Indholdsfortegnelse for No. 234 i iCreate

“When the beachball appears you know that your productivity just ground to a halt” Beachballs should be for frolicking on golden sands without a care in the world, but in the Mac universe they signify something sinister and untoward, that your Mac’s processor is overloaded and struggling to perform even the most seemingly basic of tasks. When this happens that colourful, spinning beachball of death appears on the screen and you know that your productivity just shuddered to a premature halt. So what can you do about it? In an ideal world, go onto the Apple website and order yourself a shiny new M-1 Mac with the processing power to handle your workload with ease. However, if this simply isn’t an option due to your post-Christmas bank balance whiffing like…

DESPITE THE PANDEMIC, IT’S HARD TO LOOK AT 2021 AS ANYTHING BUT A SUCCESS FOR APPLE. WHILE THERE HAVE CLEARLY BEEN DELAYS TO FEATURES IN iOS AND THERE IS UNMET DEMAND FOR ITS PRODUCTS THANKS TO SUPPLY CHAIN PROBLEMS, ESSENTIAL PRODUCTS LIKE THE iPHONE 13 AND APPLE WATCH SERIES 7 SHIPPED ON TIME, AND iPHONE AND MAC SOFTWARE RELEASES LANDED IN THEIR USUAL SLOTS. SERVICES LIKE APPLE FITNESS+ AND APPLE TV+ CONTINUED TO ADD CONTENT TO THEIR EXCLUSIVE LIBRARIES THIS YEAR. If anything, it’s Apple’s software that has suffered the most in 2021, with tentpole features delayed or still absent heading into 2022. SharePlay, a feature no doubt pushed to the top of the development list because of the pandemic, shipped after many parts of the world had already lifted…

Photos Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Download available The most popular format for sharing a photo is the.jpg format file. A.jpg is easily viewable on social media sites and it doesn’t take up much storage space. The downside of a.jpg is that it is a compressed file, so lacks some information about its subject. This can lead to the appearance of artefacts when you edit the shot. With the advent of the iPhone 12 range, Apple introduced the ProRAW format. This creates digital negative (.DNG) files that are ten times larger than.jpgs. As a result, you have more information to work with in the editing stage, which leads to better looking photos. You can then share the edited RAW file as a.jpg. Edit ProRAW Edit with more quality and…

Garage Band Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed A popular criticism of digital recording is that it can sound quite dry, or processed. Often instruments are being recorded or sampled directly, rather than live within a natural environment. A key effect for simulating this is Reverb, and GarageBand bundles a broad array of options for adding it. Reverb is shorthand for ‘reverberation’ and is defined by the persistence or lingering of a sound even once the original source has stopped. It’s that airy ‘ambience’ you hear when you talk within an empty reflective room. It gives things fullness, warmth and a sense of dimension when used correctly. The Various ‘Verbs Highlighting where the many options for adding reverb effects can be found Master Reverb Located within the Smart Controls (B)…

Finder Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Pages, Numbers and Keynote enable you to work with one or more other people on the same document. Two, three or more people can all see, view and edit the same report in Pages, for example. Just use the Collaborate button and invite them, or use the Share menu options in Finder to share a file with them. To help you keep track of which files and folders you have shared with other people and what they have shared with you, there is a handy Shared option in Finder preferences in Monterey. It adds a Shared folder to Finder’s sidebar and selecting it enables you to see all your shares and the files and folders others have shared with you. Finder Shared folder…

Notes Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed When you need to take notes while working or browsing the web, it used to take multiple steps. You would have to find and click the Notes icon in the Dock, wait for Notes to open, then find and click the new note icon. Quick Notes in Monterey is so much quicker. Move the mouse into the bottom-right corner of the screen and Quick Note is activated. But what if you keep accidentally triggering it? What if you prefer a different corner of the screen? What if you could use any corner? Here’s how to customise it; it is a feature of Hot Corners, a setting that is easily overlooked in macOS System Preferences. Quick Notes settings Change how Quick Notes works Switch…

Maps Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Maps has contained guides for a long time, and they were good. Now they are even better, and Maps is not just for looking at streets and directions; it contains travel magazine-type content with articles about places to visit. The updated Guides Home is an editorially curated collection of articles that make Maps more of a source of information and entertainment than simply a map. Guides Home has featured articles in an Editor’s Picks section, an Explore Guides section with articles of interest, and a My Guides section where saved articles appear. This is an excellent update, and it is worth taking time to explore. Maps Guides Travel guides and articles in Maps Show the guides Open the Maps app and pull up…

Settings Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed It is never easy to talk about death but sadly it is a natural part of life. When you do pass away, however, what will happen to the data that you have amassed in your Apple account? Over the years, people have struggled to access such data when a loved one has died – it has usually required a court order and a ton of paperwork. Not any more. You can now designate who can access information such as photos stored in iCloud, email, notes, contacts, reminders, Messages, health data, and more. What’s more, your legacy contacts don’t even need to have an Apple ID or Apple device to apply for access. The main thing is that you let them know in some…

Planner? myCal PRO! Developer johnhair.com Difficulty Time needed Finding the perfect app for managing your month is an unusual task because the visuals will count much more than other aspects. Trying to cram 30 days of information into a screen – even a larger iPad screen – is far from easy, but when done right you will end up with a workable solution. You need to consider that some days will have multiple entries, so the use of colour will be important, and you also need to check for compatibility with your preferred calendar service. Planner? myCal PRO! will not overburden you with features because it concentrates on presentation, and it feels like an advanced solution on the iPad despite its simplicity in use. We will show you how to…

watchOS Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Most Apple devices contain a lot of personal information about you, your friends and your family. Macs, iPhones and iPads are also used for banking, sending messages, shopping and organising your lives. Even if your device contains no data, such as your AirPods, they are still expensive. Misplacing or losing any of these leads to a horrible feeling. Upgrade your Apple Watch to watchOS 8, however, and you can use the Find Devices app to locate any lost, stolen or misplaced devices. If they are online, your chance of being reunited very quickly is high but even if they are offline, you’ll get an idea of where you last left them – and, if they are turned on, you’ll be able once again…

£139/$159 Key features Bluetooth AAC, SBC Audio Codec • Hybrid ANC • Six hours of playback Learn more denon.com Available from amazon.co.uk WHAT TIME DO YOU CALL THIS? Denon is undoubtedly late to the party by only just launching its first two models of wireless earbuds into a hugely competitive market, but the hesitation displayed is instantly vindicated as soon as you pop them in and start playing music, because they sound and feel great. As well as the AH-C830NCW Noise Cancelling Earbuds, reviewed here, Denon has also released a cheaper version in the AH-C630W Earbuds, which don’t come with noise cancelling. Both sets come in black or white colour options and take Denon’s sumptuous signature sound and projects it deep into your skull. “Activate ANC to silence background noises…

Release date: August 2004 • CPU: 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5 970FX • GPU: nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics processor with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM • Memory: 256 MB of 400 MHz PC-3200 DDR SDRAM • Storage: 80 GB • Display: 17-inch, 1440x900 widescreen 16:10 matte display • Connectivity: AirPort Extreme 802.11 b/g (optional), 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, 56k V.92 Modem, Bluetooth 1.1 • Inputs: 3x USB 2.0, 2x FireWire 400, Audio input/output • Video out: Mini-VGA • Maximum OS: Mac OS X 10.5.8 ‘Leopard’ • Original price: £919/$1,299 • Price now: £54/$69 Following up the ‘zany’ lamp-like design of the iMac G4 was never going to be easy (or rather, actually, it probably was), but Apple nailed it with the G5’s all-in-one design that is still prevalent in modern iMacs…

David Crookes Our iOS expert will show you how to record your app activity on your mobile devices, install and remove apps using the search bar, and dial down the bass on your HomePod. Shaun McGill Our tech expert will show you how to use apps to catalogue your collections. Whatever you’re passionate about collecting, there is an app to document and manage it! George Cairns Our creative genius will show you how to shoot and edit in Apple ProRAW format, create video montages to share on social media and use fancy camera trickery in Final Cut Pro.…

iMovie Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Download available One way to turn a family activity into an eye-catching social media post is to take advantage of your iPhone Camera’s various shooting modes. By switching between lenses, you can capture a wide establishing shot and then zoom into a close-up of the action without changing your position. By shooting in Cinematic mode, you can add a Hollywood polish to your post, while filming some shots in slow-motion lets you present seasonal events in a fresh and fun way. All these modes give your sequence extra editing choices in iMovie (such as adjusting background blur in a Cinematic mode clip). Seasonal sequences Use a variety of iPhone shooting modes Cinematic mode The iPhone 13 range provides the option to shoot in…

Logic Pro Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Download available As an audio editing tool, Logic Pro is pretty much unsurpassed, offering an amazing set of tools for manipulating audio files. Occasionally though, you come up against situations that require a little jiggery-pokery to get the job done, as a solution might not be obvious. One such scenario is when you need to edit multiple audio regions on separate tracks that have been recorded simultaneously, such as a multi-mic’d drum take. How do you avoid having to make a set of edits on one of the tracks, only then to have to repeat those same edits on all the other tracks? Read on to find out… Group focus Lock together and edit multiple tracks simultaneously with groups Groups active You…

Reminders Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Smart Lists is a recently added feature to the Reminders app; if you’ve used Smart Folders in Finder you’ll be familiar with the idea. A Smart List is like a search/filter that shows only those items that match certain criteria. You can view reminders that have been flagged and reminders that have been scheduled with a date, but how do you show reminders that are both flagged and scheduled? With a Smart List. That is one example of a Smart List using rules to display reminders. Rules are like, if a reminder has this attribute and that attribute, then show it. Smart List rules are useful. They enable you to see only the reminders you want. Master Smart Lists Create Smart Lists for…

Settings Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Focus modes are a big new feature in macOS Monterey, but Downtime, which is in older versions of the OS, has also been tweaked and is now even better. Focus and Downtime have similar objectives and they both aim to reduce distractions when working or doing other activities on your Mac. Set up Downtime and enable it whenever you need to concentrate on a task, such as work, and avoid distractions. Enable a Focus mode at the same time to make it even more effective. What is the difference? Focus modes stop other people distracting you, whereas Downtime prevents you from engaging in distracting activities. Downtime settings Set up Downtime to limit distractions Choose allowed apps Downtime prevents distractions when working or during…

Settings Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed It has taken a while but Apple has finally rolled out the full version of its App Privacy Report. Up until now, iOS 15 had only allowed you to record app activity and you needed to download a JavaScript format data file to actually see what was being collected. With a friendly user interface now being used as of iOS 15.2, the feature sure is an eye-opener. Although most apps have a legitimate need to access data, the sheer number of analytics domains being visited may prompt some privacy concerns. We were surprised, for example, that one popular British newspaper had contacted 768 domains over two brief visits to its website. What’s going to raise concerns for you? Let’s take a look at…

Home Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Sometimes a heavy bass can be rather overpowering, more so if it’s located in a small room. To help, Apple has now introduced the ability to reduce the bass on a HomePod or HomePod mini with a flick of a switch – preventing ultra low frequencies from filling the air while also lending support to the original device that still rocks a great sound three years after it was first introduced. To benefit, you must update your HomePod to version 15. Do so manually by launching the Home app on your iPhone or iPad (running iOS/iPadOS 15), tap the House icon, select ‘Home Settings’ and hit ‘Software Update’. It’s a good idea to activate the ‘Install Updates Automatically’ option. Control your songs in…

Home Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed As well as being perfect for listening to music and asking Siri to dish out facts, the HomePod – and new HomePod mini – can now make use of an Intercom feature. Also working across iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, AirPods and CarPlay, it allows you to send dictated voice messages between devices connected to your network. You can put a general callout to family members and have a message appear on every device or you can limit it to particular rooms or people. The feature is included in iOS and iPadOS 14.2 and later. If you want to use it on the HomePod, you’ll need version 14.2 or later. Listen to an Intercom message Receive and listen to an Intercom message on your…

Apple TV Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Being able to watch movies and TV shows on your iPad is a joy and, over time, Apple has made it easier for you to find great content. Its Apple TV app not only lets you enjoy some wonderful shows via the Apple TV+ streaming service – it also brings together content from providers such as Disney+. It means you don’t necessarily need to hop from one app to another, allowing you to simply kick back and watch. With iPadOS 15.2, however, the look of Apple TV has been brought into line with other favourite apps such as Safari and Music thanks to the switch from tabs to a sidebar. The change doesn’t just affect iPadOS 15.2, though. Launch Apple TV on…

tvOS Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Folders have been available in tvOS since version 9.2, but if you’ve only just got yourself an Apple TV device or if you were simply unaware of the feature, now is a good time to start making use of them. By spending a few minutes setting up folders, you will make life easier in the long run. You’ll be able to find what you’re after more quickly because you can bring related apps together. Folders also enable you to declutter your Home Screen. The principle is much the same as folders on your iPhone or iPad. You can also rearrange the order of apps in a folder, move folders around the Home Screen and rename them to ensure they’re more identifiable. Here, we…

Download available Tutorial project files All the assets you’ll need to get creative with our projects. Look out for the above icon to see if there are downloads available. Exclusive video tutorials Discover how to get more out of your devices with a selection of iOS and macOS video guides from MacMost. Loads of other cool stuff! Customise your Mac with stunning wallpapers, grab some royalty-free fonts and watch more how-to guides. Log in to www.filesilo.co.uk/icreate Register to get instant access to this pack of must-have creative resources, how-to videos and tutorial assets Free for digital readers too! Read on your tablet, download on your computer The home of great downloads – exclusive to your favourite magazines from Future Publishing • Secure and safe online access, from anywhere • Free…

The number one reason why readers seem to get contact us is for assistance in speeding up a sluggish Mac. Sometimes, Mac slowdown is caused by misbehaving apps, or even a problem with macOS itself, so over the following pages we’ll explore all of the proven methods of speeding up your Mac and banishing that spinning beach ball of death (caused when your computer hangs when trying to complete a process) for good. Before we get into the nitty-gritty though, there are a few quick and easy things you can do that may have a profound effect on how your Mac performs. (1) Start off by restarting your Mac. Many of us keep them running for months on end and a quick restart will flush out old cache files and…

Final Cut Pro Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Download available Final Cut Pro has all the post-production tools you need to turn one person into twins or even triplets. By using a split screen effect you can have two versions of the same person on screen at the same time. The Keyer effect enables you to remove a green (or blue) backdrop to reveal a third version of the same person on the layer below. By animating the split screen’s mask you can make one person appear to pass an object (such as a pack of cards) to their duplicate which makes them interact. As a finishing touch we’ll show you how to give the locked-off composite footage a handheld look. Animated split screen How to move a mask’s…

macOS Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed We’ve been able to work in Split View on the Mac ever since Catalina, but the feature has been improved with each macOS update. Split View is the Mac’s version of the iPad’s Split View and it is useful for making the most of a small screen, such as 12 and 14-inch MacBooks. Split View enables you to divide the screen down the middle and have one app fill the left half and another fill the right half, maximising the space for each app. In Monterey you can choose to show or hide the menu bar in full screen apps and you can more easily swap Split View apps. There is also a hidden menu to explore. Window management menus Move or tile…

Books Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed The Books app on the Mac has lagged behind the iOS version when it comes to adding new features. It was the forgotten app. Then Apple decided to refresh and update the Mac Books app and bring it bang up to speed with all the latest features that have been available elsewhere. It’s time to see what is new. For instance, there are new views available, like Reading Goals, Want to Read and Reading now. These were previously only available on iOS devices, but now you can access them on the Mac. Books is synced, so you may find it easier to configure, shop and search on your Mac even if you use another device for reading. Search Books Find things quicky &…

DesignEvo Logo Maker Developer PearlMountain Technology Co Difficulty Time needed There are two main problems that quickly become apparent when trying to build a new logo. The first is coming up with an idea in the first place (for which inspiration is often needed) and the second is being able to implement the idea. DesignEvo Logo Maker solves both problems by offering a simply styled app that allows you to focus completely on the imagery you are designing, with more than enough features to let you experiment. There are many components and examples built in which you can combine, and loads of text options to ensure an end result that is consistent with your brand. A simple interface Everything you need is held within a clean space Tweak your originality…

Maps Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Apple Maps on the iPhone has been improved in iOS 15 and some great new features have been added. One of these is the globe and this enables you to zoom out much further than before. In fact, you can zoom right out to a point in space just beyond the Earth and you can see the whole planet from orbit. You can spin the globe around and see the Earth from any side or from over the poles. You can even see where it is night and day around the world, and the glow of city lights can be seen in the night-time as you zoom back in. It is very clever and a lot of fun exploring the world through the…

iOS 15 Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed With iOS 15, Apple has made it easier to install apps – both those that you have never used before and those that you have used but since removed. By cutting out the need to head to the App Store and search for apps there, the feature is a great time-saver. It also allows you to quickly locate an app on your iPhone without having to swipe through numerous screens, look through folders or scour your App Library. It’s such a simple, yet effective tool. Here, we take a look at how you can get the most out of it, while also showing how you can manage your apps in general. Keep on top of your apps Apps can be removed from…

In an ideal world, we would profess our love for long-suffering partners on a daily basis – showering them with compliments, physical affection and maybe the odd gift, but if not then Valentine’s Day comes but once a year to cmd+force us to celebrate the great love of our life. Often we bemoan the crass commercialisation of it all, but any attempt to downplay the significance of the day and, in a worse-case scenario, simply not bother, could have a catastrophic effect on your relationship, if not immediately, then certainly further down the line. Luckily, you can rely on iCreate to dig you out of a heart-shaped hole of your own making by utilising one or more of the following recommended apps to help make your partner tolerate you for…

Apple Watch Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Since the new Watch Series 7 has a screen that’s 20 per cent larger than the Series 6, Apple has decided that it’s finally time to squeeze a Qwerty keyboard onto the display. Given it’s a layout familiar to us all, it makes it easier to enter text. What’s more, to ensure even the stubbiest of fingers can use it, Apple has incorporated a feature called QuickPath, which lets you swipe from letter to letter. Here, we take a look at how it works as well as some of the alternative input methods, which you can continue to use. To make life even easier, Apple has also incorporated on-device machine learning so that the next word can be anticipated based on the…