Table of contents for December 2016 in MacFormat

You wait a year for new Macs, then they come along and you can’t afford them. Has Apple forgotten all purpose but profit? Allow us, Tim, to introduce ourselves. We’re your creative pro customers: the people who made the Mac cool. Back in the 1990s, Apple may not have been so big, but every glossy magazine office was full of Macs. Every photographer, every musician wanted one. Even the enigmatic new breed called ‘web designers’. That’s what Apple stood for. Not just the tech, but the talent too. Sure, for all that talk of ‘the rest of us’, the Mac wasn’t for everyone. It was for the ones doing and making and being what others aspired to. Later, when Apple launched the iMac, the iPod, and then the iPhone, that’s…

Most of the sports devices that are currently available either go on your wrist, or are attached directly to a piece of equipment, such as a football or tennis racquet. However, there’s a lot of work going on with wearable technology, particularly with smart fabrics that are capable of monitoring your physical condition while you’re exercising. The spandex experts at Under Armour actually launched a ‘smart shirt’, called the E39 about five years ago. It included sensors that allowed it to monitor your heart rate and breathing, although it didn’t really take off at the time. More recently Ralph Lauren has launched its new PoloTech Shirt ($295 – currently US only), which performs similar functions and communicates its readings to an app on your iPhone or Apple Watch. There’s also…

Sierra One of the least appealing aspects of cloud-based storage and syncing services on the Mac has been their tendency to require some kind of special folder. Whether you’re using the likes of Dropbox or Google Drive, you have to alter where you save your files by default, to make them accessible on all your devices. Apple’s thinking with iCloud Drive is to have the process cause the least amount of impact on your existing habits. Apple’s at its most audacious here with Sierra’s single-click moving of the Desktop and Documents folders, which we explore overleaf. Elsewhere, apps increasingly have the capability to save documents to their own dedicated folder in iCloud Drive, which can be immediately accessed in the app’s iOS version, should it be fully compatible with the…

NEW IDEAS Your new-look guide to getting more from your Apple kit CLEAN UP VERY OLD PHOTOS TO PRESERVE THE PAST p64 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 hold all…

1Create a disk set Connect to your Mac all of the disks you want to be part of the disk set. For safety, disconnect other disks that won’t be part of the set to ensure you don’t accidentally erase their contents in this process. Choose File > RAID Assistant. 2Choose a set type You’ll be shown three descriptions, corresponding to those on the facing page, of the three types of disk set you can create and manage using Disk Utility. Select the type you want to create, then click the Next button. 3Review available disks You’ll be presented with a list of all the disks connected to your Mac, and the volumes on them. Your startup disk will be dimmed as it can’t be used. To aid in their identification,…

it will ta ke 10 minutes you will lear n How to share or stop sharing location info among your friends. Yo u’ll need Find My Friends Using a range of technology including 4G radio antennas and GPS, your iPhone nearly always knows where you are. With the Find My Friends app, you can share your location with friends who are using an iOS device or signed in to iCloud.com on a Mac or a PC. You can find out which restaurant or pub your friends have decided on, say, or see how far from home your partner is so you know when to start cooking. Where privacy is concerned, you can control who sees your location and when. Find My Friends is preinstalled with iOS 9 and higher; if you’ve…

1Open Control Centre Swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen; the last card used is shown even after locking your device. On the first card, the top row’s icons and Night Shift toggle their feature when tapped. AirPlay and AirDrop offer some choices, though. 2Stream to Apple TV To mirror your device’s screen to a television, tap AirPlay Mirroring and then tap the name of a (second-generation or newer) Apple TV that’s been found on the same network. Tap AirPlay Mirroring again for an option to turn this off. 3Receive from a device Tap AirDrop and then Contacts Only or Everyone to send things to or receive from a Mac or iOS device that’s nearby. AirDrop to and from Macs only works with models made in the last…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use apps, stickers, and other new messaging features. YOU’LL NEED IOS 10 Messages now enables you to collaborate more closely, apply special effects, and much more Messages may well be the most changed app in iOS 10 thanks to a raft of new features for conversations using Apple’s iMessage service. At last, you can liven up your conversations with all sorts of effects and rich interactions, not just text and emoji. For starters, you can send messages with special effects so that they slam down on the screen, are obscured with an ‘invisible ink’ effect that the recipient must swipe over to reveal your message, or are accompanied by a parade of balloons that float up and off the screen.…

iOS software quick-fire questions My iPad makes me feel dizzy. Can I control that? >This is likely due to the animations used extensively throughout iOS’s interface, which include perspective shift of the Home screen’s background as you tilt your iPad. You can minimise those effects: go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion, and turn on the switch. This feature isn’t perfect, but it should help with the dizziness. How can I stop my iPhone using Siri when locked? >Some people find Siri inadvertently activating when their iPhone is being carried in a pocket of a tight garment, such as jeans or trousers. To prevent that, go to Settings > Siri and turn off the Access on Lock Screen item. Office in iCloud Drive Q I’ve just upgraded…

1Dirty The read/write heads on a floppy drive collect dirt and metal oxide particles. This will eventually stop them reading reliably. Commercial cleaners are expensive now, due to little demand, but you can make a single-use stand-in. 2Thrifty Crack open a 3.5-inch diskette from the end furthest from its shutter. Slide out the flexible disk and pop out and keep the metal hub the drive uses to spin it. Trace the disk’s inner and outer edges on some thin card and cut it out. 3Boozy Glue felt or cotton to one side of the card and glue the metal hub in place. Lightly wet the disc’s cloth face with isopropyl alcohol; otherwise, vodka will do, or even gin – you want a good solvent that won’t leave sticky residue. 4Clean…

£150 from Amazon, amazon.co.uk Features Alexa voice assistant, woofer and tweeter speakers, third-party Skills Alan says… I like Siri on Apple TV but its purpose is limited, and as I often leave my iPhone in another room it’s only when I’m wearing my Watch that I feel like a personal assistant is with me. Hopefully Apple is taking Echo seriously as a rival in smart home tech. T wo years is a long time to wait for any new bit of technology, but Amazon’s sleek, minimal device is worth it. Echo won’t look out of place in any home. The only buttons are on top of the unit. There’s a Mute button – press this when you don’t want Alexa to listen in on what you are doing – and…

£45 FROM Elgato, elgato.com FEATURES Bluetooth 4.0, iOS app (needs iOS 9.1 or higher) Design & features Eve Energy’s width and height aren’t much larger than a regular plug, and it’s a little smaller than Belkin’s device. It juts out just over 5cm from a wall. The manual switch on top is smaller than Belkin’s, yet easy enough to press. Getting started On iOS 10, you can set up Energy in the Home app, but it’s better to follow Elgato’s instructions for its Eve app to get any firmware update. It’s also a bit clearer than Home for defining complex automation triggers, but its ambition can make it seem more complex than Belkin’s app at first sight. Ease of use Both device’s apps track energy usage over time, and take…

£80 FROM Optoma, optoma.co.uk features IP55 rating, 10-hour battery life, noise isolation T hese are some of the best wireless in-ear headphones on the market. They’re made from aluminum and rubber, and feel very solid, especially since the buds are milled out of aluminum. They’re also magnetic, so they won’t flop around on your chest when not in use. Their IP55 rating means they’re rain, dust and sweat resistant. Don’t go swimming with them, but they should put up with abuse at the gym. Once in place, you’ll be treated to balanced sound that works well for every genre, and incredible noise isolation. Although the BE Sport3 aren’t the last word in resolution or dynamics, the slightly boosted bass response and rolled off highs are good, especially when you…

£1.49 FROM BorderLeap, foreseetheday.com NEEDS iOS 9.3 or higher Mac FORNAT VERDICT Foresee’s personal activity forecasts aren’t as intelligent as they need to be. An appealing concept Usability issues Wouldn’t it be great if your iPhone notified you of the optimal time to take a walk or mow the lawn? That’s the ambitious premise of this pseudo-calendar app centred on daily outdoor activities. Instead of focussing on events like meetings, it combines current and forecasted weather with user-added activities taking place at your current or upcoming location. It’s a fantastic idea. You can set up the desired window of time, then tap an activity to view a forecast of the high temperature, chance of rain, and how cloudy, windy or humid it’s expected to be then. You can set preferences…

LETTER OF THE MONTH ! MET ADATA MEMORY LOSS I have 16,133 photos stored in iCloud. Each one has one or more keywords attached as I like to use Smart Folders. Recently, I was searching for some photos using keywords but couldn’t find them. When I checked my Photos library I saw that thousands of my photos now lack keywords. Apple Support tried to repair my local and iCloud libraries, sadly to no effect. I’ve gone back to Apple to see if there’s anything else that can be tried. If this last throw of the dice proves to be unsuccessful I will have a lot of hours ahead replacing the keywords that have been lost, all the time worrying that they’ll vanish again. I don’t know how or when this…

2009 THE FIRST 27-INCH UNIBODY IMAC ON SALE The unibody iMac has become an icon of computer design, but it wasn't always so large. When the 27-inch iMac debuted in 2009 it was seen by many as almost obscenely oversized. Fast forward to today and it's a firm favourite. 240 NUMBER OF SONGS IPOD SHUFFLE HELD The first iPod Shuffle was the first iPod with flash storage. It had 1GB capacity, enough to hold about 240 songs. These days you'll get more than 45,000 songs on a 256GB iPhone 7 Plus. 4.19m IPADS OUTSELL MACS FOR THE FIRST TIME Ever since Apple's inception, desktop computers were at the core of its business. But the iPad changed all that – when it outsold Macs 4,190,000 to 3,890,000 in 2010, it marked…

Our top picks of what’s worth watching and playing this month [MOVI E] FINDING DOR Y £13.99 The sequel to Finding Nemo sees Dory set out to find her long-lost family. The perfect film to watch after stuffing yourself on Boxing Day. [PODCAST] WELCOME TO MACINTO SH FREE A podcast about all things Apple, from the tech itself to the culture and community, and everything in between. A must for Apple fans. [TV SHOW] GL ITCH NETFLIX Set in a rural Aussie town, this six-part series explores what happens when the long-deceased escape their graves to a world that’s moved on.…

Zepp makes gadgets to help improve your skills in baseball, tennis, softball and, of course, golf. LIVE SMARTER The smart home is here – live the Apple dream today! Need to improve your golf swing or your backhand, or just to swim a bit faster in the pool? Here’s the tech that can give you a sporting edge Apple has been helping us with our exercise routines ever since the first iPod made trips to the gym a bit less tedious, way back in 2001. The iPhone went further, enabling you to monitor your distance and speed, and it could even work out how many calories you were burning. But sport isn’t just about burning calories. There are many sports where you can use digital tech to improve your performance…

Explained ATM Not a cash machine – here, ATM is short for ‘atmospheres’ and is used to describe the water resistance of swimming watches. Apple Watch Series 2 is water-resistant to a depth of 50m, which is equivalent to 5ATM, although some watches go up to 10ATM. 1 Water Music Apple can be really smart sometimes – Watch Series 2 uses the vibrations of its tiny built-in speaker to shake out any water after you’ve been swimming. 2 On The Run The Nike+ version of Watch Series 2 includes a special lightweight strap, and the Run Club app that lets you share performance data with your friends and provides a Complication that enables you to quickly open the app. The other big improvement in Apple Watch Series 2 is that…

 Continuity is a group of six features that are available in the latest versions of iOS and macOS, and which provide extra convenience in certain scenarios. Two of these features – Auto Unlock and Universal Clipboard – are new in the latest versions of Apple’s operating systems. With the former of those switched on, when you wake your Mac it checks for your Apple Watch nearby, and that the Watch is unlocked; if so, your Mac assumes it was you who woke it and skips its usual request for your password, taking you straight to your desktop. Universal Clipboard recognises that you may in fact be using more than one of your devices at the same time, and so its purpose is to enable you to copy and paste text,…

1Take control of music When an app is playing audio in the background, Control Centre’s second card shows details (tap them to go to the app), playback controls, plus headphones, Bluetooth speakers and AirPlay speakers you can send the audio to (one at a time). 2Pick a target on iPhone On iPhone, the current destination for audio is shown in the bottom row of the card. Tap it to expand it and see the list of available speakers. Tap one to send audio to it, then tap outside of Control Centre or swipe down on it to close it. 3Split video and audio You should also use the second card if you want to watch video on your device yet send its audio to a better speaker; ignore the first…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to turn on a mailbox’s filter and customise its settings. YOU’LL NEED IOS 10 With just one tap, a filter can show you only messages in your inbox that you’ve flagged, say Experience will draw you to Mail’s search bar when you want to find something, be it a message that contains specific content or a whole category – those that are unread, flagged, contain attachments, or fit some other attribute. In iOS 10, Apple has made the latter type of search a little more convenient with one-tap shortcuts that address common scenarios. Searching, though, looks for messages in all of your mailboxes. If you only want to see matches from the mailbox you’re looking at (unread items in your inbox,…

EXPERT AD VICE Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems Why is this task suddenly hogging lots of my Mac’s memory? Q My MacBook Air with 8GB of memory has been running out of that resource lately; Activity Monitor shows an item called Installer keeps popping up to consume large amounts of it. I don't have anything installed that would behave like that. What’s going on?by Steve Castle A Although macOS makes best use of physical memory, it shouldn't be going into the red like this, and you are rightly suspicious of any periodic process consuming lots of memory. A good way to identify what’s responsible and check if it's above board is to inspect it using TaskExplorer (free, objective-see.com). This links into the VirusTotal database to determine…

Software quick-fire questions Can I use Adobe Creative Suite 5 with macOS Sierra? > CS6 and older versions have minor issues with recent versions of the system, but generally run well. Before trying to use them, you need to install Apple’s old legacy Java runtime, though; it’s available for systems all the way back to OS X 10.7 from apple.co/1Wc1ToK. How can I put Pages templates in the Dock? > Save the documents in Pages template format to a folder in, say, your Documents folder. Next, drag that folder into the Dock to the right of the divider to create a stack for quick access to the folder’s contents. Pages also helps you add templates direct to its Template Chooser, so that they’re offered each time you create a new…

Choosing the perfect gift at Christmas isn’t always easy, but if you’re stuck for ideas, just browse the following pages. We’ve packed them with great ideas, whether you’re looking for a new gadget for a loved one or just something for yourself. Apple Watch Series 2 apple.com From £369 Watch takes calls, includes Siri, helps you stay fit, displays messages discreetly… and it even tells the time! With watchOS 3 it’s come of age, and makes a great gift. APPLE PRODUCTS 1. Apple TV apple.com/uk From £139 Apple TV brings home entertainment into the app age. Easily find what you want to watch with the Siri Remote, which includes voice search and swipe-based navigation. Stream movies and TV shows, and download great apps and games. 2. AirPods apple.com/uk £159 Apple’s…

£35 FROM Belkin, belkin.com FEATURES Lightning connector, 2x Lightning ports Gets audio out and charge together, something that Apple failed to cater for! Solves a problem! A little costly Apple has always thought differently, and the arguments over the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack in the new iPhone 7 still rage on. We said in our review (MF306) that it was absolutely the right thing to do and that pretty soon we'll all have forgotten about that clumsy old port, but we accept the difficulties presented by having just one port for charging and audio output. Up steps Belkin with its simple solution to that conundrum. It looks just like an official Apple cable, which is nice, but it's also a little inelegant by that very design. Lightning…

£320 FROM bowers-wilkins.co.uk Features Bluetooth 4.1 Class 2, 3.5mm cable, Micro-USB port, AAC, aptX and SBC codecs Mac format VERDICT The P7 Wireless lacks perfect isolation, but the gorgeous quality is worth the investment. Beautiful sound Initial discomfort These over-ear cans are Bowers & Wilkins’ second entry into the world of wireless headphones. Sensibly, a detachable 3.5mm cable acts a fallback if the integrated battery runs out. The leather padding on the over-ear cups is soft, but the headband isn’t very flexible at first; we could feel the cushion shape against our head, and though this got better after a couple of weeks, and will ease up more as you fit and remove the cans, that and the 323g weight give a poor initial impression of comfort. For storage, the…

£35 > FROM Belkin, belkin.co.uk > FEATURES Wi-Fi, apps for Android 4.1 and iOS 8 or higher Design & features Belkin’s offering is bulkier but compensates with rounded corners and slightly tapered sides. The large status light on top doubles as a manual on/off switch. Like Eve Energy, it sticks out just over 5cm from a wall socket. Getting started As Belkin’s device isn’t HomeKit-compatible, you have to use its WeMo app. This has the advantage of ensuring you can’t miss any firmware update that’s available. However, the process is a bit fiddlier as you must join the device’s temporary Wi-Fi network to connect it to your own. Ease of use Usefully, both devices click as you switch them on or off. The WeMo app shows today’s cost, a per-month…

£308 (including import fees) FROM Starry, starry.com features Two Ethernet ports, dual-band MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi C onfiguring your Wi-Fi can seem like sorcery that you dare not meddle with. The Starry Station promises to simplify Wi-Fi in your house with an interface that actually makes sense and controls that work. Is Starry Station worth rewiring the internet connection in your house for? In the age of Wi-Fi mesh systems, that depends on a lot of factors, namely your level of tech savvy. Equipped with just two Ethernet ports, one of which is for the WAN connection to your modem or gateway, the device’s focus here is obviously on wireless. Inside are dual-band,74x4 MIMO 802.11ac (a/b/g/n, too) radios, and the whole thing is powered by two dual-core processors – one for…

£34.99 FROM Acronis, acronis.com NEEDS OS X 10.9.5 or higher, iOS 8.0 or higher Mac format VERDICT A capable enough back-up tool, but we dislike its increasing focus on the cloud. Lots of backup options Not particularly fast True Image 2017 is a hybrid backup app. It can create disk images of entire drives, or just back up selected files. It also ties into Acronis’ cloud backup service, with yearly subscriptions (£29.99 for 500GB) available alongside the one-off fee. The cloud options are increasingly pervasive in True Image; it’s the default option when setting up a backup, and it’s needed to back up your iOS devices, or if you want to use the two biggest new features in this version: Facebook profile backup (including photos and videos), and the Online…

£3.99 FROM Ben McCarthy, obscuraapp.com NEEDS iOS 10.0 or higher Obscura has controls that surpass the features of Camera, such as manual ISO and exposure You may feel that the iPhone’s point-and-shoot Camera app couldn’t get much better – or simpler. For photographers, though, it lacks fine control over things like exposure and focus – must-haves for professionals and amateurs in challenging light conditions. Obscura greets you with wireframe-style controls, and your first impression will be that simplicity has been prioritised over power. However, there’s a lot going on under the surface. As with iOS’s built-in Camera app, you can tap anywhere in the frame to set exposure and focus, but hold a finger on Expose and a circular control pops up, enabling you to adjust exposure compensation between +1…

Alan Stonebridge Production Editor If nothing else, Alan is impressed by Apple’s stated peak transfer rates of the new MacBook Pro’s storage – about three GIGABYTES per second! Alex Blake Commissioning Editor Alex wasn’t wowed by the new MacBook Pro. The Touch Bar looks cool, but he was hoping for a bigger power boost. Is it still a ‘Pro’ laptop? Paul Blachford Managing Art Editor Paul has fallen in love the new MacBook Pro, especially the Touch Bar. He isn’t so fond of the increased cost though, or the price hikes on older, unchanged Mac models. macformatuk.tumblr.com facebook.com/macformat twitter.com/macformat youtube.macformatuk.…

1 17 years Apple's first mass produced computer, the Apple II, was such a success that it stayed in production for almost two decades. 2 900,000,000 iPhones The iPhone revolutionised the way we think about mobile devices, so much so that it’s sold almost 1 billion units since 2007. 3 140 billion The App Store practically created the app economy, and the stats don’t lie – over 140 billion cumulative downloads from the App Store since its creation in 2008. 4 $1.5 million The Macintosh was one of the first computers with a graphical user interface, and Apple’s Ridly Scott-directed ad to promote it cost a whopping $1.5m. 5 300,000 The iPad wasn’t the first tablet, but it was the best. The public agreed, buying 300,000 on launch day. 6…

How do Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2 differ? As well as a faster processor, Series 2 has two key features that make it a lot more useful for sport and exercise. Its built-in GPS means it can monitor your speed and distance without your iPhone to hand. You can swim with it too, as it’s waterproof to a 50-metre depth. How accurate is Watch’s GPS? Apple says that Apple Watch Series 2 provides GPS-accurate tracking when you’re exercising. However, GPS accuracy can vary a lot, depending on the quality of your device. The US government claims civilian-use GPS services are accurate to around four metres, yet good devices can get that down to three. Fitness trackers have been one of the great technology success stories of recent years,…

1Set things up During Sierra’s install process, you’ll be asked whether to store your Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive. If you rejected the idea then, you can enable this behaviour in iCloud’s prefs pane: click Options next to iCloud Drive and check Desktop & Documents Folders. 2 Access your files Files awaiting upload or in the process of uploading show a progress indicator. Once done, there’s no real evidence anything’s changed with your Desktop and Documents folders compared to El Capitan, other than them being under iCloud in Finder’s sidebar. 3 Use multiple Macs If you activate syncing of Desktop and Documents on more than one Mac, their contents and changes made to them are synced to those Macs, if they’re online. If a Mac joins in later,…

Two areas where there are often misconceptions regarding iCloud relate to storage space and the safety of data (in the sense of iCloud being treated like a back-up system). If you plan to use iCloud Drive a lot, you need to be aware that doing so almost certainly won’t be free. Apple provides just 5GB of storage per iCloud account, and in some cases that’s not enough for a single iOS device backup. Right now, Apple offers four paid tiers: 50GB for 79p; 200GB for £2.49; 1TB for £6.99; 2TB for £13.99. These charges are billed monthly. So, how do you know how much space you’ll need? Well, if you run out, you’ll be alerted and iCloud Drive will stop syncing until you either cough up more money to upgrade…

 Disk Utility in Sierra adds the ability to create and manage disk sets. Strictly speaking, you could also manage disk sets in El Capitan, but you had to do so in Terminal, using the diskutil command. So, an immediate benefit of Sierra is that it’s more comfortable to work with disk sets, whether a prebuilt one that depends on this macOS feature or a set you assemble from separate drives. A disk set takes multiple disks – a minimum of two – and pools their resources in one of three ways. The first is a striped disk set, or RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) level 0. This type of set has the cumulative capacity of all its disks. It may spread chunks of data, even if part of the…

1Manage your media Clicking RapidWeaver’s Media button opens this window, the Media Browser. It looks in Photos and your user account’s Pictures folder by default, but you can drag additional folders onto it from Finder, which is what we’ve done here. 2Find your photos Your images will now appear as thumbnails in the Media Browser. You can change viewing options with the toolbar at the bottom of the Media Browser’s window. To add an image, open a page in Edit mode and drag the picture onto it. 3Fine-tune your photo Double-clicking an image displays more options, such as to add a drop shadow, add a border, or rotate the image. We’ve added a basic drop shadow and then clicked on Preview at the top of RapidWeaver’s window to see the…

it will ta ke 10 minutes you will learn How to use iOS 10’s new-look Control Centre to its fullest. Yo u’ll need iOS 10 Control Centre has 3D Touch shortcuts to provide more direct and powerful ways to use features Control Centre saves you the bother of digging around for often-used device settings, opening an app that’s playing audio to control its playback, or searching for a flashlight app to light your path. Whether you’re at the Home screen, in an app, or you’ve just woken your device to its Lock screen, you can do all these things and more. To open Control Centre, swipe upwards from the screen’s bottom edge. This slides a card over the bottom part of the screen and dims the rest of the display. Swiping…

1Master of your home If you’ve configured accessories in the Home app, such as lights, door locks or air quality sensors, Control Centre’s third card shows up to nine accessories (12 on iPad) and scenes marked as favourites, for at-a-glance info about their status. 2Accessory information Tap an accessory (that isn’t just a sensor) or a scene to toggle its status – to turn a light on or off, for example. If an accessory allows finer adjustment, such as a light’s brightness, apply 3D Touch/hold a finger on it to show that control. 3Choose your favourites Tap the house icon (top left) to open the Home app if you need to use its extra controls or want to change or rearrange the favourite accessories that are shown in Control Centre:…

macOS quick-fire questions Does Sierra no longer support PPTP VPN? > Apple decided that PPTP protocols are too insecure to support any longer and has removed them from Sierra. If you are unable to switch to a support protocol, such as IPSec, or use an SSL client, there are many apps which still support PPTP, including Aruba, OpenVPN and Shimo. Why does Sierra’s storage summary never complete? > In Sierra, the bar shown on your startup disk in > About This Mac > Storage should give a breakdown of free and used space. On some Macs running 10.12, the assessment never completes and the bar continues to say ‘Calculating’. This bug should soon be fixed; try installing the recent macOS 10.12.1 update Is my mouse frozen, or is it my…

Q Over the last couple of months, when I open Safari, McAfee End Point Protect for Mac 2.3.0 informs me it has found and removed some malware. It consistently identifies this as multiple files with the .js extension, which are detected as ‘JS/Redirector’, which it claims is a Trojan. How do I keep getting this infection? by MATT KNIGHT A These are almost certainly false positives, reported from suspicious JavaScript files, and not any malware as such. Malware detection depends on looking for patterns in file’s names, contents and locations. Specific malware usually has quite a distinctive fingerprint, but there are also some rather vaguer patterns that are suggestive of malicious behaviour: that is a better description of what McAfee here refers to as ‘JS/Redirector’. Refer to McAfee’s profile for…

Hardware quick-fire questions How can I fix keys that are stuck? > Keyboards collect lots of crumbs and grime that can eventually gum them up. Every five years or so, it’s worth opening the back of the case and shaking all the loose bits out. On old keyboards, large keys, such as the Spacebar and Return, can get stuck if the little metal pressure distribution rods come loose. Carefully prise up the key cap and clip the rod back into place, but be careful not to snap the plastic retaining clips. How do I shut down a classic Mac? > Choose Special > Shut Down. You’ll still need to use the power switch at the back of the Mac to switch it off, because older Macs don’t have standby power.…

BUYING ADVICE Our authoritative reviews help you make more informed choices 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 five-star product we believe is…

£235 FROM lacie.com/uk FEATURES USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 1) and USB-A (USB 3.0) cables, 1.2m drop resistance, rain resistance This model is even more appealing than lower capacities with decent performance. Good speed and build Costly per gigabyte LaCie has made Rugged drives with a protective bumper for years, and the concept is even more relevant at this capacity. This model has a USB-C port and cable for the latest Macs, a USB-A cable for older models, and the drive is bus-powered. Inside is a single 4TB disk. LaCie quotes a maximum transfer rate of 130MB/sec. Our tests showed the drive is capable of more than that, peaking at 161.7MB in sequential writes. LaCie’s figure is reasonably close to the mean averages we saw for sequential reads (117.2MB/sec) and…

£104 FROM Noontec, noontec.com Features On-ear controls, 35 hours’ battery life, multipoint Bluetooth Mac format VERDICT Impressive value, with warm, fun sound, great battery life and multipoint Bluetooth. Pleasing sound Dust magnet Noontec has wowed audio enthusiasts with its affordable and stylish headphones. These wireless ones sport the familiar look of its Zoro II HD wired model. Controls, a 3.5mm jack and Micro-USB port are located on the cups. The cans are entirely plastic, so they feel a bit cheap, especially the loud snap when you unfold them. They’re comfy for over-ears, but aren’t really very good at keeping sound out; there’s no active noise cancellation, but that’s fairly uncommon at this price. Also, we had to wear them at max length, so they may not fit a large head.…

£14 FROM Syncwire, sync-wire.com features Four USB 2.0 ports (two 2.4A/two 1A) T angled wires and chargers are a real pain these days. Adding to this mess, there never seem to be enough plug sockets in the world to charge all our devices. The fixtures industry is trying to tackle this problem by building USB sockets in to wall sockets in new homes. The Syncwire – a USB wall charger with four charging points – is a good alternative solution if your home is not equipped in this way. It's got two 2.4A sockets and two 1A sockets. The 2.4A ones are ideal for charging tablets like your iPad. The 1A plugs are there to look after smaller devices like an iPod. The device itself looks and feels solid, and…

£79.10 FROM Adobe, adobe.com/uk needs OS X 10.10 or higher The app’s challenge is meaningfully occupying the gap between Photos and Photoshop Mac format VERDICT Lots of useful new features, but consider a year’s subscription to Creative Cloud as an alternative. New guided edits Smart keywords Weak as an upgrade Uncompetitive price Photoshop Elements’ challenge is not only to keep adding features that don’t step on the toes of its bigger brother, but also to justify its very existence and price. After all, at £79 it’s only £20 cheaper than a year’s Creative Cloud subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom. Interesting in this version is the ability to liquify shots of people: faces are automatically recognised and features can be subtly altered: a mouth can be made smilier, for example. By…

£249.99 FROM Nuance, nuance.com NEEDS OS X 10.11.6 or higher Mac format VERDICT If you can afford it, buy it. It might save you from RSI and it’ll certainly save time. Extremely accurate Expensive Dragon has hit peak accuracy with this latest version. We installed it and dictated right away, with no training, and were wowed by the results. That the training process from earlier versions has been sidestepped altogether is seriously impressive (this review was dictated and we made just one correction). Switch to transcription and it gets better still. Nuance claims you can transcribe a single voice from an audio file without any training, but we went further, feeding it a 45-minute podcast. With no prep, it processed the file in under 15 minutes. There was no punctuation,…

£12.99 FROM Tap Zapp Software, tapforms.com NEEDS iOS 9.3 or higher Mac FORNAT VERDICT Tap Forms takes a step back with cloud sync, but everything else is near perfect. Comprehensive No iCloud support Tap Forms is billed as a “digital filing cabinet for life’s scattered details”, but it’s much more than that. Also available for Mac, it helps you organise a wide range of information more easily than with costly options such as FileMaker. Rather than using separate apps for DVD, book and wine collections, you can manage all three in this one. More than 30 customisable forms for different personal or business needs are included. Data from other software is easily imported using the web server feature – point your Mac’s browser at its address and upload a file.…

Your complete guide to the best Apple hardware and third-party accessories Welcome 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. Who’s it for? ENTRY…

MONITOR ViewSonic VP2772 £570 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+ £442 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 £155 brother.co.uk This…

IN PRINT ON IPA D & IPHONE ISSUE 306 NOVEMBE R 2016 80 ways to get more from macOS Sierra Learn iOS 10’s Lock screen Run very old Mac software Reviewed: Watch Series 2, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus ISSUE 305 AUTUM N 2016 105 amazing tips for iOS 10 Speed up your Mac Discover Photos in Sierra Make an iOS security camera ISSUE 304 OCTOBER 2016 How to get ready for macOS Sierra Broadcast yourself Power up your menu bar Sign and encrypt email Salvage an old hard drive…