Links
The opposite of claim chowder
Ezra Klein back in February 2024: Democrats Have a Better Option Than Biden
Everybody I have talked about this, literally everybody, has brought up the same fear. Call it the Kamala Harris problem. In theory, she should be the favorite. But she polls slightly worse than Biden. Democrats don’t trust that she would be
Links
You thought that was good news? Sucker!
M.G. Siegler on his relatively new Spyglass blog (running on Ghost, which always makes me happy): Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Fees for EU Developers
Basically it feels like Apple is making the changes that the EU clearly is angling for, but doing so in the most pedantic way possible, all but ensuring that the
Links
Telling users how to save money will soon be allowed on iOS 🥴
Apple: Updates to the StoreKit External Purchase Link Entitlement
Developers can communicate and promote offers for purchases available at a destination of their choice. The destination can be an alternative app marketplace, another app, or a website, and it can be accessed outside the app or via a web view that appears in the app.
Links
Are you sure? Are you sure? Are you sure?
Jason Snell on Six Colors: Apple’s permissions features are out of balance
But what Apple’s testing in the latest macOS Sequoia betas is brutal because there’s no end to it. It’s a subscription you didn’t buy and can’t cancel. Yesterday, I was prompted to give temporary permission by an
Links
AGI is miles away, don’t believe the hype
Benj Edwards: Major Shifts at OpenAI Spark Skepticism About Impending AGI Timelines
The moves have led some to wonder just how close OpenAI is to a long-rumored breakthrough of some kind of reasoning artificial intelligence if high-profile employees are jumping ship (or taking long breaks, in the case of Brockman) so easily. As
Links
NVIDIA is consuming a lifetime of YouTube per day and they probably aren’t even paying for Premium!
Samantha Cole on the always lovely 404 Media: Leaked Documents Show Nvidia Scraping ‘A Human Lifetime’ of Videos Per Day to Train AI
When asked about legal and ethical aspects of using copyrighted content to train an AI model, Nvidia defended its practice as being “in full compliance with the letter and the spirit of
Links
What if Google just didn’t pay Apple?
David McCabe writing for the New York Times: Google Violated Antitrust Laws in Online Search, Judge Rules
The government argued that by paying billions of dollars to be the automatic search engine on consumer devices, Google had denied its competitors the opportunity to build the scale required to compete with its search engine. Instead, Google
Links
The M1 MacBook Air still rips
Kev Quirk: Three Years With My M1 MacBook Air
Question is, will I upgrade? Well, no. Not any time soon anyway. The M1 Air still does everything I need it to extremely well. So why upgrade? Why drop another £1,000 or so on the latest version of the Air? Because it looks a little
Links
Fortnite is coming soon to AltStore
Epic Games in a press release today: Epic's New Game Strategy for Mobile Stores
In exciting news, we are announcing that our mobile games will come to AltStore on iOS in the EU, and we expect to announce support for at least two other third-party stores soon.
That’s a genuinely massive
Links
A good story doesn’t require homework
James Mangold, director of films like Logan, Ford v Ferrari, and Walk the Line, on the MCU-ification of most of big cinema in an interview with Rolling Stone:
It’s weird that I’ve even worked in the world of IP entertainment because I don’t like multi-movie universe-building. I think it’
Links
The one way wired earbuds still beat AirPods
Brendon Bigley on his Wavelengths blog: EarPods Rule
I’m not about to wax poetic about all of the ways using wired headphones in 2024 “changes everything” like a clickbaity YouTube video, but I will say that the proliferation of USB-C on pretty much every device is slowly returning the EarPods to their once-
Links
Severance was more expensive to produce than Game of Thrones
Lucas Shaw for Bloomberg: Apple Tries to Rein In Hollywood Spending After Years of Losses
All told, the cost of[Severance] ballooned to more than $20 million an episode, making it one of the most expensive projects on TV.
Severance costing way more per episode than the famously expensive final season of Game of Thrones
Links
How Puzzmo makes crosswords
Madison in the Puzzmo newsletter: 🃏 We're on the Path to a Trillion Dollars!
In this week’s newsletter,
Links
Biden is out (or, you thought you were going to get a weekend without major political news, didn’t you?)
The New York Times Editorial Board: Biden Made a Courageous Choice. Democrats Must Seize the Opportunity.
President Biden’s decision to exit the 2024 presidential election is a fitting coda for a man whose life has been devoted to public service. Mr. Biden has served the nation well as its president. By agreeing to step
Links
I’m glad iPhones are getting RCS
John Gruber on Daring Fireball: The AT&T Data Breach Shows Why RCS Can’t Be Trusted and the Downside of Apple Adding Support for It in iOS 18
Ihnatko is right, but only if you believe that carrier-based message should remain the baseline. I do not. And it’s also a U.
Links
College Football video games are back and they’re killing it already
Zack Zwiezen reporting on EA College Football 25 hitting over 700,000 concurrent players in its first 24 hours after
Links
Kevin Conroy’s final words as Batman
Willa Rowe on Kotaku: These Are Kevin Conroy's Final Words as Batman and They're Perfect
It’
Links
Yup, I’m a full-on eSIM fan now
Jeremy Burge: Why eSIM Is My New Best Friend
Alternative title: How and why to install an eSIM to save money on data roaming fees when overseas. Especially useful if you have an iPhone 14 with no SIM Tray.
I was skeptical about eSIM when it was debuted, but I started to come around on