Today is September 1, 2026 — the day that John Ternus becomes CEO of Apple.

As you would assume, Apple has now updated its executives page with Ternus as CEO, along with a refreshed profile for him.

I wanted to note three narratives that I spotted in this profile that I think tell the story of the kind of CEO he wants to be, and how Apple wants to communicate this to us. All three of these are very interesting to me.

Sending lots of love to the Apple community on my last day as CEO. My title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude is endless, and I’m excited for the next chapter!

This followed an “internal” memo in which he wrote:

There is something truly special about Apple. I am most proud of what an annual report could never capture. This place is proof that culture triumphs over everything. We share a belief that what we build matters, and that we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to leave the world better than we found it. That purpose is part of what makes this place extraordinary. Apple helps nurture it, but I believe it lived within each of you long before you arrived here. It is what brought you to this company and what continues to drive the work you do every day. Together, we have created something far greater than any one of us could have imagined or accomplished alone. And that’s the secret to our success. We bring out the best in each other. We lift each other up. We have made it possible to leave our “dent in the universe,” as Steve once described it, because of who we are and what we believe, because of what we value and how we see the world. How fortunate we are. How fortunate I am.

This week, I’m joined by Stephen Hackett to talk about Tim Cook’s last day as CEO of Apple, Relay for St. Jude, everything we don’t know about next week’s event, and some favorite features in the OS 27 updates. All that runs out the clock before we have the chance to talk about static site generators.

I hope to return to hit that last topic.

(It turns out there have been several versions of this thing.)

That is basically the whole story here. For more hard-hitting Apple journalism, get subscribed.

The 4th-gen iPad shipped just seven months later. It kept the same heavier and thicker design, but the A6X inside was “up to twice the CPU performance and up to twice the graphics performance of the A5X chip,” and it showed. It smoothed out all the little hiccups its predecessor would show, other than those in the then-new Apple Maps.¹

The most exciting iPad news of 2012 wasn’t any of that. It was this little guy:

A New Era

The iPad mini launched alongside the 4th-gen iPad and totally stole the show. Here’s how Phil Schiller announced it on stage at the California Theatre in San Jose, standing in front of a video of an iPad 4 slowly turning to reveal the iPad mini behind it.

What else can we do to help customers find even more uses for iPad, to use it in places they never imagined and in manners they never have before?

It took a moment for the applause to die down after the iPad mini was fully revealed, then he continued:

I think we can tell by your excitement that you know what this is. This is iPad mini. And what can you do with an iPad mini that you can’t already do with the amazing 4th-generation iPad?

You can hold it in one hand.

The original iPad mini introduced a new industrial design that would later show up on the iPad Air, with thinner bezels on the long sides of the screen. On the Mini, the screen was 7.9 inches, the chassis was 7.2mm thick (which Schiller compared to a #2 pencil), and the device weighed just 0.68 pounds, a little less than half the heft of the full-sized iPad.

Before the iPad mini’s reveal, people debated what screen size and resolution Apple would use. Turns out, Apple used the iPad 2’s 1024x768 resolution, just on a smaller panel.

How did that work out? The answer is how John Gruber started his review:

“Wow, it feels like a Kindle.”

“Ew, the screen is terrible.”

That was my wife’s initial reaction when I handed her the iPad Mini to see what she, an avid daily user of an iPad 3, thought. Her initial reaction matched mine exactly, and perfectly encapsulates the experience. The iPad Mini is not a device you need to spend a lot of time with to understand. My snap reaction from a week ago remains unchanged after a week of daily use.

It’s really light and easy to hold one-handed. The hardware design — chamfered edges, less tapered back, metal rather than plastic buttons — strikes me as better, more elegant, than that of the full-size iPad 3/4. But it’s disappointing to go non-retina after using the retina iPad for the last seven months. All of the accolades and advantages of retina displays work in reverse. I adore the size and form factor of the iPad Mini, but I also adore the retina display on my full-size iPad. My ideal iPad would be a Mini with a retina display.

He continued:

The actual iPad Mini display is not terrible. It’s exactly what you think: it feels like an iPhone 3GS display cut to iPad size, including the fact that the pixels seem deeper from the surface of the glass. (It does seem brighter and more vibrant than a 3GS display, perhaps because it uses an IPS panel.) And after a week of using it as my main iPad, the individually discernible pixels are no longer jarring to my eyes. The non-retina resolution is the one and only significant complaint I have with the iPad Mini, and it’s an issue that is only apparent to those of us who already own a nearly-new iPad.

That meant the touch targets on the iPad mini were exactly the same size as pre-Retina iPhones — no sandpaper required.

The screen may not have been amazing, but I loved the size. Here’s a photo from my review of an iPhone 5, Kindle Paperwhite, iPad mini, and Moleskine notebook, all atop an iPad 3:

Evolution

The next year, the iPad mini got what everyone wanted: a Retina display, at a glorious 326 pixels per inch.

It also came with an updated bigger brother, the iPad Air, which was an amazing device in its own right.

As it turns out, they were less like siblings and more like twins, with basically identical specs. You simply chose your size.

In 2014, Apple revised the iPad mini again, adding Touch ID. However, it remained on the A7 processor, while the iPad Air 2 got bumped to the much more powerful A8. The Air 2 unlocked a new era of productivity for iPad users, and when iOS 9 shipped in 2015, the Mini 3 didn’t support Split View, which was a true bummer. The iPad mini 4 with an A8 was released the same month as iOS 9, but customers with year-old iPad minis were left out in the cold.

The Wilderness Years

The iPad mini 4 was on sale for four years, from September 2015 until March 2019. In that time, Apple released:

• The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus
• Several iMac updates
• The 4th-gen Apple TV
• The original 12.9-inch iPad Pro
• The iPhone SE
• The 9.7-inch iPad Pro
• The iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
• First-generation AirPods
• The Series 2 Apple Watch
• The original line of TouchBar MacBook Pros
• The 5th-gen iPad
• The 2nd-gen 12.9-inch iPad Pro and the 10.5-inch model
• More new iMacs
• Apple Watch Series 3
• The iPhone 8 lineup
• The iPhone X
• The 4K Apple TV
• My beloved iMac Pro
• The original HomePod
• The 6th-gen iPad, with Apple Pencil support
• Two more generations of the TouchBar MacBook Pros
• The iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max
• Series 4 Apple Watches
• The Retina (Intel) MacBook Air
• The space gray Mac mini
• iPad Pros with Face ID

It was a bleak time for iPad mini users.² Even some of the biggest fans of the small tablet lost faith.

For their waiting, Apple rewarded them with an updated iPad mini with the then-modern A12 Bionic and support for the first-generation Apple Pencil. For the first time in years, the iPad line made sense, from top to bottom:

Still, it was hard to shake the feeling that the iPad mini had been ignored — and even updated — for a reason. It just wasn’t the direction Apple saw the iPad going.

The iPad mini 4’s long life spans many of the years when Apple seemed to view the iPad as the future, with the Mac being the most lost it had been since the mid 1990s. With that worldview, it’s clear the iPad Pro and iPad Air were far more important than the Mini, with the no-adjective iPad key to getting people (and kids!) into the ecosystem. Besides, all those great iOS/iPadOS features Apple has been rolling out worked best on a larger display.

A New Lease on Life

In September 2021, Apple revised the iPad mini with its biggest update since adding the Retina display eight years earlier.

This iPad mini inherited years of advancement from its larger siblings. It was basically a smaller iPad Air, like it had been back in the glory days of the iPad mini 2.

This time around, it meant the iPad mini had flat sides, supported the second-generation Apple Pencil, included USB-C, and better supported iPadOS multitasking thanks to its larger 8.3-inch display. It was powered by the A15 Bionic, Apple’s flagship chip at the time.

Here’s what I wrote at the time:

It shouldn’t be surprising that this [update] is all about the form factor. Dating back to the original, the iPad mini has always been about size first, and this new industrial design suits it very well. Getting rid of the large bezels and moving to the new Touch ID makes this iPad portable in a new way. Coupled with a good set of speakers and USB-C, it’s a modern iPad in a small form factor.

Federico Viticci fell in love:

The new iPad mini owes much of its design and feature set to the fourth-generation iPad Air, which I reviewed last October and called the new baseline for a “portable, versatile computer for everyone”. Like the Air before, the mini does away with the classic, Home button-based design of the previous generation in favor of a variation of the iPad Pro design: it doesn’t have a physical Home button and comes with a Liquid Retina display. And, again, like the Air before, the mini doesn’t rely on Face ID for authentication but instead relies on a Touch ID button placed in the top right corner of the device (when used in portrait mode).

He went on:

In the iPad Air, you can see some traits of the Pro line trickle down to an affordable model that more people may consider as a lightweight laptop replacement. The iPad Air is a consumer tablet with iPad Pro aspirations: its display size is, effectively, equivalent to the 11” iPad Pro, and it even supports the same Magic Keyboard of its more expensive and performant relative. The new iPad mini has no such aspirations. Instead, the iPad mini flips the iPad Pro aesthetic on its head and asks: what if the iPad Pro’s industrial design, with its focus on gestures and the display, could also work in a tablet that is unashamedly portable and designed to be held at all times, rather than propped up on a keyboard?

I believe this is the crucial difference to understand between the iPad Air and new iPad mini.

In short, this was the iPad mini many people had been dreaming of, and it really delivered. It was a fantastic product, and Apple followed up three years later with a version powered by the A17 Pro. It was a year old by then, but it allowed the iPad mini to run Apple Intelligence… for whatever that was worth.

The Future

That is where the iPad mini stands today. Larger iPads now run atop Mac-class Apple silicon, but the mini is still a perfectly reasonable choice for those who want a small tablet.

It seems that the iPad mini is set to receive an update this fall. The new iPad mini is expected to ship with a larger 8.7-inch OLED display, a new SoC, and possibly increased water resistance, which would be a first for the iPad line.

This sounds like an excellent update, and one I will be tempted to check out personally.

However, as Yoda once said, there is another.

A Problem, Mostly Imagined?

The another, of course, is the folding iPhone.

The folding iPhone and iPad mini will have similarities.

If it’s anything like the Galaxy Z Fold 8 — and it probably is — when it is open, it is going to come in around 7.6 inches, corner-to-corner. That is awfully close to the original iPad mini’s size of 7.9 inches, but it still falls short of the current iPad mini’s 8.3 inches, let alone the rumored size increase coming.

The iPad mini going OLED will be a nice update, and while we haven’t seen what Apple is doing on the inside of the foldable, we know interior screens usually come with trade-offs in quality and durability.

The two devices will also be similar from the software perspective if the foldable can run two iPhone apps side by side on its interior screen. I don’t think we will see a full-blown iPadOS-like interface in there, but even two apps side-by-side will be enough for the multitaskers out there.

I also don’t think it matters all that much.

It is hard to imagine someone walking into an Apple Store unsure whether they want a folding iPhone or an iPad mini.³

As phones have gotten larger and iPadOS more complicated, the iPad mini has been squeezed from both sides, and nothing about that is changing this fall. A new iPad mini with an OLED display will be awesome for iPad mini users, but it’s probably not going to tempt people who want a foldable iPhone away.

Apple has seemingly overlapping products all over the place, with different trade-offs making sense for different people. A folding iPhone isn’t going to kill the iPad mini, just as the 15-inch MacBook Air hasn’t killed the base-model 14-inch MacBook Pro. Some folks want a high-end Series 11 Apple Watch, while others want an Apple Watch Ultra.⁴ Even with the differences between the iPad mini and folding iPhone, I suspect both will be just fine.

All of these questions will be answered on this week’s episode.

I am thrilled to announce Relay’s 8th annual fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Since 2019, the Relay community has given over $4.8 million to this life-saving work.

That number astounds me. When we started this, I expected to raise $75,000 in the first year. We cleared $315,000 that year, and it’s been more and more amazing every year since.

If you have followed along for any given amount of time, you know that in 2008, my wife Merri and I welcomed our first son into the world, and that just six months later, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He underwent a year and a half of treatment at St. Jude, which included chemotherapy, several surgeries, and an untold number of MRIs, appointments, and sleepless nights.

Through it all — and throughout the next 16 years of checkups and scans — St. Jude has never charged my family a dime, true to its word:

Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food. Because of your support, we can provide children cutting-edge treatments not covered by insurance. If a family has insurance, we will bill the insurance company, but no family ever receives a bill from St. Jude for care and no family is asked to pay St. Jude for co-pays or deductibles.

In the most stressful time of our lives, having to worry about paying for the care Josiah was receiving would have crushed us. Instead, we could focus on our son and his care.

This fall, Josiah turns 18 and is no longer the child he was when undergoing treatment. However, St. Jude continues to be part of our lives through programs like the St. Jude LIFE Study, which aims to understand the needs of long-term childhood cancer survivors. Even now, seventeen and a half years later, St. Jude continues to care for him and our family, and it’s that love we aim to reflect back through this campaign.

Go check it out. You can sign up to lead your own fundraiser. You can donate directly or give through a donor-advised fund. Your company likely has an employee-matching gift program; we have details about that on the campaign page as well.

I cannot wait to see what we can do together this year. Please join us.

Maxine Joselow has more at The New York Times:

The move could prevent residents from raising concerns about — or even learning about — data centers before permits are approved and construction starts.

Nearly 200 advocacy groups and more than a dozen states have voiced opposition to the change, making it the latest flashpoint in the national debate over the data centers powering the artificial intelligence boom.

“People need to have a chance to have a say before they see bulldozers,” said Keri Powell, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy group.

That’s not all, as Joselow continues:

The E.P.A. has also proposed another sweeping change that would let developers start building data centers before their permits are approved. And it has exempted the gas plants that fuel many data centers from limits on pollutants that cause acid rain.

Apple’s iPhone event is scheduled for September 9. Prepare thy wallet.

Apple’s Polishing Cloth is now just $9. It is unclear if this cloth is in any way different from what debuted five years ago for $19.

According to Apple, it is compatible with these products:

iPhones:

• iPhone Air
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone 17
• iPhone 17e
• iPhone 16 Pro
• iPhone 16 Pro Max
• iPhone 16
• iPhone 16 Plus
• iPhone 16e
• iPhone 15 Pro
• iPhone 15 Pro Max
• iPhone 15
• iPhone 15 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13
• iPhone SE (3rd generation)
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 11
• iPhone SE (2nd generation)
• iPhone XS
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone X
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone 6s
• iPhone 6s Plus
• iPhone 6
• iPhone 6 Plus
• iPhone SE (1st generation)
• iPhone 5s
• iPhone 5c
• iPhone 5

iPads:

• iPad Pro 13-inch (M5)
• iPad Pro 13-inch (M4)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (6th generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (M5)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (M4)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (4th generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation)
• iPad Pro 10.5-inch
• iPad Pro 9.7-inch
• iPad Air 13-inch (M4)
• iPad Air 11-inch (M4)
• iPad Air 13-inch (M3)
• iPad Air 11-inch (M3)
• iPad Air 13-inch (M2)
• iPad Air 11-inch (M2)
• iPad Air (5th generation)
• iPad Air (4th generation)
• iPad Air (3rd generation)
• iPad Air 2
• iPad Air (1st generation)
• iPad (A16)
• iPad (10th generation)
• iPad (9th generation)
• iPad (8th generation)
• iPad (7th generation)
• iPad (6th generation)
• iPad (5th generation)
• iPad mini (A17 Pro)
• iPad mini (6th generation)
• iPad mini (5th generation)
• iPad mini 4
• iPad mini 3
• iPad mini 2
• iPad mini (1st generation)

Macs:

• MacBook Neo
• MacBook Air (13-inch, M5)
• MacBook Air (15-inch, M5)
• MacBook Air (13‑inch, M4)
• MacBook Air (15‑inch, M4)
• MacBook Air (13-inch, M3)
• MacBook Air (15-inch, M3)
• MacBook Air (15-inch, M2)
• MacBook Air (13-inch, M2)
• MacBook Air (M1)
• MacBook Air (Retina, 13‑inch, 2020)
• MacBook Air (Retina, 13-inch, 2018–2019)
• MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015 – 2017)
• MacBook Pro (14-inch, M5 Pro or M5 Max)
• MacBook Pro (16-inch, M5 Pro or M5 Max)
• MacBook Pro (14-inch, M5)
• MacBook Pro (14‑inch, 2024)
• MacBook Pro (16‑inch, 2024)
• MacBook Pro (14‑inch, 2023)
• MacBook Pro (16‑inch, 2023)
• MacBook Pro (13‑inch, M2, 2022)
• MacBook Pro (14‑inch, 2021)
• MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)
• MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020)
• iMac (24‑inch, M4, 2024)
• iMac (24-inch, M3, 2023)
• iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021)
• iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5‑inch, 2019)
• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019–2020)
• iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014 - 2015)
• iMac Pro (2017)

Apple Watches:

• Apple Watch Ultra 3
• Apple Watch Ultra 2
• Apple Watch Ultra
• Apple Watch SE 3
• Apple Watch SE 2
• Apple Watch SE
• Apple Watch Series 11
• Apple Watch Series 10
• Apple Watch Series 9
• Apple Watch Series 8
• Apple Watch Series 7
• Apple Watch Series 6
• Apple Watch Series 5
• Apple Watch Series 4
• Apple Watch Series 3
• Apple Watch Series 2
• Apple Watch Series 1
• Apple Watch 1st generation

Displays:

• Studio Display (2026)
• Studio Display XDR
• Studio Display (2022)
• Pro Display XDR

In a bit of a late-August surprise while the world awaits word on the next generation of iPhones, on Tuesday Apple announced two new processors, the M5 Ultra and M6, which help power new iterations of its Mac Studio and Mac mini desktop computers.

Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro

The M6 is built with a new 2-nanometer process and comes with 12 CPU cores, up from the 10 found in the base M4 and M5. It packs six efficiency cores, four performance cores, and two super cores. Snell explains:

According to Apple, each core design is focused on a different primary task: efficiency cores are meant to sip power (useful when running simple background tasks); performance cores are optimized for complex, multi-threaded jobs; and super cores were created to offer the highest possible single-threaded performance.

The higher-end Mac mini is now powered by the M5 Pro. Both Mac mini models include Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6, 2.5Gb Ethernet (10Gb is an option), and both top out at 64 GB of unified memory. If you need 8 TB of storage, the M5 Pro is required.

Mac Studio with M5 Max & M5 Ultra

Since March of last year, the Mac Studio has been available with either an M4 Max or an M3 Ultra SoC, with RAM upgrade options dwindling over time.

No more! Now users can choose between the M5 Max previously seen in the MacBook Pro, or an all-new M5 Ultra. The former is available with an 18-core CPU and 32-core GPU or an 18-core CPU and 40-core GPU. The Ultra also comes in two variants: one with a 30-core CPU and 64-core GPU, and one with 36 CPU cores paired to 80 GPU cores. RAM tops out at 256 GB for the Max, with a 512 GB option coming in October for the Ultra.

The Ultra is something special, according to Apple:

M5 Ultra, the ultimate powerhouse for pro and AI workloads, uses next-generation UltraFusion technology to form a quad-die architecture for the first time in an M-series system on a chip (SoC).

You can get 16 TB of storage for a cool $7,500, but it requires the M5 Ultra.

Pricing & Avaibility

Because we’re in 2026, these new machines come with new starting prices:

• M6 Mac mini: $899 (+$100)
• M5 Pro Mac mini: $1,699 (+$100)
• M5 Max Mac Studio: $2,499 (unchanged)
• M5 Ultra Mac Studio: $5,499 (+$200)

These new prices are on top of Apple’s recently announced price increases. For comparison, the M4 Mac mini started at $499, while the M4 Max Mac Studio was initially sold for $1,999.

The new Mac mini and Mac Studio ship on September 22 and will both require macOS Golden Gate.

Today, 52% of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life – up from 37% in 2021. Another 9% are more excited than concerned and 37% say they’re equally excited and concerned, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted June 22-28, 2026.

Concern about AI for Americans over the age of 30 has been relatively stable, but not for people in their 20s and teens:

For the first time, a majority of adults under 30 (55%) now say they’re more concerned than excited about AI. About one-in-ten say they’re more excited than concerned, and roughly a third feel both equally. Their concern is now on par with those in their 30s and 40s, and those 65 and up.

Across age groups, about half or more say they’re more concerned than excited about AI. Excitement, in turn, has dropped off since 2021 among all age groups.

It’s incredible how badly AI companies have blown it from a PR perspective.

A bunch of future Apple hardware has leaked in a beta of macOS Tahoe. The guys go through the list and then consider the iPad mini’s place in the world and the UI changes coming with Golden Gate.

The auction page has more details:

Well-preserved and fully functional ‘Byte Shop’–style Apple-1 computer (also commonly known as the Apple I, or Apple Computer 1), complete with all components and accessories required for operation, housed in a unique Smith-Corona typewriter case modified to fit the Apple-1.

This remarkable Apple-1, marked “01-0066” on the reverse side in security marker, is a highly original 8K system from the second batch of 50 Apple-1 computers produced and sold. While the marking alone does not establish that the computer was originally sold directly by The Byte Shop, the system displays several important Byte Shop–style characteristics, including its stock-number marking, its 8K configuration, and its original Datanetics Rev D keyboard with custom wired Apple-1 cable—the same keyboard-and-cable arrangement seen on known Byte Shop Apple-1 systems.

The set includes:

• original Apple-1 board, marked with Byte Shop stock number “01-0066”
• original Apple Cassette Interface (ACI) board
• Smith-Corona Electra 120 Typewriter case (modified for Apple-1)
• Apple-1 Power supply (Stancor P8380, Radio Shack 273-1512)
• Datanetics Rev D keyboard with cable
• Pixe-Verter TV Video Modulator and cables
• Realistic CTR-34 shoebox style cassette player/recorder with cables
• Miscellaneous Apple-1 Cassette tapes
• Original Apple-1 Operation Manual, Early Release
• Original Apple-1 Operation Manual, Later Release
• Original Apple Cassette Interface Manual
• Original Apple-1 Preliminary Apple BASIC User’s Manual, Early Release
• Original Apple-1 Preliminary Apple BASIC User’s Manual, Later Release
• Correspondence from Apple Computer, signed by Applications Software Engineer Dana Reddington, dated October 1977
• Period Xerox copy of excerpt from WozPack related to floating point math functions
• Owner’s notes on Apple-1 operation

I am also in love with this iPod prototype:

NASA’s high-risk, high-reward attempt to save one of its space telescopes before it falls out of orbit has failed.

On Wednesday, NASA announced that a rescue spacecraft that was meant to grab onto the space agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and push it into a higher altitude will not proceed. With the rescue mission called off, Swift, which has observed distant, powerful explosions in the cosmos since 2004, is expected to burn up in the atmosphere later this year.

“This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting,” Jared Isaacman, the NASA administrator, said in a news release.

That rescue attempt was an uncrewed spacecraft built by Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies that would have pushed the telescope 100 miles further into space, giving it another decade of service.

Repeating to-dos just got far more flexible, with two highly requested improvements: You can now complete them early, and easily reschedule them when plans change!

It took a while, but I think they really nailed this.

This action is just one on a growing list of legislation fueled by pushback against AI data centers across the country.

This evening, the Memphis City Council acted on a year-long moratorium on new data centers.

It is not a done deal yet. If this passes, data centers already up and running will be allowed to continue operating under the agreement, but no new sites will be built — within city limits¹ — while leaders spend a year studying issues related to these projects.

You can see the whole document here, but this is the opening of the moratorium:

AN ORDINANCE DECLARING A TEMPORARY MORATORIUM ON THE ACCEPTANCE, PROCESSING, APPROVAL, AND ISSUANCE OF ZONING, LAND USE, BUILDING, AND OTHER ASSOCIATED INFRASTRUCTURE PERMITS FOR DATA CENTER DEVELOPMENTS WITHIN THE CITY OF MEMPHIS

WHEREAS, pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 13-7-201, the Memphis City Council possesses the authority to regulate land use, zoning, and development to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of its citizens; and WHEREAS, there has been substantial growth nationwide and throughout Tennessee in the development of large-scale data centers and high-density computing facilities supporting cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital storage, cryptocurrency operations, and other advanced computing technologies; and

WHEREAS, modern data centers differ significantly from traditional commercial and industrial developments because they require exceptionally high electrical loads, extensive backup generation systems, electrical substations, battery storage systems, mechanical cooling equipment, water resources, telecommunications infrastructure, and continuous twenty-four-hour operations; and

WHEREAS, these facilities may generate impacts relating to electrical infrastructure capacity, water consumption, wastewater management, stormwater runoff, emergency services, traffic, lighting, vibration, noise, air quality, fuel storage, public utilities, and surrounding neighborhoods; and WHEREAS, the Memphis and Shelby County Unified Development Code’s current zoning regulations do not specifically classify or comprehensively regulate data center developments as a distinct land use and therefore do not adequately address their unique operational characteristics or community impacts; and

WHEREAS, the Memphis City Council finds that additional study is necessary before permitting additional data center developments to ensure that appropriate zoning classifications, siting standards, buffering requirements, operational standards, utility protections, and environmental safeguards are established; and

WHEREAS, the Memphis City Council further finds that a temporary moratorium is necessary to prevent applications from vesting under existing regulations while permanent zoning amendments are developed.

MACROHARD is SpaceXAI’s Colossus 2 data center, which Elon Musk said got its name from “a funny reference to Microsoft.” Nearby sit two more sites: Minihard and Macrohardrr Image via the SELC.

Immediately after hearing comments from citizens — many of whom were holding signs affirming the moratorium — the City Council meeting was adjourned in all of about eight seconds.

The meeting took place after the moratorium passed committee earlier today. That committee vote was the first step toward the document being adopted, as Samuel Hardiman explains:

The moratorium passed a City Council committee Tuesday. It was added to the body’s full meeting agenda and passed first reading later Tuesday afternoon.

A Memphis ordinance requires three readings to pass, meaning it would likely be weeks before any moratorium would take effect. Its legality also could be questioned.

The document’s first reading took place at nearly the same time the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, the Mid-South’s “primary economic development organization,” published a letter against the move.

Since working to recruit xAI to Memphis in 2024, the Chamber has supported the numerous data centers that have popped up in and around the city, even as public sentiment has shifted.² This letter is nothing short of doubling down.

The Chamber posted its letter on Instagram and other social media sites. It is not on the organization’s press release page or blog, so I’m going to block quote the whole thing here:

A Statement from the Greater Memphis Chamber:

The Greater Memphis Chamber believes Memphis is uniquely positioned to lead the nation in responsibly hosting the data center industry, and we are committed to leveraging that position for lasting community benefit.

Across the country, communities are closing their doors to data centers, often because they lack the power infrastructure, water capacity, or logistical footprint to support them. Memphis has all three. That reality is not a vulnerability. It is leverage, and it is leverage the Chamber intends to use on behalf of this community.

A moratorium surrenders that leverage at precisely the moment when Memphis’s competitive position has never been stronger. The concerns being raised deserve substantive answers, and those answers exist within the reputable regulatory agencies and partners whose expertise, data, and oversight are available to any Council member who requests them. Council members have direct access to those agencies, and the Chamber encourages them to engage those experts directly.

The better path is not to close the door. It is to stay at the table and negotiate harder. The Chamber is committed to working with our regulatory partners and industry to ensure that every data center investment in Memphis delivers sustainable, long-term value to our entire community, not just one-time capital dollars, but lasting infrastructure, workforce, and community benefits that outlast any single project.

The Chamber urges the City Council to vote NO on the proposed moratorium and to keep Memphis open for business at a moment when our competitive advantage has never been greater.

Of note, most of the “sustainable, long-term value to our entire community” and “lasting infrastructure, workforce, and community benefits” promised by SpaceXAI have not materialized, at least in the way they were originally pitched. We will see if the newest promise comes to pass.

After today, I am hopeful that the City Council will press pause on this mess for a year and spend the time working through the 17 items the moratorium lists as areas of study:

1. Appropriate zoning districts and permitted locations;
2. Classification of data centers by size, electrical demand, and operational intensity;
3. Minimum separation distances and buffering from residential neighborhoods, schools, parks, hospitals, greenways, and other sensitive land uses;
4. Noise mitigation standards, including operational sound limits and acoustic studies;
5. Water consumption, cooling technologies, and conservation measures;
6. Wastewater discharge requirements;
7. Stormwater management standards;
8. Lighting and visual screening requirements;
9. Emergency access and fire protection requirements;
10. Backup generator operations and fuel storage;
11. Electrical infrastructure impacts, including substations and transmission improvements;
12. Allocation of infrastructure costs to developers to ensure public utility customers are not responsible for costs attributable to new high-demand facilities;
13. Traffic impacts during construction and operation;
14. Environmental sustainability measures;
15. Public notification and community engagement requirements;
16. Potential capital expenditure fund for the benefit of the City of Memphis;
17. Any additional development standards necessary to ensure compatibility with surrounding land uses.

The right time to study these issues was before ground was broken on the first Memphis data center; the next best time is now, as this quote to Kailynn Johnson writes at The Memphis Flyer points out:

Environmental advocacy group Protect Our Aquifer (POA) welcomed a proposed pause on data center construction in Memphis. Though they said this decision would not “close or reverse” existing facilities, the moratorium would give the city the opportunity to put protections in place for community members.

“A pause is not a verdict on this industry,” POA said. “It is 12 months to write the rules that should have existed for over two years.”

Myke Hurley, marking the 12th anniversary of our company:

The versions of myself and Stephen who started this podcast network in 2014 feel incredibly different to me. We’ve learned a lot, changed a lot, adapted a lot, and sought new opportunities along the way.

I kind of feel like our personal journeys have mirrored Relay’s journey. There have been ebbs and flows in our business, as we have attempted to adapt and shift towards what we think the audience wants from us, what the business needs, and where we want to take things.

I would say the last few years have been intentionally peaceful. We have allowed the business to be in a place of stability. We have not sought out new shows in the numbers we had previously, and have instead been focused more on maintaining what we have.

I like how Myke put this: in many ways, the past few years feel more intentional than ever. It’s not that we were flying by the seat of our pants in the past; we rely on the growing wisdom we’ve gained over the years to have a better idea of what we want out of Relay.

It’s amazing to me that we’ve been doing this for 12 years. We’re lucky to work with the best people in the industry, making the type of content we want to listen to. Throw in the nearly $5 million the Relay community has raised for St. Jude, and we’re talking about our legacies. For being just 40 years old, that feels pretty dang special.

Like before, hovering over the “stoplight” controls with the cursor reveals the close, minimize, and junk drawer that has become the former maximize button.

Tahoe is on the left; Golden Gate Beta 6 is on the right:

(Trying to line up screenshots between a MacBook Neo and a MacBook Pro using a Pro Display XDR was …fun. Click the image to enlarge it.)

Apple has moved away from the solid colors it has used since Yosemite, applying Liquid Glass to one of the most fundamental parts of the macOS interface.

Over the last year, people have joked that Liquid Glass is a bad ripoff of the original Aqua. I haven’t really bought into that, but these window controls certainly echo the past. Here’s a screenshot from Mac OS X 10.1 Puma:

I like the whimsy in these new window controls, and from what I have already seen online, I’m not alone.

But I don’t immediately love everything Apple has done here.

The new controls strike me as too bright, particularly in dark mode:

Why does each traffic light have highlights at the top and bottom when the rest of the items in the toolbar don’t?

These highlights make the icons look slightly oval, and the reflections don’t really make sense if these are supposed to be little pieces of glass.

Previous background windows were far less distracting, as they should be. At the very least, background windows should drop the highlights.

It’s akin to the highlights Apple puts on the edges of Home Screen widgets and folders on iOS 26, but somehow makes even less sense here.¹

I would like to see the color turned up on the controls for the active window. The new ones are the least saturated stoplights macOS has ever had.

In a post on Mastodon, Jeff Nadeau shared an animation in which the selected control slightly animates:

I’m not sure how I feel about this one; a little movement here is unlike anything else in the macOS interface. I’m not sure that’s the right call.

The trick with whismy is using just the right amount of it, and I hope Apple works on this more before Golden Gate ships this fall.

Just for kicks, here’s how the stoplights have changed over time, looking at the Home folder:

Memphis, a city known nationwide for Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI’s data centers, may finally take legislative steps to pause data center development.

At its Aug. 18 committee meeting, the Memphis City Council is poised to discuss an ordinance that would declare, “a temporary moratorium on the acceptance, processing, approval, and issuance of zoning, land use, building, and other associated infrastructure permits for data center developments within the City of Memphis.”

It’s unclear at this point what this ordinance will entail exactly, but it has been filed as “a temporary moratorium on the acceptance, processing, approval, and issuance of zoning, land use, building, and other associated infrastructure permits for data center developments within the City of Memphis.” The current zoning code doesn’t address data centers.