Innehållsförteckning för February 2024 från MacLife

AFTER ANNOUNCING THAT it is buying the remaining 33% of Hulu it doesn’t already own from Comcast for “at least” $8.6bn, Disney has added a beta version of a “Hulu Hub” to the Disney+ interface. If you’re subscribed to a Disney+ and Hulu bundle (or just subscribe to both with the same email address), you’ll see a new Hulu card among the brands along the top. However, Disney says both Hulu and Disney+ remain available as standalone offerings. Reportedly for licencing reasons, Hulu + Live TV and Premium add–ons will still be available only within the Hulu app, along with the full Hulu SVOD content library. Disney CEO Bob Iger has promised a “one–app experience”, but there are reportedly technical hurdles as well as some practical hassles in the way…

Back in June 2020, Apple announced it was transitioning the Mac to what it broadly referred to at the time as “Apple silicon”. Instead of Macs containing chips made by Intel or another third party, Apple itself would create the hardware. In November that same year, we saw the first iteration of this — the M1 chip. Apple has always insisted the move away from previous provider Intel would allow it to make more rapid progress in improving the Macs. “There has never been a chip like M1, our breakthrough SoC for the Mac. It builds on more than a decade of designing industry–leading chips for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and ushers in a whole new era for the Mac,” said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware…

SOFTWARE DOESN’T HAVE to cost a fortune. You can get all sorts of apps for free, covering all manner of uses. There are free word processors, graphics editors, games, media players, utilities, and more. Don’t assume that because an app is free, it’s less capable than a paid–for piece of software. In many cases, the free app is the best one for the job. Some are coded by programmers that work for the love of their art, others are made by professional software publishers but released without charge, alongside their paid–for apps. In this feature, we take a look at some of the best free software available for all of your Apple gear. Whether it’s for the Mac, iPhone, iPad or Watch, if it’s both free and good, it’s likely…

MOST APPLE WATCH applications are bundled with iPhone apps. For example, if you have the Roku app on your phone, you can control it with an Apple Watch app, and you can tick off to–dos using the Things watch component. There are also some completely free apps that are solely Watch–specific. Let’s take a look at some. PEDOMETER++ FROM pedometer.app ALSO ON iPhone, iMessage This ad–supported freebie is an iPhone app with a very worthy watch component. With Pedometer++, you can keep track of your daily and weekly step counts, see how far you’ve walked, and as it integrates with the Health app, it can help keep an eye on your overall fitness regime. You can share your results through iMessage too. PARRITY FROM App Store ALSO ON iPhone Apple…

REQUIRES Mp3tag ($24.99), macOS 10.14 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to tag audio files automatically and manually IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes THIS CLEVER TOOL MAKES IT EASY TO TRACK DOWN THE CORRECT TAGS FOR YOUR FILES IF YOU’VE EVER felt frustrated by the way your music collection is displayed in the Music app or by your media server, Mp3tag can help. This clever tool makes it easy to track down the correct tags for files — from artist and album names to composers — plus suitable artwork. This info is then embedded into your files in the form of “metadata” that can be displayed in your music player, not just for show but to aid navigation. Tags and artwork can be manually added, or you can instruct Mp3tag…

REQUIRES An iPhone 14 Pro or later, suitable apps YOU WILL LEARN Some of the cool things you can do with the Dynamic Island on the iPhone 14 Pro or later IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes ONE OF THE best things about Apple’s latest iPhones is that they all now come with the Dynamic Island — the magical notification area that first appeared on the front of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. If you own an iPhone 15, 15 Plus, 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, you now get the Dynamic Island too, and that’s great news for two main reasons: one, it’s no longer exclusive to Apple’s “pro” phones; two, Apple and third–party developers have had time to come up with all kinds of clever uses for…

REQUIRES iPhone or iPad YOU WILL LEARN How to create a GIF via your Photos library using the Shortcuts app and other methods IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes GIFS (GRAPHICS INTERCHANGE FORMAT) may have become less commonly used among the younger generations these days, but they’re still fearsomely popular among those of us of an older persuasion — and we’ve now mastered how to pronounce them, too (like “jif” according to one of the lead inventors, Steve Wilhite). Here we look at a few methods for creating and sharing these image files in a… ahem, jiffy, the primary one being the use of the Shortcuts app. One shortcut is more specifically geared to using videos from your Photos library, and the other also lets you use Live Photos. There are…

Protect a notebook from power glitches How best to protect my MacBook Pro from any wall power problems? The conventional protection afforded by an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is of limited value with Mac notebooks, as they don’t support the USB connection provided from the UPS to signal to the computer that wall power has been lost, so the notebook can’t shut itself down in readiness. Desktop Macs provide for this in a UPS Options button in System Settings > Energy Saver. Some more advanced UPS offer SNMP support, but that’s fiendishly difficult to set up. Neither do notebooks need the fallback power from a UPS, as they have their own battery that will supply power for longer than the UPS could. What they do need, though, is good surge…

AS WELL AS boasting many other talents, the iPhone does an excellent job of capturing stunning portraits that exhibit true–to–life colors and crisp, clear detail thanks to its Photonic Engine. Even when shooting a subject backlit by the sun, the iPhone can process the person and sky separately to reveal detail in the brighter and darker parts of the frame. This selective adjustment is applied even when shooting in ProRAW. EDIT MAKES PERFECT There are times, however, when an almost perfect portrait will benefit from some post–shoot processing, applying additional enhancements for extra creative flair. If you have an unsteady horizon then you can use the Straighten tool in Photos to counteract a tilt. You may also need to tweak composition to make the subject look their best when shared…

TO MAKE SURE you’re getting the most out of the Health app, it’s worth tapping your Profile image and selecting Health Checklist. This lets you view, consider and enable available health features to ensure you’re not missing something useful. Being familiar with features such as Crash Detection, notifications and Emergency SOS can help to keep you safe (as well as being able to add an emergency contact, the latter lets you activate a Call Quietly feature to make emergency calls more discreet). But there’s much more. Select Other Data under the Browse tab, and you can track how long you brush your teeth or wash your hands for each day. Perhaps you wish to keep an eye on your alcohol consumption, or the number of times you use an inhaler…

$14.99 From www.feralinteractive.com Needs iPad/iOS 16 or later HITMAN: BLOOD MONEY — REPRISAL revives IO Interactive’s 2006 stealth assassination game in a way that will quash any doubts you might have about playing a PS2–era game in 2024. Blood Money was the Hitman series entry that introduced many of the interactions that have made the more recent games great. You get the sandbox–like levels, filled with multiple, improvised ways to off your target. You get rewards for clean kills and for not being noticed. And you get the ability to climb over low obstacles, which Agent 47 didn’t possess in earlier games. There’s also now a minimap, more obvious alerts if you’re spotted, and Instinct Mode, a visual overlay grafted on from more recent titles that lets you see through…

Andrew Cottle Art Editor Andrew has been delving into our Obscura — Pro Camera Create pages this issue (p36), as he wants to improve his photos and this great app gives you more control. Rachel Terzian Production Editor Rachel loves discovering new top–tier free apps (p12); one that she has been using recently is the brilliant Merlin app for identifying birds. George Cairns Contributor Photographer George is a firm believer in the power of the iPhone camera for portraits. His guide on p52 will help you take amazing photos.…

THERE’S A LOT of detail around Vision Pro that Apple has yet to reveal, or that will take more time to become clear. Apple seems content to trickle information out ahead of the headset’s launch in 2024. Not long before writing this, Apple showed a number of US journalists the experience of capturing “Spatial Video” (i.e. Apple’s flavor of 3D video) on iPhone, which they could then watch on the headset. Over time, we’ll hear more of this — no doubt there will be a moment when journalists are invited to try using it as a Mac substitute, or to use virtual film–making tools, and other areas Apple especially wants to show off. THE VISION PRO HEADSET REQUIRES PRESCRIPTION LENSES — AND THEY ’ RE LIKELY TO NEED CHANGING But…

iWork Apps FROM www.apple.com/iwork ALSO ON iPad, iPhone If you don’t have these yet, take a trip to the Mac App Store and download them now. They’re among the most important apps on the Mac, and although they previously cost money, they’re now completely free. Pages is an awesome word processor that can handle pictures and videos as well as text. Numbers is a very capable spreadsheet with full formula support, and Keynote is the Mac’s best presentation app; it’s the one Tim Cook and the team use at Apple events. All three apps come with a comprehensive range of templates to get you started. With the iWork apps, you can create impressive documents within minutes, and tackle even more impressive projects as you learn more about them. They all…

REQUIRES macOS 14 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to make the most of the dictation features in macOS Sonoma IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes BEING ABLE TO dictate documents, emails, text messages and more has many benefits — from helping to speed up the process for people with physical impairments, to giving your fingers a rest. It can be a boon to those of us who remain one–finger typists and, with macOS Sonoma, the experience is now better than ever. The big difference is that, with Apple silicon Macs, you’re able to dictate, type and edit without having to keep turning dictation on and off. For example, you could dictate a sentence, use your keyboard to amend a couple of mistakes, add another sentence, then go back to dictating.…

REQUIRES Obscura — Pro Camera (Free, offers IAPs), iOS 16 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to manually adjust focus, ISO speed, white balance and shutter speed IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes OBSCURA’S DSLR CONTROLS ENABLE YOU TO TAKE MORE CONTROL OVER EXPOSURE, COLOR AND FOCUS YOUR iPHONE’S CAMERA app is designed to let you capture great–looking photos automatically, without the need to manually adjust classic camera controls such as ISO settings, shutter speeds, focal points and white balance (WB). You can make some manual adjustments in Apple’s native Camera app (such as tapping to choose a focal point or sliding a finger to tweak exposure), but these manual controls are relatively limited compared to those you would find on a DSLR camera. Obscura — Pro Camera is a third–party…

REQUIRES iPadOS 17 YOU WILL LEARN How to scan text, share and collaborate, and fill in PDF forms IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes PDFS ARE BRILLIANT things: they ensure that documents look the same on every device and have become a worldwide standard for sharing important forms or work documents. And PDF owes a lot of its success to Apple, because Apple has been a big supporter for decades. But, all that aside, PDFs can famously be painful to edit, annotate or complete — or at least, they were until recently. Markup on your Mac, iPhone and iPad made it easy to annotate or sign PDFs, and Apple has now added even more PDF improvements. DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT PDF documents in Notes or Files now appear full width to make them…

Fix a huge iCloud sync Before upgrading to Sonoma, my Mac had Optimize Mac Storage turned off, and many downloaded files were removed. Now it’s trying to download all my files and seems stuck. How do I fix it? Files stored in iCloud are in one of three states: a full copy is in your Mac’s local storage and another in iCloud’s servers; a placeholder file is stored locally, and the complete file is only held in iCloud; or they can be in the process of downloading from iCloud to local storage. When Optimize Mac Storage is turned off, all files should be stored locally. Since Apple introduced iCloud Drive, there has been a bug, though, that enabled files to be evicted to iCloud even when Optimize Mac Storage was…

BEFORE CAPTURING PORTRAITS, consider whether you want to share your shots as small electronic images via social media or as larger, high–quality physical prints. You’ll also need to consider how much storage space your portraits will take up (as this will have cost implications if you need to increase your iCloud Photos storage space, for example). There’s a huge difference in the size of images you can shoot. For example, a 48 megapixel (MP) Raw file from an iPhone 15 Pro Max takes up 85 megabytes (MB) of storage space. A JPEG Max image has the same dimensions but takes up much less storage space at 10.3MB. You can fit more photos on your iPhone by shooting in the space–saving HEIF (High Efficiency Image File) format. A HEIF Max file…

THE HEALTH APP has been a staple of iOS since 2014 and, as of iPadOS 17 released in 2023, it’s now available on iPad too. The app works in much the same way on both devices, bringing a host of health–related data from various sources together in one place. The big difference is that you now have the option of viewing your health data and metrics in an app that’s been optimized for at–a–glance viewing on a larger screen. In either case, there are some major benefits to using the Health app. It gives you a better picture of your overall well–being, allowing you to spot problems and seek advice from professionals if need be. You can also motivate yourself to improve your fitness and make vital changes to your…

$159 From www.lofree.co Features Wireless or wired, hot–swappable low–profile switches, white backlight and RGB sidelight LOFREE’S FLOW KEYBOARD features a 10mm (0.39”) thin, low–profile, all–aluminum design. It’s very premium, and matches Apple’s silver aluminum perfectly. The back of the keyboard is tilted by 3.9°, to offer better ergonomics, and silicone pads underneath keep the keyboard locked in place. The Flow is Mac and Windows native, and individual keys reflect this. All keys are backlit white and brightness can be adjusted, or turned off, using the FN + F5 or F6 shortcut. RGB lights either side offer subtle ambiance. Cycle through eight colors with FN + Right arrow, or switch from constant to pulsing, or turn it off, using the FN + Left arrow shortcut. Under the keys are Kailh Full…

iPAD UPDATES SOON? The iPad lineup is rumored to be getting a major overhaul in 2024, as early as March according to some sources. Two new iPad Air models updated to M2 processors are reportedly coming, one with a 10.9–inch screen and one a new 12.9–inch model. We can also expect two new iPad Pro models with M3 chips and new OLED displays. Apple is said to be planning updates to the Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil, possibly both with USB–C instead of Lightning connectors. There are also rumors of an M3 MacBook Air update also in March, with an M3 Mac Pro later in the year, as well as a new low–cost iPad in the second half of 2024. QI2 CHARGING ARRIVES IN iOS 17.2 Along with the introduction…

I was a life–long PC user and am now 73 years old, retired, and have willingly thrown away my old PCs. So I am an elderly guy who is new to Macs; learning as I go. I purchased a 2023 MacBook Pro M2. It’s somewhat limited in ports. I am using Mylio Photos+ to arrange, store and edit all photos and documents and want to ensure adequate backups, but I can’t seem to get my Mac to recognize my drives as I plug them in. How do I do this? Second, is there a recommended USB–C hub (powered would be preferred) that can access all these drives and peripherals? Lastly, do you have a reference library on your website where I might find older articles and reviews? RICK HORSMAN, FERNDALE,…

HERE ARE SOME surprisingly capable free apps designed for Apple’s exciting tablet. There are all sorts of utilities, productivity tools and games that take advantage of the iPad’s larger screen. Content creation apps such as Creatic prove the iPad isn’t just for consuming media, the Khan Academy app is great for education, and if you want to visit another planet without leaving the comfort of your living room, download Mission To Mars AR. It’s out of this world! CREATIC: GRAPHIC DESIGN EDITOR FROM https://creaticapp.com ALSO ON iPhone It’s amazing what you can do on the iPad. Creatic: Graphic Design Editor is an awesome design tool for building templates, filters, social posts, illustrations, photo manipulations, paintings, posters, photos, fonts, stickers, vectors, brushes, color palettes and more. You can start with a…

REQUIRES iOS 15 or later, iPadOS 15 or later, or macOS 12 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to use nifty tricks to make Focus work more seamlessly IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes FOCUS MODES ARE a great way to reduce distractions, but rather than manually switch between them, you can automate the process instead for even greater efficiency. By setting up multiple focuses and thinking about the specific circumstances for using each one, you can ensure that the relevant mode is ready to kick in at all times of the day and night. As you will see, there are two ways of going about this. You can specifically indicate the Focus mode to be used depending on the time of day, your location, or on the apps that you’re…

REQUIRES Callsheet (Free, offers IAPs), iOS 16.4 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to use Callsheet’s key media info features IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes USUALLY, IMDB IS our first port of call when looking up information about a TV show or movie. Not anymore. Callsheet is a friendlier, easier–to–use alternative and, while you only get 20 searches for free before needing a subscription, we’d recommend at least taking out a one–week free trial of this ad–free app to see what all the fuss is about. Created by indie developer Casey Liss, Callsheet draws its data from The Movie Database, letting you view all manner of details from info about the cast to release dates and scores. You can discover which services allow you to stream or buy each movie…

ONE OF THE remarkable achievements of the iPhone is that its compact camera system has now become a truly professional–level tool for many photographers and filmmakers. It hasn’t completely replaced traditional cameras, of course, but the pocket–size iPhone can be used on the move to quickly capture photos and video footage without the need to carry and set up more conventional camera systems with their bulky collections of lenses, tripods and other accessories. And, of course, that’s especially true of the iPhone Pro and Pro Max models, which boast three cameras that provide ultra–wide, telephoto, macro and other shooting modes. The latest iPhone models continue that trend, sporting dazzlingly powerful cameras even on the basic iPhone 15 and the more advanced iPhone 15 Pro. However, it’s the iPhone 15 Pro…

AS WE CONTINUE to experience shorter days and long winter evenings, there are more opportunities for capturing stunning low–light portraits. City lights can add an extra dimension of color and atmosphere, however, whether you’re shooting indoors or out, low light can prove problematic for even the most accomplished photographer. By default, your iPhone’s Camera app works automatically to try and capture detail in low light. It will choose a slower shutter speed to let in more light and get a better exposure (though this can lead to motion blur if the subject moves). The Camera app may also use a higher ISO speed which causes the sensor to be more sensitive to available light (though this can result in a grainier portrait). In low light, your iPhone’s flash may deploy…

$149.99 From https://satechi.net Features 2x USB–C and 2x USB–A, Ethernet, SSD slot, 75W pass–through power, DisplayPort, 2x HDMI Needs Laptop with dual USB–C ports THERE’S MUCH TO be said for docks that bring back ports that Apple once provided, and even more for models that add extra functionality on top of that. Satechi’s Dual Dock Stand has a clever design that means it acts as a stand when in use, tilting your laptop forward a little to improve the typing and viewing angles. This also allows better circulation of air, and the dock has vents of its own to help with cooling. It connects to your MacBook via dual USB–C plugs, so you will need a model with at least two ports on its left–hand side. The two cables can…

$69.99 From www.ikmultimedia.com Features 24–bit, 48kHz sound; USB–C audio and power; amp out; bundled software suite IK MULTIMEDIA HAS for many years been at the vanguard of making compact and portable interfaces for musicians wanting to hook up microphones, guitars and other instruments to their Macs and iOS devices. The iRig USB is the latest member of the iRig family, a small guitar and bass interface that for the first time brings USB–C compatibility to the lineup. It’s all pretty straightforward — connect to your Mac, PC or USB–C equipped iPad or iPhone using the bundled cable and sound will be routed in and out via the iRig. Then connect your guitar or bass to the ¼ inch input and headphones to the 3.5mm output, and you can record and…

$129.99 From https://edifier.com Features USB–C charging case, noise canceling, spatial audio, Bluetooth 5.3, IP54 EDIFIER’S NEOBUDS PRO 2 build on the original model with some clever new hardware while retaining a pretty competitive price point, though those embedded in Apple’s ecosystem won’t find the same level of integration you get with AirPods. The case and buds are lightweight but well constructed and stylish, and the case charges over USB–C, offering 22 hours of total playback on a one–hour charge. The official figures of 4/12 hours in the buds and case with ANC on and 5.5/16.5 with ANC off aren’t stellar, but were at least reflected in our tests — in fact we squeezed a little more out of them in practice. Sadly there’s no wireless charging available for the case,…