I’ve released a small PCalc 4.11.1 update that’s out now for
the Mac.
There was a bug with the theme getting reset, which I could have
fixed in five minutes, but I ended up doing what I should have
done over three decades ago, and added a dedicated section to the
settings that puts all the visual customisation in one place.
No more having to search for all this stuff in a submenu
somewhere!
The Economist:
Presidents’ popularity tends to wane. In his second term Donald
Trump’s has fallen faster than that of his recent predecessors.
Since modern polling began most presidents have started their
terms with positive net approval ratings (the share of voters who...
The Apple Maps EV Routing option will allow Toyota BEV users to
plan travel routes that include stops for charging. Without it,
drivers would have had to exit out of CarPlay in order to create a
route that included charging stops.
Apple Maps’ EV Routing feature uses real-time data from the
vehicle to guide drivers to their destinations more efficiently,
automatically suggesting charging stops when needed. The system
takes into account elevation changes and other driving conditions
to decide when a recharge is necessary. If the vehicle’s battery
level becomes too low, Apple Maps will automatically direct the
driver to the nearest compatible charging station.
Sky is a powerful natural language interface for the Mac. With
Sky, AI works alongside you, whether you’re writing, planning,
coding, or managing your day. Sky understands what’s on your
screen and can take action using your apps.
We will bring Sky’s deep macOS integration and product craft into
ChatGPT, and all members of the team will join OpenAI.
OpenAI, one week ago:
Today we’re introducing ChatGPT Atlas, a new web browser built
with ChatGPT at its core.
AI gives us a rare moment to rethink what it means to use the web.
Last year, we added search in ChatGPT so you could instantly find
timely information from ac...
Joe Kissell, writing at TidBITS:
For more than a year, we’ve heard scattered complaints: problems
with Nisus Software’s website, particularly the user discussion
forum; slow or absent responses to support requests; assorted
bugs; and other issues. But earlier this week, ...
Great coffee takes care. Family-owned since 2005, our slogan “Live Slow” guides our every day in and out of our roastery. From sourcing small-lot single origins to blending coffees for balance, we small-batch roast our award-winning coffees in Salem and Tokyo. For the at-home coffee drinker, we roast to order and pack the same coffees brewed and served in all of our cafés. For the office worker, Jaho is proud to be a wholesaler with select partners across the nation and in Japan. DF readers: take 20% off with DF.
Fresh beans shipped nationwide.
Give up bad coffee for good.
Sam Tobin, reporting last week for Reuters:
Apple abused its dominant position by charging app developers
unfair commissions, a London tribunal ruled on Thursday, in a blow
which could leave the U.S. tech company on the hook for hundreds
of millions of pounds in damages....
Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
Apple might be preparing iPad apps for Pixelmator Pro, Compressor,
Motion, and MainStage, according to new App Store IDs uncovered by
MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. All four of the apps are
currently available on the Mac only. A quick overv...
Joe Rosensteel, writing at Six Colors, regarding the demise of Apple’s Clips app:
It’s not that it was completely inept, but it was an
aimless showcase to demonstrate what Apple could do.
It withered over the course of eight years before it was
quietly killed.
At no poi...
Mark Gurman, in his weekly paywalled Power On column for Bloomberg:
I reported a few years ago that Apple was working to bring
more advertising to iOS. Well, now that effort is gaining traction — with a plan to start the ads as early as next year. The company
is focusing...
Dian Zhang and Ignacio Calderon, reporting for USA Today:
Even before Terry Rozier dropped out of the 2023 NBA game in which
he’s accused of rigging his statistics, computers at an “integrity
monitor” firm flagged a flood of bets that did not match a
mathematical model o...
Adobe Design profiles Adobe’s new Premiere app for iOS, and interviews Christopher Azar, group design manager for Adobe Video, regarding the thinking behind the app and its design:
What was the primary goal when you set out to design Premiere
on iOS?
Christopher Azar: O...
For your weekend listening enjoyment, a new episode of America’s favorite 3-star podcast, with special guest Dan Moren. Topics include Atlas, ChatGPT’s new web browser (or anti-web browser) for the Mac; Apple’s loss in a “landmark” regulatory lawsuit in the UK regarding App Store commission rates; multiple reports of poor sales for the iPhone Air; and Apple’s M5 product announcements: MacBook Pro, iPads Pro, and Vision Pro.
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Worth a re-link, following up on my post yesterday linking to Stephen Hackett’s “Boring Is What We Wanted”, here’s Rogue Amoeba co-founder Quentin Carnicelli, writing back in 2018:
At the time of the writing, with the exception of the $5,000 iMac
Pro, no Macintosh has be...
Yours truly on Friday, regarding the news that Meta is going to ban rival AI chatbots from WhatsApp:
Perhaps because I’m only a light user of WhatsApp, I had no idea
that rival AI chatbots had accounts there. I just tried it with
1-800-ChatGPT and it seems pointless. It’...
Stephen Hackett, writing at 512 Pixels:
Apple silicon has been nothing but upside for the Mac, and yet
some seem bored already. In the days since Apple announced the M5,
I’ve seen and heard this sentiment more than I expected:
This is just another boring incremental ...
My thanks to WorkOS for their continuing support of DF with another sponsorship week. With WorkOS you can start selling to enterprises with just a few lines of code. WorkOS provides a complete user management solution along with SSO, SCIM, and RBAC. The APIs are modular and easy-to-use, allowing integrations to be completed in minutes instead of months. WorkOS simplifies MCP authorization with a single API built on five OAuth standards.
Today, some of the fastest growing startups are already powered by WorkOS, including OpenAI, Cursor, and Vercel.
For SaaS apps that care deeply about design and user experience, WorkOS is the perfect fit. From high-quality documentation to self-serve onboarding for your customers, it removes all the unnecessary complexity for your engineering team.
Katie Notopoulos, writing at Business Insider:
There are really two separate issues at hand: Should users be allowed to make fetish content of any woman who is stupid enough (like me) to allow anyone to make cameos of her? And how do you stop people from making fetish co...
Eric Hal Schwarz, reporting for TechRadar:
Meta is closing the door on third-party AI assistants inside
WhatsApp. Starting January 15, 2026, no general-purpose AI
chatbot, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others, will be
allowed to operate on the platform. The change i...
At the bottom of their “Use Cases” page, SerpApi lists the following companies and organizations as customers (“They trust us. You are in good company. Join them.”):
Airbnb
Nvidia
Meta
Shopify
Perplexity
KPMG
Ahrefs
Grubhub
Samsung
AI21labs
United Nations (!)
Thomson Reute...
Mike Isaac, reporting for The New York Times:
Eight years ago, SerpApi, a start-up in Austin, Texas, dived
headlong into the byzantine world of using robots to “scrape”
Google’s search algorithms, so it could collect information to
help customers appear higher in search ...
Tony Maglio, The Hollywood Reporter:
The Savant, which originally had a Sept. 26 premiere date, was
yanked in the weeks following the Sept. 10 assassination of
conservative political pundit Charlie Kirk. Language on the
landing page for the series has since vacillated fr...
Apple’s upcoming wave of new smart home devices, including a smart
home display, indoor security camera, and tabletop robot, will
also be made in Vietnam, according to Bloomberg.
GM plans to drop support for phone projection on all new vehicles
in the near future, and not just its electric car lineup,
according to GM CEO Mary Barra.
In a Decoder interview with The Verge’s Nilay Patel, published
Wednesday, Barra confirmed GM will eventually end support of Apple
CarPlay and Android Auto on both gas-powered and electric cars.
The timing is unclear, but Barra pointed to a major rollout of
what the company is calling a new centralized computing platform,
set to launch in 2028, that will involve eventually transitioning
its entire lineup to a unified in-car experience.
Someone should investigate whether Mary Barra is a mole planted at GM by Ford. (Previously.)
Jake Coyle, reporting for the AP:
Driver says he took a concept to Soderbergh for a film that would
take place after 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker.” That movie
culminated in Ren’s redemption and apparent death. Driver had
undertaken the trilogy with an arc in mind for Re...
Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:
Reached for comment, Apple confirmed the apps’ removal, saying it
removed Tea Dating Advice and TeaOnHer from the App Store because
they failed to meet Apple’s requirements around content moderation
and user privacy. The company also said it saw ...
Graeme Connell and Rolfe Schmidt, writing earlier this month on the Signal blog:
We are excited to announce a significant advancement in the
security of the Signal Protocol: the introduction of the Sparse
Post Quantum Ratchet (SPQR). This new ratchet enhances the Signal
...
Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg last week:
The executive, Ke Yang, is leaving for Meta Platforms Inc.,
according to people with knowledge of the matter. Just weeks ago,
he was appointed head of a team called Answers, Knowledge and
Information, or AKI. The group is d...
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