Notices by Harry McCracken (harrymccracken@mastodon.social), page 3

Google is showing lots of cool stuff at I/O, though plenty of it doesn't involve any specified launch dates and it's unclear how far along it is. The AI race has prompted more vague pre-announcements of things than I can remember in a long time.

For this week's Plugged In newsletter, I wrote about Kagi, a Google alternative with a lot to offer, especially to search nerds like me. For something from a tiny company, it's downright amazing! https://www.fastcompany.com/91038374/kagi-web-search-engine-google-alternative

Fair warning: I have two favorite Christmas songs, and I may be sharing multiple versions of them over the next few days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4jcq5dkXfU

The Adobe-Figma deal is off, which is is a positive development for competition in in the creative-software market. Last month, I wrote about Figma and what its overarching strategy moving forward might look like, regardless of who owned it. https://www.fastcompany.com/90939386/figma-dylan-field-dev-mode-future-ai-adobe

I thought this was a parody, but it's real.

(I ended up getting a refund on my OfficeJet 7740, which kept crashing and had built-in Dropbox support that didn't actually work.) https://www.pcmag.com/news/hp-ad-campaign-printers-are-annoying-but-ours-are-made-to-be-less-hated

I spoke with Bluesky CEO Jay Graber about its plans to leave invite-only status and launch its AT federated social networking protocol. https://www.fastcompany.com/90996044/bluesky-twitter-alternative-jay-graber-ceo

To mark this anniversary, I'll reshare an article I wrote about JFK riding in a limo in a parade in happier times. https://techland.time.com/2013/01/14/kennedy-polaroid/

If you're trying to get up to speed on OpenAI's new interim CEO, Mira Murati, read my colleague Ainsley's profile of her from earlier this year. https://www.fastcompany.com/90850342/openai-mira-murati-chatgpt-dall-e-gpt-4

I wrote a big story about Figma and Dylan Field. Yes, including the Adobe deal, from both companies' viewpoint—but also how Figma came to be, what AI means for design, and Field's ambition to make creativity the new productivity. https://www.fastcompany.com/90939386/figma-dylan-field-dev-mode-future-ai-adobe

It's been 12 years.