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Bring back the AirPort!
Joe Rosensteel: It’s Time for a New AirPort
networking underpins everything that Apple does care about. Every Mac, iPad, Apple TV, HomePod, Vision Pro, and most importantly every iPhone. The iPhone is a cellular device, but when you’re at home, you’re on your Wi-Fi network. If your iPhone and your wireless
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Digital wallets and the “only Apple Pay does this” mythology
Apple Pay is great, but I think there is some misunderstanding out there about the details of how it works.
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First look at what opting a Threads account into the fediverse will look like
This (shockingly low res) view went up yesterday and shows what the user experience will be like for Threads users when they want to opt into the fediverse.
There are so many interesting details here, and honestly I think Meta is doing a fantastic job with how this is being implemented. That said, there are
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Take a breath, save your outrage until WWDC
Abner Li writing for 9to5Google: Apple Might Use Google Gemini to Power Some AI Features on the iPhone
According to Bloomberg, there are “active negotiations to let Apple license Gemini, Google’s set of generative AI models, to power some new features coming to the iPhone software this year.” Apple has also talked with OpenAI,
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“AI” as a marketing tool
Yunqi Li writing for Wired: The Tech Behind Taylor Swift Concert Wristbands
It’s funny because oftentimes people think there’s GPS in each of the devices, or there’s a lot of advanced AI technology,” says Vincent Leclerc, co-founder and CEO of PixMob in an interview with WSJ. “But we are really like,
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If you want your movie to have any cultural significance, put it in theaters
Tatiana Siegel writing for Variety: Apple’s Blockbuster Gamble
On March 10, the tech giant has 13 shots to take home an Oscar via two historical epics, “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Napoleon,” which nabbed 10 and three nominations, respectively. That’s given Apple the second-biggest haul among the major studios and streamers,
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I don’t care if you force close your apps
Maxwell Zeff for Gizmodo: Closing Your iPhone Apps Is a Mythical Waste of Time
Apple users seem unanimously convinced that closing background apps is a good habit, but it’s more likely a waste of time
A few years ago, I would have retweeted, boosted, and linked to this article with absolute enthusiasm. I don’
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Why Switch emulation is a bit unique
Sean Hollister for The Verge: How Nintendo’s Destruction of Yuzu Is Rocking the Emulator World
Not only did hackers find an unprecedented vulnerability in the original Switch less than a year after release but also the emulator scene managed to develop software that plays Switch games better than the Switch itself within its own
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I believe in people more than others, apparently
Sarah Perez: Apple Has Lost Its Confidence
What’s worse is that Apple doesn’t seem to think that IAP can stand up to the competition: app developers’ websites.
I don’t agree with everything in this piece but it does make me think about the objectively funny way that some people will say:
1.
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The Browser Company feels gross to me right now
John Voorhees writing about Arc’s latest escapades in MacStories Weekly: Issue 408
It’s that intermediate layer that makes me suspicious of Arc’s motives. The company is starting to feel like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a browser with an interesting, playful design on the surface and a dark heart lurking beneath.
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I think people still care about effort
iA: AI Videos: ******* Psychotic
Computer-generated imagery is not bad in its every fiber. There certainly are great ways to use AI in a creative process. The more you control your tool and the process, the more mindful the product, the less it qualifies as “AI”. This article is not about the complex, controlled, professional
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What getting 217 Covid vaccines does to you
Benjamin Mueller for the New York Times: After 217 Covid Vaccines, Man Had No Side Effects and Robust Immunity
By the time the doctors first saw him, the 62-year-old man had received 215 doses of coronavirus vaccine, they said. Flouting their pleas to stop, he received another two shots in the next months,
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You may have forgotten how insanely incoherent that bozo was…
Amanda Marcotte: Trump Is Degenerating Before Our Eyes — MAGA Voters Don't Notice or Don't Care
Around lunchtime on Monday, all three cable news networks cut to Trump awkwardly accepting the Supreme Court nullifying the 14th Amendment on his behalf. After a few semi-coherent, if gross, remarks about how he was
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How Apple (maybe) moves the needle on Mac gaming
Dan Moren: To Embrace Gaming Apple Needs to Level Up Its Game Porting Toolkit
If Apple really wants to jumpstart gaming on the Mac, it should bake the underlying technologies of the game porting toolkit directly into the system. Make installing and running a PC game as easy as if it were a Mac native
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Games could be gayer 🏳️🌈
Zachary Small writing for The New York Times, citing this study:
Less than 2 percent of console video games include L.G.B.T.Q. characters or story lines even though 17 percent of gamers are queer
To be clear, this isn’t 2% of console games having a queer main character or that 2%
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The TV business ain’t what it used to be
Sarah Nassauer for The Wall Street Journal: Walmart in Talks to Buy TV Maker Vizio
The retail giant is in talks to buy smart television-manufacturer Vizio for more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the situation. The move would give Walmart more places where it can sell ads and pitch shoppers on
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The Vision Pro App Store is full of something rare: paid apps
Sarah Perez for TechCrunch: Over Half of Vision Pro-Only Apps Are Paid Downloads, Far More Than Wider iOS App Store
According to a recently released report from app intelligence firm Appfigures, over half of Vision Pro-only apps (52%) are paid downloads — a surprising percentage given that across the wider App Store, only 5%
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Gemini? Gemini. Gemini!
2 short months ago Google announced Gemini (apparently Gemini 1.0). It came in 3 variants:
1. Gemini Nano, which runs locally on devices as small as your phone
2. Gemini Pro, which runs on a server and was the back end for Bard
3. Gemini Ultra, which didn’t run anywhere public back then