Accidental Tech Podcast

705: Relentless in a Gentle Way

Pre-show: Marco may have to dance with the devil Daikin Home Assistant integration Home Assistant Green Follow-up: The OpenAI doughnut What if it’s an eye? (via Elijah Yap) Or perhaps red blood cell shaped? (via Chris Lawrence) Biconcave disc Time Capsule was to solve the laptop-backup problem Multiple Apple IDs with the same number (via Adam Wunn) RAMageddon Apple gets lower display prices Apple raises trade-in values 🎉 Unforgetful is out! 🎉 E-Mail Addresses That Would be Really Annoying to Give Out Over the Phone Skybridge Mac Power Users #861: Stephen Builds a New Task App Kanban Quitter Forecast AI watermarking Steganography How Claude’s text watermark works Pseudorandom number generator A wonderful visual guide Some 3Blue1Brown homework LLMs explained briefly Next-word prediction probabilities Transformers, the tech behind LLMs Temperature gives more weight to the less-probable Image Gruber’s take Some responses to Gruber Dan Moren Daniel Jalkut Gruber’s reply to the rebuttals Dithering, 14 August: “Watermarks” I Made This Post-show: Casey has news CarMax Previously on ATP… BMW i4 San Remo Green A Better Route Planner EV Stupidity Checklist Members-only ATP Overtime: Other people’s phones (based on Stephen Robles’ video) Sponsored by: Tailscale: A secure network that just works Become a member for ATP Overtime, ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!

704: Past the Ternus Horizon

Pre-show: Marco has a rose and thorn Lutron Caséta Fan Control Fanimation Technology Connections video Follow-up: Marco’s favorite feedback (about Myke) was from Analog(ue) 😬 SQLite bug write-up Blackbird Post-show Neutral Professional negotiators / “headhunters” are very much a thing CarEdge (via John Siracusa) Delivrd (via Roger Coxon) Wall Street Journal (News+ link) The Car Chick (via Juan Boyce) The #1 trusted automotive expert for women and smart men Your Car Buying Advocate (via Ian McCullough) Two options from Colin Macdonald Automatch Consulting Insight Auto Consulting Casey makes some discoveries over the last week Justification from the midwest dealer Ventilated seats Laser headlights Marco takes a spin as well John’s passwords pro-tip Codex Micro (via St. Chris) Icon keys John and Casey weep for a while about Verizon CableCARDs 😭 Backups Time Machine has a fatal flaw (via Jonathan Dechko) …but also a workaround (via Eric Jacobsen) Transcend JetDrive BaseQi Adapter Are backups even necessary? (via Mustapha Hamoui) Apple Upgrade Lease agreements are between customer & financier, not the retailer (via Patch) Apple Card also has 12 months interest-free (via Andrew Haglund) RAMpocalypse Apple is still trying to make fetch Chinese RAM happen iPhone 18 Pro launch is looking… challenging All of 2027’s memory made by the big 3 is sold out (🇹🇼 link) (via Kevin Beaumont) New macOS & iOS 27 β5 icons Siri Chess John pours one out for his homie Keir’s observation about icon composition Safari Preview Settings Apple Watch overhaul rumors The Casio watch everyone has (it’s small; here’s a bigger one if you want, or a more modern one with step-counting) John’s Passwords pro tip Post-show: John’s macOS update woes Members-only ATP Overtime: More AI hardware rumors Is OpenAI making a hockey puck or a doughnut? Anthropic will design its own hardware to power Claude Sponsored by: Factor: Healthy Eating, Made Easy. Use code atp50off. Claude: Ready to tackle bigger problems? Get started with Claude today. Quince: Elevated essentials and staples that last. Become a member for ATP Overtime, ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!

703: Part of a Healthy Breakfast

Pre-show: The Overcast “kicking machine” Adam Wunn’s blog post Previously in ATP #324: Automatic Kicking Machine Follow-up: Marco gives John the gift of transcript search in build #1169 [The system works! — Ed.] Build #1172 includes Siracusa Replay Mode Be wary of Sonos + Pi-hole or other ad blockers (via Will Smidlein) Ubiquiti High Availability Redundant Power Supply USP-RPS SmartPower Cable USP-Cable “Odd” RAM amounts (via Joe Lion) Multiple Apple accounts (via TJ Usayin) Some science about Sony’s axe of PlayStation discs SuperDuper 4 Previously in the SuperDuper blog… Apple Upgrade Program John Voorhees at MacStories The Verge with example numbers Apple Upgrade vs. iPhone Upgrade “Restricted Mode” isn’t about this Is it worth it? Joe Rossignol answers macOS 26.4 adds Battery Charge Limit Ask ATP: What are good backup strategies? (via Todd Vaziri) Backblaze (former sponsor) Tailscale (former & future sponsor) What the heck is a Docker container? (also via Todd Vaziri) Wizard zine Post-show: Casey is car shopping again Visor AutoTempest Bimmer.work Driveway Safari extension screenshot Members-only ATP Overtime: OpenAI hardware progress Codex Micro Gruber Quinn’s take Stack Overflow keyboard Rumored speaker Sponsored by: Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code atp. Zocdoc: Find the right doctor, right now. Become a member for ATP Overtime, ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!

702: Isolate the Evil

Pre-show: Three old men talk about the Tickety Tocks Follow-up: Adam Wunn published his email as a blog post Sharing files in Screen Sharing.app (via Ingmar Wittkau) Video game preservation (via Jason Griffey) Supplying power to Marco’s army of Mac minis Ubiquiti “Shadow Mode High Availability” An update on Passwords.app “doing the hard thing” macOS iOS More clipboard changes in macOS 27 Video in question Apple is reportedly looking to acquire AI chip companies P. A. Semi Apple is actually spending money on Broadcom Hartley Charlton at MacRumors Slate Truck price & availability announced Previously on ATP Apple 🤝 Ford CarPlay is Additive Safari on 𝑥OS 27 WWDC 2026 #204: What’s new in WebKit for Safari 27 Pie chart A contrary take Safari MCP server Federico’s take Ask ATP: How is Overcast transcription going? (via Pete Ottery) How does Apple achieve “growth the hard way”? (via Elijah) John’s theory ATP #689 ATP #641 John on replaceable batteries iPhone SE TSR How do you create a second Apple account for doing development without a different phone number? (via James) With an aside lamenting the way Apple Stores work Post-show: How does John pack? InstaCrate Shibumi Wind Assist Members-only ATP Overtime: New information about the iPhone 18 family RAM “Side RAM” on the Pros Supposed leaked drawings Battery capacities Bodies Colors Original mockups Thicker? Sponsored by: 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!

701: I Improved My Town

Pre-show: Marco’s Mac mini catastrophe CyberLynk / Mac Mini Vault The dead ATS The proposed replacement 🗣️ New Member’s Special: ATP Tier List: Emoji Follow-up: Member’s Special video trimming / John’s Vibe Coded App LosslessCut Casey has leveled-up his Sonos experience Previously on ATP Version 85.01 announcement post FAQ post Louie Mantia makes the case for Squircle Sony 💔 💿 A nefarious motivation for Sony ceasing to sell games on disc (via Glen Jarvis) CD sales are going up Price increase corner: Apple Music edition Chart by BasicAppleGuy AppleCare+ too FileMaker In defense… CVE Monday.com Marco got Robert Thompson off FileMaker after 18 years Scratch And a special thanks to Adam Wunn 🙌🏻 Gurman on post-Mac Pro plans EU drops battery removal requirement for Apple Watch & AirPods Six additional categories The Monkey’s Paw OLED iMacs? Ask ATP: What does Marco (or other adults) use 3D Printers for? (via Jack Johnson) Bambu X2D TinkerCAD Onshape Post-show: How Marco fixed AirPlay in Overcast WSOLA F Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades Members-only ATP Overtime: The internal “roles” system in LLMs, and how it relates to prompt injection vulnerabilities Research paper Extended write-up Mechanistic interpretability Bobby Tables Sponsored by: Leesa: A mattress for every body and budget Become a member for ATP Overtime, ad-free episodes, member specials, and our early-release, unedited “bootleg” feed!