Six Colors

Home automation, speakers, Shortcuts, and bagels.… Become a member to listen to our exclusive weekly podcast and get more benefits.

YouTuber and podcaster Quinn Nelson has a cat problem:…

We’ve seen stories of people triumphantly locating their lost belongings thanks to AirTags, but, as always, technology is a double-edged sword. It seems that some car thieves in Canada are using Apple’s tracking fobs to locate and steal vehicles:…

When I reviewed three recently-released e-readers last month, I received several complaints about this line in the story:…

John Voorhees at MacStories has come up with a clever way to generate a bunch of AppleScript files that just run Shortcuts as a way to open up Shortcuts to apps that support running scripts, but not Shortcuts. Fittingly enough, he uses Shortcuts itself to do…

It’s the season of American consumerism, so here’s the technology we bought.…

Diving into Netflix’s brand new global and regional top 10 lists, and all the things they tell us about the global streaming giant. Also, ViacomCBS corrects its Star Trek mistake, and why Netflix is bad at movies.…

The older tech that we can’t justify replacing, what we’d change about Twitter in the wake of Jack Dorsey’s exit, the health tech we’d like to see next, and which retro video games we’d remake.…

I was reminded by Simon Støvring, maker of the excellent Mac and iOS utility Data Jar (which is a persistent data store that’s accessible via Shortcuts), that people may not be aware of just how well integrated Shortcuts is into macOS.…

Jason Tate:…

In about three weeks it’ll be winter in Cupertino, and while the turn of seasons in the Bay Area usually doesn’t amount to much beyond wearing a slightly heavier hoodie, the turning of the seasons also represents an expiration date for one of Apple’s…

The holiday season is upon us, and what do you get for the man who has literally everything?1…

Myke checks in from mid-vacation to discuss his visit with Jason, and shares some observations from his first extended travel in a couple of years. Then Jason takes a deep dive into his adventures Shortcuts on the Mac. And there’s still time to discuss Mac…

How we charge our devices, the travel tech we’re taking with us this year, our thoughts on Apple’s plans for digital IDs, and an examination of Apple’s newly announced Self Repair Program.…

Last week Dan wrote about macOS Monterey’s new Network Quality Tool, which lets you quickly get a sense of your local network speed from the command line.…

An Apple Pencil, a Kobo Libra 2, and some creamed corn.This time of year leads to a few inevitable kinds of stories. Giving thanks, and… deals? Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and Black Friday one of my least favorite “holidays”, and yet…

Apple Newsroom:…

Rich Woods reports about Windows on ARM and where it may be headed in the future:…

This week I’m traveling for Thanksgiving, and I’m using this MacBook Pro review unit before I have to send it back to Apple1.…

Apple’s car project is back in the news, but is the company’s ambition in this area unrealistic? Also: Qualcomm spoils Apple’s modem move, Apple employees get a new date to return to work, and there’s some good news about the repairability of Apple products.…

Following up from his post from last fall, developer David Smith has taken his Apple Watch on a three-day hiking trip and figuring out some strategies for extending its life:…

Apple gets a lot of flak for its “my way or the highway” approach to, well, pretty much everything: App Store terms, product design, colors, and so on. While that’s an approach that definitely has its benefits—you can tell when committees start getting…

This week, thanks to an article by John Voorhees at MacStories about integrating Shortcuts with the Elgato Stream Deck, I discovered an incredibly useful tip about Shortcuts integration on the Mac.…

My thanks to BZG Apps for sponsoring Six Colors this week. BZG makes Unite 4, which allows you to turn any Website into a Mac app. Using a lightweight, WebKit powered browser as a backend, you can easily create isolated, customizable apps from any site.…

As someone who’s enthusiastic about mechanical keyboards, I was interested in reviewing a prerelease version of the $110 Nuphy Air75. It’s a 75 percent keyboard (a size that’s right up my alley) with low-profile switches and thin, low-profile PBT…

Apple Cars without steering wheels and Apple-branded pentalobe screwdrivers. What a world. (The podcast will be off next week for Thanksgiving. Back in two weeks.)… Become a member to listen to our exclusive weekly podcast and get more benefits.

A few months ago I decided to unplug the iPod Hi-Fi I was using as an external speaker for my iMac Pro, and replace it with a stereo pair of $199 Sonos One SL speakers. I’m using my iPad Pro’s internal speakers for podcast editing and other general noises;…

Marc Karzen shot the amazing, award-winning bumpers used going into and out of every commercial break on “Late Night with David Letterman,” one of my favorite television shows of all time. Now he’s got a book collecting the photos, with an introduction…

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple’s focusing on a fully autonomous car for release as early as 2025:…

John takes a foray into smart home automation. Dan wonders about Apple’s rumored headset, and special guest James Thomson takes us to programming school.…