On the Chit Chat Across the Pond podcast, Adam Engst explains why the macOS 15 Sequoia beta’s monthly check-ins on screen recording permissions are not only unnecessary but actively harmful.
Seemingly in response to the strongly negative feedback that arose from the potential in macOS 15 Sequoia of having to approve permission for each of your apps that require screen recording permissions every single week and after restarts, Apple has changed to a monthly schedule and made the prompt text more specific. The repetitive prompts remain too frequent: they are still unnecessary and bad for security.
macOS 15 Sequoia displays permissions prompts for apps that require screen recording permissions—more than just screenshot apps—at least once per week and after every restart or logout. Adam Engst explains why this is both unnecessary and counter-productive.
Seemingly as a result of Google’s deal to license Reddit content, Reddit is now blocking crawlers from other search engines, ensuring that new Reddit content can be found only through Google or other search engines that pay Google.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog, an early player in the Apple blogosphere that has been defunct for a decade, has been revived as an AI-powered site that rewrites content from other sites. iLounge suffered the same fate. Avoid both sites from now on.
Despite the seemingly universal outrage about tech companies scraping the open Web to train their models, Adam Engst finds himself largely unperturbed.
In this wide-ranging podcast conversation, Adam Engst and hosts Joe Saponare and Jerry Zigmont explore some of the deeper questions surrounding generative AI.
Starting later this year, Apple will replace all instances of “Apple ID” in its operating systems and documentation with “Apple Account.” Documentation that covers multiple versions of Apple operating systems will become more awkward.
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen three examples of companies failing to communicate with their customers effectively and suffering the slings and arrows of online ire.
Adam Engst explores how you can use generative AI chatbots and artbots productively by helping you identify good uses such as brainstorming, programming, summarizing lengthy PDFs, and drafting difficult email messages. He also examines the utility of AI in Internet searches.
After a section of a Slack document laying out its privacy principles surrounding AI was taken out of context on social media, controversy ensued. Adam Engst attempts to calm the waters, with help from ChatGPT.
After significant backlash, Apple has apologized for and pulled its “Crush!” ad showing creative and cultural objects pulverized by an industrial press. Was the ad just an ill-considered effort to shock or an all-too-accurate metaphor for today's tech industry?
This MIT Technology Review piece points out that relying too heavily on the term "user" exacts a cost in depersonalizing the relationships we have with the software that fills our lives. Let's work to use more precise terms.
Triggered by the addition of comments to the popular blog Kottke.org, Adam Engst encourages participation in focused online conversational spaces rather than scattershot social media.
What better day than Friday the 13th to check that your backups are actually working by restoring some critical files?