It was four years ago this week that Epic Games launched so-called Project Liberty, their attempt to force Apple’s hand on external purchases. Lawsuits, DMA… And now we have third-party marketplaces and Fortnite back in the EU. It’s no longer crazy to imagine we’ll get this worldwide in 2-3 years.

Having one of those mornings where I sort of can’t believe how well this coding is going. Sometimes everything just works.

There are a lot of misses in the current Amtrak map. Las Vegas, which Brightline is making progress on. But one of the biggest has gotta be the station in Maricopa instead of Phoenix. Ridiculous that this route has been broken for decades. (Biden’s infrastructure deal will eventually fix it.)

For the first joint event with Joe and Kamala together, really smart to focus on healthcare and prescription drug costs. There has been real progress on this that Joe can talk about. It lets the crowd show their appreciation for the president, the press will cover it, and it highlights policy. 🇺🇸

Now that I’ve cancelled my NYT subscription, going to wind down my daily use of Wordle too. So many ads now, and the fun has run its course. Planning to stop playing after puzzle 1200.

This new Rivian travel kitchen looks so good. I’d be tempted to get it if I hadn’t already spent a small fortune on my Snow Peak camping things.

Happy NBA schedule release day! It drops this afternoon and I’m excited enough that I will probably watch it live on ESPN2. @cheesemaker and I are still trying to visit all the arenas in the country and it’s taking forever, need to hit a couple more this season.

Wow, this post diving into Micro.blog bookmarks and highlights is amazing. Thanks Loura! I’ve bookmarked it in Micro.blog (of course) so I can sift through it later to see what we can improve in Micro.blog’s API.

Must-read blog post by Cory Doctorow, connecting enshittification to Apple and the legal agreements that give corporations power:

Apple doesn’t oppose regulation; Apple loves regulation, so long as they’re the ones doing the regulating. They want to be able to shape and define the digital market, backed by the power of the state, but without any input from the state. In modern corporate orthodoxy, the state is an enforcer for corporate will.

Sounds like we may be in for a substantial remedy in Epic vs. Google, potentially going even further than the EU’s DMA. From The Verge:

Judge Donato made it clear he plans to ban any nondiscriminatory behavior when it comes to how Google treats rival app stores, up to and including human review.

Random rail crossing in Denton. 🚂

Ben Thompson’s daily update reviews the App Store vs. Patreon mess:

In short, Apple is taking a percentage of individual creator subscriptions, but it is treating every individual creator as if they are a subsidiary of Patreon. It’s as if Apple can’t even conceive of the possibility of there being any sort of platform other than themselves; they may still market themselves as the company for creators, but their actions suggest they truly don’t care.

He also suggests a solution: Apple could charge 30% of Patreon’s own 8% fee, because Patreon is passing almost all of the money on to creators.

“I’m learning, and I’m worried for the opponents in a couple of years.” — Victor Wembanyama, after winning silver at the Olympics 🏀

My son is tinkering with Raspberry Pi and Arduino and it’s incredible what is possible now. So many little widgets you can buy and program. Servers that fit in the palm of your hand.

Steve Troughton-Smith on Mastodon:

If Apple isn’t stopped, there will come a point where Apple slaps a 30% tax on all VISA transactions made on iOS (unless you use Apple Pay, of course!)

It could happen. Related, I’d love the option to use Apple Pay in iOS apps instead of in-app purchase. Apple would still skim off their small fee as part of the card transaction, but it wouldn’t hit developer revenue.

About 25 years after first learning JavaScript, I think I’m almost starting to get the hang of it. 🤪

According to Mark Gurman, the iPhone 16 Pro will have a new button for the camera. This is very interesting:

Speaking of buttons, there will be a new camera control on the right side of the phone (at least on the new Pros). It will operate like a button on a DSLR camera, allowing you to press in slightly to trigger autofocus. A harder press will take the picture. You can also swipe along the button to zoom in and out while shooting photos and videos.

Because I don’t have an iPad anymore, thinking about getting the Pro Max next time. Will need to hold it.

The back and forth ranking changes for Jordan Chiles and Ana Barbosu is a mess. If there’s no fair solution, give them both the bronze medal. Just a couple days ago we watched the pole vaulters share the gold. The floor exercise wasn’t a tie but it might as well have been.

Continuing to make progress with the new editor. Fixed several things, added support for @-mentions, better styling. There are still a couple quirks with the insertion cursor. If I can work through those, will ship this as soon as I can.

Manuel Moreale wraps up his first 50 interviews with bloggers, with a nice summary here. I was happy to participate and still read it every week (in my RSS reader of course).

Shoutout to @vincent who has finished a major rewrite of the navigation in our main mobile app. It’s probably not the most fun thing to work on (hey it looks exactly the same!) but sets us up nicely for the future.

Incredible gold medal game, USA vs. France women. So close to going to OT. 🏀

This post from John Gruber really hits the key problem with macOS becoming more locked down and even (sometimes) dumbed down, and the balance between the Mac and iPad in Apple’s product line:

But at a certain point, a hammer needs to hammer whatever it strikes, and sometimes, alas, that’s the user’s thumb. That’s the Mac. It’s a Unix workstation that’s friendly enough to be used by the mass market. It is not an appliance intended to prevent any possible malware or scamware from running.

Apple says they don’t want macOS and iPadOS to converge, but it often feels like we’re inching that way.

Buescher State Park at lunchtime. Had a picnic, then started listening to USA vs. France on the drive back before we watched the second half back at home.

Enjoying USA vs. France. Love watching Wemby play and cannot wait for the Spurs season to start. Gotta root for USA, though, a truly great team. 🏀

Really wish React Native didn’t use Ruby and CocoaPods. It’s past time for a cleaner build toolchain with fewer dependencies.

More movies lately, getting the most from the Alamo Drafthouse season pass… Borderlands is exactly what it looks like from the trailer. Also saw Twisters again and it holds up on repeat viewings. The Instigators on TV+ was a lot of fun too. 🍿

Now that we’ve got breakdancing, I think the Olympics officially has enough events. I don’t want to say “no” to anyone’s sport, but at some point it feels like there are so many events it will become overwhelming to coordinate for future cities, and viewers. Good thing TV now has infinite channels.

One of these years I’d like to make it out to D23. Seems like a fun weekend. There is so much to work on right now, really feeling the need to get away for a couple days and reset.

New episode of Core Int out today. We talk about the antitrust verdict against Google search, the potential impact on Apple and Mozilla, whether Apple Intelligence will ever be something third-party developers can build on, and the general disappointment of Apple platforms becoming more closed.