Accidental Tech Podcast

680: A Lot of Holes in That Cheese

February 27, 2026

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  • The WatchOS 26 update has severely degraded the usability of the native Workout app to the point where one host is considering switching away from the Apple Watch platform. 
  • Despite Apple's move toward auto-save, many users, particularly developers accustomed to older workflows (like in TextMate or traditional file-based apps), still habitually use Command-S in applications like Xcode. 
  • IKEA has released new, very inexpensive Matter-over-Thread smart home sensors (KLIPPBOK, BILRESA, MYGGSPRAY) that are proving to be rock-solid alternatives to services like YoLink. 
  • The hosts extensively speculated on potential cost-cutting measures and feature restrictions for a rumored low-cost MacBook Pro, aiming to prevent cannibalization of the MacBook Air sales. 
  • Apple announced plans to begin manufacturing some Mac minis in the US, a move accompanied by a Wall Street Journal feature highlighting US high-tech manufacturing, including wafer production and the assembly of Apple's internal, unbranded AI servers. 
  • The hosts shared and critiqued their current iOS lock screens and home screens, revealing preferences for minimal lock screen customization (John), heavy use of weather widgets (Casey), and the continued use of legacy apps like Twitterific as 'tombstones' (John). 
  • The Apple Watch accessibility options for text size are significantly worse than the iPhone's, leading to a wish for a 'DisplayZoom' feature on larger Apple Watch models to simulate smaller screen layouts. 
  • John prefers the driving experience of the BMW i4 M50 electric vehicle over the Audi e-tron GT due to poor rear visibility in the Audi, but ultimately decided against purchasing it to prioritize family vacations. 
  • Desktop audio setups are highly personalized, with hosts favoring different solutions for podcasting (e.g., Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro, Sony MDR-7506) versus music listening (e.g., KEF speakers), and many modern digital speaker solutions like Sonos introduce latency and auto-sleep annoyances that passive setups avoid. 

Segments

Snowblower Woes and Gas Talk
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(00:00:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Stabilized gas like TruFuel allows small engines to remain functional after years of storage, contrasting with the short lifespan often attributed to regular gasoline.
  • Summary: The host experienced a snowblower failure due to running out of gas, leading to a discussion on the reliability of old gas. The host noted that his 25-year-old, poorly maintained two-cycle snowblower consistently runs after being fueled with stabilized gas that has sat unused for years. This challenges common assumptions about gasoline degradation, especially in low-usage equipment.
WatchOS 26 Workout App Disaster
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(00:06:12)
  • Key Takeaway: The WatchOS 26 update has made the native Workout app so hostile and unusable, featuring excessive promotional screens, that it is causing one host to seriously consider abandoning the Apple Watch platform.
  • Summary: Marco expressed extreme frustration with the new Workout app UI, citing multiple promotional interruptions before accessing the core function. The app requires users to tap a play button that appears only after an animation, rather than directly selecting the workout type as before. This experience is cited as a major factor in the host losing faith in Apple’s commitment to user-centric software design.
macOS Auto-Save vs. Manual Save
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(00:29:11)
  • Key Takeaway: Users can restore the traditional ‘Save As…’ behavior in macOS by disabling ‘Close windows when quitting an application’ in System Settings and manually assigning ⌘⇧S as the shortcut for ‘Save As…’ in Keyboard Shortcuts.
  • Summary: The discussion confirmed that Final Cut Pro X and Xcode operate with auto-save functionality, though some developers still manually hit Command-S out of habit or fear of data loss. Notepad++ on Windows offers an ideal hybrid model, saving unsaved edits locally without prompting on quit, but preserving the manual save model for file updates. A user provided the exact steps to revert to the classic ‘Save As…’ behavior on macOS.
Alternatives for Repeating Reminders
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(00:41:52)
  • Key Takeaway: For users needing Apple Reminders to repeat notifications every few minutes, the GoodTask application is recommended as a supercharger that utilizes the existing Reminders data.
  • Summary: While the DUE app is functional, GoodTask is suggested for users who want to enhance the native Reminders app with more robust, configurable repetition settings. One host is developing a custom, simple app using AI coding tools to achieve this specific functionality, as existing solutions like GoodTask felt too feature-heavy.
Apple March 4th Experience Rumors
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(00:49:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Apple’s March 4th ’experience’ in New York City is rumored to be the culmination of a multi-day press release schedule announcing a large backlog of products, including a low-cost MacBook, new MacBook Airs, and new displays.
  • Summary: The event is expected to be less of a keynote and more of a hands-on session following several days of product announcements via press release. The invitation colors suggest the launch of the rumored low-cost MacBook, potentially featuring significant hardware cuts to achieve a lower price point.
Low-Cost MacBook Speculation
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(00:52:42)
  • Key Takeaway: Past brainstorming suggested cutting Thunderbolt and implementing artificial segmentation, like limiting SSD size or features, to ensure the low-cost MacBook does not cannibalize MacBook Air sales.
  • Summary: The hosts recalled a prior thought experiment about features that could be cut from a cheaper laptop, including Thunderbolt ports. A key theory was that Apple might artificially segment the product to avoid cannibalizing the MacBook Air, potentially by restricting colors or storage options. One specific rumor mentioned was a maximum 1TB SSD limit, which aligns with segmentation strategies.
Low-Cost MacBook Color Rumors
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(00:55:03)
  • Key Takeaway: The invitation’s color spectrum suggests the new low-cost MacBook might launch in yellow, green, and blue, offering a more visible color palette than the current sky blue MacBook Air.
  • Summary: The speaker expressed excitement over rumors suggesting the low-cost MacBook will come in multiple colors. The event invitation, featuring a spectrum from yellow to green to blue, is interpreted as a hint for the available colors. This is contrasted with the current sky blue MacBook Air, which is sometimes difficult to perceive accurately.
12-inch MacBook Successor Hopes
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(00:56:42)
  • Key Takeaway: The 12-inch MacBook’s appeal lay in its impossibly thin and light form factor (2.0 lbs), a portability standard that the current MacBook Air (2.7 lbs) has not matched, leading to hope that the new low-cost model could fill this niche.
  • Summary: The 12-inch MacBook is remembered fondly for its delightful size and weight, despite its limitations like the keyboard and single USB-C port. The 12-inch model weighed 2.0 pounds, significantly less than the 13-inch MacBook Air at 2.7 pounds, and the hosts hope the new model prioritizes form factor over being merely a cheap, unremarkable machine.
Mac Mini US Manufacturing News
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(01:10:12)
  • Key Takeaway: Apple announced plans to bring Mac mini production to the US for the first time, while a Wall Street Journal video revealed Apple encourages suppliers like Global Wafers to source silicon wafers from Texas for its supply chain diversification.
  • Summary: Apple confirmed expanding factory operations in Houston to include Mac mini production, though the specific models are unknown. The accompanying WSJ video showed the analog process of creating silicon wafers in Texas by Global Wafers, a Taiwanese company. Apple is reportedly using its influence to ensure TSMC buys these Texas-made wafers before shipping them to Taiwan for chip fabrication.
Apple AI Server Glimpse
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(01:18:35)
  • Key Takeaway: A video showed Apple’s internal AI servers being assembled, appearing as utilitarian rack-mount units containing what looks like eight Ultra-class chips, confirming Apple manufactures its own hardware for private cloud compute.
  • Summary: The manufacturing video provided a rare look at Apple’s internal hardware, specifically servers labeled for AI workloads. These servers are not styled like the old Xserve but look like standard rack-mount systems, featuring what appears to be eight Ultra-class chips each. The hosts noted that Apple is expanding the manufacturing of these proprietary servers, which are not available for external purchase.
Hosts’ iOS Setup Deep Dive
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(01:25:09)
  • Key Takeaway: John maintains a minimalist lock screen with no widgets and a pure black home screen background, while Casey uses multiple weather widgets on both his lock screen and home screen, reflecting different approaches to information density.
  • Summary: John’s lock screen features a photo rotation of family and pets with opaque clock numerals and no widgets, prioritizing aesthetics over glanceable data. Casey utilizes a Carrot Weather forecast widget prominently on both his lock screen and home screen, despite rarely leaving the house, and keeps Twitterific in his dock as a memorial to the discontinued app.
DisplayZoom and Watch Accessibility
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(01:42:54)
  • Key Takeaway: The iPhone’s DisplayZoom feature, which simulates the layout of a smaller device, is a superior accessibility tool compared to the Apple Watch’s standard text size accessibility, which is described as ’terrible'.
  • Summary: DisplayZoom, introduced when screens got substantially bigger (like the iPhone 6), allows the entire display layout to scale down, which is more effective than just increasing text size via accessibility settings. The Apple Watch’s font size accessibility is poor because fewer elements utilize Dynamic Type APIs compared to the phone. A suggested accessibility improvement for large Apple Watches (Ultra/47mm) is implementing DisplayZoom to render the interface of a smaller model (like 41mm) blown up to the larger screen size.
Home Screen Follow-up and AT&T Turbo
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(01:43:45)
  • Key Takeaway: Casey’s current iPhone home screen is described as ‘boomer’ and largely stock, with Google Maps replacing Waze, and he uses Unread as a summary of all his unread communications.
  • Summary: Casey’s home screen features default Apple apps in the top rows, with Google Maps now used instead of Waze, and Apple Maps absent. He keeps a folder of games, including Threes and titles by Zach Gage, though he rarely plays them. The Unread RSS reader icon summarizes his unread phone calls, Slack messages, and texts, reflecting his current communication load.
Widget Size Wish and Travel Focus
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(01:48:16)
  • Key Takeaway: A desired widget size for iOS home screens is a 2x1 dimension, which would allow for more widgets to be used without consuming excessive vertical space.
  • Summary: John wishes for a 2x1 widget size, noting that current widgets are too large for his preference, especially since the smallest available size is 2x2. He points out that the lock screen offers double-wide slots that are about the size he desires for the home screen. He uses a custom travel Focus Mode home screen containing apps like Lyft, Uber, Delta, and the Flighty widget for easy access during trips.
App Icon Design Iteration
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(01:52:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Designing a custom app icon for a simple app like ‘Reminder’ (Marco’s app) can take significantly more time (four hours) than writing the actual application code (three hours).
  • Summary: Marco spent considerable time iterating on the icon for his app, ‘Reminder,’ trying to abstractly represent a list of overdue tasks (the red lines mimicking overdue deadlines in the native Reminders app). He noted that AI is poor at generating usable app icons, forcing him to manually iterate close to the original Apple design, which he worried might lead to App Store rejection.
Desktop Headphone and Speaker Setups
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(01:56:11)
  • Key Takeaway: Modern digital speakers like Sonos introduce latency and auto-sleep issues that make them frustrating for desktop use, leading some users to prefer traditional passive speakers powered by simple, always-on Class D amplifiers.
  • Summary: Casey uses AirPods Pro 3 or Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro 32 Ohm headphones at his desk, but prefers his Sonos Era 100 speakers with a Sub Mini for general listening, despite acknowledging potential latency issues. John exclusively uses Sony MDR-7506 headphones only when podcasting, as he rarely uses headphones otherwise. Marco uses the 250 Ohm Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro for podcasting, but prefers his KEF Q150/LSX II speakers for music, powered by a simple, always-on Class D amplifier to avoid digital audio delays and auto-sleep annoyances.
Audio Gear Deep Dive
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(02:00:55)
  • Key Takeaway: Marco uses EDT 1770D earpads (from the newer DT 1770 model) on his DT 770 headphones for improved comfort and sound quality, and still prefers his decade-old HiFiMan HE6 headphones for music over modern, more expensive flagships.
  • Summary: Marco found the stock DT 770 earcups uncomfortable due to their circular shape, but the EDT 1770D memory foam pleather pads provided a substantial upgrade for comfort and sound. He uses a Schiit Jotunheim 2 amplifier because it has sufficient power for his demanding HE6 headphones and offers convenient front-panel controls for switching inputs. John uses Kanto ORA4 speakers for their simplicity, as they connect directly via USB audio and remain constantly on, avoiding the startup delays common in network-connected speakers.
Casey’s Automotive Exploration Conclusion
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(02:15:49)
  • Key Takeaway: Casey found the BMW i4 M50 to be the ‘perfect electric car for me today’ due to its driving dynamics, but ultimately decided against the purchase, prioritizing family vacations over the expense of a non-essential vehicle.
  • Summary: Casey test-drove the BMW i4 M50 and confirmed his love for its performance, despite EV purists criticizing its 400V architecture, lower range, and lack of a frunk because it was based on an ICE chassis. He noted that his driving habits rarely exceed 60 miles of range, mitigating the range concerns. He concluded that spending the money on the car would be a ‘silly waste’ compared to using the funds for family experiences, though he acknowledged future BMW electric platforms (Neue Klasse) will likely offer substantial upgrades.