MacLife September 2022

This issue’s cover has to be one of the most colorful and feel–good that we’ve created (thanks, mostly, to Matt — the art editor, of course), and somewhat tenously, it’s fitting because the magazine is positively radiating with good stuff. From the main feature (p12) which highlights how to upgrade your Mac apps, to a history of the MacBook (p28), and we’ve also got a timely review of the new MacBook Pro M2 (p38). The new MacBook Pro is an interesting one because it features the latest, cutting edge tech in the form of the all–new M2 chip for the first time in a Mac (and spoiler alert: it’s fast). But, that pièce de résistance, tour de force, or whatever other Gallic expression you want to apply to the new chip,…

SIRI IS LIKE the Green Bay Packers of voice assistants. There’s no competition between it and the LA Rams (Alexa) and Buffalo Bills (Google Assistant) when it comes to performance, but no one inside the club (Apple) is going to admit to that, despite the fact that in both cases coming in third is the best we can expect. Meanwhile, fans are left to wonder why progress feels so slow overall, despite very occasional bursts of improvement. In iOS 15, we got a sumptuous–looking buffet of Siri updates, but they all had the same goal: making Siri’s existing functions work better. We got offline processing for certain commands and better contextual understanding, but without expanding the limits of what you can do with it. In fact, Apple removed a bunch of…

In response to your Rip/Mix/Burn article — your headings are not correct. You stated how to get the best from the Music app, but if you actually want to accomplish this, you wouldn’t use Apple software. That being said, all the tech I own are Apple products. Around 15 years ago, I moved away from how Apple ripped and played music because it did a poor job for sound quality. Between then and now, if you wanted the best rip of a CD, you would use XLD or MAX. To actually play the music back, I have used Pure Music, Audirvana, and now Roon. These are third–party apps but they are vastly better than Apple’s Music program for getting the best sound quality out of your music, ripped or streamed. I…

APPLE IS INTRODUCING a new security feature called Lockdown Mode, to help protect high–risk users who may be personally targeted by the most sophisticated digital threats, such as those from private companies developing state–sponsored mercenary spyware. Lockdown Mode, coming in iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura this Fall, is described as an extreme, optional protection for the very small number of users who — because of who they are or what they do, such as politicians, human rights activists, journalists, and political dissidents — face grave, targeted threats to their digital security. Apple says the vast majority of users will never need it. Turning on Lockdown Mode further hardens device defenses and strictly limits certain functionalities, sharply reducing the attack surface that could potentially be exploited by highly targeted mercenary spyware. At…

1 Klipsch Jubilee $35,000 (per pair) From klipsch.com >>> Few of Klipsch’s speakers are as prized as its Klipschorn, yet the company thinks it’s surpassed even that mighty milestone with the Jubilee, a floor–standing speaker system that tops the Klipsch Heritage series. The Jubilee was the last product the company’s founder Paul Klipsch worked on, and 20 years after his death, it’s finally been realized thanks to the advances of 21st century technology and engineering. The device combines a horn–loaded enclosure with dual 12–inch woofers and three four–inch ports, plus a compression driver providing wide bandwidth for clarity and accuracy. Everything is individually optimized for maximum quality, resulting in what Klipsch says is “one of the most efficient loudspeakers on the planet.” If you’re after audio perfection, the Jubilee may very well fit the…

YOUR MAC COMES bundled with apps and tools to achieve all sorts of things from making music to conference calling and, while they’re great, there are plenty of alternatives on the market. But why, if you have Apple’s apps already, you may ask? As well as providing different ways to do things, third–party apps often go beyond the capabilities of your Mac’s built–in tools, giving you expanded control over your files and folders in the Finder for example, more powerful reminders and scheduling, or giving you access to more professional movie–making features. In fact, for every one of the Mac’s built–in tools there’s at least a couple of alternatives, sometimes free and sometimes paid for, but always offering a different take on the task at hand. You might find, for example,…