Innehållsförteckning för May 2020 från MacLife

Whatis iPad? iPad is thin. iPad is beautiful. iPad goes anywhere and lasts all day. There’s no right way or wrong way. It’s crazy powerful. It’s magical. You already know how to use it. It’s 200,000 apps and counting. All the world’s websites in your hands, video, photos, more books than you could read in a lifetime. It’s already a revolution, and it’s only just begun.” Now we can watch a newspaper, listen to a magazine, curl up with a movie, and see a phone call. Now, we can take a classroom anywhere, hold an entire bookstore, and touch the stars.” iPadcontinues to transform the way we do things. Our goal in designing iPad Pro was to engineer a device that allows you to be more productive,…

APPLE HAS UPDATED the iPad Pro line with an eight–core A12Z Bionic processor, “studio–quality” microphones and speakers, a second camera, and a depth–sensing LiDAR scanner. Joining the 12MP f/1.8 Wide camera is a new 10MP f/2.4 Ultra Wide camera. This “doubles the photo and video possibilities, enabling different perspectives and multi–camera use” — so both cameras can be in use at once? The LiDAR scanner measures the distance to objects up to 16.4ft away and builds up a 3D map, enabling an improved Measure app and new potential for AR. Coming uses include a mobility assessment app for physical therapy, an IKEA room furnishing visualization AR app, and an automatic floorplan and 3D room model creator. For podcasts and other content creation, iPad Pro now has five “studio–quality” mics, and…

1 Open Apple ID iCloud has moved from its own System Preferences icon to the Apple ID pane. Open System Preferences and if necessary press Cmd+L (Show All). Click Apple ID, then click iCloud to set up compatible apps and features. 2 Optimize local copies Your whole iCloud Drive, the area for general file storage, will be duplicated on your Macintosh HD. If you check Optimize Mac Storage, files are removed whenever your Macintosh HD gets full, and re–downloaded when you open them. 3 Manage photos The Options button previously shown here for Photos is no longer available. Set whether to sync photos to iCloud, and whether to keep full or low–res optimized copies on your Mac, in the Photos app, at Photos > Prefs > iCloud. 4 Manage storage…

WHEN YOU UPGRADE to macOS Catalina and launch Photos, it will import your existing photo library, normally in Pictures in your user account’s home folder in Users on Macintosh HD. If you’re using Optimize Mac Storage to keep low–res copies on your Mac, that will stay the same; opening a photo will download the full version of it. (Everything referring to managing photos here also applies to your videos.) All photos that you shoot, or import into your Camera Roll from sources such as Apple’s Camera Connection Kits, on devices on which iCloud is enabled with your Apple ID will upload to iCloud Photos, and will therefore appear in the Photos app on your Mac as long as iCloud Photos is enabled. You can also manually import photos from other…

PRESUMING YOU HAVEN’T been living in a cave without 4G for 10 months (and if you have, we hope this copy of Mac|Life is a welcome reintroduction to civilisation), you’ll know the iTunes app’s been replaced in macOS Catalina with Music and TV. Podcasts also get their own app, while your audiobooks are now in Books. None of this changes how your content syncs, but you’ll need to rediscover your settings. As we discussed in our macOS Catalina feature (ML #166), the first time you run Music or TV, the existing single iTunes library on your Mac should convert to new Music and TV libraries. This also sorts out your podcasts and audiobooks. Showing your purchases from the iTunes Store is a separate matter. For Books, go to System Preferences…

2000: iTools Apple’s first suite of online services was launched during the Macworld Expo keynote in San Francisco, after which every journalist sprinted to the press room to register their name as an @mac.com email address without the random digits everyone else would soon have to stick on the end. Free of charge, iTools included email, a personal web page, KidSafe (a whitelist of educational sites) and iDisk personal online storage space. Nobody mentioned clouds. 2002: .Mac Confusingly named for a service based on the domain mac.com, .Mac did the same as iTools but now cost $99.95 a year. A new macOS utility, Backup, allowed users to back up files to their iDisk. Incentivized by its new services income, Apple waited just five more years before adding some small feature…

WHEN YOU ADD compatible home automation accessories to the Home app on any Mac or iOS device, iCloud syncs all your settings, so you can go to Home on any of your other devices, including an Apple TV HD or 4K, and find everything set up just the same. In iOS 13, the Home app can also manage compatible Wi–Fi security cameras and their video feeds. HomeKit Secure Video gives you full control over when the camera will stream or record video, who can access the camera and how you’re notified. You can also review and share live streams and recordings: Go to Favorite Cameras in the Home tab, or look in the room to which you assigned the camera. (This works in macOS too.) SECRET SERVICE All video is…

$9.99/year From Bloop, airmailapp.com Needs macOS 10.12 or later; 64-bit processor The last time we reviewed Airmail, it was the Zero version, designed specifically for Gmail. Airmail 4, on the other hand, is an update to the core Airmail app and brings with it a host of new features. There is, literally, a price to pay for those new additions. They are available only with a Pro subscription, which also allows you to use Airmail on iOS and iPadOS. Most obvious among the new features is the redesigned interface, with themes and a customizable layout. But there’s also a new Smart inbox, improved search, and custom actions. Gmail users can also use Google’s Shortcuts and Quick Actions. Gmail is just one of the platforms supported by Airmail, alongside iCloud, Outlook,…

$189.99 (500GB) From SanDisk, westerndigital.com Features Up to 1,050 MB/s read/write speed, USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB–C/USB–A connectors, IP55 rating In the Spring issue of Mac|Life we tested a plethora of 500GB portable SSDs and came to the conclusion that the Adata SE800 was the best on test. Thing is, SanDisk was a little late to the game that time round, and so the SanDisk Extreme SSD that was part of the test — good as it was — wasn’t able to match the Adata for speed. But SanDisk recently released the PRO version of the Extreme drive, which offers twice the performance — up to 1,050 MB/s read/write transfer rate. It also only costs an additional $60. Though they might look the same, there are a few key differences…

PLAYLISTS ARE A great way to group your vast music collection. They enable you to enjoy a select number of songs, without being interrupted by other tunes you might not want to hear. Whether it’s a road trip with family, house party with friends or just some tunes to keep you company, a playlist is a handy feature to have. You can create personal playlists in one of three ways: On your Mac using the Music app in Catalina (or iTunes if you’re on Mojave or older); on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using the New Playlist option in iOS’s Music app; and anywhere you can access Apple Music if you have a subscription. Playlists created on Apple Music are automatically available across all your devices. However other playlists…

1 Create a pencil sketch Open a photo. Go to Layer > Duplicate Layer. Click OK. Go to Enhance > Adjust Color > Remove Color. Choose Filter > Artistic > Colored Pencil. Set Pencil Width to 4, Stroke Pressure to 2, Paper Brightness to 50. Click OK. 2 Add a mask In Layers, click the Background layer. Press Cmd+J to duplicate it. Drag the “Background copy 2” thumbnail to the top of the stack. Choose Layer > Layer Mask > Hide All. The black mask hides the attached image. 3 Choose a brush Click on the Brush tool (B). In the Options bar, click on the Brush Preset Picker. Scroll to explore the brush presets. Pop–up labels will help identify a particular tip. Select the Watercolor Loaded Wet Flat tip…

1 Know your IP If you’re connecting to another Mac, you’ll need to know your IP (internet protocol) address. Handily, it’s right there in the middle of the window. Take a note of it and install SyncMate on the Mac you want to sync data with. 2 Allow connections On your other Mac, look for Incoming Connections and then click on the little “+” at the bottom corner of the Allowed IP Addresses box. Enter the IP address of your other Mac in the box that pops up. 3 Get connected Now, return to your original Mac and select the Add New link from the sidebar at the right. This asks you which kind of device you’re connecting to, and as you can see there are lots of options here.…

1 Set up security You don’t want just anybody connecting to your home hub, so the first thing to do is ensure your iPad is secure. Go to Settings and click on your Apple ID > Password & Security. Enable Two–Factor Authentication. 2 Get the keys Turn on Keychain if it isn’t already enabled on your device: That’s where Apple securely stores your passwords and logins. It’s in Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Apps Using iCloud. Make sure Keychain is on. 3 Start home hub The next option should be enabled by default, but it’s always worth checking: Go to Settings > Home and make sure “Use this iPad as a Home Hub” is on. You can also enable “Hey, Siri!” in Settings > Siri & Search. 4…

1 Edit your sources In iOS, open the News app and tap the Following tab to see a list of channels, topics, and Siri suggestions. To add one to your feed, then tap the Follow button to its right. Tap again to unfollow. Or tap Edit to remove an item. 2 Improve suggestions A right–swipe on a story on your feed gives a Suggest Less option; swiping left brings up Suggest More. They’re also available in the bottom of the story (as a thumbs up or thumbs down icon). 3 View a channel If you find a channel you like, you can tap on the logo at the top of the story to go to the channel’s home page, where you can see more content. Tap the More Options (…)…

HOW IT WORKS YOU WILL LEARN How Wi–Fi 6 works and the improvements it will provide to users WI–FI 6 IS the next generation of wireless internet, and we’re happy about that for two reasons. First of all, it’s faster and has more capacity. And secondly, it means that the Wi–Fi Alliance has finally got the hang of giving things sensible names. Well, nearly: Technically Wi–Fi 6 is really Wi–Fi Certified 6™, but we’re just going to ignore that. A TRIP TO THE AIRPORT Let’s go back to 21 July 1999. Steve Jobs is passing an iBook through a hula hoop to demonstrate that the Mac is connected to the internet, without a cable, thanks to the magic of “AirPort.” AirPort was Apple’s name for the 802.11b Wi–Fi standard, a…

THE ORIGINAL 2010 iPad ran iPhone OS 3.2, renamed iOS later that year with the release of iOS 4. Over time, as the entire family of iOS devices evolved, iOS on iPad gradually gained features not available on iPhone, such as picture–in–picture and multitasking options including Slide Over and Split View, added in iOS 9 in 2015, then drag–and–drop between different apps, introduced in iOS 11 in 2017 along with an overhauled Dock. OPTIMIZED FOR iPAD Now, to formalize the divergence, iOS on iPad has been renamed iPadOS. While it’s built on the same foundation as iOS, it offers apps optimized for iPad’s larger display, multitasking features, and new capabilities such as support for USB flash drives and other external storage. The first difference you’ll notice is the redesigned Home…

> APPLE HAS ALSO updated its entry–level notebook. The MacBook Air with 13.3–inch Retina display now offers faster performance, twice the storage, the new Magic Keyboard, and a lower base price of $999 (or $899 for education). MacBook Air now starts with 256GB of storage, double the previous generation’s, with build–to–order options of up to a 2TB SSD — double the previous maximum. The base configuration has a 1.1GHz dual–core Intel Core i3 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz, with options up to 1.2GHz quad–core Core i7 with Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz. With quad–core processors available for the first time in MacBook Air, this means that CPU performance is up to twice as fast as the previous generation’s Core i5 chip, according to Apple. With Intel Iris Plus…

IF YOU OWN a Mac or Apple device, it’s ready to use iCloud as soon as you’re logged in with your Apple ID. (Go to bit.ly/mac351appid for Apple ID setup instructions.) You can then choose which of its services to use. In iOS or iPadOS, open Settings, tap your name and tap iCloud. You’ll see a chart of your iCloud storage — the space on Apple’s remote servers allocated to your Apple ID — and options for the apps and features that use iCloud. The options for your Mac look similar in macOS Catalina. (In previous versions of macOS, click the iCloud icon in System Preferences.) Where there’s an on/off switch for an app, this gives it permission to use iCloud; exactly what it does with that will vary. Mail,…

MUCH OF iCLOUD’S work is done behind the scenes. iCloud Drive is the part you get to use actively to store documents. All changes upload from the device you’re using to the cloud and download from there to all your other devices, keeping the document in the same state everywhere. On the Mac, your iCloud Drive appears in the Finder; in iOS, you access it through the Files app (see the iCloud Drive walkthrough opposite), which has grown in sophistication, especially in iPadOS. In iOS and iPadOS, storage is always optimized, so your iCloud Drive files are only downloaded to the hardware when you use them, then revert to online storage after a few days, showing a cloud icon. If you know you’ll be offline for a while, open any…

1 Enable iCloud Photos in macOS iCloud Photos is now activated in System Prefs > Apple ID > iCloud. But all you can do here is turn it on or off. Open the Photos app and go to Photos > Prefs > iCloud for more options. 2 End of the Stream The option (shown here in macOS High Sierra) for My Photo Stream has gone in Catalina. Apple is phasing out this alternative system, which synced just your last 30 days of photos, up to 1,000 shots, outside your iCloud storage. 3 Download or optimize? Select Download Originals to save full–res photos from all your iCloud devices on your Mac. Or if you don’t want to use all that space, select Optimize Mac Storage. 4 Enable iCloud Photos in iOS…

THE PARENTAL CONTROLS pane in System Preferences has now gone in macOS Catalina. Similar options are in the new Screen Time pane. Items above the dividing line provide statistics on your recent use; if you want this to reflect all your devices, click Options at the bottom and check Share across devices. The options below the line let you set limits for yourself or whoever uses this account. Previously, Parental Controls applied to a Mac user account. Screen Time attaches to an Apple ID instead. The intention is that you create a separate Apple ID for each of your kids, as well as their own user account, in Users & Groups, if they share a Mac. Just as in your user account, you’re logged in to your Apple ID in…

FIND MY, THE app that you use to find your Mac or iOS device if it’s lost, is now combined with Find My Friends. Remember — the app you set up that one time you were meeting for a beer and now you occasionally realize you know where Steve is 24 hours a day and you should probably turn it off before it gets creepy. In logical, if dystopian, fashion, there’s one tab for People and one for Devices, likely prompting Douglas Adams fans in AI research to whisper, “Some of the people are also devices!” If you do lose your hardware, it’s more likely than ever to be found, because each updated Apple device now puts out a Bluetooth signal that other Apple devices (but no–one else) can read.…

1 Create a folder Launch Notes and tap New Folder at the bottom of the screen. Choose whether to store it in iCloud or on your device. Type in a name, then press Save. To make it a sub–folder, tap and hold it then drag it over the other folder. 2 Share a folder Tap the folder to open it, then tap on More (…) at the top–right of the screen. Tap Add People and then choose how you want to send the invitation. Type in the name of the person in the To: Field in the window that opens. 3 Rename or delete In the main Notes view, tap Edit. Tap on the folder you want to edit. To delete it, tap Delete Folder, to rename it type a…

1 Choose a video Launch Photos, tap Albums, and swipe up until you see the Videos album. Tap it to see your videos. Look for one you want to edit. To get the most from these steps, choose one shot in good light where the camera is steady. 2 Download the video Once you’ve decided which video to edit, tap it. Tap Edit and wait for the video to download if it’s stored in your iCloud Library. If you change your mind while it’s downloading, tap Cancel to choose another video. 3 Trim and straighten your video Tap the crop tool, then the Straighten adjuster. Swipe along the line to level it up. Tap the camera icon and use the handles either side of the timeline to trim the clip.…

1 Choose a podcast This will play the current episode of the podcast you choose, but to make it easier to find we’re first going to subscribe to it in the Podcasts app. So, open Podcasts, search for the one you want and tap Subscribe next to its name. 2 Create the shortcut Open Shortcuts and tap the “+” at the top of the screen. Tap More (…), then tap Shortcut Name. Type in the name you want to give your shortcut and then tap on the icon to the left ready for the next step. 3 Choose a color and icon Tap on a color, then tap Glyph. Choose a symbol. Select from the options beneath to pick whether you want to add it to your Home screen, show…

Free From Apple, apple.com/swift/playgrounds Needs macOS 10.15.3 or later It’s taken four years, but Swift Playgrounds has finally made it to the Mac courtesy of Catalyst, Apple’s initiative for bringing iPad apps to macOS. Designed for coding beginners, Swift Playgrounds feels more like a video game than a coding app as it gently teaches you the basic concepts of programming via Apple’s own Swift language, currently in version 5.1. Swift is used to create apps for Macs, iOS, Apple Watch and Apple TV, but Swift Playgrounds isn’t an app development kit. Think of it as a brightly colored, user–friendly classroom where you’ll learn the concepts you’ll go on to use in Xcode. To begin, Apple gives you a collection of introductory modules that introduce you to the basic concepts of…

$9.99 From Sebastián Benítez, ds9soft.com Needs macOS 10.15 or later PopDo puts your reminders list in your Mac menu bar for easy access through its fly–out window. Everything syncs with iCloud, so your existing reminders populate in the app, and you can add tasks and reminders lists from the app and have them copied across to your devices. Each task can be given a custom color to make it easier to spot, although this functionality is ironically quite well hidden. You can add notes and flags to tasks, and there are various sort and search options. You can also drag and drop tasks from one list to another (but this can be a bit fiddly). Tasks use a traffic light system to indicate their priority, which you can alter by…

$199.95 (Kit Pro) From Scosche, scosche.com Features Wireless charging pad, magnetic charger for Apple Watch, MFI certified vertical charging station, EndCap dual port charger, USB–C to Lightning cable, USB–A to Lightning cable The BaseLynx Pro from Scosche has three main components to charge various devices, all of which snap together securely in any combination you like, with an end cap sealing off the exposed edges. Any module can receive wall power, though only one requires it to power all the other connected modules. The Vert Station can hold up to three devices and has three ports: One 18W USB–C and two 12W USB–A. You run your own cables to the devices, and it uses Power Delivery technology to enable extra–fast charging. The Wireless Charging Pad is Qi–certified for use with…

> Test 1 Price Do you get your money’s worth? At $8.32/month for a year, ExpressVPN is a bit pricey. You can also get six months at $9.99 a month and one month for $12.95, (all have a 30–day money–back guarantee). NordVPN costs $6.99/month for a year, or $11.99 for one month, both with a 30–day money–back guarantee. X–VPN charges $5.99/month for a year or $11.99 for one month, with a seven–day money–back plan. CyberGhost offers a yearly plan for £4.59/month (around $5.27), a £11.99 (around $13.76) one–month option or £3.09/month (around $3.55) for two years, with a 45–day money-back scheme. VPN Unlimited costs $5/month for one year, $9.99 for one month, and two years is $2.79/month, all with a seven–day money–back scheme. > Test 2 Security Making sure your…

Free (IAPs) From Golden Hill Software, goldenhillsoftware.com Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Needs iOS 13.2 or later Unread 2 is an RSS reader for iPhone and iPad with an attractive interface, hardware keyboard support, 100% VoiceOver coverage, and some clever features. Version 2 looks identical to version 1 but there are some important changes under the hood. Our favorite is automatic webpage text, which can get the full text of an article rather than just the summary. That’s on by default although you can disable it if you prefer; it works on normal RSS feeds but not on sites where full articles are behind paywalls. Subscribers also get caching for instant loading and offline access. The new version brings support for the key read–later services: Instapaper, Pocket, and Safari’s…

Free From Susanne Volk–Augustin, larztech.com/charcoal.html Made for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch Needs iOS 13.1 or later iOS devices, and particularly the iPad with its larger screen sizes, are the perfect tools for drawing and painting, the touch interface in newer devices having virtually no lag. Where some apps offer lots of in–depth drawing tools, Charcoal is incredibly simple. A miniscule download of under 2MB, it also happens to be free. Load it up and you’re presented with a choice of canvas shape: Vertical, square, or horizontal — though there are no specific size options. The home screen also serves as a repository for all your sketches, and pressing and holding one gives you the option to delete it. There are four pens of varying tip sizes and hardness, and along…

WHEN SHOULD I ERASE MY LOST iPHONE? If your iPhone has Find My iPhone enabled, one option when your phone goes missing is to erase all your personal data and settings from it. However, this also disables location tracking, so should only be used when you’ve abandoned all hope of recovering that phone. CAN MY iPHONE TELL WHERE I’VE BEEN? If it has Location Services enabled, it does automatically. In Settings, tap Privacy > Location Services. At the bottom of the list, tap System Services, then Significant Locations, which is protected by Face ID. That lists places your phone considers are significant. You can disable this function, and clear its history. CAN I CONTINUE MY BACKUPS WHEN I CHANGE MY MAC? Yes. Provided you use the same backup volume, Time…

1 Open Playlists In Music, go to the Library tab where you should see Playlists along with Albums, Songs, Genres, etc. If you don’t, tap Edit in the top–right corner, and select the Playlists option. Then tap on Playlists to open it. 2 Create a playlist Once you have opened the Playlists option, tap the New Playlist option at the top. This will open up an interface where you can name your playlist, add a cover image, a playlist description, and some songs. 3 Add music Tap the Add Music button. This will allow you to browse your library, recommended music (For You), and the Apple Music catalogue (Browse). Simply tap the red “+” button on the right side to add a song to your playlist. 4 Add while listening…

THERE’S NO SHORTAGE of email apps to choose from on the Mac, and with Apple’s own mail app getting a decent upgrade in Catalina, you might wonder why you would bother using anything else. Well, in Spark’s case, the answer is productivity. Whether it’s customizing smart inboxes to surface important messages, collaborating on a draft message with a team, delegating messages, or using actions to move them, Spark has a ton of features to help. Spark is also available on iOS and iPadOS, so you can sync messages with your iPhone and iPad. Spark also allows you to create template messages so that if you have emails you send regularly, you don’t have to write them from scratch each time. It has a customizable Gmail-style Quick Reply feature, and you…

1 Auto fix In the Fix section’s Adjustments panel, open Auto Smart Tone. Click Apply. To fine–tune the auto adjustment, click on Custom and drag a control handle towards the preview thumbnail that looks the best. Click Done. 2 Preset adjustments Auto Smart Tone may not produce the best results. For more control, open Lighting. Click preset thumbnails to alter Brightness, Contrast, and Exposure in increments. Try Auto Levels for boosting contrast. 3 Manual adjustments Click the Lighting panel’s Reset button to restore the clip’s original look. Click More to access sliders. Here we’ve manually tweaked the Brightness, Contrast and Exposure sliders to create the look we prefer. 4 Color boost To give a clip’s drab colors more impact, open the Color panel. Adjust the Hue, Lightness and Saturation of…

WHAT LINKS MCLEAN, VA, and Glendale, CA? If you said “the United States of America,” full marks for geography. But on 19 May 2001, these unglamorous locations, 2,600 miles and three hours apart, were the birthplaces of the Apple Store. Two decades later, this global chain of more than 500 outlets in 25 countries is praised and envied for its upmarket design and exceptional profitability. Back then, the idea of Apple running its own stores was retail heresy. Besides licensing independent authorized resellers, the company had launched and relaunched “stores within a store” with the likes of Best Buy, Sears and CompUSA, but neither the image nor the sales figures ever seemed to come right. Newly returned as CEO, Steve Jobs made retail a priority. After launching Apple’s online store,…

THE ORIGINAL iPAD was essentially a handheld 9.7–inch XGA (1,024 x 768 pixel) screen with built–in storage (16GB, 32GB, or 64GB) but little else — not even a camera, at first. It was a mere half–inch thick, weighed just 1.5 pounds, and had an impressive ten hours of battery life. It wasn’t the first tablet computer, but it was revolutionary in one key respect: It didn’t require a keyboard or a stylus. Instead, you used your fingers. In this way, as Steve Jobs put it at the time, it created “an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive, and fun way than ever before.” INTUITIVE AND INVISIBLE As Apple’s 2012 ad for the 3rd–gen iPad put it,…

THE ORIGINAL iPAD started strongly, selling 300,000 on the opening weekend, 3.27m in the first quarter, then 32m in Apple’s fiscal year 2011. Because it’s a consumer device, iPad sales always spike in the holiday quarter, and on the release of iPad Air and iPad mini 2 in November 2013 reached an all–time high of more than 26m in the quarter. Apple stopped reporting sales numbers at the end of 2018, but a total of more than 400m iPads have been sold since launch. Proportionally, iPad accounted for 26% of Apple’s total global revenue in Q3 2012, but since this high point other segments have grown more strongly than iPad; in Q4 2019 it was under 11%. Thanks to a refresh in 2018–19, Q2 2019 saw the strongest growth in…

FAR FROM BEING for entertainment alone, iPad has transformed many workplaces and entire industries. It’s widely used for inventory control and point–of–sale; in restaurants your server is likely to take your order on one; it’s everywhere in IT, marketing, and the construction industry. It has revolutionized two areas in particular. In healthcare, iPad provides portable access to scans, test results, and patient records; high–resolution imaging for diagnosis, visualization, and communication with patients; and increasingly, interface with wireless health monitoring devices, including Apple Watch. In education, it has revolutionized teaching and learning. For students it increases engagement and delivers verified improvements in academic attainment. In the face of concerted competition from Google apps and cheap Chromebooks, iPad apps and teacher resources streamline teacher tasks and enable a learning–centered “flipped classroom” model.…

ON A RECENT weekend, I was cleaning out the storage cupboard in my home that contains my collected computer ephemera from over the years. I’ve resisted getting rid of as much as possible, but there comes a time when one must concede that you simply won’t use a FireWire 800 lead again, that your OS X Leopard upgrade disc has run out of things it can update, and that the 30–metre ethernet cable you bought when Wi–Fi couldn’t be relied on to cover three floors has met its match at the hands of a mesh router system. The box for a 13–inch MacBook Pro, bought in 2014, gave me pause for thought. The computer is still going strong, but eyeing up the specs, two jumped out at me: 8GB of…

1 Enable iCloud Drive in macOS In System Prefs > Apple ID > iCloud, check iCloud Drive and click Options. This lists all apps on your Mac that can store docs in iCloud Drive. Keep them checked, unless you’ve a reason not to. 2 Sync Desktop and Documents? You can sync macOS user account’s Desktop and Document folders to iCloud Drive. You’ll then be able to access those files anywhere. But consider if it will overwhelm your iCloud storage. 3 Access your files Click iCloud Drive in the sidebar of a Finder window. If you delete a file here, it’s deleted from iCloud. Ctrl–click and choose Remove Download to delete it on Mac; a cloud icon shows you can re–download it. 4 Enable iCloud Drive in iOS In Settings, tap…

iCloud not only stores and syncs your pics, it also lets you show them to others. In macOS Catalina, make sure Shared Albums is checked in Photos > Preferences > iCloud. Select the photos you want to share (if they’re already in an album, click it under My Albums in the left sidebar and press Cmd+A to select all) and click the “+” icon beside Shared Albums, above. Give the album a name and add the email addresses of the people you want to share it with, then click Create to invite them. Shared albums only work on Apple devices or with iCloud for Windows (see page opposite). When you select one of your shared albums in the left sidebar, you can click the People icon at the top right…

THE NOTES APP gains a few features in iOS 13 and macOS Catalina, including the ability to create and share folders. Only notes and folders in the iCloud section, not On My device, can be shared, so make sure this is enabled by turning on Notes in your iCloud settings, then create a folder in iCloud. In iOS or iPadOS, tap New Folder at the bottom right of the Folders view, or in macOS right–click the area below iCloud and choose New Folder. Select the folder and tap the People icon at the top to add people, who can then (subject to Share Options) add notes to the folder as well as viewing and editing notes that you’ve put in it. REMINDERS The Reminders app has also gained a few…

THE INTRODUCTION OF iOS 13 in 2019 was a landmark moment for Apple because it split the operating system into two versions, one for iPhone and one for iPad. As usual, there were plenty of headline new features, like Dark Mode, improvements to Siri, the new FindMy app, and beefed up security and privacy. However, there was also a raft of features that didn’t make the headlines but which all help make both operating systems easier to use, more powerful, and more reliable, as well as, importantly, more fun. Some are hidden under the hood, others more visible but still tucked away in settings or menus, waiting to be discovered. Despite the split into two operating systems, many features, including the new ones in iOS/iPadOS 13 remain common to both.…

1 If you need to share a photo and annotate it, tap it in Photos, tap Edit, then choose the More dots. Tap Markup. You’ll see an array of tools and a color selector along the bottom of the screen. Tap a tool to choose it or tap and hold to see its options. 2 Choose a thickness option for your pen or pencil, then use the slider to set its opacity. Now tap the color wheel to choose a color. Tap it again to hide the color options. The “+” reveals your options for adding a text box, signature, shapes, or a magnifier. 3 With the tool and color selected, draw on the image with your finger to mark it up, or type text if you add a text…

From $49.99/year (one Mac) From Airo AV, airoav.com Needs OS X 10.11 or later Airo is the latest entry into the Mac security market, and what sets it apart is the fact this isn’t a Windows specialist extending into new territory, but an anti–malware tool designed from the ground up for Mac users. You get real–time protection and scanning capabilities, plus a browser add–on (Safari and Chrome only) to help block web–based threats such as dangerous websites and phishing scams. But that’s it — for now. Thankfully, the anti–virus protection is comprehensive. Don’t be fooled by Airo’s sleek, unobtrusive presence — a single menu bar icon and system footprint that’s practically invisible — everything you expect from a rock–solid anti-virus tool is here, including two AV engines. Airo pairs its…

1 Check the lock In Catalina on a Mac with a T2 chip, Secure Boot and 2FA for your Apple ID, Activation Lock is automatically enabled when you turn on Find My Mac. Confirm this in the Hardware item in System Information (listed in the last line). 2 Switch it off Find My Mac and Activation Lock can prevent a service technician from repairing your Mac, or lock out someone you lend it to. Turn Find My Mac off in Catalina’s Apple ID pane in the iCloud item, or in the iCloud pane for older OS. 3 Remote disable If you forget before parting with your Mac, you can disable this through iCloud.com, but you then have to erase that Mac before you can disable Find My Mac. Click Find…

1 Sync with iCloud Open Settings on your iPhone, then Apple ID > iCloud. Ensure Contacts is enabled. Then go to Settings > Contacts > Default Account and select iCloud. This ensures any new contacts created are stored in iCloud by default. 2 Create a Smart Group In Contacts on macOS, Shift+Cmd+N creates a Smart Group. Define your criteria for the group and Contacts populates it with contacts that match. This also applies to any new contacts. 3 Manually create a group If you don’t have a set of common criteria but still want to create a group, tap “+” to the right of the iCloud label in the left–hand pane. Name the group and then drag in the relevant contacts. HOW TO Use nicknames 1 Enable short names In…

PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 2020’S filters can produce a wide range of artistic looks, but they tend to make your computer–generated art look like everyone else’s. The techniques covered in this walkthrough will enable you to add the human touch to your digital art by showing you how to paint brush strokes that reveal color, tone and detail from an original photograph. Because you’re manually painting brush strokes (rather than simply slapping on a filter), your digital paintings will look far more personal and unique than boring old filter–produced art. We’ll demonstrate how to use the Brush tool and a layer mask to turn a photograph into a convincing watercolor-style painting, with varying washes of overlapping color and wet-looking edges to the digital brush strokes. This photo painting technique doesn’t require you…

1 Customize Smart inbox Click on the Spark menu and choose Preferences, then General. Select Smart Inbox. Choose which cards you want to enable on the left. Choose an action from the bottom. Choose which account it should apply to. 2 Create a team In Preferences, choose Teams > Create New Team. Give it a name and press Create a Team. Click on Manage Team & Profile. On the Team Preferences page, click Members, then Add Members to add your teammates. 3 Add a calendar You can add Google, Exchange, or iCloud calendars. In Prefs, choose Accounts then the account for which you want to enable the calendar. Use the Calendars tab to set a default calendar and customize its display. 4 Schedule a message Start writing an email. When…

SYNCING IS A wonderful thing: Just last night we were finishing a Keynote presentation on iPad that we’d started on our Mac and rehearsed on our iPhone. But Apple’s approach, to sync via iCloud, has some flaws: It isn’t interested in devices that don’t have an Apple logo on them — and it can sometimes be a little hesitant to update things, as we’ve learnt the hard way when our devices didn’t have the files we thought they did. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a cross–device sync that gave you complete control of everything? Enter SyncMate, which syncs data with iOS, iPadOS and Android devices, all your cloud storage services such as Google Drive and Dropbox, multiple Macs, mapped network drives and Microsoft Office services too. SyncMate 8…

THE HOME APP may be even more clever than you first thought… If you’ve got one, several or many HomeKit–enabled devices and an Apple TV or iPad that’s running the latest version of its operating system, you can control your home from your iPhone or even your Apple Watch. And you don’t even need to be in your home to make it happen. The trick is to turn your Apple TV or iPad into a home hub. It works brilliantly but there are a couple of caveats. First, your home hub device must be on your home Wi–Fi network and it needs to be powered on: A hub can’t make things happen if it’s unreachable. And if your HomeKit devices connect via Bluetooth instead of Wi–Fi, you might need to…

APPLE’S BUILT–IN NEWS curating platform, Apple News, allows you to pick your sources, topics and areas of interest, then brings them all together in a tailored feed. While there are plenty of news aggregators on the App Store, Apple News offers some significant benefits over the competition. The content is curated by a dedicated editorial team, so the suggestions you see are from high–quality sources. The app then works with Safari to suggest news stories and topics based on your browsing history, and you can further refine suggestions by liking/unliking particular items, and blocking channels and themes you aren’t interested in seeing. All this information processing is done entirely on–device, so there’s no sending of data to the cloud or sharing of info to third–parties. The app is available across…