Atlassian Acquires Arc and Dia Maker

David Pierce, on www.theverge.com:

Atlassian is acquiring The Browser Company, the New York-based startup that makes both Arc and the new AI-focused Dia browser. Atlassian is paying $610 million in cash for The Browser Company, and plans to run it as an independent entity.

Just this week I was back on Brave testing how hurtful a switch would be — a bit, but survivable. While I’m not a fan of Atlassian, it’s worth noting they didn’t screw up Trello. However they didn’t transform either.

I respect The Browser Company going for a realistic number that provides a solid exit, but also guarantees they can continue their vision on solid corporate ground.

Depending on the integration, it might be that they become the work browser of choice. But, for now, I’ll be doing a lap around browser options.

Amazon eero Signal 4G LTE Cellular Backup

Mariella Moon, on engadget.com:

The new product called eero Signal connects to any USB-C-powered eero device on a network that supports Wi-Fi 6 and up. It’s meant to be a cellular backup, available two versions: A 4G LTE one that will cost you $100 and a 5G one that will set you back $200. Signal can detect outages and automatically connect you to a cellular network with its multi-carrier eSIM that’s already included with the price of the device.

Nice. Sadly, the eSim provider is tied to their eero Plus plan — which I wouldn’t mind too much if it freaking worked in Costa Rica.

Cost wise, it’s bettern than having a back-up Starlink — but not sure by how much. And I’m sure that a future version will have Kuiper support.

Tidbits for 2025 Week 35

Summer’s over and techtember is here. We have very intriguing new Pixels, and upcoming iPhones. At home we’re almost done with Landman — and enjoying it way more than I expected¹. I’ve been playing with Omarchy with Robie, and it sent my Mac’s window management belief into disarray. So much AI stuff happened over the last few months, and not sure I posted about it all, so will do a catchup. Here’s some links then:

• Granola: AI notepad for Mac/iOS that transcribes and enhances your meeting notes in real-time. Works without bots joining, supports customizable templates. ⥃ Life changing. Still no direct Outlook, but Google Calendar is fine, still free for me but expect for beta to end very soon.
• Hyprnote: Transcribes and summarizes meetings directly on your device, ensuring data privacy. Mac only still. Free version available; Pro version costs $8/month. ⥃ Not as polished as Granola, but local and open-source. I’ve been jumping between both, and expect to settle once the
• Parachute: Automates iCloud backups to local or cloud storage without subscriptions. Supports full, incremental, or mirror modes. One time purchase $4.99. ⥃ Been following since it came out, and kept thinking it was too good to be true… but seems it is. Will test it soon when I get a new external drive.
• Bases: Obsidian’s new feature to turn any set of notes into a powerful database. ⥃ Have some paralysis by analysis here, but will delve into it soon enough.
• SpatialDock: Enhances macOS app switching via fixed spatial positioning and keyboard shortcuts. Targets reduced visual scanning and cognitive load. ⥃ Just released, I do buy into the premise. Will me playing with it this week.
• FlashSpace: Fast virtual workspace manager for macOS, enhancing Spaces by allowing rapid switching of organized apps per display. FLOSS. ⥃ The Omarchy rabbit hole has me revisiting Spaces as a what to arrange my desktop, and this is one of the recommended applications.

Brent Simmons on Mac and iOS Apps Development

Brent Simmons, on inessential.com:

But we can think outside of what we have now and ask: what would make app writing easier? What would make it a better experience? How could we get more done for our users with fewer bugs and faster turnaround?

If there’s someone I listen to regarding mac and iOS development, it’s Brent Simmons. He seems to be making the case that twenty-five years have taken us down a path neither exciting nor fun. And sadly, not that much better more productive.

Marc Jenkins Dictation Journey

Marc Jenkins, on marcjenkins.co.uk:

I know I’m late to the game here — folks like David Sparks have been talking about dictation for years — but I always thought it wasn’t for me. Until now. It’s probably been the biggest change I’ve made to how I work this year.

The dictation/transcription side of the AI era has really been revolutionary for me. After a few weeks with a stable stack with Superwhisper as the main tool on both Mac and iOS, I’m already all over the place with tools.

Spokenly for Mac/iOS, Raycast iOS Notes transcription, Whisper Memos — all offer different functionality that I appreciate. And it seems every month a new contender shows up. Exciting times.

John Birmingham on his Whisper Dictation Journey

John Birmingham, on sixcolors.com:

Recently, I switched from Dragon, which had been baked into Microsoft Word, to MacWhisper Pro, an LLM-based app for macOS. I was already trying out a writing experiment, switching from apocalyptic novels to, er, spy romances, so I figured it was a good time to try some experimental dictation, too.

I was stunned by the results.

Forgot to post this a few months back, but still very relevant. John Birmingham is an author. He writes for a living. He’s journey is less anecdotal that for some of us.

I’ve been using MacWhisper Pro for about six months now, so I feel confident saying the changes I’ve seen are deep and structural. This isn’t a novelty bump. It’s a genuine shift in how I work and how much I can produce without burning out.

I strongly believe that voiced based interfaces are going to be important over the next 10 years. As we voice input approach keyboard input reliability, it will cover even more scenarios.

Omarchy New Default at 37signals

David Heinemeier Hansson, on world.hey.com:

We’re going all-in on Omarchy at 37signals. Over the next three years, as the regular churn of hardware invites it, we’re switching everyone on our Ops and Ruby programming teams to our own Arch-derived Linux distribution (and of course sharing all the improvements we make along the way with everyone else on Omarchy!).

It’s amazing how far from the Apple® tree DHH has fallen. I understand there’s business adversarial history, but there’s more to it. I feel it also reflects a very real loss of the geek power that Apple used to have.

It’s an exciting new adventure for us. Omarchy is already by far-and-away my favorite computing environment. Right up there in joy and wonder with the old Amiga days or early OSX.

I really need to try Omarchy soon.

The Why of Liquid Glass Design

Craig Hockenberry, on furbo.org:

All of this makes me think that Apple is close to introducing devices where the screen disappears seamlessly into the physical edge.

I’ve been playing with iOS26 on my work iPhone 12 Pro, and I’m not sold. I much prefer flat interfaces. In fact, the new Android Material Design appeals more to me (gasp!).

This explanation would make some sense, but the fact that they had to carry macOS along for the ride is just frustrating. I’ll wait until I use it daily on my devices. But not excited about it.

Obsidian's CEO Interview

Casey Newton, on theverge.com:

Steph’s role as CEO is also unusual, because although Obsidian is still a very young, very small, and very flat organization, he’s actually not one of the founders. He joined in 2023, when cofounders Shida Li and Erica Xu brought him in based on his experience with his former startup, Lumi. He was also a huge Obsidian fan.

Great interview for those that may not know about Obsidian. Really supports the feeling that both Obsidian the app and its team, are one of us — regular users.

Every time I explore other options, I end up back using Obsidian. My two main gripes with the app are the subpar search and mobile experience — neither discussed in the interview.

But the trade-off’s with portability and privacy against other haven’t convinced me yet.

Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal

Eric Migicovsky, on ericmigi.com:

The big news today is that we’re revealing the final design for Pebble Time 2. The design that we showed off back in March were preliminary designs. We’ve been able to tweak and improve the industrial design quite a bit since then. I think it’s turned out fantastically well!

Looks great. I’ll be switching my pre-order of Pebble 2 Duo to Pebble Time 2. Still not sure if this 2025 Time 2 looks better that the 2016, but at least it’s similar kind of good.

AI Chatbots in Cuddly Toys are Coming

By Amanda Hess and Sara Messinger, on nytimes.com:

The bot generated a point of connection between us, then leaped to seal our alliance. Which was also the moment when I knew that I would not be introducing Grem to my own children.

Fascinating. This is absolutely coming. Scary in one end, very helpful on the other. I tend to fall closer on the helpful side — just likes games, it has to be less bad that passively consuming video. Still, it’s more bad that playing with the stuffed toy using your imagination.

DHH Review of Framework Desktop

David Heinemeier Hansson, on hey.com:

So if you just want the best, small computer that runs Linux superbly well out of the box, you should buy the Framework Desktop. It’s completely quiet, fantastically fast, and super fun to look at.

He really, really, likes it. I’ve been very curious about this desktop for a while — specially thinking of my Linux-loving father. And while this post continues to support the idea, what really made me bookmark it was his mention of the Beelink SER9, specifically his bang-for-the-buck pick of the the SER8 in that same post. At $499, it really sounds like a sweet desktop machine.

While DHH does seem to have a chip on his should with Apple recently, his closing remarks is good news for those of us that really hope there’s some good left in the company, but need to keep an eye out for a plan B. Just in case.

Framework did good with this one. AMD really blew it out of the water with the 395+. We’re spoiled to have such incredible hardware available for Linux at such appealing discounts over similar stuff from Cupertino. What a great time to love open source software and tinker-friendly hardware!

Sling TV New Day Pass

Emma Roth, on theverge.com:

Sling TV has launched a new option that lets you watch live content without signing up for a streaming or cable subscription. Now, you can pay $4.99 for a “day pass,” offering 24 hours of live and on-demand access to several channels, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3, TNT, A&E, Disney Channel, CNN, and others.

Count me in. Other than tennis, I rarely watch more than the final of any sports tournament. If this is available outside the US, I see it being used on our household.

AI Browsers Are Arriving

Perplexity Team, on perplexity.ai:

Comet transforms any webpage into a portal of curiosity. Highlight any text to get instant explanations. Explore tangential ideas without losing your original context. Ask specialized questions or broad ones—Comet understands that genuine curiosity doesn’t follow predetermined paths.

Only for their $200/month subscribers, but they have planted the flag. OpenAI’s one is coming, and Dia now has sidetabs.

I see the value in the AI enhanced browser — doing research with Dia removes significant friction from the copy/paste heavy process from just days ago. But can’t help think that an OS level AI, will make these top-down solutions less relevant.

But clearly, the race is on.

Clean Installing macOS in 2025

As I did in my previous two work MacBook Air upgrades in 2024 and 2023, documenting my critical apps with a clean setup.

This time around I’m upgrading to a Silver MacBook Air M4 with 32Gb of Ram and 1TB from a Midnight M2 model with 24GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

Here’s an updated (or commented) list my must-have apps:

Apps

• Core:
  • 1Password 8: used to love it, now need it for work. Keeping an eye on Passwords for personal stuff.
  • Arc: While development has slowed down, still my browser of choice.
  • Drafts: still scratch-pad, since forever. But has become less important in my flow.
  • Ivory: I’m using web-based Elk a lot more. But Ivory is still the preferred app.
    
  • Obsidian: Still a fundamental app, but less the start/end for everything.
  • Raycast : App launcher, clipboard viewer, screenshot search, snippet expander, etc. Have not managed to migrate my AI workflows to it.
  • Soulver 3: the only way to calculate anything.
  • Sublime Text 4: Photoshop for Text.
  • Tembo: find a needle in your haystack.
  • Things: old faithful task manager.
• Work
  • Microsoft 365: oh how much I hate thee.
  • Microsoft Teams for Mac: see above and multiply by π.
  • Modern CSV: Using it less, but still my go-to for clean table data viewing.
  • Screegle: best way to share screen on Teams.
  • Superhuman: my right hand. Can’t imagine working without it.
  • Superintendent.app: Being using it less also (but bought it for team). Keeping an eye on TextQuery
  • Writage: Markdown plugin for Microsoft Word.
  • Vimcal: If you need to find time among many every day.
• AI
  • Chorus: OpenAI, Claude, Gemeni API wrapper. Replaced BoltAI for me.
  • superwhisper: amazing dictation/transcription solution. Also been using WhisperType since it feels faster for shorter transcriptions.
  • Granola: Amazing bot-less meeting notetaker. Won out over Shadow for me. But both are transformational.
• Tools
  • Acorn: best image editor.
  • Bartender Back to it after using Ice. The SetApp version gave me peace of mind.
  • Calibre: ePubs happen.
  • Supercharge: hundreds? of features. Another Sindre Sorhus masterpiece that I both own direct, and subscribe through Setapp.
  • WhatsApp for Mac: main messaging app for all that’s not work.
• Utilities
  • Actions: lots ofextra actions for the Shortcuts app.
  • Actions For Obsidian: 50+ shortcuts actions.
  • Applite: Install many apps outside the AppStore cleanly.
  • Badgeify: Add Teams, iMessage, etc to the Menu Bar. So I don’t miss anything from
  • BetterDisplay : suffer less without a Studio Display at the office.
  • Bunch: Automated changing work/personal/weekend setups.
  • Dato, the latest default of over Itsycal & Calendr : going back and forward. Purchased it direct, and also have it under SetApp.
  • Mac Mouse Fix: can’t use a 3rd party mouse without this. Love this app.
  • Moves: move windows with modifier keys.
  • Karabiner-Elements: hyperkey superpower.
  • OpenAudible: liberate audiobooks.
  • OpenIn 4: default apps for filetypes. Use it for .md and .csv mostly.
  • Spotify: hate the UI, but it’s the streaming service app that works for my family.
  • Shottr: screenshot app I like. Just works for me.
  • Velja: default browser with rules and easy switching.
  • WindowKeys: Allows 3rd party keyboards work with default window-tiling shortcuts.
  • Yoink: too many windows open, where are you going to place that file punk?
• Other good apps that were replaced: good apps that I replaced since last time for other reasons.
  • Moom & Rectangle & Wins : Replaced with native mac functionality, WindowKeys, Moves and a little Raycast.
  • KeepingYouAwake: now use Raycast extension.
  • Maestral : Blot now supports iCloud, so don’t need Dropbox client anymore.

Application Settings and Others

• Karabiner:
  • Export and import configuration
• Raycast
  • Settings
• Velja, Supercharge, Shortcutie, Dato, Shorcuts Action
  • App Buddy
• Bartender:
  • Release Notes
• Sublime Text 4
  • • ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text/
• Finder Settings:
  • When performing a search: Search the Current Folder
  • Keep folders on top: In windows when sorting by name
• Font Book
  • My Fonts, File > Export
• System Library:
  • Remove beep sounds for ^⌘↓ commands on Obsidian/Electron.
• Arc
  • Migrate Profiles:
    • Backup to /Users/rm_psmt/Library/Application Support/Arc/User Data/
      • Look for Default and Profiles 1…n
  • Settings
    • View the Full URL at the Top of the Page
    • Disable Password savings
  • Extensions:
    • Selection to Markdown Link
    • Readwise Highlighter
    • Raindrop.io
    • Obsidian Web Clipper
      • Export/Import Settings
    • Ghostery Tracker & Ad Blocker
    • UnTrap for YouTube
    • Raycast Companion

System Settings

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard / Keyboard Shortcuts… /

/ Modifier Keys

Caps Lock key | ^Control

/ Spotlight Show Spotlight | ⌥⌘Space Show Finder search window | Unchecked

App Shortcuts

Wallpapers:

• BasicAppleGuy macOS Tiger
• Hector Simpson Aqueux and Wavēy
• Downlink: when hurricane starts, fun way to keep an eye on the world.

Apple Sports Includes Tennis Now

Apple Newsroom, on apple.com:

Tennis fans can access live scores for Grand Slam® and 1000-level tournaments, and can track every point across all men’s and women’s singles matches, beginning with Wimbledon.

Nice, I can now open the app with without faking interest. I really like Apple Sports design, but Sports Alerts is still better, because it allows me to follow specific tennis players.

Raycast on BYOK Concerns

thomaspaulmann, on reddit.com:

Here’s where we messed up the communication: Some of you expected BYOK to connect directly to providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) without going through our servers. We built it differently and should have been upfront about that from day one instead of letting people figure it out later.

I missed this middle layer detail, but it doesn’t concern me much. It makes sense that’s the easiest way to integrate across devices and with Raycast functionality.

As I mentioned before, my concern is mostly related of why BYOK is free:

One debate we had was whether BYOK should be free or part of our paid Pro subscription. We decided to make it free to lower the barrier of adoption for some of our most powerful features. Our Pro subscription offers a clear upgrade path for people who want to share their AI content across devices, and our Advanced AI add-on is a great deal for people who want access to all the best LLMs.

Works for me, still hope there’s more to come to justify why Pro upgrade makes sense.

Raycast AI Now Supports Your Own API Keys

From raycast.com:

Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) seamlessly integrates your existing AI provider accounts with Raycast’s intuitive interface. With BYOK you can now use Raycast AI with your own API keys for Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI. This allows you to send as many AI messages as you want at your own cost without a Pro subscription.

This is great! As a Raycast user, this is amazing news. It does worry me a bit that advanced model’s were probably a big reason why many(?) upgraded to Raycast Pro. But in my case — that wasn’t true. I just haven’t been able to use Raycast as main AI hub, as it is for the rest of my Mac stuff.

My hope is that something else is coming that’ll differentiate. I’m particularly excited about the mentioned iOS keyboard.

Craig Federighi on iPad's New Multitasking

Andrew Cunningham, on arstechnica.com:

That slight change in approach, combined with other behind-the-scenes optimizations, makes the new multitasking model more widely compatible than Stage Manager is. There are still limits on those devices–not to the number of windows you can open, but to how many of those windows can be active and up-to-date at once. And true multi-monitor support would remain the purview of the faster, more-expensive models.

It was very surprising — and satisfying — to see so many iPads’s supported by the new model. This segmentation for the feature sounds more reasonable than the previous Stage Manager one.

“But we’ve looked and said, as [the iPad and Mac] come together, where on the iPad the Mac idiom for doing something, like where we put the window close controls and maximize controls, what color are they–we’ve said why not, where it makes sense, use a converged design for those things so it’s familiar and comfortable,” Federighi told Ars. “But where it doesn’t make sense, iPad’s gonna be iPad.”

John Siracusa, said it best on mastodon:

Turns out the Mac had some pretty good ideas when it comes to multitasking.

It’s a bit sad that after so many years of resistance, they arrived at such an “obvious solution”. I’d rather believe the argument that they needed to wait so the whole iPad lineup was powerful enough to support these sort of features. But I’m not sure I buy this myself.

Casey Liss WWDC Gut Reactions

Casey Liss, on caseyliss.com:

Apple’s multitasking changes for iPadOS 26 are incredible. They work well with a finger, but work great with a pointing device. The new multitasking mechanism will remove many of the shackles I feel when using my iPad Pro. I no longer feel like I’m trying to wade through wet cement when using it. I don’t feel like I’m bending to its needs — rather, it’s bending to mine.

I’m very excited about iPadOS 26. I dream of the the eMate 300 iBook based on iPadOS — or at least a reasonable priced thin keyboard case.

Personal Knowledge Management in the Age of AI

Eric Gardner, on ericgardner.info:

So what is the value of maintaining a personal knowledge base in the age of AI? Task-tracking and note-taking are practical and useful, but ultimately I want to treat my own thoughts as if they have value.

Great walkthrough on how to think of a PKM today. Appreciated the sharing of his setup, not as a system, but as the current result of his journey.

Michael Tsai WWDC 2025 Preview

Michael Tsai, on mjtsai.com:

The first 12 or so years that I was writing Mac OS X apps, it was always exciting to anticipate what new features or frameworks would be announced and how I could leverage them to improve my apps. The last 12 or so years, Apple has given speeches about how much they love developers and then gone on to make changes that felt like they were meant to kill my apps, make them harder to use and harder for customers to discover, and drown us all in rising sea of bugs.

As always, Michael Tsai roundup is the best there is. But his closing thoughts really sting as an Apple fan. As my grandma used to say: quien se pica, es porque ají come, which closest translation might be: If the shoe fits, wear it..

The fact is, Apple has transformed from a developer enabler to a policing bureaucrat. No more are we excited about what software can do because Apple, we’re now surprised of software that’s able to exist despite Apple.

WhatsApp for iPad is Finally Here

WhatsApp Team, on blog.whatsapp.com:

We’ve made WhatsApp for iPad ideal for multitasking so you can get more done. Take advantage of iPadOS multitasking features such as Stage Manager*, Split View, and Slide Over to view multiple apps at once, so you can send messages while browsing the web, or research options for a group trip while on a call together. WhatsApp also works with your Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil.

Can’t imagine what corporate BS delayed it for so long. But I’m happy that it’s here.

Enhanced Games to launch in 2026

From japantimes.co.jp:

The Enhanced Games have set the inaugural competition for May 2026 in Las Vegas, with swimming, athletics and weightlifting on the agenda for athletes using substances banned in official competition to the consternation of anti-doping bodies.

I’ve been advocating for this since college. I’m sure doping will be just the start — if it catches on — I envision body augmentations next.

Brent Simmons Retiring from Corporate Development

Brent Simmons, on inessential.com:

With retirement imminent — this is my last job, and June 6 is my last day (maybe I’ve buried the lede here) — I want to thank my team publicly for how they’ve made me a better engineer and, more importantly, a better person. From the bottom of my heart.

Post also has some interesting points on corporate developers, but the main point is that he’s retiring from Audible. Ever since I started using macs 20 years ago, Brent Simmons has been a developer I’d always known made amazing apps. Thanks for all the good clicks.

Old Sir Jony Was Bought By Sam, io io oh

openai.com:

Two years ago, Jony Ive and the creative collective LoveFrom, quietly began collaborating with Sam Altman and the team at OpenAI.

[…]

We gathered together the best hardware and software engineers, the best technologists, physicists, scientists, researchers and experts in product development and manufacturing. Many of us have worked closely for decades.

The io team, focused on developing products that inspire, empower and enable, will now merge with OpenAI to work more intimately with the research, engineering and product teams in San Francisco.

Just wow. I’d say there’s much to unpack, but in reality, it’s mostly our imagination. However, there’s a lot to imagine and dream with this.

I find it difficult to believe that in the next three years, I won’t be choosing between an OpenAI and Apple device in a similar category.

This is great news. Apple is at its best when he needs to compete. It’s a little blasphemous that Sir Jony will be on the other side of the match, but it means that the stakes are even higher than expected. Don’t be surprised if Scott Forstall comes out of the shadows.

Understanding MCP (Model Context Protocol)

Atharva Raykar, on nilenso.com:

Model Context Protocol, like most protocols, solves the M ⨯ N integration problem by turning it into an M + N integration problem.

An AI client application that speaks this protocol does not have to figure out how to fetch data or take actions specific to a platform.

Great primer on MCP. I still haven’t been able to do something productive with it, but there is of course something there. If you don’t believe it, just look at how everybody is throwing some MCP pasta to the wall:

• How to use the Readwise MCP - Readwise Docs
• Introducing Atlassian’s Remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server - Work Life by Atlassian
• Raycast v1.98.0 - Model Context Protocol

Things Cloud Rewritten in Swift

Werner, on culturedcode.com:

This post takes you behind the scenes: why we rebuilt Things Cloud, why we chose to write it in Swift, and how we transitioned without skipping a beat.

This will be a bit more technical than usual. If that’s not your thing, the summary above is already the key takeaway: Things Cloud is now faster, more modern, and ready for the future.

If there’s one thing that works consistently in my tech stack is Things synchronization. It is amazing. This post goes way more technical than I care for, but I just love the fresh language smell of the new synchronization engine — which you never get to see anyway.

Obsidian 1.9.0 Desktop Introduces Bases

Obsidian, on obsidian.md:

Introducing Bases, a new core plugin that lets you turn any set of notes into a powerful database. With Bases you can organize everything from projects to travel plans, reading lists, and more.

This looks very powerful. The idea that you can create a custom table view is something that already existed with Dataview, but this implementation looks closer to something as polished as Notion and other apps.

Will play with it as soon as it comes out on the stable channel. I just need to clean up a lot of my front matter values.

Meh, Hyper and Akimbo Keyboard Shortcuts

Kevin Kipp, on kevinkipp.com:

Meh (⌃⌥⇧) and Hyper (⌃⌥⇧⌘) are aliases for modifier combinations that are so awkward to hold that almost no application uses them, making them great candidates for global hotkeys you may want to set using something like Raycast.

@mikker’s config · mikker/LeaderKey.app Wiki · GitHub

Mapping double-cmd to F12

I did not know that Meh nor Akimbo shortcuts existed. Or more accurately, I didn’t know they had a name. I’m a sucker for things like this.

I don’t see much use for Meh shortcuts, but I am playing with Akimbo shortcuts for the command key (press both the left and right simultaneously) and even Akimbo for the left and right shift key.

Spotify DJ AI Features Launched

Newsroom, on spotify.com:

By simply using your voice, you can now ask DJ to update your personalized listening session based on the music you want to hear at that moment, whether you’re looking for something to set the mood for date night or need some high-energy tracks to get you hyped for a party.

DJ can handle a combination of genre, mood, artist, or activity-related requests. For example, you could try, “Surprise me with some indie tracks I’ve never heard before,” or “Give me some electronic beats for a midday run.” You could even request something like, “Play me some cry-in-the-car songs.”

One of the few AI features I was surprised it was not out yet and actually was hoping existed. It’s not as front and center as I expected and I’m still not convinced it’s good, but I do like the concept of asking my jukebox conversationally what I want.

Ben Brooks Framework 13 Review

Ben Brooks, on brooksreview.net:

The last time I was this happy with a laptop purchase was when I jumped from Dell to Apple, and purchased a 12″ Powerbook G4 — what a machine. The Framework 13 gives me those same feelings of being able to breathe again. I don’t feel constricted to only what I should be allowed to do, or unduly punished for selecting the wrong port setup, screen, RAM, or SSD (among many others).

So unless you cannot leave macOS, Framework should be at or near the top of your list when laptop shopping. I prefer it with Project Bluefin installed, but any flavor of Linux is so easy to use these days, that if you can assemble this machine you should have no issue running Linux either — as long as you are willing to put up with some software tradeoffs.

Great review. Even though the Framework 12 keeps taunting me, I’ve come to my senses and recognized that nothing but macOS¹ would work for me. Still, I love that this exists. If Apple continues to loose its soul, it’s comfortable to know there’s an option.

An Email from Steve Jobs

Steve Hayman, on hayman.net:

But I did start panicking. OMG I’m going to get fired, this was a terrible idea, I should have foreseen this, what am I going to do now? Once they find out, I’m done!

Great post. Won’t spoil anything. Worth a short read. Can absolutely identify with the writer. I kept thinking of my younger days when my boss used to say: “There’s nothing more dangerous than a fool with good intentions.”

Firefox Now Has Side Tabs

Mozilla, on mozilla.org:

Firefox’s new sidebar lets you move tabs to the side, pin key sites and keep your AI assistant handy.

Still far from being as elegant as Arc’s or even the Zen browser, but nice to have.

The Amazing Little MacBook Air M4

August “Gus” Mueller, on shapeof.com:

With a full build of Acorn, including running hundreds of regression tests, Jimi outperforms my M1 Ultra at 3m21s vs 4m43s. And when purely compiling Acorn, where you’d think the Ultra would have an edge, I get 1:36 (Air) vs 2:05 (Ultra).

I’m sorry, what?

This $1400 machine is beating my $4000 desktop machine with a 20 core CPU, 48 core GPU, and 64GB of memory? What why how?

This threw a wrench into my plans of getting an used MacBook Pro 14in M1 with 32GBs of RAM. The MacBook Air M4 is just too much of a good value.

Are Levi’s From Amazon Different From Levi’s From Levi’s?

Erin Schwartz, on nymag.com:

I acquired two pairs each of our most-recommended jeans (women’s Wedgies and Ribcages and the classic men’s 501s) — one pair ordered from Amazon, one pair sent by Levi’s for each style. I was careful to match up the same washes to prevent differences in distressing or fabric treatment from skewing the results. Still, I was skeptical. It didn’t make sense: Why would Levi’s maintain separate supply chains for different retailers? I pulled the jeans out of their plastic packaging expecting them to be indistinguishable. They were not.

Exactly this happened to me a few years back. I bought the same pair¹ I do every couple of years from both Amazon and Levi’s , and they felt completely different. At the time I thought it was because Amazon’s were knock-off’s, but the article point’s this out:

The tests confirmed a lot of variability between two pairs of the same jeans — you could buy the same style from Amazon and Levi’s and feel a difference. But it didn’t add up to gaps in quality; there was no indication that the Levi’s from Amazon were worse.

Basically Levi’s huge global supply chain, with dozens of mills and factories across multiple countries, results in variations between the same jeans model.

Mere Civilian on Why They Preordered a Pebble in 2025

Mere Civilian, on merecivilian.com:

Whenever I have a Pebble watch on my wrist, things are a lot calmer. There are notifications (mind you, my notification on my Apple Watch and Android Watch are also trimmed down significantly) but the Pebble is a device that is just not a constant attention seeker. It just simply lives in the background.

Unlike me, he ordered the Pebble Core Time 2. But I really like his reasoning.

Two New PebbleOS Watches This Year

Eric Migicovsky, on ericmigi.com:

We’re excited to announce two new smartwatches that run open source PebbleOS and are compatible with thousands of your beloved Pebble apps.

• Core 2 Duo has an ultra crisp black and white display, polycarbonate frame, costs $149 and starts shipping in July.
• Core Time 2 has a larger 64-colour display, metal frame, costs $225 and starts shipping in December.

Both are available in limited quantities, with worldwide shipping. Prices are in USD. Pre-ordering is the only way to get one - they will not be sold in stores. Pre-order today at store.rePebble.com!

I went with a Core 2 Due, in large part to support the project. The Core Time 2 sounds great, but I’m not crazy about the design — unlike the never released Pebble Time 2, which looked amazing imho.

Really hope this works out. We need more fun geeky fun projects like this one.

Best Hamburguer in Costa Rica According to Reddit Ticos

Data Rican, on datarican.org:

Was scrolling through Reddit Ticos and found a couple of threads discussing the best hamburger in Costa Rica. Which to be fair actually meant the best hamburger in the GAM.
After finally getting my master’s done, I had some time to nerd it out so I decided to overengineer it and write some code (i.e. prompt Claude) to analyze these Reddit threads and create a ranking based on upvotes.

My buddy Jose bring the geek and the foodie to the table… with a burger joints table to visit in Costa Rica. Challenge accepted¹.

Southwest Airlines Outlines Changes to Make itself Unremarkable

Southwest Airline, on swamedia.com:

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is evolving rapidly, implementing new initiatives that support business objectives and create choice for current and future Customers of America’s largest domestic carrier.1 Initiatives announced today will reward the airline’s most loyal Customers and give all Customers more options for a broader range of travel experiences.

The positive biz speak spin here is pathetic. I didn’t see any comment from Southwest loyal customers that were positive. I used to go out of my way to fly back to Costa Rica with Southwest given its two-bag policy. Now that’s gone, and with it goes any benefit of using Southwest versus any other airline.

CJ, on crankyflier.com:

At the JP Morgan Industrials Conference today, Southwest will announce the following:

• First and Second Checked Bag Fees will be implemented for all tickets purchased from May 28 (elites and credit card-holders still get at least 1 bag free)
• Basic Economy will be introduced with Basic effectively taking over the pricepoint where Wanna Get Away is today
• Flight Credits will once again expire after 1 year from the date of ticket issue (Basic is 6 months from date of issue, so… why bother?)
• Rapid Rewards points will now be redeemed on a variable scale with no transparency (or, um, transfarency?) in what the multiple vs the paid fare will be

In other words, Southwest has erased every single positive differentiator it ever had.

Adam Tow, on tow.com:

I’ve flown Southwest Airlines more times than I can count. Growing up in San Diego, we took Southwest flights to the Bay Area to visit relatives, and later, I relied on them to travel back and forth between college.
[…]
At the end of every flight, Southwest flight attendants usually say something like, “We know you have a choice when you fly, and we thank you for choosing Southwest. Welcome to San Jose!” But with these changes, I won’t automatically consider Southwest my first choice anymore. I understand the company feels the need to increase revenue—or, rather, activist investors are forcing them to. But alienating loyal customers comes with a risk.

May they generate lots of shareholder value.

ElevenLabs Scribe Transcribe Engine

Tim von Känel, Flavio Schneider, on ElevenLabs blog:

Scribe, our first Speech to Text model, is the world’s most accurate transcription model. Built to handle the unpredictability of real-world audio, Scribe transcribes speech in 99 languages, featuring word-level timestamps, speaker diarization, and audio-event tagging—all delivered in a structured response for seamless integration.

Scribe is engineered for precision. In FLEURS & Common Voice benchmark tests across 99 languages, it consistently outperforms leading models like Gemini 2.0 Flash, Whisper Large V3 and Deepgram Nova-3. Whether it’s meeting summaries, movie subtitles, or even song lyrics, Scribe delivers the lowest automated transcription word error rate in Italian (98.7%), English (96.7%) and 97 other languages.

Missed this when it came out a few days ago but the claims are impressive. I’ve been able to test it on the Whisper Memos app. Seems to work fine¹. Hopefully Superwhisper will have access to it and I’ll be able to play with it soon on macOS. Exciting times!

Louie Mantia Launches First Kadomaru App

Louie Mantia, on his blog:

Today I want to share with you a new official designation for apps I make, Kadomaru Shōkai. I’ve been collaborating with Johannes Jakob for a little while now (on a few unreleased apps), but we’re shipping our first one today. Right now.

It’s called Daruma, and it’s a goal-tracking app. It’s super simple. Just add an item, begin working on it by selecting the right eye, complete it by selecting the left eye, and burn all your completed goals whenever you’re ready. The process mimics that of real daruma, which are type of Japanese doll. When purchased, they have blank eyes you fill in just as previously described, and at the end of the year, you burn them wherever you bought them from.

Lots of delicious library era vibes here.

Love the opinionated design, especially when it’s beautiful and thought out. I’m not sure if I’ll be using it, but I’ll be checking any new app they come up with.