A common talking point between Apple fans over the last few years has been the long gaps between hardware updates for many Mac models. Apple has pretty much righted that ship now that the 2013 Mac Pro has been replaced, but it did get me thinking about what Macs had unusually short lives.
This is probably not a comprehensive list. One can only scan a list of Performa model information for so long before starting to cry.
Somehow I Manage is an Office re-watch podcast that Tiffany Arment has been doing for a while. Her previous co-host, Mikah Sargent, had to step away from the show, and I am honored that she has asked me to come on as her permanent co-host. We’ve done a couple of episodes together, and it has already been a real blast:
John Siracusa, writing about the move from Mac OS to Mac OS X:
To deal with some of the changes in Mac OS X, I ran apps and system extensions that restored some behaviors from classic Mac OS. Over the years, I weaned myself off most of these, but a few stuck. In particular, I found I did not want to live without the window layering policy from classic Mac OS.
Connected is back, and we’ve started the year off with quite the episode:
The boys kick off 2020 with a lot of follow-up including clarifying what being a Chairman means, a challenge for the Upgradies and a debate about the iPad Air, then conversations about LaunchCuts and Twitter’s iPad app.
My thanks to our sponsors:
It’s a new year, so I’m back at it, answering questions on my channel. This time, mostly about college and career, but also about keyboards.
The new LG UltraFine 5K Display features a 5120 x 2880 resolution, a P3 wide color gamut, 500 nits of brightness and built-in stereo speakers, camera, and microphone. Integration with macOS lets you control your display’s volume and brightness without the need for physical buttons on the display.
You can use the included Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) cable to connect your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, or use the included USB-C cable to connect your MacBook or iPad Pro. The display has one Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port which delivers up to 94W of charging power to the host device and three USB-C ports that function as downstream USB-C ports (5Gbps) and offer additional connectivity and power to compatible devices and accessories.
Downlink is a cool Mac app that lets you use self-updating satellite imagery as your wallpaper, and version 2 brings some new goodies including the ability to customize the area pictured. It’s free on the Mac App Store.
This week on Mac Power Users, we start a new series in which we’ll be looking at each of Apple’s major platforms:
The iPhone has become many people’s primary device for many different types of tasks. On this episode, Stephen and David look at the current state of the hardware, software and services that make up Apple’s most popular product.
Moderation is a radically simple food diary, with a beautiful iOS-centric UI that aims to bring the fun back to tracking what you eat.
The app removes the complexity of scanning barcodes or counting calories, and instead presents a simple interface to quickly record if what you have eaten was healthy or not.
People who track what they eat are more aware of their eating choices and Moderation makes this as simple as possible, all from just one tap per meal.
At Macworld 2000, Steve Jobs unveiled the user interface for Mac OS X. It was called Aqua.
Aqua, as seen in the Mac OS X Public Beta
I love how Jobs introduced it:
When you design a new user interface, you have to start off humbly. You have to start off saying “What are the simplest elements in it? What does a button look like? And you spend months working on a button.”
Huge news to kick off Apple’s 2020. Sadly, not all emoji are available, though.
The 2010s are gone, so I thought it would be a good time to talk about what I think were Apple’s most influential products in the last ten years. Time to get some real work down and talk about the iPad.
The iPad 2 was a huge hit, and a big update over the original iPad. The iPad 3 brought with it a Retina display, but it was slower and heavier for it. The iPad 4 — released just seven months later — came with a much-needed improved CPU in the fall of 2012.