Humane, the secretive company that has slowly been pulling back the curtain on their ambitions, turned on the spotlight and stepped out onto the stage today. I was expecting some sort of keynote event, but Humane’s Ai Pin unveiling came in the form of a 10-minute video showing off its design, accessories, and capabilities. Here’s the whole thing if you haven’t watched it yet:

Introducing Humane Ai Pin from Humane, Inc. on Vimeo.

First things first

It struck me that they started with the colors. Not that it was a good or bad way to start, just different when comparing to Apple (which, c’mon, their team has so many ex-Apple employees that I’m certainly going to draw rely on that comparison) and how they typically introduce products. The variations and accessories always come last, but Humane showed the three colors off right away.

We’ve been chasing the idea of a personal digital assistant for decades now, but in earnest ever since the likes of Siri, Alexa, and the Google Assistant made their way into our pockets. The Ai Pin takes things to the next level being a cyborg eye meets ChatGPT meets personal knowledge management (PKM) system. And it looks genuinely helpful.

But.

But it’s yet another device that is trying to be the do everything” gadget. And it’s at a severe disadvantage that it doesn’t tie into my phone, which is the device that knows the most about me and has for over a decade. The Ai Pin is a fresh start, for good and for bad. It sounds like there would be some legwork to be done ahead of time in the Humane Center dashboard to onboard your Pin with data that will make its experiences” more relevant for you. Once you start using it, the Pin will, of course, learn more about you and get better over time. But only with the things that you use it for. It won’t know anything about the dozens of notes I jot down on my phone every day. It won’t have the context of the webpages I’m scrolling or the conversations I’m having online. It won’t have insight into the YouTube videos I’m watching and saving. Because all those things will continue to happen on my other devices.

You won’t be able to go all-in on a gadget like this right away, and that’s going to severely limit the usefulness of it. And if it’s not proving useful, will I feel compelled to keep wearing it all? Humane’s up against a real chicken and egg problem here.

Would I wear it?

Let’s talk about what it would be like to strap one of these gizmos on every day. Props to their hardware engineering team, it looks like a solid device with the fit and finish one would expect from a team full of people who had tenured time at Apple. The magnetic attachments, the control gestures, and even the charging case will all feel familiar to someone steeped in the Apple ecosystem.

But to answer the question, no, I wouldn’t be thrilled about wearing the Ai Pin. I can see where Humane is coming from with the design. They want it to be out of the way. It’s in the company’s name: Humane. For many of its interactions, your face and your hands — arguably the most human of our features — are unencumbered by the Pin. You don’t have a screen, neither physical nor digital, between you and another human. But it does draw attention. You’ve got a healthy-sized badge-looking thing hanging off the front of your shirt. With a battery, which is not historically lightweight. It makes noises. You touch and tap it from time to time. It has a light. A light that, critically, alerts others that they’re likely getting recorded on video or microphone. Oh, and it shoots lasers.

I can understand why, given their desire to get technology out of the way, Humane hasn’t turned to smart glasses as the obvious solution. I suspect they feel that literally obscuring your face with a gadget would be institutionally antithetical to what they’re trying to accomplish. A non-starter, even if they could pack all the necessary technology into a sleek pair of glasses frames.

But, if that is indeed their feeling toward smart glasses, I disagree. I think glasses are already so commonplace that they blend into our daily lives much better than an accessory you strap onto your clothing. I’m so impressed with how inconspicuous the Meta Ray Ban Glasses look while being an always-ready camera, a pair of personal headphones, and Siri-like assistance via voice commands that I’m considering giving substantial money to the Facebook company to try them. Not a possibility I would have entertained just a few months ago.

On the other hand, my impression of the Ai Pin is that I would feel very self-conscious wearing it. Maybe that feeling would quickly pass, just as it did with wearing my Apple Watch and AirPods. But I can’t shake the feeling that the Pin would feel more intrusive than glasses with the same capabilities. I’m inclined to believe that people around me would feel the same way. Its form factor and placement lack the benefit of familiarity that things like smart glasses, smart watches, smart headphones, and the like enjoy.

An AI OS

Oh, and this is all written assuming the best-case scenario that the Ai Pin does everything it is supposed to without getting tripped up into making factual errors that have plagued all AI systems so far. But it’s not a unicorn device in that regard. In fact, one of their demos in this not live, (presumably) laboriously rehearsed, expertly produced, meticulously edited, and hotly anticipated introduction got the answer to that eclipse question wrong.

That’s not a great start. Relying on something proudly powered by generative AI for nearly everything it does is going to require a huge amount of trust if it’s to replace something as reliable as my phone. And we all know that trust is devilishly difficult to build and — as I expect Humane is going to learn — exceptionally easy to break.

I’m intrigued

Let’s end on some positive notes. I award Humane full points on building that sweet Perpetual Power System with hot-swappable battery booster packs. That looks awesome and Apple should be taking notes for the Vision Pro. There’s a bunch of cool ideas going on with the Ai Pin. The Personic Speaker for a sphere of sound, the laser display that follows your palm, the Nearby feature, recapping your day. Each an impressive bit of technology, all of it packed together in a small, wearable device.

I could go on and on about this 10-minute video, but I’ll leave it saying that I continue to wish Humane the best of luck. Their goal is audacious, but the people crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.

(Regarding my pre-introduction reactions to the Pin: $24/month for a phone/data plan, photo storage, AI experiences, and more is still a heck of a price. But I’m less confident now that I would be satisfied paying it month after month, nearly $300 per year, just to continue to get the basic functionality out of my $700 gadget. And I may have squandered the better title on that blog post.)

Greatest Hits


David Pierce at The Verge got a day-early scoop on that Ai Pin from Humane:

The Pin itself is a square device that magnetically clips to your clothes or other surfaces. The clip is more than just a magnet, though; it’s also a battery pack, which means you can swap in new batteries throughout the day to keep the Pin running. We don’t know how long a single battery lasts, but the device ships with two battery boosters.” It’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and uses a camera, depth, and motion sensors to track and record its surroundings. It has a built-in speaker, which Humane calls a personic speaker,” and can connect to Bluetooth headphones.

And what it does:

The Pin’s operating system is called Cosmos, and rather than operate as a collection of apps, Humane seems to be imagining a more seamless system that can call up various AIs and other tools as you need them. It sounds a bit like ChatGPT’s plugins system, through which you can attach new features or data to your chatbot experience — which tracks with reports that the Pin would be powered by GPT-4.

So what’s this newfangled thing going to cost?

The documents show that Humane wants the Pin to be considered a fully standalone device, rather than an accessory to your smartphone. $699 gets you the Pin, a charger, and those two battery boosters. But the real story is that it costs $24 per month for a Humane Subscription, which includes a phone number and cell data on Humane’s own branded wireless service that runs on T-Mobile’s network, cloud storage for photos and videos, and the ability to make unlimited queries of AI models, although we’re not sure which ones specifically.

I’m ready to be blown away at what this thing can do and have it take the world by storm. But as of right now, I’m having a hard time imagining wanting to wear this everywhere — along with carrying a phone, a watch, and AirPods with me everywhere. Unless it can replace anything of those things, it’s going to be a tough sell for me to add it into my daily carry.

I will say that $24/month is a good deal for a cellular plan, data, storage, and AI queries.

Linked


Jarrod’s and Kev’s avatars separated by the letter emoji and their website domains, heydingus.net and kevquirk.com, below their images.
(Image inspiration: Jose Munoz)

For the PenPals project this month, I’m corresponding with Kev Quirk. You can follow along with our conversation both here on my site, and his site at kevquirk.com.

Here’s a glimpse into our first exchange, as summarized by ChatGPT:

Kev and Jarrod embark on a collaborative penpal project, sparking a conversation around Jarrod’s newsletter hosting concerns. Kev shares insights into Buttondown and Micro.blog, highlighting the tension between control and convenience. The dialogue extends to diverse topics, encompassing their personal backgrounds, the challenges of farmhouse renovations, and a shared passion for blogging. Kev, in his late 30s and residing in North Wales, provides glimpses into his life managing a 200-year-old barn, a variety of animals, and a demanding cybersecurity career. The exchange reflects the excitement of newfound digital camaraderie, connecting through shared interests and genuine curiosity about each other’s experiences.


If you’d like to be a penpal for this project, please reach out! I’d love to get you on the schedule.

PenPals


Jarrod’s and Robert’s avatars separated by the letter emoji and their website domains, heydingus.net and ultrasexybeast.net, below their images.
(Image inspiration: Jose Munoz)

For the PenPals project this month, I’m corresponding with Robert Silvernail. You can follow along with our conversation here.

Here’s a sneak peak at our second exchange, as summarized by ChatGPT:

Robert apologizes for the delay in responding, attributing it to a busy month filled with training, conferences, and a feud with local squirrels. He reflects on the nostalgic aspect of letter writing, recalling late-night discussions about tech, Scouts, and other topics. In response to Jarrod’s previous question about transitioning between organizations of different sizes, Robert shares his experiences, emphasizing the skills acquired during his time with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). He highlights the challenges and learnings, particularly in time and people management, which have proven valuable in his current role as a Technology Coordinator. Robert encourages Jarrod to pursue volunteer opportunities and shares details about his ongoing involvement with the Ionia Free Fair, including network expansion plans and the search for a new ticketing system. Despite the delayed response, Robert expresses interest in continuing the letter exchange. In Jarrod’s response, he forgives the timing delay and shares his own squirrel-related challenges. He agrees with Robert’s sentiments about the BSA experience and acknowledges the valuable skills gained. Jarrod expresses interest in joining a band again and encourages Robert to explore his storytelling skills, suggesting using his personalized domain as an outlet. He looks forward to continuing the letter exchange.


If you’d like to be a penpal for this project, please reach out! I’d love to get you on the schedule.

PenPals


November 6, 2023

7 Things This Week [#117]

A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.

A quick heads up: I’m doing more link and quote posts over on my microblog day to day. Those posts have a lot of overlap with the type of stuff that I typically share here on 7 Things. But it’s fun to get them out individually as I see them, and I like sparking conversations about them with that network. And, frankly, it’s easier to share them there. If you want to see more like this, consider following me: @jarrod@micro.blog


1️⃣ Look at this fantastic Apple Store that never came to be. Now that’s a town square I’d hang out at. [🔗 Filip Chudzinski // storeteller.de] (Via Michael Steeber)

2️⃣ Hilarious, sad, and true. This SNL skit about the ridiculousness of American measurement systems, etc. is all of these things. And well-timed seeing as I had just listened to this segment of Upgrade. [🔗 Saturday Night Live // youtube.com]

3️⃣ Did you know Pixar had a special Think Different’ poster made just for them? I bet you won’t guess which character it featured. [🔗 @dariusdesign // threads.net]

4️⃣ I always love these remastered and colorized views back into history. It makes it all seem more real (duh) and relatable. Check out that Warners theater! [🔗 NASS // youtube.com]

5️⃣ You can do some pretty crazy stuff with CSS, like these incredible(ly) fun screensavers. [🔗 Bryan Braun // bryanbraun.com]

6️⃣ What’s this? A promotion site for a physical book that includes games built around an intricate 3D model? Pretty neat! [🔗 shifthappens.site]

7️⃣ Damn, do I ever want to visit these 50 best bars in the world. The interior architecture of Paradiso, for example, is just exquisite! [🔗 worlds50bestbars.com]


Take a Chance


Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know.

7 Things


Dan Seifert, writing for The Verge:

Apple will not be making an Apple Silicon version of the 27-inch iMac to replace the Intel-equipped model that it discontinued in 2022. The company is instead focusing the iMac line around the 24-inch model that was first released in early 2021 and just updated with the new M3 processor this fall.

Apple PR representative Starlayne Meza confirmed the company’s plans to The Verge. The company encourages those who have been holding out hope for a larger iMac to consider the Studio Display and Mac Studio or Mac mini, which pair a 27-inch 5K screen with a separate computer, compared to the all-in-one design of the iMac.

After John Ternus’ comment about the 24-inch iMac being the perfect size and resolution to replace both the 4K and 5K Intel-based models” at the Scary Fast’ event, this prediction felt tenuous. The Studio Display + Mac Studio is probably a better combination than an all-in-one for most people wanting the power of an iMac Pro anyway.

That said, never say never”. Don’t forget that Apple said it was out of the display business back in 2016 when they discontinued the Thunderbolt Display. A scant three years later, they announced the Pro Display XDR, followed by the Studio Display in 2022.

Oh, and remember how Steve Jobs declared that the 10-inch screen size is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps” before they introduced the 7.9-inch iPad mini, calling it every inch an iPad”? And when he threw cold water on the idea of large phones before the iPhone 6 Plus helped shoot iPhone sales into the stratosphere?

And, as both Dan and eagle-eyed Benjamin Mayo at 9to5Mac note, their statement specifically references the 27-inch iMac. Does that preclude an even larger all-in-one at some point?

Apple says it won’t do something right up until the point that they decide to do it. But this is as clear an indication that they’ll ever give that there’s nothing currently waiting in the wings.


In the fantastic podcast-turned-game-show episode (#097) of Hemispheric Views, Andrew Canion hosted a Duel of the Defaults’ with Jason Burk challenging Martin Mr. Default” Feld on which of them was the most default Mac user. That is, who uses the most default Apple apps and services on their Mac.

The episode is a true gem made all the better by it coming completely out of the blue, and Andrew’s arcane and arbitrary scoring system (lower is better??).

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, I’ve performed an audit of my own system, scored it (uhh…as best I could…), and now present it as a challenge to the reigning Mr. Default.

I’ve tested my buzzer (🛎️), now let’s dig in…

My four iPhone home screens.
My Home Screens here at the end of 2023, belatedly added after seeing Josh Ginter’s shared screens in his Defaults post. I know it’s not my Mac, but I use all the same stuff on my phone anyway.

For Your Consideration

📮 Mail Server

📨 Mail Client

  • Spark Mail (the classic version, not the weird new one)
  • Score: 3

📝 Notes

  • Drafts for day-to-day notepad
  • Apple Notes for long-term storage
  • Score: 2

✅ To-Do

  • Things for personal projects and tasks
  • Apple Reminders for anything shared or that I really need to not forget
  • Score: 3

📷 iPhone Photo Shooting

  • Lock Screen swipe left & Control Center
  • Score: 1

🟦 Photo Management

  • Apple Photos
  • Score: 1

📆 Calendar

📅 Calendar Backend

  • iCloud
  • Score: 1

📁 Cloud File Storage

  • iCloud Drive for almost everything
  • Dropbox for my Blot site
  • Score: 2

🤓Hard Quiz Special Topic Interlude (Something for Which I’d Be the Subject Matter Expert in the Room)

  • Rock Climbing & Anchor Building

📖 RSS

🙍🏻‍♂️ Contacts Management

  • Apple Contacts (backed by iCloud)
  • Cardhop when I remember I have it installed
  • Score: 2

🔎 Browser

  • Safari
  • Score: 1

💬 Chat

  • Apple Messages (iMessage, MMS) for 90% of all conversations
  • Instagram DMs for sending funny Reels to my wife, and a few random group chats
  • Snapchat when people message me there
  • Discord occasionally, but I find it overwhelming most of the time
  • Score: 5

🔖 Bookmarks

  • Safari Bookmarks for frequently-visited sites
  • Raindrop.io for anything I want to save long-term or revisit by category (like maybe purchase’)
  • GoodLinks for 7 Things This Week Take a Chance’ links
  • Drafts for linked post ideas
  • Micro.blog for posts I may want to revisit there
  • (Yes, I know this is chaotic 😳)
  • Score: 6

📑 Read It Later

📜 Word Processing

  • Pages
  • Score: 1

🧮 Spreadsheets

  • Numbers
  • Score: 1

📊 Presentations

  • Keynote
  • Score: 1

🛒 Shopping List

  • Apple Reminders
  • Score: 1

🍴 Meal Planning (as Recipe Management)

💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance

📰 News

  • RSS & Podcasts
  • Safari
  • Score: 1

🎵 Music

  • Apple Music
  • Score: 1

🎤 Podcasts

🔐 Password Management

  • iCloud Keychain (been trying since July)
  • 1Password (been exiting since July)
  • Score: 2

Final Score: 50

Woof. I don’t hold a candle to Mr. Default.

🗣️ A Succinct Justification of my Default Lifestyle

  • I always try the default app first, but inevitably run up against friction points that a third-party app could solve. Once I’ve found a more bespoke solution, it’s hard to go back.

Thanks to Gabz for the format.
Check out more Defaults presented by Hemispheric Views listeners (and submit your own) here. (Curated and hosted by Robb.)

Uses


Honestly, I should just link to Devon Dundee’s post and be done with it, but that would be too easy. My feelings about the event echo his in many ways. I’ll try to be a copycat. Let’s dig into Apple’s spookiest event since Steve Jobs literally put Mac OS 9 in a coffin.

M3 Family

I had forgotten that the M2 Pro/Max chips came out later than expected, so a second revision within a year shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. But for the majority of the M3 family to debut all at once is quite the achievement from Apple’s chip team. You would think, or at least I would, that the better the chip, the longer it would take to evolve” from the base M3. The reality, though, is that these chips take many months to develop. They don’t start on the M3 Pro once they get M3 out the door.

Apple’s modus operandi with their chip design is to observe what real people and real pros expect out of their computer, and then build in hardware acceleration for those workflows. We’ve seen this with hardware accelerators for video codec decoding, unified memory, neural engines, and now ray tracing, mesh shading, dynamic caching, and more. It’s a smart strategy and allows them to optimize for real, specific features.

The distribution of performance (P) and efficiency (E) CPU cores between the M3 (4P, 4E), M3 (6P, 6E), and M3 Max (10P, 4E) is curious. But every core, across the line, is faster, so I can’t imagine we’d see any speed drops from the M2. I suspect they’re just tuned for what Apple expects from the workload of each chip’s typical user.

MacBooks Pro

The MacBook Pro is dead! Long live the MacBook Pro! I’ll get this out of the way: I’m a little sad that the TouchBar has been killed along with the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Here’s what I posited earlier today about an alternate path for the TouchBar:

I only played with the TouchBar in stores. I thought it was a neat concept, but imperfectly implemented and then left without iteration for years. Honestly, I think there’s still a spot for it today. Half-height function row keys PLUS the TouchBar above it could have been a winning combination.

On the other hand, I’m thrilled that anyone purchasing a MacBook Pro will now get all the fantastic improvements that the 14-inch form factor brought along. Liquid Retina XDR Display. MagSafe. HDMI. Better cooling. Sick-ass black keyboard well. Improved speakers, mics, and FaceTime camera. Sure, it starts at $300 more than yesterday, but as Stephen Hackett said on AppStories, it’s probably the best $300 you can spend at the Apple Store right now. If only it had a little bit better internals for that $1600 starting point, but, then again, Apple still wants to entice folks up the line. I’m satisfied.

I didn’t think the industrial design needed any particular improvements, so I’m good with the rest of it. These will continue to be the industry leaders in the overall laptop package for another year.

iMac

Apple did the absolute minimum here by swapping out the M1 for an M3 chip, and that’s okay. Sure, I was hoping for an M3 Pro option to bring its share of the chip family in line with the Mac mini, but alas. The iMac, like the MacBook Pro, is in great shape hardware-wise as it is today. Bumping the internals and keeping the price the same keeps it being a good value.

The best part? Apple kept it available in all the same gorgeous colors. I’m so glad they didn’t axe any. I mean, come on, show me another desktop lineup that looks this good:

😍 Those iMac colors still look drop-dead gorgeous. Especially in this lighting. (Video by The Verge)

iMacs lined up on a table.

Lightning Lives On

The biggest disappointment of the event, by far. I mean, I don’t really care that Lightning charges the keyboard and mouse because I’ll still have Lightning cables around for years to charge various accessories. But by not continuing to ship them with brand-new iMacs, it surely means that Lightning will stick around for many more years. I’d have preferred to see some interesting new features (external TouchBar?), but the least Apple could have done is swap out the port on the Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Keyboard.

Oh, and I’m obligated to complain that the best keyboard color combo continues to only be available on the extended version. I can’t be the only one that doesn’t want the numeric keypad, does want Touch ID, and can’t stand white keys. My longing will go on

Shot on iPhone

I’m not a professional videographer. My camera operating capabilities barely include point-and-shoot. But even I know that to get a quality production, it requires a ton of expensive, technical gear like lighting rigs, steady cams, and the like. Every Apple Event used these things in the past. Still, I was floored to see that Shot on iPhone” tagline. They swapped out a real” camera for an iPhone and it seems to have fit right into the production. It’s quite the achievement for their team and and it proves that they are internally testing the very workflows that they espouse that their products are good for. I’m glad to know that they’ll experience the good stuff and pain points alike.

But John Gruber said it best:

Why be so cynical? What Apple has accomplished here is extraordinary. They shot a 30-minute film using the same phone cameras they sell to hundreds of millions of people around the world, and the footage looked so good that no one could tell it was shot using iPhones until they told us so.

I offer the team a round of applause. 👏


To wrap things up on this event, I’ve taken a liking to saving some of my favorite reactions to Apple Events. These are the comments from my networks that made me laugh, or that pointed out intriguing details in the presentation. You’ll find a few of my observations included too because, well, it’s my blog and I thought they were pretty good posts! 😉

Love the Mac pirate flag appearance 🏴‍☠️ #AppleEvent

Foggy Apple Park with the old Mac Pirate flag raised inside the ring.
In case you missed it.

Why do I look at all new GPU features in terms of how many bananas I could render?

SPACE BLACK TAKE MY FUCKING MONEY

audibly heard all my nerd friends moan for space black

She just walked into that apartment like it was Monsters Inc.

The Apple Event is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE.

Apple presenter standing inside an apartment while somebody sits at a computer behind her.

Show us the underside of the mouse, you cowards!

the Space Black”, which is only available on the M3 Pro and M3 Max models, sorry cheapskates!, is kind of black in person, but not as dark as the old plastic BlackBook.

the new anodization is supposed to reduce fingerprints, and in the 30 seconds I got to touch one earlier today, it seemed like there were fewer visible ones left on it. but we’ll see what it’s like in the real world.

Holy smokes, they actually did it. They finally killed the TouchBar. No more 13-inch MacBook Pro.

Mac laptop lineup with M1 MacBook Air, M2 MacBook Air, and M3 Family 14 and 16-inch MacBooks Pro.

Come on Apple, I had but one wish. A black version of this keyboard. I wouldn’t even care that it still charges with Lightning. The count continues.

Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch ID in white.

How come they didn’t edit the event on iPad with FCP just kidding we all know why

Would you look at that? Space Black didn’t completely replace Space Gray in the MacBook Pro lineup. The plain M3 14-inch model comes in Silver/Space Gray. Space Black is only for the true professional chip Macs.

New MacBook Pro lineup with color options.

@matt Helluva upgrade for all those people getting the base-level MacBook Pro because it has Pro” in the name. Base-level now has modern industrial design, that gorgeous screen, MagSafe, and all the other benefits of the new chassis. (Albeit at a couple hundred dollars more.)

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Apple’s most intriguing event of the year is about to start.

My final Scary Fast’ event predictions:

🖥️ M3 iMac
💻 M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros
⌨️ Accessories get USB-C and at least one surprising new feature
🎮 Gaming focus (callout to Japanese viewers)
🧛 At least one costume is seen
🌔 Everything is filmed at night


00:00:00 - Here we go!

00:01:09 - Seeing a lot of MacBook Pros here…

00:01:50 - Absolutely loving this spookiness!

00:02:16 - OMG, what if they did trick-or-treating in the ring?

00:02:43 - Good evening” ✅

00:03:01 - Do you think his orange watchband is Halloween themed?” — My buddy Robert

00:03:24 - Gonna be all Mac, all day.

00:04:14 - Starting with MacBook Pro? Would have thought iMac with regular M3 if we were getting that today.

00:05:20 - Boom, there it is. M3, M3 Pro, M3 Max ✅

00:05:38 - And the curiosity is over, 3-nanometer it is.

00:08:01 - Johny Looks very sharp tonight.

00:09:13 - Anyone else watching in Spatial Audio tonight?

00:10:05 - Sounds like pro users will be getting much better battery life with their current workflows with all that energy efficiency.

00:10:58 - That’s a lot of cores in a laptop. Remember when dual or quad core was state-of-the-art? Wasn’t that long ago.

00:11:54 - John and Johny. Power couple.

00:13:25 - Oh, is the 14-inch getting an M3? It is! Does this mean the 13-inch is finally going away?

00:15:28 - I really want a room like that with all the noise cones on the wall. So sweet looking.

00:16:36 - That much RAM in the M3 Max bodes well for the M3 Ultra.

00:17:57 - 11x faster than the latest Intel version is a big incentive to get off that platform.

00:19:06 - Return of the BlackBook?

00:19:56 - I’m not gonna lie, it doesn’t look that different than Space Gray from these shots.

00:21:31 - Ah yes, high-quality Screen Sharing, otherwise known as Vision Pro-mode.

00:22:00 - Stepping inside the home to look at a new iMac? (Nope.)

00:23:05 - Skeleton in the lab!

00:24:35 - Whoa! Quite the price drop! That’s gotta be another nod toward phasing out the 13-inch.

00:25:11 - Horray! The iMac gets an update for its 25th anniversary. And keeps those gorgeous colors.

00:26:08 - I wonder for how many years they’ll be comparing to Intel models. 2 years? 3?

00:27:45 - So there wasn’t really anything else changed besides iMac’s guts, right?

00:28:46 - 30-minute event, or One more thing”, Tim?

00:29:33 - Oh man, they’re not going to say anything about the accesories? USB-C? Bueller? Bueller?

00:30:01 - This event was shot on iPhone.” Holy shit!


And that’s it! It was a scary fast” event, indeed. Time to scour the press releases and website updates to see what other goodies didn’t make it into the presentation. I’ll follow up with more cohesive thoughts soon.

But for now, here are the results of those predictions.

😓 I didn’t do so well on those predictions:

M3 iMac
M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pros
❌ Accessories get USB-C and at least one surprising new feature
❌ Gaming focus (callout to Japanese viewers)
❌ At least one costume is seen
✅ Everything is filmed at night

Have a ghoul night!

Live Blog


Craig Mod, newsletter author extraordinaire:

A lot of this newsletter writing is happening, probably, because the archives aren’t great. Tenuousness unlocks the mind, loosens tone. But the archival reality might be just the opposite of that common perception: These newsletters are the most backed up pieces of writing in history, copies in millions of inboxes, on millions of hard drives and servers, far more than any blog post. More robust than an Internet Archive container. LOCKSS to the max. These might be the most durable copies yet of ourselves. They’re everywhere but privately so, hidden, piggybacking on the most accessible, oldest networked publishing platform in the world. QWERTYUIOP indeed.

I’ve looked down on newsletters as compared to blogs — I’ve seen them as unnecessarily messy, impermanent, and invading of a space where I go for work more often than pleasure — and but Craig has a point here. I’m still in favor of my writing’s first home being on the open web, but I’m coming around to the idea that there’s room for it to also be published through email if that’s where someone wants to find it. Indeed, I have been partial to the notion that blog posts are best seen as emails to the world. Back in March of 2021, I questioned, So, what if I think less about writing an article for HeyDingus, and more about writing an email to readers?”

Here’s Craig again with a clincher footnote:

And so much better than just publishing on my website. Newsletter subscriptions are the push that RSS promised but never became. And CMD-R to reply is the best, most intuitive commenting system I’ve yet seen.

Getting comments from readers really is the best part about blogging.

For a while now, I’ve made it easy to get my blog posts delivered by email through the excellent Feedrabbit service. But those emaials come from Feedrabbit, not from me. I don’t have any access to my readers there, not their addresses, or even a subscriber count. I do include a one-click link to email me at the bottom of each blog post so they can easily reply, but it all still feels one step removed. Craig’s essay has me reconsidering a service like Buttondown that can, at the very least, slurp up my RSS feed and deliver its posts by email, but with some management and personalization tools at my disposal.

Or, who knows, maybe I’ll move forward with my idea to consolidate all my online writing over to Micro.blog, which offers its own posts-as-emails and posts-as-a-newsletter-digest options.

I didn’t think reading this article was going to shift me over to the pro-newsletter camp, but here we are.

P.S. I love how Craig’s webpage titles — the ones you see in your browser tab — are labeled Article Title — by Craig Mod”. Most sites include the name of the website, like The New York Times, Daring Fireball, or HeyDingus, for example. But Craig gets his byline front and center. Pretty handy since that whole title, by Craig Mod” and all, is taken along for the ride with most rich links.

Linked