FEED Validator

for Atom and RSS and KML

Congratulations!

This is a valid Atom 1.0 feed.

Recommendations

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

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

	<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x9f" />
                                                                  ^

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>2026-06-09T21:33:17Z</updated><rights>Copyright © 2026, John Gruber</rights><entry>
<title>Apple OS 27: The Small Things</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://blog.oneberri.com/posts/wwdc26-the-small-things" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x9f" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/the-small-things" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43107</id>
<published>2026-06-09T21:29:57Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T21:33:17Z</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[
Rishi Ó:
<blockquote>
My favorite Apple updates are not the flashy new features, but the quiet little touches: annoyances fixed, workflows made smoother, rough edges sanded down, and longstanding flaws thoughtfully reworked. To me, they’re the clearest sign of a company that cares about its craft.
Here’s a collection from a WWDC26 screen-grab, organized for easier reading, on improvements coming later this year.
</blockquote>
That’s a lot of bullet points.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple OS 27: The Small Things’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/the-small-things"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The Talk Show Live From WWDC: Tonight, In-Person and Streaming</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x9e" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/the-talk-show-live-tonight" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43106</id>
<published>2026-06-09T18:53:47Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T18:55:12Z</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[
If you can make it in person, you should come. The California Theater is a beautiful big theater and tickets <a href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026">are still available</a>.
You can also watch tonight’s show in live stereoscopic immersive in the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/theater-cinema-events/id6502666560">Theater app from Sandwich Vision</a> on Vision Pro. A purchase of the ticket to the live show, the Theater app for $12.99, is also good for replay forever — with surprise bonus features included. It’s a fun, truly immersive way to experience the show.
Hope to see you there tonight, one way or the other.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Talk Show Live From WWDC: Tonight, In-Person and Streaming’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/the-talk-show-live-tonight"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple WWDC 2026 Keynote</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x9d" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-wwdc-2026-keynote" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43105</id>
<published>2026-06-09T17:42:32Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T17:42:32Z</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 brisk 76 minutes, including the post-credits Easter egg music video. The past few years ran about a half hour longer.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple WWDC 2026 Keynote’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-wwdc-2026-keynote"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple’s WWDC AI Demos Were Real and in Real Time</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/08/apples-wwdc-ai-demos-looked-more-real-after-250m-false-ad-settlement/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x9c" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-wwdc-demos" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43104</id>
<published>2026-06-09T17:38:21Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T17:38:22Z</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[
Julie Bort, TechCrunch:
<blockquote>
But the most telling detail wasn’t what Apple announced. It was
how it chose to show some things off. Many of the Apple
Intelligence demoes featured someone standing, phone in hand,
pressing buttons or using voice commands in real time, while
another camera showed off the phone’s response.
These weren’t live onstage, anything-could-go wrong demos; they
were pre-taped. But they looked far more like proof of working
features than what Apple showed at WWDC 2024, when the company
<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/13/everything-apple-announced-wwdc-2024/">unveiled Apple Intelligence and a new Siri</a> to the world
through slickly produced videos that turned out to be more promise
than product.
</blockquote>
The demos were all shot in single takes, with no editing. In fact, I think most of them were single takes of multiple demos back-to-back. That’s the way it should be, even when they feel a little slow. When a demo feels slow, the solution isn’t to edit the video — it’s to make the feature work faster.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple’s WWDC AI Demos Were Real and in Real Time’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-wwdc-demos"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple Introduces Siri AI</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-introduces-siri-ai-a-profoundly-more-capable-and-personal-assistant/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x9b" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-introduces-siri-ai" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43103</id>
<published>2026-06-09T17:23:29Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T17:46:12Z</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 yesterday:
<blockquote>
This new version of Siri is built on Apple Intelligence, allowing
Siri to draw on personal context understanding and help users find
what they need in the moment across messages, emails, photos, and
more. For example, users can ask Siri to find a restaurant
recommendation a friend messaged them about, surface a hotel
confirmation number from an old email, or pull up photos with
friends and family from a recent trip. And personal context
understanding extends to third-party apps when developers
integrate with Spotlight.
With even more systemwide app actions, Siri AI lets users get
things done across apps, like drafting an email from scratch, or
editing and sharing a set of photos. Using onscreen awareness,
Siri AI can answer questions related to the content on a user’s
screen. For example, if a user gets a text about a potluck with
friends, they can brainstorm with Siri on what to bring and then
add a recipe to the Notes app.
In addition, Siri AI can use broad world knowledge to get
up-to-date information from the web on virtually any topic and
generate a helpful answer, such as when and where to see the next
solar eclipse, or when a musician is coming to town. Users can
extend almost any response from Siri into a rich conversation and
ask follow-up questions.
</blockquote>
I like the name “Siri AI”. “New Siri” wouldn’t have legs because eventually this won’t be new. This should be the dividing line between Siri as we know it and Siri as it should be. The demos I’ve seen so far (I still don’t have access on my iOS 27 testing device) are impressive. Well, impressive compared to old Siri. They’re table stakes for generative AI. But Siri AI is the only system that can draw upon your personal data in the apps on your devices, and perform actions based on the app intents supported by the apps on your devices. It is in some ways less capable than ChatGPT or Claude, but in other ways has more potential. It’s a very different approach and I think it’s the right one for Apple.
They need to execute, they need to prove this can scale, and most of all, they need to get third-party apps on board with <a href="https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2026/345">App Intents</a> and <a href="https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2026/240">App Schemas</a>. But it seems like they’re doing all of that. This is not a done deal but it is very realistic.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple Introduces Siri AI’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-introduces-siri-ai"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple’s WWDC Announcement of the New Apple Intelligence System</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-intelligence-brings-powerful-ai-capabilities-into-everyday-experiences/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x9a" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apples-wwdc-apple-intelligence-announcement" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43102</id>
<published>2026-06-09T16:50:33Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T17:45:39Z</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[
Apple Newsroom:
<blockquote>
These new capabilities are powered by the next generation of Apple
Foundation Models, custom-built in collaboration with Google and
its Gemini models for deeply integrated Apple Intelligence
experiences. These latest models run on device and on servers
using Private Cloud Compute.
Every facet of the new Apple Intelligence architecture is built
privacy-first, from the latest Apple Foundation Models to the core
operating system technologies that integrate these models deep
into Apple’s platforms. Apple Intelligence uses on-device
processing and Private Cloud Compute to help protect users’
privacy. Private Cloud Compute gives users access to
frontier-level intelligence, while extending the privacy and
security of iPhone into the cloud.
</blockquote>
What’s confusing about this Apple-Google partnership is that Google pretty much calls all things AI “Gemini”. The models are “Gemini”, the assistant is “Gemini”, and the feature integrations are “Gemini”. So Apple is taking pains to emphasize that they’re building atop the Gemini models, not the Gemini assistant.
One way to think about it is this. Let’s say you’re a Google Gemini app user. That’s the assistant. Now you start using the new Apple Intelligence (that builds atop the Gemini models) and the new Siri AI (that builds atop the new Apple Intelligence). When you go back to the Google Gemini app, nothing you did using Apple Intelligence and Siri AI is visible to the Gemini app. And nothing you continue to do in the Google Gemini app is visible to Apple Intelligence or Siri AI.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple’s WWDC Announcement of the New Apple Intelligence System’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apples-wwdc-apple-intelligence-announcement"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://youtu.be/Dqp_b8GHLXU?t=1074" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/x99" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/06/workos_launches_authmd_--_an_o" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/feeds/sponsors//11.43101</id>
<author><name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name></author>
<published>2026-06-09T04:23:05Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T04:23:05Z</updated>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Sign-up forms were built for humans in browsers, so how do AI agents programmatically register with services?
Enter auth.md. By exposing a single, machine-readable Markdown file at your service root, AI agents can dynamically discover your OAuth Protected Resource Metadata, parse required scopes, and authenticate seamlessly.
With native support in WorkOS AuthKit, you can now implement this protocol out of the box, giving AI tools a standardized, secure way to log into your application.
Read the <a href="https://workos.com/auth-md?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q22026">auth.md docs</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘WorkOS Launches auth.md — an Open Protocol for Agent Registration’" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/06/workos_launches_authmd_--_an_o"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>[Sponsor] WorkOS Launches auth.md — an Open Protocol for Agent Registration</title></entry><entry>
<title>From the Annals of People Having Knowledge of the Matter, Siri AI Extensions Edition</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-26/apple-plans-to-open-up-siri-to-rival-ai-assistants-beyond-chatgpt-in-ios-27" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x98" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/08/gurman-siri-ai-extensions" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43100</id>
<published>2026-06-09T01:37:27Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T04:29:43Z</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[
Mark Gurman, reporting (?) for Bloomberg two short months ago:
<blockquote>
Apple Inc. plans to open Siri to outside artificial intelligence
assistants, a major move aimed at bolstering the iPhone as an AI
platform. The company is preparing to make the change as part of a
Siri overhaul in its upcoming iOS 27 operating system update,
according to people with knowledge of the matter. The assistant
can already tap into ChatGPT through a partnership with OpenAI,
but Apple will now allow competing services to do the same.
The company is developing new tools to allow AI chatbot apps
installed via the App Store to integrate with the Siri assistant,
said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans
haven’t been announced. The chatbots will also work with an
upcoming Siri app and other features in the Apple Intelligence
platform.
That means, for instance, if users have Alphabet Inc.’s Google
Gemini or Anthropic PBC’s Claude installed, they’d be able to send
queries to those services from within the Siri voice assistant,
just like they have been able to with ChatGPT since Apple
Intelligence launched in 2024.
</blockquote>
Maybe Apple ran out of time today, and will announce this tomorrow? Maybe they forgot to announce it? Maybe they scrapped the next-generation Siri that existed two months ago and in the last month rebuilt another entirely new next-generation Siri? I’ll bet something like that is what happened.
I mean, people had knowledge of the matter.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘From the Annals of People Having Knowledge of the Matter, Siri AI Extensions Edition’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/08/gurman-siri-ai-extensions"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Mux — Video for Developers</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x95" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/07/mux" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43097</id>
<published>2026-06-08T01:47:03Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-08T01:47:09Z</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[
My thanks to Mux for sponsoring last week at DF. Mux is what developers reach for when they need to do more with video. Video files are packed with data and context waiting to be unlocked.
Mux Robots are AI workflows that unlock that data inside your video for summarization, caption translation, moderation, and more. Configure once and your workflows run automatically on new uploads.
Mux is video infrastructure trusted by Patreon, Substack, and Synthesia. Start building for free. Use code FIREBALL at signup for an extra $50 credit.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Mux — Video for Developers’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/07/mux"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/swiftui_only_makes_it_easy_to_develop_bad_apps" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/x97" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.43099</id>
<published>2026-06-08T01:30:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-09T01:40:05Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">Apple’s developer message used to be that it was not just easy to develop apps for their platforms, but that it was easy to develop good idiomatically native apps. That’s still true for AppKit and UIKit, but it’s never been true for SwiftUI, and SwiftUI is now seven years old.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Paulo Andrade, last month, “<a href="https://pfandrade.me/blog/mac-assed-swiftui-app/">Using SwiftUI to Build a Mac-Assed App in 2026</a>”:
<blockquote>
I recently launched the macOS version of <a href="https://shopie.io/">Shopie</a>, an app I first
released on the iOS App Store late last year. Shopie helps you
keep track of products you’re interested in by letting you create
wishlists and notifying you whenever a product’s price,
availability, and other details change.
Unlike my other apps, where I typically blend AppKit (or UIKit)
with SwiftUI, Shopie is built entirely in SwiftUI. I wanted to
keep it that way to maximize code reuse across iOS, iPadOS, and
now macOS. This post explores how far SwiftUI can take you on the
Mac in 2026, especially if your goal is to build an app that feels
truly native to the platform. It’s not meant to be an exhaustive
review of SwiftUI on macOS. It’s simply a collection of recipes
and issues I ran into while porting <a href="https://shopie.io/">Shopie</a>, a fairly small app,
and keeping it 100% SwiftUI.
</blockquote>
Andrade’s examples are copious. His conclusion is damning:
<blockquote>
Apple dropped the ball here. AppKit was ahead of its time and
UIKit was a more polished version of AppKit. A serious
cross-platform framework that unified the two should have happened
long before SwiftUI. Instead, Apple left AppKit to fossilize and
then tried to leapfrog the problem.
You can see the result everywhere. SwiftUI is productive, modern,
and often delightful, right up until you try to make a really good
Mac app. Then suddenly you’re fighting the framework for things
the Mac solved 20 years ago.
</blockquote>
There’s something really wrong with SwiftUI. Amongst the apps I use, the best example is Apple Journal. Basic stuff that’s worked reliably for decades — some things that heretofore had worked forever — are dangerously broken. If you’re running MacOS 26 Tahoe, open Journal and make a new dummy entry. Type something like “The quick brown fox.” Then double-click on the word “brown” and delete it. Now invoke Undo.
What you expect is for the word “brown” to reappear. What happens is ... the whole sentence disappears. Gone. Invoke Redo and you only get back to “The quick fox.” The word “brown” is just gone forever. It’s nowhere in the Undo stack. That’s just profoundly fucked up. I’ve never seen anything like this with an AppKit app, ever. (I’ve never seen it with a UIKit app either — and the same thing happens on iOS with Journal. It’s just that you notice it less often because we don’t invoke Undo and Redo nearly as often there.)
I actually use the Journal app and I’ve lost entire sentences of text to this incompetent implementation of Undo. Editing text in Journal is dangerous because SwiftUI is so bad at something as fundamental as text editing. AppKit has had this solved since 1989 or so, a decade before Apple reunified with NeXT. And my example here is just one of many. Andrade documents a whole bunch more in his post. [Shopie is a good modern Mac app — you can practically see from reading his post that Andrade’s hands are scarred from dozens of paper cuts.
So while the world is largely focused on Apple’s AI-related announcements at WWDC tomorrow, I’ve got SwiftUI (on all platforms) and Mac-assed Mac development high on my list. Apple’s developer message used to be that it was not just easy to develop apps for their platforms, but that it was easy to develop good idiomatically native apps. You got the correct complex behavior — for things like Undo/Redo — out of the box. That’s still true for AppKit and UIKit, but it’s never been true for SwiftUI, and <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-unveils-groundbreaking-new-technologies-for-app-development/">SwiftUI is now seven years old</a>. That’s too long for any excuses to hold water.
]]></content>
<title>★ SwiftUI Only Makes It Easy to Develop Bad Apps</title></entry><entry>
<title>Alberto Romero on Apple’s AI Spending</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.thealgorithmicbridge.com/p/what-apple-knows-about-ai-that-silicon" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x96" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/07/alberto-romero-on-apples-ai-spending" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43098</id>
<published>2026-06-08T01:00:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-08T01:49:17Z</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[
Alberto Romero:
<blockquote>
AI is like religion. Either you believe it changes everything, or
you don’t believe at all. There is no moderate position; nobody
believes in AGI “more or less,” just like nobody is “casually
religious.” If God exists, the only coherent response is to
reorganize your entire life around that fact, as priests do. If
you pray sometimes, then you are just an atheist who’s also
fearful. When tech companies spend hundreds of billions on capital
expenditures to add sparkly AI features to Office, Gmail, and
Instagram, I only see fearful atheists — guys who don’t believe
in AI but pretend just in case.
In 2026, the four largest cloud and AI infrastructure providers — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft — committed to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/big-tech-strikes-gold-with-ai-but-at-a-steep-cost-f6d82a22">spending $670
billion on CapEx</a>. Apple, in contrast, spent $12.7 billion on
capex last fiscal year and projects <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2026/02/20/apples-ai-gamble-can-a-14b-budget-compete-in-a-700b-arms-race/">$14 billion for 2026</a>, 2%
of what its peers are spending. The conventional reading in
Silicon Valley is, naturally, that Apple is losing. Siri has been
a punchline for years — an internal executive <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-14/apple-s-siri-chief-calls-ai-delays-ugly-and-embarrassing-promises-fixes">called the delays
ugly and embarrassing</a> — and critics say that Apple has not
been the same without Steve Jobs. It is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/apple-ai-siri-development-behind-9ea65ee8">falling behind</a>, they
say, and moving way too slowly for AI.
I disagree with this portrayal: Apple is the most powerful tech
company in the world right now because it’s acting according to
what it believes.
</blockquote>
Some of you, I bet, will object to Romero’s notion that no one is “casually religious”. Almost everyone I know is casually religious, you might be thinking. But read the whole piece. What he’s saying is that if you’re “casually religious” those are just words. You’re not living your life according to your professed beliefs (casual or not). And that’s how most of Apple’s peer companies seem to be approaching AI.
I’m not sure he’s right, but he might be, and I think his take is at least closer to right than wrong. Apple is making an enormous bet on AI — but their bet is that they don’t need to spend hundreds of billions per year on AI infrastructure (most of it fattening Nvidia’s bottom line) to reap the benefits. If Apple’s right we should start seeing it come together tomorrow.
(Arguably we’ve already seen it coming together — demand for Apple’s products and services has gone up, not down, so far in the AI era. Entrenched leaders often grow during the initial stages of extinctive disruptions — BlackBerry’s biggest year for sales (revenue) and investor confidence (market cap) <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/266240/blackberry-revenue/">was 2011</a>, four years after the iPhone debuted — but the disruptors are there. There’s not yet a single threat on the market to the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, or AirPods — nor to Apple’s services revenue.)
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Alberto Romero on Apple’s AI Spending’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/07/alberto-romero-on-apples-ai-spending"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Halide Mark III</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.lux.camera/halide-mark-iii/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x94" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/halide-mark-iii" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43096</id>
<published>2026-06-07T00:49:15Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-07T03:17:01Z</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[
Ben Sandofsky, writing on the Lux Camera blog:
<blockquote>
After decades of shooting digital, I returned to analog
photography in 2023. I thought it would be challenging, given the
limited selection of film stocks, only to be surprised by how
freeing it felt. It felt so much better to have a handful of
amazing choices rather than photo-editor with thousands of
presets. We owe that to film engineers who spent years developing
versatile film stocks that work in a variety of situations.
Inspired by “Less, but better,” we partnered with the renowned
Hollywood colorist <a href="https://cullenkellycolor.com/">Cullen Kelly</a> to develop a
succinct set of gorgeous, physically accurate processes
exclusive to Halide. Each look was engineered with a specific
intent. We verified every look thousands of times on real-world
reference photos.
Put another way: every look is a banger.
</blockquote>
Halide has always been a great — maybe the great — iPhone camera app for shooting RAW, with the intention of developing your images by hand in post. It’s a great camera technically and a great app UI-wise. <a href="https://www.lux.camera/introducing-process-zero-for-iphone/">Mark II introduced Process Zero</a>, which, in their own description, “uses zero AI and zero computational photography to produce beautiful, film-like natural photos”. Process Zero was the first step toward the new built-in “looks” in Halide Mark III. I’ve been shooting with Mark III for a few weeks now, and they are, indeed, all bangers. And I really like that there aren’t that many of them. I wanted more looks than just Process Zero (which remains available, of course), but I feel a bit overwhelmed when faced with a dozen (or worse, dozens) of choices for processing. I feel conflicted enough having to choose between <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/the_iphone_17e#fn2-2026-03-09">a handful</a> of <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/10/not_boring_camera_and_adobe_project_indigo">really good</a> third-party camera apps with which to shoot in the first place — it’s worse when I have to make too many choices within the camera app itself.
What I want is to just point and shoot and be able to instantly share images with the look I want already applied. I’m picky but I’m also really lazy, and don’t want to do any editing in post on most of the shots I keep. But I do want to be able to edit in post if I want to, including changing the look losslessly. This mixture of point-and-shoot ease and pro-level control didn’t use to be possible. Now, though, it is, with apps like <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/not-boring-camera/id6737783441">Not Boring Camera</a>, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analogue-film-camera/id6748702405">Analogue</a>, and, now, <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/halide-mark-iii-pro-camera/id885697368">Halide Mark III</a>.
It’s been a <a href="https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/21/apple-wanted-to-buy-halide-to-boost-iphone-18-pro/">turbulent</a> couple of months for Lux (to say the least), so I’m glad to see Sandofsky and team get Mark III out the door. If you, like me, had previously been impressed by Halide but didn’t use it because it required too much work in post, you should check out Mark III.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Halide Mark III’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/halide-mark-iii"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>60 Minutes Correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and the Other Guy Will Stay at Show</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/business/media/60-minutes-cbs-stahl-whitaker-wertheim.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oFA.xooG.Pz8cQv8odz7Z" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x93" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/stahl-whitaker-60-minutes" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43095</id>
<published>2026-06-06T20:04:06Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-06T20:04:06Z</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[
Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/06/05/business/media/60-minutes-stahl-wertheim-whittaker-memo.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oFA.flOX.fSw9JEqNoaU9">in a memo to the 60 Minutes staff</a> obtained by The New York Times (gift links):
<blockquote>
We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay at 60 Minutes.
We’re still deeply upset by the firings of Tanya and Draggan,
strong leaders who everyone respected. As far as we can tell — because no explanation has ever been offered, they were expelled
because they fought for our 60 Minutes values and stood up to
protect our independence and integrity.
Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships.
Collaboration and argument are the way we have always worked at
60. Don Hewitt actually encouraged loud passionate advocacy for
our pieces. [...]
We feared that our returning might be construed as an endorsement
of the existing power structure. That is simply, categorically not
the case.
Here’s why we’re are staying:
We don’t want to see 60 Minutes die.
</blockquote>
We’ll see how long this lasts.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘60 Minutes Correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and the Other Guy Will Stay at Show’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/stahl-whitaker-60-minutes"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Trump Lawyer Argues Trump Can Tear Down Statue of Liberty</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-can-tear-down-statue-of-liberty-says-trump-lawyer" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x92" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/trump-statue-of-liberty" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43094</id>
<published>2026-06-06T19:56:01Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-06T19:56:02Z</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[
Josh Marshall:
<blockquote>
In a hearing today about the president’s bulldozing of the East
Wing of the White House and plans to build a vast ballroom, a
judge asked if the president could also bulldoze the Statue of
Liberty and be subject to no legal challenge. The DOJ lawyer,
Yaakov Roth, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/05/white-house-ballroom-donald-trump-00951892">said that yes, President Trump could decide tomorrow
to bulldoze the Statue of Liberty</a> and no one could
stop him.
It was a good question from DC Court of Appeals Judge Patricia
Millett since it brings the arguments and their implications
clearly into the open. Reframe the question and the absurdity of
this proposition becomes even more clear. If you hire someone to
administer your estate, can they burn down the buildings on your
estate or chop it up into parcels and sell it off? Presumably not.
You hired them to run it, not to destroy it or sell it. It’s not
theirs. They were hired for a specific task. That person is your
employee. The president is hired to administer the country and
enforce its laws for four years. He doesn’t own the country or its
properties.
</blockquote>
Pathetic lickspittles, one and all.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Trump Lawyer Argues Trump Can Tear Down Statue of Liberty’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/trump-statue-of-liberty"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Nieman Journalism Lab: Twitter/X Punishes Accounts That Post Links</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/04/do-links-hurt-news-publishers-on-twitter-our-analysis-suggests-yes/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x91" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/nieman-journalism-lab-twitter-links" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43093</id>
<published>2026-06-05T20:46:56Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-05T20:46:57Z</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[
Laura Hazard Owen, writing for Nieman Journalism Lab back in April:
<blockquote>
I used Claude to help me scrape the 200 most recent tweets from 18
large publishers’ X accounts and track the engagement (likes +
comments + retweets) on each. Six of those publishers have
paywalls: <a href="https://x.com/business">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="https://x.com/cnn">CNN</a>, <a href="https://x.com/Forbes">Forbes</a>, <a href="https://x.com/nytimes">The New
York Times</a>, <a href="https://x.com/WSJ">The Wall Street Journal</a>, and <a href="https://x.com/washingtonpost">The
Washington Post</a>. Nine don’t: <a href="https://x.com/AJEnglish">Al Jazeera English</a>,
<a href="https://x.com/AP">AP</a>, <a href="https://x.com/BBCNews">BBC</a>, <a href="https://x.com/BreitbartNews">Breitbart News</a>, <a href="https://x.com/CBSNews">CBS News</a>,
<a href="https://x.com/realDailyWire">Daily Wire</a>, <a href="https://x.com/FoxNews">Fox News</a>, <a href="https://x.com/NBCNews">NBC News</a>, and
<a href="https://x.com/Reuters">Reuters</a>. The last three accounts I looked at — <a href="https://x.com/LeadingReport">Leading
Report</a>, <a href="https://x.com/unusual_whales">unusual_whales,</a> and <a href="https://x.com/GlobeEyeNews">Globe Eye News</a> — are not news publishers, but aggregate breaking news in tweets
without links. (Here, for example, is an example of a Leading
Report <a href="https://x.com/LeadingReport/status/2041534947249242192">tweet</a>: “BREAKING: Iran has halted direct talks with
the US, per WSJ.” They’re sometimes referred to as
engagement-maxing accounts.
These charts make it pretty clear that links in tweets hurt
engagement. The connection was so apparent in my analysis that a
graph including all 18 publishers is almost unreadable: The
traditional, link-loving publishers are clustered in the bottom
left corner (lots of links, little engagement) in a nearly
indistinguishable mass of bubbles, no matter how large their
followings are.
</blockquote>
Musk’s Twitter/X is not an aggregator for news. It’s a walled garden. But the type of garden where you need to keep your eyes open and your hand on your wallet. Sometimes it’s fun to visit a seedy neighborhood. But let’s not pretend it isn’t a seedy neighborhood just because, long ago, it used to be nice.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Nieman Journalism Lab: Twitter/X Punishes Accounts That Post Links’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/nieman-journalism-lab-twitter-links"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Elon Musk’s X Is a Freak Show</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.natesilver.net/p/social-media-has-become-a-freak-show" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x90" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/musk-x-freak-show" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43092</id>
<published>2026-06-05T20:24:58Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-05T20:32:32Z</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[
Nate Silver, back in April, under the headline “Social Media Is Turning Into a Freak Show”, where by “social media” he mostly discusses Twitter/X:
<blockquote>
But what does that remaining traffic consist of? I recently came
across a <a href="https://x.com/kylewilsontharp/status/2037171182407999663">bubble chart</a> depicting the Twitter accounts that
had received the most “engagement” in February 2026. It was
depressing: most of the top accounts were extremely low-quality
and highly partisan. I hadn’t even heard of many of them and only
follow a handful of the top accounts. So I <a href="https://dashboards.cluvio.com/dashboards/qxny-9e5q-k65v/shared?filters=%7B%22platform_filter%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%22political_content%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%22political_lean%22%3A%5B%5D%7D&reportId=k6zq-g911-3m2o&sharingToken=78eb1196-5766-429d-acf8-edcfd96b7067&timerange=1767225600~">tracked down the
original data myself</a> and, with help from Claude, made my
own improved version of the chart. Here, voilà, are the Twitter
accounts with the most engagement so far in 2026:
<a href="/misc/2026/05/nate-silver-twitter-account-cloud.png" class="noborder">
<img
src = "/misc/2026/05/nate-silver-twitter-account-cloud.png"
alt = "Data from Cluvio showing most engagements among X accounts from Jan. 1 to Apr. 4, 2026."
width = 500
/></a>
It’s not hard to notice that Twitter has become extremely
right-leaning. But I’d argue there’s an equally important trend:
the top accounts are of incredibly low quality. Elon, with the
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/15/elon-musk-changes-twitter-algorithm-super-bowl-slump-report">algorithmic boost</a> he built in for himself, is at the eye of
the storm, of course. But “Catturd” literally gets far more
engagement than the New York Times, for instance.
</blockquote>
There’s a common argument from proponents of the Musk-era X that the only problem is that left-leaning people have abandoned the platform. That the X algorithm is a contest and if only right-leaning accounts are playing, of course they’re winning. This is nonsense. The whole thing is rigged. Elon Musk’s outsized prominence as the most-engaged-with account is proof of that. Twitter existed for 16 years before Musk bought it. He wasn’t even close to the biggest account during that era. Then he bought it. Now his account is the biggest.
As Silver’s data analysis shows, Musk’s X is not just dominated by right-wing accounts, it’s dominated by “who the hell is that?” right-wing slop accounts.
The only way not to lose a rigged game is to refuse to play. X is still a thing. A lot of people, companies, and organizations still post there — treat it like their blogs — exclusively. I still wind up linking to posts on X because that’s where they are. That’s a whole separate discussion. But anyone who’s trying to “compete” there with subject matter that is even vaguely political has no chance of success unless what they’re posting is what Elon Musk wants to see promoted. It’s not like his thumb is on the scale, it’s like an anvil is on the scale. The conundrum is that there are still a lot interesting people posting interesting things there.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Elon Musk’s X Is a Freak Show’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/musk-x-freak-show"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Checking in on Perplexity</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/08/05/regarding-those-rumors-of-apple-pursuing-an-acquisition-of-perplexity" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8z" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/checking-in-on-perplexity" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43091</id>
<published>2026-06-05T15:26:29Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-05T15:26:30Z</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[
Yours truly, last August:
<blockquote>
I can’t see why Apple would want to get involved with a company
like this though. Gurman’s report makes it sound like his sources
are inside Apple, but man, this “Apple + Perplexity” thing feels
more like something Perplexity would be seeding than one that
Apple executives would be leaking.
</blockquote>
Perplexity is still <a href="https://www.techmeme.com/search/query?q=perplexity&wm=false">occasionally in the news</a> (often <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/04/perplexity-class-action-sham">not in good ways</a>), but it seems to me they’ve slipped into the “afterthought” tier of AI startups — which is exactly why they started leaning into <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/08/12/perplexity-jumps-shark-stunt-offer-to-buy-chrome">clownish stunts last year</a>. Everyone who previously suggested Apple should — or even might — buy them has gone silent.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Checking in on Perplexity’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/checking-in-on-perplexity"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Some People Rooted for The Empire in ‘Star Wars’, Too</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/06/03/cbs-fires-scott-pelley-after-trying-very-hard-to-get-fired-n3815553" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8y" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/some-people-rooted-for-the-empire" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43090</id>
<published>2026-06-05T00:43:33Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-05T00:43:33Z</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[
Ed Morrissey, writing for Hot Air, thinks Scott Pelley got what he deserved and Bari Weiss is doing a good job running CBS News:
<blockquote>
And Pelley forgot the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the
rules. Instead, Pelley convinced himself of his own virtue and
torched his own position — and if Bilton’s letter is accurate, in
as mean-spirited and conceited a manner as possible. Pelley could
have chosen a dignified resignation under protest, but instead
pulled a power move in an attempt to intimidate Bilton, Weiss, and
Ellison, only to discover that no one feared his absence. In fact,
they’re probably happy to cut him loose.
There’s always at least one person in these situations who
thinks they’re untouchable. A wise executive knows to start by
making an example of that person, and then see how many other
people think they’re indispensable. It’s not as if TV news jobs
are expanding these days, after all. Pelley’s going to find out
the hard way that no one’s paying $5 million a year to emote into
a camera from other people’s copy.
</blockquote>
It doesn’t even enter this man’s little mind that Pelley wasn’t concerned about his job, wasn’t concerned about his salary, but was concerned only with the integrity of the institution to which he’d committed decades of his career, and that he saw as his duty the need to stand up for his remaining and former colleagues. That Pelley himself has integrity. To the Trump lickspittles, everything is performative. They don’t just lack integrity, they don’t believe integrity is real.
<a href="https://x.com/katienotopoulos/status/2062229659966697857">Katie Notopoulos</a>:
<blockquote>
The Scott Pelley story to me is a lesson in how if you work hard
enough in your career to get Fuck You Money, the real reward is
the day you need to say it, you can.
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Some People Rooted for The Empire in ‘Star Wars’, Too’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/some-people-rooted-for-the-empire"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2026: Tuesday in San Jose</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8x" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2026" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43089</id>
<published>2026-06-04T22:05:05Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T22:50:57Z</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[
Location: The California Theatre, San Jose 
Showtime: Tuesday, 9 June 2026, 7pm PT (Doors open 6pm) 
Special Guest(s): For sure 
Price: $45
The annual live audience episode of The Talk Show during the week of WWDC. If you can make it, you should come. You’ll even enjoy the prelude, mingling with fellow DF readers and listeners.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2026: Tuesday in San Jose’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2026"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘The Insider’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://letterboxd.com/film/the-insider/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8w" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-insider" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43088</id>
<published>2026-06-04T20:42:35Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T20:42:36Z</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[
All this Sturm und Drang surrounding 60 Minutes has me thinking about a re-watch of The Insider, Michael Mann’s great 1999 movie. Letterboxd’s synopsis:
“A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.” It’s a great movie, and feels apt AF at the moment. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_-Vu8LrUDk">Here’s the original segment on 60 Minutes</a>, which ran an entire half hour.
What’s going on today is like if — instead of getting shady, threatening, and litigious — the tobacco companies had just purchased CBS, purged the staff at 60 Minutes, and hired a bunch of pro-cigarette stooges to replace them.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘The Insider’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-insider"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘Microsoft and OpenAI Broke Up — Now They’re Ready to Fight’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/942242/microsoft-build-ai-agents-openai-competition?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjdiRHFjMlJadmgiLCJwIjoiL2FpLWFydGlmaWNpYWwtaW50ZWxsaWdlbmNlLzk0MjI0Mi9taWNyb3NvZnQtYnVpbGQtYWktYWdlbnRzLW9wZW5haS1jb21wZXRpdGlvbiIsImV4cCI6MTc4MTAzNjQ2OSwiaWF0IjoxNzgwNjA0NDY5fQ.jP0KO9OVCO-fGkk1Utt0NIEn97JWaI8zs0zhjf2V2MQ" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8v" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/microsoft-openai" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43087</id>
<published>2026-06-04T20:25:27Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T22:35:40Z</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[
Hayden Field and Tom Warren, writing for The Verge (gift link):
<blockquote>
This year’s Build had the vibe of a freshly single divorcée
posting a thirst trap on Instagram. “It’s always fun to be at
developer conferences in times of great change,” Microsoft CEO
Satya Nadella said onstage Tuesday, adding that events like this
are about “coming to grips with the new opportunity.”
AI chief Mustafa Suleyman, in an interview with The Verge, put it
even more bluntly.
“The goal is to prove that we can become one of the top four labs
in the world,” Suleyman said. “There’s three labs that matter,
Google DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic. We are not one of them at
the moment, and that’s always been my intention. It’s why I came
here. I want to build the very best frontier models in the world,
fully multimodal, and in order to do that, we have to prove that
we can do everything that we need to from the ground up, and we’re
not just going to take from others.”
</blockquote>
Refreshingly blunt.
But hasn’t that been Microsoft’s plan for Bing since it was announced in 2009? I mean I guess you can say that Bing is one of the top four search engines in the world. Maybe you can even say it’s one of the top two. But it’s irrelevant and uncompetitive with Google Search.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘Microsoft and OpenAI Broke Up — Now They’re Ready to Fight’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/microsoft-openai"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Lingon and Lingon Pro 10</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8u" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/lingon" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43086</id>
<published>2026-06-04T18:43:47Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T18:44:13Z</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[
Peter Borg:
<blockquote>
Lingon makes scheduling apps, scripts, shortcuts, and commands
feel simple. Create a task in minutes, run it on a schedule, and
stay in control.
Lingon helps you run whatever you want whenever you want without
living in Terminal. Schedule apps, scripts, shortcuts, and
commands with a clear, friendly UI.
Run tasks at specific times, on intervals or at login. Optional
notifications make it easy to keep control.
Two separate apps. Lingon is the simpler Mac App Store version and
free to use, while Lingon Pro is the advanced one-time purchase
with extra power.
</blockquote>
<a href="https://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/">Lingon and Lingon Pro</a> are great apps. I’ve been meaning to recommend them for a while.
Back in 2023 <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2023/07/nerding_out_with_maestral_launchcontrol_and_keyboard_maestro">I wrote about a problem I was having with Maestral</a>, the incredible “works like Dropbox in the old days” open-source Dropbox client, where Maestral would just silently crash once in a while and I wouldn’t notice for a while. Then I would notice, manually re-launch Maestral, and have to wait while Maestral synced. Or, worse, I’d put a podcast recording in a shared folder and walk away from my computer, and my editor would never get the file because Maestral wasn’t running. My write-up described how I solved the problem with a Keyboard Maestro macro that runs once an hour — it checks if Maestral is running, and if it isn’t, launches it (and writes to a log, to satisfy my own curiosity). Borg wrote to me after I posted that and — very politely — explained that Lingon would make that much simpler.
In addition to creating your own scripts and rules that run periodically, Lingon is great for inspecting all the login items and background agents on your system — whether they’re from Apple or third parties. Poking around at everything Google Gemini installed is what made me think to recommend Lingon today. At the very least you should install the free regular version. It’s just a great Mac utility from a great Mac developer. There’s nothing else like it.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Lingon and Lingon Pro 10’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/lingon"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Remember When Chrome Went Bad on MacOS?</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://chromeisbad.com/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8t" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/remember-when-chrome-went-bad-on-macos" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43085</id>
<published>2026-06-04T18:10:19Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T22:44:42Z</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[
<a href="https://daringfireball.net/search/tweetie+brichter">Loren Brichter</a>, back in 2020:
<blockquote>
Short story: Google Chrome installs an updater called Keystone on
your computer, which is <a href="https://twitter.com/lorenb/timelines/1338892756752732169">bizarrely correlated</a> to massive
unexplained CPU usage in WindowServer (a system process)<a href="https://chromeisbad.com/#hiding">[1]</a>, and
made my whole computer slow even when Chrome wasn’t running.
Deleting Chrome and Keystone made my computer way, way faster,
all the time.
Long story: I noticed my brand new 16” MacBook Pro started acting
sluggishly doing even trivial things like scrolling. Activity
Monitor showed nothing from Google using the CPU, but
WindowServer was taking ~80%, which is abnormally high (it
should use < 10% normally).
Doing all the normal things (quitting apps, logging out other
users, restarting, zapping PRAM/SMC, etc) did nothing, then I
remembered I had installed Chrome a while back to test a website.
I deleted Chrome, and noticed Keystone while deleting some of
Chrome’s other preferences and caches. I deleted everything from
Google I could find, restarted the computer, and it was like
night-and-day. Everything was instantly and noticeably faster,
and WindowServer CPU was well under 10% again.
</blockquote>
Not all Mac users, but many, found that just having Chrome installed slowed down their Macs dramatically. Completely uninstalling Chrome — and its pernicious background agents — solved the problem. This years-old “Chrome Is Bad” saga came to mind when <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/google-gemini-mac">I wrote about Google’s Gemini Mac app’s background agents</a>.
It seems as though Google eventually fixed these Chrome bugs — or Apple changed something in a MacOS update that fixed the bugs for them — but I’ve never seen a full explanation of the problem and eventual solution. Does anyone know what happened here?
The main point is it never should have happened in the first place. A third-party app should just be a third-party app — not add components to your system software just so it can update itself when it isn’t running. Background agents and extensions are <a href="https://rogueamoeba.com/">sometimes necessary</a> to the functionality of a product. Checking for software updates to a browser or AI chatbot, when those apps aren’t running, is not necessary. The golden rule applies: imagine if every app on your system installed its own background agent to check for software updates. Chrome is a popular browser on the Mac, but it’s just a web browser. Other web browsers do just fine checking for updates from the browser itself when they’re running. If the user is actually using an app regularly, it’ll get plenty of chances to check for updates when it’s running. If the user isn’t regularly using an app, why in the world should that seldom-used app have software running all the time in the background?
This sort of chaos is <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2021/06/annotating_apples_anti-sideloading_white_paper">why Apple keeps iOS locked down</a>. There are no third-party login items on iOS that run in the background — let alone ones with no option to disable. No third-party app can do anything that causes the iOS window manager to consume 80 percent of the CPU while ostensibly idle. There are obviously trade-offs here. I rely on a Mac for my workstation because the Mac gives me the power to potentially shoot myself in the foot. But one major reason why iOS is an order of magnitude more popular than MacOS is because you cannot shoot yourself in the foot with it, even though that means you can’t use it to do things that would require that power.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Remember When Chrome Went Bad on MacOS?’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/remember-when-chrome-went-bad-on-macos"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Google’s Gemini Mac App Is Native, in a Distinctly Google Way, But Annoyingly Presumptuous</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://gemini.google/mac/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8s" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/google-gemini-mac" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43084</id>
<published>2026-06-04T17:29:26Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T18:20:44Z</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[
Two months ago Google launched a new native Mac app for Gemini. I’ve been trying it, on and off, since. It’s ... not bad. Certainly better than Claude’s Electron shitbox. But the Gemini app isn’t all that good, either. I’m sticking with ChatGPT, which remains far and away the best native Mac client to an LLM. (And ChatGPT is not that great of a Mac app — it’s just the closest to good of the bunch.)
The thing that really turns me off about the Gemini Mac app is Google’s gall. The Gemini app installs a background helper named “GeminiAppLauncher” in your login items. It also installs “GoogleUpdater” as a process with the privilege to launch in the background whenever it wants. Gemini never asks for permission to install either of these, and, most arrogantly, if you, as an informed user, remove either of them, the Gemini app silently adds them back. There is no setting in Gemini to disable this. There’s a mindset from some big companies that your system is theirs to play with at the system software level. Fuck that. <a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/04/16/gemini-app-for-mac/">Michael Tsai’s post</a> on the Gemini Mac app links to <a href="https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/google-launches-native-gemini-ai-app-for-mac.2481037/?post=34543484#post-34543484">this thread on MacRumors</a> regarding this pernicious auto-installed and auto-reinstalled login item. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1smaz0b/the_gemini_app_is_now_on_mac/">Here’s another on Reddit</a>.
Google’s approach to its Mac software is disrespectful and entitled.
I’d have been happy to keep the Gemini app installed if it just sat in my Applications folder when I wasn’t using it. But it doesn’t, and Google shows no signs of caring, so I just deleted it and uninstalled its background launch agents (in <code>~/Library/LaunchAgents/</code>). Feels great, like I took a much needed shower.
(Sidenote: The Gemini Mac app is a native Mac app, but it is ... weird. <a href="https://mastodon.social/@ccgus/116410242771350931">Gus Mueller poked around at it</a> and found that it’s the product of a Java-to-Objective-C converter that Google made, and much of it was originally written for Android.)
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Google’s Gemini Mac App Is Native, in a Distinctly Google Way, But Annoyingly Presumptuous’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/google-gemini-mac"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The AI-Driven Resurgence of Native Mac App Development</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/06/road-to-wwdc-2026-whats-a-developer/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8r" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-ai-driven-resurgence-of-mac-app-development" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43083</id>
<published>2026-06-04T13:43:26Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T13:47:33Z</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, looking ahead to WWDC next week:
<blockquote>
These days, I’m getting emails pitching me for an endless stream
of new Mac apps. It’s quite remarkable because there was a
period five or ten years ago when it seemed like all app
development on Apple’s platforms was focused on iOS. Even more
interesting, these are all indie Mac apps that seem to be built
using native Mac frameworks, not the product of big corporations
that are just rolling their cross-platform development system
out everywhere. These apps seem to have a point of view and are
focused on the Mac.
Of course, it’s happening because of AI. [...]
Mac users — some of them developers, some of them people who have
never written software in their lives — are building apps that
fulfill their imaginations.
We now live in an era where, if you can dream an app, you can
probably build it. Especially Mac utilities. And who cares more
about native Mac software than Mac users? Certainly not those
companies that gave up on Mac development and focused all their
energies on giant cross-platform code bases to attract venture
investment and big payouts.
</blockquote>
There are pros and cons to everything, but on the whole, AI-assisted programming has rejuvenated Mac development. It wasn’t moribund, but it was stagnant. And stagnation is the first step toward decline. Now it’s resurgent, and that’s a fun thing to see. And, I think, genuinely important for the future of the platform. I’ve been concerned for years that the biggest problem the Mac faces is that so many new apps for the platform <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2018/12/electron_and_the_decline_of_native_apps">weren’t Mac apps</a>. The Mac has never faced a decline in popularity, but truly native Mac application development (and the skills) did. Now it’s turning around. Mac users are thirsty for Mac apps, and with AI, they can quench their own thirst and tell the dullards promulgating Electron bundles to pound sand.
(And Snell, it turns out, <a href="https://www.theincomparable.com/doubleender/">has joined the party</a>.)
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The AI-Driven Resurgence of Native Mac App Development’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-ai-driven-resurgence-of-mac-app-development"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Another Gem From the Annals of Nick Bilton Jackassery</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/20/bilton-pseudoscience" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8q" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/another-gem-from-the-annals-of-nick-bilton-jackassery" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43082</id>
<published>2026-06-04T02:26:50Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T02:26:50Z</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[
I look forward to pseudoscience like this finally getting some airtime on 60 Minutes. For 58 long years the program has been hopelessly biased toward actual science.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Another Gem From the Annals of Nick Bilton Jackassery’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/another-gem-from-the-annals-of-nick-bilton-jackassery"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>If There’s One Thing Nick Bilton Knows, It’s Television</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/bilton-itv" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8p" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/nick-bilton-tv-genius" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43081</id>
<published>2026-06-04T02:23:25Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T20:18:40Z</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[
Back in 2011, when he was a tech columnist at The New York Times, Nick Bilton figured out that Apple was soon going to launch an Apple branded-television set, with no remote control. You’d just talk to it. This made no sense of course, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/bilton-itv">as I pointed out</a>.
<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/bilton-itv">Bilton closed his column thus</a>:
<blockquote>
The company is now close enough that it could announce the product
by late 2012, releasing it to consumers by 2013.
It is coming though. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter
of when.
</blockquote>
Maybe it’ll launch in time for Bilton’s first season at the helm of 60 Minutes this fall, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/nytpitchbot.bsky.social/post/3mnfmdyaers2h">with his all-new lineup of correspondents</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘If There’s One Thing Nick Bilton Knows, It’s Television’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/nick-bilton-tv-genius"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Scott Pelley on Leaving ‘60 Minutes’: ‘Incompetence and Unprofessionalism in the New Management Have Wreaked Havoc’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DZHlWAoG3_3/?img_index=1" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8o" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/pelley-statement" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43080</id>
<published>2026-06-03T23:19:28Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T00:56:53Z</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[
Scott Pelley, in a statement posted on Instagram (which I’ll quote in full, as the original is locked behind a <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/what_is_a_dickover">dickwall</a> if you’re not signed in to an Instagram account):
<blockquote>
There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.
The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in
history. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every
major online platform has extended its reach to countless millions
around the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60
Minutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.
“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades
because our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and
humanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to
my colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand
energetically into a new age of media technology while preserving
the values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network
is casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of
favor with the Trump administration.
The waste is heartbreaking.
Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior
leadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly
fired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood
up for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of
political bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.
For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods
and bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to
include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I
have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them.
Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents
for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over
60 Minutes interviews is not how honest journalism is done.
Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new
management have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my
stories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not
getting on the air at all.
At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the
program that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions
of viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have
received to “keep up the good fight.” Most of my colleagues at CBS
News are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at
the top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no
longer recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I
must leave as well.
I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion — a heart
brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who
encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of
their own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their
ideals are honored again — a day when sanity, competence, and
courage return.
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Scott Pelley on Leaving ‘60 Minutes’: ‘Incompetence and Unprofessionalism in the New Management Have Wreaked Havoc’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/pelley-statement"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The ‘60 Minutes’ Purge</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/shows/60-minutes/talent/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8n" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/the-60-minutes-purge" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43079</id>
<published>2026-06-03T21:32:52Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T20:44:18Z</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[
Paramount’s “Press Express” page promoting 60 Minutes still lists all eight correspondents from the 2025–2026 season, the program’s 58th. (Perhaps they fired the person responsible for keeping the cast page up to date.) In the order they appear on Paramount’s listing:
<ul>
<li>Lesley Stahl</li>
<li><s>Scott Pelley</s> — <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/cbs-news-fires-scott-pelley">fired today</a></li>
<li>Bill Whitaker</li>
<li><s>Anderson Cooper</s> — <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/05/anderson-cooper-signs-off-60-minutes-1236913958/">left on his own after 20 years</a></li>
<li><s>Sharyn Alfonsi</s> — <a href="https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/60-minutes-tanya-simon-fired/">fired last week</a></li>
<li>L. Jon Wertheim</li>
<li><s>Cecilia Vega</s> — <a href="https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/60-minutes-tanya-simon-fired/">fired last week</a></li>
<li>Norah O’Donnell</li>
</ul>
A big part of the brand for 60 Minutes is that the show doesn’t change. Someone who last saw it 40 years ago would instantly recognize it today. There’s no silly fucking theme song. There’s no glossy set. There’s a ticking stopwatch, a logotype set in Microgramma/Eurostile, and correspondents sit against a black background. And correspondents measure their tenure not by years but by decades. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Minutes#Correspondents_and_hosts">Of the original hosts</a>, Harry Reasoner was there for 23 years (and left the cast only upon his death at 68 in 1991), Dan Rather was there for 38 years, Mike Wallace for 40, and Morley Safer for 48. 48 years! Of the current hosts, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-40-years-at-the-top/">Lesley Stahl has been there since 1991</a>. I graduated high school that year.
In just six months since David Ellison bought CBS and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/26/inside-bari-weisss-hostile-takeover-of-cbs-news">installed Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News</a>, they’ve fired or lost half their on-air talent, and of the four who remain, Wertheim and O’Donnell are only part-time (O’Donnell’s title is “CBS News senior correspondent”, not “60 Minutes correspondent”), Whitaker is 74 years old, and Stahl is 84.
Behind the cameras, longtime executive producer <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/28/60-minutes-last-minute">Bill Owens resigned in protest of corporate interference</a> a year ago, in the cowardly run-up to Ellison’s acquisition of CBS. Last week Weiss fired Owens’s successor, <a href="https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/60-minutes-tanya-simon-fired/">Tanya Simon</a>, who had been with the program for 30 years, replacing her with Nick Bilton, who not only had never worked at 60 Minutes, but has never worked in TV news period. Weiss also fired executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, <a href="https://deadline.com/2025/08/draggan-mihailovich-60-minutes-executive-editor-1236494670/">who’d been at the show for 28 years</a>.
It seems untenable for Stahl or Whitaker to remain on the show. Pelley called it what it was in Bilton’s ham-fisted staff meeting Monday: the murder of the institution.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The ‘60 Minutes’ Purge’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/the-60-minutes-purge"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>CBS News Fires Scott Pelley of ‘60 Minutes’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/business/media/scott-pelley-cbs-bari-weiss.html" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8m" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/cbs-news-fires-scott-pelley" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43078</id>
<published>2026-06-03T19:49:56Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-03T19:50:42Z</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[
Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum:
<blockquote>
In a <a href="https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/bb744b828c885269/9642cb98-full.pdf">formal letter</a> to Mr. Pelley, which was obtained by The
New York Times, Mr. Bilton wrote that the correspondent had been
“terminated for cause effective immediately.”
</blockquote>
The letter is a must-read. No summary of it can capture just how pathetic a man Nick Bilton is. He disputes nothing Pelley said in the Monday staff meeting, and firing Pelley proves that Pelley was exactly right.
<blockquote>
Mr. Pelley, in a telephone interview on Tuesday evening shortly
after he was fired, said he had devoted decades of his life to “60
Minutes,” which he said he still cared about deeply.
“I have been in combat in Afghanistan,” Mr. Pelley said. “I have
been in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine
multiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family
because of my devotion to the broadcast.” [...]
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Pelley sent a statement to The Times that
assailed the new leadership of CBS News, writing that
“incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have
wreaked havoc” at the network.” He added, “The collapse of values
at the top has become untenable.” Mr. Pelley also wrote that
senior managers at CBS News had pressured him to insert bias into
stories for “60 Minutes” this past season, though he did not
provide details about specific segments.
</blockquote>
I look forward to hearing those segment-specific details. It’s not hard to guess the direction that bias went.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘CBS News Fires Scott Pelley of ‘60 Minutes’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/cbs-news-fires-scott-pelley"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The Underworld Market to Remove the Recording Indicator Light on Meta Glasses</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaJSPeJmqis" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8l" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/the-underworld-market-to-remove-the-recording-indicator-light-on-meta-glasses" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43077</id>
<published>2026-06-03T19:39:13Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-03T19:39:14Z</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[
Joanna Stern, on YouTube:
<blockquote>
People across the country are offering a service on Facebook
Marketplace to disable the recording light on Ray-Ban Meta
glasses. They call it “Stealth Mode.” Joanna paid $100 for the
modification and went inside the growing business of turning smart
glasses into covert cameras. She investigates who is doing it,
whether it’s legal and what some are doing to try and stop it.
</blockquote>
Of course there’s a market for this. But the true chef’s kiss is that the market to find people who offer the service is on ... Facebook Marketplace. Using a Meta platform to find people to hack a Meta device so you can surreptitiously record strangers. So perfectly Meta.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Underworld Market to Remove the Recording Indicator Light on Meta Glasses’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/the-underworld-market-to-remove-the-recording-indicator-light-on-meta-glasses"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Meta Reportedly Has a Slew of New Smart Glasses Planned for This Year</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://gizmodo.com/meta-has-a-ridiculous-amount-of-smart-glasses-planned-for-this-year-2000765741" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8k" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/meta-glasses-this-year" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43076</id>
<published>2026-06-02T21:54:43Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-02T21:54:43Z</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[
James Pero, summarizing for Gizmodo <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/meta-memo-outlines-ambitious-hardware-plans-including-new-ai-pendant">this paywalled report by Jyoti Mann</a> for The Information:
<blockquote>
But, wait, there’s more: in addition to the fall releases, The
Information reports that Meta also has a pair slated for December,
codenamed “Mojito VIP.” There are also two prototypes being tested
in the fall, according to the report, including one called
“Artemis” and another called “SSG,” which is short for
“supersensing glasses.”
The Information <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/articles/meta-renews-work-facial-recognition-tech-privacy-worries-fade">previously reported</a> that the “supersensing”
pair would have always-on cameras capable of looking at your
surroundings without you having to prompt the voice assistant or
activate the camera with a button. The idea here is that, with a
constant stream of visual information, the smart glasses could be
a kind of ambient virtual assistant that remembers where you left
your keys or other vision-based reminders.
</blockquote>
Spitball: Meta’s entire business is predicated on knowing as much about people as possible. Their interest in building out a virtual “metaverse” world was motivated by the fact they could track everything people do, see, say, and hear there. That <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream">didn’t play out</a> so they’re pivoting to building out devices that will let them track everything people do, see, say, and hear in the real world.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Meta Reportedly Has a Slew of New Smart Glasses Planned for This Year’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/meta-glasses-this-year"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Apple, the Anti-‘Metaverse’ VR Company</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/meta_says_fuck_that_metaverse_shit" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8j" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/apple-the-anti-metaverse-vr-company" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43075</id>
<published>2026-06-02T20:48:08Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-02T20:48:09Z</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[
One <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/the-metaverse-was-snake-oil-for-isolation">more</a> bit of “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream">metaverse fever dream</a>” follow-up. The one company in the field that Nick Heer doesn’t mention is Apple, makers of the best-known (albeit not best-selling) virtual reality headset. Think and say what you want about the Vision platform (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/04/on_the_future_of_apples_vision_platform">I still think</a> it’s the first inning of a long game), but no one at Apple ever once gave a hint of endorsing “metaverse” hype. In fact, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/meta_says_fuck_that_metaverse_shit">as I’ve noted before</a>, at a 2022 WSJ event, seven months before Vision Pro was announced and over a year before it was released, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-ugwoEOMvg&t=1770s">Joanna Stern asked Greg Joswiak and Craig Federighi</a>:
<blockquote>
Stern: You have to finish this sentence, both of you. The
metaverse is...
Joz: A word I’ll never use.
</blockquote>
“Fever dream” is right.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Apple, the Anti-‘Metaverse’ VR Company’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/apple-the-anti-metaverse-vr-company"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The Metaverse Was Snake Oil for Isolation</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8i" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/the-metaverse-was-snake-oil-for-isolation" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43074</id>
<published>2026-06-02T20:42:33Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T20:49:52Z</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[
A follow-up point from <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream">my post yesterday linking to</a> Nick Heer’s blockbuster “<a href="https://pxlnv.com/blog/metaverse-fever-dream/">The Metaverse Fever Dream</a>”. In particular, the connection Heer draws between the rise of “metaverse” hype and the pandemic.
I always sort of knew that metaverse hype roughly coincided with the Covid lockdown and our collective period of isolation and loneliness, a year-plus stretch when we relied mostly on computer platforms for nearly all socializing. But here in 2026 it’s now clear that metaverse hype and lockdown-induced isolation coincided precisely. They didn’t roughly overlap; they exactly overlapped. So much so that I’m now wondering if any of the “metaverse” hype would have happened if Covid hadn’t happened. Facebook still likely would’ve renamed itself, <a href="https://om.co/2025/04/28/no-gruber-this-is-why-facebook-renamed-itself/">because they’d so poisoned the “Facebook” brand itself</a>, but maybe to <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/28/om-malik-facebook-rename">something other than “Meta”</a>.
We allowed the necessary initial emergency lockdown to extend indefinitely because it seemed like maybe we could get by for a long stretch using technology. The extended lockdown never would have happened if the Covid pandemic had broken out 20 or more years earlier. In 2020 and 2021, we could squint and say, sure, maybe kids can “go to school” via Zoom. We never would have kept all kids home for an entire year pre-Zoom. But the truth is Zoom “school” <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/">wasn’t much better than no school at all</a>. Same for Zoom “work collaboration”, and Zoom “friend gatherings”. It was an illusion that today’s technology is even close to a sufficient substitute for being in each others’ physical presence. The siren call of “the metaverse” was exactly what we craved — technology that would be a sufficient substitute for real-world experiences and socializing. The best audience for snake oil are people with actual ailments. And during Covid, we were all ailing socially.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Metaverse Was Snake Oil for Isolation’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/the-metaverse-was-snake-oil-for-isolation"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Scott Pelley Accuses CBS News Boss of ‘Murdering’ ‘60 Minutes’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/business/media/cbs-60-minutes-scott-pelley-nick-bilton.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nFA.TDGJ.HbBmlXuQWmcQ&smid=url-share" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8h" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/pelley-60-minutes-murder" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43073</id>
<published>2026-06-02T19:53:47Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-02T21:22:20Z</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[
Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin, reporting for The New York Times (gift link):
<blockquote>
CBS News faced a fresh wave of turmoil on Monday after Scott
Pelley, the “60 Minutes” correspondent, laced into the show’s
newly hired executive producer during a staff meeting and accused
Bari Weiss, the network’s editor in chief, of “murdering” the
longstanding Sunday news program.
In an extraordinary exchange, Mr. Pelley, his newscaster’s
baritone sometimes shaking in anger, told Nick Bilton, the new
executive producer, that he had “slender” qualifications for his
new job and questioned the network’s commitment to the future of
the program, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by
The New York Times.
The 10 a.m. gathering, held at the program’s Midtown Manhattan
headquarters, was intended as a formal introduction to Mr. Bilton,
a tech journalist and filmmaker who was appointed last week as
part of a major shake-up at “60 Minutes.” CBS fired Tanya Simon,
the previous executive producer, and her deputy, along with Sharyn
Alfonsi and Cecilia Vega, two of the show’s correspondents — an
event that Mr. Pelley referred to as “Black Thursday.”
</blockquote>
It’s worth noting that the night before the firings, 60 Minutes won two news Emmys. It’s even more worth noting that 60 Minutes’s TV ratings <a href="https://barrettmedia.com/2026/05/22/60-minutes-ratings-increase-2026-season/">were up 9 percent</a> year-over-year, and <a href="https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/shows/60-minutes/releases/?view=112909-60-minutes-makes-television-history-by-marking-52-straight-seasons-as-americas-1-news-program">digital video views doubled</a>. In both quality and popularity, the show is thriving, not struggling. (See also: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was, by far, <a href="https://latenighter.com/news/ratings/late-night-tv-ratings-q4-2025/">the top-rated late night talk show</a>.)
<blockquote>
“Broadcast is an ice cube that is melting, OK?” Mr. Bilton said,
saying the show had to adapt. “Bari loves this institution,” he
added. “She loves ’60 Minutes.’”
At that, Mr. Pelley interrupted.
“She is murdering ‘60 Minutes,’” the correspondent said. “She does
not love this place. She was brought in to kill it, and she’s been
doing exactly that.”
Mr. Pelley added: “She has no qualifications for her job; you have
slender qualifications for this job. The changes that she’s made
at the ‘Evening News’ have been catastrophic, so why should we
expect that any of this is going to be any better?”
</blockquote>
Oof.
Oliver Darcy obtained a recording of the entire Bilton-Pelley exchange, and transcribed much of it, but <a href="https://www.status.news/p/scott-pelley-60-minutes-nick-bilton-bari-weiss">it’s behind the (worth it!) Status paywall</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Scott Pelley Accuses CBS News Boss of ‘Murdering’ ‘60 Minutes’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/pelley-60-minutes-murder"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Three Ways to Get Paid</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://jasonzweig.com/three-ways-to-get-paid/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8g" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/zweig-three-ways-to-get-paid" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43072</id>
<published>2026-06-02T16:10:24Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-02T16:10:25Z</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 Zweig, back in 2018:
<blockquote>
<a href="http://jasonzweig.com/on-fathers-day/">My father</a>, who died in 1981, was an inexhaustible font of
wisdom and wit. I don’t know when he told me this particular
three-part rule, but I’ve never forgotten it. I tweeted it
three years ago, but people keep asking for it in one place, so
here it is.
There are three ways to make a living:
<ol>
<li>Lie to people who want to be lied to, and you’ll get rich.</li>
<li>Tell the truth to those who want the truth, and you’ll make a
living.</li>
<li>Tell the truth to those who want to be lied to, and you’ll go
broke.</li>
</ol>
The rest is commentary.
</blockquote>
Pairs well with Om Malik’s remarkable line about the success of “the grifters and the hucksters and the influencers selling impossible things” in his “<a href="https://om.co/2026/05/25/we-are-living-in-pinocchios-world/">We Are Living in Pinocchio’s World</a>” essay that I <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/pinocchios-world">linked to yesterday</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Three Ways to Get Paid’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/zweig-three-ways-to-get-paid"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The First-Time-Buyer-Discount Dickover Scheme</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://x.com/usgraphics/status/2060559523585355986" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8f" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/blueball-dickovers" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43071</id>
<published>2026-06-02T15:08:12Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-02T15:56:30Z</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[
Neil Panchal, on Twitter/X (<a href="https://xcancel.com/usgraphics/status/2060559523585355986">XCancel link</a>):
<blockquote>
Of all the dickovers, the dickover that blueballs you with some
first-time buyer incentive. “Sign up and get 10% discount, new
accounts only”, the dickover boasts.
Never understood why you’d ever penalize returning customers with
a dickover, blue-balling them with 10% off teaser that they’re
ineligible for. wtf?
And for first time buyers, they’d always feel left out if they
don’t shove their email address in the dickover. The choice is
an illusion with a penalty of 10%. But wait… there’s more! You
only get a discount code if you, after clicking the confirmation
email link, also sign up for their SMS marketing. You just got
double dicked.
</blockquote>
I fell for this racket once, albeit with my eyes open. Last year I bought a cap from New Era’s website. They offered me some sort of discount for giving them my email address. I knew they were going to get my email anyway because I was going to buy the hat, so I figured why not. Only then — exactly as Panchal describes — did they say I also needed to give them my phone number and grant permission to text me marketing messages. Now I was pissed. I did it anyway, just to see what happened (and get the discount). As soon as I bought the hat, discount applied, I rescinded their permission to send me text messages and marketing emails. (They had already texted me like two marketing messages, in addition to the ones confirming my phone number.) Overall I’d have rather paid a few more dollars than go through the hassle, which is why my standard operating procedure is to decline all such entreaties. A real discount is just offering a lower price. Anything else is a scam of some sort.
But the real problem is that it completely soured my impression of New Era. I am far less likely to purchase from them again. I will eventually buy a New Era cap again — their actual products are excellent, and they are the exclusive maker of official MLB on-field caps — but if I can buy it elsewhere, I will. I’ll go out of my way to avoid buying direct from New Era for the rest of my life.
The marketing shitbirds who press for these schemes — and insist on adding <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/what_is_a_dickover">dickovers</a> and dickbars to websites — do so by pointing to data that shows that they do convert some number of users. “It works” they claim, pointing to data. What doesn’t show up in their data are interactions like mine. They don’t have analytics that measure that I now consider their website an antagonist to avoid at all costs.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The First-Time-Buyer-Discount Dickover Scheme’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/blueball-dickovers"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/x8e" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/06/mux_video_for_developers" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/feeds/sponsors//11.43070</id>
<author><name>Daring Fireball Department of Commerce</name></author>
<published>2026-06-02T01:45:43Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-02T01:45:44Z</updated>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Mux is what developers reach for when they need to do more with video. Video files are packed with data and context waiting to be unlocked.
Mux Robots are AI workflows that unlock that data inside your video for summarization, caption translation, moderation, and more. Configure once and your workflows run automatically on new uploads.
Mux is video infrastructure trusted by Patreon, Substack, and Synthesia. Start building for free. Use code FIREBALL at signup for an extra $50 credit.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Mux — Video for Developers’" href="https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/06/mux_video_for_developers"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>[Sponsor] Mux — Video for Developers</title></entry><entry>
<title>‘The Metaverse Fever Dream’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://pxlnv.com/blog/metaverse-fever-dream/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8d" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43069</id>
<published>2026-06-02T00:24:39Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-02T20:43:16Z</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[
Nick Heer, at Pixel Envy, last week published a remarkable essay surveying — with copious receipts — the rise and fall of “metaverse” hype:
<blockquote>
The obsession with the metaverse seems to have solidified in
Silicon Valley after <a href="https://www.matthewball.co/all/themetaverse">Matthew Ball published</a> an essay in
January 2020 in which he forecasted that, at the very least…
<blockquote>
…it is likely to produce trillions in value as a new computing
platform or content medium. But in its full vision, the Metaverse
becomes the gateway to most digital experiences, a key component
of all physical ones, and the next great labor platform. [...]
</blockquote>
Ball published this essay with darkly fortuitous timing. A week
earlier, Chinese health authorities had isolated a new strain of
coronavirus aggressively spreading in Wuhan; a day before, they
<a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30011-6/fulltext">published its genetic sequence</a>. Within a couple of
months, the world had turned upside down and many of us were
suddenly spending our days in a space that felt more virtual than
physical. We may have only been working from home — or, at least,
those of us who had the option and were not laid off — and
socializing over Zoom, all while remembering the last concert we
went to or the last time we ate a meal in a restaurant.
</blockquote>
Just a tremendous piece of writing and reporting from Heer. What a pile of horseshit “the metaverse” as promulgated by Zuckerberg was. To call what Heer has assembled here, in a compelling narrative to boot, “comprehensive” is a vast understatement. These hucksters were selling a bill of goods and now they’re trying to whistle past their own hype:
<blockquote>
As for the futurists like Hackl, who confidently proclaimed the
metaverse was “for certain”, they have found an out thanks to its
flexible definition. Jeff Barrett, of the Shorty Awards’ “It’s No
Fluke” podcast, published a <a href="https://creators.yahoo.com/lifestyle/story/why-cathy-hackl-keeps-getting-the-future-right-and-why-global-companies-are-paying-attention-155835963.html">glowing profile of “the Godmother of
the Metaverse”</a> earlier this year under the headline “Why
Cathy Hackl Keeps Getting the Future Right”. “When enthusiasm
cooled and narratives collapsed, many distanced themselves from
the space”, writes Barrett, noting with seeming approval that
“Hackl did the opposite. She reframed it”. Many people — perhaps
everyone, come to think of it — could predict the future if they
got to retcon their predictions to fit reality.
</blockquote>
Bravo.
Follow-up: “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/the-metaverse-was-snake-oil-for-isolation">The Metaverse Was Snake Oil for Isolation</a>”.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘The Metaverse Fever Dream’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘If You Take the Weasel Job Then You Must Be the Weasel’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/if-you-take-the-weasel-job-then-you?r=qy6gq" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8c" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/weasel-job-60-minutes" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43068</id>
<published>2026-06-01T23:31:54Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-01T23:31:54Z</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[
Hamilton Nolan, writing at How Things Work:
<blockquote>
There are only a few reasons why you might be hired for a
prestigious job that you are obviously not qualified for. One is
“they have recognized you for the genius that you are.” The urge
to conclude that this is, in fact, the reason must be
overwhelming, if you are the person in question. But this is
rarely the explanation.
Another possibility is “the person who hired you is a fucking
idiot.” This happens. A number of current United States cabinet
secretaries got their jobs this way.
The most likely reason, though — one that often overshadows the
other ones — is, “you are willing to carry out the dirty and
distasteful things to come.” This is why weird hirings at the top
always provoke dread among all the other employees. Maybe you are
a hidden gem, sure, but Occam’s Razor says that you are probably
just a hatchet man.
Nick Bilton, a former tech writer for the New York Times and
Vanity Fair and maker of a few documentaries, was <a href="https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/if-you-take-the-weasel-job-then-you?r=qy6gq">just hired</a> as
the new head of 60 Minutes.
</blockquote>
Bilton tried to introduce himself to the (remaining) staff at 60 Minutes this morning and <a href="https://www.status.news/p/scott-pelley-60-minutes-nick-bilton-bari-weiss">it did not go well</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘If You Take the Weasel Job Then You Must Be the Weasel’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/weasel-job-60-minutes"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>‘We Are Living in Pinocchio’s World’</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://om.co/2026/05/25/we-are-living-in-pinocchios-world/" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8b" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/pinocchios-world" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43067</id>
<published>2026-06-01T20:05:17Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-02T16:03:07Z</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[
Om Malik:
<blockquote>
The Adventures of Pinocchio was published in serial form in
1881, aimed at Italian children in the way the 19th century
aimed things at children, full of suffering, consequence, and
moral instruction delivered through catastrophe. The puppet is
hanged. He is swallowed by a giant fish. He watches companions
degrade into beasts of burden. The world he moves through is
predatory at every level, and the institutions that should
protect him are either absent, corrupted, or actively hostile to
his interests. [...]
Most people remember Pinocchio as a story about lying. The nose
grows. You get caught. Lesson learned. But that reading misses
almost everything Collodi was actually doing. The book is a close
study of a society where deception has gone ambient, woven into
every institution, every transaction. Courts punish victims.
Authority figures perform competence without exercising it.
Experts are decorative. Society holds together through spectacle
and habit rather than accountability. Into this environment, a
naive creature is released, constitutionally unable to resist a
good story about easy reward.
The nose is the least interesting lie in the book. The interesting
lies are the ones that work.
</blockquote>
I’m not sure which sphere of interest this essay applies better to: post-AI tech, or post-Trump politics. I mean, goddamn, what a paragraph this one is:
<blockquote>
The grifters and the hucksters and the influencers selling
impossible things succeed because audiences reward certainty and
punish doubt. They honor confidence and resist complication. A
clean story about a genius who will fix everything travels faster
than a difficult story about tradeoffs. The Field of Miracles
stays open because people keep wanting to bury their coins there.
</blockquote>
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘‘We Are Living in Pinocchio’s World’’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/pinocchios-world"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>Amazon Made AI Podcasts for Products</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ai-generated-podcasts-products-2026-4" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x8a" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/amazon-made-ai-podcasts-for-products" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43066</id>
<published>2026-06-01T16:41:51Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-01T18:22:54Z</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, a month ago at Business Insider:
<blockquote>
Amazon has launched a new <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-hear-the-highlights-join-the-chat">feature</a> that uses AI to generate a
short, podcast-like audio segment where two “hosts” discuss the
merits and reviews of a specific product.
I think it could be one of the funniest, closest endpoints to
human civilization we’ve seen yet in our new AI-enabled world. If
this sounds a little confusing, here’s an example. I tried it out
for diaper rash cream, and, voila! A podcast! (Sound on.)
</blockquote>
I don’t know what’s worse: that anyone at Amazon thought actual people would really listen to these, or if actual people really are listening to them.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘Amazon Made AI Podcasts for Products’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/amazon-made-ai-podcasts-for-products"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<title>The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2026: Tuesday June 9</title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026" />
<link rel="shorturl" type="text/html" href="http://df4.us/x88" />
<link rel="related" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/31/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2026" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026:/linked//6.43064</id>
<published>2026-06-01T01:59:00Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T19:10:02Z</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[
Location: The California Theatre, San Jose 
Showtime: Tuesday, 9 June 2026, 7pm PT (Doors open 6pm) 
Special Guest(s): For sure 
Price: $45
The annual live audience episode of The Talk Show during the week of WWDC. If you can make it, you should come. You’ll even enjoy the prelude, mingling with fellow DF readers and listeners.
Also: at least one sponsorship slot is still available. If you’ve got a product or service you’d like to see me promote at the start of the show, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/contact/">shoot me an email</a>.
<div>
<a title="Permanent link to ‘The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2026: Tuesday June 9’" href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/31/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2026"> ★ </a>
</div>
]]></content>
</entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/what_is_a_dickover" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/x83" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.43059</id>
<published>2026-05-29T20:58:56Z</published>
<updated>2026-05-31T22:58:20Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">dickover — a modal panel, popover, or curtain presented by a website or app, deliberately obscuring its own content to frustrate the user with an unwanted, unnecessary, mandatory interaction; e.g. asking the user to accept “cookies”, subscribe to a newsletter, install the website’s mobile app, agree to terms of service, or anything else that the user couldn’t give two shits about.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
<a href="/2026/05/what_is_a_dickover">Please enjoy this article on its own webpage</a>. Trust me.
]]></content>
<title>★ What Is a Dickover?</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/the_fonts_of_the_us_federal_courts" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/x7s" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.43048</id>
<published>2026-05-22T20:30:18Z</published>
<updated>2026-05-25T18:22:13Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">The Supreme Court’s typographic style has been stunningly consistent for — no pun intended — well over a century.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
The 13 circuits of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_courts_of_appeals">the U.S. federal courts of appeals</a> operate with a fair amount of independence, including <a href="https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/greedy-associates/5-non-times-new-roman-fonts-courts-use-in-their-opinions/">their typographic choices</a>. I was reminded of this today while reading the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/22/ninth-circuit-epic-v-apple">aforelinked</a> decision <a href="https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/12/11/25-2935.pdf">from the Ninth Circuit in Epic v. Apple</a>, because the Ninth Circuit sets their decisions in <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/15/a-brief-history-of-timesnewroman">Times New Roman</a> — a font that <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/10/">came up back in December</a> in the context of the Trump State Department.
Long argument short, Times New Roman isn’t bad, but it isn’t good. It is the median choice. But <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/LawSchool/comments/ge4tzq/different_fonts_used_by_us_court_of_appeals/">most of the circuit courts use it</a>: the Third, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh. It could be worse: the <a href="https://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/14-1043P-01A.pdf">First</a> circuit not only uses Courier New (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/14/clintons-letter">the worst version of Courier</a>, so of course it’s the one Microsoft shipped with Windows), but fully justifies their text — contrary to the nature of a monospaced font. (The Fourth circuit only recently switched <a href="https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/131839A.P.pdf">from Courier New</a> <a href="https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/251012.P.pdf">to Times New Roman</a> — an upgrade, to be sure, but a disappointingly mediocre one.) It could be better: the <a href="https://ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/OPN/24-341_opn.pdf">Second</a> and <a href="https://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/OpinionsWeb/processWebInputExternal.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2026/D05-20/C:24-2015:J:Hamilton:aut:T:fnOp:N:3544786:S:0">Seventh</a> use Palatino. (Note how much better that Seventh Circuit decision looks than the Second’s, with its wider margins creating a narrower column of text.)
But it can be much better. The Fifth Circuit was long typographically superior to its peers, using <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_type_family">Century Schoolbook</a> — a highly legible font with great tradition and the right vibe. But in 2020, the Fifth Circuit upgraded, switching to <a href="https://typographyforlawyers.com/equity.html">Equity</a>, Matthew Butterick’s excellent type family (which, of course, is used throughout Butterick’s own web book, <a href="https://typographyforlawyers.com/">Typography for Lawyers</a>). Here’s a <a href="https://x.com/E_A_Young/status/1285354790176935936">before and after tweet</a> noting the change. The <a href="https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/25/25-11006-CV1.pdf">results</a> are typographically sublime (including improved margins).
The gold standard is the U.S. Supreme Court, which uses Century Schoolbook. Yes, I just praised the Fifth Circuit’s change from Century Schoolbook to Equity as an upgrade, but tradition and consistency have their place. The Supreme Court’s typographic style has been stunningly consistent for — no pun intended — well over a century. (If only that were true of their recent decisions. Rimshot.) Here is last month’s <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-109_new_jifl.pdf">Louisiana v. Callais decision</a> — the gerrymandering / redistricting case. Here is <a href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep347/usrep347483/usrep347483.pdf">1954’s Brown v. Board of Education</a>. I’d give the nod to the older one, which made better use of proper small caps, but the overall consistency is obvious.
Here is <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/filingandrules/2026RulesoftheCourt_WEB.pdf">the 2026 edition of the Rules of the Supreme Court</a>. Not only does the Court use Century Schoolbook for its own decisions, it requires submissions to the Court to use the same (p. 44):
<blockquote>
The text of every booklet-format document, including any appendix
thereto, shall be typeset in a Century family (e. g., Century
Expanded, New Century Schoolbook, or Century Schoolbook) 12-point
type with 2-point or more leading between lines. Quotations in
excess of 50 words shall be indented. The typeface of footnotes
shall be 10-point type with 2-point or more leading between lines.
The text of the document must appear on both sides of the page.
Every booklet-format document shall be produced on paper that is
opaque, unglazed, and not less than 60 pounds in weight, and
shall have margins of at least three-fourths of an inch on all
sides. The text field, including footnotes, may not exceed 4⅛
by 7⅛ inches.
</blockquote>
Why the extra one-eighths of an inch instead of just 4 × 7? I don’t know. But 4⅛ × 7⅛ is exactly the size of the text field in the court’s own decisions.
Now compare the current 2026 rulebook to <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/pdfs/rules/rules_1910.pdf">this edition printed in 1910</a> (with rules adopted in 1884). The consistency is striking — but, once again, the older version makes better use of small caps and just has a bit more vim and vigor to it. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/05/scotus-1910-rules-p-44.jpeg">Just look at page 44</a>, for example. It’s perfect. The current Court’s document formatters should aspire only to more closely ape the confidence and sturdiness of this older one. A century from now, U.S. Supreme Court decisions should look as similar to today’s as today’s do to those from a century ago.
<hr />
The various circuit courts using lesser typefaces, looser margins, and lazier formatting should follow the Fifth’s lead and get their shit together. Tuck your shirt in, comb your hair, straighten your tie, and pop a mint in your mouth. If you’re a United States federal court, your typographic style should reflect that.
Back in 2020, <a href="https://matthewbutterick.com/chron/choose-wisely-2020-edition.html">Butterick took a well-deserved victory lap</a> when the Fifth Circuit adopted Equity.<a href="#fn1-2026-05-22-f">1</a> He quoted Fifth Circuit Judge <a href="https://x.com/justicewillett">Don Willett</a>, a typography fan who spearheaded the restyling project, on its rationale. Willett wrote:
<blockquote>
[Why] did the circuit devote finite judicial energy to swapping
typefaces and widening margins? Simple answer: Our job is not
just to present clear opinions, but to present our opinions
clearly. Getting the law right is, of course, our tip-top
priority. Nothing matters more. ... But good enough is never good
enough. Our work is consequential, impacting the lives and
livelihoods of real people walloped by real problems in the real
world. The stakes are high, and we must present our best opinion,
not merely a passable one. And that presentation begins before
the first word is ever read.
</blockquote>
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-05-22-f">
In the very same post, Butterick sings the praises of the Apple Extended Keyboard II, and notes that he has several spares in reserve. I do keenly intend to take Butterick up on <a href="https://practicaltypography.com/effluents-influence-affluence.html#:~:text=Musso%20%26%20Frank">his standing offer</a> to dine when next I’m in Los Angeles, but I worry that if we meet, we’ll trigger some sort of calamitous singularity of aligned taste. <a href="#fnr1-2026-05-22-f" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ The Fonts of the U.S. Federal Courts</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/ai_is_technology_not_a_product" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/x72" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.43022</id>
<published>2026-05-16T20:32:51Z</published>
<updated>2026-05-18T16:48:28Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">It’s not even a feature. It’s just technology.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Steven Levy, writing for Wired last month after Apple’s CEO transition was announced, under the provocative headline “<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/apples-next-ceo-needs-to-launch-a-killer-ai-product/">Apple’s Next CEO Needs to Launch a Killer AI Product</a>” (<a href="https://apple.news/AdCC7y43rTQq6SZH2bDmqxA">News+ link</a> to get around Wired’s miserly paywall):
<blockquote>
Much more recently, <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/apple-50-year-anniversary-artificial-intelligence-iphone/">I quizzed Ternus</a> and global marketing
head Greg Joswiak about Apple’s future, specifically its plans to
get ahead of the AI transformation. Ternus acknowledged that AI is
“an immense kind of inflection point,” but couched it as one of
many leaps that Apple has navigated. Each hit product — the Apple
II, the Mac, iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone, iPad — piggybacked on
a previous product. “We never think about shipping a technology,”
he said. “We want to ship amazing products, features, and
experiences, and we don’t want our customers to think about what
[underlying] technology makes it possible. That’s the way we think
about AI.”
That’s fine, but I look back to the mid-2000s when everybody was
waiting for Apple to come out with a phone. When Jobs finally
delivered in January 2007, the product defined the mobile era.
It’s a big ask for Ternus to do something similar for the AI age — but it’s an opportunity that must be seized. AI threatens to
disrupt the entire iPhone ecosystem. By the end of this decade,
it’s unlikely that people will swipe on their phones to tap on
Uber or Lyft. They will just tell their always-on AI agent to get
them home. Or that agent will have already figured out where they
need to go, and the car will be waiting without the friction of a
request. “There’s an app for that,” may be replaced by “Let the
agent do that.”
</blockquote>
I’m a huge longtime Steven Levy fan, but this is nonsense. It’s hard to read this and not worry that he too has lost his mind to the AI snake-oil hypesters. What Ternus told him is exactly right. The Apple way is never to ship a technology. The iPod wasn’t about MP3 files. It wasn’t about <a href="https://www.wired.com/2006/10/straight-dope-on-the-ipods-birth/">1.8-inch hard drives</a>. It was about music. The iPhone did define the mobile era (which we’re still very much in), but Apple doesn’t need to capitalize on every single market the mobile era opened up. Social media is a defining component of the mobile era. It comprises the entirety of Meta’s value and a sizable slice of Google’s (via YouTube). Apple doesn’t have a social network business. It’s fine — because the way people consume and create social media is using their phones.
Does AI “threaten to disrupt the entire iPhone ecosystem”? It’s possible, but it doesn’t seem nearly as likely to me as Levy asserts. Changing the iPhone ecosystem? Sure — that’s already true. Obviating the iPhone ecosystem? I don’t see it. Levy’s argument reminds me of the hype around “the cloud” when that first became a term. It’s so meaningless when used broadly (e.g. “Everything will soon be in the cloud”) that it could mean anything. It’s step #2 in the <a href="https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Underpants_Gnomes">gnomes-stealing-underpants</a> master plan.
The idea that AI agents “will have already figured out where [we] need to go, and the car will be waiting without the friction of a request” strikes me as pure fever dream high-on-the-hype fantasy. I’m just going to step outside a restaurant when I’m done eating a meal and a ride-share is going to be there, waiting for me, without my having hailed it? Every time? And I’m going to find this pleasing, not creepy? And ride-share drivers are going to respond to all these requests, because the requests will never be wrong? And this is going to happen, somehow, without my carrying a phone with me? And this is going to happen in the next four years? I don’t think I’d want this even if it were plausible, but it doesn’t sound plausible.
Actual products have to be real. Actual experiences have to rely on actual products. How exactly in Levy’s end-of-this-decade scenario will we tell our “always-on AI agent” to get us home? What microphone is listening to the command? What speaker is telling us the request was understood and acted upon? What screen do we look at to see how far away the hailed car is? I’d bet a pretty large sum of money that in 2030, when someone hails a ride-share vehicle to take them home, the most common product they’ll use to do that will be their phone. Whether they’re doing it via a verbal command issued to an “always-on AI agent” or good old tapping and swiping, it’ll be a phone.
If you think that people will buy smaller devices to replace their phones, and use those to talk to “always-on AI agents” instead, you have to answer some questions. What company is the best in the world at making smaller-than-phone personal computing devices? What device will people use as their camera? What device will people use as their screen, for watching videos, playing games, texting, and (one hopes) reading? My answers to those three questions: Apple, phone, phone. Why would smaller devices — you know, like watches, earbuds, and, say, glasses — work independently rather than pair with the phone that you’re almost certainly still going to be carrying with you?
Only a fool would argue that Apple can stand on the sidelines and ignore AI. It’s very different from, say, social media that way. Social media doesn’t pervade everything in technology. You can ignore social media as a user. (And you’re probably more productive, and happier, if you do.) A company can eschew social media as a business. AI, on the other hand, is pervasive. It can’t be ignored. But it’s just technology.
Wireless networking is pervasive too. But Apple doesn’t have “a killer wireless networking product”.<a href="#fn1-2026-05-16">1</a> Wireless networking simply pervades everything Apple makes. I’m hard pressed to think of a single product Apple makes that doesn’t use some combination of Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth, and proprietary wireless protocols. There was a time, not too long ago, when Apple didn’t make a single product with wireless connectivity. Now it’s pervasive in all their devices. That’s more what AI is going to be like. There’s not going to be one “killer AI device”. Everything is going to be an AI device, to some extent, just like how everything today is a wireless connectivity device, to some extent.
Postscript: “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/18/existing-stakeholders-have-a-say-in-the-future">Existing Stakeholders Have a Say in the Future</a>”.
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-05-16">
AirPort qualified, arguably. But Apple walked away from it, alas. <a href="#fnr1-2026-05-16" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎</a>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ AI Is Technology, Not a Product</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/nextpad" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/x6j" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.43003</id>
<published>2026-05-13T02:22:16Z</published>
<updated>2026-06-04T23:55:35Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">Nextpad++ feels like a fever dream. Like what Mac apps would be if the Nazis had won WWII.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Windows Notepad is, more or less, the Windows peer to MacOS’s TextEdit — the built-in system text editor. For years, it was really basic — so much more basic than TextEdit that it engendered no affection. You don’t see paeans to Notepad <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/26/chayka-textedit">in The New Yorker</a>. Recently though, Microsoft has started beefing it up, culminating last year <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/06/06/markdown-support-in-windows-notepad">when they added fucking Markdown support</a>. Which still blows my mind.
<a href="https://notepad-plus-plus.org/">Notepad++</a> is a longstanding open source (GPL) Windows text editor <a href="https://notepad-plus-plus.org/author/">by Don Ho</a>, which <a href="https://notepad-plus-plus.org/">debuted back in 2003</a>. Just adding “++” to the name might be misleading. The name implies that it’s like Microsoft’s Notepad <a href="https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/walts-own-words-plussing-disneyland">plus</a> a little more. But Notepad++ is in fact a wholly independent programming text editor, with a rich plugin library. It doesn’t resemble Microsoft’s Notepad much at all anymore. It’s over two decades old but remains quite popular. To some extent Notepad++ is sorta kinda the Windows peer to <a href="https://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/">BBEdit</a>.
<a href="https://nextpad.org/author/">Nextpad++</a> is something new, <a href="https://nextpad.org/author/">from Andrey Letov</a>. It’s a Mac port of the Notepad++ GPL code. It launched a few weeks ago under the name “Notepad++ for Mac”, but Letov had <a href="https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/npp-trademark-infringement/">no right or permission to the name</a>. That dispute has been settled, and Letov has renamed this project Nextpad++. The website’s <a href="https://nextpad.org/about/">About page</a> has entire sections for “How Nextpad++ for Mac Was Built” and “Technology Stack”, and neither of those mentions AI, but this thing has to have been built using AI vibe-coding agents. That same About page also says the project only started on March 10, and the 1.0 version (under the defunct “Notepad++ for Mac” name) shipped just a few weeks after that. Something of the scope of this port couldn’t happen at that pace without AI. Update: On <a href="https://nextpad.org/author/">the Author page</a>, not the About page, it states, “multi-agent AI development workflows are what make a one-person project at this scale practical.” Possible, sure, but I wouldn’t call this practical.
Nextpad++ feels like a fever dream. Like what Mac apps would be if the Nazis had won WWII. Look, there are all sorts of foreign apps on the Mac. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2018/12/electron_and_the_decline_of_native_apps">Electron</a> apps. Apps ported with <a href="https://www.winehq.org/">Wine</a>. Web apps running in browser tabs or <a href="https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/add-to-dock-ibrw9e991864/mac">saved to the Dock</a>. The <a href="https://shapeof.com/archives/2026/4/tolaria_ai_and_rust.html">curious new generation</a> of lean-and-mean apps that are, in a technical sense, “native”, but are decidedly not Mac-assed apps, like <a href="https://zed.dev/">Zed</a> and <a href="https://tolaria.md/">Tolaria</a>. All those types of apps feel alien on MacOS. Like different species. They are apps for the Mac but aren’t Mac apps. The Mac, however, is welcoming to them all, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/04/we_dont_serve_their_kind_here">like the Mos Eisley cantina</a>. We do serve their kind here. Nextpad++ isn’t like that. It doesn’t feel like an alien. It feels like Vincent D’Onofrio’s alien-bug-in-human-skin character from Men in Black.
Letov’s website describes Nextpad++ as “A real Mac app, not a Wine wrapper: Objective-C++ on top of Scintilla and Cocoa, shipped as a Universal Binary for Apple Silicon (M1–M5) and Intel Macs.” Ostensibly that’s a good thing. The download is only 14 MB. But Nextpad++ looks and feels like something that should not exist. The promotional screenshots on the app’s own website show it <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/05/nextpad++.png">with 50 inscrutable toolbar buttons</a>. It closes document tabs on mousedown, not mouseup. Its default font is 10-point Courier New. <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/05/nextpad-editing-contextmenu.png">This</a> is a real dialog box. It offers <a href="https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/05/nextpad-antialiasing.png">four settings for font antialiasing</a> — “Default”, “None”, “Antialiased”, and “LCD Optimized” — but the default is not “Default”. No human being would port a complex Windows app like Notepad++ to the Mac like this.
I’m not anti-AI. I’m very much intrigued by the whole incipient vibe-coding phenomenon. But this app feels unholy.
]]></content>
<title>★ Nextpad++</title></entry><entry>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/software_as_the_product_of_obsession_times_voice" />
<link rel="shorturl" href="http://df4.us/x5v" />
<id>tag:daringfireball.net,2026://1.42979</id>
<published>2026-05-05T21:01:05Z</published>
<updated>2026-05-05T21:01:06Z</updated>
<author>
<name>John Gruber</name>
<uri>http://daringfireball.net/</uri>
</author>
<summary type="text">You might think it counterintuitive that a movement obsessed with software would be spearheading a severe decline in the design quality of software, but in Patel’s definition, there’s no concept of software as art, as a practice, as a craft. Software brain is purely an obsession with software as a medium in and of itself. A means with no consideration for the end.</summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://daringfireball.net/" xml:lang="en"><![CDATA[
Back in 2009, Merlin Mann and I jointly gave a talk at SxSW titled “<a href="https://daringfireball.net/2009/03/obsession_times_voice">Obsession Times Voice</a>”. Regarding how it turned out, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2009/03/obsession_times_voice">I wrote</a>:
<blockquote>
My muse for the session was this quote from Walt Disney: “We
don’t make movies to make money; we make money to make more
movies.” To me, that’s it. That’s the thing.
</blockquote>
Merlin and I were talking about independent writers and podcasters, because that’s what we were (and remain), but the concept applies just as perfectly to independent developers. This came to my mind after reading (<a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/05/pedometer-plus-plus-8">and linking to</a>) David Smith’s description of the new Pedometer++ today. Not just what it does, but why he spent <a href="https://david-smith.org/blog/2026/04/29/maps-on-watchos/">six years making it</a>. That’s the sort of productive obsession that fascinates me.
Ice water is always refreshing, but it tastes better when you’re on a road trip to hell. It feels like the world of software is bifurcating quality-wise. This <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/04/photoshop-modern-user-interface">whole</a> <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/04/adobe-modern-webpages">thing</a> about <a href="https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/04/30/photoshops-modern-spectrum-user-interface/">Adobe’s new craptacular “modern” UI language</a> (a.k.a. “<a href="https://spectrum.adobe.com/">Spectrum</a>”) exemplifies one side of that bifurcation — the bad-and-getting-worse side. Software that is the product not just of an ignorance of <a href="https://asktog.com/atc/principles-of-interaction-design/">long-established principles of interaction design</a>, but of a <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/bad_dye_job#:~:text=the%20key%20window">willful disdain for those principles</a>. What Adobe is now shipping is just inexplicably bad UI, ignoring literally decades of great work and long-mastered concepts — a lot of which work was <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/04/adobe-modern-webpages">pioneered by Adobe itself</a>!
The <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/13/tahoe-reduce-transparency">whole</a> <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/what_to_do_about_those_menu_item_icons_in_macos_26_tahoe">thing</a> with <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/bad_dye_job">MacOS 26 Tahoe</a> is similar. To be clear, the UI crimes in Tahoe are deeply worrisome, but they are nowhere near as severe as those in Adobe’s Spectrum. But the problems with Tahoe are steps down the same fork in the road that Adobe took years ago. Spectrum is where Tahoe suggests that MacOS was headed under Alan Dye’s leadership: cross-platform sameness for the sake of sameness, with a complete disregard for longstanding platform nuances and idioms. In Spectrum’s case those platforms are MacOS and Windows and <a href="https://helpx.adobe.com/account/individual/subscriptions-and-plans/plan-types-and-eligibility/cc-app-web-mobile-access.html">the web</a>. In Tahoe’s case it’s MacOS and iOS.<a href="#fn1-2026-05-05">1</a>
The other side of the software fork is not deserted. It’s just populated, more than ever, by the products of small independent developers who obsess, first and foremost, over quality and artistic vision. Remarkable new software gems exhibiting spectacular UI design <a href="https://www.currentreader.app/">appear</a> <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/04/chess-peace">all</a> the <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/15/so-close-to-getting-it">time</a>. They’re just not coming from the biggest companies, the ones whose apps, <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/28/netflix-wrecked-their-tvos-video-player">alas</a>, dominate not just our desktops and pockets but our entire culture today.<a href="#fn2-2026-05-05">2</a>
There’s always been software with poorly designed user interfaces. Much of it has been successful financially, sometimes spectacularly so. I’d argue, in all seriousness, that that’s the story of Microsoft in a nutshell. What’s new today is poorly designed software from developers <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/16/miller-netflix-tvos">from whom we expect better</a>. In the old days there were people who would argue that prioritizing good user interface design was a waste of time — like spending hours decorating cupcakes destined for kindergarteners who are simply going to mash them into their mouths. (Again: cf. Microsoft’s undeniable market success.) What’s new today is people holding up objectively bad interaction design and proclaiming it to be good, and the product of teams that purportedly prioritize “design”, when it’s clear they have no idea what they’re talking about. It’s one thing to make something poorly designed and shrug on the grounds that it doesn’t matter. It’s another thing to make something poorly designed and hold it up as good design.
We are justified to expect nothing short of <a href="https://www.folklore.org/How_to_Hire_Insanely_Great_Employees.html">insane greatness</a> from Apple, and solidly good design from Adobe. In principle, all software ought to have well-designed user interfaces. That’s never going to be the case. But software for designers — Adobe’s raison d’être — absolutely demands to be well-designed itself, like how <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/03/31/zinsser">a book on writing</a> must itself <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2009/03/23/strunk-and-white">be well-written</a>.
Perhaps I was wrong, though, to describe Adobe’s new UI as inexplicable. It’s just indefensible. The explanation for so much software going so rotten from a UI-design perspective is, the more I think about it, related to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/podcast/917029/software-brain-ai-backlash-databases-automation">Nilay Patel’s “Software Brain”</a> theory, which I’ve commented on both <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/23/patel-software-brain">directly</a> and <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2026/04/we_dont_serve_their_kind_here">indirectly</a>. Here’s Patel’s definition of “software brain”:
<blockquote>
The simplest definition I’ve come up with is that it’s when you
see the whole world as a series of databases that can be
controlled with the structured language of software code. Like I
said, this is a powerful way of seeing things. So much of our
lives run through databases, and a bunch of important companies
have been built around maintaining those databases and providing
access to them.
Zillow is a database of houses. Uber is a database of cars and
riders. YouTube is a database of videos. The Verge’s website is a
database of stories. You can go on and on and on. Once you start
seeing the world as a bunch of databases, it’s a small jump to
feeling like you can control everything if you can just control
the data.
But that doesn’t always work.
</blockquote>
You might think it counterintuitive that a movement obsessed with software would be spearheading a severe decline in the design quality of software, but in Patel’s definition, there’s no concept of software as art, as a practice, as a craft. Software brain is purely an obsession with software as a medium in and of itself. A means with no consideration for the end.
Framed in Walt Disney’s adage, software brain makes software only to make more money. The idea of making money in order to make more software — to afford the time and talent to craft it — does not compute. Framed in the metaphor that Steve Jobs used to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OesY-denV8k">close his introduction of the original iPad</a>, and returned to again <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUCpuaqlISQ">to close his final keynote at WWDC 2011</a>, software brain is nowhere near the intersection of technology and the liberal arts. Software brain is so far down Technology Street that it’s no longer in the same zip code as Liberal Arts Avenue. Another way, perhaps, to define software brain is that it’s the utter rejection of Jobs’s maxim that “technology is not enough”. With software brain, technology is all there is.
<div class="footnotes">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="fn1-2026-05-05">
I don’t want to belabor the similarities between Adobe’s Spectrum UI system and Apple’s Liquid Glass, because there are significant differences. Foremost, <a href="https://unsung.aresluna.org/photoshops-challenges-with-focus-pt-2/">what’s wrong with Spectrum</a> is wrong everywhere. Photoshop with Adobe’s new “modern” UI is, I suspect, just as bad a Windows app as it is a Mac app. Whereas the usability problems with Liquid Glass are lopsided platform-wise. It’s a litany of disasters on MacOS 26 Tahoe, but actually pretty good on Apple’s other version 26 OSes, especially iOS. There are aspects of Liquid Glass on iOS 26 that some people don’t like, but they’re literally skin-deep. Cosmetic details. Functionally, iOS 26 is pretty strong, and Apple made some very nice changes regarding the placement of things like search fields to improve consistency system-wide. I still have iOS 18 running on my year-old iPhone 16 Pro, and there are very few things I prefer in iOS 18 versus iOS 26. Whereas I’d be sick if I had to work in MacOS 26 Tahoe every day.
That’s my point here. iOS 26 doesn’t suffer in any way — not even one teensy little single way — from MacOS UI idioms being inappropriately applied to the iPhone. On the iPad, maybe there’s a little of that, like, say, the weird way iPadOS 26 uses Mac-style red / yellow / green window control buttons but makes them too small to use, so before you use them, <a href="https://sixcolors.com/post/2025/09/ipados-26-review-a-computer/">you need a gesture to embiggen them temporarily first</a>. But the implementation of “Liquid Glass” on MacOS Tahoe is just riddled with iOS-isms that aren’t appropriate on MacOS. So many decades-old Mac UI nuances and idioms were just ignored. They weren’t changed, they weren’t updated, they were just ignored. You either see that this is true or you don’t, and if you don’t see it, you shouldn’t be designing the Mac user interface. <a href="#fnr1-2026-05-05" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.">↩︎︎</a>
</li>
<li id="fn2-2026-05-05">
Consider the age of television. Television is the broadcast of motion pictures with sound. Cinema is an artform. But at the peak of television’s hegemony over western culture and mass media, the artistic quality of almost everything on TV was terrible. It was slop. It wallowed in its own sloppiness. This, despite the fact that cinematic artists had largely mastered the artform in the decades preceding TV. TV became popular in the 1950s and culturally dominant in the 1960s. But Citizen Kane came out in 1941. The network executives with “TV brain” in the second half of the 20th century didn’t even consider TV as a medium for art. They just cared that it was watched. It was judged only by ratings and ad revenue, not artistic merit. That’s what’s happening with software right now. But remember too, that as dreadful television programming rocketed to stratospheric popularity in the 1970s, that same decade saw <a href="https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000335086/">a remarkable explosion in innovative filmmaking</a> in movie theaters. Keep the faith. <a href="#fnr2-2026-05-05" class="footnoteBackLink" title="Jump back to footnote 2 in the text.">↩︎︎</a>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
]]></content>
<title>★ Software as the Product of Obsession Times Voice</title></entry></feed>

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

Download the "valid Atom 1.0" banner.
Upload the image to your own server. (This step is important. Please do not link directly to the image on this server.)
Add this HTML to your page (change the image src attribute if necessary):

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

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

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

Home · About · News · Docs · Terms