Fighting with Amazon Customer Support was not what I planned for today. Even over email, I’m pretty sure it’s an LLM responding using the prompt, “Keep asking for the same information until he gives up.”

I’ve even tried to set up a phone call, but it won’t give me the field to enter my number. 😤

Currently reading: Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills by The Mountaineers 📚

It’s about time I got to “the bible” of climbing tombs.

Tom Jones, sherwood.news:

We’re often told with virtual and augmented reality that the possibilities are almost endless. On the $3,499 Apple Vision Pro headset, however, the amount of new experiences for users to explore seems to have already slowed to a near standstill.

According to data from Appfigures, cited recently in The Wall Street Journal, there were 300 new apps released for the Vision Pro in February, its official US launch month. In September, there were 10. 

If Apple put out AVP early for a head start on AR apps, they’ve got a lot of work to do. (Via @amerpie)

My keyboard’s modifiers suddenly went haywire—Command-A (⌘A) gave me å instead of Select All. No tab switching, no copy/paste. Yikes! I reset it, checked settings, searched online, even asked ChatGPT. Then I remembered — it’s got a physical switch for Windows mode! Flipped it back. Problem solved. 🤦‍♂️

Speaking of Matt Birchler, here are two more excellent posts from him about the Orion headset. Or, well, about talking about the Orion headset. Shot and chaser. (Yes, I’m catching up on my read-later backlog. Almost done with Birchtree!)

Matt Birchler:

Consumer Affairs has some data on smartphone use and ownership in the United States that’s interesting, and SellCell has some good data on how often people around the world upgrade their phone. While the most common upgrade cycle is 2-3 years (40%), and a similar amount (39%) upgrade in 4 or more year cycles, a full 21% of people upgrade their phone at least once per year. Given an estimated 316 million smartphone owners in the US today, that’s 66 million Americans who buy a new phone every year.

The “nobody does this” rhetoric bugs me too, but wow, 20% is more than I expected.

Nick Heer on Tesla’s recent We, Robot event:

Public transit, which is available today, is the very definition of democratized transportation, especially if it has been carefully considered for the needs of people with disabilities. It is inexpensive, requires less space per person than any car, and has a beneficial feedback loop of safety and usage. I am not arguing the two cannot coexist; perhaps some of this stuff makes sense in low-density sprawl. But I have little confidence the future will look like Musk’s vision, or that Tesla will be delivering it. Why would anyone still believe this too-rich carnival barker who lies all the time?

📚 Finished reading: Make Something Wonderful: Steve Jobs in his own words by Steve Jobs 👍👍

What a uniquely remarkable person.

I would watch the heck out of any show with this music. song.link/i/1454371…

I like to go back to Walt Mossberg’s rememberance of Steve Jobs from time-to-time. Surely I read it through rose-tinted glasses these days, but he really was one-of-a-kind:

But I can honestly say that, in my many conversations with him, the dominant tone he struck was optimism and certainty […]

At times in our conversations, when I would criticize the decisions of record labels or phone carriers, he’d surprise me by forcefully disagreeing, explaining how the world looked from their point of view, how hard their jobs were in a time of digital disruption, and how they would come around.

Wow, hard to beat this price if you just need a basic iPad:

Looks like Best Buy is trying to clear out 9th gen iPads. $199 is a crazy good deal and frankly, the iPad is probably the last product in Apple’s lineup that really needs the AI tools since it’s a consumption first device.
— @parkerortolani@mastodon.social

I’m quite regretting going back to Squarespace for a new project. Even more so that I, like a cuck, paid for a year upfront. I hope this setup tedium will be worth it once things are up and running, but I wish I would’ve looked around more before committing. Their new ‘fluid engine’ is anything but.

TIL about “digital” watch faces from @gruber@mastodon.social

I’ve “downgraded” from an iPhone 16 Pro to an iPhone 16. 🙃 AMA

I just updated my Amazon Affiliate Linker shortcut to version 1.5. It’d been buggy lately, but after streamling a bit, now it’s working like a charm:

• Simplified actions to use a regular expression to match the ASIN, which should also be more accurate.
• Clarified how the starting URL is gotten.
• Cleaned up the final built URL.
• When opening the final URL, it also copies it to the clipboard.
• Tested for macOS Sequoia and iOS 18.

Get it for free from the HeyDingus Shortcuts Library.

Finished reading: States of Adventure: STORIES ABOUT FINDING YOURSELF BY GETTING LOST by Fitz Cahall 📚

👀 A new season of Ted Lasso, you say? I’d love to see those characters together again!

Exclusive: #TedLasso S4 is set to begin pre-production in January. According to our sources, the football drama is now confirmed to return next year with a fourth instalment, with London shoots beginning in early 2025!
— Sigmund Judge, Magic Rays of Light

I’m trying to switch from a left-phone-pocket-guy to a right-phone-pocket-guy and, boy, 17 years of muscle memory is tough to break.

🆕📝 Lynn Hill: Climbing comes down to cleverness and perseverance

Lynn, one of the GOATs, lays it all out on Climbing Gold

Greg Morris doesn’t mince his words:

As Mark’s shirt from Connect proudly claimed it’s Zuck or nothing. He can try to hide the reality in an ancient Latin, or meanness company statements about connecting people. The reality is they only care about advertising revenue, and it has always been about the company before anything else.

What do we think the likelihood is that Apple releases a Product RED iPhone 16 in the spring…?

It’s like Manton Reece peered into my brain before writing his post concerning Meta and their Connect 2024 event today:

I’m not exactly rooting for Meta. I dedicated major sections of my book to the problems with massive, ad-based social networking, with Facebook and Instagram as prominent players. But nevertheless I’m caught up in some of the excitement of new technology at Connect. There’s a refreshing change of pace and tone compared to decades of Apple keynotes.

Just discovered that you can scroll down with the Digital Crown from your watch face to pull down Notification Center. Pretty sure that’s new on watchOS. ⌚️

Do I know any logo designers who might want to work with me on a fun project? 🕵️ (Or anyone who knows a good logo designer who could make a recommendation?)

🆕📝 Farewell, iMore

Another Apple blogging outfit bites the dust.