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This week on Mac Power Users, David and I got nerdy about Mac utilities and applications that are always at our fingertips. Be sure to check out the show notes for a whole lot of links.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Gazelle: Sell your iPhone for cash at Gazelle!
• The Omni Group: We’re passionate about productivity for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
• Setapp, from Macpaw: More than 100 powerful apps for your Mac.
• Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code MPU at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.

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Quinn Nelson has a new video showing how to run Mojave on non-supported Macs. It looks a lot cleaner and easier than I would have assumed.

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When Microsoft was developing the Xbox 360, it turned to the PowerPC processor to power the console. To allow developers to work on software before the exact chip Microsoft wanted was ready, it turned to the Power Mac G5. The company used the original dual 2 GHz model, as well as the updated 2004 variant of the tower, and wrote a bunch of custom software for it, including a complete operating system.

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This week on Connected:

The boys dive into a sea of rumors after Federico explores San Jose’s municipal websites, Myke gives everyone a gift and Stephen returns from a journey.

So. Many. Rumors.

My thanks to our sponsors:

• Pingdom: Start monitoring your websites and servers today. Use offer code CONNECTED to get 30% off.
• Luna Display: The only hardware solution that turns your iPad into a wireless display for your Mac. Use promo code CONNECTED at checkout for 10% off.
• Care/Of: Personalized supplements delivered to your door.

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Ernie Smith recently embarked on quite the nerd adventure:

Last week, I sent a piece extolling the joys of the Hackintosh, a concept that is very much a response to the demise of “the good old days” of Apple. But as I was working out the details on that piece, I had a not-so-secret hobby that was taking up quite a bit of my time. I was trying to figure out if I could revive a Genuine Apple Product™ that had seen better days. My acquisition of this product was a total impulse buy: After reading up on the Mac Mini G4 and remembering that it was the first computer I ever owned that I had not purchased refurbished or used (though not my first Mac), I decided to relive those days by buying a new one. I gave myself some parameters, however: It had to be as cheap as possible, and if it was broken, I had to fix it. After some research and some careful bidding on eBay, I bought a damaged one—for $10, plus shipping. And I got it to work.

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An article about audio glitches on the Mac on CDM by Peter Kirn has been going around. Here’s the crux of it:

The problem is, it appears that this new chip has introduced glitches on a wide variety of external audio hardware from across the pro audio industry, thanks to a bug in Apple’s software. Issues with the way the new chip synchronizes timing causes dropouts and glitches in the audio stream. (It seems basically all USB 2.0 audio interfaces will be impacted. This of course unfortunately leads users to blame their interface manufacturer, but the fault lies with Apple.)

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In my MacStories column this month, I took a look at Apple’s last Macworld keynote.

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Apple Support:

The Quadra 700 and 900 don’t support 16-bit color (thousands of colors). This was a feature added to the Quadra 950. A different chip containing a CLUT (Color Lookup Table) that could support 16-bit color was included in the redesign of the Quadra 950.

The ability to support this many colors isn’t dependent on the size of the screen, but it influences the amount of VRAM you must have installed.

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Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Tonight, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released a research note looking at Apple’s releases in 2019. MacRumors has obtained a copy of the report and perhaps the most exciting prediction for Mac users is the revelation that Apple is working on a 16"-16.5" MacBook Pro. Unfortunately the report provides few details beyond that it is an “all-new” design, suggesting Apple is revamping their current MacBook Pro design.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro is one for me, but I am very interested to see where this may lead, both in terms of what an “all-new design” may bring.

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This week on Mac Power Users:

Programmer and sheep farmer Oogie McGuire talks about LambTracker, her application for managing flocks and the hardware that goes along with it, as well as her on-going project of digitizing historical photos.

This interview was really interesting, and I think you’ll be surprised to hear how much tech is used in an industry you probably haven’t thought about too much.

My thanks to our sponsors:

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NASA’s official photographer has been on the job for 30 years, and to celebrate, some of his best shots have been curated over on the National Geographic website.

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Today marks the end of Opportunity’s mission. One of two identical Martian rovers, Opportunity landed on the Red Planet just over 15 years ago to start what was supposed to last 90 Martian days and travel 1,100 yards.

It covered 28 miles before a dust storm coated its solar panels last year, leaving the rover unable to charge it batteries.

Here’s a bit from NASA:

“For more than a decade, Opportunity has been an icon in the field of planetary exploration, teaching us about Mars’ ancient past as a wet, potentially habitable planet, and revealing uncharted Martian landscapes,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Whatever loss we feel now must be tempered with the knowledge that the legacy of Opportunity continues – both on the surface of Mars with the Curiosity rover and InSight lander – and in the clean rooms of JPL, where the upcoming Mars 2020 rover is taking shape.”

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