Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2018/11/wednesday-morning-news141118/
An issue affecting some Apple IDs surfaced yesterday, where Apple device owners found that their Apple ID had become locked through no action of their own. Unlocking an Apple ID requires answering security questions and entering a phone number, although it’s unknown why the Apple IDs became locked in the first place. Apple can lock Apple IDs out for security purposes, but it’s unclear whether that has happened here.
Apple’s Swift Playgrounds app for the iPad has been updated to version 2.2, bringing a number of improvements including better discovery for third-party Swift content, improved touch gestures for selecting code, and smarter suggestions for further exploration and learning using Swift Playgrounds.
MacStories’ first 48 hours with the third-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro gives us Federico Vittici’s impressions of the latest and greatest iPad. I, for one, appreciate the shorter format as opposed to the lengthy and thorough review that is typically published. As nice as the new iPad Pro is, I can’t imagine why you would expose your iPad to brickwork like that — the photos are nice and all, but I’d be worried about the cosmetic damage.
Yet another Twitter thread by Steven Sinofsky tells us about people dismissing iPads as laptop replacements. Sinofsky points out numerous examples throughout computing history where the newcomer, panned by those with experience, eventually took over the old ways. It happened with PCs and word processors, it happened with GUIs, and there’s the possibility that iPads will replace laptops. Maybe not in their current format, but eventually, it could happen.
Twelve South is back after their iPhone-charging picture frame, this time with new Journal products to offer protection and accessory storage. There’s a MacBook Journal which resembles a large leather-bound book, as well as the Journal CaddySack designed to match the MacBook Journal that’s designed for everything else — charge cable, power adapter, as well as all your dongles.
Spotify has released their Apple Watch app to the general public, and although it’s a very basic watch app, the App Store release notes say that more advanced features are in the pipeline. Playback and volume controls are basically it for this version, and it also doesn’t support the larger displays of the 40mm and 44mm Apple Watch Series 4. But Spotify says it’s working on offline playback for music and podcasts, so perhaps it’s working on updated Apple Watch support, too.
9to5Mac shares some use cases for Alfred for becoming a more productive macOS user. A lot of people use it for more advanced Spotlight search, but it’s much more than that, with a built-in clipboard manager, text expansion, system commands, and, of course, finding files in Finder.
AppleInsider’s tip on replacing macOS Mojave’s Dynamic Desktops with video wallpapers is a thinly veiled post on “here’s an obscure VLC feature you never knew about”. But it’s appreciated nonetheless, and now I know that VLC has a wallpaper mode which replaces your desktop wallpaper with playing video. I’m sure that will come in handy one day, right?
OS X Daily has the real tip of enabling Dashboard in macOS Mojave, which is disabled by default. Head to System Preferences, then Mission Control, to re-enable Dashboard as either a Space or an Overlay.
Stardew Valley has been out on iOS for a few weeks now, which means that by now your virtual farm should be ticking along nicely. TouchArcade has the review, if you’ve never heard of this really great farming simulator that’s actually fun (and already available on a number of platforms).