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#1404: HomePod impressions, Farrago review, Winter Olympics, RIP John Perry Barlow, Carbonite

Apple’s much-awaited HomePod has finally hit the market, and Adam Engst offers his first impressions of Apple’s entry into the smart speaker race. The Winter Olympics are here again, and Josh Centers has your guide on how to follow them on all your Apple devices. We have sad news this week, as Internet pioneer and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow has died. Finally, we note that online backup company Carbonite has quietly raised its fees, and Andy Affleck joins us to review Rogue Amoeba’s new soundboard app, Farrago. Notable software releases this week include Carbon Copy Cloner 5.0.8, MarsEdit 4.0.7, VLC Media Player 3.0, BBEdit 12.1, ChronoSync 4.8.4, and DEVONagent 3.10.

Adam Engst 6 comments

Carbonite Raises Online Backup Prices

Were you thinking about taking advantage of the 50 percent discount CrashPlan for Home users get when switching to Carbonite? Although those discount prices remain the same for the first year, the regular price you’ll pay later for Carbonite service has increased by 12 to 20 percent.

Adam Engst 16 comments

HomePod First Impressions: Let the (Apple) Music Play

We’ve had the HomePod for a weekend, and for the most part, it has been a success when it comes to music, thanks to excellent audio quality and Siri spinning Apple Music tracks with aplomb. Siri on the HomePod has been less useful as a fount of general knowledge, or perhaps we just don’t have the right questions.

TidBITS Staff No comments

ExtraBITS for 12 February 2018

In ExtraBITS this week, Apple is reportedly scaling back new iOS features to focus on stability, your smart home devices could reveal more about you than you realize, and a malicious cryptominer was accidentally distributed by MacUpdate.