It’s week two of the new betas and we’re learning more in the MacSparky Labs.

Below you’ll find the week’s new videos and podcasts, a few of the conversations happening in the member community, and what’s coming next week. Most of those links lead straight into the Labs community on Circle, so they’ll only open if you’re a member. If you’re a Labs member who hasn’t set up your Circle access yet, send me a note and I’ll get you in. For members, this is your week at a glance. If you’re not one yet, it’s a peek at what you’re missing.

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The Week’s Releases

Testing Siri’s Enhanced Dictation

Video · June 15 · All Labs Members

Apple says Siri’s enhanced dictation sets a new bar this year. I put it on an M5 iPad under the best possible conditions, ran it against a Wendell Berry poem and some free-form thinking, then handed the same tests to Wispr Flow to see how close Apple actually got.

Pathfinder Link | Insider Link | Member Link

Natural Language Shortcuts: Build Automations by Describing Them

Video · June 17 · Pathfinder & Insider

Apple wants to bring Shortcuts to the people who always found it too intimidating. This year you can describe a shortcut in plain language and let Apple Intelligence build it for you. I turned on the camera and tried four of them live, from a quick text to my kids up to a full morning report, and showed where it worked and where it fell apart.

Pathfinder Link | Insider Link

The Lab Report for June 19, 2026

Podcast · June 19 · All tiers

It’s the week after WWDC and the Siri AI details keep coming. This week we get into the take-a-break message hiding in the iOS 27 beta, three real upgrades to iPhone Mirroring, Apple swapping macOS names for version numbers, and a rumor pile that runs deep, including a 20th anniversary iPhone and a touchscreen MacBook one leaker now calls confirmed.

Pathfinder Link | Insider Link | Member Link

In the Community

Buy An Apple Watch! (Labs Discussion Board)

Nick shared a hard story this week. He lost consciousness while driving, went down a thirty-foot hill, and his Apple Watch called 911 and reached his family on its own. The thread turned into a steady stream of members making the case for the Watch and swapping their own close calls.

UniFi Travel Router (Labs Discussion Board)

Richard asked the group for real-world experience with the UniFi Travel Router before buying one. The replies came in fast with setups, gotchas, and travel notes. Good timing too, with the network jam session coming up next week.

Pocket AI Voice Recorder (Labs Discussion Board)

A first-time poster who works as a mobile service engineer asked whether a small AI voice recorder is worth it for capturing job details on the road, or whether the phone in his pocket already does the job. The thread weighed dedicated hardware against what we already carry.

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

The calendar is quiet this week after WWDC, then picks back up. Here’s what’s next on the live schedule.

June Jam Session: Network Setup and Security

Jam Session · June 25 · Pathfinder, Insider, and Member

We’re digging into setting up and securing your home network. Bring your questions and your setup headaches.

Labs July Meetup

Meetup · July 11 · Pathfinder & Insider

The monthly gathering of the tribe. Open agenda, good company, and whatever’s on everyone’s mind in Apple land.

Links of Interest

A few things worth your time from my reading this week.

• John Gruber on The Vergecast: the Epic Story of Markdown. John Gruber on why Markdown caught on and stuck around. A fun one if you live in plain text like I do.
• The Relentless Math of the Long Tail. Seth Godin on how attention actually concentrates, and what that means if you make things for an audience.
• Seeing Siri AI in Action Has Me Excited for the Future. Ben Lovejoy on the real tasks the new Siri handled for him across Photos, Notes, and Messages.
• Two Huge Collections of Leonardo’s Codexes Digitally Reunited After 400 Years. A calmer read to balance the Apple news. About 3,500 pages of da Vinci’s notebooks brought back together online.

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

This week in the Labs was a lot of fun as we covered Apple’s WWDC event. We had three meetups, and there were multiple videos. This year’s WWDC announcements were unlike most years, and we all had a lot of takes.

Below you’ll find the week’s new videos and podcasts, a few of the conversations happening in the member community, and what’s coming next week. Most of those links lead straight into the Labs community on Circle, so they’ll only open if you’re a member. If you’re a Labs member who hasn’t set up your Circle access yet, send me a note and I’ll get you in. For members, this is your week at a glance. If you’re not one yet, it’s a peek at what you’re missing.

The Week’s Releases

Productivity Field Guide Early Access in Circle

Announcement · June 6 · Labs members that are PFG owners.
Labs Members who own the Productivity Field Guide got early access to the PFG space inside MacSparky Circle this week. It’s not open to the public yet. If you own the PFG and haven’t seen your invite, drop me a note.

WWDC Keynote Reactions Meetup

Live Meetup Recording · June 8 · All Labs Members
A last-minute bonus meetup to share first reactions to the WWDC keynote before everyone disappeared into the betas. Noon Pacific on Zoom. Recording now published.

Pathfinder Link | Insider Link | Member Link

First Look at the New Siri

Video · June 9 · All Labs Members
It’s WWDC keynote day, and the new Siri is here. I got beta access about an hour after the keynote and went straight to testing. This video shows exactly what it could and couldn’t do, with my take at the end.

Pathfinder Link | Insider Link | Member Link

June Labs WWDC Meetup

Live Meetup · June 10 · Pathfinder & Insider
Our monthly Labs meetup, this month all about WWDC. We worked through the announcements together. Questions, reactions, and the stuff everyone was still trying to make sense of the day after the keynote.

Pathfinder Link | Insider Link

Apple Photos AI Features in iOS 27

Video · June 11 · Pathfinder & Insider
iOS 27 gives Apple Photos a new set of AI editing tools. I put Cleanup, Extend, and Reframe through their paces on a beta iPhone Air, using a family photo from Disneyland. Here’s what worked, what didn’t, and where the generative fill surprised me.

Pathfinder Link | Insider Link

June Deep Dive: Exploring the New Beta Software

Deep Dive · June 11 · Pathfinder
We went hands-on with the new betas. What’s different, what’s worth installing on a backup device, and what to watch as the betas mature over the summer.

Pathfinder Link

The Lab Report for June 12, 2026

Podcast · June 12 · all tiers
WWDC week, and after two years of Apple Intelligence promises that didn’t quite land, Apple came back with a real answer. The new Siri, rebranded Siri AI, is the center of it.

Pathfinder Link | Insider Link | Member Link

In the Community

Turn Nouns Into Verbs (Labs Discussion Board)
A member tied a Simon Sinek idea to the Productivity Field Guide’s Arete statements. The case for writing your values as verbs, as actions under each role, instead of nouns that just sit there. A good thread on making your values actually guide you when things get hard.

Shortcuts OS 27 (Labs Discussion Board)
Someone digging through the Shortcuts beta found a new “Interpret as Markdown” checkbox for creating and appending to Apple Notes. They ran a big Markdown test through it, and most of it works now. That kills the awkward rich-text dance we used to need.

AI Security (Labs Discussion Board)
A member who wants to put AI to work on their files, but worries about sensitive data getting loose, asked how everyone else handles it. What do you hand to Claude, what do you hold back, and how do you keep it secure. The replies are full of practical answers.

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

After a packed WWDC week, things settle down a little. Here’s the next live Labs session on the calendar.

June Jam Session: Network Setup and Security
Jam Session · June 25 · Pathfinder, Insider, and Member
We’re digging into setting up and securing your home network. Bring your questions and your setup headaches.

Links of Interest

A few things worth your time from my reading this week. Most of it landed in the WWDC slipstream.

• The iPhone’s Last Stand. Ben Thompson on the new Siri AI as Apple’s bet on personal, on-device data, set against Microsoft’s enterprise-focused Project Solara. (Stratechery, paywalled)
• Apple Wins Consumer AI By Default. M.G. Siegler argues the iPhone is becoming the first true AI device, and what that means for everyone else.
• An Interview with Ben Bajarin About Apple, AI, and Compute. A smart conversation on where Apple actually sits in the AI compute race. (Stratechery, paywalled)
• What It Feels Like to Work With Mythos. Ethan Mollick on the latest jump in AI capability and what it’s like to actually use it.
• The Art of Ataraxia. Massimo Pigliucci on studying nature the Epicurean way. A calmer read to balance out all the Apple news.

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

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!

• June Labs WWDC Meetup — Wednesday, June 10 · All members
• June Deep Dive – Exploring the New Beta Software — Thursday, June 11 · Pathfinder

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

• Ben Thompson published an interview with Satya Nadella about finding core competencies, and it’s a revealing look at how Microsoft thinks about its place in the AI race.
• John Voorhees wrote about what “developer” even means now as AI tools pull more people into making Mac apps.
• Figs in Winter on family affection, a Stoic take on the people closest to us.

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