Matisyahu's Blog

Well, I gave Firefox another whirl and although there are improvements in terms of speed not to mention it is the browser recommended by uBlock Origin developer, I found that it wasn’t always smooth sailing. An example of that would be using Firefox with the web version of Skype where it works smoothly with Chrome, Edge and Safari but when it comes to Firefox it has a warning message that one will experience reduced functionality. Another issue is that of YouTube Shorts which will skip the next video if you click on the three dots then clock on ‘Don’t recommend this channel’ then on occasion when it doesn’t skip the next video it starts playing the audio for the next video.

On a good side, MV3 is still being developed and if the continued discussion about adding more functionality to the declarative APIs are any indication I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up seeing Google kick the can down the road regarding the phasing out of support for MV2. I understand that the world has to move forward and there certainly are benefits to MV3 but at the same time I think that Google should stop mentioning dates of phasing out MV2 and simply treat MV3 as work in progress because if the meeting minutes from the Webextensions API is anything to go by there is still a tonne of work to be done particularly in the area of addressing the shortcomings of MV3 when compared to MV2 APIs that many developers rely on.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, when asked regarding the desktop version of Threads (that can be accessed through a website) will be launched he noted on his Threads feed (link):

It’s an important piece of the puzzle given that power users and corporate users rely on doing their social networking management from their laptop or desktop – there is a Threads app being developed for macOS via the use of the Catalyst framework but the last time it was mentioned the consensus from engineers in Instagram is that the app was pretty buggy. It’ll be interesting to see how Threads revolves with ActivityPub being the big feature that I think many are waiting on – the ability to following high profile people while not having to be on Threads. I think the long term we’re going to see Threads eclipse X/Twitter and as for X/Twitter being turned into a ‘super app’ – given the limited resources I am sceptical that it can be done and if it is done I simply don’t see an appetite for such a service given the numerous attempts in the past by companies with a lot more money and manpower yet when push came to shove they couldn’t deliver a ‘super app’.