Accidental Tech Podcast

704: Past the Ternus Horizon

August 13, 2026 02:08:25 • Download (124 MB)

Apple Watch overhaul rumors, beta icon updates, Mac backups, and the app with John's favorite login system.

Pre-show: Marco has a rose and thorn
Follow-up:
- Marco’s favorite feedback (about Myke) was from Analog(ue) 😬
  - SQLite bug write-up
  - Blackbird
- Post-show Neutral
  - Professional negotiators / “headhunters” are very much a thing
    - CarEdge (via John Siracusa)
    - Delivrd (via Roger Coxon)
      - Wall Street Journal (News+ link)
    - The Car Chick (via Juan Boyce)
      - The #1 trusted automotive expert for women and smart men
    - Your Car Buying Advocate (via Ian McCullough)
    - Two options from Colin Macdonald
      - Automatch Consulting
      - Insight Auto Consulting
  - Casey makes some discoveries over the last week
    - Justification from the midwest dealer
    - Ventilated seats
    - Laser headlights
  - Marco takes a spin as well
- John’s passwords pro-tip
- Codex Micro (via St. Chris)
  - Icon keys
- John and Casey weep for a while about Verizon CableCARDs 😭
- Backups
  - Time Machine has a fatal flaw (via Jonathan Dechko)
  - …but also a workaround (via Eric Jacobsen)
    - Transcend JetDrive
    - BaseQi Adapter
  - Are backups even necessary? (via Mustapha Hamoui)
- Apple Upgrade
  - Lease agreements are between customer & financier, not the retailer (via Patch)
  - Apple Card also has 12 months interest-free (via Andrew Haglund)
- RAMpocalypse
New macOS & iOS 27 β5 icons
- Siri
- Chess
- John pours one out for his homie
- Keir’s observation about icon composition
- Safari
- Preview
- Settings
Apple Watch overhaul rumors
- The Casio watch everyone has (it’s small; here’s a bigger one if you want, or a more modern one with step-counting)
John’s Passwords pro tip
Post-show: John’s macOS update woes
Members-only ATP Overtime: More AI hardware rumors
- Is OpenAI making a hockey puck or a doughnut?
- Anthropic will design its own hardware to power Claude

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703: Part of a Healthy Breakfast

August 6, 2026 02:32:25 • Download (147 MB)

Overcast's busy betas, SuperDuper 4, Apple Upgrade, the worst power cables ever devised, and some totally very patient car-shopping.

Pre-show: The Overcast “kicking machine”
- Adam Wunn’s blog post
- Previously in ATP #324: Automatic Kicking Machine
Follow-up:
- Marco gives John the gift of transcript search in build #1169 [The system works! — Ed.]
  - Build #1172 includes ~~Siracusa~~ Replay Mode
- Be wary of Sonos + Pi-hole or other ad blockers (via Will Smidlein)
- Ubiquiti High Availability
  - Redundant Power Supply USP-RPS
  - SmartPower Cable USP-Cable
- “Odd” RAM amounts (via Joe Lion)
- Multiple Apple accounts (via TJ Usiyan)
- Some science about Sony’s axe of PlayStation discs
SuperDuper 4
- Previously in the SuperDuper blog…
Apple Upgrade Program
macOS 26.4 adds Battery Charge Limit
Ask ATP:
- What are good backup strategies? (via Todd Vaziri)
  - Backblaze (former sponsor)
  - Tailscale (former & future sponsor)
- What the heck is a Docker container? (also via Todd Vaziri)
  - Wizard zine
Post-show: Casey is car shopping again
Members-only ATP Overtime: OpenAI hardware progress
- Codex Micro
  - Gruber
    - Quinn’s take
  - Stack Overflow keyboard
- Rumored speaker

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702: Isolate the Evil

July 27, 2026 02:30:45 • Download (145 MB)

Safari 27 and web standards, Apple Maps coming to cars (?), and our very different philosophies on packing for a family road trip.

Pre-show: Three old men talk about the Tickety Tocks
Follow-up:
- Adam Wunn published his email as a blog post
- Sharing files in Screen Sharing.app (via Ingmar Wittkau)
- Video game preservation (via Jason Griffey)
- Supplying power to Marco’s army of Mac minis
  - Ubiquiti “Shadow Mode High Availability”
- An update on Passwords.app “doing the hard thing”
  - macOS
  - iOS
- More clipboard changes in macOS 27
  - Video in question
- Apple is reportedly looking to acquire AI chip companies
  - P. A. Semi
- Apple is actually spending money on Broadcom
  - Hartley Charlton at MacRumors
- Slate Truck price & availability announced
  - Previously on ATP
Apple 🤝 Ford
- CarPlay is Additive
Safari on 𝑥OS 27
Ask ATP:
- How is Overcast transcription going? (via Pete Ottery)
- How does Apple achieve “growth the hard way”? (via Elijah)
- How do you create a second Apple account for doing development without a different phone number? (via James)
  - With an aside lamenting the way Apple Stores work
Post-show: How does John pack?
- InstaCrate
- Shibumi
  - Wind Assist
Members-only ATP Overtime: New information about the iPhone 18 family
- RAM
- “Side RAM” on the Pros
  - Supposed leaked drawings
- Battery capacities
- Bodies
  - Colors
    - Original mockups
  - Thicker?

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701: I Improved My Town

July 23, 2026 02:10:55 • Download (126 MB)

3D-printing for fun and utility, a defense of squircle-icon jail, how AirPlay was finally fixed in Overcast, and cutting-edge modern technology such as audio CDs, FileMaker, and the Mac Pro.

Pre-show: Marco’s Mac mini catastrophe
🗣️ New Member’s Special: ATP Tier List: Emoji
Follow-up:
- Member’s Special video trimming / John’s Vibe Coded App
  - LosslessCut
- Casey has leveled-up his Sonos experience
- Louie Mantia makes the case for Squircle
- Sony 💔 💿
  - A nefarious motivation for Sony ceasing to sell games on disc (via Glen Jarvis)
  - CD sales are going up
- Price increase corner: Apple Music edition
  - Chart by BasicAppleGuy
  - AppleCare+ too
- FileMaker
  - In defense…
    - CVE
    - Monday.com
  - Marco got Robert Thompson off FileMaker after 18 years
    - Scratch
  - And a special thanks to Adam Wunn 🙌🏻
Gurman on post-Mac Pro plans
EU drops battery removal requirement for Apple Watch & AirPods
- Six additional categories
- The Monkey’s Paw
OLED iMacs?
Ask ATP: What does Marco (or other adults) use 3D Printers for? (via Jack Johnson)
Post-show: How Marco fixed AirPlay in Overcast
- WSOLA
- F Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades
Members-only ATP Overtime: The internal “roles” system in LLMs, and how it relates to prompt injection vulnerabilities

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ATP Tier List: Emoji

July 17, 2026

Ranking selected emoji, based on our usual, precise, rational criteria.

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