Sebastiaan de With, in a wonderfully-illustrated piece (a) examining, in detail, where iOS UI has been, and (b) speculating, with detailed mockups, where he thinks/hopes it’s about to go, starting at WWDC next week: I’d like to imagine what could come next. Both by rendering some UI design of my own, and by thinking out what the philosophy of the New Age could be. A logical next step could be extending physicality to the entirety of the interface. We do not have to go overboard in such treatment [more]

With a looming 10-year ban on any AI regulation at all, even the right is starting to get nervous about what might go wrong

From my 2011 post linking to Fantastical 1.0: Fantastical’s primary innovation is its natural language parser for event creation — you type something like “Yanks-Rays tonight at 6:40” and Fantastical not only parses that into a new event, but, using some very clever animation and design work, shows you what it thinks you mean before you hit return to actually create the new event. Watch their screencast to see what I mean. Four years ago I wrote a piece called “Deal With It”, about how some UIs [more]

Flexibits: Just forward emails to email@fantastical.app from any email address linked with your Flexibits Account and Fantastical will convert them into events or tasks to quickly add to your calendar. After a few seconds you’ll see detected events appear in Fantastical where you can quickly add them as an event or task. [...] Emails are processed by Flexibits servers and Google Cloud and then deleted immediately after they are processed. Emails are not used or retained by Flexibits or Google Cl [more]

Matthew Garrahan, in the Financial Times: Sir Jony Ive remembers the day in 1997 when he first met Laurene Powell Jobs, outside the house she shared with her late husband, Steve. [...] “I was often at the house,” Ive says. “Certainly on the weekends,” says Powell Jobs, sitting across from him on a long table. Ive nods. “It feels to me like we grew up together,” he says. “We’ve gone through hard things and happy things...” “... family and children and work,” says Powell Jobs. “There’s that Freud [more]

Benjamin Mayo, writing at 9to5Mac: Apple has appealed parts of the Digital Markets Act law citing user privacy concerns. Specifically, Apple is contesting the interoperability requirements that say data like notification content and WiFi networks should be made available to third-parties. Apple says the DMA as written allows others to “access personal information that even Apple doesn’t see”. This is because features like notification rendering and WiFi network data are currently handled on-devi [more]

Expectations for the company's AI device are already sky-high — and Jony Ive keeps raising them

WhatsApp: As one of our biggest requests, we’re excited to announce that WhatsApp is now available on iPad.[...] We’ve made WhatsApp for iPad ideal for multitasking so you can get more done. Take advantage of iPadOS multitasking features such as Stage Manager, Split View, and Slide Over to view multiple apps at once, so you can send messages while browsing the web, or research options for a group trip while on a call together. WhatsApp also works with your Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil. One of [more]

Mark Alldritt, Late Night Software: The day has finally come. After 30 years of continuous development, Script Debugger has been retired and will no longer be available for sale. Please see this post for more information. Over the last few months we have received a wonderful outpouring of well wishes and stories from our customers describing how Script Debugger has helped them over the years, via email and on our forum. [...] Script Debugger is now a free download. Links to all versions of Scrip [more]

Read to the end for what three soda pops no lunch feels like

Roundup 06/02/2025

Hey, folks. I just wanted to let you know that I’m going to be away from the site for a couple of weeks for a family vacation. No guest editor or anything…just going off the air for a much needed rest. Wishing everyone well and I will see you in mid-June. Tags: kottke.org

The latest issue of Jodi Ettenberg’s The Curious About Everything newsletter is typically great — every link worth your attention. Best to have a few hours free before diving in. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Astronomers discover strange new celestial object in our Milky Way galaxy. “It was the first time X-rays had been seen coming from a so-called long-period radio transient, a rare object that cycles through radio signals over tens of minutes.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

King of the Hill is returning after 15 years. “Hank and Peggy Hill are now retired and return to a changed Arlen after years of working in Saudi Arabia; and Bobby is 21 and living his best life while navigating adulthood as a chef.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Taylor Swift has bought back the rights to her first six albums. “All of the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Teaser trailer for Wake Up Dead Man, the third in the Knives Out series by Rian Johnson. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

David Lynch’s estate auction, including cameras, clothes, books, memorabilia, megaphones, scripts, vinyl, furniture, coffee makers & grinders, art supplies, musical instruments, etc. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

A new microgenre

If you can stop gawping at Alaska’s gorgeous scenery long enough, you can witness drone footage of a whole lot of salmon migrating upstream from Lake Iliamna1 to spawn. (via digg) Lake Iliamna is home to the supposed Iliamna Lake Monster, a beast “10-30 feet in length with a square-like head that is used to place blunt force unto things such as small boats”. Where’s the drone footage of that?!↩ [This is a vintage post originally from Apr 2016.] Tags: Alaska · timeless posts · video

I like this song (Lifelike’s So Electric) and I like this video (footage of Olivia Newton John in the movie Xanadu set to Lifelike’s So Electric). 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Read to the end for Pittbert

Two interesting things about the rock paper scissors game: 1. scissors were actually invented before paper, and 2. an early Japanese variant was frog slug snake (frog beats slug, slug beats snake, snake beats frog). 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

A supercut of every point scored by Kobe Bryant in his 81-point game in 2006. He only had 26 at the half and his team needed the points…they were losing until just before the 4th quarter. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

The Criterion Collection is releasing a new boxset of Wes Anderson films, The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years. Wes Anderson’s first ten features represent twenty-five years of irrepressible creativity, an ongoing ode to outsiders and quixotic dreamers, and a world unto themselves, graced with a mischievous wit and a current of existential melancholy that flows through every captivating frame. This momentous twenty-disc collector’s set includes new 4K masters of the films, over [more]

The actor Patrick Stewart exists in the Star Trek universe and “Jean-Luc Picard is aware of him” and other little-known Star Trek facts. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

28 slightly rude notes on writing. “Most writing is bad because it’s missing a motive. It feels dead because it hasn’t found its reason to live.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Grammar movies: Apostrophes Now, Rebel Without a Clause, Gerund Brockovich, Alien vs Predicator, Indicative Jones and the Last Clause, Silence of the iambs, etc. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

“All three of the country’s largest carriers (American Airlines, United Airlines, and Delta) are penalizing solo travelers with higher ticket prices than you can book when traveling with a group.” Assholes. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Location: The California Theatre, San Jose Showtime: Tuesday, 10 June 2025, 7pm PT (Doors open 6pm) Special Guest(s): See below Price: $50 Ever since I started doing these live shows from WWDC, I’ve kept the guest(s) secret, until showtime. I’m still doing that this year. But in recent years the guests have seemed a bit predictable: senior executives from Apple. This year I again extended my usual invitation to Apple, but, for the first time since 2015, they declined. I think this will make f [more]

Patrick McGee joins the show to discuss his must-read new book, Apple in China — one of the best books about Apple anyone has ever written. Sponsored by: Factor: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. Notion: Your notes, docs, and projects in one space. Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.  ★

Artificial intelligence is already writing an obituary for the internet as we know it. So why is everyone building new web browsers?

ESA’s Proba-3 is planning on creating an artificial eclipse to study the sun’s corona. The two halves of the solar probe recently achieved “millimetre precision” while flying autonomously in formation for several hours 50,000 km above the Earth. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Caine is nine years old, lives in LA, and built his own arcade out of cardboard boxes in the back of his father’s auto parts store. You’ve go to watch until at least 3:10 when he explains how to check the validity of the “Fun Pass” using the calculators located on the front of each game. So so so good! [This is a vintage post originally from Apr 2012.] Tags: timeless posts · video

Don’t mind me, I’m just watching old episodes of The Great Space Coaster on YouTube (Does anyone else remember this show? I watched it as a kid along with 3-2-1 Contact, Captain Kangaroo, H.R. Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, etc.) 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

In this video, a writer named Hannah shares an experiment her Intro to Psychology professor ran on her class. Here’s a transcript: It’s 11 years ago, I’m in a massive university Intro to Psychology class. Everybody in my 250-person lecture is freaking out because it’s the last class before the exams and none of us are ready. Professor says, “you know what, you guys seem stressed. I’m just gonna give all of you a 95%, blanket across the board — but you have to vote unanimously on it.” He puts the [more]

The 100 best sports moments of the 21st century (so far). Hmm. That’s all I’m going to say about this list. Hmm. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Re: SpaceX rockets that keep exploding: You Can’t Make an Omelette Without Exploding Several Billion Dollars Worth of Eggs. “Look, things explode. It’s just part of nature. Cybertrucks explode, and it’s no big deal.”

Alexandra Petri has some advice for the 2025 Harvard grad who will become ludicrously rich: “After the cataclysmic Event happens that unravels society and sends me scurrying to my luxury bunker, how do I keep my guards loyal?”

Among a number of things I’ve read online that I think about all the time is David Roberts’ 2020 piece for Vox about shifting baselines. Humans often don’t remember what we’ve lost or demand that it be restored. Rather, we adjust to what we’ve got. Concepts developed in sociology and psychology can help us understand why it happens — and why it is such a danger in an age of accelerating, interlocking crises. Tackling climate change, pandemics, or any of a range of modern global problems means ke [more]

Pediatrician Dr. Annie Andrews is running against Lindsey Graham for one of South Carolina’s Senate seats. Based on the commercial launching her campaign, I kinda want to move to SC just so I can vote for her.

Tony Romm and Ana Swanson, reporting for The New York Times (paywall-busting gift link): A panel of federal judges on Wednesday blocked President Trump from imposing some of his steepest tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners, finding that federal law did not grant him “unbounded authority” to tax imports from nearly every country around the world. The ruling, by the U.S. Court of International Trade, delivered an early yet significant setback to Mr. Trump, undercutting his primary lev [more]

Harvard student: “I shall fight Secretary of Education Linda E. McMahon in a televised cage match, the winner of which gets $2.7 billion in federal grants and the power to uphold or destroy America’s continued technological and economic success.”

New apt acronym for America’s lamest president: TACO, which stands for Trump Always Chickens Out. He should be hounded about his perpetual lack of spine…this is the sort of thing that really gnaws at fake strongmen.

The curse of Toumaï: an ancient skull, a disputed femur and a bitter feud over humanity’s origins. “‘This piece,’ he warned, holding it before her: ‘You forget you ever saw it.’” Great read. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Apple Newsroom, yesterday: Apple’s strong antifraud infrastructure helps ensure that malicious developer and customer accounts are swiftly flagged and eliminated. In 2024, Apple terminated more than 146,000 developer accounts over fraud concerns and rejected an additional 139,000 developer enrollments, preventing bad actors from submitting their apps to the App Store in the first place. Apple also rejected over 711 million customer account creations and deactivated nearly 129 million customer ac [more]

Hell of a scoop from Mark Gurman, at Bloomberg: The next Apple operating systems will be identified by year, rather than with a version number, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That means the current iOS 18 will give way to “iOS 26,” said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is still private. Other updates will be known as iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26 and visionOS 26. Apple is making the change to bring consistency to its branding and move away [more]

This rings true: “Elon Musk is less like Tony Stark and more like Michael Scott.” The future he’s selling us is Stark Industries but what we’re getting is Dunder Mifflin.

Happy 20th anniversary to Swissmiss, Tina Roth Eisenberg’s design/creativity/positivity blog. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Born in 1790 just a few months after George Washington took office, John Tyler was America’s 10th president, serving from 1841-1845. Harrison Ruffin Tyler, Tyler’s last living grandson, died this past weekend at the age of 96. As long as he lived, much of the great sweep of American history could be contained in just three generations of memory. I wrote about Harrison and his brother Lyon Gardiner Tyler Jr. back in 2012 and again in 2020 when Lyon died. John Tyler was born barely a year into G [more]

A recent study: “Ibn al-Shatir was the first astronomer to have successfully challenged the Ptolemaic cosmological system of planets revolving around Earth and corrected the theory’s inaccuracies about two centuries before Copernicus.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Read to the end for a good post about aliens

Top 25 Premier League goals of 2024-25 season. I like a good screamer from outside the box as much as anyone, but where are the good team goals? Were there any? 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Taegan Goddard: For all the bluster and bravado, Donald Trump is losing. A lot. Keep the faith.  ★

Resourceful: “Shooting down a $100,000 Russian drone with an air-defense missile might cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. Shooting it down with a shotgun from a light plane might cost a few thousand dollars.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Hank Green believes how grocery stores are organized is broken. (True.) His solution is to take inspiration from libraries and organize the shelves of every grocery store in the entire world according to the Chewy Decimal System. TIL that maybe librarians don’t like the Dewey Decimal System? Dewey sucks so much and it’s never going away. It was designed in a 19th century white dude mindset that splits religion (200-299) into Christianity (200-289) and Other (290-299), sections books about indige [more]

This a great piece about the challenges many are facing in participating in activism. “Nothing will feel like enough because everything we know and love is at stake.”

You can play Doom in this NY Times article about how you can run Doom almost anywhere (in a PDF, on an iPod, on a pregnancy test, on a treadmill, etc.) “Doom was developed in a really unique way that lent a high degree of portability to its code base.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Established industries don’t get disrupted all that often. We at Ooni are lucky enough to have changed the game in pizza ovens over the past decade by rethinking them from ground up and in the process enabling the home pizza revolution. From our deep knowledge in pizza dough we found our next category: the stand mixer. Domestic kitchen stand mixers have stayed the same for nearly hundred years. There’s a very well established incumbent in the market who only really innovate in color trends. W [more]

The company looks poised to put its antitrust woes behind it. But its other trials may only be just beginning

Michael Flarup: Whatever we call it (Diamorph or otherwise), I’m just glad to see interfaces getting weird and wonderful again. We’re not going back. We’re going forward — with depth, with texture, and maybe even with a little joy. Depth is good — humans innately understand three dimensions. Texture is good. We’ve lost so much over the last decade. I hope that’s where Apple is heading back.  ★

Jason Snell, pouring some admittedly welcome skepticism on the whole LoveFrom-OpenAI IO endeavor: I’m skeptical of the composition of the io leadership team, which features an awful lot of product designers and not a lot of hardware engineers. I’m sure there are talented engineers there too — the OpenAI announcement refers to “physicists, scientists, researchers” among the team members — but the fact remains that this is a startup whose leader and key lieutenants appear to all be designers. Mayb [more]

A Disillusioned Urban Planning Glossary. “NIMBY – Stands for ‘Not in My Backyard.’ From the Old English nimm bæc yarde, meaning ‘no change shall occur within sightline of my bird feeder.’”

This looks really interesting: Rogue One recut and rescored in the style of a three-episode Andor arc that moves “its energy from emulating the jaunty, swashbuckling [original trilogy] to more in line with its prequel show’s feel”. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Aaron “Homeboy” Tilley (recently of the WSJ) and Wayne Ma, at the paywalled-up-the-wazoo The Information: Starting in 2015, Apple and Boeing held early discussions about a satellite internet project that would involve delivering full-blown wireless internet service, not just emergency communications services, to iPhones and homes, said five people involved in or briefed on the project. Through the effort, dubbed Project Eagle within Apple, the companies would lob thousands of Boeing satellites i [more]

Josh Miller, CEO of The Browser Company, on their decision to abandon their new browser Arc in favor of going all-in on their newer browser Dia: Early on, Scott Forstall told us Arc felt like a saxophone — powerful but hard to learn. Then he challenged us: make it a piano. Something anyone can sit down at and play. This is now the idea behind Dia: hide complexity behind familiar interfaces. Forstall’s advice sounds perfect, but I don’t know how they square this with the people — and I know a few [more]

I’ve been giving Tripp Mickle quite a bit of grief over his dumb “Is Trump’s ‘Made in America’ iPhone a Fantasy?” story, but this is an interesting nugget I haven’t seen anyone else highlight: In the run-up to President Trump’s recent trip to the Middle East, the White House encouraged chief executives and representatives of many U.S. companies to join him. Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, declined, said two people familiar with the decision. The choice appeared to irritate Mr. Trump. As he ho [more]

We’re witnessing the reversal of Reconstruction. “ICE raids are the new night rides. Detention centers are the new plantations. The trauma, the terror, the family separations — they’re not unintended consequences. They are the point.”

Max Roberts: I hate to say it, but the Puzzmo app is not a good experience. It is a real shame that Zach and team launched it in this state. What makes the shame heavier is that Zach is a superb designer. I know he works with excellent designers too. The team has fallen short in an off-putting way. Thankfully, Gruber is not a betting man. I have to say, I do like having a Puzzmo app, but I don’t think the experience is that much better than the web app version.  ★

I love this gorgeous woodblock print from Hasui Kawase, View of Azalea Garden from Mt. Fuji. Hasui was a significant influence on Studio Ghibli & Hayao Miyazaki. After all, the influence of Kawase on Ghibli, Miyazaki and his team of genius illustrators and animators is plain to see, and Miyazaki himself has previously stated his deep admiration for the legendary painter. The ability of Kawase to capture natural beauty alongside the human experience plays a significant part in Miyazaki’s love for [more]

It usually takes weeks to climb Mt Everest due to altitude acclimation. A group of British climbers did it in less than a week by inhaling xenon gas, which allegedly helps acclimatize people to high altitudes more quickly. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

The Who Cares Era. “At a time where the government’s uncaring boot is pressing down on all of our necks, the best way to fight back is to care. Care loudly. Tell others. Get going.”

European airlines are redirecting flights from American cities to destinations like Canada, Mexico, and Brazil as “more passengers [opt] for destinations that offer smoother entry, better seasonal deals, and fewer political complications”.

These are owls in towels. That’s it, that’s the post. Nothing in the animal kingdom emotes better than an owl. (thx, david) Tags: birds 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

“Fascism sets in EXACTLY like this. Days go by. Nothing improves. The people wait with bated breath for SOMETHING or SOMEONE to help…”

Some photos, videos, and observations from a visit to a West Virginian snake handling church. “Chris Wolford, their pastor, handles snakes, drinks strychnine, brushes fire across his face and hands…” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

The Crafters of Andor. Anil Dash has compiled the DVD extras for Andor, an expertly crafted action drama about fighting fascism that also happens to be a Star Wars series. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Stephen Hackett, proprietor of 512 Pixels and co-founder of Relay (purveyor of many fine podcasts), joins the show. Topics include: IO (or if you will, io), the new joint venture of OpenAI and Jony Ive’s LoveFrom; the sheer fantasy of “Made in America” iPhones; and Fortnite’s return to the US App Store. Sponsored by: WorkOS: The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS — free up to 1 million monthly active users. BetterHelp: Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp and get on your way to being your [more]

Tina Nguyen at The Verge: I interviewed an enthusiastic crypto trader who figured out how to win the contest without losing any money: buy enough $TRUMP to get onto the leaderboard — and then in a separate wallet on a separate exchange, buy $TRUMP perpetual futures that would be profitable if (or as he saw it, when) the value of $TRUMP dropped. Yes, he did The Big Short, except with Donald Trump’s meme coin. “Bet you 10 percent of dinner participants are doing this,” he told me before the contes [more]

Here’s a spoof commercial from the 1990 movie Crazy People, starring Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah, which TMDB synopsizes: A bitter ad executive, who has reached his breaking point, finds himself in a mental institution, where his career actually begins to thrive with the help of the hospital’s patients. The New York Times would have you believe this is relevant to Apple’s supply chain reliance on China.  ★

Julia Carrie Wong, a reporter for the Guardian, has a whole thread over on Bluesky digging into the bizarre “young Chinese women have small fingers” line in Tripp Mickle’s New York Times story that tries to pretend that maybe sorta kinda Apple could assemble iPhones in the US. Mickle attributed the claim to “supply chain experts said”. Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander emailed Wong a statement that included the following: Our reporting does not make racial or genetic generalizations, but si [more]

David Heinemeier Hansson (last week): Thanks to their fight for Fortnite, app developers everywhere are now allowed to link out of apps to their own web-based payment system in the US store (but, sadly, nowhere else yet). This is all we ever wanted from Apple: to have a way to distribute our iPhone apps and keep the customer relationship by billing directly. The 30% toll gets all the attention, and it is ludicrously egregious, but to us, it’s just as much about retaining that direct customer rel [more]

My thanks to Drata for sponsoring this last week at DF. Their message is short and sweet: Automate compliance. Streamline security. Manage risk. Drata delivers the world’s most advanced Trust Management platform.  ★

Roundup 05/25/2025

The New York Times ran a really dumb Tripp Mickle piece yesterday under the headline “Is Trump’s ‘Made in America’ iPhone a Fantasy?” The answer should have simply been “Yes, it’s sheer fantasy”, perhaps with explanations why. Instead, Mickle twists the piece into pretzels to make it seem like the answer is maybe, even though there’s not a single fact to back that up. Not one. The only thing that backs up any answer other than “It’s a fantasy, can’t happen, makes no sense” are comments from anal [more]

It’s Friday and so we’ll end the week with a pair of poems. Good Bones by Maggie Smith: Life is short, though I keep this from my children. This Be The Verse by Philip Larkin: They fuck you up, your mum and dad. Those are just excerpts…click through to read the whole poems. I’ll see you next week. Tags: Maggie Smith · parenting · Philip Larkin · poetry 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

A new offering from Swiss hotels: Bees & Friends. “We’re welcoming bees, butterflies, insects and hedgehogs with their own charming little homes, nestled right next to our hotels.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Now on public display for the first time, at MoMA: a collection of watercolor drawings of flowers by Hilma af Klint. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Emma Roth, The Verge: Mozilla is shutting down Pocket, the handy bookmarking tool used to save articles and webpages for later. The organization announced that Pocket will stop working on July 8th, 2025, as Mozilla begins concentrating its “resources into projects that better match their browsing habits and online needs.” Following the shutdown, you’ll only be able to export saves until October 8th, 2025, which is when Mozilla will permanently delete user data. Mozilla says it will start automat [more]

The president of the United States on his blog: I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s [sic] that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your [sic] for your attention to this matter! Last night Trump held his crypto memecoin grift gala at his Virginia golf club, about which The New York T [more]

Apple TV+ and filmmaker Rebecca Miller are doing a five-part documentary about director Martin Scorsese. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Here’s a bit of an eye-opener from Anthropic’s “System Card” for its new Claude 4 Opus and Sonnet models: We conducted testing continuously throughout finetuning and here report both on the final Claude Opus 4 and on trends we observed earlier in training. We found: Little evidence of systematic, coherent deception: None of the snapshots we tested showed significant signs of systematic deception or coherent hidden goals. We don’t believe that Claude Opus 4 is acting on any goal or plan that we c [more]

Read to the end for an awesome Mixtec drinking cup from Zaachila, Mexico

The Problem with My City Is That It’s a City. “I moved to this city as a wide-eyed twenty-year-old, ready to take on the world with energetic abandon. Now, I’m no longer twenty years old. Something really has changed with this city.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

“Today, faced with a president who seemingly has no concern for constitutional limitations, the carefully crafted restrictions of the Constitution appear to be unenforceable; the courts are ineffective, and Congress doesn’t seem to care.”

Generative AI and devices haven't yet found a good fit. Will Jony Ive be the one to change that? PLUS: Claude 4 arrives

Anthropic: Today, we’re introducing the next generation of Claude models: Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, setting new standards for coding, advanced reasoning, and AI agents. Claude Opus 4 is the world’s best coding model, with sustained performance on complex, long-running tasks and agent workflows. Claude Sonnet 4 is a significant upgrade to Claude Sonnet 3.7, delivering superior coding and reasoning while responding more precisely to your instructions. It’s almost as though this is a fast- [more]

Old school food blogger Adam Roberts has a new novel out this week called Food Person in which “a young and socially awkward writer takes a job ghostwriting the cookbook for a famous (and famously chaotic) Hollywood starlet”. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

Juli Clover at MacRumors: To change your default app, you’ll need to install the latest version of the Google Translate app, which was released today. From there, you can open up the Settings app, select the Apps section, tap on Default Apps, tap Translation, and choose Google Translate instead of Apple Translate. [...] iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 added the ability for users to set a different translation app as their default. Users worldwide can select Google Translate or another translation app a [more]

Mark Gurman and Shirin Ghaffary, reporting yesterday for Bloomberg: Billionaire philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs is an io backer as well, through her firm the Emerson Collective. Other investors include Sutter Hill Ventures, Thrive Capital, Maverick Ventures and SV Angel. Altman doesn’t have equity in io, OpenAI said. [...] When he left Apple six years ago, Ive started the firm LoveFrom, a collective of designers and engineers. The staff includes veterans of Apple’s hardware and software depar [more]

MG Siegler, back on Sunday, before Judge Gonzales Rogers’s “settle this between yourselves or I’ll see you in court next week” order on Monday: Again, Sweeney is not a moron, he has to know all of this. But why simply sit quietly when you have an excuse to poke the bear again and raise hell for your cause? So that’s what he’s doing. He wasn’t going to win the legal fight, but he could win the political one. And now he’s not going to win this legal fight, but he can win the pressure campaign. Es [more]

The Quilters (trailer) is a short documentary about a group of men in a Missouri prison who spend 40 hours a week making birthday quilts for foster kids and kids with disabilities. The Quilters follows the daily lives of several quilters inside the sewing room at South Central Correctional Center, a Level 5 maximum-security prison in a small town two hours south of St. Louis, MO. From design to completion, the men reveal their struggles, triumphs, and sense of pride in creating something beautif [more]

PJ Vogt, in a very fun episode of his podcast, Search Engine: A small group of Americans becomes convinced they’ve discovered something strange about their iPhones: a forbidden phrase the phone will refuse to transmit. A crack podcasting team searches for answers, wherever they may lead. The bug is that if you send an audio voice message in Apple Messages, and mention the name “Dave & Busters”, the recipient will never receive the message. I had a good guess, right away, what was happening. But [more]

Conservationists are planting giant sequoia trees in Detroit. “We’re planting the forest of the future. Diversity is the answer. There are so many natives that aren’t happy here anymore. We have to look at what trees are thriving.” 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

The Sunday Times of London ran a good excerpt from Patrick McGee’s Apple in China (News+ link, in case you need it): The ripple effect from Apple’s investments across Chinese industry was accelerated by a rule imposed by Apple that its suppliers could be no more than 50 per cent reliant on the tech giant for their revenues. This was to ensure that a supplier wouldn’t go bust overnight if a new Apple design did away with components it manufactured. So as iPhone volumes soared from under ten milli [more]

The Daily Show: Award-winning journalist Patrick McGee joins Jon Stewart to discuss how Apple built China in his new book Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company. They talk about Apple “sleepwalking” into this crisis, building a competitive market in Xi Jinping’s authoritarian state, the vocational training that boosted rivals, how Trump’s attempted Apple boycott backfired, and whether investments may be facilitating the annexation of Taiwan. Terrific interview. I’m a few cha [more]

Barry Ritholtz, in an excerpt from his brand-new book, How Not to Invest, marking the occasion of the 24th anniversary of Cliff Edwards’s claim chowder hall of famer, predicting doom for Apple’s then-new foray into its own chain of retail stores: There are many genuinely revolutionary products and services that, when they come along, change everything. Pick your favorite: the iPod and iPhone, Tesla Model S, Netflix streaming, Amazon Prime, AI, perhaps even Bitcoin. Radical products break the mol [more]

In a recent Vlogbrothers video and in his newsletter, Hank Green talked about how we don’t take enough notice of the things that quietly keep us alive, healthy, and safe. The tragedy of prevention goes like this: The most effective way to save lives (prevention) is the least noticeable, which leads us to undervaluing it in our individual choices, in what we celebrate, and in public policy. That undervaluing of prevention leads to a great deal of needless death and suffering. But there’s a second [more]

Meet the New American Refugees Fleeing Across State Lines for Safety. They include a history teacher harassed for pledging to “teach the truth”, a doctor specializing in high-risk pregnancies, and a family w/ a trans teen. 💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org →

PLUS: Is Elon Musk really wrong about Iain M. Banks and the Culture?

Where is the courage and morality of our political leaders? “Corruption and greed have eroded morality in public life. Powerful people who do what is right are in short supply.”

Read to the end for what anxiety sounds like

No details on what yet, but a lovely little 9-minute video on why. Sam Altman: “What it means to use technology can change in a profound way. I hope we can bring some of the delight, wonder and creative spirit that I first felt using an Apple Computer 30 years ago.” Jony Ive: “I have a growing sense that everything I have learned over the last 30 years has led me to this moment. While I am both anxious and excited about the responsibility of the substantial work ahead, I am so grateful for the o [more]

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac: After a nearly five-year hiatus, Fortnite is back on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users in the United States. Epic Games announced the return of the battle royale gaming app this afternoon, and you can head to the App Store now to download it. Son of a bitch Epic did it. This was like a double bank shot. It was smart for Apple to just concede here. Pick your battles is a cliché but it’s a great truism. Even if Apple’s executives still wanted to keep Fortnite out of t [more]

At its annual developer conference, the company seeks to reassure everyone that AI is for everyday utility — but the great disruption to the web continues

Taegan Goddard: When Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem for the definition of “habeas corpus,” Noem incorrectly described it as a right that the President of the United States has to deport people. You can go the Latin route (“produce the body”) or the English common-law route (the accused have a right to be shown the evidence against them and defend themselves in court). Noem went the “biggest clown of the clown-car Trump 2.0 administration” route.  ★

For victims, the Take It Down Act could finally bring some relief — but the Trump Administration has already signaled plans to weaponize it

Automate compliance. Streamline security. Manage risk. Drata delivers the world’s most advanced Trust Management platform.  ★

Juli Clover, MacRumors: With Apple blocking Fortnite from returning to the U.S. App Store, Epic Games told the court that Apple was violating the injunction and asked that Apple be forced to approve the app. The judge overseeing the case responded to Epic’s request today, and she is sounding more and more fed up with Apple’s continued defiance and Epic’s grousing. “More and more fed up” is perhaps euphemistic, given Gonzalez Rogers’s tone today.  ★

John Siracusa, in a piece that, in a bit of rhetorical deftness, only mentions Tim Cook by name once: What should be motivating Apple to make improvements — the desire to make great products — seems absent. What should not be motivating Apple — the desire for power, control, and profits — seems omnipresent. And I don’t mean that in a small way; I mean that in a big way. Every new thing we learn about Apple’s internal deliberations surrounding these decisions only lends more weight to the conclus [more]

Some “thank god some of you remembered because I thought I was going nuts” follow-up regarding my remembrance the other day, “15 Years Later: ‘Very Insightful and Not Negative’”. I wrote: So, what would you do if Steve Jobs was quoted in a viral blog post saying, “We think «Your Name Here»’s post is very insightful and not negative”? I decided to just sit there with a smug look on my face for a few days (which, arguably, isn’t all that different from what I do most days) and pretend that it was [more]

Read to the end for a real good Craigslist ad

Roundup 05/19/2025

Read to the end for an incredible own

An obsession with “white genocide” in X’s chatbot is only the latest example of platforms using artificial intelligence against their users

Earlier this week Nilay Patel was working on the show notes for the episode of Decoder I guested on, and he texted me to ask if I could recall the time Steve Jobs sent some random developer a link to an article I wrote about the App Store. He wanted to cite it as an example of Daring Fireball being read, at high levels inside Apple, for a long time. I recalled the whole thing vaguely, as a “holy shit” moment, but not specifically. I hadn’t thought about it in years. But I was sure I could find i [more]

Some interesting follow-up on that piece yesterday about the warning — with a prominent red “!” icon — in App Store listings for apps in the EU that use their own payment processing. Apple told me that exact same warning has been in place since the very beginning of their DMA compliance, in March 2024. Jacob Eiting, CEO of RevenueCat, tweeted on X: I think this is EU only and might have been around for a while, I just assumed nobody bothered with the DMA implementation for external purchases sin [more]

If you liked Brooklyn Bridge Claude, you'll love White Genocide Grok

Read to the end for Patrick and his royal cloak

Following up on my gripe regarding the alternative a glyph used in Apple Notes, here’s Kevin Fox, tweeting on Threads: While we’re waxing nostalgic on the Original Mac, a Daring Fireball post today (below) reminded me of another piece of Mac 128k trivia. Until shortly before the official release, the ‘a’ in Geneva was a single story ‘a’ like you see currently (and to some, infuriatingly) in the Notes app. The screenshots in the original Mac 128k user manual show the OS using the pre-release sing [more]

And maybe not the ones you're thinking of

Silicon Valley can't wait for a tiny company powered by AI agents. The companies who are trying it have a lot of regrets

Read to the end for shawties on squad mode

Roundup 05/11/2025

From A.G.I to to A.I.G.

Here's your Garbage Intelligence for April 2025

A startling statistic from Google’s antitrust trial raises fears that a long-predicted decline has now begun

Read to the end for Central Park, but with mud

In winning a $167 million judgment against NSO Group, the company has struck a significant blow against illegal surveillance

The company is dropping an effort to separate itself from its nonprofit parent — but courts may still be skeptical of its new plan

Read to the end for Meatloaf and his little hat

Roundup 05/04/25

A guest post from Bridget Read

Meta's CEO has some surprising takes on "healthy" bot companions, loneliness as a market opportunity, and that whole benchmark cheating controversy

Read to the end for updog drinks sky

Worse, they're not even funny

Meta AI, ChatGPT, and the dangers of being glazed and confused

Read to the end for a very rare double German bollarding

Read to the end for a really beautiful meme

Roundup 04/25/2024

Read to the end for the horrid fish brick

Talking with John Ganz about the political and moral critiques of the contemporary internet

Read to the end for a very troubling work schedule

Roundup 04/21/2025

Read to the end for one last trip down 4chan memory lane

On the animating fetishes of the Trump administration. PLUS: TikTok on the tariffs

Read to the end for recent Letterboxd titles making me feel like a rambunctious baby getting my photo taken at Sears while my parents try and quiet me down

Read to the end for a good chart

Roundup 04/13/2025

The strategy behind Liberation Day

Roundup 04/06/2025

A Read Max re-run

Roundup 03/30/2025

Welcome to 2025. The vibes are a little heavy, so, I’m trying very hard to focus on the things I can control — and yes, that includes remembering to share things that delight me like the latest #new snacks and cereals I find at the grocery store!! Yeah. It’s an age-old, very-odd Cabel tradition. This time, […]

This summer, a new video game came out that changed the way we think about comedy in games, becoming an instant smash hit in the process. That’s right, I’m talking about Thank Goodness You’re Here! from Coal Supper. Ok, yeah, sure, I work for Panic and we published the game, so I was contractually required […]

In January, I was invited to GDC, the Game Developers Conference, to give a talk about Playdate. That talk — “The Playdate Story: What Was it Like to Make Handheld Video Game System Hardware?” — has been made available free for all to view. Now, it’s been 10 years since my last talk at XOXO here […]

Here’s a quick and cautionary tale. This eBay auction, spotted by Eric Vitiello, immediately caught my eye: Wow. Someone was selling Apple Employee #10’s employee badge?! What an incredible piece of Apple history! Sure, it’s not Steve Jobs’ badge (despite the auction title), but there are only so many of these in the world — especially […]

My goal was to preserve some never-before-heard recordings of an incredible Dixieland jazz band made up of mostly Disney employees, the Firehouse Five Plus Two. But along the way, I accidentally discovered an incredible lost song that was cut from Walt Disney’s Cinderella. And you’re about to hear it too. Let’s go. Firehouse Five Plus […]