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Category: Opinion

Adam Engst 22 comments

TidBITS Doesn’t Cover Rumors. Here’s Why

An online poster who leaked accurate Apple corporate secrets says they received them from a family member but have now been found out by Apple. Both face possible legal repercussions, and Apple reportedly fired the family member. Adam Engst explores the enticing but corrosive nature of both providing and consuming rumors.

Adam Engst 27 comments

A Call to Alarms: Why We Need Persistent Calendar and Reminder Notifications

Frustrated by how easy he finds it to ignore notifications for important events and timed reminders, Adam Engst proposes alarms that continue to go off until stopped manually, creating a third notification type alongside banners and alerts.

Adam Engst 120 comments

Arc Will Change the Way You Work on the Web

The Web browser Arc has made a larger difference in jaded tech reviewer Adam Engst’s digital work life than any app in decades. Read his deep dive on what sets Arc apart from other browsers.

Adam Engst 63 comments

The 46 Mac Apps I Actually Use and Why

What third-party apps would you install on a clean Mac to restore your preferred working environment? Adam Engst recently had the opportunity to learn just what apps he really uses—here’s the list.

Adam Engst 5 comments

Helping ckbk Remove Ad Tracking

It pays to speak up. After being introduced to the ckbk cookbook service, Adam Engst expressed his disappointment in the app asking to track and was rewarded a few weeks later with an update that resolved the issue.

Adam Engst 21 comments

International Verify Your Backups Day

What better day than Friday the 13th to check that your backups are actually working by restoring some critical files?

David Shayer 37 comments

ChatGPT: The Future of AI Is Here

Chatbots have just progressed to the next level with OpenAI’s release of ChatGPT. Programmer David Shayer explains what’s behind ChatGPT’s curtain and ponders how we’ll deal with AI-driven chatbots that sound confident and reasonable but may be entirely wrong.

Josh Centers 10 comments

Avoid the Tempting but Flawed Kindle Kids Ebook Reader

Amazon sells Kindle ebook readers customized for kids, bundled with extra features and services. But the Kindle Kids interface lets Amazon promote whatever it wants to kids while preventing parents from managing what their kids see.

Adam Engst 62 comments

Survey Results: Which iOS 15 and macOS 12 Monterey Features Do You Actually Use?

The results are in and wow, do people not use a lot of Apple’s features. In fact, only 4 of 20 features garnered more votes from those who used the feature than those who didn’t. Some of the usage patterns are no surprise—SharePlay, really?—but others caught us off guard.

Josh Centers 61 comments

Survey: Which iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey Features Do You Actually Use?

Apple released a slew of new features with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Monterey. But how many people are actually using them? Respond to our survey, and we’ll post the results next week.

Adam Engst 8 comments

Examining Slack’s New Free Plan Restrictions and Motivations

Slack has overhauled the limits on its free plan, claiming that the majority of active free teams will have access to more message and file history than before. But your mileage may vary—and some people feel betrayed. Adam Engst explores the topic and muses about what we should be able to expect from free services.

Adam Engst 18 comments

Tech Notes from a Cross-Border Trip to Canada

Adam Engst recently took a trip from upstate New York to Vancouver, British Columbia. As always, technology made the trip significantly easier than in the past, though he found that some bits (CarPlay in rental cars and North American T-Mobile connectivity) were vastly more helpful than others (an App Clip for buying gas and Apple Maps encouraging illegal U-turns).

Adam Engst 63 comments

Seven Head-Scratching Features from WWDC 2022

Although there’s much to look forward to in macOS 13 Ventura, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16, there are also some features that had us scratching our heads, wondering what had gotten into the Cupertino drinking water. 

Adam Engst 64 comments

Five Enhancements for Future Apple Operating Systems

Apple will be unveiling new technologies at WWDC 2022, and while some will undoubtedly be welcome, we have additional ideas that we hope will make their way into future versions of Apple’s operating systems.

Adam Engst 25 comments

Bad Apple #5: iCloud Drive Folder Sharing Risks Data Loss

iCloud Drive folder sharing has been around since macOS 10.15 Catalina, which makes it all the less acceptable that someone with whom the folder is shared can delete a file permanently and with only one possible—and unmentioned by Apple—option for recovery.