Macworld October 2022

The M2 MacBook Air is here and, like the M1, Apple has two options to choose from, one with an 8-core GPU and one with a 10-core GPU. We’ve been testing both models at Macworld, the step-up model that starts at $1,499 (the model we tested and reviewed here has 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM for $1,899), and the entry-level model with 256GB of storage, which costs $1,199. That’s a pretty big difference in price, which led us to wonder what exactly you’re getting for the extra money. It turns out you’re getting quite a lot. With two fewer GPU cores, less RAM, and an SSD configuration that appears suboptimal for read and write speeds, the cheapest MacBook Air faces several obstacles in trying to compete with its costlier sibling.…

We’re big fans of the new M2 MacBook Air. It’s not a perfect laptop—we want a better webcam, it’s a fingerprint magnet, and it’s expensive—but we do think it’s one of the best everyday laptops for everyday users. When you buy one, you have three power adapters to choose from, depending on the model you select. If you opt for the base model, it will include a 30W USB-C Power Adapter by default, but you can pay an extra $20 to replace that with either the standard 35W Dual USB-C Port or Compact Power Adapter, or the 67W USB-C Power Adapter. When you buy a higher-end model with at least 512GB of storage, you are given the 35W dual-port model by default, but you can switch to the 67W single-port model…

Apple’s release of the new MacBook Air was highly anticipated, mostly for two reasons: its redesign and the introduction of the M2 processor, the next generation of Apple’s M-series of chips. As expected, the reviews for the M2 MacBook Air have been favorable, with Macworld’s Jason Cross calling it “a success” and a “delightful everyday computer for most users.” But the praise for the MacBook Air has been overshadowed by reports of throttled performance. Article after article warns of a performance “shortcoming”, “severe” throttling, and the notion that it “can’t handle the heat”, and video after video demonstrates what’s supposedly wrong with the new laptop. It might lead some people to question whether it’s worth their money and wonder what Apple was thinking. We’ve been here before, people. Back in 2020 when…

In an interview in design magazine Wallpaper, former Apple Chief Design Sir Jony Ive reminisces on advice given to him by company founder Steve Jobs. He also expresses his anger that much design today doesn’t work as well as what he and Jobs did at Apple, and is all the poorer for it—going so far to claim that “many products do not deserve to exist.” Ive is described in the interview as “unfailingly polite, solicitous and considerate” but often describes his design process as “furious” and “angry,” particularly in relation to design’s response to climate change, an issue on which he has been working with King Charles III, Britain’s new monarch (formerly Prince of Wales). Ive left Apple in 2019 to form his own design consulting firm and recently cut all ties…

Apple didn’t invent the concept of the clipboard—the place where a copied item goes (Command-C)—but the company has made great use of it across decades. It’s handy to always have a place to drop something temporarily. I’ve been baffled, however, since Apple declined to bring the multi-page Scrapbook from System 9 to Mac OS X 10.0 over two decades ago that macOS has never had a built-in way to retain older clipboard items. This has given rise both to dedicated clipboard utilities, like competitor PasteBot, and clipboard-history features in unrelated apps. Paste is among the best of these, providing not just a potentially infinite clipboard history but also synchronization across macOS, iOS, and iPadOS at no additional cost. Once it’s installed, invoke Paste by pressing Command-Shift-V, the default keystroke in macOS across…

Apple includes many hidden thermometers in its Macs and a tachometer for models with one or more fans. In normal usage, you may never give a thought to how hot your performance cores are or how fast a fan is running. But we live in times of extreme temperatures, and some Macs—particularly Intel models—run hot already. TG Pro exposes low-level information Apple tracks and lets you set alerts in case values exceed what’s considered safe for long-term operation. You may want to have a fan or fans kick in sooner or faster than Apple’s default behavior or run your Mac cooler to preserve its longevity. You can view current information via a lengthy dropdown system menu you can customize to reduce the number of entries. Its menu bar item provides a concise…