The M4 MacBook Air can drive two external displays with its lid open. The new M4 MacBook Air is the Mac most people should buy. It’s easy to get caught up in the small changes Apple rolls int…| Six Colors
On Tuesday Aaron Lee and Eifeh Strom of Digitimes reported that Apple is “reportedly developing a low-cost MacBook series to compete with Chromebook models in the education sector that could …| Six Colors
Apple has HAD ENOUGH of government overreach, Tim Cook makes a new friend, and the App Store remains undefeated. Practicing my tight five Apple would like you to know that it is VERY UPSET with certain policies of the government.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.| Six Colors
My thanks to Quip for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Clipboard managers aren’t usually exciting. Most of them just capture everything you copy, then become a cluttered dumping ground. Quip takes a very different approach. Quip is a supercharged clipboard manager and text expander for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, designed to feel like a natural extension of the OS. It gives you full control over your clipboard history, syncs seamlessly across devices with iCloud, and introduces Super Shortcuts...| Six Colors
Imagine an orange phone at Dodger Stadium. (Apple TV+) Surprise! Last Friday, Apple TV+’s Friday Night Baseball broadcast of the Giants and the Dodgers featured multiple shots taken on an iPhone 17 Pro. On the final Friday night of the season, the company will repeat the feat during tonight’s Tigers-Red Sox game (7 pm ET). According to Apple, four iPhone 17 Pros will be positioned at Fenway Park — in the Green Monster, the home dugout, and roaming the stands. In contrast to the secrecy ...| Six Colors
In an unsigned post on Apple Newsroom, Apple has poured out its heart about the EU’s Digital Markets Act: It’s been more than a year since the Digital Markets Act was implemented. Over that time, it’s become clear that the DMA is leading to a worse experience for Apple users in the EU. It’s exposing them to new risks, and disrupting the simple, seamless way their Apple products work together. And as new technologies come out, our European users’ Apple products will only fall further...| Six Colors
My HomePod, open to the world. One of my original HomePods died last year of a sudden illness. It was survived by its fellow stereo pair. So a friend gave me her own lonely surviving HomePod, and the mismatched couple let the music play on for a little while. But then my other original HomePod died—also suddenly, same symptoms—leaving my friend’s HomePod tragically alone and my back bedroom studio silent. That’s when another friend recommended Nic’s Fix, a one-man operation in the S...| Six Colors
Our interest in Meta’s new AR Display glasses, views on iPhone scratch concerns, when we choose to repair vs. replace devices, and the existential question posed by iPhone Air’s allure. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
We reconvene to discuss our new phones, the upcoming foldable iPhone and changing the name of the podcast. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
Vision Pro goes to the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall this fall. Apple has announced another round of Immersive films for the Vision Pro, including Monday’s premiere of “Tour De Force” from CANAL+ and MotoGP. “Tour De Force” is a half-hour film about French motorcycle racer Johann Zarco competing for a historic win at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. It was announced back in June and is the first film shot with Blackmagic’s new URSA Cine Immersive camera, which lets companies...| Six Colors
It is perhaps not surprising that my spouse and I raised a Jeopardy! fan. Our older child, halfway through college, not only loves the show but has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of geography, transit systems, musical instruments, and much more. Or should I write encyclopaedic, as they are spending this current term in London on a study abroad program? That plays into the story. If you have followed my career, you will know both that I won two episodes of Jeopardy! (just like Dan Moren) ...| Six Colors
Reunited in Memphis, Jason and Myke discuss iPhone and AirPods Pro first impressions, phone transfer troubles, MacBook rumors, and St. Jude shenanigans. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
Clipboard managers aren’t usually exciting. Most of them just capture everything you copy, then become a cluttered dumping ground. Quip takes a very different approach. Quip is a supercharged clipboard manager and text expander for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, designed to feel like a natural extension of the OS. It gives you full control over your clipboard history, syncs seamlessly across devices with iCloud, and introduces Super Shortcuts—a built-in text expansion system that lets you paste ...| Six Colors
E-reader accessibility is anything but consistent. You might find a font size adjustment, but no high-contrast or dark mode settings. And screen readers, where they exist, don’t rival those available for computers and smartphones. Even where devices offer these features, many books don’t fully take advantage of them. Michael Kozlowski of Good e-Reader says Amazon is beefing up its accessible offerings, including accessibility information on book pages and software enhancements: Kindle Ass...| Six Colors
iPhone 17s begin to arrive as fresh rumors hit the mill and one iPhone’s sales performance seems a little thin. Out for delivery Happy delivery day to all who celebrate!… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.| Six Colors
Special guest John Moltz joins Dan to discuss the arrival of the latest iPhones.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.| Six Colors
My thanks to ListenLater.net for sponsoring Six Colors this week. ListenLater.net is a clever idea—it turns your reading list into a podcast playlist. I collect longer articles throughout the week that I just don’t have time to dive into at the moment—and they often get lost in the shuffle. But I never lose track of my podcast queue. This is where ListenLater.net makes it easy: It turns articles into episodes of a podcast, so your reading list can be automatically transformed into a pod...| Six Colors
Relay’s seventh annual live telethon for St. Jude took place on Friday from noon to midnight Eastern time. I was one of six co-hosts(!) this year. You can watch some or all of the archived stream! Give it a try and donate! Go to the linked site.Read on Six Colors.| Six Colors
The possibility of David Ellison buying Warner Bros. Discovery to add to his collection, the threat and promise of spread-out sports rights, sponsorships that might become forbidden fruit, Netflix live boxing success, TV picks, and your letters! Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
Our iPhone buying decisions, which Apple product we would change colors, how often we manage storage space, and our current headphone situation. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
Dan and Moltz discuss what they’re looking forward to on Friday and general reaction to Apple’s new operating systems. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
In macOS 26 Tahoe, Apple has updated how it manages encryption keys in FileVault, the feature that protects your Mac’s data volume by encrypting it. Users with existing choices won’t be immediately impacted, but eventually everyone will need to use the new approach—which I think is an improvement. But if you rely on Apple to hold on to your Recovery Key for you, it’s time to start considering a new strategy. The modern version of FileVault first appeared way back in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion...| Six Colors
Apple’s new operating systems have arrived and we’ve got thoughts about iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and more. We also catch up on what we’ve learned since last week’s Apple Event. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
After a pretty big overhaul a few years back with watchOS 10 and a more modest update in watchOS 11, I’d describe this year’s update—now numbered 26, after the upcoming year, like the rest of Apple’s platforms—as more focused. Sure, there’s a new Liquid Glass design that aligns with the rest of the company’s platforms, but the vast majority of big new features focus on a single app—Workout—which gets not only its own UI overhaul, but also a big new Apple Intelligence feature...| Six Colors
iPadOS 26 is one of the biggest updates in iPad history. There’s a new design that changes the look and feel of the whole interface, yes, but also the introduction of a whole raft of productivity features that lift the iPad closer to the Mac—for those who want to use it that way. It’s like a weight has been lifted from the soul of the iPad. It remains a very nice device to use in full-screen mode with all the simplicity attendant to that mode. But via a single tap, it can also transform...| Six Colors
macOS 26 Tahoe is two things at once: It’s the broadest and most productivity-focused update for macOS in years, while also taking collateral damage from Apple’s broader design ambitions on its other platforms. It features the biggest update to Spotlight ever, including direct access to app actions and Apple’s first-ever built-in clipboard manager. Shortcuts adds deep automation support and direct access to AI models, changing the game for many aspects of Mac automation productivity. Th...| Six Colors
Imagine turning your reading list into a listening playlist. With ListenLater.net, your favorite reads become accessible as engaging podcasts in your preferred podcast app. Have you ever found an i…| Six Colors
One of the first things I did when I got the new iPhones into Six Colors global HQ was to get the iPhone 17 Pro Max up and running and run Geekbench 6. (I know there are a lot of Geekbench scores o…| Six Colors
The most contentious decision about tabs since the soda got discontinued. For a company that’s long been known for its “my way or the highway” philosophy when it comes to design, …| Six Colors
iOS 26! It feels like just last year we were here discussing iOS 18. How time flies. After a year that saw the debut of Apple Intelligence and the subsequent controversy over the features that it d…| Six Colors
We made it, folks. It’s the end of iPhone announcement week. On Tuesday, we climbed to the top of the highest mountain range, only to find a large, flat area waiting for us.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.| Six Colors
My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring Six Colors this week. With over 5,000 five star reviews; Magic Lasso Adblock is simply the best Safari ad blocker for your iPhone, iPad and Mac. As an efficient, high performance and native Safari ad blocker, Magic Lasso blocks all intrusive ads, trackers and annoyances – delivering a faster, cleaner and more secure web browsing experience. And with the new App Ad Blocking feature in v5.0, it extends the powerful Safari and YouTube ad blocking...| Six Colors
Cory Doctorow wrote a column for Locus about the exact difference between exciting AI stories and AI horror stories: I was writing an article and I wanted to cite something I’d heard an expert say on a podcast. I couldn’t remember which expert, nor even which podcast. So I downloaded Whisper, threw 30 or 40 hours’ worth of podcasts I’d recently listened to at it, and then, a couple hours later, searched the text until I found the episode, along with timecode for the relevant passage. ...| Six Colors
(leonov.o / Shutterstock.com) I had a thought while I was watching the latest iPhone launch event—other than, “This is what I’m doing with my free time?”—and it’s that iPhones are basically cars. It finally did it. The real Project Titan was the iPhones Apple made along the way. Ben Thompson wrote a piece on Stratechery where he was inspired by the “sugar water” Steve Jobs story, but I feel like we’re in beep-beep, vroom-vroom town for sure. Every fall, we get a new model, a...| Six Colors
Big day on Tuesday, as iPhone Days usually are. I think Apple’s big event this year was actually more impressive than it’s been for quite a while, and despite the flurry of leaks and rumors, I still managed to be surprised by several elements. Individual features can leak, but sometimes a full view of the products doesn’t come until Apple has managed to tell its story and explain how they all fit together. Powered by a good night’s sleep (I scored 98, Excellent!), here are some of my ...| Six Colors
Thoughts on Apple’s iPhone colors this year, whether we’d try the new TechWoven cases, if we’re doing any AI-related work on our phones, and whether there’s still room for innovation in the iPhone compared to Apple Watch or AirPods. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
I really enjoyed today’s Stratechery piece by Ben Thompson, which tries to understand how Apple can have an impressive roll-out of some really good new products, and yet it all seems so much quieter than it used to: I have, for the last several years, noted how, from a Stratechery perspective, iPhone launches just aren’t nearly as big of a deal as they were when I first started. Back then I would spend weeks before the event predicting what Apple would announce, and would spend weeks afte...| Six Colors
Maybe you heard about the Apple event. Or maybe you fell asleep. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
I found myself thinking about satellite connectivity during today’s Apple event, during which the company announced that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 would include the feature. Back when the feature debuted on the iPhone 14 line, Apple said it would remain free for two years. When that period was up, Apple extended free coverage for another year. Which brings us to this year! Will people have to finally start paying? The Verge’s Jay Peters found the answer: iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 users are ge...| Six Colors
From the iPhone Air to the iPhone 17 models, from AirPods Pro 3 to the new Apple Watches, we break down all the announcements from the September Apple Media Event! Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
Apple crams a lot into its keynotes, but almost as notable is what it chooses not to talk about. Having had some time after today’s “awe-dropping” event announcing the iPhone 17 line, Apple Watch Series 11, and AirPods Pro 3, here are a few things I found out. The new MagSafe battery is an iPhone Air exclusive There were no doubt some shouts of joy when Apple mentioned it had a new version of its MagSafe Battery, but if you want one of those to boost your phone’s longevity, be aware: ...| Six Colors
Nicole Mitchell of the Glasgow Times reports about a commercial shoot in late August: Concerns have been raised about “excessive noise” during a recent commercial film shoot. Merchant City and Trongate Community Council (MCTCC) say they received a complaint from a local resident about the noise and “other disruption” during filming which took place on Cochrane Street from Saturday, August 23 to Wednesday, August 27. It’s understood the filming was for an Apple advert. A video t...| Six Colors
Before the iPhone, Apple took a shot at making the iPod a device that could do more than just play music. Amongst it: playing games.1 If you find yourself feeling nostalgic for that era, you can now revisit those classic games designed for the iPod—it just takes jumping through a few hoops, as Ars Technica’s Kyle Orland reports: Now that the consolidated clickwheel game collection is complete, though, owners of any iPod 5G+ or iPod Nano 3G+ should be able to sync the complete library to t...| Six Colors
Do you want to block all YouTube ads in Safari on your iPhone, iPad and Mac? Then download Magic Lasso Adblock – the ad blocker designed for you. As an efficient, high performance and native Safari ad blocker, Magic Lasso blocks all intrusive ads, trackers and annoyances – delivering a faster, cleaner and more secure web browsing experience. Magic Lasso Adblock is easy to setup, doubles the speed at which Safari loads and also blocks all YouTube ads; including all: video ads pop up banner...| Six Colors
Like our vestigial appendix, which can sometimes burst and cause us trouble, the origins of “modern” networking date back so far that weird shapes and forms still guide us under the surface as we conduct our cyberspace 3D adventures. Reader Rick wrote in with a question about networking that relates to this: I have disconnected my MacBook Pro from all external connections (Ethernet cable unplugged, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off). But if I look in Activity Monitor > Network, there are lots of pa...| Six Colors
Now that David Ellison owns Paramount, what’s next? Also, your letters and our TV picks! [Downstream+ subscribers also get: K-Pop Demon Hunters, Wheel & Jeopardy & Sesame Street stream, Apple TV+ price hike, and binging “The Paper.”] Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
With John Moltz traversing America’s heartland, it falls to me, his trusty editor, to step in and fill his shoes. After five days in hell, I’m here with only one goal: to recap the week in Apple news.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.| Six Colors
My thanks to Footnote Accessories for sponsoring Six Colors this week for the OneSnap. The OneSnap is a MagSafe-compatible wireless charger that delivers up to 15W of fast power to Qi-enabled devices and even your Apple Watch. Engineered with a soft-touch surface and multi-layer charging protections, OneSnap keeps your devices secure while ensuring consistent performance. Compact and premium in design, OneSnap is built for travel and includes a convenient travel case to keep everything neatly...| Six Colors
Writing at The Verge (paywalled), Ash Parrish talks to Apple Arcade senior director Alex Rothman about the state of the service. It’s not the most in-depth of interviews, but it’s always interesting when an Apple executive is willing to go on the record. This part in particular jumped out at me: “By no means are we going all into only IP,” Rothman said. “It’s a broad mix, because we have a broad player base.” And while Rothman understands the criticisms Arcade has faced, he says...| Six Colors
Google’s antitrust woes (or lack thereof), encounters with buggy apps in betas, camping tech, and how thin is too thin when it comes to technology. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
For more than a decade, we’ve all been wondering why Instagram doesn’t have an iPad app. I’m not sure we ever got a good answer—but earlier this year reports said one was coming, and here we are—on Wednesday Instagram released an app update that supports the iPad: When designing Instagram for iPad, we wanted to take advantage of the bigger screen to give people more features with fewer taps, while keeping it simple. We’ve made it easier to catch up on your messages and notificatio...| Six Colors
Well, the good news is, all three hosts are here this time. Two of them are in Lex’s office. One of them is not a nickel. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
Jason and Myke preview what will happen at next week’s Apple event. What form might a thinner iPhone Air take? Will the AirPods Pro come roaring back? Is the Apple Watch Ultra in store for an upgrade? To the winner goes the glory. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
Craig Hockenberry of the Iconfactory on what troubles him about Liquid Glass in macOS Tahoe: If you’re someone who’s only using email, a web browser, and some messaging apps to get stuff done, changes to your desktop appearance aren’t going to be disruptive. It’s also likely that you’ll appreciate changes that make it look like your phone. If you’re doing anything more complex than that, your response to change will be much different. Professionals on the Mac are like truck driver...| Six Colors
The Ultimate 3-in-1 Charger for Life on the Go The OneSnap is a MagSafe-compatible wireless charger that delivers up to 15W of fast power to your Qi-enabled devices—and even your Apple Watch.Simply place your device on the pad for fast, efficient charging with precise magnetic alignment every time. Engineered with a soft-touch surface and multi-layer charging protections, OneSnap keeps your devices secure while ensuring consistent performance. Compact and premium in design, OneSnap is built...| Six Colors
The Find My system lets you find lost things and alerts you when you leave something behind. But because devices (things that can contact the Internet) and items (things like AirTags that can trans…| Six Colors
The Moltz Family Road Trip 2025 (motto: “Oh, god, how many more days do we have?!”) checks in to talk about the little surprises that could appear at Apple’s September event, Eddy Cue’s eyes being bigger than Tim Cook’s wallet, and ongoing complaints about Tahoe—the operating system, not the lake, which we hear is lovely.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.| Six Colors
Good morning and welcome to Apple Park. We’ve got a lot of very exciting announcements in store for you today, which is totally the same day that I’m recording this.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.| Six Colors
John Scalzi: For the new release of the Pixel 10 Pro (and the 10 Pro XL, which is mostly the same phone, just larger), Google has introduced something called the “Pro-Res Zoom,” a process by which, once you zoom in with the camera over about 30x zoom, after you’ve snapped the photo, Google will run it through an “AI” processor, not to bring out the details that are actually there, but to make up details that seem reasonable to assume are there, based on whatever processing algorithm...| Six Colors
My thanks to Quip for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Clipboard managers aren’t usually exciting. Most of them just capture everything you copy, then become a cluttered dumping ground. Quip takes a very different approach. Quip is a supercharged clipboard manager and text expander for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, designed to feel like a natural extension of the OS. It gives you full control over your clipboard history, syncs seamlessly across devices with iCloud, and introduces Super Shortcuts...| Six Colors
Every year at this time1, my pals at the Relay podcast network raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as a part of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I’m happy to announce that I’ll once again be participating in the live 12-hour Podcastathon from St. Jude’s campus in Memphis on September 19 at noon Eastern. Yep. 12 hours. Circle a large space on your calendar for that. It will be fun and wacky and I hope we raise an awful lot of money for St. Jude while we’re on the a...| Six Colors
Apple’s OS betas are nearing completion, but not all betas for developers are OS Developer Betas: On Thursday Apple released Xcode 26 beta 7, which adds direct support for the new OpenAI GPT-5 model and lets users add existing paid Claude accounts to use Claude Sonnet 4: Claude in Xcode is now available in the Intelligence settings panel, allowing users to seamlessly add their existing paid Claude account to Xcode and start using Claude Sonnet 4… When using ChatGPT in Xcode, users can now...| Six Colors
I appreciate what Adobe is doing with Project Indigo. It’s a free iOS camera app, but it is heavily disclaimed as being experimental with unique features you can’t find in other apps. But Adobe also says they’re targeting “casual” photographers, which seems misguided. A few people I know have even been evangelizing Project Indigo because they love it so much, especially when they compare it to photos from Apple’s Camera app. My enthusiasm for this product doesn’t match their own...| Six Colors
The read-it-later service Pocket has shut down, and with it went its integration with Kobo e-readers. Fortunately, earlier this summer Kobo owner Rakuten announced that Instapaper would replace Pocket as its new read-it-later service of choice. As of today, that support is live. After a Kobo software update and a quick trip to a special URL to link a Kobo to an Instapaper account, the system works just like the old Pocket integration did. Add an article to your Instapaper account, and then go...| Six Colors
The tech we have in our vehicles, the dependable tech that just works and what might make us replace it, how often we upgrade our phones or computers and why, and which social platforms we use — including where we heard about Taylor Swift’s engagement. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
John Moltz joins host Guy English to get obsessive about floors, Liquid Glass and icons. Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
John Voorhees of MacStories has a review of Tot 2.0, the simple Mac/iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch notes app by The Iconfactory: My favorite 2.0 feature is that Tot now supports automatic indenting. If you indent a line using the Tab key, the next line will begin at the same indentation level when you hit Return. That makes creating hierarchical lists a lot faster than before. My only quibble with the feature is that if you’re making a bulleted list, to indent a line, you need to first back up and...| Six Colors
John McCoy (host of the Sophomore Lit podcast on The Incomparable!) used the recent kerfuffle over the Cracker Barrel rebranding (if you don’t know, he covered it in his post) to discuss a trend in corporate branding: Just because I doubt that these choices were motivated by politics doesn’t mean the detractors don’t have a point: something basic is being lost here. In both cases the companies have discarded character and context in an effort to streamline their identity. I have written...| Six Colors
Fantastic article by Lucasfilm historian, the appropriately named Lucas O. Seastrom, on creating an extremely detailed Star Wars-themed lounge at ILM: An entirely original piece in the Hideout was an industrial-style fan in the ceiling, an idea that dated all the way back to Field’s original safehouse concept. “I really wanted to make sure that something was moving,” says DeBaun. “Most everything in the room is still, except for the fan.” Using a fan acquired by Hirschfield and a co...| Six Colors
Apple is nothing if not consistent. That announcement we all expected might happen today, happened today: Apple is giving the world two weeks’ notice that its next media event (which we all k…| Six Colors
After an era of stability, Apple may be about to mix things up with the iPhone, including a bunch of new models and even a change to the traditional fall roll-out cycle. And we end the Summer of Fun with a summery Ask Upgrade! Go to the podcast page.| Six Colors
Clipboard managers aren’t usually exciting. Most of them just capture everything you copy, then become a cluttered dumping ground. Quip takes a very different approach. Quip is a supercharged clipboard manager and text expander for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, designed to feel like a natural extension of the OS. It gives you full control over your clipboard history, syncs seamlessly across devices with iCloud, and introduces Super Shortcuts—a built-in text expansion system that lets you paste ...| Six Colors
Tear those epaulettes off one of your admin accounts in macOS. It knows what it did! And what’s that? It’s just too darned powerful. An account marked as an administrator can carry out …| Six Colors
Wait, Moltz is on vacation this week? Who allowed that? Dan, did you give Moltz the go-ahead? Great, Dan’s not even answering. I know, it’s long past Miller Time on a Friday in Boston, but you never know. Oh well. At least I can give people a reminder of what they’re losing this week, unless they happen to catch a glimpse of Moltz as he drives across the country. I hear he and the Macalope are doing a buddy comedy road trip. When they get to Chicago, watch out. Apple TV+ subscription pr...| Six Colors
The Bluesky social network has decided to block all devices from the state of Mississippi due to its far-reaching law that has some exceptionally broad requirements in the name of protecting children. The Bluesky Team: The Supreme Court’s recent decision leaves us facing a hard reality: comply with Mississippi’s age assurance law—and make every Mississippi Bluesky user hand over sensitive personal information and undergo age checks to access the site—or risk massive fines. The law wou...| Six Colors
The passkey was introduced with some excitement by Apple and varying degrees of hurrahs from Microsoft and Google a few years ago.1 This humble method of combining strong encryption, avoiding passw…| Six Colors
The definitive Mac of the last decade was the 13-inch MacBook Air, introduced in 2010 and featuring a wedge-shaped design. It influenced all the Apple laptops (and let’s face it, a lot of PC …| Six Colors
Apple Maps navigation might be on par with Google’s these days, but Apple’s location data is not. Google offers broad coverage for many points of interest, while Apple’s data has mostly relied on knitting together bits from competing business partners. This attempts to mimic Google’s comprehensive coverage without Apple having to do the foundational work itself. Apple recently announced it would integrate data from Michelin Guide (prestigious/exacting), The Infatuation (trendy/young),...| Six Colors
Imagine a slideshow of images of every portable Mac Apple has made, displayed in chronological order. It starts with the Macintosh Portable and ends with two M1 MacBooks. For a while, the slides ar…| Six Colors
The bottom row of my Stream Deck is devoted to Podcast Notes. Three years ago, Dan and I collaborated on a project that allowed us to dynamically create editing notes on our Macs while recording a …| Six Colors
In late 2023, Digitimes reported that Apple was developing a low-cost MacBook, kicking off a lot of speculation about what that might mean and how the company might execute on such a product. Here&…| Six Colors
Last week, Roku held a press event in New York where they unveiled their latest streaming devices, wireless cameras, and minor adjustments to their existing, content-driven interface. If you were hoping for a dramatic update to Roku OS, Lucas Manfredi has the disappointing details over at The Wrap:| Unauthoritative Pronouncements
Jason Snell wrote about how he rejoined Netflix on the ad-supported tier, and it was a poor experience for him. Not only because he’s not used to seeing TV shows with ads these days, but because Netflix shows aren’t always made with ads in mind.| Unauthoritative Pronouncements
I know, linking to myself is very Obama-awards-Obama meme. This post is relevant if you’ve been keeping tabs on what I’ve been writing about on my blog recently. Those posts here helped me see a pattern. I’m not sure if anyone else sees a pattern, or if I’ve just made a mess with red string and a pile of mashed potatoes that looks like Devil’s Tower, but I like to think it makes sense.| Unauthoritative Pronouncements
A while ago Jason Snell said that he would do a streamer box/dongle shoot-out on an episode of Upgrade, and today’s the day he hit publish. It’s well worth your time to read it, particularly if you aren’t as familiar with “the state of the art” in the streaming landscape. The last time I did a “device shoot-out” was in 2016, and none of the platforms are the same. I certainly stopped recommending Fire TVs, and only recommend Apple TVs.| Unauthoritative Pronouncements
I wrote about my building frustrations with Mail for Six Colors. I knew my draft was way too long before I turned it in, and apologized to Jason Snell. Instead of having a bee in my bonnet about Mail, I had a whole bee hive. The post on Six Colors is a much more focused, and more relatable, blog post that went right into the problems with Categories. That’s why Jason’s a great editor, folks. I’ll include the less interesting parts here as a “bonus” for people that like to read about...| Unauthoritative Pronouncements
Last night there was some back and forth about fonts for writing, and fonts for terminals, and then the color of the background and the text, etc. It was a lot. I didn’t need to inject myself into that conversation so I did some selective favoriting. This morning Jason Snell wrote a little more about it and shared a site (via Leo Laporte) where you do a little tournament bracket between a set of monospace fonts. None of the monospace fonts in the bracket are what I use, but I came out of it...| Unauthoritative Pronouncements
Six Colors provides daily coverage of Apple, other technology companies, and the intersection of technology and culture. Its founder and editor in chief is Jason Snell. Its East Coast Bureau Chief …| Six Colors
Now that’s more like it. Spatial appears above the red Leave button. On Tuesday, Apple flipped the switch on a new version of Persona, its 3D representations of visionOS users. Anyone with vi…| Six Colors
Here’s the problem with CarPlay Ultra: It’s still CarPlay. Based on what we’ve seen of CarPlay Ultra, Apple believes that if it controls the appearance of the displays in cars, then using the car will be a good experience. I’m not sure that’s an assumption I’d make, especially when styling isn’t directly connected to function—as is the case with most of what distinguishes CarPlay Ultra from CarPlay. The real hallmark of Apple is a bad settings screen. (Image: Top Gear.) There...| Six Colors
Here’s what the new M2 MacBook Pro is not: new. Yes, it’s powered by a new generation of Apple silicon, but it’s very much the same laptop that was updated for the Apple silicon e…| Six Colors
What the 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro is… depends on your perspective. If you’re taking the 1000-foot overview of the Mac market, it’s most notable for being the first shipping product …| Six Colors
The new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models usher in a new era in Apple laptops. These are the first high-end Macs to be powered by Apple-designed processors, and that’s a big deal–but t…| Six Colors
In October 2011, Apple fans wrote messages of love and loss on a black wall in front of the Apple Store in Seattle, remembering and celebrating Steve Jobs. I fell in love with Apple with the first …| Six Colors
John Voorhees, writing on Club MacStories (subscription required): Nearly three years ago, I wrote AppleScript: Shortcuts Bridge or Crutch?, questioning whether accessing AppleScript via Shortcuts …| Six Colors
It’s been a very long time since Apple released a product as speculative and impractical as the Vision Pro, its $3499 first-generation “spatial computing” headset. Led by Apple, t…| Six Colors
It’s been nearly two years since the Mac Studio was updated to M2, but on Wednesday Apple announced the next step in its evolution. And if you’re ready to write off the Mac Studio as ha…| Six Colors
Like the M2 MacBook Pro released earlier this year, the new M3 MacBook Pro doesn’t look particularly new. It’s the third iteration of the excellent MacBook Pro redesign from 2021, featu…| Six Colors