I like this closing in Victoria Song’s Apple Vision Pro hands-on for The Verge:
"I’d been furrowing my brow, concentrating so hard, I felt the beginnings of a mild headache. That tension dissipated as soon as I took the headset off, but walking back out into Manhattan, I kept replaying the demo over in my head. I know what I just saw. I’m just still trying to see where it fits in the real world."
I remain skeptical that this product should be a priority right now.
https://www.theverge.com/24040075/apple-vision-pro-hands-on-virtual-reality
Created a very simple web page at blogarchive.org, mostly just a couple links to other resources. Later will have a more formal spec. Now it’s at least easier to point people to one place.
Thinking about Iowa results… To the most liberal, progressive folks in the Democratic party: Trump is coming for us. I hear a lot about world events and cultural issues, and not enough about what Biden has done and can still do. Let’s get real. Republicans are not going to stop Trump. It’s on us. 🇺🇸
Supreme Court has denied both appeals in Epic v. Apple. My reading of this: we can now link to payments on the web from within apps. Apple should update dev guidelines which are now (partially) illegal in the United States. A small win.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/16/24039983/supreme-court-epic-apple-antitrust-case-rejected
Mark Gurman on Apple’s EU plans, although it’s not clear whether this is his speculation or actual plans:
"Apple will need to split the profit-generating App Store in two: a version for the EU and a version for everywhere else. Those living in the EU will get to install apps from outside the store, use outside payment processors to pay for services and get better integration between first- and third-party apps and features."
Maybe time to relocate Micro.blog HQ to Europe.
Iowa caucus night! It all feels a bit ridiculous, like a parallel reality… the freezing weather, clunky voting process, and leading candidate arrested and awaiting trial, but I’m glued to the news coverage anyway. 🇺🇸
Finished reading: Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. If I knew this was going to be this good, would’ve started it earlier. Great pacing and length. Glad there’s a sequel not far off. 📚
Micro.blog category improvements https://www.manton.org/2024/01/15/microblog-category-improvements.html
Really enjoyed Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. I had kind of tuned it out when it first popped up on Apple TV… We just watched through the whole first season over the last few days. 📺
Rabbit R1 has now sold out of their first 30k units (Twitter X link. Still questions about their business model, but maybe they’ll make it up on volume. 🤪 I really do think they’re on to something with this. Wish I had pre-ordered one, and still might.
Glad we can count on Apple to feature MLK on their home page today. Sometimes I worry Apple has lost their way and it will just be another big Vision Pro ad, but thankfully no. Great quote they highlighted: “Because of our involvement in humanity, we must be concerned about every human being.”
Starting to worry about this Cowboys game a little. 🏈
The case for .bar https://www.manton.org/2024/01/14/the-case-for.html
Brr, woke up to about 25°, cold walk with the dog. Hope everyone across the country is bundled up and staying warm today. Looks like we’ll get some freezing drizzle but hopefully not much in the way of serious sleet or snow. Still slightly traumatized from the ice storm a couple years ago. ❄️
New video from @numericcitizen all about Micro.blog standalone pages and related tips. Cool!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xetJgYrJ_Uk https://micro.blog/numericcitizen
Rolled out several behind-the-scenes improvements this morning to cross-posting and ActivityPub. This from @news may be helpful:
"Added some new logging to help troubleshoot potential cross-posting issues. Now before cross-posting, Micro.blog logs which external services the post was configured to send to.
Micro.blog News https://news.micro.blog/2024/01/13/added-some-new.html
https://micro.blog/news https://news.micro.blog/2024/01/13/added-some-new.html
Calm before the storm. Slept in a little, catching up on work now before Home Depot and related errands. ❄️
On this week’s Core Int, we talk more about AI devices, comparing the Rabbit R1 and Humane Ai Pin, and speculating about where things go from here.
https://coreint.org/2024/01/episode-582-leaving-things-behind/
I’ve decided to opt-out the Micro.blog apps from the Apple Vision Pro store. My boring CEO take: it’s not something we have time to test and support with a small team. More rant-y take: I don’t believe in the product yet, and worry about us all living in a headset. Touch grass, friends!
Finally figured out why I hadn’t had much luck with edited posts on Micro.blog making their way to Mastodon. Mastodon requires an “updated” date, not just “published”. Fine, but these are the little things that make interoperability in the fediverse essentially trial and error.