Innehållsförteckning för No. 219 från iCreate

It’s fascinating to watch a new Mac operating system slowly grow and evolve over a series of beta releases, having a front-row seat to every tweak and refinement along the way. And the changes came thick and fast over Big Sur’s gestation period, with a few final flourishes (the new-look Pages, Numbers and Keynote icons) coming just as the official release finally dropped on November 12. It feels like the monumental update that the shift from Mac OS X to macOS 11 warranted and starting on page 14, we’ve got the full guide to mastering the key new features. Obviously we’re all passionate about our Apple devices, but have you thought about channelling that enthusiasm into a podcast? Starting on page 46 we’ve got the complete guide to recording, editing…

BACK IN JUNE, APPLE PROMISED THE WORLD THAT THE FIRST MAC WITH A NEW APPLE SILICON PROCESSOR WOULD ARRIVE BEFORE THE END OF THE YEAR. Now Apple has made good on that promise as the first Macs to feature Apple’s new M1 processors have just been announced, and will be on sale before the end of December. The new M1 processors are at the heart of Apple’s next generation of Macs. While Apple is no stranger to producing its own chips, like the latest A14 Bionic, they are found only in its range of touchscreen devices like iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. The M1 processor is the first of a new family of chips designed specifically for the Mac. M1 is optimised for low-power systems where high performance, but small…

Developer Apple, Inc Time needed Difficulty Download available Most professional filmmakers shoot their subjects in a horizontal 16:9 format. However you may need to re-frame your edited widescreen projects to suit various social media platforms. For example in a Twitter feed a square-shaped video clip fills more screen space (and gets more attention) than a narrower widescreen clip. Some social media clips may display vertically to suit the way many people prefer to hold their device. Cropping an edited horizontal project to a square or vertical shape can cause important details at the edge of the frame to become hidden. Fortunately the new Smart Conform feature will analyse every clip in a project’s timeline and re-position them individually to include key details such as a subject’s face. Use the Smart…

Developer Fingerlab Difficulty Time needed Recently named by Apple as a favourite App Store pick, Fingerlab’s Flynth has been trending on Mac and iOS platforms and has become known for its ease of use. Delve deeper however and the app also packs a serious musical punch, boasting six-voice polyphony, three oscillators and 80 factory presets. The real advantage however is its finger-friendly interface and myriad controls for shaping the sumptuous sounds it can produce. A universal purchase that unlocks across macOS and iOS, Flynth encourages exploration and a joy in finding very useful synth sounds. Here we’ll outline Flynth’s main functionality including using presets and effects, before identifying how more advanced controls can be crucial to achieving more experimental tones. Synth spotlights Explaining Flynth’s basics ■ Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO)…

Developer eVenture Difficulty Time needed VPNs have seen explosive growth this year, partly fuelled by more people working from home. A VPN performs several tasks and one is to add an extra layer of privacy and security to your Mac when accessing the internet. It prevents your ISP from tracking your activities when used at home, and it prevents public Wi-Fi from leaking personal information when out and about. A VPN doesn’t hide everything, but it certainly helps block those that want to track you. There are many paid VPNs with unlimited data to choose from, but if you are only an occasional user, Hide.me VPN is one of the best free ones because of the generous 10GB monthly data allowance. The speed is fine and there are no logs…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Apple has announced a change in how third- party apps can access your data. Rather than let them blithely use in-app advertising to track users via Apple’s IDFA (or Identifier for Advertisers), you have the final say. Indeed, app developers will have to ask for your consent before they track you across apps and websites – a move that’s set to shake up current advertising models. Since this has proven controversial, Apple isn’t going to insist developers incorporate the policy until early 2021. But it has already introduced a way of preventing apps from seeking such permission. Of course, app developers aren’t alone in seeking to track you. Websites often use third-party content providers to track you too, so we’ll also help you to…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Password management has been improved in iOS 14 and your iPhone can now tell you if a password is too easily guessed, if one has been used on two or more sites or services, if a password has been leaked in a security breach, and more. Passwords in the iOS Settings app is now more powerful than ever and if you have not yet discovered the new features, it is time to take a look. Here we show how to check for potential password problems and how to fix them. Passwords settings make this simpler than ever and although you can turn off the password checking feature, we cannot think of a good reason to do so. Enable checks and take note of the…

Developer Joel Bernstein Difficulty Time needed The popularity of widgets in iOS 14 has likely surprised even Apple in how quickly people have rushed to create their own Home Screens. It has extended to the point of creating new icons for apps, but, as of this time, widgets are fully supported by Apple and so the APIs are in place to ensure that third parties can create them while maintaining speed and reliability. WID:GET takes the idea much further and if you are prepared to spend some time using images to build the shortcuts you need you do have the opportunity of not only cramming more into your Home Screen, but to bring some colour and personality to the interface as well. The real beauty of this app is that…

Developer Apple, Inc Difficulty Time needed The recent update to iPad OS 14 brought with it some interesting new additions to Pages (which sits at version 10.2 at the time of writing). While there were no massive changes, what we got were interesting enough additions to the image browser and the templates, making it easier to create a picture-rich report that looks professional, and editable shapes for adding a graphic touch to documents. The other addition was Scribble, which allows Apple Pencil owners with compatible iPads to write naturally into applications and have their handwriting converted to text – as long as they’re writing in English or Chinese. These join advancements such as Reading View, and the embedding of video content into documents that arrived in version 10.1, in making…

Developer Apple, Inc Difficulty Time needed Watching or using content on your television can be distracting for other people in the room and that’s why a pair of wireless headphones can prove invaluable for keeping the peace. But what if someone else in the room wants to enjoy your content too? Well, with an Apple TV 4K and tvOS 14 installed, you can now connect two pairs of headphones at the same time and share the audio between them. It works on the same premise as audio sharing on iOS and iPadOS, allowing users of connected (and compatible) pairs to drop in and out of the audio. Volume can be adjusted on each set of headphones, which is certainly a step up from the days of using output jack splitters.…

The Calm Christmas Podcast A cosy listen at this time of year, this podcast serves up tips for a stress-free holiday and explores the origins of some of our most-loved traditions. Perfect for unwinding after a bad year. Music POWER UP AC/DC £8.99/$8.99 In these uncertain times it is good to know that the titans of rock are on hand with an against-the-odds new album to headbang along to. Mindless loudness at its very finest. Books The Box of Delights John Masefield £3.99/$3.99 If you want to treat yourself to a Christmas classic then this has it all – time travelling, peril aplenty and a wicked man who hangs out with large rats.…

David Crookes Our iOS expert shows you how to stop apps and web pages from tracking you, completely hide your photos and stream your favourite Xbox games to your iPhone. Shaun McGill This month, our tech specialist guides you through the process of recording, editing and publishing your own podcast with all of the gear, apps, and insight you need. George Cairns Our creative genius will show you how to remove unwanted objects from your photos with Big Sur’s new retouch tool and have fun with filters in your iMovie projects.…

Developer Apple, Inc Difficulty Time needed Download available We can’t control every object in the frame when we snap a shot. Lamp posts can poke up from behind the subject’s head or unwanted people may ‘photo bomb’ the shot. Thanks to the Photos app’s Retouch tool we can relocate pixels from one part of the shot and place them over unwanted objects. In the past this tool only worked well with small objects such as spots and blemishes. Larger subjects were often replaced by a smudgy blocky blur. The updated Big Sur release of Photos uses machine learning (or AI) to help the Retouch tool understand more about the scene. It is now more successful at choosing appropriate pixels to replace unwanted objects, creating a more effective retouched image. Retouch…

Developer Apple, Inc Difficulty Time needed For the uninitiated, Music Memos is an iOS Apple app that offers an essential partner for GarageBand or Logic Pro X. Intended as an equivalent to Voice Memos, it allows guitarists, pianists and songwriters to record quick demo compositions. What’s really special is how the app adds basslines and drum parts of varying complexity based on your performance tempo. As long as you can perform in decent time, this provides an amazing template project that is exportable for further work. It forms an invaluable starting point and here we show that with a look at how the two interplay. We examine the Music Memos part in iOS by recording an idea with backing tracks before exporting, then look at the result in GarageBand. Demo…

Developer Algoriddim Difficulty Time needed Algoriddim’s Neural Mix Pro is a clever piece of kit. Boasting AI-powered features, Neural is both a music player and editor that enables on-the-fly separation of musical parts. Skilled record spinners, producers or total novices can instantly isolate and extract the vocals, drums and harmonic lines of any song. It really only takes single clicks to ‘solo’ each part or remix them in new creative ways for export or during live performance. With playback controlled by an interactive waveform, Neural also makes looping, pitchshifting and tempo tweaks intuitive. Here we look first at the core extraction tools, before detailing looping and pointing out the various export options. Any commercial song choices are purely illustrative! Step-by-step How to solo song sections 1 Single screen Upon launch,…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed A picture is worth a thousand words it’s said, so how many is a video worth? A video clip can make a document, story or eBook more interesting, it can explain topics, provide additional visual and audio information, it can even make them more fun. Are you using videos in your Pages documents? This feature is obviously not for documents you print, but it is perfect when they are shared online. Friends, relatives, work colleagues, customers and clients can open a shared or emailed Pages document to read the text, see the pictures and watch the videos. It can make it an exciting multimedia experience. Videos from YouTube and Vimeo can be inserted into documents and because it is only a link, it does…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Sometimes you may have images that you just don’t want anyone else to see – private moments or sensitive data that you’ve photographed for reference. Apple has long understood this which is why it introduced a facility to hide such images, placing them in a folder away from the rest of your albums. Trouble is, it then went and called this ‘Hidden Album’ which may as well have been ringed with flashing lights and pointed to with arrows. One tap of it and the hidden images were there to see. Good news, then, that the hidden album can now be hidden too. Here we show how you can remove images from the main feed and ensure people won’t easily come across them if they’re…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed As well as being perfect for listening to music and asking Siri to dish out facts, the HomePod – and new HomePod mini – can now make use of a new Intercom feature. Also working across iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, AirPods and CarPlay, it allows you to send dictated voice messages between devices connected to your network. You can put a general callout to family members and have a message appear on every device or you can limit it to particular rooms or people. The feature is automatically included in iOS and iPadOS 14.2 and later. If you want to use it on the HomePod, you’ll need version 14.2 installed and, for the Watch, watchOS 7.1 From there, it’s simply a matter of using…

After a freakishly tough year that sees many of us approach Christmas with a reduced budget and the possibility of far fewer loved ones around our dinner tables then we’d like, we could all do with some festive cheer around about now, and thankfully the iOS App Store is a seasonal trove of delights. Through iOS it is possible to generate a hearty sprinkling of Christmas magic to enthrall and amuse the little ones and the apps we have picked out for you here are all free to download and enjoy. They include games, countdowns, Santa communication tools, a clever use of AR and even a bogus fingerprint scanner to keep unruly kids in check as the big day approaches. So why not grab a few now and enjoy the…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed One of the best new features of watchOS 7 is its support for Siri Shortcuts. They’re a perfect fit since they allow you to make light work of many a task and they simplify otherwise complicated processes by making them available to you with a simple tap. You’ll find lots of suggested Shortcuts and the ability to make your own in the dedicated app on your iPhone and it’s worth becoming acquainted with how they work so you can unleash their potential. By allowing them to be available on your Watch, however, you’ll expand their power and save even more time and effort. You’re sure to fall in love with them. You can even call upon your Shortcuts via a complication straight from the…

Price Arcade subscription Requirements iOS 13.0 or later • 2.3GB Learn more www.stateofplaygames.com Available from App Store IT’S GAMES LIKE THIS THAT MAKE APPLE ARCADE SO important in opening people’s eyes to things they wouldn’t normally play, unearthing some modern classics in the process. South of the Circle is such a game. Essentially a story-driven shtick that prods away at your hornet’s nest of emotions, South of the Circle revolves around Peter, a man stranded in Antarctica after a plane crash, who must save both himself and his badly- injured pilot. As Peter battles against the odds in the barren terrain, it is his memories of his past love that keep him going, but as his condition worsens, the boundaries between reality and make-believe start to get blurred. Verdict An…

Release date September 2017 ● System on chip: Apple A11 Bionic ● CPU: 2.39 GHz hexa-core 64-bit ● Memory: 3GB LPDDR4X RAM ● Storage: 64, 128 or 256GB● Display: 5.5-inch Retina HD, LED- backlit IPS LCD 1920x1080 px (401 ppi) ● Rear camera: 12 MP with six-element lens, quad-LED ‘True Tone’ flash, 4K video recording, telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom ● Front camera: 7 MP f/2.2 aperture with face detection Original price (64GB): £799/$799 Price now: £319/$350 We felt slightly sorry for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus when they were unveiled at Apple’s autumn event in 2017, because their thunder was swiftly stolen by the far sexier, more interesting iPhone X. But there was much to admire about the eighth incarnation of iPhone. Although it looked like the…

The Mac mini hasn’t been off sale since it introduced in 2005, but it hadn’t been updated for so long that many of us feared it might be discontinued. W that’s all changed as Apple has released a brand new version of the Mac mini 2020 featuring its new M1 processor. While the design hasn’t changed ve much on the outside, the insides are new. The new 2020 Mac mini feature 3x the CPU performance and 6x the graphics performance when compared to the 2018 model. On the back you ethernet, two USB C ports that support Thunderbolt and USB 4, a HDMI 2 p for attaching a monitor, 2x USB A ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. The Mac mini is still a ‘bring your own keyboard, monitor and…

Developer Apple, Inc Difficulty Time needed Download available You’ll find iMovie has all the tools you need to manually adjust (or grade) a clip’s colours and tones. This enables you to add more contrast (and therefore impact) to a clip with flat washed-out tones. You can also use iMovie’s grading tools to turn drab colours into richly saturated ones that flatter your footage. However, manually grading a project’s clips can take time as you need to drag a selection of sliders to experiment with different looks. Fortunately iMovie’s collection of 34 filters allows you to change colours and tones (and therefore the mood of a clip) in a click. We’ll show you how to grade a timeline’s clips manually and then experiment with a range of fast filter effects to…

Developer Apple, Inc Difficulty Time needed Multisampling is the process of creating playable instruments from multiple samples of single notes. This would traditionally involve playing notes on your chosen instrument at different velocity levels and set intervals, then editing the recordings, naming them properly, assigning them to keys at the right pitch and determining the range of keys each sample will be played across. Phew! Logic’s amazing Auto Sampler plugin, however, does all of this for you in moments – brilliant if you want to send a project to someone using a particular sound from a software synth they don’t have, or if you need to work on a different system that doesn’t have your favourite synth available. Step-by-step Create sampled instruments with Auto Sampler 1 Insert Auto Sampler We’re…

Developer haha Interactive Difficulty Time needed GoodTask has to compete in what is possibly the most competitive area of the Mac and iOS App Stores. With so many well known apps available, some of them with influential marketeers onboard, it is quite possible that you are unaware of what it can do. We will resolve that issue, however,and show you what is available, and truth be told it is a highly capable solution that can be almost anything you want it to be. If you want simplicity it can work in a similar way to Apple’s Reminders solution, if you want complexity it can be a highly effective project manager and you can also make it like every solution in-between. It’s a brilliant app already and is improving all the…

You can in theory create and publish a new podcast with just an iPhone. Using a selection of apps it is now possible to complete the end to end process in the palm of your hand, but to do so may result in a show that does not quite compete on a technical level with the ever growing competition. The content is, of course, of paramount importance – it needs to be interesting, as original as possible and sticky enough to keep listeners coming back through a subscription – but audio quality and flawless production also go a long way to making a successful podcast. In a format that is generally audio only, the way the audio is presented becomes more important than, for example, on YouTube. We will go…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Voice Memos is a great app on the iPhone and you can quickly record thoughts, ideas, things to do, sounds around you, and bits of information you may need later. You could use Notes, to write them, but sometimes you don’t want to be bothered fiddling with a keyboard. With Voice Memos, you just speak. iOS 14 brings new features to the app. There is a magic wand icon that enhances the audio by reducing reverberation and background noise. It is a simple one-tap button. Also new are folders for organising your voice notes. There are also smart folders, which are generated by the app. This is a welcome upgrade. Step-by-step Create, enhance and organise notes 1 Open Voice Memos The home screen of…

Developer Microsoft Corporation Difficulty Time needed While iOS and iPadOS have a huge library of games for you to enjoy, you may still want to play a console title. Now, thanks to Microsoft’s new app, you can stream any game developed for the Xbox One or later to an iPhone or iPad so long as your Xbox console is turned on and connected to either device. Just grab a compatible Bluetooth gamepad and get stuck in. But why must the console be on? Well, unlike on Android, you can’t make use of Microsoft’s cloud streaming service, xCloud, limiting you to streaming games installed on your console. It also means you can’t play one game on your iPhone/iPad and another on the console since the same title must be running on…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed With the latest update to Keynote (10.2), Apple added the ability to quickly and easily add geometric shapes to presentations. These, along with the new themes, templates, and the image browser added in 10.0, make it easier than ever to create a professional-looking presentation on your tablet. iPad owners also get an extra feature in Keynote that won’t be in the iPhone version – when using a mouse and keyboard, it’s now possible to duplicate an object by holding the option key while dragging. This is the way things work on macOS too, so anyone used to working that way can easily slip into Keynote on iPad. One other recent addition to Keynote is Scribble, allowing Apple Pencil owners with compatible iPads to use…

Developer Google LLC Difficulty Time needed YouTube Music has to work hard to compete against some fierce competition and especially on the Apple platforms. With Apple Music seamlessly working across every device from one account it is not the easiest platform to succeed on, but YouTube has some key advantages. For starters you can negate the adverts by subscribing, you can be assured of millions of tracks and now you can even use all of the main features on your Apple Watch when out and about. When the Apple Watch version was released even the Google-powered Wear OS platform was not supported, which highlights the ambition here and the company has done well to shrink down the key features to feel completely at home on an Apple Watch. In many…

Price £20/$20 Requirements N/A Learn more www.primephonic.com/ludwig/home Available from www.primephonic.com IF YOU WANT TO DISCOVER classical music but don’t know where to start then Ludwig is the perfect crash course to take you from naught to ‘classionado’ in just ten weeks. Launched by Primephonic, the world’s leading classical music streaming service, Ludwig is an online course that comprises of a weekly podcast that charts the history of classical music, bi-daily email lessons, hand-picked playlists and free access to the Primephonic app. It’s a great way to familiarise yourself with the composers, get to know some of their most famous works and learn about how they have helped to shape modern genres of music. It will also give you the confidence to delve into Primephonic and discover new/old music. Verdict A really…