If you set up an automatically renewing TidBITS membership before April 2018, our new membership system will require a one-time restart from you. Sorry for the inconvenience! | Continue reading
Apple isn’t possessive of Portrait mode, the iPhone photography feature for creating shots with blurred backgrounds; it allows third parties to integrate the capability into their iOS apps. Google and Facebook are the latest to do it, each in their own way. | Continue reading
Apple announced in September that its new Apple Watch Series 4 is capable of taking electrocardiogram readings as part of its health-monitoring features. That feature didn’t ship with the watch, but it’s now available with the watchOS 5.1.2 update, along with irregular heart rhyt … | Continue reading
Brings some fixes for macOS 10.14 Mojave, as well as improves performance and reliability. (All updates are free. DEVONthink Pro Office, $149.95 new; DEVONthink Professional, $79.95 new; DEVONthink Personal, $49.95 new; DEVONnote, $24.95 new) | Continue reading
Resolves some hangs and makes improvements for libraries that have been moved using Logic Pro X or MainStage. (Free, 1.01 GB) | Continue reading
Logic Pro X 10.4.2 is a maintenance release with a lengthy list of enhancements and bug fixes for the professional audio app. | Continue reading
Astro HQ’s Luna Display dongle for the Mac turns an iPad into a secondary monitor via Lightning or Wi-Fi. Others have pulled off such an iPad-as-Mac-screen maneuver using software, but Luna’s hardware approach taps into the Mac’s graphics acceleration to improve performance. | Continue reading
Google's Project Fi phone service has become Google Fi, with official support for using the iPhone you bring to the plan. But the iPhone experience isn't the same as for Android phones using regular Google Fi. So for now, Google Fi is worthwhile in select circumstances. | Continue reading
Is your mouse making your wrist or forearm hurt? The $15 Anker Ergonomic Optical USB Wired Vertical Mouse may be able to ease your pain. | Continue reading
Adds detailed information about all recent hardware and operating system releases, including the refreshed Mac mini and MacBook Air. (Free, 113 MB) | Continue reading
Patches a goodly number of security vulnerabilities in Apple’s last two operating systems. (Free, various sizes) | Continue reading
Addresses WebKit and Safari Reader security vulnerabilities for macOS 10.12.6 Sierra and 10.13.6 High Sierra. (Free) | Continue reading
The Mac App of the Year for 2018 brings redesigned Color Balance adjustment tools. ($39.99 new, free update, 169 MB) | Continue reading
Improves compatibility with future versions of macOS and includes several bug fixes. ($29.99 new, free update, 107 MB) | Continue reading
Apple has updated iOS, macOS, and tvOS with tweaks and bug fixes, and most importantly, you can again perform a single tap to switch between iPhone cameras when making FaceTime calls. | Continue reading
Apple has opened a special online store that offers a 10% discount on all Apple products to current and veteran members of the US military, National Guard, and Reserve, plus their immediate family living in the same household. | Continue reading
Our membership program plays a crucial role in ensuring that we can bring you TidBITS every week, but memberships went down earlier this year during the transition to our new Internet infrastructure and its new membership system. Join TidBITS today and help us maintain our award- … | Continue reading
The hosts of the Command Control Power podcast for Apple consultants have commissioned a theme song from songwriter extraordinaire Jonathan Mann—anyone who has ever answered tech support questions will particularly appreciate its sly humor. | Continue reading
In a shocking announcement, Amazon has announced that Apple Music will soon be available through its Alexa voice assistant on its Echo smart speakers. | Continue reading
Developer David Barnard is tired of scammy copycat App Store apps, and he’s divulging all of these developers’ tricks in an effort to call Apple’s attention to them. | Continue reading
Optimizes support for APFS-formatted drives for faster file scanning and copying. ($49.99 new for ChronoSync, $14.99 new for ChronoAgent; free updates; 66.7 MB, 25.4 MB) | Continue reading
Adds support for new Windows releases. ($79.99/$159.99 new, $49.99/$119.99 upgrades, 495 MB) | Continue reading
Ensures compatibility with macOS 10.14 Mojave and improves how dialogs display in Dark mode. ($30 new, free update, 3.0 MB) | Continue reading
Maintenance update primarily focused on bug fixes for Mellel. ($59 new, free update, 84.9 MB) | Continue reading
For those whose offices cannot accommodate a full-size standing desk, a converter placed atop an existing desk serve the same function. Ergotron’s newest converter, the WorkFit-TX, remedies the flaws in other such products. It isn’t cheap, though. | Continue reading
Maintenance release for the long-standing text editor. ($49.99 new, free update, 13.0 MB) | Continue reading
Email management is, for most of us, a constant battle to deal with an uncontrollable number of messages in a finite amount of time. Many email apps try to "help" with tricks to hide email messages until later, but these are counterproductive. Take Control of Your Productivity au … | Continue reading
Apple has produced a lovely short film for the holidays that’s an ode to creativity on the Mac. It’s also a testament to the amount of time, money, and effort Apple seems increasingly willing to put into unusual marketing efforts. | Continue reading
If you try to repair a newer Mac equipped with a T2 chip yourself, or if you take it to an independent repair shop that isn’t authorized by Apple, you may be in for a nasty surprise. | Continue reading
Rogue Amoeba’s Paul Kafasis has uncovered a key improvement in the latest Macs: the speakers and headphone jack are separate, independent audio devices. | Continue reading
An unsecured server has resulted in tens of millions of SMS messages being exposed, and along with it password reset links, two-factor authentication codes, shipping notifications, and more. | Continue reading
Brings a slew of improvements and bug fixes to the relational database app. ($100 new, free update, 45.3 MB) | Continue reading
Introduces third-party workflow extensions to Final Cut Pro, and raises minimum system requirements to macOS 10.13.6 High Sierra for all three apps. ($299.99/$49.99/$49.99 new, free updates) | Continue reading
Adds the capability to search the Web for images from within a document. ($149.99 new for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update) | Continue reading
Maintenance update for personal finance management app works around broken OFX responses from Wells Fargo. ($49.99 new, free update, 103 MB) | Continue reading
We’re taking the next email issue of TidBITS off to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, although we’ll continue to publish articles on the site. You can look forward to the next email issue on 3 December 2018. | Continue reading
The Preview app has long provided tools that let you mark up an image with arrows, text, and even free-form drawing. But other Mac apps—Mail, Notes, Photos, TextEdit, and more—also provide access to similar markup tools, and now macOS 10.14 Mojave makes them available even in the … | Continue reading
Apple keeps saying that its new hardware can drive a 5K display at 5120-by-2880 resolution, but it would seem that there’s only one 5K display available for sale, the LG UltraFine 5K Display. Why isn’t there more choice in the 5K display space? | Continue reading
If you’re racking your brain trying to figure out all the reasons why a Mac isn’t booting, Howard Oakley has developed a diagram that reminds you of all the boot steps, problems that can occur at each one, and possible solutions. | Continue reading
Addresses a lengthy list of improvements and bug fixes for the password manager. ($64.99 new, free update, 45.9 MB) | Continue reading
Improves compatibility with Dark mode in macOS 10.14 Mojave. (€24.99 new, free update, 6.6 MB) | Continue reading
A relatively new form of spam is making the rounds on the Internet. It purports to be from a hacker who has taken over your computer and who will reveal your porn browsing to all your contacts unless you pay a Bitcoin blackmail. It’s fake, but its use of breached passwords as “pr … | Continue reading
Apple and Amazon have signed an agreement that will let Amazon sell Apple products again, but an unanticipated side effect is that Amazon is also banning companies that sell refurbished Apple products without Apple's authorization. | Continue reading
Pages update brings capability to publish directly to Apple Books. (Free, various sizes) | Continue reading
Improves the sidebar and fixes issues with macOS 10.14 Mojave's Dark mode. (Free with $59.99 annual Premium subscription, 31.2 MB) | Continue reading
Adds an option to match the app's theme with macOS 10.14 Mojave's Dark mode. ($9.99 new, free update, 5.6 MB) | Continue reading
Removes the capability to share video files directly to Facebook, replacing it with the option to export a Facebook-compatible video file. (Free, 2.2 GB) | Continue reading
Since Code42 Software discontinued its CrashPlan for Home service, there’s no reason to let the CrashPlan software continue to run in the background on your Mac. Here’s how to remove it. | Continue reading