Содержание выпуска: August 2022 — MacFormat

On 6 June, Apple set out its stall for what we can expect from the Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch for the year ahead – with Tim Cook and others revealing macOS Ventura, iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and watchOS 9. Plus, two new Macs: a totally redesigned MacBook Air with a bigger 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display and an updated MacBook Pro, both sporting the latest slice of Apple silicon – the M2. You can read about all of these (and other developments) starting in our extended news coverage on p6. One thing that’s obviously been missing from Apple’s line-up for a few years now is any kind of network adaptor. While mesh Wi-Fi setups from the likes of Linksys and Netgear have made home networking easier and faster, many…

› Ever since the GrayKey scandal of 2018, Apple has been trying to prevent external devices from maliciously interacting with its users’ devices and accessing their data. That’s continued in macOS Ventura, which introduces a security feature that requires any accessories connecting to an Apple silicon Mac over USB-C or Thunderbolt to gain explicit user permission before they can run. Power adaptors, external displays, and connections to an approved hub are exempt, and devices will still charge even if you decline them access to macOS. Approved devices can maintain their connection to a locked Mac for up to three days.…

› The updated version of CarPlay is set to integrate more deeply with a vehicle’s hardware, enabling content to be shown on multiple screens, including the instrument cluster. You will also be able to change the radio and other settings using Apple’s software. Furthermore, CarPlay will display information like speed, fuel level, and temperature, along with the Weather app and Music. The whole experience will be highly customisable and more details are set to be revealed later in the year.…

Health and fitness is already a central tenet of the Apple Watch, and this is only going to increase with watchOS 9. To start, the Workout app is getting an overhaul. The Digital Crown will be able to rotate between different Workout Views. Heart Rate Zones are being introduced to help monitor how intense a workout is. Custom workouts are being made available too. Runners using an Apple Watch will be able to add new metrics such as Stride Length, Ground Contact Time, and Vertical Oscillation in their Workout Views. Swimming monitoring has also been updated, as have Fitness+ workouts. On the health side, the new Medications app will be available on the Apple Watch as well as on iPhone. This means your Apple Watch will alert you when it…

1 Sonus Faber Omnia › £1,599 › sonusfaber.com › A great speaker doesn’t just sound incredible, it looks so good that it becomes the centrepiece of any room it occupies. That’s the case with the Sonus Faber Omnia, a sleekly gorgeous speaker that exudes class from every angle. Its audio performance is simply sensational, with superb clarity, satisfying bass, and a wide soundstage all on offer. Never mind stereo speakers, the Omnia proves you don’t have to sacrifice quality if you want the convenience of a single–speaker setup. We also love its flexibility. There are heaps of wireless options, from AirPlay to Chromecast, plus built–in support for Spotify and Tidal. And if you prefer a wired connection, you’re well served there too. In other words, the Sonus Faber Omnia is an…

Card [1999-2005] › The original card created a wireless networking interface for the Mac. Base station [1999-2003] › The first base station was a wireless networking switch and internet router. Extreme [2003-2018] › The next iteration AirPort box was a wireless networking switch and internet router and USB print server. It was updated to include network-attached USB storage and offer backup. Express [2004-2018] › Served as a wireless networking switch, access point, bridge, internet router, USB print server and streaming audio receiver. Time Capsule [2008-2018] › The final hardware served as network-attached backup storage, a wireless networking switch and a router.…

Spark › Free › FROM sparkmailapp.com › FEATURES Pin or snooze email. Intelligent sorting, advanced collaboration tools, natural language search Apple’s Mail app has barely changed in years and, for reasons that are not entirely clear, lags some way behind third-party alternatives in terms of features. Spark is available for macOS and iOS and provides many features that are lacking in Mail. There’s a unified inbox and automatic categorisation which prioritises email from real people while sorting newsletters and notifications into separate folders. You can pin or snooze email threads and even fine-tune snoozing for preset amounts of time. Searching is another area where Mail’s abilities are quite basic, but Spark enables you to use natural language search terms like ‘attachments from David’ to find things without having to think…

Microsoft Office › £59.99/year › FROM microsoft.com › FEATURES Create documents, graphs, presentations and spreadsheets, OneDrive cloud storage, Teams for online conferencing While Apple’s office apps – Keynote, Pages and Numbers – have improved a lot since their introduction, Microsoft really rules the roost when it comes to this stuff. Word, PowerPoint and Excel really are the worldwide standard for office use, even if the online-only Google Docs is increasingly making inroads too. By using Microsoft Office you’re more or less guaranteeing that your documents can be opened and edited by anyone you choose to send them to. Microsoft likes you to do everything via an account just like Apple does, so you’ll need to sign up and sign in with your Microsoft ID, though this does also get you…

Pixelmator for iOS › £4.49 › FROM pixelmator.com › FEATURES One-tap enhancement, repair and clone, paint with brushes, add text Pixelmator for iPad actually combines both photo editing and desktop-class painting tools, making it ideal for photographers and artists alike. With support for Photoshop files, it has a range of one-tap enhancement tools that analyse an image and make changes to colour, contrast and sharpness based on its algorithms. You can also repair areas of an image and clone elements within a picture, as well as using the Distort tool to add in special effects. Overlays and light leaks can be added using the Effects tools and you can even combine these to make your own unique looks, while templates can be used to quickly create collages. Taking things a…

IT WILL TAKE › 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN › How to use Spark to manage email YOU’LL NEED › Spark (Free, upgrades available), macOS, 10.13 or later There’s no shortage of excellent email clients for the Mac, including Apple’s own Mail. However, while Mail and others, like Spike, focus more on the social aspects of email, and the likes of Microsoft’s Outlook are heavily business focused, Spark is all about personal productivity. That doesn’t mean Spark doesn’t have lots to offer if you work as part of a team, thanks to features that enable you to collaborate on creating email messages and to share links to conversations. But it’s not geared towards office workers in large organisations. Spark also enables you to share email messages to other apps, like…

One of the great years for Mac has to be 2001. The PowerBook G4 was made from 2001 to 2006 first in titanium (nicknamed the TiBook) and then in aluminium (nicknamed the AlBook). It wasn’t just beautiful. It was high-powered too, with impressive battery life and a powerful G4 processor. The titanium model had a 15-inch display and the aluminium one came in 12-, 16- and 17-inch sizes. The 17in aluminium G4 was the first Apple laptop to get FireWire 800. The PowerBook looked very different from its consumer-oriented sibling, the iBook G4. Apple had already moved away from the oversized candy-coloured clamshells of the original iBook G3, embracing a more sober and traditional design, and in late 2003 it replaced the G3 in the iBook with the more powerful…

Between 2015 and 2019, it seemed to many of us that Apple was losing its way with its laptop designs; Apple was concentrating on the iPhone, iPad and the newly launched Apple Watch, with design chief Jonathan Ive reportedly becoming more distant and less hands-on before his departure in 2019. With hindsight the 2015 Touch Bar seems like evidence of that, a case of something that could go into a laptop rather than should. Late-2010s Mac laptops were evolutionary rather than revolutionary. The third-gen MacBook Air got a Retina display in 2018 and all Mac laptops moved to Thunderbolt/USB-C ports and the divisive ‘butterfly’ keyboard. Many reviews of the fourth-gen MacBook Pro suggested that Apple had prioritised thinness over functionality and bemoaned its lack of ports. If it seemed that…

The most useful features in Maps, and those that are used most often, are travel directions, whether you’re going on foot, driving, or taking public transport. So, for the next couple of pages, we’ll focus on those. It’s worth noting that not all features are available everywhere, though. And some are restricted to major cities, so do bear that in mind. Where all features are supported, the driving directions enable you to see filter lanes, cycle, bus and taxi lanes, central reservations, and crossings. And public transport features include highlighting key bus routes, notifying you when you are approaching your stop, and the option to ‘pin’ your favourite train lines so they appear first in the list of direction options when you are near them. iOS 15 also made it easier…

BUYING ADVICE Our authoritative reviews help you make more informed choices Contact us › Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com › 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…

› £135 › FROM naenka.com › FEATURES Bluetooth 5.2, 10-hour battery life, IPX8, 16GB storage, optional earplugs Audio performance is very good, and solo vocalists sound particularly clear Fans of both running and swimming often find it difficult to find headphones that work well for both. If that’s the position you find yourself in, the Naenka Runner Diver Bone Conduction Headphones could be for you. The headphones are made from a light, matt silicone mould, with titanium alloy shells and wire frame, so they feel easy to wear and have a reassuring build quality. The ear ‘hooks’ sit comfortably around the ears, and you’ll find a near-universal control button on the left. Operation is easy. Long-press to power on, and again to power off, and double-click for Bluetooth mode. You…

Picking a monitor to compliment your Mac or MacBook is incredibly important. You may be spending hours in front of it, so you want something that offers bright colours without causing eye strain, while high resolutions and larger screen sizes can give you more space to work on, and have multiple apps open at once. Buying a new monitor doesn’t have to be expensive, and there are some brilliant screens out there for less than £375. However, when buying a budget monitor, you want to avoid going for something that offers poor image quality, so in this guide we’ll take you through some of the best monitors out there that combine excellent visuals with unbeatable value. When looking for monitors, you may notice some super-affordable screens from obscure brands you’ve…

› Free; Pro from £44.95 › FROM emclient.com › NEEDS macOS 10.14 or later The all-in-one approach of eM Client makes it a good option for people who want to keep email, notes, and calendar together. The New Account assistant works with several types of email account, such as Microsoft Exchange and Outlook, Gmail, and POP and IMAP. We had no trouble setting up non-Apple accounts but had to search around on the website before stumbling across instructions for iCloud. Thankfully, eM Client is otherwise straightforward to use, and the app also supports iCloud and Gmail calendars and contacts, and others. The Apple Mail-like three panel view shows mailboxes, emails, and conversations, and the email that you’re currently reading. There’s also an option to display a right-hand sidebar that provides…

› Tired of sifting through your Mac’s open windows? Apple is hoping its Stage Manager feature will put those struggles to bed. When you enable Stage Manager from Control Centre, your foremost open app stays front and centre, while all your other apps move into a sidebar on the left. You can click one of these apps and it will instantly switch places with your main app. It’s a bit like Mission Control, but Stage Manager is much more organised. Only the main app is kept large and prominent, while multiple app windows are grouped together in the sidebar, meaning there’s far less on-screen clutter. The real power comes when you manually group apps. You can drag windows out of the sidebar and on to the main stage, pairing them…

When it comes to calendar apps, few are as popular or well-loved as BusyCal. And the good news is that it’s received a major update, stacked full of new features and improvements. For example, you now get a ton of new Notification Centre widgets to help you digest your calendar information more quickly and easily. There are extra Do Not Disturb options to give you more flexibility, and there are also numerous quality-of-life improvements throughout. Elsewhere, BusyCal’s developer has included a host of fixes and tweaks that make using the app more enjoyable, from third-party integrations to bug fixes, which all contribute to a much smoother experience. So, if you’re looking to wrestle your calendar back under control, the latest version of BusyCal could be for you. Your productivity –…

Logic Pro › £174.99 › FROM apple.com/uk › FEATURES Bundled instruments, loops and effects, unlimited audio and MIDI tracks, Dolby Atmos mixing, optimised for Mac GarageBand is actually based on technology from Logic Pro, its industry-standard bigger brother, and Logic can open GarageBand project files if you are stepping up to the bigger app. Made for Mac only, Logic Pro is heavily optimised for Macs, especially those boasting the latest Apple silicon, which is important when you start to run big projects. You get essentially unlimited audio and MIDI tracks – as many as your machine can handle – and a vast library of instruments, sounds, loops and effects available to download as part of your purchase. Once you get Logic Pro you have everything you need to start making…

IT WILL TAKE › 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN › How to create a newsletter in Pages YOU’LL NEED › macOS, Pages Apple’s Pages is part word processing app and part page layout tool. However, it’s the latter where it really comes in to its own, making it very easy to create a CV, brochure, flyer or a newsletter. There are lots of template options for each in the template browser, but the real fun and creativity is in using those templates as a starting point and coming up with your own unique design. Pages has some pretty powerful tools for tweaking and adjusting text, images, and other elements on the page so you can make them look exactly as you want them. In this tutorial, we’ll start with one of…

IT WILL TAKE › 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN › How to use Siri and Spotlight to find anything YOU’LL NEED › macOS When it comes to finding things on your Mac or beyond, you have several options. If what you’re looking for is on the web, you could, of course, use a search engine in a web browser. If it’s on your Mac, you could use the search bar in a Finder window and even create a smart folder. However, there are a couple of tools you can use to combine local and web searches: Spotlight and Siri. Both Spotlight and Siri will take a search term and look for matches both locally and on the web. They make full use of online resources like Wikipedia, IMDb, and online dictionaries…

IT WILL TAKE › 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN › How to use Apple Translate for easy communication YOU’LL NEED › iOS/iPadOS 14 or later Did you pay much attention to learning a language at school? Sure, we can tell a French person that the pen of their aunt is in the garden but for many of us that’s about it. So we’re very happy to have the Translate app on our iPhones when travelling; it knows the languages we don’t, enables us to communicate clearly and courteously with others. And even if you do know a bit of the language, the app can help fill the gaps: would you know how to ask someone in Portuguese if anybody’s handed in your child’s lost toy, a stuffed dragon with green…

The Hindenbook › The 1995 PowerBook 5300 should have been famous for its tech: it was the first Apple laptop to use the PowerPC processor. Sadly it was better known for its propensity to overheat and burst into flames, earning it the nickname Hindenbook. Upside-down Apple › Steve Jobs was adamant: the glowing Apple logo on the lid of the PowerBook should be the right way up when the laptop was closed. Unfortunately that meant it looked upside down to everyone else. Some film-makers even covered it up. The Touch Bar › We quite liked it, but the Touch Bar introduced in the 2016 MacBook Pro was loathed by many because it made some things more complex – eg, adjusting the brightness took a tap and a slide where previously…

Now that you know how to get and use directions in Maps using your iPhone, it’s time to dig deeper and see what else Maps has to offer. If step-by-step directions were all it was good for, there would be little point in having it on the Mac. Thankfully, there’s a great deal more to it than that. Curated guides are one such example. Compiled by the likes of Time Out, Culture Trip, and Lonely Planet, the guides offer insights into destinations with tips on where to eat, where to stay, and where to party. Once you’ve found a guide you like, you can add it to your favourites. And you can create your own guides with your own favourite places to go. In some towns and cities you can use…

› Enclosure £248.25, With 2x1TB SSD £408.07, With 2x2TB SSD £578.44 › FROM owc.com › FEATURES 8 NVMe SSD slots, SoftRAID, 2800MB/sec, 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports An excellent, compact and portable, superfast enclosure OWC’s Mercury Pro U.2 Dual bridges the company’s enterprise and consumer lines, bringing potentially huge storage capacities and blazing fast speeds to a desktop-sized unit. It’s designed both for backup and general use, though it uses NVMe SSD drives, a newer format which offers up to 2,800MB/sec of throughput, so it will be of particular interest to those working with large media files – for example, editing multiple streams of high-bandwidth video. The drive itself is pretty straightforward and comes either as an empty enclosure for you to add your own drives – these simply slot into…

› £49.99 › FROM belkin.com/uk › FEATURES Integrated pop-up stand, MagSafe, 15W charging, 2m cable Belkin’s BoostΩCharge Pro Portable is a simple and useful portable charger for iPhones from the iPhone 12 onwards. It looks like an oversized Apple Watch charger, with a dome-shaped puck and a USB-C charging cable that at 2m long is ideal for travel or home charging, and which is twice the miserly 1m of the official Apple charger. As with Apple’s option you’ll need a charger plug to power it. What differentiates this charger from Apple’s one is the integrated metal stand, which feels reassuringly solid and enables you to prop up your phone in portrait or landscape mode. The portrait angle is much shallower because of the location of your iPhone’s magnets, but that…

The Dell C1422H is our pick for the best monitor under £375, as it’s ideal for quickly adding a second screen to your MacBook. The 14-inch screen size is certainly small, but it means this monitor can be carried around with you, and as it’s powered by the same USB-C cable it connects to your MacBook with, it means it’s quick and easy to set up, no matter where you are. In these days of hybrid working, this is a great tool that will keep you productive. If a 14-inch monitor is too small for you, however, the 27-inch Acer K273 is an excellent choice, offering a larger screen and a good quality 1080p image. While screen quality isn’t quite as high as some of the more expensive devices out…

› $42 (about £40) › FROM noodlesoft.com › NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later Hazel makes it easy to create scripts to perform actions on files using a similar interface used to create smart searches in Finder. The biggest addition in version 5 is the ability to pull text strings from lists or tables in order to create conditions. You can either create the lists and tables in Hazel itself, or point it at a file. So, say you had files containing notes on clients and the file names contain the surname of the client. You could create a table, or use an existing one, that had the surname in one column and their first name in another. You could tell Hazel to look up the table for the surname, match…

iMac › From £1,249 › Ever since the Bondi Blue iMac debuted in 1998, Apple’s all-in-one desktop computer has been setting standards for design and performance. The current 24in model is certainly Apple’s finest yet – thanks to its 4.5K (4480x2520) Retina display and the Apple-designed M1 chip, which is available with either an 8-core CPU/7-core GPU at the entry-level, or an 8-core CPU/8-core GPU on the mid-range and top-tier versions. All models come with 8GB of memory as standard (upgradeable to 16GB), with solid-state drive (SSD) storage ranging from 256GB on the entry-level and mid-range versions to 512GB on the top tier, although you can add more – up to 1TB on the entry-level and up to 2TB on the mid-range and top-tier models if you wish via Apple’s…

› PHOTO EDITOR Luminar AI £59 skylum.com › If you want to improve your photos without spending too much, this is the app for you. MF361 › DISK UTILITY Carbon Copy Cloner 6 £30 bombich.com › Backup, cloning and snapshot management utility which handles complex tasks with ease. MF368 › TEXT RECOGNITION TextSniper 3 £6.99 textsniper.app › TextSniper can quickly recognise and extract text from anything you can see on your Mac’s screen. MF364 › OUR TOP 3 ANTI-VIRUS Intego Internet Security X9 › £60/year › MF377 › intego.com Bitdefender Antivirus › £30/year › MF377 › bitdefender.com Clario › £53/year › MF377 › clario.co › OUR TOP 3 WEB BROWSERS Firefox › Free › MF369 › mozilla.org Opera › Free › MF369 › opera.com Vivaldi › Free › MF369 › vivaldi.com ›…

Back up and detox your Mac › Get ready for macOS Ventura by clearing out the clutter and restoring your Mac to peak performance Become a master podcaster › Discover the tips, tricks and tools you need to create brilliant podcasts – from hardware to software Beginner’s Guide to Disk Utility › Learn how to fix problems, format drives and create secure storage volumes with ease! ALSO INSIDE… › Create amazing documents on your Mac with Craft › Customise the Control Centre on iPhone and iPad › Use your apple Watch as a remote control … and much more! Contents subject to change ISSUE 381 ON SALE 26 JUL 2022 DON’T MISS IT – SUBSCRIBE TODAY! › IN PRINT & ON YOUR iPAD Our print and digital bundle gets you…

Before WWDC got under way, rumours were spreading that Apple was going to launch at least one new MacBook at the show. The strongest claims pointed towards the MacBook Air getting a complete redesign, and in the end, that idea proved to be bang on the money. In fact, the MacBook Air got the most comprehensive facelift in its decade-plus history. Not only did it get a new Apple silicon chip (see ‘Next-gen M2 chip arrives’ to the right), but its entire chassis was updated and reformed. Gone is the familiar wedge shape that has become so closely identified with the MacBook Air over the years, replaced with a flat-edged design reminiscent of the 14-inch MacBook Pro. But this is no chunky laptop. Apple says it’s cut the MacBook Air’s…

The next major version of macOS was shown off at WWDC. Named macOS Ventura, the operating system comes with a range of new features and updates spanning app updates, security features, gaming, and much more. We’ll start with a new feature called Continuity Camera. Instead of using an inferior webcam, macOS Ventura now lets you use your iPhone thanks to Continuity Camera. Just place your iPhone in a holder on your Mac’s screen and macOS automatically detects it. It can use Portrait mode, Centre Stage and, if it has an Ultra Wide camera, it can even record you and your desk simultaneously with Desk View. Apple has also expanded Spotlight’s capabilities, letting you start timers and shortcuts from within the Spotlight window, and showing richer search results that use the…

watchOS 9 is set to expand the Apple Watch offering both in terms of appearance and features. There are four stylish new faces coming with the new operating system. These are Lunar, which celebrates those cultures that use the lunar calendar; Playtime, which offers wearers dynamic art from Joi Fulton; Metropolitan, a classic-looking face in which the style changes when the Digital Crown is rotated; and Astronomy, which provides a new star map and cloud data. Complications in existing faces also get an upgrade. The ability to set a specific face to be triggered by a Focus setting being turned on will be introduced in watchOS 9 too. Apple has redesigned notifications for the forthcoming update, with the aim that they are less intrusive. Slimline banners will appear when the…

18% faster › The M2 CPU inside the new MacBook Air and 13in MacBook Pro offers 18% faster computing performance than the M1 chip in its predecessor. 100GB/sec › Unified memory bandwidth of the new M2, 50% more than in the M1. 20,000,000,000 › Number of transistors found on the M2 system on a chip (SoC), 25% more than the M1. The M2 is built using a 5nm process. 24GB › Maximum amount of unified memory available on the M2-powered MacBook Pro, 8GB more than its M1 predecessor. 8 › Number of CPU cores used in the M2 - four are performance cores and four are efficiency cores. 10 › Number of graphics cores found in the new M2 MacBook Pro, two more than on the M1. That, combined with…

For our latest subscription offer see page 38! Back in 2018, Apple discontinued its AirPort line of products – a range of wireless cards and routers that it originally launched back in 1999. In recent years, an array of products from third parties such as Linksys, Netgear and Eero have been available to buy in Apple Stores. But that hasn’t stopped people wondering whether the company should bring back its own offering. Making a comeback? Speculation about a possible AirPort relaunch increased in May 2022. A filing with US regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from Apple for a ‘Network Adapter’ was made public. The details of the potential product were, however, mostly covered by a non-disclosure agreement which is in place until November 2022. Furthermore, there is no guarantee…

Commander One › Free (Pro Pack £25.99) › FROM mac.eltima.com › FEATURES Dual panel view, expanded file and folder info and management, powerful cloud integration The macOS Finder is the face of your Mac, the means by which you launch applications, manage files and folders, and you generally just use it every day. Since Apple gives you the same Finder regardless of whether you’re a beginner or a power user, it is tailored more towards being friendly and usable than providing a million options. For those that do want to go deeper, Commander One is an app that both taps into the hidden features of the Finder and adds many more of its own, to give you a remarkable level of access to your stuff. Its most noticeable feature is…

LumaFusion › £25.99 › FROM luma-touch.com › FEATURES 4K LumaFusion for iPad and iPhone is a powerful video editor that works on a conventional timeline system as opposed to iMovie’s more nebulous approach to drag and drop. Supporting up to six tracks of 4K video and six tracks of audio per project, you can import media from cloud services or edit directly from a USB-C drive on a compatible iPad, use magnetic timeline editing, and access green screen and chroma keying, video stabilisation, colour LUTs and speed effects. There’s also full titling and FX support and audio keyframing. It’s as close to Final Cut Pro on iPad as you can get and has an incredible feature set in its own right, not just considering it runs on iOS.…

Luminar Neo › £67 › FROM skylum.com › FEATURES AI-powered retouching, powerful object removal, apply ‘looks’, sky replacement. Apple’s Photos has some decent basic editing tools and the advantage that it is baked into macOS and iOS. Luminar Neo, on the other hand, features an incredible range of editing tools to help you improve your pictures, while remaining easy to use. You can create catalogues and then work on one image at a time. There are standard tools of course for editing exposure, contrast and colour but the really interesting stuff happens when you start to leverage Luminar’s brilliant AI capabilities. It can analyse an image and detect elements like skies, and let you replace them with a couple of clicks, turning a cloudy setting into a summer one. Or, look…

IT WILL TAKE › 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN › How to use AI to improve complexions, add impact to eyes and create a soft focus background YOU’LL NEED › Luminar Neo, macOS 10.14.6 People are one of the most common photographic subjects. To reflect this fact, Luminar Neo (£67, from skylum.com) has an Edit workspace that provides a comprehensive collection of portrait-enhancing tools. Traditionally, portrait retouchers using apps such as Lightroom Classic would deploy brush-based tools to manually target and tweak the colours and tones of features, such as eyes and skin. Thanks to its Machine Learning (ML) component, Luminar Neo enables you to retouch portraits more quickly. Luminar Neo can recognise that a person is in the picture, enabling it to automatically blur their background to create a…

IT WILL TAKE › 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN › How Guided Access can limit your device to a single app YOU’LL NEED › iPad, iPhone or iPod touch The thing about having personal devices such as iPads and iPhones is that you don’t necessarily want other people to access everything that’s on them. For example, you might want party guests to be able to queue up songs without getting into your other apps, or you might want to limit a child’s usage to a single child-friendly app, or you might want house guests to be able to use Safari without having a look at any of your personal data or documents. That’s where Guided Access comes in. It locks down your device to a single app, and it can…

While Apple’s Maps got off to a bit of a slow start, it’s now a rival to Google Maps and Google Earth. macOS Big Sur and iOS 15 bought big new additions, enabling you not just to get directions to places, but to research and plan trips ahead of time, as well as get live on-the-move navigation. The inclusion of travel guides from well-known publishers means you can fully immerse yourself in your intended destination long before you get there. And, if that destination happens to be one of a handful of major cities, you can even fly over it in Maps to get an even better feel for where you’re going. Many of the really impressive features in Maps on the iPhone rely on the A12 Bionic chip, so you’ll…

› IN PRINT › ON iPAD & iPHONE ISSUE 379 JULY 2022 › Master Apple’s Photos app › We look at what’s next for macOS › 6 of the best to-do apps on test › Beginner’s guide to… the Contacts app ISSUE 378 JUNE 2022 › 54 hacks for Mac, iPhone and iPad › Tested: Mac Studio & Studio Display › Which iPad is right for you? › Shortcuts for Mac made easy ISSUE 377 MAY 2022 › M1 iPad Air in-depth review › Tested: second-gen iPhone SE › appleMusic and TV masterclass › Mac Studio – the next-level desktop 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…

› From £179 › FROM uk.eufylife.com › NEEDS Dual cameras, rechargeable battery, 2K video resolution, IP65 weatherproof, 16GB local storage, battery or wired The doorbell adds a second camera view which points down to show packages Lots of things end up on your doorstep these days – friends, neighbours, strangers, packages and the porch pirates who sadly like to steal them. So, it makes sense to keep a close eye on what goes on out there. Most video doorbells have one camera pointing straight out to show you who is ringing the bell, but the Eufy Video Doorbell Dual adds a second camera view which points down to show you any packages that are waiting. The battery-powered, £229 Video Doorbell Dual comes with a Eufy HomeBase, but if you already…

› £79.99 › FROM ugreen.com › FEATURES 3x USB-C, 1x USB-A, 100W total power, GaN technology GaN technology allows chargers to deliver lots of power from a small device, and Apple is rumoured to be adopting it. This compact charger weighs just 245g and has three USB-C ports and one USB-A port with a total of 100W of power. With one device connected, the first two USB-C ports can deliver 100W and the second USB-C and the USB-A can provide 22.5W. With two devices in the higher powered ports, they split 65W/30W and with all four ports in use, the split is 45W, 30W and 2.1A across the lower two ports. Charging a recent Mac laptop at 100W is faster than most of Apple’s own chargers, save for the very…

› £114.99 › FROM sparkleapp.com › NEEDS Mac OS X 10.9 or later (some features need macOS 11) You can create password-protected pages only visible to users who are logged in It’s been nearly four years since we last reviewed Sparkle, and it’s come a long way since then. Sparkle 4, the latest version, adds a host of new features that make it a serious contender for anyone who needs to build a website with a paywall, support for PayPal subscriptions, and video playback while scrolling. Version 4 also has a new SEO Assistant to help with optimising pages for search engines, an artificial intelligence-powered background removal tool for images, and half a dozen new responsive designs that change according to whether Dark Mode is on or off. A new…

› Free (IAPs), £9.99 Pro Pack › FROM creaceed.com › NEEDS iOS 14.3 or later The HDR mode lets you manually combine multiple exposures The iPhone Camera app is designed to automatically capture true colours and tonal detail in a scene. However, you may want the freedom to take manual control of certain functions to produce more creative-looking results – like classic DSLR photography. With the Hydra 2 app, you can switch to Manual mode and swipe to adjust shutter speed – a slow shutter speed enables you to add dynamic motion blur to moving subjects, while a fast shutter speed can freeze action in sharp detail – making it perfect for sports. To help set the exposure for bright or dark areas, you can summon a classic zebra pattern…

› WIRELESS HEADPHONES Beats Fit Pro £199.99 beatsbydre.com › Expect almost all of the features of AirPods Pro, but at a more affordable price. The Fit Pro sound good too. MF375 › WIRELESS KEYBOARD Logitech MX Keys Mini £99.99 logitech.com › Beautifully made compact Bluetooth keyboard with concave backlit keys and multi-device support. MF375 › EXTERNAL DRIVE OWC Envoy Pro SX From £345 owc.com › Life is hard and so is this external SSD, delivering super-fast performance in a super-tough enclosure. MF371 › OUR TOP 3 USB-C MONITORS BenQ EW3280U › £579 › MF364 › benq.eu/en-uk HP E27d G4 › £478.80 › MF364 › hp.com Lenovo Q27-10 › £299.99 › MF364 ›lenovo.com OUR TOP 3 PORTABLE PRINTERS Epson Workforce WF-110W › £199.99 › MF370 › epson.co.uk Canon Pixma TR170 › £229.99 ›MF370…