2026-06-22 06:39:19
Basic Apple Guy, back during WWDC:
WWDC always brings a torrent of new content, details, and platform-wide changes. One of the first things I noticed after installing the macOS Golden Gate beta was the updated icon design. The colours are much bolder, several icons have been adjusted, and the refraction in the Liquid Glass effect has changed significantly, especially in icons like Journal.
There’s also a noticeable sharpness to the icons, along with a flattening of the Liquid Glass effect. I’m not sure yet whether this is simply an early-beta artifact or the intended final look.
I think it’s definitely the intended look, and I like it. The changes in these app icons are all subtle, but they’re all changes for the better. I still don’t like the primitive flat shapes and mandated squircle, but at least the trend is finally moving in the right direction again.
2026-06-22 05:35:48
My thanks to Mux for sponsoring Daring Fireball last week. Video is a boatload of data. Every video file in your product contains audio, objects, and scenes that most stacks can’t read or access.
Mux Robots turns that data into video intelligence. Configure your video workflows once, and they run automatically on every new upload: ask questions, summarize, find key moments, and more. No asset webhooks or self-hosted glue code needed.
Mux is video infrastructure for developers, trusted by Synthesia, Shopify, and the U.S. Soccer Federation. Start building for free. Use code FIREBALL at signup for an extra $50 credit.
2026-06-20 09:29:29
Ben Chapman, reporting for The Independent in 2019:
After 40 years of advertising its lager as “Probably the best beer in the world”, Danish brewer Carlsberg has confessed that the famous slogan may not be true. Reacting to falling sales and increasingly harsh comments from drinkers about the taste of its beer, Carlsberg has launched a new recipe along with a more honest approach to marketing.
The campaign declares: “Probably not the best beer in the world. So we’ve changed it. Somewhere along the line, we lost our way. We focused on brewing quantity, not quality. We became one of the cheapest, not the best.”
As part of the new ad campaign Carlsberg is sharing negative comments about the old beer including, “Carlsberg tastes like stale breadsticks” and another comparing it to “drinking the bathwater your nan died in”.
I drank a Carlsberg once. Once.
2026-06-20 09:21:19
Early adoption of new technology is generally considered a young-person thing, but maybe Snap Specs will turn that notion on its head. Direct sales in retirement homes?
2026-06-20 02:47:02
NBC News:
The Trump Mobile T1 phone, originally marketed as “Made in the USA,” is nearly identical to the two-year-old HTC U24 Pro, a phone made by the Taiwanese company HTC using Chinese parts, according to a technical analysis the repair-guide and parts company iFixit conducted in partnership with NBC News.
That report is paywalled, but NBC News’s five-minute video is on YouTube, and iFixit has a full teardown report of their own. The only thing that’s surprising is that the Trump T1 doesn’t cost much more than the HTC-branded one ($500 vs. $470).
2026-06-20 02:29:40
The Wall Street Journal on Monday:
Fox Corp. said it is acquiring Roku in a deal valued at around $25 billion, making a major bet on the future of ad-supported streaming. The deal — Fox’s largest to date — brings together a media company known for its live news and sports programming with the biggest provider of streaming platforms for connected TVs.
It will add scale to Fox’s streaming business, currently home to free, ad-supported streaming service Tubi, which the company bought for $400 million in 2020, and subscription-based Fox One and Fox Nation.
In addition to distributing other streaming services through connected TVs and devices, Roku has its own ad-supported Roku Channel. The combined company will better compete with the likes of Amazon.com and Netflix for ad dollars.
I’m late to comment on this, but this seems stupid. Roku sucks. I know they’ve got a 25 percent or so share of the smart TV interface market, but no one is attached to Roku. The entirety of their market share is people who don’t care. That’s not worth $25 billion. Shit platforms seldom last, and the ones that do last achieve monopolies. I think Roku’s share is going to slip, not grow.
