Apple’s “Hi, Speed” event is coming tomorrow, and we’ll be watching the product announcements—likely the iPhone 12 and potentially more—live while chatting with TidBITS readers in SlackBITS. If Apple’s slippery Siri Remote for the Apple TV drives you nuts, Glenn Fleishman suggests an alternative from Function101 that’s more like a traditional TV remote. Apple veteran David Shayer, who worked on the Apple Watch team, joins us to explain why third-party faces on the Apple Watch are highly unlikely. Finally, Julio Ojeda-Zapata looks at the beta of Mimestream, a native Mac client for Gmail created by a former Apple engineer. Notable Mac app releases this week include PDFpen and PDFpenPro 12.2, Bookends 13.4.6, Tinderbox 8.8, Toast 19 Titanium and Toast 19 Pro, and Firefox 81.0.1.
What wonders await us at Apple’s next big event? New iPhones? Macs with Apple silicon? A HomePod that doubles as a flying security drone? Find out with us!
Do you hate the slippery, slidey Siri Remote? The Function101 Button Remote for Apple TV provides blessed relief, though it doesn’t offer Siri voice control.
Since the Apple Watch debuted, users and developers have wanted third-party watch faces. Sorry, but they’re not coming. Former Apple Watch engineer David Shayer explains why.
You can access Google’s Gmail in desktop email clients, but its IMAP support can be awkward. Enter Mimestream, a native Mac app that uses Google’s Gmail API to more faithfully bring Gmail’s features to the desktop. Mimestream is still in beta and the developer has much to do, but you can try the app now for free.
Watchlist
Introduces a new scripting window for JavaScript editing and improves compatibility with macOS 11 Big Sur. ($79.95/$129.95 new, free update, 87.2/134 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Improves handling of PDFs for faster downloading and better compatibility with proxy servers. ($59.99 new, free update, 70.3 MB, macOS 10.10+)
Improves the note-taking assistant's flexible search tools to suggest related search terms. ($249 new, free update, 37.1 MB, macOS 10.10+)
Major release for the venerable digital media suite brings a redesigned user interface and new audio editing tools. ($99.99/$149.99 new, $59.99/$99.99 upgrade, macOS 10.14+)
Adds the capability to control audio or video playback inside Firefox via the keyboard or Touch Bar. (Free, 72.9 MB, macOS 10.12+)
