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#1559: Apple event speculation, T-Mobile Home Internet, 31 years of TidBITS, exchange old AirPods, manage iPhone apps in bulk

Last week, we marked 31 years of TidBITS with a desire to leave the negativity of 2020 behind and look to a more positive future. That future starts tomorrow, with Apple’s latest event, and in this issue, we speculate on what we might see. iPads? AirTags? New Apple silicon Macs? We’ll know for sure tomorrow. Frustrated by how hard it is to add and remove iPhone apps from the Home screen one at a time? Adam Engst shares two new tips that let you add and remove apps in bulk, thanks to the App Library. Rounding out the issue, Glenn Fleishman shares details on T-Mobile’s new 5G-focused home Internet service, and Jeff Carlson reviews the Podswap service, which lets you exchange old AirPods with weak batteries for less than a new pair would cost. Notable Mac app releases this week include Parallels Desktop 16.5, 1Password 7.8.1, Agenda 13, Default Folder X 5.5.8, and Alfred 4.3.3.

Adam Engst 32 comments

31 Years of TidBITS Keeping It Real

Has it really been a year since we marked our 30th anniversary? It was hard to stay positive in 2020, but just as science and technology have given the world a way out of the pandemic, we’re going to focus more on the positive ways Apple-related technology can improve our lives.

Jeff Carlson 9 comments

Refresh Your Old AirPods with a Podswap

If the batteries in your first- or second-generation AirPods are suffering from massively reduced battery life, you don’t have to pay full price for a new set (and throw away the old ones). For half the cost, Podswap will exchange your expired ones for a set of refurbished, genuine Apple AirPods with new batteries.

Watchlist

Agenda 13 Agen Schmitz No comments

Agenda 13

Improves navigation speed with added keyboard navigation and filtering support. (Free with $24.99 premium purchase option, 65.7 MB, macOS 10.12+)

ExtraBITS

Adam Engst 5 comments

Beware the Mac Chimes of Death

Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels has gathered together sound clips of the chimes of death played by various classic Mac models when they couldn’t boot. They’re fascinating, but if you experienced these a lot back in the day, beware of flashbacks!