MacFormat March 2023

MacFormat is the UK’s best selling magazine for the home Mac user. Each issue brings you all the exciting developments from the world of Apple, including reviews of new Macs, iPads and Apple’s own apps like iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand. We’ll show you how to make the most of your Mac, OS X and all the creative things you can do with it. We also review all the latest 3rd party software and kit – so if you’re looking for a new hard drive, monitor or printer that works with a Mac, you’ll be well served. iOS users are also welcome and we review the latest iPad and iPhone apps. ***Note: This digital edition is not printable and does not include the covermount items or supplements you would find with printed copies***

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in this issue

APPLE CORE

MacBook Pro gets huge M2 update

Apple announced a major update to its MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch laptops in January, equipping both with its next-gen Apple silicon chips – the M2 Pro and M2 Max. Apple says the new MacBook Pros are up to 20% faster than the M1 Pro and Max models that preceded them and are up to six times faster than the last-gen Intel-powered MacBook Pros, delivering incredible performance and even longer battery life – with up to 22 hours of use on a single charge. Prices start at £2,149 for a MacBook Pro 14-inch equipped with an M2 Pro (10-core CPU, 16-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine), 16GB of unified memory and a 512GB solid-state drive (SSD) and rise to £3,749 for a MacBook Pro 16-inch equipped with an M2 Pro…

3 min

APPLE CORE

Introducing the M2 Pro and M2 Max

T he new M2 Pro and M2 Max have been hotly anticipated since last summer when the M2 made its debut in the MacBook Pro 13-inch and MacBook Air. While it’s taken longer than expected, the new chips have certainly lived up to expectations. Apple says the M2 Pro is up to 20% faster than the M1 Pro that preceded it, while graphics performance is up to 30% faster. It also has twice the memory bandwidth of the standard M2 at 200GB/sec. The M2 Max offers 20% faster processor performance and 30% greater graphics performance than its direct predecessor, the M1 Max, but its memory bandwidth is even greater at 400GB/sec. Apple says you should see no decrease in performance when running solely on battery power too, arguably making the…

1 min

APPLE CORE

Mac mini goes ‘pro’

Apple’s MacBook Pro 14- and 16-inch weren’t the only Macs to get a makeover in January, so too did its most affordable Mac: the Mac mini. Now £50 cheaper than the M1 model preceding it, at £649, the new entry-level Mac mini now comes with an M2 System on a Chip (SoC) with an 8-core CPU (4 performance cores/4 efficiency cores), 10-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine and up to 24GB of memory – the same as on last year’s MacBook Pro 13-inch. But, in a surprising move, it also introduced a new M2 Pro-powered Mac mini while showing the old Intel version the Exit door. The M2 Pro inside the Mac mini has the same 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine and 16GB of memory (with 200GB/sec…

2 min

APPLE CORE

More ports, more storage

While the standard Mac mini offered plenty of connectivity options, the M2 Pro version gives you even more. That’s because it includes four Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports instead of the standard M2 Mac mini’s two. Team those with the existing HDMI port and you’ll be able to connect your M2 Pro Mac mini to up to three external displays simultaneously – two at up 6K/60Hz over Thunderbolt and one at 4K/60Hz – compared to the M2 Mac mini’s two. The M2 Pro version also enables you to add up to 8TB of storage whereas the regular M2 Mac mini maxes out at 2TB.…

1 min

APPLE CORE

The HomePod returns

Six years after its debut, and almost two years since it was dumped, the is back – and now it’s HomePod better than ever. First announced in June 2017, the original HomePod was one of the best wireless smart speakers around, thanks to its stunning sound quality, AirPlay support and the inclusion of Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant. Costing £319, it was considered expensive at launch, however, and never gained much traction beyond a few devoted Apple fans – not helped by Amazon swamping the market with its much cheaper Echo speaker range. To counter that, it was joined in 2020 by the HomePod mini, a smart speaker that improved on the HomePod experience and remains, at £99, considerably cheaper. Despite rumours of a revamp, the original HomePod was discontinued in March…

1 min

APPLE CORE

Apple set for AR/MR headset launch

Apple looks set to launch its AR/MR (augmented reality/mixed reality) headset in 2023, with the device expected to go into production in March – if the latest rumours are to be believed. Apple watchers say long-time supplier Pegatron is in the frame to make the headset, which could make it debut as soon as Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, although analyst Ming-Chi Kuo argues it may arrive even earlier – potentially at a spring launch event. It is likely, though, that Apple’s first AR/MR headset will be expensive (costing around $3,000) with the device being primarily aimed at developers. That makes sense given that Apple will need to get developers on board, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reporting in January that some developers have already seen the device (codenamed…

1 min