Innehållsförteckning för February 2024 från MacFormat

Scan here to get the latest tech news in your inbox! New Year may be over, but there’s still plenty to celebrate in this month’s MacFormat, starting with the 40th anniversary of the Mac. Arriving on 24 January 1984, the original Macintosh completely changed the way we think about – and use – computers. And, ultimately, this led to the devices many of us use today – not just the Mac, but the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, too. Turn to p62 and you’ll discover the Mac’s biggest hits and misses (we’re looking at you, Touch Bar), while on p16 we take a look at what Apple’s planning next – could the Vision Pro revolutionise computing in the same way the Mac did? Only time will tell. Before we get…

Teenage Engineering EP–133 KO II >£299 > From teenage.engineering > Teenage Engineering is rightly famous for the design of its musicmaking devices and its second-gen EP-133 KO II sampler is no exception. Designed to make it easy to record vocals, instruments and the sounds around you, the new EP-133 KO II then enables you to turn those sounds into samples, patterns and loops that can be arranged using the new, more powerful sequencer. From there, you can easily add a curated selection of built-in drum, bass and keys to help finesse your musical masterwork, along with pressure-sensitive Punch-In 2.0 effects. But whether you’re a pro musician or just a wannabe, there’s no denying the EP-133’s KO II’s stunning looks with its super segment hybrid display and big, bold, beautiful buttons.…

iWork Apps FROM apple.com/uk/iwork ALSO ON iPad, iPhone If you don’t have these yet, take a trip to the Mac App Store and download them now. They’re among the most important apps on the Mac, and although they previously cost money, they’re now completely free. Pages is an awesome word processor that can handle pictures and videos as well as text. Numbers is a very capable spreadsheet with full formula support, and Keynote is the Mac’s best presentation app; it’s the one Tim Cook and the team use at Apple events. All three apps come with a comprehensive range of templates to get you started. With the iWork apps, you can create impressive documents within minutes, and tackle even more impressive projects as you learn more about them. They all…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use private browsing in Safari YOU’LL NEED Mac, iPhone, or iPad, Safari 17 Genius tip! If Safari detects a private window isn’t active for a period of time, it will lock it. But if the page is playing video or audio, it won’t lock. To keep up with Apple’s ongoing focus to protect user privacy, Private Browsing in Safari has been beefed up with even more features that shield from prying eyes. At its most basic, most web browsers’ private modes will delete your search history when you finish a browsing session, and they won’t store autofill information. However, Safari goes much further than that. Private Browsing in Safari means all known trackers are blocked from loading on web pages,…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up and adjust double tap YOU’LL NEED watchOS 10.1 or later Double tap is a relatively small feature, but is one that will soon become invaluable Many of the interfaces on our devices are designed with the assumption that they’ll be used by people with two hands. That’s not always the case because not everybody has two hands, while other people have mobility issues that make two-handed operation difficult. And there are also times when two-handed people might not have their Double tap makes input easier, and the options in Settings > Accessibility can be a real help if you have low vision. other hand available – such as when you want to decline a call while carrying a…

Quick-fire questions How to keep Time Machine snapshots longer? > Snapshots made by Time Machine every hour in association with its backups are automatically deleted once they’re more than 24 hours old. There’s no way to change that, although third-party backup utilities including Carbon Copy Cloner can be set to delete their own snapshots after longer periods. How to show custom information in Quick Look? > Information shown below a file’s thumbnail by Quick Look is governed by the type of file concerned. Select a document of the type you want to change, Ctrl-click for the contextual menu and select Show Preview Options there. Currently this seems to have a mind of its own and might also be controlled by apps you have installed. Check integrity of backups Q How…

When you add a new smart device to your home using HomeKit, you usually have two ways to use it… Either by using the device’s dedicated app, or by using the Home app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. You can even control your devices using your Apple Watch or Apple TV 4K (third-gen or later) as well as, of course, by using Siri. While automations are offered in many device-specific apps (see the Nanoleaf or Eve Home apps, for example), Apple’s Home app gives you the best overview of all the smart devices on your home network – and can even suggest some automations to you. You could choose to have smart lights automatically switch on at sunset, for instance. Or have them switch off when you leave home. In…

£449 FROM sonos.com FEATURES Dual-band Wi-Fi with AirPlay 2, Bluetooth 5.0 with AAC, water- and dust-resistant to IP56, approx 24hr battery, 3kg Sonos introduced the original Move back in 2019, but the company recently launched the updated Move 2, which promises both improved sound quality and longer battery life. Those improvements do come with a higher price, though, rising from £399 to £449. That makes the Move 2 one of the more expensive compact speakers currently available – even if it does offer the added bonus of its sturdy, portable design. Available in Green, Black or White, the updated Move speaker looks very similar to its predecessor, consisting of a not-quite-circular cylinder that stands 241mm high. The Move 2 is a little wider, at 160mm, but also less deep, measuring…

£44.99 FROM belkin.com/uk FEATURES 5,000mAh power bank with 7.5W MagSafe charging, USB-C port with up to 10W charging, integrated kickstand B elkin makes some great accessories for iPhone and this 5,000mAh power bank is no exception. Available in black or white, it’s compact enough at 95.5x65x15.5mm to slip easily into a pocket or bag when not in use, yet easily and securely attaches via MagSafe when your phone needs a boost. The power bank itself charges via USB-C and has LED indicator lights on one side to show you how much charge remains. The USB-C port that charges the BoostCharge 5K can also be used to supply up to 10W of power to a non-MagSafe device. Plus, there’s an integrated metal kickstand that you can use to prop up your…

£39.99 FROM uk.jlab.com FEATURES Bluetooth 5.3 with Multipoint connectivity, up to 20 hours battery life (5.5 hours earbuds, 14.5 hours charging case), water and dust-resistant to IP55, noise-cancelling microphones, USB-C charging, Be Aware mode J Lab has packed a lot of tech into these super-tiny earbuds, which make rivals from Apple and others look massive by comparison. Available in five colours (Black, Aqua Teal, Pink, Mint Green and Sage Grey), the JBuds Mini come with Bluetooth 5.3 with Multipoint connectivity, enabling them to switch seamlessly between two paired devices – a Mac and iPhone, say. Plus, they’re water- and dust- resistant to IP55. The JBuds Mini deliver plenty of lowend thump and excitement While they’re impossibly cute, the JBuds Mini also come with three pairs of silicone eartips (Small, Medium…

From £89.99 (upgrade £54.99) FROM parallels.com/uk NEEDS macOS 12 or later Setting the size of a macOS VM on Apple silicon requires the Pro edition When it switched from near-universal Intel processors to its own chips, Apple knew that some would still need to run other operating systems on their new Macs, and provided for this in macOS. Parallels Desktop version 19 is the latest in this long line of virtualisation apps that build on that support to run Windows, Linux and macOS inside a window on both Mac architectures. Support for different virtual machines (VMs) remains more limited on Apple silicon Macs. Intel models can run Windows 10 and 11, almost any version of Linux and other Unixbased operating systems, Android, and whatever versions of macOS are supported by…

March 2024 could be a massive month for Apple, with the company expected to launch a huge range of new products. According to Mark Gurman, that includes new versions of the iPad Air, iPad Pro and MacBook Air. Gurman says Apple is seeking to “reverse a decline in Mac and iPad sales.” To do that, the iPad Air will get a new 12.9-inch size, marking the first time it will be available in two different dimensions. You’ll be able to get a larger iPad without having to fork out for the more expensive iPad Pro, which also has a 12.9-inch model. Speaking of the iPad Pro, Gurman believes Apple will refresh these tablets with OLED screens. Currently, the 11-inch iPad Pro has an LCD panel, while the 12.9-inch version comes with…

For our latest subscription offer see page 34! Some years are really S transformative for Apple. Others see more incremental improvements to its service and product lines. 2023 was definitely one of the latter. Although there were certainly meaningful advances – look at the development of Apple silicon and iPhone camera technology – there were no real jaw-dropping “one more thing” moments. That might all change in 2024 though, when the Apple Vision Pro headset is finally released. Announced back in June 2023, we were promised Apple’s first so-called spatial computer “early next year”. So that could be any time now… The Vision Pro launch will mark the first time in a number of years that Apple has stepped into a whole new product category, and it will be a…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to make your Mac uniquely your own YOU’LL NEED macOS 10.14 or later, an art or icon-creation app (optional) Many Mac users stick with the default macOS desktop and icons but you don’t have to! Instead, you can get stuck in and give your machine a visual overhaul that will make the computer stand apart from other Macs. There are loads of things you can do and they’re all relatively simple. It’s even possible to give your machine a regular fresh look – choose an aerial wallpaper, for instance, and you can shuffle through them as quickly as every 12 hours. With custom colour schemes, alterations to the Dock and an ability to swap out default file and folder icons for…

1 Reminders categories Reminders categorises your tasks based on criteria like due date, flag, completion status, and more. 2 My Lists This sidebar is where your custom lists are housed, including those in list view and those in kanban view. 3 Kanban columns Here are your kanban columns, where you can move tasks into different columns to organise them. 4 Add more Add a new reminder using the ‘+’ button in the top right, or insert a column using the button to its left. IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to convert a Reminders list to kanban view and use it to manage your tasks YOU’LL NEED Reminders, macOS 14 or later Kanban views are perfect for getting a high-level overview of a project and its tasks…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to navigate the changes to the TV app made in tvOS 17.2 YOU’LL NEED An Apple TV running tvOS 17.2 While Apple reserves the biggest, most newsworthy changes for its operating systems for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, it likes to tinker from time to time with tvOS too. And that’s precisely what it’s been doing with tvOS 17, tvOS 17.1 and, now tvOS 17.2. To make the most of the updates you will, of course, need an Apple TV 4K (From £149), and maybe even a HomePod or HomePod mini, as one of the biggest changes Apple brought to tvOS 17.1 was a Dialogue Enhancer that makes speech in TV shows and movies stand out more from background sounds,…

Quick-fire questions How to flash the LED in my iPhone for alerts? > If you can’t be sure that you’ll hear its alert sounds or feel its haptics, set your iPhone’s LED to flash in Settings > Accessibility > Audio/ Visual > ‘LED Flash for Alerts’. Enable ‘LED Flash for Alerts’ at the top, and choose whether you want them to happen when your phone is unlocked or in Silent Mode. How to check iPhone Bluetooth signal strength? > Our favourite is George Garside’s Bluetooth Inspector, which will scan and interrogate the devices it finds, and displays their percentage signal strength even in its free version. In-app purchase of its more sophisticated Pro version adds features including the sending of messages, detailed logs, and background scanning. Back up to iCloud…

The very first Mac launched in January 1984, and to celebrate its 40th anniversary – and our 400th issue! – we’re going back to the Mac. We’ll discover the Macs that paved the way for today’s magical M3s, trace macOS from System 1.0 to Sonoma, and explore the evolution of our favourite Apple accessories too. You’ll discover how the first Mac changed computing for everyone, and see the many Macs that truly deserved the title of ‘insanely great’. But we’re not going to pretend that it’s all been plain sailing. Some Macs didn’t ‘just work’, and we’re going to breathe a big sigh when we recall some of the Mac’s less endearing designs and the decisions behind them. We’ll tut at the Touch Bar, wonder how you’re supposed to charge…

When Steve Jobs died in 2011, many pundits said it was the end of Apple: in the popular imagination, Steve Jobs was Apple and Apple was Steve Jobs. Who could fill such iconic shoes? Tim Cook? But Apple’s logistics wizard is not a man you should underestimate, and under his watch Apple became a trillion-dollar company in 2018. It was Cook who turned Jobs’ ideas – the iPhone, the iPad, and projects begun during the Jobs era such as the Apple Watch – into globe-conquering successes. But the question that dogged Apple from the day of his succession was simple: what would happen when Jobs’ ideas ran out? Those questions got louder when design guru Jonathan Ive left Apple in 2019, apparently frustrated by Apple’s move to a less design-focused…

While the Home app makes it easy to create simple automations, you can actually do much more – one of our favourites is to have our lighting automatically switch on as we get closer to home. With the right equipment, you can also get blinds and curtains to close, and even get your home heating to fire up so your home is already warm by the time you get there. But even if you don’t have smart heating controls, you could still create useful reminders – one that will automatically notify you when the temperature falls below a certain level, for example. You could even create an automation that automatically closes curtains and blinds, and opens high-level windows when it gets too hot – handy for heatwaves. For all the…

£289.99 FROM mobilepixels.us FEATURES 14.1-inch 1080p FHD display, 300 nits, 60Hz, 16:9 aspect ratio, plug and play via USB-C port, auto-rotation and eye-care mode, compatible with macOS/Windows/ Nintendo Switch/Samsung Dex; 0.8kg S tudies show that working with multiple screens can make you more productive. To help you keep your focus, you can work on your main screen while having other documents or email open on the other screen. If your workflow allows, you can also be working on your main display while playing music or video on the other. One of the downsides of this set-up, though, is portability, as it’s not always easy to carry a second screen around. With Duex Max, however, you can enjoy dual-screen convenience away from home with your notebook Mac. The plug-and-play screen offers…

£69.99 FROM ikmultimedia.com FEATURES 24-bit, 48kHz sound, USB-C audio and power, amp out, bundled software I K Multimedia has for many years been at the vanguard of making compact and portable interfaces for musicians wanting to hook up microphones, guitars and other instruments to their Macs and iOS devices. In tandem with this, it has also developed a stable of software apps to compliment the hardware. The iRig USB is the latest member of the iRig family, a small guitar and bass interface that for the first time brings USB-C compatibility to the line-up, powering the device as well as carrying sound. It’s all pretty straightforward – connect to your Mac, PC or USB-C equipped iPad or iPhone using the bundled cable and sound will be routed in and out…

Despite the omnipresence of internet-connected devices, radio is still very popular with many people, particularly in its more advanced DAB format. This is superior to FM radio in many ways including clearer and stronger signals and being location independent so you’re not restricted to picking up only the stations in your area. Although distinct from smart speakers, many DAB radios do incorporate extra features like internet radio and Spotify connectivity, Bluetooth and line inputs, making them versatile. Some have a battery power option and most can work as alarm clocks. Some are more portable, others are designed to simply sit on a shelf. What you won’t find are things like microphones for voice commands, Siri or Google Assistant as these are particular to smart speakers. Think of DAB radios as…

£16.80 (upgrade £8.40) FROM macbartender.com NEEDS OS X 10.6 or later Mac Format VERDICT Bartender 5 extends this already brilliant app even further with its raft of must-have new features. ★★★★★ + Simple to use and configure + Brings order to your menu bar + New tools add even more value - Necessary to hide icons after grouping Bartender is one of those rare breeds of apps that does one small thing but does it so well that you wonder how you ever lived without it. The software brings order to your chaotic menu bar by enabling you to choose what appears in it and when. The basic premise remains unchanged: each menu bar icon can be configured one of three ways. It can be left permanently visible on…

Mobile network operator EE has started offering its TV streaming service on the Apple TV 4K, the first time this has happened in the UK. It means you get to enjoy all the benefits of Apple’s high-res TV box and watch streamed content provided by BT-owned EE. EE is offering its TV service in three options: a standard ‘mini’ box, a ‘pro’ box with a hard drive for recording live content, or a custom Apple TV 4K. If you order the latter, you’ll also get an EE-branded Apple TV remote with extra buttons for EE’s service. The EE TV app will be pre-installed, and EE has worked with Apple to create an automatic set-up process for the whole thing.…

Apple has revealed the winners of its annual App Store Awards, with developers honoured across the Apple ecosystem. There was an interesting mix of newcomers and familiar faces among the recipients. The iPhone App of the Year gong went to hiking app AllTrails, while beauty app Prêt-à-Makeup was victorious on iPad. Image editor Photomator won on Mac, video streamer MUBI was the Apple TV champion, and fitness trainer SmartGym was the pick of the Apple Watch apps. As for games, the winners ranged from Honkai: Star Rail on iPhone and Lost in Play on iPad to Hello Kitty Island Adventure on Apple Arcade. And in a great year for Mac gaming, when multiple AAA titles launched for Apple fans, Lies of P took home the title. Apple also awards prizes…

APP OF THE MONTH Getting your images perfect takes work, and ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac’s latest edition is here to help. The app aims to simplify photo-editing and organisation with new features, including some powered by artificial intelligence (AI) cleverness. In version 10, the app can detect faces in your photos, then sort them and group them with similar faces, meaning there’s no need to go through each image and manually tag them. All the processing is done locally on your Mac, ensuring your privacy is preserved. Also new is Media Mode, which helps you sift through your files and organise them so you can find things quickly and efficiently. There are a host of sorting and grouping options, batch processing tools and handy filters to whittle down the…

256GB > Maximum storage available on the current iPad Air at a cost of £849. The entry-level 64GB model costs £669. 2013 > The year the iPad Air made its debut. The tablet featured a 9.7-inch Retina display and was powered by Apple’s A7 chip (also on the iPhone 5S) with an M7 coprocessor and 1GB of memory onboard. A8X > The chip inside the second-generation iPad Air, which made it debut in 2014. The chip was avariant of the A8 used in the iPhone 6and iPhone 6Plus, and had three processor cores and eight graphics cores. The second-gen iPad Air also featured Touch ID, the first iPad to do so. M1 > Apple silicon chip inside the current iPad Air, which made its debut in 2022. The M1 has…

NEW IDEAS Your in-depth guide to getting more from your Apple kit Contact us Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com Master Apple shortcuts macOS Cmdis the Command key. Altor Optis the Option key. Ctrlis the Control key, also shown as ‘^’ in shortcuts in the menu bar. The thick, outlined up arrow is the Shift key. The thin, left arrow or outlined pointer with ‘X’ inside is the Delete key, which deletes to the left. Pressing the Function key (Fn) and the Delete key deletes to the right. The thin, right arrow key with a small vertical line at the end is the Tab key, which shifts the focus between somecontrols. iOS Atapis a brief contact of (usually) one finger on your device’s screen. To dragis to move…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use Widgets in macOS Sonoma YOU’LL NEED macOS 14 or later Genius tip! The Reminders widget displays the list set as the default in the Reminders app. To change it, make sure the widget gallery is active, then click the list icon at the top right and choose another list. Prior to macOS Sonoma, widgets lived in Notification Centre. To see them, you had to click on the date and time in the menu bar or swipe the trackpad. They would then slide out and display information, for you to slide them out of the way again. But now, in macOS Sonoma, widgets sit on the desktop – and that’s not the only improvement… Widgets are now interactive. As well…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to navigate the new Apple Music Classical app for iPad YOU’LL NEED Apple Music Classical, a valid Apple Music subscription, iPadOS 15.4 or later Originally launched for iPhone in March 2023, Apple Music Classical has finally arrived on iPad, making it easy to enjoy your favourite classical works and composers, while also discovering entirely new ones. To use Apple Music Classical, your iPad must be running iPadOS 15.4 or later, and you’ll need a valid Apple Music subscription (from £10.99/month). Without one, you’ll be able to browse, but not listen to, any of the works available on the service, though you can also sync tracks from your own music library. Just like Apple Music, Apple Music Classical comes with ready-made playlists…

YOU WILL LEARN Details about the UK’s PSTN services switch-off, and the replacement digital voice services Key fact Most modern telephone handsets can be plugged into a broadband router in order to use digital VoIP services. However, some people need to buy an adaptor and a few older handsets may need to be replaced altogether. Your telephone or broadband supplier should also provide a battery pack that keeps the digital telephone service running in the event of a power cut. Just over 20 years ago, the BBC and other UK TV networks stopped using analogue technology for broadcasting television programmes, and switched to Freeview – a digital system – instead. This was a big deal back then, and the UK networks spent a lot of time and money informing people…

The Mac was never intended to be Apple’s star: that was the Lisa, Apple’s first computer with a graphical interface. While impressive, the Lisa was also unreliable and incredibly expensive: when it launched in 1983 it cost $9,995. An IBM PC was around $1,500. While the Lisa was busy bombing, Jef Raskin’s skunkworks project was working on something much less expensive and, as it would turn out, much more important. ClassicMac: Macintosh128K The very first Apple Macintosh, launched in 1984, was a little underpowered – the Macintosh 512K addressed that shortly afterwards – but the 0G Mac delivered on the Lisa’s promises for considerably less cash. It was simple to set up and use, came with the wonderful MacPaint and would soon invent desktop publishing too. Raskin, Burrell Smith and…

£149.99 FROM twelvesouth.eu FEATURES 3-in-1 charging stand, 15W MagSafe charging, 7.5W wireless charging pad, fast charger for Apple Watch, power supply, available in black or white Compact enough to sit on your desk or C your bedside table, Twelve South’s HiRise 3 Deluxe is a three-in-one charger that gets almost everything right. Measuring 8.5x15.9cm and standing 15.4cm high, it has a 15W MagSafe charger on an aluminium arm that sticks up from the base, plus two wireless charging components in the base itself: a hockey puck charger for your Apple Watch (with fast-charging on board), and a 7.5W wireless charging pad for wireless headphones or even a second phone. Best of all, Twelve South has arranged these elements differently here than on the HiRise 3 (MF385), helping it avoid the…

$159 (about £150) FROM lofree.co FEATURES Wireless or wired, hot-swappable, low-profile switches, white backlight and RGB sidelight The allaluminium design matches Apple’s silver alu perfectly L ofree’s Flow keyboard features a 10mm thin, low–profile, premium all–aluminium design. In fact, it’s very premium, and matches Apple’s silver aluminium perfectly. The back of the keyboard is tilted by 3.9°, to offer better ergonomics, and silicon pads underneath keep the keyboard locked in place. The Flow is Mac and Windows native, and individual keys reflect this. All keys are backlit white, and brightness can be adjusted, or turned off, using the Fn key with either the F5 or F6 shortcut. RGB lights either side of the board offer subtle ambience. Cycle through eight colours with Fn+[right arrow], or switch from constant to pulsing,…

Compact DAB radios run the gamut from small and portable to near-smart speaker levels of technology. If you want cheap and cheerful, the Groov-e Berlin is a good bet, and the JBL Tuner XL is a lot of fun even if a little pricey for what it is. At the other end, the Revo SuperSignal looks and sounds beautiful but a lack of any internet connectivity at all counts against it at the price. Majority’s Homerton 2 throws a kitchen sink’s worth of features at you and is great value, but sonically can’t duke it out with the heavy hitters. Pure’s Evoke Spot is a decent option but lacks any physical inputs or a remote, limiting its versatility. Ruark’s R1S, despite being the most expensive on test, is also the…

Free (IAPs) FROM portal.app NEEDS macOS 13.1 or later The results are impressive. Each audio track is rich and layered MAC FORMAT VERDICT A great app that ramps up the immersion to help you double down and focus. ★★★★★ + Dynamic wallpapers + Well-recorded spatial audio + Syncs with smart lighting - Mac app is missing focus timer With macOS Sonoma, Apple introduced video screen savers that, as they end, transition into a temporarily moving desktop wallpaper (see MF399 for a tutorial). The Portal app goes further by adding video backgrounds that loop indefinitely while you work or play. But this is no one-trick pony. Wallpapers are just one aspect of Portal, and it aims to help you relax, focus and be more creative. It does this through video…