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The Catch-Up Edition Thursday, November 7, 2024

Thunderbolt 5: Only Necessary For The Most Demanding Uses, by Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS

Thunderbolt 5 expands on features introduced in previous releases and won’t make much of a difference until peripherals catch up. Even then, few people will truly need what Thunderbolt 5 offers, unlike the significant changes made several years ago with the move from Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3.

How To Schedule Your Mac To Start Up And Shut Down On Its Own, by Wes Davis, The Verge

The good news is that, even after Apple got rid of its easy-to-use power schedule settings, you can still create the automations it enabled. The bad news is that you have to use Apple’s command line tool, Terminal, to do it. It’s a daunting task if you haven’t messed with command line interfaces, and Apple’s support instructions for setting up power scheduling this way aren’t very helpful. But don’t worry. I’ll describe how to do it below.

Coming Soon

macOS Sequoia 15.2 Beta Adds New AirPlay Options, by Juli Clover, MacRumors

There are now options to show your entire screen, a specific window or app, or your extended display. Limiting ‌AirPlay‌ to a specific app allows a presentation or photos to be shared on the larger screen of a TV without allowing viewers to see all of the content on a Mac.

iOS 18.2 Adds Safari Live Activity For File Downloads, by Ryan Christoffel, 9to5Mac

Now, a new Safari Live Activity has been discovered in the latest iOS 18.2 beta for tracking a file’s download progress.

Stuff

Apple’s Passwords App Won Me Over With This One Unique Feature, by Ryan Christoffel, 9to5Mac

Simply put, you can create a group of passwords, passkeys, and more that can be shared with anyone in your contacts.

This App Automatically Hides Faces And Obscures Metadata From Photos, by Justin Pot, Lifehacker

Sometimes you want to share a photo with the public web but don't want to share the location in which it was taken, or any faces—if there's a child in the photo, say, or if you didn't get a chance to ask everyone permission to post the image online. Discretion is an indie app for Mac and iOS from developer David Kennedy that automatically hides faces and strips photos of all identifying metadata.

Logitech POP Icon Combo Review: Colorful Keyboard & Mouse With Really Smart Functions, by Laura Pippig, Macworld

With the Logitech POP Icon Combo, you get a mouse and keyboard with a stylish look. Both offer excellent typing and clicking experiences, high-quality build and extremely long battery life. Smart functions complete the overall picture and make some processes easier in everyday working life.

At 36 Years Old, I Am Once Again Obsessed With Pokémon Cards – This Time On My Phone, by Keza MacDonald, The Guardian

Any millennial – and any parent – will be familiar with Pokémon cards, newsagent pester-power mainstays since the turn of the century. Contained within shiny metallic plastic packaging are critter-adorned trading cards of varying rarity, from a humble Squirtle to a special-edition illustrated Snorlax. There have been a few attempts to bring these lucrative illustrated cards (and the competitive battling game that you can play with them) to smartphones, but until now, they’ve all been poorly received. Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, released last week, is by some distance the best yet. It has truly gotten its hooks into me.

Develop

Swift Format In Xcode, by Sarah Reichelt, TrozWare

In Xcode 16, Apple quietly introduced the ability to format your Swift files using Swift Format. I’m a long-time user of SwiftLint, but having such a tool built into Xcode would be a great convenience, so I decided to give it a try. Here is my description of why I use such a tool, how well it works compared to the alternatives, and how I configured it for my own purposes.

Notes

On Illness And Death As Text And Autocorrect, by Malwina Gudowska, Literary Hub

“I am sorry for your loss,” the message lights up the room. After inching my post-surgery body up against the pregnancy-turned-mastectomy pillow, I pick up the phone and type, “Which loss, my breast, or my father?” I delete. “Thank you,” I write instead. “I just heard about your dad, I am so sorry,” another friend writes. “Thank you,” I reply without revealing my other debit. The language of loss itself an inexactness: I have not misplaced my breast nor my father; One is at a lab, the other at a funeral home, both are being prodded for different reasons. “On a happier note, how is everything with the book?” the friend continues. “So far, so good with the boob,” I hit send before realizing the autocorrect. “I mean boob,” I write again. “No! book, not boob.” But autocorrect knows, even if the friend does not.

Bottom of the Page

I still don't understand why Apple took away the power schedule settings in the Settings app, and I do wish it can make a return someday soon.

Yes, I can deal with setting it via the command line. But to have something this useful only available via Terminal doesn't sound too Mac-like.

Or does Apple deem this useful automation feature no longer a Mac-like feature, and so deem it necessary to banish it to the comand line interface?

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Thanks for reading.