Alternatively you could turn on ‘Type To Siri’ in System Preferences > Accessibility, then go back to the Siri pane to customize a keyboard shortcut for it. I use Siri via the keyboard all day long on my Mac, for metric and currency conversions to, well, to to all sorts of things.
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Definitely. I don’t actually disable Siri, just remove the Touch Bar button. Typing to it seems super useful.
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My sentiments exactly. This alone keeps me from upgrading to macOS Catalina from Mojave, which currently satisfies my needs. I value the use of my ScanSnap scanner more than I value new features of macOS Catalina.
Please allow me the opportunity to once again criticize Fujitsu for throwing its ScanSnap customers under the bus. The DRM restriction now placed on Fujitsu scanners is similar to the DRM restriction placed on the Keurig 2.0 coffeemakers. DRM limited Keurig 2.0 machines to accept only official, and more expensive, one-time use Keurig K-Cups. The consumer backlash was so fierce that Keurig removed at least some of the DRM restriction. It’s a shame that Fujitsu continues with DRM restrictions on its line of expensive ScanSnap scanners.
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I might try that then.
How exactly do you do that if I may ask? That would be useful to me. Maybe I am just not used to it and am neglecting an useful component of my expensive machine!
That is so kind of you @bowline to go to that trouble, thanks. It is going to change my relationship to Siri, I tried it. Partly because Siri has a lot of trouble with my accent and I can’t go through its learning curve. This solves the whole thing.
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I have to say that since reading what you said, after initially dis-agreeing with you, I have come to think you are right. There is such a thing, especially for the rather low tech power user like myself (if that isn’t a contradiction in terms!), as bugs you don’t know are bugs.
For example I have noticed today, since updating to the latest fix, a huge decrease in battery function on this brand new expensive laptop. I am pleased but I might not have thought there were bugs had it not changed; like when a noisy fridge stops humming you realize it was irritating you, but not before.
I have no idea why the battery was being chewed; maybe there was even something I could have done as a work round. It seems to me though that the update fixed something important that wasn’t right before. No idea what it was. Just out of interest do you have any ideas?
My iMac was really slow and some of the indications I had were that a system clean up and install the newer system would fix that. The new MacBook Air came with Catalina and I was able to verify my latest Android build of LambTracker would work on it so felt I could make the jump.
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I’m on Mojave and cannot upgrade mainly because I depend on some apps that haven’t been updated to support Catalina. The bugs, problems, slowness and over zealous security reported by all the tech blogosphere are discouraging factors as well.
Some new apps distributed on the MAS require Catalina (therefore, I can’t use them), but what really annoys me is that if you use native apps on your workflow, you have to upgrade every OS to the latest release for them to work fully and/or properly.
I’ve been dealing with a broken Reminders.app and an incomplete Notes.app on the Mac because I upgraded to iOS 13 on my iPhone.
Apple should really decouple OS updates from native apps, and have them be updated independently, like a regular app in the App Store.
I’m researching third-party apps to move my workflow to them so I don’t have to depend on OS upgrades, but I really didn’t want to. Native apps are really the sweet spot for me in terms of features and simplicity.
I love having the latest and greatest but not if it’s going to cost system stability and my time having to solve problems.
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I’d probably still be on Mojave if not for my workplace upgrading me to the MBP 16” a couple months ago.
Catalina has been okay, though. Some of the permissions settings and prompts seem potentially excessive but I have figured it all out so far.
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I wish I could help with your battery drain issue, which I haven’t heard about nor run into. Did you say that the recent update fixed it? If so then hopefully it won’t resurface 
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it might be that the new battery health system thingie needs some time to train itself. I noticed no decrease on my 2016 15’ MBP.
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Ahh I didn’t think of that. Could be. To you and @Ajay I am not sure I had a problem at all. I am being impressionistic; could well be that I was just using my machine slightly differently over the recent period… However things seem to have changed since the update. I hadn’t heard of anybody else with this problem on Catalina either as such.
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What I meant to say was that the battery is now lasting a lot longer than it was wihout charging. It is hard to be sure and that is why discussions about ‘buggy’ releases can get complicated and inconclusive? I accept @Ajay s point though at present. There are so many variables and it seems to me that a person with a particular set of uses could experience a release as ‘buggy’ subjectively while another one using different apps could think everything was fine. The Photo app could probably not work at all and I would not notice for example.
I find them to be different personalities, smart guys, experienced, and often with differing opinions. It’s not possible to hand-wave away legitimate complaints and problems people have reported for months (including reports from people on this forum) or the thoughtful analyses made by the likes of Troughton-Smith, Mayo, Siracusa, Arment and Gruber, each a longtime developer with serious cred.
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I have 2 2011Macs, an iMac and a MBP. Both are limited to High Sierra. My wife’s iMac is on Mojave. She has some 32 bit apps so holding off on upgrade.
I have no idea what you are getting at with the “comfortably wealthy old straight white guys” bit. Apart from being inaccurate and needlessly personal, how does that have any bearing on their criticism about an operating system?!
If, for the sake of the argument, one were to go along with your point about them “making their living generating clicks and downloads on Apple content” then their criticism about macOS Catalina should be all the more damning!
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Maybe the point is that this discussion lacks different life perspectives (like, for instance, women) which bring different views to the table. And from what I heard from some of the aforementioned names, I find that valid. Some of these commenters seem remarkably out of touch with the world in my opinion (not our beloved Stephen, mind you) and when some of these names are MPU guests, these are the rare episodes I skip entirely.
How can different life perspectives inform one’s experience of a software bug?!
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