Matisyahu's Blog

I woke up this morning at 8:30 am and it was raining heavily outside so I decided to have a doze in bed while listening to the rain on the roof. I eventually got up and out of bed, opened the curtains to let what little sun flood into the room and then I jumped back into bed to see what Apple had announced with their recent presentation. I have to to say I was underwhelmed – keeping in mind that my expectations were already pretty low so it must have required some effort to be below my already low expectations. I was expecting big HomePod to be updated but only the mini was (maybe they’ll announce a refresh of it on 27 October?).

Then there was the HomeView ‘smart home hub’ – it’ll be interesting to see how much demand there is for it when compared to just having a HomePod mini for voice commands and an iPhone or iPad to control devices around the home. I have to admit that part of me is asking “what solution is this trying to solve” but I guess if I’m asking that question then it is a subtle hint that maybe this isn’t a product designed for someone like me. The Apple TV got a much needed update with support for AV1 playback support along with many other benefits that come from moving to the A19 SoC (such as Siri AI support) but with that being said the price has gone up to an eye watering NZ$599 vs NZ$319 when I originally bought my Apple TV device not too long ago.

I checked for the weekly update and Google has released an update for Chrome (link) which has bumped the version from 155.0.8059.40 to 155.0.8059.80 and once again quite a few security holes have been fixed in the release. Chrome 156 is scheduled to be released on 21 October which has quite a few under the hood changes. When it comes to version 27.2 of Apple’s platform, beta 4 has been released recently released and based on previous updates we may see a release candidate with the next build release. Personally I think what Apple needs to do is make their operating system update release modular – more specifically have Safari on a quicker release schedule so that it is decoupled from operating system updates in much the same way Chrome is updated seperately from Android builds via the Play Store.

I’m off to work tomorow but I’m working from home so I’ll be looking forward to getting a good night sleep so I’m all ready for a walk tomorrow. I’ve got the new sunscreen I bought from the supermarket but I couldn’t be bothered getting the name brand stuff so I just got the Woolworths branded which is SPF50+ which is good enough for when I go walking. I was hoping that getting out of the house by 9:30 am would result in me being out before the sun is it at its most intense but the one thing to keep in mind about New Zealand is even on overcast days the UV is pretty intense.

Apple is now pushing a marketing bitz to get people interested in switching from Chrome to Safari (link) – with all due respects, Safari is already included with your platforms by default so if people are going out of their way to down a competing browser then maybe you should so something about why people feel the need to do that. For example, Apple needs to have a proper native implementation of the declarative net request in the browser rather than it sitting on top of the content blocking API (the lack of a native implementation means having to wait for filters to be converted from the DNR format to the content blocking format vs being able to use the filters without the conversion process).

That doesn’t touch on the numerous implementation bugs that they haven’t addressed. For example bug case 295043 – over a year and nothing has been approved for merging, 10 months ago I requested the status of the bug but I was completely ignored by Apple engineers. Then there is the issue of website compatibility such as YouShop (NZ Post) doesn’t render properly – I’ve reported it and over a year later nothing has been done. WordPress for the daily writing prompt doesn’t work when you click on post and for that daily prompt to appear in a new post but it works on Chrome. Teams routinely throws login errors when on Safari (added to my uBlock Origin Lite allowed websites) but the problems don’t exist on Chrome (I also use uBlock Origin Lite on Chrome as well). On Google Chat when you send a message it automatically scrolls up to the last message the receiving party views and on Chrome when you receive a message there is a red dot in the tab showing a message has been sent to you but on Safari the only option is to have an annoying notification to come through.

All of these issues I’ve reported and all of these issues have been ignored by Apple engineers – at some point you stop wasting time and just shift browsers. This is the same issue that Microsoft faced many years ago when they had EdgeHTML and websites deliberately breaking on it but would suddenly work if you spoofed the useragent to Chrome which made it clear EdgeHTML could render the website but the website was the one at fault. After years of playing cat and mouse Microsoft eventually threw in the towel and decided to create a Chromium based Microsoft Edge which has resulted in a reliable experience for end users ever since. Microsoft are now adding support for Google accounts so that it will be possible to sync to your Google account – if you like using Edge but have a Google account then it is all good. Something tells me that Apple aren’t going to be that pragmatic no matter how far behind Safari gets with the only remaining users being hardcore Apple fanboys and those who don’t know how to download a different browser.

I woke up this morning at 8:30 am and it a rainy day so I decided to take the day off and start the day off for breakfast with the curried egg salad mum gave to me last night. It definitely brings back memories when mum would make it. I jumped onto my work computer and checked to see whether I had received some messages – boss got back to me regarding something that had popped up which didn’t make sense and needed investigating along with another colleague who wanted to follow up regarding some customer feedback. Generally I like to wait till I get back to work but sometimes when it is already fresh in your mind then it is best to get it out of the way.

I’m back to using Chrome on my computer after experimenting with Safari but I’ll get it a second chance to see whether there are sizeable improvements in 27.2 or maybe a later build. Tomorrow will be when Apple is having an presentation with the title “Welcome Home” which will be interesting to see what ends up being launched – rumour has it that it’ll include a refresh homePod, homePod mini, an Apple TV along with maybe some new hardware as well. I don’t expect any new software to be released other than maybe 27.1 but that could be reserved just for the new hardware support and maybe some security fixes although beta 3 of 27.2 has been released recently so that is pretty closed to maybe a release candidate coming out soon.

uBlock Origin Lite 2026.1012.1545 has been released and is in the Chrome webstore before it is in the Apple app store which is a change from what it was like a few months ago when it was the other way around. UniFi Network Application 11.0.83 has now appeared on the release candidate channel and there appears to be many under the hood changes introduced such as migrating the application database to PostgreSQL which will take around 20 minutes to full migrate – before the adoption of PostgreSQL they were using MongoDB. It’ll be interesting to see how well it performs in the real world along with the UniFi OS 6.0.12 upgrade which is currently being tested as well.

I’ve been watching a few videos regarding the iPhone 18 Pro Max launch and it compares to the current one that I have (iPhone 17 Pro Max) along with what the competition has to offer (the competition primarily being the Samsung S26 Ultra) . The one thing that that is left off is how it integrates into a larger ecosystem – are there people who may just have a phone? sure however there are plenty of people who have a laptop, maybe a desktop, possible home appliances like security cameras along with bluetooth trackers – how well does it all integrate together using the Google, Samsung or Apple ecosystems? how smooth is the integration between a Samsung phone and having a Mac laptop? to talk about a phone without talking about the ecosystem is like buying a car without considering how easily it can be serviced, what is the availability of spareparts like?

I woke up today and decided to have a relaxing day off from work – I didn’t want to go for a walk because I’ve gotten sun burnt a few times and unfortunately I didn’t have any sunscreen which is something that need to get sorted out. I walked down to my local bakery and had eggs bene with a side of mushrooms and a bowl of mochaccino on the side. I took my time as I read some news on my phone – I like to catch up on the news in the morning from the usual sources such as Radio NZ, Reuters, Bloomberg, Business Desk and NBR. It is always important to get news from a variety of sources because sometimes there are parts of a story that maybe glossed over by one website but in another website they go into further detail because the writer believes the audience maybe interested in exploring into detail a particular issue.

After brunch I then jumped onto the next bus into town where I went for a walk around at the stores, I stopped in at Noel Leeming to see what the S26 Ultra is like and I was in luck because One UI 9 was ready to be installed so I rebooted the phone so I could get to see what it was like. There wasn’t any visual changes when compared to One UI 8.5 but I did notice it was more snappy and responsive. As I’ve noted in the past, we’re at peak smartphone so it is a matter of the vendors are focused on refinement and making use of AI to improve the experience but I don’t see anything radical nor do I expect anything radical given that smartphones are a mature product. The kernel of One UI 9.0 is on the 6.12 LTS however it is rock solid and the performance is great – it’ll be interesting to see how things develop going forward.

After having a look around I picked up a few items from New World then caught the bus up to mum’s place where I updated her computers and enjoyed fish pie for dinner. We had a chat and caught up with what had been happening during the week – my sister got another dog, mum has been seeing how my brothers who kids are growing up quickly with the oldest getting ready to head off to school. Mum also prepared some curried egg salad – something I used to be able to buy at the store but only just recently they’ve stopped selling it at the local Pak ‘n Save so I’m unsure what the story is – maybe the manufacturer discontinued the line? oh well, I guess I’ll wait and see whether it suddenly appears.

One thing I do have to complain about is the sad state of affairs when it comes to iOS 27.0.1 and the buggy experience I’ve had with Reddit and other apps running on my iPhone 17 Pro Max. With the Reddit app I would find that the user interface elements would suddenly go a dark grey as if it were in dark mode then I would find that the whole app would suddenly freeze which would require me to do a forced quit. I have also noticed that they keyboard and screen has gotten worse – 26.x series wasn’t the best but I had high hopes that 27.x would fix the issues – for example, normally you can tap on the cursor then drag the cursor to where you want it in the text but nothing happens, I would then double tap on a word which normally should auto select the whole word but nothing happens. Then there is the keyboard itself – the lag and inaccuracy which makes the experience worse than when I was using a Samsung Ultra S26. The strange thing is that in the case of macOS things are pretty robust so I guess we’re going to have to wait and find out what 27.2 fixes up and the future improvements planned for the future.

I woke up this morning at 8:30 am to the pitter patter of rain on the roof and according to the Metservice it appears that it’ll be on and off all day so as a result I’m going to have a lazy day at home before work. It feels kind of weird working in the office and then the next day working from home – that experience in the office I guess breaks the monotony which makes the day go a little better.

Ubiquiti has made available in the early release channel UniFi OS 6.0.12 for Dream Routers and along with that there was UniFi Network Application 11.0.83 made available on the same channel for testing. I’m happy that Ubiquiti are taking their time and making sure their software is well tested because in a world of ‘run fast and break things’ it is nice to know that there are still companies around who understand that breaking something can cause more than a mild inconvenience. If a featured doesn’t work on social media it isn’t the end of the world but if you ship a dodgy update for a router then that undermines the ability for someone to work from home then millions are impacted in a real way.

With all this AI investment hype, the hundreds of billions of dollars slushing around, am I the only one sitting here thinking “that is an awful lot of money….where did it come from and if we taxed the wealthy would this whole bubble have even taken place”. Imagine what could be achieved if as a society we actually taxed the top end of town and went after the top end of town when it came to the creative financial engineering they employ to avoid paying taxes. For example, the rich and powerful that borrow against their assets rather than selling them off – to me, that may not be a violation of the literal reading of the tax code but it is abundantly clear that it is a violation of the spirit of the law.

I also look at how businesses borrow to fund share buybacks but when they’re hit financial issues they’re the first to run to the government for a bailout – maybe share buybacks should be banned along with banning businesses borrowing money to fund dividends because they don”t want to repatriate funds from overseas and pay taxes on it. When American politicians complain about China and ‘unfair competition’ what they’re really complaining about (without admitting to it) is the short-termism that far too many western businesses have – focusing on the next quarter without any consideration about what happens in 5 years time. The culture of short-termism unfortunately is probably not going to be addressed until a crisis occurs and from that crisis the western view of running businesses is challenged not just on Wall Street but in the business faculties at universities.

Huawei has made a recent announcement regarding bringing HarmonyOS to the global market – one thing to keep in mind that in China the operating system HarmonyOS has 24% of the market. It’ll be interesting to see whether third party hardware vendors start adopting it for maybe entry level and medium range phones and then in the long term on their flagship models. The gradual roll out globally will also involve setting up relationships not only with OEMs but third party developers to bring their software to the platform and then there is building relationships with banking for payment solutions to complete with Samsung Pay, Apple Pay and Google Pay or does Huawei decide to team up with an existing player like Google Pay or Samsung Pay to avoid the lengthy process of building a platform and then negotiating with banks? this is something I’ll be keeping my eye on.

I went for my daily walk today and I decided to listen to a podcast on my walk to stop myself from getting bored – I wore my wired earbuds rather than over the head earphones to avoid getting too hot. I decided to just do two laps and I am happy that I made that decision because I was exhausted after those two laps – a combination of heat and feeling a little dehydrated by the end of the walk but it was satisfying. I had a shower, got changed and then got myself prepared for the day.

I was listening to a recent ‘Windows Weekly’ podcast and then checked out the Microsoft presentation that was broadcast recently online with the launch of nVidia RTX Spark laptop and desktop. A few weeks ago there were articles talking about how Microsoft was downplaying the copilot branding as an indication of maybe Microsoft was scaling back its AI ambitions but I think it is a misreading of what Microsoft has decide to do. I think the problem with Microsoft’s fixation about AI is the fact that they did a lousy job showing to end users how AI integration into search can actually help make using their computer a lot easier.

In the case of using AI to improve the search functionality is the ability to type in something like “I want to change to dark mode” and the functionality appears in the actual search result where you can change in then and there. Compare that to the rather embarrassing use of AI a few months earlier, what they demonstrated was something that the average user finds useful. When Microsoft talked about integrating AI in tasteful ways this is what I am thinking – how can be we use AI so that AI isn’t the focal point but rather end users just recognise the fact that the search functionality got a whole lot better and not care about it was improved. A bit like the AI assisted photo editing, people don’t care about AI but they do care that there is a useful feature in their photo editing app that allows them to tweak a photo they’ve just taken.

The other interesting part of the presentation was the push into locally run models and models run on premises – there has been big push recently recently by nVidia and Palantir regarding ‘Sovereign AI’. As Alex Karp said, why would a business want to want to hand over their proprietary data that gives them a competitive edge – keep the model in house and protect your competitive edge. When it comes to local models running on local hardware then the benefit is that you don’t have to care about how many tokens you burn and if you do need to fall back to the cloud then that will be available. I think for many businesses who went into this whole ‘tokenmaxxing’ are going to start reevaluating their plans going forward – are they better off just buying each developer a decent workstation running an model locally with cloud based AI as a last resort?

If there is a move to more local models then the whole business case that justifies the hundreds of billions being spent on data centres is now undermined. If most if not all AI work eventually becomes something that can be run locally then where do these AI cloud providers sit in the equation? do they have a small cloud based business and charge a subscription for customers to download a local model they can run with the subscription paying for training runs, harness etc? If that is the future then it sounds like a move back from being a cloud provide to a software provider.

Apple released Safari Technology Preview 254 today (link) and it includes a tonne of bug fixes and new features – I scroll straight to the section that deals with Web Extensions and it appears that it is getting some much needed attention. It’ll be interesting to see whether 27.3 includes many of these updates because I’m guessing 27.1 will be for new hardware support and 27.2 appears to be (based on the beta release notes) a pretty modest release rather than including some big updates.