Inhoudsopgave van March 2020 - MacFormat

If your Mac, iPhone or iPad are bursting at the seams – it’s no surprise. All of us accumulate too much stuff eventually: downloads, music, videos, games, the three-hour presentation that Amy from Accounts sent you… What the heck are you supposed to do with it all? Riding to the rescue is this month’s lead feature, Detox your Mac, which explores all the ways you can restore your sanity – whether it’s shifting your media libraries to an external drive, parking your photos in iCloud or simply taking out the Trash. Plus, we also cover what to do if your Mac gets infected with malware, and even how to start again from scratch (it’s not as scary as you might think…). The cavalry arrives on page 22. Once you’ve saved…

While Steve Jobs was famously sniffy about public displays of philanthropy at Apple, that all changed when Tim Cook took the reins in 2011. Since then, Apple has matched all employee donations up to a $10,000 maximum – the result being that Apple and its employees donated over $100 million to good causes in 2019 alone. But that’s not all – 21,000 Apple employees donated their time too, volunteering for up to a quarter of a million hours last year. A great recent example is Saints of Steel, a non-profit pop-up barbershop in a young person’s homeless centre in San Francisco that helps make over people attending interviews or looking for work. The brainchild of Apple Park Visitor Centre manager Jaz Limos, Saints of Steel was 80% percent funded by…

1 DJI Mavic Mini > £369 > dji.com DJI’s advanced drone smarts become a lot more accessible with this new super-small quadcopter – its low weight (249g) means it doesn’t require a drone licence in the UK. But despite its diminutive size, it still manages to pack in a 12-megapixel camera that records in better–than–HD resolution, mounted on a three-axis gimbal for stable shots even when the drone is really shifting. Its flight time of 30 minutes is equivalent to bigger drones, as is its broadcast range of 2.5 miles. It’s really easy to fly and folds up to be truly pocketable. Meet your next memory-capturing holiday camera. 2 Philips 439P9H > £879 > philips.com Philips’ original ultra-wide monitor was a huge 49 inches, so here’s a smaller version… at…

1 19 years 2020 sees the 19th anniversary of the first Apple Store, which opened on 19 May 2001 in Virginia, USA. A second store was opened in Glendale, California just three hours later. 2 24/7 The iconic glass cube of Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store is said to be the most photographed place in New York City. It’s also the only Apple Store in the world to be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 3 27,0003 The Apple Store in Amsterdam, which is currently the company’s largest store, measures approximately 27,000ft square. The store’s Genius Bar here is 82ft long! 4 506 Apple has 506 official Apple Stores in 25 different countries – more than half of these stores are in the US. 5 $5.5K Apple…

1 Project assets Imported clips are stored here. Assets that have been added to the timeline have a green dot by them. 2 Transitions Click here to summon the Transitions browser. Here, we’ve added a left to right wipe. 3 Titles Drag a title to the top layer to combine it with footage on the layer below. Double-click to customise text. 4 Non-linear editing Drag a clip in the timeline to change the order in which it appears. IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to trim and reorder clips in the timeline and add titles and transitions YOU’LL NEED Adobe Premiere Elements 2020 Titles can help videos attract more attention on social media sites Thanks to your iPhone, it’s easier to capture video recordings of day-to-day events.…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the Remote app to control Music and TV apps on your Mac YOU’LL NEED macOS 10.15.2; iOS 13.3; iPadOS Apple’s media tools have had something of an overhaul in recent years, and the dumping of iTunes from the Mac and its replacement with Music, Podcasts, and TV seemed to be the final piece in the puzzle. But there was one last piece to fit, the apparently forgotten and often maligned Remote iOS app. Now over 10 years old, the Remote app once let you control iTunes playback on your Mac or an iTunes server on your network, or even on an Apple TV. It seemed to be on its way out along with iTunes. But an update to macOS…

Whether it’s a helicopter or harmonica, the result is extraordinary Chances are you’ve experienced Dolby Atmos without even knowing it: the technology was launched in 2012 and is used in thousands of cinemas. It’s also part of the Dolby Cinema home theatre format. Dolby Atmos is a way of delivering incredibly accurate, lifelike audio. It’s mainly used in films but it can do amazing things in music too: REM’s recently remastered Automatic For The People was also remixed for Dolby Atmos with what singer Michael Stipe described as “breathtaking” results. Dolby Atmos takes surround sound to the next level, quite literally. Where traditional surround sound systems put audio in front, beside and behind you, Dolby Atmos puts it above you too. For example, let’s say you’re watching a film where…

Can’t upgrade iPhone to iOS 13 Q My iPhone XS running iOS 12.4.1 is set to automatically download updates, but is stuck saying ‘Update Requested’ and won’t download or install iOS 13, even when left charging overnight. How can I update it? by KEVIN HOLLIDAY A Sometimes iOS devices get no further than ‘requesting’ an update when Apple’s servers are too busy, or when their connection isn’t reliable. Try again when the device has a good Wi-Fi connection to a good internet connection. You could improve chances of success by shutting your iPhone down, putting it on charge, turning it on again, then waiting a minute or two. After that period, open Settings > General > Software Update, and request any update which is offered. Give it another hour or…

Flawed Finder in Catalina Q Since I upgraded my Mac to Catalina, Firefox won’t run properly. When I can start it up, it soon hangs or crashes, and often won’t open again until after I’ve restarted my Mac. Isn’t it compatible with Catalina? by ROGER WOLFE A Recent versions of Firefox should be fully compatible with Catalina. Unless you’re running an older release, this is either due to corruption of the app itself, or something stored in its folder inside your Home folder’s Library. Trash your current copy of the Firefox app, download the current version, and install that. If that still doesn’t work normally, you’ll need to remove its other files, which may reset its preferences to the defaults. Quit the app, and in the Finder press the command,…

LIVE SMARTER The smart home is here – live the Apple dream today! Personally I’ve never expended P much brain energy on the data that’s going this way and that – while I’m careful to an almost draconian degree about what my kids are allowed to interact with online, the same is not true for my devices. I’m enthusiastic, see. I want that new thing fired up and working immediately; to hell with the consequences. And I don’t have a problem with the little ones barking at a smart assistant to get some music playing. I suppose, then, it’s a shame that background communication is such a normal thing. Data centres full of who-knows-what information might help smart devices work better, but thinking about it in too much detail does…

IN PRINT ON iPAD & iPHONE ISSUE 348 FEBRUARY 2020 Be an Apple Genius – 58 top tips! iPhone photography superguide Master the Podcasts app Tested: AirPods Pro vs rivals ISSUE 347 JANUARY 2020 Verdict: new 16-inch MacBook Pro! 54 reasons to love your Apple kit Use your iPad as a Mac replacement Tested: Password managers ISSUE 346 DECEMBER 2019 87 time-saving Mac tips! iPad 10.2in – is it the best yet? Gift guide: 50 high-tech essentials AirPods Pro revealed To order back issues of the print magazine, go to bit.ly/macformat_back or phone +44 (0)844 848 2852 and we’ll post them out to you. Download back issues onto your iOS device at any time and keep them forever in your personal library. bit.ly/macformat/ipad NEVER MISS AN ISSUE! SUBSCRIBE TODAY! IN…

£359 FROM Samsung, xsamsung.co.uk FEATURES 27in WQHD (2560x1440 pixel) LCD VA display, 250cd/m2 brightness, 100% sRGB, 4ms response time, 1x HDMI 2.0 port, 1x mini-DisplayPort You can push the screen out of the way when you don’t need it Space is often at a premium when we’re sitting at our desks. It’s all a bit of squeeze. And if you have an external display on your desk too… Oh boy. Looking to help solve that problem is Samsung’s Space Monitor, an LCD panel available in either 27in or 32in guises (we’re testing the 27in version here), which sits on a height-adjustable stand (0-213.9mm) that simply clamps to the edge of your desk. This stand enables you to push the screen back out of the way when you don’t need it…

£42 FROM Chargeasap, chargeasap.com FEATURES USB-C, Micro-USB and Lightning adapters, USB-PD, 480Mbps data transfer; 1.2m cable Damn dongles! “It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that a user in possession of a MacBook, must be in want of a dongle.” Or as Jane Austen also probably never said, “and almost every other Apple device come to that.” And it never seems to matter how many cables we stuff in a bag, we never seem to have the right one… Luckily, Australian techies Chargeasap rode to the rescue with the Uno cable (MF#346) – a cross-device USB magnetic cable set with interchangeable heads. Its Infinity sibling goes one better by including USB-PD or Power Delivery, enabling it to charge USB-C equipped MacBooks up to 100W, whereas the Uno could not. The Infinity comprises…

£34.99 FROM www.painterartist.com NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later Painter Essential’s wide range of brush tips let you reveal a photo’s original colours and details Although Painter Essentials 7 is a cut-down version of Painter A 2020, it packs more than enough tools to enable you to mimic a range of natural media such as oil paintings or watercolours. The Essentials software is considerably cheaper than the full version’s £251.99 price tag, but it can still produce convincing results. A bonus of using Painter Essentials 7 is that it’s faster to master than the more complex full version, and you can convert a picture’s pixels into paint-like strokes within minutes. If you’ve used older versions of Painter Essentials then you’ll notice that tool icons have been revamped to make them easier…

£8.99 FROM Information Architects, ia.net NEEDS iOS 10 or later This is one of the best distractionfree writing apps on iOS and on the Mac. The minimal but deceptively powerful interface enables you to write and save in plain text and export formatted documents in PDF, Word and HTML format, as well as in Markdown. Version 5.3 adds Dark Mode support with manual override, improved Handoff functionality, and support for external storage devices. That’s handy for accessing notes on shared devices, which you can make private. The new multi-window support on iPad is fantastic. You can easily open a second document in Split View by tapping and holding it in the Library or by dragging the app icon from the Dock to the edge of the screen. The result is…

What’s the most annoying issue with macOS Catalina: Log on and see next issue’s big question! facebook.com/macformat Smart Battery Replacement Program Apple has announced a Smart Battery Case Replacement Program. The Program covers cases made for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR between January and October 2019. Apple says the affected cases exhibit a number of issues, including intermittment charging and not charging an iPhone at all. See bit.ly/mf349smbrp for details. If you have a case that’s exhibiting these issues, you can get a free replacement either by visiting an Apple Store or an Authorised Service Provider. iPhone 11 Smart Battery Cases are unaffected.…

Whether you’re thinking of just cutting down on your meat intake, or already a vegetarian, Vegg’up is the app for you. Just by answering four questions about your eating habits, likes, dislikes and allergies, the app can recommend ideal recipes for you. Vegg’up offers more than 4,000 recipes along with comprehensive nutritional information, so you know exactly what you are eating. For £6.99 per month (or £25.49 for six months), you can access the premium version of the app. This allows you to search for recipes by ingredients, create lists of your favourite recipes and get tips on healthy eating and staying motivated. There’s also an option to add ingredients you need to a shopping list. The clean interface and easy steps make this an ideal companion for a veggie-friendly…

One thing that’s as sure as death and taxes, is the fact that your Mac’s hard disk will eventually fill up. These days it may be an SSD or Fusion Drive, but regardless of the nature of the hardware, it can hold a finite number of gigabytes, and the more files you add – whether new apps, downloads, music and videos, your photo collection, work files or anything else – the less space will be left. And the same goes for your iPhone or iPad. As we so often say about macOS and iOS, remember there’s only a problem when there’s a problem. There’s generally no need to worry about unwanted files existing, or to install software that promises to remove them. They won’t break anything or slow anything down.…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to make faster and more effective selections YOU’LL NEED Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 By selecting a subject from one photo and adding it to another you can have fun producing creative composite images. In this walkthrough, we’ll replace a dog with a lioness to demonstrate the process of selecting a complex object. Photoshop Elements 2020 boasts new tools that are designed to speed up selections, such as the one-click Select Subject command. However most of these quick selections will need some refining to cleanly isolate a subject from their background. Fortunately, the Refine Edge command has all the tools you need to create a clean selection. We’ll also show you how to transform the size of the selected object so that…

IT WILL TAKE 20-40mins YOU WILL LEARN How to transcode video in Handbrake YOU’LL NEED Handbrake, some old video files Handbrake enables you to convert multiple files at once Many of us have old digital video files kicking around, but they may be becoming obsolete. As part of Apple’s move to 64-bit tech, a move that delivers all kinds of performance benefits, it’s removing support for 32-bit apps and content. You’ve probably seen the warnings about older apps needing updating but, unless you’ve used iMovie or Final Cut Pro in Catalina, you might not know video may need to be updated too. Simple fix The culprit is QuickTime 7, the multimedia handler Apple released back in 2005. Apple stopped supporting QuickTime on Windows in 2016, and now it’s stopped supporting…

Reviving broken Bluetooth QMy MacBook Pro’s Bluetooth has stopped working, and shows a squiggly line through its icon. How can I fix it? by CHRISTINA PETERS AOne quick solution, which may bring it back like magic, is to reset the Mac’s System Management Controller (SMC) as detailed at bit.ly/mac349smc, which shouldn’t upset anything else. If that doesn’t help, restart your Mac in Diagnostic mode as described at bit.ly/mac349dgno to check whether it’s a hardware problem. Think back to when this problem started. If it occurred after a macOS update or upgrade, then it’s likely to be the result of a failure to install the necessary software. If that’s the case, try downloading and installing the latest Combo updater for that version of macOS. If you don’t think this is related…

Q I don’t need to run Time Machine backups every hour, so use TimeMachineEditor to run them overnight. How can I check that those backups are being made correctly or throwing errors which affect those backups? A When Time Machine runs backups each hour, it uses a mechanism to schedule them at a convenient moment, and you can monitor its performance, any errors and more using the free utility T2M2 from bit.ly/mac349t2m2. However, TimeMachineEditor works differently to allow you to make backups at the time interval of your choice. The result is that its records in the log, which T2M2 relies on to perform its analysis, are too different for that to work properly. As you can’t use that analysis, the only alternative is to do so manually. Using Console…

Reader Colin Robertson recently R contacted us with a concern about connectivity and oversharing. “It feels more and more like an adversarial relationship between consumers and the companies who want to spy on – I mean, serve us,” he writes. “I’m interested in the convenience of video doorbells and thermostats, but all of these solutions involve companies that want to access your data for themselves via the cloud.” Is removing that a realistic ideal? Those who recall the first wave of X10 devices will remember the way the local smart home once operated, and that’s not something we’re looking to revisit. While it was a more private way to do things, it was plenty clunky; switches and relays forced to carry massive antennae, only the most simplistic operations available, limited…

£52.95 FROM Twelve South, www.twelvesouth.com FEATURES Converts 3.5mm headphone jack output to Bluetooth, AUX-IN adapter, headphone splitter While Bluetooth headphones and earphones are fast becoming ubiquitous, there’s still a lot of hardware out there that uses conventional wires to send and receive sound. You can’t use AirPods, for example, with a plane’s in-flight audio-visual system. Likewise, you can’t get them working with the treadmill at most gyms, or easily hook up an iPad to an older car stereo. Well, now you can. AirFly Pro is a Bluetooth-to-analog transmitter and receiver that provides a bridge between wired and wireless worlds. Charged over USB-C, theAirFly Pro has around 16 hours of battery life and can be paired with up to two sets of phones at once. In transmit mode, you convert any…

OWC USB-C Travel Dock (2nd Gen) £99.99 FROM OWC, www.owcdigital.com FEATURES 5 ports, up to 100W pass-through power Design OWC’s Travel Dock is a little chunkier than its Belkin rival, but its rectangular design is still pretty compact, measuring 32mm on each side, 23mm thick, and weighing 170g. We also like the way that the USB-C cable that connects to your Mac folds into the base when not in use. USB ports You get two USB 3.1 ports for older accessories, and one USB-C port. However, the USB-C port is only for passthrough power, so storage devices and Time Machine back-ups only work via its USB 3.1 ports. Power and charging It’s a shame that the USB-C port on the Travel Dock doesn’t support data connections for storage devices. However,…

$39.99 (about £30) FROM Ohanaware, ohanaware.com NEEDS OS X 10.11 or later HDRtist NX2.1 has all the tools you need to create detailed HDR composites When faced with a high-contrast scene, your camera may struggle to capture detail in the brightest highlights and the darkest shadows. One way to capture more detail is to shoot three bracketed exposures. One shot captures an average exposure, revealing detail in the midtones; a second shot overexposes the scene to capture shadow detail; a third shot underexposes the scene to capture detail in the brightest highlights. You then need an app to combine the correctly exposed bits of each shot into a merged image that boasts a high dynamic range (HDR). HDRtist NX2.1 has all the tools you need to create colourful and fully…

Free (offers in-app purchases) FROM Blueshift Development, dictationbyblueshift.com NEEDS iOS 13.1 or later Dictating text can prove frustrating, but Dictation by Blueshift aims to make the process easier. The app leverages the power of machine learning for automatic transcription of live or recorded audio, and it processes the audio on your iPhone or iPad, where it can’t be intercepted. You get five minutes per recording with the free app; unlimited recording time is available via an in-app purchase. You can swap between the audio waveform and the transcribed text with a tap, jump to the appropriate part of a transcription by tapping on the audio waveform, and add multiple bookmarks to a file. It’s simple to use, works in multi-window mode on iPad, and supports 13 languages. In a quiet…

Smartphones have opened up some clever ways for people to stay safe, whether that’s kids, the elderly or anyone walking around on a night out. The iPhone has some safety tools built in: the Find My app means you can share your location with friends and, if you press the side button five times, it triggers Emergency SOS; dragging the slider over calls the emergency services and your location is shared with your emergency contacts. And there are plenty of other apps out there to help you stay safe before things get to that stage. bSafe Free (IAPs) NEEDS iOS 10 or later With this app you can share your location with friends and ask them to keep an eye on you, and if you press its SOS button, it…

MONITOR Dell P2219HC £170 dell.com Dell’s monitor offers great colour accuracy and impressive performance at a very affordable price. The monitor packs four USB-A ports, one USB-C, two DisplayPorts and an HDMI input, all with a 21.5-inch 1920x1080 resolution screen. It’s also lightweight and easy to move. IN-EAR EARPHONES M&D MW07 Plus £299 masterdynamic.com Master & Dynamic’s MW07 Plus offer 10 hours of listening time, and the charging case holds an additional three charges (so you get 40 hours in total). These greatsounding earbuds are IPX5 rated, so they’re excellent for workouts and commuting. The marble-effect finish gives them a premium aesthetic, as does the stainless steel charging case. PRINTER Canon Pixma G6050 £319.99 canon.co.uk With a refillable ink tank, the Canon Pixma is both economical and environmental friendly. With…

The new 16in MacBook Pro and Mac Pro desktop are barely out of the gate and already people are speculating about what the future will bring. The first thing to set the rumour mill turning is the presence of a so-called ‘Pro Mode’ in the latest Catalina beta (10.15.3). Chiefly intended for Apple’s newest Macs, Pro Mode would allow you to override fan speed limits and energy-saving restrictions to maximise performance. Code in the Catalina beta says: “Apps may run faster, but battery life may decrease and fan noise may increase.” Pro Mode is seen by Apple as a temporary option that will automatically disable the next day after being enabled, similar to how Do Not Disturb (DND) functions now. While a Pro Mode might be an option for some…

It’s easy to subscribe… SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE! www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/mac/juice Or call: 0344 848 2852 and quote ‘juice’ Other benefits of subscribing to the UK’s best-selling Apple magazine… ✔ Our print subscription delivers 13 print issues of MacFormat a year to your door, saving up to 16% on the cover price ✔ Get our print and digital bundle and save up to 51% on the normal price ✔ The 12-month print and digital bundle costs just £4 more than print alone, and enables you to read on your iPhone and iPad Choose your package! 6-MONTH PRINT EDITION £32 every 6 months Note: no free gift with the 6-month subscription ANNUAL PRINT EDITION + GIFT £65 every 12 months 13 issues of MacFormat in print, plus your Juice Power Station ANNUAL PRINT…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use VueScan to digitise images and documents YOU’LL NEED macOS Catalina, VueScan 9.7, a scanner Apple’s decision to ditch 32-bit app support in macOS Catalina is understandable, if disconcerting. If you own older apps that aren’t being updated for the OS, you’ll either need to find an alternative or run a previous version of macOS, such as Mojave, in a virtual machine. Things are often worse with hardware – many manufacturers only update drivers, firmware and software for a couple of years after their original release, then you’re on your own. Or at least you would be if it wasn’t for the likes of Hamrick Software. The company makes the versatile VueScan app that has been delivering deep, machine-level support…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to install and manage extensions in Safari YOU’LL NEED macOS Catalina, Safari Extensions allow you to use an app’s features without having to leave Safari Extensions are like ‘mini apps’ that you can open up right from the toolbar in Safari. They offer a shortcut to some of the most useful features of third-party apps, without you needing to leave the browser. The extensions you choose can then be easily accessed from the relevant website – so there’s no more jumping between apps. While ad blockers dominate the list, there are plenty of other Safari extensions. Save web pages with Pocket, check your grammar with Grammarly, view passwords with 1Password, find out how trustworthy a website is with NewsGuard and more.…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to record, edit and share voice memos YOU’LL NEED iOS 13 or later, something to make sounds with Voice Memos is one of our favourite, most-used apps. We use it to record our rambling thoughts and ideas when we’re out and about, and we use it to capture musical ideas when we’re messing around with instruments. We don’t even need to reach for our iPhone or iPad: we’ve got it right there as a complication in our Apple Watch face so it’s always handy. In this tutorial, you’ll discover how to use Voice Memos to record, edit and share your brilliant ideas with the wider world. As you’ll see, it’s incredibly easy, quick and useful. It’s all very straightforward and intuitive…

Q I’m preparing to upgrade my iMac Retina 4K 21.5-inch Late 2015 from High Sierra to Catalina. It has an internal hard drive, which I gather isn’t ideal. What should I do with it? by MIKE TAN A Mojave and Catalina both require to be installed on drives which are formatted using Apple’s new file system APFS. Although this does run on hard drives and Apple’s Fusion Drives, it was designed to work best on SSDs. Most users find that APFS doesn’t perform as well on hard drives, and at worst it can really slow a Mac down. APFS leads to greater fragmentation of the storage of both files and the directory data maintained by the file system. This makes no difference to SSDs, but seriously slows down data access…

Chances are, like us, you’re always on the lookout for a new app to squeeze a bit more out of your Apple kit. The right app can help you get the most out of a relaxing hobby or transform how you go about tackling a task. So we’ve scoured the App Store and found the best apps for iOS and iPadOS to find the perfect solution for your needs! We’ve picked out the best, from productivity to entertainment, to travel and lifestyle. All of the apps are free, although some offer additional premium features via an in-app purchase (IAP) or affordable subscription. We’ve stated clearly where these costs apply, so that you’re in the know. From the freebies to the purchases, each of these apps will help make your iPhone…

While in theory no data stored should ever link personal information with actions, you’re forced to trust that a company collecting that data will look after it in the right way. Smart home manufacturers couldn’t produce the products they do without that data, whether it’s metrics about product use, voice recordings that help to refine the abilities of smart assistants, or captured info sent to the cloud for processing. Many of us don’t care. Handing of that data, in theory stored securely and used to make our experience better, is the accepted price of a connected home. But a dive into Amazon-owned camera-maker Ring’s terms of service, to give an example, is sobering. “You give Ring the right, without any compensation or obligation to you, to access and use your…

ON TEST… Samsung T5 Adata SE800 LaCie Mobile SSD Seagate One Touch SanDisk Extreme When it comes to a lightweight, reliable way to carry around your data, solid state drives (SSDs) are the way to go. SSDs are lightning fast and come in a range of storage capacities depending on your budget. The five SSDs in this group test all cost under £130 for 500GB of storage. First things first, when it comes to archival storage (over decades or longer), SSDs aren’t the best option. This is because NAND flash-based drives tend to leak storage if left for long periods without power. DRAM-based drives come with either an internal battery, or an AC/DC adapter to avoid this problem, but are not as portable as a result. Since they use flash…

FREE (offers in-app purchases) FROM Alexander Hay, toolboxpro.app FEATURES iOS 13.2 or later Many of the actions take advantage of new features in iOS Whether you’re a big fan of Apple’s Shortcuts app in iOS, or even if you’ve merely dabbled with it, Toolbox Pro has some goodies for you in the form of new actions you can add. There are over 50 actions, many of them taking advantage of new features recently added to iOS, like Apple’s OCR engine that was first seen in Notes. In addition, developer Alex Hay has created example shortcuts so you can get started straight away. There’s documentation for every action describing its inputs, how it processes them and what it passes for output. A great deal more Among the actions Toolbox Pro brings…

FREE (offers in-app purchases) FROM touchbyte, photosync-app.com FEATURES iOS 9 or later PhotoSync offers photo transfer from almost any destination Apple makes syncing photos via iCloud very easy, though its standard 5GB of free cloud storage is still paltry. It also offers AirDrop on macOS and iOS, which lets you transfer files between your devices wirelessly. But if you need to go outside Apple’s software system, things get decidedly more fiddly. PhotoSync for iOS seeks to fill this gap, offering transfer of your photos to and from almost any destination. The app reads from your Camera Roll and can see all your albums, as well as offering import from compatible storage devices like wireless USB drives and hard drives. Wi-Fi compatible memory cards are also supported with a Premium purchase…

+ THE BEST APPS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF Hidden gems for Mac, iPhone & Apple Watch GROUP TEST: BEST MAC VPNs + BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS ROUND-UP ALSO INSIDE… Create on-the-go playlists Master the News app …and more! Contents subject to change Wi-Fi 6 explained ISSUE 350 ON SALE 10 MAR 2020 DON’T MISS IT – SUBSCRIBE TODAY! IN PRINT & ON YOUR iPAD Our print and digital bundle gets you the paper magazine as well as our iPad edition myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/macformat ON YOUR MAC Read digitally on your Mac: subscribe with Zinio at bit.ly/ziniomacf…

LAUNCHED AT AN Apple Special Event on 9 March 2015, the 12-inch MacBook was, unexpectedly, so thin that Tim Cook, holding it sideways, asked plausibly: ‘Can you even see it?’ Compared to the 11-inch MacBook Air, it was 16.6% thicker at its thinnest point but 23% thinner at its thickest, and weighed the same fraction under a kilo as the 11-inch weighed over. Despite a smaller surface area, it packed in a 16:10 Retina display with three times more pixels than the old 1366x768 widescreen. No wonder the 11-inch would bow out of the range the following year. Then again, the Air started at $899. The $1,299 12-inch was priced like a more powerful MacBook Pro, but specced in the opposite direction. The low-power Intel Core M processors that enabled…