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The Data-Narcissism Edition Sunday, February 23, 2025

‘The Bot Asked Me Four Times A Day How I Was Feeling’: Is Tracking Everything Actually Good For Us?, by Tom Faber, The Guardian

While gathering data about our lives might once have been a fringe pursuit for Silicon Valley tech nerds, now it’s just an everyday activity for many of us. We track our step counts, calories consumed, exercise completed, menstrual cycle or hours slept. We list books we’ve read on Goodreads, our top films on Letterboxd, or share our most-played music via the data presented by Spotify Wrapped.

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Beneath all this is a promise: understand your life better with data, and you can improve it. The idea is seductive, especially when tech companies offer tools that they say will make it easy. But can a human life be reduced to a dataset? Can a body be tuned up like a machine? Or is this explosion of self‑tracking simply narcissism redesigned for the age of big data, by a society that has internalised the tech industry maxim that more data is always better?

The iOS 18.4 Beta Brings Matter Robot Vacuum Support, by Wes Davis, The Verge

Robot vacuums in the new iOS beta can also be added to automations and scenes.

Apple Pulls iOS 18.4 And watchOS 11.4 Beta From Some Devices, by Michael Burkhardt, 9to5Mac

Today, Apple has unsigned watchOS 11.4 beta 1 for all Apple Watch Series 6 models, meaning it is no longer possible for those users to test out the new beta. This news comes from Aaron Perris on X. They’ve also unsigned iOS 18.4 beta 1 for some iPhone 12 models.

'Finma' Is A Financial Management App With On-device Processing, by Michael Burkhardt, 9to5mac

Instead of having to enter everything manually, you can instead import data from your emails, including statements and transaction alerts. There’s also an option to upload statements if you don’t want to share your emails.

Of course, anything uploaded to the app is processed on device, and Finma doesn’t have access to your financial records.

iPhone Designer Still Asks: ‘I Wonder What Steve Jobs Would Do?’ – Despite Being Told Not To, by Vanessa Thorpe, The Guardian

Sir Jony Ive, the innovative designer of Apple’s iMac, iPhone and Apple Watch, and a close friend and ­collaborator of the late Steve Jobs, says he still often asks himself: “I wonder what Steve would do?”

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Ive’s concern about the threat posed by AI is mixed with his excitement about its possibilities, he said. His main worry is the unchecked speed of development. “We need time to understand and react,” he said. He did not give details of the AI project he spoke about working on last autumn with OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, but is enthusiastic: “It’s probably the first time in my career that I’m inspired by capability in this way.”

Bottom of the Page

There are some books that I do want to read, but somehow, have gotten stuck in the past.

I am re-starting Moby-Dick today.

Wish me luck.

~

Thanks for reading.