🎙️ Dammit @biff@zeppelin.flights, how did you get me to tear up just listening to you talk about Logan, which I haven’t seen in years. What a powerful film. (@Gte@mastodon.social calling back to Logan “dying with his heart in his hands” really got me.) 🥹🫡
Aquilino Gonell: ‘I Was Nearly Killed on Jan. 6th. Four Years Later, I Feel Betrayed All Over Again.'
I feel betrayed by the Department of Justice for not moving faster and with more purpose to hold accountable those who inspired the riot that day. […] I feel betrayed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which chose to declare presidents criminally immune for all “official acts” even if they threaten our constitutional and democratic institutions. I feel betrayed by those people who claim that they support the rule of law but gladly cheer on the people who violently attacked police officers.
And I feel let down by the members of Congress who turned their backs on us even as we saved their lives. And yes, we saved their lives that day.
Apple really doesn’t want you to think that just because they settled the Siri privacy lawsuit that it means they are guilty of spying on you or selling your data. From today’s Newsroom post:
Apple has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles, never made it available for advertising, and never sold it to anyone for any purpose. We are constantly developing technologies to make Siri even more private, and will continue to do so.
Here’s how Siri protects user data.
They go on to detail practices such as using random device identifiers instead of user accounts and Private Cloud Compute.
🆕📝 MacPaw’s aiming to out-Siri Siri with third-party-enabled Eney macOS assistant
I don't doubt MacPaw's experience and solid reputation for working well with third-party developers through Setapp will give them a leg up here.
Juli Clover, macrumors.com:
Delta today announced that it is partnering with YouTube for a new in-flight Delta Sync entertainment experience. Delta SkyMiles members who log into their accounts will be able to watch their favorite creators, podcasts, and music artists ad-free while on board most Delta flights.
I think this will prove to be very popular — much more so than other TV streaming services. People love YouTube. And it’s smart on YouTube’s part. I can attest that once you’ve tried an ad-free YouTube, you don’t go back. I expect they’ll sell a bunch of Premium memberships this way.
My apologies for the timeline bombardment. I finally fixed my Instagram → Micro.blog auto-crossposter and it caught up with my posts since December. I figured changing the publish dates to the past would move them back in the timeline too, but alas. 🙃
Brendan Leonard: ‘Make 2025 The Year Of Maximum Enthusiasm’
In 2025, I urge you to notice when something is awesome, as it often is, and exclaim or murmur or just make a mental note of it. Isn’t it just goddamn fantastic that you have your health, for example? Or running water, or electricity? Or that you have enough money to actually pay someone else to make you a cup of coffee? Or if you want ice cream, you are at any time in America probably only 5 or 10 minutes away from a place that sells some form of it? (Trust me on that one)
Sounds good! No notes.
Whoa, I just got my first cold email press release and media kit for a tech product — some DJ gadget from CES that’s supposed to work well with Algoriddim’s djay app — that someone wants me to write about. I’m flattered, but that’s not really what I do here, and I don’t know shit about DJing. 😅
🆕📝 Quick Tip: Get ChatGPT’s global keyboard shortcut working again in 5 seconds flat
Continuing my trend of posts that coulda been tweets. TL;DR - Enable the menu bar icon, and it'll start working again. And yes, I timed it.
🎙️ A couple of podcast recs for you today:
First, The Severance Podcast with Ben Stiller & Adam Scott launched today. They’re recapping S1 leading into the new season, and then will keep going with S2. I love hearing the talent and creatives discuss how and why the show turned out the way it did. 🧵
And then use all the money you’re saving from more expensive blogging platforms and get yourself a custom domain to truly own your spot on the web!
I don’t think there’s ever been a more important time to really own your online presence than now. Seriously, go blog. Micro.one offers amazing blog hosting for just $1 a month. Manton is a legend for making this happen. Go sign up before he changes his mind!
🔗 Ryan Christoffel: ‘PSA: It’s your last chance to return Apple products before holiday deadline expires’ 9to5mac.com
Don’t forget if you were using the holiday period for an extended trial!
🆕📝 Using HomePods for home theater audio is pretty great
If I knew it would solve so many of my issues with so few downsides, I would have done this years ago.
This thread from Mark Zuckerberg could’ve been written by Elon Musk. The last thing we need is X and Threads adopting the same perspective on moderation. I’ve read it through a few times and I feel worse about it each time.
Agreed. This makes me angry. Threads was made as an alternative to what X had become, but it’s gone to shit already and is about to get so much worse.
Basically, Zuck said, “We’re good with the disinformation, and the vitriol directed toward diverse groups. Open the floodgates!” Fuck that and him.
Bluesky and (🤞) Micro.blog are gonna get new folks.
A new Very Good Tweet™ has landed:
Sheena Vasani, theverge.com:
Philips Hue’s new generative AI lighting assistant lets users create personalized lighting scenes based on occasion, mood, or style. They can do so by typing commands like “Give me a scene for a garden party” into the Hue app and also by using their voice. The assistant will then either recommend scenes from the existing Philips Hue gallery or create a new one entirely.
A great idea — getting all the colors right is too fiddly, but this needs to be at the infrastructure/Home app level. I have lights from many different brands that I want to match to a scene.
🆕📝 My Big-Number Fitness Goals for 2025
I like goals that will take the whole year to complete. Hopefully, this'll keep me motivated every month, week, and day. 💪
Sounds like people are going to need longer games because they’ll be playing them so fast with Nvidia’s new hotness. 😏
Ella: ‘Write Books With the Block Editor’ wordpress.org
All this inspired me to wrap our editor in an app that can read and write local files–just as other document editors do. It turns out that EPUB is the best file format to store the content, because EPUB is an open standard for e-books that is essentially a ZIP file containing HTML and media–HTML like your WordPress posts!
Having recently praised wrapping exported files up in locally-browsable HTML, this caught my eye. I could see doing a ‘Best of the Blog’ ebook someday.
Andrew Liszewski, theverge.com:
Dell’s new 32-inch 4K OLED display uses an infrared sensor and five speakers located below the screen to track your head and beam sound directly to your ears. The feature eliminates the need to keep your head positioned in a sweet spot for optimal sound, and it could be ideal for gamers who are constantly moving around in the heat of battle. The monitor also features a 120Hz refresh rate, a 0.03ms response time, and will launch in the US on May 22nd, 2025, for $799.99.
Now that’s some cool, human-centered tech!
Jason Snell: ‘Apple Intelligence summaries might get warning labels. That’s not enough.'
Apple is shipping these AI-based features rapidly, and marketing them heavily, because it fears that its competitors so far out in front that it’s a potentially existential issue. But several of these features simply aren’t up to Apple’s quality standards, and I worry that we’ve all become so inured to AI hallucinations and screw-ups that we’re willing to accept them.
We shouldn’t be. Apple’s shipping a feature that frequently rewrites headlines to be wrong.
Jason makes good recommendations, too.
🔗 This ‘Features of Adulthood’ comic is shockingly accurate. xkcd.com
I’ve made the realization that I’ve done a poor job following blogs and accounts by women. The ratio is truly shameful. I’d love your recommendations for your favorite female friends. I’m into tech, outdoor adventures, and blogging, but I’ll read anything well-written. Always open to new interests!
🆕📝 My Blogging Origin Story & Other Questions: A Blogging Challenge
Sorry it's so long, Kev, but you did ask for it!
David Smith: ‘Four years after mob violence, Kamala Harris hands power – peacefully – to Trump’
Like Vice-Presidents Gore and Mike Pence before her, Harris did her duty on Monday. America has returned to a peaceful transfer of power. Yet the unpalatable truth was that the candidate who tried to overturn the previous election is legitimately returning to power. Democracy had prevailed to elevate a man who spits in its face.
That she didn’t gag while certifying the results proves she’s made of tougher stuff than me.