By Dan Moren

June 25, 2026 2:23 PM PT

That new Mac or iPad is gonna cost you even more now

Say this about Tim Cook: he always follows through. After telling the Wall Street Journal last week that Apple would have to raise prices thanks to the ravages of the memory market, the company today did just that. The Verge, among others, have the full breakdown.

What’s interesting is the manner in which they did so. Today’s prices apply across several product lines, most prominently the Mac and iPad, but also the Apple TV and HomePod. The increases vary, but they affect both low-end devices—the MacBook Neo, whose starting price jumps $100 to $699¹—and the high-end—the Vision Pro which, yes, it seems, can get more expensive, now starting at $3699.

If there’s a winner here, it’s probably the full-size HomePod, which rose just $50–back to the same price it was when Apple released the first-generation of the product eight years ago. Losers include the highest-end Macs, with maxed-out MacBook Pros jumping $1800 and a top-of-the-line Mac Studio increasing by a whopping $4200. But that’s not shocking, as those are all fully loaded with RAM and storage.

I also have to wonder if they purposefully did this price increase during Amazon’s Prime Day sales, knowing that would at least give customers a chance to snag devices at discounts before these changes ripple all the way down the supply chain.

Not every product line was hit today, though: unchanged for the moment are the prices for Apple’s most prominent device, the iPhone, as well as the Apple Watch. Those are due for a refresh in September—it seems likely at higher prices or, as Jason speculated last week, dropping the low-end configurations, but at this point, who knows? We’ll find out in just a few months, when the most expensive iPhone ever arrives, and is probably even pricier than we’re thinking now.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Jason Snell

June 25, 2026 8:00 AM PT

Realizing the user automation dream

Since the very beginning, it’s been clear that computers provide incredible power to those who know how to use them to get work done. The challenge has always been how small the group of “those who know how to use them” has been.

The Apple II included support for BASIC, a simplified programming language that was intended to let new computer users write programs. “In my opinion, the real thing [the Apple II] is doing right now is to teach people how to program the computer,” a young Steve Jobs told the New Yorker in 1977. The first computer programs I wrote were in BASIC.

There was also the Logo language, which helped introduce beginners to programming concepts through the manipulation of a virtual robot called a “turtle.” In the ’80s, HyperCard tried to broaden the programming community through its use of HyperTalk, another language designed to speak to beginners.

The (still!) current examples of this on the Mac are AppleScript, which used a format based on English-language sentence structure; and Automator and Shortcuts, two automation tools designed to create flow-chart-based programs.

The goal is always the same: To give regular people the ability to harness the power of computers. And we’ve never, ever been closer to the goal than we are today.

No, I’m not talking about vibe coding apps, mostly because that requires a level of focus and detail that most “regular people” are not going to want to provide. Show a civilian Xcode and watch how their eyes instantly glaze over.

I’m talking about Shortcuts—specifically, Apple’s Describe a Shortcut feature in the forthcoming macOS 27, iOS 27, and iPadOS 27.

This is as close as we’ve come, across 40 years, to the original dream of putting computer power in the hands of everyone. You can literally tell your device what you want it to do, and when—”every morning show me my to-dos and calendar events for the day”—and it will generate a program to do it and a schedule to run it.

Yes, there are lots of limitations. Describe a Shortcut doesn’t work with third-party apps, only Apple’s own stuff (at least, for now). It can sometimes get confused, especially with complex queries. And it has an interesting tendency to kick things to the Use Model action—why am I not surprised that an AI model likes to build Shortcuts that themselves use AI models?

But when it works, which is most of the time, it’s magical. And perhaps its best feature is that you can iterate on your Shortcuts. If there’s something it doesn’t do quite right the first time, you can specify changes you’d like to see—”only show me items from my Personal calendar”—and it’ll rewrite the Shortcut to take those changes into account. In that way, it’s emulating the back-and-forth conversations that can make vibe coding so remarkable.

I was also impressed with the fact that Shortcuts created with this method are… just Shortcuts. With one click, you’re looking at the actual Shortcut blocks that the feature has assembled for you. You can edit them as you see fit. They’re not special in any way, other than that they were built with an actual English-language sentence, not a line of code that resembles one superficially.

I’m sure that future developments will make it even easier for us to tell our devices what to do. But this particular advance feels especially big to me, like we’ve crossed some invisible line of demarcation. We are entering the era where the computers program themselves—and, for the most part, are able to understand what we’re asking them to do.

By Philip Michaels

June 22, 2026 11:00 AM PT

Prime Day, again?! Why it’s OK to ignore Amazon’s big sales event

When Amazon Prime Day gets underway this Tuesday (June 23), it will be the first time in nearly a decade that I’m not involved in some tech site’s effort to go all out with coverage around the online retailer’s multiday sales event. In recent years, my home base on the West Coast has meant late-night shifts posting about deals, updating constantly shifting sales prices and otherwise pointing out discounted doodads to readers. But none of that’s happening this year, after I was unceremoniously laid off a few months ago.

Being unemployed stinks for a number of reasons. Missing out on Amazon Prime Day coverage isn’t one of them.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate a good deal, and certainly helping your readers save some money on something they’re looking for falls well within the remit of a consumer technology writer. But few of the offers you’ll see on Amazon Prime Day qualify as good deals. And whatever bargains that are to be found are generally lost in the firehose of inconsequential price cuts on second-rate merch. Amazon Prime Day has become the living embodiment of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing, to the point where if Oscar Wilde were alive, he’d be pointing at his computer monitor like he was in the Leonardo DiCaprio meme.

And yet, you wouldn’t know this by perusing the majority of tech websites this week, which will spend the next few days turning themselves into an extended, unpaid advertisement for Amazon’s sales event. As I write this sentence a few days ahead of Prime Day’s actual kickoff, some sites are already touting the deals you can snap up right now. And I guarantee you that once Prime Day wraps up on June 26, you will see stories about the Prime Day deals you can still get. Why, it’s almost as if Prime Day is a made-up construct and prices on goods routinely fluctuate!

Look, I don’t begrudge websites getting in on this Prime Day racket, particularly any websites that might want to employ me at any point in the future. The fact of the matter is, websites gotta make money somehow, and if one of those ways turns out to be affiliate revenue—i.e. the percentage of money a site can collect when you click through a link to an online retailer—more power to them. But the downside to that is a lot of deal alerts on items that aren’t really bargains at all, so much as they’re Amazon trying to offload merchandise to make way for the next product cycle.

Why you should sit out Prime Day

With all the noise surrounding Amazon Prime Day, it’s going to be tempting to head over to that site and load up your virtual cart with all manner of marked-down gizmos. While I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, my humble suggestion would be to… maybe not do that? I don’t know the particulars of your current life situation well enough to be handing out blanket advice. Maybe you really need a new robot vacuum cleaner, in which case, hey, this is your time to shine.

But for most of us, Amazon Prime Day is probably something best viewed at a distance with our eyes shielded to prevent permanent damage. Here’s why:

• Amazon has sales all the damned time: To the extent that Prime Day has ever been something to get hyped up for, it’s been diluted by the fact that Amazon is just going to turn around and have an identical sale a few months from now. For the last few years, Amazon has held Prime Deal Days in October, and that’s followed up shortly by the usual round of price cuts for Black Friday and holiday shopping. The price cuts you’re seeing now will likely return in short order.

• A lot of the discounted items are clearance sales by another name: Prices on some Apple gear will drop this week — in fact, some things like AirPods and Apple Watches may already be available at a notable discount. But that’s because Apple likely will be rolling out new versions of those devices in the fall, and Amazon doesn’t want a lot of outdated inventory on hand. Hey, if you want a pair of AirPods Pro 3 for less than what you’d normally pay and don’t mind missing out on the new features Apple is rumored to be adding to the next-gen model, go ahead and click that Buy button with my best wishes. Just be aware as to why the price might be that low.

• Do you really feel like giving Amazon more of your money?: Jeff Bezos may not be involved in the day-to-day operations at Amazon, but he’s still the executive chairman of the company; more to the point, he profits handsomely from Amazon’s ongoing success. And whether it’s throwing a hey-look-at-me wedding last year or running a major American newspaper into the ground or bankrolling documentaries lauding the First Lady, he’s not really putting that wealth to good use. You may disagree, in which case, load up on those discounted Ring doorbells and Echo Dots to your heart’s content, but I try to send as little money to the real-life version of LuthorCorp as possible.

Oh, you’re ignoring me? Well, at least do this

As good as these reasons are to give Prime Day a pass, I know that some people reading this are already making a beeline toward Amazon. Fair enough — just follow a couple of good practices to get through this shopping event with a minimum of fuss and/or muss.

• DO use a price comparison tool: Make sure that whatever deal you’re seeing on Amazon is actually a good deal by turning to the price-comparison tool of your choice. For me, that’s CamelCamelCamel, where you can enter an Amazon product number¹ into the site’s search field, and you can see how a product’s price has been trending — including whether it’s hit an all-time low.

• DO look for coverage that treats Prime Day skeptically: When it comes to Prime Day, less is more. I tend to find the most helpful articles are the ones that are more selective in their approach to Amazon’s sale, as they acknowledge that most of the deals on offer are pretty crummy and really only highlight worthwhile picks. I tend to find that the Wirecutter site of The New York Times handles this sort of thing pretty well. (Full disclosure: I’ve contributed several articles to Wirecutter as a freelance writer, though I’ve never been a part of any Prime Day coverage with that site.)

• DON’T go on a shopping spree. You see something you want that happens to be on sale at a good price? Great, pick it up. Maybe add a second item to your cart if it also fills a need. Anything more than that? No sir — down that path lies madness. Amazon is counting on you to get deal crazy and take a lot of smart speakers off its hands. Don’t give it the satisfaction.

I’m never going to see Prime Day pop up on my calendar without getting a sad, faraway look in my eye. But that doesn’t mean you have to feel the same way. Like many things in life, Prime Day is best dealt with in small doses, if at all. Together, we can get through this thing.

[Philip Michaels has been writing about technology since 1999, most notably for Macworld and Tom’s Guide. He currently finds himself between jobs, so if you need someone who can string a few sentences together (or make your sentences read a lot better), drop him a line.]

By Glenn Fleishman

June 22, 2026 10:00 AM PT

Where we’re going, there are no Maps

Years ago, in the era between the introduction of the iPhone and the modern period of widespread cellular coverage, my wife and I were driving with our quite young children across the vast, unexplored expanse of north-central Pennsylvania, en route to a family wedding. We had plotted out the route and knew where we were going: Eagles Mere, a tiny, former luxury resort town once at the end of a railway line. The town used to attract well-known actors, as well as New York City denizens, who would escape the summer heat and polio outbreaks back in the city.

As we tootled along, chatting with the kids and keeping them occupied, we suddenly went off the grid. We were still on a state highway, not yet turned to a smaller road, and yet there was no coverage. We figuratively slapped ourselves in the head. Had we gotten AAA maps or printed out whatever the technology was of the day—did MapQuest even still exist? No. We relied on having continuous cellular service. Readers, we did not wind up in the forest for a week, discovered by rescuers clad in bark and branches, feeding the children non-toxic berries. But we did learn a lesson.

Always have a map that doesn't require cellular access! I mean, duh, of course, but we had been lulled in our coastal urban elitism to expect service, service, everywhere!

Of course, it wasn't long after that Google introduced a download option; Apple added one for its Maps app a full decade later.¹ Downloading a map lets you access nearly everything you need while off the cellular grid, in an area where you don't have service, when you have just a trickle of data, or when data access is metered and high-cost.

The usual provisos apply: something could go wrong, you might not have access to your iPhone or iPad, the map might be missing details you need, and so on. If you want a belt to go with your suspenders, consider printing out a paper map! Yes, paper still exists.

Common offline features

In both Google and Apple's mapping apps—say that five times fast—a Download button should appear whenever you search by a name, like a park, business, or city. Otherwise, you have to hunt a bit, as I'll explain below. Downloadable maps may require from about 150 MB to over 1 GB of storage, depending on the area you select and the amount of detail Apple or Google downloads for that selection.

Continue reading “Where we’re going, there are no Maps”…