Tech, mostly Apple, from Lex Friedman.
15 pieces tagged “Opinion”
“The Ellisons also suck” is true. It doesn’t defend X.
After I posted X is bad, though, I got a metric ton of feedback. That’s a scientific measurement. John Gruber, for his part, has pushed back to some on Mastodon with a fair question: If I’m judging platforms by their owners, the Ellisons aren’t much better…
There’s money to be made in podcasting. It’s getting harder, though — at least for some podcasters. But while you may listen to podcasts, you might not be as familiar with the business side of podcasting. I am. On the October 9 episode of Freakonomics Radio…
I admire John Gruber. I think he’s a great writer. I think he’s smart as hell. He’s annoyingly funny, too. I am impressed and inspired by his success with both Daring Fireball and The Talk Show. I get excited when John links to one of my apps or articles.…
The iPhone 18 Pro Max AT&T issue a recent example
We know Apple likes to keep secrets. The company aims for big, splashy, exciting, and (perhaps most importantly) newsworthy reveals, and secrecy is a big piece of that. (That’s why I remain surprised that Apple’s never been able to plug the leaks that Mark…
Gotta say it’s a bit suspicious how quickly a one man team is “recreating” existing games, while being “a full time consultant”… That’s from a post I received on Mastodon after launching The Universe, Controlled, my homage to the sorely-missed early iPhone…
As is, it’s bad for developers and users alike.
The App Store review process remains broken. This complaint is nothing new; developers have railed against the pains of App Store review for as long as there’s been an App Store. The fact that some humans (and, I’d expect, some automated tools) vet every…
Developers, developers, developers… are annoyed, annoyed, annoyed. And their users will be, too.
UPDATE: MY WHINING WORKED. Previously: Apple isn’t setting the iPhone Duo for maximum success from day one. Oh, it’s an impressive feat of hardware engineering. While I don’t want one as my main carry iPhone, I’d love to play with one. But I’m a-okay with the…
(Please ignore the fact that I’ve published something on this site every day since I launched it.)
I’ve studied a language in Duolingo nearly 500 days in a row. My solved Wordle streak is in the low hundreds. I’ve closed the rings on my Apple Watch every day for a bajillion years, roughly. I’ve solved LinkedIn’s Patches puzzle 174 consecutive days. I hate…
Lex on Tech members can submit questions that I answer right here on the site. Reader Geraint asks: Is it still possible (and defensible) to be an enthusiastic Apple hobbyist? Yes. My friend Dan Moren’s written a bit on this topic, both at Six Colors and…
They slow down developers, which harms customers. It’s time for a change.
Apps distributed via the App Store require Apple’s approval. That’s the way it’s been since the App Store launched. In the US, the App Store’s the only way developers can really distribute apps. You may not agree with Apple’s approach (the EU doesn’t and…
“It’s not really entirely mine anymore.”
Marco Arment launched Overcast in 2014. It was and remains a standalone podcast app. I’ve used it ever since, even while working at companies (like Stitcher and Amazon Music) that made their own podcast apps. Overcast’s approach to podcasts matches my brain’s…
We need to talk about subscriptions. Many of your favorite apps now offer them. Some of Apple’s apps now offer them. Most of my own damn apps offer them. We hate subscriptions. Okay, maybe you don’t, but most of us do. I know I often get annoyed at…
I assume you give this post five stars.
Apple offers iOS app developers a mechanism to ask users to rate and review their apps — within the apps themselves. It’s called StoreKit’s requestReview API. The developer essentially asks iOS to show the rating/review prompt at a given moment, and the…
When you browse the web, websites set cookies. Annoyingly, thanks to GDPR, they often also show you little overlays that tell you they’re using cookies, or ask you about which cookies you’re willing to accept. And to be clear, browser cookies are the least…
He didn’t ask for my advice. I’m sharing it.
Apple announced its next event, a September 9 infomercial they’re calling Surprise and Shine. Will they surprise us? I don’t know. It’s a phone that folds. I’m excited about it, sure. But whether we’ll be surprised about it is an open question. I will be…
