2025-12-16 20:00:27
Idan Dardikman writing on the Koi blog, 8 Million Users' AI Conversations Sold for Profit by "Privacy" Extensions, documents how "Urban VPN Proxy" is potentially harvesting your chats with 10 major LLMs. The extension is used across millions of users on Chrome and has 10k reviews on the iOS App Store (the post covers the Chrome extension, but there's no reason this wouldn't work on iOS as well, they just can't inspect what's happening on iOS like they can on the web…another point for the open web 😉).
Setting aside the contrived setup they had for this post, from what I can tell, it's a good case study in what software is capable of doing on your computer. Also that you don't just get privacy just by installing a VPN…at best, a VPN just means you're trusting your behavior with the VPN company. Also, I gotta say, it's yet another example of a problem framed with AI, but it really an issue with traditional software. Just sayin'.
2025-12-16 08:35:22
The widely adored Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered (seemingly by their son) over the weekend, and this is what he said in reaction to the news:
A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!
Someone is deranged here, but it's the sad sack in the White House.
2025-12-16 04:51:43
There are some new potential leaks about the upcoming folding iPhone, and this bit stood out to me:
The leaker claims Apple has chosen not to include 3D Face ID hardware or a 3D ultrasonic under-display fingerprint sensor, as both systems would add internal volume and complicate efforts to slim down the device.
This was rumored before, so this isn't exactly breaking new ground, but the more I hear it, the more likely it seems to be. Depth could be the issue here, although they solved this on the iPhone Air with the camera plateau, and one would think that the folding phone would have a plateau as well. Maybe they'll be filling that one with more cameras and therefore there wouldn't be space for the full set of Face ID components? I guess it could be a cost issue, but honestly, this thing is going to be super expensive, so I don't see why they'd be pinching pennies here.
Also:
For the external display, the leaker claims Apple is using a 5.25-inch panel with a punch-hole camera implemented via a HIAA (Hole-In-Active-Area) design, a technique that minimizes inactive screen space around the cutout. It is unclear what will happen to the Dynamic Island in both instances.
Losing the dynamic island as well would be a real annoyance as well. Or would it…honestly I'm not sure. I know that the whole feature is a clever attempt to take a negative (needing a larger camera cutout than other phones because of your Face ID feature) and turning it into a positive with some neat functionality. I love having timers and sports scores up there, and it's even nice to be able to quickly get to my music/podcast app in a single tap no matter what else I'm doing on my phone, so losing it, even if it meant having a smaller camera cutout, would feel like a bit of a compromise. Does removing Face ID mean Apple gets to do the smaller cutout they've always wanted to do?
TLDR: I'm torn.
What excites me about this device combined with the rumored touch-enabled Macs coming in 2026 is that there's going to be some meaningful change in Apple hardware in a way we haven't seen in a while. iPhones that turn into iPads. Macs that turn into iPads. And iPads that…well, I guess they're just gonna be iPads for a while longer.
2025-12-15 22:59:55
H
I really enjoyed this talk by Scott Jenson, who did UX at Apple and Google, and now works with Mastodon. Here's a few choice quotes I jotted down while watching:
There are already 36 window management systems, we don't need a 37th.
And this about iPadOS 26:
The fact that they make you pick your window manager when you boot is the ultimate UX sin.
And this about liquid glass:
Who doesn't love liquid glass? If your big claim to fame with your operating system is that you have some fancy, shiny pixels, you've really lost the plot.
And this critical bit about why one device selling more units doesn't mean it is better for everything:
Mobile won consumers, but it didn't win productivity.
And he mentions that the original Macintosh had a screen the same physical size as the iPad mini. Yes, the Mac windowing UI originated on a screen as big as the tiniest iPad…an iPad that many suggest is too small to support windows at all today.
Anyway, it's a really great talk, and I've just scratched the surface with these quotes, so I highly recommend you make a little time for it.
2025-12-12 23:45:35
I'm not saying 2026 will be "the year of Linux on the desktop," but it will be the year that people like me pull the trigger on a Linux installation on their gaming PC.
I just think there's been a years-long bubbling up of frustration among gamers about how terrible Windows is and how misaligned Microsoft seems to be with their needs. Today there are options, and you could install basically any Linux distro and cobble together a gaming setup that works reasonably well, but it's more work and clunkiness than most people are willing to deal with. All these people need is an easy-to-use, obvious place to go.
Meanwhile, Valve has put in tons of work over the last 10 years making Windows games run pretty great on Linux, and is releasing the Steam Machine, their desktop/console device that will run a flavor of Linux. Based on my experience with the Steam Deck, it should be pretty great.
My prediction is there will be a slightly modified version of that Linux distro made available for general PCs, which will be easy to install and go some level of viral in 2026. And by viral, I mean enough people will do it that The Verge will write an article about how gamers are flocking to this Windows alternative.
I think the odds of this happening increase significantly if we can get NVIDIA drivers working much better than they do now. I haven't tried Linux on my Intel/NVIDIA system, but my understanding is that AMD GPUs work better than NVIDIA ones in the Linux distros that are out now. But NVIDIA has a much bigger portion of the gaming market, so, if we can get better support for ray tracing and DLSS in Linux, that's going to make this a more compelling thing for PC gamers.
2025-12-12 05:29:10
Founded in 2011, The Verge is an exceptionally modern publisher in the grand scheme of things, but its writing style is pretty traditional. More specifically, its policy towards putting links in in articles is old school and irks me to no end.
Take this article from today about the release of GPT 5.2:
In the blog post, OpenAI also said GPT-5.2 is better for AI agents’ workflows — part of the ever-intensifying battle between AI companies to offer the most efficient and useful AI agents.
That particular quote isn't super relevant to my post, but it helps illustrate my point. I mentioned a Verge article, I clearly linked to it, and you can read it yourself if you'd like. The Verge's post gets this reporting from OpenAI's blog post, and they reference it a few times, but they never link to it. They do have 6 links in their post, but:
Nothing in what they wrote lets you get to the OpenAI blog post they're referencing (here it is, if you wanted to read it). Why? I appreciate that if they are a primary source on a story, as in they got a statement from OpenAI for them to report on, then that makes sense. But in this case they're reporting on someone else's post. It just seems like if you're reporting on something someone else posted online, you ought to link to it.
Posted as a happy, paid subscriber to The Verge, but this gets in my craw.