Pandora is staying the same, for now.

Enlarge (credit: Apple)

I ended last year’s review of macOS High Sierra by lamenting its invisibility but praising the much-needed work it did on the macOS foundation. There weren’t a lot of ways to tell that a Mac was running High Sierra instead of Low Sierra, but Apple quietly replaced the file system and the system’s window server and added (and later finalized) official support for external graphics, among a bunch of other tweaks. The yearly release cycle just kept Apple from actually building a whole lot of new features on top of that foundation.

Mojave, macOS version 10.14, takes the opposite approach. It still does some foundation-laying, especially around iOS apps, and it finishes up a few things that didn’t quite get finished in High Sierra. But it also includes the biggest and most consequential changes to the Mac’s user interface, the desktop, and Finder that we’ve seen in years; some brand-new apps ported over from iOS; new automation features; an overhauled App Store; and significant improvements to small but frequently-used actions like taking screenshots or using Quick Look.

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Enlarge / It's still pretty easy to make a bootable USB install drive for macOS Mojave. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Apple hasn’t shipped operating systems on physical media in almost a decade, but there are still good reasons to want a reliable old USB stick for macOS Mojave. Luckily, it's not hard to make one—either with a handy graphical user interface or some light Terminal use. Here's what you need to get started.

• A Mac that you have administrator access to. We've created Mojave USB stick from both High Sierra and Mojave, but your experience with other versions may vary.
• An 8GB or larger USB flash drive or an 8GB or larger partition on some other kind of external drive. A USB 3.0 drive will make things significantly faster, but an older USB 2.0 drive will work in a pinch.
• The macOS 10.14 Mojave installer from the Mac App Store in your Applications folder. The installer will delete itself when you install the operating system, but it can be re-downloaded if necessary.
• If you want a GUI, take a look at Ben Slaney's Install Disk Creator from MacDaddy. There are other apps out there that do this, but this one is quick and simple.

If you want to use this USB installer with newer Macs as they are released, you'll want to periodically re-download new Mojave installers and make new install drives periodically. Apple rolls support for newer hardware into new macOS point releases as they come out, so this will help keep your install drive as universal and versatile as possible.

There's also one new consideration for newer Macs with Apple's T2 controller chip—as of this writing, the iMac Pro and both 2018 MacBook Pros. Among this chip's many security features is one that disallows booting from external drives by default. To re-enable this feature, hold down Command-R while your Mac reboots to go into Recovery Mode, and use the Startup Security Utility to "allow booting from external media." If you're trying to install an older version of macOS, you may also need to go from Full Security to Medium Security to enable booting, but if you're just trying to install the current version of macOS, the Full Security option should be just fine.

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Challenge accepted? You can download /e/ now

/e/, a Google-free fork of Android, reached a milestone this month with its initial ROM release. It's available for download, so you can kick the tires, with nightly builds delivered via OTA (over the air) updates.…

The music recognition app reportedly cost Apple around $400 million.

The Maven orbiter looks shiny in a rare self-portrait.

Apple packs a lot into the smaller space, yet makes replacing the screen and the battery easier.

The prepaid brand will start using a new name: Metro by T-Mobile. It will offer new unlimited plans that include Amazon Prime membership and Google One storage.

The automaker will alter, not shelve, its fledgling pilot.

S version set for Q2 '19 debut, but full tiling pleasure on the X delayed

Ignite Microsoft has lifted a page from its gaming playbook and split its Surface Hub 2 product into two lines: the 2S and 2X.…

Best Buy's Insignia Voice smart-speaker is back on sale!

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The young danger noodle is turning heads.

(credit: Comcast)

Comcast on Saturday won an auction to purchase Sky, the UK-based media and telecom company, with a $40 billion bid that topped an offer from 21st Century Fox. Sky on Monday recommended that its shareholders accept the offer from Comcast before a deadline of October 11.

"This is a great day for Comcast," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in an announcement. "This acquisition will allow us to quickly, efficiently and meaningfully increase our customer base and expand internationally."

Comcast stock was down about 7 percent this morning, as investors are reportedly worried that Comcast paid too much for Sky.

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The beloved yellow-and-black Autobot scout teams up with a teen girl in the upcoming Transformers prequel.

Surface Hub 2 news, big search changes, Azure Sphere, Microsoft Teams and more.

One from Sony, one from Sennheiser, both Cheapskate exclusives!

Outsiders realised uni was hacked before uni did

A single account compromise at an unnamed "major university" in the UK led to a large-scale phishing attack against third parties, according to data protection outfit Barracuda Networks.…