Jarrod Blundy
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Roughly 25 years after it launched payment processing, PayPal is “ushering in a new era for customers” with some generic black text. The company has a new logo, designed by Pentagram, that looks incredibly plain — especially compared to previous iterations of the logo that featured a rakish slant, two shades of blue, and prominent PayPal P’s.
Yikes. Really lost all its flavor and personality here. I wonder when this trend will turn around.
It’s the end of an era as we say goodbye to @jamesthomson@mastodon.social’s excellent old-school PCalc widget. It’s been a staple in my Today View for six years as the most convenient way to do quick calculations. Let’s pour one out for the little guy who was early in pushing widget boundaries.
🆕📝 Crashing Clockwise #571: ‘I Am My Own Robot’
iPhone camera capturing methods, new Apple products purchases, robotic smart speaker appeal, a hypothetical third new iPhone button, our favorite kind of transportation, and task management.
Some mind-blowing stuff this week.
It’s finally time…
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It’s not hard to imagine how Visual Intelligence could help you out on a device that sees everything you see. Take the idea of learning more about a restaurant, like Apple showed for Visual Intelligence on an iPhone: instead of fishing your phone out of your pocket to look up information about a new spot, with glasses, you could just look at the restaurant, ask a question, and have the glasses tell you more.
My Meta Ray-Bans do this but I never use it. Maybe if the info was actionable (add to a reminder?), that’d change.
A heartfelt congratulations to Jason Snell (and Dan Moren) at Six Colors for a decade of top-notch independent writing:
What I’m saying is, my last ten years in this business have been entirely happy. I didn’t need to take time away to go from purely miserable to happy. That iPhone 6 review, which was originally just a way to keep myself connected to the one work thing I actually liked, transformed into the whole thing. […]
I’m happy to be here. And happy you’re reading this. Thank you for the last ten years. Here’s to thousands of new posts and links and podcast episodes to come.
After last week’s keynote, the usual unimpressed reactions followed. John Gruber outlines why by comparing the Jobs and Cook eras:
Jobs was driven to improve the way computers work. Cook is driven to improve the way humans live.
The delight is still there, but there’s less amazement. It’s by design. They’re not trying but failing to reach the heights of the Jobs era’s ecstatic design novelty, because those peaks had accompanying valleys. Apple today is aiming for, and achieving, utterly consistent excellence. Quirkiness no longer fits.
Cook has patience where Jobs would grow restless.
Hey @HemisphericViews, we’re seeing some Wollongong love from @mkbhd@threads.net in his new AirPods video! 👀
This sounds promising! 😃
But the AirPods 4 with ANC are far and away Apple’s most compelling take on this open design yet. The noise cancellation isn’t on par with more expensive in-ear alternatives, but it’s easily good enough to ensure you can enjoy your music at a normal volume no matter where you might be. You can tell a difference when the ANC is working, which I can’t say of other open earbuds that have advertised noise cancellation. That, combined with the wireless charging, is the biggest reason I’d steer most people toward the more expensive model.
I’ve not written my Crashing Clockwise or 7 Things posts yet for this week, but I’m on the couch and not particularly motivated…so it’s going to have to wait at least one more day. Sorry if you’re waiting on them…
I haven’t seen anyone mention this, but it looks like folks like the guys on @connected@relayfm.social got their wish and 18.0 will ship with the old Siri orb UI while the glowy perimeter UI will wait for 18.1 and Apple Intelligence. Per MKBHD’s hands-on video at the event.
🎵 Hey this music thing is pretty great. Here are four singles I enjoyed tonight:
“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart (Dombresky Remix)” by Taylor Swift & Dombresky
“First Heartbreak” by Lauv
“Cleats” by FINNEAS
“Dancing In The Flames” by The Weeknd
Thank you @amerpie and @ericmwalk for your generous donations to my St. Jude campaign! 🥰🙏🎗️ I just figured out how to download the incentive reports, so Eric I’ll start working on your shortcut, and Lou, for sure you can bank it for whenever you have a need. You guys rock!
It wouldn’t be another week in Apple without some kind of EU-related action, would it? Apparently not.
“Apple told to pay Ireland €13bn in tax by EU”
That’s a lot of scratch, but as Dan noted, the money is already in escrow, leading me to wonder “Where is this ‘Escrow’? How securely is it guarded? How quickly can I assemble a team of elite misfits to infiltrate ‘Escrow’? Do I have to go to the airport to convert euros to dollars? Where do you do that now?” etc.
— John Moltz, Six Colors
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For maybe the first time ever, iPhone order day was totally chill. I put together the pre-preorder last night, woke up as normal for work this morning, realized at 8:08am that pre-orders had started, opened the Apple Store app on my phone (no wait), and like three clicks later I was done. No drama.
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It occurred to me watching today’s presentation that this is the first year where the iPhone’s Pro models feel like they were actually made for professionals. The “extras” Allison is referring to used to be the marquee features of the newest lineup — the Dynamic Island, the Action button, etc — but are now seriously professional features. The latest additions and the reasoning behind their inclusion all felt completely alien to me.
I felt this too. I’m glad for others to use them, but many “Pro” features are likely lost on me.
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This feature opens up a few creative possibilities, but the most obvious use case is the ability to create simple jump cuts within the same video, eliminating the need to edit the cuts together in post. By pausing a video and changing the framing, you’re performing the edit during the shoot instead of in post. This could significantly speed up turnaround time for rough videos shot using iOS 18’s default Camera app.
Ooh, nice!
🆕📝 First Thoughts on ‘It’s Glowtime’
I'll probably watch it again to see what I missed, but here's my first impression. TL;DR: It was a fun Apple Event with thinner, lighter, better gadgets. Nothing "blowaway" — except perhaps some sweet health features — but pretty good iterations overall.
Hold up, gotta go pre-order some AirPods. I’m so intrigued by their no-ear-tips-but-still-noise-cancelation magic. 🎧
‘It’s Glowtime’ Event Day! The command center is ready and I’ll be reacting live in this thread. You can also refresh this page to follow along! 🧵
I can’t wait to see more photos of the new “The Observatory” at Apple Park from folks there today. Their architecture is so beautiful and timeless. Hoping we’ll get some analysis from @michaelsteeber@mastodon.social too! I like that we see the campus grow every few years. (Via MacStories)
New friends, new climbs, and mega fun at the Rumney Craggin’ Classic this weekend, put on by the @americanalpine! 📷
🔗 How to Get Lots of Internet Points // Lou Plummer // louplummer.lol
My technique for getting Internet points through blogging is to try my best to be interesting and prolific. I want to meet real people and have real conversations. I like it when I write something that is measurably popular because it increases the chances of those things happening. I also take pride in writing what I hope are helpful technical articles with the hope of helping someone find a useful tool or technique that makes their work easier.
I saw two different rainbows on my drive home today! (Three if you count the double rainbow) 🌈 📷
