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xkcd.com Valid
Text

Archery Feat

Update: I would not have embarked on this powerscaling venture if I'd known how thoroughly Mark Twain was going to roast me.

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Walmart Finally Caves, Will Soon Support Apple Pay

corporate.walmart.com/news/2026/08/21/more-ways-to-pay-tap-to-pay-is-coming-to-walmart-and-sams-club

Walmart:

When we think about convenience, we think about a lot of things, but making shopping feel simpler and more seamless from start to finish is a big part. And one of the moments where that matters most is at checkout.

We want customers and members to have choice in how they pay, so they can check out in the way that works best for them. Now, beginning Aug. 24, we will be adding Tap to Pay to our payment options at select Walmart stores and Sam’s Club locations, with plans to roll it out to all U.S. stores and clubs by the end of 2026 and to fuel stations by mid-2027.

When I think about convenience, I think about CurrentC, scanning stupid-ass QR codes, and waiting 12 years to adopt Apple Pay.

Link: corporate.walmart.com/news/2026/08/21/more-ways-to-pay-tap…

Longreads Valid
Text • Carolyn Wells

The End of the European Summer

"As extreme heat overwhelms the Continent’s great cities, they are racing to transform themselves for a climate that they were never built to withstand."

Marques Brownlee
Video

I Said Yes to Every Email for a Month! (Again)

I said yes to every review request I got for an entire month. I'm sorry? You're welcome?

Thanks Best Buy for sponsoring this video. You can find the tech upgrades you need to elevate your daily life at https://www.bestbuy.com/discover

MKBHD Merch: http://shop.MKBHD.com

DC Rainmaker Garmin CIRQA video: https://youtu.be/2K4x0CnuQug?si=9k68ymP8IUkciJUE

Playlist of MKBHD Intro music: https://goo.gl/B3AWV5

~
http://twitter.com/MKBHD
http://instagram.com/MKBHD
http://facebook.com/MKBHD

0:00 Intro
2:01 Xbook Laptop
5:02 Garmin CIRQA
6:51 Smart Toilet Seat
8:29 The Busy Bar
9:50 Beni Robot
13:33 Fan Mouse
15:02 Personal EKG
16:33 Honor Robot Phone
18:27 "AI Powered" Chair
21:03 Skullcandy Headphones
23:05 Gaming PC
25:24 Sony "True RGB" TV
28:19 What we learned

Rick Beato
Video

DOMi and JD Beck play “Lovely Masquerade” #drums #piano #shorts

kottke.org Valid
Text Jason Kottke

Walking the Length of Manhattan . I did this, solo,...

Walking the Length of Manhattan. I did this, solo, right before I moved out of NYC. Loved it. Will do it again someday.

Colossal Valid
Text • Grace Ebert

An Inflatable Pool Party by Craig & Karl Fills a Dubai Atrium with Summer Fun

An Inflatable Pool Party by Craig & Karl Fills a Dubai Atrium with Summer FunCraig & Karl's expressive inflatables infuse oft-overlooked architecture with play and whimsy.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article An Inflatable Pool Party by Craig & Karl Fills a Dubai Atrium with Summer Fun appeared first on Colossal.

kottke.org Valid
Text Jason Kottke

“When Jason Ganos was asked to help sell an old box full...

“When Jason Ganos was asked to help sell an old box full of NES cartridges…” How 97 Copies of an Unreleased Version of Super Mario Bros. Duck Hunt Were Discovered in a Wisconsin Warehouse.

Simon Willison's Weblog Supports Webmention
Text

Stop Making TUIs

Stop Making TUIs

Thomas Ptacek advocates for building real native user interfaces for even the smallest of personal tools, because coding agents have reduced the cost of getting a usable-enough GUI up and running to almost nothing.

I wrote about my vibe-coded bandwidth and GPU monitoring macOS task bar apps back in March, and I'm still using both of those on a daily basis.

I'm not habitually knocking out real UIs for my other projects yet, but I'm running out of excuses!

Thomas:

If you haven’t tried your hand at turning one of your 500 throwaway CLIs into a native app, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Go build a native UI. It’ll probably change the way you think.

Tags: thomas-ptacek, ai, generative-ai, llms, vibe-coding, coding-agents

kottke.org Valid
Text Jason Kottke

What a great idea for a book: Cookbooking: A Fan’s...

What a great idea for a book: Cookbooking: A Fan’s Guide. “An eclectic, visually stunning pop-history, Cookbooking explores the most influential and beloved cookbooks through photographs, listicles, graphics, and snappy writing.”

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

★ When New DF Posts Drop in a Forest and No One Is There to Read Them

It occurred to me last night that I’d gotten less feedback regarding recent posts than usual. There were a few items I’d posted in recent days that I felt sure to hear from readers about, both yea and nay. But: nothing. Crickets chirping. I almost always hear from squeaky wh...

Simon Willison's Weblog Supports Webmention
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Quoting Matt Webb

After I released version 1.0, I figured I would have to do the rotations myself. So I sat down with ChatGPT and I didn’t get it to write the code, but I got it to educate me. With a patient, interactive tutor, I was able to finally do what I hadn’t by reading books and asking mathematician friends – I learnt how to use quaternions just enough to make the app work.

So learning doesn’t stop just because I outsource a bunch of thinking to AI. It pushes me to learn more. I like that as an outcome.

Matt Webb, Galactic Compass 2: now with new augmented reality mode

Tags: matt-webb, generative-ai, chatgpt, education, ai, llms

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Bluesky’s Active User Base Is Shrinking, and Remains Tiny Compared to Threads and Twitter/X

techcrunch.com/2026/08/11/blueskys-active-user-base-is-shrinking-as-its-focus-expands-beyond-the-app/

Sarah Perez, writing at TechCrunch last week: Decentralized social network Bluesky was one of the bigger beneficiaries of the exodus from Elon Musk’s X in November 2024, following the U.S. elections. But now, nearly two years later, the social network and would-be X comp...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Bluesky Is Full of Anti-AI Zealots

bsky.app/profile/masnick.com/post/3mtk7cuvbok2x

Mike Masnick, in a thread on Bluesky: Multiple people I know have told me that they love the idea of Bluesky, and want it to succeed, but have abandoned it for X because they use agentic tools in their work and find them incredibly useful, and feel that any mention of th...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

How Bluesky and Threads Sneak Their Logos Into iOS Screenshots

timmarinin.net/2026/bluesky-screenshots/

Bluesky and Threads both pull the same trick: When you take a screenshot on iOS of an individual tweet, they replace the “Follow” button in their user interface with their logo. Tim Marinin noticed this in the Bluesky app, got curious, and because they publish the app’s sour...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

★ Apple and European Commission Reach Agreement on App Payment Terms Under DMA, With Apple Conceding Very Little

Apple Newsroom, on Tuesday: Apple today announced changes to its business terms for apps in the European Union, following close collaboration with the European Commission. These changes resolve Apple’s disagreements with the Commission over business terms and alternative...

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

Gurman Says No Camera-Equipped AirPods Until 2027

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-19/apple-s-camera-equipped-ai-airpods-remain-on-track-for-2027-despite-video-leak

Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:

Earlier this week, a developer version of a Mac computer software update accidentally included references to several upcoming Apple products, including a video of the AirPods with cameras in action. [...]

But the product challenges are still being resolved, and the camera AirPods remain off the company’s 2026 release schedule. Apple continues to believe the earbuds will launch in 2027, said the people, who asked not to be identified when discussing unannounced products.

If true, it makes that video even stranger. If not, we can file this along the flat-sided Series 7 Apple Watch.

Link: bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-19/apple-s-camera…

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

★ Apple Screwed Up the TestFlight App’s Sort Order a Month Ago, and It’s Still Screwed Up, but the More I Think About It, the More Clear It Is They Started Screwing This Up 15 Years Ago

Zac Hall at 9to5Mac, a month ago: Sometimes a small change can make a big impact. That’s especially true for Apple’s latest TestFlight update for users with a lot of pre-release software. Apple just updated TestFlight for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more. The new version, 4....

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • John Gruber

NBC News Strikes Ad Sales Deal With Taboola for Programmatic Display Ads

axios.com/2026/08/18/nbc-news-taboola-programmatic-display-ads

Sara Fischer, Axios:

Ad tech giant Taboola has struck a deal with NBC News to exclusively power all of its programmatic, or automated, display advertising sales, CEO Adam Singolda tells Axios.

Worked out great for Apple with Apple News. They struck a deal with Taboola two years ago and the ads in Apple News today are super premium and something the company can be really proud of.

Link: axios.com/2026/08/18/nbc-news-taboola-programmatic-display…

Daring Fireball Valid
Text • Daring Fireball Department of Commerce

[Sponsor] WorkOS: Agents Can Now Sign Up for Your App

workos.com/auth-md?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q32026

Agents are hitting your signup flow and bouncing off a browser login built for humans. Every one that gives up is a signup you never see.

WorkOS Agent Registration turns that traffic into signups. Enroll via the dashboard and AuthKit publishes an auth.md file agents read to register for scoped, short-lived credentials you control.

Make your app agent-ready →

Link: workos.com/auth-md?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium…