So, the same people who are releasing that cute compact Macintosh “inspired” charger I mentioned backing also make this chunky battery pack:
I ordered one and received it recently. I’ve started putting it through its paces, and I can’t get over the fact that I can charge my MacBook Pro 14-inch from a battery pack these days!
Also, this thing looks Cyberpunk AF…
Currently listening: Lio - “Amoureux Solitaires”
So, following on from last week’s installation of those Outdoor Gate Sensors, I found that the only way I could have my Shortcut run as well as the HomeKit Scene being sent was to create another Shortcut that included both of those. Attached is my code for the Gate Check, which I’m sure is not the most efficient way to go about it, but hey, if it works, right?
Currently listening: Al Green - “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)”
Inspired by a Shane Whatley YouTube video, I have installed some Aqara Door and Window Sensors on a couple of outside gates, by using some very strong Rare-earth magnets and putting the sensors inside a small project box. The next step is to set up something to notify me when they’re left open as part of my “Good Night” scene in Home. Looks like I will need to use Pushcut for that part.
https://www.aqara.com/en/door_and_window_sensor.html
Currently listening: Tame Impala - “The Less I Know the Better”
The new macOS Ventura and iOS 16 look pretty sweet! Having the ability to customise the iPhone lock screen somewhat is definitely in the “finally” category.
It’s odd in Homekit that Apple are removing the option to use an iPad as a Home Hub - so only HomePod and Apple TV are now the only choice? Perhaps there will be some other always connected device with a screen that will fill the gap… There have been rumours.
The M2 MacBook Air is a nice redesign, but the M2 MacBook Pro 13-inch does seem a pointless option though… Either a 14-inch or stick with an Air!
Currently listening: Dan Croll - “From Nowhere (Baardsen Remix)”
I’ve been running a PurpleAir Air Quality Sensor since 2020, and having been using the excellent Scriptable widget on my iPhone/iPad to keep an eye on the AQI, as well as the formerly BitBar, now SwiftBar plugin on my Mac. Originally inspired by this: sixcolors.com/post/2020…
That all stopped working last week due to PurpleAir changing their API…
I also used to use a “Combine PDF Pages” workflow in Automator, which stopped working in Monterey due to Apple removing Python…
Time to look into updating or replacing some things I guess!
Currently listening: Wire - “I Am the Fly”
Absolutely this is just the nostalgia factor, but like Stephen Hackett of 512 Pixels, I backed this quicker than anything I’d seen for quite a while!
Currently listening: Paul McCartney - “Coming Up”
I’m guessing we’ll at least see a preview of the Apple silicon-based Mac Pro and a bevy of operating system sneak peeks…
Things I don’t expect but would be cool:
* macOS 13 to focus on stability and bug-fixes, not features - à la Snow Leopard.
* Special Edition iPod ("We're bringing it back, for all those who loved the Classic, now with Flash storage and Retina class screen!").
* The multi-colour peripheral options from the iMac M1 to be available separately.
* Maybe a special "One Last Thing" in the form of a look at that near-mythical AR headset!
I know these are all pipe-dreams, but gimme one and I’d be a happy Mac guy!
Currently listening: ‘Til Tuesday - “Voices Carry”
Nothing to write about this week that I can think of… Back next week :)
Well, it’s finally out… although I have been checking for a couple of days though, and still no sign of the update yet in the Mac App Store.
Looking forward to road testing the latest version of my favourite password manager, reviews have been positive.
Currently listening: The Go! Team - “Mayday”
After spotting a bit of a bargain on eBay just this last week, I bought a used Mac Pro (2013). I’d always low-key wanted one since release - it’s an oddity in the Macintosh family tree in some ways. Almost a second G4 Cube… Power in a very small chassis, but limited by certain design choices.
I got it to replace one of the Mac mini 2012 models I use at my store alongside another 2012, a 2014, and a 2018 all running as workstations for repairs, data recovery, etc.
The 2012 models are now getting a bit long in the tooth and cannot run the last few versions of macOS, but I’ll be hanging on them as legacy machines for running older software.
The other I will most likely replace with my Mac mini (M1, 2020) from home, when that in turn gets replaced with a newer Mac mini sometime before the end of the year, hopefully.
The only other brief times I have used one of the Mac Pro (2013) models is at an Apple Store, so it’s been good to have a bit more of a hands-on. It’s larger and heavier than I remember, and the outer casing has an interesting sheen that I imagine would be a nightmare to photograph professionally! It feels somewhat halfway between black, gray and silver. My one was quite dusty inside, so I gave it good clean out. Now to get a stronger transparent acrylic riser than can safely lift it :)
Having 6 Thunderbolt ports will come in handy with plugging in drives and machines in Target Disk Mode!
Currently listening: Yvonne Elliman - “I Can’t Explain”
I have now a fairly extensive “smart home” built up with a bunch of HomeKit devices over the years, some have been great, some have been terrible. Here’s some hard-earned wisdom and a few of my favourite things;
you have to start with a reliable and properly set up WiFi network. I’ve set up a separate 2.4GHz network for devices that prefer or only work with that. I used to have 2 AirPort Extremes and an AirPort Time Capsule with a wired backbone connecting them. I pulled everything out and replaced them with a UniFi Dream Machine Pro and 4x Ubiquiti NanoHD access points about 2.5 years ago, which kinda took things from “better than average” to “over the top and I love it”.
setting static IPs for my lights, garage door opener, etc, improved reliability as well.
I set up Homebridge (initially on its own Raspberry Pi, now on my Mac mini server) to expose a few devices that don’t have native HomeKit support, e.g. my weather station and my UniFi security cameras. This has been very handy in terms of having devices all in the one spot, and also means they can be used as input for HomeKit automations.
I had about eight or so “smart” WiFi power plugs that would stop working just often enough to be useless. A few were in a rather hard to reach spot, and the nature of the failure was that when you would apply power, they would default to off and no longer be visible/controllable. To switch them back on, you would have to press a button on the side of the unit, but then to go through resetting them there was a long-winded procedure with holding that button down and cycling power. Multiply that out by the number of units, and you can see why I eventually scrapped them.
I have had an electrician set up 6x Shelly 1 v3 - These are about the size of 2 Oreos, go behind the light switches in the wall, and allow for control of whatever the light switch is for. I re-flashed them with a HomeKit compatible firmware that someone created, which means they seamlessly work with everything else. One really neat thing is, it resolves the issue of having a smart light globe becoming “dumb” when a standard light switch removes power by virtue of it being set to off. Instead, the Shelly 1 has the option of being configured as what they call a “stateless toggle switch”, which, put a little simpler, means if the light is on, flicking the switch will tell the light to turn off, but not by removing power. This means that even if the light switch is “off”, the light is actually still powered but not illuminated, and so you can turn the lights on with a voice command or an automation. It’s the simple things in life ;)
There will be more I have to add to this, which will have to be a post for another week!
Currently listening: Talking Heads - “Making Flippy Floppy”
USB flash drives (AKA thumb drives or USB sticks) have been around for quite a while, and there are untold millions of them in use around the world, so there is nothing unusual about them these days… Intel showed off at a conference in 2013 a prototype of a Thunderbolt thumb drive, using the Mini DisplayPort connector, which was never a shipping product. Then there’s this, a FireWire flash drive! It has only 1 GB capacity, and on it is a custom stripped-down version of Mac OS X 10.4 as well as the Techtool Pro 4 application. It was used by technicians and cluey users to diagnose or check up on the health of their Mac computers. Hilariously, using a daisy-chain of adapters (FireWire 400 to FireWire 800, then FireWire 800 to Thunderbolt 1 / 2, and finally Thunderbolt 1 / 2 to Thunderbolt 3) it will still mount on a current M1 Mac mini. It was donated to me by a friend and now lives amongst the other historical items in the Vault :)
Currently listening: Th' Dudes - “Walking in Light”
So, I got myself a Stream Deck (No, not a Steam Deck :P ). If you’ve not seen one, it’s a little macropad with customisable displays for keys. Each key can be set to launch a website/app, control any of a number of smart devices, or perform a series of keypresses. I am starting to play around with it to what productivity and efficiency improvements it can bring to my business. I’ve already figured out setting a key to activate an AppleScript that will paste in the current date in ISO 8601 format (e.g. 2022-04-09), which will be a big help. I’m sure there’s bunch more little nifty things I’ll be able to have it do, soon enough…
Currently listening: Pixies - “Gouge Away”
Look at ‘em, these two old-timers, discussing years gone by… Reminiscing the days when they were the cool new gadgets. Or, at least, the iPod is… Remembering their battles, Zune trying to take on the massive cultural juggernaut and failing. “Squirting? Really? C’mon bro, gotta try harder!” Rambling on about how smartphones ate their lunch. “ROKR? That’s how they thought I was going down?”. But then, that magical three-in-one was revealed and the writing was on the wall. “Multi-touch.. I coulda had multi-touch…” Retired now, they hang out together in the Vault.
Currently listening: BØRNS - “Electric Love”
I recently had a chance to try first-hand the AirPods Max for an extended time, and I found them pretty impressive. Whilst they are undoubtedly not cheap, the build quality is incredible, and the experience of using them is a joy. They handle switching between multiple sources/devices seamlessly, a giant improvement over any other I’ve tried. Head tracking means you have the illusion of the audio coming from actual speakers in the room - when I first watched a YouTube video, I had to lift the AirPods Max from my ears to see if it wasn’t the speakers from the machine. They are comfortable even over an hour or two, and the battery life is impressive.
One last thing; the design of the “stalk” where the head band meets the cups reminds me of the iMac G4 arm!
Currently listening: London Elektricity - “Meteorites”
Back in 2008, a European company came out with an expensive dongle that promised to allow a PC to run Mac OS X. It would plug into a USB header on certain PC motherboards and included a boot manager that could let you select from a number of installed operating systems. They claimed it was highly specialised technology they’d developed.
However, someone scraped through the protective epoxy within to find that it was essentially just a USB stick full of unacknowledged Open Source code.
I bought this in 2014 as a historical oddity, it now sits amongst a bunch of weird and wonderful tech miscellanea on some shelves.
Currently listening: Sahara Beck - “Queen of Hearts”
Not only was there no new high-end iMac announced at the Apple event, they’ve discontinued it! I don’t think it is the last one we’ve seen - but it will be a while until that happens.
To be honest, I’m disappointed. It’s been my preferred model in the Mac line-up ever since the 24-inch was introduced in 2006.
Currently listening: Orange Juice - “Rip It Up”
Well, it is official, Apple has an event next Tuesday, “Peek Performance”, the invitation headline reads. It would be a real long-shot I feel for “peek” to refer to the rumoured AR headset, but there’s a small chance. Given it’s a new category of device, they will preview it before a release about six months later (as with the iPhone and Apple Watch).
I feel the iPhone SE 3rd Gen and iPad Air 5th Gen are a shoe-in.
It will be interesting to see what new Apple Silicon machine is announced, a higher-end Mac mini or a replacement for the MacBook Pro 13-inch are most likely.
I doubt we’ll see the iMac 27-inch replacement now, that will be later this year I’d say.
All will be revealed on Tuesday!
Currently listening: Kasabian - “Butcher Blues”
Not posting anything this week. Not in the mood. Stay strong, Ukraine 🇺🇦🥺
I’m really hanging out for a redesigned iMac 27-inch, which I know must be coming in the next few months. This will be the first full redesign of the larger model in nearly a decade, assuming you don’t include the iMac Pro.
I’d say it’s a given that it will be sporting an M1 Pro chip inside, with the option of upgrading to an M1 Max. It will have only flash storage internally, and have no upgradability after leaving the factory. It will presumably have 6, or even 8 Thunderbolt 3/USB-C ports, but I’d be surprised if it had any USB-A ports or even an HDMI port.
I’m guessing the screen quality will be the best of any iMac ever, with no Face ID and no notch.
I’m also guessing that it will use the same design of external power brick as the iMac 24-inch, potentially even the exact same type, as there is a lot of headroom with the wattage of the current ones.
In terms of surprises, I’d like to imagine there will be something about the new-new-new iMac that will give it the ol’ “wow factor”…
Currently listening: Bo Diddley - “Help Out”
And I have realised two things;
1: It would be extremely handy if you could share the location of a single AirTag with others in the “Family Sharing” group, and,
2: Our cat doesn’t really go as far during the day as we all assumed!
Currently listening: Ramones - “Blitzkrieg Bop”
In our living room we have a sideboard which stores a random assortment of charging cables (mostly USB variants), a bunch of video games, etc. On top lives a Sonos speaker, a family portrait, a smart light, and some decorative hourglasses. I’m generally a big fan of minimalism, but has become apparent we needed something a bit bigger!
We looked at a lot of options, including having something custom made, but finally decided on an IKEA Ersnäs. I’d looked at the IKEA options a couple of times, but none suited, this only became available quite recently I believe.
I was not a fan of the wooden handles, so I replaced them with some brushed metal ones, which I think improved things.
Now to get all the power cables sorted, drill some holes, and install a couple of mounts on the side for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U!
Currently listening: Van Morrison - “Saint Dominic’s Preview”
It’d be handy on the iPhone keyboard if that when you hold down shift and press delete it was a forward delete, which is to say deleting character by character to the right of the text insertion point…
Currently listening: Georgia - “Started Out”
Very excited to see the latest beta versions of macOS Monterey and iPadOS have finally enabled Universal Control, with the final public release looking to be in March. This feature allows for a truly seamless melding of devices where a single set of peripherals can be used between two Macs, or an iPad and a Mac. Imagine simply moving your cursor to the edge of one screen and it then pops up on the other device, with no cables and very little configuration. It takes a lot of effort behind the scenes to make something that works this slickly.
Currently listening: Total Giovanni - “Human Animal”
The very first Mac I saw was a lonely Macintosh Classic in my high school computer lab. There were about 30 or so PCs running Windows 3.1.1 connected up using Novell NetWare over “ThinNet”. The Classic was stuck in a corner, not connected to anything except a printer, and ignored by the IT teacher who sneeringly referred to it as being “just a toy”. When I sat down in front of it and began to use it, it was as though a lightning bolt hit me. I started mousing through the menus, windows, and icons, and had this feeling that this was a machine that was designed by people, for people. It was approachable, it was friendly - heck, it even had a smile when you switched it on! This would’ve been in the mid-90s, when everyone was sure Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy. They weren’t far from the truth then, but oh boy have things changed since…
Happy Birthday, Mac!
Currently listening: Bob Dylan - “The Times They Are a-Changin'”