Apple has been in the education market for decades, and over that time, Apple’s position and offerings have significantly changed. This week on Mac Power Users, educator Steven Benner joins the show to talk about how his school district is using Apple gear in the classroom.
posts
Original Sealed iPod Sells at Auction⇢
The perfect $40,264 gift for the music lover in your life.
Sometimes, a Bug is a Blessing⇢
Paul Kafasis shared a delightful story from Rogue Amoeba’s history:
In the realm of computers, bugs are generally a bad thing. Every year, our team ships dozens of free updates to eliminate bugs that are an inescapable byproduct of the countless variables in software development. Rarely, though, a bug can be beneficial. Back in 2002, a software bug saved Rogue Amoeba.
It started when we shipped the very first version of Audio Hijack. We wanted to give potential customers the ability to fully test the app prior to purchase, but we weren’t sure how best to limit that free trial. Our initial download provided 15 full days of completely unlimited usage.
Google’s First Nuclear Reactor Project is Coming to Tennessee⇢
It’s not new news that big tech companies have been looking at nuclear for powering their datacenter, but Google is making some news in my home state. Here is Amanda Peterson Corio, the company’s Global Head of Data Center Energy:
Today we announced the first deployment of Kairos Power’s advanced nuclear reactor — the Hermes 2 Plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee — through a new power purchase agreement (PPA) between Kairos Power and Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Marking the first purchase of electricity from an advanced GEN IV reactor by a U.S. utility, this agreement will enable 50 megawatts (MW) of nuclear energy on TVA’s grid that powers our data centers in Montgomery County, Tennessee and Jackson County, Alabama.
2025 Q&A: Relay Turns 11⇢
I just published what is a true annual tradition at Relay: a birthday Q&A with me and Myke.
Relay Turns 11⇢
Today marks Relay’s 11th birthday, as noted by Myke Hurley:
In recent months, there’s been a fresh wave of chatter about the “ death of podcasting” — this time aimed at anything expensive or audio-only. I often joke that I’ve seen podcasting declared dead three or four times over the course of my career, and this is simply the latest chapter.
What many people fail to recognise, or have only just realised, is that this medium thrives when shows are made by people who care — people who are passionate and started podcasting simply because they loved it. The kinds of shows we make — talk shows for niche audiences — continue to succeed long after the big-budget projects fade away. Why? Because we have an audience that supports us, grows with us, and changes with us.
Sponsor: DEVONthink: Store, Organize, and Work the Smart Way⇢
We’re all dealing with more information than ever, and it’s becoming increasingly complex. You need bulletproof financial documents for audits, collaborative tools for your team, and AI that can actually help.
DEVONthink 4.0 Copernicus 1 is here, and it’s designed to work with you, not against you. Its AI integration is incredibly useful — it can analyze your documents, write summaries, suggest tags, and you can even create AI-based automations for specific tasks.
Mac Power Users 810: Unlocking PowerPhotos with Brian Webster⇢
Brian Webster is the developer behind Fat Cat Software, home of PowerPhotos. The Mac app gives users a wide range of extra controls and tools to manage their Photos library. This week, he chats with Stephen and David about the app and its features.
MacSurfer Returns⇢
I’ve been in this racket long enough to see plenty of other websites, podcasts, and commentators come and go.
One of those names from the past is MacSurfer, an old-school link aggregation website keeping up with news from across the Apple ecosystem. Back in the day, getting a link on Macsurfer’s Headline News would mean serious traffic for a younger version of me.
While I first knew about MacSurfer in 2005 or so, I was a decade late; the site started back in 1995 WHEN I WAS JUST NINE YEARS OLD. Sadly, it was shuttered in 2020 due to revenue issues, but weirdly, the site seemed to spring back to life this week. Eric Schwarz was able to chat with its new owner, Ken Turner:
An Exploration of Lotus Agenda⇢
Kevin Lipe, in a follow-up post to his Pocket 8086 series here on 512:
I’d been Agenda-curious for a long time, but never tried to actually use it for real. I booted it up on my Pocket 8086, watched cards crawl into place, watched queries resolve themselves into slices of sense, and realized with annoying clarity: none of the modern “task management” apps I’ve used—not Todoist, not OmniFocus, Amazing Marvin, Remember the Milk, not Microsoft To Do—could do any of this. Not really. Agenda wasn’t “a to-do list.” It was a cognitive environment, a place where items could belong to more than one thing at once, where priorities didn’t march in a line but emerged from the way pieces related to one another.
Mr. Musk Goes to Nashville⇢
Another Elon Musk company is doing things in another Tennessee city, as Hannah McDonald reports:
Aerial footage from Sky 5 shows a freshly dug pit near the base of the State Capitol, a visible sign of progress on The Boring Company’s controversial underground transportation project in Tennessee.
The 10-foot-deep, 20-by-20-foot test pit was dug this week to study the rock beneath downtown. It’s part of the company’s plan to eventually shuttle passengers between the airport and downtown in Teslas through twin tunnels, aiming for a nine-minute trip by 2027.
Blood Oxygen Feature Returning to U.S. Apple Watches⇢
Chance Miller has the details:
Apple has announced that it will release a software update for iPhone and Apple Watch later today with a “redesigned Blood Oxygen feature” for Apple Watch users in the United States. This comes over 18 months after Apple began selling the Apple Watch without the Blood Oxygen feature in America due to a patent dispute.
The new feature will be made available as part of iOS 18.6.1 and watchOS 11.6.1 updates.