(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock: The Safari ad blocker built for you

Do you want an to try an ad blocker that’s easy to setup, easy to keep up to date and with pro features available when you need them?… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Siri’s biggest gains might be found at the edges

We’re on the verge, maybe, of something big. Apple broke ground with its voice-driven Siri assistant back in 2011, but over the years, Siri’s trajectory has been meandering and frustrating.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock: incredibly private and secure Safari web browsing

My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Designed from the ground up to protect your privacy, Magic Lasso blocks all intrusive ads, trackers and annoyances in Safari – stopping you from being followed by ads around the web.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Swift 6 will be a big, under the radar change ↦

Howard Oakley says that there will be very little hype for a major change that will alter the fabric of apps on Apple’s platforms: Don’t be caught by the marketing hype in Apple’s long list of new features coming in macOS 15. … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 557: I Love the Whoop

What we’re excited about at WWDC, the oldest tech we have in use, how we store our digital photos, and whether we journal.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 498: The D Is For Disappointment

Put the D back in WWDC.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Microsoft, Apple, and AI ↦

Charles Stross writes a refreshingly skeptical column about AI hype, how Apple has been ahead of the game for a while now, and why Microsoft seems to be courting disaster by enabling its Recall feature: Recall is already attracting the attention of data protection regulators; I s … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

There’s a Thread running through many of Apple’s latest products ↦

No, not Meta’s social networking platform: Thread, the smart home radio chip.1 You know, the one Apple quietly put in its HomePods, iPhone 15 models and, *ahem* some Apple TVs.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Apple’s Screen Time restrictions on websites are easily circumvented ↦

The Wall Street Journal‘s Joanna Stern describes how Apple’s Screen Time parental controls has a simple security vulnerability that allows unfettered web access: I tried a number of Apple devices. … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Microsoft’s Recall feature is a security ‘disaster’ ↦

Tom Warren at the Verge has a nice summary of the security problems inherent in the new Windows feature Recall, which records everything you do (what could go wrong?)… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Bartender has a new owner ↦

Juli Clover of MacRumors reports that venerable Mac utility Bartender has apparently been sold by longtime developer Ben Surtees, and that the new owner recently re-signed the app but otherwise hasn’t notified customers about the change: The transaction came to light after some R … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 515: The WWDC Keynote Draft 2024

It’s time for our ninth annual competition regarding what will happen at Apple’s WWDC keynote! What will be announced? Will it be all AI, all the time?… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock: incredibly private and secure Safari web browsing

Online privacy isn’t just something you should be hoping for – it’s something you should expect. You should ensure your browsing history stays private and is not harvested by ad networks.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Sponsor) Kolide

My thanks to Kolide for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Kolide helps its customers keep their devices in compliance, which keeps their company data safe. Kolide has seen a rise in cyber liability insurance issues recently.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Making battery replacements easier ↦

Nick Heer, linking to a Jeff Johnson post about Apple’s onerous policies regarding replacing a MacBook battery, points out the fundamental truth of mobile devices: …batteries eventually need replacing on all devices. … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Slow Internet at the South Pole ↦

I loved the Brr blog, which was written by an IT expert during a year in Antarctica. The author is home now, but here’s a surprise bonus post, full of information about how slow the Internet is in Antarctica and why modern software is terrible at working over slow connections: Do … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Podcast) Downstream 70: They Stole Your Brain

Other strategies for WBD if it loses the NBA, we answer a bumper crop of listener letters, and Julia has some big career news. [Downstream+ subscribers also get to hear us discuss Netflix potential sports futures and the changing face of broadcast TV.]… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 556: Mikah, We Might Fight

Our video gaming preferences and habits, thoughts on Nomad’s new thin Qi-rechargeable tracking card with Find My, how we connect non-iPhone devices on the go, and our top three software wishes for the upcoming WWDC.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Getting a letter from a friend written with AI ↦

Fascinating blog post from Panic designer Neven Mrgan about the feeling of getting a letter from a friend written by AI: Where exactly would I draw the line between helpful features (“make this red shirt green instead”) and offensive takeovers (“generate an album cover in the sty … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

Review: “What If?” shows off the Vision Pro’s strengths

Marvel Studios and ILM’s “What If…? – An Immersive Story” for Vision Pro, launching Thursday as a free app, isn’t an immersive video or a game.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 497: Between Zero and Never

All the Apple News that’s fit to print.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 months ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 514: European Beard

It’s time for a Vision Pro check-in. How are we using it, and how should Apple sell it? Also, some EU app marketplace developers just want to go home.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Sponsor) Struggling to Afford Cybersecurity Insurance? Here’s Why.

When MGM Resorts suffered a $100 million hack in September, CEO Bill Hornbuckle wasn’t too worried about the lost revenue, because cyber insurance would cover the tab.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

Kobo Libra Colour Review: Color, but at what cost?

All my computing devices, save one, have color displays. The last time I regularly used a computer without a color display was probably in the mid-1990s.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Sponsor) Kolide

My thanks to Kolide for sponsoring Six Colors this week. None of us are as good at clocking deepfakes as we think we are. Even your mom, or your boss, or anyone in your IT department might not be able to tell the difference.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

Apple explains resurrected photos bug ↦

Speaking to Chance Miller at 9to5Mac, Apple explained the issue (patched in the recent iOS 17.5.1 update) that caused old photos to spontaneously appear in some users’ libraries: Apple confirmed to me that iCloud Photos is not to be blamed for this. … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

Yes, Secure Erase on Mac is secure ↦

There’s been a lot of buzz lately involving a bug in Photos that caused some deleted items to reappear in libraries, including some (apparent) misinformation that blew the entire story out of proportion.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 555: I Lie to Myself

Do we multitask on our iPads? What AI uses do we actually find helpful? Plus, the email apps we use and whether we’ve experimented with cloning our voice.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 496: Time Traveling Dad: The Game

How do solve a problem like iPadOS?… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

The Dos and Don’ts of AI at WWDC

Picture this. (Photo illustration by Joe Rosensteel) For the past year, pressure has really been ramping up on the tech industry to do stuff with AI.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

‘What If?’ for Vision Pro to arrive next week ↦

The Watcher is watching with a Vision Pro. Today Marvel and ILM dropped the trailer for the forthcoming “What If?” immersive story, which was just announced a couple of weeks ago, and (surprise!)… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 513: I Do Not Rock Anything

Myke returns to the show to give his personal iPad Pro review, and we discuss Apple’s accessibility announcements, worrying Apple AI reports, and some mystifying rumors about future iPhones for this year and next.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Sponsor) Voice Clones Have Crossed the Uncanny Valley

Now, don’t get offended, but–you aren’t as good at clocking deepfakes as you think you are. And it’s not just you–nobody’s that good at it.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) Downstream 69: Pay the Gatekeeper

Why the “great rebundling” isn’t the return of the cable bundle; recalibrating how talent is paid for streaming shows; Paramount twists in the wind; Spulu gets a real name; the NFL makes a deal with Netflix; and Diamond Sports meets with skepticism.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Sponsor) Kolide

My thanks to Kolide for sponsoring Six Colors again this week. You might have heard about the September 2023 MGM ransomware attack. But beyond the broken slot machines and other anecdotes is the fact that it’s an example of an emerging style of attack that we’ll certainly be seei … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

It’s forgery all the way down ↦

Yet another incredible story on Cabel Sasser’s blog, this one about a supposedly vintage Apple Employee badge: Wow. Someone was selling Apple Employee #10’s employee badge?! … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 554: Dealee Bobs

Our Apple Watch interaction frequency, thoughts on Spotify’s “Daylists” and our ideal playlist name, interest in Google’s AI features at Google I/O, and essential travel tech for “One Bag Travel.”… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 495: Get That Down to One Slice of Cheese

Our reactions to AI events, iPads and John Ternus.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

Apple accessibility preview: More for Speech, CarPlay, and Vision Pro

Vision Pro’s live captions convert spoken words to text onscreen. This year’s accessibility feature preview from Apple, timed to get a one-day jump on the annual celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, continues last year’s expansion beyond the traditional sight, sound … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

‘Why iPadOS Still Doesn’t Get the Basics Right’ ↦

I linked to this in my iPad Pro review, but in case you missed that, Federico Viticci has done everyone who writes about iPadOS a service and written a detailed account of what we mean when we say “the iPad hardware is let down by its software”: In our community, we often hear ab … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

The iPad Pro manifesto, same as it ever was ↦

Steve Troughton-Smith details all the ways iPadOS lacks… and not for the first time: You can summarize every iPad review for the past decade: iPad hardware is writing checks that its OS simply can’t cash. … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 512: Pros Are the Little Boats

The new iPad Pro is here, and Jason is joined by Federico Viticci to discuss the new model, Jason’s review, and the limitations of iPadOS. Stephen Hackett also joins the show not to crush some creative dreams, but to answer your questions.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

M4 iPad Pro Review: Here we go again

Apple’s hardware and chip teams are really at the top of their game. The new M4 iPad Pro is a sleek slab of concentrated computing power, tucked behind a spectacular OLED display.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Sponsor) Looking Past the Smoke and Mirrors of the MGM Hack

The September 2023 MGM hack quickly became one of the most notorious ransomware attacks in recent memory. Journalists and cybersecurity experts rushed to report on the broken slot machines, angry hotel guests, and the fateful phishing call to MGM’s help desk that started it all.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock: 2.0x faster web browsing in Safari

My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring Six Colors this week. As a native Safari extension, Magic Lasso blocks all intrusive ads, trackers and annoyances – letting you experience a faster, cleaner and more secure experience across all your devices.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 553: Love, Medical Care, and an Angry Lawyer

How we recommend iPads to people, whether Apple should stop holding events, what one task our perfect chatbot would do, and how we feel about the Apple Pencil.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 494: Ya Burnt, David Copperfield

A startling John Ternus of events.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago

Does the iPad lineup make sense now? Yes and no

Ever since Steve Jobs’s famous two-by-two grid of Apple devices, Apple aficionados have tried to cram the company’s product lines into neat little boxes.1 In recent years, the iPad line has seemed exceptionally complex and difficult to delineate.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 months ago