Inhoudsopgave van March 2019 - MacFormat

Apple is known as something of a profit machine, which is why its latest results came as a surprise. At the start of January, ahead of posting its final results, the company revised expected earnings downwards by several billion dollars. In a letter to investors, Tim Cook said a number of factors were at play, including an economic slowdown in China, a high number of new products shipping at the same time, the strong US dollar, and the timing of recent launches compared to the year before. Cook also said discounted battery replacements led to fewer people upgrading iPhones. Still, it wasn’t all bad news. Wearables and services grew incredibly well – combined with Mac and iPad, by 19 per cent year on year.…

These days, iOS is more transparent about what’s affecting battery life and offers greater control over it. Go to Settings > Battery to see charts of power usage and identify thirsty apps. If you spot a big fall on the 24-hour chart, tap on that time period. The app list below then shows the greediest apps in that period only. Tap Show Activity to see if that app was in use (shown as Screen On). If an app is greedy when the screen is off, it may help to turn off its switch in Settings > General > Background App Refresh. Also go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services and switch problematic apps to While Using only. The biggest power drain is a device’s screen. Auto-Brightness (in Settings >…

The Accessibility features in iOS 12 aren’t just for users with disabilities. Among them are great options for customising your device and getting more from it. Start by going to Settings > General > Accessibility. The Magnifier is fantastic anytime you want a closer look at something, such as reading serial numbers or tiny labels. It’s much better than using the Camera app and zooming in, because it can zoom in further than 10x and includes built-in filters, brightness and contrast controls to help make text and fine detail easier to decipher in various situations. Once turned on, call up the Magnifier by triple-clicking the side button (formerly called the sleep/wake button) on iPhones and iPads without a Home button, or triple-clicking the Home button on older models. If you…

You’ve seen how to assign a new ringtone to a specific contact at the time of creation but, of course, you can assign ringtones at any time. Open the Contacts app, tap a contact, then Edit (top right). Tap Ringtone and choose the tone you want to hear for incoming calls from that person. Want to be able to tell who’s calling even if the ringer is off? You can assign different vibrations from Apple’s presets to your contacts, or even create your own vibration patterns – so to make sure you don’t miss those vital calls from the boss, you might set The Imperial March from Star Wars for the ringtone and a particularly insistent vibration. On the page where you assign a contact’s ringtone, tap Vibration, then Create…

USB-C is now standard on all MacBooks and the new iPad Pro. A welcome change from earlier USB versions is that the plug fits the port either way round. A more important difference is that a USB-C cable can have the same plug on both ends. Previously, you could use a USB Micro-B cable to connect cameras, speakers, battery packs and other accessories to any wall charger with a USB-A port. The charger would deliver, by default, one unit load of power, defined as 100 milliamps, or 150 mA for SuperSpeed (USB 3), at 5 volts. If the product was smart enough to send a ‘configuration descriptor’, this could specify a higher maximum, and the charger would deliver as much power as it could, up to that limit, for faster…

1 Choose your image Select an image in your doc, go to the Format inspector’s Image tab and click the Instant Alpha button. Move the pointer over the image and it’ll change to crosshairs. 2 Identify areas Put them over a colour you want to be transparent and click and drag over any contiguous areas you want to include. Let go. For discontiguous areas, option-click and drag over them. 3 Apply the mask To add a masked colour back in, shift-click it. Keep going, option-clicking to add or shift-clicking to subtract. Click Done when ready to apply the mask.…

1 Choose your chart Click the Chart button in the toolbar and choose between 2D, 3D and interactive types, then pick a pie, doughnut, bar, line or scatter chart style. Your chosen chart will appear on the page, where you can drag it into position and resize it. 2 Select the cells With the chart selected, click Add Chart Data and select the cells you want to use to plot it. Use the menu at the bottom left of the window to specify whether you want to use rows or columns as the data series. Click Done. 3 Changing and editing To restyle a chart, select it and use the Format inspector to apply a preset or make and save a new style. Explore the tabs to edit settings like…

Every manufacturer worth its salt seems to create its own unique way of addressing its own cabal of smart kit, whether it makes sense to do so or not. We’re given an unending stream of apps, each of which works slightly differently from the other. Apple’s HomeKit tech (which debuted in iOS 8) and companion Home app (iOS 10) are, in many ways, a solution to that mess, specifically made for Apple device owners. It’s a consistent way for a wide range of smart kit to connect to a single common ecosystem. HomeKit compatibility means multiple accessories from multiple manufacturers can be administered in one place, while still being accessible from their usual control apps. That could mean Apple’s own Home app, recently ported to macOS Mojave, or a third-party…

Manifesto – our ratings explained Our reviews are totally independent; we’re not affiliated with Apple or anyone else, nor are we influenced by advertisers. You can trust us to give an honest assessment of a product’s worth. The prices quoted for products are correct at the time of writing and are the best we can find from a reputable online dealer, excluding delivery. A brilliant thing in all regards, and worth every penny Strongly recommended; any flaws are only minor concerns Worth considering, though there may be better options Notable flaws; look at alternatives as a priority A waste of your money and everyone’s time; do not buy! The MACFORMAT Awards Awarded to a five-star product we believe is truly exceptional in its category. Given solely at the discretion of…

Jo Membery Operations Editor Jo’s loving setting up new iOS Shortcuts – see page 30. Although she can’t find an action for ‘Get the kids to clean their teeth and go to bed’. Alex Blake Commissioning Editor Alex is thinking of booking a massage. Well, after lugging around ‘full to the brim’ backpacks for weeks for our group test, he needs some TL C! Paul Blachford Art Editor Paul’s fed up with commuting into work in his boring old car – after seeing the walking car and flying taxi from our CES special report this issue.…

We asked… In light of the latest iPhone sales challenges, what iPhone are you using? Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat Black Mirror episode not on Apple TV While Apple is expanding its TV reach to third-party sets, there’s some bad news elsewhere. The Black Mirror TV series’ Bandersnatch episode will not work on Apple TV. The choose-your-own-adventure lets your decisions impact the story, but you’ll have to use an iOS or Android device, a web browser on your Mac, a smart TV, a games console or a streaming media player. Netflix’s Apple TV app warns: “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is only available on devices that support interactive content. No linear version is available.” Netflix did not respond to our request for comment by the time of…

Mail has some useful Smart Mailboxes that save time, such as Today. Tap Edit (top of the Mailboxes list), put a tick next to those you want to use, then tap Done. You can easily filter the contents of the current mailbox. Under the list of messages, tap the circle with three lines of decreasing size in it, then tap the filter description to the right to set criteria for messages, such as being unread or flagged, the account sent to, or with attachments, then tap Done. To turn off the filter, tap the circle. To jump to the top of the current mailbox, tap at the top-centre of the column. This works elsewhere in iOS – try it in Safari. Not receiving notifications of new messages in certain mailboxes,…

Manage tabs quickly Tap the tabs icon (the two overlapping squares) to see open tabs; tap one to view it. Turn an iPhone sideways to view as non-overlapping thumbnails – great for sifting through a lot of them. Hold a finger on the tabs icon for options to close the current tab or all tabs, or open a new regular or private tab. Step back in time Accidentally closed a tab? In the tabs overview (or while viewing a page on iPad), hold a finger on the + to access a list of recently closed tabs, then tap the one you want to reopen it. To return to a page previously viewed in the current tab, hold a finger on the back arrow and choose from the list. Tabs on…

Alongside iOS 12, Apple introduced Shortcuts, an improved version of the Workflow app it acquired in 2017. If you want to learn more about this app, we published a dedicated guide in issue 332. The illustrated examples here are simple and show how this tool can make life with iOS even better. Clean up screenshots 1 Retrieve recent screenshots Search for Get Latest Screenshots (or, if you prefer to explore the action library by browsing it, look in the Photos & Video category). Tap the action to add it to the shortcut. Tell it to get a sensibly low quantity – say, 20. 2 Decide on what to delete Add the ‘Choose from List’ action. Set its prompt to ‘Choose screenshots to delete’ and turn on its Select Multiple switch.…

NEW IDEAS Your in-depth guide to getting more from your Apple kit TAILOR YOUR MAC’S TOOLBARS p40 Understand iOS gestures A tap is a brief contact of (usually) one finger on your device’s screen. To drag is to move a finger across the screen to scroll or pan around content. Swipe means move one or more fingers across an item or the screen, then let go. A flick is like swiping, but it’s quicker, and is often used to scroll content more quickly. Pinch means move two fingers together or apart, usually to zoom in or out. Touch and hold means lightly rest your finger on an item and wait for a reaction. Master Mac keyboard shortcuts When you see a shortcut like command+option+C, hold all but the last key,…

There are various reasons why a film-maker might want to alter the colour and tones of footage. Clips may be incorrectly exposed or suffer from colour casts, for example. These problems can occur when shooting on Auto or in contrasting lighting conditions. An editor may also want to creatively adjust (or ‘grade’) their footage to create a particular look, such as making their material look colourful and warm, or washed out and cold, to evoke a particular mood. Amateur film-makers might use in-camera settings to create high contrasting and vibrantly coloured clips. These clips are harder to adjust in postproduction apps, because tonal details may be missing from the footage. Professional video makers often shoot using a neutral camera setting that produces clips with a flat contrast and drab colours.…

EXPERT ADVICE Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems Q I’m about to upgrade to a new Mac mini, but I’m concerned about its T2 chip and encryption. Do these cause problems cloning its internal storage? Can I turn off encryption? by CARL HORSTMAN A Macs with a T2 chip use it as a disk controller for the internal SSD with inline encryption, but it doesn’t encrypt external storage. There’s no option to turn off inline encryption, which happens automatically regardless of FileVault. When you turn on FileVault, your password becomes part of the encryption key. Leave FileVault off and your password isn’t used for encryption, but the built-in secret key still is. All software, including Time Machine and other backup and cloning tools, therefore has full access…

Spruce up your shapes Shapes are a type of object. You can either choose one from the shapes library or create your own. Once you’ve chosen or drawn a shape, you can apply an existing style to it from the Format inspector, or edit its attributes manually to make a new style, as for text. Shapes can be filled with solid colours, gradients or images, and can have shadows and reflections applied to them. The shapes library Pages’ shapes library has dozens of pre-drawn designs. Click the Shapes tool in the toolbar to browse them. To add a shape, drag it from the library into your document. Many shapes are made up of smaller ones you can edit individually: ctrl-click one in your doc and choose Break Apart. Apply it…

Keynote is Apple’s presentation tool, its equivalent of Microsoft Office’s PowerPoint. However, it can do a great deal more than just create slides, thanks to its support for rich media like audio and video. You can use it to create standalone animations, interactive projects, or even to mock up websites and apps — though you’ll need to import frame templates for those. Video and audio files that you import need to be in a format supported by QuickTime, so MP4 is safest, though other formats will work as long as they do in QuickTime Player. Audio can be recorded inside Keynote, which is useful if you want to record a narration track. And both video and audio can be set to start automatically, by clicking a mouse or trackpad, or…

iPad Using an iPad as a home hub makes creating automations straightforward, but it’ll have to be at home, online and plugged in for your more advanced HomeKit routines to work. Note that it’ll need to be running iOS 11 or later. Apple TV The cheapest home hub option, and a great TV streamer. If automation’s your goal, get one. Note: Apple TV (3rd generation) allows remote control of accessories, not automation; you’ll need an Apple TV 4K (4th gen) for the latter. HomePod As much as we love it, it’s hard to ignore the price of Apple’s smart speaker against other smart competition – but it’s an energy-efficient set-and-forget option that doubles as a way to tie Siri into your whole home.…

£449.95 FROM Insta360, insta360.com FEATURES 360° camera with 5.7K video resolution, gyro stabilisation, MicroSD card slot, bullet-time handle and folding tripod, selfie stick, charging cable, two batteries, storage bag Want to shoot 360° ‘virtual reality’ photos and videos? Insta360’s new ONE X is the latest in this field. We checked out the ONE X camera bundle – a kit containing everything you need, including a monopod and a bullet-time handle with mini tripod legs. The ONE X captures everything around it at once, thanks to a pair of fisheye lenses poking out of each side of the compact body. There are two multifunction buttons and a small screen that shows the current shooting mode and settings. Just hold the camera up and press the shutter button to grab a 360°…

Test 1 Storage Room enough to carry the day? At 27.5 litres, the Knomo Cromwell is easily the most capacious, and the roll-top design means you can expand it in order to fit more inside. However, it can be fiddly to open and the bag is so deep that things can get lost inside. The other bags have similar volumes to each other, hovering just below 20 litres, but the Kånken feels deceptively roomy thanks to its layout: it has one large pocket, with the second pocket being a simple slot for your MacBook. The Britannia also has one main pocket, but it’s designed for the briefcase orientation, making it awkward if you use it as a backpack. The drawback of the Booq’s excellent padding is that space feels compromised…

Welcome to MacFormat’s Store Guide, the place to go to find out about all the Apple kit that matters, whether you’re looking for your next iPhone or a powerful new desktop Mac. We’ve highlighted the model of each product that’s ideally suited to your needs, whether you’re a recent convert or a seasoned Apple user. So be sure to check our handy tables to see which Mac, iPad or iPhone is best for you. We’ve also handpicked the gold standard in audio, storage, monitors, and many other categories, helping you complement your Mac or iOS device with the best accessories. All of these third-party devices have been reviewed in the magazine. UPDATED OCT 2018 EXPECTED LATE 2019 Mac mini From £799 It was a long wait, but Apple has finally…

GET ON INSTAGRAM Share your images with us by using the hashtag #MacFormat and we’ll print the best here in the magazine. While you’re there, follow @MacFormat (Twitter) and @MacFormatUK (Instagram). Over, over Douglas to MacFormat As Douglas has said about his photo, he’s managed to capture the curve of the building and its scale – standing at 160m – when compared to the smaller, older buildings alongside. 20 Fenchurch Street, aka the Walkie-Talkie, is a 38-storey building housing office space and the Sky Garden. The glass-domed roof area features landscaped gardens and an open-air terrace. And there are some rather pricey bars should you fancy a high-rise cocktail! Share your pics with us using the hashtag #MacFormat on Instagram. In each issue, we’ll pick our favourite to feature on…

AR MAPS ON iOS PATENT TO PROJECT MAPS ONTO SURFACES Apple has been making a push into augmented reality (AR), and a recent patent from the company suggests it may soon let you project detailed 3D data from Apple Maps onto a flat surface using your iPhone. If the concept comes to fruition, it could be a useful tool if you’re visiting an unfamiliar city and want a better overview of the area. TRIPLE-LENS CAMERAS RUMOUR: NEW iPHONES TO GET EXTRA LENSES If the rumours are right, Apple is currently working on a triple-lens camera for its next iPhones. The rear camera lenses will be arranged in a trianglular configuration, says serial leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer, and will debut on the 2019 iPhones this September. The design is unusual, but Hemmerstoffer…

You know you can apply filters by tapping the three-circles icon in the Camera app or later in the Photos app. Remember, filters are non-destructive – you can open an image in Photos, tap Edit, then the three-circle icon and remove the filter’s effects (by tapping Original or the active filter’s thumbnail), swap it for another, or reapply it, at any time, whether originally applied in the Camera app or Photos. Want even more filters to play with? If you have another photo-editing or effects app installed, you can use its filters too, within the Photos app. Open a picture in Photos, tap Edit, then tap the three-dot More icon. The first time you do this, tap More on the sheet that pops up (at the far right), and enable…

Messages is overhauled in iOS 12. On iPhone X and newer, you get custom Memoji and four new Animoji; all of these can detect when you wink or poke out your tongue. On iPhones with iOS 12, when composing a message, the different kinds of content you can include are available via buttons below the message area. Tap the camera icon to take a selfie; as well as filters, you can add text bubbles and animated shapes. These ‘attach’ to the face in the frame, so a speech bubble will follow you if you move around, for example. Hold a finger on a message or inline content for options to copy, save, forward or delete it. 1 Conversation options Tap the person’s pic or name (top of a conversation) for…

Telling your iPhone apart in a crowd when a notification sound plays can be challenging. But you can turn any project you’ve composed in the free GarageBand app into a new ringtone or alert sound. Ringtones can be 40 seconds max. If longer, GarageBand will trim from the track’s start on export. At the Project Chooser, hold a finger on one and choose Share from the options bar when it appears. Choose Ringtone, set a name, then tap Export. In the confirmation pop-up, tap Use Sound As, or tap OK to finish; the tone is added to the list you can choose from in Settings > Sounds & Haptics later. The Use Sound As option lets you set the tone as your new standard ringtone or standard text tone, or…

We covered iOS 12’s headline features in issue 331, but behind them are some very cool extras, tricks and options… Peek at hyperlinks In many apps you can press and hold on a website link to preview its destination. Then, swipe up slightly to find four useful options. Open in Background sends the link to Safari without leaving your current app, so it’s ready when you go there. Add to Reading List makes the page available to catch up on later through that browser feature and, if Settings > Safari > Automatically Save Offline is turned on, even if you have no internet connection. Copy puts the link on the Clipboard, while Share opens the Share sheet, from which you can send it directly to an app, a service or…

Adware popping up on old iOS Q We use an old iPad mini that’s running iOS 9.3.5 to control our Sonos system. When trying Chrome on it, a persistent pop-up appeared announcing “Congratulations! Google Benutzer!” telling me I’d been “selected to win today’s prize”. What should I do next? by DAVID HIGNET A Thankfully that’s not actually malware, but well-known adware, though that can be almost as annoying. If you can, clear Chrome’s history immediately, then force it to quit (see bit.ly/mffqios). Next, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Scroll down the list of apps until you locate Chrome, tap it, and tap Delete App. That will remove the app and all its data from your iPad. Turn your iPad off, wait a few seconds, then turn it…

Pages, Numbers and Keynote are packed with creative possibilities, from making time-saving reusable styles, to keeping a picture alongside a particular bit of text, to removing a picture’s background in a few seconds. These and many more features are in Apple’s three free apps, but they’re not always obvious, so you need to know where to find them and how to control them. Whether you’re coming to the apps with a clean start, or have tinkered with them before but stumbled over how to achieve the perfect effect or whip your workflow into shape, our quick-start guide will soon have you whizzing through the apps to make documents that impress.…

In professional page layout tools, objects can either standalone on a page, in which case they remain in place regardless of what you do to the text, or they can be anchored to text and move with it. The latter is useful if, for example, you want to associate a headshot of a writer with a story’s byline. You can do it in Pages too, but only for documents that are set to the word processing type, not page layout, which is one of those oddities we mentioned earlier. To check what kind you’re working with, click the Document icon in the toolbar and look at the Document Body checkbox. If it’s ticked, you’re working with a word processing doc. (You can convert between types in the File menu –…

HOW TO Add a HomeKit device 1 Scan it in Open the Home app, and tap the + button or, if you’re new to Home, tap Add Accessory. Allow location access, then point your camera at the HomeKit tag of your new accessory. It’ll either be stuck to it, or included in its manual. 2 Pick and place Give Home a little while to hunt around for the accessory, and tap it when it appears on the screen. If not yet added to your home’s Wi-Fi network, accept the offer to do this. The device will now be added to your smart home setup. 3 Assign to a room Before playing with the newly added hardware, attach it to the right room – you’ll be glad of this when you…

From £119.99 FROM Amazon, amazon.co.uk FEATURES Wi-Fi (+ 4G option), Bluetooth for audiobooks, 300ppi touchscreen, waterproof, built-in light The Paperwhite is Amazon’s best-selling Kindle. The latest version takes some of the best elements of the top-end Kindle Oasis, such as a waterproof design and the ability to listen to audiobooks, and packs them into a more affordable e-reader. The Wi-Fi-only price is £119.99 for 8GB, and there’s a 32GB version for £149.99. If you don’t want to see Amazon’s ‘Special Offers’, you’ll need to spend around £10 more to get rid of them, which we recommend. The Paperwhite doesn’t feel as premium as the Oasis, and the plastic back shows up fingerprints, but it’s easy to grasp. Its bezels are thick, sitting flush with the display for a more high-end…

$99.99 each (about £85 each) FROM Olloclip, olloclip.com FEATURES Super-wide or telephoto lens, (front) lens cap, Connect X clip not included Despite the iPhone being brilliant as the camera you (nearly) always have with you, its lens means making creative compromises. Hence bolt-on lenses from the likes of Olloclip, whose latest offerings are ‘pro’ super-wide and telephoto lenses. Olloclip says they deliver the same field of view and 2x optical zoom as their Essential series equivalents ($59.99 each, about £50), yet capture more light. Their bodies are bigger, yet not overly heavy when fitted to an iPhone. The lenses don’t take up the whole body diameter, and they are recessed, so there’s a small hood around the edge. You’ll need a Connect X clip, which is $19.99 or $29.99 (about…

CalDigit £124.99 FROM CalDigit, caldigit.com DIMENSIONS 12.4x6.5x1.9cm (excluding cable) Design This dock is wrapped in a dark grey metal, with plastic front and back panels. There’s an 18cm Thunderbolt 3 cable on the opposite side. Sadly it’s non-detachable and sticks out, limiting dock stowability in a small pocket. Video ports This dock has two versions, with two of either HDMI 2.0 or DisplayPort 1.2. We tested the former; more later on a catch with the latter. You can run two 4K displays at 60Hz. Port uniformity may require using an adapter at times. Other connectivity You get two USB-A ports: 3.0 (5Gbps) and 2.0 (480Mbps). The latter is okay for an undemanding device – a mouse, say – but the DisplayPort model (£134.99) omits it. There’s also Gigabit Ethernet for…

> £2.99 > FROM The Iconfactory, linea-app.com > NEEDS iOS 11.4 or later Linea Go is made for quick doodles, visual notes and perusing Linea Sketch for iPad creations on the move. When drawing, you can add a background texture and grid, and work with up to five layers. The layers have opacity controls, image import capabilities for tracing, and can also be reordered. The toolset is limited: two pencils, two pens and an eraser. You also get a colour picker and a copy/paste/transform tool. Still, Linea Go does a lot with a little. Drawing is responsive and, thanks to a recent update, makes great use of 3D Touch. The Zip Line feature aids geometric work to straighten and connect lines. Unfortunately, there’s no tool for circles. There’s a good…

Checking iPhone battery health In iOS 11.3, Apple introduced features to help monitor and improve the health of your device’s battery. These features can be found in Settings > Battery > Battery Health. Maximum Capacity’s value will reduce over time, as all rechargeable batteries are consumable and have a limited lifespan. Lithium-ion ones work in charge cycles; if you charge fully, then run down by 20% every day from Monday to Friday, you will have used one cycle over the five days. The batteries that Apple uses are designed to keep up to 80% of their original capacity after hundreds of complete charge cycles. The exact number of cycles varies by device – see bit.ly/applecycles). The lower item describes your battery’s performance capability and will inform you of any issues…