50 (Almost) Ways to Leave Your Lover (High Sierra) for macOS Mojave

With macOS Mojave now in developer beta, many will want to try it out as soon as the public beta is released. There are some ways to do this with care and caution and still have fun.

macOS Mojave. Darkly beautiful.

First, the computer gods require me to direct you to this sage advice from our Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus.

readthis

[Those Shiny Apple Beta OSes: 2018 Edition ]

Did you read that? If not, GOTO readthis.

Right now, macOS Mojave is in developer beta 2. The public beta has not yet been released, but should be coming soon, perhaps before the end of June as, I suspect, developer beta 3. Here’s some good preparation advice from iMore. “How to prepare your Mac for the macOS Mojave public beta.”

Our Jeff Gamet noted a fairly serious install problem on an external SSD as well as some cosmetic issues. I expect the install problem to be ironed out in the macOS Mojave public beta.

macOS Mojave Install Options

The larger issue is WHERE you install Mojave. You have lots of options.

1. On your primary boot drive/SSD of your production Mac. Not a great idea. GOTO readthis. Bad. Very bad.


2. On a spare, separate partition on your boot drive. Dual boot. Geeky. Doable. Especially if you already have the partition created.


3. On a non-mission-critical spare Mac that meets the system requirements for Mojave. A very good idea.


4. On a external drive with HFS+ or an external SSD with APFS. Dual boot. Also a good idea, assuming Apple fixes the install problem, mentioned above, in the public beta.


5. Finally, if you routinely use virtual machine (VM) software, such as Parallels Desktop, you can install High Sierra as a VM (from your current Recovery Partition) and then upgrade it to the Mojave public beta. This is ideal because you can have Mojave running in a window on your High Sierra desktop. No dual boot fuss. Here’s a detailed guide. “Try macOS Mojave with Parallels Desktop for Mac.“

Mojave looks to be a stellar release of macOS. As Apple routinely does, the public beta should have the most dangerous bugs resolved and be ready for users to experiment with. You’ll be fine if you pick one of the recommended install methods above.

Next Page: The News Debris for the week of June 18th. Apple and handwriting recognition. Again?

Page 2 – News Debris For The Week of June 18th

Apple’s Handwriting May be on the Wall. Or iOS.

25 years later, Apple should be able to just nail handwriting recognition.

• Cult of Mac writes: “iPhone might soon offer handwriting recognition.” If you’re thinking, ::cough:: Apple Newton, the author covers that as well. The surmise is based on an Apple patent filing.

Typing on a tiny on-screen keyboard is something most smartphone users have become accustomed to, but it’s not ideal. And tablet users have the opposite problem: carrying a 12.9-inch iPad Pro while typing is awkward. It’s likely many users of both types of iOS devices would find writing words on the screen more convenient.

If Apple can make this work nicely, beautifully, productively 25 years after the Newton, it would be fantastic. I had a Newton back then, and the recognition technology got to be pretty good. But the Newton was already doomed, mostly thanks to Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury comic strip.

If this patent reflects a real intent rather than just protecting a possible future effort, we may yet see the rumored, smaller Apple Pencil for iPhone. Now…. Where do we put it? A special, new kind of case? Probably.

More Debris

• Who should tackle smartphone addiction? Consumers? Tech companies? Or, heaven forbid, government regulators? By a very wide margin, according to a recent Statista survey of 2,200 U.S. adults, that job belongs to consumers. And I agree. While it’s Apple’s job to make the iPhone fun, productive and attractive to use, it’s always up to the users to exercise control over their own lives. With the iPhone, there’s no such thing as predestination. We control our destiny.

• The same goes for obsessive gaming. We all instinctively knew that not eating and not showering while one plays video games, in pajamas, for eight hours at a time is harmful. Previous research has focused on whether playing certain kinds of games results in aggressive behavior in life. With no positive proof, so far as I know. But now, at least, the United Nations World Health Organization has classified gaming disorder as a disease. In part,

Gaming disorder is characterized by a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour (‘digital gaming’ or ‘video gaming’), which may be online (i.e., over the internet) or offline, manifested by: 1) impaired control over gaming (e.g., onset, frequency, intensity, duration, termination, context); 2) increasing priority given to gaming to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other life interests and daily activities; and 3) continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences. The behaviour pattern is of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning….

The proclamation isn’t without some controversy. At least it gets the discussion started by concretely identifying the behavior and its harmful effects. Parents (or others) who have learned to focus on productive habits, I think, have a hard time convincing those who are addicted to see things differently. And so identifying the behavior as harmful is only the first step in learning how to help these addicts. That’s a tough task, one that I won’t try to explore in any detail here. Some of you readers may wish to weigh in.

Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon are coming to Apple TV

• We know Apple is working on original TV content. Here’s the content pipeline: “Apple’s Original Content Is Further Along Than You Think.” But how will it get delivered? That’s the question on everyone’s mind. Chris Smith at BGR explores some of the options Apple has. “Apple’s streaming service might have a secret weapon to beat Netflix: Price.”

With so many streaming options already available, Acorn, Amazon Prime, BritBox, CBS All Access, DirecTV Now, Disney, Hulu, HBO, Netflix, Sling, YouTube to name just a few, as well those offered directly by cable and satellite, consumers are being overwhelmed with paid streaming options. Apple will, no doubt, have great content. The challenge will be in the delivery mechanism and the pricing. No doubt, Eddy Cue will figure it out.

No pressure.

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Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the TMO headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holiday weeks.

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