apple
MIE Soft Mode
Difficulty enabling Apple's MIE
Experiments with Memory Integrity Enforcement
My Opinion on the iPhone Air
In the September Apple event, the iPhone Air was announced along with the iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max. I've grown fond of the iPhone Air as soon as I saw it, because it was a sign that innovation at Apple wasn't dead... yet. After the event, everyone jumped on their platforms to express their (biased) opinions, but one of the opinions that I have adopted is, who is the iPhone Air for?
Funhouse Mirror Macs
The Mac clone program, Apple’s attempt to revive its fortunes during its lowest era, had the opposite effect. But hey, it could have worked in 1985.
Come Back, Gil Amelio
If Tim Cook is busy having Apple make unnecessary ornaments as appeasement for political leaders, why not have Gil Amelio lead the company instead?
Prosser-Gate
A prominent Apple leaker gets nailed with a wild lawsuit suggesting not-so-journalistic reporting practices.
The Exit Strategy
After two decades, Apple has announced its final version of MacOS for Intel. Guess that means Hackintoshing is done, too.
The Finance Team Lost One
For years, many of Apple’s most consumer-unfriendly decisions have felt like an extension of a revenue-optimization strategy at constant risk of backfiring. Thanks to a bracing legal decision, now it has.
Severed Edits
Whether it was trying to or not, Apple exposed a huge flaw with its pitch to professional video editors with a new Severance promotional video.
Fasten Furious: When Laptops Had Hooks
Considering the period in laptop history where Apple built PowerBooks with hooks that only exposed themselves when they got close to a magnet.
Everything To Everyone
Companies like Amazon and Apple are attempting to do business in so many spaces that, when the cracks show, they really show. Hence why Apple Intelligence looks like a hot mess right now.
Pixel-Perfect?
Apple makes a move to acquire an app so Apple-like that you might be surprised to learn it’s not first-party: Pixelmator. During an age when Adobe is laser-focused on the enterprise to its peril, this might be a good thing.
Platforms Built On Quicksand
Given the choice between protecting creators and protecting a business relationship with a dominant, toxic company, Patreon chooses the business relationship. Maybe they shouldn’t.
Mac As Appliance
Apple ticks off its non-casual users by upping the naggy permissions menus in the upcoming version of MacOS.
Human-Generated Content 3
/dev/world 2024 wrap-up
Press, Pause
Beyond misunderstanding its iPad consumer base, Apple’s infamous “Crush” ad deeply misunderstands the role of the hydraulic press in meme culture.
My Final Hackintosh Rodeo
As we near what might be the final days of Hackintoshing, I tried out a VM-based technique for installing MacOS, complete with full-speed GPU, and you know what? It worked amazingly well.
Hackintosh In The Pastintosh?
If the Hackintosh ecosystem is about to fade away, it’s because it fulfilled its purpose as a way station between two vastly different eras of Apple.
The Web App Switcheroo
In its quest to do as little as possible to comply with the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple randomly kneecaps web apps. Also: Am I sending this newsletter to fake people?
Locked Up In Regions
The history of region-locking, a once-unintentional process of keeping devices built for one region from being used in another. (Now Apple’s doing it.)
Making My Linux Move
Why I decided to mostly move to Linux in 2024, and what I’ve learned in the process of that move.
Waking Up The Regulators
While regulators have long struggled with how to attack big tech, a landmark ruling and a big disclosure suggests that big tech is finally getting noticed. Finally.
Bubble Busters
The recent security drama caused by an iMessage workaround on Android shouldn’t minimize a simple fact: This is Apple’s fault.
Permanent Unicorn
The reason Apple needs a cheap MacBook in its lineup right now is simple: It always needs a device in its lineup that costs less than you expect, but does more than it needs to.
Enemies At The Gates
We’re at an era of internet creation where it’s becoming increasingly clear that gatekeepers, too often, just get in the way. We need to build tools and strategies that allow creators to succeed without them.
Tales Of Type
A discussion of the ways that large tech companies helped to define the evolution of computer typography. One battle made the CEO of Adobe really mad.
Hiding in the Basket
A conversation about Easter eggs hiding in software, why they’re fun, and why they might not always be seen as good things by IT admins.
More Thoughts About Dongles
In honor of the new terrible dongle that Apple just released, let’s talk about dongles some more—including who came up with the term.
Disposability Interchange
Considering the tension between disposability and interchangeable parts, and how right to repair opponents are trying to have it both ways.
Down Is Up, Up Is Down
Pondering why “natural scrolling” exists, despite the fact that the first thing a lot of people do when setting up a new computer is turn it off.
A Downgraded Downgrade
Why does it suck so much to downgrade an operating system on a modern computer—particularly, on a Mac—and why do we put up with it? Here’s what I had to do.
ProtoAppStore
Assessing the landscape of the app store concept in the years before it became an idea “originated” by Apple. The prior art is strong with this one.
Novell Cooperation
How a networking software company with an unusual approach to competition nearly convinced Apple to bring MacOS to Intel computers in the early ’90s.
Thunderbolt Road
How Thunderbolt, the ultra-fast connector that recently turned 10, started life with a completely different look. (Fun fact: $400 Thunderbolt 3 cables exist.)
Thoughts On Flash
Pondering the demise of Adobe’s Flash through shifting approaches to digital creation these days—and why we may not have anything quite like it again.
Hack Back to the Mac
Why the Hackintosh era, even if it looks like it might just dead-end thanks to Apple Silicon, was still a useful phenomenon for the Mac.
iBook Stampede
Why did thousands of people trample one another to buy a $50 iBook in 2005? In many ways, it’s a story about a lack of tech access that’s still being told.
Donglevision
Pondering the many ways that dongles have taken over our lives, for better and for worse. One port will never rule them all, apparently.
Epic MegaFight
Why did Epic Games decide to go scorched-earth on the App Store model last week with Fortnite? Perhaps it reflects the company’s shareware roots.
Power Outage
Looking back at Apple’s transition from PowerPC to Intel CPUs, and considering why Intel now finds itself in the same position PowerPC did 15 years ago.
Pure Polycarbonate
Nintendo copied Apple, while Apple copied Braun. Why are there so many electronics made of white polycarbonate, no matter the decade?