Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2017 från MacLife

As iOS becomes more sophisticated, our apps are beginning to disappear. I don’t mean that we’re downloading fewer apps; on the contrary, we’re downloading more than ever, and Apple recently made its largest quarterly developer payout in App Store history. But there’s a big shift happening in the way we use our apps and what they mean to us. As our apps become more powerful and useful, they’re also fading into the background of our day-to-day lives, posing both new challenges and opportunities for those who build them. Gone are the days when the only way to use an app was to tap it on your Home screen. Over the last few major upgrades to iOS, we’ve gained features such as the Today view and its widgets, actionable push notifications,…

1 USE PINCH GESTURES You could drag the resize slider on the toolbar, but it’s much more pleasing, if your Mac has a trackpad, to pinch to zoom. Pinch gestures also open or close the image that’s currently under the pointer. 2 EDIT YOUR PHOTOS After opening a photo, a button with three slider controls appears in the toolbar; it takes you to editing mode. Alternatively, press R with a photo open, or selected in an album, to go straight to editing it. 3 GET INFO Press c+I to bring up the contextual Info window. With one image selected, it shows camera info and settings. For an album or a multiple selection, it summarizes dates, places, keywords and more. 4 BROWSE FASTER With a photo from an album or the…

1 VIEW THE SIDEBAR Click the Calendars button to open the Calendar List sidebar. Use the checkboxes to show or hide events by calendar. There’s a smaller calendar to help with looking up dates; drag up on the line above it for more. 2 FINE-TUNE CALENDAR In Calendar’s General preferences, weekends can be omitted from Week view by setting “Days per week” to 5. “Scroll in week view by” sets the arrows around the Today button to advance by a week or a day. 3 FAST DETAIL ENTRY Drag over the calendar to set an event’s duration over hours or days, then enter details. Or, more quickly, click the + button and use plain English, such as “Lunch with Tatyana on Friday from 12 to 2.” 4 TIME TO LEAVE…

1 EXPLORE VIEWS Each view has its own advantages: Map makes roads more visible; Transit shows public transport routes; and Satellite shows overhead photos and a pseudo-3D view in some cities. In the Map and Satellite views, View > Show Traffic shows congestion. 2 FIND NEARBY POINTS OF INTEREST Click in the search field to see your recent searches for places and directions. If your Mac has a Touch Bar, it will show shortcuts to food and drink, local stores, and entertainment. Or just type a general description of what you want to find, such as “Chinese food.” 3 SHARE SEARCHES Using the Share sheet, you can send your current selection to apps and other services, or to iOS. Choose Send to iPhone and you’ll receive a notification on that…

TEXTEDIT Apple’s text editor may seem basic, but it’s surprisingly feature-rich. Do you want to format to a specific page size? Choose Format > Wrap to Page, and then pick a paper size in File > Page Setup. Need to export to a PDF file? Easy: choose File > Export as PDF. It’s well worth visiting the app’s preferences, too. In the Open and Save tab, you can dictate how web pages open; by default, drag an HTML file onto TextEdit’s icon and it’ll open as formatted text rather than code – handy for quickly copying and pasting content. Change the HTML setting in the top group to see the actual code making up the web pages, if that’s what you actually want. In the New Document tab, the Format…

REQUIRES iOS 10’s Home app, HomeKit accessories already set up, and an Apple TV (4th-gen) with tvOS 10 or an iPad with iOS 10 set up as a Home Hub in its settings YOU WILL LEARN How to automate your home based on your location, the time, or a particular change in an accessory’s status CONNECTING your smart home accessories to the Home app gives you the ability to check the status of sensors and toggle devices on or off at will, but that’s just the foundation of making your home smarter. Things get really clever when you use sensor data, the time of day, or a change in your location to trigger behaviors. For example, you can have a heater turn on when you leave work so your home…

AMPLITUBE $19.99 ikmultimedia.com > This is essential for guitar players – it enables you to combine digital recreations of real amps, stomp boxes, cabs, and even mic placement to create just about any sound you want for your electric guitar. It’s not cheap (the iPhone and iPad versions are sold separately, and many new sounds require an in-app purchase), but it sounds amazing. KORG GADGET $39.99 korg.com > This is a synth-specialist production app that’s fantastic for live electronic music performances, but also great for anyone who wants to play with a range of cool sounds. Some synths are played on a keyboard, while things like drum machines have pad arrangements. You can record and mix within the app, or export your recordings. For a wide range of electronic sounds,…

ASSEMBLY Free assemblyapp.co > Do you want to make cool graphic designs but find yourself lacking in experience or specialist art knowledge? This is a vector illustration tool without the drawing: It comes with a series of shapes and editing tools, and you can assemble designs from component pieces (which snap together to ensure accuracy) and create surprisingly advanced and detailed images – then export them and pretend you made them by hand! GRAPHIC From $2.99 graphic.com > This is the closest there is to Adobe Illustrator on iOS. It’s a vector drawing tool for iPhone and iPad (each must be bought separately) that’s ideal for everything from technical drawing to coming up with funky logo designs, and supports the import and export of Photoshop files. LINEA $9.99 linea-app.com >…

$2.99 Developer Rajesh Bhargava, thetangible.in Platform iPhone Requirements iOS 10.0 or later Long gone are the days when you’d need to keep a dictionary in your house. No more CD-ROM dictionaries bundled with every computer. Nope, we’ve got the web now – so why would you want a dictionary app? Well, if it’s LookUp, it’s the same reason you’d get one of those “Word of the Day” desk calendars: for pure fun. Every day, there’s a new word for you to learn, ranging from words like “piebald” to “beey” and almost everything in between. With each word of the day, you get a cute illustration which gets placed on the opening page. This is a fantastic way to learn a new word and see a bit of artwork to help…

$0.99 Developer Makoto Funamizu, enfani.jp Platform Universal Requirements iOS 9.1 or later The idea’s in the name here: use pictures instead of words to create a checklist of things to remember for a trip. Open Checkie, name your alarm, then choose a cute animal character for your reminder. Days of the week are at the top, with time underneath. Objects appear at the bottom: scroll through and drag and drop them on your character. The majority are easy to figure out: a hat is a hat. But the blue folded icon – is this a book, magazine, or newspaper? This can be interpreted to your liking, of course, but we’re baffled by the red flower with a white rectangle… Adding an object is easy, although you do need to make…

$2.99 Developer Accidental Queens, accidentalqueens.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 6.0 or later A Normal Lost Phone is designed to be an enigma. You “find” a phone, you unlock it, you read through the owner’s texts, you unravel the story of the person who held this device before you did. You figure out their passwords from passing references, work out how to connect to Wi-Fi, and you snoop through this person’s life, loves, and feelings. Eventually you know them better than some of their friends, and definitely more than most of their family. There’s a sense of unease to it all – it feels wrong, you shouldn’t have this much unfettered access to someone else’s private life – but it all takes place in a safe, fictional space where your feelings…

Apple ships the iPhone and iPad with a strong array of apps to get you started with everything from messaging to tracking simple to-dos. But your world is strewn across medical documents, major projects, and sensitive information that all needs to be saved, tracked, or stored securely. So here are some great third-party tools for picking up where Apple left off. Apple’s Health app is great for tracking things like daily exercise, menstrual cycle, and even nutritional intake. MyChart (Free, Universal) is for tracking the rest of your medical equation: documents, appointments with physicians, test results, and more. MyChart is gaining support across healthcare providers as a medical record and document hub, so there’s a good chance your doctors and their organizations support it, or will soon. Over the years,…

$0.99 Developer Miguel Muñoz, lolaturtle.com Platform iPhone, watchOS Requirements iOS 9.3 or later Here’s another attempt at gaming on a smartwatch that mostly gets it right, but again lacks in the audio department. Bit Soccer works only on Apple Watch. The object is to dribble a soccer ball down the field, dodging opponents and picking up trophies along the way. To maneuver, simply turn the Digital Crown to move your player up or down, and a red exclamation point on the right edge of the screen gives you a heads-up when an opponent is coming, providing ample time for you to get out of the way and carry on running. Bit Soccer is a fun way to kill a few minutes, and because the sound effects are limited to a…

$149 Manufacturer Bragi, bragi.com Features Bluetooth 4.0 A2DP, Audio Transparency, six hours’ play time, passive noise isolation Bragi came on the scene in 2014 with a bold Kickstarter campaign to launch The Dash, a pair of wireless earbuds. Now it’s back with The Headphone… and, fortunately, the hardware is nowhere near as clunky as that name. Wireless headphones complement a life full of sound on the go in ways you may not have realized. These earpieces are light, fit snugly and after a while you fail to notice they’re even there. The look of The Headphone is simple and unflashy – essentially, black plugs that cover the entire ear canal. Wear the right hat, and no one could tell you have them in at all, as opposed to the relative…

$99.99 Manufacturer FINsix, finsix.com Features 65W, USB-C male, USB-A female A big draw of Apple’s newest notebooks is that they’re more portable – but their power adapters are still the same bricks, mostly. The FINsix DART-C fixes that for 12-inch MacBooks and 13-inch MacBook Pros (it’s rated at 65W, enough for those two, but the 15-inch model’s adaptor is 87W, so you could only slow-charge it). It’s a small, light power adapter with a 6-foot USB-C cable which works great: It charged a 12-inch MacBook from dead to 100% in two hours, without getting overly hot (just warm). The potential downside is that it uses its own proprietary cable, but that fact does give it one more trick up its sleeve: The cable has a female USB connector, so you…

>>> I am notoriously bad at keeping gadgets charged. All of my phone conversations start with “SEVEN PERCENT BATTERY, GO!” and end with muffled cursing and abrupt silence. So now, in an effort to be a reliable, contactable member of my family, I’ve positioned our Ikea wireless charging furniture at strategic points in our home: the Selje side table by the front door and the Riggad lamp on the kitchen counter. Hooray! Now I can set down the iPhone, in its Incipio Ghost Qi case, for a mini-charge when I load the dishwasher or when I come home, and I can even set the case on the Nordmärke charger on my nightstand, for when I fall asleep Netflixing. In practice, though, it turns out that wireless charging stations are intended…

HOW TO DO ANYTHING ON YOUR MAC, iPHONE & iPAD REQUIRES macOS Sierra, iOS 10 you will learn How to sync your passwords and other important details IT WILL TA KE 20 minutes SAFETY FIRST To keep your iCloud Keychain data safe, Apple uses 256-bit AES encryption and scrambles the data in transit using a complex piece of algebra – based not on numbers, but on imaginary points on an elliptical shape. modern life requires us to memorize more information than ever before. No wonder, then, that so many of us pick a single password and use it across everything from webmail to online stores. While that might make your life easier, it certainly doesn’t make it secure, as a breach of any one of those systems leaves every site…

REQUIRES iPhone or iPad, iOS 10 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to share, sync and back up your documents and data IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes iCloud enables you to sync music and movies – plus photos, contacts, calendars and various kinds of data – wirelessly to the cloud. You need to be using the latest versions of iOS and macOS (there’s also a Windows desktop tool and iCloud control panel if you use a PC – see apple.co/1K7OMAN). In Settings > iCloud, switch on and sign in to iCloud using your Apple ID, and then choose what to sync: contacts, calendars, reminders, notes, bookmarks, Mail accounts (and messages, if you opt to set up an iCloud Mail account) and more. Now instead of backing up to your Mac…

This is my last issue as editor of Mac|Life. I’ve been running the magazine for a few years, since just before its 100th issue, and it’s been a really fun time to follow Apple. We’ve had the Apple Watch, the launch of Apple Music, the removal of the headphone port, iPad Pro, the Touch Bar, the 12-inch MacBook, and lots more. I’ve loved every second of it, and I want to thank every one of Mac|Life’s readers for being here. But I’ve been thinking about the fact that the next time Apple makes an announcement (hopefully for new iPads in March, after I write this) I’ll be watching with a different perspective. I’ll be analyzing it differently. Maybe I’ve already started, because all this then triggered another thought: Aren’t we…

The iPhone 8 may be dropping Apple’s Lightning port for USB-C, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal. It states that the next iPhone will feature a “USB-C port for the power cord and other peripheral devices instead of the company’s original Lightning connector.” Though this would be a surprising move from Apple considering it’s never been shy about the fact that its devices and peripherals have their own connection standards, it has precedence in Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro computers. That said, the report doesn’t explicitly state that the USB-C port will be on the handset itself. It could mean Apple is planning to change the connector on its power adapters. This would mean that rather than charging cables and plugs with USB-A to Lightning connectors,…

After eight years of driving a 1998 Toyota Camry, my husband finally upgraded to a 2017 Dodge Challenger - a modern reimagining of the 1970s muscle car that he could never afford as a teenager. For Frank, it’s a chance to go in a straight line faster than any human really needs to. But for me, it was a chance to finally evaluate Apple’s CarPlay thoroughly. CarPlay was announced by Apple back in 2013 as a system to allow your car to connect to your iPhone. Although adoption was slow, today all major car manufacturers support CarPlay. Now that I’ve gotten to extensively test it, I can confidently say every iPhone owner should consider adding CarPlay to their vehicle. At the core, CarPlay is just a reskin of iOS for…

You would find it difficult not to notice Apple’s fondness for minimalism. After all, it’s not like the iPhone is awash with ports and buttons, and if the new MacBook Pro is anything to go by, all Macs will soon be fitted out with only USB-C and headphone ports, making it rather tricky to plug something into the wrong bit. In software, it’s a mite tougher to pare things down quite so much; you must strike a balance between making an app accessible and ensuring that it remains intuitive and capable. For the most part, Apple succeeds, but it does sometimes exhibit a tendency to bury important features and interesting settings in places where not everyone would consider looking for them. This feature is about all these things. We’ll explore…

1 PIN FAVORITE SITES You can pin tabs for sites you use often so that they’re immediately accessible in any Safari window that has the tab bar visible. Either ≈-click on a tab and choose Pin Tab, or drag a tab to the far left of the bar. 2 THE FAVORITES BAR Choose View > Favorites Bar, then visit a site, click in the address bar and drag the site’s icon to the bar to pin a shortcut there. In Safari‘s General prefs, new tabs can be set to show your favorites, which appear as icons. 3 SHARE WEB PAGES Click the Share button and you can add the current page to your reading list for later perusal (access this list in Safari by pressing ≈+c+2), add it to your…

1 USE ICLOUD When first used, iBooks asks if you want to use iCloud. If you do, items you add to your library will be synced across your devices that use the same account. To activate it later, turn on iBooks in iCloud > iCloud Drive in System Prefs on your Macs and Settings on iOS devices. 2 DON’T USE ICLOUD Yes, we know what we just said, but if you keep your books only on one Mac, you can use the app purely as a reader for eBooks and PDFs – the latter open in Preview. (If your iCloud account has plenty of free storage, you might leave iCloud on anyway.) 3 SORT AND VIEW MORE By default, iBooks puts recent additions at the top left, which you can…

1 FORMAT YOUR NOTES Click the format menu (Aa) to give notes titles and headings. In Notes’ preferences, you can set the first line of new notes to be a title or heading. Be mindful that the first two lines are shown in the sidebar. 2 WORK WITH ATTACHMENTS Maps’ and Safari’s Share buttons can add content to Notes as a visual preview; click one of those previews to reopen its location or page. In Notes, use this button to browse all such attachments. 3 TEMPORARY LISTS Click the checklist button (or press s+c+l) to turn the current or selected lines into a checklist. Click an item’s circle to mark it as done, or move the insertion point to the item’s row and press s+c+u. 4 SHARE NOTES Click the…

Only those people who have never used an iPad or iPhone for any length of time could still cling to the hoary old myth that these devices are good solely for consuming content, not creating it. Yet even if you’re a veteran iOS user, you might still be surprised at the sheer breadth of creative activities you can pursue using nothing more than your iPad or iPhone. In every artistic area, apps have now evolved and matured to such an extent that they rival – and in some cases, even exceed – anything found on the desktop. So, whether you want to make better photos, strike up a tune or two, write the Great American Novel, or do anything else, there’s an app for you. Let’s go……

FILMIC PRO $9.99 filmicpro.com > This is the best video recording app on iPhone – it’s that simple. It offers useful manual controls to get the look you want, as well as helpful visual overlays such as video histograms and audio levels, so you get a better feel for what you’re capturing. You can easily set and lock the focus, exposure, and white balance, so you get consistent shots. Even better is that you can customize the recording format; there are various resolutions up to 4K, frame rates from cinema-standard 24fps to slow-motion 240fps, and capture rates up to 50Mbps. VONT Free vont.phon.to > Don’t like iMovie’s options for adding titles to a movie? This app gives you plenty more control over color, font style, shadows and similar effects, plus…

PYTHONISTA 3 $9.99 omz-software.com > This complete Python scripting environment makes the most of being specialized for one coding language, instead of several. It has a debugger included, tabs for multiple documents, a tool for quickly building visual interface prototypes, and even includes additional modules. Pythonista makes itself available as a sharing extension, so you can create Python scripts in other apps, and then run them in Pythonista. CODA $24.99 panic.com > This text editor supports syntax highlighting in a wide range of languages, including HTML, PHP, JavaScript, and more than we can list. A custom keyboard helps you write code faster, there are great editing tools including a special magnifying loupe for moving the cursor, and tabs for multiple open documents at once. There’s even a full SSH client…

Free Developer Truebill, truebill.com Platform iPhone Requirements iOS 8.0 or later In a world of subscription services, it’s really easy to break your budget without attempting to. How many times have you realized that after your Netflix and Hulu subscriptions, your gym membership, and your credit card auto-payment, you’ve almost got no money left in your checking account? That’s where Truebill wants to help. Truebill works by asking you to log in to your credit card, checking, and PayPal accounts; it then looks for recurring payments and monitors them. Truebill will alert you when one of your payments posts, as well as to any new recurring payments. In the event that you’ve missed a payment and incurred a late fee, Truebill alerts you and offers to request a refund on…

$0.99 Developer JaYes Apps, txtbck.info Platform Universal Requirements iOS 10.0 or later Perhaps we’re just not hanging out with the right people, but they don’t seem to really text that much any more. Facebook Messenger, Twitter DMs, Slack, and WhatsApp seem far more useful than SMS and iMessage, perhaps because they’re easier to talk to people in other countries, or switch devices. But here is an app made for people who do use the Messages app – and its sole purpose is to remind you to text back. Trying to figure out the exact situation that would require specifically this app, and not just the iPhone’s built-in Reminders, is a little difficult. The app is integrated with iMessage, so if you enable it, you can copy messages and set reminders…

$2.99 Developer RAC7 Games, splittercritters.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 7.0 or later Some games are so incredibly clever that you can spend almost as much time trying to figure out how they were made as you do playing them. Splitter Critters is one of those. It’s deceptively simple: swipe your finger across the screen to “split” it, then drag the screen to move the two halves. You’re trying to guide some slightly simple, Lemmings-like aliens to the spaceship at the end of each level, and you’ll do so by lining up platforms, and avoiding lasers, lava, and other less friendly aliens. The simplicity masks some fantastic puzzle design in Splitter Critters’ 42 levels (and 12 bonus levels), as you tear up each environment in increasingly complex ways to save your…

apps and guides to get more from your watch Free Developer Zane Innovations, zane-innovations.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8.0 or later A tip calculator seems like a natural fit for an Apple Watch app, yet so many developers seem to get it wrong. Many have the right idea but fail at execution, such as presenting a keypad that’s far too tiny for even averagely sized fingers to press correct digits. Zane Tips attempts to rectify this problem by using voice input by default for subtotal and tip percentage, while retaining the option for tap-based numeric input in two different sizes: regular and large. The app isn’t designed only for dining out in restaurants, but includes taxi, bags, and retail options as well. It can also automatically record your current location…

1 GET REWARDED Stocard makes it fast and easy to earn rewards from your favorite retailers. First, download the free iPhone app and start entering all your loyalty cards. 2 WATCH WALLET Once at the store and ready to check out, launch Stocard on Apple Watch and then select a retailer’s logo or name from the color-coded list. 3 FLICK YOUR WRIST When a barcode appears on your Apple Watch’s screen, simply extend your arm, have it scanned, and start racking up big savings on future purchases.…

$299 Manufacturer IK Multimedia, ikmultimedia.com Features 50W output, RCA/3.5mm inputs, Bluetooth, 3x EQ sliders Should your experiments with the likes of GarageBand and Logic have moved into more serious music production territory, you may find yourself ditching desktop speakers in favour of a pair of proper monitors. While regular speakers are great for listening to professionally recorded music, they’re not designed for mixing your own. That’s where monitors come in: rather than prettifying music with overemphasized frequencies, they offer an honest, uncolored representation of the sound, which helps to make the finished mix sound great on a range of playback devices, from soundbars to headphones and car stereos. The problem with most monitors is their size: they’re not exactly practical for regular desks, and are often overpowered for small rooms.…

$29.99 Manufacturer Nonda, nonda.co Features 2x USB ports (4.8A), Bluetooth Plug this dongle into your parked car’s cigarette lighter port (with the engine on), sync it to your iPhone using the Zus app, and its map will guide you back when you need to retrieve your car. The app has some nifty features. Set up a parking alarm and it’ll buzz you 10 minutes before your time is up. Share your location with select contacts so lift-sharers can find you. The dongle has two built-in USB ports that can charge two iPad Pros simultaneously, and can even monitor your car’s battery health and calculate trip costs. But do you need it? You can already mark, track, and share locations with Maps, and set up parking alerts in Reminders and Siri.…

JARGON BUSTER Most security cameras run off batteries or mains power, but some can use POE (Power Over Ethernet). This allows the camera to get both power and internet access from a single cable, and can be really useful if you want to install several cameras around your home or business premises. STORAGE The Netatmo Welcome includes an 8GB memory card for local storage, but doesn’t provide an option for online storage. You can, however, link it to a Dropbox account to store your videos online. 1 Home and away Like most security cameras, Netatmo’s Welcome can track your location through its app on your iPhone. You can link the Welcome to the phones of other family members too, so it knows when the house is empty and it needs…

REQUIRES macOS Sierra (though many tips work as far back as OS X Lion) YOU WILL LEARN How to resize and reposition windows quickly and precisely IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes SADLY, MACOS doesn’t have an equivalent to Microsoft’s Window Snap feature to enable you to quickly make a window fill the left or right half of the desktop. However, it has some hidden shortcuts that are more powerful. Over these two pages you’ll learn techniques that will help you to wrangle windows more efficiently, so you can quickly get on with more pressing tasks. Not all of them are obvious, and some are the sort of thing that even veteran Mac users might be surprised to discover. Some of these shortcuts have been part of the Mac operating system…

Changing the ringer volume on the Home screen should not affect other volume levels. Conversely, changing the volume on an active app, such as Music, should not change it for any other app. I use the “Bedtime” feature, which allows me to set the wake-up volume. However, I have overslept on occasion because the volume was reduced after I changed it while in some other app. I have not been able to discern the pattern. I can’t tell if changing the volume on any other app changes the Bedtime wake-up alarm volume or if it is just certain apps or just on the Home screen. I have to remember to check Bedtime’s alarm volume to be sure I can hear it. Of course, at bedtime, I often forget because I…

1 VIEW THE SIDEBAR You can browse your library with or without a sidebar; without it, views and playlists are accessed through the arrow next to Library in the navigation bar. To toggle the sidebar, choose View > Show/Hide Sidebar. 2 SWITCH MEDIA TYPE This menu enables you to switch between types of media, or you can press c+1 through 9. You can edit its contents: pick Edit Menu from it and leave check marks next to only those items you want to be visible. 3 SEE THE STATUS BAR The Status Bar is hidden by default, but you can make it visible with View > Status Bar. It shows the current view or selection in terms of storage size taken up, duration of running time, and an item count.…

1 COLLABORATE! Pages, Numbers and Keynote enable working on docs with other people at the same time. Click Collaborate on the toolbar to invite people to work on your doc using the Mac, iOS or iCloud.com apps. 2 ACCESS WORD COUNT To keep an eye on how wordy a Pages document has become, choose View > Show Word Count. Move the pointer over the counter and a pop-up indicator appears; click it to change the unit that’s used. You can drag the counter anywhere over your doc. 3 REMOVE BACKGROUND Add an image, click the Format button in the toolbar and click Instant Alpha. Click and drag on an area of the image to make that color, and similar ones, transparent. The effect is applied contiguously. 4 RENAME TEXT STYLES…

1 SIDEBAR SPEEDINESS Choose View > Show Sidebar to see a pane of page thumbnails for your document. That menu also contains options to switch to a table of contents, highlights and notes, bookmarks, or a contact sheet of thumbnails. 2 CHANGE YOUR VIEW Preview uses a continuous scrolling view of single pages by default. If you’ve opened a comic or magazine, View > Two Pages is better for a wide screen. Feel like reading slowly in an automated fashion? Try View > Slideshow. 3 ADD HIGHLIGHTS For basic edits to a PDF, use the Highlight button in the toolbar. Select some text, click the button’s downward arrow, and choose a color – or use strikethrough to flag something for deletion. Remember to save! 4 MAKE MAJOR EDITS You can’t…

1 FILTER OUT JUNK In Mail > Preferences, click the Junk Mail tab and turn on filtering. You can define how the app processes junk messages, and you can exempt certain messages to avoid false attribution. Enabling filtering adds a Junk mailbox in the Mailbox List sidebar, as well. 2 SORT AND FILTER Messages are usually sorted in reverse chronological order; click the “Sort by” menu at the top left of the list to change this. Alternatively, click the filter button (top right), then the filter’s description left of that to see only messages from VIPs, for example. 3 SAVE ATTACHMENTS Open a message and put the pointer over the separating line between its body and the sender’s info above it to reveal some icons; click the paper clip button…

REQUIRES iOS 10’s Home app, at least one HomeKitcompatible accessory YOU WILL LEARN How to set up your accessories, arrange them in rooms, and set up scenes to control several with one tap IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes GENIUS TIP If your iOS device lacks 3D Touch, rather than pressing firmly on an item to edit it, hold your finger on it for a short time (a long press). TECHNOLOGY that enables you to control your home from your smartphone or tablet is becoming more common, and the range of such accessories that works with iOS devices is growing all the time. Among them are lighting, motion sensors, thermostats and much more. Apple provides a system that enables these devices to work together and be controlled from your iPhone or…

EDITORIAL $4.99 editorial-app.com > This is a text editor for the web age. Editorial has a number of features that make it perfect for writing, such as the ability to collapse sections of a document to keep them out of the way – but the killer features are its options for workflow. You can set up automated tasks to be run on your document with just a tap, performing checks as simple as scanning it to make sure brand names are correct, or as complex as finding, adding, and styling content found online based on triggers in your text – and much more beyond. You can find other users’ workflows online to easily add them to the app. PAGES $9.99, apple.com > Pages is fine for simple writing, but where…

THIS MONTH’S MOST INTERESTING iPHONE & iPAD APPS $1.99 Developer Lunabee, onesafe-apps.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 9.3 or later We’ve reviewed many password manager apps over the years, with 1Password continuing to be the cream that rises to the top. But if its relatively high cost or recent shift to subscription pricing is a turnoff, you’ll want to check out the next best thing: onePass 4 is a universal iOS app that takes a whimsical approach to password management. That’s not to say the devs have slacked off on security; the app uses the same local AES-256 encryption found in rival products, with the addition of its own TRI-PIN technology. TRI-PIN eliminates the possibility of someone sneaking a peek at your fourdigit PIN code, since the app uses a keypad…

$0.99 Developer Davide Rossetto, daviderossetto.it Platform watchOS, iPhone Requirements iOS 9.0 or later The idea of watching videos on a tiny Apple Watch display may sound absurd, but as noted previously in these pages, it’s one developers continue to explore. The latest to make the effort is Video on Watch, which allows iPhone owners to transfer videos stored in the Camera Roll or iCloud Photo Library and play them back on Apple Watch. The app works surprisingly well, and is easy to use. From the iPhone app, select a video in your Camera Roll, optionally trim the head and/or tail, then tap Choose to save an optimized version inside Video on Watch. Choose one or more videos to transfer, tap the Watch icon at the bottom, and within seconds they’re…

TOUGH TESTING, TRUSTED RATINGS $400 Manufacturer GoPro, gopro.com Features 4K 30fps/1440p 80fps/1080p 120fps video, voice activation, video stabilization, waterproof to 33ft GoPro is a name that has become synonymous with folk who like to throw themselves off mountains at the weekend. However, a whole host of rivals has been attempting to muscle in on the extreme sports video camera market of late, thus the entire GoPro lineup has been refreshed; it now starts with the Hero Session, moves up to the Hero5 Session, and tops out with the high-spec Hero5 Black. There are plenty of new features for “gnarly” types to sink their teeth into, including a rear touchscreen, voice activation and super-easy, one-button control; the overall experience has been revamped to make capturing the action as painless as possible.…

Free (subscription required) Developer Balanced Software, balancemy.money Requirements OS X 10.10 or later If you miss the convenience of tracking finances from Mint’s discontinued menu bar app, there’s an alternative. But prepare for sticker shock: While free to download, Balance requires a recurring subscription based on the number of accounts you want to monitor, from $4.99 per month. Yes, it’s expensive, but the developers justify the cost by supporting more than 9,000 financial institutions. Balance gets most details right: You can search transactions, and create notification rules triggered when banks charge a fee, or if you spend more than a certain amount in a single transaction. The tabbed window enables fast, easy access to Accounts, Transactions, Notifications, and Insights – a peek into your spending habits. Still, we couldn’t log…

$200 (free for existing users) Developer Apple, apple.com Requirements OS X 10.11 or later, 4GB RAM We were beginning to fall a little out of love with Logic Pro X. What used to be a lean, mean, music production machine had become sluggish and crashy, and we found ourselves dreading even simple tasks such as bouncing tracks, because they’d often take down Logic completely. But version 10.3 fixes that, and introduces some important improvements too. The most obvious difference is the revised interface, which is flatter, lighter, and less likely to give you eye strain. With Advanced Tools turned off, the app looks more like GarageBand than ever, although pro users won’t see the fake woodgrain. If you’re a GarageBand for iOS user, you’ll love the new export feature: You…

$0.99 Developer Robin Lu, robin.github.io Requirements OS X 10.11 or later This tiny utility adds an icon to the menu bar that enables you to connect or disconnect a particular Bluetooth device from your Mac with a single click. You choose which device from your Mac’s list of Bluetooth devices, and you can set a global shortcut, so you don’t even need the menu icon. It’s designed for AirPods, really: any other Bluetooth audio device must be actively disconnected from any other devices it’s working with before you can connect it from your Mac. Apple’s smarter wireless tech in the AirPods doesn’t require this, and can switch seamlessly as soon as you click Tooth Fairy’s icon – and it works great for this, enabling connections in fewer clicks than the…

1 COCOON $219 cocoon.life Together with a 1080p camera and night-vision mode, this crowdfunding success story uses an innovative “Subsound” technology to detect sound and vibrations throughout your entire home – not just one room. As well as sending alarms to your iPhone, it also has a seriously loud 90db siren. 2 LOGITECH CIRCLE $150 logitech.com There are more advanced cameras available, but we like the Circle’s ease of use and semi-portable design. The Circle will spend most of its time sitting in its powered dock, but it also has a rechargeable battery that enables you to move it around – perhaps into a child’s bedroom – for up to 12 hours. 3 NETATMO PRESENCE $300 netatmo.com It’s expensive, but the Presence is one of the best outdoor cameras available.…

1 LG Hub Robot lg.com TBA >>> Although LG is a huge and successful electronics company, it has never really had the sort of reputation for leading-edge innovation enjoyed by rivals such as Apple and Samsung. That could change, though, if its barrage of high-tech product launches at this year’s CES show are any indication. The real showstopper was LG’s Hub Robot, a cute little voice-controlled home assistant, complete with blinking digital eyes. It’s based on the Alexa voicerecognition technology used in the Amazon Echo, and can play music or check the weather forecast, just like Alexa. However, LG has taken things further by including features such as face recognition, so that it knows when individual family members leave or arrive home. It can even remember different greetings for each…

REQUIRES CyberGhost, iOS 9 or later YOU WILL LEARN What a VPN can do for you, and the settings you should be using IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes If you want to keep data secure, you should use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This is a method by which internet-connected devices can encrypt communications when using an untrusted public network. A VPN encrypts the links between your device and a website’s server, so your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can’t see the websites you’ve visited. This gives a level of anonymity over your IP address, as well as protection against hackers looking to gain access to your data, especially when you’re using a public Wi-Fi network – but be warned, if you’re using an unencrypted connection your details can still be…