Table of contents for 1 July 2015 in MacFormat

It’s easy to forget how important it is to back up your Mac. After all, it’s not the most glamorous of computing tasks. Yet we all should invest time, and a little bit of money, into safeguarding our precious documents, photos and music. Even if you’re already using OS X’s built-in protection, Time Machine (who isn’t?), there’s more you can do. Is your back-up routine appropriate to your needs? Whether you need to back up one MacBook or protect a small business, our main feature explains all, starting on page 28. If you’re enjoying Apple Watch, you’ll find more than 90 tips on how to use it to the full, starting on page 70. There’s so much it can do, so we’ve broken the tips down into different categories to…

We’re most excited about... PRIZM $169 (about £110) meetprizm.com If you prefer death metal over breakfast and Tweenies over dinner, Prizm will choose accordingly What is it? Prizm bills itself as a ‘learning music device’ that will choose which of your tracks to stream (from the cloud to your speakers) depending on who is in the room and the time of day. For example, if you prefer death metal with your cornflakes and Tweenies with your evening meal, Prizm will choose songs accordingly. If two people are in the room and Prizm understands their tastes, it’ll play music that both people can enjoy. When’s it due? October 2015. Why are we excited? Apart from looking beautifully futuristic, Prizm is a truly intriguing idea. If it can pull it off, it’ll…

Despite being fairly new, Affinity Designer has already proved to be a formidable competitor to other vector illustration software packages out there. At a fraction of the price of most, it’s an ideal piece of kit to create your masterpiece with. Over the course of this series we will create a fish tank, populate it with fish, give them some home comforts and even create a rather appetising piece of bait. In part one we will be learning the basics, as well as getting to grips with the layout. As this series progresses we will delve deeper into the tools, make use of the software’s great features and learn more about its different personas. You’ll soon see that Affinity Designer has some truly amazing features and is more than capable…

Apple is increasingly integrating OS X and iOS, enabling data, files and even halfcompleted emails to be passed back and forth between your Mac and iOS devices. However, one thing that’s missing from the equation is a built-in means to directly control your Mac using an iPad or iPhone. Plenty of remote desktop options exist, but Google’s is entirely free and, during our testing, proved itself to be reliable and robust. However, the process of getting it up and running is quite involved, but MacFormat’s here to help. This walkthrough assumes you’ve downloaded and installed the free Google Chrome for OS X (download from google.co.uk/chrome/browser/desktop). On installing, Google Chrome will ask if you want it to be your default browser – untick it if you want Safari to remain your…

As of iCloud Drive, Apple has somewhat opened up the file system on iOS, enabling you to delve into app folders and open and save documents without ending up with loads of copies lurking ‘inside’ different apps. But unlike on OS X, where you have Finder, iOS lacks any kind of app for simply browsing on-device files. Documents 5 wears a number of different hats – it’s a PDF reader, media player and download manager. Through fully supporting iCloud Drive and the iOS Document Picker, it’s an app that enables you to explore and to some extent manage the files stored on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. There are restrictions over and above what you find on the Mac. Any document sitting inside an app folder in iCloud Drive…

On 20 April, the iTunes Store stopped working for anyone running iTunes on Windows XP. For two days, the internet forums blazed brightly as one side claimed Apple was deliberately torpedoing Windows, the other hotly insisting Apple was perfectly within its rights to stop supporting an obsolete operating system. But they all missed the point. This wasn’t a deliberate action at all. It was a mistake. Apple developers changed the encryption for iTunes Store connections and didn’t properly test it on all the operating systems supported by iTunes. XP is still on that list, so this was an oversight. But it’s an easy oversight to make considering XP is 14 years old now and even Microsoft doesn’t support it anymore. “When XP was released, Macs were still running Puma” When…

The first thing you’ll want to do is put the Apple Watch on your wrist. Not so quick, flip the Apple Watch over and spot the two small indents next to the straps. These are the band release buttons, press and hold one and slide the band out sideways to remove it. Check in the Watch’s packaging and you’ll find another band (you get one large and one small). Try both and see which fits best. Now lay your Watch on a flat surface; this makes the automatic sync with your iPhone easier (try to avoid manual pairing if possible). Press the side button (shaped like a pill) to turn on the Watch and tap Start Pairing on the Watch and in Apple Watch app on your phone. During setup…

Apple has gone to great lengths to ensure you can have the Apple Watch just the way you want it with just a few small, easy tweaks. 21 Adjusting the watch face Performing a deep press on the watch face displays all the faces that are available. Swipe left and right to choose a face and tap to select it. 22 Finer face options Tap Customise below a watch face. Dots at the top of the screen indicate the number of features of the face that can be modified, such as a highlight colour and how many numbers are shown around the face. Swipe horizontally to switch between them. Rotate the Digital Crown to modify the feature. 23 Adding complications Some watch faces provide other details besides the time (known…

The Apple Watch is one of the most exciting Apple products of recent years, and now we’re giving you the chance to get your hands on this wearable sensation for free, along with a beautiful Twelve South HiRise for Apple Watch stand! The HiRise is crafted from metal in silver or black, and integrates the Watch’s magnetic charger to keep it on display while charging. The sturdy stand holds any Apple Watch at an elevated height and angle, so you can interact with your Watch while it’s charging, making it a great bedside companion. It works with any Watch band, and has silicone accents and a soft leather landing pad on the back to protect the more expensive bands from scuffs while they rest. What’s more, the Watch’s charger is…

As with the iPhone and iPad, it’s apps that make the Apple Watch a great companion. Those below make the Watch even more useful and deserve a place on your Home screen. 88 thetrainline We love being able to get live train information on the iPhone, and this app is the best way to find out which trains are running. The Apple Watch app displays nearby and favourite stations, and arriving trains as a visual graphic so you can quickly see if yours is due. 89 UK Bus Checker What thetrainline is to trains, the UK Bus Checker is to buses. Find nearby bus stops and departure times. You can plan journeys, and if you set a home location in the iPhone app, your Watch can show you routes to…

From £1,049 Manufacturer Apple, apple.com/uk Processor 1.1GHz or 1.2GHz dual-core Intel Core M Memory 8GB Graphics Intel HD Graphics 5300 Storage 256GB or 512GB flash storage Apple’s quest for ever thinner and lighter devices is unrelenting, and while we’re all for things being more portable, the question is whether the company sometimes goes too far, or too fast. The new MacBook is just 13mm thick, and weighs under a kilo – easily the thinnest and lightest Apple notebook yet. It fits a 12-inch screen and a fullsize keyboard into a smaller footprint than the 11-inch MacBook Air. But it’s also Apple’s slowest notebook, and it comes with just a single data port, which also doubles as the charging plug. So the question is whether these compromises are actually worth it…

£173 Manufacturer Philips, philips.co.uk Frequency 7Hz–25kHz Impedance 16 Ω Weight 195g These headphones don’t plug into the usual 3.5mm jack, but instead connect to an iOS device’s Lightning port. But before we get to that, let’s talk comfort and sound. These headphones are not for purists who prize neutral reproduction. However, for many, the warm, rich-but-restrained sound will be welcome. More money would buy you headphones that aren’t as slurred at the bottom end, with more detail in the top, and with a little more presence overall. But in general, while a little high, the price is reasonable for the performance. The materials Philips has used feel good, though there is a little play in the components that stop the headphones short of feeling totally premium. They’re generally comfortable, though…

£99 Manufacturer Fitbit, fitbit.com Measures Weight, body fat, body mass index Dimensions 5.84x3.3x31.24cm Features Wi-Fi, smartphone/online app integration, auto power on/off Fitbit is one of the big ‘wearable’ companies, but with the Aria Smart Scale it confines your stats monitoring to indoors, thanks to its built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. Powered by four AA batteries and sporting an LED screen and sleek glass top, it looks much like traditional bathroom scales. But turn it on and the first thing it does is connect to your wireless network. Once the connection is made you can create a profile for yourself, which is linked to your Fitbit account. Stepping on the scales, it identifies you by name and proceeds to take your weight, body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage – useful if…

£7.99 Developer Lorenzo Puelo, softobe.com Requires OS X 10.8 or higher This could be the best value application on the Mac App Store. For less than £8 you get desktop publishing and web design rolled into one. The interface is ideal for beginners, and you can tailor it to fit different screens with single or double columns of palettes. Any sections you’re not using can be collapsed. Font choices are made using OS X’s Fonts window, so there’s no live preview on either the page or the menu, but when you’re happy with your settings you can save them as a style. There’s no leading control, but it supports kerning, allowing you to nudge characters using keyboard shortcuts. There’s a basic ruler with tab stops, as well as dynamic guides…

£22.99 Developer Colossal Order, colossalorder.fi Requires OS X 10.9, 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, see website for graphics cards SimCity was the undisputed king of city builders, but there’s a new contender to the crown. Cities: Skylines has incredibly deep, engrossing mechanics capped off byt stunning presentation. There are so many things to manage in Skylines, with budgets, taxes, resources, transportation and pollution just a few of them. The game unlocks more mechanics as your city grows, so you aren’t immediately overwhelmed if you’re new to the genre. You’ll place a few roads and set up districts for housing, industry and retail. The more you build, the more people will flock to your ever-growing city, and you’ll have to support the citizenship with hospitals, schools and parks. You’ll have…

£2.29 Developer Possible Games, pocoecogame.com Works with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad Version 1.2.7 Poco Eco’s world is a joy, bursting with warm colours, sharp lines and neon structures. At its best it’s something you just want to gawp at. You tap to move through 3D worlds, opening pathways by walking over buttons and shifting platforms around. In one level you may be crossing a flat river by stepping onto moving squares, while in another you’re rotating drum pad-shaped platforms. The game’s music, by IAMYANK, is very much the key theme. It’s not perfect: awkward camera angles can make moving a chore, and the game only lasts a few hours. But the mesh of music and art makes Poco Eco a breeze, despite these foibles. The story may be a celebration…

£2.99 Developer Lightricks, enlightapp.com Works with iPhone, iPod touch Version 1.0.1 Are you getting a little bored of Instagram’s Mayfair feature? We don’t blame you. Well how about the ability to add gradients, effects and contouring to your photographs instead? That’s what Enlight offers. As well as a decent selection of preset filters (all of which offer adjustable intensity), there are brushes, frames and effects such as Sketchify that you manually apply to your images, using a finger to ‘paint in’ the areas of effect. There’s plenty of scope for the tweaking and layering of effects, and doing so is tactile and enjoyable – although it’s more time-consuming than the simple snap, filter, share many of us are now used to. It might take a while to achieve your desired…

We round up the Apple stories that matter to you Apple has introduced a new edition of the 15-inch MacBook Pro and a second lower-price iteration of its 5K iMac. The new 15-inch MacBook Pro boasts a Force Touch trackpad, Retina display, faster flash storage, longer battery life and much improved graphics. Meanwhile, the new model 27-inch 5K iMac offers quad-core 3.3GHz Intel Core i5 processors and AMD Radeon R9 M290 graphics and costs from £1,599. The cost of the existing top-of-the-range (3.5GHz) 5K iMac has been reduced to £1,849. These 5K displays provide 14.7 million on-screen pixels (5120 x 2880). “Customers love the groundbreaking iMac with Retina 5K display, and now with a new lower price, even more people can experience it,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President…

One of the things I’ve always loved about Apple is its attitude to celebrities. With other firms, the celebrity is the person you pay to promote your product. With Apple, the celebrity has always been the product. Apple didn’t believe in letting people jump the queue, no matter who they were. As NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal recalls, his fame cut no ice when he tried to get the first iPhone from Steve Jobs. “I used to call him every other day," he said. “Can I please get one first? Can I please get one first? He never gave me one. He said, ‘Shaq, I can’t, I can’t, I can’t.’” Many other celebrities (and their agents) tell similar stories. If you wanted the latest Apple product, you got in line with…

HomeKit provides several layers of flexibility regarding the layout of your home automation accessories and devices. Layouts are based around the concepts of ‘homes’, ‘rooms’ and ‘zones’. A home is the largest container, representing a single dwelling and guests can be granted limited access to a home. It’s possible to add multiple homes to HomeKit – your actual home and an office, for example, or multiple holiday homes if you’ve the wealth of a typical Apple exec! One must be set as a default for Siri commands that don’t specify a home. Each home may have multiple rooms within, and these need to be given meaningful and distinct names, such as ‘living room’ and ‘kitchen’. If a home has two similar rooms that perform the same function, you’ll need to…

Time Machine is simple and effective to use, but if you have more than one Mac, you’ll want to keep them all secure. However, buying an external drive to host each Time Machine archive can quickly get expensive. The solution is to use OS X Server’s built-in Time Machine Server to share a single drive across your whole network. Granted, you’ll need to devote at least one Mac to run the server application, but as this is a background process that takes up few resources, you can simply pick the most powerful Mac in your home to act as the server and make sure it’s left switched on 24/7. Server costs £14.99 from the Mac App Store and requires that the host machine is running the latest version of OS…

If you’ve ever had to send a letter to multiple recipients, each displaying the recipient’s name and address, possibly with a personalised greeting, you’ll understand the value of mail merge. Mail merge allows you to write a letter once, select the group of people you want to send it to, and allow whatever software you’re using to create and save individual instances of the letter. It’s a lot quicker and less labour intensive than copying and pasting yourself. Mail merge allows you to write a letter once, select the group of people you want to send it to, and allow whatever software you’re using to create and save individual instances of the letter. It’s a lot quicker and less labour intensive than copying and pasting yourself. Pleasingly, you don’t have…

There are myriad ways you can keep data in sync across two or more Macs, but if you’re worried about security or cost, a peer-to-peer (P2P) solution is better than a cloud-based service such as iCloud or Dropbox. Until recently our P2P choice was BitTorrent Sync, but concerns over security and privacy coupled with a switch to an expensive freemium model have left people looking for an alternative. That alternative is Syncthing. It’s completely free and open source, plus it offers a more transparent and secure way of connecting your Macs. It’s still in its infancy and a little rough around the edges. But it has all the core functionality you need and – as you’ll see – provides an intuitive, browser-based configuration tool for setting things up and managing…

Your iPhone or iPad uses multiple sensors to track your location. By combining data from GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and mobile phone cell towers, it can create a pretty accurate picture of where you are. It can be a very useful tool for maps, navigation tools and Apple’s own Find My Friends and Find My iPhone apps. But, very reasonably, there may be occasions when you want to keep your location data private. Fortunately, iOS 8 makes it very easy to give and revoke permission for apps to access location data. And it makes it very clear when your location is being shared and with which apps. The first thing to note is that newly installed apps must ask you for permission if they want to access location data. This is…

Welcome... There’s always plenty to say about Apple, whether it’s good or bad. And we’d particularly love to hear what you think! Write to us at letters@macformat.com and remember, the Star Letter wins a prize! GET INVOLVED Apple Mail 58 Photo Stream 60 Mac User Groups 61 Ask the Experts 63 Win an Apple Watch 78 Join us online Email your questions to letters@macformat.com Visit macformat.com for more great Mac news Join the conversation with our Facebook page Keep up to date by following us on Twitter at @MacFormat Are you on App.net? So are we! We’re @MacFormat there too Subscribe to our videos at youtube.com/MacFormatUK STAR LETTER Import-ant files My wife has recently taken a movie on her iPad. We would like to keep it as a permanent record…

GET IN TOUCH If you have a technical query with your iOS device that you need answering, please email us at sos@macformat.com The infinite update loop Q I have an iPad 3 that was working wonderfully until I foolishly agreed to upgrade iOS. What a mistake that was! My iPad is now stuck in permanent upgrade land! Whatever I do, the update screen with the progress bar and the Apple logo keeps coming back. This eventually changes to ‘Update Completed’, but before I get to my Home screen the progress bar is back and I have to wait for the update again! Jen Rochelle A I’ve heard of this in a handful of cases since the iOS 8.3 update. Unfortunately, the only fix found so far is to perform a…

1. Wake up There are three ways to wake up the Apple Watch: raise the Watch and tilt it towards your face, or push either the Digital Crown or the side button. All three methods take you to the watch face. To put the Apple Watch to sleep, lower your arm or cover its screen with your other hand. 2. Rotate Rotating the Digital Crown zooms in and out of the Home screen, and in the Photos app it works in a similar manner to the pinch gesture on an iPhone to zoom in and out. In other apps, like Mail, Messages and Twitter, rotating it scrolls through messages (just like swiping up and down on your iPhone). 3. Glances Swiping up from the bottom of the watch face brings…

The Apple Watch is designed to be on your person during all waking hours, so it makes sense for it to help you get around. Get the most out of going from A to B. 41 Get there with Siri The fastest way to get somewhere is to ask Siri for directions. You can ask Siri for directions to contacts and local businesses, or you can speak out an address. 42 Search your contacts Ensure details for contacts on your iPhone are all up-to-date, with home and work addresses, for people close to you. Tap the Maps glance to open the app and then do a deep press to reveal a Contacts button that enables you to search for people’s details from your Watch. 43 Siri go home Make sure…

One key aspect of the Apple Watch is its built in health and fitness features. The Watch keeps track of your movements, and its Activity app lets you know when it’s time to stand up or go for a walk. 67 Honesty counts When you first open the Activity app it’ll ask you your sex, age, weight and height. Answer the questions honestly as they are used to determine what level of activity is appropriate for your demographic. 68 Keep an eye on your Activity Once an hour you’ll get a notification asking you to stand up and move around. You also get notifications every four hours that provide an update on progress towards your daily calorie burn and exercise quotas. 69 Understanding Activity rings Swipe up from the bottom…

REVIEW 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. Prices we quote for products are correct at the time of writing and are the best we can find from a reputable online dealer, excluding delivery. Rarely given; a brilliant thing that’s as good as you can get in its class right now A strong recommendation to buy; any concerns are comfortably outweighed by its strengths A good product you should consider buying, but there may be better options for you Fundamentally flawed either in concept or execution; there are almost certainly better options for you A waste of your money and everyone’s time; do not buy! Given solely at the discretion…

£780 Manufacturer Parrot, parrot.com Connectivity 802.11ac, MIMO dual-band (2.4 and 5GHz) Camera 1920x1080 at 30fps (video), 4096x3072 Memory 8GB Dimensions 80x320x36mm Weight 400g Parrot drones have finally grown up. We’re used to slightly childlike toys such as the Rolling Spider topping Christmas lists, but the Bebop drone is about to claim that spot. It’s a diminutive drone, but it’s got some serious kit on board. In a body section that’s just a few inches long you get a substantial battery and an HD (1080p) video camera that shoots 14 megapixel stills. It can be bought just as a drone (£430), but the Skycontroller bundle gives you a traditional twin-stick remote control unit capable of generating its own Wi-Fi hotspot, enabling you to fly up to a claimed 2km (it went…

£173 Manufacturer Ted Baker, tedbaker.com Features FM/DAB/DAB+ radio, Bluetooth speaker, alarm clock Dimensions 27.7x13x16cm Weight 2.3kg The Finisterre radio is one of many digital radios on the market, but it’s the only one with Ted Baker’s distinctive styling. It’s a blend of retro cool and modern simplicity, constructed of brushed aluminium and leather, with a sturdy leather strap. Its build quality is excellent. It comes with a power supply and on the rear panel you’ll find a USB port for firmware updates, a mini audio jack line input for connecting other devices (perhaps those without Bluetooth) to the speakers, and a mini jack headphone output. The top surface is easy to use with aluminium buttons, tuning and volume dials, and a large display. There are three modes. A standard FM…

Everything is wireless these days: your watch, your car keys, the moggy’s collar. In the area of audio devices, going wireless was once a trade-off between sound quality and convenience: lose the wiring and you were at the mercy of ethereal factors such as latency, range and compression, along with an almost guaranteed reduction in sonic enjoyment. Fortunately, wireless audio protocols have come a long way since the introduction of Bluetooth, and with the help of codecs such as aptX and A2DP, audio quality is finally approaching standards once the preserve of wired systems. That’s not to say every Bluetooth implementation is perfect. Bluetooth headphones will only sound as good as their audio components allows, to say nothing of potentially mitigating factors such as design, battery life, comfort and usability.…

£21.99 Developer Synium Software, syniumsoftware.com Requires OS X 10.9 or higher When compared head-to-head with apps such as Adobe Illustrator, Logoist’s lack of options and simplistic approach may make high-end users bristle. It certainly isn’t as complete as Adobe’s app or other, sophisticated alternatives such as the excellent Affinity Designer (see page 44). But what Logoist does offer is a fun and enjoyable way to create vector images, using the features it has in an interesting and different way. All on show With its three-column layout, everything is on show in Logoist. Your layers palette sits on the left, properties on the right, with the image in the centre. This can be annoying, since you lose space for your artwork, and familiar elements such as colour selection are hidden away…

£4.49 Developer Tin Man Games, gamebookadventures.com Works with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad Version 0.1.3275 This will be like Marmite for Shakespeare fans. It presents Hamlet as a game built like an interactive novel. It uses modern language and jokes, throwing in some gorgeous artwork from an all-star team of online cartoonists. After each scene you’re presented with a series of options, enabling you to change the story’s outcome. So Hamlet might run away when seeing his father’s ghost, for example. The humour makes more sense if you’re familiar with the play, but sometimes the jokes read like a teacher trying to be down with the kids. Sadly, there’s not enough of the lovely artwork. Most of the time you’re tapping through walls of text with the odd picture every now…

£6.99 Developer Secret Base Design, musicioapp.com Works with iPhone, iPod touch, iPad Version 1.2 As virtual instruments and audio effects running on iOS improve, musicians increasingly need a way to integrate iPads and iPhones into their Mac-based recording setup. Music IO is a really clever app that lets you stream four stereo audio channels from iOS to your Mac in 32-bit resolution and at low latency, as well as sending MIDI back and forth between the devices. Install the bridge app and AU (Audio Unit) or VST (Virtual Studio Technology) plug-in on your Mac, and then you can specify any Inter-App Audiocompatible iOS apps, like synths or drum machines, into your digital audio workstation, such as Logic or GarageBand, and record it. The MIDI side of Music IO enables you…

In fiction, there’s a device called Chekhov’s Gun: if you say in chapter one that there’s a gun in the room, Chekhov wrote, “it absolutely must go off.” There’s a similar thing with Apple acquisitions. If Apple buys it, it’ll absolutely use it. And that brings us to PrimeSense, the Israeli 3D sensor firm Apple acquired in 2013. You might not know the company, but you know the Kinect motion sensor it helped develop for Mircosoft. It makes a range of 3D sensors, and those sensors can detect movement not just for games, but for any application that needs to know what somebody’s doing. For example, one PrimeSensepowered system knows which cereal a shopper is reaching for on a shelf and displays appropriate advertising or offers on a nearby iPad…

METRO REDUX £18.99 Developer Fishlabs, dsfishlabs.com Requires OS X 10.6.6 or higher Cult Ukrainian-made game Metro: Last Light Redux is a dark and powerful post-apocalyptic first-person shoot-’em-up – and it’s now available for Mac. The majority of the action takes place deep underground in the mutant-infested remains of the Russian subway system. Sure enough, at first glance the game may seem a little like Call of Duty or Halo, but Metro’s own nuances makes the game series the cult classic it has become on other platforms. Last Light Redux and 2033 Redux are based on the novels of Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky, who is apparently writing books that tie in to future editions of the game. Action takes place in an incredibly hostile environment. You’ll spend much of your time…

Back in 2001, Steve Jobs talked about the digital hub strategy, placing the Mac at the heart of your home – at least as far as music and films went. But with HomeKit, Apple’s machinations go significantly further, aiming to turn your iPhone or iPad into an engine that drives potentially countless smart accessories about your home. It’s science-fiction thinking arriving in our reality – tapping on a device to remote-control lights, locks, heating, garage doors, power strips, cameras and kettles. Granular context-oriented groupings in HomeKit will enable you to define rooms, zones and scenes, further simplifying the setup or adjustment of any given environment. Your home would transform with you only having to lift a single finger – and then tap. Of course, the idea of home automation isn’t…

Elgato Eve £TBA elgato.com What is it? A range of sensors, designed to provide environmental data, including energy consumption, temperature and air quality. The integration with HomeKit should offer immediacy and convenience beyond existing equivalent products. When’s it due? ‘Soon’ Why are we excited? It will help you make informed decisions regarding energy use. Philips Hue £150 (for starter pack) philips.co.uk What is it? Wireless lightbulbs. You can control your lights from your iOS device, wherever you happen to be, and also their hue, transforming your room’s feel in seconds. HomeKit support is incoming – you might need new kit though. When’s it due? On sale now Why are we excited? Because of the convenience, flexibility and sheer geeky joy of the system. Schlage Sense £TBA schlage.com What is it?…

After rent or mortgage payments, a car is most people’s biggest annual expense. The problem is that tracking how much it’s costing you, and whether you might be able to save money, is tricky. Computing the number of miles per gallon your car costs is hard enough, but the various other expenses – repairs, replacement parts, insurance, tax and so on, adds up over a year and all make a real difference to the bottom line: in this case, what your car costs for every mile you drive it. The answer, of course, is a spreadsheet. Data geeks have spreadsheets for all kinds of things, but because of the sheer number of data points driving produces – miles driven, parts and so on – spending a little while creating a…

Apple likes to keep things simple where window controls are concerned, which is why you don’t get very many of them. You can minimise a window to the Dock by clicking the yellow button or by using the keyboard shortcut . In Yosemite, you can switch to full-screen mode with the green button, or (usually) press . Beyond this, you’re on your own. Which is perhaps fine if you live in full-screen mode, but not if you spend far too much time attempting to manage a mess of windows on your screen. No matter how you want to control windows, Moom has settings that feel tailor-made Moom ($10 – about £6, many tricks.com) powers up window management on the Mac. In many ways it’s overkill, with an almost absurd number…

Apple’s Videos app is pretty basic (though you can be sure that’s intentional) and many want more flexibility when it comes to playing films or other videos from an iOS device over AirPlay to an Apple TV. oPlayer is an app that lets you do far more than Apple allows, and there’s even a free version, alongside the ad-free, paid option. The first big difference is that oPlayer lets you load many different types of video file, not just those approved by Apple. So AVIs, MKVs and all kinds of other obscure audio and video formats can be played without the need for any conversion. Just as importantly, it also lets you create an instant wireless connection between your Mac and your iPad and transfer films manually, which means none…

GET IN TOUCH If you have a technical issue that you need help with, please email us at: sos@macformat.com Shooting for maximum performance on a Mac Pro Q I have an early 2009 Mac Pro with eight cores and 20GB of memory, running Mavericks. It also has 2TB and 750GB hard drives, in addition to the original 640GB hard drive, and it backs up to an external 4TB drive using Time Machine. It’s used mainly for post-processing still images using Photoshop, Lightroom, Perfect Photo Suite and so forth. I’m wondering if I should fit an SSD into the last bay to boost performance. Are there other hardware upgrades that I should consider as well? David Cooper A You won’t see the full performance benefit if you put the SSD in…

Lucky Apple fans managed to get hold of a much-coveted Apple Watch during the launch, and we were – fortunately – among them. We’ve had plenty of time to get under the hood of our Apple Watch Sport and discover lots of secret features you might have missed. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the sheer depth of functionality packed into the Apple Watch. It may seem simple on the surface, but the Watch is packed with features, obtuse gestures and hard-todiscover yet useful settings. We’ve analysed every aspect of the device and pored over its features to help you get more from your wearable companion.…

The Apple Watch is a vastly more complex creature than you might imagine, with myriad options spread out across several areas. The first thing to know is that there are two places to configure settings. On the Watch’s Home screen you’ll find a Settings app that contains fundamental settings. The Apple Watch app on your iPhone presents many more when you tap My Watch, making it the best place to start. 11 Limit interruptions Receiving many notifications on the Apple Watch soon becomes overwhelming. Calm things down by tapping Notifications to view the settings for each app. They might offer different settings, but most include two options: Mirror my iPhone (the default) and Custom. If you select the former, the phone’s options are summarised below; to adjust them, go to…

One thing that immediately struck us about Apple Watch is its effectiveness as a communication tool, whether you’re making phone calls like Dick Tracy, or sending animated emojis. 51 Start a call Set up your Friends list in the Watch’s companion app on your iPhone, then press the Watch’s side button, select and tap a friend, then tap the phone icon. To answer a call, just press the green answer icon when the incoming call arrives. 52 Respond with a message If you don’t want to take a call you can respond with one of the stock messages. When a call is incoming, use the Digital Crown to scroll down. Tap Send a Message and pick a stock answer to send instead, or dictate your own. 53 Switch to iPhone…

Apple Watch integrates neatly with HomeKit, Apple’s system for home automation (see page 20 for more). Built into the Watch is support to control music playback in iTunes on your Mac, and the Watch works as a remote control for Apple TV , too. You can also control the Camera app on your iPhone, which is great for taking group shots and selfies. Third-party devices take the Apple Watch much further as a remote control. With the right equipment you can control the lighting in your home, open and shut your garage doors, or monitor a home surveillance system. 79 iTunes control You can control iTunes on your Mac from your Apple Watch. Open the Watch’s Remote app and tap Add Device, then open iTunes on your Mac and click…

From £299 Manufacturer Apple, apple.com Sizes 38mm or 42mm Weight 35g (38mm), 40g (42mm) Capacity 8GB Connectivity Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz), Bluetooth 4.0 Tech is more personal than ever, but whereas tablets and smartphones cover this adequately, the final frontier has always been tech we wear. As ever, Apple wasn’t first to market with a smartwatch, but it’s only interested in changing the market in its favour. Like the iPhone and iPad, it’s set to do so just after the beginning of the growth curve. Make no mistake, we ought to be thinking of Apple Watch as the wearable – you’ve already heard enough about consumer demand to understand the Watch’s impact. It’s a new product category, yes, but the Watch isn’t a standalone device, as many wearables are. It’s most…

£119 Manufacturer Withings, withings.com Requires iPhone 4s or later, iPod touch 5th generation or later Now that the Apple Watch is out you might think the time is up for any other smartwatch maker. But there’s room for more than one approach and Withings’ Activité Pop is one of our favourites. Indeed, in many ways, the Activité Pop is a far, far better option than an Apple Watch for some. It looks for all the world like a regular watch. (It also comes in blue and beige, both of which look terrific.) But behind the dial are some smarts that track your activity and sleep, and communicate with your iPhone over Bluetooth 4.0, to let you monitor them, get advice and encouragement and, if you like, compete virtually with friends.…

£100 Manufacturer Canon, canon.co.uk Print resolution 600x1200dpi Pages per minute 19 (mono), 9 (colour) Connectivity USB, Wi-Fi, Ethernet Dimensions 46.3x29x45.9cm It’s not much to look at, but this is an affordable inkjet printer that provides good performance and quality for small businesses and people who work from home. The design won’t win any awards, as it’s little more than a monolithic slab of black plastic, weighing about 10kg and measuring a bulky 46.3x29x45.9cm. But, to be fair, some of that bulk is because it includes two large paper trays, each with a capacity of 250 sheets – meaning you can use one tray for plain paper and another for envelopes or photo paper. There is no scanner, copier or fax though. It does, however, work really well as a straightforward…

£6.99 Developer ZurApps Research, zurapps.com Requires OS X 10.10, Wi-Fi (for location tracking) Apple’s excellent Maps app for OS X lacks multi-point route planning, which is important for casual and business travellers alike. You can get it on Google Maps, but wouldn’t it be better to spend £6.99 on a dedicated app that isn’t as good? That appears to be the sales pitch here, because Road Tripper is absolutely hopeless. The feature list makes Road Tripper sound useful. You can create multi-point route plans, choose between driving, walking and as-the-crow-flies routes, sync plans via iCloud for use on the Road Tripper iOS apps, and add your own data to points of interest that are already populated with reviews from Yelp. Sounds good? Sadly, it isn’t. The user interface is horrible,…

£11.99 Developer Upper One Games LLC, neveralonegame.com Requires OS X 10.8.5 or higher, 1.7GHz Intel Core i5, 2GB RAM, see website for graphics cards Never Alone tells the story of an Iñupiat child’s trek across the hazardous Alaskan landscape to find the source of a blizzard that’s ravaging her village, with only an arctic fox for company. Their journey is depicted using platform-based action and puzzle solving. Nuna can use tricks such as strong winds to cross chasms and weighing things down with heavy objects to open up pathways, and the fox can claw its way up walls to reach things that are out of Nuna’s reach. Progression unlocks videos which explain how the game draws upon Iñupiat culture. The atmosphere built by the visuals and sound fosters affection for…

SPQTLIGHT The Apple kit we’re most excited about The iPhone 6 marks the second time Apple has introduced a larger smartphone screen, but some people will find the increase to a 4.7-inch screen too much to handle. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for it or the even larger, 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus in someone’s life; you might find the extra space is just what you need to boost productivity. Both models have impressive camera capabilities for shooting photos and recording video. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus come in Apple’s well established trio of colours Supersize your iPhone The latest iPhones are available in 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch versions; 4-inch models are available, but only with older hardware inside. iPhone DAYS SINCE REFRESH 251 UPDATE LIKELY? August 2015? BUY…