Table of contents for May 2022 in MacFormat

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? And that plan in Apple’s case was to launch some incredible new products at its Peek Performance event in March, and bring us some long-awaited features with its next round of macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS and tvOS updates. First to the Peek Performance part of the plan where Apple unveiled its latest Mac: the incredible Mac Studio. Chiefly aimed at creative pros and looking like a Mac mini on steroids, it offers a choice of powerhouse processors – from the M1 Max to the M1 Ultra, a brand new System on a Chip (SoC) that delivers truly groundbreaking performance. Launched alongside that were the new Studio Display, an M1-powered iPad Air and a new and improved iPhone SE. You can…

The Intel-powered 27-inch iMac, a mainstay of Apple’s Mac line-up since 2009, has been discontinued, disappearing from the Apple Store shortly after the Peek Performance event. Apple’s Senior VP for Hardware Engineering, John Ternus, had hinted that might be the case during his Mac Studio presentation when said that the Apple silicon transition was almost complete “with just one more product to go, Mac Pro”. However, several analysts have suggested that it not might be over for the big-screen iMac yet, with a rumoured return for the iMac Pro being one possibility with a launch expected in either 2022 or 2023.…

APP OF THE MONTH These days, many leading web design apps and platforms are adopting a ‘no code’ approach. This lets you drag and drop elements, making creating websites a visual process that’s far more accessible. Sparkle Pro is no exception, and it’s just been updated to version 4 with some major new features. One of the headline additions is a new SEO assistant that shows how you can optimise your website for search engines. Put its tips into action and you could see your site climb the rankings and get more hits. Also new is an AI-powered background remover that works in seconds, enhanced animations and video tools, and the ability to add protected content only visible to logged-in users. There are tons of other updates, all of which…

10,000 Number of signals used by the silicon interposer in Apple’s UltraFusion technology 114 billion Total number of transistors in the M1 Ultra – the most ever used on a personal computer chip 22 trillion Number of calculations per second performed by the M1 Ultra’s 32-core Neural Engine 800GB/s Memory bandwidth of the M1 Ultra – or 10 times that of the latest PC desktop chip, according to Apple 64 Number of graphics cores in the M1 Ultra – that’s eight times the size of the M1 128GB Maximum amount of unified memory supported by the M1 Ultra 18 Number of simultaneous 8K ProRes 422 video streams that can be played back by a Mac Studio equipped with the M1 Ultra 1,000 Amount of energy – in kilowatt-hours – saved…

The world of mobile communications continues to change rapidly as 5G networks become more readily available, and our smartphones replace everything from car keys to bank cards. There’s always more to come, though, and between 28 February and 3 March 2022, key players from the industry descended on Barcelona to see the latest developments at the Mobile World Congress (MWC). This was the first time the trade show had been held in person since 2019. The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), the industry body that runs MWC, said that 61,000 people attended in person and that there were 1,900 exhibitors, sponsors and partners; indicating that MWC has not lost its significance during the hiatus in in-person events. It also racked up 500,000 unique virtual and daily viewers from…

The Music app is good at what it does, but if you’re looking for something a bit different you’re spoilt for choice. These players offer things Music doesn’t, such as support for more formats and more streamlined interfaces. Vox FROM vox.rocks/mac-music-player Available for Mac and iOS, Vox is looks as good as it sounds – and as it’s a hi-res audio player, that means it looks and sounds great. The core app is free but advanced settings require a subscription. IINA FROM iina.io Although designed primarily for video (see p32), IINA also has a Music Mode that makes it an attractive if quite simple music player. It’s only available for macOS 10.11 or later and macOS 10.15 (Catalina) is recommended. Strawberry FROM strawberry musicplayer.org This open source music player for…

If you’re all-in on Apple devices, we think Apple Music is far and away the best option thanks to its excellent device and Siri integration. But not everybody has an Apple-only home, and rival services may provide a better – and in some cases, more affordable – option. Spotify FROM open.spotify.com You can’t knock Spotify’s usability; thanks to Spotify Connect it works with almost anything. However controversies over its podcast division and its very low royalties mean some artists are now boycotting it. TIDAL FROM tidal.com Founded (but no longer owned) by rap superstar Jay-Z, and with over 80 million tracks, TIDAL is one of the best streaming services for hi-res audio tracks, as well as other standard resolution streaming options. Deezer FROM deezer.com Deezer is a very big deal…

Streaming is great, but what about the discs and videos you already have – the home videos you shot on old cameras, or your DVDs? Third-party viewers (see right) can handle many of the formats that Apple’s own apps don’t, while an external DVD or Blu-ray drive with the combination of VLC and Libbluray (from the Videolan.org site) will take care of disc playback. That’s fine if you just want to play media on your Mac. But what if you want to convert it for other apps or devices or for backup purposes? That’s where one of our favourite apps comes in. Handbrake (handbrake.fr, for OS X 10.3 or later) makes it easy to convert pretty much anything to pretty much anything, and it includes lots of Apple-specific presets for…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up mouse-enabled shortcuts in the corners of your screen YOU’LL NEED macOS As convenient as macOS is, sometimes it could be a bit more convenient: who wants to look down at the keyboard to remember which key fires up Launchpad or shows the Desktop or app windows? And what if you’d rather activate the Notification Centre from the top left of your screen rather than the top right? Hot Corners are here to help by making it even faster to access useful system features. In this tutorial we’re using macOS Monterey, but Hot Corners are available in older versions of macOS too; the feature was introduced more than 10 years ago and it’s been in macOS ever since. Default…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the Apple News app YOU’LL NEED iPhone, iPad or Mac; Apple News app Apple News on iPhone, iPad and Mac is designed to be a one-stop shop for news and magazine-style content. It has two elements to it: the standard News service which is free and enables you access to content from publishers like the BBC who allow content to be distributed at no cost, and the News+ services which costs £9.99/month and provides access to everything. Aside from a greater choice of publications, Apple News+ enables you to read magazines cover to cover and download them for offline reading. You can share an Apple News+ subscription with up to six family members. Both the standard News service and…

You might think the world of technology stops at your front door, but there’s no reason for that to be the case. Once you get out into the garden, there are all sorts of ways your gear can enhance your green-fingered experience. Whether that’s a high-tech take on your favourite outdoor tools or simply a device that can stand up to the elements, there’s a lot that gadgets can do for your outdoor space. Over the next two pages, we’ve put together a selection of devices that will step up your garden experience, from lights and speakers that make social gatherings more fun to cameras and weather stations that help you keep a closer eye on things. And yes, we’ve even found an iOS-compatible barbecue. 1 Eve Flare €99.85 (about…

For as long as the Mac has existed, there has been a way to output from it to paper. For a while, Apple even made its own printers, connected by the now long-forgotten serial and SCSI ports, depending on the device in question. Now, you’re much more likely to connect to a printer wirelessly, or over an Ethernet network. You can even print to a printer on the other side of the world, thanks to the wonders of the internet. Nevertheless, and despite all the advances in other areas of computing, the simple act of printing a document or image can be a frustrating, hair-tearing experience. Whether it’s a printer that your Mac just won’t connect to, or one that refuses to print within the boundaries and parameters you set,…

IN PRINT ON iPAD & iPHONE ISSUE 376 APRIL 2022 85 fast fixes for Mac, iPhone & iPad Which M1 Mac is right for you? Kit out your home office On test: network backup drives ISSUE 375 MARCH 2022 Do more with iCloud and iCloud+ Make any Mac easier to use (and your iOS devices too) Power up your passwords ISSUE 374 FEBRUARY 2022 Power up your Mac – we show you how! 82 of the best apps for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Watch Take better pics in low-light conditions 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. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/macformat-mac-ipad-iphone/id451439182?mt=8 Download back issues onto your iOS device at any time and keep them forever in…

From £119.95 (500GB) FROM LaCie, lacie.com FEATURES Password protection, 3-year data recovery plan, USB-C interface LaCie’s sturdy solid-state drives are great for keeping your files safe when travelling with your laptop. And its new Mobile SSD Secure goes even further by providing additional security features. The compact USB-C drive measures 9.8cm long, 7.8cm wide and 0.9cm thick, and weighs a mere 450g. The drive feels sturdy too, although LaCie also includes a three-year subscription to its specialist data recovery service in case the drive ever gets damaged. The Mobile SSD Secure can be used for Time Machine backups, but LaCie includes its own ToolKit app, which enables you to create a ‘sync plan’ that automatically backs up your chosen set of folders. And the final security feature is password protection…

Macs have always been at risk from malware, but until recently those risks were so small – helped in no small part by security features built into macOS itself – you could easily go without extra antivirus protection. But the recent emergence of Mac-specific malware, including the notorious Silver Sparrow malware that targeted both M1 and Intel-based Macs, has changed that. The good news is protecting your Mac is a simple task – and one you can potentially do for free. So why exactly would you want to pay for antivirus protection? The primary reason is to broaden your protection beyond basic malware to cover other existing threats like ransomware and to increase your privacy online. Another reason might be to invest in software that is designed primarily for the Mac…

£3.49 FROM Alin Panaitiu, lowtechguys.com NEEDS macOS 11 or later ired of Apple’s default App Switcher shortcuts? Try rcmd. This lets you change apps by pressing the right-Command button and the first letter of the app you want to switch to. For example, right-Command+M will switch to Mail. It’s a clever idea that works best when you have many apps open at once. Instead of using Command+RightArrow to cycle endlessly through apps, a quick rcmd shortcut does the job. If you have multiple apps with the same first letter, press that letter multiple times to cycle through them (pressing right-Command+S will cycle Spotify, Shortcuts, and System Preferences, for instance). Alternatively, you can hide an app using its shortcut. You can even change the trigger key (right-Command) if you like. The…

Apple’s long-rumoured spring event finally took place on 8 March, bringing with it an incredible array of new Macs, iPhones and iPads – plus the surprise demise of the 27-inch iMac. Entitled ‘Peek Performance’, the event also unveiled the next phase in the evolution of Apple silicon, with the M1 Ultra joining the M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max chips inside the company’s line-up of desktop and mobile devices. The biggest news of the event was the Mac Studio, a new desktop Mac that sits squarely between the existing Mac mini and the current Mac Pro, with Apple revealing that it plans to update that too in due course. The Mac Studio was joined by an all-new Studio Display, a 27-inch 5K Retina display (5180x2880 pixels) featuring a built-in 12MP…

Mac Studio (entry level) Chip: Apple M1 Max, 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine Memory: 32GB, 64GB Storage: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB Ports: 4x Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1x 10Gb Ethernet, SDXC card slot Mac Studio (mid-range) Chip: Apple M1 Ultra, 20-core CPU, 48-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine Memory: 64GB, 128GB Storage: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB Ports: 4x Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1x 10Gb Ethernet, SDXC card slot Mac Studio (ultimate) Chip: Apple M1 Ultra, 20-core CPU, 64-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine Memory: 64GB, 128GB Storage: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB Ports: 4x Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack, 1x 10Gb Ethernet,…

Going hand-in hand with the new Mac Studio, the Studio Display is a powerhouse product in its own right. Powered by Apple’s A13 Bionic chip, its edge-to-edge Retina display offers 5K resolution at 5120x2880 pixels and support for the P3 colour gamut, plus is capable of displaying up to 1 billion colours. While it’s chiefly aimed at creative pros who might baulk at the cost of Apple’s £4,599 Pro Display XDR, it’s no less feature packed, coming with three USB-C ports on its rear, plus a Thunderbolt 3 port with 96W Power Delivery, enabling you to send audio and video to the display from a MacBook while charging its battery at the same time. As well as being powered by the A13 Bionic (the same chip used in the iPhone…

The iPad Air has taken another step closer towards iPad Pro parity, with the new fifth-gen model now sporting an Apple silicon M1 chip. Unveiled during the Peek Performance event in March, the 2022 iPad Air now has 60% faster performance than its A14 Bionic-powered predecessor as well as twice the graphics power, thanks to its 8-core GPU. Available in five colours – Space Grey, Starlight, Pink, Purple and Blue – the iPad Air starts at £569 for the Wi-Fi-only 64GB model (£10 cheaper than before) with the step-up 256GB version costing £719. Wi-Fi+Cellular models are also available at £719 (64GB) and £869 (256GB) and now come with 5G for super-fast mobile data connections. The fifth-gen iPad Air also gets a new 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with Centre Stage.…

For those with an Apple Music subscription, you can access your local music from any device if it’s logged in with your Apple ID. The iCloud Music Library will store up to 100,000 songs whether you ripped them or bought them from iTunes. However, there’s another way to get the benefits of that feature without actually paying a subscription to Apple Music. For £21.99 per year, iTunes Match can copy all your music to the cloud and if it has a higher quality version of a song it replaces your one with that one. iTunes Match is limited to 25,000 songs. THAT SYNCING FEELING… If you don’t have Apple Music or iTunes Match, you can enable Wi-Fi syncing from your Mac by connecting your device via its USB/Lightning cable and…

For those who want to own their music rather than rent it, the iTunes Store is your friend. But it’s wise to ensure you download (and backup, with Time Machine at the very least) everything you buy: if something is removed from the Store, it’s gone and you can’t re-download it. Purchases are associated with the Apple ID that bought them, so if you have multiple Apple IDs you won’t see your other IDs’ purchases. If you have Music or iTunes and haven’t ticked View > All Music you won’t see any purchases you haven’t downloaded. And if you delete or hide music from one of your devices, it’ll disappear from your other ones too. To unhide purchased tracks, go into Music on your Mac and click iTunes Store >…

There are lots of video players out there, but there’s no such thing as a one size fits all solution. Where IINA is minimalist, VLC is packed with power features and 5K Player focuses on streaming. These players should cover most kinds of playback. IINA FROM iina.io Designed specifically for the Mac and based on the mpv media player, IINA supports Dark Mode, Picture in Picture and the Touch Bar. It can play almost anything and it’s expandable via plug-ins. VLC FROM videolan.org We’ve been using VLC for many years now and while it’s not the most modern-looking app it’s incredibly lightweight, versatile and effective. It’s also free and ad-free, which is a real bonus. QuickTime FROM apple.com/uk QuickTime Player comes with macOS and can do more than you might…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to control your iPad with your Mac YOU’LL NEED macOS 12.3+ and iPadOS 15.4+ It’s very easy to set up Universal Control and it works brilliantly The much-delayed Universal Control finally rocked up in March 2022. It builds on Sidecar, which can turn your iPad into an extra Mac display, but this time it keeps the iPad as an iPad: it enables you to connect an iPad or Mac and control them with the same keyboard and mouse, and you can also drag and drop between them. It feels a bit like magic. In order to use Universal Control, you’ll need to take care of a few things first. The iPad or Mac you’re adding must be running the latest iPadOS…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to publish to Apple Books YOU’LL NEED An Apple ID, Pages, your own transcript Apple doesn’t just give you great tools to make creative masterpieces. It gives you lots of ways to share your creations too, and in the case of ebooks you can also sell them on Apple Books. All you need is a copy of Pages. It’ll take care of the publishing so you can concentrate on making your book as great as it can possibly be. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to publish your own novel, but Apple Books is open to all kinds of genres – educational books, children’s books, history books… if you can imagine it, there’s a place for it in Apple Books.…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to add computer-generated blur, and natural in-camera bokeh YOU’LL NEED iPhone 7 Plus or later With a natural in-camera bokeh all background areas will be blurred equally To create a more flattering portrait, professional photographers can manually set their Digital SLR camera to use a wide aperture. The wider the aperture’s f-stop (such as f2.0), the blurrier the background will be. This background blur is referred to as bokeh. A blurry background removes distractions and helps focuses the eye on the person (or object) in the foreground. The iPhone’s native Camera app doesn’t allow you to manually adjust the aperture setting used when snapping a shot, but it does offer a software solution to creating a bokeh courtesy of its Portrait…

When it comes to travel, chances are you’re looking for equipment that can make life a little easier when you’re away from home. After all, it’s not like you can take your usual desk set-up wherever you go, regardless of whether it’s for work or pleasure. When you have to travel light, you need to make sacrifices to your normal tech operations. But fear not, as we’ve found the perfect gadgets for every road warrior. There are protective cases, battery packs, USB hubs, and portable monitors – all great gadgets for working on the go. And we’re not just focusing on work – we’ve included a fantastic dash cam, a nifty travel mug, and more, all of which are tailor-made for the gadget lover with itchy feet. 1 Ember Travel…

Not so long ago, connecting a printer to your Mac and setting it up for the first time was a pain. You had to install drivers from a disk or download them from the web and then hope that your Mac recognised the printer once they were installed. Nowadays, thanks partly to the wonders of AirPrint, it’s simple. Once you’ve connected your printer to your wireless network, which often means no more than pushing a button labelled ‘WPS’ on the printer and your router, your Mac will recognise its presence then download and install the most recent drivers. Then it’s ready to use. Of course, you can still connect a USB printer to your Mac and use that, and your Mac will install the correct drivers. And you can use…

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

£629.99 FROM arlo.com FEATURES 2x Arlo Ultra 2 cameras, 1x SmartHub, 4K video with HDR, siren and spotlight, six-month rechargeable battery, HomeKit support, dual–band Wi–Fi, SD card slot As well as 4K HDR, the Ultra 2 supports HomeKit and dual-band Wi-Fi Arlo’s top-of-the-range Ultra 2 security camera is pretty expensive, but it’s one of only a handful on the market that works with HomeKit for Apple devices, and that’s a key feature that might actually save you some money in the long run. The Ultra 2 starts at a hefty £629.99, for a set – available in black or white – that includes two cameras, and a SmartHub that connects to your broadband router and acts as the central control point for your cameras. It has the same 4K resolution…

$44.99 (about £41) caddy only, $94 (about £86) 1TB, $119 (about £110) 2TB FROM OWC, owc.com FEATURES Thunderbolt 3 compatibility, up to 540MB/sec transfer speeds, USB-C 3.2 or USB-A The Mercury Elite Pro mini uses a spinning drive rather than a solid state drive and is thus much more affordable, while still offering performance that will be perfectly adequate for a good many people. Extremely lightweight, it is nonetheless very well built and comes with a USB-C cable plus USB-A adaptor from which it also draws its power. It’s plug-and-play and compatible with more or less anything from computers to gaming consoles, as well as being bootable and Time Machine ready. The HDD versions come in 1TB or 2TB capacities at 5400rpm or 7200rpm respectively, and SSD versions are also…

£59 FROM Skylum, skylum.com NEEDS macOS 10.14.6 or higher Luminar Neo’s AI tools work well to speed up what would otherwise be tedious, time-consuming tasks The newly released Luminar Neo follows on the heels of its sister app – Luminar AI. The latter uses artificial intelligence (or machine learning) and one-click templates to help you perform a range of image adjustments quickly and easily. Luminar Neo doesn’t replace Luminar AI, its just targeted at image editors and photo fixers who want more control over a wider range of high-end tools (though it also offers AI assistance). Luminar Neo is a standalone app, though it does slot nicely into your existing workflows as a plug-in for the Photos app (and it can also be accessed via Photoshop and Lightroom Classic). Luminar…

With rumours circulating for months that Apple would unveil a new high-powered version of the Mac mini at its spring event, few could have predicted what was actually revealed: the all-new Mac Studio. Looking like a pumped-up Mac mini to some, a reincarnation of the much-loved G4 Cube to others, the new Mac Studio is effectively a showcase for Apple silicon, with the mid-range model packing a brand new M1 chip – the M1 Ultra. Available with either a 20-core CPU and a 48-core GPU or a 20-core CPU and 64-core GPU, the M1 Ultra also includes a 32-core Neural Engine and support for up to 128GB of memory. Apple says that that power enables the M1 Ultra to deliver 3.8x faster performance compared to a Mac Pro equipped with…

Until very recently, buying digital content such as blockbuster movies limited what you could do with it and what devices you could watch it on. And you could forget about converting it to make it more suitable for, or take up less space on, your phone or tablet. Thanks goodness, then, for the Apple TV app. It makes it really easy to share your purchased content and your Apple TV+ subscription (if you have one) with all your devices including family members’ ones. If you have an Apple TV, you can use it to stream your home videos from iCloud, or from your Mac via Home Sharing (which you’ll find in Settings > Users and Accounts > Home Sharing on your Apple TV and System Preferences > Sharing on your…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to rename lots of files at once in Finder YOU’LL NEED OS X 10.10 or later There are many reasons why you might find yourself needing to rename lots of files at the same time. Perhaps you’ve transferred photographs or videos from a memory card and want to be able to identify them better, or organise them by date, location, or occasion. Or perhaps you’ve used a disk recovery tool to retrieve data from a failed drive and want to quickly organise the files that you’ve saved from permanent deletion. Whatever the reason, until a few years ago, there was no way to do it without using a third-party tool or writing your own script or Automator action. In OS X…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to measure real-life objects in the Measure app YOU’LL NEED iPhone or iPad Of all the built-in apps on iPhone, Measure is the one that gets the least attention. And yet, it’s also one of the most impressive. It’s also a good illustration of how augmented reality (AR) can be put to practical use on a mobile device. The Measure app enables you to measure real-life objects around you using the iPhone or iPad’s camera sensors to detect edges and corners and then do some clever maths to determine the distance between them. On more recent iPads and iPhones, Measure also uses the built-in LiDAR scanner to more quickly and accurately determine distances. As well as measuring the distance between two…

A lot of planning goes into jetting off on holiday, but there are some things you might not have thought of: how will you capture the memories you make? How will you ensure you don’t lose or damage anything valuable? And how will you keep your devices powered up when you can’t get to a wall plug? Luckily, there are tech products that can help in all of these situations. Here, we’ve rounded up our favourite devices that can guarantee your holiday is one to remember. Whatever you want to do, from hiking in the mountains off the beaten track to taking in the sights at a spectacular viewpoint, the products here are the perfect way to ensure your next vacation is your best yet. 1 DJI Air 2S £899…

Once you’ve mastered the basics of printing from your Mac, there is plenty more you can do. From printing lots of documents from lots of applications without having to manually open each one, to customising presets so that you don’t have to configure each print every time. Depending on the printer you’re using, there are plenty of tools and options for getting more out of it. For example, most printers these days allow you to check how much ink is left from the Printers & Scanners pane in System Preferences. Just choose your printer and then click on a button labelled Options & Supplies. And most have a built-in web page you can visit to find out more information about their status. In this section, we’ll show you how to…

Free (Premium $19.99 (about £18) month) FROM Ginger Software, gingersoftware.com Ginger offers a good range of features to help improve your writing and polish your work. It analyses text and suggests improvements, and it even helps you train your style. It offers everything in a package that doesn’t take long to get used to. Ginger helps you identify weaknesses in writing style and shows you opportunities for improvement. You can use it to avoid repetitive wording, awkward phrasing, common grammatical and structural problems, and various other issues. Many of the tools are driven by AI, making them reliable and comprehensive. You can also use a rephrasing tool to help bring some variety into your work. However, reworded phrases need checking as they can sometimes sound awkward. Ginger has a simple…

£10.55 per month (discounts for annual subscriptions) FROM Nord Security, nordvpn.com NEEDS macOS 10.12 or later Scan files automatically, or upload them to Nord’s own servers to perform a ‘deep scan’ NordVPN is one of the most popular VPN apps for protecting your privacy when you’re online. But, like other VPNs, it now faces competition from the new Private Relay feature that Apple is planning to add to its iCloud+ subscription service (although that’s currently still in beta at the time of writing). Private Relay doesn’t provide the full range of features that you’d get from a specialist VPN app like NordVPN, but it’s easy to use and less expensive than most VPNs, so the developers at Nord Security have begun to extend NordVPN by adding a new feature called…

DESKTOP SPEAKER Ruark MR1 £329.99 ruarkaudio.com Winner of MF357’s head to head, the MR1 speaker set looks and sounds the business. The dome tweeter and long-throw woofer can handle a variety of audio styles with aplomb. You get a good variety of connectivity options, and we love the chunky function/volume dial too. IN-EAR WIRLESS EARPHONES Beats Fit Pro £199.99 beatsbydre.com/uk The Beats Fit Pro are compact and sporty in design with integrated silicone ear hooks. The earbuds match Apple AirPods Pro almost feature for feature, and cost nearly £40 less. You get Apple’s H1 chip, Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), Find My, Siri support and Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking. What’s more, these Beats boast longer battery life than the AirPods Pro. KEYBOARD (MAC/iOS) Logitech MX Keys Mini £99.99 logitech.com…

Amazing projects for your Mac, iPhone and iPad Your Apple devices can do incredible things – here’s how to make the most of them The ultimate iPad buyer’s guide How to choose the right Apple table for your needs: from the entry-level iPad to the powerhouse iPad Pro macOS Shortcuts for beginners Discover some great ways to use Shortcuts on your Mac ALSO INSIDE… Manage Notifications and Widgets in macOS Monterey Discover what’s new in iOS and iPadOS 15.4 Master macro photos on your iPhone … and much more! Contents subject to change ISSUE 378 ON SALE 3 MAY 2022 DON’T MISS IT – SUBSCRIBE TODAY! IN PRINT & ON YOUR iPAD Our print and digital bundle gets you the paper magazine as well as our iPad edition magazinesdirect.com/macformat-magazine-subscription ON YOUR…

So there you have it – the first new Apple products of the year are here. At this month’s media event the Cupertino company unveiled an array of new devices including a spec-bumped iPhone SE, a modestly upgraded iPad Air and an all-new Mac line, the Mac Studio, complete with the impossibly powerful M1 Ultra. And yet, despite all the shiny new products, Apple didn’t really pique my interest with its Peek Performance event. In fact, there was relatively little for me to get excited about. Apple these days under Tim Cook seems to have mastered the slow grind of the interactive spec bump, rather than the exciting leaps and bounds of the second Steve Jobs era. I’m missing those amazing “One more thing” moments we used to have. I…