The addition of iPhone Mirroring in macOS Sequoia is my favorite addition to the Apple ecosystem in years.1
Here’s how Apple describes the feature:
With iPhone Mirroring, you can wirelessly interact with your iPhone and its apps and notifications from your Mac. Your iPhone stays locked, so no one else can access it or use it to see what you’re doing.
In short, this feature turns your iPhone into a window on your Mac, and it’s fantastic.
With Federico away, Stephen and Myke talk about video games.
Nah, just kidding. Instead, they ponder the future of Google and of social media, consider what maple syrup can do to an iPhone, and discuss Apple’s AI summarization features.
Jason Snell, in an incredible piece for Macworld:
To a kid growing up in the 1980s, the idea that the maker of your computer would actively stop you from using software it didn’t approve of would have seemed beyond the pale. It certainly would’ve been a deal-breaker. And yet so many of today’s computing devices are locked down–for some good reasons, but also a lot of bad ones.
What do we want the world to look like in the future? Is the destiny of the most important invention of the last half-century, the computer, to become a series of locked-down devices controlled by the giant companies that designed them? Should the iPhone be the model for all future devices?
Joe Rossignol at MacRumors is reporting that Apple’s long-running repair extension program for the butterfly keyboard has ended:
Apple’s free butterfly keyboard service program for select MacBooks models ended late last week, nearly six and a half years after it launched.
With the program now over, it is no longer guaranteed that customers with affected MacBook keyboards will be able to receive a free repair from Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. However, exceptions could be made.
Jessica Testa and Benjamin Mullin at The New York Times:
In April 2023, the newsletter platform Substack received an unexpected proposal from Elon Musk, who had recently purchased Twitter.
Mr. Musk put it plainly: He wanted to buy Substack. At the time, he was trying to supercharge paid subscriptions on the social network, now called X, which had long fashioned itself as a “global town square” for political news and debate. Paid subscriptions are the core of Substack’s business.
Unite 5 for macOS takes your web experience to the next level, transforming websites into feature-rich Mac apps. Powered by a completely redesigned WebKit browser, Unite 5 offers a more immersive and customizable browsing experience.
What sets Unite 5 apart? We’ve gone beyond just app conversion. Our new intricate link-forwarding rules give you unparalleled control over web interactions, making your web apps smarter and more integrated than ever before.
On this feedback episode, David and I talk about the M4 family of Macs, our RSS setups, and recent updates to some of our favorite apps. Then we discuss some listener feedback and our home networks.
It looks like a tiny Casio, and I can’t tell if I love it or hate it.
From the Newsroom announcement:
Final Cut Pro 11 takes full advantage of Apple’s M-series chips, introducing the powerful and intuitive Magnetic Mask; Transcribe to Captions, a highly requested feature that provides fast and accurate closed captions; spatial video editing; and a range of timesaving tools and workflow optimizations.
While I use Final Cut occasionally, I am by no means an expert. Thankfully, Tyler Stalman is:
Final Cut Pro is $300 in the Mac App Store, and this update is free for Final Cut Pro X users. A free 90-day trial is available as well. Apple still offers its “Pro Apps Bundle for Education” for just $199.
Stephen wants to make showers more interesting, Federico is spending time with AI writing tools, and Myke is excited about a possible Apple smart home hub.
She’s the best tech YouTuber out there:
Siri wasn’t part of her project for hilarious and obvious reasons. When the four examples start talking to each other things get weird, and Stern is right to worry about the ramifications of technology like this.
Apple Inc., aiming to catch up with rivals in the smart home market, is nearing the launch of a new product category: a wall-mounted display that can control appliances, handle videoconferencing and use AI to navigate apps.
The company is gearing up to announce the device as early as March and will position it as a command center for the home, according to people with knowledge of the effort. The product, code-named J490, also will spotlight the new Apple Intelligence AI platform, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is confidential.