News: Apple Introduces HomeView, Updates Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini

Apple introduced a few new things this morning centered around home use. Updated products are mostly predictable updates with slight price hikes after the existing ones over the summer. The star of the show is the new $299 HomeView, the long-rumored stationary home gadget…

Snippet: X is Bad, Though ☇

Lex Friedman for his relatively new and excellent Lex on Tech:

That all may be true. But it’s not the point.

It is true that X has, by some definition, “won.” Elon bought it, quickly ruined it, squandered its great Twitter branding, drove many users off the platform — but because it’s the most popular microblogging platform, it continues to succeed. And business leaders like [Apple CEO John] Ternus, celebrities, and other smart and interesting people are posting there again, or they never left.

But it’s also true that Elon Musk absolutely sucks. Let’s use receipts.

There was plenty wrong with “old” Twitter, but one could find their people and make it tolerable with third-party clients. Fundamentally, even if the algorithm is presenting one with friendly and inclusive content, there’s still a lot of nastiness, especially for anyone that falls into any “other” category. Even that aside, its owner is still actually the worst and you must use an algorithmic timeline. I’ve grown tired of algorithms and would rather have a carefully considered list of people that I follow. If I get to the end, so be it.

It is concerning that popular folks that cover Apple seem to be following a similar pipeline of getting more and more interested in AI as a writing topic, realizing that Mastodon and Bluesky don’t have receptive audiences, and embracing X. I realize that some people and businesses never left, never made a demonstration of leaving, or have a presence in multiple places—that’s an individual choice and I’m not here to scold. I also know the realities of the advertising market and that Apple isn’t an interesting niche anymore, but at what point do you drive your audience away trying to chase another? Plus, if the destination is your web site and you have a loyal following, why chase trying to please an algorithm?

Article: Apple’s Intentional Service Language

Yesterday, my plans put me near an Apple Store so I used this as an opportunity to get my iPhone 15’s battery replaced. I had been putting the AppleCare+-covered replacement off for awhile as I live in the no-man’s-land of a “smedium-sized” city that is about 2 hours from 3 different Apple Stores and didn’t want to make a separate trip. The installation went off without a hitch and was actually much quicker than models in the past due to the iPhone 15 continuing the iPhone 14’s midframe design. Nonetheless, I wanted to focus on the correspondence Apple had sent me regarding the repair…

Snippet: Why I Write (and Care) About the Internet, and What So Many People Get Wrong ☇

Brennan Kenneth Brown:

The Internet isn’t a story. It isn’t a detached, real-life plot device for us to have discourse over. It’s far less than that. It’s a place where the story happens.

Features, trend pieces, and documentaries treat the Internet as a subject with its own character, motives, and plot, then report on what the Internet is doing to us. As though the Internet is somehow a separate entity from us.

The Internet has no plot. It is a place, and what happens there is what has always happened where people gather. People flirt, argue, vent, love, trade, show off, gossip, grieve, fuck, and look for company. The stories worth telling are about those people.

The minute you start thinking of the Internet as a place, the dynamic changes so much.

Snippet: Become Worthless (to Tech Companies) ☇

Cory Dransfeldt:

Tech companies and their executives have, broadly, moved to align themselves with investors and adopted a posture of, often, disdain or outright hostility towards their users and employees. If tech companies don’t value you, why provide value to them? If they back political positions hostile to your interests, why not return that hostility?

I’m not arguing for boycotts, I know that people are bound to different platforms for different, compelling reasons. What I am arguing for is that, given the opportunity, you try and reduce the value they can extract from you. That’s very often your data, but it can also be a direct financial relationship.

Dransfeldt provides a great list of possible things you can incorporate in your regular tech usage without leaving every service. Even though it’s often your first instinct, you don’t have to be truthful or accept every part of the power-imbalance.