Soundbyte 328 – June 2022

ChristopherNews, SoundByte

Welcome to Soundbyte! In this issue:

June meet-ups and events

LMUG would like to announce not one, but three events coming up in June:

  • First, our WWDC22 keynote watch together/after party virtual meeting with our famous WWDC bingo event! Join us via Zoom on Monday, June 6, 2022 at 5:45 pm GMT ahead of the keynote.
Stratospherix’s apps
  • Next up we have our monthly meeting on Monday, June 13 at 7:30 pm GMT. We will be joined by Paul, the developer of Stratospherix who will give our Mac user group an exclusive preview of a new product In development… This will be a hybrid meeting. Join us upstairs at the Calthorpe Arms Pub, which is just a 10-minute walk from Russell Square underground station on the Picadilly line or from home via Zoom.
  • Finally: you asked, and it’s back!! It’s the LMUG summer party! Join us on Sunday, the 26th of June from 2 pm in London’s largest public square: Lincoln Inn Fields. We will be hosting a delicious summer party for our (full paid) members. Check the events page for details.

Please find the link(s) to Zoom in the SoundByte email.

Don’t forget to follow LMUG on Twitter and in our podcast Brew & Byte.

The Elizabeth line is opening!

On Tuesday, May 24, London’s newest transport line, the Elizabeth line will open! Moving quickly over the fact that it is 18 months late and billions of pounds over budget, this new line will transform east to west connections linking Berkshire and Heathrow airport with Essex and Kent! Key to this is a new railway underneath central London. The sleek new air-conditioned carriages provide an excellent excuse to join our June 13th meeting in person! The closest station to the Calthorpe Arms will be Farringdon station, around 15 minutes walk southeast of the Pub. Farringdon’s new station has a beautiful design that reflects the local history. Have a look at the video above where its architect, Soji Abass takes you through what to expect.

RIP iPod

IPod
The original iPod

Alas, how I knew ye! The iPod is no more! Released in November 2001 with Phil Schiller’s scroll wheel and at the height of Sir Jonathan Ive’s powers, the iPod brand has been retired. Now, to be fair I can’t honestly remember the last time I even thought about buying an iPod and as Apple has said, the music lives on in Apple Music on our iPhones, iPads, Apple Watch/TV’s and the mac. We have no need for a separate music jukebox anymore. But let’s take a moment to remember the time before iPod. A terrible time of confusing user interfaces and frustrating slow transfers and syncs. The iPod, along with iTunes, changed the entire music industry. Have a look at the Guardian’s music writer’s thoughts about iPod.

How powerful is the Mac Studio?

With it’s M1 Ultra chips, the Mac Studio is a very powerful professional-level machine. Engadget has run the machine through a battery of tests to find out just how powerful it is in the real world. Is it powerful enough, or too much (back to a Mac Mini for you! – ED). Have a look below and see.

Apps to transform your mac

If you found our productivity article from April’s SoundByte on triaging and managing your tasks useful, you might enjoy the video below. Have a look at the apps in this video to save you time and effort and share your tips on our Slack channel:

Increased security for AirTags

Perhaps a victim of its own success, AirTag continues to draw controversy. The problem comes from a conflict in how its killer feature is used. On the one hand, you want to be able to find stolen or lost items and the AirTag, uniquely, takes advantage of the millions of iPhones around the world to help locate and retrieve them. Unfortunately, this same technology can be abused and used for stalking women, and It appears that this stalking is getting worse. Apple responded with a Personal Safety Guide, but is now making serious changes to how AirTags work to address this threat. Sara Dietschy discusses the changes below:

In related news, online fraud continues to grow at an alarming rate, nearly 4x more since 2020. Keep your guard up, read the Personal Safety Guide linked above and please stay safe!

Membership discounts

Find below the special offers available to our full price paying members. Access these great discounts from the discounts page in the member’s section of the LMUG website.

  • AgileBits 1Password 7: 25% Discount
  • Eve Products: 25% Discount
  • EverWeb by RAGE Software: 50% Discount 
  • Opus ][ Complete Collection: 25% Discount
  • Que Publishing Products: 35-45% Discount
  • Take Control Books: 30% Discount on All eBooks
  • Teams ID, a Password Manager for Teams: 33% Discount
  • TechTool Pro: 50% Discount
  • TidBITS Content Network for Apple professionals: Get a free month of tips and articles!