TikTok is urging users to call Congress about a looming ban
“Meth dealer is urging users to call police about a looming meth ban.”
Nerdy internals of an Apple text editor
There's an incredible amount of design behind all software.
Adobe’s latest Premiere Pro update automatically cleans up trashy audio
These updates aren’t intended to automate audio editing entirely, but to optimize the existing process so that editors have more time to work on other projects. “As Premiere Pro becomes the first choice for more and more professional editors, we’re seeing editors being asked to do a lot more than just cut picture. At some level, most editors have to do some amount of color work, of audio work, even titling and basic effects,” said Paul Saccone, senior director for Adobe Pro Video, to The Verge.
“Sure, there are still specialists you can hand off to depending on the project size, but the more we can enable customers to make this sort of work easier and more intuitive inside Premiere Pro, the more successful they’re going to be in their other creative endeavors.”
Oof. This one’s going to hurt. Most of my audio clients prefer Premiere (I’m a Logic Pro guy) and Adobe is using AI to automate away many of the tasks that take up the bulk of my time.
Visualize how ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) work.
Complicated, perhaps, but also astonishingly simple and, in hindsight, obvious.
‘Reddit can survive without search’: company reportedly threatens to block Google
…if Reddit can’t get AI to play ball, the company may block Google and Bing’s search crawlers, which means Reddit posts wouldn’t show up in search results.
“Reddit can survive without search,” said the Post’s anonymous source.
Wow. What a gutsy move.
I’ve written about my complicated relationship with Reddit before. In late May, when Reddit was changing the API pricing structure and making it very difficult for apps like Apollo to survive, I threatened to leave the service altogether.
I did not.
u/Spez made the gutsy call in guessing that the service has become too indispensable to its users, and he was correct.
Here, he’s making another correct (at least for me) assumption: that Reddit doesn’t need to be reliant on search.
I don’t use Google, but when I go to my search engine looking for help with something — troubleshooting a smart home issue, a coding problem I can’t solve, local news — the first useful result listed is almost always a Reddit thread.
If Reddit search was more refined, I would go to Reddit directly. As of now, it’s not. I go to my search engine, then Reddit.
Reddit has a real opportunity to own both the content its users have created and the way they arrive at it. Will they rise to the occasion? Improve search and their rather clunky mobile app? Time will tell.
Horace Dediu: ‘The Value of a Customer’ via Daring Fireball
The average iPhone customer is 7.4 times as valuable as an Android user. That’s remarkable, but not surprising.
I know very few Android users these days, but those I do share a common refrain: “tech is too complicated, so why would I pay more for an iPhone?” Never having used an iPhone, they become used to a certain…lack of polish. Case-in-point: for the first decade of Android, scrolling on the devices was awful. Jittery, jumpy… Compare that to the very first iPhone, which nailed smooth scrolling right off the bat.
Like using a Mac, the joy and delight (and I use both of those words intentionally) of an iPhone is not in the tasks you accomplish with it (you can, after all, take a photo with an Android, or send a text, or browse the web), but the million little in-between interactions. Opening an app. Swiping to go home. The speed at which FaceID unlocks your phone. The little thoughtful, playful animations of the Dynamic Island. All those interactions add up.
They add up to customers that deeply and perhaps subconsciously satisfied. And people who are satisfied are far more likely to use their phone. It so happens that most people use their phone to, well, buy stuff.
Me? I spent a good deal of money on software for my iPhone, iPad, and Mac. I buy apps that are thoughtfully designed by creative people. (Lumy is a recent find that I just adore.) And, notably, I’m happy to do so. For that, I credit Apple.
This VPN map shows the relationships between VPN companies, their corporate owners, and paid affiliates who profit from reviewing them positively. It includes information on latest community news, ownership changes, and is updated periodically. Every proven relationship between media companies, content sites, corporate VPNs, and independent VPNs that we could find.
My VPN of choice? Disconnect. Not on this map because it’s not owned by another company nor does it collect your browsing history or any other information about you. Support them if you can.
Search an address to see its risk from flooding, wildfire, heat, and wind.
Notes apps are where ideas go to die. And that’s good.
That’s the true value of notebooks, notes apps, bookmarking tools, and everything else built to help us remember. They’re insurance for ideas. They let us forget.
Weblogs, too.