The leaves are turning in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means a new crop of tech devices! Josh Centers has compiled the best reviews of the iPhone 8, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K, and he also looks at Amazon’s new Alexa-powered offerings and updated Fire TV. In other news, Mac audio app maker Rogue Amoeba is celebrating 15 years in business, and Apple has released iOS 11.0.1 to bash a bug that bedeviled users who relied on Microsoft-hosted email accounts. Finally, an iCloud exploit could let an attacker lock your Mac and try to extort a ransom from you — here’s how to prevent it and how to recover if you’re affected. This week brought a vast number of notable software releases, including Interarchy 10.0.7, iFinance 4.3.1, FileMaker Pro 16.0.2, VMware Fusion 10.0.1, BusyCal 3.2.2 and BusyContacts 1.2.2, Piezo 1.5.5, Hazel 4.2, iStat Menus 6.0, Mellel 4.0.1, iBooks Author 2.6, Banktivity 6.2, ScreenFlow 7.1, OmniFocus 2.11, Yojimbo 4.1.1, Airfoil 5.6.4, ChronoSync 4.8.1, macOS Server 5.4, iMovie 10.1.7, and OmniOutliner Essentials and Pro 5.1.2.
Congratulations to our friends at Rogue Amoeba for 15 years of providing great audio software to the Mac community!
Amazon is countering Apple’s new Apple TV 4K and upcoming HomePod with a 4K-capable Fire TV and an assortment of aggressively priced Echo smart speakers.
Apple has released the first update to iOS 11 with almost no notes, but it appears to fix Mail problems when sending via Microsoft-hosted email accounts.
Not sure which of the new Apple devices — the iPhone 8, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K — are worth buying? Josh Centers has found the best reviews from the media outlets that were lucky enough to get pre-release products from Apple.
Users who have Find My Mac enabled but are relying on weak iCloud passwords that have been stolen in mass breaches have had their Macs locked by extortionists. We need to change iCloud passwords immediately and, longer term, give up outdated password ideas.
Notable software releases this week include Interarchy 10.0.7, iFinance 4.3.1, FileMaker Pro 16.0.2, VMware Fusion 10.0.1, BusyCal 3.2.2 and BusyContacts 1.2.2, Piezo 1.5.5, Hazel 4.2, iStat Menus 6.0, Mellel 4.0.1, iBooks Author 2.6, Banktivity 6.2, ScreenFlow 7.1, OmniFocus 2.11, Yojimbo 4.1.1, Airfoil 5.6.4, ChronoSync 4.8.1, macOS Server 5.4, iMovie 10.1.7, and OmniOutliner Essentials and Pro 5.1.2.
In ExtraBITS this week, Twitter has seemingly dropped its Apple Watch app, the FCC wants Apple to enable radio chips that don’t exist, Apple explains Face ID security details, Twitter is experimenting with doubling its character limit, Siri goes back to using Google searches, and it turns out that you can pair a cellular-capable Apple Watch Series 3 with an Android phone, though doing so is a bad idea.