512 Pixels

I know a lot about Apple history, and I’ve never come across this device until today. Juli Clover writes:

Unsurprisingly, the W.A.L.T. takes a while to start up given its age, but it’s functional, running Mac System 6. The W.A.L.T. featured a touchscreen, fax functionality, on-display caller ID, a built-in address book, customizable ringtones, and online banking access.

As shown in the video, it had a series of hardware buttons for activating various functions, and it worked with a connected stylus that could be used for navigation and writing. There’s a ton of lag when using the stylus, though, so writing doesn’t look great.

Amazing.

This time on Liftoff:

Rocket Lab has a new satellite platform, while methane cycles have been measured on Mars. Elsewhere, NASA continues to work through the details of its new 2024 lunar goal and 2007 OR10 needs a name.

Landing Americans on the moon within five years will require incredible funding and detailed plans. So far, NASA hasn’t produced either, but details should be coming soon. I’m looking forward to seeing the agency rise to meet this goal, assuming Congress agrees to fund it.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• KiwiCo: Hands on learning and experienced based play. Get your first crate free.
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I recently joined Timothy Buck on his UNCO podcast to talk about podcasting, the history of Relay FM and building a relationship with your listeners.

This week’s Ungeniused was recorded live in Atlanta over the weekend, and in it, we talked about discuss extreme ironing, lawn mower racing and egg tapping.

My thanks to our sponsor:

• Backblaze: Unlimited cloud backup for Macs and PCs for just $6/month.

Mmmmm, specs.

This week on Mac Power Users, our special guests goes into the ins and outs of creating music with iOS devices:

Jakob Haq is a musician and YouTuber from Sweden who create, edits and publishes all of his content with his iPhone and iPad.

My thanks to our sponsors this week:

• 1Password: Have you ever forgotten a password? You don’t have to worry about that anymore.
• The Omni Group: We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
• Bombas: The most comfortable socks in the history of feet. Use this link for 20% off.
• Hover: Extensions for anything you’re passionate about. Grab a .ME domain for $9.99.

Good news for buyers, but $249 would be even better.

The venerable text editor is back on the Mac App Store, as noted by Zac Hall at 9to5Mac:

BBEdit 12.6 in February introduced support for Sandboxing on the Mac, a major overhaul that secures how the app interacts with the operating system and other apps, which is a requirement for software distributed through the Mac App Store.

As we mentioned earlier this year, Bare Bones famously pulled BBEdit from the Mac App Store almost five years ago, but Apple announced at WWDC 2018 that BBEdit and other apps including Transmit and Microsoft Office would return or debut on the new Mac App Store.

Improvements to Sandboxing restrictions and other limitations have eased pain points for developers of complex apps like BBEdit.

The app is free to download, with a $3.99/month or $39.99/year subscription to unlock its full (and long) list of features after a 30-day trial. I love the release notes:

BBEdit 12 features more than three hundred new features and refinements since the last Mac App Store release of BBEdit. 64-bit accelerated, Mojave ready with Dark Mode support, Git integration, and so much more.

This week on the show:

AirPower is dead, Powerbeats Pro are here, Federico is having a good week on Twitter and iCloud Drive deserves some attention from Apple.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Hullo: A simple, natural pillow designed for comfort. Try it for 60 days.
• Hover: Extensions for anything you’re passionate about. Grab a .ME domain for $9.99.
• ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package.

For a while now, if you’ve been looking at a high-end iMac, there has been an obvious, looming question:

Should I just buy the iMac Pro instead?

Jason Snell, writing at Macworld, tackles this dilemma:

What this all suggests is that the iMac Pro is exactly what Apple says it is—a high-end iMac with a whole bunch of special high-end features that’s most appropriate for people who use high-end professional apps that have been optimized for Apple’s professional Mac architecture. If that sounds like you, congratulations—you’re ready to take the leap across the iMac Pro gap. (You may want to consider buying an even higher-end iMac Pro than the base model—many of my friends agree that the 10-core model might be the best mix of price and performance.)

But if you’re not one of those people, if you don’t need all the added niceties and the extreme performance in pro apps, there’s good news. You can configure a 5K iMac with Intel’s latest and greatest ninth-generation Intel Core processors, a bunch of SSD storage, and a load of RAM, and have an iMac that matches or beats the iMac Pro on most tests… and walk away with $1,500 in your pocket.

The choice, as always, is yours.

I joined John and Gui over on the newest episode of Stacktrace to talk through Apple’s 40-year history, and how it is a company that is always changing. It was a lot of fun to nerd about about the Apple II vs. Macintosh wars, and apply it to today.

I recently spoke with Darren from The Mac Quad about my background, some of the gear I use to produce content and some important pieces of nerd culture that should be saved for future generations. I enjoyed our time together, and think the episode came out nicely.