There's a lot happening in Apple land right now. Mac mini prices just went up, a Siri class action settlement might land in your inbox soon, and a fresh iOS 27 rumor has some good news for anyone who'd rather talk to Claude than ChatGPT. Tom and Jeff break it all down.

In this episode:

• Apple Notes tips: how search really works, Smart Folders, and ProNotes — a free plugin that brings markdown and slash commands to the Notes app
• Mac mini's base model is gone — the entry price jumps to $799, and Tim Cook says supply constraints won't recover for several months
• Apple Education Store now requires UNiDAYS verification, and Apple Watch just joined the discount program
• iOS 27 rumor: you may soon choose Claude or Gemini as your Apple Intelligence AI instead of ChatGPT
• Apple's $250M Siri lawsuit settlement — if you own an iPhone 15 Pro or 16 series, you might be owed $25–$95
• M5 MacBook Air first impressions: Jeff's testing one alongside his MacBook Pro — and Tom's university just ordered 100 of them

Links from the show:

• Apple Notes: Four Tips That Make Finding Things Effortless
• Four Fast Ways to Capture to Apple Notes
• ProNotes (free Apple Notes plugin)
• Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
• Playworld by Adam Ross

We'd be honored if you'd drop a 5-star rating for us on Apple Podcasts and/or Spotify!

Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!

Contact Us

• Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
• You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
• Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
• Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
• Tom has a new YouTube channel
• Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

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• Review on Apple Podcasts
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Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.

Big news out of Cupertino: Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO, with hardware engineering chief John Ternus set to take the helm this September. Tom and Jeff spend a few minutes on the transition — then welcome back guest Bill McLean for an honest, no-hype check-in on AI tools: what they're actually using, what's working, and where the marketing is writing checks the technology can't cash.

In this episode:

• The Tim Cook → John Ternus CEO handoff and what a hardware guy at the top might mean for Apple's software
• Which AI platforms Tom and Bill settled on, and why ChatGPT got dropped
• Claude Co-Work in real life: web scraping, YouTube analytics, and why you still have to babysit it
• The "dopamine hit" problem: why AI-generated ideas can kill your motivation to actually do the work
• How Bill replaced his Squarespace subscription using Claude Code with zero coding background
• Why context might be AI's real superpower and why Apple could have the biggest edge
• MCP integrations worth building: Readwise, Craft, Apple Reminders
• Why Claude projects and skills outperformed an Obsidian vault for real workflow results
• A must-read New Yorker profile on Sam Altman

Links from the show:

• Bill McLean on YouTube: youtube.com/@BillMcLean
• Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? - The New Yorker

Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!

Contact Us

• Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
• You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
• Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
• Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
• Tom has a new YouTube channel
• Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!

• Review on Apple Podcasts
• Rate on Spotify
• Recommend in Overcast

Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.

Tom and Jeff dig into why it's getting harder and harder to buy a Mac mini or Mac Studio in anything beyond a base configuration — and what that might mean about upcoming M5 refreshes. Plus, Jeff gives a six-month health update (he's at 92% and back on stage), and the guys get into a friendly debate about Amazon pulling the plug on pre-2012 Kindles. Is it reasonable after 14 years, or does it prove physical books always win? And they wrap up with four things to know about iOS 26.4.

Topics covered:

• Mac mini and Mac Studio availability issues and what's behind the long wait times
• MacBook Neo demand and Bill McLean's hands-on review
• Jeff's updated take on the BookTracker app
• Amazon deprecating pre-2012 Kindles — and what it means for your digital library
• The Libby app and library cards for free books
• Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary (Jeff's new obsession)
• iOS 26.4: keyboard accuracy improvements, Urgent Reminders update, Stolen Device Protection, and AI apps in CarPlay
• Resetting your keyboard dictionary after updating

Links from the show:

• BookTracker app: https://booktrack.app
• Libby app: https://libbyapp.com
• Bill McLean's MacBook Neo review
• Apple Talk newsletter (keyboard reset tip): https://www.tomfanderson.com/p/ios-26-4-iphone-keyboard-fix
• Merriam-Webster's Visual Dictionary

We’d be honored if you'd drop a 5-star rating for us on Apple Podcasts and/or Spotify!

Question or Comment? Send us a Text Message!

Contact Us

• Drop us a line at feedback@basicafshow.com
• You’ll find Jeff at @reyespoint on Threads and reyespoint.bsky.social on Bluesky
• Find Tom at @tomanderson on Threads
• Join Tom’s newsletter, Apple Talk, for more Apple coverage and tips & tricks.
• Tom has a new YouTube channel
• Show artwork by the great Randall Martin Design

Enjoy Basic AF? Leave a review or rating!

• Review on Apple Podcasts
• Rate on Spotify
• Recommend in Overcast

Intro Music: Psychokinetics - The Chosen

• Apple Music
• Spotify

Transcripts and some images are AI generated and may contain errors and general silliness.