Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Butts talk about the current state of Mac gaming, with Jeff focusing on improved Mac support at Steam. They also dive deeper into crypto credit cards where you can either spend your crypto and/or earn cryptocurrency rewards like Bitcoin on your purchases. And, Jeff has been deep into iOS 15 betas, and he talks about some of his favorite new features.
Mac
Satechi Releases 2021 iMac USB-C ‘Clamp Hub’
On Thursday Satechi unveiled a USB-C hub that clamps onto the 2021 M1 iMac. It’s available to purchase for US$54.99.
Using Alfred To Reach Specific Preference Panes On Your Mac
Here’s A Quick Tip from Mac Geek Gab 883 on using Alfred to reach specific Preference Panes on your Mac.
Prepping To Sell Your Mac
Want to sell your Mac, but don’t know where to start? Mac Geek Gab has got you covered, Find Out More From Apple Here.
Podcasts
AMD Releases New Radeon PRO W6000X GPUs for Mac Pro
On Tuesday, AMD announced its line of Radeon PRO W6000X GPU series for the Mac Pro.
Built on groundbreaking AMD RDNA 2 architecture, AMD Infinity Cache and other advanced technologies, the new workstation graphics line-up includes the AMD Radeon™ PRO W6900X and AMD Radeon™ PRO W6800X GPUs. Mac Pro users also have the option of choosing the AMD Radeon PRO W6800X Duo graphics card, a dual-GPU configuration that leverages high-speed AMD Infinity Fabric interconnect technology to deliver outstanding levels of compute performance.
The Top Products Apple Inexplicably Killed, with Jeff Gamet and John Kheit - ACM 552
Bryan Chaffin, Jeff Gamet, and John Kheit pick up part three of their series on Apple’s best features and products with a look back at the products Apple killed, including the best products that were inexplicably canceled.
Total War: WARHAMMER II - The Silence & The Fury Available for Mac
Feral Interactive has announced that The Silence & The Fury, the final Lords Pack for Total War: WARHAMMER II, is out now for macOS. The Silence & The Fury introduces new Legendary Lords for the Lizardmen and the Beastmen, each leading their own factions with new characters and units, as well as unique gameplay mechanics and narrative objectives. A feature-packed free update to Total War: WARHAMMER II for macOS is also available today, including reworks to the Beastmen and Dwarfen factions, a new Dawi Legendary Lord, and the introduction of Ogre Mercenaries for Total War Access Members. A trailer can be watched on YouTube.
macOS: Here’s How to Reset an M1 Mac SMC
The System Management Controller manages many low-level functions on your Mac. Here’s how to reset an M1 Mac SMC for troubleshooting.
Podcasts
How to Speed Up Everything (on Your Mac)
Want to speed up everything you do on your Mac? Learn to type faster (says Dr. Mac), and he has some practical ways to do it.
OWC Launches Envoy Pro SX Thunderbolt Bus-Powered Portable SSD
OWC has released a Envoy Pro SX Thunderbolt Bus-Powered Portable SSD with speeds up to 2,847MB/s.
Satechi Unveils 3 New GaN Wall Chargers for Devices
On Thursday Satechi released three GaN wall chargers in three sizes: 66W USB-C 3 port, 100W USB-C PD, and 108W USB-C 3-port.
Waterfield’s New Air Travel Backpack is Perfect for MacBooks
On Tuesday WaterField introduced the Air Travel backpack with a dedicated office compartment that can fit two laptops and their accessories.
Cool Stuff Found
'Monodraw' is a Multi-Purpose Mac ASCII Editor
Monodraw is an editor for Mac that lets you design ASCII art and create diagrams, mind maps, banners, and more. From the website: “Monodraw allows you to easily create text-based art (like diagrams, layouts, flow charts) and visually represent algorithms, data structures, binary formats and more. Because it’s all just text, it can be easily embedded almost anywhere. Of course, exporting as images is also supported (PNG and SVG).” You can download a free trial or buy a license for US$$9.99.
Most Important macOS Features in Hindsight, with Jeff Gamet and John Kheit - ACM 551
Bryan Chaffin, Jeff Gamet, and John Kheit get back to their retrospective look at Apple’s operating systems by singling out the most important features in Mac OS, OS X, and macOS through the lens of hindsight.
Google Unifies Two Desktop Apps Into a Single ‘Drive’ App
Google is merging its Google Drive sync clients on the desktop: Backup and Sync with Drive File Stream. The new app will be Drive for Desktop on macOS and Windows. The company shares a timeline with other details in its blog post.
Drive for desktop is a unified sync client that provides a consistent experience for anyone who uses Drive, whether for business, education or personal purposes. It enables you to quickly sync and access content directly from Mac or PC, which can save you time by helping you access files and folders in a familiar location.
Backblaze Updates With Faster Upload Speeds
On Wednesday Backblaze announced its big 8.0 upgrade that includes faster upload speeds as the main feature.
Apple Seeds macOS Monterey Public Beta 1
Apple has released macOS Monterrey public beta 1 on Thursday, a day after seeding betas for iOS 15 | iPadOS 15 and watchOS 8.
Apple Offers Free Downloads of OS X Lion, OS X Mountain Lion
Until now Apple charged US$19.99 to download codes for OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion. But now they’re free from Apple’s website.
Lion runs on Macs that came prior to the launch of Mountain Lion in 2012. Mountain Lion runs on the Macs below, but you may not be able to downgrade to it unless you completely reformat the drive. You can’t install an old OS on top of a newer one. Also, the oldest OS an M1 Mac can run is Big Sur.
