What Dr. Mac Thinks 
of the New Apple Stuff

· Bob LeVitus · Dr. Mac's Rants & Raves

Apple held its fall product announcement event last week in Cupertino, and although Dr. Mac wasn’t there, he watched it on Apple TV and (big surprise) has some strong opinions…

Journalist & TMO Contributor Charlotte Henry (#2) - TMO Background Mode Interview

· John Martellaro · Background Mode Podcast

Charlotte Henry on Background Mode

Charlotte is a London-based technical journalist. A self described media junkie, she writes about Apple—and now for the Mac Observer as well. She has also written for City A.M. (London’s daily business tabloid,) Computer Business Review, and the Independent on Sunday. Her new book is: Not Buying It.

In this special edition of BGM, Charlotte chats about her reactions to Apple’s September 10 iPhone event. She noted how Apple is in a new balancing act, promoting hardware to sell services—and vice versa. Charlotte told me about how pleased she is with the new iPad and plans to buy one. Then we took a closer look at the value proposition comparing the iPhone Xr to the iPhone 11. Charlotte also filled us in on her experience watching the event in the Apple London flagship store.

iPad 7, Apple Watch Series 5 Available for Preorder

· Andrew Orr · Cool Stuff Found

News that might have gotten lost in the new of iPhone 11 is that the Apple Watch Series 5 and iPad 7 are available to preorder now, while we have to wait until tonight/tomorrow to preorder the new iPhones.

Apple Watch Series 5: Starting at 32GB of storage, Series 5 has an always-on display, a Compass app, and available in more finishes, colors, and materials, like titanium and ceramic. Preorder it here starting at US$399.

iPad 7th Gen: This is an updated version of what became known as the education iPad. It has a 10.2-inch display with thin bezels like the old 10.5-inch iPad Pro. The 10.2-inch Retina display has almost 3.5 million pixels, an A10 Fusion chip, and for the first time, an 100% recycled aluminum body. Preorder it here for US$329.

Both will be officially out on September 30.

My Dilemma: iPad mini 5 or 7th Gen iPad?

· John Martellaro · Editorial

John was all set to replace his iPad mini 3 with an iPad mini 5. Then Apple announced the low cost, 7th generation iPad for $329. Will he shift gears?

Introducing the iPad 7th Generation for US$329

· Andrew Orr · Product News

At Apple’s keynote today, one of the products the company announced was the new iPad 7th generation. It’s a 10.2-inch model for US$329.

Boomerang Email Client is Now Available for iPad

· Andrew Orr · Cool Stuff Found

Boomerang, an email extension for Gmail and Outlook that enables its more than 50 million users to email more effectively, announced the launch of its iPad app. Generally regarded as the best tablet for business use, the Boomerang App for iPad provides users with all the features they’ve come to love from Boomerang, but optimized for the iPad’s screen sizes, meaning users can benefit from split pane view and multitasking abilities like Split View and Slide Over. Other features include Inbox Pause, Read Receipts, Block Tracking Pixels, Take Action from Email Notifications, Brief Me, AI Voice Assistant, Remind Me, Follow Up, Send Later, and more. App Store: Boomerang – Free

New Paperlike 2 Screen Protector is Great for Artists

· Andrew Orr · Cool Stuff Found

Paperlike is a screen protector for iPads with a rough surface. Like the name suggests, its purpose is to mimic the feel of paper so drawing on the iPad feels more natural. Now, the Paperlike 2 is out, improving on the first version. This time, it has a new Nanodots surface that lets more of the screen’s light shine through.

The key ingredient for the new Paperlike is the new Surface Technology “Nanodots®”. We called it that for a very simple reason: because we’ve basically sprinkled tiny dots across the screen protector’s foil. These dots don’t disturb the light as much, thus you get a rougher screen with less refraction.

Paperlike 2 is available on Kickstarter. The project is already funded, but you can pledge €29 (US$32) for a screen protector. The estimated delivery is October 2019.

Apple Updates USB-C Adapter with HDMI

· Andrew Orr · News

Apple has released an updated version of its USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter, adding an HDMI 2.0 port for your Mac or iPad Pro.

Play the Original Diablo in a Web Browser on Your iPad

· Andrew Orr · Link

The developers at Rivsoft made it possible to play the original Diablo game using a web browser. Someone on Reddit also got it working on their iPad.

Like the newer Diablo games, the original is an isometric top-down dungeon crawler with multiple character classes, tons of loot, and hoards demons to fight. The version of Diablo on Rivsoft’s site is the Shareware build — in modern times, we’d call this a demo. You can play the first two dungeons of the game with one of the game’s three character classes.

For the past several weeks I’ve been playing Diable III on my Nintendo Switch. I should give the original a play, too.

Apple Releases iPadOS Public Beta 4

· Bryan Chaffin · Product News

Apple released iPadOS Public Beta 4 on Tuesday. The release comes on the heels of iPadOS Developer Beta 5, and includes small and steady improvements in the beta development process

Apple Sells Exclusive Satechi USB-C Adapter

· Andrew Orr · Link

Apple is selling a Satechi USB-C adapter exclusively in its store. It has a USB-C power port, USB-A, SD, and microSD readers, and an HDMI port.

The Multiport Pro Adapter comes in space gray and is priced at $70, the same as what Apple’s first-party USB-C adapter normally sells for (but doesn’t have SD readers like Satechi’s new adapter). Notably, Satechi’s Multiport Pro Adapter is the only third-party USB-C hub that Apple is selling.