Indice dei contenuti per July 2020 in MacFormat

Apple has been treating us to lots of new toys recently–from the MacBook Air and 13in MacBook Pro to the iPad Pro and iPhone SE. So what are you going to choose? Turn to page 20 and we’ll hopefully be able to help you decide with our Ultimate Apple Buying Guide. We assembled our top hardware picks to suit your needs and budget, and made some other recommendations along the way. While on page 58 you can read our definitive review of the iPhone SE along with seven pages of tips to help you make the most of it–or any iPhone that can run iOS 13. What else? Inside this month’s Skills section, you’ll discover some incredible ways to do more with whichever Apple device you own–from removing unwanted objects…

Former Apple Music and Beats pioneers Jimmy Iovine and Dr Dre are on the hunt for the “next Steve Jobs” according to a wide-ranging interview that appeared in May. Talking about the duo’s efforts in education, Iovine said: “I think [Dre and I] are now in a position to think about who’s going to be the next Steve Jobs, the next Bob Iger, the next Dr Dre… It’s always been something at the back of my mind… It’s staggering to me why no one else is looking at it like we are.” Iovine also revealed more about Apple’s £3 billion takeover of Beats in 2014, saying: “We came along at the right time with the things they needed. That’s why the sale [of Beats to Apple] made sense. I’ve said…

1 Bang & Olufsen Beosound Balance > £1,750 > bang-olufsen.com > This is almost the most expensive smart speaker ever made (Bang & Olufsen itself made the only one more expensive). But there’s a lot more tech here than just Google Assistant support. Speaker and processing developments from B&O’s massively expensive and large Beolab range mean that the shelf-sized unit has twin bass drivers in opposition (to reduce unwanted vibration), adaptive sound for where it’s placed in the room (like the HomePod), two clever audio profiles, and a gorgeous design in real wood and sound-transparent cloth. 2 Gocycle GXi > £3,699 > gocycleuk.com > There’s a lot of clever stuff in this slick ebike. For a start, you can fold it up or down in 10 seconds (or so), and…

Few things in life are as inscrutable as Apple’s future plans. The Cupertino giant jealously guards its secrets from prying eyes, hoping to spring its next batch of products on an unsuspecting public with maximum fanfare. Which is why it’s so surprising that there is so much chatter in the rumour mill surrounding Apple’s upcoming processor strategy. One or two reports wouldn’t be surprising, but the veritable avalanche of supply chain whispers that has affronted Apple watchers in recent months is hard to ignore. Something big is coming for future Macs, the scale of which we only see once a decade. But to understand where Apple is heading, we need to know where it stands right now. Why things are changing You wouldn’t know it just from the surface, but…

iMAC 21.5-inch 3.6GHz £1,249 Specifications 3.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i3-8100 processor, 8GB memory (max 32GB), 1TB 5400rpm hard disk, 2GB AMD Radeon Pro 555X graphics, 21.5-inch 4093x2304 Retina P3 display, two 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 ports, four 10Gbps USB-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, SDXC card slot Thanks for your input Every iMac comes in silver with a compact Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2. A Numeric Keypad keyboard adds £30. If you prefer the Magic Trackpad 2, with its wider range of macOS gestures, you can opt for this instead of the mouse at an extra cost of £50. Configure your iMac 21.5-inch The iMac 21.5-inch is good value considering its built-in 4K screen, which supports the wider DCI-P3 colour space as well as sRGB. All configurations include an AMD Radeon 5…

One of macOS Catalina’s major new features, in conjunction with the latest iPadOS, is Sidecar. The ability to mirror or extend your Mac’s display on to your iPad has several practical applications. Mirroring the desktop provides an extra display that can be useful if, say, your family are trying to gather around your screen; extending it provides additional screen real-estate, including the ability to run one app full-screen on your main display while being able to access another, with a suitable Apple Pencil, from your iPad. But there’s a caveat: your Mac may be running Catalina and your iPad may be running iPadOS 13, but Apple has arbitrarily decided (for performance reasons) that only newer hardware can make use of Sidecar. If your Mac (or iPad) isn’t listed at bit.ly/sidecarsupport…

Your Mac has many options for customising the way it looks and works. But accessing those settings isn’t always easy, or involves more hunting and clicking than it really should. In other cases, there’s no way to access them at all, without either a third-party app or a visit to Terminal. Take hiding desktop icons as an example. Without a third-party app, you’d need to launch Terminal and type in a command. Then when you want to show them again, you’d need to type in another command. One Switch allows you to hide desktop icons with two clicks–one on the One Switch menu bar item and another on the toggle switch for hiding the icons. One Switch also enables access to a bunch of other settings that would otherwise take…

Q Occasionally the USB ports on my Apple Thunderbolt Display stop working, although it remains connected to my Mac. I’ve had to shut down, unplug, then reconnect and power up. Is my display dying? A This is probably an internal hardware problem in your display. It could result from a bug which has affected recent versions of macOS, though. Catalina doesn’t manage ports on external displays well: on many displays, when the display itself goes to sleep, it powers down all its USB ports. Keep the display awake with a screen saver instead and those ports should be prevented from powering down automatically. If that doesn’t help, get it checked by an Apple service technician (when you are next able to do so), who may be able to diagnose the…

Q Each time my iMac 2011 starts up, I have to reset its SMC. Once I’ve done that, it works fine. What’s wrong with it? A This is most likely to be a hardware problem. Once you’ve reset the System Management Controller (SMC), it shouldn’t need resetting again and again. Start up with the key held to run Diagnostics, and see if that identifies the problem. Even if it doesn’t, it may well be worth getting it checked by an authorised service provider, who can use their more extensive tests. As Apple no longer supports that model, any repair such as replacing the logic board is likely to be both difficult and expensive, and a secondhand logic board may be the only fix. One last-ditch trick you can try before…

Thanks to improved cameras in the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro and changes the Camera app, in iOS 13, capturing good quality photos and video is easier than ever. The new iPhone SE is no slouch either–it may lack the twin lenses of the iPhone 11, or the triple lens array of the iPhone 11 Pro, but it’s still equipped with a 12MP Wide camera with f/1.8 lens and 5x digital zoom. Crucially, it also includes Portrait Mode, which enables stunning people pictures, including a selective blurring background effect, known as ‘bokeh’. Read on to find out more. EXPLAINED… The Camera app 1 Live Photo Live Photo enables you to add motion to otherwise static images by capturing a few frames of video along with the still capture. You can…

> £182.99 > FROM Western Digital, shop.westerndigital.com > FEATURES 8TB 7,200rpm hard drive storage, USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Micro B) interface, 2x USB-A ports, USB-A to Micro B cable included The drive picked up file transfers almost instantly This 8TB drive is designed for Macs, PCs, PlayStations and Xboxes and is of the old-school, traditional mechanical hard drive type, with platters and everything. That enables that huge 8TB capacity, but it also means the drive needs its own power cable. Likewise, if you want a gigantic eight terabytes of storage, then you’re not going to get it in a svelte, compact form factor–but despite its (relatively) large 195x125x44mm size, the WD Black D10 brings with it its own style. It’s black, and chunky, and vaguely military-esque in its appearance, but…

> $59 (about £47) > FROM Cindori, sensei.app > NEEDS macOS 10.15 Sensei’s interface is slick and easy to use macOS is easy to use, but with each new iteration Apple has hidden away more and more of the nuts and bolts of the OS. And it still doesn’t provide easy tools for tasks like uninstalling apps, which often bury their content deep in system folders. It’s easy to accumulate a lot of files and this clutter–much of which is hard for the average user to find–can fill up your Mac. Even more technically minded users have to use disparate apps to monitor and tweak system performance. Enter Sensei, a ‘performance tool’ that runs on any Mac that supports Catalina. Its interface is slick and easy to use, while under…

HOT TOPIC! 13in MacBook Pro gets Magic Keyboard makeover Now with 10-gen Intel processors and more storage Apple updated the 13in MacBook Pro at the beginning of May, with a new Magic Keyboard, 10th generation Intel Core processors and twice as much onboard storage–though it’s only the top-spec model that gets all the latest features. The arrival of the 2020 13in MacBook Pro means that Apple has finally eliminated the controversial butterfly keyboard from its laptops, five years after it was introduced. Each of the three 13in MacBook Pros in Apple’s line-up now have the same style keyboard as the 16in MacBook Pro introduced last November and the MacBook Air launched in March. This gives them 1mm of key travel, a separate power button and physical Escape keys plus wider…

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There are image editing processes that have historically been difficult if not impossible to perform satisfactorily. Replacing large areas of an image was possible, if fiddly. Removing objects from a flattened image required a lot of work and was usually only effective with small objects. Luminar 4 changes all that with its artificial intelligence algorithms that analyse an image in real time, identifying what specific parts of a picture are likely to depict. The result of this is that it can find and swap out entire areas of sky from an image with just a couple of clicks. Even more impressively, painting over an object, as long as it is not huge, causes Luminar to sample surrounding areas and ‘heal’ over it, effectively removing that object without any adverse effects.…

If you own an Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K, you’ll have no doubt seen Apple’s brilliant and beautiful Aerial screen saver. This kicks in whenever you’re not watching a TV show or movie, and can be invoked by double-clicking the Menu button on the Siri Remote, or on the Apple TV app for iOS or iPadOS. You’re then presented with over 150 high-quality videos of cityscapes, landscapes, seascapes and even scenes of the Earth from space. Frankly, it’s better than many actual TV shows and movies–and you can view the exact same videos on your Mac, using John Coates’ open source Aerial screen saver (https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial). Download and install the app and it’ll appear in System Prefs > Desktop & Screen Saver under the Screen Saver tab. From there,…

Microsoft has made some big changes to Office on iOS, at least on iPhone: instead of having separate apps for Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Notes and Office Lens, it’s combined them into a single app. That doesn’t just make it easier and faster to access your various Office documents and tools. It also reduces the amount of space needed for Office on your device. Microsoft has done a superb job here. It still feels like Office, but this isn’t a desktop app that’s been squashed into a smaller screen. It prioritises speed, simplicity and the kind of tasks you’ll do when you’re away from your Mac. Whether you’re updating a spreadsheet, signing a contract or scanning somebody’s business card, everything you need is available within a couple of clicks. Of course,…

Q My iMac (late 2013, 27-inch) has an internal hard drive, and runs fairly slowly from that. Would it be quicker to start it up from an external SSD which I’ve been using for Time Machine backups for the last three years? A Your internal hard drive transfers data over a 6Gbps interface, which is similar in speed to what it could achieve over USB (up to 5Gbps) or Thunderbolt 1 (up to 10Gbps), so in terms of raw performance you’re unlikely to see much difference. This changes markedly if you’re running Mojave or Catalina, though, which require the startup disk to be formatted in APFS, which is optimised for use on SSDs rather than hard disks. Most who now start up from a hard disk in this new format…

ON TEST… > Adobe Lightroom £9.98 per month > Camera+ 2 £3.99 > FiLMiC Firstlight £7.99 > Halide £5.99 > Obscura Camera £4.99 Professional DSLR cameras have a Manual mode that enables you to control properties such as aperture and shutter speed. This is very useful as a fast shutter speed freezes action while a slow shutter adds motion blur, creating very different versions of the same subject. The iPhone’s ‘point and shoot’ Camera app gives you limited manual control compared to a DSLR. For example Apple’s Camera app simultaneously sets focus and exposure when you tap on a specific subject. Some third-party camera apps enable you to set exposure and focus independently to suit subjects in different parts of the screen. Other camera apps offer tools to help you…

> Free (IAPs) > FROM Readdle, readdle.com > NEEDS iOS 11 or later Documents began life as a handy way to share files between apps on an iPhone or iPad. A decade or so later, it’s evolved into a lot more than that and offers quite a bit more than Apple’s own Files app, so it’s worth checking out. New in version 7 are an improved web browser that supports private browsing, integration with the Files app so you can open files from Apple’s app in Documents, a dark mode, and the ability to mark up images and annotate PDFs. Also new is a big ‘+’ button at the bottom right of the screen. Tap it and you can create a new folder, text file, or PDF. Or you can…

> Free (IAPs) > FROM Overcast Radio, overcast.fm > NEEDS iOS 12.1 and watchOS 5.2 or later Overcast was already a very good app, and this version includes a significant improvement. The original Voice Boost feature used a mix of compression and equalisation to make voices sound clearer, especially on the move–it worked well for voices but unpredictably for music. Version 2 is smarter: where we previously found ourselves disabling Voice Boost on music because it tended to over-compress it, there are no such issues with Voice Boost 2. Overcast’s entire feature set is free. You get Voice Boost 2; Smart Speed for removing silences in talk-based podcasts and speeding up playback without turning everyone into chipmunks; smart and custom playlists; Dark Mode support; an Apple Watch app with standalone…

WE ASKED… Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat Good times for Apple Watch Global smartwatch shipments grew by 20% in Q1 2020 to 14 million, with Apple Watch making up over half. Neil Mawston, Executive Director of research firm Strategy Analytics said: “Apple Watch shipped 7.6 million units worldwide in Q1 2020, rising an above-average 23% from 6.2 million in Q1 2019. Apple’s global smartwatch market share has grown from 54% to 55%, its highest level for two years.” Samsung is currently in second place with 14% of shipments, with Garmin third on 8%. Shipments are expected to fall sharply in Q2 because of COVID-19 before bouncing back again.…

These days, Apple’s AirPods Pro are not the only wireless headphones you should consider. There are plenty of competing products worthy of your time, and the best among them are Master & Dynamic’s superb MW07 Plus earphones. What makes these earbuds so great? Well, getting started is an absolute cinch, with no app to download or fiddly set-up process to navigate. Once they’re ready to go, the sound does not disappoint, with clear highs and strong bass that outstrips anything the AirPods Pro can muster. You get effective active noise cancellation, making them ideal for use on your commute and in crowded areas. But they don’t just sound fantastic–they look the part, too. Each earbud has a marble-effect casing, making them absolutely gorgeous to look at. This casing houses the…

iMAC 27-inch 3.7GHz £2,249 Specifications 3.7GHz six-core Intel Core i5-9600K processor, 8GB memory (max 64GB), 2TB Fusion Drive, 8GB AMD Radeon Pro 580X graphics, 27-inch 5120x2880 P3 display, two 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3 ports, four 10Gbps USB-A ports, Gigabit Ethernet, SDXC card slot Cultural resolution The 5K P3 display is a huge benefit of the iMac 27-inch, similar to the LG UltraFine 5K screen sold by the Apple Store for £1,179. It’s not comparable to graphics and video industry reference monitors, but accurate enough for most work. Configure your iMac 27-inch There are two versions of the 2019 iMac 27-inch with an i5 processor. Both are six-core, but the 3.1GHz model uses the Core i5-8600, while the 3.7GHz configuration has the newer i5-9600K. With no big jump in architecture, the clock…

Fantastical may look like a calendar app, but it’s also an excellent reminders tool as well. In fact, integrating your reminders directly into your calendar within one app makes life a lot easier. Instead of relying on multiple different apps to get yourself organised and hoping they all sync up properly, you can simply open Fantastical and start creating reminders (known as tasks in the app) straight away. Doing it this way means you get to make use of Fantastical’s excellent natural language support, which makes entering your tasks a cinch. The app also syncs everything to all your Apple devices, so there’s no need to worry if you’ll get a reminder created on your Mac when you’re away from your desk. This tutorial will take you through everything you…

Adobe Premiere Pro The iPhone 11’s dual camera system means its capable of taking stunning 4K video footage. The videos it produces are crisp and clear, yet it almost seems that the better digital cameras get the less atmosphere they seem to be able to capture in videos. It was the imperfections of old film techniques that gave them their characteristic appeal. Grainy-quality film and burns between cut scenes can transform a boring shot into something that looks truly special. And because that old fashioned movie-reel look is still very much in demand, we thought we’d show you an easy way to achieve it on your Mac using Premiere Pro. Overlaying video clips Previously, we’ve shown you how to edit video in Adobe Premiere Elements 2020, but to age a…

Apple is keen to position the iPad as a serious all-purpose computer. That’s pretty credible except for a few limitations, one of which has been a bit of a head-scratcher: the inability to install fonts. Internally, iOS has always handled fonts much like macOS, and similarly all the fonts included are available to any app that wants to use them. But there’s no Font Book, no Install option when you view or receive font files, and nowhere in Settings to add fonts. Install an installer Until now, the only way to install fonts has been through third-party apps, such as iFont (free) or AnyFont (£1.99). The fact that these worked perfectly, importing the same standard TrueType fonts in .ttf and .otf (OpenType) format that you use on your Mac and…

Archiving important documents safely Q Many of the documents in my Home folder are old but important. Can I archive them to some form of external storage where they’ll be safe for the next few years? A Yes, but you need to choose your archival storage carefully. Hard drives are popular for this purpose, but are probably the least suitable storage medium when you want to keep documents safe over a period of years, because of their error and failure rates. Optical media like the older DVD-R and current BD-R discs should, when they’re stored carefully, last longer with fewer errors, but you’ll require a suitable external burner drive to create and access them. Better Blu-ray drives now support M-Disc media which are claimed to last well into the future.…

iMac dies in its sleep Q When I try to wake my iMac from sleep, it has to be started up again. When it does start up, it then reports a ‘SleepWake Failure in EFI’. Why? A This is because it’s suffering a kernel panic when trying to wake up, a not uncommon fault. For most models, this should result in the Mac restarting, though some don’t, or it may be so severe that they can’t. This is confirmed by the report you’ve seen, which means that your Mac’s firmware hasn’t coped with the process of waking up. Start up with the D key held to enter Diagnostics, and confirm that this isn’t really a hardware problem. Then check that it’s running the latest release of the EFI firmware for…

LIVE SMARTER The smart home is here–live the Apple dream today! There’s value in putting together a completely matching surround system for the living room, but I’d argue a system made up of otherwise unused kit is even better. All four of my surround speakers are pulled from old (and pretty cheap) hi-fi systems that have long since gone to recycling heaven. My massive front speakers, a beautiful pair of four-cone B&Ws, were the one thing I inherited from my grandfather’s estate. They’re now put to work amplifying Hollywood blockbusters rather than classical and jazz. There’s no subwoofer, because I neither have one nor do I wish to suffer the wrath of my neighbours–but adding one wouldn’t be an issue. The only investment I’ve made is in an amp, a…

The app can email a QR code to help others connect > £249 > FROM Eero, eero.com > FEATURES Two Ethernet ports on each pod, Alexa–compatible, Bluetooth Eero isn’t a big name in the networking market, but it was taken over by Amazon last year and now–surprise, surprise–you’ll see it recommended as ‘Amazon’s Choice’ if you ever go looking for a new router or mesh system on Amazon. People in smaller homes can buy a single Eero for just £99, while larger homes can buy a three-pack for £249, which can cover areas up to 5,000 square feet. Along with their dual-band Wi-Fi, each of the smart little white pods also has two Ethernet ports that can be used for wired connections too. However, the Eero routers don’t include a…

> Free (IAPs) > FROM Aptonic, aptonic.com > NEEDS OS X 10.10 or later You can drag a file or app to the ‘dropzone’ to activate it One of the most popular categories on the Mac App Store is ‘launcher’ programs that provide new ways of quickly launching apps, or moving files and folders around. Dropzone from Aptonic has always been a popular choice here, and was recently updated to version 4.0. This new version provides a basic set of features for free, or you can pay a subscription of £1.99 per month to unlock the Pro version that has a number of additional features. Oddly, version 3 is still available too, with a fixed price of £9.99 (note that there’s also an app called DropZone 2 as well–with a…

> £2.99 > FROM Simone Montalto, simonemontalto.com > NEEDS iOS 13 or later For those of us who have been baffled in bookshops, Book Track is here. It can help you recall if you’ve read a particular book–useful for fans of epic series or of very prolific writers–and it can help you track your to-read list. It also uses iCloud to sync between your devices. You can add books in three ways: by searching for them online, scanning the barcode, or entering the details manually. We found the search feature to be fast and effective, if a little keen on pointing you to Amazon. You can add your own tags, mark books as read or to read, and add your own notes. You can export your library in PDF or…

Until the return of Steve Jobs as interim CEO, Apple in the 1990s hadn’t been particularly secretive. It would invite journalists to see new products before they were launched, and discuss its plans confidentially with distributors and retailers. But when invitations arrived for a special event at Cupertino’s Flint Center in May 1998–outside the regular summer and winter Expo slots–nobody knew quite what to expect. A new kind of Mac was surely a statement Jobs himself would want to make, and a few leaked details suggested an all-in-one machine with an advanced and unusual specification. Wearing a businesslike buttoned-up white shirt and blazer, not yet the artistic blue jeans and turtleneck, Steve began his presentation with corporate and performance details to convince investors Apple was back on track. What he…