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I want to become more focused on my RSS Reader again next year. So I have been pondering if I should switch away from Feedly, which I have been using since...well *you know what* happened. It's browser-based always for me, but anyone have suggestions? "While it's still traditional to bemoan the death of Google Reader all the way back in 2013 in any article about RSS, I'll skip the eulogy. The world of RSS apps has moved on..."

The 3 best RSS reader apps in 2026 | Zapier

These 3 free RSS reader apps let you find a replacement for Google Reader—or just start enjoying your favorite content chronologically.

This is a very smart marketing ploy, to be the only non-AI browser. But it’s wise they have left the door open a little for if/when AI shrugs off the issues that currently dog it: “We will continue building a browser for curious minds, power users, researchers, and anyone who values autonomy. If AI contributes to that goal without stealing intellectual property, compromising privacy or the open web, we will use it. If it turns people into passive consumers, we will not.”

Vivaldi Browser

Vivaldi takes a stand: keep browsing human | Vivaldi Browser

Browsing should push you to explore, chase ideas, and make your own decisions. It should light up your brain. Vivaldi is taking a stand. We choose ...

Threads current leader with the expected pathetic excuse for not fully supporting the fediverse, as it had promised: "It’s something that we’re supporting, it’s something that we’re maintaining, but it’s not the thing that we’re talking about that’s gonna help the app break out." The "support" is already half-arsed, but that last part is telling: "not the thing that we’re talking about". No kidding. What a crock of sh*t.

The Verge

Threads wants to be the app you can’t wait to open in the morning

A conversation with the head of Threads Connor Hayes on creators, ads, and the fediverse.

(paywall, but u can find full story on archive.fo)

Big tech #cruft is something we've all gotten used to, along with all the other #enshittification. But which product has the WORST cruft? (comment if your one isn't in the list)

Cruft - Wikipedia

Seeing a lot of *sighs* about the Mozilla/Firefox news (myself included). It's a natural response when you have admired an organization for so long, and there are some common sense moves they could make to add AI features to the *open web* (a couple of words Mozilla appears to have forgotten exist), while also giving users full control to not have AI if they wish...and yet they instead go all-in on being The Trusted AI Org, or whatever their new mission statement is. Just disappointing.

I actually started with mastodon.technology in early April 2017. But the reason was that mastodon.social wasn’t taking new users at the time. Mastodon.technology was shuttered soon after, but by then I had gone to mastodon.social (when the gates opened again). I was definitely on here by mid-2017, per this June 2017 blog post:

AltPlatform

The hunt for Twitter alternatives: Mastodon

Let’s get this out of the way right at the start: Mastodon is not a Twitter killer. It’s more like Twitter crossed with Reddit, plus it’s ope...

xrvs (@xarvos@outerheaven.club)

i see an argument that mastodon.social is needed for onboardingso, let’s do something very scientific: which fedi instance did you start with?(bo...

In the latest post in my history of blogging and RSS series, I look at the emergence of the blogosphere in 2002 — a thriving ecosystem of colourful personal sites that interconnected to each other via RSS, trackback and blogrolls. 2002 also saw the debut of RSS 2.0, Technorati and Google News.

Cybercultural

How the Blogosphere Takes Shape in 2002, Along With RSS 2.0

The blogosphere becomes a trend in 2002 — a growing ecosystem of weblogs interconnecting via feeds, comments and a new feature called trackback. ...

#InternetHistory #Blogging

This week on Cybercultural, more early-2000s Apple 🍎, including why Steve Jobs didn't want online music to go the streaming route (which of course it eventually did).

Cybercultural

2002: The Second iPod and Steve Jobs on Music Streaming

With its revolutionary 'touch wheel' and double the storage, Apple's 2nd gen iPod is the state of the art in digital music in 2002. But the future ...

#InternetHistory

Kazuo Ishiguro, one of my favourite writers, on AI: “I think many of us are concerned about the fact that the copyrights were completely infringed. Our work was being taken, all my books have been taken to train AI, but if the copyrights can be respected then it can be used in a way that, say, a traditional researcher would use somebody else’s book. Just because it’s AI, it shouldn’t be an excuse to just raid people’s intellectual property.”

The Independent

King and author Sir Kazuo Ishiguro ‘discussed threat AI could pose to creatives’

The Japanese-born writer, 70, was made a Companion of Honour for services to literature at an event at Windsor Castle on Tuesday.

Poll: if you had to choose one primary tech ecosystem that you belong to in 2025, which would it be? (Listed alphabetically; and comment if you consider yourself part of an ecosystem not mentioned here)