FedericoFederico and John discuss the world of apps for viewing, organizing, marking up, editing, and creating PDFs.
Enabling One-Time Passwords in 1Password
Where it’s available, you should use two-factor authentication to secure your logins. The process is not nearly as cumbersome as it was even a few years ago, and requiring one-time passwords in concert with login credentials is much better than merely relying on login credentials alone. The trouble is, not all two-factor schemes are...
Q&A
Question: I would like to start using Workflow with Ulysses and DEVONthink. Where should I start? (Siddharth, @sidtree)
Federico has written several workflows for Ulysses and DEVONthink To Go over the past few years. The two best places to start are on MacStories. Type Workflow and the name of either app into the search...
Sleep++
What I appreciate most about David Smith’s Sleep++ is its simplicity. When I open the app on my iPhone X, I see three full days of data plus most of a fourth. If I want more, it’s one tap away, but most of the time a quick glance at the past few days is...
iFixit Tests MacBook Pro’s Keyboard Membrane→
iFixit ran more tests and took a closer look at the keyboard membrane that was added to the 2018 MacBook Pro released last week. It turns out, the membrane is one sheet of die-cut silicone with tiny cutouts to allow keycaps to connect to the butterfly switches beneath.
To test how well the new design holds up against dust, iFixit sprayed a new MacBook Pro with a dusting of paint additive. They then tore apart the notebook and found:
Lo and behold, the dust is safely sequestered at the edges of the membrane, leaving the mechanism fairly sheltered. The holes in the membrane allow the keycap clips to pass through, but are covered by the cap itself, blocking dust ingress. The previous-gen butterfly keys are far less protected, and are almost immediately flooded with our glowing granules. On the 2018 keyboard, with the addition of more particulate and some aggressive typing, the dust eventually penetrates under the sheltered clips, and gets on top of the switch—so the ingress-proofing isn’t foolproof just yet. Time will tell how long the barrier will hold up.
iFixit followed up by testing with grittier sand, which managed to cause keys to stick.
It’s good to see that the MacBook Pro’s keyboard withstands fine particles better than earlier models in testing. The real test, of course, is long-term human testing. Only time will tell whether the 2018 MacBook Pros can hold up when faced with a crumbly muffin in your local café or the pollen blowing across your keyboard as you browse the web in your backyard.
Tom Gruber, Co-Founder of Siri, Retires from Apple
The Information reports that Tom Gruber, Apple’s head of the Siri Advanced Developments group, has retired to pursue personal interests including photography and ocean conservation. Gruber joined Apple as part of the company’s acquisition of Siri in 2010 along with his co-founders Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, who previously left Apple in 2011 and 2012 respectively. In addition to Gruber, The Information reports that Vipul Ved Prakash, Apple’s head of search, has left the company. Apple confirmed both departures to The Information.
Siri, which Apple incorporated into iOS in 2011, has been through recent leadership changes as it has fallen behind voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. In 2017, Craig Federighi, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Software Engineering, took over Siri’s oversight from Eddy Cue. Just this past May, Apple hired John Giannandrea, Google’s former Chief of Search and Artificial Intelligence to be Apple’s Chief of Machine Learning and AI Strategy. Last week, Giannandrea showed up on the leadership page on Apple.com, and, according to a TechCrunch story, the Siri team now reports to him.
With all of Siri’s co-founders departed from the company, it will be interesting to see in what direction Giannandrea and the Siri team take Apple’s voice assistant.
Fantastical 2.5 for Mac Adds Time Change Proposals, Meetup.com Support, and More
Flexibits has released an update to the Mac version of its popular calendar app Fantastical. The feature that should be useful to most users immediately is the ability to send and receive new time proposals for events. Fantastical already could send meeting invitations and acceptances, but with version 2.5, recipients of an invitation can propose a new time. The feature works with iCloud, Google, Exchange and CalDAV calendaring services, which should cover most use cases.
Microsoft Releases Cross-Platform Skype Update and Announces Call Recording and Other Features
Microsoft has released version 8 of Skype for the desktop, which features a redesign inspired by the app’s mobile clients. The update, which is available on Mac, Windows, and Linux, replaces version 7, which will no longer work after September 1, 2018.
The update includes 1080p video calls with screen sharing for up to 24 participants. Twitter-style ‘@mentions’ have been added too. Mentioning someone by name preceded by the ‘@‘ symbol sends them a notification. Microsoft has also added a media gallery. Clicking on ‘Gallery’ in a conversation opens a panel on the right side of the Skype window with links, files, and other media that has been shared. Finally, users can share files, photos, and videos of up to 300 MB by dragging them into a conversation.
Microsoft also updated Skype’s iOS apps. The update to the iPad version of Skype is noteworthy because it’s been about a year since it was last updated, and it now includes features that are in line with the more frequently updated iPhone version.
Microsoft says it has other features planned for later this summer too. Skype will add read receipts that display avatars beneath the most recent message a user has read, so you can see at a glance where each participant in a conversation is. End-to-end encrypted audio calls and text messaging with file attachments based on the Signal protocol is coming later too.
Perhaps the most significant new feature that Skype will introduce is cloud-based call recording that works with audio and video calls. When a recording is begun, each participant will be notified that the call is being recorded. This should be an excellent addition for anyone who has relied on third-party solutions or QuickTime to record Skype calls.
Also, starting conversations should become simpler. Users will be able to invite new users to join Skype by sharing a link from their profile. In addition, shareable links to group chats will make it easier to add new members to a group.
I’ve never been a fan of Skype’s Mac app. Unifying the app across different platforms undoubtedly simplifies Microsoft’s development process and will be useful to anyone who uses Skype on multiple OSes. The unification comes at a cost though. Skype 8 is a cross-platform Electron app based on Chrome OS, which means non-standard windows and controls on the Mac. Apps like Skype are why I’m looking forward to UIKit coming to the Mac. If it isn’t worth the effort to Microsoft to build a native AppKit version of Skype, a UIKit version on the Mac that is based on Skype for iOS should at least be more familiar to users.
AppStories, Episode 70 – Apps for Managing Big Projects→
On this week’s episode of AppStories, we discuss the apps we use to manage large projects like the MacStories and AppStories coverage of the App Store’s 10th anniversary and Apple’s fall OS releases.
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AppStories Episode 70 - Apps for Managing Big Projects
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