Matisyahu's Blog

Instagram Threads launched on 5 July 2023 and within a week they now have 100 million with many, many high profile people moving over from Twitter to Threads. I think long term you’ll find that it’ll come in waves as features are added then eventually once ActivityPub integration occurs you may find that Instagram will put down their ban hammer on a few of the undesirable people who have come over to Threads and based on the number of replies that said individual isn’t welcome.

There was another beta released by Apple for both their existing platform along with the next platform release they have planned. Personally, I would sooner they take their time but that being said I would like them to closing the functionality gap particularly when it comes to extensions. I’m a simple man, if Apple get Safari MV3 support to the point that I can run uBlock Origin Lite then I would be a pretty happy lad. The web browser has become the run time engine for the online world and when Apple drag their feet regarding implementing standards then it holds back the whole IT industry due to the dominance Safari has in the smartphone and tablet space due to the fact that the core of Safari is the only one allowed on iOS and iPadOS.

Another day another poll with journalists spinning the results into something that it is not (link). In the case of National-ACT they sit at 48%, for Labour-Greens plus other parties they sit at around the same. Basically they’re neck and neck, the majority that Labour was never sustainable long term in an MMP environment but why let facts get in the way of a doom and gloom narrative to get those clicks and raging comments in the comment section. I think it’ll a close election – at least in the case of New Zealand at least our centre right party hasn’t lost its marbles unlike the United States where their so-called centre right party is completely disconnected from reality.

Nothing has pushed out an update, Nothing OS 1.5.6 which weighed in around 55MB and after the installation it appears that it was an update to the kernel with the build being dated 6 July 2023 but the version remaining the same at 5.4.210. In the last couple of days the June Play Services was updated to the June 2023 version and so far the combination of the two updates (plus the regular updates made available through the Play Store) the experience over all has been pretty good.

The development of Mimestream has resulted in some regular updates coming out (link). I’m looking forward to seeing contacts and calendaring integration so that Mimestream gets to the point that it is a completely integrated productivity app like Outlook on the desktop is like. In other news, at the moment where I work they use Google Workspace but we’re going to be moving over to Office 365 which will be an interesting experience given how much stuff we have integrated into Google – from the current CRM through to documents saved in our Google Drive. All I can say, I’m happy I decided not to make working in IT my full time job – sure, I’m keenly interested in technology but I wouldn’t want to make it a fully time job because it would take away from the enjoyment of having the interest in it.