512 Pixels

This week on Connected, we hosted our annual Year in Review:

2019 was a wild year, complete with the death of AirPower, the announcement of iPadOS, the release of the iPhone 11 and the return of the Mac Pro. This week, Stephen, Federico and Myke revisit the headlines that made this year so hectic.

My thanks to everyone who has been part of Connected’s crazy year. We’ll be off next week for Christmas, but back on January 1 with our annual predictions.

I’d also like to thank our sponsors this week:

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Federico Viticci:

For the past several months, I’ve been working on a shortcut designed to be the ultimate assistant for Apple Music. Called MusicBot, the shortcut encompasses dozens of different features and aims to be an all-in-one assistant that helps you listen to music more quickly, generate intelligent mixes based on your tastes, rediscover music from your library, control playback on AirPlay 2 speakers, and much more. I poured hundreds of hours of work into MusicBot, which has gained a permanent spot on my Home screen. Best of all, MusicBot is available to everyone for free.

MusicBot is wild, and pushes Shortcuts further than I’ve ever seen. If you use Apple Music, you should download this.

This week on Ungeniused:

Two (or more) small furry animals — Twiggy and Tommy — live on, in our hearts.

Yes, this is serious.

My thanks to our sponsor:

• Hullo: A simple, natural pillow designed for comfort. Try it for 60 days.

This time on Liftoff:

2019 is coming to a close, but the news rolls on: NASA is close to having a new budget, Commercial Crew makes another step in the right direction and Jason ends things with a holiday message.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• StoryWorth: Record your family stories. Get $20 off your first purchase.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code LIFTOFF at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

Apple:

Learn about the many different parts you can replace and upgrade in your Mac Pro.

You can remove and install many of the parts in your Mac Pro.

Tasty.

A few things caught my eye in this teardown:

• The wheels are removable from the frame, so I’m unsure why they can’t be purchased separately.
• That CPU heatsink is huge.
• Almost everything inside can be removed with standard tools.
• I love all the little levers and switches for the RAM and PCI slots.

Secure ShellFish is a SFTP client that lives in the Files app on iPad and iPhone. Access the directories on your Mac, Linux server or Raspberry Pi like you access Dropbox and iCloud Drive. Files are downloaded when opened with changes uploaded as you make them or as soon as possible if you temporarily lose the connection to the server.

It supports the Shortcuts app allowing you to automate file transfers and can be used from the share sheet for fast uploads.

The app is free to download with pro features requiring a single permanent in-app purchase.

At the risk of creating some sort of space-time-link paradox, here’s Joe Rossignol at MacRumors:

Shortly after the Pro Display XDR became available to order this week, Stephen Hackett of Relay FM noted that the iMac Pro was not included in the list of Mac models compatible with the display on Apple’s website.

Fortunately, video editor Thomas Grove Carter has since demonstrated that the iMac Pro can in fact drive the Pro Display XDR, but only at a 5K resolution. This is likely because the iMac Pro uses Intel’s older “Alpine Ridge” Thunderbolt 3 controller without enough bandwidth to drive a 6K display.

Of course, we had Thomas on Mac Power Users this week to talk about the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR, but this topic didn’t come up, as the final list of supported Macs was still unknown when we recorded that episode.

I feel like this really starts the clock running on the future of the iMac Pro. It’s an amazing machine — my base model is fantastic — and I hope Apple and Intel can manage to get another one out the door soon. I expect there are people in the Pro Display XDR’s possible user base who are frustrated by this lack of compatibility.

Great news if you have an Amazon Tube Friend.

The folks at Bjango have a new iOS weather app. I was able to use it during the beta process, and I’ve been really impressed with it.

It comes with all the data you could want, laid out in a compact, clean way. It’s complete with a Today View widget and Apple Watch app, and there are a bunch of ways to customize the data the app shows on its various screens.

Go check it out on the iOS App Store. Snowflake Weather is $4.99, with an in-app subscription for a bunch of extra goodies.

If you have a product, app or service that you want to get in front of the lovely nerds who like reading 512 Pixels, get in touch.

This week on Connected:

Stephen and Myke are joined by John Voorhees to talk about the new Mac Pro, then Federico reflects on the 5th anniversary of Shortcuts.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code CONNECTED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
• ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package.
• Bombas: Super comfortable socks. Be a holiday gifting-ninja. Use this link for 20% off.