MacFormatAugust 2025的目錄

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicked off on 9 June and with it a slew of amazing operating system updates for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and more. We held off going to press just long enough to bring you news of the exciting changes that are set to arrive this autumn, although you’ll be able to download the public betas (if you’re brave enough) sometime in July. And the changes are substantial. For along with a new naming scheme, all of Apple’s operating systems get a new Liquid Glass look that gives them much more of a ‘family’ feel, along with new and improved Apple Intelligence features, despite the very obvious exception that is the revamped Siri. While the new features and improvements coming to macOS Tahoe will…

Named after a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada region of the USA, macOS Tahoe brings a lot of new features to Mac – including new apps, new and improved Spotlight and Continuity features, and a bold new look that also offers increased personalisation. Appearing across Apple’s operating systems, the new Liquid Glass design language takes its cues from visionOS and brings more translucency, more rounded buttons and a higher degree of personalisation that’s been available on Mac than before. For not only is the menu bar now completely see-through, you can now change the colour of things like app icons, like you could on iOS and iPadOS 18, and even create colourful, icon-bedecked folders to make it easier to find the projects that you’ve been working on too. Going…

Described by Apple’s senior vice-president for Software Engineering Craig Federighi as a ‘giant’ update, iPadOS 26 finally brings the features to the iPad users have spent years asking for – the chief of which is more Mac-like multitasking. While the iPadOS 26 shares many of the new features of its iOS 26 sibling – including a new Liquid Glass look, and Apple Intelligence-powered features such as Live Translation and Visual Intelligence, Apple has also raised the bar significantly when it comes to getting stuff done on iPad. Of these the most significant is a new windowing system when multitasking that makes even faster easier to use multiple windows (and apps), with windows even featuring Mac-like red, yellow and green ‘gumdrop’ buttons in the top-left corner to make window-resizing faster and…

The Apple Watch leads the way in the smartwatch category, and that’s thanks in part to it having an operating system that’s absolutely stuffed with world-class features. Now, that system – the newly renamed watchOS 26 – has been announced with a few fresh features that Apple hopes will cement the wearable’s place as the best smartwatch on the market. To that end, Apple has brought its visionOS-inspired visual redesign to watchOS, meaning plenty of glass-like interfaces throughout the system including to Smart Stacks, the Control Centre and the Photos watch face. While the Apple Watch isn’t yet powerful enough to offer Apple Intelligence on its own, iOS 26 can still harness your iPhone’s Apple Intelligence capabilities to bring new experiences to your wrist, the chief of which is the…

The Photos app on iPhone offers a simplified interface for adjusting colour, tone, composition and erasing objects with tap and swipe gestures. For enhanced control, you can access more advanced tools in Photos on macOS. Here, we’ll demonstrate how to use a histogram to understand the spread of tones in a shot and edit curves to adjust brightness and contrast with precision. You’ll learn how to make striking monochrome conversions by adjusting greyscale tones based on the shot’s original colours, and create more dramatic, highcontrast black-and-white images. You’ll develop your editing skills with these creative and advanced techniques, and produce more eye-catching images. 1 Black shadows This histogram graph displays the spread of tones in a shot. Here the graph peaks at the far left, indicating strong contrasting blacks. 2 White highlights…

Master Apple shortcuts macOS > Cmd is the Command key. > Alt or Opt is the Option key. > Ctrl is the Control key, also shown as ‘^’ in shortcuts in the menu bar. > The thick, outlined up arrow is the Shift key. > The thin, left arrow or outlined pointer with ‘X’ inside is the Delete key, which deletes to the left. Pressing the Function key (Fn) and the Delete key deletes to the right. > The thin, right arrow key with a small vertical line at the end is the Tab key, which shifts the focus between some controls. iOS > 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…

Your Mac’s App Switcher is a pretty simple contraption – you fire it up with Cmd+Tab and can move left or right along its list of apps, changing to one of them when you let go of the keys. But what if there was a better, more feature-rich way to flip between your open apps? Thankfully, there is, and it’s enabled by an app called Pieoneer. As the name hints at, this puts a wheel-shaped pie menu at your fingertips. Just press its keyboard shortcut and the wheel appears, after which you can simply click the app you want to open from the pie menu. This can save you time because you don’t need to move along a list of apps just to get to the one you need –…

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get AirPods-style personal audio without having to stick anything either in or on your ears? A team of researchers at Penn State University in the US are trying to do just that. They’ve created a way to focus sound so that you can hear it perfectly – but the person next to you won’t hear a thing. Their version of the technology creates what’s called an ‘audible enclave’, which is a small pocket of sound. If you’re in the right place you’ll hear the audio as intended. But if you move even slightly you won’t hear anything. The Penn State project is using a dramatic version of what’s also known as sound steering, beam steering or beamforming. And it could be coming to public…

The first thing you’ll need for successful podcasting isn’t a bit of hardware or software. It’s a theme. What will your podcast be about? Some podcasts take a single story, such as a real-life crime or a period of history, and tell the story over multiple episodes. Others focus on a core topic such as South Asian cooking, or English football, or Young Adult books, or what famous people’s last meal would be. Your theme should be interesting to you; if your heart’s not in it, you’re not going to want to do it very often, or for very long. And ideally it’ll be something that nobody else is doing, or that you’ll be doing in a very different way, because that makes it a lot easier for your podcast to…

Halina Rifai (halinarifai.com) is a British Podcast Awards judge and has created and produced tons of acclaimed podcasts including her own music podcast Podcart, the mental health podcast A Sonic Hug, and podcasts for individuals and organisations. How much has the podcasting landscape changed? I started podcasting in 2009 with a cheap recorder covering my local music scene when podcasting was very much an American thing… back then, just existing was enough. Now, finding community is about marketing in a wholesome way that really engages with people. Can you do newsletter support? Can you engage with community groups or organisations that tap into what you’re covering? Word of mouth is still one of the biggest drivers. How can podcasters make money? I think you need to combine podcasting with something…

› £34.99 › FROM ubisoft.com › NEEDS macOS 12 or later; Mac with Apple M1 chip or later Each sprawling side-scrolling level is richly detailed with fantastical elements and intriguing backdrops he Lost Crown is the first mainline Prince of Persia game for 15 years. There’s a lot of expectation weighing on its shoulders, then, but the returning series does not disappoint. As Sargon, you join up with a ragtag bunch of warriors named The Immortals and fight, puzzle and explore your way through Mount Qaf in order to rescue the kidnapped Prince Ghassan. It’s a fun story, full of twisting turns and bombastic characters, and one that’s set to an evocative soundtrack. The Lost Crown looks sublime. Each sprawling, side-scrolling level is richly detailed with fantastical elements and intriguing…

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Apple already has both Games Center and Apple Arcade, but is now bringing a new way to enjoy your favourite games across all your devices – thanks to a dedicated Apple Games app. This not only gives you a new way to access the games you’re already playing, but also to discover new ones and chat and compete with friends and family by taking part in Challenges and by using Game Overlay. macOS Tahoe also introduces Metal 4, Apple’s graphics API, bringing even more advanced graphic and next-gen rendering capabilities to games, with MetalFX Frame Interpolation and MetalFX Denoising promising faster frame rates and smoother visual effects experiences.…

For years Apple has steered clear of offering Mac-like features on iPad, ostensibly because the Mac and the iPad have very different interfaces and use cases, but that’s made less and less sense as time’s gone on. Team the iPad with a Magic Keyboard (which even has a glass trackpad) and you essentially end up with a touchscreen Mac, only your ability to be able to use it in a Mac-like way has been hampered by iPadOS itself, especially when it comes to multitasking. That all changes with iPadOS 26. With its improved windowing system, revamped Files app and even an improved pointer, the iPad is now much more Mac-like, and that’s a good thing.…

Apple’s Vision Pro headset has had a rocky road since it launched in 2023, with its sky-high price tag likely putting many people off purchasing one. But with the launch of visionOS 26, Apple is hoping that it’ll add enough new features to its mixed-reality headset to entice people to give it a try. Of these one of the best is the new Spatial Widgets, which enable you to position your favourite widgets around your virtual space to give you at-a-glance updates on things such as Calendar, Weather and Photos, and developers can even create their own app widgets for Vision Pro with WidgetKit. Also new to Vision Pro are Spatial Scenes, which can transform ordinary photos into the 3D images using computational AI to enable you look around them.…

B&O Beosystem 3000c > £22,100 > From bang-olufsen.com/en/gb > If you thought paying £14,299 for a top-spec Mac Studio was a bit much, think again. For Danish audio-video maker Bang & Olufsen has revived its Beosystem music centre for £22,100 – and you don’t even get a cassette deck! What you do get is a precision-engineered piece of hi-fi that’s limited to just 100 numbered units worldwide, with its ‘floating’ design echoing the Beogram 3000 turntable from 1985. Aside from its vinyl-spinning abilities, there’s much to admire, thanks to its solid walnut back panel, re-anodised aluminium sides, glass cover and uniquely patterned platter. A matching pair of Beolab 8 speakers help complete the look and sound, plus Bang & Olufsen has even included three LPs to help you get your vinyl…

Back in the old days, most of us limited Bfilm camera use to holiday snaps and family milestones. A handful of photos would get printed, and a few might make it into an album. Managing photos in those days was relatively easy; the only editing we did was to bin prints that came adorned with a quality control sticker if they suffered from flash-induced red-eye or a finger over the lens. Today, we digitally document many more of our activities via the always-to-hand Camera app on iPhone. This leads to the problem of managing thousands of photographs, many of which run the risk of rarely being seen! Fortunately, Apple’s Photos app has plenty of tools to enable you to store your photos safely, organise your collection so that nothing gets lost,…

Digital cameras struggle to capture perfect pictures. In low light, they may add speckles of greyscale (luminance) or colour (chrominance) picture noise when using high ISO settings to reveal detail, and different light sources can add cold blue or warm orange casts (plus green and magenta tints). Your iPhone’s camera is designed to automatically capture accurate colours in various lighting conditions. It uses computational photography to combine multiple exposures into well-exposed pictures that feature detail in shadows and highlights. So while in theory, iPhone snaps should look as good as the subject did to the naked eye, they may need adjustments in Photos to look their best. 1 Light This thumbnail previews how the tones will change when you drag the cursor left or right. It’s a quick way to adjust…

Whether it’s home movies on VHS or a library of classic vinyl, it’s easy to capture the audio and video, play it and even improve it on your Mac. If you have videos on CD or DVD, a portable CD/DVD drive is all you need; connect it, open it in Finder and drag the files across. An app such as Handbrake (handbrake.fr) can convert outdated file formats into more modern formats. With VHS video, vinyl LPs or audio cassettes it’s slightly trickier; you’ll need an analogue to digital interface for your VHS player or tape deck so your Mac can capture the video and/or audio. Amplify the signal For capturing video, we’d suggest trying iMovie first before looking into third-party apps. For audio, we’d recommend the excellent, free Audacity for…

Get the web page to scroll to the correct place, and highlight the relevant text When you send a web link to another person, you might want to draw their attention to a particular sentence or passage. Usually, that might involve posting the web address and telling your recipient where to scroll to. It’s clunky, inaccurate, and far from optimal. Surely there’s a better way? Thankfully, there is, and it’s built right into many of the most popular web browsers. Instead of telling people where to look in the web links you send, you can get the web page to not only automatically scroll to the correct place, but also highlight the relevant text, making it easier than ever to show people what you want them to see. Click right…

How would you feel if you ever lost your iPhone or iPad? Pretty devastated, we suspect – especially if it contains precious data that hasn’t been backed up! That’s why it is vital that you make regular backups, to safeguard your data and preferred settings. In this guide, we’ll show you how to do it. There are two main methods for backing up your iOS device. The easiest is to use iCloud to make automatic (or manual) regular backups that are stored remotely. While iCloud grants you 5GB of free storage, this may not be enough for a full data backup. In that case, you can pay for extra storage by upgrading to iCloud+, or choose only specific data types to back up. The alternative method is to connect your iPhone…

Your iPhone’s ‘point  and-shoot’ Camera app produces great-looking results. It automatically chooses a fast shutter speed to capture sharp detail and avoid shake-induced motion blur. AWB (Auto White Balance) ensures accurate colours by adjusting light’s colour temperature to remove blue or orange casts. However, experienced photographers may want to take manual control over their iPhone camera. By choosing a slower shutter speed, they can add dramatic motion blur to passing traffic, for example. In different lighting scenarios they may want to choose a specific white balance preset to keep certain colour casts at bay. Your iPhone’s native Camera app creates masks that adjust each subject’s exposure independently, but the results can look a bit fake and over-processed. The third-party camera apps in our group test enable you to manually set a…

› £399.99 › FROM anker.com/uk› FEATURES 3x Thunderbolt 5 ports (2x downstream, 1x upstream), 1x HDMI 2.1 port, 1x DisplayPort 2.1, 2x USB-C, 3x USB-A, 3.5mm audio in/out port, 1x 2.5G Ethernet port, SD and TF card readers, dock manager software, configurable light system, GaN internal power supply An excellent multi-function dock; one accessory that handles pretty much all your power and data needs Anker’s flagship dock uses the latest Thunderbolt 5 protocol to provide a one-cable solution to expanding your system with lots of ports and power. At present only Macs with M4 Pro, M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips have Thunderbolt 5; the Prime Docking Station works with version 4 as well as USB-C (though not Thunderbolt 3 laptops), but its speeds will be limited. It’s a similar…

› £153.99 › FROM keychron.uk › FEATURES Metal and wood frame, Gateron double-rail magnetic switches with adjustable actuation points, 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 5.2, connects with up to three devices available in Nordic, UK and German layouts As soon as you take it out of the box, you can tell the Keychron K2 HE is a quality product Not everyone favours Apple’s low-profile keyboards. Some prefer old-school models with meaty keys and plenty of bounce. Keychron’s K2 HE, financed by a Kickstarter campaign and now available on general sale, offers the same quality and precision as an Apple device but in a beautiful large-key form factor. Three versions are available; Standard (black only), Special Edition (black or white) and the model we’re reviewing here, the Special Edition ISO (black only, but…

› £475 › FROM eizovisualsolutions.com › FEATURES 23.8in IPS screen, 1920x1080 resolution @93ppi, 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 5ms response time, 3x USB-C ports, 6W power consumption The monitor is clamped to the edge of a desk instead of freestanding on a base This is definitely one for the environmentalists. Not only is the EIZO FlexScan FLT’s casing made from 95% recycled plastic, but it has a typical power consumption of just 6W. That’s less than a typical energy-saving light bulb. It requires so little power, you can run it from your Mac via USB-C instead of plugging it into the mains. Of course, if you do plug it into the mains it charges a connected notebook Mac. Unfortunately, USB-C is your only connectivity option. The FlexScan FLT has three USB-C ports…

› £19.99 › FROM nomada.studio › NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later Neva is unceasingly stunning, with light and colour infusing every area in striking ways Neva is the latest game from GRIS developer Nomada Studio, so it’s got big shoes to fill. And while it’s an excellent entry with a lot to like, it comes with some frustrations. This is a game wrapped in mystery, with most of the story told visually. After an early traumatic event, your character is bonded inexorably to a wolf companion named Neva. The dark forces that led you two together are corrupting the world you inhabit, and it’s your job to eliminate them with the occasional help of your wolf friend. And what a gorgeous world it is. Neva is unceasingly stunning, almost painfully…

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June unveiled incredible new versions of its operating systems for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and Vision Pro, with most featuring a brand new look, and an exciting array of forthcoming features. Apple will be hoping that the updates, available as public betas in July, will draw a line under the missteps and disappointments that have occurred in the last year over Apple Intelligence. While Apple’s artificial intelligence (AI) system is still making its presence felt, it’s doing so in far more subtle way than before, with more emphasis on what Apple Intelligence will enable you to do across your devices rather than on ground-breaking features (cough, Siri, cough) that never actually made their way into the hands of users. AI wasn’t…

Where to start with iOS 26? Apple’s iPhone operating system received one of the largest updates at a jam-packed WWDC, and it could be the most significant software change in recent years. Before we dive into the features, there’s a new name to contend with. Out is iOS 19, replaced by a year-based naming scheme, with iOS 26 being the first entry. This should make it easier to remember when a particular version was released, and now that macOS is following suit, there will no longer be a mismatch between the two systems. Like when Apple renamed OS X to macOS, the intention is to ensure consistency across Apple’s platforms. But what are you getting in terms of new features? Well, the big one is an all-new Liquid Glass interface…

Whether for work or catching up with family, video calls are an increasingly important part of our lives these days. With Boom (getboom.app) at your disposal, you can always look your best, no matter the circumstances. This app adds powerful controls to help you adjust your image to perfection, with tweaks for lighting, focus, framing and more. You can highlight and magnify your pointer, automatically mute notifications from other applications, share your screen with a shortcut, and much more. There are options to add all sorts of helpful overlays, from meeting timers and progress bars to your name, role and location, which can provide useful information for other call participants. There are built-in reactions (such as GIFs and stickers), plus it works with whichever video app you choose to use.…

Your iPhone is a convenient one-stop shop for photography. When you snap shots using the Camera app, they are stored on your iPhone and can be easily viewed in the Photos app. You can organise, edit, and share your shots in Photos on iOS, so in theory you don’t need to export your shots to a Mac. However, by storing full-size, high-quality shots on your iPhone, you’ll eventually run out of storage space and be forced to endure the time-consuming slog of deleting old images to make space for new ones. By editing on an iPhone’s small screen, you may not spot problems with focus, or notice the presence of picture noise that will be more evident in print. If your iPhone is lost or stolen, then you could lose…

Subscribe online… www.magazinesdirect.com/mac/DH44A Or call 0330 333 1113 and quote ‘DH44A’ Great reasons to subscribe • NEW! Digital access to 130+ issues when you subscribe to print!** • Enjoy the MacFormat print edition for just £21.09 every six months! • Or enjoy six months of MacFormat digital edition for just £16.87! • Delivered direct to your door and device • For more than 25 years, we’ve been helping Apple fans get the most from their kit Keep your subscription rolling today! Terms and conditions: Offer closes 15 July 2025. Please allow up to six weeks for the delivery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas). The full subscription rate includes postage and packaging. *Savings are based on the print cover price. Payment is non-refundable after the 14-day…

Your Mac’s keyboard is a clever thing, but sometimes it’s not apparent how to type certain accented letters, special characters or emoji. If you invest some time now to learn how to quickly access them, you will save a lot of head scratching later. As with most things on a Mac, there are multiple ways of accessing and adding these characters. Once you’ve learnt them, they’ll become second nature. Here, we’ll show you the best ways to go about it, starting with how to access mini menus for accented characters while you are typing. We’ll also cover how to access the Keyboard Viewer which displays a layout of your keyboard to help you find special characters. In addition, by using the Character Viewer tool, you can access a vast range…

Tof podcast distributors that you can upload your episodes to. Apple helpfully links to them here here are plenty – podcasters.apple.com/partner-search. These will distribute your episodes to key podcast platforms (also known as podcast hosts); many will also create text transcripts, enable you to schedule new episodes and add advertising. Some, such as Buzzsprout (buzzsprout.com), offer helpful guides on everything from uploading to designing cover art. Most third-party podcast platforms charge money, albeit not too much. The aforementioned Buzzsprout is free for up to two hours of audio per month, rising to $12/month (about £10) for three hours and double that for six. Many podcasters give the main podcast for free, then offer extra content via a paid subscription One of the benefits of using a third-party such as Buzzsprout, or…

IN PRINT ISSUE 418 JULY 2025 › iCloud superguide – 108 tips & tricks › 27 must-have travel gadgets › 20 essential Mac utilities › 6 best outdoor speakers ISSUE 417 JUNE 2025 › Take brilliant iPhone photos! › On test: Mac Studio & iPad Air (2025) › Do more in Pages, Numbers & Keynote › 6 of the best art apps for iPad ON iPAD & iPHONE ISSUE 416 MAY 2025 › 85 amazing Mac hacks revealed! › On test: MacBook Air & iPhone 16e › NEW! Mac Studio & iPad Air › 6 backup drives reviewed and rated To order back issues of the print magazine, go to bit.ly/macformat_backissues or phone +44 (0)330 333 1113 and we’ll post them out to you. Download back issues onto your iOS…

› Free › FROM dangerapompei.ch/en › NEEDS iOS 13 or later As you progress, you unlock visions of disaster that portend the volcanic eruption Danger in Pompeii is framed as an educational game, but that undersells it. This is not just a title for kids and history buffs – although they’ll surely enjoy it – but it is afflicted with a little unevenness. The game puts you in charge of a young child from a wealthy family on the day Vesuvius erupts. You’re tasked with helping your family, before branching out into the city of Pompeii and assisting its citizens in their daily lives. As you progress, you unlock visions of disaster that portend the volcanic eruption and provide clues to prevent tragedy befalling your loved ones. You can visit…

› £79 › FROM ifi-audio.com › FEATURES 3.5mm and 4.4mm headphone connectors, high-res audio up to 32-bit/384KHz; 14.5g Two separate Sabre ES9219 DAC chips handle the left and right audio channels The Zen Blue DAC that we reviewed from iFi in #MF418 was a high-end desktop DAC that was absolutely loaded with features for both wired and wireless audio systems. In contrast, its new GO link Max, is a much more straightforward option for people who just want to boost the audio quality using wired headphones on their Mac or mobile devices. The GO link Max, costs just £79, so it’s a very affordable audio upgrade. It’s also one of the most portable DACs we’ve seen, consisting of little more than a cable with a USB-C connector on one end…

› £999.99 › FROM benq.eu › FEATURES 27-inch LED-backlit IPS display, 5K resolution (5120x2880 @218 pixels per inch), 400 nits brightness, 2000:1 contrast ratio, 98% DCI-P3 colour, 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports (1x with 90W PD), 1x HDMI 2.1 port, 1x DisplayPort 1.2 When it comes to features, it’s difficult to know where to start with this 27-inch, 5K resolution designer’s monitor. It has 218 pixels per inch for crystal clear images; for connectivity, there’s a Thunderbolt 4 port (90W), one HDMI 2.1 port and a DisplayPort, and at the base of the screen is a USB hub with three USB-A ports and a USB-C port. If you want a dual-monitor setup, you can daisy chain two 5K screens, assuming your Mac meets the specs. BenQ claims it’s the first 5K…

iMac › From £1,299 › In October 2024, Apple updated its 24in iMac with the M4 chip, and the iMac now has the wonders of Apple Intelligence built in. You can choose between an 8-core CPU/8-core GPU at entry-level, or an 10-core CPU/10-core GPU on the mid-range and top-tier versions. The entry model now comes with 16GB of memory as standard, configurable to 24GB; the mid - and top-tier versions are configurable to 24 or 32GB (32GB only available with 512GB or more of storage). The solid-state drive (SSD) storage starts at 256GB on entry-level and mid-range versions, and 512GB on the top-tier iMac, although you can add up to 1TB on the entry-level model and up to 2TB on mid-range and top-tier models. You still get a 4.5K (4480x2520)…