HomePod mini contains unused temperature/humidity sensor ↦

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the HomePod mini contains a dormant temperature/humidity sensor: The sensor, measuring 1.5 by 1.5 millimeters, is buried in the bottom edge of the HomePod… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Creating a “new” SE/30 logic board ↦

This is staggering. “Bolle,” from Germany, drew and built a functional Mac SE/30 logic board. And with this work done, people in this message-board thread are beginning to speculate abo… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) Kandji

My thanks to Kandji for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Kandji is building the future of Apple device management. Drawing on decades of experience in Apple IT, the founders of Kandji saw the need … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: March 19, 2021

Mac apps rule, leakers drool. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) 20 Macs for 2020 podcast 26: John Gruber, part 3

From November 20, 2020: Titanium PowerBook G4, MacBook Air, the original Macintosh, PowerBook 140/170, and iMac G3. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Acorn 7 brings M1 compatibility, tons of refinements

I don’t envy software developers who work on image editors—it must be tough when your biggest competitor has basically become a generic term for the whole category. But I’ve never been … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Mac apps yes, text preferences no ↦

I really enjoyed this review of Panic’s code editor Nova by Alex Guyot of MacStories. Nova is a remarkable Mac-only app that I’m looking forward to using with all updates to the Six Col… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Can Apple explain its home strategy? ↦

Zac Hall of 9to5 Mac has some questions about the discontinuation of the HomePod: Remember when Mac users had similar concerns about pro machines in Apple’s lineup? Apple rightfully held a roundtab… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 333: Yesferatu

The HomePod is no longer on the range. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Make Twitter better with Lists (Member Post)

I use Twitter a lot, and have for a long time. But I recently discovered that there’s a feature of Twitter that most people don’t use–and it’s one that I’ve been using… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 390: Ba Dah Dum, Ba Dah Dum, Ba Dah Dum

Gamification of tasks, vertical tabs, Apple’s smart home ambitions, and sleep hacks. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Gurman: New iPads on tap for April ↦

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that new iPad Pro models are on the way as early as April, with some interesting new features: The company is planning a refresh to its iPad Pro line, adding a… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Google drops its app store commission to 15 percent on the first $1 million ↦

Google VP of Product Management, Sameer Samat: Starting on July 1, 2021 we are reducing the service fee Google Play receives when a developer sells digital goods or services to 15% for the first $1… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Seeing gray ↦

The Internet’s Dr. Drang points out a weird interface change in Big Sur: The M1 MacBook Air is the only machine I have running Big Sur, and for the first few days I kept wondering why certain… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Group FaceTime being used for spam calls ↦

Dan Goodin, writing at Ars Technica: FaceTime users are getting bombarded with group calls from numbers they’ve never seen before, often as many as 20 times in short succession during late hours of… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 343: Don’t Call It a HomePod

Myke’s on a quest for new TV speakers as we ponder the misfire of Apple’s high-end speaker and the potential fate of Apple’s high-end headphones. Jason runs with his Apple Watch, … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) Kandji

This week, Six Colors is brought to you by Kandji. Kandji is building the future of Apple enterprise management. The use of Apple devices in the enterprise is growing rapidly. Drawing on decades of… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

How the HomePod mini can succeed where Apple’s first smart speaker failed (Macworld/Dan Moren)

In an unexpected move, Apple revealed late Friday that the full-sized version of its HomePod smart speaker would be discontinued. This came a couple of days after the Space Gray model had already b… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The original HomePod is no more ↦

The original HomePod has been discontinued. Matthew Panzarino has the death notice: After 4 years on the market, Apple has discontinued its original HomePod. It says that it will continue to produc… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Running with the new Overcast watch app

My podcast app of choice, Overcast, was recently updated and now features a brand-new Apple Watch app. According to Overcast developer Marco Arment, not a lot of Overcast users use the watch app, b… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Secrets of the Share sheet (Member Post)

Wayyyy back before multitasking was even a glimmer in the iPad’s eye, there was the Share sheet. First introduced in iOS 8, the Share sheet was the first way to easily move information betwee… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: March 12, 2012

If this episode wears out or breaks, we’ll replace it free of charge, no questions asked. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) 20 Macs for 2020 podcast 25: John Gruber, part 2

From August 31, 2020: The Macintosh Portable, Power Computing clones, iMac G4, Power Mac G4 Cube, iBook, Macintosh SE/30, and laying out pages at college newspapers. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Requiem for the iMac Pro, the ultimate Intel Mac (Macworld/Jason Snell)

Maybe someday there will be a tell-all book written by someone inside Apple during the 2010s. Maybe we will eventually know exactly what happened that led to a bit of a lost decade for the Mac, one… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The joy of fake sports

Despite being terrible at sports, I have been a sports fan my whole life. And for most of that time, I have wondered what it is about sports that makes them so appealing to so many people. At the h… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Why you can’t find Amazon-published ebooks and audiobooks in your library ↦

Geoffrey A. Fowler, writing at The Washington Post, about Amazon’s refusal to let libraries offer ebooks of the titles it publishes: Turns out, the tech giant has also become a publishing pow… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 389: Robots Don’t Have Feelings

Google’s pullback from targeted advertising, TikTok’s new anti-bullying measures, how we read books, and what the heck is going on with NFTs. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Mars litters so much dust you can see it ↦

Scientific discoveries often come from surprising places. Lonnie Shekhtman of NASA: Look up to the night sky just before dawn, or after dusk, and you might see a faint column of light extending up … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve get M1 updates ↦

There’s been a beta version of Photoshop that runs native on the Apple M1 processor since the early days of the Apple silicon era, but on Wednesday Adobe released the official version, versio… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 332: My Way Or The Highway

How many VOIP platforms can we use in a single show? | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 342: 24 24 24 24 23 23 23 23 22 22 22 22

This week we ponder the future of WWDC, say goodbye to the iMac Pro, investigate a new iPad stand, and wonder about the misplaced priorities of the Paramount+ roll-out. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Goodbye, parallel timeline: Apple discontinues the iMac Pro

The iMac Pro, released in 2017, is no longer being made. Apple continues to sell them while they last, but that’s it. This isn’t a surprise. The iMac Pro hasn’t ever been updated,… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Newsletters without email

The California Sun newsletter, forwarded to NetNewsWire. Like many people in 2021, I suddenly find myself a paying subscriber to a bunch of email newsletters. One of the benefits of working at home… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: March 5, 2021

The good stuff: spam and text editors. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) 20 Macs for 2020 podcast 24: John Gruber, part 1

An interview from June 12, 2020 covering the first nine entries in the series. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

iOS 14.5 beta Find My feature could tell you when you’re being tracked ↦

9to5Mac’s Benjamin Mayo caught a new feature in the latest iOS 14.5 beta: Something I hadn’t considered before: new beta includes a Item Safety setting in Find My. This is how Apple is trying… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) Kandji

My thanks to Kandji for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Kandji is building the future of Apple device management. Drawing on decades of experience in Apple IT, the founders of Kandji saw the need … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple lets you transfer photos to Google Photos ↦

Juli Clover at MacRumors: Apple this week introduced a new service that’s designed to make it quick and easy for iCloud users to transfer their stored photos and videos to Google Photos. As o… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) For All Mankind S2E3 Review: “Rules of Engagement” (TeeVee 696)

Turns out that the Soviets are America’s annoying moon roommates, moving their stuff without asking—and it might trigger a lunar conflict. Also, Tracy and Gordo continue to be messed up, Margo prov… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

StrongSync: A peek at the future of cloud files on the Mac

This is Google Drive, but it looks just like iCloud Drive. Long-time Mac storage utility maker ExpanDrive has launched StrongSync, a $50 utility that… sort of does what ExpanDrive already doe… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The lifetime of a software lifetime ↦

Related to my thoughts about the mortality of software and the announcement that Weather Line is shutting down, Jonas Downey of Basecamp writes about the meaning of buying a “lifetime” … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 388: We Put the Fun in Fungible

Our favorite dongles, adapters, and docks. Our thoughts on day trading. How we deal with spam calls and texts. Gadgets and accessories that haven’t gotten as much use during the pandemic. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Comcast makes it really hard to figure out upload speeds ↦

Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin runs up against one of my personal pet peeves: the inability to easily get information about the upload speeds on Comcast’s various internet plans. I’ve… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 331: Imaginary Brother

Printer and Other Peripherals Corner. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Searching for the perfect iOS Markdown writing tool

I love writing on my iPad. The mere act of getting up from my desk and switching away from my iMac can help me break out of a rut and be more productive. I frequently write in my backyard and at my… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

How it feels to be edited ↦

Everyone needs an editor. But there is no doubt that being edited can be excruciating. Especially if your editor is good at what they do. Here’s a short bit from Marcin Wichary about the edit… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple should broaden its privacy commitment (Macworld/Jason Snell)

For years now, Apple has trumpeted its commitment to the privacy of its customers. Unlike most of its competitors, Apple’s business model (primarily selling products and services, not advertising) … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Do you need a bootable Mac backup? ↦

For years, one of the standards of Mac data protection has been making a daily bootable backup. If your Mac’s hard drive dies, you can plug in the backup and use it as your boot drive, pickin… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago