OpenAI, in a statement to Bloomberg this week:

“While we take these allegations seriously, we’re not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit. We believe in fair competition and allowing people the freedom to work wherever they choose, and we’re focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”

“We’re not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit” is very different from, say, “This complaint has no merit.” Again, a curious response.

David Ingram, reporting for NBC News (which recently added a paywall without gift links, alas):

Apple alleged in a lawsuit last week that OpenAI “never responded” to its concerns this year about what Apple believed was trade secret theft. But emails reviewed by NBC News show that’s not the full story: OpenAI did respond in February to Apple’s initial outreach. The communications became bogged down and, according to OpenAI, abruptly stopped after an outside attorney representing Apple mixed up the names and email addresses of two OpenAI employees who had the last names Wang and Chang.

The emails show that Gabriel Gross, a lawyer for Apple with the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, intended to email an OpenAI employee with the last name Wang but instead emailed a different employee with the last name Chang and confused their interactions. Gross apologized a day later for his mistake, but the interaction appeared to upset OpenAI’s general counsel, who asked Apple to remove the outside counsel from the matter. Apple declined. [...]

By the next morning, a Tuesday, Gross had realized his error and wrote a third email to Chang. He said he had intended to send the second email to the former Apple employee who had gone to work at OpenAI.

“After we had emailed Mr. Wang yesterday about retaining Apple information, he promptly called me and offered to cooperate with Apple in resolving any issues. I then intended to email him again, but accidentally replied to my email chain with you instead. I apologize for the confusion that likely caused,” Gross wrote.

Based on that email, Chang believed the issue had been resolved and didn’t respond, according to Pusateri, the OpenAI spokesperson.

It’s slightly embarrassing to conflate two rhyming surnames and mistakenly send an email intended for one person to the other, but I don’t see how this is a big deal. And I definitely don’t see how it refutes Apple’s claim that OpenAI didn’t respond to Apple’s February letter laying out their initial accusations. The back and forth seems to have gone like this, paraphrasing:

Apple lawyer: Here’s a letter and three exhibits where we lay out our claims of trade secret malfeasance at OpenAI.

Apple lawyer, to the wrong person: Thanks for the phone call.

OpenAI lawyer, who had not yet responded: WTF? I never called this guy.

Apple lawyer: Sorry, that second email wasn’t for you, I made a mistake.

And then at that point, we’re to believe that the OpenAI lawyer presumed the entire matter was settled? That makes no sense. If this is OpenAI’s defense they’re in bigger trouble than I thought. And why did NBC News think this was exculpatory in any way?

Louie Mantia, with a thoughtful essay on app icon design and the squircle-jail controversy on the Parakeet blog:

It’s worth noting that some of the platform’s best icons look worse, while some of the platform’s worst icons look better.

Ultimately this is what I object to with the squircle mandate. It favors the bottom of the heap by restricting the top. It makes bad icons mediocre but pushes great icons toward mediocrity too. That’s not The Macintosh Way.

Masking all of these app icons to a squircle, and even applying Liquid Glass effects to them, aims to solve this problem. And this follows the same principle of iOS 7, which is to make it easier for all apps to fit in on the platform, especially apps built by designers and developers who aren’t familiar with how to make an icon that looks great next to first-party icons.

Just so I’m clear about my preference, I would love if Apple provided a way for designers to poke outside that squircle boundary. Some of my favorite app icons did that. But also some of my least-favorite app icons ignored this shape entirely, when it was used for every system icon in the last five years. Whenever those apps showed up in my Dock, it was like a stain on my shirt I couldn’t get out.

Despite the genuine loss associated with the squircle restriction, there’s more than one way to design with it.

What a wonderful piece, and of course, it’s replete with example icons. It’s a compelling defense of the direction Apple has taken Mac app icon design.

Remember back in March when then-co-CEO Fidji Simo announced to the company that “We cannot miss this moment because we are distracted by side quests”? And then weeks later they spent “low hundreds of millions” to purchase the TBPN YouTube show? In their continuing effort to focus on core product, they’re now selling a $230 hardware keypad ostensibly for working with Codex, which is no longer an app but just a tab in their craptacular super app.

Quinn Nelson:

No way, that’s crazy. I’ve just been using the keyboard and trackpad that came on my laptop for free like a stupid idiot.

Mark Gurman, reporting for Bloomberg:

OpenAI believes the product’s defining feature will be its personality and ability to connect on a humanlike level with users. The speaker incorporates mechanical elements that can move on their own, creating a sense that it is alive and not just an object responding to commands. The machine also will draw on personal information such as emails to better understand its owner.

The goal is for the device to feel like a companion and become a physical manifestation of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Still, the exact plans could change as the company works through the development and legal process. [...]

Another central difference is that the device includes a rechargeable battery, allowing it to be carried from room to room throughout the day. A user could bring it into the laundry room while doing chores, move it into the kitchen for cooking assistance, and later place it in a living room or bedroom to have it play music. It can also remain plugged into a single room if the customer chooses.

This description doesn’t sound compelling at all to me. If it’s able to move at all, then it ought to be autonomous. Star Wars-style droids are, in my opinion, the end game here. That’s ambitious though. I don’t think either AI or robotics are there yet. But if it can’t move itself, it needs to be wearable, not luggable.

No one wants a companion they need to lug around.

Eric Seufert, Mobile Dev Memo:

The new language could simply accommodate the availability of Apple-owned services on the web and through third-party devices and operating systems; the Apple TV app, for instance, is available on smart TVs, streaming devices, and game consoles. But the addition of “other properties” is conspicuously broad and appears to give Apple the contractual latitude to distribute ads beyond its own services entirely. This would allow for a material expansion of the company’s advertising surface area.

Further, if Apple does indeed plan to expand Apple Ads to third-party surfaces, it would explain why the company did not reveal an update to its AdAttributionKit (AAK, formerly SKAdNetwork, or SKAN) attribution framework at this year’s WWDC.

That would be one way to go.

Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:

In a newly published Apple Advertising Services policy, effective as of July 14, 2026, the iPhone maker shares its rules for advertising on Apple Maps. Notably, it prohibits the broad category of home services businesses, like plumbing, electrical, locksmith, HVAC, pest control, roofing, and general contracting services, among others. [...]

The broader policy also prohibits deceptive or profane ads, political ads, and ads featuring weapons, violence, controlled substances, defamatory material, and more.

Although Apple may expand to other ad categories over time, its initial approach positions Maps and its ads as a more curated, navigation-focused product, rather than an extension of a web search engine.

The easiest way to keep scammy and predatory ads out of Apple Maps would be, you know, not to sell ads in Apple Maps.

Ben Jiang, reporting from Beijing for the South China Morning Post:

Chinese regulators have granted Apple a long-awaited licence to roll out its artificial intelligence service on iPhones in the country, with Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu serving as technical partners.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), the country’s internet watchdog, published a notice on Wednesday confirming the licence for Apple Intelligence — the AI feature used to summarise emails, draft reports, edit images and perform other tasks. It was granted alongside six other smartphone-based AI services, including those for Samsung and Huawei Technologies.

An Alibaba representative told the South China Morning Post on Wednesday that its Qwen large-language model would “be integrated into Apple Intelligence experiences within iOS, iPadOS, macOS and visionOS for users in China”. This would allow users to access the model’s capabilities such as text and image generation, the representative said. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

A Baidu representative also told the SCMP on Wednesday that it was working with Apple to develop AI features for Apple Intelligence in China.

This isn’t about Siri AI, announced last month at WWDC for iOS 27 — this is the initial approval for Apple Intelligence, which was announced two years ago and rolled out in iOS 18. It’s unclear in any of this coverage today whether this is a green light for Siri AI this year too.