Everything that might have slipped passed you during Apple's 2016 Mac event!
Apple made some important announcements during its fall Mac event, from the Apple TV's upcoming TV app to the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pros. But some tidbits of information may have slipped by. Here's everything from this year's Mac event that you may have missed.
Control Strip is back in action
The new Control Strip takes its name from an old feature that originally shipped as part of System 7 for Macs in the 1990s and offered control of system functions like volume. Now, Control Strip is the name for a feature of the Touch Bar that allows you to quickly display controls like volume, brightness, and play/pause.
QuickType is available on the Touch Bar
Just like on your iPhone or iPad, your new MacBook Pro will give you word suggestions as you type, right in the Touch Bar. New suggestions will appear while you're typing, so just tap a correct suggestion to place it in your document or message.
You can customize the Touch Bar in some apps
The new MacBook Pros will ship with some useful shortcuts for the Touch Bar ready to go for a number of their built-in apps, but if those don't do the trick, you'll be able to customize the Touch Bar with the shortcuts you need for each app. While you're customizing, you can just click and drag new shortcuts down into the bar. They even jiggle like icons on your iPhone when you're rearranging them.
Touch ID Quick User Switching
Switching between user accounts is now much quicker and easier thanks to the new MacBook Pro's Touch ID sensor. If you want to switch from the current user account to your own, just place a finger registered with Touch ID on the sensor and click, and you'll be switched over to your account right there.
No, Apple didn't kill the headphone jack on the Mac
Fans of the 3.5mm headphone jack can breathe a sigh of relief: the venerable audio port remains in place on all of Apple's new MacBook Pros.
You can use up to two 5K displays with the 15-inch MacBook Pro (one with the 13-inch)
Not only can the 15-inch MacBook Pro, with its two Thunderbolt controllers, drive two 5K displays, you can also power up to four 4K displays on that machine. The 13-inch MacBook Pro can power a single 5K display.
RIP 11-inch MacBook Air and modular 13-inch MacBook Pro
Alas, the smallest member of Apple's MacBook line up is no more. Additionally, Apple's cast off the 13-inch MacBook Pro with a built-in DVD drive and user-expandable storage and memory. In its place, the company now sells the previous generation of both the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros, with the 13-inch model starting with a 2.7GHZ Intel Core i5 process and 128GB of storage for $1,299, while the 15-inch starts with a 2.2GHz Core i7 and 256GB of storage for $1,999.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is almost the same size as the 11-inch MacBook Air
While not quite as small as the 11-inch MacBook Air, both of Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pros have a much smaller footprint than the previous model, with a width of 30.41cm and a depth of 21.24cm. The 11-inch MacBook Air, on the other hand, measured 30 x 19.2cm.
Apple Watch Nike+ is available tomorrow
Created in partnership with Nike, this edition of the Apple Watch Series 2 comes with exclusive watch faces and unique athletic bands, in addition to the built-in GPS and waterproofing found in the rest of the Series 2 watch line. Orders for these models go live on October 28.
Apple TV's single sign-on is coming… eventually
While single sign-on will allow you to sign into your cable account once on your Apple TV to authenticate multiple apps that require a cable login, Apple is staying quiet on when Apple TV owners should expect the feature to arrive.
Apple has a new Accessibility website
That fact that almost anyone, no matter their ability, can make use of its products has been a point of pride for Apple for some time. The company has set up a new website to highlight the Accessibility features found in Macs, iPhones, iPads, and the Apple Watch.