serious situation. In <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/iceblock.app/post/3m2alyaghbk2n">Apple’s email to developer Joshua Aaron informing him of their decision</a> to pull ICEBlock from the App Store, they justified the decision on the spurious basis that the app contained “objectionable content”. The only content ICEBlock contains is the location of law enforcement activity. Waze — and more notably, Apple’s own Maps app — do the exact same thing for highway speed traps.
Apple’s decision shows that developers cannot trust the App Store to distribute apps that anyone in the Trump administration might “object to”. ICEBlock is an iOS exclusive app and service for serious privacy reasons that are grounded in technical merit. But, exactly as many critics of the App-Store-as-exclusive-distribution-point-for-native-software model have long warned, it’s proven to be a choke point that Apple was unwilling to defend. Apple frequently invokes the word trust as a reason for the App Store model. But their treatment of ICEBlock indicates they are untrustworthy when it comes to showing any sort of backbone regarding Trump’s mad-king slide into authoritarianism, and thus, so too is the entire iOS platform in jurisdictions like the US, where the App Store remains the exclusive distribution source. What good is building the most privacy-focused, user-friendly platform in the world when Apple will disallow an app for which airtight privacy is essential? What happens when Trump lickspittles go after women’s healthcare apps like Planned Parenthood?
If there were a way to distribute apps outside the App Store in the US (TestFlight doesn’t count, as it has hard limits on how many users can get the app — and it’s not clear that Apple hasn’t blocked ICEBlock from TestFlight too), US iPhone users would still have access to ICEBlock. If that were the case, perhaps the Trump administration would then “demand” that Apple revoke Aaron’s developer account. But if that happened, at least we’d know just how pants-wettingly terrified Apple is of the president, in our purported liberal democracy.
There’s lots of other interesting news in Testut’s AltStore status report, including the news that they’re adding Fediverse support to AltStore to distribute app updates and news (and more); converting to a public benefit corporation; have raised $6 million in funding; and are donating $500,000 of that money to help fund indie iOS Fediverse apps like Tapbots’s <a href="https://tapbots.com/ivory/">Ivory</a> (Mastodon) and <a href="https://tapbots.com/phoenix/">Phoenix</a> (Bluesky) clients and The Iconfactory’s <a href="https://usetapestry.com/">Tapestry</a> feed aggregator.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘AltStore State of the Union’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/07/altstore-state-of-the-union"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Wiley Hodges’s Open Letter to Tim Cook Regarding ICEBlock</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://substack.com/inbox/post/175351960" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wli" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/07/hodges-cook-iceblock" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42246</id>
<published>2025-10-07T12:01:22Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-07T20:13:01Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Wiley Hodges, a 22-year veteran of Apple product marketing, who retired in 2022, in an open letter he sent to Tim Cook:
<blockquote>
I don’t know where this leaves me as an Apple customer, but I do
know that it upsets me as an Apple shareholder. I am asking you
and your team to more clearly explain the basis on which you made
the decision to remove ICEBlock — and how the government showed
good faith and strong evidence in making its demand of Apple, or
that you reinstate the app in the App Store.
I hope that as a man of integrity and principle you can understand
how outrageous this situation is. Even more, I hope you recognize
how every inch you voluntarily give to an authoritarian regime
adds to their illegitimately derived power. We are at a critical
juncture in our country’s history where we face the imminent
threat of the loss of our constitutional republic. It is up to all
of us to demand that the rule of law rather than the whims of a
handful of people — even elected ones — govern our collective
enterprise. Apple and you are better than this. You represent the
best of what America can be, and I pray that you will find it in
your heart to continue to demonstrate that you are true to the
values you have so long and so admirably espoused.
</blockquote>
When you give a bully your lunch money, they always come back for more. 
Disney learned this. Last December, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/12/16/nx-s1-5230274/abc-settles-with-trump-for-15-million-now-he-wants-to-sue-other-news-outlets">Disney settled a lawsuit Trump had filed against ABC News and host George Stephanopoulos for $15 million</a>. The lawsuit was bullshit; nearly all experts agreed that if Disney/ABC had taken the case to court, <a href="https://fair.org/home/abc-settles-with-trump-in-a-case-it-could-have-won/">they’d have won</a>. Disney settled — with both the $15 million and “a note of regret” — thinking, surely, that this would get Trump off their back. Put them on Trump’s good side. Then came <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/09/23/goddard-kimmel">the Jimmy Kimmel fiasco</a>, when they <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/09/24/kimmel-returns">finally stood up</a> and said, effectively, “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/03/fuck-you-make-me">Fuck you, make me</a>.”
Hodges, earlier in his letter, makes reference to <a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Adaringfireball.net+san+bernardino+fbi&ia=web">Apple’s 2016 standoff with the FBI over a locked iPhone belonging to the mass shooter in San Bernardino</a>, California. The FBI and Justice Department pressured Apple to create a version of iOS that would allow them to backdoor the iPhone’s passcode lock. Apple adamantly refused.
The message Trump and his lickspittles surely took from Apple acceding to their “demand” regarding ICEBlock — a demand made without an iota of legal justification, nor any factual justification that the app was being used to put ICE law enforcements agents in harm’s way — is that when they make a demand to Apple, Apple will respond not with the four words “Fuck you, make me” (as they did in the 2016 San Bernardino case), but instead “Whatever you say goes”. It was, obviously, easier for Apple to stand on principle in 2016, when Barack Obama, a man who deeply respected the Constitution and the principle of rule of law, was president. But it’s more important to stand on those same principles with Trump — a would-be mad king with no respect nor even understanding of the Constitution or rule of law — in office.
If not now, when? Apple will, I believe, find out.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Wiley Hodges’s Open Letter to Tim Cook Regarding ICEBlock’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/07/hodges-cook-iceblock"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://drata.com/daring/?utm_source=Daring_Fireball&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=18991230_fy26_comm_DG_COMM_&utm_content=demo_request" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wlh" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2025/10/drata_4" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/feeds/sponsors//11.42245</id>
<author><name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name></author>
<published>2025-10-07T11:31:02Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-07T11:31:03Z</updated>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Automate compliance. Streamline security. Manage risk. Drata delivers the world’s most advanced Trust Management platform.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Drata’" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2025/10/drata_4"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>[Sponsor] Drata</title></entry><entry>
<title>OpenAI Looks to Take 10 Percent Stake in AMD Through AI Chip Deal</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/06/openai-amd-chip-deal-ai.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlg" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/06/openai-amd-chip-deal" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42244</id>
<published>2025-10-06T16:50:20Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-06T21:37:05Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
MacKenzie Sigalos, CNBC:
<blockquote>
OpenAI and Advanced Micro Devices have reached a deal that could
see Sam Altman’s company take a 10% stake in the chipmaker. AMD
stock skyrocketed more than 30% on Monday following the news.
OpenAI will deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD’s Instinct graphics
processing units over multiple years and across multiple
generations of hardware, the companies said Monday. It will kick
off with an initial 1-gigawatt rollout of chips in the second half
of 2026.
</blockquote>
It only happens once a decade or so, but the most exciting times in tech occur when there’s a breakthrough that’s severely hardware constrained. That includes hardware like infrastructure — bandwidth was a massive constraint during the dot-com boom. It wasn’t even feasible to download audio, like podcasts, for the first decade of the consumer internet boom, let alone video. But it was inevitable that we’d get there.
Right now we’re severely constrained on compute for AI. In a few years, we’ll look back on today’s state of affairs the way we look back on dial-up modems.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘OpenAI Looks to Take 10 Percent Stake in AMD Through AI Chip Deal’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/06/openai-amd-chip-deal"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>S&P Global</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.marketplace.spglobal.com/en/solutions/metadata-marketplace-(d4ef915d-a8f4-4bf5-b8da-5cbce63db415)?utm_source=display&utm_medium=daringfireball&utm_campaign=11921-AD-2509-GL-CT-DR-All-DCD-EDODaringFireball" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlf" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/05/sp-global" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42243</id>
<published>2025-10-05T21:17:52Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-05T21:17:53Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
My thanks to S&P Global for sponsoring this last week at DF. S&P Global believes that the future of information delivery is AI — and AI thrives on clean, trustworthy metadata. That’s why they’re embracing open web standards to make data more accessible and machine-readable. Explore their open data at <a href="https://dunl.org">dunl.org</a>, their open data portal, and discover rich metadata at <a href="https://www.marketplace.spglobal.com/en/solutions/metadata-marketplace-(d4ef915d-a8f4-4bf5-b8da-5cbce63db415)?utm_source=display&utm_medium=daringfireball&utm_campaign=11921-AD-2509-GL-CT-DR-All-DCD-EDODaringFireball">S&P’s Metadata Marketplace</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘S&P Global’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/05/sp-global"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Cheap Batteries Are Dangerous</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/news/784966/lumafield-x-ray-ct-scan-lithium-ion-battery-risks-manufacturing-defect" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wle" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/04/cheap-batteries-are-dangerous" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42242</id>
<published>2025-10-04T13:24:20Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-04T13:24:20Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Andrew Liszewski, The Verge:
<blockquote>
Lumafield has <a href="https://www.lumafield.com/battery-report#battery-quality-report">released the results of a new study</a> of
lithium-ion batteries that “reveals an enormous gap in quality
between brand-name batteries and low-cost cells” that are readily
available through online stores including Amazon and Temu. The
company used <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/18/23640484/lumafield-neptune-ct-scanner-3d-x-ray-hands-on-interview">its computed tomography (CT) scanners</a>, capable
of peering inside objects in 3D using X-rays, to analyze over
1,000 lithium-ion batteries. It found dangerous manufacturing
defects in low-cost and counterfeit batteries that could
potentially lead to fires and explosions.
</blockquote>
My gut feeling has long been that cheap battery packs and cheap products with integrated batteries (like all the junk Temu sells) are dangerous. This analysis basically proves it. (I’d have linked directly to Lumafield’s report, but it’s only available by submitting your name and email address, so Liszewski’s summary at The Verge is a better quick read.)
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Cheap Batteries Are Dangerous’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/04/cheap-batteries-are-dangerous"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/10/iceblock_removed_from_app_store" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wld" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.42241</id>
<published>2025-10-03T20:56:36Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-04T18:53:40Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">It’s rather chilling to consider what Apple would have done if the Trump administration had “demanded” a list of device IDs and user identities for everyone who had installed ICEBlock. Or what Apple *will* do if such a demand pops into one of their dimwitted but cruel minds.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/apple-takes-down-ice-tracking-app-after-pressure-from-ag-bondi">Ashley Oliver, reporting for Fox Business</a>:
<blockquote>
DOJ officials, at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi,
asked Apple to take down ICEBlock, a move that comes as Trump
administration officials have claimed the tool, which allows users
to anonymously report ICE agents’ presence, puts agents in danger
and helps shield illegal immigrants.
“We reached out to Apple today demanding they remove the ICEBlock
app from their App Store — and Apple did so,” Bondi said in a
statement to Fox News Digital.
“ICEBlock is designed to put ICE agents at risk just for doing
their jobs, and violence against law enforcement is an intolerable
red line that cannot be crossed,” Bondi added. “This Department of
Justice will continue making every effort to protect our brave
federal law enforcement officers, who risk their lives every day
to keep Americans safe.”
</blockquote>
Fox, in its opening paragraph, describes Bondi as having “asked” Apple to remove ICEBlock from the App Store, but Bondi’s own statement uses the verb “demand”. The difference is not nitpicking. No one, not even Bondi, is claiming any aspect of ICEBlock is illegal. Thus it’s not merely inappropriate but outrageous — and yet another among dozens of other causes for alarm regarding Trump 2.0’s decidedly authoritarian turn — for the DOJ to “demand” that Apple do anything about it. But demand they did, and comply did Apple. (Check those lips <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2024/11/i_wonder">for Cheetos dust</a> before heading home today.)
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert, Peter Kafka, and Kwan Wei Kevin Tan, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iceblock-app-store-removed-2025-10">reporting for Business Insider</a>:
<blockquote>
Apple has removed ICEBlock, an app that allowed users to monitor
and report the location of immigration enforcement officers, from
the App Store.
“We created the App Store to be a safe and trusted place to
discover apps,” Apple said in a statement to Business Insider.
“Based on information we’ve received from law enforcement about
the safety risks associated with ICEBlock, we have removed it and
similar apps from the App Store.”
</blockquote>
ICEBlock developer Joshua Aaron, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/iceblock.app/post/3m2alyaghbk2n">posting on the ICEBlock Bluesky account</a>:
<blockquote>
We just received a message from Apple’s App Review that #ICEBlock
has been removed from the App Store due to “objectionable
content”. The only thing we can imagine is this is due to pressure
from the Trump Admin.
We have responded and we’ll fight this! #resist
</blockquote>
There is clearly nothing illegal about ICEBlock.<a href="#fn1-2025-10-03">1</a> It’s just information, obviously protected by the First Amendment. Law enforcement officers in the United States have no right to avoid being recorded nor their actions being reported and shared. Reporting and publishing where police are policing is free speech and fundamental to the civil rights and liberties of a free society.
We can all wish Apple had fought this “demand”. I certainly do. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPToBog_-g">John Oliver’s “Fuck you, make me”</a> argument <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/03/fuck-you-make-me">sprung to mind</a> for me this morning. But that’s wishful thinking. I believe there are many lines Apple would not cross, even if it means taking on the ire of Trump administration lickspittles, if not the barely literate wrath of the mad king himself on <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/06/truth_social_is_just_trumps_blog">his sad little blog</a>. Apple may well eventually — if not soon — be forced to define those lines. But keeping ICEBlock in the App Store isn’t one of them. You might believe it should be. There’s a big part of me that believes it should be. But I can also <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/08/gold_frankincense_and_silicon">see why it’s not</a>. Pick your battles.
I wrote about ICEBlock twice back in late July. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/07/iceblock">Quoting extensively from my initial post</a>:
<blockquote>
The ICEBlock app is interesting in and of itself (and from my
tire-kicking test drive, appears to be a well-crafted and designed
app), as will be Apple’s response if (when?) the Trump
administration takes offense to the app’s existence. Back in 2019,
kowtowing to tacit demands from China, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/10/10/apple-pulls-hkmaps">Apple removed from the App
Store an app called HKmap.live</a> which helped pro-democracy
activists in Hong Kong know the location of police and protest
activity. The app broke no Hong Kong laws, but <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/10/768841864/after-china-objects-apple-removes-app-used-by-hong-kong-protesters">scared the
thin-skinned skittish lickspittles in the Chinese Communist
Party</a>. (Remember too that in 2019, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2019/10/07/taiwan-flag-emoji">Apple removed the Taiwan
flag emoji</a> (🇹🇼) from the iOS 13 keyboard for users in Hong
Kong and Macau.)
One defense from Apple regarding HKmap.live, however, was that the
iOS app was a thin wrapper around the website, which website
remained fully functional and could be saved to an iPhone user’s
home screen. Removing the app from the App Store thus did not
prevent Hongkongers from accessing it. (<a href="https://hkmap.live/">That website</a> today
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HKmap.live">seems to be defunct</a>.)
ICEBlock is different. It is only available as a native iOS app.
According to the developers, this is for technical reasons. From
their web page explaining <a href="https://www.iceblock.app/android">why they can’t offer an Android
version</a>:
<blockquote>
At ICEBlock, user privacy and security are paramount. Our
application is designed to provide as much anonymity as possible
without storing any user data or creating accounts. While we
understand the desire for an Android version of ICEBlock,
achieving this level of anonymity on Android is not feasible due
to the inherent requirements of push notification services.
To send push notifications on Android, it is necessary to use a
mechanism that requires storing device IDs. This means that we
would need to maintain a privately hosted database to store these
identifiers. Storing such data, even if it’s anonymized,
introduces significant privacy risks. [...]
In contrast, iOS offers us the flexibility to deliver push
notifications while adhering strictly to our design philosophy.
Apple’s ecosystem allows for push notifications to be sent
without requiring us to store any user-identifiable information.
This ensures that ICEBlock remains completely anonymous and
secure.
</blockquote>
To deliver push notifications on Android, the developers claim
they would need to maintain a database of device IDs, create a
user account system to manage those device IDs, and all of that
server-stored data would be susceptible to law enforcement
subpoenas and pro-ICE red hat hackers. (What “brown shirts” were
to the Nazis, we should make “red hats” to MAGA.)
To maintain anonymity and store zero user data, there is and can
be no web app version of ICEBlock. There is and can be no Android
version. Only iOS supports the security and privacy features for
ICEBlock to offer what it does, the way it does. Here’s to hoping
that Apple will proudly defend it if push comes to shove.
</blockquote>
Apple’s removal of ICEBlock from the App Store is, in multiple ways, worse than Apple’s removal of HKmap.live from the App Store back in 2019. First, you cannot take a disagreement with the Chinese government to court. Here in the United States, you can. But Apple chose not to. That’s a display of weakness. 
Second, from the perspective of users, without the HKmap.live “app”, Hong Kong iPhone users could still access all the functionality via the website, and the website could be saved to their home screens as a web app that was, I believe, functionally identical to the version from the App Store. I put “app” in quotes above because the HKmap.live app was really just a thin wrapper around the service’s mobile website. Hongkongers lost some convenience, and they lost the ability to tell non-technical protestor friends “just get it from the App Store”, but it’s not that much more complex to explain how to add a website to your iPhone home screen as a web app.
With ICEBlock, the entire thing is simply no longer available. If you already have ICEBlock installed, the installed version still functions on your iPhone, but, until and if Apple changes its mind, there will be no further software updates and new users are unable to download it. Nor will current users be able to re-download the app on a new iPhone — and now is “new iPhone” season. And, seemingly, there can be no web app (or Android) version of ICEBlock that offers the same level of anonymity as the native iOS version — with notifications, but without user accounts nor any database of device IDs for notifications that would be subject to subpoena from ICEBlock.
The gist of <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/07/26/iceblock-trust-apple">my second post on ICEBlock</a> from back in July is that ICEBlock’s privacy-protecting architecture isn’t magic. It’s based on trust in Apple itself. Joshua Aaron doesn’t have access to ICEBlock users’ device IDs (let alone their personal identities), but ICEBlock can send push notifications to devices because Apple itself does know device IDs and users’ identities.
It’s rather chilling to consider what Apple would have done if the Trump administration had “demanded” a list of device IDs and user identities for everyone who had installed ICEBlock. Or what Apple will do if such a demand pops into one of their dimwitted but cruel minds.<a href="#fn2-2025-10-03">2</a> I suspect that’s one of the lines Apple would not cross. That Apple would stand its ground there and say “Fuck you, make us” and take it to court. But there’s only one way to find out.
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2025-10-03">
It’s interesting to consider how Aaron might “fight this”. I don’t think suing the Department of Justice is an option. All Pam Bondi did was issue a “demand” to Apple. That’s inappropriate and an embarrassment, and in any normal administration would be just cause for her immediate dismissal from the job. But it’s not against the law. She didn’t issue an unconstitutional legal demand to Apple. She just issued a verbal request with an implicit threat of turning the nation’s MAGA derps and Fox News junkies against Apple. What Apple was afraid of wasn’t fighting this demand in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion.
So maybe Aaron sues Apple? I’m not sure he has grounds for that either, but it’d be interesting to see Apple’s lawyers argue in court that the App Store is no place for apps that protect users’ civil liberties and personal privacy. <a href="#fnr1-2025-10-03" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎︎</a>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2025-10-03">
A few people have already asked me why it took the Trump administration several months to put ICEBlock in its crosshairs and issue a takedown “demand” to Apple. <a href="https://abc7ny.com/post/iceblock-new-iphone-app-lets-users-know-when-ice-agents-are-area/16902392/">Aaron shipped the first release of ICEBlock back in April</a>, and it achieved a significant amount of well-deserved publicity in July after Trump’s ICE goons began large-scale deportation raids in Los Angeles. My answer is simple: it took them months to issue this demand because they’re so goddamn stupid and incompetent. We should be thankful for that. In a competent regime attempting an authoritarian takeover of a liberal democracy, it would have been taken down in days, not months. <a href="#fnr2-2025-10-03" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎</a>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ Complying With ‘Demand’ From Trump Administration, Apple Removes ICEBlock From App Store</title></entry><entry>
<title>‘Fuck You, Make Me’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPToBog_-g" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlc" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/03/fuck-you-make-me" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42240</id>
<published>2025-10-03T13:20:43Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-03T17:34:46Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
John Oliver on Last Week Tonight, uh, last week, regarding Disney’s initial (but brief) caving to Trump’s demands that they suspend or even fire Jimmy Kimmel for his having the temerity to <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/09/23/kimmel-joke">mock the mad king for being a sociopathic ghoul</a> sliding into the depths of dementia:
<blockquote>
Look, at some point you’re going to have to draw a line. So I’d
argue, why not draw it right here? And when they come to you with
stupid, ridiculous demands, picking fights that you know you could
win in court, instead of rolling over, why not stand up and use
four key words they don’t tend to teach you in business school?
Not, “OK, you’re the boss.” Not, “Whatever you say goes.” But
instead, the only phrase that can genuinely make a weak bully go
away. And that is, “Fuck you. Make me.”
</blockquote>
“Fuck you, make me” is, to me, the founding principle of this nation. That was our message to King George III, a tyrant descending into madness (who even <a href="https://www.hrp.org.uk/blog/the-kings-malady-george-iiis-mental-illness-explored/">suffered from swollen legs and feet</a>, which <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-swelling-legs-chronic-venous-insufficiency-health-40beb3c818cfb914645db9d1f143fdd8">rings yet another bell</a> with our current wannabe mad king). And it needs to be our response to Trump.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Fuck You, Make Me’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/03/fuck-you-make-me"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>MLB Average Game Time Under Three Hours for Third Straight Year</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-average-game-time-under-three-hours-third-straight-year" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wlb" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/mlb-game-times" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42239</id>
<published>2025-10-02T22:58:28Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-03T01:44:43Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Jason Foster, reporting for MLB.com:
<blockquote>
Nine-inning games during the 2025 season have, on average, clocked
in at 2 hours, 38 minutes through Thursday, marking the third
straight season in which the average game time was 2:40 or
shorter.
<blockquote>
Regular Season nine-inning @MLB games of three hours and thirty
minutes (3:30) or longer:
<ul>
<li>2021: 391</li>
<li>2022: 232</li>
<li>2023: 9</li>
<li>2024: 7</li>
<li>2025: 3 (through 9/25)</li>
</ul>
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) <a href="https://twitter.com/MLB_PR/status/1971593229293568259">September 26, 2025</a>
</blockquote>
The trend marks the first time since 1983-85 that the average
nine-inning game time was 2:40 or shorter in three consecutive
seasons. The average nine-inning game time was 2:36 last season
and 2:40 in 2023.
</blockquote>
I disagree with many of MLB’s recent rules changes (e.g. the 10th-inning “Manfred Man” ghost runners), but the pitch clock and limit on mound visits have been unambiguous changes for the better. They don’t make the game feel hurried at all, but prior to the pitch clock, the game often felt ponderous.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘MLB Average Game Time Under Three Hours for Third Straight Year’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/mlb-game-times"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Folder Quick Look</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://apps.apple.com/app/id6753110395" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wla" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/folder-quick-look" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42238</id>
<published>2025-10-02T16:30:28Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-02T17:19:53Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
New Mac app from Martin Lexow, the developer behind App Ahead (which offers <a href="https://appahead.studio/">a slew of good and intriguing Mac apps</a>):
<blockquote>
Preview folder and archive contents (ZIP, RAR, and more) instantly
in macOS Quick Look. Just select a folder and press the Space bar.
</blockquote>
It’s just that simple. Install it from the Mac App Store — free of charge — and you can Quick Look inside archives and folders. Looks, feels, and works like a feature that ought to be built into the Finder itself. Cool.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Folder Quick Look’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/folder-quick-look"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Adobe Premiere Ships for iPhone and iPad</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/09/adobe-premiere-now-delivers-fast-pro-quality-video-editing-mobile" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wl9" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/adobe-premiere-iphone-ipad" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42237</id>
<published>2025-10-02T16:11:34Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-02T16:11:34Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Adobe:
<blockquote>
Today, Adobe announced that the company is bringing its industry
leading Adobe Premiere video editor to mobile in a powerful <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adobe-premiere-video-editor">new
iPhone app</a> that empowers creators to make pro-quality video
on the go. The <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/app.html">Adobe Premiere mobile app</a> makes it fast,
free and intuitive for creators to edit their videos with
precision editing on a lightning-fast multi-track timeline,
produce studio-quality audio with crystal clear voiceovers and
perfectly timed AI sound effects, generate unique content and
access millions of free multimedia assets, and send work directly
to <a href="https://www.adobe.com/products/premiere.html">Premiere desktop</a> for fine tuning further on a larger
screen. The new mobile app offers all the video editing essentials
for free, with upgrades available for additional generative
credits and storage.
</blockquote>
It’s a little thing, but from Adobe’s press release, you’d think this new mobile version of Premiere is only available for iOS, but, as you’d hope, it’s in fact a universal app that properly supports iPadOS too. The word “iPad” doesn’t appear in Adobe’s press release.
(<a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/10/01/adobe-premiere-for-ios-and-ipados/">Via Michael Tsai</a>.)
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Adobe Premiere Ships for iPhone and iPad’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/adobe-premiere-iphone-ipad"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>U.K. Makes New Attempt to Access Apple Cloud Data — This Time, iCloud Backups of U.K. Citizens</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/uk-once-again-demands-backdoor-to-apples-encrypted-cloud-storage/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wl8" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/uk-makes-demand-for-access-to-icloud-backups" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42236</id>
<published>2025-10-02T16:05:51Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-02T21:28:09Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Anna Gross and Tim Bradshaw, reporting for the Financial Times (updated link to a syndicated version at Ars Technica, outside the FT’s parsimonious paywall):
<blockquote>
The UK government has ordered Apple to allow access to encrypted
cloud backups of British users, after a previous attempt to issue
a broader demand that included US customers drew a furious
backlash from the Trump administration.
The UK Home Office demanded in early September that Apple create a
backdoor into users’ cloud storage service, but stipulated that
the order applied only to British citizens’ data, according to
people briefed on the matter. [...]
In February, Apple withdrew its most secure cloud storage service,
iCloud Advanced Data Protection, from the UK.
“Apple is still unable to offer Advanced Data Protection in the
United Kingdom to new users,” Apple said on Wednesday. “We are
gravely disappointed that the protections provided by ADP are not
available to our customers in the UK given the continuing rise of
data breaches and other threats to customer privacy.” It added:
“As we have said many times before, we have never built a back
door or master key to any of our products or services and we
never will.”
</blockquote>
This is, as I understand it, a demand from the UK government to allow warrantless access to all UK citizens’ iCloud backups. And your iCloud backups, once decrypted, contain just about everything on your device. With Apple unable to offer Advanced Data Protection in the UK, if Apple complies, there’s no way around it. And, to make it even worse, the perversity of the UK Investigatory Powers Act is such that it’s a crime for Apple to even say they’ve been issued such a demand, to warn their UK users about it. Just brutal. The UK government could not be more wrong about this stance.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘U.K. Makes New Attempt to Access Apple Cloud Data — This Time, iCloud Backups of U.K. Citizens’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/uk-makes-demand-for-access-to-icloud-backups"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>OpenAI Launches Sora, a Social Feed App for AI-Generated Short Videos</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/788786/openais-new-ai-sora-ios-social-video-app-will-let-you-deepfake-your-friends" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wl7" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/sora-launch" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42235</id>
<published>2025-10-02T14:09:00Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-02T16:12:26Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Hayden Field, The Verge:
<blockquote>
OpenAI has a new version of the Sora AI video generator that it
<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/12/9/24317092/openai-sora-text-to-video-ai-launch">launched at the end of last year</a>, and it’s arriving today
alongside <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sora-by-openai/id6744034028">a new social video app, also called Sora, for
iPhones</a>. The currently invite-only app resembles TikTok with
a feed of videos you can shuffle through. But instead of
encouraging people to stitch together duets, it asks you to record
short videos that anyone can spin into new AI-generated deepfakes — with your consent.
In a briefing with reporters on Monday, employees called it the
potential “ChatGPT moment for video generation.” The Sora app is
currently only available to US and Canada users, with other
countries set to follow, and when someone receives access, they
also get four additional invites to share with friends. There’s no
word on when an Android version might be released.
</blockquote>
Sora, though invitation-only at the moment, is currently #3 in the U.S. App Store. Meta’s Meta AI app, which contains, in a tab, their Vibes AI-generated video feed, is #97.
Also, I’m sure Sora will eventually come to Android. But, to play with it now, you need an iPhone. So tell me again how Apple is behind on AI? If you have an Android phone, you’re behind on everything except what Google itself offers (which, admittedly, is some great stuff). If you have an iPhone, you’re ahead on everything except what’s baked into iOS. Including the fact that the #1 app on the App Store today is ... Google Gemini.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘OpenAI Launches Sora, a Social Feed App for AI-Generated Short Videos’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/02/sora-launch"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>America’s Pants: A Special Investigation Into the Dallas Cowboys’ Pants</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://uni-watch.com/2025/09/24/americas-pants-a-special-investigation-into-the-dallas-cowboys-pants/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/wl6" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/01/americas-pants" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025:/linked//6.42234</id>
<published>2025-10-01T16:39:15Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-02T16:14:24Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/linked/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
This exemplary deep dive from Don Patterson at Uni Watch is a nice capper to the Cowboys’ 40-40 victory over the Green Bay Packers Sunday night.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘America’s Pants: A Special Investigation Into the Dallas Cowboys’ Pants’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/10/01/americas-pants"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/09/apple_on_the_digital_markets_act" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wky" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.42226</id>
<published>2025-09-26T15:47:03Z</published>
<updated>2025-09-26T23:10:10Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">How in the world would that increase competition? iOS’s unique and exclusive features — which, yes, in many cases, are exclusive to the Apple device ecosystem — *are competition*.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Apple, “<a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/the-digital-markets-acts-impacts-on-eu-users/">The Digital Markets Act’s Impacts on EU Users</a>”:
<blockquote>
The DMA requires Apple to make certain features work on non-Apple
products and apps before we can share them with our users.
Unfortunately, that requires a lot of engineering work, and it’s
caused us to delay some new features in the EU:
<ul>
<li>Live Translation with AirPods uses Apple Intelligence to let
Apple users communicate across languages. Bringing a
sophisticated feature like this to other devices creates
challenges that take time to solve. For example, we designed
Live Translation so that our users’ conversations stay private — they’re processed on device and are never accessible to Apple — and our teams are doing additional engineering work to make
sure they won’t be exposed to other companies or developers
either.</li>
<li>iPhone Mirroring lets our users see and interact with their
iPhone from their Mac, so they can seamlessly check their
notifications, or drag and drop photos between devices. Our
teams still have not found a secure way to bring this feature to
non-Apple devices without putting all the data on a user’s
iPhone at risk. And as a result, we have not been able to bring
the feature to the EU. [...]</li>
</ul>
We’ve suggested changes to these features that would protect our
users’ data, but so far, the European Commission has rejected our
proposals. And according to the European Commission, under the
DMA, it’s illegal for us to share these features with Apple users
until we bring them to other companies’ products. If we shared
them any sooner, we’d be fined and potentially forced to stop
shipping our products in the EU.
</blockquote>
Live Translation with AirPods and iPhone Mirroring are both amazing features. And EU users are missing out on them. I think Apple structured this piece exactly right, by emphasizing first that the most direct effect of the DMA is that EU users are getting great features late — or never. And that list of features is only going to grow over time.
Under the section “Is the DMA Achieving Its Goals?”:
<blockquote>
Regulators claimed the DMA would promote competition and give
European consumers more choices. But the law is not living up to
those promises. In fact, it’s having some of the opposite effects:
<ul>
<li>Fewer choices: When features are delayed or unavailable, EU
users don’t get the same options as users in the rest of the
world. They lose the choice to use Apple’s latest technologies,
and their devices fall further behind.</li>
<li>Less differentiation: By forcing Apple to build features and
technologies for non-Apple products, the DMA is making the
options available to European consumers more similar. For
instance, the changes to app marketplaces are making iOS look
more like Android — and that reduces choice.</li>
<li>Unfair competition: The DMA’s rules only apply to Apple, even
though Samsung is the smartphone market leader in Europe, and
Chinese companies are growing fast. Apple has led the way in
building a unique, innovative ecosystem that others have copied — to the benefit of users everywhere. But instead of rewarding
that innovation, the DMA singles Apple out while leaving our
competitors free to continue as they always have.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
This is all true. But I have a better way to put this. If Apple were to just switch the iPhone’s OS from iOS to Android, these DMA conflicts would all go away. Apple’s not going to do that, of course, but to me it’s a crystallizing way of looking at it. The DMA is supposedly intended to increase “competition”, which in turn should increase consumer choice. But the easiest way for Apple to comply with the DMA would be to switch EU iPhones to Android — which, by a significant margin, already has majority mobile OS market share in the EU. <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/europe/">Here’s a link to StatCounter’s mobile OS stats for Europe</a> (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2024/03/eu_share_of_apples_revenue">which is not the same as the EU</a>, but as good a proxy as I could find). It’s two-thirds Android, one-third iOS — a 2-1 ratio.
If Apple just shipped all EU iPhones with Android instead of iOS, all of their DMA problems would be off the table. EU iPhone users would lose all iOS exclusive features and Apple device <a href="https://www.apple.com/macos/continuity/">Continuity</a> integrations. EU consumers would effectively have no choice at all in mobile OSes. They’d just get to choose which brand of Android phone to buy.
How in the world would that increase competition? iOS’s unique and exclusive features — which, yes, in many cases, are exclusive to the Apple device ecosystem — are competition.
]]></content>
<title>★ Apple on the Digital Markets Act</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/09/personal_note" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wkl" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.42213</id>
<published>2025-09-19T16:44:44Z</published>
<updated>2025-09-19T16:46:31Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">Hello dear readers. Daring Fireball has been silent for the last week. I realize how unusual it is for the site to go un-updated any week of the year, let alone this particular week of the year. I’m so sorry...</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Hello dear readers. Daring Fireball has been silent for the last week. I realize how unusual it is for the site to go un-updated any week of the year, let alone this particular week of the year. I’m so sorry about that, and also sorry about not being able to write this note to you sooner.
I have been dealing with — and working through — a very personal situation for the past week. It’s OK. I’m going to be OK. But it has kept me offline for some time. Given the one-man nature of this site, that has meant that nothing has been published.
I look forward to getting back to writing very soon. I can feel it: I will be back soon. I’m itching to go. I mean, jiminy, it’s new iPhones week. But it’ll be a few more days before I get those reviews out. In the meantime, I so profoundly appreciate your patience and understanding.
Your faithful correspondent, 
John Gruber
]]></content>
<title>★ Personal Note</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/08/macos_26_tahoes_dead_canary_utility_app_icons" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wjm" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.42178</id>
<published>2025-08-26T00:02:43Z</published>
<updated>2025-10-04T13:34:55Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">These are the not the work of carpenters who care about the backs of the cabinets they’re building. These icons are so bad, they look like the work of untrained “How hard can it be?” dilettante carpenters who only last a few days on the job before sawing off one of their own fingers.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
MacOS has shipped with a collection of “utility” apps since the prehistoric era of classic Mac OS. A good rule of thumb for what makes an app a “utility” is that it’s a tool for doing something to or about your computer. Ever since Mac OS X 10.0, most of these apps have been neatly filed away in /Applications/Utilities/. Others — some because they’re obscure (e.g. Ticket Viewer), some because they’re effectively deprecated (e.g. DVD Player, whose copyright date in MacOS 15 Sequoia is 2019), and some because they present themselves, when launched, not as apps but as system-level features (e.g. About This Mac) — are tucked away in /System/Library/CoreServices/ or /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/.
<a href="https://mastodon.social/@BasicAppleGuy/115089810537348465">Basic Apple Guy posted a screenshot to Mastodon</a> comparing the current MacOS 15 icons for four of these utilities (Disk Utility, Expansion Slot Utility, Wireless Diagnostics, and AppleScript Utility) to their new icons in MacOS 26 Tahoe, beta 7 (click to enlarge for detail):
<a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/08/tahoe-utility-icons-via-basic-apple-guy.jpeg" class="noborder">
<img
src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/08/tahoe-utility-icons-via-basic-apple-guy.jpeg"
alt = "Screenshots of the MacOS 15 and MacOS 26 (beta 7) icons for Disk Utility, Expansion Slot Utility, Wireless Diagnostics, and AppleScript Utility."
width = 500
/></a>
I don’t think the old icons for these apps from MacOS 15 were particularly good — Apple has mostly lost its “<a href="https://mastodon.social/@BasicAppleGuy/115050148901528749">icons</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/@BasicAppleGuy/115072885331562510">look</a> <a href="https://mastodon.social/@BasicAppleGuy/114948306713250918">cool</a>” game. But the new ones in MacOS 26 Tahoe are objectively terrible. The only one of this bunch that’s maybe sort of OK is Wireless Diagnostics. They all look like placeholder icons made by a developer who would be the first to admit that they’re not an artist. Disk Utility, which is an important app, doesn’t even look like it involves a disk.
These new icons all use the same “wrench” motif, which is a lazy, limiting concept to start with. Tahoe, at the system level, enforces a squircle shape on all application icons. Apps that haven’t been updated with Tahoe-compliant everything-fits-in-a-squircle icons are put in “<a href="https://9to5mac.com/2025/08/08/macos-tahoe-fix-gray-box-icons/">squircle jail</a>” — their non-Tahoe-compliant icons are shrunk and placed atop a drab gray Tahoe squircle background, to force them into squircle compliance. But these Apple utility apps have an entire sub-motif — inside their base squircle shape is a large wrench fitted against a bolt. Only inside the bolt — which is inside the wrench’s jaws, which wrench is inside the squircle — goes the part of the icon that identifies the app itself. So maybe like 10 percent of the area of the icon is the area where the app can show something that identifies its purpose.
So the entire concept for these icons sucks. But the conceptual execution sucks too. The wrench is incredibly stupid-looking. Whoever drew it has obviously never used an open-end wrench because the jaws on the wrench head are way too thin. They’d break off under any significant torque. Just look at a real-life wrench, or just <a href="https://mastodon.social/@BasicAppleGuy/115092733884236020">look at the wrench heads in the older MacOS icons</a> (or Apple’s 🔧 emoji, for that matter).
Individually the icons mostly suck too:
<ul>
<li>Disk Utility — a very important app — has an icon that’s just an Apple logo (inside the bolt that’s inside the wrench that’s inside the squircle). Not a hard disk, not an external drive, not an SD card. Just an Apple logo. If I just showed you this icon without telling you which app it represented, how in the world could you guess what it is? Even if you know the “Apple utility app icon” motif of the big dumb wrench and bolt, the best you could guess is “a utility app for something Apple-related” which, for an Apple computer, could be anything.</li>
<li>Expansion Slot Utility — This app only runs on Mac Pros because Mac Pros are the only Macs with expansion slots. So the old icon naturally shows a Mac Pro. The new icon shows ... three rectangular empty sockets?</li>
<li>AppleScript Utility — A fine concept for this icon (within the confines of the terrible wrench-and-bolt utility icon concept). Everyone who knows AppleScript knows the scroll that represents AppleScript scripts. So just put the iconic AppleScript scroll in the bolt in the wrench in the squircle. But here, the placement of the scroll is botched — it’s rotated a few degrees counterclockwise. It makes the scroll look like it’s falling over. Here’s how the scroll is canonically oriented, via the glyphs in SF Symbols:
<img
src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/08/applescript-icons-sf-symbols.png"
alt = "The “applescript” and “applescript.fill” icon glyphs from the SF Symbols font."
/>
and via the default icon for a script application (with a line added showing the center):
<img
src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/08/macos-15-script-application-icon.png"
alt = "The default application for an AppleScript “script application”, with a vertical orange line showing the center."
width = 440
/>
But here’s a close-up of the Tahoe AppleScript Utility icon, with a center line added:
<img
src = "https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/08/tahoe-applescript-utility-icon-drunk.png"
alt = "Close-up of the MacOS 26 Tahoe icon for AppleScript Utility, with a center line added to show that the script “scroll” is tilted incorrectly."
/>
It’s wrong.</li>
</ul>
These are not the work of carpenters <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/445621-when-you-re-a-carpenter-making-a-beautiful-chest-of-drawers">who care about the backs of the cabinets</a> they’re building. These icons are so bad, they look like the work of untrained “How hard can it be?” dilettante carpenters who only last a few days on the job before sawing off one of their own fingers. The whole collection looks like the work from someone with no artistic ability nor an eye for detail. From Apple, of all companies.
Is it a big deal in the grand scheme of things that the icons for these seldom-used utility apps have gone to shit? No. But consider the proverbial canary in a coal mine. The problem isn’t that one little bird has died. The problem is that the bird might be dead because the whole mine is filling with deadly carbon monoxide or highly flammable methane gas. The icons in /Applications/Utilities/ in MacOS 26 Tahoe represent a folder full of dead canaries. 
]]></content>
<title>★ MacOS 26 Tahoe’s Dead-Canary Utility App Icons</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/08/msnbc_ms_now_rebranding" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/wjd" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2025://1.42169</id>
<published>2025-08-21T01:20:10Z</published>
<updated>2025-08-27T22:16:28Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">The oddest part about the whole situation is that CNBC is being spun out into Versant, too, but while they’re losing the NBC peacock logo, they’re just keeping their name, unchanged.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/08/18/msnbc-rebrand-ms-now-versant">Sara Fischer, Axios</a>:
<blockquote>
MSNBC, the progressive cable network owned by NBCUniversal, is
rebranding to MS NOW, an acronym that stands for My Source for
News, Opinion and the World.
The rebrand is part of a wider effort by NBCU to create a
distinction between the cable networks it plans to spin out and
the remaining NBCU parent company. As part of the rebrand, select
cable networks that will be spun out into <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/06/10/all-eyes-on-versant-media-trends">Versant</a>, including
CNBC, Golf Channel, GolfNow, MSNBC and SportsEngine, will all
drop the iconic peacock logo that has for decades served as
NBCU’s logo.
</blockquote>
There’s a lot to unpack here. First, “Versant” itself is a pretty bad name (feels so vague — seems like the name of a fake company in a movie or TV show) so it’s no surprise that the same nitwits are botching Versant’s rebranded properties. But given that NBCUniversal is apparently forcing MSNBC to take the “NBC” out of its name, “MSNOW” isn’t a bad new name. But it’s not a good new name either. And they’re apparently using a space: “MS NOW”, yet <a href="https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/msnbc-new-name-ms-now-1236491621/">also seem confused</a> (or haven’t even decided yet) whether it’s supposed to be pronounced letter-by-letter (em ess en oh dubya) or as two letters and a word (em ess now). Saying the “NOW” as the word now makes sense for a 24/7 channel, but if it’s a word, the whole name should be styled “MS Now”. (Fox News styles their name as “FOX News” in some places, but never pretends the f-o-x is an acronym.)
The “My Source News Opinion World” backronym is so dumb it boggles the mind. I genuinely wonder if someone had ChatGPT do that. You can have a series of letters as a name — especially as a TV channel — without those letters really standing for anything. CNN is technically an acronym for “Cable News Network” but they’ve effectively just been “CNN” for decades now. The name “MSNBC” came from the fact that, at launch in the 1990s, <a href="https://www.threads.com/@mossbergwalt/post/DNipvTJt4HW">it debuted as a collaboration</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_MSNBC:_1996–2007">between Microsoft’s MSN and NBC News</a>. But Microsoft hasn’t been involved with the cable channel <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-dec-24-fi-msnbc24-story.html">for 20 years</a> — the “MS” in “MSNBC” hasn’t stood for anything since 2005. (In fact, MSN itself is another good example. It originally stood for “Microsoft Network”, even though Microsoft has never styled their name with a camel-cased S.<a href="#fn1-2025-08-20">1</a> But it’s really just “MSN” now.)<a href="#fn2-2025-08-20">2</a>
<a href="https://www.threads.com/@tomgara/post/DNgNQeQOlIB">Tom Gara, writing on Threads</a>:
<blockquote>
The only real fuck up with the MSNBC rebrand is that they made up
a dumb sounding fake acronym. It’s completely unnecessary! Just
say “we’re changing our name to MS NOW to reflect the urgency of
the moment.” Nobody has ever thought about what the old acronym
stood for and nobody needed a new fake one.
</blockquote>
There is another fuck up, though: the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/08/msnow.png">logo</a> is atrocious. What is that flag? It looks like the Austrian flag (🇦🇹), not America’s. But are we sure it even is a flag? Maybe it’s a paper receipt and the red stripes are those marks <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DollarGeneral/comments/p7sl4t/why_does_the_printer_do_the_pink_streak_near_the/">when it’s time to replace the roll</a>? <a href="https://www.threads.com/@jonathanhoefler/post/DNk64Vxgah-">Jonathan Hoefler, on Threads</a>:
<blockquote>
My personal benchmark for a logo is that it shouldn’t look like a
pension fund.
</blockquote>
The oddest part about the whole situation is that CNBC is being spun out into Versant, too, but while they’re losing the NBC peacock logo, they’re just keeping their name, unchanged. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/18/comcast-versant-rename-msnbc-peacock-logos.html">From CNBC’s own coverage of MSNBC’s rebranding</a>:
<blockquote>
While MSNBC and NBC News will have duplications in coverage,
CNBC’s news organization is already separate enough from NBC News
that executives decided it didn’t need a name change. Also,
technically, the “NBC” in “CNBC” never stemmed from National
Broadcasting Co. Rather, CNBC stands for “Consumer News and
Business Channel.”
</blockquote>
Lastly, shoutout to M.G. Siegler for <a href="https://spyglass.org/ms-now-msnbc/">coining the term peacockblocked</a> to describe MSNBC’s branding plight.
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2025-08-20">
Historical pedantry: from 1975–1979, <a href="https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Microsoft">Microsoft spelled its name “Micro-Soft”</a>, with, yes, an uppercase S. But that’s not camel-case, and that hyphenated spelling is as much a footnote to Microsoft’s brand history as the <a href="https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/03/29/how-apples-logo-started-out-as-the-most-expensive-and-became-the-most-iconic">woodcut Isaac-Newton-under-a-tree logo</a> is to Apple. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2025/08/Microsoft_(1975).svg">Microsoft’s logo from that era</a> was very disco-’70s and kind of cool — but while “Micro” and “Soft” were broken across two lines, there’s no hyphen in the logotype. <a href="#fnr1-2025-08-20" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎︎</a>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2025-08-20">
If I’d been in the room, my spitball idea for a new name would have been MNC. Take out every other letter to break both the NBC and Microsoft connotations, but leave behind an acronym that looks and sounds like a tighter, more efficient version of MSNBC. If they really insisted that the acronym stand for something, it could be Modern (or Major?) News Channel. <a href="#fnr2-2025-08-20" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎</a>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ MSNBC, Spinning Out of NBCUniversal, Rebrands as ‘MS NOW’ With a Godawful Backronym and Even Worse Logo</title></entry></feed>

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