Happy Juneteenth! We have two articles for you this week. One focuses on a recent change in Siri that causes timer commands to create alarms instead. Read on for workarounds. The other explores the system requirements for Apple’s 2023 operating systems, calling out some discrepancies in Apple’s lists and providing feature-by-feature details that differ from the overall compatibility matrix. Notable Mac app releases this week include Pages 13.1, Numbers 13.1, and Keynote 13.1, Microsoft Office for Mac 16.74, TextExpander 7.5.2, Fantastical 3.7.15, Firefox 114.0.1, FastScripts 3.2.6, MarsEdit 5.0.5, and Photos Workbench 1.1.
If you’ve had trouble setting timers on the Apple Watch with Siri recently, it’s because Siri misses the final word in the command and sets an alarm rather than a timer.
Apple’s upcoming operating systems have broad hardware support, but devils dance in the details. Macs and iPhones from 2017 fall by the wayside this year, though a few 2017-era iPads soldier on. Older devices that are generally compatible won’t be able to take advantage of all the new features. Read on to find out what your devices will support.
Watchlist
Adds support for SVG files and stacked chart summaries to the three iWork apps. (Free, various sizes, macOS 12.3+)
Improves support for accessible PDF export from Excel and more. ($149.99 new for one-time purchase, $99.99/$69.99 annual subscription options, free update, macOS 10.15+)
Maintenance update for the text snippet editor with a smattering of improvements and bug fixes. ($40 annual subscription, free update, 30 MB, macOS 10.15+)
Adds Day, Week, Quarter, and Task views to the calendar app's mini window. ($56.99 annual subscription, free update, 69.4 MB, macOS 11+)
Enables macOS users to capture video from their cameras in all supported native resolutions. (Free, 127 MB, macOS 10.12+)
Scripting utility gains compatibility fixes for the upcoming macOS 14 Sonoma. ($39.95 new, free update, 5.3 MB, macOS 10.15+)
Blogging app restores the capability to get and set the post kind via AppleScript. ($59.95 new, free update, 21 MB, macOS 10.15.4+)
Maintenance update for the organization and management companion utility for Apple's Photos. ($29 new, free update, 5.8 MB, macOS 12+)
