Six ColorsModify

2025-12-16 07:08:37

We discuss what laptops Apple is expected to release in 2026, Apple’s AI parsing of podcasts, that time Jason didn’t really almost work for Apple, and weird snacks.

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2025-12-16 00:30:42

Siri can be frustrating. And we know from the most recent Apple financials call that Tim “This is Tim” Cook thinks so, too, even if he would intentionally not state that. While Siri doesn’t always know what you want or how to do it, people’s feathers get ruffled when it refuses to understand their name or that of people around them or with whom they refer to all the time.¹

Six Colors reader Jackson wrote in with such a situation (and I received permission to share his and his partner’s name):

I have a partner with an uncommon spelling of a common name. Caryn is pronounced like Karen. Routinely my various devices will tell me I don’t have someone by that name in my contacts when I try to tell Siri to call or message her. The extra frustrating thing is that the text display of my input reads “Caryn” and it works if I repeat her full name.

I’ve gone into the contacts in added in the “Pronunciation First Name” field and filled it in with Karen but that doesn’t seem to have made a noticeable improvement. But there are also fields in there like “Phonetic first name” or “Nickname.” That’s three types of fields and I’m not sure if any of them would solve my problem or if I’m using them right when I do it.

I can fully understand why you would not know how to proceed, because Apple doesn’t provide guidance within the app or online about the phonetic and pronunciation fields, nor how to solve this name problem. The three fields each serve a different purpose:

• Pronunciation First Name: This field tells Siri how to say the name. So if you had a contact with the Irish name “Eòghann” and Siri might say “Eh-oh-guh-hann.” The name is often pronounced like “Owen” or “Ewan.” Using Pronunciation First Name, you can enter that anglicized version if Siri isn’t getting it right. With Caryn/Karen, the pronunciation seems to be the same, so this field won’t help. (You can also add last name pronunciation guidance.)
• Phonetic First Name: Here’s where you should enter “Karen”—no special phonetic symbols required (or, perhaps, accepted). (You can also add middle and last name phonetic details.)
• Nickname: Nickname can work as well, as adding “Karen” to a “Caryn” entry will provide a match. However, Siri might then use “Karen” in text onscreen when it refers to “Caryn”!

You can add any of these fields (and a number of others) by opening Phone or Contacts, selecting an entry, tapping Edit, and tapping “add field.”

I had several Karens and even a Carren in my address book. I added a “Caryn” with my phone number, and told Siri to “call Karen.” It showed all the Karens and Carren, but not Caryn. I then added “Karen” as Phonetic First Name, tried again, and it suggested Caryn as the first match! (See figure.)

One hopes that Future Siri will be able to deal with the vagaries of spelling names, given that it’s a critical component of what Siri should be able to recognize.

[For more about Siri, consult Scholle McFarland’s book, Take Control of Siri.]

[Got a question for the column? You can email [email protected] or use /glenn in our subscriber-only Discord community.]

2025-12-13 05:45:30

Wrapping things up for the calendar year, Apple has released its final OS 26.2 updates for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Perhaps the biggest changes are on the iPad, which has added a bunch of new ways to multitask using the Dock, including to create/change a Slide Over app and dragging app icons to automatically have them fill half of the screen.

Other new features include more customization of the time in the iOS lock screen, a new method to grant AirDrop permission via a numerical code, and a new “Edge Light” on macOS that places a white ring on your display to increase the overall brightness when you’re on a video call.

2025-12-13 02:30:07

My thanks to Coherence X5 for sponsoring Six Colors this week.

Turning websites into Mac apps isn’t a new idea, but for years it’s come with tradeoffs. Safari web apps are limited. Electron apps are heavy. And most “site-specific browser” tools stop short of feeling truly native.

Coherence X5 takes a different approach. It’s a Chrome-based app builder for macOS that turns any website into a clean, isolated Mac app—all while keeping the full power of Chrome extensions, profiles, and modern web compatibility. It supports Chrome, Brave, Edge, Chromium, and even Ungoogled Chromium, giving you flexibility without lock-in.

What makes Coherence X5 special is how native it feels. With a redesigned creation tool built for macOS 26 and Liquid Glass, creating apps is fast and intuitive. And the all-new Coherence Extension brings real Mac behavior to Chrome-powered apps: restoring windows from the Dock, intelligently blocking rogue popups, forwarding links to your default browser when appropriate, and remembering where you left off between launches.

If you want the flexibility of the modern web – without living in browser tabs or slow electron apps – Coherence X5 turns websites into Mac apps that finally feel like they belong on macOS.

Six Colors readers can get 20% off Coherence X5 this week with the code SIXCOLORS. Learn more and download at bzgapps.com/coherence

2025-12-12 08:18:21

Bob Iger burnishes his legacy by… making a deal with OpenAI? Also, TV picks and a Listener Letter Challenge! (Downstream+ subscribers also get to hear us talk at length about the potential Netflix purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery.)

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2025-12-11 03:58:46

The worst Apple platform features of the year, the tech gifts we’re buying for our family, Bluetooth’s Auracast feature, and the emoji we desperately need.

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