Latest posts
- Prolost Watches 1.0May 07, 2026John Gruber
Stu Maschwitz: Prolost Watches is an iPhone app for managing your watch collection. It’s part database, part journal; designed for the detail-obsessed mind of the watch fanatic. As you log each day’s choice of watch, insights are revealed. Wear logs trace a path on the map. Events from the past are resurfaced at opportune times. Finances mange themselves as you buy and sell. Your entire collection
- The Greatest Match Cut in Cinematic History, Improved by Amazon PrimeMay 07, 2026John Gruber
I’m sure there’s a scene marker right at the cut, so that’s why an ad got inserted there. But, my god. Someone at Amazon should go to prison for this. (I think it’s a total coincidence that the Febreze ad seems roughly color-matched to the sky. But scroll down in the Bluesky thread for some links to the absolute genius campaign from Cerveza Cristal beer, with spots specifically designed to integra
- Broadcast Booths Around Baseball Tip Their Caps to John SterlingMay 06, 2026John Gruber
Great stuff around MLB: Those around the league quickly honored that legacy during Monday night’s slate of games. Tributes rolled in from across the league, with various play-by-play announcers deviating from their typical routines to give a nod to Sterling’s distinct style. It started with the Yankees and TV man Michael Kay, who called Aaron Judge’s first-inning home run exactly as Sterling would
- Claris CEO Ryan McCann on FileMaker in the Age of Agentic CodingMay 06, 2026John Gruber
That previous item led me to look at Claris’s website for the first time in a while. And, lo, there’s a banner promoting a message from CEO Ryan McCann that was posted just yesterday, under the headline “How Claris Is Building for What’s Next”: Every AI-generated application creates the same problems: Where does it run, and how is it deployed, secured, and managed? The app needs a database. It nee
- Luca Maestri Runs the CafeteriaMay 06, 2026John Gruber
Apple Newsroom, back in August 2024: Apple today announced that Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri will transition from his role on January 1, 2025. Maestri will continue to lead the Corporate Services teams, including information systems and technology, information security, and real estate and development, reporting to Apple CEO Tim Cook. As part of a planned succession, Kevan Parekh, Apple’s
- Apple Cuts More Mac Studio and Mac Mini RAM Options as Memory Shortage WorsensMay 06, 2026John Gruber
Juli Clover, MacRumors: Apple has removed more desktop Macs from its online store as the global memory shortage continues. Mac mini models with 32GB and 64GB of RAM are no longer available for purchase, nor is the M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 256GB RAM. The M3 Ultra Mac Studio is now available only in a 96GB RAM configuration, with higher-tier options eliminated. Both M3 Mac Studio and M4 Max Mac Stud
- Apple Settles Class Action Lawsuit Over AI Features That Were Advertised but Didn’t Ship for $250 MillionMay 06, 2026John Gruber
Chance Miller, 9to5Mac: Last March, Apple was hit with a class action lawsuit after delaying the launch of the “more personalized Siri” that was first announced at WWDC 2024. Apple agreed to settle the case in December, and the full settlement terms are now available. Apple is set to pay $250 million to settle the lawsuit, equating to an estimated $25 per device. That number could reach up to $95
- The Pentagon Pegs the Cost of the Iran War, So Far, at $25 BillionMay 05, 2026John Gruber
Taegan Goddard, quoting the Financial Times last week: The Pentagon said President Trump’s Iran war has cost the United States at least $25 billion, driven primarily by the military’s use of munitions, the Financial Times reports. The New York Times had an interesting piece trying to put that number in context (gift link): $25 billion is similar to: The annual budget of NASA. Spending on military
- ★ Software as the Product of Obsession Times VoiceMay 05, 2026John Gruber
Back in 2009, Merlin Mann and I jointly gave a talk at SxSW titled “Obsession Times Voice”. Regarding how it turned out, I wrote: My muse for the session was this quote from Walt Disney: “We don’t make movies to make money; we make money to make more movies.” To me, that’s it. That’s the thing. Merlin and I were talking about independent writers and podcasters, because that’s what we were (and rem
- Pedometer++ 8.0May 05, 2026John Gruber
David Smith, “Six Years Perfecting Maps on watchOS”: I love going on wilderness adventures. I am rarely happier than when I am far off into the mountains without a soul in sight. As a result, I have spent a lot of time learning how to safely explore and navigate when I’m away from civilization. The most important habit I’ve found for not getting lost is to be very regular in checking your location
- [Sponsor] WorkOS: Ready to Sell to Enterprise? Your Product Is Ready, Your Auth Infrastructure Isn’t.May 05, 2026Daring Fireball Department of Commerce
If you’re building B2B SaaS, especially AI, you quickly need enterprise features like SSO, SCIM, and audit logs. Your developers shouldn’t waste cycles rebuilding that infrastructure. Free them to focus on what sets you apart. WorkOS gives you production-ready APIs for auth and access control that integrate directly into your product. Trusted by over 2,000 companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, C
- Chess PeaceMay 05, 2026John Gruber
Chess Peace — a new iOS game by Sam Shepherd — is my kind of logic puzzle. Each puzzle is a board with a few unplaced chess pieces. To solve you need to place all the pieces so that none of them attack each other. There’s a timer if you care, but I don’t. (And you can hide the clock.) Clever name too: the pieces need to be ... at peace with each other. You can download Chess Peace and try it out f
- Adobe’s ‘Modern’ User Interface Is Just WebpagesMay 05, 2026John Gruber
Nick Heer: If you do a little poking around in Adobe’s application bundles, a key reason for the jankiness of these user interfaces becomes apparent: it is because they are little webpages. These dialog boxes are HTML files that reference a chunky CSS file and oodles of JavaScript, and appear to be built with React. [...] I was going to write about how this stuff should have been tried with people
- Paul Thurrott Might Write a Book on MarkdownMay 04, 2026John Gruber
Paul Thurrott: I may or may not write and publish a short e-book about Markdown sometime this year, most likely as part of a monthly focus. But l’ve written small parts of it already, as I do, and I figured it might be interesting for at least some readers. And so here’s an early draft of an introductory chapter that may or may not be called “On writing.” We’ll see. It’s odd how things turn out in
- ★ Y Combinator’s Stake in OpenAIMay 04, 2026John Gruber
Speaking of companies with valuable minority stakes in AI companies, there’s one thing that stuck in my craw about the blockbuster Ronan Farrow / Andrew Marantz investigative piece on Sam Altman and OpenAI last month for The New Yorker. It didn’t come up during Nilay Patel’s excellent interview with Farrow on Decoder, either. Sam Altman was the president of Y Combinator for several years, and left
- Google Owns a Big Chunk of AnthropicMay 04, 2026John Gruber
The New York Times, back in March last year (gift link): To win the artificial intelligence race, Google not only has developed its own technologies, but has also pumped money into prominent A.I. start-ups. And to preserve its competitive edge, Google has kept its ownership stakes in those start-ups a secret. Court documents recently obtained by The New York Times reveal Google’s stake in one of t
- App Store Search Ads and the Slippery SlopeMay 04, 2026John Gruber
Jeremy Provost, on the blog for Think Tap Work, his mobile app development company: iOS App Store search is no longer about relevance. It’s about ad inventory. With Apple’s introduction of a second search ad, for any query where we weren’t #1, we’ve effectively moved down one position. [...] If you’re counting at home, roughly 70% of the interface is covered in ads. A casino ad, to boot. That was
- ‘Noir, Japan’s Hard-Boiled Bittersweet Answer to Oreos’May 04, 2026John Gruber
Jake Adelstein (author of Tokyo Vice) on his blog Tokyo Paladin: For decades, Japan’s Oreos weren’t made by Nabisco at all. They were produced domestically by Yamazaki Biscuits, under a licensing arrangement with what eventually became Mondelez International. This was, by most accounts, a reasonable arrangement. The cookies were local. The quality was consistent. Nobody was complaining. Then Monde
- Photoshop’s ‘Modern User Interface’ Sucks (and Doesn’t Feel Modern)May 04, 2026John Gruber
Marcin Wichary at Unsung: I’m angry. (Clearly.) We should all be angry in face of stuff like this. This is how people get fed up with software — because it feels unstable and deteriorates on its own without needing to. I know I brought up that an existing power user base can be a huge pain in the ass, and I am a decades-old Photoshop power user. But this is different than other examples where the
- Anthropic Executive, One Year Ago: Fully AI Employees Are a Year AwayMay 04, 2026John Gruber
Sam Sabin, writing for Axios one year ago: Anthropic expects AI-powered virtual employees to begin roaming corporate networks in the next year, the company’s top security leader told Axios in an interview this week. [...] Virtual employees could be the next AI innovation hotbed, Jason Clinton, the company’s chief information security officer, told Axios. Agents typically focus on a specific, progr
- Commits on GitHub Are Up 14× Year-Over-YearMay 04, 2026John Gruber
Two months ago, revisiting Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s year-prior prediction that AI would soon be writing 90+ percent of all programming code, I wrote: But where I think Amodei’s remarks, quoted above, are facile is that it hasn’t played out as simply that lines of code that would have been written by human programmers are now generated by AI models. That’s part of it, for sure. But what’s revol
- ScopeXR — Cataract Surgery Using Apple Vision Pro Mixed RealityMay 04, 2026John Gruber
Press release last week: SightMD, a leading ophthalmology practice in the greater New England area, today announced a historic milestone in surgical innovation. Dr. Eric Rosenberg, DO, MSE, has become the first surgeon in the world to successfully perform cataract surgery using the Apple Vision Pro, powered by ScopeXR, a groundbreaking mixed reality surgical platform co-developed by Dr. Rosenberg.
- John Sterling, Beloved Longtime Yankees Radio Voice, Passes at 87May 04, 2026John Gruber
Bryan Hoch, reporting for MLB.com: A colorful personality who engaged and entertained fans with a distinct conversational style, Sterling called 5,426 regular-season Yankees games and 225 more in the postseason from 1989 until his retirement in 2024. After initially stepping away from the microphone in April of that year, Sterling returned to call selected games late in the ’24 season, including e
- X, the Platform of Free SpeechMay 04, 2026John Gruber
Gil Durán, posting on Bluesky: It’s official! I’m permanently banned from X for tweeting “TLDR: Fascism.” (appeal denied) “TLDR: Fascism” was Durán’s two-word response to this 1,000-word essay from Palantir describing their vision for a “Technological Republic”. (Alternative link to essay if you don’t want to visit x.com.) Getting perma-banned from Twitter/X by Elon Musk gives Durán a nice Streisa
- ‘2 Letters From Steve’May 03, 2026John Gruber
I don’t want to spoil any of this story from David Gelphman, which he wrote back in 2013, but which I only came across this week had read so long ago I’d forgotten it. Go read it. But before you do, one bit of context you should keep in mind is that the original iPad was unveiled at a special Apple event on 27 January 2010, but it didn’t ship until early April. Gelphman’s story takes place in that
- ★ Crimes Against Decency Need as Much Cover-Up as Crimes Against the LawMay 03, 2026John Gruber
A follow-up point to Friday’s post about Meta unceremoniously shitcanning its entire contract with Sama, the Kenyan contractor that employed over 1,100 contractors to serve as Mechanical Turks for Meta’s AI efforts, after a few of the contractors told investigative reporters about the incredibly private things they witnessed from footage captured by users of Meta’s AI Glasses. There is no point ge
- More on Apple’s Logically Elegant Tariff Refund Puzzle SolutionMay 02, 2026John Gruber
Regarding my earlier post about the cleverness of Tim Cook’s solution to Apple’s dilemma regarding how to apply for, and accept, a potential tariff refund check without drawing the ire of Donald “Tariff Is My Favorite Word” Trump, at least one reader asked why Tim Cook committing to spending the refund check on “U.S. innovation and advanced manufacturing” doesn’t mean that Apple would — if they g
- Meta Solved Their Problem With Kenyan Contractors Seeing Footage of AI Glasses Wearers on the ToiletMay 01, 2026John Gruber
Remember the appalling but utterly-unsurprising story two months ago where a team of investigative reporters in Sweden uncovered a company in Kenya contracted by Meta to review video content captured by Meta’s “smart” glasses? They spoke to some of the workers, who told tales of reviewing footage of Meta glasses users getting undressed, having sex, and taking dumps. This is a rather seedy job, and
- Tim Cook’s Clever Solution to the Tariff Refund PuzzleMay 01, 2026John Gruber
One more from Jason Snell, from his analysis of Apple’s quarterly results: During a complicated question from J.P. Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee about product margins, Parekh unusually half-answered the question and then stopped and “turned it over to Tim” so that Cook could read an obviously prepared statement about tariffs, which included this bit: In terms of applying for a refund of tariffs
- The Talk Show: ‘Food and Beverage Director’May 01, 2026John Gruber
MG Siegler returns to the show to discuss Apple’s announcement that Tim Cook is stepping aside (into the role of executive chairman) and John Ternus will become CEO. Sponsored by: Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code TALKSHOW. Drafts: The Swiss Army knife for text on all your Apple devices. Act now to get your first year of Drafts Pro for 50% off. Finali
- Scientology ‘Speed Running’ TrendMay 01, 2026John Gruber
Uwa Ede-Osifo, reporting for The Guardian: On any given day, Los Angeles’s Hollywood Boulevard teems with tourists and street performers clustered near the area’s many landmarks. But in recent months, the strip has been set abuzz for a new reason. Throngs of mostly adolescent boys and young men have been rushing the Church of Scientology’s international headquarters on the famed street. The so-cal
- Apple Q2 2026 ResultsMay 01, 2026John Gruber
Apple Newsroom: “Today Apple is proud to report our best March quarter ever, with revenue of $111.2 billion and double-digit growth across every geographic segment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone achieved a March quarter revenue record, fueled by such extraordinary demand for the iPhone 17 lineup. During the quarter, Services achieved yet another all-time record, and we were excited to intro
- ★ On the Future of Apple’s Vision PlatformMay 01, 2026John Gruber
Juli Clover, writing at MacRumors under the rather incendiary headline “Apple Has Given Up on the Vision Pro After M5 Refresh Flop”: Apple has all but given up on the Vision Pro after the M5 model failed to revitalize interest in the device, MacRumors has learned. Apple updated the Vision Pro with a faster M5 chip and a more comfortable band in October 2025, but there were no other hardware change
- I’m Starting to Wonder What They’re Smoking Over There at MacRumorsApr 30, 2026John Gruber
600 words from Hartley Charlton at MacRumors expounding upon a wacko post on Weibo suggesting that Apple is debating dropping MagSafe from all iPhones (which post, translated to English, is only 70-some words). Given that last year’s 16e didn’t have MagSafe and this year’s 17e does, you don’t need a pseudonymous Chinese weatherman to know which way the MagSafe wind is blowing in Cupertino. ★
- New Banksy in LondonApr 30, 2026John Gruber
Brilliant statue, hilarious intro video. The greatest artist of our age. ★
- Oakland’s Airport Is Now Officially ‘Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport’Apr 29, 2026John Gruber
Max Harrison-Caldwell, reporting for The San Francisco Standard: In 2024, the port — which manages the Oakland airport — changed the name from Oakland International Airport to San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, hoping to entice travelers by emphasizing the hub’s proximity to SF. At the time, the number of people flying into Oakland was declining after a brief post-pandemic rebound, a
- ‘Elon Musk Appeared More Petty Than Prepared’Apr 29, 2026John Gruber
Elizabeth Lopatto, reporting on Musk v. Altman from the courtroom in Oakland (gift link): Today the first witness was sworn in in Musk v. Altman: Elon Musk. I was surprised by how flat he seemed. This is not the first time I’ve seen Musk in court. During his defamation suit, he turned on the charm and the jury responded by finding him not guilty. Today he looked adrift and unprepared. The only tim
- ‘Sordid and Small’Apr 29, 2026John Gruber
Matteo Wong, covering Musk v. Altman for The Atlantic (gift link): Musk is asking that Altman be removed from OpenAI’s board, that the company convert back to a nonprofit, and for the return of allegedly “ill-gotten gains” — some $150 billion — which Musk says would go to OpenAI’s charitable trust. Outside legal experts say that Musk is unlikely to win all or even much of this. His argument is con
- OpenAI Trial Starts With Two Very Different Tales of a Company’s Early YearsApr 29, 2026John Gruber
Cade Metz and Mike Isaac, reporting for The New York Times from the Ronald V. Dellums U.S. Courthouse in Oakland (gift link): On the first day of testimony in a landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, two notably different tales were offered of how OpenAI evolved from a nonprofit artificial intelligence lab into one of the most influential tech companies in the world. In Mr. Musk
- Playing With FireApr 29, 2026John Gruber
Jer Crane, in an article earlier this week posted on Twitter/X: I’m Jer Crane, founder of PocketOS. We build software that rental businesses — primarily car rental operators — use to run their entire operations: reservations, payments, customer management, vehicle tracking, the works. Some of our customers are five-year subscribers who literally cannot operate their businesses without us. Yesterda
- [Sponsor] WorkOS: Go From ‘We Don’t Support SSO’ to Enterprise Ready in a WeekendApr 28, 2026Daring Fireball Department of Commerce
Every B2B company hits the same inflection point — enterprise customers show up and they need SSO, directory sync, audit logs, and role-based access before they’ll move forward. Most teams lose months building that infrastructure. It doesn’t have to be that way. With WorkOS you get all of it. One platform for auth, identity, and security. Infrastructure for teams that ship fast and stay fast. Open
- Rec LeagueApr 28, 2026John Gruber
My thanks to Rec League for sponsoring last week at DF. Rec League is a new app/social network for sharing what you’re into. (Get it? The “rec” in “Rec League” is for recommendations. It’s a damn clever name, and sometimes a clever name is half the battle.) It’s really well done, with a great simple brand aesthetic and obvious navigation and mechanics. You can easily use Rec League just to catalog
- Sponsor The Talk ShowApr 27, 2026John Gruber
Weekly “sponsor the whole week at DF” spots are sold out until August 24. That’s a great sign that sponsorships here work. But it’s not so great if you have a product or service that you’d like to promote now, or soon, to the DF audience — savvy listeners and readers obsessed with high quality and good design. The good news on that front is that the sponsorship schedule for The Talk Show has openi
- Yours Truly on The VergecastApr 27, 2026John Gruber
David Pierce: On this episode of The Vergecast, David and Nilay are joined by Daring Fireball’s John Gruber to talk about their reactions to the news, the (mostly) smooth transition Apple seems to have pulled off, and what we should really make of Tim Cook’s legacy as a product person. Really, the question is: Do we blame Cook for the Touch Bar, or do we blame him for not trying hard enough to mak
- DF Paraphernalia: Last Call for This Round of T-Shirts and HoodiesApr 26, 2026John Gruber
[Update: The store is now closed. Thanks to everyone who ordered — you should start getting shipping notices very soon.] It’s really just a coincidence, but it was 20 years ago this week that I went full-time writing Daring Fireball (after writing the site in my spare time for 4 years). That feels like a long time ago. But it feels like yesterday, too. In my announcement, I wrote: Daring Fireball
- ★ The New York Times Printed the Wrong Crossword Grid Last Sunday, and I Find That Timing SerendipitousApr 26, 2026John Gruber
The New York Times PR account, on Twitter/X a week ago: Sunday’s crossword puzzle in the print edition of The New York Times Magazine contains a grid that does not match the clues. The correct version of the puzzle can be found in the news section of Sunday’s print edition of The Times. The puzzle on our app is correct. Maggie Duffy, writing for Vulture: Some solvers who, like Wegener’s wife, comp
- Report Claims Samsung Might Post Its First-Ever Mobile Division Loss This Year, Blaming RAM CrisisApr 26, 2026John Gruber
Ben Schoon, 9to5Google: In March, a report revealed some of the internal cuts Samsung has been making for its mobile division, with the company initially concerned it could post an operating loss for the first time ever. It’s a big deal, as Samsung’s mobile (MX) division has historically always turned a profit. A new report out of Korea (via Jukan) makes this seem all but certain. Apparently, Sams
- ★ Time to Serve Some Delicious Claim Chowder Regarding the Cook-Ternus CEO TransitionApr 25, 2026John Gruber
In May 2024, Bloomberg ran a feature story by Mark Gurman under the headline, “Tim Cook Can’t Run Apple Forever. Who’s Next?” The subhead: “John Ternus, the head of hardware engineering, is emerging as a potential successor to the CEO.” The nut grafs from that piece: There’s no reason to assume that a change at the helm is imminent. Cook may be older than the CEOs of the other tech companies at th