Tyler Stalman returns to the show to discuss the camera gains Apple has made with the iPhone 17 line. The guys also talk about the limitations of the iPhone Air and some of the apps Tyler uses to edit his images and videos.
A Modern Back to the Future Truck ⇢
As a huge Back to The Future fan and Toyota truck aficionado, Colin Furze’s new video was aimed squarely at me.
Connected 577: Big Boy American Man ⇢
Apple’s OS Class of ’26 continues to roll out, even as the company grapples with the future of Siri. Will Liquid Glass continue to change? Will Gemini power future Apple Intelligence? STAY TUNED.
On Tahoe’s Terrible Icons ⇢
Paul Kafasis has looked into the abyss of Tahoe icons:
On the new MacOS 26 (Tahoe), Apple has mandated that all application icons fit into their prescribed squircle. No longer can icons have distinct shapes, nor even any fun frame-breaking accessories. Should an icon be so foolish as to try to have a bit of personality, it will find itself stuffed into a dingy gray icon jail.
While Apple had previously urged developers to use squircle icons on our apps, they’ve now taken things much further to ensure compliance. It’s a shame.
Apple updated their own app icons on Tahoe, for both the squircle shape as well as the new “Liquid Glass” interface. Mostly, these icons seem dumbed-down, with a loss of detail.
Almost all of these new icons are a step backwards, but I think the updated icons for DVD Player and Image Capture are an improvement:
Mr. TIFF ⇢
John Buck’s story about uncovering the folks behind the original TIFF format is delightful. It’s shocking that history from the 1990s is already being lost.
Tahoe 26.1 Updates Spotlight Options ⇢
Previously, Spotlight could optionally retain clipboard contents for up to eight hours, but the latest update expands that flexibility with three options – 30 minutes, 8 hours, or 7 days. There’s also a new “Clear Clipboard History” button in System Settings ➝ Spotlight, giving users the ability to manually wipe stored clipboard data without having to wipe Spotlight search history wholesale.
Clearly, Apple heard the feedback from power users that 8 hours wasn’t enough.
Sponsor: Magic Lasso Adblock: Incredibly Private and Secure Safari Web Browsing ⇢
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Built from the ground up to protect your privacy, Magic Lasso is an efficient, high-performance, and native Safari ad blocker that blocks all intrusive ads, trackers, and annoyances on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Users rely on Magic Lasso Adblock to:
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Mac Power Users 821: Developer Roundtable 2025 ⇢
This week’s Mac Power Users is a banger. Casey Liss, Charlie Chapman, and James Thomson joined and David to discuss the state of software development on Apple’s platforms in 2025. Topics include Liquid Glass, SwiftUI, documentation, subscriptions, and Apple Intelligence.
The Longevity of the M1 ⇢
Nick Heer, writing about his M1 MacBook Pro:
I remember replacing my mid-2007 MacBook Pro after it was just five years old, already wheezing for at least a year prior while attempting even the simplest of things. On the other hand, the MacBook Pro I am using today was released four years ago and, keycaps aside, feels basically new. All the spec comparisons say it is far behind the latest generation, but those numbers are simply irrelevant to me. It is difficult for me to believe this computer already has several successive generations and is probably closer to obsolescence than it is to launch.
Apple has generally issued about five years’ worth of operating system upgrades for its Macs, followed by another three-ish years of security updates. Thanks to U.K. regulations, it has recently documented (PDF) this previously implicit policy. It is possible MacOS 27 could be the last version supported by this Mac. After all, Apple recently noted in developer documentation that MacOS 26 Tahoe is the last version with any Intel Mac support. Furthermore, in its press release for the M5 MacBook Pro, there is an entire section specifically addressing “M1 and Intel-based upgraders”.
It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on five years since the first Apple silicon Macs shipped, and even harder to believe that we could be approaching a time when they aren’t supported by macOS.
Apple Ends Its Financial Year With a Bang ⇢
Apple announced the results of its fiscal fourth quarter on Thursday. The company generated $102.5B, a Q4 record which also closed its biggest fiscal year in terms of revenue ever. The fast-growing Services category also set an all-time high. Mac and iPhone revenue were also up, with wearables and iPad revenue more or less flat.
Apple also provided guidance that it expects to break records in its holiday quarter, including in iPhone sales. Read more about that here.
Connected 576: A Buffer of Forgiveness ⇢
On today’s episode of Connected:
Federico and Stephen travel through time to discuss the new Pebble smartwatch, iPad mini rumors, and if the Pro Max is too big of an iPhone.
Everyone is receiving the extra content from this week’s Connected Pro, which includes a review of the new Dual Knit Band, as well as a general overview of where the guys are with their headsets.
A Little Update on My RSS Setup
I’m always surprised at just how often I’m asked about how I read RSS. For years, this was a very stable setup, but has recently changed.
I’ve used Feedbin for ages. It is widely supported by RSS clients, and has the ability to receive emails newsletters and put them inline with articles coming in via RSS. As someone who doesn’t like reading newsletters in his inbox, this is great.
For years, I was using what is now known as Reeder Classic on all of my devices. It looked great, worked well, and was super customizable. However, as the developer has moved on to the new version of Reeder, Classic has begun to get a bit creaky, and its future doesn’t seem very bright, unlike the blank screens I would often get as the app tried to load articles on iOS.
The macOS version was still holding up, so several months ago, I switched to NetNewsWire on the iPhone and iPad. It’s lean, fast, and I love the fact that it’s a community project. It has a handful of customization options, but I struggled to get it to look the way I wanted. This wasn’t enough to go looking for a new app, however, until Jason mentioned ReadKit on this week’s episode of Upgrade.
I hadn’t used ReadKit in over a decade, and when I checked it out again, I was impressed. It’s looks modern with Liquid Glass support, works with Feedbin, and works as well on the Mac as it does on iOS and iPadOS. I’ve been running it this week and so far, so good!