Innehållsförteckning för October 2017 från MacLife

EVEN AS APPLE’S AirPods continue to suffer from stock shortages – the estimated shipping time for a pair has only just dropped from six weeks to four – it may be that the company is already in the planning stages of a new version. A newly published patent application from Apple describes an “in-ear speaker hybrid audio transparency system.? This would enable the earphone wearer to selectively mute or amplify ambient sounds while still listening to audio – with the added benefit of eliminating the somewhat unpleasant echoey effect you experience when speaking while wearing headphones. Headphones with this so-called “audio passthrough“ technology aren’t new, though at the moment they’re generally confined to the more expensive end of the market. This is largely due to the complexity of adding both…

THE IDEA of wearing products on our persons has had a long journey to the mainstream. Remember when it became hard to tell whether someone was talking to themselves or a Bluetooth headset? Now we get to play Dick Tracy with our Apple Watches, and I think Apple is working to expand upon this trend in big ways. Whether you pin the first wearable consumer tech as the iconic Walkman, Casio calculator watch, or something else, society has steadily marched towards joining with our devices. We aren’t quite at the precipice of the human-technology singularity yet, but Apple is one of the few companies that’s made headway with useful tools that are actually fashionable. Wait, bear with me… While “fashionable” hasn’t been a common term in tech, I think you’ll…

FOR THE first time since the App Store opened in 2008, Apple has given it a complete redesign that looks more elegant and is easier to navigate. Apps and games are separated into their own tabs, and you’ll be tempted to revisit often to see what’s featured in the Today tab. In the new-look store you’ll find tips on using popular apps, developer profiles and interviews, and listings that are better structured to help you find out what you need to know about apps. Very old apps don’t work 1 32-BIT APPS won’t run on iOS 11. If you’re concerned about downloading an old app that’s still in the store, look out for a gray banner at the top of its page that explains “The developer of this app needs…

1 TYPE TO SIRI Until now, speaking was your main way to ask something of Siri. Typing on a keyboard only figured if you wanted to correct something Siri misheard. iOS 11 has a new Type to Siri option In Settings > General > Accessibility > Siri. If enabled, typing is used to interact with Siri when you hold the Home button. 2 COMBINE WITH DICTATION You can still use your voice with Siri if iOS’s Dictation feature is enabled in Settings > General > Keyboards. Open Siri, tap the microphone key, speak, then tap the keyboard icon followed by Done. 3 HEY SIRI Even with Type to Siri enabled, the assistant will switch to voice control if you call for its help by saying “Hey Siri.” On devices that…

iOS’S HOME APP offers the extra flexibility necessary for a smart home to be convenient for your whole family. It takes the existing ability to trigger automations based on when your location changes, a time of day occurs, an accessory is controlled, or a sensor detects something, and adds more detailed time constraints plus the potential to track all family members coming and going. For example, the expanded range of conditions that can trigger automations enables you to turn on your heating only if someone is home and the time is between 5 PM and midnight. Bear in mind that automating HomeKit accessories and scenes requires a device that can act as a home hub. Today, that’s either an iPad or an Apple TV model that runs tvOS (starting with…

INSTANT MARKUP is a set of tools for annotating documents in any app, whether for your own use or to collaborate with other people. In most apps you only have to tap the Share icon, then Create PDF in the bottom row of the sheet. Some add extra steps: at the documents list in Pages, tap the Share icon, Send a Copy, PDF, then Create PDF. If an app has no sharing feature, you can take a screenshot and annotate that! 1 START MARKING UP While viewing a document, use its app’s means of opening the Share sheet. In the sheet’s bottom row, tap Create PDF. When the PDF opens, tap the pen icon on the toolbar. 2 THE LASSO TOOL Tap this, mark a selection that intersects at least…

$9.99 From Levcoh, untitledapp.co Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 8.0 or later Untitled is a notepad for people who think their calling is to pen a Hollywood blockbuster (or a desperately cool indie flick). At its core, the app’s a basic text editor. You tap out your masterpiece, and a keyboard toolbar assists with adding Markdown for bold, italic, or underline styles; there’s also a full-screen mode, to help you focus on difficult scenes. But Untitled is cleverer than the average text app, in that if you follow some basic rules, it’ll automatically format your screenplay when you tap the preview button. For example, type “Outside the office at night,” and that becomes “EXT. OFFICE – NIGHT.” There are plenty of other niceties in this area. The app makes…

$4.99 From Mipumi Games, lionssonggame.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 8.0 or later The Lion’s Song is the rare episodic game that isn’t improved by binging. Each of its four short stories is self-contained and distinct, a languid character study that focuses on mood instead of intrigue. The Lion’s Song takes its time, and so should you. Set at the turn of the century, The Lion’s Song explores the intellectual life of Vienna, each vignette featuring a different protagonist. There’s Wilma, a composer with writer’s block; Franz, an artist suffering mysterious blackouts; and Emma, a mathematician struggling to gain the acceptance of her male peers. The fourth story, “Closure,” serves as a coda, tying each character together on the eve of World War I. A sense of progress runs…

Free From Cromulent Labs, cromulentlabs.com Made for iPhone, iPad, Watch Needs iOS 9.0 or later There are plenty of apps offering widgets that can be launched with the tap, but most of them cost money. Launcher with Notification Center Widgets is not only free, but also works on Apple Watch. There are a few catches, of course — the app requires in-app purchases to unlock more than six launchers, and watchOS support is currently limited to contacts and music. Apple Watch launchers are set up independently from those accessible on iPhone and iPad, but do come in handy for quickly dialing your favorite contacts or launching a playlist for select artists, albums, playlists, and more. You’ll need the $2.99 Pro upgrade if you don’t want a label underneath the icon…

$150 From JBL, jbl.com Features 2x 2.25-inch woofers, 2x 15W power rating, Google Cast, Bluetooth You probably know JBL from its Bluetooth speakers, but the Playlist is something a little different for the company. Rather than a simple Bluetooth-equipped and batterypowered speaker, the Playlist is wall-powered and equipped with Google Cast (more usually known as “Chromecast built-in”). You can still use Bluetooth if you’d prefer, but Google Cast allows the speaker to become part of a multi-room home setup. Much as with AirPlay, you stream your music over your home’s Wi-Fi, and you can pair the speaker with others to fill your whole house with music. There’s a set of playback controls on top of the speaker, which give you limited control of playback from the Playlist itself, while the…

$399 From Pioneer, pioneer-audiovisual.com Features Twin DACs, Up to 192 kHz/32-bit audio, normal and balanced outputs Music fans are getting very excited about high-resolution audio, which delivers sound that’s vastly superior to CD quality or standard downloads. There’s just one catch: high-res audio players are incredibly expensive… or at least, they were. Pioneer’s XDP-30R is a pretty thing, black aluminum with a touchscreen, a copper volume knob, transport buttons, and twin microSD slots: high-res audio files are big, and you’ll fill the 16GB internal storage in no time. Cards up to 256GB apiece work. There’s a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a 2.5 mm jack for balanced headphones, plus Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB. PC users get management software, but on the Mac you must drag and drop in Finder. The…

€29.99 (about $36) From Ergonis, ergonis.com Needs macOS X 10.6 or later PopChar’s premise is simple. Click its icon at the far left of the menu bar (or the far right if you choose – you can also assign a hot key) and it displays a list of fonts installed on your system. Click on a font and it displays all the characters available in that font. Click on a character and it’s inserted into the currently active document on your Mac. You can also insert it as formatted, rather than plain, text. Whether the character you’re looking for is a mathematical symbol, a Cyrillic letter, or an emoji, PopChar has it covered. You can specify frequently used characters and add them to the Favorites bar, and if you need…

ANYONE WHO HAS lived with young children knows The Secret Place. It’s that cherished area in your home that, given the chance, one parent will escape to while the other wrangles the kid into bed or the bath or, on really desperate days, the car to grandma’s house. The Secret Place has an old couch, a TV or laptop, and a ready supply of sugar-laden snacks that otherwise only appear in your child’s wildest dreams. Our Secret Place was in the corner of our attic, and proved the perfect hideout for me and my husband to take turns in. “Where’s Daddy? Um… well he certainly isn’t upstairs watching Game of Thrones and gorging on gluten-free brownies, that’s for darn sure.” But now our kid is two and can easily outwit…

OVER THE SUMMER we’ve been using the public beta version of iOS 11; whether we were enjoying a short weekend break at the beach with our iPhone cameras in tow, travelling with our iPads instead of MacBooks, or just slouching on a sofa doing the same things we normally do, we’ve felt the bene..ts of the many changes ..pple’s latest annual update brings. Of course, we’ve put that hands-on experience to good use to bring you a huge 24-page guide that will help you get to grips with all things great and small about the new operating system. When I bought a second-generation iPad Pro upon it’s release a few months ago, I stuck with iOS 10 for a couple of weeks, before upgrading it to the early beta. Even…

Feed your mind. Feast your eyes. APPLE HAS RECEIVED the go-ahead to test 5G broadband connectivity, the first step in a long journey towards the next generation of wireless comms. Granted by the FCC just a few months after the company applied for it, the license enables Apple to conduct trials with 5G millimeter wave technology on the 28GHz and 39GHz frequency bands. The move comes shortly after the regulatory agency opened up the commercial sale of certain 5G bands, with mobile carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile now making plans of their own to offer consumer-wide 5G within the next two years or so. n o. Apple isn’t alone in testing millimeter wave (mmWave) broadband; Google, Facebook, and most of the aforementioned carriers are also trialing it.…

FANS OF LISTENING to tunes in tiny vessels and retro-tech lovers alike are in for some bad news, as Apple has discontinued the iPod nano and iPod shuffe and has removed the devices from its retail and online stores. “Today, we are simplifying our iPod lineup with two models of iPod touch, now with double the capacity, starting at just $199, and we are discontinuing the iPod shuffe and iPod nano,” Apple said in a statement to Bloomberg. As the statement notes, the two pocket-sized members of the long-running iPod family are no more, but the last remaining representative, the iPod touch, lives on in a 32GB model for $199 and a 128GB model for $299. Though these offer extra storage space over the previous versions, they do so at…

iOS 11 CONSOLIDATES all of the items in Control Center into a single page, rather than expecting you to swipe left or right between general, media playback, and HomeKit controls like in iOS 10. Because it makes things much faster to access, it’s one of our favorite changes in this year’s upgrade. At a glance you might think some controls have been removed in iOS 11. There’s no sign of AirDrop, for example. The key to getting the most from Control Center is to remember that you can apply a long press (or a firm one on devices equipped with 3D Touch) to many of the individual or groups of controls to reveal additional features, or sometimes contextual settings. Aside from it being better structured and quicker to navigate, there’s…

APPLE HAS IMPROVED Notes a lot in recent years. You can already add sketches, checklists, and images, and format your text. iOS 11 builds on this with better-organized text formatting options, so text styles, list styles, and indentation settings are accessed through more distinctive controls. But what’s really cool are the shortcuts that enable you to create notes from the Lock screen, plus all the new things you can add to notes. Quick note creation 1 START A NOTE You can tap your Apple Pencil on an empty part of the Lock screen (or use Control Center’s new Notes button) to start taking notes. This shortcut can be turned off in Settings > Notes > Access Notes from the Lock Screen. 2 NEW OR RESUME? You can choose to: always…

FILES ISN’T just the iCloud Drive app renamed, though it is how you access that service in iOS 11. It’s also a means to access other storage on your device, such as Dropbox, iCab’s Downloads folder, or storage on macOS Server, and it works a lot like Finder on the Mac. Storage apps released before iOS 11 work with it, but appear in a small window on iPad rather than using all of the right pane – be sure to check for updates in the App Store! 1 THE BROWSE TAB Each section of this tab’s sidebar can be collapsed by tapping its headline. The right pane browses whatever you tapped last in the sidebar. Swipe beyond the top items in it to: create a folder; sort by name, date…

APPLE’S MAPS SERVICE now helps you to navigate indoors as well as outside, thanks to the addition of interior maps for shopping malls and airports. This covers several major cities in the US and popular destinations around the world at launch, with more set to be added every month. There are new features to help keep drivers safe and more informed, plus a useful tweak if you use ride-booking apps. Find your way in malls and airports 1 INTERIOR MAPS Floor plans for select malls and airports are now available in Maps, both in 2D and 3D views. If you happen to scroll the map so that a place with an interior map comes into view, tap “Browse <place name>”, which slides in at the bottom of the screen (iPhone)…

You’ll need an Apple TV or iPad that’s set as your home hub, a HomeKitcompatible contact or motion sensor, and a HomeKit-compatible light. 1 In the Automation tab, tap the +, followed by “A Sensor Detects Something,” tap the contact sensor or motion sensor in your hallway, then tap Next. On the next page, ensure “Detects Motion” is checked. 2 Tap the Time row, tap At Night, then the “I” to the right of that option. Adjust the times during which you want this automation to be active, relative to sunset and sunrise, and then tap Done. Tap People, then “When somebody is home,” then Next. 3 In the list of all your home’s accessories, tap the light(s) you want the automation to turn on – maybe one downstairs too,…

BEYOND ITS BIG features, iOS 11 has some neat little settings that might save you money or battery power, help you to better protect your privacy, or make your iPhone or iPad work better with other Apple devices by adding features to AirPods and Apple Watch. Check out these useful techniques. 1 ACCESS TO YOUR LOCATION Previously, control over some apps’ access to your location (in Settings > Privacy > Location Services) might have offered you just two of three possible options: Never, While Using the App, and Always. For example, in iOS 10 Uber offered only the first and last of those options, but in iOS 11 the third, more conservative option is available for it and all other apps. 2 ENHANCE YOUR AIRPODS iOS 11 is an upgrade…

$4.99 From ABBYY, abbyy.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 9.0 or later Among the apps that can translate text in another language when you point your camera at it, TextGrabber has a few advantages: It’s fast, it’s relatively accurate, and it digitizes the text in the original language and yours. You could even just use it to OCR text in English, if you wanted to quickly extract editable text from a sign, page, or anywhere you see it. TextGrabber’s real-time mode lets you tap or hold the button to quickly capture and OCR short bursts of text. If you’re grabbing whole pages, slide the mode picker to Camera instead. The final mode is a QR code reader, which is less handy now iOS 11’s own Camera app has this.…

Apple’s Photos app on iPhone and iPad offers some great tools for sorting your photos, but it’s far from your only option. The App Store has a wealth of apps that can help organize, manage, and back up your photos for all kinds of uses. Here are some of our favorite recommendations. CAMERA+ $2.99 Made for iPhone, Watch One of the most popular alternatives to your iPhone’s built-in camera app, Camera+ has a relatively rare, powerful feature called a “lightbox.” It’s a place to save the photos you take with Camera+ in the app, rather than with all your other pictures stored in Photos. Don’t worry, though, Camera+ can also sync your lightbox photos to iCloud, so they’re kept safe. The lightbox is a great way to keep your photography…

Free From Move, realtor.com Made for iPhone, iPad, Watch Needs iOS 9.0 or later Next time you’re in the market for a new home, a web browser isn’t required to go shopping. With the Realtor.com Real Estate app installed on your connected iPhone, you can now perform searches from the Apple Watch app instead. Opening the app on your wrist brings up a single button for finding Homes Nearby, using location-based data from your smartphone. Tap it and a few moments later, you’ll see a list of results with a thumbnail photo of the property in question, as well as asking price, basic information like square footage, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Turn the Digital Crown to scroll through the five nearest results. You can also configure notifications to…

WITH THE LATEST generation of 5K iMac and performance improvements in macOS High Sierra, virtual reality has finally come to Apple’s computers. The problem in the past was a combination of poor graphics chips and limited software support for fast graphics, but that’s no longer the case. At least, it’s not the case for every iMac. The iMac reviewed here, despite costing $1,799, isn’t VR-capable. According to graphics chip manufacturer AMD, virtual reality on the Mac is only officially supported on the top-of-the-range $2,299 model that comes with an 8GB Radeon Pro 580 chip. (The iMac Pro will also be VR capable when it arrives, of course.) Still, as time goes on, that level of power will reach the less expensive models in the range, so more people will be…

$100 From Pioneer, pioneerrayz.com Features Lightning connector, carry bag Available in onyx (black) or space gray, this diminutive speaker will become an indispensable accessory for a specific group of people. It’s also exclusively available in Apple Stores. If you often find yourself on a call around an iPhone with your coworkers (or family), then it will be a hundred bucks very well spent. Conference call quality is exceptional and a marked improvement on the iPhone’s built-in speaker (not surprisingly). Rayz Rally’s single button can be used to mute or end calls. It’s Lightning-powered, though you can connect a Lightning cable to the bottom as well to charge it and your iPhone or iPad. An app updates the firmware and guides you through a basic tutorial. THE BOTTOM LINE. At a…

$59.99 From Feral Interactive, feralinteractive.com Needs macOS 10.12.5 or higher, Steam account, internet connection to activate Story has never been the main focus of the Hitman series: killing people as anonymously and yet extravagantly as possible has been. That changed with Hitman: Absolution in 2014, the only entry to make it to the Mac until now. This new installment has a story, but it’s a tale told in the margins — in post-mission cutscenes, overheard dialog, and, later, specific mission objectives that nonetheless follow the regular template. That’s good, though, because the template works. There’s a target, or two, or four, each with their own routes and security; your job is to assassinate them. You can, in many cases, just shoot your target and run away, hoping to reach the…

Better late than never, as the saying goes. It’s been frustrating, in recent months, to see Amazon’s Echo speaker and its Alexa voice assistant grabbing all the headlines, while Apple’s Siri and its HomeKit home-automation software sat glumly on the sidelines. The Echo was also getting all the attention from manufacturers of smart lighting systems, thermostats, security cameras, and all the other smart home devices that we cover here every month in Home Life. Apple’s original plan for the emerging home automation market was to use the Apple TV as its central smart home control device. But the Apple TV has never really been a massive success, and it simply couldn’t compete with the Amazon Echo or the recently launched Google Home speaker. That’s where Apple’s new HomePod speaker comes…

REQUIRES macOS High Sierra, Photos, and some images (including Live Photos) YOU WILL LEARN How to make use of some great new Photos features in High Sierra IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes PHOTOS – AND iPHOTO before it – has never been a mere tool for organizing pictures and videos; it’s also packed with useful editing features. In macOS High Sierra, Apple has made big changes to this aspect of the app. It’s now easier to manage imports and filter albums – and you can do far more with Live Photos. The app feels more considered for fine-tuning images, too. Its new Curves and Selective Color tools add a professional sheen, and the revamped interface is more usable, making a bigger range of adjustment tools immediately accessible by housing them…

REQUIRES AirMail 3, an email account YOU WILL LEARN How to tame even the most intimidating inbox IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes Airmail 3 is designed to organize even the busiest accounts. It integrates with stacks of third-party apps to share information, notes, and events; it enables you to hide messages until you actually need to do something about them; and you can customize everything from its icons to what happens when you swipe the trackpad. At $9.99 it’s excellent value for money. One of the things we really like about Airmail is that it doesn’t force you to sacrifice anything. The most powerful apps tend to prioritize utility over appearance, but Airmail is as pretty as it is powerful; it’s also exceptionally easy to use and, if you use…

REQUIRES Bear, OS X 10.10 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to add, organize, and export notes in Bear IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes HOW MANY DIFFERENT bits of information do you need to carry around in your head or on your Mac at one time? If you’re anything like us, it’s a lot; grocery lists and to-do lists and things to remember and things to download later and things to look up and things to find out about and… we’re tired just thinking about it. Wouldn’t it be great if you could shove all of that into a simple app that enables you to find what you need whenever you need it? That’s Bear. Bear is a combination of two kinds of app: it’s a note-taking/to-do app, and a…

REQUIRES Mindly (free, with optional in-app purchases), iOS 9 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to create, edit, and share a mind map IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes MIND MAPS OFFER an Mindly organizes items into a multilevel hierarchy, with sub-items orbiting their parent in a circle. Our step-by-step guide here explains how to quickly get your mind map up and running. Once you’ve got the basics in place, you’ll start to learn all Mindly’s hidden tips and tricks – for example, you can rotate items around their parent using your finger, which is a handy way to keep track as the number of items grows. Along with Mindly’s intuitive touches – for example, it’ll adapt how it’s displaying things to keep your notes as accessible as possible – you’ve got…

Your opinions, rants & raves That’s what we were taught, too. We messed up here, even though we learned this rule of thumb to ensure proper use: “i” for financial, else “e.” Things like this creep into language over time, sometimes through misuse, but also because bigger publications than ours lead the way with decisions which then filter down to common use through exposure. This instance is a mistake, and your constructive feedback is appreciated. We endeavour to use language well, though we don’t always get it right. It’s easy for software guides to become laden with sloppy use of language – that is, overly casual descriptions of interactions when trying to teach readers. Clarity of expression is something we try to keep in mind, from planning content to the…

THE BASICS OF notifications remain the same in iOS 11. They can appear as a banner across the top of the screen, play a sound, and display a badge on their parent app’s Home screen icon to remind you there are things awaiting your attention. However, there are some important changes to know about. Helpfully, they include the use of clearer language to describe behaviors and hopefully prevent confusion. In the past you might previously have stopped an app showing notifications on the Lock screen because you didn’t want it to display potentially sensitive data there. Problem is, you could also miss important notifications. Fortunately, this should no longer be necessary – one of iOS 11’s most welcome changes can fix that for you. 1 BANNERS, PLAIN AND SIMPLE The…

THE WAY YOU work with two apps side-by-side has changed for the better in iOS 11, which means learning some new tricks to get things where you want them. You can stash more apps and folders in the Dock now, in the area left of its dividing line. To the right you’ll see up to three other app icons: those you’ve recently used; which Siri thinks you might need; or to which one of your nearby devices can hand off a task. (These can be hidden using Settings > General > Multitasking & Dock > Show Suggested and Recent Apps.) The Dock can be called up at anytime with a short swipe from the bottom of the screen. A longer swipe opens the app switcher and Control Center. These are…

1 CAMERA FILE FORMATS The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus take photos and videos in the new and very efficient HEIF and HEVC formats. In Settings > Photos, Transfer to Mac or PC is usually set to Automatic, which tells iOS to work out whether to transfer in these new or older (JPEG and H.264) formats. You might pick Keep Originals if you’re transferring media to your computer purely for archival purposes. If an app or part of your workflow doesn’t work with the new formats, force iOS to record in JPEG/H.264: in Settings > Camera > Formats, tap Most Compatible. 2 CELLULAR DATA USAGE In Settings > Photos, you can turn off the Cellular Data option to stop iCloud Photo Library updates using your limited data allowance. If…

8 SPEED LIMIT INDICATORS During directions, Maps may show the speed limit for the road you’re on. Don’t want the guilt trip? Go to Settings > Maps > Driving & Navigation and turn off Speed Limit under “Show in Navigation.” 9 QUICKLY SWITCH VIEW You can now more quickly switch between following turn-by-turn directions and an overview of your journey: tap the current instruction at the top of the screen. 10 ORIENT THE OVERVIEW When you switch to the overview, a compass briefly appears at the top right. Tap it to switch between the top of the screen being aligned to North, or your destination. When the compass is hidden, tap the map to reveal it. 11 SHOW RIDES FROM NEW APPS When you ask for directions, Maps can suggest…

FEW WOULD ARGUE with the notion that Apple made a bit of a pig’s ear of integrating third-party apps with Messages when it introduced the capability in iOS 10. Now it has untangled the spaghetti mess of navigation it created, by putting access to the iMessage App Store, Digital Touch, and your installed iMessage apps behind one icon that looks like the regular App Store’s. Tap it to reveal the new, easier to navigate app drawer. 1 THE APP DRAWER In an iMessage conversation, tap the App Store icon (left of the message box) to open the app drawer. Swipe on the drawer and its row grows larger to help you find what you want. 2 FAVORITE APPS AND OTHERS The iMessage App Store is the leftmost item, then Digital…

THIS MONTH’S MOST INTERESTING iPHONE & iPAD APPS $19.99 From Luma Touch, luma-touch.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 10 or later The iPad has become a great device for a lot of creative tasks, but video has always been a bit of a weak area. iMovie is great for simple stu?, but is very limited. Other apps have come and gone that have attempted to add the tools people are used to from desktop video editors, but none has set the world alight. LumaFusion is the best attempt yet at fitting a full-on video editor on tablet, and though it’s not perfect, it’s powerful and smartly rethinks some elements of editing for a touch-focused world. If you’ve used iMovie on desktop, its basic interface won’t surprise you at all.…

Free (with in-app purchases) From EyeCue Vision Tech, qlone.pro Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 9.0 or later Qlone is a 3D object scanner that uses your iPhone or iPad’s camera to capture, edit, and export a 3D model. Scanning objects is free, and so is editing and sharing a static JPEG or GIF. But if you want to to use the models in other projects or print them with a 3D printer, exporting in OBJ, STL, PLY, and X3D format will cost you. Qlone sells credits as in-app purchases, from one export for 99 cents to 25 for $9.99. First, you have to print a mat with a black-and-white grid. Letter-sized paper is fine for small objects, and you can print on larger paper to scan bigger things. Regular…

$3.99 From Pixelnest Studio, pixelnest.io Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 10.0 or later We’re in old-school, side-scrolling shooter territory here. It’s you against endless hordes of evil space guys – and everyone’s armed to the teeth. Levels are randomly generated, meaning you’re never sure what waves of foes you’ll face. The only certainty is the periodic arrival of huge bosses that spew bullet-hell. Defeating them replenishes your shields, and awards you a power-up to boost your score or firepower. The key to surviving any length of time is mastering Steredenn’s weapons, and how they affect each type of enemy. Many are traditional in nature – guns, missiles, lasers – but amusingly realized, such as the standard blaster spitting spent cartridges all over the place. Often, though, you collect esoteric…

APPS AND GUIDES TO GET MORE FROM YOUR WATCH Free (with in-app purchases) From iCandi, icandiapps.com Made for iPhone, iPad, Watch Needs iOS 9.3 or later Here’s a watchOS developer that gets it! Night Sky 4 may be designed for stargazing the heavens above, but the Apple Watch app offers some very compelling reasons to keep your eyes on your wrist, too. For starters, there’s a complication that notifies interstellar buffs when the International Space Station will next pass over your particular chunk of this planet we call home, which also doubles as a shortcut to launch the app. Do that, and you’ll be asked to align your Watch with the Moon in order to view all the constellations, planets, satellites, and stars in the sky around you. Should you…

1 DEEP PRESS With a mere press on your Apple Watch’s display, you can make the Calendar app work a little more like the one on Mac and iOS devices. 2 WHAT’S ON DECK Prefer to see events one day at a time? Tap the Day option to view color-coded events, and then swipe left or right to move between days. 3 TIME WARP If you would rather pull up a condensed view of events, tap Today, then turn the Digital Crown to step through each all-day or timed event one at a time.…

$69 From Macphun, macphun.com Needs OS X 10.10.5 or later Macphun’s “Neptune” update to its impressive Luminar image-editing app brings new tools, new filters, and tweaks to the back end for increased performance with large image files. The headline new feature is Accent, a filter in the new Quick & Awesome workspace that claims to analyze your image using AI and fix everything thinks needs fixing. We assume it is actually doing this rather than just raising the midtone contrast and sharpness, as the filter acts very quickly even on a low-end Mac. Results are acceptably good – sunny images become sunnier, and any overcooked processing can be toned down by reducing the opacity of the layer every new filter is placed upon. Elsewhere, there’s support for all other Macphun…

$9.99 From Fardini Media, switchem.co Needs OS X 10.11 or later Window management is something of a holy grail on the Mac. The operating system includes Spaces for organizing windows across multiple desktops, but the feature lacks granular control. Switchem takes a different tack: It lets you set up multiple grouped app workspaces for different tasks and flip between them using a mechanism similar to macOS’s built-in app switcher.. Once you’ve organized all your task-related app windows, simply create a new group, give it a name, and Switchem assigns a number to the workspace. You can then switch to it at any time using a command + →[number] shortcut, which brings all apps to the front in their original positions. The solution works well on single desktops, while additional handy…

ELGATO EVE DOOR & WINDOW $40 elgato.com Elgato was one of the first companies to support HomeKit, and these little sensors are an affordable security option to fit throughout your home. However, you’ll need an Apple TV or HomePod (or a powered iPad set up as your hub) if you want alerts while you’re out. LOGITECH CIRCLE 2 $180 logitech.com The original Circle camera was well-received – not least by us – and the new Circle 2 ups the ante by adding support for HomeKit too. Watch out, though – there are two versions of the Circle 2, and it’s only the wired, wall-powered model that works with HomeKit, for reasons unknown. NANOLEAF AURORA SMARTER KIT $220 nanoleaf.me Nanoleaf does make straightforward light bulbs that work with HomeKit, but we…

SONY BRAVIA X850E $2,000 • SONY.COM Sony knows a thing or two about how to make a great TV, and this 65-inch 4K HDR model is a nice balance between quality and affordability. Sure, Android TV still stinks and the build quality is a little flimsy, but this sucker offers the X1 picture processing system that produces crisp 4K images. LOGITECH HARMONY HUB $100 • LOGITECH.COM This sleek black puck turns your iPhone or iPad into a multimedia universal remote control that works with Apple TV and more than 270,000 other entertainment and smart home devices. That’s great if you frequently lose or misplace remotes. It works with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, but not Siri just yet.…

REQUIRES A Mac running macOS High Sierra, and an internet connection YOU WILL LEARN How to use Safari’s new features to get the best reading experience on your favorite sites IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes OF ALL OF the built-in apps we’re happy to see get some love in a macOS update, Safari is at the top of the list. After all, a web browser is something we use very frequently – and we want Apple’s to be safer, smarter, and faster than the competition. In macOS High Sierra, the big changes center on performance, privacy, and customization. The revamped version of Safari is reportedly signifficantly faster than the competition, making it feel snappier in use – but also ensuring it doesn’t drain your Mac’s battery, if you’re sporting a…

REQUIRES Safari YOU WILL LEARN How to improve your searching experience by installing extra extensions IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes SEARCHING IN SAFARI is easy enough, but by installing a few extensions you can make it more interesting and productive as well. Extensions are available from a variety of sources, but Apple’s Safari Extensions Gallery is the best place to get them – all the ones featured there have been certified by Apple as being safe. The extensions we look at here add new features to Safari. SearchPreview adds thumbnail images to search results pages, AnySearch increases the number of search engines from four to more than a dozen, and Ultralink turns text on web pages into information links, making it easier to learn. Bear in mind that while it…

REQUIRES iPad Air 2, iPad Pro, or iPad (5th generation); Affinity Photo app YOU WILL LEARN How to open and edit images in Affinity Photo IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes AFFINITY PHOTO IS Serif’s professional-grade image editing app for macOS and Windows, and its move to iPad is a bit of a big deal. Before now, apps such as Apple’s Photos and Handy Photo from Adva Soft have been powerful, but lacked the kind of precision and many of the features we expect from software such as Adobe Photoshop. The iPad version of Affnity Photo, however, shares the same core tech and tools as the Mac version. Having this sort of app on the iPad is important for a number of reasons. It moves the tablet from being just a…