This week’s issue leads off with Adam Engst’s Christmas story of how he used thousands of dollars of Apple technology to locate a dead mouse. Not a computer mouse, but a flesh-and-blood mouse that had died somewhere underneath built-in shelves and begun emitting a foul stench. Adam also shares a tip about using Siri to reboot an iPhone or iPad, along with some musings on the feature’s cinematic future. Finally, Michael Cohen covers Apple’s Q1 2023 earnings call, where Tim Cook talked a lot about “foreign exchange headwinds” and a “challenging macroeconomic environment” en route to explaining why Apple’s still-massive revenues and profits weren’t as high as they were in the first quarter of last year. Notable Mac app releases this week include RapidWeaver Classic 9.0, Timing 2023.1.3, iStat Menus 6.7, and BusyCal 2023.1.3.
Faced with an ever-worsening stench in his laundry room at Christmas. Adam Engst brings thousands of dollars of Apple gear and recent technologies into play to avoid ripping the entire room apart.
If you need to restart your iPhone or iPad, you can now ask Siri to perform that task for you rather than pressing hard-to-remember button combinations. Alas, the feature doesn’t work on other Apple devices that could also use it.
Although Apple’s revenues fell year-over-year for the first time in recent memory, it still managed to accrue $117 billion in revenue while battling supply issues, foreign exchange challenges, and the effects of war and disease around the globe.
Watchlist
Maintenance release for the Web design and publishing app, which was rebranded to RapidWeaver Classic in mid-2022. ($79.99 annual subscription, free update, 114 MB, macOS 10.14+)
The time and productivity tracking app adds support for importing your iPhone and iPad usage from Screen Time. ($96 annual subscription, free update, 30 MB, macOS 10.15+)
Improves support for recently released MacBook Pro and Mac mini models. ($9.99 new, free update, 29.9 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Maintenance update for the calendar app focused on bug fixes. ($49.99 new, free update, 60.3 MB, macOS 10.15+)