Dorchester — Dec 10th 2019

Trevor gave a great demonstration as to why we should all be giving more attention to the IOS/iPad OS app Shortcuts, now a lot more powerful and included by Apple by default in IOS 13. There are already a large number of Shortcuts available from the built-in Gallery and through the cloud and many can be integrated into other Apple apps. He showed that in Photos you can access the “Where Was This Taken” shortcut via the Share menu. For the more courageous, you can create your own shortcuts. Trevor offered several useful links:-
Apple User Guide https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/shortcuts/welcome/ios
iMore Guide https://www.imore.com/getting-started-shortcuts
MacStories Archive of Shortcuts https://www.macstories.net/shortcuts/
MacStories iOS Settings Shortcuts https://www.macstories.net/ios/a-comprehensive-guide-to-all-120-settings-urls-supported-by-ios-and-ipados-13-1/

With at least half those present already upgraded to Catalina, David gave a very brief summary of the changes between Mojave and Catalina, with iTunes replaced by separate apps Music, Apple TV and Podcasts with significant updates to Notes, Calendar, Reminders, all now with greater similarity to their equivalents in iOS 13. Apple have also introduced Mac Catalyst which enables developers of IOS apps to rapidly make them Mac OS compatible; David showed Twitter as an early example. Catarina will not run 32 bit applications and David showed how those those running Mojave could check which of their apps are 32 bit using Option ï£¿ > System Information > Software> Legacy Software or Option ï£¿ > System Information > Software>Applications and sort on the 64 bit column. Better still use a little app “32-bitCheck” available free from https://eclecticlight.co/downloads/ with excellent support files. A similar app is Go64

Euan explained various ways to retain the use of 32 bit apps whilst still updating to Catalina. You can keep a copy of Mojave and or earlier version of Mac OS on separate partitions on your internal drive or have them on an external drive. Apple have increased the security on home folders and your Admin password may be required to access or move these from a separate system. The easiest solution is to keep the data files outside of the home folder, and place ‘alias’ folders on your Desktop. You can also change the permissions in the ‘Get Info’ window for the relevant folders. Euan explained that Catalina uses APFS drive formatting differently from Mojave, isolating the System from user and malware interference. In some circumstances this shows up as two separate Volumes basically separating the system from Data e.g. MacHD and MacHD - Data.

Euan summarised the costs and uses of Virtualisation software to run Mojave within Catalina, as well as earlier versions of Mac OS, Windows and Linux. This has the advantage of being able to switch instantly from one system to another, copy and paste etc. Parallels @ circa £70 is very well established. Other options are VMWare Fusion, VirtualBox (free, open source from Oracle) and for Windows apps only: Wine and Crossover.

Andy ended the evening with an entertaining explanation and demonstration of Anamorphic printing giving out members names in elongated and compressed so as to be viewed at a very oblique angle for recognition. From Wikipedia:- “Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point, use special devices or both to view a recognisable image.” Andy showed fascinating examples including Holbein’s 1533 painting, "The Ambassadors" with a memento mori anamorphic skull in the foreground.

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