In macOS Catalina, the Preview app has a new feature that makes it easier to sign PDFs and other documents by leveraging an iPhone or an iPad running the iOS 13/iPadOS operating system.
Rather than using the Trackpad to create a signature, or scanning a piece of paper, you can connect to your iPhone or iPad to sign there using either a finger or an Apple Pencil.
In the Preview app, under Tools > Annotate > Signature > Manage Signatures > Create Signatures, there is a new option to choose to create a signature with an iOS device. Clicking on this option lets you select an available iPhone or iPad to use.
Devices running iOS 12 will show up in this list, but creating a signature only works on a device running iOS 13. Selecting an iPhone or iPad with iOS 13 will pop up a simple signature interface on the device in question, where you can sign with a finger on the iPhone or a finger or Apple Pencil on iPad.
After you've signed, tap the done button, and your signature is instantly made available in the Preview app as an option to be inserted into your documents.
We needed to have the devices unlocked to get the signature interface to pop up, but this may be a bug that will be addressed in a later beta.
You can already sign PDFs right on the iPhone or iPad using Markup features, but the new Preview option is a useful, streamlined way to get a signature on a document if you start the process using a Mac.
I still don’t understand why Apple is so afraid of touchscreens on Macs when they are so good with them on mobile devices. It’s so much easier just to sign on the screen. Goofy workarounds like this should be unnecessary for the prices Apple charges.
I can list many reasons why Apple shouldn't put touchscreens on Macs but you probably already heard them before and disagreed.
Apple is blurring the lines between iOS and Mac in terms of functionality and cross-utility. It’s a brilliant strategy to leverage their success with iOS and encourage even more people into the Mac fold. Looking back I think the recent plateauing of iPhone sales is probably the best thing that could’ve happened to Apple users - it’s forced Apple to reevaluate their entire product line and look for ways to improve synergy and platform lock-in to increase company-wide revenue.
That is all well and good. But this analog signing method is just last century.
Opinion;: macOS under the Preview app. should support signing using digital signatures, even if one does not own a certified public-key/private-key pair (thus, signing with self as the certificate authority).
I still don’t understand why Apple is so afraid of touchscreens on Macs when they are so good with them on mobile devices. It’s so much easier just to sign on the screen. Goofy workarounds like this should be unnecessary for the prices Apple charges.
The image of the iPhone has an interface that says: "sign your name using your finger or pencil."; is that a real screenshot? a doctored image? If it's a screenshot, is it a mistake in iOS 13 or a sign that pencil support for (maybe the next) iPhone is finally coming with iOS 13?
Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
Best Buy is discounting a collection of M3 MacBook Pro computers today, this time focusing on the 14-inch version of the laptop. Every deal in this sale requires you to have a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership, although non-members can still get solid second-best prices on these MacBook Pro models. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a...
Top Rated Comments
But this analog signing method is just last century.
Opinion;:
macOS under the Preview app. should support signing using digital signatures, even if one does not own a certified public-key/private-key pair (thus, signing with self as the certificate authority).