When it comes to my home screen, I don’t like to show too many apps. I prefer to work in context instead of apps. So those context shortcuts in my dock do a lot of the heavy lifting. While on this quest to banish apps from my home screen I tried to hide my communication apps behind Shortcuts action buttons…

… and I failed.

The idea was clean. Messages, Slack, and Notion don’t need to sit on my home screen. I can tuck them under a contextual menu in my dock. Fewer icons, less visual clutter, less temptation to check things compulsively. In theory, perfect.

In practice, I forgot people existed.

My editor for Mac Power Users sent me a message about something he needed fixed. I didn’t see it for a day and a half. Not because I was busy. Because I never tapped the button. Without the little red badge staring at me from the home screen, I just… didn’t think about it.

So now I have four apps on my home screen. Phone, Messages, Slack, and Notion. They’re there specifically because they show badges. That’s their entire purpose on my screen. I would prefer to hide them. I am not disciplined enough to check them otherwise.

A Labs member offered a middle ground I hadn’t considered. He puts his communication apps inside a folder, along with shortcut icons for speed-dialing specific people. Tap the folder, see all your communication options plus one-tap calling for the people you talk to most. The folder still shows a badge, so you know something needs attention. And you consolidate everything into a single spot.

I tried this and ran into a different problem. A folder badge tells you something needs attention. It doesn’t tell you what. When I see a badge on Slack, I know it might be my team and I should deal with it now. A badge on Messages can wait until tonight. A folder badge? I’d tap it, see it was just a text from my sister, and feel like I wasted a context switch. Besides all that, the folder on my home screen is ugly and I just couldn’t get used to it.

If you can live without that distinction, this approach is worth trying. You get the badge reminder with less home screen clutter.

Another option is persistent notifications. They stick on top of the home screen until you deal with them. But I know that would last for about 10 minutes before I’d just dismiss and forget about them. Know thyself.

So at the end of the day, my communication apps sit on the home screen. It’s not the minimalist dream I wanted. But I’ve learned something about myself through this process. My systems have to account for how I actually behave, not how I wish I behaved. I’m not the guy who checks his messages on a schedule. I need the visual nudge.

If you’re more disciplined than me, hide them. If you’re like me, give them a spot on the screen and move on. There are more productive things to feel guilty about.

Apple dropped their latest batch of iPhones this week, along with new Apple Watches and an AirPods Pro update. Here’s what you need to know.

The iPhone 17 lineup brings the usual suspects with some interesting twists. The standard 17 gets some nice upgrades and features that were traditionally only on the Pro phones, like ProMotion. The 17 Pro and Pro Max got a noticeable upgrade to the cameras, and their switch from titanium to aluminum should allow the A19 Pro chip to cook without actually cooking. The Pro models finally get some personality with new color options (more on that in a minute). The oddball is the iPhone Air. It’s remarkably thin and light, but you’re giving up some camera capabilities and battery life to get there.

On the wearables front, the Apple Watch Series 11 focuses on health tracking improvements and better battery life. The new Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the notable watch release this year, getting satellite communications from your wrist, a slightly bigger screen (in the same size case), and several other iterative improvements.

The new AirPods Pro 3 bring improved noise cancellation and, hopefully, even a better fit for more people. They also added two more watch faces that appear entirely inscrutable to me. Apple’s streak of bad Apple Watch faces continues.

Here’s what really struck me about this event, though. The iPhone Air is fascinating because it’s not following Apple’s usual playbook. This isn’t a budget phone. It’s not a performance monster either. Apple’s asking people to pay premium prices for something thinner and lighter, and they’re paying with both money and features. You’re getting less camera capability than the Pro phones. Battery life won’t match the Plus models. But for some people, having a phone that practically disappears in their pocket will be worth those trade-offs.

I don’t expect the Air to be a runaway success, and that’s perfectly fine. I actually love that Apple’s making phones for different priorities now. They’re the only company making iPhones, so we only get what they give us. But at least they’re giving us more options than “big or bigger” and “expensive or more expensive”. Some folks want the absolute best camera system. Others want all-day battery life. And apparently, some people just want their phone to be as thin as possible. Good for them.

As for me? I’m going all-in on the iPhone 17 Pro Max in orange. Apple’s never offered vivid colors on the Pro phones before, and I’m here for it. After years of Space Gray and Natural Titanium, I want something with personality. My phone is with me constantly. Why shouldn’t it spark a little joy? The Air doesn’t really call out to me. I’m always going to want the most powerful iPhone with the best cameras. Also, the difference in weight between the iPhone Pro Max and the iPhone Air is 66 grams. That’s not insignificant for something you put in your pocket, yet it seems trivial to me for those additional features and battery life.

Looking ahead, the Air might be more important than it appears. Word is Apple’s been working hard on ultra-thin phone technology because next year we might see a folding iPhone. Folding phones need to be incredibly thin since a folding phone necessarily has two screens stacked together. Samsung and others have been selling folding phones for years now, and the timing feels right for Apple to jump in with its take on it.

I spend a lot of time reading on my phone, so the idea of unfolding it into a mini-tablet has real appeal. I’m already starting to save because if Apple does release a folding iPhone, it’s going to cost serious money. We’re probably looking at $2,000 or more if the current folding phone market is any indication. After years of incremental updates, we’re getting real variety in the lineup, and next year could bring the biggest form factor change since the original iPhone.

In short, the iPhone is interesting again.

For years I’ve been bemoaning Apple’s failure to use interesting non-muted colors on the iPhone Pro. It appears this year Apple may be calling my bluff with an orange iPhone Pro. Orange!

If true, it will be hard to put that beauty in a case.

It’s easy, as someone who writes about this stuff, to project our own preferences onto new products. And I’ll admit, I feel that pull strongly with the rumored iPhone Air.

As rumors continue to circulate about iPhone Air, a much thinner version of the iPhone that comes in at a higher price point than the entry-level model but not as powerful as the iPhone Pro, I can’t help but wonder: how big is the market for an expensive, skinny iPhone?

We’re now seeing mock-ups floating around, like this one on YouTube, as case manufacturers gear up. And yes, it’s definitely a lot thinner than the standard iPhone. But once you slap a case on it or even stick on an extra battery, you may very well end up holding something not noticeably different in hand from an iPhone Pro. Except now, it’s close to the Pro’s price without the Pro’s camera.

Maybe that’s the real inflection point: do you want a phone that’s slightly lighter, or one with a better camera? I suppose there’s a category of users who don’t take that many photos, or maybe never shoot video, and would gladly trade camera horsepower for something thinner and lighter.

The question (to which Apple should get an answer later this year) is exactly how many of those people are out there?

The iPhone is now 18 years old, and it’s easy to forget life before it. I used mobile phones before iPhone, and the difference was night and day.

Over the years, we’ve heard a lot about how competitors put their heads in the sand when the iPhone was first announced. My favorite is the story about Blackberry not believing it was true, that Jobs had somehow faked everybody out with non-existent technology.

However, in a recent data release by Nokia, it’s clear that they took it seriously. Nokia immediately started shifting direction with its products in development, recognizing the value of the multi-touch user interface. People now say that the iPhone innovation was inevitable and that if Apple hadn’t done it, somebody else would have devised a smart phone with a flat slate of glass. But looking at contemporaneous documents, it sure doesn’t seem like it. (via John Gruber’s Daring Fireball.)