Quip: AI + Clipboard Manager

I’m always intrigued by tools that rethink the way we work, especially when they take on an existing app category with some fresh ideas. That’s why I’m happy to see the launch of Quip, a smart clipboard manager for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Clipboard apps usually aren’t exciting. They collect your copied text and images, and that’s about it. But Quip caught my attention by incorporating some clever new features: beautiful design, seamless iCloud syncing, robust customization with Shortcuts integration, and—most interestingly—on-device AI.

The addition of AI to clipboard management makes a lot of sense. Quip doesn’t just store your clips; it actively helps organize and retrieve them in context, saving you time and friction in your workflow. Plus, since the AI runs entirely on your device, your data stays private.

You can learn more about Quip and try it yourself on their website.

Sal’s Music Channel

One of my favorite people in the Apple Community is Sal Soghoian, formerly with Apple and now a free-agent automation sensei. One thing a lot of folks don’t know about Sal is that he is a Berklee trained guitarist and ridiculously talented.

Sal has a YouTube channel, Playing the Coda, where he shares some of his music. The trick here is that in nearly all of these tracks he is simultaneously playing the melody and the bass line. At once. On one Guitar. Watch closely. Here’s is George’s Blues.

The Lab Report for July 18, 2025

The Opal C1 Webcam is meant to be the webcam everybody actually wants to use. It\’s got tons of software features and a better lens system than anything you\’d find in most (all?) other webcams. It\’s time for me to kick the tires…

This is a post for MacSparky Labs Tier 2 (Backstage) and Tier 3 (Early Access) Members only. Care to join? Or perhaps do you need to sign in?

The Hypothetical Siri Brain Transplant

We’ve been hearing for a few weeks now that Apple is considering using a third party LLM for Siri, particularly Claude. I understand this is not usually the Apple way of solving a problem like this, but at least for the short term, it seems the right move.

I have no doubt that Apple will eventually have its own perfectly acceptable model to drive Siri, but at this point we just need Siri to work flawlessly. And if using someone else’s model for a year or two is how we get that, than I say get out the checkbook.