SoundByte 340 – June 2023

ChristopherSoundByte

Welcome to SoundByte! In this issue:

June meetings and events

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

  • First, our WWDC23 keynote watch together/after party virtual meeting with our famous WWDC bingo event! Join us via Zoom on Monday, June 5, 2022 at 5:45 pm GMT+1 ahead of the keynote.
  • Next up we have our monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 13 at 7:00 pm GMT+1. We will review the new products announced at WWDC, and their impact. We will also talk about what wasn’t announced…
  • Come with your questions and we’ll try to answer them. We will start the evening with a look at what other news happened this month in NewsByte.

Check the email this newsletter came in for the Zoom links and follow the London Mac User Group on…Mastodon🐘! If you are not familiar with Mastodon, have a look at TidBit’s explainer here.

Apple’s Pro Apps come to iPad Pro

Apple has finally brought its top line professional apps the the iPad Pro. Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro are now available for a monthly subscription of £5/month. You need an iPad with an A12 Bionic chip or later (back to the 2018 11-inch iPad Pro). As with all good iPad apps, there are innovations to the user interface to make them suitable for touch and pen, but as with most iPad versions of Pro apps, there are differences, that may be important to you, if you are used to the Mac versions. Research the features you need and consider your workflow carefully to see where these might fit-in before jumping. Have a look at Logic Pro below:

Here a filmmaker looks at the new Final Cut Pro for iPad.

Buddy Up!

Beats Studio Buds+ (transparent colour)

Nothing unusual about this, but Beats have unveiled new ear buds. The Beats Studio Buds+, which costs £179, have a new colour option: translucent! Harking back to iMacs past [honest, Guv!-ED], these include all the noise cancelling wizardry of the AirPods Pro. Read about them on the Verge here.

Why isn’t Keychain Access on iOS?

First question might be, what is Keychain Access? Keychain Access is an application on the Mac that goes back to Mac OS 8.6. Keychain is Apple’s password manager. Open it on the Mac and you will find all your system, network and internet logins and passwords e.g. if you asked Safari to save your web login details. In 2023 this gains more significance as we begin the slow transition from passwords to biometric PassKeys. The problem is, there is no equivalent app on iPhones and iPads. Instead, if you didn’t know where it is, Open Settings then look for Passwords. iMore thinks this isn’t good enough, read more here.

The Future wasn’t Orange

Thames News in 1991 predicted that by the Year 2000 there would be (just) 280,000 users of Mobile phones in the UK and only 1 Operator.

Telepoint services such as Rabbit allowed subscribers to carry specially designed (CT2) home phone handsets with them and make outgoing calls whenever they were within 100 metres (330 ft) of a Rabbit transmitter. Did you have one of these types of brick phone before the GSM standard made the networks interoperable?

Updates and downdates

Apple has unveiled their latest advancement in AI (artificial intelligence). This time rather than the AI gaslighting, insulting or lying to you, Apple has directed it to help those requiring accessibility features. I could imagine someone hearing about some of this and thinking this tech was perfect for a VR/AR headset (still not convinced that’s real -ED). Watch CNET’s look at some of the remarkable features here:

If you are still using the old Photo Stream to synchronise your photos between your Apple devices, it’s time to transition to iCloud Photos, which does the same thing. Apple is discontinuing the Photo Stream service this summer, see the details on MacRumors. Speaking of photos, there is also an unfortunate bug preventing the lighting to USB camera adaptor working for some, read more here.

Offers for Members

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

  • Rolling Square Hardware: 20% Discount
  • 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!