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Duet Display update brings Touch Bar to your iPad

Duet Display, an app from ex-Apple engineers that turns your iPad into an extra display for your Mac or Windows PC, was updated today on the App Store with an interesting new feature that adds a Touch Bar to your tablet. Simply use Duet Display's free of charge iOS app to connect to Duet Display running on a Mac with Sierra 10.12.2 or later and enable the new feature in Duet's menu bar settings.

Tim Cook: we have great desktops in our roadmap

Apple has "great desktops" in its roadmap, CEO Tim Cook said in a recent posting to an employee message board. TechCrunch has the transcript, where Cook fields a question regarding whether or not Mac desktops are still strategic for Apple.

The comments come after the company's MacBook Pro event this October, where iMacs and Minis were noticeably absent. It's been over 430 days since Apple updated the former, and nearly 800 days for the latter. The Mac Pro is 3+ years old.

Deliveries for Mac gains full Sierra compatibility, Touch Bar shortcuts & other new features

After refreshing Deliveries for iOS with full iOS 10 and watchOS 3 support and other nice-to-haves four days ago, Deliveries for Mac was updated on the Mac App Store with full support for macOS Sierra, Touch Bar shortcuts on the new MacBook Pro and more.

Touch Bar shortcuts can be customized for features like shipping company suggestions when you add a delivery, auto-complete for email addresses, a 1Password button when it's appropriate and more.

macOS Sierra 10.12.2 fixed vulnerability that let attackers obtain disk encryption password

Last week's macOS Sierra 10.12.2 software update squashed a number of bugs and patched a few newly discovered  vulnerabilities, among them one that allowed an attacker to obtain your FileVault disk encryption password by plugging in a $300 Thunderbolt device into a locked or sleeping Mac.

As detailed by security researcher Ulf Frisk, attackers must have physical access to your Mac in order to exploit the vulnerability. The obtained password may be used to unlock your Mac's disk and access everything on it.

Apple took no specific steps to improve MacBook Pro battery life with macOS Sierra 10.12.2

The macOS Sierra 10.12.2 software update, released three days ago, removes your Mac battery's time remaining indicator but owners of the new MacBook Pro won't see any improvements to their notebook's battery life as a result of the update.

As ArsTechnica noted, the company “told us repeatedly and emphatically that it had taken no specific steps to improve MacBook Pro battery life” with macOS Sierra 10.12.2.

Now, some people have reported seeing improved battery performance after installing the update on their MacBook Pro, but there's a reasonable explanation for that.

iOS 10.2.1 and macOS Sierra 10.12.3 now available to public beta testers

After seeding iOS 10.2.1 beta 1 and macOS Sierra 10.12.3 beta 1 to members of the Apple Developer Program yesterday, Apple today released versions of these software updates for public beta-testing. If you sign up at the Apple Beta Software Program website to become a beta tester and install an appropriate configuration profile on your device, you too will be able to install the first beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.3 on your Mac and take iOS 10.2.1 for a spin on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Apple seeds first beta of iOS 10.2.1, macOS Sierra 10.12.3 and tvOS 10.1.1 to developers

Following yesterday's public releases of iOS 10.2, macOS Sierra 10.12.2, watchOS 3.1.1 and tvOS 10.1, Apple on Thursday seeded to its registered developers first betas of what would become minor software updates in the form of iOS 10.2.1 beta 1 (build 14D10), macOS Sierra 10.12.3 beta 1 (build 16D12b) and tvOS 10.1.1 beta 1 (build 14U707). These betas are available via Apple's portal for developers and can be installed over the air on devices with an appropriate configuration profile installed.

Here’s why macOS Sierra 10.12.2 removes your battery’s estimated time remaining

Aside from a number of fixes, GPU improvements and a few new features in macOS Sierra 10.12.2, the update's introduced a significant change related to the Mac's Battery menu. Long story short, Macs with macOS Sierra 10.12.2 or later no longer display the battery's estimated time remaining in the Mac's menu bar.

Here's what prompted Apple to make this change, according to The Loop.

iTunes 12.5.4 is out with support for TV app, Touch Bar-enabled scrubber & more

In addition to releasing macOS 10.12.2 Sierra today, a second major update to the Mac operating system following the initial Sierra release in October, Apple also released iTunes 12.5.4 today. The new version of iTunes includes minor app and performance improvements, as well as official support for Apple's new “TV” app and the ability to jump to different parts of your media during playback using a Touch Bar-compatible scrubber.

Apple releases macOS Sierra 10.12.2 update

Following yesterday's iOS 10.2, tvOS 10.1 and watchOS 3.1.1 releases, Apple today completed its OS updates by launching macOS 10.12.2 software update (build 16C67) for Sierra-compatible Macs. In addition to bug fixes and performance improvements, macOS Sierra 10.12.2 packs in 100+ new and redrawn emoji available across iOS 10.2 and watchOS 3.1.1 as well.

There's a new shortcut for taking screenshots of the Touch Bar and Chinese users can put a new Chinese Trackpad Handwriting button to the Touch Bar's Control Strip. If you use Boot Camp, Sierra now supports new installations of Windows 8 and Windows 7 on supported Macs.