This week’s episode of Clockwise — their 650th! — which pitted hosts @jsnell@zeppelin.flights (emeritus), @mikahsargent@mastodon.social, and @dmoren@zeppelin.flights against each other vying for @philipmichaels.bsky.social’s approval was a real treat. I’m sure it was a ton of work, but it was also a ton of fun. Congrats on the longevity and continued excellence, guys!

Cloudflare: ‘Introducing EmDash — the spiritual successor to WordPress that solves plugin security’

It is serverless, but you can run it on your own hardware or any platform you choose. Plugins are securely sandboxed and can run in their own isolate, via Dynamic Workers, solving the fundamental security problem with the WordPress plugin architecture. And under the hood, EmDash is powered by Astro, the fastest web framework for content-driven websites.

The technicalities go over my head. But a more free, secure, and modern WordPress with a great name by Cloudflare? This seems like a big deal.

I’d never before come across David Pogue’s parody music video about the original iPhone on launch day. It’s so cringey that it comes all the way back around to being funny. 😆 Worth a watch.

(Via Daring Fireball)

Great cold open for @siracusa@mastodon.social’s guest spot on The Talk Show. Love the stark honesty, and I’ve never heard @gruber@mastodon.social giggle quite like this before. Gonna be a good one. 🤣 🎧

🆕📝 Apple at 50: A Dent in the Universe

If ever there was a time to reflect back on Apple’s contributions to the world, it’s now.

There’s something that tickles me about Apple’s 50th anniversary happening the same day that we relaunch our efforts toward the moon. 🍎🚀

Text image with a motivational quote by Steve Jobs: “Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” The text is styled with varying fonts and sizes for emphasis.

👀

Tomorrow…

A screenshot of Dice by PCalc, with a Lil Finder standing in the middle of a blue velvet tray.

Love this.

If you reverse the new Apple video that plays in "rewind," it's the Think Different ad music, pitched up.

We did it, everybody. (I don’t even like peanut butter cups, and I was still rooting for this change!)

Hershey Says It Will Shift Back to Classic Recipe for All Reese’s Products After Criticism
daringfireball.net/linked/2026

John Gruber has done us a favor and re-hosted the video files from Apple’s homepage, and from Tim Cook’s post on X (it’s also on the new @helloapple Instagram account) honoring products across their 50 years.

I love how they referenced the original Macintosh’s packaging with the colorful sketches.

This retro dock is just perfect for a Mac mini

Appropriate for Apple’s 50th anniversary, this retro Macintosh docking station has got to be the coolest I’ve ever seen, and I wish I had an M4 Mac mini to pair with it.

A modern setup with a small retro-style computer sitting on a desk. The computer resembles an old Macintosh model and displays an image of a colorful street cafe. In the background, there’s a large monitor with a gradient background and an audio device underneath it. To the right, there are a few Pokémon cards and a window showing a view of neighboring buildings.

It’s got a 5-inch screen, perfect for a “headless” setup or as a second (tiny) display for status stuff. Plus, an SSD slot for extra storage or Time Machine, six USB-A & -C ports, SD card slots, HDMI or DisplayPort, and audio out. But the old-school Macintosh style and mini 720p display are the real winners here.

The image shows the back view of a Mac dock. It has multiple ports including two USB ports, an HDMI input, two other ports, and an audio jack. There’s an air vent on the top, and the device is being held by two hands. A power cable is visible separately to the right.

Gonna keep this in mind for whenever I replace my M1 Mac mini. Get it for as low as $152.99 on Amazon (SSD not included).

(h/t and images: 9to5Mac)

Sam MacIlwaine: ‘California Nutrition Startup Launches New Protein Chalk for Climbing’

Over a six-month period, researchers monitored the lungs of climbers who bouldered at the gym, without a mask on, for at least two hours per day once a week. They found that the average climber inhales close to one milligram per cubic meter per hour of magnesium carbonate particulate matter. That’s nearly twice the U.S. Workplace Exposure Limit of half a milligram per cubic meter per hour.

It’s sad that this rings so true, ingesting lots of magnesium chalk, that I totally believed this April Fool’s post.

James has a clever new feature for his Artemis web reader: ‘Nesting social posts under blog posts in Artemis’

While a relatively small change, this feature helps to create focus on blog posts as opposed to presenting both a blog post and an announcement post in the same way.

I feel both fortunate and hopelessly conflicted by so many great options for RSS and similar readers (Artemis, Classic Reader, Reader, Inkwell, Quick Reads, Readwise…). But I sure like playing with them all!

John Voorhees, with a powerful sentiment in his piece for Club MacStories (🔒) reflecting on the spirit that still guides the culture at Apple:

I think there’s a good reason Apple doesn’t look back at its past much as a company. As cool as the original Mac, iPhone, and the company’s other products were, they’re not useful today, and to revere the tools over what they enable is like elevating Michelangelo’s chisel over David.

This week’s Upgrade was a ton of fun as @jsnell@zeppelin.flights and @imyke@myke.social recounted the tale of Apple’s beginning, 50 years ago.* 🎧

*Except, fun fact, I learned that it was only 49 years ago! 😱

Rebecca Alter, Vulture: ‘The Harry Potter TV Show Trailer Is Muggleslop’

I guess I don’t know what I was expecto-ing. The first teaser trailer for HBO’s TV adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone looks like the original Harry Potter movie, but much grayer. The sets — like Hogwarts, the Hogwarts Express, the Quidditch pitch, and Harry’s little room under the stairs — are just as you remember them, with slightly worse lighting and some tiny, unplaceable details altered. The characters are dressed and styled like they were in the movies, too, but their faces are all different[.]

Haven’t seen the trailer, and I wouldn’t feel good about watching this series, but this headline captures exactly what I’ve felt about pictures of the remake I’ve seen. It does look like someone asked an AI to generate a Harry Potter trailer.

Watched: Project Hail Mary 🍿

It was somehow even better than all the hype led me to believe. 👌 True to the book, funny as hell, and equally heartwarming. Gosling had a lot resting on him for this one, and he absolutely nailed it. 👍👍

Project Hail Mary time! This (tiny local) theater is packed on a Tuesday night. They just might have a hit on their hands. 🍿

Parker Ortolani, 9to5Mac:

I’ve compiled a comprehensive, but curated playlist of some of the best songs that Apple has used in commercials, product introductions, events, and more. You can stream it or add it to your library on Apple Music. But I also wanted to acknowledge a few songs that were made particularly iconic thanks to their inclusion in Apple marketing materials over the years.

The songs Ortolani highlighted, each one transports me back to its ad. One of the very best: “Bruises” for Nano-chromatic.

Apple’s taste was impeccable, and its curation still thrives today with Apple Music 1.

Victoria Song: ‘Meta launches new ‘prescription optimized’ smart glasses’

Dubbed the Ray-Ban Meta Optics Styles, the new frames come in a rectangular “Blayzer” style and a circular “Scriber” version. Compared to the regular Ray-Bans, these also sport overextension hinges, interchangeable nose pads, and adjustable temple tips for opticians so users can better customize fit.

Meta is forging their smart glasses ahead with more frame styles, prescription options, and useful features. Nutrition logging is a clever one. Apple’s gonna have a lot of catch up to do if/when they enter this market. 🤞

While I always like to buy the latest version of a thing and then use it for a long time, at $243 on sale, the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones are probably what I’d buy over the newer $458 XM6 if my AirPods Max died today. 🛍️

This might be my favorite Lil Finder Guy thing yet. 😍😍

Surf's Up in macOS Tahoe 🏄

Amazing. You can tell they sweat the details.

We're testing this new intro to play when you first launch Retro ✨

The idea is to "set the mood", communicate what Retro is about, and slow you down:

• Plays haptics on every photo beat, decreasing in intensity and sharpness, so you "feel" it calm down.
• The script is dynamic, it adapts to the apps that you have installed on your device.
• The soundtrack starts with noise that we turn down to focus on what matters.
• We're gonna ask for some iOS permissions, hopefully this creates some trust

Matt Birchler: ‘iOS…iPadOS…are you getting it? These are not two different operating systems…’

I expect that in iPadOS 27, these 3 options will remain, but the full screen apps option will bring the return of split screen that does not involved free-floating windows like we have now in iPadOS 26. In June, this will make a lot of iPad users happy who didn’t love needing to opt into full windowing to get the split views they used to love.

Gosh, I hope so. The windowed apps have not been an improvement on my iPad mini. I wish I could go back to iOS 18 with traditional Split View and Slide Over.

Getting to spend multiple days with a client is always just the best! We can learn so many skills, and them put into practice on real climbs. Rock season is nearly here. Time to get your sessions booked!

Climber ascends rocky surface using rope while wearing helmet and backpack in a forested area. Text overlay reads: “scott stella 1 review 5 stars 6 months ago Jarrod was a great guide super knowledgeable and most importantly just fun to spend a couple days with learning and climbing”