Numeric Citizen Blog

Developers targeting Apple platforms, particularly the Mac, are expressing frustration over TestFlight approvals that take over a week. They attribute the delays to Apple being overwhelmed by the influx of vibe-coded app submissions. Is this explanation accurate?

Micro.blog News:

Added new “OPML Sync…” button on Account for Inkwell users. This lets you set an external OPML file (for example from FeedLand or another feed platform) that Inkwell will automatically import feeds from.

Oh, cool! I updated my RSS reader to generate such a consumable file, making it the single source of truth.

Steve Jobs Talks iBook, AirPort, and More in Newly Surfaced 1999 Video — MacRumors

The talk outlines Apple’s product strategy at the time, centered on its four-quadrant lineup of consumer and professional desktops and portables. With the iBook, Jobs said the matrix was complete alongside the iMac, Power Mac G3, and PowerBook G3, and noted that several of these products were already on their second or third iterations.

Incremental updates isn’t something new at Apple. Gurman lamenting about recent updates being incremental shouldn’t know better.

I finally put together a video demonstration of my RSS Reader and Bookmark Manager. It’s a much longer video than originally anticipated, that is why it is being posted on my YouTube channel instead of Micro.blog. You’ll get to see both apps in action. I’m rather proud of thse apps, they are now essential for me.

Untitled — Manton Reece

NetNewsWire via AppleScript via MCP… I wonder what the future of scriptability is. We’ve got AppleScript, Shortcuts, App Intents, and MCP. But meanwhile you have agents which are fine just firing up command-line tools.

One day, I would argue that most apps will come with their MCP endpoint.

MacBook Neo review: I wish this had an M1 inside:

The MacBook Neo is a cool little computer that I like, despite the fact that, on paper, it’s a pretty irrational purchase for most people (including myself). When I take a step back from the current hype cycle, I think this product is a tale of two halves: one outstanding, and the other pretty rough.

Here is an honest review of the MacBook Neo, a review that stands out compared to everything I’ve read and heard about it. I’m not sure that I agree with all of it, like the sound quality, but I think it’s important to amplify this type of review.

“We’re the last people in this business who give a shit about making great computers.”:

I think that this newly discovered footage of Steve Jobs congratulating Apple employees at an outdoor all-hands meeting at the Infinite Loop campus following MacWorld New York in 1999 is some of the most important that exists of him.

I just found out about this clip of Steve Jobs, recorded back in 1999. It was a fascinating thing to watch in the context of the just-released MacBook Neo, while this clip covers the iBooks launch era. I think today’s Apple is staying true to the original vision of the iBook.

Started working on my next YouTube video. I consider myself not very good at this. It takes way too much of my time to create a single one, but I sometimes want to share things I otherwise couldn’t in written blog posts. One of the things I should do for each video is write a script. I don’t. I never did. I’m a “go with the flow” type of guy when I record. I don’t feel at ease when reading something in front of the camera (and I don’t have the right desk setup for that).

Many MacBook Neo reviewers are impressed by its ability to open 10 or 15 apps at once without the Neo feeling sluggish. Well, having some basic knowledge of operating system theory would help understand why. Launching 10 apps simultaneously will certainly stress the Neo, but once they are in memory, of course, the Neo isn’t affected; those apps become quite dormant, using very few CPU cycles and less memory (thanks to macOS memory management). Of course, if an app is exporting a video in the background, it could impact the Neo’s overall responsiveness. Big difference.

It’s rather impressive how slowly things are turning for the worse in the Middle East. It won’t end well. And it will last much longer than originally claimed. I hope this will be all the nails required for his coffin.

It seems I cannot finish this bookmark manager as I always find something to tweak, add or improve. I hope to record the video tomorrow! 👨🏻‍💻

An unexpected side-effect of the MacBook Neo release on my purchase plans is that going with an M5-MacBook Air, I would rather select a 13-inch format instead of the 15-inch, saving some money that I would rather put on more RAM, instead (24 GB or even 32 GB instead of 16 GB). I think 13-inch is the perfect size for a travel companion. I get the portability of the Neo but the power of the M5 chip. But, I’m not there yet. Still rather happy with my M2 15-inch MacBook Air.

Mark Gurman (@markgurman@mastodon.social)

Google is ramping up development of a dedicated Gemini AI app for Apple Inc.’s Mac computer lineup, looking to step up competition with OpenAI and Anthropic

Suddenly, building a Mac app is sexy again. Who knew. There is an ad concept, right there, Apple!

Gruber’s reaction to Hacker News Discussion on Shubham Bose’s ‘The 49MB Web Page’:

One of the most controversial opinions I’ve long espoused, and believe today more than ever, is that it was a terrible mistake for web browsers to support JavaScript. Not that they should have picked a different language, but that they supported scripting at all. That decision turned web pages — which were originally intended as documents — into embedded computer programs.

It’s hard to imagine the web without JavaScript, only as a collection of static, linked documents served by essentially passive file servers.

Rant of the day: Why is Microsoft not caring about making the LinkedIn app a better app, a better mobile experience? Aren’t they using designers? UX specialists? Even AI? Aren’t they taking care of their brand and image? I mean, using this app on the iPad is such a displeasure.

If someone from Microsoft and / or LinkedIn responsible for this app: have tried it once for real on the iPad? Are you ok with this? Really? If you aren’t, and obviously cannot do anything about it, why are you still working there?

Rant off.

Finally, I configured my personal iPad Pro with all my office tools. I certainly wish my job would allow me to use a Mac, but no.

The iPad is very good in this scenario with all the M365 apps (bleh). Battery life is 20 times better than my HP laptop, without the always-on noisy fans. I understand this device is way more powerful than the MacBook Neo, much more compact, three times more expensive for an inferior software experience. That is quite a paradox.

Today, I’m going to the administrative head office, a three-hour drive, using the office’s business bus, specially designed for workers on the road (sure, the Corporation wants always-productive employees!).

Life of an IT worker.

One of the best iPhone design, the iPhone 5, is now obsolete for Apple, which means is no longer serviceable. It was one of my favorite design of all the iPhone partly because of the tech context it was living. But iOS 6 on this was pure beauty.

As a side note, it’s funny to see reviews of the MacBook Neo where none of them mention macOS as being part of the machine. What makes a Mac is not only the hardware, but the software. I guess tech pundits had to exclude macOS from the equation. Or is it because the Neo design is so unique, so enchanting that the software story has to be sidelined?

I’m so anxious for Apple to fix macOS.

★ Squashing:

The Alan Dye leaving for Meta thing, that was unexpected, and, to some degree, turbulent. But I have yet to speak to a single person within Apple, nor a single UI designer outside Apple, who thinks it’s anything but good news for Apple that Dye jumped ship for Meta. Not just that Dye is a fraud of a UI designer. Not just that he and his inner circle have vandalized MacOS, the crown jewel of human-computer interaction. Not just that he and his team are given — or have taken — credit for innovative, high-quality work on VisionOS that really belongs to the interaction team Mike Rockwell put together for VisionOS. Not just that Dye left Apple for a rival company, period — something unheard of amongst Apple’s bleed-in-six-colors executive ranks. But that he left for Meta, of all fucking companies? That’s the proof that Dye (and his urban cowboy magazine-designer cohort) never belonged at Apple in the first place.

Ouch.

It’s uncertain whether Apple will keep Liquid Glass unchanged in iOS 27, and it’s premature to conclude. The latest iOS 27 build reportedly doesn’t update Liquid Glass, so no definitive judgment should be made. If iOS 27 is a Snow Leopard release, significant UI changes are unlikely. Gurman should be better than that.

Apple CEO Tim Cook Responds to Retirement Rumors — MacRumors

“I can’t imagine life without Apple.”

But can we imagine Apple without Tim Cook? Probably yes for many.

It’s Your Fault Really:

It fits the broader pattern of what Meta is becoming. AI slop in your feed, fake engagement bots, insecure messaging. The direction of travel is obvious. None of these things are surprises or mistakes. They are deliberate decisions made by a company that has decided the path forward is to extract as much attention and data as possible, and anything that gets in the way of that, including basic privacy protections, gets quietly deprecated because apparently not enough of you were using it.

And Meta is about to deprecate 20% of its workforce because of… too much spending on AI infrastructure that doesn’t move the revenue needle. What a wonderful American corporation.

A few notes about the MacBook Neo:

I’m not thrilled by the lack of backlighting in the keyboard. Maybe it’ll appear in the pricier model in a future iteration. The keys are white/tinted, so maybe the printing is contrasty enough to make the key symbols visible even in poor light. I was willing to put this in the ‘okay’ category, but I can’t help feeling this was an unnecessary corner for Apple to cut.

My wife also has some negative comments about the keyboard. Not only it doesn’t include backlighting, since the keycaps aren’t pure white, the contrast is lower which negatively affect the readability in low light conditions.

Reuters: Meta Is Planning to Wreck the Lives of 20% of Its Staff Because It Is Spending So Much on Data Centres — Pixel Envy

Meta is planning sweeping layoffs that could affect 20% or more of the company, as Meta seeks to offset costly artificial intelligence infrastructure bets and prepare for greater efficiency brought about by AI-assisted workers.

Wow, that’s a lot of people! Is Alan Dye in the bunch? 👀

Just as streaming services helped lower the cost of music, AI is reducing the price of software even more than the subscription model does. The downside is that AI is driving hardware prices up, and it’s uncertain whether we will ever see the return of the always-cheaper hardware trend.

Mark Gurman in No Major Changes to Liquid Glass Expected Across iOS 27 and macOS 27 said:

Apple’s new software design chief, Steve Lemay, was “a driving force” behind Liquid Glass and was “deeply involved in its development.”

I’m not sure we are still so excited for Lemay replacing Alan Dye now. 😳