Automattic CEO calls Tumblr his ‘biggest failure’ so far

Sarah Perez, reporting for TechCrunch:

WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg called the company’s Tumblr acquisition his biggest failure — but one he hasn’t given up on yet. The comments were made at the recent WordCamp Canada 2025 conference, where Mullenweg went live for a Town Hall session to connect with the open source-focused WordPress community.

The exec noted that Tumblr was still on a different technical stack than WordPress — something he had intended to correct by migrating the back end to WordPress infrastructure. However, that massive undertaking was put on hold earlier this year, as the cost to move Tumblr’s half-billion blogs would be difficult given that the blogging platform wasn’t profitable and continues to be sustained by the profits of other Automattic products.

and

Mullenweg acknowledged these concerns at his Town Hall session, saying, “I need to switch [Tumblr] over to WordPress, but it’s a big lift. It’s over 500 million blogs, actually, and, as a business, it’s costing so much more to run than it generates in revenue.”

I’ve always thought Automattic’s purchase of Tumblr was a bit of an odd decision. It made me wonder what Matt’s endgame was — and honestly, it feels like that vision still hasn’t solidified. With the right leadership and a much-needed cleanup, it could absolutely thrive again. Matt’s juggling too many things right now, but I really believe someone could make Tumblr the go-to platform for the coming years, especially once it becomes part of the Fediverse.

October 21, 2025 · + Permalink

Kohler wants to put a camera in your toilet

Anthony Ha, writing for TechCrunch:

Home goods company Kohler recently unveiled a new device called the Dekoda — a $599 camera that can be attached to your toilet bowl and take pictures of what’s inside.

CNET reports that the Dekoda analyzes these images in order to provide updates on your gut health and hydration, and to potentially detect blood. It also comes with a rechargeable battery, a USB connection, and a fingerprint sensor to identify who’s using the toilet.

I had to double check the date on my calendar, because… I mean… huh!?

October 20, 2025 · + Permalink

The Real Problem with Syntax Highlighting (and How to Make It Work)

Nikita Prokopov, the creator of the fantastic Fira Code typeface, has published a very interesting look at how “everyone is getting syntax highlighting wrong”

Most color themes have a unique bright color for literally everything: one for variables, another for language keywords, constants, punctuation, functions, classes, calls, comments, etc.

Sometimes it gets so bad one can’t see the base text color: everything is highlighted.

There’s a bunch of screenshots in the article that he uses to make his argument, but there are some great counterpoints being raised on Hacker News as well.

October 17, 2025 · + Permalink

Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV

Apple’s press release announcing the global streaming debut of “F1 The Movie” mentions something interesting about where the film will debut:

Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity. Ahead of its global streaming debut on Apple TV, the film continues to be available for purchase on participating digital platforms, including the Apple TV app, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home and more.

“Apple TV” has been the subject of ridicule for many years now, but I don’t think this rebranding has any bearing. As I mentioned on Mastodon, I think rebranding the streaming service as “Apple TV” makes perfect sense. Everyone already calls it that anyway, and it’s already available on most of the popular platforms like Android, Smart TVs, streaming devices, etc. You don’t need Apple TV hardware to watch Apple TV.

Instead, Apple should rebrand the hardware itself. Something like Apple Home Hub or Apple HomePod Hub. After all, the HomePod already runs tvOS under the hood to begin with. So “Apple TV” becomes the name of the streaming service that offers some of the best television content today, accessible on virtually any platform. And for those who prefer Apple’s own hardware experience, there’s the Apple Home Hub — a device that connects to your TV, brings an intelligent new Siri, acts as a Thread networking hub, delivers incredible sound, and does so much more.

October 14, 2025 · + Permalink

Instagram Tests Reels-first Experience in India

Meta has today announced that the company is testing a new “Reels-first” experience in the Instagram app in India.

To make it even easier to access these most-loved parts of Instagram, we’re testing a new Reels-first experience for a limited group of users. This experience is similar to our recent launch the Reels-first experience on iPad:

  • When you open Instagram, you’ll land directly in Reels. Stories remain at the top, making it easy to connect with friends.
  • DMs are now just one swipe away in the navigation bar for quick access to conversations from anywhere in the app.
  • There will also be a new “Following” tab, which gives you multiple ways to see the latest and greatest from the accounts you follow:
  • All: Recommended posts and Reels from accounts you follow.
  • Friends: Recommended posts and Reels from accounts you follow who also follow you back.
  • Latest: Chronological posts and Reels from accounts you follow, with the newest content first.

Very interesting, and I fully expected Instagram to dive head first into Reels considering how much they’ve blown up in the past couple of years. But more than the Reels feed taking centre-stage in the app, I’m very interested in experiencing the new “Following” tab that gives me a way to browse my “Friends” and “Latest” feeds separately.

I don’t have this new experience just yet, but I’m looking forward to it.

September 29, 2025 · + Permalink

YouTube Brings Premium Lite Plan to India

Google has announced that it is now rolling out the Premium Lite plan on YouTube for users in India. Priced at ₹89 per month, it brings an ad-free experience for “most videos” on YouTube.

We’ve been testing Premium Lite to make sure we have the right balance of features and benefits for those viewers who want to watch most videos ad-free. The new membership works across devices, including phone, laptop, and TV. While Premium Lite offers ad-free viewing for most videos, ads may still appear on music content and Shorts, and when users search or browse. For users who want ad-free music on YouTube and YouTube Music, plus offline and background play, we recommend the Premium plan. The rollout is underway, with full availability expected across the country in the coming weeks.

While a good option to have, I think ₹89 per month is still a tad to high to attract users considering the benefits it offers. I think ₹49 would have been a good price point, considering the Premium plan is ₹149 per month and offers so much more.

September 29, 2025 · + Permalink

Feedbin Launches a Browser Extension to Subscribe and Read Later

Feedbin Browser Extension

I totally missed this fantastic news last week. Feedbin — my favorite RSS service for the past several years — just launched a browser extension that lets you do two things:

  1. Automatically Find & Subscribe to RSS feeds on websites
  2. Save webpages to Read Later in Feedbin’s Pages feature

The best part? The extension saves pages directly from your browser. That means if you’re viewing a page that requires you to be logged in, Feedbin can still capture the full content without a hitch.

It’s available for Safari, Chrome (and derivatives), and Firefox

With Pocket shutting down, and after finding both Matter and Readwise Reader didn’t work for me, I’ve been relying on Feedbin Pages more than ever. This extension makes that experience even better, and I’m genuinely glad it’s here.

August 8, 2025 · + Permalink

India safely launches a $1.5 billion satellite for NASA: Ars Technica

Eric Berger, writing for Ars Technica:

The $1.5 billion synthetic aperture radar imaging satellite, a joint project between NASA and the Indian space agency ISRO, successfully launched into orbit on Wednesday aboard that nation’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, a medium-lift rocket.

The mission, named NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), was subsequently deployed into its intended orbit 464 miles (747 km) above the Earth’s surface. From this Sun-synchronous orbit, it will collect data about the planet’s land and ice surfaces two times every 12 days, including the infrequently visited polar regions in the Southern Hemisphere.

NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) is a collaborative mission between NASA, the U.S. space agency, and ISRO, India’s space agency. While the launch was successfully carried out by ISRO using its reliable launch vehicle, the satellite itself—equipped with both L-band and S-band Synthetic Aperture Radar systems—was developed jointly by NASA and ISRO. It’s unclear why Eric at Ars Technica chose to describe it as a launch “for NASA,” given the mission’s deeply collaborative nature.

August 3, 2025 · + Permalink