When an AI agent tries to complete a task that requires a new account, it hits a wall: the sign-up form. There’s no standard for how an agent registers a user with an app on their behalf.

auth.md is a file you host at your domain that tells agents how to register your users, which flows you support, what scopes you expose, and how credentials get issued. Think robots.txt, but for agent registration. It composes existing OAuth standards.

Cloudflare, Firecrawl, and Resend have already adopted it.

An open protocol authored by WorkOS. Read the spec.

Kickstarter campaign from Jason Snell and Myke Hurley to fund a 50-episode narrative podcast on Apple’s 50-year history. (Actually, with stretch goals, more than 50 episodes.) The campaign has already hit its primary funding goal but there’s a week left in the campaign and more stretch goals to hit. Jason and I spoke at length about Designed in California on the latest episode of my podcast, and like I said there — if you enjoy podcasts like The Talk Show and Upgrade and aren’t backing this campaign, you’re not hooked up right. Really looking forward to this when episodes start dropping.

Jason Snell returns to the show for a look back at WWDC 2026, and a look ahead to Designed in California, his and Myke Hurley’s upcoming 50-episode Apple history podcast.

Sponsored by:

• Factor: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off your first box, plus free daily greens, with code talkshow50off.
• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code TALKSHOW.
• Finalist — A daily planner for iPhone, iPad and Mac, built on proven paper-based planning methods. DF readers get six months free; see details at the link.

Some follow-up thoughts on my earlier piece, regarding the second-gen iPhone Air’s additional camera lens being a 0.5× ultra-wide, not a 3× or 4× telephoto:

Ultimately, it’s the fact that I use my 0.5× lens not so much for photography but for scanning documents and notes, and taking “What is this?” images of things in my hand, that explains its utility compared to a telephoto. I think of photography as meaning, roughly, “I’m trying to capture an aesthetically pleasing image that I intend to keep in perpetuity, to enjoy and remember for years to come.”

A telephoto is only good for photography, in that sense. The ultra-wide lens is a tool with additional utility beyond capturing photos you want to keep in any artistic or emotional sense. You can always grit your teeth and use digital zoom if you don’t have a telephoto, but you can’t fake going wider or, importantly, closer. The minimum focal distance of the iPhone 17 Pro 1× lens is 20 cm. The minimum focal distance of the iPhone Air 1× lens is 15 cm. Those extra 5 cm make a difference, but the iPhone Pro’s 0.5× lens has a minimum focal distance of just 2 cm. It can focus on pretty much anything you put in front of it. The iPhone Air’s 1× lens can’t do that. With Apple Intelligence and Siri AI, taking macro photos of objects and text, simply to ask Siri or another chatbot about them, is increasingly important.

One reader, who previously owned iPhone Pro models, but bought an Air last year, emailed to say: “It would be nice to have the telephoto; it’s annoying not having the ultra wide. When I was buying it I thought I’d miss the telephoto but actually it’s the other way around. If they add ultra wide it will be an instant upgrade for me.”

I think that sentiment sums it up.

Speaking of Mark Gurman, in the wake of Tim Cook’s unprecedented interview with the WSJ to warn that Apple is going to raise prices in response to the steep rise in RAM and SSD prices, he tweeted (XCancel link):

Regarding Apple price hikes, have to imagine these are fairly imminent. No other reason to flag them now. I’d also note that Apple back to school sale is very imminent, and it could make sense to tie these together as a buffer. Either way this is happening soon. Not a fall thing.

I won a steak dinner from my Dithering cohost Ben Thompson, betting that Apple would not raise the prices on RAM when they introduced the M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pros in March, largely on the basis that Apple considers the pricing part of the product’s brand. For the same reason, I also do not think they’re going to raise the prices of existing products mid-cycle. I think Cook’s warning is about the fall, starting with the iPhones 18 Pro and the folding “Ultra” in September, and he issued the warning months early just to make the bad news “old news” by the time September gets here.

But unlike with the MacBook Pros in March, I wouldn’t bet more than a beverage on my hunch here. However out of character it would be for Apple to raise prices midway through product cycles, the global RAM shortage is unprecedented. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple pushes price increases moments after I hit “Publish” on this post. (I’m checking right now, before I hit the button, in fact.)

But Cook gave that interview on Wednesday. Now it’s Monday and Apple still hasn’t changed any pricing. If they were going to push out price increases soon, why not last Friday? Why wait at all unless they’re waiting for new hardware? I wouldn’t want to bet on this, but if I had to, I think price increases will roll out with new and refreshed hardware products and they’ll ride the storm in the meantime. I also wonder whether Apple hasn’t yet decided when to increase pricing. Maybe they’re bracing right now for the RAM shortage (and thus RAM pricing) to get even worse, soon, but hoping to hold out until September. And that’s why Cook didn’t offer any hints about when?