This week, we cover Apple’s latest hardware announcements: the iPhone 17e adds MagSafe and doubles base storage to 256 GB for $599, while the iPad Air gains improved performance from the M4 chip and 12 GB of RAM. With 1Password raising prices, Adam Engst compares it with Apple’s free Passwords app and explains why he’s sticking with 1Password—though you may decide differently. Suman Chakrabarti’s experience reviving a 2017 Brother printer offers practical advice for anyone helping others resurrect donated or legacy hardware: use the simplest connection type available when the device was new. Adam wraps up the issue with an exploration of how it can be helpful to think of reading as training your internal large language model rather than filling a database, offering a freeing perspective on why we consume information. Finally, we link to Adam’s conversation with John Gruber about iOS 26 interface quirks on The Talk Show. Notable Mac app releases this week include DEVONthink 4.2.1, Quicken Classic 8.5, ScreenFloat 2.3.5, and Tinderbox 11.6.
The iPhone 17e brings MagSafe to Apple’s entry-level iPhone, doubles base-level storage to 256 GB, and adds the A19 chip, but the iPhone 17 may still be the better value.
Apple’s new iPad Air features the M4 chip, 12 GB of unified memory (up from 8 GB), and the N1 and C1X connectivity chips for Wi-Fi 7 and faster cellular. Prices remain unchanged at $599 and $799.
1Password is raising prices for the first time in ten years. With Apple’s free Passwords app maturing into a capable alternative, is it finally time to consider switching—or do 1Password’s features still justify its cost?
Network connections like Wi-Fi and Ethernet don’t always work well for low-level tasks, such as installing firmware updates. Guest author Suman Chakrabarti had to ditch wireless entirely and return to the device’s simplest connection method—a USB 2.0 cable—to resurrect a nearly decade-old laser printer.
Many of us think of reading as building a mental database we can query later. But we forget most of what we read. A better analogy? Reading trains our internal large language models, reshaping how we think without providing accurate recall.
Watchlist
Adds support for mirroring DEVONthink reminders to Apple's Reminders. ($99 new, free update, 87.6 MB, macOS 13+)
Brings a variety of improvements to the financial management app. ($77.88/$101.88/$143.88 annual subscription, free update, 3.2 MB, macOS 12+)
Makes improvements to the screen capture tool's searching in the Shots Browser. ($17.99 new, free update, 33.7 MB, macOS 12.3+)
Adds integration with the Claude Code agentic coding tool. ($289 new, free update, 37.3 MB, macOS 11+)
