Notices by Jeff Johnson (lapcatsoftware@mastodon.social), page 2

It’s telling that AI maximalists aren’t even TRYING to pitch the technology as allowing you to work fewer hours per week for the same or higher standard of living as before.

The only pitch is that if you don’t adopt AI ASAP you’ll be left behind. In other words, AI accelerates the rat race with no benefit to the working class.

The “productivity” crap is all a lie.

Leadership pushing AI on the workforce is all a cover simply to scare and undermine labor, thereby gaining a permanent upper hand in hiring and negotiations. They’re inventing artificial workers as imaginary competition for your jobs.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/08/bank-forced-to-rehire-workers-after-lying-about-chatbot-productivity-union-says/

Book review: Apple in China by Patrick McGee

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2025/8/1.html

@steter You say “I agree”, but it’s not clear that you do agree, because I said, “I agree with the outcome”, which is the ouster of Cook.

I have mixed feelings about recent widespread calls for Tim Cook’s ouster, because although I agree with the outcome, I don’t necessarily agree with the reasons. I’ve literally never used Siri, and I don’t give a damn about Apple Intelligence or AI in general, so as far as I’m concerned, I’d prefer that Apple NOT focus on it. That whole thing seems driven by the stock market and/or the media rather than by customers.

Wait, what? macOS Tahoe beta 2 automatically enabled FileVault and uploaded a recovery key to iCloud.

I did not have a choice in the matter.

This is fucking insane!

Tahoe appears to put all app icons in rounded rects, even if they aren’t rounded rects.

Ugh.

@nikitonsky Apple said, "We asked that Epic Sweden resubmit the app update without including the US storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies. We did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces in the EC."

In other words, Epic just needs to submit with the Notarization option in my screenshot rather than the App Store option.

Epic refuses to submit a Notarization-only, EU-only update

@nikitonsky The tweets are misleading.

@nikitonsky No, because the developer chooses the review type. Epic chose "App Store" but could re-submit with just "Notarization".

https://developer.apple.com/help/app-store-connect/distributing-apps-in-the-european-union/submit-for-notarization

Tim Sweeney claims, "As a result, Fortnite is offline on iOS in the European Union indefinitely despite being distributed through the Epic Games Store there."

But this seems like a load of bullshit. Epic has already demonstrated for the court that Apple is refusing to consider Fortnite for the App Store, so Epic could now simply submit a new build for the EU alternative marketplace without the App Store. There's no need for Epic to sit on its ass doing nothing. A stunt.

https://www.macobserver.com/news/epic-says-apple-is-blocking-fortnite-violating-court-orders/

New blog post: App Store Curation

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2025/4/6.html

Employers: Everyone must return to the office, because we work best when people collaborate face-to-face.

Also: We're going to replace everyone with A.I.

Cue my article "The myth and reality of Mac OS X Snow Leopard"

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2023/11/5.html https://mastodon.online/@9to5Mac/114163146658349262

Apple software update "bug" enables Apple Intelligence

If you saw the "welcome" screen after updating to iOS 18.3.1 or macOS 15.3.1, then Apple Intelligence was probably re-enabled even after you disabled it.

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2025/2/3.html

If Apple wants to notify users of new features, here's a crazy idea:

Put new features only into major OS updates with Apple keynotes and massive media coverage, not into minor security updates that are installed automatically.

No billionaire has a conscience. The very act of accumulating that much money and power demonstrates clearly their priorities and values. Anyone who isn't a glutton is eventually sated, but they're never sated.

It's a mistake to view the past behavior of billionaires as representing their true selves and their present behavior as deference or fear. To the contrary, they now feel safe to take off their masks and reveal the monsters underneath, because one of their own is in power.

Web docs:
"The id global attribute defines an identifier (ID) which must be unique in the whole document."

YouTube:
> document.querySelectorAll("#dismissible").length
142

https://developer.mozilla.org/docs/Web/HTML/Global_attributes/id

Apple Passwords is hostile to backups

https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2025/1/4.html

StopTheMadness Pro 13.0 released in the App Store

Can protect against double-clickjacking attacks!

https://underpassapp.com/news/2025/1/2.html