Joe Kissel joins Chuck to discuss Take Control of Tahoe and the newly updated Mac Basics. They explore Apple’s sweeping design overhaul with Liquid Glass, debate its real-world impact on usability, and explain how Apple’s expanding app ecosystem demands frequent book updates. Joe shares insight into balancing depth, clarity, and adaptation to ever-changing macOS updates.
Lee Garrett, owner of ScreenCastsOnline, shares how he took over from founder Don McAllister, maintained quality, and evolved the platform’s content strategy. From balancing app and OS coverage to expanding on YouTube, Garrett explains his approach, future goals, and dedication to community while keeping the service’s educational mission strong.
Roman Kaplun and Oleksandr “Sasha” Kravchuk from MacPaw unveil Cloud Cleanup, a new CleanMyMac feature designed to help users manage and optimize cloud storage across iCloud, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Using native macOS APIs, it ensures privacy by never accessing login credentials directly and working entirely on-device. Cloud Cleanup can unsync local files to free up Mac space or delete unnecessary items from the cloud to reduce storage costs. It integrates CleanMyMac’s familiar tools like Space Lens, offers user control before deletions, and plans to add Dropbox and additional connection options in future updates, with user feedback guiding development.
During a break at Macstock Conference and Expo, we had a chance to chat with Blair Mah and his daughter Jasmine about their first-time Macstock experiences. They highlight the diversity of attendees and presentation topics, the strong sense of community, and the high educational value of the sessions. From in-depth technical talks to practical tips, both found the event enriching and inspiring, and had one request for next year.
This MacVoices Live! episode unpacks Apple’s decision to drop FireWire support in macOS Tahoe, raising questions about how long legacy technologies should be supported and at what cost. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Jeff Gamet, Web Bixby, and Jim Rea debate whether practical considerations or corporate minimalism are driving such moves. The panel also address the EU’s exclusion from iPhone Live Activities, sparking discussion about regulatory overreach and global feature fragmentation. The episode wraps with a deep dive into a court ruling that permits AI models to be trained on copyrighted material if legally acquired, highlighting the murky boundaries between fair use, transformation, and infringement.
This MacVoices Live! panel delivers their reactions to Apple’s latest hardware, including the Mac Studio and MacBook Air with M4 chips, and debates the implications of Apple Intelligence delays. Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Marty Jencius, Jim Rea, and Web Bixby discuss AI integration, Siri improvements, and compare Apple’s contextual approach to other generative AI tools. There’s also a exploration of creative uses for AI-generated content, who is using it, and what for.
Joe Kissell is back with a new Take Control title that is just a little different. Mac Basics. Joe starts out by discussing why this book is needed, and some of the challenges of creating a basic book on such a mature and complex topic. Starting out with the physical characteristics, then going through what the user sees first, Joe discusses how he tries to touch on everything without the details becoming burdensome. (Part 1)
Chuck Joiner, David Ginsburg, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Guy Serle, Jim Rea, and Web Bixby re-look at bootable backups because one cloning software developer says the new version of the macOS has fixed a bug and that they work…sort of. The panel looks at a change in purchasing AppleCare that you need to be aware of, and how Apple TV+ and Godzilla got some respect at a recent awards event.
In the French Pavilion in Eureka Park at CES, EPSEED was showing their device that focuses on making remote work more secure. Kélian Bailet, Co-Founder and President, explained how they separate the work and personal systems to achieve corporate security, as well as why he is looking forward to it coming to the Mac platform.
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.
A bonus-sized MacVoices discussion resulted from a virtual visit to the Long Island Macintosh User Group. As with most user group discussions, we start out in one direction and then let the questions and conversation dictate what we cover. The starting point this time was the iPhone 16 and things went from there.
Our conversation with Jason Snell about the 4th edition of Take Control of Photos for Take Control Books wraps up with a look at the power of the Photos app for users of all skill levels. Enhancements such as Photographic styles change the game by providing more post-capture options than ever before. Jason also covers getting more out of our photos by printing or making custom books and projects, and how that has become more of a focus in the latest version of Photos. (Part 2)
Jason Snell has released the 4th edition of Take Control of Photos for Take Control Books to cover the most recent updates to the Photos app on all of Apple’s operating systems. Jason explains why Photos has undergone more of a redesign than an upgrade, utilizing machine learning to help you do more than ever before with your photos. Also more unified than ever is the interface across Mac, iPhone, and iPad which helps in overcoming the resistance to adopting new features. Jason touches on how the improved search capabilities and customizable collections enhance the user experience and utilization of photos.
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