Year: 2016

How to Remove Location Data From Photos Using Preview

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Most of the photos I take for this website are done with my DSLR, but sometimes I end up posting photos taken with my iPhone. Those images include geolocation data, which is not something I want to share with the world.

I used to use Photoshop for removing this information, but thankfully, Preview on macOS makes it easy to get rid of this information.1

Open an image, then choose Show Inspector from the Tools menu.

On the second tab, there will be a GPS section. Simply click the Remove Location Info button on this pane and save the image again. All geolocation data will be removed, keeping the location of your top-secret bunker safe and sound from the Internet.

Preview

  1. To be honest, I have no idea when this was added. ↩

Inside ‘So Far: The First Ten Years of a Vision’

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Designed by Apple in California and A Personal Guide to Personal Computers are not the only books Apple has published in the last 40 years.

So Far: The First Ten Years of a Vision was published in 1987, and celebrated the company’s tenth anniversary. Unlike *Designed by Apple in California,” this book mixes text and photos nicely. It’s built on the premise that Apple is about far more than computers.

Chapter names include things like “Freedom,” “Courage,” and “Sharing.” The book is full of little stories about people making a difference in the world using Apple computers. It’s all very upbeat and touchy-feely. It even includes numerous page with the names of all past and present employees as of January 1, 1987.

So Far

So Far

So Far

So Far

So Far

macOS Sierra 10.12.2 Is Out →

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Today’s update to macOS brings a bunch of fixes:

  • Improves setup and reliability of Auto Unlock
  • Allows addition of a Chinese Trackpad Handwriting button to the Touch Bar Control Strip
  • Adds support for taking screenshots of the Touch Bar using the Grab app or Cmd-Shift-6 shortcut
  • Fixes an issue that caused the Touch Bar emoji picker to appear on the display
  • Resolves graphics issues on MacBook Pro (October 2016) computers
  • Fixes an issue where System Integrity Protection was disabled on some MacBook Pro (October 2016) computers
  • Improves setup and opt-out experience for iCloud Desktop and Documents
  • Fixes an issue with the delivery of Optimized Storage alerts
  • Improves audio quality when using Siri and FaceTime with Bluetooth headphones
  • Improves the stability of Photos when creating and ordering books
  • Fixes an issue where incoming Mail messages did not appear when using a Microsoft Exchange account
  • Fixes an issue that prevented installation of Safari Extensions downloaded outside the Safari Extensions Gallery
  • Adds support for new installations of Windows 8 and Windows 7 using Boot Camp on supported Macs

It’s out in the Mac App Store now.

10.12.2 also brings another change: the removal of the “time remaining” estimate in the battery menu bar item. Some have said that this is a good change, as those estimates were rarely accurate. I’d rather Apple fix their battery meter than remove it altogether.

Some Copland Documentation

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Copland was Apple’s failed attempt to modernize the classic Mac OS in the mid 1990s. While parts of it would end up in Mac OS 8, the dream of a modern Mac operating system wouldn’t be realized until after Apple bought NeXT.1

Copland is a really interesting (and sad) chapter in the Mac’s history. Here are some documents I’ve collected over the years about it:

“Mac OS 8 Build D11E4” was a preview build of Copland. It ran on very select hardware, and had to be connected via a serial cable to a Power Mac running a special Debugger program:

Good times.

  1. Something you can read all about in my book. ↩

Inside ‘A Personal Guide to Personal Computers’

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Designed by Apple in California is far from the only book Apple has published in the last 40 years.

Today, I wanted to share some select pages from A Personal Guide to Personal Computers, a sales book put out by the company in 1982.

The book works to make the personal computer more approachable, while building a case for purchasing an Apple system. I’ve scanned the first chapter as a PDF you can download here.

Cover

Table of Contents

Artwork

Apple Systems

There’a a video on YouTube looking at what went into the book:

Macintosh Portable: Used in Space Shuttle →

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This is the best kbase article of all time:

I would like more information about the Macintosh Portable used in the space shuttle by the NASA some years ago.

We believe you are referring to shuttle launch STS-43. The primary mission of STS-43 was to deploy a fourth TDRS satellite (Tracking and Data Relay Satellite). The shuttle was launched at 11:02 AM EST on Friday August 2, 1991, and landed at about 8:30 AM EST on Sunday August 11, 1991.

The shuttle carried a Macintosh Portable (nonbacklite) system on board. It was used for four primary purposes.

The Macintosh Portable was used to test using cursor control devices in low-gravity situations, send the first email from space, record medical information and help track the shuttle’s position in orbit.

There’s even a video of the machine ejecting a disk, sending it flying across a room aboard the shuttle.

Here’s a little more about the “WristMac” that is mentioned in the article.

Amazing stuff.

Thanks, Brendan.

Godspeed, John Glenn →

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John Wilford at The New York Times:

John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the space age as the first American to orbit Earth, then became a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95.

Glenn had one hell of a resume:

America lost a hero today.