Tedium Highlight in Apple: The evolution of the modern cell phone ringtone—and the Ukrainian guy who wants to give Apple’s default noises a refresh. 

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Tag results: Apple

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.
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