Patrick Kennedy (via Hacker News):

According to HardwareLuxx, Synology is on a rough course with generations-old sub-par NAS hardware and now appears to be locking its NAS units to its own branded hard drives in its upcoming 2025 Plus models. This is a shame since a few years ago, Synology had neat hardware.

[…]

Without scale, and a library of patents, it is a very hard market to enter. As a result, Synology must be simply re-branding drives. Labeling drives as a “Dell”, “NetApp”, “HPE”, or other big vendor drive has been going on for years (decades?) on both the hard drive and SSD sides of storage.

[…]

Let us just call this what it is. It is a grab for extra margin dollars. The challenge is that it is bad for Synology’s customers. For example, the Synology Plus series only scales to 16TB currently with the HAT3310-16T. Synology’s enterprise series scales to 20TB. WD Red Pro drives are already pushing 26TB.

[…]

When a drive fails, one of the key factors in data security is how fast an array can be rebuilt into a healthy status. Of course, Amazon is just one vendor, but they have the distribution to do same-day and early morning overnight parts to a large portion of the US.

[…]

Additionally, there can also be concerns about drive availability in the long-term. If your NAS is vendor-locked to only use Synology drives, then as owner of that NAS you are fully dependent upon Synology’s survival as a company and that they would continue manufacturing drives in the capacity points that you want.

Kevin Purdy:

Popular NAS-maker Synology has confirmed and slightly clarified a policy that appeared on its German website earlier this week: Its “Plus” tier of devices, starting with the 2025 series, will require Synology-branded hard drives for full compatibility, at least at first.

“Synology-branded drives will be needed for use in the newly announced Plus series, with plans to update the Product Compatibility List as additional drives can be thoroughly vetted in Synology systems,” a Synology representative told Ars by email. “Extensive internal testing has shown that drives that follow a rigorous validation process when paired with Synology systems are at less risk of drive failure and ongoing compatibility issues.”

[…]

As previously noted by the German press release, Synology Plus models purchased prior to the 2025 series will continue to support third-party drives at their current level.

Rui Carmo:

I’ve been a very happy Synology customer for over 15 years, but this piece of news (which echoes the Western Digital fracas from a couple of years ago) makes me wonder if I will keep recommending them.

Casey Liss:

I think my appreciation for a product crosses the rubicon into love when it regularly and repeatedly demonstrates one trait: respect for the user.

[…]

I’m not sure if I was more of a fan of Synology or Sonos, but suffice it to say, I was a superfan of both. I just replaced my original Synology last year, and I’m sad to say that the one I just got is likely to be my last.

He kind of walks this back after discussion on Accidental Tech Podcast, where it’s suggested that he should just consider the extra cost per drive as part of the total price. He has no problem paying a bit more for other premium products that he loves, so why should this be different? But I think it is different because:

• At minimum, it seems like Synology is trying to hide the price increase rather than being forthright.

• It seems like the purported benefits of Synology-branded drives are either very minimal or entirely fake. There are no specifics given, and existing third-party drives are still supported. Is this just FUD?

• Money aside, the branded drives may not be available in the same capacities or with the same shipping speed. If you keep a bunch of blank drives on hand for other purposes, or if you want to repurpose an existing drive for use in the Synology, that will no longer be possible.

Eric Schwarz:

While I usually enjoy the discussion on the show, it felt a bit dismissive that his concerns were met with the sentiment that these companies have moved on to a different target audience that isn’t him. While that may be true in some instances, the examples he cites (Eero, Sonos, and Synology) aren’t really making big shifts.

[…]

I found Synology’s move away from third-party drive support equally disheartening as this feels like a “fix” for a problem most people never encountered. Even if Synology is going more towards the enterprise market, no one is cross-shopping a 2-bay compact NAS with a massive rack-mount unit. In my time in higher education IT where every dollar matters, I’ve also found that the various DS-21X models were great for one-off installations and we could use any of the extra drives we had on-hand (I ran a personal DS-216+II with a run-of-the-mill Seagate drive I pulled from a dead enclosure for way longer than I probably should’ve, but it was fine). While there might be some instances where having fully-supported equipment makes sense, hard drives are such an established technology that the concerns of compatibility feel a bit manufactured. At the very least, offer an advanced mode to run things in an unsupported manner for enthusiasts.

See also: Mac Power Users.

Previously:

• Updates on HP Printers
• The Enshittification of All Things

Federico Viticci (Mastodon):

I’ve been thinking about this video by Theo Browne for the past few days, especially in the aftermath of my story about working on the iPad and realizing its best apps are actually web apps.

I think Theo did a great job contextualizing the history of Electron and how we got to this point where the majority of desktop apps are built with it. There are two sections of the video that stood out to me and I want to highlight here. First, this observation – which I strongly agree with – regarding the desktop apps we ended up having thanks to Electron and why we often consider them “buggy”[…]

[…]

As documented in the thread from late 2023, this is a common issue for the majority of AI clients built with SwiftUI, which is often less efficient than Electron when it comes to rendering real-time chat messages. Ironic.

Isaiah Carew:

i think the weirdest part of this article is hearing that chromium is more efficient than SwiftUI.

is that just for specific things or is it across the board?

Miguel Arroz:

[It] seems they’re talking about text rendering. SwiftUI is really bad at that, this is why I’m using UIKit for the document editor in PaperVault.

It’s not really surprising that Chromium is super optimized for rendering Web text. On the other hand, that’s a common thing that apps need to do, so it would be good to have a better native story.

Christina Warren:

For years, I’ve wanted to write a post called “The web won” which is very similar to what @viticci wrote here -- my aim was desktop more than mobile, but this is also especially true on the iPad and to @isaiah’s point, what makes this worse on mobile/iPad is the state of PWAs in Safari/WebKit.

Peter Steinberger:

Man I’m so happy I am in JavaScript land. Debugging just works and compile times are instant.

When I started writing apps, the availability and quality of developer tools was considered to be an advantage for native development vs. the Web. These days, I still think native APIs usually lead to better apps—though there are some awful Catalyst and SwiftUI apps that would have been better as Electron—but the Web tooling has really improved. I think many would now consider it a strong advantage.

JavaScript got 25+ years of work from many different parties. Mac developers got Swift, which I generally like and much prefer to JavaScript. But, while JavaScript is gaining many of the benefits of other systems, while retaining its dynamism, Apple is forfeiting former strengths. Swift made compilation much slower. Debugging is still slow and arguably worse than before. There are more compiler and linking bugs. There’s no more Fix and Continue. SwiftUI is more opaque than Cocoa.

Web technologies also seem to provide a more stable development target—do you hear about Web developers planning their year around seasonal beta testing and breakage?—and better documentation. An integrated development stack would seem to offer potential advantages, but offsetting that on the Web side are open source, cross-platform, distribution outside the App Store, and legions of developers and companies, now getting multiplied by AI.

Previously:

• The Subjective Charms of Objective-C
• Claude for Mac
• Xcode 16.3
• Tim, Don’t Kill My Vibe
• Whither Swift Assist?
• Elegy for the Native Mac App
• Spark Switches to Electron and Subscriptions
• Performance of Microsoft Teams
• Mac Software Stagnation
• Catching Native Apps
• The Persistent Gravity of Cross Platform
• The Era of Visual Studio Code
• Rebuilding Slack on the Desktop
• Electron and the Decline of Native Apps
• “It’s a Coup”

Flexibits:

Multiple Windows! See your schedule from different views or dates at the same time. Open new windows at File > New Window

Finally. The main use case for me is to compare the same month for different years. I have been doing this by opening one of them using the macOS Calendar app, but it will nice to be able to use Fantastical for both.

Previously:

• Fantastical 4 and Windows Version

Someone wrote in today, complaining that they couldn’t get in on a tool deal at Home Depot.

Confusingly, they left the comment on a post for a tool deal that’s still widely available in stores and online with free shipping.

Here’s what they said:

DO NOT buy Milwaukee tools from Home Depot. What Home Depot don’t tell you is when they have tools on sale and they run out of stock with sale still on they will not honor sale price when is becomes available, no rain checks. they do not advertise this.

There are no rainchecks for tool deals.

I think I read somewhere that some supermarkets still do rainchecks. But for tool deals, especially Black Friday deals and holiday promos, no, there are no rainchecks.

Let’s say your local supermarket was advertising bananas for 19 cents a pound, but they sold out of bananas. If you went to customer service and asked for a raincheck, they’d write out a slip that allowed you to get bananas at 19 cents a pound at a later time. Frankly, I don’t know if they’ll still do that.

If you go to Home Depot and ask for a raincheck on a tool deal that they sold out of, you’re not going to get one. The same is true at Lowe’s. Or at least I’ve never heard of anyone successfully asking for and getting a raincheck at either retailer.

Some retailers still kind of offer rainchecks, but not all the time. If you shop BestBuy’s holiday deals, you’ll specifically see that they say “no rainchecks.”

Rainchecks are a relic from long-ago.

It’d be nice if you could get rainchecks on doorbuster deals and similar, but getting on any deals these days seem to be first-come, first-served.

Stores will usually go to lengths to ensure they have some products available for advertised sales, but legally they are not required to honor promotional prices for everyone that wants one.

When a deal sells out, you’re out of luck. Leaving comments across the internet in an attempt to cancel a brand or retailer isn’t going to change that.

Related Posts:

What it’s Like Going to Milwaukee NPS, Their Annual New Tool Media Event Bob’s Not Happy About Holiday Tool Deals Coverage Milwaukee Fuel vs Brushless – What Does it Mean?

Apple (Hacker News, MacRumors):

With M4, MacBook Pro is up to 1.8x faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 for tasks like editing gigapixel photos, and even more demanding workloads like rendering complex scenes in Blender are up to 3.4x faster. With a Neural Engine that’s over 3x more powerful than in M1, it’s great for features in Apple Intelligence and other AI workloads. The M4 model also supports two high-resolution external displays in addition to the built-in display, and now features three Thunderbolt 4 ports so users can connect all their peripherals.

[…]

The new MacBook Pro with M4 Pro is up to 3x faster than models with M1 Pro, speeding up workflows like geo mapping, structural engineering, and data modeling.

[…]

With M4 Max, MacBook Pro delivers up to 3.5x the performance of M1 Max, ripping through heavy creative workloads like visual effects, 3D animation, and film scoring.

[…]

The new MacBook Pro introduces an all-new nano-texture display option that dramatically reduces glare and distractions from reflections.

[…]

MacBook Pro includes a new 12MP Center Stage camera that delivers enhanced video quality in challenging lighting conditions.

[…]

MacBook Pro with M4 Pro and M4 Max features Thunderbolt 5 ports that more than double transfer speeds up to 120 Gb/s, enabling faster external storage, expansion chassis, and powerful docking and hub solutions.

The nano-texture display and its non-crazy price are my favorite news here. There are still only 3 Thunderbolt ports, whereas the Intel MacBook Pros had 4. If more Thunderbolt 5 ports are not possible, I wish they would add some USB-C ports, like with the Mac mini. I’d also still like to see a smaller trackpad.

I’m still quite happy with my M1 Pro MacBook Pro, except for when a Lightroom import destroys it. However, this is a tempting upgrade; I’m mainly put off by the RAM and SSD prices. I would probably get it if I used the internal display more.

Jason Snell:

Unlike last year, where only more expensive configurations gained access to the Space Black shade, this year all MacBook Pro models come in just Silver and Space Black, even the base M4 model.

[…]

All three chip levels get a major webcam upgrade to the 12MP Center stage camera, which is the first Mac laptop webcam upgrade in quite a while. And Apple is claiming that all models can get up to 24 hours of battery life, which seems like a bit of a major milestone, even though (as always) battery life is not a simple thing to measure, and can vary widely based on how you use the computer in question.

Jonathan Deutsch:

The battery characteristics on the M4 vs M4 Pro vs M4 Max are interesting.

If you were hoping for a battery life upgrade like me from the M1 Pro, going for the M4 Max would not do very much.

Previously:

• Apple M4 Pro and M4 Max
• Mac mini 2024
• iMac 2024
• Apple M4
• MacBook Pro Late 2023

Update (2024-10-31): Joe Rossignol:

The new MacBook Pro models unveiled today feature display brightness enhancements in both bright outdoor lighting and low lighting.

Joe Rossignol:

Center Stage is available in video calling apps like FaceTime and Zoom. The feature was previously limited to newer iPad models and Macs connected to Apple's external Studio Display. The new MacBook Pro and iMac models are the first Macs to support Center Stage without needing to rely on a Studio Display.

I hope the video quality is better than on the Studio Display. The fact that the camera is 12MP doesn’t mean much if it’s only using part of the image.

Shadowfacts:

The RAM ceiling for the Pro chip has technically increased to 64GB, but unfortunately it’s almost moot because, on the laptop, “64GB or 128GB available with M4 Max with 40-core GPU.” It’s an artificial limitation, the Mac mini doesn’t have the same constraint.

I would probably go for 64 GB instead of 48 GB if I could get it with the M4 Pro, but I don’t need or want the M4 Max.

Adam Engst:

Apple’s storage prices are sky-high: you can buy an external 8 TB SSD for $500–$600, compared with Apple’s $2200, and it’s easy to find SSDs under $75 per terabyte.

[…]

Personally, I’m most intrigued by the 14-inch MacBook Pro with the base-level M4 chip because it can drive a pair of external displays. I rely on two 27-inch displays, but until now, that would have required either an expensive MX Pro-level machine or closing the lid on an M3 MacBook Pro or M3 MacBook Air.

Mitchel Broussard:

Best Buy is already providing early pre-order discounts exclusively to My Best Buy Plus and Total members at up to $150 off.

Adam Chandler:

So $50-$150 off a brand new computer and members get AppleCare ($279-$399 value) included.

I’m still so curious how BestBuy can just advertise these prices as an Apple Premium Reseller.

Adam Chandler:

Here’s an article from 2012 (LOL) talking about Apple’s advertised price rules retailers have to follow.

Clearly something changed.

Previously:

• Apple’s Stale Mac Displays

Pixelmator (Hacker News):

Today we have some important news to share: the Pixelmator Team plans to join Apple.

[…]

Pixelmator has signed an agreement to be acquired by Apple, subject to regulatory approval. There will be no material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time. Stay tuned for exciting updates to come.

Tim Hardwick (tweet):

Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, Pixelmator has developed a suite of well-regarded creative tools that compete with Adobe’s offerings while maintaining a focus on ease of use and performance. The company’s apps have been exclusively available on Apple’s platforms, including Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

[…]

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The deal marks Apple’s latest investment in professional creative tools, following previous acquisitions in the space such as Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro.

My initial assumption is that this is an acqui-hire. It doesn’t seem like their stuff really fits into Photos.app. But I suppose it’s possible that Apple wants to add a new iWork/Pro app.

Jason Snell:

I don’t know what this means for the future of Apple’s apps—though I hope it means Photos is going to get a serious infusion of new talent and functionality!

If you’re a Pixelmator Pro or Photomator user, this has to be a bit of a bummer, but there’s some good news: It will probably take a few years for Apple to fully integrate the team into whatever is happening next, and the existing apps will probably still be around until then.

John Gruber (Mastodon):

Pixelmator and Photomator already look like Apple’s own “pro” apps. From the get-go, the Pixelmator team hasn’t just followed Apple’s own trends and guidelines for UI design, they’ve helped define those trends.

Does Apple want to fold these advanced features into Photos? Or do they once again see the need for separate consumer/professional first-party apps? Logic, for example, was an acquisition — but that was all the way back in 2002. If Apple keeps Photomator as an actively developed product, it would be a return to the same genre they walked away from when they discontinued Aperture in 2014. And if Apple keeps Pixelmator going, it would be the first time they go head-to-head against Photoshop itself.

Steve Troughton-Smith:

The calls for Apple to have its own Photoshop competitor date back to the early days of Mac OS X, and the heyday of the Final Cut Suite, when Apple had an entire lineup of pro software for various niches.

Today, this Pixelmator acquisition could have far-reaching implications for iPad and Vision Pro, who have not been as well-supported by third parties making pro apps like the Mac has.

I would very much welcome an Apple that cares as much about, and fights for, pro apps as it used to.

On the flip side, Apple has a graveyard of pro apps it acquired, extracted all the value from, and left to rot along with their legacy userbases 😅

Nick Lockwood:

I’m sorry if that seems cynical, but Apple’s track record with software acquisitions is abysmal. My guess is either they’ll kill it completely or replace it with something unrecognisable in a year or two.

Mario Guzmán:

Pixelmator Team could AppKit harder than Apple and I now feel like Apple is going to ruin this marvelous app. Damn it. Damn iiittttttt. Pixelmator Team makes Mac-ier apps than even Apple. Apple just ships even-more-stretched out iPad apps

Federico Viticci:

Welp.

Nick Heer:

I am also a touch worried. The first thing I thought of was Apple’s purchase of Workflow, now Shortcuts. In the past seven years, the capability of Shortcuts has been expanded tremendously, but it has also been routinely broken in iOS updates. There are frequent errors with syncing, actions stop working without warning, and compatibility does not always feel like a priority in new first-party software releases.

So, good for Pixelmator for attracting Apple’s attention and delivering quality software for years — software which can go toe-to-toe with offerings from companies far larger and richer. I hope this acquisition is great news for users, too, but I think it is fair to be apprehensive.

Eric Schwarz:

As someone who does all the graphics work on this site and others with Pixelmator, I’m a little nervous what the future will bring. The last big Apple acquisition of a beloved app was Dark Sky and that was eventually killed off and rolled into the Weather app. There may be some good news—Apple also acquired Workflow, improved it and renamed it Shortcuts. Looking back even further, Logic Pro was actually an acquisition, too.

Ryan Jones:

Ballpark Pixelmator acquisition math.

Chris Adamson:

Apropos of nothing surely, Acorn remains a great Core Image-based Mac app for working with images.

See also: Mac Power Users Talk, TidBITS Talk.

Previously:

• Elegy for the Native Mac App
• Photomator for Mac
• Sunsetting Dark Sky
• Pixelmator Photo Switching to Subscriptions
• Apple Acquires Primephonic
• Pixelmator Pro Gets AppleScript Support
• Apple to Acquire Intel’s Modem Business
• End of the Line for Aperture
• Pixelmator Pro vs. Photoshop CC
• Why Did Apple Spend $400M to Acquire Shazam?
• Apple Acquires Buddybuild
• Apple Acquires Workflow