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John Gruber

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John Gruber

Lee Elia, Former Major League Manager, Dies at 87

nytimes.com/athletic/6486807/2025/07/10/lee-elia-obituary-cubs-phillies/

Steve Berman, The Athletic: Lee Elia, who managed the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs for two seasons apiece but is perhaps best known for a profane postgame rant critical of Chicago fans, died on Wednesday. He was 87. The Phillies announced his death in a stateme...

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John Gruber

Experts Said This Was a Damn Clever Post by Jason Kottke

kottke.org/25/07/journalisms-experts-said-conclusion

Jason Kottke:

Large media companies, and the NY Times in particular these days, like to use the phrase “experts said” instead of simply stating facts. The thing is, many other statements of plain truth in that brief Times post lack the confirmation of expertise. To aid the paper in steering their readers away from notions of objective truth, here’s a suggested rewrite of that Bluesky post.

Link: kottke.org/25/07/journalisms-experts-said-conclusion

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John Gruber

Elmore Leonard’s Perfect Pitch

newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/07/elmore-leonards-perfect-pitch

Anthony Lane, in a crackerjack piece for The New Yorker on the writing and work of Elmore Leonard: So, when does Leonard become himself? Is it possible to specify the moment, or the season, when he crosses the border? I would nominate “The Big Bounce,” from 1969 — which,...

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John Gruber

Reborn Commodore Is Taking Pre-Orders for New Commodore 64 Models

commodore.net/

Last year, retro computing YouTuber Christian “Peri Fractic” Simpson bought licensed the branding rights and some of the IP belonging to Commodore (which rights have been transferred five times since the original company went bankrupt in 1994). Last week they launched their ...

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John Gruber

‘Classic Web’ on Mastodon

indieweb.social/@classicweb

Classic Web is a fun account to follow on Mastodon. Curator Richard MacManus posts half a dozen or so screenshots per day of, well, classic websites from the late 1990s and 2000s. Makes me feel old and young at the same time.

Link: indieweb.social/@classicweb

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John Gruber

Drata

http://drata.com/daring/?utm_source=Daring_Fireball&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=18991230_fy26_comm_DG_COMM_&utm_content=demo_request

My thanks to Drata for sponsoring this last week at DF. Their message is short and sweet: Automate compliance. Streamline security. Manage risk. Drata delivers the world’s most advanced Trust Management platform.

Link: drata.com/daring/?utm_source=Daring_Fireball&utm_medium…

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John Gruber

Grok 4 System Prompt Shenanigans

simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/12/grok-4-heavy/

Simon Willison: Grok 4 Heavy is the “think much harder” version of Grok 4 that’s currently only available on their $300/month plan. Jeremy Howard relays a report from a Grok 4 Heavy user who wishes to remain anonymous: it turns out that Heavy, unlike regular Grok 4, has ...

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John Gruber

Apple and Masimo Faced Off in US Appeals Court This Week

reuters.com/legal/government/apple-masimo-spar-over-apple-watch-import-ban-us-appeals-court-2025-07-07/

Blake Brittain, reporting for Reuters: Apple asked a U.S. appeals court on Monday to overturn a trade tribunal’s decision which forced it to remove blood-oxygen reading technology from its Apple Watches, in order to avoid a ban on its U.S. smartwatch imports. A three-ju...

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John Gruber

Moft’s MagSafe-Compatible Snap-On iPhone Stand and Wallet

moft.us/products/iphone-stand-wallet-magsafe-compatible

Here’s a product recommendation long in the making. Four years ago this month, Matthew Panzarino was my guest on The Talk Show and at one point he recommended Moft’s Snap-On iPhone Stand/Wallet. It uses a very clever origami-style folding design. Folded flat it kind of just ...

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John Gruber

Linda Yaccarino Resigns as ‘CEO’ of X

x.com/lindayaX/status/1942957094811951197

Linda Yaccarino, in a post on X yesterday: After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X. When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I...

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John Gruber

Yours Truly on Crossword, With Jonathan Wold and Luke Carbis

crossword.fm/s09/e13/

Jonathan Wold and Luke Carbis cohost a podcast called Crossword, focusing mainly on WordPress and the open web. They occasionally invite guests to join them, and it was my pleasure to join them on their latest episode: John Gruber’s Dithering podcast with Ben Thompson wa...

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John Gruber

Mark Gurman Got a Slew of Interesting Quotes Regarding Jeff Williams’s Retirement

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-08/apple-operating-chief-jeff-williams-to-pass-role-to-lieutenant

Mark Gurman got some interesting quotes from interesting former Apple employees for his report at Bloomberg on Jeff Williams’s retirement: “Jeff’s importance and contributions to Apple have been enormous, although perhaps not always obvious to the general public,” said T...

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John Gruber

★ Save Yourself Some Dough on Apple Kit and Make Me Rich on Amazon Prime Day

It’s Amazon’s annual Prime Day sale, and if you click through this link, or any of the ones below, you can show your support for Daring Fireball by throwing the referral revenue from any purchases you make my way. You don’t pay a penny more but I get a few percentage points ...

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John Gruber

Apple TV+ Renews ‘Slow Horses’ for a Seventh Season

apple.com/tv-pr/news/2025/07/apple-tv-announces-seventh-season-for-celebrated-emmy-and-bafta-award-winning-spy-drama-slow-horses-starring-academy-award-winner-sir-gary-oldman/

Apple TV+: Today, Apple TV+ announced a new, six-episode seventh season for the widely hailed, darkly comedic spy drama Slow Horses. The Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning series stars Academy Award winner Sir Gary Oldman, who has been honored with Golden Globe, Emmy and BAFTA...

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John Gruber

OpenAI Officially Acquires ‘io Products Inc.’

openai.com/sam-and-jony/?asset=video

OpenAI’s page for io, minus the “Sam and Jony” short film that introduced the partnership, is back up, with a brief announcement that the deal has officially closed:

We’re thrilled to share that the io Products, Inc. team has officially merged with OpenAI. Jony Ive and LoveFrom remain independent and have assumed deep design and creative responsibilities across OpenAI.

Referring to the company as “io Products Inc.” rather than just “io” is seemingly their stopgap workaround for the trademark injunction they faced from rival startup iyO two weeks ago, which led them to temporarily take down this web page and the video. The video remains unavailable, presumably because of the ongoing trademark dispute.

Link: openai.com/sam-and-jony/?asset=video

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John Gruber

Grok Praises Hitler, Shocking No One

gizmodo.com/round-them-up-grok-praises-hitler-as-elon-musks-ai-tool-goes-full-nazi-2000626156

Matt Novak, writing for Gizmodo: Social media users first started to observe that Grok was using the phrase “every damn time,” on Tuesday, something that seems innocuous enough. But if you’ve been exposed to Nazis on X, it’s a phrase they like to use to claim that Jews a...

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John Gruber

Elon Musk’s Lawyers Claim He ‘Does Not Use a Computer’

wired.com/story/elon-musk-computer-sam-altman/

Wired, two weeks ago: Elon Musk’s lawyers claimed that he “does not use a computer” in a Sunday court filing related to his lawsuit against Sam Altman and OpenAI. However, Musk has posted pictures or referred to his laptop on X several times in recent months, and public ...

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John Gruber

★ Jeff Williams, 62, Is Retiring as Apple’s COO

Apple Newsroom, this afternoon: Apple today announced Jeff Williams will transition his role as chief operating officer later this month to Sabih Khan, Apple’s senior vice president of Operations as part of a long-planned succession. Williams will continue reporting to A...

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John Gruber

Apple, as Promised, Formally Appeals €500 Million DMA Fine in the EU

9to5mac.com/2025/07/07/apple-formally-appeals-e500-million-dma-fine-in-the-eu/

Here’s the full statement, given by Apple to the media, including Daring Fireball: “Today we filed our appeal because we believe the European Commission’s decision — and their unprecedented fine — go far beyond what the law requires. As our appeal will show, the EC is ma...

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• Daring Fireball Department of Commerce

[Sponsor] Drata

http://drata.com/daring/?utm_source=Daring_Fireball&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=18991230_fy26_comm_DG_COMM_&utm_content=demo_request

Automate compliance. Streamline security. Manage risk. Drata delivers the world’s most advanced Trust Management platform.

Link: drata.com/daring/?utm_source=Daring_Fireball&utm_medium…

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John Gruber

‘F1’ Is Doing Well at the Box Office, and Is Now Already Apple’s Top-Grossing Theatrical Film

variety.com/2025/film/box-office/f1-movie-apple-highest-grossing-film-napoleon-1236448149/

Rebecca Rubin, reporting for Variety: When it comes to Apple’s biggest films, F1: The Movie has officially moved to pole position. I will allow this pun. F1 has generated $293 million at the global box office after 10 days of release, overtaking the entire theatric...

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John Gruber

★ Full-Screen Ad for ‘F1 The Movie’ in Apple’s TV App Linked Directly to the Web, and Nothing Bad Seemed to Happen

MG Siegler, on Threads last week: We’re already beyond ridiculous with the full-on ad assault from Apple as everyone is well aware by now. But the wild thing here — in this full screen pop-up in the Apple TV app — is that it’s not in-app but links out to the web to pay?!...

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John Gruber

Phoenix.new

phoenix.new/?utm_source=df

My thanks to Fly.io for sponsoring last week at DF to promote Phoenix.new, their new AI app-builder. Just describe your idea, and Phoenix.new quickly generates a working real-time Phoenix app: clustering, pubsub, and presence included. Ideal for multiplayer games, collaborative tools, or quick weekend experiments. Built by Fly.io, deploy wherever you want. Give it a try today.

Link: phoenix.new/?utm_source=df

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John Gruber

CBS News: ‘Paramount, President Trump Reach $16 Million Settlement Over “60 Minutes” Lawsuit’

cbsnews.com/news/paramount-trump-60-minutes-lawsuit-settlement/

CBS News:

Paramount will settle President Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris for $16 million, the company announced late Tuesday.

CBS News’ parent company worked with a mediator to resolve the lawsuit. Under the agreement, $16 million will be allocated to Mr. Trump’s future presidential library and the plaintiffs’ fees and costs. Neither Mr. Trump nor his co-plantiff, Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, will be directly paid as part of the settlement.

The settlement did not include an apology.

It could have been a lot worse, but this is, ultimately, bribery.

Link: cbsnews.com/news/paramount-trump-60-minutes-lawsuit…

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John Gruber

Jason Snell: ‘About That A18 Pro MacBook Rumor’

sixcolors.com/post/2025/07/about-that-a16-macbook-rumor/

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors: Well, would you look at that? The A18 Pro is 46% faster than the M1 in single-core tasks, and almost identical to the M1 on multi-core and graphics tasks. If you wanted to get rid of the M1 MacBook Air but have decided that even today,...

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• Daring Fireball Department of Commerce

[Sponsor] Phoenix.new

phoenix.new/?utm_source=df

Resurrect your side projects with Phoenix.new, the new AI app-builder from Fly.io. Just describe your idea, and Phoenix.new quickly generates a working real-time Phoenix app: clustering, pubsub, and presence included. Ideal for multiplayer games, collaborative tools, or quick weekend experiments. Built by Fly.io, deploy wherever you want.

Link: phoenix.new/?utm_source=df

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John Gruber

The Talk Show: ‘The Cutting Edge Latest Supermodel’

daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2025/06/30/ep-426

Special guest David Smith returns to the show for a developer’s perspective look at WWDC 2025.

Sponsored by:

  • TRMNL: A hackable e-ink display. Save $15 with code GRUBER.
  • Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.

Link: daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2025/06/30/ep-426

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John Gruber

★ Apple Announces Sweeping but Complicated Policy Changes for Apps in the EU, Attempting to Comply With the Latest Dictums Regarding the DMA

Let’s start with Apple’s own announcement at Apple Developer News: The European Commission has required Apple to make a series of additional changes under the Digital Markets Act: Communication and Promotion of Offers Today, we’re introducing updated terms that let de...

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John Gruber

Apple’s Full List of Differences between ‘Tier 1’ and ‘Tier 2’ in the EU App Store

developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/reference/store-services-tiers/

Apple Developer: By default, apps on the App Store are provided Store Services Tier 2, the complete suite of all capabilities designed to maximize visibility, engagement, growth, and operational efficiency. Developers with apps on the App Store in the EU that communicate...

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John Gruber

WorkOS

workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=q12025

My thanks to WorkOS for once again sponsoring Daring Fireball. Modern authentication should be seamless and secure. WorkOS makes it easy to integrate features like MFA, SSO, and RBAC.

Whether you’re replacing passwords, stopping fraud, or adding enterprise auth, WorkOS can help you build frictionless auth that scales.

Future-proof your authentication stack with the identity layer trusted by OpenAI, Cursor, Perplexity, and Vercel. Upgrade your auth today.

Link: workos.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=RSS&utm…