As TidBITS marks its 35th anniversary, I find myself reflecting on our core mission of explaining technology in an increasingly fractured and fractious world. We live in an era of remarkable technological capability, with artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and autonomous vehicles promising to reshape how we live and work.
For the most part, I celebrate these advances, just as TidBITS has celebrated and attempted to contextualize past innovations that have resulted in the astonishing devices we use today. When we were zapping PRAM and rebuilding desktops on our Macs in the 1990s, an iPhone that combined always-on Internet access, a professional-quality digital camera, and satellite messaging would have seemed like science fiction.
But I have two concerns. First, and closer to home, these advances largely aren’t coming from Apple. While the likes of ChatGPT and Claude dramatically expand individuals’ capabilities in writing, art, analysis, and even coding, Apple Intelligence feels more like Fisher-Price’s My First AI. The Vision Pro may be a technological tour de force, but it’s hindered by a stratospheric price tag and awkward ergonomics. Meta’s cheaper and less ambitious Ray-Ban smart glasses, which add a camera, open-ear speakers, and voice assistant to ordinary-looking sunglasses, are more compelling to consumers. And while Waymo continues to expand its robotaxi service areas, Apple abandoned its electric car project last year.
In the larger scheme of things, perhaps that’s OK. Maybe Apple should limit itself to developing the devices that provide the technological foundation on which others can build—many TidBITS readers would certainly applaud a thrust by Apple to refine existing features over adding new ones. , so Apple will keep swinging even if it misses more frequently than we’d like.
This loss of focus on human wellbeing
Like many, I find it difficult not to obsess about current events, and I encourage you to align your actions with your values in a way that feels right to you. When the path forward seems unclear, I believe we can best contribute by modeling the behavior we want to see in the world. How we conduct business on an everyday basis matters. For TidBITS, that means writing clearly and accurately, prioritizing thoughtfulness and depth over speed, acknowledging our mistakes, and engaging with readers on a personal level. It means practicing kindness, decency, and respect whenever possible.
This approach may seem quaint in an era of clickbait headlines, AI-generated content, and YouTube bro-casting. But its value remains undiminished. Nowhere is that more evident than in TidBITS Talk, where discussions remain constructive and civil because we’ve created an environment where helpful discourse is the norm and where readers help one another with kindness and patience, purely out of a spirit of generosity.
None of this would be possible without our TidBITS members, whose financial support makes our work sustainable. If you value what we do and aren’t yet a member, we’d welcome your support.
