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The Fills-with-Excitement Edition Friday, November 13, 2020

macOS Big Sur Review: Third Age Of Mac, by Jason Snell, Six Colors

Last year’s macOS Catalina felt like a release designed to settle old scores and clear the field for future advancement. It broke a lot of old software, frustrated a lot of users, and generally had the worst reputation of any macOS update since Mac OS X Lion in 2011. Did Apple use Catalina as a patsy so that Big Sur wouldn’t be blamed for all the changes required for the transition to Apple silicon? That’s probably a conspiracy theory too far, but I will say this: Good Cop macOS Big Sur fills me with excitement about the future of the Mac in a way Bad Cop Catalina never did.

macOS Big Sur: The MacStories Review, by John Voorhees, MacStories

Apple hasn’t unified its OSes, creating a one-size-fits-all OS that spans all of its products, but Big Sur does meet its closest neighbor, the iPad, partway with its new design. It’s a careful balancing act. Apple has clearly stated that its goal with the redesign was to create something familiar to Mac users. Left unstated, though, is that the design is meant to be familiar and welcoming to iPad users, too, and dovetails neatly with the tablet’s Mac-like design elements such as its new sidebar. The result brings the Mac and iPad closer together while helping iPadOS assert independence from iOS. Although it takes some getting used to, on balance, I think Big Sur’s new design succeeds.

macOS Big Sur Launch Appears To Cause Temporary Slowdown In Even non-Big Sur Macs, by Samuel Axon and Lee Hutchinson, Ars Technica

It didn't take long for some Mac users to note that trustd—a macOS process responsible for checking with Apple's servers to confirm that an app is notarized—was attempting to contact a host named oscp.apple.com but failing repeatedly. This resulted in systemwide slowdowns as apps attempted to launch, among other things.

Loves the Mac Just How It Is

Apple Tells Us How It Made Its New Chip And MacBooks, by Andrew Griffin, Independent

It is not just a futuristic design, but the foundations for all of the following technologies that are to come. And it’s the past, too, bringing work that has been ongoing for years – since the beginning of the iPhone, at least, but arguably back to the first Macintosh in 1984 – together into a chip that perhaps represents Apple’s idea of what computing should be better than anything they’ve made before.

There are other things that the M1 is not. It’s definitely not an abandoning of the Mac, Apple says – the company is regularly accused of leaving its computers behind in favour of its bigger revenue items such as the iPhone, and it has denied it every time. It is also not an effort to change what the Mac means, the company says, but rather to propel it even more quickly down the path it has begun.

Apple really wants you to know that it loves the Mac just how it is. Or perhaps more accurately, as embodied in its latest computers: just how it is, but a lot, lot faster.

Big Background Music

Apple HomePod Mini Review: Playing Small Ball, by Dan Seifert, The Verge

In all, the HomePod mini excels at casual listening and background music. It’s great for playing music during dinner when you don’t want to drown out conversation or just to have some audio playing in the background as you work from home. The mini is nice to listen to at low volumes or higher settings and doesn’t distort at all. It won’t soundtrack a party, and it certainly doesn’t replace a proper sound system — but for its size, it is good.

Apple HomePod Mini Review: Remarkably Big Sound, by Brian Heater, TechCrunch

It’s full and clear and impressively powerful for its size. Obviously that goes double if you opt for a stereo pair.

Stuff

Apple Sets 5K Apple Watch Activity Challenge For Thanksgiving, by Chance Miller, 9to5Mac

The challenge encourages Apple Watch users to complete a workout of at least 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) in length on November 26.

Logic Pro 10.6 Arrives With iOS Sequencer Control, More, by Justin Kahn, 9to5Mac

While it’s certainly not as groundbreaking as the massive 10.5 update issued earlier this year, there are some interesting enhancements here along with an influx of new and very much free MainStage content.

Craft Review: A Powerful, Native Notes And Collaboration App, by Ryan Christoffel, MacStories

Craft is launching today across iPhone, iPad, and Mac as a new note-taker that blends the block-based approach of Notion with a thoroughly native experience, taking advantage of all the OS technologies you would hope for and throwing in valuable features like real-time collaboration. It’s the most exciting note-taking debut I’ve seen in years.

Sparkle App For Mac Gets Major Update New Design, SEO Assistant, M1 Compatibility, More, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

Sparkle is a popular Mac app that allows anyone to easily create a website through an intuitive and easy to use app. Following the release of macOS Big Sur, Sparkle has been updated to version 3 with a new design and several more features, including a SEO assistant and compatibility with Apple Silicon Macs.

Apple HomeKit’s Adaptive Lighting Starts Rolling Out For Philips Hue Bulbs, by Jon Porter, The Verge

Philips Hue bulbs can now adjust their lighting automatically throughout the day when used with HomeKit thanks to an update which adds support for Apple’s new Adaptive Lighting feature.

Notes

iOS 14.3 Will Suggest Third-party Apps To Users During The iPhone Or iPad Setup Process, by Filipe Espósito, 9to5Mac

As Apple has been investigating for anti-competitive practices, the company is working on new ways to avoid these accusations and even sanctions from governments around the world. With iOS 14.3, which is now available as a beta release for developers, Apple will suggest third-party apps to users during the setup process of a new iPhone or iPad.

Bottom of the Page

If you don't hear from me in the next few days, that just meant that my upgrade to Big Sur failed somewhere somehow. There's no need to panic.

:-)

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Thanks for reading.