iMovie for Mac Updated With HEVC Support

Following this morning’s public release of macOS High Sierra, Apple has updated its iMovie for Mac app with support for High Efficiency Video Coding, aka HEVC or H.265.

As outlined in our in-depth post on HEVC, HEVC is a next-generation video compression standard that’s been introduced in both macOS High Sierra and iOS 11. HEVC brings high-quality video with better compression rates, for files that are approximately half the size of H.264, the previous standard.

With support for HEVC, iMovie is now able to import videos in the HEVC format on macOS High Sierra. Today’s update also improves compatibility when sharing to YouTube, a feature introduced in iMovie for iOS a couple of weeks ago.

Though iMovie has been updated with HEVC support, Final Cut Pro X, Apple’s professional video editing software, has yet to gain support. iMovie can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for free. [Direct Link]

All iOS devices and Macs on High Sierra will support HEVC playback, with encoding/decoding hardware acceleration available on newer iOS devices and the latest 2017 Macs for faster performance and less battery drain.

In other Mac-app related news, iBooks Author, Apple’s free app for creating iBooks, has also been updated following the release of macOS High Sierra. iBooks Author, includes support for wide color gamut images and the ability to add images and video from the Photos app using the Media Browser or drag and drop.
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How to Use the New Safari Web Browser Settings in macOS High Sierra

With the public release of macOS High Sierra, Apple introduced some additional features to its native Safari web browser. Here we’ll cover just what they are and how you can customize them to make your web browsing experience a more enjoyable one.

Individual Website Settings

One of the most welcome new changes in Safari 11 is the ability to customize a range of settings for individual websites. Once these options are set up for a site, Safari applies them automatically so you don’t have to bother with them again. Here’s how.

Navigate to a site you frequently visit.
Right-click on the URL or website name that appears in the address bar, and select “Settings for This Website…”. Alternatively, click Safari in the menu bar and you’ll see the same option under Preferences.
Select your preferences from the drop-down pane that appears below the address bar to control how the website behaves, either by checking the boxes or selecting a setting from the available options.Safari’s built-in Reader mode strips online articles of extraneous web page furniture to make them more readable. Reader is usually enabled by clicking an icon that sometimes appears in the far left of the address bar, but you can check “Use Reader when available” to switch to this by default.

The box next to “Enable content blockers” lets you set whether to activate any ad-blocking extensions you may have installed, while the Page Zoom setting lets you adjust the size that website fonts and images display, allowing you to make them easier to read and navigate.

With the Auto-Play setting, you can prevent websites from playing video the moment you visit a page, which should make browsing a lot less infuriating. The options are Allow All Auto-Play, Stop Media with Sound, and Never Auto-Play.

The last three options in the preferences pane let you choose whether to allow or deny the site access to your Mac’s camera and microphone, and whether to enable location detection. If your preference is likely to change from time to time for these, set them to “Ask”, and Safari will query you whenever access is requested by the site.

Safari Website Preferences Tab

Helpfully, Apple has added a new tab to Safari preferences for you to keep track of your individual website settings. You can access it at any time by clicking “Preferences…” In the Safari menu bar and selecting the Websites tab.

Here you’ll find lists of websites that are currently open as well as ones you’ve customized in the past, categorized by individual settings, where you easily can adjust them. You’ll also see an additional setting in the General column listing your preference for websites you’ve visited that have prompted you about receiving Notifications.

Intelligent Tracking Prevention

Another new feature Apple has added in the latest Safari is Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP). Apple’s own testing has found that popular websites can harbor more than 70 cross-site tracking and third-party cookie trackers that all silently collect data on users while making the browsing experience increasingly sluggish.

To solve this, ITP uses local machine learning to identify cookie types and partition them or purge the cross-site scripting data of suspect ad trackers, without affecting the functioning of helpful cookies like those containing localized data or login details, for example. The feature should increase user privacy as well as boost overall browsing speed. You don’t need to do anything to enjoy the benefits of ITP – it’s on by default.

Related Roundup: macOS High Sierra
Tag: Safari
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‘iPhone SE Plus’ Concept Imagines Bezel-Free Compact Device With 4.7-Inch Display

Apple’s iPhone SE, introduced in March of 2016, is the sole device that the company continues to sell in a smaller 4-inch form factor.

The iPhone SE wasn’t updated in September alongside the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X, and there are no real rumors hinting at an imminent refresh, but that hasn’t stopped designers from Curved.de from imagining what an iPhone SE with an iPhone X makeover might look like.

Curved.de has mocked up an iPhone SE with the same general form factor as the existing iPhone SE, but with the elimination of the bezels, it has a larger 4.7-inch display.

Like the iPhone X, the imaginary iPhone SE features an OLED display and a TrueDepth front-facing camera with accompanying notch. The iPhone X only features a black front-facing panel, but Curved.de’s iPhone SE is depicted in multiple colors, some with a white front panel. Curved.de also imagines aluminum back, a dual rear camera, and rounder edges.

While it’s fun to imagine these changes in the iPhone SE, in reality, it’s not clear what Apple’s plans are for its 4-inch device.

There’s been a questionable rumor suggesting Apple supplier Wistron is gearing up to manufacture a next-generation iPhone SE set to begin shipping in the first quarter of 2018 and an entirely unverified rumor that suggests the next model will have an A10 chip, 2GB RAM, a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, but we have not heard any information about a new iPhone SE from a reliable source at this point.

Whether or not Apple plans to introduce another version of the 4-inch phone or stick to larger sizes going forward remains to be seen.

Related Roundup: iPhone SE
Buyer’s Guide: iPhone SE (Caution)
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How to Use New Pinning and Tables Features in Notes in iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra

iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra bring new features to several apps, and some of the biggest changes have been made to the Notes app. Along with a new Document Scanning feature outlined in a prior how to (iOS only), the Notes app also includes support for pinning and tables.

How to Pin a Note in iOS 11

Open the Notes app.
Open an existing note or created a new one.
In the list of note titles, swipe to the right on the note that you want to pin.
The swipe will bring up an orange push pin. Tap it to pin the note to the top of the list of notes.

How to Pin a Note in macOS High Sierra

Open the Notes app.
On the left of the app, there’s a bar that lists all of the notes in a particular folder.
With the trackpad, swipe right on one of the notes to bring up an orange push pin icon.
To pin the note, click on the push pin.
The note will now be listed at the top of the app in a new “Pinned” section.

How to Add a Table to a Note in iOS 11

Open the Notes app.
Open an existing note or create a new one.
On the keyboard in the Notes app, tap the icon on the left side of the app that looks like a set of boxes.
This adds a table to the note.
To add more columns or rows, tap on the little gray bar next to an active row or column. The same method deletes them.
To rearrange columns and and rows, tap the same little gray bar to highlight a row or column and then drag it into a new position.
To copy a table, share a table, covert a table to text or delete a table, hold a finger down on the table icon in the Notes app to bring up additional options.

How to Add a Table to a Note in macOS High Sierra

Open the Notes app.
Open an existing note or create a new one.
At the top of the Notes app, click on the menu icon that looks like a table.
Clicking that icon automatically inserts a table into the Note.
To add, delete, or rearrange rows and columns, click on the little gray handles that are located at the top and side of the table.

Compatibility

All of the new features in Notes are available on the iPhone, the iPad, and Macs, so long as the devices are running iOS 11 or macOS High Sierra.

Related Roundups: iOS 11, macOS High Sierra
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Snapchat Gains Augmented Reality ‘Sky Filters’ for Adding Virtual Weather Effects to Photos

Snapchat is gaining a new feature called “Sky Filters,” which are able to detect the sky in an image and then layer different effects on top, much like Snapchat’s existing face-based filters.

Snapchat told TechCrunch that the new filters are rolling out starting today on iOS an Android. Available filters will rotate on a daily basis and will include virtual weather, sunsets, stars, rainbows, storm clouds, and more.

The new filters will be accessible with a swipe upwards on a photo like other filters so long as Snapchat recognizes the presence of a sky in the image.

In the future, Snapchat’s filters will be able to take advantage of advanced face tracking capabilities using the TrueDepth Camera in the iPhone X. While this won’t affect Snapchat’s environment-based filters, it will make the company’s face-related features far more realistic-looking.

Snapchat can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Snapchat
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‘Platoons’ of autonomous Freightliner trucks will drive across Oregon

Most of the self-driving truck attention has revolved around Tesla’s much-teased reveal of its EV big rig next month and all the auto companies rushing to introduce their own electric models. But there’s another autonomous truck-related race to develop tech and mechanisms to enable the safe travel of extensive convoys of these vehicles, known as ‘platooning.’ At the North American Commercial Vehicle Show this weekend, German automotive titan Daimler announced its trucks will engage in ‘platooning’ tests on highways in Oregon and Nevada.

Daimler will start with a test linking two of its larger Freightliner New Cascadia trucks that are ‘paired’ to move in sequence, tech that the company first publicly experimented with in a 2016 Europe-spanning challenge. In short, the autonomous trucks will ‘talk’ to each other and coordinate their driving to maximize efficiency, including keeping the trailing vehicle behind the front one to minimize drag, similar to how trains of cyclists ‘draft’ behind the leading one. The self-driving tech is also safer behind the wheel than humans, Daimler’s press release claims, reacting to traffic in three-tenths of a second when it typically takes a person more than one to respond.

‘Platooning’ has been on automakers’ radar as an intriguing automated evolution to long-haul trucking. Back in January, Toyota and Volkswagen started a three-year truck convoy test. Even Tesla is investigating the technology, leaked DMV correspondence revealed.

Source: Daimler

How to Capture a Live Photo in FaceTime on iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra

iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra bring Live Photos to FaceTime, allowing you to preserve a special memory while video chatting with friends and family. Whenever you use the new Camera button that’s at the bottom of the screen on a FaceTime call, it captures a photo, but don’t worry – this can’t be done in secret and the other party is always notified when an image is captured.

How to Take a Live Photo in FaceTime

Initiate a FaceTime video call.
While in the call, press on the camera button that’s located at the bottom of the display to the left of the red button for ending a call.
Pressing the camera button captures a photo from the camera of the person you’re chatting with, so if they have the front-facing camera on, you’ll get a full image of their face as if they had taken the photo themselves.
The Live Photo taken from the FaceTime call can then be found in the Photos app along with the rest of your photos.
Every time you take a Live Photo in FaceTime, the person on the other end of the video call receives a message letting them know that a Live Photo was taken, so capturing an image during FaceTime isn’t something that can be done in secret. FaceTime Live Photos also don’t capture audio.

Disable Live Photos in FaceTime

If you don’t want people to be able to take a Live Photo when FaceTiming with you, it’s easy to disable. Here’s how:

Open the Settings app.
Scroll down to the “FaceTime” option and tap it.
Toggle off “FaceTime Live Photos.”
With this setting toggled off, people you chat with will not be able to use the Live Photo in FaceTime feature. You can still take Live Photos of others, however, as long as their setting isn’t toggled off.

FaceTime Live Photos only works when both FaceTime participants are running iOS 11 and have the option to enable/disable the feature. If someone isn’t using iOS 11 and you attempt to capture a photo, you’ll get a warning that all parties need to be running the new software.

FaceTime Live Photos on the Mac

FaceTime Live Photos are also available on Macs running macOS High Sierra. Capturing an image is done by clicking on the camera button, and toggling off Live Photos can be done on a Mac by opening the FaceTime app, choosing Preferences from the menu bar, and deselecting “Allow Live Photos to be captured during Video calls.”

Related Roundups: iOS 11, macOS High Sierra
Tags: FaceTime, Live Photos
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Truly run the neighborhood with our ‘NBA 2K18’ MyCareer Guide

NBA 2K18 adds a bevy of new features into the mix. The most notable additions, though, are seen in MyCareer mode. Your main goal remains to level up your created player to a 99 overall rating, but you have a lot more freedom along the way than in previous iterations. The new “Neighborhood” feature drops your created player into an open world, giving you real choices of how to spend your time. The road to 99 is long and winding, so let us help steer you in the right direction with our NBA 2K18 MyCareer Guide.

Choosing your position and skills

After you create your player, you have to pick your position on the court: Point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, or center. This is really a matter of preference. If you want to facilitate the offense, choose point guard. If you want to hang down low and crash the boards, power forward or center is your best bet. If you want to be a versatile wing player, shooting guard or small forward is ideal. Considering that you choose which team you play for in MyCareer, you may want to pick a position at which that team is weak. For instance, if you choose the Cleveland Cavaliers, picking small forward isn’t a smart bet because quality minutes, especially starting minutes, will be hard to come by (say hi to LeBron James).

After choosing your position, you will be asked to pick a primary and secondary skill. They vary based on which position you choose but the importance of these is that they determine your skill ceilings for each stat. Keep in mind that no matter what you pick, you can progress to a 99 overall, but your skills determine your particular strengths and weaknesses. We prefer choosing one skill that helps yourself and another that helps your team. For example, give yourself good passing or defense as a primary skill to help your team, and then choose shot creating or 3-point shooting as your secondary skill (to help yourself make buckets on your own).

Your height, weight, and wingspan also affect your starting skills. If you stick with the default marks for your position, none of your skills will be either positively or negatively affected but say you increase your height as a point guard, then some stats will improve while others will get worse. After fiddling with these for a while, we found that it’s preferable just to keep the suggested height, weight, and wingspan for your player. This way you don’t rock the boat at the outset when your created player is already weak in most areas of the game.

Leveling up

When your team of choice signs you, you start at a 60 rating. Your long-term goal is to progress to a 99 overall, higher than any current NBA star in the game (James tops the list at 97). You can increase your skills in individual categories by spending 2K virtual currency (VC). The more you level up, the more VC it costs to increase skills. Each time you hit certain level tiers — 65, 70, 75, etc. — you unlock new animations, perks, and additional Neighborhood rewards. For instance, when you hit 92, you will no longer need to go for training facility sessions and you receive a skateboard to get around the neighborhood on.

You also improve in certain facets of the game by earning badges. Currency and experience points toward badges go hand in hand. Badges like Deep Range Deadeye help you hit contested 3-pointers with hands in your face, while Hustle Rebounder means you get rebounds that are typically out of your range. There are 25 badges in all. Earning badges helps you on the court, giving you more possible factors that go toward upping your grade in a game. On your road to 99, you are likely to nab a good number of them. You earn 2K virtual currency and experience points in almost every aspect of MyCareer, but the bulk of these vital progression tools comes from — you guessed it — NBA games.

Excelling in NBA games

Your performance in NBA games dictates how much experience and currency you take home after the buzzer sounds. Consider your NBA contract incentive-based: The better you perform, the more rewards you will reap.

You start off each game with a C (average) rating. The amount of currency you earn relates to your grade, while the amount of experience is figured by the areas in which you fill the stat sheet (rebounds, assists, points, steals, etc.).

What you’ll quickly learn is that your definition of excelling and 2K’s probably don’t exactly line up. You may be tempted to call for the ball repeatedly (‘X’ on PS4, ‘A’ on Xbox One) and jack up as many shots as possible. However, you can put up 30 points and finish with a below average grade. MyCareer forces you to play team basketball if you want to succeed, so you have to focus on your fundamentals — which is a good thing.

On offense, you can up your grade by passing the ball to open teammates. Ball movement and assists are rewarded generously and your grade can move from a C to a C+ on the first possession if you move the ball efficiently.

Ball security is of the utmost importance. Don’t force passes into lanes that aren’t there, and don’t try to dribble through too many defenders. Your grade will plummet from turnovers.

You also want to limit your shots. Only take shots when you have an open look. In the early going, this means taking high percentage shots close to the hoop, as your player’s shot, no matter which skills you picked, will not be great.

On defense, it’s pretty simple — stick to your man. Follow your assignment like a magnet. If he loses you and gets a bucket, your grade will likely go down. The only time when you should abandon your man is when a shot goes up. Converge down in the paint to try and get a rebound. Even as a point guard, if you follow this method, you should be able to snag a few boards each game.

As your player’s overall rating increases over time, you can start to take more shots, call for the ball more, and be a bigger part of the offense. But the only way to do that is to play fundamental basketball from the beginning. The higher your grade, the more likely you are to get your minutes increased.

At the end of each contest, your experience points will be divvied up across different badge categories and you receive VC. Additionally, your “cap breaker” meter will fill. Once it hits 100 percent, the upper limit for a few of your attributes will increase, meaning that you can increase your overall level with VC.

Skill and turbo boosts

Especially in the early going, you’re probably going to have some trouble keeping up with NBA stars. If you aren’t getting the production you like out of your player, you can buy temporary skill and turbo boosts.

Skill boosts can be snagged at Main Street News — a newsstand located just past 2K Zone in the Neighborhood. For 200 VC, you can buy a single-game boost to increase any one of your 16 attributes temporarily. Two-thousand VC gets you 10 games worth of skill boosts, but that’s not actually a discount — it’s just buying in bulk. Because of that, you are almost always better off just buying them à la carte as needed, rather than stocking up.

Turbo modifiers can be purchased at the Gatorade Fuelstation inside the weight training facility. You can buy fuel bars that increase your turbo by 20 percent, Gatorade that slows down turbo loss by 25 percent, and protein bars that let you gain back turbo 25 percent faster than normal. Each of these can help you get closer to the speed and stamina of NBA players as you start your journey. Don’t buy too many of them, though: Like the skill boosts, you will likely outgrow a real need for them soon.

Pickup games

The Neighborhood game mode hinges on the social element of basketball. If you visit the playground courts, you can play in 1-on-1, 2-on-2, 3-on-3, and 5-on-5 pickup games with and against other online players. You earn experience toward badges and virtual currency here too, but you won’t earn as much as you would in NBA games.

That is unless you feel like wagering some coins. The “Ante-up” arena, located near the practice facility lets you wager anywhere from 500 to 5,000 coins on a game. We don’t recommend wagering coins until you are leveled up to around an 80 overall unless you are up against other players with similar ratings.

Don’t forget about practice

Former NBA star Allen Iverson may have had less than favorable opinions about practice, but you, an up-and-coming NBA player, should instead follow the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall. Before you play each game, make sure to enter the practice facility. There, you can complete three drills of your choice. These range from scrimmages to just shooting jump shots. We recommend doing as many scrimmage-based drills as possible because you end up earning experience points across multiple categories.

Occasionally, a pair of team-mandated drills will also be thrown into the mix. These can be completed in addition to the three drills you pick.

Outside of practice, make sure to visit the weight training facility to do exercises that work on your speed, strength, stamina, acceleration, and lateral quickness. Some of these areas will be addressed in games and scrimmages, but to really hone in on badges for those skills, the weight training facility is your best option.

Endorsement deals

As you rack up minutes and turn in consistent performances, shoe and apparel companies will start to take notice and offer you contracts. Endorsement deals give you VC bonuses for wearing company products in both NBA and pick up games. All endorsement offers will come via your agent. By the time we reached 20 NBA games, we had offers from Adidas and Under Armour. Never take the first offer. Instead, ask your agent to renegotiate for increased currency per game. Adidas offered us 40 coins per NBA game at first but after asking for new terms, we received a 70 coin per game offer. Considering that you can get deals from Adidas, Under Armour, Nike, or Jordan, we actually think it is best to wait for all the offers to come in. Once one comes in, the others soon follow.

The quick way

Yes, there’s a quicker way to get to 99. Right out of the gate, you can buy virtual currency with real cash and increase your player from a 60 to 85. Though, after that, you have to continue to fill your cap breaker meter by playing actual games. You can buy your way to being a quality player, but you can’t completely buy your way to being the best in the game.

Avoiding distractions

Okay, so you can also spend currency on material items in the neighborhood. You can buy new kicks at Foot Locker, pick up some new street clothes at the NBA store, and even pay for fancy haircuts and tattoos. While we don’t want to spoil your fun, spending precious currency on cosmetic items when you are on the road to 99 is not necessarily smart. By all means, buy a new shirt after a good game (and trim that beard), but the more currency allocate toward attribute increases, the quicker you will arrive at the 99 rating.

NBA 2K18 is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Kyrie Irving, recently traded from the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Boston Celtics, graces the cover.

Microsoft teases new Windows 10 S devices — starting at $275 — from HP, Lenovo

Why it matters to you

These new laptops from HP, Acer, and Lenovo offer a compelling price point for businesses looking to make the jump to Windows 10 S.

Microsoft launched Windows 10 S, a streamlined version of its flagship operating system intended to get the most out of basic hardware, earlier this year. Now the company has unveiled a line of devices that are aimed at firstline workers — the people who serve as the first point of contact between an organization and its products or customers.

These laptops are designed to be easy to use, inexpensive, and secure. Microsoft has partnered with HP, Lenovo, Acer, and Fujitsu to produce a range of PCs that can cater to the various needs of today’s technologically savvy workforce.

The HP Stream 14 Pro is a 14-inch ultraslim laptop that will retail for $275 when it launches in October 2017, according to a post published via the Windows Blog. Acer will field the 14-inch Aspire 1 and the 13-inch Swift 1 for $299 and $449 respectively in the fourth quarter of 2017. In February 2018, Lenovo will launch the 14-inch V330, which is set to cost $349.

All of these computers are tailored for use with Windows 10 S, which makes it easy to get work done whether you’re in the office or not. They’re capable of seamless integration with hosted virtual machines, making remote desktop functionality a snap, and they’re fully compatible with OneDrive, so accessing shared documents and materials is quick and easy.

Windows 10 S also provides built-in protection against phishing attacks and malicious software, two primary attack vectors for hackers targeting businesses. Microsoft verifies all apps that are built on the Universal Windows Platform or its Centennial project, giving enterprise users some extra piece of mind.

The operating system also has some advantages when it comes to setting up hardware for a large number of employees. It supports Azure Active Directory and Microsoft Intune for maintaining identity controls, and Windows Update for Business streamlines the process of keeping all hardware current with the latest version of Windows 10 S.

Windows 10 S won’t suit all users, but in an educational setting, or in the office, it has a lot going for it. Its biggest limitation is that fact that it can’t run traditional Win32 apps for security reasons — but in any scenario where apps from the Windows Store are enough, it’s capable of wringing good performance out of underpowered hardware.

Apple cozies up to Google with Siri and Spotlight search results

Why it matters to you

Now that Google is the default search engine for Siri and Spotlight searches, you’re probably going to see more helpful search results any time you ask Siri a question it doesn’t know how to answer.

As of Monday, September 25, Google will be the default search provider for Siri and Spotlight on iOS and MacOS. Previously, your Siri search results were served up by Bing, which will continue to be the default search engine for images. But any time you stump Siri with a question and she presents a list of search results instead of an actual answer, those results will be sourced from Google going forward.

It’s not a huge change, but Apple’s reason for jumping ship is pretty simple: Consistency. In MacOS, Safari already used Google as the default search engine, so ensuring Google’s results were served across all iOS and MacOS devices — when you use Siri or Spotlight for search — makes sense. Plus, your search results will be a bit more helpful, now that Bing is — partially — out of the picture.

“Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari. We have strong relationships with Google and Microsoft and remain committed to delivering the best user experience possible,” Apple told TechCrunch.

So where are you going to see all these new Google search results? Pretty much anytime you stump Siri with a weird question or hit up your Spotlight search in MacOS for the name of that pizza place you can’t quite remember. It’s certainly not the biggest change you are apt to see in the new iOS 11 and MacOS High Sierra ecosystem, but it marks an interesting development as Apple works to consolidate its user experience across all of its devices.

According to TechCrunch, the deal with Google means better search results for iOS and MacOS users, along with a sizable chunk of change for Google.While Bing will continue to serve up image results, Google will serve standard web search results, alongside video results — so you will probably see a lot more YouTube videos in your search results.

You won’t be served ads in your iOS or MacOS search results but links you click — to watch YouTube videos for instance — will potentially generate ad revenue for Google, further adding to the substantial amount of revenue Google gains from its $3 billion deal with Apple to remain the default search engine on iOS and MacOS devices.