The FBI’s smartphone trap ran on ‘ArcaneOS’ ↦

Ars Technica’s Ron Amadeo has more details on the fake phones the FBI seeded amongst criminals: Two different interfaces would launch depending on what PIN you typed in on the lock screen. PI… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Feedback: iPad Mail should provide single-tap paste

FB9299101 Recent Similar Reports: None Resolution: Open Please provide a descriptive title for your feedback: Mail toolbar should provide single-tap icon for clipboard paste. Please describe the is… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Broadband in the Boonies 2021 ↦

Longtime MacUser and Macworld contributor Chris Breen works at Apple these days, and so he can’t write about tech anymore. Mostly. But for years, first at Macworld and now on his own blog, he… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: July 9, 2021

We’re both sitting on a beach drinking a cold beverage this week. (But not the same beach.) | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 406: Ostensibly on Vacation

Pokémon Go, our biggest tech gear ROI, the tech we take on vacation, and whether we’d rather have a time machine or a transporter. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The life cycle of Apple Watch backups (Member Post)

I recently had to go back to my Series 5 Apple Watch after my Series 6 met an untimely end when I slid down a waterfall at a state park on family vacation. I was fine, but my watch’s glass fa… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

A future for extending Apple Mail? ↦

David Sparks finds a glimmer of hope for the future of Apple Mail in Apple’s new MailKit plug-in interface for the Mac: There is already a rich ecosystem of Apple Mail plugins, but I’ve… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

You’re not backing up enough

I know you’ve heard it a million times before, so many times that you skim past it when you read it. And you’ll probably do it again this time, but I’ve got to try. I’m look… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 360: Big Minimizers

Presenting Upgrade 360, where YOU choose the audio quality! (The quality of the actual content was up to us.) The podcast bubble keeps expanding, and the macOS Public Beta has arrived. It’s a… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Gurman: Apple thinks about decentralized work ↦

In the second edition of Mark German’s excellent Bloomberg newsletter, he details that Apple is actively exploring new ways of work that don’t circle around Cupertino: Just a few years … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Migrating 2FA codes from Authy to Apple’s system

One of the features I’m most excited about in Apple’s latest platform updates is the ability to save two-factor authentication codes into my iCloud Keychain. That means (hopefully) no m… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) Loopback: Powerful cable-free audio routing

My thanks to Rogue Amoeba for again sponsoring Six Colors, this time for Loopback. Loopback has become an essential tool in my Mac audio toolbox. Loopback passes audio between Mac apps, so if you n… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: July 2, 2021

A week of public betas: Safari, Shortcuts, Focus, and more. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Stephen Hackett’s Apple hardware wall calendar ↦

Stephen Hackett, Six Colors contributor and collector of vintage Apple Hardware, has launched a Kickstarter for a 2022 wall calendar featuring his original photography of items from his large colle… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

First Look: macOS Monterey Public Beta

If there’s a theme of Apple’s operating-system releases in 2021, it’s platform unification. This development is most significant for macOS, which tended to lag behind iOS in the 2… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Warzel: ‘This is the awful voice inside my head’ ↦

In the aftermath of Apple employees pushing back on return-to-office policies and negative reactions to that (and again and likewise), Charlie Warzel wrote at length about why companies need to lis… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The Back Page: Welcome back to Apple Park, where everything is still totally normal (Member Post)

Here at Apple, we are delighted that America’s excellent progress in combatting COVID-19 means that we will this fall be able to welcome our employees back to Apple Park in person. Face-to-fa… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 hit Public Beta ↦

After a couple of developer betas, iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are now available as part of Apple’s Beta Software Program, alongside beta versions of MacOS Monterey, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8. Federico… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 405: Phone Calls Are Gross

How we handle email, the potential of Shortcuts on the Mac, our latest tech delights, and whether we prefer our social media to be fed to us by the algorithm. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Big Mail may not be my next email client, but it’s aiming at the future

Old habits are hard to break, and when it comes to my very online life, there’s no habit older than email. I’ve had an email address since roughly 1994, and over the quarter-decade sinc… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Shortcuts shaping up on the Mac ↦

Running a shortcut via the command line on macOS Monterey. Last week, Dr. Drang wrote an excellent post summing up where Shortcuts on the Mac fits in with all of the Mac’s existing automation… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 359: Hi Everybody… Pineapple

SUMMER OF FUN! This week we’ve got new beachwear, a mega Summer edition of #askupgrade, dreams of larger iPads, and a less fun conversation about Apple’s reaction to potential new tech … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) Loopback: Powerful cable-free audio routing

Pass audio between applications on your Mac with the power of Loopback. Need to play a recording into Zoom? Add sound effects into a podcast? Include music in a streamed event? Loopback gives you t… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: June 25, 2021

New audio equipment, beta software, and the pace of Apple app updates. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

And all for the want of an Apple TV remote (Member Post)

This is the story of how the new Apple TV remote cost me hundreds of dollars, but in a good way. We were happy earlier this month to take delivery of a new Apple TV 4K, to replace one that I had gi… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

iPadOS 15’s multitasking controls are a nudge to developers

As I was reading Jason’s excellent Macworld piece about the future of iPadOS multitasking this morning this morning, I was simultaneously poking around the iPadOS 15 beta when something struc… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 404: ALL THE SCREENS, DAN!

Apps and tech we use to fall asleep, our tech pickiness, our single- or multi-monitor setups, and interface changes we’ve never gotten used to. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 347: First Of All, My Stuff Is Amazing

Our annual Prime Day extravaganza. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Congress begins to crank up Big Tech legislation ↦

The legislative challenges to big tech, including Apple, are beginning: A House panel pushed ahead Wednesday with ambitious legislation that could curb the market power of tech giants Facebook, Goo… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The myth of serendipity at the office water cooler ↦

One of the oldest arguments for having employees all work in the same office (and, within that space, out in the open and not behind office doors) is the idea that if you have a bunch of people bou… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 358: Apple Watch Extreme or Whatever

This week we talk the future of the Apple Watch–new materials, new shapes, and all the sensors Apple wants to put on your body–and the risks Apple might face by not learning the right l… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Rewiring my brain with Quick Note (Member Post)

To my surprise, as much as anybody’s, I’ve ended up using Apple’s Notes app a lot over the last several years. I use it when I want to jot down things about my novels, when I’m taking notes f… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: June 18, 2021

WWDC hangovers, the Globe key, and some live pinging. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Think Globally: The iPad’s new universal keyboard shortcuts

I’ve seen the future of the iPad, and it’s hidden under a key. The future of an entire platform is a lot to pile on a single plastic square, but here we are. Down in the bottom left cor… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Quick Tip: Timestamp a ping

If you’ve spent any amount of time troubleshooting network connections, you’ve probably used good old ping. But as I discovered recently, sometimes you need a little more information ou… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 346: It Has Been a While

This episode is brought to you by internet interruptions. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 403: I Am a Tiny Kitten Hanging on to a Tree

Apple’s new podcast subscriptions, our favorite under-the-radar WWDC news, the last game we got into, and which big tech companies we’d break up. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 357: Collaborative Calculating

WWDC 2021 is over! This week we discuss a lot of the hidden details of Apple’s announcements, and share our first reactions to using the first developer betas. (Jason isn’t mad at Safar… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

More depth on iPadOS 15 multitasking ↦

TechCrunch’s Mathew Panzarino got an interview with Apple marketer Bob Borchers and exec Sebastien Mariners-Mes in which they addressed the changes to multitasking in iPadOS 15: “It was a ver… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

WWDC 2021: Safari 15 to bring huge UI changes

When Apple’s annual updates ship this fall, Safari will be at version 15. Each new version of Apple’s browser is marked by security and performance improvements, but this year Safari is… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: June 11, 2021

Did anything happen this week? Oh, just a few things. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) Coherence X4

My thanks to Coherence X4 for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Coherence X4 allows you to turn any website into a chromium-powered app on your Mac. You pick a site, enter a name, and pick an icon, … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

2021 Apple Design Awards announced ↦

Apple announced the winners of its annual design awards today, and it’s a really impressive collection of iPhone and iPad apps1. Here are the winners: Apps Inclusivity: Voice Dream Reader Del… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

WWDC 2021: MailKit set to offer new Mail extension possibilities

For many years, power users have been able to use plug-ins to extend the capabilities of macOS’ built-in Mail application. And for years, those users have been accustomed to those plug-ins br… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

WWDC 2021: Apple dips its toes into Matter’s smart home

The early years of smart home tech have been a morass of competing standards and technologies, often hindering broad adoption by consumers who don’t want to figure out which devices work with… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

‘Shortcuts for Mac: The Future Is Now’ ↦

John Voorhees provides a really good overview of how far Shortcuts has come: The second thing that struck me about Monday’s announcement is how well Shortcuts has been set up to succeed on the Mac.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Dark Sky iOS app lives another year ↦

If you thought the addition of precipitation alerts and a redesigned Weather app in iOS 15 meant that Dark Sky, which Apple acquired back in 2020, was not long for this world…well, it’s… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

WWDC 2021: New App Store Features Coming in iOS, iPadOS 15

When iOS and iPadOS 15 launch later this year, the App Store will have new tools for developers to optimize their product pages to better stand out in the busy marketplace. The first tool to do thi… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago