macOS 26.4, released on Tuesday (the 24th), brought back the compact tab layout to Safari (screenshot). The five of us who use this layout — which had been removed in macOS 26.0 — are grateful.
Apps
Simplenote, a note-taking app with very good syncing, is in maintenance mode, which means that there are no features/new developments planned or in development, only occasional bug fixes. The news was dropped on a support forum, which fits with the melancholic end of the app, bought by Automattic in 2013.
Firefox 148, released on Tuesday (24th), features a kill switch for the browser's AI features. Below it are selective controls for specific features. All of them are located in a new area in the settings (about:preferences), called “Artificial Intelligence Controls.”
This app alerts you when it detects Meta camera glasses nearby
With the success of Meta's camera glasses, there is now a risk of being recorded without consent or knowledge and ending up exposed in a crude video on TikTok or Instagram.
The manufacturers claim that a subtle light on the frame indicates when they are filming. It is not always easy to see the light, and anyway it is trivial to disable it.
The Gemini protocol (not to be confused with Google's AI) continues to exist. On Sunday (8th), it got a significant boost on Apple devices with the launch of Lagrange, a browser for the small web that took 4.5 years to complete. In addition to Gemini, the browser also works with classic protocols such as Gopher and Finger, and other hobbyists. Free, for iOS/iPadOS.
Why do RSS readers look like email clients?
“Why do RSS readers look like email clients?” The question was asked by Terry Godier, first on Mastodon, then in a more detailed post.
Godier dubbed the feeling of coming across hundreds of unread items “phantom obligation”: “The guilt you feel for something no one asked you to do.” This applies to so many things…
In the Mastodon comments, Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire in 2002, explained that his inspiration was Usenet, not email. Usenet, a kind of discussion forum, has been around since 1980 and, yeah, it really resembles an email application.
In the same response, Simmons asks:
The part I don't understand and can't explain is why RSS readers are still following this user interface.
It's not that they don't exist, but they are few and niche.
I remembered feeeed, a free iOS app. It allows you to subscribe to a variety of information sources (including RSS feeds) and displays them in a kind of timeline, with different visuals for each type, no counters, no pressure.
I also came across Stream, which does away with counters and one of the three traditional panels of RSS readers (the feeds panel) to instead deliver a stream of items to read, like a “unified timeline.” Also for iOS, also free.
There are also small initiatives, usually undertaken by a single person and available on the web, that promise a calmer experience when reading RSS feeds. I am familiar with Artemis, FeedCity, and vore.
More examples?
The way Signal is built — with people's privacy as a priority — makes it difficult and slow to release features that other apps have had for a long time. They take a while, but they get there. The latest version, now available, introduces pinned messages in individual and group chats. It works on Android, computers, and iOS.
For me, NetNewsWire is the perfect app for macOS. NetNewsWire 7.0, released this Tuesday (27th), reinforces this distinction. The implementation of Liquid Glass is so good that the app looks better (screenshots), without losing its identity. Extra points for the icon-free menus, mitigating one of the silliest problems in macOS 26 Tahoe. Now I’m looking forward to the iOS version.
The new version of Nova Launcher, a popular launcher for Android, brought an unwanted new feature: advertising trackers from Meta and Google. On Exodus, a non-profit app auditing platform, you can see the changes from the previous version (8.1.6) to the new one (8.2.4).
Nova Launcher was purchased by Sweden's Instabridge a few months after the launcher's creator left Branch, the company that bought the app in 2022 and promised to open its code — which never happened. Instabridge has confirmed that it is testing ads in Nova Launcher and that it will not display ads to those who have Nova Prime (paid version).
Doppi, the nicest player for your music files
In my first adventure returning to music files (*.mp3, *.flac) in 2023, I mentioned an iOS app called Doppi as a great discovery. It was the app I chose to accompany me on my second attempt, which was successful this time.
That’s why I thought it was worth highlighting the app (“the nicest player for your music files”). Not only is it great, but it has also gotten some amazing new features:
Substack subscriptions in the iOS app: inflated prices and a new “walled garden” for newsletters
If you host a paid newsletter on Substack, pay attention to the platform’s new in-app subscription offering for iOS. The company published a long FAQ about the change.
Apple requires all apps that sell digital content to use its in-app payment system — the one that charges a 15–30% fee. Substack relied on a loophole created by the recent Epic Games ruling in the US to make its iOS app compliant with App Store rules, giving iOS users the (default) option to subscribe via the web and avoid Apple’s fee.
The problem is that this exception applies only to the United States.
Markdown in Windows 11 Notepad
My instinctive reaction to the news that Windows 11 Notepad has gotten text formatting support was to reject it outright. What a blasphemy! After reading the article, however, it seemed quite interesting: the formatting is Markdown, you can toggle between formatted and plain text with a click, and most importantly, you can completely disable formatting in the app’s settings.
(This is yet another reason why it’s always good to read beyond the headline. Microsoft’s blog post announcing this feature, for example, doesn’t mention Markdown, which made me expect the worst.)
TextEdit, macOS’s notepad equivalent, offers rich formatting (*.rtf format). It’s horrible. I think I only use it when I open the app for the first time after reinstalling the system or when setting up a new computer. My first move is always to switch the default to plain text in the settings.
That said, I would love for macOS TextEdit to have native Markdown support, even if it were just syntax highlighting — that is, without rendering the formatting.
Back to Windows Notepad, I learned that the version Microsoft has been updating with cool features (Markdown) and questionable ones (Copilot/AI) over the past three years is actually a whole new app. And that the old app — the one that was abandoned by Microsoft for over two decades — remains accessible at C:\windows\system32\notepad.exe. And if the new one is uninstalled, the old one automatically becomes the default. It’s good to have a backup when major changes hit previously reliable software.
(At least that’s what this commenter on Ars Technica says. I don’t have a Windows PC to verify this information.)
Mozilla has announced the shutdown of Pocket, one of the pioneering “read later” services.
Starting July 8th, Pocket will no longer allow saving content, essentially going into read-only mode. Data can be exported until October 8th, 2025. After that date, it will be deleted.
According to the company, “the way people use the web has evolved,” which justifies redirecting resources into “projects that better match their browsing habits and online needs.”
Signal has found a brilliant solution to shield its app from Recall, Microsoft’s official spyware for Windows 11: setting the app as protected by copyright (DRM), just like Netflix’s, which prevents it from appearing in screenshots — including those taken by Recall.
Recall, in case you’ve forgotten, is an “AI” feature that Microsoft announced in May 2024 for Copilot+ computers, which takes screenshots every few seconds and creates a searchable archive. Basically spyware. The launch was delayed due to public backlash, but testing resumed in April and it’s expected to arrive on eligible computers soon.