At this final meeting of the year, held on 5th December, we had our traditional Apple themed quiz. Robert then gave some first impressions of the Affinity by Canva suite. We also discussed Apple news and members shared a number of topics.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at SEAL!
Quiz
As this was the last meeting of the year, we held our traditional Apple quiz. This year’s quiz covered new OS features, Apple history and trivia, and a picture round.
Congratulations to Ferrers and Ben who tied for the highest score.
Affinity
Robert gave his first impressions and a few introductory tips on the newly released Affinity by Canva. This Mac app integrates the Affinity applications into one package which is available free to anyone with a Canva account. Only optional AI features require a paid account. Robert concentrated on performing basic tasks with the image editor (Pixel studio) and publishing (Layout studio) functions.
Ferrers recommended Affinity tutorial videos (and live streams) from Elaine Giles on YouTube.
Ben asked about RAW support in Affinity, we found this support article.
Apple News
We discussed recent Apple-related news, including:
- Apple chief designer Alan Dye is leaving the company for Meta. John Gruber of Daring Fireball has written an article with scathing comments on Dye’s work at Apple.
- Jeff Williams, formerly Apple Chief Operating Officer, retires.
- Apple Music Replay and other streaming service recaps (such as YouTube rewind) are now available.
- Google implements cross platform Air Drop, seemingly without Apple involvement:
- Apple’s M1 chip is 5 years old. Mac Rumors have an interesting comparison.
- Apple partners with Google to use Gemini AI model for new Siri.
Member Topics
- Ferrers mentioned using Luna display to use an older iMac as a monitor (it works to turn a Mac or iPad into a display for another Mac or PC, see their requirements documentation for details). Ferrers has written a document describing his setup and experiences. Note that this is from 2023 so there may be differences to the current Luna software.
- Ferrers recommended Folder Quick Look on Mac. This app allows you to see folder and archive (ZIP, RAR etc.) instantly via the OS Quick Look feature.
- Liz asked about typing non-breaking hyphens in Pages documents. Ferrers described how to add the character from the system Emoji & Symbols picker. We also found a way to insert it using the system Text replacements option (found in Settings/Keyboard). This article from La De Du covers both these options.
- Robert mentioned that Mac Rumors have a useful Archive page where you can see a complete months of Apple news listed in a compact format.