Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Epic Games Sees Benefits From Streamlined Install Flow

Epic Games (Tim Sweeney, MacRumors, The Verge, TechCrunch): In response to ongoing Digital Markets Act enforcement, Apple has significantly improved the process for installing alternative app stores from the web in the European Union with iOS 18.6 in July. They’ve reduced the install flow from 15 steps to 6, eliminating their former scare screen and […]

Helm 2.0

Modum (tweet): The all-in-one iOS and macOS app that enhances App Store Connect, supercharging your app updates, localization, and ASO with AI-powered tools.[…]Using Helm is up to 12x faster than using the App Store Connect website.[…]It’s easier than ever to respond using templates, translations, and AI assistance. Additionally, Helm will automatically translate the review and […]

Bartender 6

Applause Group: We’ve re-built Bartender from the ground up to be beautiful, performant, and reliable. Bartender has been a staple of Mac users for years, and that brought with it lots of old hacks & tricks. We’ve modernised everything, from the algorithms used to move your items, through to the design of the entire app.The […]

Apple Files Another Anti-Steering Appeal

Juli Clover: Startup accelerator and venture capital firm Y Combinator (YC) today filed an amicus brief supporting Epic Games in Epic’s continued legal fight with Apple. Y Combinator says that Apple’s “anti-steering restraints” have long inhibited the growth and development of technology companies that monetize goods and services through apps.The company calls on the court […]

OpenAI Looks to Take 10 Percent Stake in AMD Through AI Chip Deal

MacKenzie Sigalos, CNBC:

OpenAI and Advanced Micro Devices have reached a deal that could see Sam Altman’s company take a 10% stake in the chipmaker. AMD stock skyrocketed more than 30% on Monday following the news.

OpenAI will deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD’s Instinct graphics processing units over multiple years and across multiple generations of hardware, the companies said Monday. It will kick off with an initial 1-gigawatt rollout of chips in the second half of 2026.

It only happens once a decade or so, but the most exciting times in tech occur when there’s a breakthrough that’s severely hardware constrained. That includes hardware like infrastructure — bandwidth was a massive constraint during the dot-com boom. It wasn’t even feasible to download audio, like podcasts, for the first decade of the consumer internet boom, let alone video. But it was inevitable that we’d get there.

Right now we’re severely constraint on compute for AI. In a few years, we’ll look back on today’s state of affairs the way we look back on dial-up modems.