Innehållsförteckning för No. 207 från iCreate

“How did we occupy our time before our necks craned downwards?” It’s hard to imagine a life without apps. They have become such an integral part of our daily routine that it boggles the mind to think how we coped without them and how we occupied our time before our necks craned downwards. Although we all have our favourites, the App Store continues to swell and there may well be newer apps that are much better than the ol’ reliables, so this issue we have gathered together 100 of the very best apps for Mac and iOS and tell you why they deserve a spot on your Home screen. We also tackle privacy, an issue that never seems to abate, and show you how to secure your Mac to keep…

First-ever Apple Music Awards announced Apple news Apple sprung a big surprise by announcing the winners of the inaugural Apple Music Awards in December. The awards, which celebrated the “best and boldest musicians of 2019”, were selected by Apple Music’s global editorial team of experts. The big winner was UK pop star Billie Eilish, who took home Artist of the Year and Album of the Year. “The Apple Music Awards are designed to recognise the passion, energy and creativity of the world’s favourite artists,” says Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and International Content. “The musically diverse group of inaugural winners have sparked deep social conversation, influenced culture and inspired our customers around the world. We couldn’t be more excited to celebrate them.” Apple launches three new research…

Puzzle Kids – Jigsaw Puzzles Puzzle Kids is about more than just jigsaw puzzles. Included in this Mac app is a series of drag and drop games that will help younger children learn and enjoy themselves for hours. It shows that great games are possible on macOS. World of Peppa Pig It is hard to cram in everything available in this entertaining app. From educational activities to stories to games, if your children like Peppa Pig this would be the ideal app for them. When you subscribe you get access to even more options. ABC magic phonics It would be easy to look at this educational macOS app and think that the graphics are basic, but it is actually designed for young children to easily understand and to learn from.…

Learn Foreign Languages At first glance this app looks quite dated, but then you realise that it is a versatile tool that will help you learn a new language in the quickest time possible. Many languages are covered and it has been proven to work time and time again. HOMER Reading: learn to read We all know that helping a child with reading in the earliest years will give them a better understanding of words and help them to love reading in the future. The subscription cost for this service will pay back in a lifetime of enjoyment. GeoGebra Classic 6 The biggest compliment we can give to GeoGebra is that it will make your Mac feel as though it was purposely designed for this exact purpose. From calculus to…

Unless there’s street lighting or a strong moon, when you’re filming at night your subject may disappear into darkness. If the camera uses a high ISO speed to make it sensitive to low light this can make the clip look grainy. Many film makers shoot their subject in daylight and then grade the clip’s colours and tones to create a more effective moonlit scene. Indeed shooting ‘day for night’ is such a common technique that iMovie offers a Day into Night filter that attempts to add a nocturnal hue to a clip. We can produce a more convincing nighttime look by tweaking colours and tones manually. We’ll also add a CG moon to complete the nocturnal illusion! Step-by-step  Turn day to night 1 Try the filter Import our Day to…

Logic’s MIDI plugins are a mysterious bunch – huddled away in their own submenu away from all the other plugins, they’re often overlooked and little-used as a result. Get to know them, however, and you’ll find that they’re capable of some pretty useful tricks, so this month we’re going to check out the MIDI Modulator plugin. Modulators are generally used to modulate or change things, and this plugin lives up to its name. You can assign it to control more or less any parameter of any other plugin within Logic, which makes it a pretty powerful tool – in this example, we’re going to use it to control a single frequency band within a Channel EQ plugin to produce a rhythmic, automated filter effect. Step-by-step  EQ Sweep effects with Modulator…

Deciding what to capture The first three icons in the screenshot utility relate to static screenshots. The first lets you capture the whole screen, the second a selected window and the third a selected portion of the screen. Casting your net If opting to capture only a selected portion of the screen, you can drag the reticle around to focus on what you want. This also applies to the ‘Record Selected Portion’ option. Adding sound If you’re producing tutorial videos then highlight the ‘Record Entire Screen’ icon, then click ‘Options’ and select your Mac’s built-in microphone to include spoken voice-overs on your videos. Show mouse clicks It is also a good idea, if you’re producing tutorial videos, to enable the ‘Show Mouse Clicks’ option so that your viewers can see…

Select content Ctrl+click an empty part of the page and choose the items you want to see. If there are more items in a section than will fit on the screen, a ‘More’ menu appears. Start with Favourites Set Safari to open with a new window and then set new windows to open with Favourites. New tabs can be configured to open with the same different content, such as a homepage. Choose favourites When new windows or tabs open with Favourites (bookmarks), choose which favourites are shown in this menu down below. Bear in mind the limited space on the new window or tab page. Control Siri suggestions Enable this Siri Suggestions startup section in System Preferences>Siri and then customise items that appear by Ctrl+clicking them. Tell Siri not to…

Google Earth’s Voyager feature from 2017 allowed experts to tell their own stories using locations across the globe. Now, Google is allowing the rest of us to produce interactive tours by providing a set of features for projects that can be shared with others. Want to create a travelogue of places you visited on a recent trip? Or a geography or history project focused on specific locations? Want to produce a map of places featured in a favourite film? Then go right ahead. The features are in the web version of Google Earth, which isn’t compatible with Safari; you’ll need to download Chrome (google.com/chrome/). But tours can be viewed using the Google Earth iOS map as well as within your Mac’s browser. Step-by-step  Start creating your map tour 1 Start…

Apple revealed in August 2019 that it was allowing contractors to listen to the voice recordings of Siri users. After it came to light, Apple apologised and explained that it granted such permission in order to grade Siri requests so that it could make future improvements to its service. Even so, it proved alarming. The audio included confidential information captured when Siri was accidentally activated so Apple promised it would make changes to the system. Sure enough, with iOS 13.2, it added a new option that allows you to request that Siri audio is deleted from Apple’s servers. Regardless of how security-conscious you are, we would recommend that everyone uses this option as there is really no reason why other people should be allowed to listen to what you ask…

Scan options Press this button to show a menu bar with different scanning options. These include full colour, photo, greyscale and black and white. Many documents are black and white anyway and colour is not needed. Automatic mode The scanner is in Auto mode, which means that as soon as it detects a rectangular piece of paper, it takes a scan image and saves it. Press ‘Auto’ to switch to manual to control the process. Your last scanned image Press the button to take a scan and a thumbnail image appears here. Tap the image to view it or to access tools like crop and rotate. The result is far better than on this camera screen. Save and insert A single scan is inserted into an image as an image,…

Apple provides a varied selection of ‘stock’ apps on your iOS devices. There are the essentials, such as Mail, Notes and Calendar, but plenty of others such as Home, News and Stocks, that you may not use. In fact, there are very few stock apps that Apple deems absolutely essential, in that you can’t remove them from your device (these include Camera, Photos and Wallet), so if you have unwanted apps taking up space, removing them is easy. By pressing on most app icons, you’ll see the option to ‘Rearrange Apps’ and tapping this triggers the familiar effect from iterations of iOS gone by, when the icons shake and small ‘X’ icons appear in the corner. From here, you can drag icons onto others to create folders – just move…

Noto is described as a modern writing app rather than a note-taker, but it can be both depending on what you need to do at the time. At first glance it does look like a notes app because of the emphasis on a clean panel to write within alongside a list or grid of your recently created notes. When you dig a bit deeper, however, you realise that it is close to being a fully-fledged word processor because the features included are just what you need to break down longer writing into easy to read sections. The way the app has been built means that you can effectively make it whatever you want it to be and you can tailor it to your exacting requirements. Step-by-step  Make the most of…

Before Apple Music came along, Spotify was the uncrowned king of music streaming. It was possible to listen to songs from this popular service on your iPhone, iPad and Mac but, if you wanted to do the same on your television, you needed access to Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Samsung Tizen or Android TV. Now there’s an official Spotify app on Apple TV at long last (downloaded manually or by enabling ‘automatically install apps’ in tvOS for those who have it installed on iOS). The move follows a complaint made by Spotify that Apple gives greater prominence to Apple Music. So while Spotify’s a rather simple app (and one that’s since been joined by Amazon Music too), it is very much welcome. After all, healthy competition is music to everyone’s…

Automator This is a built-in Mac app that allows you to automate tasks using a drag-and-drop interface that is very easy to use. By choosing a document type you can then view all of the actions associated with it and piece together an automated task. Caches Cache files are temporary data stored on your hard drive that are used to speed up processes. For instance, Safari will download images on a webpage into a cache so that it loads quicker the next time you visit it. If unchecked, these files can build up and cause your Mac to become slower. Recovery mode Part of your Mac’s built-in recovery system, macOS Recovery mode lets you use its utilities to recover from certain software issues or perform other actions. This mode is…

Key features Bluetooth 4.1 • Active Noise Cancelling • Ten hours playback Learn more groov-e.co.uk Available from groov-e.co.uk SLEEK AND LIGHTWEIGHT, Groov-e’s latest wireless headphones offer the latest Active Noise Cancelling technology at a very enticing price, allowing you to banish the outside world and ‘Zen’ out to your favourite music. Your tunes can be streamed wirelessly via Bluetooth or there is also the option to go wired with a supplied jack cable. Noise cancelling The headphones are nicely crafted with a padded, adjustable headband and swivel earcups. Soft earpads smother your ears and the twin, 40mm neodymium drivers deliver a good standard of sound, though it will never truly blow you away. The right cup is largely unspoiled apart from a microUSB charge port, but the left cup is…

David Crookes If you have recently updated to iOS 13.2 then our iOS expert demonstrates how to delete all of your Siri recordings – intentional and unintentional – stored on Apple’s servers. Shaun McGill This month our tech expert has trawled the Mac and iOS App Stores to unearth the latest, greatest apps worthy of downloading. Is it time to ditch your old favourites? George Cairns This issue, our creative expert shows you how to change the season in your photos, how to turn footage from day to night in iMovie and how to create triplets in Final Cut. Facebook iCreateMagazine Twitter @iCreateMagazine Instagram icreate_mag Email icreate@futurenet.com…

You likely know the best apps available for your iPhone, iPad and your Mac, but with so many available it would be easy to completely miss some absolute gems that could change the way you use your Apple products. You name the speciality or genre and there will be an app available that will do what you need and in many cases the solutions offer benefits way outside simply letting you get things done. From saving money to improving your health to enhancing your career, some of the apps we feature here could have a dramatic impact on your life. Tyme 2 The beauty of Tyme 2 is in the way it lets you enter the time you have worked on varying projects without actually impacting the time you have…

Adobe Lightroom Photo Editor You likely do not need us to explain what Adobe Lightroom does, but if you take the time to subscribe to the service and use it on your Mac you will be able to produce some stunning results. Every control is perfectly created and presented. Skitch – Snap. Mark up. Share. It is arguable that the newest Catalina features usurp some of what Skitch does, but the way it works is still super easy and it allows you to create impressive markups and share the results in an instant. Highland 2 Highland 2 focuses on being a solution for those who need to write professionally, but it is capable of letting anyone write blog posts, articles or anything else thanks to the simplistic nature of the…

Autumn’s russet red leaves provide attractive photo opportunities for photographers, especially in rural locations. However we may not always get the chance to visit a suitable site before the leaves fall and the trees become bare as winter draws in. Fortunately we can creatively grade our out-of-season shots to add dramatic autumnal colours. The Photos app’s Selective Colour panel enables us to target and tweak the lightness, hue and saturation of specific colours. For example if we adjust the hue of lush green leaves we can shift them to a more autumnal looking red, without running the risk of changing other colours such as skin tones. We’ve provided you with a shot to work with but you can apply this selective colour grading techniques to your own images if preferred.…

With GarageBand it is very easy to move song projects across all of Apple’s platforms. Thanks to iCloud, users can centralise project access before importing special versions between devices. In this tutorial we explore the demo-sharing prowess of the iOS Music Memos app, a free Apple download from the App Store. Music Memos allows musicians to capture snatch compositions quickly, while adding drum and bass accompaniments to make your song ideas pop. These recordings can be saved out to iCloud and then imported into GarageBand on your Mac whereby you can keep the audio recordings and smart tracks intact and polish them using the comprehensive array of audio tools available. Step-by-step  Import song ideas from Music Memos 1 Select a recording Open the Music Memos app on your iOS device,…

Did you know you can edit photos on your Mac using your iPhone or iPad? The Photos app syncs photographs and you can edit them on either device of course, but with macOS Catalina and iOS 13 there are new ways of working and your iOS device is like an extension to your Mac. Using Quick Look in Finder, photos appear simultaneously on Mac and iPhone or iPad and you can use a mouse, trackpad, touchscreen or Pencil to edit them. Editing features and methods are different on computers and mobile devices because of their interfaces and operating systems, and sometimes one has features or capabilities the other doesn’t. Being able to edit on any device opens up new possibilities. Step-by-step  Mark up photos on iOS devices 1 Find some…

People were talking about the paperless office 20 years ago, but it never really happened and we are still buried under a mountain of paper documents. However, it is useful to scan them into your Mac because then they are available on your computer, phone and tablet. Even better, you can search for text within scanned documents and this seems to be a trick that was introduced with the latest versions of macOS and iOS. Documents can be scanned and inserted into notes in the Notes app on the iPhone, but here we look at Notes on the Mac. This enables you to use the iPhone as a scanner and it is a great way to turn paper documents into digital ones that can be stored on the computer and…

The iPhone can be backed up and synced with your iCloud account and mostly this works fine. You can replace the iPhone or erase it, log into iCloud and most things are put back exactly as they were. However, it is also possible to back up and sync with the Mac. This used to be through iTunes, but macOS Catalina removed it. To back up and sync with a Mac, you will now need to use Finder instead. Why bother? One reason is that iCloud backups only store iCloud files and information. If you transferred music, movies, documents and other media to the iOS device yourself, they are not backed up to iCloud. However, they are backed up and synced using Finder. Also, if an iPhone won’t start, it may…

Add your own media If you do not want to make use of the information provided by Google, you can click ‘Replace’ and add your own description, images and videos. Alter the attributes This screen – reachable by selecting an entry and clicking ‘Edit Feature’ – also lets you alter latitude, longitude, altitude and other attributes. All amends are auto-saved. Change the placemarks There is a choice of placemark icons and you can also change their size. Click ‘Advanced Options’ and you can choose to show or hide label text and alter the label colour or size. Switch between 2D and 3D Click the 2D/3D icon to toggle between the two perspectives and use your mouse or trackpad to find the view that you want. You’ll see a ‘Capture This…

The Music app is a simple and effective means of playing and enjoying music on your iOS device and the experience is heightened greatly by an Apple Music subscription that places hundreds of thousands of songs at your fingertips. There are also plenty of other big advantages, such as downloading and storing your favourite tracks on your device to listen to anytime and the option of viewing live lyrics, effectively turning your iPhone into a portable karaoke machine. The Music app has undergone a few changes in iOS 13, such as the way you access certain controls, and added some other worthwhile features into the mix. Here we take you through the best new features and provide tips on how to get the most out of the Music app. Grab…

Scientists reckon that the human brain can hold as much as 2.5 petrabytes of information but we still end up forgetting people’s birthdays and other such vital details. It’s why many iPhone users make good use of the Reminders app which, as of iOS 13, can now go a little further and prod your memory about a particular task relating to one particular person when you next get in touch – it’s a great addition for the more absent-minded amongst us. Indeed, by tagging a specific person in the reminders that you create within the app, a notification can be sent in Messages when you write to that particular contact either via an iMessage or SMS. This would be great if you suddenly remember that you need to mention something…

Reach this screen Launch the Settings app and tap Privacy before selecting ‘Analytics & Improvements’ in order to see the various options that are on this screen. Stop sharing usage data While you are on this screen, you can decide whether or not you’re happy with daily usage and diagnostic data being sent to Apple. Again, turn the button to off to prevent such sharing. Toggle Siri off When the button next to Improve Siri & Dictation is green, Apple will be able to store your audio and its staff will even be able to listen to it. To prevent this, toggle it off. Prevent iCloud sharing Apple will also seek to use data in your iCloud account to improve Siri and other products and services. If this concerns you,…

There are some apps in iOS we may forget are even there. One app that teeters towards the unused is Measure. It was added in iOS 12 and makes clever use of augmented reality (AR), using your iPhone camera and layering on tools for making quick and easy measurements. When you launch the app, point your camera at the object you want to measure and move it around so the app can gauge the shape of the object, how far away it is, etc. It only takes a second or two to process and then you can move the camera to the start point, tap the ‘+’ icon and then move your camera across the object to the opposite side before repeating the process. There are question marks around the…

Apple TV is both a store for purchasing and renting content and also a place to watch Apple TV+ shows and there are some brilliant ones. The library of TV+ content available to stream is still quite small, but it is steadily growing all of the time and we’re rubbing our hands together at the prospect of more! We have collected some of our best tips for the Apple TV app and shows you will find in it on the Apple Mac, iPhone and iPad. There are different features in the macOS and iOS apps and the iOS app has some interesting ones that are not obvious. Try long-pressing on everything, for example, and see what comes up! Here are our favourite features and perhaps some you have not yet…

There is no doubt that iPads tend to be used in the home by the majority of users and by others at work and when out and about. We do not, however, tend to think of the iPad as a device that can be used in the car, but when you really think about it, the device has all of the features and tools you could need to help any journey progress. The Tesla cars highlight how big screens work in cars and if you follow the law and the safety guidelines you will be able to do much more than you may expect with an iPad mounted in a vehicle. We will highlight what can be done and will leave the rest of the experience to you to build.…

With so much content available on your Apple TV, it’s important that the right apps and content are positioned where you want them. You don’t want to keep scrolling through loads of icons to find Netflix or Apple TV, for instance – indeed, you may want to group like-minded apps within individual folders and delete apps you don’t need any more. Apple has made customising your Home screen easy and, with tvOS 13, it has added a new autoplay feature that plays full-screen video previews. It is also possible to use Dark Mode so that the glare of the menu screens isn’t too stark in a dimly-lit room. This is accessed via Settings>General>Appearance, letting you select Light or Dark. Set it to Automatic if you want it to follow day…

This may sound like a silly question but I am new to Macs and wondered if there’s any way to make that strip of apps at the bottom of the screen any smaller? You have full freedom to do whatever you want with the Dock. Open System Preferences and click on the ‘Dock’ pane and you’ll see a slider to adjust the size. There is also a slider to adjust the magnification effect when you highlight an app and we recommend ticking the ‘Automatically hide and show the Dock’ option so that it vanishes when not in use.…

Key features 24-bit/192kHz audio resolution • Four modes • Plug-n-play Learn more akg.com Available from amazon.co.uk AKG BY HARMAN’S LYRA microphone isn’t just any USB microphone – it’s an ‘ultra-HD multimode’ USB microphone that is capable of recording audio of 24-bit/192kHz quality and features a four-capsule array. It presents four recording modes: Front, Front & Back, Tight Stereo and Wide Stereo and offers plug-n-play performance, making it perfect for musicians, podcasters, video creators and anyone else who needs to record audio. It also looks amazing. Speakeasy Inspired by classic AKG studio mics, the Lyra packs modern, state-of-the-art technology into a stylish retro shell and provides, exceptional, acoustically transparent audio that meets the standards of 4K Ultra-HD projects. The headphone output offers zero-latency monitoring, there are controls for headphone volume, mute…

Price Free Requirements iOS 9.0 or later • 149.1MB Learn more appninstudios.com Available from iOS App Store THE FIRST APP FROM Appnin Studios, the company founded by Arsenal midfielder Mesut Özil, is something of a disappointment. Though football themed, it doesn’t draw on the German maestro’s insider knowledge of the sport – it’s just a throw-away kick-the-ball-as-far-as-you-can game that doesn’t hold your attention for very long. You press and hold to power your kick and must then tap the screen at precisely the right time as the ball passes various flags. The colour of the flag has a profound affect on the ball – some slow it down, some pop it and others, such as the gold flag, will propel it forward at comet-like velocities. It’s fun for a few…

AirPods (1st Generation) Release date December 2016 • System-on-chip: Apple W1 • Features: Dual beam-foaming microphones, dual optical sensors, accelerometer • Connectivity: Bluetooth 4.2, Lightning port (wireless charging case) • Playtime: Five hours (the charge case holds an additional 24 hours and charging them for 15 minutes provides three hours of playback) • Apple OS required: iOS 10, macOS Sierra, watchOS 3 or later Original price: £159/$159 Price now: £50/$60 Now superseded by the 2nd-gen AirPods and the AirPods Pro models, the original wireless earphones had plenty to shout about. Each pod contained two microphones (one at ear level facing outward and the other at the bottom of the stem) and a decent charge return of around five hours (with a further 24 available from a fully-charged case). And although…

HANDS UP WHO CAN REMEMBER A WORLD WITHOUT APPS? IF YOU CAN, YOU’RE MOST LIKELY TO BE  IN THE MINORITY. The App Store was launched in 2008 and its impact on modern life is hard to exaggerate. Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Apple TV and iMessage, the App Store is home to over 2.5 million apps. These apps help simplify our lives and boost our creativity, connect us to friends, family and the world beyond, and of course, have fun. So, picking the best of the best is no mean feat. Apple has done just that, announcing the best apps and games of 2019. iCreate took the winners for a test ride – just to make sure Apple weren’t making anything up. First, here’s Phil… “Developers around the…

Activity++ There is no doubt that the Apple Watch tracks fitness brilliantly, but the Activity app can be difficult to follow at times. Activity++ takes the data from your watch and presents it in a simplistic way that should help you get fitter than ever before. Sleep Watch by Bodymatter Install Sleep Watch on your iPhone and Apple Watch and you will receive a detailed sleep report each day you wake up which is a feature not officially supported by the Apple Watch. The level of detail is immense and easy to learn from. Calorie Counter + The best way to lose weight is to truly understand how your calorie intake affects your body mass. With this app you can track your food and drink intake in seconds and then…

Launch Center Pro The iOS interface has barely changed over the years, but with Launch Center Pro you can add to it and make the interface unique to you. There are countless customisation options included which literally let you change every single aspect for selecting your apps. NordVPN IKE – Unlimited VPN Your Mac is relatively secure, but NordVPN tops it off by letting you browse and watch media anonymously. It goes to the level of even masking your location and other details, and at no point will your IP address be available to anyone. Fonts Fonts does exactly what the name of the app suggests, but it does so in a way that will completely change how you use your iPhone or iPad. You can use the fonts in…

The split-screen effect is as old as cinema itself. By filming somebody in one half of the screen and then filming them in the other half you can combine the two clips to create the illusion of identical twins. To make the effect look more believable you can have the twins interact. By animating the position of the split-screen you can make one twin place a piece on a chessboard and then watch the other twin pick up the same piece. By adding green screen to the mix you can place a third identical clone behind the first two, creating the illusion of triplets. In this guide, we’ll show you how to overcome common green screen problems such as holes in objects and fringes around the edge of your subjects.…

First introduced with Mojave, the screenshot utility is a little-known feature of macOS that gives you complete control over taking screenshots of your Mac’s desktop. This feature is, of course, still present, correct and unchanged in Catalina so we thought we would help you get re-acquainted with its features. You can access the screenshot utility at any time by pressing the Cmd+Shift+5 keyboard shortcut, which will bring a row of icons up on your Mac display. These icons let you capture static screens and record your Mac screen complete with mouse clicks and voice-overs to produce stunning tutorial videos. You can still do this using the built-in QuickTime Player app but using the screenshot utility is far quicker. Step-by-step  Using the screenshot utility 1 Access the utility While in Finder…

When you start Safari to browse the web, what do you see? Your favourite home page like Google or DuckDuckGo? Why go there when searches can be performed from the address box anyway? There are several ways to customise the content that appears when a new window or new tab opens in Safari and with the right content on display, it could make it easier and quicker to access what you need on the web. One of the things you can do for example, is get suggestions of websites to visit from Siri or you could show favourite websites from your bookmarks. Not just any or all favourites, but a specific set of favourites that include sites you use the most. Put the content you want and need most in…

Fingers and Pencils Use whatever tools you have on the iOS device to mark up the image. The Mac does not have a touchscreen, but you can use a finger on the iPhone or Pencil on the iPad. Browse and markup Either select a photo or other image in the Finder window and press the spacebar or use Gallery view and then click the Markup button to view it. Then you can edit it on iOS. Done or revert When you have finished editing on the iPhone or iPad, tap ‘Done’ on the device’s screen. On the Mac, click ‘Revert’ to undo all the markup actions or click ‘Done’ to save it. Connect/ disconnect iDevice Click this button in the Mac’s Markup editor to connect or disconnect an iPhone or…

Use your iPhone There is no need for a dedicated scanner these days and the iPhone’s camera makes a great one. Get your iPhone, select the option from the menu and start scanning paper-based documents. Scans and OCR You don’t see it, but either the Mac or the iPhone has analysed the image using OCR and extracted the text from it. Searches in Notes shows documents containing the search text. Search in scans Use the search box to list the notes with keywords or phrases. If you have scanned documents in Notes, the contents of them are searched too and they appear in the search results. Customise the scan Double-click a scanned document in a note and it opens in a separate window. Click the Apply Filter icon in the…

Media syncing If you want to manually sync items with the iPhone or iPad, select each of these tabs and configure the options. Purchased items are synced anyway, but you need this for items added from elsewhere. Mac backups Notice the wording “Back up your most important data... to iCloud” vs “Back up all the data on your iPhone to this Mac”. iCloud backups may not contain everything, but a Mac backup does. Choose bit rates If you have manually added music from CDs or downloads to your music library and then want to sync it with the iPhone, choose a bit rate from this menu. High bit rates need more storage. Restore the iPhone iCloud backups will restore most of your data if it is lost, but sometimes this…

Live lyrics Tap on this icon and the lyrics to the current song will fill the screen and then scroll through in real time to accompany the track. You can tap on later lyrics to jump straight to that part. Share sheet options Tapping this icon will reveal the Music share sheet that includes options to share, add the current track to a playlist, love or dislike it and much more, all of which you can edit. Stream content Tapping on the AirPlay icon will allow you to stream your music to a compatible device. Simply choose a speaker or TV from the menu that is provided. Up Next Tapping on the list icon displays the Up Next screen. At the top of this page will be the Shuffle and…

View the available options When you are in the Messages app and the reminder springs into view while you’re writing to a contact, you can drag down on the notification to see your option. Manage the notifications By selecting the menu on the notification which appears in Messages, you can opt to deliver future notifications quietly, turn them off or check out the overall notification settings. Mark as completed If you have already mentioned the content of your reminder, you can mark it as completed so that it is removed from the list of reminders. You won’t see it again. Delay the reminder You can also delay the reminder. Make your choice from the options which will include putting it off for an hour or reminding you tomorrow. Knowledge base…

With previous versions of iOS, you could take photos of documents or scans, which are really just special photos, and attach them to emails. In iOS 13 this process is streamlined by enabling you to scan documents from within an email you are writing. It is now much simpler than it used to be to insert scans into messages. It is possible to create scans of multi-page documents by scanning them one after the other. iOS automatically turns them into a PDF file and attaches that to the message for you. This is another time-saving feature that reduces the effort required to scan and email documents. Assuming you are running iOS 13 on a recent iPhone, here’s how to scan. Step-by-step  Email scanned documents in Mail 1 Create an email…

Back or clear As the app uses AR, information is recorded and layered onto your iPhone screen. You can remove this by either tapping the arrow in the top-left corner to undo or ‘Clear’ to erase everything. Conversations Whatever your Measure app is set to as default (metric or imperial), you can convert your measurements into the alternate format by tapping these arrows. Quick pic Tapping the shutter button will take an instant snapshot of whatever is on your screen. This is useful if you are taking multiple measurements but want to unclutter the interface. Adding points When manually measuring objects, you can add start and end points by tapping this button. You will need a steady hand to get accurate measurements, mind… Knowledge base Switching units If your measurements…

Mobile data switch Streaming TV shows and movies uses a lot of internet data. Make sure you don’t accidentally use mobile data if your allowance is small by turning this switch off in Settings>TV>iTunes Videos. Set the quality Go to Settings>TV>iTunes Videos and tap ‘Wi-Fi’ to select the streaming quality. Select the best if your internet connection is fast enough or choose ‘Good’ with a slow internet connection. Download quality Apple TV+ shows and movies can be downloaded for viewing offline or to get better quality. Take advantage of your iPhone or iPad screen with high dynamic range videos. Turn this on. Quality purchases The TV app is not just for Apple TV+ – there is a whole store full of movies and TV shows to buy or rent. Tap…

To keep track of the time without constantly looking at your Apple Watch face, you can now ask the wearable to tap your wrist and play a chime at regular intervals. In many ways, it’s a throwback to those old digital watches which would beep on the hour but, in this case, you can play a chime more frequently. Maybe you’d like to know when each hour goes by at work or school so that you know you’re a step closer to going home or perhaps you need a more regular prompting when multitasking. Whatever the case, this feature – primarily designed for people with visual impairments – will let you know. Here we are going to show you how to activate the feature and the options that are available…

How do I purchase digital music on my Mac in Catalina as there is no iTunes app to buy from? Wendy Allison 1 Open preferences Open the Music app in macOS Catalina and then go to Music>Preferences. When the settings page is displayed, click on the ‘General’ tab at the top of the window. 2 Tick iTunes Under the ‘Show’ section you will see an ‘iTunes Store’ option, make sure that this is ticked and then click on the ‘OK’ button to save the changes and close the preferences screen. 3 Visit the store A new iTunes Store option will now appear in the left column. Click on this to explore the entire iTunes Music Store just like you used to do before Catalina came along. I heard that it…

I keep losing my Apple TV remote. Is it true that I can use my iPhone to control my TV? Yes, just download the Apple TV Remote app from the App Store and then you can link it to your Apple TV. For easy access, go to Settings>Control Centre and then click on ‘Customise Controls’. Scroll down through the available controls and then tap on the green ‘+’ icon next to ‘Apple TV Remote’. This will add the control to your Control Centre, meaning you can swipe it at any time to access it. How do I mute unknown callers on my iPhone? Those nuisance PPI calls are driving my mad! This feature is new to iOS 13 so make sure that your iPhone has been updated to the latest…

Key features 2.4GHz Wi-Fi • True Detect • 1080p quality • Wide 110° viewing angle Learn more swann.com Available from amazon.co.uk IF BUMPING UP YOUR HOME security is high on your priority list for 2020 then Swann’s latest indoor camera is a good place to start. It is easy to install and connect to your home Wi-Fi network and its ‘True Detect’ capabilities can pick up heat, motion and person sensing, honing in on any alien activity within your home. One vision The camera records in 1080p full HD and features a 110 degree wide angle lens. The camera can also be pivoted into any position in the mounting stand, allowing you to place it or wall mount it in the optimum viewing position. Nocturnal activity can be captured with…

Price £17.99/$18.99 Requirements macOS 10.10 or later • 64-bit processor • 5.3MB Learn more publicspace.net Available from Mac App Store IDEAL FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS with hundreds of images to process, this app allows you to manipulate the timestamps of photo files at will by setting them to specific times or batch adjusting them. This is handy for correcting the timestamps of images taken with a digital camera with an incorrectly set clock or to compensate for timezone changes. The app also allows you to sync the file creation and modification dates with the shooting dates of JPEG EXIF as well as a wide variety of RAW formats so that the files sort properly in Finder. If you like, you can even strip out the GPS and IPTC Location data or add…