This fortnight on Liftoff, my space podcast with Jason Snell: damage to the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, a Mars sample return proposal and the final two Mercury flights.
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Connected #161: A Handbag? Face Cream? A Chainsaw?⇢
This week, on a packed episode of Connected:
Files on iOS 11 is taking shape, and some problems are emerging. Federico gets sad listening to the others talk about their watches, then slowly disappears as Stephen talks about macOS High Sierra.
My thanks to our sponsors:
- PDFpen Family, from Smile: Everything you need for more powerful PDF editing
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The Security Content of macOS High Sierra 10.13⇢
If you want the nitty-gritty security details of High Sierra, this kbase article has you covered.
iCloud’s Text Expansion Syncing is Busted⇢
Text replacement syncing is completely broken. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it will only sync back old snippets that you have deleted. Sometimes the sync will work one direction, but not the other. Every time I ask about this on Twitter, it brings a strong response of similar experiences.
Even though I know it’s broken, I decided to get scientific about it.
Two things: First, this is incredible work; click through and see all the work that went into this. Second, Apple really should fix this feature.
macOS High Sierra Review: A Modern Snow Leopard?
The Mac has had a stressful time over the past few years.
The professional portion of its user base has been wondering about the future as the Mac Pro grew older and less relevant and notebooks got thinner and lighter.
However, as 2017 unfolded, the company has made a routine out of voicing its love and commitment for the Mac. The iMac Pro and the future-but-not-here-quite-yet-and-oh-God-please-have-card-slots Mac Pro that Casey Liss is super excited about are both part of that message.
I’d argue that the newest release of macOS is part of it, too.
As he was introducing High Sierra and making yet another weed joke at this year’s WWDC, Apple software boss and international Dad Model Craig Federighi said:
We wanted to spend this year perfecting [the Mac].
[…]
High Sierra is all about deep technologies that provide a powerful platform for future innovations on the Mac.
And we couldn’t help ourselves, so we also added some refinements.
What is Needed for a Standalone watchOS Podcast Client⇢
Marco Arment, creator of Overcast:
The Apple Watch desperately needs standalone podcast playback, especially with the LTE-equipped Series 3, which was designed specifically for exercising without an iPhone.
Believe me, I’ve tried. But limitations in watchOS 4 make it impossible to deliver standalone podcast playback with the basic functionality and quality that people expect.
He goes on to outline what APIs Apple would need to improve or implement to make building a podcast client up to his (and Apple’s, he argues) standards.
Auto Unlock not Supported by Apple Watch Series 3 on Sierra⇢
After setting up my new Apple Watch today, I was greeted by this message on my fully-updated iMac, running macOS 10.12.6:
Auto Unlock does work with my Series 3 Watch on my MacBook Pro running High Sierra.
Perhaps the updated hardware in the new Apple Watch makes this all more complicated, and wasn’t able to update Sierra to support things correctly.
With High Sierra due out Monday, I have to guess that LTE Watches won’t ever unlock Sierra machines.
Remembering Snow Leopard⇢
Enthusiasts of all types always have that one special obsession. For muscle car people, maybe it’s one particular year of Ford Mustang. Photographers always have a favorite lens, while baseball players may have a favored bat or glove.
Ask almost any macOS fan, and they’ll tell you that Snow Leopard is their favorite version of all time.
There are a bunch of good reasons for that, beyond pure nostalgia.
How Apple Prepares For iPhone Day⇢
Buzzfeed has posted a great video looking behind the scenes at how Apple prepares for an iPhone launch. It’s fascinating and a rare look behind the curtain.
iTunes and 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision Content⇢
Apple has published a new support page explaining the ins and outs of these updated standards in the iTunes Store:
You can buy or rent movies from the iTunes Store in high-definition (HD) or 4K resolution formats. These videos might also feature high dynamic range (HDR) or Dolby Vision.
When you buy or rent a movie from the iTunes Store, it automatically plays in the highest-quality format available for the device on which you’re watching it.
OWC USB-C Travel Dock⇢
If I wasn’t already Mayor of Dongletown with my HyperDrive, I’d be all over this.
Query #11: Encryption Mumbo Jumbo⇢
This week on Query, we talk about some ways to learn Markdown, how iMessage works and a bunch more.