MacMost: Patreon Video

So I like those notifications that appear at the top right corner of your Mac's screen. I sometimes create "right now" reminders so that I get one of those and it bugs me until I do the task.Instead of adding to my Reminders list with these, and seeing them on my other devices, I've come up with a JXA script that I can easily trigger that will put one of these notifications on the screen. Here is the script I am using: <blockquote>app = Application.currentApplication(); app.includeStandardAdditions = true; var message = app.displayDialog('What?', { defaultAnswer: "" }).textReturned; app.displayNotification(message,{withTitle: 'Reminder'})</blockquote>

This simple app that will come as standard in iOS 12 will let you measure things in the real world using your iPhone's camera. In reality, though, the measurements aren't accurate enough for any real use, so I'm not sure about the purpose of the app other than to show off a bit of augmented reality.

Want to see all sorts of data about your mobile signal strength on your iPhone. If you dial a secret number you get into a special Field Test Mode with all sorts of menus. I'm not sure what a lot of this means, but I assume you can use this to see the signal strength of your current connection, and perhaps things about your SIM card and such.Guaranteed to break the ice at parties!

ScreenTime is the new feature of iOS 12 that lets you view your iPhone/iPad usage and set personal limits on a device or per-app basis. It gives you tools to deal with how much time of your day you are using your mobile device, should you want to use it less. I like that Apple is giving tools for those who want them, but they are simply optional things that most of us can ignore.

OK, you've really got to watch this. It is just a sample. A quick demo.I'll wait... Done? Well, what do you think? Back when Animoji were introduced last year with the iPhone X, I was super excited that one day we would be able to create our own Animoji characters. And if that happened, I would try to use them in videos in place of, well, actual me. Lets face it (pun intended), there's nothing special about me. I'm not going to attract any new viewers to MacMost with my smile. That's not what MacMost is about anyway. It is about the information and learning how to get the most from your Mac, right? (Not that I didn't try to have a pretty face for MacMost, as those of you who remember MacMost from 2007 will know). So with the new Memoji in iOS 12, I can do this. I don't need a backdrop. I don't need a good camera. I don't need to worry about my hair, or if I have a big mosquito bite on my forehead (I actually do, right now, from camping). I don't know if I'm going to switch to this any time soon. But I want to keep playing with it. Maybe I'll do a few here and there like this to see what others say.

So in the first beta of iOS 12 it looks like Siri Shortcuts is tied in with Workflow, which is what it looked like during the Keynote anyway. But you do have the option in Settings of enabling a Siri Shortcut and it works. I demo a "What is my IP address" shortcut, which is something Siri couldn't tell me before, so that's cool.

Did you know you can go into a mode in App Switcher to select an app window or even a recently-used document in an app?

I meant to do a video on adding something interesting to the Mac's Notification Center "Today" Widgets. But I re-discovered an old and useful friend. Have you ever used iStat Menu? It is has gotten even better over the years, and I think I can use it, especially on my MacBooks.

Did you know the Preview app has this Contact Sheet mode that makes it easy to browse hundreds of images? It has some interesting functions too, like the ability to arrange them and close them. It could be handy as a way to find a single image to use out of many.

There really is built-in anti-malware software as a part of macOS. It gets malware "definitions" just like the third-party software and even has a blacklist of things that should never run on your Mac, as well as minimum versions of Safari plug-ins that are required.You can see how recently your XProtect data has been updated by looking for the XProtect* files in /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/ and examining their modification dates. Then you can read those files to see what's inside. The two files are: <ul> <li>/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.meta.plist</li> <li>/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/XProtect.plist</li></ul>

Duck Duck Go noticed my video on their extension. While looking at other privacy extensions, I also noticed this one that helps you search Google privately even while you are logged into Gmail.

There are a lot of new interesting features in Pages/Numbers/Keynote and I'll be getting to them in regular videos in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here is a look at the new Master Pages feature of Pages.

There are many ways to take screenshots on your Mac. This screencapture command offers a really versatile method for those of use that like using the Terminal.

Here's another look at the iOS Workflow app. It has simple-to-use loops. In this example, I'll show you how to use variables and loops to make an audible countdown from 10 to 1.

I've done a couple of videos on the Apple iOS app Workflow in the past. It is like Automator, but for the iPhone/iPad. I was going to do another video on it this week, but when I looked I saw that there is a ton of new stuff in it and it may be more powerful than Automator now.Take a look at some of what is there, and watch me create a photo grid extension with just a few steps.

Have a look at the export settings that I use when I finish up each MacMost video. I produce one for YouTube and another for the podcast feed. I try to balance quality and file size.

My quest to figure out how to use an iPhone as a webcam on a Mac may be over. On the iPhone, I use an app called CameraVision to send the camera image out as an AirPlay stream. Then on my Mac, I use AirServer to display that AirPlay stream. Then I use CamTwist to take in that AirPlay stream and set it up as a webcam stream that was recognized by both ScreenFlow and Skype!

I grabbed my HomePod from the Apple Store this morning and gave it a try. Overall, finding what others have reported. The sound is great. I tried to get some stereo separation but it sounds nothing like using left and right speakers, although it does separate somewhat. I also tried AirPlay from my Mac and iPhone. There are slight delays in doing so, which isn't a problem for playing music, but is a problem for playing video.Since recording this I've discovered a whole set of controls in the Home app on my iPhone. So I'll be doing a regular video on the HomePod and will go over those. Who else got a HomePod and what do you think so far?

I haven't thought about the old Mac Stickies app for a long time. But it is still there in High Sierra. Do you use it? If so, what for? Seems handy, but a lot of the functionality can be replaced with Notes, Reminders and other things.

In today's MacMost tutorial I stopped after showing how to set a window size using the Script Editor or Automator. But you can do it in the Terminal too! In fact, using the Osascript command, you can do all sorts of cool things by going into a mode where you can type JavaScript and control your Mac. The window resize command works great with this. But my mind is spinning with how much you could do .