Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i MacLife

WITH THE ENTIRE electronics industry facing global component shortages, Apple has acted to secure supplies of critical parts. The M1-chip-powered 12.9-inch iPad Pro, launched in April, has Apple’s first display with mini-LED technology instead of LCD or OLED. Buyers are complaining of long wait times and shipping delays, and it’s believed the cause is that Apple’s production partners are struggling to produce the mini-LED screens in quantity. This is said to be impacting Apple’s plans to launch a rumored MacBook Pro with mini-LED screen. According to DigiTimes, Apple has made a $200m investment in its primary supplier, TSMT (Taiwan Surface Mounting Technology). This will be used to create four new mini-LED assembly lines, boosting capacity by 700,000 to 800,000 units. In addition, reports claim four new suppliers have been signed.…

THE NEW iMAC is a gorgeous computer, and is the thing I’m third–most looking forward to having in my house this year, after my parents and my friends. The slim design feels like a computing revelation, but the cheapest model only has two USB–C ports for connectivity, and that’s it. Two ports total. While the next model up adds two more USB–C ports, there’s still a total lack of support for any accessories with older connection types. Apple’s problem is obvious: the 11.5mm thinness that makes it look so good just isn’t deep enough for a regular USB Type–A connector. I just measured one on my desk, and it’s 12.5mm, and that doesn’t include what you’d need to plug into it. It has this problem with the 3.5mm headphone jack…

1 ADOBE PHOTOSHOP Most people are aware of Photoshop, but are likely less aware of just how powerful the iPad version is. You can now undertake complex image manipulation wherever. 2 GARAGEBAND Apple makes GarageBand, and has not scrimped on features when it comes to the iPad. In this app the Apple Pencil arguably gives you greater control than on the Mac. 3 AFFINITY PHOTO AFFINITY PHOTO Whether you need unlimited layers, brushes or smart object importing, Affinity Photo offers it all on the iPad. Again, the Apple Pencil offers near perfect control. 4 CODE EDITOR If you have a data input system you are happy with, either an external keyboard or the iPad screen, Code Editor gives you every coding tool you could possibly need. 5 LUMA FUSION Video…

1 CREATE DIGITAL ART There are multiple apps in the App Store containing a multitude of tools to let you create intricate artwork on your iPad. This is where the Apple Pencil truly shines. 2 MANAGE YOUR PROJECTS You can dispense with paper now and use the Apple Pencil to draw simple plans for your garden, home or any other personal project that you need to manage. 3 ANNOTATE DOCUMENTS The annotation of documents would usually require a printer and a long process to do it properly, but now you can pick up your Apple Pencil and annotate in seconds. 4 MORE INTRICATE NOTES Many of the default Apple apps include support for writing naturally with the Apple Pencil, and Notes is just one example. It can quickly become your…

$149.99 From beatsbydre.com Features Bluetooth 5.2, Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), Up to 8 hours listening time between recharges, water and sweat resistant to IPX4, Siri voice activation Beats built its name and reputation on two things: being seen on (and in) the ears of pop stars, athletes and other influencers; and bass, lots and lots of bass. Since Apple took over, things have changed. Beats still has that cool cachet (perhaps even more so), but its cans also finally sound as good as they look — that bass bias has been replaced by something more balanced and neutral. They’re headphones for the rest of us. That applies to their pricing too. While the second–gen AirPods Pro cost a cool $249, Beats first true wireless in–ears are $100 less. That’s chiefly…

$99.99 From brydge.com Features Touch area (5.5-in x 3.3-in) and pressure sensors Needs iPadOS 14.5 or later When Apple added mouse support for iPadOS, it paved the way for users to interact with their iPads like they do with their Macs. Brydge makes a number of iPad keyboards with trackpads — sized for specific models. iTrack is a standalone trackpad that works with any recent iPad. Charging over USB–C, it offers up to 6 months of charge assuming two hours’ use per day and has “instant–on”, which wakes the trackpad with no discernable lag. Well–built and finished in space gray, it’s larger than integrated models, but still lightweight at just 160g and supports a range of useful gestures including swipe between open apps, pinch to zoom, vertical and horizontal scrolling,…

$40.00 From bombich.com Needs macOS Catalina or later Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) is one of two disk–cloning tools Mac users turn to when they need to make a complete copy of a disk, its only real competition being Shirt Pocket’s SuperDuper. The latest version of Mike Bombich’s popular tool features a redesigned interface, including Dark mode and significantly faster copying, among a host of other features. The interface overhaul sees CCC’s main window reduced in size, but font sizes and controls are larger. That makes everything much easier to see and use. The progress indicator that shows running tasks is now more detailed, and also shows the estimated time remaining. Additionally, file processing and transfer rates are displayed on a live chart as the task runs. The heart of CCC…

ON TEST… > Brave > Epic Privacy Browser > Firefox > Opera > Tor > Vivaldi APPLE’S SAFARI IS a great web browser, and if you’re an iCloud subscriber it’ll become even more so this Fall with iCloud+ and iCloud Private Relay. That routes your traffic through a relay to hide your IP address, your exact geographic location, and your browsing data. It’s not quite a Virtual Private Network (VPN), but it’s pretty close. That’s great if you’re an iCloud subscriber upgrading to macOS Monterey. But if you aren’t, these browsers all promise to keep you safe, secure, and private when you’re online. You’ll notice that one browser is conspicuous by its absence: Chrome. That’s because Chrome is at heart, a browser built to connect to Google, and as Mozilla…

IT DOESN’T TAKE long to fill your Mac’s hard drive or solid–state drive with clutter. Old photos or work files can quickly take up hundreds of megabytes of precious storage space — take a look at your folder that contains email attachments, you’ll find that alone is taking up a surprising amount of GB. One common problem is that many of us tend to create duplicate versions of files that people send us — photos from a friend, or PDF files from a work colleague. There’s a tendency to automatically create duplicates of photos and files that we need, say, for work, keeping the originals safe in one folder while editing the duplicates in another. There are many apps that can help you deal with duplicate files, but the one…

IF YOU’VE EVER tried to play along with another musician in a Zoom call, you’ll know that the lag in video apps makes real-time collaboration painful. But that doesn’t mean you can’t all work remotely on the same track when you can’t all be in the same room. Simply share your project with your collaborators, and it will automatically update and sync when anybody adds to it. For remote music making, you need everyone to have three things. One, decent internet access. Two, a music app — ideally the same one you have. And three, an interface that they can use to connect their instrument to their computer, such as a USB guitar, microphone, or MIDI interface. When you have all of those things, you can use cloud storage to…

ACCORDING TO MULTIPLE well-connected Apple leakers, the iPhone could be getting a new kind of camera in 2022; one that sees further than any existing iPhone camera without having to sacrifice any image quality. That’s because Apple is experimenting with periscope lenses. It wouldn’t be the first to do so, either. Samsung’s Galaxy S20 and S21 Ultra both have periscopes, and other Android firms are following suit with their own high-end products. So what is a periscope lens, and why would you want it in your phone? Let’s — ahem — look into it. WHY PERISCOPES CAN HELP YOU SEE SO MUCH FURTHER Periscope lenses enable you to get much more powerful optical zoom without requiring an enormous lens sticking out of the back of your phone. To understand why…

OUT OF THE 200 or so Apple–1 computers ever built, under 70 are known to survive — only six in working order. For retro computing enthusiasts, there have been replicas of the first Apple computer around for some time. But when the guys at retroplace.com, an online marketplace for video games based in Munich, Germany, started selling replica PCBs online, they soon realized that although there are also reproductions of the original manuals available, these are all printed from poor–quality scans on cheap laser printer paper. Not good enough, they thought. So they lovingly re–created the original manuals for the world’s first home computer from scratch. They didn’t just scan the originals — they didn’t even just typeset the text. They laboriously kerned every single character manually to produce a…

1 Saint Laurent x Bang & Olufsen Beosound Edge $7,500 From ysl.com >>> Some speakers are not just there to be heard — they’re there to be seen as well. The Beosound Edge speaker from Bang & Olufsen and Yves Saint Laurent is one such device, with its marble print front face looking like it was hewn straight from an opulent mansion on the sunny French Riviera. It’s the latest of many collaborations between the two firms, following a series of equally extravagant speakers, headphones and charging mats. The Edge speaker hooks up to an iPhone or iPad (gold–plated only, please) thanks to its built–in AirPlay, but you’re probably not too fussed about that. After all, you’re here to gawp at this marvel of modern money rainmaking. We don’t blame…

1 A GOOD START In an app like Notability you can create an ongoing personal notebook using the Apple Pencil. Our tip would be to use a black background and watch your ideas flow. 2 EXPLORE YOUR TALENTS The later iPads and Apple Pencil 2 lend themselves to letting you explore your ideas in a relaxing way. The results may surprise you and take you away from paper forever. 3 CAPTURE YOUR NOTES Notability and GoodNotes let you organize all of your drawings, notes and ideas in a structured way so that they are always available when you need them. It feels natural. 4 DRAW WITH PAPER Paper is an excellent Apple Pencil–centric solution for drawing at almost any level. If you have little artistic talent, you can still enjoy…

1 THE TYPICAL USER If your main computer uses are web browsing, email and other simple tasks where data entry is not too common, it is likely that an iPad will do everything you need. 2 THE CREATIVE PERSON For many creative people, an iPad is ideal for drawing and sketching, and it is now capable of audio and video editing with some seriously powerful apps available. 3 THE PROFESSIONAL CREATOR If you need serious power and are aiming to undertake complex video editing or image manipulation for many photos, we would suggest that a Mac is still the way to go. 4 THE WORKER Not everyone gets to choose their work computer, but for those who can the Mac still wins for most uses. The form factor and compatibility…

YOUR APPLE WATCH doesn’t just have a pretty face. From walking to weight training, hiking to high–intensity interval training, swimming to skydiving, your Watch is the perfect companion for every kind of activity. Well, maybe not skydiving. The Series 6 has a gyroscope, an accelerometer, GPS, altimeter, compass, blood O2 sensor and a heart rate sensor, and they can track all kinds of health information from how vigorously you’re exercising to how oxygenated your blood is, how many stairs you’ve climbed today and how much loud noise you’ve been exposed to. That makes it ideal for tracking all kinds of data, which then feeds into the Health and Fitness apps so you can track your progress over time and identify triggers and trends. While your Apple Watch does all the…

1 Open the app You can use third–party mapping apps, but we’ll stick to the Apple option. Press the Digital Crown, then tap on the Maps icon. You’ll see a Home Screen with favorites and a Search icon. Tap the search icon. 2 State destination There are multiple options here. You can say or scribble an address, pick a contact, or use the Nearby feature to find useful places nearby. We’re going to use that feature to find a store that isn’t too far away. 3 Pick your transport Maps can give you four kinds of directions — walking, driving, public transport and, in some cities, cycling. Cycling can take account of things such as steep steps, so it can be useful for wheelchair users too. 4 Get directions Each…

$39.99 From roku.com Features HDMI, micro–USB; supports HD, 4K, HDR; Apple AirPlay Roku has been giving the Apple TV box a real run for its money recently, with impressive products such as the Streambar speaker. The new Express 4K lacks a speaker, but it does provide an excellent entry–level streaming device for just $39.99. Getting started is very straightforward, as you simply use the HDMI port on the back of the little plastic pod to connect it to your TV. There’s a micro–USB port that provides power via the included mains adaptor — but it can also draw power from a USB port on your TV, which is really handy. When it’s turned on for the first time, the Express 4K automatically guides you through the set–up process, including connecting…

From $1.99/month From halide.com Made for iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch Needs iOS 13 or later Halide offers more shooting control than Apple’s own Camera app, and version 2.2 brings native iPad support, making it universal across your iOS devices. It’s free for seven days, but then you have to buy or subscribe. A camera app purely for iPad would be odd, since relatively few people use their iPad as their main camera. But a single purchase for a universal app makes sense, and the developers have designed the iPad version with a couple of unique features. The most obvious is two viewfinder options when shooting on iPad. In full screen view, the frame occupies the entire screen, with controls around the edges. Tap a button, and the frame shrinks…

Managing your finances can seem scary until you have the right tools at your disposal, at which point the weight is lifted, making life easier. Your Apple devices are perfect for meeting this challenge because they are always with you. Load them up with the right apps and you can get to work on your financial life a little bit at a time, rather than trying to tackle a huge mess all at once. That makes it much simpler. We have brought together the best financial apps into one place, enabling you to set budgets, files your taxes, manage your stocks, and even more with a touch and a tap. PRISM PAY BILLS, BILL REMINDER Free From prismmoney.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Managing bills can be a pain,…

USING TEMPLATES IS a great way to get to grips with Numbers, but very soon you’ll find yourself wanting to hack them to work with your own data sets, or to create spreadsheets yourself from scratch. To do that, you’ll need to create your own formulas using the functions Numbers understands. There are hundreds of these and they range from the very basic, such as adding up a column of numbers or calculating an average, to complex statements with conditions and boolean operators. Thankfully, Numbers provides detailed descriptions and examples of how each function works so you know which ones to opt for. To see them, click in an empty cell in a table, press the Insert button in the toolbar, and choose New Formula. You will see the Functions…

HOW DO I SYNC THE PAGE I’M READING IN BOOKS? Open Settings > [your name] > iCloud and enable iCloud Drive and Books. Then go back to the Books item and turn on Reading Now. This only works across other iOS and iPadOS devices accessing the same Apple ID, and still doesn’t work with Macs, even if they share the same account. HOW CAN I TELL THE WIFI 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. Remember to disable Wi-Fi Scanner in Settings afterwards to save power. CAN I REPLACE THE FUSION DRIVE IN MY iMAC…

HAVE YOU EVER encountered a web page that won’t let you copy text from it? A recipe that puts all the ingredients in the video but not on the actual page? An image you want to quote, or a fact–packed presentation slide that you need to copy from quickly? TextSniper can help with all of these things. It’s an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) app, but instead of scanning printed documents it scans what’s on your screen — so you can grab a block of text from that digital magazine, that PDF, that video recipe or anything else you can see on your Mac’s display. In addition to copying the text to the clipboard, it can also read it aloud — which is handy for apps or content that don’t pass…

MICROSOFT’S TEAMS MAY not have had the profile of Zoom or Skype over the last 12 months, when many of us have been working predominantly from home. That said, it has been crucial for many companies and large organizations in keeping people connected and working together; schools in particular have been using it as a platform for accessible home learning. Teams isn’t just for business and education, though. Microsoft is pushing to make Teams popular among friends and families as an alternative to Zoom, Skype, and Apple’s FaceTime. As such, it’s currently free to download and use, without the need for an Office 365 subscription—although you will need to create a Microsoft account if you don’t already have one. Along with the ability to send text messages, hold audio and…

THE POWERBOOK 100 series of portable computers from Apple was launched in October 1999. Unlike its predecessor, the Mac Portable, the PowerBook was (relatively) lightweight, and easy to carry, with the team behind it reportedly determined to keep the weight to under 8lb. It came in three versions: the 100, 140, and 170. They all had an eyecatching trackball built-in, a feature then not offered by PC rivals. Only the top-end 170 model had an active-matrix display. The product was granted a marketing budget of just $1 million by then CEO John Sculley. This was mostly spent on deploying the advertising firm behind the famous 1984 advert to create a spot featuring Kareem Abdul–Jabbar. The former basketball star is crammed onto a plane, but pulls out his new PowerBook, accompanied…

I wanted to share an issue I had with my iMac, and how one of your support articles helped me to recover. I always properly shut down my iMac (27–inch, late 2014) from the Apple icon shutdown menu at the end of the day. A couple of days ago when I powered it on the screen would appear to turn on, but freeze half way through the process. I tried to shut down and restart, with no success. I then remembered that your magazine has an “Essential Support Article” section, and I tried the safe mode and recovery function. I initially tried First Aid to check for any disk errors, but it came back with no errors. I then tried loading the latest Time Machine backup, but this did not…

IT USED TO be the case that choosing between a MacBook and an iPad was easy, but Apple has started to blur the lines between the two in ways that few of us could have expected. In terms of power, we have now reached parity thanks to the new iPad Pro which uses the same M1 chip as the MacBook Air, and when you start to look at the storage onboard the comparisons become even closer. For example, you can buy a 12.9–inch iPad Pro for only $200 more than the equivalent 256GB MacBook Air, but if you opt for the 11–inch iPad Pro then you can pay only $100 more than the 256GB MacBook Air for 512GB of storage. This makes the cost analysis almost moot, which is then…

1 PROTECT EVERYTHING The Smart Cover comes in a variety of colors, it offers excellent minimally sized protection for an iPad, and it also acts as a very useful desk stand. 2 MULTIPLE PORTS The USB–C Digital AV Multiport Adapter takes advantage of the single port in the new iPads to give you instant access to HDMI displays and USB–A devices. 3 GET YOUR GAME ON The SteelSeries Nimbus+ Wireless Gaming Controller will work with all of your Apple Devices and takes advantage of the huge range of iPad games available. 4 PODCAST FROM ANYWHERE With the Apogee HypeMiC Microphone you can create podcasts no matter where you are on the iPad using a range of pro software. The editing process will be easy too. 5 A PAPER SCREEN If…

1 Enter editing mode To change, customize or add complications to your Apple Watch face you need to go into Edit mode. Long–press the watch face and you should see this screen here — a picture of the face, a small share icon, and a larger Edit button. 2 Swipe right If you have multiple faces installed, you can swipe left and right to move between them. If you want to choose a new face, keep swiping until you see this big “+” icon. Tapping on it will open up the Apple Watch face gallery. 3 Find your favorite When you’ve found a face you like, don’t worry if it isn’t quite perfect; most faces are very customizable. Here, we’re working with the Chronograph face. To customize it, just tap…

1 Open Workout app You can change your overall fitness goals in the Fitness app on your phone, but you can create goals on the go with the Workout app on your Watch. Scroll until you see the kind of workout you’re doing — a walk, a dance, a swim… 2 Choose your metric Tap on the “…” icon at the right of the workout type and you should see the goals menu. An open goal doesn’t have any targets, but you can specify a target number of calories, a target distance, or a target time. Or all three. 3 Count the calories We’ve tapped on the Kilocalories icon. You can adjust the calorie target upwards or downwards by tapping on the “+” and “–” signs or using the Digital…

$149 From astellnkern.com Features Full metal housing design, dual-DAC audio chipset, copper shielded cable Needs Mac with USB–C Astell & Kern (A&K) is a well known name in hi–fi circles, and it recently brought its audio expertise to the Mac with its new USB–C Dual DAC Cable. One end of the sturdy cable connects to a USB–C port on a Mac or PC and it then acts as a DAC — digital/analogue converter — that lets you connect your wired headphones to the 3.5mm connector on the other end. Of course, most Macs do have a headphone socket, but A&K’s high–quality DAC chip provides much better sound quality than the Mac’s own rather low–fi sound chip. The cable actually uses two DAC chips to process sound for the left and…

$99.99 From belkin.com Features Dual–band Wi–Fi, AirPlay, 3.5mm and optical output Needs iOS or Mac devices Now that Apple is finally offering high–quality lossless music on Apple Music, this is a great time for Belkin to release its new SoundForm Connect adaptor. The Connect acts as a Wi–Fi receiver that can be connected to any set of wired speakers, and supports dual–band Wi–Fi on 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz bands. Its killer feature, though, is that it also supports AirPlay, allowing you to turn any set of wired speakers into wireless AirPlay speakers. Using Wi–Fi rather than Bluetooth also allows it to stream lossless CD–quality audio up to 16–bit/44.1kHz from Apple Music or any other music source that you like to use (like a Tidal account). The Connect provides both 3.5mm and…

$599.99 From viewsonic.com Features 1080p resolution, HDMI, USB–C, USB–A, MicroSD, dual-band Wi–Fi, AirPlay Projectors are primarily aimed at business users for presentations, or home cinema buffs who aren’t satisfied with a mere TV screen for watching Hollywood blockbusters. However, ViewSonic’s new M2e is a feature–packed, compact projector that is well suited for use at home, while still being affordable enough to provide an alternative to a conventional TV! The compact projector measures just 7–in wide and deep, and stands 2–in high, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a convenient spot for it. It’s light too, weighing in at just 2lb 3oz and, as well as running off mains power, it’s also possible to power the M2e from a USB–C powerbank. The powerbank will need to provide at least 45W…

One-year license $29.95, Lifetime license $59.95 From softorino.com Needs macOS 10.13 or later Transferring media between your Mac and an iOS device is still something of a chore, despite Apple’s Files app making life somewhat easier. Apple restricts the types of media file formats and codecs that its operating systems will play back natively, but there are plenty of video and audio files out there that don’t meet its criteria. WALTR PRO aims to remedy this by simplifying the process of converting and copying files between macOS and iOS. You begin the process by booting the Mac app, then physically connecting your iOS device to your Mac once via USB, and when that connection has been made it will be remembered and transfers can happen wirelessly. Multiple devices are supported,…

From $89.99/year (3 devices) From f-secure.com Needs macOS 10.11 or later TOTAL is F-Secure’s top-of-the-line security product for Mac, and comprises three products, which you install separately. F-Secure SAFE offers core antivirus protection, backed up with ransomware protection, browsing and banking protection, and parental controls. It’s easy to install, and steps you through giving the app the access it requires. The interface is straightforward, but bare, and configuration is virtually non-existent. There are two types of virus scan: Full, or ‘choose what to scan’. Most other controls are on/off, with a handful of advanced controls in System Preferences. Parental controls offer more tweaking, although even here you’re limited to setting time and usage limits, plus filters, for other Mac users. TOTAL’s ‘bonus’ tools are a password manager and VPN software.…

> Unable to update external drive I often start my M1 Mac mini up from a Thunderbolt SSD, but since updating its internal drive to macOS 11.3.1, I’ve been unable to update that external disk. How can I do that? Using external startup drives with M1 Macs is tricky. To ensure success, you need to change security boot policy for the external drive in Recovery Mode. Start your Mac up in Recovery by holding the Power button until the Options icon appears. Select Options, and click Continue to open the Recovery Assistant. There, select the user you know the password for, and click Next. Enter the password to see the Recovery window. In the Utilities menu, select Startup Security Utility. In its window, select the external disk with the old…

A MAIN TOOLBAR Ctrl–click to customize this to contain your most common tools from the Object menu. B DRAWING TOOLBOX These set pointer actions. Select variants by clicking on the lower right triangle. to relaunch. C PROPERTY BAR This bar provides access to more detailed settings for the selected object or drawing tool. D INSPECTOR Selected from the list in the Window menu, commonly for Properties, Objects, or Pages. FAITHFUL DRAWING WITH physical media is about repetition. This introduction to CorelDRAW shows how to use its tools to save time — getting your Mac to do the repetitive drawing necessary to create a daisy flower. It can easily be extended to other types of flora, and most other symmetrical objects. CorelDRAW (coreldraw.com) is the vector drawing app in the CorelDRAW…

THE FIND MY app for iPhone and iPad makes it easy to keep track of your Apple devices — you can do so on your Mac and on iCloud (although they work slightly differently). With the launch of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, you can now keep tabs on other items too, thanks to support for third-party hardware such as Belkin’s SoundForm True Wireless AirPods and VanMoof’s S3 and X3 E-bikes, plus you can also use it to track more personal items such as keys and bags. All you need to do is attach and activate an Apple AirTag ($29) or Chipolo ONE Spot ($28) to each one, then select the items tab in the Find My app to locate each object you’ve added a tag to. If you own…