Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2018 från MacLife

WORLDWIDE SALES OF smartphones fell in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared to the corresponding quarter of 2016, according to leading data analysts. One of these, Gartner, Inc., said this is the first year-on-year decline since it started tracking the global smartphone market in 2004. Apple, however, held up well: Despite supply shortages and buyers reportedly delaying their purchases to see the iPhone X, released only in November, total iPhone shipments in the quarter were almost the same as in Q4 2016 and revenues were significantly higher. Gartner estimated that global sales of smartphones to end users totaled nearly 408 million units in the fourth quarter of 2017, a 5.6% decline compared to Q4 2016. The figures from IDC differed only slightly — total shipments 403.5 million units, year-on-year decline…

LIKE EVEN THE most modern of houses, our technology has bugs — little (and sometimes big) ways it doesn’t quite work right. It’s nearly impossible to squash all the bugs, but some apps, devices, and operating systems have more bugs than others. Much of Apple’s foundation was built on the overall quality of its user experience. In recent years, however, “it just works” has become “wait for an update or two and then it should just work. Maybe.” The latter doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, and Apple knows it. That’s why the company has started some spring cleaning and slowing down, and I think it’s the right thing to do for a few reasons. Apple has been releasing major operating system upgrades and new features every year, for over…

Let’s get one thing clear right from the get-go: iCloud Drive is not designed primarily for backup. You can set your Desktop and Documents folders to sync to iCloud Drive, and these can then be synced to other Macs, but that’s not really a backup in the strict sense: You can’t use that data to restore an entire Mac, and it doesn’t account for glitches in the system, such as documents accidentally being deleted, because this will be replicated. So you’ll still need to set up a robust backup system as well. That being said, however, iCloud Drive can be an effective way to store copies of critical documents, which can then be accessed on pretty much any device you use: on an iOS device (using the Files app in…

Usually we’d expect a “one more thing” moment to arrive right at the tail end of a Stevenote. Not so the introduction of the Power Mac G5. Jobs deemed it so important, he unveiled it halfway through his keynote at the 2003 WWDC event, then dedicated the rest of his talk to it. Unfortunately for Jobs and Co., the cat was out of the bag before the event itself, because Apple accidentally leaked the G5 specs on its own website about a week before the show. Oops. Despite the “premature specification,” as Jobs called it, there was plenty to talk about. It was the world’s fastest personal computer, he said. It contained the world’s first 64-bit desktop processor, which was also the world’s fastest desktop processor, running at 2GHz. Oh,…

$6.99 From Lucky Clan, luckyclan.com Made for iPad Needs iOS 10 or later, Apple Pencil for pressure support Some iPad art apps are dedicated painting apps, while others are photo editors with painting tools. Artstudio Pro is both. The Adjust and Filters menus are reminiscent of Photoshop, there’s a proper Layers palette, and the toolbox down the left-hand side includes image editing essentials such as selection Lasso, Clone Stamp, Sharpen, Dodge, and Burn. Tap the paintbrush icon, though, and — once you’ve figured out that you can access the Brush Editor from the brush tip preview at the bottom left — you have a full range of inks, pencils, chalks, and paints, which can be supplemented by importing brushes in Adobe’s ABR and TPL formats. Even better, the slider icon…

$4.99 From Drool, thumpergame.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 11 or later A chrome space beetle follows a never-ending track into neon oblivion, twisting, turning, leaping obstacles, firing off shockwaves. A hit, be it from an enemy or the wall, strips its shields; a second will destroy it. This is Thumper, a game of precision and violence that’s finally made it to iOS after an acclaimed run on PC, on console, and in VR. In many ways it’s an ideal mobile game, with its blend of endless runner and rhythm game mechanics. It didn’t have to be this hard, though — any mistimed tap or sweep is punished, and you’ll restart frequently until you’ve learned the tracks. If not for this, the pulsating rhythm of the game would be…

$1.99 From Dumpling design, dumplingdesign.com Made for iPhone or iPad Needs iOS 11.0 or later Smash Tanks connects the dots between the dawn of home videogaming and today’s cutting-edge technology. The basic premise — blow up the enemy’s tanks, in a tiny arena — echoes Combat, which appeared back in 1977 on the Atari 2600. Fortunately, Combat was loads of fun. Even better, the execution in Smash Tanks is superb, fully taking advantage of augmented reality (AR) and iOS touchscreens. Matches are turn-based, with you using your trio of tanks as slingshots, to take out your opponent’s army. Controls are simple: drag back to aim/set your power level, and then let go. Sporadic weapon drops add to the chaos, providing temporary shields for whoever grabs them or the means to…

$2.99 From Crunchy Bagel, crunchybagel.com Made For iPhone, Apple Watch Needs iOS 11.0 or later Want to listen to podcasts but leave your iPhone at home? There are a few watchOS apps that do this, but Outcast does it better than any other we’ve found. Rather than simply offload files you’ve already downloaded on your phone, Outcast allows you to search, browse, and download entirely on Apple Watch, then play those podcasts using Bluetooth-connected headphones or speakers. Outcast works surprisingly well even on a poky first-generationApple Watch, although the developer recommends putting your iPhone in Airplane mode first to speed up the download process, otherwise watchOS fetches these files using the significantly slower Bluetooth connection. It’s a minor inconvenience in an otherwise exceptionally slick app — and to be fair,…

1 RUN WITH OTHERS Zwift turns running into a game in a virtual world, but first you’ll need to pair a device like Apple Watch to capture your run speed and heart rate. 2 PAIRED DEVICES Install Zwift Mobile Link, open the app on your Watch, then launch Zwift on iPhone and tap Bluetooth to pair the devices for both sources; tap OK. 3 GET RUNNING Initiate a new run on Zwift for iPhone, and you’ll see “In Game” in green on Apple Watch, along with a current heart rate as you exercise.…

$299.99 From Yi Technology, yitechnology.com Features 4K at 60fps, image stabilization, touchscreen and voice control, Raw format images The Yi 4K+ isn’t hugely different to the original Yi 4K, apart from the ability to shoot 4K video at 60fps, which means a maximum bitrate of 120Mbps — double what the Yi 4K offered. Inside is the same 12MP Sony IMX377 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor with Exmor R, but this version has a new Ambarella H2 chipset and quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor. You probably won’t use the Yi 4K+ much for stills photography, but you can. It shoots very usable 12MP images, which you can save as JPEGs or keep in Raw (as .DNG files). Unlike its predecessor, the 4K+ recharges via a USB-C port, and there’s an adapter for an external…

THIS YEAR’S CES was full of surprises. I saw a gadget that can tell you if the sun is burning you. This innocuous-looking thing attaches to you and warns you of high UV levels, presumably so you can step into the shade, not head for the nearest beach to catch some rays. It’s a nice idea — tech that looks after you — but it’s certainly nothing new. We’ve already witnessed smart toothbrushes that ensure you’re cleaning your teeth properly, sleep tech that prevents a bad night, and — let’s not forget — the myriad wearables and apps that track every single step you take. All these things are designed to help you live a little more healthily… Or is it more anxiously? I’m not so sure. The latest craze…

>Damaged file and high CPU use I ran EtreCheck because of performance issues, and it tells me that mdworker(13) is the “top process by CPU” with 56%. Is this normal, or should I do something about it? Mdworker is a background daemon and is responsible for compiling the metadata indexes that are used for Spotlight searches. There are usually several copies of it running at any time, and each should typically take less than 5% of CPU time, though sometimes when working on large files they can exceed that — but never as much as 56%. High CPU usage by mdworker normally occurs when it’s choking on a file, causing it to crash repeatedly and be restarted automatically. This is normally recorded in the log, and should be easy to…

macOS RECOVERY The Recovery system contains tools to help you look up info online when macOS won’t start, and to repair or reinstall the system. Learn more at bit.ly/mlrecovery SAFE MODE When you start your Mac in Safe mode, macOS performs extra checks and stops certain third-party software from running. See how to use it at bit.ly/mlsafemode RESET SMC & NVRAM These features handle low-level functions and store key settings for your Mac, respectively. Resetting them can fix various issues described at bit.ly/mlresetsmc and bit.ly/mlresetnvram HARDWARE ISSUES Your Mac includes tools that check for certain hardware issues without going to a Genius Bar. For Macs introduced in June 2013 or later, see bit.ly/mldiag, otherwise see bit.ly/mlahwt…

REQUIRES OS X 10.10 or later, Default Folder X YOU WILL LEARN How to access and save documents even more quickly on your Mac IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes THERE IS NOTHING inherently wrong with your Mac’s Open and Save dialogs — they do the job. They even support keystroke shortcuts that you’re probably not using, so you can press Cmd+Shift+O (the letter O) to jump straight to your Documents folder, or Cmd+Shift+I for your iCloud Drive, among others. But Default Folder X offers something better still — a kind of “pro” take on this aspect of working with your Mac. Mostly, this involves providing fast access to useful options and saved files, boosting your efficiency. Much of this happens by way of a frame Default Folder X adds to…

REQUIRES macOS 10.13 or later; most tips also apply to earlier versions YOU WILL LEARN How to find what is slowing down your Mac and how to fix it IT WILL TAKE 10-30 minutes HAVE YOU UPDATED to High Sierra but found that your Mac now seems sluggish? Or perhaps you haven’t taken the step but want to be sure the latest macOS won’t slow you down. Either way, there’s good news: High Sierra can take a little bedding-in, but it is designed to optimize your Mac’s performance, not the opposite, and once you get to grips with it, your Mac could fly. On older Macs, two changes will make an enormous, life-changing difference: doubling the RAM and replacing the hard disk with an SSD. However, that’s not always practical,…

REQUIRES iOS 9 or later (iOS 11 for ARKit-based features), Magicplan app YOU WILL LEARN How AR can measure entire rooms IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes ARTHUR C. CLARKE famously wrote that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Clarke probably wasn’t thinking about home planning apps, but Magicplan is indeed magical: Instead of struggling with a measuring tape for hours, you can accurately measure an entire building with nothing more than your iPad’s camera, then add architectural features, experiment with different items of furniture and their location, and even work out the total cost of painting, tiling, and other key tasks. It’s great for home improvements, for tradespeople to price jobs, for estate agents, for garden design, even for Airbnb hosts to supplement their carefully-chosen photos with a…

AS WE PREPARED to send this issue to press, rumors were circulating that Apple would introduce updated iPad hardware at some point in March. By the time you’re reading this, we’ll know for sure how that panned out, but the mere possibility of new hardware, combined with talk that Apple would be relaxing its annual development cycle, got me wondering whether iPad software in 2018 is really where we expect it to be. I don’t mean the operating system itself, but apps for it. While Apple has taken steps to make the Mac and iOS devices great companions, such as by enabling us to move projects between Logic Pro X and GarageBand, I’ve recently found myself frustrated by the inability to do pretty simple things on my iPad. The first…

> IT COSTS HOW MUCH? If third-party estimates are to be believed, there’s not as much margin in a HomePod as in most other Apple products — analyst firm TechInsights looked at all the components and reckons each HomePod costs Apple $216 to make, leaving a margin of just $133 per speaker before you even consider the costs of advertising, R&D, and other overheads. > BUILT LIKE A TANK Our friends over at iFixit.com have undertaken one of their renowned teardowns, taking apart a HomePod, and concluded: “The HomePod is built like a tank. Durability should not be an issue.” Giving the unit a repairability score of just 1 out of 10, iFixit comment: “One thing’s for sure, the HomePod wins at being the worst device ever to open. This…

For some people, an iPhone is just for communication. For others, iPhones and iPads are hyper-portable computers through which they live out major parts of their lives. In either case, if you do nothing to safeguard your data, it will be gone if your device is lost or damaged beyond repair. Elsewhere in this feature, we look specifically at safeguarding photos and videos, mostly through iCloud. In addition, iCloud can sync your Notes, Contacts, Calendar, and Safari (bookmarks, website account details, and more) across your devices. Many third-party apps and games also utilize iCloud. This means that when you get a new device, all this data should be fully recoverable. The problem is everything else. If you’ve created amazing art in a painting app, or cracked level 50 in a…

All the Time Machine backups, clones and RAID setups in the world won’t help you if your house burns down. For a truly robust backup system, you need offsite backups, too. In other words, you must back up to the cloud. We’re not just talking about iCloud. Although you can sync your Mac’s Desktop and Documents folders across devices using iCloud Drive, we’ve seen that this is not a reliable backup — changes (including possible corruption) made in one place will propagate across all your devices. And although you can use the likes of Dropbox to store copies of important files, you’re better off working with something automated, so that backups just happen — and to all of your files rather than a chosen few. When choosing a cloud backup…

After being ousted from Apple in 1985, Steve Jobs spent 11 long years away, founding computer firm NeXT and securing early funding for Pixar. By 1996, however, Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy. New CEO Gil Amelio initiated a program of cutbacks and layoffs to get the ailing business back on its feet again. When Apple bought NeXT for $427 million, Jobs came back to the company he had co-founded, initially as a “special adviser.” By July 1997, Amelio was gone, and two months later the Apple board named Jobs “Interim CEO.” He extended Amelio’s cutbacks, slashing employee benefits and executive bonuses, scrapping 15 of the company’s 19 product lines, and dropping non-core projects such as CyberDog, OpenDoc, and Newton. It was touch-and-go for a few years, but the…

The first “one more thing” moment came in 1998, although Steve Jobs didn’t actually utter the phrase and it wasn’t a product introduction… Apple had been through a harrowing few years, losing its way amid massive stockpiles of unsold inventory and poor management decisions. It was losing money hand over fist: In October 1997 it announced a loss of $161 million for the quarter alone. And at the January 1998 Macworld event in San Francisco, analysts were expecting more bad news from Jobs on stage. What he gave them was something very different, and a blueprint for future “one more thing” moments. He saved the best news until last, and revealed it in what would become his trademark low-key style: Apple was profitable again. And not just by a razor-thin…

Free (basic) to $9.99 From Xiaodong Wang, focos.me Made for iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus or X Needs iOS 11 or later Apple’s dual-lens iPhones — the 7 Plus, 8 Plus and X — are able to use the Camera app’s Portrait mode and create DSLR-style depth effects. They do this by taking two shots and recording a depth map with information about the distance between foreground and background, so you can isolate your subject or alter the bokeh effect, where the subject is in view but the background is blurred. Focos gives you much more control over depth-editing. You can take photos using the app or open pictures that were shot in Portrait mode and thus have a depth map embedded, then tap on the background or foreground to…

Free, or $6.99 for full game From Playdead, playdead.com Made for iPhone 6S, iPad Air 2, Apple TV Needs iOS 11 Death comes easily in Inside, and the first couple of times it comes as a shock. Your character, a small boy in a red sweater, is fragile, falling to attacks from the callous adults who hunt him or to a bite from a cruel dog. It seems like a hateful game at first, the boy stumbling in his constant flight from left to right, hiding from searchlights and their accompaniment of more death. You’ll leap walls and chasms in desperation, wade waist deep through water, and lie twitching after being hit by the almost comically large darts fired at you. Then you pull a writhing eel from a pig’s…

$4.99 From Jason Roberts, gorogoa.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 9.3.5 or later Every now and again, a puzzle game comes along that changes what puzzle games can be. It was like that with The Room on iOS — a super high-quality, beautiful puzzle-box experience that took escape-the-room games and elevated them to something gourmet. Gorogoa is one of those games. It is, all at once, a puzzle game, a storybook, a comic book, and a painting; it manages to be all these things in one beautiful package in a way that’s so effortless, it’s remarkable it hadn’t existed before. The main concept is that there are four square panels, which you can move around and overlap at will. Sometimes, one of these panels will have a doorway, and…

Free From Satpack Travel Made For iPhone, Apple Watch Needs iOS 9.0 or later Remember those classic “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” commercials that were a frequent staple of ’80s television shows? You no longer need specialized hardware to send out a distress call like this, since a decent smartphone app can do the job. Freeway SOS is one such app, but interface and reliability issues are holding it back. On the positive side, the app is completely free and can be installed on your Apple Watch in order to trigger a panic alert to notify loved ones that you’re in trouble when your iPhone isn’t handy. The problem is, the watchOS button isn’t very responsive, and doesn’t exactly inspire faith that someone will come to your rescue.…

$349 From Apple, apple.com Features Space gray or white color options, voice control using Siri, touch-sensitive top surface Standing just 6.8 inches tall, HomePod is not at all overbearing. Its black or white mesh covering is nondescript, without the design flourish of the fabric or wood veneer coating of the likes of the second-gen Amazon Echo. It shows that you don’t really need those extras to fit in well in a home, though — of all the smart speakers, HomePod probably looks the least like a tech item. In fact, it has more in common with the Sonos One, but with more sensuous curves. Setup is easy: Plug it in, then put your iOS device nearby, and HomePod pulls everything off of it, from your Wi-Fi password to your iCloud…

The smart home is all about making life easier or more comfortable, and amidst all the silly gadgets that were on show at CES there were lots of more practical devices, too. LG’s Cloi robot may have been a bit of a disaster, but the company makes lots of other household appliances, ranging from air conditioning systems to ovens, fridges, and TV sets, and its ThinQ artificial intelligence system is designed to link all those devices together and create a truly smart home. LG is even taking on Siri and Apple TV, by using Amazon’s Alexa in its ThinQ TVs so that you can tell the TV to change the channel or mute the volume whenever an annoying celebrity is on. Cleaning is a tedious chore for everyone, so we…

iOS 11 DATE BUG A date-related bug in iOS 11 might cause your device to restart repeatedly as it is receiving time-based notifications or repeat reminders. See Apple’s fix at bit.ly/ml140ask1 HIGH SIERRA UPDATE The High Sierra 10.13.3 Supplemental Update fixes an issue where using certain character sequences could cause apps to crash. This update is recommended for all macOS users. Find it at bit.ly/ml140ask2 USING “HEY SIRI” WITH MULTIPLE DEVICES When you say “Hey Siri” near multiple devices, which one will respond? It should be the one that heard you best or was recently raised, unless one is a HomePod… Read more at bit.ly/ml140ask3…

REQUIRES Photoshop CS6 or later, including Photoshop CC YOU WILL LEARN How to preserve specific colors using adjustment layers and masks IT WILL TA KE 15 minutes THE EYE IS naturally drawn to areas of color in an image that’s otherwise monochrome. It’s a technique often used in advertising, and also creatively to throw the focus on characters or objects, such as in the movie Schindler’s List, in the scene in which a small girl’s red raincoat stands out in a black-and-white setting. The effect works particularly well when it’s applied to iconic subjects associated with a specific color, such as a red London bus. Typically, however, as in our image here, the object we want to pick out is not a single uniform color, so it won’t work to…

REQUIRES watchOS 4, iOS 11 YOU WILL LEARN Which settings help you control what info you see on your Watch IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes APPLE ITSELF SAYS the Watch is its most personal device, and not just because you’re wearing it. Watch brings you more information than even your phone, because it knows more about your health from its heart rate and activity tracking, while also picking up your notifications and general life data from your iPhone. So with all this information potentially flowing through your Watch, you need to ensure it’s working for you. Personalizing your device goes way beyond just picking which watch face you want it to display. Some of the things here are pretty standard stuff relating to appearance and visibility. But personalizing your Watch…

As an Apple supporter (aren’t we all?) it is good to see the company succeeding in so many areas, but therein lie some major hidden risks. I believe Apple is trying to innovate in too many areas nowadays, and we see the results in both iOS and macOS issues. Experience shows that businesses that spread themselves too thinly, trying to do too much at the same time, are likely to fail. One more thing… Why didn’t Apple include mesh Wi-Fi core capability in the HomePod? The combination of smart speaker, high quality audio, and mesh Wi-Fi networking really would drive us to use HomePods across many rooms in our homes. If you know Tim Cook’s email address, please forward this suggestion to him on my behalf. Apple is now endorsing…

> GET YOUR FAVORITE APPLE TECH FROM HP Where do you get your Apple gear? Online, at an Apple Store, or at a third-party reseller? Add PC vendor HP to the list: HP has expanded its Device as a Service (DaaS) program in the US — under which businesses can purchase hardware via a subscription instead of paying upfront — to offer Apple devices as well as its own. You’ll be able to get a Mac, iPhone, or iPad, backed by HP’s tech support and managed services. > GOOGLE FIGHTS IMAGE THEFT Google has made a significant change to its Google Images search engine, in a bid to prevent people from downloading copyrighted images. It has removed the “View Image” button from its image search results. This used to be…

When a device is signed into iCloud using your Apple ID, certain data, such as calendars and contacts, is kept in sync between the device and Apple’s servers. This data is then synced to all your other devices signed in with the same Apple ID, but it also means there is an up-to-the-minute, device-independent archive of your data in the cloud, which you can restore to a replacement device if you lose your old one or upgrade to a new one. That’s the theory, anyway. In real life, backups can be a minefield. For backups to be made, your device must be powered, able to access the internet, locked, and signed into iCloud. Additionally, there must be enough storage space for the backup in your iCloud account. Backups can rapidly…

After showing off Apple’s ill-fated collaboration with Motorola, the ROKR phone, at the 2005 Macworld keynote in San Francisco, Jobs moved on to the final announcement of the day. The future was digital music at Apple and elsewhere, he said. And then… the familiar pregnant pause. He began the “one more thing” by looking at the portable music player market. The iPod’s competitors were hindered by tiny displays and “tortured” user interfaces. At the same time, Apple had discovered that iPod users’ favorite way of listening to music on their devices was with the Shuffle function. That gave Jobs and Co. an idea: “We decided to base a flash-based player around Shuffle,” he explained. That was, of course, the iPod Shuffle. It came without a display — after all, the…

32 There were 32 “one more thing” moments from Steve Jobs — 33 if you include the prototype at Macworld 1998 (see previous page) 64% Almost two-thirds of the “one more thing” announcements related to hardware. In fact, there was only one software-related unveiling out of the first 16 “one more thing” moments 12 Macworld was the most popular venue for “one more thing” moments, with the phrase making an appearance 12 times at Macworld shows 3 The “ShowTime” event in 2006 included three “one more things” — movies in the iTunes Store, Apple TV, and a live performance by John Legend 3 “One more thing” didn’t end with Steve Jobs’s passing in 2011. Tim Cook has used it three times: in 2014 to reveal the Apple Watch, 2015 for…

Free From Stephen Morris, stephenmorr.is Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 10.3 or later If you search for just the “AudioFile” bit of this app (minus the “voice memo notes”), you’ll never find it. And that’s a shame, because it’s a gem. AudioFile is a cross between Apple’s own Voice Memos and Notes apps. It enables you to record audio, tag the recordings, and include text and images. This makes it particularly useful for musicians, who can record their latest musical idea and then take a shot of a particularly tricky chord, of their pedal setting or keyboard patch, or of their scribbled lyrics. And they can use the text field to record information such as key, tuning, and tempo. However, the app is just as useful for anybody who…

Free From Cascable AB, cascable.se Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 10.0 or later Being able to control a DSLR camera without touching it can be fantastic for creative photography, but normally means adding extra gizmos to it — more things to lose, more batteries to juggle. But why not use your iPhone? Cascable is an iOS app that works with Wi-Fi-equipped cameras and gives you full control over focus, exposure, and so on. You get a live preview on your iPhone screen. Adjust aperture, ISO, white balance, and shutter speed, tap to set the focus point, and your camera obeys. You need to connect to your camera’s own Wi-Fi (check the Cascable site for the list of compatible cameras), which may mean disabling auto-join to your home network when…

For a while, Facebook wanted to be where we read our news. It turns out we’d rather find our friends on Facebook and our news somewhere else. But where? Apps are available from the likes of The New York Times and The Washington Post, but these function fully only for subscribers. The Guardian and Huffington Post are free to use, but if you want a variety of views, opening and closing separate apps feels suboptimal. Apple News shows how aggregation can help, and here are six other multi-source apps to install to make sure you’re always the first to know everything that’s happening. FLIPBOARD Free Made for iPhone, iPad Flipboard started out as a nicely formatted blog reader, but it’s now a slick personalized news magazine. Add up to nine…

Free From Sweatco Ltd, sweatco.in Made For iPhone, Apple Watch Needs iOS 9.0 or later Sweatcoin converts outdoor walking activity into virtual currency you can then use to purchase gift cards, services like anti-gravity yoga classes, or gadgets such as a new iPhone. You can even donate to charity. All sounds too good to be true? Well, “sweatcoin” currency takes a long time to hoard in amounts sufficient to buy something cool, unless you’re insanely active — 1,000 steps equal less than a single sweatcoin. But hey, if you’re already walking, it’s free money, right? Unfortunately, Sweatcoin doesn’t make an equally compelling watchOS app. Since the iPhone app does all the heavy lifting when it comes to tracking your outdoor activity (combined with any exercise recorded on your Apple Watch),…

$79.95 From Upright, uprightpose.com Made for iPhone, iPad Needs iOS 9 or later Upright Go is the tech equivalent of an angry schoolmarm yelling at you to sit up straight. The hardware resembles a tiny desktop mouse stuck to your back. And, of course, there’s an app. Setup is straightforward, and the unit defaults to Training mode. This buzzes when you heavily slouch — fine when you’re desk-bound, but annoying if, say, you’re trying to fix a toddler’s coat and it keeps going BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ. Thanks, tiny white tech limpet! You can adjust sensitivity and noise levels, but you’re better off with the recording-only Tracking mode, which displays graphs at the end of the day showing when you’ve failed to sit up straight enough. We have reservations about the…

1 AMAZON ECHO SPOT $129.99 amazon.com Amazon is Apple’s arch-rival in the home automation market, and it’s keeping up the pressure with its latest Echo speaker. The Echo Spot is very cleverly designed. It’s a compact speaker, weighing 14.8oz, with a 2.5-inch circular screen, which is ideal for a bedside table or in the kitchen. 2 BELKIN WEMO BRIDGE $39.99 belkin.com Belkin’s Wemo Bridge plugs into your Wi-Fi router and adds HomeKit compatibility to the company’s existing range of smart plugs, switches, and motion sensors, enabling you to control them via Siri. It’s been enormously popular so far, and has already sold out once, so get it quick! 3 LIFX + A60 $79.99 lifx.com The LIFX range of smart lights starts at just $24.99, but this high-end model includes HomeKit…

TCL 55C807 $699.99 • TCLUSA.COM Considering its budget price, this 55-inch panel excels at displaying 4K HDR content in either HDR10 or Dolby Vision (a rarity these days), plus you get Roku TV built-in as a bonus. Unfortunately, this set isn’t quite as exceptional at upscaling HD content, and audio output also takes a back seat to picture quality here. CLEARSTREAM TV $99.99 • ANTENNASDIRECT.COM Looking to add live television to your Apple TV content mix? This little dongle acts as a bridge between your HDTV antenna and wireless network, providing over-the-air local broadcasts to any Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad. Find something to watch using the program guide, and record, pause, and rewind shows.…

HOW CAN I MAKE HEIF IMAGES ON A 9.7-INCH iPAD PRO? Currently, HEIF format is fully supported — capturing in it, not just viewing, editing, and duplicating — on the most recent devices with an A10 chip. The Half app, from the iOS App Store, claims to convert JPEG images to HEIF (HEIC) format, but it has limited options and for the moment is best used for just exploring the format. Other tools support HEIF only on iPads with an A10 chip. HOW DO I REDUCE SCREEN GLARE IN DIM LIGHTING CONDITIONS? You can set most iPhones and iPads to adjust display brightness automatically according to ambient lighting, which should do the trick. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility. Under “Vision,” tap Display Accommodations and turn on Auto-Brightness. There’s…

REQUIRES macOS and a suitable text editor YOU WILL LEARN How to type accents, emoji and symbols IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes THERE ARE SEVERAL methods for typing special characters on a Mac. The traditional one is the Keyboard Viewer: turn it on in System Preferences’ Keyboard pane, then click the new menu bar icon and choose Show Keyboard Viewer. The on-screen keyboard this reveals reacts to your key presses, so holding one or more modifier keys shows what you can type by adding a regular key to the combo. Other methods enable you to type accented characters more quickly, plus emoji and many more symbols not available in the Keyboard Viewer. They work in many apps, although you might discover exceptions — Adobe InDesign, for one, has its own…