MacFormat November 2015

NEXT MONTH Apple buyer’s super guide 24 N ov A pple’s OS X El Capitan is here at last, giving your Mac a new lease of life with some great new features – most notably, Split View… finally giving Mac users a side-by-side way of using two full-screen apps at the same time. It’s true to say that El Capitan builds on Yosemite, and it’s many of the seemingly minor changes that actually make the biggest difference to how you use the OS. Because we’ve been using the developer and public betas for months, we’ve uncovered dozens of great tricks that are hardly given a mention in Apple’s own documentation. Turn to page 26 to master El Capitan with our pick of 75 great tips. We’re always fascinated to see what Apple…

Apple world We round-up the Apple stories that matter to you MAC FORMAT THE BIG STORY “The move to block ads on iOS could cost Google over $8 billion per year” For the first time, iOS lets users install software that blocks ads appearing in the Safari browser. That’s great for users and mobile carriers attempting to slash the bandwidth that’s currently wasted on ads, but it represents a huge challenge to the advertising and publishing industries. Websites make money by attracting people with good content and then getting paid for advertising placed around that content. Ad blockers aren’t new, of course – PageFair says that even now only 1 in 20 internet users on PC or Mac use them, but publisher fear Apple’s dominance of mobile ad consumption could significantly impact the bottom line.…

iPhone dials new record With 13 million sales in three days, Apple’s iPhone 6s set fresh first weekend sales records once again. Calling the sales “phenomenal”, Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said they “[blew] past any previous first weekend sales results in Apple’s history”. Analysts think this is partly because the new phones initially shipped in 12 regions, including China, versus just 10 for last year’s iPhone 6. IHS expects Apple to ship 236 million iPhones this year, 22% up on 2014. “Apple has changed the smartphone market. People spend more on their smartphones now than they did pre-iPhone and Apple has grown its share of the premium market at the expense of Samsung, LG and others. They have shaped the market as an Apple market”, said IHS analyst, Ian Fogg. Apple rings Boeing’s…

Alien: Isolation cleverly inserts itself into the film franchise by making you play as Ripley’s daughter On our APPLE TV What we’re watching on the iTunes movie store Film Mad Max: Fury Road £13.99 (to buy) HD Tom Hardy’s debut as the post-apocalytic anti-hero has met with critical acclaim. It’s certainly been worth the wait of almost 20 years to go from pre-production to screen. TV Homeland Season Five £24.99 (HD) Homeland makes a great drinking game: for each angsty expression on Claire Danes’ face, down a shot. This year, she’s moved to the CIA for private security. We’re still not expecting many smiles. Alien: Isolation £31.99 or £39.99 Developer Feral Interactive, feralinteractive.com Requires OS X 10.10.4 or higher After the lacklustre, semi-prequel film Prometheus left us with a bad aftertaste, a continuation of the main Alien story is…

Apple teaching people to code is undoubtedly a good thing, but it’s a little self-interested too Tim Cook has repeatedly stated his belief that Apple should aim to make the world a better place, and he’s put Apple’s money where his mouth is: for example, in September Apple made a sizeable donation to help the EU refugee crisis and offered to double up on Apple employees’ donations too. But money isn’t all that Apple’s offering. In a rare interview, Apple retail boss Angela Ahrendts has outlined plans to make Apple Stores into hubs, community centres that offer help to people. One of the examples she gave was teaching women and ethnic minorities to code. What Apple is describing is philanthropy, which is when the very rich use some of their money or…

L86,000sharp.co.uk Suddenly that 5K iMac doesn’t seem so impressive, but you’d need a serious TV cabinet! What is it? 4K TVs are so last year. If you really want to be at the bleeding edge of display technology, you’ll need to go a bit better than that. Just as well, then, that Sharp has announced that it’s working on an 85-inch 8K TV that will set you back a cool L86,000. Suddenly that 5K iMac doesn’t seem so impressive, but you’d need a serious TV cabinet to house this one! When’s it due? TBC. Why are we excited? High resolution displays are developing at an astonishing rate, with previously impressive resolutions moving further and further down the scale. But do we need 8K? Is it even practical? Probably not, but we’re geeks so it’s…