Innehållsförteckning för October 2019 från MacFormat

This time of year is a really exciting one for us Apple watchers – the arrival of new hardware and the latest versions of macOS, iOS, tvOS and watchOS feel tantalisingly close. Although if you’ve tried the public betas of those operating systems you’ll have a good idea of what to expect come the official launch. One good way to use this waiting time productively is to get your devices and data organised before the Big Upgrade lands – and we’ll show you exactly how to do that in this month’s lead feature (p20). So if you’ve always wanted to organise your iTunes library, clear out duplicate snaps from Photos and ensure everything is securely backed up with Time Machine, now is your chance to do so. While one kind…

WE ASKED… Which macOS Catalina feature most excites you? Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat Apple buys Intel’s phone modem business Back in April, Apple and mobile connectivity chipmaker Qualcomm settled their two-year lawsuit and signed a six-year licensing agreement. Apple’s latest iPhones — the XS, XS Max and XR — use Intel 4G chips instead of Qualcomm, but Apple was Intel’s only modem chip customer and, following the settlement, Intel announced it was abandoning 5G smartphone tech development. Now, though, Apple has acquired most of Intel’s smartphone modem patents and key staff in a billion-dollar deal. Observers say Apple is planning for the long term and looking to develop its own technologies, differentiating its products from others and reducing its reliance on third parties for…

Keeping old files won’t slow down your Mac; it just ignores them. But you’ll have problems if your drive gets close to full. Automatic defragmentation will start to struggle, macOS may not have room to swap data while multitasking and apps that use ‘scratch disk’ space will run out. You’ll need a few extra gigabytes to download and install Catalina, so it’s a good time to make room. Use a Finder search (see ‘Find and delete large files’, below) to isolate the biggest files you no longer need. This doesn’t work for folders, because their size isn’t automatically calculated, and forcing the Finder to do so will take ages. Large folders of small files would typically be temporary files belonging to an app. For example, video-editing apps save render files…

Any image files that you have lying around in folders can be imported into Photos and added to its library, as discussed opposite. But what if you have more than one Photos Library? That’s likely when different members of the family have their own Macs. If you use iCloud Family Sharing, your shared Family album can host a common set of pics, but that doesn’t quite address the need to combine all your memories physically in one safe place. The good news is that it’s possible to add photos from one Photos Library to another. The bad news is the way it works isn’t totally seamless – there will still be some work on your part. Apple doesn’t let you merge libraries as such. Instead, you export all your photos…

Although we’re looking forward to the new features in macOS Catalina, you’ll hardly be left in the Dark Ages if you need to stick with Mojave or High Sierra. Some of the innovations can be approximated using other apps and services. If you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch that can be upgraded to iOS 13 (see page 32), you can get access to cross-platform features from there. For example, iCloud Drive gains the very useful ability to share a folder with a private link. You won’t be able to do this from your Mac without Catalina, but you‘ll see the same folders in iOS’ Files app, and when you share them from there, recipients will see files added to those folders on your Mac. The Mail app in…

and get this fantastic 3-way Eclipse USB charger from Native Union, worth £69.99 Other benefits of subscribing to the UK’s best-selling Apple magazine… Our print subscription delivers 13 print issues of MacFormat a year to your door, saving up to 20% on the cover price Get our print and digital bundle and save up to 50% on the normal price The 12-month print and digital bundle costs just £5 more than print alone, and enables you to read on your iPhone and iPad Choose your package! It’s easy to subscribe… SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE! www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/mac/eclipse19/ Or call: 0344 848 2852 and quote ‘eclipse19’ *Terms and conditions: This offer is only available for new UK subscribers. Gift is subject to availability. Product pricing stated is RRP at original print date. Please…

Often, searches can bring up everything from bookmarks, to Safari history and iTunes content. If that’s not what you need, go to System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results to narrow down your search. Here you can select the categories that Siri and Spotlight search upon. Turn off unwanted categories. You can also restrict where Spotlight searches using the Privacy tab. Click the + icon, and select the folder/s you don’t want Spotlight to include. Searching networked drives is turned off by default, but can be enabled if required.…

Light sources produce cold blue or warm orange colour casts due to differences in colour temperature. The colour temperature of light is measured in degrees Kelvin (K). For example, average daylight has a colour temperature of 5,600K. This can produce a cold blue cast. Tungsten light has a colour temperature of 3,200K which can add an orange hue to a clip. Your camera’s Auto White Balance (AWB) mode attempts to cool down or warm up a clip’s colours until whites look a neutral white. This banishes colour casts from the entire clip.…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use Numbers’ formatting controls to get sheets looking just the way you want YOU’LL NEED iOS 12 and Numbers The way Numbers thinks about a spreadsheet is a bit different from the likes of Excel, and makes structuring it more like looking at page of paper. A blank document in Excel is an endless grid of cells into which you can type numbers, formulae and text labels; if you add charts or graphics, they float over the top, like interlopers. In Numbers, cells only exist within tables. When you pick the Blank template, it starts you off with a table of an arbitrary size, titled ‘Table 1’. You can adapt that, or delete it and start from an empty page.…

Backup document stuck in Trash Q Somehow I’ve managed to put a document from one of my Time Machine backups into the Trash. It can’t be deleted there, and I can’t return it to its backup. How can I get rid of it? by STANLEY SALMONS A Originally, Time Machine enabled you to remove items from its backups using the Trash, but since this can cause havoc and damage those backups, they’re now protected by the same System Integrity Protection (SIP) that applies to macOS system files. That occasionally leads to this type of problem. More recent versions of macOS should offer a command to Put Back that item in the Finder’s contextual menu: select the document in the Trash and right-click to see if that’s available. If it isn’t,…

If you’re hankering after a 5G iPhone, you’re not alone, but it looks like you’ll have to wait a while longer – as long as September 2020 if the rumours circulating on the internet are true. That’s perhaps not surprising. It’s still very early days for 5G and Apple clearly wants to get it right before rushing in headfirst. There’s another reason: it also wants to own the components, the intellectual property and the expertise it needs to include 5G in future devices – hence its $1 billion acquisition in July of the ‘majority’ of Intel’s modem business. But the prospect of a 5G iPhone in 2020 isn’t the only reason to get excited. Next year’s models are also rumoured to feature OLED displays across the board, a much-improved camera…

Nothing makes a home feel smart like lighting. Automated and customisable illumination makes a massive difference to the comfort of your entire living space and can, to coin a TV cliche, really bring a room together. Lest you think this is just idle bluster to begin an article about smart lighting… Well… No, hang on, there’s actual science involved; a 2014 article published in the Journal of Building Engineering suggests that automating lighting – and specifically tying lighting, shade, and air conditioning systems together with shared data – “outperforms all other strategies in energy and visual comfort performance”. If you can do it, you should. Looking up is an obvious first step. There are smart options available for all kinds of ceiling fixtures – whether you’re running a bayonet fitting,…

IN PRINT ON iPAD & iPHONE ISSUE 342 SEPTEMBER 2019 > iCloud superguide > New – ultra-thin iPod touch > iOS 12: Hidden features revealed > Group test: writing apps rated ISSUE 341 AUGUST 2019 > New! iPadOS, macOS Catalina, iOS 13 > Plus: Mac Pro & MacBook Pro > Boost productivity: 43 Mighty Mac tips > Group test: HomePod alternatives ISSUE 340 JULY 2019 > Improve your home network > Buyer’s guide: pick the perfect iPad > How to stay safe online > Group test: email apps for iPhone To order back issues of the print magazine, go to bit.ly/macformat_back or phone +44 (0)844 848 2852 and we’ll post them out to you. Download back issues onto your iOS device at any time and keep them forever in your…

> From £2,799> FROM Apple, apple.com/uk> FEATURES 2.3GHz eightcore Intel Core i9 processor (2.4GHz tested), 16GB 2,133MHz memory (32GB tested), 512GB storage (4TB tested), AMD Radeon Pro 560X (Vega 20 tested) While the 13in Pro is the entry-level choice, the new 15in Pro takes things to their logical conclusion – only this latest model is armed with a ninth-generation Intel Core i9 with eight cores of processing power. The key specs are otherwise unchanged from the previous model. However, our review unit was also festooned with build-to-order options, including a faster 2.4GHz i9 processor (£180), 32GB of RAM (£360), AMD’s Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics card (£315) and a 4TB SSD (£1,260), bringing the total price up to an incredible £4,914. And, of course, this thing flies – it sailed…

> £899.99> FROM Bowers & Wilkins, bowerswilkins.com> FEATURES 240W, Spotify, AirPlay 2, aptX HD Bluetooth, Roon The Wedge snaps along, generating real momentum when the music demands it Back in the day, the B&W Zeppelin was an iconic wireless speaker. Skip forward and the company has recently developed a new range of wireless audio products called Formation, with (what it claims to be) class-leading multiroom ability If you think the Zeppelin’s shape was unusual, the Wedge changes things again. Bowers & Wilkins says the pronounced elliptical shape of the back panel (it travels through 120°) and the curve of the front allows it to position the speaker’s drivers in a way that gives a wide spread of sound. The pronounced geometric shape of the grille frame is visible through the…

£48.99 FROM Serif, affinity.serif.com NEEDS macOS 10.9 or later StudioLink lets you switch to Photo or Designer tools while working in Publisher ehold – a brand new desktop publishing app for the Mac! Serif’s Affinity series (Photo, Designer and Publisher) – developed from scratch for both Mac and PC, with Publisher expected to join the others on iPad too – was originally conceived with a page layout function at its heart, tying the whole creative process together neatly. That’s exactly what Publisher now does. If you buy all three apps (optional, but still over 50% cheaper than an annual subscription for InDesign alone), the StudioLink feature lets you switch to Photo or Designer tools while working in Publisher. To tweak a picture to better match other elements on a spread,…

£9.99 FROM Nyamnyam, nyamyam.games NEEDS macOS 10.12 or later The attractive graphics look like pages from a pop-up book Fans of Blackadder will enjoy the cod-Shakespearean antics of Astrologaster. Although the gentle humour and rather sedate pace seem better suited for casual gaming on an iPad, rather than a long gaming session in front of a Mac. Set in 1592 as the plague swept across London, Astrologaster casts you as Simon Forman, an astrologer and ‘physick’ who was actually alive at that time. Many of his patients were also real-life historical figures, and the game draws on Forman’s own notes to ensure historical accuracy. During the game, there are 14 patients who come to visit Forman and seek his advice, with each character being introduced by a comical medieval madrigal.…

welcome to MacFormat’s Store Guide, the place to go to find out about all the Apple kit that matters, whether you’re looking for your next iPhone or a powerful new desktop Mac. We’ve highlighted the model of each product that’s ideally suited to your needs, whether you’re a recent convert or a seasoned Apple user. So be sure to check our handy tables to see which Mac, iPad or iPhone is best for you. We’ve also handpicked the gold standard in audio, storage, monitors, and many other categories, helping you complement your Mac or iOS device with the best accessories. All of these third-party devices have been reviewed in the magazine. Mac mini From £799 It was a long wait, but Apple has finally updated the Mac mini. The company…

Discover the best features in your next iPhone and iPad upgrade PLUS: essential tips and tricks The best apps for… From note-taking to photo editing, we pick the right tools for the job PLUS: Sub 24-inch displays supertest ALSO INSIDE… Improve images with Photoshop Elements Browse safely and securely on public Wi-Fi Master Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in iOS … and more! Contents subject to change DON’T MISS IT – SUBSCRIBE TODAY! IN PRINT & ON YOUR iPAD Our print and digital bundle gets you the paper magazine as well as our iPad edition myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/macformat ON YOUR MAC Read digitally on your Mac: subscribe with Zinio at bit.ly/ziniomacf ISSUE 344 ON SALE 24 SEPT 2019…

Apple’s Notes is… fine. But it’s ultimately the digital equivalent of a sticky pad, with each note designed to be ephemeral and disposable. By contrast, Agenda is for people who live in notes, organising them into projects, and focusing on dates. You can use Agenda for everything from quick ideas to advanced planning, browsing your timeline before, during and after an event. The app already had integration with Calendar, but version 6 adds Reminders to the party. Now you can create reminders in Agenda itself, rather than venturing into Apple’s dated, clunky app. Whether this will remain such a draw after the Reminders refresh in macOS Catalina remains to be seen, but once you start using Agenda, you might find it hard to break away – not least when you…

Nothing puts a dampener on your tech like a flaky internet connection. You can make that a thing of the past thanks to this issue’s competition prize: three sets of Devolo’s fantastic Magic 2 WiFi powerline adapters. These plug in to your wall sockets and beam an internet signal through your home’s electrical wiring. The result is a fast, stable connection that you can join over Wi-Fi or Ethernet, without needing to trail wires all over the house. Setup is very straightforward, so you’ll have an improved connection in next to no time. There’s a passthrough plug on each unit as well, so there’s no need to sacrifice a wall socket. The Magic 2 WiFi modules work together as a mesh network, letting your internet signal reach even the furthest…

For the most part, expert reaction to Sign In with Apple has been positive. For example, Dana Simberkoff, chief risk, privacy and information security officer at AvePoint, told Engadget: “If it’s done right, not only [is it] a win for Apple but also a win for consumers,” while Ray Walsh, data privacy expert at ProPrivacy.com, said it was “a step in the right direction for consumers”. Meanwhile, Matthew Hudnall, an associate professor of management information systems at the University of Alabama, said: “Apple has complete control over the hardware and software verification processes. This certainly better positions Apple to implement a system that better ensures user privacy.” But many experts have expressed reservations, with Simberkoff pointing out that centralising your logins with Apple means “if Apple were to have a…

The death of iTunes has been somewhat exaggerated. Although there’ll no longer be an app of that name, the new Music app will manage and play your music in a similar way. Your TV shows and films will appear in the new TV app, podcasts in Podcasts and audiobooks in Books oks (which replaced iBooks in macOS Mojave). The iTunes Store – yes, it’s still called that – will be available in all of those apps. If you still make backups of your iOS devices on your Mac, or transfer media to them via the iTunes app, those functions will move to the Finder. When you upgrade to macOS Catalina, the existing content libraries on your Mac will be automatically updated and rearranged as necessary. It would make sense, however,…

Upgrading macOS is simple: download the new version from the Mac App Store and install it – like updating an app, but with a couple more automatic restarts. It won’t usually take more than an hour. For the first time, macOS Catalina will create a separate partition for itself as a safeguard against accidental changes. But all your apps and files will still be where you expect, and everything should work the same as before. Well, almost everything, as we discuss below and opposite. You could erase your startup drive and install the new macOS from scratch. There’s a popular myth that this will somehow reinvigorate your system, but these days if you use your Mac in fairly normal ways, it’ll keep itself running fairly efficiently, as long as your…

On your Mac, unlike iOS devices, you can run software that hasn’t been vetted by Apple. But that doesn’t mean macOS won’t try to protect you from yourself, and Catalina gets noticeably tougher. You’ll already have experienced the way Gatekeeper stops you running an app that isn’t from the Mac App Store until you confirm. In System Preferences > Security & Privacy, you can still opt either to allow only apps from the App Store or those from ‘identified developers’ too. But Gatekeeper will now scan apps for malware, and it’ll repeat this, as well as its check on the developer’s digital signature, from time to time. So you might experience more delays and occasional rejections. There’s one category of apps that, for the first time, you can’t run at…

The QuickTime Player app gains several features in Catalina, one being the ability to pop out the video you’re playing in a smaller window that floats over other apps. This actually uses functionality introduced in macOS High Sierra, so you’ve probably already got it, and you can use it in Safari. Just drag any MOV file into a Safari window to play it. Then right-click the video and choose Enter Picture in Picture to pop it out in a box. This also works when you’re watching YouTube in Safari, but you’ll need to right-click twice to get the option.…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to search for files quickly and easily YOU’LL NEED OS X 10.11 or later (some steps macOS Mojave-specific), Alfred 4 Alfred, a search-based substitute for much of the functions of Finder, Spotlight and more, triggers complex series of actions using just a few quick keystrokes. It’s ideal if you primarily work on the keyboard, although still works well when driven by mouse or trackpad. Its free version opens up sufficient of its key features to help you decide whether it fits with the way that you work. If you do find that it works for you, you may want to buy the Powerpack (£23) to gain access to many more features. When you’ve set it up in the main menu bar…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to access a Mac from another Mac or mobile device YOU’LL NEED Your Mac, another mac or iOS device, TeamViewer You can connect to your Mac from virtually any device As mentioned in last month’s VNC tutorial, although macOS does have built-in screen sharing and Remote Management tools, they are only designed to work between Macs. Screen sharing can be a lifesaver if you need to connect and perform a bit of family tech support. So it’s a nuisance if you’re away from home and only have an iPhone or iPad to hand. Fortunately, TeamViewer is the answer to your screen-sharing prayers. Its main advantage is that it’s available for a number of new platforms including Android, iOS and Windows. Once…

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use a range of smart tools to help fix photos fast YOU’LL NEED Pixelmator Photo To help us win the battle for picture perfection, Pixelmator Photo boasts a collection of intelligent machine learning (ML) photo-fixing tools. These tools can help us quickly produce true colours, balanced exposures and better compositions. They may not produce the exact look that we desire but they can act as a springboard to creating a better looking shot. For example, it can be a challenge to capture children or pets in the best position within the frame. Pixelmator Photo’s intelligent ML cropping tool helps you experiment with more aesthetically pleasing compositions. You can then fine-tune the results manually with a handy Rule of Thirds grid.…

IT WILL TAKE Five minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to find and share cool things in Maps YOU’LL NEED iOS 11 or later When you’re looking for a place to go, there’s no substitute for local knowledge. And that’s something Apple’s Maps app is absolutely packed with. Whether you’re looking for a big night out, a nice place to stay or the best fried chicken in town, Apple Maps knows where it is. As we’ll discover in this tutorial, it couldn’t be easier to get Maps to share its knowledge. All you need to do is tap on the search bar and you’ll see big bright icons detailing the available categories, such as food and drink, shopping, fun and health. Apple calls the feature Nearby, and it uses your location…

You have heard about 5G. You can’t have missed it. But beyond the marketing hype, and outside of its broad position as a next-generation mobile phone technology, it’s not entirely clear what 5G actually is from the outside. Realistically, it’s not entirely clear on the inside, either. ‘5G’ is something of a blanket term, one that has so far covered a whole bunch of disparate technologies and frequencies, and a term that could mean radically different things depending on who’s using and for what purpose. could even be a lie, if the actions of US network AT&T are anything to go by: the company has branded its experimental 4G LTE services as ‘5G E’ – despite them very definitely not being 5G services. What we do know is this: 5G,…

5G’s rollout is moving fast. The four major UK networks will be on board by the end of 2019, with a number of virtual network operators launching services in early 2020 – but when are we likely to see full coverage? Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf, speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference, reckons it won’t be long. “If you don’t have a good 5G deployment strategy, you’re going to be left behind,” he said. “Next year, 5G will be more ubiquitous. It’ll be difficult to not buy a 5G phone next year.” We can expect a big frequency expansion to come around 2022, when base 5G networks are widespread. But what about Apple? Qualcomm and Samsung are in the frame to supply Apple with 5G chipsets next year, but thanks…

> From £1,099> FROM Apple, apple.com/uk > FEATURES 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB 2,133MHz memory, 128GB storage (256GB tested), Intel UHD Graphics 617 Aside from the price drop, the 2019 Air now has a True Tone display The MacBook Air is still one of the most popular models in Apple’s laptop line-up – partly because it’s always been the cheapest way to get a portable Mac, but also because its compact size and light weight (1.25kg) make it so easy to carry around. It’s long been a favourite with students, then, with this 2019 entry-level model being £100 cheaper than last year’s. Of course, 2018 finally saw Apple give the Air a much-needed makeover after years of neglect – in came with eighth-generation, dual-core Intel Core i5 processors,…

£319.99 FROM Canon, canon.co.uk FEATURES Refillable ink tanks, two-sided prints, AirPrint The refillable ink tank makes inkjet printing far more economical The growing trend for printers with refillable ink tanks is hardly surprising when you consider the savings that can be made over a cartridge-based system, as well as the reduced environmental impact. At £320, the Canon Pixma G6050 looks expensive, until you take into account the low running costs due to internal ink tanks that can easily be refilled using low-cost, recyclable bottles of ink, six of which (three black and three colour) come in the box. The printer integrates four large ink tanks into a surprisingly compact design. There’s room inside for a 250-sheet main paper tray, and you can load another 100 sheets in the rear tray.…

£9.99 FROM Holdr, holdrapp.com NEEDS macOS 10.12 or later Holdr attempts to combine both screenshot and Clipboard managers. When you take a screenshot or copy anything to the Clipboard, it’s added to Holdr’s library. Things copied to the Clipboard are also added to Holdr’s clipboard section. There’s an option to ignore passwords, although this relies on Holdr detecting the password. You can also specify an upper limit on the number of Clipboard items held, and drag a file to the Drops section to temporarily store it. The screenshot manager isn’t really a manager; you can’t edit screenshots in it. And while you can share them, you have to preview them with Quick Look. The same applies to the Clipboard contents and files. Indeed, Finder’s support for tabs renders a ‘holding…

£14.99 FROM Filmic, filmicpro.com NEEDS iOS 11.1 or later (certain features restricted to newer devices) There are presets for dialling in a bunch of settings with a single tap Filmic Pro has won a number of awards for harnessing the power of Apple’s iOS camera hardware. Indeed, genuine feature films have been shot with this app. The redesign introduces three shooting modes. The manual ARC sliders provide quick and easy control over focus, ISO, and shutter speed. These slide in on the left and right of the screen, and are simple to operate with your thumbs. A second mode provides on-screen selectors for focus and exposure control. Simply tap on an area to focus on it, or adjust exposure based on its brightness. The pro Hybrid mode lets you combine…

MONITOR Philips 328P6AUBREB £400 philips.co.uk Getting a colour-accurate display used to cost a pretty penny, but this monitor is both impressive and affordable. It hits 99% of the Adobe RGB gamut – great for colour-critical work – and supports 10-bit colour. Throw in a host of ports (including USB-C), an IPS display and a great price, and you have a seriously good screen. DESKTOP STORAGE Drobo 5D3 £749 drobo.co.uk With two blazing fast Thunderbolt 3 ports and a 5Gbps USB-C port to boot, the Drobo 5D3 can provide you with rapid file transfers to and from your Mac. You can load it up with up to five HDDs or SSDs of differing capacities, giving you plenty of flexibility for storage options. It’s pricey, but a worthy investment. PRINTER Brother MFC-J5330DW…

When the ‘1984’ TV commercial aired during the Super Bowl in January 1984, it made Apple a household name. The company founded six years earlier by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak was about to launch one of the most influential computers ever. Yet Wozniak, after a plane crash in 1981, had already withdrawn from his role, and by September 1985 Jobs would be gone too, ousted by John Sculley, the Pepsi marketing man that Jobs had actually brought in to help Apple “change the world.” At least, that’s how the story is usually told. Disagreeing both on sales strategy and management style – Sculley wanted to establish order; Jobs preferred to work random hours and shout at people – they ended up vying for the loyalties of the board, a…

Apple is demonstrating the creative potential of its augmented reality tech by offering an AR art experience at Apple Stores and in the streets of six cities. Chicago artist Nick Cave has created an immersive AR installation, Amass, that can be experienced in every Apple Store. Visitors can also try Apple’s AR tools at a free in-store session on the basics of creating AR using Swift Playgrounds. Further showing what’s possible, Apple partnered with seven artists from New York’s New Museum, who created [AR]T Walks – not just installations but a visual layer on real cityscapes that can be experienced by taking a walk with an iPhone in London, Paris, New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong and Tokyo. And in the future, according to a recent patent application, the Maps…

Security researchers have identified a flaw in current versions of the Bluetooth protocol that could allow the tracking of iOS, macOS and Windows 10 devices. While Bluetooth is on, devices constantly advertise their presence to enable other devices to find them. In earlier versions of the protocol, this “advertising” included a device’s Media Access Control (MAC) address, which made it simple to locate or track a specific device. The new BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) version of the protocol is supposed to randomise this address from time to time, to prevent exactly this sort of tracking. The problem is that in iOS, macOS and Windows 10 “identifying tokens and the random address do not change in sync”, Boston University researchers found, enabling them to develop an “address-carryover algorithm” capable of tracking…

Apple has always been known for its pro-privacy stance. Back in 2010, Steve Jobs laid it out for anyone who wasn’t sure: “Privacy means people know what they’re signing up for, in plain English, and repeatedly.” But even by Apple’s own lofty standards, these days the company is really pushing the privacy envelope. What prompted this renewed focus on privacy? And what is the world’s biggest tech company doing to keep your data safe? The first of those questions is answered relatively easily: because Apple’s rivals keep screwing up. From the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal to Google hoovering up your conversations, the other big Silicon Valley tech firms seem hell-bent on handing Apple PR victories. And Apple is not one to turn down a free PR victory. However, this goes…

This year’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) was one of the most feature-packed for years, and much of the good news was for Mac users, with lots of improvements and additions – both visible and under the hood – coming to macOS Catalina. There’s a good chance that your Mac can benefit: apart from the old-school silver Mac Pro tower (2010-2012), which finally drops off the compatibility list, every Mac that could run macOS Mojave can be upgraded to Catalina when it appears in the autumn. As usual, it’s free. Apple’s teams work hard to make updating your Mac’s operating system as simple as possible. All you’ll need to do is find the new version on the Mac App Store, download it and click Install. You can expect the process…

An easy way to maintain a central photo collection is by importing every photo you take into macOS’ Photos app. In Photos > Preferences > General, tick ‘Copy yitems to the Photos library’, then add pics from a connected camera or SD card using File > Import (or just by dragging). Your Photos Library is stored by default in the Pictures folder for your macOS user account and included in your Time Machine backups (see page 22). To bring your iOS devices to the party, use iCloud Photo Library. Open Settings, tap your name at the top, tap iCloud and turn on Photos. All photos you take will now be added to your iCloud Photo Library, stored on Apple’s servers. On your Mac, tick Photos in System Preferences > iCloud,…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to simplify search on MacOS YOU’LL NEED macOS 10.14 or later (most tips work in earlier versions) Don’t remember where you saved that important file six months ago? Sometimes you may not even remember the name of a file. If you don’t use a filing or naming system, things can be tough. However, with the variety of tools built in to macOS, finding that elusive file can be less stressful. Siri and Spotlight are simple and straightforward to use, if you know what exactly you are looking for. Entering the file name, format, date (week, month or even the exact date) will bring up all the relevant results. However, the user interface can often be cluttered, and the results inaccurate. To…

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to remove colour casts and even out the exposure YOU’LL NEED iMovie Your iPhone or camcorder has to work hard to capture accurate colours. Different lighting sources can add colour casts to a clip, causing some scenes to look too cold or too warm. Your gadget will also try to capture a balanced exposure that displays details in the shadows, midtones and highlights. Most video cameras have an Auto Mode that attempts to produce accurate colours and well-exposed tones, but this mode can sometimes struggle when filming in low-lighting locations or under contrasting lighting conditions. Fortunately, iMovie has a suite of tone tweaking and colour-correcting tools. We’ll demonstrate how to use these tools to tackle common colour and tonal problems and…

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to get to grips with Soulver 3’s best new features YOU’LL NEED macOS 10.14 or later, Soulver 3 Soulver is like a playground for numbers; it’s a great option for playing with figures Traditional calculators lack context. Spreadsheets add context – but also complexity. Soulver has always been a halfway point between these extremes. It’s the digital equivalent of jotting down sums on the back of an envelope – a magical envelope that tots up the answers for you. Because of its natural language smarts, this means you can type something like ‘3 nights at £149’ and Souvler will extract the important bits, placing £447 in the totals column. Totals from answers can then be used as dynamic tokens in subsequent…

Pixelmator Photo’s machine learning tools help novice editors improve their colours, tones and compositions automatically, but the app also packs a punch when it comes to professional picture processing. The Curves panel enables you to lighten or darken specific regions by dragging points on a curve. You can target and tweak the colour balance of shadows, midtones and highlights for more creative looks. There are also powerful black and white conversion tools that enable you to lighten areas based on the shot’s original colours.…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN An iPhone, iPad with FaceTime. A recent iPhone or iPad with FaceID for Animoji and Memoji YOU’LL NEED iOS 11 or later FaceTime, Apple’s video messaging tool for macOS and iOS has been significantly beefed up in recent versions. You can now group call with up to 32 people, grab Live Photos of FaceTime calls, and use Animoji and Memoji during calls. If you haven’t used the Animoji and Memoji during a call, you really should try it. As well as being fun, the technology itself is something to behold. And if having an animated chicken’s head on your shoulders while you chat isn’t enough to make friends or family members collapse in fits of giggles, then we don’t know what will.…

Copied links are broken Q When I copy an Internet link containing accented characters from a PDF using Preview, why does it always break, but copies correctly when the document is opened in Acrobat Reader? by NICO VAN ROSSUM A This is a strange problem which results from an unfortunate coincidence of features in Unicode, PDF and macOS. In Unicode text encoding, most accented characters (and others in non-Roman scripts such as Korean) have two different codes which can produce them. For example, the Nordic letter Å can be assigned the ‘code point’ of an alphabetical character, or that for the symbol for a unit of length, the Ångström. The same character is thus represented by two different code points. Most PDF don’t store text in Unicode, but use old…

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has hit the headlines recently, partly because of US government sanctions and partly because of the alleged actions that led to those sanctions being levied. The company is accused of ‘phoning home’, with some of its devices sending mysterious data streams back to cloud servers operated by China’s Ministry of Public Security. This supposed surveillance has, quite understandably, caused something of a concern about the levels of security around Huawei’s hardware – as well as about the company’s heavy involvement in supplying vital components of the UK’s 5G infrastructure. The story is a long one. It involves an impasse over law – a 2017 Chinese intelligence ruling requires companies to share data with the country’s government if asked, while UK law would rather that wasn’t the…

My home office is glowing green. Don’t judge me, it helps me work. There’s a lamp on my desk doing an odd wobbly RGB pulse (OK, maybe that one’s a bit much). The landing lights glow subtly when I wander out there at night. There’s basically no reason for any of these effects to be happening, but the fact that I can pull them off is great. It’s not something I could have done with cheap bulbs and dumb wall switches. After a while with a home full of smart lighting, even my long-suffering family has come on board. My kids love to colour the living room various lurid shades while chuckling to themselves, my wife loves triggering a Home app automation to drop the house into the perfect TV-watching…

> From £1,299 FROM Apple, apple.com/uk> FEATURES 1.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB 2,133MHz memory (16GB tested), 128GB storage (1TB tested), Intel Iris Plus Graphics 645, 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports, Touch Bar and Touch ID Apple ‘retired’ both the 12in MacBook and the non-Touch Bar 13in MacBook Pro in July, while also updating the MacBook Air (see our review on page 82). It’s a welcome change. Not only does it simplify your choice over which entry-level MacBook to buy, the entry-level 13in Pro is now even better value. Out goes the previous model’s seventh-gen dual-core Intel i5, in comes an eighth-generation quad-core i5. Plus the 13in Pro gets Touch ID with the T2 Security Chip and a True Tone display. The built-in stereo speakers have been beefed up too.…

> £220 FROM Sony, sony.co.uk> FEATURES Bluetooth, NFC, digital noise-cancelling These superb little music makers miraculously conjure a wide, expansive soundstage Launched as part of Sony’s lauded 1000X family of noise-cancelling headphones – which includes the award-winning WH-1000XM3 – the expectation is the WF-1000XM3 True Wireless buds will offer superior noisesuppression and no small amount of style. They don’t disappoint on either count. Available in both regular black and a rather stylish champagne silver, these are hands down the best looking true wireless headphones out there. They also come in a smart, copper-lid case, which itself doubles as a battery pack, if you need a rescue recharge. Weighing just 8.5g each, with an excellent ergonomic design, they feel snug and comfortable in the ear. A wide selection of non-slip rubber…

$199 plus $9.99 shipping FROM Firewalla, firewalla.com FEATURES Firewall, device management, parental controls, VPN Firewalla is a compact and simple device that plugs into your router and protects your connected home from network and internet threats. A firewall detects and blocks external access to your devices, while local network monitoring spots new devices as they connect. It also blocks access to malicious links on all your devices and uses behaviour monitoring to alert you to suspicious apps. Parental controls, such as a one-tap way to disable all social media access for an hour, and forced safe searching keep your kids away from the worst of the web, while built-in ad-blocking speeds up browsing on all your devices. Enable Firewalla’s VPN server and you can connect to your home network from…

Pixelmator Photo Good editing options at a good price Despite their common genre, these are all very different apps. Lightroom has solid raw editing, and using it with Adobe CC is the most practical way to work seriously and regularly with photos on an iPad. It’s also usable free of charge without a Creative Cloud subscription, but premium feature omissions and limited file browsing make it unwieldy. It’s worth a try even so. Darkroom, however, struggles to offer anything extra for a tenner, although it’s nicely designed and a promising contender. Snapseed’s features are interesting, but a bit random, and it feels like a web app. To give pictures a polish… Pixelmator Photo has a well-judged set of core features If you want a complete pro image editor on your…

£38.99 FROM iterate, mountainduck.oi NEEDS OS X 10.11 or later Mountain Duck is an enhanced version of the open-source Cyberduck tool. It can mount FTP, WebDAV and selected cloud storage as virtual drives in Finder, allowing you to access and update them like regular folders. Supported cloud providers include Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Amazon S3. All the tools you need to set up and mount drives can be found via the menu bar, and a Finder extension adds options to the right-click menu. A new smart sync feature allows you to cache all or part of your online storage to balance the convenience of offline access against drive space considerations. Changes are uploaded in the background like regular cloud apps, and icon overlays provide a clear indication of a…

£28.99 (offers in-app purchases) FROM LumaTouch, luma-touch.com NEEDS iOS 11 or later There’s an impressive library of transitions and effects The first thing you notice about this video-editing app’s latest version is the streamlined and redesigned interface. It’s much more reminiscent of Final Cut Pro or Premiere. The iconography is well implemented, meaning tools are easy to identify and use, and it’s particularly good on the new iPad Pro. On the iPhone, the interface adapts to prioritise video preview. On both devices, landscape and portrait modes are supported, and you can configure the window layout to suit you. There’s no direct support for accessing your device’s camera from inside the app, but it can import from your Camera Roll, as well as a host of cloud services. Video, audio, graphic,…

Described as being like the ‘end of the earth’ by some, the Skeleton Coast in Nambia is home to dazzling white sand, 100m dunes, and strewn with animal bones and the wreckage of rusting ships. That sense of otherworldliness has been captured brilliantly by Doug Urquhart, who describes Namibia as “a country that’s beautiful beyond words”. We couldn’t agree more, although this shot also reminds us of the Dynamic Desktop wallpaper in macOS Mojave. Share your pics with us using the hashtag #MacFormat on Instagram. In each issue, we’ll pick our favourite to feature on this page. WHAT TO DO! 1 Open an Instagram account. 2 Follow @MacFormatUK (of course). 3 Take a picture of, or with, your Apple kit. 4 Share it with us on Instagram, using the hashtag…