Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2020 i MacLife

DIRECTOR STEVEN SODERBERGH shot 2018’s psychological thriller Unsane on an iPhone 7 Plus and 2019’s basketball flick High Flying Bird on an iPhone 8. To anyone unfamiliar with cinema gear, that might seem unsurprising — iPhone video looks great, right? But a glance at the camera rigs lugged around on even a modest production, accompanied by grips bearing lenses, monitors and terabytes of storage, suggests it can’t be quite that simple. Sean Baker shot 2015’s Tangerine with just an iPhone 5s (well, three of them). Having made the choice for cost reasons, he was pleased with the way it gave his movie a more intimate feel. But there’s a little more to it than point and shoot. Tangerine’s look was achieved with an anamorphic lens adaptor, a stabilizer and post–production color…

1 1976 The Apple Computer 1, hand–built by Steve Wozniak, goes on sale at the Byte Shop, Mountain View, CA, for $666.66. Twelve days after founding the company with Wozniak and Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne sells back his shares, becoming officially the rubbishest tech investor ever. 2 1977 With sales of the Apple I nearing 200, Jobs and Woz incorporate Apple, Inc and launch the Apple II, with a keyboard and everything. It will go on to sell five million, establishing the concept of a personal computer. Rob Janoff draws the Apple logo. 3 1979 Visiting Xerox PARC, Apple employees including Jobs and Jef Raskin see computers using GUIs and mice. The concept is incorporated into the Lisa, a putative business computer. 4 1981 Woz crashes his plane and effectively…

WHILE APPLE MAKES it easy to do what we want on our devices, it’s also easy to stick to doing what you know best. You may always work on a spreadsheet on your Mac, just take calls on your iPhone, or only ever check your Apple Watch for a notification. But how unnecessarily prescriptive is that? We know that Apple’s devices can do a lot, and that there plenty of apps and websites to help us find, research, explore, navigate, and discover. So we’ve decided to celebrate the diversity an Apple device and a good app or website has to offer! From printing T-shirts to editing fonts, from recording screens to making memes, from appreciating art to dissecting a frog, from getting fit to working out a bill in a…

35 Entertain a younger user Kids need no encouragement to use an iPad, but why risk them messing with settings or accessing random content when handing them yours? Turn on Settings > General > Accessibility > Guided Access, then open a suitable app. Set it up ready for them with any appropriate adjustments, then tap the Home button if your device has one, or the side button if not, three times. You can now draw around any areas of the screen to keep off limits, such as menu icons. In Options, you can disable buttons and even touch, to allow only passive viewing. Tap Start and set a passcode (separate from your main unlock passcode) to enter Guided Access mode. To end, use the Home button or gesture and enter the…

Ahead of the curve, and endlessly entertaining… Choose your perfect package GET THE DIGITAL EDITION Instant digital access on your iPad, iPhone, and Android device. Only $18 Every Year GET THE PRINT EDITION Every issue delivered to your door at a fraction of the cost. Only $30 Every Year GET THE COMPLETE PRINT & DIGITAL BUNDLE Get both the Print & Digital editions for only $42 Every Year SAVE 71% Get the print edition of Mac|Life delivered direct to your door, plus instant access on your iPad, iPhone, or Android device. “Mac|Life is the essential magazine for Apple lovers, as beautiful as an Apple product, and packed with informative features, reviews, and tutorials.” Editor Subscribe online today… myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/submcl Or call: 844-779-2822 (toll free) TERMS AND CONDITIONS Prices and savings quoted…

$2,799 (entry–level model is $2,399) From Apple, apple.com Features 16–inch Retina display (3072x1920), 2.3GHz 8–core Intel Core i9 processor, 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory, Intel UHD Graphics 630, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M, 1TB SSD, Touch Bar, Touch ID, 802.11ac Wi–Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, 4x USB–C Thunderbolt 3 ports Yes, it’s finally here! The much–rumored and utterly beguiling new MacBook Pro — armed with a suite of upgrades and improvements that make it one of the most significant Apple portable updates in years. First, the most obvious change. The 15–inch MacBook Pro is dead. It’s been replaced by a 16–inch version, although its footprint (35.79x24.79cm when closed) is the same as the model it replaces, even if it is a little deeper and heavier — Apple’s narrowed the bezels around the screen to…

$59.99 From Adobe, adobe.com Features Guided edits, post–production keying tools, noise reduction effects, auto tagging Like Apple’s iMovie, Adobe Premiere Elements 2020 is designed to help video makers import, fix and share their raw clips as tightly edited programs, complete with professional post–production assets such as titles and transitions. As our iPhones can generate HD and 4K footage, we may have the problem of managing an ever–growing collection of video assets. This can involve lots of rummaging through folders in an attempt to find particular clips. With the release of Premiere Elements 2020 it’s now easier to manage your video collection and find files more quickly. Thanks to Adobe Sensei, the Elements 2020 Organizer uses Artificial Intelligence to analyze the content of your video footage and add Smart Tags that…

$49.99 From IK Multimedia, ikmultimedia.com Features Magnetic grip; front, rear, or omni–directional recording This is aimed at anyone who needs a travel–friendly mic for occasional use with an iPhone, iPad, or even a Mac. It’s designed to sit on the edge of a smartphone or tablet and has a magnetic back so it sits securely. It’s important to note that the Mic Cast connects using a standard 3.5mm jack. While not convenient for owners of iPhones or iPads without a 3.5mm socket, who will need either a Lightning or USB-C adaptor, it’s a sensible choice. Unlike some iRig products, there are no converter cables for Lightning or USB-C sockets, presumably to keep the price down. Mic Cast 2 does have a headphone jack, though, so you can monitor the mic…

$54.99 From Twelve South, twelvesouth.com Needs Any Bluetooth audio device While Bluetooth headphones and earphones are fast becoming ubiquitous, there’s still a lot of hardware out there that uses conventional wires to send and receive sound. You can’t use AirPods, for example, with a plane’s AV system or the treadmill at most gyms, or easily hook up an iPad to an older car stereo. Well actually, now you can. AirFly Pro is a Bluetooth–to–analog transmitter and receiver that provides a bridge between wired and wireless worlds. Charged over USB–C, it has around 16 hours of battery life and can be paired with up to two sets of phones at once. In transmit mode, you convert any ⅛ inch headphone output into a Bluetooth one. Switched into receive mode, it can…

$299.99 From Epson, epson.com Features 1.4–inch color LCD, up to 6.7 ISO ppm (black) and 3.8 ISO ppm (color), battery powered, Wi–Fi Epson’s smallest printer comes with inbuilt Wi-Fi and a lithium-ion battery that you can charge over USB for true portability. It’s aimed at the business user and in this case, the road warrior. It can handle paper sizes from A4 to a DL envelope, and can also print on glossy photo paper. At 7ppm, it doesn’t claim to print quickly, but it does promise decent print quality thanks to a high print resolution of 5,760 x 1,440. The use of pigment ink as opposed to dye also helps to deliver durable, smudge–resistant pages. The Epson WorkForce WF–110 replaces the almost identical WF–100, at a lower price point. The…

MESH NETWORKING HAS certainly been one of the hot technologies of recent years, with dozens of mesh routers and kits claiming to boost your home Wi–Fi with higher speeds and greater range than the cheap–and–cheerful router provided by your broadband supplier. Instead of relying on a single router, mesh networking systems typically include two or three identical routers — sometimes called nodes — that you can place in different locations throughout your home. These nodes then link together to create a mesh network that can reach further than a single router on its own, so they’re a good option for larger homes. You don’t have to live in a massive mansion, either, as many smaller homes may have thick walls or ceilings between floors that can block your Wi–Fi signal.…

The big stretch of holiday indulgence runs from Thanksgiving through to new year, with barely a let up, and it can leave you feeling a little heavier than maybe you’d like. We’re not here to recommend intense gym sessions or anything like that — we know the motivation just isn’t there for most people to dive into CrossFit or worry about “summer–ready bodies”. Some easy at–home exercises that don’t require equipment will help you feel a bit healthier and more active when spring arrives. These apps will help you spend time getting healthier. YOUTUBE Free Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch The YouTube community is full of great fitness video creators who can guide you through just about anything. Some run entire courses, while others will suggest exercises you can…

$4999 From Samsung, samsung.com Features 7,680 x 4,320 QLED screen, Quantum Processor 8K picture engine, AI upscaling, Ambient mode, HDR/HDR10/HLG, Airplay 2 connectivity This is an absolute extravagance of a TV: there’s essentially no 8K content out there to watch and some of us even live in homes too small for its 65–inch panel. But does that mean there’s no reason to have an 8K TV? Definitely not. Samsung’s flagship TV is very special, a status symbol that’s an adept partner to all kinds of media from standard definition up. Wall appeal is, like many TVs of this era, absolutely stunning, with Samsung’s QLED panel packed into a thin, slim-bezelled frame that can mount absolutely flush. Putting it flat against the wall isn’t even the issue it might be with…

HOW TO DOWNLOAD IN iPLAYER OVER 4G MOBILE DATA? Some services and apps, like the BBC iPlayer, limit download or streaming of video, even on a 4G connection. Other commercial services, such as Amazon, now support this. One workaround is to make your iPhone a mobile hotspot, and download from that over Wi–Fi to your iPad, which is permitted. HOW TO TELL THE WI–FI CHANNEL MY IPHONE IS USING? Install Apple’s free AirPort Utility from the App Store. Open that app in Settings, and enable Wi–Fi Scanner. In the AirPort Utility app tap Wi–Fi Scan at the top right, then tap Scan to see channel details. Ensure you disable Wi–Fi Scanner in Settings afterwards to save power. CAN I UPGRADE THE FUSION DRIVE IN A NEW iMAC 27–INCH? You’d need…

UNTIL THE RELEASE of iOS 13, video editing had been somewhat relegated to the back seat in the Photos app. You could trim a clip’s start and end point, but if there were problems with color, tone or composition then you’d need to export your movie to a dedicated video editing app. In iOS 13 (and iPadOS), your video editing options in Photos have increased considerably. You can now overcome common problems such as over or underexposed tones, create more vibrant colors, reduce image noise in low–light shots, and sharpen soft detail. You can even correct perspective distortion, a lens–related phenomenon where a building’s vertical walls appear to converge towards the top of the frame. This is something you can’t do in either the iOS, iPadOS or desktop versions of…

01 FIND ALIEN LIFE The University of California, Berkeley’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (setiathome.berkeley.edu) wants your Mac’s help to analyze radio telescope data. Install the BOINC app from boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php, and it’ll run in the background. You can opt in to other research too. 02 Light up your party The Music app (or iTunes in previous versions of macOS) offers a psychedelic light show that responds to the sounds your Mac is playing. Hit Cmd+T to start; it’ll cycle through different modes to keep things fresh. While it’s playing, press? (with or without Shift) to show key shortcuts that you can use to change the patterns, including M to switch modes and P to shift the color palette. You can also press A to add more branches to the patterns or…

42 Learn stuff Learning platforms like Udemy, Linda.com, and MasterClass all have Apple TV apps, though content is paid. Search the YouTube app for ‘free lectures’, and you’ll find plenty from across the world. Moreover, the TED app has free talks from Silicon Valley’s favorite inspirational conference. 43 Hijack hotel TV Your Apple TV is easy to carry, and can connect to any TV with an accessible HDMI port (remember the cable!) Getting it online can be trickier — it won’t cope with sign–in portals — but if you stream videos you’ve downloaded to your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook then you won’t need Wi–Fi to stay entertained. 44 Order takeaway US favorite GrubHub now has an Apple TV app, but food delivery services like Uber Eats don’t. Try mirroring your iPhone or iPad…

HEAD BACK TO the science fiction of the 1990s and you often find protagonists immersed in virtual worlds. These frequently lurid, neon–clad spaces, packed full of “computer code” imagery (this was the 1990s, after all) were usually accessed by way of a hefty headset and allowed the user to go anywhere — or any when. Today, the onset of consumer–accessible virtual reality has largely transformed science fiction into science fact (and, in Spielberg flick Ready Player One, also dystopian future) — but the requirement to wear a headset hasn’t (yet) gone away. Fortunately, augmented reality offers us an alternative — and one that’s more broadly useful. Augmented reality takes a step back from placing the user within entirely virtual confines. Instead, it seeks to merge digital objects with the real…

IT’S AMAZING HOW a small thing can make such a big difference to your experience of a laptop, but the return of tiny scissor switch mechanisms under each key in the Magic Keyboard is very welcome and long overdue — and follows years of complaints from users about the butterly switches used in recent Apple laptops. Chief among the complaints were a lack of key travel, making them less satisfying to type on, but also reliability — the keys could jam up thanks to ingress from dust, dirt and other detritus. Apple met this challenge by making a series of changes to the butterfly mechanism: improving key travel, adding a silicone membrane, and more. It also instituted the Keyboard Service Program, in which you can return your laptop to Apple…

$59.99 From Ohanaware, ohanaware.com Needs OS X 10.11 When faced with a high–contrast scene your camera may struggle to capture detail in the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows. One way to capture more detail is to shoot three bracketed exposures. One shot captures an average exposure, revealing detail in the midtones; a second shot over–exposes the scene to capture shadow detail; a third shot under-exposes the scene to capture detail in the brightest highlights. You then need an app to combine the correctly exposed bits of each shot into a merged image that boasts a high dynamic range (HDR). HDRtist NX2.1 has all the tools you need to create colorful and fully detailed HDR composites from a series of bracketed exposures. It also does a great job of clawing…

$59.99 From Ezviz, ezvizlife.com Features 360–degree pan and tilt, motion detection, night vision, Micro SD compatibility They say you can’t put a price on home security, but can you still get peace of mind without breaking the bank? EZVIZ believes you can, with its $59.99 C6CN Internet PT Camera. What do you get for your money? A fairly impressive feature list: motion tracking, 360–degree pan and tilt, night vision, plus two–way audio. Its 90–degree field of view is noticeably less than the Arlo Q’s 130–degree view, but then the Arlo Q costs around three times as much. It lets you quickly view motion–triggered events or a live view through the cam’s lens, and makes it simple to change settings on the fly. It has a few nice touches, too, including…

$299 From Master & Dynamic, masterdynamic.com Features Stainless steel charging case, Bluetooth 5.0 Master & Dynamic have updated their MW07 true wireless earbuds with the new “Plus” range. The build remains superb, with handcrafted acetate buds in a range of subtle colors, and a beautiful stainless steel charging case. You also get various fit wings to suit your ears, a USB–C charging cable and an A to C USB adaptor. The sound quality is still incredible. The soundstage is crisp, clear, and beautifully balanced. Bass is deep but perfectly controlled. There’s dramatically improved battery life — the buds offer five hours playback after a 15 minute charge, and 10 hours after 40 minutes. The case holds three full charges for a total of 40 hours playback. You can take phone…

The first mesh router from each system was connected to an existing broadband router in the living room. The second router was then placed in a back office that normally suffers from poor Wi–Fi reception because of three partition walls. Some kits included a third router, so this was placed in a hall, roughly halfway between the other two routers. ▲ HIGHER… NETGEAR ORBI WIFI 6 $699.99 netgear.com If you want the latest state–of–the–art Wi–Fi, Netgear’s forthcoming Orbi system supports the new WiFi 6 standard (802.11ax) for super–high speed and range. ▼ …OR LOWER? TENDA NOVA MW6 From $199.99 tendacn.com The plastic design is a bit cheap and cheerful, but the MW6 mesh kit is available in two– or three–pack options at affordable prices.…

There’s no getting away from the fact that tech moves on apace. In the same way as Apple presents us with shiny new iPhones or ever more desirable Macs every 18 months (and seems to love a complete platform switch, like the jump from 68000 to PowerPC, PowerPC to Intel x86, and the forthcoming leap from x86 to ARM chips) the TV market is based on the refresh cycle. Sony, Samsung et al need to make “buying a new TV” something that’s on every tech–lover’s list, and to do that they need to innovate. You can draw an interesting timeline: starting at the end of the CRT days, we went from 720p to 1080p, from the short–lived obsession with 3D to 4K and HDR, from LCD and Plasma to LED…

Email Mac|Life at ask@maclife.com Can you still use old hard drives with macOS Catalina? If I upgrade my MacBook Air 2015 to macOS Catalina, will I still be able to access my several hard drives and old CD–ROMs? Potential issues in accessing old external storage devices fall into three tiers: storage medium, file system, and format. If a storage device connects to your Mac without relying on a special kernel extension, and works just with a regular USB or other port, then it should continue to work fine. Some specialized devices may rely on installing a kernel extension, which if it isn’t updated may not work, but instances of these are pretty unusual. macOS Catalina supports all traditional file systems, including Mac OS Extended or HFS+ and the variants of…

If you’re in a hurry to share a clip on social media you can slap a filter on it to alter its colors and tones in a variety of creative ways. You can even dial down the intensity of the applied filter’s look using a slider to produce a more subtle result. Filters can also be used to complement other adjustments that you’ve already applied to the clip. Here we’ve added the Silvertone filter to an edited clip for a more grungy, urban monochrome effect and then dialled back in a hint of original color using the filter’s control slider.…

When cropping a shot, it’s a good idea to turn on the Rule of Thirds Grid Overlay in the Options bar. This grid helps you make a more balanced and aesthetically pleasing cropped image. In steps one to three, we used the Rule of Thirds grid to place the sky in the top row, the sea in the middle row and the beach in the lower row. We positioned the left–hand intersecting vertical and horizontal line over the girl, as the eye is naturally drawn to these parts of a picture according to the classical rules of composition.…

ONE OF THE many useful changes that Apple made in iOS 13, iPadOS and macOS Catalina is the long overdue merging of the Find My Phone and Find My Friends apps. Now instead of having one app for each job, you have one app that finds your contacts as well as your Apple devices. It has a terrible name – Find My – but as we’ll see, it’s very easy and very effective. If your devices don’t run the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS and macOS, you’ll still be able to find them from your other devices; but if you want to find people or hardware from those devices you’ll have to use Find My Friends, Find My Phone, or the web–based iCloud version. In order to use Find My,…

A FEW MONTHS ago, I was worried about the Apple Card having unpredictable downsides, and it didn’t take long for that to turn out to be the case. It appears that when women apply for it, they receive lower credit than men, even if they have higher credit ratings. Goldman Sachs provides the credit service for the card, and its official response said a number of factors are looked at, but not gender, race and similar. Perhaps more telling is that reportedly employees blamed it on the algorithm. As more companies entrust our lives to algorithms, they’re often careful to frame them as “neutral” — because how can code be biased? It’s just math. That goes double for algorithms built by machine learning, because all that happens is that you…

1 DJI Mavic Mini dji.com $399 >>> DJI’s advanced drone smarts become a lot more accessible with this new super–small quadcopter — its diminutive size means in many countries it doesn’t require a drone license. But it still packs in a 12–megapixel camera that records in better–than–HD resolution, mounted on a three–axis gimbal for stable shots even when the drone is shifting. Its flight time of 30 minutes is equivalent to bigger drones, as is its broadcast range of 2.5 miles. And it folds up to be truly pocketable — this is your next vacation camera, especially since it’s so easy to fly. 2 Philips 439P9H philips.com $TBC >>> Philips’ original ultra–wide monitor was a huge 49 inches, so here’s a smaller version… at 43 inches! But if you’re going…

48 Go stargazing Night Sky is one of a number of apps that offers an augmented reality guide to the heavens. The app displays info and diagrams aligned with the actual sky where you are. Unusually, it works on the Watch. The app is free, with paid subscriptions for non–essential features. 49 Add an animated face In the Watch app’s Face Gallery, tap Photos; under Content tick Photos and select a Live Photo. This will be available to choose as a face on your Watch. You can use an app like Giphy to convert a GIF to a Live Photo; edit it, and set the Key Photo to the last frame. 50 Memo to self Open the Drafts app on your Watch to dictate, or Scribble a note to yourself. This is automatically…

Free (IAPs) From Salavat Khanov, 1blocker.com Needs macOS 10.15; 64–bit processor There’s no shortage of ad blockers available for both macOS and iOS. However, 1Blocker has gained fans thanks to the features that allow you to customize it and to see what’s been blocked. New in version 3 is a tool that allows you to point and click on an element on a web page to block it — much easier than manually creating a rule to block objects. Version 3 also improves content blocking, updates rules twice a week, allows you to see what resources were blocked on a page, and adds new customization tools. 1Blocker allows you to block much more than just annoying adverts. You can use it to block trackers and data collectors, cookie notices, social…

$699.99 From Garmin, garmin.com Features 1.3–inch display (240x240 pixels), 32GB memory, 10 ATM water rating, 47mm case size, 83g Want a high–end running watch, golf watch, gym watch, ski watch and a hiking watch in one? Then consider the new Fenix. The Garmin Fenix 6 Pro’s closest predecessor is the Fenix 5 Plus. The Fenix 6 Pro has improved on a few key parameters, like battery life and screen size, without increasing its size or weight. There’s also 32GB of on–board storage for keeping music playlists synced to it. Battery life has been improved thanks to modes that can extend its life up to 46 days. For us, with a bunch of useful functions turned on, it lasted a week. Speaking of batteries, a new Body Battery feature monitors your…

We’re at something of an impasse regarding high–res content. 4K is becoming more commonplace, with support from streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV+, 4K Blu-ray, and even 4K uploads on YouTube. But 8K is an exponential jump that asks a lot of both storage and bandwidth, one we’re possibly not quite ready for. Hollywood tends to film in 6K, and one minute of raw 8K footage, before compression, takes up 122GB. An hour, at somewhere in the region of 7.5TB, exceeds all but the largest consumer hard drives. It’s a way off. YouTube’s 4K feature does raise something interesting for lower–res screens: many uploaders, even if they don’t intend or expect their content to be seen at max resolution, record and upload in 4K because the compression applied to…

VOICE CONTROL FIRST appeared in Apple’s mobile operating system back in 2009, and it was brilliant. Now it’s on the Mac, and it’s just as brilliant here. It’s designed to help people with motor-skill issues, and it’s also very convenient for anyone who wants to ask their Mac to do things. Voice Control enables you to select and ‘click’ on things easily. Say “show numbers” to number on–screen elements such as web links, interface buttons, or menu items. You can then click on them by saying “click” and the number of the item you want to click. If there isn’t a number, you can still use Voice Control to click on something. Simply say “Show grid” or “Show window grid” and it will divide the screen into rectangles, each one…

The new Cycle Tracking feature in Health enables women to track 21 different aspects of their menstrual health including acne, bloating, fatigue, headache and mood changes, as well as ovulation test results. The categories can be logged and viewed from the Apple Watch as well. The new Noise app tracks decibel levels on the Apple Watch Series 3 or later. The feature works with headphone audio levels (working best with EarPods, AirPods and Beats headphones) and environmental sounds.…

ONE OF THE best things about Apple’s watchOS is that now you’re no longer stuck with the default Apple Watch faces. You can now change the colors, adjust their individual styles, and change what complications appear on your preferred Watch face. Complications are little sections that do something. For example, you might have a Calendar complication that tells you what your next appointment is, or a Shazam complication that opens that app, or a weather complication telling you that you need to pack an umbrella. Complications may be made by Apple, or they may be provided by third-party apps such as Fantastical, Dark Sky and so on. To see what’s available, go into the Watch app and tap on Complications. This enables you to copy any third–party complications you would…

UNVEILED BY STEVE Jobs in 1999, the iBook converted the iMac’s brightly colored translucent plastics into portable form. With its fast PowerPC G3 processor and groundbreaking wireless network option, it pushed the limits of what anyone was expecting from a notebook computer. It was also barely smaller or lighter than a small trash can lid, a factor that — despite the thoughtful inclusion of a carrying handle — partly explains why many customers decided that they would be happier sticking with some of their expectations. Codenamed “Snow”, the second–generation iBook arrived in May 2001 at a low–key press conference in Cupertino. Just two months later, on stage at Macworld Expo New York, Jobs was able to announce that the new machine, hailed by press critics as a revolution in portable…