Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i MacLife

1 Muse S $279.99 From choosemuse.com The Muse S is billed as a “digital sleeping pill,” but you wouldn’t want to swallow one. Instead, it’s a smart headband that offers meditations, sleep tracking, and some fancy neuroscience that, it claims, will help you fall asleep more easily. Once paired with your wireless headphones, the Muse S helps you relax through guided meditations and sleep preparation exercises. That alone could help you get a more restful night’s sleep. But beyond that, the band also tracks your brain activity using a built–in EEG. Not only does this give you a breakdown of how you slept when you wake up the next morning, but the device will detect restless periods during the night and automatically start playing relaxing audio snippets to guide you…

WITH iPADOS 15, Apple has paid a lot of attention to productivity. In particular, it’s beefed up the Notes app to make it easier to record, find, and share things, and there’s a new feature called Quick Note that enables you to add a note from anywhere without having to leave the app you’re in. The main Notes app’s biggest change is in its use of tags. Now you can tag a note by typing the hash (#) symbol before it and Notes will automatically add that tag to the sidebar, underneath the Folders list — so if you tag phone–related things #iPhone, you can tap on that tag to see all those posts. The search works with multiple tags, so you can drill down very precisely. Notes makes it…

$2,699 From apple.com Features Apple M1 Pro chip (10–core CPU, 16–core GPU), 1TB storage, 32GB of unified memory, 16.2–inch Liquid Retina XDR display (3456x2234 pixels), MagSafe 3, 3x Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, 1x HDMI 2.0 port, Wi–Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.0 This is the MacBook we’ve been hoping and praying for… a super–fast lean machine that banishes the bad memories and questionable design choices of the recent past in favor of new crowd–pleasing features. These include proper function keys, a Liquid Retina XDR Display, usable ports, and M1 Pro performance. The fact that this machine is only surpassed by the M1 Max is mind boggling. The 2021 MacBook Pro is certainly a sight to behold. Consciously echoing the look of pre–Touch Bar era Apple laptops, it takes all the things you…

$99.99 From logitech.com Features 1080p (30 fps) or 720p (60 fps), stereo mic, autofocus, 78° field of view The Logitech C922 Pro HD webcam has omnidirectional mics on the sides around the camera lens, an integrated mounting clip, auto light correction, autofocus, 78–degree field of view, plug–and–play compatibility, and Logitech Capture software for Mac. The webcam works by plugging it into your Mac’s USB–A port and selecting it — autofocus and light correction happen automatically. If you’re a content creator, the Logitech Capture software, which recently added Mac support, has neat touches such as support for up to two webcam sources, broadcast streaming on your chosen platform, and settings customization. You can save up to six profiles, so you could have one for streaming, one for work, and so on.…

$109.95, Foldable case $19 From nuphy.com Features Ultra–thin PBT keycaps, ANSI 75% layout Needs USB–C, 2.4GHz wireless or Bluetooth NuPhy’s Air75 is an ultra–slim wireless mechanical keyboard that is available with a choice of red, blue, or brown Gateron switches, each with its own unique amount of click and travel. It uses ultra–thin spherical keycaps for a very pleasurable typing experience and the company has redesigned the aluminium manufacturing process to enable it to hide the switches under the keyboard’s frame, unlike many others where a gap is visible. The keycaps are color coded, which looks great and is helpful in everyday use for navigation. Each key is hot–swappable and both Mac and Windows–specific keys are provided along with three extra keycaps and switches and a tool for replacing them.…

HOW TO TRANSFER SAVED GAME FILES TO A NEW iPAD? If your old iPad runs iPadOS 13 or later, they should be transferred if you use Quick Start to set up your new iPad, as explained at bit.ly/ml189quickstart, made easier if you already have a backup. Otherwise you can only rely on data shared in iCloud, as documented for each game. HOW TO TELL WHICH APPS ACCESS LOCATIONS AND MIC? Apps you have allowed access to locations and mic don’t necessarily use them. To get an accurate picture of which ones actually do, tap Settings > Privacy > Record App Activity to enable recording, then save the data. When you review that, it’ll report which apps have been accessing locations, the microphone, and more. HOW TO CLEAN MY APPLE MAGIC…

Catalina divided the startup volume into two, one for the System and the other for Data. Big Sur went further — at startup your Mac doesn’t mount the System volume, but a snapshot there containing the System. As snapshots can’t be changed, a macOS update first has to install its changed files on the System volume, then make a new snapshot to use as the system. This is more complex as, before these snapshots are made, the installer calculates a “hash” for every file, and builds a tree of hashes to guarantee every file is intact and the way Apple intends. Some folders and files in macOS have to be written to, and can’t be sealed away in a snapshot. To cope with those, the System and Data volumes are…

REQUIRES Safari 15 or later, macOS Big Sur or Monterey YOU WILL LEARN How to add, rename and manage tab groups in Safari IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes IF YOU’RE ANYTHING like us, you probably have a ton of tabs open in Safari, all completely disorganized and disjointed. Every time a new project comes to mind, more tabs get opened, adding to the ever–growing mess. There is a better way. With the arrival of Safari 15 for macOS Big Sur and Monterey, you can now organize your tabs into Tab Groups — and even sync those Tab Groups across your other devices, as long as you’re logged in with the same Apple ID. You can easily create as many Tab Groups as you wish, making it easy to separate your…

REQUIRES Apple Watch, watchOS 8 YOU WILL LEARN How to set goals and track workouts IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes WATCHOS 8 GIVES YOUR Apple Watch even more health and fitness features: Breathe has been rebooted as Mindfulness, Workouts can now detect when you’re cycling outdoors, and you can track social dancing and pilates too. So if you need a bit of a push to improve your fitness or just spend less time at your desk, the apps in your Apple Watch are here to help. Apple includes two key fitness apps on your Watch… Activity, which tracks your progress towards your daily Move, Exercise and Stand goals, and which you can use to share and compare your progress with friends, and Workouts, which is designed to track your performance…

Where other tech firms use the cloud for uploading data, throwing huge amounts of processing power at it, and downloading the results, Apple does it on your device. The reason is simple: It protects your privacy. The problem with processing locally is that we use the same services across multiple devices. Apple’s thought of that, and uses a technique called federated learning to train your devices without invading your privacy. It does this for Siri, QuickType, and the “Siri found in apps” feature. With federated learning, your device processes your data locally, so as you talk to Siri on iPhone, your phone refines its model of your voice. When that model is updated, your phone shares the model, but not the audio, with your other devices. So when your iPhone…

WITH iPADOS 15, APPLE has given the world’s best tablet operating system some very significant upgrades. Productivity features that were previously only available on the iPhone are now on your tablet too, and you’ll find that everything from productivity apps to privacy protections have been given important improvements. iPadOS 15 is about making your iPad work the way you want it to. Home Screen Widgets can completely customize the information you get, the App Library can make it easier to organize and access your apps, and the improved multitasking features make it easier to work with multiple apps at the same time. Streamlined Notifications are much easier to manage, and the new Focus mode enables you to decide who and what can contact you at different times and places. Ultimately,…

WHAT’S NEW IN FACETIME FaceTime’s new SharePlay enables you to share movies, music, or your screen in a video chat with friends or family. You can all be watching or listening to the same thing at the same time, sharing the experience, and adding your own commentary. Smart Volume will automatically adjust the audio levels so you can be heard during even the loudest scenes or sections, and you can connect via your iPad while watching on Apple TV or listening on your HomePod. It’s very clever and a lot of fun. There’s more. You can now invite people who aren’t Apple users to use FaceTime in a web browser; Portrait Mode gives you the same good looks you’re used to from your iPhone’s portrait shooting; and Spatial Audio and…

A MAGSAFE 3 Apple’s magnetic charging port makes a welcome return with the bundled USB–C charger delivering 140W of power via a braided USB–C to MagSafe 3 cable. B THUNDERBOLT/USB4 PORTS Three Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports — two on the left, and one on the right — offer up to 40Gbps data transfer speeds with support for up to three external displays at 6K. C AUDIO OUTPUT The six–speaker sound system in the new MacBook Pro sounds better than ever, but it’s good to see Apple include a 3.5mm audio socket for wired headphone listening. D COOLING VENTS Redesigned thermal systems and improved performance–per–watt help keep the MacBook Pro cool while also keeping fan noise down to a minimum. E SDXC CARD SLOT You can now easily transfer your photo and…

$799 From bowerswilkins.com Features AirPlay, Dynamic EQ, 240W power output, 35Hz to 24kHz frequency response It’s taken Bowers & Wilkins six years to launch a brand–new iteration of its iconic speaker. Now wireless only, the Zeppelin supports AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, and aptX Adaptive Bluetooth, with B&W’s Music App a gateway to streaming services such as Tidal and Deezer. The Zeppelin’s looks haven’t changed much, which you’ll either love or hate. Across the far elliptical edge there are a variety of buttons to control the unit, but they’re tricky to access. At the back, in the stand, there’s a power port, USB–C for updates, and a reset button — there are no other physical inputs. Under the hood, the Zep comprises two 25mm Decoupled Double–Dome aluminum tweeters, as well as…

$42.99 From RAVPower, ravpower.com Features 5,000mAh capacity, 7.5W wireless charging, MagSafe, USB–C input/output RAVPower’s Magnetic Wireless Power Bank is a portable battery pack — with MagSafe built in, you can snap it to the back of your compatible iPhone 12 or 13, the array of magnets inside allowing it to auto–align with your iPhone. The black casing doesn’t feel premium but, thankfully, it’s not priced like it. It’s entirely plastic, which is good for keeping the weight down, but feels a bit creaky. Due to its size, it’s too wide to work with the iPhone 12 mini or 13 mini, and due to its length, it won’t fit the iPhone 13 Pro at all due to its large camera bump, though it works fine with the iPhone 13 Pro Max.…

$9.99 From beforeyoureyesgame.com Needs macOS 10.13 or later, webcam recommended Before Your Eyes — a short first–person narrative game where blinking is the key mechanic — is quite unlike any you are likely to play again. As the game opens, you are fished out of a murky ocean by an anthropomorphic hound, a ferryman of the afterlife who explains human souls’ life stories to the grand Gatekeeper, who will then decide if they can be let into paradise. To help him out, you need to recount all of your past from start to finish. And so you relive life through the eyes of Benjamin, a young toddler whose first memory is set on an idyllic beach in summer. When an object of interest appears, an eye icon appears over it.…

$4.99 From redbluegames.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 13.1 or later Sparklite is a game clearly inspired by the Legend of Zelda series, but that’s no bad thing. Yet while there is a lot to like about it, it is hampered by a combination of factors that seem to conspire against you. But first, the good stuff. Your protagonist, Ada, inhabits a bright, procedurally generated steampunk world full of interesting secrets and spurred along by a jolly, uplifting soundtrack. This is a game where everything feels full of adventure and promise. It’s not particularly original, sure, but it’s fun. At least, on the surface. On iOS, you get an on–screen control wheel with which to move Ada. The problem is that it’s not particularly accurate. On a…

One of the best things about your iPhone is how easy it is to take great photos and videos. But there’s only so much you can achieve with point–and–shoot. Sometimes, you’ll want to get your hands dirty and take full control of your phone’s camera. After all, there’s some powerful hardware lying in wait. We’ve brought together the best apps for taking manual photos and videos. If you want to adjust levels, exposure, depth of field, curves, and much more — before and after shooting — these apps will be just the ticket. With them in your arsenal, you’ll take your best photos and videos ever. FILMIC PRO — VIDEO CAMERA $7.99 From filmicpro.com Made for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, iPod touch If you need in–depth video–shooting and video–editing controls, FiLMiC…

This is an annoying problem which thankfully seems to be less of an issue with more recent versions of macOS. In Disk Utility the answer is to try again, several times if necessary, and it should eventually work. Double–check the volume that you’re trying to assess: if it’s one of the current startup volume group, such as the Data volume, you’re better off doing this in Recovery mode, although the error can occur even there. If this persists, the free utility Sloth from bit.ly/ml189sloth is among several that will tell you which app or process is blocking the unmounting of that volume. Click on the padlock in its window and authenticate first so it’ll show all system processes being run as root as well as user processes. In most cases,…

Every desktop Mac should be provided with wall power delivered through an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). That not only filters out potentially damaging spikes but lets your Mac shut down in an orderly fashion when the power fails altogether. Laptop Macs will still benefit when connected to a filtered supply, but they will automatically switch to their own battery power so don’t need backup from a UPS. To work out the required battery capacity for your Mac, look up its power consumption in Apple’s support page for that model or Mactracker (Free, from mactracker.ca). If it needs an external display or other essential peripherals, add those in to arrive at the total power requirement in watts. This can vary widely: an iMac 27–inch can draw as much as 300W, and…

Changing the password is simple: open the Users & Groups pane, select the user, select the Password tab, and click on Change Password… Changing the username isn’t wise, as it’s used to create the name of the Home folder. That short username also appears in many other places, most of which you can’t edit, so they’d stop working. Expert users can change the Users listing with the Directory Editor in Directory Utility, but you must know what you’re doing there or you could make your Mac unusable and lose access to your Home folder. If you really want a different username and password, it’s far safer to create another account in the Users & Groups pane, and leave the first user alone.…

REQUIRES MacFamilyTree, macOS 10.13 High Sierra or later YOU WILL LEARN How to record your family history IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes BEGIN BY RECORDING THE BASIC DETAILS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE IN YOUR FAMILY TREE AS THE OLD saying goes, you can choose your friends but not your family. Perhaps one way to make your next get–together more bearable is to remind yourself of your shared roots by researching your family tree. The best way to do this on Mac is with the brilliant MacFamilyTree ($59.99, syniumsoftware.com/macfamilytree). Over the next three issues, we’re going to run through the program’s key features, starting with the tools you need to build your own family tree. MacFamilyTree’s focus is on recording your history — if you need help researching your family’s past,…

REQUIRES iMovie, iPadOS 15 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to edit a home video in iMovie on your iPad IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes HOME MOVIES NEEDN’T be dull collections of random, unedited clips to bore friends and family. With iMovie’s range of editing options, you can create really professional–looking films to amaze and entertain. Whether it’s a holiday movie or a video of a special occasion, you can make it worth watching. While the iPad iMovie app lacks a few of the subtler editing options of its Mac counterpart, it still packs in some powerful features to help you edit your home movie to a very high standard. And, if needed, you can always AirDrop an iPad iMovie project to a Mac to do a little extra fine–tuning…

SIGNIFICANT OLDER APPLE products make regular appearances in auction houses, predominantly in the US. In early November 2021, a particularly eye–catching item went uder the hammer — a previously unseen Apple VideoPad 2. The prototype device was labelled as a “rare early Apple tablet design” by auctioneers Bonhams. Indeed, it was “the only surviving concept prototype for the VideoPad PDA.” It had been developed between 1993 and 1995, during John Sculley’s difficult tenure at Apple. The model seen at auction was actually based on sketches by Sculley himself. It had dimensions of 7 x 9in and was 1.3 inches in height. It includes a fold–up screen and the aim was to have a built–in camera too. Video conferencing was on the agenda, even then! This model was made of heavy–duty…

APPLE HAS ANNOUNCED that it will make genuine parts, tools, and manuals available to individual consumers who wish to undertake their own repairs, starting early 2022 in the US and expanding to other countries in the course of the year. Apple says the Self Service Repair program will kick off with “the most commonly serviced modules” for the iPhone 12 and 13 lines, such as the display, battery, and camera. Parts, tools, and manuals for Macs with M1 chips will follow, and resources for “additional repairs” will be available later in the year. The new program comes after years of campaigning by Right to Repair advocates and initiatives by state and federal legislators. Last July, a Presidential executive order directed the FTC “to issue rules against anticompetitive restrictions on using…

PREVIOUSLY IN THIS COLUMN, I’ve mentioned that I find Apple’s positioning of the Apple Watch as a potentially life–saving revolution to be a bit at odds with having premium strategies for that device, and for it to be locked to Apple’s also–premium–priced phones. Shouldn’t a health revolution be available to all, regardless of phone OS preference, or budget? However, you do need to actually get the thing working somehow, and the iPhone is key to that, since the Watch doesn’t have any setup system of its own. But the Apple Watch Series 7 got me thinking that we could be coming to the end of that time. With its bigger screen, you now have a QWERTY keyboard, so entering your Apple ID and password on setup — or for logging…

THE LATEST iPADOS introduces a new way to get organized on your tablet, bringing iOS 14 features to the iPad for the first time. Our favorite new feature is widgets, which have made it across from the iPhone. These can sit anywhere on your Home Screen to provide instant access to whatever you like: Calendar events, the weather forecast, your Apple Music playlist, your favorite photos and so on. To add a widget, simply long–press an empty bit of the Home Screen and tap the “+” icon at the top left to see the available options. As you’ll see, there are lots — including Smart Stacks, which change over the course of the day. Smart Stacks will even predict what other widgets you might like and show them at the…

THERE’S LOTS MORE to love in iPadOS 15. Messages now has Shared With You, which takes content other people have sent to you and makes it available in the appropriate app. You can tap on that shared content, see who sent it and continue the conversation from inside that app without having to return to Messages. Apple has also put a lot of work into iPadOS’s Notifications. In addition to Focus Mode, you can now mute notifications for specific apps or Messages threads for an hour or day, and if a thread is really busy without you you’ll be asked if you want to mute it. Your iPad can now differentiate between general notifications and time–sensitive ones that need to be delivered immediately, and Notifications are now grouped to make…

GEEKBENCH 5 SINGLE–CORE TEST This tests the capability of a single processor core. Many more common tasks on a Mac will only use a single core at a time. Geekbench 5 is a universal app running on Monterey. Index score (higher is better) HANDBRAKE VIDEO ENCODING We transcode a Blu–ray–quality video file into H.264 format using HandBrake to test the multicore processor performance. Handbrake is available as a universal binary. Duration (lower is better) TOMB RAIDER (1920X1080) For a real–world gaming test, we use the benchmarking tool in this game, with the graphics quality set to High, and the resolution set to 1920x1080. Not yet optimized for M1. Frames per sec (higher is better) DAVINCI RESOLVE In Blackmagic Design’s editing tool for video professionals, we exported an effects–laden, 2.5–minute project…

WE HAVE COME a long way since the days when audio playback was little more than an afterthought in the computer world. Apple’s machines have some of the best built–in speakers in the business, but no integrated computer speaker is ever going to be able to match a dedicated external pair for soundstage, bass reproduction, or volume. Simple physics mean the more air a speaker can move, the greater its power and sonic range will be. The category of “desktop” speakers is distinct from pro models that music producers would typically use together with an audio interface. Here, the models are geared more towards everyday use for gaming, watching movies, or music playback. That’s not to say however that they’re not precisely engineered, with some models allowing wireless as well…

$149.99 From kaleidoscope.app Needs macOS 11.1 or later Kaleidoscope 3 is a file comparison app for Mac that aims to help you stay on top of different versions of all kinds of files. There are actually more use cases for this than you might imagine. At the more technical end of things, it allows coders to quickly compare versions of code documents that have been worked on by different people, quickly highlighting the changes and letting you copy lines of code between documents with just a couple of clicks. For more everyday users, the same can be done with text documents, say if you are an editor dealing with Word, text, or PDF documents that have been updated or changed by a writer. It’s like a track changes feature but…

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APPLE HAS BEEN steadily improving its built–in apps over the last few years. Having made big changes to Messages and FaceTime, Notes hasn’t been left out. While the biggest news in macOS Monterey is Quick Note, which makes system–wide access to notes quick and easy, there are several other new features. These include support for tagging notes to make them easier to categorize and find; the ability to ‘@‘ other users to alert them to something that needs their attention; custom smart folders; tracked changes for individual notes; and an activity view that displays changes made to notes while you were away. All these updates come on top of improvements — such as the addition of collaborative working — that were made in previous versions. Add in the fact that…

If you can divide your files across four disks rather than using RAID to merge them into one, this can be affordable, although the choice of products is still limited. The OWC Thunderbay 4 delivers excellent Thunderbolt 3 performance with up to four 16TB SATA SSDs, but doesn’t offer hardware RAID, for which you’d need to use either SoftRAID or AppleRAID set up using Disk Utility. It’s well–engineered, has a quiet cooling fan, and has a second Thunderbolt port you can daisychain to another peripheral. For hardware RAID support, you’d need a much more expensive system like a Promise Pegasus32 R4, and would need to populate it with all four SSDs to take advantage of its RAID features, whereas you can gradually fill a Thunderbay enclosure as you need. Going…

Normally this folder, ~/Library/Identity Services, contains around 20-30 items, although as they’re mostly databases, they can grow over time to occupy a few megabytes of storage. Before trying to clean anything up, you should discover what’s creating all those files inside that folder. The best way to do that is using Hazel, a utility from noodlesoft.com. This lets you set folders to be watched for any changes such as files being added to them, and notify you of what has changed there. Observing those changes should give tell–tale clues as to which app or service might be doing this and why it isn’t cleaning up the files afterwards. Hazel is also an excellent way to keep a watch on sensitive folders, such as LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons in the main Library…

REQUIRES DaisyDisk 4, OS X 10.6 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to find out what’s taking up space on your hard drive IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes AS YOUR MAC’S internal storage starts to fill up, it can become quite the job identifying what’s taking up the most space — and, crucially, where it resides on its hard drive or SSD. The solution lies with a tool that helps you visualize your Mac’s storage drive in such a way as to help you identify where those large files are. That tool is DaisyDisk ($9.99, free trial available). As the step–by–step guide reveals, DaisyDisk’s sole purpose is to help you drill down through your drive to identify large files you can look to move or, better still, delete to free…