macOS Catalina dropped yesterday and some apps might not work with it. 32-bits apps aren’t supported but even 64-bit apps run into trouble.
macOS
Backblaze Launches Cloud Backup 7.0
Cloud storage company Backblaze is launching Cloud Backup 7.0 today. It supports macOS Catalina and gives customers a big new feature.
Jamf Has Day-Zero Support macOS Catalina
As macOS Catalina rolled out to users, Apple management tool Jamf announced day-zero support for the updated operating system.
Eight (GB) is Enough – Mac Geek Gab 783
Catalina is out and your geeks have migration and installation tips to share from their experiences. Take a listen to this episode before you upgrade, for sure. But Catalina isn’t the only topic this week, folks. Lots of iOS 13 tips and tricks, lots of other macOS stuff, and all of your questions answered, too!
Create a macOS Catalina Bootable Drive for Installation
Roman Loyola shares a tip for Apple users looking to upgrade: Creating a macOS Catalina bootable drive.
An external drive that you can use as an installer for macOS Catalina is a handy thing to have. If you have multple Macs to upgrade, it’s a lot more efficient to plug in the USB installer drive and run the installer than to log into the App Store, download the 6.5GB OS installer, and then run it.
macOS Catalina is Now Available for Apple Customers
macOS Catalina is now available to the public today bringing with it a lot of new features like Screen Time, iTunes split apart, and more.
32BitAppCheck Helps You Transition to macOS Catalina
32BitAppCheck is an app that scans for 32-bit apps on your Mac. It can help you prepare for macOS Catalina because this release will end support for 32-bit apps. It takes about 30 seconds to scan your computer (longer if you have hard drives plugged in). Once it’s finished it will present a list of all the 32-bit apps it found, which you can save as an .RTF file.
Information then collected in the app’s window begins with a list of 32-bit applications, followed by 32-bit preference panes found in System preferences. Then, you will see 32-bit system extensions, and 32-bit system frameworks. These software will include both Apple and 3rd-party software. You can then edit the information, changing fonts, and adding notes. Click Save to save the information in an RTF file. The most recent information with you edits is also saved within the app.
You can download the app here. As this is an app outside of the Mac App Store, I scanned it for malware using VirusTotal, and it appears to be clean. For an additional resource I’ve also written about Go64, which does the same thing and the UI is a bit more friendly.
WebKit Zero Day Served Malicious Ads to iOS, macOS Users via 'eGobbler'
Criminal group eGobbler took advantage of a WebKit zero day to create over a billion malicious ads to affect iOS and macOS users.
Quick iOS 13 Messages Tips; Beginning Catalina Prep – TMO Daily Observations 2019-09-30
Dave Hamilton and Andrew Orr join host Kelly Guimont to discuss some hints for iMessage in iOS 13, and we start talking Catalina prep.
macOS Mojave 10.14.6 Patches a Security Hole
Along with iOS 12.4.2 Apple is releasing macOS Mojave 10.14.6, a second supplemental update with security fixes.
If you’re running an earlier version of macOS then you will instead find Security Update 2019-005 for macOS High Sierra and Security Update for macOS Sierra available as system software updates.
The security issue as shared here fixes CVE-2019-8641: A remote attacker may be able to cause unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution.
All the macOS Wallpapers: Jaguar to Catalina
USA Today/tech has published a showcase of the Mac OS X/OS X/macOS wallpapers throughout the years. It’s very cool. By the way, TMO discovered which galaxy was used for OS X Mountain Lion back in 2012.
macOS: How to Manage Download Permissions in Safari 13
Although Apple hasn’t released macOS Catalina yet, it did update its browser to Safari 13. It has a new section for downloads permissions.
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!
macOS Catalina Isn't Coming Until October
Apple updated its website today, noting that macOS Catalina won’t arrive until an unknown date in October. From TechCrunch:
After a summer of beta testing, Apple is about to release the next major version of macOS: macOS Catalina. But not so fast; the new version will arrive in October, according to Apple’s updated website. As always, this update will be available as a free download in the Mac App Store.
The software release dates are all over the place this year.
New iPhone Speculation, Catalina Features – TMO Daily Observations 2019-09-04
Charlotte Henry and Bob “Dr Mac” LeVitus join host Kelly Guimont to talk about the new wave of iPhone SE speculation and Catalina features.
iPhone Hacks, Python, Particle Debris – TMO Daily Observations 2019-08-30
John Martellaro and Andrew Orr join host Kelly Guimont to discuss an iOS vulnerability, the future of Python on macOS, and Particle Debris.
The Origins of Unix - Now 50 Years Old
ars technica has posted at terrific story by Richard Jensen on the origins of the Unix operating system back in the late 1960s.
Maybe its pervasiveness has long obscured its origins. But Unix, the operating system that in one derivative or another powers nearly all smartphones sold worldwide, was born 50 years ago from the failure of an ambitious project that involved titans like Bell Labs, GE, and MIT.
A derivative of the original Unix OS, in the family tree of BSD, is the basis for macOS, iOS, and is even running in your Apple Watch.
Rumors Still Live for Apple's Bluetooth Tile Competitor
Apple announced a feature at WWDC 2019 that would let devices running iOS 13 and macOS Catalina to broadcast their location even when offline. The same technology is rumored to show up in a Bluetooth tracking device similar to Tile.
This small beacon device could be attached to personal items such as keys, purses or wallets so that the owner could find them even when out of range of the items. An ARKit “star” image discovered in the Find My app bundle hints at the possibility of using augmented reality to find lost devices or items, similar to Pixie Tracker.
Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac Released With Support for Metal
Parallels Desktop 15 was just released, adding support for macOS Catalina features like Sidecar and adding support for Apple’s Metal API.
All About Apps Phoning Home. And Firewalls
The Eclectic Light Company writes:
A few years ago, most Mac users had firewalls in their routers which blocked all incoming connections, and that was all they wanted. Over those years, we’ve increasingly installed software firewalls on our Macs to block outgoing connections. This article looks at some of the issues that arise from doing that.
The rules of the game keep changing, and this article brings us up-to-date.
What to Know About RTF vs. RTFD Files on a Mac
The Eclectic Light Company writes:
Macs and iOS devices have the benefit of not one variety of Rich Text documents, but two: RTF and RTFD. This article explores some of their features and limitations, and considers the problems of working with them alongside one another.
This is a very readable and helpful article that explains the nature of RTFD files and their history going back to the origins with NeXT Corp.
Apple Releases macOS Mojave 10.14.6 Supplemental Update for Sleep Issue
This patch was specifically released to fix an issue that prevented some Macs from not waking up sleep.
The iPhone on a Car Dash is Not The Right Way to Navigate
Navigating in a car with AR and maps on an iPhone, even on the upper dashboard, is not the right way to go. John has a much better idea.
About the macOS Transparency Consent and Control System
The Eclectic Light Company writes:
The Transparency Consent and Control (TCC) system [in macOS] maintains a database of each user’s consents.
This article explains what you must do when uninstalling software in Mojave, and presumably Catalina, in order to remove previous consents for access to protected resources.
If you were to reinstall that software, you would see that it was immediately granted the same access as when it was removed, without your consent being sought again.
This is an interesting and informative article about the seldom discussed macOS TCC.
