Table of contents for March 2017 in MacFormat

AirBar Turn your MacBook into a touchscreen device The iPad Pro and Apple Pencil make an amazing painting device, but they aren’t cheap. If you have a 13-inch MacBook Air and would rather make use of that for your artistic output, AirBar could come in handy. It’s a sleek aluminium bar that, once plugged into one of your MacBook’s USB ports, transforms its display into a touchscreen. It works with any input device, from an Apple Pencil or brush, to your finger or even a banana, the developer claims. It also told us it’s planning to roll out support for other MacBooks in the future, so keep your eyes peeled. $99 (about £82) INCLUDES AirBar strip WEBSITE air.bar/mac WORKS WITH 13-inch MacBook Air…

APPLE RUMOUR Watch This Space A slimmer, round-faced watch may be the future Apple Watch has been a solid success. In true Apple style it has sold well and disrupted the market while simultaenously broadcasting the device’s functionality the world over. So maybe it’s time for the Apple Watch revolution to keep turning. We’ve investigated a number of Apple patents and it seems change may be on the way. US patent application 2016/0231815 shows that Apple is looking at moving haptic response to the wristband of the Watch – a move that would free up room to make the Watch slimmer or add extra functionality – fancy one with a camera? Another patent application (2016/0351098) reveals plans for an ‘Electronic Device Having Display With Curved Edges’ – or, a round-faced…

1 €13,500 Apple bought Multi-gesture company FingerWorks 2005 and used its patents while developing the touchscreen iPhone. FingerWorks’ stock grew 2,000% as a result. 2 €8,759 It feels a bit unloved these days, but a maxed-out Mac Pro will still cost you a pretty penny. Choose all the upgrades (with no accessories) and you'll pay nearly nine grand. 3 $9,995 The Appl e Lisa was one e xpensive piece of kit – it cost nearly $10,000 when it launched in 1983. That's roughly $24,000 today, or just under £20,000. 4 $12,000 Unbelievably fast at the time of its 1990 launch, the Macintosh IIfx cost between $9,000 and $12,000 depending on configuration. Speed didn't stop it being discontinued two years later, though. 5 $7,499 Apple may have been struggling in 1997,…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! SAVE 57%! Turn to page 44 “WHAT DO YOU MOST WANT TO SEE IN MACOS 10.13?” Simon says… Alex says… I know it seems minor, but better window snapping would be a fantastic boost for my workflow. It’s one thing Windows does pretty well I’m impatient for some groundbreaking innovation. Something truly new. I take the point about tweaks but I feel Apple needs to start blowing our minds again. I take it the Touch Bar wasn’t mind-blowing enough for you I love the Touch Bar’s ambition but it’s 50:50 innovation/frippery right now. I want my life to be easier – like having Handoff on steroids where I can move files between all my devices seamlessly, for example. That would be great. Currently it’s too separated – Handoff for…

The rumours about Apple developing a smart car, codenamed Project Titan, have been flying around for a couple of years now. They surfaced again recently when Apple notified the US Traffic Safety Administration that it was “investing heavily in machine learning and automation… including transportation”. But you don’t have to wait years for an Apple Car to come along to get digital driving tech in your car – you can add it to your existing car right now. We take satellite navigation for granted these days, but there’s a variety of other devices now finding a home in millions of cars, including dashcams, advanced entertainment systems and, of course, Apple’s own CarPlay technology, which enables you use key iPhone apps right on the dashboard of your car. Rather than wait…

Two decades ago, the internet was very different: broadly static, text-based, and – from a visual standpoint – rather dull. Today, though, you can run rich and complex animations – and even entire games – in a web browser, without the need for plug-ins like Flash to do so. The rapid evolution of web standards made all this possible. Developers, browser makers and users demanded new features, standards bodies smashed out better specifications, and browser makers integrated them into their software. But while the nature of coding for the web is modular, component-based and flexible, adding advanced capabilities such as animation to a page can be a mite trickier with software like RealMac’s RapidWeaver Because RapidWeaver simplifies creating websites by way of an interface that’s akin to a desktop publishing…

Connecting your smart home accessories to the Home app gives you the ability to check the status of sensors and toggle devices on or off at will, but that’s just the foundation of making your home smarter.Things get really clever when you use sensor data, the time of day or a change in your location to trigger behaviours, such as turning on a heater when you leave work so your home is warm when you arrive there. The Home app’s Automation tab is the key to doing this. There you can define conditions that will cause an accessory or scene to turn on or off. Automations can change the status of a single accessory, or they can activate multiple scenes at once. For example, an automation might turn on lights…

EXPERT ADVICE Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems My new Mac runs slower Q I replaced my old 27-inch iMac (Late 2012) with a late 2015 model of the same size. Its performance seems inferior to my old iMac, although that had a Fusion Drive, unlike the new one. It often shows the spinning beach ball, and prior to shutting down it shows a screen with colour patterns. Is there something wrong with it? by JAN SHORT T A Odd display effects at shutdown can be an early sign of graphics card problems. Disconnect all peripherals apart from keyboard, mouse, and network connection, and hook up your keyboard and mouse to USB ports. Shut the iMac down, wait a few seconds, and hold down d as you…

Unreliable notifications Q Following a recent iOS upgrade, notifications on my wife’s and my iPhones have changed. When a message arrives, we normally get a tone and vibration, but subsequent incoming messages once we’ve replied don’t result in either. We don’t appear to have changed any settings, so how can we correct this? by ANDR EW PR I T CHARD A So many people have experienced this after recent updates that it’s hard to know whether it’s intentional or a common bug. There certainly doesn’t seem to be an option to control it, unless it occurs only when Do Not Disturb is switched on. In that case, go to Settings > Do Not Disturb and check that Repeated Calls is switched on, so that a second call or message from…

MING CHI-KUO bit.ly/2jPGMP3 “We believe [Apple] is leaning toward facial recognition technology.” Analyst says Apple may move away from fingerprint tech in future BOZOMA SAINT JOHN apple.com “Apple is a unique company, in that the art and the science sit together very nicely.” Apple marketing executive says the company is perfectly balanced PETER THIEL facebook.com “It’s not an area where there will be any more innovation.” Facebook board member confidently asserts Apple is out of iPhone ideas ZANE LOWE apple.com “Every day something is changing… for people who love music and entertainment.” Apple Music DJ says Apple is at the forefront of a changing music industry…

he OBD-II (or EOBD) system we mentioned earlier is really aimed at professional mechanics who understand what’s going on under the bonnet in your car. However, TomTom’s Curfer (£60, bit.ly/2jT9Sh1) makes OBD data more accessible to the rest of us. Essentially a fitness tracker for your car, it includes an adaptor that plugs into your vehicle’s OBD connector and transmits data to its companion iPhone app. However, it’s a lot easier to understand than most OBD apps, and it includes a simple system of warnings if it detects anything that might cause a problem. Another handy maintenance tool is Snooper’s Tyre Pilot STP1600 (£160, bit.ly/2jXhvDn), which uses Bluetooth to transmit information about tyre pressure to its iPhone app. Up to 16 sensors can be fitted. Finally, if you find yourself…

There’s an optical disc stuck in my drive If the eject icon next to the disc in Finder doesn’t work, and neither does dragging the disc’s desktop icon to the Trash, open Terminal and enter drutil eject; if that also fails, shut down your Mac, then power it on again, holding down the primary mouse button or trackpad while the Mac starts up. I’m seeing frequent kernel panics An unexpected black screen overlaid by a multilingual error message is about as serious a problem as Macs ever get. If it’s caused by a software glitch, it’s usually fixed with a simple restart. However, if it happens often, check your Mac’s memory is properly seated (assuming it has removable modules) and other components you’ve added recently are securely connected. I can’t…

The files I need aren’t in Time Machine Check the drive or folder in which they’re stored isn’t excluded from the backup set. Open the Time Machine pane in System Preferences and click Options. If the drive or folder is listed here, it’s excluded from Time Machine’s backups: select it and click the – (minus) button. If your backups are on a network drive – a Time Capsule or a NAS with Time Machine support – check their health: hold a and click Time Machine’s menu bar icon, and choose Verify Backups; macOS will detail any problems it finds. Time Machine is taking too long to back up The first backup creates a complete copy of your Mac’s contents. Later ones should be quicker as Time Machine then only saves…

1 Protected by CyberGhost In Settings > Wi-Fi this status under a network confirms it’s protected by CyberGhost’s VPN. 2 VPN active You’ll know when you’re connected to the VPN due to this symbol in the top bar. 3 Your IP address Every online device has a unique address. CyberGhost hides your real IP address to provide you with anonymity online. 4 VPN server The app shows the location of the server you’re using – close by is generally better. IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN What a VPN can do for you, and the settings you should be using. YOU’LL NEED CyberGhost. iOS 9.0 or higher. There are many VPN tools on the App Store, so it can be difficult to choose the best one If you…

BUYING ADVICE Our authoritative reviews help you make more informed choices LIBRATONE Q ADAPT ON-EAR p91 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 Fundamentally flawed; look at alternatives as a priority A waste of your money and everyone’s time; do not buy! The MACFORMAT Awards Awarded to a…

£370 FROM netgear.co.uk FEATURES 802.11ac Wave 2, tri-band (AC3000) Wi-Fi, beamforming, MU-MIMO, four Gigabit Ethernet ports, USB 2.0 port O rbi is designed to banish Wi-Fi deadspots and is specifically designed for large, busy homes. Orbi consists of a tri-band Wi-Fi router that you connect to your broadband, and a separate satellite that you place in an area where your wireless signal isn’t so good. Together you get a strong, robust and reliable signal from a single mesh network, so your devices can receive the best possible signal throughout your home. As it’s a mesh network, there’s one network name SSID) as opposed to having several extenders each with their own network name. Setting up Orbi is a piece of cake and synchronising the satellite is easy. You can also…

£204 FROM Blue Microphones, bluemic.com FEATURES Internal Acoustic Diffuser, built-in monitoring S ound is fleeting: what you don’t catch is gone for ever. That’s why musicians and podcasters care so much about microphones. The better the mic, the more sound you capture. Speech is clearer, vocals more punchy, and instruments more alive. Usually, good recording means costly microphones, but Blue begs to differ. The Raspberry is barely bigger than a harmonica. It has a cute ’50s-retro design in metal and leather, and it promises 24-bit sound. It works with macOS over USB and iOS over Lightning. And it delivers; on a desk for podcasting, it punches above its weight, delivering clear speech without picking up much of the room’s own sound; you’ll need a highfrequency filter if the gain’s up…

Free (£7.99 IAP to unlock all levels) FROM Nintendo, supermariorun.com NEEDS iOS 8.0 or higher, internet connection to play M ario’s on your iOS devices at last, in an approximation of his classic 2D platforming adventures that you can play with one hand – all you need to do is tap on the screen. The core of the game is Tour mode, in which Mario runs automatically through 24 courses (three of which are free) to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser for the umpteenth time in 32 years. Tapping to control Mario has nuance: the longer your finger’s on the screen, the higher he jumps, and you can tap to make him spin and slow his descent. He can jump off walls, and collect power-ups to grow taller or be…

Alan Stonebridge Production Editor Having comprehensively conquered Super Mario Run, Alan’s been thinking about selling old Apple kit to buy a Switch. Mission accomplished, Nintendo. Alex Blake Commissioning Editor It’s the season of love, and that means Alex is declaring his love for all people… who give him free Apple kit. iPhones get extra love points. Paul Blachford Managing Art Editor Paul’s hoping there’s a new iMac coming from Apple very soon, with Intel’s Kaby Lake eightcore i7 CPUs, married to powerful new AMD discrete graphics.…

[MOVIE] THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN £13.99 A commuter witnesses the lives of others via her train window, but becomes involved when a woman goes missing. [PODCAST] BOOK SHAMBLES FREE Josie Long and Robin Ince interview guests on their reading habits, no doubt making you even guiltier about your piles of unread books. [TV SHOW] A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS NETFLIX Lemony Snicket’s books hit the small screen to widespread acclaim. By turns funny and heartbreaking.…

Has Apple abandoned the high-visibility pros who make its products look good, or has the definition of ‘pro’ simply changed with the times? In the great MacBook Pro Brouhaha (Late 2016), some stalwart Apple pros pointed out that 16GB of RAM isn’t enough for their use. Often this argument came with discussion that these high-end pros are halo users, and that Apple should support them because the fact that this 1% of pros are very visible Apple users in their field helps the other 99% either feel good about buying Apple, or maybe even makes them choose Apple in the first place. The argument itself is an admission that the needs of that 1% are too niche to support: provide for us because we make you look good, even though…

PRIZES WORTH £559 Want to give your audio equipment a complete refresh for 2017? Now’s your chance, because we’ve got a whole haul of speakers and headphones to give away this issue, courtesy of Creative. Each set contains one Nuno speaker, one pair of Outlier Sports headphones, and two Nuno Micro speakers. The Creative Nuno is a small, understated speaker with audio that packs a punch. Clad in woven fabric, its six-hour battery and classy looks make it ideal whether you’re chilling at home or out and about, while its Bluetooth functionality will banish wires for good. For top-notch audio on the go, the Outlier Sports headphones are a great choice. Their sweatproof and wireless design makes them great for runners, and with 11 hours of battery life they’ll see…

Pioneer SPHDA120 £329 pioneer-car.eu You can give your in-car entertainment system a major upgrade with touch controls and support for CarPlay. Pioneer provides its own apps that can play a variety of digital music formats, and you can connect a rear-facing camera to the screen. Pure Highway 600 £150 pure.com Pure brings its years of audio expertise to this high-quality DAB radio. It also works with Siri and acts as a hands-free kit for phone calls. You can stream over Bluetooth, and the clever Go button lets you tag tracks you hear on the radio. RAC RAC03 £160 racshop.co.uk Though it’s not the cheapest dashcam, the RAC03 is one of the best. It includes a large mirror that fits over your normal rear-view mirror and houses the 4MP camera, which…

For even more smart home advice subscribe today! See page 44 Yamaha Disklavier Enspire £14,000 uk.yamaha.com Many companies make multiroom speaker systems, yet Yamaha’s MusicCast range of more than 30 different speakers, soundbars and home cinema systems leaves most of its rivals looking rather tame. More important, though, is that Yamaha also has a long history of producing musical instruments, including the new Disklavier Enspire range of pianos, which are the latest additions to the MusicCast line-up. The Enspire is a high-tech piano that works as part of a multiroom audio system. First and foremost, it’s a traditional acoustic piano you can play at home or even in a concert hall. It’s also packed with digital technology, including the ability to stream your piano party pieces to Yamaha speakers around…

Essential advice that will help you keep your Mac, files and macOS in tip-top condition Do 1. Keep macOS and your apps up to date. If updates delivered through the Mac App Store aren’t set to install automatically (in its System Preferences pane), regularly check the store’s Updates tab, and use any Check for Updates command or check the websites of apps obtained elsewhere. Don’t 2. Disable Gatekeeper in Security & Privacy in System Preferences (its options are listed under ‘Allow apps downloaded from’ there). Though it may be annoying when it stops you installing apps from unknown sources, it gives you pause for thought, and is easy enough to circumvent for one-off installs. Do 3. Where a utility or feature of your Mac has a menu bar icon, such…

NEW IDEAS Your new-look guide to getting more from your Apple kit 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 c+a+C, hold all but the last key, then press that one. c…

How often do you find yourself dragging a window to roughly the place you want it to fill, and then dragging from a couple of its edges to make it the size you want? Sadly, macOS doesn’t have an equivalent to Microsoft’s Window Snap tech to enable you to quickly make a window fill the left or right half of the desktop. However, it has some hidden shortcuts that are more powerful. In these two pages you’ll learn techniques that will help you to wrangle windows more efficiently, so you can quickly get on with more pressing tasks. If you’re wondering why you haven’t found these shortcuts already, it’s because they’re the sort of hidden features that require someone to tell you about, or highly insightful experimentation on your part.…

Technology that enables you to control your home from your smartphone or tablet is becoming more common, and the range of such accessories that works with iOS devices is growing all the time. Among them are lighting, motion sensors, thermostats and much more. Apple provides a system that enables these devices to work together and be controlled from your iPhone or iPad. It’s called HomeKit, and you control accessories compatible with it in the Home app that’s included for free with iOS 10. Perhaps you want to install smart lighting, environmental sensors to check temperature and humidity, smart plugs so you can switch devices such as lamps and heaters on or off in response to a sensor, or motion sensors to light your path if you get up during the…

£699 FROM Squadrone System, hexoplus.com FEATURES 10–15 minutes flight time, 5,000mAh 3S Li-Po battery, 40mph max speed, 1.15kg (without gimbal, battery or camera) T his is no ordinary drone – it’s autonomous, meaning it’ll follow your every move, hands-free. On paper, the Hexo+ is the most powerful drone of its kind, but how does it measure up in terms of quality, performance and price? Despite its ample size, it’s light enough to be transported to filming locations, even with the gimbal attached and a battery installed. Assembly is a cinch, but once complete the gimbal’s power cable is left exposed. Built-in safety features should ensure that every landing is soft, but we’d expect a slicker, more integrated design given the cost. Additional batteries cost £90 each; that’s cheaper than other…

£219 FROM Libratone, libratone.com FEATURES Bluetooth 4.1, 3.5mm cable included, touch controls, 20-hour battery life H ow do you stand out in a sea of noise cancelling headphones? Libratone believes the answer is beautiful and intuitive design. It’s minimalistic, with smooth ear cups that feature hidden controls on their undersides. While most noise cancelling headphones have obvious grilles for their microphones, Libratone has hidden this pair’s four mics behind the ear cup ‘forks’ for a sleek look. The right ear cup houses a touchpad, which lets you skip tracks, control volume, play/pause and activate Siri. We liked the intuitive controls of the touchpad, but were often frustrated by taps to play and pause music going unregistered. Helpfully, music pauses automatically when you take off the headphones. You adjust volume by…

£749 FROM Kodak, kodakpixpro.com FEATURES 2880x2880-pixel video at 30fps, 12.4MP sensor, 235° lens, splashproof case, Wi-Fi, remote control T he advent of virtual reality (VR) has begun to shake up the action cam scene. Some cams do VR with one lens, which limits you to a 360-by-240-degree view, so detail behind the lens is lost. In the case of Kodak’s new Pixpro SP360 4K, two cameras are bolted together, their lenses pointing away from each other to capture detail all around. Naturally, this sort of imagery is perfectly suited to VR – don a headset and you’ll feel like you’re actually there, experiencing the action first-hand. Or, at least, that’s the idea. The SP360 4K tries to address the failings of its predecessor, the SP360, which lacked 4K. First, there’s…

W elcome 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 chosen our top products from Apple’s product line-up, plus the best third-party kit that meets our quality standard. Whether you’re a recent convert or a seasoned Apple user, we highlight a model of each product that’s ideally suited to your needs. So, check our handy tables to see which Mac, iPad or iPhone is best for you. We’ve also highlighted the gold standard in audio, storage, cameras, and many other categories to complement your Mac or iOS device with the best accessories. Your complete guide to the best Apple hardware and third-party accessories Who’s it for?…

MONITOR ViewSonic VP2772 £650 viewsonic.com If you’re not fussed about 4K but still want exceptional image quality, this IPS display is truly superb. It offers 99% coverage of the Adobe RGB colour space, 10-bit colour and a 2560x1440-pixel resolution. It has HDMI 1.4, DVI and Mini DisplayPort connections, and four USB 3.0 ports for expansion. NETWORK STORAGE QNAP TS-251+ 6TB £480 qnap.com We know a good NAS drive when we see one, which is why the 6TB TS-251+ won MF302’s group test. It’s one of the quickest NAS drives we’ve seen lately, with transfer rates of over 105MB/sec for large files. It has an HDMI port and a remote control for watching your media directly on your TV set. Four USB ports top it off. PRINTER Brother HL-3150CDW £108 brother.co.uk…

LETTER OF THE MONTH! SECURITY LOCKDOWN In the February issue (MF309), there was a item in the macOS section of Genius Tips in which a reader asked about an app that they couldn’t run because their Mac stated it was damaged and should be moved to the Trash. Your response was to agree with the Mac and that they should load a new version of the app. I have this happen to me a few times; if the reader is running Sierra then I think the problem lies within its version of Gatekeeper, from which Apple has omitted the ‘Anywhere’ option, prompting this warning. There is a workaround in Terminal [...] Once done, the Anywhere option is reinstated in the Security & Privacy pane, which you can use to run…

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). Death of an iPod BY PHI L 9 0 2 0 0 0 EQUIPMENT iPhone 7 Plus This shot by @phil902000 on Instagram chronicles, in grainy, faded light, the slow demise of a 15-year-old companion. It’s a sad but unavoidable fact that all of our Apple kit will eventually shuffle off, and we think this funereal shot captures that horrible truth perfectly. Well done, Phil! Share your pics with us using the hashtag #MacFormat. In each issue we’ll pick our favourites to feature on this page. In the meantime, we’ll repost your photos through our Instagram account. So, give…

Let your fingers do the walking on this brief history of Apple’s various interfaces over the years, from tech to track aircraft in wartime to 2016’s introduction of the Touch Bar. 1941 The trackball was invented by Ralph Benjamin for following low-flying enemy aircraft on analogue computers during WWII. A legendary visit to Xerox PARC In Winter 1979 and in return for a share deal on Apple’s upcoming IPO (December 1980), Steve Jobs and other Apple employees were invited to visit Xerox’s research centre. There, Apple first saw the GUI and the mouse – two items that would eventually make their way to the Lisa and the Mac. A mouse based on pre- Xerox plans by Englebart. The wheels on the bus From 1986 on the Apple IIgs until 1998…