Apple – Page 6 – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

Sunday Morning Reading

Back home from travels. Still sharing stuff that warrants attention.

Back home after a couple of weeks on the road. Good times. Crazy times. Nevertheless, it’s Sunday and there’s Sunday Morning Reading to share.

“Life isn’t just about knowing what you should do, or having the resources to do it, it’s about following through.” So says, John Burn-Murdoch in his piece The Troubling Decline In Conscientiousness. I agree there’s a decline. I’m not so sure the remedy is as simple as it sounds.

The AI race is continuing whether we want it to or not. Apparently there’s now a way to create your own TV show if you want to keep diving deeper into your own delusions. Nina Metz has a great piece on this intrusion into the entertainment industry saying After A Long Day, The Last Thing I Want Is To Tell GenAI To Create a TV Show For Me To Watch.

In Notes From The Circus, Mike Brock takes a look at The Faux Intellectuals of Silicon Valley. “When oligarchs treat human civilization as thought experiments while sophisticated courtiers provide intellectual cover, democratic discourse itself becomes impossible.” Nailed it.

I don’t know about you, but my handwriting went downhill mere minutes after I was no longer graded on it. So it has always sucked. So, I’m not sure if NatashaMH’s latest applies in my case, but she is taking a look at what happens When The Handwriting Changes, suggesting that the body keeps score and so does the pen. Damn, if I’d know there was score keeping…

Mathew Ingram takes a look at age gating, the move afoot to protect kids from the perils of the Internet in The UK’s Well-Meaning Online Safety Law Is A Dumpster Fire. American dumpsters won’t be far behind, because we like to hide from the things we think are bad, pretending we’ve solved the problem, instead of addressing the problem.

Matthew Wolfe tells a great story about Chicago and America’s first black detective, who had a few secrets of his own in The Talented Mr. Bruseaux.

The turmoil among Apple users continues to roil for lots of reasons. Certainly this week’s obsequious bending of the knee by Tim Cook has added more to it. I wrote a bit about that here. I like John Gruber’s take on the issue in Gold, Frankincense, and Silicon.

(Image from OlegRi on Shutterstock)

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. If you’d like more click on the Sunday Morning Reading link in the category column to check out what’s been shared on Sunday’s past. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Bending Over Backwards To Bend The Knee

These suck-ups suck.

The idiomatic phrase, “bending the knee” is defined something like this:

“To swear fealty or allegiance to another person. To submit to or show reverence toward a divine power. To show undue deference, obedience, or support for someone or something.”

Focus for a moment on the word “undue” above. It’s the key.

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“Undue” is defined as not appropriate, warranted, or justified; excessive or overextended.

There’s no point really in being duly or unduly outraged any longer by cowardly corporate titans, academic institutions, legal firms, media mavens, and politicians bending the knee to the child rapist and convicted felon Donald Trump. Capitulation and public humiliation has become the name of the game for those who’ve lost any sense of honor and dignity. It appears now that the game has moved into a different quarter, to see who can be the most unduly outrageous in bootlicking and ass kissing.

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When CEOs like Apple’s Tim Cook start bearing ostentatious gifts featuring his company’s treasured and expensively protected branding on a glass plaque, mounted on gold, you have to wonder just how little self-respect these once corporate giants have for themselves, much less their companies.

Sure, they will say it is to protect the business, market share, and their stock holders. That’s largely true. When threatened with a corporate beheading, I’m sure most would prefer keeping their corporate head on their corporate shoulders, shrinking and cowering that they may be. I guess in the circles they travel in, it’s cooler to be a part of the cruel and vulgar crowd that’s grabbed them by the short hairs and made them squeal like so many pigs in a pen, than it is to stand for what’s right.

I’ve given up being shocked, disappointed, and pissed off when things like this happen. It’s become so routine. I look forward to the day when I may run into some of these cowards by chance and laughing in their face, after I spit in it. They may deserver their bonuses after keeping the profits rolling in, but they more than deserve public derision.

I’ve had to swallow some shit in my lifetime catering to donors in the not-for-profit arts game. I get the impulse, and I get the desperation. I’m proud to say I’ve turned away some donations. I’m also ashamed to say I had to accept a few with conditions I didn’t like. So, I get it. I will say that as personally demeaning as the latter instances were, they never jeopardized the image of the company I was working for. I’ll carry my indignity and the tasted of that shit from those instances to my grave.

If this chapter in the decline of humanity ever turns around the only thing certain is that the the shame these corporate, academic, legal, media, and political dwarves have earned will forever stain them and the brands they represent. They will be duly branded.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

AI Customer Support Devalues Customers And The Company That Adopts It

AI customer support isn’t all that intelligent or supporting

I noticed an article on MacRumors that Apple is getting ready to roll out it’s “AI-powered Support Assistant.” Apparently Apple’s only willing to take the risk with tech support and not customer support. That’s where money might exchange bank accounts.

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This is the way the world is spinning at the moment. My prediction is that companies will ratchet back these cost saving moves but not until the realize what it costs in customer loyalty. We have to go through the suck, before we get to the less suck.

I base that prediciton on my experiences spending the better part of this Summer and past Spring helping clients and a few relatives, some elderly, work to cut back on expenses and take care of some warranty repairs for appliances. (Hint: Ditiching warranty services is one way to cut montly costs.)

Timing is everything. My efforts coincided with several of these companies caught in the process of switching to AI solutions for customer and tech support. To be direct, it was a mess. For me, the customer, and also for the employees left holding the bag on the other end of these crazy corporate strategies.

No one would argue that most customer and technical support systems were in good shape previous to these kind of moves. They were indeed ripe for re-inventing and they have always been easy marks for the bean counters to cut corners.

Chatbots had already begun to proliferate, descended from automated phone trees like some form of inverted evolution that only a sadist could love. No one would ever conclude that they had been intelligently designed. My previous experiences were always hit and miss, but at least I understood that if I followed the steps I could eventually reach someone on a phone or live chat. During these transitons that became nigh on near impossible.

Prior to one of the companies I worked making the switch, it had become obvious that they had abandoned call centers and let their agents work from home. I kid you not, I spent one phone call with a barking dog in the background of whatever small quarters this rep was in, and another with two small children fighting with each other in the background of another call.

Let me give you one example from my recent experience with one company undergoing a transiton to AI tech and customer support.

Sears Home Services

Sears Home Services has been a popular home warranty service for many throughout the years. It’s been apparent for a while that services like these have lost their luster and some have devolved into scams. But for folks of certain generations they were always in the monthly budget. In my experience with one of my clients, prior to their switchover, it worked about as well as it was advertised to work. You made a call, talked with an agent, set up an appointment, a technician arrived to check things out, ordered parts if necessary, rescheduled the appointment, and then came back to effect the repair or replacement.

The first repair I assisted with happened just like I described above. The entire process from first call to final signoff on the repair took 10 days.

The second call not so much.

I guessed things were in trouble when the phone number prominently displayed on the webpage would not yield a method of speaking with an agent, but kept pushing me to their chatbot. The chatbot had limited options that you could select. It did not have a way to enter any request beyond those options. My guess is the company didn’t want customers speaking to an agent.

Undaunted, I did the usual online searching for phone numbers and finally stumbled on to a Reddit thread where users experiencing the same problems were reporting phone numbers that worked. Until they didn’t. It was a cat and mouse game of dialing a phone number before it was changed or taken out of service. That lasted about a week.

Finally I succumbed and scheduled an appointment via the chatbot. That chatbot sure was happy. I was told the support technician would contact me the night before to schedule a more specific appointment window. Things were looking up. That call never came. The morning of the appointment I got a text telling me the appointment was scheduled between 8 and 5pm. In my previous experiences these appointments were scheduled in four hour windows.

On the afternoon of the repair, at 5:30pm I got a phone call from a support person saying he would be their in a half-hour. He showed up 45 minutes later. He diagnosed the issue, said he would order parts and they would be shipped directly to me. This was a change I’ll describe later. He then said he needed to go sit in his truck and work with the system to get the parts ordered and that would take a half-hour or so becuase the system was constantly kicking him out mid-order and he would have to start over.

When he came back to finalize everything for that appointment he reiterated that this new system was screwed up. I told him I wasn’t a fan either. We had a good conversation.

Previously, according to him, each night technicians like him would get a list of their appointments for the next day. They would go to a drop ship pickup location for any parts for that day’s appointments, head out and do the work. Now the system sent parts directly to the address of the repair and required the customer to reschedule the next appointment once the parts arrived. Because customers were not receiving notifications of these part shipments, the parts would just show up, often get returned, delaying the inevitable service.

Most striking in his telling was the fact that he no longer received the next day’s list of appointment the night before. Only the first one for the day. Once that was completed he would receive his next appointment. Again, according to him, the previous system in place for dispatching personnel was pretty good at scheduling the next day’s appointments with minimal travel time between appointments. Now with the new system, he would find himself traveling between appointments, often located far apart, more than he would working the repairs.

To begin to bring this ancedote about this repair to a close, suffice it to say that the entire episode from first call to eventual repair has not yet been completed. It begin on May 20. Once it was determined that the appliance needed to be replaced, not repaired (that took two appointments,) a new one was ordered. Then canceled by Sears Home Repair’s system. Then re-ordered.

On the night before the scheduled delivery I got a call that it would be delivered the next day. That morning I got a call saying the delivery would take place that morning. Ten minutes later I got a call saying that the appliance had not been delivered to the delivery driver. (It was too large for a home delivery.) This necessitated canceling the order, re-ordering and a repeat of the process.

Somewhere in the middle of the process phone calls with agents became possible again. Progress? Not quite.

After several discussions with several agents I discovered that they were as challenged as their customers were by the new system. I’m sure you’ve played the escalation game to get to a supervisor and I played that game here as well. At last count I’m waiting on approximately 7 phone calls from supervisors that never came in.

Eventually the appliance was delivered to the delivery person. But there was no record in the system of an appointment to install the new one and remove the old one as per the warranty.

It took a month and two more canceled appointments for installation before Sears finally gave up and said a check would be forthcoming to cover the installation costs. That check has yet to arrive. (That’s why I consider the transaction not completed.) We did get the appliance installed on our own.

But of course, we did receive the usual survey request asking us to rate how well Sears Home Repair Services performed. Once the check arrives and clears the bank, my client will be cancelling that warranty. That will be our response.

Xfinity

One bill I was working on reducing for another client was Xfinity. I probably don’t need to say more if you’ve ever dealt with that company. But I will. I simply wanted to call and discuss plan options for reducing the bill.

No where was I able to get through to a live person. I was sent links to chatbots that would promise a live person, if I followed along, but those calls never connected.

I eventually took a trip to an Xfinity store and got the info and made adjustments to my client’s bill in person. The staff member at that store told me that they were seeing more foot traffic because the online and phone systems were such a mess.

Back to Apple

Now, I began this post mentioning Apple’s move to a generative AI based technical support system. I find this greatly disappointing. In general, because I believe this type of cost cutting move represents a decline in how I value a company because it represents a decline in how these companies view their customers. And in Apple’s case, I have typically found Apple’s tech support to be better than most companies. Not perfect. Still flawed. But better than most.

I’ve had to work through some tricky issues over the years with Apple’s technical support. Some easily resolved. Some not so. One of those issues required several months worth of conversations, eventually reaching up the chain to Craig Federeghi, before getting the issue resovled. I can’t imagine any tech support system being able to measure up to what Apple has currently, even with flaws and failures that require steadfast persistence and often negotiation.

In my attempts to aid my clients I’ve tried some of the AI chatbots that aren’t part of the specific company I’m working with. Typically they spit out much of what I imagine is in the documentation most phone bank customer service reps use to begin a diagnostic process. (Yes, the device or appliance is plugged in.)

I imagine that Apple will use this new system to handle those rudimentary requests that come in that I’m sure fill up the tech support queues and can be resolved easily. I can only hope Apple then passes more difficult issues to an actual human being who can do the type of intervention necessary to reach a resolution. Heaven help us all, and Apple, if they ever automate the degree of support that requires screen sharing over to a robot.

I have yet to meet anyone in the real world that thinks AI on any level is going to fulfill anything close to the promises made by those pushing it. Folks have already seen and felt the results of these early efforts and have turned sour on the entire concept. I think of this like I imagine the last century’s transition to the automobile. Regardless of how some felt upon seeing the first automobiles on the same streets as pedestrian and horse traffic, everyone knew, for better or worse, it was a future they would have to adapt to.

I have encountered a few business owners who think AI will help them create efficiency and reduce costs, but their discussions about what is possible demonstrate a real hype-fed ignorance and hoped for way of cutting costs. I have one client who is smitten with the promise, but is constantly getting bitten by the results.

I’m betting Apple’s move will take a bite out of its customer satisfacton numbers as well.

(Image from Munthia on Shutterstock)

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

The Quest for the Unicorn AI Device

Hyping a tech war that won’t ever happen

Reporters love to declare war, crown winners and dismiss losers. Except of course when it comes to shooting wars and the rhetoric that often leads to them. But that’s not what this post is about. Tim Higgins of The Wall Street Journal, and his headline writers, are declaring that Mark Zuckerberg Just Declared War on the iPhone.

I usually expect this kind of nonsense from the half-a-gazillion blogs and social media accounts out there that like to ginny up controversy to generate clicks. With AI glasses will clicks become blinks?

Now that I think about it, I’m wrong in my expectations because the WSJ, like most of the mainstream media is trying hard (too hard) to follow that pattern these days. It’s an easy game to play in the short term, but then so is the game of companies and governments making big announcements about the future. Remember the “pivot to video?” Remember “virtual reality?” The faux legs went out from underneath that pretty quick.

Higgins does and mentions those failures to capture marketshare beyond the initial hype and funding fevers. Nevertheless, he forgets a few simple things during his embedded tour on this march to the promise of “Personal Super Intelligence.” (That’s this fiscal quarter’s new label.) Zuckerberg might indeed be banging the war drums by propagandizing AI glasses as the latest form factor of mass destruction, but it’s too much hype without enough rhythm to marshall the troops. And to be fair, most of Higgins’ column is just regurgitating old news (AI summary?) that has been bouncing around in what passes for new news these days, tacking Zuckerberg’s recent announcement on as the headline war cry.

Bottom line in my opinion, we’re not going to see any new form factor take down iPhones, smartphones as a category, or computers, as the way we live, work and play in any near future. Folks have been waiting for all kinds of second comings for quite awhile now. I love how even the coming of advanced AI is now referred to as “near emergence.”

One day perhaps. Long after most of us interested in what this technological moment might eventually yield will have forgotten what Medicare and Medicaid were actually about. If and when that day arrives, the real clicks (blinks?) will be in tutorials on how to turn off all of the notifications and other distractions and keep the tech from tracking you.

I’m old enough to remember when FourSquare came on the scene. The promise was you’d walk down the street and receive a notification from the coffee shop you just passed about the daily special. That never really materialized, but the tech was different then. Google and Waze later tried that and just annoyed any driver who stopped at stoplights looking for their next turn.

When the marketing survelllance mavens can figure out how not to send me ads for something I just bought I think there might actually be a chance for that kind of thing to work. A small chance, but a chance. But they’re not even close to that on the backend, let alone integrating them into some device that might pinch your nostrils after wearing them for too long.

Don’t get me wrong. I think it is indeed cool when companies create niche products that give some people joys and hobbies. Bits and pieces of that kind of innovation often creep into bigger things that do help our lives somewhere down the road. Even if they become creepy. Obviously I’d prefer they not become creepy, but that’s where the money is and the creeps always follow the money.

I’d much prefer to see the money and the hype meisters follow something like this that could probably actually help humanity. But even that kind of innovation can attract the creep factor.

Call me when a reporter can research, write, and submit for editing a column like this one I’m complaining about with a pair of AI glasses, an Alexa device, or a pendant, or any other smart device currently in the works.

Call me again, when the AI summary machines can actually deliver an accurate summarization of that article.

You can also find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Two Interesting Takes on iPadOS 26

iPadOS 26 beta reactions are making me think twice about installing

As I continue to live vicariously, watching from the sidelines through this summer’s Apple beta season, two interesting takes on iPadOS 26 have crossed my radar and are worth sharing.

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First up, Harry McCracken says what most using iPadOS 26 are saying that Apple has made the iPad more Mac-like. But he also wonders where that might lead? Check out his post here.

Follow that up with M.G. Seigler’s post. He thinks Apple might have created sort of a Mac, Jr. His post is from prior to the release of the public beta.

Both gentlemen delve deeper than the “what’s a computer?” discussion into other facets of the betas and both posts are worth your time, if iPads are your thing. That “what’s a computer?” question is going to probably be with us through most of the next year.

FYI. I’m adding an iPad category to this little corner of the web. I have a feeling we’re going to be talking quite a bit about iPads in the months to come.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Through A Glass Darkly: Apple’s Liquid Glass Future Isn’t Clear

Continuing to watch Apple’s Betas from the sidelines.

Apple’s adventures with its new Liquid Glass design language reminds me of the title of a terrific, yet gloomy, Ingmar Bergman film, Through a Glass Darkly. Keep in mind that I’m not running the beta and living vicariously through the reactions of those whose opinions I trust. That said, based on some of those opinions of the recently released 4th developer beta, the future of Apple’s new design approach appears less than clear.

From most accounts it’s a battle between legibility and the “coolness” of the design’s featured transparency that overlays content with the intent for the content below to bleed through. The challenge seems to be finding the right amount of bleed through that also allows users to easily read a notification or a control.

In my view, the challenge with that challenge seems to be one of fighting things you can’t control. Holding liquid in your bare hands without spilling a drop might be easier. Every website and app designer has their own preference and approach. Even Apple apparently has difficulty as some of their own apps with background bleed through obscuring text.

Since Apple announced Liquid Glass there have been three iterations of the approach. In a sort of Goldilocks and the Three Bears adventure with Apple dialing transparency features back and forth. Now in the 4th version of the developer beta reengaging more transparency. Searching for a “just right” solution doesn’t yet seem to be yielding any clear direction. But then, Apple’s ambitions, perhaps by design, have created a lose-lose short term future. The eventual product will never please everyone with this design change. But to be fair, that’s always the case with design changes and the folks at Apple knew that going in.

There are other usability issues as well, including things like making it easy to tell which tab or control is in focus, and having to tap multiple times to perform a function that used to be one tap to name a couple I see repeatedly mentioned.

But the clear focus of complaints (and some praise) is Liquid Glass. I would venture that for users it’s still too early to judge, but supposedly the Public Beta is due soon and the consensus is that what we see there will be pretty close to what we see in the Fall. Developers on the other hand are increasingly worried about Apple’s search for a “just right” solution while they try to find a path forward to have their own apps ready for the big release alongside or close to the release of this new wave of operating systems.

The problem becomes magnified when designing for the lowest common denominator with so many users. From my perspective of supporting clients and family members, most folks just want to pick up their devices and do what they want or need to do. They don’t want a new learning curve getting in the way. They certainly don’t want legibility issues to get in the way. There’s a real tension between what Apple needs to do to keep the cash registers ringing and the familiarity users want that I don’t think the folks in Cupertino understand given the annual pace they seem locked into.

The Bigger Picture

From where I sit on the sidelines, I think Apple has also created some real and perhaps less transparent problems beyond how Liquid Glass eventually rolls out.

Coming on the heels, and at least somewhat intended as a distraction from last year’s Apple Intelligence and Siri woes, Apple needs to create a clear narrative surrounding Liquid Glass in order to sell this year’s new crop of iPhones. (I imagine the commercials have already been scripted if not filmed.)

That already seemed like quite a challenge given that the only big hardware news this year is the rumored introduction of a smaller, lighter, apparently with less features iPhone Air. I don’t imagine that Apple’s traditional iPhone lineup is going to have new features to tout that makes those familiar device form factors must haves or must upgrades.

If you’re counting on a flashy UI design change as the distraction that gets criticized as much as the issue you’re trying to distract from you’re magnifying your problems. Unless of course, you bank on criticism of the distraction further distracting from bigger issues.

Adding to that, the larger narrative has somewhat already passed by this year’s iPhones to what comes next year, with just about everyone assuming Apple’s version of folding iPhones will be the new focus.

Sum all of that up and this is starting to feel potentially like a lost year for Apple. Sure, Apple will sell lots of iPhones, but if it can’t capture the imagination the way Apple usually does, much of the narrative will be wait ’til next year. Apple historically takes a long view. Time will tell if they have lost control of the visible horizon.

iPadOS 26

That said, somewhat under the radar, iPad beta users continue to trumpet the success of changes made in iPadOS 26. I’m looking forward to seeing that myself. That said, as much as those potential changes will be welcome, I can’t imagine that’s the tentpole Apple wants to rely on to create excitement this year.

I mentioned the film Through A Glass Darkly in the opening of this post. The story of that classic film is about a family that gathers to try and heal after a member diagnosed with schizophrenia is released from an asylum. If you ask me, the challenges we’re seeing at Apple with design changes, Apple Intelligence and Siri among other things demonstrate that there are multiple personalities exhibiting control at various times within Apple, at a time when some turnover at the top is already underway, with quite a few calling for more.

As always, I recommend Michael Tsai’s Blog as a good source to keep track of how all of this continues to develop.

And with that, I’ll leave this update from the sidelines with this.

Update: The public betas for all of Apple’s new operating systems were released shortly after this post was originally published.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Sunday Morning Reading

Notice the good things amidst the bad.

It’s been a week. But I repeat myself. These days it seems like that’s always the case. Superman’s back. (Again.) So too are this season’s butterflies. Everything circles back. Today’s Sunday Morning Reading is a potpourri of topics of interest that stroke a number of chords, some familiar, some not so, some good, some not so. Either way, enjoy.

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In That Was Good, Merlin Mann says that smart people always find the best reasons for being very sad. I can relate. He suggests the cure for that might be noticing some good things. Even the small ones. Check it out. It’s a good thing.

This week featured the news revisiting the subject matter of several plays I’ve written or directed in the past. One of those, Inherit the Wind, the play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, is a semi-fictional retelling of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. This year marks the 100th year anniversary of that trial. Neil Steinberg has a terrific piece, both commemorating and commiserating. Given how short a distance we’ve traveled in this circle we keep walking in. Check out 100 Years Ago, The Scopes Trial Gripped The Nation, And Here We Go Again.

Twice a week on social media I post “This is your now weekly, and continuing reminder that we’re still fighting the Civil War.” Frankly, I don’t see it any other way for reasons I shouldn’t have to explain. I don’t often post interviews in this column, but I’m making an exception this week to post Amita Sharma’s interview with political scientist Barbara Walter who has helped forecast civil wars in other countries. Take a look at San Diego Political Expert Details Steps That Could Lead To US Civil War.

I blow hot and cold on Tom Nichols’ political commentary. I very much like his piece Damn You All To Hell! Find out his thoughts on how Hollywood taught a generation to fear nuclear catastrophe. It might have worked with that horror. Funny, yet sad, how it hasn’t worked with all of the goings on currently.

History is indeed always an incomplete picture that’s always evolving and struggling to take hold. In Texas Man’s Fight To Move A Lynching Marker Sparks New Battle For Truth, Christina Carrega pinpoints one of those moments of evolution.

Mathew Ingram says We Shouldn’t Blame AI For The Stupid Things That People Do. I agree. AI is the prime example.

Chris Castle takes on a piece of the Section 230 argument, thinking that a new theory of liability is emerging, grounded not in speech, but in conduct. Give a look at The Duty Comes From The Data: Rethinking Platform Liability In The Age of Algorithmic Harm.

And to round out the circle this week, take a look at David Sparks’ A Remarkable, Unremarkable Thing. Don’t let the small things go unnoticed.

(Image from Anya Chernik on Unsplash)

If you’re interested in just what the heck Sunday Morning Reading is all about you can read more about the origins of Sunday Morning Reading here. You can also find more of my writings on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome.

Random Thoughts and Links Looking Ahead to an Apple Beta Summer

A summer of viewing betas from the sidelines.

We’re already several weeks deep in Apple’s beta season for all of its operating systems. As of this writing the second developer betas have been released. We’re due to see the first public beta this month and that’s when things will really heat up. I’m not a developer and I no longer run betas on any of my Apple hardware, choosing to live vicariously until the official releases this fall.

Apple WWDC25 iPadOS 26 hero 250609.

I have to admit though that I was tempted to pick up another iPad given the changes to iPadOS 26 and the general early positive reactions to it. But I stuck to my guns and will look forward to what some trusted sources have to say over the course of the summer.

Speaking of, if you’re interested in following how the new operating systems develop and evolve over the summer, I’m going to list several links to sources you might want to follow, if you don’t already. That list will come at the end of this post.

As to my random thoughts I have three.

First, it looks like Apple’s big Liquid Glass design change will indeed garner most of the focus this year. That was certainly the intent, and from what I’ve seen Apple is on the way to pulling it off, certainly on the iPhone and the iPad. The jury is still out for the Mac at this early juncture in the beta season. Even so, it appears Apple has managed to add a shiny new coat of paint that won’t confuse most users when it comes to familiar functionality of their devices.

Second, as I said previously I’m excited to see the changes in iPadOS 26. Depending on the job at hand, and whether or not I’m home or away, I jump between Macs and iPads frequently. I’m looking forward to what these changes mean when I’m primarily working on an iPad away from home.

Third, the deeper integration of Shortcuts with Apple Intelligence (whatever that may come to mean) and also with Spotlight has me intrigued. I don’t use a ton of shortcuts and currently rely on Raycast as a launcher for those I do use. If I had two wishes on this I would hope that this plays out the way it proposes to do, and I would hope Apple could finally find a way to keep what happens behind the scenes with Shortcuts from constantly breaking. Giving app developers access to the App Intent Framework and the Foundation Models Framework promises good things, if Apple can avoid the infrastructure hiccups of the past. Although I’m sure that will usher in a different sort of hiccups going forward.

Good Apple, Bad Apple

On another note, I, like many this year, have had a hard time reconciling my views about what I consider wrong moves from Apple the corporation with my preference for Apple hardware and software. I’ve thought long and hard about it and at the bottom of that deep well of thought the decision to stick with my current Apple tool set comes from the fact that I support a lot of friends, family members, and a few small businesses that use Apple products. I have no desire to abandon that part of my life personally, even if Apple’s actions pisses me off to the point where I’m occasionally ready to chuck gear into the trash. Convincing those I support to shift gears would mean saying goodbye to that part of the relationship for the most part (I’ve explored this) and neither they nor I am ready for that.

Is that a trap? Perhaps, depending on your point of view and I won’t argue against that. Am I talking out of both sides of my mouth? Also, perhaps. But I think using and enjoying products of a company gives you a bigger license to criticize.

So, I’m sticking with things for the moment, but I will say that I’m paying close attention to folks like Denny Henke who’ve made different choices than mine. I admire their approach and am always learning. I’m also paying close attention to how Apple handles things going forward. I despise this dilemma.

Links

I’m going to link to a few specific articles from which you should be able to get back to the homepages of the various sources, some are just the homepage links.

Michael Tsai’s Blog always contains an excellent collection of links to various sources worth following. In fact, it may be the one stop source for quite a bit of Apple News.

Six Colors is an excellent source for information and reviews. This is one source to look to when the first public betas drop for good reviews of what we will know at that time. Jason Snell, Dan Moren, and now with Glenn Fleishman as a contributor, always provide excellent coverage.

Speaking of reviews, MacStories is another go to site when reviews of software drop. While they cover a range of gadget topics beyond Apple, the coverage there is quite good, even if it sometimes is aimed more at advanced users.

Parker Ortolani has recently started blogging and his thoughts are always worth a look.

If you’re looking for a developer’s perspective check out Craig Hockenberry’s furbo.org. Craig is a founder of the iconfactory, which is responsible for a number of apps including, Tapestry, Wallaroo, Linea Sketch, Tot, and more including the original Twitterrific for Macs and iPhones.

Craig Grannell’s blog, Stuff, is also a good source to add to your reading list or RSS reader.

Myke Hurly has also started blogging in addition to his many podcasting chores. Check out his blog, The Enthusiast.

Louie Mantia, Jr. is an artist and designer who lends that perspective to his writings about Apple and its designs.

John Gruber’s Daring Fireball is always a must read.

There are certainly more that are worth your time, but the ones I’ve linked to here continue to provide me with not only good information, but some good and deeper thoughts beyond the surface news. It’s going to be an interesting beta season viewing it from the sidelines.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Is Apple’s F1 Push Ad Enshittification or Just Shitty?

Apple pushing ads push users’ buttons

As if Apple needed another kerfuffle, it appears that one of its marketing efforts for the movie F1 has raised the hackles on the necks of some. You almost have to be tuned out completely to have missed the plethora of marketing methods Apple has already been pushing around the racetrack to get this movie to the starting line. But there’s always more.

Apple started pushing out Apple Wallet notifications to users of that service announcing that they could receive a discount for movie theater tickets via Fandango by purchasing those tickets with, yep, you guessed it, Apple Pay.

I saw the notification late last night and just swiped it away the way I do the majority of these mosquito-like pests. Too bad I didn’t take a screenshot.

But Casey Liss, of The Accidental Tech Podcast trio grabbed one and posted about it on Mastodon, accompanied by a vomiting emoji.

New Screenshot.

Those who felt as ill about the promotion as Casey did quickly jumped in, condemning it and pulling out the enshittification label that we’ve all become familiar with since it was coined by Cory Doctorow in 2022.

Yes, it is advertising, but I’m not sure it was enshittification. Perhaps we’re reaching the point of shitting all over that label and diminishing, yet revealing its power in sort of a weird turning in on itself way that proves the original meaning behind the original term even while mucking it up by using it too frequently.

Granted there aren’t too many who lust for the ever increasing onslaught of advertising and marketing pitches we’re bombarded with hourly. I’m certainly not one who does. But advertising and marketing, as overused and overwrought as it has become, in and of itself isn’t enshittification, no matter how fast it grows like weeds rapidly enveloping every corner of our Internet usage.

My grandfather used to say that “a weed is anything that grows where you don’t want it to.” Most of today’s advertising certainly feels weed like. And it keeps getting worse, especially when pushed at us from sources we don’t expect it from. Amazon we expect this from. Apple not so much. Though there is a history there.

In my view of things, Apple advertising this promotion is really not that much different than a podcast advertising its latest merch to its audience or promoting a fundraiser. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not shitting on The Accidental Tech Podcast, which does both of those things. I actually pay for a subscription and occasionally buy their merch and donate when they fundraise. Captive audience marketing is an age old technique and it works. I’ve used it myself. Even so, it can grow old and tip over into enshittification.

But there’s a larger point.

Eventually most users tune out. I used to deliver a curtain speech pitching the next play or special offer before every performance at a theatre I ran. Initially they were wildly successful. Eventually returns diminished. That may be anecdotal, but I believe the more ads increase the more they become the blandest of white noise or even a turn off to the product. Again, anecdotally I had initial interest in the F1 movie, but after the inundation of advertising I’ve already decided my interest has waned. So I’m certainly not going to be contributing to Apple’s goal of finally putting butts in theater seats for one of its movies. I’ll catch it sometime down the line on streaming.

Overhyping, as a facet of enshittification can too easily create diminishing returns, gradually enshittifying the very business models of the enshittifiers. Mosquitos can’t feed when everyone within their range packs up and goes indoors and they eventually move on or die out.

We just haven’t reached that tipping point in this bloodsucking business model we’re trapped in currently. In his original post outlining the enshittification of early social media platforms Doctorow says “the same forces that drove rapid growth drove rapid collapse.”

I doubt we’ll reach that tipping point in advertising. Because there’s a whole new frontier that the enshittifiers are just waiting to exploit and that’s AI. Google’s moving away from search faster than its search rankings are dropping and there’s no secret on the path it’s choosing.

I’ve often imagined that perhaps AI could be one of our salvations in the advertising scheme of things, figuring out better than humans seem capable of doing when enough is enough. But those driving that racetrack see the possibility of too many dollar signs to make that more than just a wild imagining no matter how much sense it might make.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.

Federicio Viticci and Craig Federighi Go One on One about the iPad

A great article and interview for iPad users.

If you’re an iPad user (or even if you’re not) this post is just a quick link to recommend that you check out an excellent article containing an interview by MacStories’ Federico Viticci of Craig Federighi.

New Screenshot.

There has been much consternation and tension among iPad fans over the last few years. Viticci has long been an iPad advocate and had, like many seen his ardor cool while Apple seemingly was cooling its jets on the platform. Federighi sitting down with Viticci is quite a PR move on Apple’s part.In and of itself is a signal by choosing the iPad’s most ardent supporter and vociferous critic.

There’s a chance Apple has jumpstarted those jets a bit based on the iPadOS 26 announcements at WWDC, and from some of the early reactions we’ve seen from some developers and users. While those reactions seem genuinely positive, we’ll need to see how things shape up as the summer beta season rolls along.

The one thing is certain, there will be new life in the iPad discussion after iPadOS 26. Viticci’s article has laid great groundwork on which that discussion can take place.

Load it up on your iPad and give it a read.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.