Egg Freckles

Harry McCracken “making sense of the most confusing new iPhone lineup ever“:

As the iPhone lineup has expanded in recent years, Apple has let go of that minimalist clarity. It seems less like an accident than a willful decision, and—since nobody at the company is likely to acknowledge the shift as a change in strategy with pros and cons—it’s up to us to figure it out for ourselves. Why has Apple released three new iPhones that are kinda similar and kinda different in ways that require explanation?

Harry has his own explanations for why Apple might want to standardize on the high-end iPhone X platform, but I think the message from Apple’s September 12th event is clear. If you are looking for a phone with a smaller screen, a phone with a headphone jack, or or a phone that costs under $400, Apple no longer makes an iPhone for you. In short, Apple has discontinued their entry-level iPhone SE in favor of larger phones that require additional adapters and cost upwards of $750.

As someone who doesn’t value his cell phone as much as the next Apple nerd, the iPhone SE has been an important product for me because of its price. The iPhone SE kept me invested in the iOS ecosystem, and enabled me to purchase a Apple Watch without approaching the ~$700 iPhone ASP I normally attribute to laptop computers. Now that an updated iPhone SE is no longer an option, I am evaluating alternative cell phone platforms. I am sure I am not alone.

Manton Reece explains how Micro.blog is serious about preventing abuse and harassment:

the platform was designed, from the beginning, to prevent abuse and harassment. Your microblog is your own, where you are free to write about whatever you want, but we protect the timeline, where you can @-reply others, through a variety of tools and curation. We have community guidelines that are enforced.

I don’t believe tools, curation, or community guidelines will ever be able to police the public park as well as the walls of a private garden. But Micro.blog was not designed to be a public park. To participate on Micro.blog (hosted or unhosted) you have to be willing to create a blog, put your name on it, and stand behind it. Accountability is the wall that will protect Micro.blog against the kinds of anonymous harassment observed on public social networks like Twitter that are just festering with throwaway accounts.

“On Micro.blog, you control your own content.” But your content keeps you in check.

But won’t there be anonymous Micro.blogs?

Sure, but I believe anonymous Micro.blogs will be the minority. People like to put their name on the work they have created, and they want to be proud of that work. This is where the community guidelines come in. Micro.blog is a community of creators, and the creators help protect the Micro.blog community they are proud of.

But what about the Micro.blog hosting fees?

Not everyone has $5 a month or the skills needed to setup a micro blog of their own. Won’t these barriers to entry prevent the mass adoption of Micro.blog — excluding a large swath of well-meaning people from participating on the platform?

More from Manton:

Many people are looking for “the next Twitter”, but it’s not enough to replace Twitter with a new platform and new leadership. Some problems are inevitable when power is concentrated in only 2-3 huge social networks — ad-based businesses at odds with user needs and an overwhelming curation challenge.

When you design your platform for everyone you have include everyone; good and bad. To participate in Micro.blog you have to be accountable for your own blog, but blogging is not for everyone. Micro.blog does not have to be a Twitter replacement, it does not have to be for everyone. By remaining small Micro.blog remains a community of creators, self curated without the need for ads.

Twitter and Micro.blog can coexist, and do through cross-posting. If your goal is to include everyone you can try to build a better Twitter.

I have been failing at social networks since the early 2000’s. I rode the MySpace wave in 2005. Joined/quit Facebook half a dozen times over the last decade. Paid $50 for a one year subscription to Apo.net. Since 2008, Twitter has been my water cooler of choice on the web; a place to procrastinate, meet new people, and share ideas. But over the last few years expectations of Twitter and my friend’s expectations of me have been coming up short. It might be time for me to leave Twitter.

Snark…

For someone who doesn’t make new friends easily, my participation on Twitter has led me to meet some pretty cool people, and at least one punk. But my snarky sense of humor often makes my replies come across as trollish and arrogant. I am not making as many new friends as I once did. Instead of driving people away it might be time for me to go.

Software…

The simplicity of trading short 280 character messages from the comfort of handcrafted third-party apps has always made Twitter appealing to me. Unfortunately Twitter doesn’t treat its third-party developers much better than the way I come across on social media; trollish and arrogant. The official Twitter client has long since lost its charm, and the future of third-party Twitter clients looks uncertain.

I don’t want to participate in a social network where my timeline is controlled by an algorithm, obscuring the posts of the people I follow, or presenting tweets out of order. Twitter owes a lot to its third-party developers, and we deserve better than this.

Hate…

Worse, Twitter has gotten so big it now attracts the lowest of humanity. Parasites who rely on Twitter’s prominent platform to amplify their messages of hate. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s CEO, has gone so far as to defend the hate. Driving people I respect off the platform and onto greener pastures. I don’t expect Twitter to police their platform perfectly, but I do expect Twitter to deny access to repeat offenders who publish hate or proclaim acts of violence against others.

Where do I go from here…

Brent Simmons describes the harsh reality long time Twitter users like myself are facing today:

There is no scenario where the Twitter we loved in 2008 comes back.

Even if it were sold to some entity with energy, resources, smarts, and good intentions, it’s too late. It has celebrities with millions of followers. It has the president. It has millions of accounts using it for unlovable purposes.

It’s never coming back, and using your emotional energy hoping it comes back is a waste.

While Stephen Hackett spells out the truth that alternative social networks like Mastodon, or Micro.blog never stay green long after the mob arrives.

If you think switching social networks can mask the basic fact that a lot of humans are terrible to each other on purpose, you’re in for a surprise.

Yeah, Twitter leadership is really bad at running Twitter, but rules only provide punishment. Humanity’s dark center will always break through eventually.

I am not suggesting a specific alternative to Twitter, just that it is time for me to take a break from the birdsite. I am deleting my Twitter apps and logging out of Tweetdeck. Over the next 31 days Tweetdelete will erase my remaining tweets. I want to spend more time blogging. I can’t say my decision is right for you, but I will leave you with these wise questions from Macdrifter Gabe Weatherhead.

If you are a Twitter user, answer this. Keep it to yourself, but try to be honest. What valuable thing have you learned from Twitter in the past 48 hours? Was it about an Apple product or something about some tech startup not liking poor people on their commuter buses? Did you take action on the information? I’m not going to judge you, but I will tell you that in my experience what Twitter gave me was almost never valuable and it certainly came to the exclusion of actual joy.

Update:

After Multiple Provocations, Twitter Has Banned Alex Jones And Infowars

After weeks of equivocation, Twitter permanently suspended the accounts of Infowars and its founder Alex Jones on Thursday, following similar moves by other large tech companies, including Apple, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify. The decision came after a series of provocations from Jones that Twitter deemed in violation of its “abusive behavior” rules.

Finally.

I read this post on Daring Fireball last year and I wanted to comment on it: Charlie:

I simply hate people relying on brittle client-side javascript when there are other alternatives. In the same way as I wouldn’t rely on some unknown minicab firm as the sole way of getting me to the airport for a wedding flight, I don’t like relying on a non-guaranteed technology as the sole way of delivering a web app. For me it’s a matter of elegance and simplicity over unnecessary complexity.

Charlie proceeds to spend the rest of her rainy day reloading her favorite websites with JavaScript disabled and documenting their reduced functionality. For me this sort of activity does not occur once in a rainy day. For years I have filtered the JavaScript my browser receives by way of NoScript a JavaScript/Java/Flash blocker for Firefox and SeaMonkey. NoScript works by whitelisting domains I visit where JavaScript should be enabled. I can temporarily whitelist a domain to get things working on a website I visit temporarily, or permanently block domains like doubleclick.net I never want to receive JavaScript from. Today most websites not only fail to function without their own JavaScript enabled, but they fail to function without linked JavaScript libraries from third-party domains enabled. If your website needs resources from someone else's domain to work, you are doing the web wrong. With NoScript I often find myself temporarily whitelisting third-party domains at random to get the web to work. In summary my browsing experience goes something like this: - Visit website

• Load JavaScript from the domain of the website I am visiting
• Make temporary exceptions for third-party domains where essential JavaScript is hosted
• Block everything else
• NoScript saves my selections for me the next time I visit the site

NoScript has made my web browsing faster, safer, and more energy efficient, but at the cost of maintaining a large list of whitelisted domains I wish to receive JavaScript from. John Gruber: The web would be better off if browsers had never added support for scripting. Every site on the web would load in under a second.

That is my philosophy and why I use NoScript.

If like me, you follow Stephen Hackett’s 512 Pixels, then you know that every couple of months products from Apple’s past are added to the list of Vintage and Obsolete hardware no longer supported by the company. But what do these lists of legacy products mean, and how does an older Mac or ancient iPod make the lists? Age Matters…

“Vintage [Apple] products are those that have not been manufactured for more than 5 and less than 7 years ago.”

This includes any iPhone, iPad, iPod, Beats, or Mac models that have stopped being manufactured in the last five years. (Not necessarily five years from the date you purchased your Apple hardware.) Or course there are a couple of exceptions that can extend your vintage Apple product’s support, but these exceptions are restricted by where you live or where your purchased your product. > “Obsolete [Apple] products are those that were discontinued more than 7 years ago.”

For these products Apple has discontinued all hardware service with no exceptions. Even if you bring your obsolete product to a third-party Apple Authorized Repair Center they won’t be able to receive replacement parts from Apple. Exceptions… Short of living in Turkey, or purchasing your Apple products in California, there is very little you can do to have your Vintage Apple hardware repaired by Apple. A couple of exceptions are asking for an exception from an Apple store for a mission critical piece of Apple hardware. If Apple has enough replacement parts in stock for your vintage model they may provide an exception for the standard price of the repair. Third-party Apple Authorized Repair Center’s are also an option for vintage or obsolete Apple hardware in need or repair. Many third-party Apple Authorized Repair Center’s keep parts in stock for various vintage and obsolete models, and if they don’t have it in stock they may be able to savage it from dead Apple hardware or buy it on eBay. Today there is more custom hardware in Apple products than ever before. This makes repairing yesterday’s Apple hardware with off-the-shelf parts nearly impossible, and all the wiser to sell or replace your older Apple hardware before it makes the list.