macOS

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What Finder Sync on macOS Catalina Looks Like

Andrew Orr ·

In macOS Catalina, you won’t sync your iDevices in iTunes. Instead, you’ll have Finder sync. Stephen Hackett gives us an idea of what it will look like and how it works.

When you plug in an iPod to a Mac running Catalina, the device appears in the Finder sidebar,and clicking it reveals a wide range of syncing options, organized in a much nicer fashion that what is found in iTunes 12…

As you would imagine, each section in this interface surfaces content across various apps on the system. For example, Finder sees the local files I have in the new Music app…

Critically, most of the UI is pretty much the same.

Podcast

Migrating iTunes, Upgrading Macs, and a Quick Tip from Craig Federighi – Mac Geek Gab 765

John F. Braun · · 3 Comments

It’s true, Craig Federighi let loose a perfect little Quick Tip last week at WWDC, did you catch it? Your two geeks did, and they’re here to share it with you. In addition to some more Quick Tips from other listeners, this episode is chock full of answers to your great questions on topics like preparing your iTunes library for Catalina, upgrading to a new Mac, and much, much more. Press play and enjoy learning at least five new things!

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Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s Global Accessibility Chief Talks Tech

Andrew Orr ·

Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s Global Accessibility chief, talks about new accessibility features in iOS 13 and macOS Catalina.

Accessibility, as it always does, plays a significant role in not only the conference itself — the sessions, labs and get-togethers all are mainstays of the week — but also in the software Apple shows off. Of particular interest this year is Apple’s Voice Control feature, available for macOS Catalina and iOS 13 devices, which allows users to control their Macs and iPhones using only the sound of their voices.

The new features, such as Voice Control, are amazing.

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WWDC19: Project Catalyst Could Help Revive Mac Gaming

Andrew Orr ·

Project Catalyst is Apple’s official name for what we now as Marzipan. It lets developers port iOS apps to the Mac. I think it can help revive Mac gaming, because presumably games will also be able to get ported. Apple Arcade will be available on macOS as well.

But the big news is clearly Catalyst. Details are still thin, and Apple will most likely share more information this afternoon during its State of the Union WWDC keynote.

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Bypassing macOS Security With Synthetic Clicks

Andrew Orr ·

Security researcher Patrick Wardle found he can bypass macOS security by using synthetic clicks built with AppleScript.

Typically apps are signed with a digital certificate to prove that the app is genuine and hasn’t been tampered with. If the app has been modified to include malware, the certificate usually flags an error and the operating system won’t run the app. But a bug in Apple’s code meant that that macOS was only checking if a certificate exists and wasn’t properly verifying the authenticity of the whitelisted app.

Mr. Wardle refers to this as a “second stage” attack, because the hacker or malware needs access to your Mac to exploit this bug.

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macOS: New Details on the Music Player in 10.15

John Martellaro ·

Cult of Mac reports:

Some sources previously stated that the [macOS 10.15 Music] app would be made using Marzipan, which lets developers easily port iPad apps to the desktop. But new information reveals that won’t be the case.

In fact,

The Mac’s next-generation Music app will be based on iTunes, not ported over from iOS.

This makes some sense. The legacy macOS iTunes has a lot of Mac-specific code, including iOS device syncing and encrypted backups. But it’s probably also just phase one in the evolution of iTunes/Music on the Mac.