Service Station: iPhone Upgrade Program (Member Post)

After years of spending every fall hemming and hawing over whether or not I was going to buy a new iPhone, I decided in 2015 to sign up for Apple’s newly unveiled iPhone Upgrade Program. First offe… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Why AnyList isn’t supporting Sign in with Apple ↦

AnyList, a popular app and service for creating and sharing lists of all kinds, won’t be supporting Sign in with Apple, and a blog post by co-founder Jeff Hunter explains why: Another sign of… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade #304: Somebody’s Gotta Do It and It’s Gonna Be Us

This week we welcome Apple’s Bob Borchers and Ronak Shah to the show to discuss macOS Big Sur, including all the new features in Safari. There’s also an awful lot of follow-up from the … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

New York Times will no longer be in Apple News ↦

The Verge’s Chaim Gartenberg reports that New York Times articles will no longer be available in the Apple News app: While Apple has had a tougher time getting publishers (including the Times… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Life After WWDC (Member Post)

WWDC 2020 has come and gone, and for the first time in the event’s 31-year history, the conference was entirely online. In the Ye Olden Days, developers could get copies of WWDC sessions on V… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

What WWDC20 tells us about where its device roadmap is going (Macworld/Dan Moren)

The keynote at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference may be one of the biggest events of the company’s year, but it only ever scratches the surface. Not every change or update makes i… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Safari 14 doesn’t block Google Analytics ↦

Developer Simo Ahava breaks down exactly what the effect of the new Safari’s Privacy Report on technologies like Google Analytics is: Not really. The fact that google-analytics.com has its ab… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise #352: Garbage: Folder. Problems: Kettle.

This week, on the 30-minute podcast that crams an hour of content into just half the time, Dan and Mikah are joined by special guests Jason Snell and Ish ShaBazz to discuss how iOS 14’s App L… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020 Friday: Session Impressions

And so WWDC comes to a close for another year. We have to admit: We’ve probably watched more session videos this year than all of the prior years put together. The virtual format has been a real ch… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Apple, Microsoft, and compatibility ↦

David Sparks was struck by something that struck me, too: Steven Sinofsky, formerly of Microsoft, had an interesting Twitter thread a few days ago that was complimentary of Apple and its ability to… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

6C Podcast: June 26, 2020

It was a huge week. What’s the future of WWDC, in person or online or both? And Macs running Apple silicon and macOS Big Sur open up a world of wild possibilities. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020 Thursday: Session impressions

WWDC sessions have a way of getting more technical throughout the week, so for the laypeople among us, it gets a little tougher to pick out those aspects that the general populace might be interest… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020 Thursday: Giving a few pointers

The arrow covers the icon you’re thinking of clicking; the iPad’s pointer slides behind the icon, so it’s clear what you’re selecting. If you’ve ever wanted a longform explanation of how Apple buil… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020 Wednesday: Session Impressions, Part 2

The barrage of informative presentations continued on Wednesday, and among the most pressing question I had while watching them…what’s up with all the tchotchkes? Are they an attempt at… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020 Wednesday: Session Impressions

How is it only Wednesday? It turns out that the WWDC time warp even happens when all of us are at our homes. Anyway, I watched a bunch more WWDC sessions today, and here are some observations from … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Apple’s new App Clips: Tiny apps you run with a tap

Apple’s conception of a table-specific App Clip Code at a restaurant. Our world increasingly expects that we’ll use apps to interact with it, but sometimes we don’t have the apps … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Macs with Apple silicon will get new, refined boot and recovery mode

Doing unusual things at Mac startup has long required remembering keyboard shortcuts. Is it Command-Control-P-R or Command-Option-P-R that zaps the PRAM? Is that still even a thing? Is it Command-S… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

The Mac’s future is on a collision course with the iPad (Macworld/Jason Snell)

It was the most important WWDC keynote for the Mac since the arrival of OS X two decades ago. Apple’s announcement on Monday of the Mac’s third-ever processor transition was big enough, but it was … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020 Tuesday: Session Impressions, Part 2

One of the best things about virtual WWDC is that sessions no longer feel the need to expand their talks to fit into a certain time slot—nor does the number need to reflect available physical space… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020 Tuesday: Session Impressions

We used to have to run from room to room. These days we can sit on the couch and watch whatever WWDC sessions we want. Here are some interesting tidbits gleaned from a collection of sessions that w… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 295: That’s What I Learned From Jurassic Park

Apple announced many things! And we talk about them in this episode. At some point Lex leaves. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020: The little stuff you might have missed

As always, Apple’s WWDC keynote was jam-packed with more jam than a packing plant full of jam. We all saw the big top line items: Macs switching to ARM, iOS apps running on the Mac, cats and dogs l… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Thoughts on WWDC 2020 Day One

Most people attend WWDC remotely every year, watching video sessions in the comfort of their homes and offices. But I’ve been going to WWDC since the last 90s, so today was… strange. An… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade #303: The Return of Two Old Friends

Myke and Jason break down the WWDC 2020 keynote, which featured changes to the Mac both expected and unexpected and some long-wanted updates for iOS. Did the iPad updates let us down? Are we ready … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

It’s WWDC 2020 keynote day!

We aren’t here. Hello from California, where I am… sitting in my office on the day of an Apple event, rather than standing outside a venue waiting to be seated. Oh, 2020! Apple’s … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC20: What not to expect (Macworld/Dan Moren)

As the curtain prepares to rise, just hours hence, on this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, there are still plenty of questions about what exactly Apple will be showing off at its annual eve… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

The ‘essential’ nature of the App Store ↦

Brent Simmons on arguments that the App Store is great because it exposes your app to customers: To be on the App Store is to be lost within an enormous sea of floating junk. No matter how well you… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Introducing Upgrade+

Monday on the Upgrade podcast, Myke Hurley and I introduced a new membership feature for supporters of the podcast: Upgrade+. Named tongue-in-cheekily after Apple’s tendency to brand its prem… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

6C Podcast: June 19, 2020

We’re not usually this negative, but Apple really took the shine off of next week’s developer conference with this week’s developer-hostile actions and reactions. Also, Jason begi… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Bloomberg: Apple team working on VR/AR hardware ↦

Mark Gurman at Bloomberg reports on the group inside Apple working on VR/AR hardware: Although the headset now in development is less technologically ambitious than originally intended, it’s pretty… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC Wish List: Apple Watch and watchOS 7 (Macworld/Jason Snell)

The operating system that drives the Apple Watch, watchOS, doesn’t get as much attention as macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. But as someone who wears an Apple Watch every day, any improvement to watchOS has… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Wish fulfilled (not a WWDC iPadOS wish list item) ↦

It occurs to me, in this season of WWDC wish-list items, that it’s worth mentioning that perhaps my top feature request for iPadOS was fulfilled in March: The bottom line: Months before that … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

A wild idea for WWDC: Developer Mode for iPadOS

iSH will give you a command line on iPad, but it’s Linux running on a virtualized Intel processor. With less than a week between us and WWDC, it’s a great time for wild ideas about what… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 294: It’s For Horses

It’s the week before WWDC so it’s the perfect time for Apple to have a fight with developers. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise #351: Sacrificing an Apple Pencil to the Fire

This week, on the 30-minute tech podcast that’s anagrammarful, Dan and Mikah are joined by special guests John Moltz and Christina Warren to discuss pie-in-the-sky WWDC predictions, AppleR… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Apple’s head of Diversity and Inclusion has left ↦

Bloomberg’s Shelly Banjo and Mark Gurman: “Inclusion and diversity are core Apple values and we deeply believe the most diverse teams are the most innovative teams,” Apple said in an emailed … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Maybe it’s time to Breathe ↦

Stephen Hackett: When Apple added the Breathe feature to watchOS 3, I — like many of you, I suspect — turned it off pretty quickly. However, over the last six months, it has come to be one of my fa… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

European Commission launches antitrust investigations into App Store, Apple Pay ↦

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, launched two separate antitrust investigations of Apple on Tuesday. The first deals with the App Store: The European Commission has opened for… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Apple: The App Store ecosystem generated $519 billion in 2019 ↦

Here’s an interesting Apple press release trumpeting a study from Analysis Group that claims “the App Store ecosystem supported $519 billion in billings and sales globally in 2019 alone… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade #302: The WWDC Keynote Draft 2020

It’s time for our fifth annual competition regarding what will happen at next week’s WWDC keynote! Will there be a stage? Will there be enormous Mac announcements? Will iPadOS and Apple Watch… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Apple updates Developer app for WWDC, adds Mac version ↦

Apple has updated its Apple Developer app, for the first time releasing a version for the Mac, just one week ahead of the kickoff of its annual (and first ever virtual) Worldwide Developers Confere… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Star Wars: Squadrons preps for launch

I’ve been beating the drum for a Star Wars dogfighting game in the style of the classic X-Wing and TIE Fighter games for as long as I can remember, and it looks like it may have finally paid … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Star Wars: Squadrons preps for launch ↦

I’ve been beating the drum for a Star Wars dogfighting game in the style of the classic X-Wing and TIE Fighter games for as long as I can remember, and it looks like it may have finally paid … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

WWDC 2020 hopes and dreams for iOS, Macs, and more (Macworld/Dan Moren)

We’re now just a week away from Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, which—in case you missed the many memos—will be held virtually for the first time in its 33-year history. Last w… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Adventures in Shortcuts: Posting content using ancient web APIs (2018)

This week I got a little envious of Matthew Cassinelli, who was proudly posting how he’s building all these Shortcuts on iOS that let him do cool stuff involving automatically posting things … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

5 reasons you’ll want to upgrade to an ARM MacBook (Tom's Guide/Jason Snell)

After years of rumors, it appears that Apple is finally going to commit to release Macs that run on Apple-designed ARM processors rather than chips made by Intel. Based on reports, the announcement… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

6C Podcast: June 12, 2020

Jason did a lot of technical things this week. Web development is tricky. But we now have a new website that looks like the old one. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

We’ve moved – please excuse our dust

I’ve been spending a lot of time using PHP. When I started Six Colors, I built the site using the venerable Movable Type blog system because I needed to build something quickly and get it liv… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago