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{ "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1", "user_comment": "This feed allows you to read the posts from this site in any feed reader that supports the JSON Feed format. To add this feed to your reader, copy the following URL -- https://pxlnv.com/feed/json/ -- and add it your reader.", "home_page_url": "https://pxlnv.com", "feed_url": "https://pxlnv.com/feed/json/", "title": "Pixel Envy", "description": "Pixel Envy is a sassy weblog written by Nick Heer about topics concerning technology and policy, Apple, Silicon Valley, and privacy.", "items": [ { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/eu-app-tracking-transparency-changes/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/eu-app-tracking-transparency-changes/", "external_url": "https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=idsft9ai", "title": "App Tracking Transparency Changes Coming to the European Union", "content_html": "<p>After <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/app-tracking-transparency-germany-agreement/\">agreeing in August</a> with Germany’s competition authority to make changes to the App Tracking Transparency prompt, Apple has now announced the options available to developers. Unfortunately, the <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=idsft9ai\">post on its Developer News page</a> is terribly brief; here it is in its entirety:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>As part of agreements with select European competition authorities, Apple is introducing changes to its App Tracking Transparency framework in the European Union. Beginning with iOS 27.2 and iPadOS 27.2, developers will have the option to use an alternative version of the App Tracking Transparency system prompt in the EU. The requirements for when you must seek permission to track users will remain the same. Due to legal requirements, only the alternative version of the system prompt is available for apps distributed in Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and Romania.</p>\n \n <p><a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/\">Learn more</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Apple did not even bother to link to the <a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/app-store/user-privacy-and-data-use/#app-tracking-transparency-in-the-european-union\">specific section</a> in its documentation. It is a shame because these changes are, for the most part, very good. There is a new prompt screen that <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/blog/engineering-consent/\">addresses a complaint I have</a> with App Tracking Transparency. Instead of being a small dialog box with almost no information, it is now a whole-screen sheet that describes the mechanism of tracking, and permits developers an option to link out to a page with a developer-provided explanation.</p>\n\n<p>Developers are also now allowed to ask again for permission on an annual basis. Apple says this is “regardless of whether that choice was to accept or reject”, but I doubt many developers who got a green light the first time will ask again. This could be irritating, but Apple itself provides precedent for reminding users of their privacy preferences: iOS occasionally — perhaps every few months — reminds me that an app has access to my location or my photo library and asks me to confirm my choice.</p>\n\n<p>If you are in the E.U. and you think reconfirming your tracking preferences annually will be annoying, you should turn off the system-wide setting to “Allow Apps to Request to Link Your Activity Across Companies”, which is currently called “Allow Apps to Request to Track”.</p>\n\n<p>Overall, I think these changes are a moderate win for E.U. users. The new permission screen is both clearer and more informative. As Apple says in the post quoted above, this sheet is available to developers as an option throughout the E.U., and is the only version permitted in a handful of countries. I think Apple <a href=\"https://www.manton.org/2026/09/17/this-apple-developer-page-has.html\">should roll this out worldwide</a>.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/eu-app-tracking-transparency-changes/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'App Tracking Transparency Changes Coming to the European Union'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-17T12:51:28-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-17T12:51:28-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/apple-os-27/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/apple-os-27/", "external_url": "https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/09/macos-27-golden-gate-review-bridging-the-tahoe-gap/", "title": "Apple Releases Its OS 27 Updates", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2026/09/major-updates-for-apples-software-platforms-are-now-available/\">Apple</a> is very excited about all its software updates, naturally, but I am particularly appreciative of MacOS 27. While it does not hit the thoughtful design highs of the pre-Yosemite era, Apple has corrected a bunch of problems it introduced in last year’s Tahoe release and, as a matter of fact, from the past decade of releases.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/09/macos-27-golden-gate-review-bridging-the-tahoe-gap/\">Jason Snell</a>, <em>Six Colors</em>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The fact that there are more design changes in macOS than any of Apple’s other 27 updates speaks volumes about how broken many of the Tahoe design decisions were. Apple describes the design as “even more refined,” because in Apple marketing-speak, broken features are never remedied or fixed—past features are just <em>improved</em>. The truth is, Apple has rolled back numerous missteps and made changes to others to mitigate the issues they caused.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I will go further: if you crank up the opacity of Liquid Glass under System Settings, Appearance, it is a downright promising visual interface language. Yes, I still have criticisms — of course I do — but these changes have made me feel excited for MacOS from a design perspective in a way I have not for years. Or maybe this is just such a relief from Tahoe that I am deluding myself. Either way, thumbs up.</p>\n\n<p>Snell:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The Shortcuts app, the cornerstone of Apple’s cross-platform automation technologies, gets a notable upgrade during this cycle. Most of it is probably due to the needs of Describe a Shortcut, a <a href=\"https://sixcolors.com/post/2026/06/realizing-the-user-automation-dream/\">remarkable new feature</a> that lets you input some text and then watch as your device converts it into a Shortcut.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There is a similar function for making Safari Extensions, which I have not yet tried. I have tried the Shortcuts implementation a few times, though, and I love it because I am awful at making Shortcuts the old-fashioned way. This new version is so much less intimidating as a starting point.</p>\n\n<p>I have to say, though, I was a little bit annoyed when I asked for a shortcut that validated my Markdown reference links. I now have one that works way better than the one I used to use, but instead of being an AppleScript or a shell script, it basically offloads the instructions I typed to a cloud A.I. model after adding a text input action. So, less intimidating, but it is now sometimes the case that a Shortcut is impenetrable magic on the business end. It would be better if it prioritized building local scripts because then, at least, I could learn something.</p>\n\n<p>iOS 27 is pretty good, too. I feel a little bad every time I give Apple’s software quality two points out of a possible five in the annual <em>Six Colors</em> report card. It is only because I know Apple ought to be doing better. My experience with these releases has been far from perfect and there are still longstanding and embarrassing bugs I run into daily. But they seem more reliable and dependable than Apple’s operating systems have felt for years, though all I really know are MacOS and iOS.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/apple-os-27/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Apple Releases Its OS 27 Updates'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-16T22:25:24-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-16T22:29:24-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/bode-ai-doomsday-panic/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/bode-ai-doomsday-panic/", "external_url": "https://karlbode.com/ai-doomsday-panic-is-completely-out-of-control/", "title": "A.I. Doomsday Panic Is Completely Out of Control", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://karlbode.com/ai-doomsday-panic-is-completely-out-of-control/\">Karl Bode</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Earlier this month a 27-year-old who had been employed at Anthropic for all of four months declared he was quitting the software company because he believed that software automation poses <a href=\"https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropic-researcher-quits-over-out-of-control-ai-fears-707b7628\">an existential risk</a> to humankind.</p>\n \n <p>[…]</p>\n \n <p>The problem is – and shockingly the ad-based clickbait press didn’t do a very good job explaining this to anyone – there is no actual evidence that software automation is on the cusp of gaining full human awareness and <a href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/\">soylent greening</a> the entire eastern seaboard.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Oh, how I love a righteous rant.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/bode-ai-doomsday-panic/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'A.I. Doomsday Panic Is Completely Out of Control'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-16T21:53:52-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-16T21:53:52-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/canadian-politicians-data-centres/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/canadian-politicians-data-centres/", "external_url": "https://breachmedia.ca/as-public-backlash-grows-against-ai-politicians-have-launched-a-new-pr-push/", "title": "Canadian Politicians Have Launched a New Push for Data Centres", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://breachmedia.ca/as-public-backlash-grows-against-ai-politicians-have-launched-a-new-pr-push/\">Marcus Werner</a>, of the <em>Breach</em>, put together a video illustrating the persuasion tactics Canadian politicians are using as they argue for greater A.I. data centre development.</p>\n\n<p>It is what referred me to the <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/blog/is-data-centre-criticism-sustainable/#:~:text=asset%20manager%20Dan%20Clifton%20argues\">fracking discussion I referenced</a> in the article I published last night, so I wanted to shout it out for that reason. But I could not find a good way to insert this video, and I thought it was worthy of its own link anyway.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/canadian-politicians-data-centres/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Canadian Politicians Have Launched a New Push for Data Centres'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-16T07:29:03-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-16T07:29:03-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/blog/is-data-centre-criticism-sustainable/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/blog/is-data-centre-criticism-sustainable/", "title": "Is Data Centre Criticism Sustainable?", "content_html": "<p>Last month, within a day of each other, two writers published contrasting takes regarding the backlash to artificial intelligence and its infrastructure. I do not think they were knowingly writing in opposition to each other — the second does not reference the first — but they set up the titular question I find intriguing: will the public backlash toward data centres be sustained?</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/with-the-backlash-to-data-centers\">Brian Merchant</a>, on August 27:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It’s almost funny to think back to the mild wave of public consternation and Congressional wrist-slapping that pundits termed “<a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/28/tech-industry-year-in-review-facebook-google-amazon\">the techlash</a>” in the heady days of the first Trump administration, over concerns of disinformation on Facebook and social media, compared to what we’re seeing now. That is, a genuine, sustained demonstration of rage at some of the modern tech industry’s key aims.</p>\n \n <p>And all of this has become so clear, so palpable, and so widespread that it’s apparently causing tech industry leadership and pro-AI policy wonks to enter either a state of denial or something more akin to fevered delusion.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Merchant lists a few things opposed by people in the U.S. in a broad and non-partisan way. One of them is data centres — particularly the massive ones powering today’s generative A.I. services.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://sharptext.net/2026/halt-and-catch-ire/\">Andrew Sharp</a>, who is part of the <em>Stratechery</em> extended universe, the following day expressed doubts about not only the longevity of that opposition, but also its sincerity:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>But I wouldn’t over-read this moment, either. This comes back to my lack of alarm about the long run implications. While it’s certainly true that a nihilistic sort of populism is on the rise in both parties and de-growth impulses are especially common on the left—two trends that aren’t going away—it’s worth keeping in mind that policy movements that draw their momentum from stuff people are saying on social media often lose steam just as quickly as they seemed to accelerate to the forefront of every political conversation in the country. Or to put it differently: of all the things that have taken their turn as <a href=\"https://stratechery.com/2022/the-current-thing/\">The Current Thing</a>, the track record for sustained outrage or support is not great. No one talks about de-funding the police anymore, Donald Trump is not building the wall, no one is flying Ukrainian flags today (well, except my parents), the MeToo movement is now seen as excessive in a variety of ways, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who today sponsors a bill to impose a federal moratorium on data center buildouts, recently made news for blithely admitting, “Woke 1 was crazy.”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I guess I should first address the incidents of activism that have apparently fizzled out. Fewer people may be talking about “de-funding the police”, but a <a href=\"https://news.gallup.com/poll/712436/confidence-institutions-remains-near-time-low.aspx\">U.S. Gallup poll published in July</a> found confidence in police is lower now than it was in June 2020. Meanwhile, the Trump border wall was not a “movement [driven by] stuff people are saying on social media”, but instead a <a href=\"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/30/2017-02095/border-security-and-immigration-enforcement-improvements\">policy</a> that has been <a href=\"https://www.cbp.gov/border-security/along-us-borders/smart-wall-map\">revitalized</a> under his second administration — one that has been augmented by a <a href=\"https://projects.propublica.org/trump-ice-smashed-windows-deportation-arrests/\">violent</a> and <a href=\"https://abcnews.com/US/federal-judge-strong-suspicion-2-year-us-citizen/story?id=121182070\">illegal</a> deportation policy that has resulted in <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportations_of_U.S._citizens_in_the_second_Trump_administration#Deaths\">several murders</a>. This has resulted in net public favourability of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another form of “police”, falling below that of any agency except the Internal Revenue Service, <a href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2025/08/27/republicans-views-of-justice-department-fbi-rebound-as-democrats-views-shift-more-negative/\">according to Gallup</a>. Meanwhile, I am curious who, exactly, thinks the “MeToo movement is now seen as excessive in a variety of ways”.</p>\n\n<p>Alas, it is conceivable that loud public fury over data centres will become quieter and less urgent, though not necessarily because people will grow to like or even accept this infrastructure. <a href=\"http://economist.com/business/2026/08/19/the-war-on-data-centres-is-a-bit-fake\">Construction could proceed</a> on large-scale projects regardless of public reception. In Louisiana, for example, not only is Meta’s massive data centre project moving along, “state utility regulators overturned a judge’s order to make [calculations about] job projections and electricity needs” public, according to the <a href=\"https://lailluminator.com/2026/08/13/meta-data-center-private/\"><em>Louisiana Illuminator</em></a>. That certainly is one way to blunt criticism of a project. On that, there is ample precedent; Sharp:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In lieu of offering obvious advice, I’m more interested in cultural observation. Many have cited the 5G panic as a parallel for the kind of mass delusion around data center harms that has taken root this year, but personally, I think back to the conversations we used to have about fracking for oil and natural gas. That, too, was once branded as a uniquely harmful practice that imperiled our water supply, and while there were isolated incidents in which <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/us/04natgas.html\">that was true</a>, Obama’s EPA found that as a general matter <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/us/epa-hydraulic-fracking-water-supply-contamination.html\">those fears were overblown</a> (although the agency later <a href=\"https://www.apmreports.org/story/2016/12/13/epa-fracking-contamination-drinking-water\">softened its exculpatory language</a> after receiving criticism from activists and scientists).</p>\n \n <p>[…] most importantly, Americans who once opposed fracking don’t care or even notice. There was never any grand public debate where one side won and the other lost; the work got done in spite of vocal critics, and then the critics mostly forgot about it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>For completeness, the “exculpatory language”, as Sharp puts it, in the fracking report was <a href=\"https://www.apmreports.org/story/2016/11/30/epa-changes-fracking-study\">inserted late in the draft stage</a>, and was objected to by the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. Sharp may cast aside such concerns as the mere opinions of “activists and scientists”, but the outcome touted by the petroleum industry from this EPA report was <a href=\"https://www.ehn.org/halliburton-loophole\">undercut several years later</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Whether Sharp realizes it or not, the fracking public relations playbook is exactly what people like <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV76MRQndTg&t=18m42s\">asset manager Dan Clifton</a> argues data centre developers and A.I. companies ought to be pulling from. Josh Brown, the host and another finance guy, says this was a relatively easy argument for the fracking industry to make because “the answer is obvious: two-dollar natural gas”. Clifton responds by admitting that “one of the problems [with data centres] is they don’t create a lot of jobs. There’s not a lot of construction jobs, and there’s definitely not jobs inside the data centre itself. So you’ve got to make it about property taxes”. Even these boosters recognize the favourable arguments are pretty limited. “You know what would be a good argument?”, Brown asks, “hey, it’s this or a nuclear power plant”.</p>\n\n<p>Clifton’s framing — and Sharp’s, for that matter — kind of rests on people in the U.S. viewing fracking favourably. <a href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/SR_25.10.16_nuclear_topline.pdf\">According to Pew</a> (PDF), however, just 45% of Americans supported more fracking when polled in spring 2025, while 51% were opposed. Nuclear power was considerably more popular, with 59% saying they wanted more of it in the U.S., though nothing came close to solar at 77%. Notably, support for fracking has grown only a little from a low of 37% in spring 2020; solar, meanwhile, has declined from near-universal favourability at 92% in 2019, for seemingly no reason other than political waves. The Pew survey is not an outlier, either: a <a href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378025000512#s0035\">2025 meta analysis</a> found fracking, here treated as a category of natural gas production, was perceived negatively overall and in a number of specific categories. So, contrary to Sharp’s insistence that “Americans who once opposed fracking don’t care or even notice”, this Pew survey actually shows how public aversion has lingered despite easy financial arguments and a growing <a href=\"https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/07/11/fracking-energy-00992354\">albeit troubled</a> industry.</p>\n\n<p>But while the U.S. public is not convinced about fracking despite its proliferation, there seem to be few high-profile protests. That is true of many things. There is finite energy to throw behind any one thing, and there are so many worthwhile <em>things</em>. Passionate voices are often not well received but any reaction is better than being ignored. And we are in an era of democratically elected governments that seem to be content with paying little attention to the broader public. In fact, this seems to be what Sharp <em>approves</em> of:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>So midterms will come and go. Opportunistic states like Texas will find a way to return to building. As entertaining or distressing as the current panic has been, the future of American AI infrastructure will not in fact be relocated to the UAE or outer space. Some of this controversy will probably be revived for a presidential election in 2028, but I expect the incentives for both companies building data centers and local governments attracting them will stubbornly prevail. And over time, voters won’t care.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The question is not whether voters will care. The question is whether policymakers, regulators, and big corporations will listen.</p>\n\n<p>As Merchant wrote:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What’s happening, after all, is pretty simple: Tech companies have encroached into Americans’ personal lives and public spaces, with both development projects and surveillance products, and people find the tradeoffs unacceptable. It’s really not complicated. Data centers, Flock cams, and AI glasses have been thrust into the public sphere by tech companies, with little to no preceding democratic input, and they are being rejected with extreme prejudice, because people do not like what these things do or what they represent. There is an additional layer of anger <em>because</em> people feel that they weren’t consulted; these vast infrastructural buildouts and high tech privacy violators pretty clearly tap into a shared sense of resentment and powerlessness.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Protests and demonstrations are supposed to get attention for a cause. In the best case, a movement may become quieter because people with power actually listen to the voices of their constituents. The anti-nuclear movement has resulted in a steady decline of nuclear warheads, which — coincidentally or not — <a href=\"https://thebulletin.org/nuclear-notebook/\">peaked in 1986</a>, the same year as the disaster at Chernobyl. There are fewer public demonstrations against nuclear weapons today, undoubtedly in part because people were so vehemently and loudly opposed forty and fifty years ago.</p>\n\n<p>I am skeptical of the likelihood of sustained public backlash of the type documented by Merchant, however. When media coverage treats it as an old story — see: fracking — enthusiasm toward and awareness of the opposition will wane. But that does not mean the movement will have been unsuccessful.</p>\n\n<p>For years, companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft blanketed the Earth in data centres with little public awareness. These buildings — which now seem small despite their <a href=\"https://www.google.com/maps?ll=45.632511,-121.202267&q=45.632511,-121.202267&hl=en&t=h&z=16\">preposterous scale</a> — have powered websites and apps for decades with barely a ripple, though they share many of the same problems as their contemporary cousins. If the ultimate outcome of activists is that more people understand more about how technology works, that is a degree of success.</p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-15T21:14:45-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-16T07:07:42-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/iphone-17-model-popularity/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/iphone-17-model-popularity/", "external_url": "https://birchtree.me/blog/the-iphone-air-seems-extremely-niche-in-general-but-my-users-love-it/", "title": "iPhone 17 Model Popularity", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@_Davidsmith/117253170115740653\">David Smith</a> on Mastodon:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The eve of iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders seems a good time to look back at the iPhone 17 family’s adoption. Here’s the 17 family data as a percentage of overall usage for Widgetsmith.</p>\n \n <p>Generally they followed the usual adoption pattern, and overall did very well ending at around 20% of total usage.</p>\n \n <p>With the exception of the Air really struggling to find market share. For comparison the 16 Plus ended its first year at around 1.4% (vs the Air’s 0.3%).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://birchtree.me/blog/the-iphone-air-seems-extremely-niche-in-general-but-my-users-love-it/\">Matt Birchler</a> adds:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This works out to about 6% of my iPhone users using the iPhone Air, or about 20x more proportionally than David’s more mainstream app. Honestly, the numbers are pretty striking here, with David showing a pretty even split between the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max, slightly decreasing in that order. Meanwhile, almost half of my users are on the Pro Max, another quarter are on the Pro, and the 17 is neck and neck with the Air. Clearly, my customers lean more enthusiast and are higher end buyers on average.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The apparent unpopularity of the iPhone Air is not what caught my eye. Instead, it is the percentage of iPhone 17e users: 0.5% of Widgetsmith users, and something like 1–2% of the total iPhone 17 generation in Birchler’s. (I am eyeballing the latter.)</p>\n\n<p>Neither the Air nor the “E” phones are popular enough to be on the <a href=\"https://telemetrydeck.com/survey/apple/iPhone/models/\">TelemetryDeck chart</a>. Meanwhile, <a href=\"https://counterpointresearch.com/en/insights/iphone-17-global-best-selling-smartphone-in-q2-2026\">Counterpoint says</a> the 17e is the seventh most popular smartphone in the world. The Air does not make Counterpoint’s top ten; neither do any folding phones. The 17 Pro Max and 17 Pro are, apparently, the second- and third-most popular smartphone models worldwide.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/iphone-17-model-popularity/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'iPhone 17 Model Popularity'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-11T22:38:13-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-11T22:38:13-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/why-is-the-iphone-duo/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/why-is-the-iphone-duo/", "external_url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/technology/personaltech/iphone-duo-foldable-phones.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share", "title": "Why Is the iPhone Duo?", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/technology/personaltech/iphone-duo-foldable-phones.html\">Brian X. Chen</a>, <em>New York Times</em>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>But even though they’ve been around for years, foldable phones aren’t particularly popular. They’re expensive, awkward and not as durable as regular smartphones. So why did Apple build one?</p>\n \n <p>[…]</p>\n \n <p>Foldable phones, which account for less than 2 percent of the handset market, may be the only part of the phone industry that will grow this year. IDC said it expected the chip-shortage-induced price increases to contribute to a 17 percent drop in worldwide smartphone sales this year — the steepest annual decline in history. However, sales of foldable phones could grow 12 percent to 22.9 million because of the iPhone Duo’s arrival, the research firm said.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is worth noting <a href=\"https://counterpointresearch.com/en/insights/Foldable-Smartphone-Market-Set-for-20-percent-Growth-in-2026\">Counterpoint’s stats</a> blend book-style folding phones, like Google’s Pixel Fold and Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra — yes, that is the real name — and regular-sized phones that flip in half. This is kind of important for the conclusion Chen draws, which is that this is a way for Apple to justify charging at least $2,000 USD for a smartphone. But I am curious if the ultra-expensive part of the market has sold as well as less-premium flip phones.</p>\n\n<p>Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra, for example, starts at $1,100 USD, while its Fold8 jumps to a starting price of $1,900 USD. But the Flip8, which is very similar to the S26 Ultra, is just $100 USD more than its non-folding sibling. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the only person I know with a folding phone has one of the flip ones.<sup id=\"fnref:1\"><a href=\"#fn:1\" rel=\"footnote\">1</a></sup> But Google and Samsung do not have the brand cachet of Apple, and a $2,000 iPhone is an incredible status symbol.</p>\n\n<p>The biggest question I have is whether folding phones become a mainstream category. The iPhone X’s thousand-dollar pricetag was a huge amount of money when it was released, but Apple had no trouble selling it and its subsequent thousand-plus-dollar phones. Just as importantly, however, is that it set a new standard that quickly flowed to the company’s less expensive models. Apple has not sold an iPhone with a home button since last year. Is the Duo a similar conceptual leap, or will a book-style folding phone always be a niche?</p>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\">\n<hr />\n<ol>\n\n<li id=\"fn:1\">\n<p>If it were up to me, I wish Apple had introduced a flip phone instead. I do not want to carry an iPad-sized display; I want my iPhone to fit better in my pocket. It would not have been as much of a new or different experience, but I never had cause to so frequently repair the pocket linings of my pants until phones got this big. <a href=\"#fnref:1\" rev=\"footnote\">↥︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n</ol>\n</div>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/why-is-the-iphone-duo/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Why Is the iPhone Duo?'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-11T22:06:43-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-12T07:45:09-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/live-rewind-audio-intelligence/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/live-rewind-audio-intelligence/", "external_url": "https://support.apple.com/en-ca/148354", "title": "Live Rewind Is a Creepy Part of Apple’s Audio Intelligence Suite", "content_html": "<p>Apple held its annual September major product rollout today announcing, among other things, <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2026/09/introducing-apple-watch-series-12-with-the-all-new-health-sensing-system/\">updated Apple Watch models</a> with “Audio Intelligence” features. One of those features is “Live Rewind”:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A double press of the Digital Crown shows the previous 15 seconds of a conversation as a text snippet, so the user can catch something they may have missed or are less familiar with. Users can ask Siri about the content of the text or save it to the Siri app to revisit later.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><s>This feature is also coming to iPhone 16 and newer models.</s> (<em>Sorry, I misread the support document. Just Apple Watch.</em>) Apple <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-ca/148354\">swears up and down</a> it is doing all it can to make this private and secure, and I have no reason to believe otherwise. The audio is apparently not actually saved and is, instead, merely transcribed by a dedicated coprocessor. That text is automatically deleted unless the user takes an action to save it, too.</p>\n\n<p>But good luck explaining that to anyone around you after you read back an exact transcript of what they just said. Apple says they should be sufficiently notified Live Rewind is active because “an audible chime plays from the speaker on your Apple Watch, even if your Apple Watch is on silent or you have headphones connected”, plus the watch plays an animation, but it is not clear to me when this happens. It is <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe2ugye7Ya4&t=560s\">not shown</a> in Apple’s video. The impression I get is that Live Rewind is always running in the background and these notifications are only played after you double-click the Digital Crown to look at the text.</p>\n\n<p>This feels like a glimpse of how Apple will market its inevitable wear-anywhere glasses product. I do not think it does enough to assuage privacy concerns. I think normal people will continue to react negatively when you tell them you have been passively recording them because, outside Silicon Valley, that is considered gross and invasive.</p>\n\n<p><b>Update:</b> In addition to the press release and support page linked above, Apple also published a <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Audio_Intelligence_Privacy_Overview_Sep_2026.pdf\">privacy overview document</a> (PDF) with a little more information about Siri Recaps, another feature of Audio Intelligence. The part about Live Rewind is mostly a rehash of the privacy reassurances elsewhere.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/live-rewind-audio-intelligence/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Live Rewind Is a Creepy Part of Apple’s Audio Intelligence Suite'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-09T17:36:34-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-10T15:07:59-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/lg-display-smart-tv-privacy/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/lg-display-smart-tv-privacy/", "external_url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFVTcM28KA", "title": "LG’s Smart Televisions and Displays Are Rotten", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://www.pcworld.com/article/3198830/microsoft-finally-found-a-windows-ad-it-doesnt-like.html\">Michael Crider</a>, <em>PCWorld</em>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>[…] So somebody at LG decided that, in addition to the basic monitor driver and management app delivered to its users via Windows Update, it would slip in an additional program, “LG Monitor App Installer.” This extra bit of software includes McAfee, or an ad for it — as if there was any difference.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.gadgetreview.com/your-monitor-is-becoming-a-smart-tv-complete-with-ads\">C. da Costa</a>, <em>Gadget Review</em>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This is bigger than one bad app. LG and Samsung smart monitors run the same operating systems as their smart TVs — webOS and Tizen — both already built for automatic content recognition and ad targeting. <a href=\"https://www.acer.com/us-en/privacy\">Acer’s monitor privacy policies</a> permit sharing device data with advertisers. The trajectory mirrors the rise of free-to-play gaming: low barrier to entry, monetization creep once you’re locked in.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>These findings were based on a <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9uefFYe6bM\">Gamers Nexus investigation</a> in July. But it is not an isolated incident.</p>\n\n<p>This week, Gamers Nexus <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IFVTcM28KA\">followed up with another blockbuster</a> showing how LG’s smart televisions find other devices on the same network and, in some cases, record their activity; and, because they can recognize what is being played onscreen, LG tracks everything you watch, too. It is presumptively allowed do this because it presents a bunch of user agreements that anyone can bypass without reading, enables tracking by default, and buries all the opt-out stuff. Oh, and there is more.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/09/lg-tv-shown-capable-of-tracking-user-activity-even-when-offline/\">Scharon Harding</a>, <em>Ars Technica</em>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The video also demonstrated an LG TV’s ability to record sound around it, even when the TV isn’t online.</p>\n \n <p>“We were even able to capture microphone audio while the TV was unplugged from the network. Burke said the audio was reportedly stored locally via plaintext, which could potentially allow the data to be sent to LG [if] the TV connects online again.”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>LG told Harding it is only listening for the wake word, but Gamers Nexus was able to capture audio in a variety of different ways because there are so many microphones and, in many cases, so many vulnerabilities in LG’s software. If I had one criticism, it is that Gamers Nexus connects the voice recording and transcription to LG’s ads service — an apparently real-life version of the <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/ftc-cox-media-group-settlement/\">conspiracy theory</a>. I do not think there is enough evidence to support that, even as speculation.</p>\n\n<p>The transformation of seemingly every major company into, ultimately, vendors for advertising is an outcome basically everyone hates. The televisions tested by Gamers Nexus are thousands of dollars in Canada. That exchange of money used to be where the relationship ended, assuming the product did not need servicing. Now, though, selling ads on the screen itself prints so much money that it is nearly impossible to buy something different. You cannot vote with your wallet when advertisers are paying more.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/lg-display-smart-tv-privacy/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'LG’s Smart Televisions and Displays Are Rotten'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-09T17:16:09-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-09T21:17:31-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/age-gating-history/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/age-gating-history/", "external_url": "https://heatherburns.tech/2026/09/05/the-age-gating-of-history/", "title": "The Age-Gating of History", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://heatherburns.tech/2026/09/05/the-age-gating-of-history/\">Heather Burns</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I cannot tell you how much it disgusts me that so much of the archival footage from September 11 has now been age-gated and restricted as “mature” or “sensitive or adult” content, as in this example from this Reddit film archive.</p>\n \n <p>It’s history. It’s archival footage of history. It’s a thing that happened.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If you were in school in 2001, there were probably televisions playing live news coverage in your classroom or in the hallways. There were in mine.</p>\n\n<p>I am with Burns, and with the greatest of respect — she was there that day. But that particular subreddit is an unfortunate example as, while I do not think it should be age-gated, it should be moderated far better. So many of the users there are not treating it as an archive or a way of learning, but as a puzzle where they can play detective.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/age-gating-history/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'The Age-Gating of History'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-08T22:43:51-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-08T22:43:51-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/indigo-updates/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/indigo-updates/", "external_url": "https://bsky.app/profile/anilineapps.bsky.social/post/3muz6mmijyx2z", "title": "Indigo Keeps Getting Great Feature Updates", "content_html": "<p>Aaron Vegh and Ben Rice McCarthy have been steadily updating Indigo since they launched it in May. In the <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/anilineapps.bsky.social/post/3muz6mmijyx2z\">latest version</a>, you can now swipe between different filtered timelines, the scroll position is synced between devices, and there is a new lower price point if you use it exclusively for a single network.</p>\n\n<p>As for me, the <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/soapbox-indigo/\">one big thing</a> I wanted at launch was the ability to easily switch between multiple accounts, and this was added some time ago. It works exactly as you might expect: you can group sets of your own accounts — my personal Bluesky and personal Mastodon are one set, while my <em>Pixel Envy</em> accounts are in another — and just toggle the two sets.</p>\n\n<p>This is one of my very favourite iOS apps. Just a great piece of software made by some great people.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/indigo-updates/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Indigo Keeps Getting Great Feature Updates'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-08T18:22:38-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-08T18:22:38-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/fbi-idscan-breach/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/fbi-idscan-breach/", "external_url": "https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/09/fbi-probes-service-selling-153m-drivers-licenses/", "title": "FBI Probes Service Selling Tens of Millions of Drivers Licenses", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/09/fbi-probes-service-selling-153m-drivers-licenses/\">Brian Krebs</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A new identity theft service launched on the dark web this week is selling digital scans of more than 153 million drivers licenses from people in the United States and Canada. Based on interviews with individuals whose licenses are available for purchase on this service, it appears to be siphoning images collected by a widely-used identity verification company based in Louisiana. KrebsOnSecurity also has learned that the New Orleans field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) today launched an official inquiry into the source of the images.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.techdirt.com/2026/09/03/hackers-had-a-live-feed-of-every-id-this-verification-company-scanned-for-over-a-year/\">Mike Masnick</a>, of <em>Techdirt</em>, reports the company in question is <a href=\"https://idscan.net\">IDScan</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>You <strong>cannot</strong> do age or identity verification safely. It <strong>always</strong> creates some sort of record and that set of records will <strong>always</strong> become a target. That’s what happened here. And it’s what will happen with any such systems.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/dangillmor.bsky.social/post/3muvctw5dgb2t\">Dan Gillmor</a> on Bluesky:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If you support “age verification” online, you are supporting a system that GUARANTEES privacy meltdowns — endangering all of us — because the giant databases of scanned IDs are perpetually hacked by criminals who sell private data.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I am opposed to identity verification, but this argument is not particularly effective for me because there are incredibly low-risk solutions. In Canada, for example, we have an interbank service called Interac that offers an <a href=\"https://www.interac.ca/en/verification/personal/learn-about-interac-verified/\">identity verification service</a>. I am not naïve, but I would entirely trust this bank-based system to verify me on a regular basis. In fact, I already do — like many Canadians, I use my banking information to log into government websites. Maybe this relatively safe proxy for a centralized identification system is unique to Canada.</p>\n\n<p>I imagine this argument lands fairly well for lots of people elsewhere, however. The rapid introduction of age verification laws has produced a market for these businesses, but handing your identifying information to some random third-party should terrify you, as it is exactly the behaviour any security expert warns against doing. You have no idea who is able to access that scan of your driver’s license or what they can do with it. And, as it turns out, neither do some of these companies, either.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/fbi-idscan-breach/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'FBI Probes Service Selling Tens of Millions of Drivers Licenses'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-07T22:27:20-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-07T22:27:20-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/luu-zitron-predictions/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/luu-zitron-predictions/", "external_url": "https://danluu.com/zitron/", "title": "How Accurate Have Ed Zitron’s Predictions Been?", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://danluu.com/zitron/\">Dan Luu</a>, after finding one wrong prediction after another made by Ed Zitron, comparing him to mediocre futurists, and exploring his writing style:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>That last sentence really sums up Zitron’s position. “There are so many guys to be mad at the moment”. In this talk, he throws in this jab at Andreesen and blames Andreesen for Meta, Google, and Microsoft pursuing growth. In reality, if Marc Andreesen had never existed, Meta, Google, and Microsoft would almost certainly still be trying to grow so we of course cannot actually blame Andreesen for these companies trying to grow. There’s just this thing that he says is bad, and in his usual style, he pulls some person and says they’re the evil villain that’s to blame for this, and then moves on to the next non sequitur.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Instead of more carefully scrutinizing Zitron’s record, <a href=\"https://www.vanityfair.com/story/ed-zitron-ai-skeptic-openai\">outlets like <em>Vanity Fair</em></a> are publishing soft interviews with him where he gets to make predictions like “large language models, when you remove all of the insane financialization, it’s probably a $30 billion-a-year industry”. Oh, sure, they ask a single question about wrong predictions since 2024, but he brushes it off by saying he has learned lots in those two years — Luu documents incorrect predictions all the way up until November 2025, after which “most further predictions that I saw were either non-falsifiable or resolve in the future” — and ends the interview by saying “[w]hat comes after the A.I. bubble is actually a little scarier”. Ominous.</p>\n\n<p>The beauty of Zitron’s voluminous output, for him, is that there is a vast difference between what he actually writes and what people remember. Financial experts and more reputable journalists have raised plenty of concerns about how much money is being spent on developing this infrastructure, and how highly these companies are valued. But the words Zitron writes are far more incendiary and <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/blog/credit-where-credit-is-due/\">conspiratorial</a> than many seem to remember. It is frustrating to see his many media experiences filling the role of the A.I. skeptic when there are far more qualified, sober, and accurate options. We have enough boosters; this is an industry that is <a href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-02/us-strikes-light-touch-ai-regulation-accord-with-g20-members\">co-signed</a> by the world’s most powerful economies. We deserve better A.I. criticism in popular media.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/luu-zitron-predictions/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'How Accurate Have Ed Zitron’s Predictions Been?'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-03T20:47:00-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-03T20:47:00-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/pew-smartphone-usage-2026/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/pew-smartphone-usage-2026/", "external_url": "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/09/01/about-half-of-americans-say-they-spend-too-much-time-on-their-smartphone/", "title": "About Half of U.S. Smartphone Owners Say They Spend Too Much Time Using It", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/09/01/about-half-of-americans-say-they-spend-too-much-time-on-their-smartphone/\">William Bishop</a> of Pew Research:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Between scrolling, notifications, and messages, smartphones can be hard to put down. <strong>Just over half of U.S. adults say they spend too much time on their smartphone,</strong> according to a Pew Research Center survey from May and June 2026. About a third of adults say their smartphone use is about right, while just 3% say they spend too little time using these devices.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Notably, 70% of smartphone owners in the U.S. aged 18–29 say they believe they use it too much. I am skeptical of public polling — maybe we are societally more approving of shaming our own device use — but this also tracks with what I hear casually from friends and family. Anecdotally, many people I know have expressed that they want to be on their phones less often.</p>\n\n<p>But the editors of Andreessen Horowitz’s <em>It’s Time to Build</em> newsletter — hosted on Substack, a platform they are investors in — believe this behaviour actually indicates people are very happy. <a href=\"https://www.a16z.news/p/enshittification-isnt-real\">Ruby Thelot</a>, professor of design and media studies at New York University and “astute tech observer”, says the heavy use of social media platforms, like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram — Andreessen Horowitz invested in both, and Marc Andreessen is on Meta’s board; none of this is disclosed — is simply evidence we love them:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>People en masse are getting on social media, by choice. From 2016 until now, the number of social media users has grown from 2.5B to close to 6B people. Enshittification isn’t real. It’s three TikToks in a trenchcoat, and, maybe, a book deal. It’s good for discourse but does not describe actual reality and user patterns.</p>\n \n <p>Returning to Instagram. The average daily usage showcases an increase in time spent on Instagram every day as well. Users are coming back for more, in a highly competitive attention arena, year after year.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There is a lot of assumption in these two paragraphs, and I think the “close to 6B people” is worth examining to start. Thelot attributes this statistic in the chart above to <a href=\"https://backlinko.com/social-media-users\">Backlinko</a>. It cites no source, but a web search indicates to me this originates with Manochi’s DataReportal, <a href=\"https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2026-mid-year-global-update-report#:~:text=note%20that%20“user%20identities”%20may%20not%20represent%20unique%20human%20individuals.\">which disclaims</a> “‘user identities’ may not represent unique human individuals” because, as the company explains on the <a href=\"https://indd.adobe.com/view/dd89606f-d5c6-4f57-bdca-bf0d4627ee7b?allowFullscreen=true\">sixth slide</a> of its report, it may count multiple social media accounts or business accounts as individual identities. These are not necessarily people, and Manochi says it is improper to compare figures year over year as Thelot does. (And, to be fair, which Manochi also does on slide 321.)</p>\n\n<p>A lack of rigour is not unique to this data point.</p>\n\n<p>Thelot next shows a chart indicating daily Instagram use rose from 25 minutes in 2017 to nearly 34 in 2026. This is, to Thelot, simply evidence that people like using it and want more. But, to return to the Pew poll above, it seems that people do not feel good about spending more time on their smartphones. Though Pew <a href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/SR_26.09.01-phone-screen_questionnaire.pdf\">did not ask</a> (PDF) about social media specifically, roughly half of respondents aged 18–29 said it negatively affects their productivity. And, according to slide 337 of that Manochi report, 30.7–44.0% of people say they use social media to “fill up spare time”, trending higher for younger generations. It is plausible that more younger people are spending increasing amounts of time on social media apps and they do not feel good about it. In other words, the time spent numbers are not a good proxy for enjoyment or value.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.404media.co/a16z-says-you-actually-love-social-media-enshittification-isnt-real/\">Emanuel Maiberg</a>, <em>404 Media</em>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>People need to be on Linkedin to find jobs. Municipalities and news organizations share important updates on social media first. You might be pulled onto Facebook or WhatsApp against your will because your local school or community of parents congregate there. That doesn’t mean they like it. <a href=\"https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/036/647/Screen_Shot_2021-03-01_at_2.28.39_PM.png\">It is possible to hate something with your entire being and still participate in it</a>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Regardless of whether you call it “addiction” or some kind of compulsive behaviour, it is plausible many people dislike their own actions but struggle to change them. It is also possible these products are designed to take advantage of that to extract more time out of each user.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/pew-smartphone-usage-2026/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'About Half of U.S. Smartphone Owners Say They Spend Too Much Time Using It'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-02T15:52:19-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-02T15:52:19-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/ternus-era/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/ternus-era/", "external_url": "https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/technology/apple-tim-cook-john-ternus.html", "title": "Apple’s John Ternus Era Begins", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/technology/apple-tim-cook-john-ternus.html\">Kalley Huang</a>, <em>New York Times</em> (<a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/01/technology/apple-tim-cook-john-ternus.html?unlocked_article_code=1.91A.4rqV.bjKDQKgro_8k&smid=url-share\">gift link</a>)</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/technology/apple-ceo-tim-cook-john-ternus.html\">John Ternus</a> became Apple’s chief executive on Tuesday, succeeding Tim Cook, the company’s leader for the last 15 years. The long-anticipated handoff, <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/technology/iphones-apple-sales.html\">Mr. Cook has said</a>, will be “perfectly smooth.”</p>\n \n <p>[…]</p>\n \n <p>This summer, Apple hired Nate Gatten from American Airlines to lead government affairs, replacing Kate Adams, who will retire this year. Laura Legros, a hardware engineering vice president and deputy of Mr. Ternus’s before retiring from Apple in 2022, has rejoined the company, three people familiar with her hiring said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Ms. Legros, who reports to Mr. Ternus, could act as his adviser and emissary to various parts of the company, the three people said.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/31/phil-schiller-stepping-down-app-store/\">Juli Clover</a>, <em>MacRumors</em>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Apple’s Phil Schiller is no longer going to run the App Store or oversee product events, reports <a href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-31/apple-s-phil-schiller-steps-down-from-running-app-store-and-product-events\"><em>Bloomberg</em></a>. Schiller isn’t leaving Apple, but he is narrowing his responsibilities and working on unspecified projects.</p>\n \n <p>Employees at Apple told <em>Bloomberg</em> that 66-year-old Schiller appears to be taking another step toward retirement.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/31/read-tim-cooks-full-memo-to-apple-employees-on-his-last-day-as-ceo/\">Cook</a> and <a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/09/01/read-new-apple-ceo-john-ternuss-full-memo-to-employees/\">Ternus</a> each sent pretty anodyne company-wide memos about the transition. Cook’s tenure was the longest of any CEO in Apple’s history and he was the one who turned it from a successful company into a global behemoth.</p>\n\n<p>The thing I have liked about Apple — one of the things that made me a longtime customer and someone who writes about the company — is that it has historically been a very simple kind of business: it designs products and sells them to people, mostly. Every one of its peers is a more complicated business. They often balance the needs of massive institutional and government customers, advertisers, or two-sided marketplaces.</p>\n\n<p>That change began in the latter years of Jobs’ tenure and accelerated under Cook. Most software, including operating systems, was accounted for as part of device purchases, and was turned into a software-as-a-service model. Its subscription-based business became a revenue growth centre, which was important for Wall Street because it was a way to turn the company’s successful but inconsistent device sales into predictable money printers. And there are now ads and <a href=\"https://stevestreza.com/2020/02/17/ios-adware/\">upsells</a> throughout the operating systems, which are shown to all users regardless of how much other money they have already given Apple.</p>\n\n<p>Ternus has inherited <em>that</em> Apple. Regardless of how much he gives off the vibe of a cool Californian — <a href=\"https://www.apple.com/ca/leadership/john-ternus/\">by way of Philadelphia</a> — who just cares about the best stuff, he is also selling ad space and making sure more people upgrade to Apple One.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/ternus-era/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Apple’s John Ternus Era Begins'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-09-01T16:34:38-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-01T16:34:38-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/cbc-mcsweeneys/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/cbc-mcsweeneys/", "external_url": "https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-traveled-to-a-diner-in-trump-country-to-write-another-article-on-whether-the-presidents-supporters-still-want-to-quote-smash-my-libtard-face-in", "title": "Travelling With a Separatist Alberta Group That Thinks the CBC Are ‘Federalist Scumbags’ Publishing ‘Drivel’", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-independence-bus-tour-chris-scott-separatism-9.7319671\">Joel Dryden</a>, in a <em>CBC News</em> article with the headline “On the Road With Pro-Independence Albertans, One Small Town at a Time”:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The restaurant owner, who gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, has hit the road this summer to talk independence, travelling with a group of people who also support the idea of Alberta becoming its own nation.</p>\n \n <p>[…]</p>\n \n <p>On the back of the vehicle, a Bible verse printed in script: Jeremiah 29:7 — “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-traveled-to-a-diner-in-trump-country-to-write-another-article-on-whether-the-presidents-supporters-still-want-to-quote-smash-my-libtard-face-in\">Mike Skerrett</a>, in a 2018 <em>McSweeney’s</em> article with the headline “I Traveled to a Diner In Trump Country to Write Another Article On Whether the President’s Supporters Still Want to, Quote, ‘Smash My Libtard Face In'”:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I came to this diner, The No Safe Space Café, to get a taste of the Real America. This America exists outside the liberal echo chambers, somewhere with <em>real</em> diversity of thought: The opinions of straight, white, Christian men.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Chris Scott — the “restaurant owner” driving the separatist campaign bus with Dryden aboard — has previously called the <em>CBC</em> “<a href=\"https://x.com/WScafemirror/status/2010792594121638309\">liars, thieves and Federalist bootlickers</a>” who publish “<a href=\"https://x.com/WScafemirror/status/2030094373116133669\">drivel</a>”. Replace the U.S.-centrism of the <em>McSweeney’s</em> piece with a Canadian vibe, and is it really all that different?</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/cbc-mcsweeneys/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Travelling With a Separatist Alberta Group That Thinks the CBC Are ‘Federalist Scumbags’ Publishing ‘Drivel’'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-08-30T11:36:01-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-30T11:51:42-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/9to5mac-heres-whats-coming/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/9to5mac-heres-whats-coming/", "external_url": "https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/28/apple-will-launch-15-new-products-this-fall-heres-whats-coming/", "title": "‘Here’s What’s Coming’", "content_html": "<p>Here is a list of headlines; perhaps you will spot a theme:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/05/six-apple-products-will-launch-early-this-year-heres-whats-coming/\">Six new Apple products will launch early this year, here’s what’s coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/07/apple-has-five-all-new-products-launching-this-year-heres-whats-coming/\">Apple has five all-new products launching this year, here’s what’s coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/01/23/apple-will-launch-20-new-products-next-year-heres-whats-coming/\">Apple will launch 20+ new products this year, here’s what’s coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/04/apple-has-rare-updates-coming-soon-for-these-three-products/\">Apple has rare updates coming soon for these three products</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/15/apple-launching-5-new-products-over-the-next-several-weeks-per-report/\">Apple launching 5+ new products over the next several weeks</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/16/seven-new-macs-will-launch-this-year-heres-everything-coming/\">Seven new Macs will launch this year, here’s everything coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/07/apple-products-in-the-pipeline-for-2026-after-macbook-neo-launch/\">Apple still has over a dozen products in the pipeline for 2026, here’s what’s coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/03/23/apple-has-six-new-products-that-could-launch-soon-per-rumors/\">Apple has six new products that could launch soon, per rumors</a></p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/21/apple-has-10-new-products-rumored-to-launch-first-with-john-ternus-as-ceo/\">Apple has 10+ new products rumored to launch first with John Ternus as CEO</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/01/heres-everything-apple-has-coming-this-may-and-what-not-to-expect/\">Here’s everything Apple has coming this May, and what not to expect</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20260515230952/https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/15/apple-will-launch-15-new-products-this-fall-heres-whats-coming/\">Apple will launch 15+ new products this fall, here’s what’s coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/05/29/apple-has-five-new-products-coming-that-could-launch-at-wwdc/\">Apple has five new products coming that could launch at WWDC</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/06/18/next-year-to-be-apples-biggest-product-year-ever-heres-whats-coming/\">Next year to be Apple’s ‘biggest product year’ ever, here’s what’s coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/31/apple-has-five-products-launching-this-fall-that-weve-waited-a-long-time-for/\">Apple has five products launching this fall that we’ve waited a long time for</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/03/apple-will-launch-five-new-products-next-month-heres-whats-coming/\">Apple will launch five new products next month, here’s what’s coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/19/apple-will-launch-10-new-products-soon-with-september-event-coming/\">Apple will launch 10+ new products soon, with September event coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/24/apple-is-about-to-launch-five-new-products-that-im-very-excited-for/\">Apple is about to launch five new products that I’m very excited for</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/28/apple-will-launch-15-new-products-this-fall-heres-whats-coming/\">Apple will launch 15+ new products this fall, here’s what’s coming</a>”</p></li>\n<li><p>“<a href=\"https://9to5mac.com/2026/08/27/apple-has-announced-11-new-products-in-2026-so-far-with-more-coming-soon/\">Apple has announced 11 new products in 2026 so far, with more coming soon</a>”</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>All of these since January — and I excluded most rewrites of articles by Mark Gurman, Ming-Chi Kuo, and other well-known Apple rumour writers. Also, my list does not include articles about products rumoured to be announced at specific events. They also have another thing in common: nearly all are by Ryan Christoffel, who seems to have taken up the <em>9to5Mac</em> beat for making listicles of Apple products that could be updated in the future. Cool.</p>\n\n<p>Careful readers might think I listed one of these articles twice — the “15+ new products this fall” one. But this is because Christoffel originally published it in May, and then changed the date on it to August after making a few changes.</p>\n\n<p>I do not know who this is supposed to serve. Maybe this is a play for search engine traffic or A.I. chatbot citations. Maybe it works pretty well, too, and maybe I should be less cynical about these kinds of churned-out listicles in a time when A.I. search features are capturing traffic that used to go to third-party websites. Or maybe this is all just filler when there is nothing newsworthy but you need to publish a dozen or so articles daily.</p>\n\n<p><b>Update:</b> <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/dgriffinjones.bsky.social/post/3mu7t73nktt2b\">D. Griffin Jones</a>, <a href=\"https://www.dgriffinjones.com/extraordinary/independence-day-derogatory.html\">formerly</a> at <em>Cult of Mac</em>, says on Bluesky:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It’s a secret third thing: Google Discover, Google News, Flipboard, Apple News, and other algorithmic aggregators. Articles like that tend to reach a much broader audience.</p>\n \n <p>“One listicle a day” was our goal at Cult of Mac before I was laid off. It’s a tough time out there for independent blogs. The Google AI overview is devastating.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I obviously have no authority to give business advice. I would only point out that it is disappointing to hear about chasing referral strategies. One would think the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pivot_to_video\">pivot to video</a> era would be treated as a cautionary tale and not something to repeat — if one, I suppose, is not responsible for staff and paycheques.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/9to5mac-heres-whats-coming/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to '‘Here’s What’s Coming’'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-08-28T20:04:53-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-29T13:54:38-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/society-runs-on-stimulants/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/society-runs-on-stimulants/", "external_url": "https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/a-society-that-runs-on-stimulants-is-badly-broken", "title": "Society Runs on Stimulants", "content_html": "<p>Alex Skopic, at <em>Current Affairs</em>, wrote about the <a href=\"https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/a-society-that-runs-on-stimulants-is-badly-broken\">functional use and abuse of stimulants</a> by people who are overworked. I stumbled upon it by way of the <a href=\"https://webcurios.co.uk/webcurios-28-08-26/#longreads\">latest issue of Web Curios</a>, and I think the general thrust of the article is something I find noteworthy enough to link to it. Alas, it is sloppy in the details.</p>\n\n<p>The second paragraph is a good place to start. Skopic dumps a litany of numbers about declining affordability and the difficulties of modern life; among them:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>[…] And according to the <a href=\"https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat19.htm\">Bureau of Labor Statistics</a>, 21.6 percent of Americans now work longer than 40 hours a week, with a beleaguered five percent working as many as 60 hours. […]</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The way this is phrased — “<em>now</em> work longer than 40 hours a week”, emphasis mine — may give the impression this figure is a new high, either historically or at least in recent memory. But it is not. This figure has been declining for at least twenty years. In <a href=\"https://www.bls.gov/cps/aa2005/aat19.txt\">2005</a>, the BLS reported 27.9% of people employed in nonagricultural jobs in the U.S. worked 41 or more hours; by <a href=\"https://www.bls.gov/cps/aa2015/cpsaat19.htm\">2015</a>, that was down to 24.8%, compared to 21.6% in 2025. The same drop is also present for workers committing 60 hours per week or more: 7.2% in 2005, 6.3% in 2015, and 5.4% in 2025.</p>\n\n<p>I am not selectively quoting here. I picked ten and twenty years ago for comparative convenience, but you can check the intervening years and find a clear trend. The misuse of this data point is a poor choice when there is perhaps an interesting narrative in reconciling the declining percentage of overworked U.S. adults with the proliferation of highly caffeinated beverages, mysterious energy shots, and powders and supplements of questionable substance.</p>\n\n<p>This is the kind of sentence that made me begin searching up all kinds of stuff in this article. It raises doubts, making me do the kind of work all of us should probably do any time we read something, but do not because we decide we have better things to do. Well, I decided this is what I was going to do today. I am going to skip past the health claims because they are not in my wheelhouse — double-checking easily verified numbers is something I am more comfortable with — and I will jump to this part:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Monster Energy, for instance, seems to think it owns the word “monster.” In 2009, the company threatened to sue a <a href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna33282954\">small brewery in Vermont</a> for selling a beer called the “Vermonster,” claiming it infringed their trademark rights. That was at least a beverage, but in 2020 they did the same thing with <a href=\"https://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-changed-gods-monsters-name-because-it-violated-monster-energys-trademark/\">video game company Ubisoft</a>, forcing them to change a game’s title from “Gods and Monsters” to “Immortals Fenyx Rising.” In 2023 they once again targeted the gaming industry, this time over an independent game called “Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals”; according to the <a href=\"https://x.com/VincentLivings/status/1641206009963380737\">developers</a>, the drink company wanted them to “agree to never use a green & white logo on a black background for any game we ever make. So they own the colors green & white too apparently.” In all of these cases, Monster’s legal claim is shaky at best — but with a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Beverage\">revenue of $7.9 billion</a> in 2025, they have enough money to bankrupt anyone who tries to take them to court, so it doesn’t matter.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Monster Energy is an <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/?q=&type=r&order_by=score%20desc&cause=trademark&party_name=Monster%20Energy\">aggressive litigant</a> when it comes to protecting its trademarks, but it does not always succeed. Glowstick Entertainment, makers of “Dark Deception: Monsters and Mortals”, <a href=\"https://www.pcgamer.com/games/the-indie-horror-game-that-fought-back-against-monster-energy-trademark-trolling-and-won-is-now-being-made-into-a-movie/\">fought and won</a> its trademark case. Also, I think it would have been useful for Skopic to cite cases where Monster Energy lost — or likely would have lost — but the defendant went out of business anyhow. For example, in a <a href=\"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/63250736/monster-energy-company-v-pelmir-enterprise-inc/\">2022 case</a> against a <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20220422135626/https://www.monsterdollar.net/\">store with “Monster” in its name</a>, the energy drink company would have been <a href=\"https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.309427/gov.uscourts.wawd.309427.22.0.pdf\">unlikely to prevail</a> (PDF). Even so, a search of <a href=\"https://ccfs.sos.wa.gov/#/BusinessSearch/BusinessFilings\">state records</a> showed the company was ultimately dissolved. No matter whether this was directly connected to the litigation, it is a stronger argument for having “enough money to bankrupt anyone who tries to take them to court” than this evidence-free article.</p>\n\n<p>Also, it is kind of weird that Coca-Cola — a company which <a href=\"https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/865752/000155278125000017/xslSCHEDULE_13D_X01/primary_doc.xml\">owns 21%</a> of Monster Energy after the latter acquired Coke’s energy drink portfolio, has a line of <a href=\"https://www.coca-colacompany.com/brands/coffee-tea\">teas and coffees</a>, and whose namesake beverage used to contain cocaine and still contains caffeine — goes entirely unmentioned in this piece. Perhaps it is too obvious, or feels like too much of a stretch. But it is strange to dedicate a paragraph to Monster’s trademark battles, which has nothing to do with the thesis of this piece, and leave the Coca-Cola stone unturned.</p>\n\n<p>I wish an editor took another pass on this article as I think there are points that could be clarified, facts that desperately need checking, and interesting narratives that could be teased out. Skopic notes, for instance, the supposed incompatibility of sleep with an economy based on relentless production and consumption. It is true that we cannot make or buy things in your sleep, nor can we provide revenue-generating services, but sleep itself is an enormous business. We are encouraged to spend thousands of dollars on beds and mattresses because less expensive options are insufficiently rest-promoting, and then we should spend more money to wake up and keep ourselves alert throughout the day.</p>\n\n<p>I find all of this baffling, even as — perhaps <em>especially</em> as — a daily coffee drinker. I get that people have different relationships with caffeine and alcohol, so do not take this as anything greater than my feelings-based vibe, but I have never really understood these as functional products. Coffee, when made well using the kinds of beans that I like, is a delicious beverage regardless of its effects. Wine is sort of similar to me. They both have effects, of course, but I think of those as a kind of warning sign: if I have consumed so much coffee or wine that it noticeably changes how I feel, I have probably had too much. This makes them, unlike energy drinks, a delicious treat for me. Your mileage may vary.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/society-runs-on-stimulants/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Society Runs on Stimulants'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-08-28T17:09:01-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-28T17:09:01-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/lake-ontario/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/lake-ontario/", "external_url": "https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-lake-ontario-america-9.7322947", "title": "World’s Most Powerful Person Does a Stupid Thing About a Lake", "content_html": "<p>An un-bylined <a href=\"https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-lake-ontario-america-9.7322947\"><em>Canadian Press</em></a> report:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to change the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America” as tensions with Canada worsen.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Elect stupid people and get stupid policies. This report contains a good explanation of the name’s history, and also has a deliciously petty map illustrating where the border is drawn.</p>\n\n<p>Like the <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/digital-maps-gulf-of-america/\">moronic Gulf of Mexico relabelling</a>, expect digital mapping companies like Apple and Google to fall in line. MapQuest, a <a href=\"https://www.mapquest.com/search/Gulf%20of%20Mexico\">holdout</a> on that change, also says it will <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/mapquest.com/post/3mu3hbrw3es2i\">keep the correct name</a>. I still think maps should reflect government names regardless of whether they were assigned by a thumb elected by the world’s least responsible country, but I sympathize with MapQuest’s stance.</p>\n\n<p><b>Update:</b> Just like that, <a href=\"https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/maps/gnis-lake-ontario-lake-america-name-change/\">Google has updated its map</a> to reflect “Lake America” when using a U.S. map, “Lake Ontario” in Canada, and “Lake Ontario (Lake America)” elsewhere. Google’s concession — and, soon, Apple’s — is a good reminder to all users that the U.S. may be the most powerful country in the world, but it is no longer a leader.</p>\n\n<p><b>Update:</b> Apple has <a href=\"https://www.reuters.com/world/us/apple-maps-changes-name-lake-ontario-lake-america-2026-09-01/\">also updated its map</a>.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/lake-ontario/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'World’s Most Powerful Person Does a Stupid Thing About a Lake'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-08-27T22:41:57-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-09-01T15:57:38-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } }, { "id": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/blocking-hide-my-email-followup/", "url": "https://pxlnv.com/linklog/blocking-hide-my-email-followup/", "external_url": "https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=1ptvdtcm", "title": "Apple Reverses Proposed Hide My Email Domain Change", "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=1ptvdtcm\">Apple</a>, after <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/blocking-hide-my-email/\">previously saying</a> it would move Hide My Email to the <code>private.icloud.com</code> subdomain:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>After further consideration and reviewing community feedback, iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on <code>icloud.com</code>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The whole point of an email address like this is that it can be used anywhere someone does not want to provide an address that can be tied to them or <a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/meta-activity-from-businesses/\">remarketed to</a>, or if they want to be able to cut off communications. This change, if implemented, would have made these addresses basically useless. I am glad to see this was reversed.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://pxlnv.com/linklog/blocking-hide-my-email-followup/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permanent link to 'Apple Reverses Proposed Hide My Email Domain Change'\" class=\"glyph\">⌥ Permalink</a></p>\n", "date_published": "2026-08-26T22:51:58-06:00", "date_modified": "2026-08-26T22:51:58-06:00", "author": { "name": "Nick Heer" } } ] }