At our meeting on the 9th of July DavidB gave us a demo of Pixelmator Pro and Robert talked about some of the lesser-known apps included with macOS and iOS.
Pixelmator Pro
DavidB gave us a demo of Pixelmator Pro on Mac concentrating on the ML (machine learning) features to quickly and easily enhance photos. He used the example of replacing a dull sky and reflections in a photo with something more dramatic.
Pixelmator Pro is available on the Mac App Store. Note that Pixelmator Classic is also available but has now been superseded by Pro.
“Hidden” Apps
Robert highlighted some potentially useful apps included with macOS and iOS which may fly under the radar for some users. He mentioned:
- Mac
- Font Book
- Digital Colour Meter
- Photo Booth
- Grapher
- Chess
- iOS
- Compass
- Measure
- Tips
In addition to these, during the discussion Ben suggested Magnifier and Denesh mentioned the Stocks app.
Apple have a full list of apps included with macOS with links to the user guide for each and there is a list of built-in iOS apps on Wikipedia.
Suggestions
- DaveK warned that users should take care when running Terminal commands that start with sudo (superuser do) which has privileges that could cause your computer to stop working or introduce security risks. Apple has an article on sudo.
- Ann-Kay mentioned permanent data storage being offered by arweave.org.
- AirPods pro noise cancellation was discussed, these questions on Apple’s store page indicate the feature can be used without music playing.
- Ben mentioned the Southend East to Hastings steam train trip and Elliott suggested that its progress can be tracked on Real Time Trains.
- DavidK mentioned the LNER Class A4 locomotive the most famous being Mallard which holds the world record as the fastest steam locomotive.
- Denesh suggested using font pairing resources (Google search) to find fonts that work well together in a document.
- Liz recommended this programme on the font Helvetica (not available to stream at the time of writing).
- Denesh recommended the article Dear England by Gareth Southgate.