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  • in tech
  • 3 min read

Apple Event 2025-09

AirPods

AirPods Pro 3

  • New Spatial Audio improvements
  • Active Noise Cancellation improvements (2x Pro2’s)
  • Foam-infused ear tips
  • Transparency improvements
  • Live translation powered by Apple Intelligence
  • Can also output responses to phone screen
  • If both users have AirPods, then they can interact and work together
  • Ear fit improvement
  • AirPods are smaller
  • Five sizes of tips
  • IP57 sweat and water resistance
  • 6 —> 8 hours of battery life
  • Fitness
    • Heart rate sensing
    • New workout experience on iPhone
    • Workout Buddy
    • Brings this away from watch-only and can become a new fitness tracker
  • Price: $249
  • Available: 9/19

Apple Watch

Apple Watch Series 11

  • Stronger glass
  • Cell 5G
  • More power-efficient
  • Heart
  • High blood pressure (hypertension) alerts from watch
  • This is what AI/ML should be about
  • Sleep
  • Sleep score: monitors sleep quality
  • Battery: 24 hours
  • Price: $399
  • Available: 9/19

Apple Watch SE 3

  • S10 chip
  • Always on display
  • Gestures
  • Sleep Apnea and Sleep Score
  • Speaker on watch
  • 18-hour battery life
  • Fast charging (2x faster)
  • 5G cellular
  • Price: $299
  • Available: 9/19

Apple Watch Ultra 3

  • Increased display by shrinking bezel
  • Increased watch refresh rate in Always on
  • New face
  • 5G cellular
  • Satellite connectivity
  • Radio and antenna doubled in size
  • Two years free with purchase
  • Price: $799
  • Available: 9/19

iPhone

iPhone 17

  • 6.3” display ProMotion 120 Hz
  • 3000 nits peak outdoor brightness
  • Durability improved: Ceramic Shield 2 with 2x stronger
  • A19 chip: 3nm, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU
  • All-day battery
  • Faster charging
  • Cameras
  • Improvements in rear cameras
  • Front camera has center stage
  • Square instead of 4:3 to allow the same portrait and landscape capabilities, no more rotating the phone to get a wide shot.
  • $799
  • Available: 9/19

iPhone 17 Air

  • Thinner
  • Ceramic Shield surrounds front and back and is sealed, more durable.
  • Plateau redesigned, more rounded.
  • A19 Pro: 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU with Neural accelerators in each (same performance as Mac)
  • N1 wireless WiFi 7, BT 6, Thread
  • C1X: 2x faster, 30% less energy
  • Most power-efficient phone ever made
  • Camera
  • Fusion camera system Main camera & 2x telephoto (single camera with two options)
  • Center stage camera front camera
  • Dual capture video
  • eSIM: worldwide availability
  • Battery life: All-day battery life
  • Adaptive power mode, conserves when conditions allow
  • Accessories: low-profile MagSafe battery pack, 2 custom cases, cross-body strap
  • Price: $999
  • Available: 9/19

iPhone 17 Pro

  • Redesigned from the ground up
  • Newly designed full aluminum internal frame
  • Biggest battery in any iPhone
  • New camera system
  • Redesigned thermal system: vapor chamber
  • Ceramic Shield 2: Removed glass, now this wraps front and back
  • New plateau that includes the antenna system and left room for the bigger battery
  • Best battery in an iPhone
  • In the eSIM models, additional battery added
  • Camera
  • 18 Mp Center stage front camera
  • 3x Rear 48Mp cameras (first) and all are Fusion cameras
  • Up to 8x telephoto
  • Video
  • ProRes RAW capture
  • Genlock
  • Accessories: TechWoven Case, Clear case, silicone, cross-body strap for TechWoven case
  • Price: $1199
  • Available: 9/19

Thoughts

  • Lots of studies backing the health and fitness features.
  • A19 Pro seems really well geared to be a Mac-ready chip…
  • New Wireless and Cellular chips are finally realized and sound impressive. Let’s hope this also bodes well for getting these into the Mac line!
  • Runtimes 12:00-13:12 Central
  • Really impressive durability improvements everywhere.
  • in tech
  • 1 min read

More Website Tinkering

I continue to tinker here to see how far a static wesite can go. One thing I've wanted is some form of commenting but without too much overhead -- and better if it can be outsourced entirely. So I hit on an idea of just directing folks to Mastodon to post. And I implimented the automated posting of new entries as well so that as I blog, each post is represented there as well.

With any luck, this post should create a Mastadon post and appear on the blog with a link to comment.

  • in tech
  • 1 min read

Copy files, change permissions, and change owner/group

While you can cp, chown, and chmod a file (usually with sudo) to manage a file move, the install command is also for moving files (it’s not for installing things, apparently) and setting various file-level details during the move ; combining with sudo this can be a single command to perform all the necessary actions to move files between various locations!

sudo install -C -m 775 -o sk -g ostechnix /dir1/file1 /dir2

While you can use this command as a replacement for cp, if you do not explicitly set permissions on the operation, this will result in execution permissions being applied. However, this, as the command is probably intended, is helpful for deploying scripts in the correct state.

Source: How To Copy Files And Change The Ownership, Permissions At The Same Time

While the news on TP-Link has been pretty awful from a security perspective, recent updates to their Deco line have me really happy. The Deco line of routers is divided by model and further subdivided by the firmware version they receive. Just before Christmas, my X55 got updated that I had been waiting on since this summer! The update finally brought Wireguard VPN to the router, and while an earlier update allowed for other types of VPNs, such as the ancient L2TP/IPSec or OpenVPN, I really wanted to get a Wireguard setup. Wireguard provides several benefits over traditional VPNs:

  1. Connection resiliency: switching from wired to WiFi or cellular doesn't phase the connection; your VPN stays active.
  2. Speed and performance: Wireguard is extremely fast as compared to other VPNs.
  3. Battery performance on mobile: the lightweight protocol and efficient means much less battery drain.
  4. On-demand: The mobile app allows iOS devices to be configured to always route traffic when not at home to ensure that my connection is always on and secure (read: private).
  5. Easy access to devices at home: I have a couple of devices and computers I access when out and about that Wireguard allows me to seamlessly connect to while on the go.

Previously, I had been using Tailscale to provide a lot of these services and keep my connections safe and secure. And I still highly recommend the service; it's really incredible if you don't have access to Wireguard on your router or need advanced routing capabilities for a home lab or even at a large corporation. I wish more companies used services like Tailscale as it provides really easy access to on-prem or cloud resources with a lightweight client. But by self-hosting Wireguard, I can assure my connection back to the house for all my devices without relying on external providers and without having to host complicated servers. Of course, many routers provide Wireguard access, and someone with the know-how can easily set up a server to host and run a Wireguard server to provide this same setup. But I like to keep things simple, and Deco's implementation is exactly that.

It is hard to overstate how nice on-demand is for mobile devices when out and about. Since setting it up, I've been able to move from home to mobile and never miss a beat, all while maintaining a connection back to the house. Now I can take my iPhone and iPad and still connect back to my Mac Mini at home as though I am still there. Another device I access on the go often I recently got is my Tablo TV. It allows me to watch over-the-air TV via their app on my smart devices. With Wireguard, I have easy access to it as well to watch live streams of TV or recorded shows from anywhere. I will probably do a longer post on my thoughts on it later.

Another feature I just started playing with is, in addition to creating a VPN server with my Deco, I can configure a VPN client that lets me have all or select devices connect to an external Wireguard VPN service such as NordVPN, ProtonVPN, or Surfshark. This lets me route my devices at home through alternative VPNs. This allows for privacy for home connections and all kinds of other possibilities for obscuring traffic.

Any chance to set up a VPN is recommended, especially if you can get one connected back to your home router. This is, of course, all improved since we have access to fiber here at the house, and your own mileage may vary.

  • in tech
  • 1 min read

Subscribe to my feed

If you are interested in subscribing to my feed, the easiest method is to copy my blog's URL address and paste it into your favorite RSS feed application. Mine is the wonderful NetNewsWire which has apps for Mac, iPad, and iPhone and are all fantastic! But there are many options out there and I encourage you to find one you like, but NetNewsWire has the wonderful status of being open source and well crafted to only do one thing, read RSS feeds. Many of the other feed readers you will find require an account and want to do more than you need. The developer is really committed to this idea!

So copy my site’s URL, add a feed in NetNewsWire using the + icon, and press Add. Optionally (and recommended) choose the iCloud folders so that your feeds sync to all your devices and show up automatically. That should be all that is required.

If you use something else to manage your RSS feeds, then I assume you can figure out how to subscribe there. But if you are interested in giving NetNewsWire a try, you can export and import your subscriptions as an OPML file that will magically migrate them there.

  • in journal
  • 2 min read

Hello World!

I've been contemplating restarting my website for a while, and since I've been doing more work with MKDocs and containers at work, I took the plunge and set up this site. Previously, I was using a WordPress site, which I intend to keep running for a bit and slowly move over here. I have not decided if I will move the old posts over or just import them into a WordPress.com site to host the pages in perpetuity. I have also looked at options that would migrate the posts from WordPress over to Markdown and post them here. But it depends on how much I can get pulled from my current site and if it seems to be worth the effort. Either way, I hope to start utilizing this a lot more and document the process I use to set up the site and other projects I'm working on. One big change is there will be a lot less personal family stuff posted here; I'll move most of that to other forms of social media.

For the host, I'm using GitLab Pages. I have slowly started to move more and more code there as I really like their feature set. I know most of the world uses GitHub for hosting code and sites, but I had a lot of experience with GitLab from my previous employer, so the transition was easy.

If you've never used Material for MKDocs, I highly recommend it. There are lots of other static site generators out there -- and they may even be better suited for your needs -- but being Python-based, fully supporting Markdown for all of the writing, and offering a dead-simple approach to managing everything with a single YAML file, it was hard to resist. Material started out as a theme for MKDocs, -- which in turn was an evolution of ReadTheDocs -- meaning these are geared primarily towards writing documentation. There is ample support for writing great documentation, but you can also just use it as a blogging platform as well. This setup can be tricky, but once you get everything set just right, there is not much to change or update. Since it's all Python under the hood, the support is pretty broad, and GitLab Pages doesn't charge for static sites that are generated. It's a really great option if you want to get set up. I'm publishing my setup so that anyone interested in setting up their own version can steal as needed, and I plan on doing a more official write-up on the process later. For now, I'm just excited to get started on this as a new project and see where it takes me. The best part is that since the content is all just text files and all open source, I can truly take my content anywhere, even just host it on a home server, and the cost should stay extremely low while being easy to migrate. No more WordPress exports!

  • 4 min read

Apple Event September 2024

Apple Watch

  • Series 10
  • New Design
  • Largest and most advanced screen, bigger than Ultra. 30% bigger than series 9. Brings the keyboard and more room. Wide angle display with 40% brighter from an angle. Improved refresh with Always On.
  • Jet black polished aluminum (miss Jonny Ive’s pronunciation). Rose gold and silver also available.
  • Thinnest Apple Watch. Speaker is 30% smaller with same performance and now can play directly from the watch, no AirPods required. Antenna integrated into the housing [sounds like iPhone 4].
  • Improved charging.
  • Lighter weight.
  • Titanium replaces stainless steel. Big gains in lowering weight.
  • S10 chip: 4 core Neural engine
  • Brings Translate App to the Watch.
  • Health: Sleep apnea detection.
  • Fitness: improved depth and temperature sensors for swimming and snorkeling, Adding Tides app, support for canoe and kayaking workouts, new App for planning boating.
  • New Watch Bands.

Apple Watch Ultra 2

  • Reviewed existing features [seems like a way to distinguish how different it is from the new Series 10 more than anything else, not a lot of new announcements].
  • New finish - Ultra 2 in satin black [nice].

AirPods 4

  • Improved fit
  • H2 chip: improved audio clarity, Spatial Audio, hands free calls with Yes/No head movements, voice isolation
  • Charging case comes with USB-C, smaller case
  • Second model brings Active Noise Cancellation from AirPods Pro, Transparency mode, Adaptive Audio, Conversation awareness, wireless charging via Apple Watch and Qi charging, speaker on case for FindMy.

AirPods Max

  • New colors
  • USB-C
  • With iOS 18, personalized audio.

AirPods Pro

  • Adding Health: hearing loss (Prevention, Awareness, Assistance). Hearing Protection (on by default): passive and active noice cancellation.
  • Hearing Test: clinically valid hearing test using AirPods and iPhone app with results in Health app [interesting they are using the results of these Studies through the Health app to focus on what to add for features and to justify their addition for marketing]
  • Hearing aid. Adjusts to your hearing profile for use in other apps.

iPhone

  • Aluminum case
  • New colors
  • iPhone 16 screen size 6.1 and iPhone plus 6.7
  • Action button
  • Camera control: can slide on action button to adjust settings
  • A18 (two jumps up from A16 Bionic): 2x fast for machine learning, 17% more system memory bandwidth, 3 nm second gen tech, 6 core CPU (2 performance, 4 efficiency cores), 30% faster than the iPhone 15, more energy efficient using 30% less power, faster than completion and even PCs.
  • 5-core GPU: 40% faster than iPhone 15, 35% less power.
  • All of this for AI enhancements and focus: [Craig!] Recap of AI features on iPhone. Adding Visual Intelligence using the Action Button with a click and hold the AI will identify information on camera, can integrate with 3rd party integrations like Google shopping or ChatGPT help with homework assignments.
  • Camera Control - landscape or portrait, clicking launches camera, clicking again will snap a shot, click and hold with start a quick video capture, pressure sensitive with various controls that can be adjusted by sliding your finger up and down the control, third party integrations also.
  • Camera: 48 megapixel, improvements in computation photography to create combined photos from high MP and low MP to get a great compromise image Fusion Camera, 4K video, Ultrawide camera with autofocus, 2.6x more light, Macro photography, special capture for stereoscopic captures and Vision Pro. Audio capture improved such as removing wind and focusing on voice. [I don’t remember them ever doing a camera slide on just those features].
  • Photos app with customizations and redesign.
  • Gaming: centralized the chip placement, reorganized the rest of the chips accordingly, new thermal improvements, ray tracing. AAA games: Residential Evil and Assassins Creed, introducing Honor of Kinds World.
  • Battery life: enlarged battery and improved intelligence.
  • In iOS 18, 911 shared view, satellite connectivity.
  • Prices are iPhone $799 and iPhone Plus $899.

iPhone Pro

  • Screen size iPhone Pro 6.3 iPhone Pro Max 6.9 by reducing the bezel
  • ProMotion
  • Always on
  • Titanium case
  • New Colors
  • A18 Pro chip: 3 nm second gen tech, first to use these transistors, 16-core neural engine.
  • 6-core GPU 20% faster than A17 Pro, 2x faster ray tracing
  • Photography: Fusion camera 48 MP, no shutter delay, Ultra Wide 48 MP camera with autofocus and macro shots, 5x telephoto lens, Camera Control, Photographic Styles add filters with customization and can customize after capture as well.
  • Video: 4K 120 frames per second for improved slow motion and in Cinematic Mode
  • Audio: 4 mics, special audio capture during video recording, Audio Mix separates audio tracks during capture based on standard/in frame/studio/cinematic which can separate voices from background audio vs those off screen talking in background.
  • Voice memos: Improvements for song recording ideas, can add additional tracks to sing along to and then remove for just getting the voice track.
  • The Weekend demo of the music video making of with iPhone Pro 16..
  • Mag Safe cases and charger with Qi 2 support.

  • 7 min read

WWDC 2024

OS Announcements

https://www.youtube.com/live/RXeOiIDNNek?si=kHa7nf9BfY9nunLp

Intro

  • Great opening!

AppleTV+

  • Lots of new shows and series

VisionOS

  • Version 2 announced.
  • Photos
    • Converts standard photos into “Spatial” photos using ML to create a Left and Right eye part of the photo.
  • New gestures for control center-like actions.
  • Mac hardware display options with higher resolutions*
  • Train support to complement Flight mode.
  • New APIs: Volumetric, TableTop, Enterprise
  • Spatial content improvements via iPhone 15 Pro/Max.
  • Cannon offers a new Spatial lens for commercial captures.
  • Vimeo announced a new app with Spatial video support.
  • Apple immersive video partners: BlackMagicVideo for now, expanding to more providers including Red Bull, The Weekend, and Submerged Short Film.
  • Expanding to eight more countries this year.

iOS

  • Home Screen
    • Icons and widgets can be arranged anywhere.
    • Dark mode icons.
    • Complimentary color palettes to match the background photo or custom color.
  • Control center
    • Swipe between screens to show different controls on individualized pages.
    • Continuous swipe will scroll through all the various pages.
    • New controls gallery to customize. 
    • Developers can include their own controls.
    • Change layout and sizes.
    • Controls API
    • Lock Screen now also includes Controls.
    • Action Button can be customized using these controls.
  • Privacy
    • Lock and app: FaceID/Touch ID/Passcode lock apps that you don’t want others to open. 
    • Hide an app
    • Contacts access: can be limited to which contacts.
    • Accessories and network: limit access for limited access.
  • Messages
    • Tapbacks: adding any emoji
    • Send Later!
    • Text formatting: Bold, italics, underline.
    • Text effects expanded.
    • Messages via satellite: 14 and later, text off-grid without needing cellular. Fully encrypted, SMS also supported.
  • Mail
    • On device categorization*: Primary, Transactions, Updates, Promotions
    • Digest message collects everything together from various businesses. Can be recategorized.
  • Maps
    • Topographic: trails and hiking maps. Nation Parks included and offline.
  • Wallet
    • Tap to cash: tap iPhone to pay someone.
    • Apple pay Online
    • Event tickets with new design and event guides.
  • Journal
    • Log state of mind
    • Track goals
    • Insides dashboard
    • Search to find past entries.
  • Gaming
    • Game Mode: for iPhone
  • Photos
    • Biggest redesign ever!
    • Keeps library organized
    • Single view with photo grid on top and options on the bottom
    • Filters to limit what you do and do not want to see.
    • Intelligence is the buzzword they keep repeating.
    • Trips are organized by destinations
  • RCS Support confirmed.
  • Reminders integration with Calendar

Audio & Home

  • AirPods
    • Head nod or shake to silently confirm/deny Siri interactions.
    • Voice Isolation for AirPod Pro. Expanded to gaming.
  • Home and tvOS
    • Insight: Like Amazon’s X-Ray. Shows actors and songs playing.
    • Enhanced dialogue to improve sound quality. Subtitles can automatically come on at key moments, like muting or rewinding.
    • Support for 21:9 projector formats.
    • More screen savers: Additional Ariels, photo modes, movies and TV, Snoopy!
    • Improved Fitness+ app experience.
  • WatchOS
    • Training load for workout tracking. Gives effort rating to provide additional trends.
    • Customize the summary tab and activity rings can be adjusted by the day of the week. Can also pause for injury or illness to not miss your streak.
    • Smart Stack now includes new things, similar to the old Siri watch face. Auto updates based on need.
    • Translation now on Watch.
    • Double-tap API for developers to create their own features.
    • Photos Watch Face uses ML to find the best photos.
  • Health
    • Vitals app
    • Cycle Tracking: Pregnancy improvements.

iPadOS

  • IOS customizations are coming as well. So are the Photos changes.
  • Productivity improvements!
  • Floating tab bar, moves from top and can migrate to the sidebar.
  • Document browsing is much easier.
  • Refined animations.
  • API Elements
  • SharePlay
    • Screen sharing
      • Tap and draw on the screen to show them
      • Can remotely control iPad or iPhone!!!!
    • Freeform
      • Scenes
  • Calculator!
    • History
    • Apple pencil support!
    • Math Notes
      • Creates results from handwritten equations. Recognizes equal sign to solve.
      • Very advanced functions can be created with variables and can create graphs. Insanely impressive!
      • Also works in Notes! All features are included there as well.
  • Notes
    • Smart script: improves handwriting clarity and legibility. Paste typed info in and it turns it into handwritten notes. 
    • Collapsible sections

MacOS

  • Crack marketing team named it: Sequoia.
  • Math notes with typing.
  • Hike planning in Maps.
  • Continuity:
    • iPhone mirroring: see and control iPhone remotely.
    • iPhone notifications: integrates with Mac notifications and can open mirrored iPhone right up on the Mac.
    • iPhone screen stays locked. Works with standby seamlessly and stays active while used.
    • Drag and drop support between Mac apps and iPhone mirrored apps.
  • Windows arrangement: Snaps to position (Sherlocked Rectangle)
  • Video conferencing: presenter preview and backgrounds.
  • Passwords: independent app! Really pretty, similar to Reminders. Bonus: Bringing this to Windows!
  • Safari
    • World’s fastest browser.
    • Privacy: industry-leading tracking prevention and private browsing.
    • WebKit based
    • Trying to reintroduce Safari.
    • New features
      • Highlights: show important information on a webpage using ML
      • Reader: redesigned, summary and table of contents
      • Viewer: full video controls and PIP integration. Slam against YouTube.
  • Gaming
    • Baulders Gate 3 coming soon.
    • Unified gaming platform due to integrated lineup.
    • Game Porting Toolkit 2 announced.
      • Improved windows compatibility
      • Assists with migrating to iPhone and iPad.
    • More games!
      • Frost[something]
      • Ubisoft: Assassin’s Creed just released, Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
      • A bunch of new ports coming!
  • Whole bunch of new APIs.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Announcements

  • Apple Intelligence: next big step from Apple
  • Personal intelligence system
  • Generative models using your personal self while staying private. Deeply integrated with platforms and apps.
  • Language
    • Priority notifications
    • Writing tools: rewrite, proofread 
  • Images
    • Photos, emojis, GIFs
    • Knows the people in your photo library, and generates an AI image of them for their birthday. Mom can be a superhero. Different styles can be applied.
    • Notes, Keynote, Pages, Freeform.
  • Actions
    • Pull up the files that were shared last week.
  • Personal context
    • Personal information can be analyzed and used
    • What’s on the screen
  • Privacy
    • On-device processing
    • On-device semantics index to understand relevant personal data
    • Can tap into external sources using the cloud: Private Cloud Compute. Focus on keeping private and secure connections to remote clouds so no data is leaked. Intelligently sends only needed data out and only when needed.
    • New standard for privacy and AI.
  • Experiences
    • Siri enhanced
      • 1.5 billion requests a day
      • 13 years ago released
      • Now more natural relevant, and personal.
      • New look.
      • Natural language can find out what you need, even when you make a mistake.
      • Conversational context lets you chain requests together.
      • Now you can type to Siri, double tap the bottom of the screen to privately use without using out loud commands.
      • Groundwork for improved future uses: product knowledge for features and settings to tell you how to use your devices. Can describe a feature and Siri will tell you how to use it. Will continue to roll out features for this.
      • On-screen awareness: can get an address from the screen and add to a contact card.
      • In-app actions: App Intents (framework) improvements. Adding App Intents API for developers to use.
      • Personal context: can be linked between apps and services. can ask to find things on-device and it will pull it up for when you don’t know what app it was sent in.
      • Can take info from photo ID and fill out a form.
      • Siri can help with timing for things like flight tracking and will be aware of texts of your lunch plans; can all be done without opening those apps.
    • Writing Tools
      • Rewrite
        • Can look at different versions (verses) for different contexts for writing suggestions.
        • Correct for tone.
        • Change text into a poem for a unique party invite
        • Proofread
        • Summarize to pull out key points and make a TL;DR at the top automatically.
      • Smart Reply
        • Suggested responses with intelligent responses.
      • Summarize
        • Inbox Summaries created from the email content 
        • Summarize long messages
      • Priority
        • Surface more important emails to the top of the inbox
    • Notifications can also take advantage of these features.
      • Reduce  interruptions
    • Images
      • Create images on the fly
      • Genmoji - custom emoji based on prompts. can make one’s based on friends in photos. And can be created inline.
      • Image playground: fun way to create images easily using categories to generate images. Integrated into apps, an independent app, and developers can integrate with API.
      • Notes
        • ImageWand: circle sketches and use the words to create images. Can circle a space to create an image based on the notes around the space.
      • Photos
        • Clean Up: removes back grad objects.
        • Improved search with natural language for photos. Videos can be found inside the video itself to pull you right to the point in the video when your search mentions.
        • Memory movie: interpret a typed description into a new memory. Creates a storyline and chapters with a narrative arch.
  • Notes: record and transcribe notes. AI creates a summary after.
  • Phone: record and transcribe calls.
  • All free updates.
  • ChatGPT integration, 4.0 model.
    • Siri can take questions and submit to ChatGPT after confirmation.
    • Can also submit photos, PDFs, and documents for suggestions.
    • Compose for writing and art.
    • Free!
    • Subscribers can access paid features.
  • Future integrations coming later.
  • Developers and AI.
    • SDKs
      • ImagePlayground
      • Writing Tools
      • SiriKit
      • App Intents
    • Generative xCode: code completion and smart assist for code questions.
  • AI for the rest of us.
  • Rolled out with this year's OSs and additional features over the next year. All AI starts in Beta.

*Coming later this year.

Official Press Releases

visionOS 2 brings new spatial computing experiences to Apple Vision Pro

Apple Vision Pro arrives in new countries and regions beginning June 28

AirPods introduce convenient ways to communicate and interact

Updates to the Home experience elevate entertainment and bring more convenience

watchOS 11 brings powerful health and fitness insights

iOS 18 makes iPhone more personal, capable, and intelligent than ever

iPadOS 18 introduces powerful intelligence features and apps for Apple Pencil

macOS Sequoia takes productivity and intelligence on Mac to new heights

Introducing Apple Intelligence for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

  • 3 min read

Thoughts on Mastodon: First impressions

So far, this first week on Mastodon has been a lot of fun. The last time I dipped my toe in the Fediverse (the broad term for all federated social media -- including Mastodon), it felt...empty. There wasn't anyone on the service to chat with, or so it felt. Now, with everyone fleeing Twitter, I'm finding many of the folks I would follow have at least opened an account. But I'm also realizing how important connecting on the right instance is as the conversations on the Fosstodon.org server have been fun to follow! Also, my recent revelation that Mastodon allows for the following of #hashtags has opened up finding topics of interest, from #StarTrek to #Politics to #Mac, the tagged conversations are a great way to quickly add things to your timeline and instantly have conversations on things you are interested in.

Mastodon also feels very much like early Twitter, where conversations would happen organically and with little vitriol making the whole experience a breath of fresh air. Hopefully, the decentralized and human moderation of the platform can keep things that way. But with the influx of users, I can see how the original users and the Twitter migrants may cause a lot of friction. The services, while similar, have many differences as well. Signing up and choosing an instance/server also binds you to their terms of use and violators can be banned and forced to find another place to land. In many ways, this human moderation is similar to Reddit where mods manage each subreddit and enforce the policies of each subsection of the platform to conform to their rules.

For those just getting started, joining a server can be an important first step but not one that should give anyone great pause. Most are allowing those escaping the "birdsite" (as Twitter is referred to by the Mastodon community) can find a home anywhere and later move to another instance that better meets their needs. This mass migration does shine a light on some of the areas that Mastodon needs to improve. The mobile client needs to get parity with the desktop service, especially for things like following hashtags and managing followers and lists. The user interface is sometimes a bit confusing and hard to navigate on both the desktop and mobile client. But the influx of users will hopefully help sharpen these edges into something that will make the service better as a whole. For one thing, it has reminded me of my neglected blog and got me writing here again! And the fact that, if you do have a Wordpress site, you can Federate it as well and have it show up as a feed in Mastodon, is a really great feature!

Before the critical mass can truly put Mastodon and other Fediverse service front and center to get the support of the tech giants. Apple and Google need to treat these social media platforms the same as email or messaging and have baked-in clients that can interoperate the same way as email and just as easily. I can sign into my mail client that's built into my computer and have a consistent experience across all my devices with standard conventions and expectations with little to no friction. Mastodon should be the same and big tech embracing it will help both expand the service and dilute the grip the social media powerhouses have over what is essentially a platform, not a product (despite their best efforts to turn them into one). I think, if we take any silver lining from Musk's takeover of Twitter it is that we have had this exposed for all to see and that the grip these companies have on social media is fraught. People are the glue of social media, not the companies that host them!