#204

Isn’t there some setting to switch to dark mode at night and light mode during the day? I can’t remember what it’s called and am not in front of my computer though :confused:

#205

there is! there’s light, dark and auto mode. i like to keep it in dark mode all the time, but some little gremlin inside my laptop keeps switching it to auto : / i’ve found an accidentally enabled setting in flux that may be the culprit so i’ll find out when i fire this computer up in the morning!

1 Like
#206

A bunch of stuff from 2014 on to this year. Your 2016 is totally fine to upgrade.

#207

I’m platform independent in my work and can do my music on MAC, PC or iOS. It’s fine. All of the platforms have positive and negative sides and plenty of software environments are also cross-compatible (Ableton Live, Reaper, to name a few on PC and MAC) so I would hardly even notice when I switch.

#208

Yeah, +1 to this, @AIsynthesis.

The “moving to ARM” is, in itself, not a reason to be concerned. They’ve been doing their own chips for a long time, they’ve done one architecture transition before (and successfully), and this has been in the works a long while. I’d also note that whilst they want to transition in two years, they will be supporting Intel hardware and Universal Binaries for a good while.

Yes, iOS software will now apparently run on Macs, and I imagine that some of it will be well-engineered to support multiple devices, and some will be crap. (cf: running Android apps on Chromebooks, which is wildly variant in quality). But Apple were keen to show not just Office (eesh, really?) running, but also Maya; Adobe are already on board; and for everyone who isn’t yet, there’s Rosetta-style emulation.

If it’s well-supported, this could be very good for everybody: more powerful chips with better power/heat profiles for laptops feels like a no-brainer. (The high-end iPad Pros are already benchmarking similar to high-end MBPs).

So I’m not concerned about any of that.

If I had a concern about Apple right now, it would be around the ecosystem of App distribution, and building software. The App Store is in many ways, flawed, especially in the hold it has on devs. Notarized Binaries are a good idea, but also a pain in the ass for developers, and I don’t want developers to stop working on software because the barriers are too high. Also, I would like to be able to install whatever I want on a general-purpose computing device (as well as a musician, with all my odd plugins, I’m also a software developer). I don’t use iCloud, don’t have an iPhone, but like the Apple experience as a best-in-class desktop Unix.

Finally, “interesting” things might happen to the market as iOS-on-desktop becomes a possibility. Lots of people make mobile and desktop versions of the same tools, albeit with different UX, and at very different price points - the mobile devices have pushed the cost of software consumers are willing to bear down. How do you handle selling a £10 app for iPad, but a £40 app for desktop? Or a £10 AUv3 plugin vs a £69 AU plugin? I hope that resolves in favour of the software-makers, rather than just moving the race-to-the-bottom to a whole new environment.

But yeah, I’m still not at the “maybe I should buy an XPS” moment simply because I still can’t bear the thought of Windows as a full-time thing.

#209

I shared the same concern, but I’ve been reassure with a thread I found on reddit. Apple doesn’t seems to want to lock the mac, like they locked their other idevices.

You will be free to build and install whatever you want on your Apple SoC Macintosh. (In fact it could have the opposite effect, and maybe open a lot more iOS with more streamlined side loading, but I’m speculating.)

Apple is also offering support to a bunch of FOSS software available, like Blender, Homebrew, Macport…

the full “State of the Union” video: https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2020/102/

#210

Hmn. Not quite like they locked their other devices, but they are already sliding that way: this isn’t me moaning about the future, it’s me moaning about the present, where Gatekeeper and notarization already make development for smaller-scale or less-experienced developers more challenging than it used to be. I’m OK with paying to be a licensed dev to stay in the store… but paying in order to be able to notarize apps that you distribute outside it?

Doesn’t stop me running all my Unix nonsense, but does shrink the market.

2 Likes
#211

I’m not aware of any key signatories that have real cryptographic value that are free. You pay verisign for an SSL cert (letsencrypt is of highly limited value), why wouldn’t you pay Apple for notarization? There’s real value there and real effort/expense in providing the service.

1 Like
#212

from what I understood, notarization is not mandatory per se. but it’s an extra layer of security available on top of code signing.

you can alway open any (unsigned?) app with the contextual menu.

we all have been afraid that un-notarized app would have been quarantine, but it seems like it’s not the case. anyway it’s easy to bypass the quarantine.

I may be totally wrong though.

sources:


#213

I’m having an issue after upgrading to Catalina where the OS wants to verify Ableton 10 every time I open it. Can take up to 15 mins to get started with this process. I see a lot of people are having same issues with other apps, like office.

Have’t found a fix for it yet so thought I’d ask in here to see if anyone has a solution

#214

Haven’t had that problem at all. It verifies when Ableton has downloaded a new version in the background but shouldn’t re-verify if the version hasn’t been updated. If you installed a very old version of 10 you might repeat the process a half dozen times as it only updates one point release at a time. After you are up to date it should stop.

#215

It’s a weird one for sure. Maybe I’ll just try to install ableton again

#216

One thing I’ll point out: If you don’t have Ableton on your local disk in /Applications, but have it on an iCloud or other remote drive, you will run into this verification issue constantly, because the sync process updates file metadata and triggers a re-validation because it’s changed. Make sure it’s on a local drive in a directory tree that is NOT synched anywhere. You can keep your data files like your recordings, Ableton templates and projects, etc. on a synched directory, but the executable bundle itself should not be. This goes for any signed apps, not just Ableton, but I thought I’d mention it in case you had it in a non-standard location and/or had moved your Applications to a synced location for some strange reason.

1 Like
#217

Thanks! Yes, I’m sure that’s not the case.

Got another tip to boot into Recovery mode, run Disk Utility and then run First Aid on the internal drive. I’ll see if that helps

#218

I ended up deleting ableton from the dock and opened straight from the applications folder. somehow the link in the dock must have been the problem because it opens up nicely now :slight_smile:

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction @equipoise

1 Like
#219

how Apple bad business practice can affect the whole industry

#220

What do you think of the “cooling pads” sold on Amazon etc for a MacBook Pro ? Their design is terrible imo with all these LEDS etc but are they at least efficient and not too noisy in a home-studio ?

I own a -nearly full specs- MacBook Pro 16’ 2019 and I can’t even use Logic Pro X or Ableton without having the fans running constantly in the background.

I know this is a classic issue with a laptop but…

Well, I’m wondering if one of these “cooling pads” would help… Or will they just add more noise in the studio ?

Edit: Just found this and… this seems to help reducing the noise of the fans :man_shrugging: https://www.imore.com/heres-why-you-should-probably-charge-your-macbook-using-ports-its-right-side

#221

I’m the same. If it’s helpful, here’s a terminal command to clear the dock.

You might save it as an alias or something. I also have one (an alias) to slow the timing of the dock way down, so it doesn’t pop up when I mouse over it, but I realized that doing so just made it super obnoxious waiting for it to go away when it inevitably does pop up.

2 Likes
#222

Kind of a tangential question here, but has anyone setup a 4k monitor with an older mac mini?

I have a late 2012 2.6Ghz “server” mac mini (wonderful studio machine!) and have been using it with a 27" 1080p monitor for years now. It’s fine, but the graphic resolution, particularly for text is a bit shit.

I’ve been eyeballing upgrading to a 28" 4k monitor, but the maximum output resolution of the mac mini (according to the specs) is 2560x1600. I have read that you can run it at 4k with some workarounds, but only at 30Hz, which doesn’t sound like a good idea.

It’s been forever since I’ve bought a monitor or anything like that, so I’m not sure if you can run a 4k monitor (eyeballing something like this) at a lower resolution (2560x1600 in this case) without it looking like shit.

So yeah, is anyone running an older mac mini with a decent monitor? If so, what?

#223

I recently started using a 4K monitor with a 2013 mbp 13 inch and apparently it’s quite hard work for the cpu. I have lots of audio drop outs and louder fans etc when using it. Not a Mac mini I know but I thought it’d be useful to let you know that even if it’s technically possible there might be issues like this. Also running at a lower, scaled res, seems to have the same effects for me, I read that the scaling eats up some cpu too.

1 Like