Apple’s fall event: iPhone 6S (“the only thing that’s changed is everything,” sure), a giant iPad Pro with a stylus called Pencil, and the entire internet dug up the 2007 clip of Steve Jobs mocking styluses. Context collapse aside, the Pencil reviews from artists are glowing. Products are allowed to evolve past their founders’ one-liners; companies that can’t do that die with their quotes.
The bigger dev story: iOS 9 shipped with support for content blockers, ad blockers, blessed by Apple, on the platform where media companies make their mobile money. Blockers rocketed to #1 on the App Store in hours. Publishers are furious; users are voting with installs; and everyone’s suddenly discussing the web’s original sin: pages where 70% of the bytes are surveillance and ads. Our own site loads 14 trackers. I checked. I’m not proud.
Serena’s Grand Slam dream died in a semifinal shocker to Roberta Vinci, the biggest upset I’ve ever watched live. 300-to-1 odds. Sports remain undefeated at variance.
TIL: how much of page weight is ads/tracking (audited ours: 61%). Performance work and privacy work turn out to be the same work wearing different shirts.