Índex per July 2024 a MacFormat

A pple might have just released a whole range of new iPads, but not everything is peachy in the world of Apple tablets. That’s because the European Union (EU) has just designated iPadOS a ‘gatekeeper’ platform, which means major changes to how the iPad ecosystem works are on the way – undoubtedly to Apple’s chagrin. Being a gatekeeper means that a product or service “constitutes an important gateway for business users to reach end users,” according to the EU. It’s part of the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which has been used to take on large technology firms – including Apple – over the past year or so. The EU determined that iPadOS was a gatekeeper platform for three main reasons: Apple’s number of business users exceeds the DMA’s threshold;…

Unistellar Odyssey Pro (Red Edition) >£3,999 > From unistellar.com > Point this smart telescope at the sky and you’ll be seeing stars for all the right reasons. Available in a limited edition Pantone 485 C red, the Odyssey Pro enables you to gaze in wonder at our solar system, with lots of clever tech onboard to enhance your view. Fitted with Nikon High Precision Optics, the Odyssey Pro also comes with autofocus, making it easy to see distant nebula. Plus it has Deep Dark and Multi-Depth technology, which not only helps reduce light pollution, but also enables to you shift focus from near-Earth objects to others millions of light years away without ever missing a beat. Helping you in your stargazing quest is a free iPhone app, which lets…

What do you use your Apple gear for? Is your tech mainly for productivity, whether for your job or your household bits and pieces? Are you a keen photographer or video editor who likes to edit your creations on your devices? Are you a professional – or even a keen amateur – designer who creates great layouts on your Mac and iPad? Perhaps you like to go travelling or on holiday, and need to keep an eye on the weather? Is it lifestyle apps you’re looking for, or maybe you like to use your computer and mobile devices purely for entertainment? Or maybe – and let’s be honest, this is the most likely option – you use them for a combination of most or even all these things? This feature…

Live Home 3D Standard $59.99 (around £47.85); Pro $149.99 (around £119.60) FROM livehome3d.com AVAILABLE ON Mac, iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro If you want to rework your home using 3D designs, BeLight Software’s Live Home 3D is the perfect app for you. Intuitive and feature-rich, you can design floor plans as two-dimensional creations, then switch to the 3D view. It gives professional results, but doesn’t demand pro-level skills. The end results are highly realistic. You can work with furniture, plants, wallpaper and decoration, floor coverings and more, then walk around your virtual house and see what it would be like to live in. With the Pro version, you can add terrain editing, elevation view, a material editor, light editor and more. There’s also a free version to get you started. Whether…

Strides FREE (IAP) FROM stridesapp. com AVAILABLE ON Mac, Gather your personal habits, goals and routines in one place, and turn them into a simple to-do list. Strides sends reminders to make sure you stay on track, and uses graphs to show you how you’re doing. There are over 150 templates to choose from, and you can make your own trackers as well. It integrates with Apple Health too. Calm: Sleep & Meditation FREE (IAP) FROM calm.com AVAILABLE ON iPhone, iPad, Watch, Mac through browser Calm is designed to help you manage stress, sleep better and live a happier, healthier life. Available as mobile apps and accessible on Macs through your browser, it offers hundreds of hours of audio content in seven different languages. A 10-minute programme added every day…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to ditch third-party authenticators and use your Mac for OTPs instead YOU’LL NEED macOS 12 or later, Safari 15 or later Your Apple device has the ability to generate one-time passwords Given how determined hackers are to steal people’s data, it’s a good idea to ensure online accounts are as secure as possible. So aside from activating Face ID and Touch ID and ensuring passwords are difficult to guess by using Apple’s suggestions, it’s worth considering two-factor authentication (2FA) as an extra layer of security. It’ll mean you, and only you, will be able to access a code that you can then use to log into an account. Although there are plenty of third-party apps which will generate 2FA codes such…

1 Main window The front page shows you the most popular movies of the week and what your friends have watched. 2 Navigation bar The bottom navigation bar allows you to search for films, add reviews, log your diary and access your profile. 3 Section bar Easily navigate between the latest films, reviews, and watchlists, as well as read about movies. 4 Profile Your profile is the meat and potatoes of Letterboxd; you can easily access it in the bottom-right corner. IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN To journal your movie experiences and discover more YOU’LL NEED Letterboxd (Free, offers IAPs), iPadOS 15 or later Letterboxd is a great iPad app for any movie lover, enabling you to keep up with the latest releases, track the movies you…

Quick-fire questions How fast can files transfer to an external SSD? > Thunderbolt and USB 4 SSDs are considerably faster than internal storage in devices, so you won’t see anything like the performance of a Mac. A typical write speed to device internal storage is 600MB/sec, rising to around 2GB/ sec when reading from it to an external SSD. How to clean out my iPhone’s Lightning port? > Avoid inserting anything into a port that could push lint or dirt deeper into it, or blowing it further in with a blast of canned air. If you can’t hook out debris easily using a soft toothpick with care, take it to a service provider, rather than risk causing damage. The ports are expensive and fiddly to replace. Get longer life from…

Summer is finally here – and the nicer weather and longer days mean it’s the perfect time to get outside and get the most from your iPhone’s fantastic camera. For most of us taking a photo on our iPhone is a simple ‘point and shoot’ operation, but there are many shooting modes and settings that you may have yet to explore! In this feature, we’ll take a deep dive into how to get more from the hardware and the software that your iPhone uses to take pictures, as well as giving you professional photography tips, tricks and techniques to help you take better shots of people and places while out and about. Unlike an ‘old school’ Digital SLR (DSLR) camera, your iPhone is always with you – so you won’t…

Whenever we take a picture, we tend to shoot first then notice problems later – such as a lamppost poking out from behind a subject’s head. By taking the time to capture a more considered composition, we can take better-looking shots and avoid the need to remove unwanted distractions at the editing stage. We can also develop a photographer’s ‘eye’ for a more professional-looking image. 1 Rule of thirds Your iPhone’s Camera app has an optional grid that you can use to make a shot correspond to the rule of thirds. This technique was initially used by classical painters to create more aesthetically pleasing compositions. You can toggle this useful tool on (or off) by going to Settings > Camera > Grid. Check out step 1 below to see an…

£329.99 FROM edifier.com/uk FEATURES 70W RMS output, 2x 1.25-inch silk tweeters, 2x 2.75-inch aluminium mid-range/bass drivers, 55Hz-40kHz frequency response, RCA (phono) and USB-A audio inputs, Bluetooth 5.3, subwoofer output, integrated 65W GaN charger with 2x USB-C and 1x USB-A ports, 11 customisable TempoAbyss lighting effects; 141.5x213x216.8mm (active speaker), 130x213x212mm (passive speaker), 2x angled aluminium speaker stands There’s something deliciously old school about Edifier’s QR65. Available in black or white vinyl finishes, it eschews the single box 360° sound offered by many modern speakers in favour of proper stereo, combining a 141.5x213x216.8mm active speaker, containing the amplifier and electronics, and a slightly smaller (130x213x 212mm) passive speaker that connects via a chunky cable. This means that not only can you use the QR65 as a stereo system for home hi-fi, but…

£169.99 FROM belkin.com/uk FEATURES 3.5mm audio, SD/microSD, 2.5Gb Ethernet, 2x USB-A (USB 3.2), 2x USB-C, 2x HDMI, 1x VGA The dock is compact but provides support for up to three external displays Belkin’s Connect range includes a wide variety of notebook docks, ranging from small portable models designed for travelling, to larger desktop versions that can connect to multiple external displays. The Connect Universal USB-C 11-in-1 Pro Dock (INC014) sits somewhere in-between, being compact enough to carry in a backpack, while still providing support for up to three external displays – albeit with some important limitations. There’s also an older version of the dock still available, so look out for the INC014 model number when ordering. The 11-in-1 Pro Dock measures 300mm wide, 75mm deep and 25mm high along the…

Group test Reviewed by ALEX BLAKE ON TEST… > 5 Minute Journal: Self-Care > Day One Journal: Private Diary > Daylio JournalDaily Diary > Journal > Reflectly – Journal & AI Diary > Stoic. journal & mental health Journals have allowed people to keep track J of their thoughts for centuries. In the digital age with your phone ever-present in your pocket, it’s become easier than ever. Yet whether you’re a frequent writer, returning to an old habit, or a total newbie, journalling on your iPhone can be a bewildering prospect with so many apps to choose from. That’s where our group test comes in. We’ve taken six of the most popular journalling apps and put them to the test to find out which is best for digital diarists. Some…

For those of us that have been following the news on the latest tech gadgets, you’ll have noticed a trend for everything to contain artificial intelligence (AI). If your latest cutting-edge fridge, barbeque, or portable speaker doesn’t contain AI then it appears that investors won’t be interested. But while AI has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for tech gadgets, so far the implementations have been pretty dire. Whether it’s the Ai Pin, which shines a laser display onto your wrist, or the Rabbit r1, which sits in your pocket and lets you talk to AI like you’re using a communicator from Star Trek, the reviews have not been kind to AI tech. So far nothing has really hit the spot. This is the perfect storm…

Apple finally ended the longest-ever wait for new iPads in May, with new versions of the iPad Air and and iPad Pro (see p6). Last updated in October 2022, the new models move the dial in all kinds of significant ways, the chief of which is new Apple silicon, with the M4 appearing in the 2024 iPad Pro. While the new chip is likely entry level, it does point to some of the more significant advances on Mac we can hope to appear later this year. While the recently updated MacBook Air comes with an Apple silicon M3 and last year’s MacBook Pro on M3 Pro and M3 Max, there are a couple of holdouts that have yet to appear with Apple silicon updates: namely the Mac mini, Mac Studio…

A pple typically has a very close relationship with its developer community, but not everyone is happy about how the company has locked down what apps can do on the Vision Pro headset. Despite the criticisms, though, it seems like there’s a good reason for Apple being restrictive over what tools third-party visionOS apps can access. As highlighted by The Information, some developers have complained that Apple prevents them from accessing the Vision Pro’s camera feed. Developer Kalani Helekunihi, for instance, wants to build an app for elderly people that can give “people with limited vision a description of their surroundings and act as a virtual cane that warns them when they’re approaching obstacles.” Without camera access that doesn’t seem to be possible. However, there’s a good reason why Apple…

Microsoft 365 From £5.99/month FROM microsoft. com AVAILABLE ON Mac, iPad, iPhone If you have professional dealings with PC users who use Microsoft apps, you might want to subscribe to Microsoft 365. What you get depends on which subscription you take out, but for the basic £5.99 a month/£59.99 a year service you get Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as Microsoft Teams for video conferencing, Outlook for email and OneNote for digital note taking. You get 1TB of cloud storage for Microsoft OneDrive, and you can use the suite on up to five devices at once. If you dislike taking out subscriptions and only need Word, Excel and PowerPoint anyway, you can buy Microsoft Office Home & Student for a one-off fee of £119.99, though you can only…

There’s some great travel and weather apps on your Apple devices, including one that’s bundled with the operating systems. Apple Weather is available on Macs, iPads, iPhones and Apple Watch, and gives you in-depth forecasts for your local area or cities around the world. Travellers should check out uk.hotel.com too. Booking.com Travel Deals FREE FROM booking.com AVAILABLE ON iPad, iPhone Planning a holiday, business trip or a weekend away? The booking.com app lets you book your stay. There’s 27 million hotels, holiday rentals, homes, apartments and other establishments to choose from, and you can filter them by review score, amenities and more. It’s equally great for booking well in advance or at the last minute. TrainPal FREE FROM mytrainpal. com AVAILABLE ON iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro With TrainPal you can…

IINA FREE FROM iina.io AVAILABLE ON Mac A comprehensive media player, IINA can play almost any file you throw at it. The interface is modern and Mac-like, and it can play local files, online streams and YouTube playlists. It’s available in 20 languages, is free and open source, and is in active development. It’s a great addition to your Mac’s library of entertainment apps. Apple TV FREE (IAP) FROM App Store AVAILABLE ON Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, Vision Pro Apple’s TV app is not only the best place to watch iTunes movie and TV purchases across your devices, it’s also home to Apple TV+. Available for £8.99/month it’s packed with a fast-growing catalogue of original programmes and movies – from Ridley Scott’s historic epic Napoleon to comic spy…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN You will learn how to create custom controls for your music app YOU’LL NEED Sleeve 2 (£7.99, macOS 11 or later) Have you ever wished that the Mini Player in Apple Music, Spotify or Doppler was better? replay.software). It enables you to create custom controller widgets that you can use to control your music app. Us too. And that’s why we love Sleeve 2 so much (£7.99 from the App Store or You can create your own custom themes, flick through them whenever you like, and even share them with other Sleeve 2 users. It also integrates with last.fm so you can upload your listening history if you wish, and it works with Apple Music’s live streaming radio as well as your…

YOU WILL LEARN How OLED displays work, and their advantages Key fact An OLED display can be thinner and lighter than a conventional LCD display, and this has given rise to a spate of foldable smartphones from Android-based manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola. Apple is thought to be working on prototypes for a foldable iPhone – and a foldable MacBook too – but durability problems with folding screens seem to be holding this up. Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display technology has only ever been used in a limited way in Apple products, being chiefly found on the iPhone and Apple Watch. That looks set to change. With the new iPad Pro sporting an Ultra Retina XDR display that uses Tandem OLED, you can expect OLED to appear in even…

Q Now I’ve upgraded to Sonoma I can no longer upload CDs to my Music library stored on an external drive. How can I fix what my Mac says is error -54? by MARTIN MCVANN A This error code normally results from permissions or a related control preventing access to the part of your Music library that stores the converted tracks or other data from that audio CD. Before going any further, start your Mac up in Safe mode, leave it a couple of minutes, then restart it normally. Next, open the Music app and its Settings. In the Files section there, check your Music Media folder location, and the two checkboxes below that to keep that folder organised, and to copy files to that folder when adding them to…

Your iPhone’s Photos library will be crammed full of shots featuring people pictures. To make sure that you’re capturing friends and family looking their best, it’s worth tinkering with your iPhone camera’s settings and finding the appropriate shooting modes to suit your subjects. 1Formats To save storage space, your iPhone can capture photos in HEIF (High Efficiency) format. This format captures shots that don’t take up much storage space, but it lacks some of the tonal and colour information in larger JPEG files. If you want to store even more information about a scene (for more choice at the editing stage), shoot in ProRAW format. This stores images as .DNG (Digital Negative) format files that you can edit in Apple Photos, as well as in third-party apps such as Adobe’s…

£284.99 FROM kokoon.io HEADPHONE FEATURES Built-in infra-red sensor, smart auto pause, call mic, 10-hour playtime; 1.5x20.5x3cm APP FEATURES Ambient sounds and music library, sleep analysis A built-in biosensor in the right earbud senses when you drop off Designed by Kokoon Technology in conjunction with Philips, these Sleep Headphones claim to help you doze off quickly and improve the quality of your night’s rest. A flat, unobtrusive control unit sits at the back of your neck, wired to two earpieces via cables that are short and springy to avoid tangles. The earbuds are lightweight and slim – claimed to be the world’s thinnest – and can be fitted with silicone ear tips of five different sizes (all supplied). Once paired via Bluetooth with your iPhone or iPad (or Android device), they…

Free (Pro subscription £4.99/month, £49.99/year) FROM wanderlog.com NEEDS iPadOS 13 or later This free travel app (with an optional subscription that you might never T actually need) is perfect for planning your next family holiday or road trip with friends. Wanderlog lets you collaborate with others to create a trip itinerary, cover budget costs, organise flights and hotel reservations, and even plan out your daily activities on a map. Anyone planning a getaway in the coming months should download this app, it truly deserves a spot on your Apple device. We’ve reviewed it on iPad here, but the app works across Mac, iPhone, and even Vision Pro. Wanderlog gives a refreshing insight into travel planning that not only makes it exciting but also efficient. The itinerary planning feature is a…

[MAC APP] Sick of your Mac not performing at its best? You might need Techtool Pro, a comprehensive toolkit designed to tune up your Mac and getting it running like new again. Its arsenal is so comprehensive that if there’s something wrong with your Mac, the chances are Techtool Pro can fix it. Version 19 comes with a media recovery tool that is designed to rescue corrupted photos and videos that you thought were lost forever. There’s also a processor monitoring feature that lets you observe your chip in real time, keeping you in the know regarding its clock speeds, power usage and more. Elsewhere, Techtool Pro comes packed with features to fix up an ailing Mac, from drive repair and Mac battery testing to storage space monitoring and emergency…

Clips FREE FROM apple.com/uk AVAILABLE ON iPhone, iPad It’s from Apple, it’s free and it’s fun. Clips is a video editor that’s built for simplicity. With a few well-placed taps you can add spectacular effects to your flicks, add stickers and emojis, include automatically generated captions and more. Add a soundtrack from the 100+ on offer or from your music library too. Affinity Photo Mac £67.99; iPad £17.99; Universal licence £159.99 FROM affinity.serif.com AVAILABLE ON Mac, iPad If you need a powerful and pro-standard photo editor but baulk at paying the subscription fees for Adobe Photoshop, you need Serif’s Affinity Photo. Available for a one-off fee on both the Mac and the iPad, it’s packed with all the features you’d expect from a professional image editor. It supports unlimited layers…

IT WILL TAKE 1 hour YOU WILL LEARN To explore the various features of Microsoft Copilot YOU’LL NEED  Microsoft Copilot (Free, IAPs), Microsoft 365 (optional) Everyone’s interested in artificial intelligence (AI) these days and we don’t want Mac users to miss out. Here, we’re going to shine a spotlight on an amazing tool created by Microsoft which, aside from letting you intelligently search the web using natural language, allows you to be creative and more productive while saving lots of time. Copilot can be used on its own. It’ll operate as a web page and a Safari-based web app. You can also install the Microsoft Edge browser, click the Copilot button and use the service in a sidebar, with the benefit of clicking Insights to find articles, facts, videos and more…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to customise the Services menu and create handy shortcuts YOU’LL NEED Mac OS X 10.6 or later Although the feature was introduced in 2009 with Mac OS X Snow Leopard, it’s fair to say that Services remains a bit of a mystery for the majority of Apple computer users. Once discovered, however, it will likely stick in your mind as you begin to realise just how it can make your workflow more efficient and productive. That’s because Services lets you use an app and immediately access features that have been created for other apps. For example, if you highlight some text in Pages, you will be able to create a TextEdit document using the words or use them as the basis…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to make the most of the new Transcripts feature on Apple Podcasts YOU’LL NEED iPadOS 17.4 Transcripts on Apple Podcasts is the biggest new feature in iPadOS 17.4 and it makes Apple’s default podcast app the best way to listen to podcasts on the go. Transcripts could be the standout feature for Podcasts that makes you turn to Apple’s app over Spotify or even the fantastic Overcast app. Transcripts enable you to read a podcast as it happens. Think of it as the lyrics feature in Apple Music, specifically for your favourite shows. It’s not only a fantastic accessibility feature, but it’s also one of the best new additions to a podcast app in years. It’s easy to enable transcripts,…

Q When I try to start up my Intel Mac in Recovery, all I see is a folder with a question mark. How can I recover its Recovery? by PHIL THOMPSON A That symbol displayed when a Mac is trying to start up indicates that it can’t find a bootable system it can run from. Press and hold its Power button until it shuts down, then disconnect all its peripherals apart from essentials, including any wired Ethernet connection, mouse or trackpad, keyboard, and its primary display if external. If you’re using a wireless keyboard, connect that to it using its charging cable. Then try pressing the Power button, and immediately holding down the Command and R keys, to try again to enter Recovery. If that still fails with the same…

No subject is too big or too small for your iPhone to capture. When it comes to landscapes (or cityscapes) the iPhone’s Ultra Wide (13mm) camera can capture a wide field of view in Photo mode. Ironically, the Ultra Wide lens is also used to capture macro shots. This is a great way to capture detailed photos of flora and fauna. 1 Go wide Traditionally DSLR camera users would hold their camera in a vertical (portrait) orientation and take several snaps as they panned to capture a wide landscape. They would then have to stitch five or six shots together in an app such as Photoshop to create a single panoramic image. If the exposure changed during the panning and shooting stage then you’d see bands of slightly different blue…

£2,199.99 FROM netgear.com FEATURES Quad-band Wi-Fi 7 mesh system, 27Gbps; 294x144x131mm, 1.8kg The Orbi provides a top speed of 27Gbps that blows away all previous generations of Wi-Fi I t’s more than a year now since we ran a ‘How It Works’ article on Wi-Fi 7 technology (#MF391), but it’s only since the start of 2024 that this new standard has started to arrive in a small number of routers and mesh systems. And most Apple devices are still using either Wi-Fi 6 or 6E, so most of us don’t really need to rush out and buy a new router with Wi-Fi 7 just yet (although we do have our fingers crossed for the Apple’s latest iPads – see p6). But, if you’re interested in seeing the future of Wi-Fi…

£164.99 FROM uk.creative.com FEATURES Bluetooth 5.3, AAC, aptX Lossless, wireless charging case, IPX5 water resistant The Aurvana Ace 3 contain both a MEMS driver and a traditional dynamic driver Some technologies can be a little resistant to change. Take devices such as headphones and speakers – they’ve been using essentially the same tech for almost 100 years. Just recently, though, new technology in this area has come along that could give the audio industry a bit of a shake-up. The technology is called MEMS (microelectro-mechanical systems, see #MF403) and, rather than designing traditional headphones with ‘dynamic drivers’ that contain copper wires, magnets and other components, the entire driver is made out of silicon, just like modern computer chips. The MEMS technology has been around for a few years, but the…

£49.99-£59.99 FROM twelvesouth.co.uk FEATURES Designed for notebooks with screens up to 16-inches in size and up to 1in thick, available in Black, White (£49.99) or Chrome (£59.99) finishes, 21.4x9.3x5.5cm, 240g Desk more crammed than a commuter train at rush hour? Anything that frees up space is a good thing – just ask us about the time we spilled a cup of tea over an old MacBook Pro. That’s particularly true of notebooks, of course, which are often jostling for space against external displays, docks, hubs, keyboards, mice and trackpads (and tea). While you could use a stand like Twelve South’s HiRise Pro (#MF392), the BookArc Flex has a different take – instead of raising your notebook above your desk, it enables you slot it in vertically, yet still gives easy…

£49.99 FROM larian.com NEEDS macOS 12 or later Baldur’s Gate 3 rewards sideways thinking and encourages you to try out new ideas You’ve probably heard a lot of good things about Baldur’s Gate 3. Well, after more than 200 hours of gameplay, we can tell you that the hype is entirely justified. It may well be the best game ever released on the Mac. The story begins with your character held captive on a mind flayer ship. These monstrous creatures capture innocents of all races and insert a carnivorous ‘tadpole’ into their heads, which eventually consumes their brains and transforms them into other mind flayers. After you make a dramatic escape, you team up with other infected unfortunates on a quest to free yourselves from the parasites. It’s a journey…

$59.99 (about £60); upgrades from $29.99 (about £30) FROM barebones.com NEEDS macOS 11 or later BBEdit is efficient and configurable for everything from programming to prose Let’s save time: BBEdit still doesn’t suck. The creator’s playful slogan L as ever downplays the sheer quality of the app, which remains essential for anyone who works with text. If you’re a newcomer, you’ll find BBEdit is efficient and configurable for everything from programming to prose. It won’t blink when you open colossal files. And there are superb tools for chewing through comparisons and changes. Even if it’s not your daily driver for writing or coding, it’ll quickly become a vital part of your text-wrangling toolkit. So what’s new. First up, there’s ChatGPT integration via the Worksheet interface. With an API key and…