512 Pixels

Apple Support:

If you see a white, greasy substance in the computer’s battery bay, frequently near the battery electrical contact points, it is no cause of concern. The substance is merely a non-harmful grease that is applied during production of the iBook computer.

The grease is applied to the springs in the battery bay to help ease removal of the battery.

If there is excessive grease, you can remove it with a clean, dry, lint-free cloth.

Note: While the grease does not represent any potential harm if it comes in contact with the your skin, it should be washed off using soap and warm water.

Unite 4 for macOS allows you to turn any website into an app on your Mac. Using a lightweight, WebKit powered browser as a backend, you can easily create isolated, customizable apps from any site.

Unite 4 includes dozens of new features, including support for native notifications, new customization options, and much more. Unite apps also serve as a great alternative for resource-hogging Electron apps or half-baked Catalyst apps.

Some examples of apps you could create in mere minutes with Unite:

• A Gmail web client that behaves like a native mail client
• A status bar app for Apple Music or Overcast
• An isolated workspace for apps that may track you like Facebook
• A Google Meet app that works efficiently without using Chrome
• A fully featured Instagram app that has a resizable window
• A Robinhood, Figma, or Roam Research app for your desktop

The newly launched Unite 4.2 makes the experience even better, with built-in password management, fully-featured status bar apps, and much more.

512 Pixels readers get 20% off this week when you purchase Unite 4 at bzgapps.com/unite512 or when you use the promo code ‘512Pixels’ at checkout.

You can also try Unite for 14 days absolutely free or use it as part of your subscription if you’re a Setapp subscriber!

NASA:

NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 9:40 a.m. PST Sunday after a record-breaking mission, traveling more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and returning safely to Earth, completing the Artemis I flight test.

Splashdown is the final milestone of the Artemis I mission that began with a successful liftoff of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket Nov. 16, from Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the course of 25.5 days, NASA tested Orion in the harsh environment of deep space before flying astronauts on Artemis II.

As Eric Berger writes at Ars Technica, this marks the end of a historic mission:

This has not happened in half a century. At times, it seemed like it might never happen again. But now, it is most definitely happening.

NASA’s progress back toward the Moon, and one day potentially Mars, has been at times lethargic. The political process that led NASA to this point in recent decades was messy and motivated by parochial pork projects. But on Sunday there could be no denying that this process has brought NASA, the United States, and dozens of other nations participating in the Artemis Program to the point where its human deep space exploration program is a very, very real thing.

It has been a long time coming.

Somehow, we’ve reached the 50th anniversary of the final crewed lunar Apollo mission, so Jason and I are back with a Liftoff episode breaking it all down.

It’s great to see Tim Dodd from Everyday Astronaut on the list, but one woman on a prime crew of eight is disappointing.

If you’re looking to buy a Mac this holiday season, Apple of 1995 has you covered:

Once upon a time, purchasing a family computer was more complicated than finding four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree. With recent price drops for personal computers and a proliferation of easy-to-use and useful software, there’s never been a more affordable or better time to bring your home into the 21st century.

Wish lists and children’s letters to Santa can be daunting enough without adding bits and bytes, RAM and ROM, to the equation. So here are 10 tips for buying a computer the whole family will use and enjoy for seasons to come.

This week on the World’s Greatest Podcast:

Myke has returned and has feelings about recent developments on the show. After Myke tries to punish Stephen with a set of quiz questions, Federico explores Obsidian’s new Canvas feature.

On the Pro version of the show, Viticci told us about his wild boar encounter and we react to today’s iCloud news.

Apple Newsroom:

Apple today introduced three advanced security features focused on protecting against threats to user data in the cloud, representing the next step in its ongoing effort to provide users with even stronger ways to protect their data. With iMessage Contact Key Verification, users can verify they are communicating only with whom they intend. With Security Keys for Apple ID, users have the choice to require a physical security key to sign in to their Apple ID account. And with Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, which uses end-to-end encryption to provide Apple’s highest level of cloud data security, users have the choice to further protect important iCloud data, including iCloud Backup, Photos, Notes, and more.

Snell has more, and Joanna Stern talked with Apple’s Craig Federighi about the changes.

Daniel over at Red Sweater Software has released version 5 of his excellent blog editor for macOS:

MarsEdit 5 features a beautiful new icon, a “Microposting” feature for streamlined short-form blogging, enhanced plain-text editing with built-in Markdown syntax highlighting, a completely rebuilt rich text editor based on Apple’s latest WebKit2 technologies, and a variety of nuanced improvements to make your blogging workflow smoother, and more enjoyable than ever.

My favorite feature of the update is the Markdown syntax highlighting, which you can see in this screenshot:

As someone who does all of his blogging in MarsEdit, it’s a great addition and helps ensure that I don’t make silly syntax errors.

The new version of MarsEdit also includes a new system-wide quick post feature that makes it easy to send short posts to a blog of your choosing:

As with previous versions, Daniel has upgrade pricing avaible:

This update is free for MarsEdit 4 users who purchased a license on or after June 1, 2022. For all other licensed MarsEdit 4 users, the upgrade fee is $29.95. For all other users the one-time purchase price is $59.95.

Users who purchased the in-app purchase via the Mac App Store can obtain the same upgrade discounts within the Mac App Store version of MarsEdit 5, when it becomes available, by locating a valid copy of MarsEdit 4 with premium features unlocked.

Version 5 should be in Setapp shorlty.

I’ve been using MarsEdit 5 in beta for a while,¹ and it continues to be a critical tool in how I run 512 Pixels. The new version makes it all the better. I’m excited to see the new Microposting evolve over time, making my shift away from social media even easier.

Eric Berger, writing at Ars:

The Orion spacecraft swung by the Moon on Monday, flying to within 130 km of that world’s surface as it set course for a return to Earth this weekend.

In making this “powered flyby burn” to move away from the Moon, Orion’s service module performed its longest main engine firing to date, lasting 3 minutes and 27 seconds. After successful completion of the maneuver, NASA’s mission management team gave the “go” to send recovery teams out into the Pacific Ocean, where Orion is due to splashdown on Sunday, during the middle of the day.

Don’t miss the amazing images the spacecraft took while near the moon.

Not everyone has a stack of old Macs for running older software, but the Internet is a magical place, and Mac OS 9 has joined OS 8 and System 7 in being able to be run in the browser.

Apple Support:

This article lists the various monitors supported by Performa computers which will drive an external monitor.

As you can probably guess, it’s a bit of a mess.