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I think we’re done making “shitty games”
Blooper Team’s Jacek Zieba, who just released the Silent Hill 2 remake, in an interview with GameSpot: Bloober Team Says It's Done Making "Shitty" Games And Silent Hill 2 Remake Wasn't A Fluke
[P]eople in the studio were like, 'Okay, we made some shitty games before,
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The most important line in any headset review
Riley Hill: I Bought A Vision Pro After Everyone Said It Was Dead
After about two weeks of using the Vision Pro,
Riley has some interesting thoughts about using the Vision Pro for the first time many months after the hype cycle has cooled off considerably. It’s a really good post and he’s
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Digg, 20 years later
David Pierce: How Digg helped invent the social internet
In its early days, Digg was something like the homepage of the internet. Any user could submit a link, and then any other user could either promote it with a “dig” or demote it with a “bury.” The best and most popular stuff made the homepage,
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Passkeys get a bit closer to becoming portable
Lori Glavin: FIDO Alliance Publishes New Specifications to Promote User Choice and Enhanced UX for Passkeys
The FIDO Alliance has published a working draft of a new set of specifications for secure credential exchange that, when standardized and implemented by credential providers, will enable users to securely move passkeys and all other credentials across providers.
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Productivity apps won’t do your work for you, but they can still help
Casey Newton many weeks ago: Three apps that made me more productive this year
A year ago this week, I wrote here about why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter. In short, it took me too long to learn, software can’t automate your thinking. But I do think it can create the
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Remember, the computers don’t think
Kyle Orland for ArsTechnica: Apple study exposes deep cracks in LLMs’ “reasoning” capabilities
The results of this new GSM-Symbolic paper aren't completely new in the world of AI research. Other recent papers have similarly suggested that LLMs don't actually perform formal reasoning and instead mimic it with probabilistic pattern-matching
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How to set up author tags on Mastodon
Mastodon recently added the ability to natively add author labels to links on Mastodon. Basically, when a link is posted, you can have your Mastodon account automatically tagged so people can more easily find you.
I would have written up an explainer on how to do it, but Robb Knight has already done it so
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You never know what’s going to hit
Lee Peterson: Sometimes It Takes Just One Random Post to Grow Your Blog
This was completely random and it shows that sometimes you don’t need some sort of plan, just write what comes to mind and that you want to share. You’ll get found and readers will come your way.
You really do
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X does that thing again, but it’s totally chill this time
Elizabeth Lopatto writing for The Verge: X blocks links to hacked JD Vance dossier
X is preventing users from posting links to a newsletter containing a hacked document that’s alleged to be the Trump campaign’s research into vice presidential candidate JD Vance. The journalist who wrote the newsletter, Ken Klippenstein, has been suspended
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The core thing that makes WordPress, WordPress isn’t what you think
This might be the longest quote ever on Birchtree, but stick with me here. This is Matt Mullenwerg, CEO of Automattic, writing on the official WordPress blog (emphasis his):
WordPress is a content management system, and the content is sacred. Every change you make to every page, every post, is tracked in a revision system,
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I appreciate box office data is just out there for everyone
Nicole Sperling for the New York Times: Apple Rethinks Its Movie Strategy After a String of Misses
Apple executives in Cupertino were already questioning the entertainment units over the amount of money being spent on movies, and the people said there was a thought within the company to not risk a public disappointment should the
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The iPad wasn’t supposed to have this until it did
I was researching for my last article when I stumbled upon this post from John Gruber in 2011 where he responds to a bad article on Time.com about Windows 8. What was interesting to me was this bit about how Excel on an iPad with the ability to open files from an external drive
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Apple adds a new way for merchants to do business
Apple on their developer site today: Set Up Win-Back Offers
If your app offers auto-renewable subscriptions, you have the option to set up win-back offers to encourage lapsed subscribers to re-subscribe on the App Store. You can configure offers in App Store Connect to be displayed to eligible customers on your
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Astro Bot is an inspiration
Zack Zwiezen: It's Really Nice That Astro Bot Just Has One Release Date
Astro Bot is a really good video game and a great reason to own a PS5. Its colorful visuals, myriad gaming references, and excellent platforming have already made it one of 2024's best games. But there’s something
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Imagine if you learned 90% of your revenue came from Russian state media 😬
Press release from the US Justice Department: Two RT Employees Indicted for Covertly Funding and Directing U.S. Company That Published Thousands of Videos in Furtherance of Russian Interests
“As alleged in today’s indictment, Russian state broadcaster RT and its employees, including the charged defendants, co-opted online commentators by funneling them nearly $10
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The more optimistic clean energy story
David Wallace-Wells in an op-ed for the New York Times: What Will We Do With Our Free Power?
In 2023, the world installed 444 gigawatts of new solar photovoltaic capacity, according to Bloomberg. While that figure can be hard for normie brains to process, it represents a staggering step forward: nearly an 80
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PayPal brings their debit card to Apple Wallet
PayPal Newsroom: Introducing PayPal Everywhere
customers can now add their PayPal Debit Card to Apple Wallet in just a few steps and use it with Apple Pay, enabling even more ways to pay.
PayPal is a pioneer in digital wallets, they’re one of the biggest wallets in the world today, and Apple is just
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Reeder might be my favorite app in the world, and it kinda got an update
Reeder is out today and Devon Dundee has a great overview over on MacStories. I wanted to call out a
