Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2025 i MacLife

YOUR MAC’S KEYBOARD is a clever thing, but sometimes it’s not apparent how to type certain accented letters, special characters, or emoji. If you invest some time to learn how to quickly access them, you will save a lot of head–scratching later. As with most things on a Mac, there are multiple ways of accessing and adding these characters. Once you’ve learnt them, they’ll become second nature. Here, we’ll show you the best ways to go about it, starting with how to access mini menus for accented characters while you are typing. We’ll also cover how to access the Keyboard Viewer, which displays a layout of your keyboard to help you find special characters. In addition, by using the Character Viewer tool, you can access a vast range of emoji,…

IN AN IDEAL world, we’d all be able to go online safely and securely. But of course, it’s not an ideal world, and for kids especially, there are lots of inappropriate, disturbing, and sometimes even dangerous things they can access via apps and web browsers. The good news is that Apple makes it easy to keep them safe while playing games, accessing apps, or messaging and chatting across all their Apple devices. In this tutorial, we’re going to show you how to use those features. In order to set them up, you’ll need to do one important thing first. If you haven’t already set up a Family group for your Apple Account, go to Settings > Your Name > Family Sharing, and invite the kids to join your new Family…

THE HEALTH APP on your iPhone is packed with data about your health, offering a comprehensive insight into your physical and mental well-being. You can use it to track data relating to your heart and aspects of your respiratory system. You can also monitor your sleep patterns, walking steadiness, and so much more. But while many insights are readily available, some need to be activated according to your medical requirements. There are also features that need work to set up, whether that’s adding schedules for your medication or creating a potentially life-saving Medical ID (subsequently accessed by swiping up from the Lock Screen and tapping Emergency). By customizing the Health app, you’ll find that it works more intuitively, shows only the information you want to see, and enables you to…

$59.99 From https://alexandernaut.com/fugue-machine-rubato > Needs macOS 15 or later THE ORIGINAL FUGUE Machine was a music–making app like no other. Inspired by Baroque music and serialism, it allowed you to rapidly craft short loops and play multiple variations on your melody simultaneously. The result was unique, hypnotic, and ripe for a follow–up. Eight years in the making, Fugue Machine Rubato is now here. At its core, Rubato has much in common with its predecessor. You lay down notes on a piano roll, and can then set off multiple playheads, each of which can have its own speed, direction, and pitch. So far, so 2015. But Rubato turns out to be the Logic Pro to the original’s GarageBand. First off, there are now eight playheads. Further flexibility comes from a slew…

$19.99 From www.ubisoft.com Needs macOS 12 or later; Mac with Apple M1 chip or later EACH SPRAWLING SIDE–SCROLLING LEVEL IS RICHLY DETAILED WITH FANTASTICAL ELEMENTS AND INTRIGUING BACKDROPS THE LOST CROWN is the first mainline Prince of Persia game for 15 years. There’s a lot of expectation weighing on its shoulders, then, but the returning series does not disappoint. As Sargon, you join up with a ragtag bunch of warriors named The Immortals, and fight, puzzle, and explore your way through Mount Qaf in order to rescue the kidnapped Prince Ghassan. It’s a fun story, full of twisting turns and bombastic characters, and one that’s set to an evocative soundtrack. The Lost Crown looks sublime. Each sprawling, side–scrolling level is richly detailed with fantastical elements and intriguing backdrops, while the…

RELIABLE SOURCES REPORT that Apple has exciting new products nearing release or going into production soon. > Apple Watch Ultra 3. Closest to release is a third–gen Apple Watch Ultra, which could arrive as soon as September. The current model Ultra 2 dates from 2023, and the only update last year was a new black titanium case option. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says the Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year, with “significant” new features, including satellite connectivity, enabling you to send text messages when out of range of both Wi–Fi and cellular networks, and even without an iPhone. Similar off–grid satellite connectivity is offered for free on supported iPhones for two years, and is a natural fit for a new Ultra aimed at adventurers, hikers, and divers. Gurman…

YOUR MAC’S APP Switcher is a pretty simple contraption — you fire it up with Cmd+Tab, and can move left or right along its list of apps, changing to one of them when you let go of the keys. But what if there was a better, more feature–rich way to flip between your open apps? Thankfully, there is, and it’s enabled by an app called Pieoneer. As the name hints, this puts a wheel–shaped pie menu at your fingertips. Just press its keyboard shortcut, and the wheel appears, after which you can simply click the app you want to open from the pie menu. This can save you time, because you don’t need to move along a list of apps just to get to the one you need — click…

SCAMS HAVE REACHED epidemic proportions, and it’s getting harder to avoid them. According to McAfee Labs, for example, PayPal-related scams have soared by 600% this year, and AI-enhanced scams are also on the rise. Many arrive through unsolicited texts and phone calls, which aside from being annoying, could leave a serious dent in your wallet or well–being. So what can you do to protect yourself? Quite a lot, as it happens. Many steps are being taken to tackle the problem. You could, for instance, visit the US Government’s dedicated webpage at https://www.usa.gov/scams-and-fraud to find out how to report a scam or fraud. However, your iPhone also has many built-in features designed to battle against spammers and scammers. Most seek to block, although you can filter; go to Settings > Messages…

WOULDN’T IT BE great if you could get AirPods–style personal audio without having to stick anything either in or on your ears? A team of researchers at Penn State University are trying to do just that. They’ve created a way to focus sound so that you can hear it perfectly — but the person next to you won’t hear a thing. Their version of the technology creates what’s called an “audible enclave”, which is a small pocket of sound. If you’re in the right place, you’ll hear the audio as intended. But if you move even slightly, you won’t hear anything. The Penn State project is using a dramatic version of what’s also known as sound steering, beam steering, or beamforming. It could be coming to public places near you,…

EVERYONE LOVES TO diss the Apple Magic Mouse, especially its controversially placed charging port. But while it’s true that Apple has made some mistakes, it’s fair to say that the computing landscape may well be much poorer had it not got involved in pointing device production more than 40 years ago. For while Apple didn’t invent the mouse — that accolade goes to Stanford Research Institute engineer Douglas Engelbart — the company went a long way toward popularizing it. It also made computers feel simpler to use and more approachable, but where does it go next? To answer that, we need to rewind to January 1983, when the Lisa desktop computer launched, along with Apple’s very first mouse. Inspired by the Xerox Alto — the first machine to use a…

Free From www.dangerapompei.ch/en Needs iOS 13 or later DANGER IN POMPEII is framed as an educational game, but that undersells it. This is not just a title for kids and history buffs — although they’ll surely enjoy it — but it is afflicted with unevenness. The game puts you in charge of a young child from a wealthy family on the day Vesuvius erupts. You’re tasked with helping your family, before branching out into Pompeii and assisting its citizens. As you progress, you unlock visions of disaster that portend the volcanic eruption and provide clues to prevent tragedy befalling your loved ones. You can visit the baths, theater, forum, and much more. There are fast travel points that require payment, but coins are easy to come by (either as quest…

$9.99 From Mac App Store, Joel Norvell Needs macOS 10.14.6 or later AMONG PREVIEW’S VIRTUES is its ability to fill PDF forms, with AutoFill to complete information drawn from your Contacts details. If you’ve ever tried using it for real, though, you’ll have discovered that it’s far from perfect, skips some fields you need to use, and doesn’t handle checkboxes well. Fillably is a lightweight app that does one thing better than any of the more general PDF editors: it helps you design and construct forms that work properly in Preview. Concentrating on this single function makes Fillably quick, simple to use, and powerful, as shown in its interactive tutorial that it opens the first time you run the app. This takes you through turning a US IRS Tax Form…

$119.99 From www.keychron.com Features Full-size layout, hot-swappable keys, 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth 5.1, low latency, pair up to three devices, 22 types of RGB backlight settings, lifespan of up to 80 million keystrokes YOU CAN’T FAULT this keyboard for accessories. You get a set of Windows keys, which you can swap for the default Mac keys, a custom tool for key swapping, a USB-C charging cable with a USB-A adapter, a female USB-C to female USB-A adapter, and various tools and screws. The Keychron V6 Max is a full-sized keyboard; as well as the main keyset, it offers a numeric keypad. A couple of switches on the back let you switch between macOS/iOS and Windows/Android operation, and between USB, Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless connectivity. When using Bluetooth, you can pair…

WHETHER IT’S HOME movies on VHS or a library of classic vinyl, it’s easy to capture audio and video, play it, and even improve it on your Mac. If you have videos on CD or DVD, a portable CD/DVD drive is all you need; connect it, open it in Finder and drag the files across. An app such as Handbrake (https://handbrake.fr) can convert outdated file formats into more modern formats. With VHS video, vinyl LPs, or audio cassettes it’s slightly trickier; you’ll need an analog to digital interface for your VHS player or tape deck, so your Mac can capture the video and/or audio. AMPLIFY THE SIGNAL For capturing video, we’d suggest trying iMovie before looking into third–party apps. For audio, we’d recommend Audacity for recording. We’re using that here.…

HIGHLIGHT RELEVANT TEXT, MAKING IT EASIER THAN EVER TO SHOW PEOPLE WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO SEE WHEN YOU SEND a web link to another person, you might want to draw their attention to a particular sentence or passage. Usually, that might involve posting the web address and telling your recipient where to scroll to. It’s clunky, inaccurate, and far from optimal. Surely there’s a better way? Thankfully, there is, and it’s built right into many of the most popular web browsers. Instead of telling people where to look in the web links you send, you can get the web page to not only automatically scroll to the correct place, but also highlight the relevant text, making it easier than ever to show people what you want them to see.…

HOW WOULD YOU feel if you ever lost your iPhone or iPad? Pretty devastated, we suspect — especially if it contains precious data that hasn’t been backed up! That’s why it is vital that you make regular backups, to safeguard your data and preferred settings. In this guide, we’ll show you how to do it. There are two main methods for backing up your iOS device. The easiest is to use iCloud to make automatic (or manual) regular backups that are stored remotely. While iCloud grants you 5GB of free storage, this may not be enough for a full data backup. In that case, you can pay for extra storage by upgrading to iCloud+, or choose only specific data types to back up. The alternative method is to connect your…

$999.99 From www.marshall.com Features 11 Class D amplifiers (2x 50W, 9x 15W), Dolby Atmos, DTS–X, Wi–Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, AirPlay 2, 1x HDMI (eARC), 1x HDMI (passthrough), 1x USB–C port, 1x Ethernet, 1x RCA (phono) line input; 1x subwoofer out YOU CAN USE THE APP TO RUN A ROOM ANALYSIS VIA THE SOUNDBAR’S TWO MICS WHICH WILL TWEAK THE SOUND TO YOUR SPACE MARSHALL HAS BEEN making wireless speakers and headphones for some years now, but the Heston 120 is its first foray into the world of soundbars. At $999.99, it’s around the same price as the Sonos Arc Ultra (£999, www.sonos.com), and at the upper range of what most people would pay before venturing into ultra high–end audiophile land. The Heston 120 continues a modern trend for one–box Dolby…

$1,399.99 From www.benq.com Features 27-inch LED-backlit IPS display, 5K resolution (5120x2880 @ 218 pixels per inch), 400 nits brightness, 2000:1 contrast ratio, 98% DCI-P3 colour, 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports (1x with 90W PD), 1x HDMI 2.1 port, 1x DisplayPort 1.2 WHEN IT COMES TO features, it’s difficult to know where to start with this 27-inch, 5K designer’s monitor. It offers 5120x2880 resolution for crystal clear images; for connectivity, there’s a Thunderbolt 4 port (90W), one HDMI 2.1 port and a DisplayPort, and at the base of the screen is a USB hub with three USB-A ports and a USB-C port. If you want a dual-monitor setup, you can daisy–chain two 5K screens, assuming your Mac meets the specs. BenQ says the PD2730S is the first 5K monitor to support daisy-chaining.…

$79 From https://ifi-audio.com Features features 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone connectors, high–res audio up to 32–bit/384KHz; 0.5oz WHILE THE ZEN Blue 3 (#ML234) is a high–end desktop digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that’s loaded with features for both wired and wireless audio systems, iFi Audio’s new GO link Max is for people who just want to boost the audio quality using wired headphones on their Mac or mobile devices. The GO link Max costs just $79, so it’s a very affordable audio upgrade. It also has one of the most portable DACs we’ve seen, consisting of little more than a cable with a USB–C connector on one end, and a small metal case on the other that houses the DAC circuitry and both 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone connectors. iFi has included both Lightning…