Saturday 10th June, 2023 - Apple’s Vision Pro, Crypto vs SEC (Issue #118)
Apple announces the most complicated and futuristic device ever made, the SEC tries to blowup the entire crypto industry, and I figured out and fixed the newsletter issue numbering thing
Hello and welcome to my newsletter!
Another season 2 instalment…
In retrospect it’s been sort of a perfect week for tech news. The big story is obviously Apple’s Vision Pro announcement. It’s the most futuristic and complicated product ever made. This week’s issue is sort of a roundup of all the various coverage from throughout the week. It’s very rare that a new era in computing begins, but that appears to be what’s happening. The age of Spatial Computing has arrived. Everyone has been WOW’d and it’s tremendously fun hearing and reading people’s reactions. A lot of excitement. We are all imagining where it could lead. This is the tech industry at it’s best.
In parallel there’s been a sub story which is very juicy indeed. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US has announced that basically all crypto currencies are unregistered securities, and has started going after some of the big players in the space. Crypto folks are proper freaking out. Oh noes!
My week didn’t end up being as dreadful as I had predicted. The dark clouds I had predicted in last week’s issue did end up dissipating somewhat after all. I’m very grateful about that. Amidst all the mind bending tech news, I was able to figure out and fix the newsletter issue numbering problem I discovered. It turns out that this is issue #118! I’ve updated the website. Quite happy about that.
I’ve tentatively started reading about how to setup an AI classifier. I want to see if I can integrate a minimal example into my publishing workflow. I’ve read some interesting tutorials on Tensorflow.js which look quite straight forward for pre-trained models, but so far I’ve found examples that train a model from scratch to be very complicated. Perhaps it’s just lack of familiarity of the concepts, but AI / ML really doesn’t feel very intuitive to me. It’s like the whole sector has been written by people who view the world in a very different way than web developers do. Anyway, it’s early days.
I got a recommendation from a client I worked for on a fun project a while back, so that was nice:
🚀 New Recommendation: Chris Reichhelm, founder & CEO at Deep Tech Leaders and Deep Tech Jobs https://markjgsmith.com/recommendations#chris-reichhelm
I’m going to keep the intro short this week as my mind is still awash with thoughts of our crazy multi-dimensional future. Seems like it could have a big impact on web development. Well we’ve got 6 months to figure out what fancy stuff we can add to our websites so they look cool in 3D. I personally want my website to have an awesome 2D to 3D transition. Perhaps some sort of animation where linkblog links explode out of the plane to fill the space. No idea how I’m going to do that, but I reckon everyone’s going to be exploring what’s possible over the coming months. Exciting times ahead…
Podcasts
2024 Fantasy President picks, debt ceiling agreement, Dollar dominance and more (All-in Podcast) - Their politics discussions tend to be very interesting because of the tech angle, their money talk is mostly well informed and again is infused with their extensive tech experience, and the episode is pretty funny in places too. All around good listen. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbGxpbmNoYW1hdGhqYXNvbi5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw/episode/Njc1MDA1OTAtMjEzYi00NzNmLWFlNjYtZmZkNWNiMzM4ZGY0?sa=X&ved=0CAUQkfYCahcKEwj4joz7tLf_AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQNg
Apple Vision (Another Podcast Podcast) - The two experts in all things brainstorming return to review the latest WWDC announcement, covering amoung other things, why the Vision Pro is the dream device from 5 years in the future but now, hardware description, spatial computing, AR vs VR, Apple’s insistence to not compromise on quality, the Apple vs Meta approach, whether mass adoption will occur, how demoing for spatial computing is different, and the you-look-through-it metaphor https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9iWjdVMlBFaw/episode/NzdjNzQ3ZjMtMDc3My00ZGE4LTlkNmUtN2YzYjFhYzVlYjE2?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwj4joz7tLf_AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQ2wE
We Studied Thousands of Heads (Accidental Tech Podcast) - The guys review the entire WWDC conference, a dizzying amount of new stuff. Vision Pro coverage starts ~2 hours into the episode. Quite technical discussion from the experienced Mac user / developer angle, covering topics including field of view, social stigma, latency, not being presented as a gaming device at all, capturing 3D video, no killer app yet, currently lots of 2D screens in 3D, new area of the AR/VR market focussing on work applications, spacial audio, potentially cool dev environment setups, not really priced for consumers atm, power cable disconnect shuts everything off, and possible apps in shopping, interior design, meditation and fitness spaces. https://atp.fm/538
The SEC is suing Coinbase & Binance (Bankless Podcast) - Listen to the hosts lose their minds over the SEC’s crusade against the entire crypto industry. They are reacting to the SEC declaring pretty much every major crypto as unregistered securities. It certainly looks like a shot across the bow for the entire industry. On the other hand perhaps this is just how regulation gets made in the modern world. http://podcast.banklesshq.com/the-sec-is-suing-coinbase-binance-ryan-david
Apple’s Vision Pro: the headset of the future? (Vergecast Podcast) - Background scoop on what it was actually like at the event, tech specs, hardware experience, software experience, and much detailed and thoughtful analysis and discussion of the most futuristic (and complicated) productivity, content capture and entertainment device ever made. https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vdmVyZ2VjYXN0/episode/MmIxNTVhNjAtNDlhZS0xMWVkLWE2ZGMtOWJmYTk0ZWJlZDQ3?sa=X&ved=0CAYQkfYCahgKEwj4joz7tLf_AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQvgI
Seventh Inning Stretch (20000 Hz Podcast) - Not at all tech related, but I really enjoyed this because I played a lot of baseball growing up. Lots of fond memories. Fun bit of modern history, the 1920s and 1930s were a cool time. It’s amazing to me how stylised that period is in retrospect. I doubt today will be remembered in the same way 100 years from now, or perhaps I’m wrong about that? https://www.20k.org/episodes/seventh-inningstretch
Links
JavaScript Macros in Bun - Cool feature that sort of turns your code files into render templates. You import functions specifying an attribute, and use those functions in your code. They are executed during bundling, with returned values added into the final outputted code. The functions can be async like running a fetch. https://bun.sh/blog/bun-macros
Iceland: the emerging tech-ecosystem of the Nordics - I've never been to Iceland, sounds pretty cool, I hadn't considered timezone-wise how convenient it is when working with US east coast and western EU.
Why did Usenet fail? - It's articles like this that make blogging such a wonderful medium. Well written with nice pacing whithin a story arc that flows, some useful links and good comments. Really like the site design too. And totally relatable content, I too tried usenet a bit back in the day and eventually moved to centralised websites for basically the same reasons. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/why-did-usenet-fail
Introducing Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer - The official press release from Apple, worth reading to get a sense of how they envison this new world of spatial computing. There's a new operating system called visionOS, with a new interface, lots of AR features, and they appear to have seriously thought on data privacy and security. Overall it's very intriguing and compelling. It's their first new hardware product line in a decade, so quite a big moment. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/06/introducing-apple-vision-pro
Culture Design Strategist - Given my lifelong fascination with the notion of culture, this job advert from Hugh MacCleod turned my head. He's always light years ahead of everyone, and occupies a different realm in terms of how he sees the world. The idea that you can engineer culture had occurred to me, but I had no idea it was turning into an entire discipline. I once had a fun lunch with Hugh at one of his meetups in London, we all went to an art gallery afterwards as I recall. I think I'd like to be a web developer culture design strategist. https://www.gapingvoid.com/content/uploads/2023/04/Gapingvoid-Culture-Design-Strategist-March-2023.pdf
Royal Navy Says Quantum Navigation Test a Success - Seems like this could be quite important because it eliminates the need for GPS and hence satellites which can be jammed. Theoretically should work for subs too. Happy to learn the technology was developed at Imperial College, that's where I did my Materials Science undergrad. https://thequantuminsider.com/2023/06/06/royal-navy-says-quantum-navigation-test-a-success
Apple Vision review from Stratechery - Ben found the experience to be "extraordinary", his piece covers the real-time OS, it’s mirrorless and mixed reality nature, the eye tracking powered user interface, the opportunities in the productivity space, replacing the iPad as the ultimate consumption device, and Meta being totally out-classed on hardware but perhaps not on human connectedness https://stratechery.com/2023/apple-vision
Here’s what Mark Zuckerberg thinks about Apple’s Vision Pro - It will be super interesting to see how this all unfolds. It's actually good that there is diversity in approach right from the start. It's an ecosystem, lots of room for everyone. Hopefully we will remember some of the lessons learnt from the past, like interop and open protocols. Healthy competition. I think there's a path where all the companies and people in the space are helping each other, building the future together. That's when the tech industry is at it's best. https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754239/mark-zuckerberg-meta-apple-vision-pro-headset
News from WWDC23: WebKit Features in Safari 17 beta - Based on WWDC reviews on various podcasts, it's clear this year's WWDC was kind of mega. Of course there's the Vision Pro, that's what everyone's talking about, but there was a ton of other hardware and software announcements. Reading through the Webkit release notes I'm blown away by how many features have been released across HTML/CSS/JS, it's truely mind boggling. I'm also getting a sensation that I think can best be described as a sort of general vertigo, about how unfathomly complex the entire web platform is. Just wanted to mention that now, because the complexity is about to increase significantly. The 3D stuff has my mind racing about how Vision Pro is going to change webdev. Awesome but also a bit scary.
For more links like this, check out the daily linkblog:
https://markjgsmith.com/links
Starvation days this week: 3
Thirst days this week: 2
That’s all from me…
Best reguards,
Mark
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Have a great weekend and a fantastic next week!