Finally got my R1. The hype has worn off, so not sure it has a place in my life for regular use. Nice little device, though, and very orange.
Still no way for me to submit my app to Meta to approve the Threads API. 🙁 I can add more beta users, but it's difficult to track via replies, so I know I missed a couple people. If you don't have access, email help@micro.blog with your Micro.blog username and Threads username.
In John Gruber's article about Apple Intelligence, he writes about the server impact:
As things stand, with only devices using M-series chips or the A17 or later eligible, Apple is going to be on the hook for an enormous amount of server-side computation with Private Cloud Compute. They’d be on the hook for multiples of that scale if they enabled Apple Intelligence for older iPhones, with those older iPhones doing none of the processing on-device.
Also, people are going to use this more than today's Siri. How often will it need to go to the cloud? Seems very difficult to predict the scale.
Riley Testut posts about no longer trusting Apple with app notarization:
When we first met with the EC a few months ago, we were asked repeatedly if we trusted Apple to be in charge of Notarization. We emphatically said yes.
However, it’s clear to us now that Apple is indeed using Notarization to not only delay our apps, but also to determine on a case-by-case basis how to undermine each release
iOS notarization for marketplaces needs to be reverted to how it works on the Mac. Bad actors can still be stopped without adding another layer to app review.
One good thing about Akamai acquiring Linode: they appear to have a better plan for reaching 100% renewable energy in data centers. According to this, most of my servers are in the 75% renewable range. Better than Texas as a whole, although we do see spikes that high, when it's windy and sunny.
Had a dream last night that for the upcoming presidential debate, Biden's team decided to use all of his time on stage to act out Biden's answers in the style of a broadway musical. What the...? Trump tried to follow along but he didn't prepare for the debate and was lost. No idea what this means. 🇺🇸
As usual, Hillary Clinton is right. From an op-ed today on what to watch for in the debate:
Mr. Biden is one of the most empathetic leaders we’ve ever had. Listen to how sincerely he talks about women’s rights, the struggles of working families, opportunities for people of color and the courage of Ukrainian men and women risking their lives for democracy. Mr. Trump can’t do that because he cares only about himself.
🇺🇸
Local orchestration vs. the cloud
Excellent post by Jason Snell on the upcoming era of orchestrated apps, where much of what we do with our iPhone might be using AI as a bridge between multiple apps and their local data:
When everything is orchestrated properly, all the capabilities of all your apps are put into a big soup, and the AI system at the heart of your device can choose the right capabilities to do what you need it to do—without you having to specify all the steps it needs to take to get there.
This is a good strategy for Apple because it leverages their strengths with privacy and a complete ecosystem of apps. However, there's a problem, something I've written about a few times including recently in this post about Siri before WWDC. What if you want the same functionality on your HomePod? Or on your Mac that doesn't have the same apps installed? App intents are local to each device, potentially creating a disjointed experience when not at your iPhone.
If an assistant doesn't have consistent functionality everywhere, something in the illusion is broken. Apple's solution can still be good, but I think it will always come up a little bit short. (They may make up for it by having an overwhelming advantage in third-party apps that use intents, and the fact that most people's computing is predominantly or only on their phones anyway.)
A different take would be for the apps and intents to be synced with the cloud, so that they are universally available to your assistant from all devices. There are privacy trade-offs on this path, but I think ultimately it's where many people will want to go.
Google is probably best positioned for this alternative, more cloud-based approach to AI. They already have your private email, and I'm not sure most people consider whether it's encrypted or just sitting around on Google servers. I wouldn't rule out OpenAI either, since something like this is clearly part of their vision. Whoever it is, I could see Apple and another company rising to become a new sort of duopoly for AI. Apple as the private, mostly on-device option, and someone else as the always available, cross-platform assistant.
If you're keeping score, Hillary has now written three books since losing the 2016 election. An inspiration in getting back up after a failure that would destroy most of us. What's next?
Molly White makes a point that I've also been trying to articulate about AI crawling, but I think her post is better than my first attempts. Some level of open access is an important part of what makes the web special:
..."only allow humans to access" is just not an achievable goal. Any attempt at limiting bot access will inevitably allow some bots through and prevent some humans from accessing the site, and it's about deciding where you want to set the cutoff.
Threads has rolled out seeing replies from other platforms, filling one of the biggest holes in their fediverse support. Nice to see the progress. There is still quite a bit to do (replies to those replies, moving accounts) but it feels much closer to complete.
When a company withholds a feature from the EU because of the DMA — Apple for AI, Meta today for the fediverse — they should document which sections of the DMA would potentially be violated. Let users fact-check whether there's a real problem.
For folks beta testing automatic cross-posting from Micro.blog to Threads, if you like to tinker, we are now including the Threads post ID and permalink in each blog post metadata. See this help page for how to access it from custom themes.
Can't believe I didn't know about this Snow White Cafe, in operation since 1946... until now:
Its interior, which was decorated with murals of characters from Disney’s first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, has been gutted.
There is plenty of lore surrounding the Disney murals. Some say the artwork was drawn by Disney artists who worked on the original feature — and it may have been, though there’s no way to prove it.
Would've loved to visit it when I was in LA a couple years ago. Too late.
More DMA, more rejections, more exhaustion
Nick Heer on the latest DMA news and UTM rejection:
Perhaps there are legitimate security concerns in the UTM emulator. The burden of proof for that claim rests on Apple, however, and its ability to be a reliable narrator is sometimes questionable. Consider the possible conflicts of interest in App Tracking Transparency rules raised by German competition authorities.
Apple's handling of the App Store is getting so old. It's exhausting that there is always drama, always bad faith efforts, always two steps forward, one step back. Here's what I blogged 13 years ago:
Apple, want to charge 30%? Go for it. Want to make the submission rules more strict? Fine. Want to adjust how you run the App Store to reflect what’s happening in the market? No problem. Just give developers an out. We are going to be back here year after year with the latest controversy until exclusive app distribution is fixed.
Maybe nothing I've written in 20 years of blogging has proven more true than that statement. Enough already! Just let us build apps that customers want and distribute them outside the store without gimmicks. That's what the DMA is about and Apple knows it.
Some progress with the Threads API, the issue with the Meta dev dashboard not updating to show API calls has been fixed. However, there's still no way to submit the app for review. Expecting an "App review" option in the sidebar, but it's not there.
NBA draft tonight! Spurs have the 4th and 8th picks. Last season's record was bad, but the team started winning games late in the season. Back in the playoffs soon. 🏀
Anyone who enjoys writing or photography or sharing anything online should have their own microblog at their own domain. Haven't we learned by now that posting exclusively on other people's platforms is a dead end? Might as well write on scraps of paper outside and let the wind take them.
I like the idea of a smaller e-ink reader, whether it's running Android or not, so I'm almost tempted by this weird device that John Moltz reviewed at Six Colors. Still happy with the Kindle Paperwhite, but if it was just a little narrower I'd take it with me even more often.
Threads API access was rejected for Micro.blog. 🙄 Going to redo the submission and record new demo screencasts for app reviewers. I've got dozens of real users using this, quite frustrating to jump through hoops for something so basic.
Jeremy Keith on how human-curated bookmarks could help adapt to a web filled with AI content:
It used to be that when you found a source you trusted, you bookmarked it. Browsers still have bookmarking functionality but most people rely on search. Maybe it’s time for a bookmarking revival.
Just another night in America, where the President of the United States has to debate a convicted felon. 🇺🇸
Happy for LeBron that Bronny is going to the Lakers. Such a unique chance to play together that’s unlikely to happen in the league again. 🏀
Debate halftime! Biden is just warming up, everyone. Trump is, of course, constantly lying. It’s ridiculouss that we even have to be here as a country, and I feel sad that Biden has to shoulder everything himself. He’s not perfect but he’s good and who we have to hold up sanity. 🇺🇸
There’s a really substantive conversation on MSNBC right now about the president’s job as a communicator vs. a decision-maker, and all the things Biden has accomplished, the historical context with FDR and others, etc. I’m still conflicted about what this debate actually means. 🇺🇸
You know who had a great debate against Trump? Hillary Clinton. I’m not saying she should jump in and rescue the Democrats — although I’d be good with it! — but to say that an election is more complicated than one thing. Biden could’ve been better. He had a few good moments. It’s on us now. 🇺🇸
My favorite moment and the most clear line from Biden against Trump: “Something snapped in you when you lost the last time.” We got bogged down in policy tonight, which is pointless because Trump doesn’t know anything or believe in anyone except himself. 🇺🇸
It's a new day. Pick yourself back up. There's a lot to do. What's next? 🇺🇸
The current Supreme Court is broken. If Joe Biden wants to change the narrative, announce that he's working with Congress to expand the court with an additional four justices. A couple to be nominated now, a couple for later presidents. 🇺🇸
visionOS and peak Apple
Jason Snell makes the case for hand controllers and other changes to the Vision Pro:
I’ve got a Vision Pro and a Meta Quest 3. And yet the Quest 3, which costs about one-seventh of the price of the Vision Pro, is a vastly superior platform when it comes to playing certain kinds of games. Games just require precision positioning (through detailed movement tracking), and input (via on-controller buttons) that waving your hands and tapping fingers together in Vision Pro just can’t match.
Jason has good ideas for improving Vision Pro, but I think the problem is more fundamental than that. visionOS is a bust.
Most users don't want to strap a computer to their face. Most developers don't want to dedicate time to redesigning their apps. Some people love the Vision Pro, and that's great for them, but it's not a mainstream product.
I said on Core Intuition last year that it will be 20 years before technology catches up to Apple's vision of spacial computing, with normal-looking AR glasses that can do most of what the Vision Pro can do. I think there will be compelling AR glasses before then, but they won't run visionOS as we know it today.
As I blogged about when I said Apple needs a flop:
Maybe we’re at a crossroads for the company. Apple was great as the underdog, when they were humbled, fighting to out-innovate the competition. What came after the Lisa? The Macintosh. After almost going bankrupt? Think Different and the iMac. After the butterfly keyboard? Some of the best MacBooks ever made.
Apple has lost something on the path to becoming a $3 trillion company. They're not going to get it back, because it's something that's hard to define, something that slips through your fingers when you try to do too much. The larger a company gets, the less capable they are of reaching beyond obvious products. The iPod formula of "we're not first, but we're the best" is no longer working. Everyone else is innovating too.
I said this year that we're at "peak Apple", and I still believe it:
Apple has been an inspiration for me for 30 years. A massive success. I think this is as good as it gets for them. They are simply too big to fundamentally rethink anything for what’s next.
There may never be another company like Apple. Still, I hope there's room somewhere under the boots of the mobile duopoly for a new upstart. A product that is built natively for the open web, with a new take on how devices can be part of our lives, untethered from Apple and Google. If I squint a little I can almost see it happening.
I updated the Micro.blog blogroll plug-in today, adding more control over whether to show the blog's domain name (now defaulting to not show it) and optional "about" text when setting up a recommendation. The help page has been updated with examples.
Dave Winer blogs about a new experiment to make a collection of blogrolls by following a site's blogroll looking for other blogrolls. This is important because blogrolls can effectively be a social graph, a way to discover and follow other bloggers.
I watched all of Joe Biden’s campaign speech from today. Wish he was half as good last night as he was today. He’s got a cough, but he looked so much better.
I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth. I know right from wrong.
Not sure how this is going to play out, but I’m feeling better. 🇺🇸
Just posted a new Core Intuition. Daniel and I talk about the latest news with Apple and the EU's DMA, then I complain a little about Micro.blog not getting approved yet for using the Threads API. Planning to resubmit the app with a new screencast after the weekend.
Camping in Texas in the summer is not fun, but I keep thinking I’ll figure out how to solve it with technology, each time getting a little closer. It won’t be below 80° until 2am tonight.
Morning at Guadalupe River State Park.
I'm not one to impulsively cancel subscriptions when I disagree with the leadership or when there's a misstep, but I'm really starting to question sticking with The New York Times. It's not a partisan thing. Their coverage feels weak in all the moments when we need it to be exceptional.
Kora Kora Coffee in Gruene, Texas. ☕️
Went to see the first chapter of Horizon tonight and love what they’re doing with it. So much time to let characters and plot lines develop. 🍿
Biden had a horrible night Thursday. But the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.
🇺🇸
Excellent article in The Washington Post about an Infinium plant in Corpus Christi producing diesel fuel from water and (mostly) renewable energy. Pairs really well with the Terraform founder interview on Stratechery I blogged about earlier this month.
I've been inspired by what feels like a renewed push for massive solar infrastructure, so recently bought a small solar panel from Jackery. Excellent for road trips and camping. I have a couple batteries and use the panel with the small Explorer 100 Plus. (This is going to sound like a Jackery ad.)
Trail bridge at Bastrop State Park. Trees are slowly coming back after the 2011 fire.
Chris Paul to the Spurs? I did not see that coming. 🏀
Monday after the debate, and I'm mostly annoyed with Biden's staff and campaign today. We talk a lot about how he surrounds himself with competent people. I believe that, but they need to adjust and stop scheduling him like he's 40 years old. More time to think and rest. 🇺🇸
