Jarrod Blundy
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.
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. 🛍️
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!
🆕📝 I’m returning my Studio Display XDR and buying another one
I thought I’d like the nano-texture display, and while it’s impressive, it’s not for me.
I use very little of Raycast’s vast feature set, so I’ve considered switching to Spotlight and just keeping Raycast around just for its excellent emoji picker.
Enter @nileane@nileane.fr’s new TinyStart app. It’s a way more focused launcher that also comes with a great emoji picker — way faster than Spotlight too:
Unlike Spotlight, TinyStart is super fast at showing results and launching apps. It never becomes overcrowded with search results you don’t need, and it lets you open URLs, perform web searches with custom search engines, and quickly open folders in Finder.
I’m gonna give it a go!
Watched: For All Mankind S5E1, First Light 📺
We are so back! These season openers have ever-more stuff to catch us up on with their decade-long jumps, so it dragged a little bit. But I have no doubt that it’ll pick up. Can’t wait to see what this season’s heart-racer scene will be.
At long last, I’m jumping into a smart lock and doorbell. I’ve been waiting patiently for years for the right features (UWB, battery-powered, Apple Home) at a decent price, and Aqara’s finally done it. Get ‘em on sale through tomorrow.
Smart Lock U400 ($270 $230)
Doorbell Camera G410 ($145 $100)
He’s less bananas about this one, but I’d say it’s equally surprising! 😆
Here's a take:
The "new" compact tab bar in iPadOS 26.4 is good and I like using it with vertical tabs in Safari (which, yes, you can enable).
😳 @viticci@macstories.net is a mad lad for this, but I can’t help but appreciate the Shortcuts wizardry to solve one’s own problem.
You probably shouldn't do this.
I really like Claude Code in iMessage, but I hate its permission prompts. So, I figured out how to automate them with Shortcuts.
I’m no kitchen connoisseur, but I do appreciate a good gadget. Looks like a worthy update — the biggest since 1955! — to the classic KitchenAid stand mixer. Per The Verge, it adds fine-grained speed control, a bowl light, auto-off, and (!) a new mixer head that scrapes the bowl with a friction sensor!
Watched: Zootopia 2 🍿
A bit of a slow start, and it followed a lot of the same paths as the first movie… buuuuut by the end, I was into it and laughing along. Overall a good message again, too. 👍 (Lots of familiar voices — great cast!)
