Six Colors
Six Colors

Apple, technology, and other stuff

Support this Site

Become a Six Colors member to read exclusive posts, get our weekly podcast, join our community, and more!

By Jason Snell

February 3, 2025 11:49 AM PT

Apple in 2024: The Six Colors report card

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. The whole idea here is to get a broad sense of sentiment—the “vibe in the room”—regarding the past year. (And by looking at previous survey results, we can even see how that sentiment has drifted over the course of an entire decade.)

This is the tenth year that I’ve presented this survey to my hand-selected group. They were prompted with 14 different Apple-related subjects, and asked to rate them on a scale from 1 (worst) to 5 (best) and optionally provide text commentary per category.

As is only fitting for the survery’s tenth year, I’ve made a few adjustments to the questions I asked:

  • I’ve grouped Apple Watch and the new Vision Pro category under the pre-existing Wearables category, and asked panelists to submit votes for all three (but only gave them a single box to write overall commentary about Apple’s wearables efforts).

  • I’ve broken the former Software quality category into two separate, connected categories: Apple OS quality and Apple app quality. I felt that the old category tended to cause OS releases to swamp anything else that Apple did during the year in the realm of the many apps it develops alongside its platforms.

  • Finally, the old Environmental/Social impact category has been renamed World impact. In my mind, this category represents an opportunity to judge how Apple’s deeds live up to its philosophical words about making the world a better place. Panelists are free to define it however they’d like… and, believe me, they always do.

I received 59 replies (a 75 percent response rate), with the average results as shown below:

scores chart, see each section below for them in plain text.

Since most of the survey categories are the same as in previous years, I was able to track the change in my panel’s consensus opinion. The net changes between 2023 and 2024 are displayed below:

score changes chart, see each section below for them in plain text.

Read on for category-by-category grades, trends, and select commentary from the panelists. (You can also read the entirety of panelist commentary—all 32,000 words—if you like.)

Continue reading “Apple in 2024: The Six Colors report card”…

by Dan Moren

February 3, 2025 9:18 AM PT

Bookshop CEO Andy Hunter talks Apple, Amazon, DRM, and more

Really interesting interview from The Verge’s Nilay Patel with Bookshop CEO Andy Hunter on a wide range of topics, including the company’s recently launched ebook initiative. They touch on DRM, the big players’ influences in digital reading, and more. Well worth a listen or a read if you’re interested in how the company works, and what Hunter sees as the challenges.

Here’s an interesting and somewhat unexpected take, for example, on the situation with Apple’s 30 percent cut:

And are you expressed as a website? Is there an app? I’m asking about the app because selling ebooks and digital goods on mobile phones is pretty tricky.

Yeah, we launched the app yesterday, and we do not support purchasing in the app. And the reason for that is publishers say that resellers can get 30 percent margins when you sell an ebook. So the publisher gets 70 percent, you as a retailer get 30 percent. Now, if you sell it on the App Store, Apple says we get 30 percent. So that leaves 30 percent for Apple, 70 percent for the publisher. Now that’s 100 percent, so that leaves 0 percent for the bookstore. So you cannot sell ebooks in the app and make even a penny, it’s impossible. So there’s no choice but to circumvent the App Store purchasing and force customers to go to the website to buy the books, which is unfortunate because customers don’t understand that. They just think, “You built this dumb app and I can’t buy ebooks in it, why not?” So you’ve got to try to explain it to them.

I’d say what would be rational is if you were a reseller of a digital good that you would pay Apple 30 percent of the profit margin. Thirty percent of the margin would be reasonable, but by saying it’s a flat 30 percent whether or not you’re a reseller, it makes no sense because if your margins on the product are 30 percent and they take 30 percent, then it’s suddenly impossible to have an ebook app, which is why Kindle, you can’t buy the ebooks in the app either, why you can’t buy audiobooks on Spotify’s app, all of that.

By John Moltz

January 31, 2025 2:00 PM PT

This Week in Apple: Holygarchy, Batman!

John Moltz and his conspiracy board. Art by Shafer Brown.

DeepSeek upends the AI market, Apple has totally surprising results (disclaimer: not at all surprising), and the company looks to cement ties with people who are objectively the worst.

You can’t steal stuff! Only we can steal stuff!

Hey, kids! Mom made a big batch of Schadenfreude! Who wants some?!

“China’s A.I. Advances Spook Big Tech Investors on Wall Street”

Yes, DeepSeek’s jump to the top of the app downloads list spelled bad news for AI stocks as it appeared the new model was made more cheaply and with less energy than competing models from OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google.

OpenAI, however, is calling “no fairsies.”

“OpenAI Alleges DeepSeek Used Its Models for AI Training”

Oh, nooo! Ohhh, you mean they stole the stuff that you stole from, like, everyone? Oh. No. That must feel just terrible.

While everyone likes a nice Schadenfreude sandwich with a side of LOLs, DeepSeek may not necessarily be the one to specifically root for here.

“DeepSeek exposed chat history and other sensitive data, show security researchers”

That doesn’t seem good.

You know, sometimes it seems like maybe this AI thing isn’t all thought out yet. And that’s frustrating because it could be a lot more useful… if it wasn’t largely controlled by a collection of yahoos and charlatans.

Expect the expected

Are you sitting down? Because if you thought that was big news, just wait. There’s even bigger news.

Apple… you’re sitting, right? OK. Apple… reported record revenue for the previous quarter.

I know, right? Who saw that coming? (Basically everyone.)

iPhone revenue was actually down 1% and there are indications that the iPhone might have peaked in China. But don’t worry, because Tim Cook was right there with some soothing words.

Turns out, there’s still a whole lotta iPhone innovation coming!

There’s a lot more to come and I could not feel more optimistic about our product pipeline…there’s a lot of innovation left on the smartphone.

Whew! That’s a relief, and straight from the horse’s mouth. Sure, it’s not the first time Cook has said something like this when analysts got jittery about the iPhone, but look what startling innovations Apple was able to supply in recent years:

  • Larger
  • Added a button

So… pretty sure big things are coming for the iPhone. (Spoiler: it is set to get even larger. Wow!)

With this kind of fantastic innovation in the hypeline, it’s no wonder the company was, for the 18th year in a row, ranked by Fortune as the most admired company in the world.

Seriously, who doesn’t admire the ability to print money?

Paying off

Apple is trying to see just how much $1 million gets ya. And it hopes the answer is billions of dollars.

“Apple Wants to Help Google Defend Search Engine Deal Worth Billions”

Apple says that because its deal with Google is at stake, it deserves a right to participate, and without a stay, it will “suffer clear and substantial irreparable harm.”

“Gasp… bill-ions… gasp… need… billions…”

Good luck to you, Apple! We’d hate for you to only be rolling in some of it rather than all of it. Pro tip, Apple: while $1 million seems like a lot, have you considered a bribe of $25 million?

Meanwhile, Apple is rumored to be further boosting its rich dude cred by holding talks about resuming advertising on ex-Twitter, apparently because an oligarch has a sad.

The Wall Street Journal says that several major companies are reevaluating their stance on advertising on X. Amazon plans to up its ad spending as well, and the boost in advertising could help X with some of its debt. In January, Musk said that user growth was stagnant, revenue was “unimpressive,” and that the company was “barely breaking even.”

My take is that it couldn’t happen to a Nazi-er guy, but you do you, Tim!

Linux distro Debian, meanwhile, announced that it’s no longer going to even post on ex-Twitter.

X evolved into a place where people we care about don’t feel safe.

It may not be the year of Linux on the desktop, but maybe it’ll be the year of Linux in our hearts.

[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]

By Dan Moren

January 31, 2025 12:43 PM PT

The Back Page: Troubleshoot to kill

Dan writes the Back Page. Art by Shafer Brown.

Though we often laud Apple for its devotion to user-friendly technology, there are the rare occasions when dealing with their products and devices are…less than scrutable.

For example, recently the company finally1 put up a support document explaining how to update the firmware on AirPods. The process, which users have theorized about for years—since Apple never officially said how it works—turns out to be downright simple: Just put your AirPods in the case, close the lid, plug the charging cable into the case and then into a charger, keep the lid closed for “at least” 30 minutes, open the lid and check the firmware version to see if it successfully updated.

Why are you laughing? I haven’t even written a joke yet.

Anyway, the AirPods procedure is hardly the most outlandish that Apple’s ever published. So I’ve gone ahead and collected a few more handy resources for dealing with Apple technology that can sometimes feel capricious.

Fix AirDrop: Sometimes AirDrop works perfectly. Other times it works imperfectly. Which is to say, it does not work. In those cases, you may need to reset the AirDrop system. Before you go hunting for a button to press in Settings, Apple’s made that procedure far easier: it’s all in the name. Just lift your Mac or iPhone to head height and drop it right through the air onto the floor. If that doesn’t work, it’s because your device is now broken and you need to buy a new one. Problem solved!

Make Siri correctly interpret your requests: We’ve all been there. You ask Siri to play the classic “Don’t Bring Me Down” by Electric Light Orchestra and it turns off your living room lamps. You ask Siri to add bread to your shopping list and it turns your lamps red. You ask Siri to tell you what the temperature is and it sends some helpful information to your phone about the average temperature in Boise. And also turns on the lamps in your living room. But it turns out there’s a very simple way to get Siri to correctly interpret your requests: first set the built-in language to French. Then, JUST. SPEAK. VERY. LOUDLY. AND. SLOWLY. LIKE. YOU’RE. AN. AMERICAN. TOURIST. Siri’s snide looks are thrown in for free.

Force iCloud to sync: Ah, iCloud, the Swarm of Bees™ of Apple’s products. If you’ve been using it for any length of time, you’ve probably run into the issue where something just won’t sync. A calendar event. Messages. Your mail. And yet now you have thirty reminders telling you that you need to change your smoke alarm batteries. Fortunately, the solution is easy as pie: Just log all your devices out of iCloud. Then visit your local goat farm and dedicate a sacrifice to the dread god Glog-Raggopth, all praise his name. Log back into your devices one at a time, while murmuring the ancient Enochian spell for resolving sync issues, and presto! Your mail’s all there. Also possibly some other people’s mail. And souls. Look, troubleshooting is an imperfect science.

Home accessories listed as Not Responding: You and me both, home accessories. There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to adjust your smart thermostat only to have to walk downstairs and tap on it by hand like an absolute animal. The good news is that fixing this HomeKit problem is as simple as turning off your house and turning it on again. Just find your breaker box, flip the master switch at the top, wait 30 seconds in the cold dark of your basement, and turn it on again. By the time you’ve reset all your clocks, your home accessories will be responding again, if they know what’s good for them.

Deal with the imposition of onerous tariffs: Do you have a million dollars to donate? I don’t know if it’ll fix it, but it can’t hurt.

  1. Finally.2 ↩
  2. Finally. ↩

[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.]

Continuity Camera theories, Ebooks and DRM, and Apple results

Jason invents a new Apple accessory or two, an e-book story causes Dan to decry DRM and cite Past Dan as a source, and we review the Apple fiscal results. (More Colors and Backstage members also get our monthly Q&A session!)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

By Jason Snell

January 30, 2025 2:28 PM PT

This is Tim (and Kevan!): Apple’s Q1 results call, transcribed

Tim Cook

Every quarter after releasing financial results, Apple CEO Tim Cook and its CFO—now Kevan Parekh, since the semi-retirement of Luca Maestri—hop on a conference call with analysts to detail the quarter gone by, give a peek at what’s to come, and creatively avoid answering any pointed questions from analysts. This is Six Colors’s transcript of the call.

Continue reading “This is Tim (and Kevan!): Apple’s Q1 results call, transcribed”…

By Jason Snell

January 30, 2025 1:39 PM PT

Apple’s reports record revenue for Q1 2025 (with charts)

Apple reported its financial results on Thursday for its first fiscal quarter of 2025, which covers the last three months of 2024. As expected, it was an all-time revenue record at $124.3 billion, up 4% from the year-ago quarter and beating the record set three years ago.

Probably most notable is that iPhone revenue was down 1% from the year-ago quarter, which will certainly upset some analysts and investors, given that the iPhone is more than half of Apple’s total revenue. But the Mac jumped 16%, the iPad was up 15%, and services was up 14%. The recently sluggish Wearables, Home, and Accessories category was down 2%.

See also: our transcript of Apple’s call with financial analysts. And we went live on YouTube for some chart analysis.

And now, bring on the charts:

Apple quarterly revenue by category pie chart

Continue reading “Apple’s reports record revenue for Q1 2025 (with charts)”…

By Dan Moren

January 30, 2025 8:46 AM PT

Indie ebooks’ biggest obstacles are big publishers and big tech

Existing in my weird in-between status as a tech journalist and an author, I was intrigued by the announcement this week from Bookshop.org that it would now be selling ebooks.

I like Bookshop.org; while I haven’t worked with them directly, most of my books are available through them, and I’ve pointed customers to them in the past (as well as their partner Indiebound, who now uses Bookshop.org for sales). That’s because the heart of their mission is working with local independent bookstores; Bookshop.org essentially serves as a portal for online sales for those indie stores, many of whom don’t have the money or infrastructure to create their own online marketplaces. By banding together, the hope is, they can compete with the Goliaths like, well, Amazon.

Previously, Bookshop.org focused on physical books. If you wanted to buy the paperback of the latest Galactic Cold War novel1, for example, you could search for it on Bookshop.org, then choose your local bookstore, and the full 30% profit from the sale would go to the store. If you don’t choose a bookstore, Bookshop.org still contributes a (smaller) percentage to a pool divided amongst its indie bookshop partners.

Adding ebooks is a smart move in theory. After all, you can’t exactly walk into your local indie bookstore and ask for an ebook. So there are a lot of people who love reading and would no doubt love to support their local indie bookstore instead of a big chain, but just can’t or don’t buy physical books.

I’m rooting for Bookshop.org because of all this. Amazon continues to control the bulk of the book market—not a great position for authors, publishers, or readers—roughly in that order, though.

However, there are two major technological barriers that I think will hamper broad adoption of Bookshop.org’s ebook sales—and unfortunately, they’re both out of Bookshop’s control. One is due to the current status quo of the publishing industry when it comes to technology, and the other is…drumroll…Apple.

Continue reading “Indie ebooks’ biggest obstacles are big publishers and big tech”…

by Jason Snell

January 30, 2025 8:43 AM PT

Apple to announce Q1 2025 earnings

Today’s the day: Apple will be announcing the results of its fiscal first quarter of 2025, which covers the holiday quarter of 2024. This is traditionally Apple’s largest quarter of the year, and has a chance to break the all-time revenue record of $119.6 billion set during the previous year’s holiday quarter. The results will also offer details about how the iPhone 16 series did during its first full quarter on sale.

As always, Six Colors will publish a load of charts after the results are released at about 1:30 p.m. Pacific, and a quick transcript of Tim Cook and new Apple CFO Kevan Parekh’s comments to analysts on a conference call that begins at 2 p.m. Pacific. We’ll follow it all up with a live stream looking at the results beginning at 5 p.m. Pacific.

By Jason Snell

January 29, 2025 2:51 PM PT

Apple adds Xfinity, DirecTV as MLS Season Pass distributors

It's Messi, so it must me MLS.

After a couple of seasons as an Apple exclusive, Major League Soccer and Apple are broadening the reach of MLS Season Pass for this season. The company is making MLS League Pass available to Xfinity subscribers, who can add it to their package and stream it on Apple devices or on the Xfinity X1 box, and to DirecTV subscribers, who can just tune it in on channels 480 through 495 just like any other subscription sports TV package.

These are interesting moves, and suggest that Apple and MLS are not satisfied with the reach of MLS Season Pass solely within the TV app. Both parties are trying to balance Apple’s desire to use MLS as a gateway into Apple’s ecosystem and the need to improve total subscriber numbers. Letting people who’d rather just buy an MLS package through their cable or satellite provider seems like it’ll broaden the audience, but at the expense of that Apple ecosystem play. (Xfinity subscribers will get access to the whip-around MLS 360 channel even if they don’t subscribe to MLS Season Pass.)

There’s also a new franchise, Sunday Night Soccer, which features a single match in a unique time slot. Previously, Apple and MLS had jammed all MLS play into limited windows on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Now they’re creating a premier Sunday showcase for a handpicked game—think ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball or NBC’s Sunday Night Football—and making it available within the TV app for all Apple TV+ subscribers, not just MLS Season Pass subscribers.

The MLS season begins February 22. MLS Season Pass still costs $99, or $79 for Apple TV+ subscribers. Apple’s also rolling out a new MLS documentary series, “Onside,” on February 21.

By Jason Snell

January 29, 2025 2:17 PM PT

Wish List: A real Continuity Camera

magnetic iPhone mount
Seems like a waste of an iPhone.

So Apple is apparently taking the smart home seriously. Apparently the company is working on a new home controller that looks like a small iPad, and is exploring security cameras and smart doorbells. All of that makes some sort of sense, since most of it can be assembled out of software and hardware features Apple has already integrated with some other product.

I’d like to suggest another one. I’ve actually mentioned it before on a few podcasts, but I guess it’s never appeared here, so let’s do it. I was prompted to write about this by Six Colors reader Jono, who wrote:

I’m really wanting a “Continuity Camera” device for Apple TV, because Zoom is going away from the discontinued Facebook Portal TV device and I don’t want to have to have my parents attach their phone to a mount every time we want to have a call.

Yes, Jono! I love Continuity Camera, the feature that lets you use an iPhone as a remote camera for other Apple devices, including the Apple TV. Since 2020, my wife’s parents and siblings have gotten together every other week via Zoom for a family video chat. For the last few months we’ve been do it on Apple TV, using the Zoom app for tvOS connected to my iPhone via Continuity Camera. (It’s better than it used to be.)

In fact, the experience is pretty awesome. Center Stage makes sure the right people are in frame, the quality of the iPhone camera beats every other webcam out there, and watching everyone on our big-screen TV makes it feel like something out of a sci-fi movie about how people will communicate in the far-off future year of 2025.

To get it to work, I have to clip my iPhone into a iPhone-compatible tripod that I can set on my coffee table (I previously used a magnetic mount on top of the TV), but once it’s set up, it works okay. Still, it’s clunky. Which leads to the hardware request: How about just making a continuity camera, Apple? It would be nice to permanently stick one on the top of my TV so that I could use it whenever I wanted to do a FaceTime or Zoom from my living room.

I’d suggest that Apple TV could be made to support USB webcams, but whoops—Apple took away the USB-C port! So it’ll have to be a wireless connection, though the camera itself will need to be plugged into power. It could even double as a standalone high-quality webcam for Mac users who are stuck with worse cameras.

Apple’s already got all the pieces to this puzzle. I could argue that the worst thing about Continuity Camera is that it requires (and monopolizes) your iPhone. I’m not going to buy a second iPhone to use as a camera, but I’d buy and install a Continuity Camera in a heartbeat.

by Jason Snell

January 29, 2025 1:56 PM PT

Reading newsletters via an RSS reader is still great

RSS newsletter
Reading the California Sun in Readkit.

About four years ago I wrote about how I caught up with all my email newsletters by routing them into an RSS reader:

I love newsletters, but checking email is a drag—and reading long emails an even bigger one… My newsletter consumption has shot up as a result, and those mornings reading in bed while drinking my tea have become that much more pleasant.

I’m happy to report that I still do this—all of my newsletters either get sent directly to Feedbin or are forwarded to Feedbin via an email rule—and reading RSS and newsletters together is still as much of my morning routine as that tea is.

A couple of things have changed: First, I’ve been using ReadKit as my RSS reading app of choice for a few years now, and I love it. I keep it parked in Today view —just links from the last day—99% of the time.

And last year Feedbin introduced custom newsletter addresses, so now I can create unique email addresses for different newsletters. I am slowly upgrading all of my newsletters to use unique email addresses, which Feedbin lets me turn on and off at will.

If you’re frustrated by your newsletters ending up in all sorts of different places, I highly recommend this approach—especially if you also have some favorite sites that offer RSS feeds.

[Update: If your RSS provider of choice doesn’t offer an email-to-RSS feature, Reader Chris suggests Kill the Newsletter, which does the same thing and works with any reader that supports Atom feeds.]

Clockwise 590: All Hands on Face

The how often we use our non-default smartphone cameras, the tech or techniques we use to stay focused at work, where we buy and read ebooks and whether supporting indie bookstores appeals to us, and our least favorite thing to troubleshoot.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

The Rebound 531: Bananas Fact

Casting schadenfreude.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

By Jason Snell for Macworld

January 29, 2025 6:45 AM PT

Apple’s smart home push is either a decade late or just on time

HomePod

The best time for Apple to truly embrace smart-home tech was five or ten years ago. The second best time, of course, is now. The good news is that, according to reports from reliable sources such as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple seems to have finally embraced the home as an area of growth, and a bunch of new Apple-designed home products are on the way.

It’s a sensible decision, and if Apple does it right, its years-long intransigence in this category might not matter. Let’s take a look at where Apple may be going.

Continue reading on Macworld ↦

Upgrade 548: Hunched Over the Keyboard With My Eyes Closed

TikTok troubles; Apple Intelligence to be turned on by default; the UK moves toward its own DMA; Apple leans into the smart home; and Samsung joins Apple in the chase for the ultra-thin smartphone.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

By John Moltz

January 24, 2025 2:00 PM PT

This Week in Apple: Nobody wants this

John Moltz and his conspiracy board. Art by Shafer Brown.

iOS 18.3 makes some interesting AI choices, Tim Cook gets a little help from his friends, and the iPhone 17 Air bellies up to the bar.

You’re getting AI! And you’re getting AI!

Ask not for whom the AI gets an answer wrong. It gets an answer wrong for thee.

“iOS 18.3 automatically enables Apple Intelligence for users, requires opt-out to disable”

Look, if you know of a better way to say X number of customers are using Apple Intelligence at the next keynote, I’d like to hear it.

Turns out, a lot of people are not terribly thrilled with this decision. Much like how Apple touts the convenience of paying for iOS apps through its payment process when most of its customers don’t have a choice, the company is so convinced that people are going to love Apple Intelligence that it’s pushing it on them.

Well, not all of it.

“iOS 18.3 temporarily disables Apple Intelligence notification summaries for select apps, more”

Other than the part that’s getting lots of things wrong, though, it’s going great.

Still, it could be worse. Could be Siri. As Paul Kafasis notes, Siri’s record on giving the correct results of Super Bowls (Supers Bowl?) throughout the years is about as good as the Cleveland Browns’ win/loss record. The results would be considered a comedy of errors except this is sports, not comedy, and Apple frequently touts sports as one of Siri’s strengths.

Unlike me in high school.

I lettered in enthusiasm, OK?

Low friends in high places

Good new, everyone! Selling out reaps big dividends!

“Trump blasts EU for targeting Apple and other US tech giants”

It’s a good thing there aren’t any sayings about the company you keep or this could be super awkward for Tim Cook.

Of course, bluster isn’t yet stopping any of these kinds of actions.

“UK competition authority formally investigating iPhone App Store monopoly”

One day your grandchildren will ask you what you did in the great war to take Bermuda from the UK to stop its legal actions against our beloved monopolies.

“They wanted to give developers more freedom to sell their apps. We just couldn’t allow it. We fought them at the Cambridge Beaches Resort & Spa. We fought them at the Reefs Resort & Club. We had to get between the two on rented mopeds while holding drinks with umbrellas in them. It was hell.”

You might wonder how Cook can handle this but he helpfully put his ability to compartmentalize things on display this week when he appeared as a new Lumon Industries employee in a promo spot for season 2 of Severance that appeared on the platform owned by a guy with a penchant for questionable hand gestures (you can also see it on YouTube).

Tim’s seeming chumminess with the new administration is causing some discord (small “d” although some of it may actually be happening on Discord) in the Apple community. Seems that while there are benefits to the relationship, there might be costs as well.

Teach the controversy

Controversy isn’t just for AI and rolling over for despots! Remember, this is still the Apple community! If we weren’t arguing about Apple rumors, who would we even be?

Behold, what might possibly be the iPhone 17 Air. Or not.

“iPhone 17 Air leak showcases large ‘camera bar’ design”

The images depict a single camera in a camera bar extending across the width of the top of the iPhone 17.

What is this, a Pixel? We are iPhone owners, Apple. We like our cameras in a cluster in the corner that makes the phone wobble when it’s face up on the table! This is how we do.

Unbelievable.

We’ll see how customers react to a thin iPhone, yes, but one with less battery life, a worse camera, and a new look. And just when it seemed like it was all going so well.

[John Moltz is a Six Colors contributor. You can find him on Mastodon at Mastodon.social/@moltz and he sells items with references you might get on Cotton Bureau.]

Downstream 87: TV Costs Money

Joe Adalian joins Jason to discuss Netflix’s big moves, price hikes, and what drove Jason to cancel it. Also we answer your letters and make some TV picks! (Downstream+ members also get: the return of CNN+, death of Venu, and Tubi spikes the football.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Apple Intelligence and mixed feelings

Dan is joined by special guest John Moltz to talk about the latest Apple Intelligence moves and stuff that is going on in…the world.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Older Posts

Search Six Colors

Six Colors® is copyright © 2026 by The Incomparable Inc.
Powered by WordPress | Hosted by Pressable