Jeff Benjamin

Nintendo has been on a path that I, and a lengthy list of other tech-invested people, have long warned about. Its tone-deaf approach to online, its resistance to adopt new technologies, and most importantly — the existence of the iPhone — have all been bad signs for Nintendo. My advice to the Kyoto-based company up until now? Adapt, or succumb to a slow, painful death at the hands of mobile.

That was the way I used to think just a mere six months ago. Then the Switch happened…

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iOS 11 beta 5 has been released to developers, and as expected, it contains quite a few changes and tweaks. A new FaceTime dial out tone makes an appearance for the first time, along with an updated iPad multitasking splash screen, and a needed security enhancement for trusting connected computers. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for a brief look at each change.
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In this week’s edition of Friday 5, we take a look at ScreenFlow 7 — a major update to the previous version of the popular screen recording and editing app. ScreenFlow 7 features brand new export options, a newly-implemented dark mode interface, support for custom hotkey mapping, and much more. Have a look at five of my favorite new features found in this major ScreenFlow update.
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If you want the ability to perform a fresh and clean install of macOS High Sierra, then you should consider creating a bootable macOS High Sierra USB install drive. Not only will this walkthrough work for the macOS High Sierra beta, but it will also work for the final public release once available. In the following video tutorial, we’ll show you how.

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For $1799, the entry-level 5K iMac is a very good deal for anyone looking for a powerful machine that can be upgraded to some extent. Of course, when it comes to an all-in-one machine like the iMac, the term “upgrade” is used loosely, but it’s still fairly remarkable how much headroom you can garner from Apple’s entry-level 27-inch 5K machine.

In this hands-on post and video walkthrough, we’ll consider several reasons why the base-model 5K iMac is such a compelling proposition for those in need of a new Mac. In fact, it’s arguably the best deal in Macs that Apple currently offers.
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I understand that the new iPad Pro is the darling of the moment, but I wanted to take some time to provide readers with an update on one of the $329 9.7-inch iPad’s standout accessories. The Logitech Slim Folio keyboard case, which features four years of battery life, recently landed in my mailbox, affording me the opportunity to take it for a test drive. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for a brief look at one of Logitech’s latest iPad accessories.
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It’s been widely speculated that the next Apple TV hardware upgrade will include support for 4K HDR-enabled displays. Today a recent purchase receipt from a UK iTunes movie purchase strongly hints that 4K support may be soon bound for iTunes, which would go hand in hand with 4K Apple TV support in the future.
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Last year I went hands-on with a few Akitio Thunderbolt 3-enabled drive enclosures for 9to5Mac, but none of the previous enclosures came with out-of-the-box support for macOS. Instead, users had to rely on a hack in order to enable support for these enclosures, due to the fact that macOS wasn’t compatible with the Thunderbolt 3 chipsets being used.

In today’s world, things are a bit different. Much of the Thunderbolt 3 hardware shipping today is no longer “Windows only”, which is a great thing for recent MacBook Pro and Mid-2017 iMac hardware with Thunderbolt 3 I/O capabilities.

Akitio’s Thunder3 Quad Mini is one such example of Thunderbolt 3-enabled hardware made with the Mac in mind. This four-bay enclosure comes with two Thunderbolt 3 ports in a small aluminum enclosure that supports passive cooling for noiseless operation. In other words, it’s a quiet enclosure that’s perfect for RAID 0 SSD setups for maximum speed. Have a look at our hands-on video walkthrough for more details.
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iOS 11 beta 4 has been released to developers, and it includes quite a few changes in tow. New Home screen app icons for Contacts and Notes are included, along with the ability to open apps via Lock screen notifications with Touch ID authentication. Have a look at our full video walkthrough, as we step through more than 20 new changes found in the latest iOS 11 beta.
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As we noted yesterday, a major update to Apple’s Clips app was released, and it brings several noteworthy features to the table. The update includes animated Disney stickers featuring Micky and Minnie, along with Pixar assets from Toy Story and Inside Out.

Clips is a solid app for editing short videos on iOS, and the 1.1 update makes it even better. It’s why we’ve decided to make this free-to-download app our Friday 5 app of the week.

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As our own Jordan Kahn brought out in a previous post, iOS 11’s new Smart Invert Colors feature is the closest thing we’ve seen to a so-called ‘dark mode’ in iOS thus far. It’s not perfect, but its ability to avoid inverting images and other types of content in certain apps is a step in the right direction.

The main issue with enabling Smart Invert Colors is that you have to dig deep into the Settings app in order to do so. Instead, have a brief look at how to enable a handy triple-click Home button shortcut to instantly toggle the Smart Invert Colors feature on a whim.
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I’ve been wanting to do a series on iPad video editing for some time, and I feel that time is right with the maturation of LumaFusion into a powerful app for editing videos on iOS. LumaFusion, as I’ve stated in the past, is the most comprehensive video editing tool available on the platform, and should be the choice for anyone who’s seriously into editing videos via iPad on a recurring basis.

In this initial walkthrough, I step through many of the basic project settings in LumaFusion. This includes creating a new project, adjusting basic preferences, renaming, duplicating, deleting projects, and so on.

By the end of this tutorial, you should have a firm grasp on how to use projects in LumaFusion, which will adequately prepare you to tackle other basic areas of the app, including managing the timeline and source viewer. We’ll be back soon with additional LumaFusion tutorials, with the goal of eventually establishing a full comprehensive video-driven guide to the app.
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iMacs can’t be upgraded, right? Tell that to YouTuber Quinn Nelson, better known around the Interwebs as SnazzyQ. Nelson performed some intense surgery on his less than-a-few-weeks-old, $1,799 base-model Mid 2017 5K iMac. The result? He came away with a machine that performs better in some respects than the most expensive ($5,299 before tax) iMac you can currently buy.
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AgileBits has released the latest version of 1Password for iOS, and it includes a new feature that will serve as a major convenience for anyone who uses the app to manage two-factor one-time passwords. As of version 6.8, which AgileBits has codenamed ‘The Picnic Edition’, one-time passwords will now auto-copy to the clipboard whenever you use auto-fill.
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The iPad Pro Leather Sleeve is an accessory that’s made for iPad Pro owners who use an Apple Pencil. The sleeve, with a price of $129 for the 10.5-inch model and $159 for the 12.9-inch model, is made out of leather and is available in four colors.

Considering its price tag, the Leather Sleeve is what I would call a luxury accessory. There are other options that provide similar protection at a much cheaper price, but for those of you who demand a high-quality Apple-branded product, the Leather Sleeve makes for an interesting option.
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When not using Apple’s built-in default option, Fantastical has long been my go to Calendar app on macOS. The app was just recently updated to version 2.4, a major feature upgrade encompassing things like attachment support, advanced undo/redo, travel time, and more.

But it’s not just the latest upgrades that make this app a worthy default Calendar app replacement. Have a look at five of my favorite Fantastical 2 features in this week’s edition of Friday 5 for more details.
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If you’re a 10.5-inch iPad Pro user who regularly uses a Smart Keyboard, then Khomo’s iPad Pro + Smart Cover companion case should definitely be on your radar. It’s a case that compliments either the Smart Cover or Smart Keyboard, providing rear iPad Pro protection that Apple doesn’t currently offer.

If, however, you’re in search of a full case with a built-in Apple Pencil holder, then Khomo has another solid sub-$20 offering for you. Have a look at our hands-on video walkthrough for all of the details.
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Apple has released the second iOS 11 public beta for the iPhone and iPad. As has been the case with previous public beta releases, this allows users who are not registered developers to test pre-release versions of iOS with new features for free.

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With the success and popularity of Serif’s Affinity Photo for iPad, it seemed like a given that its companion app, Affinity Designer, would soon make its way to iPad. In a video posted via Twitter earlier this morning, Affinity Designer’s project manager, Matt Priestly, shared a teaser of the app in action.
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Fantastical 2, the popular calendar app from developer, Flexibits, has received a big update for the Mac. Version 2.4, which just landed on the Mac App Store, brings several notable new features to the fore.

Users will be happy to learn that you can now add attachments directly to iCloud and Exchange calendar events on the Mac. The update also lends the ability to add travel time to events, letting you receive notifications that correspond to the amount of time it will take to reach the event location.

Have a look at the full change log inside, which highlights the biggest Fantastical update since version 2 launched back in 2015.
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Last week I received the Khomo charcoal gray case for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro. This case is billed as being a perfect companion case for the iPad Pro + Smart Keyboard. Because Apple has decided not to sell a companion rear case for either the Smart Cover or Smart Keyboard, users are essentially forced to go the third-party route if they desire to protect the rear of their iPad Pro.

The good news is that there are some really good third-party options available. We already covered one such option, an all-in-one solution that can be had for less than $20. But for those of us that gravitate towards the Smart Keyboard, a rear case that’s specifically designed to complement Apple’s front cover protection is required.

As you’ll see from my hands on video walkthrough, the Khomo case is one of the best Smart Keyboard companion options that you can buy right now. Not only is it an excellent fit, but its color and texture match the Smart Keyboard almost perfectly.
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