This week on the show: Federico interviewed Craig Federighi about the past, present, and future of the iPad. Myke started a blog, and I am hoping for change.
Federico Interviewed Craig Federighi ⇢
Federico Viticci, writing at MacStories:
It’s a cool, sunny morning at Apple Park as I’m walking my way along the iconic glass ring to meet with Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, for a conversation about the iPad.
It’s the Wednesday after WWDC, and although there are still some developers and members of the press around Apple’s campus, it seems like employees have returned to their regular routines. Peek through the glass, and you’ll see engineers working at their stations, half-erased whiteboards, and an infinite supply of Studio Displays on wooden desks with rounded corners. Some guests are still taking pictures by the WWDC sign. There are fewer security dogs, but they’re obviously all good.
Despite the list of elaborate questions on my mind about iPadOS 26 and its new multitasking, the long history of iPad criticisms (including mine) over the years, and what makes an iPad different from a Mac, I can’t stop thinking about the simplest, most obvious question I could ask – one that harkens back to an old commercial about the company’s modular tablet:
In 2025, what even is an iPad according to Federighi?
This entire thing is gold. Take some time and enjoy it.
With Liquid Glass, Less is More ⇢
I was fortunate enough to get one of the Design Labs late last week, which meant that I spent Friday morning frantically doing as many first-pass updates to the new design as I could. I then was able to discuss many of them during the lab and learned a bunch.
Like David, I was thinking that Liquid Glass should be applied in a bunch of places, but as he writes, that’s not quite the case:
Something my design lab consultant said, which was really clarifying for me, was that Liquid Glass should generally be used to highlight content underneath the button. So if that content is plain/flat, then it is likely not appropriate. In this case, if the button was over the map preview, then it might be appropriate, but since the whole section is tappable, then I’d have two levels of interactivity, which is generally not great.
Be sure to check out the examples from his early work on the iOS 26 update for Pedometer++.
NAACP Looks to Sue xAI Over Clean Air Act as Turbines Spin in Memphis ⇢
Samuel Hardiman writing, for The Daily Memphian reporting that the NAACP plans to sue xAI for alleged violations of the federal Clean Air Act:
The notice of intent provides the entity that could be sued with 60 days’ notice of the lawsuit, allowing it or the regulator (the Environmental Protection Agency or another government entity) to correct the actions outlined in the notice.
“By installing and operating 35 combustion turbines and other sources of air pollution, xAI has illegally constructed and continues to operate a major source without obtaining a preconstruction PSD permit. In addition to failing to obtain a PSD permit, xAI has operated and continues to operate these turbines without utilizing Best Available Control Technology, a distinct and ongoing violation of Section 165 of the Act,” the notice of intent to sue states.
The lawsuit is in conjunction with the Southern Environmental Law Center. In a press release, the group said:
“xAI’s decision to install and operate dozens of polluting gas turbines without any permits or public oversight is a clear violation of the Clean Air Act,” SELC Senior Attorney Patrick Anderson said. “Over the last year, these turbines have pumped out pollution that threatens the health of Memphis families. This notice paves the way for a lawsuit that can hold xAI accountable for its unlawful refusal to get permits for its gas turbines.”
xAI began operations at its South Memphis data center in June of 2024. To meet the facility’s massive power demands, the company began installing dozens of polluting methane gas turbines without any permits. Aerial images obtained by SELC revealed 35 turbines at the site in March, and follow-up thermal images obtained in April showed that nearly all of the turbines were emitting significant amounts of heat, indicating they were running. New satellite images show that, while the company has removed some smaller-sized turbines, it has recently installed three larger turbines.
The full notice can be read here. A lot of the disagreement hinges on how many turbines are in use. As recently as last week, Memphis Mayor Paul Young claimed the turbines in use are legal, saying that 21 are now in use.
There’s been a lot of noise about the xAI project. A lot of shouting. A lot of misinformation. What there hasn’t been enough of is truth.
Let’s be clear, this isn’t a debate between the environment and economics. It’s about putting people before politics. It’s about building something better for communities that have waited far too long for real investment.
On behalf of our city, I’m choosing Memphis. I’m choosing facts over fear, solutions over soundbites, and progress over performative outrage.
I’m all for choosing Memphis, but that means caring for all of our citizens, especially the most vulnerable. Young seems like a guy who understands that, which makes this all the more frustrating as a Memphian who voted for the guy.1
He goes on:
Claim #1: xAI plans to install 45 to 90 turbines in Memphis
False. Their permit outlines 15 temporary-use turbines for their first facility. That’s it. There’s no plan, permit or proposal for anything more. The power solution for their second site hasn’t been determined.
He is not wrong that there is no permit for more turbines, but it’s clear that xAI and its partners plan more turbines in Memphis, as reported last month. Construction is already underway at the second site, and it’s clear that our utility company is not going to be ready in time.
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I really like part of his editorial from June 12:
“We’re introducing Memphis’ first-ever Community Benefit Ordinance, which mandates that 25% of xAI’s city property tax revenue be reinvested directly into neighborhoods within five miles of the facility. That means more than $3 million this year alone. Over the next decade, as additional project phases come online, this could total more than $100 million for infrastructure upgrades, home repairs and quality-of-life improvements in communities that too often get talked about, but not truly invested in.”
I just wish he — and our other local leaders — would be more honest about what’s going on here. ↩
Apple’s Service Program for M2 Mac minis with Power Issues ⇢
Apple has determined that a very small percentage of Mac mini (2023) devices with the M2 chip may no longer power on. Affected devices were manufactured between June 16, 2024 to November 23, 2024.
If your Mac mini has exhibited this issue, please use the Serial Number checker below to see if your device is eligible for this program. If so, Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider will provide service, free of charge.
I had not heard of this issue before the service program opened, but I’m glad the company is taking care of these machines for folks. My mother-in-law has a Mac mini that falls into this range, so we’ll see how that plays out.
Windows 11 Test Builds Include Vista Startup Sound ⇢
Tom Warren, writing about the mistake:
Microsoft quickly acknowledged the mistake,1 and added a line to its release notes for the latest Dev Channel build. “This week’s flight comes with a delightful blast from the past and will play the Windows Vista boot sound instead of the Windows 11 boot sound,” says the Windows Insider team. “We’re working on a fix.”
I kinda like it.
- Part of me likes to think that this was not accidental, but another subtle jab at Liquid Glass. In a world of regulation and law suits, tech companies poking fun of each other is the energy I need. ↩
Sponsor: Rogue Amoeba: Great Audio Software, Ready for Your Journey to Tahoe ⇢
Apple just announced MacOS 26 (Tahoe), and the team at Rogue Amoeba is already hard at work on official support for the new OS. This week, they’re also sponsoring 512 Pixels.
For over two decades, the (strange) name “Rogue Amoeba” has been synonymous with audio on the Mac: you can use Audio Hijack to record audio from any app or audio device, while Loopback gets audio into apps in a virtual audio device. Grab SoundSource to get easy app-level volume controls, right from the menu bar. With these tools and more, Rogue Amoeba has all of your audio needs covered.
Thanks to an overhauled audio capture backend, (the product of years of hard work), the current lineup of Rogue Amoeba’s apps can already run on Tahoe. If you’re brave enough to use Tahoe right out of the gate with the first developer preview.
Of course, you’ll also be in great shape on any recent version of MacOS. Get started in seconds, with fully functional free trials of all their apps today.
As a reader of 512 Pixels, you can save 20% on any purchase by using coupon code 512SUMMER25 at checkout. Don’t miss out; this deal expires on July 4.
My thanks to Rogue Amoeba for sponsoring 512 Pixels, and keeping Mac audio users happy with all their great apps.
A Simple Fix for Tahoe’s Finder Icon ⇢
I would like to present, in response to the widely criticized Finder icon in macOS Tahoe Developer Beta 1, the icon I created in literally fifteen minutes with Pixelmator Pro and Apple’s own Icon Composer. Apple could very easily keep the icon’s historical appearance without compromising the Liquid Glass aesthetic by just… flipping the color palette.
Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish ⇢
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Steve’s commencement address at Stanford, we are sharing a newly enhanced version of the video below and on YouTube. It is one of the most influential commencement addresses in history, watched over 120 million times, and reproduced in media and school curricula around the world. The talk even helped inspire an unlikely NBA title comeback for the Cleveland Cavaliers when LeBron James played a clip from it in the locker room before a critical game three against the Golden State Warriors in 2016.
It’s not an obvious candidate for a classic. A commencement address by a college dropout. A talk aimed at 22-year-olds that warns “You will gradually become the old and be cleared away.” A text as shadowed by reality as soaring with inspiration: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
I haven’t watched this in a long time, but damn, it is still so good:
WWDC25: Tahoe Delivers New Format for Disk Images ⇢
Howard Oakley has spotted a change coming with macOS 26:
Disk images have been valuable tools marred by poor performance. In the wrong circumstances, an encrypted sparse image (UDSP) stored on the blazingly fast internal SSD of an Apple silicon Mac may write files no faster than 100 MB/s, typical for a cheap hard drive. One of the important new features introduced in macOS 26 Tahoe is a new disk image format that can achieve near-native speeds: ASIF, documented here.
This has been detailed as a major improvement in lightweight virtualization, where it promises to overcome the most significant performance limitation of VMs running on Apple silicon Macs. However, ASIF disk images are available for general use, and even work in macOS Sequoia.
Inside the ‘Macintosh’ Screen Saver
macOS Sequoia’s Macintosh screen saver is one of the strongest hits of nostalgia Apple has ever produced. If for some reason you haven’t seen it, Mr. Macintosh has you covered:
When this showed up last year, a little birdie told me that it was dynamically generated based on the user’s preferences, which explained why I couldn’t find it as a movie anywhere in the filesystem.
I’ve used it as my screen saver since then — set to Dark Gray — but I never made it around to digging into what makes it tick.
When looking for macOS Tahoe’s wallpapers, I was reminded of this project. I went digging through the SSD on my MacBook Pro, and my journey through Finder has yielded great fruit.
The screen saver is actually an Extension, residing at /System / Library / ExtensionKit / Extensions / WallpaperMacintoshExtension.appex (spaces added for legibility).
Right-clicking to “Show Package Contents” unveils a treasure trove:
I’m not really a programmer, but I know enough to see how this works. There is code telling those images how to move and interact with each other through a set of .program files. If the user has Macintosh set as their wallpaper, the screen saver slides to a stop once they return to the Desktop.
Here you can see IconGarden.program, resaved as plain text. Here is its corresponding image:
Here we have System6ControlPanel.program as plain text, and its image:
Interestingly, a bunch of the .program files include the string “Macintosh 40th Anniversary,” which helps explain how this project came to be.
For preservation purposes, I figured I should export the Macintosh images at a larger resolution for easy sharing. You can snag a .zip of them here.
Connected 556: The Last Thing You Touch ⇢
The guys learn how their predictions fared, talk about some of the news from WWDC25, and someone gets a trophy.
