This app-controlled prosthetic tail may be the weirdest wearable device yet

San Diego Comic-Con 2019 may still be around 10 months away, but it’s never too early to start preparing your cosplay costume for the world’s biggest comic book, sci-fi, and fantasy extravaganza, right? Step forward and take a bow Andrew Shoben, the “master tailer” (sic) behind one of the weirdest — yet most awesome — Kickstarter campaigns we’ve seen in a while. Shoben has created “Digitails,” a wearable animatronic prosthetic tail whose movement you can control using your smartphone. Whether you want to be Nightcrawler from X-Men, a Xenomorph from the Alien franchise, a fox, badger or… well, any other creature that sports a tail, this is the crowdfunding campaign for you!

“[The previous tail made by our company] uses a remote control to select one of 10 different moves, and works very well,” Shoben, one member of The Tail Company, told Digital Trends. “But we have craved more expressivity and control, so the Digitail was born! Using an app to control the tail over Bluetooth, it allows us to create a [tail] move designer, as well as chaining moves together into ‘moods.’ We can also do other things, like read a heartbeat from your Fitbit so the tail can go fully automatic.”

There are plenty of other weird and wonderful features the tails offer, too — like the ability to send a “wag” to another user, get phone notifications to trigger specific tail movements, or put on a music soundtrack and have your tail move in time to it.

“As far as we know, only [we are doing this app-controlled tail],” Shoben continued. “There are lots of handmade tails out there — some of these makers make really beautiful tails — but none of them have the spark of life that our tails do. Every tail we make is handmade, and customized for the wearer.”

As ever, we offer our usual warnings about the potential risks inherent in crowdfunding campaigns. However, if you’re keen to get involved, head over to the project’s Kickstarter page and lay down your hard-earned cash. Prices start at $129, with shipping set to take place in January. Just in time for you to get started on your ultimate cosplay costume for 2019’s convention season!

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Google Feed is now known as ‘Discover,’ will be available on mobile browsers

As part of its 20th anniversary, Google unveiled its plans to improve Search — starting with its Google Feed. Now known as Discover, the update brings along a redesign complete with features to help you find content that aligns with your interests.

Originally introduced in December 2016, the Google Feed has gone through its fair share of changes throughout the years. Located in the Google app, the feed was organized into two sections — a feed that kept you up to date on your interests like sports, entertainment, and news, while the second feed was dedicated to personal information like appointments and flights. Over time, Google allowed for more customizability, giving users the ability to pick and choose content they wanted to see on their feed.

With Discover, Google aims to help you uncover content that is not only timely but that also aligns with your interests. While scrolling through, you will see topic headers that provide an explanation for why you’re seeing a specific card in Discover. Next to the topic name is a Discover icon, which you’ll also start seeing in Search. If there is a topic that interests you, tapping on the icon will bring you to more content along with the ability to tap “Follow” it — which will add it to your feed.

While the new feature sets out on bringing you fresh content, Discover will also provide you with evergreen content that is relevant to you even if the article isn’t new. If you’re planning a road trip across the country or taking some time off in Europe, Discover might show you an article with the best restaurants in that area or suggested places to visit.

Google also introduced Topic Layer, which analyzes content on the web for a specific topic and develops subtopics around it. Using this new tool, Discover will be able to pinpoint the level of expertise someone has on a specific topic and then provide content around it. For example, if you’re learning to play the piano, Discover might show you content for beginners. If you have been playing the piano for years, you’ll see more advanced content appear.

Customizability is still alive and well even with the new update. Now, you can tap on the control icon in Discover to indicate whether you want to see more or less content on a specific topic. As for news, Google says that it will use the same technology used in its redesigned News app known as Full Coverage, which paints a complete picture of a story from a variety of different perspectives.

Discover will be available in multiple languages starting with support for English and Spanish in the U.S., and expanding to other languages and countries in the future. In addition to the Google app, Discover is also coming to mobile browsers and will be rolling out over the next few weeks. That way, even when you use Google on your browser, you still have access to the new tool underneath the Search bar.

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Waze for iOS Updated With CarPlay Support

Popular Google-owned mapping app Waze was today updated with support for CarPlay on devices running iOS 12. The iOS 12 update allows third-party mapping apps to be used with CarPlay for the first time, providing an alternative to the built-in Apple Maps app.

With CarPlay support, iPhone users who prefer to use Waze for mapping purposes can do so through the CarPlay interface, something that was not possible with iOS 11.

Waze is a popular app because it provides detailed information on traffic, ongoing construction, crashes, and other issues that can result in travel delays.

Google Maps, another popular Apple Maps alternative, was also updated with CarPlay support last week.

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

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Bypass Flaw in Newly Released macOS Mojave Update Lets Hackers Access Protected Files

Researcher Patrick Wardle, who has uncovered many security flaws in Apple’s macOS operating system, today shared some details on a new vulnerability that he’s found in the newly released macOS Mojave update.

As outlined by BleepingComputer, Wardle discovered that he was able to access Contacts data from the address book using an unprivileged app, as demonstrated in the video below.

According to Wardle, the vulnerability is a result of the way that Apple implemented new macOS privacy protections in the Mojave update.

“I found a trivial, albeit 100% reliable flaw in their implementation,” he told us, adding that it allows a malicious or untrusted app to bypass the new security mechanism and access the sensitive details without authorization.

The bypass does not work with all of the new privacy protection features in macOS Mojave, and hardware-based components, such as the webcam, are not affected. Full details on the vulnerability are not available yet, as Wardle plans to share technical details in November.

In the macOS Mojave update, Apple made a change that requires explicit user consent for apps to access location data, camera, contacts, calendars, reminders, messages history, Safari data, mail databases, and other sensitive data, which should prevent the vulnerability that Wardle demonstrates.

Apple will undoubtedly address the security flaw discovered by Wardle in an upcoming update to macOS Mojave.

Related Roundup: macOS Mojave
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Flash Sales: Save on Anker Audio Accessories, Apple’s Official iPad Cases, and iTunes Gift Cards

There are a few flash sales happening today, beginning with notable discounts on Apple’s first-party iPad cases, which are one of the featured items in Best Buy’s Daily Deals today only. Best Buy has the Smart Covers discounted by $10 to $15, starting at $39.99 for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and rising to $64.99 for the leather Smart Cover that fits the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

If you’re looking to protect the Apple Pencil as well, Best Buy has three colors of the Leather Sleeve for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro, each priced at $104.99, down from $129.99. Amazon beats Best Buy’s price for the Black Leather Sleeve, dropping this accessory to just $79.99. Stock is limited at the time of writing, so be sure to place your orders soon.

Elsewhere on Amazon, Anker has a new crop of discount codes that should interest anyone on the hunt for a new pair of wireless earphones, headphones, or a Bluetooth speaker. All three sales will expire in around 12 hours, and you don’t need a code to see the savings:

• Soundcore Flare Portable Bluetooth Speaker – $44.98, down from $59.99

• Soundcore Spirit Sports Earbuds – $29.99, down from $39.99

• Soundcore Vortex Wireless Headset – $44.99, down from $69.99

Target’s usual buy one get one 20 percent off iTunes gift card sale also reappeared today. With the discount, if you buy two $50 iTunes gift cards, you’ll pay $90 at checkout. Although not as good as 15 percent sales, the best savings in Target’s sale is for two $100 gift cards, netting you a $20 discount and marking the price of the set down to $180. This sale ends September 29 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Be sure to visit our full Deals Roundup to catch up on all the latest sales and discounts this week.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals
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Multiple Mac Apps Updated With Support for macOS Mojave’s Dark Mode and Other New Features

With the release of macOS Mojave today, third-party Mac app developers are releasing updates to take advantage of features like Dark Mode and other new Mojave additions.

Dark Mode options in third-party apps will let them blend right in to Mojave’s new Dark Mode, which is a systemwide dark theme that can be used in lieu of the traditional light mode theme. We’ve rounded up a list of prominent apps that are embracing macOS Mojave’s new features.

1Password – Popular password management app 1Password is introducing support for Dark Mode with a new darker theme that blends right into the macOS Mojave operating system.

1Password’s new update also includes a Safari App Extension to make it easier to input 1Password info into Safari webpages, it features a hardened runtime to make it so other processes on your computer can’t access it, and it’s been notarized with the new notary service in macOS Mojave that Apple introduced to make apps more secure.

Banktivity – Personal finance management app Banktivity, priced at $70 for new customers and $34.99 for those upgrading, is getting an update that adds support for macOS Mojave’s Dark Mode. Version 7 of the app also includes expanded search features, summary view customization options, lot selection, improved envelope budgeting, calendar support, and more.

Things 3 – Popular todo app Things 3 for Mac is gaining Dark Mode support for macOS Mojave, and it will automatically change between light and dark based on a user’s system setting in the Mojave operating system, but there are custom controls as well. The new dark theme is also available for Things customers running older versions of macOS.

OmniFocus 3 – Task management app OmniFocus, priced at $39.99 or $79.99 for the Pro version, is getting a major update today, which introduces version 3. The updated app has a redesigned, modernized interface that will feel familiar but fresh to OmniFocus 2 users. It includes tags for better organization, a forecast view to see tasks and calendar events in order, and enhanced repeating tasks. OmniFocus implemented a dark mode a few years back and it works great with macOS Mojave.

Agenda – Note taking app Agenda has added a new dark theme for macOS Mojave, and it’s been designed to activate when you have your Mac set to Mojave’s Dark Mode. The updated Agenda app has been designed to use the look and feel of the Mojave Dark Mode interface while retaining the clean, modern style of the Agenda app. The new darker theme is also available in Agenda for older versions of macOS.

Transmit – Panic’s Transmit 5 app for file transfers has been updated with a new dark theme that matches the Dark Mode in macOS Mojave.

🏴 Yes! Transmit 5.2 now supports DARK MODE for macOS Mojave. And, I’ll be honest, it looks pretty danged nice. It’s a free update now available for direct customers — just auto-update and enjoy! https://t.co/ladeSM399l pic.twitter.com/D7Dx6mys1c

— Panic Inc (@panic) September 24, 2018

Fantastical for Mac – Popular calendar app Fantastical for Mac has been updated with support for macOS Mojave’s Dark Mode. There’s no new look to the app, but the built-in dark theme is activated whenever Dark Mode is turned on in Mojave.

Do you have favorite Mac apps that were updated with support for Dark Mode? Let us know in the comments.

Related Roundup: macOS Mojave
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How to Enable Dark Mode in macOS Mojave

macOS Mojave, the newest version of the software that runs on the Mac, includes a long-awaited Dark Mode option that works across the entire system, from the dock and menu bar to all of your apps.

Here’s how to enable it:

Click on the Apple logo on the menu bar.
Choose System Preferences.
Select General.
In the “Appearance” section at the top of the window, click the “Dark” option.

Those are the only steps required to enable Dark Mode. If you want to turn it off again, follow the same steps but this time choose the “Light” option.

While in Dark mode, the dock, menu bar, and all of your Apple apps, including Safari, Mail, Calendar, Notes, the Mac App Store, Messages, and more will feature darker colors and themes. Dark Mode will need to be built into third-party Mac apps that don’t already offer a dark option when macOS Mojave is released.

Related Roundup: macOS Mojave
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Boot Camp Won’t Work With macOS Mojave on 2012 27-Inch iMac With 3TB Hard Drive

Apple today shared a support document that will be of interest to customers who own a late 2012 27-inch iMac with a 3TB hard drive and are attempting to upgrade to the macOS Mojave update.

There is an issue on this iMac model that results in the following alert when attempting to install macOS Mojave: “Installation cannot proceed with Boot Camp configured.”

To fix this problem, Apple says that customers with the 2012 27-inch iMac with 3TB hard drive will need to completely remove the Boot Camp partition using Boot Camp Assistant before macOS Mojave can be installed.

After upgrading to macOS Mojave, Boot Camp will not be able to be used to install Windows on these machines. No other iMac models appear to be affected by this issue.

Related Roundup: macOS Mojave
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How to Organize Your Mac’s Desktop With Stacks in macOS Mojave

If you’re someone that has a lot of files on your desktop, you’re going to love the new Stacks feature in macOS Mojave, which is designed to organize all of your files into neat little piles on your desktop, getting rid of clutter.

Unfortunately, Stacks is an option that’s limited to the desktop and not available within individual file folders.

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Enabling and Disabling Stacks

Toggling Stacks on and off is done with just a couple of clicks on the desktop. When at the desktop, right click to bring up the desktop options menu, and then choose the “Stacks” option.

You can also use the Finder to enable Stacks.

Open a Finder window.
In the menu bar at the top of the Mac, go to View.
Check the “Use Stacks” option.
Turning on Stacks will automatically organize your files by file type. Some of the available Stacks include documents, images, PDF documents, spreadsheets, other, and screenshots.

Files on the desktop before enabling Stacks.
If you want to turn Stacks off and go back to a full view of all the files on the desktop, right click again and uncheck the Stacks option. Alternatively, reverse the Finder steps.

Files on the desktop after enabling Stacks.

Viewing Files in a Stack

If you want to view all of the files that are contained within a Stack, just click, and it will expand the Stack and put a little arrow on the Stack’s name so that you know which Stack you’re viewing.

With the Stack expanded, if you click on a file, it will open up in whatever app is set to be the default app for that file type.

Click on a stack to expand it to see the files inside.
When done, click the Stack again to collapse it back down into an organized pile.

To open up all of your Stacks at once, option click on the any Stack, which will expand all of the desktop Stacks at once. Option click again on any of the open Stacks to close them all.

Option click on any Stack to expand all Stacks.
Tip: If for some reason you want to open up or close all of your Stacks with a slower expanding/collapsing animation, shift click instead of just clicking regularly.

Customizing Stacks

Stacks are organized by file type by default, but you can change the Stack organizational system, grouping your files by Date Last Opened, Date Added, Date Modified, Date Created, and Tags.

Open Finder.
In the menu bar, click on the View option.
Select the “Group Stacks By” option.
Choose one of the available options to change the way your Stacks are sorted.
The most powerful sorting option in Stacks is of course Tags, which are user set and can be used to identify certain types of files, such as all documents relating to a specific topic.

When grouped by one of the date options, Stacks will be listed in increments of Today, Yesterday, Previous 7 Days, Previous 30 Days, and then after that, by year.

Stacks when sorted by creation date.

Further Stacks Options

If you want to stick one of your Stacks into a folder, you can do so by right clicking on one of the Stacks and selecting the “New Folder With Selection” option.

Using the same right click options that are available when a Stack is selected, you can open the files, open them in a specified app, rename files, share files, compress files, send files to trash, and more. You basically have all of the same organizational options that you would have selecting any group of files on your desktop, but without the need to select them manually.

Related Roundup: macOS Mojave
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iPhone XS and XS Max Owners Complain of Wi-Fi and LTE Connectivity Issues

Apple’s iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max launched last Friday, and shortly after, some customers who purchased one of the new devices started noticing an issue with LTE and Wi-Fi speeds and connectivity.

According to multiple threads on the MacRumors forums, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max users are experiencing connectivity problems with Wi-Fi and LTE on the two new iPhones when compared to other, older Apple devices.

Multiple users have said that there are noticeable differences in cellular reception between the iPhone XS models and the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, with a 15-page thread suggesting this is a widespread problem that quite a few people are noticing. As described by MacRumors reader onepoint:

I’m in South Carolina on VZW. My iPhone X consistently holds 3 or 4 bars of LTE in my home with solid speeds.

I activated XS Max yesterday and upon first activating/connecting LTE (reboot, airplane mode, etc.) I get nearly identical performance. Within a minute or two, the signal degrades and data stops working. Disabling LTE results in a full 3G signal with 3G data – no issues, rock solid. Re-enabling LTE works for a minute or two. Lather rinse repeat.

Users are noticing fewer bars and poorer signal on iPhone XS and XS Max compared to devices like the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, especially in areas where signal is weak. Many of the complaints come from Verizon users, suggesting the issue could potentially be carrier specific. Multiple AT&T users, for example, have said the signal is the same or better, while Verizon users are seeing signal issues.

Some iPhone XS owners have theorized that the issue is related to Qualcomm vs. Intel modems. The new iPhone XS and XS Max are using Intel modems, while older devices used a mix of Qualcomm and Intel modems. AT&T iPhone 8 and iPhone X models used Intel modems previously, while Verizon iPhones had Qualcomm modems. As explained by MacRumors reader radiologyman:

That seems to be the thinking in the other forum thread linked below. People who went from Qualcomm to Intel may see worsening in fringe areas while those who went from Intel to Intel may see an improvement. Both groups can see faster LTE signal due to carrier aggregation and 4 MIMO implemented in XS and XS Max.

Some AT&T and T-Mobile users are, however, complaining of connectivity problems too, while others have noticed better signal, leading to a confusing mix of user reports.

It’s not clear if modem differences are causing the perceived connectivity issues that iPhone XS and XS Max owners are noticing or if there is a genuine bug with the new devices, but in the days following a new iPhone release, there are often carrier updates that can solve connectivity problems.

Given the confusing mix of information coming from users on the forums, the LTE connectivity problems may be related to software and could be fixed through the aforementioned carrier update or a software update from Apple, but we’ll have to wait for more information to figure out exactly what’s going on.

In addition to the LTE problems, there appears to be a separate issue with Wi-Fi. On the MacRumors forums, users began noticing slower Wi-Fi speeds on iPhone XS models compared to other Apple devices, which readers quickly deduced was a 2.4GHz vs. 5GHz Wi-Fi issue.

It appears that the iPhone XS and XS Max are preferring 2.4GHz networks over 5GHz networks when connecting to routers that use the same SSID for both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands. From MacRumors reader playtillyadrop:

I’m having the same problems. On my x it will hold the 5ghz connection compared to the XS max which likes to hold on to the 2.4ghz connection. I’m using google WIFI. All my nodes are connected wired. I know it’s not my wifi and it’s related to the xs max. It seems as if it prefers the stronger signal over throughput. My x performs better. I can check through the google wifi app and it takes forever for the xs max to pick the 5ghz connection.

The majority of people experiencing slower speeds found that their iPhone XS models were indeed connected to the 2.4GHz network rather than the 5GHz network. In our own testing, we found that when comparing an iPhone XS Max and an iPhone X, the iPhone XS Max connected to the 2.4GHz network while the iPhone X connected to the 5GHz network.

With routers that do not have separate SSIDs for the two bands, it can be difficult to tell which you’re connected to, leading to perceived slower connection speeds.

This is clearly a bug that needs to be addressed by Apple through an update to make the iPhone XS models prefer the faster 5GHz network to the 2.4GHz network, but in the meantime, providing separate SSIDs for the 2.4 and 5GHz bands can allow you to make sure your iPhone is connected to the 5GHz band at all times.

Some users have also had luck with resetting their network settings and/or forgetting their Wi-Fi network and reconnecting, but the iPhone XS models appear to default back to 2.4GHz often if not made to connect to the 5GHz network.

This connection issue appears to be at the root of most of the slow Wi-Fi complaints, but there have been a few other complaints of poor connection speeds when connected to a 5GHz network, so it’s possible there’s also something else going on.

We’ve contacted Apple to ask about both the Wi-Fi and LTE issues that customers are experiencing with the iPhone XS models and will let MacRumors readers know if we hear back.

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