Labs settings
The Labs settings page: performance mode, the live world experiments, globe controls, presets, and what each one costs.
Labs holds Outbound’s experiments: the live world views that draw your traffic on a map or globe. The page opens with: “Experiments that make Outbound more alive, and every knob for them below. Each switches off on its own; none changes what is allowed or blocked.”
Each experiment row has a meter, Memory, Graphics and Energy, with three dots. One filled dot is low, two is medium, three is high (the high dots are orange). Hovering the meter gives a short cost note. Nothing here changes what is allowed or blocked.
Performance
Section titled “Performance”Mode: Automatic (default), Always efficient, Always full quality. The line under the picker is either “Full quality on this Mac (N GB of memory).”, with this Mac’s memory in place of N, or “Running efficiently.” followed by the reason:
- “You chose to always run efficiently.”
- “This Mac has 8 GB of memory, so Outbound keeps its visuals light.” The number is this Mac’s memory. Automatic uses this reason at 8 GB or less.
- “Low Power Mode is on.”
- “Your Mac is running hot.” (a serious or critical thermal state)
- “Your Mac is short of memory right now.”
The footer: “Automatic runs efficiently on Macs with 8 GB of memory or less, in Low Power Mode, when your Mac is hot and when it is short of memory, and at full quality otherwise. Running efficiently draws the visuals less often and shows fewer icons, but only where you kept the default: anything you turn on or set yourself, such as the floating globe or the map style, stays as you set it. Protection never changes. Outbound also follows Reduce Motion.”
Where you have not set them yourself, running efficiently caps three globe knobs: smoothness at Battery saver (15 frames a second), icons shown at 3, and city lights off. A value you set is left alone. The globe keeps turning.
Menu Bar
Section titled “Menu Bar”Live world in the menu bar: on by default. “A tiny world beside the meter, with a thread to each place reached in the last seconds.” A live preview of the glyph sits in the row. Meter: low, low, low. Hover: “A tiny picture redrawn at most once a second.”
Live world in the menu bar panel: on by default. “A world map at the top of the panel, with a packet running along every route that is active now.” Its preview is the same map at panel size. Meter: low memory, medium graphics, medium energy. Hover: “Draws only while the menu bar panel is open.” In Outbound 1.3.0 the panel holds Control Center instead of this map, so the switch has no effect; for a map in the panel, add the Destinations · Last 24 Hours widget to Control Center. See The menu bar panel.
Top of the Screen
Section titled “Top of the Screen”Notch island: on by default. “When an app reaches a new country today, a capsule grows out of the notch with the route, then folds away. Without a notch it hangs below the menu bar.” Show a Sample plays one at once: Safari reaching Frankfurt, Germany. Turning the switch on plays that sample too. Meter: low memory, medium graphics, low energy. Hover: “Shown for a few seconds at a time, nothing in between.”
Show blocked connections in the island: on by default, and disabled until the island is on. “The island also tells you when a connection is blocked, at most once every eight seconds.” Its Show a Sample plays Safari to “ads.tracker.example · Dublin, Ireland”. Turning the switch on plays that sample too. Meter: low, low, low. Same hover note as the island.
Desktop
Section titled “Desktop”Floating globe: off by default. “A small globe that floats above your windows, turning slowly with your live routes and rates. Drag it anywhere; double-click to open the monitor.” The preview beside the switch follows the globe knobs below, and can be dragged: “Drag to turn it; flick to spin”. Meter: medium memory, high graphics, high energy. Hover: “Draws all the time it is on screen. Battery saver smoothness, fewer icons and no turning lower the cost.”
Live globe in the Dock: off by default. “While the Outbound window is open, its Dock icon shows the globe with today’s routes, refreshed every 15 seconds.” Meter: low, low, low. Hover: “A still picture, redrawn every 15 seconds while the window app runs.”
World widget: a note, not a switch. “Today’s routes on a world map, on your desktop or in Notification Center. Add “Outbound World” from the widget gallery (right-click the desktop › Edit Widgets).” The widget is described in Widgets.
Setup ends on a live world: on by default. “Setup’s last page shows a world map where each of your first connections draws its route as it happens.” Meter: low, low, low. Same short hover note as the island.
Sounds during setup: on by default. “Music under the welcome, and a chime as each permission is confirmed. Follows the Mac’s “Play user interface sound effects” setting. With VoiceOver on there is no music, so nothing talks over its speech.” Replay the Welcome opens setup’s welcome again. Turning the switch off stops setup sound that is already playing.
Finale: Synth (default) or Studio, and a play button (Play the finale) that previews the chord without running setup.
Resource Use
Section titled “Resource Use”Preset: Efficient, Balanced and Showcase. The Balanced button reads “Balanced”; its help text is “Balanced (Recommended)”. The highlighted button is the preset your current settings match, if any.
| Preset | What it sets |
|---|---|
| Efficient | Floating globe off, Battery saver, 4 icons, 2 degrees a second, city lights off, real sunlight on, atmosphere glow on |
| Balanced | Balanced smoothness, 6 icons, 4 degrees a second, city lights on, real sunlight on, atmosphere glow on. The floating globe switch is left as it is. |
| Showcase | Floating globe on, Smoothest, 10 icons, 6 degrees a second, city lights on, real sunlight on, atmosphere glow on |
Under the presets, a live meter lists “Background agent” and “Outbound window”, each with CPU percentage and memory, sampled every two seconds while the page is open. Until a second sample arrives, the CPU reads “Measuring…”. Ten percent CPU or more is orange. The footer: “Efficient keeps Outbound lightest: the floating globe off, slower redraws, fewer icons and a slow turn. Showcase turns every experiment up and costs the most battery. The figures are Outbound’s own processes, measured now; the filter itself runs inside macOS and is not counted.”
The knobs for the globe views (The globe and world views). The preview beside Floating globe follows each one.
Theme: Graphite (default), Blue Marble, Midnight, Daylight and Amber, each with a small sphere as its swatch. Graphite follows the Mac’s appearance. The others keep their own palette in light and dark alike.
Size: 140 to 480 points, in steps of 10. Default 220 pt.
Icon size: 70 to 180 percent, in steps of 5. Default 100 %.
Icons shown: 0 to 10, one at a time. Default 6. At 0 the value reads “None”, otherwise “Up to 6” and so on.
Country flags on icons: on by default.
Turning speed: 0 to 12 degrees a second, in steps of 0.5. Default 4. At 0 the value reads “Still”. Otherwise it reads the number and “° a second”.
Real sunlight (day and night): on by default.
City lights at night: on by default. Disabled while real sunlight is off.
Atmosphere glow: on by default.
Motion
Section titled “Motion”Smoothness: Battery saver, Balanced (default) and Smoothest. These set how often the globe redraws on its own: 15, 30 and 60 frames a second. “Under your hand the globe always moves at the display’s full rate. This sets how often it redraws on its own; Battery saver uses the least power.”
Panel and Island
Section titled “Panel and Island”Panel map: Flat (default) or Globe.
Panel map height: 96 to 200 points, in steps of 4. Default 132 pt.
Both panel map settings belong to the panel world map, which Outbound 1.3.0 no longer draws, so they have no effect.
Island stays for: 2 to 10 seconds, in steps of 0.5. Default 4 s.