Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

End-to-end encryption in iOS RCS? (in French), @TiinoX83/xcancel. Evidence has been found in iOS 26.3 beta 2. It's the missing piece that will make RCS a viable alternative to the best messaging apps on the market.

Are You Dead?: The viral Chinese app for young people living alone, BBC. That’s depressing…

Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena”. The visible changes are a new Start menu and new apps for system information and administration tools. This is a long term support version (until 2029).

Apple Creator Studio. Apple's “Adobe subscription” offer lowers the barrier to entry for the company's professional apps. Even a subscription can be good sometimes.

Firefox 147. Firefox's first update of 2026 focuses on behind-the-scenes improvements, such as WebGPU support on Apple Silicon and standardization of cache and settings directories on Linux (only valid for new profiles or installations). The only visible new feature is automatic PiP when switching from a tab that is playing video.

BTN-1 Macro Deck. A four-key (mechanical!) keypad made especially to be integrated with Home Assistant. Available for USD 35.

CColorPaletter. A beautiful and completely free color palette generator. Press the space bar to generate a new one.

Discos do Brasil (in Portuguese). An excellent catalog of Brazilian music, created by Maria Luiza Kfouri (1954–2023). Tip from Renato.

All icons for the ten Apple Creator Studio apps.
Image: Apple.

There are many interesting things in the newly announced Apple Creator Studio, Apple's “Adobe suite.”

For those who thought that the departure of Apple's VP of interface design was a harbinger of better times in that department, the new app icons (image above) indicate that nothing has changed. They are awful.

In addition, only Pixelmator Pro — which was purchased by Apple in 2025 — adopts Liquid Glass. Weird. Oh, and as part of the launch of Apple Creator Studio, Pixelmator Pro will get a version for iPadOS.

As for the offer itself, although we can't stand any more subscriptions, this format greatly reduces the barrier to entry for Apple's professional apps. They used to be one-time purchases (and still are, as an alternative), but they were so expensive that they ended up being restricted to those who have their expenses paid by their employer or make a lot of money with the tools.

Apple Creator Studio will cost USD 12.99/month or USD 129/year. Final Cut Pro alone costs USD 299, equivalent to five years of Apple Creator Studio. It is not a huge advantage in the US, but in other places, like Brazil, the gap between Final Cut Pro license and Creator Studio annual subscription is huge (BRL 1.999 versus BRL 399).

The subscription can be shared with family members.

Subscribers have access to Final Cut Pro, Motion, and Compressor (video editing), Logic Pro and MainStage (audio), Pixelmator Pro (images), templates, high-quality photos and images, and AI features for Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and Freeform.

Apple Creator Studio will be launched on January 28th.

Links of the day

I collect cool, interesting links spread all over the web and share them here in daily posts. Hope you enjoy! More of them in the archive.

Apple and Google formalize partnership to use Gemini in the new Siri, @NewsFromGoogle/xcancel. The only good thing to take away from this news is the jab that both companies took at OpenAI.

Bose open-sources its SoundTouch home theater smart speakers ahead of end-of-life, Ars Technica. Instead of turning old products into e-waste, Bose has released the API documentation for its SoundTouch speakers. It should be normal and/or required by law, but here we are — once again — praising a company for doing the bare minimum.

I’ve never used a trackball, but Keychron’s Nape Pro looks like the perfect one, The Verge. An intriguing accessory presented at CES 2026. It can be used under the keyboard, on the sides, or held in your hand. No release date or price yet.

OG Preview Lab. An online tool that offers previews for various online platforms of how links will appear on those cards (OG tags, for those in the know). Great to use before sharing something.

Pi Clock. A clock that displays the time in pi digits. Keys 1–5 change the clock (key 5 activates gamer mode, aka RGB).

enclose.horse. Use all the barriers to prevent the horse from escaping and, at the same time, give it as much space as possible. A new challenge every day, free of charge.

Once again, Google threatens the 3 billion (!) Gmail users with Gemini (AI) features. This time, the change is dramatic: the inbox will be “smart”, which would be tempting if AI models were capable of summarizing correctly (they are not) and were not prone to mistakes (“hallucination” is an euphemism for mistakes). For now, the new Gmail is being released to Americans who pay for Google's expensive AI plans. The prophylactic measure is to disable all AI features in Gmail: in the settings, General tab, uncheck the option Enable smart features in Gmail, Chat, and Meet. You're welcome!

iOS 26 still struggles to gain traction with iPhone users  cultofmac.com

Ed Hardy found some very interesting data in StatCounter's figures:

[…] Roughly four months after launching in mid-September, only about 15% of iPhone users have some version of the new operating system installed. That’s according to data for January 2026 from StatCounter. Instead, most users hold onto previous versions.

For comparison, in January 2025, about 63% of iPhone users had some iOS 18 version installed. So after roughly the same amount of time, the adoption rate of Apple newest OS was about four times higher.

The adoption curve for iOS 26 is atypical, and by a wide margin. Previous years (2023, 2022) delivered numbers more similar to those of 2024, for iOS 18.

I thank all my friends who remain steadfast with iOS 18. I couldn't resist and updated mine, and although I find iOS's Liquid Glass to be the least worst among all the devices I've used so far, it's still the weirdest version since I started using an iPhone over a decade ago.

I hope these numbers set off an alarm in Apple's design department.

Update (5h10 PM): It’s possible, though unconfirmed, that a change in Safari’s user-agent is messing with StatCounter’s numbers. Other sources, however, support the suspicion of slower iOS 26 adoption, albeit to a lesser degree.

[…] What we’ve learned over the course of this year, especially from a consumer perspective, is they’re not buying based on AI. In fact I think AI probably confuses them more than it helps them understand a specific outcome.

White, unshaven man smiling.Kevin Terwilliger
Dell head of product

It is surprising that the first manufacturer to tell the truth about so-called “AI PCs” is Dell, Microsoft's early partner in the Copilot+ laptops initiative.

Note, however, that the full quote indicates that Dell will not stop investing in AI, only that the technology will no longer be the flagship feature of its marketing. It begins as follows: “We’re very focused on delivering upon the AI capabilities of a device—in fact everything that we’re announcing has an NPU in it—but what we’ve learned…”

Your digital life isn’t yours: The hidden battle for software freedom  fsf.org

I am very sympathetic to free software. (And I regret not using more software of this kind.) On the Free Software Foundation blog, Jason Self reinforces the importance of the four freedoms of FOSS in the face of machine learning — which, in this context, is confused with what is commonly referred to as “artificial intelligence.” He defines it as follows:

[…] software that doesn’t just follow instructions, but learns and makes autonomous decisions. It’s a powerful new kind of code, and it has become the most profound black box ever created.

His post uses AI as a threat to revisit the foundations of the movement. This is always a good thing and, from time to time (as in this case), reveals stories unknown to the public (or to me, at least). It is because of one of these — the creation of the concept of free software — that I brought this link here:

At MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab, a programmer named Richard Stallman grew frustrated with a new Xerox laser printer that frequently jammed. His solution was simple: modify the program to automatically notify users on the network about the jam, saving everyone time and frustration. The problem was that he wasn’t allowed to; the source code of the program was a secret. Though a programmer at another university had the code, he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement and refused to share it. This wasn’t just an inconvenience; it was an ethical crisis in miniature. A practical problem had become impossible to solve, not for technical reasons, and most definitely not because it was better this way. A barrier was intentionally placed to deny users control over the software they used.

This moment of frustration ignited the spark for the free software movement.

The next time my printer jams, I will handle the situation with a little more enthusiasm. Stretching it a bit, it has a sacred quality, as it reproduces the moment of the creation of free software. Amen!

People using a Logitech mouse on macOS spent a few hours with limited functionality. An expired certificate for the Logitech Options+ and G HUB apps caused the confusion. The ridiculous issue at least served to help people discover better alternative utilities for this purpose. (The best software, however, is no software; a good mouse works fine without these things, hehehe!)

Doppi, the nicest player for your music files

White play button against a purple blue background.

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:

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Tech CEOs: Workers MUST be present in the office. The job simply cannot be done remotely.

Also tech CEOs: Most workers can be replaced by AI. Hosted remotely.

White woman, with glasses, sitting and wearing a free software T-shirt.SaraMG
@saramg@fosstodon.org

Dell and Microsoft, marketing geniuses

Remember when Warner Bros. changed the name of its streaming service from HBO Max to Max, and then less than a year later back to HBO Max? Or when the richest person in the world proved that money has no relation to intelligence and threw the “Twitter” brand in the trash? Marketing geniuses!

Maybe it's late capitalism, maybe it's a side effect of new drugs circulating among the bigwigs of the world's most powerful companies. Or maybe it's just plain stupidity. The fact is that the practice is spreading, and fast.

In early 2025, Dell revamped its line of notebooks and retired traditional names, including XPS, perhaps the most recognizable after Apple's MacBook. The goal was to simplify. No one understood anything.

Cut to 2026, and Dell announced at CES, to no one's surprise, that it will return to using the XPS brand. They look nice.

Running behind is Microsoft. When accessing the office.com website, we come across this gem (my highlight):

Welcome to the Microsoft 365 Copilot app

The Microsoft 365 Copilot app (formerly Office) lets you create, share, and collaborate all in one place with your favorite apps now including Copilot.*

Just imagine, replacing the brand that has been synonymous with productivity apps for three decades with… Copilot, a slop generator that people generally dislike and only use because their employer requires them to.

Good for us. The less we associate critical software with big tech brands, the better. Long live Microsoft 365 Copilot — or whatever other weird name Word, Excel, and company end up with in the future.

Office files in BentoPDF; customizable YouTube subscriptions in Miniflux

Two services from PC do Manual, our FOSS apps server, have gotten some cool new features in recent weeks. These versions are already active on our server.

BentoPDF, a Swiss Army knife for file actions *.pdf, has received its "biggest update" yet.

The flagship feature of version 1.15.1 is support for Office files. And not just Microsoft 365; it also converts to *.pdf files in OpenDocument Format (LibreOffice), *.pages (Apple Pages), *.pub, *.vsd, *.psd (Photoshop), *.rtf and csv. Phew!

In the opposite direction (*.pdf to Office), for now there is only support for Word and Excel files.

Other file formats have been added, notably e-books and images.

BentoPDF processes files locally, on the device of the person accessing it. This ensures the privacy of the files processed by the tool.

***

Another piece of good news comes from Miniflux, an RSS feed aggregator exclusively for paying subscribers.

Version 2.2.15 has improved support for YouTube subscriptions. Now, when registering a channel feed there, Miniflux offers four options:

  • Channel: All videos.
  • Videos: Only long videos, no Shorts or live videos.
  • Short videos: Only short videos/Shorts.
  • Live streams: Only live videos.
Screenshot of the feed options when subscribing to a YouTube channel.
Goodbye, Shorts!

It is possible to do this in other ways, by directly editing the feed URL. Thiago showed how to do this on Órbita last year (pt_BR). However, Miniflux's one-click option is much more intuitive and expands the option to get rid of Shorts to a larger/less technical audience.

2025 has been a disaster for Windows 11  windowscentral.com

Zac Bowden wrote a long article stating that Windows fans (the author's definition) have been sold a “disastrous 2025 for Windows 11.” I haven't used Windows in many years and have barely touched version 11, so I read it with extra attention.

Anyway, I'm sure you can guess the most obvious problem with Windows 11 in 2025:

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New year, new theme

I was working on a revision of the Manual WordPress theme to coincide with our upcoming migration from WordPress to ClassicPress. I couldn't resist and implemented it here on the blog while still on WordPress. (ClassicPress is scheduled to come into play in March.)

One of the new features is this behind-the-scenes "mini-blog" separate from the main blog's front page. For those who follow via RSS feed, nothing changes. The distinction is purely structural and only valid for the pt_BR version — in English, all posts appear on blog’s homepage.

The new version of the dez theme, 4.0, brings other cool new features that I intend to explore thoroughly. (I follow the "pride versioning" approach, which calls for major releases when the person is proud of what they've done.)

Of what is noticeable to readers in dez 4.0, I highlight three things:

  • A new post format, link, which I will use to comment on texts by other authors. The inspiration for this is Jim Nielsen's blog notes. I will suspend the holiday break on next Monday (5th) and publish the first of this kind.
  • Now, all of the cool links posts appear on the home page. Until yesterday, only the last one published was displayed, and to see the others, you had to access the archive.
  • Several minor adjustments to the layout in order to simplify it. For example, the main menu has been vanished in the English version. The margins and spacing between elements are now more consistent, and I have made greater use of dashed borders to separate them visually.

In addition to more granular behind-the-scenes information about the site, which was previously restricted to the newsletter log, I will also replicate the news from the PC Manual here, our public FOSS apps server.

The first of the year, in fact, is the Readeck test, a free and modern FOSS alternative to the late Pocket, Instapaper, ReadWise Reader, and the like — a “read it later” type app. If you are a paying subscriber, send an email requesting your access credentials.

The drawing for Brazil’s largest lottery prize ever — BRL 1 billion (USD 180 million) — was postponed due to the volume of bets, which reached 125,000 per second, 120,000 of them via digital channels. The draw, originally scheduled for 10 PM on Wednesday (31st), was moved to this morning. I hope they actually make it this time.

Via O Globo (pt_BR).

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