Inhoudsopgave van August 2018 - MacFormat

Despite entering its 10th year, the App Store has never had an official way to offer trials. Sure, some clever developers found ways around this by making their apps free but locking features behind in-app purchases (IAPs). But Apple has now announced that there will be an easier, simple way to let users try before they buy, and it applies to any kind of app on Mac or iOS. Two years ago, a workaround was created by The Omni Group, which made its apps free on the App Store and gives users two weeks to try out the features of its software before reverting to a more restricted version. It’s a good example of how developers tried to offer free trials before such functionality existed. Apple has now made that…

While the next versions of macOS and iOS were the main event at WWDC, updates were announced for Apple Watch and TV too. Apple Watch will get new features in watchOS 5, but this won’t work with first-gen Watches (which are models from 2015, rather than 2016’s Series 1). A number of those improvements focus on health and fitness. For instance, you will be able to challenge your friends in a competition. Each contest will last seven days and you’ll get one point for every minute of exercise you do. The Workouts app will track yoga and hiking, and you’ll be able to receive alerts if your pace is lagging. Helpfully, the app can automatically detect when you begin and end a workout, even if you don’t open it first.…

We know what you’re thinking: 40 quid for an iPhone and iPad app – are you kidding? Bear in mind that OmniFocus 2 for Mac won our group test of productivity tools (see MacFormat #311), not least because it scales well, so you can use it to manage daily tasks or keep tabs on large projects. Version 3’s new features include the ability to tag tasks to help you manage your life, simultaneous editing of due dates and other metadata across multiple tasks, and inspector panes that can be customised to show only the features you need, in the order you need them. There’s more beyond these features, and we haven’t even mentioned the Pro version! We’ll bring you a full review next issue, but if you’ve already got an…

One of the few details we knew in advance of WWDC was that macOS Mojave will have a system-wide Dark Mode. We knew because developer Steve Troughton-Smith spotted an accidentally released preview of the Xcode development environment running in this mode. That got a cheer of its own from developers when it was shown officially during the keynote. For the rest of us, the new System Preferences option will affect macOS itself, its default apps, and third-party apps that choose to support it. (Apple’s Pro apps already have a dark interface.) The impact of Dark Mode varies. In Safari, not much changes except the title bar, in which tool icons appear in white over grey. In Messages, blue and green bubbles stay the same but everything else becomes dark grey…

Getting a still image or video recording of what’s happening on your Mac’s screen can be useful for many purposes, including showing other people how to do things. Until now, macOS’s screen-grabbing facilities were split between keyboard shortcuts, the Grab utility and QuickTime Player. In Mojave, all these options come together. You can take a still image or recording of the whole screen, a window or a selection, set a timer if necessary, and choose if the cursor will be visible. Before the result is stored in your preferred location, it pops up in the corner of the screen, as in iOS, so you can either ignore it and let it save, or click it to crop, trim or annotate it first. This won’t spell the end for third-party grabbing…

The question for many at this WWDC was: is macOS going to merge with iOS? “To briefly address this question. No.” said Apple software chief and spoilsport Craig Federighi at WWDC. We still can’t rule out a bunker under Apple Park where a terrifying iPhone/Mac/HomePod is slumbering in a tank of liquid paraffin. But with far more apps available on iOS, it turns out that Apple’s ‘Marzipan’ project is really about making it easier to port them to the Mac. In Apple’s Xcode, user interfaces of Mac apps are built using AppKit, while iOS front ends use UIKit. This dates back to when the first iPhone’s OS was forked from Mac OS X, but had to cater for the tiny screen and multitouch input. Soon, UIKit will be available for…

When you open a website, most browsers will show a little icon beside its name in the title of its tab. These ‘favicons’, stored alongside a site’s HTML code, make it recognisable at a glance – ideal when you’ve got 30 tabs open. But Safari doesn’t show favicons in tabs, presumably just because Apple’s designers didn’t want other people’s ugly icons cluttering their interface. Now they’ve relented, and Safari in Mojave and iOS 12 will have an option to show favicons. “Most exciting news coming out of WWDC,” tweeted developer Vivek Kalyan (twitter.com/vivekkalyansk), echoing many other people’s sentiments.…

Rumours abounded before WWDC that iOS 12 would focus heavily on performance. While that wasn’t the only theme of Apple’s mobile software update, it was certainly an important element. Craig Federighi explained at the show that iOS 12 is faster and more responsive than iOS 11 and, interestingly, works with all iOS devices back to 2013 (covering the same devices as iOS 11), back to and including the iPhone 5s. In fact, he said Apple was especially focused on the oldest devices. Federighi used the example of an iPhone 6 Plus running iOS 12. Apps will open up to 40% faster when running iOS 12, he said, while the keyboard appears up to 50% faster. The most impressive improvement that he cited was launching the camera by swiping right at…

You’re probably familiar with Spotlight – press command + [spacebar] and a search window appears. When you type, a list of results is displayed, based on what you typed, and will update dynamically as you edit your search term. Although Spotlight is great for opening apps – and even System Preferences panes – it comes into its own for finding documents. You can quickly navigate the results list using the ▴ and ▾ a arrow keys, and see a preview of what you’ve selected in the list. To jump between categories, use command + ▴ and command + ▾. Open an item with return, or use command + return to show the item, if it’s a file, in Finder. It’s possible to use natural language when searching, with phrases like…

Affinity Photo’s Threshold adjustment turns an image to pure black and white. The traditional approach is to use the adjustment’s slider to control the cutoff point. It works well, but it’s an all-or-nothing effect. Because the Threshold adjustment is a live effect, you’re able to paint on the image underneath the stencil while looking through the adjustment. This means you can then also use the Dodge and Burn tools to brighten and darken the image selectively. Converting the image to black and white is just the first step. Changing the Layer mode from Normal to Multiply will hide all the white, leaving just the black visible – and you’ll need to colour this using the Channel Mixer. Make it more authentic You could just leave it there, but it won’t…

Clips isn’t your everyday video-editing app. Apple designed it with social media in mind – which is obvious from the way it works with square video clips, and images that look best on mobile screens and in web browsers. Although it can be used on the go – snap a clip, make some adjustments and share it on social media – there are lots of clever and powerful tools hidden away behind the scenes to help you deliver striking video clips complete with a veritable smorgasbord of filters and effects. You can also import clips from your iPad’s library – or if you’re looking for a way to spruce up an old video sitting on your Mac’s hard drive, the quickest way to send it across is via AirDrop. Master…

Sporadic shutdowns Q My iMac sometimes shuts down out of the blue when it’s unattended. Apart from installing an SSD in it some time ago, it’s standard and otherwise works fine. Is there something wrong with it? by WILL BURNETT A The best way to discover the reason for this is to read the shutdown cause code from the Mac’s log, shortly after you have started it up again following one of these events. This isn’t easy, but is detailed at bit.ly/mfspcd, where you’ll also see the meanings of various codes. Before proceeding further, restart your Mac in Apple Diagnostics (bit.ly/appldiag) or Hardware Test (bit.ly/applhwt), depending on the age of your Mac, and ensure that there’s no underlying fault in the hardware. If you installed the SSD yourself, it’s worth…

EXPLAINED… Quickly crop your photos Photos provides a number of editing tools to tweak your pictures with minimal effort and in a non-destructive way. These are divided into three tabs: Adjust, Filters and Crop. We’ll address the latter two here. The Filters tab contains nine visual effects for giving your images a striking new look with the click of a button. They are divided into three subsets, consisting of vivid filters, dramatic filters and three different black and white effects. The vivid and dramatic sets have warm, cool and neutral forms, while the monochrome filters allow you to increase the contrast or create a retro, slightly washed out effect. Unfortunately there’s no way to adjust the strength of the filters – you have to settle for all or nothing. Still,…

£375.99 > FROM Fiio, fiio.net FEATURES AIFF, FLAC, Wav and WMA lossless support, 32GB storage (26GB usable), up to 512GB expansion When it comes to playing music at high bit rates, you need to go for a high-resolution audio player. On the left-side of the X5 III you’ll find playback controls and a volume slider; the right side plays host to the power button and dual SD card slots. The X5 comes with 32GB of internal storage and supports up to 512GB expansion using SD cards. On the bottom you’ll find a 3.5mm auxiliary jack, a balanced 2.5mm jack, coaxial output for two digital-to-analogue converters, and a Micro-USB port. On the front you’ll find a 101mm, 800x480-pixel touchscreen; the low resolution means that streaming video is a disappointing experience. The…

The Acer may not have achieved the image quality scores you’d want if you’re a creative pro, but it’s a good choice for gaming and it’s also the cheapest of our contenders. The AOC, meanwhile, is stripped back in terms of features, but its price tag reflects this. For us, the IPS-based display, with its visual consistency across wide viewing angles, makes the BenQ LCD BL2711U a very tempting prospect, but its aesthetics just don’t appeal and the setup isn’t good. The Iiyama ProLite X3272UHS, LG 27UK850-W and Philips 328P6V are all around the £500 mark, and are all well worth a look depending on your needs. LG’s 27UK850-W is a great all-round display if you’re after an affordable 4K panel without compromise The LG won out, though, consistently impressing…

£19.99 > FROM Mailr Tech, canarymail.io NEEDS OS X 10.10 or later The developer of Canary Mail 2 makes the bold claim that the app is ‘Simple, secure, stunning.’ But does this stand up to scrutiny? We think so. Canary is a visually elegant email app with a straightforward three-pane style in its Mac version, and a simpler swipe-driven design in iOS. The default appearance is dark with white text, and it shows a rotating selection of ‘beautiful images’ behind the message pane. It is visually unusual but rather elegant, and it’s not just a pretty face. The security features are easy and powerful, with one-click PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) for encrypted emails, although your recipients must support encryption for this to work. Natural language search means you can search…

Free > FROM Manything Systems, manything.com NEEDS iOS 6 or later (Camera); iOS 8 or later (Viewer) Manything has come up with an app that can transform an old iOS device into a home security camera. Getting started is a snap: register for an account from the first device, then decide if it’ll be the Viewer or the Camera. Install the app on a second device and log in with the same credentials. Tap the red button on the Camera device, and seconds later the live stream appears on your designated Viewer. The app is free, but limited to live streaming from a single camera. Live stream sessions are saved for up to 30 days. Subscription plans (starting at £2.99 per month) add cloud recording. You can adjust video streaming…

From the earliest days of Apple, Steve Jobs showed a talent for the theatrical that his successor, John Sculley, never quite matched. When Jobs returned in January 1997 to the company he co-founded, the stage was set for him to bring back the buzz. By the summer, Jobs had ousted current CEO Gil Amelio and delivered a Macworld Expo keynote that brought cheers – when he took to the podium – and jeers, as he introduced Bill Gates in an unexpected business partnership. But it was in January 1998 that the ‘interim CEO’ added a new dramatic touch. Walking off the stage in San Francisco, after a low-key speech with no hardware to unveil, Jobs stopped. “Oh yeah,” he announced, “we’re profitable.” It was the moment that ended Apple’s period…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! SAVE UP TO 57% Turn to page 30 Apple has washed away our slightly sour experiences of High Sierra by unveiling the most exciting update to macOS in quite a few years. During its annual conference for developers, it announced a range of improvements that will tempt you to upgrade this autumn, along with a feast of features coming in iOS 12. Whether your preferred Apple device is a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad, this year’s updates contain many valuable new capabilities. For starters, there’s a proper Dark Mode on the Mac, plus better management of the files we all tend to drop on our desktops, and a highly informative Gallery view in Finder. Your iOS devices will be more proactive in helping you, thanks to improved Siri…

Last issue, we reported that new Spectre-like exploits had been discovered in Intel chips. The company has now released beta patches to ‘operating system vendors, equipment manufacturers, and ecosystem partners’ to fix what it terms the ‘Variant 4’ exploit. Intel says the vulnerability has a ‘moderate’ severity rating because a number of the issues it causes have already been addressed by patches released back in January for the original Spectre and Meltdown exploits. Still, you should ensure your system is as up to date as possible to mitigate any potential risk. You can keep an eye on the content of security updates for all Apple operating systems at bit.ly/secupds.…

Since its release in 2015, Apple’s ‘butterfly’ switch in its MacBook keyboards has been divisive. While some users love the new feel, others are less keen on the keys, which feature less travel than the previous ‘scissor’ design on Apple’s keyboards. But now things are getting more serious. Apple is facing a lawsuit in the US over its butterfly keyboards failing, in some cases developing completely unresponsive keys. The lawsuit claims that Apple knew about the ‘defect’ before or at launch, but has failed to alert its users about the issue. Apple has created a support page explaining how to clean your keyboard with a can of compressed air, but some users have stated this has not fixed their problem. The lawsuit further alleges that the switch design allows dust…

macOS Mojave in depth Cover Flow, invented by artist Andrew Coulter Enright and introduced to iTunes in 2006, was a visual method of browsing files that was so popular – at least inside Apple – that it proliferated through macOS for years like the Japanese knotweed of user experiences. Still an option in High Sierra’s Finder windows, it shows files in a sort of fan that you slide left to right, foregrounding the item in the centre. Unfortunately, the more prominent the effect, the more space it wastes. So, after being removed or toned down across much of the Mac’s interface, Mojave’s Finder replaces it with Gallery view. This shows a row of thumbnails below a plain, large preview of the current item, with metadata – the file size, creation…

iOS12 in depth Last year, Apple bought Workflow, a brilliant automation app from a small team led by Ari Weinstein (twitter.com/ariX), the former iPhone jailbreaker who also co-created VotePlz, a tech platform that helped first-time voters get to the polls in the 2016 US election. We now know that Workflow will evolve into an official app called Shortcuts, but that’s still in the future. For now, iOS 12 gets automation in the form of suggestions that appear on your Lock screen and in Spotlight searches, generated by your own actions. The ultimate time-saver Siri Shortcuts, for the moment, consist of single tasks that you could carry out in a particular app. A shortcut might do something as simple as opening a Music playlist, or – where developers choose to build…

iOS12 in depth The upcoming iOS update will feature version 2 of ARKit, supporting apps that let virtual objects interact in real spaces, via the camera, on your screen. ARKit 2 will recognise more types of surfaces, and the augmented world can be preserved for later, with objects in place, or shared in real time for multiplayer AR. These capabilities were demoed using a game built by LEGO. Matt Moss (twitter.com/thefuturematt), one of 350 students awarded WWDC scholarships, quickly released an iPhone demo of on-screen buttons operated just by looking at them. He pointed out the accessibility potential of this. ‘Nope ads won’t abuse this,’ tweeted more cynical security engineer Josh Pitts (twitter.com/midnite_runr). Tara Reddy (twitter.com/taralouisereddy), whose social gaming startup LoveShark plans to release its first title in July, sees…

In the iWork apps, you can use boxes and stars to add pizzazz in Pages, put stats on a map in Numbers, or add symbols to slides in Keynote. There are hundreds of shapes in the library, categorised so they’re easy to find. You can give shapes drop shadows or reflections, flip or rotate them, or change their colours. Complex objects, made of several shapes, can be broken apart. Single-object shapes can also be transformed: ctrl - click one and choose Make Editable to be able to adjust lines and curves to suit you. The real magic comes from combining shapes: the Unite option joins them in a single shape; Intersect keeps only the overlapping bits; Subtract removes overlaps; and Exclude combines shapes while deleting overlaps. These options are good…

These days, many people get news through social media. But those networks offer scattershot algorithmic feeds, and are heavily invested in user interaction. In other words, they want you to stay on their sites, not head off to read stories elsewhere. By contrast, RSS (Rich Site Summary) is all about curating your own news feeds, focusing on sources you know, like and trust, in the knowledge you won’t miss headlines that matter. With RSS, sites offer feeds that are retrieved and presented by news aggregators. You, the reader, use an aggregator to subscribe to feeds, freeing you from regularly manually checking a site, and giving you a nice interface through which to read the content. In our walkthrough, you’ll learn how to set up Feedly on your iPhone – it’s…

Mail Drop drops attachments Q I tried sending an email from my iCloud account using Mail. It had six attachments, totalling over 30MB in Finder. The first attachment uploaded fine to iCloud’s Mail Drop service (text at the top of the message said so), but the upload of the others didn’t work. Why not, and how can I send them? by ADAM STRANG A Mail Drop is a valuable service, as it works around limits imposed by mail servers and clients by sending the recipient a link from which they can download large attachments, rather than including them as part of the message. According to bit.ly/mfmdrop, whichever version of mail you use, Mail Drop imposes a limit of 5GB on the total size of a single message including all its…

EXPLAINED… How to get around in Photos Your Mac is an ideal place to store all your photos and home videos, given most models are equipped with hundreds of gigabytes of storage. You can import pictures from your camera using the Image Capture app that’s included with macOS and then organise them into folders, but Apple’s Photos app offers a more visual approach to photo management. Not only that, but if you need to find a certain image, the search function in Photos is the perfect tool. It’s able to recognise places and faces thanks to location metadata and machine learning, making it simple to search for images. When you connect your camera or iOS device to your Mac, it appears under the Devices heading in Photos’ left pane. Select…

EXPLAINED… The Adjust tab Although it may not look like it, Photos has a lot of power lurking under the surface. You will find its most powerful tools in the Adjust tab in the top bar. There are 13 different categories of adjustments: Light, Color, Black & White, Retouch, Red-eye, White Balance, Levels, Curves, Definition, Selective Color, Noise Reduction, Sharpen and Vignette. The first three of these provide a slider to easily tweak your image, along with an expandable Options menu with more detailed adjustments. The Retouch and Red-eye sections are slightly different in that they give you a brush that you can use to ‘paint’ areas of your image. Photos will then attempt to remove any blemishes and areas of red-eye from the area in question. The Noise Reduction…

£199 (32GB), £249 (64GB) FROM Oculus, oculus.com FEATURES 5.5in 2560x1440-pixel display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 with Dynamic Throttling, 2-hour battery life for games, 2.5 hours for media Nobody has managed to make VR affordable, easy to use and comfortable – until now Oculus Rift kickstarted the current wave of interest in virtual reality. VR’s issue, though, is nobody has made it affordable, easy to use and comfortable – until now. At £199, Oculus Go is eminently cheaper than Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and it really is plug and play. The screen resolution is actually higher than Oculus Rift’s, though the graphical results aren’t anywhere close. The refresh rate on the Go is 72Hz compared to Rift’s 90, and Rift tethers to a computer with a better graphics processor. Go is…

£116.40 > FROM Akitio, akitio.com FEATURES USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, two 2.5in bays, hardware RAID This enclosure contains two vacant bays for you to fit the disks of your choice. To do so, you’ll need a screwdriver to open it and secure the disks in place. You set the array type – striped, mirrored, separate disks, or combined capacities in one volume – by changing the arrangement of jumpers on pins, connecting the drive and pressing a button on the circuit board. This might be familiar if you’ve owned a PC, and though uncommon for Mac add-ons, it’s simple enough. By virtue of being an internal setting, you can be sure the mode will only be altered purposefully. The USB-C port supplies up to 15W of power to a…

£159.95 > FROM Lifeprint, lifeprintphotos.com FEATURES Augmented Reality technology, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth As if by magic, Lifeprint plays the Live Photo within the print’s frame The Lifeprint concept is an intriguing one: rather than just wirelessly print photos from your iPhone, it enables you to bring them to life. To do that, choose a Live Photo, video, GIF or other animated format and print it; then fire up the Lifeprint app and hold your phone’s camera over the printed image. As if by magic, it plays the Live Photo or video within the frame of the print. It’s a clever idea, but whether it’s more than a novelty is another matter. Another feature takes it beyond being just a curio, however. Friends who both have Lifeprint hardware can send photos to…

$29.99 (about £22) > FROM Micromat, micromat.com NEEDS OS X 10.8.5 or later Hard drives are the weakest link in the Mac chain, since they’re more likely to fail before other components. That’s why manufacturers implement SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) to predict drive failure. This data is usually tucked away, revealed only if you check its status in Disk Utility. Micromat’s Drive Scope goes well beyond the basic SMART capabilities of the company’s TechTool Pro by offering a far more granular look into the health of connected storage. Hard drives typically run diagnostics while idle, but Drive Scope can initiate self-testing at the click of a button. It’s almost information overload, but the software provides plenty of useful stats for non-techies, like uptime hours, total power cycles, and…

£39 > FROM Retrospect, retrospect.com NEEDS OS X 10.6 or later Retrospect 15, which can back up your Mac to attached drives, networked storage, and cloud services, includes a new edition. As ‘Solo’ suggests, it’s the one to pick if you have just one Mac to back up and want something better than Time Machine. It uses the same interface as other versions, including the useful summary page, which confirms recent activity, how much data has been backed up, estimates the space you’ll need this week and month, and more. Backups can be filtered with a comprehensive set of conditions, and scheduling can be tailored to suit. Backup options include two levels of file verification, password-protected encryption, and catalogues you can search even when the corresponding media is unavailable. A…

This year’s operating system updates for the Mac, iPhone and iPad have been unveiled, and they look compelling. macOS 10.14 Mojave and iOS 12 are due for release in the autumn, and Apple released a ton of info about the updates during its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at the start of June. So, dive into our analysis of what’s coming to your Apple devices later this year. The updates include much-needed improvements to the Mac desktop and Finder, a huge overhaul for the Mac App Store, several new apps (including Home, so you can control your smart accessories from your Mac at last), the ability to monitor how much time you’re spending on your iOS devices, a smarter and more proactive Siri to help you get things done faster in…

Mojave apps get a new contextual submenu: Insert from your iPhone or iPad. This connects wirelessly to your iOS device, unlocks it, opens the Camera app, then imports whatever you shoot into your document. It’ll work initially in Apple apps including Mail, Notes and Pages. The options are Take Photo and Scan Document, which looks for a rectangular page in the frame and automatically deskews it. Way better than trying to snap your face or a bit of paper using your Mac’s built-in camera. We wonder if it’ll eventually be extended to video, making the live feed already accessible via QuickTime Player available to other tasks – that currently requires a cabled connection for iOS devices, but already works wirelessly with Apple TV 4K.…

macOS Mojave in depth With more than two million apps available for iOS, many developers felt it was increasingly difficult to get noticed, a concern that Apple addressed last year with an overhaul of the App Store’s interface on iOS. That’s now making its way to macOS, where the Mac App Store doesn’t have exclusive dibs on software distribution. As demoed by App Store product marketing manager Ann Thai, Mojave’s Mac App Store reflects the new focus on discoverabilty. Apps are divided into supercategories – Create, Work, Play, and Develop, the last aimed at app makers themselves – and, as in iOS, the front page offers feature articles about new apps, developers and users. ‘Editor’s Choice’ recommendations draw your attention, while user ratings and reviews are also prominent, with new…

With Facebook’s privacy scandal, GDPR and targeted fake news, it’s been a turbulent year for companies that gather data on users and hire it out to clients. For Apple, which makes its money from hardware and has avoided getting into the personal data business, it’s a vindication. “One of the reasons people choose Apple products is because of our commitment to security and privacy,” said a slightly smug Craig Federighi. Data in your iPhone or iCloud is already encrypted, and Apple has been nagging us all to activate two-factor authentication. Another issue, though, is information you send to websites, like passwords and credit card numbers. This is safeguarded in transit by the web’s SSL security, but key risks are people guessing your weak passwords or a data breach leaking a…

There’s untapped potential in your input devices. Fortunately, this can be unleashed using BetterTouchTool. A few issues ago (MF #325), we explored how this utility can radically transform your Mac’s trackpad, and now we’re outlining how it can power up your keyboard and mouse. Once you’ve opened BetterTouchTool, it’ll appear in the menu bar. Click its icon and choose Preferences to open the configuration window. Underneath the toolbar, you’ll see tabs that detail input methods you can tailor. As you start experimenting with actions and gestures, you’ll quickly find out how powerful – and useful – BetterTouchTool can be. Avoid gestures you’re not comfortable performing, and creating shortcuts that clash with existing ones in apps you use. (If necessary, restrict where shortcuts work by using the App Specific sidebar item.)…

Copied takes and stores for later reference whatever you send to the Clipboard Sometimes it’s hard to keep track of things: that great quote you read somewhere, a clever tip, a recommendation, or information you need for work. With Copied (free, copiedapp.com), you can capture all those things, find them again later, and use them in whatever app you fancy. Copied takes and stores for later reference whatever you send to the Clipboard, drag from another app, capture with its Today widget or send via the iOS Share sheet. It can’t monitor in the background – iOS won’t let it – but you can solve that limitation by using it in Slide Over mode whenever you want to copy and save multiple items. It also has its own basic web…

Poor Wi-Fi connection Q Recently, my iPad Air 2 has suffered slow and fragile Wi-Fi connection to the internet. My Macs manage around 50Mbps, but the best the iPad can do is 12Mbps much of the time. How can I restore its previously good connection? by LIZ DENTON A The first thing to try is to simply shut down your iPad, leave it off for 20 seconds or so, and turn it back on. Also, check out Apple’s support article about causes of interference on 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks (bit.ly/wifiprob) in case anything it mentions has recently changed in your home. Devices should choose 2.4GHz or 5GHz based on signal quality Try setting up your iPad’s connection to the network from scratch. Take it within fairly close range of the router,…

When I first put down the cash on some smart lights – a Philips Hue starter kit – I was so obsessed with playing with the app that the whole house turned into a technicolour nightmare. This was, admittedly, not the best introduction to smart lighting, making me feel like I’d wasted my money on more of an indulgent toy than a useful home accessory. Over time (to my wife’s relief and my kids’ dismay), I really refined the way I used the Hue bulbs, cutting down the colour for only odd occasions, and using the special features of the lights to help me work and relax. I’m now so used to smart lights, I honestly couldn’t do without them. I’ve even managed to convince friends and family to get…

One of the great things about Apple’s ecosystem is the deep integration with Apple services. A good example of that is iCloud Photo Library. It automatically uploads every photo and video you take to iCloud, meaning you can access them all from any of your Apple devices. You get 5GB of storage space for free with iCloud. While that sounds like plenty, don’t forget that it also covers things like files you store in iCloud Drive, plus your iCloud emails and attachments in Mail. Because of that, 5GB might not be enough to store all of your photos, especially if you have a large library, so it’s worth checking out iCloud’s paid tiers. However, it’s important to remember that you should not use iCloud Photo Library as a back-up service…

The great thing about Photos is it’s hugely expandable. If you like its interface but wish it gave you even more powerful controls, there are plenty of extensions you can plug in and use to gain the type of extra functionality you need. On this page we’ve rounded up some of our favourites. Most of the time you buy a complete app and get access to its extension (or extensions), but sometimes you’ll be able to buy standalone Photos extensions without needing to buy an app as well. It’s also possible to get free extensions if you only need lightweight tools and want to save some money. Affinity Photo > £48.99 > affinity.serif.com Affinity Photo is our favourite photo editor for the Mac, and it comes with a bunch of…

£499 > FROM Netgear, netgear.co.uk FEATURES 1080p video, sound and motion detection with optional siren, night vision, cloud storage options Weather resistance means you can mount Arlo Pro 2 indoors or outdoors Although it’s currently owned by US tech giant Netgear – a company best known for its routers – it’s recently been reported that Arlo is about to be spun off as a separate company due to its success. Certainly Arlo has gained a reputation for producing a range of solidly built internet cameras, although how it will fare going it alone against offerings from companies such as Amazon and Google remains to be seen. The Arlo Pro 2 is one of its high-end security systems. Although billed as a wireless solution, the pack comes with its own base…

£41.99 > FROM Mixcder, mixcder.com FEATURES Active noise cancellation, 400mAh battery, Bluetooth, 3.5mm connection, 40mm drivers, microphone Mixcder’s closed-back E7 sails into the under-£50 price bracket, despite featuring active noise cancelling. The Mixcder E7 has a foam-covered headband and luxurious ear cups, clad in a soft leather-like covering. That headband is notched and adjustable to fit. For a set of headphones primarily made of plastic, they feel sturdy and are largely comfortable. Each ear cup can rotate 90° – great for resting around the neck. A case is also included. The Mixcder E7 is nominally a Bluetooth set, and the USB-charged 400mAh battery means you’re unlikely to be let down unexpectedly. Even if the battery does run flat, you can plug in a cable and keep listening in wired mode…

£319 > FROM Apple, apple.com/uk FEATURES AirPlay 2, stereo pairing, Siri voice control, touch-sensitive top surface, space grey or white HomePod’s latest software update adds stereo pairing, and multiroom playback from iOS devices Apple’s smart speaker was missing two promised features, but the recent 11.4 software updates have delivered them. First, you can use two HomePods in a stereo pair, and it’s really easy to do: when you set up a second HomePod and say it’s in the same room as the first, pairing is suggested as an option, and you’re given a way to specify which HomePod is the left one and which is the right. Ask Siri to play something and audio comes from both HomePods, perfectly in sync. If you stream something to the speaker over AirPlay,…

$24 (about £18)/year > FROM Bookmark OS, bookmarkos.com FEATURES Chrome/Firefox extensions; bookmarklet for others Bookmark OS is a bookmark organising app that’s accessed from within a browser. For us, the fewer separate apps we have sitting in our Applications folder, the better. As a browser-based service, you can access it from anywhere on any device, but you do need to set up an account and log into it. You can import from any browser that exports bookmarks as an HTML file. There’s a bookmarklet for the Favourites bar in Safari that enables you to add new sites at the press of a button. Or rather, at the press of a button, followed by another button to select a folder, followed by a third button to save. This workflow allows you…