As an engineer, I am seeing confusion and misinformation on social media about the new iPhone colors and it is driving me insane.

So much so that I did a little explainer post on Threads about how anodization works with aluminum.

Apple moved back to aluminum with the iPhone 17 series, I believe largely for heat dissipation(they said this in their keynote as well) and the ability to make more colors in the Pro phones.

Titanium, while cool, is difficult to work with. Harder to machine, harder to get into a supply chain, and harder to develop coatings or coloring processes like anodization to get consistent colors and the quality that Apple is known for.

So, Apple went back to aluminum. To get the colors, they use a process called anodization. For those who can’t be bothered to Google: Anodizing is an electrolytic passivation process that thickens the natural oxide layer on aluminum. Put simply: it uses electricity to grow a hard, durable oxide shell on the surface. Think of it as giving the metal a tough, built-in shield against corrosion and wear.

Apple said in their Keynote that the chassis goes through “successive anodizing baths” to build up that colorful and durable outer layer. How many baths? Only Apple knows. How thick is it? A typical anodized layer for durability is around 30–60 micrometers. Thinner than a human hair but harder than bare aluminum.

Even with multiple baths, the process has diminishing returns. You don’t just “stack layers” endlessly. Realistically, you might reach ~100 micrometers max. About the thickness of a sheet of office paper. So what about scratches? Anodization IS NOT a paint or coating. The oxide layer is part of the metal itself. But if you scratch deeper than that layer (think: ~paper thickness), you’ll expose bare aluminum underneath.

Does it change the material? Yes, but only at the surface. The aluminum right at the top is chemically transformed into porous aluminum oxide (where the color dye sits), while the bulk metal beneath keeps its normal structure. Bottom line: Anodization makes aluminum much tougher against everyday wear, corrosion, and fading. But it isn’t indestructible. Drop your phone on concrete or drag your keys across it hard enough, and physics still wins.

We have already seen reports online about people complaining about damage to their orange and blue iPhones.

For the love of my sanity, PLEASE, PLEASE, stop calling it a coating or paint!

It is an oxide layer. Words matter. Even if I am standing on my soap box and being petty about my own pet peeve.

No new podcast this week. One thing I said to myself that I didn’t want to do when I started YouTube was chase the news cycle. I knew it would be a recipe for burnout.

I said last week I’d be reconsidering my options for how to handle the podcast moving forward. I’m now overthinking every decision I ever made with it, but I have some things I want to talk about, they may just make their way into a series of separate YouTube videos though, who knows.

I’ll be back with my perspective on tech, productivity, creativity and everything in between in a week or so.

Stay tuned!

The 505 Podcast is leveling up once again with conversations with Christian Guzman and Heidi Somers.

I listened to the episode with Heidi this past week and it had some amazing takeaways.

While the products don’t directly apply to me, it was interesting to hear from the founder of a startup in a different niche, how she’s focused on hiring the right people and implementing storytelling and video campaigns into thier marketing strategy.

That is something that I would like to get better at in the coming years.

What's coming up

The Problem with Notion

October App of the Month - TBD

Connect and Engage