In 2021, device-management startup Kandji approached Six Colors to commission a new entry in our Report Card series focusing on how Apple’s doing in large organizations, including businesses, education, and government. We formulated a set of survey questions that would address the big-picture issues regarding Apple in the enterprise. Then we approached people we knew in the community of Apple device administrators and asked them to participate in the survey. We are especially grateful to the members of the Mac Admins Slack for their participation. This is our fourth year doing the survey. Over ..read more

Early web nostalgia and memorable online experiences, the most disappointing tech product we’ve owned or reviewed, our persistence in troubleshooting tech, and the oldest piece of technology we still use. Go to the podcast page ..read more

Can we record this discussion? Go to the podcast page ..read more

Last week, my family and I—like so many others in the U.S.—hopped in a car to try and catch sight of a total eclipse. And, like so many other parents, I planned to distract my kid for some part of this lengthy adventure with an iPad. As my kid is still under two, there hasn’t been a lot of time spent with screens, aside from occasionally “playing” a game on our phones or watching some videos of trains. This marked the first time I planned to actually hand over a whole device—albeit still with the idea of just watching some downloaded videos—and I found as I set up the iPad what likely a legion ..read more

Skepticism about the future of the Vision Pro and brutal reviews of the Humane Ai Pin make us discuss misguided expectations and the power of the smartphone duopoly. We also attempt to decode reports of new M4 Mac chips. Go to the podcast page ..read more

Humane Ai Pin. (Photo: Humane) I’m not bullish on the Humane Ai Pin, the clip-on device whose first reviews arrived with knives out this week. The thing feels like a commodity product from 2026 that escaped back a couple of years—a basic hardware conduit for cloud AI models that will soon be available ubiquitously. I wouldn’t be surprised if my Apple Watch had most of its functionality later this year. What excites me about the Ai Pin is what it represents for the future of computing, namely, eliminating a whole lot of drudgery from our lives. Computers have already reduced dramatic amounts of ..read more

Dr. Drang has come for the Apple Sports app: Scores are only part of what a good sports app is about. Sports apps are used not only when you can’t watch a game and want to be kept plugged in, they’re also used—even more often used, I think—to give you background information on the game you’re currently watching. Announcements during a broadcast are ephemeral, but a sports app can tell you how many fouls Nikola Jokić has at any time. And this is where Sports falls down. His critique of the poor presentation of basketball box scores is pointed and accurate. It definitely feels like an app that ..read more

My thanks to Kolide for sponsoring Six Colors again this week. Kolide wants your business to be secure. Think of it like airport security: there are two lines, one to verify your identity and another to scan your carry-ons. In enterprise security, the first line is user authentication. The second line is scanning the devices themselves. That second line doesn’t get nearly the same level of attention. The average solution is like eyeing a bag and listening to hear if there’s a ticking sound. And that’s assuming there’s a second line at all. Kolide’s Shadow IT report found that 47% of compa ..read more

Howard Oakley of Eclectic Light Company has a deep dive on how your Mac knows what app to open when you double click a file: In the days of Classic Mac OS, that was accomplished using the infamous Desktop Database, which recognised files and apps by means of their Creator and Type, two codes consisting of four characters each. A great deal has changed since, for the better. This process now relies on a chain of information to work out which app to launch to open any file. Although that chain can go wrong, in general it’s far more reliable now and seldom needs any user intervention or maintena ..read more

Mark Gurman of Bloomberg has another one of his excellent chip scoops, this time about the future of the Mac: The company, which released its first Macs with M3 chips five months ago, is already nearing production of the next generation — the M4 processor — according to people with knowledge of the matter. The new chip will come in at least three main varieties, and Apple is looking to update every Mac model with it. Apple’s moving through Mac chip generations fast—the M3 was introduced six months ago, but Gurman suggests that it will only be about a year before the cycle begins again. Gurma ..read more