I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 328. Here are my solutions to them.

1:

Click for a solution

Angels

Schwabe’s painting shows a chain of angels emerging from a belfry.

2:

Click for a solution

Daemons

Doré’s engraving shows The Demons Threaten Virgil, from his illustrations to Dante’s Inferno.

3: James Bond, Jason Bourne, George Smiley, Modesty Blaise

Click for a solution

Agents

They are each (secret) agents: James Bond from Ian Fleming, Jason Bourne from Robert Ludlum, George Smiley from John le Carré, and Modesty Blaise from Peter O’Donnell.

The common factor

Click for a solution

They are each run by launchd from property lists in folders titled LaunchAngels (new in Tahoe), LaunchDaemons and LaunchAgents.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1:

2:

3: James Bond, Jason Bourne, George Smiley, Modesty Blaise.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 327. Here are my solutions to them.

1: Lost rocket platform as an app for your apps.

Click for a solution

Launchpad

Lost (it has been removed from Tahoe) rocket platform (a launchpad) as an app for your apps (what it was, an app for launching other apps).

2: Burning telegraph and lynx now disconnected.

Click for a solution

FireWire

Burning (fire) telegraph (wire) and lynx (Texas Instruments’ name for FireWire, IEEE 1394) now disconnected (support has been dropped from Tahoe, although oddly its kernel extensions are still present).

3: Happy Christmas 2017 is sad September 2025 for the most powerful Mac.

Click for a solution

iMac Pro

Happy Christmas 2017 (although announced the previous June, it shipped in December 2017) is sad September 2025 (it’s one of the T2 models dropped from Tahoe) for the most powerful Mac (when introduced, it was described as “the most powerful Mac ever made”, at least until the Mac Pro 2019).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They have all been dropped from Tahoe.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: Lost rocket platform as an app for your apps.

2: Burning telegraph and lynx now disconnected.

3: Happy Christmas 2017 is sad September 2025 for the most powerful Mac.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 326. Here are my solutions to them.

1: Melody containing cocoa plugs the ears.

Click for a solution

AirPods

Melody (an air) containing cocoa (pods) plugs the ears (what they do).

2: Confident bearing of attached label to track your stuff.

Click for a solution

AirTag

Confident bearing (an air) of attached label (a tag) to track your stuff (what it does).

3: Breeze reduction moves files wirelessly.

Click for a solution

AirDrop

Breeze (an air) reduction (a drop) moves files wirelessly (what it does).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They are each prefixed by Air, and work wirelessly.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

This article lists the firmware versions of Macs that have been successfully upgraded to run macOS 26.0 Tahoe.

Apple doesn’t provide an official list of the current firmware versions which should be installed on each model of Mac. Intel models with T2 chips consist of two parts, the second covering iBridge in the T2. Apple silicon Macs just give an iBoot version.

Macs still running older versions of macOS are covered by information at:

• this page for Sequoia,
• this page for Sonoma,
• this page for Ventura,
• this page for Monterey,
• this page for Big Sur,
• this page Catalina,
• this page for High Sierra,
• this page for El Capitan and earlier.

Apple silicon Macs

The current iBoot version is 13822.1.2.

Intel Macs with T2 chips

The current EFI version is 2092.0.0.0.0 and iBridge is 23.16.10350.0.0,0.

Apple Studio Display

The current version remains 17.0 (build 21A329).

How to check your Mac’s firmware version

The simplest way is to run my free tool SilentKnight, available from its product page.

Alternatively, use the About This Mac command at the top of the Apple menu; hold the Option key and click on the System Information command. In the Hardware Overview listing, this is given as the Boot ROM Version or System Firmware Version.

What to do if your Mac’s firmware is different from that shown

If the version is higher than that given here, it indicates that Mac has installed a more recent version of macOS, which has installed a later version of the firmware. This is almost invariably the result of installing a beta-release of the next version of macOS. This occurs even when the newer macOS is installed to an external disk.

If the installed version of firmware has a version lower than that shown, you can try installing macOS again to see if that updates the firmware correctly. If it still fails to update, you should contact Apple Support.

Firmware updaters are now only distributed as part of macOS updates and upgrades: Apple doesn’t provide them separately.

All T2 and Apple silicon models automatically check the integrity of their firmware in the early part of the boot process anyway. If any errors are found then, the Mac should be put into DFU mode and firmware restored from the current IPSW image file. In Sonoma and later this can be performed in the Finder, and no longer requires Apple Configurator 2. Full instructions are provided in this article. If you don’t have a second Mac or don’t feel that you can perform this yourself, it should be easy to arrange with an Apple store or authorised service provider.

(Last updated 19 September 2025)

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: Melody containing cocoa plugs the ears.

2: Confident bearing of attached label to track your stuff.

3: Breeze reduction moves files wirelessly.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 325. Here are my solutions to them.

1: Not quite a dogcow functions in six modules from 1991.

Click for a solution

ClarisWorks

Not quite a dogcow (the name has an uncanny resemblance to Clarus the Dogcow) functions (works) in six modules (what it contained) from 1991 (when it was first released for the Mac).

2: Suite in three movements replacing 1 from 2004.

Click for a solution

iWork

Suite in three movements (Pages, Keynote and Numbers) replacing 1 from 2004 (when Apple started replacing AppleWorks, successor to ClarisWorks, with iWork).

3: Yoga position with syncopated music, but it wasn’t the sequel to 1-2-3.

Click for a solution

Lotus Jazz

Yoga position (lotus) with syncopated music (jazz), but it wasn’t the sequel to 1-2-3 (an early attempt from Lotus to reproduce the success it had with Lotus 1-2-3 for PCs on the Mac, it flopped badly).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They were each ‘office’ suites for Mac OS.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: Not quite a dogcow functions in six modules from 1991.

2: Suite in three movements replacing 1 from 2004.

3: Yoga position with syncopated music, but it wasn’t the sequel to 1-2-3.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 324. Here are my solutions to them.

1: Last edit from KeyGrip but not for the amateur.

Click for a solution

Final Cut Pro

Last (final) edit (cut) from KeyGrip (its original name when it was being developed by Macromedia) but not for the amateur (pro).

2: Movement to accompany 1 for its titles and effects.

Click for a solution

Motion

Movement (motion) to accompany 1 (it’s part of the suite) for its titles and effects (what it’s used for).

3: Opening that closed for your photos a decade ago.

Click for a solution

Aperture

Opening (an aperture) that closed for your photos a decade ago (it was Apple’s equivalent of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, but was discontinued in 2015).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They have each been among Apple’s ‘pro’ apps for those working with still and moving images, and competitors for Adobe Premiere, Adobe After Effects, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: Last edit from KeyGrip but not for the amateur.

2: Movement to accompany 1 for its titles and effects.

3: Opening that closed for your photos a decade ago.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 323. Here are my solutions to them.

1: Well-guarded like West Berlin was, it holds your greatest secrets.

Click for a solution

secure enclave

Well-guarded (secure) like West Berlin was (an enclave surrounded by East Germany), it holds your greatest secrets (what it does).

2: Motor nerve processes your images.

Click for a solution

neural engine

Motor (engine) nerve (neural) processes your images (what it does).

3: Cloth or worsted to connect it all together.

Click for a solution

fabric

Cloth or worsted (both are fabrics) to connect it all together (what it does).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They are relatively new features in Apple silicon chips.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: Well-guarded like West Berlin was, it holds your greatest secrets.

2: Motor nerve processes your images.

3: Cloth or worsted to connect it all together.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 322. Here are my solutions to them.

1: It’s about evolution, and open source for 25 years.

Click for a solution

Darwin

It’s about evolution (when Steve Jobs announced Darwin as open source in 1999, he said this to link it with Charles Darwin), and open source for 25 years (first released as open source in 2000, and still being posted on GitHub). (Darwin consists of the open source components in macOS, and includes its kernel.)

2: If the kernel isn’t Unix, this is it.

Click for a solution

XNU

If the kernel isn’t Unix, this is it (XNU is the open source kernel within Darwin, and is available as part of the GitHub distribution. Its name is an abbreviation for X isn’t Unix).

3: Mud puddles in Pittsburgh misheard as the basis for 2.

Click for a solution

Mach

Mud puddles in Pittsburgh misheard (it was originally intended to be called Muck in honour of these, but was misheard and incorrectly written down as Mach) as the basis for 2 (the Mach microkernel, developed by Richard Rashid and Avie Tevanian, formed the basis of XNU. Tevanian went on to work at Apple, then NeXT, where he designed NeXTSTEP).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They are all open source elements in macOS.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: It’s about evolution, and open source for 25 years.

2: If the kernel isn’t Unix, this is it.

3: Mud puddles in Pittsburgh misheard as the basis for 2.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 321. Here are my solutions to them.

1: Where to sell an image of the Knolls in a two-year exclusive.

Click for a solution

Photoshop

Where to sell (a shop) an image (a photo) of the Knolls (originally developed by brothers Thomas and John Knoll, and licensed by Adobe) in a two-year exclusive (from February 1990 until its release on Windows in November 1992, it was exclusive to Mac).

2: Rembrandt, Claude Monet, JMW Turner and Corel.

Click for a solution

Painter

Rembrandt, Claude Monet, JMW Turner (all three were painters) and Corel (originally released in 1991 by Fractal Design, Painter was eventually bought by Corel).

3: One of the first two, it could be beige acrylic and written by Bill.

Click for a solution

MacPaint

One of the first two (together with MacWrite, it was one of the two apps bundled with the 128K Mac), it could be beige acrylic (paint the same colour as the 128K Mac) and written by Bill (Atkinson, 1951-2025, who wrote the app).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They have all been major raster graphics editors on the Mac.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: Where to sell an image of the Knolls in a two-year exclusive.

2: Rembrandt, Claude Monet, JMW Turner and Corel.

3: One of the first two, it could be beige acrylic and written by Bill.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 320. Here are my solutions to them.

1: What ET wants is a call coming to the Mac.

Click for a solution

Phone

What ET wants (to phone home) is a call (a phone call) coming to the Mac (macOS Tahoe is bringing the Phone app).

2: A glass to enlarge among the liquid.

Click for a solution

Magnifier

A glass (a magnifying glass) to enlarge (what it does) among the liquid (Tahoe’s Liquid Glass interface feature).

3: Daybook you might already have started elsewhere.

Click for a solution

Journal

Daybook (a journal) you might already have started elsewhere (it was released in iOS 17.2, and is coming to macOS in Tahoe).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They are all new apps coming to macOS 26 Tahoe.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: What ET wants is a call coming to the Mac.

2: A glass to enlarge among the liquid.

3: Daybook you might already have started elsewhere.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

To make its graphical interface work, the Mac needed a high-performance graphics system, for which the late Bill Atkinson (1951-2025) and Andy Hertzfeld designed and implemented QuickDraw. When it came to driving printers, though, Steve Jobs licensed the new page description language PostScript from Adobe, where it had just been developed by John Warnock (1940-2023), Charles Geschke (1939-2021) and others. PostScript is a stack-based interpreted language that could take many seconds or even minutes to image a page for printing, so wasn’t practical for doing much else at that time.

In the early 1990s, as desktop publishing became dominant among Mac users and we were all sending one another faxes, several companies recognised the need for a universal document format that could display laid-out text and graphics. Among them was Adobe, where Warnock formulated the aims of what he then referred to as Interchange PostScript or IPS, and so led the development of Portable Document Format. It’s telling that the final sentence of his proposal reads: “In any event corporations should be interested in site-licensing arrangements.”

When the first version of PDF was released in 1993, with its Carousel reader app, it faced competition from other similar ideas, and Adobe found itself competing against products including Farallon’s Replica, and Tumbleweed’s Envoy that gained the support of WordPerfect, then a popular cross-platform word processor. PDF didn’t become dominant until Adobe distributed its reader app free, rather than charging $50 for it as it had initially.

For many years, the only way to create really good PDFs was using Adobe’s Acrobat Distiller app, costing $695 for a single-user licence. That ingested PostScript files, created on the Mac by printing to a file, and transformed them into PDFs that could in turn only be read using Adobe’s software. Although PostScript was by then a prerequisite for all publishing work on Macs, it wasn’t until 1996, when PDF reached version 1.2 in Acrobat 3.0, that it captured the prepress market, which it consolidated in 1998 with the PDF/X-1 standard.

This is Acrobat Distiller 4.0 running on Mac OS 9.1 in early 2001, showing a few of its bewildering array of options for turning PostScript files into PDF.

At the same time, John Warnock’s aspirations for success in enterprise markets were being realised, and PDF steadily became the standard for fixed-format electronic documents, with the support of the US Internal Revenue Service and Adobe’s free cross-platform Acrobat Reader.

When Steve Jobs established NeXT in 1985 he must have become the only person to have licensed PostScript from Adobe twice, as NeXTSTEP adopted Display PostScript as the centrepiece of its graphics, developed collaboratively between NeXT and Adobe. At the time many thought this to be a mistake, as PostScript isn’t as efficient a graphics language as QuickDraw, despite Adobe’s efforts to accelerate it.

When NeXT and Mac merged to form the beginnings of Mac OS X in 1997, Display PostScript was replaced with PDF as the central graphics standard for both display and printing, in what was dubbed Quartz 2D. This was first demonstrated at WWDC in 1999 and lives on today in macOS. At the time, Apple’s in-house PDF engine in Quartz was one of few, alongside Adobe’s.

Prior to Mac OS X, Adobe Acrobat, both in its free viewer form and a paid-for Pro version, had been the de facto standard for reading, printing and working with PDF documents on the Mac. The Preview app had originated in NeXTSTEP in 1989 as its image and PDF viewer, and was brought across to early versions of Mac OS X, where it has remained ever since.

This PDF shows Apple’s original iPod promotional literature from late 2001.

Adobe continued providing its free Acrobat Reader for Mac OS X, here seen in 10.0 Cheetah.

The full paid-for version of Adobe Acrobat provided an extensive suite of editing tools, here in Mac OS X 10.1 Puma in early 2002.

By Mac OS X 10.3 Panther in 2003, Apple was claiming that Preview was “the fastest PDF viewer on the planet”, capable of navigating and searching text within PDF documents “at lightning speed”. This worked with the Mac’s new built-in support for faxing, which rendered received faxes in PDF to make them easier and clearer to access.

This is an early Keynote Quick Reference guide from 2003, viewed in Preview.

At that time, Preview was also able to convert Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files and raw PostScript to PDF, so they could be saved in the more accessible format, and printed easily.

This page from the 9/11 Commission Report of 22 July 2004 is being viewed in Preview.

Acrobat Distiller remained an important component in Adobe’s paid-for product, even though Mac OS X was capable of generating its own PDFs. It’s seen here in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in 2005.

This is Acrobat Pro in 10.4 Tiger in early 2006, showing its long list of supported export formats.

Since those heady days, Preview has been relatively neglected. Revision of both the Quartz PDF engine and its API brought a spate of bugs that only abated with macOS Sierra. Preview has adopted an uncommon model for PDF annotations that often doesn’t work well with other PDF products, but it has remained very popular for completing electronic forms. Then, in macOS Ventura, Apple removed all support for converting EPS and PostScript to PDF, most probably as a result of security concerns, and their progressive disuse.

Although rumours of the death of Preview continue to prove unfounded, it’s unlikely to feature again as one of the strengths of macOS.

References

John Warnock (1991) The Camelot Project, on the Internet Archive’s Wayback machine.
Laurens Leurs’ The history of PDF.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 319. Here are my solutions to them.

1: Successor to 3 inside a scheme was part of a popular atelier.

Click for a solution

InDesign

Successor to 3 (Adobe developed it to replace the ailing PageMaker) inside (in) a scheme (a design) was part of a popular atelier (for many years it was one of the leading apps in Adobe’s Creative Studio).

2: High speed subatomic particle took the lead in the 1990s.

Click for a solution

QuarkXPress

High speed (express) subatomic particle (a quark) took the lead in the 1990s (by the mid-1990s it had taken around 90% of the desktop publishing market on Macs).

3: Creator of a squire’s assistant was the first, but died before Mac OS X.

Click for a solution

PageMaker

Creator (maker) of a squire’s assistant (a page) was the first (released in July 1985 for the Mac), but died before Mac OS X (by 2000, it was moribund as Adobe was replacing it with InDesign, released in 1999, and it was never ported to Mac OS X).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They have all been leading desktop publishing apps for Macs.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: Successor to 3 inside a scheme was part of a popular atelier.

2: High speed subatomic particle took the lead in the 1990s.

3: Creator of a squire’s assistant was the first, but died before Mac OS X.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: Total banker’s order quickly verifies integrity.

2: 1 broke by 2005, 2 is still cryptographic, 3 is even better, but not in Iran.

3: Missing from …MNOPQTUVW… but present in CD.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 316. Here are my solutions to them.

1: From PageRank and 10^100 to a set of letters.

Click for a solution

Google

From PageRank (Google Search was founded on the patented PageRank algorithm for ranking search results) and 10^100 (its name is derived from the very large number googol, 10 to the power of 100) to a set of letters (in 2015 it restructured under the ownership of Alphabet Inc.).

2: A hooligan went from directory to search then declined into finance and news.

Click for a solution

Yahoo!

A hooligan (a yahoo) went from directory (it started as a curated web directory) to search (followed by a search engine) then declined into finance and news (what now remains).

3: After changing name three times, this directory has gone wavy.

Click for a solution

DMOZ

After changing name three times (originally GnuHoo, it then became NewHoo, almost ZURL, next Open Directory Project, before becoming DMOZ), this directory (it was a human-curated web directory) has gone wavy (DMOZ was superseded by Curlie in 2018).

The common factor

Click for a solution

They have been web directories or search engines.

I look forward to your putting alternative cases.

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation.

1: From PageRank and 10^100 to a set of letters.

2: A hooligan went from directory to search then declined into finance and news.

3: After changing name three times, this directory has gone wavy.

To help you cross-check your solutions, or confuse you further, there’s a common factor between them.

I’ll post my solutions first thing on Monday morning.

Please don’t post your solutions as comments here: it spoils it for others.

我们还年轻，可不想看到这个世界处在毫无自由、隐私的边缘。

前几天最近随着 Claude Code 这个命令行 AI 代码工具的火爆，谷歌也耐不住寂寞推出了自己的同类产品 Gemini CLI，而且完全免费，非常顶。

下面会教你用 Gemini CLI 实现哪些能力：

首先他们是没有界面的，所有的操作都是在终端以命令行的方式展示。

然后就是也是 Agents 可以自动执行任务处理本地文件，同时内置了非常多的工具，比如谷歌搜索、阅读文件、查找文件、搜索文字、写入文件、保存记忆等，你输入 /tools 然后回车就可以让他列出目前支持的工具。

另外 Gemini CLI 也是支持 MCP 的，你可以安装其他的 MCP 工具帮助模型扩充上下文。

很多朋友说命令行是不是很复杂啊，我不会编程是不是会很难用。

其实并没有，如果你的网络环境正常，能够正常登录 Gemini CLI 的话，跟使用 Cursor 没有本质区别。

因为核心交互的时候还是主要为提示词输入框，命令行又不用你写，Gemini 写就行。

从这里开始我所有的演示都基于 Mac OS 的自带终端进行，Windows 大部分操作都是通用的，但是可能出问题概率比 Mac 复杂。

首先要做的第一步就是进入到我们的启动台，搜索终端两个字，搜到之后打开。

这时候你就看到一个空白界面里面写了些你看不懂的字，不要担心。

这里我建议我们想好要进行的任务之后，新建一个文件夹把需要的任务素材扔进去，然后按住 option 按键鼠标右键选择“将 XXXX 文件夹拷贝为路径名称”，这时候你就快速获得了这个文件夹的路径。

然后我们回到我们的终端窗口，输入 cd + 空格 + 你刚才复制的路径，接下来你终端的所有操作都只会影响这个文件夹的内容，不用担心把电脑搞坏。

到这一步我们终于开始安装 Gemini CLI 了，非常简单，你只需要输入下面的内容然后回车就行。

安装成功你就会看到这个界面，应该会先让你选择命令行的颜色主题，然后让你选择登录方式。

这里需要注意：终端的操作大部分时间需要用上下左右方向键来操作选项，选中之后按回车确认。

你只需要选择一个自己喜欢的主题之后，选择正常的谷歌账号登录，在拉起网页登录后关掉就行。

我这个这里已经登录了，所以没有这些选项，然后你就能看到提示词输入框了。

恭喜你到这里，你已经完成了 Gemini 的安装。

由于用的 NPX 的安装方式，所以你以后每次关掉终端重新使用 Gemini CLI 的时候都需要输入开始的那个命令，不过不用登录了，直接就能用。

另一种方法是输入下面这个命令，但是对于不会编程的人来说很麻烦，启动就是少输入点东西，输入 Gemini 就能启动。

最后由于命令行本身都是英文的，可能很多人会望而却步，这个时候你可以装个 Bob 这个翻译软件，支持划词翻译，看不懂的选项直接选中划词翻译就行。

装好之后我们可以来点基础用法了。

由于 Gemini 可以看到你的文件并且操作，而且它还有生成能力，本身模型还是多模态的，所以即使只用本身的工具也可以有很多用法。

首先是 Gemini CLI 本身支持谷歌搜索，你可以让他搜索指定内容给你写成文档，也可以对你本身的文档进行编辑。

当然搜索工具经常会限额，这个有点恶心，比如让他搜索歸藏的信息并且整理一个介绍文档。

你也可以让他分析你保存在本地的文章之后进行改写，生成新的文章。

比如我这里就让他把 Karpathy 的软件 3.0 文章改写成适合发布的博客文章，同时生成对应的推特发布版本，也可以对于会议总结之类的文档进行分析和处理。

记得我之前写的用 Curosr 这种 IDE 帮助分析 Obsidian ，把 Obsidian 当做本地知识库的方法吗，Gemini CLI 也可以，甚至更加强大。

你可以找到你的 Obsidian 文件夹打开之后启动 Gemini CLI，然后让 Gemini CLI 查找相关的内容。

比如我这里就让他检索我所有的剪藏文件，找到 MCP 相关的文章，然后给我生成一个带反向链接的《MCP 剪藏内容索引》文档，可以看到他完成的很好。

每个无序列表都有文件标题以及文章的总结，最后还有链接可以直达那个文章。

提到反向链接了，就不得不提 Obsidian 的一个知识图谱的功能，它可以把所有有反向链接的相关文档都链接起来，形成你自己的网状笔记网络，方便你学习和回顾。

但是反向链接需要你自己手动加，大部分人都没这个毅力，现在有了 Gemini CLI 问题解决了，可以让他帮你给你文件夹中的相关文档加反向链接。

不过这个需要的时间比较长，如果内容多的话可能得等一段时间。

由于本身 Gemini CLI 是多模态的的，所以你的图片也可以让他帮忙处理。

比如我打开了一个全是图片的文件夹，里面的图片名字乱七八糟的，这时候就可以让他分析图片内容之后根据图片内容给图片重新命名。

再重新命名之后我们也不能浪费他分析的图片内容。

我们都知道在训练图像模型或者 Lora 的时候需要对图像进行标注，大部分训练工具都是把标注放在一个跟图片命名一样的文本文件里，现在我们就可以让 Gemini CLI 来做这件事了。

可以看到他执行的非常完美，以往这些你还得找对应的工具，而且不好自定义要求，现在提示词就行。

Gemini CLI 除了可以读取文件和修改文件外也是可以控制系统设置的。

比如我们就可以写好自己日常对于软件和系统设置在不同工作时间的喜好，需要的时候一键完成所有操作的更改。

这里我就让他给我关掉浏览器，然后打开 Obsidian，降低系统音量，直接进入工作模式。

更进一步让他把操作写成脚本，之后你就可以直接双击脚本完成系统设置了。

我们肯定也有很多时候桌面或者文件没有整理乱七八糟。

这个时候就可以让 Gemini CLI 新建文件夹进行分类和整理。

但是这里得注意，不要让他整理过大的过于重要的文件夹，不然误删了就痛苦了。

这里我就让他把刚才的图像和标注文件新建了两个文件夹分别整理了。

上面都是些基本用法，你最近可能也看到了一些。

但是我发现结合一些本地软件，Gemini CLI 能实现对各种文件更加高级的处理，比如视频转 gif、youtube 视频下载、加水印、文档格式转换等。

这些就非常牛皮了，而且我们日常内容创作大部分都非常需要。

前面我们有了文档了，但是很多时候演示的时候总不能真给人看 Markdown 文档吧，能不能生成 PPT 呢？

可以的，朋友，必须可以，比如我这里就把前面我那个 MCP 索引文档的内容直接转换为 PPT 了。

这个依赖一个叫 Slidev 的项目，它可以用类似 Markdown 文档的格式将内容变成带有丰富样式的 PPT。

你不需要知道这个项目的细节，直接用我下面的提示词生成文件之后，复制文件到这个页面（https://stackblitz.com/github/slidevjs/new?file=slides.md）预览就行。

上面的 Slidev 不需要本地安装直接预览就行，接下来我们介绍一些需要本地安装的项目，这些本地的软件，非常强大，但是由于本身他们是没有界面的，阻碍的很多用户使用。

但是有了 Gemini 之后一切都解决了，提示词可以直接转换为驱动他们的命令行，也可以用提示词直接安装他们，你直接用就行。

首先先介绍一下 ffmpeg 这个项目，给予他你可以实现非常强的视频编辑能力，理论上剪映之类的视频编辑软件都是基于这个完成的。

你可以对本地的视频进行拼接、剪辑、增加文字、转换格式、转换分辨率、增加音乐，基本上你能想到的视频编辑能力他都能做到。

首先我们需要大概你需要处理视频的的文件夹，然后启动 Gemini CLI 第一个命令是让他安装 Homebrew。

然后安装完成后，让他用 Homebrew 帮你安装 ffmpeg。

看到没，跟网页哪些乱七八糟的要求都没关系，你只需要说两句话，就全部安装了。

然后我们就可以爽用了，先给我们指定的视频加个水印试试。

可以看到新的视频右上角果然有了一个水印，这种言出法随的感觉谁不喜欢，你不需要了解原理，你就只需要知道所有的视频编辑他都能帮你搞定。

然后我想要给视频配乐也可以，你只需要告诉他视频文件和音乐文件的名字就行，我甚至让他给音乐加上了淡入和淡出。

他先是获取了一下视频的时长，然后就开始操作了，然后搞定了，非常完美，严丝合缝，淡入淡出也加上了，可以看剪映界面预览的频谱。

我们很多时候需要把视频转换为序列帧，然后拿其中一帧进行处理，或者处理所有的帧，以前你是不是还得到处找这种工具，而且转换效果不一定好。

Gemini CLI 一句话就能搞定，处理的又快又好，而且节省了用网页工具上传下载的时间。

另一个常见的任务就是视频转 gif，尤其公众号有 10 个视频的限制，很多时候迫不得已得转成 gif 发布。

Gemini 捕捉到了高品质这个关键词还制作了调色板保证颜色还原度，最后处理的非常完美。

像 ffmpeg 这种宝藏项目还有很多，比如 yt-dlp 这个项目跟 ffmpeg 配合几乎可以下载你能想到的所有视频平台的视频。

我们还是可以让 Gemini CLI 帮我们安装 yt-dlp 这个项目就行。

然后直接提供视频链接他就会帮你下载，甚至可以批量下载多个视频或者一起连封面和视频一起下载，再也不需要忍受那些工具的垃圾网速了。

处理视频我们有 ffmpeg 这种项目，当然图片也有。

ImageMagick 是一个极其强大的工具集，你可以用它来转换格式、缩放、裁剪、旋转、添加滤镜、组合图片等等。

依然是老一套，先让 Gemini 帮我们安装

先来一个常见任务，我们设计师做外包经常用，在没结款之前给甲方低分辨率和带水印的图片，现在就可以直接批量完成。

这里我让他把所有图片宽边调整为 800 PX，然后统一加上带“内部资料”文字的水印。

中文的水印有些问题，后来改成英文就 OK 了，而且出错之后他自己开始用多模态能力检查修改后的图像了，发现 10% 不透明度的文字不明显，又自己重新改了一下，太聪明了。

然后再来一个常见的图像拼接需求，这种在媒体上发消息的时候经常需要，尤其是推特。

搞得不错，这几张图比例不同，所以没有对齐，可以在命令上加上统一比例这种要求就行。

文档格式转换也是常见的需求，相当多的公司工作文档还是 word，很多时候我发过去 .md 文件那边都不知道怎么办。

首先还是让 Gemini CLI 帮我们安装。

这个时候我们就可以利用 Pandoc 这个项目进行各种文档格式之间的互相转换，当然批量转换也是可以的。

可以看到转的很好，Markdown 的一些基本格式也都迁移了，不管是加粗还是无序列表有序列表。

好了教程到这里就结束了。

你可以用 Gemini CLI 控制这些已经非常成熟的命令行项目，基本上你所有的需求都能找到对应的项目。

不是只有 MCP 才能做 Agent，这些传统工具在有了 LLM 加持之后会更加强大。

看到这里，你可能会突然意识到：原来那些让我们望而却步的专业工具，其实一直都在那里等着我们。

史蒂夫·乔布斯说过的一句话：”技术应该是隐形的。” 今天的 Gemini CLI，正是让那些强大的命令行工具变得”隐形”——你不需要理解它们的工作原理，只需要说出你的需求。

更重要的是，这种改变不仅仅是效率的提升，而是创作门槛的彻底消失。

所以，如果你还在犹豫要不要试试 Gemini CLI，我想说：别让”我不会编程”成为你探索新世界的借口。 因为在这个新世界里，你需要的不是编程能力，而是想象力。

那些曾经高高在上的专业工具，现在都在静静等待着你的一句话。而你要做的，就是勇敢地说出你的需求。

因为最好的工具，是让你忘记它是工具的工具。

我们还年轻，可不想看到这个世界处在毫无自由、隐私的边缘。

长时间没消息的黑森林工作室憋了个大的，发布了生成式流匹配模型 FLUX Kontext。

这套模型最强的地方就是可以对图片进行编辑，但是不会影响没有编辑的地方。

而且还支持多张图片参考生成新的图像，依然能保持需要参考内容的高度一致性。

直接替代了很多原来需要 PS （美图秀秀、Photoshop 等）才能做的需求，原来需要吭哧瘪肚 P 很久的图，现在说句话就行。

我这几天也探索了很多这个模型的用法，这次不会以测试的形式展示了，全是具体用法，让你告别 P 图这个复杂难搞的操作，另外后面也会介绍所有可以使用这个模型的渠道。

🎨 先介绍一下我探索出来的各种用法：

首先是非常简单的图片修改需求，FLUX Kontext 支持通过简单的提示词对图片进行非常精细的修改，而且不会影响未修改的区域。

我们想要给自己的日常照片加一些配饰或者改一下照片的姿势都没有问题，可以看到人物的面部一致性都没有问题，而且修改的地方跟环境也融合的很好。

⚠️注意：FLUX Kontext 只支持英文提示词，我这里放中文是方便理解，你可以用 AI 或者翻译软件把提示翻译了使用

当然 FLUX Kontext 也可以对照片进行大幅度的更改，比如你想要给照片换个背景或者给你自己换一身应景的衣服，再或者在前面的基础上换个姿势。

可以看到我把场景变成了酒吧，整个光线氛围也同步发生了变化，之后又尝试了不同的拍摄角度和姿势，也没有问题。

这种修改需要注意的是优势 Kontext 的分辨率是固定的，画全身照的时候面部有可能会变糊，因为像素区域太小的原因。

🎉 从左到右的提示词分别是：

站在酒吧吧台前

低角度侧脸，白衬衫加领带，吧台灯带背光

左侧半身特写，黑色皮夹克，霓虹灯映衬

全身广角，红色鸡尾酒裙，手扶吧椅

背后平视，帽饰西装，吧台酒架虚化

之前很火给老照片上色和修复也不是问题。

比如我下面的测试提示词就只有给照片上色，Kontext 处理的很好，而且整个色彩非常的高级和自然，明暗关系处理的很好。

想要做风格化？也没问题，只需要一句“将图片变成真实照片”的提示词就行，所有的细节都还原的很好。

当然可能更多人的需求是把自己的照片变成风格化的图片。

比如我们可以输入“把照片转换为吉卜力风格”，Kontext 也处理的很好而且人物的主要特征和电车的特征都还原了，不存在 4o 那种过度重绘和修改细节的问题。

而且这玩意还能修改图片上的文字，最屌的是不会影响原来的其他内容，而且修改的文字字体依然可以保持原来的风格。

你只需要输入“将图片中的 XXX 文字修改为 XXX”就行，比如我这里就把主要的标题改为了 Guizang，字体风格都是一致的，而且他还知道不需要换行。

针对海报复杂一些的修改也是可以的，你可以把一张找到的现成海报改掉文字和内容变成你自己的。

比如这里我就把 Oppo 的倒计时海报改成了小米的，而且连背景色都换了，Kontext 很好的处理了玻璃散射光的那部分。

这里唯一可惜的就是 FLUX Kontext 不支持生成中文，所以你只能修改图片中的英文，但是如果你不修改里面的中文，文字是不受影响的，这比其他图像模型好多了。

Change “Oppo” to “Xiaomi”, and set the image background color to orange.

这个是 Padphone 老师发现的，FLUX Kontext 还是目前最强的去水印模型，可以去掉各种复杂恶心的水印。

比如这里我找了一个 Unsplash 带水印的图片，这种半透明的水印会和图片叠加混合非常难彻底去掉，你只需要跟 Kontext 说“去掉图片的水印”，接下来奇迹就会发生，一点水印都没了。

大家最近应该都被一些 AI 图像模型生成图片默认加水印搞得不堪其扰把，即使开了会员依然有水印，这时候就可以让 Kontext 帮你解决了。

我们也可以用 Kontext 给各种平面的文字或者图案添加上材质和背景，替代原来需要 3D 渲染才能完成的需求，非常适合做品牌设计和平面设计的朋友。

比如这里我就给这个 Logo 变成了金属材质，还给图片加上了草地的背景，可以看到 Kontext 把 Logo 的一些笔画细节还原的非常好。

🎹

Transform the logo text into a shimmering metallic material, floating above a grassy field filled with flowers.

Kontext 还可以在你浏览景区的时候帮你把各种无关的其他游客搞掉，再也不用担心自己好不容易拍了账号照片，结果被误入的其他人毁掉了。

可以看到 Kontext 可以很清楚的识别画面的主体不会连你想拍的人也一起去掉，当然你如果就是想拍风景也可以，让他去掉画面上所有的人就行。

去掉照片中跟主体无关的其他行人

去掉照片中所有的人

前几天收到了可灵的一周年礼盒，看到 Padphone 老师做的展示图手痒，就想看看能不能用 Kontext 做出来，没想到真可以还做的很好。

非常离谱是他连我箱子放地上的灰尘都还原了，下次你要是想要生成类似图片的话记得擦一下产品再拍，哈哈。

💡

一个黑色箱子放在一张舒适、有褶皱的白色毯子中央，毯子的织物纹理清晰可见。瓶子周围自然地摆放着一些精致的白色小苍兰，几片花瓣零星散落。阳光柔和地洒下，投下柔和、弥散的阴影，营造出一种温暖而宁静的氛围。非常逼真的特写场景，光线是柔和的自然日光。

很多人说箱子是立方体太好生成了，整点复杂的，那我们拿可灵礼盒里的工服试试。

显然也没啥问题，文字有问题是因为生成图片的分辨率低，文字又小，导致的模糊，就跟我们拍照的时候离得远的文字也会模糊一样。

一件黑色 T 恤水平漂浮于空中，正从天花板向地板降落，看起来毫无重量。画面中无人，充满超现实感且不受重力影响。光线柔和，风格简约而优雅。背景为灰色。

很多朋友说我想要更复杂的商品展示，指定多张图片的模特和商品然后合成到一个图片中行不行，也是可以的，多图参考有点复杂我后面会讲。

可以看到第一张图商品细节、模特服装、配饰、发型以及背景都没问题，这个惊到我了。

第二张图我让模特穿上了可灵的工服，这次连衣服上的小字都还原了，可以说是完美还原，这个你让我在电商平台刷到，加上电商平台的压缩，我看不出来说实话。

这里有个小技巧：FLUX Kontext 手持产品的时候，产品一般会比正常的比例偏大，这个时候提示词描述一下产品大小就可以解决问题，比如手持易拉罐变为手持小号易拉罐。

女孩拿着化妆品瓶子

女孩穿着这件 T 恤

最后压轴的是我们日常修图最常见的需求，大家都想把自己变得好看点，面部的美颜现在都发展的比较好了。

但是身体部位很多还是靠用美图或者用醒图一点点的 P，自带的一键优化非常的生硬死板，不够自然。

昨天试了一下给男生增肌，发现 FLUX Kontext 可以很好的理解需求，图片任何部分都没变化，只有胳膊的肌肉变大了，这要是不说谁知道我 P 了，哈哈。

🍞

男性胳膊的肌肉变大，面部没有变化。

那变瘦点是不是也可以呢，可以的，甚至都能瘦脸，瘦的很自然，不会再让人从扭曲的门把手或者瓷砖看到自己 P 图了，突然想到这下卖减肥药和健身课的是不是又爽了，一键搞定广告素材。

📍

让女性的胳膊变瘦，肚子变得平坦，去掉面部赘肉

如果你就是单纯的想要尝试一下这个模型 不想涉及到复杂操作的话我推荐两个渠道：

FLUX 官方的 Palyground （https://playground.bfl.ai/image/edit）和 Krea （https://www.krea.ai/edit）其中 FLUX 的 Palyground 还送了 200 积分，生成一张图只消耗 4 积分，够你玩很久了。

这两个地方的使用都很简单上传图片，输入提示词然后等待就行。

其中 Krea 选择 FLUX Kontext 的 Pro 模型就行 Max 模型在单图修改场景反而效果不好。

FLUX 的 Palyground 的话生成的时候记得把在输入框右边三个点那里把每次生成的张数改成 1，不然一次生成 4 张有点浪费。

如果你想要开发产品或者有 Comfyui 的基础想要玩一下多图参考，这里我推荐 Fal 的渠道（https://fal.ai/models/fal-ai/flux-pro/kontext/max/multi）。

Fal 的测试页面可以直接使用多图参考，上传图片输入提示词就行，如果你不想用多图了，可以在页面上方红框那里选择其他 Pro 模型尝试单图编辑。

另外 Fal 也有他们的 Comfyui 插件，只需要在 Comfyui manager 里面搜索 ComfyUI-fal-API 然后安装就行。

安装之后在插件目录，找到 config.ini 文件，把里面 这段话改成你的 API Key 就行。

工作流的搭建很简单找到 FLUX Pro Kontext Multi 这个节点链接多张图，之后输入提示词就行，另外由于这个是 API 节点不需要本地算力，所以 mac 电脑也可以玩。

在涉及到针对人体的精细修改比如变瘦、变老变年轻需要多抽卡，不一定一次能成功。

多图参考的时候人脸的 ID 保持会下降，保持 ID 最好的方式是让 FLUX 不要修改面部。

FLUX Kontext 是可以识别图片里面的涂鸦标记的意思的。

你可以将你想要修改的地方圈起来，生成的时候他不会把标记生成进去，这样就可以实现精确修改，比如这个来自 @fofrAI 的案例，没有提示词就实现了换脸。

好了今天的教程到这里就结束了。

FLUX Kontext 除了强大能力之外的另一个优势是他非常便宜，编辑一张图只需要 0.08 美元也就是 5 毛钱人民币，相较于 GPT-4o 一张图 1.4 人民币的价格可以说非常便宜了。

另外他们后面还会开源一个 Dev 的 Kontext 模型这个会让成本进一步降低，太期待了。

（Abstract）划重点：第一，Uboot 和 MIBIB 刷写件是可以免费获得的，不用花钱买。第二，要用 Chrome 浏览器来操作 web 界面。第三，用 openwrt.ai 这个网站自行构建最终固件，不要用网上现成的，特别是那些骗钱的。