Advanced Mac Substitute ⇢

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Advanced Mac Substitute is a project dedicated to reimplement the classic Mac OS in order to emulate 68k Mac software without Apple ROM or software.

Sean Gallagher at Ars wrote about it earlier this week:

Advanced Mac Substitute is an effort by long-time Mac hacker Josh Juran to make it possible to run old Mac OS software (up to Mac OS 6) without a need for an Apple ROM or system software. Other emulators out there for 68000 Mac applications such as Basilisk II require a copy of MacOS installation media—such as install CDs from Mac OS 7.5 or Mac OS 8. But AMS uses a set of software libraries that allow old Mac applications to launch right within the operating environment of the host device, without needing to have a full virtual hardware and operating system instance behind them. And it’s all open source.

Be. Still. My. Heart.

Project Titan Sheds 200 Employees ⇢

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CNBC is reporting that some 200 people working on Apple’s autonomous vehicle program have moved to different parts of the company:

An Apple spokesperson acknowledged the layoffs and said the company still sees opportunity in the space:

“We have an incredibly talented team working on autonomous systems and associated technologies at Apple. As the team focuses their work on several key areas for 2019, some groups are being moved to projects in other parts of the company, where they will support machine learning and other initiatives, across all of Apple,” the spokesperson said.

“We continue to believe there is a huge opportunity with autonomous systems, that Apple has unique capabilities to contribute, and that this is the most ambitious machine learning project ever.”

Project Titan has been through several ups and downs over the years, but this seems like a big blow.

Macintosh Turns 35

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35 years ago today, Steve jobs took his prized creation out of its bag for the first time:

Joe Rossignol beat me to this, but he summed the original machine up nicely over on MacRumors:

The original Macintosh was priced at $2,495 in the United States, equivalent to just over $6,000 today, and was a big deal because of its graphical user interface rather than command-line interface. Tech specs included an 8 MHz Motorola 68000 processor, 128 KB of RAM, and a 400 KB floppy disk drive.

This tiny machine changed the world. Happy birthday, Mac!

Connected #227: Caveats Ruin People ⇢

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This week’s Connected is up:

After Stephen ruins the intro, Federico finally gets around to talking about his second iPad Pro and Myke shares a secret.

My thanks to our sponsors this week:

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Apple Releases Updates for iOS, watchOS and audioOS (Updated) ⇢

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It’s bugfixes all around. Fingers crossed it really does bring an end to my HomePods forgetting to wake up when someone says “Hey, Siri.”

Mojave 10.14.3 is up too, now:

This update improves the security, stability, and compatibility of your Mac and includes the following enterprise content: When making a file-sharing connection that uses a valid Kerberos TGT to authenticate, users are no longer prompted to enter credentials.

Mac Power Users #466: John Gruber Returns ⇢

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This week’s episode of Mac Power Users is a real fun one:

John Gruber of Daring Fireball and The Talk Show join David and Stephen for a discussion about writing and podcasting, as well as WWDC and what the future may hold for the iPad and Mac.

I’d like to thank John for being the first guest after the changing of the guard at MPU. It was a great conversation that I really enjoyed. If you haven’t heard MPU in a while, this is a good place to start.

I’d like to thank our sponsors:

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Twitter is Over

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I present two pieces of evidence, just from this week’s news:

This is hard for me. I like my little community on Twitter, but I know it is a hellscape of abuse for many. I use it to promote my work and to talk with my audience, but every time I open my replies, I brace myself for something terrible to be there, waiting for me to see it.

Regardless of all of that, I think it’s clear the leadership at Twitter has no idea what they are doing, and I think the network’s time is ticking away faster than ever.

Tim Cook: ‘You Deserve Privacy Online. Here’s How You Could Actually Get It’ ⇢

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Apple CEO Time Cook, writing at Time:

In 2019, it’s time to stand up for the right to privacy—yours, mine, all of ours. Consumers shouldn’t have to tolerate another year of companies irresponsibly amassing huge user profiles, data breaches that seem out of control and the vanishing ability to control our own digital lives.

[…]

That’s why I and others are calling on the U.S. Congress to pass comprehensive federal privacy legislation—a landmark package of reforms that protect and empower the consumer.

I like what Cook pitches in this article, but until we have Congresspeople who actually understand the Internet, I’m not holding my breath for meaningful change.

Connected #226: The Instagram Secret Society ⇢

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This week on Connected, we are joined by a very special guest:

The boys discuss a bunch of Apple products that may be receiving refreshes after years of neglect, including the iPad mini and iPod touch, then are taught how to edit photos like pros by Tyler Stalman.

Tyler walked us through several great tips for shooting and editing with an iPhone, and shared some about his favorite apps.

My thanks to our sponsors:

  • PDFpen, from Smile: The ultimate tool for editing PDFs. Click here to learn more.
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