Six Colors

The rumors are getting louder all the time — Apple is apparently getting close to launching the iPhone SE 2, the successor to 2016’s compact iPhone that turned out to be an unexpectedly popular product.…

Back in the olden days of the early 1990s, the Mac’s built-in power-management software was not great. Third-party apps filled the gap, the most impressive of which was Connectix PowerBook Utilities (CPU). As Adam Engst wrote 28 years ago(!):…

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it dozens of times: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”…

I wrote a throwaway line in last week’s set of charts about just how the Apple of 2020 is not the Apple of 2010 just as the Apple of 2010 was not the Apple of 2000. I deleted the reference because I thought the thought deserved its own chart and its own…

This week, on the irreverent podcast that’s fully powered up for 2020, John’s got a bigger phone…sort of. Plus, Lex has some thoughts on notifications, Dan is still frustrated by browser changes, and everybody’s got their fill of euphemisms.

This week, on the 30-minute tech show whose longevity is no puzzle, Dan and Mikah are joined by special guests Lisa Schmeiser and Casey Liss to discuss our best security practices, the services we’d still like to see from tech companies, our thoughts on…

Tech companies are still investing huge amounts of time and energy in smart-home products, as the recent Consumer Electronics Show displayed. A year ago, Apple hired a new head of home products—but it hasn’t yet resulted in a lot of visible changes to…

With Myke reporting live from Hollywood, we discuss Netflix’s record Oscar nominations, and Apple’s first TV award and TV critic press tour. Jason makes a chart that explains why Apple execs can’t stop talking about Services and Wearables. Then we both…

Over at TidBITS, my pal Adam Engst points out the last place that Apple uses the full word “Macintosh.” I have to admit, when I wracked my brain to try and figure it out, I couldn’t think of where it might be—and, of course, it was under my nose the…

Buckle up, because we’re poised for another battle on digital security. The FBI has reputedly asked for Apple’s help unlocking phones belonging of the alleged shooter from the Pensacola air base incident last year. Apple, for its part, claims it has…

Every three months, we get to peer inside Apple’s business via the financial disclosures that are mandatory for American public corporations. (The company will reveal the specifics of its holiday quarter on January 28.) Four years ago, aware that the days of…

This week, on the irreverent tech show that can’t pronounce words, we discuss the latest “news” out of CES, John is still pining for a smaller phone, James has gotten thrown under the TV bus, and Dan is just hearing about this stupid robot that follows…

This week, on the 30-minute tech podcast that’s in 2020 for reals, Dan and Mikah are joined by special guests Christina Warren and Zac Hall to discuss the coolest and weirdest announcements from CES, podcasts we’d like to see made into books, whether…

John Siracusa has needs. Needs that weren’t being fulfilled by the modern Mac ecosystem. So he convinced his friend Lee Fyock to write an app to solve his problems, and then he rewrote that app himself 1 and put it in the Mac App Store:…

It’s come to my attention that it’s been five years since I updated my story about how I rip DVDs and Blu-Rays on my Mac. It was so long ago that I was still using iTunes Sharing to make those videos available on my Apple TV! These days it’s all about…

Last week, Brydge, the company that makes my favorite add-on keyboard for the iPad, announced a new iPad Pro accessory that includes both a keyboard and a trackpad. Adding external pointing devices to the iPad wasn’t possible until iOS 13 added support for…

On MacStories, Federico Viticci reviews LaunchCuts, an $8 Shortcuts utility:…

Jack Nicas and Daisuke Wakabayashi of the New York Times report on Sonos suing Google, alleging that Google (and Amazon!) ripped off its patented technology to launch its own smart speakers:…

Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac did the work to round up Apple’s entire decade of the 2010s, from the iPad to the iPhone 11:…

Downlink 2 lets me crop my particular corner of our planet.…

With a new year come Jason’s predictions for Apple in 2020. How varied can the iPhone product line get? Will Apple make its most interesting laptop yet—and will it run macOS or iPadOS? And how can Apple double down on the success of AirPods? We also…

Technology has made its way into every nook and cranny of our lives over the past decade, and there’s no reason to think that trend’s about to stop now. As we roll into the ’20s, Apple has positioned itself at the forefront of a bunch of different…

Did you know that the Date & Time Control Panel in Mac OS 8 (released in 1997) will only let you set a Mac’s date to a range between January 1, 1920 and December 31, 2019? As LowEndMac reports:…

This week, on the 30-minute tech show that’s now seeing 2020, Dan and Mikah are joined by special guests John Voorhees and Jean MacDonald to discuss the tech we want to see in 2020, the tech we felt made the biggest difference to us in 2019, tech we gifted…

The irreverent tech podcast returns for a new year and new decade, as we discuss the holiday tech gifts we got and gave, a few iOS wishlist items, our hopes for 2020, and whether or not we’re still Apple Arcade subscribers.

Brydge, the maker of my favorite iPad keyboard, announced on Thursday that it’s opening orders for the Brydge Pro+, a new iPad keyboard that includes an integrated trackpad. The Brydge Pro+ will cost $200 for the 11-inch iPad Pro model, and $230 for the…

As the year comes to an end, it’s time for the Sixth Annual Upgradies! Myke and Jason discuss their favorites of 2019, take the input of 1500 Upgradians, and hand out awards in numerous categories! Only the finest will walk away with the most coveted of…

Stephen Hackett spends a lot of time thinking about the Mac, and it shows when he writes pieces like this:…

What was Apple’s device of the decade? David Sparks says it’s the iPad:…

All told, 2019 was a relatively quiet year for the iPhone and iPad. Apple brought back some old favorites to round out the iPad product line, and a new batch of incrementally improved iPhones was released in the fall, as anyone could have predicted.…