With macOS Ventura out of beta and publicly available, we looked at some of its new features and shared our first impressions at this meeting (held on the 11th of November). Members also talked about a number of other topics and recent Apple news.
MacOS Ventura Impressions
We looked at some of the new macOS Ventura features in action including:
- Safari tab groups improvements and translation of text within images.
- The option to copy the subject from photos, automatically removing the background.
- Quick Look and Quick Actions in Spotlight search results.
- The redesigned System Setting app.
- Stage Manager.
- New apps including Clock and Weather.
- Using the form filling feature in Preview.
- New features in Messages and Mail.
Mac Rumors has a useful list of new features in Ventura.
Apple News
We talked about recent Apple news:
- Apple takes down an Apple WWDC Videos YouTube channel. The channel owner is uploading the videos to archive.org which has a dedicated Apple Media section including lots of historic materials.
- Third parties can make devices compatible with Find My, including these Air Tag alternatives.
- The iPhone 12 and 13 mini remain available for those looking for a cheaper and/or smaller alternative to the iPhone 14. Both these phones are the same price, Macrumors has a useful guide on their features.
- European law will enforce USB-C for device charging by then end of 2024.
Member topics
- Alan mentioned object photos on the British Museum website sometimes loading in blocks on his iMac. We determined this was likely due to the method the website uses to display very large high resolution images and clears up on waiting for the image to fully load. The images were very impressive and can be found using the search here.
- DaveK pointed out the rise of AI Image generation, and showed us an article with examples.
- We discussed Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and DaveK talked about the alternative decentralised Mastodon service and the server mas.to
- Ann-Kay mentioned the appearance of the AI artist robot Ai-Da at a parliamentary committee.
- Jon mentioned the Mac app StageView which adds app window previews to Stage Manager in macOS Ventura.
- Elliot had visited Professional Music Technology in Southend which is sadly closing, the next nearest store is in Romford and the company also has an online store.