Ever wanted to search for text in your photos or copy text from a graphic? Apple’s Live Text technology promises just that in macOS 12 Monterey and iOS 15, but TextSniper and Photos Search offer those capabilities—and more—now. If your home Wi-Fi network isn’t keeping up with your needs, Wi-Fi expert Glenn Fleishman shares four ways to take your home’s Wi-Fi performance and coverage to the next level: mesh networking, powerline networking, MoCA, and more routers. Finally, for iPhone 12 users looking for wireless charging on the go, Julio Ojeda-Zapata wraps up the issue with a comparison of four MagSafe-compatible battery packs. Notable Mac app releases this week include Pixelmator Pro 2.1.3 and Parallels Desktop 17.
With these utilities from different developers, you can extract text from any image on the Mac or search for text in your photos on either the Mac or iPhone. Text in images is no longer just pixels.
We have many choices now for boosting coverage and throughput on our home Wi-Fi networks. The main determinants on the path you might pick? Cost, complexity, and installation hassle.
Which MagSafe-compatible portable battery pack should you buy? Julio Ojeda-Zapata put Apple’s MagSafe Battery Pack and three of its competitors through their paces and found pluses and minuses across the board. Though Apple’s product is the only MagSafe-certified option, you shouldn’t dismiss the other products given their lower cost and worthwhile features.
Watchlist
Introduces a new PSD engine for improved support of Photoshop PSD files. ($39.99 new, free update, 352 MB, macOS 10.14.4+)
Major upgrade for the popular virtualization software brings speed enhancements and support for macOS 12 Monterey and M1-based Macs. ($79.99 annual subscription for standard edition or $99.99 perpetual license, 311 MB, macOS 10.13.6+)
