On the latest Core Intuition, Daniel and I talk about Apple’s new external linking rules and their attempt to audit developers for 27% of revenue. From the show notes:
"They talk about what Apple’s balance of priorities with money-making vs. world-changing should be, and whether they are on the right track. Finally, they ask whether Apple is destined to gradually lose its soul over time…"
Micro.blog has always stubbornly stuck to static-site generation (first Jekyll, then Hugo) and probably always will, even as there is a lot more complexity layered on top. There’s just something future-proof about having a folder of HTML files. We need to better expose this foundation, not hide it.
While troubleshooting today, I took a minute to notice how many posts are on my blog. About 6400, of which 4700 are short microblog posts, 1700 long-form posts. But the surprise was over 12,000 replies, which I don’t really think about. All of this needs to funnel through Micro.blog and Hugo.
Life is short, make the most of it. This is on the old El Milagro building. Shame about the misspelling.
Good post by Paul Frazee on why Bluesky uses rich-text facets. I’m not quite convinced — I think a subset of HTML is a more universal solution that scales from microblogging to feeds to the full web — but lots of respect for the thought Bluesky has put into this. Can’t wait to do more with AT Proto.
I’m not ordering a Vision Pro, but I went through the buying process out of curiosity. Apple put a lot of work into this. The integration with the face scanning and web checkout is very nicely done.
I said I’d stop writing about Apple for a minute, but this is a really good post over at Daring Fireball:
"Essential to the Mac’s continuing relevance is that it is continuously evolving. Much has changed since 2010, and much will surely change between now and the Mac’s 50th anniversary in 2034. But one thing that can’t change without destroying it is its openness to software outside Apple’s control."
I agree that Apple isn’t likely to force a 27% fee on all purchases from Mac apps outside the store. Just the idea that they could — with the same legal justification as iOS — is concerning.
Recorded a new @coreint that’ll be published in a day or two. I think I got all my “App Store 27% tax” gripes out on the show, so now I can resume non-Apple microblogging. 🙂
Fantastic blog post from Andy Baio about the fall of Ello. I would poke in on it every once in a while but didn’t realize it was completely offline now. Andy writes:
"I was worried that, by taking outside funding, Ello’s values were no longer fully-aligned with the community: they were aligned with their investors. In time, given more money and more pressure, they would be inclined to do something the community, or even the original founders, didn’t want to do."
There are rarely any shortcuts. Steady growth and proven business models are the best path to sustainability.
https://waxy.org/2024/01/the-quiet-death-of-ellos-big-dreams/
Iowa sues TikTok over the app’s 12+ age rating. From attorney general Brenna Bird:
"It’s time we shine a light on TikTok for exposing young children to graphic materials such as sexual content, self-harm, illegal drug use, and worse. TikTok has sneaked past parental blocks by misrepresenting the severity of its content."
This sounds like a legitimate complaint. Does TikTok even have a special algorithm or curation rules for kids?
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/18/24042756/iowa-tiktok-lawsuit-app-store-rating
Apple can be frustrating with the App Store because they will have policies that are plainly wrong, morally if not legally, and still try to convince you that you’re the crazy one. Increasingly this is what I hear from Apple: “I’ll only be a dictator on day one.” Hubris + total control is dangerous.
Read And Find Out shirt from Dragonsteel. Brandon Sanderson picked up this phrase from Robert Jordan, answering reader questions that might be covered in future books. 📚
Not sure if anyone noticed but there was a bit of a rollercoaster going on behind the scenes with Micro.blog’s queueing and ActivityPub the last couple of days. Lots of little tweaks later, much happier with everything. Faster and more reliable.
Brent Simmons blogging after the new Apple linking policy:
"But I need to remember, now and again, that Apple is a corporation, and corporations aren’t people, and they can’t love you back. You wouldn’t love GE or Exxon or Comcast — and you shouldn’t love Apple. It’s not an exception to the rule: there are no exceptions."
https://inessential.com/2024/01/17/corporations_are_not_to_be_loved
I like Tim Cook, but there are moral issues he seems completely blind to, like this 27% tax nonsense. Forget iOS. By Apple’s logic, they could also charge 27% (or anything!) for any business that has a Mac app and links to their web site. Never in computing have we seen a company so overreach.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/16/24040881/apple-outside-payments-app-store-policies-iphone-ipad
There’s some interesting stuff in Bluesky’s moderation report. Kudos to them for being as transparent as possible. The screenshot of the backend is fascinating too… It’s often hard to prioritize tools that no one else sees.
Tim Sweeney reacts to Apple’s new linking rules (Twitter X):
"Epic will contest Apple’s bad-faith compliance plan in District Court."
I’ve said before that for devs who want to see the App Store’s payment rules change, Epic was an imperfect champion, but they’re who we’ve got. Glad to see Tim keep pressing this.
https://x.com/timsweeneyepic/status/1747408148799881390?s=46&t=cl_WkmfPEHW2qzMniHoGLw
Apple’s new rules for linking out of an app are totally unacceptable. The whole point of the court ruling is that we shouldn’t have to play these games. I’m not going to opt-in to Apple’s terms and probably no developers will.
https://developer.apple.com/support/storekit-external-entitlement-us/
My track record of blog posts that go a little against the grain (but which are later proven right) is pretty good. Early essays about Twitter and the App Store. But I’m wrong sometimes! I was wrong about AI. Ignored it for months, thinking it was a distraction. Maybe I’ll be wrong about Vision Pro.
I have a knee-jerk reaction to products that only the well-off can afford. See also: Apple Watch Edition. All product design is a trade-off on limited time and the constraints of technology. The first iPod was $399 but a few years later it was affordable and everywhere. Apple Vision Pro is not that.