512 Pixels

The PowerCD is a weird footnote in the history of Apple’s audio products, but I just recently learned in was going to come in two colors, thanks to this support article:

There original strategy had two colors available for both NTSC and PAL. The Gray was for the business and education channels and the Blue for the consumer. The Blue is no longer available. In Apple USA, model HOO14ll/A, which was Blue, changed to H0014LL/B, which is Gray. After the color change, the only difference between the business and consumer channel models were the CDs that come with the PowerCD.

This week on Mac Power Users:

Stephen and David talk through the ups and downs of the Mac App Store and share some of the hidden gems they’ve found there over the years. Then, they recap Apple’s recent media event after being interrupted by Mother Nature in the Sparks’ yard.

The Mac App Store has had a rough life, but we both think better days are ahead.

My thanks to our sponsors:

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• Luna Display: The only hardware solution that turns your iPad into a wireless display for your Mac. Use promo code POWER at checkout for 10% off.
• Away: Travel smarter with the suitcase that charges your phone. Get $20 off with the code ‘mpu’.

After announcing AirPower back in the fall of 2017, the multi-device wireless charging pad has been cancelled. Matthew Panzarino at TechCrunch:

Apple has canceled the AirPower product completely, citing difficulty meeting its own standards.

“After much effort, we’ve concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project. We apologize to those customers who were looking forward to this launch. We continue to believe that the future is wireless and are committed to push the wireless experience forward,” said Dan Riccio, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in an emailed statement today.

This is pretty unheard of when it comes to Apple, and I suspect the company won’t be pre-announcing hardware so far in advance any time soon. That said, I’d rather see the company kill a product than ship something that doesn’t work.

We’re super excited to announce we’re hosting a live episode of Connected at WWDC again this year. The show will be the evening of Wednesday, June 5. Tickets are on sale now and are moving quickly.

Big, big week on Connected:

After announcing tickets for their live WWDC show and judging their predictions for Apple’s media event and breaking a score between Stephen and Myke, the guys share their impressions of the new AirPods, Apple News+ and more.

Siri plays a pivotal role in this episode.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Luna Display: The only hardware solution that turns your iPad into a wireless display for your Mac. Use promo code CONNECTED at checkout for 10% off.
• Away: Travel smarter with the suitcase that charges your phone. Get $20 off with the code ‘connected’.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code CONNECTED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

On what is the second episode of Liftoff in two days:

The guys talk through a few stories that didn’t make Episode 95, including what’s going on with Boeing’s Starliner and Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser, as well as Bennu’s habit of spewing material into space.

…and she isn’t happy about it.

Apple issued a statement to Stern about the on-going issues with these keyboards:

We are aware that a small number of users are having issues with their third-generation butterfly keyboard and for that we are sorry. The vast majority of Mac notebook customers are having a positive experience with the new keyboard.

A huge space policy announcement it the central theme on this episode of Liftoff:

Vice President Mike Pence has challenged NASA to return to the moon within five years.

Jason and I respond to the news with … a lot of questions.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code LIFTOFF at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

After upgrading my MacBook Pro to macOS 10.14.4 this morning, macOS has been asking me to re-authenticate the G Suite accounts I use in Mail.

For some background, I use Mail with one regular Gmail account and two G Suite accounts. Both of the latter asked to be logged back in, weirdly, hours apart:

Update: A few hours later, my regular Gmail account asked to be logged in again, too.

As pointed out by Greg Pierce, I am not the only one, and for some users, the problem is a lot worse than being asked to sign in again:

The issue puts me in an endless loop. I get a notification “Google requires completing authentication in Safari.” This takes me to a Sign in dialog where I enter email account and password. Password is correct and accepted, after which I’m back in the loop again asking to enter Google Password.

If I login to my Google account in Safari I can see the recent events that I signed in without any problems on this Mac, but Apple Mail does NOT connect and I am back in the endless loop.

Oddly I can add events to the Google Calendar for the account so apparently something is amiss strictly with Apple Mail.

Yikes.

Apple Support:

This document provides compatibility information and basic troubleshooting for installing Mac OS 8.6.

This time on Ungeniused, a heartbreaking story:

In 1982, a series of murders rocked the country and changed consumer packaging forever.

This took place 4 years before I was born, but it impacted the world in a way that could not be undone.

My thanks to our sponsor:

• ExpressVPN: High-Speed, Secure & Anonymous VPN Service. Get 3 months free with a 1-year package.

It’s all a lie, but here it is on my iPhone XS:

I really do not like that Apple allowed this.