Launch multiple, isolated macOS app instances

with Parall:

"[C]reate dedicated app shortcuts that launch fully separate instances - each with its own data folder, profile, environment variables and command-line arguments. With the new HOME redirect feature, it now supports the majority of non-sandboxed macOS apps."

Mac App Store | r/macapps

❧ 2025-11-18

Insert thought bubble/balloon in macOS Preview

Speech and thought bubble annotations (Tools → Annotate → Add Speech Bubble / Add Thought Bubble) were introduced in Preview 5.5/OS X 10.7 Lion (not Mountain Lion, as incorrectly stated in the top search result).

While the speech bubble option is still listed as of Preview 11.0/macOS 26.1 Tahoe, the thought bubble option was last seen in Preview 7.0/OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks.

However, starting with Preview 8.1 in OS X 10.11 El Capitan, an adjustable thought bubble (with built‑in text area) can be created by using the Sketch tool to approximate a cloud, an Easter egg that still works in macOS Tahoe.

***

Poor drawing skills triggered recognition of a heart shape, raising the question of what other shapes might be supported. Apple's documentation offers scant detail:

"If your drawing is recognized as a standard shape, it’s replaced by that shape; to use your drawing instead, choose it from the palette that’s shown."

Went digging for what these "standard shapes" might be:

1. otool -L /System/Applications/Preview.app/Contents/MacOS/Preview revealed a dependency on /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AnnotationKit.framework/Versions/A/AnnotationKit, which sounded promising, but the file was missing and an alias by that name two directories above pointed to Versions/Current/AnnotationKit, which was also missing.

2. Trying to find the macOS Framework binaries and Binary Extraction with Visual Tooling clarified that most system frameworks reside inside the dyld shared cache.

3. Extracted the cache using dyld-shared-cache-extractor: dyld-shared-cache-extractor /System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/System/Library/dyld/dyld_shared_cache_arm64e /tmp/libraries

4. strings /private/tmp/libraries/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/AnnotationKit.framework/Versions/A/AnnotationKit uncovered two lists of shapes:

   1st	2nd
   Rectangle	arrow
   Rounded Rectangle	outline arrow
   Oval	star
   Line	rounded rectangle
   Line with Arrow	oval
   Outline Arrow	chat bubble
   Speech Bubble	pentagon
   Polygon	triangle
   Doodle	freeform
   Triangle	heart
   Heart	cloud
   Thought Bubble

   A 2019 snapshot of the iPadOS 14 features preview page (H/T) contained a similar list:

   "Shape recognition allows you to draw geometrically perfect lines, curves, and shapes, including hearts, stars, and arrows. Simply start drawing and pause slightly at the end, and your imperfect shape snaps into a perfect one. Shape recognition is great for drawing diagrams and quick sketches.

   "Shape recognition supports these shapes:

   • Line
   • Curve
   • Square
   • Rectangle
   • Circle
   • Oval
   • Heart
   • Triangle
   • Star
   • Cloud
   • Hexagon
   • Thought bubble
   • Outlined arrow
   • Continuous line with 90‑degree turns
   • Line with arrow endpoint
   • Curve with arrow endpoint"

See also

• dyld-cache-dump: "A macOS command-line tool to dump the contents of dyld shared cache files."

• How can I extract stuff from the macOS shared dyld cache? (credits Reverse engineering the MacBook clamshell mode)

• Extracting libraries from dyld_shared_cache

• disarm: "Quick (& formerly dirty) CLI instruction lookup for ARM64, turned full fledged binary analyzer"

• Reverse engineering tools: Hopper & Cutter

❧ 2025-11-17

Automatically crop PNG transparent background

Acorn includes a Trim to Edges command in the Image menu that "will automatically crop out anything that is a constant color, or no color at all."

Before and after:

IrfanView offers both Auto-crop borders and Auto-crop borders - Show selection in the Edit menu.

❧ 2025-11-09

Wired, Active Noise-Cancelling (ANC) Headphones

After a decade of service, it was time to replace the Bose QuietComfort 20i Acoustic Noise Cancelling headphones referenced in 2015. While non‑Bluetooth ANC models have become increasingly scarce, the Bose QuietComfort Headphones (2023) offer a wired-only mode; Bluetooth is disabled (verified via EMF meter) when the included 2.5mm-to-3.5mm audio cable is connected:

1. Connect audio cable and turn on headphones (but don't put them on yet)

2. A female voice announces "Bluetooth off", followed by a loud startup jangle. She then advises, "To start setup, download the Bose Music app", repeating the prompt ~12 seconds later, presumably for the benefit of those temporarily deafend by the clangor. 🔈 (Voice prompts can be disabled in the Bose app, though the ear-piercing startup chime cannot.)

Despite being listed in Technical Specifications as "Protein Leather", Bose marketing materials confirm the ear cushions are synthetic (the case is listed as "Leather (Hard)", but is apparently synthetic as well); from their Earbuds vs. headphones: finding the perfect pair for you:

"Bose QuietComfort Headphones live up to their name, created with comfort in mind. They're ultra lightweight, and the earcups are fitted with luxurious synthetic leather (emphasis added) and minimal clamping. You can wear them for an extended period of time without experiencing headaches or aching ear canals."

Bose representatives have reiterated this for related models:

• Bose QuietComfort 35:

  "[T]he QuietComfort 35 headphones do not contain any animal products, the cushions are made from 80% rayon and 20% nylon."

• Bose Quietcomfort Ultra:

  "Bose uses a synthetic leather material for the ear cushions."

Reports indicate the ear cushions are prone to flaking within a short period (including the Ultra model). Higher-rated third-party headband covers and earpads are available, though some reviews note reduced ANC performance.

❧ 2025-11-04

Split double-page PDFs, reorder visually, optimize size, & add text layer

Split 2-up PDF into single pages

1. apt install mupdf-tools / brew install mupdf-tools

2. mutool poster -x 2 doublepage.pdf singlepage.pdf

Reorder pages via click-and-drag

• Preview: View → Contact Sheet → click and drag pages to reorder → File → Save

Optimize filesize

1. apt install ghostscript / brew install ghostscript

2. Convert to grayscale and downsample images to 150 dpi (via /ebook):

   gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 \
   -sColorConversionStrategy=Gray \
   -dProcessColorModel=/DeviceGray \
   -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook \
   -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH \
   -sOutputFile=grayscale.pdf singlepage.pdf

Perform OCR and embed text layer

• Apple's Vision framework via either Elucidate (set General, Conversion, and Language options first) or Preview (File→Export…→PDF→Embed Text) produced better results than Tesseract OCR in OCRmyPDF, but there is now a plugin for the latter to leverage Vision: OCRmyPDF AppleOCR. Compare output with pdftotext and Beyond Compare or DiffPDF.

❧ 2025-10-25

US-based remote support alternative to TeamViewer, AnyDesk, et al.

HelpWire feels like a breath of fresh air in remote support:

• One-off, quick support option does not require an account for either host or client

• "Currently, for Windows, macOS, and Linux with more platforms to come."

• Free during tech preview, with subscriptions expected in "Q1–2 2026". However, "if you’re using HelpWire to help out family and friends, you’ll continue to enjoy a robust, fully functional experience at no cost."

• Parent company: Electronic Team, Inc., based in Virginia with address and phone number prominently listed, was founded in 2001 and develops a number of other applications:

  • CloudMounter
  • Commander One
  • DoCast
  • Donglify
  • Elmedia Player
  • FlexiHub
  • Folx
  • JustStream
  • MacDroid
  • Serial Port Monitor
  • Serial to Ethernet Connector
  • USB Network Gate
  • Virtual Serial Port Driver

• Knowledge Base | Changelog | Roadmap

• Reviews:

  • Capterra (4.9/5 ★, 69 reviews)
  • G2 (4.8/5 ★, 30 reviews)
  • Trustpilot (4.6/5 ★, 47 reviews)
  • r/sysadmin

❧ 2025-10-24

Markdown editor that's just a textarea

OverType: "A lightweight markdown editor library with perfect WYSIWYG alignment using an invisible textarea overlay technique. Includes optional toolbar. ~85KB minified with all features." Github | H/T

❧ 2025-10-24

Sand might be a firmer foundation

for these castles on a cloud:

• AWS crash causes $2,000 Smart Beds to overheat and get stuck upright

• Nest thermostat bug leaves users cold

• Revolv devices bricked as Google's Nest shuts down smart home company

• Jeep Wrangler 4xe Over-the-Air Update Leaves Owners with Bricked 4x4s

• An outage leaves Tesla drivers unable to unlock or start their vehicles

• Amazon and PetCo both invested in a $150 internet-connected cat feeder — one day it just stopped working

• Furious customers blast Amazon as an outage knocks Ring doorbells, baby monitors, and Alexa products offline

• Stop buying cloud products: When your “smart home” suddenly turns into electronic waste

• All your IoT devices are doomed

❧ 2025-10-21

Google AI Overviews

2025

• Google AI overviews: Confident when wrong, yet more visible than ever

• Google's AI Overviews are often so confidently wrong that I’ve lost all trust in them

• I'm finding that the search AI is wrong a lot of the time

• Google's AI Overview Is Wrong About Life Insurance 57% of the Time, Says Study

• When Google’s AI gets it wrong, real people pay the price

• Google AI Overviews Says It’s Still 2024

• AI Overviews: Criticism and challenges

2024

• Google's 'AI Overview' Gets Facts Wrong, Is Worse Than a Regular Search

• Google’s “AI Overview” can give false, misleading, and dangerous answers

• 17 cringe-worthy Google AI answers demonstrate the problem with training on the entire web

• Why Google’s AI Overviews gets things wrong

Related

• Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory

  "Gemini performed worst with significant issues in 76% of responses, more than double the other assistants, largely due to its poor sourcing performance."

❧ 2025-10-21

Apple serial number lookup no longer reports exact model information

For example, entering the serial number assigned to a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) now only returns "MacBook Pro" along with the purchase date:

For Macs up to and including the 2021 iMac, exact model information can be gleaned by other means.

❧ 2025-10-20