At WWDC on Monday Apple announced and subsequently released macOS Mojave 10.14 developer beta. Unlike High Sierra, though, this update does not run on all the same Macs that the previous/current version does, with most 2011-and-earlier Macs being left behind.
Dave Hamilton
Dave Hamilton co-founded both The Mac Observer and <a href="https://www.backbeatmedia.com" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank">BackBeat Media</a>, and he is producer and co-host of the <a href="https://www.macgeekgab.com" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank">Mac Geek Gab Podcast</a>. He has worked in the computer industry since the early 1990s, doing time as a consultant, trainer, network engineer, webmaster, and programmer. He has worked on the Mac, all the various Windows flavors, BeOS, a few brands of Unix, and it is rumored he once saw an OS/2 machine in action. Before that he ran some of the earliest Bulletin Board Systems, but most of the charges have since been dropped, and not even the FBI requests that he check in more than twice a year. Dave's reachable for paid consulting at <a href="https://www.davethenerd.com" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">DaveTheNerd.com</a> and you can find links to him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ here, too.
Articles by Dave Hamilton
Watch TMO’s Coverage of WWDC 2018 Keynote Live Stream
Visit our liveblog.macobserver.com page for up-to-the minute updates and commentary from the TMO team. Big thanks to our WWDC2018 Coverage Sponsors: Jamf Now, Smile, iMazing, eero, and Carbon Copy Cloner!
Sonos Confirms AirPlay 2 Coming to Playbase, Play:5, and Sonos One
Back in October Sonos announced that AirPlay 2 would be supported on some of their speakers this year, but didn’t detail which ones. We made some guesses back then, and recently did some digging. Sonos now knows which speakers will natively support AirPlay 2: the Playbase, the current-generation Play:5, and the Sonos One.
Synology RT2600ac and RT1900ac: Your Apple AirPort Extreme Replacement
These days, many Apple users are looking to improve and update their home Wi-Fi connections. With Apple seemingly having abandoned any true hardware updates to their AirPort router line, Apple users are looking to third-parties to fill the gap for an AirPort Extreme replacement. To that end, Synology is among the cream of the crop in the standalone router market and provides many features never found in Apple’s offerings. Updated April 18, 2018 with lowered prices on Amazon. The RT2600ac is now available for less than an AirPort Extreme, with a lot more features and range.
Apple Releases Combo Updater for macOS High Sierra 10.13.4
Apple released the combo updater for macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 on Friday. The combo updater is a 2.49GB download and contains everything in the macOS Sierra 10.13.4 released on Thursday, along with all the updates since High Sierra’s inaugural 10.13.0 release back in the fall.
SXSW: Apple’s Eddy Cue Talks Transparency, Free Speech, and The Future of Music Streaming
Eddy Cue said, “I’ve been working at Apple coming up on 30 years. I hope to spend at least another 20 years there, so I’m not going to answer any questions about future products.”
Elon Musk at SXSW: He’s Not Steve Jobs - in Some Ways, He’s Better
Dave Hamilton had always viewed Elon Musk through the same lens as I viewed Steve Jobs, but after seeing him speak at SxSW, he realized he was wrong.
Remote Control for your Mac (Sponsor)
I am both happy and thankful to welcome Evgeny Cherpak as our sponsor here at TMO this week. As a solo developer, Evgeny has created a series of apps aimed at making your life easier by remote controlling your Mac in purpose-built ways, and this week we’re talking about Remote for Mac. Remote for Mac turns your iPhone or iPad into a very full-featured, easy-to-use remote controlfor your Mac. Not to be confused with screen-sharing, Remote is built for when you’re looking at your Mac’s screen either directory or via AirPlay but don’t want to use your typical keyboard and mouse to control it.
Apple's Eddy Cue Will Speak at SXSW 2018
Mr. Cue will be interviewed by CNN’s Dylan Byers onstage at Ballroom D from 11:00 AM CST to 12:00 PM CST on March 12th.
IDrive: Secure Cloud Backup for Your Mac, First Year Just $6.95 for 2TB. 90% off! (Sponsor)
We are pleased to have iDrive as our sponsor here at TMO this week. Cloud backup is something we talk about a lot here on the site and on our Mac Geek Gab podcast, and iDrive is doing a lot of things right. First in the “doing things right” department, iDrive is giving TMO readers a special deal on their Personal Plan, which gets you 2TB of cloud backup storage for 1 year for just US$6.95. Read more about iDrive after the jump.
Farrago from Rogue Amoeba: Soundboards and Audio Clips for Your Podcasts and More
Rogue Amoeba, known well for the many audio tools they make to help podcasters and more, today released Farrago. Built to allow podcasters (and beyond) to quickly play sound bites, audio effects, theme music, and more during live shows or live-to-“tape” recordings, Farrago has an elegant grid-based interface to allow quick and easy access to everything.
Podcasters: Replace Skype with Discord for Better Audio Quality and Web-Based Interviews
After 12 years of using Skype for our podcasts, we switched to Discord in November and haven’t looked back. With better audio quality and the ability to have interview guests participate entirely in their web browsers, Discord is a much better solution for today’s podcaster. We’ll show you how to get going.
Solve Bufferbloat Problems with a DOCSIS 3.1 Modem
DOCSIS 3.1 modems bring more than just possible gigabit speeds, they also bring a solution to the Bufferbloat problem. Dave Hamilton answers Phil’s question about this and explains how and why.
CES – LG Booth OLED TV Video Tour
LAS VEGAS – Every year at CES I make it a point to pass through the Las Vegas Convention Center’s Central Hall at least once just to see the spectacle of new TVs on display. Each year, all the big manufacturers try to out-do one another (including renting booth space under dummy company names and expanding last-minute) just to create the most impressive display. This year, for me, LG’s OLED TV tunnel was a perfect entrance to the mayhem. Thankfully, I got there before the power went out, but that’s another story for another time. For now, just enjoy my tour through the LG tunnel.
CES – PopSockets Launches Car Vent Mount
LAS VEGAS – Popular iPhone grip and stand maker, PopSockets, has launched their next accessory: the PopSockets Car Vent Mount. Built to fit into the air vent of your car, this makes it super-simple for any one with a PopSocket on your phone to mount it on your car’s dashboard in one, easy motion. Pricing is US$9.99 and it will be available this week or early next from PopSockets.com or Amazon.
CES – Promise adds Dropbox and Google Drive Syncing to Apollo Private Cloud, 4TB Unit Too
This is a device that you plug into your network at home and is then accessible anywhere for both syncing and remote access, creating a true, turnkey private cloud.
CES – MyCharge Battery Pack With Passthrough Qi Charging
LAS VEGAS – myCharge, long-time makers of quality battery packs and charging bricks, this week announced at CES the upcoming availability of a new portable battery with two Qi surfaces built-in. The US$79.99 Portable Power Bank Unplugged 10K Dual is about the shape of a smartphone, and features a Qi pad on top so that your phone will charge when the battery pack is simply up against it. Cleverly, myCharge has included a Qi coil on the bottom of the pack, as well, allowing it to charge from a Qi pad (like then $29 myCharge Powerdisc shown in the picture). In a true “passthrough” sense, a phone stacked on top of a charging battery pack will see the phone charge first, then the pack afterwards, making for a very convenient setup to have on your desk or bedside table. Stack ’em at night to charge, grab ’em in the morning and go! The myCharge Portable Power Bank Unplugged 10 Dual will be available in March and has a list price of $79.99.
CES – TiVo Demos Alexa, Google, and IFTTT Integrations, Coming in February
LAS VEGAS – TiVo has been making a lot of changes to its user interface lately, and it’s not all just on the surface. Under-the-hood they’ve added some hooks and been hard at work putting all the pieces together for some pretty impressive third-party integrations. Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant integrations are pretty far along, and TiVo is close to getting certifications for both of those, likely being available before the end of February. More than just turning TiVo on and off, these voice assistant integrations allow for fairly granular controls, including channel changing, play/pause, rewind, and even commercial skip. IFTTT integrations take this one step further, allowing bidirectional communications. This means TiVo could tell IFTTT that the “press D to Skip” icon is on the screen, and that could trigger an IFTTT skill to send the “skip” message back to TiVo. Yep, auto-skip is available and I’ve seen it in action! Even better news: IFTTT integration will work all the way back to Series 4 (Premier) units and doesn’t require the new Hydra UI (except auto-skip actually will require Hydra, at least at launch). Look for more from TiVo soon.
CES – Catalyst Waterproof Case for AirPods Featured at Unveiled
Catalyst is still one of the only companies to offer a case for your AirPods, and now have won a CES Innovation Award for it. They were showing off the case and its new colors at CES Unveiled on Sunday. With most people just now having finally gotten AirPods, I figured this was a good time to call this a Cool Stuff Found for you all.
CES – Ring Alarm Home Security System Coming in 2018
LAS VEGAS – Ring, maker of video doorbells and security cams, added an entire home security kit to its lineup today. The US$199 Ring Alarm Home Security System starter bundle includes a keypad, Base Station (with siren), motion sensor, and door/window sensor. Additional motion and door/window sensors can be added to the system, of course. On its own, the Ring Alarm will send alerts to your iPhone, but it can also be paired with an optional professional monitoring service and cellular backup service for $10/month. The nice part is, if you’re comfortable doing your own monitoring with your iPhone, you don’t need to ever pay a monthly fee. Just set the Ring Alarm system up, connect it to your Wi-Fi, and let it do its thing and alert you when something is awry. The Ring Alarm system will be available coming in 2018.
CES - Kwilt Shoebox Brings Private Cloud to Your Photos and Videos
LAS VEGAS – Kwilt Shoebox was showing off their private cloud storage device at CES Unveiled Sunday, giving iPhone users an easy way to back up, offload, and view all your photos and videos.
CES - Guardian Automatically Shuts off Your Water System to Prevent Leaks
LAS VEGAS – Homeowners (and probably insurance carriers!) can rejoice at the Guardian automated leak prevention system, shipping today. The system is entirely do-it-yourself and requires no plumbing to be done at all. Simply clamp the main unit onto the pipe where your water main control valve is, and then set the Wi-Fi-connected sensors in strategic locations around the house. When one of the sensors detects a leak, the system’s automated motor closes the valve to prevent water damage from a constantly-fed open pipe. Each sensor has a 15-year battery inside it. We think that’s long enough to get your money out of the system and move on to something else cool in 10 years! Guardian also includes a temperature sensor to help prevent against water damage from frozen pipes. At 45F the system starts sending alerts to your iPhone; at 40F it shuts off your water. The iOS app can also be used to control and monitor the system remotely. A kit with the battery-backed base unit and three Wi-Fi sensors is priced at US$399, and you can add more sensors whenever you like.
Disable tailspind and spindump to Speed Up your Mac
Apple’s macOS High Sierra introduced enough performance enhancements that my dual-core, 2011 MacBook Air felt like it had new life breathed into it. Occasionally, though – and more and more frequently recently – events would cascade such that my CPU would run at full tilt for 5-10 minutes before finally settling in. When that was happening, Activity Monitor and/or iStat Menus would show two system processes chewing up CPU: tailspind and spindump. Thankfully, we now know how to stop that.
Jony Ive's Return to Products and Bitcoin's Recent Surge - TMO Daily Observations 2017-12-11
John Martellaro and Bryan Chaffin join guest-host Dave Hamilton to discuss Jony Ive’s returned focus on products at Apple. Also: Bitcoin surged… why?
