Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2019 i MacLife

Over the years, we’ve all got used to the usual cycle of operating system updates, with each iteration bringing about welcome improvements. But at this year’s WWDC, though we got the expected assortment of OS upgrades — macOS Catalina and iOS 13 being the main highlights — we also got something entirely unexpected, and it’s also something many of us have been asking Apple to do for a very long time: iPadOS. This completely new operating system caught me a little off guard, mainly because I never thought Apple would want to, let alone be able to, make the iPad more like a MacBook, for fear of treading on the toes of its workhorse Mac operating system. Yet here we are in 2019, and iPadOS actually exists, giving iPad owners…

APOGEE JAM+ This tiny USB audio interface for MacBook, iPad or iPhone has a quarter–inch guitar/synth input with preamp and digital overdrive. $159.95 from apple.com/shop RAVPOWER 18W QUICK CHARGER This 18–watt wall charger has both USB–C PD and USB–A Quick Charge outputs to suit all iPhones and iPads (cable not included). $16.99 from amazon.com HYPERDRIVE PRO 8–IN–2 Fitting the two left USB–C ports on a 2016 or later MacBook Pro, or 2018 MacBook Air, it adds 4K HDMI and MiniDP, 2x USB–A, SD and microSD. $119.99 from hypershop.com…

1Mac Pro (2019) More parmesan, madam? All right, it’ll probably grow on us. At least they’re not charging $1,000 extra for the holes. 2Mac Pro (2013) If you wanted a shiny top–end desktop Mac that fitted in a rucksack, the “tin can” design was brilliant. It turned out these were less pressing requirements than upgrading GPUs and installing expansion cards. Pfft. 3eMate 300 Before the Bondi Blue iMac (1998) won hearts with its toy–like translucent plastic, Apple freaked out minds with a sea–green HR Giger xenomorph called eMate. The Newton–based schools laptop lived less than a year, but its spores may still be on the ship. 4Macintosh LC 520 A big–screen successor to the Color Classic, this 40lb, 18–inch monstrosity looked like a monitor stacked on a Mac stacked on…

There was something for everyone at this year’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC)… New versions of macOS and iOS; a dedicated version of iOS just for iPad; and very welcome OS updates for Apple Watch and Apple TV. Apple also unveiled its hotly anticipated replacements for iTunes on Mac: separate, dedicated apps for Music, TV and Podcasts, with seamless device syncing via the Finder. And to the delight of creatives everywhere, Apple announced its replacement for the “trashcan” Mac Pro — a new highly modular version with a display to match. Read on to find out more… You will need macOS 10.15 Catalina A Mac introduced in 2012 or later. iOS 13 iPhone 6s or later, iPod touch 7th gen. iPadOS iPad Air 2 or later, iPad 5th gen or…

We got our first taste of Marzipan (sorry!) last year, when Apple unveiled a project to allow developers to create apps for the Mac with UIKit, the toolbox normally used for iOS and regarded as easier to get to grips with than macOS’ AppKit. Both are part of Apple’s free Xcode, but many companies making iOS apps say it’s not worth their while to develop for the Mac. Catalyst, as Marzipan has now been officially named, should encourage them. UNIVERSAL APPS Apple led the way with some apps of its own, including News, showing that Marzipan worked but provoking criticism that they didn’t feel like proper Mac apps. According to Federighi, this wasn’t actually because of any UIKit limitations but “just design decisions” — d’oh. Now that Catalyst is available…

CLEVER AS 2013’S cylindrical Mac Pro was, flexibility was limited, and by 2017 Apple was talking about its replacement. That in itself suggested a willingness to listen, and the machine finally unveiled by Tim Cook at WWDC really is what pro users had demanded: a traditional modular tower — with a few twists. The industrial “cheesegrater” grille on the front and back of the one–piece aluminium sleeve, reportedly based on an older Apple prototype, unites the Mac Pro and its companion Apple Pro Display XDR while solving airflow challenges for both. Angular steel hoops form handles at the top — a nod to previous Mac Pros — and feet at the bottom lift the case off the floor. While aiding heat dissipation and avoiding dust, this does make for a…

HomeKit gets smarter this year. Routers can now support it to let you monitor all your products, and security cameras get free encrypted cloud storage, something many makers charge for. There are also more integrations with Shortcuts, Apple’s quietly brilliant automation app, which is included as standard in iOS 13. HomePod, Apple’s smart speaker, also gains automation options and will recognize multiple voices, learning each user’s particular preferences. Siri will be able to read out incoming iMessages as soon as they arrive, and transcribe your reply without further prompting — but only over AirPods. iOS 13 will let you connect two pairs of AirPods to one iPhone, for dual listening, and a quick way of adding a user was demoed that just involved bringing their iPhone near yours.…

SAFARI, MACOS’S BUILT–IN web browser, incorporates a range of security protections that are enabled by default. In Safari > Preferences > Security, “Warn when visiting a fraudulent website” checks every address you visit against the large Google Safe Browsing database, and warns you if it’s known to host malware or phishing attacks, whether because the site itself is dodgy or it’s been hacked. But wait — that means someone’s recording what sites you visit! Well done if you spotted this threat, but Safari actually hashes the addresses before sending them to Google, so using this service doesn’t leak your browsing history. Also under Security are options to enable JavaScript and block pop–up windows. Turning off JavaScript will break most modern websites, so don’t do that. Pop–up windows are sometimes used…

REQUESTING PERSONAL DATA over an insecure connection is always suspicious. Your bank may text you notifications if you’ve agreed, but they should always come from the same number, and will only ask you to text back a yes/no reply. Emails from banks or payment services only include minimal personal data, and won’t ask you to send info back. It’s okay to send your sort code and account number to someone you trust in plain text – they only enable money to be transferred into your account – but never your PIN or other passcodes When entering debit or credit card details to pay, be sure you know which website you’re on and check for the https padlock. Nobody except Apple should ever ask you to sign in with your Apple…

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…

$19.99 From Wyze, wyze.com Features 1080p full HD video, 8x digital zoom, motion detection, 14 days free cloud storage For under $20, this camera is at the basic end of the smart-cam spectrum, however it boasts all the essential security features that a household needs. The Wyze Cam is an indoor–only camera with 1080p recording through a 110° lens. You get motion and noise detection (with notifications), the sensitivity of which can be tweaked. The motion detection can’t detect faces or people, so you will get false alerts from rapid light changes or pets (there’s no way to set zones). It also arms and disarms itself automatically based on location (so it won’t send alerts when you’re at home), but you can easily override that. The app is easy to…

$14.99 From LumaTouch, luma-touch.com Made for iPad, iPhone Needs iOS 11 or later Video editing apps on the iOS platform have taken longer to mature into fully fledged desktop replacements than others, such as audio production tools or games. This is largely because proper video editing — as opposed to just sticking clips together — is a process that’s power-hungry and fairly complex to implement on smaller devices. Also, video technology moves quickly, and many pros want to work in high resolutions like 4K, which places more strain on your hardware. With the latest iPad Pro and iPhone models, however, both screen space and processing power are significantly improved over earlier models, so this is less of an issue than it once was. LumaTouch created LumaFusion in 2017, and though…

Free (IAPs) From Noted, notedapp.io Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10.0 or later While many note–taking apps enable you to mix and match written and audio notes, Noted puts the audio bit first: you add notes or tags to the audio recording. It’s particularly well suited to lectures, meetings, readings, conversations, and anything else when you might want to highlight key bits of a spoken conversation or presentation. The latest version addresses some irritations, and introduces useful new features. Sync is faster, photos taken in the app are now saved to your Camera Roll (you can override this in Settings), you can indent text in the editor, and you can now control playback from the lock screen or from Control Center. One of the most useful new…

$5.99 From Jesse Makkonen, jessemakkonen.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 8 or later Most “psychological horror” games involve walking down a dark corridor and waiting for something undead to leap out at you from the shadows. This adventure game, however, is more about existential angst — seriously existential, in fact. The main character, Price, apparently killed himself in the original Distraint, after becoming disillusioned with a job that involved making poor people homeless on behalf of a cruel, money–grabbing corporation. So Distraint 2 begins with a surprised Price finding that he’s still alive, and then meeting a character called Reason, who sends him on a quest to try and make sense of his life. The mechanics of the game are fairly conventional, as Price walks across a…

Free From Toggl, toggl.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 10.3 or later With more and more people now working freelance, there are plenty of apps to help you keep track of your time and projects, so that you can accurately bill your clients. Toggl says it offers “insanely simple time tracking”, which isn’t entirely true, as the blank screen that initially faces you is rather unhelpful. But it doesn’t take long to get the hang of the basics, and the iOS version of the app is free, so you can download it to see if it suits you. To get started, you simply tap the Play button at the bottom of the screen in order to start a “time entry”. You can name each time entry and…

We set each app up with our regular email accounts and put them through their paces in the tests described. We ran them on both iPhone and iPad, and used them with multiple email accounts. We sent and received messages, some with attachments, as both text and HTML. This let us check how each app rendered formatted messages. HIGHER CANARY MAIL canarymail.io $9.99 Canary Mail offers end–to–end encryption for messages, as well as read notifications, templates and natural language search. …OR LOWER? YAHOO MAIL yahoo.com Free If you don’t mind adverts, Yahoo Mail offers a GIF–friendly, colorful alternative, and it works with any email address…

Airmail allows you to choose from a long list of actions, and you can assign left and right swipes and choose four actions for each to display when you swipe over a message. You can tap More for further options, and add others to the list. Spark only has two options for each left/right swipe, one for a short swipe and one for a long one, but these can be customized. Spark also has “widgets” that can be customized. Spike can either have three actions for a left swipe, the third of which is More, and none for right, or two for each. Edison uses the “long/short” convention, and while you can choose what each does, the list of options is short. Outlook has only one action for each swipe,…

> Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K $49.99 From amazon.com Specs Alexa voice remote, HDR, HDR10+ Our first reaction to the Fire TV 4K was surprise: it’s super slick, with a quick setup pulled off entirely on the TV (as long as you have an existing Amazon account) and lots of streaming app compatibility. Its abilities even extend as far as games, with titles like Asphalt 8 entirely playable through its awkward remote control. It’s not all roses — the integrated Alexa assistant is finicky and doesn’t seem to like playing with apps like Plex, its screen mirroring function doesn’t work with iOS or macOS, and digging down through categories is infuriatingly difficult. But the overall experience is pleasant and, as a standalone device, its neat remote makes it a great…

1Which Disney princess appears as a sticker on the back of the MacBook Air in the 2014 advert? 2 ACCORDING TO THE ECONOMIST, WHAT WAS STEVE JOB’S MISSION STAT EMENT IN 1980? 3 How many children are born every day? 4 What variety of apple is Apple’s asset management company named after? 5 According to a CNBC survey in 2017, what percent of Americans own an Apple product? 6 WHAT IS THIS APPLE DEVICE? 7 How many countries does Apple have stores in? 8 Taking inflation into account, how much would an Apple I cost now? 1 Snow White 2 To make a contribution to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind 3 This was an interview question for a global supply manager role with Apple.…

DEBATE Apple criticized for $1,000 price of stand for $5,000 Pro Display XDR monitor NIXED Multiple user accounts come to Apple TV, but not iOS 13 or iPadOS DARK CLOUD Google data centre outage breaks cloud services for millions of users REBATE Just think of it as a $6,000 monitor with $1,000 off if you don’t need the stand FIXED Buy devices for all the family with the cash you save on your monitor stand! ILL WIND If Skynet had been this flaky, Sarah Connor could have stuck to waitressing…

Last November, I replaced my trusty 2011 21–inch iMac with the 27–inch version from 2017 and, for the first time in over 10 years as a Mac user, I find myself being critical of an Apple product. I’ve seen the infernal “spinning beachball” many more times in the last four months than in over six years prior. Admittedly, I had doubled the memory to 16GB in the old Mac. Even so, I cannot believe how much slower the new model is — especially when multitasking. I have also used Force Quit significantly more when apps freeze. I assumed 8GB of memory wasn’t enough — Apple should be ashamed of such a small amount of memory — so I put in another 8GB myself. Though this has helped a little, the…

Reminders is one of those apps that can’t seem to please everyone, largely because the way we like to manage tasks is a very personal thing. Apple is revamping it this year on both platforms, with a quick toolbar to add elements like times, dates and locations to tasks as you create them. Scanned documents and attachments can also be incorporated. Smart lists organize upcoming reminders, and there’s new integration with Messages, so Siri’s AI can suggest when an iMessage should prompt you to create a reminder. If you tag a contact in a reminder, Siri will prompt you to mention it next time you’re iMessaging them. Third–party to–do apps probably aren’t doomed just yet, but this does look promising.…

There’s been speculation for years about Apple unifying its desktop and mobile operating systems. After all, iOS is based on macOS, and today’s iPhones and iPads are powerful enough to run similar software to Macs. Then again, using an iPhone is inevitably a very different experience from using a Mac. The iPad, though, lies somewhere in between, and at WWDC, Craig Federighi announced that it would finally have its own operating system, logically if cumbersomely known as iPadOS. It’s iOS 13 with some extra bits, but the extra bits should make using an iPad for proper work feel less compromised. iPadOS focuses on making use of the bigger screen, working in more than one app or on more than one document at once, and entering and editing text. It also…

The demo of iPadOS’ text editing gestures wasn’t the most successful of the WWDC keynote, producing several “umm” and “oops” moments. But the new features look pretty usable. It’s less fiddly to move the cursor and select blocks of text; and as well as selecting a word with a double tap, you can grab a sentence with three or a paragraph with four. A three–finger pinch then copies the selection, and a three–finger unpinch pastes it, while a three–finger left swipe will undo that action. If you use a physical keyboard with your iPad, you can already use Shift+[cursor selection] and standard Cut, Copy and Paste shortcuts, and iPadOS adds even more Cmd+[key] shortcuts for purposes from Safari navigation to file management. The on–screen keyboard is also improved (see p29).…

WHILE PUBLIC BETAS of macOS 10.15, iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and tvOS 13 are expected in July, watchOS 6 will be limited to registered developers until its release alongside the mobile OSes in the autumn. Like the other upgrades, it’s free of charge, and like watchOS 5 it’ll run on any Apple Watch except for the very first model. This year’s release continues the trend of making the Watch less dependent on the iPhone. It already has its own GPS and Wi-Fi, plus optional 3G/4G. Until now, however, the only way to install apps on the Watch was through the Watch app on your iPhone; the app would then appear on both devices. In future, you’ll be able to browse the App Store on the Watch, search it via Scribble…

The default on–screen keyboard will finally accept swiping between letters for faster typing in iOS 13. Third–party keyboards have enabled swipe–to–type for years, but this is the first time it’s been standard. Apple’s equivalent to Microsoft’s SwiftKey is called QuickPath. iPadOS gets extra options to make its virtual keyboard more flexible: rather than always filling a third to half of the screen, it can float in a small panel for one–handed typing, again with QuickPath.…

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SAFARI’S PRIVATE BROWSING mode is invoked by choosing File > New Private Window (Shift+Cmd+N), and applies to individual windows, identified by a dark search bar. As you’re told at the top of the window, this means Safari won’t record the pages you visit in your History. Nor will it record any data you enter on websites to autofill later, and pages you visit won’t sync to Safari on your other devices. What it won’t do is in any way make you more anonymous online. Sites can still identify your connection by its IP address; various "fingerprints" can be read from your browser to attempt to track you between sites, although Safari always minimizes this; and your internet service provider may keep a record of pages you visit, which could be…

BitTorrent client apps are often used to get content such as unlicensed films and TV shows, but also legitimate downloads like some software updates. Malware is rife, but fortunately the .exe files that can infect Windows PCs do nothing under macOS. Just never enter your admin password if asked when opening a file. Installing a compromised torrent app would be a very bad start: read up–to–date advice first, then download software directly from a trusted source, not from online search results.…

WHENEVER YOU GO online, some of the details — metadata — of what you access are visible to anyone who has access to your network traffic. That should concern you when you use a public Wi–Fi hotspot. Even assuming it uses password–protected encryption, and you only access https sites, there are risks, including unwittingly connecting to a malicious hotspot. At home the security risks are lower, but your internet service provider (ISP) is in the loop. In the UK, for example, the government’s plans to make ISPs keep internet connection records were paused after legal challenges, but that proposal hasn’t gone away entirely. VIRTUALLY PRIVATE A VPN (virtual private network) creates a "tunnel" through which all your network traffic passes to a VPN server, so nobody else, even your ISP…

$249.95 From Apple, apple.com Features Wireless, Bluetooth, Siri, Fast Fuel charge, sweat– and water–resistant, four ear–tip sizes They may look a bit like previous Powerbeats, but the latest incarnation of these truly wireless buds are unique in form. They push upwards and into the inner ear, while the hooks support them from above. Anyone used to in–ear buds will find them comfortable and secure. There are music/call controls and volume controls on both buds, which is a huge boon during workouts. This ambidextrous approach continues with the pairing process. Put one bud in and press play or talk to Siri, or take a call, and it’ll work. Take that one out and put the other in, and it’ll work the same. Put both earbuds in, and they’ll pair like that…

$3.99 From Aditya Rajveer, appaddy.wixsite.com/marvis Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 11.0 or later Marvis promises to make you fall in love with your music library all over again. It’s a replacement for Apple’s own Music app that works with iTunes, iCloud Music Library and Apple Music, and which exports listening data to Last.fm. Marvis revolves around the Home page, which you can customize with up to 30 sections: charts, playlists, today’s recommendations, personalized mixes, and so on. You can also change how sections work by specifying the sort order and direction, whether to display metadata, whether to display them in list or grid format, and even whether to curve the corners of the artwork. If you choose the grid option, you can specify how many columns to…

$5.99 From Moment inc, shopmoment.com Made for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch Needs iOS 11 or later Amongst the iOS pro camera apps, there’s been a shift towards simplification of operation. There’s a core of controls that these kinds of apps give you: controls that Apple does not allow you to access through its own Camera app, but which are supported by the camera hardware in recent iOS devices. Rather than including things like filters and other trinkets, which pro shooters have little use for, developers have been making their apps feel more slick and streamlined. And with some feature films now being shot on iPhones, it’s a good time to be exploring what you can do with your device’s powerful hardware. Since the initial version 3 release, Moment has had…

MOST IPHONE USERS never even consider using an email client other than Apple’s own Mail on their iPhone or iPad. But you’re different, right? You’re a discerning user who has needs for which Mail doesn’t quite cater. Or for whom its interface or general way of working just doesn’t… well, work. The good news is that there are a host of other email clients on the App Store, and some of them are very good indeed. The second piece of good news is that many of them are completely free, while others only charge if you need premium features. Even Microsoft’s Outlook, which has come on leaps and bounds since the Redmond firm acquired it as Accompli four years ago, is completely free. You don’t need an Office 365 subscription…

Gmail features some of the tools that Google has added to its email tool, such as quick–reply options, the separation of important messages from the rest, and the ability to schedule messages. However, there’s no quick way to create a task from messages. Spark not only allows you to create tasks, you can share them with others and delegate to them too. And you can pass messages to third–party apps like Things, Trello, or Evernote. Airmail lets you create a task from a message, but only within the app, while Outlook is limited in this respect, allowing you only to schedule a time to respond to a message. Edison allows you to quickly create a PDF of a message and share it using the iOS share menu, while Spike lets…

Spike groups messages by sender/recipient and displays them as if you were using a messaging tool (or you can switch to a more traditional view). Edison has a neat feature that allows you to view messages like email newsletters, travel tickets, delivery notifications, and bills and receipts as a group. In the case of newsletter subscriptions, it lists the sender along with a handy unsubscribe button. Gmail identifies priority senders and displays those first, and Outlook’s inbox does something very similar with its Focused inbox. Spark highlights unread messages at the top of the inbox, allows you to pin messages to the top, and splits personal messages from bulk emails. Airmail has a number of one–tap filters that let you see, for instance, only those messages it has identified as…

AT LEAST THUS far, the Apple TV app doesn’t play nicely with any of these 4K streamers. So why would you want one? It’s simple: each and every one of them makes even a smart TV more pleasing to use, and just that little bit smarter — or turns any old TV into a smart one. And considering that the revamped Apple TV app is (at this point) a collection of other subscription services, which have their own apps and generally do support these devices, you’re not missing out on much until Apple TV+ launches. Plus, don’t forget that the hardware Apple TV is still a thing — if Apple TV+ is your aim, and you don’t have a Samsung TV made in the last year or so, that’s the…

NOTIFICATIONS IN macOS can be a very useful tool for keeping up to date with things. You can be informed of, say, an upcoming appointment, deadline, or incoming message. However, notifications can also be a frustrating distraction. For example, if you work in an environment that uses multiple email inboxes for different projects and you use Outlook with notifications for incoming messages, message previews might pop up on screen every minute or two. No one needs that. Common controls for notifications across all apps are found in System Preferences’ Notifications pane, but macOS also allows for other settings that are controlled elsewhere. For example, Safari allows websites to send you notifications. And if you’ve clicked “Allow” on several sites without thinking, you may find yourself swamped. But fear not, here we’ll…

Your iPhone or iPad arrives with sensible settings that will suit most people, but it’s wise to check the Settings app for behaviors you might want to tweak. From increasing the privacy of notifications on the Lock screen to improving familiar features like Look Up and Siri, we’ll help you by highlighting some of the most important settings to check out. Unless your mobile data plan provides you with unlimited usage every month, you should definitely pay special attention to steps 4 and 5 on the opposite page. That said, you may want to hold back on making changes until you are sure which apps are using too much data. Your provider may have an app or a web-based service that breaks down overall data usage. However, you can keep…

Simple to describe but complicated to implement, Dark Mode inverts the default of black text on a white background, giving a more restful display, with icons and labels adapted to suit. Individual apps can still use their own color schemes, but providing this as a standard system–wide option could make a big difference to the experience of using your iPhone. You can switch manually, or set Dark Mode to come on in the evening.…

Throughout this year’s WWDC, Apple stressed its protections for user data. An unexpected bonus was Sign In with Apple, an alternative to logging in to services via Google or Facebook. While the whole point for those companies is to help track the user, for Apple it’s to make that impossible. With Sign In, the information that platforms can gather about you is severely limited, and it’ll even generate a dummy email address for you each time. iOS 13 defeats more tricks used by public Wi–Fi tracking systems, and there’s a new Allow Just Once option for releasing location data. HomeKit also gains privacy features (see page 28). In macOS 10.15, apps will need your explicit permission more often. KEEP SAFE In macOS, Gatekeeper checks that any new app you run…

The most striking demo video at WWDC showed user Ian Mackay, who has impaired movement, carrying out a series of tasks on his Mac using his voice alone. Impressively, Mackay was able to open apps, enter text, select items, and navigate around Maps as quickly as any mouse user could have managed it. This comprehensive new voice command system is coming to both macOS 10.15 and iOS 13 as an accessibility feature, and processes input on the device itself rather than through the cloud.…

USING A MAC MAKES you safer than average when going online. That’s partly because of Apple’s efforts to secure the operating system; partly because the Mac App Store gives you somewhere to get most of your third–party software safely. It’s also partly because bad actors — in the security industry sense, not the Hollywood sense — tend to be less interested in targeting macOS. But that doesn’t mean either you or your Mac can’t get fooled. You should know your way around the common risks and understand basic protections to keep yourself and your Mac out of harm’s way online. Master basic macOS security The first steps that will safeguard your Mac and your data for online activity Lock your Mac Many security features are irrelevant once someone has physical…

ADOBE’S FLASH PLAYER plug–in isn’t included with macOS, and is disabled in Safari by default. That’s because it’s pretty much obsolete and provides a handy attack vector for malware. But if you need to use a website that requires Flash, you may have to install it. You’ll be warned about this in your browser by an alert that links to the required plug–in, but it’s wise not to get into the habit of clicking software install alerts on web pages, since they can be fake. Instead, check whether Flash Player is already installed by going to System Prefs. Press Cmd+L to show all panes, and look for a Flash Player icon at the bottom. If it’s there, click it and check its settings and that it’s updated. Then go to…

MALWARE TAKES A number of forms. Viruses are one of the most insidious, capable of hiding on a computer and replicating themselves into unrelated files, causing corruption. Spyware can be even worse, relaying your data or keystrokes to hackers. Don’t panic, though: to do their dirty work they have to be able to execute code, and macOS is very good at preventing this. In practice, there’s little risk from malware unless you type in an admin user account’s username and password to give it permission to install, or choose to bypass Gatekeeper to run it. This is where Trojans come in. Like the wooden horse, they look like one thing — an app you want to use — but contain something less friendly. PROTECT AND SURVIVE Apps on the Mac…

ALTHOUGH THERE ARE ways of encrypting email, they don’t work for everyday messages between random users. The body of a standard email is plain text and relatively easy to intercept. As for checking where it came from, everything you see when you read the headers — in Mail, go to View > Message — can essentially be faked. Attachments can contain malware. This isn’t usually Mac compatible, but never enter your admin password if unexpectedly asked when opening an attachment. Microsoft Office files can conceal macro viruses; macros (program code embedded in documents) are disabled by default, so leave it that way. Malware can also be activated when you open a PDF, but using only a reputable, updated reader app ought to prevent this. Phishing emails try to fool you…

HEAD TO HEAD Nomad Base Station Hub Edition $99.95 From Nomad, hellonomad.com Dimensions 20W wireless charging (total), USB–C, USB–A The Base Station looks fantastic in all black, and it gets points for creating its own style away from the white Apple look. It has a soft (but admittedly thin) leather mat to place your devices on, and rubber feet to keep it in place. It’s made of aluminium, while the TwoFold is plastic, making the Base Station feel rock solid all over. This is a compact charger; it’s just wide enough for two XS Max phones in cases to sit side by side. The Base Station uses smaller charging coils than the TwoFold, which Nomad says is to speed up charging. Yet for us it just made finding the right…

$1.99 From Roboheadz Ltd, roboheadz.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 12.0 or later Wooo-eeee-oooo-eee! From The Beach Boys to B-movies, the sound of the Theremin is a big part of pop culture. AirSynth aims to bring it to your iPhone. Real Theremins use two proximity–sensing antennas to generate sounds: one for the pitch and one for the volume. AirSynth uses the front–facing depth-sensing camera on your iPhone X or later and tracks your hands when they’re about six inches above the device. As with a real Theremin, the proximity of your hands raises or lowers pitch and volume. There are six different voices to choose from, and they all have the same thing in common: they don’t sound remotely like a Theremin. This, we humbly suggest, is…

$4.99 From Fellow Traveller, fellowtraveller.games/games Made for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Needs iOS 9.0 or later Somewhere deep within The Stillness Of The Wind is a powerful story about solitude, sanctuary, and silence. A whole load of silence. It hangs over the life of the elderly Talma — the last left to tend the family farm after everyone else leaves for the blinking lights of the big city. They communicate with her through the letters, strange ramblings that feel otherwordly to the slow pace of Talma’s life. Her life plays out like a stripped back Stardew Valley. You collect eggs, tend a vegetable plot, milk goats, make cheese, rustle up meals, and trade with the vendor that emerges by your fence. Life is simple, small, and sometimes frustrating. The…

1 macOS VERSION? If you find an iOS mail client you like, you may well want to use it on your Mac too. Of those tested here, Airmail, Outlook and Spark have Mac versions, while Gmail can be used on the web. 2 WATCH APP? Apple Watch owners should check whether there’s a watchOS app for their preferred email client. We’ve noted which of the apps tested here have a watchOS app in the features table on page 67. 3 COST Many email apps are free but they run adverts, while others have a purchase price but are ad–free. All the apps tested here, both free and paid–for, eschew adverts. 4 SIRI SHORTCUTS Three apps here have Siri Shortcuts, the iOS 12 feature that enables you to assign voice commands…

Gmail puts its search bar at the top of your inbox, and the minute you start typing, it makes suggestions. It’s lightning quick, but only displays messages and all in one group. Airmail requires you to tap a magnifying glass, but it’s even quicker than Gmail and allows you to filter results by Subject, Sender, etc. Spark also requires you to tap a magnifying glass, and while its quick, it displays results by email address and needs another tap to check if it’s found the message you want. Edison’s search bar is at the top of the inbox, and it groups email addresses and message previews, but it’s a little sluggish compared to Gmail and Airmail. Spike requires the tap of a magnifying glass, is just as quick as Airmail,…

EVERY APP HERE is a very capable email client and, as usual, the choice of which is best for you depends on your needs. For example, we loved Edison’s grouping of messages and its ability to quickly unsubscribe to multiple bulk emails. We were also a big fan of the way Airmail lets you filter your messages and search results at the tap of a button. And there’s no doubt that Spike’s approach is different and fun — it’s also the friendliest email client of the bunch. Apps like Spike and Edison are changing the way we think about email and how we interact with it. Gmail and Outlook are both fine, and if you’re used to using them on the desktop you may want to keep using them on…

WHEN YOU SELL your Mac, it’s wise to back up everything so that you don’t lose important documents or apps. You should also clean it to ensure its new owner doesn’t get handed your sensitive information, such as passwords and data. Before following these steps, remove any firmware password you may have set see (bit.ly/mffwpwd), re-enable System Integrity Protection if you turned it off (bit.ly/mfsipen), and remember to make that backup! Then check through any apps which are licensed by serial numbers or authorization schemes, and deauthorize the copy on that Mac. You may need to consult the vendor’s support site for info. This is now simpler with products from Adobe and Microsoft, which normally only require you to log out of your online account. Apps from the Mac App…