Snippet: The EnshAIttification of Day One ☇

Aleem Shaun:

I’ve used Day One for more than a decade. It was an excellent journalling app. Private, minimal, easy to use, with excellent features such as geolocation, weather, ‘On this Day’, and book printing. Features that got out of the way and either worked quietly in the background or appeared only when you summoned them. That’s changed.

Now there are new subscription tiers. Previously, the tiers were Free and Premium. Simple. Premium included sync and a few other things that I can’t remember, but it was compelling enough that I’ve been a Premium subscriber from the beginning. Now, without consultation, I’m Silver (not Premium), and there’s a new, more expensive AI-driven tier, Gold. I don’t object solely on that basis. You would think I could just choose to remain on ‘Silver’ and all would be well. But no. Even with these features turned off in settings, I’m visually prompted in the app to upgrade to Gold and use the Daily Chat (with AI), which I’ve turned off and can only use if I upgrade. And yet, there it is, taunting me.

Sadly, this is all too relatable—the amount of products and services that constantly push an upsell long after you’ve dismissed it (or are giving them money for a lower tier) seem to be increasing. Even Apple is guilty of doing this in the Settings app and the former iWork apps.

Snippet: Meta, Be Better ☇

M.G. Siegler:

A couple years back, I was banned by Instagram. Because I happen to know a few people there, I got it resolved and my account back online relatively quickly. But I never got an answer for what actually happened. A few months later, I found myself banned again. Again, I pinged some people. Again I was reinstated. Again, I got no explanation other than someone – or something – messed up. Again.

While those bans also instantly took out Facebook and Messenger, I was lucky that it left WhatsApp alone. Because, living in Europe, I’m forced to run a lot of my actual life through WhatsApp because it’s the service many people rely on here as their primary messaging service. Boy, it would suck if I was banned from WhatsApp.

It’s an absolutely frustrating story. I deleted my Instagram account after regaining access for a similar no-reason ban in 2023, but Instagram is optional in the grand scheme of things. In the United States and Canada, WhatsApp is typically viewed as an optional, nice-to-have service for some people, but in much of Europe, WhatsApp is messaging, used in favor of SMS/MMS/RCS/iMessage. I just got back from Iceland and WhatsApp was typically the go-to method of communicating any arrangements (I managed to get by with email, as nothing was too urgent.)

While there’s some historical context, it feels counterintuitive that Europe, a region that generally holds large companies accountable for the good of the people is willing to hand over all communication to a company that offers little recourse if you get banned. Getting your essential communication cut off without warning is unacceptable and I’d be in favor of some sort of utility-grade regulation unless people move away from WhatsApp en masse. Imagine if in the United States, your carrier decided that your phone just doesn’t work, despite doing nothing wrong (and being paid up), along with no immediate place to go for help. Another fun detail, senders of messages to Siegler had no idea he couldn’t read or respond:

I just spoke to a friend who I communicate with primarily on WhatsApp. Apparently, they’re sending me messages right now with no indication that I’ve been banned and that they’re not getting through. […]

He regained access twice and was promptly banned again each time. Yikes.

Snippet: EveryMac.com at 30 ☇

EveryMac.com:

On July 2, 1996, EveryMac.com launched.

Thirty years is a long time — and a great deal has changed since then — but what has not changed is that EveryMac.com has been there to provide you with detailed info on every Mac from the original 128k to the current line. Thank you very much for your support through the years.

I’ve used this site as a reference countless times over the years, mostly to figure out an obscure detail about some old Performa or to double-check dates of Apple’s mid-’90s product lineup as my memory fades a bit. I’m really glad to see it sticking around.

Snippet: Comcast to Split Into Two Companies via Spin-Off of NBCUniversal, Including Sky ☇

Georg Szalai and Alex Weprin for The Hollywood Reporter:

In a major move that reshapes the media landscape, Comcast plans to separate into two independent publicly traded companies through a tax-free spin-off of NBCUniversal and Sky, the company said on Monday. […]

[Comcast co-CEO Brian] Roberts, who controls the company, will continue to be “actively involved” in the leadership of Comcast and NBCUniversal, working in partnership with the CEOs of both companies, the company said. Current co-CEO Mike Cavanagh will serve as the CEO of NBCUniversal, while Comcast’s former CFO Michael Angelakis will become the CEO of Comcast, following the completion of the separation and in the interim will join as a strategic advisor. […]

…Comcast says that it will retain a 19.9% stake in NBCUniversal, with plans to monetize it after the split in order to help it deleverage. That suggests that the company believes there will be interest in NBCU.

It’s almost as though infrastructure and content production aren’t the magical combination that seemed to be hot in the 2010s. In some ways, this is an unwinding of the purchase of NBCUniversal from GE by Kabletown Comcast, which completed in 2011, although NBCUniversal won’t include the previously spun-off networks under the nonsensical Versant brand.

Hopefully this means that the NBC peacock gets taken off of Comcast’s trucks—that always felt wrong.

Snippet: Remembering Om Malik ☇

Om Malik’s family:

Om Malik passed away on June 24, 2026, at Stanford Hospital after a long health journey with his heart. He was surrounded by family and friends.

I’ve linked to Malik numerous times over the years, first at Gigaom and then his personal blog. I’ve always enjoyed his writing and loved how he mixed experience, context, wit, and a bit of humor when observing the tech world around him. He never bought into the bullshit and hype and from those who knew him, sounded like a wonderful person to catch up with during a conference.

I was on vacation last week, and seeing this news come through my RSS reader made things just a little more bittersweet. It’s funny because we never met, nor exchanged any correspondence, but I always looked forward to seeing a new post from him because he was excellent at what he did. We’re all sort of shouting into the void in this racket and know of and appreciate other people, but rarely let them know.