Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2019 i MacLife

THERE’S A SAYING that ‘the best camera is the one you’ve got with you’. Thanks to your ever–present iPhone you can capture a photograph wherever and whenever you like. However, this creates the problem of importing and managing an ever-growing collection of clips and images. On these two pages, we cover a range of methods to import and store your shots. GET TO YOUR PHOTOS Photographers who use a standalone digital camera can plug its SD memory card into their Mac and manually import images into Photos (see the opposite page). The easiest way to get photos off your iPhone and safely onto your Mac is to turn on iCloud Photos. Do this across all your devices and, as soon as your iPhone is in range of a Wi-Fi connection…

APPLE’S FREE PHOTOS app does a decent job of enabling you to fix common problems with color, tone and composition, but it does have limitations. The problems shown on the opposite page would be impossible to fix using Photo’s current set of tools. To take photo editing to the next level you need a more powerful third-party package, such as Adobe Photoshop CC or Affinity Photo. Photoshop CC requires a monthly subscription of $9.99 (although you do get Lightroom included, which provides an effective way to manage your image collection). We favour Affinity Photo; it boasts many of the tools and filters found in Photoshop CC and you can own it outright for $39.99. As well as using Affinity Photo to fix common problems, you can produce more creative results…

APPLE’S CAMERA APP can do a good job of capturing decent photos. However, it lags behind some third–party apps when it comes to functionality. For example, Camera+ 2 ($2.99) helps your iPhone perform more like a DSLR camera. Its virtual spirit level ensures that your horizons are straight, so there’s no need to correct post–shoot. You can tap in white balance presets to suit lighting conditions, such as Cloudy or Daylight, ensuring that your shots are free from color casts. The manual exposure slider in Camera is pretty fiddly, while Camera+ 2 has an easy–to–use, responsive Exposure Value dial. Camera+ 2 also saves a raw sensor data version of shots, ensuring you have the most color and tonal info to work with when editing. Made with CAMERA+ 2 $2.99 From…

BETWEEN 2007’S ORIGINAL iPhone and 2013’s iPhone 5s, the screen grew from 3.5 inches to 4 inches, while the handset itself actually got smaller. That trend wasn’t to last, and today’s iPhone XS Max is 70 per cent bulkier than the 5s or its successor, the SE. Of course, you may not feel the need for a phone quite that big, so Apple has several others to choose from. Since the SE was discontinued, the smallest iPhone is the 7, at nearly 30 per cent wider but slightly thinner. The 7 Plus is a third bigger than the SE, but has nearly three times as many pixels, making it the smallest model that can show 1080p Full HD video without downsampling. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have the same…

However much internal storage your iPhone has, Apple gives you 5GB of free space in the cloud. When you turn on iCloud Photos, or opt to sync files you create in an iPhone app, copies of your files go into this space. You should also be using iCloud Backup (Settings > [your name] > iCloud) to back up. All that in 5GB? Well, no. You’ll probably need to pay for extra iCloud storage, starting at 99 cents a month for 50GB. But don’t assume bigger iPhone storage always means you need more iCloud storage for backing up. Apps and iTunes media don’t use it, only your own photos, videos, files, and other data. 1 CHECK STORAGE Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud to see how much online storage…

UP TO THE 6s model, no iPhone claimed to be water–resistant. Apple’s lack of sympathy for an accidental dunking went as far as installing sensors to detect water ingress, so the first thing a Genius advisor would do when you arrived with a non–functional device would be to peer into its ports for a warranty–invalidating color change. The iPhone 7, however, is rated to IP67, meaning it’s been shown to keep out dust and survive for at least 30 minutes under a metre of fresh water. Subsequent models kept this rating, and the XS and XS Max up it to IP68, which Apple defines rather conservatively as 2m for 30 minutes. That doesn’t cover deeper water, sea water, shower jets or steam, though according to Apple, the XR and XS…

Buy one of the latest Macs or the third–gen iPad Pro and you’ll enter the brave new world of USB-C. Adapters aren’t necessary with every new device — the iMac still has USB-A ports — but chances are you’ll need some pointers to practical solutions that work with your portable Apple kit. We’ve put eight add–ons to the test to see if they’re worthy of a spot in your backpack. A ULTRA DUAL DRIVE USB–C From $10.95 amazon.com As more Macs switch to USB–C, you’ll no doubt need to get files from a Mac with USB–A to one with USB–C. Instead of carrying around adapters with you, try this little drive, which has a USB–A connector at one end and USB–C at the other. The housing’s a little bit on…

$7.99 From Time Base Technology Ltd, goodnotes.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 12.0 or later GoodNotes is one of the most popular iOS note-taking apps. It’s fast, flexible, and friendly. It lets you search your handwritten notes, view and mark up PDFs, and create digital notebooks containing text, images, illustrations, and handwriting. Version 5 is a huge upgrade. The superb handwriting search feature, which enables you to find content in handwritten notes, now works across all your notebooks. (In previous versions you could only search the current notebook.) You can also export your notes as editable text thanks to the built-in OCR feature, which coped admirably with our terrible handwriting! There’s a redesigned tab-based interface, and the new folder-based organization looks and works very much like Apple’s…

While nothing beats the feeling of watching sports up close, sitting on the bleachers with a Big Gulp in hand isn’t the only way to enjoy the success (or not) of your favorite team. The combination of apps and streaming video make it easier than ever to see every important moment of the season, and to analyze exactly what’s going wrong and discuss with your friends at length over a beer. These apps help you keep up to speed with everything that’s going on, whatever sport you’re into. Some of them let you watch your cable–provided sports channels when you’re on the go, while others let you subscribe in the app to watch your favorite sport for just a few bucks a month. MLB AT BAT $19.99 a year Made…

Forget summer: spring is the perfect time to entertain family and friends outdoors. Fewer insects, less risk of sunburn, and shorter days make it the ideal opportunity to snuggle under a warm blanket and enjoy some outdoor movies in your robotically groomed garden. Getting yourself set up with a suitable projection screen is easy; there are reams of adequate collapsible examples on Amazon or eBay for around $50 that work fine once you’ve smoothed them out properly. As for the projector, we would advise against going down the ‘portable’ route — certainly, battery–powered or miniature projectors exist, but they’re rarely as bright as you’ll need to show an outdoor movie as the evening sets in, and also seem to ignore contrast ratio as a selection metric. Instead, brightness should be…

Most major releases of macOS bring with them a new version of Mail and other bundled apps. An issue some encounter after an upgrade is that Smart Mailboxes stop working or are absent. This doesn’t affect everyone, and we haven’t seen any good explanation as to why it only happens to some people. The simplest solution is to recreate the Smart Mailboxes once you’re happy that you haven’t lost any messages. A pain you shouldn’t face, we know. If you think you’ve lost messages, your first step should be to restore your account’s Mail folder from the last backup from before the upgrade, which may also restore your Smart Folders. If you have received new emails since upgrading, ensure you save those or, depending on your account setup, you may…

REQUIRES Libby, iOS 9 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to borrow free ebooks and audiobooks from your local library IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes IT HAS ALWAYS amazed us that library services don’t do more to publicize the fact that you can go online and borrow ebooks and audiobooks from your local library completely free of charge. Admittedly, the process hasn’t always been easy; the app you needed to use — originally called OverDrive — was a bit tricky to install and set up. However, the company behind OverDrive recently launched a new iOS app, called Libby, that is much easier to use. Your local library will only have a fairly limited stock of ebooks and audiobooks, and you might have to join a waiting list to borrow the…

AT A MARCH “Special Event”, Apple finally announced its long-awaited original video subscription service. Confusingly, the service is dubbed “Apple TV Plus”, and it will be delivered through a revamped Apple TV app, both of which are distinct from Apple TV 4K, the media streaming box. Got that? Pricing and availability of the service will be revealed in the fall. The event was all about services, with a few surprises, such as a credit card. We didn’t see that coming. Apple TV+ APPLE TOUTED ITS forthcoming subscription TV service as “the new home for the world’s most creative storytellers,” featuring exclusive original shows, documentaries, and movies from creators including Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, J.J. Abrams, Jason Momoa, M. Night Shyamalan, Jon M. Chu and…

1 Fujifilm X-T30 fujifilmusa.com $899 This might just be the perfect travel camera. Inside its reasonably small body, you get a 26–megapixel sensor, extremely high–quality 4K recording, 425–point autofocus for seriously quick shooting, a pin–sharp OLED viewfinder, plus a rear touchscreen. And all this is wrapped up in a metal body that’s full of timeless style (and fits a lot of controls at your fingertips). We tried this camera ahead of its release, and the image quality you get from something you just sling over your shoulder is amazing — this could be one of 2019’s best cameras. 2 Sony Wena sony.com $TBC If you don’t like the look of smartwatches compared to a more traditional timepiece, Sony’s right there with you. The Wena system is a series of smart…

YOUR iPHONE (or digital camera in Auto mode) will try to capture an image that’s correctly exposed and focused on the main subject. It’ll also try to balance colors so they’re not too cold or too warm. But certain scenarios can lead to areas that are overexposed or underexposed. When faced with a bright sky and a darker landscape, say, set your iPhone to HDR mode. This snaps three exposures to capture highlight, midtone and shadow detail. It then merges the shots into a composite image with detail in all areas. But many photos will still need work in the Photos app’s digital darkroom. Open a photo and click Edit to start. A ADJUST The Adjust button gives you access to a suite of photo–fixing tools that’ll help you overcome…

AFTER REFINING YOUR digital darkroom skills, you’ll want to share your pictures with the world. Social networking sites such as Twitter and Instagram can be a valuable source of feedback on your work as you build up a following of fellow photographers. After editing your images, you may be able to sell them online via stock photo providers such as Shutterstock. It can be extremely satisfying to snap and process a picture on your iPhone, upload it to Shutterstock via the service’s iOS app and see it sell. The buyer won’t know or care that it was shot on an iPhone. They’ll be looking for a well-composed image that’s been skillfully processed. SHOOT AND SHINE Social media ‘likes’ can help boost your ego and encourage your growing photographic skills, but…

TOUCH ID RECOGNIZES your fingerprint to unlock your iPhone and authenticate purchases at contactless tills or online. It’s a feature of all iPhones from the 5s to the 8, as well as many iPads, MacBook Pros with a Touch Bar, and the 2018 MacBook Air. iPhone X, XR, XS and XS Max have Face ID, which scans your face instead. No product supports both, so a preference might affect your choice of iPhone. To unlock an iPhone with Touch ID, you click the Home button to wake it to the Lock screen, but rest your finger (or thumb) on it until the Home screen appears. This all happens very fast and feels quite natural, although on iPhone 6 and earlier it can take practice not to hold the button too…

ALL IPHONES CAPABLE of running iOS 12 charge via Apple’s Lightning port. Using the 5W USB–A charger that’s supplied with it, the iPhone XS, for example, takes 3 hours to charge fully, the XS Max 3.5 hours. The iPhone 8 and later models support fast charging to 50 per cent in 30 minutes, but for this you will need to use Apple’s 18W USB–C Power Adapter ($29) and USB–C to Lightning Cable ($19 for 1m). Higher–powered USB–C MacBook chargers can also be used.…

$189.99 From Ezviz, ezvizlife.com Features 4.3–inch color touchscreen, night vision, motion detection, rechargeable, local & cloud storage Though outwardly a smart doorbell, the DP1 isn’t necessarily aiming to nestle into the same category as, for example, Amazon’s Ring. It’s its own beast. Rather than ripping out your existing bell, you’ll need to dismantle your peephole and slide the diminutive DP1’s shaft through the gap, plugging it into its viewing screen — which contains the smarts and powers it with a rechargeable battery. This is an innovative form factor, and since the DP1 includes a sensitive PIR, limited infrared lighting and some rather effective human detection, it shows you the other side of the door and can record or take a picture as soon as it detects someone standing there —…

$69.95 From Mariner Software, marinersoftware.com Needs macOS 10.11 or later “So much for the paperless office” is the tech equivalent of “so much for global warming”: it sometimes seems as if the promise of a truly paperless workplace is further away than ever. Paperless would like to change that. Paperless wants to get rid of paper. All of it. It wants to take your receipts, your bills, your financial statements, your documents, and anything else made out of dead trees and make them digital. Paperless is designed for scanning and saving paper documents — it recommends Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners but should work with any scanner that’s compatible with Apple’s Image Capture. You can also import existing digital documents to keep everything organized in one place. When you scan a document…

$1,299 to $6,299 From Drobo, drobo.com Features 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports, 8x 3.5–inch disk bays, 1x 2.5–inch bay for caching Drobo’s storage drives combine the capacity of multiple disks as one large volume, much like in RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) systems, though its BeyondRAID system has an added benefit. If a limited number of disks fail, you swap the broken one(s) and slide in a replacement of at least the same capacity without having to shut it down. The drive sets aside some capacity, spread across the disks, to cope with one disk failing. That’s the default, but you can set aside more space to deal with two simultaneous failures without losing data. The drive rebuilds the array in the background as you work. The digit in this…

Messages can be recalled, but unless you’re running Microsoft Outlook and connecting to an Outlook mail server, you’re extremely unlikely ever to encounter it. By far the most common reason for emails going missing is inadvertent deletion by the user, such as intending to remove an adjacent item in a mailbox and selecting the wrong one. Mailbox errors are also quite frequent, particularly when the mailbox is large and contains many old messages. Apple’s Mail app has suffered occasional bugs that could remove messages, but those have become rare. Messages may also be deleted on the mail server: if Mail is set to use IMAP to synchronize mail between your devices and the mail server, rather than collecting them using POP to store locally forever, that can sometimes result in…

WHY DOESN’T MY MOBILE BANKING APP SUPPORT FACE ID? Chances are that it does, but that you didn’t turn on that option when you upgraded your iPhone. In the app, open its settings and look for a Face ID option. The app will still ask you for your PIN occasionally, but should, most of the time, now accept Face ID instead. CAN GARAGEBAND’S KNOBS BE MADE MORE CONTROLLABLE? By default, the app tries to interpret the gestures you use to control its knobs as well as it can, but some find them counterintuitive. In Settings > GarageBand tap Knob Gestures; you may prefer to make these Circular or Linear, according to how you move your finger on the controls.…

Your display’s Mini DisplayPort cable can’t be connected directly to one of the new Mac mini’s Thunderbolt 3 ports. You’ll need to use a USB–C to Mini DisplayPort adaptor, or a Thunderbolt 3, or USB–C dock with Mini DisplayPort output like OWC’s Thunderbolt 3 Dock. You’ll find Apple’s guide to which adaptors allow the use of its various displays with new Macs at bit.ly/mfapadpt. These should support calibration of the display using your current system. You should also be able to connect the display’s USB cable to use its built–in camera, though it’s unclear how well that and the speakers are supported. Your display’s 2560x1440–pixel resolution is well below the Mac mini’s supported maximum of 4096x2304 pixels, of course. IS IT WORTH PAYING EXTRA FOR HARDWARE RA ID IN STORAGE?…

REQUIRES Affinity Photo YOU WILL LEARN How to create pure black silhouettes without losing detail in highlight areas IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes WHEN THE SUN is low it can be a challenge to capture a bright sky without losing detail in a landscape’s shadows. Instead of trying to reveal missing shadow detail in Affinity Photo’s digital darkroom, you can embrace a high–contrast lighting scenario and create a striking silhouette. By deliberately underexposing a backlit subject to produce pure black pixels, you can emphasize the shape and form of subjects such as buildings and trees. Silhouetted shapes can add a sense of drama and mystery to a photo too. To capture a shot with silhouettes, set your DSLR camera to Spot metering mode and expose for the sky. If you’re…

WITH APPLE’S FINANCIAL results taking a slight wobble for the first time in years — it only had its second–best Christmas results ever — talk turns to how it can keep growing its money pile in a world that’s reaching smartphone saturation. What’s the next huge product it’s working on? The usual rumored groundbreaking tech stuff (AR glasses, smart cars) is years away. What can it make to maintain its level of growth? I suspect the answer isn’t in new products, but new industries. There’s news about the TV service Apple is building up, but that’s not what you hear the executives talking most excitedly about. In an interview with CNBC in January, Tim Cook said, “If you zoom out into the future, and look back, and you ask the…

AFTER SNAPPING AND editing many pics, your Photos library will become full of images. So how do you track down the one you want if you can’t recall even roughly when it was taken? Fortunately, you don’t need to rely on such details to find your favorite pictures in quick time. The Photos app provides a range of automated ways to organize your snaps. As well as gathering them according to where and when they were shot, you can search for images based on their content — without the hassle of having to assign keywords! 1 Hey Siri Photos analyzes your shots to detect faces and objects. Ask Siri (on your Mac or iPhone) to show you photos of a specific subject, such as ‘dogs’. All photos matching your search…

THE IPHONE 7 and 7 Plus brought enhancements including camera specs that have largely persisted in later iPhones. A few significant additions might sway you towards the pricier options, though. On the 7 and 7 Plus, Apple’s main rear lens has an aperture of f/1.8, helping to avoid noise (graininess) in low light and allowing shorter exposures to freeze action. The iPhone 6s and earlier had f/2.2 lenses and narrower color gamut, giving less impressive pictures, while their front camera was limited to 720p video and, in the SE, only 1.2 megapixel (MP) stills. STRONG AND STABLE Optical image stabilization (OIS) arrived on the iPhone 6 Plus, was extended to video on the 6s Plus, and featured on both sizes of the 7. By moving the lens to compensate for…

APPLE ITSELF DESIGNS the amazingly powerful processors found in iPhones, based on architectures developed by British firm ARM. The A10 Fusion chip in the iPhone 7 (Plus models use identical processors) has four CPU cores; two designed for high performance and the others for low–power operation. Apple reckons it’s 40 per cent faster than the A9 in the 6s, which itself claimed desktop–class performance. The six GPU cores bring a 50 per cent improvement, benefiting games and other apps that use Apple’s Metal graphics software. The iPhone 8’s A11 Bionic chip, also used by the iPhone X, ups the core count to six (two for high performance and four for efficiency) and updates the performance controller for up to 70 per cent better performance. It also adds Apple’s three–core GPU…

$199.95 From Veho, veho-world.com Features 15,000mAh, IPX4 rated, dual USB outputs, LED torch Veho’s latest portable power bank is the successor to the pre–existing Pebble Endurance — identical in all areas, save for the addition of a USB–A to USB–C and Apple MFi USB–A to Lightning charging cable. If you already have the pre–requisite cable just get the regular model; the extra $50 for the Pro doesn’t add up anyway — you can buy the standard model and add the same cables for $5 less. That oddity aside, this is a capable power bank, with a huge 15K capacity, giving you a multitude of charges which can be split between two devices at once. Its IPX4 ruggedized shell offers some protection; splash proofing, that is, as well as an LED…

$290 From Asus, asus.com Features 1920x1080 resolution, 7,800mAh battery, magnetic case There are times when you could benefit from a little extra screen space, which is where the Asus MB16AP comes in handy. It’s a 15.6–inch USB–C display with an internal 7,800mAh battery, and there’s a USB–C to USB–C cable in the box. The 1920x1080–pixel panel is crisp and clear. It uses in–plane switching (IPS) display technology, so you get better colour reproduction and viewing angles than twisted nematic (TN) panels. Build quality, for the most part, is excellent, feeling both light and sturdy. We did have a couple of gripes, though. The ZenScreen comes with a sticker attached, but peeling this off alarmingly pulled the bezel cover away from the glass of the display. The buttons on the bottom…

$39.99 From UAB Pixelmator Team, pixelmator.com Needs macOS 10.13 or later, 64–bit CPU Pixelmator Pro is often thought of as a more affordable alternative to Photoshop, and one that’s native to the Mac, making it feel more at home in the Mac OS environment. It’s not as all–singing and dancing as Photoshop but it is a serious professional’s tool, feels slick and lightweight, and is significantly more affordable at $39.99. The 1.3 Prism update is the most recent major upgrade, so let’s look at what it adds to the photo editing and graphics tools. Layer management is an area in which Pixelmator Pro has trailed Photoshop, but this update adds color tagging, searching and filter by type, and tag to the Layers Sidebar. Although this may seem like a small…

Free (IAPs) From Momenta BV, agenda.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 11.0 or later Agenda takes the familiar notes–style app and thinks a little differently: instead of a purely task–based approach it also takes a date–based approach, so in addition to projects, your items are grouped by date. It looks and feels very simple to use, but its combination of tasks and dates makes it both flexible and useful, and its clean interface won it an Apple design award in 2018. Agenda has been frequently updated since its launch, and the 5.0 version brings custom line spacing, better searching, and expanded support for external keyboards that makes it easy to navigate and edit inside the app without taking your fingers off the keys. The app gives you a single…

Yes, we have apps to tell us what’s going on, and we have eyes to look at the sky, but getting out in the garden sometimes requires a bit of personal weather monitoring. Recent developments mean setting up your own weather station is now tremendously easy. The Ambient Weather WS–2902A ($170) sends up–to–the–minute reports of weather conditions to an included LCD screen, uses Wi–Fi to beam those same results to Weather Underground or an iOS app, and consists of a single all–in–one unit that won’t leave your garden covered in unsightly sensors. It will use its sensors to put together a personalized weather report and tell you the dew point and current humidity; — basically anything you might want to know about the current weather conditions. Importantly, this system comes…

You should certainly be running your iMac from an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), but because your MacBook Pro has a built–in battery, it’s better off with just surge protection instead. All good UPS deliver a filtered supply to protect your Macs and peripherals from power spikes, which can occur during electrical storms in particular. The MacBook Pro will automatically switch over to its internal battery in the event of mains power loss; as a result, it will keep on going and won’t provide an auto–shutdown option in the System Preferences Energy Saver pane. A Mac without batteries, like your iMac, should be connected to the USB port on a UPS. Its Energy Saver preferences will then include a UPS tab, where you can set the computer to shut down during…

REQUIRES Apple Watch or iPhone — see apps’ sites for compatible systems YOU WILL LEARN How to focus your mind and reduce stress IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes MINDFULNESS HAS TAKEN off in a huge way in recent years, with scientific research backing claims that it can help improve your concentration and reduce everyday stresses. So what exactly is it and how does it work? Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing your attention to what you’re experiencing in the present moment, rather than thinking about the past or imagining the future. Techniques for gently nurturing this kind of centred awareness can include simple guided meditations that focus the mind on body sensations without judging them. Other methods for developing the skill, such as interactive sound therapy and the use…

REQUIRES iOS 11 or later YOU WILL LEARN How long–pressing makes life easier IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes ONE OF OUR favorite things about iOS is the long press function. It’s when you tap on something and keep your finger on it for a moment, and as you’ll discover it can really save a great deal of time and messing about. It’s not the only way to interact with icons in iOS. There’s also 3D Touch, which uses pressure sensors to detect not just the contact, but the force of it. The big difference is that a long press works on any iOS device, while 3D Touch only works on iPhones that include the tech: iPhone 6S, 7, 8, X, and XS (and the big versions of those that have…