Clips Update for Disney and Pixar Media

Apple’s Clips app came out several months ago. It’s a great app that I’ve seen almost nobody using. I like the app but it has a bit of a learning curve. There’s a lot more power in there than you’d think. The trick is to pick your asset (video, photo, title card, etc…) and hold down the record button to add it to your Clips composition. The best tutorial I’ve seen on the app is this one over at 9to5 Mac.

Today Apple released an update to the application that adds a lot of new media assets including some familiar Disney and Pixar characters. The animations are cute and easy to use. It’s really well done and when I showed it to a few Disney fans in my life, they immediately put time in learning the Clips app. There’s a small sample Mickey animation in the video below. (That right. I met Michael Giacchino.)

Clips is an interesting (and powerful) app. The fact that they can update the app to add new media content without an iOS update is exactly the type of feature I think Apple should be adding to Messages.

How WiFi Works

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I thought this interactive animation explaining how WiFi works was pretty instructive.

The New Transmit

Transmit is the undisputed king of file transfer applications on the Mac. It’s been around for 20 years, and if you need to send files to servers, there’s nothing better. I was frankly surprised yesterday when they released Transmit 5. It seems like just yesterday I was buying Transmit 4 but it turns out that was actually seven years ago.

While I don’t use Transmit every day, when I do need to perform a file transfer operation from my Mac, there’s nothing better. This is an excellent tool to have in your belt. They have a discount on the new version (from $45-$35) but it’s only good for a week. If you ever need to perform file transfers, get in on the discount now. I already did.

Entering the US with Technology

Jeff Richardson did a nice job summarizing the latest from US Customs and Border Protection concerning what it can and can’t do with your digital devices upon entering the country. Even if you are a US citizen, If you refuse to unlock your device you’ll be delayed and your device gets confiscated. If you’re not a US citizen, they send you back. I keep trying to put this into the context of my parents’ generation. If my dad was entering the US after a trip abroad in 1960 and customs wanted to make a copy of his diary, what would he have said? Most likely he’d have a few choice words about getting shot in Korea so this sort of thing didn’t happen.

Privacy continues to erode.

MPU 386 – Favorite Mac Utilities

There has been a lot of talk lately in the Mac Power Users Facebook group about favorite utilities so Katie and I decided to do a show on it. We ended up with with over 30 of our favorite Mac utilities. There’s some great stuff in there.

The Disneyland Star Wars Experience

I spent part of today at the Disney D23 convention where they’ve got an entire section devoted to the Star Wars Experience at Disneyland. I spoke with lots of Imagineers and learned a lot of information. The Saturday sessions will disclose a lot more about this expansion and I’ll write up what I learned more afterward but I thought you may want to start out by looking at pictures of this remarkable model. These images are lightboxed so clicking on them will blow them up. Enjoy.

Doug and Me

The Model

More concept art and props.

Ride Vehicle?

Cassian’s Jacket

Impaled Han

The Next iPhone Hardware

I don’t write much about Apple rumors because generally, I don’t see the point. We’re going to get to see the new iPhone in September, and there is no reason to get all bent out of shape about rumors about the new phone when we’ll get to see the actual phone in just a few months. Also, I don’t necessarily want all the spoilers. Apple products (at least the good Apple products) tell a story and need a proper introduction, not some shady back-alley blurry photos.

This year’s crop of “Apple/iPhone is doomed” rumors seem to have a lot of oxygen. While I don’t have any idea whether or not there will be a fingerprint sensor or some new-fangled authentication technology, I do know – for certain – that all the hardware decisions that the Internet thinks Apple is struggling to solve right now were locked down at Apple months ago. They ship millions of those phones on Day 1. There’s no way they’d still trying to figure out what to put in the phone at this point. I was all set to post on this issue at length, and then John Gruber went and did it for us.

Free Agents #25: Breadcrumbs of My Life, with Stephen Hackett

This week we posted a great episode of Free Agents where we interviewed Stephen Hackett about his origin story and his winding path to independence.

Dr. Drang’s Toothbrush

Occasionally, Apple geek and scientist Dr. Drang has some bit of household paraphernalia fail on him. While most folks might just throw the broken pieces in the trash, Dr. Drang photographs, documents, and explains the finer points of what exactly went wrong.

Most recently, his toothbrush broke and we get a lesson in tensile stresses and fatigue. Some days, I love the Internet.