Cloudflare intends to become a root CA

Steve Goldsmith, writing on the Cloudflare blog:

Twelve years ago, during Birthday Week 2014, we turned on Universal SSL and nearly doubled the number of encrypted sites on the web overnight, giving free TLS to every site behind Cloudflare, including the ones that never paid us a cent. Encryption stopped being an expensive, time-intensive undertaking and instead became the default.

For more than a decade we have been one of the largest consumers of publicly trusted certificates on the Internet, and have never issued a single one ourselves. That is changing. Cloudflare is announcing our intent to become a public certificate authority (CA).

We have applied for inclusion in the Chrome, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla root programs, and we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire an established, broadly trusted root from GlobalSign, so that we can offer certificates with the widest possible device reach the day we begin issuing. We’re also announcing our plans to be one of the first CAs to serve post-quantum certificates, targeting Chrome’s recently announced Quantum-resistant Root Program.

and

To make it easy to adopt, we will be Automated Certificate Management Environment (ACME)-first, an open standard protocol that is widely accepted. Automated issuance and renewal through ACME will be the way you get a certificate from us, which means anyone already pointed at any existing free CA can move to us by changing a directory URL, with no new tooling and nothing to re-architect.

I’ve always wondered why Cloudflare wasn’t already a CA considering the sheer volume they handle, but it’s good to know that their journey and efforts have begun. 

There are a lot of details in the linked post, so don’t miss it.

September 30, 2026 · + Permalink

iCloud+ Now Includes Apple TV & Apple Arcade

Over at mid-day, I wrote about Apple’s announcement to include Apple TV and Apple Arcade as part of the iCloud+ subscriptions going forward, and discontinuing Apple One bundle in India.

Also, the math is very interesting.

Individual:
Apple One was ₹195
iCloud (50G) + Apple Music was ₹75+₹119 (=₹194)

Family:
Apple One (Family) was ₹365
iCloud (200G) + Music was ₹219+179 (= ₹398)

Apple had raised Apple Music pricing in July to ₹139/₹229, so separately they’d be more expensive. But iCloud subscribers now get discounted Music pricing:
iCloud (50G) + Apple Music = ₹75+₹115 (₹190)
iCloud (200G) + Music was ₹219+145 (₹364 Family) 

Which means, you’re effectively getting a cheaper Apple One Bundle with your iCloud+ subscription.

September 15, 2026 · + Permalink

Post Peek: An Extension for Peeking at Twitter (X) Posts

Inspired by LitterBox, Post Peek is a lovely little browser extension for Chrome and related browsers that lets you “peek” at any Twitter (X) posts linked from other websites. Any Twitter link shows with a tiny blue dot, and clicking on them just loads up a small window with a preview of the tweet. You can, if you want to, click on the open button to view the post on the Twitter website directly, but with this extension, you get to view it right there, with your privacy protected (no cookies sent).

September 13, 2026 · + Permalink

Third Level .name Termination by VeriSign

Neil Fraser, writing on his blog:

On 15 April 2026 Verisign proposed the destruction of the entire 3rd level of the ‘.name’ hierarchy in order to simplify their administration. Astonishingly, on 28 July 2026 ICANN approved this action.

and

So what does this mean? First, this website vanishes in February. Despite the fact that it’s registered and paid for until 2040. Second, my email address also disappears. Third, all the IoT devices that use services on this domain become bricks. Basically, I disappear from the Internet.

This is wild, and a good reminder that nothing on the internet is permanent. Your entire internet presence is largely controlled by large organizations and is at the the whims of people sitting in executive chairs who don’t have even an iota of understanding the effects of their actions.

I hope that VeriSign thinks this through.

September 13, 2026 · + Permalink

Apple’s new App Store series spotlights productivity apps loved by top creators

The App Store’s editors have recently launched the “Productivity Spotlight” series, featuring popular creators from the Apple ecosystem sharing their favorite productivity apps, along with fun facts about their first and favorite Macs.

So far, we’ve had:

Lots of cool apps on the list, but it’s also fun reading about their first Macs and whether they prefer the rainbow Apple logo or the solid one.

September 4, 2026 · + Permalink

Apple Unveils New Mac Studio and Mac mini

Apple has just announced their new line-up of Desktop Macs. There’s a new Mac mini with M6 or M5 Pro chips, and a new Mac Studio with M5 Max and M5 Ultra. Both models take local AI capabilities to the next era, and all that comes at a (higher) price. Check out the article up on mid-day.

August 25, 2026 · + Permalink

Things 3.23 'fixes' Repeating Tasks

From the Cultured Code blog talking about the release of Things 3.23:

Repeating to-dos just got far more flexible, with two highly requested improvements: You can now complete them early, and easily reschedule them when plans change!

Just these two lines are enough for any Things user to rejoice. Repeating To-Dos in Things have been my biggest complaint about the otherwise fantastic app, and quite possibly one of the most requested features for the company. I’m delighted to hear that they’ve finally gotten around to fixing them.

I also love how after all these years, Things has maintained its distinct design language that separates it from every other To-Do app. Kudos to everyone at Cultured Code.

August 22, 2026 · + Permalink

Skyroot Aerospace Successfully Launches India's First Private Orbital Rocket

Watching Vikram-1 lift off from Sriharikota this morning genuinely gave me goosebumps. Skyroot just made India the third country in the world with private orbital launch capability — after the US and China. Let that sink in for a second.

Founded in 2018 by ex-ISRO engineers, Skyroot has gone from a suborbital test flight in 2022 to a fully orbital, four-stage rocket in under four years. Vikram-1 today carried real customer payloads on this debut flight too — not just a token test mass — and every single one of them made it to orbit. Huge congratulations to the entire Skyroot team, especially to founders Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka who set out & dared to get the ball rolling.

I’ve always been excited watching ISRO launches and I’m glad there’s another player on the calendar now.

July 18, 2026 · + Permalink