Author Archives: Jack Wellborn

Stage Manager on macOS Ventura

The car I learned to drive on had a manual transmission. That was over two decades ago, but learning on stick was still relatively uncommon among my peers. Driving a manual was (and still is) harder than an automatic. You have to time the clutch just right to get going lest the car stalls or […]

This is Fine

This paragraph by Scharon Harding at Ars Technica made me do a double take. Regardless of what I put it through, the Spectre stayed surprisingly cool for its size. After an hour-long stress test, for example, the only part of the chassis that was too hot to touch comfortably was its underside, although the keyboard […]

What Does Stage Manager Manage?

A reader recently sent me a screenshot of macOS Ventura’s onboarding prompt to enable Stage Manager (as of developer beta 5). Here’s what it says: Stage Manager Stage Manager arranges your recent windows into a single strip for reduced clutter and quick access. Focus on one window at a time and create sets by mixing […]

A Relationship With Strings Attached

Ron Amedeo over at Ars Technica put together an excellent overview of Google’s RCS, and why it’s not the same as standard RCS. Here’s what Ron had to say: Google tried to glom features onto the aging RCS spec, but if you consider those part of the RCS sales pitch, which Google does, now it’s […]

Nightly Time Machine

Nightly Time Machine is a small side project I have been working on for a few weeks to make Time Machine more usable with my laptop. From my Github: At its best, Time Machine is “set it and forget it” in that you should never really have to think about it until a backup is […]

Cycling Through Stacks in macOS 13 Beta 4

Apple did something clever with how stacked windows in the strip are cycled. When clicking on a stack of windows in the strip, Stage Manager prioritizes keeping the outgoing window on top of the stack. Assuming you have window A on the stage, and windows B, C, D are in the stack in that order. […]

Recent Stuff

Apple giveth and Apple taketh away. In macOS 13 developer beta 3, I was elated to see that Apple had named Stage Manager’s dingus on the left a “strip”. Imagine my surprise and disappointment to find that name erased and replaced with “Recent Apps”. I have a few quibbles with this change. First of all, […]

A Burger Without Heinz

John Gruber recently took umbrage with Wirecutter’s pick for best laptop. Here’s what he wrote: My longstanding complaint about The Wirecutter is that they institutionally fetishize price over quality. That makes it all the more baffling that their recommended “Best Laptop” — not best Windows laptop, but best laptop, full stop — is a Dell […]

Stage Manager Lexicon as of macOS 13 Beta 3

I thought it might be a good idea to keep a running lexicon for Stage Manager now that Apple has seemingly named one of its components. As of macOS 13 beta 3, what I’ve been referring to as a “wing”, Apple now calls a “strip”. stage – a main area of a screen strip – […]

A “Strip”

Absent of a formal name from Apple, I have been referring to Stage Manager’s dingus on the left as a “wing“. If macOS 13 beta 3 is to be trusted, this dingus is called a “strip“. I still like “wing” better, but a name is still way better than no name.