Manage Color Palettes on Your Mac with Swatch

Bit Lasso just released Swatch to make it easier to manage the color palettes on the Mac. The app lets you import colors from multiple sources, add colors with Apple’s Color Picker, and by entering color values. You can organize palettes, export colors and palettes, and more. Swatch lives in your menu bar for quick access. The app requires macOS High Sierra or Mojave and is available on Apple’s Mac App Store for US$9.99.

macOS Mojave: How to Disable All Automatic Updates

One of the changes Apple made in macOS Mojave is that software updates work a bit differently. If you want to disable automatic updating for either your App Store apps or your system, you can do that from two different sets of preferences if you want to! Melissa Holt has the scoop in today’s Quick Tip.

iPhone XS Tests Far Better Than iPhone X in LTE Speeds

At PC MagazineSascha Segan has compared LTE speeds of the iPhone X to XS, and the latter is substantially faster. “The new iPhone XS and XS Max use an LTE modem that we’ve never seen used anywhere else: the Intel XMM7560. The 7560 is Intel’s first modem to support all four US wireless carriers, letting Apple drop Qualcomm, the world’s dominant high-end modem supplier.” However, ” … it still doesn’t quite match the Qualcomm X20 modem used in the Samsung Galaxy Note 9.” This is good stuff.

TMO Background Mode Interview with Former Apple Software Engineer James Dempsey

James Dempsey worked at Apple for fifteen years before setting out on his own in August 2011. As a software engineer at Apple, he worked on iOS, Aperture, and macOS releases Leopard through Lion, including half a decade on the Cocoa frameworks team. He’s the founder of Tapas Software, developer of iOS and Mac software. We talked abut his “aha” moments in life starting with his college roommate’s Mac Plus in 1986. His dream to work for Apple was eventually fulfilled in 1996, and James described what it was like to be an Apple evangelist in those days. But James is also an accomplished comedian, vocalist, ukulele player and has a published album. He’s also routinely written special songs for WWDC each year. If you ever wanted to work for Apple, this show is must listening.

California Just Passed an Internet of Things Law

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed an Internet of Things law covering cybersecurity. California is the first state with a law like this.

Starting on January 1st, 2020, any manufacturer of a device that connects “directly or indirectly” to the internet must equip it with “reasonable” security features, designed to prevent unauthorized access, modification, or information disclosure. If it can be accessed outside a local area network with a password, it needs to either come with a unique password for each device, or force users to set their own password the first time they connect. That means no more generic default credentials for a hacker to guess.

If only it affected all IoT devices, instead of ones created two years into the future.