1. Oh come on, Apple
Back when Apple changed its app guidelines to permit emulators and HTML 5-based mini games it looked like the dawning of just a little bit of light in Cupertino. Completely coincidentally these changes were made just before the DOJ case at which this kind of restriction was central. And weirdly, it looks like Apple is now walking those changes back -- without, of course, putting that in writing.
When Sticky was rejected on the basis of Rule 4.7, the company appealed. Cue a call with someone from Apple:
"In our case, after the appeal, we were called up by someone from Apple who started the call saying they did not consent to it being recorded (how’s that for inspiring trust?), who walked-back what they had said about HTML5 (and of course they did not put that in writing in the message they sent afterwards), but then came up with a couple of brand-new reasons for keeping our update off the store: claiming that we had changed the app concept… because our app was different some 4 years ago and hundreds of updates ago when it started! And including mentioning rule 4.7 regarding emulators… which we are not and do not claim to be!"
2. It's all about the user experience
Unless you have an ad blocker in place you will be very familiar with the contextual advertising from Taboola. Those blocks at the bottom of web pages listing amazing hair loss treatments and cheap junk? That's Taboola. Now you can argue that those ads are junk because people click on them (and there's something to that), but junk they are.
They do, though, make publishers a lot of money -- and now Apple wants a chunk of that money, and has struck a deal with Taboola to become an advertising partner on Apple News. Om Malik has had enough. I'm not one to pull the "this would never have happened in Steve's day" card, but really, Jobs had taste: there's zero chance he would have got into bed with Taboola for a few billion dollars.
3. The objects of our life
And if you don't believe, that, I recommend watching the video that's just been found and released by the Steve Jobs Archive. It's Steve’s talk at the 1983 International Design Conference in Aspen, and it's a great watch. For all his faults, the man had taste.
4. Eazel come, Eazel go
There was a point towards the end of the 90s when I began to believe that desktop Linux really was the future. Yes, I know. But one of the things which persuaded me was Eazel, a startup which included legendary Apple people like Andy Hertzfeld, Mick Boich and Susan Kare, who were aiming to create a user interface for Linux which did not suck. Eazel didn't last, but its product did: if you use GNOME today, you're looking at something which started life as Eazel's Nautilus file manager. I very much wish it still had Susan's icons in it. Apple rehired a bunch of Eazel employees, so if you're using macOS, you are also seeing something with Eazel DNA.
5. Return to office is a failure
Of course, it depends on what kind of work you do, but for millions of office workers around the world the one good outcome of the pandemic has been more working from home. Home working has many advantages, particularly for mid-career workers (less so for younger ones) but finally Gartner has come out and done some really interesting and in-depth research. High performing employees, in particular, hate return to office mandates because they prize flexibility and see them as a sign of distrust by managers. I've said it before and I'll say it again: if you can't manage remote workers, that's your problem not theirs.
6. Google is mind-bogglingly bad
So says Om, and I have to agree: in terms of product design, Google has got a lot worse over the last few years.
7. "Privacy preserving" Lololollol
There's a bit of a brouhaha because both Firefox and Safari have added a default-on "privacy preserving ad tracking" feature, which anonymously measures ad clicks at the browser level and passes that on to advertising companies. It's not a big deal for me -- I block ads at the DNS level, so don't see them to click on them -- but it's made a lot of people unhappy.
8. Calling for civil war is, apparently "controversial"
And now for some awful people. I had never heard of this guy before he started shooting his mouth off, but apparently he's some kind of crypto big cheese, which already tells me a lot. But what made me laugh is the headline, which refers to his comments as "controversial". Apparently, calling for civil war, calling for anyone not voting for Trump to "die in a fire", alluding positively to a conspiracy theory that the guy who shot Trump was related to Elizabeth Warren… these things are all "controversial". Not "violent", "traitorous", "racist"… oh no, those words are going too far!
9. This is where it was always going
Elon Musk has decided that he owns Twitter, so he can use it for whatever he wants. An object lesson why platforms should not be owned by billionaires.
10. Return of the underdogs
One thing Apple does extremely well is advertising, and my favourite ads of the last few years have been the ones that focus on The Underdogs - I find them incredibly funny and charming, and a bit of light relief from all the travails of tech. Enjoy.
