Episode 580: Adobe Can Buy Us Now

For the last episode of the year, Daniel and Manton discuss the latest tech news including Apple stopping sales of new Apple Watch over a potential patent violation, and Adobe and Figma calling off the acquisition. Then Daniel and Manton look toward 2024 and what they might be working on.

Download Audio (MP3, 32 minutes)

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December 24, 2023 at 6:17 pm.

Episode 579: A Fool’s Errand

Manton and Daniel react to AI announcements from Google and Apple, and speculate that AI could be the technological weakness empowering other companies to challenge Apple’s dominance. They talk about a new service from Beeper that allows Android users to connect directly to the iMessage network, and how likely they are to be stopped by Apple. Finally, they discuss the ethical implications of a company like Beeper “hitching a ride” on another company’s infrastructure without their permission.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

  • Introducing Gemini – Google’s new “multi-modal” AI technology.
  • Apple Joins AI Fray – Article on The Verge about Apple’s new MLX framework.
  • MLX – GitHub repository for Apple’s “ML Explore” project.
  • Introducing Beeper Mini – New subscription service allowing Android users to use iMessage.
  • How Beeper Mini Works – A “technical deep dive” on the company’s approach.
  • iMessage Explained – Another technical article about the iMessage protocol.
  • Libby – Popular app for downloading ebooks and audio books from libraries.
  • Local Number Portability – Wikipedia page about the notion of phone number portability and where and when it has been required.

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December 9, 2023 at 10:17 pm.

Episode 578: Snarfing Up The Data

Daniel and Manton talk about the MarsEdit 5.1 release and some things that affected it, such as the range of Mastodon instances and forks with different behaviors. They talk about the increasing sentiment towards locking down access to data on the web, in Mastodon specifically and more generally the public’s reaction to AI bots. How will AI empower data collectors to “imitate” styles of other expressions, and how does using copyrighted visual art to train AI differ from using copyrighted binary code to train code? Daniel answers why MarsEdit 5.1 isn’t called 6.0, plus some closing thoughts about the waning viability of one-time purchases for desktop software.

Download Audio (MP3, 38 minutes)

Links:

  • MarsEdit 5.1 — Blog announcing the new features.
  • Mastodon security — Documentation for how Mastodon uses HTTP signatures.
  • Happy anniversary ChatGPT — Manton blog post on using AI as a tool.
  • Loish — Artist with a distinctive style that has been copied by AI.
  • Mixed In Key — Music software with a server component that Daniel worked for.
  • MarsEdit version question — Jason Becker asks on Micro.blog whether it should be 6.0.
  • Arq — Mac backup software with one-time purchase or cloud storage subscription.
December 2, 2023 at 7:09 pm.