Macworld UK December 1, 2015

Apple has just concluded its financial year with the usual celebration of successes, and rightly so, with iPhones and Mac sales increasing and 7 million Apple Watches sold. The arrival of El Capitan last month wasn’t without its issues, so we have a rundown of the problems people have encountered and how to fix them. We have our review of the 27in iMac. With its gorgeous 5K Retina display and the new Skylake processor, this new Mac gives the Mac Pro a run for it’s money. Speaking of which, what’s going on with the Mac Pro? It’s two years since Apple updated it. We’ve also taken a look at the new Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad, turn to page 54 and 59 to find out if they really are ‘magic’.…

Apple has posted quarterly revenue of $51.5 billion and quarterly net profit of $11.1bn, which is $1.96 per diluted share. This compares to revenue of $49.6bn and profit of £10.7bn last quarter, and $42.123bn in revenue in the year ago quarter. This means revenues leapt by 22 per cent year-on-year, while profit was up 31 per cent. The results were for the quarter that began on 29 June and ended on 30 September. Apple’s financial year runs from September to September. The company has predicted that this quarter, it would see revenue of between $49- and $51bn, with gross margin between 38.5 percent and 39.5 percent. Those estimates actually caused some concern among investors because they are reasonably low for the fourth quarter, which led to a decline in share…

Earlier this year, we reported that some Retina MacBook Pro owners had encountered a problem in which the anti-reflective coating on the screen glass came away, even if cared for properly. Apple has announced it will replace any screens with damaged coating for free. Those affected by this issue will be able to get a free replacement display for up to three years from the original date of purchase or until one year from October 16 2015 – whichever comes last. If you’ve had this problem with your Retina MacBook Pro, contact Apple and set up a repair. You can also take your MacBook Pro to the Genius Bar at any Apple Store, or bring it in to any Apple authorized service centre.…

Some users of Office for Mac have reported problems with El Capitan. (We haven’t had many, but then we don’t use it that much, so your mileage may vary.) Luckily, Apple pushed out updates for all three of its iWork apps for the Mac. Pages Pages 5.6 (£14.99) supports El Capitan’s new Split View feature. It can open documents from both Pages ’08 and ’06, while force-clicking images with a Force Touch trackpad will result in haptic feedback while you’re editing. The font menu has a handy Recently Used section. The Media Browser supports the album structure in Photos, including collections, moments, favourites, and shared albums. There are even some new Apple-designed templates, including ePub, Kids Certificate, Classic Certificate, and School Newsletter. Numbers Numbers 3.6 (£14.99) can open spreadsheets created…

As is the case with any new operating system, whether it be OS X or Windows, users have reported a number of issues with it. Here we address some of these issues, many of which are now said to be fixed by the OS X 10.11.1 update. Microsoft Office for Mac If you have been having with your Outlook email since updating to OS X El Capitan you may not be alone. Some Mac users have found that there email is no longer syncing properly in Outlook, with the email crashing when it tries to sync with the server, as a result users are unable to read messages unless they access their email via the web. The issues seem to be down to a bug in OS X El Capitan,…

There’s something of a misconception when it comes to the Mac. While it’s true that most Mac developers might not be engaging in the same race to the bottom that’s playing out in the iOS App Store, the notion that you need to spend a bundle just to boost your machine’s usefulness isn’t quite the case. Powerful tools like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro certainly have price tags commensurate with their robust feature sets, many of the greatest OS X apps won’t cost you any more than the time they take to download them. It’s not just plain text editors; everything from useful utilities to handy archivers and transcoders can be had for nary a penny, both in and out of the Mac App Store. So put away your wallet…