How many Mac users use Safari? Diving into the numbers nearly drove me mad. (members post)
It seems like such a simple question, and I thought I had an answer, but I wasn't even close. Today we dive down the rabbit hole and try to get to an answer.
Matt Birchler
You get the good and the bad
You get the good and the bad
I posted this on Mastodon, showing Perplexity, which is a search engine that says it will browse the web for you and give you the answer, just straight up plagiarizing the first result for the question I asked. And I’m not talking plagiarism like the adamantly anti-LLM crowd thinks
Incomplete thought: Why “Pixar isn’t good anymore” doesn't vibe with me (members post)
Why does it feel like Pixar movies aren't as significant as they used to feel? Is Pixar just making bad movies, or is something else to blame?
Apple Podcasts transcriptions rock, and they could rock even harder
Apple Podcasts transcriptions rock, and they could rock even harder
Ari Saperstein writing for The Guardian: Accessible and ‘A Pleasure to Read’: How Apple’s Podcast Transcriptions Came to Be Apple’s podcast app will transcribe every new uploaded episode. “We wanted to do it for all the shows, so it’s not just for like a narrow slice of
We’ve all gotten pretty loose with the term “Sherlocked” these days
We’ve all gotten pretty loose with the term “Sherlocked” these days
Ivan Mehta for TechCrunch: The Apps That Apple Sherlocked at WWDC 2024 In 2002, Apple released Sherlock 3 with features similar to Watson, making Karelia’s app redundant. Since then, people in tech circles have used the term “Sherlocking” whenever they want to refer to a new feature from Apple
Living that beta life (members post)
Living that beta life (members post)
Why the hell do I do this to myself every year?!
Yes, Apple is also training on public web data
Yes, Apple is also training on public web data
From Apple’s Machine Learning Research blog: Introducing Apple’s on-Device and Server Foundation Models We train our foundation models on licensed data, including data selected to enhance specific features, as well as publicly available data collected by our web-crawler, AppleBot. Web publishers have the option to opt out of
My (not so) brief thoughts on WWDC 2024, 24 hours later
My (not so) brief thoughts on WWDC 2024, 24 hours later
I’ve had a little time to let the WWDC keynote sink in, and wanted to share my overall feelings on Apple’s big announcements in one post. And yes, I’ve installed the developer betas on every single primary device in my life (Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch, and Vision
The compromise of how Android and iOS 18 do themed icons
iOS 18 will add the ability for users to theme their home screen by setting all icons to a custom color tint. As someone who is familiar with the Android world as well, my natural reaction is to go, "ooh, how is this similar and different to how Android
THAT FEATURE IS SO COOL! I’ll never use it, though.
THAT FEATURE IS SO COOL! I’ll never use it, though.
Daryl Baxter writing for iMore: iPadOS 18 Looks Great, but It Still Doesn't Fix the iPad's Biggest Problem I want to be clear — the features that Calculator brings to the iPad, as well as the Math Notes that you can use with Apple Pencil and Notes
Who will get your vote in the Miss AI pageant?
Chloe Veltman for NPR: Fake Beauty Queens Charm Judges at the Miss AI Pageant Models created using generative artificial intelligence (AI) are competing in the inaugural “Miss AI” pageant this month. In trying to balance my openness to letting people like what they like as well as my acknowledgment that
I’m going to have fun at WWDC
I’m going to have fun at WWDC
The cynic in me knows that WWDC is a corporate event meant to get people excited about what Apple is working on so that people like me buy more products from them. The keynote is a marketing event, I get it. But also, I don’t really care, and I’
How I use YouTube (without the stress it apparently causes other folks)
How I use YouTube (without the stress it apparently causes other folks)
YouTube might be my favorite website in the world, and apparently that’s at odds with the opinion of many people I see online. People complain about ads, about the UI, and about THE ALGORITHM, but I just don’t have these issues. Today I wanted to quickly give an
What happens when you defederate a server
What happens when you defederate a server
Carl Colglazier, Nathan TeBlunthuis, and Aaron Shaw in their study, The Effects of Group Sanctions on Participation and Toxicity: In this study, we investigated the effects of defederation events on the activity levels and toxic posting behavior of accounts in the Fediverse. The results indicate that such events produce asymmetric
One OS always has a solution. The other makes you write WWDC wishlists and pray.
One OS always has a solution. The other makes you write WWDC wishlists and pray.
There are a bunch of things that are different about macOS and iPadOS, but the thing that separates these platforms the most for me is how each one works when you run into a limitation. What can you do if a feature you need doesn’t exist? What can you