While early apps created for Mac with Catalina weren't well received by users, the release of MacOS Catalina brought several more to the Mac App Store that seem to have benefitted from more time in development. The technology remains in its infancy, but it has allowed smaller development shops who otherwise wouldn't have the resources to create Mac apps to do so with relative ease.
"Our vision for Mac Catalyst was always to make it easier for any iPad app developer, big or small, to bring their app to the Mac," said Todd Benjamin, MacOS product marketing director. "This allows them to leverage one codebase and one development team. Mac Catalyst gives iPad app developers a huge head start and for many, an opportunity to expand their reach onto the Mac platform that they may not have had before. Not only is this great for developers, but it's also great for Mac users, who benefit with access to a whole new selection of great app experiences from iPad's vibrant ecosystem."
Here's a look at where Catalyst stands now, and how the technology aims to improve the Mac experience for users and developers.
Well, looking more carefully at what we know about this, there’s a much more obvious explanation. It’s not yet another emergency update at all, but the result of Apple updating the security certificate on the original 10.15 Supplemental Update (or 10.15 Update as it seems to be called officially).
At Apple’s first Hollywood premiere, in October, Van Amburg and Erlicht addressed the sense of whiplash head-on. “Zack and I knew how to create a premium, high-quality, great show,” Erlicht said. “What, in retrospect, we didn’t know how to do was create from scratch a premium service at Apple.”
The new iPad is one of Apple's most un-Apple products—it's the only one that sees Apple racing to the bottom on price. There are compromises here in both design and performance compared to the rest of the lineup, though it is an indisputable step up on both fronts compared to last year's base iPad.
On the other hand, it's impressive that the company has managed to offer so much of what modern iPads are about for much less money than the other models. If you're just looking for a device to watch some movies on and maybe browse the Web a bit, the seventh-generation iPad is a strong option. It's also likely a good buy if you're a parent who wants to save money while still giving your kids access to apps and games like those in Apple Arcade.
It turns out that if you have three (or more) screens connected to a Mac, you can mirror two of the three by Option-clicking one and dragging it on top of another. This does exactly what you’d expect. The Mac acts as though it has only two screens instead of three, and the same image appears on the two that are mirrored, with the third being separate.
Today Todoist has launched a major update across all platforms under the branding Todoist Foundations. That name implies a complete ground-up revision to the app, and while that’s accurate in terms of under-the-hood code changes, from a user-facing standpoint this is still the Todoist you know, but with a variety of new features: project sections, a dynamic add button, new task and sub-task views, and more. Todoist’s team also says that Foundations lays the necessary coding groundwork for more substantial features that are coming in the future, such as Boards and an Upcoming View.
This blocks cross-site tracking cookies from sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Users can customize this setting, with the default option being “balanced for protection and performance.” If you set your Enhanced Tracking Protection settings to “strict,” you’ll successfully block more trackers, but some websites may break completely.
NetNewsWire 5 is a solid comeback, even if it lacks many of the conveniences of modern RSS reader apps.
Services from Apple, Google, and companies dedicated to password management offer similar solutions for never forgetting your password again.
The catch? You still need to remember your password for that specific service. The dozens or even hundreds of other passwords you need to know can be stored safely inside your login locker and out of your head.
Unsure about where to start? These are the top password manager services.
It's easy to find things that are fun and interesting to work on. But don't forget that every task, every project, takes a specific amount of resources. Whether you're a solopreneur or a CEO, those resources are limited.
On the upcoming episode of my podcast, special guest Rene Ritchie says his understanding is that Apple has its hands full dealing with the November 1 launch of TV+ and the premiere events for its various original shows. I fully expect more Apple hardware before the end of the year, but not another keynote event.
Why didn’t she know there were options further down the share sheet? Because she’s using an iPhone 8, which happens to be just the right height to perfectly crop the share sheet.
The US Supreme Court last week formally declined to weigh in on an argument that the Americans with Disabilities Act should not apply to websites and digital storefronts, leaving intact a lower ruling finding that the ADA does, indeed, apply to digital space. Internet and Web users with disabilities, as well as advocates for accessible design, are breathing a sigh of relief.
Accessibility in the digital space has come a great distance in a relatively short time, in many ways opening up the entire digital economy of the 21st century to millions of users. But the fact that one company—Domino's Pizza—could try taking a case for not making its services accessible to the highest court in 2019 makes clear how much work there is left to do to make the online world equitable, both today and in the future.
The hidden message: measuring your steps, activity, sleep, and diet everyday should not be normal. It is not natural. And without combating it, these practices can undermine a healthy relationship with exercise, sleep, and food.
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We as a culture still value our physical well being, how we appear to be on the outside, and what our actions show over our mental health. Turning to fitness technology to fix our mental well being and restore a natural sense of self is the very problem.
The one 'bug' in Catalina that is... well... bugging me: iCloud Drive syncing on the Mac seems to be much slower than in previous version of macOS.
And, as every one know, Apple doesn't believe in a big button labeled "Sync Now!"
(The same file is shown as updated on my iPhone's Files app.)
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Thanks for reading.