Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i MacLife

Every year, a new version of iOS lands (alongside macOS — but more on Mojave in next issue’s magazine), and every year iPhones and iPads get a little bit better to use, with a richer, more intuitive experience. And now, here, we have iOS 12 — the latest, and possibly (in my opinion anyway) the best iteration that we’ve ever witnessed. But what makes this version deserving of your attention? If you watched this year’s Apple Special Event, you’ll have noticed — aside from a raft of new iPhones and the Apple Watch Series 4 (the full reveal is on p8) — during the presentation that Apple was keen to stress its focus on making the company more sustainable — one, by using 100% renewable energy to power its business;…

MOST EXCITING OF all is the all–new Watch. It has a new edge–to–edge display, more than 30% bigger than the screen in the previous series, but the body is thinner. The display is redesigned, with space for up to eight customizable Complications. You can add contacts on the Watch face and simply tap to connect with them. The speaker is 50% louder and the microphone clearer, for better phone calls. The digital crown is re–engineered to include improved haptic feedback. Inside, a new 64–bit dual–core processor is up to twice as fast. With next–gen accelerometer and gyroscope, Apple Watch Series 4 can detect if you fall, offer to call the emergency services, and even call them automatically and notify relevant contacts. There are advanced new health features including a new…

ONE OF THE biggest surprises during Apple’s September event was that the Watch Series 4 will have the ability to take an ECG. An electrocardiogram (also abbreviated as EKG) measures the electrical activity of the heart and can provide early warning of serious problems. Users around the world immediately tweeted examples of how their own or relatives’ heart conditions were either picked up by an ECG or could have been avoided if they’d had quicker access to one. The feature will detect atrial fibrillation, a fast and irregular heartbeat that’s often symptomless. ECG for Apple Watch users isn’t entirely new. AliveCor’s $99 Kardia Mobile band incorporates two electrodes on which the user places their finger to take an ECG, viewed in an app. Approved by the FDA a year ago,…

I’ve had every new iPhone from the first one to my current one, the 6S Plus. After the recent Apple event, I ordered the iPhone XS Max — in 512GB, and as soon as my reward points gift cards come in, I’m getting the new Apple Watch 4. However, what I really want to see Apple bring out is a HomePod with a screen on it. My wife and I love the screen with our Amazon Echo Show; we have it in the kitchen, and we watch all of our Amazon Prime shows while we cook! I have a great home stereo, so I don’t need HomePod for that, but imagine it with a screen and me able to tap into my Apple movie library? STEVE WADDELL While we quite…

THIS IS THE time of year when iOS devices get a raft of improvements and new features, thanks to a major software update. We’ve spent the summer bearing with the beta versions of iOS 12, investigating fresh features like Screen Time and scouring for new settings to bring you this complete collection of tips. iOS 12 works on all the same devices as iOS 11, and Apple boldly claims that it delivers performance improvements to older devices too. So, don’t be fooled by the images of iPhone X throughout this article, as many of these features apply to earlier models, with a few obvious exceptions, such as the new Memoji characters you can create to represent yourself in iMessage and FaceTime conversations. But, based on our time with iOS 12,…

PASSWORD PRACTICES OFTEN leave a lot to be desired, many of us reusing the same password in multiple places. If just one site suffers a breach, you run the risk of those credentials being tried on other sites to gain access to even more of your data. So, iOS 12 does a few simple things to encourage you to adopt better habits. When creating an account on a website, iOS 11 would ask if you wanted it to create a secure password, also offering the option for you to choose your own. The difference in iOS 12 is subtle. The phrasing in its dialog tells you it has gone ahead and generated a strong password, though it doesn’t submit it to the website or app until you allow it. You…

THE THIRD–PARTY app Workflow, which Apple bought in 2017, has been renamed Shortcuts and gained new capabilities. Other apps expose to it actions that can be taken within them. You stitch together a sequence of actions, potentially involving multiple apps, to achieve a task. These sequences can be run within Shortcuts itself, from the Share Sheet, from a Home screen icon, from Shortcuts’ widget in the Today view, or — like the one–step shortcuts that iOS itself suggests — by saying your specific chosen phrase directly to Siri. 1 THE GALLERY Unsure how to use the app? Simply learn by example. Tap Gallery in the bottom bar to browse downloadable pre–made shortcuts. Tap one, then Show Actions to see what it can process and the steps needed to fulfil its…

APPLE NEWS HAS a revamped interface in iOS 12. The changes are most impactful on iPad; using the new sidebar is now much faster. On iPhone, things are still organized in tabs, but three of them — Following, Search, and Saved — are known as Channels. There’s a new item in Settings > News: Always Show ‘Up Next’. On by default, it keeps the share, love/dislike, text formatting and ‘Next story’ link visible as you read. Turn it off and the controls are hidden to help you focus, and appear if you reach the bottom, scroll upwards or tap the top or bottom screen edge. 1 Your sources Today is analogous to the old For You tab. Below that is Spotlight, curated by Apple’s editors, and then your followed channels…

BATTERY LIFE IS always a big concern. Recognizing this, Apple has made the Settings > Battery page more visual to help. Additionally, it has extended the long–term view to ten days, which may help if you find your phone runs low on power on specific days as you can compare your app activity and routine on them. The data visualization has two parts: The top chart shows battery charge over time, and the bottom one shows activity from apps and services for each period. Below the new charts is a breakdown of apps’ energy usage, just like past versions. 1 LAST CHARGE LEVEL Not sure why the level is low so soon? Check the Last Charge Level row to confirm you didn’t remove your iPhone from its charger earlier than…

HERE AT MAC|LIFE we believe you should only buy the things that you really need, which is why our Reviews section is so important to us, and you. We don’t want you to waste time and money on inferior products, and while we aim to include only the best hardware and apps, occasionally we like to include products that look promising, even if they don’t always deliver. We only use carefully selected experts, with specialist knowledge in their respective field, so no matter which review you’re reading, you can be confident the person who’s tested it knows their stuff, allowing you to make an informed purchase. Each review is rated using a five–star system, with half stars, which is easy to understand because we give an explanation next to each…

We used complex documents to test compatibility with Microsoft Office, as Microsoft formats continue to dominate the world of work internationally. Every app would have to make the most of native macOS features to score well, while also making it easy for us to share our work with other users. Tests were conducted on a late 2012 Mac mini and early 2015 MacBook. PLUGGING THE DATABASE GAP Apple hasn’t had a consumer–led database since Bento’s demise, while Microsoft Access is also missing from the Mac versions of Office (as is Publisher). Try the cloud–based Obvibase (obvibase.com), which is free to use through any browser. > Test 1 Compatibility Working with Word and Excel files Google and iWork both did a good job of importing our Word document, correctly rotating text…

Free ($0.99 IAP to remove ads) From Too Much Smart, toomuchsmart.com/cropout Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 9.0 or later After taking a screenshot in iOS 11 or higher, you can tap on it and make quick edits, including cropping. One thing you can’t do, though, is what Crop Out enables: reverse cropping. Instead of selecting the part of your grab (or any other image) that you want to keep, you select a part to remove. We’ve often wished for this when screen–grabbing a blog post or newspaper article that’s interrupted by ads or ‘related content’ links. Load your grab into Crop Out, and it shows a horizontal band with handles top and bottom. Tap this and it turns 90 degrees with the handles at the sides, if…

Free (IAPs) From Headspace, headspace.com Made for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Needs iOS 10.0 or later Everyone is stressed, everyone is anxious, and we’re all barely holding ourselves together enough to make a living so that we can afford to buy ourselves ice cream because we’re stressed and anxious. Enter Headspace: a meditation app with over 8 million users and 43,000 reviews on the App Store, which asks you one simple thing: can you spend ten minutes every day meditating? Each meditation session is led by a calm–voiced, slow–speaking British man, who asks you to clear your mind and focus on the sensory experiences around you: the sounds of the office, the feel of your hands on your legs, the sensation of breathing deeply. His name is Andy Puddicombe,…

$3.99 From Jackadam, darksky.net/app Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10.3 or later This latest version of Dark Sky is curious in that it feels like the least distinctive take on the app yet, but it’s nonetheless the most successful from a user standpoint. Veterans may recall Dark Sky began by showing neon clouds rumbling over a dark map (hence the name), but this latest iteration is resolutely conventional. You get brightly colored icons depicting conditions, a map, and next–hour rainfall prediction in supported locations. The outlook sits on the same single-page scrolling view within a Forecast tab. Getting to an animated precipitation/temperatures globe now occurs by tapping the Map tab. You can now also save six locations and horizontally swipe between them, rather than dipping into search…

Free From Recurring Dream LLC, recurringdream.com Made For Watch, iPhone, iPad, iPod Needs iOS 11.3 or later Tip calculator apps were plentiful during the lucrative developer gold rush after Apple debuted the App Store in 2008, but as time has gone by, they seem to be dwindling. Worse yet, the quality of these apps has declined over the years, which is why we’re still rocking a longtime iPhone favorite, Bowtie, no longer available. The time may have finally come to retire that orphaned app at long last, thanks to Tipsy. This one is all about WatchOS though — open the app on iPhone and you’re greeted with the message, “Enjoy Tipsy on your Apple Watch” and nothing more. Unlike other tip calculators we’ve tried on Apple Watch, Tipsy gets almost…

GIVING CHILDREN THEIR own phones, tablets, or Macs poses a challenge for parents. You don’t want them using your account, but at the same time you don’t want to pay for the same things more than once either. Wouldn’t it be great if you could give family members access to that roomy iCloud storage plan, Apple Music, and the iTunes music, film, and TV show library you’ve slowly been building up for years? With Family Sharing, you can. As you’ll soon discover, it’s a feature that’s really easy to use and a real boon for families that have multiple types of Apple gear in the home. HOW TO SET UP FAMILY SHARING Setting up Family Sharing requires you to first sign in to your iCloud account on your Mac or…

TOO MANY COOKS spoil the broth, or so they say, but Ring’s huge list of features doesn’t harm its wireless security camera one bit. A huge amount of thought has gone into it, from the extras in the box — which include the exact screwdriver and drill bit you’ll need to mount it to the outside of your home — to the design of the unit itself. The battery compartment has room for a second (not included) battery to potentially double its life, and while it’s a large camera, the fact that it also includes a 110–decibel siren should be enough to scare off all but the most determined intruder before they get a chance to do anything untoward. We’re not in any way suggesting that the other cameras are…

HOW DO I CLEAR CACHED INFORMATION FROM SAFARI ON iOS? Go to Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data, and tap Remove All Website Data. This still leaves some residual data that could be recovered. You could use third–party utilities such as Umate, which do this when tethered to a Mac or Windows computer and claim to be more thorough, doing a deep clean of a device before selling it. However, we haven’t tested these ourselves. HOW CAN I RECEIVE URGENT TEXTS IF DO NOT DISTURB IS ON? Normally, Do Not Disturb silences all incoming messages. If the texts are coming from specific phone numbers — perhaps your boss, but not other colleagues — turn on Emergency Bypass for that person. Open their card in Contacts, tap Edit, then…

YOU WILL LEARN How the Secure Enclave in Macs and iOS devices can help protect your personal data APPLE’S SECURE ENCLAVE appeared as a hardware feature in 2013’s iPhone 5s, but the technologies behind it first surfaced in 2008. In that year, Apple filed a patent for user authentication by fingerprint recognition, illustrating an iPhone unlock screen as an example. Around the same time, ARM, the British chip designer, published a white paper outlining what would become TrustZone, a feature that allows sensitive data to be stored securely within a processor chip, protected by hardware–level encryption. These would form the two key ingredients of Touch ID, and then Face ID. Both companies knew this stuff was going to be important, and by 2012 ARM went on to form partnerships to…

JUST MOBILE TENC AIR Your iPhone X, XS or XR is too pretty to hide, so this Crystal Clear case, with hard back and cushioned corners, lets it show. $25, just-mobile.com INATECK USB 3.0 HARD DRIVES DOCKING STATION This dock isn’t the speediest, but slot in a 2.5 or 3.5–inch SSD and it’ll happily get data off a drive. $26, amazon.com RIMFORSA Sit this analog dock on your kitchen counter or hang it on the wall, and your iPad is just where you need it, landscape or portrait. $16, ikea.com…

Are you an AirPort advocate? The addition of AirPlay 2 to my Airport Express was a game changer. I have since bought two on eBay for $100 and now I can use old and thought–to–be obsolete Apple gear alongside the latest ones for a complete, affordable home sound system. STEVE GRADY I upgraded to AirPort Extreme in 2015 without ever an issue. I also bought a new Retina 5K iMac last December, and while I have no Wi–Fi woes in my house, I wonder if I am shortchanging myself by not getting the latest router. The problem is which to choose? So I just keep on with the trusty AirPort Extreme. KEN BARCKZA Where’s the AirPort version of mesh? I’m happy with my AirPort base station for the router near…

ARE YOU REALLY aware of how many times a day you spend picking up your iPhone to check on things? A few minutes here and there soon adds up, and because you may be disinclined to log this use manually, Screen Time can do it for you. This new feature enables those same devices to play a part in keeping gadget guilt in check. You can use it to: gain insights about your behavior; impose a soft limit that nudges you in the right direction when a daily quota runs out; and set a hardcore lockout that stops activity until a passcode is entered. Got a real gadget addiction? Get a friend to look after the code. This feature can also be applied to other members of your Family Sharing…

THERE’S A brand–new app in iOS 12, Measure, and it’s available on iPhone and iPad. The app uses Apple’s augmented reality tech, ARKit 2, to measure distance between points on flat surfaces. Third–party apps beat Apple to this task when ARKit was first introduced, so Apple has added an AR app in with iOS. To see more of what ARKit can do — at no cost — visit developer.apple.com/arkit/gallery in Safari. Browse a sample of 3D models, put them on surfaces in the camera’s view, then pinch to resize, twist to turn, and just generally move around them. 1 Find a surface You’ll be asked to move your device around, so the app can find flat surfaces in the view. A circular overlay will align with the detected plane and…

THE APP FOR making audio notes is revamped, and is finally on iPad! Its record button is easier to reach, on a black bar at the bottom of the screen, so on Plus–size iPhones there’s much less of a stretch. Built up memos you no longer need? Now when you tap Edit, you can quickly select as many as you want to clean up. When playing a memo, there are now Podcasts–style buttons for skipping 15–second increments, instead of having to drag the timeline. 1 Get started Though the record button is close to your thumb, you don’t actually have to tap it to start recording. Swipe upwards from the black bar. 2 Naming Recordings are named after your current location. Don’t want to organize your thoughts that way? Turn…

THE ABILITY TO mark up docs and images in any app where the Share sheet is available can be immensely useful, but the tools were a little lacking in options — until now! 1 Line thickness After selecting one of the three drawing tools, tap on it a second time to reveal new options. There are five line thicknesses and an opacity slider. 2 Opacity reminder You might see a tiny number displayed at the bottom of the selected tool’s graphic. That’s shown only when the tool is set to draw semi–transparent lines, letting you change if need be. 3 More colors! Do the annotation colors blend in with your document, or maybe you want something that pops a bit more? You’re no longer limited to six color presets. Tap…

$89 ($69 upgrade) From Realmac Software, realmacsoftware.com Needs macOS 10.12 or later RapidWeaver enables you to create a professional–looking website even if you’re an absolute beginner. And while it’s as user–friendly as any Apple app, there’s plenty here to delight power users too. With version 8 it introduces some important new features that makes it better than ever. First off, the redesigned interface is more streamlined and modern–looking, but the core design hasn’t really changed. If you’re a seasoned RapidWeaver user you won’t find it strange or startling — but you’ll love the fact that the app now saves your window setup so it’s ready to go when you next open it up. As before, RapidWeaver is built around templates. There are five new ones here including the pretty Artful…

YOUR CHOICE OF office suite used to be a no–brainer. Anyone who strayed from Microsoft Office was at risk of their spreadsheets and documents being unreadable by anyone but themselves, but no longer. Microsoft’s own formats are as close to an industry standard as we’re going to get, so even if you’re not working with them natively — you’re using iWork or Google Docs, perhaps — you can import, export, and share confidently. Microsoft is still the default choice in the workplace, but when iWork is so good and, like LibreOffice, completely free, it makes sense for Mac users to consider the alternatives. Conversely, as iWork ships with every new iPad and Mac, it’s almost too easy for Apple users to use it from day one without ever considering that…

PURELY ON POINTS, Microsoft Office and iWork are a draw. iWork is free so has an edge for home users and self–employed people who need to produce estimates, print invoices, and do accounts in a versatile spreadsheet will also find all they need here. It’s got good layout tools and supports a broad range of third–party formats, but wasn’t perfect on this latter point. If you need absolute fidelity in a business setting you may still want to consider Microsoft Office. That’s why, ultimately, we believe Office is worth the asking price. Home users can pay for Word, Excel, etc., for a one–off $149, or $70 a year to add in Outlook, OneDrive, and Skype calling minutes. It sports excellent collaboration features, which even in a small business allows teams…

Free (IAP subscription) From Digital Workroom Ltd, notedapp.io Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10 or later For those times you’re delegated to keep notes in a meeting, or if you want to record a lecture and actually remember what was happening on the whiteboard at the same time, Noted provides a way to annotate an audio recording with typed notes, tags, and photos. In use, its very simple. Create a new notebook, then a new note, and give it a title — say, the subject of the lecture you’re listening to. Hit the record button (giving the app access to your microphone if you haven’t already) and the timer starts ticking up as it records. Tap one of the icons along the bottom and you can annotate…

Free (up to five appointments per month) From WhenWorks LLC, when.works Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 11.0 or later One of the thankless aspects of freelancing is carving out time for meetings that still allows enough time in the day to get paying work done. WhenWorks is a universal iOS app that goes a long way toward better time management. Unlike most calendar services that require both parties to install an app on their devices, WhenWorks needs only the host to do so. Clients receiving an invite can respond via any web browser without signing up for or logging into an account. One benefit of the app is that it integrates directly with your calendar, so already scheduled busy times are automatically marked as unavailable. Simply create…

Free (IAPs) From Instapaper Holdings Inc., instapaper.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10.0 or later Instapaper has been a popular ‘read it later’ app for many years, but it’s been a rocky road recently. The developers split from parent company Pinterest, and the app was forced to cut off its European users after failing to comply with new data protection laws. This didn’t compromise the US version, of course. But this latest update is still a comeback, adding new premium features. The app is still free to download, and allows you to store web pages and articles, before sharing them across your devices to read at your convenience. But, if you tend to store lots of online articles, then you can take out a subscription for $2.99…

$3.99 From webbfarbror AB, holedown.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 8.0 or later Holedown will ruin your life. Holedown will consume your every waking moment. Do not play Holedown if you value your free time, because as soon as that infernal, perfect game gets its hooks into you, you are done. You will play it everywhere: on the train, in the John, while your first child is being born. You will become addicted to the simple, Breakout–style gameplay, in which you bounce an increasing number of balls into numbered blocks to smash them before they get to the top of the screen. There is a strange, compelling charm to the way Holedown works: the tiniest crack between blocks will become your focus as you try to bounce…

$1.39 From Pavel Hlavnicka, macness.com Made For iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Watch Needs iOS 10.0 or later Don’t get excited, this isn’t classic Asteroids adapted for your wrist. Instead, Asteroid Madness is a perfectly serviceable diversion that puts players in the cockpit of a spaceship heading deep into an asteroid field to rescue a team of astronauts floating amongst the dangerous space rocks. The graphics are quite good, and even the basic gameplay — you turn the digital crown to move the spaceship left or right — works just fine. It takes more than ramming a single asteroid to end your mission (but avoid them whenever possible); grabbing one or more boxes floating around will give you a brief boost of invincibility or other surprise. Though built from the ground…

We’ve found that there are two kinds of iCloud storage. There’s not enough iCloud storage, which tends to apply to the 5GB that comes free as standard with every iCloud account, and there’s too much iCloud storage, which is what you tend to see when you’ve upgraded to a paid–for plan. Family Sharing can spare your family the former by taking advantage of the latter. Sharing storage doesn’t mean sharing files. Everyone’s documents, photos, and files remain private and associated with only their own iCloud accounts. All you’re pooling here is the storage plan. Before you start, the organizer needs to have the correct storage plan. Family Sharing can take advantage of a 200GB or 2TB plan, and requires you to have iOS 11 or macOS 10.13 High Sierra or…

Location sharing offers two key benefits for parents. First of all, it enables you to use the Find My Friends app to see where your offspring are. That’s really useful if you’ve been hanging on before starting dinner, or if they haven’t turned up at an arranged meeting point. The feature also makes it possible to track down a missing iOS device by using the Find My iPhone app (or Find iPhone at iCloud.com). We use this often to ping misplaced iPhones and iPads that we know are somewhere in the house, but it’s also useful for remotely locking and even wiping a device that’s been lost or stolen. SHARING YOUR LOCATION Each family member can share their location with other family members from one iOS device at a time.…

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…

REQUIRES The Phone app, an iPhone 5c or later (for Wi–Fi Calling) YOU WILL LEARN The various options for managing calls on your iPhone IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes IT LOOKS BASIC at first glance, but the Phone app actually has a lot of useful extras hidden under the hood. Far from simply enabling one–to–one calls and nothing else, you can customize your calls with all sorts of handy options on the fly. For one thing, the Phone app isn’t selfish. By that, we mean you can easily switch to another app midway through a call — perfect if you need to look up some information that your caller needs, for example. There are handy controls to quickly mute your call or put it on loudspeaker. Your iPhone will even…

EXPANDING ON my topic from last month’s column, I want to reiterate the importance of Apple’s evolution and new transparency. Over the last three decades, the company rebounded from “we only had 90 days of money left” to become the world’s first trillion–dollar company — no matter how you slice it, that is an astounding accomplishment. But a company at the forefront of what is arguably society’s most broadly impactful field cannot scale that large without facing challenges. It’s difficult to contextualize Apple’s gargantuan success and size in layperson’s terms. Can you even fathom ‘a billion’ of anything, let alone a trillion? Apple has around $250 billion in the bank, and some of its individual products make more money than entire corporations. Flip this coin around, however, and this size…

MANY OF THE distractions you encounter each day come from notifications — that is, unless you take time to meticulously configure them in Settings > Notifications. Let’s face it: it’s likely you’ll be annoyed but quickly move on, only making changes if the interruptions are frequent. Even if your notification settings are just right, Notification Center and the Lock screen can become overcrowded. iOS 12 addresses these weaknesses to help you keep this invaluable but often irritating feature under control. GROUPED NOTIFICATIONS We’ve all had it: a Lock screen that’s filled with so many notifications that it’s hard to know where to begin. Things are a little neater and easier to deal with now, as iOS 12 groups notifications, stacking them up by app in a smaller space so you…

MACHINE LEARNING ALREADY makes your devices proactively helpful, like how app suggestions in Spotlight save you searching. Your devices work out what to show there based on what you do and when. However, iOS 12 takes this to the next level by suggesting much more specific actions you can ask apps to do. If you often call someone, request a route, and start a playlist on your commute, your device may recognize that. You’ll start to see shortcuts for these on the Lock screen and in Spotlight, saving you having to unlock your device and jump between apps all the time. You can control where shortcuts appear under Siri Suggestions in Settings > Siri & Search — the Lock Screen item is new in iOS 12. Don’t want a specific…

1 Make your Memoji In Messages, tap the Animoji button in the apps bar. In the gallery that opens, tap + (far left) to create a new Memoji. Skin color, hair, facial features and more can be tailored. 2 Create variations You can make multiple Memoji. If you only want to alter small details, like headwear, tap the ellipsis (…) under a Memoji in the gallery, pick Duplicate, tap the ellipsis again, then choose Edit. 3 Record yourself Like Animoji, Memoji track your face movements. Select yours in the gallery and tap the red button. 4 Add more personality Add cheeky expression to Animoji or Memoji — stick out your tongue or wink and the avatar will too. 5 Special effects Tap the camera icon in Messages, then tap the…

THE LATEST VERSION of Apple’s ebook and PDF reader brings with it a visual and navigational overhaul. Way back when iOS 7 released it stripped out skeuomorphic effects from its apps, though some analog aspects, like when you turned pages in iBooks, remained. iOS 12 reintroduces a small amount of that playful nod to physical media, adding a hardback spine effect to previously flat cover artwork. However, the big changes come in how you keep track of things you’re reading and what you’d like to read, and discover new books over time. 1 Reading Now The top row of this tab shows your most recently read book at the top left. To the right (iPad) or just below (iPhone) are covers of other books you’ve started. Tap any to pick…

1 Identify your tabs Make tabs easier to tell apart by going to Settings > Safari and turning on ‘Show Icons in Tabs’. They appear at the top of each item in the tabs overview. Also turn on Show Tab Bar to see them there. (On iPhone, it appears in landscape mode.) 2 Check data usage It’s easier to work out which apps use the greatest amount of your mobile data allowance. In Settings > Mobile Data, they are sorted in descending order of usage, not by name, so you can identify hogs without scrolling through them all. 3 Double Face ID Does Face ID fail to recognize you some days? It may be because you’re wearing different headwear than usual, for example. Register a second face scan in Settings…

1 COMPATIBILITY IS KEY Make sure your preferred office suite has support for Microsoft’s. docx and. xlsx formats at least. RTF (Rich Text Format) is also desirable. Spreadsheets should be able to import and export platform–agnostic CSV (Comma Separated Values). 2 MULTIMEDIA MATTERS Documents really come alive when they’re illustrated. Consider how easy it is to incorporate images, graphs and, where relevant, audio and video in your work. Does your preferred office suite have the tools you need to manipulate non–text assets? 3 SHOULD YOU PAY? Apple’s iWork is a first–class office suite and free for anyone with a recent Mac. Along with LibreOffice and Google Docs (also free), it makes Microsoft Office look rather expensive at $69.99 a year if you won’t use Microsoft’s additional bundled tools. 4 CONSIDER…

Free (IAP $59.99 annual subscription) From Dashlane, dashlane.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 11.0 or later Gone are the days when password managers did little more than allow you to securely store and easily recall passwords for websites. These days, any password manager worth its place on your iPhone allows you to store credit card details and secure notes, and sync all that data with multiple devices. And it should go without saying, they’re all secured with military–grade encryption. Dashlane adds to that list by displaying a dashboard that monitors the ‘health’ of your passwords — essentially telling you how secure they are and whether they’ve been compromised or reused. It also scans your email inbox for details of accounts you’ve created, stores them, and analyzes them…

Douglas Adams once wrote that “time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” Unfortunately we’ve learnt the hard way that nobody agrees that time is an illusion if you’re late for their wedding, meeting, or rocket launch. Thank goodness, then, for the iOS apps that can make anybody more punctual. Our first choice is a calendar, but there’s more to punctuality than knowing when something’s happening. You also need to know how you’re going to get there, the obstacles in the way, and if you’re going to need a change of clothes when you arrive. These apps cover everything you need. CITYMAPPER Free Made for iPhone, iPad Apple’s Maps app does an okay job of covering public transit, but Citymapper does more. It’s especially good at planning mixed–mode journeys involving different…

Free (IAPs) From PSPDFKit, pdfviewer.io Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10.0 or later PDF Viewer, despite its name, does a great deal more than just allow you to view PDFs on your iPhone. You can annotate and comment on PDFs, sign them, fill in forms, and even perform some basic editing functions. The Pro version adds a few extra features for a fee ($9.99 for a year), allowing you to annotate JPEGs and PNG files, password protect PDFs, combine multiple documents into one, and reply to notes that others have made. PDFs can be imported from email, from a cloud storage service like Dropbox or iCloud, or via the Files app. Once open, PDFs are searchable, and you can bookmark them or create a table of contents.…

Free (IAPs) From Xtreme Media Works, playerxtreme.com Made For iPhone, iPad, Watch Needs iOS 9.0 or later Playing videos on Apple Watch seems impossible. Although there are an elite few that have cracked this nut with mixed results, XPlayer HD Media Player is not one of them. If you read the app description, the developer doesn’t mention anything about Apple Watch support. Yet one of the watchOS screenshots clearly shows a thumbnail from animated short Big Buck Bunny with a play button. As it turns out, XPlayer HD’s Watch app is little more than a remote control for playing content on the iPhone, but not a particularly good one. Even after downloading videos and music onto the iPhone app, we never could get the watchOS app to browse such files.…

Family Sharing isn’t just for sharing subscriptions, media, and locations with loved ones. Many of the productivity apps provided by Apple make it easy to share too. You can share your calendars, which is as useful for work as it is for home, and you can share reminders such as to–do lists. You can also share files that you’ve stored in iCloud Drive — great if your home doesn’t have any network storage drives, and it also makes files accessible even when you’re away from home. You create a link that everyone uses to access the same copy of the file. This helps with any task where you want family members to contribute — perhaps to track holiday ideas, say. SHARE CALENDARS In Calendar on your Mac, first choose View…

Swann Smart Security Camera $99.99 From Swann, swann.com Features 6,000mAh battery If you have a large home with a wide perimeter, some camera systems can be pricey to get started with. Swann’s lower–priced cam can capture a very nice 120–degree picture despite its bargain status — once you’ve delved into the settings to up its quality from the highly compressed default — and it can do even more when used as an indoor cam, including zone–based motion sensing. Its heat–based passive infrared sensor (PIR) cuts down on false–positive activations, and we love the mounting mechanism, pivoting via a magnetic dish on the back when placed on the mount’s metal ball. You’ll need to pull the whole cam down to recharge it, and, ironically, it’s probably easily to steal because of…

FACE ID ISN’T WORKING! If, for some reason, you can’t get Face ID to work on your iPhone X, whether it’s unlocking your device or authenticating a purchase, head over to bit.ly/ml147ask1 to find out what to do. AIRPORT BASE STATION FIRMWARE UPDATE To find out how to update the firmware on your AirPort base station (on 2nd generation AirPort Express devices the latest version gets you AirPlay 2 support, for instance), go to bit.ly/ml147ask2. FIND THE RIGHT BACKUP DISK FOR TIME MACHINE Time Machine allows you to back up to a variety of external storage devices, such as a USB disk or Network–attached storage. To learn more about all the options available, go to bit.ly/ml147ask3.…

REQUIRES Affinity Photo YOU WILL LEARN How to remove blemishes, reduce wrinkles, and whiten eyes and teeth IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes PORTRAITS HAVE ALWAYS been a popular subject for a photograph. In the distant days of analog cameras, we’d pop framed family portraits on the mantelpiece. In today’s digital era, however, a portrait can be viewed worldwide mere seconds after it has been snapped, thanks to social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. You may also use your portrait to attract a companion via dating sites such as Cupid.com, or impress potential employers on LinkedIn. For these reasons, you can’t afford to put out a picture that’s less than flattering. Fortunately, you have all the portrait retouching tools required to make you look your best, courtesy of Affinity…

REQUIRES Pages 4.0, iOS 11 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to use your iPad as a teleprompter IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes WHETHER YOU HAVE an important speech to give or a crucial talk to record, a teleprompter is essential. It makes text big and clear, and you can either swipe it up with one hand on your iPhone, or have it scroll on an iPad. Indeed, professionals use a one–way mirror at an angle with the iPad laying flat beneath the camera, so they’re looking right down the lens barrel as they read. There are plenty of mounts that enable you to do this, but you need to be able to flip the screen for that, which Pages can’t do. Some apps can, though. The real key to…