By the time you read this, Apple will have announced something—new Macs with an M3 chip?—at its nighttime (for us) “Scary Fast” event. We’ll have coverage of that on the TidBITS website on Tuesday. We’ve already covered plenty of other Apple release news, including the X.1 updates for Apple’s 2023 crop of operating systems and security updates for the last two versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. The company also raised subscription prices for Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, and Apple One bundles. Microsoft Word, one of the longest-standing and most popular Mac apps ever, is celebrating its 40th anniversary. For those frustrated by the speed or availability of wired broadband for Internet access, Julio Ojeda-Zapata completes his 5G wireless Internet roundup by reviewing the AT&T Internet Air service and comparing it with T-Mobile Home Internet and Verizon 5G Home Internet. Don’t miss our brief coverage of the Internet Artifacts virtual exhibit! Notable Mac app releases this week include Keyboard Maestro 11, Carbon Copy Cloner 6.1.8, Alfred 5.1.4, BBEdit 14.6.8, Arc 1.14, and Safari 17.1.
Apple has announced a special virtual event for the day before Halloween with a spooky graphic and tagline. Will the announcements be a trick or treat?
One of the longest-standing Mac apps is also one of the most popular to this day—Microsoft Word. It has been a fixture in the Mac world for 40 years now.
Apple has raised prices for three of its services and the Apple One bundles while leaving iCloud+, Apple Music, and Apple Fitness+ pricing alone.
The X.1 updates to Apple’s latest crop of operating systems are out with bug fixes and a couple of features that didn’t ship in the initial releases, such as the watchOS double-tap gesture. And plenty of security fixes. As always.
A set of security updates for the last two releases of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS address various vulnerabilities.
AT&T has joined T-Mobile and Verizon in offering wireless home Internet service. Julio Ojeda-Zapata tested AT&T Internet Air and found it a good value—but not good enough to replace his Xfinity wired broadband. He thinks wireless home broadband is a great fit for many, though.
Watchlist
Major upgrade for the automation and clipboard utility introduces a new Macro Wizard, support for Apple Text Recognition, and more. ($36 new, $25 upgrade, 37.3 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Adds a new Cloud Storage option to the drive cloning and backup utility. ($49.99 new, free update, 24.1 MB, macOS 10.15+)
Keyboard-driven launcher removes a visual glitch and fixes window sizing in macOS 14.1 Sonoma. (£34, free update, 5.3 MB, macOS 10.14+)
Maintenance release with bug fixes aplenty for the text editor. ($49.99 new, free update, 24.1 MB, macOS 10.15.4+)
Adds a Shared Collections feature that can be shared with both Arc and non-Arc users. (Free, 366.6 MB, macOS 12.1+)
Patches four WebKit security vulnerabilities in Ventura and Monterey. (Free, various sizes, macOS 11+)
