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According to Mark Gurman (posting on X / Twitter), those who purchase an iPhone Duo at an Apple Store in the US will be able to have the initial setup screen customized with their name: Fun little touch for the iPhone Duo launch: Apple retail stores will have a system to customize the boot of the …

Went to Barrett’s Haunted Mansion with my brother and a friend tonight and had a great time! It’s always fun to see what they come up with for their attractions each year!

Apple recently announced a “Welcome Home” event for Tuesday, October 13th. It’s rumored that Apple will be announcing several smart home devices, made in partnership with third-party companies, like LG.

Just checked out planewx.ai and think it looks like a pretty useful tool for pilots looking to get weather information prior to their flights. It uses AI to analyze weather forecasts and data to help with trip planning and making “go vs. no-go” decisions.

Had a great time in Vermont this past weekend, with the highlight of the trip being the Sugarbush Soaring Fall Fly-In on Saturday! A number of people either flew in or stopped by the airport for some lunch, with proceeds benefitting Flight Experience for Youth (FEFY), an organization that helps …

Went to my local Target this afternoon and saw that they had a bunch of older iPhones on clearance (still new, in the box), including the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12 Pro, iPhone 12 Pro Max, and iPhone 13. From my understanding, Target recently stopped selling …

Downloaded and installed iOS 27 on my iPhone 17 Pro Max. While there is still a bunch of stuff for me to check out, I like the improved natural language processing when creating calendar events in the native iOS “Calendar” app.

Took a walk through Boston Common yesterday with my brother and his wife. It was a beautiful day for it!

Downloaded my X / Twitter archive the other day and, while looking through some of my old tweets, I came across a one from April 17, 2011 where I mentioned uploading some videos to Amazon’s Cloud Drive (now Amazon Photos). Having forgotten that I even had anything stored in Amazon Photos, I …

Pre-ordered the iPhone 18 Pro Max (1TB) in silver. Since I have been using the iPhone Upgrade Program for the past several years, I decided to give the new Apple Upgrade Program a try this time around.

Apple Announces iPhone Duo: At the Apple Special Event earlier today, Apple announced the long-rumored iPhone Duo, the company’s new foldable iPhone. From the Apple Newsroom website: Apple today introduced iPhone Duo, the first foldable iPhone. Opened, it is the thinnest iPhone ever, with a 7.6-inch inner display that …

Apple Announces iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max: Today, at their Apple Special Event, Apple announced the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max. From the Apple Newsroom website: Apple today announced iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, delivering the most advanced pro camera system in an iPhone, and huge leaps in battery life and performance. …

Apple Announces AirPods 5: Apple also announced the AirPods 5 during today’s Apple Special Event. From the Apple Newroom website: Apple today announced AirPods 5, delivering the industry’s best Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) in an open-ear design and even better sound quality, at an outstanding value.1 AirPods 5 …

Apple Announces Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4: At today’s Apple Special Event, Apple announced the latest iterations of the Apple Watch - the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4. Both watches feature Apple’s new Health Sensing System and are powered by a new S11 chip, which enable them to take higher-frequency heart …

Had a great time in Vermont with Zeba, my brother, and his wife this weekend! We took a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s factory, went to American Flatbread and Mad Taco, checked out the Mad River Valley Craft Fair, and I even got a glider lesson in at Sugarbush Soaring!

Saw the Savannah Bananas at Gillette Stadium last night! It was a fun experience!

Just tried a new Banana Pudding Oreo and thought it was quite good. I’m generally a pretty big fan of banana flavor, so when I saw these in the grocery store the other day, I figured I’d give them a try! Oreo actually released 3 new, limited, flavors, with fans being able to vote on the …

Apple Announces New Polishing Cloth: Something I neglected to mention with the other Apple announcements the other day is that Apple also released a new version of their “Polishing Cloth”. Chance Miller, writing for 9to5Mac.com, provides some information about the new Polishing Cloth: Not to be overshadowed by the new Mac …

Apple Announces "Surprise and Shine" Special Event: Apple announced their “Surprise and Shine” special event today, which will be held on September 9, 2026 at 10:00 AM (PT). The event will be live-streamed on the Apple website, as well as on YouTube. Some of the devices rumored to be announced at this event include a new, foldable, iPhone …

Apple Announces New M5 Ultra and M6 Processors, as well as New Mac Mini and Mac Studio: Apple, via a post on their Newsroom website, announced the new M5 Ultra and M6 processors: Apple today debuted M6 in the new Mac mini and M5 Ultra in the new Mac Studio, providing an extraordinary leap in performance and AI capabilities. M6, Apple’s first state-of-the-art 2-nanometer chip, advances …

The trailer for Season 3 of The Pitt was released the other day. I really enjoyed the first two seasons of the show and am looking forward to seeing what Season 3 brings!

Walmart Announces Tap-to-Pay Coming to Stores: Walmart recently announced that tap-to-pay will be coming to select Walmart and Sam’s Club stores starting on August 24, 2026: We want customers and members to have choice in how they pay, so they can check out in the way that works best for them. Now, beginning Aug. 24, we will be adding Tap …

For those who follow the New England Patriots, here’s a pretty cool video that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the building of the team’s new football facility - The New Balance Athletic Center.

Had a great time at the Flight Experience for Youth (FEFY) Fundraising Dinner and Live Auction at Sugarbush Soaring last night! It was great to see people come together to support such a great organization!

Congratulations to Mr_Mammal on raising $50,800.69 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital during his latest 24-hour charity livestream! It was a great stream for a great cause! For those interested, here’s a link to the highlight video on YouTube!

Saddened to learn that longtime technology blogger and writer Om Malik passed away earlier this week. He founded the GigaOm website in 2006 and later wrote on his personal blog, Om.co. Malik was also a great photographer, with his photos available on PhotosByOm.com and Instagram. My sincerest …

Happy Father’s Day to all of the dads out there! Hope you all had a great day! Thank you for everything that you do!

Andy Ihnatko, announcing the re-launch of his website: Well. Whatever, I’ve decided that it’s time to end the “Soft Opening” era of my new site/blog. Lots of folks discovered it on their own. I incorrectly supposed that by hiding it behind a mysterious URL identical to my …

Spent this past weekend hanging out with Zeba’s family at an Airbnb by the beach! Despite the rainy weather on Saturday, it was still a great time! Though, as you can see in the video below, my rock skipping skills might need some work!

Just discovered that you can pinch in and out while on the “Month” view of the native iOS “Calendar” app to change how much data is shown for events.

Was scrolling through Instagram today and came across this simulation that NASA released a few years ago of what it would look like to fall into a black hole. Pretty interesting stuff!

Oura announced the latest version of their health and fitness-focused smart ring today - the Oura Ring 5: SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–ŌURA, maker of the world’s leading smart ring, today announced Oura Ring 5, the smallest smart ring in the world. Built on more than twelve years of …

Had a great time in Vermont this past weekend! I was even able to get my first glider lesson of the season in on Saturday!

Google Announces Fitbit Air: Back on May 7th, Google announced the Fitbit Air, a new, screenless, health tracker: Fitbit has always been committed to making great wearable technology that works for as many people as possible, through the right form factors and the right price points. But even today, many people find wearable …

Happy 7th “Gotcha Day” to our best bud, Sully!

Happy Mother’s Day to my mom and all of the moms out there! Hope you had a great day! Thanks for all you do!

Learned that WordPress recently announced a microblogging theme called “Blurt” that includes some features that can be found on other microblogging / social media websites, like Twitter / X, etc. I created a new site on WordPress.com to test it out and think it’s pretty nice. You …

Zeba and I went down to Newport a few days ago to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary! We had a great time!

Took the “Learn to Lead” course at Central Rock Gym today with Zeba! It was quite the challenge at times (and a bit nerve-wracking with those falls), but a lot of fun!

Apple Announces Tim Cook to Step Down as CEO; John Ternus to Take Over: Apple, in a press release on their “Newsroom” website: Apple announced that Tim Cook will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors and John Ternus, senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will become Apple’s next chief executive officer effective on September 1, …

Best wishes to everyone who is running the Boston Marathon today!

Happy Easter! I hope everybody had a great day!

My brother and his fiancée took the “Intro to Climbing” class at Central Rock Gym this evening and then joined Zeba and I for some climbing after! It was a great time! My brother even made it to the top of a route I had been working on for a few sessions!

Just found out that there’s a Saturday Night Live UK version that premiered last night (also executive produced by Lorne Michaels). I had no idea that was in the works!

Manton Reece, founder of Micro.blog and creator of new RSS reader app Inkwell, announced the release of a native Inkwell app for the Mac earlier today. If you’re interested in checking it out, the app is available for download directly from the link in his blog post. While I haven’t yet …

Apple announced the AirPods Max 2 earlier today via a press release on their “Newsroom” website: CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA - Apple today announced AirPods Max 2, bringing even better Active Noise Cancellation (ANC), elevated sound quality, and intelligent features to the iconic over-ear …

Zeba and I joined a local rock climbing gym today! We took both an “Intro to Climbing” and an “Intro to Ropes” class last week, did some climbing a couple of days later (after buying a day-pass), and then signed up for a membership today. There’s definitely a lot to …

Checked out the MacBook Neo in two separate Apple Stores that I happened to be near over the past several days. Though I only used it briefly, it seems well-built and not unlike the other MacBooks in the lineup. I definitely think this could be a great option for those who are looking for a good, …

Just watched the “Sebastian Maniscalco: New Lawyer” skit from yesterday’s episode of SNL. While Sebastian Maniscalco himself wasn’t in the skit, they did a great job of parodying him for the character!

Apple announced the iPhone 17e and the iPad Air M4 earlier today as part of the new product launch announcements that Tim Cook hinted at on X/Twitter last week. Looking forward to seeing what other announcements may come this week, leading up to Wednesday’s “Special Experience” for …

Said goodbye to our family’s chihuahua, Jessie, on Tuesday. He recently fainted and, after a trip to the emergency vet and then a follow-up appointment with the primary care vet, we learned that he had a large mass in his chest - almost certainly cancer - that was likely the cause of the …

Just watched a few minutes of “Shrinking”, which Zeba was watching on Apple TV. It stars Jason Segal, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, and others and, while I didn’t watch all that much, it seems like a pretty good show!

For any Old School RuneScape fans out there, the OSRS team recently announced a 25th anniversary mechanical keyboard, made in collaboration with Starforge Systems, that’s currently available for pre-order. It looks pretty cool!

Interesting NYT Connections puzzle (#972) today! Took me a few tries, but I got through it! Connections Puzzle #972 🟩🟩🟩🟪 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟦🟨🟨🟨 🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦

Came across this video that was posted to the “Redbull Bike” YouTube channel where 9 cyclists were able to launch a glider by towing it from their bikes. Pretty cool stuff!

Realized today that, as of iOS 26.2, users can set alarms for reminders in Apple’s stock “Reminders” app. Not sure if I heard about this before and forgot, but it’s definitely good to know as someone who regularly uses the stock “Reminders” app across my Apple …

Apple Announces Updated AirTag: On Monday, January 26th, Apple announced a new version of the AirTag, which is the first update that the tracker has received since its launch in 2021. According to a press release on the Apple Newsroom website, the new AirTag features Apple’s second-generation Ultra Wideband chip, which is …

I know I’m a bit late on posting about this, but we got quite a bit of snow over the weekend - around 17 inches or so! Definitely thankful that we have a snowblower, that’s for sure!

Congratulations to the New England Patriots on winning the AFC Championship! On to Super Bowl LX!

Got some snow last night! Thought it made for a nice photo of our backyard!

Just watched the first two episodes of season two of “The Pitt” and thought they were great! Looking forward to the next one!

Apple Announces Chase to Become New Apple Card Issuer: In a post on the Apple Newsroom website last week, Apple announced that Chase has been selected as the new issuer of Apple Card, which is currently issued through a partnership with Goldman Sachs. Today, Apple and Chase announced that Chase will become the new issuer of Apple Card, with an expected …

Took a short trip to Colorado this past weekend to celebrate Zeba’s grandmother’s 95th birthday! Grateful to have been able to join and celebrate with Zeba, her grandmother, and her aunt and uncle!

A belated Happy New Year to all! Hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2026!

Dropped my sister off at the airport this morning and then met up with my uncle for breakfast. We went to Harry’s All American Breakfast in West Roxbury, where I had the chicken and waffle with fruit on top. It was pretty good!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a great day!

Merry Christmas Eve! Just came across this great version of “O Come All Ye Faithful” by Charles Cornell on YouTube! Check it out!

Had our leaves picked up this morning (and there were quite a few of them)! It took three people around two hours or so to do the cleanup - and that was with professional equipment! We’ve done it outselves a time or two in the past, but for the past several years we’ve been hiring …

Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros. for $82.7 Billion: From a press release on Netflix’s “News” website: HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Dec. 5, 2025 – Today, Netflix, Inc. (the Company) and Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Netflix will acquire Warner Bros., including its …

Apple Announces More Leadership Changes: In a press release on Apple’s Newsroom website, the company announced some additional changes to the organization’s executive team: Apple today announced that Jennifer Newstead will become Apple’s general counsel on March 1, 2026, following a transition of duties from Kate Adams, who …

Apple VP of Human Interface Design, Alan Dye, Leaving for Meta: Apple’s Vice President of Human Interface Design, Alan Dye, is reported to be leaving the company to join Meta as their Chief Design Officer. Juli Clover, writing at MacRumors.com: Dye is joining Meta as chief design officer on December 31, and he will help Meta in its efforts to further …

Twitch’s 2025 recaps recently became available! As a frequent Twitch viewer (and occasional streamer), it’s always interesting to see the stats regarding my Twitch usage. Here’s my 2025 Viewer Recap!

John Giannandrea to Retire from Apple: In a press release on their “Newsroom” webpage, Apple announced that John Giannandrea, Senior Vice President of Machine Learning and AI Strategy, is set to retire in the Spring of 2026: Apple today announced John Giannandrea, Apple’s senior vice president for Machine Learning and AI …

Earlier today I noticed that Best Buy is running a Cyber Monday deal on the iPad Mini 7 that makes it $50 cheaper than when I purchased it on Black Friday. Thankfully, Best Buy was able to offer a price-match so that I could get the Cyber Monday sale price. And it was all done over a live web chat, …

Bought an iPad Mini 7 at Best Buy on Black Friday, set it up yesterday, and today I finally got around to signing into some of the apps that I frequently use. While I’m generally not a huge Black Friday shopper, the iPad was $100 off, I happened to be up early (and Best Buy opened at 6:00 AM), …

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all those who celebrate! I hope everyone had a great day yesterday!

Congratulations to Robert Irwin and Witney Carson on winning the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy on Dancing with the Stars! While I’m not generally a big Dancing with the Stars fan, I am a fan of Robert Irwin and appreciate all that he does for wildlife conservation so I popped in when he and …

Nuketown, one of my favorite Call of Duty maps, was released for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 today. It was nice to see that there was also a new Nuketown 24/7 game mode, which I just played for a little while. While I certainly wasn’t the best player in the lobbies, I definitely enjoyed my time …

Eugen Rochko, Mastodon’s founder and CEO, announced on Tuesday, November 18th, that he is stepping down from his current role with the organization: After nearly 10 years, I am stepping down as the CEO of Mastodon and transferring my ownership of the trademark and other assets to the Mastodon …

The new Sailing skill launched in Old School RuneScape (one of my all-time favorite games) today! From the “News & Updates” section of the Old School RuneScape website: Sailing is Old School RuneScape’s 24th skill. There is no doubt that this is our largest single update to date – …

According to the Cloudflare Status website, it looks as though a fix has been deployed: Monitoring - A fix has been implemented and we believe the incident is now resolved. We are continuing to monitor for errors to ensure all services are back to normal. Nov 18, 2025 - 14:42 UTC

Looks like Cloudflare is experiencing a pretty widespread outage that’s affecting a number of websites at the moment. From an article by Les Pounder and Stephen Warwick on TomsHardware.com: In the last few minutes Cloudflare has confirmed it is aware of a major issue affecting its Global …

Played the new Call of Duty for a while and think it’s a pretty good game! That said, I definitely have some work to do as I didn’t fare so well in many of the matches that I played in.

Downloading and installing Call of Duty: Black Ops 7! It’s always interesting to see how large of a download it will be! I opted to skip the Co-Op Campaign and just download Multiplayer and Zombies and it’s still 93.20 GB!

WhatsApp Launches Apple Watch App: This past Tuesday, WhatsApp announced on their blog that they were launching a version of the popular messaging app for the Apple Watch. Today we are announcing a big upgrade for your wrist — the all-new WhatsApp app for your Apple Watch*. This new experience will help you stay on top of your chats …

Apple Releases iOS, iPadOS, and macOS 26.1: John Voorhees, writing for MacStories.net: If there’s a theme surrounding the 26.1 updates to Apple’s OSes, it’s that the company is listening to its users. Tinted Liquid Glass, the return of Slide Over, and the updates to the very niche Local Capture feature are all great examples of Apple’s …

Apple Launches Web Interface for App Store: Chance Miller, writing at 9to5Mac.com: Apple has launched a dramatic new web interface for the App Store. You can now get the full App Store experience right in your browser, with dedicated pages for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision, Watch, and TV app libraries. Previously, Apple’s “apps.apple.com” …

Checked out Activate Boston last night with my brother, his fiancée, and Zeba. It was a pretty neat place with a variety of mini-games to play. Depending on the game mode, you could either work together as a team or compete against each other to earn points.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We didn’t get many trick-or-treaters at our house this year, but I guess the upside to that is that we have a lot of leftover candy (that I probably shouldn’t be eating…).

I’m a bit late on posting about this, but it looks like the iPadOS 26.1 beta brings back Apple’s “Slide Over” multitasking feature. This is something that I frequently use on my iPad Mini so I was disappointed when I saw that it was removed in iPadOS 26. Here’s an …

I was listening to the MacBreak Weekly podcast the other day and heard Jason Snell mention an article from iFixit, where they put one of Apple’s new TechWoven cases through some durability tests. In short, the TechWoven cases seem to be more durable (and stain resistant) than the FineWoven …

Just bought a new iPhone case at the Apple Store using Apple’s self-checkout feature. Even though there are signs in-store that advertise self-checkout, it always feels a bit weird just scanning an item with your phone, paying using Apple Pay, and then just walking out.

Upgraded to the iPhone 17 Pro Max (1TB, Silver) yesterday at Apple Legacy Place. While restoring from my iCloud backup, the employees plugged my phone into a wired network connection via a USB-C Ethernet adapter. I wonder how much time it may have saved vs. restoring over WiFi.

Apple announced some pretty neat product updates during today’s event, including the AirPods Pro 3, Apple Watch SE 3, Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, iPhone 17, iPhone Air, and iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. For those who were unable to catch today’s event live, …

Realized that my first solo in an airplane was 7 years ago today. Time certainly does fly (pun intended)!

Discovered that Microsoft Edge has a built-in game called “Surf” today. I was prepping a laptop at work and, while it was downloading and installing Windows Updates, the update screen offered the opportunity to play the game! Here’s a link to the “Surf” webpage for …

Congratulations to Mr_Mammal on raising $63,850 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital during his 24-hour charity live stream! It was a great and entertaining stream that benefitted a great cause!

For those who play Old School RuneScape (and even those who don’t), Mr_Mammal is doing a 24-hour charity livestream today, with all proceeds benefitting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A great stream for a great cause! Here’s the link for those interested in checking it out …

Just discovered that Instagram allows users to upload multiple photos and/or videos to their Stories at one time. Not sure how long this has been a feature, but it definitely makes it easier than uploading them one-by-one!

Took my first two glider lessons of the season at Sugarbush Soaring today! It was great to see everyone and to get back up in a glider again!

My dad’s boat went in the water today! The winds were pretty strong, which made for some challenging moments, but it was a fun time overall! Here’s a link to an Instagram post with more photos.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms out there! Thank you for all that you do! I hope you have a great day!

My dad came over tonight and we fired up the grill for the first time this season!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day! Thank you to all of the educators out there who teach, inspire, and dedicate their lives to helping students achieve success everyday! I know it can be an exhausting and, at times, thankless job, but it’s essential work that really does make a difference! Thanks for …

Celebrated my cousin’s birthday at TopGolf earlier today and had a great time! That said, my golf skills could probably use a little work!

Started watching “The Pitt” on HBO Max last night and think it’s a great show! In fact, Zeba and I may have stayed up a bit too late watching it, as we kept wanting to watch another episode to see what happens next!

Had a great time in Boston with Zeba! Her and her cousin, Denyse, got to read their books at Beacon Hill Books & Cafe, which was pretty cool! Then, Zeba and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary in Boston. We stayed at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, checked out View Boston, and then took a …

Happy Easter! I hope everyone has a great day! Started the day off with a walk at Houghton’s Pond with my uncle and brother!

Remotely attended the “New England CFI/DPE Hybrid Seminar/Webinar” that was put on by the FAA Safety Team in partnership with SNHU this evening. The event consisted of a panel of DPEs who answered questions and provided insight into a variety of topics related to FAA practical tests, …

Did a check-out flight in the Piper Archer II today! It was great to get back up in the air after not flying for a little while!

Just had a quick bout of freezing rain roll through our area! Thankfully, it didn’t last too long, though!

Had a great time skiing at Steamboat Resort in Colorado with Zeba today!

Apple Reportedly Removing One-Time AppleCare+ Purchase Option: Mark Gurman, of Bloomberg, on Twitter: A notable change coming to AppleCare+ next week: Apple is dropping the 2-3 year pay in advance option at physical retail stores and on devices and will only offer monthly and annual subscriptions. You’ll still be able to get those multi-year plans on the …

It was windy today, so much so that our screen door, which wasn’t latched, took a bit of a beating! It ended up breaking such that it couldn’t fully close and latch anymore. Thankfully, my dad offered to come over and remove it so that it wouldn’t keep blowing open.

Had a great time in Vermont this past weekend! Despite the cold temperatures, we did some skiing at Sugarbush and had some great food at American Flatbread!

Apple's Severance Balloon Generator Promo: John Gruber, writing at DaringFireball.net: Another fun promo for Severance season 2. And a promo on Apple’s homepage featuring a computer made by another company. And a free in-universe book, The Lexington Letters, at Apple Books. It’s great to see the fun ways that Apple has been …

Welcome!: Hello and welcome to my new blog, hosted on Micro.blog! My name is Jamie McGibbon and I am a technology enthusiast based in Massachusetts, USA. I’ve been blogging in one form or another for a number of years, mainly about computers and technology on TechnicalCafe.com - a blog that I started in …