We have a deal for you on Pagico, a one-stop app that helps turn all of your tasks, notes, and projects into beautiful interactive flowcharts. There’s more info in the deal listing, and you can get this app through us for $19.
Bryan Chaffin
Bryan Chaffin is the cofounder of The Mac Observer and currently serves as Afternoon Editor. He has contributed to MacAddict and MacFormat magazines, and co-authored the last two updates of iPad and iPad Pro for Dummies with Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus and Ed Baig. You can find out more about Bryan at his personal site, GeekTells, or find his Twitter link below.
Articles by Bryan Chaffin
Touch Bar Is Apple's Double Down Against the Foolishness of ToasterFridges
Bryan Chaffin argues that the new MacBook pro’s Touch Bar is Apple’s double down against the ToasterFridge. More specifically, Touch Bar is Apple’s solution for the same need that ToasterFridges are trying to fill.
Apple Fixes 2 Bugs in iTunes 12.5.2 Update
Apple released iTunes 12.5.2 on Thursday. The update fixes two bugs, one dealing with album playback order, and the other an issue with lyrics showing in Beats 1.
PDF Expert 2.0 for Mac: $29.99
We have a deal for you on PDF Expert 2.0 for Mac, a PDF-editing tool from Readdle. This was the 2015 App of the Year Runner Up in Mac App Store, and it allows you to edit text, images, links, and outlines in PDFs. You can also fill out forms, annotate, and more. And we have it for 50% retail at $29.99.
ACM 382: How Pro Are the New MacBook Pros?
Apple just announced new MacBook Pro models, and Bryan and Jeff talk about their pros and cons. In particular the “pros” part, because while these devices are powerful, they question whether they are really that pro at all. They also talk about the new TV app for Apple TV.
Apple Adds Support for 3 Video Codecs in Sierra and El Cap
Apple released Pro Video Formats v2.0.5, an update to the video codecs supported in OS X El Capitan and macOS Sierra. The update comes out at the same time as Final Cut Pro X 10.3, which was announced during Apple’s “hello again” media event.
Apple Commercial: 'The new MacBook Pro featuring Touch Bar – So much to touch'
Apple launched its first commercial for the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. It’s big on splashy colors with brief glimpses of the Touch Bar itself, the company’s new touch-sensitive, context-aware Retina Display tool bar.
Mac Observer Apple Keynote Live Coverage
Join TMO‘s staff on a Google Hangouts on Air as we watch and cover Apple’s “hello again” Mac event. Not only will you hear live commentary from TMO staff, you’ll get to see a little behind-the-scenes action as the team publishes coverage of the announcements. You can also post questions and comments, but you’ll need to click through to the YouTube page for the stream to see and use that feature.
Rotating Car Phone Stand: $13.99
We have a deal for you today on the Rotating Car Phone Stand. It’s a mount for your iPhone (or Android device) with a suction cup for your windshield or dash. Like the name implies, it rotates, making it easy to get the orientation you need for the task at hand. It’s $13.99 through us.
Martian Notifier Smartwatch: $29.99
We have a different kind of deal for you today on the Martian Notifier Smartwatch. This device can receive and display notifications, and trigger your smartphone’s camera. You can customize vibration alerts, too. It’s available in black, red, or white, and it’s priced at just $29.99. There are videos on the deal listing, along with more information.
Apple Beats Guidance with Q4 Earnings, Guides Q4 Above Consensus
Apple reported fiscal fourth quarter revenues of US$46.9 billion with earnings of $9 billion on Tuesday. Earnings per share were $1.67. Those results are down year over year from revenues of $51.5 billion, earnings of $11.1 billion, and EPS of $1.96. Gross margins were 38%, down year-over-year from 39.9%. Apple beat consensus estimates on EPS and guided Q4 revenues higher than consensus.
Last Chance for The Award-Winning Mac Bundle
This is your last chance to Pay What You Want for The Award-Winning Mac Bundle. It’s 13 Mac apps, including Drive Genius 4, The Hit List, DeltaWalker 2 Pro, Nisus Writer Pro, Aurora HDR, WinZip 5 Mac, VPN Forever: 3-Yr Subscription, Project Planning Pro, Letter Opener for macOS Mail, Duplicate Photos Fixer Pro, Screen Grabber Pro, eXtra Voice Recorder, and PhotoStitcher. That’s a quality list of apps (and services). Pay anything, even a penny, and you get three of them. Beat the average price—$13.03 as of this writing—and get all 13. Beat the leader’s price, and you’ll earn an entry in an iPhone 7 giveaway. You can read all the details on the deal listing.
The 20 CDs Steve Jobs Gave Journalists with the First iPod
Remember the first iPod? It was a thing. It held 5GB of music and was the size of a deck of playing cards. And there was no iTunes Store. The music industry was angry at Apple, worried that Steve Jobs wanted everyone to pirate CDs so he could sell us hardware. It was a whole big thing, but journalist Nobuyuki Hayashi reminded us of a tidbit I’d completely forgotten about. Apple sent out iPods to many journalists. Those iPods had music on them—20 albums worth chosen specifically and deliberately by Steve Jobs and the iPod team. And in an effort to show the music industry Apple was their ally, each of those iPods came with those 20 albums on CD. Mr. Hayashi recently found his bundle of CDs. He wrote an interesting post about it, including a list of all 20 albums. Spoiler, there’s a Dylan album, two Beatles albums, Nirvana, Bob Marley, Yo-Yo Ma, the Dave Brubek Quartet, a soundtrack, and more. It’s a fun snapshot look at an age that was radically different than the one we take for granted today.
Apple Releases watchOS 3.1 with Charging Fix, Message Effects Improvements, More
Apple released watchOS 3.1 Monday, an update with a mix of improvements and bug fixes. On the improve side if the ability to replay bubble and full-screen effects in Messages. On the bug-fix side, a charging issue for Apple Watch Series 2 was fixed, and more.
Apple Releases macOS Sierra 10.12.1 with Improved Apple Watch Unlock, More
Apple released macOS Sierra 10.12.1 Monday (in addition to iOS 10.1). The first new feature that jumped out at me was “Improves reliability of Auto Unlock with Apple Watch,” a feature I love but is inconsistent. It also includes auto smart album of photos that use the newly unlocked Portrait Camera feature on iPhone 7 Plus, and some bug fixes.
Apple Releases iOS 10.1 with Portrait Camera for iPhone 7 Plus, Replay iMessage Effects, More
Apple released iOS 10.1 to consumers on Monday. The update includes beta support for Portrait Camera on iPhone 7 Plus, as well as the ability to replay iMessage bubble and full-screen effects. There are also new features for Apple Watch, transit-related features in Maps, and other improvements to camera functionality and the Photos app.
Shimo VPN Client for Mac: $19
We have a deal for you today on Shimo, VPN management software for the Mac. You can manage and connect all of your VPN accounts through Shimo. It supports all the major VPN protocols, and you can establish multiple connections at the same time. It’s $19 through our deal.
How to Fix Apple Watch Contact Syncing Problems
Some people are experiencing problems with Contacts on their Apple Watch, or with initiating phone calls with Siri on your Apple Watch. The problem may be that your Contacts aren’t properly syncing, and Mac Geek Gab listener Bill wrote in (MGG 626) with the skinny on resetting it.
Perpetrator of Friday's Internet Outage Comes Clean
OMG…gasp…can’t stop…gasp…omg…the laughter…
I SORRY ABOUT DDDoSS THE INTERNAT I KEPT PUSH REFRESH BCAUSE I THOUGT I’M WOULD GET REFRESHMENTS I SORRY DONT WIKILEAK ME
— birdsrightsactivist (@ProBirdRights) October 21, 2016
macOS Sierra: Disable Auto-Logout if Sierra Enabled It
Some people have reported weird rebooting/logging out problems on their Macs after upgrading to macOS Sierra. Mac Geek Gab listener Ken was one of those folks, and he traced it to an auto-logout preference Sierra appears to have changed for him. Fortunately, resetting it is an easy fix. Bryan Chaffin shows you how.
Apple Regent Street Opening Photo Gallery
Keith Burton was at last weekend’s Apple Regent Street opening. He took some great photos—including a shot of Apple retail head Angela Ahrendts—of the event and was kind enough to let us publish them.
HYFY Pro 1-Year Plan: $25
We have a deal for you today on HYFY Pro, a video screen capture extension for Google Chrome browser. It offers one-click recording that can also capture your microphone, and can then share out your capture Slack, JIRA, HipChat, or a shareable URL. We have a 1-year subscription for $25, 58% off retail. The deal listing has subscriptions for longer terms, too.
Eddy Cue Dampens Expectations for Original Apple TV Programming
Eddy Cue, Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, dampened expectations for original TV programming from his company. Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco, Mr. Cue said that Apple was focused on making it easy to access content from everyone.
The Mac Observer Spin The Mac Observer Spin is how we show you what our authors think about a news story at quick glance. Read More →
I think I’ve all but given up trying to read the Apple TV tea leaves.
The Mac Power Organizer Bundle
W have a bundle of Mac apps for you today called The Mac Power Organizer Bundle. It has four apps, including: Folx 5 (download organizer and manager), Commander One PRO (Finder replacement), Uplet Bulk Instagram Uploader (upload to Instagram from your Mac), and CloudMounter (an app that mounts your cloud storage on your desktop). You get all four apps for $14.99 with our deal.
