(Podcast) Clockwise #357: Not Yet and Also Never

This week on the 30-minute tech show that’s live with no audience, Dan and Mikah are joined by special guests Heather Kelly and James Thomson to discuss streaming services’ Watch Together fea… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Brent Simmons provides some App Store reality ↦

I love a good fisking, and Brent Simmons has done a number on a Cult of Mac piece about the App Store: [That the App Store was a much better deal for selling software than what came before] is enor… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Dr. Icon and the Icons of Big Sur

This week’s Upgrade is a walk through the many icons of macOS Big Sur. Stephen Hackett, Myke Hurley and I picked our favorites and least favorites. Staring at an icon at full size makes you q… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade #308: The Adventures of Dr. Icon

This week Stephen Hackett joins Myke and Jason to consider the best and worst changes to app icons in macOS Big Sur. What makes a good icon? How are books shaped? What is the origin of the term … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Automate This: How hot does it feel?

It’s hot. How hot is it, Dan? So hot that apparently I’ve taken to creating temperature-related shortcuts? It started out with a relatively simple idea: I wanted to know if it was coole… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

The biggest question about the next iPhone: What’s in the box? (Macworld/Dan Moren)

Few products exert the kind of gravity on rumors and speculation as Apple’s iPhone. Every year, the process repeats itself: websites and tweets full of conjecture, hypotheses, and more about what t… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Regis Philbin dies at 88

Regis Philbin was David Letterman’s most frequent guest, and by a lot. Letterman made a statement on Saturday about Philbin’s death: “In the same category as Carson. Superlative,” Lette… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Regis Philbin dies at 88 ↦

Regis Philbin was David Letterman’s most frequent guest, and by a lot. Letterman made a statement on Saturday about Philbin’s death: “In the same category as Carson. Superlative,” Lette… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 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 | 4 years ago

Fun With Charts: Entirely speculative charts about Apple Silicon

Last week I stared directly into the Apple marketing content and speculated about the information it was trying to impart with a WWDC slide. This week, prompted by reader David Hovis, I’d lik… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

6C Podcast: July 24, 2020

A commercial that features a song for a phone number that provides vehicles to children. Hot mustard and product packaging. So many puzzles. And if Apple builds a Safari extension feature, will dev… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

How Seattle’s NHL team became the Kraken ↦

Seattle’s expansion NHL franchise is now officially the Kraken. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan has the story of how the branding was executed: When NHL Seattle first installed signage on its downt… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Zach Gage returns with Good Sudoku ↦

I love Zach Gage’s games, especially Flipflop Solitaire and Really Bad Chess. He’s just released a new game, in collaboration with Jack Schlesinger: Good Sudoku. Now, I am not a Sudoku … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Toward an easier iPad podcast workflow ↦

Recording a podcast on the road in 2019. At MacStories, John Voorhees pushes the ball forward regarding podcasting on the iPad: I wanted a solution that worked equally well when I’m sitting at my M… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

User interface is a casualty of the Streaming Wars ↦

Rolling Stone TV Critic Alan Sepinwall rightfully calls out the terrible interfaces of most streaming services: The part of the streaming shell game that I’ve never been able to fully understand — … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise #356: A Solid “Sometimes”

This week, on the 30 minute tech show that usually has a clever introduction line, Dan and Mikah are joined by special guests Sawyer Blatz and Allison Sheridan to discuss watching video podcasts, o… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound #299: The Refund

This week we talk about the betas we’re using and streaming services before we get to our anti-picks. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

The most invisible and influential eras in Apple history (Macworld/Jason Snell)

I wrote my first story about Apple in 1993, meaning I’ve been covering Apple for 60 percent of its existence. Lately, I’ve realized that beyond a few major milestones, most people don’t really reme… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Service Station: Sports might be back? (Member Post)

So much baseball, so much data! There was baseball on my television last night. Maybe there will be baseball on my television tonight, too. Who knows? While I’m not counting on Major League B… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Apple sets 2030 carbon-neutral target ↦

Apple’s Lisa P. Jackson, in a Medium post, announces the company’s environmental goals for the next decade: By 2030, Apple will be 100% carbon neutral. Our comprehensive carbon footprin… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

MacSparky takes a week off ↦

This was a thoughtful piece from David Sparks that touches a lot of issues involving people who are working from home–which is a lot of us, these days. Even if you’re not working for yo… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade #307: Big Sur Sosumi

Apple’s big design changes in macOS Big Sur aren’t limited to visuals. The system’s alert sounds have changed, too. What better way to run down those changes than on a podcast dur… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock

Magic Lasso Adblock is an efficient and high performance ad blocker for the iPhone, iPad and Mac. It allows you to experience a cleaner, faster web – without ads. As a native Safari content blockin… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur showcase Apple’s latest shots at Google (Macworld/Dan Moren)

Apple’s in a strange position vis-a-vis many of its biggest rivals. While the company has in the past counted many of the most prominent tech companies in the world—IBM, Microsoft, Intel—as rivals,… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

The fax machine still underpins public health systems ↦

Sobering story from Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz in the New York Times about one of the impediments to coronavirus response and tracking: the fax machine. Dr. Mark Escott, the interim health … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Apple’s new emojis for 2020 ↦

It’s that time of year again. Today is World Emoji Day, and Apple has revealed some of its forthcoming Emoji designs to Emojipedia: (Image courtesy Emojipedia.) Ninja, Boomerang, Piñata and B… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Fun With Charts, Apple Silicon edition

I’ve been thinking about this chart since it appeared in Apple’s WWDC keynote last month. On one level, it’s a meaningless bit of marketing fluff. There are no labels. The vast br… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Command Performance: Get Smart Categories (Member Post)

For someone who makes their living writing words, I spend a surprising amount of time in spreadsheets. Sometimes that’s because it’s the best way to organize information (my nerdy quiz show Inconce… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

6C Podcast: July 17, 2020

That’s some powerful Kool-Aid. Apple’s uneasy competitor/partner relationships, the many eras of Apple, and Dan recommends a WordPress plug-in. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Twitter employee implicated in massive Bitcoin hack ↦

Writing at Vice’s Motherboard, Joseph Cox has dug into the hack of high profile Twitter accounts yesterday, including Apple’s: The accounts were taken over using an internal tool at Twi… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Gary Davidian and His 68000 Emulator ↦

A timely little story by Hansen Hsu from the Computer History Museum about a previous Apple chip transition: Apple did this the very first time in the early 1990s, with the move from Motorola 68000… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Quick Tip: Easily share stored passwords via AirDrop

Yes, you should keep your password secret and secure as much as possible. That said, almost all of us have people in our lives who we’d like to share a login with, whether it’s a partne… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound #298: Sudoku Stands for Nothing

When there’s not much Apple news, we give you our picks. So many picks. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise #355: Let’s Kill Quibi!

This week, on the 30-minute show that does its quarterly results half way through the show, Dan and Mikah are joined by John Voorhees and Kelly Guimont to discuss the era of peak streaming services… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Dithering ↦

John Gruber and Ben Thompson | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade #306: That’s Beta Life!

This week Myke and Jason discuss John Gruber’s essay about Apple’s App Store priorities and then assemble a list of apps that are missing key operating-system features. There’s al… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design ↦

Designer Michael Farup | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Benjamin Mayo on WWDC’s format ↦

I think this is a | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

6C Podcast: July 10, 2020

It’s public beta season, and we’re stalking the purple elephant. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Federico Viticci on the iPadOS 14 Public Beta ↦

As you might expect, this is | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

First Look: iOS 14 Public Beta

On Thursday Apple’s releasing the first | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

First Look: iPadOS 14 Public Beta

Visit the post for more. | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

The Hackett File: A Tour of System Preferences in Big Sur (Member Post)

Any time there is a big set of UI changes in macOS, I like to see what Apple has done in System Preferences. As you can see, the differences between Catalina and Big Sur’s versions of the app… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) The Rebound #297: Eat It, Spielberg

This is a great time for sitting at home and watching things so let’s talk about what’s on the telly. (Brought to you by our new | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Clockwise #354: I Needed to Flee Reality

This week, on the 30-minute tech show that knows how to Tik Tok, Dan and guest host Jason Snell are joined by special guests Ant Pruitt and Kathy Campbell to discuss how staying home has impacted o… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Touch Bar: Mend it or end it? (Macworld/Jason Snell)

The arrival of  | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

Going digital draws Gary Larson back to ‘The Far Side’ ↦

Legendary cartoonist Gary Larson is back, and it’s all due to | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago

(Podcast) Upgrade #305: A High School Production of Dracula

Apple’s services are in the spotlight, as Apple TV+ adds material, Apple News gets kicked to the curb by the New York Times, and Apple Arcade grapples with finding the right kind of games to … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 years ago