Devices compatible with Apple’s fall updates 2024
Category Archives: Mac
Apple Changes the name of your Apple ID Again
Apple ID. The single sign-on information used with all Apple products and services. Over the years, as Apple was implementing their Internet strategy, the poor Apple ID started off with many other names.
When I first got my Apple account, it was called a iTools. Over the years, the services evolved and change names to .Mac in September 2002, to MobileMe in June 2008, and finally to Apple ID in 2011. Hidden in a few lines of a press release, Apple announces that beginning with the operating systems coming in the fall of 2024 your Apple ID changes again. Now, Apple ID will be referred to as your Apple account. If you want to read more about this evolution, check this on Wikipedia.
In retrospect, Apple account probably makes more sense than all these other names that it’s been called over the years. Hopefully Apple account will become common in all the terminology that people use when they talk about logging into an apple device. But I still deal with clients, that when we have to look up their password in their password book, we have to look for .Mac, MobileMe, Apple ID, and now Apple account.
In an Apple Newsroom Press Release about features in the new releases, in the last paragraph, , Apple says,
With the releases of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and watchOS 11, Apple ID is renamed to Apple Account for a consistent sign-in experience across Apple services and devices, and relies on a user’s existing credentials.
So, beginning in September with the release of the new operating systems, we will begin referring to it as your Apple account.
Introducing Apple Intelligence
The next big step for Apple is here. Apple Intelligence is personal intelligence built into your iPhone, iPad, and Mac to help you write, express yourself, and get things done effortlessly.1 All while setting a brand-new standard for privacy in AI.
At WWDC24, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that’s incredibly useful and relevant. Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. It harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. With Private Cloud Compute, Apple sets a new standard for privacy in AI, with the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers.
Apple Intelligence unlocks new ways for users to enhance their writing and communicate more effectively. With brand-new systemwide Writing Tools built into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.
Whether tidying up class notes, ensuring a blog post reads just right, or making sure an email is perfectly crafted, Writing Tools help users feel more confident in their writing. With Rewrite, Apple Intelligence allows users to choose from different versions of what they have written, adjusting the tone to suit the audience and task at hand. From finessing a cover letter, to adding humor and creativity to a party invitation, Rewrite helps deliver the right words to meet the occasion. Proofread checks grammar, word choice, and sentence structure while also suggesting edits — along with explanations of the edits — that users can review or quickly accept. With Summarize, users can select text and have it recapped in the form of a digestible paragraph, bulleted key points, a table, or a list. For more on this, see Apple’s Press Release.
So, why does this all matter?
Apple intelligence is the first step in Apple’s process of implementing artificial intelligence in all of its operating systems. But unlike many other developers or development platforms, Apple decided to implement artificial intelligence as a means of completing tasks that users want to do this makes artificial intelligence much more, understandable to users rather than just implementing something that is supposed to answer all your questions and do everything for you. Apple’s implementation of this will allow users to have the control over whether the intelligence, comes from your laptop or your phone or the intelligence comes from the cloud in a large language model such as chat GPT. I think this is the beginning of an exciting transition for operating systems on Apple devices. We’ll see this all come to fruition in the fall with the operating system implementations coming this year..
Apple has added a new Support site landing page
I’ve been told recently that Apple has added a new support site landing page. This is a location where you can look up information about your machine, find the manual, and get software updates for your Apple device. 
Spring 2024 Computer Recommendations
At least once a year I like to give my opinion on what type of a computer someone should be looking for if they’re in the market to purchase a new machine. Many times, there are so many computers on the marketplace that it’s hard to make a decision based upon the functionality you’ll need to use. Basically I break these into two categories, a minimum performance machine and a high-performance machine. If you are a high-performance user, you already know that. If you’re not sure, a minimum performance device is probably where you need to be working.
Often times in the big box stores you find machines that have some of the specifications but not all of them. Big box machines are typically built, particularly on the PC side, with a price in mind. Often times, the machine has specifications that don’t meet current use specs. This also shows up on many Internet sites. Be sure to look into the specifications you’re selecting for the machine that you’re looking to purchase.
In my opinion, brands do matter. Seeing many machines with problems, I can say that Macintosh computers are generally the most trouble free and will maintain good performance for a longer period.
But some people need Windows for specific applications. When it comes to Windows computers, my experience says that I would look for these brands (in order):
- Dell
- HP
- Lenovo
All three of these vendors maintain good support websites and make updating hardware drivers easier. That doesn’t mean much when the machine is new but as it ages, it means everything.
Windows Systems
Laptop, Minimum Performance
Memory: 16 GB
Processor: Intel Core i5 (with at least 4 cores)
Storage: 256 GB SSD minimum
Graphics: Integrated graphics
Networking: wireless
Operating System: Windows 11
Laptop, Higher Performance
Memory: 32-64 GB
Processor: Intel Core i7 or i9
Storage: 512 GB SSD minimum
Graphics: Integrated graphics or dedicated if available
Networking: wireless
Operating System: Windows 11
Foe Macintosh Systems, a MacBook Air is the correct machine for entry to mid stream users today. For more professional uses and MacBook Pro is great. If you want a desktop the new M3 iMac is great and either the Mac mini or Mac Studio on the higher end make great sense. Avoid the Mac Pro desktop. It’s price vs performance is low for nearly all users.
Macintosh Systems
Laptop, Minimum Performance
Memory: 8 GB
Processor: Apple M2 or M3
Storage: 256 GB SSD minimum
Graphics: Integrated graphics
Networking: wireless
Operating System: MacOS 14
Laptop, Higher Performance
Memory: 16-32 GB
Processor: Intel Core M2 Pro, M2 Max, or M3 series
Storage: 512 GB SSD minimum
Graphics: Integrated graphics or dedicated if available
Networking: wireless
Operating System: MacOS 14
10 MacOS lesser known features
I thought I did this year by giving you my top 10 list of lesser known MacOS features. These features are all in the latest release of MacOS. Enjoy.
1. **Quick Look for Files:** Press the spacebar on a file to use Quick Look, allowing you to preview its contents without opening an application.
2. **Batch Renaming Files:** Select multiple files and right-click to choose “Rename X items” for batch renaming.
3. **Markup in Preview:** Open an image or PDF in Preview, click the toolbox icon, and use the Markup tools for annotations and edits.
4. **Hot Corners:** Set up hot corners in System Preferences to trigger actions when you move the cursor to a corner of your screen.
5. **Time Machine Local Snapshots:** If your Time Machine backup drive isn’t connected, your Mac may create local snapshots for backups.
6. **Built-in Dictionary:** Hover over a word and press Command + Control + D to get a quick definition using the built-in dictionary.
7. **Preview Fonts in Finder:** In Finder, select a font file and press the spacebar to preview the font before opening it.
8. **Audio Equalizer:** Adjust audio settings using the built-in equalizer. Go to System Preferences > Sound > Sound Effects and choose an equalizer preset.
9. **Multiple Desktops:** Use Mission Control (F3 or swipe up with three fingers) to create and manage multiple desktops for better organization.
10. **Screen Recording with QuickTime:** Open QuickTime, go to File > New Screen Recording to capture your screen or create tutorials.
Computer Recommendations 2023
A couple times a year I like to give my opinion on what type of a computer someone should be looking for if they’re in the market to purchase a new machine. Many times, there are so many computers on the marketplace that it’s hard to make a decision based upon the functionality you’ll need to use. Basically I break these into two categories, a minimum performance machine and a high-performance machine. If you are a high-performance user, you already know that. If you’re not sure, a minimum performance device is probably where you need to be working.
Often times in the big box stores you find machines that have some of the specifications but not all of them. Big box machines are typically built, particularly on the PC side, with a price in mind. Often times, the machine has specifications that don’t meet current use specs. This also shows up on many Internet sites. Be sure to look into the specifications you’re selecting for the machine that you’re looking to purchase.
In my opinion, brands do matter. Seeing many machines with problems, I can say that Macintosh computers are generally the most trouble free and will maintain good performance for a longer period.
But some people need Windows for specific applications. When it comes to Windows computers, my experience says that I would look for these brands (in order):
- Dell
- HP
- Lenovo
All three of these vendors maintain good support websites and make updating hardware drivers easier. That doesn’t mean much when the machine is new but as it ages, it means everything.
Creating a menu of Text items to Insert with Shortcuts on a Mac
Start by Opening the Shortcuts application stored in the Applications folder
With the shortcuts application open, click on the + in the upper right corner of the window to create a new shortcut
This process requires the adding of two steps to the shortcut. The first is a TEXT step to store the text you want to insert from the menu. The second step Copies the text to the clipboard.
Start by double clicking the Text step in the steps menu.
Now enter the text you want to insert such as your name and address.
Now add the Copy to Clipboard step to the Shortcut in the same way. This step requires no additional input.
Now in the File menu at the top of the screen select rename and type a descriptive name to describe the
shortcut function. I used Name and Address.
Finally Click the small circle with an i in it to show the Shortcut Details.
In this list click on the Show in Menu Bar option.
Using the Shortcut menu.
In the menu bar of the Mac you will see a Shortcut Icon listing the shortcuts you made. Click the menu and select the item you want paste into your document.
Now click your cursor where you want the text inserted and Press Paste
Command-V
Microsoft Publisher File… On a Mac….
Many years ago, I created a bunch of documents in Microsoft publisher. It was a wonderful desktop publishing program, and it came with the full version of Microsoft office on the PC. Until now, I have kind of thought those documents were orphaned and would not be usable on my Mac. But in doing some research, I ran across the program that can open Microsoft publisher files and allow you to continue editing those files and make changes to them.
LibreOffice, a free product that is sustained by the donations is the only software I’ve been able to find that allows Microsoft publisher documents to be opened. It does not allow you to receive those files as publisher documents, but you can save them in their LibreOffice file format. I was pleasantly surprised of the fidelity of the transfer from publisher. It opens the publisher file directly, and let you make edits using the tools that are native to LibreOffice. Fields that were originally created as text, are still editable text. Photos that were imported into publisher are still movable scalable photos. Lines drawn in publisher, across as lines and are editable just as they would be in publisher.
So if you’re looking for a way to move publisher documents from the PC to the Mac, LibreOffice is the one to choose. It is free to download and try and is available in intel and Apple Silicon versions.
Scanning without a Scanner on the Mac
Do you ever have a need to be able to get a quick scan of a document to import into a email or other document that you’re working with on your Mac? Apple provides a very easy way to get a scan without a scanner, that is if you have an iPhone. On the Mac, you have the ability to be able to import a picture directly from your phone. And the process is pretty easy.
In most applications, or even just directly from the desktop, if you right click your mouse button to button mouse, or use two fingers to click on your trackpad, you’re presented with a menu of items that you can select from. One of those items is import from an iPhone or iPad.
All you have to do to get this menu to come up is right click and then select the import function. When you do that, it drops out a list of all iOS devices but you may have connected to your account. In this case, I want to scan a document from my iPhone 12 Pro. Once I select scan documents under the iPhone 12 Pro, I’m presented with this dialogue on the computer.
When that box comes up, I now move over to my iPhone, and when I pick it up I noticed that it is in camera mode. It tells me to position the document so that it’s shown in its entirety, then press the button. When I press the button, the camera goes off and I am given the opportunity to scan an additional page, review the scan, and then save it. Once I hit the save button on the phone, the scan is delivered to the desktop on my Mac.
The process even works with just takin a photo rather than just as a scan. Photos are delivered in a jpg format and scans and delivered in pdf format.
So even if you don’t have a scanner, the iPhone can fill in and quickly get you the document you need.