Show Notes
Kick off Mac Geek Gab 1165 with a stack of Quick Tips: find the four new options hiding in iOS 27’s jiggly-icon mode, see how Messages remembers where you were when you jump back through a thread, and control which direction Photos moves after you delete a shot. You’ll keep a stubborn printer visible just by leaving Print Center open, play your favorite podcasts through your Mac with iPhone Mirroring, and turn StandBy into a desk-side HomePod remote.
Then it’s AI time: update the model on your scheduled agents before they quietly run on last year’s brains, get Siri AI’s full answers on iPhone and Mac, and size up Instinct, Muse, Dots, and Grok Bot as Apple’s assistant falls behind (again). You’ll also learn about the API credits hiding in Claude Max plans and a double-click trick that snaps any window to full size, with a Siri swear jar to keep the tips honest.
Then your two geeks and a pilot answer your questions. Find out why your Mac’s scheduled shutdown never fires and which apps fix it without Terminal, run the flashlight test that tells you whether a dying display is worth saving, and pick the right webcam for your Zoom calls, from Insta360 and Obsbot to the Continuity Camera already in your pocket. Finally, tackle the macOS 27 Finder change that grabs your file extension along with the file name, plus the keyboard workaround that brings your muscle memory back. Press play, get your answers, and whatever you do, Don’t Get Caught!
00:00:00 Mac Geek Gab 1165 for Monday, October 26th, 2026
October 26th: National Pumpkin Day
MGG Monthly Giveaway – Win a MGG T-Shirt!
The MGG Merch Store is Live!
Quick Tips
00:00:01 iOS 27 adds four new options to jiggly-icon mode (Dr. Martin)
00:03:44 The iPhone Duo order experience
00:08:26 Jumping back in Messages remembers where you were (NASANut, following up on MGG 1163)
00:11:27 Choose which way Photos moves after you delete a photo (Daymon)
00:13:03 Leave Print Center open to keep pesky printers available (Michael)
VueScan
Sponsors
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00:21:46 SPONSOR: Hims is changing men’s healthcare by providing convenient, quality care, 100% online. Start your free online visit today at https://Hims.com/MGG.
More Quick Tips
00:24:12 Listen to podcasts on your Mac by mirroring your iPhone (Henry)
Belkin Continuity Camera Mount
NightStand Mode == StandBy
00:27:19 Update the model on your scheduled agents
00:30:30 See Siri AI’s complete responses on iPhone and macOS (Bill)
00:35:12 Instinct and Muse vs. Siri AI
And Dots and Grok Bot
00:43:37 Claude API credits on Max plans
00:44:47 Quickly expand the window you’re working in (Bruce)
00:46:34 Start a Siri Swear Jar (Mark)
Sponsors
00:47:45 SPONSOR: Origin is endpoint AI observability. See what a trace looks like at https://originhq.com/macgeekgab
00:49:06 SPONSOR: BBEdit, the power tool for text from Bare Bones Software at https://barebones.com … now with integrated Notebooks and extended language support.
Your Questions Answered
00:50:19 Why won’t my Mac shut down automatically? (Karl)
To schedule a daily shutdown at 11 PM and wake or power on at 6 AM: sudo pmset repeat shutdown MTWRFSU 23:00:00 wakeorpoweron MTWRFSU 06:00:00
To see the current schedule: pmset -g sched
Prefer an app? BAM
01:00:12 My monitor is failing. Should I repair it? (Mike)
Which 5K monitor for my Mac? (MGG 1136)
01:04:39 Which webcam should I get for Zoom calls? (John)
Insta360 Link 2 Pro
Insta360 Link 2C – $150
Obsbot Meet Flip
Continuity Camera
01:12:20 Did macOS 27 change how Finder selects file names? (Todd)
01:15:59 MGG 1165 Outro
MGG Monthly Giveaway
Bandwidth Provided by CacheFly
Pilot Pete’s Aviation Podcast: So There I Was (for Aviation Enthusiasts)
The Debut Film Podcast – Adam’s new podcast!
Dave’s Business Brain (for Entrepreneurs) and Gig Gab (for Working Musicians) Podcasts
MGG
More from Mac Geek Gab — Apple Tips, Tricks, and Troubleshooting
Mac Geek Gab 1164 is all about Cool Stuff Made, the apps you built and sent in, starting with Tap2Click, which finally gives your Magic Mouse a quiet tap-to-click. You’ll hear why rough-draft coding with AI is changing who gets to build Mac software, and how Dave’s own Ottograph fixed per-alias signatures in Apple Mail in a single evening. Then Pilot Pete, Adam Christianson, and Dave Hamilton show you BAM for auto-quitting idle Mac apps and scheduling shutdowns, HEVCut for shrinking iPhone videos to reclaim storage, and WatchBlocks, a full sandbox survival game that runs on your Apple Watch.
Customize your Finder icons for instant recognition, stretch your Apple Watch battery on long workouts with Low Power Mode, and jump months back in your Messages history with a single tap. You’ll also learn how to force macOS 27 to download from Terminal when Software Update won’t show it, and how to run separate Claude Desktop apps for work and home. Then your two geeks and a pilot tackle whether you can migrate to a new iPhone from an iOS beta, whether you need Mail.app running to feed Apple Intelligence, and the one Search setting that might be keeping Siri from your data.
Kick off Mac Geek Gab 1162 with a stack of quick tips. You’ll stop your iPhone’s Camera Control from firing on every accidental squeeze, flip the Mac app switcher into reverse without lifting a finger, and ask Safari to describe an extension and build it for you. You’ll snooze your alarm with S-Lady and get (a little) relief from macOS 27’s hybridsearchd CPU hog. You’ll also borrow a brilliant Shortcuts automation that swaps eSIMs the moment your plane leaves the gate. Then you’ll add your kids’ vital details to your own Medical ID, bring back every closed tab with Command-Shift-T, share contacts despite Apple’s Family Sharing limits, and learn why a quarterly check of your firewall, privacy, and notification settings keeps you from getting blindsided. Pilot Pete, Adam Christianson, and Dave Hamilton also dig into the iPhone 18 Pro color controversy to find out whether it’s chromations, aberrations, or just a sheen.
Kick off Mac Geek Gab 1161 with a round of Quick Tips: flip through browser tabs with Command-Shift-[ and ], kill your iPhone flashlight with one tap, and learn iOS 27’s new swipe-down layout, where notifications, Siri, and Control Center each get their own corner. You’ll also bring CarPlay widgets back into your life, compare the apps on all your Macs with one Terminal command (and a little AI help), and find the Identity Documents collection hiding in iOS 27 Photos.
You’ll learn how to ask S-Lady to find a family member through Find My so you don’t have to call them, and why Command-Backtick (one key up from Tab) cycles windows inside a single app while Command-1, 2, 3 hops tabs in Safari, Chrome, Comet, and even Mail. You’ll follow Dave down the iPhone system data rabbit hole, where 59GB of mystery storage led to a full wipe, a genuinely useful “keep eSIMs and erase data” option, and then 52GB creeping right back three days later. You’ll turn an always-on Mac mini into an AirPlay music server you drive from the Remote app, so the party keeps playing after you make a beer run. You’ll discover that Terminal’s Secure Keyboard Entry checkbox is why your TextExpander and Rocket Typist snippets quit firing. And you’ll hear the cheapest Wi-Fi fix in history: delete the speed test app. Plus, AI as a genealogy research partner: the kind that surfaces buried leads you verify yourself.