Both of us did something a little unusual this month: we both walked away with the MacBook Air M5. Tom grabbed the 15-inch for work, Jeff picked up the Midnight Blue 13-inch — and after a couple weeks of use, we've got a lot to say about battery life, setup philosophy, and one genuinely weird bug.

This week we cover:

• Jeff's "only install what you actually need" setup approach — and why it's working brilliantly
• Tom's mysterious MacBook Air lockup issue, and the macOS 26.4 bug that turned out to be the culprit
• Jeff's Studio Display needed a reset — turns out it runs a full iOS-based OS, and a simple unplug trick fixes a lot
• The Canvas (not Canva!) ransomware hack that hit 9,000+ schools right during finals week
• Apple shoots a live MLS game entirely on iPhone 17 Pro — sports history, or marketing stunt?
• Apple Card's "free" AirPods Pro 3 promo: the catch hiding in the fine print
• Kansas City Public Schools replacing 30,000 Windows PCs and Chromebooks with Apple devices
• Apple Sports app now covers the World Cup
• Field Notes Explore America notebooks: Tom has a new problem

Links from the show:

• Buy Jeff's MacBook Pro M2: https://swappa.com/listing/view/LAFC35203
• Field Notes Explore America: fieldnotesbrand.com/products/explore-america
• Apple TV + iPhone 17 Pro MLS broadcast: apple.com/newsroom
• Sign up for Tom's newsletter: tomfanderson.com

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.

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

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.

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.