Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2019 i Macworld

Apparently, one piece of online folk wisdom goes as follows: If you’re having trouble with your Apple ID, just create a new one and abandon the old one. This actually isn’t a good idea in most circumstances. It usually makes a bad situation worse. Apple IDs can be a problem, especially if you have legacy accounts from pre-iCloud Apple cloud services. Apple has made it easier over the years to use one Apple ID for purchases and another for iCloud, which was a big help. The upcoming macOS 10.15 Catalina rejiggers account management so your various Apple IDs are consolidated into a preference pane that replaces the iCloud one, very similar to iOS’s Settings app. If you’ve wound up with multiple Apple IDs because of this advice, you can simply…

By the time an application reaches version 7.0, users anticipate fewer whiz-bang new features as developers focus on refining core functionality and required compatibility updates. The question then becomes, has the software improved enough to justify buying an upgrade to the latest and greatest version, often on an annual basis? Such is the case with ExpanDrive, a venerable macOS utility that mounts cloud and network-attached storage in the Finder so you can more or less use them like locally-attached volumes. Despite a recent focus on eye candy, it’s what’s under the hood that makes the latest update worth a look. NEW LOOK, NEW PROBLEMS ExpanDrive 6 ditched the traditional compact user interface in favor of a free-floating, expandable window opened by clicking a familiar menu bar icon that clutters the…

BORDERLANDS 2 If you’re looking for a good reason to hop back into Borderlands 2 ($20), but maybe don’t want to jump to Borderlands 3, there’s a DLC out called Commander Lilith & the Fight for Sanctuary. It comes with new areas, a new level cap, new loot, and new everything, really. You’ll need either Borderlands 2 or Borderlands: The Handsome Collection in order to play it. FANTASY STRIKE There aren’t many good fighting games on the Mac, and many of the latter-day ones feature combos so complex that I sometimes feel as though I’m learning the rudiments of another language. But not Fantasy Strike ($30). It’s designed as a fighting game that anyone can pick up and play while still offering enough depth for tournaments. It lives up to…

Dark Mode. Privacy enhancements. All-new Maps. There are lots of big new features in iOS 13 to get excited about, but we’re just as excited about the little things: small touches, quality-of-life improvements, and little features that make our daily interactions with our iPhones more joyful. As we kick the tires of the iOS 13 beta, we’re discovering all sorts of cool little features that didn’t make the stage for iOS 13’s WWDC debut. Here’s a list of some of our favorite hidden gems buried just out of sight in iOS 13. AWESOME MESSAGES SEARCH Searching in iMessage has gotten really, really good in iOS 13. Drag your message list down a little bit to show the search bar up top. As you type in it, you’ll see contacts, messages,…

IPadOS promises to bring improved multitasking, multiple windows from the same app, and support for SMB servers and external drives. That last one is of particular interest to mobile video editors, because it will enable access to video and audio content saved on USB hard drives and network-attached storage. LumaTouch is poised to take advantage of this revolution with version 2.0 of LumaFusion, the company’s popular mobile video editing app. BACK ON TRACK LumaFusion 2.0 improves upon everything that made the initial version great. First and foremost are the number of tracks, which have doubled to a maximum of six for video (including titles and graphics) with accompanying audio, plus another six for imported audio like music, sound effects, and voiceovers—a whopping 12 tracks of sound! That’s quite the feat…

Last year, Apple introduced the iPhone XR as the “affordable” offering in its new iPhone lineup. We liked the XR a lot, and we even said that it might be the best iPhone Apple has ever made. The follow-up to the iPhone XR is the new iPhone 11, and the fact that Apple decided to bless this model with the “iPhone 11” title—and not call it something like the iPhone 11R—says a lot about where the company positions the phone. But can this phone carry the burden of being known as the iPhone 11? As a matter of fact, it can. The satisfying speed boost, dual camera setup, and long battery life combine to make the iPhone 11 even better than last year’s iPhone XR. And given its relatively low price…

Many of us spend more time every day in our email client than in any other piece of software. If you’re in sales, marketing, design, HR, PR, or other professional fields with an “R” in the name, you may have to compose and reply to hundreds of messages a day, customizing many to each recipient and creating attractive or well-formatted messages for mass distribution. Postbox 7 is tailored for people who swim in email and deal with customers, clients, and leads. That’s not to say there’s not a lot for the rest of us. Even as a writer, I also often handle hundreds of emails a day, and Postbox meets my needs as an advanced alternative to Apple Mail, but one that hides its power through solid, attractive interface design. Postbox…

If the USB in this Denon turntable’s model number caught your eye, you’ve probably been thinking of digitizing your vinyl collection. And you’ve probably looked at some of the—ahem—less-expensive USB turntables and found them lacking. Well, here’s the good news: Denon’s DP-450USB turntable delivers great sound and audiophile build quality, and it makes recording your vinyl super easy—even without a computer. The bad news? The Windows software Denon chose to bundle with its product leaves much to be desired. AUDIOPHILE BUILD AND DESIGN Denon is best known in the U.S. for its exceptional line of AV receivers, but the company has a much broader portfolio, including exquisite headphones (such as the Denon AH-D9200 TechHive reviewed recently), an excellent multi-room audio system known as HEOS, and, of course, a strong line of…

Primate Labs has released a major new update of its popular Geekbench performance measurement tool. Geekbench 5 comes three years after the release of Geekbench 4 and features all-new test methods, workloads, and a new measurement scale. As such, it should be a much more accurate representation of modern workloads on modern hardware, and the scores are not at all comparable with those from Geekbench 4. We often use Geekbench here at Macworld to give an overall picture of the CPU and GPU compute performance of iPhones, iPads, and Macs. It’s one of the few cross-device and cross-operating-system comparable benchmarks available; while it doesn’t paint a perfect picture of the difference in performance between an Intel chip running Windows, an Android phone with a Qualcomm processor, and an iPad with Apple’s…

For modern Mac users, the imminent demise of venerable QuickTime 7 is unlikely to ruffle too many feathers. After all, the media player lacked the simplistic elegance of successor QuickTime X, despite richer codec support and pro capabilities like the ability to add and remove audio tracks. Worse yet, Apple has yet to bring feature parity to the updated QuickTime Player a decade after its introduction. This glaring oversight paves the way for third-party Mac media player apps like JustPlay, a lightweight alternative capable of playing nearly any kind of video or audio you can throw at it, from Apple-friendly MP4 and MOV (including ProRes) to pesky AVI and MKV files, all without conversions or installing codecs. JACK OF ALL PLAYERS Hardware-accelerated decoding provides fluid playback of HD, 4K, and even…

If you’ve got an iPhone, September 19 was a big day. It marked the release of iOS 13, which brought with it a host of new features, improvements, and app updates. You’ll be discovering new features for weeks to come, but these are ones you’ll want to try out first. 1. FIRST, SHOULD YOU EVEN UPDATE? Perhaps you’re reading this before downloading the iOS 13 update, trying to figure out if it’s worth getting now or waiting for a bit. There are always a few bugs here and there in new iOS releases, and they get ironed out in subsequent updates. For most users, the new features usually outweigh their inconvenience. And it could be a long time before a major revision is realeased—nobody wants to wait that long, right?…

When iOS 13 launched this fall, our iPhones and iPads got a huge upgrade. It’s packed with features and performance enhancements. And while things like Dark Mode and Siri enhancements grab our attention, maybe the best features of iOS 13 are all the things Apple is doing to help protect our privacy. Apple’s moved beyond just some sternly-worded updates to App Store policies. With iOS 13, privacy gets right up in your face. You’re going to be better-protected from apps and sites that try to suck up unneeded personal info or track you all over the web and the real world, and you’re going to get constant reminders about bad actors. Here are the most important new ways iOS 13 protects your privacy. SIGN IN WITH APPLE Google and Facebook have…

The Adonit Note is a decent if flawed Apple Pencil alternative for folks who wish Apple’s stylus didn’t look like a big, white drumstick. Instead, the $50 Note looks more like a ballpoint pen you might have swiped from a swanky hotel. Better yet, it even writes like one, and I’d be eager to recommend it for anything apart from artwork were it not for the boggling and frustrating placement of its power button. It even pairs easily: Just tap the point on any modern iPad screen and you can use it within seconds. The Note’s chief draw is that both the black and gold models look a lot like regular metal-barreled pens. Were it not for the unsightly Micro USB port for charging on the top, I’d have a…

TeamViewer is a powerful remote-access tool designed for large-scale use, and combining remote screen control, remote file access, and robust ability to share the observation or control of screens among users. It bundles in text, audio conferencing, and video conferencing, and a single-user license allows the remote control of unlimited computers. It’s also the most generous company out there where personal use is concerned. TeamViewer allows unlimited use of the full version of its software for non-commercial purposes, which the company offers a clear definition of (no direct or indirect revenue or business support). For personal users, it’s my number-one recommendation, because of the robust features supported. It’s also great for a single user with multiple desktops, whether for accessing on the same network or remotely. PRICEY FOR BUSINESSES Outside of…

Not every power outlet is a great fit for an in-wall or add-on smart outlet. If you have a bevy of equipment—such as that in an entertainment center—a multi-outlet surge protector is almost invariably in order. The good news for smart home fans is that the old-fashioned power strip has finally started smartening up as well, offering the same features you’ll find in the more common single- and dual-plug smart outlets. The latest of these to arrive is the Eve Energy Strip, which immediately makes a statement through its industrial design. A stark rejection of today’s antiseptic, plastic alabaster smart home products, the Eve Energy Strip is a veritable Death Star, with an aluminum frame decked out in black and chrome. The first bit of bad news: Like the Koogeek…

If you like thump, you’re bound to like Sony’s Extra Bass series of speakers and headphones. The name tells you exactly what the company is aiming for with the sound, and the SRS-XB32 fulfills the mission nicely—there is indeed, quite a bit of bass response. Whether it’s extra or not is a matter of taste. And here’s the kicker: The SRS-XB32 is waterproof. Its IP67 rating means it’s not only dust tight, but that it can safely withstand being immersed in up to three feet of water. That’s something I completely forgot while listening to it, due to the overall quality of its audio performance. Trust me, that’s never happened to me before. DESIGN AND FEATURES The version of the SRS-XB32 I tested was black and measured approximately 9.3 inches…

The Apple Card is now available to tens of millions of U.S. consumers. And it’s definitely getting plenty of hype. With that slick white titanium card, the purchase tracking, the security features—it’s easy to understand why you might want it. But it’s ultimately still a MasterCard credit card backed by a big multinational bank, and before you apply for it, you should really ask yourself these five questions. 1. CAN YOU ALWAYS PAY IT OFF? Do you intend to fully pay off your Apple Card every month, or will you run a balance? The Apple Card interest rate is between 12.99 and 23.99 percent, and that’s low for a cash back card, but it’s not at all low compared to other cards that don’t have rewards. The Apple Card interest…

Last year Google introduced Night Sight, a mind-blowing combination of camera hardware and intelligent image-processing software that allows photos taken in darkness to have amazing detail and color. Plenty of us wished Apple would respond right away with a feature of its own, but the company took its time and has only now replied to Google with Night Mode on the iPhone 11. I took an iPhone 11 Pro and an iPhone XS out into the dark streets of my hometown to see how Night Mode fares, since the lobby of the Steve Jobs Theater was too well lit to get a proper demo during the iPhone event. The results were impressive. Night Mode seems to have been worth the wait. HOW IT WORKS Night Mode works by using sensor,…

Apple has a bad reputation with maps. Seven years ago, Apple replaced Google Maps with its own Apple Maps service in iOS 6, and the rollout was nothing short of disastrous. Apple Maps was inferior to Google Maps in every way: features, stability, accuracy, performance—you name it. It took two years to really clear out the bugs, and Apple has spent the last several years languishing behind Google with a dated, less-detailed data set and a dearth of features. About the only thing Apple Maps has going for it is that it respects your privacy. With iOS 13, Apple Maps may finally turn the corner. Whether it will be a superior mapping solution to Google Maps remains to be seen, but the beleaguered service may finally close the gap enough…

If you were to ask people what they want in a new smartphone, they would probably say they want it to be fast, have a long-lasting battery, be nice and durable, and have a really awesome camera. It just so happens that’s what you get with the iPhone 11 Pro. It’s also what you get with the iPhone 11, which costs $300 to $400 less than the Pro. The Pro is certainly an upgrade, but it doesn’t do a lot to justify its “Pro” moniker or very “Pro” price. Still, the iPhone 11 Pro is a tremendous iPhone, with some noticeable (and not-so-noticeable) improvements over last year’s iPhone XS. As good as it is at what it does, it’s hard not to think Apple could have done more to…

LogMeIn provides straightforward remote access to a computer’s screen and files from a smartphone, tablet, or other computer. The company orients its approach around the number of computers available to control in a given account, rather than users. With the LogMeIn Pro flavor of the service, remote access can be installed on one or two computers. But an unlimited number of different users can access those computers. It’s the right option for a small business that has software with a single-seat license or with massive files installed on a computer, and which wants multiple employees who aren’t on site to have access, or to have crossplatform access. Subscriptions start at $30 a month (with annual billing) for access by unlimited users to up to two computers running the remote-access host software.…

One of Apple Music’s most obvious missing features has been the inability of subscribers to listen to their library, playlists, or radio selections without using the iOS app, Android app, or iTunes (soon to be Apple Music in macOS Catalina). Without a web-based experience, it was harder to play tunes from computers or mobile devices you don’t own, and sharing on social media felt limited. It was such an obvious missing feature that a recent unofficial web player attracted a couple hundred thousand users. Now Apple’s closing the gap between Apple Music and its competitors with an all-new web experience. At beta.music.apple.com, current Apple Music subscribers can log in and use most of the service’s core features. You can access all your playlists, radio stations, albums, and songs, and search the…

Anyone with even a passing interest in popular music has probably seen Marshall guitar amps sharing the stage with many of the world’s greatest rock bands. Since 1962, the iconic look and logo of these venerable road warriors has let everyone know there’s some serious guitar shredding on the way. More recently, Marshall licensed Sweden’s Zound Industries to manufacture headphones and Bluetooth speakers bearing the Marshall brand, including the Marshall Stanmore II Voice reviewed here. The “Voice” in the name indicates that it responds to voice commands, and it comes in two different versions: Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. I had the Alexa version for review. After some trouble getting everything working, the speaker sounded quite good, especially playing rock music. FEATURES The Marshall Stanmore II Voice looks just like the…

MOVING ABROAD? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR APPLE ID AND APP PURCHASES If you find yourself moving from one country to another, you will certainly bring some belongings with you (unless you’re an ascetic). But what of your digital goods? Items you’ve downloaded are typically transportable, but those that you’ve purchased and aren’t currently installed on a device you own could lag behind. Apple relies on a billing address for purchases across all its product lines—App Store, iTunes Store, and more—to decide in which country you reside. If you start in one nation and move to another, shifting your billing details along the way, you could find yourself locked out from some previous purchases. To shift the country of your Apple ID, you can follow Apple’s detailed instructions…