Sommaire pour February 2020 de MacFormat

One of the reasons we all love Apple is that it “just works” – until suddenly it doesn’t. Aiming to square that circle is this month’s lead feature, which gives you everything you need to turn Apple Genius and diagnose – then fix – common Mac problems yourself. So if you’re staring at a blank screen, jiggling an unproductive pointer or can’t get iCloud to play ball, head to page 20 and let the sleuthing begin. The iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro are two of the best phones Apple has ever made, especially when it comes to shooting photos and video – but you don’t have to own one of the latest Apple gadgets to capture incredible images, as our feature on page 64 proves. There you’ll discover top…

The Secure Enclave found on iPhone and other Apple devices is looking a little vulnerable after a researcher leaked its key online. Security researcher ‘Siguza’ tweeted the encryption key in early December 2019 and it soon went viral, prompting Apple to invoke the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and force Twitter to take the offending post down. The Secure Enclave is a hardware-based key manager that handles biometric data on any device that uses Face ID or Touch ID. The key ‘Siguza’ leaked could potentially be used to reverse engineer the Secure Enclave, which handles iPhone encryption. While it doesn’t expose user data stored in the Enclave, it does give researchers the ability to access the Enclave’s firmware to see how it works. Apple’s concern was certainly short-lived; it relented…

Apple has purchased its first commercial batch of carbon-free aluminium from Elysis, as the company strives for a greener future. Elysis is a Montreal-based joint venture by Alcoa and Rio Tinto, the world’s largest aluminium producers, and is facilitated by Apple and the governments of Canada and Quebec. The metal was shipped from an Alcoa research facility in Pittsburgh, but the company plans to manufacture the carbon-free aluminium at a $50 million facility in Saguenay, Quebec, which is scheduled to open in the latter half of 2020. Elysis also has plans to commercialise and license its process that “eliminates all direct greenhouse gases from aluminium smelting and instead produces pure oxygen” by 2024. Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Lisa Jackson said, “For more than 130 years, aluminium – a material…

1 3 Apple Music has three monthly subscription tiers to choose from: Student (£4.99), Individual (£9.99) and Family (£14.99). 2 60 MILLION Total number of Apple Music subscribers as of June 2019, according to Apple’s senior VP of Internet Software & Services, Eddie Cue. 3 100K The number of songs you can download to your library from Apple Music’s catalogue. 4 115 Apple Music is currently available in 115 countries around the globe. 5 70% About 70% of the revenue from Apple Music goes back to artists and music labels. 6 1,000,000,000 Billie Ellish’s When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? has been streamed over one billion times on Apple Music, making it the service’s most streamed album of 2019 – and its Album of the Year.…

Where is the power button, anyway? A desktop Mac will have a physical power button, usually on the back, marked with the ‘standby’ symbol, a circle broken by a line. MacBooks have a button at the top right of the keyboard; this includes Touch ID models, but to start from cold you’ll need to press the button down, not just touch it. Why doesn’t the power button respond? A common reason for not being able to power up your Mac is that it’s already powered up but failing to wake from sleep. It’s similar to when macOS hangs while you’re working, usually because an app or Finder has crashed – it’s just less obvious because you can’t see what’s happening. Hold down the power button until the power cuts out,…

1 Launch Disk Utility Like Activity Monitor, the Disk Utility app can be found in Applications/Utilities, but it’s easiest to open it via Spotlight (Command+[Space bar]). It opens showing you all the drives inside or attached to your Mac on the left. 2 Volumes and devices By default, Disk Utility shows ‘volumes’, partitions within drives that are visible to macOS. To see which drives they’re on, choose Show All Devices from the View menu (or press Command+2; Command+1 shows volumes). 3 Startup drive You can select any drive or volume, but if it’s the one where macOS lives, Erase, Restore and Unmount are greyed out. You can run First Aid to check the drive, but repairs may need Recovery mode (see page 26). 4 First Aid When you run First…

Is there a way to check my Mac for hardware problems? Hardware faults are relatively rare, but if you can’t find the cause of a problem elsewhere, use the built-in Apple Diagnostics. First shut the Mac down (don’t just put it to sleep) and disconnect everything except power, keyboard, mouse, display and internet. Turn it on and immediately hold the D key until you’re asked to choose a language. Apple Diagnostics then takes a couple of minutes to do its work, and lets you know the verdict. If it looks like you’ll need professional help to resolve the issue, see ‘Professional repair options’ on page 33. How can I repair errors on my startup drive, since Disk Utility can’t? It can’t carry out repairs on the drive you’re running macOS…

What can I do if my MacBook’s battery is giving up the ghost? It’s obvious when your MacBook’s battery starts to struggle: it runs down faster, then might charge erratically. These symptoms can have other causes, so try resetting the SMC (see page 26). To check the battery, Option-click the Apple menu and go to System Information > Power. Compare the cycle count to bit.ly/applebattcycnote, which lists the design life for each model. If it’s well under its limit, suspect something else is up; but if you’ve eliminated other problems and the battery is failing early, Apple will normally replace it free, in line with your consumer rights. If the battery is at the end of its natural life, it’ll cost £129-£199 to swap it out: see bit.ly/apple-macservrep. Other repair…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes to set up YOU WILL LEARN How to back up and restore files using SuperDuper YOU’LL NEED SuperDuper app, external USB drive Genius tip! Instead of selecting your boot drive in Startup Disk preferences, you can press Option when booting your Mac to view all available boot disks. Apple’s Time Machine is a good example of how the Mac is supposed to work. It takes a time-consuming tedious chore – performing regular backups of your important files – and just makes it work automatically, so that you can just plug in your backup drive and forget all about it. Time Machine does have some limitations, though. It automatically backs up files every hour during the day, and then saves daily and weekly backups going further…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to view time-synced lyrics in iOS 13 YOU’LL NEED An iPhone running iOS 13 or iPad running iPadOS, Apple Music subscription Perhaps the most fun feature among the updates to the Music app in iOS 13 is the addition of time-synced lyrics. Rather than just show the lyrics of a song (as in previous iOS versions), in iOS 13, song lyrics can be expanded to go full screen and move along in time with the music. This is not only a great way to learn the lyrics to your favourite song, but also means you can easily kick off an impromptu karaoke session with friends and family. The feature is also available on Mac and Apple TV. Currently, time-synced lyrics are…

Q My MacBook Pro doesn’t get on with my Bluetooth Matias keyboard or Apple Magic Trackpad, which keep disconnecting and reconnecting. Is there something wrong with it? by RICHARD SHAW A Occasional disconnect-reconnect cycles can occur with Bluetooth keyboards, trackpads and mice, but should be very infrequent. If they’re common, remove the file com.apple.Bluetooth.plist from the Preferences folder in your top-level Library folder and restart. After that, suspect radio interference problems. If you have Wi-Fi, connect using its 5GHz channels, rather than 2.4GHz which overlaps with the frequencies used by Bluetooth. Give the two networks different names, so you can select connections over 5GHz in their Wi-Fi settings, which usually offers faster speeds anyway. Some USB devices emit interference which affects both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth frequencies. Identify those by testing…

Q Since upgrading to iOS 13, my iPhone can’t see the list of tabs open in Safari on either of my Macs. All three are connected to the same iCloud account, with Safari sync turned on. Do I have to upgrade the Macs to Catalina too? by DICKEN WINYARD A iCloud Tab sharing in Safari works fine for many, but some users just can’t get it to work. It works best when all Macs and devices are running the latest system release, and the current version of Safari. It’s particularly important that your iPhone is updated, as early releases of iOS 13 had many problems. All also need to have a good connection to the same iCloud account: this can’t be shared between users with different Apple IDs. Open the…

After shooting a photo or capturing a clip, you may need to tweak its colour, tone and composition to improve it. Fortunately, iOS 13’s Photos app boasts a powerful digital darkroom to counteract common problems. It can also process footage using the same tools, helping clips to make the grade. 1 Tints and casts Your iPhone needs to capture true colours under various lighting conditions. This can be a challenge due to the different colour temperatures of light. Daylight can cause a shot to look too cold and blue. Artificial light can make skin tones look too warm and orange. Your Camera app will perform an Auto White Balance (AWB) operation to capture cast-free colours. If it can get white objects to be free of blue or orange casts, the…

Tracking doesn’t, it’s fair to say, have the finest reputation. Few of us actively seek it out, but none of us can avoid it. The web’s biggest entities keep tabs on you everywhere you go online – something which has been one of the most powerful drivers in the rise of VPNs. Automated facial recognition threatens to follow us around on the streets (do we wear full-face masks next?) and tomorrow’s connected cars will, for all their new smarts, no doubt report back on our activities on the road. Even your phone collects a whole host of data; if they need to, the authorities can determine your precise location by triangulating the signal strength of the cell masts your handset is connected to. You’re being tracked, whether you agree to…

£279 FROM AOC, eu.aoc.com FEATURES 27in zero-edge IPS, Quad HD (2560x1440) display, 2x HDMI 1.4 ports, 1x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x headphone jack The Q27T1 hits the sweet spot as far as mainstream monitors go While a lot of engineering effort goes into a monitor’s internal build, when it comes to external appearance many end up as bland black rectangles perched on clumsy stands. AOC’s 27-inch Q27T1, however, shows there’s another way. Designed by Studio FA Porsche, the smart-looking monitor comprises a very thin, zero-edge, 2560x1440 resolution Quad HD IPS panel on a sculptural-looking asymmetric stand. The detailing doesn’t stop there – on the back there’s a really neat cover for the I/O inputs, with just a small opening for the cables. Here you’ll find two HDMI 1.4 ports, a DisplayPort,…

Choosing a good pair of wireless earbuds is a tricky process. There are so many options across so many price points, it’s often easy to get lost when trying to make a decision. Luckily, we’ve got you covered. This test pits some of the most popular in-ear wireless headphones against each other, with prices ranging from £179 to £279. Crucially, each pair of earbuds in our line-up is equipped with noise cancellation technology. This helps cut out background sounds, enabling you to focus on what you’re listening to – perfect for commuting on a train or plane or trying to focus on that email in a noisy café. There’s no set of buds that plays as well with your iPhone as Apple’s AirPods. Thanks to their built-in H1 chip, the…

£86.56 FROM Adobe, adobe.com NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later Premiere’s Guided workspace walks you through the video-making process Like Apple’s iMovie, Adobe Premiere Elements 2020 is designed to help video makers import, fix and share their raw clips as tightly edited programmes, complete with professional post-production assets such as titles and transitions. As our iPhones can generate HD and 4K footage, we have the problem of managing an ever-growing collection of video assets. This can involve lots of rummaging through folders in an attempt to find particular clips. With the release of Premiere Elements 2020, it is now easier to manage your video collection and find files quickly. Thanks to Adobe Sensei, the Organiser uses artificial intelligence to analyse your video footage and add Smart Tags that cover common subjects…

Free, offers in-app purchases FROM iCandi Apps, icandiapps.com NEEDS iOS 11 or later AR features allow you to walk through portals onto planets and pull celestial bodies out of the sky There’s no shortage of iOS apps for stargazers, but Night Sky is one of the oldest and one of the most impressive. Version 7 adds a host of new features, including a new AR app for Apple Watch Series 5 that uses that device’s built-in compass, enabling you to take Night Sky Live tours on the watch. Perhaps the biggest improvement in version 7 is to Sky View, which has 60 million more stars; eight-times higher resolution for light spectrum textures; sunrise/sunset effects; and a new daylight mode. There’s also a brand new interface that looks fantastic and has…

From £1,099 Apple’s thinnest and lightest laptop is also its cheapest, with prices starting at just £1,099. Even the step-up model costs just £1,299 – and both are £100 cheaper than they were before the Air’s latest refresh in July 2019. Those low prices don’t mean the MacBook Air feels cheap, though, thanks to an aluminium unibody enclosure and a 13.3in LED-backlit Retina display, which has a display resolution of 2560x1600 (227ppi). New for 2019 is True Tone, which automatically adjusts the colour temperature of the display depending on the ambient light. Inside the MacBook Air’s 1.56cm thin, 1.25kg body, you’ll find a 1.6GHz dual-core, eighth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of 2,133MHz LPDDR3 RAM (upgradeable to 16GB). The entry-level model comes with a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD), while the…

WE ASKED… What will your next Mac be? Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat Express Transit now available in London London commuters can now take advantage of Apple Pay’s Express Transit mode. The feature allows passengers to pay for their journey by holding their phone up to one of the yellow contactless readers on the Transport for London (TfL) network. Express Transit is quick and easy – you don’t need to double-click to turn on Apple Pay or confirm a payment with Face ID or Touch ID. The facility works for up to five hours in power reserve, so you can still travel even if your battery levels are flagging. Let’s hope we see it roll out to more UK cities and towns in the near…

1 Fujifilm X–Pro3 £1,699 > fujifilm.eu/uk Rolling analogue charm into new high-tech gear is all the rage, and Fujifilm does it better than anyone. The X–Pro3 mirrorless has the style of classic rangefinders, and includes a new shooting mode that simulates film. That’s all in addition to ultra–modern features: a live HDR mode with multiple settings, 30fps shooting, 4K video recording, an electronic viewfinder, and two(!) screens. One is a big standard panel; the other is smaller and ideal for viewing just a few key settings. Oh, and the 26MP sensor is pretty impressive too. 2 Gita Cargo Bot From $3,250 (about £2,465) > mygita.com It’s nearly 2020 — shouldn’t we have robots to do all the hard work for us by now?! Well, Gita takes us one step closer:…

Start the new year right with a portable sound system from Teufel Audio that’s bound to get you on your feet. The Berlin-based sound company has been creating audio systems for over 40 years and is one of Europe’s biggest manufacturers when it comes to sound-pumping accessories. Up for grabs this month is the ROCKSTER AIR, one of Teufel’s hardcore music boxes from its portable range. Boasting Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX, you can stream music in CD-like quality from your Mac or iOS device. For DJs, singers or musicians, the ROCKSTER AIR also has microphone input, guitar line-in and auxillary inputs. The four-channel mixer enables you to play these sources simultaneously and mix them to create the perfect party sound. Once you’ve got your mix right, you can take the…

1 Open Activity Monitor Activity Monitor is provided as part of macOS and lives in the Utilities folder inside Applications. To open it quickly, just press Command+[Space bar] to launch Spotlight, type ‘activity’ and, when it comes up, press Return. 2 Look around the system On the left, you’ll see all the processes running on your Mac. You’ll recognise some of these as apps, with their icons. Others will be more obscure. Pick Windowed Processes from the View menu to see only apps. 3 Browse for info Click the Process Name column header to put everything in alphabetical order, or another heading to sort by what resources each process is using. Click the Disk tab at the top to see what’s accessing storage. 4 Spot the slowcoach Click the CPU…

What does a flashing question mark on startup mean? Your Mac can’t find a drive to boot macOS from. The first thing to do is wait, because occasionally a minor problem causes this to happen as a one-off. If the Mac eventually starts up, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select your startup drive. If not, try Recovery (see ‘How do I use Recovery to get my Mac working again’, below right). Could resetting the NVRAM or SMC help to solve my problem? Inside every Mac made since 2006 are two components that manage system settings: NVRAM and the SMC. Non-volatile RAM (along with PRAM, parameter RAM) stores things like your startup disk selection, screen resolution, time zone and sound volume. The system management controller (SMC) deals with…

What does iCloud Photos do, and should I use it? In iOS’ Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Photos and in macOS Catalina’s Photos > Preferences, what used to be iCloud Photo Library is now just called iCloud Photos. If you activate iCloud Photos in iOS, all your photos are kept online until your iCloud storage fills up. To buy more, go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage > Change Storage Plan, or in macOS’ System Preferences go to Apple ID (or iCloud) and click Manage. On your Mac, tick iCloud Photos to upload all photos from your Mac in the same way (tick ‘Copy items to the Photos library’ in Photos > Preferences > General to include newly imported pics) and display all iCloud…

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IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to manage downloads in the TV app YOU’LL NEED macOS Catalina, iOS 13 or iPadOS, an iTunes account There are thousands of movies and TV shows to enjoy in the Apple TV app on macOS, iOS and iPadOS. You can either buy or rent content from the iTunes Store, as you always have been able to do, access any previous purchases you’ve already made, and even enjoy the new shows available on Apple TV+, as long as you have bought an eligible device recently or subscribe to that service. If you have a fast internet connection, you can normally stream content straight to your device – and this is still the only way to enjoy Ultra HD content on devices such…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the new features in Files YOU’LL NEED An iOS device with iOS 13 or iPad with iPadOS Genius tip! Files enables you to download files from the cloud. It’s wise to do that for anything important if you can’t guarantee a good connection later. For many years, Apple didn’t want anybody to go anywhere near file management on iOS devices: that was something you did on your Mac, not your simpler, streamlined iOS device. That changed in iOS 11 with the introduction of the Files app, which enabled you to access your iCloud Drive as well as third-party services, such as Dropbox. You can use it to play media files, view and annotate documents and send files to apps…

Shooting in low-light locations is a challenge. An iPhone can try using a faster ISO and a wider aperture to make it more sensitive to available light but this can add nasty image noise to your shots. Here are some handy suggestions for capturing better-looking pictures in low-light scenarios. 1 Summon the flash One way to cast more light on a subject is to activate the built-in flash by tapping the Camera app’s flash icon. Flash is not an ideal solution though. A burst of flash can illuminate a person standing close to the iPhone, but it will plunge the distant background into underexposed shadow. Some locations may not permit the use of flash, such as inside a church or museum. 2 Use a tripod When your iPhone meters a…

The Find My app looks set to have a new target beyond iOS devices and Apple’s AirPods. Poking around the underlying elements of iOS 13, Apple detectives found references to an item called a ‘Tag’, with the same overall file structure as other proximity-paired devices, as far back as April. Later updates revealed a name – AirTags – and apparently-leaked screenshots have shown these things interacting with Find My in the same way as a lost device. Tag team This means that, in all likelihood, Apple will soon be launching its own line of tracking tags, putting the company head to head with established competitors like Tile and Orbit. Apple will be entering the game already holding the higher hand. Integration with the Find My app and its own iBeacon…

£99.99 each FROM Logitech, logitech.com FEATURES Mouse – Bluetooth, electromagnetic scrolling wheel, gesture button, thumb wheel; keyboard – Bluetooth, full size, numeric keyboard, programmable keys, backlight The multicomputer versatility is the real strength here For Mac power users who want to use their mouse and keyboard to the full, Logitech’s new MX Collection mouse and keyboard provide an impressive – if expensive – alternative to Apple’s own offerings. The MX Collection consists of the MX Master 3 mouse and its matching MX Keys keyboard, both of which cost £99.99 each (plus an extra £10 if you want the optional wrist rest for the keyboard). That’s a lot of money – and it’s a shame that Logitech doesn’t provide a discounted bundle. The mouse and keyboard can be used as standard…

Mission Control Plus Mission Control gets more useful £3.77 FROM Rony Fadel, fadel.io NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later Mission Control; you either swear by it or never use it. For users of Macs with large screens especially – where it’s more likely there will be lots of apps running and windows open – it makes it easy to cut through the clutter. However, Mission Control, useful though it is, isn’t perfect. And, sadly, Apple has done little to add to its features over the years. Step forward Mission Control Plus. This handy little app makes Mission Control even more useful, allowing you to close windows while they’re all still displayed on screen. It also has a handful of keyboard shortcuts so you can hide windows, open apps, or quit them…

£8.99 FROM Playdigious, playdigious.com NEEDS iOS 11 or later Dead Cells is a gorgeous action platformer that blends deep gameplay with chastening permadeath that erases your progress. While at first the permadeath may be vexing, even a little unfair, in the end you come to regard it with a begrudging respect. As time progresses and your death count rises, you become wiser and more cautious. Instead of rushing into certain doom, you spend time deliberating upgrades and weapon choices, and hone your play style. In short, you become a better player. Dead Cells accomplishes this without becoming rote by way of its ever-changing maps. These ensure you never become too familiar with a level’s danger spots. The game comes with an impressive level of depth that’s never overwhelming. Enemies are…

From £1,299 Apple has replaced the 15in model with a new MacBook Pro 16-inch. The new larger screen machine comes with Apple’s Magic Keyboard with a redesigned scissor mechanism, and a six-speaker sound system. The notebook also brings back a physical Escape key, while retaining the Touch Bar. In terms of internals, the new MacBook Pro can be configured with a six- or eight-core ninth-generation Intel processor and 64GB of memory. There are 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB or 8TB storage options. There’s a new thermal design, that Apple says results in a 28% increase in airflow. The 16in model comes with the new AMD Radeon Pro 5000M series GPU, which contributes to boosting graphics performance by 2.1 times. Powering all this is a larger 100Whr battery, the largest in a…

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The rumour mill for Apple’s 2020 iPhone line-up is hotting up… We love the improved cameras and better battery life of the iPhone 11 range – and the Pro models’ Super Retina XDR OLED display. So what advances can we expect to see for ‘iPhone 12’? Noted analyst Ming Chi-Kuo believes we’re likely to see five new handsets. We know Apple has been working on a successor to the iPhone SE, and Kuo believes it will launch sometime in the first quarter of the year. Kuo predicts that the device will be similar to the iPhone 8, so we can expect a 4.7in display, a single-lens camera, Touch ID, and maybe an A13 processor. It’s also thought that the ‘SE 2’ will come with an LCD display. As the original…

APP OF THE MONTH [iOS APP] Noto – Elegant Note Free Seriously powerful note-taking for iOS There are a lot of note-taking apps on the App Store, but few offer features like Noto. The free version of the app boasts powerful text editing, iCloud sync and desktop-class organisation. You can easily drag to reorder your lists and paragraphs in a note, or organise entries any way you like. For just 99p a month, or £23.99 for a lifetime purchase, you get access to Noto Pro. The upgrade is where the app really packs a punch, providing support for HTML, PDF and JPEG export. Attachment options are both broad-ranging – images, videos, scans, drawings, files, mathematical equations, code, tables and maps – and unlimited. Unfortunately, there’s no Mac app just yet,…

The great thing about Apple products is that they just work, right? Well, most of the time, yes, that’s right (thankfully). But what happens if your Mac simply doesn’t want to play ball? Is your Mac refusing to start up? Has the display gone all stripey? Or is it switching on okay but being really slow to respond? Your first thought may be to go online (on another device, of course) and book an appointment with an Apple Genius. Or arrange for an Apple Support call. Obviously, these guys are the experts – and it’s fantastic that us Apple fans have these reassuring services to hand. But you could spend a while on the phone explaining the issue or you may not be able to book a Genius Bar appointment…

I created a file, but where did I put it? When you lose track of something, just press Command+[Space bar] to launch Spotlight and type all or part of the sensible file name you gave it… or failing that, any text you think would be in the document. Scroll through the results and double-click the one you want, or press the Down Arrow down to it and press Return. What if I still can’t seem to find that pesky file? In a Finder window, go to the drive the file should be on, or ideally the folder it should be in. In the search box (Command+F), enter part of the file name or content. In the bar below, select the drive or folder (not This Mac). Too many results returned?…

What should I do when my Mac won’t connect to the internet? If your Wi-Fi stops working, click the Wi-Fi symbol in the menu bar at the top right of the screen (if it’s not there, go to Network in System Preferences, select Wi-Fi on the left and tick ‘Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar’). Check that the correct network is selected and showing plenty of bars. Choose Turn Wi-Fi Off, wait a few seconds, then go back and Turn Wi-Fi On. It should connect automatically, but again, pick your network if necessary. If it’s a wired connection that’s playing up, such as an Ethernet cable to your broadband router, go to System Preferences > Network and select the connection on the left. Switch ‘Configure IPv4’ from ‘Using DHCP’ to…

Why can’t I access my iPhone in the Finder when I connect it via USB? You’re right in thinking that, in macOS 10.15 Catalina, desktop file exchange with iOS and iPadOS devices is now done in Finder. Connect your iPhone or iPad with a suitable USB cable and it should appear in the sidebar of a Finder window; select it to see options similar to those previously found in iTunes. To make this happen, you need to unlock your iPhone (with your passcode, Touch ID or Face ID), then select it in the sidebar, click the Trust button, and finally tap the Trust option on your device. You can tick ‘Show this [device] when on Wi-Fi’ to see it listed in the sidebar in future without a cable, whenever it’s…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to find, subscribe to and manage podcasts in Apple’s Podcasts app YOU’LL NEED A Mac, Apple Podcasts app Apple has long used iTunes as a catch-all hub for podcasts, music, movies and more. But in macOS Catalina, the company has split out all these functions into separate apps. That means if you’re a podcast fan and want to play your favourite shows on your Mac, there’s a new app to get to grips with. Fortunately, Apple’s Podcasts app is easy to learn and contains some useful features to help you enjoy your podcasts. Although it’s not as in-depth as rival apps like Overcast or Castro on iOS, that works in Podcasts’ favour if you just want to get up and running…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to customise the Share Sheet YOU’LL NEED An iPhone running iOS 13 or later/iPad running iPadOS If you share web pages, images and documents frequently, you will have noticed a new design to the Share Sheet in iOS 13. It’s just one of a number of tweaks Apple has made to the sharing tool, which is now also more customisable and personal than before. The Share Sheet now consists of five options – Quick Share, Send To App, Actions for the current app, Favourites and Other Actions. The new look does take up more space, but it can be customised. The Quick Share row is home to frequent Mail, iMessage and AirDrop contacts, so you can quickly share with people listed…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the new multitasking features on your iPad YOU’LL NEED iPad running iPadOS Genius tip! You can drag apps into Split View or Slide Over from Spotlight if you have a keyboard: in an app, use Coomand+[Space bar] to open Spotlight, then search for an app. The first iPads didn’t multitask: you could do one thing at a time and nothing else. A very basic kind of multitasking was introduced in iOS 4 for iPhones, but iPads didn’t get it until iOS 4.2 in 2010. Even then, it wasn’t really multitasking: it was fast app switching and the ability for a very small selection of apps to use a handful of features – such as location services or audio playback…

Q After updating to macOS Mojave 10.14.6, the mouse pointer keeps disappearing, although it continues to track properly. Only moving it fast and shaking it makes it reappear. How can I bring it back? by DAVID HIGNETT A There’s nothing in that update which should have affected the visibility of your pointer, but several controls and settings which could have changed its behaviour and had this effect. Go to System Preferences > Accessibility and select the Display item on the left. Adjust your Cursor Size there, and tick the item to ‘Shake mouse pointer to locate’. Then if the pointer is ever hard to find, you can wiggle your mouse or your finger on the trackpad, and the pointer will grow in size. Now shut your Mac down, wait at…

Q Ever since the Mojave Supplemental Updates, my MacBook Pro 2016 has stopped sleeping when I close its lid, and continues using its battery at a high rate. How can I get it to sleep normally again? by MIKE GRAINGER A These late updates brought firmware updates for almost all models, affecting functions such as sleep and wake. For some Macs, they brought serious problems such as kernel panics when trying to wake from sleep. Check your Mac’s firmware is up to date using my free SilentKnight tool from bit.ly/mac348sltkgt. If it isn’t, install the latest Combo updater for Mojave, as only macOS installers and updaters can update firmware. Then reset SMC (bit.ly/mf348rstsmc) and NVRAM (bit.ly/mf348rstnvram), which are involved with functions like sleep. Open the Energy Saver pane, and check…

People and pets are common subjects for a photograph, or you may prefer shooting urban cityscapes or rural landscapes. Whatever your subject preferences, you’ll find that the iPhone packs all the tools and shooting modes you need to capture a wide variety of subjects, from attractive portraits to majestic vistas. Here are some shooting tips and techniques that will help you capture the shot you’re after. 1 Portrait mode Digital SLR cameras have a Portrait mode that uses a wide aperture setting to create a blurred background (or bokeh). This helps complement the sharply focused subject in the foreground. The iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus, X and XR models also boast a Portrait mode that uses software to simulate the background blur effect produced by a DSLR. However, these iPhone…

Mini Tripod £39.95 manfrotto.com This mini tripod and universal iPhone clamp enable you to capture rock-steady clips and Live Photos. Its small size gives you dramatic low-angle shots. It’s also great for capturing motion blur during long exposures. LED Light Lumimuse £89 manfrotto.com The ‘Light it up kit’ enables you to light your photo or video subject from an angle and reveal more detail in low-light locations. The kit includes a mini tripod and an LED Light Lumimuse, and you can adjust the intensity of the light. Muvi X-Lapse £12.95 amazon.co.uk On a tripod, your iPhone can capture stunning time-lapse clips that show the ebb and flow of people or clouds at high speed. This clear clockwork tripod rotates very slowly, adding a smooth pan to your time-lapse clips.…

These days it’s okay to be an incredibly disorganised and forgetful person. Seriously. Today’s tracking technology means many of us barely have to think at all… Where did I put my keys? Calling them reveals that they are, for some reason, in the tumble drier. Where did my son stash the remote control? Why, naturally, it’s in the bathroom, just where you’d expect to find it. My wallet? Oh, that was in my pocket. The point stands. Being able to make my household items ring is, at least in the context of everything I grew up with, an absolutely ludicrous luxury. One of my key skills is my ability to work backwards and map out the location of random items in my house, because I’ve spent the last 38 years…

Orbit Glasses £34.99, findorbit.com Orbit’s rechargeable arm-mounted device can help you find your glasses – it even includes a speaker, so you can call them. It does mean, though, that you’ll need to plug in your glasses now and then. Tile Sticker £34.99 (two-pack), thetileapp.com It’s a little conspicuous, but Tile’s sticker attaches firmly to anything you want it to – we tried one on a frequently-disappearing remote, and it was very effective. No replaceable battery, though. Orbit Card £34.99, findorbit.com Thinner (just) than Tile’s three-year Slim tracker, Orbit’s Card is something you can pretty much just put in your wallet and forget about – at least until its battery needs charging (around three months.)…

IN PRINT ON iPAD & iPHONE 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 ISSUE 345 NOVEMBER 2019 macOS Catalina special! iPhone 11 Pro – is it worth it? iPhone 11 & Watch Series 5 reviewed The best augmented reality apps 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/macformatipad NEVER MISS AN ISSUE!…

£159.99 FROM Blue Designs, bluedesigns.com FEATURES Four-capsule condenser array, LED voice indicator, companion app, two control buttons Recordings are crisp and clear and sound fantastic These days, streaming and podcasting are big business. If you’re looking to get a slice of the pie without spending a small fortune, the Blue Designs Yeti X mic is the ideal place to start. It’s the next step up in the Yeti line, and comes with a number of extra features that easily justify its higher asking price. One of those additions is the new four-capsule condenser array inside the mic. While that sounds complex, the outcome is that recordings are crisp and clear and sound fantastic. We certainly weren’t disappointed when we reviewed the Yeti Nano back in MF #333, but the Yeti…

Tweetbot £9.99 FROM Tapbots, tapbots.com NEEDS OS X 10.12 or later Aesthetics Tweetbot offers a very modern, macOS-style application with a translucent sidebar. It feels at home on macOS Catalina, with bold fonts and a simple black and white colour scheme. You can also view multiple Twitter timelines in a single window using the app’s Column view. Features Tweetbot offers a handy menu bar icon that you can use to view tweets, DMs and mentions. It’s also a great way to quickly compose a tweet. The Profile section prominently displays follower count. You can also see when, and from which device, a tweet was sent by clicking on it. Customisation Tweetbot enables you to edit your display image, header image, account name and description straight from the profile page. There’s…

Apple’s £249 AirPods Pro very nearly won the test. However, while they are easy to pair with your iPhone and offer great sound quality, usability isn’t as great – their shorter stems making them trickier to get to grips with. At £179, the Libratone Track Air+ are great value for money. They’re the best option if you’re on a tight budget, and we were impressed with the striking triangular design, sound quality and IPX5 water resistance. Sony’s WF-1000XM3 aren’t for everyone. While they offer great sound quality, the lack of waterproofing is a concern; they’re great for commuting, not for running in the rain. Their sheer size is another letdown. Jabra’s Evolve 65t don’t justify their high £265 cost either, thanks to their poor design and so-so sound quality. The…

£4.99 FROM Pixelmator Team, pixelmator.com NEEDS iOS 11 or later The editing tools are well laid out and easy to understand Pixelmator made its name with slick and powerful graphics apps for Mac and iOS, and now it’s brought its experience to bear on photo editing with Pixelmator Photo for the iPad. There are two main ways to access images – from your Photos library or using the Files tab which shows your Files app, Google Drive, or local downloads. iPadOS is also natively supported with the latest update. Editing can be set to destructive or nondestructive, with the latter option creating a linked file so your original isn’t overwritten. All major photo file formats are catered for, including raw. If you’re running iPadOS, you’ll be able to access files…

The big stretch of holiday indulgence runs from Christmas through to new year, with barely a letup, and it’s easy to pile on the pounds. If you’re hoping to trim back down for spring, it’s time to think about exercising. We’re not here to recommend intense gym sessions or anything like that – not everyone wants to pump iron or head off at the crack of dawn for military-style bootcamp training. You don’t need fancy kit or an expensive personal trainer either. These apps will help you find easy at-home exercises, so that you can feel a little bit healthier and more active in 2020. YouTube Free NEEDS iOS 11 or later The YouTube community is full of great fitness video creators who can guide you through just about anything.…

Back in January 2008, Steve Jobs took the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to introduce the MacBook Air, “the world’s thinnest notebook” – thinner at its thickest point, in fact, than Sony’s rival slim design. Later that year, at Infinite Loop’s Town Hall, design chief Jonathan Ive made a rare public appearance to explain how it was possible. He showed the structure of an earlier MacBook, with an aluminium skin (other makers used plastic) welded over a complicated frame assembled from multiple parts: “Whenever you have multiple parts, you add size and weight.” But it was essential to make the case “strong, robust, torsionally rigid” – an issue familiar to computer reviewers, who begin any assessment of a clamshell machine by opening it up and attempting to twist each…