I present to you downtown Memphis, looking east from the Mississippi River:

Yes, we have a Bass Pro inside a pyramid. No, it doesn’t look like Apple’s rendering of it:

Ramesses now stands at the University of Memphis, but that’s a story for another time.

I was going to report to Apple that the sides of our pyramid are actually smooth and not stepped, but the “Report an Issue” feature inside of Apple Maps doesn’t have a category for 3D rendering issues.

Instead, I opted to submit feedback instead. If you or someone you know can help with this very important issue of civic pride, you’ll find it filed as FB24988556.

Federico has an M5 Ultra Mac Studio review unit and shares what local AI looks like on macOS today — and in the future. Myke has advice for buying iPhones in countries other than your own, and Stephen is old.

We will be off next week for the Podcastathon, but will be back on October 8.

I have launched and withdrawn more than 50 apps from the App Store over the years, but never have I had a withdrawal sustain the consistent attention that Geneva Moon (and its astronomically accurate complications) has. I pulled it 6 years ago and yet I still get people asking about it on a regular basis.

It broke in watchOS 27. Over the weekend I got it working again. Here it is. I hope this makes a small but highly dedicated group of people happy. Also, I made it free.

St. Jude cares for some of the world’s sickest children regardless of their race, ethnicity, beliefs, or ability to pay. Its patients receive the customized care they need to treat childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases, no matter what barriers they face.

Donations from normal folks like you and me make that possible.

If you haven’t donated or signed up to host your own fundraiser, today is a great day to change that!

We’ll be hosting the 8th-annual Podcastathon on Friday, October 2, from noon to midnight Eastern. We have been working on this for months, and I believe it will be the best one we have ever done.

Like in previous years, the stream will be on Relay’s YouTube channel:

The Podcastathon is my favorite workday of the entire year. I hope you will join us!

This Performa 410 was a store demo unit! This is the kiosk software that would have been running on a demo Mac inside a store like Sears or Circuit City. The machine was never wiped back to factory state before being sold, and the original owner kept the demo software the entire time they had the machine. Such a cool find!

It includes a comparison between the Performa 410 and the Performa 466, so clearly those two models must have been sold side-by-side at the same retailer.

Aside from that, there is a tutorial about how to use a mouse, info about a few Apple accessories, and a ton of software demonstrations about several included software and devices such as ClarisWorks, Quicken, the Global Village fax modem, AOL, American Heritage Dictionary, and SuperMunchers. There are also several demos of other software you could buy including Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Yearn2Learn, and Battle Chess.

He’s shared the whole thing on YouTube:

In the world of technology, trade-offs change nature over time. The first iPhone was amazing, but it was expensive and only ran on AT&T. The original MacBook Air was an incredible piece of engineering, but it ran hot and slow.

After a product matures, those trade-offs begin to shift, especially when it becomes a family of products.

When there was just one iPod, it was easy to know which one to get. Once the iPod mini came along, it changed the equation for many people. For the last several years, iPhone customers have faced similar questions when looking at the Pro and non-Pro models.

The trade-offs between those two devices have always been pretty clear. The Pro has a better camera system and other nice-to-haves, but you have to be willing to pay for them. I think most iPhone buyers knew what camp they fell into and were mostly okay with it.

Last year, the iPhone Air upset the apple cart, adding a new third option that was both better and worse than its more established siblings.

I’ve been using one for the better part of a year, and the trade-offs aren’t as bad as you may think.

What You Know

Right off the bat, I should note that the iPhone Air has not sold well. Compared to its more mainstream siblings, its numbers are downright embarrassing. There are several reasons for that.

First, Apple hasn’t advertised the Air; last cycle’s marketing focused on the cosmic orange 17 Pro. Given how people have reacted to seeing my iPhone Air, I feel like most consumers don’t even know Apple sells it. I’ve had more “Is that an Android?” than “Oh, is that the iPhone Air?” over the last 12 months.

Then there’s the Curse of the Fourth iPhone. Apple has sold two sizes of Pro phones successfully, but finding that same success with non-Pro phones has proven elusive. The Mini and Plus were both on sale for just two years, then Apple took them off the market.

The iPhone Air is very different from those older devices. They were the regular iPhone in a different size; the Air is wholly different from the iPhone 17, yet the curse remains.

Third, Apple made some big trade-offs to make the iPhone Air a mere 5.64 mm thick. The battery life isn’t up to par with other modern iPhones, and the single camera can leave you without the reach of the iPhone Pro. The thin Titanium chassis can become quite warm under load. The single loudspeaker is … not great.

How I Feel

Here’s the thing — I’ve found I can live with all those limitations to have such a thin phone in my hand and in my pocket.

That’s not to say the last year has been perfect.

On days I am at my desk, I can top up the battery, but on weekends or travel days, I’ve had to rely on the Air’s external battery. This isn’t a big deal, but it does require some thinking ahead.

The camera has been my biggest pain point. The 1× lens isn’t bad, but the lack of flexibility is pretty limiting. This is true on both ends of things — the lack of a true macro mode and the limited zoom limit what the Air can capture.

The Air is not a bad phone today, just an imperfect one. It’s not the best phone Apple sells, but it’s the next best thing.

Parts of it are magical.

Remember how light the iPhone 5 felt back when it was new? The Air feels that impossible at first, and it hasn’t really worn off in the months since. I never got into the whole Marie Kondo thing, but this iPhone does spark joy for me.

It’s also affected every other iPhone in my house, at least in my mind. They all feel clunky.

What Comes Next

Every once in a while, a product comes along that shows us a glimpse of the future.

There is a phrase that is often used to describe a failed product that ends up being right in the end:

It was ahead of its time.

Think about the Newton, Apple’s PDA from the 1990s. It foretold much of what we have today in the smartphone age, but it couldn’t reach far enough into the future to grasp it.

Of course, the iPhone Air isn’t really like the Newton, but the point stands—the iPhone Air is a little part of the future we can enjoy now.

One day we’ll look back on it and realize it was the start of a new era. This Air may not be a winner, but one of its successors will surely take the crown.

Apple’s 27 OSes are out, but a new beta is already overshadowing them. The guys talk about both, celebrate a huge milestone in Relay’s St. Jude campaign, and dream of future Apple Stores.

When I zoomed in on Stephen’s page, I was initially confused, but then I realized what seemed odd to me. You see, I’ve spent an awful lot of the past 40 years looking at engineering drawings, and I can’t think of any that looked like this. That’s because the drawings I’m used to are for making the depicted product, but the drawings Apple’s offering up here aren’t for that. These are for others—not Apple and not its suppliers—to use for making cases and other accessories. I figured it was worth a quick post on what makes a drawing like the one above so different from what I’m used to.

Apple’s 27 OSes are rolling out today, and there’s a lot of great stuff to read:

• Federico’s epic iOS and iPadOS review.
• John Voorhees took on macOS Golden Gate and watchOS 27.
• Over at Six Colors, Jason and Dan have reviewed macOS and iOS, respectively.

Golden Gate is the 24th version of macOS that I have documented this way. It’s a lot of work, but I love having the screenshot library as a resource for folks to use and enjoy.

If you haven’t looked through the library in a while, you should check out my new-ish comparison tool. You can type what you are looking for, and the page will surface related screenshots, sorted by age. It is a lot of fun.

The 512 Pixels macOS Screenshot Library is sponsored by SoundSource, from the fine folks at Rogue Amoeba.

In many stores, Apple will replace the video walls with dedicated Genius Bars, marking a return to a familiar element from an earlier era. The design resembles the Genius Bars of the past but with an all-wood look. There will be two counter heights for accessibility, while the wall behind the bar will include storage drawers and large posters highlighting new products.

The new Genius Bars and Avenue bays will be designed to mesh with existing stores and look fully integrated — as if they had been part of the original design.

Apple has been tinkering with this for a little while in select stores, and it is good to see that the company is considering rolling it out more broadly.

For a decade, Apple’s changes to its stores have made them more confusing and chaotic. This is a step in the right direction.

We have now raised more than $5 million for St. Jude since we started this project in 2019.

If you had told me back then that this would be possible, I would not have believed you. The Relay community has proven me wrong, and I’m so thankful for it. Let’s keep the party going.

This is Relay’s dent in the universe.

The eve of iPhone 18 Pro pre-orders seems like a good time to look back at the iPhone 17 family’s adoption. Here’s the 17 family data as a percentage of overall usage for Widgetsmith.

Generally, they followed the usual adoption pattern and overall did very well, ending at around 20% of total usage.

With the exception of the Air really struggling to find market share. For comparison, the 16 Plus ended its first year at around 1.4% (vs. the Air’s 0.3%).

The graph is pretty pretty pretty pretty rough for those of us who love the iPhone Air:

Widgetsmith is huge and is much more representative of real-world performance than apps written for a nerdier audience. I suspect the overall sales of these phones look a lot like this chart.

I believe we’ll see an update to the Air in the spring, with the same rear camera system as found on the iPhone Duo. Past that? I think Apple may pull the plug.

Many picks were made. One Chairman will be named.

Who will win? Who will fold?

Ahhh, the Duo-ality of the Rickies!

I’ve been sketching size comparisons for the new iPhone models since 2017, so in 2026 I’m celebrating ten years of iPhone size sketches!

This is just a sample of what awaits you:

This 3D version of Clarus can also be found within macOS 27 Golden Gate:

My thanks to Federico Viticci for sending this my way!

Thankfully, there’s some time between now and when the iPhone Duo ships next month.

The new starting prices for the three models now look like this:

• iPhone 16: $799 (+$100)
• iPhone 17e: $699 (+$100)
• iPhone 17: $899 (+$100)
• iPhone Air: $1099 (+$100)

So that’s a $100 price hike on all four existing models in Apple’s iPhone lineup. With the debut of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, Apple has discontinued the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

I was surprised that the new 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max saw only a $100 increase.

I assumed this would remain unsolved until Apple created an importer for Journal, but then I saw Brian Stucki link to this project on GitHub.

I made an extra backup of my Day One data and then threw nearly 3,000 Day One posts at it, and the CLI just worked.

I don’t know if everything moved perfectly, and Journal is a very simple application when compared to Day One, but this is by far the best tool I have seen for this job yet.

[In] Lion DP1, you could set defaults write com.apple.dock springboard-left-of-finder -bool YES and get this.

that first Lion beta build is absolutely chock full of experimental UI behind flags.

This makes me feel weird inside.

Today is September 1, 2026 — the day that John Ternus becomes CEO of Apple.

As you would assume, Apple has now updated its executives page with Ternus as CEO, along with a refreshed profile for him.

I wanted to note three narratives that I spotted in this profile that I think tell the story of the kind of CEO he wants to be, and how Apple wants to communicate this to us. All three of these are very interesting to me.

Sending lots of love to the Apple community on my last day as CEO. My title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude is endless, and I’m excited for the next chapter!

This followed an “internal” memo in which he wrote:

There is something truly special about Apple. I am most proud of what an annual report could never capture. This place is proof that culture triumphs over everything. We share a belief that what we build matters, and that we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to leave the world better than we found it. That purpose is part of what makes this place extraordinary. Apple helps nurture it, but I believe it lived within each of you long before you arrived here. It is what brought you to this company and what continues to drive the work you do every day. Together, we have created something far greater than any one of us could have imagined or accomplished alone. And that’s the secret to our success. We bring out the best in each other. We lift each other up. We have made it possible to leave our “dent in the universe,” as Steve once described it, because of who we are and what we believe, because of what we value and how we see the world. How fortunate we are. How fortunate I am.