Archive for May 22, 2025

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Shutting Down Pocket

Peter Steinberger (in February):

Is Pocket dead? Extension isn’t updated anymore.

Mozilla (Hacker News):

Pocket will no longer be available after July 8, 2025.

You can continue using the app and browser extensions until this date. After July 8, Pocket will move into export-only mode. Users can export saves anytime until October 8, 2025, after which user data will be permanently deleted.

Mozilla:

Pocket has helped millions save articles and discover stories worth reading. But the way people save and consume content on the web has evolved, so we’re channeling our resources into projects that better match browsing habits today. Discovery also continues to evolve; Pocket helped shape the curated content recommendations you already see in Firefox, and that experience will keep getting better. Meanwhile, new features like Tab Groups and enhanced bookmarks now provide built-in ways to manage reading lists easily.

[…]

This shift allows us to shape the next era of the internet – with tools like vertical tabs, smart search and more AI-powered features on the way.

Warner Crocker:

It’s not a surprise to me given how poorly the app was treated after Mozilla took it over in 2017. The read it later service became almost unusable and I had gradually moved away from my reliance on it for bookmarking web links. My move away quickened once they decided to discontinue the Mac app. Making it a web only app ironically led to a pretty horrible user experience.

Previously:

Update (2025-05-22): You can import from Pocket into EagleFiler.

Update (2025-05-23): Juli Clover:

The company also plans to end work on Fakespot, a browser extension and website that analyzes the authenticity of online product reviews.

John Gruber:

Pocket, for example, is the only read-it-later service supported on Kobo e-readers.

Marcus Mendes:

Just one day after Mozilla confirmed it’s shutting down Pocket, Digg co-founder and chairman Kevin Rose has stepped up with a public offer to take it over.

M.G. Siegler:

I was an early user of Pocket back when it was still called ‘Read It Later’. That name said literally all you needed to know about what the service did. It was a bookmarking service to yes, be able to read something later. In an era of increasingly open tabs, and when web browsers still gushed leaky memory like a geyser, it was a godsend. And when it transformed into a fully formed service, just as mobile apps were rising, it was perfect. You could save something you came across while browsing the web and yes, read it later on your phone. The device in your pocket.

Pocket quickly became my most-used app and I, at one point, became the top overall user of the service, I was reliably informed. Top 1% eat your eyes out.

Steve Streza:

When we relaunched in 2012, the mobile apps became hybrid web apps. Almost all UI was UIWebView. And to my knowledge (at least while I was there) not one person ever noticed. We got great reviews for performance and native UX.

I think they were rewritten since. But in 2012, tools to build hybrid apps barely existed, and concealing them was impossible. And we pulled it off.

See also: Slashdot.

Previously:

Microsoft Supports Epic Against Apple’s Appeal

Tom Warren:

A year ago Xbox president Sarah Bond revealed that Microsoft was planning to launch a new Xbox mobile web store in July 2024. That never happened. I’ve been wondering what the hold up has been over the past year, and it seems we might have an answer: Apple.

Microsoft filed an amicus brief late on Tuesday, in support of Epic Games’ ongoing fight with Apple’s control over the App Store. The brief takes issue with Apple’s attempt to overturn the injunction that allows Epic and other developers to freely advertise alternative payment methods in their apps, and not have to pay Apple additional fees for purchases made outside of apps.

Microsoft:

Prior to the district court’s most recent order, Microsoft had been unable to implement linked-out payments (or even inform customers that alternative purchase methods exist) because of Apple’s new anti-steering policies that restrict Microsoft’s communication to users and impose an even higher economic cost to Microsoft than before the injunction.

[…]

Similarly, Microsoft has long sought to enable Xbox app users on iOS to both buy and stream games in the app from the cloud or their other devices. Apple’s policies have restricted Microsoft’s ability to offer these functionalities together; the injunction allows Microsoft to explore this possibility.

Previously:

Unable to Update Virtualized macOS

Howard Oakley:

I have since tried updating my 15.3.2 VM to 15.4.1 on the M4 Pro, a surprisingly large update of over 6 GB, and that continues to result in a kernel panic and failure. I have also tried updating from 15.1 to 15.4.1 with an extraordinarily large download of more than 15 GB, only to see a repeat of the same kernel panic, with an almost identical panic log.

The macOS 15.4 update was particularly large, and some Apple silicon Macs were unable to install it successfully, most commonly on external bootable disks. From your reports, the 15.4.1 update seems to have fixed those problems with real rather than virtualised macOS. However, it hasn’t done anything to solve problems with VMs.

If you have an existing VM running any version of Sequoia prior to 15.4, then you’re unlikely to be successful updating that to 15.4 or later using an M4 host.

Previously:

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