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This week on Mac Power Users:

Author Matt Gemmell joins Stephen and David to talk about using an iPad as his only computer for eight and a half years and why he recently switched back to the Mac.

On More Power Users, Matt shared his views on AI and creative work.

This week on the show:

The fallout over Apple’s AI efforts have led to changes within the company, while its App Store policies have allowed PWAs to shine on the iPad. Stephen and Federico also discuss the return of Pebble and what the next iPhone may look like.

The most recent episode of Decoder covers what’s going on with Tesla, and how the company’s problems are bigger than just Elon’s current work dismantling the federal government. Nilay Patel:

Today we’re talking about the protests against Tesla, which have been branded on social media under the hashtag Tesla Takedown. The protests are, of course, a reaction to Elon Musk, who has managed to install himself as basically a not-so-shadow president who is tearing the federal government apart, leaving confusion and destruction in his wake.

A lot of people are deeply unhappy with this state of affairs. And because Musk is not an elected official but is, on some level, a car salesman, many of those frustrated and angry people are taking aim at the most visible and accessible symbol of his power and wealth: Tesla itself.

While we’re here: LOL.

Sue Marek at Ookla, the company behind speedtest.net, among other things:

AT&T and Verizon Speedtest users experienced better median download speeds on the iPhone 16e than iPhone 16. However, the opposite was true for T-Mobile users.

Verizon Speedtest users with the iPhone 16e and the iPhone 16 experienced median download speeds that lagged behind that of both AT&T and T-Mobile.

iPhone 16e Speedtest users on Verizon’s network and AT&T’s network saw higher upload speed performance than those using the iPhone 16. However, T-Mobile users experienced the opposite and had slightly higher upload speeds on the iPhone 16 compared to the iPhone 16e.

Overall, this seems like mostly good news for Apple’s modem business. The article gives additional details about why the C1 may struggle when on T-Mobile, and includes lots of charts. Everyone likes charts.

Paul Mayne:

For over a decade, Day One has been more than just a journaling app—it has been a companion for millions, capturing life’s moments, preserving personal histories, and helping people build a writing habit that lasts. With apps for Mac, iOS, Android, and the web, Day One has been the most trusted space for private, meaningful journaling.

Today, we’re taking the next big step: Day One for Windows is here.

It’s available from the Microsoft Store now. As Wes Davis at The Verge reports, it’s “free to use, and won’t count against the free plan’s one-device syncing limit, for now.”

Eric Migicovsky’s new company has two watches available for pre-order. The $149 Core 2 Duo features a 1.2" black/white e-paper screen, while the Core Time 2 has a 1.5" 64 color e-paper screen and runs $225. The former is set to ship this summer, with the latter coming at the end of the year.

The checkout page includes this text:

I understand that these watches will work with iPhones. But I realize Apple restricts and degrades functionality of 3rd party smartwatches. Because of this, I do not expect these watches to have the same features as Apple Watch. Read this blog post if you’d like to learn more.

Doug Brown:

This whole saga starts with a very interesting blog post written by Pierre Dandumont in 2022. Pierre’s (excellent) blog is in French — Google does a good job of translating it for me. He found a quote in a book referring to special functionality bundled with Apple’s Macintosh Performa 550 computer:

If Apple’s programmers, in creating the Performa series, were aiming to make idiot-proof computers, they were serious about it. The Performa 550 is an amazing case in point. When you run the included Apple Backup program (see Chapter 15), you get a little surprise that you didn’t count on: a hidden partition on your hard drive!

This invisible chunk of hard drive space contains a miniature, invisible System Folder. Apple’s internal memo explains it this way:

“When a system problem (one that prevents the Performa from booting) is detected, a [dialog box] informs the user of a system problem. The user can choose to fix the problem manually or to reinstall software from the backup partition’s Mini System Folder.”

This story is wild. I mean, just look at this user interface hidden away with this backup program:

David Smith:

Last week I watched the iOS development community react to substantial rumors of a major UI redesign slated to be announced at WWDC25. The reactions were complex and I’d say broadly negative, which is a reaction I very much can understand and appreciate.

However, after wandering around in the (literal) wilderness for most of last week testing Pedometer++, my current reaction is now much more optimistic. Not because the fundamentals of the situation have changed, but because I’ve decided that it is essential that I develop a practice of optimism to navigate this complicated season in the Apple developer world.

Optimism isn’t enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is a feeling, optimism is a choice. I have much less of the enthusiastic feelings these days about my relationship to Apple and its technologies (discussed here on Under the Radar 312), but I can still choose to optimistically look for the positives in any situation. Something I’ve learned as I’ve aged is that pessimism feels better in the moment, but then slowly rots you over time. Whereas optimism feels foolish in the moment, but sustains you over time.

MarsEdit 5 is a major upgrade to the preeminent Mac app for editing WordPress, Micro.blog, Tumblr, and many other types of blogs.

The new Microposting feature makes it “as easy to post to your own blog as it is to post to social media.” When MarsEdit 5 is running on your Mac, just press a configurable global keyboard shortcut, write out your latest thoughts, and instantly publish to your blog.

MarsEdit supports editing posts in rich or plain text, and the latest update is especially great for Markdown fans. Now when you’re writing Markdown in plain text mode, MarsEdit applies live, beautiful syntax highlighting to make it easier to focus separately on the content and style of your posts.

MarsEdit is used by top bloggers to maximize their productivity and enjoyment of blogging. It’s great for pros like John Gruber of Daring Fireball, and yours truly, while also being simple enough to remove the mystery of blogging for everyday folks who just want to share their thoughts with the world.

MarsEdit also supports for publishing to Mastodon! Now you can use the same app you use to write and publish to your main blog, to write and publish to your Mastodon microblog. Check out the announcement at this link.

One app, limitless publishing opportunities.

Download MarsEdit today, and see what all the hype is about. It’ll make you a better blogger!

This week on Mac Power Users:

All aboard! David and Stephen talk about the tech, bags, and planning that go into their travel.

With Myke on paternity leave, Federico and I put just about every shirt Connected has ever had back on sale. This is the final call to get an order in!