posts

Jason Snell, writing at Macworld:

As Mac users approach Apple’s annual developer conference and the promise of the whole operating system cycle starting over again, it would be natural to feel a lot of trepidation. It’s been a rough ride for macOS Catalina, with overly strict and chatty security barriers, incompatibility with 32-bit apps, a host of little annoying instabilities, and a less-than-impressive debut for Mac Catalyst.

It’s just time to get back on the hamster wheel and go through another macOS beta cycle—whether we like it or not. But I’ve got some hope that this year will be different. Here’s what I’m wishing for when Apple rolls out the new Mac operating system, macOS 10.16, at WWDC in less than two weeks.

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This week on MPU, we hosted a feedback episode that included talk about WWDC and more:

David and Stephen talk more about email and working from home, but also get into what it takes to make a MacSparky Field Guide and some weird problems they’ve recently encountered with their tech.

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My thanks to Backblaze for sponsoring the site this week.

Backblaze offers unlimited computer backup for Macs and PCs for just $6 a month (no gimmicks or add-ons or gotchas included). This means they will backup your movies, music, photos, videos, projects, and all the data you have! You can restore files from anywhere in the world and directly download them from the web or their mobile apps. You can also have your backup sent to you via hard drive and have it overnighted right to your home! Never worry about finding lost versions or deleted files, you can extend your retention period to 1 Year or Forever!

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This is Apple at its best:

The unfinished work of racial justice and equality call us all to account. Things must change, and Apple’s committed to being a force for that change. Today, I’m proud to announce Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, with a $100 million commitment. pic.twitter.com/AoYafq2xlp

— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 11, 2020

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Apple PR:

Now in its 31st year, WWDC20 will be the biggest WWDC to date, bringing together the global Apple developer community of more than 23 million in an unprecedented, virtual way, from June 22 to 26. Apple today shared the WWDC20 lineup, including keynote and Platforms State of the Union timing, and information on how developers can learn about the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS, and engage with Apple engineers.

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Gus Mueller:

With all the recent rumors flying around about the Mac transitioning to ARM processors, I’ve seen some assertions about what this means for software going forward. I thought I could chime in on this as someone who’s been developing software for the Mac for a long time, including the last architecture transition from PowerPC to Intel.

Let it be stated that I have no knowledge of what Apple’s internal plans are. These are educated guesses based on my years of experience of working with Apple and Apple’s frameworks. And maybe this is all for nothing, since this transition might not even happen!

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This week on Connected:

The guys would be sad that have been replaced by AI, but the results are too funny to be upset. Then, Federico has thoughts about ARM Macs, Myke makes a bet with Stephen and rumors of a new iMac are discussed.

Also, iBooks Author and iTunes U are dead.

My thanks to our sponsors:

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Apple:

Apple has been hard at work building the next generation of apps for both teachers and students:

• Classroom turns your iPad into a powerful teaching assistant, helping teachers guide students through a lesson, see their progress, and keep them on track.

• Schoolwork helps teachers save time and maximize each student’s potential by making it easy for teachers to share class materials, get students to a specific activity in an app, collaborate with students, and view student progress.

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Apple, in an email to book publishers:

Thank you for being a member of the iBooks Author community. We have some news to share with you about the future of book creation.

Two years ago we brought book creation into Pages. With key features such as the ability to work on iPad, collaborate with others on a shared book, draw with Apple Pencil, and more, Pages is a great platform for making books.

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Pastel is a new iOS app from Steven Troughton-Smith that makes working with colors easy. The app comes with some pre-loaded collections, but it’s easy to make your own. I took some time to enter the colors for all of our podcasts over on Relay FM, and also made a collection of colors I use here on 512 Pixels:

This makes grabbing the value for any of these colors super easy. To my shame, I was just keeping the hex values in Apple Notes until this app came along.

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Sonny Dickson, with some fun iMac news:

New iMac incoming at WWDC. iPad Pro design language, with Pro Display like bezels. T2 chip, AMD Navi GPU, and no more fusion drive

— Sonny Dickson (@SonnyDickson) June 9, 2020

The current iMac design was unveiled way back in 2012, and while I still think the all-in-design is great for a lot of users, there’s no doubt that it could use a refresh. Adapting the Pro Display XDR’s design to the iMac would be sweet.¹

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Apple Support:

If your device has a frozen screen, doesn’t respond when you touch it, or becomes stuck when you turn it on, learn what to do.

I’ve had this happen a couple of times on my 11 Pro, and I can never remember the button presses needed to reset it:

• iPad models with Face ID: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Power button until the device restarts.
• iPhone 8 or later: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Press and quickly release the Volume Down button. Then press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo.
• iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, and iPod touch (7th generation): Press and hold both the Top (or Side) button and the Volume Down buttons until you see the Apple logo.
• iPad with Home button, iPhone 6s or earlier, and iPod touch (6th generation) or earlier: Press and hold both the Home and the Top (or Side) buttons until you see the Apple logo.

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