watchOS 8 wished Adam Engst a happy birthday recently, which was both a nice touch and a small surprise. He also discusses some quirky problems related to printer drivers.

We’re taking the next email issue of TidBITS off to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, although we’ll continue to publish articles on our Web site. You can look forward to the next email issue on 6 December 2021.

After lobbying against right-to-repair legislation for years, Apple has seemingly done an about-face by announcing the Self Service Repair program, which will provide genuine Apple parts, tools, and repair manuals to individuals who want to repair their Apple devices.

Thanks to Apple’s Weather app picking up features from Dark Sky, the company that Apple acquired in early 2020, you can now turn on next-hour precipitation notifications in iOS 15. But they aren’t reliable for some users—how about you?

This week, Adam asks for help tracking down an email formatting bug in TidBITS issues, points those worried about ransomware to RansomWhere and Retrospect 18, and looks at more utilities that perform OCR on text in images.

In the ongoing saga of things rattling around in Adam Engst’s head that don’t merit their own articles, Adam shares the fact of Apple’s new temporary iCloud Backup storage, passes on a story about Screen Time settings inexplicably changing, talks about moving TidBITS to a new virtual private server, and notes an upgrade to the TidBITS News app.

Getting an error when you try to play podcasts on your HomePod running HomePod Software 15.1? It’s not you, it’s a bug, and Apple has just released HomePod Software 15.1.1 to resolve it.

While our general advice to hold off on upgrading to macOS 12 Monterey remains in place, Adam Engst shares some thoughts on why Monterey may merit an earlier upgrade than previous versions of macOS. But he also points to some upgrade problems that suggest that we’re not quite there yet.

Frustrated by wanting to write about various topics that are either too big or too small (or too something) for a full article, Adam Engst resorts to sharing some short stories that may be enlightening, enjoyable, or just allow him to close a loop in his head.

Confused about what Device Support Update in Software Update is? Adam Engst was too, but he recently got the opportunity to confirm that it provides the same software as the pop-up “A software update is required to connect to your iOS device” dialogs.

It’s a terrible idea to share passwords with colleagues in email, and the solution for years has been sites like One-Time Secret and 1ty.me that embed a password in a link that can be viewed only once. 1Password has finally gotten into the game, letting users securely share passwords from within the app.

Apple has redesigned the MacBook Pro, with 14-inch and 16-inch models powered by new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, along with impressive new screens, improved battery life, and a welcome return to the era of ports, MagSafe charging, and F-keys. The only downsides? Weight and a camera notch that cuts the menu bar in half.

Faced with a panicking elderly neighbor who thought she had left her iPad Pro at a faraway hotel, Adam Engst saved the day with judicious use of Find My.

Multitasking on the iPad has been a mess for years, thanks to relying on obscure gestures. With iPadOS 15, Apple has added a new Multitasking menu that provides a visible interface along with a new center window option, a shelf for open windows, and a radically enhanced App Switcher.