Friday Thing

Your Friday Thing for March 13, 2026

Commotion Of Links

Your Commotion of Apple Links for the week ending March 10, 2026

You guessed it: this week is heavy with the fallout from Ringmaster Tim's Cavalcade Of Hardware. Actually, it was Ringmaster Heir-Apparent John…a detail that didn't go unnoticed. There's also a Robert DeNiro clip. This inclusion is 100% justified. Even if it weren'

MacBook Neo

MacBook Neo: the Five Days Later post

Five days before Apple announced the MacBook Neo, air temps here in New England were hovering at slightly above freezing. We were barely able to leave the house due to the 30-plus inches of snow that a recent blizzard had just deposited. And it was pitch-dark outside by late afternoon.

Friday Thing

Your (beta list) Friday Thing for March 6, 2026

Artificial Intelligence

AI is now an App Store

This afternoon, I was using my Linux notebook (a ThinkPad 11e running Pop!_OS) and I came across a useful bash script. I wanted to stash it someplace where it would stay handy. I needed a modern successor to the old Mac System 7 "Notes" desk accessory. I

MacBook Featured

MacBook Neo: Apple Makes A Bacon, Egg And Cheese Sandwich

After today’s big announcement, we’re all feeling nervous – maybe even just a little bit betrayed – about something. So let’s address it right here at the top: the first Matrix film was actually a fantastic movie. The sequels drove the franchise wildly, horrifyingly, off the rails. That’s

IPhone Featured

iPhone 17e: The "e" stands for "enough."

*** ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT ALERT *** THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED AN EXTREME PR BLIZZARD ALERT EVENT ADVISORY AFFECTING ALL COMMUNITIES OF APPLE OBSERVERS FROM 9 AM EST MONDAY MARCH 2 TO 1 PM EST WEDNESDAY MARCH 4 HISTORIC ACCUMULATIONS OF DOGS AND PONIES EXPECTED THROUGHOUT ALL REGIONS COMMUNITIES ARE

MacOS

I’ve never had the experience of parenting a 6-year-old child. But I’ve dealt with MacOS system updates.

…And I refuse to hear from parents about some nonsense that the two experiences are materially different. If you have parented a six-year-old child, and you are a Mac owner, you wouldn’t have even batted an eye at that headline. “If anything,” you thought, “I am grateful to the

Friday Thing

Your (beta group) Friday Thing for February 27, 2026

Commotion Of Links

Your Commotion of Apple Links for the week ending February 24, 2026

Was it a light week for Apple news? Maybe everybody's saving their energy for next week, when Apple's three-day Announcement Fest-A-Palooza happens. But there was at least one biggie, in the form of Apple's big push to get a certain kind of press about

Friday Thing

Your Friday Thing for February 20, 2026

Commotion Of Links

Commotion of Apple Links for week ending February 17, 2026

Apple is through with hosting Events. Now it wants to host…happenings? Plus, a new iOS release that doesn't amount to much, a new iOS beta that looks to be something special, and many stories that reflect upon the perceived decline in fit-and-function of Apple software. It'

AppleScript

Sylvesters, Stooges, and Success (adventures in AppleScript)

Coding in general, and maybe AppleScript specifically, is the only zone where I think I understand the appeal of sadomasochism. It's a journey in which the pleasure arrives after pain. I added a new feature to an important AppleScript, and I finally fixed an old, hugely-frustrating problem. And

Your Friday Thing for February 13, 2026

Yellowtext

The days are getting more longerer, fasterer

Before the Great Displeasant Winter of 2025-6, I would have said that I don't mind the cold of this season as much as I hate the sunsets that arrive long before afternoon is over with. Here, during the middle of the GDWo25-6…it's a push. These

Gemini is patient with me (a quickie about pecans)

An assortment of nuts has come into my possession. A fancy assortment. So fancy that some defy ready identification by one such as I, who attended a public high school and lacks specialized training. Gemini made quick work of the identification. Hooray! I love pecans. The correct nutmeat-extraction tool is

Apple

Commotion of Apple Links for week ending on November 25, 2025

It's the week before the Thanksgiving holiday. And yet the pickings aren't as meager as one might expect. First, an aside: The Google Gemini Gem that performs copy editing chores gave me a nifty little surprise this time. I've set it up to just

Friday Thing

Your Friday Thing for November 14, 2025

Friday Thing

Your Friday Thing for November 7, 2025

(Sigh) I'm gonna delay the BIG PUBLIC LAUNCH one more week. I always knew I'd make the announcement on an episode of MacBreak Weekly. For many reasons, and only some of them are weaselly! And November 11 was truly the day I'd been working

Commotion Of Links

Commotion of Apple links for the week ending October 28, 2025

Not exactly an avalanche of Apple news this week. The good stuff was well-worth my writing about at length on the site. If you've been following the exciting "Andy Improves His AppleScripts For Creating These Things" adventure: I no longer need to step in when one

One Song

One Song: “That Thing You Do!” (Shakalabbits)

I still haven’t a clue how the original version of this song didn’t win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1997. It was duly nominated, but it lost out to “You Must Love Me,” from Evita. That was, and remains, galling. “You Must Love Me” continued

Commotion Of Links

Apple Commotion for the week ending on October 28, 2025

This week: I am still very annoyed about the destruction of the East Wing! I am pretty sure I will need to restart my Apple TV subscription! And what's wrong with an orange and pink iPhone 17? It's kind of cool! But still, don't

Friday Thing

Your Friday Thing for HALLOWEEEEEN 2025

Commotion Of Links

Apple Commotion for the week ending October 21, 2025

Meet the new hardware! Same as the old hardware! Except for the new CPUs, which look rather nice! But seriously, no WiFi 7 on the new MacBook Pros? Even the new iPhones have WiFi 7! I'm really not all that worked-up over it! But I'm kind

Friday Thing

Your Friday Thing for October 10, 2025