FeedCity: Daring Fireball

Daring Fireball
14 May 23:17 • John Gruber

The App Store Shows a Warning for EU Apps That Use External Purchases

mjtsai.com/blog/2025/05/14/critical-warning-for-external-purchases-in-app-store/

The app in question, Instacar, is not available in the US App Store, but multiple people in the EU have confirmed this warning on its App Store page is real: This app does not support the App Store’s private and secure payment system. It uses external purchases. The wa...

Daring Fireball
14 May 16:21 • John Gruber

★ Single-Story a’s in Very Early Versions of Macintosh System 1

Following up on my gripe regarding the alternative a glyph used in Apple Notes, here’s Kevin Fox, tweeting on Threads: While we’re waxing nostalgic on the Original Mac, a Daring Fireball post today (below) reminded me of another piece of Mac 128k trivia. Until shortly b...

Daring Fireball
14 May 13:23 • John Gruber

Pete Rose and ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson Among Players Reinstated by MLB in Historic Decision

cnn.com/2025/05/13/sport/pete-rose-shoeless-joe-jackson-mlb-decision-spt

Kyle Feldscher, CNN:

Major League Baseball on Tuesday removed Pete Rose and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson — two of the sport’s most famous players who were previously kicked out of baseball for gambling on the game — from the league’s permanently ineligible list.

The historic decision by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred allows Rose to be considered for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, an honor that had been ruled out as part of the settlement he reached with Major League Baseball. Rose died in September, and Manfred ruled that his lifetime ban ended with his death.

Like a stopped clock displaying the correct time twice a day, even Rob Manfred occasionally makes a correct decision for baseball.

Link: cnn.com/2025/05/13/sport/pete-rose-shoeless-joe-jackson-mlb…

Daring Fireball
12 May 23:11 • John Gruber

WorkOS: Scalable, Secure Authentication

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

My thanks to WorkOS for sponsoring last week at DF. 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.

New features they launched just last month include:

WorkOS Connect — “Sign in with [Your App]”
WorkOS Vault — Encryption Key Management (EKM) and Bring-Your-Own-Key (BYOK)
AuthKit Integrations — Native support for several new identity providers including LinkedIn, Slack, GitLab, BitBucket, Intuit, and more.

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

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

Daring Fireball
12 May 23:11 • Daring Fireball Department of Commerce

[Sponsor] Bolt: What Do You Want to Build?

srv.buysellads.com/ads/long/x/THREKCSVTTTTTTTZHWQNETTTTTTDCFVJ2TTTTTTTADZJNBTTTTTTTRIV22DW47II2RZULYSCKY7FTBDDQ7QCCYPBG6BT

Prompt, run, edit, and deploy full-stack web and mobile apps with Bolt, the AI-powered web development agent that brings coding to your browser.

Bolt lets you build, edit, and test web applications in real time with simple, chat-based prompts. No experience needed.

👉 Try it now at bolt.new.

Link: srv.buysellads.com/ads/long/x…

Daring Fireball
12 May 17:50 • John Gruber

That Stupid Apple Notes ‘a’

engadget.com/apps/the-only-thing-i-want-from-apples-big-2025-redesign-is-a-120023531.html

Nathan Ingraham, writing for Engadget: There are a lot of rumors flying around about a big iOS and macOS redesign coming this year, perhaps as a distraction to the continued issues around Apple Intelligence. And while I’m game for a fresh coat of paint across the softwar...

Daring Fireball
10 May 20:41 • John Gruber

Developers as Suppliers

threads.com/@benedictevans/post/DJVCqaZuN63

Benedict Evans, tweeting on Threads this week: Apple thinks an awful lot about customer delight and customer satisfaction… And separately, a whole other part of Apple treats its suppliers with quiet ruthlessness, squeezing them for every penny of margin. And at some po...

Daring Fireball
10 May 00:36 • John Gruber

Trump Administration ‘Actively Looking’ at Suspending Habeas Corpus

cbsnews.com/news/stephen-miller-says-trump-administration-actively-looking-at-suspending-habeas-corpus-to-deport-migrants/

CBS News: The Trump administration is “actively looking at” the possibility of suspending the writ of habeas corpus to handle people the administration says aren’t in the country legally, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Friday. A writ of habeas cor...

Daring Fireball
10 May 00:11 • John Gruber

Epic Submits Fortnite to App Store Through Swedish Subsidiary

cnbc.com/2025/05/09/fortnite-apple-app-store-epic-games.html

Kif Leswing, reporting for CNBC: Epic Games said on Friday that it submitted Fortnite to Apple’s App Store, the month after a judge ruled in favor of the game maker in a contempt ruling. Fortnite was booted from iPhones and Apple’s App Store in 2020, after Epic Games up...

Daring Fireball
09 May 17:35 • John Gruber

How Many Apps Used the Link-Out Policy That Apple Claims Complied With Judge Gonzales Rogers’s Original Anti-Steering Injunction?

appleinsider.com/articles/25/05/01/epic-vs-apple-what-apple-is-being-forced-to-do-to-the-app-store

William Gallagher, writing last week for AppleInsider: Judge Rogers maintains that Apple had successfully made as few developers as possible benefit from the court’s original anti-steering ruling. “As of the May 2024 hearing,” she wrote, “only 34 developers out of the ap...

Daring Fireball
09 May 17:02 • John Gruber

Apple Files Emergency Motion to Pause ‘Extraordinary’ App Store Ruling on Anti-Steering Injunction

macrumors.com/2025/05/08/apple-appeals-app-store-ruling-epic-games/

Tim Hardwick, reporting for MacRumors: Apple has filed an emergency motion asking the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to pause key parts of a recent ruling that dramatically changes how the App Store operates, following a contempt finding in its long-running legal battle ...

Daring Fireball
09 May 00:11 • John Gruber

Patrick Collison Interviews Former Apple Designer Jony Ive at Stripe Sessions

youtu.be/wLb9g_8r-mE

I’m about halfway through and already feel the need to link to this. Good questions and thoughtful answers. Just delightful.

Link: youtu.be/wLb9g_8r-mE

Daring Fireball
09 May 00:11 • John Gruber

Yours Truly on ‘Primary Technology’

primarytech.fm/74

Co-hosts Stephen Robles and Jason Aten were kind enough to have me on their podcast earlier today, and the show’s already up:

Special guest John Gruber joins us to break down Eddy Cue’s statements on AI replacing the iPhone in 10 years, using AI search in Safari, Apple’s continued fight for App Store control, and what we’ll hear about Siri and Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2025.

Available in Overcast, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Or watch on YouTube. Fun show.

Link: primarytech.fm/74

Daring Fireball
08 May 16:59 • John Gruber

How to Catch a North Korean Fake Worker

theregister.com/2025/04/29/north_korea_worker_interview_questions/

Iain Thomson, for The Register: According to Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s senior veep in the counter adversary division, North Korean infiltrators are bagging roles worldwide throughout the year. Thousands are said to have infiltrated the Fortune 500. They’re masking IPs,...

Daring Fireball
08 May 16:06 • John Gruber

The Trump Administration Signal Scandal, Somehow, Gets Worse

micahflee.com/despite-misleading-marketing-israeli-company-telemessage-used-by-trump-officials-can-access-plaintext-chat-logs/

Micah Lee, in a spectacularly detailed post: On Thursday, 404 Media reported that in the Reuters photo showing former National Security Advisor and war criminal Mike Waltz checking his Signal messages under the table, he was actually using an obscure modified Signal app...

Daring Fireball
08 May 01:05 • John Gruber

Eddy Cue, on the Stand in U.S. v. Google Trial, Says Apple Is Eying a Move to AI in Safari

bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-07/apple-working-to-move-to-ai-search-in-browser-amid-google-fallout

Bloomberg: Apple Inc. is “actively looking at” revamping the Safari web browser on its devices to focus on AI-powered search engines, a seismic shift for the industry hastened by the potential end of a longtime partnership with Google. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice pres...

Daring Fireball
07 May 17:20 • John Gruber

Aftermath

aftermath.site/about-us-contact-us-aftermath

Aftermath: Welcome to Aftermath, a worker-owned, reader-supported news site covering video games, the internet, and the cultures that surround them. You might remember most of us from Kotaku, where we broke news, covered events, and brought you hard-hitting investigatio...

Daring Fireball
07 May 17:02 • John Gruber

Polygon Gutted by Large-Scale Layoffs After Sale to Sweatshop Aggregator Valnet

arstechnica.com/gaming/2025/05/gaming-news-site-polygon-gutted-by-massive-layoffs-amid-sale-to-valnet/

Kyle Orland, reporting for Ars Technica last week: Vox Media has sold video game specialist website Polygon to Internet brand aggregator Valnet, the publisher of content-churning sites including Game Rant, OpenCritic, Android Police, and Comic Book Resources. The move co...

Daring Fireball
07 May 01:23 • John Gruber

Amazon, Finally, Now Has a ‘Get Book’ Button in Its iOS Kindle App

theverge.com/news/661719/amazon-app-ios-apple-iphone-ipad-kindle-buy-books

Andrew Liszewski, The Verge: Contrary to prior limitations, there is now a prominent orange “Get book” button on Kindle app’s book listings. [...] Before today’s updates, buying books wasn’t a feature you’d find in the Kindle mobile app following app store rule changes ...

Daring Fireball
07 May 00:05 • John Gruber

Florida Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack Introduces ‘App Store Freedom Act’ to Mandate Third-Party App Stores on iOS and Android

theverge.com/news/662180/app-store-freedom-act-apple-third-party-app-stores

Emma Roth, reporting for The Verge: Representative Kat Cammack (R-FL) introduced a bill Tuesday that would require “large app store operators” like Apple to let users install third-party app stores and set them as their default. The bill, called the App Store Freedom Act...

Daring Fireball
06 May 17:14 • Daring Fireball Department of Commerce

[Sponsor] WorkOS: Scalable, Secure Authentication

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

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…

Daring Fireball
06 May 17:14 • John Gruber

Tim Sweeney Talks to Peter Kafka, Still Thinks Fortnite Is Coming Back to iOS This Week

businessinsider.com/tim-sweeeney-epic-games-apple-app-store-interview-peter-kafka-2025-05

About 16 minutes into the podcast (the whole thing is a great succinct interview): Kafka: You said Fortnite is going to come back to iOS. You guys were kicked off the platform in 2020 for violating Apple’s rules. There’s nothing in the judge’s ruling that says Apple has ...

Daring Fireball
05 May 13:23 • John Gruber

Listen Later

listenlater.net/?referrer=df

My thanks to Listen Later for sponsoring last week at DF. Listen Later is a super simple, super useful service that turns articles into podcast episodes. When you sign up, you get a custom email address to send articles to; every article you forward to your Listen Later addr...

Daring Fireball
04 May 16:18 • John Gruber

Trump Has No Idea What the Declaration of Independence Means

youtube.com/watch?v=K3l2X-T8BCU

Trump, showing off to ABC News’s Terry Moran the historical copy of the Declaration of Independence now hanging in the Oval Office: Trump: Of course, you have the Declaration of Independence. Moran: What does it mean to you? Trump: Well, it means exactly what it says. It’...

Daring Fireball
04 May 16:17 • John Gruber

Trump, Asked if He Has to ‘Uphold the Constitution’, Says, ‘I Don’t Know’

nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-asked-uphold-constitution-says-dont-know-rcna204580

NBC News: When Welker tried to point out what the Fifth Amendment said, Trump suggested that such a process would slow him down too much. “I don’t know. It seems — it might say that, but if you’re talking about that, then we’d have to have a million or 2 million or 3 mi...

Daring Fireball
04 May 15:11 • John Gruber

Koji Kobura Remakes the GoldenEye N64 ‘Pause Music’

youtube.com/watch?v=FB-C-eSa9N8

Just shoot this straight into my veins. So good.

(Via Saul Sutherland.)

Link: youtube.com/watch?v=FB-C-eSa9N8

Daring Fireball
02 May 14:20 • John Gruber

Apple Updates U.S. App Review Guidelines Following Injunction

macrumors.com/2025/05/01/apple-updates-u-s-app-review-guidelines-epic/

Apple, in an email to developers yesterday (as reported by MacRumors): 3.1.1: Apps on the United States storefront are not prohibited from including buttons, external links, or other calls to action when allowing users to browse NFT collections owned ...

Daring Fireball
02 May 13:35 • John Gruber

Jason Snell on Apple’s Q2 FY 2025 and Frustrating Analyst Call

sixcolors.com/post/2025/05/beware-the-tariffs-inside-apples-latest-financial-results/

Jason Snell, with some excellent analysis (in addition to his usual visualizations of Apple’s numbers): Another way Apple can reduce the impact of tariffs is by changing which global factories it uses to build products destined for the U.S. market. “For the June quarter,...

Daring Fireball
01 May 14:47 • John Gruber

Apple Lost But That Doesn’t Mean Epic Won Anything

theverge.com/news/659271/fortnite-ios-apple-app-store-us-return

Jay Peters, The Verge, under the headline “Epic Says Fortnite Is Coming Back to iOS in the US”: Following a court order that blocks Apple from taking a commission on purchases made outside the App Store, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says on X that the company plans to brin...

Daring Fireball
01 May 03:32 • John Gruber

★ Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers Rules, in Excoriating Decision, That Apple Violated Her 2021 Court Order Regarding App Store Anti-Steering Provisions

I’m linking here to Techmeme’s roundup of news coverage and commentary, but I highly recommend you start by reading Gonzalez Rogers’s 80-page decision. It is excoriating. I’ve read few legal decisions quite like it. But it’s also incredibly cogent and plainly written. From ...