Kelly Guimont returns to The Road to Macstock Conference and Expo to talk about her session on practical, privacy-conscious home automation. Starting from zero, she will help attendees make informed choices and avoid feeling overwhelmed, with real-life examples and insights drawn from years of experience. She also shares why MacStock remains a favorite event—thanks to its community, connection, and even the karaoke.
This MacVoices Live! discussion starts off with three essential public service announcements: a major recall of Anker PowerCore batteries, warnings about malicious unsubscribe links in emails, and serious privacy concerns surrounding Meta’s AI assistant. The panel of Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Jim Rea, Web Bixby, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, and Marty Jencius emphasizes the importance of staying alert to avoid real-world risks. Jim Ray then shares a developer-focused perspective on WWDC, highlighting SwiftUI upgrades, AI integration in Xcode, and Apple’s new foundation models. He also reflects on a week filled with events, developer camaraderie, and why WWDC 2025 might have been one of the best weeks of his life.
The Road to Macstock and Macstock Conference and Expo takes us to Jill McKinley, who previews her upcoming talk on how Apple’s ecosystem helped her lose weight and build a healthier lifestyle. She will explain how the Apple Watch, Fitness+, and apps like MyNetDiary and Todoist make tracking effortless, with reminders and data centralization driving consistency. In typical Jill fashion, her session will guide attendees through the full range of Apple’s health tools with small, sustainable steps.
The panel digs into the abrupt shutdown of the Arc browser and what it signals about user expectations and innovation fatigue in the browser space. Chuck Joiner, Dave Ginsburg, Jim Rea, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Eric Bolden, and Jeff Gamet explore Opera’s foray into agentic AI and how it could redefine how we interact with the web. A deep dive into Getty Images’ aggressive lawsuit against Stability AI sparks a broader conversation about copyright, content ownership, and AI ethics. Meta’s surprising move to open physical retail stores invites skepticism and speculation, while a T-Mobile privacy issue raises concerns over default screen recording in its app. The group also touches on new app store laws and a Victoria’s Secret cybersecurity incident, wrapping up with updates on MacStock and personal projects.
In a first for both The Road to Macstock and Macstock Conference and Expo itself, Marty Jencius and his son Will Jencius team up for a father-son presentation on travel tech, inspired by their podcast Gear Up and Go. They share how tech frustrations while traveling sparked the idea, how two generations bring different perspectives to gear choices, and what attendees can expect from their interactive, audience-involving session.
MacVoices 2024 Holiday Gift Guide #2 features picks and commentary by Mark Fuccio, Wally Cherwinski, and host Chuck Joiner. Some obvious picks, some surprises, and all great ideas. (Part 1)
Chuck Joiner, Dave Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Mark Fuccio, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, and Eric Bolden wrap up a MacVoices Live! discussion by looking at GM going all-in against CarPlay in favor of their own vehicle information/entertainment system and claiming the will achieve better integration. The conversation transitioned to a broader look at vehicle operating systems, as well as some of the fines that are being levied by other countries, whether they fit the offense, and if there was an offense at all.
Mike Schmitz, Bart Busschots, Marty Jencius, and host Chuck Joiner finish up the first MacVoices Gift Guide of 2024 with picks that go from apparel to hardware and software. (Part 2)
Our annual holiday gift guide series kicks off with picks from Mike Schmitz, Bart Busschots, Marty Jencius, and host Chuck Joiner, covering categories from audio to coffee and beyond. (Part 1)
The tech industry is a dynamic business segment. Dave Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, and Eric Bolden discuss Apple’s acquisition of Pixelmator and how it might affect both Apple-branded offerings as well as the legacy application. Then, layoffs at both Tidal and Dropbox are in the cross hairs. Tidal has been all but left out of the streaming music conversation, and Dropbox seems to have fumbled as they tried to diversify. The panel members have thoughts on both.
Jeff Carlson, the author of Take Control of Apple Watch, 5th edition, continues the discussion of some of the new capabilities of the latest Apple Watch and watchOS 11. The innovative check-in tool in Messages for notifying loved ones of safe arrivals, the benefits of the ultra-wideband chip for finding misplaced phones and the new offline Translate app for seamless communication while traveling highlight a discussion of those features.
Jeff Carlson has updated Take Control of Apple Watch to the 5th edition to cover Apple Watch 10, Apple Watch Ultra, and watchOS 11. The first part of our conversation covers his approach to the update and the contstant evolution of Apple’s products. Jeff shares insights on major updates, such as the enhanced Smart Stack widget and live activities integration, as well as advancements in health tracking, workout management, and notifications that streamline the user experience.
The idea of an Apple Vision Pro has been talked about as a way to make the device more affordable. Dave Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Web Bixby, Jim Rea, and Eric Bolden consider the implications of inking the Vision Pro to the iPhone for power and processing and how that would impact the user experience. Whether that would actually result in a significant cost savings is called into question, and the use cases it would and wouldn’t impact are discussed.
The discussion with Jeff Gamet on a recent edition of The Mac Show on The British Tech Network finishes off thoughts on the smart assistants we use before turning to why one of us uses Clipboard Managers extensively and one hasn’t found a reason to do so, in spite of the fact that he has one installed.
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