got the sony xm6 headphones a few days ago and posted a few thoughts with them so far, including using them on an international flight paulstamatiou.com/gear/sony-xm...

after 4.5 years with my AirPods Max I was looking for something more comfortable

something to keep in mind the next time you're about to hop on that design trend www.chrbutler.com/good-design-...

had a great time chatting about the future of ai interfaces last night at Surreal

the primary things i touched on were around ai personalization and what we need (being transparent about how/when massive personalization context is managed and used), and pushing on simultaneous multimodalities.

Oura Ring is doing their take on Spotify Wrapped (except it’s a three month seasonal report not annual). I love it

so there’s a little plastic cushion insert you can buy for your AirPods Max band to make it comfortable again. I got the first one I saw on Amazon for $9

after 4ish years the mesh in my band became stretched and useless, making the Max super uncomfortable to wear

finally added a dark mode which was quite nice with oklch() + tailwind v4 theme vars. i made it greenish to complement my warm light mode.

also used View Transition API + svg filter for this theme reveal effect.

🌜 paulstamatiou.com

Hello from Austria 🇦🇹

Added my iMac G3 to my gear page. Will end up writing much more about it in detail, including all the upgrades I’ve been doing to it.

I included an mp3 on there of the boot up sound. Forgot how lovely a CRT degauss sounds.

paulstamatiou.com/gear/apple-i...

We need intentional personalization. We need refined product functionality, greater transparency about how these systems make decisions or apply personalization, and intuitive controls to let users guide their experience without becoming overwhelmed.

The lack of transparency into how these tools rank and use sources leads to multiple issues. They simultaneously lose trust and give off the feeling of too much... that it's infallible.

Here's a perfect example: The internet is talking about Gruber's Apple post but this opts for mainstream sources

We're dealing with a few issues here:
- Deprioritized attribution
- The black box of AI search
- Summary homogenization and mode collapse

Take sources for example - their representation lacks critical context about how sources are selected, how they're used, and more.

Traditional search engines are turning into answer engines too. Between Google SGE and AI mode, the SERP is turning into a zero click search breeding ground. Nearly 60% of Google searches end without the user clicking to any site.

📝 just published a new article

I love and use AI answer engines (Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok, etc) all day.

There's a problem though.

I'm no longer browsing the web; I'm consuming AI answers instead. I'm missing out on what made the web magical to begin with.

my wife got me the perfect xmas present.. iMac G3 from 1999, Unused in box, 333Mhz Blueberry from the famous “fruit colors” release (right after Bondi, but before slot loading CD and FireWire)