When Find My doesn’t help with separation anxiety

I dispense what might be called valuable insight to my friends, as well as in this public forum. My friends know the danger: they might become the topic of a column, which is true for my buddy Jeff, who left a bag containing his passport behind at a hotel.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 hours ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock: Effortlessly block ads on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV

Do you want an all-in-one solution to block ads, trackers and annoyances across all your Apple devices? Then download Magic Lasso Adblock – the ad blocker designed for you.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 6 hours ago

App report: Adding a shelf to my Mac

Just ahead of WWDC 2026, Jason Snell noted that he gets a lot of pitches about Mac apps, attributing the sudden boom in macOS offerings to vibe coding aided by artificial intelligence.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 days ago

Unauthorized AI biographies are all over Amazon ↦

Writing at The New York Times, tech reporter Kashmir Hill tells the strange story (NYT gift link) of coming across an AI-generated biography of herself on Amazon.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 3 days ago

Apple TV is “essentially dead”? No, long live Apple TV.

Analyst Dan Rayburn, on (sigh) LinkedIn: Going forward, Apple TV hardware is now essentially dead. Last month, Apple raised the price of its Apple TV 4K Wi-Fi (64GB) from $129 to $199, while the Apple TV 4K Wi-Fi + Ethernet (128GB) now costs $249, up from $169.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 4 days ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 665: A Little Too Raw

Apple’s public betas, how we read for pleasure, whether we have multicolored smart lighting, and digital disaster preparedness.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 days ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 607: He’s a Developer Beta

Guy meets someone in the woods, Moltz makes a proposal and Dan finds books frustrating.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 5 days ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 628: Conspiracy to Steal Trade Secrets

Inside Apple’s OpenAI lawsuit: How do trade secrets conflict with expert knowlege, was there a concerted effort to steal secret documents to kickstart OpenAI hardware, and how does Apple’s own vulnerability inform the whole situation?… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 7 days ago

First Look: iOS 27 Public Beta

By now you’ve probably heard the promise of iOS 27: it’s a Snow Leopard-like year where Apple spent a lot of time not on big marquee features, but on smaller fixes and enhancements throughout the operating system.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 7 days ago

First Look: macOS Golden Gate Public Beta

Let’s just get this out of the way: I liked macOS 26 Tahoe. I liked it because it marked the first time in years where Apple seemed to embrace the fact that Mac users deserve productivity improvements, not just syncing up with whatever (often useful, yes) new features were being … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 7 days ago

Pulling the Thread to know if my garage door is closed

I had a simple task that involved Apple Home. If you use Apple Home, you know what happened next. Tears, frustration, the arrival of batteries, paperclips pushed into hard-to-reach holes, many online searches, and—if you are lucky, as I was—success.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 7 days ago

Apple sues OpenAI, alleging trade secret theft ↦

OpenAI has not been shy about teaming with former Apple employees. Back in May, OpenAI was rattling its saber about thinking about talking to lawyers about possibly considering a lawsuit against Apple for not treating it right when it came to ChatGPT integration.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 10 days ago

WhatCable gives you the download on your USB cables

If you’ve ever wondered why your data transfers to external drives aren’t going as fast as you’d like, or a certain peripheral just isn’t working, you could probably use WhatCable, a helpful little app from developer Darryl Morley.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 11 days ago

Make an iPhone into a Dumb Phone ↦

Jeremy White of Wired has a great tip that also serves as a reminder that amazing things can be found in accessibility settings: Surely there must be a way to set up an iPhone as the perfect dumb phone for children—one with access to only the apps you deem appropriate, no inte … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 11 days ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 664: How I Use My Life

Physical vs. digital media and how we organize it, our system for the digital “deal with it later” pile, what we do with old hardware, and iPhone ergonomics.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 12 days ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 606: Kick ‘Em When They’re Up

This week Lex has audio issues, Dan wants to unload some old hardware and Moltz is tired of fireworks.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 12 days ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 627: Do Not Use, Do Not Turn Off

Apple seeks RAM in all the wrong places, Jason has two tangents about FileMaker, and we deal with a large load of somewhat puzzling rumors and legal cases.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 14 days ago

A visit to the App Library: Hiding and deleting apps on iOS

My beloved sister-in-law-in-law (my wife’s brother’s spouse) texted me with an important problem. Her mother had managed to delete the App Store from her Home Screen.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 14 days ago

Stop previews from autoplaying on Apple TV

Tubi, don’t ruin this! My Apple TV has started yelling at me. Or at the very least, the Disney+ app on the Apple TV is now clamoring for my attention.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 17 days ago

EveryMac turns 30 ↦

EveryMac is a site with a comprehensive set of specs for Mac models, current and historic, that’s celebrating an anniversary today: On July 2, 1996, EveryMac.com… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 18 days ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 663: Fear-Based Approach

Apple’s price hikes and our buying plans, our beta OS strategies, dealing with subscriptions, and Meta’s new glasses fees.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 19 days ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 605: I Don’t Want to Go to Tatooine

Apple hikes prices, Dan goes down a rabbit hole, Moltz is holding confessional and Lex rightfully self-promotes.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 19 days ago

Report: Security vulnerability makes Hide My Email not so anonymous ↦

Joseph Cox at 404Media reports on a hole in Hide My Email’s security: A vulnerability in Apple’s “Hide My Email” tool lets almost anyone discover a person’s real email address that is supposed to be hidden by the feature, and Apple has failed to fix it for more than a year, ac … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 19 days ago

Apple brings forward 26.6 security fixes into 26.5.2 update ↦

On Monday Apple released 26.5.2 software updates for its platforms that don’t follow the company’s usual pattern, suggesting some interesting things about how it reacts to releasing security fixes.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 20 days ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 626: Unprecedented Weirdness

Apple raised prices! Is this a shocking move, or were Apple products just sneakily affordable before? (And can it be both?) We also parse Mark Gurman’s reports on Apple skipping over may M6 chips to go directly to M7.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 21 days ago

My credit card number? Sure! It’s 4242 4242 4242 4242

We live in a modern, jet-set, hyper-fast world! When we want to buy something online, boom, zoom, we use our fingerprint or face to approve the transaction, so we can grab the next Segway outta here!… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 21 days ago

(Sponsor) Mojave Paint

My thanks to Mojave Paint for sponsoring Six Colors this week. Mojave Paint is a new macOS image editor for power users that will feel really familiar (in the best possible way).… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 24 days ago

Level Lock founders and engineers kicked by parent company ↦

Smart home reporter Jennifer Pattison Tuohy at The Verge reports that parent company Assa Abloy has folded Level, which it acquired in 2024, into its Kwikset brand and removed the company’s founders: The Verge obtained exclusive details from a person familiar with the restruct … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 24 days ago

Apple should free the macOS icons from squircle jail ↦

Rogue Amoeba’s Paul Kafasis is encouraged by the interface improvements Apple is making in macOS 27, but points out that there’s still one huge issue from last year that needs to be resolved, namely forcing all Mac icons to be trapped inside a single, uniform shape: Apple’s pr … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 24 days ago

Report: Apple changes chip and OLED MacBook Pro release plans

An Apple laptop media event. Perhaps lost a bit amid the Apple price hikes of Thursday was this surprising bit of news from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman regarding the future of Apple silicon Macs: [Apple] plans to debut a base M6 processor as early as this year for entry-level Macs … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 24 days ago

That new Mac or iPad is gonna cost you even more now

Say this about Tim Cook: he always follows through. After telling the Wall Street Journal last week that Apple would have to raise prices thanks to the ravages of the memory market, the company today did just that.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 25 days ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 625: Road to the Apple II: Computer Faire (Part 4)

The Apple II makes its public debut at a landmark event in the history of personal computers, and Steve Jobs truly comes into his own.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 25 days ago

Realizing the user automation dream

A result from the Describe a Shortcut feature in macOS 27. Since the very beginning, it’s been clear that computers provide incredible power to those who know how to use them to get work done.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 25 days ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 662: Nominally Fine

Our thoughts on Valve’s Steam Machine pricing, the third-party camera apps we actually use, whether we wait for tech sales before buying, and if being the “tech person” inspires others or just makes them defer to us.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 26 days ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 604: Seg It Away, Dan

This week we discuss post-CEO job opportunities for Tim Cook, new TVs and our beta experiences or lack thereof.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 26 days ago

(Podcast) The Talk Show 450: Perp Walk for Selfies

Jason returns to John Gruber’s podcast for a look back at WWDC 2026, and a look ahead to Designed in California, Jason and Myke Hurley’s upcoming 50-episode Apple history podcast.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 27 days ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 624: The Memory Guys

In the spirit of the Summer of Fun (and Apple history Kickstarters), John Siracusa joins us to discuss when Apple was forced to replace the Classic Mac OS.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 28 days ago

‘Welcome datacomp’ ↦

I stumbled on this post via Bluesky, in which Jason Hazeley was utterly baffled by this section of a printed book: The movement takes the place of a scherzo and is mainly constructed [of] the welcome datacompordinary major scale with the four lower notes shifted a semitone upw … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 28 days ago

Prime Day, again?! Why it’s OK to ignore Amazon’s big sales event

When Amazon Prime Day gets underway this Tuesday (June 23), it will be the first time in nearly a decade that I’m not involved in some tech site’s effort to go all out with coverage around the online retailer’s multiday sales event.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 28 days ago

Where we’re going, there are no Maps

Years ago, in the era between the introduction of the iPhone and the modern period of widespread cellular coverage, my wife and I were driving with our quite young children across the vast, unexplored expanse of north-central Pennsylvania, en route to a family wedding.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 28 days ago

(Sponsor) Mojave Paint

Mojave Paint is a new macOS image editor. If you use layers, masks, channels, selections, adjustments and filters all in the same editing session, Mojave Paint might be for you.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 28 days ago

Apple’s updated icons in Golden Gate ↦

Basic Apple Guy has a rundown of the new icons in Golden Gate compared to their Tahoe predecessors: The colours are much bolder, several icons have been adjusted, and the refraction in the Liquid Glass effect has changed significantly, especially in icons like Journal.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 28 days ago

(Sponsor) Magic Lasso Adblock: Effortlessly block ads on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV

My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring Six Colors this week. With over 5,000 five star reviews; Magic Lasso Adblock is simply the best ad and tracker blocker for your iPhone, iPad and Mac.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 1 month ago

Outgoing Apple CEO delivers the bad news: Prices are going up ↦

In an exclusive with the Wall Street Journal, Tim Cook announced that Apple will be raising the products on its prices1 as a result of high prices for memory and storage worldwide: “Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” he said.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 1 month ago

(Podcast) Upgrade 623: Road to the Apple II: A Complete Computer (Part 3)

Under the watchful eye of Steve Jobs, the Apple II takes form at last. It’s an integrated color computer created by Steve Wozniak, powered by a groundbreaking power supply designed by Rod Holt, and wrapped in a plastic shell designed by Jerry Manock.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 1 month ago

Keep Time Capsules viable under macOS 27 ↦

James Chang has built a project that upgrades the file-sharing stack on Apple’s long-discontinued Time Capsule hardware so that it will work on modern OS versions: This is a modern Samba setup that runs directly on the Time Capsule itself; macOS 27 can connect to the Time Caps … | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 1 month ago

(Podcast) Clockwise 661: Committing to the Bit

Snap’s latest smart glasses, whether we’ve tried Apple’s new Shortcuts creation feature, AI-powered pets, and who wants a dumb phone?… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 1 month ago

(Podcast) The Rebound 603: I Can’t Imagine Listening To This

In this episode we describe pictures to the listener for maximum hilarity.… | Continue reading


@sixcolors.com | 1 month ago