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The oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet, TidBITS brings you the Apple Macintosh, iPhone, iPad, and iPod news, reviews, tips, and commentary that matters. Join us each week for audio versions of award-winning coverage from industry stalwarts Adam Engst, Glenn Fleishman, Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Michael Cohen, Rich Mogull, Jeff Carlson, Tonya Engst, and others.

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Microsoft Office for Mac 16.100

TidBITS ·

2025/08/18

Microsoft has released version 16.100 of Office for Mac with updates to Excel and Outlook. Excel now enables you to set Compatibility Versions per workbook (allowing you to use improved Excel functions while ensuring workbooks continue to work as expected), and it lets you view multiple panes, sheets, or workbooks side by side with synchronous scrolling. Outlook adds support for shared mailboxes in hybrid environments, enables you to block your calendar when setting an automatic reply, and displays

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Do You Use It? The Apple Ecosystem

TidBITS ·

2025/08/15

My old running buddy David Rossiter posed an interesting question in TidBITS Talk earlier this week. I had commented in TidBITS that most TidBITS readers probably use iPhones, but David says he uses a Mac mainly because it’s a supported Unix platform, but he’s too cheap to use an iPhone or an Apple Watch. He asks:Am I one of the few loyal TidBITSers that is not completely in the Apple ecosystem? I’m certainly aware that many readers venture outside the Apple ecosystem for certain devices, but I’ve

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Steve Wozniak Is a Happy Guy

TidBITS ·

2025/08/15

After a Slashdot post linking to a CBS News profile of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak triggered comments about how he sold his Apple stock, the now 75-year-old Woz popped up to explain his situation, saying: I gave all my Apple wealth away because wealth and power are not what I live for. I have a lot of fun and happiness. I funded a lot of important museums and arts groups in San Jose, the city of my birth, and they named a street after me for being good. I now speak publicly and have risen to the

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TickTick Provides a Focused Daily Task List and More

TidBITS ·

2025/08/14

I recently wrote about my search for a task manager in “AppBITS: Sorted Seems Moribund” (25 June 2025), outlining my desire for a task manager that would help me plan my day by combining tasks with events in a single flat view. Sorted fit the bill but had some issues and seemed to have no future. Although there were some good suggestions in the comments on that article, when the topic came up at a post-workout dinner with running friends, one said she used an app called TickTick. I hadn’t heard of

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Blood Oxygen Monitoring Returns with iOS 18.6.1 and...

TidBITS ·

2025/08/14

A U.S. Customs ruling allows Apple to restore blood oxygen readings for U.S. Apple Watch buyers for whom the feature was disabled in early 2024. For these users, the redesigned approach works by measuring on the Apple Watch, processing data on the iPhone, and displaying results in the Health app. After medical device maker Masimo’s patent infringement complaint regarding the blood oxygen sensor on the Apple Watch, Apple was compelled in late 2023 to cease selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple

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GPT-5 Reduces the Need to Choose Models in ChatGPT

TidBITS ·

2025/08/11

In his One Useful Thing newsletter, Ethan Mollick explains what’s interesting about GPT-5: In general, AIs that “think” before answering (called Reasoners) are the best at hard problems. The longer they think, the better the answer, but thinking costs money and takes time. So OpenAI previously made the default ChatGPT use fast, dumb models, hiding the good stuff from most users. A surprising number of people have never seen what AI can actually do because they’re stuck on GPT-4o,

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Dia AI Browser Introduces $20 Monthly Pro Plan with...

TidBITS ·

2025/08/08

Despite refining its Arc Web browser into a must-have for many professionals, The Browser Company never charged for it or even floated a business model. The firm has changed gears with its follow-up browser, Dia. Even though Dia isn’t broadly available and is still in early development (currently version 0.41), it’s now possible to subscribe to Dia Pro for $20 per month with a 14-day free trial. You can download Dia from that page even if you’re not an Arc user or on the waitlist; I don’t know if it

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How T‑Mobile’s New T‑Satellite Compares with Apple’s...

TidBITS ·

2025/08/08

In late July, T-Mobile launched T-Satellite, its Starlink-powered satellite communication service. T-Satellite roughly matches Apple’s Emergency SOS, Find My, and Messages via satellite services with support for text messaging and location sharing (see “Testing Emergency SOS and Find My via Satellite,” 21 November 2022, and “iOS 18’s Messages via Satellite Feature Is Magic,” 10 October 2024). I haven’t subscribed to T-Satellite, and based on T-Mobile’s product and support pages, I don’t think most

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AppBITS: Proton Authenticator Takes on 2FA Apps

TidBITS ·

2025/08/07

In “Two-Factor Authentication, Two-Step Verification, and 1Password” (10 July 2023), I explained that for true two-factor authentication, you needed to acquire your time-based one-time password (TOTP) from a device other than the one on which you’re logging in. By having 1Password automatically enter those automatically generated six-digit codes for me, I’m instead using two-step verification. That’s much more secure than plain passwords, but not as strong as two-factor authentication because an

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Dropbox Passwords Shutting Down; Migrate Soon

TidBITS ·

2025/08/04

In a support document, Dropbox writes: As part of our efforts to focus on enhancing other features in our core product, the Dropbox Passwords application will be discontinued on October 28, 2025. We recommend transferring your passwords to another trusted and secure password manager application such as 1Password. Did anyone use Dropbox Passwords? I wish companies would stick with their core competencies rather than wasting everyone’s time with substandard alternatives to unrelated apps. If you were

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ChatGPT Study Mode Aims to Teach, Not Just Answer

TidBITS ·

2025/08/04

In a blog post, OpenAI writes: [ChatGPT’s] use in education has also raised an important question: how do we ensure it is used to support real learning, and doesn’t just offer solutions without helping students make sense of them? We’ve built study mode to help answer this question. When students engage with study mode, they’re met with guiding questions that calibrate responses to their objective and skill level to help them build deeper understanding. Study mode is designed to be engaging and

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SoundSource 5.8.5

TidBITS ·

2025/08/04

Rogue Amoeba has released SoundSource 5.8.5 to address a few regressions introduced in the previous version. The audio control utility fixes a bug that could caused audio artifacts to be heard with devices that lack volume control, ensures that audio from the Screen Sharing app works as expected, resolves an issue with audio synchronization not working correctly when directing audio to Multi-Output Devices, and updates the ARK plug-in to version 12.2.7 to fix a bug that could cause sample rate

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Timing 2025.6

TidBITS ·

2025/08/04

Daniel Gräfe has issued Timing 2025.5, adding support for copying activity list items to the clipboard. You’ll be able to copy a plain-text hierarchical version of grouped screens (such as the Activities screen in Unified mode) as well as a tab-separated version from tabular data (such as the Reports screen) for pasting into a spreadsheet. The time and productivity tracking app also adds the ability to drag folders from Finder onto the project list in the sidebar to create projects and support

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Apple Reports Record-Breaking Q3 2025 Results

TidBITS ·

2025/08/01

Reporting on its Q3 2025 financial results, Apple announced profits of $23.4 billion ($1.57 per diluted share, representing a 12% year-over-year increase) on revenues of $94.0 billion. The company’s revenues rose 10% compared to the year-ago quarter (see “Apple’s Q3 2024 Record Revenues Surprise Tim Cook,” 2 August 2024) and set a new Q3 record. iPhone, Mac, and Services revenues saw double-digit year-over-year growth, but iPad and Wearables revenues fell slightly. Growth in Services continues to

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AppBITS: TrackWeight Turns Your Trackpad into a Scale...

TidBITS ·

2025/07/30

At the beloved MacHack conference of yesteryear, the main event was always the MacHax Best Hack Contest (don’t ask about the different spelling). For their contest entries, some of the top Mac programmers would stay awake for up to 72 hours straight coding. On the final day of the conference, everyone would gather in an auditorium as developer after developer showed off their hacks. Audience reaction was enthusiastically chaotic, with hacks that aimed to improve the overall Mac user experience often

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Apple Focuses on Security in iOS 18.6, macOS 15.6,...

TidBITS ·

2025/07/29

Apple has released updates to all its current operating systems, advertising them as providing “important bug fixes and security updates,” with few details on the bugs. Here’s what you will find: iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6: Apple says that these updates fix a bug in Photos that prevented sharing memory movies. We’ve also confirmed that StandBy, which we reported as being significantly less responsive to motion in iOS 18.4, has returned to its previous responsiveness. For users in the European Union,

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Survey Results: How TidBITS Readers Position...

TidBITS ·

2025/07/28

Last week, after describing my standing desk setup in “Lessons from 14 Years at a Standing Desk” (21 July 2025), I inquired about your preferred working positions. For each of eight positions, 204 respondents could choose from Never, Rarely, Occasionally, Frequently, or Exclusively. (Click the chart to expand it.) The results were illuminating, if not all that surprising: Sitting, in a standard chair: Most people, most of the time, work sitting in a standard chair at a desk or table. 81% of

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SoundSource 5.8.4

TidBITS ·

2025/07/28

Rogue Amoeba has issued SoundSource 5.8.4, updating the audio control utility to capture audio correctly from Apple’s Screen Sharing app. The release also now shows the correct icon for AirPods Max (USB-C) throughout the app, addresses a rare issue where background processes tracked by SoundSource could grow unbounded, ensures channel mapping for aggregate devices used in a multi-channel configuration work as expected, resolves an issue where CPU usage could spike due to device updates during system

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Apple Unveils AppleCare One for Multiple-Device...

TidBITS ·

2025/07/28

Apple has launched AppleCare One, a new device protection plan that consolidates AppleCare coverage for multiple Apple devices under a single monthly subscription. For $19.99 per month, customers in the US—it’s not available in other countries—can protect up to three devices, with additional devices costing $5.99 each per month. The plan includes all the benefits of AppleCare+, such as unlimited accidental damage repairs, battery replacements if capacity drops below 80%, and up to three annual

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Apple Opens Public Betas for macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26,...

TidBITS ·

2025/07/24

Want to live dangerously, get a glimpse of the future, and help Apple find bugs? You can now install public betas of nearly all Apple’s v.26 operating systems: macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and HomePod Software 26. There’s even a public beta of the next version of the AirPods firmware, but none for visionOS 26.Follow those links for Apple’s lists of what’s new in each operating system; you can also read “Major Changes Coming in OS 26” (9 June 2025) for my opinions on the

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