03-24-26 -

What to Do About Those Menu Item Icons in MacOS 26 Tahoe
Steven Troughton-Smith, over the weekend: Here’s one for the icons-in-menus haters on macOS Tahoe: defaults write -g NSMenuEnableActionImages -bool NO It even preserves the couple of instances you do want icons, like for window zoom/resiz...

03-23-26 -

[Sponsor] npx workos: From Auth Integration to Environment Management, Zero C...
npx workos@latest launches an AI agent, powered by Claude, that reads your project, detects your framework, and writes a complete auth integration into your codebase. No signup required. It creates an environment, populates your keys, and you clai...

03-19-26 -

AppleScript: Save MarsEdit Document to Text File
Here’s a simple AppleScript I wrote this week — one that solves a minor itch I’ve had for, jeez, 20 years. Almost every item I post to Daring Fireball goes through MarsEdit, the excellent Mac blogging client from Red Sweater Software (my...

03-18-26 -

Your Frustration Is the Product
Shubham Bose, “The 49MB Web Page”: I went to the New York Times to glimpse at four headlines and was greeted with 422 network requests and 49 megabytes of data. It took two minutes before the page settled. And then you wonder why every san...

03-17-26 -

Squashing
MacKenzie Sigalos, writing for CNBC, under the misleading headline “Tim Cook Squashes Retirement Rumors, Says He ‘Can’t Imagine Life Without Apple’”: Asked about reports that he was preparing to step aside, Cook told ABC, “No, I di...

03-16-26 -

[Sponsor] MuxVideo API for Developers
Video isn’t just something to watch; it’s a boatload of context and data. Mux makes it easy to ship and scale video into anything from websites to platforms to AI workflows. Unlock what’s inside: transcripts, clips, and storyboards to build ...

03-16-26 -

Apple Exclaves and the Secure Design of the MacBook Neos On-Screen Camera Ind...
Some camera-equipped Apple devices have dedicated camera indicator lights. E.g. recent MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs have them in the notch, next to the camera itself. The Studio Display has one in the bezel, next to its camera. Other devices �...

03-11-26 -

Modifier Key Order for Keyboard Shortcuts
Dr. Drang, back in 2017: If you write about Mac keyboard shortcuts, as I did yesterday, you should know how to do it right. Just as there’s a proper order for adjectives in English, there’s a proper order for listing the modifier keys in a...

03-10-26 -

The MacBook Neo
Just over a decade ago, reviewing the then-new iPhones 6S, I could tell which way the silicon wind was blowing. Year-over-year, the A9 CPU in the iPhone 6S was 1.6× faster than the A8 in the iPhone 6. Impressive. But what really struck me was com...

03-09-26 -

[Sponsor] Finalist
Your whole day on one screen. Finalist is an iOS/macOS day planner that pulls in your calendars, reminders, and health data so nothing falls through the cracks. The latest version launches now and adds subtasks, calendar bookmarks, HealthKit in y...

03-09-26 -

The iPhone 17e
The iPhone 17e Over the years I’ve been writing here, I’ve often used the term speed bump to describe a certain type of hardware update: a new version of an existing product where the new stuff is mostly faster components, especially the CPU ...

03-04-26 -

Thoughts and Observations on the MacBook Neo
$599. Not a piece of junk. That’s not a marketing slogan from Apple for the new MacBook Neo. But it could be. And it is the underlying message of the product. For a few years now, Apple has quietly dabbled with the sub-$1,000 laptop market, by ...

03-02-26 -

[Sponsor] npx workos: An AI Agent That Writes Auth Directly Into Your Codebase
npx workos launches an AI agent, powered by Claude, that reads your project, detects your framework, and writes a complete auth integration directly into your existing codebase. It’s not a template generator. It reads your code, understands your...

03-02-26 -

HazeOverMac Utility for Highlighting the Frontmost Window
Back in December I linked to a sort-of stunt project from Tyler Hall called Alan.app — a simple Mac utility that draws a bold rectangle around the current active window. Alan.app lets you set the thickness and color of the frame. I used it f...

02-27-26 -

A Sometimes-Hidden Setting Controls What Happens When You Tap a Call in the i...
Back in December, Adam Engst wrote this interesting follow-up to his feature story at TidBITS a few weeks prior exploring the differences between the new Unified and old Classic interface modes for the Phone app in iOS 26. It’s also a good follo...

02-25-26 -

My 2025 Apple Report Card
This week Jason Snell published his annual Six Colors Apple Report Card for 2024. As I’ve done in the past — 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 — I’m publishing my full remarks and grades here. On Snell’s report card, voter...

02-17-26 -

Apple Releases iOS 26 Adoption Rates, and Theyre Pretty Much in Line With the...
Speaking of iOS 26, here’s Joe Rossignol reporting for MacRumors: Apple has shared updated iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 adoption figures, revealing how many iPhones and iPads are running those software versions. These adoption numbers are based on i...

02-16-26 -

[Sponsor] Hands-On Workshop: Fix It FasterCrash Reporting, Tracing, and Logs ...
Learn how to connect the dots between slowdowns, crashes, and the user experience in your iOS app. This on-demand session covers how to: Set up Sentry to surface high-priority mobile issues without alert fatigue. Use Logs and Breadcrumbs to recons...

01-28-26 -

Politics and the English Language, January 2026 Edition
Patrick McGee (author of last year’s bestseller, Apple in China, and guest on The Talk Show in May), commenting on Twitter/X re: Tim Cook’s company-wide memo regarding the “events in Minneapolis”: This literally says nothing, via inten...

01-27-26 -

The Names They Call Themselves
Jonathan Rauch, writing for The Atlantic, “Yes, It’s Fascism” (gift link): Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump. For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fi...

01-26-26 -

App Store 2025 Top iPhone Apps in the U.S.
I’ve been meaning since last month to link to Apple’s lists of the top iPhone apps in the U.S. for 2025. Here’s the list of the top 20 free iPhone apps: ChatGPT Threads Google TikTok — Videos, Shop & LIVE WhatsApp Messenger I...

01-24-26 -

The iOS 26 Adoption Rate Is Not Bizarrely Low Compared to Previous Years
A few weeks ago there were a rash of stories claiming that iOS 26 is seeing bizarrely low adoption rates from iPhone users. The methodology behind these numbers is broken and the numbers are totally wrong. Those false numbers are so low, so jarrin...

01-23-26 -

Tahoe Added a Finder Option to Resize Columns to Fit Filenames
The main reason I’m sticking with MacOS 15 Sequoia, refusing to install 26 Tahoe, is that there are so many severe UI regressions in Tahoe. The noisy, distracting, inconsistent icons prefixing menu item commands, ruining the Mac’s signature me...

01-19-26 -

Crazy People Do Crazy Things
Donald Trump, in a message (I wouldn’t call it a letter) sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, confirmed by several news organizations: Dear Jonas: Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for havin...

01-17-26 -

Thoughts and Observations Regarding Apple Creator Studio
Let’s Just Get It Out of the Way and Talk About the New Icons First, but Let’s Also Use the Icons as a Proxy for Talking About the Broader Software Design Problems at Apple There’s a lot of hate for the new app icons of the entire Creator S...

01-16-26 -

MacPaw Pulls the Plug on SetApp Mobile App Marketplace
Tim Hardwick, reporting for MacRumors: The service will officially cease operating on February 16, 2026. Setapp Mobile launched in open beta in September 2024. In a support page, MacPaw said Setapp Mobile is being closed because of app market...

01-12-26 -

[Sponsor] WorkOS Pipes: Ship Third-Party Integrations Without Rebuilding OAuth
Connecting user accounts to third-party APIs always comes with the same plumbing: OAuth flows, token storage, refresh logic, and provider-specific quirks. WorkOS Pipes removes that overhead. Users connect services like GitHub, Slack, Google, Sale...

01-12-26 -

Why Its Difficult to Resize Windows on MacOS 26 Dyehoe
Norbert Heger, with a perfectly illustrated post, “The Struggle of Resizing Windows on macOS Tahoe”: Since upgrading to macOS Tahoe, I’ve noticed that quite often my attempts to resize a window are failing. This never happened to me befo...

01-10-26 -

Fuck You, Make Me Without Saying the Words
Elizabeth Lopatto, writing at The Verge, “Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai Are Cowards”: Since X’s users started using Grok to undress women and children using deepfake images, I have been waiting for what I assumed would be inevitable: X gett...

01-08-26 -

Lets Call a Murder a Murder
The New York Times has frame-by-frame analysis, from three angles, of the murder of 37-year-old Renee Good in Minneapolis yesterday. She was shot to death by a still-unnamed mask-wearing ICE agent, with what was obviously no justification. The sh...

01-05-26 -

Pickle Smells Like a Cult
Pickle CEO Daniel Park posted on Twitter/X, attempting to rebut the analysis from Matthew Dowd I linked to over the weekend pointing out the ways that Pickle’s AR glasses, for which they’re accepting $800 pre-orders, looks like a scam. Park’...

01-05-26 -

[Sponsor] Copilot Money
Starting the new year with more clarity around your money is easier with Copilot Money — now available across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Web. Copilot Money brings all your spending, budgets, investments, and net worth into one organized dashboa...

01-02-26 -

Clicks Communicator and Clicks Power Keyboard
Two years ago, I linked to the then-new Clicks keyboard case — an iPhone case with a built-in BlackBerry-style hardware keyboard jutting out from the bottom. I wrote then: I don’t know how much I’ll wind up using it but it looks fun,...

12-30-25 -

Do a Better Job on the Wings
Randy Walters wrote a lovely little story, “Christiane’s Gift”, originally published back in 2012, about a visit to a Frankfurt museum hosting an exhibit from Stanley Kubrick’s personal archives in 2004. I toured the same exhibit at the Co...

12-29-25 -

Slop Is Slop
Some follow-up on the looks-like-AI-slop “painting” Tim Cook posted on Twitter/X on Christmas Eve to promote the Pluribus season finale. Slashdot contacted the credited artist, Keith Thomson, and quoted this interaction with him: Slashdot:...

12-22-25 -

[Sponsor] Copilot Money
Copilot Money — the Apple Editor’s Choice money tracker — is expanding beyond iPhone, iPad, and Mac with the launch of its new web app, available now. Copilot Money brings all your spending, budgets, investments, and net worth into ...

12-20-25 -

Apple Announces Changes to iOS in Japan for Compliance With the Mobile Softwa...
Chance Miller, reporting for 9to5Mac this week: To comply with the Mobile Software Competition Act (MSCA), Apple has announced a set of major changes to the App Store and iPhone in Japan. The changes include new app distribution options for de...

12-19-25 -

A Request Regarding Magic Link Sign-Ins and Apples Passwords App
In Juli Clover’s aforelinked rundown of what’s new across the whole system in iOS 26.2, I misunderstood this item regarding the Passwords app: In the Settings section of the Passwords app, there’s an option to manage websites where passw...

12-16-25 -

Apple TVs New Fanfare
Tim Nudd, writing at Ad Age a few weeks ago (paywalled, alas): As we mentioned in roundup yesterday, Finneas (aka, Finneas O’Connell) has developed a new sonic logo for Apple TV, the streaming service previously known as Apple TV+. However, ...

12-15-25 -

[Sponsor] Finalist Daily Planner for iOS
Finalist is an iOS planner rooted in paper. Originally an index card system, it grew into a love letter to paper planners. You know the kind, leather folders with colored tabs and translucent dividers. Unlike those old binders, Finalist fills its...

12-10-25 -

The Full Text of Marco Rubios Directive on State Department Typography, Re-Es...
I’m a big believer in reading original source material. For example, when Apple provided me, alongside only a handful of other outlets, with a statement regarding their decision to delay the “more personalized Siri” back in March, I ran the ...

12-09-25 -

iMessages Delivery Architecture Makes It Hard to Block Without Blocking All i...
From Apple’s iMessage Security Overview: Apple iMessage is a messaging service for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Relying on the Apple Push Notification service (APNs), iMessage lets users send texts and attachments li...

12-07-25 -

Meta Says Fuck That Metaverse Shit
Mike Isaac, reporting for The New York Times, “Meta Weighs Cuts to Its Metaverse Unit” (gift link): Meta is considering making cuts to a division in its Reality Labs unit that works on the so-called metaverse, said three employees with kno...

12-05-25 -

2025 App Store Award Winners: Tiimo, Essayist, and Detail
Apple, today: “Announcing the 2025 App Store Awards”: This year’s winners represent the best-in-class apps and games we returned to again and again. We hope you enjoy them as much as we do. I did not enjoy all of them as much as Apple ...

12-04-25 -

Alan Dye Was in Tim Cooks Blind Spot
NBC News, back in March 2018: Speaking at a town hall event hosted by MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and Recode’s Kara Swisher, Cook said Facebook put profits above all else when it allegedly allowed user data to be taken through connected apps. [......

12-03-25 -

Bad Dye Job
In my post earlier today on the then-breaking news that Alan Dye has left Apple to join Meta as chief design officer (a new title at the company1), I wrote: It sounds like Dye chose to jump ship, and wasn’t squeezed out (as it seems with for...

12-01-25 -

Signal Secure Backups Are Now Available on iOS
Signal Support: Signal Secure Backups can help you safely restore your chats if something unexpected happens to your device (like dropping your phone in a lake). When this optional feature is enabled, your device will automatically back up you...

11-24-25 -

[Sponsor] Dekf Coffee RoastersHoliday Gift Bundles
Meet our new Holiday Gift Bundles, curated sets of our most loved coffees designed for effortless gifting. Nine single origins. Six signature blends. Four Mizudashi cold brews. All micro-lot and top-rated coffees shipped within 24 hours of roasti...

11-23-25 -

Exploring, in Detail, Apples Compliance With the EUs DMA Mandate Regarding Ap...
There have been several new features that have been delayed in the EU while Apple worked on making them compliant with the DMA. iPhone Mirroring debuted over a year ago with iOS 18 and MacOS 15 Sequoia, but still remains unavailable today in the E...

11-17-25 -

[Sponsor] Clerk for iOS
Clerk makes authentication for iOS apps effortless — just drop in prebuilt SwiftUI components for sign-in, MFA, and profile management. Fully customizable, always in sync with Apple’s design system, and packed with features devs love: soci...