Índex per January 2019 a MacFormat

[MOVIE] The Ballad of Buster Scruggs NETFLIX The latest effort from the Coen brothers is a beautiful collection of six vignettes following outlaws and settlers in the Wild West. [PODCAST] Gladiator FREE Aaron Hernandez was a star American football player later convicted of murder. Gladiator explores where – and why – it all went wrong. [TV SHOW] Narcos: Mexico NETFLIX The series heads to Mexico to follow the Guadalajara cartel’s rise in the 1980s. A US agent infiltrates the gang, with tragic consequences.…

WhatsApp Desktop > FROM whatsapp.com > ALSO ON iPhone Best known as a mobile messaging tool that enables cross-platform conversations (unlike Apple’s iMessage), the macOS version pairs with the iOS app. It then works just the same as on your iPhone but, if you’re having a detailed conversation, you can swap the on-screen keyboard for the comfort of a physical one. SuperDuper > FROM shirt-pocket.com SuperDuper started out as a way to clone your Mac’s hard drive, but it has evolved into way more than that. You can configure clones so they are bootable – acting as an emergency backup if the worst happens and your Mac breaks completely. The clone can be stored on any volume or disk image – though if you want to use it as a…

NEW IDEAS Your in-depth guide to getting more from your Apple kit IMPORT AND EDIT VIDEO p42 Understand iOS gestures > A tap is a brief contact of (usually) one finger on your device’s screen. > To drag is to move a finger across the screen to scroll or pan around content. > Swipe means move one or more fingers across an item or the screen, then let go. > A flick is like swiping, but it’s quicker, and is often used to scroll content more quickly. > Pinch means move two fingers together or apart, usually to zoom in or out. > Touch and hold means lightly rest your finger on an item and wait for a reaction. Master Mac keyboard shortcuts When you see a shortcut like ,…

1 Copy the content You can copy items such as snippets of text or images from one of your devices to another using Universal Clipboard. To get started, just copy the content to the Clipboard on either your Mac or iOS device as normal. 2 Safely stored The content will be automatically added to the Clipboard on any of your other devices that are signed in to iCloud and have Handoff turned on. It will stay there only for a short while or until you copy something else to the Clipboard. 3 Paste it in place Now all you have to do is paste the content on your other device. Note that you can also copy entire files between Macs with Universal Clipboard, as long as both Macs are running…

1 Prepare your shots To make sure our scenic panorama would be framed by the cave’s edge, we panned the camera in portrait orientation and snapped six shots, making make sure that the edge details in the consecutive photos were overlapping. 2 Open source files Pop those photos in a folder on your Mac, then open Affinity Photo. Choose File > New Panorama. In the window that opens, click Add. Select the first photo, -click the last one to select the rest, click Open, then click Stitch Panorama. 3 Experiment with images A preview of the stitched panorama will appear in the Panoramas panel. You can fine-tune it by unticking any of the source images. Click Stitch Panorama again to see another version. Select the version that looks the best,…

1 Create new project Tap + to create your first project, then name it. Choose a frame rate that suits your clips (you can change the frame rate later if you’re unsure). Use a 16:9 Frame Aspect for widescreen footage. Tap Create Project. 2 View clips To add media to your project, tap on Albums in the Sources panel. Tap on the Video album to view thumbnails of any videos stored in your iPad’s Photos app. You can view the selected clip by tapping the Play icon in the Preview panel. 3 Trim the clip There are lots of ways to trim your clip so that you only feature the good bits. In the Preview window, drag the blue trim handles to make the clip start and end where you…

1 Create lists and items Tap the + icon to create a list, then tap on the list to select it and use the + at the lower right of the screen to add a new item. Tapping items enables you to assign them to dates or times. 2 Everything at a glance As you can see here, Planny lists what you need to be reminded about on your iPad or iPhone screen. You can press and hold to open items, and then tap to mark items as completed. 3 Colour and plan lists When you’re in a list, tap the ‘…’ icon to customise it. You can assign the entire list to a particular date, which is handy for projects or event planning, and you can change its colour.…

Why is my document’s version history incomplete? Q I store Pages documents on iCloud Drive so that I can edit them on either of my Macs. When I browse saved versions, some are missing. Why? by EDOARDO A Originally, iCloud Drive didn’t support sharing of document versions across all your Macs and/or iOS devices. When you edited a document in iCloud using Pages or another app, only the system which ‘owned’ that document could see and access old versions of it. This has changed now, but it doesn’t always capture every version and often shows duplicates. Apple explains how to use versions in iCloud at bit.ly/rstrver, but the issues you’re encountering are not mentioned there. You might create a dozen versions on the ‘owning’ Mac, of which 10, let’s say,…

Mac software quick-fire questions Can I use Office 2011 in Mojave? Microsoft supports Office 2016/365 and later, and discontinued support for Office 2011 a year ago. That said, the apps seem to work fine, even integrating with Mojave’s privacy protection features. Some people report having to re-enter licensing info, but only when using a clean Mojave installation. Can a Keynote presentation be played on the web? Yes, it can. Open your presentation in Keynote at iCloud.com. Click the Tools button and choose Keynote Live, then click Keynote Live Settings to see the presentation’s web address. You can even limit access by setting a password. Full details are at bit.ly/kyntlv. How can I grant microphone access? Q I have a game that includes a voice chat feature. Since upgrading to Mojave,…

Back in 2012, a 7.9in iPad was a great idea: versatility in a cheaper, more portable form. Today, it’s still one-third lighter than a 9.7in iPad, but costs £80 more. That includes a 128GB of storage, targeting a dwindling enterprise user base. If you go for 128GB on the 9.7in, the mini is only a tenner less yet has a quarter of the pixels and no Pencil support. Now that the big iPads are so slim and light, there’s little need for a mini. A dead product? Well, so we thought until analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted an update for early 2019… Speaking of a potential farewell, the iPod touch was last updated in 2015, and is highly likely to be axed. That would mark the end of the iPod.…

Back in February, Tim Cook told shareholders that Apple planned to ‘make a significant contribution’ in healthcare, a market that rivals like Google and Amazon are also keen on. The ECG feature incorporated into the Watch Series 4 showed he was for real, but this was a relatively simple adaptation of old technology. Breakthroughs in new areas like non-invasive blood glucose metering for diabetes, on which Apple filed a patent in the summer, are much more elusive. (It’s worth noting that Verily, the company spun off by Google to develop a glucose-sensing contact lens, recently halted work on the project.) Major regulatory and privacy issues also loom here. Still, any device that’s in constant contact with the skin has health-monitoring potential. We should see more from both Watch and AirPods,…

iCloud will be eight years old in 2019 and yes, it’s still a little glitchy. Assuming it keeps improving, Apple also needs to reassess its pricing: a 5GB free tier is weird when 128GB for a single device is mid range, and people who don’t pay 79p to £6.99 per month for more won’t necessarily have their photos and other data backed up, which may surprise but won’t delight. People are also calling for a more shareable iCloud Drive, so Apple will have to consider whether it wants to be Dropbox, and if not, what?…

We are, somewhat unbelievably, almost a fifth of the way through the 21st century. Only now is our smart tech starting to catch up with the ideas that future-gazers of the previous century set out for us: we are entering the age of digital servitude. That’s probably a rather grandiose way to set out a look at smart vacuum cleaners, but these are robots that roam around our homes doing the hard work that we don’t want to. Looked at from the viewpoint of the past, that’s about as baffling as having a tiny computer connected to the sum of the earth’s knowledge tucked in your pocket at all times – and taking it for granted, at that. Accepting the help of a robot isn’t a bad thing, as long…

Botvac Connected D6 £649 FROM neatorobotics.com SPECS 0.7L capacity, 120-min battery The base on Neato’s Botvac gives it a higher riding profile than the others here, which means it positively glides over tough rug edges that might confuse its rivals. Its D-shaped design (and wide roller) gives it another advantage when hitting corners, and while we didn’t find it quite as adept at tackling tricky cat hair as the Roomba 960, it works particularly well, and makes a massive noise when switched to the battery-draining turbo mode. We loved its ability to create lasermapped floor plans with virtual no-go zones – that’s great if you don’t want it clonking into pet food bowls or throwing itself down stairs, but there are more traditional magnetic strip barriers included for a little…

With previous iPad Pros, Apple provided a 12W USB-A charger that would take more than four hours to take a fully drained battery back to 100%. That’s often not a big problem, provided you remember to plug in the iPad Pro overnight to top it up. We already knew that adding one of Apple’s 29W USB-C power adapters and a suitable charging cable reduces the charging time to around 2.5 hours. With this third-gen iPad Pro, though, Apple includes a new 18W USB-C charger that can take the iPad Pro from 0 to 100% in 3 hours 12 minutes. Still not the fastest, but a big improvement – probably enough of one that you’ll be in even less of a rush to drop an extra £49 on the 30W USB-C…

£129.99 FROM Telestream, telestream.net NEEDS macOS 10.12 or later Like watching how-to or promo videos on Mac apps? Chances are they were made in a version of ScreenFlow. It’s been many presentation pros’ go-to screencasting app for seven versions now, and with ScreenFlow 8 it’s closer to a heavyweight video editing suite than ever before. It still retains ScreenFlow’s ease of use, but it’s now capable of doing more complex things. One of the first things you’re likely to notice is the New From Template startup option, which enables you to use settings from a template you’ve previously created. You can also save Styles from the inspector. This lets you specify settings such as XYZ rotation (moving an object in 3D space), drop shadows, reflections and so on, before saving…

Jo Membery Operations Editor Jo has spent the last month increasing her step count and her running regime. For now is the season to… sit on her backside! Alex Blake Commissioning Editor This time around, Alex’s New Year’s resolution is to get a new reminders app that’ll remind him to create a top-notch New Year’s resolution. Paul Blachford Art Editor ‘Dear Santa, I’d like a new MacBook Air, an iMac Pro, a 12.9in iPad Pro and an iPhone XS Max…’ Not sure which ‘list’ Paul is on but that’s a helluva wish list!…

Got a faulty 13-inch MacBook Pro or iPhone X? Apple may repair it for free. The Apple devices affected are the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar, sold between June 2017 and June 2018, and the iPhone X (bought at any time). Starting with the MacBook Pro, Apple says the fault in question involves the 128GB and 256GB SSDs in a limited number of devices. These could fail, resulting in data loss. To address this problem, Apple is offering a free repair to anyone with a faulty SSD (or a refund to anyone who has paid for a repair). Apple says you should back up your drive before sending it to the company to be fixed. If you think your MacBook Pro is affected by this issue, you can submit…

One of the most notable additions to the Apple Watch Series 4 is it’s fall-detection ability. According to Popular Science, Apple trained the Watch using realworld fall data. The info was taken from Watch wearers at a movement disorder clinic, assisted living facilities, and friends and families of Apple employees – 2,500 people in total. The data had to come from real falls (and not simulated events) to make it as accurate as possible. It was also trained to distinguish a fall from other actions, like flopping onto a bed.…

1 74 It took Apple 74 days to sell one million units of the original iPhone. In contrast, it took about two years to sell one million of the early iPods. 2 40% The iPhone 3G reached one million units sold in a mere three days. That’s just 4% of the time it took the original iPhone to hit that milestone. 3 23 iOS 12 was installed on 50% of active iOS devices after just 23 days. It took over twice that time (48 days) for iOS 11 to cross the 50% mark. 4 9 MILLION Though they were ‘off-year’ releases, the iPhone 5s and 5c set first-weekend sales records for Apple, selling 9 million units in three days. 5 200 MILLION iOS 7 was installed on 200 million devices…

As established elsewhere in this issue, the new iPad Pro is very nice indeed. I have the 12.9-inch model, and the impressive thinness combined with how small it feels despite the size of screen make it feel like we’re getting a fabled bit of Apple ‘magic’ in the tablet for the first time in years. The flat front, sides and back give it an interesting feeling, like it’s an inert slab that images magically appear on, rather than a designed object with ergonomics and technology. The unblemished smoothness gives it an extra air of quality – flawless aluminium and glass. And then I put the keyboard case on it and it suddenly looks like a notepad bulk-ordered by IBM for people to carry around with their ThinkPads in the 90s.…

Long before the machine learning advances of today, there was the pioneering work of Arthur Samuel. Starting in 1949 while at IBM, Samuel began working on a computer that could teach itself to improve its ability to play checkers. Given the tiny amount of computer memory available at the time, Samuel had to develop a novel system of learning. Instead of the computer analysing every possible future move and its relative value until the conclusion of the game, it would only take into account the pieces on the board at any given time. It would then use this to determine the best chance of maximising its own success and minimising that of its opponent. At the same time, the computer would remember every move it had ever seen and the…

Spent all your money on a shiny new iPhone? Wallet looking forlorn and empty? Don’t panic! You can still get the best out of your device by installing amazing free apps. In this round-up, we list our iOS favourites. They’re top-notch options, whether you fancy a spot of stargazing, finger-painting, meditation, photo editing, or more besides. So give them all a whirl, given that they won’t cost you a penny! Most of them work on iPad too, of course. Prisma > FROM prisma-ai.com > ALSO ON iPad Want to be an artist, but have the painterly skills of an amoeba? Try Prisma. Load a photo, select a filter, and your snap is transformed into anything from a Munch to a Picasso. Some styles sit behind in-app purchases – as does…

1 Start on your Mac -click on your document or open the File menu, then choose Import from iPhone or iPad > Take Photo. This opens the camera on your iOS device. This only works in certain apps; check which ones are supported here: bitly.com/ccamapps. 2 Take a picture On your iOS device, take a picture of whatever it is you want to appear in your document or app, then tap Use Photo. The picture that you just took will now appear on your Mac, in the location where you -clicked. 3 Scan documents In Finder, -click an empty space in a folder and choose Import… > Scan Document. Point iOS’s camera at a page and take a snap, adjust the corners, then tap Keep Scan. You can add more…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to import footage, trim and place clips, and share your edited videos YOU’LL NEED iOS 11 or later, LumaFusion If you’ve played a lot with iMovie on your iPad, you might have started to hit its limits – especially if you’re used to powerful desktop video editors. iMovie for iOS enables you to trim and reorder clips, but it lacks the multitrack functionality of proper editing tools. If you want to use serious editing skills from the comfort of your iPad, then LumaFusion is an excellent choice. You can run multiple video and audio tracks together to create a more sophisticatedlooking final result. LumaFusion enables you to work on your iPad using many of the editing tools and techniques that pros…

YOU WILL LEARN How Smart HDR improves photos taken with iPhone XS and XR, and why it might sometimes give unexpected effects All cameras have a lens to focus light, a shutter to control how much light gets in, and something – film or a sensor chip – to record the light hitting the sensor. But there’s one more crucial element of every modern camera: the software. ‘Computational photography’ relies on a combination of hardware and software processes before, during and after you ‘take’ the photo. It’s particularly important in phone cameras, because the laws of physics aren’t keen on miniaturising optics. It’s impossible, for example, to shoot with shallow depth of field using a lens and sensor that will fit into a smartphone. That’s why we have Portrait mode,…

iOS software quick-fire questions Can I use an old iPhone as an iPod? If you just want to sync music to it from iTunes, neither a SIM card nor an Apple ID are needed. You’ll need to connect to iTunes on your Mac, as activating the device needs to be done there in the absence of a SIM card. You’ll need to sign in to an Apple ID to use other services, such as downloading new music directly to the phone. Checking iPhone battery health Settings > Battery > Battery Health shows the maximum charge relative to when new, and Apple’s grading of performance capability. coconutBattery for Mac (coconut-flavour.com) shows the number of charge cycles done; how many it should take for max retainable capacity to fall to 80% varies…

Apple confirmed in April that a replacement for 2013’s ‘trash can’ Mac Pro would arrive in 2019. It seems likely to be later in the year. Senior VP of marketing Phil Schiller had already revealed that plans were for a ‘modular system’ and ‘a display’. That would be the first Apple monitor since 2011’s Thunderbolt Display, which it discontinued in 2016. The Apple Store currently offers LG’s UltraFine Displays, with similar panels to the iMac’s 4K and 5K Retina screens. They hardly need improving, but with cinema production moving to 8K HDR, a bigger, sharper screen for the high end isn’t unthinkable. As for the Mac Pro, Apple has vowed to ditch its compact design for one that meets diverse needs, implying flexible configuration. Like the iMac Pro, it’ll probably…

The HomePod is making slow progress compared to its rivals. Research firm Strategy Analytics estimated that the HomePod, launched back in February, had captured about 6% of the home speaker market by the summer of 2018, compared to Amazon’s 41%. Amazon had a head start, but it’s also given Alexa a big hand by selling the Echo Dot for £50. Apple will never go that low, but a £149 HomePod mini could make a difference. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who’s often right, predicts a new model as early as March.…

Compared to Amazon’s Alexa, with its add-on Skills for hundreds of products, Apple’s automation platform has seen relatively sparse uptake. It’s not even as widely supported as the newer Google Home or the independent IFTTT. The addition of the Home app to macOS Mojave should help, but Apple may need a more versatile kitchen or living room product, like Google’s Home Hub or Amazon Echo Show, to get more households on board. This will also depend on developments with Siri and Apple TV (see page 67).…

The consensus on voice assistants is that Google is the smartest, Alexa has the most integrations, Samsung’s Bixby is poor, and Siri is… well… okay. In the spring of 2018, a report by tech news site The Information suggested that a lack of vision and joined-up thinking within Apple had held it back. With the company now investing in and promoting machine learning in hardware and software, that should change in 2019. We’re hoping for an audibly and visibly smarter Siri by the end of the year. MacBooks Already updated to eighth-gen Intel processors with optional AMD Vega graphics, the MacBook Pro can rest on its laurels till late 2019. Non-Touch Bar 13in models will look vulnerable. 2018’s MacBook Air leaves just the 12in MacBook in need of a refresh.…

GEEKBENCH 4 SINGLE-CORE TEST This tests the capability of a single processor core. Many more common tasks on a Mac will only use a single core at a time. Intel’s Turbo Boost technology comes into play here. HANDBRAKE VIDEO ENCODING We transcode a Blu-ray–quality video file into H.264 format using HandBrake to test the multicore processor performance, which pushes all cores to maximum output. TOMB RAIDER (1920X1080) For a real-world gaming test, we use the benchmarking tool in this game, with the graphics quality set to High and the display resolution set to 1920x1080 pixels. DAVINCI RESOLVE In Blackmagic Design’s editing tool for video professionals, we exported an effects-laden, 2.5-minute project to the H.264 format. We limited the app’s hardware acceleration to use one graphics processor at a time.…

From £799 FROM Apple, apple.com/uk FEATURES 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB 2,666MHz memory, 128GB storage (256GB tested), Intel UHD Graphics 630, 4x Thunderbolt 3 ports, 2x USB-A ports After a four-year gap since the last model, there’s a new Mac mini in town – and it’s a more significant update than it might look at first sight. The first thing that leaps out, though, is the cosmetic change to Apple’s increasingly familiar and darker space grey – the only shade in which the mini is now available. Turn the computer around and you start to get an idea of the more meaningful changes, which are only to be expected after so long in the silicon wilderness. This is the first mini with USB-C ports – four of them,…

When Apple deployed macOS 10.13.4, suddenly Macs with Thunderbolt 3 ports gained new upgrade options thanks to support for external graphics processing units (eGPUs). At the time that was limited to the MacBook Pro and iMac, but the superfast connection is now available on the Mac mini and the MacBook Air, too. When you connect an eGPU to a Mac, displays connected directly to the eGPU benefit right away. Any internal display on the connected Mac is still handled by the computer’s built-in graphics processor. However, some apps – like video tool DaVinci Resolve – are designed to leverage any suitable GPUs they find connected to the computer. Some apps – games, in particular – have been found to have issues when running through an eGPU. If you encounter such…

£4.99, offers in-app purchases FROM Due Apps, dueapp.com NEEDS iOS 10.3 or later Due reminds you to do things. There are features built in to iOS for the same purpose but, understandably, you may find they don’t quite hit the mark. Timers (in Clock) notoriously allows only one item at once. Reminders, which works across iOS and macOS, isn’t the most intuitive app to use, and when a reminder occurs it just pops up a notification that is all too easy to dismiss when busy. Due makes it easy to set a reminder and hard to ignore it. The main All Reminders screen starts up with a couple of useful examples to show you how to flick an item leftwards to mark it done, or swipe it firmly off the…

Free, offers in-app purchases FROM Apalon, apalon.com NEEDS iOS 10 or later Now in its 12th iteration, iOS still doesn’t include native sleep tracking. Granted, Bedtime in the Clock app can track time spent in bed, but not how much you’ve actually slept. Sleepzy is a smart alarm clock that aims to track sleep, as well as lull you to sleep and wake you up. Most similar apps require you to take your phone to bed, but Sleepzy uses the microphone to analyse ‘sleep sounds’, so you can keep your phone on a bedside table. Sleepzy generally lives up to its billing, and we found stats for things like sleep quality and sleep debt to be insightful, but the app is clunky. Ending the sleep timer early often made the…

AirPlay 2 Apple’s streaming audio tech made its mark in 2004 as AirTunes, when it enabled you to connect existing speakers to an AirPort Express and wirelessly send audio to them. These days you probably know it as AirPlay – it can send video to Apple TV now, too. It’s featured in Apple’s HomePod and speakers from various third-party manufacturers, such as B&O, Libratone and Sonos – you can check out the latter’s Beam soundbar in our stores. When a compatible speaker is on the same network as your Mac, click the AirPlay icon near the top left of iTunes to redirect the app’s output to one or more speakers in your home. Spotify and some other apps have similar options, or you can redirect all your Mac’s audio in…

PHOTO EDITOR (MAC) Affinity Photo £48.99 serif.com It’s hard not to love Affinity Photo. Whether you fancy yourself as a seasoned pro or a photo novice, you’ll find this image editor powerful and easy to use. Its interface offers the perfect blend of ease of use and quick access to powerful features, and its useful batch processing is a great addition. An app that packs both power and practicality for less than £50? We’re in! WRITING APP (MAC) Scrivener About £34 literatureandlatte.com It’s not often that a sequel is even better than its predecessor, but Scrivener 3 is a great example. Version 2 was already good, winning MF319’s group test, but version 3 adds so much. Its revamped interface is hugely customisable, its templates are fantastic, managing footnotes is a…

Good news if you recently bought a 1TB iPad Pro: it comes with 6GB of memory. That’s 2GB more than the other capacities of the newest Pro, and may help to improve its performance in certain tasks. The fact that the 1TB model has more memory has been known since shortly after the new iPad Pro was released, as apps like Geekbench are able to detect it in their tests. While 6GB is a new peak for memory in iOS devices, it should be noted that there are not many real-world cases where you’ll actually need so much. Still, if you think you will, you may decide it’s worth going for the larger version.…

LETTER OF THE MONTH! NOT READY TO ADAPT I read the recent specifications for the new MacBook Air with some interest. In March, I made the decision to buy a 2017 model to replace my 2011 Air despite update rumours. Simply put, I wanted USB ports that would not require an expensive adapter, so I could continue to plug in peripherals without finding I’ve left that part at home! I wanted the SD card slot to pop in a card and transfer photos with no fuss. Not having a Retina display wasn’t a deal-breaker for me, and improved speakers aren’t necessary as I – and many others, I expect – use a phone or tablet to stream music. The 11-hour(ish) battery life is spot on for a day’s work and…

“ Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponised against us. ” Tim Cook, Apple CEO The Apple chief warns against the trade in personal information and the desire to put profits over privacy Tim Cook in quotes “Algorithms that promised to improve our lives can… magnify our worst… tendencies.” Be wary of giving up private info for some promised positive outcome “At Apple, we are optimistic about technology’s awesome potential for good.” Despite privacy threats, Apple remains optimistic about technology “ In the news… we bear witness to the harmful… effects of these narrowed world views.” Using data to divide people can have (and has had) terrible consequences THE POLL TIM COOK: “Our own info… is being weaponised against us with military efficiency.” Do…

Introduction If you’re interested in learning more about machine learning, or want to start creating apps that make use of such technology, take a look at the following resources. Apple explainers Apple has published pages explaining how its devices use machine learning, from Face ID (bitly.com/faceidml) to Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (bitly.com/safariml). Royal Society The Royal Society (bitly.com/royscmlhas a good introduction to machine learning that combines interactive infographics with accessible explanations to demystify the topic. Tech company blogs Apple forewent its usual secrecy when it launched its Machine Learning Journal (bitly.com/apmlblog) in 2017. It goes into great depth on topics such as Hey Siri detection and handwriting recognition. Microsoft (bitly.com/msmlblog) and Google (bitly.com/googlemlblog) publish similar pages. Developer resources from Apple Apple has a set of resources at bitly.com/applml to help…

Whether you’ve just bought your first Mac or are simply looking for new apps, perhaps for a new project or to replace ones you already use, there are plenty of great apps available that won’t make even the smallest dent in your bank account. They’re completely free. In order to be included in our list, apps have to be not just free to download, but free to use as well. That doesn’t preclude them from having additional features that can be purchased as an option, but the core functions must be cost-free. Scribus > FROM scribus.net If you think free means lacking in professional features, Scribus is the app to change your mind. This open-source desktop publishing tool has colour separations, CMYK and spot colours support, ICC colour profiles, and…

1 Hide other apps Want to focus on one app? Rather than move it to a new desktop in Mission Control, -click its Dock icon, hold and choose Hide Others (or -click its Dock icon). Other apps disappear; switch to one and its windows will reappear. 2 Quit and remember Quitting an app usually causes it to forget its windows, unless you hold and choose [app name] > Quit and Keep Windows. To make this the default (and use to forget windows), turn off ‘Close windows…’ in System Prefs’ General pane. 3 Close other tabs Ended up with a lot of Safari tabs open? You can close them one at a time by pressing , but press and all tabs but the current one will close. If the tabs are…

1 Turn on Handoff Open System Preferences and click the General icon. In this pane, turn on ‘Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices’. On iOS, go to Settings > General > Handoff and turn on the feature using the switch on this page. 2 Switch between devices When carrying out a task on iOS in an app that supports Handoff, click the icon to the left of Finder in your Mac’s Dock to continue the task there. To pass the other way, open iOS’s app switcher and tap the banner at the bottom. 3 Use AirDrop instead To send one or more files to another device, use AirDrop. In Finder on your Mac, choose Go > AirDrop and drag the file onto the icon for the receiving…

1 Grab the app Once you’ve downloaded the Eve for HomeKit app, run through its initial setup steps. If you’ve used Apple’s Home app before, or set up any HomeKit hardware, you’ll see those accessories featured in the Eve app already. 2 Add something new Tap Settings (bottom bar), then tap + at the top right. The app will find new HomeKit accessories within Bluetooth range, and any HomeKit devices that support proximity-based setup but have not yet been added in Apple’s Home app. 3 Scan the code Find the HomeKit code included with your accessory (on its documentation, on the accessory itself, or both), then name it and set the room it’s in. It will then appear in both the Eve for HomeKit and Apple Home apps. 4 Organise…

1 HDR options Smart HDR is the default on the iPhone XS and XR. Turning it off in Settings reverts to HDR. If you turn on Keep Normal Photo, an unenhanced copy of each shot appears in Photos along with an HDR or a Smart HDR version, labelled ‘HDR’. With Keep Normal Photo off and Smart HDR on, the label is not applied. 2 Preserve detail Smart HDR comes into its own with high-contrast scenes like this. Few cameras would cope well with the huge range of tones between the brightest and darkest areas, but computational photography means you don’t have to pick one exposure for the whole scene, so detail can be preserved in both shadows and highlights. 3 Keep the look The iPhone processes atmospheric shots like this…

Networking quick-fire questions Is my Mac compatible with IPv6 networking? Yes, Macs have been fully compatible since Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. If your ISP has advised that you’ll be moving to IPv6, check your other network hardware, such as old network switches and even some routers, which may need to be replaced. Can I have both wired Ethernet and Wi-Fi active? Yes. This is a common scenario on Macs, enabling use of features like Handoff. In most cases, you’ll want to prioritise the wired connection. Once you’ve turned on Wi-Fi in the Network pane, click the gear, pick Set Service Order and drag Ethernet to the top. Each connection will have its own IP address. My other Mac vanishes from Finder Q My Mac mini and MacBook Pro are…

Apple’s New York event in October brought no mention of the all-in-one desktop. Barely a year old and still jaw-droppingly quick, the iMac Pro arguably wasn’t due an overhaul, but the current consumer line-up dates back to June 2017. Its seventhgeneration Intel Core i5 and i7 processors were phased out months ago by other computer makers. That’s not to say they’re slow – all but the cheapest are quad-core, and the top-end 4.2GHz i7-7700 is quite a beast – but eighth-gen silicon, with up to six cores, has shown significant performance increases. Assuming it doesn’t dump Intel just yet (see next page), Apple could skip straight to ninth-gen in 2019. An 8-core i9-9900 is already available, requiring only 5% more power than the i7-7700; an i7-9700 and 6-core i5-9600 follow.…

A mid a flurry of new features at higher prices, 2018’s high point for bargain-hunting Apple fans was March’s Pencilcompatible £319 iPad. It’s Apple’s only 9.7in tablet, so an obvious 2019 tweak would be to bump it up to 10.5in. One way for Apple to achieve that would be to substitute the lame-duck 10.5in iPad Pro, with its superior screen, A10X chip and cameras. But given that model starts at £619, it’s not likely to drop far enough in price to become the new entry level – and Microsoft’s £379 Surface Go is an incentive for Apple to keep a low entry price. Our bet is that the 9.7in iPad hangs around for another year, but maybe there’s room below the £769 11in iPad Pro for a basic, reducedbezel newcomer…

With a case redesign and built-in ECG, 2018 brought the Watch’s most significant changes yet. Outside the US, the biggest news in 2019 will be if the electrocardiogram feature actually works: regulatory approval of what’s classed as a medical device is still pending in the UK and elsewhere. There are other medical additions Apple would love to make (see right), but they’re unlikely to emerge within the next year. On the software side, however, watchOS and the HealthKit platform have plenty of room for improvement to make exercise tracking more accurate and intuitive. Face off Although it’s the bestselling smartwatch by quite some margin, the Watch’s uncompromising techproduct form factor cedes part of the market to round-faced rivals like Samsung’s Galaxy Watch and Fossil’s Smartwatch, which appeal to buyers who…

At WWDC 2018, Apple unveiled Marzipan, a universal framework to bridge the gap between apps for iOS and macOS. We expect to see it working at WWDC in June and released in the autumn. While both macOS and iOS apps can be created in Apple’s Xcode (which runs only on the Mac), they use superficially different software development kits (SDKs): AppKit for Mac, UIKit for iPhone and iPad. The latter focuses more on the front end, and many developers find it simpler. UIKit has been all about touch, so applying it to macOS has raised concerns that the Mac will be flooded with apps that don’t feel right with a keyboard and mouse. But it’s daft to have hundreds of thousands of apps for iOS that never come to the…

1 Fill its brain The Botvac needs to know the layout of your room before you can tell it where not to go. On the main page of the app, tap the top-left icon and then No-go Lines to begin creating a floor plan – the Botvac will do an exploration clean. 2 Confirm ordinance When it’s done scoping out your surroundings (and bear in mind that this can take a long time, depending on the area you’re expecting it to cover) the Botvac will return to its charger and present a map for your approval. 3 Block it off Approve the map, return to the menu, and you’ll be able to drag red lines on to the map to stop the Botvac traversing. This might be doorways you don’t…

Manifesto – our ratings explained Our reviews are totally independent; we’re not affiliated with Apple or anyone else, nor are we influenced by advertisers. You can trust us to give an honest assessment of a product’s worth. The prices quoted for products are correct at the time of writing and are the best we can find from a reputable online dealer, excluding delivery. A brilliant thing in all regards, and worth every penny Strongly recommended; any flaws are only minor concerns Worth considering, though there may be better options Notable flaws; look at alternatives as a priority A waste of your money and everyone’s time; do not buy! The MACFORMAT Awards Awarded to a five-star product we believe is truly exceptional in its category. Given solely at the discretion of…

From £969 FROM Apple, apple.com/uk FEATURES 12.9in IPS display, A12X Bionic chip, USB-C port, Smart Connector, 64GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB storage, Wi-Fi (add £150 for mobile connectivity) The question of whether tablets are real computers or not is long dead. Even before companies started putting ‘pro’ on the end of the names, people were using tablets for business, creativity, gaming, personal admin… you know, things you use computers for. The follow-up question is whether you might buy the new iPad Pro instead of a MacBook next time you upgrade, and that’s where it gets complicated. The third-generation iPad Pro is the best tablet ever made, and is a marvel of engineering, but it still might not be right for you. Cutting corners This year’s iPad Pros feature the biggest…

GEEKBENCH 4 This tests the capability of a single processor core. Many more common tasks on a Mac will only use a single core at a time. Intel’s Turbo Boost technology comes into play here. The Core i3 processor in the entry-level Mac mini doesn’t feature Turbo Boost, so its clock speed remains 3.6GHz. However, the Core i5 model (£1,099) and Core i7 option (an upgrade option on both) have it. This enables the former to reach 4.1GHz and the latter 4.6GHz. They have 9MB and 12MB of level 3 cache, compared to the Core i3’s 6MB. Apple didn’t give us a Core i5 model to test, but you can see the big gains the Core i7’s spec brings to the table. HANDBRAKE VIDEO ENCODING We transcode a Blu-ray–quality video…

Segate Backup Plus Hub 10TB £299.99 (8TB version £189.99) FROM Seagate, seagate.com FEATURES USB ports, Paragon NTFS for Mac Build quality The Seagate is made of glossy black plastic (there is a Mac-formatted white one available, too), though it feels quite bump-resistant. The corners and edges are rounded, which feel friendlier than the sharp points on the WD. Speed To test the speed, we copied a folder containing 50,000 files totalling 13.2GB from our Mac’s SSD to the Seagate Backup Plus. The drive took almost 50% longer than the WD My Book, clocking in at 4 minutes 42 seconds. Software There are a couple of software tools available to download. One allows you to read and write to the NTFS-formatted drive on a Mac (though you will need to reformat…

£3.99 FROM Webbfarbror, holedown.com NEEDS iOS 8 or later Mac FORMAT VERDICT A great new game that can be played for ever. It’s addictive and truly excellent. + Endless play never gets boring + Simple design Holedown will consume your every waking moment – don’t play it if you value your free time. You will play it on the train, on the toilet, while your first child is being born. You’ll become addicted to the Breakout-style gameplay, in which you bounce an increasing number of balls into numbered blocks to smash them before they get to the top of the screen. The tiniest crack between blocks will become your focus as you try to bounce a ball so that it ricochets around the screen, breaking blocks that require 350 hits…

Welcome to MacFormat’s Store Guide, the place to go to find out about all the Apple kit that matters, whether you’re looking for your next iPhone or a powerful new desktop Mac. We’ve highlighted the model of each product that’s ideally suited to your needs, whether you’re a recent convert or a seasoned Apple user. So be sure to check our handy tables to see which Mac, iPad or iPhone is best for you. We’ve also handpicked the gold standard in audio, storage, monitors, and many other categories, helping you complement your Mac or iOS device with the best accessories. All of these third-party devices have been reviewed in the magazine. Mac mini From £799 It was a long wait, but Apple has finally updated the Mac mini. The company…

MONITOR Philips 328P6AUBREB £400 philips.co.uk Getting a colour-accurate display used to cost a pretty penny, but this monitor is both impressive and affordable. It hits 99% of the Adobe RGB gamut – great for colour-critical work – and supports 10-bit colour. Throw in a host of ports (including USB-C), an IPS display and a great price, and you have a seriously good screen. DESKTOP STORAGE Drobo 5D3 £749 drobo.co.uk With two blazing fast Thunderbolt 3 ports and a 5Gbps USB-C port to boot, the Drobo 5D3 can provide you with rapid file transfers to and from your Mac. You can load it up with up to five HDDs or SSDs of differing capacities, giving you plenty of flexibility for storage options. It’s pricey, but a worthy investment. PRINTER Brother MFC-J5330DW…

GET ON INSTAGRAM Share your images with us by using the hashtag #MacFormat and we’ll print the best here in the magazine. While you’re there, follow @MacFormat (Twitter) and @MacFormatUK (Instagram). Sea and snow Anyone for a bracing dip? BY KIKU77777 It’s not so long since we ran a kiku77777 shot, but we’re all really hoping for a white Christmas or New Year, so this beautiful shot of a particularly wintery Lyme Regis just had to go in this issue. We love the brooding shadows in the sky and the contrast of the path against the light of the white snow and reflective sea. If we do get some extreme weather this winter, see if you can get some snaps on your iPhone to send in to us at MacFormat.…

When the current Mac Pro debuted five years ago, Apple’s high-end desktop computer was greeted with puns about how it looked like a bin, but also fascination. Its audacious design packs a lot of power into a small cylinder, including dual graphics cards. It’s a far cry from the behemoth tower designs that had dominated pro desktops for years.Mac Pro debuted ple’s high-end r was greetedoked like ats audaciousnto a small phics cards. oth towerpro Apple arranged components around a ‘unified thermal core’, enabling heat from them to be carried away by a single heat sink. A fan at the top pulls air in at the base, and warm air rises upwards and out at the top, enabling the fan is able to spin slower and quieter than it otherwise…