A free field guide to what stops people from voting, and what to do about it. English and Spanish, ready to print.

Apple has a great relationship with some third parties, the past comes back, and get ready for a big windfall. Valued partners When last we checked in on the ongoing will they/won’t they soap opera with GM and CarPlay (which was just two weeks ago), it seemed like GM was doodling “Mrs. GM CarPlay” on its Trapper Keeper. This week, however, GM insists it was just a one-time thing. “GM Wants You to Know It Still Plans to Ditch Apple CarPlay in Future EVs” Look, just because we were seen making out with CarPlay in a Chevy Silverado… and then...

Apple TV scores big and while the iPhone 18 reviews are in, the iOS 27.1 beta is not. Time to bring back the plus sign Let’s give a hearty round of applause for TV. Fantastic. Well done just in general. So many shows and so many of high quality. And there’s also Peacock! Just great. While TV is broadly very good these days, Apple TV is especially good and this week it got more bonafides to prove it. “Widow’s Bay sweeps 78th Primetime Emmy Awards as Apple TV scores 9 more wins” “Apple TV’s Pluribus Wins Six Awards at the...

A free field guide to what stops people from voting, and what to do about it. English and Spanish, ready to print.

Apple holds an event, developers pay the price, and look who’s crawling back! Finally, we’ll know what today’s specials are At its “Surprise and shine” event this week, Apple unveiled a raft of updated products, including the new iPhone Pro and Pro Max, the Apple Watch Series 12, AirPods 5, some guy named “Ternus” and, in an absolute shocker that no one was expecting, a foldable phone. I know, right? Just completely out of the blue. Who… who knew? OK, if the iPhone Duo itself wasn’t shocking — having been the subject of rumors since the Nixon administration, a full...

The deed is done! John Ternus is now CEO of Apple! Memomento mori [extreme TV infomercial announcer voice] Do you suffer from insomnia, sleeplessness, or the condition known as “Snooze Deficiency Syndrome”? Do you lie awake staring at the ceiling, unable to lull yourself to unconsciousness, despite lately really preferring it to consciousness? Well, don’t worry! Apple’s outgoing CEO has you covered! “Read Tim Cook’s full memo to Apple employees on his last day as CEO” Today is my last day as CEO of Apple. Story checks out so far. This is a moment I always knew would come one...

Apple announces the date of its September event, new M5 Ultra and M6-based Macs are available for pre-order, and Tim Cook gets ready to play his exit music. An event by any other name Apple has announced the date of its September iPhone event! Dubbed “Surprise and Shine”, the event will take place on Wednesday, September 9th. Not surprisingly because it’s a pun, the tagline for the event is actually different in other languages. In French it was “A new day. Soon.” In Spanish “A ray of wow.” In Portuguese “The unfolding of brilliant surprises.” (wink-wink). In Eridian, the tagline was […]

Tim Cook has entered his final weeks as Apple CEO, with John Ternus set to take over on September 1....

First we’ll look at how AI IS TEARING THIS FAMILY APART! Then we’ll talk about Apple’s rumored AirPods with cameras, which are also a problem. I’d like to have an argument, please This week Anthropic announced that in order to identify AI from human-generated content it would be watermarking all text it generates by subtly altering the randomness at which its models picked the next word. While this might seem a perfectly cromulent means of accomplishing a worthy goal, it really rubbed John Gruber the wrong way, as if someone suggested putting autocomplete Swiss on his Philly cheesesteak AI. Gruber subsequently […]

Apple looks to make a splash in September, the Watch may let its hair down, and Siri gets ready to bring us all the news that’s fit to $#!& about. Numerology Buckle up, buttercups, because some iPhone models will be no-shows at Apple’s September event, but that doesn’t mean it’s not gonna be HUUUGE! “Apple has eight new products to unveil at September event: report” This is all according to some guy named Mark Gur-man? (Am I spelling that right?) Eight! Wow! That’s a lot! Well, before you swoon, only two of these are the actually “new” kind of new....

OpenAI strikes back, Private Relay has a problem, and things get more expensive. Sam Altman being weird again When I try to figure out what I’m going to write about for this column every week, I jot down little notes to remind myself of stories I’ve seen throughout the week and the title for this section was one of those little notes. Of course, I could use that as a reminder every week if I wanted. Let us turn to Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI because the game is afoot! And when I say “game”, I mean pretty much just that....

Apple Upgrade pencils out, Tim Cook signs off, and Apple TV turns on. That print is fine This week, just as the seers predicted through the scrying of the entrails of a trash can Mac Pro, Apple announced that it was sunsetting the iPhone Upgrade Program and unveiling Apple Upgrade, a lease-to-buy option for Apple products. While Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman had claimed cheaper products would not be eligible, it appears that God has yet to make a revenue so small that Tim Cook would not want to smooth it. Much of the week has been spent trying to find the catch […]

"Wonder Man" has been canceled at Disney+, Variety has learned.

Apple is sticking it to us again, vibe coding hits the App Store, and Apple Maps comes pre-loaded. Downgrading the upgrade program Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says get ready because Tim Cook’s about to reach into your wallet again. At this point is it even your wallet anymore? Tim would like to think not. Apple is set to announce that the iPhone Upgrade program is being replaced with a lease-to-own model that will be available for iPhones, Macs, iPads and Apple Watches, with the exception of the cheaper models. Not everyone is happy about this. In fact, seemingly no one outside of […]

Apple sues OpenAI, ships betas for the rest of us, and sells some iPhones. Late to breaking news Shortly after this column went to bed last week, Apple rudely made a late Friday afternoon news dump, in which it announced it was suing OpenAI, alleged the company stole its intellectual property, and said they were, generally, just a bunch of real goobers (the latter part is implied). “Apple accuses OpenAI of using stolen trade secrets to create its upcoming AI gadgets in new lawsuit” Apple’s charges against at least one individual are somewhat eye-popping as they detail the kind of brazen […]

For the first time, scientists found that a rocky planet in the habitable zone of its star has an atmosphere. It’s the best place to look for alien biosignatures, scientists say.

Can’t wait for a foldable phone? You don’t have to! One iPhone will have to wait for future generations to enjoy it while Apple can’t wait to get more modems. It’s all foldables now After months of dire warnings about trouble down at ye ol’ foldable phone works, it looks like the most dire outcome of all may occur: you may be faced with having to consider buying a really expensive phone. “No delay to iPhone Ultra, says supply-chain report” You’re out of excuses now! “Honnnneyyyy? I bought a $3,000 phone.” [yelling] Earlier reports had suggested that the iPhone Ultra...

The iPhone ruins everything again while Apple makes some appeals. Fertile subject matter You ever sit down to write a weekly column and sigh heavily and think “What the heck am I going to write about this week?!”, only to open your RSS reader and being bathed in the “Pulp Fiction”-esque light of a story that has your name written all over it? No? Well, I have. “The iPhone contributed to ‘a collapse in US fertility,’ claims scientific study” [drops to one knee in the end zone, kisses the tips of two fingers and raises them to the sky, eyes...

Apple raises prices, the M6 chip lineup gets downsized, and here come the Ultras. I never thought price increases would eat my face! Our top story this week: AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH! “Apple Just Increased Prices on MacBooks, iPads, and More” But… I buy MacBooks and iPads! Yes, after months of laughing at PC makers and customers, the joke is finally on us: Apple has raised prices in response to increasing RAM and SSD costs. After years of talking about Apple’s amazing price to performance ratio, things have finally come back to Earth a bit. Even the MacBook Neo, born so delightfully affordable,...

Tim Cook delivers some bad news, I have trust issues, and the beta reactions are in. He’s very outgoing Outgoing CEO Tim Cook is taking yet another one for team Apple and incoming CEO John Ternus before he shuffles off to Buffalo or, in this case, a cushy board chair. Quoting a report in The Wall Street Journal, 9to5Mac says: “Apple confirms price increases are coming to its products due to RAM shortage” “Unfortunately, price increases are unavoidable,” [Tim Cook] said. Yes, just like the waistline on jeans these days, prices of your favorite Apple products are set to go...

It’s our last chance to read the tea leaves on Apple’s AI announcements next week, so let’s do this thing. Meanwhile, Apple bumps up production of the MacBook Neo and bumps down the number of Vision products it’s working on. Now serving… With only a few more days to speculate, let us do just that. What else would we do? Just wait until Monday? Waiting to see what Apple announces is for suckers. The big thing on everyone’s mind for WWDC26 is enhanced Siri and Apple’s ability to finally deliver on some of the bounced Apple Intelligence checks its mouth...

You know that thing where you see a black cat twice? It’s just like when you see the same iPhone foldable rumor twice. We’ll catch up on the latest AI shenanigans before Ferrari and Rivian try to take us for a ride. Re-foldable If you loved last week’s foldable iPhone production stall that was not expected to affect the fall launch then you’ll love this week’s foldable iPhone production stall that is not expected to affect the fall launch. It’s time to admit it! You have a fetish for foldable iPhone production stalls that aren’t expected to affect the launch!...

The foldable iPhone hits Schrödinger’s stall, Tim Cook gets some bad news, and Google can’t seem to read the room. What is time, even? Bad...