Boo! Apple has announced an event for the October 30. After 24 hours of scrambling, Myke, Federico and I have put together a set of Picks and Flexies that may or may not be all that scary.
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Kbase Article of the Week: Using the iPhoto Library Upgrader Tool⇢
You can use the iPhoto Library Upgrader tool to prepare your library to work with the current version of iPhoto or Photos for OS X.
When you open a library created by an earlier version of iPhoto, you might see a message that says “Library version too old. Please upgrade your library ‘iPhoto Library’ using the free iPhoto Library Upgrader available from Apple.”
The iPhoto Library Upgrader prepares libraries from iPhoto ‘08 (v7.x) or earlier so that you can use them with the current version of iPhoto or Photos for OS X. If your library was created by iPhoto ‘09 (v8.x) or later, you don’t need to use this tool.
Apple Increasing Services Prices in U.S. and Beyond⇢
Apple is rolling out increased pricing for several services today, as reported by Joe Rossignol:
In the U.S., these are the first-ever price increases for Apple Arcade and Apple News+ since the services launched in November 2019, while Apple TV+ had its first price increase from $4.99 per month to $6.99 per month in October 2022.
Here are the increases customers in the United States will see:
- Apple TV+: $6.99/month → $9.99/month
- Apple Arcade: $4.99/month → $6.99/month
- Apple News+: $9.99/month → $12.99/month
As a result, the costs of Apple One bundles are also increasing:
Apple Announces Online Event for Monday, October 30
Sponsor: MarsEdit 5⇢
MarsEdit 5 is a major upgrade to the preeminent Mac app for editing WordPress, Micro.blog, Tumblr, and many other types of blogs.
The new Microposting feature makes it “as easy to post to your own blog as it is to post to Twitter.” When MarsEdit 5 is running on your Mac, just press a configurable global keyboard shortcut, write out your latest thoughts, and instantly publish to your blog.
MarsEdit supports editing posts in rich or plain text, and the latest update is especially great for Markdown fans. Now when you’re writing Markdown in plain text mode, MarsEdit applies live, beautiful syntax highlighting to make it easier to focus separately on the content and style of your posts.
Mac Power Users #715: To Gridfinity and Beyond⇢
It’s feedback time, and Stephen surprises David with a secret project after the guys wade through some follow-up. David then returns the favor by booking Stephen’s 3D printer for the foreseeable future.
Inside Apple’s Thunderbolt Cables⇢
Kevin Purdy at Ars shares what you get for $130.
Connected #472: It’s Fun to Imagine with Stephen⇢
After some follow-up, Federico and Stephen discuss the possibility of folding iPads, less expensive Apple headsets and what accessories the company should revisit.
Generative AI Fill in Photoshop Feels Like Magic
A few years ago, I took a Halloween photo that I really like. It’s of my wife Merri, dressed as a hot dog:
I recently wanted to use it as a wallpaper on my iPhone, but its landscape nature didn’t really play nicely with the modern lock screen.1 Then I remembered that Photoshop has a bunch of AI tools, and after some tinkering with its generative fill feature, I had something that worked pretty well:
Apple Announces Apple Pencil (USB-C), joining the Apple Pencil (1st generation) and Apple Pencil (2nd generation)⇢
Jokes about the name — and this chart — aside, I think this new $79 Pencil is a nice addition to Apple’s lineup.
This pencil is clearly designed for use with the tenth-generation iPad: while it attaches magnetically to the long edge of the iPad for storage, it still charges via a physical port. Unlike the old Lightning model, which had a removable (and easily lost) cap hiding its charging and pairing connector, the new Apple Pencil features an innovative sliding design that reveals a USB-C port into which you can plug a cable (which, naturally, is not included). Its design is otherwise very similar to the second-generation Pencil.
That Time Apple Gave Mac OS X Jaguar Away to Teachers⇢
Apple today announced its “X for Teachers” program that gives a free copy of Mac OS X version 10.2 “Jaguar” to every K-12 teacher in the U.S. “Jaguar” combines a stable and robust UNIX-based foundation with Macintosh’s legendary ease-of-use to create the world’s most advanced operating system for teaching, learning and administration. The free copy of “Jaguar” is accompanied by free copies of Apple’s Digital Hub applications–iMovie for digital video editing, iPhoto for organizing and sharing digital photos and iTunes for building a digital audio library.
‘As If It Were a Swarm of Bees’⇢
Last week on the Six Colors podcast, Dan Moren mentioned a very specific Apple support document that I was able to find via the Wayback Machine:
As if it were a swarm of bees, you should stay away from the SyncServices folder in Mac OS X. Removing or modifying anything in it—or in subfolders within it—may cause unexpected issues. This folder is located in your Application Support folder, in your Library folder, in your Home folder.