New Apple Gear, App Plans, and Getting Road-Trip Ready (Week 29, 2026)

The vibe

Motivated.

I have that excited, slightly impatient feeling that comes when I want to build things again. Ideas are starting to feel more real, and I keep wanting to see how far I can take them. There is a good kind of momentum right now, and I want to make the most of it.

Highlights

💻 I finally upgraded my 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro to a 16-inch M5 Pro MacBook Pro with 48 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage. I have been getting deeper into AI work and dabbling in app development again, so the extra memory should come in handy.

📱 I also have an iPad again. I had been without one since giving my iPad Pro to my daughter for her high school graduation, but I picked up the latest 13-inch iPad Air in blue. I do not need an iPad Pro, and so far I am really liking the Air with the Magic Keyboard.

🚗 I am getting the brakes done and having the air conditioning looked at on my vehicle before we head to San Antonio. That is not the most exciting way to spend money, but it is better than discovering either problem on the road.

👨‍💻 I renewed my Apple Developer Program membership so I can publish the couple of apps I have been working on. One is getting pretty close to ready, while the other still needs more time.

🛡️ Work was steady. We are looking at possibly switching firewall providers, so we had a few onboarding and walkthrough calls with the vendor to see what that move could look like.

Worth sharing

I wrote about exposing small self-hosted services without turning them into unnecessary risks in Light Self Hosting Behind a Reverse Proxy.

I also wrote about why helping someone with a computer problem is often as much about restoring trust as fixing the device in Tech Support Is Mostly Trust Support.

The latest Security Signal Weekly covered a huge Microsoft Patch Tuesday, exploited identity and infrastructure flaws, supply-chain risk, and the other security stories defenders should have on their radar.

On Mastodon, I shared stories about Gemini letting someone send messages from a locked Android phone and OnlyFans performers helping security teams find website weaknesses. That second headline still needs a rewrite. LOL.

I boosted BleepingComputer’s reporting on Scattered Spider members receiving prison sentences for the Transport for London hack and Hugging Face disclosing a breach tied to an autonomous AI agent.

I also boosted a detailed election-security reality check from Brian Krebs, along with a few editions of Jerry’s Daily DefSec Brief for July 15, July 16, and July 20.

And yes, I boosted a Burger King sign that looked like a GRUB boot screen. It almost works as an advertisement.

✌️ That is it for this week. I hope you have a great week and remember to be kind to each other!