Tech – Life on the Wicked Stage: Act 3

The iPhone Duo and Lack Of Liquid Glass Seem Confusing To Me

A curious design choice or a clueless observer?

It’s been interesting to watch coverage of the new iPhone Duo. Regardless of how you feel about the device it is certainly something different and I dare say exciting to talk about.

Siri ai hero c59xcl4s2n2a large 2x. I haven’t seen or fondled the device in person as of yet. I’m planning a trip to a local Apple Store at some point early this week to see and touch it for myself. I’m sure my reactions will be similar to most. It’s a cool new piece of tech that has some first generation issues.

Regardless of how that visit pans out, I still don’t think the device is something I’m interested in. Perhaps in a future evolution. Perhaps one that is a folding iPad mini without all of the phone guts. I’d find that appealing. I’m guessing we’re at least a couple of years off from Apple and the carriers finding a way to make the Handoff feature, that seems obviously designed to attract folks who might want to own both a traditional slab phone and a folding phone, work as smoothly as Apple wants it to be. I certainly don’t want to pay for another phone line even as an add-on.

One thing I’ve noticed in reading and watching reviews is the right margin separation that Apple has segregated for the dock and controls, which I believe is the case in most orientations. I have seen images of some apps that also have controls on the left side when the device is open and showing two apps side-by-side. But that’s certainly not the case on the closed front screen. Even so, those I’ve seen seem to adhere to that separate toolbar (for lack of a better descriptor) approach. Apple chalks this up to a lack of vertical display space requiring these controls being located on the margins.

(See the update on the above below.)

When I look at it and hear complaints from others about how that leads to wasted space, it makes me wonder why the choice. Certainly in the context of what the original promise of Liquid Glass was all about. It just seems natural to me that any of those controls could overlay content in a liquidly-glassy sort of way. I’m not saying that would be ideal, but to my eye it sure seems logical.

I could be off base completely and there may be some tech or design reason I’m not understanding. Although I do note that there is talk (rumors?) that Apple is working on ways to make Safari feel less cramped, and give developers more freedom in designing their apps.

There’s an interesting article by Lavande that relates to this that might be worth your time if your’e as curious or clueless as I am.

The only thing I’m sure of is whatever the second generation of the iPhone Duo turns out to be, I bet we’re in for some changes given the excitement around the new device and both the positive and negative feedback Apple has received so far.

Update: I did take that trip to the Apple Store. And at least one Apple app, Maps, does look more like what I would expect apps (at least Apple’s) to look like with Liquid Glass with the controls overlaying the content. I’ll write up more about my iPhone Duo fondling experience in the next day or so.

Thanks for reading. You can subscribe to this blog if you care to. 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. This site does not use affilate links.

Sunday Morning Reading

Personal hells, trick, treats, and that thing about writing

Writing a blog is an interesting experience. So is reading them. The best blogs are the ones where the person behind the keyboard shines through. You can say it takes courage to put yourself and your opinions out there. You would be correct. A lot of that got diminished when social media took over because of its hit and run nature. But blogs and the writers behind them are still there and surface now and again. Today’s Sunday Morning Reading features a few along with a few other tricks and treats. Hope you check them and the rest of the links out.

Good writing stands out. Even on the Internet where it comes in small waves and ripples, subsequently washed away by more of the same, or often overwhelmed by the slop running alongside threatening to take it over. David Todd McCarty’s A Stream Has No Memory isn’t about that necessarily, and yet it is. All things flow.

As I mentioned, personal blogging took a hit when the age of social media dawned. Yet, those that still exist, though not always as prolific, still provide insight when a writer allows you to peek into deeper waters. In many ways putting yourself out there, regardless of where, can easily become a personal hell. There’s been quite a controversy eddying about in tech circles about some who loudly condemned what was formerly Twitter reversing course and just as publicly announcing that they are returning. To each their own personal hell, I guess. I’ve stated my feelings about that here and here. Noted developer Marco Arment took to his blog with a post simply and aptly titled Community. It isn’t about what X marks the spot, it’s about what I believe deep down we all search for when we choose to share ourselves in our writing and our creative work. It can be lonely even with a magnitude of followers in whatever personal hell you choose to put yourself into.

Jason Snell links to an excellent post by Cory Doctorow called Critique And Writing. Yes, it’s about AI and folks using it to generate editorial feedback, but it’s about so much more. We develop critical thinking by critiquing the work of others who work in the same field, whether it be writing or other disciplines. I had an acting professor once tell the class that the way we responded to the work of others told him more about how we were developing (or not) as actors as the work we ourselves did onstage.

In the category of things we all share but wish we didn’t Neil Steinberg takes on scams and their persistent and constantly replicating existence in I Look Forward To Reviewing Your Proposal And Learning About The Quest For Pie.

Natasha MH takes a look at perhaps the year’s most controversial film, Digger, in Hail The Conquering Heroes. That film is becoming a personal measuring stick for me as to who sees the world we live in as I do and who doesn’t.

Halloween is upon us. With grandkids that’s quite a treat. But it can also be tricky. I’m headed there next weekend because my grandson has convinced us that we have to go trick-or-treating with him and his sister. He’s chosen for me to be costumed as a T-Rex. (Wearing costumes is my own personal hell.) Regardless of my escapades, I marvel at all of the decorations that abound and proliferate in yards up and down every block of every town rendering them all somewhat meaningless. Rex Huppke takes on the topic in America Has An Addiction To Giant Halloween Skeletons.

And if Halloween spirits swirling amongst all of the evil things going on in the real world aren’t enough to scare the beejeebus out of you give a read to Max Seddon’s piece The Putin Whisperers about three men who worked to stop Putin from unleashing nuclear Armageddon. Some things are just damn scary.

All things flow.

(Image from The Cleveland Museum of Art on Unsplash.)

Thanks for reading. Feel free to subscribe if you want. It’s free. 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. This site does not use affilate links.

Previews, Pre-Season, Betas, and Opening Nights

Some more thoughts on the iPhone Duo release with a dash of theatre and sports tossed in the mix

There’s an old saying in the theatre biz. No show is ever really ready on opening night. It’s a cliché that has seen it’s time pass in the big money commercial circuit because so many producers run lengthy preview weeks, charging essentially, but not quite, full price to avoid reviewers publishing their criticisms until the show is officially open. The preview process began lengthing after the days of out-of-town tryouts came to an end, although we see that still happening occasionally as larger regional theatres will debut a work, allowing it to still be worked on, hoping that it will one day make it to Broadway.

Apple iPhone Duo closed and open_big.jpg.large_2x.

There was a famous production of Eugene O’Neil’s play Hughie, starring and directed by Al Pacino, that ran in previews for almost a month before finally opening. That led to a critic from Daily Variety breaking the only after opening night embargo a week early since the announced limited run would end up with less “real” performances than those in previews after the show officially opened. The show would go on to extend the run a couple of times.

In smaller circuits the cliché still lives on, simply because of a lack of resources to run many preview performances in front of audiences to really gauge reaction before it officially opens. A show can look great in final dress rehearsals, but it’s never complete until there’s a paying audience of strangers sitting in the dark to tell if it works or not. The ever-present lack of time still breathes life into the cliché in ways that offer both hope and anxiety behind opening night curtains around the world.

In the professional sports world teams play in a pre-season or spring training games that don’t matter while the players tune up for the real thing. Although in most of those types of meaningless games it’s really more like watching players audition than it is anything else. Occasionally a budding star emerges, but that’s atypical. Early “real” season games that do count (at full price) are when teams find out what they have, leading knowledgeable sports viewers knowing when it is time to pay real attention to a team’s chances or not.

Those are two interests in my life. I’m a theatre professional (and geek) and I watch sports. Another is my interest in tech. In tech we have betas. Or we used to, when that was mostly for software. Now we’re just in previews, pre-season, or perpetual betas forever for both software and hardware. Which is somewhat understandable, yet weird, perhaps ironic, but ultimately a joke on the paying public, given the pace in which things are always advancing in tech, including the pace and price of advancement.

We never seem to reach opening night, opening day or the end of a beta period in tech. Instead products and software are released incomplete, occasionally followed immediately by “leaks” that suggest the company that just took your money for it’s latest best product ever is working on fixing the things they knew were wrong for the next version when they released the product you just payed for.

But you’re going to love it.

It’s easier to swallow with software. It’s a bigger pill that sticks in the craw with hardware.

It used to be that betas were for working out bugs. They still are to a degree, but now they’re just the next show in a never-ending season, or the latest minor-league call up. But you still pay full price for the game when the team needs to put a not ready for the big leagues pitcher on the mound just to fulfill its obligation to play the announced season.

You can argue that there’s nothing wrong with the way things have evolved in tech because the financial equations are different. It requires a substantial upfront investment to create, produce and deliver new technology. You’d be mostly wrong, but you can argue it. Most of the costs in show biz happen upfront before a show even gets close to an audience, hopefully a large enough one in a long enough run to recoup the initial investment. It is a different equation in sports.

The release of Apple’s iPhone Duo strikes me as an interesting entry in this evolution of consumer dynamics. Soon, perhaps too soon, before the product was released to the general public, leaks popped out that Apple was working on tweaks to two of the major criticisms of the device for the next generation — a larger model and adding FaceID. That followed criticism from reviewers.

In general, most tech reviews I read, watched, or listened to made it very clear that the iPhone Duo was a first generation device with some rough edges that wasn’t for everyone, especially at the entry price. I can’t judge those reviews myself since I haven’t seen the product, but they mostly seemed very similar and to my mind fair. Some, sounding more like theatre critics or sport writers I’ve known, were more harsh, delivering criticism that might have prompted a closing notice being posted before intermission or an early game benching.

Here’s where my three interests diverge a bit. In theatre the show can close early if it’s savaged or not enthusiastically endorsed by reviews. In sports a pro team can retool a bit by trading or signing free agents midseason. Tech companies have to play out the run with tech hardware until the next generation is ready.

Given the leaks following the reviews I find it sort of funny that I’m in a place of feeling a bit sorry for the carriers that are offering great deals on the iPhone Duo subsidized by a three year contract. That’s a tough sell to anyone who pays attention, though admittedly most won’t if they’re hot to trot for the new shiny folding phone from Apple.

It’s my hunch, and only a hunch, that Apple knew these criticisms were coming. Even so, it’s one thing to prepare the next version hoping to make changes that advance a platform, it’s another to make them in reaction to negative press once the product is unveiled. It sets you up in the next round for being congratulated for fixing what was wrong the last time.

In the theatre if a joke doesn’t land, you can replace the joke in previews. In sports you bench a player or fire a coach. With tech hardware it’s not that easy changing things before it becomes a punch line. (See the Vision Pro.)

My second hunch, only a hunch, is that the iPhone Duo will eventually become a successful part of Apple’s lineup and get past what feels like a rough opening. I don’t think it will enter into Vision Pro punchline territory. Critics of all human endeavors need something to criticize as much as companies need to produce the next thing. It’s a symbiotic relationship that feeds on itself. And the always distracted general public has short-term memory bordering on amnesia.

It’s my wish that tech companies, like theatre companies and sports teams, would figure out a better path to the success they seek. Sure, you might be able to fool some of the people all of the time. But for the most part folks figure it out on their own. Some of the time. And that some of the time is what everybody on the producing end of things counts on.

iPhone Duo Reviews Yield Few Surprises and A Preventable PR Faux Pas By Apple

The jury is still out after the early reviews break

When Apple introduced the iPhone Duo in September I called it “the ultimate wait and see device.” Folks have waited, and now some folks have seen, fondled, written and talked about it. Those who got lucky in the preorder lottery will see iPhone Duos tomorrow and quite a few will be waiting a bit longer given supply and demand issues. From most accounts I’d say there’s still a bit of waiting and seeing to come.

Apple iPhone Duo optimized apps Netflix 2_big.jpg.large_2x.

Generally reviewers were excited by the new device. Even if their comments about certain aspects were scathing. Of course none of them paid $2000+ for the review units. It will be interesting to see which ones do. But the excitement was tempered with many of the same questions folks had immediately following the introduction and the initial hands on impressions: The weight, reachability for left-handers, the small cover screen, the button placements, no FaceID, cameras, etc…

One of the big questions then and now, was how third party apps would work given the short lead time for developers to get their apps updated for the multiple screens and new layouts. More than a few weren’t ready for reviewers when they received their review unit. Several I read complained about this and warned that it was going to take a while for developers to catch up, leading to some subpar experiences. Again, that’s been said over and over since the Duo was introduced. Those reviews also mentioned how updated apps continued to roll out during the week that they had to check out the devices.

Intriguingly the day after the reviews dropped Apple popped out a press release touting the apps that will be ready when these devices make it into consumers’ hands or shortly thereafter. If you ask me that’s a sloppy unApple-like PR move that could have been avoided by having that info ready for reviewers. It wouldn’t have avoided all the words and talk about the issue, but it would have cast it in a different light. Apple never looks good when it’s playing catch-up. If that was a strategy, it was a poor one.

But that’s largely inside baseball in the way the gadget reviewing game is anyway. The real test will come when real users get their hands on the device and figure out how to hold it and work with it.

Below is a list of reviews I found interesting, mostly for their similarities. Again, pointing out questions or issues easily surmised after the Duo’s initial introduction.

That said, one interesting theme emerged in these reviews, from some subtextual, while others stated it bluntly: folks like the iPad-ness of the Duo’s larger unfolded screen quite a bit, with some wishing Apple had just created a folding iPad mini.

I find that thinking fascinating given my history with the iPhone. I stayed away from the first iPhone and didn’t get into what would become iOS until Apple released the iPod Touch later in 2007. I got on board the iPhone train with the 3GS. Keep in mind that the iPhone, as exciting as the early models were, didn’t really take off until the iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 generations.

The Verge: The iPhone Duo Is A Messy, Expensive Good Time.

The Wall Street Journal: iPhone Duo Review: Too Much IPhone, Too Little iPad

Tech Radar: I Spent A Week With the Apple IPhone Duo — And Yes, It Was Worth The Wait

Wired: Review: Apple iPhone Duo

9to5Mac: iPhone Duo Review: The Future Is Foldable

New Things With Joanna Stern: The Good, The Bad, and the Buggy

Daring Fireball: The iPhone Duo

As I’ve previously stated, I’m sitting on the sidelines and watching this all unfold. It’s still too early for me or anyone to draw any real conclusions. But based on what I’ve been reading and listening to, it sounds like next year’s Duo might be less of an expensive prototype than this first edition. We’ll understand better how the first iPhone Duo will fare about the time we start hearing rumors about the next one in January. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even see that folding iPad mini in a year or two.

Apple’s Coming Attractions

Will Apple deliver beyond the hype?

We’ve seen the trailers. We’re in the swirl of they hype storm. What the real story wil be is yet to unfold. Even so, some are declaring success before the first reel even kicks off.

It’s not hard to see the excitement around the iPhone Duo, Apple’s folding iPhone, and the Homeview gadget meant to be used in your home by you and all of your very loud family members. Even so, Time Magazine’s cover story about The Best Inventions of 2026, featuring new Apple CEO John Ternus feels a bit premature.

I’m not poo-pooing what these new Apple devices may offer. No one knows. And that’s the point. I’ve got questions about both I want to see answered once the devices are in real users’ hands and how that all fits in with Apple’s philosophy about making the iPhone the center of your universe.

I especially have questions about the Homeview after seeing Apple’s video trailer for the device. That’s based on the fact that nothing I’ve seen so far in any OS with a 27 at the tail end of it works as fast as that bit of video makes you want to believe. Much less fast user switching. Siri AI may be improved, but it’s still feels slower than the non-AI version of a year ago. Perhaps an OS update will fix that at some point in the future. But these devices roll out sooner than that.

I’d love to see these new gadgets be winners and live up to the hype and the promises. That may indeed happen. I actually hope it does.

My hesitancy and skepticism is that I’ve yet to see Apple’s software come close to living up to that hype, much less the speed or efficiency I believe everyone wants. In fact, given that much of this is somehow connected via Apple’s flavor of AI, Apple Intelligence, I’ve yet to see any chatbot of any stripe deliver on that kind of promise consistently. And consistency is the key. Or at least should be.

But then again, all the world’s a beta these days.

Don’t Tune Out. Pay Attention

Watching the world whiz by

It usually begins with “I don’t follow politics” or “I’m nor political.” But the topic can be interchangeable. Tech, sports, etc… It’s a choice. Even not choosing is a choice. One can argue, (I frequently do) that when you tune out or become tired or uninterested in a topic, then you’ve essentially surrendered. Whatever the other side is, you’ve let them win by removing yourself from the board.

Zoe vandewater oMpoyoO01Tg unsplash. Life can be tiresome. Increasingly it feels more so. Certianly in the wake of so much merciilessly bad news that it’s difficult to see how giving your attention might have an impact, much less worth your time and energy. I’ll be the first to admit trying to keep up is enough to drive anyone to just walk away.

It’s also makes it appealing to just to focus on the many good things that you enjoy in life.

Call me crazy (most do) but that’s how the forces who do pay attention on their quest to achieve whatever their aims are want you to feel how they want you to act. Overwhelmed. Overwhelmed to the point of tuning out, turning away or rolling over.

If you’ve tuned out, gotten pissed off, or just become no longer curious, the game is still afoot, and you’re not playing. You might think you’re canceling someone. But the only one you’re canceling is you.

By the time big changes come around that actually have a direct impact on your life, the game has moved on. And if you’re trying to get on board at that point, you’re late to the party and only there to pick up the pieces.

I’ve lived through enough moments in life when those who paid attention could see the direction the path ahead was revealing, and just enough tuned out to give those forging the path all the runway they needed.

Look, no one can keep up with everything. That’s just a reality. If there’s one good thing that has come out of the age of social media is that we can at least remain peripherally aware of the debates and arguments in ways we couldn’t before social media.

Even a peripheral awareness is better than a self-imposed lack of awareness, whatever the reason for shutting down.

Pay attention. Stay in the game.

(Image from Zoe VandeWater on Unsplash)

Sunday Morning Reading

More knowledge generally diffused

It’s a Sunday. Leaves are beginning to fall as Autumn closes in. It’s a good morning to do some reading, even if it’s just “more knowledge generally diffused.” So, settle in for some Sunday Morning Reading.

I too often fall into the trap of thinking one thing or the other might be inevitable. Sometimes I’m right, sometimes I’m off base. When it comes to AI, what it might or might not be is still anybody’s guess. Matteo Wong thinks Nothing About This Was Inevitable. I agree when it comes to the technology. I strongly disagree when it comes to how humans inevitably do what humans inevitably do when they think they found the golden ticket.

In theatre rehearsals I often refer to “the little theatre in my mind” when giving direction to actors. It’s a place where the conscious and subconscious do battle when I’m directing a show. Mathew Ingram wonders What Makes Our Minds Different And Where Does It Come From? The mind may be an unchanging observer of whatever we do as Descartes says. But who pops the popcorn?

In a throwback post (so glad he does this), Neil Steinberg takes on James Boswell’s take on Samuel Johnson in Musings Of An 18th Century Giant Still Relevant Today. “It must be considered, that we have now more knowledge generally diffused.”

Kim Zetter explores The Secrets Of A US Spyware King The damn thing is there are no secrets really. Just pervasiveness.

A fascinating beginning to a series at The Intellectualist on The Great Fragmentation. Part II or How The Old Gatekeepers Made Themselves Easy To Kill Off is especially worth your while.

I often maintain we’re still fighting the American Civil War. I’ll go to my grave defending that position, primarily because it began long before 1861 in an era we do our best to ignore for fear of coming face to face with ourselves. Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz delves into a bit of that ignored history with The True Story Of The Actual First Shot Fired In The Civil War.

On an Internet site called sheets.works there’s a fascinating piece, portrayed both visually and to a degree in text called The People Holding Up The Internet.

Chicago lost a legend this week with the passing of football legend Mike Ditka. Few of us pass without becoming synonymous with an era, a city, or a time. For better, or worse, Ditka defined this toddlin’ yet often troubled town of Chicago as much as the original Mayor Daley ever did. Brad Biggs pens a nice obituary that focuses on Ditka’s football career. Ditka had his critics, some of whom made their criticism known after his passing. In our world of more and more knowledge generally diffused, and thus I dare say confused, it’s frustrating how challenging it can be when all the parts of a life are summed up, beyond the moments and achievements which gives meaning to multitudes.

(Photo by Pramod Tiwari on Unsplash

Thanks for reading. Feel free to subscribe if you want. It’s free. 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. This site does not use affilate links.

The Golden Age Of Shit. Super Intelligence Style

Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive. -Walter Scott

The farce that unfolded in Washington DC yesterday regarding Artificial Intelligence wasn’t comedy. Yet it was super hilarious. At some point you have to understand that the wool is being pulled over all of our eyes, including those of the president. And you have to laugh.

Us president donald trump attends national design studio launch event for america gov a new ai powered government website at t.jpg.

In an election year that sees American’s distaste for anything approaching the topic of AI growing like kudzu, the folks running the AI show keep rapidly alternating back and forth between requests that the government step in and stop them from destroying humanity and telling us that their products will create a new golden age of abundance.

If there’s a joke in the circle jerk of a game they’re playing, it’s that the president croaks that he got the assembled AI oligarchy to sign on to a “morally binding” agreement to self-police. You read that right. “Morally binding.” There’s lots of laughing about a group of technologists who built empires on stealing the work of others, who never met a law or a moral they wouldn’t spit on, signing such a document put forward by one of the most outrageous criminals the world has ever known. But that’s just the set up.

The joke is that these conmen are playing the decaying before our eyes president for all they can while he’s still breathing. He no longer understands what’s put before him. He doesn’t have a competent staff. A fact made abundantly clear by the misspelling of the United States under the president’s signature and the fact that his administration’s AI fueled new website spent the day disproving all the lies he’s foisted upon a population with an average reading age of a sixth grader. You’d think his flunkies would use AI to do some basic proofreading and fact-checking. But that’s above a sixth grader’s skill set. Apparently they’ve already “corrected” the website to spit out the lies again.

These tech bros are openly yanking the president’s chain, taking advantage of his infirmity, our divisiveness, our curiosity, and the greed of the markets. The rest of the world is doing it. Given their desires to run the planet, into the ground or elsewhere, they might as well get in on the act before the curtain comes down.

Couple all of that with the supposed name change in the order, rebranding Artificial Intelligence to Super Intelligence. On the one hand it’s good to know that if the technology kills us all there will be no shortage of superlatives to describe the end of times in the summaries all the robots, Muses, and Dots will spam each other with after we’re gone. It beats being wiped out by something branded as artificial, I guess. On the other, the name change is just super silly. Call me when OpenAI changes its name. I’m just surprised he didn’t name it American Intelligence. Or Trump Intelligence.

If there’s drama ahead in any of this, it’s that at some point it’s going to all go to shit. Mostly it has already. Those who dismiss every warning as merely marketing remind me of early climate change deniers. Those who take the warnings seriously remind me of every bandwagon jumper that’s ever leaped to a conclusion. As in most things, what truth that exists probably lies somewhere in the muddy middle, which is exactly where those who will profit over either their success or failure want it to stay.

Not a MUSE ing

The bad guys won

And here we are. Right where the tech bro oligarchy wanted us. Giving in to the onslaught, mindlessly turning over all of our data to be chopped up and sold to the highest bidder. Any bidder actually.

If you’ve spent half a millisecond online in the last few weeks you’ve been exposed to the relentless onslaught from Mark Zuckerberg about Muse, the latest incantation dreamed up from the demon spawns of hell that is Meta. Yes, it’s another way to grab your data and use it for their purposes (making money). Yes, it’s AI. Yes, it’s got cute little avatars to attract your children, and those with childlike brains willing to try whatever is new. It’s got all of those things and then some. And, like it not, it’s got the world by the short hairs.

The product is bad enough in and of itself by most accounts. The PR is worse. But I’m here to tell you that Zuckerberg has struck while the iron is either hot or the general public has just accepted wearing wrinkled clothing.

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about Muse from the folks I support since the hype kicked into overdrive. Most of them use Facebook, Instagram and Facebook’s Messenger, so of course they’ve felt the push. I’ve encouraged them not to install the app or use the service, but as they point out, in admissions of wrinkled surrender, they’ve got all of our data anyway.

That’s sadly, the battle, and probably also the war that was lost long ago. When general everyday users just don’t care anymore then the doors are wide open.

When I point out examples of problems I’ve seen and heard about, like this article from Amber Neely that references Jason Aten’s experiences about Meta ignoring users’ permissions, they spit back this closing quote from Neely’s article: “That’s it, dear reader. You don’t get to opt out anymore.”

We’ve gotten past the willing suspension of disbelief and moved into a numbingly suspended state of apathy.

The bad guys won.

Optimizing Search and Siri Is Going To Become Old Really Quick

Sign of the Apple Intelligence times?

I guess we all knew this was coming. Apple released operating system updates ending in 27.0.1 (as well as for OS 26 and macOS 15) today for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, bringing something it looks like most will have to get used to, spending more time while devices reindex Siri AI.

There’s no telling if this will happen every time there’s an OS update, but Apple last year said that it will be speeding up the pace of security updates going forward in response to the risks now visited upon us from AI-powered hacking. Certainly the pace of AI development continues to rapidly increase, which can only mean the same for AI hacking.

Defending against hacks, fixing bugs, and updating operating systems are facts of life these days. Always have been. Even so, when something new, or a needed bug fix is eagerly anticipated it’s largely viewed as an inconvenient chore by most. Adding time to the process for reindexing the info on a device certainly makes it more of a chore.

There’s already a sour taste in many users’ mouths about AI in general. If this is an ongoing and every OS update type of thing, I’m betting this might just increase the pucker over time as the price users pay for using Apple’s on device brand of AI.

For what it’s worth, and for what it means, I’m seeing the Optimizing for Search and Siri notification on an iPhone and iPad, but not on a Mac after updating. It will be interesting to see how long the process takes after the updates compared to the initial process when the OS’s 27 were first released.