Staying the Course After 35 Years of TidBITS
As TidBITS marks its 35th anniversary, I find myself reflecting on our core mission of explaining technology in an increasingly fractured and fractious world. We live in an era of remarkable technological capability, with artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and autonomous vehicles promising to reshape how we live and work.
For the most part, I celebrate these advances, just as TidBITS has celebrated and attempted to contextualize past innovations that have resulted in the astonishing devices we use today. When we were zapping PRAM and rebuilding desktops on our Macs in the 1990s, an iPhone that combined always-on Internet access, a professional-quality digital camera, and satellite messaging would have seemed like science fiction.
But I have two concerns. First, and closer to home, recent advances largely aren’t coming from Apple. While the likes of ChatGPT and Claude dramatically expand individuals’ capabilities in writing, art, analysis, and even coding, Apple Intelligence feels more like Fisher-Price’s My First AI. The Vision Pro may be a technological tour de force, but it’s hindered by a stratospheric price tag and awkward ergonomics. Meta’s cheaper and less ambitious Ray-Ban smart glasses, which add a camera, open-ear speakers, and voice assistant to ordinary-looking sunglasses, are more compelling to consumers. And while Waymo continues to expand its robotaxi service areas, Apple abandoned its electric car project last year.
In the larger scheme of things, perhaps that’s OK. Maybe Apple should limit itself to developing the devices that provide the technological foundation on which others can build—many TidBITS readers would certainly applaud a thrust by Apple to refine existing features over adding new ones. But tech companies must continually innovate to stay relevant and competitive, so Apple will keep swinging even if it misses more frequently than we’d like.
Second, at a broader level, these advances come at a time when our society seems to have lost sight of technology’s fundamental purpose: to improve the human condition. This loss of focus on human wellbeing feels even more stark outside the tech world. We’re seeing the weaponization of government institutions against perceived enemies, attacks on science through funding cuts and xenophobic policies, the dismantling of environmental protections, and thinly disguised political retribution, alongside sweeping government job cuts driven by uninformed notions of “efficiency.” The social fabric that once encouraged cooperation and mutual respect continues to unravel, replaced by a winner-take-all mentality that values power over people.
Like many, I find it difficult not to obsess about current events, and I encourage you to align your actions with your values in a way that feels right to you. When the path forward seems unclear, I believe we can best contribute by modeling the behavior we want to see in the world. How we conduct business on an everyday basis matters. For TidBITS, that means writing clearly and accurately, prioritizing thoughtfulness and depth over speed, acknowledging our mistakes, and engaging with readers on a personal level. It means practicing kindness, decency, and respect whenever possible.
This approach may seem quaint in an era of clickbait headlines, AI-generated content, and YouTube bro-casting. But its value remains undiminished. Nowhere is that more evident than in TidBITS Talk, where discussions remain constructive and civil because we’ve created an environment where helpful discourse is the norm and where readers help one another with kindness and patience, purely out of a spirit of generosity.
We can’t fix society’s problems through thoughtful tech writing or helpful support. But we can continue to show, in our tiny corner of the Internet, that it’s possible to create an organization that prioritizes helping people over exploiting their eyeballs, that values substance over speed, and that values community over controversy. This mission feels more vital now than ever.
None of this would be possible without our TidBITS members, whose financial support makes our work sustainable. If you value what we do and aren’t yet a member, we would welcome your support.
Here here! Well put Adam.
And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for staying the course, Adam. I can’t say I’ve been a TidBITS reader from the very beginning, but I got there fairly early on, and I was part of the first group to join TidBITS Talk. TidBITS has been one of the anchors in my life as so many other things have changed, sometimes chaotically. I’ve never met you personally, Adam, and have had only brief direct interactions online, but I regard you as a wise, trustable friend. Thanks for being here and being you.
Adam, your comments are well-reasoned as always. TidBITS is an institution and a marvelous community resource. Thank you and Tonya and crew for continuing to be there. Happy 35th!
Too often lost in seas of outright lying, greed, and waves of seductive social media fomented emotion this bears repeating over and over.
Bravo, Adam!
Dave
Perfectly stated and an incredibly important message for the times.
Being one of the richest companies in the world is a dual edged sword. It offers almost unlimited resources to challenge the biggest new projects (Apple car) but also means they’re not reliant enough on new projects to follow them through (also Apple car). A smaller, hungrier, more desperate company - one which relied on the car for their future - would perhaps (likely) made it work.
Apple’s staggering financial position meant it could abandon it - with little concern for the billions invested - and with barely a blip of damage to the brand. In many respects it’s the antithesis of the all or nothing, “Steve Job’s garage Apple” which started it all.
Adam wrote: “It means practicing kindness, decency, and respect whenever possible.”
Adam
Thank you for this. I completely agree, and hope that your words are heard and adhered to elsewhere.
Norbert
35 years is impressive. Having a community of knowledgeable Mac people to interact with is still important, no matter how mainstream personal computing has become. In the early days for me it was usenet and comp.sys.mac.comm and comp.sys.mac.portables (and I occasionally recognise a name here from those days!), then O’Grady’s Powerpage and Macintouch. All were great resources, but usenet became a cesspit of porn binaries, and Jason and Ric seemed to lose steam after a number of years of dedicated (and exhausting) service. I’m glad to see that TidBITS seems to have found a way to stay the course.
Congratulations Adam, and thank you.
Many thanks, Adam, for your superb site that focuses on Apple issues in an adult manner and is free from childish rants and the obsessive focus on single issues. Your site, together with Howard Oakley’s site, are the two places I go to for extremely useful information about Apple products.
I share your disgust with the direction our society is moving and enjoyed the suggestion in a recent ATP podcast where it was suggested that when our “leaders” encourage division, hatred, lying and violence, we should do the opposite: practice love, inclusion and decency.
While I agree that Apple is not doing much spectacular innovation in recent years, I am extremely impressed with what they currently offer, particularly in the ARM based Macs.
Frankly, I couldn’t care less about AI and a conversational SIRI - the latter works very well for 95% of what I need. I acknowledge that I am in a minority in the “nerd” community in having this view. My limited observations are that most other non-nerd users of Apple products are not particularly bothered by the “limitations” of SIRI or the lack of AI in their products.
Congratulations Adam and Tonya. Has it been 35… my wife said ‘over half your life…’. My membership just renewed. Happy to see it paid each year.
Hey Adam, congrats on 35 years!
Also, I totally appreciate the decent and civil position of Tidbits and discussions ( occasionally with some enforcement from you).
I eschew the traditional social media platforms, and it makes a huge difference for Tidbits to be civil, honest, etc., in addition to being a good technical forum.
Don’t know if the double-entendre was deliberate, but is certainly true.
And, yes, thank you, Adam.
Well said, Adam. Very much appreciate that you and TidBITS are part of our “tech tapestry”.
In addition to the crucial points you summarized, and the replys by others here, is an important element of unique places like TidBITS: active moderation.
Having run a discussion site many years ago, I witnessed how quickly things turned from civil to combative when I took a few weeks off for travel. While it was an unfortunate coincidence that both events happened in tandem, the results were still a clear demonstration of the need for mediation and diplomacy. Or at least someone in the watchtower, looking for signs of flame.
Thank you Adam (and the TidBITS team), for being in the watchtower… and exhibiting outstanding care and understanding when we occasionally forget ourselves.
Glad you noticed that it can be read in multiple ways that result in the same point.
Thanks, Adam, not just for staying the course but for doing it so well and so thoughtfully. No person or company can do everything well, even Apple, and I would rather see Apple doing things thoughtfully and conscientiously than just dashing hastily after the latest hyped fad. Achieving excellence in computing is not necessarily the right recipe for excellence in cars, and self-driving cars have yet to be widely accepted. Moreover, we can’t expect to see computing keep advancing at the rate it has since the 1980s. Look at how much computing as advanced compared to aviation, where the two biggest changes I’ve seen in being a cross-country passenger since 1970s are banning smoking on board and shrinking the seats to uncomfortable.
Congratulations, Adam, on managing to keep TidBITS so interesting and vital! I still remember with pleasure having lunch with you, Tonya and Tristan on your visit to London in June 2018.
Every good wish to you all!
Agreed. I think Apple should work with existing auto manufacturers in order to develop the greatest user experience, and let them figure out how to make the car safely drive itself. Apple’s area of expertise is in things like UI design, a robust App Store (including updates that don’t require a service call to install), and related technologies. Car Play 2 (whenever it ships) is a big part of that, and I think Apple should also work to get their system software running on the factory-installed infotainment systems.
Unfortunately, I think the biggest obstacle here is that the car manufacturers don’t want to allow it. Steve Jobs knew the secret sauce for getting deals like this (like how he got the Music store off the ground), but there aren’t many others. It remains to be seen if Tim Cook or his VPs can be that persuasive.
I don’t know. We won’t see the same kind of advancements, but that’s always been the case. The big breakthroughs are usually not evolutionary changes. For example:
I think we may well see the rate of technological advancement to keep up its breakneck pace, but it won’t be a faster version of what we have today. When it first ships, it will seem strange and possibly useless. Until the software catches up and then we’ll wonder how we ever got by without it.
With respect to what passengers typically see:
And then there have been lots of massive changes in the cockpit:
I’m sure there are many more that I’m not thinking of right now because I’m not a pilot.
Congratulations. I have regularly been visiting this website for a very long time, and I learn a lot from the (technology-related) content and the comments.
I don’t agree with many of the subtle political comments you make, it is clear we are on opposite sides to many of those issues, but I do think the technology-related content is top-notch.
As you might suspect, I never enjoyed inflight entertainment. I liked to sit in what Stephen Jay Gould called “the geologist’s seat” looking out the window and also brought a book, magazine or laptop to read. As the seats continued to shrink the whole airline experience became increasingly uncomfortable to those of us with long legs and wide shoulders. I haven’t flown since before the pandemic and don’t miss it.
I was thinking of the passenger’s experience rather than the pilot’s, so I didn’t include the major improvements inside the cockpit.
As someone who has been around for — and has been reading TidBITS for — the entire 35 years, my hat goes off to you and to everyone who has worked to produce this remarkable achievement. With its unmatched combination of knowledge and insight, TidBITS will always remain on my “must read” list. Thanks and congratulations!
Thank you for the years of consistently good work (and you look so young for 35!). Your thoughtful, reflective editorial was greatly appreciated.
Perfectly said. Thank you for your eloquence!
Well done, enjoyable, and accurate article. I’ve been reading via email pretty much the whole time. I’m 80 now and some articles are deeper than I want, but basically right on. I still rely on TidBITs.
Thank You
John
Best 35 years of my life.
Thank you for the 35 years Adam and thank you even more for this observation. I haver been on the journey with you from very close to the start. From Australia I was beginning to worry that all the US Good Guys had gone to ground. Glad to see it’s not ALL.
I am at the pointy end of life so cannot say I hope I’ll be reading TidBITS for the next 35 years. I should make the next 4 years though and I really hope the US makes it through the next 4 as well.
Congratulations on your 35th anniversary for TidBITS!! Thanks to you, Tonya and all the TidBITS contributors past and present for all you have done to make the Apple universe a better place for the rest of us.
Norm
Well said, Adam! This is one place that to me still has the friendly, enthusiastic vibe of the old Apple days—together with some top-notch, in-depth quality content and discussion that are unique. A great 35 years. Thanks for all you do!
May you continue to stay the course for many more years! I’ve been a fan for maybe 30+ and admire your perseverance as well as your well-stated adherence to the ideals that made this industry and this country great.
Congratulations, Adam and Tonya, on 35 years! I think I’ve been in orbit around TidBITS for maybe 30 of them, as TidBITS was such an invaluable resource back in dark days of Apple. It was definitely a regular companion during my professional career growth.
As much as I realize that Apple is just another corporation, owing more to its shareholders than to its customers, for much of it’s life I I felt that it was trying to balance both sides of the equation, believing that products designed to improve and enrich our relationship with technology would fuel its market growth. I applauded its early stand on Human Interface Guidelines, and was sad when it moved away from some of the core principles. I appreciate that it often lags some trends in order to release a better product. On the flip side, I know there have been misses along the way, with products that were released too soon, before the market was ready (Newton, anyone?). But there has always been a more human(e) side (of their products and their corporate ethos) that impressed me and kept me loyal to them as a company.
I am not a pollyanna, though, and some recent decisions do concern me, but I think those issues are far larger than Apple alone has the ability to resolve.
So I greatly appreciate your thoughtful article and the warnings and concerns you’ve expressed, Adam. Thank you for still being here.
Adam, many thanks for your years of supplying intelligent, useful, and well-written content to support my journey within the Apple ecosystem. And thanks for attracting and encouraging such helpful discourse within a community of great people!
Thank you so much, Adam and Tonya, for continuing your efforts over the past 35 years to bring us information about the Apple world with kindness and generosity. I’ve been reading you since the 1990s, and even though I’m not a regular, I’ve remained a loyal follower. Godefroy, Paris, France
Congratulations to Adam, Tonya, and crew! I can’t claim to have been here since Day One, but I started reading TidBITS fairly early. I just looked in my archives, and have an email confirming my subscription in 1997. Thank you!
Congrats on continuing perhaps the most important resource for Apple users.
Congrats on keeping it going this long, wish for many more!
Greatly appreciate all your hard work to make sure it remains balanced and informative, well worth the subscription fee.
The problem with the Apple car was that it was never going to offer the margins that Apple expect. Maybe they could have spun it off as a separate company, which licensed the Apple logo.
On Apple intelligence, what I would like to be able to do is to ask Siri things like to find me directions from Home to Newcastle (I’m in Australia) via Wiseman’s Ferry by Car. Currently Siri doesn’t have a clue what I’m talking about. Maybe it will improve, but at the moment a bright 5 year old might beat it.
Thank you for yet another thoughtful, insightful, and inspiring item, Adam—and for your many, many contributions toward building and maintaining a community focused on helping the rest of us understand and apply technology “to improve the human condition.” Countless people have benefited from your writing and other work, and I personally am exceedingly grateful to have benefited from TidBITS for well over 25 years (I had been a subscriber for some time before I first wrote to express my gratitude to you right after you wrote about Tristan’s birth). Many, many thanks to you, Tonya, and all TidBITS contributors!
Wow—what a moving and thoughtful post! I’ve been reading TidBITS almost since the beginning, and I can hardly believe it’s been 35 years! TidBITS has made a real difference in my life—it’s been my anchor for all things Apple and a trusted voice in an often chaotic tech landscape. Your writing has always felt personal and accessible, and you’ve cultivated an exceptional group of contributors over the years. Thank you, Adam, for everything you’ve built and sustained.
I have been following TidBITS since the beginning. (I remember a HyperCard version at one time?) But I appreciate the articles and the community you bring with you and help moderate. My wife always knows what I am talking about when I get a problem that I have to run by “my TidBITS” community. And we are a community due to you and all the writers who contribute over the years. Thanks again.
If Apple really wants to me to take a chance on this beta hardware (and maybe they don’t), they would need to offer some special program for upgrading to the next generation model. Something where, when a new model comes out, I could trade-in my old model at almost the full original cost (like a $3000 trade-in value). As it is, there’s no way I will spend $3500 on these glasses — only to find that a newer much improved model comes out a month later — and I need to spend another $3500 to get it (perhaps minus some trivial trade-in value).
I miss the HyperCard stack.
Many Thanks Adam for your excellent post and may you continue staying the course writing TidBITS.
Thank you, Adam.
Referencing your quote, “The social fabric that once encouraged cooperation and mutual respect continues to unravel, replaced by a winner-take-all mentality that values power over people.”
I recommend that you read Francis S. Collins’ book, “The Road to Wisdom” pub 2024. Collins is recently retired from Director of NIH. To quote from page 23, “The goal of this book is to turn the focus away from hyper partisan politics and bring it back to the most important sources of wisdom: truth, science, faith, and trust, resting upon a foundation of humility, knowledge, morality and good judgment.” This book covers many important topics that could contribute to a return rationality - individual and collective.
Not to waste too many words after the amount of supportive comments you’ve already received, but just to say as a long-term TidBITS reader, I admire and support your attitude, Adam. “kindness, decency, and respect whenever possible”, yes indeed! And, perhaps one should add, truthfulness.