If you use a 2015 15-inch MacBook Pro, stop right now and check to see if it’s included in Apple’s recall—its battery could explode and catch fire. If you have an affected MacBook Pro, you might be able to take it to Best Buy for the free battery replacement, since Apple has announced that all Best Buy stores in the United States are now Apple Authorized Service Providers. If you like living on the cutting edge, Apple just released the public betas of macOS 10.15 Catalina, iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and tvOS 13—be sure to read our warnings before installing! Apple professionals looking to hobnob with their fellow wizards should consider MacTech Conference, scheduled for October in Los Angeles—we attend every year. Do you struggle to find good TV shows and movies to watch on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and the like? Josh Centers examines two services—Reelgood and JustWatch—that provide significantly better video discovery across numerous streaming services. Finally, Glenn Fleishman investigates Apple’s upcoming Find My service and explains how it can track offline devices while maintaining your privacy. Notable Mac app releases this week include Typinator 8.0, Cardhop 1.3, CorelDRAW 2019.2, AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.8.1, Microsoft Office for Mac 16.26, Moneydance 2019.3, Airfoil 5.8.5, and Transmit 5.5.1.
Apple has issued a recall for certain 15-inch MacBook Pros sold between 2015 and 2017 due to a fire hazard caused by overheating batteries, and Apple even says to not use affected computers until they’re repaired.
Apple has expanded its repair partnership with technology superstore Best Buy to include every Best Buy store in the United States. But if you have a choice, is Best Buy the best place to go for Apple repairs?
Apple has opened the public beta program for its upcoming versions of macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS. watchOS 6 isn’t included, but Apple has started to invite select people to its AppleSeed program.
One of the mainstays of the Apple conference circuit—MacTech Conference—is returning to Los Angeles for its tenth anniversary in mid-October, a change from its November dates in recent years.
Tired of never knowing which streaming service has the show you want to watch? Reelgood and JustWatch can help.
Apple’s updated Find My service crowdsources the location of a missing device by letting other Apple equipment identify its unique Bluetooth signals and transmit them to Apple anonymously and securely.
Watchlist
Major new version of the text expansion tool with a long list of new features and improvements including a statistics mode and Magic Keys feature. (€24.99 new, free update, 6.9 MB)
Maintenance update with several improvements and support for new features in Cardhop for iOS 1.1. ($19.99 new, free update, 12.1 MB)
Brings improvements and bug fixes to the recently resuscitated graphics suite. ($199.99 annual subscription, free update, 2 MB)
Patches security vulnerabilities on AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, and Time Capsule base stations with 802.11n Wi-Fi. (Free)
Monthly maintenance release brings new features to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. ($149.99 new for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update)
Maintenance update to the personal finance app provides improvements to the Welcome window and fixes a bug in OFX parsing. ($49.99 new, free update, 122 MB)
Adds Special Sources section to the Source selector to make it easier to capture audio from System Audio, Finder, and Text to Speech. ($29 new, free update, 15.1 MB)
Maintenance release for the file transfer app adds support for generating 8192-bit RSA keys. ($45 new, free update, 69.4 MB)
