Life’s Too Short to Deal With Bad Cables

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Mac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting

Dave Hamilton, Pilot Pete & Adam Christianson

1114 episodes

2 days ago

Get answers to your Apple tech questions every week! Dave Hamilton, Adam Christianson, and Pilot Pete share tips, tricks, and troubleshooting advice for your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and more — all delivered in a fun, friendly way that helps geeks and everyday users alike. Don’t Get Caught without your tech working right!

All content for Mac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting is the property of Dave Hamilton, Pilot Pete & Adam Christianson and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Life’s Too Short to Deal With Bad Cables

Mac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting

1 hour 24 minutes 1 second

3 months ago

Life’s Too Short to Deal With Bad Cables

You’ll pick up quick wins this week with smart Mac tips you can use right now. Color-code your USB and Thunderbolt cables so you always grab the right one, and stash them in mesh zipper pouches or a travel organizer so you’re never digging for the right connection. Add Apple Music playlists right to your Mac’s menu bar, trigger Time Machine backups with macOS 26 Shortcuts, and even have ChatGPT read answers aloud to you. Learn how to suss out the speed of your USB-C cables, avoid accidental calls, and know when a higher‑wattage charger is perfectly safe. And remember: when moving from Intel to Apple Silicon, migrate your Homebrew setup properly—Don’t Get Caught re‑installing from scratch.
From troubleshooting with AI without “leading the witness” to discovering that High Sierra is still getting (at least some!) security updates, you’ll walk away sharper than before. We dig into Cool Stuff Found like Dory, a frictionless Mac app switcher, and VueScan, which resurrects old, unsupported scanners. Clean up your cloud clutter, auto‑paste from Messages into any app, and explore apps like Dialed AI to keep your motivation up. Whether you’re traveling, upgrading, or just tidying your digital life, these tips keep you efficient, organized, and ready for anything.

00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 1101 for Monday, August 4th, 2025

August 4th: National Clouded Leopard Day
MGG Monthly Giveaway

Quick Tips

00:00:01 Tom-QT-Color code your USB/Thunderbolt cables for easy identification
00:04:01 Andrew-QT-Add Apple Music Playlists, Albums, and Artists to Your Mac’s Menu Bar
00:05:45 Karl-QT-Apple Music needs to be installed to get audio out of your Lightning port

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone/

00:10:36 Advice when troubleshooting with AI: Don’t lead the witness!
00:14:43 Tom-QT-1097-Fix the perpetually-incrementing System name numbers
00:17:01 Don’t Get Caught: when migrating from Intel to Apple Silicon you need to reset up all your homebrew stuff

Migrate Homebrew from Intel to Apple Silicon

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MOAR Quick Tips

00:25:14 QT-On a Mac ChatGPT will Read the answer to you
00:26:18 Doug-QT-macOS 26’s Shortcuts Automations can be used to trigger Time Machine and more

Amphetamine

00:29:46 macOS 26 allows auto-paste-from-Messages/Mail into any app, not just Safari