I like big books, and I cannot lie. Trade paperbacks and hardcovers are my preferred format when it comes to physical books. Admittedly, they do not offer the best reading experience anywhere other than in a nice comfy chair.… | Continue reading
You know the old thought experiment about the AI designed to make paper clips, that quickly decides that in order to maximize paper clips, it will have to get rid of all the humans? A lot of securi… | Continue reading
My thanks to Kolide for once again sponsoring Six Colors. Kolide knows how challenging it can be to prove compliance to a third-party auditor–they just went through it themselves. They learne… | Continue reading
If there’s a theme for the past year in the technology industry, it is this: DOOM. Yess, 2022 was the year that doom came for tech companies in earnest.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.. | Continue reading
See ya later, 2022—2023 is where it’s at! Jason has already detailed his favorites from the year that was, but I suppose I owe it to you—to myself really—to see if I can remember the stuff that I loved over the past twelve months.… | Continue reading
It’s the end of the year, but before we turn the page (or mount a new calendar) and move on to 2023, I thought I’d make a quick list of some of my favorite fun things from the year almost entirely gone by… Games I am not great at games.… | Continue reading
The legacy of 2022 in tech, the tech gifts we’re buying ourselves, the best third-party app replacements, and Apple products we’d like to see but they’ll never make.… | Continue reading
I left an easter egg in this week’s Macworld column: People who want the most cutting-edge iPhones will need to pungle up for the privilege. And guess what? A whole lot of people will. The fi… | Continue reading
The reviews are in: five stars.… | Continue reading
In a very special (and silly) end-of-year episode, Julia and Jason create tier lists for everything with a plus. Happy new year!… | Continue reading
As technology enthusiasts, we’re all too often accustomed to looking forward to the next thing, to the feature that’s just over the horizon. And sometimes that means forgetting the amazing things we’ve already got—until they pop up, perfect for the job at hand.… | Continue reading
As the year comes to an end, it’s time for the Ninth Annual Upgradies! Myke and Jason discuss their favorites of 2022, take the input of many Upgradians, and hand out awards in numerous categories!… | Continue reading
In 2021, our company went through the SOC 2 Type 1 audit, and we found out just how challenging it can be to prove compliance to a third party auditor. We also learned firsthand something our custo… | Continue reading
The 30th birthday of PCalc makes us consider how long-lived tech products must constantly change and adapt, Dan is forced to power cycle a Caseta hub, and we celebrate some holiday traditions.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive … | Continue reading
My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring Six Colors last week. As a native Safari extension, Magic Lasso blocks all intrusive ads, trackers and annoyances – letting you experience a faster, cleaner and more secure experience across all your devices.… | Continue reading
Speaking of James Thomson, he and John Voorhees and I celebrate the holidays with our annual gift exchange, and then it’s time to make predictions for what will happen in 2023—but first, it’s time to score our picks from the past year and crown a new champion.… | Continue reading
My friend James Thomson is celebrating the 30th anniversary of PCalc, his calculator app: The built-in Mac OS calculator of the day was a very simple affair, and so I decided I would write a calculator that could do binary and hex, to help me with my programming.… | Continue reading
Someone bought the bar we were all hanging out in, and they started interrupting the music with edicts about bar rules, fired most of the staff, aren’t paying their bills, installed a velvet rope where VIPs can spit on the other bar patrons, had bouncers start to randomly remove … | Continue reading
Eric Slivka at MacRumors: Upgrading the Home architecture requires that all devices accessing the home be updated to the latest operating system version, so many users have yet to take the leap, but users who have upgraded have reported some issues.… | Continue reading
Whether TikTok’s algorithm explanations will ruin the magic. How we collect and share our holiday gift ideas. The weather app(s) we’re using in light of the end of Dark Sky. The coolest… | Continue reading
AirTags for thee and not for me.… | Continue reading
Apple’s self-repair program, which was announced last year, arrived in April, and came to the Mac in August with support for the M1 MacBook Air and all three M1 MacBook Pro models, has now been extended to support Mac desktops and the new Apple Studio Display.… | Continue reading
Earlier this year, Belkin released the Belkin iPhone Mount with MagSafe for Mac Notebooks, a $30 adapter that lets you attach an iPhone to the top of a MacBook screen and use it as a webcam via macOS Ventura’s Continuity Camera feature.… | Continue reading
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but the news doesn’t stop! We discuss next year’s Mac lineup, the end of Apple’s NFL Sunday Ticket negotiations, and reports that Apple is planning to open up the iOS app ecosystem in response to new rules from the European Union.… | Continue reading
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, … | Continue reading
My thanks to Kolide for once again sponsoring Six Colors. Kolide takes a different approach to endpoint security and fleet management. They help companies meet compliance goals by enlisting the support of their users with a structured, message-based approach.… | Continue reading
Whether we’d install a third-party app store on our phones, our most anticipated Matter devices, the tasks we’d pawn off onto an AI chatbot, and our non-holiday holiday traditions.… | Continue reading
(Shutterstock)Lawsuits, new laws, and proposed regulations have been swirling around Apple and some of its core business practices for years now. But on Tuesday came the first report—from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, perhaps the most reliable breaker of secret Apple news—that Apple’s … | Continue reading
But can Apple encrypt recordings of my singing?… | Continue reading
What’s the point of HBO Max if it doesn’t have all the HBO shows on it? Julia ponders the strange goings on at HBO and WarnerMedia. We also discuss Jason Kilar’s predictions for t… | Continue reading
The usually well-sourced Mark Gurman at Bloomberg with the scoop: Software engineering and services employees are engaged in a major push to open up key elements of Apple’s platforms, according to people familiar with the efforts.… | Continue reading
It’s not every week that Apple releases a new app, but this is that week. As a part of rolling out iOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1, Apple’s introducing the world to Freeform, an app it introduced back in June as a part of a WWDC keynote segment about iPad collaboration features.… | Continue reading
Myke has returned, and so have the Apple Car rumors. But before we try to figure those out, we’ve got to consider Apple’s encryption announcements, Tim Cook’s appearance at a chip factory in Arizona, and John Siracusa’s appearance in our shared show document.… | Continue reading
“When was the last time you restarted it?” If you’ve ever worked at a service desk, you’ve probably wanted to tattoo this question on your forehead. Ditto for: “What device drivers do you have inst… | Continue reading
My thanks to Kolide for once again sponsoring Six Colors. Kolide takes a different approach to endpoint security and fleet management. It’s all about helping customers meet compliance goals by enlisting the support of their end users with a structured, message-based approach.… | Continue reading
One of my favorite iPad apps of all time is Wooji Juice’s Ferrite Recording Studio, a complete multi-track audio editor that I prefer to the likes of Logic and GarageBand for editing podcasts.… | Continue reading
Three dumb guys talking bout technology.… | Continue reading
How we’ve used or could use OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the silliest and/or most time-consuming automations we’ve created, our thoughts on Apple’s new App Store price points, and our plans to own an Apple Car.… | Continue reading
On Wednesday Apple announced some major new security initiatives that the company will be rolling out from now through later in 2023. The biggest one is the addition of nine Apple services to end-to-end encryption, meaning that Apple can’t access cloud data even if authorities de … | Continue reading
If you’ve been blogging on the Mac for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with Red Sweater Software’s excellent MarsEdit blogging software. The new microposting feature lets you write blog posts as easily as social media.… | Continue reading
Yang Jie and Aaron Tilley, reporting over the weekend for the Wall Street Journal (Apple News link): In recent weeks, Apple Inc. has accelerated plans to shift some of its production outside China, long the dominant country in the supply chain that built the world’s most valuabl … | Continue reading
On Tuesday, Apple announced a new Music feature for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV (but not Mac!) that combines Apple Music’s live lyrics with the ability to adjust the volume of vocals to create a singalong mode it’s calling Apple Music Sing: Apple today announced Apple Music Sing, … | Continue reading
Twitterrific for Mac–still going strong. My explorations with Mastodon have thus far been undertaken largely with the service’s web app. It’s fine, as far as things go. But itR… | Continue reading
John Siracusa returns to the show to chat about Jason’s recent visit to his house, Mac app development, Apple’s brain drain, TSMC breaking ground in Arizona, the problems with AI training models, the current state of macOS, and what makes a Good Product.… | Continue reading
You know the old thought experiment about the AI designed to make paper clips, that quickly decides that in order to maximize paper clips, it will have to get rid of all the humans? A lot of securi… | Continue reading
Jason joins Dan in person at Dan’s desk to discuss projects in progress, automations, and Twitter and Mastodon.… This story is for Six Colors members only. Become a member to get access to exclusive stories, podcasts, and community.. | Continue reading
My thanks to Kolide for once again sponsoring Six Colors. If you build a dystopian and cynical security program born out of fear, mistrust, and suspicion, then you will inevitably make your fellow employees your enemies.… | Continue reading
Fun story from Macworld contributor Benj Edwards over at Ars Technica about running a BBS1 when he was 11, which he still runs over the Internet now: Even before I was fully ready, I jumped the gun and began advertising my BBS phone number on other BBSes.… | Continue reading