Macworld UK November 1, 2015

Apple has a habit of releasing a whole wave of new hardware and software at this time of year, and this autumn has been no different. The past month has been packed with new products, including the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan. And there’s more to come, with the iPad Pro and new Apple TV just around the corner. Thanks to Apple, Christmas has come early. Over the past few weeks we’ve seen the launch of the new iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus. We’ve been using both of these and they are reviewed on pages 38 and 50, find out what we think about the new features including 3D Touch, Live Photos and the new Rose Gold model. Existing iPhone users haven’t…

Apple expected to break records with sales of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus on launch weekend, and it was right on target. The company sold more than 13 million new iPhones in 12 countries, beating last year’s opening weekend record of 10 million phones sold. “Sales for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have been phenomenal, blowing past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a press announcement. “Customers’ feedback is incredible and they are loving 3D Touch and Live Photos, and we can’t wait to bring iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to customers in even more countries” The story behind the story: It’s important to note that China was one of the launch countries this time around, which was not…

After just one, Apple reported that more than 50 percent of devices had adopted iOS 9. That means it’s on track to become Apple’s most popular software upgrade of all time. The story behind the story: It took nearly a month for Apple’s last major iOS upgrade to reach 50 percent of devices. Why? iOS 8 was huge. People with 16GB iPhones who wanted to upgrade over the air were faced with the problem of having to delete apps just to make room for the upgrade, which was a major hassle. Then there was iOS 8.1, released just a week later, which bricked some phones as soon as it launched. iOS 9 is much smaller than iOS 8, at 1.3GB versus 4.58GB, and adds a new feature where you can…

El Capitan adds some power under the hood, bringing Apple’s Metal APIs over from iOS, which lets apps take better advantage of your Mac’s graphics processor for increased performance. If that doesn’t sound very exciting, not to worry: Apple has tossed in some improvements for users like us, too. Here are the little changes that have made the biggest difference in our workflow – and how to put them to work for you, too. 1. Split View Split View in El Capitan makes full-screen mode twice as useful by letting you divide your screen between two apps. Here’s how to make it work. You need to have both windows open already. Pick one, and press and hold the green button in the upper-left corner – the same button you’d press…

Create a Slideshow A handy new feature is the Projects tab that allows you to create print products, manufactured by Apple itself, as well as slideshows that you can export as HD movie files. To create a new project, select the images you want to use via the Photos tab – you’ll need to hold down 1 or Shift to select multiple images – then click the ‘+’ button at the top right of the Photos program window and select the type of project you want. Once created, any new project will subsequently be listed when you click the Projects tab. A slideshow is perhaps the simplest kind of project because it doesn’t involve buying from Apple and the results are immediate. The first choice upon choosing to put together…

Use Time Machine to back up a Mac Apple’s Time Machine system is designed to safeguard your Mac’s data by backing it up to an external disk. If you’ve not done anything with Time Machine to date, the System Preferences pane will be in its default state. To the left is a massive on/ off switch (see above). On the right is a button that’s used to select a backup disk, some information about what Time Machine does, a checkbox that determines whether it is shown in the menu bar, and an Options button. Turn Time Machine on and it will list suitable disks for use. Generally speaking, the location you’re copying to should have more free space than the capacity of the disk you’re intending to back up. If…