Subscribe
By John Gruber
theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/28/donald-trump-microsoft-tiktok-purchase-claims
community.openstreetmap.org/t/gulf-of-america-gulf-of-mexico/124571
The whole tech world needs more projects that aren’t trying to become billion- (let alone trillion-) dollar ideas, but are happily shooting for success as million-dollar ideas (or less!).
theverge.com/2025/1/27/24352968/pebble-smartwatch-open-source-google-comeback
Even if the build of TikTok already installed on an American user’s phone continues to function, that user can’t reinstall TikTok (or any of ByteDance’s other apps) on a new or restored phone until those apps are back in the app stores.
Openvibe, which mashes together multiple accounts from mulitple networks into a single timeline, is interesting, but not for me — and I’m not really sure who it *is* for.
Chance Miller at 9to5Mac has a good rundown of everything new in iOS 18.3, and his colleague Ryan Christoffel has a similar rundown for MacOS 15.3 all-five-vowels Sequoia. (See also: Michael Tsai.)
Daring Fireball
• Daring Fireball Department of Commerce
workos.com/radar?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=q12025
Does your app get fake signups, throwaway emails, or users abusing your free tier? Or worse, bots attacks and brute force attempts?
WorkOS Radar can block all this and more. A simple API gives you advanced device fingerprinting that can detect bad actors, bots, and suspicious behavior.
Your users trust you. Let’s keep it that way.
macrumors.com/2025/01/23/apple-removes-2024-from-next-gen-carplay-page/
Joe Rossignol, writing at MacRumors on Thursday:
Apple’s website said the first vehicle models with support for next-generation CarPlay would “arrive in 2024,” but that did not happen. A little more than three weeks into 2025, Apple has now updated its website in the U.S. to remove that 2024 timeframe from the next-generation CarPlay section of its overall CarPlay page.
It’s good that they updated this page last week, because it really was starting to look unlikely they’d hit their 2024 ship date.
meh.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fuckingamazon
Ben Stiller, on X, posted a short video with Tim Cook as a severed employee at Lumon Industries. Very fun, and it’s really the only thing on people’s minds about Tim Cook lately — that he’s a fun guy. Definitely the only thing people are thinking about him lately.
Sebastiaan de With, on Threads:
The Tim Cook Severance promo is wild because I always felt like the show could be about Apple - a company with such a deep, crazy culture of secrecy that they’d be the first to opt for severed employees in the workforce.
Also, my work there was always mysterious and important.
Update: Also, pitch-perfect aesthetic and tone on this video Lumon Industries posted to LinkedIn. LinkedIn is definitely the Lumon-iest social network.
I see four possible futures regarding phones that are too thin for USB-C ports.
theinformation.com/articles/apple-s-software-taskmaster-faces-tough-test?rc=jfy0lk
Trump says they’re targeting all undocumented immigrants, but so far they’re only targeting those who live in places that are popularly opposed to it. And that’s where the costs — both emotional and economic — will be felt.
daringfireball.net/2025/01/siri_is_super_dumb_and_getting_dumber#fnr4-2025-01-23
Siri with Apple Intelligence gives confident but embarrasingly wrong answers to sports trivia questions, both famous (Super Bowls) and obscure (North Dakota high school hoops).
Daring Fireball
• Daring Fireball Department of Commerce
meh.com/?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=fuckingamazon
I sold Woot to Amazon and they made it shitty. So I quit. Then I got bored.
I started A Mediocre Corporation with a few others from Woot. We just launched a classic daily deal site — only one thing for sale each day. Meh.
Oh, and since you seem to be into RSS, we put one together just for you, at meh.com/deals.rss. Of course you can also just go to meh.com.
lawfaremedia.org/article/trump's-tiktok-executive-order-and-the-limits-of-executive-non-enforcement
developer.apple.com/documentation/ios-ipados-release-notes/ios-ipados-18_3-release-notes
The order doesn’t change the law; it says to ignore the law. It’s going to be a very telling test of Republicans in both houses of Congress.
npr.org/2025/01/20/nx-s1-5268701/trump-executive-order-tiktok-ban
support.apple.com/en-us/121596?cid=mc-ols-bytedance-article_121596-os_ui-12132024
