Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2020 i Macworld

We live in strange times. I’d wager that a lot of you are now working from home, either for the first time or for a lot longer than you’re used to. I used to work in an office more or less every day, but for the past five years I’ve been working in my garage every day. As a result, I’ve learned a lot about the tools, techniques, and behaviors that can help you work more efficiently on your Mac or iPad from home. I hope what I’ve learned can help you be more productive and healthier at home. GIVE YOUR MAC MORE SCREEN SPACE If you’re used to working from a Mac with a big monitor and are now working from a laptop, you may be frustrated by a…

Apple isn’t canceling its annual Worldwide Developers Conference this year, but it is changing the format. According to a statement released on March 13, Apple will hold WWDC 2020 entirely online in order to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic. In the statement, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller referred to the pandemic as the “current health situation.” Schiller also said Apple aimed to create a “new WWDC 2020 format that delivers a full program with an online keynote and sessions, offering a great learning experience for our entire developer community, all around the world.” Schiller did not specify the actual dates, but he confirmed that the event would be held in June as usual. In our event calendar, we speculate that the most likely dates for the event are…

Aside from convenience, the great thing about using an iPhone as your primary camera is the sheer quantity of metadata captured with each image. In addition to date and time, you’ll always know where photos were taken, not to mention ISO, exposure, and other settings. But what about pictures taken prior to the advent of digital photography? Scanned prints, negatives, and slides get embedded with the current date and time, and have no knowledge of where or how those photos were originally taken. SnipTag is a macOS utility designed to help shutterbugs prep photos in two important ways. First, by cropping scanned pages containing multiple images in a single click, and then tagging the resulting digital versions (or other image files) with metadata and keywords that make them searchable in Apple…

As someone who travels with an iPad Pro rather than a MacBook, I complained for years about iOS’s inability to perform basic file management, including mounting networked file servers and accessing the contents of attached USB drives and unzipping archives. With the arrival of iPadOS 13, those problems were finally addressed. Stop laughing, Mac users. In the spirit of taking what’s given to you and then ungratefully asking for more: The job’s just not done. Yes, iPad file management finally exists. But it needs to be a lot better. YOUR FILE IS MY TYPE It’s not surprising that in an operating system that was largely designed to be free of files, there are a bunch of missing pieces. Perhaps the biggest one is the sheer lack of a consistent approach…

Since getting an Apple Card, I’ve tried to use Apple Pay as much as I possibly can (in order to get the higher 2 percent cash back rate). Forcing myself to pay with my phone as much as possible has taught me several things. First, Apple Pay is very broadly supported now. I can use it in far more places than I could even two years ago. Second, a lot of vendors don’t know if their payments systems support paying by phone or not, nor how it works. As popular as Apple Pay and Google Pay are, they’re still used infrequently enough that many cashiers hardly ever see anyone try it. When it works, it’s great—it really is a faster, more convenient, and safer way to pay for stuff. But…

If there was any doubt that Apple had an event planned for March, the company’s surprise announcement of the new iPad Pro on March 18 put it to rest. With a slew of new features and enhancements, the new iPad Pro is more than just your usual refresh. It charts a whole new course for the iPad and draws a clear line between the consumer and the pro iPad. The new iPad Pro brings over all of the “pro” features from the prior model—USB-C, second-gen Apple Pencil support, ProMotion display, Face ID—but it also comes packed with a bunch of next-gen features that take it to a whole new level and make it ever closer to becoming the hybrid device we’ve always wanted it to be. 1. A FOCUS ON GRAPHICS…

Cloud storage is a wonderful way to extend limited hard-disk or SSD space on your computer to an accessible internet-reachable location. Many services combine synchronization and storage offloading. Synchronization ensures that files on every linked device are stored in a central repository and copied and get up to date on every attached device. Storage offloading lets you opt to keep the file in central storage but not on every end point after the file is first uploaded. Dropbox and iCloud Drive are two popular options for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS cloud storage, and they differ substantially in this approach. Dropbox changed its approach last summer for personal accounts, so it might be a little different than you recall if you haven’t used it for a while. iCloud Drive works with…

With iOS 13.2 (13.2.1 for HomePod), it’s easier than ever to hand off music or a phone call from your iPhone to your HomePod. Such handoffs were possible before iOS 13.2.1, but they were a bit of a hassle (as we’ll see below). Now, though, Apple provides a “quick way” and a “long way” of making these handoffs. Here’s how to do both. THE QUICK WAY If your phone is playing any kind of AirPlay-compatible media—such as a song on Apple Music or Spotify, a podcast, a YouTube video, a Netflix show, or even a phone call—you simply need to hold your iPhone around an inch away from your HomePod. After a one-second delay, the audio track will jump from your phone and start playing on the HomePod. That’s all…

Even in these trying times, it’s good to have something to look forward to. The March release of new models of the iPad Pro (see page 76) and the MacBook Air (see page 82) may be small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but they at least gave us a distraction from everything else that’s going on. More than that, though, they may be the first real indication of Apple’s behavior during this current world situation. Not just in terms of the products that the company is delivering, but how it’s prepared to deliver them. Because the Apple that we’ve all become accustomed to watching, the one that has the business of product releases down to a science, has to deal with these major upheavals like the rest of…

If you worked at an office job before the novel coronavirus pandemic, there’s a good chance you’re now working from home. It can feel limiting, especially if you only have a MacBook. Fortunately, you can drastically improve your productivity by hooking up an external monitor to your workstation, usually by using one display as a reference and doing your actual work in the other. (Less wholesomely, you could work in one and watch a movie in another—but I didn’t say that.) An HDMI-compatible TV should do the trick if you don’t have an extra monitor sitting around, but the pixel density and refresh rates likely won’t be as satisfying. First off—here’s the bad news. It’s usually a lot easier to hook up an external monitor to a PC rather than…

MINUT SMART HOME ALARM Minut doesn’t rely on outboard sensors sprinkled around your home to keep tabs on things, and the Smart Home Alarm is more private than most systems because it doesn’t rely on cameras or microphones to monitor what’s happening. Rather than detecting motion optically through movement, the Smart Home Alarm detects the heat emitted by living things. In addition to being an intrusion detector, it’s also packed with a variety of additional sensors: a noise meter, an ambient temperature sensor, and a humidity sensor. —MICHAEL ANSALDO GOAL ZERO YETI 200X The Goal Zero Yeti 200X is a portable battery station with a capacity near 200Wh—187Wh to be precise. It sports six different ports in its compact form factor: a 12V car charger port and a 6mm…

Not too long ago, opening a zip file on an iPhone or iPad was impossible without using a third-party app, but that’s no longer the case. It’s actually really easy, so long as you’re on at least iOS 11. These set of instructions focuses on iOS 13 and iPadOS 13. You can also make zip files on an iPhone and iPad now, so we’ll show you how to do that, too. These steps should always work with zip files, and it also appears to work with tar.gz files. If you want to extract .rar files, though, you’ll still need to use a third-party app like iZip. HOW TO OPEN ZIP FILES DOWNLOADED FROM THE INTERNET 1. In Safari, click on the link with the file you want to download. 2.…

As if a new third camera on the back of iPhone 11 Pro wasn’t enough to get excited about at Apple’s September 2019 keynote, creators of popular video-capture app Filmic Pro were also in attendance to preview a forthcoming update that promise to take full advantage of the hardware. Filmic CTO Christopher Cohen and The Florida Project director Sean Baker provided an impressive demonstration of video shot simultaneously from all four iPhone 11 Pro lenses at once—wide, ultrawide, telephoto, and front-facing cameras, each recorded as separate, ready to edit files. Although Cohen touted the feature would come to Filmic Pro later in the same year, the calendar rolled over to 2020 with the promised update nowhere in sight. Instead, the company debuted an entirely new app which provides a tantalizing look…

There might not be any retail stores to visit for a while, but that’s not slowing Apple’s roll. On the morning of March 18, Apple launched a brand-new MacBook Air with more storage, more speed, and a better keyboard, all for hundreds less than the current model. With a 10th-generation Intel Core i3 or i5 processor, Apple claims the new MacBook Air delivers “up to two times faster CPU performance and up to 80 percent faster graphics performance” than the previous MacBook Air). Both base models have lower clock speeds than their predecessors (1.1GHz vs. 1.6GHz), but the new chip architecture, Intel Iris Plus Graphics, and LPDDR4X memory should deliver a noticeable boost. In addition to the faster chip, Apple has also doubled the storage across the board to 256GB and…

For many users, an IP67-rated ruggedized portable SSD will be a rather expensive piece of storage overkill. However, for the adventurous few, the peace of mind LaCie’s Rugged SSD Pro will bring when you’re out in the world might well be worth the extra expense. The grippy, silicon covering of the Rugged SSD Pro makes it one of my favorite external drives. That it’s very fast and can be used via Thunderbolt 3 or USB doesn’t hurt, either. DESIGN AND SPECS The LaCie Rugged SSD Pro is available in 1TB ($400) and 2TB ($700) capacities, the same prices as Samsung’s X5. We tested the less capacious unit. The drive measures 3.85 inches by 2.55 inches, and is around 0.7-inch thick. Inside is a Seagate (LaCie’s parent company) FireCuda 510, four-lane,…

Canadian Hi-Fi manufacturer Fluance has launched a new line of turntables, targeting the budget-conscious vinyl enthusiast who has an eye on high performance. Fluance’s $499 RT85, the subject of this review, sits at the top of the company’s turntable lineup and gets our high marks for its price/performance ratio. BUILD QUALITY AND FEATURES On paper, the RT85 reads like a turntable that should be priced close to four-figure territory. The turntable’s plinth is made of MDF (medium-density fiberboard), and it comes in your choice of traditional piano black or a real walnut veneer. Up close, the piano-black, high-gloss finish on my review model was beautiful. There are three vibration-dampening, adjustable feet that help balance the turntable. The RT85 comes with an acrylic platter instead of the typical metal platter on…

In the rush toward ever-lower prices for wireless in-ear headphones—and the sometimes lower quality those prices lead to—Beyerdynamic took a different approach with its Xelento Wireless. This high-end, audiophile-oriented in-ear monitor offers top-quality design and construction as well as a few intriguing features that make it stand out. The sound quality is second to none, but I wish it didn’t have any wires at all. FEATURES Beyerdynamic calls the Xelento “audible jewelry,” and the name fits. Handmade in Germany, the materials and workmanship are top-notch, from the high-purity silver-plated connectors to the aluminum battery casing to the transparent cable sleeves that reduce handling noise. They are even engraved with a unique serial number. The Xelento boasts a specified frequency response from 8Hz to 48kHz—talk about high-resolution audio! Its dynamic drivers…

Over a year ago, I argued that Apple should replace Intel with AMD in its Mac lineup. Today, the choice seems even clearer. From low-power laptops to the big iron in the Mac Pro, Apple would be well-served to consider AMD alternatives to Intel CPUs. THE MAC PRO: THREADRIPPER The Mac Pro is a big, expensive, high-power system made for heavy multithreaded workloads. So Apple equips it with Intel Xeon workstation processors, from the 8-core, 16-thread W-3223 to the 28-core, 56-thread W-3275M. The cheapest, slowest model retails for $750 and has a thermal design power of 160 watts, and that scales up to almost $7,500 and 205 watts on the high end. How does AMD’s latest Ryzen Threadripper processors compare? At the low end, AMD is more expensive—the Threadripper 3960X…

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have made a huge impact on software in recent years, but nowhere more prominently than digital photography. Any image editing app worth its salt has implemented at least a little of this technology to manipulate pixels in ways we could only have imagined a decade ago. A cross between longtime favorite Adobe Lightroom and more powerful sibling Photoshop, Luminar 4 is a Mac image editor which relies heavily on AI technology to accomplish previously complicated tasks with ease. The result is an application designed for photographers who want to quickly enhance photos without a steep learning curve or the fiddling that typically comes with it. Nowhere is this more evident than Luminar 4’s new AI Sky Replacement, which turns a bland, boring skyline into something more…

At the end of last year, rumors began to circulate that Apple was investigating the possibility of developing an iPhone with no ports at all, which could see the light of day as early as 2021. To long-time Apple watchers, this wasn’t out of the blue. The company has made it clear over the past several decades that it wants to minimize and standardize the ports on its devices. Hence, bundling more and more peripheral connections into a single cable like Thunderbolt, which of course uses the same connector as the burgeoning USB-C protocol. But going portless entirely? The company has already done so on devices like the Apple Watch or the HomePod. Surely, though, the iPhone will always need a port. Or will it? More recently, it’s started to…

One of Apple Card’s most significant annoyances (at least compared to many other major credit cards) is that you can’t directly share transaction information with financial planning apps like Mint or YNAB. Apple provides lots of well-organized information about your spending in the Wallet app, but that doesn’t give you a complete picture of your finances as it doesn’t include your earnings and other spending. Fortunately, there’s now a workaround of sorts. Started on January 21, Apple now allows you to export monthly transaction lists as a CSV (comma separated value) spreadsheet or OFX (open financial exchange) file. It’s a very common format that can be imported by most major financial planning apps and services. You don’t need an iOS update to take advantage of this feature—it’s a server-side update. That…

There’s a general perception that the Macintosh isn’t as much of a target as Windows PCs. And while there’s some truth to that, it’s still a target. Apple does what it can to protect the Mac from viruses, malware, ransomware, and other bad actors, but there’s always a chance something can happen. How can you protect your Mac? Here are a few basic tips and tasks you can perform to secure your Mac. There’s a lot more you can do than what’s listed here, but if you aren’t doing anything, this is a way to get off to a good start. 1. LIMIT YOUR SOFTWARE CHOICES There’s a lot of great software out there, and it’s so easy to download an app and try it out. But this is also…

The original Macintosh wasn’t the first consumer computer to use a mouse, but it was likely the first popular computer to include a mouse in every box, as it was designed to be operated primarily with one. The Apple Mouse that came with the 1984 Macintosh was the first to truly popularize the concept of mouse-driven computers. The interfaces of the mainstream computers we use today are still dominated by the pointer-and-clicking paradigms that began back then. Why then, has Apple—a company famous for its attention to usability design—made nothing but awful mice for over 20 years? WHERE IT ALL BEGAN The original Macintosh came with the original Apple Mouse. It was boxy with chamfered edges that sort of looked like the Macintosh, and had a single huge button—the days…

The default font for body text in Apple’s Pages word processing app is 11-point Helvetica Neue, but you can easily change it to something more interesting through the Format panel that’s usually visible to the right of your document. Open another document, though, and you’ll be back to Helvetica. If you always want a Pages document with your font of choice ready to go, you’ll have to make a couple of changes that aren’t very obvious. Here’s how to make them on both your Mac and your iPhone. HOW TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT FONT FOR PAGES ON MAC First, open your Pages app. After that: 1. Click Pages on the menu bar. 2. Select Preferences. (You can jump immediately to this step by pressing Command-comma.) 3. The General tab will…

As a former starving musician, I can tell you that speakers marketed to musicians often deliver more bang for the buck than audiophile hardware. This is partially because musicians often don’t have a lot of disposable income, and partially because musicians are too knowledgeable to befuddle with nonsensical terminology or specs. The PreSonus Eris E4.5 BT Bluetooth speakers are an excellent example of this state of affairs. These aren’t the best-sounding speakers I’ve heard, but they do sound fantastic for a $230 pair of self-powered monitors. I listened to them with one of the IDG chaps who serves as my sanity check, and both of us were impressed. The PreSonus Eris E4.5 BT reveal a lot of detail, or you can tweak them from reference quality to party mode in…