Macworld April 2019

I’m daring to believe we’re living in one of the best years for the Mac in ages. A recent report from trusted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo brims with rumors regarding everything from a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an “all-new design” to a 32-inch 6K standalone Apple monitor. There may even be a 32GB upgrade for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and it looks as though we’ll finally be getting the modular Mac Pro. But it’s that “all-new design” that intrigues me the most. Kuo didn’t offer many specifics, so I’ve allowed my imagination and wishlist to run wild. For the most part, I’ve left out hardware upgrades—such as a better graphics card (like the Vega)—and focused on the general user experience. With these changes, I believe Apple could recapture some of the wonder…

Browser extensions add specific capabilities to Safari by reading and modifying web content to promote an integrated browsing experience that’s tailored to your needs. There are two places to find Apple-approved Safari extensions: The App Store and the Safari Extensions Gallery webpage. With Safari 12 on macOS Mojave and iOS 12, Apple revised the way its native web browser operates with extensions. Whereas in the past, you could easily download an extension from a developer, today you must download and install a Mac app or an Apple approved extension from the Safari Extensions Gallery page. The gallery is still operative for browser versions as far back as version 9, and is still considered a safe way to download and install Safari extensions. Regardless of the browser version, all apps from the…

Federico Viticci said it best on the Connected podcast last week: The departure of Angela Ahrendts as Apple’s retail chief is a Rorschach test. One’s reaction to the news will reveal a lot about one’s feelings about the current state of Apple’s retail stores. I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Ahrendts featuring aspects of the Apple Store experience that actually preceded her. No, she didn’t invent the where’s-the-line, where-do-I-stand setup that completely breaks everything we ever learned about how to behave in a retail store. Under her tenure the approach was modified, not discarded, and in recent years I’ve noticed a more aggressive positioning of employees at the front of stores to intercept new shoppers and put them in the right place. Perhaps the biggest source of Apple Store frustration…

If you’ve ever used an app that accepts an audio input and was frustrated that you can specify only one piece of audio hardware, or if you’ve wanted to route the sound output of an app into Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, or another conversation, Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback is the program you need. The latest version improves significantly on its predecessor, which itself was quite powerful. The app lets you combine hardware audio—like mics and line input—with the audio output of apps and system-level components, like Text-to-Speech, to create virtual audio devices. A combined audio device appears as a single item you can select as an input in programs like GarageBand or Skype. You can also select it as an output device, too, playing into the virtual audio equipment system audio…

Photographers who use photo-management and -editing apps have been caught in a changing market. Users of Apple’s Aperture had to deal with the demise of the app. Then there’s Adobe Lightroom, which used to be sold with a perpetual software license, but then Adobe changed it to a subscription-based model. If you’re a photographer seeking a powerful, traditionally licensed package, Skylum Software’s Luminar may be what you need. The new Luminar 3—also known as Luminar 3 with Libraries—offers a superlative, easy-to-use image-editing app with photo management capabilities. LIBRARIES Luminar 3 debuts a new digital asset management feature called Libraries, which allows the app to compete with Lightroom functionality both in editing and photo management. It syncs with folders and subfolders and tracks all photo edits in a catalog, so you…

KAITERRA LASER EGG 2+ A good air quality monitor like the Laser Egg 2+ can help you understand what’s in your home’s air, so you can take the appropriate actions to clean it up. It monitors particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and the total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) that are emitted from paints, cleaning products, and even cooking. The Laser Egg 2+ is HomeKit enabled and you can set it up by scanning or typing the HomeKit code right in the Kaiterra iOS app and assigning its various sensors to a room. You can use Siri voice commands to check on that room’s air quality.—MICHAEL ANSALDO ECOVACS DEEBOT 711 Ecovacs latest robot vacuum is a diligent cleaner with a several advanced features, including a…