Articles about macOS

Making a streaming service available on as many platforms as possible is key to attracting more and more customers in the cord-cutting era, and, to that end, Sling TV is now opening its doors to Google Chrome users.

Sling TV says that its new player, which is available in beta at this stage, can be used by Chrome users on Windows devices and Macs and comes with support for both live and on-demand content.

Continue reading →

USB-C is the future, and if your computer doesn't have the connector, I feel sorry for you. While it isn't a necessity at the moment, it will be eventually. Luckily, you can sometimes leverage adapters and cables to connect a Type-C device to a machine that is Type-A only.

Speaking of USB-C devices, ADATA has a new 3D NAND External SSD that uses that connector. Called "SE730H," it is the successor to the company's diminutive "SE730." Not only does the new model offer higher capacities, but the 3D TLC NAND should lend to improved longevity. While it uses 3.1 gen 2, the drive tops out at 500MB/s for both read and write. The "H" variant retains the same good looks and MIL-STD-810G/IP68 water and dust proofing as the prior model too.

Continue reading →

Apple is using World Emoji Day to preview upcoming emoji that will feature in iOS, macOS and watchOS later in the year. The new emoji include breastfeeding, a zombie, a woman in a headscarf, and a bearded man.

The company says that "the new emoji make it easier for users to express themselves with greater diversity, additional animals and creatures, new smiley faces and more," but not everyone is going to take it quite that seriously. Still... zombies!

Continue reading →

Apple will not officially release macOS High Sierra until later this year, but, in the meantime, Mac users who want to check out the new features early can enroll in the public beta program to install preview builds of the new operating system.

The first public beta build lands today, coinciding with the release of a revised second beta for developers. Apple typically gives developers the option to sample a new Mac operating system early, so that casual testers can enjoy a more stable experience.

Continue reading →

Apple has long made it clear that support for 32-bit apps will be phased out eventually. On the iPhone and iPad side, the final nail in the coffin comes with iOS 11. However, macOS developers have a bit more time left to prepare for a 64-bit only future.

Starting next year, Apple will no longer accept 32-bit macOS apps in the App Store, which means that any new titles must be 64-bit from January onwards. However, for existing apps and their upcoming updates there is a different deadline.

Continue reading →

It's WWDC 2017 and if there is one thing that you can count on is Apple showing off the new versions of its main operating systems. So, today, we catch a glimpse of macOS High Sierra, which is shaping up to be a pretty impressive upgrade over its predecessor, macOS Sierra.

There are a couple of notable new features in macOS High Sierra, namely the introduction of Apple File System, VR support, a better browsing experience in Safari, faster graphics, and improved video support.

Continue reading →

Apple's macOS Sierra is a solid operating system. It is very mature and beautiful, not to mention, it is chock-full of user-focused features. Quite frankly, from a user experience perspective, it is probably the best OS by far. Still, there are other quality operating systems too, including Microsoft's excellent and always-improving Windows 10.

As great as macOS Sierra is, it is not perfect, meaning Apple is constantly looking to make it better. Today, the company releases the newest such version, 10.12.5. While not a revolutionary update by any means, it offers some important bug fixes and enhancements. The most interesting aspect of macOS Sierra 10.12.5 is improved Windows 10 Creators Update support for Boot Camp.

Continue reading →

GNOME is not just a desktop environment, but a collection of apps too. Some are useful, while others... not so much. Case in point, GNOME has a new program called "Recipes." It is quite literally a searchable database of cooking recipes. While there is nothing really wrong with creating such an app, it sort of duplicates the functionality of a search engine, like Google or Bing. If resources were unlimited, I'd say more power to the developers. The open source project largely relies on donations, however, and it could be argued that Recipes is a bit unnecessary.

There is one particularly interesting aspect of Recipes -- it is available for macOS. You see, the developers have successfully ported the app to Apple's desktop operating system. While I'm dubious that Mac users will actually want the app, it is still rather cool.

Continue reading →

We first learned of Microsoft's plans to bring Visual Studio to the Mac last year in November, but it is not until Build 2017 that the software giant announced the general availability of the much-awaited version of its IDE. That's right macOS users, Visual Studio 2017 for Mac is finally here.

Visual Studio 2017 for Mac arrives two months after Microsoft released the Windows version and the fourth beta of the macOS IDE, and brings with it a number of new features related to things like .NET Core, web tooling and Xamarin.

Continue reading →

Back in 2013, Apple released a seemingly revolutionary desktop computer -- the cylindrical Mac Pro. It was beautiful and powerful, although it did resemble a garbage can. The problem? Apple neglected the computer, letting it stagnate. Then, in 2016, it released new MacBook Pro laptops, but many professionals panned the device for being under-powered. Ultimately, it seemed like Apple didn't care about professionals.

Not so fast. Apple not caring about professionals? Blasphemy. True, the company's profits largely don't come from "Pro" machines nowadays, but it historically has catered to creative professionals, such as hardcore photographers, videographers, and designers. Today, John Gruber of Daring Fireball shares an interesting interview with Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, who drops a bombshell -- the Mac Pro is getting a redesign! The company is even looking to release a new dedicated display -- a good idea after the LG monitor fiasco.

Continue reading →

With the launch of iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4, there was great excitement about the arrival of a new file system as well as improvements to performance -- even if they were only perceived improvements. Something that didn’t get a great deal of attention, however, is the introduction of replies to reviews.

Just as has been an option in Google Play for years, developers can now respond to the reviews that people leave about their apps and games. It's something that has been a very long time coming, and finally brings a dialog to the App Store, meaning that users and developers have a two-way channel of communication.

Continue reading →

Reducing exposure to blue light before bed can help you sleep better, which is why Apple has introduced Night Shift in macOS Sierra. The new display mode is designed to reduce the negative effects by changing the colors on your Mac's screen to warmer tones. However, it's not enabled by default.

Just like on iOS, where Apple first introduced Night Shift, you can easily activate and configure it to suit your preferences. Here is how you can do that.

Continue reading →

New releases always present a challenge for system admins and that applies to Apple just as much as other systems.

Device management specialist Jamf is offering zero day support for the latest spring releases of iOS (10.3), macOS (10.12.4), and tvOS (10.2).

Continue reading →

The Vault 7 leaks this week suggest that the CIA has been able to exploit vulnerabilities in a wide range of popular hardware and software, including Windows, macOS and Linux. One of the suggestions is that the agency produced EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) rootkits for MacBooks called DarkMatter.

To help calm the fears of MacBook owners, Intel Security has pushed out a tool to check for such rootkits. Apple issued a statement earlier this week indicating that it had addressed "many of the issues" exposed by WikiLeaks, but Intel Security's further intervention will bring some peace of mind to concerned users.

Continue reading →

Microsoft today releases Visual Studio 2017 and the fourth preview of Visual Studio for Mac. The latest official version of its longstanding IDE for Windows adds improvements related to productivity, performance, mobile apps, cloud development, DevOps and the ecosystem surrounding Visual Studio.

Visual Studio 2017, according to Microsoft's blog post announcing the release, features an improved startup and project load times, better navigation, the ability to edit files without having to open a project or solution, CMake support and Linux support for C++, Xamarin Forms Previewer, a new Connected Services experience, the ability to build .NET Core 1.0 and .NET Core 1.1 apps, support for Azure App Service and more.

Continue reading →