2025-06-01 06:30:00
Casey Newton writing for his Platformer newsletter: The AI Browser Wars Are About to Begin
Here, I think we begin to understand the opportunity that companies see here — and why "web browser" probably isn't the best word for what they are building.
Setting all the drama of the current browser wars aside, my money is on these products retaining the "web browser" name for time being. Look at the "cell phone" as an example. Here's what a cell phone looked like when I was a teenager:
And here's a cell phone today:
The second photo is a fundamentally different product than the first photo, but they're both emphatically "cell phones". Save this post for later for a chance to make me look silly, but this is my current bet.
2025-06-01 06:00:00
Counterpoint Research: iPhone 16 Leads Global Smartphone Sales in Q1 2025
Apple’s iPhone 16 was the best-selling smartphone in Q1 2025. This also marked the return of the iPhone series’ base variant to the top spot in the first quarter after a two-year gap.
After several years of the Pro Max iPhone being the most popular single phone in the world, the normal iPhone is back on top. Looking at the overall numbers tells another interesting story, though. Even though the normal iPhone is marginally back on top, the Pro line is much more popular on the whole. There's really something about that 4th main iPhone model that never seems to hit with people, whether that phone is bigger and more expensive or smaller and less expensive.
Also notable:
Apple’s iPhone 16e made a strong debut, securing the sixth spot in the global top-10 list for March 2025, its first full month of sales. Despite a higher price compared to the SE 2022, the 16e is expected to outperform its predecessor during its first year. This success will be largely driven by its significant technological advancements and expanded feature set.
Not to toot my own horn too much, but here's a quote from my review back in March:
I know there are some questions about whether this phone will appeal to current SE owners with the higher price tag, and I don't know the answer to that, but I do think that this phone could appeal to many people who currently buy the normal iPhone every couple of years. It's still clearly the "lesser" iPhone in the lineup, but I think it's closer to the main iPhones than any SE has ever been.
There was a lot of "who is this phone even for?" discourse when the 16e was announced, but I think the 16e is underrated, so it's nice to see the sales seen to reflect that as well.
2025-06-01 05:30:33
My review of the latest Doom game, which absolutely rocks.
2025-05-31 06:49:22
John Gruber announced The Talk Show Live From WWDC 2025 with one notable adendum:
in recent years the guests have seemed a bit predictable: senior executives from Apple. This year I again extended my usual invitation to Apple, but, for the first time since 2015, they declined.
And Parker Ortolani: Apple’s Silence at "The Talk Show" Will Speak Volumes
Apple refusing to participate feels like more than just snubbing Gruber, it’s a missed chance to engage with the very community that cares the most.
And Marco Arment: Retreating to Safety
In the absence of any other information, it’s easy to assume that Apple no longer wants its executives to be interviewed in a human, unscripted, unedited context that may contain hard questions, and that Apple no longer feels it necessary to show their appreciation to our community and developers in this way.
I’ve always enjoyed The Talk Show Live from WWDC. It’s never been a hardball interview, which I think some people wish it was, it’s generally been a friendly interview with a couple jabs at sore spots here and there.
What I hadn’t really thought about until just now is that since 2020, this is basically the only time anyone in the public gets to see Apple executives in front of other people. Its literally the only time we see them talking to other people like humans, the only time they have to think on their feet, and the only time they’re in front of a live audience whose opinion they get to absorb in real time. This will be the 6th year in a row where the entire customer-facing appearances from these execs is in scripted videos.
Except for these WWDC Talk Shows.
I have no idea why Apple declined to participate this year after a decade of it being as reliable a thing as Craig making a “crack team” joke in the macOS segment of the keynote. Maybe schedules didn’t work out or maybe they’ll be participating in someone else’s interview show this year.
But I agree with Marco that it’s impossible to ignore the fact that this year more than any other I can remember, Apple is seen negatively by many people in the audience for this show, and Gruber wrote what might be the most scathing article about Apple in 2025. Maybe it's all a complete coincidence, but that doesn't seem like the smart money given everything else going on.
I'll once again use this time to call for Apple to bring back live events. Almost every other big tech company has done it and people seem to enjoy them. No, you're not going to be as perfectly buttoned up as you can be in video, but I think it humanizes you in a way scripted videos with every one of your presenters being completely alone on a (beautiful) set just doesn't.
2025-05-31 03:02:48
Today we're going hands-on with Dia, the upcoming browser from the aptly-named The Browser Company. Maybe this will turn into something special, but to me it really feels like they've thrown away a lot of product differentiation as well as trust in their user base to chase something that's not clear to me yet.
Also, if you wanted an idea of how busy my new job is keeping me, I started on April 1, and I've released 2 videos since then. I released 11 videos in the same time period before that. 😅
2025-05-30 01:01:37