micro-apps
2026: the year of micro apps
I'm calling it now: if 2025 was the year of "vibe coding," 2026 is going to be the year of "micro apps." It's the year a meaningful number of people begin to solve their own problems by building custom software tailored specifically to their needs. These apps
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Apple could do the right thing. I’m not holding my breath.
Elizabeth Lopatto writing for The Verge: Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards
You know what’s “offensive and sexualized,” you worthless fucking cowards? Nonconsensual AI-generated images of women in bikinis spreading their legs, and of children with so-called “donut glaze” on their faces — which, by the way, were being generated at a
LLMs have made simple software trivial
I was out for a run today and I had an idea for an app. I busted out my own app, Quick Notes, and dictated what I wanted this app to do in detail. When I got home, I created a new project in Xcode, I committed it to GitHub, and then I gave Claude
Apple
Ranking Apple's products (a definitive list, no one will disagree)
On a recent Vergecast episode, David Pierce, Allison Johnson, and Victoria Song ranked nine of Apple's product categories. The episode is entertaining, although I discovered that while I really like Victoria Song generally, I disagreed with her on almost every single point in this episode. 😅
Specifying the rules for a list's
Politics
Here we go again
Here's some news from our latest occupation:
U.S. President is reaffirming the American commitment to keeping American troops in the country even after the country returns to self-rule, now expected by the middle of next year.
The President says next year's formal end to the U.S. occupation of
NVIDIA's astounding rise sadly isn't powered by gaming
I took a look through NVIDIA's last 4 years of financial reports with a goal of understanding how much of their business was from gaming and how that's changed in recent years.
In short, gaming revenue has bounced back from the COVID bump and is on a constant rise. If this
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My app defaults in 2025 (a few days late)
Robb Knight: App Defaults 2026
It's been a couple of years since my first post in this series. In 2024 I did an "updates only" list but I think it's worth going for a full list again this time.
It's back! I did mine back in 2023
Members
Introducing ChapterPod, now in beta
Well, it didn't take too long into the new year for me to announce a new app, huh?
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If anyone can do it in 45 minutes, it’s not special
This post on Twitter is notable:
This guy literally builds a full AI app from scratch in 45 mins
First off, the app is not super useful and there is a lot of work to be done before this is ready for production, but hey, it’s still quite a result for 45 minutes of
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Don't fall in love with the product, fall in love with the problem
Bryan Cantrill: Love your customers
At Oxide, we believe that the best companies—the most enduring ones—love their customers, and we have made this explicit in our mission.
I had a mentor years ago tell me, "don't fall in love with the product, fall in love with the problem" and
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That’s just how media discussions go
Reddit user jess77x made this comment about Pluribus:
The discourse around this show is so weird. It's either a masterpiece or a total slog. And everyone is just talking past each other and calling people illiterate/TikTok brained for disliking it or pretentious shills for liking it. And it's a shame
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Third Republican US President in a row invades a sovereign nation without good reason (it's oil)
Anatoly Kurmanaev and Tyler Pager with live updates for The New York Times: Explosions Are Reported in Venezuela’s Capital
Quick Subtitles 1.6 (benchmark history, more stats, and more)
Quick Subtitles has yet another update out now, which brings a few new features to the mix.
UI tweaks
First
Apple
Apple’s 2025 report card - Wearables
This is the fifth and final in a series of posts reviewing Apple’s 2025 across their major product lines.
The wild year of code
I was just on GitHub and saw the famous contribution visualization, and this really put into perspective how much more of a developer I was this year. Here's the last 4 years of contributions:
33 contributions in 2022, a bit more in 2023 and 2024, but y'all, 2025 was wild. Just
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Clean energy had a baller 2025
Kathryn Krawczyk from Canary Media: Clean energy is still winning. These 10 charts prove it.
Solar’s monumental rise is the main reason for the shift: The source more than doubled its share of global electricity production from 2021 to 2025. And while coal still remains the world’s largest source of electricity, it’s
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Let stories end
Amanda Hess for The New York Times in 2018: The End of Endings
Didn’t endings used to mean something? They imbued everything that came before them with significance, and then they gave us the space to reflect on it all. More than that: They made us feel alive. The story ended, but we did
