Macros to make dumb typing smarter

I made a mistake today. I posted today’s episode of Downstream with the feed pointed at the previous episode of Downstream. There are various workflow reasons why this happened, but the bottom line is: I pasted last week’s download URL in and then didn’t change it, resulting in e … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Downstream 18: 10,000 Other Tentacles

After years watching the old Netflix cruise along as the top streamer, things are getting interesting as it shifts gears and engages the realities of today’s streaming scene. We discuss Netflix changes and Julia reviews Disney’s financial results.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Apple details Live Captions, other accessibility features coming later this year ↦

Apple Newsroom: Using advancements across hardware, software, and machine learning, people who are blind or low vision can use their iPhone and iPad to navigate the last few feet to their destination with Door Detection; users with physical and motor disabilities who may rely on … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 407: Inexplicable Billboards

Is Apple ready to embrace USB-C across its entire product line? Jason loves his Playdate, but is frustrated by Apple Music playing songs he dislikes. And the music may go on, but the iPod won’t be coming along for the ride.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Bring on the USB-C future (Member Post)

Up until recently, USB-C was more of a fluke in my household—a strange visitor from a possible future, in which we all used small, reversible plugs. Sure, my iMac had a couple of Thunderbolt ports that use the USB-C ports and every once in a while a random cable might have a plug … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

6C Podcast: Broken watches, 5G vampires, and iPod memories

Dan’s back from Seattle, Jason’s back from Phoenix, the music never left, and the iPod touch remains available while supplies last.… Become a member to listen to our exclusive weekly podcast and get more benefits. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Watch and learn: The Apple Watch needs a better upgrade experience

Though I greatly enjoyed my vacation last week, it ended with a bit of a mishap. On Sunday morning, the last full day of my travels, I knocked my beloved Series 4 Apple Watch off the nightstand where it had been charging and it tumbled three feet to land—screen down, naturally—on … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 391: Wandering the Streets of Tacoma

Dan’s got Apple Watch woes, the iPod is dead, and Twitter is increasingly dead to us.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 450: Plural of Trackpad is Trackspad

Our computer mousing habits and devices, whether we signed up for the in-person portion of WWDC, our Apple Watch upgrade habits, and the iPods we’ve owned and count among our favorite models.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

RIP the iPod ↦

A surprisingly lengthy post on the Apple Newsroom which goes on for several paragraphs about the joy of consuming digital music eventually reaches its raison d’être in the final line: Customers can purchase iPod touch through apple.com, Apple Store locations, and Apple Authorize … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Podcast Details ↦

This site was making the rounds in my circle of friends for obvious reasons. Created by Alex Barredo, Podcast Details visualizes the consistency (or inconsistency) of a podcast’s run time and release schedule. I put the Six Colors podcast (just for members) to the test, and here … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

A sabbatical from a Weird Internet Career ↦

Jason Kottke is taking some time off: There’s no real roadmap for this, no blueprint for independent creators taking sabbaticals to recharge. The US doesn’t have the social safety net necessary to enable extended breaks from work (or much of anything else, including health care) … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 406: Are You Phishing Me Right Now?

An unlikely alliance of tech giants beckons us toward our passwordless future, but in the meantime there’s a new version of 1Password. We also discuss Apple Car rumors, hope for the future of AirPods Max, our disassembly of a Magic Keyboard, and more!… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

How short can a Shortcut be if a Shortcut is cut short? (Member Post)

Every so often, I get the smart idea that I should smooth over an everyday problem I have with the power of computers. I know some Python. I work in Nuke, which is a big pile of procedural code blobs that operate on inputs. And I’m capable of using Stack Overflow. I also have ple … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

6C Podcast: 1Password, no passwords, and WWDC

Myke Hurley joins Jason to talk about why people got so upset about 1Password 8, our password-less future, and our personal logistical concerns about WWDC.… Become a member to listen to our exclusive weekly podcast and get more benefits. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock

My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Magic Lasso Adblock is simply the best Safari ad blocker for your iPhone, iPad and Mac. As a native Safari extension, it blocks all intrusive ads, trackers and annoyances – letting you experience a faster, clea … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

1Password 8 for Mac: An upgrade, after all

Last summer 1Password maker AgileBits made the wrong kind of news, when it announced that it was killing its traditional Mac app and replacing it with a new one built with Electron, a development system based on web technologies, on top of a cross-platform code base. As I wrote b … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 390: Terrible T-Shirt Designs

The pinnacle of the MacOS is back.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Password-less logins come one step closer ↦

Last year at WWDC Apple detailed its long-term plans to get rid of passwords. It included a preview of a technology called Passkeys in iCloud Keychain in iOS 15 and macOS Monterey. The idea is that you can log in anywhere by authenticating on your device—you don’t have to set pas … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Downstream 17: A Lighthouse, But No Captain

We’re sifting through the fallout of Netflix’s trying times, pondering the future of ads on streaming services and trying to identify which shows benefit from binge-watching—and which don’t.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 449: It’s Still Working, I’m So Sad

The tech we always travel with, things we hope seem slow in 30 years, Twitter’s new Close Friends feature, and devices we own that we secretly wish would die.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Amazon supports ePub… sort of ↦

Amazon: Beginning in late 2022, you’ll no longer be able to send MOBI (.AZW, .MOBI) files to your library using Send to Kindle. This change won’t affect any MOBI files already in your Kindle library. MOBI is an older file format and won’t support the newest Kindle features for d … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Tony Fadell: The storytelling of Steve Jobs ↦

Tony Fadell, Nest founder and a key to creating the iPod, has a new book out and Fast Company has a very interesting excerpt in which he details what he learned from Steve Jobs about communicating tech products to consumers: He used a technique I later came to call the virus of … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 405: Too Many Numbers

This week we check in on Studio Display firmware, ponder what form the iPhone 14 might take and whether it’s different enough from the iPhone 13, and break down the results of Apple’s record fiscal quarter—including some trepidation about the future. Also, Myke finally got his Pl … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock: YouTube ad blocker for Safari

Do you want to experience twice as fast load times in Safari on your iPhone, iPad and Mac? Then download Magic Lasso Adblock – the ad blocker designed for you. It’s easy to setup, blocks all YouTube ads and doubles the speed at which Safari loads. Magic Lasso is an efficient, hig … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

The Back Page: Tim Cook, now with absolute candor (Member Post)

(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)Luca: …and with that, let’s open the call to questions. Operator: Our first question comes from Jan Key from Key Blur Financial. Go ahead. Jan: Thanks for taking my question. Tim, you said that you’re facing a lot of headwinds in the next quart … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

6C Podcast: Guidance, webcams, and wordplay

Apple’s financial results show complications ahead, Jason installed some beta display firmware, and you probably shouldn’t do word games when your brain’s half asleep.… Become a member to listen to our exclusive weekly podcast and get more benefits. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

This is Tim: Q2 2022 financial call transcript

Every quarter, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri make statements and take questions from financial analysts on a conference call. This is the transcript of the call for April 28, 2022. Tim Cook’s opening remarks Thank you Tejas. Good afternoon, everyone. And thank you … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Apple Q2 2022 results: A record $97 billion quarter

On Thursday, Apple announced its results for the second quarter of its 2022 fiscal year. It was a March quarter record of $97.3 billion in revenue, with all-time quarterly records for iPhone, Mac, and Wearables sales. We’ll be walking through all the results later this afternoon … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Knotwords offers crossword puzzles… without clues

One of my very favorite game developers, Zach Gage, is back with a new one. Knotwords, by Gage and Jack Schlesinger, is a crossword-puzzle style game with a twist: instead of filling the puzzle via clues, you have to fill various regions of the board with a limited selection of l … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 389: Taco Convert

Let’s do lunch.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Step one in Apple’s sports strategy

Over the years, all sorts of entities have purchased the television rights to sporting events at prices that don’t make sense, at least if you’re expecting them to turn a profit directly from the sporting events themselves. Fox famously overpaid for NFL rights to establish itself … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 448: My Butler Bae

The video conferencing cameras we use, how we’d change Siri’s voice, whether we’d tackle an iPhone repair, and our plans (or lack thereof) for leaving Twitter.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Apple’s new Self Service Repair program is now live ↦

Apple Newsroom: The new online store offers more than 200 individual parts and tools, enabling customers who are experienced with the complexities of repairing electronic devices to complete repairs on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 lineups and iPhone SE (3rd generation), such as t … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Hands on with Apple’s Studio Display firmware update

Apple has released a beta version of macOS 12.4 that includes within it a beta version of the firmware for the Apple Studio Display. This is the first update to the Studio Display firmware since it shipped, and Apple says that it “has refinements to the Studio Display camera tuni … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 404: Convert Your Nostalgia to Money

Jason added a (working) Studio Display and a Playdate to his house last week, and Myke’s a little upset. Also CNN+ died, Netflix went into crisis, and Apple kept making sports streaming deals. We also discuss the parking situation at Apple Park, accept the passing of the iPhone m … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

iPhone as single-app webcam ↦

I use Reincubate’s Camo to turn my iPhone into a high-quality webcam for my Mac. Even an older iPhone’s camera is better than any webcam you’ve got, but mounting it can be fussy, and you have to unlock the phone and launch the Camo app every time you use it—which isn’t very conve … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Video: Hands on with Panic Playdate ↦

Friday afternoon I spent about half an hour showing off the new Panic Playdate on a YouTube Stream. If you’re interested in the new retro handheld game device, check it out!… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Downstream 16: Avatar of the Industry

Emergency podcast! Julia and Jason reconvene for a second time in a week to discuss Netflix’s very bad quarterly results (and how the company will change its behavior and strategy as a result) and the rapid but not entirely surprising death of CNN+.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

6C Podcast: Magic tech, Ecamm Live, and HomePod

A baseball digression (including some tech talk), a Mac app that outpaces its cross-platform competition, and the curious case of the HomePod (and why Apple should take more chances).… Become a member to listen to our exclusive weekly podcast and get more benefits. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Automating time tracking via Audio Hijack 4 ↦

Federico Viticci uses Audio Hijack 4 scripting to connect his recording sessions to his time tracking: That got me thinking: when I start recording a show, I could run a script that fires off a shortcut that contains a Timery action to start time tracking. I don’t want to manual … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

HomePod and Studio Display: Filling the right niche

Listening to last week’s Accidental Tech Podcast made me realize: that the original HomePod and the Apple Studio Display have a few things in common. Both products entered a category full of competition—displays and voice-activated speakers. Both were regarded in some quarters as … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 388: We Didn’t Get To The Point

We just don’t talk about Apple Maps enough.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Learning to love Ecamm’s Live

When I first tried Ecamm Network‘s live-streaming app Live, I didn’t like it.1 I liked the idea of it. Software that streams live to YouTube, Twitch, and other services is dominated by open-source projects like OBS and Streamlabs and expensive cross-platform apps like Wirecast. L … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 447: A Seething Ball of Rage

Our charging situations, which collaborative workspaces we prefer, how we protect our digital privacy, and what we’re watching on Apple TV+.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

(Podcast) Downstream 15: Magic Show

Julia has some advice for David Zaslav as he takes the reins of Warner Bros. Discovery—mostly about the fates of CNN+ and the Harry Potter franchise. Plus, the rise of streaming sports.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Apple expands cycling directions in US ↦

Justin O’Beirne, who keeps a close eye on Apple Maps, has noted that the company has finally expanded its cycling directions in the US: As of April 15, 2022, Apple has quietly added cycling directions for the parts of the Midwest covered in Expansion #6, including Chicago (pictu … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago

Apple expands cycling directions in US

Justin O’Beirne, who keeps a close eye on Apple Maps, has noted that the company has finally expanded its cycling directions in the US: As of April 15, 2022, Apple has quietly added cycling directions for the parts of the Midwest covered in Expansion #6, including Chicago (pictu … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 2 years ago