Innehållsförteckning för December 2023 från MacLife

IN SONOMA, THE Messages app is now easier to search. In common with iOS and iPadOS 17’s Messages apps, you can use search filters to narrow down your results and zoom in on what you’re looking for. After typing a search term, you can then add additional terms. Search filters can be names, files, locations, web addresses and more. When you begin to type a name, for example, completion suggestions are offered in a menu. Choose one, and it becomes a search filter. Choose Link, Location or Photo from the menu that follows, and you can search for pictures, web addresses or places associated with that Messages chat. If you’ve not checked a group chat for a while, an up–pointing chevron icon in the top right lets you zoom to…

A new app coming “later this year” helps you curate your memories, taking information from several different apps and storing them in a digital scrapbook/diary hybrid. Journal is coming to iOS/iPadOS 17 as well as Sonoma, and syncs across all three platforms. Like a diary, Journal lets you write down your thoughts each day for later review. But using machine learning, it also makes suggestions of other things to include gleaned from apps such as Photos, Contacts, Maps, Fitness and more. Pictures you took, people you met, places you visited and workouts you did are all suggested, for you to place in your digital journal for the day. It’s up to you what goes in there — you don’t have to accept every suggestion. Apple is going to release an…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to share your Mac’s screen YOU’LL NEED macOS 12 or later for SharePlay WHATEVER THE REASON, sharing a screen from one Mac to another is pretty simple, whether you’re in the same room or another continent. You don’t need third–party software — though there are third–party tools that add more features — and you can even copy and paste from one Mac to the other. All the tools you need are built right into macOS. Screen sharing has been around for ages, but if you want to share a screen in FaceTime or Messages using SharePlay, you’ll need to be running macOS 12 or later. HOW TO Share your screen 1 Share on a local network On the Mac whose screen…

REQUIRES Safari YOU WILL LEARN How to manage Safari’s preferences so that websites work the way you want them to IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes WEBSITES AREN’T ALWAYS fun. Some insist on auto–playing media. Others bombard you with pop–up surveys. And many will interrupt your reading with adverts. In a lot of cases, websites will do all three (and more), but the good news is you can start to take control of websites by managing preferences in Safari. Apple’s web browser enables you to determine whether you want to be sent notifications, view videos, download content, grant access to various functions of your Mac, and see pop–up windows. For even more control, you can nail a particular preference to every website you visit or create settings on a site–by–site basis.…

REQUIRES Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD, tvOS 17 YOU WILL LEARN All about some of the new features in tvOS 17 IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes UNLIKE MACOS, iOS and iPadOS, tvOS updates for the Apple TV streaming box tend to be stealthily incremental in nature, and are often not noticeable at all. This year’s update is different. For one, tvOS 17 brings FaceTime to Apple TV 4K (2nd or 3rd generation) by leveraging Continuity Camera on iPhone and iPad, with support coming for third–party apps such as Zoom and Webex by Cisco too. Plus, Apple Music Sing — which enables you to sing along to your favorite tracks in karaoke fashion — will also work with Continuity Camera too, meaning no–one need miss out on the fun……

> Share certificates across Macs How can I share security certificates in my iCloud Keychain? You don’t appear to be able to share secrets of your own choosing, apart from internet and other passwords, using the keychain shared in iCloud. That isn’t because of any limitation in the keychain, but is due to the fact that you can’t add your own keys or certificates to the keychain that’s shared. Macs have two types of keychain. The login keychain, that’s normally used to store our own certificates and secure notes, uses an ancient format, is stored in our Home Library’s Keychains folder, and can’t be shared in iCloud. The Keychain Access app has full access to its contents, which makes it simple to add certificates and other secrets. The iCloud Keychain…

> Unlock a used Mac I bought a used Mac mini 2018, but when I try to start it up, it asks for a password or the Apple ID of its previous owner. How can I bypass those, install a fresh copy of macOS and use it? Unfortunately, only its previous owner can open that Mac up, as it still has Activation Lock enabled. This is linked to Find My Mac, and prevents anyone else from starting up a Mac protected by its T2 or Apple silicon chip. This isn’t a feature of older Intel Macs without a T2. What the previous owner should have done before parting with it is run Erase All Content and Settings, which not only destroys all their personal data kept on its internal storage,…

> Ignore any permission problems I moved my image library and documents to my new Mac on an external drive, but when I try to use them I seem to hit permission problems. Why, and what can I do about it? When inspecting permissions in the Finder’s Get Info dialog, each item has an owner and group, with their set permissions, and for all users. Although shown there with names like your user name, that isn’t how the file system sees them: instead, owners and groups are converted into numbers. On most Macs, the first admin user is given the number 501, and subsequent users have numbers upwards of 502. Sometimes users are removed, and it can happen that an external disk ends up with user numbers that differ from…

If your iPad is new enough, you can trigger some great effects by making hand gestures in a video call. Not just in FaceTime, but in almost any app supporting the standard iPhone camera APIs, including Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Zoom. While on a video call, open the Control Center to find two new buttons. Tap Video Effects and make sure Reactions is on. Now you can trigger a thumbs up or down by making that gesture with your hand, a spray of hearts by making the two–handed heart gesture, two thumbs up for fireworks, two thumbs down for rain and more. Look out too for balloons produced by the peace sign, confetti by two peace signs, and a laser display by giving double devil horns.…

THE APPLE WATCH’S 10th birthday isn’t until 2025 but its operating system, watchOS, is now in double figures. Last year’s watchOS 9 wasn’t a big deal, but this year is different. In fact, we think watchOS 10 is the biggest Apple Watch upgrade in years. watchOS 10 is designed to improve the Apple Watch experience in three key ways: health, fitness and customization. In the first category, you’ll find new features to help with your mental health as well as your physical health. In the fitness category there are huge improvements for cyclists, new features for hikers, and a wealth of enhancements to the Fitness app and the Fitness+ service. And, in the customization category, you’ll find new faces, more in–app options and a new feature, Smart Stack, that makes…

It’s October 2020, and while almost all of us are dealing with some form of lockdown or COVID–19 restriction, Lisa Jackson is on the roof of Apple Park. It is that year’s crucial iPhone keynote address, and Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives is explaining how, by 2030, “we plan to have Net Zero climate impact across our entire business.” She points out previous environmental progress the firm has made and announces new developments, for instance that the magnets in the iPhone 12 use 100% recycled rare earth elements. Oh, and EarPods headphones and power adapters are no longer going to be included in the box with a new iPhone, helping to reduce packaging, materials required, and carbon emissions. Apple had long talked about its environmental concerns,…

ONCE AGAIN, A new version of the Mac’s operating system, macOS, arrived in the fall packed with useful new features and enhanced capabilities. For the last decade, Apple has named each new version of macOS after a Californian landmark, and this year’s release — macOS 14 — is no exception. macOS Sonoma takes its name from a city in the North Bay region of San Francisco Bay. Wes Craven’s Scream was partly filmed there, but the new version of macOS is certainly no horror story. Sonoma takes a fresh look at screen savers and adds widgets to the desktop. New video conferencing features let you place your own image on top of your presentation, and Game Mode enables your games to run better by giving priority to the CPU and…

THE PDF (PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT) is a very important type of file, and one that many of us use a lot today. The way we work with PDFs has been enhanced and improved in macOS Sonoma. Using machine learning, text fields in PDF forms are identified and made available for typing. You can use AutoFill to quickly fill out a form, and simply type into fields where no AutoFill is available. You can add a signature you have saved in Preview or make a new one, and check boxes are ticked when you click on them. This works on documents you scan with your iPhone or iPad’s camera and open on your Mac, as well as those sent to you as a PDF. In the Preview app, click the Show…

A PREVIEW dupeGuru enables you to place two photos side by side to check if they’re duplicates or to compare differences. B DELTA VALUES Tick this and the file list will highlight the differences between a reference file and potential duplicates. C ZOOM CONTROLS Use these controls to see your two chosen photos up close. This makes it easier to spot any differences. D FILE DETAILS This panel provides a more detailed comparison between your two selected files in terms of attributes. REQUIRES dupeGuru, macOS 10.12 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to identify duplicate and similar files, plus delete unwanted copies IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes SEARCH MUSIC FILES BY TAG, FROM A CHOICE OF TRACK, ARTIST, ALBUM, TITLE, GENRE AND/OR YEAR WHEN IT COMES to keeping your drive…

REQUIRES iPadOS 17 YOU WILL LEARN How to personalize one or more Lock Screens on iPad IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes SINCE iOS 16, iPhone users have been able to create multiple Lock Screens featuring a host of widgets drawn from a wide number of first– and third–party apps. You can also take your pick from a selection of suggested wallpapers, alter the way the time is displayed, see helpful information at a glance, and play around with a variety of color schemes. In other words, it allows for greater personalization. With iPadOS 17 this same functionality is now available on iPad, and there’s plenty to get stuck into. Want a Live Photo as your Lock Screen and see it animate? Well, now you can! Fancy a Lock Screen that…

YOU WILL LEARN How ANC and Adaptive Audio can silence the outside world ANC IS A DOUBLE WIN: IT DELIVERS BETTER AUDIO, AND IT HELPS PROTECT YOUR HEARING TOO WITHOUT A DOUBT, our favorite feature on the AirPods and AirPods Max is the ability to turn down noise coming from the outside world. Whether it’s the chatter of a busy cafe, the thrum of an airplane engine or the rumble (and grumble) of a train full of rush–hour commuters, AirPods, AirPods Pro and AirPods Max make it easier for you to listen to what you want by getting rid of what you don’t want. With the introduction of iOS 17, the most recent models are turning noise canceling up to 11. AirPods Pro 2 already had active noise cancellation (ANC)…

HOW OFTEN SHOULD MACOS CHECK ITSELF FOR MALWARE? In macOS Catalina or later, XProtect scans for malware should run daily, or more frequently when Apple considers the threat is high. Scans should run in the background when your Mac is awake but not being used heavily. HOW TO REMOVE APPS FROM THE OPEN WITH MENU? Launch Services builds that menu from the apps on your Mac, and which types of document they can open. An app that’s stored outside the main Applications folders won’t normally be included, but to be certain, put the app in an archive or remove it altogether. WHY DOES DRAGGING A FILE TO iCLOUD MOVE IT THERE? Dragging a file within the same volume moves it, but between two different volumes it’s copied to preserve the…

IT’S BEEN A long time coming, but at last, it’s here! In iPadOS 17 (and indeed iOS 17), if you make a FaceTime call and the other party doesn’t pick up, you can leave a video or audio message so they know what the call was about. It’s easy to do. When you make a video call and the other person fails to answer, you get a screen saying they’re unavailable, just like you always have in FaceTime. But now there’s a button inviting you to record a video message. Tap the Record Video button and a countdown timer starts, after which the video recording begins. You can stop the countdown timer mid-flow by tapping the circular Pause button. To resume a paused video recording, tap the red Record button.…

Another feature that came to Messages with iPadOS 17 is Inline Location, which allows you to check someone’s whereabouts directly from the Messages app. In Messages, tap the plus icon next to the text field and then tap the Location option. A pop–up window allows you to send your own current location to the person you’re messaging, and also to request theirs. In the conversation, tap their name at the top to see where they are.…

The iPad’s Freeform app, a digital collaborative feature that brings the office whiteboard to online meetings, gains a few new tools in iPadOS 17. The watercolor brush, for example, lets you illustrate with the distinctive pastel colors offered by water–based paints. If you need something more solid and stylish, there’s also a fountain pen for calligraphy. Other new drawing tools include a variable–width pen and a ruler. With iPadOS 17, you can take your drawings to a whole new level. The Freeform app’s shape recognition feature works like that offered by the Notes app. If you draw a regular shape with your Apple Pencil, such as a square, a circle or a triangle, as soon as you’ve finished it snaps into a perfectly formed geometric version. Your squares have perfectly…

$229.99 From www.owc.com Features Create 3 independent daisy chains; 31.5” Thunderbolt cable included; 96W charging power Needs Apple silicon M1 or M2 Mac, Intel Mac with Thunderbolt 3 (check site for detailed model support) OWC’S LINEUP OF Thunderbolt docks continues to grow with the 11–port model, which is a little more compact and portable than some of its siblings while still offering a good selection of ins and outs. Shipping with a 135W external power supply, it is able to provide up to 96W directly to your laptop through its host Thunderbolt 4 port, which also carries data. Also on the front of the dock you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack, USB 2 port and an SD card slot with up to 312MB/s transfer speeds. The rear panel sports three…

APPLE HAS INTRODUCED a new MacBook Pro lineup, plus a new 24–inch iMac, all powered by a new generation of Apple silicon. Apple says the 14–inch MacBook Pro with M3 chip is up to 60% faster than the 13–inch model with M1, and it now starts at $1,599 — $400 less than before. The 16–inch MacBook Pro with M3 Pro and M3 Max still starts at $2,499. The M3 Max model is up to 11x faster than the fastest Intel–based MacBook Pro, Apple says. Models with M3 Max support up to 128GB of unified memory, and the range is configurable with up to 8TB of storage. M3 Pro and M3 Max models also now come in Space Black, a new dark aluminum finish. All MacBook Pro models feature a Liquid…

ONE OF THE benefits of Apple producing its own chips, and of a general plateauing of Intel chip improvements in Macs even before the Apple switch, over the last few years has been that we didn’t get much of a “left behind” syndrome when new OS updates were released. In the days of OS X, it wasn’t uncommon for some of the new features of an update to be locked away if your Mac was too old. But we got to a point where that wasn’t so much of an issue, and effectively any new feature coming to Mac or iPhone especially would be available on anything the software runs on. FEATURES BASED ON MACHINE–LEARNING TECHNIQUES REQUIRE APPLE’S NEURAL CHIPS The “left behind” syndrome didn’t totally go away (on iPad,…

THE WAY YOUR Mac uses widgets has had a very welcome overhaul. In previous versions of macOS, you had to open the Notification Center by clicking on the time and date in the menu bar. In macOS Sonoma, you can drag them out of the Notification Center and place them anywhere on the desktop. You can then review the information they offer at a glance. So they don’t distract, when you open an app on your Mac, the widgets blend into the background, intelligently lifting color from the wallpaper behind them. It’s easy to get back to the widgets. All you have to do is click on the desktop, and application and Finder windows are then pushed to the edges of the screen, just like they are when you do…

REQUIRES Adobe Premiere Elements 2023, macOS 11 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to distort footage, style color, create composites IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes ONE WAY TO make your home movies stand out is with the addition of eye–catching special effects, and Premiere Elements 2023 can make this happen with creative options that will instantly change the look of your footage. The video effects are grouped into sections in the FX panel. We’ll look at Artistic, Distort and Keying here, but there are many more effects to explore. Once you’ve added an effect, you can also modify its properties as we’ll also demonstrate. We’ll run through how to digitally distort your clips to create a surreal dream sequence. You’ll also learn how to make a video clip look like…

WHICH BROWSERS COULD I USE INSTEAD OF SAFARI? There’s now a wide choice of third–party web browsers to choose from. These include Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, and more specialist apps like Brave, DuckDuckGo, Opera and high–privacy options like Ulaa. Avoid those whose titles start with “Private Browser”, or which aren’t more widely available. HOW CAN MAPS TELL WHERE I’M LIKELY TO GO NEXT? When enabled, your iPhone or iPad keeps a list of significant locations that you visit repeatedly, and shares that with the Maps app to suggest routes. Enable this in Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations.…

A FEATURE COMING LATER in the year will make it much easier to work with PDFs on your iPad. AutoFill will identify and fill text fields in PDF forms and allow you to quickly add details such as names, addresses, and emails from your Contacts app. Using new machine–learning models, iPadOS can quickly identify the fields you’re being asked to fill in on the form, such as your name, address, email, phone number and more. You can then use AutoFill to enter the required information. It even works on documents you scan yourself using the iPad’s camera. If you need to sign the document, you can add a saved signature or make a new one with your Apple Pencil. The AutoFill button even lets you reply to the person that…

LIKE MACOS SONOMA and iOS 17, in iPadOS 17 you can summon Apple’s digital personal assistant by saying “Siri” instead of “Hey Siri”. To choose, open the Settings app and in the Siri & Search section, tap Listen For. You can also invoke Siri during a telephone or FaceTime call now. You can check activity history in the Home app, allowing you to see who has used a smart door lock and when, for example. Garage doors, contact sensors and security systems are also covered. If you like crosswords and subscribe to Apple News+, you can now do crossword puzzles in the News app too. Visual Lookup was introduced with iPadOS 15, and lets you look up information on subjects in photos you’ve taken. With iPadOS 17, you can look…

SPEAKING TO OUTSIDE magazine Tim Cook said “I really believe that if you zoom out to the future and then look back and ask, ‘what has Apple’s greatest contribution been?’ it will be in the health and wellness area.” And with watchOS 10, the already impressive Apple Watch health and fitness features have now become even better. When it comes to exercise, your Apple Watch does everything from cycle tracking to cyclist training. And there are significant improvements to the latter, including lots of new metrics to analyze your rides and support for Bluetooth devices such as cycling computers and power meters. Hikers get some very useful new navigation and emergency features, and all kinds of workouts (including third–party apps too) can take advantage of Live Activities to show crucial…

$99.99 From https://us.soundcore.com Features Adaptive noise canceling, 6 microphones, wireless charging case, sound personalization, LDAC codec, 11mm drivers, IPX4 water–resistance ANKER’S LATEST WIRELESS earbuds pack a lot of functionality into a very affordable product. Available in a choice of colors, there’s an impressive ten hours of charge in the buds and a total of 50 hours in the case, with a ten–minute quick charge providing up to four hours of playback. Pairing is simple and along with the latest Bluetooth 5.3 standard, you also get multipoint connection so the buds will remember multiple devices without having to be re–paired. The Hear ID 2.0 system lets you run tests to tailor the sound to your particular tastes and store the settings; some will find this useful, though we found the user–customizable…