Jim Lovell, the commander of Apollo 13 and one of three men to have gone around the moon twice, died on Thursday:
The plight of Apollo 13 in 1970 transfixed Americans. The capsule was nearly 56 hours into its flight and some 200,000 miles from Earth when the astronauts heard that ominous bang. Red lights signaling system failures glowed on their console. Captain Lovell, along with Mr. Swigert and Mr. Haise, civilians but also former test pilots who were making their first spaceflight, joined the scientists and technical experts on the ground to improvise a plan that might bring the crew home safely.
“Apollo 13” is one of my favorite films and Jim Lovell was always one of my favorite astronauts. He always seemed genial and enthusiastic and didn’t seem to wear too heavily the burden of never making it to the surface of the moon.
One of my favorite movie add-ons of all time is the commentary track Jim and Marilyn Lovell recorded for the DVD (and subsequent disc) releases of “Apollo 13.” It’s not every day that you get to listen to people who participated in history comment on how accurate, or inaccurate, the film depiction of that event is. His book (with Jeffery Kluger) Lost Moon, rebranded as a film tie-in, is also excellent.
The film ends with Tom Hanks as Lovell musing, “I look up at the moon and wonder, when will we be going back, and who will that be?” Sadly, Lovell never got to find out. But Mount Marilyn stands forever on the moon.
You will forgive me if I first read that as “Tim Cook grifts Trump”. The fun thing is, you can also read it as “graft”! Ha-ha! This is how we have fun in the hellscape that is this timeline.…
Back in May on MacBreak Weekly, Andy Ihnatko recommended an incredibly clever project called pico-mac-nano, a seemingly impossible complete emulation of the original Mac in a case only 2.4 inches/62mm high.
I bought it while we were still on the air, and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. It’s slightly wonky (sometimes the display thinks it’s wider than it is, and though it’s preloaded with MacPaint it won’t actually launch it), but the fact remains: I can attach a USB mouse to this tiny thing and click around and run Mac software. It’s a miracle!
Unfortunately, it was also too good to last. Apple contacted pico-mac-nano creator Nick Gillard, who emailed me and others who ordered the preassembled pico-mac-nano:
…an email from Apple’s Trademark and Copyright Group has put a big question mark over the future of pre-assembled units. I will continue dialog with Apple but their current position is that I should stop selling the pre-assembled Macs…
Look, I understand why this is happening. Apple’s trademarks and intellectual property are being infringed upon, and no hobby project is going to be worth the time to negotiate some sort of licensing agreement. Apple is absolutely in its rights to target Gillard, even though it knows that it’s being a killjoy. Even Gillard gets it:
In fairness to Apple, not only are they perfectly within their rights to issue a cease and desist… but they have been super-nice and polite about the project saying things like “…it’s clear you’ve poured a great deal of care and passion into your work. We genuinely appreciate your enthusiasm for—and admiration of—the original Macintosh.”. They could have requested that the whole open source project be taken down from GitHub but are currently only requesting we stop selling the assembled units. So anyone can still build one themselves for their own use.
What’s it good for? Absolutely nothing, of course — I have to take off my glasses and squint with one eye to even see what’s on the screen — but it’s such a feat of engineering that I really don’t care. It’s one of the most clever and interesting feats of retro computing I’ve ever seen. I love it.
Our approach to cable management at home, the tech we pack for inflight entertainment, the devices and chargers we bring on quick trips, and our go-to strategy for international phone data plans.
In time for Apple’s 50th anniversary, “CBS Sunday Morning” correspondent David Pogue tells the iconic company’s entire life story: how it was born, nearly died, was born again under Steve Jobs, and became, under CEO Tim Cook, one of the most valuable companies in the world.
The 600-page book features 360 full-color photos, new facts that correct the record and illuminate Apple’s subversive culture, and 150 fresh interviews with the legendary figures who shaped Apple into what it is today.
I’m one of David’s many former editors and upon reflection, he seems like just about the best person around to write a book like this. I look forward to reading it when it’s published next March.
What’s that jingling sound? It might be the cash in Apple’s pockets after its record financial quarter. Also: Apple responds to the DoJ, and Tim Cook gives an AI pep talk.
I released an audiobook a few weeks ago, the first time I had done so. This was the counterpart to the print and ebook editions of Six Centuries of Type & Printing, a work that explores the evolution of printing technology. I used Adobe Audition to record and edit, as well as insert markers that would be exported to serve as chapters. Steven Schapansky, a beloved member of The Incomparable team and excellent audio engineer, took on the audio clean-up and production for me.
Audition lets you create markers which can be exported and used as audiobook chapters.
This is where we hit the first snag. Steven exported the audio as MP3, and Apple’s Books app for Mac read the chapter markers but seemed to think they were zero seconds long. A little research on my part found that “chapterized” audio files, ones with chapter breaks, can work with MP3, but most apps handle this better with the newer-but-not-at-all-new AAC format (part of MP4). So I exported to AAC, which uses the .m4a extension by default, tested it with Books, and thought all was good.
But there I hit several snags, after a reader let me know they couldn’t get the audiobook loaded and synced to their iPhone:
Books for Mac didn’t allow importing the file in all the ways that Books allow.
Importing the file into Books with iCloud syncing enabled for Books (on all my devices) didn’t make it accessible on my iPhone or iPad in the Books app.
Opening the File in the Files app on an iPhone or iPad only lets me play it within Files as a native audio file. I was unable to import it into Books.
Through some trial and error, as well as more careful reading, I uncovered some useful tidbits that helped me solve the problem, and I think they will be useful if you’re ever faced with an audiobook you want to load.
The right format
For starters, I should have read slightly more deeply about audiobook formats. The sucker that I am, I thought audio was a solved problem, and it just works. D’oh! If I had, I would have discovered that the .m4a (with an ‘a’) and the .m4b (with a ‘b’) formats are absolutely identical except for the file extension, yet .m4a is treated like an audio file and .m4b like an audiobook with chapters.
Simply changing the extension with no other conversion allowed me to double-click the file and have it open in Books. I could drag the file onto the Books icon in the Dock or into the Books app to the same effect.
Books can properly read an m4b file as an audiobook and import it with chapter timings intact.
That solved one problem, but the file still didn’t sync to iOS/iPadOS Books. That required a journey into the wilderness of Finder-based synchronization, something I thought we’d mostly shed except for very particular purposes. Turns out, audiobooks are one of those.
Weird-ass Finder audiobook sync
Before iCloud sync, we had to do a lot of messing about in iTunes and later the Finder to synchronize our various desktop and mobile data. iCloud took the fuss out, even though it could be frustrating to troubleshoot when something went wrong. I have rarely touched Finder-based sync in years.
iCloud sync does not apply to audiobooks you import into Books for Mac, only ebooks, generally in EPUB or PDF format. Audiobooks you purchased from Apple’s Bookstore sync just fine, as do all other pieces of purchased or rented digital media.
So you have to use the Finder interface—that’s where Apple directed me to go. For as little as Apple likes the idea of sideloading apps, it loves sideloading media: the iTunes/Finder iPhone/iPad interface is mostly about choosing what media files from a Mac (or a Windows system) get synced for access by the appropriate iOS/iPadOS app. Audiobooks is one of them.
Be warned, however: Overriding the current sync settings will sever your connection with any previous choice you’ve made for syncing local media for Apple’s categories of Movies, TV, Podcasts, and Books. Music, Books, and Info can be affected if you aren’t using iCloud syncing.
To sync your audiobooks, follow these steps:
Connect your iPhone or iPad to a Mac1 unless you’ve already connected and enabled Wi-Fi syncing in the past, in which case you can skip this step.
Select your device in the Finder sidebar.
Click the Audiobooks tab.
Check the “Sync audiobooks onto [device name]” box.
If you had previously synced with another library, you’re warned this will break the sync. Click Remove & Sync.
Apple wants you to really understand that overriding the current settings for media sync will replace your chosen synced items library. Left: a warning about removing the current library; right, a warning reminding you what will happen should you proceed.
6. Make your selection of audiobooks.
7. Click Apply.
8. You’re warned again with more specifics about the library replacement: which library that’s in use will be replaced with the one from this Mac (or Windows device). Click Sync and Replace to proceed.
The Audiobooks tab of the Finder-sync window is where you control which audiobooks are on your iPhone.
Your audiobooks finally show up on your iPhone or iPad. You must repeat this operation every time you load more audiobooks onto your Mac. Seems rather outdated.
Podcast apps might be superior in this regard
You can easily add audiobooks with chapters to Overcast.
You know where else you find sideloading? In podcast apps. Because not all podcasts or audio files you want to listen to in a podcast app can be retrieved via an RSS feed, many apps allow you to import episodes and audiobooks. That’s often a premium feature.
In Overcast, for instance, you need a subscription ($10/year, removes ads and offers 48-hour undelete among other features) and gain access to 10 GB of file upload space, 1 GB maximum per file. Castro‘s Castro Plus subscription ($24.99/year, many extra features) lets you drag files into the iCloud Drive > Castro > Sideloads and have them appear as soon as they sync within the app.
[Got a question for the column? You can email glenn@sixcolors.com or use/glennin our subscriber-only Discord community.]
Another Apple employee is careless with an iPhone, Tim Cook answers questions, and some former Apple AI employees need new business cards. Maybe AI can design them for them.
iPhones gone wild
Move those renders to the Trash because a soon-to-be-fired Apple employee may have been photographed with a real live iPhone 17 Pro in the wild!
While not definitive, the device looks much like what the rumors and renders of said rumors have been indicating, with a larger camera bump that has the LiDAR sensor and flash further to the right.
Naturally, innovation like moving camera thingies doesn’t come for free.
On our YouTube reaction video, Dan suggested that this quarter, which was essentially “boring” and yet generated $95 billion in revenue, means that Apple is about to enter an era where it breaks $100 billion in revenue in its dull quarters.
I think he’s right. Apple is so big and has so many customers that it just slowly gets larger and larger. Every quarter, Apple trumpets the increase in its global installed base of devices, and this quarter was no different. Every quarter, Apple cherry-picks some specific stats about new buyers that boggle the mind—over half of this quarter’s iPad and Apple Watch buyers were buying their first one of those products?! But that’s how you grow the installed base and keep that revenue line going up.
One of the advantages of Apple having a range of different products is that there are so many opportunities to convert people to other parts of the ecosystem. If we assume that for most people the iPhone is the entry point, then selling them AirPods is a logical next step, followed perhaps by an Apple Watch. But when it comes time to buy a new computer, or give a tablet a spin, why wouldn’t the Mac or iPad be at the top of the list? And of course, services revenue is a part of the story too.
For all the hand-wringing about Apple’s long-term fate in the Chinese market, Cook took time out to point out that “the MacBook Air was the top-selling laptop model in all of China, and the Mac Mini was the top-selling desktop model in all of China.” That’s a market undoubtedly driven by iPhone, but some of those iPhone customers are now becoming Mac customers. The revenue ratchet continues.
Apple doesn’t have a lot of one-time customers, is what I’m saying. And that’s why the boring quarters are soon going to be in the triple digits of billions.
Mentioning the unmentionable
Apple always has to disclaim itself when it discusses the future, because all of these disclosures are tightly regulated, and it opens itself up to pain and legal penalty if it’s found to be fibbing. This quarter’s disclaimer, given by CFO Kevan Parekh at the start of the call, was a little different. See if you can spot it:
As we move into the September quarter, I’d like to review our outlook, which includes the types of forward-looking information that Suhasini referred to. Importantly, the color we’re providing assumes that the global tariff rates, policies, and application remain in effect as of this call, the global macroeconomic outlook does not worsen from today, and the current revenue-share agreement with Google continues.
I believe this is the first time Apple has directly referred to the threat of losing Google search revenue in the context of its financial results. It’s an enormous source of profit for the company, and if a court orders that the deal with Google be voided, it will hurt, no matter what fallback Apple figures out.
It’s also worth noting the wording around tariff rates, given that those seem to change at the drop of a hat. Apple’s trying to project the future based on today, but so far as we know, all the rules could change tomorrow. It’s that kind of world.
(This is why, by the way, Apple ascribes some of its stronger sales this quarter to “pull-ahead”—namely, in April a bunch of people in the U.S. rushed out and bought new iPhones or Macs a little earlier than they might otherwise have done because they were concerned that all the prices were about to go up due to tariffs.)
Watch Tim pivot
There was a two-sentence sequence in the analyst call that provided a really clear look into Tim Cook’s worldview—both his personal inclinations and the realities of being a tech CEO in 2025. Answering a question about tariffs from Amit Daryanani of Evercore, Cook said:
In terms of what we do to mitigate, we obviously try to optimize our supply chain. And ultimately, we will do more in the United States.
Step one: Always be optimizing your supply chain! The most Tim Cook thing one could ever say. But step two: Do more in the United States, because it’s what the government demands. I’ve thought for a while now that Tim Cook is not actually a cheerleader for Chinese manufacturing, but he is always going to make optimal and expedient decisions that give Apple the best deal. In the current environment, the calculus has shifted toward doing more in the United States.
AI investment and acquisition
When you want to ask Apple why it’s seemingly struggling with AI, but you’re a financial analyst and you want to try and get some sort of serviceable answer, you ask about capital and R&D investments. Which nets you a response like this from Tim Cook:
We are significantly growing our investment. We did during the June quarter, we will again in the September quarter. I’m not putting specific numbers behind that at this point, but you can probably tell in the guidance that things are moving up. We are also reallocating a fair number of people to focus on AI features within the company. We have a great team and we’re putting all of our energy behind it.
In other words, Apple is “significantly” increasing what it spends on AI, as well as taking people internally and re-tasking them. This sends a signal to the market that Apple’s taking the threat seriously, which is what Apple feels that it needs to do.
There’s also the subject of whether Apple should buy an AI company. Analyst Atif Malik of Citi approached this topic by asking generally about whether Apple needed to do a spot of Mergers & Acquisitions to speed things up, or if it could just focus organically? And Tim Cook took that personally, I think, because his response was direct (okay, direct for an analyst call) and to the point:
We’ve acquired around seven companies this year, and that’s companies from all walks of life, not all AI oriented, and so we’re doing one—think of it as one every several weeks. We’re very open to M&A that accelerates our roadmap. We are not stuck on a certain size company, although the ones that we have acquired thus far this year are small in nature. But we basically ask ourselves whether a company can help us accelerate a roadmap.
Leaving aside the utterly broken metaphor of accelerating a roadmap, you can see Cook proudly pointing out that Apple does buy companies all the time, actually, before elaborating on why Apple tends to buy companies: not to figure out where to go, but to acquire a company that will help it get to its desired destination. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but this isn’t a bad snapshot of Apple’s overall attitude. Apple might feel it needs to acquire companies to get what it needs, but it’s the one setting the agenda. Unfolding the roadmap? I don’t even know anymore.
Every quarter after releasing financial results, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh hop on a conference call with analysts to detail the quarter gone by, give a peek at what’s to come, and creatively avoid answering any pointed questions from analysts. This is Six Colors’s transcript of the call.
While it might seem like AppleCare One is simply a way to bundle up its extended warranty coverage for your Apple devices, it’s actually a foot in the door of something even more powerful. Even more life changing. Even more… revenue-ing.
AppleCare for you.
That’s right, the clear goal here is the dreaded “con” word. No, not continuity. No, not conventional. No, not courage—that doesn’t even start with con, Todd.
Convergence.
According to my sources, who prefer not to be named because they are totally my invention, and coming up with names is time-consuming1, Apple plans to merge its AppleCare service with Apple Fitness+ and its Health initiatives to form one all-inclusive AppleCare system to take care of the stem-to-stern…er…head-to-toe needs of its customers.
So in addition to paying $19.99 per month to cover three Apple devices, you can fork over an additional $9.99 a month to cover yourself from accidental damage.…
On Thursday, Apple reported its third-quarter 2025 fiscal results. Revenue was $94 billion (a fiscal third-quarter record), up 10% versus the year-ago quarter. Mac revenue was up 15%, iPhone revenue up 13%, and Services revenue up 13%. The Wearables/Home/Accessories category was down 9% and iPad revenue down 8%.
Dan Moren and I broke down the results on YouTube.
Our experiences with tap‑to‑exchange features like phone payments, what we truly consider ephemeral online, a recent tech frustration that hampered productivity, and opinions on children’s shoes with hidden AirTag slots.
