Adam Engst
Adam C. Engst is the publisher of TidBITS. He has written numerous books, including the best-selling Internet Starter Kit series, and many magazine articles thanks to Contributing Editor positions at MacUser, MacWEEK, and now Macworld. His innovations include the creation of the first advertising program to support an Internet publication in 1992, the first flat-rate accounts for graphical Internet access in 1993, and the Take Control electronic book series now owned and operated by alt concepts. His awards include the MDJ Power 25 ranking as the most influential person in the Macintosh industry outside of Apple every year since 2000, inclusion on the MacTech 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh technical community, and being named one of MacDirectory's top ten visionaries. And yes, he has been turned into an action figure.
Please welcome our latest long-term TidBITS sponsor, Rogue Amoeba, makers of a slate of powerful, easy-to-use audio apps.
Remember Apple’s “Think different” ad campaign and those striking black-and-white images of historical figures? What you probably didn’t know is that backup software company Dantz Development had parodies created of those posters as decorations for a late-1990s Macworld Expo party. Here they all are.
If you’d like to enhance your command-line skills—either for your personal edification or to support your career as a Mac admin—you won’t go wrong by picking one of two books: the recently updated "Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal" or the new "macOS Terminal and Shell."
Adam Engst dips his toes into the sketchy world of knock-off Apple Watch bands but finds that Apple is charging ten times as much for seemingly identical nylon Sport Loop bands.
Apple has announced that it is discontinuing the original HomePod to focus on the HomePod mini. The company will continue to service and support the HomePod, and it will remain available while supplies last.
Should you upgrade to macOS 11 Big Sur from a previous version of macOS? Only you can answer that question for sure, but Adam Engst has upgraded his primary Mac with no significant problems. Our recommendation is that it should now be safe to upgrade, though you might want to wait for macOS 11.3, due soon.
Adam Engst loves his M1-based MacBook Air but is missing the stellar user experience of the old MagSafe charging technology from his old 2012 MacBook Air. He found a cheap magnetic charging solution from various Chinese manufacturers.Â
A report from a reader of the Dutch translation of TidBITS led us to discover both a message viewing bug in Mail and a problem with how we were building those translated issues. Read on to learn what not to do in email and how to work around Mail’s bug.
Some third-party, non-compliant, powered USB-C hubs and docks are bricking recent MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models. Apple has updated Big Sur to prevent the problem; the question is if Macs running Catalina or Mojave might still be at risk.
macOS 11 Big Sur has thrown a cryptographically signed monkey wrench into the inner workings of backup apps that make bootable duplicates. There are now workarounds, and Apple promises to fix the necessary underlying tool, but Adam Engst suggests that we need to rethink the role bootable duplicates play in a modern backup strategy.
Wouldn’t it be nice to make videos with a camera that records both you and everything around you and allows you to edit all the footage together after the fact? That’s what the Insta360 ONE X2 steady cam enables, thanks to 360º filming and a powerful editing app.
If you initiate an upgrade to Big Sur from a previous version of macOS but don’t have sufficient free space—at least 35.5 GB—you could end up in a Boot Recovery Assistant loop that can be exceedingly difficult to escape. Never update macOS without enough space or a current backup!
Apple has updated macOS 11 Big Sur to fix a single bug and block three security vulnerabilities. It’s not an urgent install for most people.
A class-action lawsuit filed by the same law firm that kicked off the eventual antitrust lawsuit against Apple and major publishers alleges something that was long suspected back then—that Amazon also engaged in collusion with publishers to restrain price competition.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has announced that he’ll be transitioning away from the CEO role to that of Executive Chair of the Amazon Board, with Amazon Web Services head Andy Jassy taking over as CEO.