Roy Tanck, at the end of 2023, posted a well written plea to switch to Firefox:

if there’s one tech New Year’s resolution I’d encourage you to have, it’s switching to the only remaining ethical web browser, Firefox.

He provides two^[1] very valid reasons: privacy, and to avoid a browser engine monopoly

Privacy

Firefox is the only major browser not built by a company that makes money from advertising and/or selling your personal data. […] .We need to use browsers that are independent, and right now that means Firefox.

Google recently admitted they still track you when browsing on incognito mode, what more is there to say?

Browser engine monopoly

In the early 2000’s, Internet Explorer had a massive 95% market share. This meant that many sites were only developed for use with IE. They’d use experimental features that IE supported, in favor of things from the official HTML standard. This was a very bad situation, which hindered the development of the World Wide Web.

Allowing one company to control what gets implemented and when leads to stagnation. Competition is healthy.

Go give Firefox a chance.

Jason Snell, writing for The Verge:

Twenty years ago, on the Mac’s 20th anniversary, I asked Steve Jobs if the Mac would still be relevant to Apple in the age of the iPod. He scoffed at the prospect of the Mac not being important: “of course” it would be.

Yet, 10 years later, Apple’s revenue was increasingly dominated by the iPhone, and the recent success of the new iPad had provided another banner product for the company. When I interviewed Apple exec Phil Schiller for the Mac’s 30th anniversary, I found myself asking him about the Mac’s relevance, too. He also scoffed: “Our view is, the Mac keeps going forever,” he said.

Seems like Apple continues to like this 40 year old platform.

In 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh, the world’s first truly user friendly computer. … To celebrate this milestone, _mac40th.com_showcases every Macintosh desktop and portable Apple has ever made with hundreds of the photos taken as part of the work creating the coffee table book ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation

I have the second edition of the book, and it is full of beautiful photography of Apple products. It you are a fan of the Macintosh computers go take a look at mac40th.com or get the book for a physical version.

The Uninvited Guest is my way of participating on the Clockwise podcast.

Previous one can be found here.

And here are my answers Clockwise 537: All I Found Were Three Apple TV Remotes

Dan’s question

External Links on the App Store: what do you think?

The way Apple implemented this court mandated system means that nobody will be incentivized by to implement it, specifically small to medium developers. If Apple hadn’t made it so that they still require their tithe then I could see some companies cropping up to provide iOS-payments-as-a-service and take a smaller cut of the transaction.

Consumers will also disincentivized to use this new system, the friction provided by the scaresheet that iOS shows will be enough.

Jeff’s question

Apple Removing the Blood Oxygen Feature: Do You use That Feature or Other Features?

I fall very much on the same answer as Jason, my usage of the Apple Watch is mostly for the fitness features, specifically the heart rate and step tracking.

I believe that it’s probably the same story for most customers and that’s why Apple hasn’t settled the lawsuit.

Jason’s question

Apple Vision Pro: Are You Buying One?

No, it’s not available in Canada. More seriously, it’s too expensive for me at this moment.

I do believe that it’s going to be successful and Apple will eventually release a more accessible version, I may consider one then. I haven’t had a MacBook in years so I’d buy one of those first, probably soon.

Shelly’s Question

Streaming Can’t be Trusted: When was the Last Time You Bought a Physical Media?

I am strongly on the streaming/digital media team. Yes you commonly hear horror stories of things disappearing and being taken away… and yet I don’t care, I really don’t care for hoarding plastic, I’m too lazy to rip it into my NAS, and for games it’s an useless exercise as you still need to get updates from the network so the disc you have is a glorified license key.

Jason’s reason for having HDR content may convince me to do so now that I have a TV that supports it.

Bonus Question

Snow: Yay or Nay?

I live in Canada, if I say nay I’d have to dispose of myself. Give me a Subaru and an open field and it turns into the largest Yay ever!

Mark Gruman’s article about the prospects of app availability in the new Apple Vision Pro:

The success of Apple Inc.'s Vision Pro, like many new technology platforms, will largely depend on support from third-party apps and services. And that’s an area where the device still faces plenty of questions.

Some big name developers thus far aren’t doing much to help the device. Three of the world’s most popular streaming services – Netflix Inc., YouTube and Spotify Technology SA – have already signaled that they won’t be launching visionOS software or enabling their iPad apps to run on the Vision Pro.

He goes on to list 4 possible reason for developers not providing support initially. My nitpick on them is that most of them apply to larger companies developing software, whim they mostly do not apply to indie or smaller developers:

1. Return on the investment Developers are taking a wait-and-see approach to see if the size of the new market is worth it. And the larger the Developer is, the larger the market will need to be do justify the work.
2. Developer discontent The current kerfufle about Apple allowing developers to implement alternative payment methods but still taking a big commission may be keeping some away, but again I believe this only applies to the big companies likes the ones listed above.
3. App incompatibility I think this is the first reason that is more applicable to all developers and not just the big ones. The interaction model for Apple Vision Pro is not multitouch like on iOS and iPadOS, so translating some apps to this new model is not trivial.
4. Poor performance on other app stores The TV, Watch stores have not been as successful as the iOS App Store. That hasn’t stopped Netflix, Spotify, et.al., from providing apps. I think this is the most weak of reasons out of the 4, just a subset of 1’s wait and see approach.

An example,

Netflix deciding to not provide an app at the moment is ceding the mind-share to other streaming services but most Apple Vision Pro buyers are most certainly already Netflix subscribers. As soon as that starts to translate into less engagement from those users on other platforms, or the amount of people watching streaming on Apple Vision Pro is large enough they will react. It wouldn’t surprise me if they already have an application internally ready to go.

Conversely, a smaller developer has a good opportunity to place their application in front of potentially new clients with disposable income.

When clicking a checkbox gets you compatibility it’s a no-brainer it’s terms or ROI for a lot of these developers, specifically if their applications are fairly mature on the previous platforms so the opportunity cost is not as big.

These are also the developers that can be peeved by the Apple tax shenanigan, but would also not implement an alternative payment method even if they have limited capacity and would rather continue improving their apps.

The linchpin for the success of this new device is Apple’s capacity of convincing people that this new spatial computing paradigm is valid and here to stay.

Adding support for their own apps, quickly expanding the countries where the Apple Vision Pro is available on, and launching other models that have more mass appeal (aka. cheaper)

Interesting article by William Gallagher for AppleInsider describing the seemingly unfocused approach to marketing and advertising that Apple is taking for the Apple Vision Pro:

[…] you get best results by either choosing what was called a rifle-shot approach, or a spray-and-pray one. Apple has chosen neither for the Apple Vision Pro.

Apple can’t do spray-and-pray because Apple Vision Pro is so expensive that it’s got a self-limited audience. Before that audience even considers whether there is a value to them in buying the headset, that audience has to be one that can afford $3,499 or more.

But Apple also can’t do rifle shot, or at least not very well, because there is no one defined audience for Apple Vision Pro.

The article continues on to describe the approach that Apple has taken since introducing the device at WWDC 2023 and concludes that this unfocused approach is unusual for a highly effective marketing machine.

My opinion is that Apple doesn’t need to be perfect at this point in time. They know they have an amazing product in their hands, opinion that has been mirrored by many different third parties, some of which while being less enthusiastic are still very positive on it.

I don’t doubt that Apple could make a more focused argument of what the killer app is for the Apple Vision Pro. But they don’t seem to need to, as they sold out of approximately 180k units very quickly.

And I’d go even further and say that it’s all planned. The article reminds us of when Apple launched the Apple Watch they tried to aim it as a luxury fashion statement and that approach flopped terribly until they found their groove as a fitness device.

This is Apple learning from that mistake, let the early adopters help them figure out where the biggest strengths are, and launch a more focused campaign when they have a more accessible second generation Apple Vision device.

Found via this thread. This person calls it “deeply troubling” but is getting a lot of pushback in the replies, deservedly.

Nightshade is a tool that artists can use to avoid their artwork from being used successfully in AI training. From their site:

Since their arrival, generative AI models and their trainers have demonstrated their ability to download any online content for model training. For content owners and creators, few tools can prevent their content from being fed into a generative AI model against their will. Opt-out lists have been disregarded by model trainers in the past, and can be easily ignored with zero consequences. They are unverifiable and unenforceable, and those who violate opt-out lists and do-not-scrape directives can not be identified with high confidence.

In an effort to address this power asymmetry, we have designed and implemented Nightshade, a tool that turns any image into a data sample that is unsuitable for model training. More precisely, Nightshade transforms images into “poison” samples, so that models training on them without consent will see their models learn unpredictable behaviors that deviate from expected norms, e.g. a prompt that asks for an image of a cow flying in space might instead get an image of a handbag floating in space.

Training LLM models on art without permission is highly unethical and it won’t stop unfortunately so whatever way people can fight back is welcome.

Artists already have a hard time making a living, taking advantage of them in this way is heinous.

I liked Jared Petty’s take

AI as an industry is an irresponsible race to profit, a rush into dangerous and damaging waters with no ethical consideration outside of wealth. It represents the worst of us.

This hit my nostalgia funny bone:

The line work is a big departure from the original, pretty amazing job nonetheless.

Beautiful words to come back to when we feel discouraged by the grim state of things.

It’s a bit trite, but we try and try again never losing hope.

Dear Mr. Nadeau:

As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society – things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

Sincerely,

E. B. White