Jason Foster, reporting for MLB.com: Nine-inning games during the 2025 season have, on average, clocked in at 2 hours, 38 minutes through Thursday, marking the third straight season in which the average game time was 2:40 or shorter. Regular Season nine-inning @MLB g...

New Mac app from Martin Lexow, the developer behind App Ahead (which offers a slew of good and intriguing Mac apps):

Preview folder and archive contents (ZIP, RAR, and more) instantly in macOS Quick Look. Just select a folder and press the Space bar.

It’s just that simple. Install it from the Mac App Store — free of charge — and you can Quick Look inside archives and folders. Looks, feels, and works like a feature that ought to be built into the Finder itself. Cool.

Link: apps.apple.com/app/id6753110395

Anna Gross and Tim Bradshaw, reporting for the Financial Times (updated link to a syndicated version at Ars Technica, outside the FT’s parsimonious paywall): The UK government has ordered Apple to allow access to encrypted cloud backups of British users, after a previous...

Adobe: Today, Adobe announced that the company is bringing its industry leading Adobe Premiere video editor to mobile in a powerful new iPhone app that empowers creators to make pro-quality video on the go. The Adobe Premiere mobile app makes it fast, free and intuitive ...

Hayden Field, The Verge: OpenAI has a new version of the Sora AI video generator that it launched at the end of last year, and it’s arriving today alongside a new social video app, also called Sora, for iPhones. The currently invite-only app resembles TikTok with a feed ...

This exemplary deep dive from Don Patterson at Uni Watch is a nice capper to the Cowboys’ 40-40 victory over the Green Bay Packers Sunday night.

Link: uni-watch.com/2025/09/24/americas-pants-a-special…

John Moltz returns to the show to talk about the iPhone 17 lineup: the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone 17, and the no-number iPhone Air. Not one word about baseball, but some Star Wars talk may or may not have snuck in.

Sponsored by:

• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
• Sentry: A real-time error monitoring and tracing platform. Get 3 months and 150,000 errors free.
• Factor: Get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for one year.

Link: daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2025/09/30/ep-431

Jason Snell: According to Apple, four iPhone 17 Pros will be positioned at Fenway Park — in the Green Monster, the home dugout, and roaming the stands. In contrast to the secrecy of last week, the Tigers-Red Sox game will feature a bug in the corner of the screen that sh...

This one will never get old.

Link: theonion.com/william-safire-orders-two-whoppers-junior…

Allison Johnson, The Verge:

Remember the Humane AI pin? And that serious-as-a-heart-attack TED talk about the future of computing? Well, Qualcomm featured Chaudhri in its Snapdragon Summit keynote today, where he’s talking less about lasers you wear on your shirt and more about the amazing battery life on the OmniBook 5 series. How it started, how it’s going, etc. etc.

Johnson’s link above goes directly to Chaudhri’s bit in Qualcomm’s keynote. Looks like a hostage video.

Link: theverge.com/tech/785363/lets-check-in-with-hp-employee…

The future of information delivery is AI — and AI thrives on clean, trustworthy metadata. That’s why S&P Global is embracing open web standards to make data more accessible and machine-readable. Explore our open data at dunl.org and discover rich metadata at marketplace.spglobal.com.

Link: marketplace.spglobal.com/en/solutions/metadata-marketplace-…

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

A few weeks ago designer James Barnard made this TikTok video about what seemed to be a few mistakes in HBO’s logo. He got a bunch of crap from commenters arguing that they weren’t mistakes at all. Then he heard from the designer of the original version of the logo, from the 1970s.

Link: tiktok.com/@barnardco/video/7553888206022774018

Apple, “The Digital Markets Act’s Impacts on EU Users”: The DMA requires Apple to make certain features work on non-Apple products and apps before we can share them with our users. Unfortunately, that requires a lot of engineering work, and it’s caused us to delay some n...

The New York Times: President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that would help clear the way for a coalition of investors to run an American version of TikTok, one that is separate from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, so that it can keep operating in the United ...

John Koblin, reporting for The New York Times (gift link): Jimmy Kimmel’s broadcast return scored big in the ratings. Tuesday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” averaged 6.2 million viewers, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen. That is nearly four times bigger ...

Ryan Gould and Liana Baker, reporting for Bloomberg: Intel Corp. has approached Apple Inc. about securing an investment in the ailing chipmaker, according to people familiar with the matter, part of efforts to bolster a business that’s now partially owned by the US gover...

George Kelly, The Standard:

Joe Betz, the owner of San Francisco’s House of Prime Rib, who transformed the Van Ness Avenue restaurant into an institution beloved by locals and visitors, has died. He was 86. […]

Joe Betz purchased House of Prime Rib in 1985 from Lou Balaski, who founded it in 1949, and over four decades preserved its old-world charm while building it into one of the city’s most enduring dining destinations.

My favorite restaurant in San Francisco, and one of my favorite restaurants anywhere in the world. Incredibly consistent excellent food, impeccable service, and a one-of-a-kind atmosphere.

Link: sfstandard.com/2025/09/24/san-francisco-joe-betz-owner…

Taegan Goddard, a few days ago at Political Wire: The sudden suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show after threats from FCC chair Brendan Carr was a jolt. It looked like the next step in Donald Trump’s campaign to silence dissent. But there’s another way to see it: an opportu...

ABC is putting Kimmel’s show back on tonight, which is great. But I think it’s essential to watch the joke that triggered his suspension. I’m linking here to a CNN post with the full clip. CNN headlined their post “What Kimmel Said About Charlie Kirk That Yanked His Show Off Air”, and that’s basically how most news outlets have phrased it.

But the joke wasn’t about Charlie Kirk. It wasn’t about Charlie Kirk’s assassin. It was about Donald Trump being a sociopathic ghoul. Trump was asked how he’s holding up after the death of “his friend Charlie Kirk”. You really have to watch it — a transcript of Trump’s answer does no justice to how sociopathic it was. And Kimmel called him out on it with mockery.

Link: cnn.com/2025/09/17/business/video/abc-jimmy-kimmel-fcc…

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…

My thanks to Dekáf Coffee Roasters for sponsoring last week at DF. Dekáf believes that people who drink coffee for its flavor are the true connoisseurs. While other roasters treat decaf as a side project, they’ve made it their entire mission. They’re dedicated to creating ex...

Dan Moren, Six Colors: The redesign is more than skin deep, however. Apple has rethought the way some of its most fundamental interactions work. For example, the increasingly long horizontal popover menus that hid options behind an interminable scroll have morphed into a...

Variety: “This is misery,” Letterman said when asked about Kimmel’s suspension, speaking at The Atlantic Festival 2025 Thursday in New York. “I feel bad about this,” he continued. “We see where this is all going, correct? It’s managed media. And it’s no good. It’s silly....

Forget everything you think you know about decaf.

Nine single origins. Six signature blends. Four Mizudashi cold brews. All micro-lot and top-rated coffees shipped to you within 24 hours of roasting. No shortcuts. No crash. This is coffee at its most refined, just without the caffeine.

20% off for DF readers with code “DF” at dekaf.com.

We’re betting you’ll never look at decaf the same way again. But that’s kind of the point.

Link: dekaf.com/df

Hello dear readers. Daring Fireball has been silent for the last week. I realize how unusual it is for the site to go un-updated any week of the year, let alone this particular week of the year. I’m so sorry about that, and also sorry about not being able to write this note to you sooner.

I have been dealing with — and working through — a very personal situation for the past week. It’s OK. I’m going to be OK. But it has kept me offline for some time. Given the one-man nature of this site, that has meant that nothing has been published.

I look forward to getting back to writing very soon. I can feel it: I will be back soon. I’m itching to go. I mean, jiminy, it’s new iPhones week. But it’ll be a few more days before I get those reviews out. In the meantime, I so profoundly appreciate your patience and understanding.

Your faithful correspondent,
John Gruber

Ben Thompson has a wonderful take on yesterday’s event and what it says about Apple overall:

Apple, to be fair, isn’t selling the same sugar water year-after-year in a zero sum war with other sugar water companies. Their sugar water is getting better, and I think this year’s seasonal concoction is particularly tasty. What is inescapable, however, is that while the company does still make new products — I definitely plan on getting new AirPod Pro 3s! — the company has, in the pursuit of easy profits, constrained the space in which it innovates.

Link: stratechery.com/2025/iphones-17-and-the-sugar-water-trap/

Apple Security Engineering and Architecture (SEAR):

Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) is the culmination of an unprecedented design and engineering effort, spanning half a decade, that combines the unique strengths of Apple silicon hardware with our advanced operating system security to provide industry-first, always-on memory safety protection across our devices — without compromising our best-in-class device performance. We believe Memory Integrity Enforcement represents the most significant upgrade to memory safety in the history of consumer operating systems.

That is, to say the least, an incredibly bold statement. But I think it’s true. This is a fascinating post, cogently written.

Link: security.apple.com/blog/memory-integrity-enforcement/

The Wall Street Journal (gift link): President Trump on Thursday led leaders of the world’s biggest technology companies in a version of his cabinet meetings, in which each participant takes a turn thanking and praising him, this time for his efforts to promote investmen...

Apple Newsroom posts:

• Apple unveils iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max

• Introducing iPhone Air, a powerful new iPhone with a breakthrough design

• Apple debuts iPhone 17

• Apple debuts Apple Watch Series 11, featuring groundbreaking health insights

• Introducing Apple Watch Ultra 3

• Apple introduces Apple Watch SE 3

• Introducing AirPods Pro 3, the ultimate audio experience

• Apple announces Final Cut Camera 2.0

Link: apple.com/newsroom/