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MacStories Unwind: Shortcuts Corner, HomeKit WiFi Routers, Clips, and Music Widgets

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This week on MacStories Unwind:

MacStories

Club MacStories

  • MacStories Weekly
    • MacStories Favorite: Pixelmator Pro
    • A new Reeder shortcut
    • Ryan debates purchasing an iPhone 12 mini or Pro
  • MacStories Unplugged
    • This week on Unplugged, our Club podcast, we discuss the upcoming release of Big Sur, Federico makes John nervous by poking around in Disk Utility and ejecting drives while he records, John gets fiber Internet and tests HomeKit mesh WiFi routers, and Federico unwinds post-iOS review.

AppStories

Unwind

Shortcuts Corner: Apple Frames for iPhone 12 and SE, Get Image Resolution, Encode Images to Base64, and Search Articles in Reeder

In this comeback installment of the Shortcuts Corner (I took a break last spring to focus on my Modular Computer story, then WWDC happened, then…you get the idea), I’ve prepared an assortment of image-related shortcuts available for free on the MacStories Shortcuts Archive. Ever since I installed the first betas of iOS and iPadOS 14 on my iPhone and iPad months ago, I’ve been reorganizing my shortcut library with folders. Thanks to this feature, I’ve assembled a collection of simple “utility” shortcuts that I use on a daily basis, but which I never shared on MacStories. This week, I’m sharing three of these shortcuts: one to quickly get the resolution of any image; one to convert any image to JPEG while stripping metadata from it; and the last one to encode any image previously copied to the clipboard in Base64. Following the requests of several readers over the past week, I’ve also updated our popular Apple Frames shortcut with support for the iPhone SE, iPhone 12, and iPhone 12 Pro.

In the Club MacStories edition of the Shortcuts Corner this week, I’ve also created an advanced Reeder shortcut that lets you browse articles in your Read Later account by tag, title, and more. Let’s dig in.

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Managing the Internet Access of HomeKit Devices with the Linksys Velop Mesh WiFi Router System

At WWDC 2019, Apple announced that HomeKit support would be coming to WiFi routers. Not a lot was known about what that would entail, until recently, when new and updated routers with HomeKit functionality began to hit store shelves. A few weeks ago, Linksys sent me its Velop Tri-Band Mesh WiFi Router System that added HomeKit support late last month. I’ve been using the system for a few weeks now and want to share the setup process and explain what HomeKit-enabled routers offer that other routers don’t.

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Apple Q4 2020 Results - $64.7 Billion Revenue

Apple has just published its financial results for Q4 2020. The company posted revenue of $64.7 billion. Apple CEO Tim Cook said:

“Apple capped off a fiscal year defined by innovation in the face of adversity with a September quarter record, led by all-time records for Mac and Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Despite the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, Apple is in the midst of our most prolific product introduction period ever, and the early response to all our new products, led by our first 5G-enabled iPhone lineup, has been tremendously positive. From remote learning to the home office, Apple products have been a window to the world for users as the pandemic continues, and our teams have met the needs of this moment with creativity, passion, and the kinds of big ideas that only Apple can deliver.”

Estimates and Expectations for Q4 2020

Due to the uncertainty caused by the global pandemic, Apple did not provide financial guidance for Q4 2020 during its last earnings call.

Going into today’s call, though, Yahoo Finance said that:

AAPL is expected to report adjusted earnings of $0.71, down from $0.76 in the prior-year quarter, according to third-party consensus analyst estimates. Revenue is projected at $64.1 billion, roughly flat versus a year ago.

Graphical Visualization

After the break, we’ve compiled a graphical visualization of Apple’s Q4 2020 financial results.

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Clips 3.0 Brings New Video Aspect Ratios and an Upgraded iPad Experience

Clips is finally growing up.

Since its debut in 2017, Clips has offered a variety of fun, easy to use tools for making or editing videos, but it has always been hamstrung by one severe limitation: you could only create videos with a square aspect ratio. I’ve always found Clips far more accessible than other video creation apps, such as Apple’s iMovie, because it was designed from the ground up for mobile. The inability to create standard widescreen videos, however, or even portrait videos for Instagram stories, was a dealbreaker. As a result, my use of Clips has only been intermittent; despite liking the app a lot, I’ve only ever created two legitimate projects with it.

My use is sure to increase now. With today’s 3.0 update for Clips, Apple is finally eliminating the app’s requirement for square video while simultaneously making its iPad experience far better than before. Clips 3 is what the original app should have been, and it might just mean Apple finally has the ingredients for a hit.

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Apple Signs Jon Stewart to Expansive Deal for TV+ Series and More→

Lacey Rose at The Hollywood Reporter details a new deal struck between Apple and Jon Stewart:

As part of an expansive, multi-year deal with Apple, the Emmy-drenched former writer, producer and host of The Daily Show is set to front an all new current affairs series for the streaming service. The show, which will run for multiple seasons, puts Stewart back in the anchor’s chair as he explores a host of topics at the center of both the national conversation and his own advocacy work.

Stewart has stayed largely out of the limelight since ending his long and successful run with The Daily Show in 2015, so this is a big get for Apple TV+, and potentially other projects Apple has in the works. For example, the report mentions that a podcast is expected to result from the deal. Most important though is the TV+ series mentioned above, with hourlong episodes each covering a single topic.

Apple’s plans for TV+ in 2020 have been heavily impacted by the current pandemic, resulting in a content slate that’s had more gaps than expected. It looks like the service could be poised for a big 2021.

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Using Soor’s Widgets and Magic Mixes

Soor's iOS 14 widgets.

Soor’s iOS 14 widgets.

As I detailed in a recent episode of AppStories, I’ve spent several weeks tweaking my iPhone’s Home Screen and playing around with different approaches to widgets and app icons. The layout I eventually settled on (which you can find in the AppStories show notes) takes advantage of dark mode to create the illusion of widgets “blending” into the wallpaper – specifically, the Soor widgets at the top of the page. Given how I believe Soor’s developer Tanmay Sonawane has taught Apple a lesson when it comes to building Apple Music widgets for iOS 14, and considering the app’s most recent update, I thought I’d write about these widgets in more detail.

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Microsoft Is Rolling Out iPad Pointer Support to Its Office Suite→

Microsoft’s suite of productivity apps, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are being updated on a rolling basis over the next couple of weeks to add pointer support to the iPad versions of the apps. According to a Microsoft blog post, the update will:

give iPad users using a mouse or Apple’s new Magic Keyboard easy cursor control, fluid navigation, and precise adjustments. When moving a finger across the built-in trackpad of Magic Keyboard, the cursor transforms into the tool you need depending on the content you’re pointing to.

Microsoft is also updating the start screens and ribbon of each of its apps and mentioned that it has further updates planned in the upcoming months, including contextual menus and offline support for documents stored in the cloud.

I don’t have the new features announced yet, but I’m glad to see Microsoft adopting iPad pointer support. Especially with apps like Excel, the ability to use a precise pointer is useful when selecting cells in a large spreadsheet.

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