Myke Hurley was out this week, so I joined Jason Snell for today’s episode of Upgrade:
Stephen Hackett joins Jason to discuss emergency calls, reaction to Jason’s “The Mac is the Model” piece, iPhone metals, our innate troubleshooting powers, Jason’s laptop dilemma, the ChatGPT Mac app, and some very old Vision Pro news.
On Upgrade+, I had Jason price out a MacBook Pro, then we talked about our Thanksgiving breaks.
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On this week’s Mac Power Users, David and I make it through the rest of Apple’s platforms this week, including a speed round of the company’s entertainment portfolio.
On More Power Users, we covered the state of HomeKit, both in our own homes and more generally. You can sign up for a year of the ad-free, longer version of the show for 20% off between now and December 18.
It’s that time of year again: Indie App Sales is currently boasting over 400 Mac and iOs apps for sale. There are some real gems on the list.
Federico has been battling color profiles and Stephen has been working to solve a mystery, while Myke has just been enjoying the vibes.
On Connected Pro — the longer, ad-free version of the show — we reviewed the new Linkin Park and talked about my Thanksgiving plans. You can get Connected Pro at 20% off right now!
They have four standard models, from the base machine up through a pretty nice M4 Pro model. For years, we ran Relay’s live stream on a Mac mini hosted by MacStadium. If you need a Mac in the cloud, it’s the only way to go.
I’ve finally gotten around to getting accounts set up across a range of social media networks beyond Mastodon.
Here’s the complete set of links:
Follow me:
Follow the blog:
I’m trying not to cross-post much outside of work announcements on my personal accounts, but I honestly don’t know these things all fit together, and I’m not sure all three will stick for me long-term.
The blog’s accounts are much more straightforward; all three simply share links to articles when I publish here. This is all done through the magic of RSS and EchoFeed.
Federico had a heck of a time with this update, but Apple Frames continues to be a central part to a lot of my work. I’m glad he got the recent issues worked out:
Here are the details of the issue: occasionally – seemingly with no clear pattern – iOS and iPadOS 18 capture screenshots in 16-bit Display P3, which means they support a wide color gamut and higher dynamic range. Sometimes, however, screenshots are still captured in the old format, 8-bit sRGB. There is no way to tell these different types of screenshots apart since the Photos app lumps them all together as PNG files in the same Screenshots collection.
This week on Mac Power Users, David and I start our annual tour through Apple’s products, talking about hardware and software, and our feelings about both.
It’s that time again! All annual Relay membership plans are currently 20% off.
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The addition of iPhone Mirroring in macOS Sequoia is my favorite addition to the Apple ecosystem in years.1
Here’s how Apple describes the feature:
With iPhone Mirroring, you can wirelessly interact with your iPhone and its apps and notifications from your Mac. Your iPhone stays locked, so no one else can access it or use it to see what you’re doing.
In short, this feature turns your iPhone into a window on your Mac, and it’s fantastic.
When I talked about this on social media earlier today, several folks asked me about my use cases.
I — like everyone else — have some iPhone-only apps2 in my life that either aren’t available on my Mac, or run pretty poorly. Having them available from the machine I’m already working on is sweet.
My main use is running TestFlight builds of Widgetsmith, Pedometer++, and David’s other apps as we work on new features, documentation, marketing, etc. I can — and do — build the apps and run them in Xcode’s simulator when needed, but having them humming along on my locked and charging iPhone is a game changer.
There are some limitations to this feature, as Apple explains:
Some iPhone features such as the camera and microphone aren’t compatible with iPhone Mirroring. In addition, only one Continuity feature can be used at a time (such as Continuity Camera or iPhone Mirroring).
I understand the first one, but the second one is often cited by people complaining about this feature. I’d love to see Apple expand Continuity’s abilities here.
The system requirements mention that the iPhone needs to be “locked and near your Mac.” Apple’s a little unclear what that means, but in my testing, as long as my iPhone is in the same room, iPhone Mirroring works. While this might be an annoying limitation for some folks who want to quickly use their iPhone as it charges in another room, many Continuity features require close proximity.
For security reasons, your iPhone will alert you to when it is — or has been — used from a Mac. A notification that reads “This iPhone is being used from (Mac name)” appears on the lock screen, and when you unlock the phone, you’ll get a second notification that the phone was used remotely.
The last thing I’ll mention is that while it’s easy to get to the Home Screen and App Switcher, Apple didn’t expose an easy way to get to Control Center while mirroring. I hope they fix that before the next full version of macOS.
It would be great if this type of feature could show up in more places across the Apple ecosystem. Controlling an iPad from a Mac would be useful for many, and having iPhone Mirroring in visionOS would be useful for… well… however many people are using a Vision Pro these days.
I’m sorry, readers in the EU. ↩︎
If you use Apple’s new Journal app, this feature is a life-saver. ↩︎
With Federico away, Stephen and Myke talk about video games.
Nah, just kidding. Instead, they ponder the future of Google and of social media, consider what maple syrup can do to an iPhone, and discuss Apple’s AI summarization features.