MacFormat June 2021

Big Sur was a Big Deal when it landed last November, effectively ending the macOS X 10.x era, while heralding the arrival of Apple silicon. It also had a completely different look and feel – sometimes with mixed results. Given the size of the transition, things have gone pretty smoothly, even if us Mac users sometimes chafe at the changes, quirks and bugs found in the new macOS 11. To that end, this month’s lead feature (p18) reveals the tips, tricks and secrets you can employ to make the most of Big Sur – from handy keyboard shortcuts, to customising the Control Centre or easily sharing albums in Photos. We hope you’ll find our comprehensive guide useful and informative. While Big Sur and Apple silicon mark two major shifts in Apple’s Mac…

Big Sur was a Big Deal when it landed last November, effectively ending the macOS X 10.x era, while heralding the arrival of Apple silicon. It also had a completely different look and feel – sometimes with mixed results. Given the size of the transition, things have gone pretty smoothly, even if us Mac users sometimes chafe at the changes, quirks and bugs found in the new macOS 11. To that end, this month’s lead feature (p18) reveals the tips, tricks and secrets you can employ to make the most of Big Sur – from handy keyboard shortcuts, to customising the Control Centre or easily sharing albums in Photos. We hope you’ll find our comprehensive guide useful and informative. While Big Sur and Apple silicon mark two major shifts in…

The Apple Car is one of the most talked-about Apple rumours of recent years – possibly of all time – yet we still know very little about it. Over time, ideas about the project have ranged from an actual self-driving car to just the tech powering such a product, and everything in between. Now, one reporter has attempted to winkle some details out of Tim Cook himself – and the Apple CEO shared a few interesting morsels in response. In an interview with The New York Times’ journalist Kara Swisher on her Sway podcast, Cook was characteristically tight-lipped, yet did have some interesting things to share. When asked about whether the company was testing autonomous vehicles, Cook responded: “In terms of the work that we’re doing there, obviously, I’m going…

The Apple Car is one of the most talked-about Apple rumours of recent years – possibly of all time – yet we still know very little about it. Over time, ideas about the project have ranged from an actual self-driving car to just the tech powering such a product, and everything in between. Now, one reporter has attempted to winkle some details out of Tim Cook himself – and the Apple CEO shared a few interesting morsels in response. In an interview with The New York Times’ journalist Kara Swisher on her Sway podcast, Cook was characteristically tight-lipped, yet did have some interesting things to share. When asked about whether the company was testing autonomous vehicles, Cook responded: “In terms of the work that we’re doing there, obviously, I’m going to…

The M1 chip used in Apple’s latest Macs is an integrated system on a chip (SoC), which means its memory, storage, processor and graphics components are all housed in one combined unit. Yet that has not stopped some enterprising engineers in China from discovering the memory and storage can be upgraded with new parts that are then recognised by macOS. The technicians replaced the 8GB of memory and 256GB SSD in their test MacBook Air with 16GB and 1TB equivalents and macOS did not reject them as illegitimate. The problem? All of these components are soldered in place, meaning the engineers had to dismantle the SoC, which is highly risky and voids the MacBook’s warranty. While it shows that the M1 chip can be upgraded after you have bought it,…

The M1 chip used in Apple’s latest Macs is an integrated system on a chip (SoC), which means its memory, storage, processor and graphics components are all housed in one combined unit. Yet that has not stopped some enterprising engineers in China from discovering the memory and storage can be upgraded with new parts that are then recognised by macOS. The technicians replaced the 8GB of memory and 256GB SSD in their test MacBook Air with 16GB and 1TB equivalents and macOS did not reject them as illegitimate. The problem? All of these components are soldered in place, meaning the engineers had to dismantle the SoC, which is highly risky and voids the MacBook’s warranty. While it shows that the M1 chip can be upgraded after you have bought it, the…