Apple Event on May 7th, How to Change Colors in Apple Notes

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It’s Saturday, and we’ve made it to the weekend. Thanks again for being here with me, and if you’re new, welcome! Here’s what I have for you in this edition:

• Apple Event on May 7th

• How to Change Colors in Apple Notes

• Basic AF: Reconsidering Apple News & A Look at Journaling Apps

• Apple ID Issues, FineWoven’s Potential Demise, and AI News

 📆 APPLE EVENT ON MAY 7TH

The long-awaited refresh of the iPad Pro and iPad Air lineup is finally about to happen. Apple sent invites this week to select media for an event on May 7th with a tagline of "Let Loose." Even though invites were sent, the event is totally online and can be watched at apple.com, on YouTube, and on the Apple TV app at 10 AM ET.

The new iPad Pros are expected to have M3 chips, an OLED display, and a long-overdue landscape-oriented front camera—and probably a price increase to boot. The iPad Air line is rumored to be getting a model with a 12.9" display, M2 chips, and a landscape-oriented front camera.

A new Apple Pencil and updated Magic Keyboard are expected as well.

For all the details and analysis on the new iPad lineup and its accessories, don't miss our upcoming recap episode on Basic AF, scheduled to drop on May 13th. Look for it in your podcast app! And, of course, I'll be following up with you here.

🎨 HOW TO CHANGE COLORS IN APPLE NOTES

The Notes app has come a long way over the years and is full of features like tables, checklists, multiple text styles, Apple Pencil support on iPad, private notes, shared note collaboration, and more. It’s really pretty great, and it’s free.

But one thing I’ve never really liked is the default color scheme that uses yellow folders, highlights, and links.

If you’re like me and want to change it up, the good news is the colors can be changed; the bad news is this only works on the Mac, the setting is in an odd location, and it impacts more than just the Notes app.

Here’s how to change colors:

Head over to  menu > System Settings > Appearance and choose a new Accent Color to change the color of links and folders.

When you select a new color, the Highlight color will automatically update to match. You can leave it or choose another color to mix things up. If you really want to get wild, select “Other” and choose from the color picker.

And here’s how it looks in Notes after the change. In addition to the link and highlight being blue, you’ll see that the icons in the Notes sidebar are as well.

So what else will this impact? Since these are system-wide settings, the new colors you’ve chosen will appear in text highlights, buttons, pop-up menus, and other interface controls throughout your Mac. But that might be a nice change of pace.

🎧️ BASIC AF #33: APPLE NEWS, JOURNALING APPS, MARVEL SNAP

Episode 33 kicks off with an updated review of Apple News, where Jeff explains why he's recently become a fan of the service. The conversation then shifts to a comparison between Apple's Journal app and the popular Day One app, examining the strengths and weaknesses of each. Lastly, JB shares his initial thoughts and offers some gameplay tips for MARVEL SNAP.

Listen now at basicafshow.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, all the other podcast apps, as well as on YouTube and YouTube Music. Be sure to follow us in your podcast app!

APPLE ID ISSUES

Did you have an issue with your Apple ID Friday night? Users on social media reported being signed out of their Apple ID and required to change their password when they tried to log in again. As of now, it’s unknown why this occurred to so many people.

END OF FINEWOVEN?

Apple discontinued its leather cases and watch bands last fall and replaced them with a new material called FineWoven. From the start, there were plenty of complaints about the quality and durability of the material, and it appears it may not last much longer.

AI DEVICES OFF TO A ROUGH START

A couple of high-profile AI devices, the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit r1 AI Assistant, have shipped recently. Unfortunately, neither one is that good right now, which isn’t exactly a surprise.

ON THE WAY TO WWDC

As we get closer to WWDC in June, there are more rumors and news about Apple’s AI plans. I’m really hoping Apple nails this and it turns out great.