Indholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2020 i MacLife

THERE’S NOT A lot of thrill in computers these days. What was the last technology that truly transformed laptops and desktops? There’s an argument for the solid state drive, which made computers so much faster and laptops faster and lighter. But the original MacBook Air didn’t have an SSD (it had a 1.8–inch hard drive, borrowed from the iPod), so the transformation had already happened, really. I think the last technology that had a fundamental impact on how Macs and PCs are made was the LCD display. Look at the jump from the iMac G3 to iMac G4 — a totally different beast, impossible before. And laptops simply wouldn’t exist without it. Will there ever be anything that makes that kind of difference again? I don’t think so. These days,…

1 Canon EOS R5 canon.com $TBC Canon has revealed that a new mirrorless camera is coming, and it’ll be packed with enough tech to fire it to the top of our Most Wanted list. The most eye–grabbing feature is 8K video support, which isn’t just tech showing off for those with the latest TVs (or video pros) — using 8K footage to export 4K final videos gives you much higher quality results. We don’t know a lot about the R5 yet, other than it’ll have a new type of sensor and 20fps shooting, with in–body stabilization and lens stabilization. It’ll be expensive, but awesome. 2 Celestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ celestron.com $399 Precise star–gazing comes to everyone with this app–friendly telescope. You attach your phone to it, fire up the…

THE PHOTOS APP has changed quite a lot. With Photos selected under Library at the top left, you’ll see the tabs across the top have changed from macOS Mojave’s Photos, Moments, Collections and Years to Years, Months, Days, and All Photos. The relationship between these is clearest if, instead of clicking the tabs, you zoom in and out using pinch zoom on a Magic Trackpad. There’s no equivalent for mouse users, but you can double–click an item to zoom in from Years to Months to Days and finally to enlarge an individual image. You can also flick between the tabs using Cmd+1, 2, 3 and 4. There’s no Moments view, even though this still exists in iOS 13. The alternative views on the left include People and Places, organized by…

VERSION 13 OF Apple’s Safari web browser feels largely familiar, but it has a few new tricks. As in macOS Mojave, new windows show, by default, your Favorites, displayed as large icons, plus your Frequently Visited sites – similar to Top Sites in earlier versions. A third section now adds Siri Suggestions, although this section remains unseen until Siri has something to suggest, based on your activities in other apps. Ctrl–click any empty part of the window to turn these three sections on or off. You can also still set Safari > Preferences > General > “New windows open with:” to revert to the old Top Sites view or to make new windows show something else, and the content of new tabs can be set separately. If you type a…

Currency Converter Plus FROM bit.ly/3a4PNuu NEEDS iOS 9 or later When you need to convert a currency it’s likely that you’re in a hurry, and this is where Currency Converter Plus comes in very useful. You can quickly select the two currencies at the top, enter an amount, and immediately see the result. There are 171 currencies to choose from, so you’re guaranteed to be able to convert on the go, and they’re easy to search for in the currency selector. You can also choose to auto update the currency rate, or enter it manually. GOOGLE TRANSLATE FROM translate.google.com NEEDS iOS 11 or later Google Translate supports text translation for 103 languages. You can use it offline in 59 languages, and save popular phrases to access later. Waze FROM waze.com…

WHEN IT COMES to a lightweight, reliable way to carry around your data, solid state drives (SSDs) are the way to go. SSDs are lightning fast and come in a range of storage capacities depending on your budget. The five SSDs in this group test all cost between $80 to $160 for 500GB of storage. First things first, when it comes to archival storage (over decades or longer), SSDs aren’t the best option. This is because NAND flash–based drives tend to leak storage if left for long periods without power. DRAM–based drives come with either an internal battery or an AC/DC adapter to avoid this problem, but are not as portable as a result. Since they use flash memory, NAND–based SSDs are great for temporary storage, though. They offer quicker…

There’s little better predictor for what the tech future holds than CES, the annual Las Vegas trade show. Major companies show off new releases, prototypes, and fresh tech; there’s a air of one–upmanship, which extends all the way from the size of firms’ booths to the brightness of their screens. This year’s show was no different, and much of the war was fought on the smart home battlefield. Let’s take the camera sector as an example. We saw a high–profile smart camera from Arlo, which unveiled its Pro 3 Floodlight ($249) — a wireless cam with a wired option and a bright, customizable floodlight around its 2K HDR sensor. We saw another from fast–rising company Abode, which revealed its Indoor/Outdoor Smart Camera ($199), a tiny device which ties into the…

WANT TO MANAGE YOUR iCLOUD KEYCHAIN? If you want to manage your passwords and keep them in sync across all your devices, make sure you have your iCloud keychain turned on and set up: bit.ly/ml166ask1. USE YOUR iOS DEVICE HANDS-FREE Your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch can be controlled without your hands — activate Voice Control and take advantage of a variety of benefits, such as handsfree tapping, typing and more: bit.ly/ml166ask2. HOW DOES THE APPLE WATCH BACKUP WORK? If you’re wondering how your Apple Watch gets backed up then wonder no more; Apple has highlighted how it works and what’s backed up (as well as what isn’t): bit.ly/ml166ask3. MY iMAC CAN’T UPDATE FIRMWARE? iMac Retina 5K 27–inch late–2015 models have a problem with firmware updates, which Apple is investigating.…

One quick solution, which may bring it back like magic, is to reset the Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) as detailed at bit.ly/mac349smc, which shouldn’t upset anything else. If that doesn’t help, restart your Mac in Diagnostic mode as described at bit.ly/mac349dgno to check whether it’s a hardware problem. Think back to when this problem started. If it occurred after a macOS update or upgrade, then it’s likely to be the result of a failure to install the necessary software. If that’s the case, try downloading and installing the latest Combo updater for that version of macOS. If you don’t think this is related to a macOS update, ensure that you have a good recent backup, as made by Time Machine, perhaps, then restart in macOS Recovery as described at…

Recent versions of Firefox should be fully compatible with Catalina. Unless you’re running an older release, this problem is either due to corruption of the app itself, or something stored in its folder inside your Home folder’s Library. Trash your current copy of the Firefox app, download the current version, and install that. If that still doesn’t work normally, you’ll need to remove its other files, which may reset its preferences to the defaults. Quit the app, and in the Finder press Cmd+Opt+Full Stop at the same time to show invisible items. In your Home folder, select the Library folder, and within that locate the Mozilla folder. Drag that to the trash, and press Cmd+Opt+Full Stop a second time to hide invisible items again. If Firefox has recently crashed, you…

REQUIRES macOS Catalina, Safari YOU WILL LEARN How to install and manage extensions in Safari IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes EXTENSIONS ARE LIKE “mini apps” that you can open up right from the toolbar in Safari. They offer a shortcut to some of the most useful features of third–party apps, without you needing to leave the browser. The extensions you choose can then be easily accessed from the relevant website, so there’s no more jumping between apps.While ad blockers dominate the list, there are plenty of other Safari extensions. Save web pages with Pocket, check your grammar with Grammarly, view passwords with 1Passwords, find out how trustworthy a website is with NewsGuard, and more. And once you’re done, you just click to close the extension and resume browsing. It’s that…

HOW IT WORKS YOU WILL LEARN How Dolby Atmos takes audio to a new level, and the best way for you to enjoy it on your devices WHETHER IT’S A HELICOPTER OR HARMONICA, THE RESULT IS EXTRAORDINARY CHANCES ARE YOU’VE experienced Dolby Atmos without even knowing it: the technology was launched in 2012 and is used in thousands of cinemas. It’s also part of the Dolby Cinema home theater format. Dolby Atmos delivers incredibly accurate, lifelike audio. It’s mainly used in films but it can do amazing things in music too: REM’s remastered Automatic For The People was remixed for Dolby Atmos with what singer Michael Stipe described as “breathtaking” results. Dolby Atmos takes surround sound to the next level, literally. Where traditional surround sound systems put audio in front,…

UNVEILING IT AT WWDC 2004, Steve Jobs called the 30–inch Cinema Display “the largest desktop canvas ever created”. With a resolution of 2560x 1600, the 16:10 TFT LCD not only boasted an unheard–of four million pixels but also a dramatically imposing physical size. Compared to the regular 23–inch Cinema Display, the 30–inch screen had 70% greater area. From a normal working distance, it could feel overwhelming. Just two inches thick, with a flat slab design mounted on a tilting stand, the aluminium–clad panel seemed impressively slim compared to the cathode–ray tube monitors still lingering in professional use, even if its wide bezels (similar to a modern iMac, but part of the metal case rather than glazed over) look clunky with hindsight. The price of $3,299 didn’t include upwards of $500…

THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK in Asia will not only hit Apple’s sales in affected countries but also lead to iPhone supply problems worldwide as it impacts on the smartphone’s production in China. The financial consequences will be serious: Apple issued an investor update in February to warn that it would not meet its previous revenue forecast for the March quarter. The statement explained: “While our iPhone manufacturing partner sites are located outside the Hubei province [the center of the COVID-19 outbreak] — and while all of these facilities have reopened — they are ramping up more slowly than we had anticipated.” As a result “worldwide iPhone supply will be temporarily constrained” and these supply constraints “will temporarily affect revenues worldwide.” PEOPLE THE PRIORITY Apple’s statement took pains to express sympathy with…

IN FEBRUARY, THE US Internal Revenue Service revised advice posted on its website last autumn that suggested players might owe tax on the virtual currencies they amassed in games. Taxpayers and experts had struggled to understand why the IRS would list these alongside virtual currencies that are traded and spent in the real world, like Bitcoin, which do have tax implications, as the IRS clarified in 2014 in IRS Notice 2014–21. Echoing that text, the website’s “What is Virtual Currency?” explainer advised: “Virtual currency that has an equivalent value in real currency, or that acts as a substitute for real currency, is referred to as ‘convertible’ virtual currency.” But it continued with a new list of examples including V-bucks, the fictional currency in Fortnite, and ‘Roblox’, meaning that game’s currency,…

1 Signing the Macintosh The rear panel of the first Macintosh, launched in 1984, featured the signatures of all 47 members of its design team — on the inside. “Since we were artists, it was only appropriate that we sign our work,” recalled software architect Andy Hertzfeld. 2 Breathing LEDs Since the late 1990s, the sleep indicator light on most Macs pulsates, mimicking human breathing. A patent filed in 1999 was granted for this feature, although it’s now expired, presumably with a graceful fade–out effect. 3 Right here, right now Until iOS 6, the Clock icon on the iOS home screen always showed the time as 10:15, but in iOS 7 and later it shows the live time, complete with a constantly moving second hand. 4 Siri, sshhhh Numerous users…

When Catalina launched last October it came with over 100 changes big and small that altered everything from how you use Split View to the dropping of support for 32–bit apps. Six months on and the changes have mostly been for the good, but if you’re still not sure what’s what or how to do things, or how to fix any problems that have popped up, then the next 12 pages will be your guide. You’ll discover fast fixes for common problems; tips and tricks for the Photos, Music, TV, and Podcasts apps; and even a few nips and tucks for Mail, Messages, and Safari. By the end of our guide you’ll be sufficiently “levelled up” to tackle Catalina with ease. We will even show you how to tame those…

CATALINA’S REPLACEMENT OF the iTunes app with a suite of new software divided by media type is a bit of a culture shock, but if all goes well it should be less dramatic than it sounds. When upgrading a Mac to Catalina, your existing media should migrate automatically to the apps that replace iTunes when you first run them. Some initial problems with this process were fixed in macOS 10.15.1. If you don’t see your content after launching the Music app on a Mac that you’ve just upgraded, close the app and open it again while holding Opt. Then navigate to the iTunes Library.itl file that you were previously using. (By default, it’s in ~/Music/iTunes, where “~” is the named Home folder for your user account; but you may have…

SCREEN TIME Catalina brings Screen Time to the Mac, accessed from System Preferences. As well as monitoring your usage of apps, you can use the features below the line on the left to restrict usage or enforce downtime. This replaces the previous Parental Controls; most of the features from that are now under Content & Privacy. Rather than logging in with your Administrator account and then setting up restrictions for each user account, you’ll need to log in as the user account you want to set up. Click Options, at the bottom, to set a Screen Time passcode to prevent changes. The Communication Limits feature, which (as in iOS and iPadOS) restricts who the user can contact via FaceTime and Messages, is missing, but coming in macOS 10.5.4. NOTES In…

TransferWise FROM transferwise.com Needs iOS 11 or later Whether you travel internationally, or need to send money abroad, you could pay a high exchange rate for your currency. TransferWise allows you to send and receive money in over 70 countries, while giving you the lowest possible exchange rate, for a low upfront free. It gives you a free multi–currency account that can hold up to 40 currencies, and you can also apply for a free debit card (T&Cs apply) to use in any currency you choose. The app also allows you to receive money from the UK, USA, Eurozone and Australia without any fee. Some currencies need a local bank account to operate, but you can create a digital account. Touch ID/Face ID security ensures that your finances are safe…

Free (IAPs) From Aptonic, aptonic.com Needs OS X 10.10 or later DROPZONE 4 + Quick and easy file launcher + Clever interface with “dropzone” for files - Monthly subscription for Pro version - Help files could be clearer GREAT One of the most popular categories on the Mac App Store is “launcher” programs that provide new ways of quickly launching apps, or moving files and folders around. Dropzone from Aptonic has always been a popular choice here, and was recently updated to version 4.0. This new version provides a basic set of features for free, or you can pay a subscription of $1.99 per month to unlock the Pro version that has a number of additional features. Oddly, version 3 is still available too, with a fixed price of $9.99…

$17.99 From Lantern Studio, lantern-studio.com Needs OS X 10.9 or later As the saying goes — “it’s the journey, not the destination” — and that’s very much the case with Luna The Shadow Dust. The developers at Lantern Studio refer to this point–and–click adventure game as “a picture book in motion”, and much of the game’s charm lies not in solving puzzles but simply allowing the story to unfold and immerse you in its hand–drawn animated graphics and atmospheric soundtrack. The game begins with the figure of a small boy falling through space and landing in a shadowy, deserted landscape, accompanied only by a mysterious companion who looks like a glowing will-o’-the-wisp. You’re not told why you were falling, or where you’ve landed, so you simply have to set off…

$199.95 From Sennheiser, en-us.sennheiser.com Features Active noise cancellation, AAC and aptX low latency support, Bluetooth 5.0, 30 hours battery Sennheiser is well–known for its great–sounding noise–cancelling headphones, and its latest, the Sennheiser HD 450BT, offer a cheaper alternative to previous models like the Momentum 3 Wireless and class-leaders like the Sony WH–1000XM3. Fully–foldable, the Sennheiser HD 450BT are geared towards listening on the go, and can be easily stowed away when not in use. Thanks to that foldable design, they take up a minimal amount of room in your bag, making them ideal for travel. They come in black and white color variants, with a look that’s stylish, if not that eye–catching. Though a little flimsy in hand, they’re light and comfortable to wear for long sessions. On the bottom…

HEAD TO HEAD OWC USB–C Travel Dock (2nd Gen) $54.99 From OWC, owcdigital.com Features Five ports, up to 100W pass–through power DESIGN OWC’s Travel Dock is a little chunkier than its Belkin rival, but its rectangular design is still pretty compact, measuring 1.3 inches on each side, 0.9 inches thick, and weighing six ounces. We also like the way that the USB–C cable folds into the base when not in use. USB PORTS You get two USB 3.1 ports for older accessories, and one USB–C port. However, the USB–C port is only for pass–through power, so storage devices and Time Machine back–ups only work via its USB 3.1 ports. POWER AND CHARGING It’s a shame that the USB–C port on the Travel Dock doesn’t support data connections for storage devices.…

5G is massive, and CES proved that it’s definitely not just for phones. Case in point: Razer, known for its gaming peripherals, unveiled a new version of its tri–band Sila router — part 5G–based home router, part mobile hotspot — with a firmware package designed to prioritize low latency and high bandwidth. Not far enough from phones? Fine. Samsung showed off its 5G telematics system for cars, which should (pending regulatory approval) enable tomorrow’s smart vehicles to sense their surroundings, work out what pedestrians are up to, and communicate that from car to car near–instantly. Qualcomm, definitely all–in on 5G and excited about its effects on vehicles, also demonstrated some completely wireless VR and AR solutions. And yes, 5G popped up in laptops, tablets and desktop PCs from just about every…

Sometimes iOS devices get no further than “requesting” an update when Apple’s servers are too busy, or when their connection isn’t reliable. You should try again when your device has a good Wi–Fi connection to a good internet connection. You could improve your chances of success by shutting your iPhone down, putting it on charge, turning it on again, then waiting for a minute or two. After that period, open Settings > General > Software Update, and request any update which is offered. Give it another hour or so on charge with good Wi–Fi and internet, and it should start to download that update. Access to a Mac or Windows system running iTunes gives you another option. Connect your phone to the computer with iTunes open, and you can download…

All the current variants of the iMac 21.5–inch meet Apple’s minimum requirements for Final Cut Pro X. You can improve its capabilities and performance with optional extras. Apple recommends at least 8GB of memory to perform 4K editing, use 3D titles, or work with 360? video. Similarly, 1GB of video memory is recommended for those same tasks. We’d suggest selecting 16GB of memory and one of the better graphics card options, such as the Radeon Pro Vega 20. A Core i5 processor is an advantage, and an i7 even better for heavier tasks. Avoid internal hard drives and go for a 512GB SSD, which makes Catalina and Final Cut Pro much faster. Obviously, your budget will also dictate any specification upgrades.…

This depends where you look, and how deeply you go. Two sections in System Info give useful data about which apps are fully 64–bit. In the Software group, Applications lists installed apps, and has a column labelled 64–Bit (Intel), based only on the main executable code in each app, which in the case of Photoshop CS6 is 64–bit. Legacy Software reports in fuller detail many apps which it detects as containing 32–bit code, and therefore incompatible with Catalina. However, it doesn’t cover all installed apps, and any that you have updated to be 64–bit may still be shown as incompatible with Catalina. The free utility Go64 from bit.ly/mac349go64 is a good scanner which should reveal that Photoshop CS6 isn’t fully 64–bit, as it relies on some 32–bit code. For assessing…

REQUIRES Handbrake, some old video files YOU WILL LEARN How to transcode video in Handbrake IT WILL TAKE 20–40mins not know that video may need to be updated too. Handbrake enables you to convert multiple files at once The culprit is QuickTime 7, the multimedia handler Apple released in 2005. It stopped supporting QuickTime on Windows in 2016, and now it’s stopped supporting QuickTime 7 on the Mac. That means video files created or converted using some of the encoders/decoders in QuickTime 7 are no longer compatible with Apple’s video apps. These include files made with Windows Media Video 7, 8 or 9, DivX, Cineform, and others. The full list is at bit.ly/apple-medimov. The good news is it’s easy to fix. All you need is an app to transcode old…

M&A Federal court rules T–Mobile and Sprint can merge, reducing US cell network competition FOLD Motorola, Huawei, Lenovo and Samsung leave Apple late to the folding–screen market ZUT France fines Apple €25m over iOS battery update that slowed down older iPhones OK Now we get to watch them work out whether to call it Spree or Tint OLD If you want media with creases in the middle, maybe just stick to reading magazines? ALORS They could never compete with Samsung’s power management, aka Le Phone Flambé…

THE FIRST THING to check if you’re having any problems with macOS Catalina is that you have the latest update. This is now handled in System Preferences > Software Update. Many of the bugs initially reported have been fixed since version 15.0: see bit.ly/applenewcat for a summary. If you enrolled in the macOS public beta to get Catalina early, make sure you’ve switched from this to the final version or you won’t get updates. This is a two–step process. First, go to System Preferences > Software Update. Below Software Update on the left, look for the words: “This Mac is enrolled in the Apple Beta Software Program”. Click Details and agree to “Restore default update settings”. Having done this, you’re still not off the beta. At this point, you need…

SOME PEOPLE INITIALLY reported serious issues in Mail when upgrading to Catalina, including messages disappearing — a particularly worrying problem, since deleting messages from iCloud Mail and other IMAP–based platforms on your Mac will also delete them from the server. But many more users (including us) have seen all their emails update with no trouble. Some of the issues may have been to do with third–party platforms, including Microsoft Exchange, and others with transient iCloud server problems not directly related to Catalina. Rule out simple problems: ensure you’re logged in with your Apple ID in System Preferences > Apple ID and Mail is checked. In Mail, use Window > Connection Doctor to check for any problems accessing mail servers. In Mail > Preferences > Accounts, ensure your iCloud IMAP and…

$4.99 From John Siracusa, hypercritical.co Needs macOS 10.12 or later Way back in the days before OS X, when you clicked on a window in a Mac application, all the windows for that application were brought to the front. In OS X and now in macOS, only the window you click is brought to the front, the others remain in the background. For applications that have a separate window for each document, like Word and Excel, that’s an issue. Front and Center fixes that by restoring pre–OS X behavior and bringing all the windows in an app to the front when you click one. Front and Center’s interface is a menu bar item with two options: Classic and Modern. The former restores pre–OS X, or classic, behavior, while the latter…

$229.99 From Netgear, netgear.com Features Three–pack system, up to 1.2Gbps speed, coverage up to 4,500 sq ft, 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports Netgear has released the AC1200 (RBK13), a more affordable model in its Orbi range for smaller homes. The kit consists of a primary router and two satellite routers, and is suitable for dwellings up to 4,500 square feet. Most Orbi kits use tri–band Wi–Fi, transmitting data via the 2.4GHz band and two separate 5GHz bands. However, this AC1200 model opts for a dual–band system, with just one 2.4GHz and one 5GHz band offering a max theoretical speed of 1.2Gbps. It also cuts back on additional features, such as Ethernet ports; the primary router has two Gigabit Ethernet ports (secondary units have none). And while Netgear’s website boasts about its…

$99.95 From Cambridge Audio, cambridgeaudio.com Features IPX5 water resistance, Bluetooth 5.0, charging case The Cambridge Audio Melomania 1s look very sleek, with a compact, bullet–like shape and slim charging case that fits easily into your pocket. Weighing 4.6g each, they’re comfortable to wear and feel secure enough to run with. They also come with an IPX5 water–resistance rating, which means they should be able to withstand a little sweat. As audiophile earbuds, it’s no surprise that the Melomania 1s support Bluetooth 5.0 for a stable signal, as well as AAC and aptX codecs, which means you can listen to lossless hi-res audio over a wireless connection. For true wireless earbuds, the sound quality offered by them is sensational. In fact, it rivals some of the best over–ear headphones — unheard…

$329 From Samsung, samsung.com Features 27–inch WQHD (2560x1440 pixel) LCD VA display, 250cd/m2 brightness, 100% sRGB, 4ms response time, 1x HDMI 2.0 port, 1x mini–DisplayPort Samsung’s Space Monitor aims to free up space on your desk. It’s an LCD panel available in either 27–inch or 32–inch (we’re testing the former here), which sits on a height–adjustable stand that clamps to the edge of your desk. This enables you to push the screen back out of the way when you don’t need it and lower it into place when you do. A great idea done well. Only… The stand has two main drawbacks. First, the clamp. It’s a chunky G–clamp–like thing that requires a fairly wide desk/table lip on which to sit. Second, the stand’s adjustable arm can only be moved…

Free (IAPs) From Moleskine, moleskinejourney.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 11.2 or later You’ve got to admire Moleskine: it’s gone from a company known for its lovely paper products to one that’s also known for its lovely design and productivity apps. Journey takes the familiar time management tools and combines them with wellness tracking, so not only are you getting stuff done but you’re getting it done while finding your happy, healthy place. It supplements its projects and task lists with a place to write journal entries, a food diary, a photo diary, and a habit tracker. You can also add items such as gratitude lists, emoji mood indicators, or personal challenges. It’s all very simple, with a handy introduction to the features when you first run…

People say that video games rot the brain, but many games can actually help you improve your concentration and other mental skills. In fact, there’s an entire industry of “brain training” apps that use games and tests to improve your mental abilities. Memory function is often a key aspect of these apps, so here we’ve concentrated on ones that have a good selection of memory games. Most of these apps require a monthly subscription, but they generally have a basic free version too, so download a few and see which ones work best for you. EIDETIC — SPACED REPETITION Free (IAPs) Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Rather than conventional memory tests that ask you to match numbers or objects, Eidetic lets you create personalized tests with “flashcards” that focus…

Apple’s iCloud services are aimed at individual users and families, not at businesses. Although you can create multiple Apple IDs, each one with its own iCloud Drive, macOS can only connect to a single Apple ID at a time as its primary user, and will only show that user’s iCloud Drive. There’s a workaround to access a second account’s iCloud services, by logging into that account at iCloud.com. But that can’t put that iCloud Drive into the Finder. The closest iCloud comes to shared access is with Family Sharing (bit.ly/mac349famsto). You can also share docs between different iCloud accounts (bit.ly/mac349icldsh). Apple announced more extensive sharing of iCloud Drive storage for macOS Catalina, but that ran into problems during beta testing, and introduction has been postponed Individual Mac and Apple device…

HOW TO SYNC RINGTONES WITH macOS CATALINA? If you have ringtones stored on your Mac, connect your phone and open it in a Finder window. Open another Finder window containing the ringtones you want to sync, then drag and drop them from their folder on your Mac onto the title of the phone window. HOW TO UNSCRAMBLE MY ALBUM COVERS IN iOS 13? Many who have upgraded to iOS 13 have discovered their album covers are all over the place, with the wrong cover showing for many albums. Some have found that upgrading their Mac to Catalina then re–syncing with that can fix it. Otherwise, it’s a matter of hoping the next upgrade will work properly. HOW TO STOP MY MACBOOK PRO FANS RUNNING SO MUCH? Try resetting the SMC…

Mojave and Catalina both require to be installed on drives which are formatted using Apple’s new file system APFS. Although this does run on hard drives and Apple’s Fusion Drives, it was designed to work best on SSDs. Most users find that APFS doesn’t perform as well on hard drives, and at worst it can really slow a Mac down. APFS leads to greater fragmentation of the storage of both files and the directory data maintained by the file system. This makes no difference to SSDs, but seriously slows down data access on traditional rotating hard drives. It’s feasible to use defragmentation utilities in an effort to keep this under control, but you’ll find that quickly becomes a chore. If you can afford to do so, before upgrading to either…

When Time Machine runs backups each hour, it schedules them at a convenient moment, and you can monitor it with the free utility T2M2 (bit.ly/mac349t2m2). But TimeMachine Editor works differently to allow you to make backups at the time interval of your choice. The result is that its records in the log, which T2M2 relies on to perform its analysis, are too different for that to work properly. As you can’t use that analysis, the only way is to do so manually. Using Console for this is pointless, as it can only show entries as they happen, or analyze prepared log archives. Try Consolation 3 from the same webpage, which has default settings to view Time Machine entries in the log. Set it to show log entries from Time Machine…

REQUIRES macOS Catalina, VueScan 9.7, a scanner YOU WILL LEARN How to use VueScan to digitize images and documents IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes APPLE’S DECISION TO ditch 32–bit app support in macOS Catalina is understandable, if disconcerting. If you own older apps that aren’t being updated for the OS, you’ll either need to find an alternative or run a previous version of macOS, such as Mojave, in a virtual machine. Things are often worse with hardware: many manufacturers only update drivers, firmware and software for a couple of years after their original release, then you’re on your own. Or at least you would be if it wasn’t for the likes of Hamrick Software. The company makes the versatile VueScan app that has been delivering deep, machine–level support for over…

REQUIRES macOS 10.15.2; iOS 13.3; iPadOS YOU WILL LEARN How to use the Remote app to control Music and TV apps on your Mac IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes APPLE’S MEDIA TOOLS have had something of an overhaul in recent years, and the dumping of iTunes from the Mac and its replacement with Music, Podcasts, and TV seemed to be the final piece in the puzzle. But there was one last piece to fit: the apparently forgotten and often maligned Remote iOS app. Now over 10 years old, the Remote app once let you control iTunes playback on your Mac or an iTunes server on your network, or even on an Apple TV. It seemed to be on its way out along with iTunes, but an update to macOS and…

REQUIRES iOS 13 or later, something to make sounds with YOU WILL LEARN How to record, edit, and share voice memos IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes VOICE MEMOS IS one of our favorite, most–used apps. We use it to record our rambling thoughts and ideas when we’re out and about, and we use it to capture musical ideas when we’re messing around with instruments. We don’t even need to reach for our iPhone or iPad: we’ve got it right there as a complication in our Apple Watch face so it’s always handy. Here, you’ll discover how to use Voice Memos to record, edit, and share your brilliant ideas. As you’ll see, it’s incredibly easy, quick, and useful. It’s all straightforward and intuitive apart from one thing: its automatic naming, which…