Macworld October 2019

Apple’s Q3 2019 financial results caused a bit of a hubbub because iPhone revenue was—for the first time in seven years—less than half of Apple’s overall revenue. The cause is a slowdown in iPhone sales combined with dramatic growth in two other areas: wearables and services. But this is hardly the first time Apple has experienced a major change in the shape of its business. In fact, Apple is a company that’s rarely stood still in terms of its evolution. To prove the point, let’s step through 20 years of Apple’s business, five years at a time. 1999: THE MAC COMEBACK Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997 and we all know what happened next. But that transformation took a while. Look at a sample quarter from twenty years ago—the…

When it comes to the performance of Mac laptops, it’s safe to say that Intel is in the driver’s seat. Unless Apple shows some sign of either switching to AMD or producing its own laptop processors, the MacBook line will be inextricably linked to Intel’s CPU releases. That’s why the launch of Intel’s new 10th-generation Core processor (formerly known by the code name Ice Lake) is so important to Mac users. It’s the company’s first truly high volume chip on its 10nm manufacturing process, and the first to use the new “Sunny Cove” processor core design. Our sister site, PCWorld, has a detailed overview of the entire 10th-generation line, a deep dive into the architecture, and an early hands-on performance preview. If you want a lot of detail about Ice Lake, I…

I love Retina iMacs. So much so that I took a chance and bought a used 2015 low-end Core i5 iMac with a 1TB Fusion Drive (which combines a 24GB NVMe SSD and a 1TB hard drive)—a machine that’s actually slower than my 2012 Core i7 iMac. I bought it with upgrading in mind, which is where the fickle finger of fate came into play. I wanted to upgrade the iMac’s NVMe SSD with something that offered more space but was relatively less expensive (in other words, not sold by Apple). I found conflicting info about the upgrade, though. Authoritatively stated advice such as “You’ll kill the machine and possibly yourself” was hardly useful (not to mention, completely incorrect), while “Well, it worked in my 2017 [iMac]” provided hope, but…

Few of us ever get a chance to start over from scratch, but recently World of Warcraft players got exactly that with the launch of WoW Classic. Blizzard Entertainment’s “newest” game is essentially the popular massive multiplayer online roleplaying game exactly as it played in 2004, right down to molasses-paced quest text, a dearth of quest markers, and enemies so tough that you feel compelled to group up with other players to beat them. Together, features like these made World of Warcraft’s earliest incarnation more social than its current form, and almost 15 years ago they helped lay the foundation for some of the most enduring friendships of my life. Yet it’s important to remember that Classic isn’t a hard reset—a reboot that gives us a truly new game with…

Battery packs have become commonplace. These small power banks are easy to carry and make it possible to top off a phone or tablet—and more recently with the addition of Power Delivery (PD) capabilities, a laptop even—while on the go. Anker’s PowerCore+ 19000 has a slightly tweaked design, departing from the standard black brick. The PowerCore+ 19000 features a two-tone aesthetic, consisting of a space-gray top and a matte-black bottom. Its corners are rounded. It looks nicer than older Anker packs, and I hope the company sticks with the new design going forward. There are three ports on the front: one USB-C and two full-sized USB, along with a power button. On top is a circular charge indicator, made up of 11 dots. The far-left USB port provides up to…

There’s nothing like generic when it comes to saving money, be it prescription medicines or the Shell Thunderbolt 3. The Shell, a svelte $165 unpopulated (no drive) enclosure from Fledging offers about the same performance as Samsung’s X5, but for quite a bit less, depending on which M.2 NVMe SSD you install in it. DESIGN AND FEATURES The Shell Thunderbolt is considerably smaller than the Samsung X5: 3.75 inches long, by 1.85 inches wide, by a mere 0.4 inches thick. It’s rendered in solid metal which is better for shedding heat, a good thing. At least until you pick the Shell up after heavy use. It can run startlingly hot under heavy load. Fledging’s Shell USB 3.1 sports a fan that keeps it very cool. Why the company didn’t provide one for…