Old steps and trail built by the CCC, at Lockhart State Park.
Old steps and trail built by the CCC, at Lockhart State Park.
McKinney Falls State Park.
Finished reading: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Wonderful. I had been stalled in my reading and this book was just what I needed. 📚
I should take a break from blogging about politics, but I really like this Joe Biden ad. Acknowledges the “he’s too old” but turns it around to what has been accomplished, and what still needs to be done. Great work from the campaign. There’s hope. 🇺🇸
Happy anniversary to my blog, started on this day 22 years ago, during SXSW. Actually a little tempted to get back to SXSW one of these years. Tech has changed so much, platforms come and go, but blogs remain.
We just published the latest Core Intuition all about Apple, Spotify, Epic, and the EU, including a last-minute update with Apple’s reversal.
TikTok asking its users to call their representatives seems to have backfired. From the committee chair Cathy McMorris:
We also witnessed firsthand, in real time, how the Chinese Communist Party can weaponize platforms like TikTok to manipulate the American people.
There’s bipartisan support for forcing new ownership of the app and I think I’m cool with it.
Rollercoaster week for the App Store. Spotify ruling, Epic banned, EU getting involved, Epic now un-banned. Whew! We recorded a @coreint in the middle of it and we’re gonna try to add an update before it’s published.
Good idea here from Ben Werdmuller for a Fediverse VIP service:
Fediverse VIP is a managed service that allows any brand to create individual fediverse profiles for its employees and shared ones for its publications, on its own domain, using its own brand styles, with abuse prevention and individual safety features, and with full analytics reporting.
Micro.blog Teams could fill part of this need, with multiple users each with their own subdomain or posts on a group blog. With our pricing changes, we’ve sort of buried Teams, but probably should do more to promote it.
Excited to see reactions to last night’s Biden speech. A couple minor stumbles, but he nailed the core parts of it. I also sincerely hope that everyone frustrated by Biden’s support of Israel listened with an open mind. You can feel a shift, especially with the new push for aid to Gaza by sea. 🇺🇸
That’s the State of the Union we needed. Biden fired up and ready to get back to work. 🇺🇸
Apple’s DMA compliance report is set in Arial, in case you are still wondering how things are going. www.apple.com/legal/dma…
Also, the “Non-Confidential” in the document title… I’m imagining the Apple internal, confidential version is basically the same but for mature audiences only because of language.
Tips for not getting overwhelmed and distracted in this era of infinite content… Turn off all notifications, except for a small number of close friends and family. Mute all Slack channels. Hide all mobile app badges. Disable search and web suggestions on iOS. Use RSS and mark-all-as-read liberally.
I usually try to avoid quoting just the end of an essay (spoilers!) but the closing lines in today’s Stratechery update are great:
…once upon a time — back when “There’s an app for that” was about developers’ contribution to the iPhone — Apple valued developers; today, when “There’s an app for that” is about Apple’s supposed sacrifice in building developer tools and SDKs, Apple resents them. A legal argument about IP monetization has become a righteous tenet, and Apple is defending said tenet with the fervor and blinders of the true believer.
Apple has lost their way with the App Store.
Almost a little surprised Apple has banned Epic yet again, because it just further supports a potential EU argument that Apple is not in compliance with the DMA. From Epic’s blog post:
If Apple maintains its power to kick a third party marketplace off iOS at its sole discretion, no reasonable developer would be willing to utilize a third party app store, because they could be permanently separated from their audience at any time.
A key part of the DMA is to loosen a gatekeeper’s control over distribution, but even with iOS 17.4, Apple still has all the power.
Dusting off Android builds for Epilogue this morning, after a new iOS build was submitted to Apple. New versions of Android Studio, React Native, Gradle conflicts, and much more command-line chaos. Might almost have it under control.
Even putting aside the long list of gripes about how Elon Musk ran Twitter into the ground, I’m worried about his influence on the 2024 election. Meeting with Trump to potentially fund his campaign. Twitter overwhelmed with misinformation. It feels precarious.
If you’re a fan of Brandon Sanderson, make sure to watch today’s crowdfunding video to the end. I’m excited. Also going to pick up Dragonsteel Prime, but skipping the leatherbound books. 📚
MacStories has a summary of EU rules tweaks today with the arrival of iOS 17.4. For marketplaces, the €1 million line of credit is no longer required if you have 1 million annual installs in the EU. Doesn’t appear to be any meaningful concessions from Apple, and no changes to the CTF that I can see.
Just a few hours left in the Kickstarter for Tapestry. Looks like the Iconfactory can hit the next stretch goal with a last push. The project has a lot of potential. We need more experiments like this for the social web.
Another good monthly summary from The Fediverse Report. There was a lot going on last month with Bluesky.
I like Spotify’s move into audiobooks, but playback is still too focused on songs and albums. If you listen too far in a book (or a family member listens and you want to go back and listen yourself) it is nearly impossible to rewind because progress is tracked per chapter. Can’t find a work-around.
The demolition of the Frank Erwin Center. It has been a part of Austin my entire life — under construction when I was born and opened a couple years later. Some great memories there.
A $2B EU fine days before the DMA goes into effect is a clear warning shot.
Agreed. Apple’s response also bugs me. It ignores Spotify’s contribution to making iOS a valuable platform, and it gripes about inconsequential things like Apple reviewing betas or hosting billions of downloads of the Spotify app. If Apple doesn’t want to host the app, let Spotify host it themselves through sideloading. Problem solved. 🤪
Rearranged part of the living room to create a workspace, with new prints from Cameron Moll on the wall.