You can’t accuse Apple of sitting still. In a surprise announcement last week, the company unveiled the AirPods Max, over-ear headphones with Active Noise Cancellation and a hefty price tag. This week, Apple pushed out updates to macOS 11.1 Big Sur, iOS 14.3, iPadOS 14.3, watchOS 7.2, and tvOS 14.3. Apart from macOS, the marquee feature in these updates is support for the Apple Fitness+ service, which also debuted this week. Changing gears, Julio Ojeda-Zapata reviews the Xebec Tri-Screen, which turns a laptop into a triple-screen workstation. Lastly, in sad news, Geoff Duncan marks the passing of John W. Baxter, a longtime friend of TidBITS. We’ve finally caught up with our backlog of notable Mac app releases this week with OmniFocus 3.11, Tinderbox 8.9, Default Folder X 5.5.3, Fission 2.7, Mactracker 7.10, Bookends 13.4.8, Pixelmator Pro 2.0.1, SpamSieve 2.9.41, Path Finder 10.0, and Security Update 2020-001 (Catalina) and 2020-007 (Mojave).
It is with great sadness that we note the passing of John Baxter, a long-time member of the TidBITS community who was also a regular at Seattle-area gatherings of Apple aficionados.
Just in time for the holidays, Apple has introduced the AirPods Max, over-ear headphones with impressive specs, a questionable case, and a stratospheric price tag.
In yet another feature-focused update to Apple’s entire stable of operating systems, the company introduced support for various new products and promised technologies, including Apple Fitness+, the AirPods Max, the Apple ProRAW image format, and more.
For users of Apple’s laptops, one screen isn’t always enough. Xebec aims to solve that problem with its Tri-Screen, an accessory that attaches to the back of the laptop lid and has screens that slide out on the left and right. Julio Ojeda-Zapata took a look.
Watchlist
Introduces new Forecast and Perspective Items widgets to macOS 11 Big Sur. ($39.99 new, free update, 45.1 MB, macOS 10.14+)
Adds support for macOS 11 Big Sur and brings additional improvements and bug fixes to the note-taking assistant. ($249 new, free update, 41.2 MB, macOS 10.10+)
Enables you to turn off the inclusion of cloud-synced items in the Recent Folders and Recent Files menus. ($34.95 new, free update, 15.7 MB, macOS 10.10+)
Brings initial support for new M1-based Macs. ($29 new, free update, 14.3 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Adds detailed information about all recent hardware and operating system releases, including macOS 11 Big Sur and the M1-based Macs. (Free, 149 MB, macOS 10.12+)
Brings a smattering of improvements and bug fixes to the reference management tool. ($59.99 new, free update, 72.6 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Maintenance release of improvements and bug fixes that follows the image editing app's recent major upgrade. ($39.99 new, free update, 218 MB, macOS 10.14.4+)
Adds support for Mail in macOS 11.1 Big Sur. ($30 new, free update, 18 MB, macOS 10.9+)
Major update to the file browser alternative to the macOS Finder adds AirDrop support and an updated user interface for macOS 11 Big Sur. ($36 new, free update, 19.9 MB, macOS 10.12+)
Patches security vulnerabilities in Catalina and Mojave. (Free, various sizes, macOS 10.15.7 and 10.14.6)