At this meeting, held on the 5th of August, Robert demonstrated the Mac window management app Rectangle and talked about some of the smaller features coming in iOS 16. We also discussed recent Apple news and members shared tips and suggestions.
Rectangle
Robert demonstrated the free Mac app Rectangle which offers lots of options for tiling and positioning windows. App windows can be easily positioned using keyboard shortcuts or by dragging them to the edges of the screen. There are lots of preferences to customise it to your liking.
Rectangle is available from the developer’s website, there’s also a paid Pro version with additional features.
iOS 16 “Hidden” Features
The iOS 16 public beta has been available for a while and testers have found many smaller interesting new features. Robert highlighted some of them:
- Photos can detect duplicate images and the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums are now locked using Face/TouchID.
- Photos also allows edits to be copied and pasted between images.
- Contacts can detect and merge duplicate contacts.
- It’s possible to reveal the WiFi password in settings.
- AirPods settings get their own entry in the Settings app when they are in use.
- Control Centre will include a list of apps that have recently used your camera, microphone or location.
- A new Books widget shows what you’re currently reading and your progress.
- iOS will detect common measurements in text and offer conversions to different units.
Many of these features came from a Mac Rumors article and their forum thread on iOS 16 features.
News
- The first batch of 14 games is leaving the Apple Arcade service.
- Apple Studio display audio issues.
- Apple Pay support is coming to third party browsers.
- Apple is offering developers paid ad space on the App Store “Today” page.
- In iOS 16, you’ll be able to see the history of an edited iMessage.
- An Apple Computer A circuit board is up for auction.
- Apple ends its partnership with Jony Ive.
Member topics
- DavidB mentioned the new film Luck coming soon to Apple TV+ and recommended the shows Amber Brown and Blackbird.
- He also talked about his experience with DuckDuckGo’s search engine and apps, and especially how their search result quality has improved over time.
- Ben had a problem with the back of his original Apple Watch detaching. We found an article discussing this problem and a previous Apple repair programme.
- Ben told us about a photoshoot he recently did for VR Escape and his experience of their VR escape rooms near Hullbridge, Essex.
- He also mentioned a recent news story about local bus company Ensign stopping acceptance of Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- DaveK pointed out the new Dynamic Backgrounds feature in the latest version of Keynote.
- And he showed us an interesting video of various viruses magnified 1 million times.