Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Macworld

While Apple silicon has done great things for the Mac, Apple has yet to settle on a predictable update cycle for its Mac lineup. Along with shifting release schedules, each generation of chips has skipped a model without a clear reason why. The Mac Pro and high-end Mac mini never got the M1 chip. The iMac skipped the M2. And the M3 hasn’t made it to the Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. But a new report claims the M4 will finally put the entire Mac lineup on a level playing field as Apple plans to update its entire catalog with the next-generation chip. PODCAST: THE A18 AND M4 ARE ALL ABOUT AI Listen now. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the M4 rollout will begin later this year and continue…

I’ve long been a user of the 2019 Intel Mac Pro. I firmly believe it is one of the best, most upgradable products Apple has ever released. And even with a new M2 Ultra-equipped Mac Pro on the market, I’m not giving up my 2019 Mac Pro just yet. To be clear, I’m not recommending that you go buy this discontinued product. Generally, most users should not consider an Intel Mac Pro—or Apple silicon Mac Pro for that matter. A Mac Studio with the M2 Ultra can do what’s needed in most key areas. The newly minted MacBook Pro with an M3 Max is an absolute performance champion that’s power efficient and priced right. I simply appreciate the unique nature of the Mac Pro, much like the Concorde jet was an engineering marvel…

KNOB DESIGN K.NO.B. 1 This mechanical keyboard by Knob Design features Gateron low-profile, hot-swappable switches, an aluminum shell, two multi-function knobs, and a customizable 100-by-310 pixel color display. It connects via Bluetooth or USB-C and includes a 2100maH battery for wireless connectivity. It’s available in English, French, German, Italian, Nordic, and Spanish. LOGITECH M750 WIRELESS MOUSE SIGNATURE AI EDITION If you’re totally invested in AI tools and you get access them fast enough, Logitech has the answer to your problem. The company’s M750 mouse has a special button for the Logi AI Prompt Builder, Logitech’s software assistant based on the ChatGPT natural language processing tool. Press the button, Logi launches, and you can type in your query, as simple as that. SABRENT USB-C TO USB-C CHARGING CABLE WITH SMART…

Adieu, Project Titan, we never knew ye. But while Apple’s ambitious car project may have been left in the dust, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a valuable experience, nor does it mean that it doesn’t continue to pay some dividends for the company. After a decade of work, billions in investment, and the work of hundreds of engineers, you’d better believe Apple cutting its losses doesn’t mean everything Titan related is packed up into a white cardboard box and thrown into Apple Park’s attic. We already known that many of the people who worked on Project Titan will be reassigned elsewhere. But it’s more than just the personnel who worked on the Apple Car; it’s the technology developed for Apple’s automotive project that will surely work its way into other…

We have tested a lot of great portable MagSafe wireless chargers, but this compact two-part charger is unique in its support for simultaneous iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods charging with a detachable high-capacity power bank (10,000mAh). TWO-PIECE DESIGN: STAND AND POWER BANK The detachable power bank part features a flip-out Apple Watch charger at the top, plus a pull-out kickstand at the bottom, plus a USB-C port for input and output charging. The Magnetic MagSafe’s wireless charging works with iPhones from the iPhone 12 onward, and the other wireless points support all Apple Watch models and AirPods cases with wireless charging capability. The phone charger isn’t certified for MagSafe, so it charges at 7.5W rather than 15W—OneAdaptr explained that 15W MagSafe would have “overheating issues that are not ideal to…

The Vision Pro is all about the future: if you think it’s too heavy or too expensive or doesn’t have enough apps, you’re just not thinking long term enough. Apple is aware that the smartphone won’t rule the tech roost forever, so it’s trying to build a platform for the next 20 years. The question isn’t whether it’s succeeded already—most reviewers agree that it hasn’t—but whether it can succeed before the clock runs out. With this in mind, I’ve been thinking about the ways in which Vision Pro, or a future iteration of that product, can ultimately expand in scope to take the place of all the Apple products we currently use. iPHONE Let’s start with the big one: the platform that currently dominates Apple’s revenues to an unhealthy degree, as…

Adobe added the option to mark fields that can be filled out with text, boxes that can be checked, and other helpers for form completion at least a decade ago. But many organizations that offer downloadable forms on their websites haven’t gotten the message. The group may not have access to Adobe Acrobat, the PDF modification software that allows editing and other features. They may be saving as or printing to PDF from Word, Pages, or other apps. Or they may lack the resources or knowledge to populate a PDF with form elements. But their omission doesn’t have to hold you back. The image and PDF viewer and editor Preview in macOS has let you add text fields and other elements for some time. Starting in macOS Sonoma, you can…

Year after year, one Apple operating system ends up getting short shrift when the company announces its annual updates at the Worldwide Developers Conference. While iOS, macOS, and iPadOS all show off their shiny new features, an overlooked sibling is left sitting sadly on the bench, waiting for its chance to shine—a chance that never seems to come. I speak, of course, of tvOS. And yet, tvOS is far from an also-ran when it comes to my household. A few years back I switched to consuming pretty much all my content through the Apple TV, and it’s put me in a contradictory situation when it comes to the set-top box: appreciative of how quietly and competently it does its job, and all too aware of where it could be so…

HOW TO MIGRATE AWAY FROM iCLOUD+ In a world with ever-rising costs, some readers want to trim their budgets. iCloud+ pricing for 50GB ($0.99 per month) to 12TB ($59.99 per month) of storage plus other bonuses might not seem terrible compared to, say, streaming services or a fancy latte, but it’s not nothing. If you have a family using Apple devices and you’re using Family Sharing with an Apple One plan ($25.95 per month for 200GB or $37.95 a month for 2TB), the cost is more than trivial. The real question is, can you get what you need without relying on iCloud? For the purposes of this column, I’m using the sweet spot of 2TB as the basis, since it’s high enough to consider cutting. Signing up for iCloud+ at…

I have an admission: Though I frequently review new Apple products, I don’t always buy them. Like many of you, I can’t afford to update every bit of Apple hardware every time the company revises one of its products. So I have to carefully measure when my stuff has now become too old and needs to be replaced with the shiny and new. Of course, Apple would love us all to buy new stuff all the time. But the company has to earn its sales the hard way. I might buy a new iPhone because of an upgraded camera or a new MacBook Air because of a new design and a faster processor. I might bypass the latest Apple Watch because the new features just don’t matter to me. As…

Geminos (from Mobile Pixels) is a new way of using more than one display. Instead of having two separate displays side by side, Geminos stacks one monitor on top of another in a one-piece but foldable setup. The Mobile Pixels Geminos Dual Vertical FHD Monitor incorporates two vertically stacked 1080p at 60Hz HD displays. It folds like a laptop, but you can position it so that both screens are straight on or slide the lower screen to an angle of your choosing. You could position the upper and lower screen at 90 degrees, for example. This vertical setup seems odd until you think about the way we use two monitors horizontally. With the traditional side-by-side setup, you have to twist your neck to see the screen that isn’t directly in…

I don’t need to have a new iPhone every year. Just the procedure of changing over with various authentications is sometimes a bit annoying. What’s more, the iPhone has matured to such an extent that there are only evolutionary changes from year to year, and there’s rarely an innovation that really knocks my socks off. A new device every three to four years, possibly a replacement battery in between—that’s quite enough for me. After three to four years, a new iPhone really does feel quite revolutionary compared to the old one. But now I’m in the situation of having to change every year for professional reasons. Even if the innovations from generation to generation are rather sparse, I need to be familiar with each annual upgrade to make sure I…

If Apple had its way, it would never open the App Store to competition, never offer web downloads of apps, never allow app developers to link to outside websites, and probably never reduce its cut of all App Store purchases from the original 30 percent tariff. For the last 15 years, Apple has had its way. That’s all changed now by the force of the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), along with the results of a few legal matters in Japan, South Korea, and the Netherlands. This is a new era, where Apple can’t just have its way—instead, it has to abide by regulations specifically targeted at its own preferred business practices. The company’s reaction to this era has been occasionally combative and passive-aggressive. Some have called it “malicious…

The Pro Stylus 2 has many similarities to the Apple Pencil when it comes to specifications. These include wireless charging, a replaceable tip, and the flattened side for magnetic attachment to the iPad. This alone makes the Pro Stylus 2 an alternative. What it has over the 2nd-generation Apple Pencil is that it can be used on any iPad since 2018, not just the iPad Pro, but also the standard iPad and the iPad Air. With its flattened edge, it holds magnetically to the iPad Air and iPad Pro and also charges at the same time. For iPads without wireless charging, the Pro Stylus 2 comes with a matching wireless charging station. Alternatively, any Qi charger works. PRACTICAL TEST WITH A SURPRISE The Pro Stylus 2 sits comfortably in the hand…

Apple has released version 14.0 of its iWork apps: Keynote, Numbers, and Pages. The updates are available for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac through the App Store and include a few new features and stability and performance improvements. The last update to version 13.2 came in late September. Here are the release notes for each app, detailing the new features. KEYNOTE 14.0 > Add a new look to your slides with the Dynamic Color, Minimalist Light, and Minimalist Dark themes > Streamlined in-app notifications inform you when a person joins a collaborative presentation for the first time > Preserve file format and full quality when adding HEIC photos taken on iPhone or iPad > Press and hold the Command key to select noncontiguous words, sentences, or paragraphs > Improved compatibility for…

It may not be perfect, but sometimes a software company gets its utility completely right, complete with a focus that deserves additional attention. Intego’s Mac Internet Security X9 falls into this category, the utility bundling the company’s VirusBarrier (at the time of this review, version 10.9.85 build 3495) and NetBarrier (version 10.9.31 build 884) applications to act as both an antiviral protection program as well as a network traffic filtering program, a component you don’t often see included with security software at this sort of price. Together they promise a high level of protection against direct and indirect unwanted software and malware threats. Simple to download, install, and configure after granting the application full access to your Mac’s files, the program then checks for the latest viral definitions, downloads them,…

One of the Apple TV’s most underrated features TV is its gorgeous screensavers that show aerial views of breathtaking locations in vivid 4K. In a mildly alarming development, it’s been reported that YouTube for Apple TV has recently been set up to override the system screensaver and run its own lower-quality equivalent. By default, the Apple TV begins showing a screensaver after it’s been left idle for five minutes. But if you’ve got the YouTube app open, this will instead trigger its own screensaver just before that point, according to visual effects artist and podcaster Joe Rosensteel. This appears to be a recent development, given that an earlier version of the app that Rosensteel checked on a different Apple TV did not display the same behavior. It’s not clear how…

Following a report that the Notes app (fave.co/3UhPLIp) will offer new math-based features, AppleInsider reports that the Calculator app will get a major overhaul in macOS 15. Apple is expected to debit macOS 15 at its Worldwide Developers Conference 2024 in June. The changes to the Calculator include: > A redesign that resembles the iOS Calculator app. While the macOS Calculator app has a layout and color scheme similar to that of the iOS Calculator, the iPhone app has circular buttons compared to square buttons on the Mac. > An adjustable window size that replaces the current fixed size. You can choose between basic, scientific, and programmer views in the menu bar, but the Mac Calculator app doesn’t support resizing by dragging the window corners. > A history tape that displays past…

It’s easy to forget how big chargers used to be. Gallium nitride (GaN) technology has not only shrunk the size of chargers but also allowed for higher supported wattages. GaN technology enabled Ugreen to make the ideal charger to take on a trip. With dimensions of 2.8×2.8×1.3 inches (70×70×33 millimeters), the Nexode Pro 160W 4-Port GaN Fast Charger fits in the palm of your hand—yet it can provide the power you need for your devices. The Nexode Pro 160W has three USB-C ports and a USB-A port. Its first port, labeled USB-C1, can output 140 watts when none of the other ports are in use. That’s enough power to change a MacBook Pro battery from zero to 85 percent in just one hour—from a charger that’s 21 percent smaller than…

According to a new report from Bloomberg citing “people with knowledge of the matter,” Apple is scuttling its long-running electric car project and will shift many of the employees over to its generative AI work. The Apple Car, code-named Project Titan, has been something of an open secret for about a decade, with many reports of its existence dating back as far as 2015. Over the years, Apple hired hundreds of people to work on it, and it’s hard to keep that a secret. As the years passed, the project was delayed multiple times and changed scope as often. Originally envisioned as a fully self-driving car with no wheels or pedals, it eventually was delayed until at least 2026 with a reduced scope to “level 2” or “level 3” driver assistance technology…

No matter what you think of its future prospects, we can all agree that the Apple Vision Pro is weird, right? One of the world’s most powerful companies has spent a decade preparing to ship a new product and platform that’s embodied in a $3,500 VR headset that lets you use apps in 3D space. After a decade of steady and boring iteration, Vision Pro is…not that. And I love it. Apple is so disciplined and conservative with its product choices and has largely benefited from that tendency. Pretty much every hardware product Apple ships sells in such great numbers that it makes it awfully hard to experiment in public. (The Sony-made displays in the Vision Pro are available in such limited supply that Apple won’t even be able to…

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg took to Instagram and declared that after trying Apple’s Vision Pro, he concluded that the Quest 3 is “better for the vast majority of things that people use mixed reality for.” Naturally, nobody should expect Zuck’s weird hotel hostage video to have glowing things to say about the competition’s headset. He’s CEO of Meta Platforms, whose Reality Labs division is losing many billions of dollars a year on R&D, sales, and marketing of Quest headsets. His opinion on this matter is the least trustworthy and most conflicted a person could ever find. But is he right? Does the Quest 3 do for $500 what the Vision Pro can’t at seven times the price? Is it a better overall product for most people, as he says? After spending…

With the release of the M3 MacBook Air, Apple introduced a new feature for M3 laptops. These MacBooks can now run two external displays, but the laptop must be closed. It’s a handy feature for production environments or for presentations. This feature is also coming to the M3 MacBook Pro in a future macOS update. The two external displays must support a video connection over USB-C or Thunderbolt 3. Also, the two displays can each be 5K at 60Hz: for example, two Apple Studio Displays. Here’s how to use dual external displays on M3 MacBooks. This demonstration involves a 15-inch M3 MacBook Air, an Apple Studio Display, and the Dough Spectrum One, which is a 4K display with a variable refresh rate. 1. GET YOUR BLUETOOTH INPUT DEVICES READY A…

CrossOver is based on Wine, which is a free, open-source program, but can be quite difficult to use. Like Wine, Crossover uses a compatibility layer to allow Windows apps to run on the Mac without requiring a full version of Windows to be installed. That can save you a lot of money as you need to buy a copy of Windows for use with virtualization programs such as Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. But although Wine is a free, open-source program, it’s too complicated for most nontechnical users, so the team at Codeweavers developed CrossOver as a more straightforward and user-friendly alternative. They also provide technical support to help with installing a wide variety of Windows games and software. PRICE That technical support means that CrossOver isn’t free. It costs…

I’ve been enjoying a Back to the Future adventure with the JBL Authentics 300, the only truly portable in the maker’s new three-model, Bluetooth- and Wi-Fi–streaming smart speaker line. This one can operate on either battery or AC power. Where most smart speakers serve only one master—Alexa, Google Assistant, or in the case of Apple’s speakers, Siri—the Authentics line responds to the “Alexa” and “Hey Google” wake words interchangeably. DESIGN AND BUILD QUALITY Like its AC-powered stablemates (you should also read TechHive’s JBL Authentics 500 review), the $450 JBL Authentics 300 boasts a distinctively retro enclosure wrapped in chocolate-brown faux leather with pale gold-tinted aluminum trim. A charcoal Quadrex foam grill in front of its active drivers evokes the classic JBL L-100 studio monitor from the 1970s. It’s a hefty…