Author: batteryforpc

Creating a bootable macOS Catalina USB install drive is an effective way to generate a clean installation of macOS on your Mac. This hands-on tutorial will work with both the macOS Catalina developer beta, the macOS Catalina public beta, and the final version of macOS Catalina scheduled to launch later this fall. Follow our easy-to-use step-by-step video tutorial for the details.

Flash drive

Before beginning you’ll need to acquire a USB flash drive. In the age of USB-C, it’s preferable that you use a USB flash drive with a USB-C connection if possible.

You’ll want a USB drive with at least 8GB of storage, but having more storage is never a bad thing. I recommend this SanDisk Ultra Dual Drive USB Type-C Flash Drive. It’s affordable, and comes with both a USB-C connection and a traditional USB-A connection. This is the drive that I’ve been using and my experience with it has been great.

The drive comes in 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256GB storage varieties. If you want a drive with extra storage, then it makes sense to opt for a higher tier, but if you just plan on using it as a USB installer, then 16GB should be plenty.

Make sure that there’s nothing contained on the drive that you need, because this process will completely delete the contents of the drive.

macOS Catalina USB installer video tutorial

Thanks to CleanMyMac X for sponsoring this video. Try CleanMyMac X for macOS.

How to create a bootable macOS Catalina 10.15 USB install drive

Step 1: Download macOS Catalina. After Catalina 10.15 launches later this fall, you’ll be able to download it directly from the Mac App Store. Until then, you can download the macOS Catalina developer beta from Apple’s developer portal, or download the macOS Catalina public beta via Apple’s public beta website.

Step 2: After successfully downloading macOS Catalina, the installer will auto-launch. Close the installer.

Step 3: Open Finder → Applications and right-click on Install macOS Catalina Beta and choose Show Package Contents.

Step 4: Open Contents → Resources.

Step 5: Launch a Terminal window via Applications → Utilities → Terminal.

Step 6: In the Terminal window type sudo followed by a space.

Step 7: Drag createinstallmedia to the Terminal window from the Finder location noted in Step 4.

Step 8: Type –volume followed by a space.

Step 9: Open Finder → Go → Go To Folder…

Step 10: In the ‘Go to the folder’ box type /Volumes and click Go.

Step 11: Connect your USB drive to your Mac, and it should appear in the Finder window.

Step 12: Drag the USB flash drive volume into the Terminal window.

Step 13: Press Return on the keyboard to submit the full command and enter your password when prompted.

Step 14: Type a ‘y’ to continue when prompted, and press return on the keyboard.

Step 15: The install process will commence by erasing the contents of your USB drive, and afterwards, copying the installer files to the drive. The entire process will take a few minutes to complete, so you’ll need to exercise patience as the install process proceeds.

9to5Mac’s Take

Having a USB installer available can make installing a fresh copy of macOS even easier. For instance, you can boot directly from the USB drive by holding the Option (⌥) key on your Mac while booting with the drive connected.

You can use this tutorial on either the developer beta, public beta, or the final version of macOS Catalina that’s scheduled to release later this fall. Keep in mind that on newer T2-enabled Macs, you may have to enable booting from external storage via macOS Recovery. We’ll address that in a future tutorial.

Do you like to have a USB installer on hand, or do you prefer to stick to other methods for reinstalling macOS? Sound off in the comments below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to read and watch our overview of the Top macOS Catalina features.

Dell’s 2019 refresh of the XPS 15 2-in-1 laptop is now available. One of the most notable changes in this year’s model is the placement of the webcam: it’s now shifted up above the screen, where it should have been all along, instead of near the hinge.

Prices for the XPS 15 start at $1,099, and all four of Dell’s configurations include 9th Gen Intel processors, fast M.2 SSD NVMe storage, and a 97Wh battery. If you’re more of a power user, the $1,549 model is built with a more capable Intel Core i7 9750H CPU and a dedicated Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics card. These specs put it in line with an entry-level gaming laptop.

One of Dell’s high-end configurations has a 4K (3840 x 2160) OLED screen, and is one of the few Windows 10 laptops to feature one. If you like to watch Netflix, or just want to see deep blacks and other colors displayed accurately no matter what you’re doing (it can display 100 percent of the full DCI-P3 color gamut), this $1,949 laptop might be a worthy investment. However, given that its specs largely match the $1,549 configuration above, it won’t stretch as far if you’re, say, looking to game at its native 4K resolution.

We recently reviewed the HP Spectre X360 laptop, which also can be customized with a 4K OLED screen. It’s selling for roughly the same price as Dell’s option, though the XPS 15 may be a more appealing option if you want a 9th Gen Intel processor, dedicated graphics, and a trackpad that’s actually worth using, thanks to Dell’s Windows Precision drivers.

Apple has hired an experienced CPU designer to join its team. Mike Filippo joined Apple last month with the title Architect, according to his LinkedIn profile. The move ends a decade spent at ARM, where he was lead architect on several chip products. Filippo also spent time working on CPUs at Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.

The hire is a big get for Apple. ARM is responsible for technology that powers the A series chips Apple has been using in its mobile devices. For instance, the A12X in the iPad Pro springboards off the big.LITTLE architecture from ARM.

“Mike was a long-time valuable member of the ARM community,” a representative from ARM toldBloomberg. “We appreciate all of his efforts and wish him well in his next endeavor.” Apple has not commented on the hire.

The industry has been buzzing for years now that Apple is interested in making CPUs for Macs. Filippo’s resume shows work on CPUs for desktop and mobile products, which means he brings flexibility to Apple. But the company has not given any official statements about an in-house CPU for Macs, so we can only speculate about his exact role.

According to a Bloomberg report from April 2018, a plan for Macs with Apple-designed CPUs was allegedly greenlit by the company’s leadership and could be behind products shipping as soon as 2020. The company’s WWDC conference this year came and went without any mention of that rumored development, however. Whatever the date, the addition of Filippo’s experience could be helpful in making progress on this plan that may or may not be happening.

It’s also key to remember that, even though Apple building CPUs for Mac seems like a given, the company may be applying Filippo’s skills to other places. A key architect behind Apple’s A series mobile CPUs, Gerard Williams III, departed the company earlier this year, so Apple may be looking to Filippo to fill some part of that gap. Additionally, Apple has been a driving force in augmented reality and is reportedly interested in new hardware that would center on AR and VR. That’s a space where making its own processor would also be deeply useful.

Sony has a simple, straightforward way to entice would-be Xperia 1 buyers in the US: offer a bundle that might be hard to refuse. The tech giant is starting American pre-orders on June 28th, and those who purchase ahead of the July 12th release will get a pair of the company’s WH-1000XM3headphones at no extra cost — that’s $350 of (frankly excellent) wireless audio for free. If you’re buying the Xperia 1 to watch movies mid-flight or stream music during your commute, you might have everything you need.

Of course, Sony can afford to do this in part because the phone costs a hefty $950. You’ll still be getting quite a bit for the money between the super-long 6.5-inch 4K OLED screen, a camera system with eye autofocusing and Dolby Atmos audio. However, the price is still tough to swallow in a country where Sony phones are still quite rare. The headphones should make the Xperia 1 more palatable, even if you have concerns about the usefulness of that 21:9 ratio display or the relatively modest 3,300mAh battery.

A new feature in an upcoming version of Apple’s iOS will enable iPhones to look at images and identify which parts of that picture are cats or dogs.

The feature isn’t for the public. It’s for developers to build image recognition features into their apps.

Apple has been investing a lot of resources into computer vision, which is a core underlying technology for self-driving cars and augmented reality.

A new feature in an upcoming version of Apple’s iOS will enable iPhones to look at images and identify which parts of that picture are cats or dogs.

The software, called VNAnimalDetector, basically draws a digital rectangle around any part of a photograph containing an animal and labels it as either a cat or dog.

The software shows Apple’s continued efforts to take complicated and tricky machine learning techniques, and package them as part of the iPhone operating system.

It also emphasizes Apple’s large investment into computer vision, a subset of computer science that focuses on enabling cameras and other sensors to “see” and understand the real world. Computer vision is also a core underlying technology for self-driving cars and augmented reality glasses.

The detector also suggests that Apple is very aware of how many pictures of their fuzzy friends iPhone users take. Apple’s Photos app has been able to identify cats and dogs from user photos since 2016.

The software is part of Apple’s Vision framework, which gives developers tools for image recognition, and it isn’t intended for end users. Instead, the Vision framework is designed to be built into apps. Apple also built a detector for humans, which can take an image as input, and draw rectangles around any people in the picture.

It was previously possible to identify cats or people using machine learning. Lots of computer scientists and big companies have made pet detectors in the past. But VNAnimalDetector makes it easier to build into apps, in as little as four lines of code, according to a presentation at Apple’s annual developer’s conference earlier this month.

Other new advancements in the Vision framework include the ability to identify whether two images are similar, additional facial recognition abilities and the ability to identify which objects are in a photo, even if they’re not pets.

Additional technical information about the Vision API is available on Apple’s website. Additional cat photos can be found all over the internet.