Accidental Tech Podcast

661: Intimate and Regimented

October 16, 2025 01:49:10 • Download (105 MB)

The surprise M5 special!

Follow-up:
- Languages in Scotland
- ATP merch has more benefits (via Christian Heiler)
- Slide Over fade animation (via Daniel Luz)
- Marco’s iPhone case survey: Ryan London bare bottom (via Oliver Thomas)
- /u/LaughingMan11 is Benson Leung (via Deta & Daniel Luz)
- ZFS and the Drobo dream (via Joe)
  - AnyRAID for ZFS Explained for Dummies
  - Hexos announcement
An aside for an argument
Apple M5
M5 Pro, M5 Max, TSMC’s SoIC
M5 MacBook Pro
- MacRumors on the [lack of] power adapter
  - Numerama
M5 iPad Pro
M5 Vision Pro
Apple TV+ is now Apple TV
Post-show: iPhone setup, take two
- Skip all the Siri/FaceID/etc things until setup is complete
- Don’t try to memorize the flashing 6-digit code; choose another way
Members-only ATP Overtime: Alexa Plus in the real world
- Jennifer Patterson Tuohy
  - “Temperature” on LLMs
- Nilay’s take

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660: It’s All Chicken Salad

October 9, 2025 02:14:09 • Download (130 MB)

Apple's ICEBlock takedown, AirPods Pro 3 comfort improvements, Live Translation tests, iPhone 17 Pro cases, and expanding the Goose fanbase.

Pre-show: Marco’s “Vacation” results
- Goose
  - Goose @ Richmond Allianz Ampitheater, 3 October 2025
- Allianz Ampitheater
- Chicken Salad Chick
- Nugs.net
- ZZQ
- Suggestions from Casey, in no particular order:
Follow-up:
- ATP in the wild
  - Original report form Richard Earney
    - Follow-up by Matt Smith
  - Follow-up on Mark Christian’s report by Santiago Hervella
- AirPods 3
  - Ear Lottery
    - Michael corroborates Marco’s experience
    - …but Franklin Delano Stallone offers hope
    - …and sometimes AirPods 3 are a marked improvement, reports Matthew Schaffer
  - Tony Dehnke does an ANC comparison
  - Live translation results
- David Schaub’s horror story about filling up your phone
- Mike Taffet does science on iPhone ↔ iPhone transfers
- Marco’s USB odyssey
  - Jack Wellborn had a similar experience
  - Syd Polk wonders if it’s a Sequoia thing
  - (Among others) Fabien theorizes its’ an alignment thing
    - Keith Heaton brought receipts
    - Tailgate Tub
  - Active vs. passive Thunderbolt cables
    - OWC
    - Informative Reddit comment by LaughingMan11
- Synology alternatives
  - Colin McKellar suggests QNAP
  - See also:
    - UGREEN
    - Unraid
    - FreeNAS/TrueNAS
    - …
  - 🎉 …may not be necessary anymore! 🎉
More more first impressions
- Quick AirPods Pro 3 update
- iPhone case updates
  - Omar Shahine performs surgery on the Nomad back
  - Torras clear case
  - Bullstrap open-bottom leather case
  - Peak Design Everyday Case (Charcoal color has the good fabric)
  - Still to test: Süti PhoneBack in black leather, if it ever ships
- iOS 16
- iPadOS 26: Now with slide-over!
Apple pulls ICEBlock from the App Store
Post-show: Pour one a Sprite out for a real one TiVo
- Channels
- AOL dialup service ends
Members-only ATP Overtime: The Meta Ray-Ban Display, and Apple’s response
- The Verge
- Gurman: Apple pivots

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659: Lose the Ear Lottery

October 2, 2025 02:14:07 • Download (129 MB)

Cases and bumpy starts with our new iPhones, our reviews of the AirPods Pro 3, and a baffling USB odyssey.

Pre-show: Eh, that’ll keep…
- M5 iPad Pro
- FCC leaks
🗣️ St. Jude time is almost done! 🗣️
🗣️ New ATP Member’s Special: ATP Dev: Computer Science Curriculum
Follow-up:
- ATP in the wild (via Mark Christian & Richard Earney)
- iOS 26.0.1 allegedly fixes N1 Wi-Fi/BT issues
  - CarlinKit wireless CarPlay dongle
- What does iCloud back up? (via Dayton Lovell)
- iCloud for Messages
  - A ringing endorsement from Nick
  - A potential fix for ∞ GIFs (via Nathan)
- iPhone Transfers
  - Why not pre-populate them, Kindle-style? (via Winnie Lewis)
  - TestFlight is… better now? (via Daniel Nelson)
  - Some thoughts from Nick
- Apple’s onboarding enshittification (via Imthaz)
- Thought to text & AlterEgo
  - Firefox (1982)
  - Prior MIT project (via Hannes)
  - CJ’s thoughts
    - Preview video
    - EMG
    - EEG
More first impressions
Ask ATP:
- How do we really know if something is encrypted? (via Joshua Wold)
- What is the point of neural engine cores, anyway? (via Tom Cole)
  - SIMD
  - Evaluating the Apple Silicon M-Series SoCs for HPC Performance & Efficiency
  - AMX Units
  - Neural Engine
- Does filling a phone SSD slaughter performance? (via Sean Harding)
Post-show: Marco’s USB odyssey
- CalDigit Thunderbolt Element 4
- BLE caberQu
Members-only ATP Overtime: NAS Noodling
- Synology [sorta] says third-party drives will be supported in the future
  - Synology Solution Day 2025 teaser video
- Ubiquiti’s new NAS units
  - UNAS 2
  - UNAS 4

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ATP Dev: Computer Science Curriculum

September 29, 2025

How computer science and computer engineering were taught to us in college, what's different today, and the evolving role it plays in preparing students (or not) for practical industry work.

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658: Your First Mistake Phone

September 25, 2025 02:26:17 • Download (141 MB)

iPhone Air vs. iPhone 17 Pro in our daily lives… if Casey's transfer ever finishes.

Marco’s AppleCare “Express” Replacement
🗣️ It’s St. Jude time again! 🗣️
- The Marco Offset
- Podcastathon 2025
Follow-up:
- Auburn’s colors are UVA’s colors (via Tony Scida)
- You don’t need the trick new Apple charger to charge an iPhone 17 at full speed
- iPhone Air
  - Why people are buying the iPhone Air / 15” MacBook Air
  - Bending the iPhone Air
    - Apple (via Tom’s Guide)
      - Direct video link
    - JerryRigEverything (timestamp link to 6m35s)
      - Same video, different timestamp (7m37s)
  - Battery life
  - Speaker (via Steve Troughton-Smith)
  - Thermals
    - MaxTech
  - iFixIt Teardown
  - Thickness
    - Visual comparison of thickness (via Ludwig Schubert)
    - Thin iPhone future? (via Ian)
- iPhone 17 Pro
  - Teardowns
  - Scratches on the back?
- iPhone sales
  - The Information (MacRumors summary)
iPhone setup advice
- Casey’s tale of woe (see also Upgrade #582: First Chance to Make One Impression)
First impressions: iPhone 17 Pro
- Scratchability
- Telephoto camera
  - iPhone 16 Pro 5× vs. iPhone 17 Pro 8×
Post-show:
- HP M553
- HP M554
Members-only ATP Overtime: Anthropic’s $1.5B book piracy settlement
- The Verge: Settlement announced, 5 September
- Previously, on ATP #656: Anthropic asked for $1.5B/yr from Apple
- The Verge: Settlement paused, 9 September
- Ars Technica, 9 September

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