Thoughts on Enshittification
18 posts
“The Ads on Apple News Continue to Suck, but at Least There Are a Lot of Them”
One of the main reasons I like (and pay a premium for) Apple devices and services is the top-notch experience. It absolutely grates to read News+ now, and it’s infuriating that these crappy ads will be expanding to other parts of the ecosystem.
“Apple TV is ‘essentially dead’? No, long live Apple TV.”
I agree with Snell here: The Apple TV, even with its price increases, is still the only streaming box on the market that isn’t completely junked up. I just wish that Apple would give it more love and attention.
“Of course viewers are giving up on Netflix shows”
I found myself reading this article nodding my head, and ended with a resounding “duh!” I mean, they’ve basically admitted to enshittifying the platform with ads, games, etc., while deliberately investing less in the shows themselves.
“Netflix Wrecked Their tvOS Video Player”
Honestly, between the ever-increasing monthly prices and their complete refusal to be a good citizen on Apple platforms, let alone actively making their apps worse, Netflix makes me want to cancel so badly. (Recently my wife got logged out, and her first thought was that I had canceled.)
“Apple could put ads in Maps as soon as this summer”
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.
RSS Making the Rounds
There sure seems to be a lot of RSS-related stuff going around recently. I’ve seen some interesting articles and even new software being released. Here’s a look at some of it.
“Netflix Kills Casting from Phones”
Netflix continues to make its service worse for users, while raising prices.
“How Silicon Valley Enshittified the Internet”
This is a good, if challenging, episode of _Decoder_.
“Threads Reaches 150 Million Daily Users and is Ramping up Ads”
Of course they are! Yet again, make something good, get the users, then extract.
Update to “GM to Remove CarPlay From All Future Vehicles, Including Gas Cars”
It’s a false premise that GM must offer either its “deeply integrated experience” OR CarPlay. GM doesn’t want to offer CarPlay next to their own experience, not because they can’t, but because they know that people want the apps that are on their phones, not GM’s.
“Gurman Reports That Apple is Preparing to Sell Ads in Maps Starting in 2026″
Ads like these are product cancer. Apple made its success by offering the best experience for people who paid the premium for its offerings. This is a terrible direction.
Ads Litter The Path To Enshittification For Netflix
PSA to Netflix users: Prepare to be the slowly boiled frog.