Chance Miller of 9to5Mac reports that in the latest iOS 18.3 betas, Apple has changed how it handles summaries, presumably in response to criticism of inaccurate headline summaries: When you enable notification summaries, iOS 18.3 will make it clearer that the feature – like all … | Continue reading
Sometimes a solution is simpler than you think it’s going to be. I was trying to figure out a way to write a shortcut to take a folder and have all of its sub-folders compressed into individual archives—i.e.,… | Continue reading
In the past couple of weeks, two different projects of mine have been released that were powered, at least in part, by a Python script that eliminated enormous amounts of labor from a process that used to take hours of drudgery.… | Continue reading
Sticking it to the man.… | Continue reading
Our use of CarPlay, Android Auto, or other systems for navigation; creative AI problem-solving cases we’ve encountered; thoughts on Sonos’s struggles and future as a customer; and whether we use TikTok amid its potential US shutdown.… | Continue reading
The Camera Control button control on the iPhone 16 family seemed like a good idea, but the devil’s always in the details, isn’t it? Apple made too many promises, all of them in conflict with one another because they all rely on using the same tiny hardware feature to function.… | Continue reading
Bonnets off to the BBC, the trouble with headlines, Socrates on mountain skis, some slight existential dread about Mac software, irrational love of old computers, Apple’s smart home strategy for 2025, and the long wait for some AI features.… | Continue reading
The Verge’s Abigail Bassett profiles Watch Duty, the remarkable nonprofit app that’s become a must-download utility during the Los Angeles fires: Watch Duty is unique in the tech world in that it doesn’t care about user engagement, time spent, or ad sales. … | Continue reading
One of the consequences of switching to a laptop from a desktop is that my old method of cloning my disk daily has been thrown out of whack.… | Continue reading
Will Carroll joins for a mega Sports Corner: Fubo meets Hulu to enable Venu, Netflix goes full force into live sports, how football dominates American TV, NFL announcers, and our TV picks!… | Continue reading
Meta ditches third-party fact-checking, making unsightly TVs more attractive, the tyranny of always-on phone displays, and the robot vacuum of your nightmares.… | Continue reading
We’re not mad, Tim, we’re just disappointed. Also, we’re mad.… | Continue reading
Lex Friedman’s dual-desk setup, now (again) with treadmill. I’m writing this article at 2.6 miles per hour. Fifteen years ago(!), I wrote an article for Macworld about upgrading to a standing desk.… | Continue reading
I was literally using Script Debugger yesterday to inspect variables. Mark Alldritt & Shane Stanley of Late Night Software: We are announcing the retirement of Script Debugger as a product. … | Continue reading
On Monday I complained about Apple’s response to Apple Intelligence making mistaken summaries of news headlines. But here’s the funny thing: large-language models are actually pretty good at writing news headlines.… | Continue reading
The BBC, following up on two reports of Apple Intelligence summaries that transformed its own headlines into factually inaccurate text, got a public response from Apple: Apple has said it will update, rather than pause, a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature that has generate … | Continue reading
A new year dawns! We consider what it has in store for Apple and why the company’s A.I. features need to be judged critically. Then we turn back the clock to 2000 and consider the moment when Mac OS X changed everything.… | Continue reading
Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the unveiling of Mac OS X, and yeah, I wrote the cover story for Macworld. While I was working on a forthcoming piece celebrating that anniversary, I asked my friend James Thomson if he had a good link about his time working on the Dock, which … | Continue reading
My thanks to Fat Cat Software’s PowerPhotos for sponsoring Six Colors this week. I spend a lot of time using and writing about Apple’s Photos app.… | Continue reading
AppleVis has announced its 13th Golden Apple Awards, recognizing apps and games designed for (or useful to) people who are blind or visually impaired. The awards also honored a developer and included a new award for ongoing achievement.… | Continue reading
I’ve recently switched from using two computers in two different offices (the hard-to-heat garage and my well-heated back bedroom) to using one computer (a MacBook Pro) docked in either location.… | Continue reading
Ars Technica’s senior security editor Dan Goodin breaks down where we are with passkeys going into 2025: The security benefits of passkeys at the moment are also undermined by an undeniable truth. … | Continue reading
An electric episode for the New Year.… | Continue reading
It’s time for the 11th Annual Upgradies! Myke and Jason discuss their favorites of 2024, take the input of many Upgradians, and hand out awards in numerous categories!… | Continue reading
Vince Vaughn in “Bad Monkey” (Apple TV+) TV Bad Monkey A surprise hit, this Vince Vaughn vehicle on Apple TV+ is based on a Carl Hiaasen novel of the same name, following Florida cop Andrew Yancey—suspended from duty for…reasons—as he gets embroiled in a fishy case after a fisher … | Continue reading
PowerPhotos is the ultimate toolbox for Photos on the Mac. It works in conjunction with the Apple Photos app, filling in missing features that Photos itself doesn’t provide.… | Continue reading
My thanks to 1Password for sponsoring Six Colors this week. The folks at 1Password recently attended the RSA conference in San Francisco and were struck by how infatuated everyone was with the promise of new, shiny solutions to fix new, shiny problems.… | Continue reading
“Raiders of the Lost Ark” is one of my favorite movies (and Stephen Spielberg’s best, in my opinion), but I never knew about this “loose end” until I read about it in a compilation of deleted scenes: A plot element involving the Ark of the Covenant was cut from the film and is on … | Continue reading
Our likelihood of investing in smart home tech with Apple’s entry, our technology goals for 2025, our end/start of year tech rituals, and predictions for how technology will improve the world in 2025.… | Continue reading
Down the chimney comes Tim Goodman, reuniting with Jason to discuss his super-secret insider TV reviews, streaming’s influence in the rise of international TV here in the U.S.,… | Continue reading
Runestone on Vision Pro, framed by Shareshot. Tailscale One of my persistent quests over the years has been making it easy to access all my devices no matter where I am.… | Continue reading
To celebrate the season we discuss Christmas lights, tech gifts, favorite holiday food items, holiday TV and movies, and answer some holiday-themed listener questions. Happy holidays to all Upgradians!… | Continue reading
I recently attended the RSA conference in San Francisco–security’s biggest event of the year– and I was struck by how infatuated everyone was with the promise of new, shiny solutions to fix new, shiny problems.… | Continue reading
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.… | Continue reading
[As the year comes to a close, those of us who write for Six Colors have decided to share some of our favorite things of the past year.… | Continue reading
Rumors of a foldable iPad, spatial computing on the Mac, how often we use Street View-like features, and the iOS 18 features we’ve turned off.… | Continue reading
Out of all the new features in iOS 18.2, I really didn’t expect that I’d be writing about Mail of all things. And yet, given how many times a day I use Mail on my iPhone, the changes in Mail in iOS 18.2 might be the worst thing about the release.… | Continue reading
Keep watching the clock. Wait, wrong podcast.… | Continue reading
Not unlike text editors, image-editing software is a category that provokes strong feelings from its users. There are your Photoshop fans, Affinity users, and those who adore Pixelmator.… | Continue reading
Myke prepares the way for a big arrival (including of many Upgrade guest hosts), we’re deeply puzzled by reports of a large folding Apple device, and Myke gets out the conspiracy yarn regarding what Tim Cook is up to in the United Kingdom.… | Continue reading
Online privacy isn’t just something you should be hoping for – it’s something you should expect. You should ensure your browsing history stays private and is not harvested by ad networks.… | Continue reading
Audio Hijack is a thing of beauty. And we almost lost it. Back in the early Apple silicon era, must-have Mac audio tool got a serious downgrade via a new installation process that required many steps and multiple reboots.… | Continue reading
My thanks to 1Password for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Strings of data breaches and other cybersecurity failures have forced greater investment in vulnerability management. The SEC now requires companies to report on how their managers and board of directors deal with vulner … | Continue reading
So many words spent handwringing on whether you can do “real work” on an iPad and yet nobody ever stops to ask the actual question: can you do real work on an iPhone?… | Continue reading
Choose from three different collections of appearances. On Wednesday iOS 18.2 and macOS 15.2 were released, and we wrote about it here. One of my complaints is that you can’t just make generic figures of people—you have to choose actual people in your library.… | Continue reading
Our interest in current smart glasses, the smart tech we use to monitor our homes and pets, our thoughts on iOS 18.2 features like Genmoji and Image Playground, and how we organize and manage holiday gift-giving lists for ideas and tracking.… | Continue reading
We’ve all got problems.… | Continue reading
How Disney’s strategy has led to ESPN inside the Disney+ app, Disney and Netflix content strategies, Warner Bros. Discovery and Comcast make a deal, the ramifications of Comcast’s “SpinCo,” crafting a theatrical hit out of a Disney+ TV show, and TV picks!… | Continue reading