Gus Mueller (release notes):
“Select Subject”, “Mask Subject”, and “Remove Background” are new commands which use machine learning (or A.I. if you prefer) to find the most important parts of your image, and then perform their respective operations.
[…]
Acorn 8 now has an on canvas ruler which you can use to measure out distances, straighten your image with, or even redefine the DPI.
[…]
Acorn 8 has the ability to read in a CSV file and it’ll dynamically swap in the row values and replace text or bitmap graphics depending on what’s in the data file. It’s like mail merge, but for images. This is pretty awesome if you have a bunch of templated images you want to create.
[…]
OpenGL has been completely removed and Acorn is 100% Metal.
And there’s lots more, like the ability to export to JPEG XL. Acorn started 20 years ago and is still going strong. It remains one of my favorite apps.
Acorn’s still a one-time $29.99 purchase, but in lieu of upgrade pricing it’s temporarily $19.99 for everyone. The Mac App Store version is paid-up-front with a separate SKU for each major version.
See also: Dan Moren, John Gruber, Guy English.
Previously:
Acorn Anniversary Artificial Intelligence Graphics Mac Mac App Mac App Store macOS 15 Sequoia Metal
Adam Engst:
Starting in macOS 12 Monterey, clicking an update notification did nothing. Before that, it opened the App Store app, though only to the main screen, not the Updates screen. It was frustrating, and unnecessarily so.
In Sequoia, however, Apple finally made this notification work as it should. When a notification informs you that updates are available, you can click anywhere on the notification to open the Updates screen of the App Store app. Once there, you can click individual Update buttons or use Update All to download all the updates.
Next, please fix the iOS software update notification, where it looks like there’s no way to opt out of the update and that you can only decide when it will inevitably happen.
Previously:
App Store Mac macOS 15 Sequoia Notification Center Software Update
Mike Wuerthele:
In a report on Sunday morning by Bloomberg, Apple is said to be prototyping new versions of the Magic Mouse internally. On the top of the list of changes, is a relocation of the charging port, and perhaps new ergonomics, but that point isn’t clear.
It’s not clear when a new design will arrive. The report says to not expect anything for at least a year, and maybe not for 18 months.
Joe Rossignol (tweet):
While no specific design details about the next Magic Mouse were shared, perhaps Apple will take some inspiration from popular alternatives for the Mac, like Logitech’s excellent MX Master 3S. That mouse features an ergonomic design with a thumb rest, a front-facing USB-C charging port, precision tracking, two scroll wheels, and more.
The overall look of the Magic Mouse has not changed much since 2009, so a redesign has been a long time coming. Notable changes over the years include the mouse switching from AA batteries to a built-in rechargeable battery in 2015, new color-matching options with the iMac in 2021, and the switch from Lightning to USB-C this year. Overall, the Magic Mouse has not received much attention from Apple over the past decade.
Christian Selig:
I really wish Apple would license out the cool Magic Mouse “gesture surface” tech to third-party mouse companies like Logitech. Apple’s never going to make a mouse as ergonomic as like, an MX Vertical, which is fine, but I really want that smooth scrolling!
Previously:
Hardware Magic Mouse Mouse Rumor
Paul Kafasis:
In 2020, the disaster foreshadowed literally one sentence ago struck. Beta versions of MacOS 11 broke ACE, our then-current audio capture technology, and the damage looked permanent. When we spoke briefly to Apple during WWDC 2020, our appeals for assistance were flatly rejected.
[…]
With this in mind, we engaged in further discussions with the company throughout the MacOS 11 beta period. Those were much more fruitful than our initial conversation, and eventually yielded a two-part plan. First, ACE would be temporarily allowlisted, so its audio capture could continue to function for the near future. Second, Apple would work with us to develop a sanctioned method of capturing audio on the Mac.
[…]
Happily, we’re at the end of both this story and 2024. I’m delighted to say that we have completed our transition to ARK, and it now powers all of our audio capture apps on MacOS 14 and higher. Our glorious hassle-free future has finally arrived, and you can get started with our apps in under a minute.
As with Mail plug-ins, Apple initially kept the old functionality but added hurdles that made it much more difficult to install apps that used it. The audio situation started out worse because Apple summarily dropped the functionality in a macOS beta with no replacement. With Mail plug-ins, Apple announced a replacement API at WWDC two years in advance (though without specifying the transition date). But then the fortunes reversed, as audio got a longer transition period and, it seems, a new system that was both functional and reliable.
Mail extensions continue to be neither. The API is still woefully incomplete to do the sorts of things plug-in developers were doing, and what functionality there is mostly doesn’t work, in my experience. I ended up relying on multiple layers of alternative implementations to efficiently do what I need to do, and as these are separate from the Mail extension they still require additional security/privacy hurdles to set up.
Incidentally, none of this was necessary with SpamSieve 1.0 because the initial mail clients that it supported, Entourage and Mailsmith, had top-notch AppleScript and rules support and so could do everything that was needed without loading any third-party code.
Previously:
Apple Mail Audio Audio Hijack Pro Extensions Kernel Extensions Mac Mac App macOS 11.0 Big Sur macOS 15 Sequoia Rogue Amoeba SpamSieve
