The New Year has traditionally been a time to reflect and plan. For many people, that means resolving to improve some aspect of their lives, like being more productive at work, improving their fitness level, working on personal finances, or something else. When I start thinking about things I can do better in the...
Satechi Debuts Cleverly-Designed USB-C Apple Watch Charger
Satechi began selling a new MFi-certified Apple Watch charger today with a clever design that looks perfect for iPad Pro users.
The charger, which is made of space gray aluminum and retails for $44.99 in the US, has a USB-C connector that plugs directly into devices with USB-C ports. Attached to an iPad Pro while using a Smart Keyboard Folio, you can charge your Watch and conveniently see the time thanks to the Watch’s Nightstand Mode. Satechi includes a short USB-C male to female cable in the box for situations where you don’t want the charger connected directly to a device, such as a MacBook Pro where it would block other USB-C ports.
I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but this charger looks like it would have been perfect when I was traveling last week, so I ordered one immediately. During that trip, I worked on my iPad Pro on and off throughout the day, and Satechi’s charger would have been an excellent way to charge my Watch and had a minimal impact on the iPad Pro’s large battery.
For a limited time you can use the coupon code GIFTSATECHI to get Satechi’s USB-C Magnetic Charging Dock for Apple Watch for 20% off.
AppStories, Episode 143 – The 2019 MacStories Selects Awards→
This week, we reveal the 2019 MacStories Selects Awards.
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AppStories Episode 143 - The 2019 MacStories Selects Awards
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The 2019 MacStories Selects Awards
FedericoApple, Google, Amazon, and the Zigbee Alliance Announce Project Connected Home Over IP
In a press release today, Apple announced that it is part of a new working group with Google, Amazon, and the Zigbee Alliance called Project Connected Home over IP. According to Apple’s press release:
The goal of the Connected Home over IP project is to simplify development for manufacturers and increase compatibility for consumers. The project is built around a shared belief that smart home devices should be secure, reliable, and seamless to use. By building upon Internet Protocol (IP), the project aims to enable communication across smart home devices, mobile apps, and cloud services and to define a specific set of IP-based networking technologies for device certification.
Apple says smart home device makers IKEA, Legrand, NXP Semiconductors, Resideo, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric, Signify (formerly Philips Lighting), Silicon Labs, Somfy, and Wulian will also contribute to the project. The group wants to make it easier for manufacturers of smart home devices to integrate with Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, and Google’s Assistant and will take an open source approach to the development of the joint protocol.
This is fantastic news. To date, many smart home devices have adopted support for some, but not all, smart assistants. It has also become all too common for companies to announce support for certain assistants was coming to their products only to delay or abandon it altogether. With a unified approach across the three major companies with smart assistants, support will hopefully be more consistent in the future.
iOS Games for Passing Time on a Long Flight
Earlier this fall, I found myself on an uncomfortable early morning flight to California. I thought the flight was going to have WiFi, but it didn’t. I was stuck with nothing to listen to and in such tight quarters that I couldn’t use my iPad either. What I did have, though, was a...
Member Requests
Question: I’ve had some trouble setting up a personal automation that runs when I connect my iPhone to CarPlay and was hoping you could help. If my iPhone is connected to CarPlay between 6:30am and 7:30am Monday through Friday, I’d like it to play a podcast station that I created in Apple Podcasts called Daily...
App Debuts
GoodTask (iOS and the Mac) GoodTask 5.0 is out with several new features. Lists are more flexible than before allowing you to organize them into collapsible groups. The app has also added an element of time tracking with a ‘Next’ page and ‘Focus’ mode that displays a single task at a time according to...
Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR Unboxings and Impressions
Earlier today, Apple began accepting orders for the all-new Mac Pro, which will start shipping to customers in 1-2 weeks. Reminiscent of what Apple did when it released the iMac Pro, the new Mac Pro was provided to a very limited set of reviewers with video production experience in advance of pre-orders.
Marques Brownlee shares his impressions after using the Mac Pro and two Pro Display XDRs to edit all of his YouTube videos for the past two weeks. His main takeaways? “One, it’s really quiet, Two, it’s really fast.” So fast, in fact, that he was able to render 8K video more quickly than the time it would take to watch.
For two unboxings and a look at the setup process, be sure to watch these videos by Justine Ezarik and Jonathan Morrison.
To learn more about what it’s like to edit video on using Final Cut Pro X, a new Mac Pro, and Pro Display XDR, don’t miss Episode 514 of Mac Power Users on Relay FM, on which David Sparks and Stephen Hackett interview Thomas Grove Carter.
Finally, director and photographer Vincent Laforet shares his impressions of Apple’s newest hardware on his blog along with the first project he created with it.
More than anything else, the thing that struck me about each of the impressions shared by this small group is their sense of wonder and amazement at the speed and power of the new Mac Pro. This isn’t a computer for most people, but if you need it, the Mac Pro clearly opens up new possibilities.