Linked List: October 9, 2024

Wednesday, 9 October 2024

A new website/newsletter from Om Malik and Fred Vogelstein:

Both of us together have followed Silicon Valley’s innovation engine for more than 50 years. We’ve seen a lot. But one observation stands out: The best ideas — the ones that launch meaningful companies — need to seem crazy and stupid at first.

Amazon, Google and Facebook are among the most powerful companies in the world today, but each of them seemed absolutely preposterous when launched. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon as an online bookstore 30 years ago, most didn’t even know what the internet was. Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998 when most believed search was going nowhere. In the 2000s, Mark Zuckerberg bet Facebook could fundamentally change the way billions of people used the internet — to share everything back when most were terrified about sharing anything.

It’s this messianic belief in a vision that makes many entrepreneurs so quirky — and so interesting. It takes a unique personality to spend years saying “I’m right” when most around you say “That’s wrong.”

Love this statement of purpose.

Moom 4 Is Excellent, But Not Available in the Mac App Store ★

Many Tricks:

Moom 4 is only available directly from Many Tricks; it is not available on the Mac App Store. If it were our choice, it would also be in the Mac App Store, but it’s not our choice.

Why isn’t it in the Mac App Store? Because the Mac App Store does not allow apps that aren’t sandboxed. And Moom 4 cannot be sandboxed, as its use of the Accessibility API makes that impossible. So how was Moom 3, which also uses the Accessibility API, on the Mac App Store? Simple: Moom 3 was in the store before Apple required all Mac App Store apps to be sandboxed, so it was allowed to remain in the store, as long as we never added new features.

If Apple ever changes the rules, we will submit Moom 4 for Mac App Store review, but until/unless those rules change, you can only get Moom 4 directly from us.

What a perfect example of the shortcomings of the Mac App Store. MacOS 15 Sequoia adds new window-tiling features that, on the surface, you might think Sherlock Moom — a longstanding Mac utility that automates window resizing/arranging. But Moom does so much more than Sequoia’s tiling features. It’s a fabulous utility from a great developer, but Many Tricks isn’t allowed to offer it through the Mac App Store.

Microsoft’s Final Surface Duo Software Update ★

Zac Bowden, writing for Windows Central:

The Surface Duo 2 has just received its likely final security update, marking an end to Microsoft’s brief return to the smartphone market. The company originally launched Surface Duo 2 in October 2021, and promised to support the product with software updates for three years. Microsoft was only able to deliver one major Android version update in that time, a pitiful number for a $1,500 device.

It wasn’t that Microsoft was only able to deliver one major Android version update in 3 years. They’re Microsoft, for chrissakes. It’s that they could only be bothered to deliver one major upgrade. Commitment is vastly underestimated in the hardware game.

CoverSutra (I Think!) Is Returning ★

Fun Halloween-themed teaser.

Home Depot Is Slowly Rolling Out Apple Pay Support ★

Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Mac:

According to multiple 9to5Mac readers and reports across social media, Home Depot has also recently started rolling out Apple Pay support. Home Depot has been a major Apple Pay holdout, resisting pressure from its customers to add support for Apple’s tap-to-pay platform. Notably, Lowe’s — Home Depot’s biggest competitor — began rolling out Apple Pay support last December. It certainly seems possible that this move by Lowe’s put pressure on Home Depot to change its strategy.

Home Depot hasn’t commented on this change in policy, and the details of the rollout aren’t explicitly clear. It appears to be a very gradual rollout that started at a small number of locations over the summer and has recently picked up momentum. Your mileage may vary for the time being, though.

I could be completely wrong, but I don’t think Home Depot was ever opposed to Apple Pay. I just think they bought into a weird point-of-sale system that didn’t support it. They’re weird terminals. And I suspect what’s happening now isn’t a come-to-Jesus moment regarding Apple Pay in particular, but a replacement of those crummy POS terminals with new ones that do support Apple Pay.

Walmart is still the biggest Apple Pay holdout by a wide margin, and the company has shown no signs of changing its tune.

With Walmart, I do think it’s strategic that they don’t support Apple Pay. I think it’s wrongheaded though, and they’ll change their minds sooner (probably) or later. Walmart, just a few years ago, was spearheading the dumbass CurrentC “pay via QR code” system. Apple Pay, from a user’s perspective, is just a private way to pay via credit or debit card — no more, no less. Whatever strategic reasons Walmart has to oppose it — which I think boil down to wanting customers to instead use a Walmart-proprietary digital payment system — aren’t worth it.