MacFormatの September 2023 の目次

Apple may have only just revealed the Vision Pro headset, but there are already rumours about how it will follow up. At the moment, it seems like there are two new devices in the works: a second-generation Vision Pro with more advanced technology, and a cheaper version that will slash the price. According to both journalist Mark Gurman and Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the secondgen headset will launch in 2025. It’ll probably have a similar $3,499 price as the existing model, plus either an M3 or M4 chip, better visual fidelity, and possibly a new, lighter design with a fresh battery system. As for the cheaper headset, it will likely cost around $2,000 – still expensive, but less than the $3,499 Vision Pro – and be released around 2025 or…

Contact us Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com LETTER OF THE MONTH! SCAN & DELIVER? I would like to take issue with ‘Can’t operate your scanner’ (tip 14) in your ‘Quick Fixes’ feature (MF392). I have a CanoScan 3200F. Image Capture doesn’t recognise this scanner; it doesn’t find the scanner. It is USB-based and so should be identified according to your article, but it doesn’t… So it would appear that the fix is obviously dependent on more than just Image Capture! One of the reasons I need to access this machine is down to Canon refusing to release compatible drivers for 64-bit systems, it worked fine on my old PowerPC. I have asked Canon to provide the source code so I could recompile for 64-bit but this was…

On 24 October, 2019, Apple CEO Tim Cook took to the stage to announce Apple was getting into a whole new business – video streaming. Not only that, but its service would also house only original content. Apple was going to be in the business of making and buying TV shows and movies. It is unlikely to catch industry leaders like Netflix in the forseeable future, but nearly four years on the company is holding its own with that approach, which is in contrast to that of its rivals who have tended to build a catalogue of existing content before moving into creating their own originals. With many free limited-time deals on offer, it’s difficult to get an accurate figure on how many people have access to Apple TV+, and…

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to edit, improve, and export videos YOU’LL NEED Adobe Premiere Elements 2023 (£86.56), macOS 11 or later Thanks to our ever-present iPhone we tend to shoot a lot of video footage of everyday events. Unedited clips are dull to watch but thanks to Premiere Elements 2023 machine learning (ML) features we can quickly cut and trim out the boring bits to create slick social-media sequences that our friends, family and followers can enjoy. Adobe Premiere Elements uses the AI-assisted Candid Moments tool to analyse a long clip’s rambling content and then quickly cut it into shorter and more interesting sections that tell a story more succinctly (while also removing sections with poor focus and bad lighting). If a clip doesn’t quite…

IT WILL TAKE 5-10 minutes a day YOU WILL LEARN How to keep a digital diary YOU’LL NEED Day One Journal app, iOS 15 or later Journalling is a great way to clear your head, organise your thoughts and can really benefit your mental health. If you don’t want to dust off your old paper diary, the Day One app for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch can help you build a multimedia journal, or even multiple journals. You can include photos and text, and the app can tag your location too, mapping where you journal. For a more authentic journalling experience on iPad, Day One will accept input from either an Apple Pencil or from a third-party device such as a Logitech Crayon. A free version is enough to…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to create accomplished drawings YOU’LL NEED ShadowDraw app (Free, offers IAPs), iPadOS 14.3 or later Genius tip! Some of the lessons here are quite fiddly, but you can pinch and stretch your fingers to zoom in and out to make things much easier. The main thing that prevents us being global art superstars is that we can’t draw for toffee. ShadowDraw promises to help with that. If, like us, you’ve always wanted to draw but haven’t been taught how, or if you just don’t feel really confident, it’s a great way to bring out your inner Degas or Dürer. The app is designed for absolute beginners, and it takes you step by step through the process of turning an idea into…

The roots of virtual reality can be traced back to 3D games and software where the environment is viewed from a first-person perspective. And these didn’t start with Doom either. Which was the first such title is disputed; it’s either space shooter Spasim or the blaster Maze War, both of which were released around 1974. They weren’t actually virtual reality, of course. The gamer played them on a computer screen, just like any other game. But it’s here one of its key features was established; the environment was viewed through the player’s eyes, instead of their being represented as an onscreen avatar (known as ‘own-eye perspective’). Later first-person games included the ZX81’s 3D Monster Maze, Wolfstein 3D and, of course, Doom. From these basic first-person video games, the first-person shooter…

£59 FROM ifi-audio.com FEATURES USB-C interface, with USB-A and Lightning adaptors, 32-bit/384KHz, MQA, DSD; 135x12.6x7.6mm, 11g The Go Link copes admirably with the dense wall of sound on The Big Sky by Kate Bush Mac FORMAT VERDICT Great sound quality and useful connectivity features make this lightweight DAC a bargain. ★★★★★ + Great price + USB-C, USB-A and Lightning + Excellent sound quality - Not the most powerful DAC available More of us are now opting to use a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) to get the best audio quality when listening to high-res or Spatial Audio on Apple Music and other streaming services. The iFi range of DACs has helped here, providing high-quality sound at competitive prices, and its new Go Link is the most affordable – and most portable –…

Group test Reviewed by NICK ODANTZIS ON TEST… > B&O Beosound Explo > Bose SoundLink Fl > JBL Charge > Marshall Middlet > Sonos Ro > Sony SRS-XS200 Though we could wax lyrical all day long T about the benefits of AirPlay speakers for the best music listening, there are occasions where you just can’t beat a Bluetooth speaker. The case for streaming over the short-range radio frequency over the longer-range Wi-Fi option enables you to stream wherever you are, there are no power cables involved, and the streaming compression has improved to the point you’d be hard pressed to notice a difference in sound quality when listening to your favourite tracks. All this makes Bluetooth the ideal choice for the six best portable speakers on test here (the Sonos…

Care about your privacy but haven’t yet found a web browser that works the way you want it to? You might want to check out Ulaa, a new privacy-focused web browser from Zoho. It blocks ads and trackers, auto updates to the latest security patches, and never monitors your surfing, keeping you anonymous and secure at the same time. It’s not all just about privacy, though. Ulaa also lets you set various ‘modes’, including ones for work, coding, kids, downtime, and more. Each mode offers different features – work mode blocks distracting websites and seeks to boost your productivity, for instance. There are tons of other interesting features, from handy tab-management tools to a password manager, from device syncing to integration with other Zoho apps. If you’re sick of the…

76 > Maximum number of graphics cores on the M2 Ultra. The standard version has 60. 70% > Amount of recycled aluminium in the Mac Pro’s enclosure. The total carbon footprint of a Mac Pro with a 1TB SSD is 1,647kg CO2e. 24 > Number of CPU cores inside the Mac Pro’s M2 Ultra chip – that’s 16 performance cores and eight efficiency cores. 3 > Number of displays the Mac Pro can support at 8K. It can also support six displays at 6K or eight displays at 4K. 192GB > Amount of memory that can be fitted to the M2 Mac Pro – at a cost of £1,600. 8TB > Maximum storage available in the Mac Pro’s build-to-order options. 16.86kg > Weight of a Mac Pro tower, which measures…

A pple’s productivity suite has come a long way. Originally sold as a collection called ‘iWork’, the three apps – aword processor called Pages, the Numbers spreadsheet application and Keynote for presentations – are now available separately, and they’re all free. The iWork apps are available for Mac, iPad and iPhone. They’re built with user-friendliness in mind, but not at the cost of features. Pages, Numbers and Keynote are likely to offer everything you need, and everything is right there at your fingertips. You can learn the basics of each app in about half an hour, and expert features are within easy reach too. As well as using the iWork apps on your Mac, iPad and iPhone, you can also log on to the iCloud website (iCloud.com) with your Apple…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to download and install iOS and iPadOS apps and games on to your Mac YOU’LL NEED An Apple silicon Mac, macOS 11 or later Genius tip! Some iPad apps say ‘Not verified for macOS’ in the App Store. They will work, but they haven’t been tested on macOS by the developer, so may be a bit buggy. Ever since the first Apple silicon Macs arrived in 2020, they’ve offered an additional benefit - the ability to run iPhone and iPad apps too with no messy conversion required. That’s because devices like your iPhone, iPad, and M1 and M2 Macs effectively run on identical architecture – the major difference being that while Mac apps are designed to be used with a mouse…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use Playfitt to build a strong and enjoyable exercise habit YOU’LL NEED Playfitt, iOS 14 or later Genius tip! Playfitt rewards you for exercising on consecutive days. If you want to protect your streak while you’re away, you can use a Streak Saver token. We all know that exercise is hugely beneficial, not just for our physical capabilities, but in terms of the positive effects it can have on our happiness and mental state. Yet turning exercise into a consistent habit is often tricky. Enter Playfitt. This app aims to build exercise into a strong, lasting habit that sticks with you. It does this by ‘gamifying’ your activities, thereby encouraging you to keep coming back for more. How does this…

False error in Disk Utility Q WhenI run Disk Utility’s First Aid on an APFS volume in Ventura 13.3.1, it returns an error and warns me to back up that volume. How can I repair that volume, or is it really broken beyond repair? by THOMAS ROTHMAN A Thisis a long-standing bug in Disk Utility’s First Aid feature that goes right back to the introduction of APFS with High Sierra. Select a volume or APFS container (like a partition), run First Aid, and Disk Utility calls a command tool named fsck_apfs to do all the hard work. That requires the volume or container it’s going to check and repair as necessary is first unmounted, but in macOS prior to Ventura version 13.4 it often fails because Disk Utility is unable…

The Calendar app has been around on the Mac in one form or another for decades. And it’s been part of iOS and iPadOS for as long as they’ve existed. It gets more powerful and useful every year, yet it remains underused and underappreciated. Using it habitually and sharing calendars with friends and family members really will help you be better organised and less stressed as a result. At the heart of Calendar is iCal. Once the name for the app itself, iCal is the format and behind-the-scenes service that enables you to sync, share and subscribe to calendars. You can download any file with an .ics extension and add it Calendar just by double-clicking it. Perhaps the real power of Calendar lies in its integration with other Apple services…

£1,850 FROM xencelabs.com/uk FEATURES OLED display, 3840x2160 pixels, 1.07 billion colours, Kensington lock port, USB-A to USB-C adaptor, three-button pen, thin pen, 10 nibs; 24.4x15.3x1.4in, 6kg The display is 99% Adobe colour accurate and Pantone SkinTone validated Interacting with our devices has come on leaps and bounds in the last few years. Trackpads supporting gestures make for a more intuitive experience, while touchscreen displays take that a step further. There are still limitations, however, and for desktop use for extended periods, a pen display is by far the most comfortable and natural means of working. For casual use, the investment may be a little rich but there are many use cases, especially in the creative fields, where such a device pays for itself. And that’s where Xencelabs’ brilliant new Pen…

£4.49/month, £29.99/year, £99.99 Lifetime FROM pixelmator.com NEEDS macOS 13 or later The image editing tools are powerful but easy enough for less experienced users to master The team behind Pixelmator Photo has used the update to T version 3 to rebrand the app as Photomator, adding a bunch of new features at the same time. It syncs to your Photos library and stores edits nondestructively in the cloud, meaning you can always undo changes and your photos will be accessible to the app both on the Mac and on iOS. Your purchase also unlocks the iOS versions but, while the Mac app is free to download and use, you only get three saves before you have to choose a purchase option to make any more. It supports Raw files and…

NAD C 3050 Stereophonic Amplifier >£1,299 > From nadelectronics.com > When it comes to high-end audio, the NAD Electronics C 3050 is a serious contender. Designed to celebrate 50 years of hi-fi mastery, the NAD C 3050 amp marries 70s retro styling (walnutfinished vinyl-clad cabinet, push buttons and Dual VU meters) with the very latest sound tech. This includes a HybridDigital UcD output stage and a Texas Instruments PCM5242 differential digital-to-analogue converter (DAC), which combine to deliver what NAD describes as ”immersive threedimensionality and thrilling dynamics’. The C 3050 also features NAD’s future-proofing Modular Design Construction, with the option to include a module in the rear MDC2 expansion slot that enables BluOS high-res, multi-room streaming and Dirac Live room correction. Cool. BenQ V5000i > $3,499 (about £3,400) > From…

1 Remove colour The new Remove Color tool lives in the Color Adjustments panel. Toggle it on to get started. 2 Sample After picking the eyedropper use the Loupe tool to magnify and sample the colour that you want to remove. 3 Fine-tune These sliders fine-tune the range of colours that are removed which is effective for removing unevenly lit backgrounds. 4 Layers Once you’ve created a transparent background on the top layer you can add a new background on the layer below. IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to remove a specific colour and add a new background YOU’LL NEED Pixelmator Pro 3.3 (£49.99), macOS 11 or later Remove Color enables you to target a specific colour and turn it transparent The macOS version of Apple’s…

Virtual and augmented reality have been sci-fi staples for years. Virtual reality (VR) puts you in an alternate world, where you can look, move and interact as if you were really there (think of the holodeck in Star Trek. Augmented reality (AR) overlays computer-generated graphics and information over the real world, so you see both through your glasses or on your screen (like in Pokémon Go). Both of these concepts have a longer history than you realise. And then there’s mixed reality (MR), which delivers the best of both. Over the last few years, the technology behind these concepts has matured to the point where it promise to change the way we use our devices. We’re promised immersive games, with the player at the centre of the action. Video chats…

From £1,399 FROM apple.com/uk FEATURES Apple M2 chip, 8GB unified memory (16GB/24GB available), 15.3in Liquid Retina display (2880x1864), 256GB storage (512GB/1TB/2TB available), Wi-Fi 6 (aka 802.11ax Wi-Fi), Bluetooth 5.3, 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, MagSafe 3 port, 3.5mm headphone jack Now here’s a surprise: Apple has taken everything we know about the ‘world’s best-selling laptop’ and super-sized it, increasing the dimensions of its Liquid Retina display from 13.6-inch to 15.3-inch. That’s brilliant news for anyone who wants a big-screen laptop from Apple but can’t afford the swoon-inducing price of the current 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro (which start at £2,149 and £2,699 respectively). The MacBook Air 15-inch starts at £1,399. That entry-level price nets you a slim, stylish and beautifully built laptop equipped with an Apple silicon M2 chip comprising an…

$29.99 (about £30) FROM ergonis.com NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later Typinator’s greatest strength is its ability to use predefined ‘sets’ of abbreviations Mac FORMAT VERDICT There are simpler text-expander apps, but Typinator’s timesaving features will appeal to many. ★★★★★ +Works with graphics and dynamic data +Useful predefined sets of abbreviations -Complex feature set -Less expensive rivals We all know how tedious and timeconsuming it can be when you repeatedly have to type certain pieces of text several times every day, such as your address or information about a new product. The macOS does have an option in the Keyboard settings panel that can help here, by allowing you to create text ‘replacements’. These are short snippets of text that are automatically replaced by a longer piece of text when you’re…

EXPECTED NOV 2023 UPDATED APR 2021 iMac From £1,399 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…

ne of the most famous and distinctive buildings to grace O the London skyline is Battersea Power Station. It’s not the most beautiful building ever created – with its four huge towers reaching forlornly up to the sky, it resembles a giant upturned tabletop. But it is impressive. Built between 1929 and 1935, at its peak the coal-burning power station was supplying a fifth of London’s electricity and was a symbol of modernity. Then it reached the end of its working life and sat derelict for decades becoming a symbol for the economic downturn of the 70s and 80s. Now, however, it’s been turned into a thriving shopping centre and Apple has just opened its 40th Apple Store inside those famous red brick walls. To me, Battersea Power Station…