Andy J. Williams Affleck (the Affleck part was stolen from his wife) has been using Macs since 1984 and has always been obsessed with any new medium that improves communication. At first it was mainframe-based chat systems (Dartmouth College’s XYZ for anyone who would remember that), then email, instant messaging, and news­letters, then finally the web. He built Dartmouth College’s first website in 1993, put together the original website for the sitcom Friends, and started a virtual community that celebrates its 30th birthday in early 2025.

He has a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Technology in Education, specifically online networks for teaching and learning. When he’s not figuring out new ways for people to communicate online, he works at Pfizer as a project manager. He blogs about random stuff at AndyAffleck.com. He’s also the Executive Director of Swamp Meadow Community Theatre as well as an actor, director, and sound-guy. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife, daughter, two cats, and a lot of LEGOS.

Author and photographer Jeff Carlson (@jeffcarlson@twit.social on Mastodon, @jeffcarlson on Instagram and Threads) is a senior writer at CNET and a contributing editor at TidBITS. He is the author of Take Control of Apple Watch, Take Control of Your Digital Storage, and Take Control of Managing Your Files, among many other books. He believes there’s never enough coffee and does his best to test that theory.

Josh Centers is is a Business Journalist at TextExpander, editor-in-chief of Unprepared, and founder of Apple Buying Advice. He has been featured in USA Today, Macworld, Scientific American, the Washington Post, Boing Boing, the Wirecutter, and other publications, as well as on Comedy Central, HuffPost Live, and Voice of America. Josh lives in Tennessee with his wife and children.

Michael E. Cohen has taught English composition, worked as a programmer for NASA’s Deep Space Network, helped develop the first commercial ebooks at the Voyager Company, and co-founded a major university’s Humanities computing center. He has authored several books, including Apple Interface Mysteries, Take Control of PDFpen, Take Control of Pages, and Take Control of TextExpander.

Adam C. Engst is the publisher of TidBITS and the TidBITS Content Network. He has written numerous technical books, including Take Control of Preview and the best-selling Internet Starter Kit series, and many magazine articles—thanks to Contributing Editor positions at MacUser, MacWEEK, and Macworld. He has been turned into an action figure.

Take Control Books Executive Editor Glenn Fleishman spent 30 years writing for publications like The Atlantic, Fast Company, The Economist, The New York Times, Macworld, and TidBITS. Glenn now focuses his time on Take Control Books, Six Colors (as a columnist), and his own micro-publishing endeavor, Aperiodical, where he writes books about type, printing, comics, and language history, like Six Centuries of Type & Printing and How Comics Are Made. You can find Glenn on Mastodon and Bluesky. Reach him by email at glenn@glennf.com.

Joe Kissell is the author of more than 75 books about technology. In 2017, he also became the publisher of Take Control Books, when alt concepts—the company he runs with his wife, Morgen Jahnke—acquired the Take Control imprint from TidBITS Publishing Inc.’s owners, Adam and Tonya Engst. Before he began writing full-time in 2003, Joe managed software development, a totally normal profession for someone with degrees in philosophy and linguistics.

In his rare non-work hours, Joe likes to walk, cook, read, and teach tai chi. He lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, with Morgen and their sons. You can follow him on Mastodon (@joekissell) or Bluesky (@joekissell.com), or visit his personal website, JoeKissell.com.

Kirk McElhearn writes about Apple hardware and software, books, music, and more. As a Senior Contributor to Macworld for more than 15 years, he wrote hundreds of articles, including the Ask the iTunes Guy column. He is a regular contributor to The Mac Security Blog, the Literature & Latte blog, where he writes about their writing app Scrivener, and TidBITS, as well as several other websites and magazines. He is co-host of several podcasts, including The Next Track, a podcast about how people listen to music today, and Write Now with Scrivener. Visit his website Kirkville.

Scholle McFarland has been covering the Mac since 1996 as an editor at MacUser magazine and then Macworld. During that time, she witnessed Apple transform from everyone’s favorite “doomed” company to everyone’s actually favorite company and is still amazed by the whole thing.

When she’s not working, Scholle (“Sholly”) likes to hang out with her family, friends, and many animals in beautiful Portland, Oregon.

Rosemary Orchard is the cohost of Automators, an automation-themed podcast on Relay FM with David Sparks, and iOS Today, a podcast about learning and making the most of your non-Mac Apple devices with a Shortcuts section every week on TWiT with Mikah Sargent.

When she isn’t writing, she’s busy eating chocolate and planning world domination with Shortcuts.

Jeff Porten has 25 years of experience as an independent consultant to small businesses and nonprofits, concentrating on information technologies, business planning, and personal and organizational workflow management.

Jason Snell has been writing about Apple since it was doomed—1994, to be exact—and was the lead editor for Macworld for more than a decade. He also oversaw editorial operations for PCWorld, TechHive, and Greenbot. He currently writes about technology at sixcolors.com, and hosts the Upgrade and Download podcasts at relay.fm, and produces and hosts many other podcasts at theincomparable.com.