Finding a common time when a group of people can meet has been a recurring theme of my life for a couple of decades now. Back in the old days, it was often finding common times for project meetings at work. For more than a decade, it has also included scheduling podcast episodes with a disparate group of panelists. And as an independent type person, I often need to schedule Zoom meetings with a random collection of people in different time zones with different schedules.
Looking at Fantastical meeting sign-ups.
My calendar app has never really done this job well, so I’ve used a bunch of web-based tools to facilitate this work, most notably Doodle and (more recently) StrawPoll. As of last week, though, my calendar app does do this—because last week Flexibits announced Fantastical 3.6, an update to its subscription-based calendar app that adds a new web-based scheduler.
Fantastical’s scheduler works both ways. If you’re trying to find a common time, you can create an event with multiple possible times, and then generate a link to send to potential participants. They can respond on the web with the times they’re available, and—this is maybe my favorite part—you can see their responses right within Fantastical.
If you’re someone who keeps open “office hours” or wants to provide a quick link to clients or potential customers to schedule time with you, you can now do that within Fantastical, too. The new feature, called Openings, lets you offer up time slots in your schedule and generate a web link to let people sign up.
Fantastical (and its cousin contacts app, Cardhop) are bundled together in a subscription service called Flexibits Premium, and these additions show that Flexibits is getting comfortable implementing new features that span apps and the cloud to get the functionality that they want. And all these new features are covered by the regular Flexibits Premium subscription—as they should be, since getting the benefit of new features was a key part of the deal when Flexibits converted Fantastical to a subscription model.
There are a few other tweaks in Fantastical 3.6, including a Quarter view that shows three months at once, and a couple of subtle niceties—clicking or tapping a second time on the current day toggles between showing the whole day and scrolling to what’s next, and clicking on a future day with no calendar events no longer confusingly shows you whatever the next day with events is—it shows you the day you selected, with a reassuring indicator that there are no events that day.
This week Jason and Myke both revive some classic hardware that hits them right in the feels. Also, there’s a confusing set of Apple event rumors, and Apple tries to address AirTag security concerns.
Ah, the humble wireless router: a staple of the internet age, something we’ve all got tucked away in our house somewhere (or worse, out in full view). They’re a pain, a thing that sometimes just needs to be rebooted for no apparent reason, whose errors can be mystifying, and whose troubleshooting and management can make even the most tech-savvy among us grit their teeth in frustration.
It didn’t have to be this way. Once upon a time, Apple was in the business of making wireless routers. The AirPort line debuted in 1999, at the same event where Apple introduced the iBook, the first consumer computer to offer built-in wireless networking. Over the course of nearly more than a decade, Apple made a succession of the devices, until it finally discontinued the line in 2018.
And now, more than ever, it’s starting to feel like that might have been a mistake. Is it too late? Could an AirPort resurgence save us from the pain of dealing with substandard routers? Or are we consigned to a future of annoyance and irritation?
The Six Colors Report Card for 2021 is in the books, but nerds being nerds, there’s always a clamor for more statistical slicing and dicing of the data.
This year I’m happy to present a few charts from Six Colors member, Duke University professor, and data-visualization expert Kieran Healy that take the initial Report Card scores and slice them in a few interesting ways. (The last one might break your brain. You’ve been warned.)
My thanks to Kolide for sponsoring Six Colors again this week.
Kolide believes that the key to unlocking a new class of security detection, compliance, and threat remediation is the “average” person. So do the hundreds of organizations that send important security notifications to employees from Kolide’s Slack app.
Kolide knows that organizations can dramatically lower the risks they face with a structured, message-based approach. More importantly, they’ll be able to engage end-users to fix nuanced problems that can’t be automated.
Kolide’s “Honest Security” is part guide, part manifesto. It’s a user-first approach to security and IT compliance. Kolide doesn’t like the current trends toward human-hostile security and device management. That’s why you should check out Kolide today.
We’ve become aware that individuals can receive unwanted tracking alerts for benign reasons, such as when borrowing someone’s keys with an AirTag attached, or when traveling in a car with a family member’s AirPods left inside. We also have seen reports of bad actors attempting to misuse AirTag for malicious or criminal purposes.
You should probably just read the statement, but the gist seems to be that Apple:
Is working with law enforcement to identify people who use AirTags to track people without their permission, and will be making it clearer when you start using an AirTag that it’s a crime to do so.
Fixing an issue that makes AirPods appear as an “unknown accessory,” presumably startling people unnecessarily.
Plans an update to allow people to find unwanted nearby AirTags more easily and allow devices to notice and alert about unwanted nearby AirTags more rapidly.
Apple is trying to thread the needle with AirTags, allowing them to be used for good but not for evil. It’s complicated, and Apple knew that going in—but it turns out it still has a lot to learn.
Well, technically sometimes I also podcast. Which feeds the writing about podcasting. Really, it’s a vicious cycle.
For more than a decade, I’ve been happily using a Blue Yeti for all of my podcasting needs. While it has its detractors, it’s been a good fit for me: a USB mic that sounds good with my voice, and is simple to connect to my Mac. It’s not the most portable mic (for that I have an Audio Technica ATR2100), but as the anchor of my at-home studio, that wasn’t a real concern.
However, I recently ran into a scenario for which the Yeti has not been ideal. To wit, A Complicated Profession, my Star Wars recap podcast over at The Incomparable. For our coverage of The Book of Boba Fett, I’ve been joined not only by my frequent podcasting collaborator Tony Sindelar, but also my wife Kat.
And therein lies the rub. Though I had two USB mics, the Yeti and the ATR, allowing us to both record at the same time, I lacked fine grain control over those mic setups. The biggest impediment was that in order for both of us to hear Tony over Zoom, I had to setup a virtual interface with Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback, but such a setup also made it more difficult for Kat and I to hear each other. Add in that the ATR is a very directional mic, and it was difficult for me to tell when it might not be set up correctly.1
The Audient EVO 4 is a compact interface, but it is pretty feature-packed.
Time, then, for an equipment upgrade. After consulting with Jason, I ordered an Audient EVO 4, a small USB audio interface that boasts two XLR inputs for connecting external mics. Since the ATR2100 has both a USB connection as well as an XLR jack, I already had one mic that would work with it.
To supplement it, I picked up a Pyle PDMIC58, as recommended by Marco Arment: it’s an affordable dynamic mic that runs about $20 and sounds pretty good, although I do find that I have to get pretty close to it to be audible, even with the gain up. I added a cheap windscreen and a $15 shock mount and swapped it onto my boom arm in place of my Yeti.
The Pyle is affordable and sounds pretty good.
The result was a pretty simple little setup that not only allowed me to easily grab audio from both mics, but let us (via a good old-fashioned headphone splitter) easily hear each other through our monitors, as well as Tony via the computer.
While I don’t intend for this to be a full review of the EVO 4, I do have some thoughts I want to share about the interface now that I’ve used it for a few weeks.
First, the good: it’s an incredibly compact box that can support a combination of XLR and line level input, and features a single multifunction dial on the top that can be used to control volume levels, gain levels for each mic, and the mix levels between your monitor and computer audio. It also uses USB-C, can link both inputs for stereo audio, and supports phantom power for mics that need it. At $129, it’s also pretty affordable, though you can find other two-input audio interfaces for around the same price. And one nice touch that I haven’t seen on many other audio interfaces: pressing and holding an input selector mutes that input; pressing and holding on the volume selector mutes all inputs.
(There are also a few features like Smart Gain, audio loop-back, and speaker outputs that I haven’t really played with.)
All of that’s pretty good, but it has a few downsides. First, though I like the multifunction control, the EVO 4 uses LEDs arrayed around the knob to indicate gain, volume levels, and the current pan of your mix. With the device on my desktop, it can be tricky to read those LEDs, and also tough at times to tell when input might be clipping. (It does seem, from what I can tell, that the buttons for the audio inputs flash red when clipping occurs, but it’s not always as obvious as on a traditional meter.) I also wish that it didn’t require a 1/4-inch headphone adapter, but as that’s a professional standard, it’s neither here nor there.
The construction of the EVO 4 is only fine: it’s all plastic on the outside, which can make it feel a bit flimsy, compared to other audio interfaces. (But that also means it’s a bit less hefty.)
The biggest issue I’ve run into with the EVO 4, however, is sound. Which is definitely a bit of a problem, given that it’s an audio interface. For one thing, it’s not very well shielded: having my phone closer than about two feet causes some pops and clicks to make their way through unless I put it in airplane mode.
Secondly, I’ve been noticing a little click at the end of people speaking: I’ve tested and it’s audible over both my headphones and a pair of monitors I have on the desk, but not on the recording track itself, which leads me to believe it’s connected to the interface’s output. That’s been annoying, and I’ve been trying to work with Audient’s support to track it down, though their response time has been…not exactly reliable. It’s possible this unit itself is a dud, which might mean returning it and switching to a different interface or back to my Yeti until it comes time to record another podcast with two people in the same room.
While I am a professional podcaster, I’m not an audio engineer, so some of this stuff is, frankly, a little bit above my pay grade. I’m intrigued in what breaking out my setup to include an audio interface can offer in terms of flexibility and power, but I do miss some of the simplicity of a mic that plugs straight into my computer. And I have to admit, that I have still cast an envious look at the Shure MV7 to replace my Yeti, since it too has both the USB and XLR interfaces. But I’ve probably spent enough on new audio equipment for one year already.
Probably.
There was one week where I used Audio Hijack to essentially create a monitor, but even at its lowest latency setting, software just isn’t sufficient here. ↩
[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]
Whether we’re still using the iPad to its fullest potential, how we’re watching the Winter Olympics, AI-generated music and art, and the ways we digitally send cash to friends.
What are third-party app developers worth to Apple? What is access to Apple’s platform worth to developers? While the past year has brought squabbles and lawsuits and regulations related to dating apps in the Netherlands, the core issue is this: the iPhone and its App Store have generated an enormous amount of money, and as is so often the case, all the involved parties would like more of it.
What’s clear, at least right now, is that Apple has decided to fight any court- or regulator-mandated reduction in the amount of money it takes from the App Store ecosystem. (Apple itself has reduced its cut voluntarily a few times, including for subscriptions that last longer than a year and for developers who make less than a million dollars in revenue.)
What’s also clear is that Apple doesn’t feel that the 30 percent it takes from most App Store transactions is a fee for running the App Store and handling its finances. Instead, Apple feels that it is money owed to Apple for the creation and maintenance of the iPhone as a platform for third-party apps. It’s not just credit-card transactions, bandwidth from servers, and the salaries of the App Store’s approval and editorial teams. It’s Xcode, documentation, and developer relations. And most of all, it’s access to a billion people who use and love their iPhones.
The new capability will empower millions of merchants across the US, from small businesses to large retailers, to use their iPhone to seamlessly and securely accept Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets through a simple tap to their iPhone — no additional hardware or payment terminal needed.
This feature has been much rumored in the last couple weeks, though I’m surprised to see Apple announce it in a press release—maybe this is about getting ahead of the people who dig into software releases to find unannounced features.
What struck me as interesting is that Apple seems to specifically be targeting merchants using third-party apps for this feature:
Tap to Pay on iPhone will be available for payment platforms and app developers to integrate into their iOS apps and offer as a payment option to their business customers. Stripe will be the first payment platform to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to their business customers, including the Shopify Point of Sale app this spring. Additional payment platforms and apps will follow later this year.
This suggests that it’s more about a software framework available to developers than a feature built into the OS—i.e. allowing developers to create apps that accept payments using the built-in NFC chip.
A couple notable omissions: there’s no mention in here of Apple Cash (née Apple Pay Cash), so you may not be using this feature to, say, pay your friend back for those movie tickets1. One possible reason: Apple Cash remains unavailable to customers outside the U.S.
Also absent is any mention of the iPad, with good reason: current iPads don’t have NFC chips built-in.2 Though with an iPad Air refresh Reportedly waiting in the wings, it’s entirely possible that Apple’s waiting to roll out that feature alongside a hardware announcement in March. Hard not to imagine that Apple would like the ability for an iPad to act as a point of sale terminal right out of the box.
That last raises question about the future of third parties like Toast and Square, both of which offer their own hardware add-ons to turn iPads into POS terminals. But given Apple’s note of “additional payment platforms and apps” coming later this year, those companies would probably build support for iPhones and future iPads offering this feature—and, as the replacement time on iPads can often be several years, their hardware products will probably still have relevance for some years to come.
Moreover, there are two strategic considerations to take into account here: first, this is probably good for Apple’s Services revenue, as it means more places that will potentially accept Apple Pay.
And second, this move may be about avoiding regulation. In 2020, the European Commission launched an antitrust investigation into Apple’s limitation of access to NFC payments, though the primary concern in that case was that only Apple Pay had the ability to make payments. As far as Apple’s press release suggests today, this is purely about the ability to accept payments. It’ll be interesting to see if that moves the needle for the EC at all, but something tells me it’ll probably still have objections.
Ha ha, just kidding, who goes to the movies anymore? ↩
A couple models like the iPad Air 2 and mini 3 did have an NFC chip built-in, but they were never available via software. ↩
It’s time for our annual dive into the Six Colors Apple Report Card, as Jason and Myke interpret the scores and comments of several dozen Apple-watchers and add their own views on where the company is succeeding—and where it’s not. Also discussed: future M2 Macs and the intricacies of Dutch dating.
It’s time for our annual look back on Apple’s performance during the past year, as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people who spend an awful lot of time thinking about Apple.
This is the seventh year that I’ve presented this survey to a hand-selected group. They were prompted with 12 different Apple-related subjects, and asked to rate them on a scale from 1 to 5 and optionally provide text commentary per category. I received 53 replies, with the average results as shown below:
Since I used largely the same survey as in previous years, I was able to track the change in my panel’s consensus opinion on all but one question compared to previous years. The net changes between 2020 and 2021 surveys is displayed below:
Read on for category-by-category grades, trends, and commentary from the panelists.
Security has been a significant selling point in Apple’s modern era. The company’s invested a lot in building it into its platforms from the ground up, with innovations like the Secure Enclave, all the way up to user-facing technology like Touch ID, Face ID, and iCloud Keychain.
But in the most recent beta releases of its operating systems—particularly in iOS 15.4—Apple’s rolled out some new improvements that take not only security but also convenience into account. And they demonstrate that, while the company is continuing to take the safety of our devices and information to heart, it also realizes that these are systems that people have to interact with, often many times a day.
Moreover, if you’re peering into the future, you can also see pretty clearly that Apple has further expansions of these technologies in mind, with the aim of continuing to make its products the most secure—and most user-friendly—options on the market.
