Apple is continuing to push into health care, this time striking a deal with Epic Systems for a Mac-friendly version of its health records app. As reported by Axios,the deal will see Epic Systems create a version of its health records tool that “is easier to run on Apple devices.”
Apple had reportedly pushed for Epic to create a “native version of the service” for Apple devices, but the two companies settled on this compromise of a version that is “easier to run on Apple devices” instead. Apple hasn’t acknowledged this deal, but Axios says it was confirmed by a “source inside Epic.”
The deal comes despite previous disagreements between Epic and Apple over health records and data sharing, Axios explains. Apple has pushed for easing health record sharing requirements, something that Epic is firmly opposed to. Epic argued that rule changes focused on “interoperability” will be “overly burdensome on our health system and will endanger patient privacy.”
Epic Systems is the largest electronic health records vendor in the United States, with “roughly half the population’s medical records” being stored in a system powered by Epic software and technology. The lack of well-developed Mac, iPad, and iPhone software from Epic has put inhibited Apple’s ability to tap further into the health records industry.
Given the pace at which things in the healthcare industry move — especially around medical records technology — it’ll likely be awhile before we see any results of this new deal. None the less, it could end up being good for the industry and consumers, particularly if it improves data integration with other Apple platforms and services.
One day after seeding iOS 15.6 beta 1 to developers, Apple is now releasing the public beta version to users enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program. Alongside the first public beta of iOS 15.6, Apple is also making available the new versions of tvOS 15.6, macOS 12.5, and watchOS 8.7.
Today’s iOS 15.6 beta 1 build is 19G5027e. Different from past versions, Apple hasn’t made available any important features so far. This will likely be the latest iOS 15 major update before the release of iOS 16 later in the fall.
Here’s what Apple announced with iOS 15.5 early this week:
Wallet now enables Apple Cash customers to send and request money from their Apple Cash card
Apple Podcasts includes a new setting to limit episodes stored on your iPhone and automatically delete older ones
Fixes an issue where home automation, triggered by people arriving or leaving, may fail.
Alongside iOS 15.6 beta 1, Apple is also seeding macOS 12.5 beta 1 (build 21G5027d), tvOS 15.6 beta 1(build 19M5027c), and watchOS 8.7 beta 1 (build 19U5027c) to public testers.
In a few weeks from now, Apple will hold its WWDC 2022 event, where the company will announce the next milestone for iOS, macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Rumors so far believe iOS 16 will bring nice improvements.
According to recent rumors, iOS 16 is expected to bring significant improvements to notifications as well as a new interface for iPadOS multitasking. Reported earlier this year that Apple has been working on adding expanded settings for Focus Mode in iOS 16.
Apple has published its 2021 update to its Platform Security guide today along with refreshing the Apple Platform Security landing page. The latest guide goes in-depth on the new and updated security features that have arrived with iOS 14, macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple Silicon Macs, watchOS 7, and more. Apple has also launched an all-new Security Certifications and Compliance Center website and guide.
Apple has long held that secure software necessitates the foundation of security built into hardware. With the shift to using its own custom Apple Silicon in its first three M1 Macs starting last fall, the company has been able to realize that goal across its entire lineup of devices.
2021 Apple Platform Security guide
Device security is a never-ending mission and the latest Apple Platform Security guide details all the effort and changes Apple has implemented over the last year – highlighted by the guide growing 39 pages with this edition to a total of 196.
This documentation provides details about how security technology and features are implemented within Apple platforms. It also helps organizations combine Apple platform security technology and features with their own policies and procedures to meet their specific security needs.
While there a number of security updates that apply to existing/older devices, Apple Silicon has been notable with the M1 Macs allowing Apple to step up security to new levels when it comes to Data Protection via a rebuilt FileVault, System integrity, password protection, and more.
Another notable change in the last year has been the advanced BlastDoor security for iMessage (not specifically mentioned in the new security guide). While it was just recently discovered as present in iOS 14, we’ve learned Apple has built it into macOS Big Sur as well. It’s a totally under the hood change that users won’t notice, but it’s the biggest security improvement to iMessage since the service got end-to-end encryption.
Check out all the new topics added to the Apple Platform Security guide this year:
Memory safe iBoot implementation
Boot process for a Mac with Apple silicon
Boot modes for a Mac with Apple silicon
Startup Disk security policy control for a Mac with Apple silicon
LocalPolicy signing-key creation and management
Contents of a LocalPolicy file for a Mac with Apple silicon
Signed system volume security in macOS
Apple Security Research Device
Password Monitoring
IPv6 security
Car keys security in iOS
And here are all the security topics that have been updated:
Secure Enclave
Hardware microphone disconnect
recoveryOS and diagnostics environments for an Intel-based Mac
Direct memory access protections for Mac computers
Apple released iOS 14.5 beta 1 to developers, and as you’ve no doubt heard, it’s quite the update. Headlined by the ability to unlock your iPhone with Apple Watch while wearing a face mask, iOS 14.5 beta 1 brings forth a number of practical improvements and overall enhancements to iPhone. Watch our hands-on commentary as we discuss the top iOS 14.5 beta 1 changes and features.
What’s new in iOS 14.5 beta 1?
Updated Software Update screens
Both the Software Update page in the Settings app and the Watch app have received more informative details regarding updates. Apple now includes a green check mark to indicate that you’re on the latest version of software, along with a message stating that “Your iPhone is up to date with all of the latest bug fixes and security enhancements.” In addition, iOS 14.5 now displays a time stamp that shows the last time you successfully checked for an update.
Unlock with Apple Watch
As noted, the biggest feature to come to iOS 14.5 is support for Apple Watch Unlock when Face ID detects a face with a mask. Users must be wearing an unlocked Apple Watch protected by a passcode in order for the feature to work. When attempting to unlock your iPhone using Face ID while wearing a face mask, you’ll feel a vibration on your Apple Watch, along with a notification that your iPhone was unlocked successfully.
Horizontal boot screen iPad
When connected to the Magic Keyboard, iPadOS 14.5 will display the startup Apple logo in horizontal/landscape mode instead of the default portrait orientation. If you restart your iPad when disconnected from the Magic Keyboard, even if you’re holding the device in landscape mode, the startup screen will appear in portrait mode.
As a side note, iPadOS 14.5 now supports emoji search, which iPhone users have been enjoying since iOS 14’s release, but has been inexplicably missing on iPad up until now.
Cellular connectivity updates
One of the biggest changes found in iOS 14.5 is the ability to enable dual SIM functionality while maintaining 5G connectivity. In previous versions of iOS, enabling the iPhone 12’s dual SIM feature would cause cellular connectivity to fall back to standard LTE. With iOS 14.5, users have the option of keeping both connections active simultaneously while still enjoying the benefits of 5G.
In addition to 5G dual SIM support, iOS 14.5 surfaces a new 5G Standalone cellular switch in system settings. Initial 5G implementations piggybacked on existing LTE networks to speed up adoption of 5G, but this method imposes propagation limits based on the LTE limitations. With Standalone (or SA) 5G, the limits of LTE are no longer in play. Keep in mind that your carrier will need to support 5G SA, and Apple warns that enabling SA at this early stage may cause degraded performance.
Apple Music updates
Apple Music gets some noteworthy updates in iOS 14.5, headlined by a new “Made For You” section under the Library tab. Made For You houses all of the algorithmic-curated music suggestions that are normally found within playlists like Favorites Mix, Chill Mix, and New Music Mix within the Listen Now tab.
Another handy feature found in iOS 14.5 is the inclusion of release dates for all music content featured on Apple Music. Prior versions of iOS would showcase release info, but in this latest beta version of iOS, users are treated with the exact release month, day, and year.
Users will also be happy to know that the scrolling metadata view on the Now Playing Lock Screen interface has now returned. This is a big improvement over the truncated metadata view that’s been around in the last few versions.
Reminders app enhancements
It’s crazy that we’ve not been able to sort Reminders based on parameters like modification date or title up until now, but at least we finally receive such features in iOS 14.5. Users can still sort reminder lists manually, but now there are several metadata sorting options, along with ascending and descending preferences.
The ability to directly print a reminders list joins the updated sorting options, allowing users to quickly send a list to a configured AirPrint printer.
Updated Podcast app
The stock Podcasts app gets lots of subtle changes and enhancements alongside a bigger update to the look and feel of the official show page for each podcast. New enhancements include a full-bleed header with color-matched backgrounds and a refreshed Library page with new glyphs.
Apple Fitness+ Workouts AirPlay 2 support
AirPlay 2 compatibility comes to Apple Fitness+ workouts, allowing users to stream workouts directly to an AirPlay 2-compatible set-top box or television. The problem with this method, as opposed to just playing on an Apple TV or iPad, is that you lose on-screen metric support. But that might not be a huge deal since metric details remain readily available on your Apple Watch.
Maps app redesigned guides
Apple has redesigned the Guides feature on the Maps app, which now includes a full-bleed header, redesigned buttons, and beautiful animations when minimizing and maximizing each guide.
PS5 / Xbox Series X controller support
Support for next-generation console controllers, including the Playstation 5 Dual Sense controller and the Xbox Series X controller, is now available in 14.5. Next-gen controller support is a welcome new addition for controller-compatible Apple Arcade games, and for taking advantage of console-centric remote play features.
Dedicated Search tab in News app
Similar to the Search tab in the Music app and TV app, the News app gains a dedicated search interface for quickly finding channels, topics, or stories.
Siri interface updates
Those using the Type to Siri accessibility option will notice an updated interface that no longer opens to a dedicated Siri screen, allowing the user to maintain context of their current position in iOS. This update is similar to the changes first implemented in iOS 14 when invoking Siri using voice. You’ll also find an updated interface that appears when sending iMessages via Siri.
Apple Card updates
Although these updates are not-yet user facing, we’ve also highlighted a couple of forthcoming changes related to Apple Card:
Apple Card Family feature for multi-user accounts
New financial health features coming to the Wallet app
Have an older Mac but want Hey Siri voice commands? With a little effort, you can get ‘Hey Siri’ on unsupported Macs by using a creative workaround. While new Mac models can enable Hey Siri on the Mac as easily as checking a setting in system preferences, older Macs do not support the same Hey Siri feature. This tutorial will show you how you can replicate the exact same “Hey Siri” capability on any Mac that does not support Hey Siri by default, as long as it has regular Siri functionality.
This has been tested and confirmed to work on Macs that have Siri and without official Hey Siri support. This includes Macs running macOS Mojave, High Sierra, and Sierra, as long as Siri is enabled on the Mac you will be able to use this workaround approach to mimic Hey Siri functionality. You will need a microphone, and the Mac must have Siri support. The rest is just a matter of configuring the Mac to listen for a special command and then tie that command to Siri to replicate Hey Siri hands-free voice commands on a Mac.
How to Enable “Hey Siri” on Unsupported Macs
This is a multiple-step process to setup Hey Siri on an unsupported Mac, follow the steps carefully:
Go to Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
Choose “Siri” preference panel and make sure Siri is enabled
Now go to the “Keyboard” preference panel and to the “Dictation” tab and check the box for “Dictation” to ON and then check “Use Enhanced Dictation” as well
Next go to the “Accessibility” system preference panel and choose ‘Dictation’ from the sidebar, and check the box for “Enable dictation keyword phrase” and type in ‘Hey’ * and then click the “Dictation Commands” button
Check the box for “Use advanced commands” then click the + plus button
Configure the advanced Dictation command as follows:
When I say: “Siri”
While using: “Any Application”
Perform: Run Workflow -> Other -> Navigate to /Applications folder and select “Siri.app”
The configuration should look like the following, with the Perform action being “Open Siri.app”, if everything matches choose “Done”
Confirm that the “Hey Siri” trick is working by saying “Hey Siri what’s the weather” or some other Siri command
Assuming you configured things as described above, you will now have a fully functioning “Hey Siri” hands-free voice commanded assistant on a Mac, even if that Mac does not officially support Hey Siri.
Try it out yourself, it works! The response time and accuracy seems about the same as official Hey Siri on the Mac.
Basically anything from the Mac Siri commands list will work when activated through voice this way.
* You can use any other dictation keyword phrase, we’re using “Hey” so that we can mimic the “Hey Siri” feature. But you can use “Open the pod bay doors Hal” or something else if you feel like it.
How to Turn Off the Hey Siri Workaround on Older Macs
If you want to turn this off, you can return to the Accessibility Dictation section and uncheck the various boxes. If you want to disable Enhanced Dictation and disable Siri in general you can do that too. You may have noticed that Enhanced Dictation downloads a 1.2gb package for it to work, but you can remove Enhanced Dictation to reclaim that disk space on the Macif desired.
While this is obviously for the Mac, enabling Hey Siri on iPhone or iPad is easy and supports many devices, and you can enable Hey Siri on Apple Watch too. Whichever device you use Siri on you can use many Siri commands from the list and yes even the funny Siri commands that are just plain goofy.
Intel Power Gadget for Mac is a processor monitoring tool that allows computer users to monitor the performance of an Intel processor in real-time. Intel Power Gadget will show you power and energy information in watts, the clock speed frequency of the CPU in GHz, the temperature of the CPU, and CPU utilization. It’s a handy utility for many reasons, and some Mac users may even use it as an alternative system monitor sort of like Activity Monitor.
Newer versions of MacOS can sometimes have trouble installing Intel Power Gadget, and many MacOS Mojave users have discovered the installation fails or the app doesn’t work. This installation failure is usually due to a default security setting in MacOS, and is easy to resolve.
How to Install Intel Power Gadget on MacOS
Installing Intel Power Gadget on the Mac is easy, though you may run into a Gatekeeper security block that can cause installation trouble. Here’s how to successfully install the tool in modern macOS releases:
Launch the “Install Intel Power Gadget.pkg” from the mounted disk image as usual and start the installation process
If you see a ‘System Extension Blocked’ message, click on “Open Security Preferences”, otherwise go to the Apple menu and choose ‘System Preferences’ followed by ‘Security’
Under the ‘General’ section of the Security preference panel, click the button to “Allow” the ‘system software from developer Intel corporation apps’ which was blocked by Gatekeeper *
The Intel Power Gadget installer should proceed as usual and successfully install, if it fails then just run the “Install Intel Power Gadget.pkg” package installer again
When finished, launch Intel Power Gadget from the /Applications folder as usual
If you run Intel Power Gadget while you’re using the Mac, you may notice that processor performance can change around quite a bit depending on what you’re doing and what sort of apps you’re using.
It is completely normal for the processor charts to be changing constantly, and you’ll find that the processor clock speed may go up or down, as will both CPU temperature and power, typically correlated with processor utilization – this makes sense as more processing utilization requires more power to have a higher clock speed, which raises the temperature of the CPU, and of course the opposite can happen as well with CPU speed lowering along with lower power and lower temperature and utilization when the Mac is less busy. If you’re interested in doing so, you can see this directly and test it yourself by running any CPU intensive task, like the Terminal command ‘yes’, which is often used for stress testing a Mac (or any Linux PC):
As you can see the graphs for power, frequency, temperature, and utilization suddenly shoot way up as the ‘yes’ command runs in the adjacent Terminal window as a stress test, which is normal and expected behavior for the processor.
Uninstalling Intel Power Gadget on Mac
Decide you don’t need Intel Power Gadget? Uninstalling Intel Power Gadget is quite simple. Simply navigate to the /Applications folder and open the Intel Power Gadget directory, then run the included ‘Uninstaller.pkg’ package file. This will remove the Intel Power Gadget application and the associated kernel extension from the Mac.
* If you’re a truly advanced Mac user and you’re bothered by these type of security measures causing installation issues, you can choose to allow apps from anywhere in macOS by disabling Gatekeeper, though that is strongly not recommended for the vast majority of Mac users. There are quite a few apps that can fail to install because of the stricter security standards that are in place in modern macOS releases, and if you’re the type of person running Intel Power Gadget then you may encounter also a similar issue with installing VirtualBox in MacOS where the kernel driver fails to install, thereby preventing that app to work as well. Typically you can bypass Gatekeeper on a one-off basis as discussed here, which is arguably the best approach, but you can also just turn it off completely if needed.
Today’s the day, Mac users: the latest version of macOS, called Mojave (and officially it’s version 10.14), is now available. It’s not a major revamp of the operating system (it’s been a while since the Mac has had one of those), but it does add new features that can help you be more productive with your Mac.
That being said, you may be hesitant to upgrade. After all, what you’re using now works fine, and why risk the potential for problems? We hear you, and if you don’t want to upgrade right away, you’ll be fine. But in case you’re on the fence, here are a few reasons why you should upgrade to macOS Mojave now.
MacOS Mojave Dark Mode is easier on the eyes
The first new feature Apple discussed at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference unveiling of Mojave, the first feature that the Mojave website highlights, and the first feature I’m covering here is Dark Mode, which uses darker colors for user interface elements like the toolbar and menus. Being first implies a sense of importance, but to some, Dark Mode may seem like an odd feature to highlight first. “Yeah, so the Mac uses dark stuff. So what?”
Think about how you use your Mac (or computers in general). When you’re looking at a computer screen, you’re basically staring at a light source. And if you’re like me, you do almost all of your work all day long while staring at this light source. With a traditional Mac UI, you’re usually using windows that are predominating bright white, and staring at the light for a while can cause eye fatigue.
A familiar Light Mode window in. macOS Mojave…
…and a new Dark Mode window.
Dark Mode feels a lot more comfortable to me, though I don’t feel more or less fatigued at the end of the day. (That’s probably due to the fact that I make it a point to take quick “vision” breaks every 30 minutes or so.) Some people think Dark Mode helps you focus on what you’re working on; I can’t say I agree or disagree, I don’t notice a difference in where my attention is at. But while I’m working, being in Dark Mode feels more pleasing, and I now have a preference for it. I’m also looking forward to more apps offering Dark Mode interfaces.
MacOS Mojave Continuity Camera
Before Continuity Camera, it took a bit of effort to get a photo or scan on to your Mac. With Continuity Camera, the process is a lot more efficient.
You can scan images directly into Notes.
In apps that support the feature, all you need to do is click in the area where you want your image to appear, and then go to the File menu and look for an option to import a scan or photo from your iPhone or iPad. Select it, and an indicator appear in your Mac app and your iOS device’s camera automatically launches. You can then snap a pic or “scan” your document, and the result is automatically inserted in your document. So easy. Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t allow you to select a pic that’s already on your iOS device for placement in your document, but maybe that’s for a future update.
Continuity Camera works right now with Mojave’s bundled apps, like Notes, Mail, Messages, and in the Finder. It also works with Apple’s Numbers, Pages, and Keynote. Look for third-parties to add this functionality soon.
Using an iPhone X to scan a receipt in Notes for Mac.
MacOS Mojave improved security features
Security isn’t a glamorous topic, but there are a few now security features that make Mojave an attractive upgrade.
Because of what I do for a living, I’m often downloading and trying new software, sometimes from developers with whom I’m not familiar. So I run a few utilities to keep an eye on what’s going on with my Mac. One of the utilities I use is OverSight, which flashes an alert any time an app wants to access the Mac’s FaceTime camera and microphone.
macOS Mojave now lets you know if apps are trying to access your Mac’s microphone, camera, and other items.
An OverSight-like feature is now built into Mojave that can alert you when an app wants to accessalong the camera and mic, as well as iTunes device backups, Time Machine backups, your Mail database, your Message history, your Safari data, and other data.
Even better is that Safari in Mojave has improved Intelligent Tracking Prevention. What this does is that it blocks attempts to track the websites that you visit. If you trigger one of these tracks (often by clicking on a comment button, or when you Like something on Facebook), Safari posts an alert to let you know that you need to allow tracking to continue on.
Mojave also has more features for managing password, such as the ability to create strong passwords, the ability to automatically enter in a security code that you get vis SMS, and password auditing. These are great features, but as a longtime 1Password user, I don’t think I’ll be giving it up for Mojave’s built-in features. I prefer 1Password’s management tools, even though it means I’m not being efficient about my password usage.
MacOS Mojave Quick Look for quick image edits
As the family documentarian, it’s my job to take pictures and videos of family events. But I don’t just shoot and then file away the results; I look at the pics and videos and edit them. Usually, they’re easy edits, but it feels like a hassle to preview a file to see if it needs to be edited, and then open those files that do in an app.
Crop a photo directly in Quick Look. No need to open an app.
Mojave makes Quick Look most robust, providing simple editing tools so you don’t even need to open an app. Now when you preview an image (select it and then press the space bar), you can click on the Quick Actions icon between the Rotate icon and the Open in Preview button, and a set of editing tools appears. You can rotate in 90-degree increments and crop images, and there’s even a set of markup tools you can use to write notations. For audio and video, you can trim clips.
If you are perusing through dozens and dozens of photos and videos, the new Quick Look Quick Actions helps a ton with simple crops and trims. It can be a real time saver.
MacOS Mojave News, Stocks, Voice Memos, and App Store
If you frequently use the News, Stocks, and Voice Memos apps on your iPhone or iPad, then you’ll probably find good use for them on your Mojave Mac. With the News and Stocks apps, your preferences can be saved to iCloud, so your topics, channels, watch list, and more are syncs between all your devices. Voice Memos can save your recording to iCloud so you can access them on any device.
The new News app in macOS Mojave.
Of these apps, I’ll get the most use out of the News app. It seems that people tend to rely on social networks to get their news, but with social networks, the people you follow are the arbiter of what shows up on your feed—and for a lot of people, that’s preferable. I like to have more control over the articles that are fed to me, and that includes topics that may not necessarily jibe with that of the people I follow. The News app allows you to set your sources and subjects, so you can get a feed that’s customized to your interests.
Apple has also redesigned the App Store, so it’s easier to find apps. The company is also putting a more effort into your ability to learn about new software, by featuring App Store editors’ picks and curated app lists.
Group FaceTime: Coming soon to macOS Mojave
If these reasons aren’t compelling enough for you to upgrade to Mojave now, there’s a feature coming soon that will make you want to upgrade: Group FaceTime. When it becomes available—Apple says it’ll be here later this fall—you’ll be able to do a group chat with up to 32 people using a Mac, iPhone, or iPad. If this feature was available now (and it worked well), it’d be the number one reason why you should upgrade to Mojave.
Let’s hope Group FaceTime comes to the Mac sooner than later.
The Messages app in newer releases of iOS and MacOS will attempt to render a small preview of any webpage URL or link that is shared within the Messages app. Usually the link preview will pull the title of the article or webpage, an image, and the domain of the URL being shared, all in a little compact thumbnail preview seen in the Messages thread on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. The Message link previews are useful to many people, but some users may not like the URL previews, and some more cautious users may prefer to see the full URL of a link at all times, especially before clicking on it.
We’ll show you a few tricks to disable the link previews of URLs sent and received in the Messages app of iOS and MacOS.
First, if you’re looking for a switch or setting for this, you won’t find one because it does not exist. So be aware that the approaches covered here are effectively workarounds, as there is no method of disabling the URL link previews in Messages app completely, either on the Mac, iPhone, or iPad. But with that said, you can effectively disable URL link previews in Messages on a per-message basis by using a few text tricks.
How to Prevent URL Link Previews in Messages for iOS and Mac OS
This comes down to a simple text trick. Essentially, you need to wrap the URL in text. You can do that in several different ways:
Option 1: Put the link in a sentence, or between words
Put a URL in the middle of a sentence like this http://osxdaily.com and then share it as usual
Simply placing the link being sent through Messages in between words or in a sentence will remove the message preview on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Just note that the words or text must appear on both sides of the URL to work as intended. Basically anything like “words URL words” will do the job and disable the Message URL preview, and instead show the full URL.
Option 2: Place periods on both sides of the link being shared
Place periods on the beginning and end of a URL being shared, like this: “.http://osxdaily.com/.”
Just wrap the URL in periods and send the link as usual. This is just a variation of the above trick but rather than placing the URL in a sentence or between words, you’re placing the URL between periods.
Interestingly, if you use periods on both sides of the URL, then Messages in both iOS and MacOS will strip the periods out, as long as they surround a complete URL like so:
While the above screenshots focus on the iPhone and iPad by demonstrating the iOS Messages app, the tricks work identically on the Messages app for Mac, where the same techniques will disable the URL preview on the Mac side of things too (for both sending and receiving). The screenshot below demonstrates this with a link preview, as well as a link without the URL preview on the Mac:
Have you ever wished you could have an animated GIF as the screen saver on a Mac? Well there’s no reason to wish, because an animated GIF screen saver can be a Mac reality, with no rubbing of genie bottles needed.
Using an animated GIF as a screen saver is a bit goofy and probably not appropriate for most people, but if you have a favorite animated GIF and want some low-resolution eye candy for fun or enjoyment, then this screen saver option may be right for you.
How to Use an Animated Gif as Screen Saver in Mac OS
This guide will be using a free third party screensaver to enable the usage of animated GIFs as the Macs screen saver, here are the steps:
After you download the AnimatedGIF screen saver file, you can install the screen saver manually or double-click it and install it on the Mac that way
Now go to the Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” and go to “Desktop & Screen Saver”
Under the ‘Screen Saver’ tab, select “AnimatedGIF” from the left side menu, then click on “Screen Saver Options” to configure your animated gif screen saver
Now you just need an animated GIF to use as your screen saver.
There are a variety of settings to configure, including whether you want to center or stretch the gif on screen, adjust frame rate, load the animation, change the surrounding background color if the gif is centered, amongst other options, but all you really need to do is set the animated GIF path to the animated GIF of your choice.
It’s up to you how you want to arrive at an animated GIF to use as your screen saver (more on that in a moment). In the examples above I used a simple animated GIF created for this article about posting Live Photos to Instagram and Facebook. If you just want a quick animated GIF to test this out with yourself, you can try this fireplace GIF I created some time ago for a different post:
Don’t forget that you can also set a screen saver as Mac desktop wallpaper too, which works great with this – just in case you want an animated GIF as your desktop background – or you can use a free tool called GIFpaper to achieve a similar effect.
Some adventurous Mac users have installed macOS Mojave 10.14 beta onto their compatible computers, whether for development or testing purposes. While running beta system software can be interesting and exciting, it can also be buggy, less stable than expected, or have some incompatibilities which make consistent use to be impractical or impossible, thus it may be desirable for some to downgrade from MacOS Mojave 10.14 beta and back to a stable build of MacOS system software.
We will cover how you can easily downgrade from MacOS Mojave beta to revert back to another version of MacOS.
Note this particular approach to downgrade MacOS Mojave beta relies on having a Time Machine backup made prior to installing MacOS Mojave beta in the first place. Essentially you will be formatting (erasing) the Mac, then restoring from Time Machine using the backup you have handy. If you do not have a Time Machine backup made prior to installing MacOS Mojave beta, then this technique will not work for you and instead you’d need to rely on likely formatting and performing a clean install of a prior MacOS build.
Warning: Do not proceed without a prior Time Machine backup that you can use to restore to. You will be formatting and erasing the hard drive in this process, this will destroy all files and data on the drive. Do not proceed without having a backup of your files and data. Failure to do so will result in permanent data loss of everything on the drive.
Before beginning, confirm that a Time Machine backup exists from a prior MacOS installation (i.e. made before updating to MacOS Mojave beta) that you can use to restore to. You’ll also want to be sure you have a current backup of your important files and data, and any files or data that is important that was changed between updating to Mojave beta and the decision to revert to a prior MacOS release.
Downgrading from macOS Mojave 10.14 Beta
The guide assumes you have a Time Machine backup made from prior to updating to macOS Mojave beta, the backup can be for another version of MacOS like Sierra, High Sierra, or El Capitan. If you do not have a Time Machine backup from a prior MacOS build, do not proceed with this approach.
Connect the Time Machine backup drive to the Mac which contains the prior system backup, this is what you’ll be using to restore from
Reboot the Mac, then immediately hold down Command + R keys to boot into Recovery Mode
At the “macOS Utilities” screen, select “Disk Utility” from the available options
In Disk Utility, choose the disk with macOS Mojave beta currently installed on it, then click the “Erase” button to start the data removal process
Give the drive a new name and then select either “Apple File System (APFS)” or “Mac OS Extended Journaled (HFS+)” as the file system format, depending on what is appropriate for your Mac and the version of system software you are reverting to*
When satisfied with the drive configuration and file system, click “Erase” – THIS ERASES ALL DATA ON THE DRIVE, DO NOT PROCEED WITHOUT A BACKUP
After the drive has finished formatting and erasing, it will be devoid of all data, so quit out of Disk Utility to return to the ‘macOS Utilities’ screen
Back at the MacOS Utilities screen, now choose “Restore from Time Machine Backup”
Select the Time Machine volume as the backup source, then click Continue
From the “Select a Backup” screen of Time Machine, select the most recent backup available that corresponds to the version of MacOS you want to revert back to in the downgrade (High Sierra is 10.13, Sierra is 10.12, El Capitan is 10.11, etc), then choose Continue again
Choose the destination drive to restore that Time Machine backup to, this will be the drive you formatted just a moment ago, then click on “Restore” and confirm that you wish to restore the backup to that drive
The restore process will begin to transfer the Time Machine backup to the target drive, effectively downgrading MacOS Mojave to the version of MacOS that was installed when that particular Time Machine backup was made, just let this process complete – it may take a while
Once the backup has restored to the Mac, the computer will reboot back into whatever macOS version was installed when that backup was made. For example, if the Time Machine backup is from macOS High Sierra, it would restore back to that, or if the backup was made with Sierra, then it would downgrade from Mojave back to Sierra using that restored backup.
* Note that choosing APFS or HFS+ depends on your particular Mac as well as what version of system software you are restoring to. For example, Macs restoring to Sierra or El Capitan will use HFS+ but Macs with an SSD restoring to High Sierra would use APFS. Regardless of what file system format you choose, the Mac hard drive will be erased and all contents permanently removed.
This represents the absolute simplest way to revert from macOS Mojave beta back to a different MacOS system software version, whether its High Sierra 10.13.x, Sierra 10.12.x, El Capitan 10.11.x, or otherwise.
Other downgrade options for macOS Mojave
There are other options available to downgrade from MacOS Mojave however, including restoring from an imaged hard drive if you happened to make one before installing Mojave, or even just wiping the drive and performing a clean install of the other version of MacOS system software, whether that’s Sierra, El Capitan, or High Sierra, or performing an internet recovery of whatever version of Mac OS shipped preinstalled on the Mac. Likewise you can also use the MacOS Mojave beta boot installer drive to perform a clean install of MacOS Mojave if you wanted to, though obviously that would not be downgrading anything, it would just be wiping the Mac and performing a clean install of the beta.
If you’re downgrading from MacOS Mojave beta because you have decided that beta system software is just not for you, then that’s OK too, you can always install the final version of macOS 10.14 when it debuts, and Apple has said that MacOS Mojave will be released in the fall of this year.
I don’t have a backup from before installing macOS Mojave beta, what should I do?
If you do not have a Time Machine backup made before you installed macOS Mojave beta, then you should not attempt to downgrade from MacOS Mojave – unless you don’t mind losing all of your data, files, apps, etc because downgrading without a backup requires formatting and performing a clean installation of MacOS system software. A better solution would be to stick with the beta of Mojave and continue to update it with beta software updates until the final version comes out – and yes the beta versions can update to the final version (or at least they have been able to in the past, so assuming that policy continues forward with MacOS Mojave too).
It’s up to you how you want to arrive at an animated GIF to use as your screen saver (more on that in a moment). In the examples above I used a simple animated GIF created for this article about posting Live Photos to Instagram and Facebook. If you just want a quick animated GIF to test this out with yourself, you can try this fireplace GIF I created some time ago for a different post:
