Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2015 från Macworld UK

Apple’s long-awaited new streaming-music service, Apple Music, isn’t just a shot at Spotify, which has 60 million active users. The new app challenges the way people get songs from Apple itself, which has long placed a high premium on its iTunes digital download storefront and emphasised how that platform revolutionised the music industry. The service, unveiled during WWDC 2015’s opening keynote, takes iTunes to the next level by making 30 million of the expansive catalogue’s songs streamable. That’s millions of songs on demand, right alongside the music you already own. Then there’s ‘For You’, a recommendation tool that serves up songs and artists based on the genres of music you tell Apple Music you like. You can use Siri to call up a song or playlist and immediately launch it…

In the second part of our complete guide to System Preferences article, we look at how to change the display and keyboard settings, along with OS X Yosemite’s energy-saving options, and much more. Display settings in Yosemite The options you’ll see within the Displays pane are in part reliant on your Mac hardware. At a minimum, you’ll see Display and Colour tabs for, respectively, setting resolutions and colour profiles. If you’ve multiple displays, that will add an Arrangement tab; some displays will also provide an Options tab. Within the Display tab, you’ll see an image representing your display (or the closest Apple equivalent), Resolution options, a Brightness slider, and some other settings that are determined by your hardware setup. Under Resolution, ‘Best for display’ sets your display to the most…

When Apple announced the MacBook in March, the new USB Type C port caused head shaking and chin scratching. Though the standard had been released in September and shown off at the CES trade show in January, no ecosystem existed. It was hard to know how a single-port USB-C laptop would function in the real world. In the days following the announcement, cables and adaptors started to be announced and even ship. The MacBook landed in people’s hands – including ours at Macworld – in mid-April, and I’ve been purchasing and receiving review versions of adaptors for several days. Here’s a rundown of what’s currently available and what it can do for you. But first, let’s define some basics. How fast is USB-C? USB-C is a cabling standard that incorporates…

Recently, I tried to deal with the mystery of why my 2011 Mac mini was taking forever to start up and be ready to use by switching to an external SSD drive, with both FireWire 800 and USB 3.0 built in. I had more than three weeks of blissful performance with a computer that felt newly rejuvenated, then the honeymoon was over. This story should help those who think that these things only happen to them. Sluggish behaviour Recently, I was preparing to tape a Macworld podcast when my Mac mini started playing up. Eventually, I had to reboot as I couldn’t keep the system working reliably. This was partly because, after a restart and despite the settings in Photos, iCloud Photo Library began uploading again, flooding my network. I…

From £1,049 inc VAT Contact apple.com/uk Specifications 15.4in (2880x1800 resolution, 220ppi) LED-backlit widescreen display; OS X Yosemite; 512GB PCIebased flash storage; 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz) with 6MB shared L3 cache; 16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L onboard memory; Intel Iris Pro Graphics; 720p FaceTime camera; 802.11ac Wi-Fi networking; 4 IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible; Bluetooth 4.0; 1x MagSafe; 2x Thunderbolt 2; 2x USB 3.0; 1x HDMI; 1x headphone; SDXC slot; 18x358.9x247.1mm; 2.04kg The new 15in MacBook Pro for 2015 has arrived, picking up a trio of component upgrades on the way. Apple’s best laptop features the same design and layout as the first Retina notebook that launched in 2012, and once again two models are available – here we focus on the top model with 2.5GHz…

£229 inc VAT Free for existing users Contact apple.com/uk Specifications OS X 10.10.2 or later; 4GB of RAM; 256MB of VRAM; 4.15GB disk space; OpenCL-capable graphics card or Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later Our last look at Apple’s professional video editor, Final Cut Pro X, was not quite a year ago and yet there have been five separate updates since then. (There has been a £30 price hike.) Many of these updates have been bug fixes but there have been some notable enhancements. There are a few headline-grabbing aspects to this latest version, but let’s start by taking a look at some of the smaller refinements. First, the new consolidated import window places all your import options into a single window rather than the separate sheet that opened…

£34.95 inc VAT Contact macpaw.com Specifications OS X 10.8 or later; 40MB disk space CleanMyMac 3 is the new version of MacPaw’s catch-all utility to scan your Mac and remove gigabytes of assorted rubbish and gunk that builds up over time. Like previous versions, the software wraps itself around a series of tests and services. It works to remove generally unused, developer-oriented, extraneous, and backup files associated with your most commonly used applications that take up available disk space. CleanMyMac 3’s selection of available tests has grown to add tools such as an uninstaller, general maintenance, online privacy functions, and file shredder to its previous suite of tests. This is on top of the Smart Cleanup, System Junk, iPhoto Junk, Mail Attachments, iTunes Junk, Trash Bins, and Large &…

As many reviewers have noted, the Apple Watch offers a surprising amount of depth for a first-generation device. Besides telling time, it’s very good at tracking all kinds of fitness statistics, and at motivating its wearer towards leading a more active lifestyle. It also works well with iOS’s notification system, and its integration with Siri is top-notch. Unfortunately, the richness of the Watch’s built-in software is not matched by third-party apps, many of which seem to suffer from a distinct lack of purpose and functionality that are bound to make us wonder whether what we have now is all we’ll ever get out of the Watch. Given the anticipation that Apple built around its latest product, this is perhaps a little disappointing, but there are perfectly good reasons behind the…

A small tsunami of stories appeared online recently about the ease of resetting the Apple Watch. Even if the Watch is set to require a passcode to unlock when it’s removed from your wrist, Apple provides clear instructions on how to erase it, bypassing the passcode completely. Unlike an iPhone, which has Activation Lock to prevent it from being wiped without the original owner’s iCloud password, there’s no way to prevent a stolen Apple Watch from being erased and resold. Some outlets and individuals had a moderate response, but others were outraged. Surely this makes the Watch eminently desirable by thieves, who, knowing that it’s possible to resell with ease, will be targeting and preferentially snatching them off wrists. Hardly, although Apple does need to step up its security game.…

The sparse, ultra-simplified Calendar app for iOS is so simple, you may find yourself scratching your head when it comes to performing the most basic of tasks, such as checking which appointments you have on a given day. Indeed, sharing a calendar with a friend can be something of a puzzle until you know which tiny, nondescript button to tap – same goes for seeing the entire week at a glance, viewing a list of all your upcoming events, or changing the colour of a specific calendar. We’ve 10 tips that’ll help you get your bearings with Calendar, as well as a few advanced pointers on setting default alert times, dealing with time-zone changes, syncing a non-iCloud calendar, and more. 1. Switch between daily and ‘list’ view If you tap…

Two years after Apple last updated the Mac mini, it revamped its entry-level Mac and lowered prices. That October 2014 revamp resulted in three models of Mac mini. The cheapest of the three Mac mini models has the same 1.4GHz dual-core processor and integrated graphics chip to be found on the MacBook Air and the entry-level iMac, so it’s no surprise that the new Mac mini’s processor and graphics performance is close to that of the current MacBook Air range and practically identical to the new £899 iMac. The MacBook Air has the edge due to its flash storage, while the Mac mini and iMac still feature a hard drive as standard. The other two Mac minis offer Intel dual-core i5 2.6GHz and 2.8GHz processors with Intel Iris graphics. These…

With so many Macs to choose from, each with very different features and specs, it can get a little tricky when it comes to deciding which Mac to buy. How do you know which Mac is best for you? Should you buy a Mac mini, an iMac or a Mac Pro? Or would you be better off with a MacBook, MacBook Air or a Retina MacBook Pro? Which Mac is best for you really depends on your needs and how much you are prepared to spend to meet them. As a rule Macs are more expensive than PCs, but that’s really because there are more low-cost PCs available. If you want a laptop that costs less than £300, then you will have to settle on a PC (or find yourself…

The Apple TV is a connected set-top box, measuring 23mm by 98mm by 98mm and weighing 27g, that offers access to iTunes TV shows and movies, as well as content from Netflix, YouTube and Vimeo. You can also stream content to your TV from your Mac, iPhone and iPad. It costs £59. The Apple TV isn’t a TV in the normal sense of the word, because it doesn’t have free-to-air channels or a digital video recorder to store shows to watch at a more convenient time. However, it does offer what could be described as channels, and this content keeps on growing, leaving us hopeful for a future where the Apple TV will include links to on-demand services just like our iPhones and iPads do – think the iPlayer and…

Apple has brought Yosemite to the mountain: El Capitan, specifically, which is the name of OS X 10.11 as well as a peak in Yosemite National Park. Revealed on 8 June at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the release is intended to reach a higher point, but not dig new ground. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, emphasised that the release is about an improvement in experience and performance. El Capitan’s announcement focused on small points of irritation and big bumps in efficiency. Safari adds pinning, letting users keep particular pages readily available. The sites will be regularly updated in the background to keep them up to date. In a feature that received plenty of applause from the audience, Safari will now make it easy to reveal which…

Apple is removing the training wheels for Apple Watch app makers, letting them take full advantage of the device’s hardware. Currently, apps can’t function without a paired iPhone, which handles not just internet connectivity but core functions such as the app’s logic. These apps also can’t tap into key hardware features such as the microphone, motion sensors, the heart monitor and the Digital Crown. All of that is going to change now that Apple is allowing native app development on the Watch. The new apps should start to arrive this autumn, alongside the release of WatchOS 2 and iOS 9. The Apple Watch is an exquisite piece of hardware, but one that can be extremely frustrating to use. Users are frequently confronted with loading screens, as third-party apps struggle to…

On the surface, searching with Spotlight is pretty straightforward. But if your search involves multiple terms, or if you need to narrow down your results to dig up a particularly elusive file, knowing how to put together a good search query will pay off. By mastering a few simple tricks, such as using keywords to limit your search to specific dates, authors or file types, you can narrow down your search to specific types of data, exclude terms, and more, helping Spotlight to locate exactly what you need. Using the right words If you search for just one word in Spotlight, the results are pretty simple. But if you search for more than one word, things get a little bit more complex. Type time machine in the Spotlight search menu,…

The always-on internet connection has only been a feature of most of our lives for a decade or so, yet it’s become so critical for both work and play that we feel lost when that connection breaks down. Thankfully, most of the time the problem causing the break down can be fixed without resorting to calling our broadband provider. Here are 10 things you should do when you can’t connect to the internet. 1. Try another website or service If you’re using a web browser, try navigating to another site to make that sure the problem isn’t specific to one website. If that doesn’t help, try a different browser. If you’re using a service such as Twitter or iTunes, go to a web browser and try and navigate to macworld.co.uk…

Part of the beauty of buying a Mac is that it will mostly live up to Apple’s classic mantra: “It just works.” (At least when compared to systems running Windows, that is. Or when you’re trying to set up the new MacBook.) But what happens when it no longer does? That’s generally when the tech support emails or phone calls from family and friends begin pouring in. After all, as loyal Apple users, we practically insist our loved ones also buy Macs, effectively turning us into unpaid Geniuses at the first sign of trouble. This may not be a problem if the afflicted Mac is in the next room, down the street, or even across town, but what happens when it’s located too far away to drive over and offer…

From £1,599 inc VAT Contact apple.com/uk Specifications 27in (5120x2880) Retina display with IPS technology; 3.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.7GHz); 8GB (two 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory; four SO-DIMM slots, user accessible (configurable to 16GB or 32GB); 1TB (7200rpm) hard drive (configurable to 3TB hard drive), 1- or 3TB Fusion Drive, or 256GB, 512GB or 1TB of flash storage (SSD); FaceTime camera; 1x headphone; 1x SDXC; 4x USB 3.0; 2x Thunderbolt 2; gigabit ethernet; 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless networking; IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n compatible; 516x650x203mm; 9.54kg When Apple launched the first iMac with Retina display last October, it stood alone in terms of competition from the usual Windows suspects, since no PC maker had anything close in design and performance. But it was also launched as a…

Free Contact adobe.com/uk Specifications iOS 8 or later; 99.3MB Adobe launched a new iPad app that aims to make anyone feel like a magazine editor. It’s called Adobe Slate, and it offers a way to mash up words and pictures into slick-looking stories for the web. Slate automates things like animations and transitions, and purposely limits control over fonts and formatting, so that anyone can make a good-looking story with no design know-how. The end-result is a web page, hosted by Adobe, that automatically formats itself to fit any screen size. Slate is available now as a free app for the iPad. Why this matters: Adobe is following in the footsteps of other new-age presentation and storytelling apps such as Microsoft Sway, FlowVella and Haiku Deck, all of which…

£29.99 inc VAT Contact flexibits.com Specifications OS X 10.10 or later; 11.8MB disk space As Apple’s calendar app for iOS and Mac OS X moved across recent releases from inconsistent, inadequate, and irritating to more or less just fine, the market for replacements grew and matured. Fantastical, now in its second release, filled a gap. The program doesn’t just present a clean list and offer strong support for different calendar systems, it also has excellent natural-language processing. The guiding philosophy for Fantastical is that it’s a calendar app that focuses on upcoming events in a list view, keeping that view active no matter whether you’re looking at a graphical layout of day, week, month, or year. The software can pick up existing accounts and calendars set in the Accounts…

We’ve been bombarded by the images and ideas of the Apple Watch transforming the way we communicate and use apps in our daily lives, whether it’s receiving notifications on our wrists, paying for coffee, or interacting with loved ones. So much emphasis has been put on the Apple Watch as an essential part of our everyday routine, yet for many of us, there’s something we do all the time on our phones that has barely been shown in marketing materials: play games. Yes, games. Of course there will be games for the Apple Watch, and from our conversations with creators, developers are excited about the opportunity to develop for a wearable device. “Entertainment apps are important in addition to utilitarian ones, reminding users that the device is fun as well…

Logitech Harmony Smart Control Hub £89 logitech.com/en-gb The Harmony Smart Control Hub allows you to control your entire home cinema system, using an app on your iPhone. Logitech claims that it’s compatible with over 225,000 home theatre devices, so it should be compatible with almost any setup. The hub produces both IR signals and Bluetooth signals, allowing the Harmony to control entertainment systems, including the Apple TV, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. According to Logitech, the hub can be set up with eight different devices at any one time, and the app utilises gesture control for ease of use. Gestures include swiping or tapping to adjust the volume, change the channel, fast forward, rewind, pause, play and skip. Fugoo Festival Speaker £149 fugoo.com The Fugoo Festival Speaker may be the…

If you like watching foreign-language films, you may find that, when seeking out new films, you can only get the movie you want in a version without subtitles. This is great if you’re bi- or multi-lingual, but if not, you really need to know what the actors are saying. In this article, I’m going to look at subtitles: how you can play them in movies that already contain them, how you can add them to movies you rip from DVDs, and how you can create your own subtitles or captions. Switch languages with iTunes Store movies Some movies you buy in the iTunes Store come with multiple language tracks and subtitles. You can access these in iTunes by starting to play a movie and then clicking the speech balloon button.…

Welcome to Macworld’s in-depth guide to every Mac, iPad, iPhone and iPod that Apple makes, as well as other hardware and software that comes out of Apple’s HQ in Cupertino, California. The first two pages offer a quick summary, with detailed looks on the following pages. Apple makes six different kinds of Mac, and each has subcategories and variations in specs and features. Some Macs are faster and more powerful, while other Macs have slower processors but are cheaper. This guide should help you identify which Mac best suits your needs. There are now four different iPhones and five iPads to choose from, along with a collection of iPods and the Apple TV. Plus, we should soon see the launch of the Apple Watch. Read on to understand every product…

There are four standard MacBook Air models available, in two sizes. In March 2015, each MacBook Air was updated and now offers a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM and Intel HD Graphics 6000 as standard. There are also build-to-order options that let you add a faster Intel processor (the 2.2GHz dual-core i7, for £130), more storage (512GB SSD for £240) and 8GB of RAM (for £80). The only real differences between the different models are the size of the screen, the amount of storage and battery life. Both the 11in and 13in MacBook Air offer either 128GB or 256GB SSD options. The 11in MacBook Air offers nine hours of battery life, compared with the 12 hours of the 13in MacBook Air. The 11in MacBook Air weighs…

You may think the iMac was only recently updated, with a new 5K Retina iMac joining the one introduced in October 2014. However, the rest of the iMac range, with the exception of the £899 model introduced in June 2014, has not been updated since September 2013. The iMac line-up includes three 21.5in versions, one 27in model and two Retina 27in systems. The £899 entry-level 21.5in iMac has a 1.4GHz dual-core i5 chip, 8GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Next up is an iMac that for another £150 gives you a faster 2.7GHz i5, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. For another £150, the top-of-the-range 21.5in iMac offers a 2.9GHz i5, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. All the 27in iMacs also offer quad-core…

When the iPhone 5c launched in 2013 it disappointed some who were hoping for a low-cost smartphone from Apple. At launch the iPhone 5c cost £469 – only £80 less than the equivalent iPhone 5s. Months later the company introduced a 8GB version of the 5c for £429. Now that same 8GB version of the iPhone 5c costs £319, a saving of £110. The big question, though, is whether £319 now represents a good price for the iPhone 5c. If you are determined to buy an iPhone but don’t want to spend a lot, then the iPhone 5c might be worth considering. If price is your main concern, it’s also worth looking around for a second-hand iPhone, or you may find you can get a good deal on a new…

Apple sells three types of iPod: the iPod shuffle, the iPod nano and the iPod touch. The iPod touch is far more than just a simple music player. It comes equipped with essentially all the features of a fully fledged iPhone bar the call capabilities. The iPod nano is also a capable device, and small enough to carry anywhere, while the iPod shuffle is simple, inexpensive and tough. Apple quietly retired the original iPod classic in October 2014, after seven years of faithful service. With the iPod classic now a distant memory, those wanting a large amount of storage on their iPod will find the options rather limiting. Currently, the iPod shuffle offers a humble 2GB of storage, while the iPod nano boasts a rather more spacious 16GB. It’s worth…

Siri is about to get much, much smarter. On 8 June during WWDC’s keynote, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed new enhancements to iOS 9, calling it “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system.” Among the key features are a major Siri update, deep-dive transit Maps, and a ton of useful user-experience improvements. Siri will now be able to pull up photos and videos stored on your device. It becomes a smarter assistant by looking at how you use your iPhone at any given moment and recommending ways for you to use it next, interpreting a natural language into commands. For example, when you’re looking at a web page on Safari, you can create a Siri reminder by saying “Siri, remind me about this later,” and Siri will then refer back…

Extensions Preferences There are four different types of extensions available on the Mac – some of which are more widely used than others. You can see which extensions are installed on your Mac by taking a look at the Extensions preferences panel that was introduced as part of Yosemite. The extensions shown in the preferences panel are organised into four categories – Actions, Finder, Share Menu and Today. Extensions – also known as ‘widgets’ – are perhaps the most popular form of extension at the moment, as they can be used to display messages and updates in the Notifications Centre on your Mac desktop. The weather reports, stock prices and other notifications that are automatically shown in the Notifications Centre are all controlled by extensions that are built into Yosemite.…

YouTube Lyrics If you’re like me and you spend a lot of time listening to music videos on YouTube, then you’ll really like the YouTube Lyrics extension from Rob Wu. Whenever you play a song on YouTube, this extension displays a little button just below the video window. Click on the button and the extension will locate the song lyrics on the internet and display them in a window at the side of the screen. It can search a number of different sites for the lyrics and, despite the name, the extension works on other websites too, such as Spotify and Grooveshark. PanicButton PanicButton is a handy extension for those NSFW moments. If you don’t want anyone to see what you’re looking at on the web, you can hit the…

When news of a new Mac notebook leaked in January, one of the aspects that seemed absurd was the omission of multiple ports. There would be just one hole and it would be USB-C, a format never before seen in a Mac and unfamiliar to most people, as it was first unveiled in September 2014. It turns out that it wasn’t absurd at all. With the new 12in MacBook, Apple has gone all in for all-in-one, using USB-C to provide power, display output, and USB connections. Thunderbolt is gone. The SD card slot is gone as well. And the MagSafe component of the power connection has disappeared into very thin Air – I mean, thin MacBook. Apple says that USB-C adaptors can provide HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA, ethernet, and USB 3.1…

£286 inc VAT Contact filemaker.com/uk Specifications OS X Mavericks or later; 2GB of RAM Major improvements to FileMaker’s infrastructure in its past two releases (versions 12 and 13) required a new file format (.fmp12) and sent a lot of developers back to school. FileMaker Pro 14 maintains the existing file format and solidifies some of these earlier advancements (especially in WebDirect) but also keeps the pressure on developers by introducing powerful innovations that affect the design of databases for FileMaker Pro, FileMaker Go, and web browsers. Layout design Since the news for solution developers applies equally to FileMaker Pro 14 and FileMaker Pro 14 Advanced, I refer to both when I say “FileMaker Pro”. Whichever tool you use, it’s easier than ever before to create consistent and attractive layouts…

Both lenses $99.99 (£65) plus $5 (£3.30) shipping Contact momentlens.co The iPhone makes for a pretty good camera on its own, but adding an additional lens can really help your photos shine. Moment’s (momentlens.co) Wide Lens and Tele Lens offer something a little different – unlike other iPhone camera lenses that sit on top of your phone, Moment’s lenses attach to your iPhone’s lens using a special plate. It’s a thin, strong piece of metal that adheres to the back of your phone like a sticker and allows you to screw on different lenses similar to how you might with a DSLR. Perhaps that’s why Moment had no trouble reaching its Kickstarter funding goal for this pair of lenses in 2014. While the lenses do help you take better…

Navigating the Apple Watch can be confusing at first, and it definitely takes a while to get your notifications dialled in so it’s not bugging you too often, but you’re still finding out what you need to know. These tips can help you adjust what the watch shows you and how, so you’ll spend less time fiddling with settings and more time enjoying your new arm candy. Take control of notifications If you’re one of those people who allows push notifications for every app on your iPhone, the Apple Watch will drive you insane. This is a gadget that requires very specific tailoring to ensure you’re only getting the most important alerts. Otherwise your wrist will be barraged with taps. Get to know the Apple Watch app on your iPhone:…

The Apple Watch doesn’t seem obviously suited to gaming, thanks to its small screen and necessarily one-handed control method. But with Apple’s enormous user base buying the watch in large numbers, the stage is set for games developers to swoop in and make a killing. Games developers will need to work with the limitations of the hardware and come up with something innovative and fun, but there are plenty of companies with the experience and skills to do this. After all, many of the best games on the iPhone are ones that embrace its compact, bite-sized nature and touchscreen controls: it’s hard to imagine Super Hexagon and Ridiculous Fishing being made in a world of consoles. Rules! Price: £2.29 Apple’s description: “Get your daily brain workout with this twitch-puzzle game…

Not too long ago using Microsoft’s Office apps on any iOS device was nothing more than a far-fetched dream. Then the team in Redmond rocked the iOS world by releasing its Office suite for the iPad. There was a glaring issue with it, however, in the fact you could only view documents for free. To edit existing documents or create new ones, you needed to shell out for an Office 365 account. Then in November, Microsoft surprised everyone once again by releasing an update that made editing documents part of the free set of features. Since then, I’ve spent plenty of time kicking the tires of the suite on my iPad and iPhone and learned some helpful tips for boosting your mobile productivity. Add your Dropbox account Dropbox and file…

Apple’s messaging system works brilliantly – most of the time. So, when something goes wrong, it’s easy to become frustrated. Shouldn’t these things just work? To understand FaceTime and Messages on their own, it helps to understand how these services work together. To start, there’s Messages – the OS X and iOS hub for instant messaging platforms, iMessages, and SMS-based text messages. Within Messages, you’ll also find your iMessage conversations, the text-like messages that replace standard SMS texts when you’re messaging between Apple devices. Finally, there’s FaceTime, an OS X and iOS app that handles real-time video chatting. (FaceTime replaced iChat on the Mac a few years ago.) They’re intertwined, and when a problem crops up on one service, it tends to impact the other. Here’s how to get five…

It’s easy to buy a brand-new Mac, iPad or iPhone from Apple. The simplest way is to got to store.apple.com/uk to purchase from the online store. Here you will find every current Mac, iPad and iPhone, and lots of accessories. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to try the product out, you could walk into the Apple Store on your high street or in your closest shopping mall. Not sure where your closest Apple Store is located? Apple has stores all over the country, 39 in total, and you can look for your local store at apple.com/uk/retail. Unfortunately, as a rule Macs are not cheap but if you are looking for a bargain you can also pick up a Mac, iPad or iPhone second-hand from Apple. It’s possible to buy refurbished Apple…

There are five standard Retina MacBook Pro models available, in two sizes, as well as a non-Retina MacBook Pro, which we will cover at the bottom of this page. In March 2015, Apple updated the 13in models, and in May 2015 it updated the 15in models. The key selling point is the Retina display, so called because it delivers maximum optical quality – the human eye is unable to distinguish any more pixels. That make a Retina display about as precise as you can get, ideal for creative work. The 13in model offers 2560x1600 Retina resolution at 227 pixels per inch, while the 15in model offers 2880x1800 resolution at 220 pixels per inch. Unlike the MacBook Air range, the five Retina MacBook Pro models are substantially different in terms of…

Having neglected the Mac Pro for a few years, Apple eventually updated the line-up at the end of 2013. That leaves us with two standard Mac Pro models – a quad-core 3.7GHz Intel Xeon E5 (£2,499) and a six-core 3.5GHz Intel Xeon E5 (£3,299). As well as sporting more cores and a different processor, the top-of-the range Mac Pro also features 16GB of RAM (rather than 12GB) and faster graphics cards – the Dual AMD FirePro D500 with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM each (rather than the Dual AMD FirePro D300 with 2GB GDDR5 of VRAM). These are dual graphics cards, one of the selling points of the Mac Pro. Apple claims that with the additional power, users will be able to “seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K video while simultaneously rendering effects…

The iPhone 6 Plus wasn’t the only larger iPhone to launch in 2014. The iPhone 6 was also introduced, with a screen that measures 4.7in (diagonally) and offers 1334x750 resolution at 326ppi. This suggests that the iPhone 6 has the same pixel density as the iPhone 5s, but Apple has still dubbed its new screen ‘Retina HD’, presumably because it is counting the total number of pixels on display, rather than how close together they are. The iPhone 6 Plus offers a higher pixel density of 401ppi and is also described as Retina HD. Despite the similar sounding pixel count between the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5s, Apple has also made modifications to the newer screens’ design, adding dual-domain pixels that allow for improved viewing angles, and other features that…

With four iPhones and five iPads to choose from, each with very different specs, it can be tricky to decide which iOS device to buy. Those who want a ‘phablet’ experience – midway between a phone and a small tablet – might be interested in the iPhone 6 Plus. Fans of gaming and movies will also like the 6 Plus’s big screen. Some business users may find the big screen good for productivity apps. The 6 Plus is likely to be the phone of choice for early adopters and others who like to have the latest thing, and for those on a big budget. If the iPhone 6 Plus is a bit too big (and more than a few buyers have found this), then you might go for the smaller…