Innehållsförteckning för March 2016 från Macworld UK

Welcome to the latest issue of Macworld, the only guide you need to the wonderful world of all things Apple. As you won’t be surprised to hear, we love everything Mac. Not only do Apple’s computers look great, but they are powerful machines. One of our favourites is the slimline iMac, with its beautiful display. On page 48, we put Apple’s 21.5- and 27in iMacs through their paces and compare the two. If cost is putting you off getting your hands on a new Mac, we look at the pros and cons of buying tech from the US. We consider how much you will have to pay for import duty and delivery charges, plus what warranty you get and more, from page 20. Apple has updated its iWork suite of…

There are multiple rumours that Apple is developing a virtual reality (VR), or augmented reality (AR) device, going back well over a year. In this feature, we are going to look at all the latest Apple VR rumours, patents and leaked images – including the remarks that Tim Cook made at Apple’s quarterly earnings conference call in early 2016. There’s no smoke without fire, and Apple has filed patents and hired VR experts. So Apple is clearly investigating, and building prototype VR devices. And with Google, Microsoft and even Facebook also making VR and AR devices, it seems like VR is a party Apple can’t afford to miss. What is virtual and augmented reality? First, a quick refresher on terms. Virtual reality devices are headsets worn like glasses, but inside…

We’ve come a long way since portable music was a whirring tape constantly in threat of being eaten by a brick-sized cassette player. And having long since blazed past Apple’s original iPod that could “put 1,000 songs in your pocket”, many people now want all of their music everywhere, at any point, regardless of the device they’re using at the time. Apple provides two means of accessing such collections: Apple Music and iTunes Match, both of which (confusingly) make use of iCloud Music Library, but in subtly different ways. Each service offers specific features and limitations, and they can even be used simultaneously. This article aims to help unpick what each does, and the best choice for you. What is iCloud Music Library? Simply, iCloud Music Library is Apple’s name…

Free • apple.com/uk Apple has been priming Pages for success for a few years now, quietly chipping away deadwood here, and sculpting new features here. Progress hasn’t always been smooth, though, and the last major update to Pages, back in 2014, upset the proverbial Apple cart by removing a number of features from Pages, Numbers and Keynote in order to bring the Mac versions of these apps more closely in line with their iOS counterparts. But, towards the end of 2015, Apple released new versions of all the iWork apps for both OS X and iOS. The Mac versions primarily added support for El Capitan, but there were a number of other welcome new features and improvements too. The most important update for Pages in recent months came in October…

Apple fans are used to free gaming for the iPhone, and iPad, but not so much thinking about free games for Mac OS X. This is a shame, because the Mac is a great games platform that you shouldn’t miss out on. The Mac App store is packed with free games, and you can pick up some amazing Mac OS X games outside of the app store that are great fun to play without paying a penny. These aren’t just hobbyist games, either, but full-blown high-quality experiences. Alpine Crawler This cross-country vehicle simulation is actually a great laugh to play. You drive around the Alps in a variety of pickups and vehicles. The off-road setting makes a change from the usual car games that see you flying round the same…

If you’re a fan of Netflix (the popular TV streaming service), you’re probably aware just how much better Netflix is in the US than here in the UK. Across the pond our American friends pay less for Netflix (the equivalent of £5.09 instead of £5.99); gallingly, for that lower cost US Netflix users get more movies and TV shows, and get the latest films and programmes long before they arrive in Blighty. No wonder British Netflix users are so keen to get the same service as the Americans. But don’t worry: it’s possible to access the US Netflix service in the UK. In this feature we show you how to watch American Netflix shows and other content in the UK using a range of Apple devices: Mac, iPad, iPhone and…

Apple announced its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2016 on 26 January. Here, you’ll find out how many iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches the tech giant has sold in the quarter. How much money did Apple make? Apple posted record quarterly revenue of $75.9 billion and record quarterly net income of $18.4bn, or $3.28 per diluted share. This compares to Q1 of 2015, when Apple posted a record quarterly revenue of $74.6bn and record quarterly net profit of $18bn, or $3.06 per diluted share, so we’re essentially looking for an improvement on that. With the launch of the iPad Pro in November and the new Apple TV in October, in addition to this being the first full quarter that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the…

Doesn’t it feel like you’re being scammed? You’re shopping around for new kit, but the UK prices are often a hefty percentage higher than they are in America. How can this be when what you want is frequently made in China, so incurs the same shipping costs wherever it’s finally sold? You may be thinking the simple solution is to buy overseas and have your purchase shipped to your door, but sometimes it isn’t that simple. Tax The first thing to understand is that it isn’t always cheaper to buy from the US, which means you need to shop smarter. The prices on most American ads and websites exclude tax, the rate of which can vary from state to state. So, when you see Apple advertising the 21.5in 4K iMac…

The Macintosh and the DTP revolution The Macintosh got off to a good start, thanks to Jobs’ spectacular unveiling, its innovative design, and the iconic ‘1984’ advert, but it still needed a killer application, like VisiCalc had been on the Apple if it was really going to thrive. It found it in the shape of PageMaker, backed up by the revolutionary Apple LaserWriter. The $6,995 LaserWriter, introduced in March 1985 – just over a year after the Macintosh – was the first mass-market laser printer. It had a fixed 1.5MB internal memory for spooling pages and a Motorola 68000 processor under the hood – the same as the brain of both the Lisa and the Macintosh – running at 12MHz to put out eight 300dpi pages a minute. It wasn’t…

Free • apple.com/uk Numbers is Apple’s easy-to-use spreadsheet program, offered as a home-grown alternative to Microsoft Excel. It’s ideal for users looking to create and edit spreadsheets without the cost or know-how required to use the more complex and expensive Excel. Like Pages and Keynote, Numbers has been through a lot of changes in recent years – one update might remove features that many users relied upon, only for the next update to restore at least some of those features as a kind of belated apology. Version 3.6 was introduced towards the end of 2015, quickly followed by a bunch of bug fixes in 3.6.1, and this time around it’s more a case of ‘steady as she goes’. This new version of Numbers primarily concentrates on adding support for the…

Apple USB-C Multiport Adaptor Price: £60.75 Most people who buy the 12in Retina MacBook will have existing devices, such as printers and hard drives, that can’t be plugged directly into the MacBook’s solitary USB-C port. The good news is that Apple makes a number of adaptors that can help you out here. The bad news is that these adaptors are pretty expensive. The cheapest option is the basic USB-C to USB Adaptor, which costs £15 and simply allows you to plug one USB device into your MacBook. That’s handy, and not too expensive, but the trouble with this adaptor is that it doesn’t allow you to charge the MacBook at the same time. So, unfortunately, you might just have to grit your teeth and pay a whopping £60 for one…

How do I reset my Mac to factory settings? It’s a question that many Mac OS X users ask prior to selling or handing on a beloved Mac. It’s safer to pass on a Mac with personal information removed, and a clean version of Mac OS X looks healthier to the buyer. Our guide to clearing all your information and data from a Mac enables you to reset Mac OS X to an unblemished factory state. This is the same as if you’d just got the Mac for the first time. Discover how to wipe all your personal information from Mac OS X. Here are the general steps to reset your hard drive (they are outlined in detail below): Make sure you are connected to the internet so you can…

As we reported last month, Apple has a spring event in the works to launch a 4in iPhone, a revamped iPad Air, and new Apple Watch models. Now we have a tentative date: March 15. Apple is reportedly set to launch the iPhone 5se – a 4in phone that reportedly has the same chips as the 6s for always-on Siri without needing to be plugged in. The phone will also support Live Photos and have an NFC chip for Apple Pay. Apple may also have another tablet, the 9.7in iPad Air 3, on deck. The new Air reportedly has a Smart Connector for attaching to a keyboard, just like the iPad Pro. The company is also expected to show off new Apple Watch bands and next-gen software, but no major…

Is it safe to use cheap iPad and iPhone chargers that aren’t made by Apple? After three people were injured in East Asia by malfunctioning chargers (two of whom died) and another suffered burns in England, iPhone/iPad charger safety is a hot topic. Plus, Apple has been forced to recall millions of its own chargers, too. Here’s our advice on the safety of low-cost, imitation, third-party and even counterfeit chargers for the iPhone and iPad. Do I need to return my Apple charger? On 28 January, Apple announced a voluntary recall of AC wall plug adaptors that were sold by the company between 2003 and 2015 with Macs and some iOS devices, and were also part of the Apple World Travel Adaptor Kit. The recall comes after 12 incidents involving…

From £899 inc VAT • apple.com/uk Following Apple (finally) updating the 21.5in iMac towards the end of 2015 you may be considering buying one, but is it really a good idea to purchase a 21.5in iMac – especially the 4K version, or would you get more for your money if you bought a 27in iMac? Here we will help you choose between the smaller, cheaper iMac and it’s bigger sibling. We will help you decide which iMac to buy, and let you know which iMac is best for your needs. What is the iMac? If you don’t already know, the iMac is an all-in-one computer from Apple. It’s been around since 1998 and has had various different designs, but the one thing each design has had in common (apart from…

Free • apple.com/uk Apple knows how to do eye-candy, and one of the great strengths of Keynote is the ease with which you can use its eye-catching transitions and animations to create really professional-looking presentations. Keynote 6.5, which was released in late 2014, was an important update that introduced support for iCloud drive, enhanced sharing and collaboration features, improved compatibility with Microsoft PowerPoint, and a strong set of new editing, design and charting tools. The latest major update of Keynote for Mac, Keynote 6.6, which was introduced towards the end of 2015 – and, of course, immediately followed by a clutch of bug fixes in version 6.6.1 – doesn’t have the same long list of new features, but it’s still a significant update that brings it into line with the…

Apple has created a miniature marvel in the form of its MacBook. And despite their skinny frames, the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops usually have enough battery to last up to nine hours away from mains power. That’s much more than you used to get from a laptop; battery life of just a couple of hours wasn’t unknown in years of old. People used to carry spare batteries around with them, but these days the battery can’t be swapped out of an MacBook, so you have to make the most of it. Sometimes you need to eke as much Mac running time from your battery as possible. This feature rounds up the best tips and tricks we know for getting a MacBook battery to run longer. How long should…