Inhaltsverzeichnis für April 2019 in Macworld

I’m daring to believe we’re living in one of the best years for the Mac in ages. A recent report from trusted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo brims with rumors regarding everything from a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an “all-new design” to a 32-inch 6K standalone Apple monitor. There may even be a 32GB upgrade for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and it looks as though we’ll finally be getting the modular Mac Pro. But it’s that “all-new design” that intrigues me the most. Kuo didn’t offer many specifics, so I’ve allowed my imagination and wishlist to run wild. For the most part, I’ve left out hardware upgrades—such as a better graphics card (like the Vega)—and focused on the general user experience. With these changes, I believe Apple could recapture some of the wonder…

If you’ve ever used an app that accepts an audio input and was frustrated that you can specify only one piece of audio hardware, or if you’ve wanted to route the sound output of an app into Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, or another conversation, Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback is the program you need. The latest version improves significantly on its predecessor, which itself was quite powerful. The app lets you combine hardware audio—like mics and line input—with the audio output of apps and system-level components, like Text-to-Speech, to create virtual audio devices. A combined audio device appears as a single item you can select as an input in programs like GarageBand or Skype. You can also select it as an output device, too, playing into the virtual audio equipment system audio…

Perhaps the most important feature of the modern era of the smartphone is the camera. The operating systems are mature, the processors and data connections are fast, the apps are plentiful, and the high-resolution screens are large and brilliant. Having a camera with us wherever we go has changed how we view the world and share our lives with others, and the thin shell of a smartphone puts some pretty severe limitations on photography. Compared to a decade ago, of course, today’s smartphone cameras offer eye-poppingly good image quality. But if you’re shopping for a new smartphone, the camera matters—and the competition is fierce. For years, Apple has promoted the iPhone as offering a high-quality camera, even if it didn’t always match up to competitors with more raw megapixels. But…

The iPhone has a Today View that provides access to at-a-glance information from your most-used apps. It’s a great way to use your apps without actually tapping them on the home screen. For example, the Weather widget in Today View shows the local forecast. You can even access Today View from the iPhone’s lock screen. Here’s how to access and manage the widgets in Today View. HOW TO ACCESS TODAY VIEW On the iPhone home or lock screen, swipe to the right edge of the screen. You can do this swipe from anywhere: the far left edge, the middle, or even close to the right edge of the screen. To go back to the home or lock screen from Today View, swipe to the left edge of the screen. WHAT…

In North America, Sennheiser is best known for its professional-grade monitor headphones, microphones, and the sort of speakerphone hardware that you’ll find in an upscale office environment. While its consumer audio products are wildly popular in Europe and Asia, they’ve yet to make much of an impact in North America’s saturated audio market. For this to happen, Sennheiser needs a reasonably priced hit to break the ice. Unfortunately, Sennheiser’s CX 7.00BT In-Ear Wireless earbuds aren’t that breakthrough product. While reasonably priced and technologically sound, a number of frustrating flaws will have you looking elsewhere for your next set of Bluetooth earphones. DESIGN While many Bluetooth earphones are connected to one another by a wire containing the headset’s in-line controls, battery, and Bluetooth radios, Sennheiser’s CX 7.00BT earphones instead sport a…

Much has been written—a lot of it by me, admittedly—about how Apple’s commitment to let iOS developers bring their apps to macOS in 2019 has the potential to dramatically change the Mac. But adding iOS apps to the Mac might not be where Apple stops. What if the company uses macOS 10.15 (or, dare I suggest, macOS 13?) to further unify the interfaces of its platforms? For all the discussion about whether iOS apps running on a Mac can possibly live up to the platform’s interface standards, it’s entirely possible that this year, Apple will choose to redefine what it is to be Mac-like in a way that turns iOS and macOS into a continuum of interface decisions that are all, for lack of a better phrase, “Apple-like.” Longtime Mac…

Forget about the cringe-worthy name; ESET Cyber Security Pro is a solid antivirus suite for Mac. AV-Test gave ESET CSP a perfect score on its widespread and prevalent malware test in December, the most recent test available. Our own checks produced a similar result when testing ESET CSP on a MacBook running macOS Mojave (AV-Test used High Sierra). ESET had no trouble blocking most of the threats on WICAR’s test site of prevalent web-based attacks. The only issue we noticed was that ESET didn’t detect the Adobe Flash hacking team leak; however, we tested on Safari without an active Flash plug-in. Moving over to spot checks with malware from the Objective See repository, ESET immediately detected trojans, backdoors, and ransomware. These threats were detected as soon as the malware was unzipped, and…

Dare to be different. Serve a multiplicity of masters. That’s a game plan Edifier is successfully executing with its compact, powerful, and affordably priced S880DB. These self-powered bookshelf speakers aim to please both casual listeners and sound snobs alike. The S880DB are this 20-plus-year-old Asian audio brand’s first Hi-Res Audio certified speakers. As such, they’re designed to handle the better-than-CD-quality tracks offered by services such as HDTracks, OnkyoMusic, and the coming-soon-to-North-America Qobuz—each of which offers downloadable tracks encoded in FLAC with 24-bit resolution at sampling rates as high as 192kHz. These speakers also deliver satisfying sonic experiences with CDs, lower-resolution FLAC files, MP3s, and the like. SPECS AND FEATURES Wrapped in white and natural wood cabinetry, the compact (5 inches wide by 6.5 inches deep) S880DB can accommodate three types…

Browser extensions add specific capabilities to Safari by reading and modifying web content to promote an integrated browsing experience that’s tailored to your needs. There are two places to find Apple-approved Safari extensions: The App Store and the Safari Extensions Gallery webpage. With Safari 12 on macOS Mojave and iOS 12, Apple revised the way its native web browser operates with extensions. Whereas in the past, you could easily download an extension from a developer, today you must download and install a Mac app or an Apple approved extension from the Safari Extensions Gallery page. The gallery is still operative for browser versions as far back as version 9, and is still considered a safe way to download and install Safari extensions. Regardless of the browser version, all apps from the…

Photographers who use photo-management and -editing apps have been caught in a changing market. Users of Apple’s Aperture had to deal with the demise of the app. Then there’s Adobe Lightroom, which used to be sold with a perpetual software license, but then Adobe changed it to a subscription-based model. If you’re a photographer seeking a powerful, traditionally licensed package, Skylum Software’s Luminar may be what you need. The new Luminar 3—also known as Luminar 3 with Libraries—offers a superlative, easy-to-use image-editing app with photo management capabilities. LIBRARIES Luminar 3 debuts a new digital asset management feature called Libraries, which allows the app to compete with Lightroom functionality both in editing and photo management. It syncs with folders and subfolders and tracks all photo edits in a catalog, so you…

The iPhone XS looks almost exactly like the iPhone X, and that similarity is leading many people to wonder if they can use Apple’s spiffy new battery cases with the older handset. The answer appears to be a shaky yes, although enough doubt remains that I’m hesitant to recommend taking the $129 plunge. Apple’s official landing page doesn’t explicitly say that the new case doesn’t work with the older phone. It only lists the iPhone XS under Compatibility. Initially this led to much gnashing of teeth on social media centering on supposed forced upgrades, but plenty of iPhone X users across Twitter are now reporting that it works fine. Over on the MacRumors forums, a commenter named beerfish89 also posted a photo of his new battery case doing its job perfectly with the…

A couple of months ago Facebook launched a feature that transforms your iPhone’s Portrait Mode images into “3D Photos.” It works better than I expected (so long as you don’t push the effect too far when interacting with a photo), and it’s a great way to liven up an otherwise staid Facebook feed. As with all such gimmicky effects, some photos are better suited than others. I marveled at the multiple perspectives in a 3D photo of the junk scattered on my desk, but I recoiled at the sight of fleshy bars shooting from my head in a selfie when I moved the image too far to the right. Apparently the app was trying to figure out how to fill in the background behind me. But the best photos make…

Hit the Light Hit the Light is a Breakout-style game about chunking everything from bombs and shuriken at intricate neon signs and shattering their glass until you’re left in the dark. It’s an appealing twist on one of the oldest genres in video games. Backfire Screenshots make Backfire look a lot like Geometry Wars, and that’s true in the sense that both are about bustin’ baddies with a tiny ship. Backfire, though, shakes up the familiar formula with a twist: Your little ship can only fire from the rear. It seems like a simple change, but it’s jarring enough to make you rethink what you thought you knew about these types of games. Alien: Blackout Amanda Ripley just can’t seem to get away from aliens. She’s the daughter of series favorite Ellen…

The future of the Mac might be Apple-designed CPUs, but the present of the Mac is Intel. Apple is increasingly in charge of its own destiny, adding features like the T2 chip to Macs to handle as much of the system’s security, encryption, and other miscellaneous tasks as it can. Still, we expect Apple to ship most or all of its laptops and desktops this year with Intel inside. The chip giant hasn’t yet announced the specific processors it will ship this year, but it has delivered a few sneak peeks at its road map. Here’s what we know about what Intel is cooking up for 2019, and how it might impact the Mac. SUNNY COVE AND ICE LAKE Intel keeps producing new consumer processors every year, but the fundamental…

Mac 911 is a place you can come with no judgment, even if you managed to erase your Mac’s startup disk and you’re not sure what to do next. It happens! (In the spirit of confession, I managed to delete the core operating system off my first Unix system in 1994, because I thought, “This file takes up too much space!”) Fortunately, Apple has you covered with macOS Recovery. You may know this tool, introduced way back in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, as a way to start up your computer to run Disk Utility without having your startup drive mounted, to reinstall macOS, and for a number of other technical purposes. macOS Recovery occupies a small, invisible partition on your startup drive, and lives quietly there until you need…

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH AN INTERNAL SSD MODULE FROM A VINTAGE MAC In 2010, Apple started to release Macs with solid-state drives (SSDs) that used a socket and—with varying amounts of effort—could be removed and upgraded by the owner or by an Apple or third-party technician. But starting in 2016, nearly every Mac released has the SSD soldered directly to the motherboard. The iMac is a notable exception, but see the note at the end of this section. If you have a Mac of the proper vintage, it can be from vanishingly easy to exceedingly difficult to get the “blade”-style SSD out of the Mac and replace it with a higher-capacity model. These blades plug into a slot, something like RAM but with a narrower connector. Apple developed multiple,…

Federico Viticci said it best on the Connected podcast last week: The departure of Angela Ahrendts as Apple’s retail chief is a Rorschach test. One’s reaction to the news will reveal a lot about one’s feelings about the current state of Apple’s retail stores. I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Ahrendts featuring aspects of the Apple Store experience that actually preceded her. No, she didn’t invent the where’s-the-line, where-do-I-stand setup that completely breaks everything we ever learned about how to behave in a retail store. Under her tenure the approach was modified, not discarded, and in recent years I’ve noticed a more aggressive positioning of employees at the front of stores to intercept new shoppers and put them in the right place. Perhaps the biggest source of Apple Store frustration…

KAITERRA LASER EGG 2+ A good air quality monitor like the Laser Egg 2+ can help you understand what’s in your home’s air, so you can take the appropriate actions to clean it up. It monitors particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and the total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs) that are emitted from paints, cleaning products, and even cooking. The Laser Egg 2+ is HomeKit enabled and you can set it up by scanning or typing the HomeKit code right in the Kaiterra iOS app and assigning its various sensors to a room. You can use Siri voice commands to check on that room’s air quality.—MICHAEL ANSALDO ECOVACS DEEBOT 711 Ecovacs latest robot vacuum is a diligent cleaner with a several advanced features, including a…

Buried at the end of Mark Gurman’s high-profile Bloomberg report about future Apple product announcements is a tidbit that’s of enormous interest to anyone who loves using their iPad. Apple’s next operating system update, iOS 13, will include…iPad-specific upgrades like a new home screen, the ability to tab through multiple versions of a single app like pages in a web browser, and improvements to file management. That’s a lot of information distilled into a small paragraph, but what jumped out at me most is the idea that the iPad’s home screen—which has spent almost nine years using a spaced-out version of the iPhone’s design—might finally be getting a redesign that addresses the fact that the iPad isn’t the same device as the iPhone. It’s exciting! After more than a decade using…

You might not have heard of iOttie—which sells all sorts of accessories and products, ranging from car and bike mounts to wireless charging pads. I hadn’t until receiving a couple of its charging pads. But after putting the iOttie iON Wireless Stand through our tests, I’ve come away rather impressed. Let’s take a closer look. The iON Wireless Stand, just like the rest of the company’s wireless charging products, is covered in cloth-like fabric. The material is reminiscent of that on a Google Home Mini. There are three colors to pick from—ruby, ash, ivory, which translates to red, gray, and white. There are two Qi-compatible charging coils in the stand, meaning you can place your phone in a portrait or landscape orientation and it should still charge without issue. For $50…

IMMORTAL ROGUE Let’s say you’ve been snoozing for 100 years. You’d want to take your time learning about the new world you’re waking up to, right? Not if you’re the protagonist of Immortal Rogue. He’s a vampire that awakes and starts slaughtering folks from different eras with the swiftness that some people reach for their morning coffee. If the samurai or industrial workers he encounters manage to kill him quickly (and they often do, early on), he’s sent back to sleep for another 100 years to regain his strength. BOOST BUDDIES Boost Buddies begins with a cute kitty falling from the heavens, who then crashes at the bottom of a cave several meters below the surface. And so begins the Sisphyean mission of the cat and his unlockable friends: He…

Digital and information security is something that everybody’s had to become all too familiar with over the past decade. As we carry around devices that themselves store everything from our friends’ contact details to our bank account information, it’s become ever more crucial that those devices be well secured against all possible intruders. In general, Apple’s track record on security has been pretty solid. The App Store’s walled garden, while often the target of derision from competitors, has done an effective job of curtailing malware on the platform and the company issues frequent security updates to its products. But even Apple isn’t without its security shortcomings, and a few recent incidents suggest ways that the company may need to go beyond just patching vulnerabilities in its software and change the…

Today’s best active noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones easily run $350 or more. You can pick up Mixcder’s E7 on Amazon for $59.99. Is this budget-priced, wireless ANC headphone a Bose or Sony killer? Not by a long shot. Nevertheless, Mixcder’s E7 headphones will deliver basic active noise cancellation and solid sound to the budget-conscious consumer. FEATURES Mixcder’s E7 headphone packs a very good feature set for the money. You’ll find a 400mAh rechargeable lithium battery that will deliver somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 hours when using the headphones in wireless mode. That rating drops down slightly to 18 hours if you turn on ANC. If you use the headphones wired with only ANC activated, you’ll get a whopping 40 hours from a single charge. Recharging the headphones takes about two…