Episode 620: I Just Kept Hitting Walls

Daniel and Manton talk about Apple’s new Image Playground, an AI-based graphic generator. Even if it’s not super-impressive, maybe it’s exciting for the average user? Manton relates his recent attempts to write a new app in SwiftUI, which leads to an assessment of whether SwiftUI is ready for prime-time on iOS and/or Mac. Finally, they talk about whether we’re all propelling towards a web-only future, and whether that might be just fine.

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November 15, 2024 at 11:37 pm.

Episode 619: Every Four Years

Election Day! Daniel and Manton talk about early voting, political outcomes, and the impacts of those outcomes on our professional ambitions. Then they switch topics to the Mac, with Apple’s new hardware and what Daniel purchased. Finally, they talk about the incentive AI provides for ever-more-powerful computing resources, and take stock of our personal responsibility for conservation.

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November 5, 2024 at 4:49 pm.

Episode 618: That’s What People Want

Daniel and Manton talk about upcoming changes we might see to the Mac product line. They review the state of social networks including Bluesky’s new funding and user growth. Finally, how much money is enough and is it a failure if you don’t constantly seek more?

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Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

October 27, 2024 at 2:41 pm.

Episode 617: Ask Forgiveness

Trademarking Micro.blog, how to appeal trademark rejections, and whether to get a lawyer. Manton and Daniel talk about whether it’s important to invest in protecting your trademark from the get-go. They discuss Automattic’s control of the .blog domain, whether it poses a risk to Manton, and Manton considering rebranding to de-emphasize the “micro” aspect of his platform. Plus a quick mention of Automattic and WP Engine, which also revolves around trademarks.

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October 18, 2024 at 7:38 pm.

Episode 616: A Right Way to Do Things

Daniel talks about his recent updates to Black Ink, for both Mac and iOS. He and Manton compare notes about updating icons for iOS 18 to support Dark and Tinted home screen modes. They talk about application versioning, again!, and the virtue of choosing to do things one way sometimes just because it’s right. They react to recent speculation about the identity of the inventor of Bitcoin, and whether it’s responsible for anybody to make such allegations. Finally, they talk a bit more about AI, what it means for the future of programming, and it’s impact on the world’s approach to manufacturing energy.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

  • Furbo.org – Home page of Craig Hockenberry.
  • Iconfactory – Craig’s app-development and design company.
  • Retrobatch – Mac-based app for image workflow automation by Flying Meat.
  • Gus Mueller – Founder/developer of Flying Meat.
  • You Know It’s There – Steve Jobs quote in a 1985 Playboy interview about craftsmanship in furniture.
  • Really Satoshi Nakamoto? – Article by CoinMarketCap about the HBO documentary alleging his true identity.
  • Nostr – Cryptocurrency-heavy social network.
  • ChatGPT – The well-known large language model AI service.
  • Claude.ai – https://claude.ai/
  • Artifacts – A post from Anthropic about Claude.ai’s Artifacts feature.
  • Canvas – OpenAI’s new feature, similar to Artifacts.
  • Three Mile Island Will Reopen – NPR article about the reopening of the famous nuclear power plant.
  • Three Mile Island Accident – US Government breakdown of the 1979 incident at the plant.

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October 11, 2024 at 8:53 pm.

Episode 615: Fancy Glasses

Manton talks to Daniel about his Daniel’s latest experience trying to use his Apple Vision Pro. They react to Meta’s Orion glasses demo, and wonder how much of a threat, if any they’ll be to Apple. They consider the possibility that accessories like glasses should be tethered to a phone, as a high-performance, expensive piece of hardware the customer has already bought. Finally, whatever happened to Google’s interest in AR Glasses?

Links:

  • Introducing Orion – Facebook’s blog post announcing their new augmented reality glasses.
  • Orion and Reality Labs – Ben Thompson interviews Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth about the new technologies.
  • Ray-Ban Meta Glasses – Meta’s less ambitious glasses, in collaboration with Ray-Ban.
  • Meta Quest – Meta’s considerable cheaper, lower-tech alternative to Apple Vision Pro.
  • Shipping vs. Shipping – The Talk Show episode 410 featuring Jason Snell.

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October 8, 2024 at 11:25 pm.

Episode 614: 500 Thumbs Down

Daniel and Manton talk about the community drama and impending fiasco of WordPress and Matt Mullenweg vs. WP Engine. They weigh the arguments of either side. Then they consider the larger issue of dependencies we have on the platforms we develop for, and how we strive for independence from platforms that can make or break our business.

Download Audio (MP3, 39 minutes)

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

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September 30, 2024 at 2:29 pm.

Episode 613: Extremely Fiddly

Daniel and Manton talk about the latest releases of iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia, and the confusion of macOS versioning with the switch from 10.15 to 11. They explore new iOS features like home screen customization. Then Daniel describes the change in macOS Sequoia to limit keyboard shortcuts that use only the option key.

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Links:

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September 20, 2024 at 3:42 pm.

Episode 612: Let’s Just Say I’m Skeptical

Daniel talks to Manton about the new iPhones, whether they’re buying one or not, and the pros and cons of pickup vs. delivery. They discuss the merit of AppleCare+ particular for iPhones. They consider the new Camera Control button and whether it’s likely to be a “dud” or not.
Daniel and Manton going for the new phones, whether to buy AppleCare+ or not. Finally, they consider the possibility that the new AirPods hardware is feature-locked by software, and whether it’s ethical to charge customers more for features built-in to a hardware device.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

  • Apple Event – Apple’s latest product announcement video featuring iPhone 16 and Apple Watch Series 10.
  • µBrowser – Web browsing app for Apple Watch.
  • Minimized Embiggening – Accidental Tech Podcast episode discussing the possibility of Apple selling software-limited hardware.
  • iFixit – Repair-it-yourself site famous for its hardware teardown.

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September 16, 2024 at 1:31 pm.

Episode 611: Do Not Hallucinate

Manton and Daniel talk about the upcoming Apple special event where new iPhones are expected to be announced. They talk about their respective likelihoods of buying one, and remark on the diminishing importance of smallness in a phone’s physical design. They discuss the nascent Apple Intelligence features in macOS and iOS betas, the general competitive state of AI services, and the virtue of being able to easily switch from one hosted AI services provider to another.

Links:

  • Apple Event – Watch live at 10 a.m. Pacific Time.
  • What to Expect – The Verge’s rundown of anticipated announcements.
  • Apple Intelligence – Apple’s product marketing page for Apple Intelligence.
  • Priority Phishing Email – Cabel Sasser shares his experience with Apple’s AI misclassifying a scam email.
  • Claude – ChatGPT competitor from Anthropic.
  • Prompt Engineering – OpenAI documentation on improving the effectiveness of AI prompts.
  • Apple’s Pre-Prompts – MacRumors reports on the uncovering of OS-bundled prompts in Apple’s apps.
  • Claude’s Pre-Prompts – Documentation from Anthropic about the specific prompts they preload their AI products with.
  • Llama 3 – Open-source LLM software from Meta.
  • xAI Rush in Memphis – Manton’s post about Elon Musk’s huge AI server center in Tennessee.

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September 7, 2024 at 8:21 pm.