Daniel Jalkut returns to the show so we can both vent about MacOS 26 Tahoe.

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• Notion: The AI workspace where teams and AI agents get more done together.
• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
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• Factor: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for 1 year, with code talkshow50off.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• Classic Mac OS Control Strip.
• Manu Cornet’s oft-cited cartoon caricaturizing the org charts of major tech companies circa 2011.
• Black Ink.
• MarsEdit.
• Rogue Amoeba: “Removing Tahoe’s Unwanted Menu Icons”.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

A look back at Apple’s 2025, with special guest Rene Ritchie.

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• Factor: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for 1 year, with code talkshow50off.
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Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• The classic Mac OS Appearance Manager and its support for (rather garish) themes:
  • ATPM, August 2000: “GUI Junkie: Schemin’ and Themin’” by Christopher Turner. Includes screenshots.
  • Wikipedia: Appearance Manager.
• Luria Petrucci celebrates 20 years on YouTube.
• Steve Jobs on product people vs. sales/marketing people, back in the early 1990s.
• John Browett’s brief tenure running retail at Apple back in 2012. His sacking was effectively a footnote in the announcement that Apple had parted with Scott Forstall.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Quinn Nelson returns for a two-topic holiday spectacular: the iPad in the wake of iPadOS 26, and Apple's executive changes as Tim Cook seemingly nears the end of his time as CEO.

Sponsored by:

• Notion: The AI workspace where teams and AI agents get more done together.
• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• Quinn on YouTube:
  • "The iPad's Software Problem Is Permanent".
  • "Apple Is Falling Apart (On Purpose)" (on executive shuffling).
• Spark -- Quinn's email app of choice.
• Yours truly back in January 2020: "The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10".
• Slide Over was originally eliminated in iPadOS 26 but came back in 26.1.
• Apple Notes extension apps, available on the Mac because they're only possible on the Mac because the iPad and iPhone are baby computers:
  • ProNotes.
  • NotesCmdr.
• Mark Papermaster, the hardware executive who took the fall for the iPhone 4 antenna saga.
• The classic cartoon from 2013: "Organizational Charts of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle".

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest: Tyler Hayes. Topics include how to get a small phone today, which way foldables should fold, the state of Apple TV (including its new “sonic logo”), and some holiday gift gadget recommendations.

Sponsored by:

• Clic for Sonos: No lag. No hassle. Just Clic.
• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• This Week The Trend.
• Tyler on the flip-style Motorola Razr as a small phone solution.
  • DF: “Tyler Hayes Suggests Trying a Flip-Style Foldable If You Want a Smaller Phone”.
• Tyler: “Apple TV Is Finally Worth $99 Per Year”.
• Ad Age: “Apple TV’s Colorful New Branding Was Built With Glass and Captured In-Camera”.
• Aura Ink, $500 e-paper picture frame.
• Chargers:
  • Anker Nano 70W 3-port charger — $50, on sale for $32 if you act fast.
  • Nomad’s excellent “slim” chargers, in 40W (one port), 65W (two ports), and 100W (two ports) — I think the 65W one is the sweet spot.
    • Nomad’s Wallet Tracking Card, compatible with Find My. (Not mentioned on the show, but very cool — Tyler and I both own one and recommend them.).
  • Sharge’s Pixel 100W and 140W chargers, with cool fat-pixel dot-matrix displays on the side.
• The Sigma BF, a gorgeous, minimal L-mount camera.
  • $2,200 at B&H Camera.
  • Tyler’s August issue of This Week The Trend that mentioned it.
• Govee Smart Christmas Lights.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Stephen Robles joins the show. Topics include indie media and YouTube, Shortcuts and automation, and the state of podcasting.

Sponsored by:

• Uncommon Goods: Out of the ordinary gifts, great for the holidays. Save 15% off your next purchase after following that link.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• Stephen goes indie:
  • Stephen’s YouTube channel.
  • Announcement: “I Don't Have a Job Anymore, Thanks to You”.
  • Video: “These Shortcuts Are Magic”.
• Primary Technology: Stephen's podcast, with cohost Jason Aten.
  • Episode 74, May 2025, with yours truly as a guest.
• Apple Podcasts and AI-generated chapters:
  • Apple Podcasts for Creators: “Enhance Your Episodes With Chapters, Links, and More”.
  • Daring Fireball: “Apple Podcasts Is Adding AI-Generated Chapters for Podcasts Without Chapters”.
  • Primary Technology discussion.
  • Beard.fm: “Apple’s Losing Its Podcast Legacy”.
• Downie, a fantastic Mac app for downloading local copies of videos from the web (especially YouTube).
  • Daring Fireball post on Downie 4, from early this year.
• Transloader — Apps from Eternal Storms that allow you to initiate downloads on a Mac remotely from an iPhone, iPad, or another Mac.
• F-Bomb paperweight at sponsor Uncommon Goods.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include the indie media business, the iPhone Pocket, the iPhone Air (including rumors about the second generation model), AI “personalities”, and five years of Apple Silicon Macs. Also, six years of Dan’s site, The New Consumer.

Sponsored by:

• Factor: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for 1 year, with code talkshow50off.
• Notion: The AI workspace where teams and AI agents get more done together.
• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• Dan’s site: The New Consumer.
  • Fromedome.
• iPhone Pocket:
  • Apple’s announcement.
  • My link.
  • Recalling iPod Socks.
  • Steve Jobs’s signature black turtlenecks.
  • Sold out in hours.
• iPhone Air:
  • WSJ: “Apple’s iPhone Air Is a Marketing Win and a Sales Flop”
  • My response.
  • Rumors re: the second-gen iPhone Air.
• Jason Snell at Six Colors, in 2022: “Find Photos Taken by Specific iPhone Lenses”.
• Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, Two MLB Pitchers, Charged in Gambling Investigation.
• Ricoh GR IIIx:
  • A few example photos I’ve taken with mine.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Brian Mueller, developer of Carrot Weather, joins the show to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his utterly ridiculous but totally serious weather app.

Sponsored by:

• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
• Uncommon Goods: Out of the ordinary gifts. Get 15% off your next purchase.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• Carrot Weather.
• The rest of Brian’s Carrot suite of apps.
• CARROT: The Musical, on YouTube.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Dan Moren returns to the show. Topics include Atlas, ChatGPT's new web browser (or anti-web browser) for the Mac; Apple's loss in a "landmark" regulatory lawsuit in the UK regarding App Store commission rates; multiple reports of poor sales for the iPhone Air; and Apple's M5 product announcements: MacBook Pro, iPads Pro, and Vision Pro.

Sponsored by:

• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
• Factor: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for 1 year.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• Sleep++, David Smith’s iOS sleep app that ties into Apple Health data, and gives what I think is a much more accurate and interesting “sleep score” than does Apple Health itself in iOS 26.
• ChatGPT Atlas: new Chromium browser for Mac:
  • OpenAI’s announcement.
  • Their promotion to get 7 days of higher ChatGPT usage if you make, and keep, Atlas as your default browser.
  • Anil Dash: “ChatGPT’s Atlas: The Browser That’s Anti-Web”.
  • Simon Willison’s initial thoughts.
  • Michael Tsai’s roundup of links.
• Reuters: “Apple Loses Landmark UK Lawsuit Over App Store Commissions”.
• Multiple reports suggest the iPhone Air is not selling well.
  • But it seems like Apple isn’t doing any advertising for the iPhone Air (or regular iPhone 17) at all — (yet?).
• Dan’s Six Colors coverage of the M5 speed bump updates from Apple:
  • Base model 14-inch MacBook Pro.
  • 11- and 13-inch iPads Pro.
  • Vision Pro.
• Dan’s review of the new Dual Knit Band for Vision Pro (which is now the only band included by default with the M5 models).
• My piece on the M5 announcements.
• Dan’s previous appearance on The Talk Show, from October last year, talking about — déjà vu — new Mac hardware.
• “&udm=14” — AI-overview-free Google search, from Ernie Smith. Also: My DF post about it back in May.
• Dan’s personal website, with links to his science fiction novels and short stories.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

John Moltz returns to the show to talk about the iPhone 17 lineup: the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max, iPhone 17, and the no-number iPhone Air. Not one word about baseball, but some Star Wars talk may or may not have snuck in.

Sponsored by:

• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
• Sentry: A real-time error monitoring and tracing platform. Get 3 months and 150,000 errors free.
• Factor: Get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for one year.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• Halide -- a great iPhone camera app with a "Technical Readout" feature that provides detailed specs regarding every camera on your phone.
• Techmeme's roundup of iPhones 17 reviews that actually were published on the embargo date.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Special guest Andru Edwards joins the show. Topics include Google’s Pixel 10 event and the Pixel 10 family of devices, AI’s effect on computational photography, foldable phones, and some speculation on Apple’s September 9 “Awe Dropping” event.

Sponsored by:

• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
• Sentry: A real-time error monitoring and tracing platform. Get 3 months and 150,000 errors free.
• Notion: The best AI tool for work, with your notes, docs, and projects in one space.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• Where to find Andru:
  • YouTube.
  • Circuit Breaker.
  • Geared Up.
    • Yours truly on Geared Up, earlier this year.
  • Threads.
• Google’s Pixel 10 family comparison page (copying Apple’s longstanding “Compare” pages to a T).
• Google’s Pixelsnap compatibility / support page.
• “Awe Dropping” Apple event: Tuesday 9 Sept.
• Me being snarky about foldable phone sales on Threads.
• Adobe’s Project Indigo — a free expert camera app for iPhone, spearheaded by Marc Levoy, who was previously at Google on the Pixel camera team.
• iPhone 4 bumper cases.
• Majin Bu’s leaked reveal of Apple’s supposed Crossbody Strap for the iPhones 17.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.

Matthew Panzarino returns to the show. Topics include 007 logo creator Joe Caroff’s death at 103, Google’s weird “Made by Google” event hosted by Jimmy Fallon, the UK supposedly dropping its demand for an iCloud encryption backdoor, and Apple’s workaround for the Apple Watch blood oxygen sensor patent stalemate.

Sponsored by:

• Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
• Sentry: A real-time error monitoring and tracing platform. Get 3 months and 150,000 errors free.
• Factor: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box.

Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.

Links:

• The Obsessor — Matthew’s excellent still-pretty-new blog.
• Joe Caroff, Designer of the James Bond 007 Logo, Dies at 103.
• Jeff Bezos Reportedly “Obsessed” With Casting Wife Lauren Sánchez In Major Role In Amazon MGM’s New “James Bond”.
• Victoria Song: “The Made by Google event felt like being sucked into an episode of Wandavision”.
• Tulsi Gabbard Says the U.K. Government Has Backed Down From Its Demand for an iCloud Backdoor.
• Biden Justice Department downplayed UK demand for an iCloud backdoor.
• Apple Issues a Workaround for the Blood Oxygen Sensor Ban for U.S. Apple Watches.
• Masimo Sues US Customs Over Ruling Permitting Apple’s Patent Workaround.
• “John Oliver Talks T-Shirt Cannons and Slashfics as He Hosts the 2012 Crunchies”.

This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.