Cord Cutting Diary: Fubo TV

Fubo’s Quad Box interface is great for sports. Though I’ve just cut the cord and dumped traditional cable TV, the truth is, I’m cheating. I’ve subscribed to what’s cal… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 411: A Bigger Budget for My Disappointments

The tech we can’t seem to let go of, what annoyances we’d fix with $50, our feelings on smart TVs, and how automated photo-surfacing apps work (or don’t) for us. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Unexpected benefits (and shortcomings) of Apple’s new Live Text feature (Member Post)

There are plenty of whiz-bang features in Apple’s upcoming OS updates, but to my mind, Live Text is the one poised to fundamentally change our interactions with technology. Once upon a time p… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple’s Head of Privacy on anti-child-abuse features ↦

This is a good interview between Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch and Erik Neuenschwander, head of Privacy at Apple, about Apple’s announced child-abuse-related features. A highlight: We have … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Why are vaccine cards the wrong size? ↦

Funny and incisive piece from Amanda Mull at The Atlantic about the bad design of the CDC’s vaccine cards: But let’s hold our focus on the most important point of inquiry: What’s the deal wit… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 365: Apple’s Compromise

This week Myke and Jason discuss Apple’s child safety announcements. Also, Apple rediscovers its online store, and streaming services keep trying to build new franchises. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) TextSniper

TextSniper is a lightning-fast OCR app that can extract text anywhere on your Mac’s screen and automatically save it to your clipboard so that you can paste it into a live document or anywhere you … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Security researchers intercept audio from power LED fluctuations ↦

Ars Technica’s Jim Salter on a novel eavesdropping method devised by security researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev: The Cyber@BGU team—consisting of Ben Nassi, Yaron Pirutin, Tom… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

‘FAQ about Apple’s Expanded Protections for Children’ ↦

Rich Mogull and Glenn Fleishman have a detailed look at Apple’s announcement of multiple software changes involving photos and illegal material: Apple’s announcement headlined these changes a… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: August 5, 2021

A special Thursday edition. Mac Pro, Google’s new chip and phone, and two writers talk about programming. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 410: My Italian Shout

The return of our pandemic tech setups, our thoughts on Citizen’s premium Protect offering, whether we’ve replaced complicated tech with something less complicated, and how we do — or d… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple keeping its Mac Pro promise in the waning days of the Intel era (Member Post)

And I thought they looked good on the outside! Earlier this week, Apple announced a range of new GPU options for the Mac Pro, adding support for AMD’s RDNA2 architecture via its own MPX modul… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 352: Fellow Kids Energy

Another week, another special guest. James Thomson has a shocking confession that will leave you reeling. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Mac Pro gets a graphics update ↦

It’s not dead yet! On Tuesday, Apple rolled out three new graphics card modules for the Intel-based Mac Pro, all based on AMD’s Radeon Pro W6000 series GPU. (Apple posted a Mac Pro perf… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Magic Keyboard with Touch ID now available for purchase ↦

For those who want the benefits of biometric authentication for their existing Mac, good news: the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, recently introduced alongside the M1 iMac, is now available for indi… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

New York Times Crossword to third-party apps: Drop dead ↦

Everdeen Mason of the New York Times, with an abrupt announcement: Starting Aug. 10, we will no longer support crossword play on Across Lite. This means we won’t provide downloadable .puz files for… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Google debuts its own chip on the Pixel 6 ↦

Google SVP Rick Osterloh unveils the new Tensor System-on-a-Chip designed by Google to power the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones: Tensor was built for how people use their phones today and how peopl… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 364: Content Arms Dealer

Myke and Jason discuss last week’s record Apple financial results, and then Jason welcomes special guest Julia Alexander for a mega-Upstream about ScarJo v. Disney, the future of movies, and … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Quick Tip: Delete that pesky un-deletable folder

You put something in the trash in macOS, you empty the trash, it’s gone. That’s how it’s supposed to work. Sometimes, though, you run into an odd hiccup. Upon my recent updates to… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

A Back Page: The Absurd Analyst Call (Member Post)

Once every three months, I have the self-inflicted privilege of producing a complete text transcript of Apple’s post-results conference call with a gaggle of financial analysts. I used to typ… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: July 30, 2021

Stephen Hackett’s Mac hardware calendar, old hardware, the Mac’s golden era (it’s now!), and picking at the thread of the tapestry that is Safari 15. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Cutting the cord: Apps, savings, and a networking headache

Fubo TV on an iPad. I cut the cord this week. After several years of very slowly inching my way toward the precipice, it all happened in a hurry this summer: A discovery that I preferred to watch s… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 409: Well A-Cancelly-Doo

What services we’ve added (or subtracted) during the pandemic, our Twitter bits that deserve to be shows, what companies we would de-IPO, and the travel tech we find indispensable. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

This is Tim: Apple’s Q3 2021 call with analysts (transcript)

Here’s a transcript of Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri’s call with financial analysts. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple posts $81B quarterly results: Charts

Apple posted record third-quarter results today, featuring $81 billion in revenue. There will be a lot more to say about it momentarily, but here are the charts…. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Live Text comes to Intel Macs in macOS Monterey beta 4

Selecting and dragging some live text from an image on macOS Monterey. In a surprise twist, a macOS Monterey feature previously advertised as being available only on M1 Macs will now be available o… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 363: Our App Is a Game Now

Football is Life! This week Myke and Jason join Netflix in pretending to understand games, ponder a smarter Apple display, and then discuss “Loki” and the return of “Ted Lasso.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: July 23, 2021

Listening to users, rejecting innocent apps, and self-inflicted Safari wounds. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

iDOS emulator may be removed from the App Store ↦

Chaoji Li, developer of iDOS reports that the app has fallen afoul of Apple’s prohibition on executed code, and will probably be removed from the App Store (though it’s still available … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 350: That’s the Way Time Works

The big 3-5-0. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 408: TikTok Tech Talk

How we manage email spam, the tools we use that have changed how we complete tasks, tech decluttering, and how we fix privacy problems like Pegasus. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Getting a handle on outdoor air quality (Member Post)

Last year, I wrote about how I built a bunch of scripts to notify me about my local air quality. Well, it’s summer again, and wildfires are back–and with wildfires comes polluting wildf… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

How concerned should you be about Pegasus, the latest iOS spyware?

A few big stories in the news over the weekend disclosed the existence of a piece of spyware called Pegasus, developed by NSO Group, which has hacked a number of phones—including iPhones—belonging … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The right Mac laptop for students (2021 edition) ↦

I updated my perennial “The right Mac laptop to buy for a student” story today, two years to the day since I last updated it. It’s funny how that story has evolved since I first p… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Coming home to Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City

Sliding down a string of lanterns in the Lost City. On July 16 Team Alto1 released Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City on Apple Arcade. It’s a sequel of sorts to Alto’s Odyssey, release… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

BBEdit 14.0 arrives with Notes and LSP support

Bare Bones Software has released BBEdit 14.0, a new version with a whole bunch of new features. (Even the oldest software dogs are fully capable of learning new tricks.) BBEdit notes are persistent… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 362: He’s Posting More Chickens!

Jason’s back, and Myke has a lot of questions about his vacation. They also discuss a load of Apple TV+ news, new Safari betas, the MagSafe battery pack, and a bunch of Apple hardware rumors. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

HomePod 14.7 improves timer control, but doesn’t go nearly far enough

Amongst Apple’s latest spate of updates today is HomePod 14.7, which brings as its biggest feature the ability to view and control timers set on the HomePod from the Home app. Which all HomeP… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

In praise of the Siri Suggestions widget (Member Post)

Those apps? They’re a widget! 🤯 Siri gets a lot of flack from Apple device users—and it’s often well deserved. The voice assistant’s performance is generally spotty, sometimes dow… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple Podcasts reliability problem is turning into an image problem

Podcasting has been an important part of my life for more than a decade now; these days, I make roughly half my income from the various shows that I host and produce. That’s why it’s so… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: July 16, 2021

We’re back from vacation and in need of network administration. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 349: That’s The Horse I’ll Die On

We’re mainly a show about old technology now. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 407: It’s Gonna Work This Time

The input devices we use, how much of our work happens in the cloud, form vs. function in our tech purchases, and the details that Apple sweats (and the ones it doesn’t). | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple releases MagSafe Battery Pack ↦

Apple’s continuing to build out its MagSafe accessory market by releasing a $99 battery pack that uses the company’s magnetic charging feature. Just slap it on the back of your iPhone 1… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The retro design of Loki’s technology ↦

I’ve been watching and enjoying Loki, but one of the most fun parts of the show is the design and aesthetic of the Time Variance Authority offices. It’s just dripping with a ’60s … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Consumer Reports is collecting internet bills ↦

Like many of you, I generally feel that I pay a lot for internet access and it’s not as good as I’d like. But it’s tricky sometimes to draw data from that feeling. Which is why Co… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Windows 3.1 on an iPad ↦

After a few tips from Harry McCracken on Twitter, retro tech genius Benj Edwards has created detailed instructions on how to run Windows 3.1 on the iPad: Thanks to a MS-DOS emulator called iDOS 2 o… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 361: It’s Not an Artistic Exercise

For the first time Jason is (mostly) off this week! After discussing who’s winning the streaming wars, Myke challenges John Siracusa to describe his ideal Mac, asks Merlin Mann to share what he’s e… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago