macOS offers numerous ways to secure your data. Used together, these features mean that even if your Mac is stolen, the data on it is safe from prying eyes.
The most basic step of protecting your Mac is having a password set up for your user. If you don’t have one, it can be set up in System Preferences > Users and Groups.
While there, make sure the computer isn’t automatically logging in:
Defying Gravity: The Making of Newton is a book on Apple about the company’s ill-fated PDA from the 1990s. It was published by Beyond Words Publishing in 1993. Infortunately, they spelled the title of the book Defying Graviity on the spine.
My particular copy was a gift from a friend, but at some point was part of a library system.
Instead of page numbers, the book counts down to zero, which marks the product’s introduction. It follows several members of the Newton team, including Michael Tchao, who is a VP of Product Marketing at Apple today after a 15-year hiatus away from the company.
Jason Snell has published a video that hits the nail right on the head as far as the Mac’s place in tomorrow’s world. In it, he also breaks down the problems in Steve Jobs’ analogy about the Mac being a truck.
The Mac is my favorite computing platform on God’s green Earth. I find great joy in using it, but it makes me sad at the same time.
I’m not alone in that duality. Many of the Mac’s most hardcore fans have felt slighted — or even forgotten — as the iPhone and iPad have risen to prominence at Apple.
I don’t think the Mac is a dead platform yet, but I do fear its glory days are behind it. It isn’t seeing the types of innovation it once did. It’s not the focus for many third-party developers, but more importantly, it’s unique advantages are slipping away:
After months of waiting, I finally got my hands on a set of AirPods, Apple’s new wireless earbuds that were promised way back at the iPhone 7 event in September.
I’ve only had them for a day or so, so this isn’t a comprehensive review, but I wanted to share some initial impressions.
The AirPods are full of little touches of whimsy that make them feel a lot smarter than normal headphones:
Apple’s CEO, in a posting to an employee message board that was leaked to TechCrunch:
The desktop is very strategic for us. It’s unique compared to the notebook because you can pack a lot more performance in a desktop — the largest screens, the most memory and storage, a greater variety of I/O, and fastest performance. So there are many different reasons why desktops are really important, and in some cases critical, to people.
I grew up in Silicon Valley two decades before it was cool enough to be the title of a show on HBO. My parents were conventional hippies who drove Volvos donned with “Save Tibet” and “Question Authority” bumper stickers. The public elementary school I went to in the Santa Cruz Mountains had only 30 kids in the 5th grade.
No matter their livelihoods or income levels, whether they were on food stamps or had enough money to get their kids their own miniature drivable Power Wheels Jeeps for Christmas —the parents would help out in whatever ways they could. My dad would take our class on nature walks while another girl’s mom led our Girl Scout troop. In 5th grade, we’d stay after school so my friend Sara’s dad could teach us about computers.
Displays and wireless routers aren’t the only things Apple has left behind over the decades. This month on MacStories, I wrote about all sorts of businesses Apple has exited. It was a lot of fun to write about old-ass scanners and more.
Speaking of the iPad Pro, Jason Snell’s wish list for the device is spot-on.