Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple has removed more desktop Macs from its online store as the global memory shortage continues. Mac mini models with 32GB and 64GB of RAM are no longer available for purchase, nor is the M3 Ultra Mac Studio with 256GB RAM.

The M3 Ultra Mac Studio is now available only in a 96GB RAM configuration, with higher-tier options eliminated. Both M3 Mac Studio and M4 Max Mac Studio models have delivery estimates of 9 to 10 weeks.

Chance Miller, 9to5Mac:

Last March, Apple was hit with a class action lawsuit after delaying the launch of the “more personalized Siri” that was first announced at WWDC 2024. Apple agreed to settle the case in December, and the full settlement terms are now available. Apple is set to pay $250 million to settle the lawsuit, equating to an estimated $25 per device. That number could reach up to $95 per device, depending on how many users submit claims. [...]

As part of the settlement, Apple is not admitting any wrongdoing. The company continues to assert that “it acted in good faith and in a manner reasonably believed to be in accordance with all applicable rules, regulations, and laws.” In a statement to 9to5Mac, an Apple spokesperson said:

Since the launch of Apple Intelligence, we have introduced dozens of features across many languages that are integrated across Apple’s platforms, relevant to what users do every day, and built with privacy protections at every step. These include Visual Intelligence, Live Translation, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Clean Up and many more.

Apple has reached a settlement to resolve claims related to the availability of two additional features. We resolved this matter to stay focused on doing what we do best, delivering the most innovative products and services to our users.

A $25/device settlement sounds about right. Apple ran ads showing features that still haven’t shipped. That they honestly intended to somehow ship those features, as promised, doesn’t mean the ads didn’t wind up being false.

Taegan Goddard, quoting the Financial Times last week:

The Pentagon said President Trump’s Iran war has cost the United States at least $25 billion, driven primarily by the military’s use of munitions, the Financial Times reports.

The New York Times had an interesting piece trying to put that number in context (gift link):

$25 billion is similar to:

• The annual budget of NASA.
• Spending on military aid to Israel after Oct. 7.
• Spending by U.S.A.I.D. before it was disbanded.
• The cost to expand Obamacare subsidies for one year.

These are all comparisons to other aspects of the U.S. federal budget. It’s interesting also to use this in comparison with the current moment in tech:

• OpenAI’s latest valuation of $852 billion (I love the 2) equals 34 Iran Wars.
• Anthropic’s $380 billion valuation equals 15 Iran Wars.
• Apple’s current four-year U.S. manufacturing commitment of “more than $500 billion” equals 20 Iran Wars.
• Google expects to spend between $91–93 billion in capital expenditures this calendar year, mostly related to AI infrastructure. That’s a little over 3 Iran Wars this year.
• Larry Ellison currently has a net worth of $220 billion. That’s just short of 9 Iran Wars. But since the start of the war on February 28, his net worth has grown $46 billion. That’s about 2 Iran Wars during the time of the actual Iran War thus far.

You might think it counterintuitive that a movement obsessed with software would be spearheading a severe decline in the design quality of software, but in Patel’s definition, there’s no concept of software as art, as a practice, as a craft. Software brain is purely an obsession with software as a medium in and of itself. A means with no consideration for the end.

Adam Engst: What I didn’t know until recently is that Apple provides a hidden—but documented, amazingly!—way to export your replacement pairs to a property list file. All you have to do is select the items to export (Command-A selects all) and drag them to the desktop. You can then edit that file in a text […]