Accidental Tech Podcast

652: You Have 24 Hours to Comply

August 14, 2025 02:08:41 • Download (124 MB)

Apple’s latest design updates, developing product sense, AppleCare One friction, and endangered mice.

Pre-Show: Marco and Casey’s no-good, very bad days.
Follow-up:
- Casey didn’t read the fine print on Express Replacement 🤦🏻‍♂️
  - Short Pump
- John cycled his mouse again
- AppleCare One
  - Moving a device on a payment plan (via “Clark Griswold” and Anonymous)
  - Tina’s iPhone
  - Tina’s Mac Studio
- Tahoe beta 5: checkbox contrast improves
- iOS 26 beta 6 Liquid glass changes
- Smart TV interfaces over time
  - “Shortcut”
  - New Magic Remote
- Running your own mail server
  - How does iCloud-on-your-domain work? (via potato.zip)
  - Hide my Email (via Peter Puleio)
  - Jason Diller thinks it’s not so bad
- Post-quantum cryptography
  - Harvest now, decrypt later (via Lisa Ugray)
  - Since iOS 17.4 for iMessage (via Saul Sutherland)
    - Apple Security Research blog post
  - Compelled adoption (via Brian Jarvis)
  - Chrome adopted it in 2024 (via sayrer)
    - 2024: State of post-quantum internet
    - 2025: Update
John wages war against icons
- Adopting Liquid Glass: App Icons
- WWDC 2025 #361: Create Icons with Icon Composer
- John’s Mastodon thread
  - Václav Slavík’s solution
  - FB19437407
  - FB19497128
  - FB17892659
- There’s likely to be a lot more of this
Ask ATP:
- Is Liquid Glass on macOS a subtle move toward touchscreen Macs? (via Daniel Liu)
- How does one build a “good product sense”? (via Ian Anderson)
  - Inspired by Marty Cagan
- How does one effectively de-duplicate photos using Photos.app? (via Keith Heaton)
Post-show: Marco’s air-conditioning “update”
Members-only ATP Overtime: AI voice control as a threat to Apple’s platforms
- Apple’s Upcoming AI Voice Control will Change how People Use iPhones

Sponsored by:

Factor: Healthy Eating, Made Easy. Get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box.
1Password: Award-winning password manager trusted by millions of users.
Sentry: A real-time error monitoring and tracing platform.

Become a member for ATP Overtime, ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!

651: Your Judgement About Pockets

August 7, 2025 01:44:15 • Download (101 MB)

Apple’s Trump support, flagship TV UIs, beta design tweaks, Xcode’s appetite for disk space, and a safe space for Casey… but not his devices.

Pre-Show:
- Brief vacation results
- Tim Cook kisses the… ring
  - Video
Follow-up:
- HDTVTest reviews Sony Bravia 8 II and Panasonic Z95B
- TV shootout results
  - Nilay’s comments
- AppleCare One
  - iCareCalculator Reddit post (removed by moderators)
  - iCare Calculator web app
  - John’s experience
- B&H
  - Casey’s roughly equivalent Mac, available for special order
- Retro computing corner
  - Revisiting eWorld
- More on Tahoe
  - Gus Mueller
    - …on checkboxes
    - …on sliders
  - Beta 5 improves selection legibility
- Ejecting USB storage in Windows (via Justin Bradford)
  - Bleeping computer
- Art & science of UI design
  - Game design concepts in software (via Wes Davis)
iPhone 17’s rumored new MagSafe design
- Majin Bu
- iPhone 16
Apple’s “Answers” team
Ask ATP:
- How can one improve the experience of a permanent-mount SSD on a laptop?
  - Jettison
- Why is Xcode so thirsty? (via Geoff)
  - Time Machine local snapshots
    - Deleting snapshots with Disk Utility
  - DevCleaner (App Store link)
  - Github
  - GrandPerspective
  - Disk Inventory X
  - DaisyDisk
- How are we dealing with spam? (via Alan Bailward)
Post-show: Apple Express Replacement
Members-only ATP Overtime: Post-Quantum Cryptography networking in the 𝓍26 OSes
- Prepare your network for quantum-secure encryption in TLS

Sponsored by:

DeleteMe: Making it quick, easy and safe to remove your personal data online.
Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code atp.

Become a member for ATP Overtime, ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!

650: Whatever It Takes to Get the Laundry Folded

July 28, 2025 01:27:19 • Download (85 MB)

AppleCare One, the OS 26 public betas, and tensions between art and usability in interface design.

Pre-Show: Casey’s french-fry problem
Follow-up:
- D. Griffin Jones takes one for the team
- Casey’s struggles with iperf3
  - Tutorial
  - iperf3 -t 60 -c {ip} -P 4 -i 10 -R
- John’s new toaster and E01 (via J-P Teti & John F.)
- Chemical vs. physical sunscreen (via Prodan Statev)
  - Research paper
- Apple security for unreleased devices
- Low-cost Apple laptop (via Jason Anthony Guy)
  - Ed: Please don’t give Apple ideas like this. 🫣
- Getting customer support from Apple (via Patch)
  - Apple support app → Chat
  - Any retail store on Apple Maps → ... → Message
- CloudFlare & AI crawlers
  - Thoughts from Thomas Schoffelen
  - Thoughts from Aaron Zinck
  - Thoughts from Anonymous
    - JA3/JA4 fingerprint
- The 𝓍26 public betas are out
  - Under the Radar #323: The Tidal Wave
- Tahoe beta 4
  - Contrast will decrease until morale improves
    - Startup disk selection (cropped)
    - Startup disk selection (full)
  - News summaries are back, baby! 😬
Apple and interfaces
- Tog in Interface (1992)
  - Amazon
  - NNG
- Tog on Software Design (1995)
  - Amazon
  - NNG
- Apple’s Aqua introduction, Macworld San Francisco, 2000
AppleCare One
- Dan Moren’s take
- The Verge
- Fees & deductibles
- FAQ (scroll way down)
Post-show: John has an addendum to his earlier topic
Members-only ATP Overtime: Frame of preference, an incredible exploration of the Mac’s settings by Marcin Wichary in concert with Mihai Parparita of the Infinite Mac Project

Sponsored by:

Members like you! Become a member for ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!

649: Prove It With Cameras

July 22, 2025 01:56:31 • Download (112 MB)

Our broken and drowned electronics, Apple's lawsuit against Prosser, Cloudflare's power exercise, and Marco's solution to sunscreen.

Pre-Show: Casey did Marco’s favorite thing
- CalDigit TS5+ (affiliate link)
- CalDigit TS5+ (product page)
- iperf3
Follow-up:
- F1 (the sport, not the movie)
  - Apple expected to win 🇺🇸 rights
    - F1 TV
    - Vroom
  - John’s video != Casey’s immersive ride-along
    - To see the immersive ride-along, you need to be wearing a Vision Pro; scroll down on that link
- John’s toaster update
- AirPods & AppleCare+
- Reverting to “normal” tabs in Tahoe (via ST-S)
  - defaults write -g NSSolariumWindowTabs -bool NO
- Low-cost Apple laptop with A18 Pro
  - mandonam
Apple sues leaker Jon Prosser for stealing iOS secrets
Cloudflare Declares Content Independence Day
- Press release
- ChangeDetection.io
- Stratechery (paywalled)
Post-show: Marco solved sunscreen
- John’s hat that he likes
- John’s hat that is cheaper but that he likes less
- 🇯🇵 Skin Aqua Super Moisture UV Gel (eBay)
- 🇪🇺 La Roche-Posay Anthelios UVmune 400 Invisible Fluid, Non-Perfumed (eBay)
- Australian sunscreen video
Members-only ATP Overtime: Is copying Apple hardware a good idea?

Sponsored by:

Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code atp.
DeleteMe: Making it quick, easy and safe to remove your personal data online.

Become a member for ATP Overtime, ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!

648: Part of the Movement

July 17, 2025 01:55:28 • Download (112 MB)

Jeff Williams' retirement, Liquid Glass revisions, and our review of F1® The Movie. While supplies last. Terms apply.

Pre-Show: Live music & failed air conditioners
🗣️ New ATP Members Special: Tier List: Pizza Toppings
Follow-up:
- Meta Hires Top Apple AI Models Executive
- SFSymbols 🤝🏻 Tahoe Folders
  - Standard SFSymbol: xattr -w 'com.apple.icon.folder#S' '{"sym":"camera.viewfinder"}' folder
  - Private SFSymbol: xattr-w 'com.apple.icon.folder#S' '{"sym":"solar.system"}' folder
  - Random string: xattr -w 'com.apple.icon.folder#S' '{"emoji": "HIMOM"}' folder
  - FB18022272: “summary” symbol missing in SF Symbols 7 developer beta
- Toolbars
  - Safari
    - Beta 1 image
    - Beta 3 image
    - The Guardian (good example for messing around with the toolbar)
  - Terminal
    - Beta 1 image
    - Beta 3 image
  - iOS 26 Beta 3
- YouTube’s new player UI
- “Clear” iPhone mock-up was by Gavin Nelson in April 2025
- HDR controls in iOS 26 (via Gui Rambo)
  - Demo project
✌️ out, Jeff Williams
- Gruber
- Gurman
Casey ponders the purpose of AppleCare
- Casey in Dongletown
Post-show: John & Casey review F1
- Plumber Problem
- Guenther Steiner
- Brad Pitt drives a F1 car for the first time
- Vision Pro Brad Pitt ride-along (Vision Pro users, scroll down)
- Casey’s pinball machine
Members-only ATP Overtime: 2020 Hindsight
- John Giannandrea

Sponsored by:

Notion: Your notes, docs, and projects in one space.
Hello Fresh: America’s #1 meal kit.

Become a member for ATP Overtime, ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!