The United States has fallen to a score of 65 (on a scale of 0-100) on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (calculated before Trump’s 2nd term). It’s fallen steadily since 2013 (score of 76), esp. during Trump’s 1st term.
I’ve spent the last six days using the iPhone 16e, and the experience has been a throwback. In many ways, the iPhone 16e both looks and feels like the modern-day progeny of the early Steve Jobs era iPhones. Early iPhones like the plastic 3G and 3GS, and the glass-back/metal-...
NPR’s Embedded podcast has a three-episode series from reporter Zach Mack about a year-long effort to convince his dad that all the conspiracy theories he (his dad) believes are bogus, in an attempt to save his family.
Reporter Zach Mack thinks his dad has gone all in on...
Joseph Menn, reporting for The Washington Post:
The U.S. Justice Department told Congress in November there were
no major disputes with the United Kingdom over how the two allies
seek data from each other’s communication companies.
But at that time, officials knew Briti...
Pedro Pascal responding to transphobia on social media: “I can’t think of anything more vile and small and pathetic than terrorizing the smallest, most vulnerable community of people who want nothing from you, except the right to exist.”
Zac Hall, reporting for 9to5Mac:
According to a letter seen by 9to5Mac, the Trump Administration
is investigating whether the UK may have broken a bilateral
agreement when secretly demanding that Apple build a global
backdoor into iCloud.
Trump’s Director of National In...
Whoa, HBO has made a third installment of Eyes on the Prize, the landmark series on the American Civil Rights Movement. The trailer is above and you can watch the six-part series on HBO or Max right now.
The first two series, which are amongst the best television ever air...
I referenced Downie twice earlier today — once in my item linking to Charlie Monroe (developer of Downie) writing about the indie app business, and earlier in my post about using Downie to download the MP3 from Jony Ive’s interview on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs.
I someho...
Charlie Monroe, developer of excellent apps such as Downie and Permute:
But also don’t do this alone. I work 365 days a year. Last year, I
worked 366 days (2024 was leap year). I’m not saying that I work 8
hours each day, but even during weekends, holidays, vacation, I
n...
Alex Heath, writing for The Verge:
Just a few weeks after everyone freaked out about
DeepSeek, Elon Musk’s Grok-3 has again shaken up the fast-moving
AI race. The new model is ending the week at the top of
the Chatbot Arena leaderboard, while the Grok iOS app
is at the t...
Chris Welch, writing at The Verge:
Apple has acknowledged a peculiar bug with the iPhone’s
dictation feature that briefly displays “Trump” when someone
says the word “racist.” The Verge has been unable to reproduce
the issue, but it picked up attention on Tuesday after a...
