Apple’s big news dropped today—the Apple Vision Pro “spatial computer” will ship on 2 February 2024. Before the holiday break, Apple released macOS, iOS, and iPadOS updates to fix minor bugs. Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal interviewed an iPhone passcode thief. Adam Engst upgraded one of his Macs to macOS 14 Sonoma, only to find Time Machine blocked by iCloud Drive—the solution was easy but not obvious. Julio Ojeda-Zapata used a trip late last year with Apple’s September 2023 crop of devices as an excuse to evaluate the main new features. Finally, we have brief coverage of Apple adding The Athletic to Apple News+ and researchers who devised a fascinating technique to determine how many videos are on YouTube. Notable Mac app releases this week include Coherence X 4.6, Default Folder X 6.0.4, Mellel 6.0, Nisus Writer Pro 3.4 and Nisus Writer Express 4.4, OmniFocus 4.0.3, Pixelmator Pro 3.5.2, SpamSieve 3.0.3, and Zoom 5.17.
Apple has announced that pre-orders for its Vision Pro “spatial computer” will open on 19 January 2024, with the headset shipping two weeks later. Will you be ordering one?
A handful of iOS and iPadOS updates address unspecified bugs, and the update to macOS 14.2.1 Sonoma fixes a bug that could share random windows via Screen Sharing.
For additional background and color surrounding the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on iPhone passcode thefts, watch Joanna Stern’s interview with a convicted thief.
After upgrading one of his Macs to macOS 14 Sonoma, Adam Engst ran into problems with Time Machine, which refused to back up until iCloud Drive had finished syncing and continued to balk even after the sync had seemingly finished. The problem? A seldom-used troubleshooting account that also had to finish syncing.
Julio Ojeda-Zapata took the iPhone 15 Pro Max, the Apple Watch Series 9, and the recently tweaked second-generation AirPods Pro on a trip as a tech experiment: How would their new features fare in a travel capacity? He renders his verdicts.
Watchlist
Improves performance and reliability for the site-specific browser that can turn websites into native apps. ($29.99 new, free update, 10.5 MB, macOS 10.15+)
Eliminates a delay that could occur when Save dialogs appear. ($39.95 new, free update, 17.3 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Major upgrade for the word processor with split view and Dark mode support. ($69.99 new, $44.99 upgrade, 94 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Resolves crashes and compatibility issues when running macOS 14 Sonoma. ($65 and $26 new, free updates, various sizes, macOS 10.13+)
Maintenance update with a smattering of improvements and bug fixes. ($74.99 new, 50% discount on upgrades, free update from version 4, 29.6 MB, macOS 13+)
Adds support for Adobe Illustrator and Illustrator EPS file formats. ($49.99 new, free update, 613.5 MB, macOS 12+)
Maintenance update with bug fixes and improvements for the spam-filtering utility. ($39.99 new, free update, 49.5 MB, macOS 10.13+)
Maintenance update with improvements and bug fixes; now requires a minimum of macOS 10.13 High Sierra. (Free, 122.4 MB, macOS 10.13+)
