iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 5h

They’re having some technical difficulties getting set up, but this session is packed to the gills. Can’t imagine why. #NextApp

Screenshot of Session details
We are all Fucked: An Android Developer's
Guide to the Post-Al Apocalypse
By Ashley Davis

The illusion of Artificial Intelligence is dominating Android development, driven by hype over reality. As companies rush to embrace Al to save hypothetical
costs, we are left cleaning up a dumpster fire of unscalable slop.

Real engineering relies on the pains and learnings that we as engineers have accumulated over the years, it takes experience of failure and learnings not
to figure out what to build, but what not to build. I'm not going to tell you how to use Al for your advantage, I'm not going to tell you how best to use Al tools.

Mostly, we can try to temper our relationship with Al, sometimes we can use it to our advantage, sometimes we can even manage upwards (though rarely). sometimes, we can even distract our
managers by giving them safe arenas to play with, like a child with an adult colouring book. But perhaps, we can just laugh and make a joke about the collective hell we've found ourselves in.

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Reposted by Ellen Shapiro

bryan newbold @bnewbold.net · 21h

ah damn, RIP Margaret Hamilton. she took safety-critical software engineering seriously, and got people to the moon and back. news.mit.edu/2026/margare...

old photos of a woman (Margaret Hamilton) standing next to a tall stack of books (printouts of Apollo space mission software source code)

94135004514

Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 22h

Which of you jokers set Berlin’s weather for the rest of my trip to Ireland mode?

Forecast: today high of 74F/23.3C. Rain the rest of the week and getting down as low as 45F/7.2C on Sunday.

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

I mean, I mentioned Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” in my talk so when I saw the band had it on their list, I was legally required to do it.

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/10/2026

Yo dawg I heard you like conferences, so I put a bunch of conferences in your conference #NextApp #SwiftCon

A sign pointing to rooms for eight different conferences going on at the same time

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

You’d think after 21 years of coming to Germany I’d stop giggling like a middle schooler at the word for “journey”. Not when it’s rendered like this, I can’t.

A bike share bike with an ad that says “Erste Fahrt Gratis”, but the words are blown up like balloons. I am absolutely not mature enough not to read this and snicker, because farts.

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/10/2026

My dad was in Berlin just over 65 years ago- weeks after the wall went up - and made his way though Checkpoint Charlie when it was guarded by armed soldiers and barbed wire instead of a phalanx of tourists. What is out there that seems impossibly dangerous […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

Checkpoint Charlie today, a shack with an American flag sitting in the middle of a street for tourists to use as a photo backdrop.

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

I did not realize it was possible to get a sleep score this low. At least I was able to get into my hotel early so I can get a bit of a nap to make up for it. 🙃

Apple health screenshot:
Sleep Score: 6
Very Low
• Duration: 0/50
• Bedtime: 0/30
• Interruptions: 6/20

1hr 47 min

Last night was a bad night's sleep. That's
ok. If you can, try to get to bed on time
tonight.

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 05/10/2026

Plane from Japan and plane from US landing at the same time at 7am = Non-EU Passport line hell

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 04/10/2026

ROC ✈️ EWR ✈️ BER. First time flying into the elusive Berlin Brandenburg airport, which I think has been under construction since the reunification of Germany.

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 02/10/2026

This is outstanding both as a piece of parody and as a more digestible explanation of what happened with the Hugging Face hack. www.frogandtoad.ai

frogandtoad.ai

Frog and Toad and the Increasingly Capable Machines

Comments

157

Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 01/10/2026

I can take approximately 0️⃣ credit for it but my kick-ass mobile teammates just shipped a really huge update that allows much, much easier interaction with design files in Figma: apps.apple.com/us/app/figma/id11527…

apps.apple.com

Figma App - App Store

Download Figma by Figma Inc. on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Figma.

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 28/09/2026

Which horseman of the apocalypse is a robot White Castle dispenser?

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 26/09/2026

Well this is concerning but it’s also pretty hilarious that for a company prepping for an imminent IPO, one of the accidental targets was the Securities and Exchange Commission. [gift link] […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 21/09/2026

Thank fuck GM is reversing course on yeeting CarPlay and Android Auto after seeing how many people were like “Yeah not buying an X if it doesn’t have CarPlay”. Maybe my next car will be another Bolt after all. Whomsoever could have predicted… […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 18/09/2026

My credit union’s services provider had a catastrophic failure at their data center Tuesday. It *still* isn’t back up. How on earth in 2026 is there a SaaS company that deals in finance that doesn’t have a disaster recovery plan that can be executed in less than three days?

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 17/09/2026

Work phone: Your warranty is about to expire, do you want to extend it? Me: No, and don't ask me again. *am never asked again on any device* Personal phone: Your warranty is about to expire, do you want to extend it? Me: No, and don't ask me again. Every Apple device I have: Hey your phone's […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026

It’s difficult to explain just how much people in Buffalo love Josh Allen, the Bills’ quarterback. But this dinosaur sculpture wearing a Zubaz Josh Allen jersey is a start.

A statue of a dinosaur (I think a diplodocus?) wearing an enormous shirt with 90s zubaz stripes in Bills colors and with Josh Allen’s number 17 on it.

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Reposted by Ellen Shapiro

elle mundy @ap.exch.gr · 10/09/2026

apple promotes an unrealistic body image (via a friend of a friend)

iPhone duo removed to reveal an unrealistic hand with long, disproportionate fingers

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Reposted by Ellen Shapiro

Sarah Perez 💙 @sarahp.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Apple Watch’s new AI features are normalizing the idea that technology is always listening techcrunch.com/2026/09/09/apple-wat…

techcrunch.com

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Reposted by Ellen Shapiro

2 Spoopy 4 You @jcrabapple.dmv.community.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

If you see ads pointing you to votesafe.org to check your voter registration, read this first. VoteSafe is run by America PAC, Elon Musk's super PAC. It is not a government site. Its own footer says "Paid for by America PAC." It also doesn't register anyone. The flow ends by telling you to […]

dmv.community

Original post on dmv.community

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Reposted by Ellen Shapiro

Brian Webster @bwebster.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

RE: mastodon.social/@BasicAppleGuy/1172… Not to pick on this particular post, but this is one of my biggest “What would Steve Jobs think?" pet peeves. When he was talking about a stylus, he was talking about REQUIRING A STYLUS JUST TO USE THE DAMN PHONE!! The Apple Pencil […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026

RE: mastodon.online/@brianbilston/11722… I know my brain is broken because I read this and immediately heard in my head Grammar Police / Arrest this man / His Oxford comma / Is making me feel good / And we still believe / In clauses (eeeiiissss … eeeiiisss)

mastodon.online

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 12/09/2026

Girl in front of me was talking about how her school banned Apple Watches due to cheating and I was like “I’m sorry to butt in, but what university is that and when did they do it? Because a lot of companies are talking about doing that too after the transcription they announced last week.” “Oh […]

mastodon.social

Original post on mastodon.social

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

It’s Deaf Culture Night at the Red Wings game* and they are wearing these jerseys and have each of the players finger-spelling their first names in ASL adorably slowly in intro videos. * - Rochester is home to some of the oldest schools of the Deaf in the US […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

A player wearing a jersey with a series of hands spelling out Red wings in ASL

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 11/09/2026

RE: hachyderm.io/@datarama/117201947734… "And also we believe there's a 10-25% chance that we may accidentally destroy humanity, but we're taking that bet."

hachyderm.io

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 10/09/2026

I’m rewatching the good place and Michael says about being human, “Every part of my body is either too dry or too wet”, and boy if that ain’t the human condition in a nutshell, I don't know what is

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Oh hey new Covid jabs are out so go get yourself a Covid and a flu shot and feel less shitty and be less of a disease vector this winter!

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Year I tried to go to the Rochester Red Wings pride night game: Rained out Year I did not try to go to the pride night game: Gorgeous day Bought a ticket yesterday for today's pride night game as weather was looking great. Current radar prediction for first pitch:

A whole lot of rain stretching from Rochester through Buffalo and Toronto

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Only designers with British accents are allowed to give keynote descriptions. #AppleEvent

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

OK seriously though how does the note-taking thing work in places with two-party consent laws for recording? I'm pretty sure "We don't keep the recording" is not a get out of jail free card for that #AppleEvent

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Oh good we'll have automatic transcripts of every time we're all talking to ourselves. Great. I love when we just shove big brother features into everything #AppleEvent

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

I'm impressed they've managed to film this on the beach in Santa Monica without getting plowed over by a single cyclist who thinks they're riding in the Tour de France #AppleEvent

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

"We've innovated everything about AirPods while still making them just as easy to lose as ever!" #AppleEvent

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Haha I guess they heard the complaints about how much of the clear case was covering the phone #AppleEvent

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Before: Don't get your phone anywhere near water Now: The water is coming from inside the phone #AppleEvent

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 09/09/2026

Someone on the AppleTV+ team had some fun with the explosives budget for this opening #AppleEvent

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 07/09/2026

I love how I have N utility knives until I need one, and then I have zero. As soon as I’ve bought the new one, suddenly the other N show back up and I now have N+1 utility knives. This sequence will continue until the heat death of the universe.

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Ellen Shapiro @designatednerd.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 06/09/2026

OK I worked in TV production so I know high-quality programming ain't cheap, and I know the original pricing was almost certianly a loss leader. But Apple TV+ tripling the price in 5 years (2021-26) is still a bit much.

Chart of Apple TV+ price over time, from 4.99 from 2019-2022, 6.99 in 2022, 9.99 in 2023, 12.99 in 2025, and 14.99 in 2026.

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