2025-05-08 05:00:08
Feelings on the Epic v. Apple ruling and Kindle’s new purchase option, whether we report bugs to small devs or stay silent, how we balance a single or multi-device Mac setup, and one feature we’re hoping to see at the upcoming WWDC.
2025-05-07 22:00:17
Years ago, when I was working my first post-college job in web development and IT, I found myself totally burned out. One day, sitting at my computer, I opened up a blank Word document and just started writing down all the things I wanted to be doing instead.
I’ve been lucky enough to check a number of those items off the list, including publishing novels and writing the back page column for Macworld,1 but today I get to knock off one that I was honestly never sure would happen.
This evening, Wednesday May 7th, I’ll be appearing as a contestant on Jeopardy!. I’ve been a fan of the show since I was a kid—I’m pretty sure I watched it with my grandmother at some point, though as I recall she was more of a Wheel of Fortune person—and in a family replete with librarians, the pursuit of knowledge has always been a guiding principle. Honestly, I just love trivia and quizzes; that’ll no doubt be a huge surprise to anyone who’s followed my decade of writing and hosting a quiz show podcast, the latest episode of which is also coincindentally out today.
I can’t say anything about my appearance, of course, but I can say that the experience of going out to record the show was amazing. I met a bunch of wonderful and supportive fellow Jeopardy! enthusiasts, who you’ll also see competing this week, and we’ve stayed in touch as the shows have come to air. It’s been a distinct pleasure and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Notably, this also makes Six Colors the home of no less than two contestants, as our new colleague Glenn Fleishman is himself a two-time Jeopardy! champion. I’m honored to follow in his footsteps by being on the show.2
Finally, a big thanks to everybody out there who’s supported my many and varied careers, from Jason to each and every person who’s read my articles, bought my books, and listened to my podcasts. The outpouring of support for my appearance on the show has been tremendous and humbling.
I hope you’ll tune in to watch and root for me! You can find when and where it airs in your neck of the woods over at Jeopardy!’s website.
2025-05-07 21:00:49
Twenty-seven years ago this week, Steve Jobs took the stage at the Flint Center in Cupertino to unveil the first new product since his return to Apple: the original iMac.
The Apple of today would be nearly unrecognizable to the people of 1998, but Apple still sells an iMac. It’s literally the only product Apple sells today that it also sold back then. (MacBooks were PowerBooks, and Mac Pros were Power Macs back then.)
Of course, today’s iMac bears little resemblance to the original G3 iMac. But in keeping the name alive, Apple is also nodding to the unique spirit of the iMac, a product that helped turn around Apple’s fortunes and define the computers of the next three decades.
2025-05-06 21:49:51
The Verge’s Andrew Liszewski reports that Amazon’s Kindle app for iOS now provides a button to go get an ebook:
Contrary to prior limitations, there is now a prominent orange “Get book” button on Kindle app’s book listings.
“We regularly make improvements to our apps to help ensure we are providing customers the most convenient experience possible,” Amazon spokesperson Tim Gillman told The Verge over email. “By selecting ‘Get Book’ within the Kindle for iOS app, customers can now complete their purchase through their mobile web browser.”
Honestly, I’m not sure I ever thought I’d see the day. I confirmed this for myself: clicking the Get Book link takes you out to Safari to the page for the book on Amazon’s site. No muss, no fuss.
Notably, this is the Kindle app, not the Amazon app. In the latter, you still—for the moment—see a note that “this app does not support purchasing of this content.” I’m intrigued as to why Amazon chose to do one but not the other—I rarely open the Kindle app unless I already have a book I’m reading; it’s the Amazon app I turn to for shopping. But perhaps this is Amazon’s way of nudging people towards the Kindle app as their literal one-stop shop.
Out of curiosity, I checked Kobo’s app as well, which acts as both the reader and storefront for that site, and there’s now a Get Book link there as well, though it pops up a separate panel and shows Apple’s (now prohibited) scare screen about leaving the app and going to an external website.
As I said in my previous post about the injunction against Apple, I think this development is ultimately a huge benefit to Apple’s customers. Figuring out how to do the dance to buy ebooks was annoying for people who knew what they were doing, and if you ever had the “pleasure” of trying to explain to a layperson that they had to go to the web to buy an ebook, well, you’ll not only know how much of a pain it was but also how the only explanation you could realistically provide for why this was the case was “Apple wants more money.”
How long this new normal will last is anyone’s guess, but again, though Apple has already appealed the court’s decision, it’s hard to imagine the company being able to roll this back—the damage, in many ways, is already done and to reverse course would look immensely and transparently hostile to the company’s own customers: “we want your experience to be worse so we get more of the money we think we deserve.” Not a great look.
2025-05-06 04:50:11
We break down Apple’s failure in U.S. District Court and what it means for the future of Apple’s policies, corporate culture, corporate executives, and bottom line. Also (awkward!) we discuss Apple’s quarterly financial results.
