Apple HomeKit can be a bigger player in the smart home market (Macworld/Dan Moren)

In the past few years, smart home tech has gone from a niche category to one that’s started to worm its way throughout our entire world. Apple’s HomeKit has played a part in that, but a… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Intel gins up some M1-unfriendly benchmarks ↦

Andrew E. Freedman, reporting for Tom’s Hardware: After several months of silence, [Intel is] firing back at Apple. Slides from the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker shows how it tested, an… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The mortality of software

Via Simone de Rochefort on Twitter. On one level, the impending death of Call Recorder, a utility I’ve relied on for more than a decade, shouldn’t actually be a big deal. As useful and … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: February 5, 2021

Nothing lasts, especially not software. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 327: You Slow Things Down

One of the hosts is broken. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 384: I’m Going To Be Petty About This

Our thoughts on tech obscurity, the quality-of-life improvements in iOS 14.5, the software feature we want to see come to our favorite platform(s), and Tim Cook’s take on Big Social. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The Hackett File: A Look at GoodLinks (Member Post)

GoodLinks runs on the Mac, iPad and iPhone. Since the dawn of time the App Store, I’ve used Instapaper to save links for later, but last year I checked out GoodLinks, thanks to John Voorhees&… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Hands on with Big Sur beta 11.3

On Tuesday, Apple released its first developer beta of the next macOS cycle: Big Sur version 11.3. (I’m still getting used to typing “11” after all these years.) First, the warnin… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The Mac’s audio and AirPods support needs to be more like iOS (Macworld/Jason Snell)

There’s a lot to prefer about how macOS handles sound compared to iOS. On the Mac, more than one app can play audio at one time, and the audio just plays—on iOS, only one app is supposed to play au… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Bad AppleScript: Fake RSS, real newsletter

It came from AppleScript?! The big benefit of this site’s move to WordPress was the ability to post our members-only articles to the site. The result has been an influx of new members, for wh… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 337: No Appreciable Gates

2020 was bad, but for Apple it was sort of… good? We take a last look back at the year with Apple’s record financial quarter and the annual Six Colors Apple Report Card. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple rolls out Big Sur 11.2, unmasks new iOS betas

On Monday Apple released macOS Big Sur 11.2, featuring improvements to Bluetooth reliability, some assorted bug fixes, and a bunch of stealth feature changes, like closing the hole in the wall that… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

iCloud Keychain comes to Chrome, but sadly only on Windows

As I wrote just this week in Macworld, Apple has used a number of strategies to encourage users to switch to its products, among them, the “ice water in hell” approach of adapting some … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

How Apple flips the switch and keeps bringing in new customers (Macworld/Dan Moren)

The more things change, the more things stay the same. For the past several years, the comic strip Doonesbury has been in re-runs for its weekday strips; this past week’s series, hailing from… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

The Back Page: How to rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac (Member Post)

If you get unexpected, puzzling, or even downright befuddling results when searching your Mac, rebuilding the Spotlight index might help. Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Spotl… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: January 29, 2021

Good and bad grades, record results, and both the Home app and Facebook are bad. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple in 2020: The Six Colors report card

It’s time for our annual look back on Apple’s performance during the past year, as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people who spend an awful… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

iOS 14 protects iMessages with “Blast Door” ↦

Really interesting (albeit highly technical) look from Google security researcher Samuel Groß at a new iMessage protection scheme that Apple introduced in iOS 14: As can be seen, the majority of th… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Cook: Companies like Facebook don’t deserve praise, “they deserve reform”

On Thursday–which is apparently Data Privacy Day at Apple–Tim Cook gave a speech at the Computers, Privacy & Data Protection 2021 conference. In it, he made some very pointed commen… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple’s financial results: iPad, Apple silicon, and secret sauce

It was another record holiday quarter for Apple, followed by the traditional executive chat with financial analysts. Amid the avalanche of numbers and words, there are always things that jump out a… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) iPad Pros #103: Jason Snell from Six Colors

Timn Chaten reached out to me because I posted a screenshot of me editing (vertically!) a complicated podcast project in Ferrite Recording Studio. So I appeared on his podcast to discuss working fr… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Four lessons from Apple’s record 2021 first quarter results (Macworld/Jason Snell)

We all saw it coming. Despite a global pandemic and economic and political unrest, the indefatigable Apple money machine would continue to chug away. Traditionally, the last three months of the cal… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

This is Tim: Holiday 2020 results call transcript

Apple’s latest record financial results were released on Wednesday. Here we’ll be posting our usual transcript of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s and CFO Luca Maestri’s statements on a… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Q1 2021 financial results: Apple’s latest record holiday quarter

On Wednesday, Apple announced its financial results for its first fiscal quarter of 2021, covering the holiday quarter of calendar-year 2020. This is traditionally Apple’s largest quarter eve… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 326: Smash on Glass

Like cleaning two chalkboard erasers. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 383: Opacity of Technology

Twitter’s new crowdsourced fact-checking feature, Apple’s new companion audio for taking walks, our tech pet peeves, and the future of unions in Silicon Valley. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Control HomeKit from the keyboard with HomeControl Menu

HomeKit came late to macOS, and the Home app–imported from iOS–isn’t very good. Among its failings is a lack of presence in the menu bar, an inability to bind devices to keyboard … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

iOS/iPadOS 14.4 updates contain patches for “actively exploited” vulnerabilities ↦

Zack Whittaker at Tech Crunch: Apple has released iOS 14.4 with security fixes for three vulnerabilities, said to be under active attack by hackers. The technology giant said in its security update… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

John Ternus takes over as SVP of Apple hardware as Dan Riccio moves to “new project” ↦

Apple: Apple today announced Dan Riccio will transition to a new role focusing on a new project and reporting to CEO Tim Cook, building on more than two decades of innovation, service, and leadersh… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 336: Cool Report, Though

This week Myke and Jason discuss Apple’s rumored VR headset, a smaller MacBook Air, Fitness+ walks with celebrities, and why more movies and sports are making the move to streaming outlets. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple launches Time to Walk feature for Fitness+ ↦

Apple Newsroom: Apple today unveiled Time to Walk, an inspiring new audio walking experience on Apple Watch for Fitness+ subscribers, created to encourage users to walk more often and reap the bene… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: January 22, 2021

The gentle sounds of rain, and cats, and hard drives. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock

My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Magic Lasso Adblock is an efficient and high performance ad blocker for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. It runs as a native Safari co… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Raiders of the dead drive (Member Post)

Lights on, nobody home Back in the early days of the pandemic, the Drobo 5D disk array attached to my Mac mini died–and with it went my access to all my archival podcast and video files (incl… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 325: Nose ID

The better place. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 382: Techno-Necromancy

Our top-two streaming media services, our thoughts on MagSafe returning to the Mac, gadgets we think still need work, and what we use instead of Instagram, Oculus, and WhatsApp. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Using Mac tools to build a ‘searchable news firehose’ ↦

Audio producer James Shield, who works on the daily news podcast of the Times and the Sunday Times (of London), details how he’s using digital tools to make it easier to cover breaking news: … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 335: Repudiation of a Decade

A half-sized Mac Pro? No more Touch Bar? MagSafe is coming back? A consumer Apple display? This week Jason and Myke are partying like it’s 2015 as they analyze all the reports about new Macs … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock: Block ads, trackers and pop-ups

Wish you could browse the web quickly, smoothly, and anonymously with no advertising? Magic Lasso Adblock is an efficient, high performance ad blocker for your iPhone, iPad and Mac. As a native Saf… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Will 2021 be the year Apple’s U1 chip goes wide? (Macworld/Dan Moren)

Apple’s no stranger to introducing and popularizing new technologies. The original iMac wasn’t the first to use USB, but it drove adoption of the standard. Multitouch displays existed b… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Safari 14 added WebExtensions support. So where are the extensions?

Library Extension helps you find library books, but it doesn’t work on Safari–yet. At WWDC 2020, Apple announced it was going to support Chrome-style browser extensions (the WebExtensio… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Major spoilers for the Mac in 2021 ↦

If you like to be surprised about what new products Apple is planning, you might want to avert your eyes. On Friday there were two major reports about Apple’s forthcoming Mac plans. First off… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Apple TV+ website gets better ↦

Apple has tidied up the Apple TV+ website, according to Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac: As of today’s overhaul, the new TV+ website homepage features the same featured header that you see in the Apple TV… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

Export your Apple Notes in bulk (Member Post)

I’m an avid user of Apple’s Notes app: it’s where I keep all my random jottings, from ideas for books to thoughts for podcasts I’m recording, and pretty much everything in b… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

6C Podcast: January 14, 2021

A pirate’s life–and little laptops–for us. Also, AirTags stalkers and Fitness+ possibilities. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 324: Flash Is Dumb

The one where Lex walks out. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 381: White Chocolate’s Not Real Chocolate

Yet another leak of Apple’s tracking fobs, who should moderate online content, good password hygiene, and Spotify’s podcast listeners. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago

We’ll take our leave and go ↦

Clayton Ashley of Polygon can help explain why you’re hearing sea shanties in your head now. And if you’re not hearing them now, you will be hearing them as soon as you click through: J… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 years ago