Part of the Big Tech's War on Users series. Apple announced this week that Brazilian developers can finally distribute apps through alternative marketplaces and offer payment options outside Apple's own system. Cue the fireworks. Cue the press release. Cue Epic Games and the Coalition for App Fairness — whose membership...

Part of the ongoing Big Tech's War on Users series. We all know the basic deal by now. Meta wants your data to sell ads. Google wants your data to sell ads. A dozen other companies you've never heard of want your data to sell to the people selling ads. And we know Apple tried to draw a line with App Tracking...

Part of the ongoing Big Tech's War on Users series. WWDC gave us two things at once. Craig Federighi on stage talking about privacy, trust, and safety. The three-tier Siri routing confirmed. The whole carefully assembled message about how seriously Apple takes your data. And buried in the same keynote week: Apple...

WWDC 2026 was today. Tim Cook's last as CEO, Craig Federighi on stage talking about platform improvements, trust, and safety — and somewhere between the homeOS preview and the AI announcements, iOS 27 confirmed what became obvious pretty early in the 26.x saga: the Liquid Glass slider is real, it's coming, and it...

Apple's Privacy Is Now Underwritten by Google and Nvidia. Let That Sink In. Part of the ongoing Big Tech's War on Users series. Apple Intelligence and a smarter Siri sounds great in a world where it's your choice, your hardware, or at worst a server sitting effectively next to the iCloud you're already trusting. It...

Part of the Big Tech's War on Users series. This one got lost in the shuffle of other stories a couple weeks back, and I almost let it slide. That would have been a mistake. Because while the headlines have moved on, the case hasn't — and what's sitting inside it is worth paying attention to. The DOJ wants Apple,...

Part of the ongoing Big Tech's War on Users series. Yesterday I published a post about Apple's privacy promise looking increasingly like a marketing slogan. Then Google held I/O the same day and made the whole thing worse. TechCrunch's headline wasn't wrong: Google Search as you know it is over. What replaces it isn't...

Part of the ongoing Big Tech's War on Users series. Apple has built its entire brand identity around privacy. "What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone." Billboards. Keynotes. The thing Apple fans reach for when justifying the premium they pay. And for a long time it wasn't just marketing — I've written before...

Part of the ongoing Big Tech's War on Users series. Apple settled a class-action lawsuit last week (twas a busy week) for $250 million over Apple Intelligence features it advertised — features the lawsuit says "did not exist at the time, do not exist now, and will not exist for two or more years." Let that sit for a...

Bonus entry in the Big Tech's War on Users series. Parts 1 and 2 are the actual argument. This is just a good example that arrived on schedule. Apple is currently working on a fix for a bug that locked at least one iPhone user out of his device for months. The cause: somewhere between iOS 18 and iOS 26.4, the...

Part 2 of 2. Part of the ongoing Big Tech's War on Users series. Part 1 covered the privacy brand — the Google deal, iCloud, Meta, and what "we keep your data safe" actually means. This post is about the other half of Apple's brand: the idea that their judgment is worth the premium. That they know best. That the walled...

Part 1 of 2. Part of the ongoing Big Tech's War on Users series.Correction: A reader notes that "Offload Unused Apps" is not strictly on by default — Apple's support documentation describes it as something you turn on. In practice the setting gets enabled for many users through setup prompts or low storage warnings,...

Remember when I said I'd give Typewise a full week before deciding if it was genius or madness? Well, I gave it more than that. And I've got some honest feedback that's probably not what you (or I) wanted to hear. ## The TL;DR **I wanted this to work.** The privacy-first approach is exactly what I've been looking for....

Look, I'm just going to say it: the iPad keyboard is hot garbage. Not the hardware keyboards—those are fine. I'm talking about the on-screen keyboard that Apple somehow thought was acceptable to ship on a device people use for actual work. Here's my specific gripe: there's no permanent number row. You know, that thing...

UPDATE:Right after I posted this, India announced that it will be optional. However, the point of Apple's selective stance stands.When governments start demanding backdoor access to your pocket computer, it's worth paying attention. India's latest move—ordering all smartphone makers to preload a state-run app called...