MacLife May 2023

SINCE WE SWITCHED to digital a while ago, I’ve been inundated with emails from print subscribers asking me how to access their new digital subscription. I have it on good faith that our digital marketing team have already sent out a mass email explaining what’s going on, and what to do, but unfortunately I don’t think it’s managed to reach everyone. That’s not entirely surprising, given how hit and miss digital correspondence can be — some emails will inevitably end up not sending for some reason, some might go in the spam, and some might even end up being missed or deleted by mistake. Many of our readers also didn’t provide an email when they signed up for their print subscription, meaning we had to post out a letter instead. Now,…

Matt Smith Art Editor Matt, previously of Mac|Life fame, couldn’t resist coming back on board for another issue to cover, but he assures me it’s just a one–off… Rachel Terzian Production Editor The Reminders app (see p61) is so handy, especially for someone like Rachel, who loves to create lists for pretty much everything. Rob Mead–Green Contributor Rob’s CarPlay superguide (p52) is highly recommended — after using it for a few months he’s not sure how we all used to live without it!…

THE iPHONE 15 line due this year promises a big shakeup in several respects. Here is what we expect. First up, instead of Lightning, the iPhone 15 will have a USB–C port, as ordered by the EU for all devices sold in Europe as from the end of 2024. All models’ screens are likely to lose the notch and feature Dynamic Island, the variable interface element introduced in iPhone 14 Pro to camouflage the front–facing camera and other under–screen components. Aside from this, the 6.1–inch iPhone 15 and 6.7–inch iPhone 15 Max are said to have screen sizes and body designs much like the current model’s, with an aluminum frame and toughened glass front and back. By contrast, significant design changes are expected in the 6.1–inch iPhone 15 Pro and…

> IMPORTANT UPDATES Apple has urged all users to install the latest security updates — iOS 16.4.1, iPadOS 16.4.1, and macOS 13.3.1 — to fix a couple of serious security issues. It says of each: “Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited,” which is as close as it gets to confirming that unpatched systems are at immediate risk. There are also security updates for older phones that still run older iOS versions, a move also indicative of serious vulnerabilities. The security updates have arrived not long after iOS/iPadOS 16.4 and macOS 13.3 Ventura, which delivered a number of enhancements: > 21 new emojis are introduced (31 if you count skin tone variations), the first new emojis in more than a year. > There…

There is little more thrilling for an Apple fan than getting to pick out a new Mac. You walk into the shop and tell the staff member which new essential work item you’re going to buy; almost as thrilling is building your perfect machine in the online store. In recent years, that process has become a lot more confusing though. Products across the company’s range seem to have become more and more similar, and it’s not just across the Mac offerings. Some iPads are now so powerful it is hard to distinguish them from what we would traditionally think of as a laptop. So, for example, assuming you do not need the most powerful Mac and are mostly looking for portability, do you want a MacBook Air or an iPad…

OVER THE LAST few weeks, the single most dominant tech story has been ChatGPT, and its eerily good ability to create written documents from an “AI” database. Well, I say “single”, but what’s been written about it has gone through so many transformations — from “Wow, this thing is amazing!” to “Oh, this thing is terrifying” to “This will make my life much easier” to “This will put me out of a job” to “I can get any information digestible” to “Ah, it just makes up facts sometimes” and “Oh no it also might throw in slurs”, and so on. A lot of talk about it has been focused on where people will access it in practice. Microsoft sees AI as a way to do the impossible and leapfrog Google…