Have you been contemplating upgrading from an older Apple Watch? Adam Engst moved from an Apple Watch Series 2 to a Series 5 last year, and now he shares his impressions of what changes made the most difference in regular use. For those with an Apple TV, have you been perturbed by the non-stop advertising in the Apple TV app? Josh Centers has, especially when it’s inappropriate for kids, but he has a way you can remove some of the ads. Finally, Jeff Porten gives new meaning to the term “roving reporter” in traveling straight from CES in Las Vegas to a conference in Italy, but you can now read his first article describing gadgets and services unveiled at the show. Notable Mac app releases this week include ChronoSync 4.9.8 and ChronoAgent 1.9.6, Microsoft Office for Mac 16.33, BBEdit 13.0.4, TextExpander 6.5.3, Alfred 4.0.8, and Quicken 2019 5.14.
Back in September, Adam Engst moved from an Apple Watch Series 2 to an Apple Watch Series 5. After living with it for several months, he’s figured out which features make a difference and which are just marketing fluff.
The Apple TV app was advertised as a way to amalgamate all your streaming content into a single app, but it has turned into an advertising platform for Apple. “Take Control of Apple TV” author Josh Centers explains how to take a bit of control back.
Jeff Porten had overlapping conference responsibilities this year, but he checks in from Europe with his usual coverage of what was new, notable, and laughable at this year’s CES.
Watchlist
Maintenance updates with bug fixes for the synchronization and backup tool and its helper app. (49.99 new for ChronoSync, $14.99 new for ChronoAgent; free updates; 67 MB, 26.6 MB)
Adds support for accessibility features in Word in High Sierra, enhances Excel's queries and array formulas, and creates animated GIFs in PowerPoint. ($149.99 new for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update)
Maintenance release focused on bug fixes for the long-standing text editor. ($49.99 new, free update, 13.9 MB)
Updates the snippet editor with macro improvements and bug fixes. ($40 annual subscription, free update, 20.9 MB)
Brings various improvements to the keyboard-driven launcher. (£23 new, free update, 3.1 MB)
Adds the QuickFill feature to improve auto-categorization of downloaded and manually entered transactions. ($34.99/$49.99/$74.99 annual subscription, free update)
