{
   "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1",
   "title" : "Daring Fireball",
   "home_page_url" : "https://daringfireball.net/",
   "feed_url" : "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/json",
   "authors" : [
      {
         "url" : "https://twitter.com/gruber",
         "name" : "John Gruber"
      }
   ],
   "icon" : "https://daringfireball.net/graphics/apple-touch-icon.png",
   "favicon" : "https://daringfireball.net/graphics/favicon-64.png",
   "items" : [
      {
         "title" : "Trump’s Name (Set in the Wrong Font, of Course) Has Been Removed From the Kennedy Center",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-13T17:34:15Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-13T17:34:16Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/13/trump-name-kennedy-center",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/13/trump-name-kennedy-center",
         "external_url" : "https://apple.news/ANLNtQOeuSkiJ35tzkYw9oA",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Jonathan Edwards reporting for The Washington Post:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>President Donald Trump’s name is off the Kennedy Center.</p>\n\n<p>Crews at the performing arts venue started removing it from the\nfront of the building around 3 a.m., several hours after the\ncenter missed <a href=\"https://apple.news/A7OCrODYuS32yuG7E19AjDg\">a federal judge’s two-week deadline</a> to do so.\nThe judge had ruled that the decision by the center’s board of\ntrustees to rename it was illegal.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>A perfect metaphor for the work ahead of us.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://apple.news/ANLNtQOeuSkiJ35tzkYw9oA\">apple.news/ANLNtQOeuSkiJ35tzkYw9oA</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Apple’s Private Cloud Compute Is Severely Limited for Third-Party Developers",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-13T17:20:59Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-13T17:39:45Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/13/pcc-severely-limited-third-party-developers",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/13/pcc-severely-limited-third-party-developers",
         "external_url" : "https://developer.apple.com/private-cloud-compute/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>From Apple’s Developer site:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>To ensure getting started with a large cloud model is as\naccessible as possible, developers in the App Store Small Business\nProgram with fewer than two million first time App Store downloads\nwill be able to use Apple Foundation Models running on Private\nCloud Compute (PCC) with no cloud API cost. The model provides\naccess to frontier level intelligence with unparalleled privacy\nprotections. This makes it easy for small developers to get\nstarted building intelligent app experiences without upfront\ninfrastructure costs.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Eligibility requirements</strong></p>\n\n<p>Access to PCC is available to developers who meet the following\ncriteria:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Are enrolled in the <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/app-store/small-business-program/\">App Store Small Business Program</a>.</li>\n<li>Have fewer than 2 million <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/app-store-connect/analytics/#app-downloads\">first-time app downloads</a> from\nany of their apps on the App Store.</li>\n<li>Have the Private Cloud Compute entitlement <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/help/account/capabilities/capability-requests\">assigned to their\naccount</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Where Apple Intelligence is available, eligible developers can use\nPCC in their apps distributed on the App Store, and test PCC\nfeatures via TestFlight or ad hoc distribution. Installs during\ntesting are not counted as first-time app downloads.</p>\n\n<p>If any app subsequently exceeds the 2 million first-time downloads\nthreshold, or the developer is no longer enrolled in the App Store\nSmall Business Program, the developer will be notified and must\nmigrate to an alternative solution within 6 months. Information\nabout first-time downloads is available in <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/app-store-connect/analytics/#app-downloads\">Analytics in App Store\nConnect</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>These strict limits don’t seem to be getting as much attention as they should. It’s nice that for small developers who meet the above criteria, access to PCC has no cost. But there’s no way (yet?) to buy your way out of these limits. There are no paid API tiers for larger developers who exceed the above limits, or for developers who qualify now but release a hit app that grows to exceed them. (Users who pay for iCloud+ don’t have any extra quotas for PCC usage in third-party apps either.)</p>\n\n<p>The “fewer than 2 million first-time app downloads from any of their apps” restriction is particularly notable. It’s not 2 million installations for apps that are using PCC, but 2 million downloads for <em>any app the developer has ever released</em>. <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@_inside/116742529849306484\">Developer Gui Rambo writes</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>So uhhhh… Apple should really rethink the Private Cloud Compute\ndeveloper access limitation. I do happen to have an app that’s had\nmore than 2 million downloads. That app is ChibiStudio, an app\nthat’s been in the App Store for over 10 years. It’s not like I’m\ngetting a million new users every year nowadays. And I’m also not\nmaking any real money with it 🥲</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The bottom line is that — for the OS 27 cycle at least — PCC is primarily a feature for Apple itself to use in Siri AI. Granting access to PCC to any third-party developers at all is better than nothing, but this 2-million-download cap cuts off many developers who are in the Small Business Program. Apple should reconsider that. And I know there are a lot of developers who exceed the eligibility for the Small Business Program who would love to have access to the PCC APIs, even if access was paid. The lack of paid tiers says to me that Apple is worried enough about meeting demand from Siri AI users alone.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/private-cloud-compute/\">developer.apple.com/private-cloud-compute/</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "U.S. Government Directs Anthropic to Shut Down Fable 5 and Mythos 5 Models on National Security Grounds",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-13T17:02:29Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-13T17:02:59Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/13/us-government-forces-anthropic-to-shut-down-fable-5-and-mythos-5-models",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/13/us-government-forces-anthropic-to-shut-down-fable-5-and-mythos-5-models",
         "external_url" : "https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Anthropic:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>The US government, citing national security authorities, has\nissued an export control directive to suspend all access to Fable\n5 and Mythos 5 by any foreign national, whether inside or outside\nthe United States, including foreign national Anthropic employees.\nThe net effect of this order is that we must abruptly disable\nFable 5 and Mythos 5 for all our customers to ensure compliance.\nAccess to all other Anthropic models will not be affected.</p>\n\n<p>We received the directive from the government today at 5:21pm\n(ET). The letter did not provide specific details of its national\nsecurity concern. Our understanding is that the government\nbelieves it has become aware of a method of bypassing, or\n“jailbreaking” Fable 5. We reviewed a demonstration of this\nspecific technique being used to identify a small number of\npreviously known, minor vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities all\nappear relatively simple, and we have found that other\npublicly-available models are able to discover them as well\nwithout requiring a bypass.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5\">Fable 5 and Mythos 5 were announced on Tuesday</a> — that post has detailed comparisons, from Anthropic, on the models’ capabilities.</p>\n\n<p>Having the access ban extend all the way to “foreign national Anthropic employees” is, to say the least, aggressive. Whether that degree of restriction is truly warranted, I don’t think we, on the outside, can say. The Trump administration lacks credibility, to say the least, when it comes to foreign nationals. But it’s Anthropic itself that repeatedly compares the power of frontier models to nuclear weapons. Here’s CEO Dario Amodei, <a href=\"https://darioamodei.com/post/policy-on-the-ai-exponential\">in an essay published just this month</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>There may come a time, perhaps relatively soon, when we need to go\nbeyond this, when the most powerful AI systems look less like\nairplanes or automobiles and more like weaponizable nuclear\nmaterials — a threat to humanity rather than “just” a threat to\npublic safety. If that occurs, we may need more aggressive\nregulatory measures than those I have laid out.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If that occurs — or if it already <em>has</em> occurred — it’s obviously not the place of Anthropic (or OpenAI or Google) to render that judgment. <a href=\"https://stratechery.com/2026/anthropic-and-alignment/\">Ben Thompson wrote about this presciently</a> back in March, and linking to his post, <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/02/anthropic-and-alignment\">I wrote</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Nilay Patel, quoting the same section of Thompson’s column I\nquoted above, <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/reckless.bsky.social/post/3mg3qayzjlc2m\">sees it as</a> “Ben Thompson making a\nfull-throated case for fascism”. I see it as the case against\n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatocracy\">corporatocracy</a>. Who sets our defense policies? Our\ndemocratically elected leaders, or the CEOs of corporate defense\ncontractors?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access\">anthropic.com/news/fable-mythos-access</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "★ The Talk Show: Live From WWDC 2026",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-12T23:36:15Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-12T23:54:21Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/the_talk_show_live_from_wwdc_2026",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/the_talk_show_live_from_wwdc_2026",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Recorded in front of a live audience at The California Theatre in San Jose on Tuesday 9 June 2026, special guests Joanna Stern and Nilay Patel join John Gruber to discuss Apple’s announcements at WWDC 2026.</p>\n\n<p><iframe\n    style = \"margin-left: -25px;\"\n    width=\"512\" height=\"288\"\n    src=\"https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/OtRgxqMuUY8?si=cU4-zppx61KMwoAD\"\n    title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" \n    allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\"\n    referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"\n    allowfullscreen>\n</iframe></p>\n\n<p><strong>Immersive 3D video with spatial audio:</strong> Coming soon, exclusively in <a href=\"https://sandwich.vision/\">Sandwich Vision</a>’s <a href=\"https://apps.apple.com/app/theater-the-future-of-cinema/id6502666560\">Theater</a> on Vision Pro, available on the App Store. The bandwidth-constrained immersive livestream Tuesday night looked cool; the on-demand version coming in a few days will look amazing.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Sponsored by:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://detailspro.app/talkshow/\">DetailsPro</a> — Design with SwiftUI anytime, anywhere: on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Vision Pro. Get one year of DetailsPro Premium for $26 (normally $59.99) with this link.</p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://flighty.com/careers\">Flighty</a> — The world’s best flight tracker and travel app. Now hiring one Senior Product Designer and one Senior Full-Stack iOS Engineer.</p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://www.finalist.works/talkshow/\">Finalist</a> — A daily planner for iPhone, iPad and Mac, built on proven paper-based planning methods. Use this link to get six months free.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Watch on a big screen if you can (real, or virtual). All credit and thanks for the video production go to my friends at <a href=\"https://sandwich.co/\">Sandwich</a>, who, as ever, are nothing short of a joy to work with.</p>\n\n    "
      },
      {
         "title" : "The WWDC 2026 Keynote and State of the Union on YouTube",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-12T17:28:19Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-12T17:28:20Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/12/the-wwdc-2026-keynote-on-youtube",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/12/the-wwdc-2026-keynote-on-youtube",
         "external_url" : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Apple’s Developer app lets you download local copies of every session, including the State of the Union, <em>except</em> the keynote. Why this is I don’t know. But if you want a local copy, you can <a href=\"https://software.charliemonroe.net/downie/\">grab it</a> from YouTube.</p>\n\n<p>Speaking of the State of the Union, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl2jsIoMfDU\">the full version</a> runs just over an hour, but Apple cut together <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM8krtCkEmQ\">a 4.5-minute recap</a>. If you haven’t watched the full thing you should at least watch that recap.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o\">youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "The European Commission Response to Siri AI and the DMA",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-12T17:02:45Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-13T02:11:38Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/12/the-european-commission-response-to-siri-ai-and-the-dma",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/12/the-european-commission-response-to-siri-ai-and-the-dma",
         "external_url" : "https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thomas-regnier-24a05810b_what-is-the-true-story-behind-apples-decision-activity-7470439874664280064-TuEt",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Thomas Regnier, <a href=\"https://commission.europa.eu/about/contact/press-services/press-contacts/commissions-spokespersons-service_en\">spokesperson</a> for the European Commission, in a statement posted to LinkedIn (with edited video, if you’d like to watch him read parts aloud):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>What is the true story behind Apple’s decision not to roll out\n“Siri AI” in the EU?</p>\n\n<p>This decision is Apple’s and Apple’s only.</p>\n\n<p>Because absolutely nothing in the DMA prohibits Apple from rolling\nout new features in the EU.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, the European Commission and Apple had a few contacts on\n“Siri AI”.</p>\n\n<p>But instead of offering a compliant solution, Apple asked to be\nexempted from its interoperability obligations under the DMA — and this for 18 months.</p>\n\n<p>That’s not an option. EU rules are non negotiable.</p>\n\n<p>And it would mean that no AI agent other than “Siri AI” could be\nchosen by EU consumers.</p>\n\n<p>Apple, like any other gatekeeper, cannot close the market. The DMA\nis very clear about that.</p>\n\n<p>Our developers have the right to compete. And our consumers the\nright to choose.</p>\n\n<p>Those who want to keep using Apple products in their current form\ncan of course do it.</p>\n\n<p>But for those who want to use another AI agent, the DMA will give\nthem the possibility to do so.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Why this was posted to LinkedIn and not on the EC’s own <a href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/home/en\">press website</a> is as inexplicable as Regnier’s bizarre choice to spread 14 short sentences across 10 paragraphs. I quoted the entirety of the statement nonetheless, to give the EC their full say. I’ll let it speak for itself in this post, but this does not contradict <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/11/apple-dma-siri-ai\">Apple’s position</a> or statements in any way.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thomas-regnier-24a05810b_what-is-the-true-story-behind-apples-decision-activity-7470439874664280064-TuEt\">linkedin.com/posts/thomas-regnier-24a05810b_what-is-the…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Apple: ‘Due to DMA, Siri AI Delayed in EU for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27’",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-11T21:58:49Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-11T22:00:08Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/11/apple-dma-siri-ai",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/11/apple-dma-siri-ai",
         "external_url" : "https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/due-to-dma-siri-ai-delayed-in-eu-for-ios-27-and-ipados-27/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Apple Newsroom, in an Apple Newsroom post Monday:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>According to EU regulators, the DMA requires Apple to give any AI\nsystem nearly unlimited access to a user’s device, as well as the\nability to act on that access autonomously without a user’s\nongoing visibility and control. That includes the ability to read\nand send messages, make purchases, access files, and execute\nactions across any app. Security researchers have already shown\nthat AI systems can be hijacked to steal personal data — like\npasswords and photos — and to permanently alter files and\naccount settings without a user’s consent. As AI systems gain\nmore capabilities, these risks are quickly increasing in\nfrequency and scope.</p>\n\n<p>Given the serious risks to users, Apple designed a solution called\nTrusted System Agent — an intermediary that would allow virtual\nassistants to safely access the same features and capabilities as\nSiri AI for devices in the EU. Apple also shared a plan to launch\nSiri AI in the EU while gradually rolling out this new solution\nover an 18-month period. The European Commission said no. In fact,\nthe European Commission did not agree to any of Apple’s proposals.</p>\n\n<p>Apple will continue working to bring these features to the\nEuropean Union as safely as possible. However, given the clear\ndangers to EU users and the regulators’ failure to acknowledge\nthese risks, there is currently no timeline for Siri AI’s\navailability in the EU on iOS and iPadOS.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There’s a lot to unpack here, including more background information — and on-the-record statements — from a briefing Apple held Tuesday that I was invited to at Apple Park. But the bottom line is that Apple’s public statements regarding the DMA and the European Commission have never been this strident before. In its public statements, Apple has always been <em>diplomatic</em>. That’s the word.</p>\n\n<p>Now, they’re a bit more on war footing. There’s a massive gulf between what Apple is willing to do with Siri AI in the EU and what the Commission is demanding from Apple for DMA compliance. As things stand there’s no middle ground. Apple’s offers for compromise have been rejected. Unless one side changes its mind and concedes its current position, Siri AI will <em>never</em> come to the EU, and what Apple is saying here is that they’re unwilling to create the open-access-to-user-data system that the EC is demanding.</p>\n\n<p>And from what I’ve seen so far in a day of testing Siri AI, EU iOS users are going to miss out on something really good.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/due-to-dma-siri-ai-delayed-in-eu-for-ios-27-and-ipados-27/\">apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/due-to-dma-siri-ai-delayed-in-eu…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Spielberg on Being Repeatedly Turned Down to Direct a James Bond Film",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-11T20:38:09Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-11T23:46:13Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/11/spielberg-bond",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/11/spielberg-bond",
         "external_url" : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEho3brGB64",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Steven Spielberg, on The Rest Is Entertainment on YouTube:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>I approached Cubby Broccoli after <em>Jaws</em> was a big hit. I’d always\nwanted to make a James Bond film from the day I saw <em>Dr. No</em>, so I\ncalled Cubby after <em>Jaws</em> and volunteered. I said, “If you need a\ndirector, I would love to direct one.” And he said no. And he\nmoved on.</p>\n\n<p>And then Cubby called me again after <em>Close Encounters</em> came out.\nAnd that was a big hit. And Cubby called me a few years after\n<em>Close Encounters</em> and said, “We’d like to use the five notes in\n<em>Moonraker</em>.” And I said, “I’ll make you a deal. I’ll give you\npermission to use the five notes if you let me direct a Bond\nfilm.” And he said “Nope.” But I gave him the five notes anyway.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In <em>Moonraker</em>, the iconic <em>Close Encounters</em> notes are <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZci4tZ-Wfk\">the passcode to the locked door of a secret lab</a> that Bond (Roger Moore) needs to enter. Probably not so secure to play the passcode digits audible, but it’s a fun Easter egg. I always presumed that EON used it as fair-use homage, without bothering to ask Spielberg or Columbia Pictures for permission.</p>\n\n<p>Spielberg, in his interview with The Rest Is Entertainment, goes on to explain the oft-repeated story that his disappointment over his rejection by Broccoli led to his collaboration with George Lucas to make <em>Raiders of the Lost Ark</em>, which I put on my short list for best movie ever made. The whole opening sequence of <em>Temple of Doom</em> — where Indiana Jones is wearing a dinner jacket and chaos erupts at a nightclub while Jones chases a vial of poison antidote while the other characters chase a diamond being kicked around the floor — is more Bond-like than most Bond films. (Oh, and that Shanghai nightclub’s name: Club Obi Wan. No need to ask permission for that one.)</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEho3brGB64\">youtube.com/watch?v=iEho3brGB64</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Craig Federighi Details Apple’s Collaboration With Google for Siri AI — Live, on Stage",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-11T00:48:52Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-11T00:48:52Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/10/federighi-google-gemini-partnership",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/10/federighi-google-gemini-partnership",
         "external_url" : "https://9to5mac.com/2026/06/08/craig-federighi-details-apples-collaboration-with-google-for-siri-ai-in-ios-27/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Chance Miller, at 9to5Mac on Monday:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Apple’s Siri team, led by Craig Federighi, held a post-WWDC\nkeynote tech talk with members of the press this afternoon to\ntalk through iOS 27 and the new Siri AI. During the talk,\nFederighi shared more details about Apple’s collaboration with\nGoogle. Federighi was joined by Amar Subramanya (vice president\nof AI), Mike Rockwell (Siri lead), and Sebastien Marineau-Mes\n(software VP).</p>\n\n<p>On the Google collaboration, Federighi explained:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Of course, we don’t have the Gemini app as our app. In fact, none\nof that client code is part of how we run on iOS. For these\nmodels, we use none of the models that Google deploys to their\ncustomers, nor do we use the infrastructure and means by which\nthey deploy models to their customers. And then, when it comes to\nthe knowledge base, we of course don’t use Google Search or\nanything like that as the foundation of our system. So I hope\nthat’s clear. The amount of the Google Assistant we use is none.</p>\n\n<p>So let’s talk about what we do use, or how our system is built.</p>\n</blockquote>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This “Tech Talk” was good. It was detailed and technical, and there were live on-stage demos of Siri AI in action from Mike Rockwell. I don’t think Apple is ever going to go back to live on-stage major keynotes, but I do think the company is returning to more live events, including demos. There was a big live Siri AI/Apple Intelligence session for developers Tuesday morning in Steve Jobs Theater, which also had live demos. More like this, please.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/06/08/craig-federighi-details-apples-collaboration-with-google-for-siri-ai-in-ios-27/\">9to5mac.com/2026/06/08/craig-federighi-details-apples…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "★ Sweet Jeebus, MacOS 27 Golden Gate Removes the Dumb Icons From Menu Items",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-11T00:09:01Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-11T01:59:41Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/macos_27_golden_gate_removes_the_dumb_icons_from_menu_items",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/macos_27_golden_gate_removes_the_dumb_icons_from_menu_items",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Perhaps the worst UI crime in MacOS 26 Tahoe was the inexplicable decision to add inscrutable, distracting icons next to every item in the menu bar. You will recall <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/06/nielsen-icons-in-menus\">Jim Nielsen writing about it</a>, rightly describing it as exactly the sort of thing that Mac users look down upon in platforms like Google Docs and Windows. You will also recall <a href=\"https://tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-icons/\">Nikita “Tonsky” Prokopov writing about it</a>, illustrating that the bad idea wasn’t even implemented well, with different Apple apps using entirely different icons for the same menu items. You will also recall <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/06/nielsen-icons-in-menus\">my linking to Nielsen</a> (“I can tolerate being angry about UI changes Apple makes to the Mac. But I can’t tolerate being heartbroken.”) and <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/05/hard-to-justify-tahoe-icons\">to Prokopov</a> (“The fact that Tahoe’s menu item icons are glaringly inconsistent and often utterly inscrutable is the fudge icing on a shit cake, but the real embarrassment is that the idea ever got past the proposal stage. No real UI <em>or</em> icon designers think this is a good idea. None.”)</p>\n\n<p>Top third-party developers rightly <a href=\"https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2026/01/10/removing-tahoes-unwanted-menu-icons/\">rejected the design</a>, adopting <a href=\"https://indieweb.social/@brentsimmons/115846213935605782\">open source code from Brent Simmons</a> to disable the default “icons in all standard menu items” behavior.</p>\n\n<p>Wonderful news in MacOS 27 Golden Gate: the icons are gone. It’s like Tahoe’s menu item icons never happened. <a href=\"https://mastodon.online/@nikitonsky/116720790550648158\">Prokopov noted it on Mastodon</a> with before and after screenshots, and mentions that <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/menus\">Apple has updated the Human Interface Guidelines accordingly</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p><b>Use menu item icons sparingly and with purpose.</b> Icons allow\npeople to find menu items more quickly, and help clarify what\nselecting an item does. Use an icon to highlight the most common\nactions and key features of your app, file system locations,\nconnected devices, visual concepts like rotating or flipping an\nimage, and user-generated content like folders and documents.\nDon’t display an icon if you can’t find one that clearly\nrepresents the menu item.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This updated advice in the HIG is perfect. Screenshot:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/06/hig-menu-item-icons.png\" class=\"noborder\">\n  <img\n    src = \"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/06/hig-menu-item-icons.png\"\n    alt = \"Screenshot from the updated HIG, with illustrations of menus with and without unnecessary icons.\"\n    width = 525\n  /></a></p>\n\n<p>MacOS 26 Tahoe — across every Apple app on the system — is a living example of the updated HIG’s “what not to do” example illustrations (including the second section about groups within a menu). If you’re stuck using Tahoe until Golden Gate arrives, <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/what_to_do_about_those_menu_item_icons_in_macos_26_tahoe\">recall this tip</a> to alleviate the problem to some extent.</p>\n\n<p>This is my favorite news from all of WWDC this week. I mean that. In a small way I mean it because I so loathe this aspect of MacOS Tahoe. But in a large way I mean it because it’s proof that the rot has been rooted out of Apple’s software design team. I don’t know if all the untalented hacks are gone, but the untalented magazine-designer hacks with clout and influence all left with Alan Dye. I’ve chatted with a few people from Apple’s design team this week and they’re all loving the work they’re doing and the direction they’re taking Apple’s platforms. Backtracking on these idiotic menu item icons was a necessary first step.</p>\n\n    "
      },
      {
         "title" : "Apple OS 27: The Small Things",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-09T21:29:57Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-09T21:33:17Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/the-small-things",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/the-small-things",
         "external_url" : "https://blog.oneberri.com/posts/wwdc26-the-small-things",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Rishi Ó:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>My favorite Apple updates are not the flashy new features, but the quiet little touches: annoyances fixed, workflows made smoother, rough edges sanded down, and longstanding flaws thoughtfully reworked. To me, they’re the clearest sign of a company that cares about its craft.</p>\n\n<p>Here’s a collection from a WWDC26 screen-grab, organized for easier reading, on improvements coming later this year.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That’s a lot of bullet points.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://blog.oneberri.com/posts/wwdc26-the-small-things\">blog.oneberri.com/posts/wwdc26-the-small-things</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "The Talk Show Live From WWDC: Tonight, In-Person and Streaming",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-09T18:53:47Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-11T00:09:21Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/the-talk-show-live-tonight",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/the-talk-show-live-tonight",
         "external_url" : "https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>If you can make it in person, you should come. The California Theater is a beautiful <em>big</em> theater and tickets <a href=\"https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026\">are still available</a>.</p>\n\n<p>You can <em>also</em> watch tonight’s show in live stereoscopic immersive in the <a href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/theater-cinema-events/id6502666560\">Theater app from Sandwich Vision</a> on Vision Pro. A purchase of the ticket to the live show, the Theater app for $12.99, is also good for replay forever — with surprise bonus features included. It’s a fun, truly immersive way to experience the show.</p>\n\n<p>Hope to see you there tonight, one way or the other.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026\">ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Apple WWDC 2026 Keynote",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-09T17:42:32Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-09T17:42:32Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-wwdc-2026-keynote",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-wwdc-2026-keynote",
         "external_url" : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>A brisk 76 minutes, including the post-credits Easter egg music video. The past few years ran about a half hour longer.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o\">youtube.com/watch?v=hF8swzNR1-o</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Apple’s WWDC AI Demos Were Real and in Real Time",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-09T17:38:21Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-09T17:38:22Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-wwdc-demos",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-wwdc-demos",
         "external_url" : "https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/08/apples-wwdc-ai-demos-looked-more-real-after-250m-false-ad-settlement/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Julie Bort, TechCrunch:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>But the most telling detail wasn’t what Apple announced. It was\nhow it chose to show some things off. Many of the Apple\nIntelligence demoes featured someone standing, phone in hand,\npressing buttons or using voice commands in real time, while\nanother camera showed off the phone’s response.</p>\n\n<p>These weren’t live onstage, anything-could-go wrong demos; they\nwere pre-taped. But they looked far more like proof of working\nfeatures than what Apple showed at WWDC 2024, when the company\n<a href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/13/everything-apple-announced-wwdc-2024/\">unveiled Apple Intelligence and a new Siri</a> to the world\nthrough slickly produced videos that turned out to be more promise\nthan product.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The demos were all shot in single takes, with no editing. In fact, I think most of them were single takes of multiple demos back-to-back. That’s the way it should be, even when they feel a little slow. When a demo feels slow, the solution isn’t to edit the video — it’s to make the feature work faster.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/08/apples-wwdc-ai-demos-looked-more-real-after-250m-false-ad-settlement/\">techcrunch.com/2026/06/08/apples-wwdc-ai-demos-looked-more…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Apple Introduces Siri AI",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-09T17:23:29Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-09T17:46:12Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-introduces-siri-ai",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apple-introduces-siri-ai",
         "external_url" : "https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-introduces-siri-ai-a-profoundly-more-capable-and-personal-assistant/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Apple Newsroom yesterday:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>This new version of Siri is built on Apple Intelligence, allowing\nSiri to draw on personal context understanding and help users find\nwhat they need in the moment across messages, emails, photos, and\nmore. For example, users can ask Siri to find a restaurant\nrecommendation a friend messaged them about, surface a hotel\nconfirmation number from an old email, or pull up photos with\nfriends and family from a recent trip. And personal context\nunderstanding extends to third-party apps when developers\nintegrate with Spotlight.</p>\n\n<p>With even more systemwide app actions, Siri AI lets users get\nthings done across apps, like drafting an email from scratch, or\nediting and sharing a set of photos. Using onscreen awareness,\nSiri AI can answer questions related to the content on a user’s\nscreen. For example, if a user gets a text about a potluck with\nfriends, they can brainstorm with Siri on what to bring and then\nadd a recipe to the Notes app.</p>\n\n<p>In addition, Siri AI can use broad world knowledge to get\nup-to-date information from the web on virtually any topic and\ngenerate a helpful answer, such as when and where to see the next\nsolar eclipse, or when a musician is coming to town. Users can\nextend almost any response from Siri into a rich conversation and\nask follow-up questions.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I like the name “Siri AI”. “New Siri” wouldn’t have legs because eventually this won’t be new. This should be the dividing line between Siri as we know it and Siri as it should be. The demos I’ve seen so far (I still don’t have access on my iOS 27 testing device) are impressive. Well, impressive compared to old Siri. They’re table stakes for generative AI. But Siri AI is the only system that can draw upon your personal data in the apps on your devices, <em>and</em> perform actions based on the app intents supported by the apps on your devices. It is in some ways less capable than ChatGPT or Claude, but in other ways has more potential. It’s a very different approach and I think it’s the right one for Apple.</p>\n\n<p>They need to execute, they need to prove this can scale, and most of all, they need to get third-party apps on board with <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2026/345\">App Intents</a> and <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2026/240\">App Schemas</a>. But it seems like they’re doing all of that. This is not a done deal but it is very realistic.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-introduces-siri-ai-a-profoundly-more-capable-and-personal-assistant/\">apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-introduces-siri-ai-a…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Apple’s WWDC Announcement of the New Apple Intelligence System",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-09T16:50:33Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-09T17:45:39Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apples-wwdc-apple-intelligence-announcement",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/09/apples-wwdc-apple-intelligence-announcement",
         "external_url" : "https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-intelligence-brings-powerful-ai-capabilities-into-everyday-experiences/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Apple Newsroom:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>These new capabilities are powered by the next generation of Apple\nFoundation Models, custom-built in collaboration with Google and\nits Gemini models for deeply integrated Apple Intelligence\nexperiences. These latest models run on device and on servers\nusing Private Cloud Compute.</p>\n\n<p>Every facet of the new Apple Intelligence architecture is built\nprivacy-first, from the latest Apple Foundation Models to the core\noperating system technologies that integrate these models deep\ninto Apple’s platforms. Apple Intelligence uses on-device\nprocessing and Private Cloud Compute to help protect users’\nprivacy. Private Cloud Compute gives users access to\nfrontier-level intelligence, while extending the privacy and\nsecurity of iPhone into the cloud.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>What’s confusing about this Apple-Google partnership is that Google pretty much calls all things AI “Gemini”. The models are “Gemini”, the assistant is “Gemini”, and the feature integrations are “Gemini”. So Apple is taking pains to emphasize that they’re building atop the Gemini <em>models</em>, not the Gemini <em>assistant</em>.</p>\n\n<p>One way to think about it is this. Let’s say you’re a Google Gemini app user. That’s the assistant. Now you start using the new Apple Intelligence (that builds atop the Gemini models) and the new Siri AI (that builds atop the new Apple Intelligence). When you go back to the Google Gemini app, <em>nothing you did</em> using Apple Intelligence and Siri AI is visible to the Gemini app. And nothing you continue to do in the Google Gemini app is visible to Apple Intelligence or Siri AI.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-intelligence-brings-powerful-ai-capabilities-into-everyday-experiences/\">apple.com/newsroom/2026/06/apple-intelligence-brings…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "[Sponsor] WorkOS Launches auth.md — an Open Protocol for Agent Registration",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-09T04:23:05Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-09T04:23:05Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/06/workos_launches_authmd_--_an_o",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/06/workos_launches_authmd_--_an_o",
         "external_url" : "https://youtu.be/Dqp_b8GHLXU?t=1074",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "Daring Fireball Department of Commerce"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Sign-up forms were built for humans in browsers, so how do AI agents programmatically register with services?</p>\n\n<p>Enter auth.md. By exposing a single, machine-readable Markdown file at your service root, AI agents can dynamically discover your OAuth Protected Resource Metadata, parse required scopes, and authenticate seamlessly.</p>\n\n<p>With native support in WorkOS AuthKit, you can now implement this protocol out of the box, giving AI tools a standardized, secure way to log into your application.</p>\n\n<p>Read the <a href=\"https://workos.com/auth-md?utm_source=daringfireball&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=q22026\">auth.md docs</a>.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://youtu.be/Dqp_b8GHLXU?t=1074\">youtu.be/Dqp_b8GHLXU?t=1074</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "From the Annals of People Having Knowledge of the Matter, Siri AI Extensions Edition",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-09T01:37:27Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-09T04:29:43Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/08/gurman-siri-ai-extensions",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/08/gurman-siri-ai-extensions",
         "external_url" : "https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-26/apple-plans-to-open-up-siri-to-rival-ai-assistants-beyond-chatgpt-in-ios-27",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Mark Gurman, reporting (?) for Bloomberg two short months ago:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Apple Inc. plans to open Siri to outside artificial intelligence\nassistants, a major move aimed at bolstering the iPhone as an AI\nplatform. The company is preparing to make the change as part of a\nSiri overhaul in its upcoming iOS 27 operating system update,\naccording to people with knowledge of the matter. The assistant\ncan already tap into ChatGPT through a partnership with OpenAI,\nbut Apple will now allow competing services to do the same.</p>\n\n<p>The company is developing new tools to allow AI chatbot apps\ninstalled via the App Store to integrate with the Siri assistant,\nsaid the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans\nhaven’t been announced. The chatbots will also work with an\nupcoming Siri app and other features in the Apple Intelligence\nplatform.</p>\n\n<p>That means, for instance, if users have Alphabet Inc.’s Google\nGemini or Anthropic PBC’s Claude installed, they’d be able to send\nqueries to those services from within the Siri voice assistant,\njust like they have been able to with ChatGPT since Apple\nIntelligence launched in 2024.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Maybe Apple ran out of time today, and will announce this tomorrow? Maybe they forgot to announce it? Maybe they scrapped the next-generation Siri that existed two months ago and in the last month rebuilt another entirely new next-generation Siri? I’ll bet something like that is what happened.</p>\n\n<p>I mean, people had knowledge of the matter.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-26/apple-plans-to-open-up-siri-to-rival-ai-assistants-beyond-chatgpt-in-ios-27\">bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-26/apple-plans-to-open…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Mux — Video for Developers",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-08T01:47:03Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-08T01:47:09Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/07/mux",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/07/mux",
         "external_url" : "https://www.mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>My thanks to Mux for sponsoring last week at DF. Mux is what developers reach for when they need to do more with video. Video files are packed with data and context waiting to be unlocked.</p>\n\n<p>Mux Robots are AI workflows that unlock that data inside your video for summarization, caption translation, moderation, and more. Configure once and your workflows run automatically on new uploads.</p>\n\n<p>Mux is video infrastructure trusted by Patreon, Substack, and Synthesia. Start building for free. Use code <strong>FIREBALL</strong> at signup for an extra $50 credit.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF\">mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "★ SwiftUI Only Makes It Easy to Develop Bad Apps",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-08T01:30:00Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-09T01:40:05Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/swiftui_only_makes_it_easy_to_develop_bad_apps",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/06/swiftui_only_makes_it_easy_to_develop_bad_apps",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Paulo Andrade, last month, “<a href=\"https://pfandrade.me/blog/mac-assed-swiftui-app/\">Using SwiftUI to Build a Mac-Assed App in 2026</a>”:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>I recently launched the macOS version of <a href=\"https://shopie.io/\">Shopie</a>, an app I first\nreleased on the iOS App Store late last year. Shopie helps you\nkeep track of products you’re interested in by letting you create\nwishlists and notifying you whenever a product’s price,\navailability, and other details change.</p>\n\n<p>Unlike my other apps, where I typically blend AppKit (or UIKit)\nwith SwiftUI, Shopie is built entirely in SwiftUI. I wanted to\nkeep it that way to maximize code reuse across iOS, iPadOS, and\nnow macOS. This post explores how far SwiftUI can take you on the\nMac in 2026, especially if your goal is to build an app that feels\ntruly native to the platform. It’s not meant to be an exhaustive\nreview of SwiftUI on macOS. It’s simply a collection of recipes\nand issues I ran into while porting <a href=\"https://shopie.io/\">Shopie</a>, a fairly small app,\nand keeping it 100% SwiftUI.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Andrade’s examples are copious. His conclusion is damning:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Apple dropped the ball here. AppKit was ahead of its time and\nUIKit was a more polished version of AppKit. A serious\ncross-platform framework that unified the two should have happened\nlong before SwiftUI. Instead, Apple left AppKit to fossilize and\nthen tried to leapfrog the problem.</p>\n\n<p>You can see the result everywhere. SwiftUI is productive, modern,\nand often delightful, right up until you try to make a really good\nMac app. Then suddenly you’re fighting the framework for things\nthe Mac solved 20 years ago.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There’s something really wrong with SwiftUI. Amongst the apps I use, the best example is Apple Journal. Basic stuff that’s worked reliably for decades — some things that heretofore had worked forever — are dangerously broken. If you’re running MacOS 26 Tahoe, open Journal and make a new dummy entry. Type something like “The quick brown fox.” Then double-click on the word “brown” and delete it. Now invoke Undo.</p>\n\n<p>What you expect is for the word “brown” to reappear. What happens is ... <em>the whole sentence disappears</em>. Gone. Invoke Redo and you only get back to “The quick fox.” The word “brown” is just gone forever. It’s nowhere in the Undo stack. That’s just profoundly fucked up. I’ve never seen anything like this with an AppKit app, ever. (I’ve never seen it with a UIKit app either — and the same thing happens on iOS with Journal. It’s just that you notice it less often because we don’t invoke Undo and Redo nearly as often there.)</p>\n\n<p>I actually use the Journal app and I’ve lost entire sentences of text to this incompetent implementation of Undo. Editing text in Journal is <em>dangerous</em> because SwiftUI is so bad at something as fundamental as text editing. AppKit has had this solved since 1989 or so, a decade before Apple reunified with NeXT. And my example here is just one of many. Andrade documents a whole bunch more in his post. [Shopie is a good modern Mac app — you can practically see from reading his post that Andrade’s hands are scarred from dozens of paper cuts.</p>\n\n<p>So while the world is largely focused on Apple’s AI-related announcements at WWDC tomorrow, I’ve got SwiftUI (on all platforms) and Mac-assed Mac development high on my list. Apple’s developer message used to be that it was not just easy to develop apps for their platforms, but that it was easy to develop <em>good idiomatically native</em> apps. You got the correct complex behavior — for things like Undo/Redo — out of the box. That’s still true for AppKit and UIKit, but it’s never been true for SwiftUI, and <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/06/apple-unveils-groundbreaking-new-technologies-for-app-development/\">SwiftUI is now seven years old</a>. That’s too long for any excuses to hold water. </p>\n\n    "
      },
      {
         "title" : "Alberto Romero on Apple’s AI Spending",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-08T01:00:00Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-08T01:49:17Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/07/alberto-romero-on-apples-ai-spending",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/07/alberto-romero-on-apples-ai-spending",
         "external_url" : "https://www.thealgorithmicbridge.com/p/what-apple-knows-about-ai-that-silicon",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Alberto Romero:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>AI is like religion. Either you believe it changes everything, or\nyou don’t believe at all. There is no moderate position; nobody\nbelieves in AGI “more or less,” just like nobody is “casually\nreligious.” If God exists, the only coherent response is to\nreorganize your entire life around that fact, as priests do. If\nyou pray sometimes, then you are just an atheist who’s also\nfearful. When tech companies spend hundreds of billions on capital\nexpenditures to add sparkly AI features to Office, Gmail, and\nInstagram, I only see fearful atheists — guys who don’t believe\nin AI but pretend just in case.</p>\n\n<p>In 2026, the four largest cloud and AI infrastructure providers — Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft — committed to <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/big-tech-strikes-gold-with-ai-but-at-a-steep-cost-f6d82a22\">spending $670\nbillion on CapEx</a>. Apple, in contrast, spent $12.7 billion on\ncapex last fiscal year and projects <a href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2026/02/20/apples-ai-gamble-can-a-14b-budget-compete-in-a-700b-arms-race/\">$14 billion for 2026</a>, 2%\nof what its peers are spending. The conventional reading in\nSilicon Valley is, naturally, that Apple is losing. Siri has been\na punchline for years — an internal executive <a href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-14/apple-s-siri-chief-calls-ai-delays-ugly-and-embarrassing-promises-fixes\">called the delays\nugly and embarrassing</a> — and critics say that Apple has not\nbeen the same without Steve Jobs. It is <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/apple-ai-siri-development-behind-9ea65ee8\">falling behind</a>, they\nsay, and moving way too slowly for AI.</p>\n\n<p>I disagree with this portrayal: Apple is the most powerful tech\ncompany in the world right now because it’s acting according to\nwhat it believes.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Some of you, I bet, will object to Romero’s notion that no one is “casually religious”. <em>Almost everyone I know is casually religious</em>, you might be thinking. But read the whole piece. What he’s saying is that if you’re “casually religious” those are just words. You’re not living your life according to your professed beliefs (casual or not). And that’s how most of Apple’s peer companies seem to be approaching AI.</p>\n\n<p>I’m not sure he’s right, but he might be, and I think his take is at least closer to right than wrong. Apple <em>is</em> making an enormous bet on AI — but their bet is that they don’t need to spend hundreds of billions per year on AI infrastructure (most of it fattening Nvidia’s bottom line) to reap the benefits. If Apple’s right we should start seeing it come together tomorrow.</p>\n\n<p>(Arguably we’ve already seen it coming together — demand for Apple’s products and services has gone up, not down, so far in the AI era. Entrenched leaders often grow during the initial stages of extinctive disruptions — BlackBerry’s biggest year for sales (revenue) and investor confidence (market cap) <a href=\"https://www.statista.com/statistics/266240/blackberry-revenue/\">was 2011</a>, four years after the iPhone debuted — but the disruptors are there. There’s not yet a single threat on the market to the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, or AirPods — nor to Apple’s services revenue.)</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.thealgorithmicbridge.com/p/what-apple-knows-about-ai-that-silicon\">thealgorithmicbridge.com/p/what-apple-knows-about-ai-that…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Halide Mark III",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-07T00:49:15Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-07T03:17:01Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/halide-mark-iii",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/halide-mark-iii",
         "external_url" : "https://www.lux.camera/halide-mark-iii/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Ben Sandofsky, writing on the Lux Camera blog:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>After decades of shooting digital, I returned to analog\nphotography in 2023. I thought it would be challenging, given the\nlimited selection of film stocks, only to be surprised by how\nfreeing it felt. It felt so much better to have a handful of\namazing choices rather than photo-editor with thousands of\npresets. We owe that to film engineers who spent years developing\nversatile film stocks that work in a variety of situations.</p>\n\n<p>Inspired by “Less, but better,” we partnered with the renowned\nHollywood colorist <a href=\"https://cullenkellycolor.com/\">Cullen Kelly</a> to develop a\nsuccinct set of gorgeous, <em>physically accurate</em> processes\nexclusive to Halide. Each look was engineered with a specific\nintent. We verified every look thousands of times on real-world\nreference photos.</p>\n\n<p>Put another way: every look is a banger.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Halide has always been a great — maybe <em>the</em> great — iPhone camera app for shooting RAW, with the intention of developing your images by hand in post. It’s a great <em>camera</em> technically and a great <em>app</em> UI-wise. <a href=\"https://www.lux.camera/introducing-process-zero-for-iphone/\">Mark II introduced Process Zero</a>, which, in their own description, “uses zero AI and zero computational photography to produce beautiful, film-like natural photos”. Process Zero was the first step toward the new built-in “looks” in Halide Mark III. I’ve been shooting with Mark III for a few weeks now, and they are, indeed, all bangers. And I <em>really</em> like that there aren’t that many of them. I wanted more looks than just Process Zero (which remains available, of course), but I feel a bit overwhelmed when faced with a dozen (or worse, dozen<em>s</em>) of choices for processing. I feel conflicted enough having to choose between <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2026/03/the_iphone_17e#fn2-2026-03-09\">a handful</a> of <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2025/10/not_boring_camera_and_adobe_project_indigo\">really good</a> third-party camera apps with which to shoot in the first place — it’s worse when I have to make too many choices within the camera app itself.</p>\n\n<p>What I want is to just point and shoot and be able to instantly share images with the look I want already applied. I’m picky but I’m also really lazy, and don’t want to do any editing in post on most of the shots I keep. But I do want to be able to edit in post if I want to, including changing the look losslessly. This mixture of point-and-shoot ease and pro-level control didn’t use to be possible. Now, though, it is, with apps like <a href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/not-boring-camera/id6737783441\">Not Boring Camera</a>, <a href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/analogue-film-camera/id6748702405\">Analogue</a>, and, now, <a href=\"https://apps.apple.com/us/app/halide-mark-iii-pro-camera/id885697368\">Halide Mark III</a>.</p>\n\n<p>It’s been a <a href=\"https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/21/apple-wanted-to-buy-halide-to-boost-iphone-18-pro/\">turbulent</a> couple of months for Lux (to say the least), so I’m glad to see Sandofsky and team get Mark III out the door. If you, like me, had previously been impressed by Halide but didn’t use it because it required too much work in post, you should check out Mark III.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.lux.camera/halide-mark-iii/\">lux.camera/halide-mark-iii/</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "60 Minutes Correspondents Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and the Other Guy Will Stay at Show",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-06T20:04:06Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-06T20:04:06Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/stahl-whitaker-60-minutes",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/stahl-whitaker-60-minutes",
         "external_url" : "https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/business/media/60-minutes-cbs-stahl-whitaker-wertheim.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oFA.xooG.Pz8cQv8odz7Z",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker, and Jon Wertheim, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/06/05/business/media/60-minutes-stahl-wertheim-whittaker-memo.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oFA.flOX.fSw9JEqNoaU9\">in a memo to the 60 Minutes staff</a> obtained by The New York Times (gift links):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay at 60 Minutes.\nWe’re still deeply upset by the firings of Tanya and Draggan,\nstrong leaders who everyone respected. As far as we can tell — because no explanation has ever been offered, they were expelled\nbecause they fought for our 60 Minutes values and stood up to\nprotect our independence and integrity.</p>\n\n<p>Newsrooms are not supposed to be run like dictatorships.\nCollaboration and argument are the way we have always worked at\n60. Don Hewitt actually encouraged loud passionate advocacy for\nour pieces. [...]</p>\n\n<p>We feared that our returning might be construed as an endorsement\nof the existing power structure. That is simply, categorically not\nthe case.</p>\n\n<p>Here’s why we’re are staying:</p>\n\n<p>We don’t want to see 60 Minutes die.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>We’ll see how long this lasts.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/business/media/60-minutes-cbs-stahl-whitaker-wertheim.html?unlocked_article_code=1.oFA.xooG.Pz8cQv8odz7Z\">nytimes.com/2026/06/05/business/media/60-minutes-cbs-stahl…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Trump Lawyer Argues Trump Can Tear Down Statue of Liberty",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-06T19:56:01Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-06T19:56:02Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/trump-statue-of-liberty",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/06/trump-statue-of-liberty",
         "external_url" : "https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-can-tear-down-statue-of-liberty-says-trump-lawyer",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Josh Marshall:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>In a hearing today about the president’s bulldozing of the East\nWing of the White House and plans to build a vast ballroom, a\njudge asked if the president could also bulldoze the Statue of\nLiberty and be subject to no legal challenge. The DOJ lawyer,\nYaakov Roth, <a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/05/white-house-ballroom-donald-trump-00951892\">said that yes, President Trump could decide tomorrow\nto bulldoze the Statue of Liberty</a> and no one could\nstop him.</p>\n\n<p>It was a good question from DC Court of Appeals Judge Patricia\nMillett since it brings the arguments and their implications\nclearly into the open. Reframe the question and the absurdity of\nthis proposition becomes even more clear. If you hire someone to\nadminister your estate, can they burn down the buildings on your\nestate or chop it up into parcels and sell it off? Presumably not.\nYou hired them to run it, not to destroy it or sell it. It’s not\ntheirs. They were hired for a specific task. That person is your\nemployee. The president is hired to administer the country and\nenforce its laws for four years. He doesn’t own the country or its\nproperties.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Pathetic lickspittles, one and all.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-can-tear-down-statue-of-liberty-says-trump-lawyer\">talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-can-tear-down-statue-of…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Nieman Journalism Lab: Twitter/X Punishes Accounts That Post Links",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-05T20:46:56Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-05T20:46:57Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/nieman-journalism-lab-twitter-links",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/nieman-journalism-lab-twitter-links",
         "external_url" : "https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/04/do-links-hurt-news-publishers-on-twitter-our-analysis-suggests-yes/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Laura Hazard Owen, writing for Nieman Journalism Lab back in April:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>I used Claude to help me scrape the 200 most recent tweets from 18\nlarge publishers’ X accounts and track the engagement (likes +\ncomments + retweets) on each. Six of those publishers have\npaywalls: <a href=\"https://x.com/business\">Bloomberg</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/cnn\">CNN</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/Forbes\">Forbes</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/nytimes\">The New\nYork Times</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/WSJ\">The Wall Street Journal</a>, and <a href=\"https://x.com/washingtonpost\">The\nWashington Post</a>. Nine don’t: <a href=\"https://x.com/AJEnglish\">Al Jazeera English</a>,\n<a href=\"https://x.com/AP\">AP</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/BBCNews\">BBC</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/BreitbartNews\">Breitbart News</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/CBSNews\">CBS News</a>,\n<a href=\"https://x.com/realDailyWire\">Daily Wire</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/FoxNews\">Fox News</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/NBCNews\">NBC News</a>, and\n<a href=\"https://x.com/Reuters\">Reuters</a>. The last three accounts I looked at — <a href=\"https://x.com/LeadingReport\">Leading\nReport</a>, <a href=\"https://x.com/unusual_whales\">unusual_whales,</a> and <a href=\"https://x.com/GlobeEyeNews\">Globe Eye News</a> — are not news publishers, but aggregate breaking news in tweets\nwithout links. (Here, for example, is an example of a Leading\nReport <a href=\"https://x.com/LeadingReport/status/2041534947249242192\">tweet</a>: “BREAKING: Iran has halted direct talks with\nthe US, per WSJ.” They’re sometimes referred to as\nengagement-maxing accounts.</p>\n\n<p>These charts make it pretty clear that links in tweets hurt\nengagement. The connection was so apparent in my analysis that a\ngraph including all 18 publishers is almost unreadable: The\ntraditional, link-loving publishers are clustered in the bottom\nleft corner (lots of links, little engagement) in a nearly\nindistinguishable mass of bubbles, no matter how large their\nfollowings are.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Musk’s Twitter/X is not an aggregator for news. It’s a walled garden. But the type of garden where you need to keep your eyes open and your hand on your wallet. Sometimes it’s fun to visit a seedy neighborhood. But let’s not pretend it isn’t a seedy neighborhood just because, long ago, it used to be nice.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/04/do-links-hurt-news-publishers-on-twitter-our-analysis-suggests-yes/\">niemanlab.org/2026/04/do-links-hurt-news-publishers-on…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Elon Musk’s X Is a Freak Show",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-05T20:24:58Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-05T20:32:32Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/musk-x-freak-show",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/musk-x-freak-show",
         "external_url" : "https://www.natesilver.net/p/social-media-has-become-a-freak-show",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Nate Silver, back in April, under the headline “Social Media Is Turning Into a Freak Show”, where by “social media” he mostly discusses Twitter/X:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>But what does that remaining traffic consist of? I recently came\nacross a <a href=\"https://x.com/kylewilsontharp/status/2037171182407999663\">bubble chart</a> depicting the Twitter accounts that\nhad received the most “engagement” in February 2026. It was\ndepressing: most of the top accounts were extremely low-quality\nand highly partisan. I hadn’t even heard of many of them and only\nfollow a handful of the top accounts. So I <a href=\"https://dashboards.cluvio.com/dashboards/qxny-9e5q-k65v/shared?filters=%7B%22platform_filter%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%22political_content%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%22political_lean%22%3A%5B%5D%7D&amp;reportId=k6zq-g911-3m2o&amp;sharingToken=78eb1196-5766-429d-acf8-edcfd96b7067&amp;timerange=1767225600~\">tracked down the\noriginal data myself</a> and, with help from Claude, made my\nown improved version of the chart. Here, <em>voilà</em>, are the Twitter\naccounts with the most engagement so far in 2026:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"/misc/2026/05/nate-silver-twitter-account-cloud.png\" class=\"noborder\">\n <img\n  src = \"/misc/2026/05/nate-silver-twitter-account-cloud.png\"\n  alt = \"Data from Cluvio showing most engagements among X accounts from Jan. 1 to Apr. 4, 2026.\"\n  width = 500\n /></a></p>\n\n<p>It’s not hard to notice that Twitter has become extremely\nright-leaning. But I’d argue there’s an equally important trend:\nthe top accounts are of incredibly low quality. Elon, with the\n<a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/feb/15/elon-musk-changes-twitter-algorithm-super-bowl-slump-report\">algorithmic boost</a> he built in for himself, is at the eye of\nthe storm, of course. But “Catturd” literally gets far more\nengagement than the New York Times, for instance.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There’s a common argument from proponents of the Musk-era X that the only problem is that left-leaning people have abandoned the platform. That the X algorithm is a contest and if only right-leaning accounts are playing, of course they’re winning. This is nonsense. The whole thing is rigged. Elon Musk’s outsized prominence as the most-engaged-with account is proof of that. Twitter existed for 16 years before Musk bought it. He wasn’t even close to the biggest account during that era. Then he bought it. Now his account is the biggest.</p>\n\n<p>As Silver’s data analysis shows, Musk’s X is not just dominated by right-wing accounts, it’s dominated by “<em>who the hell is that?</em>” right-wing slop accounts.</p>\n\n<p>The only way not to lose a rigged game is to refuse to play. X is still a thing. A lot of people, companies, and organizations still post there — treat it like their blogs — exclusively. I still wind up linking to posts on X because that’s where they are. That’s a whole separate discussion. But anyone who’s trying to “compete” there with subject matter that is even vaguely political has no chance of success unless what they’re posting is what Elon Musk wants to see promoted. It’s not like his thumb is on the scale, it’s like an anvil is on the scale. The conundrum is that there are still a lot interesting people posting interesting things there.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.natesilver.net/p/social-media-has-become-a-freak-show\">natesilver.net/p/social-media-has-become-a-freak-show</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Checking in on Perplexity",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-05T15:26:29Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-05T15:26:30Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/checking-in-on-perplexity",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/05/checking-in-on-perplexity",
         "external_url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/08/05/regarding-those-rumors-of-apple-pursuing-an-acquisition-of-perplexity",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Yours truly, last August:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>I can’t see why Apple would want to get involved with a company\nlike this though. Gurman’s report makes it sound like his sources\nare inside Apple, but man, this “Apple + Perplexity” thing feels\nmore like something Perplexity would be seeding than one that\nApple executives would be leaking.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Perplexity is still <a href=\"https://www.techmeme.com/search/query?q=perplexity&amp;wm=false\">occasionally in the news</a> (often <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/04/perplexity-class-action-sham\">not in good ways</a>), but it seems to me they’ve slipped into the “afterthought” tier of AI startups — which is exactly why they started leaning into <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/08/12/perplexity-jumps-shark-stunt-offer-to-buy-chrome\">clownish stunts last year</a>. Everyone who previously suggested Apple should — or even might — buy them has gone silent.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/08/05/regarding-those-rumors-of-apple-pursuing-an-acquisition-of-perplexity\">daringfireball.net/linked/2025/08/05/regarding-those-rumors…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Some People Rooted for The Empire in ‘Star Wars’, Too",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-05T00:43:33Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-05T00:43:33Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/some-people-rooted-for-the-empire",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/some-people-rooted-for-the-empire",
         "external_url" : "https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/06/03/cbs-fires-scott-pelley-after-trying-very-hard-to-get-fired-n3815553",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Ed Morrissey, writing for Hot Air, thinks Scott Pelley got what he deserved and Bari Weiss is doing a good job running CBS News:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>And Pelley forgot the Golden Rule: <em>He who has the gold makes the\nrules</em>. Instead, Pelley convinced himself of his own virtue and\ntorched his own position — and if Bilton’s letter is accurate, in\nas mean-spirited and conceited a manner as possible. Pelley could\nhave chosen a dignified resignation under protest, but instead\npulled a power move in an attempt to intimidate Bilton, Weiss, and\nEllison, only to discover that no one feared his absence. In fact,\nthey’re probably happy to cut him loose.</p>\n\n<p>There’s always at least <em>one</em> person in these situations who\nthinks they’re untouchable. A wise executive knows to start by\nmaking an example of that person, and then see how many other\npeople think they’re indispensable. It’s not as if TV news jobs\nare expanding these days, after all. Pelley’s going to find out\nthe hard way that no one’s paying $5 million a year to emote into\na camera from other people’s copy.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It doesn’t even enter this man’s little mind that Pelley wasn’t concerned about his job, wasn’t concerned about his salary, but was concerned only with the integrity of the institution to which he’d committed decades of his career, and that he saw as his duty the need to stand up for his remaining and former colleagues. That Pelley himself has integrity. To the Trump lickspittles, everything is performative. They don’t just lack integrity, they don’t believe integrity is real.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://x.com/katienotopoulos/status/2062229659966697857\">Katie Notopoulos</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>The Scott Pelley story to me is a lesson in how if you work hard\nenough in your career to get Fuck You Money, the real reward is\nthe day you need to say it, you can.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/06/03/cbs-fires-scott-pelley-after-trying-very-hard-to-get-fired-n3815553\">hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2026/06/03/cbs-fires-scott-pelley…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2026: Tuesday in San Jose",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T22:05:05Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T22:50:57Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2026",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-talk-show-live-tickets-2026",
         "external_url" : "https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p><strong>Location:</strong> The California Theatre, San Jose <br />\n<strong>Showtime:</strong> Tuesday, 9 June 2026, 7pm PT (Doors open 6pm) <br />\n<strong>Special Guest(s):</strong> For sure <br />\n<strong>Price:</strong> $45</p>\n\n<p>The annual live audience episode of The Talk Show during the week of WWDC. If you can make it, you should come. You’ll even enjoy the prelude, mingling with fellow DF readers and listeners.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026\">ti.to/daringfireball/the-talk-show-live-from-wwdc-2026</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "‘The Insider’",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T20:42:35Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T20:42:36Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-insider",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-insider",
         "external_url" : "https://letterboxd.com/film/the-insider/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>All this Sturm und Drang surrounding 60 Minutes has me thinking about a re-watch of <em>The Insider</em>, Michael Mann’s great 1999 movie. Letterboxd’s synopsis:\n“A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a 60 Minutes exposé on Big Tobacco.” It’s a great movie, and feels apt AF at the moment. <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_-Vu8LrUDk\">Here’s the original segment on 60 Minutes</a>, which ran an entire half hour.</p>\n\n<p>What’s going on today is like if — instead of getting shady, threatening, and litigious — the tobacco companies had just purchased CBS, purged the staff at 60 Minutes, and hired a bunch of pro-cigarette stooges to replace them.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://letterboxd.com/film/the-insider/\">letterboxd.com/film/the-insider/</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "‘Microsoft and OpenAI Broke Up — Now They’re Ready to Fight’",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T20:25:27Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T22:35:40Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/microsoft-openai",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/microsoft-openai",
         "external_url" : "https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/942242/microsoft-build-ai-agents-openai-competition?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjdiRHFjMlJadmgiLCJwIjoiL2FpLWFydGlmaWNpYWwtaW50ZWxsaWdlbmNlLzk0MjI0Mi9taWNyb3NvZnQtYnVpbGQtYWktYWdlbnRzLW9wZW5haS1jb21wZXRpdGlvbiIsImV4cCI6MTc4MTAzNjQ2OSwiaWF0IjoxNzgwNjA0NDY5fQ.jP0KO9OVCO-fGkk1Utt0NIEn97JWaI8zs0zhjf2V2MQ",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Hayden Field and Tom Warren, writing for The Verge (gift link):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>This year’s Build had the vibe of a freshly single divorcée\nposting a thirst trap on Instagram. “It’s always fun to be at\ndeveloper conferences in times of great change,” Microsoft CEO\nSatya Nadella said onstage Tuesday, adding that events like this\nare about “coming to grips with the new opportunity.”</p>\n\n<p>AI chief Mustafa Suleyman, in an interview with The Verge, put it\neven more bluntly.</p>\n\n<p>“The goal is to prove that we can become one of the top four labs\nin the world,” Suleyman said. “There’s three labs that matter,\nGoogle DeepMind, OpenAI, and Anthropic. We are not one of them at\nthe moment, and that’s always been my intention. It’s why I came\nhere. I want to build the very best frontier models in the world,\nfully multimodal, and in order to do that, we have to prove that\nwe can do everything that we need to from the ground up, and we’re\nnot just going to take from others.”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Refreshingly blunt.</p>\n\n<p>But hasn’t that been Microsoft’s plan for Bing since it was announced in 2009? I mean I guess you can say that Bing is one of the top four search engines in the world. Maybe you can even say it’s one of the top two. But it’s irrelevant and uncompetitive with Google Search.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/942242/microsoft-build-ai-agents-openai-competition?view_token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpZCI6IjdiRHFjMlJadmgiLCJwIjoiL2FpLWFydGlmaWNpYWwtaW50ZWxsaWdlbmNlLzk0MjI0Mi9taWNyb3NvZnQtYnVpbGQtYWktYWdlbnRzLW9wZW5haS1jb21wZXRpdGlvbiIsImV4cCI6MTc4MTAzNjQ2OSwiaWF0IjoxNzgwNjA0NDY5fQ.jP0KO9OVCO-fGkk1Utt0NIEn97JWaI8zs0zhjf2V2MQ\">theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/942242/microsoft…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Lingon and Lingon Pro 10",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T18:43:47Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T18:44:13Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/lingon",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/lingon",
         "external_url" : "https://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Peter Borg:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Lingon makes scheduling apps, scripts, shortcuts, and commands\nfeel simple. Create a task in minutes, run it on a schedule, and\nstay in control.</p>\n\n<p>Lingon helps you run whatever you want whenever you want without\nliving in Terminal. Schedule apps, scripts, shortcuts, and\ncommands with a clear, friendly UI.</p>\n\n<p>Run tasks at specific times, on intervals or at login. Optional\nnotifications make it easy to keep control.</p>\n\n<p>Two separate apps. Lingon is the simpler Mac App Store version and\nfree to use, while Lingon Pro is the advanced one-time purchase\nwith extra power.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/\">Lingon and Lingon Pro</a> are great apps. I’ve been meaning to recommend them for a while.</p>\n\n<p>Back in 2023 <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2023/07/nerding_out_with_maestral_launchcontrol_and_keyboard_maestro\">I wrote about a problem I was having with Maestral</a>, the incredible “works like Dropbox in the old days” open-source Dropbox client, where Maestral would just silently crash once in a while and I wouldn’t notice for a while. Then I would notice, manually re-launch Maestral, and have to wait while Maestral synced. Or, worse, I’d put a podcast recording in a shared folder and walk away from my computer, and my editor would never get the file because Maestral wasn’t running. My write-up described how I solved the problem with a Keyboard Maestro macro that runs once an hour — it checks if Maestral is running, and if it isn’t, launches it (and writes to a log, to satisfy my own curiosity). Borg wrote to me after I posted that and — very politely — explained that Lingon would make that much simpler.</p>\n\n<p>In addition to creating your own scripts and rules that run periodically, Lingon is great for inspecting all the login items and background agents on your system — whether they’re from Apple or third parties. Poking around at everything Google Gemini installed is what made me think to recommend Lingon today. At the very least you should install the free regular version. It’s just a great Mac utility from a great Mac developer. There’s nothing else like it.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/\">peterborgapps.com/lingon/</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Remember When Chrome Went Bad on MacOS?",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T18:10:19Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T22:44:42Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/remember-when-chrome-went-bad-on-macos",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/remember-when-chrome-went-bad-on-macos",
         "external_url" : "https://chromeisbad.com/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/search/tweetie+brichter\">Loren Brichter</a>, back in 2020:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Short story: Google Chrome installs an updater called Keystone on\nyour computer, which is <a href=\"https://twitter.com/lorenb/timelines/1338892756752732169\">bizarrely correlated</a> to massive\nunexplained CPU usage in WindowServer (a system process)<a href=\"https://chromeisbad.com/#hiding\">[1]</a>, and\n<em>made my whole computer slow even when Chrome wasn’t running</em>.\nDeleting Chrome and Keystone made my computer <em>way, way faster,\nall the time</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Long story: I noticed my brand new 16” MacBook Pro started acting\nsluggishly doing even trivial things like scrolling. Activity\nMonitor showed <em>nothing</em> from Google using the CPU, but\n<em>WindowServer</em> was taking ~80%, which is abnormally high (it\nshould use &lt; 10% normally).</p>\n\n<p>Doing all the normal things (quitting apps, logging out other\nusers, restarting, zapping PRAM/SMC, etc) did nothing, then I\nremembered I had installed Chrome a while back to test a website.</p>\n\n<p>I deleted Chrome, and noticed Keystone while deleting some of\nChrome’s other preferences and caches. I deleted everything from\nGoogle I could find, restarted the computer, and it was like\nnight-and-day. <em>Everything was instantly and noticeably faster,\nand WindowServer CPU was well under 10% again.</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Not all Mac users, but many, found that just having Chrome installed slowed down their Macs dramatically. Completely uninstalling Chrome — and its pernicious background agents — solved the problem. This years-old “Chrome Is Bad” saga came to mind when <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/google-gemini-mac\">I wrote about Google’s Gemini Mac app’s background agents</a>.</p>\n\n<p>It seems as though Google eventually fixed these Chrome bugs — or Apple changed something in a MacOS update that fixed the bugs for them — but I’ve never seen a full explanation of the problem and eventual solution. Does anyone know what happened here?</p>\n\n<p>The main point is it never should have happened in the first place. A third-party app should just be a third-party app — not add components to your system software just so it can update itself when it isn’t running. Background agents and extensions are <a href=\"https://rogueamoeba.com/\">sometimes necessary</a> to the functionality of a product. Checking for software updates to a browser or AI chatbot, when those apps aren’t running, is not necessary. The golden rule applies: imagine if every app on your system installed its own background agent to check for software updates. Chrome is a popular browser on the Mac, but it’s just a web browser. Other web browsers do just fine checking for updates from the browser itself when they’re running. If the user is actually using an app regularly, it’ll get plenty of chances to check for updates when it’s running. If the user isn’t regularly using an app, why in the world should that seldom-used app have software running all the time in the background?</p>\n\n<p>This sort of chaos is <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2021/06/annotating_apples_anti-sideloading_white_paper\">why Apple keeps iOS locked down</a>. There are no third-party login items on iOS that run in the background — let alone ones with no option to disable. No third-party app can do anything that causes the iOS window manager to consume 80 percent of the CPU while ostensibly idle. There are obviously trade-offs here. I rely on a Mac for my workstation because the Mac gives me the power to potentially shoot myself in the foot. But one major reason why iOS is an order of magnitude more popular than MacOS is because you cannot shoot yourself in the foot with it, even though that means you can’t use it to do things that would require that power.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://chromeisbad.com/\">chromeisbad.com/</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Google’s Gemini Mac App Is Native, in a Distinctly Google Way, But Annoyingly Presumptuous",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T17:29:26Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T18:20:44Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/google-gemini-mac",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/google-gemini-mac",
         "external_url" : "https://gemini.google/mac/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Two months ago Google launched a new native Mac app for Gemini. I’ve been trying it, on and off, since. It’s ... not bad. Certainly better than Claude’s Electron shitbox. But the Gemini app isn’t all that good, either. I’m sticking with ChatGPT, which remains far and away the best native Mac client to an LLM. (And ChatGPT is not that great of a Mac app — it’s just the closest to good of the bunch.)</p>\n\n<p>The thing that really turns me off about the Gemini Mac app is Google’s gall. The Gemini app installs a background helper named “GeminiAppLauncher” in your login items. It also installs “GoogleUpdater” as a process with the privilege to launch in the background whenever it wants. Gemini never asks for permission to install either of these, and, most arrogantly, if you, as an informed user, remove either of them, the Gemini app silently adds them back. There is no setting in Gemini to disable this. There’s a mindset from some big companies that your system is theirs to play with at the system software level. Fuck that. <a href=\"https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/04/16/gemini-app-for-mac/\">Michael Tsai’s post</a> on the Gemini Mac app links to <a href=\"https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/google-launches-native-gemini-ai-app-for-mac.2481037/?post=34543484#post-34543484\">this thread on MacRumors</a> regarding this pernicious auto-installed and auto-reinstalled login item. <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/comments/1smaz0b/the_gemini_app_is_now_on_mac/\">Here’s another on Reddit</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Google’s approach to its Mac software is disrespectful and entitled.</p>\n\n<p>I’d have been happy to keep the Gemini app installed if it just sat in my Applications folder when I wasn’t using it. But it doesn’t, and Google shows no signs of caring, so I just deleted it and uninstalled its background launch agents (in <code>~/Library/LaunchAgents/</code>). Feels great, like I took a much needed shower.</p>\n\n<p>(<strong>Sidenote:</strong> The Gemini Mac app is a native Mac app, but it is ... weird. <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@ccgus/116410242771350931\">Gus Mueller poked around at it</a> and found that it’s the product of a Java-to-Objective-C converter that Google made, and much of it was originally written for Android.)</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://gemini.google/mac/\">gemini.google/mac/</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "The AI-Driven Resurgence of Native Mac App Development",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T13:43:26Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T13:47:33Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-ai-driven-resurgence-of-mac-app-development",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/04/the-ai-driven-resurgence-of-mac-app-development",
         "external_url" : "https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/06/road-to-wwdc-2026-whats-a-developer/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Jason Snell at Six Colors, looking ahead to WWDC next week:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>These days, I’m getting emails pitching me for an endless stream\nof new Mac apps. It’s quite remarkable because there was a\nperiod five or ten years ago when it seemed like all app\ndevelopment on Apple’s platforms was focused on iOS. Even more\ninteresting, these are all indie Mac apps that seem to be built\nusing native Mac frameworks, not the product of big corporations\nthat are just rolling their cross-platform development system\nout everywhere. These apps seem to have a point of view and are\nfocused on the Mac.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, it’s happening because of AI. [...]</p>\n\n<p>Mac users — some of them developers, some of them people who have\nnever written software in their lives — are building apps that\nfulfill their imaginations.</p>\n\n<p>We now live in an era where, if you can dream an app, you can\nprobably build it. Especially Mac utilities. And who cares more\nabout native Mac software than Mac users? Certainly not those\ncompanies that gave up on Mac development and focused all their\nenergies on giant cross-platform code bases to attract venture\ninvestment and big payouts.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There are pros and cons to everything, but on the whole, AI-assisted programming has rejuvenated Mac development. It wasn’t moribund, but it was stagnant. And stagnation is the first step toward decline. Now it’s resurgent, and that’s a fun thing to see. And, I think, genuinely important for the future of the platform. I’ve been concerned for years that the biggest problem the Mac faces is that so many new apps for the platform <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2018/12/electron_and_the_decline_of_native_apps\">weren’t Mac apps</a>. The Mac has never faced a decline in popularity, but truly native Mac application development (and the skills) did. Now it’s turning around. Mac users are thirsty for Mac apps, and with AI, they can quench their own thirst and tell the dullards promulgating Electron bundles to pound sand.</p>\n\n<p>(And Snell, it turns out, <a href=\"https://www.theincomparable.com/doubleender/\">has joined the party</a>.)</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/06/road-to-wwdc-2026-whats-a-developer/\">sixcolors.com/post/2026/06/road-to-wwdc-2026-whats-a…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Another Gem From the Annals of Nick Bilton Jackassery",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T02:26:50Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T02:26:50Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/another-gem-from-the-annals-of-nick-bilton-jackassery",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/another-gem-from-the-annals-of-nick-bilton-jackassery",
         "external_url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/20/bilton-pseudoscience",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>I look forward to pseudoscience like this finally getting some airtime on 60 Minutes. For 58 long years the program has been hopelessly biased toward actual science.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/20/bilton-pseudoscience\">daringfireball.net/linked/2015/03/20/bilton-pseudoscience</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "If There’s One Thing Nick Bilton Knows, It’s Television",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-04T02:23:25Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T20:18:40Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/nick-bilton-tv-genius",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/nick-bilton-tv-genius",
         "external_url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/bilton-itv",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Back in 2011, when he was a tech columnist at The New York Times, Nick Bilton figured out that Apple was soon going to launch an Apple branded-television set, with no remote control. You’d just talk to it. This made no sense of course, <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/bilton-itv\">as I pointed out</a>.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/bilton-itv\">Bilton closed his column thus</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>The company is now close enough that it could announce the product\nby late 2012, releasing it to consumers by 2013.</p>\n\n<p>It is coming though. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter\nof when.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Maybe it’ll launch in time for Bilton’s first season at the helm of 60 Minutes this fall, <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/nytpitchbot.bsky.social/post/3mnfmdyaers2h\">with his all-new lineup of correspondents</a>.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/bilton-itv\">daringfireball.net/linked/2011/10/27/bilton-itv</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Scott Pelley on Leaving ‘60 Minutes’: ‘Incompetence and Unprofessionalism in the New Management Have Wreaked Havoc’",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-03T23:19:28Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T00:56:53Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/pelley-statement",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/pelley-statement",
         "external_url" : "https://www.instagram.com/p/DZHlWAoG3_3/?img_index=1",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Scott Pelley, in a statement posted on Instagram (which I’ll quote in full, as the original is locked behind a <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/what_is_a_dickover\">dickwall</a> if you’re not signed in to an Instagram account):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>There has never been anything in America like 60 Minutes.</p>\n\n<p>The Sunday tradition is the most successful program of any kind in\nhistory. For more than a decade, its innovative growth on every\nmajor online platform has extended its reach to countless millions\naround the world. This spring, at the end of our 58th season, 60\nMinutes grew rapidly with an unheard-of 9% jump in viewers on CBS.</p>\n\n<p>“60” has been the number-one program in America for decades\nbecause our beloved audience finds integrity, quality, and\nhumanity in our stories. When stewardship of the program passed to\nmy colleagues and me, our responsibility was to expand\nenergetically into a new age of media technology while preserving\nthe values our audience expects. Now, the new owner of our network\nis casting this legend aside, apparently to curry a moment of\nfavor with the Trump administration.</p>\n\n<p>The waste is heartbreaking.</p>\n\n<p>Last month, 60 Minutes lost its DNA when our entire senior\nleadership and two of our best on-air correspondents were cruelly\nfired without cause. Good people were silenced because they stood\nup for our audience. They stood for fairness against the forces of\npolitical bias; they stood for professionalism against chaos.</p>\n\n<p>For my part, new management has instructed me to inject falsehoods\nand bias into a politically sensitive story. I’ve been told to\ninclude assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I\nhave managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them.</p>\n\n<p>Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents\nfor interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over\n60 Minutes interviews is not how honest journalism is done.\nFinally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new\nmanagement have wreaked havoc. In a case involving one of my\nstories, the entire program came within 19 minutes of not\ngetting on the air at all.</p>\n\n<p>At 60 Minutes, we have fought harder than anyone knows to save the\nprogram that became an American icon. We owed that to our millions\nof viewers. I am deeply moved by the thousands of wishes we have\nreceived to “keep up the good fight.” Most of my colleagues at CBS\nNews are still in that fight. But now the collapse of values at\nthe top has become untenable. The leadership of 60 Minutes is no\nlonger recognizable. The principles I hold dear are gone, and so I\nmust leave as well.</p>\n\n<p>I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion — a heart\nbrimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who\nencouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of\ntheir own lives. I pray for a day when those people and their\nideals are honored again — a day when sanity, competence, and\ncourage return.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/DZHlWAoG3_3/?img_index=1\">instagram.com/p/DZHlWAoG3_3/?img_index=1</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "The ‘60 Minutes’ Purge",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-03T21:32:52Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T20:44:18Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/the-60-minutes-purge",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/the-60-minutes-purge",
         "external_url" : "https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/shows/60-minutes/talent/",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Paramount’s “Press Express” page promoting 60 Minutes still lists all eight correspondents from the 2025–2026 season, the program’s 58th. (Perhaps they fired the person responsible for keeping the cast page up to date.) In the order they appear on Paramount’s listing:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Lesley Stahl</li>\n<li><s>Scott Pelley</s> — <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/cbs-news-fires-scott-pelley\">fired today</a></li>\n<li>Bill Whitaker</li>\n<li><s>Anderson Cooper</s> — <a href=\"https://deadline.com/2026/05/anderson-cooper-signs-off-60-minutes-1236913958/\">left on his own after 20 years</a></li>\n<li><s>Sharyn Alfonsi</s> — <a href=\"https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/60-minutes-tanya-simon-fired/\">fired last week</a></li>\n<li>L. Jon Wertheim</li>\n<li><s>Cecilia Vega</s> — <a href=\"https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/60-minutes-tanya-simon-fired/\">fired last week</a></li>\n<li>Norah O’Donnell</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>A big part of the brand for 60 Minutes is that the show doesn’t change. Someone who last saw it 40 years ago would instantly recognize it today. There’s no silly fucking theme song. There’s no glossy set. There’s a ticking stopwatch, a logotype set in Microgramma/Eurostile, and correspondents sit against a black background. And correspondents measure their tenure not by years but by decades. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_Minutes#Correspondents_and_hosts\">Of the original hosts</a>, Harry Reasoner was there for 23 years (and left the cast only upon his death at 68 in 1991), Dan Rather was there for 38 years, Mike Wallace for 40, and Morley Safer for 48. 48 years! Of the current hosts, <a href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-40-years-at-the-top/\">Lesley Stahl has been there since 1991</a>. I graduated high school that year.</p>\n\n<p>In just six months since David Ellison bought CBS and <a href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/01/26/inside-bari-weisss-hostile-takeover-of-cbs-news\">installed Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of CBS News</a>, they’ve fired or lost half their on-air talent, and of the four who remain, Wertheim and O’Donnell are only part-time (O’Donnell’s title is “CBS News senior correspondent”, not “60 Minutes correspondent”), Whitaker is 74 years old, and Stahl is 84.</p>\n\n<p>Behind the cameras, longtime executive producer <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/28/60-minutes-last-minute\">Bill Owens resigned in protest of corporate interference</a> a year ago, in the cowardly run-up to Ellison’s acquisition of CBS. Last week Weiss fired Owens’s successor, <a href=\"https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2026/60-minutes-tanya-simon-fired/\">Tanya Simon</a>, who had been with the program for 30 years, replacing her with Nick Bilton, who not only had never worked at 60 Minutes, but has never worked in TV news period. Weiss also fired executive editor Draggan Mihailovich, <a href=\"https://deadline.com/2025/08/draggan-mihailovich-60-minutes-executive-editor-1236494670/\">who’d been at the show for 28 years</a>.</p>\n\n<p>It seems untenable for Stahl or Whitaker to remain on the show. Pelley called it what it was in Bilton’s ham-fisted staff meeting Monday: the murder of the institution.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/shows/60-minutes/talent/\">paramountpressexpress.com/cbs-news-and-stations/shows/60…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "CBS News Fires Scott Pelley of ‘60 Minutes’",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-03T19:49:56Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-03T19:50:42Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/cbs-news-fires-scott-pelley",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/cbs-news-fires-scott-pelley",
         "external_url" : "https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/business/media/scott-pelley-cbs-bari-weiss.html",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Benjamin Mullin and Michael M. Grynbaum:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>In a <a href=\"https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/bb744b828c885269/9642cb98-full.pdf\">formal letter</a> to Mr. Pelley, which was obtained by The\nNew York Times, Mr. Bilton wrote that the correspondent had been\n“terminated for cause effective immediately.”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The letter is a must-read. No summary of it can capture just how pathetic a man Nick Bilton is. He disputes nothing Pelley said in the Monday staff meeting, and firing Pelley proves that Pelley was exactly right.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Mr. Pelley, in a telephone interview on Tuesday evening shortly\nafter he was fired, said he had devoted decades of his life to “60\nMinutes,” which he said he still cared about deeply.</p>\n\n<p>“I have been in combat in Afghanistan,” Mr. Pelley said. “I have\nbeen in combat in Iraq. I have been in the war zone in Ukraine\nmultiple times, risking my life and the happiness of my family\nbecause of my devotion to the broadcast.” [...]</p>\n\n<p>Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Pelley sent a statement to The Times that\nassailed the new leadership of CBS News, writing that\n“incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have\nwreaked havoc” at the network.” He added, “The collapse of values\nat the top has become untenable.” Mr. Pelley also wrote that\nsenior managers at CBS News had pressured him to insert bias into\nstories for “60 Minutes” this past season, though he did not\nprovide details about specific segments.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I look forward to hearing those segment-specific details. It’s not hard to guess the direction that bias went.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/02/business/media/scott-pelley-cbs-bari-weiss.html\">nytimes.com/2026/06/02/business/media/scott-pelley-cbs-bari…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "The Underworld Market to Remove the Recording Indicator Light on Meta Glasses",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-03T19:39:13Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-03T19:39:14Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/the-underworld-market-to-remove-the-recording-indicator-light-on-meta-glasses",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/03/the-underworld-market-to-remove-the-recording-indicator-light-on-meta-glasses",
         "external_url" : "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaJSPeJmqis",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Joanna Stern, on YouTube:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>People across the country are offering a service on Facebook\nMarketplace to disable the recording light on Ray-Ban Meta\nglasses. They call it “Stealth Mode.” Joanna paid $100 for the\nmodification and went inside the growing business of turning smart\nglasses into covert cameras. She investigates who is doing it,\nwhether it’s legal and what some are doing to try and stop it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Of course there’s a market for this. But the true chef’s kiss is that the market to find people who offer the service is on ... Facebook Marketplace. Using a Meta platform to find people to hack a Meta device so you can surreptitiously record strangers. So perfectly Meta.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaJSPeJmqis\">youtube.com/watch?v=EaJSPeJmqis</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Meta Reportedly Has a Slew of New Smart Glasses Planned for This Year",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-02T21:54:43Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-02T21:54:43Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/meta-glasses-this-year",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/meta-glasses-this-year",
         "external_url" : "https://gizmodo.com/meta-has-a-ridiculous-amount-of-smart-glasses-planned-for-this-year-2000765741",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>James Pero, summarizing for Gizmodo <a href=\"https://www.theinformation.com/articles/meta-memo-outlines-ambitious-hardware-plans-including-new-ai-pendant\">this paywalled report by Jyoti Mann</a> for The Information:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>But, wait, there’s more: in addition to the fall releases, The\nInformation reports that Meta also has a pair slated for December,\ncodenamed “Mojito VIP.” There are also two prototypes being tested\nin the fall, according to the report, including one called\n“Artemis” and another called “SSG,” which is short for\n“supersensing glasses.”</p>\n\n<p>The Information <a href=\"https://www.theinformation.com/articles/meta-renews-work-facial-recognition-tech-privacy-worries-fade\">previously reported</a> that the “supersensing”\npair would have always-on cameras capable of looking at your\nsurroundings without you having to prompt the voice assistant or\nactivate the camera with a button. The idea here is that, with a\nconstant stream of visual information, the smart glasses could be\na kind of ambient virtual assistant that remembers where you left\nyour keys or other vision-based reminders.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Spitball: Meta’s entire business is predicated on knowing as much about people as possible. Their interest in building out a virtual “metaverse” world was motivated by the fact they could track everything people do, see, say, and hear there. That <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream\">didn’t play out</a> so they’re pivoting to building out devices that will let them track everything people do, see, say, and hear in the real world.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://gizmodo.com/meta-has-a-ridiculous-amount-of-smart-glasses-planned-for-this-year-2000765741\">gizmodo.com/meta-has-a-ridiculous-amount-of-smart-glasses…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "Apple, the Anti-‘Metaverse’ VR Company",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-02T20:48:08Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-02T20:48:09Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/apple-the-anti-metaverse-vr-company",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/apple-the-anti-metaverse-vr-company",
         "external_url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/meta_says_fuck_that_metaverse_shit",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>One <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/the-metaverse-was-snake-oil-for-isolation\">more</a> bit of “<a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream\">metaverse fever dream</a>” follow-up. The one company in the field that Nick Heer doesn’t mention is Apple, makers of the best-known (albeit not best-selling) virtual reality headset. Think and say what you want about the Vision platform (<a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2026/04/on_the_future_of_apples_vision_platform\">I still think</a> it’s the first inning of a long game), but no one at Apple ever once gave a hint of endorsing “metaverse” hype. In fact, <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/meta_says_fuck_that_metaverse_shit\">as I’ve noted before</a>, at a 2022 WSJ event, seven months before Vision Pro was <em>announced</em> and over a year before it was released, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-ugwoEOMvg&amp;t=1770s\">Joanna Stern asked Greg Joswiak and Craig Federighi</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p><strong>Stern:</strong> You have to finish this sentence, both of you. The\nmetaverse is...</p>\n\n<p><strong>Joz:</strong> A word I’ll never use.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>“Fever dream” is right.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/meta_says_fuck_that_metaverse_shit\">daringfireball.net/2025/12/meta_says_fuck_that_metaverse…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "The Metaverse Was Snake Oil for Isolation",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-02T20:42:33Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-04T20:49:52Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/the-metaverse-was-snake-oil-for-isolation",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/02/the-metaverse-was-snake-oil-for-isolation",
         "external_url" : "https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>A follow-up point from <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream\">my post yesterday linking to</a> Nick Heer’s blockbuster “<a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/blog/metaverse-fever-dream/\">The Metaverse Fever Dream</a>”. In particular, the connection Heer draws between the rise of “metaverse” hype and the pandemic.</p>\n\n<p>I always sort of knew that metaverse hype roughly coincided with the Covid lockdown and our collective period of isolation and loneliness, a year-plus stretch when we relied mostly on computer platforms for nearly all socializing. But here in 2026 it’s now clear that metaverse hype and lockdown-induced isolation coincided precisely. They didn’t roughly overlap; they exactly overlapped. So much so that I’m now wondering if any of the “metaverse” hype would have happened if Covid hadn’t happened. Facebook still likely would’ve renamed itself, <a href=\"https://om.co/2025/04/28/no-gruber-this-is-why-facebook-renamed-itself/\">because they’d so poisoned the “Facebook” brand itself</a>, but maybe to <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/04/28/om-malik-facebook-rename\">something other than “Meta”</a>.</p>\n\n<p>We allowed the necessary <em>initial</em> emergency lockdown to extend indefinitely because it seemed like <em>maybe we could get by</em> for a long stretch using technology. The extended lockdown never would have happened if the Covid pandemic had broken out 20 or more years earlier. In 2020 and 2021, we could squint and say, sure, maybe kids can “go to school” via Zoom. We never would have kept all kids home for an entire year pre-Zoom. But the truth is Zoom “school” <a href=\"https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/\">wasn’t much better than no school at all</a>. Same for Zoom “work collaboration”, and Zoom “friend gatherings”. It was an illusion that today’s technology is even close to a sufficient substitute for being in each others’ physical presence. The siren call of “the metaverse” was exactly what we craved — technology that <em>would</em> be a sufficient substitute for real-world experiences and socializing. The best audience for snake oil are people with actual ailments. And during Covid, we were all ailing socially.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever-dream\">daringfireball.net/linked/2026/06/01/the-metaverse-fever…</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "[Sponsor] Mux — Video for Developers",
         "date_published" : "2026-06-02T01:45:43Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-06-02T01:45:44Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/06/mux_video_for_developers",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/feeds/sponsors/2026/06/mux_video_for_developers",
         "external_url" : "https://www.mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "Daring Fireball Department of Commerce"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Mux is what developers reach for when they need to do more with video. Video files are packed with data and context waiting to be unlocked.</p>\n\n<p>Mux Robots are AI workflows that unlock that data inside your video for summarization, caption translation, moderation, and more. Configure once and your workflows run automatically on new uploads.</p>\n\n<p>Mux is video infrastructure trusted by Patreon, Substack, and Synthesia. Start building for free. Use code <strong>FIREBALL</strong> at signup for an extra $50 credit.</p>\n\n<p class=\"x-netnewswire-hide\" style=\"padding-top: 1.5em;\"><em>Link: <strong><a href=\"https://www.mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF\">mux.com/?utm_campaign=fireball&utm_source=DF</a></strong></em></p>\n"
      },
      {
         "title" : "★ What Is a Dickover?",
         "date_published" : "2026-05-29T20:58:56Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-05-31T22:58:20Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/what_is_a_dickover",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/what_is_a_dickover",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p><em><a href=\"/2026/05/what_is_a_dickover\">Please enjoy this article on its own webpage</a>. Trust me.</em></p>\n\n    "
      },
      {
         "title" : "★ The Fonts of the U.S. Federal Courts",
         "date_published" : "2026-05-22T20:30:18Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-05-25T18:22:13Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/the_fonts_of_the_us_federal_courts",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/the_fonts_of_the_us_federal_courts",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>The 13 circuits of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_courts_of_appeals\">the U.S. federal courts of appeals</a> operate with a fair amount of independence, including <a href=\"https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/greedy-associates/5-non-times-new-roman-fonts-courts-use-in-their-opinions/\">their typographic choices</a>. I was reminded of this today while reading the <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/22/ninth-circuit-epic-v-apple\">aforelinked</a> decision <a href=\"https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/12/11/25-2935.pdf\">from the Ninth Circuit in <em>Epic v. Apple</em></a>, because the Ninth Circuit sets their decisions in <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/15/a-brief-history-of-timesnewroman\">Times New Roman</a> — a font that <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2025/12/10/\">came up back in December</a> in the context of the Trump State Department.</p>\n\n<p>Long argument short, Times New Roman isn’t bad, but it isn’t good. It is the median choice. But <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/LawSchool/comments/ge4tzq/different_fonts_used_by_us_court_of_appeals/\">most of the circuit courts use it</a>: the Third, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh. It could be worse: the <a href=\"https://media.ca1.uscourts.gov/pdf.opinions/14-1043P-01A.pdf\">First</a> circuit not only uses Courier New (<a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/01/14/clintons-letter\">the worst version of Courier</a>, so of course it’s the one Microsoft shipped with Windows), but fully justifies their text — contrary to the nature of a monospaced font. (The Fourth circuit only recently switched <a href=\"https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/131839A.P.pdf\">from Courier New</a> <a href=\"https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/251012.P.pdf\">to Times New Roman</a> — an upgrade, to be sure, but a disappointingly mediocre one.) It could be better: the <a href=\"https://ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/OPN/24-341_opn.pdf\">Second</a> and <a href=\"https://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/OpinionsWeb/processWebInputExternal.pl?Submit=Display&amp;Path=Y2026/D05-20/C:24-2015:J:Hamilton:aut:T:fnOp:N:3544786:S:0\">Seventh</a> use Palatino. (Note how much better that Seventh Circuit decision looks than the Second’s, with its wider margins creating a narrower column of text.)</p>\n\n<p>But it can be <em>much</em> better. The Fifth Circuit was long typographically superior to its peers, using <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_type_family\">Century Schoolbook</a> — a highly legible font with great tradition and the right vibe. But in 2020, the Fifth Circuit upgraded, switching to <a href=\"https://typographyforlawyers.com/equity.html\">Equity</a>, Matthew Butterick’s excellent type family (which, of course, is used throughout Butterick’s own web book, <a href=\"https://typographyforlawyers.com/\"><em>Typography for Lawyers</em></a>). Here’s a <a href=\"https://x.com/E_A_Young/status/1285354790176935936\">before and after tweet</a> noting the change. The <a href=\"https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/25/25-11006-CV1.pdf\">results</a> are typographically sublime (including improved margins).</p>\n\n<p>The gold standard is the U.S. Supreme Court, which uses Century Schoolbook. Yes, I just praised the Fifth Circuit’s change from Century Schoolbook to Equity as an upgrade, but tradition and consistency have their place. The Supreme Court’s typographic style has been stunningly consistent for — no pun intended — well over a century. (If only that were true of their recent decisions. <em>Rimshot.</em>) Here is last month’s <a href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/24-109_new_jifl.pdf\"><em>Louisiana v. Callais</em> decision</a> — the gerrymandering / redistricting case. Here is <a href=\"https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/usrep/usrep347/usrep347483/usrep347483.pdf\">1954’s <em>Brown v. Board of Education</em></a>. I’d give the nod to the older one, which made better use of proper small caps, but the overall consistency is obvious.</p>\n\n<p>Here is <a href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/filingandrules/2026RulesoftheCourt_WEB.pdf\">the 2026 edition of the Rules of the Supreme Court</a>. Not only does the Court use Century Schoolbook for its own decisions, it requires submissions to the Court to use the same (p. 44):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>The text of every booklet-format document, including any appendix\nthereto, shall be typeset in a Century family (e. g., Century\nExpanded, New Century Schoolbook, or Century Schoolbook) 12-point\ntype with 2-point or more leading between lines. Quotations in\nexcess of 50 words shall be indented. The typeface of footnotes\nshall be 10-point type with 2-point or more leading between lines.\nThe text of the document must appear on both sides of the page.</p>\n\n<p>Every booklet-format document shall be produced on paper that is\nopaque, unglazed, and not less than 60 pounds in weight, and\nshall have margins of at least three-fourths of an inch on all\nsides. The text field, including footnotes, may not exceed 4⅛\nby 7⅛ inches.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Why the extra one-eighths of an inch instead of just 4 × 7? I don’t know. But 4⅛ × 7⅛ is exactly the size of the text field in the court’s own decisions.</p>\n\n<p>Now compare the current 2026 rulebook to <a href=\"https://www.supremecourt.gov/pdfs/rules/rules_1910.pdf\">this edition printed in 1910</a> (with rules adopted in 1884). The consistency is striking — but, once again, the older version makes better use of small caps and just has a bit more vim and vigor to it. <a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/misc/2026/05/scotus-1910-rules-p-44.jpeg\">Just look at page 44</a>, for example. It’s perfect. The current Court’s document formatters should aspire only to more closely ape the confidence and sturdiness of this older one. A century from now, U.S. Supreme Court decisions should look as similar to today’s as today’s do to those from a century ago.</p>\n\n<hr />\n\n<p>The various circuit courts using lesser typefaces, looser margins, and lazier formatting should follow the Fifth’s lead and get their shit together. Tuck your shirt in, comb your hair, straighten your tie, and pop a mint in your mouth. If you’re a United States federal court, your typographic style should reflect that.</p>\n\n<p>Back in 2020, <a href=\"https://matthewbutterick.com/chron/choose-wisely-2020-edition.html\">Butterick took a well-deserved victory lap</a> when the Fifth Circuit adopted Equity.<sup id=\"fnr1-2026-05-22-f\"><a href=\"#fn1-2026-05-22-f\">1</a></sup> He quoted Fifth Circuit Judge <a href=\"https://x.com/justicewillett\">Don Willett</a>, a typography fan who spearheaded the restyling project, on its rationale. Willett wrote:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>[Why] did the circuit devote finite judicial energy to swapping\ntypefaces and widening margins? Simple answer: Our job is not\njust to present clear opinions, but to present our opinions\nclearly. Getting the law right is, of course, our tip-top\npriority. Nothing matters more. ... But good enough is never good\nenough. Our work is consequential, impacting the lives and\nlivelihoods of real people walloped by real problems in the real\nworld. The stakes are high, and we must present our best opinion,\nnot merely a passable one. And that presentation begins before\nthe first word is ever read.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn1-2026-05-22-f\">\n<p>In the very same post, Butterick sings the praises of the Apple Extended Keyboard II, and notes that he has several spares in reserve. I do keenly intend to take Butterick up on <a href=\"https://practicaltypography.com/effluents-influence-affluence.html#:~:text=Musso%20%26%20Frank\">his standing offer</a> to dine when next I’m in Los Angeles, but I worry that if we meet, we’ll trigger some sort of calamitous singularity of aligned taste.&nbsp;<a href=\"#fnr1-2026-05-22-f\"  class=\"footnoteBackLink\"  title=\"Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.\">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n</div>\n\n    "
      },
      {
         "title" : "★ AI Is Technology, Not a Product",
         "date_published" : "2026-05-16T20:32:51Z",
         "date_modified" : "2026-05-18T16:48:28Z",
         "id" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/ai_is_technology_not_a_product",
         "url" : "https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/ai_is_technology_not_a_product",
         "authors" : [
            {
               "name" : "John Gruber"
            }
         ],
         "content_html" : "\n<p>Steven Levy, writing for Wired last month after Apple’s CEO transition was announced, under the provocative headline “<a href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/apples-next-ceo-needs-to-launch-a-killer-ai-product/\">Apple’s Next CEO Needs to Launch a Killer AI Product</a>” (<a href=\"https://apple.news/AdCC7y43rTQq6SZH2bDmqxA\">News+ link</a> to get around Wired’s miserly paywall):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n  <p>Much more recently, <a href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/apple-50-year-anniversary-artificial-intelligence-iphone/\">I quizzed Ternus</a> and global marketing\nhead Greg Joswiak about Apple’s future, specifically its plans to\nget ahead of the AI transformation. Ternus acknowledged that AI is\n“an immense kind of inflection point,” but couched it as one of\nmany leaps that Apple has navigated. Each hit product — the Apple\nII, the Mac, iTunes, the iPod, the iPhone, iPad — piggybacked on\na previous product. “We never think about shipping a technology,”\nhe said. “We want to ship amazing products, features, and\nexperiences, and we don’t want our customers to think about what\n[underlying] technology makes it possible. That’s the way we think\nabout AI.”</p>\n\n<p>That’s fine, but I look back to the mid-2000s when everybody was\nwaiting for Apple to come out with a phone. When Jobs finally\ndelivered in January 2007, the product defined the mobile era.\nIt’s a big ask for Ternus to do something similar for the AI age — but it’s an opportunity that must be seized. AI threatens to\ndisrupt the entire iPhone ecosystem. By the end of this decade,\nit’s unlikely that people will swipe on their phones to tap on\nUber or Lyft. They will just tell their always-on AI agent to get\nthem home. Or that agent will have already figured out where they\nneed to go, and the car will be waiting without the friction of a\nrequest. “There’s an app for that,” may be replaced by “Let the\nagent do that.”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I’m a huge longtime Steven Levy fan, but this is nonsense. It’s hard to read this and not worry that he too has lost his mind to the AI snake-oil hypesters. What Ternus told him is exactly right. The Apple way is never to ship a technology. The iPod wasn’t about MP3 files. It wasn’t about <a href=\"https://www.wired.com/2006/10/straight-dope-on-the-ipods-birth/\">1.8-inch hard drives</a>. It was about music. The iPhone did define the mobile era (which we’re still very much in), but Apple doesn’t need to capitalize on every single market the mobile era opened up. Social media is a defining component of the mobile era. It comprises the entirety of Meta’s value and a sizable slice of Google’s (via YouTube). Apple doesn’t have a social network business. It’s fine — because the way people consume and create social media is using their phones.</p>\n\n<p>Does AI “threaten to disrupt the entire iPhone ecosystem”? It’s possible, but it doesn’t seem nearly as likely to me as Levy asserts. <em>Changing</em> the iPhone ecosystem? Sure — that’s already true. <em>Obviating</em> the iPhone ecosystem? I don’t see it. Levy’s argument reminds me of the hype around “the cloud” when that first became a term. It’s so meaningless when used broadly (e.g. “<em>Everything will soon be in the cloud</em>”) that it could mean anything. It’s step #2 in the <a href=\"https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Underpants_Gnomes\">gnomes-stealing-underpants</a> master plan.</p>\n\n<p>The idea that AI agents “will have already figured out where [we] need to go, and the car will be waiting without the friction of a request” strikes me as pure fever dream high-on-the-hype fantasy. I’m just going to step outside a restaurant when I’m done eating a meal and a ride-share is going to be there, waiting for me, without my having hailed it? Every time? And I’m going to find this pleasing, not creepy? And ride-share drivers are going to respond to all these requests, because the requests will never be wrong? And this is going to happen, somehow, without my carrying a phone with me? And this is going to happen in the next four years? I don’t think I’d want this even if it were plausible, but it doesn’t sound plausible.</p>\n\n<p>Actual products have to be real. Actual experiences have to rely on actual products. How exactly in Levy’s end-of-this-decade scenario will we tell our “always-on AI agent” to get us home? What microphone is listening to the command? What speaker is telling us the request was understood and acted upon? What screen do we look at to see how far away the hailed car is? I’d bet a pretty large sum of money that in 2030, when someone hails a ride-share vehicle to take them home, the most common product they’ll use to do that will be their phone. Whether they’re doing it via a verbal command issued to an “always-on AI agent” or good old tapping and swiping, it’ll be a phone.</p>\n\n<p>If you think that people will buy smaller devices to replace their phones, and use those to talk to “always-on AI agents” instead, you have to answer some questions. What company is the best in the world at making smaller-than-phone personal computing devices? What device will people use as their camera? What device will people use as their screen, for watching videos, playing games, texting, and (one hopes) reading? My answers to those three questions: Apple, phone, phone. Why would smaller devices — you know, like watches, earbuds, and, say, glasses — work independently rather than pair with the phone that you’re almost certainly still going to be carrying with you?</p>\n\n<p>Only a fool would argue that Apple can stand on the sidelines and ignore AI. It’s very different from, say, social media that way. Social media doesn’t pervade everything in technology. You can ignore social media as a user. (And you’re probably more productive, and happier, if you do.) A company can eschew social media as a business. AI, on the other hand, is pervasive. It can’t be ignored. But it’s just technology.</p>\n\n<p>Wireless networking is pervasive too. But Apple doesn’t have “a killer wireless networking product”.<sup id=\"fnr1-2026-05-16\"><a href=\"#fn1-2026-05-16\">1</a></sup> Wireless networking simply pervades everything Apple makes. I’m hard pressed to think of a single product Apple makes that doesn’t use some combination of Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth, and proprietary wireless protocols. There was a time, not <em>too</em> long ago, when Apple didn’t make a single product with wireless connectivity. Now it’s pervasive in all their devices. That’s more what AI is going to be like. There’s not going to be one “killer AI device”. Everything is going to be an AI device, to some extent, just like how everything today is a wireless connectivity device, to some extent.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Postscript:</strong> “<a href=\"https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/05/18/existing-stakeholders-have-a-say-in-the-future\">Existing Stakeholders Have a Say in the Future</a>”.</p>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n<li id=\"fn1-2026-05-16\">\n<p>AirPort qualified, arguably. But Apple walked away from it, alas.&nbsp;<a href=\"#fnr1-2026-05-16\"  class=\"footnoteBackLink\"  title=\"Jump back to footnote 1 in the text.\">&#x21A9;&#xFE0E;</a></p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n</div>\n\n    "
      }
   ]
}
