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

August 2, 2023 12:04 PM PT

Creating podcast video with a 360-degree camera

Note: This story has not been updated since 2023.

The view from the top.

Recently, the podcasters of The Incomparable got together in person and one of the things we did was exactly what you’d expect podcasters to do—we made podcasts. Given the unique situation of us being in the same room together, I decided to see if I could capture the podcasts on video, too.

The challenge is that I didn’t want to set up a bunch of cameras. I didn’t want the addition of video to be too invasive. For years now, I’ve imagined the video version of a podcast happening around a table as looking like the circle scene from “That ’70s Show.”1 A single camera at the center of the table can shoot the entire conversation.2

Fortunately, these days you can actually buy off-the-shelf 360-degree cameras. They’re mostly made for action sports, and they have some pretty spectacular effects—there’s enough overlap between the two 180-degree lenses on both sides of the camera that the tripod or selfie stick mount disappears, leaving the impression that the video is coming from a tiny drone hovering very close to the action.

The Insta360 X3 camera sat just in front of our table and captured the whole scene. (Photo: Chip Sudderth.)

I tried two different 360-degree cameras, the $450 Insta360 X3 and the $500 GoPro Max. Both capture 360 video at 5.6K resolution (5760×2880) —which is good, because it takes a lot of cropping to get usable shots out of that file. Both of the cameras were a bit janky—they feel a bit underpowered, as if this category of product is only barely viable.

In the end, I returned the Insta360 X3 and kept the GoPro Max for a single reason: Every 30 minutes, the Insta360 would stop recording, pause for 10 seconds, and then start recording again. That’s not great for multi-hour podcast sessions. The GoPro Max made a new video file every eight minutes, but it didn’t drop frames and would keep recording until its SD card was full.

To run these cameras for the length of time of a podcast, their batteries just won’t do. Instead, you have to run them with their battery door open and a USB cable plugged in. It seems like this helps with cooling a little bit too, which is good because these things get pretty hot when they’re capturing video. The GoPro comes with lens caps and special transparent lens protectors that somewhat degrade quality but will protect from crashes if you’re doing to take it snowboarding or mountain biking. Podcasts are less dangerous, usually.

Capturing the video was relatively easy. Once I had plugged the camera into power, I placed it in the middle of the action using the Insta360 Selfie Stick with Tripod, which was so good—it’s thin, light, and extensible—that I kept it even after I switched to the GoPro.

Getting the video off the cameras afterward is a little tricky. There’s a lot of magic going on in a 360 capture—it appears that the cameras capture two 180-degree fields as well as a bunch of position data (again, more relevant when you’re skiing than podcasting). To get a usable video file out, you need to use their smartphone or desktop apps.

The desktop apps are bad, but they did the job. The Insta360 and GoPro apps both let you set up crops and pans and then export the result, which would be perfect for the quick-and-dirty sharing of action footage that these cameras are designed for. For podcasting, I decided to try two different approaches: exporting individual crops one by one, or exporting a full 360-degree video file and dealing with cropping and panning in Final Cut Pro later.

I rapidly realized that framing individual shots and exporting them one by one was going to take too much time and consume too much disk space, especially when I discovered that Final Cut Pro innately understands 360 video and provides tools to zoom, pan, tilt, and roll to get the right shots for a traditional 16:9 video. Not only that, but working with the raw 360 video means you can change your shots whenever you want, and even use keyframe animation to create virtual camera moves, all out of a single video file.

Final Cut’s Orientation panel gives you control over the field of view in the 360 shot.

My ultimate goal was to create multiple shots from the 360 video, focused on one or two people, to make it look like my podcast was shot with multiple cameras. Unfortunately, Final Cut Pro doesn’t let you define different orientations in a single 360 clip as virtual cameras, so I wasn’t able to use the app’s multi-camera switcher unless I went back to laboriously exporting every shot in advance and then importing those clips as multi-cam shots.

My shots as video effects presets.

Instead, I found a workaround: It turns out that you can save any collection of video settings, including 360 pan, zoom, and field of view, as a Video Effects Preset file, which shows up in Final Cut Pro’s Effects bin. Now I can set up each shot for a project, save it as a Preset, and then just apply those “effects” to each clip to simulate switching between cameras.

But applying effects in Final Cut Pro requires that you drag and drop an effect icon out of the bin and onto the clip, or alternatively that you select a clip and then double-click on an effect in the bin. Amazingly, in an app that’s got keyboard shortcuts for just about everything, there doesn’t seem to be any way to assign specific effects to specific keystrokes.

Not being able to quickly assign “cameras” to each shot was going to make editing these sessions a huge pain, so I brought out the big guns, namely Keyboard Maestro’s screen-scraping feature. I built a Keyboard Maestro macro that looks for the Effects panel in the Final Cut Pro interface and then double clicks at an offset point that aligns perfectly with the topmost saved Preset (and then moves the pointer back where it was). Then I duplicated that macro and changed the offset point to align with the second Preset, and so on. Then I assigned all those Keyboard Maestro macros to buttons on my Stream Deck.

Now my workflow is pretty straightforward: I can click on a clip in the timeline, press a Button on my Stream Deck to select which “camera” I’m using, and the clip will change to the assigned shot. It works, but really, Final Cut Pro should allow you to assign keystrokes to effects. Even better, it should allow users to define “cameras” in 360 footage and use them as a multicam clip.

In any event, I’m happy with my experimentation with using a 360 camera to capture podcast video. The video quality is acceptable—we were dealing with some pretty spotty lighting conditions—and editing the result in Final Cut has proven to be a manageable, if quirky, process.

  1. No drugs stronger than caffeine were consumed during these podcasts. ↩
  2. I know there are some videoconferencing solutions that will automatically focus on who is speaking around a table, but they didn’t really mesh with what I wanted to do. ↩

by Jason Snell

August 1, 2023 2:52 PM PT

Report: Apple close to college football broadcast deal

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports that Apple may be about to jump into College Football:

Sources: The primary deal presented to Pac-12 executives/ADs today was an primarily Apple streaming deal. The deal would have incentivized tiers, which would give it strong upside if certain subscriptions numbers are met.

This is all still preliminary, and subject to change. The Pac-12—which is teetering on the brink of dissolution if it doesn’t get a good TV deal—is apparently talking to Apple about putting its games on Apple TV+. (There would, presumably, be some purchase of marquee games for a linear network like ESPN, Fox, or even TBS/TNT.)

What’s interesting is the idea of “incentivized tiers,” which would not be particularly great for the conference members but sounds suspiciously like the deal Apple and MLS did with Lionel Messi, where he reportedly will receive a cut of MLS subscriptions driven by his arrival at Inter Miami.

The Pac-12’s currently precarious position aside—it’s only got 9 members as of this writing, and more are on the fence, possibly prepared to jump—the league is also the only major conference not currently under contract, which gives Apple an opportunity to make a deal to air actual American football games for the first time.

As journalist John Canzano just wrote:

Among the details that need to be unpacked: Is the Pac-12’s deal part of Apple TV+ or is it an add-on subscription like Apple has with the MLS? What would it be priced at if it is an add-on? What are the incentive numbers and when do they kick in? Is there an obligation to find a linear partner? Who produces the games — Apple, Pac-12 Network, somebody else? What is the reasonable expectation on revenue distribution? What is the term? Are there any outs for each partner?

Lots of questions. What doesn’t appear to be in doubt, though, is Apple’s interest in adding more sports TV to its portfolio.

Update: Here’s a good piece by Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News:

Any chance to link arms with the richest, most influential, most innovative, savviest, smartest company in the world is something the Pac-12 should seriously consider, especially when that company is rapidly expanding its portfolio of sports properties and positioned to dominate the sports media landscape in the near future. But in this case, the details mean everything.

If the Pac-12 is to survive (and not be carved into bits by other conferences), the details of the deal with Apple matter… a lot.

By Joe Rosensteel

August 1, 2023 8:52 AM PT

57 app icons and nothing good on

Apple TV interface

Every year I start my annual ritual of installing the tvOS beta on the secondary Apple TV. Not the one in the living room—I’m not crazy—but the one in my office.

This year brings on the biggest, boldest change in tvOS since the release of dark mode in 2017… and that change is scaling down the Home Screen icons so there’s one more app icon per row.

They said it couldn’t be done, but they did it. They increased information density in an Apple product.

The other big changes in tvOS 17 feel like they’ll have more limited appeal. VPN support will help people “visiting” other countries to watch their “local” TV. Adding FaceTime support through continuity camera is something that benefits parent-grandparent conversations on comfortable sofas and people in the one conference room connecting to the people in the other conference room. That kind of stuff.

The high-traffic navigation areas of the Apple TV interface are the Home Screen and the TV app. But why do we still have a Home Screen and a TV app? One is for browsing services, and the other is ostensibly for quick access to media and media discovery that’s relevant to you. On other platforms these things can be combined, so you have a row of favorite apps next to your watch next queue.

But other than icon size, tvOS 17 hasn’t improved anything about the most vital part of the OS: the part that lets us watch TV.

In the beta, the Apple TV app behaves exactly like it has since Apple’s ill-conceived sales-bro-esque revamp of the TV app last October. Since it’s much maligned introduction, it has been slightly tweaked 16 to keep the Up Next row at the bottom of the screen, instead of pushing it off to require a swipe-scroll down.

Apple has also made tweaks to the editorial content of that top carousel of recommendations: It’s still random stuff, including seasons of shows Apple knows I have already watched in their entirety—but now the first 23 items in the carousel are from Apple TV, when previously they were more of a 50/50 split between Apple’s own stuff and the rest of the content on the platform.

While using this beta, I realized that I hadn’t used the TV app in a while. It turns out that Apple’s changes — adding autoplaying video and requiring all those extra swipes — have driven me away entirely. I’ve gone back to just using the Home Screen to launch the app I need, like an animal. (Maybe developers at Apple have changed their behavior too and that’s why we have more Home Screen icons?)

Here’s a pro tip for people on tvOS 16 or 17: Go into Settings: Apps: TV and change “Top Shelf” from “What to Watch” to “Up Next.” Then the top shelf row of the Home Screen will show you your shows without having to open the TV app at all.

Impersonal personalization

Apple’s personalization features are still largely useless if you live in a household with two adult human beings. We watch TV together, and share accounts that are registered to him or me. Apps don’t seem to have done anything with the feature. There’s a new ability for Siri to recognize “up to six” family members voices and recommend content for them, but how relevant can that feature ever be if most viewing is a shared experience or through shared apps that don’t use Apple’s profiles? And wouldn’t it be better to personalize those ridiculous content carousels in the TV app rather than forcing us to than ask Siri what to watch?

My “What should I watch” yielded Alone, Avatar: The Way of Water, Shoresy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Orville, John Wick: Chapter 4, Yellowjackets, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schitt’s Creek, Patriot Games, Blue Bloods, Fantastic Beasts: The Rise of Dumbledore, Survivor, Black Adam, Modern Family, Fringe, Men in Black, The Golden Girls, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Total Recall (the bad one), NCIS, The Suicide Squad, Bob’s Burgers, The Untouchables, So Help Me Todd, Cloverfield, Justified, Alien Code, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Saving Private Ryan. None of those are Apple TV+ titles because—unlike the TV app—Siri seems to know what services I’m subscribed to, and I’m not a current Apple TV+ subscriber. Again, why the inconsistency?

That list doesn’t actually seem personalized, either. I have watched several of those movies, and I’ve also watched an episode of some of them and then stopped watching because it wasn’t for me. It just seems like these results are matched to a generic cis-hetero dad who’s open-minded about progressive issues. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that is not me.

Also, this list is not the same as the very, very, very buried “For You” row in the TV app. It has overlap, with dad energy, but it’s not identical, and still doesn’t have an understanding of things I’ve watched before. In neither system can I long-press to express that I’ve already watched something, or don’t like the suggestion.

I’m smart, not like everybody says

Apple has no outward facing improvements to smart home stuff via the Apple TV, which is weird, because it’s one of the two types of devices that operate as a hub for all the smart home devices you have. The Matter future that we were promised just hasn’t materialized. Perhaps the silence means that Apple is regrouping on how to handle this, but in the meantime, what it mostly means is that the smart devices connected to my office Apple TV stopped working the other day.

The tvOS Control Center has been refreshed, mostly to shrink it down. The previous version hid smart home stuff behind a tap—but now it’s hidden behind a swipe. I don’t get it. This isn’t a Casio watch—the whole TV is right there, offering plenty of space for buttons. Apple is, in fact, using that space to cram more buttons on the Home Screen. Yet home stuff is buried.

Also, why doesn’t tvOS have widgets? Why can’t I put a smart home widget, or a weather widget, on my Home Screen or in Control Center? Apple has put widgets just about everywhere else—including Stand By on the iPhone, which is all about ambient information on a display in a household.

Beta Luck Next Year

We’re not likely to see new features announced for Apple TV between now and next June, which is a bummer. tvOS 17 avoids a lot of obvious areas for improvement, especially in regard to it as a connected home TV viewing platform.

The thing that should absolutely be tweaked—on all of Apple’s platforms—is the content displayed by the TV app. (Given how much emphasis has been given to Apple TV+ promotion, that seems increasingly unlikely.)

Apple also can’t keep kicking the can on addressing the conflict between the Home Screen and the TV app. (It can’t, right?) So I hope we’ll see something sooner rather than later. But in this case, “sooner” still probably means a year from now.

[Joe Rosensteel is a VFX artist and writer based in Los Angeles.]

By Dan Moren

July 31, 2023 6:06 PM PT

The Back Page: Credit where credit is due

Dan writes the Back Page, art by Shafer Brown

There’s no shortage of news in the technology arena this week. Elon Musk changed the name of Twitter to a single letter.1 Samsung announced some new foldable phones.2 And the United Kingdom is threatening to outlaw encryption.3

But unquestionably the biggest news of this week is one that will shake the very foundations of our society: Tim Cook could not get approved for an Apple Card.

If you’re anything like me, this story raises way more questions than it answers. Like…what does Tim Cook need with a credit card?4 I’m not a billionaire, but I kind of assumed that at a certain point, people just give you things because they feel like it’s rude to ask for any of your billions of dollars. Is someone at Caffé Macs charging Tim four bucks for a coffee? Really?

So what are we forced to conclude here? Is Tim Cook secretly not a billionaire? Does he have lousy credit because in 1975 he borrowed a copy of Running Trillion Dollar Companies for Dummies from the Robertsdale Public Library and forgot to return it?

It sure must be tough for Tim not to have an Apple Card. Think about all those cash back opportunities he’s missing—after all, the man practically lives at Apple. At least it explains why he hasn’t retired from his role yet: how could he, when he can’t earn four percent on his savings?

What I’m saying is it’s not easy to be Tim Cook. Yes, he’s probably a billionaire. Sure, he might be in great physical shape. He definitely gets to see all the really cool things Apple comes up with before everyone else. The man is probably wearing a Vision Pro and sitting on the moon right now.

But does anyone ever stop and ask Tim Cook what he wants?

Because I think he just wants to be treated like the rest of us. He semes liek the type to shun the spotlight, not revel it. At the end of the day, Tim just wants to be free. Free to enjoy his meetings with world leaders, trips to prestigious sporting events, and downloading his consciousness into a robot body that will outlive us all.5

But despite his desire to just be an everyman, please spare a thought for Tim having to dig through his pockets for change the next time he wants to pay for a parking meter and can’t simply use the Apple Card on his phone. Or worse, having to ask Eddy Cue. Because he is definitely a man who carries his titanium Apple Card with him everywhere he goes.

  1. At least pick something cool and edgy like a Cyrillic character. But no, he’s just indulging his X-Men fetish. And not in a cool way. ↩
  2. Remember, folks: any phone is foldable if you really believe in yourself. ↩
  3. At which point—say it with me—only outlaws will have encryption. ↩
  4. Strong “what does god need with a starship?” energy. ↩
  5. Oh, come on, we all know one of the tech billionaires is doing it. ↩

[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.]

Video

July 31, 2023 4:00 PM PT

Exploring 360 Video with Final Cut Pro and Keyboard Maestro

On one of my road trips this summer I went to Portland, I recorded a bunch of stuff with the Incomparable hosts—we had a big get-together. And I had this idea, which was how do you do something that’s not particularly invasive, but allows you to capture video and make a video podcast out of it, when it’s just people sitting around a table or sitting around in a circle.

And I decided that what I wanted to do was buy a 360 video camera and figure it out. A 360 video camera, you put it in the center of the room and it’s fairly small and you press record and you record a podcast. And after the fact, you can merge the audio and the video and make it look like a bunch of cameras were there, even though there was only one. And it turns out this worked pretty well.

Upgrade 470: Magic Titanium

This week we wonder if Apple will profess further mastery of the Periodic Table with this fall’s iPhone Pro release, and if Lionel Messi will conquer the world with Apple’s help. And for the Summer of Fun, Myke asks Jason about his writing process and tools.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

By John Moltz

July 28, 2023 2:00 PM PT

This Week in Apple: Banish the bezel

John Moltz and his conspiracy board, art by Shafer Brown

Apple continues its ongoing war with unsightly blank spaces, and that may end up costing us all a little more. The App Store follies continue as Apple is caught in its own game of tower defense.

Bezel-bub

These are tough times for bezel fans.

“Report: Apple pushing suppliers to develop truly ‘bezel-less’ iPhone displays”

One wonders what bezels did to Apple. Did John Ternus have an ugly breakup with a bezel in college? Did a bezel kill Johny Srouji’s brother? Whatever the case, Apple has declared war on the hideous borders that besmirch our mobile computing experience, seeking to send them back to the hell dimension from whence they came.

This ongoing effort to force us to hold our iPhones more and more daintily, like 18th century appraisers of Fabergé eggs, does not come without a cost, both monetarily and in time. The iPhone 15 Pro’s reduced bezels are already causing headaches for suppliers.

A report last week suggested that the iPhone 15 Pro could face severe supply shortages due to production issues for the new display technology.

While I’m all for larger screen sizes on smaller devices, I am forced to wonder…does anyone at Apple have thumbs? If so, where do they put them?

How many kidneys do I really need?

Relatedly, you might want to check the couch cushions, because iPhones look like they’re going to get more expensive.

(Also, your Apple TV remote is probably in there.)

“iPhone 15 Pro Max Likely to Start at $1,199 to $1,299, Says Analyst”

This isn’t that surprising. After reports indicated that the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max sold better than the non-Pro iPhone 14 models, Apple might feel it can…afford…to raise the price.

“You prefer expensive phones? We can do that.”

This won’t be the end, either. As you may recall, initial rumors suggested Apple would ship a foldable phone this year. Well, that is not going to happen, but never fear! The rumor mill cannot fail, it can only be failed. What it meant to say is that Apple will ship a foldable iPhone in 2025.

“Foldable iPhone in 2025 would help segment hit $100M/year within two years”

And how will it do that? By being even more expensive.

Both Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold and Google’s Pixel Fold start at $1,800, so if you think Apple’s not going to charge a premium for a foldable iPhone, well, what company have you been watching?

App Store rumble

Remember when “fun with the App Store” meant downloading Ramp Champ or Super Monkey Ball and blowing a few hours flicking and tilting? These days it’s following all the legal wrangling.

Apple’s long-running fight with Epic is going all the way to the top, as the Fortnite maker has had a fit in the Apple Store and is demanding to talk to the 9th Circuit Court’s manager.

“Epic Games asks US Supreme Court let App Store order take effect”

Epic Games on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow a lower court ruling to take effect against Apple Inc that could force the iPhone maker to change payment practices in its App Store.

Apple has been given 90 days to appeal the ruling before the injunction would go into effect. Epic has decried this as “far too lenient” and also complained that Apple got an extra pudding cup which was “totally unfair”.

This is not the only App Store-related complaint Apple has received this week.

“Apple Facing $1 Billion UK Antitrust Lawsuit Over App Store Fees”

The suit accuses Apple of abusing a dominant position by charging a 15% to 30% fee on in-app sales in the ‌App Store‌, a policy that has been criticized by antitrust regulators in other countries.

$1 billion is, of course, just the asking price, but it’s a price that Apple might actually notice, as opposed to the relatively nickel-and-dime penalties it’s had to pay to date. The company is clearly content to keep on slugging this out no matter how many forces come to its walls.

OK, now I want to go play Kingdom Rush.

[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 Jason Snell

July 28, 2023 1:28 PM PT

Summer is two-computer season on my desk

Note: This story has not been updated since 2023.

Screen Sharing is my friend.

I love beta season. New software brings new features to discover and explore. It’s like living in the future.

The one thing I don’t like, however, is incompatibility. And given that podcasting is a big part of my job these days, I have to rely on audio software that requires very tight and finicky integration with the lowest levels of macOS. (Pro tip: If installing a piece of software requires two reboots, it’s very deeply integrated.)

Audio Hijack rejection screen for beta users
🙅🏻‍♂️No soup for you!

So for the last few years, installing beta software on my primary Mac1 means saying goodbye to some of my most important software for a while, most notably Rogue Amoeba’s Audio Hijack.

This year I decided to solve this problem by using my MacBook Air for recording, since it’s still running macOS Ventura. Rather than cluttering my desk with an open laptop (even if I could control it via Universal Control), I decided to use the Screen Sharing app and run the laptop with the lid closed. I have to admit that, having lived through earlier and more primitive eras, I had never really even attempted to remote-control a MacBook while it was sitting with its lid closed—but it works just fine!2

In order to make connecting to the laptop easier, I created a shortcut (just as I’ve done with my home server) that lets me open it in Screen Sharing with just one click. If you didn’t know, there’s a URL scheme for screen sharing: vnc://[user][:optional password]@address. (If you don’t embed the password in the URL, you can add it to the keychain the first time you log in, and it won’t ask you again.)

A screen sharing shortcut in the Dock.

I added the URL for my laptop into a button on my Stream Deck, but you can also make it a clickable item in the Dock. Just paste a URL that looks something like vnc://jason@MacBook-Air.local into Safari and then drag it right back out into the Dock. (For extra flair, drag it to the Desktop, rename it, give it a custom icon, and then drag that to the Dock.)

I also decided I needed to upgrade my hardware a little bit. I already have a BookArc stand that serves me well, but I rapidly discovered that I was plugging and unplugging stuff (my USB interface, an Ethernet adapter, and MagSafe) from my laptop way too often. So I bought an Anker USB hub with included Ethernet port, plugged in my audio interface and USB power, and now I’ve got a one-plug solution to keep the laptop powered and connected when I need to record a podcast.

Another frustration of moving from my Mac Studio to the MacBook Air is that I’ve wired all sorts of automations to a Stream Deck, and of course, all of those automations don’t work when the recording is happening on a different computer.3 That was the moment when temptation entered the picture, and temptation, thy name is Prime Day. So I picked up a Stream Deck Mk. 2 on sale and migrated my Stream Deck settings over to the MacBook Air.

Now I’ve got a second Stream Deck to control my podcasts, and—once beta season ends—I’ve got a Stream Deck I’ll take with me when I travel, so I can record podcasts with my fancy button automations when I’m on the road. I am not a crackpot.

Though I invested a lot of time and some money in this approach, believe me—the moment that Rogue Amoeba releases a version of Audio Hijack that runs on macOS Sonoma, I will return immediately to the one-computer lifestyle. But in the meantime, I’m making it work.

  1. Occasionally booting into an empty beta OS is beta tourism. I can’t effectively write about this stuff unless I live with it every day. ↩
  2. At least it worked just fine once I adjusted its energy settings not to go to sleep in the middle of a podcast. ↩
  3. My attempts to use Remote Apple Events to control my laptop from my Mac Studio did not prove successful. ↩

by Jason Snell

July 28, 2023 12:34 PM PT

The right Mac laptop for students (2023 edition)

I just updated my perennial “The right Mac laptop to buy for a student” story today.

It’s funny how that story has evolved since I first posted it. In 2017 the answer was “Wow, it’s complicated, no choice is really great.” In 2019 it was “Now that it’s Retina, the MacBook Air is probably the choice despite the keyboard.” In 2021 the answer was easy: the M1 MacBook Air..

In 2023… it’s complicated again, but in the best way. I think the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air is probably the sweet spot, but that M1 MacBook Air is getting cheaper by the day and I think will age very, very well. And now if your student prefers trading a little extra weight and size for a 15-inch display, the 15-inch MacBook Air is a pretty great option too!

Switching to Mac and building automations

Anže Tomić’s article makes us consider Apple’s focus on trackpads and lack of language localization. Also: Apple platform software advantages, and trying to outsmart ourselves with user automations.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Downstream 49: Selling Shovels

Did Netflix lure the rest of the streaming industry into quicksand? We explore the difference between being an entertainment retailer and wholesaler. Then it’s time to talk about the man, the legend, the human topic: Disney’s Bob Iger.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

By Dan Moren for Macworld

July 27, 2023 7:09 AM PT

Three built-in Apple apps that deserve a second look

Software—good software, anyway—is in a continual state of evolution. It’s one of the most impressive things about the current state of affairs in technology, even if it’s something most of us take for granted. Once upon a time, you bought a device and how it was at that point was basically static for the rest of its lifetime.

But software can change and improve. Case in point: a recent story in the Wall Street Journal suggested that opinions on Apple Maps have changed in the decade since its tumultuous release. Once the (rightful) butt of jokes, it’s now become a respectable piece of mapping software in its own right, a worthy competitor to Google Maps.

And it’s not the only piece of Apple software to follow such a trajectory. The company’s spent a lot of time working on several of the core apps across its platforms, trying to ensure that they provide a great experience. Are there third-party options that are equally good? Absolutely—and, in some cases, better. Still, while Apple could have rested on its laurels with its built-in apps, getting them just to the point of “good enough,” there are plenty of places where it’s added features and enhanced capabilities year after year. If you haven’t checked them out recently, here are three that may be worth another look.

Continue reading on Macworld ↦

The Rebound 454: Strong Old Man Energy

Maybe social media was a bad idea.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Clockwise 513: Cow Moo Pig Oink

The current state of our social media presences, tech tips for navigating medical situations, spatial apps we’d like to see for Apple Vision Pro, and how we deal with mis-delivered packages.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

By Anže Tomić

July 26, 2023 10:23 AM PT

I switched to a Mac after decades on Windows

Note: This story has not been updated since 2023.

I bought my first Mac ever this year.

I was born in 1983 in Slovenia1. My first contact with computers was at about 10 years old with the ZX Spectrum my mom’s cousin had. Then I played with a 286 PC at my dad’s job. The first computer in our apartment was a 386 PC, and from then on it was PC towers… until four months ago, when I bought the M2 Pro Mac mini.

Breath of the Mac

In a strange way, the reason I switched to a Mac was the Nintendo Switch.

I’ve always had Nintendo consoles, starting with the original Game Boy. But in 1998 I played Half-Life on a PC at a friend’s house, and from that day most of the money I saved went toward graphics cards.

After we had kids five years ago, actually sitting at a computer and playing games just didn’t happen. So I bought a Switch—and because it’s portable, it has taken on all of my gaming duties.

With the Switch in the picture, replacing my eight-year-old PC tower with another PC gaming rig seemed kinda dumb. (And just to be clear: I do also use my computer for work, and by work I mean a lot of podcasting and writing2.)

The other reason I got the Mac mini is how quiet it is, which is very helpful when you record your voice for a living. My gaming PC tower is a “quiet” build (as much as a PC tower can be), but the many fans inside are audible.

When the M1 MacBook Air came out and I saw it was powerful and fanless, I was suddenly, for the first time ever, very interested in the Mac. (I am not a laptop person, though, which is why the Mac mini caught my eye. Alas, the M1 generation didn’t offer a pro-level chip or enough ports, so it wasn’t for me.)

The announcement of the M2 Pro Mac Mini with all those Thunderbolt ports at the back was the day I knew I was going to switch. So I waited for the computer to be available in Slovenia and bought my first Mac.3

Easy going

I’ve been using the Mac mini for about four months now. While I still do a bit of switching between the Mac and various Windows machines in my life, the Mac mini is now my main computer.

I’ve been using computers for long enough that I’ve learned not to stray too far from the defaults of the operating system. Sure, I’ll use little apps to help things here and there, but I like to leave things like system-level shortcuts and UI behavior alone. These things have had decades to evolve and a lot of thought has been put into the ways things are. In my experience, sticking close to the defaults is worth it, because you don’t have to unlearn your customizations and learn new tricks every time something more fundamental changes in the OS.

Every guide to switching from Windows to Mac warns you about a few changes that, somehow, didn’t bother me too much. I was most worried about the Mac’s inverted scrolling behavior, but it didn’t end up bothering me at all. It’s all thanks to Adobe Premiere, which I use at work. Premiere uses the Mac way of scrolling on Windows, and I had no problem switching the mental model for scrolling depending on which app I was using. So when I am on the Mac, I just scroll the Mac way.

What took some more getting used to is the Control/Command/Option key situation. My muscle memory is so used to the Windows key positions that I was having real trouble just copying and pasting. It got to the point where Jason suggested I just remap the buttons, but I resisted—and it’s better every time I use the Mac. So I am sticking to the defaults!

Still, someone will have to explain to me why the shortcut for pasting text without formatting on the Mac is Option-Shift-Command-V. My fingers can’t do that! On Windows, it’s Control-Shift-V and even three keys for a shortcut I use very often is stretching it. I immediately installed Pure Paste, which makes pasting without formatting the default.

There is another very strange thing macOS does that has been driving me crazy, and that’s switching between windows of the same app. I can already sense your thoughts, dear English-language reader: Why not just use Command-backtick (⌘-`) to toggle between windows?

It turns out that on the Croatian keyboard layout, I can’t find the right key to press for this shortcut! This is not an exaggeration. I literally can’t find the right combination of keys to cycle through windows. My “solution” so far has been right-clicking the app icon in the Dock and choosing the window I want, but I will surrender soon and find an app that will help me out here.

Expectation (window) management

I use an ultrawide monitor with a 24″ secondary monitor at home and two 24″ monitors at work. Windows is pretty great at arranging windows and desktops, especially when you want to use two or more apps side by side on one monitor.

macOS is bad at that particular version of window management, but great at something else, and that is being a laptop operating system. I have seen people switch between Spaces/apps/windows so fast when using gestures on a MacBook that bordered on magic. I think the biggest reason for that is the MacBook trackpad, which is world class. No other laptop comes close.

My theory is that because MacBooks are the vast majority of Mac sales, the OS has slowly been tweaked for use with a trackpad. Sure, I could buy a Magic Trackpad for my Mac Mini—and one day I might get there. But until then, getting to Mission Control, switching Spaces, switching windows… anything to do with multitasking is much slower for me using only a keyboard and mouse.

The joy and excitement I felt when I discovered Hot Corners4 was immense, but the whole thing is still clunkier than when using a trackpad. I have been too afraid to try Stage Manager, mostly because some people I trust really don’t like it.

When Jason asked me to write about what surprised me about switching to the Mac, it never occurred to me that window management would be the main thing. But it is. I really believe this is the biggest difference between Windows and macOS nowadays. One is a desktop operating system that is worse on laptops and the other is a laptop operating system that is worse on desktops if you don’t buy a trackpad.

Language barrier

The Croatian keyboard layout.
The Croatian keyboard layout.

A fair bit of the annoyance that prevents me from using the Mac the way it was intended stems from the fact that macOS does not support my language5. There is a Slovenian keyboard layout, but it is the QWERTY version and not the correct QWERTZ version. The letter Y does not exist in our alphabet6, so having it in the middle of the keyboard is pretty dumb. I end up using the Croatian PC keyboard layout, which is fine… but I really shouldn’t have to.

All of that is mitigated by the fact that I can speak English at a level that is not a detriment when using a computer. But having the ability to run your computer’s operating system in your native language should be given for a computing platform this old. Even Microsoft, which has included our language at the OS level since Windows ’95 “forgets” to include the Slovenian spelling checker in Word.

That kind of lack of support is evident in all apps, and I imagine it originates from the fact that “if Apple doesn’t support [insert language] in the OS, we don’t have to in our app.” It might not sound like much, but it all adds up and makes the experience of using macOS worse for me and not tenable for someone whose English is not as good.

The good stuff

I’ve really been enjoying using a brand new operating system after all my years on Windows. I like computers—I talk and write about them as my job. It’s been a delight figuring out the ethos and decisions that went into macOS.

And there are things that absolutely live up to the hype. AirDrop (yeah, yeah, when it works) is amazing. The Finder is such a good file manager. The Column View opening folders is very much in line with how my brain works. The tags you can append to downloads is a feature I love and never knew I needed. The Dock makes sense to me, although I did put it to the left and turned off the “too long” animation of minimizing windows and used the Terminal to add spacers.

Then there is the solid feeling of moving things around, dragging and dropping, the animations… all of it is worthy of praise. It all feels smooth and solid in a way Windows never quite manages.

Those feelings extend to the apps, too. I finally got to play PCalc’s about screen! I bought Transmit, and it is the best app of its kind I have ever used. Ever. Audio Hijack is like a legal, no-side-effects performance-enhancing drug for a podcaster. There are very good Windows apps, but so far for me the Mac has some stuff that is unbeatable.

It’s also weirdly comforting to see that macOS shares some stuff with Windows that neither operating system should have. It all just shows that the grass is green, but maybe not that much greener. Both platforms’ app stores are a joke. It’s also time for Mac people to stop making fun of Windows settings, given the terrible state of the macOS System Settings app. And the way you dismiss notifications in macOS Monterey is hilariously bad. (Apparently it’s fixed in macOS Sonoma?)

The switch and the Switch

I am very happy with my Mac mini. It has been frustrating at times, but I really do love computers and getting to experience such a mature platform anew is a gift for someone like me.

Gaming really is nonexistent on the Mac7, but like I said at the beginning, the Switch is enough for me at this point in my life. I’ll probably never play games on the Mac… but from now on I think I’ll do everything else on one.

  1. Lovely place. Google it. You’ll want to visit. ↩
  2. I work in public radio where I make a tech show/podcast and I got that job because I have been podcasting since 2012. I have also been writing for a tech magazine for the last 12 years. ↩
  3. With added RAM, for which I sold a kidney. ↩
  4. In System Settings, choose Desktop & Dock and scroll down to the very bottom to set what happens when you stick your mouse in a specific corner of the screen. ↩
  5. When I’m a guest on English-language podcasts, I always mention the utter disrespect Apple has for most languages. There really is no excuse for Apple to not properly support more languages. If I get another chance to write something for Six Colors, the language situation will be my first pitch to Jason. ↩
  6. We also don’t have the letters Q and X. We do have Č, Š and Ž, though, so it evens out. ↩
  7. I filtered my Steam library to show just Mac compatible games and it was grim. ↩

[Anže Vidrih Tomić is a tech journalist and podcaster from Slovenia where he works in public radio. He also writes about tech and games. He shows up on The Incomparable and Clockwise podcasts and after work runs an indie podcast network.]

Upgrade 469: Bring in the Boffins

Myke’s summer is a lot less fun due to his concerns about a bill advancing in the UK Parliament that could potentially drive some Apple services out of the country. Also we try to understand just what’s happening at Apple regarding AI products, and we have issues with services that push algorithmic timelines.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

By John Moltz

July 21, 2023 2:00 PM PT

This Week in Apple: Take my word for it

John Moltz and his conspiracy board

Two sketchy reports were heaved over the transom this week, one about Apple Maps and the other about AI. But what’s even more sketchy is the British government’s excuses for making communications apps less secure.

Back on the Maps

Cast your mind back to 2012. Barack Obama was running for a second term in office, phablets were all the rage, and music lovers across the world were devastated by the discontinuation of iTunes Ping.

I may have embellished one of those.

At the same time, after a disagreement with Google over access to user data, Apple released Apple Maps to wide acclaim and haha no, someone actually kinda sorta got fired over the whole thing.

People hated Apple Maps!

Well, times change.

“People Have Begun to Love Apple’s Most Hated Product”

The Wall Street Journal’s report claiming newfound love for Apple Maps seems to be based largely on anecdotal evidence, and the article does admit:

While Apple Maps comes preinstalled on all iPhones, the overwhelming majority of iPhones in the U.S. have Google Maps downloaded as an alternative, according to Canalys.

So, it remains to be known exactly how much people love Apple Maps now. It’s definitely not as despised as it was when it was released, but it often only takes one wrong left turn at Albuquerque for you to get mad at a maps app. The best camera may be the one you have with you, but the best map app is the one that gets you where you’re going.

Artificial rumor intelligence

Breaking news on the AI front! Bloomberg reports that Apple is in the game!

“Apple Tests ‘Apple GPT,’ Develops Generative AI Tools to Catch OpenAI”

What a game-changer! Buy, buy, buy!

But is it?

Apple does a lot of stuff. Somewhere inside Apple Park there’s probably an Xserve that makes waffles. I bet it’s like The Island of Dr. Moreau in there. Just because they’re working on a thing doesn’t mean it’s going to become a product.

As Jason has noted, this rumor that makes it looks like Apple is totally in the AI game is awfully convenient for… Apple. Bloomberg’s piece is caveat-ariffic:

Apple is still trying to determine the consumer angle for generative AI…

Noted consumer technology company Apple doesn’t have a “consumer angle” for it, but it’s definitely a thing!

And:

…the company doesn’t yet have a concrete plan…

Apple’s pretty meticulous about planning. Have your AI call my AI when its plans firm up a bit.

Won’t someone think of the children?!

Bad news if you’re across the pond: it looks like your legislators are cooking up a heaping serving of hot garbage disguised as “online safety”. And Apple is not impressed.

“Apple slams UK surveillance-bill proposals”

[The government] wants messaging services to clear security features with the Home Office before releasing them to customers.

The act lets the Home Office demand security features are disabled, without telling the public.

Oh, cool. Cool, cool, cool. (Disclaimer: not actually cool.)

Apple says it will remove services such as FaceTime and iMessage from the UK rather than weaken security if new proposals are made law and acted upon.

It is, of course, not just Apple slamming this legislation. WhatsApp and Signal have done the same, with Signal saying it will leave the market if the bill passes. But two things sell—Apple and sex—so Apple gets the headline. Because presumably no one is having sex with this bill. Probably because of what’s in it, which is all kinds of assaults on protected communication.

Apple said:

It would not make changes to security features specifically for one country that would weaken a product for all users.

Of course, the government maintains that this is all being done to protect people from some very scary things.

The Home Office told the BBC that the Investigatory Powers Act was designed to “protect the public from criminals, child sex abusers and terrorists”.

You wouldn’t FaceTime a terrorist, would you? You wouldn’t iMessage a child sex abuser, WOULD YOU? WOULD YOU AIRDROP A CRIMINAL?! I’LL REMIND YOU YOU’RE UNDER OATH!

Look, I barely know how the U.S. legislative system works and what little I do know is thanks to Schoolhouse Rock!, so I have no idea how things work in the UK, but if you live there and there’s someone you can call, you might want to get on that.

[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.]

Older Posts

Search Six Colors

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