Six Colors

Six Colors

@sixcolors.com

Daily coverage of Apple, other technology companies, and the intersection of technology and culture.

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Six Colors
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HomeView is simple, and that’s a good thing (Link)

sixcolors.comHomeView is simple, and that’s a good thingThe best writer on the smart home beat today is The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, who I think has the best take on the HomeView I’ve seen so far: HomeView’s simplicity may put off hardcore home automation enthusiasts, but I’d argue it’s perfect for their long-suffering spouses. I’ve tried every version of physical smart home control interface in my home, and you know who hasn’t used any of them? My family. Because my family all have iPhones, and because the HomeView will always be there and will feel familiar, I can see them actually using it. That means I could...
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Share your location in Messages, now for a custom period

sixcolors.comShare your location in Messages, now for a custom periodApple stuffs a lot of different kinds of tasks into Messages. It’s a junk drawer for communications with other people. Send photos? Sure. Set up a safety partner for when you are going somewhere? Why not. Pay somebody? Of course! And, yeah, let’s stick in a poll! But I think the best use beyond text and media of Messages is sharing your location. It’s a convenient way to share your whereabouts with someone else or a group, either indefinitely or for a fixed time period. Starting in the version 27 operating systems, you don’t have to use Apple’s preset periods,...
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New Siri Remote’s Find My feature limited to N1-equipped iPhones (Link)

sixcolors.comNew Siri Remote’s Find My feature limited to N1-equipped iPhonesI was curious about the limitations of the new Siri Remote‘s Precision Finding feature, which requires an iPhone 17 generation or newer. Earlier iPhones have Apple’s latest ultra wideband chip, which is what Find My generally uses, so why wouldn’t they be compatible? Stevie Bonifield at The Verge has the answer: Now the remote has Find My support, but if you want to see exactly how far away it is on your iPhone with details like “20 feet,” rather than simply “far” or “near,” you will need to have an iPhone Duo, iPhone Air, or any iPhone 17 or later....
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Third-party HomeView apps? Think CarPlay

sixcolors.comThird-party HomeView apps? Think CarPlayHomeView’s got a limited catalog of Apple apps. Apple’s new HomeView device doesn’t have an App Store, but it does have an app story, of a sort. There are some selected Apple apps on its (surprisingly) iPad-like home screen, but you can’t add more. What’s a person to do? If you use apps that play audio or video and support CarPlay, though, you’re in luck: HomeView supports those apps, and just those apps, via projection from your iPhone. So if you’re a fan of Overcast or Spotify, you’re in luck. And if you’re curious about video CarPlay, well, that’s a...
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AirTag Silencer, Silenced (Link)

sixcolors.comAirTag Silencer, SilencedElevationLab has withdrawn its AirTag Silencer from sale. The device precisely destroyed the speaker in an AirTag while leaving tracking functions intact. Two weeks ago, I strongly suggested it stop selling it because their precision product offered abusers and stalkers a useful tool—true, available from other sources, but none with the high production quality or the stellar reputation among Apple users that ElevationLab has. The company sent out a brief email to customers today: We launched an AirTag silencing tool recently. We’ve always made products we want for ourselves, and this was no different – we wanted it for AirTags...
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Apple’s new home hub is ‘HomeView’

sixcolors.comApple’s new home hub is ‘HomeView’Mark Gurman has last-minute Apple product details in his Sunday newsletter: The centerpiece is a new smart home hub called the HomeView. Equipped with a display and an A18 chip, the product essentially serves as the Siri command center for an Apple-powered household… The HomeView comes in two versions: a countertop model with a metal speaker base and a wall-mounted version with a flat, square base that sits against the wall beneath the display. The countertop offering will come in four colors: space gray, silver, starlight and pink, while the wall-mounted version will be limited to space gray and silver....
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Is Apple coming home to stay?

sixcolors.comIs Apple coming home to stay?John Ternus on stage introducing the MacBook Neo. The announcement that Apple’s making a home-related announcement on Tuesday was hardly unexpected. Most things Apple does these days are reported in advance, usually by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. But this event has been years in the making. Gurman first reported on the centerpiece product two years ago: Apple… 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...
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This Week in Apple: Spooky season is upon us (Member Post)

sixcolors.comThis Week in Apple: Spooky season is upon usAI does scary things, someone cut the phone lines, and Apple strikes twice. The toddler that ate your hard drive Are you tired of throwing your sabot into the machinery? Does it leave you shoeless and wondering if there isn’t a better way to fight the endless march into a dystopian future that leaves workers, artists, and writers jobless? Well, rejoice, comrade! Now you can fight back against the tide! “Mac Users Reclaim 12GB+ of Storage With Apple Intelligence Removal Tool” With the Apple models gone, you lose all Siri-related AI features, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, ChatGPT integration, summaries,...
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OpenAI silences familiar voices

sixcolors.comOpenAI silences familiar voicesI had to listen to a bunch of TTS voices to make my final choices. An audio newsletter producer’s job is never done. I got a weird email the other day from OpenAI that ended up causing a great deal of work for me: As part of our continuous upgrade process, we are deprecating the following legacy audio models: tts-1, tts-hd, gpt-4o-mini-tts. Access to these models will be shut off on January 6, 2027. I use OpenAI’s text-to-speech voice for the Six Colors Audio Newsletter. Ironically, I chose one of OpenAI’s least advanced voices for this brand-new feature of this website […]
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Apple sets homecoming for Oct. 13 (Link)

sixcolors.comApple sets homecoming for Oct. 13Apple has announced that it’s planning something for October 13. The assumption—amplified by the “Welcome Home” slogan—is that Apple is going to roll out a bunch of new home-oriented products, most notably a touchscreen home hub that’s been rumored for a couple of years now. The word broke via an X post by Greg Joswiak. Video creator Marques Brownlee posted his invitation to an “Apple Experience” in Tribeca on October 13 at 9am Eastern. My understanding is that the “experience” at Apple’s cozy building in Tribeca will focus on creators, while some other traditional press will just receive remote briefings. So […]
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App Report: All That Jazz

sixcolors.comApp Report: All That JazzSometimes, putting these columns about intriguing macOS and iOS apps together feels a little like improvisational jazz — I’m not always sure where this is going or how it’s going to wind up, but hopefully there’s a note or two that someone gets some enjoyment out of. Well, this week, we’re going to look at an app that deals with actual jazz. How’s that for a tie-in? Before we get to that offering, though, there’s a pair of Mac productivity boosters that caught my eye, particularly for research projects. And just so iPhone users don’t feel left out, we’ve got...
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FCC filings for LG/Apple smart home devices uncovered (Link)

sixcolors.comFCC filings for LG/Apple smart home devices uncoveredMacRumors’s Hartley Charlton has a post detailing the designs of some rumored upcoming smart home devices co-developed by LG and Apple, thanks to FCC filings: Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Apple is working with LG Electronics on accessories for its upcoming home hub and other home products, citing regulatory documents without sharing the filings. FCC records MacRumors found contain label-placement drawings, three-dimensional renderings, and technical reports, providing a first look at the products’ housings and additional details about their capabilities. I get real Motorola ROKR vibes from all of this. I have a hard time believing that Apple will slap its...
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Spotify opens new front in war on fair use

sixcolors.comSpotify opens new front in war on fair useLate last month I got several emails from Spotify, all pretty much the same: Hello, Our automatic review tools determined that this podcast may contain content that infringes the rights of a third party. Due to this, we’ve removed: Title: 14: Ribsy Detected Content: “Ribsy” by Beverly Cleary Why did this happen? Spotify for Creators supports the distribution of audio and video podcasts. Our automated review process may remove any content that appears to be distributing third-party literary material. What’s next? If you think your episode does not infringe the intellectual property rights of a third party, or is subject to […]
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Lex authors the apps, but Claude writes the code (Link)

sixcolors.comLex authors the apps, but Claude writes the codeBack in June, I tried to elaborate on why building software is more than coding in an age of AI coding assistants: Whatever you call it, whether it’s being a producer or product manager or something else that isn’t a programmer, creating good software in the AI era still requires the power of a human brain: being creative, solving problems, and making decisions. Some people will be better at it than others. It’s a skill, and a bit of an art. I’m excited that modern coding tools have given people with vision and desire the ability to make software. My friend […]
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Is your secure iMessage conversation actually secure?

sixcolors.comIs your secure iMessage conversation actually secure?Apple introduced iMessage within Messages in 2011 as its house-brand, end-to-end encrypted messaging product. The promise of iMessage is that posts are always encrypted, using servers and technology developed by Apple and controlled by it. The encryption keys reside on your device, stored so Apple can’t access them, and no third party should ever have the leverage to retrieve them. (There’s a big proviso there, which I’ll explain at the end of this article.) Despite exploits uncovered over the many years since iMessage first appeared, the core protocol has never been breached, only device exploits or iCloud-backup extractions that allowed access […]
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Apple’s new parental controls are having a messy roll out (Link)

sixcolors.comApple’s new parental controls are having a messy roll outJennifer Pattison Tuohy, writing at The Verge, illuminates some challenges with the new parental controls Apple added in this year’s software updates: I’m not even trying to use Screen Time on my son’s devices. He’s 18, away at college, and well beyond my parental controls. The problem is I apparently need him to update his MacBook Neo before I can use Apple’s new Screen Time features on my 15-year-old daughter’s iPhone. His college is four hours away, and like many college kids, he’s an expert at ignoring text messages from his mom asking him to do a boring chore. The...
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Secretive helps you keep your SSH keys secret, keep them safe

sixcolors.comSecretive helps you keep your SSH keys secret, keep them safeWay back in January I noted that one of the features that had kept me from using Passwords as my only password management app was its inability to manage SSH keys, a feature offered by competitor 1Password. What I liked about 1Password’s approach was that it abstracted this feature, letting me authenticate my keys using macOS’s built-in authorization system. So instead of typing in a passphrase for that key, I could just use Touch ID or type my 1Password password. This still seems to me like the kind of thing that Passwords should offer, and I still hope that it...
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Apple is changing Full Disk Access in macOS

sixcolors.comApple is changing Full Disk Access in macOSIn a post on Apple’s Developer News site, the company says it will be updating the Full Disk Access permissions: Going forward, we will introduce additional controls to ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access can only do so with very explicit user action. Addressing this is critical. As AI agents become increasingly capable and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially. Nick Heer has a detailed analysis of this announcements, though, as he points out, it’s impossible to make any conclusive judgments as we don’t yet...
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This Week in Apple: Feeding the rumor monster (Member Post)

sixcolors.comThis Week in Apple: Feeding the rumor monsterMark Gurman makes the news, the iPhone Duo is still in trouble, and Apple faces a big payout. Finally, a white guy podcasting about Apple Unlike some sites, I’m just gonna tell you all the things that Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman wrote this week in one section instead of spreading it over five or six articles, several podcast episodes, and an interpretive dance. Gabby Gurman has the beans and he’s spilling them everywhere. Then pouring the tea on top of them. It’s a whole thing. The biggest dirt he’s dishing is that Apple will hold its fall iPad, HomePod, and HomePad...
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Amazon introduces new Kindles and accessories (Link)

sixcolors.comAmazon introduces new Kindles and accessoriesAmazon on Thursday announced new Kindles, including a new base model, Paperwhite, and Colorsoft. All three models come in multiple varieties (plastic and aluminum) and in a variety of new colors. The cheapest model is $170 ($150 with ads), and the priciest new model is the $319 Colorsoft Signature Edition. (I admit that I find it somewhat shocking that even a basic e-reader costs $170 these days, but here we are.) More notable, I think, is that Amazon is embracing page-turn buttons again—but with a very Amazon twist. After systematically removing page-turn buttons from its Kindles over the years, it’s brought […]
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Silencing AirTags enables stalkers and domestic violence

sixcolors.comSilencing AirTags enables stalkers and domestic violenceElevationLab has released an AirTag product I find appalling, and I strongly urge they immediately withdraw it from sale and recall all inventory. The AirTag Silencer is a simple device: remove the back panel and battery from an AirTag, position the Silencer’s highly engineered pin over the speaker, tap the pin with a hammer, and the AirTag’s speaker is destroyed. This prevents it from emitting an alert in three circumstances, only one of which is triggered by an owner. The other two scenarios aid stalkers and perpetrators of domestic violence, among others. I will not link to it. Disabling an...