News

For latest news of the Apple-sphere, look back here. Recent Articles, information, my Apple thoughts and more…..

(Some articles and information may link to other websites not associated with MacWizardry)

Into October already! With a bit of a scary end to September, particularly for Optus customers with their “hack” and access of customer data for a large amount of data. Certainly can be a bit of a wake up call for security and data. So a good time to look over your computer security, information and how it’s used. I’m happy to book an appointment if you’d like to discuss your security or to have a look over your computer and any options that can help prevent breaches happening to you or your data.

We also started the month with a rumour we may see another Apple announcement this month, but not much further happened with that…as yet.

macOS 13 “Ventura” released

Apple have just released the latest upgrade to their operating system - macOS 13 (named “Ventura”)

With some interesting features, such as improved Mail, improved Search and the new “Passkeys” feature, SharePlay and Shared Photo Albums and more.

You can read more about it here.

As with any upgrade I would generally recommend waiting a few weeks or longer once it’s announced just to avoid any “bugs” that may still arise, or issues with peripherals that sometimes happen when the new upgrades come out. 

If you do choose to upgrade ensure to have a good backup before you start the upgrade - just incase something goes wrong - as it can be fairly difficult to go back to the previous version if things don’t work - but even harder without having a backup.

MacRumors has a good write up on some of the new features here.

Apple updates iPad (10th Gen), iPad Pro and Apple TV 4K

In a bit of a “silent update” Apple have updated a few items near the end of this month.

We saw the iPad (10th Generation) released with a faster chip, TouchID power button, larger 10.9” screen, new colours and more!

The iPad Pro gained the M2 chip, new “hover” feature for Apple Pencil 2, faster Wi-Fi and more.

And lastly we saw the Apple TV 4K gain increases in storage, the remote gains USB-C charging and more.

You can read more about each below :

Read about the Apple iPad (10th Gen) here.

More info on the iPad Pro M2 here.

And lastly, more info on the Apple TV 4K here.

App Store and it’s protection

Have you ever wondered how the App Store protects you and the things you do? Apple has some interesting information about this and the article shows that Apple and it’s App Store stopped nearly $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2021.

People may refer to Apple and it’s App Store as a “walled garden” and you can’t download or install things from anywhere how ever you want to, but in this day and age I for one am certainly glad for this type of “protection”. 

If the App Store was opened up a lot more then it would be a completely different story and we could see a lot more of this type of fraudulent activity happen.

You can read more about it here.

The worrying thing is that the EU is working to pass a law to open up the App Store to more “third party App Stores” or being able to download things outside of the App Store. And if that happens we could see other countries around the world trying to do the same thing - possibly even here in Australia. 

Hopefully Apple will continue to fight this, as this sort of protection they currently use “just works”.

You can read more about the EU and what it hopes to change here.

Have you considered if your computer stops working or could be down for quite a while?

If your computer crashes or is down for a long period time, or even if it’s going to be away for service work for a while, have you considered the down time this could cause to yourself, your work and/or business?

There is a way that an external drive can be set up beforehand where in these sort of circumstances you can still be up and running relatively easy - even if your computer has to go away for days to be repaired.

It’s a relatively cheap and easy process. 

If you would like to find out more about how this can be set up for yourself or your business please feel free to drop me an email or call to discuss.

Be aware of “Fake webpages” advising you need to update.

So there is a bit of a rise on the number of webpages or fake links that will try to trick you into calling a number or clicking a link to “update” some piece of software.

I’ve written a page with a bit more info on it here