Innehållsförteckning för July 2022 från Macworld

Whether you’re making the jump into the Apple ecosystem or updating from an older machine, picking up a new Mac can be a great way to supercharge your productivity. How do you decide which type of Mac is right for you? With so many options to choose from, as well as different types of Macs, finding one that fits your setup and delivers everything you need can be tricky. If you’re going to pick up a new Mac, then going with a MacBook can have some distinct advantages over Apple’s desktop options. Don’t get us wrong, all of these machines are perfectly capable of doing what you need them to do, but there are some places where Apple’s laptops shine brighter than the iMac and other desktop machines. As such,…

Few pieces of Mac software can claim the history of PopChar, a utility that makes it a click and a hover to see the appearance of individual characters in fonts installed on your Mac. Released in 1987 for System 5 and revamped as PopChar X for Mac OS X 10.2 in 2002, many current users weren’t born when some of us relied on PopChar as a critical part of our daily workflow in PageMaker, QuarkXPress, and InDesign. (Or even Ready, Set, Go!) From its earliest days, PopChar popped. When you click in a preferred corner of the screen, the utility pops out, giving you easy access to hundreds to tens of thousands of characters in a given font in its palette-like window. Examine the repertoire available in the font. Hover…

When Jony Ive announced in July 2019 that he was leaving Apple, there was rampant speculation as to why. Some thought it was due to a shift to services, others mused that Ive was bored since Apple’s products had become more iterative following Steve Jobs’ passing. But the real reason has nothing to do with a product at all, it was a product announcement. According to New York Times reporter Tripp Mickle’s new book, “After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul,” Jony Ive’s souring on his position at Apple began with the Apple Watch introduction in September 2014. Ahead of the event, Ive pushed CEO Tim Cook to remove two dozen trees from the De Anza College campus next to the Flint Center for the…

Earlier this week, supply-chain analyst extraordinaire Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that Apple’s investigating E Ink displays for future foldable iPhones. Now, Apple surely investigates lots of things–and most of them never make it across the finish line to become real products. But as a long-time admirer of E Ink as a technology, I’m excited about the possibility that Apple might use it in future devices. E Ink is a niche technology with some very real limitations, but it’s also got some huge advantages. WHAT’S E INK? E Ink is a display technology that’s fundamentally different from LCD, OLED, and other display technologies. It works by using electricity to set tiny capsules of pigment to show or hide. The result is a surface that works more or less like traditional ink on paper, hence…

Everyone knows Siri can set a timer or alarm, add a reminder, start a phone call or send a text, or do simple math calculations. But Siri can do so much more! Apple keeps improving Siri year after year, so if you’ve gotten in the habit of only using it for a few select things because of your experiences a couple of years ago, you may be surprised by all the things Siri can do quite well today. Give these features a shot, and you may find yourself using Apple’s voice assistant a lot more often. Looking for funny and silly things with less practical use? We have a huge list of fun things to ask Siri. 1. BE MORE SPECIFIC A lot of the basic things you use Siri…

Apple was the first computer company to make networked file sharing easy. Decades after introducing that feature on the Mac, it’s less important in an era of cloud storage. Unless you’re on a corporate network–and often even so–it’s easier to push files to a central repository by copying them to a folder or volume on your desktop that syncs. Cloud storage also bypasses network configuration issues, like the dread “double NAT,” which can prevent making file-exchange connections over the internet. Still, it’s frequently helpful to allow access to files stored on your Mac by other computers on a local network. Let’s look at what’s required to set it up. ENABLE FILE SHARING Start with System Preferences → Sharing. This one-stop shop for all networked services that macOS includes a checkbox…

Apple’s AirPlay lets you stream audio or audio and video to other devices on your local network. This could be an embedded video on a web page in Safari on an iPhone that you stream to your Apple TV, or an album from the Music app on a Mac that has its audio playing simultaneously through several devices. Apple added support for AirPlay mirroring and desktop extension to the latest release of macOS, allowing Apple devices (at least iOS 14, iPadOS 14, or macOS Monterey) to stream to Mac models released started in 2018 and running Monterey. (Some features work at lower resolutions on older devices; see Apple’s support note.) That’s a lot of provisos. To wipe away Apple’s requirements and enhance compatibility beyond the Cupertino giant’s ecosystem, turn to…

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR MAC’S INTERNAL STORAGE RUNS OUT Once upon a time, Apple made it easy to crack open a Mac, remove a hard drive, and replace it with a new one when the old drive was no longer working, too slow, or of insufficient capacity. Those days are long gone for most Macs, leaving readers to wonder what the best path forward is. You have effectively three options: > Check iFixIt and other online guides to see how difficult it is to replace an internal drive. Depending on the model, it may be relatively easy for Macs released through 2014. For instance, a 2014 MacBook Pro requires just unscrewing the back case, unscrewing the SSD, and replacing it with an Apple-compatible SSD. > Consider hiring a shop…

Whether you’re making the jump into the Apple ecosystem or updating from an older machine, picking up a new Mac can be a great way to supercharge your productivity. How do you decide which type of Mac is right for you? With so many options to choose from, as well as different types of Macs, finding one that fits your setup and delivers everything you need can be tricky. If you’re going to pick up a new Mac, then going with a desktop Mac can have some distinct advantages over Apple’s portable MacBook options. Don’t get us wrong, all of these machines are perfectly capable of doing what you need them to do, but there are some places where the desktop Macs shine brighter than the MacBooks. As such, here…

Apple had a habit of being stingy with ports on its Macs for many years. The low-water mark was the 12-inch MacBook, the first of its computers with USB-C—and it sported just a single USB-C port for power and peripherals. Later iterations of the MacBook Air at least upped the count to two USB-C ports. Apple is changing, though—the company became downright baroque with the 2021 M1 Pro and M1 Max 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, providing something closer to a pre-2016 range of built-in connectivity options. But many laptop owners and some with desktop Macs still long for more ports—sometimes a lot more. If you ever felt, “What I really need is a dock with 18 jacks in it that draws over 200 watts of peak power,” the…

To mark World Password Day, Apple has announced a partnership with Google and Microsoft to get rid of them. According to joint press releases, the three companies are working on new capabilities for that would “expand support for a common passwordless sign-in standard” across website and apps using your iPhone. Apple hails the partnership as “radically more secure when compared to passwords and legacy multi-factor technologies such as one-time passcodes sent over SMS” and focuses on two main components: 1. Allow users to automatically access their FIDO sign-in credentials (referred to by some as a “passkey”) on many of their devices, even new ones, without having to reenroll every account. 2. Enable users to use FIDO authentication on their mobile device to sign in to an app or website on a nearby device,…

WhatsApp has warned that it will drop support for iOS 10 and iOS 11 devices later this year, which means iPhone 5 and 5c owners will need to find an alternative way of using the app. Those with newer handsets, meanwhile, may need to update to a newer version of iOS. wabetainfo.com was the first site to report the plan, which was corroborated by information on the WhatsApp support site. It explains: “Currently, we provide support for and recommend using the following devices: Android running OS 4.1 and newer; iPhone running iOS 12 and newer; KaiOS 2.5.0 and newer, including JioPhone and JioPhone 2.” Despite what it says on the support page, owners of iOS 10 and 11 devices are still currently able to use WhatsApp, but have started receiving…

Folder Actions are one of many hidden gems in macOS. You can set an action to occur whenever the contents of a folder are changed. This can be a simple action drawn from a list that Apple provides with macOS, an AppleScript, or a workflow produced in Automator. Automator lets you extend these actions into Terminal shell scripts and other languages. You can use Folder Actions for a lot of disparate purposes: > Resize images or convert them another file format when they’re added to a folder. > Provide a popup alert when items are added to a folder through an automated process that you otherwise wouldn’t know had completed. > Add a downloaded MP3 to the Music app. Control-click any folder in the Finder and choose Services → Folder…

Offering security protection for Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, iOS, and Android, Malwarebytes comes in both free and premium editions for personal use. The premium edition sounds promising with a host of features increasingly needed to defend you against today’s threats—real-time and on-demand virus, malware, and spyware scanning; protection against malicious website links and phishing attempts; and security against ransomware and zero-day exploits. But wait, all that describes the Windows version. The Mac edition, not quite as much. Malwarebytes Premium version 4.15 for the Mac includes the basis virus and malware scanning as well as the ability to detect malicious apps, or PUPs (potentially unwanted program). But it doesn’t directly come with the protection against malicious links and phishing attempts. Nor does it offer the safeguards against ransomware and zero-day exploits. The…

Bang and Olufsen’s Beoplay EX true wireless, noise-cancelling earbuds feature beautiful design, a secure fit, strong wireless performance, great sound, and decent battery life. They’re also entirely waterproof—to the point they’ll survive being submerged in up to one meter of water for 30 minutes. If their $399 asking price doesn’t make you check your wallet, read on and see why they could be B&O’s finest in-ear headphones. DESIGN CUES B&O audio gear is about form as much as function, and the Beoplay EX certainly make a statement. Once you get past the fact that their stem-shape reminds you of Apple’s Airpod, you’ll marvel at the Beoplay EX’s beauty. They’re designed by Copenhagen’s Thomas Bentzen, whose industrial designs are known for their “simplicity, rationality, and functionality.” The Beoplay EX are as…

One of the world’s least-exciting sentences is, “Let’s talk about technology standards!” But I promise I’m not digging down into wiring schematics, pinout diagrams, and 1,000-page protocol descriptions. Rather, I want to help you get up to speed on how USB and Thunderbolt work separately and together so you know how you can best use them—and troubleshoot them when incompatibilities arise. The path forward relies on the latest standards: Thunderbolt 4 and USB4. While not perfectly compatible with each other, they are nearly so. Most importantly, the two standards have effectively converged on a single cable type you can purchase and use almost universally with Thunderbolt 3 or 4, and USB 3.1, 3.2, and USB4 via USB-C. USB: THE ONCE AND FUTURE UNIVERSAL STANDARD USB was at one point the…

Ahead of WWDC beginning June 6, Apple on Tuesday announced a set of accessibility features for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac that will be coming “later this year.” The software features are for “users with disabilities to navigate, connect, and get the most out of Apple products.” Apple did not announce how the new accessibility features will be rolled out, though they’re likely to be part of the next crop of operating systems. Apple is expected to reveal iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS 13 at WWDC, but Apple’s press release did not specifically state whether the new features are part of these new operating systems or the current versions. Here are the new features coming to Apple devices. DOOR DETECTION The iPhone and iPad’s Magnifier app will get a new…

The Mac operating system that we use today was introduced 21 years ago. Whether you’ve been using the Mac longer than that or just bought your first M1 MacBook, macOS is a vast operating system and there are tons of tucked-away features that you can take advantage of to help you get stuff done. Here are ten macOS tips and features that you may not know or have forgotten about that can help you get more out of your Mac. Some of these are old, some just arrived in the past year, but all of them are incredibly handy to have in your arsenal. 1. REARRANGE MENU BAR ICONS The menu bar is a good way to quickly access frequently-used settings and other functions. To get the most out of…

Time Machine backups don’t add up! Or, rather, if you’re viewing the contents of a Time Machine backup volume in the Finder and choose File → Get Info and enable Calculate All Sizes, the totals of all the snapshots typically far exceed the capacity of the volume. That can’t be—and it perturbed one reader whose snapshots were 1.7 terabytes—he thought he was running out of space on a 12TB drive. Apple’s Time Machine is an idiosyncratic method of backing up volumes and providing snapshots compared to how most cloning and archiving software works and ever worked. Similar software typically makes an initial snapshot and then stores the changed portions of files along with a log of deletions and folder changes. When you restore a file, you’re offered timestamped versions to…

Pour one out for the iPod, a line of devices that revolutionized portable music more than two decades ago. On Tuesday, Apple announced that the iPod Touch will no longer be produced. The current model, introduced in 2019, will still be sold while supplies last. It starts at $199 for 32GB. The iPod Touch was the last of the iPod line–essentially an iPhone SE with an A10 processor and no cellular connectivity. It was an iPod in name, but Music was just one of the many apps filling the home screen. The iPod has a long history, transforming the company when it debuted in 2001. At the time, it was the rare Apple product that wasn’t a Mac—though it did need one to transfer music. The iPod was initially derided…

Ask an aging audio head about the old days and more than a few will tell you about some of the amazing gear that Radio Shack released under its house brand, Realistic. Not everything was great, but the best gear—including the Minimus 7 bookshelf speakers—has a following to this day. Monoprice has grown from its origins as the best source for cheap HDMI cables to replace Radio Shack as the go-to source for unflashy-but-quality audio gear. Its Monolith turntables continue the company’s tradition of delivering excellence at a surprisingly low price. This review covers the belt-driven Monolith model 600046, which has a walnut-colored finish. The Monolith 600047 is virtually the same product, but with a glossy back finish. The AudioTechnica ATVM95E cartridge that Monolith bundles with both turntables includes an…