This Week in the Labs — June 5, 2026

Welcome to This Week in the Labs, my Friday roundup of everything that happened in MacSparky Labs over the past week. Below you’ll find the week’s new videos and podcasts, a few of the conversations happening in the member community, what’s coming next week, and a note on whatever I’m currently chewing on. If you’re a Labs member, consider this your week at a glance. If you’re not, it’s a peek at what you’re missing. (Note: the below links are directly into the Labs community and will only work for members. If you’re a member and not in the Circle community yet, drop me a note.)

The Week’s Releases

WWDC Week in the Labs

Announcement · June 2 · all tiers
We’re spending WWDC week together. I’ll be in the Circle chat room for the live keynote on Monday, there’s a Labs meetup Wednesday to talk through the announcements, and a Pathfinder deep dive on the new betas later in the week.

I Did a Thing

Video · June 2 · all tiers
I bought something. I spent a year talking myself out of it, and then I did it anyway. Members got the full confession this week. That’s all I’m going to say about that, for now.

Labs Book Club: The Creative Act

Announcement · June 3 · all tiers
The votes are in. Our July Book Club pick is The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, and we’re meeting Thursday, July 30 at noon Pacific to talk it through. That’s plenty of time to read along, so grab a copy and join us.

Deep Dive: Accessibility Features Everyone Should Know

Deep Dive · June 4 · Pathfinder
Apple’s Accessibility menu has some genuinely useful tools that most people walk right past. I covered the Accessibility Shortcut, Back Tap, AssistiveTouch, Voice Control with a full live demo, the new Accessibility Reader in iOS 26, and more.

The Lab Report for June 5, 2026

Podcast · June 5 · all tiers
This week’s Apple news and rumors, with WWDC days away. The last read on the rumor mill before Apple takes the stage.

In the Community

HTML Report — Robot Message Board
A member built a fully linked HTML report from about 1,350 NotePlan files using Cowork — pulling from a SQLite database and embeds — in roughly 20 minutes. The file links open directly in NotePlan. The thread drew a lot of interest from folks curious about the workflow and what else it could be adapted for.

Non-compliance / Flakiness / Verbosity? — Robot Message Board
One member raised a real question about the long-term durability of skill-based Cowork workflows: are code implementations more stable than skill references, especially as models update? It sparked a good back-and-forth about how to build Cowork setups that hold up over time.

existing cowork projects transfer? — Robot Message Board
A new member who bought the Robot Field Guide hit a practical snag: they already had Cowork projects spread across iCloud — outside Obsidian entirely — and wasn’t sure how to bridge the gap without starting over. Helpful discussion for anyone who came to the Field Guide mid-stream.

If you’re a Labs member and haven’t joined the Circle community yet, let me know and I’ll get you set up.

Coming Up

Next week is the WWDC extravaganza!

From My Desk

WWDC is Monday, and I’m in full pre-keynote mode. I have opinions about what Apple should do with AI this year, but I’ve learned to hold those until we see what they actually do. If you’re a Labs member, come hang out in the chat room during the keynote. Watching it with friends beats watching it alone.

Also, behind the scenes this week, my robot assistant and I have been moving the Lab Report back catalog into the Circle community archive. Years of episodes, all landing in one searchable place. We’re not done yet, but it’s the kind of tedious job I never would have attempted before the robots showed up.

Links of Interest

The videos, podcasts, and live sessions above are inside MacSparky Labs. Join at macsparky.com/join.