Answers and Tips for iCloud, iOS 13, iPhone 11, macOS, and More – Mac Geek Gab 781

Lots of new stuff from Apple this week… and lots of technical landmines to navigate. Thankfully, you’ve been sending your questions into John and Dave, and they’ve been doing the research to get you answers. Listen to the answers to your questions – and everyone else’s, too! Press play, and enjoy learning at least five new things… one that might even save your bacon this week!

Safari 13 Just Killed uBlock Origin and Other Extensions

Safari 13 deprecates support for legacy extensions. Instead, you now how to download them through the Mac App Store. A GitHub user explained the uBlock Origin situation and recommends adblocking alternatives.

Get a content blocker. Not nearly as powerful as uBO, but the best option if you want to stay with Safari. Do not get the app called “uBlock”, this is unassociated with uBlockOrigin (read about the split here), and is simply a content blocker with a big negative feature of having acceptable ads built in

Portable 10,000mAh Power Bank: $15

We have a deal on a portable power bank with a 10,000mAh capacity. It features dual USB inputs for faster charging up, and dual 2.4A outputs for charging your smartphone and other devices at high speeds. And, it’s just $15 through our deal.

Apple Reality Composer Available on App Store

The Apple Reality Composer app is now available on the App Store. It’s also included with Xcode so developers can build, test, tune, and simulate augmented reality experiences. Easily prototype and produce AR experiences directly in AR with no prior 3D experience. Drag and drop to place and rotate virtual objects to assemble your scene directly in AR or on the canvas. Build your scene by importing your own .usdz files or take advantage of the ready to use virtual objects in Reality Composer’s built-in AR content library, so you can get up and running quickly. Customize a virtual object’s size, style, and more. Add animations that let you move, scale, and add emphasis like a ‘wiggle’ or ‘spin’ to virtual objects, without having any animation experience. Add spatial audio, all of which can be set up to happen upon a user tapping on those objects, coming in close proximity with them, or other triggers. App Store: Apple Reality Composer – Free

Streaming 'a Whole New World' in November, Says Netflix Boss

Netflix is going to be under a lot of pressure come November when Apple TV+ and Disney+ launch. Variety reported on boss Reed Hasting’s comments to the Royal Television Society Friday, in which he looked ahead to what comes next.

“While we’ve been competing with many people in the last decade, it’s a whole new world starting in November…between Apple launching and Disney launching, and of course Amazon’s ramping up,” said Hastings, who also cited NBCUniversal’s coming Peacock service. “It’ll be tough competition. Direct-to-consumer [customers] will have a lot of choice.” He said Netflix would continue to hew closely to its core strategy of offering content for binge viewing, the phenomenon it helped create. That means the service isn’t moving into live sports, as Amazon Prime Video has, and won’t experiment much with different release models, including for its expanding catalogue of original films. “They may have a qualifying run for theatrical, but it’s fairly small.”