Designing the LEGO Shuttle Discovery

This morning, a new LEGO space shuttle went on sale:LEGO Shuttle Discovery

This model honors STS-31, the flight that put the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit for the very first time. I love the way the LEGO Hubble looks.

collectSPACE interviewed LEGO designer Milan Madge, who led the project that has resulted in my latest LEGO purchase. It’s a great read, but this bit jumped out at me in particular:

The thing that really inspired that scale was the Hubble Space Telescope and the STS-31 mission because normally, when we do a space shuttle, the payload bay is kind of, well, I don’t want to say an afterthought, but it’s often smaller than it should be because of the constraints of working with LEGO bricks.

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Kbase Article of the Week: iCloud: About your @icloud.com, @me.com, and @mac.com Email Addresses⇢

From a rather wordy support document:

Depending on when you created your iCloud account, your iCloud email addresses and aliases may end with @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com domains. Learn how these email addresses are granted.

My main Apple ID is from the @me.com era, but the one I use for purchases is a good, old-fashioned @mac.com email address.

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Virtual WWDC 2021 Announced for June 7-11⇢

To no one’s surprise, WWDC is remaining virtual this year, and will be held from June 7-11:

Free for all developers, WWDC21 will offer unique insight into the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Building on the record-breaking participation and learnings from last year’s online conference, WWDC21 is an opportunity for developers to learn about the new technologies, tools, and frameworks they rely on to build innovative and platform-differentiating apps and games. Apple also announced that this year’s Swift Student Challenge, an opportunity for young developers to demonstrate their coding skills by creating a Swift playground, is now accepting submissions.

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Big Sur and the Final Cut Pro Content v1.0 Update

For months, Software Update on both of my Macs has listed “Final Cut Pro Content v1.0” as ready to install, but trying to run the update doesn’t clear it from the list of available updates. On my Mac Pro, it appears twice which is extra fun:

Software Update is stuck

In the past, I would have used the ignore flag for the softwareupdate command to hide these updates and just move on with my life, but in Big Sur, ignore has been removed, which is frustrating in situations like mine.

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Sponsor: Koombea: Top Web and Mobile App Development

Web development and mobile app development can be hard. They not only require understanding how to develop a digital product and make it work. They also demand that extra something that will help deliver a powerful User Experience and make your app stand out.

top web and mobile app development

At Koombea, we take our role as app development partners very seriously. We don’t just build world-class digital products. We also work hand in hand with you throughout the development process and give you our honest advice on what is best for your business. Last but not least, we also make sure you enjoy the process!

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Patents Outline Apple’s Aluminum Recycling⇢

Patently Apple:

This past Thursday the US Patent & Trademark Office published two patent application from Apple relating to this topic of recycled aluminum. The first patent is titled “Heat-Treatable Aluminum Alloy made from used Beverage can Scrap; The second is titled “Cosmetic Aluminum Alloys made from Recycled Aluminum Scrap.” While the aluminum that is used in MacBooks is derived from recycled aluminum pop and beer can scrap, the “alloy” to create the MacBook actually contains other recycled metals as both patents describe.

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Mac Power Users #581: “Work” Flows with Stephen and David⇢

This week on Mac Power Users, David Sparks and I discussed our work beyond MPU and what workflows and tools we use to keep things running smoothly in our small businesses.

For More Power Users, we talked through Apple’s recent product cancellations, including the HomePod, iMac Pro and 21.5-inch iMac CTO options.

My thanks to our sponsors:

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Bloomberg: Apple Considering Rugged Apple Watch⇢

Mark Gurman:

Apple Inc. is considering launching an Apple Watch with a rugged casing aimed at athletes, hikers and others who use the device in more extreme environments, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant has internally discussed introducing such a Watch variation later in 2021 or 2022 at the earliest, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

As someone who has broken an Apple Watch while bike riding, and only really wears one while exercising, I’m all for this.

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Connected #338: KanBanBanSubHub⇢

This week on the show:

After follow-up about feelings, Ticci explains what’s going on with links to previously-made Shortcuts and Stephen marks 20 years of OS X. Then, Myke leads a focus group about the future of Apple in the home and the guys all inspect a task manager that has recently popped up on one of their home screens.

For Connected Pro, the guys take a tour of bad System Preferences icons and what settings they use for Dark Mode and the Dock.

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