daring-rss

I really found this interesting for a few reasons. First, it’s just incredibly down-to-earth. Most of the video was shot in a single take, using a Quest 3. Just very casual — but it’s the CEO of a $1 trillion company reviewing and critiquing the rival product from a $3 trillion company. I can’t imagine Tim Cook (or Sundar Pichai) making a video like this. It would just be so out of character for Cook and for Apple itself. But this felt very natural coming from Zuckerberg. Apple is clearly better at making computers, but Meta is just as clearly better at social media. And I really would love to hear Tim Cook’s thoughts on the Quest 3 and how it compares to Vision Pro.

Zuck makes the case that Quest 3 isn’t just good for its price — he goes all-in and argues that it’s a better headset, period. Whether you agree with him or not, he does a good job delineating the very different trade-offs Meta and Apple chose to make.

At the end, he makes the case that each new generation of computing devices has an open alternative and a closed one from Apple. (It’s interesting to think that these rivalries might be best thought of not as closed-vs.-open, but as Apple-vs.-the-rest-of-the-industry.) I’m not quite sure where he’s going with that, though, because I don’t really see how my Quest 3 is any more “open” than my Vision Pro. Are they going to license the OS to other headset makers?

Lastly, Zuckerberg, discussing Apple’s decision to use hand-tracking for control of the interface, just casually mentions that hand-tracking is effectively a stop-gap until we get a “neural interface”.

 ★ 

I really found this interesting for a few reasons. First, it’s just incredibly down-to-earth. Most of the video was shot in a single take, using a Quest 3. Just very casual — but it’s the CEO of a $1 trillion company reviewing and critiquing the rival product from a $3 trillion company. I can’t imagine Tim Cook (or Sundar Pichai) making a video like this. It would just be so out of character for Cook and for Apple itself. But this felt very natural coming from Zuckerberg. Apple is clearly better at making computers, but Meta is just as clearly better at social media. And I really would love to hear Tim Cook’s thoughts on the Quest 3 and how it compares to Vision Pro.

Zuck makes the case that Quest 3 isn’t just good for its price — he goes all-in and argues that it’s a better headset, period. Whether you agree with him or not, he does a good job delineating the very different trade-offs Meta and Apple chose to make.

At the end, he makes the case that each new generation of computing devices has an open alternative and a closed one from Apple. (It’s interesting to think that these rivalries might be best thought of not as closed-vs.-open, but as Apple-vs.-the-rest-of-the-industry.) I’m not quite sure where he’s going with that, though, because I don’t really see how my Quest 3 is any more “open” than my Vision Pro. Are they going to license the OS to other headset makers?

Lastly, Zuckerberg, discussing Apple’s decision to use hand-tracking for control of the interface, just casually mentions that hand-tracking is effectively a stop-gap until we get a “neural interface”.

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Adam Lisagor returns to the show to discuss, while wearing, Apple Vision Pro.

Sponsored by:

Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
Trade Coffee: Let’s Coffee Better. Get a free bag of fresh coffee with any Trade subscription.

 ★ 

Adam Lisagor returns to the show to discuss, while wearing, Apple Vision Pro.

Sponsored by:

Squarespace: Make your next move. Use code talkshow for 10% off your first order.
Trade Coffee: Let’s Coffee Better. Get a free bag of fresh coffee with any Trade subscription.

Read More 

Mike Kosak, writing for the LastPass company blog:

LastPass would like to alert our customers to a fraudulent app
attempting to impersonate our LastPass app on the Apple App Store.
The app in question is called “LassPass Password Manager” and
lists Parvati Patel as the developer. The app attempts to copy our
branding and user interface, though close examination of the
posted screenshots reveal misspellings and other indicators the
app is fraudulent.

“LassPass” sounds like a Scottish dating app.

I was able to install LassPass earlier today, before Apple removed it. I think it’s just a blatant brand rip-off, not an attempt to phish the credentials from actual LastPass customers. The app itself doesn’t look like LastPass, and never prompts you to log into an existing LastPass account. Instead, the scam LassPass app tries to steer you to creating a “pro” account subscription for $2/month, $10/year, or a $50 lifetime purchase. Those are actually low prices for a scam app — a lot of scammy apps trying to charge like $10/week.

But whatever LassPass is, it obviously shouldn’t have been approved by App Store review. And that leads to a predictable knee-jerk response:

“Hagen”: “fake password manager in the app store. isn’t this what the 30 % cut is supposed to protect us from?”
Emil Protalinski: “I don’t understand. I thought Apple uses the money from its 30% tax to stop phishing apps from getting into its app store?”
Mary Branscombe: “if Apple is going to insist that having the only app store on its devices is there to be a security barrier, letting through fake apps doesn’t help with that argument”

Branscombe is correct that even isolated incidents like this hurt Apple’s arguments in favor of App Store exclusivity. But what’s the counterargument? That anything short of 100 percent accuracy at flagging scams and rip-offs renders the entire App Store review process pointless? That if, say, 1 in every 1,000 scam attempts slips through, the entire process should be scrapped? That argument can’t be taken seriously.

 ★ 

Mike Kosak, writing for the LastPass company blog:

LastPass would like to alert our customers to a fraudulent app
attempting to impersonate our LastPass app on the Apple App Store.
The app in question is called “LassPass Password Manager” and
lists Parvati Patel as the developer. The app attempts to copy our
branding and user interface, though close examination of the
posted screenshots reveal misspellings and other indicators the
app is fraudulent.

“LassPass” sounds like a Scottish dating app.

I was able to install LassPass earlier today, before Apple removed it. I think it’s just a blatant brand rip-off, not an attempt to phish the credentials from actual LastPass customers. The app itself doesn’t look like LastPass, and never prompts you to log into an existing LastPass account. Instead, the scam LassPass app tries to steer you to creating a “pro” account subscription for $2/month, $10/year, or a $50 lifetime purchase. Those are actually low prices for a scam app — a lot of scammy apps trying to charge like $10/week.

But whatever LassPass is, it obviously shouldn’t have been approved by App Store review. And that leads to a predictable knee-jerk response:

“Hagen”: “fake password manager in the app store. isn’t this what the 30 % cut is supposed to protect us from?”
Emil Protalinski: “I don’t understand. I thought Apple uses the money from its 30% tax to stop phishing apps from getting into its app store?”
Mary Branscombe: “if Apple is going to insist that having the only app store on its devices is there to be a security barrier, letting through fake apps doesn’t help with that argument”

Branscombe is correct that even isolated incidents like this hurt Apple’s arguments in favor of App Store exclusivity. But what’s the counterargument? That anything short of 100 percent accuracy at flagging scams and rip-offs renders the entire App Store review process pointless? That if, say, 1 in every 1,000 scam attempts slips through, the entire process should be scrapped? That argument can’t be taken seriously.

Read More 

Disney:

The Walt Disney Company and Epic Games will collaborate on an
all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand
the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences. Disney will
also invest $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games
alongside the multiyear project. The transaction is subject to
customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

In addition to being a world-class games experience and
interoperating with Fortnite, the new persistent universe will
offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch,
shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney,
Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and more. Players, gamers and
fans will be able to create their own stories and experiences,
express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way, and share content
with each other in ways that they love. This will all be powered
by Unreal Engine.

Corey Weinberg, at The Information:

Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games values the Fortnite
maker at $22.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.
The price is about a 29% drop from where investors last valued the
company less than two years ago.

The investment makes the “Fortnite” maker one of the largest
private, venture-backed companies to sell new shares at a steep
discount since higher interest rates hit tech valuations. Disney’s
$1.5 billion investment will dilute existing Epic shareholders by
9%, the person said. The size of the investment would imply a
roughly 7% stake in the company.

The interesting third wheel in this relationship is obviously Apple. Apple is exceptionally cozy with Disney — from the whole Steve Jobs thing with Pixar to Bob Iger appearing in last June’s WWDC keynote to help Tim Cook announce Vision Pro. Apple is not so cozy with Epic Games.

Will this change anything on that front? If these new experiences require Fortnite to play, right now that rules out playing them on iPhone, iPad, or Vision Pro, because Epic Games no longer has an Apple developer account for Fortnite.

 ★ 

Disney:

The Walt Disney Company and Epic Games will collaborate on an
all-new games and entertainment universe that will further expand
the reach of beloved Disney stories and experiences. Disney will
also invest $1.5 billion to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games
alongside the multiyear project. The transaction is subject to
customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.

In addition to being a world-class games experience and
interoperating with Fortnite, the new persistent universe will
offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch,
shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney,
Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and more. Players, gamers and
fans will be able to create their own stories and experiences,
express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way, and share content
with each other in ways that they love. This will all be powered
by Unreal Engine.

Corey Weinberg, at The Information:

Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games values the Fortnite
maker at $22.5 billion, a person familiar with the matter said.
The price is about a 29% drop from where investors last valued the
company less than two years ago.

The investment makes the “Fortnite” maker one of the largest
private, venture-backed companies to sell new shares at a steep
discount since higher interest rates hit tech valuations. Disney’s
$1.5 billion investment will dilute existing Epic shareholders by
9%, the person said. The size of the investment would imply a
roughly 7% stake in the company.

The interesting third wheel in this relationship is obviously Apple. Apple is exceptionally cozy with Disney — from the whole Steve Jobs thing with Pixar to Bob Iger appearing in last June’s WWDC keynote to help Tim Cook announce Vision Pro. Apple is not so cozy with Epic Games.

Will this change anything on that front? If these new experiences require Fortnite to play, right now that rules out playing them on iPhone, iPad, or Vision Pro, because Epic Games no longer has an Apple developer account for Fortnite.

Read More 

Nilay Patel, writing at The Verge:

Here’s a little bit of an about-face: YouTube now says it has a
Vision Pro app on its roadmap. I mean this literally, as YouTube
spokesperson Jessica Gibby just emailed me the following
statement: “We’re excited to see Vision Pro launch and we’re
supporting it by ensuring YouTube users have a great experience in
Safari. We do not have any specific plans to share at this time,
but can confirm that a Vision Pro app is on our roadmap.”

This of course follows YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix all
declining to allow their iPad apps to run on the Vision Pro
before launch — and the last time we asked, there was no mention
of a proper visionOS YouTube app coming in the future, so
something’s changed in Mountain View. (One theory: the immediate
popularity of Christian Selig’s Juno app for YouTube on the
Vision Pro.)

Is Juno so good that it might have altered Google’s development plans for supporting YouTube with a native app? I suppose that’s possible. But given the design quality and adherence to platform design idioms of Google’s iOS apps (poor), I’m not sure they’re even capable of making a Juno-quality app.

I’m also unsure whether Google cares, ultimately, that Juno is and will remain the premier client for YouTube on VisionOS for the near future. Because Juno is mostly just a redesigned presentation of youtube.com, it doesn’t block ads. If you don’t like YouTube ads you should sign up for YouTube Premium (which of course works great in Juno) — one of the best bang-for-your-buck values in all of media.

 ★ 

Nilay Patel, writing at The Verge:

Here’s a little bit of an about-face: YouTube now says it has a
Vision Pro app on its roadmap. I mean this literally, as YouTube
spokesperson Jessica Gibby just emailed me the following
statement: “We’re excited to see Vision Pro launch and we’re
supporting it by ensuring YouTube users have a great experience in
Safari. We do not have any specific plans to share at this time,
but can confirm that a Vision Pro app is on our roadmap.”

This of course follows YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix all
declining to allow their iPad apps to run on the Vision Pro
before launch — and the last time we asked, there was no mention
of a proper visionOS YouTube app coming in the future, so
something’s changed in Mountain View. (One theory: the immediate
popularity of Christian Selig’s Juno app for YouTube on the
Vision Pro.)

Is Juno so good that it might have altered Google’s development plans for supporting YouTube with a native app? I suppose that’s possible. But given the design quality and adherence to platform design idioms of Google’s iOS apps (poor), I’m not sure they’re even capable of making a Juno-quality app.

I’m also unsure whether Google cares, ultimately, that Juno is and will remain the premier client for YouTube on VisionOS for the near future. Because Juno is mostly just a redesigned presentation of youtube.com, it doesn’t block ads. If you don’t like YouTube ads you should sign up for YouTube Premium (which of course works great in Juno) — one of the best bang-for-your-buck values in all of media.

Read More 

Christian Selig (developer of the late great Apollo client for Reddit):

At its core, Juno uses the YouTube website itself. No, not
scraped. It presents the website as you would load it, but similar
to how browser extensions work, it tweaks the theming of the site
through CSS and JavaScript.

That results in:

Tweaking backgrounds so the beautiful glassy look of visionOS
shows through. As the great Serenity Caldwell once said,
“Opaque windows can feel heavy and constricting, especially at
large sizes. Whenever possible, prefer the glass material (which
pulls light from people’s surroundings).”
Increasing contrast so items are properly visible
Making buttons like the button to view your subscriptions native
UI, and then loading the relevant portions of the website
accordingly
You get your full recommendations, subscriptions and whatnot,
just as you would on the normal YouTube site or app

It was a lot of work tweaking the CSS to get the YouTube website
to something that felt comfortable and at home on visionOS, but
I’m really happy with how it turned out. Does it feel like a
perfectly native visionOS app? Well no, but it’s a heck of a lot
nicer than the website, and to be fair Google apps normally do
their own thing rather than use iOS system UI, so not sure we’ll
ever fully see that. 🙂

What a brilliant way to approach the problem of creating a third-party YouTube client. Rather than using APIs to create a YouTube client from the ground up — which likely wouldn’t work, practically speaking, because Google’s API limits are so restrictive, because Google doesn’t want developers making alternative YouTube client apps — Selig instead has created a dedicated web browser just for youtube.com that uses CSS and WebKit extension jiggery-pokery to completely restyle the YouTube web interface to look like a native VisionOS app.

I’ve been using Juno for the last week — in fact, I sent Selig some bugs I encountered on-device that didn’t manifest in the VisionOS Xcode simulator — and I’ve already gotten more than $5 of entertainment value from it. Using Juno is just so much better than visiting youtube.com in Safari on Vision Pro. It’s not just prettier (though it is very pretty) — it’s far more usable, because the tap targets are generally bigger and more spread apart.

It’s my favorite and most-used third-party VisionOS app so far. $5 one-time purchase. Cheap!

 ★ 

Christian Selig (developer of the late great Apollo client for Reddit):

At its core, Juno uses the YouTube website itself. No, not
scraped. It presents the website as you would load it, but similar
to how browser extensions work, it tweaks the theming of the site
through CSS and JavaScript.

That results in:

Tweaking backgrounds so the beautiful glassy look of visionOS
shows through. As the great Serenity Caldwell once said,
“Opaque windows can feel heavy and constricting, especially at
large sizes. Whenever possible, prefer the glass material (which
pulls light from people’s surroundings).”
Increasing contrast so items are properly visible
Making buttons like the button to view your subscriptions native
UI, and then loading the relevant portions of the website
accordingly
You get your full recommendations, subscriptions and whatnot,
just as you would on the normal YouTube site or app

It was a lot of work tweaking the CSS to get the YouTube website
to something that felt comfortable and at home on visionOS, but
I’m really happy with how it turned out. Does it feel like a
perfectly native visionOS app? Well no, but it’s a heck of a lot
nicer than the website, and to be fair Google apps normally do
their own thing rather than use iOS system UI, so not sure we’ll
ever fully see that. 🙂

What a brilliant way to approach the problem of creating a third-party YouTube client. Rather than using APIs to create a YouTube client from the ground up — which likely wouldn’t work, practically speaking, because Google’s API limits are so restrictive, because Google doesn’t want developers making alternative YouTube client apps — Selig instead has created a dedicated web browser just for youtube.com that uses CSS and WebKit extension jiggery-pokery to completely restyle the YouTube web interface to look like a native VisionOS app.

I’ve been using Juno for the last week — in fact, I sent Selig some bugs I encountered on-device that didn’t manifest in the VisionOS Xcode simulator — and I’ve already gotten more than $5 of entertainment value from it. Using Juno is just so much better than visiting youtube.com in Safari on Vision Pro. It’s not just prettier (though it is very pretty) — it’s far more usable, because the tap targets are generally bigger and more spread apart.

It’s my favorite and most-used third-party VisionOS app so far. $5 one-time purchase. Cheap!

Read More 

Alex Kantrowitz:

John Gruber is the author of Daring Fireball. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a mega episode on the state of Apple. We cover: 1) The company’s vibe amid revenue declines 2) The impact of its services business 3) Its position in China 4) How AI might change the user interface of computing 5) Can Apple keep up with the changes if we move beyond the screen 6) Gruber’s reaction to the Vision Pro 7) The stakes of Apple’s Vision Pro bet 8) Apple conflict with Meta and who is getting the best of it 9) Is Apple too attached to its App Store fees 10) Who might succeed Tim Cook?

This is the longest episode in Big Technology Podcast history. But also a masterclass from Gruber on the state of a company he’s covered for two decades. Enjoy!

I have simply come to accept that my mere presence on a podcast makes it longer. But I really enjoyed this, and think you will too.

 ★ 

Alex Kantrowitz:

John Gruber is the author of Daring Fireball. He joins Big Technology Podcast for a mega episode on the state of Apple. We cover: 1) The company’s vibe amid revenue declines 2) The impact of its services business 3) Its position in China 4) How AI might change the user interface of computing 5) Can Apple keep up with the changes if we move beyond the screen 6) Gruber’s reaction to the Vision Pro 7) The stakes of Apple’s Vision Pro bet 8) Apple conflict with Meta and who is getting the best of it 9) Is Apple too attached to its App Store fees 10) Who might succeed Tim Cook?

This is the longest episode in Big Technology Podcast history. But also a masterclass from Gruber on the state of a company he’s covered for two decades. Enjoy!

I have simply come to accept that my mere presence on a podcast makes it longer. But I really enjoyed this, and think you will too.

Read More 

Infos remembers everything, so you don’t have to. From your partner’s social security number to the seasonal settings for your heating, Infos stores all the little pieces of information you have been struggling to organize.

Infos’ super simple user interface is optimized for efficient access to information. As your infos are indexed using Core Spotlight, it is also possible to find them via Spotlight and Siri.

Finally, Infos uses iCloud to sync your infos across your devices. This ensures a high level of privacy and there is no need for a separate account.

 ★ 

Infos remembers everything, so you don’t have to. From your partner’s social security number to the seasonal settings for your heating, Infos stores all the little pieces of information you have been struggling to organize.

Infos’ super simple user interface is optimized for efficient access to information. As your infos are indexed using Core Spotlight, it is also possible to find them via Spotlight and Siri.

Finally, Infos uses iCloud to sync your infos across your devices. This ensures a high level of privacy and there is no need for a separate account.

Read More 

ESPN:

ESPN, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery have reached an understanding on principal terms to form a new Joint Venture (JV) to build an innovative new platform to house a compelling streaming sports service. The platform brings together the companies’ portfolios of sports networks, certain direct-to-consumer (DTC) sports services and sports rights – including content from all the major professional sports leagues and college sports. The formation of the pay service is subject to the negotiation of definitive agreements amongst the parties. The offering, scheduled to launch in the fall of 2024, would be made available directly to consumers via a new app. Subscribers would also have the ability to bundle the product, including with Disney+, Hulu and/or Max.

By subscribing to this focused, all-in-one premier sports service, fans would have access to the linear sports networks including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as ESPN+.

“Hulu, but this time we’re desperate.”

I get the appeal. The idea is that they want to bring to streaming what cable TV was to the over-the-air era – “If you pay for this one bundle, you can watch all sports.” That’s what cable TV still is today. If there’s a big game in college or pro sports, I know I can watch it on some channel somewhere in my cable TV lineup. With cable TV, there’s never a question of whether I can watch a game. The only question is which channel.

Missing from this new partnership, though: NBC Universal. You know, the network of channels owned by … America’s biggest cable TV company, Kabletown. You can’t call it “all sports” without the Olympics or Sunday Night Football.

 ★ 

ESPN:

ESPN, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, FOX and Warner Bros. Discovery have reached an understanding on principal terms to form a new Joint Venture (JV) to build an innovative new platform to house a compelling streaming sports service. The platform brings together the companies’ portfolios of sports networks, certain direct-to-consumer (DTC) sports services and sports rights – including content from all the major professional sports leagues and college sports. The formation of the pay service is subject to the negotiation of definitive agreements amongst the parties. The offering, scheduled to launch in the fall of 2024, would be made available directly to consumers via a new app. Subscribers would also have the ability to bundle the product, including with Disney+, Hulu and/or Max. […]

By subscribing to this focused, all-in-one premier sports service, fans would have access to the linear sports networks including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNEWS, ABC, FOX, FS1, FS2, BTN, TNT, TBS, truTV, as well as ESPN+.

“Hulu, but this time we’re desperate.”

I get the appeal. The idea is that they want to bring to streaming what cable TV was to the over-the-air era – “If you pay for this one bundle, you can watch all sports.” That’s what cable TV still is today. If there’s a big game in college or pro sports, I know I can watch it on some channel somewhere in my cable TV lineup. With cable TV, there’s never a question of whether I can watch a game. The only question is which channel.

Missing from this new partnership, though: NBC Universal. You know, the network of channels owned by … America’s biggest cable TV company, Kabletown. You can’t call it “all sports” without the Olympics or Sunday Night Football.

Read More 

Using a paper clip or SIM-card-tray pin, you can detach the cable from the Vision Pro battery pack. Turns out it looks like a wider Lightning plug. Fat Lightning = Fightning?

 ★ 

Using a paper clip or SIM-card-tray pin, you can detach the cable from the Vision Pro battery pack. Turns out it looks like a wider Lightning plug. Fat Lightning = Fightning?

Read More