Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced one year ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari.

Safari Technology Preview release 28 includes fixes and improvements for CSS, JavaScript, Web API, Web Inspector, WebDriver, Accessibility, Media, Rendering, WebCrypto, Security, and AppleScript. Today's update also includes several tweaks to improve power and performance:

- Changed to pause silent WebAudio rendering in background tabs
- Changed to pause animated SVG images on pages loaded in the background
- Changed to make inaudible background tabs become eligible for memory kill after 8 minutes
- Changed to kill any WebContent process using over 16 GB of memory
- DOM Timers are now throttled to 30fps and aligned in cross-origin iframes
- requestAnimationFrame callbacks are now throttled to 30fps and aligned in cross-origin iframes

The Safari Technology Preview update is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store to anyone who has downloaded the browser. Full release notes for the update are available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

Apple's aim with Safari Technology Preview is to gather feedback from developers and users on its browser development process. Safari Technology Preview can run side-by-side with the existing Safari browser and while designed for developers, it does not require a developer account to download.

Ahead of the NAB media trade show, which kicks off on April 22, Adobe today unveiled updates to several of its Creative Cloud apps, including Premiere Pro, After Effects, Character Animator, and Audition.

Better integration between Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition is a key theme in today's updates, as are more powerful Dynamic Link collaborative tools to make group projects easier.

Premiere Pro is gaining a new Essential Graphics Panel, designed to allow users to add titles and motion graphics to videos using controls similar to those found in Photoshop and Illustrator. Included in the Essential Graphics Panel is a Type tool for adding text, which offers customization options for font, size, color, and blending mode.


Shape Layers and Clip Layers for adding images, video, and graphics are included, and designs can be saved as Motion Graphic templates to be quickly added to future projects. Motion Graphic templates can also be created in After Effects and accessed and edited in Premiere Pro thanks to new integrations between the two apps.

Audition's Essential Sound panel is now accessible in Premiere Pro, offering a powerful audio editing experience without the need to leave the Premiere Pro app. The Essential Sound panel lets users assign mix types to clips, with built-in tools for each type of content - dialogue, music, and sound effects. There are also more audio effects available within Premiere Pro, along with seamless transitions to Audition, and Premiere Pro also supports ambisonic audio export.

For 2016 MacBook Pro owners, Adobe is introducing support for the Touch Bar, providing options for touch-based video editing.

Adobe After Effects CC is also gaining the Essential Graphics panel to allow for the creation of Motion Graphics templates for Premiere Pro, and Adobe is introducing a new Camera Shake Deblur feature.

Camera Shake Deblur is designed to cut down on unwanted motion blur artifacts and according to Adobe, it's able to salvage otherwise unusable shots when combined with the Warp Stabilizer VFX. It analyzes frames on either side of the blurry frame and merges the sharper content with the blurry content for a crisper image.

Premiere Pro's integrated Lumetri Scopes are expanding to After Effects to make it easier for After Effects users to accurately adjust color using Vectorscopes, Histogram, Parade, and Waveform to evaluate video, and the After Effects update introduces new GPU-accelerated effects including Fractal Noise, Levels, and Fast Box Blur.


Adobe Character Animator CC is gaining Walk Cycles for animated characters, allowing users to create instant walking animations by tagging a character's legs, arms, and body. Walk Cycles includes features like walk, run, and sneak, plus it can automatically adapt to step speeds and leg length.


Mouth shape editing for pre-recorded audio is available, there's a new Workspaces feature for streamlining the animation process, and Character Animator now supports live streaming through Facebook and YouTube.

For Audition, along with deeper integration with Premiere Pro, Adobe is introducing multichannel audio workflows, Presonus Faderport controller support, updated effects, and a visual shortcut editor to make it easier to find and create custom keyboard shortcuts.

Adobe is also adding new features to Adobe Stock. Video editors can now submit content directly to Adobe Stock using Premiere Pro or Adobe Media Encoder, allowing them to earn royalties for their work.

All of Adobe's Creative Cloud updates will be available starting today. Adobe's Creative Cloud plans, which cover the complete range of Adobe CC software, start at $49.99.

LG's UltraFine 5K Display has received a 2017 TIPA Award as the "best photo monitor," the company announced today.


TIPA on its website said the display "brings professional photos and videos to life" with 5K resolution, while it also praised the display's single-cable Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and DCI-P3 wide color support. TIPA said the display reflects a "good demonstration of LG's expertise" with an "eye to the future."

TIPA, short for the Technical Image Press Association, is made up of a group of editors from 27 photography and imaging magazines worldwide. Editors from the magazines met in Havana, Cuba earlier this month to vote on the best imaging products of 2017, and the UltraFine 5K was the only display to win an award.

The award is somewhat humorous given that LG's UltraFine 5K Display suffered from a shielding-related manufacturing defect that caused the display to glitch or turn off when in close proximity to a Wi-Fi router or, in some cases, even a MacBook Pro. LG has since fixed the issue and replaced affected displays.

LaCie today announced its next-generation 2big professional 2-bay RAID storage solution, debuting the LaCie 2big Dock with Thunderbolt 3 connectivity for use alongside the new 2016 MacBook Pro, which supports Thunderbolt 3.

The LaCie 2big Dock is a docking station designed for media professionals, offering a wide range of ports for a streamlined creative workflow. There are front-facing SD and Compact Flash Card slots to pull images off of memory cards from cameras and drones, plus it can connect to 1080p and 4K displays.


There are dual Thunderbolt 3 ports for driving a compatible laptop while daisy-chaining up to five additional Thunderbolt or one USB-C drive, and included USB-C ports can charge an iPhone or other similar device. An adapter cable is included for use with USB-A devices.

LaCie's latest dock offers up to 20TB of storage, a 25 percent increase over the previous version, enabling it to store up to 650 hours of 4K 30fps footage or up to 200,000 RAW images. It supports transfer speeds of up to 440MB/s, for transferring the equivalent of an hour of 4K footage in a minute.


The dock features a stylish aluminum enclosure and a thermoregulated fan to keep it cool, and it supports Seagate IronWolf Pro enterprise-class devices and RAID optimization.

The LaCie 2big Dock will be available in 12TB, 16TB, and 20TB capacities through LaCie resellers starting this summer.

This week the Internet Archive website announced it has curated a range of classic Macintosh software for interested users to download and emulate in their browser, allowing them to get a feel for Apple days of yesteryear.

The selection spans the period 1984-1989 in Macintosh history, and features classic applications like MacPaint and MacDraft, System Software 6, and games including Dark Castle, Airborne! and Lemmings.

If you've not experienced the original operating system for the Macintosh family of computers, it's an interesting combination of well-worn conventions in the modern world, along with choices that might seem strange or off-the-mark. At the time the machine was released, however, they landed new ideas in the hands of a worldwide audience and gained significant fans and followers almost immediately.

In addition, the compilation of System 7.0.1 includes a large variety of software programs and provides a vintage recreation of the later MacOS experience of 1991. Some features that System 7 boasted over its predecessor included virtual memory, personal file sharing, QuickTime, QuickDraw 3D, and an improved user interface.


The full range of software can be found in the Macintosh Collection. The emulator itself comes prepackaged in each listing and does not require a separate download.

Blizzard Entertainment today made wildly popular real-time strategy game StarCraft a free download for Mac and PC, nearly two decades after its original release.

The RTS hit was universally acclaimed when it launched in 1998, and went on to become an e-sport phenomenon in South Korea, where big-prize tournaments and TV channels drew legions of fans to the game.


The free download is the game's first in eight years and includes the Brood War expansion pack. The patch 1.18 download also sports a handful of new features, including windowed mode, a better online game search engine, and improved response times during multiplayer battles.

Blizzard's decision to make the title freely available comes ahead of this summer's Remastered edition of StarCraft, which promises enhanced 4K graphics, better audio, high-quality cinematics, and a redesigned matchmaking system.

Making vintage StarCraft free also offers a unique opportunity for getting in some practice before the new version is released: Blizzard says owners of the original game and the remastered edition will be able to play each other online. Nostalgic gamers can find the free download of the original StarCraft here.

Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the Newseum's Free Expression Awards in Washington, D.C., last night to accept the institution's 2017 Free Expression Award.

Cook was named in February as the recipient of the award in the Free Speech category, which recognized the Apple CEO for having a "profound impact" on communication and for using his position to "take a public stand" on issues like racial equality, privacy, the environment, LGBT rights, and more.

According to AppleInsider, Cook used his acceptance speech to highlight the challenges involved in ensuring First Amendment rights remain a fundamental cornerstone in an increasingly technology-driven world.

Image via Religious Freedom Center

"We know that these freedoms require protection," Cook said of First Amendment rights. "Not just the forms of speech that entertain us, but the ones that challenge us. The ones that unnerve and even displease us. They're the ones that need protection the most. It's no accident that these freedoms are enshrined and protected in the First Amendment. They are the foundation to so many of our rights."

"This is a responsibility that Apple takes very seriously," Cook said. "First we defend, we work to defend these freedoms by enabling people around the world to speak up. And second, we do it by speaking up ourselves. Because companies can, and should have values."

Other winners on the night included U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award, and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who received an Arts and Entertainment Award shared with Hatch Beauty chairman Christie Hefner.

The Newseum aims to explain and defend free expression and the five freedoms of the First Amendment through a range of interactive museum exhibits. Its annual awards ceremony is used to celebrate positive work achieved by individuals across the occupational spectrum, including government, civil rights, and journalism.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple has announced that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Apple's environmental chief Lisa Jackson will be hosting a "climate optimism" discussion at its Union Square retail store in San Francisco on Wednesday.


The duo will also share their insight on Earth Day initiatives, Apple's ongoing commitment to the environment, and ways that people can have an impact on climate and the environment through positive actions.

The free event begins on April 19 at 7:00 p.m. local time. Apple is accepting a limited number of reservations on its website.

(Thanks, Ryker!)

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has given his thoughts on what Apple might look like some 60 years in the future, stating in an interview that he believes his former employer, as well as Google and Facebook, will be even bigger in 2075. The comment comes from an interview Wozniak gave in preparation for the Silicon Valley Comic Con, which this year is themed as "The Future of Humanity: Where Will We Be in 2075?" (via USA Today).

Wozniak said Apple's ability to "invest in anything" is one of the reasons the company will still be around in 2075. The former Apple executive also pointed towards Apple's iPhone -- which he equates to granting users "more power than Superman" -- to explain why the company won't be going away any time soon.

Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak

"She has more power in her hand than Superman," Wozniak, broadly smiling, says, pointing at a colleague's iPhone. "To make such strides in computing... It shows you how exciting the future can be."

"Apple will be around a long time, like IBM (which was founded in 1911)," Wozniak said in an interview. "Look at Apple's cash ($246.1 billion, as of the end of its last fiscal quarter). It can invest in anything. It would be ridiculous to not expect them to be around (in 2075). The same goes for Google and Facebook."

Even though Wozniak stuck to SVCC's 2075 theme, he admitted that when Apple Computers began in 1976, its founders -- including Steve Jobs -- assumed that the company would last forever.

Wozniak recently celebrated those early days of Apple by visiting the just-opened "Apple Computer Exhibit" at Living Computers: Museum + Lab in Seattle, Washington. At an event marking the opening last week, Wozniak met one of the museum's founders, Paul Allen -- who is also a Microsoft co-founder -- for the first time. Wozniak said that he's felt Allen's influence since the early days of Apple, tweeting out, "that's what doing things first is about."

The first two decades of Apple are on display at the exhibit in Seattle, and it includes a working Apple 1 computer that visitors can interact with. Lath Carlson, the museum’s executive director, expects the Apple-specific exhibit to run for the next decade, giving those interested plenty of time to visit the museum.

Google appears to be testing a Dark Mode feature for YouTube in the latest version of its Chrome 57 desktop browser.

The built-in mode was discovered on Thursday and shared in a Reddit post, and while the setting doesn't appear by default, a quick command in the developer console is all that's required to enable it.

YouTube Dark Mode in Chrome with black theme enabled
Follow these steps to enable the YouTube dark mode in Chrome on Mac. Make sure you're signed in to YouTube before performing the steps.

1. Press the keyboard combination shortcut Option + Command + I to open the developer tools sidebar.


2. Click the Console tab.


3. Paste document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=fPQ4jCL6EiE" into the console and press enter.


4. Close the developer tools sidebar and refresh the YouTube page.


5. Click your YouTube profile picture, select Dark Mode from the dropdown, and toggle the switch to enable the mode.

Google Chrome is available to download for free on the Chrome website. [Direct Link]

Team chat platform Slack got a long-awaited feature on Thursday with the addition of status updates, finally allowing users to customize their status message beyond the default "away" setting.

The new "set a status" feature includes five Suggested statuses including In a meeting, Commuting, Out sick, Vacationing, and Working remotely, as well as an input field for typing a custom message – allowing users to display a return time if they're away, for example.


Each status can be up to 100 characters and users can display an associated emoji to communicate their circumstances, but if an emoji isn't chosen a speech ballon is shown instead. The emoji appears alongside the username in the chat window, the sidebar, and the chat room members list, while hovering over the emoji or tapping it brings up the full status message.

Some third-party apps can also modify the status message. For example, Zenefits syncs user status with its Time Off Tracking system, while Meekan shows when someone's in a meeting (and when they'll be free). Statuses also automatically update when a user is on a voice or video call in Slack.


Statuses can be set from the browser, desktop and mobile versions of Slack. Mac users can click their name in the upper left corner of the sidebar, then select Set a status. On iOS, users should tap the More items icon (…), or edit their status directly from their profile.

Slack is a free download for Mac on the Mac App Store and available for iPhone and iPad on the App Store.

Apple is purchasing so many trees for its upcoming Apple Park campus that it's becoming challenging for other companies to source trees, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Buying trees is a surprisingly cutthroat business," reads the Chronicle in a piece about a rooftop City Park that's being built above the upcoming Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco. Adam Greenspan and Patrick Trollip, who are sourcing trees for that project, say Apple has made it hard to track down trees across California and Oregon.

And it's been especially challenging to locate desirable specimens because Apple has been buying up 3,000 trees for its new Cupertino headquarters. When Greenspan and Trollip found a tree they fancied they would "tag it" with a locking yellow tag, so that nobody else -- like Apple -- could get it. Eventually all the tagged trees were moved to a nursery in Sunol, where the transbay project team leased 4 acres.

Apple Park, Apple's second campus with the famous spaceship-shaped main building, will be completely covered in greenery. Landscaping at the site started late last year, and Apple has said it will plant more than 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees, including fruit trees.

In a separate report on Apple Park, The Economist highlighted the parking situation at the campus. For the 14,000 workers that Apple plans to have on site, Apple has built nearly 11,000 parking spaces, many of them located in underground lots beneath the main building and in two garages at the south of the campus.

In total, Apple has built 325,000 square meters of parking, compared to 318,000 square meters of offices and research buildings. So much space has been dedicated to parking due to Cupertino city laws, which require a certain number of parking spaces for employees.

Employees will begin moving into Apple Park in April, but Apple has said it will take more than six months to transition thousands of employees to the site. Smaller building construction and landscaping has not been finished and will continue into the summer, even after the campus sees its grand opening.