Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2018 i MacLife

IN LATE 2017 Greenpeace ranked Apple the best of the world’s major consumer tech companies for sustainability. (Overall Apple came second only to Fairphone, a small Dutch company whose sole purpose is producing sustainable smartphones.) Apple’s 11th annual Environmental Responsibility Report, covering fiscal year 2017, provides details of its deep commitment to renewable energy, reduced emissions, and sustainability. ENERGY USE In early 2018, Apple announced, it achieved a major energy milestone: all of its facilities worldwide are powered with 100% clean energy. This includes all of its retail stores, offices, data centers, and co-located facilities in 43 countries, including China and India. In addition, 23 of its suppliers and manufacturing partners in more than 10 different countries have committed to power all their Apple production with 100% clean energy. To…

PAPER HAS BEEN a part of the human experience as far back as 2nd century BCE in China. It spread to the West in the 13th century, then blossomed in the 19th century thanks to industrialization. These days, however, paper is experiencing a decline. Computerization and the internet have replaced some of paper’s purpose. But we are also, finally, entering a time that was previously the realm of sci-fi: actual, usable digital paper. Since its launch in 2010, the iPad has been on a rollercoaster. Sales numbers were promising in the beginning but have fluctuated since. Not helping matters, good software support from Apple and third parties was a mixed bag for a while. But with iOS 10 and 11 — as well as the impressive iPad Pro line and…

Wrestling with Pages, Numbers and Keynote? Here are some top tips to help make them easier to use. 1 FIND KEYBOARD CHARACTERS In System Preferences’ Keyboard pane, tick ‘Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar.’ — click the icon it adds to the menu bar and choose Show Keyboard Viewer. In the virtual keyboard that appears, hold Ctrl, Opt, Cmd and/or Shift (individually or in combination) to see which keys to press to use special characters. 2 FIND ADDITIONAL SYMBOLS Press Ctrl+Cmd+Spacebar to show a panel containing a whole bunch of special characters. Use the categories across the bottom to explore, or type in the search bar for a character’s description, such as ‘sad’ or ‘fraction.’ Double-click any character to paste it at the insertion point’s position in your…

The Dock has a number of options that can make it even more useful, yet they aren’t available in its System Preferences pane. To access them, you’ll need to use either Terminal (/Applications/Utilities) or try TinkerTool (see below). Before you begin, make sure you have a recent backup of your entire system — Terminal is very powerful, and could muck things up unless you’re very careful. Also backup the Dock’s current settings: in Finder, hold Opt and choose Go > Library. From the folder that opens, copy com. apple.dock.plist to another folder. To undo the changes, copy this back to the original folder, replacing the one you changed, then open Terminal, type killall Dock, then press Return. 1 RECENT ITEMS IN THE DOCK For faster access to apps you use…

You can change Control Center’s contents in Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls. To use the following shortcuts, apply a firm press if your device has 3D Touch, or hold a finger on the control for a moment. 1 APPLE TV REMOTE You needn’t reach for your Siri Remote when your iPhone or iPad is at hand. Tap Control Center’s Apple TV button for a touchscreen trackpad and Siri button. 2 SCREEN RECORDING This is useful for sharing iOS tips and gameplay. Tap it to record to the Camera Roll, or press to pick one of your apps that can broadcast live, such as Facebook. 3 CAMERA This provides a quick route to take a selfie, record a regular or slo-mo video, or take a portrait photo. 4 WALLET…

1 iPad flicks If you’re using iOS 11 on an iPad (excluding the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, unless you’ve set its display mode to Zoomed), use the Key Flicks feature of the on-screen keyboard. This lets you type symbols without switching keyboard layout: flick downwards on a key to type the second character shown on it. 2 Clear all notifications On an iPhone with 3D Touch, you can get rid of several alerts in Notification Center in one go. To clear only that group, press firmly on it to reveal a Clear All Notifications command. 3 Check Pencil’s battery level If you use an Apple Pencil, your iPad warns you when the Pencil’s battery runs low. To stop this happening at an awkward moment, swipe right on the first Home screen,…

1 Get started You can download extensions from safari-extensions.apple.com or from third-party developers’ websites. 2 Find extensions Use the Safari Extensions Gallery’s search field (top right) to search for the specific extension you want, or browse by category. 3 Install an extension When you’re ready to install an extension, it’s super-simple: just click ‘Install now’ to download and install it. 4 Manage in preferences You can disable or remove extensions you’ve already installed using the Extensions tab in Safari’s preferences.…

BUYING STUFF ON a Mac can be complicated — especially when you’re trying to keep track of online offers and bargains, and create wishlists of your favorite items. It’s enough to give you a headache. These Safari Extensions are the perfect antidote. Shoptagr bit.ly/shptgr If you want to make a shortlist of ideas before you buy, try Shoptagr. It lets you tag products, tells you when prices fall, and you can access it across devices. Parcel bit.ly/prcltbs Instead of having a million shopping sites open, Parcel can consolidate them into one tab. You can then sort them into categories and track budgets, too. Honey bit.ly/hnycpns Honey automatically applies coupons when you go to buy something, shows you the cheapest seller on Amazon, and gives you cashback on things you buy.…

IF THERE’S ONE thing you need to guarantee when using Safari, it’s your security. It’s easy to get complacent when using a Mac, but they are still vulnerable to attack from malware. TrafficLight by BitDefender (bit.ly/traflght) gives you real-time protection that actively blocks suspicious websites and those known for peddling malware and phishing attempts. It also shows you if a website is trying to track you. If you’re not so keen on tracking in general, DuckDuckGo (bit.ly/safddgo) is for you. Its search engine doesn’t track your browsing habits, and comes with built-in encryption and a privacy grading system for websites. Finally, if you’re struggling to remember your online passwords, or just want to create ones that are more secure, try the LastPass password manager extension (bit.ly/lstpassex).…

Free (IAPs) From Epic Games, epicgames.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 11 Usually, it’s incredibly hard to recommend a shooter on iOS, since they tend to be riddled with quirky control systems, odd compromises and always pale in comparison to their Mac/console brethren. But that’s certainly not the case with the iOS port for Fortnite. Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, Fortnite — or Fortnite: Battle Royale to give the mode its full title — is a multiplayer game that’s dominated consoles and PC gaming for the last six months or so. It pits you against 100 other players, either alone, or in a team of two or four, and tasks you with staying alive until the very end. You start in a bus that drops…

$5.99 From MyScript, myscript.com/nebo Made for iPad, Apple Pencil Needs iOS 10.0 or later If you have an iPad and an Apple Pencil, it’s easy to be seduced by MyScript Nebo. This is an app that not only recognizes handwriting, but even managed to comprehend this reviewer’s barely legible scrawl. And while scribbling, you can quickly format text, use gestures for basic editing, add diagrams, jot down sketches, and get your math on by writing out equations. The app can optionally show what it thinks you’ve written, enabling you to make corrections when you scrawl ‘Macintosh’ and the app translates that as ‘Mmmm’. At any point, output can be converted to typed form, or exported to text, HTML, PDF or Word. That’s great if this is all you want. But…

Free (IAPs) From Jozef Legeny, eventailapp.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 11 An answer to the question of just where the iOS Calendar widget has got to, Eventail does nothing but sit on your Today View and display the data — up to five days’ worth of events — for whatever calendar you’ve hooked it into. Most of the action, therefore, is on the Settings page, opened just like any other app by tapping its icon. From here you choose the calendar to use, customize the widget’s text size, and decide whether past events are still shown. The free version is limited in comparison to the Pro version — which is $1.99 via IAP — but not to the point of being unusable. Upgrading to Pro unlocks a full…

Free From Ahmad Almutairi, infiniteks.com Made For watchOS, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10.3 or later Although Nokia is rightfully credited with making Snake a mobile sensation around the globe, in reality the video game dates back to the arcade days, with the concept debuting in Blockade more than two decades earlier. But there have been hundreds of variants in the years since, including several for watchOS. Snakes Feed is one such app where the player controls a green square that becomes an ever-expanding snake any time you gobble up one of the red squares. Gameplay is controlled by turning the digital crown, which takes a bit of practice at first. Like many Apple Watch games, this is a silent time-killer — there’s no music or sound to liven…

$19.99 From MapPin Software, map-pin.com Needs macOS X 10.8 or later Not everybody plays music on iPods. You might have a cheap Android player in the car, or you might have a high-res network audio player such as a Sony NW-A35. Whatever the way, if you’ve ever tried to export from iTunes to a non-Apple device you’ll be well aware of what an absolute pain it can be — especially if your library contains a variety of file formats beyond the ubiquitous MP3. Wouldn’t it be great if an app could look at your iTunes library, convert it into whatever format your digital music player desires, organize it the way you want it organized and get rid of any incompatibilities? That’s exactly what Dapper delivers. The easiest way to use…

THERE WAS a time when new technology was all about making it so that we could do things we couldn’t do before. Carry a computer anywhere; record video without needing a business loan; browse the real web while on the move… but we started to hit the limit. I don’t do 90% of the things the Mac I’m typing this on can achieve. I think I have reached the peak of “doing new things the ads tell me I can.” Now, I crave things that will save me time. Or take away a boring task. Or fix some kind of anxiety. Buying a set of Nest Protect fire alarms was one of the best decisions I ever made, even though (or maybe because) I kind of never use them. They…

1 Browse all Versions If an app supports Versions, its File menu will contain a ‘Revert to’ submenu. Open a doc and choose File > Revert to > Browse All Versions. You’ll see the current version on the left; go to the part from which content is missing. 2 Find what’s missing Click the right window to bring the previous version to the front, then scroll to the relevant part of the doc. If what’s missing isn’t in this version, step back through older versions. When found, select the text and press Cmd+C. 3 Bring it back Click the current version on the left and place the insertion point where the missing content should go. Press Cmd+V to paste it there. To exit the browser, click the Done button. Press…

IT’S HERESY, WE know, but sometimes Apple’s way isn’t the best way all of the time. Your favorite sites may shun Safari, or you might want to sync with web browsers on PCs. You might want features Mail can’t provide, or to match the apps you use on iPhone. Or you might need more PDF power than Preview has. Luckily, you can change the default handlers for websites, email and files of all kinds. The bad news is that it isn’t always that obvious how you go about it. In this tutorial, you’ll discover how to replace Safari with Chrome, say goodbye to Mail, set the default for calendars, and change the default apps for handling particular kinds of files. And if you change your mind and want to go…

PAGES IS A great document creation and editing tool, but chances are you’re probably working harder than you need to be. If you find yourself putting the same things into document after document, it’s time to create a template. You can’t save a document created on iOS into the same device’s template library as you can on a Mac, but you can create complex ones on a Mac and copy them to your iPad. We’ll use iCloud for this, but Mail works too. There’s also a workaround when there’s no Mac to hand. You can create a standard layout on iOS, save it and then duplicate the document when you want to use it. That leaves the original untouched and a new copy that contains all the bits you want.…

WWDC 2018 (the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference) is almost upon us, and it’s an exciting time of the year where we get to see what new and amazing tech Cupertino has up its sleeves. We’ll leave the big reveal until next issue, but in the meantime we’ve got plenty of great stuff going in this month’s mag to keep you happy. One of the biggest takeaways from the ongoing reader survey is that a lot of you really want to see more tips in Mac|Life. This is totally understandable, since it’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to digest a lot of information about a particular topic. So, with that in mind we’ve gone all-out and I present to you our main feature this issue: a colossal 89 tips…

RESEARCHERS HAVE IDENTIFIED eight new security flaws in Intel processors, which could affect Apple devices. The flaws are essentially caused by the same design problem as the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities reported last year, so they’ve been dubbed “Spectre Next Generation” or Spectre-NG. German tech site heise.de broke the story but said it won’t publish technical details, so Intel can address the flaws first. It says Intel itself classifies four of the Spectre-NG vulnerabilities as “high risk” and the remaining four as “medium”. There is initial evidence that at least some processors from other manufacturers are also vulnerable. Reports say that one of the new flaws presents a “significantly higher” risk than Spectre, because it could allow someone to attack a host system (such as a cloud server) from inside…

APPLE’S LATEST DISPLAY innovations have been honored in the 23rd annual Display Industry Awards from the Society for Information Display. The iPad Pro’s ProMotion displays were named Displays of the Year, winning the award “granted to display products with the most significant technological advances and/or outstanding features” in recognition that they are the first displays in mainstream consumer products to deliver adaptive screen-refresh rates ranging from 24Hz to 120Hz. The judges said “The 120Hz refresh rate supports fluid scrolling, excellent response to touch via a finger or Apple Pencil, and smooth motion content. The ProMotion display technology is enabled by a new, high-performance oxide thin-film transistor (TFT), as well as newly engineered liquid-crystal materials and advanced photo-alignment materials.” The iPad Pro shared the award with Sharp’s 70-inch 8K LCD TV,…

YOUR MAC, IPHONE and iPad help you to get things done, but are you using them as efficiently as possible? Does the number of open windows make you avoid Mission Control in favour of a less graphical but reliable way of switching windows? When you need to focus, do you scroll up in Notification Center and turn on Do Not Disturb’s switch? Do you waste time formatting text copied and pasted from elsewhere to get it to match your documents? We picked three Mac and iOS experts to tell you how to do these and dozens of other tasks more quickly. Their advice will save you time across many aspects of your Apple devices — from improving the Dock to window management on the Mac; and from accessing key features…

Reopen closed tabs Press Shift+Cmd+T to reopen the tab you just closed (or window with all its tabs). Click and hold the Back button to see its history, and jump to an earlier page with one more click. Tab to tab To switch tabs using just the keyboard, press Ctrl+Tab to go one right of the current one, or Ctrl+Shift+Tab to go left. This also works in Finder, Pages and many apps that support tabs. Monitor downloads A new button appears at the top-right corner of Safari during downloads. Click it to monitor progress. Drag the popover away to keep it visible, rather than having to come back and click. Open multiple sites If you often use a group of sites for a task, add them to a folder rather…

Adding important apps to the Dock means they’re only a tap away on any page of the Home screen. On an iPad with iOS 11, the Dock is also only a swipe away (upwards, from the foot of the screen), even when you’re in an app. To add an app to the Dock, hold a finger on its icon until it jiggles, then drag it onto the Dock and let go; if it pings back to its original location, there’s no space left; the Dock can hold four items on iPhone, and between 11 and 15 on iPad (depending on the model). You can add folders to the Dock, too — but to make a new one (by dragging one app icon onto another), you’ll need to do it in…

1 Settings In iOS 11, Control Center’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth buttons merely disconnect from networks/devices, but the hardware remains available for features such as AirDrop to use. To turn them off to save power, go to their pages in Settings. Get there quickly on an iPhone with 3D Touch (6s or later) by pressing firmly on Settings’ icon; this app’s Quick Actions menu also links to Battery and Mobile Data. 2 Mail Mail’s Quick Actions include a direct route to message searches — two interactions instead of three or more — and a link to whichever mailbox is listed just below All Mailboxes. 3 Safari Jump straight to your Reading List or Bookmarks from Safari‘s icon, or open a new regular or private browsing tab, which will be ready for…

Maximize to fit Hold Opt and click a window’s green button and the window will resize to best fit its contents. To force a window to fill the desktop, hold Opt and double-click a corner Show hidden content To view something that’s been hidden by a content blocker, click and hold the Reload button in the search field, then choose Reload Without Content Blockers. Extension management The Extensions tab in Safari’s prefs tells you, from a privacy standpoint, what extensions can do. To keep an extension up to date, make sure its checkbox (bottom left) is checked. Quick notes There’s a quick way to make a note of pages you want to look at later if you don’t have Pocket or Evernote: drag and drop the page’s address from Safari…

Free (IAPs) From Agile Tortoise, getdrafts.com Made for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Needs iOS 11 Most apps serve an obvious, single-minded purpose and attempt to do that one thing better than the competition. Then there is Drafts, which looks like any other note-taking app on the surface but does oh so much more. While it’s not expressly designed for long-form writing, Drafts 5 is certainly capable of that, and for capturing a quick thought, making a to-do list, or jotting down ideas. Despite being the equivalent of a Swiss Army knife for text, Drafts 5 is as drop-dead simple to use as it gets: Launch the app and a cursor awaits, prompting you to begin typing. It’s what you do with this text once entered that makes Drafts so…

$5.99 From Chroma Noir, chromanoir.com Made For watchOS, iPhone Needs iOS 10 or later One of the coolest, and yet frequently overlooked, Apple Watch features is the ability to compose and snap photos remotely on your connected iPhone. It’s great for taking shots from a tripod or selfie stick, especially in low light when even the slightest camera shake could ruin an otherwise great picture. Those who prefer shooting with a third-party camera app don’t know what they’re missing out on — unless you’re using Halide Camera, that is. With the latest 1.8 version update (free for existing users), a new watchOS companion app is now part of the package, enabling iPhone shutterbugs to remotely frame shots, trigger the shutter, and set a self-timer for three, 10, or 30 seconds.…

1 SET THE ALARM With the connected iPhone on your bedside table, launch Sleep Cycle and use the digital crown to select a wake-up time; tap Start to begin tracking. 2 NIGHTY-NIGHT Sleep Cycle will dim the Watch display, showing current time as well as when your wake-up alarm is set to go off. Now get a good night’s sleep! 3 GOOD MORNING When you wake up, tap the Watch screen to call up the menu, then tap the Stop button to log last night’s sleep session in the accompanying iPhone app.…

YOU CAN’T BEAT the feel of fingers on proper keys, but you can definitely beat the price of Apple’s own keyboard covers. As we’ll discover in this test, you can get some very clever keyboard technology for considerably less than Apple charges. In this test we’re considering keyboards designed to fit 9.7-inch iPads. While many of the normal iPad cases here also support the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, they’re not specifically designed for it: they connect via Bluetooth, not via Apple’s Smart Connector (which is only present in iPad Pro models). Some keyboard cases, such as the Logitech and Griffin, will happily accommodate different iPads of the same screen size. Others don’t as the differences between apparently identical iPads can be significant: the iPad Pro 9.7-inch measures 0.24-inches deep, for example,…

ALL OF THESE cases are good, but they’re designed for different kinds of use. The Moshi is the most flexible in terms of iPad positions, but it also has the least pleasant keyboard to type on; the Griffin and Zagg are as tough as old boots but are about as pretty as old boots, too. Between the Griffin, InCase and Zagg we’d go for the Zagg, but they’re very closely matched; the Zagg just edges ahead thanks to its clever magnets and twin Bluetooth buttons. As a keyboard, though, the Logitech leaves the rest of the pack far behind. It has by far the most laptop-like typing experience and is the most comfortable for long sessions: and it’s the only keyboard case we’d recommend if you want to use an…

The tiny Raspberry Pi computer costs as little as $20 (including power supply and an 8GB microSD card), and there are lots of DIY projects online that show you how to use the Pi to control smart devices in your home. You can connect the Pi to an iPad and use the iPad as a screen, and even get the Pi to work with devices that use Apple’s HomeKit software. Alternatively, Logitech’s Pop ($60) is an easy-to-use ‘smart button’ that uses simple commands to control a variety of different devices, including lights, blinds, locks and even Sonos speaker systems.…

GETTING DEVICES TO RESPOND WITH SIRI If you want greater control over which devices respond when you say “Hey Siri”, or are just struggling with making the right one respond there are some useful tips on this subject at bit.ly/ml143ask1 IS YOUR APPLE DEVICE STILL SUPPORTED? Got an aging Mac, or an old iPod that you can’t let go of? Then it might be considered ‘Vintage’ or ‘Obsolete’ by Apple. Find out if this applies to you, and what happens to your support at this point at bit.ly/ml143ask2 APPLE WATCH MESSAGING PROBLEMS If you are unable to send or receive messages on your Apple Watch, this nine-step walkthrough should help solve the problem: bit.ly/ml143ask3…

macOS RECOVERY The Recovery system contains tools to help you look up info online when macOS won’t start, and to repair or reinstall the system. Learn more at bit.ly/mlrecovery SAFE MODE When you start your Mac in Safe mode, macOS performs extra checks and stops certain third-party software from running. See how to use it at bit.ly/mlsafemode RESET SMC & NVRAM These features handle low-level functions and store key settings for your Mac, respectively. Resetting them can fix various issues described at bit.ly/mlresetsmc and bit.ly/mlresetnvram HARDWARE ISSUES Your Mac includes tools that check for certain hardware issues without going to a Genius Bar. For Macs introduced in June 2013 or later, see bit.ly/mldiag, otherwise see bit.ly/mlahwt…

WITH THE LATEST minor updates to its Mac, iPhone, iPad and Watch operating systems, Apple has added brand-new features, and tweaked how some existing ones work. Arguably the most important are changes to the behavior of AutoFill in Safari, which might at first seem to make the feature less convenient. However, this alteration is all about balancing convenience and data privacy, and has come about as a consequence of some websites and online advertisers abusing features like AutoFill to acquire data through forms before you explicitly submit them. Remember the recent controversy over Apple imposing performance limits on certain iPhone models when their battery reached a certain condition? With the iOS 11.3 update, you gain control over that inhibitor, though by turning it off you run the risk that your…

WHETHER YOU’RE A jobbing designer, someone who enjoys working on flyers for a local club, or just a typography aficionado, you may at times spot a font you desperately want to identify. If you’re armed with an iOS device, WhatTheFont (free, App Store) can help. As shown in the step-by-step guide, this app can figure out where text is within an image, and will analyze the typeface of a word to provide you with a list of possible font matches. But it also has features we didn’t have room for in the steps below. First, you don’t have to shoot a photo — the button left of the camera shutter enables you to load an image already on your device (including ones you’ve saved from Safari or Mail). Also, if…

I have been a big fan of Apple since my first iPod in 2002. Shortly afterwards I bought the funky iMac and fell in love with the ease of use. While ‘free’ music was all the rage at the time, Apple figured out a way to make people pay the artist for their product instead of stealing it. When the HomePod came along I ordered mine the day it went on sale. I was always intrigued by the idea of a connected sound system, but didn’t buy Bose or Sonos because it didn’t play nice with my other gadgets; when Apple made one I bought it right away and I haven’t been disappointed. I find it so annoying to read negative stuff about one of our country’s greatest companies. I…

CIRCULAR WATCH COMING? The Apple Watch has a distinctive shape, but other shapes could be in the works: Apple has been granted two patents relating to watches with circular faces. It is tricky to fit rectangular pixel arrays into a circular shape without inactive areas around the edges and the risk of signal bottlenecks, but one of the patents details a system for solving these problems using curved and “serpentine” circuits. The grant of a patent does not guarantee shipping products, but when it was first launched the Apple Watch was aimed at the fashion market, with the expensive Watch Edition for high-end consumers. Since then the Watch has been pitched more at the fitness market, but a circular design, possibly as an additional option, could broaden the device’s appeal…

Hide apps temporarily You can hide an app’s windows without quitting it: Ctrl-click its Dock icon and pick Hide, press Cmd+H, or hold Opt when you click another app’s icon to switch to it. Or, use Cmd+Opt+H to hide all other apps. Jump between windows Save time jumping between windows in the same app: press Cmd+` (the key next to Z); repeat to go to the next or press Shift+Cmd+` to go to the last — helpful when repeatedly going between two windows. Maximize windows Clicking a window’s green button (top left) ‘zooms’ to what’s thought to be the best fit for its contents. To make a window fill the desktop instead, hold Opt and then double-click one of its corners. Minimized windows A window’s yellow button shrinks it into…

1 Text navigation aids Key combos enable you to move the text insertion point (caret) without using a mouse or trackpad. In TextEdit, Pages and many other text editors, use Cmd+Up Arrow to go to the start of the doc or Cmd+Down Arrow to go to the end. Cmd+Left Arrow or Cmd+ Right Arrow goes to the start or end of the current line. Opt+Left Arrow or Opt+Right Arrow moves back or forward by one word, Opt+Up Arrow or Opt+Down Arrow by a paragraph. Add Shift to these to also select text between the start and end positions. 2 Paste in style Save yourself having to reformat text after you copy and paste it from elsewhere into TextEdit or Pages. If you use Opt+Shift+Cmd+V to paste, the text will adopt…

1 For reference In an app, swipe up from the bottom to reveal the Dock. Press an icon until it grows, drag up, then let go to use that app in a floating pane. Flick the top line to swap sides, or to hide it off the right edge; swipe left there when it’s needed. 2 Side by side In an app, reveal the Dock and hold a finger on an app icon. Drag it to the left or right edge of the screen and let go to open it alongside the first app. Drag the divider to adjust the split, or on the line at the top of the app on the right to switch them around. 3 Watch away In FaceTime or when watching a movie, tap the…

Find text on a page To search for a word or phrase on a web page in Safari, either tap Find on Page in the Share sheet’s bottom row, or type in the search field and then tap the last item in the suggestions, under On This Page. Close all tabs It’s easy to lose count of the number of tabs you have open in Safari for iOS. Fortunately, a long press of the Tabs icon (two overlapping squares) reveals a Close All Tabs option, which indicates how many are open before you close them. Add to the Home screen Some online utilities and services aren’t available as standalone apps, but you can add them (or any regular web page) to the Home screen by tapping ‘Add to Home Screen’…

WHILE YOUR MAC can be a great tool for getting work done, it can also be a huge hindrance. All those distractions right at your fingertips can make it hard to concentrate on the task at hand. But it doesn’t have to be that way. With a few good extensions, you can keep distractions at bay and work much more effectively than before. Below are our top four picks — they’ll help you get more done and keep your mind focused on your browser, all with minimum effort. WasteNoTime bit.ly/wstntmtrckr Ideal if you often get distracted online, WasteNoTime tracks the sites you spend the most time on, and can lock down your access or block sites if you’ve been on them too long. Todoist bit.ly/tdstqckdd If you struggle to stay…

YOU MAY FIND that an extension you’ve installed adds a button to Safari’s toolbar. The more buttons you add, the more congested the toolbar can become. There’s a simple fix for that. Choose View > Customize Toolbar to remove or rearrange any button. Also, an extension may provide a toolbar button but not make it visible for you. Use this feature to check what’s available — the toolbar is helpful for ensuring you don’t forget about extensions you’ve installed. You can also add buttons for Safari features that aren’t shown by default, such as one for selecting part of a page to keep it visible in Dashboard. The iCloud Tabs button lists tabs left open on your other devices, without having to scroll down to them in the tabs overview.…

Free (IAPs) From Doo, scanbot.io Made for iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch Needs iOS 9.3 or later Even in this modern age, there’s a lot to be said for the power of paper. But while those documents are dependable and don’t need batteries, moving from dead tree to digital offers a bunch of benefits, particularly if your physical filing isn’t quite up to scratch. Scanbot, now on its seventh iteration and far faster at scanning than it once was, is the perfect iOS app to get it done: point your camera at a piece of paper, and it’ll turn it into a perfectly aligned, perspective-corrected PDF. And it does a tremendous job: even crumpled documents end up readable, and Scanbot is clever enough to compensate for shadows nicely. To do more…

Free (IAPs) From League of Geeks, armello.com Made for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch Needs iOS 9.1 or later Armello is a beautiful, well-made game that just does not suit the mobile platform. It’s a shame, since the care and attention that has gone into its making is evident, but the tiny screen of an iPhone is the least-suitable way to play this otherwise brilliant game. Armello is a digital strategy board-game, in which you play as one of several animal-thieves, attempting to take over the throne of the titular kingdom. The King is ill and slowly going mad, and you can usurp him in several ways: killing him; having the most Prestige — achieved through quests and killing other players — when he dies naturally; being even more mad…

$4.99 From iBear, ibearmoney.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 8.0 or later Smartphones and tablets enable consumers to keep tabs on their money even while on the go. Personal finance software is no longer chained to a desktop computer, which is great news for a generation that’s grown up without access to either a Mac or a Windows PC. Unfortunately, it’s not quite as easy to get started on mobile devices. Transactions can be manually imported from existing checking or savings accounts using OFX or CSV formats, but this is a particularly cumbersome option if you’re only using your iPhone or iPad. Money Pro solves this problem with online banking, which uses third-party service Salt Edge to connect the app directly to leading financial institutions and securely…

Free From Northcube, northcube.com Made For watchOS, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10 or later Apple Watch is good for many things, but it’s also becoming a player in the sleep tracker market. With a built-in microphone and accelerometers, no additional hardware is required — just wear your Watch to bed and let a connected app handle the rest. Sleep Cycle is an “intelligent alarm clock” that not only tracks your sleep patterns, but also finds the optimal time to wake you. With the latest update, watchOS support has been added, allowing the app to wake you up by silently triggering haptic taps on your wrist, rather than making sounds. The app also uses Apple Watch to detect snoring and nudge the wearer to change his or her position…

1 HOW BIG ARE THE KEYS? Keyboards are not created equal, and what’s fine for occasionally tapping away can be positively painful if you suffer from RSI. If you do, or plan to do a lot of typing, it’s a really good idea to try before you buy. 2 WHERE WILL YOU BE USING IT? A keyboard case that transforms into a stand for viewing media is really handy for plane or train tables where you aren’t spoilt for space. Some clever folding designs expect to be sat on a solid, flat surface, though. 3 IS THERE A PENCIL PLACE? If you have the latest iPad 9.7 or a Pro and you also have an Apple Pencil, does your chosen case have somewhere to stick it? It’s a little thing…

1 AMAZON ECHO DOT $49.99 amazon.com Apple’s HomePod is a great speaker, but at $349 it’s an expensive way to gain voice control of your home. The Echo Dot, by contrast, isn’t a speaker at all — it’s a microphone that you plug in to an existing speaker in order to use the Alexa voice assistant through it — and it’s a fraction of the cost of HomePod. 2 BELKIN WEMO INSIGHT SWITCH $44.99 belkin.com This smart switch really is smart, thanks to its ability to tell you how much power the device connected to it is using via its app. You can even switch the, er, switch on and off remotely — perfect for those panic-inducing moments when you think you’ve left the iron on at home. 3 ELGATO…

SAMSUNG QN65Q9F $3499.99 • samsung.com With spectacular HDR picture quality and powerful sound, this 65-incher has been hailed by reviewers as the best TV ever made. Such praise is thanks to Samsung’s QLED technology hitting its stride, producing the brightest, most colorful 4K picture to date — the only potential downside is limited viewing angles. INTESET INT-422 UNIVERSAL BACKLIT REMOTE $26.95 • amazon.com If you’re ready to swap the Siri Remote for something more traditional, here’s an affordable backlit universal option that works with Apple TV, Roku, Xbox One, and Kodi media centers. You can also teach it to control any infrared-compatible remote — truly one to rule them all.…

WHAT’S BEST TO FREE UP STORAGE ON MY IPHONE? In Settings > General > iPhone/iPad Storage there’s a detailed breakdown of how space is being used, listed by purpose. Below that, iOS may list recommended actions you can take, each with an estimate of the amount of space it could save. Offloading unused apps — a new capability in iOS 11 that enables you to remove an app but keep its docs and data on your device — and making use of iCloud Photo Library are usually the best options. IS THERE AN EASY WAY TO CUSTOMIZE MY IPHONE’S KEYBOARD? Two popular apps are SwiftKey (bit.ly/swftkey), which offers in-app purchases, and Google’s Gboard (bit.ly/googbrd), which is free but encourages you to use Google Search and to provide usage data. Both…

HOMEPOD CONTROL Open the Music app and tap the words at the top left until you reach the top level of the app, then tap ‘On iPhone’. Pick something to play, tap the AirPlay icon and choose your HomePod. You can skip tracks and volume by using the app’s on-screen controls, or turn the crown while on the Now Playing screen to alter HomePod’s volume. BEDSIDE MODE This mode, also called Nightstand mode, is now available when Watch is connected to power and in portrait orientation, not just landscape. The feature can be turned on in the Watch app on iPhone, under My Watch > General. THE SIRI WATCH FACE This face now shows your progress towards closing Activity rings, and when Apple Music mixes you have synced (in Watch >…

APPLE WATCH HAS always been a health and fitness device as much as anything else, but Apple has been careful to make sure that those features were accessible to everyone. Its status as your healthy conscience starts with the Activity rings. The Stand goal (blue) is designed to push you into standing up and moving around for at least one minute per hour, and to reach that target 12 times per day. The Exercise goal (green) pushes you to do 30 minutes of semi-vigorous exercise per day. Again, than doesn’t mean a half-hour jog — if you walk briskly, it will usually count, and that adds up over a day easily, provided you’re doing enough of it. You can’t adjust these goals at all, because they’re all about getting you…