Innehållsförteckning för July 2023 från MacFormat

Scan here to get the latest tech news in your inbox! Your Mac laptop or desktop, iPhone and iPad are incredibly complex and sophisticated devices that work amazingly well most of the time. Sometimes, though, things can go awry and for those times this month’s lead feature (p20) has your back. In it, you’ll discover 73 quick fixes that can get your devices up and running again, so if you’re suffering from startup issues, app crashes or something else, you’ll hopefully be able to find a solution over its 13 pages that will work for you. Whether you’re planning a break at home or abroad or just fancy taking some photos when you’re out and about, our iPhone Holiday Photo Superguide (p62) can help. In it, you’ll find some clever…

APP OF THE MONTH Camo Studio has long been well regarded for letting you use your iPhone as a Mac webcam. With version two, the app has massively expanded its scope, and can now be your complete webcam control hub. It works with any camera – not just iPhones – giving you a lot more flexibility than before. It’s bursting with options and settings, letting you fix exposure, brightness, hue, and more. And it even incorporates its own versions of Apple’s Portrait mode, Centre Stage and Studio Light. There are reams of presets and overlays to be used for almost any occasion, and everything is highly customisable and can be tweaked to your needs. That all means it goes far beyond what you get with Continuity Camera. Whether you use your…

1 Restart your iPhone If your iPhone isn’t responding and it’s running iOS 16, press and release Volume Up, then Volume Down then press and hold the side button to force a restart. Release the side button when the Apple logo appears. For older iPhones, see the help page at apple.co/3KTlr3t. 2 Update your apps If an individual app is misbehaving, you might be able to fix it by updating to a new version of that app. Open the App Store app, and in the top-right corner, tap the icon showing your photo or a silhouette. On the next screen, find and update the app in question (assuming there’s an update available) or tap Update All. 3 Fix an app that’s unresponsive If an individual app is playing up, open…

Reddit is the 10th most visited website in the world. Whether you’re looking for Logic Pro tips, air fryer advice or daft photos of dogs, there’s a subreddit about it. But that sheer sprawl can make the main website intimidating. That’s where Apollo comes in. It’s designed for iOS, iPadOS and macOS, and it’s here to make Reddit simpler. The little trophy icon at the top right enables you to sort comments by date, popularity or how controversial they are. In this tutorial, we’re going to use the free version of Apollo on iPad because that makes for the clearest screenshots, but it’s actually best suited to your iPhone where it doesn’t have quite so much white space; the developers admit that the iPad version is “a work in progress”.…

Take amazing holiday photos on iPhone – we show you how With summer holiday season fast approaching, we’ll all hopefully have a bit more leisure time to take some photos. Holiday destinations provide fantastic photo opportunities that should inspire you to swipe to your iPhone’s Camera app and capture pictures of your family and friends enjoying amazing architecture, beautiful beaches and exotic food. In this in-depth photography feature, we’ll show you how to set up and use your iPhone camera to make the most of both a little jaunt to somewhere local or a more far-flung destination, so that you can populate your WhatsApp groups (or social media feeds) with stunning vacation shots. We’ll also give you tips and techniques on making your holiday snaps look their best in relation…

If all you need is a budget board when you’re on the go, the GO may well scratch that itch The JLab GO Wireless Keyboard is a smart-looking budget offering that comes with a few handy extras. It can connect to three devices (two over Bluetooth and one using the bundled 2.4GHz dongle), while you can switch between macOS, Windows and Android keyboard layouts with a quick key combination. It’s powered by two AAA batteries, which come included. Typing on the JLab GO keyboard is decent for a £20 keyboard. It’s not in the same league as Apple’s Magic Keyboard, but it’s not a million miles away. Keys are not too firm, and the arrow keys are in an inverted T configuration, which makes them easy to find by touch.…

ON TEST… > Anker 737 Charger GaNPrime 120W > Chargeasap Zeus 270W GaN USB-C > Hyperjuice 140W PD 3.1 USB-C > Mophie Speedport 120 4-Port GaN > Satechi 200W USB-C 6-Port PD > Ugreen Nexode 200W USB-C Desktop Many people own at least a couple of batterypowered devices with fairly high power needs, typically a laptop and smartphone but also tablets, earbuds and battery packs. While wireless charging is improving, it still offers slower charging speeds than wired connections and isn’t available for power-hungry devices like laptops. And it’s increasingly common that we need to charge or top up several devices at once, so high-powered chargers are becoming essential as we seek to spend less time waiting. The use of Gallium Nitride (GaN) chips allows the creation of more compact…

> Free, with IAPs (Premium: £7.99/month, or £59.99/year, or £149.99 for three years) > FROM hq.getmatter.com > NEEDS iOS 15/iPadOS 15 or later Read-later apps are hardly thin on the ground. Instapaper, GoodLinks, Pocket and Safari’s in-built Reading List option are the current leaders, but Matter takes a new and different approach. Available as an app for iOS and iPadOS and an extension for Safari and other web browsers on the Mac, Matter uses Apple’s ubiquitous Share button to save an article. It then appears in the Matter app in your queue, from where you can read it. A saved article in Matter is generally a more comfortable read than on a web page; no tedious pop-ups, annoying adverts or intrusive links to other articles. Relevant photographs are usually retained,…

EXPECTED JUNE 2023 UPDATED JUNE 2022 FROM £999 Updated in June 2022, Apple’s thinnest, lightest laptop now comes with Apple’s new M2 chip. The M2 features a next-gen 8-core CPU (offering 18% more CPU performance), along with Apple’s next-generation GPU, which now has up to 10 cores (providing a 35% boost in GPU performance), and up to 50% more memory bandwidth. The base model comes with 8GB of memory as standard but this is configurable to 16 or 24GB. The redesigned Air is now thinner at 11.3mm and weighs just 1.24kg. Apple has also managed to reduce overall volume by 20%. Despite its slimline profile, it now also comes with a 13.6in Liquid Retina display. Boasting a resolution of 2560x1664, the display is bigger and 25% brighter than before and supports…

FROM £1,999 Launched in March 2022, the Mac Studio is the best expression of Apple’s silicon’s superpowers yet. Looking like an oversized Mac mini, its capacious aluminium body is still remarkably compact for a desktop Mac, measuring 197x197x95mm, but it’s what’s inside that really counts. The £1,999 entry-level model packs the same M1 Max chip as the MacBook Pro, with a 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU and 32GB of memory, but it’s the step ‐up models that are the most interesting. That’s because you can also buy a Mac Studio with M1 Ultra – apowerhouse piece of Apple silicon with a 20-core CPU, and up to 64 graphics cores, as well as up to 128GB of unified memory. Storage options also scale up to 8TB. With Mac Studio M1 Ultra prices…

Leica M11 Monochrom >£8,300 (body only) > From leica-camera.com > Admittedly, Leica’s monochrome range is niche, but if you want the best equipment for black-and-white photography, check out the series. The M11 Monochrom’s back-side illuminated (BSI) CMOS image sensor forgoes colour filters in pursuit of an unprecedented level of mono sensitivity and detail, while triple-resolution tech enables you to switch between 60, 36 and 18MP resolutions. Plus you can shoot in Raw (DNG) format as well as JPEG. The camera is unmistakenly Leica, although this model does not carry the familiar red badge. It’s light and easy to handle, yet built to the highest standards, with an all-metal body and top plate made of top-quality aluminium, a sapphire glass display and solid leather finish. If you like playing…

IT WILL TAKE 5-10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN A European foreign language via major pop songs YOU’LL NEED Lirica (Free, offers IAPs), iOS 11 or later Whether it’s from Eurovision or a holiday abroad, we’ve all had those moments when an international song has got stuck in our heads. Well, ever thought how that would help improve your foreign language skills? Well, fortunately, the development team behind the Lirica app has. Lirica aims to teach you French, German, Spanish (and English) using the power of song. Don’t worry though, you do not need to be particularly musical to benefit! Lirica is very straightforward to use. Simply pick the language you want to learn, and you are guided through every stage. To start, you listen to a song, read the lyrics…

Every new technology has its own assortment of jargon and technical terms that we all have to try to learn and understand. Computers have CPUs and GPUs, headphones have ‘decibels’ and ‘frequency response’, and Wi-Fi routers have truly mind-boggling jargon like ‘orthogonal frequency division multiple access’ – which is kind of the Wi-Fi equivalent of ‘everything, everywhere, all at once’. However, the term ‘IP’ is one that cuts right across different product categories and technologies, and can be applied to a wide range of different devices. In fact, those two letters – IP – actually have multiple meanings, ranging from Internet Protocol to the Intellectual Property involved in so many legal battles these days. However, the version of IP that we’re looking at here refers to Ingress Protection, and…

A great deal has changed in the 30 or so years since the creation of HTML and the World Wide Web brought the power of the internet into people’s lives. One thing that hasn’t changed is that websites are still the focus of most of our online activity. You can use an app on your phone or stream TV and movies directly your TV, but if you want to book a holiday, research potential destinations, or renew your passport, chances are you go to a website. And if you want to promote a new business, a band, or just share photos of your trip of lifetime with the world, there’s no better way to do it. Thankfully, building a website is much easier than it was even a decade ago.…

The Twelve South HiRise Pro for MacBook takes everything we love about its predecessor (the £69.99 HiRise) and adds some nifty additions to earn its ‘Pro’ moniker. These include a vegan leather pad on top of its metal base, which allows room for Apple’s MagSafe Charger (not included); grippier rubberised material on its two tilted MacBook-holding arms; and ‘stops’ on the end of those arms that will help your MacBook feel more secure. The HiRise Pro retains all the awesome features of the original, including a sprung central pillar that enables you to raise or lower your Mac between 90 and 135mm. That not only makes video calls made using the FaceTime camera feel more natural, but is great for multi-monitor setups too, since your MacBook’s display can sit on…

Outlook is highly customisable and provides a ton of control without overwhelming > Free (offers IAPs) > FROM outlook.live.com > NEEDS macOS 11 or later Microsoft recently tried to carve inroads into Apple’s world by making its Outlook for Mac email client free instead of requiring a Microsoft 365 subscription. But is it worth using? When you first open Outlook, you’ll notice it’s a pleasant app to look at. Your inbox is neatly organised, there are plenty of customisation options, and Microsoft has included a few helpful extras for managing your emails (and your time). On the left is a sidebar with your accounts and subfolders. To the right of that is your inbox, with Focused and Other tabs at the top. The former shows your most important messages, while…

EXPECTED JAN 2024 UPDATED JAN 2023 From £649 Apple’s most affordable desktop may not come with a mouse, a trackpad or keyboard, but it’s also great value starting at even less than the last model at £649. Despite the reduction in price, the Mac mini now boasts Apple’s M2 chip, boasting an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. The 8GB of memory can now be boosted up to 24GB, while SSD storage options range from 256GB all the way up to 2TB. There is now also an M2 Pro version with a 10-core CPU/16-core GPU (configurable to 12-core CPU/19- core GPU), with 16 to 32GB memory and 512GB to 8TB SSD storage. Entry-level and mid-range M2 Mac mini models continue to come with two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, but…

Apple has just released the latest batch of iPhone and iPad games A for Apple Arcade subscribers. The 20 new titles (to add to the existing 200) include What The Car?, TMNT Splintered Fate, and Cityscapes: Sim Builder and are billed as “incredibly fun”. I feel like we could all do with a bit of incredible fun these days, so I went to check them out. Except I couldn’t find them. I searched for the Apple Arcade app on my phone… After a bit of research I found out that Apple Arcade is an option on the App Store, not an app. Who knew? Undaunted, I installed What The Car? and settled in for some fun. Almost immediately I was steering a car with legs, (then ‘too many legs’ )…

Rumours have been swirling for a while that Apple is planning to launch a 15-inch MacBook Air, but recent weeks have seen not one but two disappointing developments on this front. If true, they could point towards a laptop less powerful than some people had hoped. Firstly, well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed that he expects the 15-inch MacBook Air to come with an M2 chip in two different configurations. Kuo originally suggested the 15-inch MacBook Air could get a beefier M2 Pro chip. Kuo also believes that Apple’s M3 chip will enter mass production in the second half of 2023, so the 15-inch MacBook Air will almost certainly miss out. The M3 is expected to be made on a 3-nanometre process (as opposed to the M2’s 5nm), which could…

90% > Amount of renewable energy used by Apple that is generated by sources Apple has created itself. These include large-scale solar farms and battery energy storage facilities. $4.7 billion > Amount of money Apple has issued in green bonds to help businesses invest in global emissions reductions. 28 million > Metric tons of carbon emissions Apple avoided across its entire operation in 2022, through the use of renewable energy, lowcarbon materials and energy efficiency among other things. 100% > Amount of clean energy all of Apple’s products, manufacturing and services should be using by 2030. Over 250 suppliers have committed so far. 69.4 million > Reduction in kilowatthours of energy use at Apple facilities in 2022, achieved through energy efficiency. 100% > Recycled aluminium enclosures are already used in…

One of the greatest advantages of Apple gear is that it just works. You don’t have to dig your way through endless patches before your apps are compatible with your hardware, or puzzle through quirks and hiccups caused by multiple versions of your phone’s operating system. Instead, to use Apple’s oft-quoted marketing slogan, ‘it just works’. But what about when it doesn’t? What if something goes wrong, and you don’t know what to do? You’ve just plugged in a flash drive, but it isn’t recognised by macOS. How do you solve this? Your iPhone is lost or stolen. How do you locate it? You’ve plugged your iPad into the mains, but it isn’t charging. What could be wrong? In this article, we show you a range of minor fixes…

It’s never been easier to enjoy all kinds of music on your Apple devices – whether you prefer to stream the latest bangers on Apple Music, or just want to listen to an existing music library on the go. Apple offers three main ways to do this: you can subscribe to the Apple Music streaming service (currently £10.99/month); subscribe to iTunes Match (currently £21.99/year) and put your existing song collection online; and you can connect your iPhone or iPad to your Mac and sync your music collection either via a physical cable or over Wi-Fi. It’s that last option we’re going to look at here. Note, though, that since Apple split iTunes into discrete Music, Podcasts and TV apps with the arrival of macOS Catalina, Mac-to-iPhone/iPad syncing happens via the…

EXPERT ADVICE Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems Contact us Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com Fix a First Aid flaw since Apple introduced its S new file system APFS, running First Aid on its volumes and containers has been a gamble. More often than not, checks fail with status 65, and we’re advised to back that volume up as if its failure was imminent. This is most worrying when that volume contains dozens of Time Machine backups. It turns out the problem lies not in the volume being checked, but in macOS. Disk Utility relies on the command tool fsck_apfs to run these checks and perform any repairs needed, and that requires the volume and its container to be unmounted first. Although regular volumes…

Quick-fire questions Why doesn’t logging out fix problems with WindowServer? > Logging a user out and back in used to restart WindowServer, and could even fix it when it was in deep trouble. In more recent versions of macOS, it now runs in its own login session, so that trick doesn’t work anymore. Instead, you’ll need to restart your Mac to reset it. Why is loginwindow still running after logging in? > Although loginwindow does much more even before you log in, it’s responsible for handling the Force Quit dialog, and for logout, restart and shut down actions. It therefore has to continue running once you have logged in, to listen for and manage those events, although that shouldn’t take much memory or CPU. Should I enable FileVault? Q As…

Despite offering 4K, the Kiyo Pro Ultra defaults to a measly 640x480 pixel resolution Now that Continuity Camera lets you use your iPhone as a Mac camera, does spending £300 on a webcam like Razer’s Kiyo Pro Ultra make sense in the current climate? The first thing you’ll notice is the camera’s sheer size and weight. Its metal frame is a good 6.4cm thick and three inches across, while it weighs nearly 340g (not including the cord). Even the chunky braided cable looks like it’s a regular at the gym (sadly, it’s USB-C to USB-A and there’s no adaptor). Its sturdy frame can pan and tilt, though, plus there’s a camera thread and a detachable stand. You get an included privacy cover to pop over the lens when it’s not…

These UK-designed True Bio earbuds look perfectly placed to weather both cost of living crisis and environmental concerns. For not only are they a snip at £34.95 including charging case, but the plastic components used in both the earbuds and the case are 100% certified compostable. Majority also promises to plant a tree for every purchase made. The earbuds come in a slightly chunky teardropshaped design with physical buttons on both the left and right earbuds to pause/ resume playback while listening and come with three pairs of silicone eartips, enabling you to mix and match them for the perfect fit. The earbuds will last for up to 7.5 hours between recharges with up to 30 hours of playback offered in total when used with the case. The case includes…

The big new feature is Bluetooth audio, for the first time on a Sonos home speaker The Sonos One was released back in 2017, and its combination of AirPlay 2 support, built-in voice assistant and sub-£200 price tag meant it became an outrageously popular smart speaker. This Era 100 is its long-awaited replacement, bringing with it true stereo sound, deeper bass and Bluetooth audio support. As the name suggests, it’s meant to usher in a new age in the Sonos line-up, and while the One will still be available for a time, there’s no doubt this is its replacement. The Era 100 costs £249 – £50 more than the Sonos One (at £199, and there’s also the microphone-less One SL at £149). That puts the Era 100 much closer to…

> £19.49 FROM returntomonkeyisland.com >  NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later There are items to combine, characters to charm, and clues to be found The Monkey Island games have earned their place in the video game hall of excellence, but it’s been over a decade since the last release. Can Return to Monkey Island also be a return to past glories? Well, it features two of the three writers from the first Monkey Island game, so that’s a good start. You’ll find witty jokes and course humour delightfully intermingling (sample: “Learn to catch rats for dinner. You can drown them in your mop bucket, they make their own sauce”). Unusual characters and entertaining dialogue lurk around every corner, which is just as well because you’ll be doing plenty of talking. Point-and-click pirates…

EXPECTED NOV 2023 UPDATED APR 2021 iMac From £1,249 Ever since the Bondi Blue iMac debuted in 1998, Apple’s all-in-one desktop computer has been setting standards for design and performance. The current 24in model is certainly Apple’s finest yet – thanks to its 4.5K (4480x2520) Retina display and the Apple-designed M1 chip, which is available with either an 8-core CPU/7-core GPU at the entry-level, or an 8-core CPU/8-core GPU on the mid-range and top-tier versions. All models come with 8GB of memory as standard (upgradeable to 16GB), with solid-state drive (SSD) storage ranging from 256GB on the entry-level and mid-range versions to 512GB on the top tier, although you can add more – up to 1TB on the entry-level and up to 2TB on the mid-range and top-tier models if you…

From £1,349 While the MacBook Pro 13-inch got the M2 treatment back in June 2022, January 2023 sees the introduction of the M2 Max or M2 Pro in the 14in and 16in models. The new 14-inch M2 Pro model is available in a variety of CPU/ GPU flavours – 10-core CPU/16-core GPU, 12-core CPU/19-core GPU, with 16 or 32GB memory options. Alternatively, if you step up to the M2 Max option, you can go for a 12-core CPU/30-core GPU or 12-core CPU/38-core GPU, with 32 or 64GB unified memory. All range from 512GB SSD storage to 8TB SSD storage. The 16in offers an M2 Pro 12-core CPU/19- core GPU, with 16 or 32GB memory. The M2 Max comes in either 12-core CPU/30- core GPU, with 32 or 64GB memory flavour or…