Notices by Francisco Tolmasky (tolmasky@mastodon.social)

@thomasfuchs I definitely want charging. This is for a camera, so I'd like to keep 4K60. Am I out of luck for something the length I'm looking for in that case?

Anyone have any recommendations for nice (braided) long USB-C cables? Like maybe 15 feet or so? Longer than the ones Apple sells that max out at like 3 meters I think.

Just like when Apple got rid of the HKlive app during the Hong Kong protests. Imagine if there was a way to install apps not through the AppStore. That way the AppStore couldn’t be exploited as a censorship tool by governments. But then Apple might not make every possible cent off the iPhone, so probably not worth it. It’s crazy that Apple is probably happier with Russia’s actions towards the AppStore than Europe’s. No public fit. No press release. Just quiet compliance.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/07/05/russia-forces-apple-to-remove-vpn-apps-from-the-app-store

I really hate the term “side-loading.” We shouldn’t need a word for the normal way we’ve been installing apps for the past 40 years. If tomorrow Apple decided they were going to start only letting you visit web pages they approved of, we wouldn’t call some sort of alternating system that let you see *the rest of the fucking internet* “side-paging”. We’d instead call the whole thing bullshit.

Biggest takeaway from WWDC: everyone overestimated Tim Cook and underestimated Sam Altman. Apple I'm sure thinks this is a stopgap until they can swap in their own LLMs. But OpenAI is betting this is a stopgap until they can swap in their own phone. It remains to be seen who is right here, but I can tell you that OpenAI is getting way more out of being put in front of every Apple customer than Apple is getting from finally accurately telling you George Washington's birthday or whatever. #wwdc24

In order to get the most use out of our new apple pencil spellcheck, we’re naming the new macOS, “Sequoia” #wwdc24

Most people are hoping AI will make Siri better, but personally I'm hoping generative AI will give us a more lifelike Tim Cook that will finally push him out of the uncanny valley. #wwdc24

Incredible that Apple can just trickle out 50-year old features to the iPad keyboard... First a keyboard with no trackpad, then a keyboard WITH a trackpad, and now... THE FUNCTION KEY ROW BITCHES. We getting a numpad in an extended Magic Keyboard in 2027? #AppleEvent

Nice! "Apple Pencil Pro" means there's a good chance I'll get item #1 from my wishlist: “A new Apple Pencil, while doubling down on the existing 3 by also introducing new lower end iPads that use them.” ( https://mastodon.social/@tolmasky/112390729087528049 )
https://mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/112394791583388724

@thomasfuchs You have zero imagination. It could be thinner. More expensive. Slightly smaller bezel (edge-to-uh-really-edge screen). Model number on the back could be different. The list is endless.

Here’s my wish list for the new iPad Pro:

1. A new Apple Pencil, while doubling down on the existing 3 by also introducing new lower end iPads that use them.

2. The same new features as iOS, but delayed by a year in iPadOS.

3. Different screen tech in the 11” vs. 12.9” that’s obviously due to a supply issue, and pushes me to buy the size I like least.

4. A new “iPad Air Pro Plus” category to fill in that egregious unaccounted for 50 dollar gap that exists in the current 6-iPad lineup.

People who say that Apple is anti-web have no idea what they're talking about. Just this week they released the Apple Sports app *specifically* to showcase why Web Apps are so often a better choice than native apps. It's a masterful proof by example. By stripping what could have been a fun app down to its barest components, a flat list of scores with no design whatsoever, they can focus on demonstrating how these "list apps" are usually just the thinnest of wrappers around a JSON API. (1/🧵)

Although they did an incredible job of hiding the Lenovo that Tim Cook uses as his "Excel Workhorse,” you can still tell that something is off since it left his desk conspicuously empty, and it doesn't help that the decoy iPad they threw on there at the last minute has the Apple Pencil erroneously on the top instead of on the side.

@thomasfuchs Interestingly, I think the VisionPro isn't even hyped. There's been no buzz or “electricity in the air" around it from the time it was announced until now. I think the VisionPro is neither cool nor hyped... and correctly so. It's a $3500 beta device, selling limited units, that you need to make a physical appointment for to buy. And IMO it’s clear that 1-2 years later there will be a much better one, so why get this?

@thomasfuchs RIght, I think the hype was entirely from... the makers. I don't know if that counts as “cool” in the traditional sense. For example, I don't think anyone ever looked cool riding one. Also, remember that 2001 meant it had contemporaries like the iMac and the iPod. Things that normal people actually considered "cool", so its hard to think that in the year of the iPod, the Segway is a standout "cool" technology. But perhaps we're just splitting hairs over "hype" and "cool" now.

@thomasfuchs The Segway was absolutely not cool. It was mall cop material day one.

Still feels like my options to share are “Instagram, Xerox, YouTube, or Facebook”. Like I’m in some sort of alternate timeline For All Mankind universe or something.

“Once they put it on, reassure them that they look good, not like a dork at all. Say ‘’Wow, it suits you! And I don’t just say that to everyone.””

https://www.macrumors.com/2023/10/22/apple-to-host-secretive-vision-pro-training-event/

If Google was evil *and* smart (instead of just evil), they would show tech people, who probably have never once clicked on an ad result ever anyways, the same quality of results that we used to get back in the day. That way we'd still be recommending Google and thinking to ourselves "what is everyone complaining about?” instead of actively trying to figure out what's going on.

https://twitter.com/pdrmnvd/status/1707395736458207430?s=61&t=UPVm_rAGsAxo-a_Da9s3vw

Is Apple trying to secretly get rid of Messages apps? I can’t think of any other reason to make this horrible new Messages UI. It’s bad for everything, but it’s *really* bad for apps.