Hands-on with Apple's new Core i9 iMac 5K with Vega graphics: benchmarks and first impressions4/4/2019
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Hands-on with Apple's new Core i9 iMac 5K with Vega graphics: benchmarks and first impressions https://ift.tt/2WOMcub Now that we have a new line of iMacs, we've upgraded the 27-inch iMac 5K with the 8-core i9 Intel processor and the Radeon Pro Vega 48 graphics for ultimate performance. Our first impressions with this new machine are very promising, so let's check out the benchmarks that back them up. Gadget News via AppleInsider - Frontpage News https://ift.tt/2GoRBB2 April 4, 2019 at 11:35AM
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BBEdit finally returns to the Mac App Store https://ift.tt/2CZun3Q Nearly a year after first promised, Bare Bones Software returns, bringing subscription model, and more! For those who have been waiting so, so long for the infamous text editor software to return to the Mac App Store after Apple first announced it would at WWDC in June 2018, the wait is finally over. BBEdit is an advanced programming software editor that famously left the Mac App Store years ago. Apple's limitations on what was allowed constrained the app so much that the developers decided to pull out. When macOS Mojave launched, it brought with it a totally redesigned App Store, and more importantly, the ability to offer subscriptions to users, which is when Bare Bones Software felt it was time to return.
Though many app developers are able to grow and flourish outside of the Mac App Store (unlike the iOS App Store, you can install apps on your Mac directly from a developer without having to "jailbreak" your Mac), having a place in Apple's store is a benefit for developers and users alike. Less tech-savvy users trust the App Stores and better understand how the download and install process works. It's more secure and easier to use. Developers can be seen by more people (though app discovery is an ongoing sore spot in the Mac App Store and iOS App Store), and quality apps are given the spotlight treatment by App Store editors. You can download BBEdit in the Mac App Store now, and it comes with a free 30-day trial period. After the trial period is over, you'll be able to use BBEdit in a limited capacity for free. If, however, you want the advanced features, you can sign up for a subscription of $39.99 per year or $3.99 per month. If you prefer buying a full license outright or need multi-user pricing discounts, you can buy BBEdit 12 directly from Bare Bones for $49.99 or at a discount of $10 - $20 off, depending on the current version of BBEdit you're using. If you're new to BBEdit, or you'd prefer to help the company sustain it's very expensive overhead by subscribing (a cost that helps the developers maintain their regular updates), you can download it from the Mac App Store now. Gadget News via iMore - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch blog https://www.imore.com/ April 4, 2019 at 11:31AM
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You can now beta test AirPlay 2 and Homekit on Vizio TVs https://ift.tt/2CYw41B But you're going to have to jump through some hoops first. Who doesn't love a good beta test, right? You can be the first kid on your block to try out a shiny new thing. And that shiny new thing, in this case, is running Apple's AirPlay 2 streaming protocol and HomeKit connection on your Vizio TV, in beta form. Emails have gone out alerting those who wanted to get in on the beta that they can now get in on the beta. They're going to have to jump through a few hoops, though. First is that you're going to have to have a Vizio TV that's supported in this beta trial. You'll start the process in the Vizio SmartCast app and enter your set's model number. If it comes back green, you're good to go. But you're also going to have to have your iPhone enrolled in Apple's beta program — this isn't just a simple firmware update to your TV. Why deal with any of this?
So there's that. The steps themselves are relatively straightforward.
It's that No. 3 item that'll trip folks up. But if you're ready to get your beta on, have at it. Gadget News via iMore - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch blog https://www.imore.com/ April 4, 2019 at 11:31AM
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Netflix’s Unicorn Store is an odd companion piece to Captain Marvel https://ift.tt/2ONOUwX It’s rare that the stars of the year’s biggest movie reunite for an entirely separate feature film a month later, but that’s not exactly what happened with Unicorn Store, a new movie hitting Netflix on Friday. It’s the second 2019 film starring Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson; the first, Captain Marvel, will likely remain the highest-grossing movie of the year until Avengers: Endgame (definitely co-starring Larson, possibly co-starring Jackson) comes out on April 26th. Technically, Captain Marvel is a Unicorn Store reunion. Larson directed the film a few years ago, after she won an Oscar for Room but before she suited up as a Marvel superhero. The film debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017, and now Netflix has picked it up for wider distribution. At first glance, Larson’s feature directorial debut bears no resemblance to the space-faring Captain Marvel, entry number 21 in the world’s biggest franchise. But for fans of Larson’s Marvel Cinematic Universe film who reacted to more than just its place in the ongoing Marvel narrative, Unicorn Store works decently well as a companion piece. Larson plays Kit, a woman who has recently left art school, which is summed up in a brief scene of her producing a colorful, heartfelt installation painting when she’s supposed to be creating a self-portrait and receiving failing marks from a dour proctor. The quick-hit visual storytelling of this moment should be evocative, but it’s portrayed with such cartooniness (an art program that grades both by committee and by check-box?) that the movie seems more interested in the symbolism of an establishment rejection than in any specific ideas about taste or conformity that Kit is flouting. Regardless, she’s ejected from the program, so she heads home to stay with her relentlessly upbeat, discouraging-via-endless-encouragement parents (Joan Cusack and Bradley Whitford). She gets a temp job at a public relations firm that looks more like an advertising and / or design company, and she tries her best to fit into the depressing world of grown-ups, despite her propensity for bright colors, splashes of glitter, and unicorns. During her reluctant, awkward attempt to prove herself at adulting, Kit receives a mysterious invitation beckoning her to a location labeled “The Store.” She arrives to find an unnamed salesman (Samuel L. Jackson) who promises that if she’s interested, he can provide her with a real, live unicorn. All she has to do is prove that she’s ready for the responsibility by building the animal a proper habitat. This mix of a fantastical premise and quotidian details — Kit spends a fair amount of time consulting on her parameters with hardware store employee Virgil (Mamoudou Athie) — owes a little to magical-realist short fiction (the kind dismissed in some corners as amateurish and unserious) or perhaps Charlie Kaufman. With a childhood dream potentially about to become a reality, Kit starts to feel genuinely engaged and motivated. That’s where Unicorn Store intersects with Larson’s bigger movie. In Captain Marvel, Larson’s Carol Danvers is a human with alien superpowers and no memories of her life on Earth. When she returns to her home planet, she has to reacquaint herself with who she was before she received awe-inspiring powers and alien warrior training. Kit, meanwhile, is returning to her childhood home and interests, trying to reconcile who she might become as an adult with who she was a whimsical, hopeful young person. Notably, both characters face gendered expectations in the process. Carol’s alien mentor (Jude Law) tells her she needs to control herself and repress her emotions — essentially saying that she needs to become an ass-kicker on stereotypically male terms. No one in Unicorn Store explicitly tells Kit that her interest in stereotypically girly things is an indication of arrested development, but based on her lack of friends at the movie’s outset, her interests are clearly more isolating than, say, the habits of the average Judd Apatow-style 25-year-old goof-off who just wants to smoke pot and hang out with his buddies. This unspoken contrast explains why, like Carol Danvers, Kit doesn’t fully resist the pressure to change. Male-focused comedies about emotional immaturity and late-bloomer growing up tend to wait until the final stretch for the protagonist to give proper adulthood a shot. Unicorn Store has Kit giving in to the pressure within 20 minutes of screen time. It’s a smart touch. It’s easy to see what drew Larson to this material and what a refreshing movie it could have been. But the strangest thing about Unicorn Store’s self-conscious quirkiness is how Larson, a versatile and emotionally open actor, feels absolutely adrift playing this character, and not in a quarter-life crisis sort of way. Late in the film, Kit refers to her own bratty behavior, but not much of that actually shows up on-screen, apart from a few impatient flare-ups with her parents. Frankly, the movie could have used more aggression, more unpleasantness, and more stubbornness from Kit to clarify who, exactly, this isolated, unicorn-obsessed artist is supposed to be. Larson plays Kit as charmingly self-conscious. (“Sorry, these are compliments,” she clarifies during her first awkward conversation with Virgil.) But she’s also stubbornly immature, sweetly innocent, and alien enough to be sincerely unfamiliar with the basic rituals of office drudgery. The movie focuses on what unicorns meant to Kit as a child, but it doesn’t give her a convincing life beyond the frame of the movie, whether that might involve her childhood, her experiences at school, or something else entirely. This makes it difficult to understand why, sexism notwithstanding, tokens of Kit’s childhood are supposed to automatically brand her a social outcast, rather than, say, the potential proprietor of a lucrative Etsy store. This kind of muddled characterization is usually more the fault of the filmmakers than the performers; in this case, it may indicate that Larson isn’t giving a bad performance so much as not directing herself particularly well. In her scenes with Athie or Jackson, both she and the movie feel a little more relaxed, more recognizably human. But the movie constantly grasps for more than its surface charms. In Captain Marvel, it was refreshing to see Jackson, so often in wily-old-mentor mode, play a younger version of Nick Fury who isn’t in the movie to dispense advice to Carol Danvers. Jackson and Larson are still enjoyable to watch in Unicorn Store, and Jackson’s nameless salesman doesn’t exactly mentor Kit, but he doesn’t do much else, either. Without the specific casting, his part would amount to almost nothing. Come to think of it, this is true of almost every role in the movie. It may feel reductive to look at Unicorn Store in terms of its more famous big cousin, even though Netflix almost certainly picked up Unicorn Store for release because Captain Marvel was headed for theaters. But Captain Marvel, for all its obligatory MCU world-building, stands on its own better than this rickety little unicorn stable. Unicorn Store does have moments of satirical connection, like the promotional image Kit’s company creates to sell a vacuum to modern women: an attractive woman, half-dressed and holding a baby, while vacuuming. The world, the movie seems to be saying, expends a lot of energy on blithely incoherent messages to women, based on half-baked ideas rather than their actual experiences. As it turns out, Unicorn Store does the same thing. Gadget News via The Verge https://ift.tt/1jLudMg April 4, 2019 at 11:31AM
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You Might Be Procrastinating Because You're Anxious https://ift.tt/2FNVwYm Procrastination may be the reason you’re reading this post, but the reason you’re procrastinating in the first place might actually be anxiety. It took me a long time to start writing today: first, I had to check all three of my email accounts, Twitter, Instagram, text my dad about something I remembered, get a glass of water, then check my email again. My procrastination habits are what’s keeping me from taking over the world, I’m pretty sure. I’ll figure it out as soon as I Google what year Julia Child was born. For those of us who have a habit of procrastinating, especially when it comes to something important, it might be more than just ‘goofing off.’ The urge to procrastinate is connected to a “fight or flight” response in our brains, per an article in Quartz at Work on how anxiety is stopping us from finishing important projects. The procrastination is the “flight” response in action. Here are some ways to figure out if you’re anxious—not lazy—and then get out of the hole. Recognize the symptomsMaybe you’re feeling relaxed and enjoying a day of ignoring laundry or other chores—great! That’s probably not anxiety. Psychologist Andrew Rosen, founder and director of the Center for Treatment of Anxiety and Mood Disorders in Delray Beach, Florida, told Quartz at Work that you can tell it’s anxiety if you’re spending a lot of time rationalizing your behavior or even dismissing the thing you’re supposed to do as meaningless:
If you are spending a lot of your procrastination time up in your head, justifying why the thing you have to do is stupid, it might mean you’re not really comfortable with avoiding it. Examine your justificationsAs long as you’re procrastinating, do so in a way that can fight back the anxiety. If you’ve been making up lists of reasons why you can’t do something, take that list and make it into a new list—one that examines the legitimacy of those justifications. Robin Yeganeh, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, had a great exercise for that:
This is a gentle way to face what you’re doing: avoiding responsibilities. It might be enough to snap you out of it, so you can move on to what actually needs to get done. Examine your feelingsAt the heart of all this is the reason why you’re feeling anxious in the first place. If you’re cleaning under the fridge to avoid a project that might lead to a promotion, there’s probably something deeper going on, according to psychologist Leslie Connor:
If you’re finding this is a constant issue in your life, you might need to speak with a therapist about your anxiety, because no one should have to live in this state no matter their obligations. But, for some, acknowledging fears and anxieties might be a start to breaking the cycle of procrastination. Gadget News via Lifehacker https://lifehacker.com April 4, 2019 at 11:25AM
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Universal Pictures will master new and existing titles in HDR10+ https://ift.tt/2WMzxYm Now that Samsung has established HDR10+ as a viable and accessible alternative to Dolby Vision HDR, it's looking to bring more HDR content to viewers. To do so, Samsung is partnering with Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (UPHE) to master a selection of new releases and existing movies and shows with the standard. Not only will we soon have more HDR10+ hardware, we'll also have something to watch on it. The battle between Dolby Vision and HDR10+ has been waging for years. Both standards use "dynamic metadata" to adjust brightness on a scene-by-scene or frame-by-frame basis. The most touted benefit is that dark scenes can look more like their creator originally intended. Dolby Vision has a slightly wider color range and a higher maximum nit brightness, but the company charges royalties. HDR10+ is royalty free, and the partners behind it have opened a licensing and certification logo program to other TV manufacturers. While we're getting closer to the hardware being in more living rooms, the only HDR10+ content so far is the Amazon Prime Video HDR catalog. Previously, 20th Century Fox agreed to bring the standard to its new releases, but we haven't seen any yet. Now we can be on the lookout for UPHE movies and shows in HDR10+, too. That means you could see films like Green Book in a whole new way -- though it's hard to say when. Source: Samsung Gadget News via Engadget http://www.engadget.com April 4, 2019 at 11:21AM
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How to Make Your Own Duke's-Style Mayonnaise https://ift.tt/2HWfWln I am fully aware of how this sounds, but I only eat homemade mayo. Itâs partially a budget thing and partially out of convenienceâeven in large quantities, mayo is incredibly cheap and easy to makeâbut more than anything else, itâs about flavor. Homemade mayo will always taste fresher and just plain better than anything you can get out of a jar. Except, maybe, for Dukeâs. On some level, mayo is mayo is mayo: itâs all just oil emulsified with eggs and vinegar. But on another, perhaps truer level, itâs so much more than thatâand the cultish Dukeâs brand loyalty is proof. Since Iâve never lived anywhere Dukeâs is sold, I didnât get to try it until a trip to D.C. last month. Make no mistake: itâs worth the hype. Dukeâs is saltier, creamier, and so much tangier than any other mass-produced mayo Iâve tried, and I fully understand why people go nuts for it. But why it so good? What trade secrets are hiding in the ingredients list? None, at first glance. In fact, with the exception of oleoresin paprika (which is a vegetable oil-based food dye derived from red peppers) and calcium disodium EDTA, I bet you have all of these in your pantry right now. But letâs take a closer look. When youâre dealing with something as simple as mayo, every single ingredient choice makes a huge difference in the outcome, and this is definitely the case for Dukeâs. Every item you see on this listâand at least one you donâtâhas a specific purpose:
While the ingredients determine the overall taste and texture of your mayonnaise, the basic technique never changesâand it could not be easier. If you have eggs, oil, salt, both white and cider vinegars, and an immersion blender, youâre less than 5 minutes away from your very own jar of Dukeâs. Homemade Dukeâs-Style MayonnaiseThis tastes almost exactly like the real thing, but I prefer the smoother, lighter texture you get from raw eggs. Commercially-produced mayo uses pasteurized eggs, which increase shelf life and generally make for a thicker final product with a pronounced âwobble.â If you need that wobbleâor youâre worried about salmonellaâyou can totally pasteurize eggs at home, though I canât say Iâve ever bothered. Ingredients:
Instructions: Select a 2-3 cup container with tall sides, and check to make sure itâll fit the head of your stick blender. Once youâve confirmed that it does, crack in the egg and add the vinegars, salt, and paprika. Without stirring, pour all of the oil directly on top, then leave the mixture alone for about 30 seconds so it can fully separate. Stick the head of your stick blender right in so it rests on the bottom of the container. Let the mixture settle again, just for a few seconds this timeâyou want the oil and liquid to be totally separated until the second you start up the blender. Keeping the blender totally still, turn on the power. Donât move the blender at all for at least ten seconds: the vortex created by the blades will gradually pull oil down into the liquid, emulsifying all on its own. When the bottom part of the mayo thickens and turns pale yellow, slowly rock the blender from side to side to introduce more oil into the emulsion. Finally, pull the blender up and down like youâre making a puréed soup, until all the oil is incorporated and the mayo is thick and creamy. Tap and scrape whateverâs on the blades back into the container, give everything a stir, and have a taste: it should be creamy, super-tangy and well salted. If you think the balance is off, gradually stir in small amounts oil, vinegar, or salt to taste. Donât worryâunless you add, like, a quarter cup of oil all at once, itâs not gonna break on you. Congratulations! You just made mayonnaiseâand not just any mayonnaise. Just like Dukeâs, this salty, tangy homemade version is miles ahead of anything that comes in a jar. Gadget News via Lifehacker https://lifehacker.com April 4, 2019 at 11:18AM
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You can now buy the tiny Palm phone as a standalone handset for $199 https://ift.tt/2WFkLTk The Palm phone launched last year as a companion device, something that shares a phone number with your smartphone and costs an extra $10 a month. The 3.3-inch Android handset was marketed as an alternative to your main phone that you could grab on the weekends. Now, Verizon is also selling it as a standalone device. It’s currently on sale through April for just $199, which is a hearty discount from the original $350 price tag. If you read and watched our review of the Palm phone, you’ll know that we have mixed feelings about this thing. As an idea, it’s great! Who doesn’t want a stripped-down smartphone that isn’t a constant distraction? But the execution was a letdown. It has a terrible battery life, a mediocre camera, and a bloatware-filled operating system, which means that the Palm phone ended up being more of a burden than a relief. Still, it is good to see companies experimenting with different approaches to smartphones, and the Palm phone does look pretty neat. In a blog post, Palm also claims to have addressed two of our primary gripes with the device, and it’s pushing out a software update that supposedly improves the camera and battery performance. (It’s doubtful, though, that this will make much of a difference. You can’t software update a bigger battery.) If the idea of a minimalist smartphone still appeals, you can buy the Palm phone as a standalone device here (you’ll need to apply the $150 discount) or a companion device here. Gadget News via The Verge https://ift.tt/1jLudMg April 4, 2019 at 11:09AM
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Microsoft’s Windows 10 May 2019 Update puts you back in control of updates https://ift.tt/2IhCj4d Microsoft is planning to start rolling out its Windows 10 May 2019 Update next week to testers before it’s more broadly available in late May. The new update is the next major version of Windows 10, codenamed “19H1,” and it’s a relatively light update in terms of features. Microsoft’s big visual change is a new light theme for Windows 10, alongside Kaomoji support, a Windows sandbox feature, and the separation of Cortana and Windows search. The May 2019 Update will also allow Windows 10 users to take control of how they get feature updates. Microsoft has been aggressively pushing these updates to machines once they’re ready, ensuring that consumers are on the very latest version of the operating system. That’s about to change: the May 2019 Update will now let you choose when to install the latest major version. Windows 10 users will be able to simply stay on an existing version and continue to receive monthly security updates, avoiding the latest feature update. Microsoft is also allowing Windows 10 Home and Pro users to pause feature and monthly updates for up to 35 days, and it’s introducing intelligent active hours so the OS can detect when you’re still using your PC so updates don’t get installed and annoy you. Windows updates have been a particular pain point for Windows 10 users, and Microsoft is clearly listening and providing far more choice now. There will still be prompts to push people to get the latest feature update, but it won’t be forced immediately anymore. Microsoft is also addressing some of the quality issues of Windows 10 updates that we saw throughout 2018. The software maker was forced to delay its April 2018 Update due to Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issues, and then it pulled its October 2018 Update after a few days of some users complaining that files were being deleted. Microsoft is taking a far more careful approach with the May 2019 Update this time around. The update will arrive to Release Preview testers next week, and there’s now a far larger gap between that final test phase before it rolls out more broadly later next month. That’s weeks of additional testing and checks, instead of the days we saw with the last release. Microsoft is also tweaking the way it sorts through the thousands of pieces of feedback it receives each day about Windows updates to spot issues like the data loss problems from the October 2018 Update. On top of all of this, Microsoft is even launching a new dashboard later this month to track the health of Windows releases, so if you experience any issues, you’ll be able to check to see these against real-time known problems. It’s encouraging to see Microsoft making these changes and the increased transparency around the status of Windows updates, in general. While the issues we saw in 2018 weren’t widespread, Microsoft is carefully working to avoid that from happening again. Gadget News via The Verge https://ift.tt/1jLudMg April 4, 2019 at 11:09AM
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Amazon plans to launch thousands of internet satellites https://ift.tt/2UvXGVO Amazon wants to launch thousands of low Earth orbit satellites to offer internet connection across the planet. With Project Kuiper, it aims to deploy 3,236 satellites to cover areas where about 95 percent of the global population live. Details otherwise are scant so far, including the estimated timeline for bringing the network online or how much the project will cost. Amazon confirmed the plans after GeekWire unearthed filings for it. It's the latest big name to work on such an effort. SpaceX's Starlink network will comprise almost 12,000 satellites when it's complete, while OneWeb launched its first 5G satellites in February. "Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world," an Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire. "This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet. We look forward to partnering on this initiative with companies that share this common vision." Back in November, Amazon said it would build 12 ground stations around the world to transmit data to and from satellites, offering a hint at grander space ambitions. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is helping Telesat deploy that company's network of internet-connected satellites with the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. Via: GeekWire Source: Amazon Filings (1), (2), (3) Gadget News via Engadget http://www.engadget.com April 4, 2019 at 11:09AM |
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