Inhoudsopgave van July 2021 - MacFormat

Apple’s Spring Loaded event in April sprung a wealth of surprises, chief of which is the gorgeous new 24in iMac. It not only now sports an Apple silicon chip inside, but is now available in seven incredible colours. Measuring just 11.5mm thin, it’s also the closest Apple has come to making the computer disappear – although some might wish it had ‘disappeared’ a little further – the choice of white rather than black bezels and its still-pronounced, but otherwise unadorned, ‘chin’ dividing Apple critics. What Apple’s making clear here, though, is that it’s moving on from the Intel era and into an exciting new single-platform direction, reinforced by the decision to also include an Apple M1 chip in the new iPad Pro, rather than use an A-series SoC like before.…

WE ASKED… What’s your favourite new iMac feature? Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat Smaller notch in 13 Pro Max? The iPhone 13 Pro Max could feature a smaller notch. That’s according to an alleged dummy unit seen by YouTube channel Unbox Therapy (dummy units are often based on leaked device schematics). Apple will apparently accomplish the smaller notch by moving the iPhone’s speaker to the top bezel. That’s not the only change supposedly for the notch. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has claimed the 13in Pro Max will feature an improved ultra-wide camera, going from f/2.4 and fixed focus to f/1.8 and autofocus. This is shown in Unbox Therapy’s dummy unit, which displays a larger camera lens inside the notch.…

Have you enviously watched the likes of Samsung and Microsoft unveil folding phones and wondered when Apple would follow suit? If so, you are in luck, as a reputable analyst has claimed Apple will launch its own folding device in 2023. Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a good track record when it comes to Apple leaks and rumours, has claimed that the Cupertino company is on track to release the device with an eight-inch flexible OLED display, according to a survey of his industry sources. Kuo added that Apple will use silver nanowire touch tech in the folding displays, which will allow for devices with multiple folds and increased durability in the future. These devices might even be rollable, Kuo believes. The analyst also predicted that Apple will have a big…

1 C Seed M1 > About $400,000 (about £290,000) > cseed.tv > MicroLED is here, and it’s completely out-of-thisworld crazy. The C Seed M1 takes advantage of every one of the new screen tech’s core features to create a TV the likes of which we’ve never seen before and will (unless something very strange happens) never see in our own homes. This folding, expanding, hideaway TV is a feat of engineering as much as it is a leap in innovation. It’s the sort of TV you build a room around — quite literally, given that it’s supposed to emerge from a mechanised hole in your floor and unfurl its 165-inch panel automatically, then tuck itself back into the floor. The M1 pulls off that feat by using microLED’s unique ability…

GIFT WORTH £50 It’s easy to subscribe… SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE! www.magazinesdirect.com/mac/stm21 Or call: 0330 333 1113 and quote ‘97AK’ Other benefits of subscribing to the UK’s best-selling Apple magazine… ✓ For more than 25 years, we’ve been helping Apple fans get the most from their kit. ✓ Our tutorials and guides empower you with the knowledge to get things done in smarter and faster ways. ✓ MacFormat is for Apple fans of all experience levels. Whether you’ve just bought your first Mac, iPhone or iPad, or have been using one for years, we’ll ensure you don’t miss out on top tips and techniques. Choose your package! DIGITAL ONLY NO GIFT £36 every 12 months 13 issues of MacFormat in digital, and save 44%. Gift not included with a digital subscription ANNUAL…

Keeping your files organised on your Mac can be a laborious process, and the longer you leave it, the harder it is to do. Locations like your Downloads folder and your desktop can quickly become overwhelmed with loose files bursting to get out. Even getting started can feel intimidating when there is so much to do. At that point, you start to question whether there’s any hope… Fortunately, there is. Folder Tidy is a lightweight Mac app (£9.99) that can automatically sort all your files into neatly ordered folders – one for your images, one for your video files, and so on. Just tell it where to start and where to put everything, click Tidy, and it leaps into action. Even better, the app is highly customisable with a range…

There are two ways to back up the data on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. You can back up to iCloud, or you can back up locally to your Mac. With an iCloud backup, your backups can be accessed from anywhere you can get a Wi-Fi connection. The backups are always encrypted to keep your data secure, and you don’t need to remember to repeatedly back up your stuff: it can all happen automatically. Unfortunately, the 5GB you get free with your iCloud account is hilariously small, so you’ll need a paid iCloud storage plan – especially if you have multiple devices to back up. Local backups are stored on your Mac, so you’re only limited by the size of its hard drive or SSD. Transfers are usually much…

Many of us probably do not worry too much about throwing away the odd bit of food now and then, what with everything else going on in our lives. Especially if it goes in the food waste bin. Sometimes you buy too much – these things happen, right? Once you start totting up all the food you throw away, though – and all the money you end up wasting on all this unneeded grub – you might be shocked at how much you go through. The wasted energy in growing and shipping the food, and the wasted money you spent on it, is now a serious concern. Surely something should be done about it? Well, as you would expect, there is an app for that: it is called Kitche, and…

The launch of iPadOS 14 in 2020 wasn’t the seismic shift we saw the previous year when the iPad got its own operating system for the first time. However, there are plenty of new features, tweaks, and improvements in this version. Today View widgets have evolved and now feature many of the same options as the Home Screen widgets introduced in iOS 14. So, you can now add Stacks and choose between large, medium and small widgets, for example. Lots of apps look different now too, thanks to the addition of sidebars and pull-down menus. App Clips make an appearance in iPadOS with this version, and you can now use an Apple Pencil to write in any text box and have your handwriting converted to text. And in the Notes…

1 The sidebar icon at the top left of the screen is the easiest way to toggle the sidebar on and off. You can also swipe from the left of the screen. When you do that, it slides over what’s on screen rather than pushing everything to the right. 2 Tap Edit in the sidebar and scroll down to the list of albums. Tap the ‘–‘ to delete and album or tap and hold on an album, then drag it up or down the list to reposition it. Drop it where you want its new position to be. 3 Scroll to the bottom of the sidebar and tap ‘+New Album’. Give it a title. You will be prompted to add photos to the album. You can add photos at any…

When it comes to all the free apps that Apple makes available for macOS, Pages probably gets the least love. It doesn’t have the wow factor of iMovie or GarageBand, nor is at as close to its competitors in capability as Keynote and Numbers. However, it has a great deal going for it and is a very capable tool when it comes to laying out small documents, such as leaflets, posters and flyers. It does have its quirks. The distinction between a word processing and a layout document remains, and how to choose which of the two to create is not obvious. That matters because some features are only available in one type of document, and which you choose will substantially affect how Pages works. Many of us wouldn’t dream…

IN PRINT ON iPAD & iPHONE ISSUE 365 JUNE 2021 Big Sur secrets revealed! Our predictions for Apple kit Ultimate guide: make music on Mac How to improve AirPods audio ISSUE 364 MAY 2021 Go further with iCloud Improve your online security Top tips for Notification Centre Use a thumb drive with your iPad ISSUE 363 APRIL 2021 Boost your home network Classic Apple – 40 years of amazing kit Master the Home app and HomeKit Incredible art apps for iPad To order back issues of the print magazine, go to bit.ly/macformat_backissues or phone +44 (0)330 333 1113 and we’ll post them out to you. Download back issues onto your iOS device at any time and keep them forever in your personal library. bit.ly/macformatipad NEVER MISS AN ISSUE! SUBSCRIBE TODAY!…

£159 FROM Sonos, sonos.com FEATURES 2x Class-H digital amplifiers, 1x tweeter, 1x mid-woofer, far-field microphone, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, AirPlay 2, 1x USB-C port, dust-and waterproof to IP67, Amazon, Alexa, Google Assistant support, Privacy button, up to 10 hours playtime The Roam delivers a powerful sonic performance According to the brand’s CEO Patrick Spence calls the Sonos Roam “the smartest speaker we have ever built.” The speaker certainly comes with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, which means it can work as a portable speaker as well as part of your wider multi-room Sonos system – and with Google Assistant and Alexa onboard, it doubles up as a smart speaker too. The Roam also comes with a host of cool features. With Sound Swap, you hold down the play button and…

£46.99 FROM SanDisk, shop.westerndigital.com FEATURES Qi wireless charging, USB-A to USB-C cable, mains charger While SanDisk is a name you’d normally associate with storage, its iXpand line has been iXpanding (ahem) into other areas. The company has now thrown wireless charging into the mix with the iXpand Wireless Charger Sync (with up to 256GB of storage), and this standalone Qi charger. This charger’s chunky design and circular shape makes it look like a corpulent coaster. The underside is ringed with vents to keep the pad and, by extension, your iPhone cool, while the top has a grippy silicone ring to stop your device sliding off. A 1.8m USB-A to USB-C cable and mains charger are included. The iXpand Wireless Charger packs 15W of power, although it can only deliver a…

Bringing a baby into the world can be daunting. And these days, you can find advice on every aspect of raising children. Aside from all the classes, books, and other resources available to you, there’s also an ocean of top-notch apps. What you need then, if you’re a little sleepdeprived, is a guide to the best ones. Whether you’ve just welcomed a new member into your family or are looking for a helping hand with a young child, there are plenty of apps that can help. This issue, we have focused on six of the best, ranging from early years helpers packed with advice to useful monitors that protect your kids from unsuitable content. The Wonder Weeks £3.99 (IAPs) NEEDS iOS 12 or later Raising a baby can be tough…

After a long war of words, Apple and Epic Games have finally met in the courts to fight it out. The issue at stake? Whether companies should be allowed to run their own app stores on iOS and, more broadly, whether iOS is run as a monopoly whose power Apple abuses. That is set to be decided over the coming weeks, with potentially massive ramifications for the industry no matter who wins. Epic has long griped that it must go through Apple’s in-app purchase system – and subsequently pay its 30% commission – whenever it sells something inside one of its iOS apps. Then, in August 2020, Epic’s Fortnite game was updated to include a secret feature that allowed Epic to remotely activate its own store inside the app. This…

Editing images does not have to mean diving into a deep, complex app to perform all manner of visual surgery. Sometimes, a few simple tweaks are all you need. For those times, it’s handy to have Acorn up your sleeve. Version 7 comes with some major revamps, like a new all-in-one interface that does away with floating palettes, resulting in an intuitive workspace. There are new tools, too, like a perspective and crop fixer, plus a colour picker that works in the RGB and HSV colour spaces. Exporting has also received plenty of attention, including what Acorn’s developer calls ‘Über Export’. This is a new, more capable workflow, making it much easier to see the final result before you click OK. There are many more new features and, with a…

Rumours of an Apple TV update have been circulating for at least two years now, but the Spring Loaded event finally saw it come to pass. And how. While outwardly, the black box media streamer looks much the same, inside the 4K model now sports an Apple-designed A12 Bionic chip to help it deliver Dolby Vision and high-frame rate HDR. The new model also sports an HDMI 2.1 port for the first time. The update promises an improved viewing experience, especially if you use the new Colour Balance feature in tvOS 14.5. Gamers may be less enamoured – while the A12 offers better graphics performance, improvements over the previous model’s A10X chip are marginal. Siri Remote By far the biggest change to the new Apple TV 4K is its redesigned…

Even if your Mac isn’t suffering from beach balls, crashes or kernel panics, you’ll still want it to run faster. EtreCheckPro (etrecheck.com) gives it an excellent all-round check which highlights any problems, and draws your attention to practical measures you can apply to fix or improve them. Once it has run its checks, it lists major and minor issues which need to be addressed. Its free version provides a thorough analysis of security protection, and a long text report with full details. Coupled with utilities which are bundled with macOS, you should then be able to fix many of the problems it can detect. If you get out of your depth and seek help from Apple Support Communities, EtreCheck Pro’s report enables experts there to hone in quickly on a…

If you’ve only ever considered AirPlay as a tool for streaming music to compatible speakers, think again. AirPlay allows you to stream audio and video, and that can be done from a Mac, to mirror or extend your desktop. You can even use it with non-AirPlay speakers, with the help of software like AudioBridge (£13.99, audiobridge.com), which turns Sonos speakers into AirPlay devices. You don’t even need an Apple TV box to take advantage of video streaming, as many smart TVs now support AirPlay 2, allowing you to stream directly to them. If you add an Apple TV or compatible smart TV to the Home app and assign it to a room, you can even use Siri to control playback of video from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Apple…

Connecting an external SSD Q How can I connect a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD to my iMac 27-inch Late 2015 with Thunderbolt 2 ports, so that when I upgrade my Mac I can continue using it? by ROBERT COPE A The simple answer might appear to be connecting it using Apple’s Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adaptor, but alas that usually doesn’t work as it can’t deliver the power that a compact external SSD normally needs. Equally, buying a Thunderbolt 1 or 2 compact SSD would suffer the same problem when you came to connect it to a current or future Mac. In light of these issues, you can either buy a more expensive powered external SSD or enclosure, or a dock to provide the power that a compact unit needs.…

he Camera and Photos apps don’t get the big upgrade in iPadOS 14 that they did in the previous version. However, there are some very handy additions and improvements. The most immediately noticeable enhancement is in Photos, which has been redesigned to take advantage of the new sidebar that has been introduced across iPadOS 14. Photos also now allows you to filter photos in collections by favourites, edited, photos, and videos. And you can add captions to both photos and video. In the Camera app, you can now take a mirrored selfie that looks exactly as the image in the camera does on screen when you press the shutter. 1 Take a mirrored selfie Talking of taking a selfie that looks like the mirror image you see on the screen……

The built-in apps in iPadOS 14 are full of improvements and new features. Reminders has been overhauled, we’ve already shown you some great new additions in Mail, and Safari has been greatly improved, too. Shortcuts is now installed by default and much more powerful. And both Siri and Voice Control are much improved. 1 Assign a reminder In addition to sharing lists in Reminders, you can now assign individual reminders to people you share the list with. Tap a reminder in a shared list, then the people icon and choose a contact to assign the reminder to. 2 Enhance Voice Memos Voice Memos is a great app for recording everything from short voice notes to podcasts or narration for videos. Until now, your options for editing them within the Voice…

With this walkthrough, we’re going to create a brochure by starting with one of the templates from the Template Chooser that appears when you first launch Pages. The Template Chooser can also be accessed from the File menu by choosing New. We’ll use a brochure template here, but the principles are the same for all templates. Once you’re comfortable using templates to create documents, you can create them from scratch and even make your own templates. Documents in Pages can either be layout or word processing types. By default, brochures are page layout documents and templates like reports, CVs, and letters are word processing. You can see which type of document you’re working on, and change it from one type to the other, by clicking on Documents in the toolbar.…

Our ratings Our reviews are totally independent; we’re not affiliated with Apple or anyone else, nor are we influenced by advertisers. A truly exceptional product. Award given solely at the discretion of the editor. The best example of its kind when pitted against comparable products. A brilliant thing Strongly recommended Worth considering Notable flaws A waste of your money BUYING ADVICE Our authoritative reviews help you make more informed choices Contact us Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com…

£109.99 FROM Logitech, logitech.com FEATURES Split layout, sloping body, wrist rest, Bluetooth 5.0, USB–A receiver dongle, 2x AAA batteries (included) The design choices are intended to provided a comfortable position Many of us spend an enormous amount of time sat at a desk working on our Macs. The problem with all this typing is that it can create a real strain on your body – not just your wrists, but your arms and back too. Logitech has decided to do something about this with its new Ergo K860, an ergonomic keyboard designed to make things easier on your body and offer a more comfortable typing experience. The first thing you notice about the K860 keyboard is its layout. The keys between Caps Lock and Return are divided into two very…

£49 FROM Twelve South, twelvesouth.com FEATURES Works with Apple Magic TrackPad 2 and Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad; 58.4x1.4x11.9cm; 240g When it comes to desk space, many of us are neat freaks who like things ‘just so’. In which case having your Magic Trackpad and Keyboard sit all higgledypiggledy while jostling for room among iPads, hard drives and docks could be enough to bring you out in hives – especially if you also love to eat lunch ‘al desko’. Aiming to bring some order to the chaos is the Twelve South MagicBridge Extended, a black slice of polycarbonate (it’s also available in white) into which you can snap both an Apple extended keyboard and its accompanying trackpad. The trackpad can be positioned to the left or to the right of…

£49.99 annual subscription/£13.99 monthly subscription FROM cyberlink.com NEEDS macOS 10.14 or later Should prove attractive to dyed-in-thewool Adobe users as well as novices who want to get more creative For decades now, Adobe has been the king of the image-editing castle. Lightroom enables you to organise, fix and share your photos while Photoshop lets you to edit them creatively using extra tools such as layers, text and filter effects. Over the years, various challengers have risen up to try and seize a chunk of Adobe’s territory and PhotoDirector 365 may have a fighting chance of success. PhotoDirector 365’s key strength is that it combines Lightroom and Photoshop style tools into one app. PhotoDirector 365 enables you to make Lightroom style selective adjustments using graduated filters. It then lets you add…

Charles Geschke, the co-founder of Adobe who helped develop the PDF, passed away aged 81 on Friday, 16 April 2021. At university, he studied Latin and Liberal Arts. Before falling into computer programming in the 1960s, he hardly seemed a likely candidate to be one of the people who would reshape desktop publishing. Yet, alongside Steve Jobs and Apple, that’s what he and his company did. Dr Geschke lived an interesting life too, including being captured at gunpoint in 1992 and held for ransom. His kidnappers freed him unharmed after four days. Adobe initially had a good relationship with Apple, which adopted the PostScript language for the LaserWriter printer. However, Geschke eventually clashed with Jobs over Adobe Flash after Apple refused to let the software on to iPhone. In his…

The iMac might be the most visible all-in-one computer in the world, but it is not the best-selling one. That accolade goes to HP and its range of all-in-one desktops, but that might soon change according to DigiTimes. The outlet believes that, in the fourth quarter of 2020, HP sold 925,000 all-in-one computers, while Apple sold 860,000 iMacs. It predicts Apple will pull ahead in the next quarter, although this might be a temporary victory. Interestingly, DigiTimes predicts this actually has much more to do with global chip shortages than anything Apple introduced with its iMac redesign. That is because the dearth of chips will likely see manufacturers focus limited stocks on their higher-end offerings. For Apple, that includes the iMac. For HP, it means pro and gaming systems rather…

Apple’s much-discussed App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature has finally arrived with the launch of iOS 14.5. The feature, which aims to provide more clarity about companies that track you across different apps and share your data with third parties, has caused an uproar among advertising firms but won plaudits from privacy groups. Once you have updated to iOS 14.5, you will see a notification every time an app wants to track you across other apps. You can then choose to permit this or decline it. Additionally, you can disable this tracking altogether in the Settings app under Privacy > Tracking. Here, you need to disable the toggle next to 'Allow Apps to Request to Track'. When the news first emerged that Apple was working on ATT, Facebook – which makes…

Where does the MacBook end and Apple’s tablet begin? A question that’s likely to be increasingly asked with the arrival of the latest iPad Pros. That could be because the 2021 versions of the 11in and 12.9in tablets now sport M1 chips instead of the A-series processors that iPads have used until now. Or it could be because both models now support Thunderbolt as well as USB-C, giving the iPad Pro the same access to compatible peripherals that Macs have now. The iPad Pro’s design language is increasingly being shared across the Apple family. Its narrow bezels and squared-off sides aren’t just being echoed on the iPad Air and iPhone, but on the iMac too. What’s the betting the 2021 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro will have similar design cues…

iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini – but in purple Like the iPhone 11 before it, the iPhone 12 and iPhone mini now come in a natty purple finish, adding to the range of colours available for the phone which include blue, green and Product (Red). Complementing the new colour (which looks fantastic in the flesh) are a range of new cases – the MagSafe Leather Case (£59) and Leather Sleeve (£129) in deep violet; Leather Wallet (£59) in Arizona brown; plus three individual Silicone Cases (£49 each) in amethyst, pistachio and Capri blue. Podcasts Subcriptions Apple’s Podcasts app has a chequered past, chiefly thanks to a confusing array of options that seem to have become more baffling over time. It’s not clear yet whether iOS 14.5’s redesign has done…

Apple has long tried to take an active approach when it comes to privacy, but that has ramped up noticeably in the last few years. Safari is a notable example of this. In macOS Big Sur, Apple introduced several new settings in the web browser that give you much more control over how you can stop bad actors making off with your private data. For instance, each website now gets a Privacy Report that notes how many advertising trackers Safari has blocked. There is no need to turn it on – it all works behind the scenes to keep your data safe. Speak to the manager There are plenty of other actions you can take to step up your Safari security. Apart from tweaking the browser’s settings – which we…

When you have a horde of apps and windows open, it is easy to lose the one you want among the clutter. Luckily, there is a solution in the form of Mission Control. This provides a bird’s-eye view of every open window, instantly obliterating the turmoil. Mission Control also uses Spaces, which are clones of your current desktop, minus all the open windows and apps. Spaces help organise your windows: you could move all your work documents to one desktop and everything else to another, and you can have up to 16 Spaces at once. Windows can be moved between Spaces with a few quick clicks, and you can even run two apps in Split View simply by dragging one on top of another in Mission Control. Aside from all…

We love GarageBand on our iPad and iPhone: it’s tons of fun, easy to use, and it works brilliantly with GarageBand and Logic Pro X on the Mac. (Check out our Make Music on Your Mac feature in MF365.) That means it’s as happy in a serious music production workflow as it is being poked and prodded by a young kid on the sofa. We use it to demo songs or capture musical ideas before turning them into finished songs in Logic; but it’s as easy for complete novices to experiment with unusual instruments and make block-rocking beats. There are lots of great music apps for iOS and iPadOS, with faithful reproductions of vintage synths rubbing shoulders with all kinds of beat makers and loopers. You can use many of…

Can’t open dashcam footage Q Since upgrading my MacBook Pro to Big Sur it won’t play any footage from my Thinkware F770 dashcam, and reports that it ‘cannot open files in the MPEG-4 movie format’. Why is this? by KEITH GIBBINS A One of the less prominent casualties with the loss of 32-bit software support in Catalina and Big Sur is that QuickTime codecs used to record and play back certain video and audio formats no longer work. Although most Mac apps have been updated, some older or cross-platform software still hasn’t caught up. You’re most likely to notice this if you’ve only recently upgraded macOS from Mojave or earlier to either Catalina or Big Sur. Apple provides a full list of formats which lost support when those old QuickTime…

1 Edit the sidebar 1Edit the sidebar Tap Files to launch it. Tap the sidebar icon in the top left to view it, then tap More and choose Edit Sidebar. Use the toggle switches to add or remove items from Locations, or tap‘–‘ to remove items from Favourites or Tags. 2 Change the sidebar order 2Change the sidebar order You don’t have to keep the default order in the sidebar. To change the order of items in the sidebar, tap and hold on the item you want to move, then drag it up or down and drop it in its new location. Tap Done when you’re finished. 3 Add a folder to Favourites 3Add a folder to Favourites To add a folder to the Favourites section of the sidebar, navigate…

1 View a memory In the sidebar, tap For You, then tap See All next to Memories. Swipe up to scroll through memories and tap the one you want to view. Tap the play button at the bottom right of the main image to see the slideshow of the Memory. 2 Choose music style Locate the Memory you want to edit and tap it. When it starts playing, either wait for it to end or tap Pause. Choose a style of music from the list – dreamy, sentimental, uplifting, etc – and press play to preview it. 3 Edit the music If you don’t like any of the music available in the list of styles, tap Edit. Tap Music, then either tap on a Mood to choose a different track…

1 Pin a conversation If you struggle to find important messages, you can now pin favourite conversations to the top of the list. Find the conversation you want to pin, swipe right over it and tap the pin. To unpin it, tap and hold on it and choose Unpin. 2 Specific message reply If you’re in a group conversation, instead of sending a reply to the group, you can reply to a specific message. Tap and hold the message you want to respond to and tap Reply. Your reply will appear under that message. 3 Mention someone Messages has gained the ability to ‘mention’ conversation participants. Start typing the name of the person. When their name turns grey, tap it and tap the contact preview. The name will now turn…

So far, we’ve learned how to set up a Pages document using a template and adapt it to our needs. However, Pages has a lot more than that to offer. By using some of its more advanced features, like text wrapping, you can make your newsletters and brochures look very professional. And by using masking and transparency, images can be made to look exactly as you want them to. On these pages, we’ll show you how to anchor an object to text so that if you add more text or move it around, you don’t have to worry about manually moving the object each time, which can be a big time saver in longer documents. There is a great deal more to explore in Pages, but hopefully we’ve shown enough…

The popularity of true wireless earbuds – that is, earbuds that connect to your devices over Bluetooth, have no wires between each unit, and fit inside your ear with buds – has exploded in recent years. While the audio quality of on-or over-ear headphones is generally better, they’re not as flexible. True wireless earbuds are tiny, by comparison, easily fitting in your pocket; they’re barely noticeable in use, and they’re more comfortable. They’re also superior when it’s hot outside or when you’re working out – many are even water resistant for that reason. True wireless earbuds are also housed in a case which charges them when not in use – a big benefit when you’re on the move. Many of these true wireless earbuds now come with noise cancelling built…

$24.95 (about £18) FROM Magoshare, magoshare.com NEEDS OS X 10.7 or later AweClone’s many quirks are sadly counterproductive Cloning disks and making backups looks deceptively easy, and shouldn’t be complex. AweClone is a new contender in a market with well-proven alternatives to bundled utilities such as Disk Utility and Time Machine. It’s cheaper and simpler, but how well does it negotiate the bear traps in macOS which have only been growing worse? AweClone offers two functions: disk copying and the creation of ‘image’ backups. As quickly becomes obvious, these aren’t anything like cloning and proper backups, though. AweClone makes copies of whole volumes by copying individual files into a folder. This happens fairly quickly, at around 320GB per hour to a regular SSD, but its copy doesn’t match the original.…

DESKTOP SPEAKER Ruark MR1 £329.99 ruarkaudio.com Winner of MF357’s head to head, the MR1 speaker set looks and sounds the business. The dome tweeter and longthrow woofer can handle a variety of audio styles with aplomb. You get a good variety of connectivity options, and we love the chunky function/volume dial too. IN-EAR EARPHONES M&D MW07 Plus £279 masterdynamic.com Master & Dynamic’s MW07 Plus offer 10 hours of listening time, and the charging case holds an additional three charges (so you get 40 hours in total). These greatsounding earbuds are IPX5 rated, so they’re excellent for workouts and commuting. The marble-effect finish gives them a premium aesthetic, as does the stainless steel charging case. KEYBOARD (MAC/iOS) Logitech MX Keys For Mac £99.99 logitech.com If you spend a lot of time…