Windows 11 has an official release date: October 5th 2021. It will be a free upgrade for "eligible Windows 10 PCs" that you'll be alerted to via Windows Update. Microsoft has a PC Health Check app that can tell you if your device is eligible. Not sure what the situation is for people with an eligible PC that just want an ISO to do their own clean install. One of the more hyped features - support for Android apps - isn't shipping at launch and will only be entering preview stage "in the coming months", making it unlikely to appear until early 2022 at best. Windows 10 is still supported until October 14th 2025, with a major update due later this year, if you aren't keen on moving to Windows 11 (or your computer doesn't support it!)
South Korea has passed a law banning "app store owners from requiring developers to use in-house payment systems" - i.e: Google and Apple can no longer force apps for sale in the South Korean market to use their in-app payment system as the only way to collect money from users. This means you can have a credit card form in the app for example, and process the payment as normal using something like Stripe which only takes a ~2% cut instead of Apple's 30%. Shit, you could even use Apple Pay within an iOS app to take payments and save a shitload of money. The USA and EU are considering similar laws, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes down in Korea.
The ACCC's latest NBN fixed-line preformance report is out and Telstra are now the top dog, deliverying at least 100% of the speeds they promise to deliver at all times of the day. Probably helps that Telstra has downgraded many of its FTTN customers paying for 100/40 down to a more realistic for FTTN speed of 50/20. Superloop appears to have shit the bed, "only hitting its advertised speed during busy hours 48% of the time, compared to 93% in June". The ACCC also commented "its volunteers on very high speed plans were not able to surpass speeds of 100 Mbps because of limitations on Ethernet ports on some home gateways". Rookie mistake there from everyone involved. Meanwhile, NZ's NBN equivalent has made 300/100 the standard FTTP speed tier.
Nick Heer's blog post on 1Password's decision to ditch native app development and go all-in on Electron raises some good points. He says that, "yet another Electron app in the lives of many Mac users should be seen as a reflection of the great demand placed on developers by cross-platform availability, and the poor quality of tools to make that happen", goes on to explain that 1Password has long dedicated themselves to making quality native Mac apps and 500+ employees plus a shitload of VC money. He sums up my feelings succinctly, saying that "if a company like 1Password feels like the Mac can share an Electron app with Windows and Linux, that seems like a concerning state of affairs". So little of what I do on my Mac is a native app these days.
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