Thoughts on Apple

Yeah, it’s crazy that the long-in-the-tooth Apple TVs got hit so hard here. They were already priced at the premium level for their market, and now they’re out-of-this-world expensive. And with new models rumored, it’s a terrible time to buy one.

Boy, if this report is true, I feel like I picked the absolute best time to upgrade to an M5 Max, pre-price hike and potentially the last Max-level chip for more than a year.

I normally recommend that people who find themselves considering a new iPhone in the second half of Apple’s yearly upgrade cycle wait for the inevitable new model. This time, I think that many people would be better served by getting it now, at the current prices instead. Read more at my blog.

RAMmageddon continues to rock the industry: The price increases that Tim Cook warned were coming landed today, across almost all Apple products. They’re not small increases either. The MacBook Pro with 64GB RAM I bought earlier this year for $4300 is now $5100.

Ooh, iRacing for Vision Pro sounds pretty great, although I don’t have a wheel to try it out. Given how far I went with sim racing last time, maybe I shouldn’t be tempted again.

I’m beyond ready for everyone to move on from all of the talk about the upcoming Cook/Ternus transition.

This is pretty cool.

Apple’s 50th has stoked nostalgia about the early days of personal computing, which made me want to take a moment to thank my mom and dad for recognizing and investing in my love of computing.

I totally agree that custom players should be made to implement platform standards. The elephant in the room, of course, is: What does Apple do if Netflix calls their bluff and takes their app off of Apple TV? Does Apple need Netflix more than Netflix needs Apple?

I was super disappointed to read about ads coming to Apple Maps. Ads are cancer for products that, once introduced, only get worse over time. I wish being an Apple One member would include an ad-free experience as a benefit.

Xcode 26.4 is out. There’s a long list of fixed issues and improvements, but my favorite fixes the issue with Codex I posted the workaround for earlier.

Oof, this is bad news. I remember when Apple sold hardware and made excellent software that people wanted to use because it was in service of selling their hardware. Ads are a path to enshittification—there just aren’t many companies who can pull off ads without being user hostile.

According to Tim Cook, “Mac just had its best launch week ever for first-time Mac customers. We love seeing the enthusiasm!” It’s hard to not read that as, “The MacBook Neo launch has been a huge success”. As a fan of the Mac, I’m happy to hear that the Neo is finding such a positive welcome!