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Issue 369 October 2021 macformat.com @macformat

Boost your battery life! > Get hours more power Beats Studio Buds on test >Apple’s affordable

on ALL your devices

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Win! >Awesome Mac utilities, prizes worth

AirPods alternative

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NEWS SPECIAL

Get started with iMovie >Easily edit your

App>Howprivacy safe is your

New reviews > Logitech Combo Touch

Master the Files app >Time-saving tips

iPhone data?

home videos

> Nanoleaf smart lights > Best web browsers

Mac

iPad

and tricks for iPad

iPhone

Watch

iCloud

Music

Photos

Our Macs are brilliant: fast, easy to use, powerful, and they “just work”… until you suddenly find they don’t. Luckily, this month’s lead feature (p20) is here to help you unleash your inner Apple Genius and fix those annoying problems that crop up from time to time – from apps that don’t play nicely to networking issues to the dreaded flashing question mark folder at startup. Over 13 pages, you’ll discover the tips, tricks and techniques that can help bring your Mac back to its full just-working glory.

Turn to p62 and you’ll find an in-depth guide to another modern problem – how to eke out more battery life from your devices, whether it’s a MacBook, an iPhone, an iPad or an Apple Watch. We’ll help you identify power hogs and tame unruly apps and processes, plus we recommend some add-on battery packs and chargers that can help you get hours more power for your work, rest and play.

Talking of play, on p71 you’ll discover how to get started and do fun stuff with Apple’s iMovie – the video editor for the rest of us. Plus we have the usual array of Genius tips and how-tos to help you make the most of all your devices, as well as reviews of the latest hardware and software.

Enjoy the issue – and don’t forget, you can contact us at letters@macformat.com. We love to hear from you!

Meet the team

ROB MEAD-GREEN EDITOR editor@macformat.com

macformatuk.tumblr.com

facebook.com/macformat

Jo Membery Operations Editor

After months of working from home, Jo is marking our “return to the office” by taking an extended summer break. All the more doughnuts for us!

Paul Blachford

Art Editor

When Paul’s not designing MacFormat pages, he creates exquisite renders of dream Apple products for our sister site, TechRadar.

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Issue 369 October 2021 macformat.com

Become an LEGAL WOES 06 APPLE’S From stricter regulation to

patent infringement

APPLE CORE 6 RUMOUR & NEWS

>Fix your Mac fast with our in-depth guide

The latest updates from Cupertino and beyond

9 APPS & GAMES

Our top picks of the month for Mac and iOS

10 CRAVE

The hot new kit we’re lusting after

12 FACTS & FIGURES

Apple’s environmental credentials in numbers

13 LETTERS

Have your say on all things Apple related

14 OPINION

On the overcrowding of our simple Lock screen

16 MACFORMAT INVESTIGATES Apple’s recent App Store privacy updates

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Issue 369 CONTENTS 40 Crop pics smarter

FEATURE>

62

BOOST YOUR BATTERY Tips and tricks to keep

your Apple kit juiced up

APPLE SKILLS Create a copy with Carbon Copy Cloner

40 CROP PICS SMARTER

Improve composition with Pixelmator Pro

42 SCREEN TIME ON MAC

Use Apple’s macOS tool to help stay focused

44 PUT YOUR MUSIC ONLINE Share and sell your tracks on the web

Make room for an update on your iOS device

48 GET DIRECTIONS ANYWHERE

Find and be found with the what3words app

50 MASTER DRAG AND DROP Move files with ease on your iPad now

52 PLAN YOUR DAY ON iOS

71

BACK TO BASICS Create your own blockbuster in Apple’s iMovie

Get on top of your tasks with Hour Blocks

54 HOW IT WORKS

Lossless audio on Apple Music

GENIUS TIPS 56

Howard Oakley solves all your Mac hardware, software and iOS and iPadOS issues

78

REVIEW

Beats Studio Buds HARDWARE 78 Beats Studio Buds 80 Nanoleaf Elements Starter Kit 81 Moshi Flekto Apple Watch charger, WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive 1TB 82 Vissles V84 (2.0) Mechanical Keyboard 83 Moft Z Stand, Logitech Combo Touch for iPad Pro 12.9-inch 84 Round-up: USB-C docks

38 MAKE A COPY OF YOUR MAC

46 FREE UP STORAGE SPACE

APPLE CHOI

SOFTWARE 86 Group test: Secure web browsers 92 Squash 3.0 93 Planny 5 – Daily To Do Planner, Filmage Converter – ConvertVideo 94 RipX DeepRemix 95 OnMail – Fast & Simple Email 96 6 apps made amazing by a great Watch companion app

96

6 APPS

76

BACK ISSUES

Head here if you’ve missed an issue

Six great Watch apps 98 STORE GUIDE

Get help with picking accessories and apps to go with your Apple kit

105 NEXT MONTH

What’s coming in MF370 on 21 September

106 RANDOM APPLE MEMORY A look back at Aldus PageMaker

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 5

What’s inside 6–8 RUMOUR & NEWS The latest updates from Cupertino and beyond

9 APPS & GAMES

EDITED BY ROB MEAD-GREEN

Our top picks of the month for Mac and iOS

10 CRAVE

The hot new gear we’re lusting after

Apple has threatened to pull out of the UK, but there’s almost no chance it actually will.

12 FACTS & FIGURES

Apple and the environment

13 LETTERS

Have your say on all things Apple related

14 OPINION

On whether the Lock Screen's becoming too complicated

16 MACFORMAT INVESTIGATES Apple’s new app privacy policies

Contact us Email your queries to letters@macformat.com Join the conversation at facebook.com/macformat or on Twitter @macformat

Apple facing more legal headaches The company threatens to leave the UK in response HOT TOPIC!

O

ver the past year, Apple’s business practices have come under scrutiny from governments across the world that believe the Cupertino giant is too large and potentially abusing its powerful position.

The UK government has not been absent from these intrigues, and has been mulling actions to exert more control over Apple and other ‘Big Tech’ firms.

One of the government’s latest moves is its mooted introduction of the Digital Markets Unit, or DMU, which will operate under the Competition and Markets Authority. This unit will be able to assign companies ‘Strategic Market Status’, which means they will need

6 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

to follow “new rules of acceptable behaviour with competitors and customers in a move that will benefit the public and drive growth and innovation across the economy.”

The designation will be applied to companies that have “substantial and entrenched market power” and is designed to prevent them from abusing their positions to stifle competition and their rivals, according to the UK government.

At the time of writing, the proposed new powers, including details of the code of conduct affected companies would need to abide by, were undergoing consultation. Some of the new rules could include “tech platforms not

Apple launches MagSafe Battery Pack

R

umours that Apple has been working on iPhone reverse charging finally bore fruit when the company released its £99 MagSafe Battery Pack. This small puck magnetically clips to the back of an iPhone and offers up to 5W of wireless power for your phone when attached. If the Battery Pack is connected to a 20W charger or higher over Lightning and clipped onto your iPhone, it can charge your phone at 15W. Interestingly, its own internal battery can be restored by your iPhone. When the two devices are attached, you can plug in pushing their customers into using default or mandatory associated services, or ensuring third-party companies that depend on them aren’t blocked from doing business with competitors.”

And in other issues…

While the DMU does not mention Apple by name, its stated target of large tech firms puts Tim Cook and friends firmly in the crosshairs. Unfortunately for Apple, it is hardly the only legal jeopardy the company has faced recently.

Earlier in 2021, there was the lawsuit with Epic Games, where Apple was accused of running its App Store as a monopoly. And throughout the year, lawmakers around the world have been investigating whether Apple has too much power concentrated in its hands. But legal attention is not just being forced on to Apple from national

Epic Games has also challenged Apple’s restrictions regarding limiting in-app purchases to the App Store.

THE POLL WE ASKED…

Which iOS 15 feature are you most excited about?

your iPhone and it will start charging the MagSafe Battery Pack as well. This uses the iPhone 12’s reverse-charging tech, which was discovered in late 2020 but has only just been enabled by Apple. Currently, it doesn’t work with other devices (such as AirPods). The MagSafe Battery Pack has an 11.13Wh internal battery, which is similar to that of the iPhone 12. Apple has not yet said how many charges it will grant your phone, though.

New-look Safari

FaceTime improvements

Shared with You/ SharePlay

Visual Lookup + Live Text

legislatures and executive offices. The company is also being sued for patent infringement here in the UK – and has threatened to pull out of the UK entirely if it is forced to pay a fine.

The dispute concerns patents held

by Optis Cellular Technology (dubbed a ‘patent troll’ by some) that allow devices to connect to 3G and 4G networks. In June 2021, a judge ruled that Apple had infringed these patents by refusing to pay a licence fee to Optis. The potential fine for doing so? £5 billion.

During the case in July this year, the judge asked Apple’s lawyer, “There is no evidence Apple is really going to say no [to paying the fine], is there? There is no evidence it is even remotely possible Apple will leave the UK market?”

In response, Apple’s lawyer replied, “Apple’s position is it should indeed be able to reflect on the terms and decide whether commercially it is right to accept them or to leave the [UK] market. There may be terms that are set by the court which are just commercially unacceptable.”

Apple is highly unlikely to follow through on this threat. But it is a warning uttered by many large companies around the world, from Facebook to Google to Amazon, in an attempt to get their way when they are accused of breaking the law, infringing patents, or are faced with higher taxes.

Ironically, it might actually strengthen the notion that Apple is too powerful.

iPad mini set for huge redesign

34.5%

24.2%

24.1%

17.2%

Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat

> This year, the iPad mini could get an all-screen makeover that brings it closer to the iPad Air. A new report from 9to5Mac has now claimed to reveal more details about the tablet.

Citing “sources familiar with the matter”, the outlet says the new iPad mini will feature Apple’s upcoming A15 chip, a USB-C port, and a magnetic Smart Connector.

Paired with the removal of the Home button, this could be the largest iPad mini overhaul ever.

The A15 chip will be the same as that in this year’s new iPhones.

By equipping it with a USB-C port and Smart Connector, meanwhile, Apple could pair the iPad mini with more accessories.

The iPad mini could get its most wideranging redesign ever this year.

The Pegasus spyware can access an iPhone’s camera and run completely undetected by the victim.

APPLE NEWS ROUNDUP BUY NOW, PAY LATER

APPLE PAY LATER SERVICE IN WORKS

> Currently, Apple Pay only lets you pay for purchases up front.

According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple could soon debut a ‘buy now, pay later’ scheme as well.

Apparently called Apple Pay Later, the service will offer four interestfree instalments taken every fortnight, or instalments with interest paid over several months. If you want, you will be able to pay off the remaining balance early, too.

UNDERSCREEN ID PATENT

COULD ELIMINATE THE NOTCH

> A recent Apple patent suggests that Touch ID might make some kind of comeback, and it could result in the iPhone’s notch being hidden as well.

The patent concerns building sensors under a device’s display that could receive light or transmit it, potentially having uses for both Touch ID and Face ID. And because the patent says the sensors could be translucent and configured to display anything, that could eliminate the notch.

Spyware targets iPhone users Apple’s security measures are apparently no match for Pegasus A

pple often touts the security benefits of its products, but a new report from Amnesty International has highlighted an alarming vulnerability that allows hackers access to an iPhone without the user doing anything or even being aware of their presence.

According to the report, iPhones belonging to journalists and human rights lawyers have been found to contain spyware called Pegasus made by NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance company. Pegasus allows access to a device’s messages, emails, microphone and camera.

Worryingly, these attacks appeared to be successful even on fully patched and updated

iPhones, and some attacks managed to inject spyware without any user interaction (like tapping an infected link). The report was partly based on a leaked database of 50,000 phone numbers, which included those of a former French environment minister and the former prime minister of Belgium, among others.

Although NSO Group says its software is only used to “investigate terrorism and crime”, the presence of its spyware on the devices of journalists and other public figures suggests this may not be true.

As always, keep your devices up to date and be sure to install security patches as soon as they are released.

iPhone 13 and iPhone SE rumours Apple’s affordable phone to get A15 chip and 5G support S

ome Apple products come with small features that have an impressive, outsized impact when you use them.

The Apple Watch’s always-on display is one such feature, and it looks like Apple might bring similar tech to the iPhone 13 when it launches this year.

In an edition of his Power On newsletter, reporter Mark Gurman has claimed the next iPhone might come with an “Apple Watch-like always-on mode.” This would enable you to see some details on the screen at a lower brightness without having to fully switch on the display.

Elsewhere in the newsletter, Gurman predicted

8 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

The iPhone 13 could borrow the always-on display from Apple Watch.

the iPhone 13 would come with a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother interactions, something that has been rumoured a lot in the past year or two. He also forecast a new A15 chip, a smaller notch, and other display upgrades that would help to improve battery life.

Elsewhere, a report from Nikkei Asia has claimed Apple

will update the iPhone SE in the first half of 2022 to come with that same A15 chip and 5G support. The report also concludes the device will keep the same 4.7-inch chassis as the current iPhone SE, which suggests the Home button isn’t going anywhere. We will likely have to wait a little longer for a Face ID-enabled iPhone SE.

Apps & games APPLE CORE

Media Picks

APP OF THE MONTH

What you should be playing and reading this month

EverWeb 3.5From $79.95 (about £58) Making websites shouldn’t be complicated; EverWeb ensures it’s not [MAC APP]

Designing a website and managing its code can seem like a daunting task. But recent years have seen a spate of drag-anddrop apps like EverWeb that make web design far more accessible no matter your experience.

EverWeb 3.5 brings a host of new features, and its creator describes it as one of the app’s biggest-ever updates. As well as natively running on Apple’s M1 Macs, EverWeb 3.5 has

seen significant speed improvements across the board, plus better SEO tools, and more.

The biggest new feature is the ability to add a built-in search bar, helping your visitors to find things on your website. The search bar comes in three types and each can be customised to match your site layout.

Whether you’re a seasoned web designer or just looking to get started, EverWeb could be what you need in your app library.

[A L B U M]

Screen Violence

Chvrches £8.99

After living through screens for so long – on video calls or watching the news – synth pop band Chvrches’ album reflects on violence, fear, and escapism.

[AUDIOBO OK]

Way of the Argosi Sebastien de Castell £7.99

[iOS APP]

Headlines – News & Widgets FREE (IAPs)

Few feed readers are as well thought out as Headlines.

This newsreader is super simple to get started with and has a host of beautifully designed widgets for your Home screen. Upgrade to the paid version and you get tags, filters, translation, and unlimited feeds.

Why you need it: Catch up on the news that matters.

Image credits: Rage Software, Chvrches/Virgin EMI, Bonnier Publishing Fiction, Luca Meghnagi, Turborilla, Bit Fry Game Studios Inc

[iOS GAME]

Mad Skills Motocross 3

[MAC GAME]

Mad Skills Motocross 3 bills itself as simple to learn but full of depth to satisfy demanding gamers.

There are hundreds of tracks to race across, multiplayer events to compete in, and new bikes and gear to unlock.

With tricks, jumps, and immersive physics, it will put your skills to the test.

Why you need it: Great fun on the small screen.

£4.99/month (Apple Arcade)

FREE (IAPs)

Ferius Parfax seeks revenge, but she soon learns that sometimes trickery is better than outright strength. A fantasy adventure for fans of Terry Pratchett.

Ultimate Rivals: The Court

This game combines teambuilding with over-the-top sports action.

Pick three famous athletes, then put them together to achieve victory on the basketball court. Ever wanted to see Wayne Gretzky score a lightning-powered slam dunk?

Now is your chance.

Why you need it: Silly action meets tactical squad-building.

[PODCAST]

A Thorough Examination

Dr Xand is addicted to unhealthy food, but how can he quit? Follow him and his brother Dr Chris as they consult experts about bad fodder.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 9

Crave

APPLE CORE Hot new kit

THE GEAR WE’RE LUSTING AFTER

1

Saint Laurent x Bang & Olufsen Beosound Edge > £5,225 > ysl.com > Some speakers are not just there to be heard — they’re there to be seen as well. The Beosound Edge speaker from Bang & Olufsen and Yves Saint Laurent is one such device, with its marble-print front face looking like it was hewn straight from an opulent mansion on the sunny French Riviera.

It’s the latest of many collaborations between the two firms, following a series of equally

extravagant speakers, headphones and charging mats. The Edge speaker hooks up to an iPhone or iPad (gold-plated only, please) thanks to its built–in AirPlay, but you’re probably not too fussed about that. After all, you’re here to gawp at this marvel of modern money rainmaking. We don’t blame you. We’re doing the exact same thing.

2

Leica M10–R Black Paint Finish > £7,500 > uk.leica-camera.com > The black, silver, and red-dot look of the Leica M10 camera is iconic, and you instantly know what you’re looking at when you see it in the flesh. With this new edition, though, Leica is trying something new, cladding the silver elements in a new gloss black outfit, and omitting the trademark red dot entirely. The result is a limited edition comprising just 2,000 units worldwide, and a new take on an absolute classic.

10 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

The performance of the M10-R Black edition is exactly the same as its Silver Chrome counterpart – the same 40MP resolution, the same ISO 10050,000 range, the same everything – so if you want to save yourself some cash, you can opt for that traditional model for a mere, erm, £7,200. Time to start adding those spare coins to the money jar, and eventually you’ll have the gear to help you capture that perfect shot.

Image credit: Yves Saint Laurent/Bang & Olufsen, Leica Camera AG

Top gear APPLE CORE 3

Urbanista Los Angeles > £169 > urbanista.com > Think you’ve got being green down because of your fortnightly recycling? Think again. These self-charging wireless headphones are true eco warriors.

Powerfoyle solar cell material converts both outdoor and indoor light into energy to power the headphones. But the green credentials

don’t mean that the cans are lacking in other tech areas. You get Hybrid Active Noise Cancelling, Ambient Sound Mode, Bluetooth 5.0, and Siri and Google Voice Assistant support. But, more importantly, thanks to the clever, environmentally friendly charging, you get virtually infinite playtime with an 80-hour battery reserve.

4

Monogram Creative Console > From $399 (about £290) > monogramcc.com > Monogram’s Creative Console series is designed to help you do your creative and editing work more easily and more efficiently. It might also make you feel you’re at the control deck on the Starship Enterprise. If that helps with your work, then godspeed.

Each console comprises various modules, each with a sole purpose —

there are sliders, dials, buttons, and more. Modules snap together magnetically, meaning you can arrange them however you prefer.

Each can be configured to control a range of apps, with native support for the Adobe Creative Suite, Unreal Engine, and Capture One Pro. You can use it to control almost any app through universal controls, too.

5

Dusk sunglasses > From $269 (about £195, pre–order price) > indiegogo.com > How many times have you been wearing glasses and had to switch to shades as the light changed? Dusk is an attempt to eliminate that problem — it’s a handy pair of electrochromic sunglasses that adjust their polarized lens tint through a companion app, shielding your eyes from the sun and adding a dose of cool in one fell swoop.

Image credits: Urbanista, Monogram, Ampere

They’re more than just that, though. Dusk’s arms contain tiny speakers and mics so you can listen to music on the go, take calls, or summon Siri. Lost a pair? You can track them down with the companion app or use the AirTag slot in Dusk’s case, which also charges the shades. While we wait for Apple Glass, Dusk could be perfect for scratching your eyewear itch.

OCTOBER 2021 MACFORMAT | 11

APPLE CORE Facts & Figures

Apple and the environment Sustainability has been a key focus for Apple for some time, as this numerical rundown reveals…

Amount of electricity that can be stored at Apple’s California Flats energy storage project, which uses batteries to support the 130-megawatt solar farm there.

Total reduction in Apple’s energy use in 2020, saving 4,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Number of iPhones that Apple’s Daisy can recycle per hour. The disassembly robot was joined in 2020 by Dave. Between them they’re responsible for recovering thousands of tons of recyclable materials a year.

Total number of devices refurbished by Apple in 2020, giving new life to older devices.

Proportion of Apple-created projects that use long-term renewable energy contracts.

Apple’s total CO2 emissions in 2020 – that’s 15.8 million tons less than the company used in 2015.

34%

Date by which Apple hopes to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

12 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

Reduction in the amount of energy needed to power a Mac mini after Apple switched from Intel to Apple silicon processors.

Amount Apple has invested in its Restore Fund, which aims to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

100%

Amount of recycled aluminium used in the enclosures of the MacBook Air and Mac mini as well as the iPad, iPad Air, iPad Pro and Apple Watch.

Get in touch CONTACTS Contact us

Have your say on all things Apple!

Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com

LETTER OF THE MONTH! RIGHT TO REPAIR

I have recently listened to Dare To Repair on BBC Radio 4. Apple was mentioned several times as being one of the principal culprits in restricting customers getting electronics repaired. It is not alone in using planned obsolescence, [but] it seems to be taking it to a greater level with each new update to its kit. You used to be able to replace memory or upgrade it yourself on a Mac mini, for instance, but now you are stuck with whatever is there when you open the box. Apple makes it virtually impossible for you or a third party to replace a phone battery or screen. Nearly all components are soldered or glued in place. The programme said Apple won’t repair kit that is over five years old. To give Apple its due, it does release security updates for five years on phones where many cheaper Android phones lose support after two years.

There is talk of legislation giving consumers the right to repair of appliances and electronics but most manufacturers are swimming in the opposite direction. In France it’s illegal to design in obsolescence.

We are using up the Earth’s resources at an unsustainable rate so we must make items last longer and be recyclable. So come on, Apple, a policy rethink is required. Make your excellently designed kit repairable at the expense of a slightly reduced profit, there is plenty of headroom there.

n LETTER OF THE MONTH Win an AirFly Pro! The author of our Letter of the Month receives a prize! Email us for your chance to win an AirFly Pro – the wireless headphone Bluetooth transmitter, perfect for use with Apple’s AirPods and AirPods Pro. Find out more at twelvesouth.com.

BY TIM GRUNDEY

WHITHER WHAT3WORDS?

Mountain Rescue Teams do not recommend the use of the what3words app (MF368, p97). Instead, they recommend using the OS Locate app, which is free on the App Store and gives a six-figure Ordnance Survey National Grid reference.

For examples of the limitations of what3words, see mountain.rescue.org. uk/2020/08/wherefore-what3words.

BY RAY HORNER

iPHONE VS PACEMAKER

Following last month’s query about use of an iPhone 12 by someone’s who’s been fitted with a heart pacemaker (Letter, MF368), we sought additional advice from the British Heart Foundation, as initial reports from the US seemed contradictory. The British Heart Foundation sent us the following statement:

With magnets used in some Apple products, the company has had to highlight potential issues with medical devices.

“It’s okay to have a smartphone when you have a pacemaker, though care should be taken in case they contain magnetic material. It’s recommended that smartphones are kept at least six inches away from where your device is.

“Apple iPhone 12 models, including other products like iPads, contain extra magnets in their charging functions that could turn off pacemakers. Apple advises that you keep these products and their charging accessories more than six inches away from your device, or more than 12 inches away if charging wirelessly (when the magnets are in use).

“Don’t worry too much if your phone gets too close to your pacemaker, as they’re designed to return to their normal settings once the magnet is moved away.

“If you’re unsure about your phone for any reason, we recommend you check its handbook/instructions or talk to the manufacturer. You could also contact your doctor or pacing clinic if you have concerns about your device.

“Anything that gives a strong electromagnetic field like an induction hob, can interfere with a pacemaker. If you have an induction hob keep a distance of at least 60cm (2ft) between the stove top and your pacemaker. If this is a problem, you may want to consider replacing the appliance with something else.”

The BHF’s advice can also be found here: bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/treatments/ pacemakers. Apple’s advice on iPhone 12 use is here: bit.ly/mac368magmed.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 13

APPLE CORE Opinion

MATT BOLTON… IS WORRIED THAT THE LOCK

SCREEN IS BECOMING TOO COMPLICATED WITH ALL THE DIFFERENT MODES IT NOW HAS

T

his morning, I picked up my phone for the first time today, and went to turn off Sleep mode… and I couldn’t remember how. The process had just sort of slipped from me. I tapped the alarm button that appears when Sleep mode is on, but that just takes you to the alarms screen. I ended up using my Watch to turn it off instead, because I know 100% where to find it on there.

I mention this not because I want some free advice about memory deterioration (or do I? Perhaps it just slipped my mind), but because it struck me that despite being a very simple design overall, the Lock screen on iOS can be surprisingly complicated, and iOS 15 is only going to make it more so when it adds Focus Modes and Morning Summary.

The problem is not these ideas, all of which I really like the sound of, but that they increasingly have the effect of making the Lock screen weirdly unknowable.

What was once a plain list of notifications, mostly in chronological order, from which you could always easily unlock and open the phone, is now an area which doesn’t always behave in the same way. With Do Not Disturb on, you don’t see most of your notifications. In Sleep mode, that’s again true, but also it doesn’t unlock as easily any more. And now in Focus Modes, it will show only limited notifications depending on what choices you’ve made, though this can actually be overridden by certain notifications. And the new Morning Summary can show notifications in a block that’s supposed to make them easier to digest (and to ignore ones that don’t matter so much).

How you change or end these modes differs, and they can be automatic or not.

The Lock screen has gone from being entirely predictable to feeling like it’s in a shifting quantum state, taking on a different form depending on the state you observe it in.

As mentioned, I actually think all these modes are pretty good ideas and I’m honestly not sure that the summary feature will make things less overwhelming aim to solve real annoyances that people have with phones nowadays. I’m – there’s a lot going on in this small space.

These ideas have the effect of making the Lock screen weirdly unknowable

14 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

Even if you think I’m mad for feeling concerned about this, is this screen definitely less confusing?

just worried that the sum of all these changes might be more confusion, not less. I hope it doesn’t turn out like Father Ted attempting to knock out a single dent with a hammer and ending up destroying the car.

The problem (if there even is one – I’m probably just overthinking it, but in my defence, that is literally my job) is that Apple is treating the symptom, not the cause. Phones are too able to distract us; apps are freely able to request – demand, even – our attention. These new tools are like being given a range of earplugs of different sizes and materials, so that you can find the right fit to block out the distracting guy with the megaphone, but should we really be talking about the megaphone instead?

ABOUT MATT BOLTON

Matt is the editor for Apple and home tech at T3 and has been charting changes at Apple since his student days. He’s sceptical of tech industry hyperbole, but still gets warm and fuzzy on hearing “one more thing”.

PRIZES WORTH

In association with objective development

£639!

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Apple has made security and privacy a big part of its Mac appeal in recent years, but there are some things it does not touch.

The Little Snitch app, made

by Objective Development, steps up to the plate and has you covered, alerting you whenever an app on your Mac attempts to connect to the internet. With that info at your disposal, you will know exactly when your data is being sent out and where it is headed, and if there is something you’re not happy with, all you have to do is block the app and your data

HOW TO ENTER…

stays safe. This issue, 10 lucky winners will each win a single licence for Little Snitch, helping protect them from unwanted data leaks.

We are also including 10 single licences for Objective Development’s LaunchBar, an app that works like Spotlight if it was taken up a level.

Press ç+[spacebar] and you get LaunchBar’s app launcher and document browser, just like Spotlight.

But LaunchBar does so much more than Apple’s offering. You can manage your events and reminders, copy and rename files, set custom indexing rules,

> To enter, you can visit our website at bit.ly/MFobdev (web address is case sensitive). > For full terms and conditions, go to bit.ly/MFobdev. By sending your entry, you agree to these competition rules and confirm you’re happy to receive details of future offers and promotions from Future Publishing Limited and carefully selected third parties, if you have given us permission to do so on the entry form. > This competition closes on 20 September 2021. Over 18, GB residents only. > Competition winners will be contacted by Future Publishing for the purpose of providing prizes.

and choose from several beautiful themes. You can even take it further with extensions that add a host of new features and functions. It’s a great utility that will fast become an essential addition to your Mac arsenal.

>ToTHE QUESTION be in with a chance of winning one of 10 Objective Development app bundles for your Mac, just answer this question:

What familiar keyboard shortcut is used to start LaunchBar? A) ≈+K B) å+∫ C) ç+[spacebar] > For more information about Little Snitch, LaunchBar, and Objective Development’s other products for your Mac, head to the company’s website at obdev.at.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 15

For our latest subscription offer see page 34!

INVESTIGATES

Apple’s passion for privacy We explore how recent privacy updates to the App Store are part of a long-term commitment that is fundamental to the company

WRITTEN BY CHARLOTTE HENRY pple, you may have noticed, cares about your privacy. This fact has got plenty of attention in recent times, not least because the company has brought it up at almost every possible opportunity. In reality though, it’s always been one of its key principles. Speaking at a conference in 2010, Steve Jobs declared, “we take privacy extremely seriously,” giving the example of Apple’s concerns about location tracking, and the potential stalking risk that could pose. To counter this, Apple forced apps to put up an alert to let users know what was happening.

In the more than a decade that has passed since, Apple has continued to make significant privacy updates and interventions. Not surprisingly, many of these centre around apps and the App Store. Two major changes over the last year really caught people’s attention – privacy ‘nutrition labels’ for apps and

A

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App Tracking Transparency. The latter is more significant, and more controversial, so let’s start there…

Just what is it?

Put simply, App Tracking Transparency means that users must give their explicit permission to all apps that wish to use the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA) – a unique identifier assigned to each iOS device that helps create a profile of a user. Such data can be used for displaying targeted adverts, sharing location data or email addresses with data brokers, or using third-party tools to combine one app with another to target adverts and measure their efficiency, among other things.

From iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5 and tvOS 14.5 onwards, as soon as you load an app for the first time, you are asked whether or not you want it “to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites”.

Unlike with websites, there’s no fiddling around with different settings.

The options offered are simply ‘Ask App not to Track’ and ‘Allow’. Tapping ‘Ask App not to Track’ means that it no longer follows a device’s IDFA and cannot link what you do in that app with other activity.

App Tracking Transparency is meant to put the power into your hands.

If developers fail to implement it, they could see their apps booted out the App Store. The guidelines from Apple are very clear: “You must receive explicit permission from users via the App Tracking Transparency APIs to track their activity.”

App Tracking Transparency was announced in January 2021 and unveiled to developers in the next beta software release. Apple accompanied the announcement of its imminent arrival with a video explaining it all and an eye-opening document called

App privacy APPLE CORE

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APPLE CORE News feature

‘A Day in the Life of Your Data’ showing just how fundamental the data that could be collected is to building a profile of us all. It included another quote from Steve Jobs: “I believe people are smart and some people want to share more data than other people do.

Ask them. Ask them every time. Make them tell you to stop asking them if they get tired of your asking them. Let them know precisely what you’re going to do with their data.”

This really sums up what App Tracking Transparency is all about.

Privacy has always been a key selling point for Apple, whose recent announcements are in line with company policy over the last decade and more.

Two new privacy policies – ‘nutrition’ labels and app tracking transparency – have been rolled out to iPhones, iPads and Apple TVs.

Why is it controversial?

On the face of it, giving you more control over your data would seem to be a good thing.

However, some companies, Facebook in particular, objected to its introduction.

Facebook generates huge amounts of its revenue via advertising – more than US$84 billion in 2020. It feared that if enough people turned off tracking this would make targeting more difficult and less valuable to advertisers.

Facebook took out adverts in major American newspapers telling readers that “without personalised ads, Facebook data shows that the average small business advertiser stands to see a cut of over 60% in their sales for every dollar they spend.”

Facebook itself can cope with App Tracking Transparency, it seems. In March, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company would “be in a good position,” when the change was introduced, and so it proved. Facebook’s revenue was up 56% year-over-year in the results reported for the second quarter of 2021.

Is it working?

Given that it has only been fully available for a few months, it is probably still too early to tell what the full impact is. The Wall Street Journal reported that ad-measurement firm Branch 18 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

App privacy APPLE CORE

How do I switch it on? >

The App Store’s new privacy ‘nutrition labels’ mean that people can see what details apps will collect and how they are linked to that user’s account and identity.

Metrics found that fewer than 33% of iOS users are allowing apps to track them, while 67% are not. Furthermore, it reported that ad-measurement firm Tenjin found that advertising spend on iOS had fallen by about a third from 1 June, 2021 to 1 July, 2021, while advertising spend on Android was up 10% in the same time period. It will be worth watching to see if such trends, both in terms of user take-up and ad spend, continue.

Nutrition labels At the start of this year Apple also introduced

app privacy ‘nutrition’ labels, to give you more information and more choice. Every app in the App Store has a label on it explaining what details are being collected and how they are linked to you. Tapping these labels gives you more in-depth information too. As Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, explained at the time:

> Now you know what it is, how do you actually use App Tracking Transparency? If your phone is running an up-to-date version of iOS, it should be on by default. To check it is running go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking and make sure ‘Allow Apps to Request to Track’ is toggled on (green). With the setting on, the ‘Ask App not to Track’ dialogue box will appear when you first open an app that would like to track you. If you tap ‘Ask App not to Track’ that stays as the setting for that app whenever you use it.

It is also possible to change tracking settings for individual apps even after you have tapped on the first dialog, so you can always change your mind. In Settings, scroll down to where all the apps on a device are listed.

Tap on one to see the specific settings for that app. Many have an ‘Allow Tracking’ setting you can toggle on and off as you wish.

If you don’t toggle the Request setting on, then all app tracking requests will be denied by default.

If you’ve allowed apps to request to track you (see left), you’ll see this dialogue box when you first open the app, allowing you to give tracking permission to Facebook.

“Our goal is to create technology that keeps people’s information safe and protected.

We believe privacy is a fundamental human right, and our teams work every day to embed it in everything we make.”

There was some dispute early on about the usefulness of these labels. Washington Post journalist Geoffrey A Fowler found that some apps claiming not to share user data were in fact passing it on to Facebook and others.

The small print of the labels state: “This information has not been verified by Apple.”

It’s easy to be cynical about Apple’s privacy drive. The company generates a huge amount of money through the App Store and needs to keep justifying why developers can only distribute iPhone software through it (while Apple takes a 30% cut), and how this benefits you. There is no doubt though that user privacy is of fundamental importance to Apple customers, and the changes implemented in 2021 underline that.

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Become an

Written by

Carrie Marshall

20 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

Y

ou know the line: when you have Apple hardware, it just works. But while that’s true most of the time, sometimes it doesn’t just work. Sometimes your Wi-Fi goes weird, your system slows or your everyday app crashes.

What then?

If your Mac’s misbehaving, don’t reach for your iPhone to book that Genius appointment just yet. The majority of Mac problems are straightforward to fix, and in most cases they can be sorted in much less time than it’d take to travel to the nearest Apple Store or get a convenient appointment. It’s great that Apple Geniuses and Apple

Support are there for us, of course, but it’s also great when we can solve the problems ourselves without having to go anywhere.

Troubleshooting can be intimidating, we know, especially if you’re not particularly technical. But you don’t need to be techie to fix most Mac issues.

Whether it’s wonky Wi-Fi or unresponsive apps, a file you didn’t mean to delete or an iCloud service that simply isn’t syncing, you’ll discover the tricks, tips and tools you can use to diagnose and solve all kinds of Apple problems so that once again, you can look at your Mac and say “it just works”. Let’s uncover your inner genius.

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FEATURE Fix your Mac

Getting started What to do when you’re struggling to do anything at all

Why won’t my Mac start?

> Don’t panic: chances are it’s a minor and easily fixed issue.

Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds to ensure your Mac is turned off and then restart it while holding down ç+å+p+r. This resets the non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) that your Mac uses to store basic settings. Keep the keys pressed until you’ve heard the startup chime twice. No luck? Restart again but this time hold down ç+r. This will launch the Recovery console from which you can run Disk Utility’s First Aid feature.

My Mac crashes My Mac keeps on startup. Why? freezing. What can I do? > It’s likely to be a software problem. If your Mac contains Apple’s M1 chip, turn on your Mac and keep pressing the power button until Startup Options appears; select your startup disk, press and hold ß and click ‘Continue In Safe Mode’. On an Intel Mac, just restart or start your Mac with the ß key held down until you see the login window. If the problem persists in Safe Mode you’ll need to reinstall macOS entirely; if it doesn’t, unplug external hardware and remove login items from System Preferences > Users & Groups.

Why can’t I log in? Why is this app misbehaving? > If your login password isn’t working, restart your Mac. When you see your user account, click on the ‘?’ in the password field and then click ‘Reset It Using Your Apple ID’. You should now be able to reset your password. To change other users’ passwords, go into System Preferences > Users & Groups.

> We encounter this most frequently after software updates, whether those are for an individual app or the entire macOS: an app that worked just fine in version 1.3 is weird in 1.4. The solution to both is the same: wait for the app maker to update their app.

> Is it your whole Mac or just Finder?

If it’s the latter you can restart Finder (which includes the menu bar and your desktop) by clicking  > Force Quit > Finder > Relaunch. But if it’s your whole Mac, restart without any external hardware and see if the problem goes away: if it does, re-connect things one at a time until the problem comes back. Whatever you added most recently is likely to be the culprit, so check the manufacturer’s website for updated driver software.

Why won’t this app run?

> Some apps won’t run on Big Sur at all because they’re 32-bit: Apple stopped supporting 32-bit apps after macOS Mojave. However, other apps are blocked because your Mac blocks non-App Store apps for security reasons. You can change that setting in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General.

My Mac takes forever to log me in. Why?

> If it takes ages to log you in, have a look under your user name in System Preferences > Users & Groups. This enables you to see your login items, which are the apps and app helpers that load when you log in to your Mac – things such as cloud storage services or the little apps that live in your menu bar. The more things your Mac has to load, the longer login will take. To remove a login item, select it and then click on the ‘–’ sign. This doesn’t uninstall it; it just stops it loading at login.

Why does this app crash when running?

> Apps can crash for all kinds of reasons: with so many possible configurations of macOS, external hardware and apps it’s impossible to test every eventuality. However, apps that crash on launch may have faulty disk permissions: fix that in Disk Utility > First Aid. No luck?

Uninstall and re-install it.

Fix your Mac FEATURE

When to use Force Quit > Normally when an app becomes sluggish we quit it from within the app and then restart it. But sometimes an app just stops working. If you can’t quit in the usual way, click  > Force Quit to see a list of the apps that are currently running. If an app has “not responding” next to it, select it and click Force Quit to shut it down.

Why does my How do I sync my iPad/iPhone in Mac keep beach balling? Catalina or later?

> The spinning beach ball tells you that your Mac is struggling to do what your software is asking it to do, so it’s something you’ll occasionally see during really intensive tasks.

Use Activity Monitor (in Applications > Utilities) to see what’s putting your Mac under the most CPU load or maxing out your memory.

> With iTunes gone – and with it the traditional syncing route – syncing your devices now happens in Finder: just connect your iPad or iPhone to your Mac via USB and it should appear in the sidebar of the Finder window. If it’s your first go you’ll need to tell your Mac to trust your device. Once that’s all done, simply click on the device in the Finder sidebar to see its sync options.

HOW TO Use Activity Monitor >

1 Open the app

2 See what’s running 3 Sort it out If you go to View > Windowed Processes you can simplify what’s on screen: instead of seeing every individual process, which can be a bit intimidating, this option shows only the apps that are currently running.

Click on a column header to sort, so for example if you want to list apps alphabetically click ‘Process Name’. You can view different resources by clicking the appropriate button: CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk and Network usage.

4 Who’s the hog?

5 See everything

6 Check the kernel

Activity Monitor lets you see exactly what’s running on your Mac and what resources everything is using. To launch it, press ç+[spacebar], type ‘activity’ and then press ®. Or you can launch it from Applications > Utilities.

Look at CPU usage to see what’s driving your Mac the hardest. Here we can see that Logic Pro is using 27.3% of our CPU while it exports a project. If an apparently idle app is using lots of power, quit and restart it: if it’s Safari, close tabs.

If you’re feeling more confident, viewing All Processes enables you to see the individual processes each app is using – and in the case of Safari, each individual tab. That’s useful for spotting overly demanding websites.

One common resource hog is the kernel_task process, which sometimes maxes out your CPU for no apparent reason. A reboot is a quick fix but if the problem recurs you’ll need to reset your Mac’s System Management Controller.

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FEATURE Fix your Mac

Files and backup Find files and fix Finder

Where are my files? > Your files are stored in Macintosh HD > Users > [Your name] in various folders: Movies, Music, Pictures and so on. If you use iCloud Drive, your files and folders are in the Mobile Documents folder in your user account’s library; to locate it in Finder, follow the steps in “Where’s my Library folder?”

Why can’t I empty the Bin?

> This is usually because something in the Bin is still being used by an app (or because your Mac thinks it is, which can sometimes happen after an app crashes). Quit the app if you can and try again; if that doesn’t work, you’ll need to restart your Mac. Still no joy? Boot into Safe Mode (p26) and try once more.

Where’s my Library folder? > It’s in Macintosh HD > Users > [Your name] > Library, although you can’t see it: Apple rightly assumes that most users don’t need to go there very often, if at all. But you can go there in a couple of clicks from the Finder: in the menu bar click Go > Go To Folder, hold ß and you’ll see Library appear.

Why won’t my file open in Catalina or Mojave?

> This is most likely to happen with older video files, because Apple has stopped supporting some old file formats. Users of iMovie and Final Cut Pro were warned from early 2019 if they were using formats due to be binned when Catalina was released. You can use apps such as VLC or Handbrake to open and convert old files.

Why won’t files open in the app I want? > Certain types of files are associated with certain apps, so for example when we doubleclick a JPEG or PDF the file always opens in Preview. You can change this by holding ≈ and clicking, choosing ‘Get Info’ and selecting a different app from the menu in the Open With section.

HOW TO Troubleshoot external drives >

1 Check your screens

We’ve found that when we wake our Mac from sleep, macOS sometimes moves all our drives to the external display or doesn’t re-initialise the USB ports. Unplugging and reconnecting the USB cable(s) will fix the latter.

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2 Look at locations

The Finder sidebar includes a section headed Locations, which you may have to scroll down to see: here you’ll see any connected storage devices and your main Mac drive too. If your drive is visible here you can click and see its contents.

3 Check your desktop

If your drive is appearing in Locations but not on your desktop, go into Finder’s Preferences and look under the General tab. If the checkbox for a particular kind of drive isn’t checked, it won’t appear on your desktop.

Why can’t Spotlight or Siri find my file? > Spotlight and Siri don’t necessarily search for every kind of file: if you take a look in System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results you’ll see a big list of categories.

If a category isn’t ticked, it won’t be included in search results. You can also exclude specific folders in the Privacy tab.

Why aren’t my files in Time Machine?

> Assuming your backup drive has enough space for full backups, are the missing files in a folder that you’ve excluded from your Time Machine backups? Follow the steps right to check; if a folder shouldn’t be in the list you can remove it by selecting the folder and clicking the ‘–’ button.

Where’s my file gone?

How do I get it back?

What do I do if Time Machine is full? > If Time Machine has run out of space, you don’t necessarily need to invest in a bigger drive. You can

reduce Time Machine’s storage requirements in System Preferences > Time Machine > Options and

Why does Time Machine keep timing out?

exclude non-essential folders by adding them to the “Exclude these items from backups” list.

Why isn’t my external drive showing up in Finder?

> Check the Bin, search for its filename in Spotlight or use Recents in the Finder sidebar (or the Recents bit of the app’s File menu, if it has one). If you’ve accidentally overwritten it you can use File > Revert To or Time Machine to go back in time to find and recover a previous save.

> Antivirus software is a known offender here: if you can, exclude your backup disc from its scanning. Time Machine also deliberately goes slow when your system is under heavy load or is running out of battery and the “preparing” stage can take longer if the previous backup was interrupted.

> If it’s a Mac-formatted drive that previously worked you’re not alone: this happens to us frequently, especially when we wake our laptops from sleep. The tutorial below will help you diagnose your missing drive.

4 Scan the sidebar

5 Use Disk Utility

6 Check the format

The same applies to the Finder sidebar: it’s possible to prevent certain types of devices or locations from appearing in the sidebar. You can check that in Preferences > Sidebar and enable or disable any items you wish.

Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility can fix some drive problems: if the drive is showing in Disk Utility you can select it in the sidebar and then click on First Aid to perform a series of checks. If it finds errors it will then attempt to fix them.

A new drive might have the wrong file format: some PC formats will not work on a Mac. If the drive is formatted with one of them you can reformat it into something Mac-friendly such as MacOS Extended, but you’ll lose its data.

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FEATURE Fix your Mac

More serious problems When a restart isn’t the answer

When should I reset the NVRAM or SMC?

> NVRAM is where your Mac stores settings such as your startup disk, connected devices and so on; the System Management Controller (SMC) handles the battery, heat, the power button and the light sensor. Resetting the former can solve startup issues; resetting the latter may tame unruly processes such as kernel_task. To reset NVRAM, power on while pressing å+ç+p+r. Hold the keys until the second startup chime or screen.

SMC steps vary from Mac to Mac: check out bit.ly/apple-resetsmc for Apple’s guide.

How do I get my lost files back?

> Open the folder that used to contain the file(s) and then launch Time Machine. You can now use the arrow keys to move back in time. Select a file or folder and click Restore to bring it back. For a full restore, start in Recovery mode, reinstall macOS and restore from your Time Machine backup.

Why do I get a flashing question mark at startup? > The ? folder means your Mac can’t use your startup disk. If it’s only there for a moment, reset the NVRAM (explained in the next step). If it’s persistent, power

off your Mac and go into macOS Recovery.

Use Disk Utility to scan and fix any disk errors. Still nothing? You’ll need to reinstall macOS.

HOW TO Use Safe Mode >

1 Boot your Mac

Turn off your Mac, wait 10 seconds, then turn it on, holding down ß (Intel) or the power button (M1). On an M1 Mac, select your startup disk, hold ß and click ‘Continue In Safe Mode’. Your Mac will boot with non-essential items disabled.

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2 Look at logins

A common cause of problems is unwanted login items, which load when your Mac boots. Go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > [Your name] > Login Items and remove any you don’t want.

This disables but doesn’t delete them.

3 Find the folder

If you’re not sure what something is, right-click and choose ‘Show In Finder’.

This enables you to see where the item lives on your Mac. You might need to enable the status bar in Finder > View to see the breadcrumb trail.

Fix your Mac FEATURE

macOS Recovery Bringing Mac back

When should I reinstall macOS, and how? > Reinstalling macOS is the last resort when your other troubleshooting steps haven’t worked. Back up anything important (if possible) before you do it.

On an M-powered Mac, press and hold the power button until you see startup options; on Intel, hold down ç+r, press power and don’t let go until you see the Apple logo.

What does this error code mean? > Apple’s error messages are usually quite good at telling you what’s wrong, but some of them are just mysterious numbers that don’t really tell you anything – especially with iPhone syncing and software updates. You can look up error codes and find out how to fix them at support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203174.

How do I use macOS Recovery? > Recovery can repair disk problems or reinstall macOS. On an M-series Mac, choose  > Shut Down and press and hold the power button until you see “Loading startup options”.

Click Options > Continue. On an Intel Mac, click  > Restart and press and hold ç+R until you see the startup screen.

What do I do if I suspect a hardware failure? > There’s an app for that. Apple Diagnostics can test your Mac’s internal components. On an M-series Mac, press and hold the power button until you see the startup options; click Options and then ç+D. On an Intel Mac, start your Mac with D held down. Release it when you see the progress bar.

When should I start in Safe Mode, and how? > Safe Mode can help you identify the cause of startup, app or performance problems by running your Mac with all non-essential services switched off. On an Intel Mac, press and hold ß on startup; on an M-series Mac, press and hold the power button and hold ß once you’ve selected your startup disk.

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FEATURE Fix your Mac

Networking issues Wonky Wi-Fi and shaky Safari

How do I find shared files? > In Finder, click Network in the sidebar (under Locations) and you double-click on the computer you want to connect to. Once you’ve connected you should now see the files and folders that have been shared with you. You can add shared folders to the Finder sidebar for quick access in future.

Why am I getting an invalid security certificate warning? > Certificates are used by secure websites to prove they are who they say they are, but sometimes the certificates aren’t renewed on time or the server settings have changed since your last visit. Sometimes a Mac set to the wrong date or time can generate an error.

Why do I keep losing my Wi-Fi connection?

Why isn’t my Wi-Fi working?

> Your Mac can tell you. Hold down å and click the Wi-Fi icon in your menu bar and you’ll see lots of information and an option for Wireless Diagnostics, which can help you identify and fix common problems with your Wi-Fi. You can also enable Wi-Fi logging to track intermittent problems over time.

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> Step one is to turn off your router, wait 30 seconds and restart it. If it feels very warm or signal strength isn’t great, changing its location may prevent overheating or improve network quality: Wi-Fi doesn’t cope well with metal obstructions such as radiators or filing cabinets.

Do I need antivirus? > The short answer is no, but the longer answer is maybe. If you take security seriously, don’t download apps from dark corners of the web and never click on a suspicious email then Macs are generally more secure than PCs, but if you share your Mac with others then it might be a wise investment.

How do I share my network? > Share your internet connection with other devices by enabling Internet Sharing in System Preferences > Sharing. For example, you might choose to share from your Ethernet connection to other devices via Wi-Fi, turning your Mac into a wireless hotspot, or share your Wi-Fi with other Macs via Ethernet.

Why can’t I get online? > Most our our woes are because we’re out of Wi-Fi range, because the login has changed, because we need to reboot our router or because our Wi-Fi is fine but our broadband is down. If your phone’s handy, use it to check your broadband provider’s network status page to make sure there’s an internet to connect to.

Fix your Mac FEATURE

What does too many redirects mean? > This is a safety feature in Safari that’s activated when a web page sends you to another page, which sends you back and gets stuck in a loop. Unfortunately it can also be triggered by some Google services, which won’t work unless you disable cross-site tracking protection in Safari’s preferences.

Why can’t my app connect to the internet?

> It could be your system firewall. Click  > System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall to see if it’s switched on and, if it is, to see what traffic it’s limiting.

For example there’s a toggle that allows built-in apps – that is, Apple ones – to work but that blocks third-party ones.

When should I use a VPN?

> If you just want to protect your web browsing and you’re an iCloud subscriber, Safari will include a VPN-style feature called Private Relay in macOS Monterey.

But there are lots of third-party Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers. A VPN disguises your location and makes it hard to track or intercept your data, and it can also bypass geographical blocking. That means it’s good for protecting online privacy or for accessing content, such as YouTube video, that isn’t available in your country.

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The source for tech buying advice techradar.com

Fix your Mac FEATURE

iCloud problems Everything but the kitchen sync

Why isn’t iCloud syncing?

Why have I run out of space on iCloud?

> Check out apple.com/support/systemstatus to see if any iCloud services have problems.

Nothing? Make sure you’re logged in with the correct ID on your devices and that the specific services are turned on in their preferences. On your Mac that’s System Preferences > Apple ID.

> Unless you’re a student, your free iCloud space is a miserly 5GB – but even paid accounts can run out of room, especially if you’re backing up mobile devices. You can manage which apps use iCloud storage in System Preferences > Apple ID and delete unwanted data by clicking Manage.

I can’t access my iCloud emails. Why? > As with Photos, it could be that you’ve maxed out your storage. If you haven’t, use the iCloud system status page to check iCloud Mail is working OK. If it is, go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts, select your iCloud account and make sure it’s active and online.

Why have my photos stopped syncing? > If you run out of storage space, new photos and videos won’t upload until you free some space or buy more storage. If you have space, make sure iCloud Photos is enabled in Photos > Preferences > iCloud and toggle it off and back on on your iPhone or iPad.

How do I recover something I’ve accidentally deleted?

> Don’t panic! iCloud keeps files for 30 days after deletion, and you can get them back at any time by lo g ng into iCloud.com, clicking on Account Settings and scrolling down to Restore Files. For photos, it’s even easier: there’s a Recently Deleted folder in the sidebar.

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FEATURE Fix your Mac

Other problems Battery safety and scary failures

There’s a spinning globe on my startup screen!

My Mac just won’t switch on! > A Mac that appears to be turned off might not be: the display may be off while the Mac itself is okay. Press and hold the power button on your Mac for 10 seconds to turn the entire Mac off, and then press and release the power button like you normally would. If your Mac partially starts up and displays a no-entry symbol that means your macOS is corrupt or incompatible.

You can fix this in macOS Recovery. If that doesn’t work or your Mac didn’t get that far, it’s time to give Apple Support a call.

How do I stop my battery dying in storage? > If your Mac laptop is going to be left unused for a long period – months rather than days or weeks – you should charge it to 50% before you put it into a dry place away from temperature extremes. This is important because if your battery is flat it could go into what’s called a “deep discharge state” that won’t hold a charge any more; a fully charged battery may lose some capacity.

Apple recommends that if your Mac will be in storage for longer than six months, you should half-charge it every six months.

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> macOS Recovery has failed so your Mac is trying to do it over the internet instead. If this Recovery doesn’t work then you’ll see a globe with an exclamation mark. That’s usually because of a connection problem, so restart and select the correct Wi-Fi network when prompted or connect to Ethernet.

My Mac wants me to enter a PIN code! > This is a security feature: it’s what happens when you remotely lock a Mac via the Find My app. If you were the person who locked it you should have been given the appropriate code at the time; if you’ve lost the PIN or never had it, then go to iCloud.com/find and sign in to unlock your Mac. Make sure you change your password afterwards.

Fix your Mac FEATURE

Professional repair options What to do when all else fails

How much is a new laptop battery?

> If your battery isn’t covered by warranty or AppleCare+, Apple will replace it for you. The prices start at £129 for a 13-inch or 15-inch MacBook Pro rising to £199 for the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display and the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

What should I do before I put my Mac in for repair?

> If your Mac is still functional apart from the fault it’s going in to fix, it’s really important to take a full backup of its storage drive before you drop it off. While it’s unlikely that anything awful will happen to your Mac while it’s in for repair, it’s still possible that you’ll end up with a blank drive once it’s returned. For example, a new logic board for your Mac may mean a brand new SSD too.

You should also enable FileVault if you haven’t already to protect your personal data. This encrypts your hard drive or SSD and requires your account password to log in, so nobody else can access your files while your Mac is out of your care.

Can I fix my Mac myself? > We’d never say never, but we’d also say that the newer the Mac, the harder it is to do anything with: for example recent MacBooks have proprietary “pentalobe” screws, soldered-in memory and batteries that are glued into place. Your local repairer will have the necessary tools and techniques you may lack.

What’s the hardest Mac to repair?

> It’s a constantly changing list but right now the Mac teardown experts at iFixit.com give the 16-inch Intel MacBook Pro just one out of ten for repairability and the 2019 13-inch MacBook Pro gets two out of ten. The 16-inch almost seems designed to frustrate fiddling: if a key component isn’t glued or soldered to something, it’s riveted instead. iMacs are a little easier once you get the screen off – iFixit gives the 2020 27-inch four out of ten for repairability – but they’re still very fiddly.

Is Apple the best place for a hardware repair? > If you’re still under warranty or AppleCare+, we’d say yes. But if you’re out of warranty or cover then Apple can be very expensive for some repairs.

Apple has a programme for independent repairers called the Independent Repair Provider Program: they benefit from Apple training, tools and parts.

Can I get my Mac repaired under my home insurance? > Possibly, but it depends on what kind of cover you have and what excesses may apply. Home contents insurance doesn’t cover you for equipment failure such as a dead SSD, but if your policy includes accidental damage cover you may be protected if an accident smashes your iMac or fills your MacBook Air with orange juice (deliberate sabotage won’t be covered, though). Watch out for excesses: in some cases the policy excess means you’ll still have to pay some or even most of the repair cost yourself.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 33

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Master Apple shortcuts macOS

ç is the Command key, which is also labelled cmd. å means the Option key, labelled alt or opt. ≈ means the Control key, labelled ctrl, and shown as ^ in shortcuts in the menu bar. ß is the Shift key. ∫ is the Delete key, which deletes to the left. ƒ+∫ deletes to the right. † 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 scroll or pan around content.

Swipe means move one or more fingers across an item or the screen, then let go.

A flick is like swiping, but it’s quicker, and is often used to scroll content more quickly.

Pinch means move two fingers together or apart, usually to zoom in or out.

Touch and hold means lightly rest your finger on an item and wait for a reaction.

40 CROP PICS SMARTER WHAT’S INSIDE

50

38 MAKE A COPY OF YOUR MAC Create a copy with Carbon Copy Cloner

40 CROP PICS SMARTER

Improve composition with Pixelmator Pro

42 SCREEN TIME ON MAC

Use Apple’s macOS tool to help stay focused

44 SELL YOUR MUSIC ONLINE

50 MASTER DRAG AND DROP

46 FREE UP STORAGE SPACE

52 PLAN YOUR DAY ON iOS

48 GET DIRECTIONS ANYWHERE

54 HOW IT WORKS

Share your masterpieces with the world

Make room for an update on your iOS device Find and be found with the what3words app

Move files with ease on your iPad now

Get on top of your tasks with Hour Blocks Lossless audio on Apple Music OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 37

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

Make a copy of your Mac

Create a one-off copy or scheduled backup using Carbon Copy Cloner IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN To copy files so you can restore them YOU’LL NEED macOS 10.15 or later, external storage with sufficient free space, Carbon Copy Cloner 6

Whether or not Time Machine makes regular backups of your Mac, making a complete copy (a clone or mirror) of its contents is a good idea before you undertake to install macOS updates or upgrades. Carbon Copy Cloner 6 (£29.90, bombich.com) can make a one-off clone or regular backups in addition to, or instead of, Time Machine, and previous versions work for Mojave and earlier.

Catalina and Big Sur change the way that you restore from a clone. Rather than cloning

back from the copy to your internal storage, it’s better to install macOS then migrate from the copy, and that’s the only way for M1 Macs.

That means you don’t need to clone the System volume, which saves space, although CCC can still do that if you wish.

CCC has dozens of options. Here we show how to get the best from them, like excluding items best copied separately, and making snapshots for quick file recovery. Whatever you choose, check your clone works by restoring test items. Howard Oakley

HOW TO Clone your Mac the right way

1 Set the source volume 2 Set the destination 3 Set whether to repeat In Carbon Copy Cloner, select Tasks in the sidebar and give the new, empty backup task a name. Click on the Source icon and select your Mac’s startup disk, by default named Macintosh HD, to make it the source for your clone.

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Note the used space on your source, and check the destination volume has sufficient free space to store that. Then click on the Destination icon and select the volume with enough free space to contain the clone.

Click on Automation to set the scheduling basis if you want this cloning to be repeated automatically. Normally a daily clone is best for backups, or when the disk is remounted for intermittently connected MacBooks.

Clone your Mac APPLE SKILLS

CONTINUED… Clone your Mac the right way

4 Set scheduling detail 5 Set excluded items 6 Set advanced options If your Mac is left running overnight, it’s a good idea to set the run time for when it’s not in use. If it’s going to be asleep, you can have the backup task wake the system, or leave it until later.

You can also skip weekends.

Click Task Plan at the bottom of the main window to select items you don’t want included in the clone. Consider keeping separate copies of huge files like Virtual Machines which change constantly when in use.

CCC offers many options for the more advanced, such as running scripts before and after copying. If you want it to back up while you’re using your Mac, you can now change the priority of its copying tasks here.

7 Check with a dry run 8 Set source snapshots 9 Snapshot retention Before running the first clone, check whether copying will produce what you expect. Click on the Preview tool and CCC will do a dry run without copying any actual files, and forecast the exact size. Fix any errors now.

Consider making regular snapshots.

Click Volumes in the sidebar and select the startup data volume named Macintosh HD – Data or just Data.

Switch on for CCC to make a snapshot with each copy of that volume.

Most should find CCC’s default snapshot retention policy ideal, as older snapshots can take large amounts of disk space. Click the Customize button to set your own policy if you wish, but monitor the space used.

10 Clone that volume 11 Check task actions 12 Optional System clone When you’ve set everything up, ≈-click the task in the sidebar and use the Run Now command to make the first clone. CCC then shows its progress of the clone in graphical form, and an accurate estimate of time to finish.

When cloning has finished, click on Task History, select the completed task, and click on the Task Trends button to see a summary of actions. If the task is going to recur, click the Start button in the main window.

If you want CCC to clone your System volume as well, before following step 7, set the Destination to make a full bootable backup by clicking on its icon and selecting the Legacy Bootable Backup Assistant command.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 39

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

Crop smarter in Pixelmator Pro

1

Machine Learning Crop

The ML Crop tool creates a custom crop to suit the subject. Here it has removed empty sections of sky and grass.

How to quickly improve composition and counteract perceptive distortion IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use the new machine learning (ML) Crop tool YOU’LL NEED Pixelmator Pro 2.1 Coral (£38.99)

Pixelmator Pro 2.1 Coral uses artificial intelligence in a range of tools to speed up the photofixing process. The latest update has now added machine learning (ML) to the Crop tool. Cropping is a classic technique that photographers use to reshape a shot’s content for a host of reasons. You might need to crop an image to lose a stray finger (or unwanted object) from the edge of the frame. Cropping also makes distant subjects look more prominent in the frame.

As well as being powered by machine learning, Pixelmator’s ML Crop tool provides overlays that help you create a more aesthetic composition that obeys the classic Rule of Thirds used by classical painters. You can even adjust perspective while you crop to counteract the converging verticals caused by perspectival distortion. Let’s put the ML Crop tool through its paces. George Cairns

5

Fine-tune

The ML Crop may miss important details such as the rainbow in our shot.

Drag with corner handles to tweak the crop.

5

HOW TO Improve composition using ML cropping

1 Open image

Choose File > Open. Browse to an image that needs cropping. In our example, the horizon is a bit tilted and we’re not close enough to the horses and rainbow. We don’t really need the partially featured tree on the right.

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2 Go straight

To straighten the tilted horizon click on the Crop tool. Click the ‘…’ icon next to the ML Crop button and then click on the Auto Straighten button. The tool should automatically evaluate the shot to counteract the tilt.

3 Auto crop

Click the ML button. The tool will analyse the shot’s content and crop to suit the main subject. Here it’s trimmed foreground grass and sky to get closer to the horses. Now go to Overlay and choose Rule of Thirds.

Pixelmator Pro crops APPLE SKILLS

2

Auto straighten

Click here to summon the Auto Straighten tool. If it can’t recognise a horizon manually, counteract the tilt using the Straighten slider.

3

Perspectival distortion

To straighten out a tall building’s converging vertical lines, drag this slider to the left.

2

1

4

Overlays

Here you’ll find a wide range of overlay grids to help you compose a more aesthetically pleasing shot when cropping.

4 Fine-tune composition 5 Change overlay Go to Custom Size. Choose a 16:9 shape to make the cropped landscape fit perfectly on a widescreen display. Place the Rule of Thirds grid’s intersecting horizontal and vertical lines over the black horse’s head.

the eye is often drawn to the places in the canvas where the Rule of Thirds grid’s horizontal and vertical lines intersect.

3

4

When shooting a building from a low angle (or with a wide-angle lens), you may see its vertical walls converge inwardly towards the top of the frame. Set the Crop Overlay to Grid to help get the verticals straight.

Jargon buster In classical paintings,

Genius tip Keep the ‘Delete

cropped pixels’ box unticked. You can then recompose the shot at any time without permanently losing any image content.

6 Crop in perspective

By dragging the Crop tool’s Vertical Perspective slider to the left, we can straighten the converging vertical walls and make them run parallel with the frame’s edges. Here we also manually tweaked the Straighten slider.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 41

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

Screen Time on Mac

Use Apple’s macOS tool to stay focused and get more done IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to limit apps and content on your Mac YOU’LL NEED macOS 10.15 or later, iOS 12 or later (optional)

Many of us feel like we waste too much time on our Macs.

Whether we’re getting distracted from the work we should be doing or simply spending too long sat in front of our screens, getting back on track is important.

With macOS Catalina, Apple introduced Screen Time to the Mac for the first time.

This handy tool is your one-stop shop for restricting distracting content and tracking your device usage. Enable a few settings and you could find yourself more focused than

ever before. Because it is on iPhones and iPads too, it works well across all your devices, letting you track your habits and learn what should be changed. And if you want to protect the limits you put in place, you can set a Screen Time passcode. Just open Screen Time from System Preferences, click Options, and tick Use Screen Time Passcode.

Read on for our tips on how to set up Screen Time and make the most of its productivity-boosting features.

Alex Blake

HOW TO Get started with Screen Time

1 Enable Screen Time 2 App Usage Open System Preferences and click Screen Time > Options > Turn On. To see data from your other devices on the same Apple ID, click Share across devices. On iOS, go to Settings > Screen Time > Share across devices.

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At the top of the sidebar, the App Usage section shows how much time you have spent in each app (or category of app) across the day. You can filter this by device if you have enabled Screen Time on all your devices.

3 Notifications…

Below this are the Notifications and Pickups sections. These detail the apps most responsible for disturbing you with notifications, and what apps you first use after opening your Mac or unlocking your other devices.

Screen Time APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Use Downtime to stay focused

1 Get some time off

Downtime only lets you run permitted apps. In its Screen Time section are two rows: Downtime and Scheduled. Clicking Turn On next to the former enables Downtime instantly. Scheduled sets when Downtime is active.

2 Set Downtime rules 3 Limit communications Downtime uses the rules you set in App Limits. Here, click ‘+’ and choose an entire category of apps, or click the arrow to select individual apps. Next to Time, choose how long you can use the app until you hit the limit.

Downtime can also block excessive phone calls and messages. Click Communication, then decide which people can contact you and when. You can block all unknown contacts or only permit specific people, for instance.

HOW TO Block unwanted content

1 Stores and Apps

The Content & Privacy section can block unwanted content. Start with the Stores and Apps tabs, which control the apps and app types that are permitted, as well as whether passwords are required on the App Store.

2 Content blocking

The other two tabs in Content & Privacy are Content and Other. Content can restrict adult websites and explicit language in Siri, among other things, while Other controls actions like password and account changes.

3 Make some exceptions If an app is essential to your work, you can let it through Screen Time’s filters. Click Always Allowed in the sidebar and select any apps you need. You can also specify allowable communication during Downtime here.

Screen Time and Family Sharing

Set limits on child accounts

Family Sharing ties in well with Screen Time. You can set individual Screen Time rules for each child by clicking System Preferences > Family Sharing > Screen Time, clicking your child’s name, then clicking Open Screen Time. Now choose their name in the list to get started. In addition, child accounts can request exceptions to your Screen Time rules, such as a little extra time in an app.

When they send a request, you’ll get a notification on your Mac, and you can view them all at once in the Requests section of the Screen Time sidebar.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 43

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

Put your music online

Share your musical masterpieces with the whole world – and sell them too!

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to get your music on all the key services YOU’LL NEED Finished songs and artwork

You’ve made your music and you’ve learned how to perform it live. Next step: sharing it with the wider world, and hopefully making a bit of money too. It’s really easy to put your music online, and that includes on Apple Music and Spotify.

In this tutorial we’ll look at three services: Bandcamp, SoundCloud and DistroKid. The first two are free with some chargeable, optional add-ons, while DistroKid charges

Genius tip!

When you’re exporting music, make sure the sound levels don’t exceed 0dB; if they do you’ll get horrible distortion on your finished tracks.

You can’t upload directly to services such as Spotify, but you can do it through a third party such as DistroKid.

44 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

a small fee for its services – which is worth it, because when you upload your music on DistroKid you can sell it in Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube and services you may not even know existed.

Sell, sell, sell (or stream)

Bandcamp is a sales platform too, but it won’t distribute your music anywhere else: the idea is that you direct people to your Bandcamp page where they can stream or buy your tunes. In a nice touch you can also set a “pay what you want” price, and it’s easy to make freebie or discount codes for your email list or social media feed.

Whichever service you choose to use, uploading is easy. All you need are CD-quality (16-bit, 44KHz) or better WAV or AIFF files and a high-res image for your track or album artwork. Don’t use compressed formats such as MP3 or AAC; let your chosen service create those smaller files from your high quality originals.

It’s important to note that these services simply host your music: they don’t promote it. That’s your job. Carrie Marshall

Share your music APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Upload and share your music

1 Build your Bandcamp 2 Add more info

3 Customise your ’camp

4 Start a SoundCloud 5 Maybe master it

6 Customise your ’cloud

7 Get on Apple Music 8 Edit the info

9 Share it everywhere

Bandcamp (bandcamp.com) makes it easy to stream, share and sell your music online. Once you’ve signed up – which is free – you simply use the ‘+ add’ button to add tracks. You can decide whether to sell them and if so, for how much.

SoundCloud (soundcloud.com) offers streaming (downloads are for paying customers), and is easy to set up.

Here we’ve picked a track and an image; the next step is to enter genre details, plus add tags and descriptive data.

If you aren’t a big-name artist you can’t upload to Apple Music or Spotify directly, but you can do it through a third-party distributor such as DistroKid (distrokid.com). It enables you to get your music to all the key platforms.

In addition to artwork, you can add tags to help people discover your music.

You can also choose to apply Creative Commons copyright options to explicitly give people permission to share, remix or edit your tracks.

Mastering can make a song sound better and SoundCloud’s option is quite effective – but it’s £4.99 for one song. If you’re going to be sharing a lot of music it might be worth learning the mastering plug-ins in your audio app instead.

Online music stores require certain bits of information before they’ll stock your music, such as songwriter details and whether it should have an “explicit” rating. You can also set your price for Apple and Amazon sales.

Bandcamp’s pages are very flexible, so you can add your own images, change the colour scheme, decide which track to feature and so on. When you make changes they’re stored as a draft: you can see it but it isn’t live until you publish.

As with Bandcamp you can customise your artist page with header and artist images, but unlike Bandcamp listeners can leave likes and comments on your tracks. If you’ve made an error in your track data you can edit it here.

DistroKid has a feature called Hyperfollow that creates a single page with links to your music on each service you’ve chosen to use. That means you can share a single link online instead of coding one for each service.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 45

APPLE SKILLS iOS software

Free up storage space

Need more room on your iOS device to update to iOS 15? Follow our tips IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to free up storage space on your iPhone or iPad YOU’LL NEED iPhone or iPad

Unless you have an iPad Pro with a storage capacity that’s measured in TB, the chances are that sooner or later you’ll run into the problem of not having enough storage space on your iPad or iPhone to do what you want to do.

Often, it’s only when you come to update to a new version of the OS that you realise you’re running short of space. Thankfully, there is plenty you can do to clear out the clutter and create more free space.

How you use your iPhone or iPad will play a big role in how much storage space you use and how easy it is to free up. For example, if you download movies and TV programmes to view offline while you travel, then you’ll quickly fill up gigabytes of space that can be easily cleared when you’ve finished with them.

However, it’s not always obvious what’s taking up space, nor how it can be freed up.

That’s why we’ve put together these tips, to help you eke out every MB of space you can as quickly and easily as possible. Kenny Hemphill

HOW TO Create more storage space Genius tip!

To reduce the amount of space taken up by future Music downloads, turn Dolby Atmos downloads off in Settings > Music.

1 Check Recommendations 2 Clear app data Open Settings and tap on General. Tap iPad (or iPhone) Storage. You’ll see some recommendations under the graph of data usage. Review these and tap on any you want to follow. We’re going to delete attachments.

46 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

Some apps enable you to clear data without deleting them. Here we’ve tapped Netflix in Settings > General > iPad Storage and can remove the downloaded videos by swiping left over them and tapping Delete.

Storage space APPLE SKILLS

CONTINUED… More storage space Jargon buster Cache is data that you’ve recently used.

It’s stored locally temporarily so it can be accessed quickly when it’s needed.

3 Offload apps

4 Delete apps

5 Use iCloud Photo

6 Delete Podcast downloads

Offloading an app removes the app but retains its documents and data, ready for when you need it again. Go to Settings > General > iPad (or iPhone) Storage and tap on an app that uses lots of space. Tap Offload App.

Save space by storing photos and videos in iCloud and hosting only low-res versions – full-size versions are downloaded when you need them. Go to Settings > Photos and toggle iCloud Photos and Optimise Storage to on.

Deleting an app removes both the app and its documents and data from your device.

If you reinstall the app, you won’t be able to recover the data that was deleted. If you’re sure you’ll no longer use it, choose Delete App.

Individual podcasts don’t take up much room, but if you download them often it quickly builds up. To automatically delete them after listening to them, go to Settings > Podcasts and switch Remove Played Downloads on.

Genius tip!

You can offload

7 Delete Music downloads 8 Clear Safari cache On your device, go to Settings > Music and tap Downloaded Music. To remove all of an artist’s music, swipe left over the artist and tap Delete. To delete specific albums or songs, tap the artist and choose what to remove.

unused apps automatically. Go to Settings > App Store and toggle Offload Unused Apps to on.

Clearing Safari’s cache will free up space but also log you out of websites, so you’ll have to log in again. Launch Settings and tap Safari.

Scroll down to below the Privacy & Security section and tap clear History and Website Data.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 47

APPLE SKILLS iOS software

Get directions anywhere Find and be found with this reliable mapping utility IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to find and share locations with the what3words app YOU’LL NEED what3words (free), iOS 11 or later, Location Services enabled

Even in modern apps like Apple Maps, finding precise locations can be tricky. Instead of relying on a shaky data signal or unreliable addresses, use what3words. This app divides the planet into uniquely named three-metre squares to give you highly accurate locations. These locations never change, providing a reliable positioning capability in almost any situation.

It even works if you’re offline since it uses a satellite signal to get your location, so even

if you’re without an internet or phone connection, you can still get your precise location and direct people to it if needed.

Likewise, you can use what3words to point you to a location: Find a destination, then tap the Compass button and it will show you the way to go and how far away you are, even if you have no connection. You won’t be able to share the location or get directions in an app like Apple Maps if you’re offline, but it’s still brilliant in a pinch.

Alex Blake

HOW TO Find your way Genius tip!

Lots of online stores accept what3words codes as delivery locations. This is great if your standard delivery address is hard to find.

1 Find a location

Tap the search box at the top and type a place name or location, then pick a result from the list. The app will show its location as a what3words code. Tap any other square on the grid to get a new place code.

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2 Scan or talk

Tap the square icon to the right of the search bar, then grant access to your camera.

You can now scan a printed what3words code into the app to find a location. Or tap the speech bubble to speak a location code.

Pinpoint navigation APPLE SKILLS

CONTINUED… Find your way Jargon buster Satellite mode

3 Start navigating

4 Share your location

5 Save to favourites

6 View and share favourites

Once you have a what3words location, tap Navigate, then choose an app like Apple Maps or Citymapper to get directions there.

Alternatively, tap Compass to get a digital compass on the screen that points the way.

Tap Save, then add a label. Places are saved to your favourites – you can tap Change to add a new list. Tap Saved to remove it, or find your saved locations in the app menu, tap ‘…’, then tap Delete from list.

switches what3words from a map to a satellite photo view. Tap it in the bottom right if the map view isn’t clear enough.

Sharing your current location is easy. Tap the arrow icon in the bottom right to centre on your location, or load a what3words code. Now tap Share at the bottom of the screen and choose an option from the share sheet.

To find your saved locations, tap the menu icon in the top left, then tap Saved locations.

Tap one to show it on the what3words map.

Inside a saved list, tap the three dots, then tap ‘Share list’ to send it to a contact.

Genius tip!

While what3words can

7 Photo mode

Tap the menu icon and tap Photo mode.

Snap a picture or choose one from your library at the bottom left, after which a what3words code will be applied. You can customise this tag’s appearance, then share the image.

8 Customise settings

be useful for pinpointing your location in an emergency, UK Mountain Rescue recommends the OS Locate app instead.

Tap the menu icon, then tap Settings.

Here you can customise the way what3words works. In Share settings, you can add latitude and longitude to shared locations, for instance, or share them in another language.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 49

APPLE SKILLS iPadOS software

Master drag and drop

You don’t have to wait until iPadOS 15 to drag and drop files on your iPad IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to drag and drop files on your iPad YOU’LL NEED iPad, iPadOS 14 or later

Drag and drop, one of the features that characterised the Mac when it first arrived all the way back in 1984, comes to the iPhone later this year in iOS 15. Even in early beta versions, it looks like it works very well, and will make a huge difference to getting work done on the iPhone.

The feature will also be included in iPadOS 15, but won’t have quite the same impact on the iPad as it will on the iPhone.

Why? Because you can already drag and drop

between apps in iPadOS, and you can drag and drop files between folders in the Files app.

The key difference between the way drag and drop will work in iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 and the way it currently works in iPadOS, is that to use it to drag content from one app to another at the moment, the apps need to be side by side on screen in Split View or Slide Over mode. In the updated version, there won’t be any set-up required at all.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to use drag and drop in iPadOS 14. Kenny Hemphill

HOW TO Drag and drop in iPadOS Genius tip!

If you have two apps open in Split View, you can add a third in Slide Over. Just open the Dock and drag the app over the divider between the split-screen apps.

1 Open the first app

Launch the app that hosts the content you want to drag on to another app. In this example, we’re going to add an image from Files onto an email message. Tap the Files app to open it and then navigate to the image.

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2 Add the second app

Tap and hold on the app you want to drag the file to, then drag it up, and then over to the left or right of the screen. Drop it when the screen divider appears. Tap and drag the divider to where you want it.

Drag and drop APPLE SKILLS

CONTINUED… Drag and drop in iPadOS Jargon buster Slide Over is the name

3 Create content

4 Drag the file

5 Drag and drop in Files

6 Drag it elsewhere in Files

In the app you are going to drag to, create a content holder. In this case, we’re creating a new email message in Mail. But it could be a message in Messages or a doc in Pages. You can also drag text from Safari to a text app.

Navigate to the file or folder you want to move. Tap and hold on it until it ‘lifts’ then drag it. Hover over a folder with your finger to open it. Drop the file or keep going until you reach the folder you want to add it to.

Tap and hold the file you want to drag, in this case an image in the Files app; without letting go, drag it across the screen divider and on to the content holder you created in step 3.

Drop it and it will be added to the holder.

Apple gives to the multitasking option where one app floats on top of the other on the left or right of the screen.

To drag a file out of the folder it’s in, tap and hold then drag it over the navigation arrow at the top of the screen, to the right of the sidebar. When the screen slides back to the previous folder, let go of the file to drop it.

Genius tip!

If the app you want to

7 Drag text in a document 8 Open a link in Split View Open a document and double-tap over the text. Drag the handles so that all the text you want to drag is selected. Tap and hold on the selected text until it ‘lifts’ then drag it to where you want it. Let it go to drop it.

drag up from the Dock isn’t in the Dock, you can put it there by opening it, then closing it again. It will appear in the Recents section.

In a document with a hyperlink, select it, then tap and hold on it. Drag the link to the edge of the screen and let go when you see the screen divider. Safari will open in split-screen mode at the webpage the link points to.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 51

APPLE SKILLS iOS software

Plan your day on iOS Get on top of your tasks with Hour Blocks’ daily schedule IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to plan daily tasks and create a schedule YOU’LL NEED Hour Blocks (free), iOS 14 or later

Getting organised is a lot easier said than done. If you’ve ever tried to plan your days out but found yourself overwhelmed with everything that seems to be on your plate, you will know how hard it can be.

Instead of showing a calendar view packed with events, the Hour Blocks app focuses on one day at a time. Each day is broken down into a timeline with hour-long slots, with one task for each block. This gives you a clear, uncluttered way to view your schedule that

lets you focus your energy where it matters.

The more you use Hour Blocks, the smarter it gets, learning from your habits and suggesting appropriate activities at the right time of day. It’s simple enough to be unobtrusive, but has enough power to keep you in control.

As well as being available on iOS and iPadOS, there is also an Hour Blocks Mac app for when you’re not using your iPhone or iPad. Each app is totally free, with all features readily available. Alex Blake

HOW TO Plan with Hour Blocks Genius tip!

Hour Blocks’ to-do list works with Siri. Try saying, “Add gardening to my to-do list in Hour Blocks.” (The task may not show right away.)

1 Grant access

When you first open Hour Blocks, grant it access to your calendar and it will add events to your timeline automatically. If there are no calendar events for a selected day, the Hour Blocks schedule will be blank.

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2 Add events

Add events by tapping the ‘+’ next to an hour slot. Pick a suggested activity or insert a title in the text box and tap ‘+’ to add it. Tap the calendar to plan a different day, or swipe sideways at the top of the schedule.

Plan your day APPLE SKILLS

CONTINUED… Plan with Hour Blocks Genius tip!

Hour Blocks’ To Do

3 Block options

4 Sub blocks

5 Reschedule your work

6 Duplicate a task

Tap and hold a block in the schedule to see its options. You can edit its name and icon, reschedule it to a new time in the day, duplicate it, or remove it from your timeline.

Tap anywhere outside the menu to close it.

Tap and hold a task, then tap Reschedule.

Tap the icon with an up/down arrow to swap this task with the one you long-pressed. Or tap the single up or down arrow to overwrite this block with the one you long-pressed.

List isn’t like a reminders list – there are no due dates or alerts. Use the Reminders app for more important tasks.

The long-press menu lets you add sub blocks to a task. This is handy if your main task is made up of smaller steps, such as tidying the house or starting a piece of work. Remove sub blocks by tapping the bin icon.

Some tasks take longer. For these, tap and hold the task, then tap Duplicate. From the menu, tap the ‘+’ next to every hour block that you want the task to cover. This can quickly populate your day if needed.

Genius tip!

Hour Blocks has four

7 To Do List

Tap To Do List at the bottom. Tap the ‘+’ to add a new to-do task, enter a title, select its urgency, then tap ‘+’. Tap and hold one to add it to your timeline or complete, edit, or delete it. These tasks are ordered by urgency.

8 Adjust settings

widgets you can add to your iOS Home screen: your upcoming schedule, and your to-do list, each in two different sizes.

Tap Settings at the bottom to tweak how Hour Blocks works. Here, you can choose which calendars are imported, whether you get sent Hour Blocks reminders, what time your day starts, and even change the app icon.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 53

Lossless audio on Apple Music OW IT WORKS

Better late than never – Apple Music finally provides CD-quality audio YOU WILL LEARN How audio compression works, and how to get the best quality from Apple

Music was compressed using digital file formats, but streaming services are now able to use lossless audio formats Key fact

Lossless audio generally means sound quality that is equivalent to music recorded on CD, in the 16-bit/44.1kHz format.

However, high-res audio goes beyond CD-quality, with Apple’s Hi-Res Lossless Audio stepping right up to 24-bit/192kHz. Unfortunately, AirPods and other Bluetooth headphones can’t handle lossless or high-res audio at all.

Well, it’s about time. After years of rumours, Apple has finally taken the plunge and added lossless and highresolution audio to its Apple Music streaming service. It’s bizarre, really, that a company that talks so much about innovation has taken so long to catch up with the latest audio technologies. In fact, with the exception of Spotify, all the main music streaming services have been offering lossless or high-res audio for years (which is why many of us opt for a subscription to Tidal rather than Apple Music).

But what, exactly is lossless or high-res audio? That question takes us back to the very first digital audio format – ye olde Compact Disc – way back in the 1980s. The music stored on CDs is ‘digitised’ – converted from analogue sound waves by ‘sampling’ the original sound and then storing it as digital data. Music stored on CD is sampled at a rate of 44,100 times per second – also known as 44.1kHz. Each sample also requires a certain number of ‘bits’ to be stored as a digital file.

So, for CD-quality music, the sampling rate is 44.1kHz and the bit-rate is 16-bits – with this format often referred to as 16-bit/44.1kHz.

Lossy vs lossless

Recording 44,100 samples a second means you can end up with some really big audio files and, until relatively recently, home broadband services simply weren’t fast enough to stream true CD-quality music. So, to make the file sizes a bit more The Beats EP have a wired connection so they work with lossless audio.

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If you’re running iOS 14.6, you can opt for Lossless Audio in the settings for the Music app.

manageable, the music was ‘compressed’ using digital file formats, such as the old MP3 or Apple’s AAC, that discard some of the audio data and sacrifice some of the detail and quality of the original recording in order to reduce the size of the audio file. This is known as ‘lossy’ compression, as some of the audio data is lost in the process of compressing the file.

But, of course, modern broadband services are much faster, so the size of digital music files isn’t really a problem anymore. As a result, streaming services are now able to use lossless audio formats that preserve all of the original audio data with no loss of detail or sound quality at all. The lossless WAV and FLAC formats are widely used online, while Apple Music uses the Apple Lossless Audio Codec, (or ALAC). So, the term ‘lossless audio’ generally means music that is equivalent to true CD-quality recorded in 16-bit/44.1kHz format.

In addition to CD-quality lossless audio, Apple Music – and streaming rivals such as Qobuz and Tidal – also offer

Lossless audio APPLE SKILLS

High-res rivals

While the AirPods Max support spatial audio, they use Bluetooth streaming technology which compresses lossless audio.

‘high-res audio’ as well. This extra level of quality is often compared to the ‘studio master’ recordings that are created by artists in a professional recording studio. These high-res recordings can have sampling rates as high as 192kHz, and bit rates of 24-bit or even 32-bit. By default, Apple Music still streams music in the lossy AAC format, but if you look at the Settings panel for the Music app on your Mac or iOS devices, you’ll now find an option to switch into the new Lossless Audio mode as well.

The standard Lossless Audio mode streams CD-quality music in 16-bit/44.1kHz format, although some tracks may also offer a slightly higher quality option that uses 24-bit/48kHz. There are currently 20 million lossless tracks available on Apple Music, with Apple aiming to get the entire library of 75 million tracks upgraded to lossless by the end of this year. However, the real high-res audio option – which Apple refers to as Hi-Res Lossless – goes right up to 24-bit/192kHz. The bad news for audiophiles is that Hi-Res Lossless requires you to buy some additional hardware, known as a DAC – digital-toanalogue converter – because the cheapand-cheerful sound chips that Apple uses in Macs and mobile devices simply can’t handle that level of audio quality on their own. And, bizarrely, for Apple audiophiles, there’s one other hardware problem that we have to deal with as well…

Bluetooth blues

Apple really is Johnny-come-lately when it comes to lossless/high-res audio. One of the first streaming services to offer lossless and high-res music was the Paris-based Qobuz in 2007. Qobuz is very much aimed at well-heeled hi-fi buffs, with subscriptions starting at £12.49 compared to £9.99 for Apple Music. However, it boasts an unrivalled library of 70 million high-res tracks – compared to Apple Music’s current 20 million in lossless format, and unspecified number of high-res tracks.

Another popular high-res service is Tidal, which starts at £9.99 per month but charges a hefty £19.99 for its top-quality HiFi subscription. However, Tidal also has a small selection of songs using Dolby Atmos and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio, which are rivals to Apple’s spatial audio technology.

Even Amazon beat Apple to it, launching Amazon Music HD in 2019. Amazon offers 75 million lossless tracks with CD-quality, and 7 million high-res tracks, and also cut its prices in response to Apple’s announcement of lossless music, down to £9.99 per month (or £7.99 for Amazon Prime subscribers).

Millions of people now use Apple’s AirPods or Bluetooth headphones from other manufacturers for listening to music.

The convenience of Bluetooth wireless headphones is great, of course – but it comes at a price. Bluetooth streaming uses its own form of lossy compression, so even if you’re streaming lossless or high-res audio from Apple Music or any other streaming service, your Bluetooth headphones are actually compressing it all over again and serving you lower quality lossy audio instead.

Apple has really shot itself in the foot here, as its own headphones can’t play the highest quality music that is now available on Apple Music. If you really want to hear music with the best possible sound quality then good oldfashioned wired headphones are still your best bet. The HomePod and HomePod mini can’t play lossless or high-res audio at the moment either, although Apple is working on a software update that will hopefully solve this problem.

It’ll probably take a few months for all the technical details to be ironed out, but the fact that Apple has finally adopted high-res audio – and, crucially, doesn’t charge any extra for it – means that lossless audio is the new industry standard for streaming services. Cliff Joseph

Key fact You’ll need to update

to the latest versions of iOS and macOS to use lossless audio on Apple Music. On a Mac, open Preferences in the Music app, and select the Lossless Audio option listed under Audio quality. For iOS devices, go into Settings, then scroll down to Music to select Lossless Audio.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 55

EXPERT ADVICE

Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems

Contact us EDITED BY HOWARD OAKLEY

Panic: no external boot disk

T

he introduction of completely novel hardware inevitably brings the unexpected when some among the millions of new users do things that engineers hadn’t anticipated. One failing in M1 Macs is the common situation in which an external startup disk is removed when that Mac is shut down.

If that disk was selected as the startup disk and is nowhere to be found when the Mac next boots, the result is catastrophe; it panics, causing another boot, which leads to another panic, and so on until you force it to shut down, then start it up in Recovery.

It shouldn’t be hard for the firmware to cope with this by entering Recovery in the first place and letting you choose an available startup disk, but Apple still hasn’t fixed this in the eight months since it started delivering these new Macs to users.

Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com

More information in List views Q In the Finder’s List View, I can choose to display additional information such as duration for some folders but not others. How can I extend that to any folder?

by D A N I E L T O M A N

A

The Finder’s list views can be customised to show information about files in certain folders. To try this, open one of the specially designated folders in your Home folder, such as Movies, Music or Pictures, and show it as a list. ≈-click in the header bar of the window to see the column menu, and there are special properties shown below the divider, such as Dimensions and

Duration. These are controlled in the Finder preferences file, and not something you can readily customise. The Finder uses the folder name to determine which of several suites of properties to offer in that menu. For example, name a folder in Documents as Movies, and its list view properties will resemble those in your standard Movies folder. You can get this to stick even when that folder’s name changes again, and that’s one way of effectively adding properties to the lists elsewhere.

This is different from the categories listed as Information below the thumbnail shown when a file is selected in column view, which is determined according to the file’s type, and set in the same Finder preferences file.

Some designated folders such as Music can show additional information about files when seen in the Finder’s List view.

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Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com

iOS software GENIUS TIPS

iOS software

Swipe away your touchscreen troubles and rekindle your love of Apple’s mobile devices

Quick-fire questions

How to stop Silent Mode turning on by accident?

> The simplest solution is to hide that switch by putting your iPhone in a cover which effectively insets it and prevents it from being operated inadvertently. A lightweight, inexpensive plastic sleeve or similar should be ideal, and gives a little protection.

Why does my Health data take up so much storage?

> If you add extra measurements or information, these soon mount up. If you don’t need to access older values, preserve them in an encrypted backup, or share them in iCloud.

Then clear your old data through Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Health, and monitor what’s in iCloud via Settings > [Your name] > iCloud > Manage Storage > Health.

Backing up before upgrading Q

Before upgrading my iPhone to the next major version of iOS, I back it up to iCloud. While preparing for iOS 15, I noticed last year’s backup is missing. What’s happened to it, and what should I do this year?

by D A V I D C R O U C H

A

Backing up your iPhone and iPad, as well as your Mac, is an important precaution to take before installing any major update, and Apple makes good provision to do that both to iCloud and locally. Those two alternatives differ slightly, and it’s wisest to use both if you can.

Backups to iCloud are outside your control, as Apple automatically deletes them when you don’t make any further backup for 180 days. This is explained in support documents such as bit.ly/ mac369icloudstorage, but it’s unclear why this happens automatically, even when you’ve got plenty of free storage available, and might have preferred to keep the backup.

It’s worth studying exactly what each does back up before doing so, described in bit.ly/mac369icloudbackup. If you back up to your computer, then Activity, Health and Keychain information will only be included if the backup is encrypted, as explained at bit.ly/mac369icloudencryption.

Unlike some forms of backup in older versions of macOS, iPhone and iPad backups don’t include that version of iOS/iPadOS. If something goes wrong with the update, you can’t use a backup to restore the previous

Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com

With iCloud Backup enabled, information already shared in iCloud isn’t backed up separately.

Unused backups are deleted after six months.

version of iOS/iPadOS, but they’ll let you reset your iPhone or iPad, then restore all your documents and information from the backup, which should address almost all the problems you could encounter with a major update.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 57

GENIUS TIPS Peripherals

Peripherals

Quick-fire questions

Thinking inside the box to refresh the parts other tips can’t reach

How to connect two 4K displays to an M1 Mac?

> M1 Macs only support a single external display, although that can have a resolution up to 6016x3384 pixels at 60Hz, as offered by Apple’s Pro Display XDR. If you need to drive two or more external displays, look for a later model.

Are there any five or more port USB-C hubs?

> None yet, and those with four ports normally tie one up connecting the hub to your Mac. There’s a practical limit imposed by power requirements: USB-C must be able to deliver a minimum of 60W per port. To support more than four thus requires 300W, and a special power supply.

To let another Mac back up to a shared folder, ≈-click its name and make it a destination in Advanced Options.

Replace your Time Capsule Q We use a 3TB Time Capsule to back up our two Macs. That’s almost full, and we want to upgrade both of them to Big Sur. What’s the best replacement storage option?

by S T E V E Y O U N G

A

To get the best from Time Machine in Big Sur it should back up to APFS, which means it couldn’t continue using your Time Capsule unless you were to delete most of your existing backups. As that’s now over three years old, its hard disk is becoming increasingly likely to fail. If you possibly can, now’s the time to put that drive as an archive of those old backups, and start backing up to new external storage.

Time Machine in Big Sur will back up happily to networked storage, but is

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significantly slower when doing so. If one of your Macs is running most of the time and tends to do the heavy lifting, you could connect local storage to that, and make it available over your network using the Sharing pane. If both make heavier demands, then buying the best NAS you can afford could work out, provided that you can accept longer backup times.

The best scenario would be a 2TB external disk attached to each of your Macs so they can backup locally to APFS. Connect your new storage before you start to install the Big Sur upgrade. When you’re ready, make a full copy of each Mac’s Data volume from the startup disk to the new disk(s), using a utility like Carbon Copy Cloner (bombich.com) or SuperDuper! (shirtpocket. com) in case the upgrade runs into problems.

Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com

Peripherals GENIUS TIPS

How to engage clamshell mode Q

Can I add an eGPU for an M1 external display?

It’s easy to use my MacBook Pro with an external display, keyboard and mouse when it’s open. How can I do that when it’s closed, in ‘clamshell’ mode? Do I need a dock?

by S I M O N F I L M E R

A

You don’t need a dock to use your MacBook Pro in clamshell mode, and sometimes using one complicates matters because of compatibility issues – go for docks from vendors specialising in Mac products who ensure they work properly. To save ports and for flexibility, use a wireless keyboard and mouse, such as those If the external display goes to sleep in clamshell mode, press a key made by Apple. The only port you’ll or click the mouse to wake it up. need to use is for the external display.

The sequence which should work in so that you see your Mac’s Desktop on it. clamshell mode involves first connecting Use the Displays pane to adjust its settings at the mains charging lead, then ensuring your this stage, and close the MacBook Pro. If the mouse and keyboard are properly connected. display then goes to sleep, just press a key Connect your external display, powering it on or click the mouse to wake the display again.

Sleep disconnects an external SSD Q When my M1 Mac mini goes to sleep, sometimes it disconnects from an external SSD in its external hub, requiring the hub to be disconnected and reconnected. How can I stop this happening?

by E N R I Q U E F R E I R E

A

One setting to change if you haven’t already is to open the Energy Saver pane and check the second item in the list is unticked, to ensure that your Mac doesn’t put hard drives to sleep when possible. In spite of that, some external drives will put

themselves to sleep, in which case see if this continues to happen when it’s connected direct to your Mac and not through a hub or dock.

If it does still disconnect during sleep, then it’s most probably a feature of that drive’s firmware, and will be difficult if not impossible to change.

If it only disconnects when connected via the hub, the problem rests with the hub rather than the drive.

Using a different branded hub from a vendor who specifically builds their products for Mac compatibility should ensure it remains connected. One

Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com

final step you can take to try and minimise hub problems is to tick the top box in Energy Saver, to prevent your Mac from sleeping

> No external GPUs can be used with M1 Macs, because they lack the supporting driver. As these are lower-end models, Apple may offer support in future systems. In any case, their Metal acceleration is already fast without extra help.

How to stop my Bluetooth keyboard stuttering? > There’s a longstanding bug in macOS causing this. You may find adjusting the settings in the Keyboard tab of the Keyboard pane can minimise it, and spellchecking will draw your attention to occasional duplicated letters. It’s annoying!

altogether. With an M1 Mac mini that isn’t such a loss, as its power consumption is small and it doesn’t generate much heat either.

When external disks unmount during sleep, disable putting ‘hard disks’ to sleep, and if necessary prevent sleep altogether.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 59

GENIUS TIPS macOS

macOS

Quick-fire questions

How to downgrade my M1 Mac from macOS 12 beta?

> Downgrade macOS together with its firmware and recovery system at the same time, to ensure compatibility. M1 Macs are the only models able to do that, by putting it into DFU mode, connecting it to another Mac running at least macOS 10.5.7 and restoring its internal SSD using Apple Configurator 2 (bit.ly/ mac369config2).

Shine a spotlight on the solutions to your most irritating Mac problems

Why can’t First Aid check a disk?

Q After Time Machine made its first backup of my M1 iMac, I ran Disk Utility’s First Aid, but it couldn’t check the backup disk as it couldn’t unmount it. How can I check that backup is good?

by A N D Y I N N E S

A

The simplest way to check special volumes such as Time Machine backups is to start up in Recovery, select Options, and use Disk Utility from its main window. That ensures that other processes, Time Machine or Spotlight indexing, won’t access the volume, enabling Disk Utility to unmount it cleanly. Even then, this doesn’t always work first time: you may need to try two or three times before it’s eventually successful. You may not even need to run First Aid, though.

Older versions of Time Machine backing up to HFS+ volumes created large numbers of hard links, which is how they created the illusion that each backup was a complete disk. When Big Sur backs up to APFS storage it works quite differently: it doesn’t use hard links at all, but assembles snapshots containing the files it backs up. These don’t suffer the same problems with damage to the file system, and shouldn’t require the same routine maintenance and checking in the way that HFS+ backups do.

So you should now be able to leave Time Machine to get on with managing its backups without running First Aid on a regular basis.

All you need to do is every few weeks check that you can restore some files and perhaps a folder from one of your recent backups, just to demonstrate that it works fine.

How are there two files named New in one folder? > This happens when you disable display of extensions in the Finder’s preferences.

The files New.pdf, New, and New.text have distinct names, so co-exist in the same folder; hide extensions, and each shows the same name with different icons.

If Disk Utility can’t unmount a container or volume for First Aid, start up in Recovery and try from there.

60 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com

macOS GENIUS TIPS

Why do movies keep getting backed up?

Q My Mac’s backups are growing huge, mainly because whenever I browse movie files using VLC, Time Machine makes another copy of the whole movie.

How can I control that?

by K E I T H W I C K S

A

Like other backup systems, Time Machine only backs up files which have changed. Normally when an app opens a document, especially something potentially large like a movie, it doesn’t change the file or its contents, so it shouldn’t get backed up. What’s happening here is that VLC is probably updating the metadata in the movie files, which results in their modification date being changed. Time Machine then has to make a fresh backup copy of the whole movie.

One workaround is to make the movies read-only, or to lock them, which will prevent any app from writing to them, although some apps might then complain. Another good

If an app keeps modifying a file whenever it opens it, try locking the file in Finder’s Get Info dialog.

solution is to change the way that your backups are created and maintained. When you upgrade to Big Sur or later and Time Machine backs up to an APFS volume, it tries to copy as little as necessary in backups, so will only copy a small section of each movie file rather than the whole thing. This is both quicker and more economical in space on your backup storage.

by T O N Y G A R R E T T

A

You can install your own fonts in Big Sur, but can’t remove those installed on the System volume, which does include Apple’s own version of Gill Sans from Monotype. Making such changes to the Big Sur system is technically difficult, and involves irreversible loss of security protection, which would be a major sacrifice.

To install and use a replacement, you can either use the bundled Font Book app, or a professional font manager such as Extensis Suitcase, which is best for

those who have many additional fonts, particular if you use Adobe and such. The current release of Suitcase Fusion is compatible with Big Sur, and runs on M1 Macs.

For more modest needs, Font Book supports both libraries and collections, the latter being preferred to gather together your most used fonts, so that you can

Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com

> System Integrity Protection (SIP) is one of your Mac’s primary defence mechanisms which protects system files in macOS. There are few circumstances when you should ever consider turning it off.

Put a sticky note on your display and leave it there until it’s safely turned back on. Don’t forget, or your Mac could get something nasty. Disabling SIP on an M1 Mac is even more difficult – it reduces the setting in Startup Security Utility to its lowest level, Permissive Security, until you enable SIP again.

Why does System Information show uninstalled apps?

Using custom fonts in Big Sur Q How can I use my own Gill Sans and other fonts rather than Apple’s standard set in Big Sur?

Is there a safe way to disable SIP?

choose without having to scroll through thousands.

Font Book can also resolve duplicates and validate any font you have installed.

Those features, and the ability to disable and remove fonts which aren’t locked on the System volume, are all available in the contextual menu when you ≈-click any font name listed in Font Book.

> The Installations item in the Software section of System Information draws on the list of receipts maintained by macOS in /Library/ Receipts/InstallHistory. plist, which records all software installed from sources such as Apple updates, the App Store, and Installer packages which you install. That info isn’t available for other apps you install, for example by copying the app to Applications, nor does it record when any installed software is removed.

Gather groups of fonts into Collections using Font Book to make them more manageable to access in apps.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 61

BATTERY BOOST YOUR

LIFE Written by

Nick Peers

Discover how to improve the performance of your MacBook, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch batteries, plus maintain their health

A

re you getting the max use out of your mobile devices’ batteries?

Despite all the technological innovations of the past few decades, your Apple devices – from the Watch all the way up to your MacBook – rely on a type of battery first used in commercial devices back in 1991. That said, today’s lithium-ion batteries are a far superior beast to their predecessors, and with each successive generation, Apple finds ways to improve them further.

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But they’re not perfect. Batteries don’t last forever, for starters, and rarely achieve the maximums quoted in the promotional literature. But, armed with our tips and techniques, you can improve the performance of all your Apple devices to deliver longer use between charges, and to maintain your battery’s overall health for longer.

In this feature you’ll discover what power-sapping settings to disable, plus how to properly manage your battery to lengthen its lifespan.

We’ll also reveal the various options available to you when your battery finally reaches the end.

Finally, what about those times when you’re unable to connect your phone or MacBook to a power outlet for an extended period? If you frequently run out of juice on the road, then check out our picks of the best mobile power banks and battery add-on packs. Ready to equip yourself with the ability to add hours to the life of your battery on a day-to-day basis? Read on…

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 63

FEATURE Boost your battery

Boost your iPhone/iPad battery Give your battery a health check, then make it last longer between charges

Make your Watch last longer

> You can improve your Watch’s battery in the following ways…

Choose a minimal watch face design (or switch off Display & Brightness > Always On). Enable Reduce Motion under General > Accessibility. Connect to your iPhone via Bluetooth for connectivity. Then follow the same suggestions for your iPhone, such as minimise app and email notifications, reduce brightness, and so on.

Cut down on effects and colourful screens to get more battery life from your Apple Watch.

H

owever carefully you look after your iPhone or iPad, its battery has a limited shelf life. If you’re convinced your mobile isn’t running as fast as it used to, it’s not just a case of planned obsolescence; it may also indicate your battery is past its best.

Fix battery problems As batteries age, they begin to lose

their capacity to hold a charge for as long as they used to. And as this diminishes, the likelihood of your phone suddenly shutting down unexpectedly increases too. As a result, iOS contains performance management technologies that are designed to cap the maximum performance of your phone’s CPU or GPU to prevent it overloading an ageing battery. The knock-on effect is that overall performance decreases.

If you’ve noticed your phone starting to slow down, check your battery health – if a replacement is recommended, then a new battery

Make sure Optimised Battery Charging is enabled.

will not only go longer between charges, but you should also regain lost performance too. Open Settings and navigate to Battery then tap Battery Health. You’ll immediately be notified if there’s a problem – or tap the ‘Learn more’ link to get a detailed overview of how your battery works and what Settings can tell you about it.

While you’re here, make sure Optimised Battery Charging is on to protect the

HOW TO Reduce power consumption >

1 Background app refresh 2 GPS usage Navigate to Settings > General > Background App Refresh. Tap On to switch it off, or restrict its use to Wi-Fi only. You can also scroll down and prevent unused apps from draining your battery without having to remove them.

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Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. Set individual apps to Never or ‘While Using the App’, and review System Services too. Go to Privacy > Bluetooth to review (and block) apps that are using your Bluetooth connection.

3 Wi-Fi over mobile

Whenever you have the option of Wi-Fi for your connection, disable your mobile internet connection, which uses far more power. In poor signal areas, switch Airplane Mode on to avoid wasting energy looking for a connection.

Boost your battery FEATURE

battery from degradation caused by remaining at a high charge level for long periods of time.

If your battery requires replacing, Apple can fit a new one out of warranty for £49 or £69 plus delivery depending on the model. If you have a local Apple store or premium reseller, you may be able to get the repair done while you wait. Other local phone repair shops may also offer battery replacements, often cheaper than Apple, but these are likely to be third-party batteries.

What else can the Battery tool under Settings tell you? It provides statistics about battery usage, reveals which apps are using the most power and lets you configure Low Power Mode (see below). If you’re looking for more info about battery usage, the App Store is full of battery apps – our favourite is Battery Life (free, batterylifeapp.com), which provides estimates of how long your battery will last depending on specific usage scenarios.

When it comes to extending battery life between charges, Low Power Mode

If you switch on Dark mode, you can reduce brightness and still read your screen.

is a bit of a blunt instrument. There are plenty of other ways you can eke additional minutes – or even hours – from your phone battery. Start by reducing your screen brightness – navigate to Settings > Display & Brightness. Flick the Automatic switch to off, then reduce the brightness slider.

You’ll find the screen becomes harder to read, so switch to Dark Mode and you’ll discover it’s more readable, even

What is Low Power Mode? >When you need to eke out as much battery life as possible on your iPhone, you need to switch on Low Power Mode.

You’ll be prompted to enable it when your battery drops to 20% anyway, but you can switch it on manually at any time via Settings > Battery, at which point your battery indicator turns yellow.

In iOS 14 it disables email fetch and background app refreshes, automatic downloads, several visual effects and defaults Auto-Lock to 30 seconds. iCloud Photos are temporarily paused, and 5G is

disabled for everything except video streaming. Low Power Mode automatically switches off when you’ve charged your iPhone to 80% or higher, but if you open Shortcuts, select Automation and tap Create Personal Automation, you can configure it to come back on automatically when your battery falls below a certain level. Scroll down and tap Battery Level, set your desired level, select Falls Below, then tap Next followed by Add Action.

Type ‘low power’ into the search box and tap Set Low Power Mode.

Tap Next, then Done to finish.

at lower brightness levels. While you’re here, turn ‘Raise to Wake’ off to prevent the screen coming on every time you lift up your iPhone.

You can also disable vibration alerts – go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics to flick both vibrate options to off, then scroll down and disable keyboard clicks and the Lock Sound too. For more Settings-based battery tips, check the steps opposite.

FEATURE Boost your battery

Boost your MacBook’s battery Here’s how to avoid running out of juice when you’re working on the go

The biggest power hogs

>Most power-intensive processes are hardware related… Your laptop screen, wireless tech (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi), your laptop’s speakers and any connected hardware such as external drives. Also switch off your MacBook’s keyboard backlight when not needed (System Prefs > Keyboard). There are also background processes you may want to keep in check – from Spotlight indexing (switch off by dragging your drive to the Privacy tab under System Preferences > Spotlight) to app notifications (disable all but the most essential).

Your Mac will also alert you to apps using lots of system resources – and therefore power – when on battery power. Click the battery icon in the menu bar to reveal them.

T

hese days, modern MacBooks offer jaw-dropping battery lives – thanks to Apple’s new M1 chips, they’re able to claim up to 20 hours’ life for the latest MacBook Pros.

That’s great if you’ve bought a brandnew model, but about the rest of us?

The good news is that, whatever the age of your MacBook, you can tweak and optimise the battery to ensure you get the maximum length of time from it.

But before we begin, let’s perform a quick health check.

Verify battery status You can find out about your battery via

System Report (look in the Hardware > Power section), but it’s missing some key information that you can bring together into one convenient spot using a third-party app called coconutBattery (coconut-flavour.com/coconutbattery).

Once installed, not only will the app reveal info you can now see in System Report – namely its cycle count and its overall health – but you’ll also get to compare your MacBook’s current battery

Turbo Boost Switcher helps extend Intel-based MacBook batteries.

capacity to its original capacity, giving you an idea of how much charge has been lost over time, as well as other useful stats, such as temperature. A Pro version (£9.95) offers more features, but as you’ll see shortly, your money is better spent elsewhere.

The number of cycles reveals how many full recharging cycles your battery has undertaken – most Macbook batteries from 2010 onwards support

HOW TO Maintain battery health >

1 FruitJuice battery health 2 Follow the guidance 3 Long-term monitoring Improve your battery’s performance by tracking its condition and use with FruitJuice (£9.99, fruitjuiceapp.com).

After purchasing and installing, the app will ask you to perform a maintenance cycle – follow the steps to do so.

66 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

The app will recommend a set amount of time for you to run the battery each day – following this guidance will lengthen its life and ensure it works optimally. Click the app’s menu bar icon for an update.

Going forward, FruitJuice will continue to monitor your battery’s health and – if it becomes necessary – will prompt you to perform additional maintenance cycles. Use the graphs to get a visual idea of your battery usage.

Boost your battery FEATURE

up to 1,000 cycles (visit bit.ly/ bccmacbooks for confirmation). If you get an alert about your battery needing replacing – either now or in the near future – then check out ‘Battery begone’ below for your options.

Even if your battery is in reasonable condition, look for ways you can maintain its health to ensure it will give you many years of service before needing to be replaced. For example, don’t leave it permanently plugged in and perform the occasional maintenance cycle (charge to 100%, then leave it on battery until it drops below 20%) to recalibrate it. If you need reminding on a daily basis, then find out how FruitJuice can help in step 1 on the opposite page.

Once your MacBook’s health check is done, it’s time to examine how to improve the time your MacBook runs between charges. Start by verifying basic system settings: open System Prefs > Battery and verify the display is set to go off after a short period, and that both ‘Put hard disks to sleep…’ and ‘Slightly dim the display…’ are ticked, while the

Get a detailed view of your MacBook’s battery with coconutBattery.

Power Nap function is unticked. The biggest battery power hogs are revealed on the opposite page, but many hardware settings can be configured via System Preferences, and you can further reduce the strain on your display by switching to Dark mode.

But what about background processes and power-hungry apps?

Here, you want a solution that only kicks in when your MacBook is running on

battery power. Once again, third-party apps offer a variety of different solutions.

Endurance ($20, about £14, after 14-day trial, enduranceapp.com) offers a ‘low-power mode’ that throttles the processor, dims the screen and sends background apps to sleep when not being used. Turbo Boost Switcher Free (rugarciap.com) allows you to throttle your processor for free, while AppPolice (github.com/AppPolice) lets you rein in individual apps to preserve power.

Battery begone!

>You’ve determined your MacBook’s battery needs replacing – so how do you go about doing so?

The obvious choice is to use Apple’s own servicing programmes (see bit.ly/ macservrep for details). Out-of-warranty replacements cost either £129 or £199 depending on your model. Note, MacBooks that are 10 years or older may not be covered – see bit.ly/ servafterwarr for details.

There are plenty of local repair options – just make sure they’re backed up by good reviews or authorised by Apple. For example, SimplyFixIt (simplyfixit.co.uk) covers Edinburgh

DIY battery replacements are possible – but they’re not for the faint of heart.

and Glasgow, while MacUpgrades (macupgrades.co.uk/store) operates out of Cambridge.

Finally, IFixit (store.ifixit.co.uk) provides a range of DIY battery replacement kits with all the tools you

need. Be sure to read the detailed step-by-step guide (under Repair Guides) for your model before deciding if your servicing skills are up to scratch.

There’s a good Community link and an Answers Forum available too.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 67

The best battery boosters

Need to give your battery a boost while on the road? These accessories can help

MagSafe Battery Pack

£99 FROM apple.com/uk FEATURES Lightning charging port This brand-new battery pack is designed to clamp to the back of your iPhone 12 using magnets to keep its battery topped up on the go. While it’s a bit bulky, your phone should still fit in your pocket while the magnetic connection is a strong one. It’s also designed to integrate into iOS, so you get a notification when it’s connected, and your battery level glows green as it’s being charged.

iPhone Smart Battery Case

From £99 FROM apple.com/uk FEATURES Available for iPhone 7 or later, features vary with model Apple’s official case is the obvious choice for those looking to boost their battery life without a MagSafe connection during the day, with up to 50% more power promised. It works by recharging your iPhone battery from the smart case’s own battery.

Different cases are available for all models from the iPhone 7 upwards.

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Trswyop 4.7-inch battery case

£26.95 FROM amazon.co.uk FEATURES 6,000mAh charger This unofficial battery case works with any 4.7-inch iPhone from the 6 up to the latest SE model. The case features a pass-through Lightning adapter so you can still sync your phone (but doesn’t work with Lightning headphones). Four LED lights reveal how much power remains in the external battery, which should be enough for two or three full charges.

Anker PowerCore Magnetic 5K

£44.99 FROM uk.anker.com FEATURES 5,000mAh battery pack, USB-C charging port, MagSafe ready Like Apple’s MagSafe battery pack, the Magnetic 5K attaches to the back of any iPhone 12 series model effectively doubling the device’s battery life. The Magnetic 5K also comes with a dual-direction USB-C port for easy charging, plus an LED indicator display so you can see much how charge remains.

Anker PowerCore Solar 20000

£54.99 FROM amazon.co.uk FEATURES 20,000mAh solar charger, includes 1x USB-C port (18W), 1x USB-A port (12W) This charger is designed for outdoor use – charge it up before you go, and then let the power of the sun continue to trickle-charge your iPhone or iPad (including the iPad Pro). So long as you don’t expect miracles – it would take days to recharge the battery from solar power alone – you’ll find it a handy travel companion. A 10,000mAh model is also available (£44.99).

Pxwaxpy Solar Power Bank

£28.95 FROM amazon.co.uk FEATURES 26,890 mAh, 2x USB-A ports Looking for a heavy duty solar-powered battery that won’t break the bank? The Pxwaxpy has a larger battery than the Anker, but there’s no USB-C option, it’s not waterproof and the two USB-A ports are slower (10W and 5W respectively).

Nevertheless, there’s plenty of juice for multiple recharges – even without being able to top up the charger using solar.

Image credit: Trswyop, Anker, Pxwaxpy

iPhone/iPad power banks

Mophie Powerstation All-In-One

£129.95 FROM zagg.com/en_uk FEATURES 8,000mAh battery, wireless charging, 1x USB-C port, 1x This portable charger is aimed firmly at the Apple-phile on the go. It can charge up to four supported devices at once, with wireless options for compatible iPhones and AirPods.

There’s also USB-C and USB-A options, and you’ll even find a pop-up magnetic charger for your Apple Watch.

Mophie Powerstation Wireless XL

£64.95 FROM zagg.com/en_uk FEATURES Wireless charging, 10,000mAh This wireless charger works directly with Qi-enabled iPhones and AirPods, but also has a USB-C port for charging other devices too at lightning speed thanks to its 18W output. It comes with a hefty 10,000mAh battery and supports pass-through charging of both devices and itself when connected to power via your phone’s Lightning cable.

MaxOak K3 Power Bank

£189.99 FROM maxoak.org.uk FEATURES 36,000mAh, DC-toMacBook connectors The MaxOak K3 is aimed specifically at MacBook users, supporting models going all the way back to 2006 thanks to a DC port and included MagSafe 1 and 2 cables, plus a USB-C port supporting newer models. The 36,000mAh capacity provides at least one full charge for your MacBook and can also be used to charge Lightningconnected iPhones and iPads too.

Krisdonia 50000mAh Belkin Pocket Power 5K Power Bank

£24.99 FROM belkin.com/uk FEATURES 5,000mAh, USB-A port It’s slim, unobtrusive and minimalistic, but the USB-A port is capable of charging any iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch with the right cable. Its capacity doesn’t match anything else in this list, but again this power bank is for portability, and you should still be able to charge your phone one or two times depending on its model. Perfect for day trips when you need to travel light.

iWalk Portable Charger

£39.99 FROM amazon.co.uk FEATURES 9,000mAh battery, integrated Lightning cable Looking for a portable power bank that can charge your Apple Watch and iPhone simultaneously? This model will appeal – there’s a USB-C port for later phones, and an integrated Lightning connector for older models. You simply place your phone on top of the battery (or wrap your Watch around it) to charge it on the go, and the battery itself easily slips inside a jacket pocket.

Image credit: Zagg Inc, Belkin, iWalk, MaxOa Inck, Shenzhen Nejifu Technology Co

£159.90 FROM amazon.co.uk FEATURES 50,000mAh, 2x USB-A, 1x USB-C, Magsafe 2 adapter The Krisdonia 5000mAh power pack boasts no fewer than four ports, enabling you to charge up to four devices simultaneously. USB-A and USB-C ports handle modern MacBooks, your iPad and iPhone, while a MagSafe 2 adapter supports MacBooks going back to 2012. An LED on the front tells you how much charge remains (in percentage), and the power pack itself can be recharged from empty to full in under seven hours.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 69

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Beginner’s Guides Introducing iMovie

How to edit movies in iMovie Apple’s free video editor makes it easy to create your own home movies and trailers to promote them

D

ifficult though it is to believe, iMovie was first launched 22 years ago, in the autumn of 1999. Like much of the software Apple made, and still makes, its goal was to sell hardware.

In iMovie’s case, the iMac DV. Crucially, the iMac DV shipped with FireWire ports, enabling you to connect a digital video camera. And to make the most of that, Apple created iMovie so you could edit your home movies.

WRITTEN BY KENNY HEMPHILL Spin forward a couple of decades and most of the video edited in iMovie is created on Apple’s own devices, the iPhone and iPad. But you can still use it to edit digital video from just about any source and add footage to iMovie from an external drive, USB stick or smart media card.

Like the other applications we’ve covered in this series of Beginner’s Guides, iMovie is heavily template based, especially when it comes to making

trailers. In fact, trailers are a great way to get started with iMovie, and we’ll show you how to make one.

There’s also plenty of room for creativity, whether it’s in how you cut scenes and put them together, the music you add, or the effects you apply. And the best thing about it is once you’ve got the hang of the basics, it’s really easy to do. Before you know it, you’ll be uploading your creations to YouTube and sharing them with the world.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 71

Create a home movie

iMovie makes it very easy to import video clips from different sources, style them and put them together in your own movies.

Let’s get started with just dragging and dropping the elements into place

W

deal and ease a lot of frustration during editing. Think about the story you want to tell, and how you can tell it using a mix of close-ups, side shots, and even action sequences. When you create a trailer in iMovie, you’ll see there is already a list of shots prepared, all you have to do is drop the relevant clips onto their placeholder.

When it comes to titles and transitions, choose those that fit the

hether you’re creating a whole movie or just a trailer, the most important thing is to plan it in advance.

Decide what shots you need before you start shooting. Are they inside or outside? Do they need daylight? What about audio? You don’t need a detailed script, but a list of shots will help a great

subject of your movie. In our example here, we’re making a home movie of a visit to a theme park, so garish colours and fun typefaces work. iMovie has a limited number of themes for movies, though they are tucked away in the Window menu and not available when you first create a project. You can use those as a starting point. However you do it, have fun!

EXPLAINED… iMovie’s interface 1

3

Libraries

The Libraries list makes it easy to access movie clips stored in your Photos library or used in other iMovie projects.

4 3

1

2

Timeline

The timeline houses your clips. Drag and drop clips from the library into the place you want them.

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Media library The Media library houses the clips you have added to your project.

Click on one to preview it in the viewer.

4

2

Edits

You can adjust the colour or look of a clip, crop it, and even fix camera shake before adding it to your movie.

Introducing iMovie Beginner’s Guides

HOW TO Edit a home movie

1 Create a new project 2 Import from Photos 3 Alternative imports Launch iMovie. If you don’t see the project library, click Projects in the top left of the window. Click ‘+’, then Movie to create a new project. You’ll see the Media library, viewer and timeline, ready for you to add clips.

Click Photos in the Media library, then click the menu next to Search and choose Videos. Click the video clip you want, then click Play in the viewer to preview it. Drag the clip to the timeline to add it to your movie.

Make sure your Mac is connected to the drive hosting the clip. Click the down arrow next to Projects. Navigate to the clip you want to add and click it. ç-click to select more than one.

Click Import Selected.

4 Choose a theme

5 Add a transition

6 Fix camera shake

If you want to use a theme to help you get started, choose Settings above the timeline. Click No Theme. Select the theme you want to use and click Change.

The theme will be applied to your project, complete with placeholder text.

With at least two clips on the timeline, choose Transitions in the toolbar. To preview a transition, drag the cursor over it. When you’ve chosen, click the transition and drag it between two clips on the timeline.

7 Adjust the look of a clip 8 Trim or split a clip Select the clip in the library or on the timeline. Use the magic wand for a one-shot video and audio fix. Or use the Colour Balance, Colour Correction and Clip Filter buttons above the viewer to make manual adjustments using sliders.

Choose the clip in the timeline.

Grab the left or right edge by clicking it and then drag it inwards to remove footage at the start or end. To split a clip, drag the playhead to where you want to split it and press ç+B.

If some of your footage is a little unsteady, click a clip in the timeline and choose the shaky camera icon just above the viewer. Check the box marked Stabilization and use the slider to adjust the degree to which it is adjusted.

9 Add a title

Click Titles above the Library. Drag a title either between clips or over a clip.

Click the purple marker in the timeline, then double-click the placeholder text in the viewer. Type your text and style it using the options.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 73

Beginner’s Guides Introducing iMovie

Go deeper with iMovie

Once you’ve grasped the basics, there’s a whole lot more you can do

A

dding clips to the timeline, trimming them and adding titles and transitions are the nuts and bolts of making movies in iMovie.

Once you’ve got the hang of those, you’ll be able to make great-looking videos.

However, there’s a lot more to iMovie than that. We talked in the introduction

about trailers, and we’ll show you how to make one here. Trailers are a great introduction to storyboarding, since the templates are presented as storyboards with placeholders for you to simply add your own content.

We’ll also show you how to add a narration track for your videos from within iMovie, which makes it easy to

sync your voiceover with the video you’re talking about.

Finally, we’ll show you how to detach the audio of a clip from its video, so you can cut them at different points. For example, you could have the audio of a clip start during the transition from the previous clip. Or trim the video of a clip but leave the audio intact.

HOW TO Create a trailer

1 Choose a theme

Click the File menu and choose New Trailer. Choose a theme – take note of the number of cast members needed – then click Create. The trailer will be created with the Outline tab open. Type in details for title, cast, and studio.

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2 Add storyboard details 3 Add your shots Click Storyboard and type in details for titles and captions in the text boxes between the placeholders for clips.

You will see the text previewed in the viewer. When you’re finished, click on the Shot List tab.

Locate the shots you want to use and drag each onto its placeholder in the Shot List, taking note of the type of shot designated for each placeholder. Use the techniques you learned earlier to adjust clips. Click Play when you’re done.

Introducing iMovie Beginner’s Guides

HOW TO Add a voiceover

1 Choose your audio source 2 Record your narration 3 Adjust the audio Click the microphone under the viewer window, then click the Settings icon to the right of the red Record button.

Choose an input source from the menu.

Set the volume using the slider. Click Settings again to close.

Click Record and speak into the microphone. You’ll see the level meter move as you talk. If it goes red, start again at lower volume. Click Record again to stop recording. You’ll see the green audio clip on the timeline.

Click the green audio track, then choose the icon to the right of the loudspeaker above the viewer. Choose an option from the Equalizer menu to change the audio of your voice. Check the box to reduce background noise.

HOW TO Detach audio from a video clip

1 Detach audio

Select the clip in the timeline from which you want to detach audio by clicking it. Click the Modify menu and choose Detach Audio, or press ç+å+B. You’ll then see a separate audio track appear.

2 Adjust audio

Select the audio clip – the green rectangle with the waveform in it – and click the loudspeaker icon above the viewer. Choose Auto to automatically set the volume, or use the slider to adjust it manually.

3 Edit the audio clip

By default, the audio starts midtransition. You can change that by clicking it and dragging it to where you want it on the timeline. And you can trim or split the audio clip in the same way as we did for video in step 8 on p73.

Tips and tricks

You can make creating your own videos even easier

There are a number of things in iMovie that are less than obvious and benefit from further explanation. To change the name of a project from the default ‘My Movie’, either click Projects above the libraries list and then click the project’s name, or click All Events and then click the project’s name. To assemble clips in a project without adding them to the timeline, drag them from the library on to the project’s name under Project Media. If you find that your built-in microphone doesn’t record any audio or register on the meter, go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Microphone and make sure the iMovie checkbox is ticked.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 75

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Contact us Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com

EDITED BY ROB MEAD-GREEN

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Our reviews are totally independent; we’re not affiliated with Apple or anyone else, nor are we influenced by advertisers.

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Award given solely at the discretion of the editor.

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78 Beats Studio Buds HARDWARE 78 Beats Studio Buds 80 Nanoleaf Elements Starter Kit 81 Moshi Flekto Apple Watch charger, WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive 1TB 82 Vissles V84 (2.0) Mechanical Keyboard 83 Moft Z Stand, Logitech Combo Touch for iPad Pro 12.9-inch 84 Round-up: USB-C docks SOFTWARE 86 Group test: Secure web browsers 92 Squash 3.0 93 Planny 5, Filmage Converter 94 RipX DeepRemix 95 OnMail – Fast & Simple Email 96 6 apps made amazing by a great Watch companion app

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APPLE CHOICE Hardware

Beats Studi o Buds Apple’s affordable AirPods alternative

£129.99 FROM Beats by Dre, beatsbydre.com/uk FEATURES True wireless earbuds, Bluetooth 5.2, Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), up to 24 hours battery life between recharges (8 hours earbuds, 16 hours case with ANC off), iOS/ Android compatible, water and sweat resistant to IPX4, hands-free Siri, USB-C charging port

The only time you’re ever going to want to take them out of your ears is when they need recharging

Beats Studio Buds are discreet and comfortable to wear, even for long periods.

B

eats built its name and reputation on two things: being seen on (and in) the ears of pop stars, elite athletes and other influencers; and bass, lots and lots of bass. Since Apple took over in 2014, things have slowly changed.

Beats still has that cool cachet (perhaps even more so), but its cans also finally sound as good as they look – that bass bias has been replaced by something more balanced and neutral. They’re headphones for the rest of us.

That applies to their pricing too. While the second-gen AirPods Pro cost a cool £249, Beats first true wireless in-ears are £119 less.

That’s chiefly down to the absence of the H1 chip that enables the AirPods Pro to support features like spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, but it also prevents the Studio Buds from seamlessly switching between devices as you move from iPhone to iPad to Mac and back – instead you have to do so manually.

However, that absence also enables the Studio Buds to pair seamlessly with Android as well as Apple devices, and they still offer automatic support for Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio tracks on Apple Music.

Each earbud features a clickable button for you to perform actions, rather than rely on a touch surface.

Design-wise Beats Studio Buds are very different to the AirPods Pro too. They lack the latter’s long touch-enabled stems, instead replacing them with a stubbier form factor that includes a clickable button that you can press to play, pause, skip tracks or switch between the Bud’s Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) modes – On, Off and Transparency.

While we prefer clickable buttons to the hit-and-miss touch surfaces of other in-ears, there is one noticeable absence: volume control – to increase or decrease the sound level, you’ll need to head to your iPhone, Mac, iPad or Android phone instead. Luckily, doing so is straightforward enough, and Beats has said that on-ear volume controls could eventually appear in a future firmware update, so watch this space.

Music to your ears

Available in Black, White and Red, the Studio Buds also come with a pill-shaped charging case, and offer up to eight hours of listening time with ANC switched off or five hours with it on. The charging case can supply an extra 16 hours of power to the headphones before it too needs to be recharged via its USB-C port. However, the case lacks Qi wireless charging support – another reason for the price disparity between the Beats 78 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

tudio Buds APPLE CHOICE

Beats Studio Buds may be cheaper than Apple’s cheapest AirPods, but they certainly don’t feel it.

Studio Buds and the AirPods Pro or even regular AirPods with Wireless Charging Case (£199). To be honest, while wireless charging is convenient, it’s also not that much of a dealbreaker, especially when the Beats Studio Buds make up for it in other ways – they’re supremely comfortable to wear, even during lengthy listening sessions – with a choice of small, medium and large silicone eartips included in the box. They also fit snugly in the ear and never feel like they’re about to come loose or fall out like some other in-ears. They’re also water- and sweat-proof to IPX4, so you can use them while working out or out on a typically-British-weather walk.

But the thing that really makes the Beats Studio Buds worth the money is their sound.

Beats Studio Buds eschew Qi wireless charging in favour of a USB-C port on the pill-shaped charging case.

Image credit: Apple

Play anything from rock to jazz, dance to classical and they sound superb, delivering an open, transparent, balanced sound with wonderfully clear highs, ear-stroking mids and deeply enjoyable musical bass that never drowns out the sound like other Beats headphones can. Team that with the high comfort level and the Beats Studio Buds never become annoying or irritating to listen to. In fact, the only time you’re ever going to want to take them out of your ears is when you have to return them to the case for recharging. For the money, then, the Beats Studio Buds sound just great. They’re not perfect, though.

The Studio Buds’ main flaw is their version of active noise-cancellation. In truth, we preferred to leave ANC off while listening as both Transparency mode and ANC have slight issues. Transparency makes external sounds, such as voices, sound muddier than you might expect, while ANC makes the music entering your ears sound slightly airless – intimate and attention-grabbing sure, but also more closed-in. The Studio Buds can also struggle during calls. While you can easily hear the person on the other end of the line, the same is not so true the other way around – even with dual beamforming mics on each earpiece, your voice can sound distant. Rob Mead-Green

VERDICT A class act,

delivering great sound while being comfortable to wear and sensibly priced.

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Easy to use and comfortable to wear Beautifully balanced sound quality Not as expensive as Apple’s AirPods Pro Lack high-end and convenience features

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 79

APPLE CHOICE Hardware

Nanoleaf Elements Starter Ki t Smart home lighting without the ‘garish’ colours

FROM Nanoleaf, nanoleaf.me/en-GB FEATURES LED smart lights (max 22 ANSI lumens each), Ambient whites (1500-4000K colour temperature), works with Apple HomeKit, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)

You can get the lights to respond to touch, sound, controller or the free app

VERDICT Decorative smart

N

anoleaf’s brilliantly colourful Shapes Hexagon (MF359) smart lights aren’t for everyone. For those that might find them a bit too colourful, the company has come up with Elements… ‘nature-inspired’ decorative lighting versions that eschew scenes such as Rave and Tropical Rainfall (that can turn any living space into a teenagers’ RGB-festooned bedroom), and plump for more muted colours like Ambient White, Bloom and Calming Waterfall.

That’s partly because the Elements come in wood-effect plastic, and partly because the seven light panels traverse the ambient white colour gamut from 1,500K to 4,000K, offering an autumnal orange glow at one end and a cool white at the other. Like other Nanoleaf Starter Kits, the £199 Elements version comes with a power supply, a controller and a set of linkers (which pass power and commands to each light panel), plus mounting plates with double-sided tape, that enable you to attach the lights to the wall in a variety of shapes.

Like other Nanoleaf lights, you can get the Elements to respond to your touch, sound

lighting with a limited colour palette – and that’s a shame.

HHHHH Easy to set up and use Pleasing range of lighting effects Limited colour palette Expensive

If you like the idea of smart lighting, but want to tie in with a neutral colour scheme, the Elements could be for you.

80 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

Each starter kit comes with seven panels, as well as a power supply, controller and linkers between the panels.

(such as music) and give them commands using the controller or the free Nanoleaf app.

They even work with HomeKit, so you can say “Hey Siri, set Ambient White scene” to your HomePod mini.

Essential by nature

Setting up the lights is easy using your iPhone (you’ll need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled, plus access to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network), from there most of the heavy lifting is done from the app. You can choose from 13 different light scenes or create your own, adjust the brightness and set schedules – this enables the lights to do things like gently wake you in the morning or automatically switch on and select a suitably relaxing ambience at night.

Plus, unlike the Shapes Hexagon where the whole panel lights up, Elements panels can light up individually from each corner, making the effect more subtle.

As for the lighting scenes, they’re clearly limited in variety and colour in order to fit into the ‘nature’ remit. You can enjoy the flickering orange glow of Ember (which approximates a wood fire) or relax to the gently scudding Clouds, but you miss out on the variety of colours and lighting scenes that the Shapes Hexagon has built in, plus the dozens of others created by the Nanoleaf community. Yes, you can download these and even make them play, but the Elements still glides through its various shades of ambient white whatever you choose… and that means you miss out on the glorious greens, beautiful blues, warming reds and shocking pinks of other Nanoleaf lights. That’s a shame, because by staying at the blander end of the colour spectrum, the Elements panels feel more limited than luxurious. Rob Mead-Green Image credit: Nanoleaf

Hardwar APPLE CHOICE

Moshi Flekto Compact, folding Apple Watch charger

A neat solution but some design quibbles.

FROM Moshi, moshi.com FEATURES Works with all Apple Watch models, integrated USB-A cable, fold-flat design, 0-75° viewing angle, aluminium hinge

M

VERDICT The Moshi Flekto is

a neat idea – but it’s missed a trick or two along the way.

HH

Compact, fold-flat design Integrated magnetic charger USB-A only Incredibly short cable

oshi specialises in great looking, practical add-ons and accessories for your Apple devices (see our reviews of the Symbus Q, MF364 and Otto Q, MF365), but the Flekto is different.

The build-quality superlatives remain, but the design choices feel a little odd.

Essentially, the Flekto is a compact Apple Watch stand with magnetic charger that can be angled at anywhere between 0 and 75°, making it ideal for use with your Apple Watch’s Nightstand mode, and

for protecting its integrated cable so you can slip it into a pocket or bag. Disconcertingly, that cable has a USB-A plug on the end and is incredibly short.

Sure, you can detach the end of the cable from its housing and plug the Flekto directly into a MacBook, say, although if you have a recent Apple device you’ll need a USB-A to USB-C adapter – and there isn’t one in the box. Of course, having a USB-A plug does mean the

Flekto is compatible with a huge range of USB-A wall plugs and adaptors as well as MacBooks, but we would have liked to see either a choice of detachable cables included or the aforementioned adaptor – especially as the charger itself is £50.

In use, though, the Flekto works just fine, securely holding your Apple Watch, however you choose to use it.

Rob Mead-Green

WD_BLACK D30 Game Drive 1TB Affordable, compact, solid-state drive FROM Western Digital, shop.westerndigital.com FEATURES 1TB NVMe solid-state drive (SSD), up to 900MB/s data transfer speed, 1x USB-C port (up to 10GB/s), USB-C to USB 3.2 cable; 96x45.9x60.5mm, 137g

VERDICT

Designed for gamers, but ideal for anyone, the D30 is a fairly speedy, compact drive.

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Compact design SSD speeds at an affordable price Styling won’t be for everyone No USB-C to USB-C cable included

Image credit: Moshi, Western Digital Corporation

W

estern’s Digital’s WD_BLACK line may be aimed primarily at PC and console gamers, but that’s not a reason for us Mac users to miss out. Case in point: the new WD_BLACK D30 – a compact (96x45.9x60.5mm) external SSD with max data transfer speeds of up to 900MB/s, clad in a black military-style plastic shell.

The D30 comes with a single USB-C port on the back (a USB-C to USB-A 3.2 cable is included) and a white LED drive light on the front. There’s

also a small plastic stand that clips to the bottom to position the drive vertically instead of horizontally. However, the stand then seems almost impossible to remove.

The lack of a USB-C to USB-C cable is disappointing, but getting the drive up and running on macOS is simple, and you’ll soon be throwing files at it with aplomb. In our 5GB Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, the D30 hit a peak speed of 792MB/s read and 765MB/s write, although subsequent

The SSD has ‘built for purpose’ looks and certainly performs well.

writes often proved much slower, dropping to 220MB/s at times. Copying a 33GB movie file to the drive took around two minutes (write), while copying it back to our Mac (read) took 37 seconds.

That makes it slower than our current speed champ, OWC’s Envoy Pro FX (MF364), but that costs more than twice the price. Rob Mead-Green

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 81

APPLE CHOICE Hardware The V84 is a compact mechanical keyboard, complete with the Mac’s ç and å keys, and 12 function keys.

Vissles V84 (2.0) Mechani c al Keyboard A Mac-friendly typing experience – and then some (about £85) FROM vissles.com FEATURES Mechanical keyboard with Bluetooth and USB connectivity, 12 function keys, rechargeable battery (up to 180 hours)

The keys travel well and feel firm and responsive when you’re typing up a storm

VERDICT

Some features are poorly explained, but the solidly built V84 is a good alternative to Apple keyboards.

HHHHH Firm, responsive

mechanical keyboard Bluetooth/USB wired connections available No numerical keypad for data entry No Mac app

T

he slimline designs used for many modern keyboards may look very elegant, but the low-profile keys feel limp and lifeless for anyone that needs to type quickly when they’re working (yes, Apple, we’re looking at you). The latest 2.0 version of Vissles’ V84 keyboard is a good alternative, as it uses a good old-fashioned mechanical design, with a switch mechanism inside each key that feels much firmer and more responsive.

The V84 has a ‘75% layout’, which means that it lacks a numeric keypad, but it measures just 315mm wide, so it’s a good option if you’re a bit tight for desk space. If you’re used to a full-size keyboard then the compact design of the V84 may take a little getting used to, but it’ll feel like an upgrade if you’re switching from one of Apple’s even smaller keyboards.

The lack of a numeric keypad may also be a problem for some, but the V84 does have a top row of function keys that can double up for controlling brightness, volume and other settings. And, running down the right-hand edge of the keyboard there’s a set of navigation keys – Page Up/Down, etc – for browsing through web pages or long documents. Most importantly, the keys travel well and feel firm and responsive when you’re typing up a storm. The keys do sound a bit loud if you’re heavy-handed,

82 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

but that’s quite common with mechanical keyboards such as this.

Identity issues

The V84 is designed for the Mac, and has the Mac’s traditional ç and å keys, so you’ll feel at home when using it. Unusually, though, Vissles includes some spare replacement keys that are designed for Windows, so you can use it with a PC as well if you ever need to.

You can use it as a Bluetooth wireless keyboard, with the rechargeable battery lasting for up to 180 hours – depending on how much you use the fancy backlighting effects – but we were pleased to find that it also works as a wired keyboard too, with a USB-C-to-USB-A cable included in the box.

The multi-colour backlight effects just seem a bit gimmicky, though, and the macro-recording function is poorly explained in the manual and rather confusing to use.

And somewhat oddly, the Vissles app that can help you set up macros and lighting effects only runs on Windows – which seems like a strange omission for a keyboard that is so clearly intended for Mac users. There are also several different versions of this keyboard on Vissles’ website, with slightly different designs, but unless you’re a real keyboard afficionado then it’s probably best to opt for the V84 (2.0) that we review here.

Cliff Joseph Image credit: Vissles

Moft Z Stand Versatile laptop stand FROM Moft, madebymoft.com FEATURES 5-in-1 laptop stand with 25°, 45° and 60° angles; size: 279x238x12mm (flat); 890g; holds laptop up to 22lbs (10kg) in weight

T

VERDICT The Moft Z Stand

is neat, versatile and surprisingly sturdy, but assembling it feels fiddly too.

HH

5-in-1 versatility Quality materials Needs practice to assemble

he Moft Z Stand is a 5-in-1 laptop stand for a MacBook or tablet that enables you to prop up your Apple machine at 25, 45 and 60° angles and even use your laptop standing up.

Fashioned from hardwearing polyurethane and fibreglass and available in four different colours (orange, blue, grey and black), the fold-flat, magazine-sized design means the Z Stand is easy to stash in a bag without taking up too much room. The trick is figuring out those five

Despite the fiddly deckchairstyle assembly, the Z Stand feels reassuring once up.

different positions. Folding, unfolding, flipping and switching the Z Stand’s various flaps and panels (some of which attach magnetically) feels like putting up an old school deckchair on a hot sunny beach… easier said than done. The included instructions help to a certain extent, but practice helps more – like a deckchair, just make sure you try it a few times before attempting it front of a bemused audience.

Combo Touch for iPad Pro 12.

9 -inch (5th gen) A great alternative to the Magic Keyboard

When you do eventually manage to wrangle the Z Stand into shape, it feels surprisingly strong and stable thanks to its heavy use of triangular forms (bridge builders take note) and can hold a laptop up to 10kg in weight – or five times the weight of a 16in MacBook Pro. It’s a neat idea and a good one if you travel a lot and like to stand while you work rather than always sit, but the Z Stand is very niche – and won’t be for everyone.

Rob Mead-Green

A slightly more affordable keyboard with plenty to offer.

FROM Logitech, logitech.com FEATURES Backlit, detachable keyboard, click-anywhere trackpad, smart connector charges via iPad; 28.56x22.57x1.74cm; 780g

VERDICT

Has Apple’s offering beat in all areas, but lacks Apple’s magic.

H

More keys Detachable keyboard Bigger trackpad Makes your iPad look a bit more like a PC

Image credit: Made By Moft, Logitech

T

his Logitech’s Combo Touch is an £80-cheaper alternative to Apple’s Magic Keyboard stand for the iPad Pro 12.9-inch, and it’s superior in almost every way. Firstly, it has an extra row of keys, including media keys, sound and brightness keys and a home key. It has a bigger trackpad, which means your finger can go further without having to readjust.

There are more viewing angles

and, unlike the Apple Magic Keyboard, you can magnetically detach the keyboard, which is a lot better for keeping your iPad protected in a case when using the Apple Pencil.

In terms of key action it’s hard to pick a favourite between this and Apple’s Magic contender, they’re so similar. The Apple keyboard stand ‘floats’ the iPad, and comes in Apple white (or black), whereas the Logitech

comes in grey or sand colours and makes the iPad sit on the table. Essentially this makes your iPad look a bit more like a PC laptop when it’s in the case, whereas the Magic Keyboard keeps it looking like part of the modern Apple family.

If that bothers you immensely then stick with the Apple offering, otherwise we’d recommend you save yourself a wad of cash and enjoy the extra features of the Combo Touch. Graham Barlow

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 83

APPLE CHOICE Hardware

THE BEST USB-C DOCKS Expand the capabilities of your machine with these docks

T

wo USB-C ports and a headphone jack – that’s the extent of today’s MacBook wired connectivity.

Thankfully, accessory makers turned this shortcoming into

opportunity with third-party docks for connecting external monitors, USB devices, Gigabit Ethernet, and more.

We tested four of the best on the market and found they had a lot in common. Aside

from high-quality 4K 60Hz video – the standard for smooth motion on screens – they all provide excellent data transfer speeds. There are drawbacks though, notably the lack of dual external

2

1

OWC Thunderbolt Dock

FROM Other World Computing, owcdigital.com FEATURES 3x Thunderbolt, 4x USB, Ethernet, SD reader

1

Craving Thunderbolt 3 and future USB 4.0 compatibility? Then look no further than OWC’s 2021 model, which delivers a trio of such ports on the back (plus a fourth on front for connecting your Mac). Each operates as an independent daisy chain, so devices can be removed from one without affecting others, and there’s also support for bus-powered external Thunderbolt storage.

Another unique feature is the fancy backlit LED on top

monitor support on M1– powered MacBooks, and AC power bricks practically as large as the dock itself. Which one is worth your time and money? Read on to find out.

JR Bookwalter

of the dock with the OWC logo, which glows blue when connected to a computer and white when disconnected.

(The LED can be dimmed or turned off completely by inserting a paper clip into a hole on the front.) This is one of two docks in our round-up to offer Kensington security slots on one end.

> VERDICT

Made for professionals No HDMI port

84 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

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Corsair TBT100 Thunderbolt 3 Dock

FROM Corsair, corsair.com FEATURES 4x USB, Ethernet, SD reader

2

The Corsair TBT100 is well built and low profile, with slip-proof rubber feet. The front features a power button, an SDXC memory card reader, a USB-C port and a combo headphone and mic jack.

You get two HDMI 2 ports that can drive dual displays at up to 4K at 60Hz,and a Gigabit Ethernet port. A second USB-C port and dual USB-A sockets round out the ins and outs, plus there’s a Kensington lock port for security.

The TBT100 provides a good selection of expansion ports and the added benefit of powering your laptop and USB devices. We found that the on-body markings were hard to make out on our review model, but overall this is a solid way to incorporate a range of peripherals into your Mac setup.

> VERDICT

100W power supply Only two USB-A ports

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Image credit: Other World Computing Inc, Corsair

USB-C docks APPLE CHOICE

3

4

StarTech Thunderbolt 3 Dual-4K Dock

Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Dock Pro

3

4

FROM StarTech.com, startech.com FEATURES 3x USB, HDMI, Ethernet, VGA

Have an old VGA monitor you want to repurpose as an external display for a Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac? This is the dock for you. A single connection provides wired Ethernet, dual displays (DisplayPort and 15-pin VGA or HDMI), and a pair of fast-charge USB-A 3.0 ports.

It’s a bit expensive considering there are only eight ports – there’s no SD card slots or audio output, Image credit: StarTech, Belkin

and no support for USB-C equipped iPads; this is strictly Thunderbolt only.

At 58.6mm deep, StarTech’s unit is a little narrower than its competitors here, and a bit tidier when it comes to cable management since the dock’s sole Thunderbolt port is on the front.

> VERDICT

Works with VGA Too expensive

HH

FROM Belkin International, belkin.com FEATURES SD reader, Ethernet, USB–A 3.1

One of the larger docks in our round-up, Belkin’s is also one of the more durable thanks to its rugged aluminium enclosure. The front features both USB-A 3.1 and data-only USB-C ports plus an easily accessible SD card slot and 3.5mm audio in/out jack.

Seven more ports on the back – four USB-A 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort, and USB-C – help reduce cable clutter.

However, this dock proved consistently buggy, causing our M1 MacBook Pro display to be incorrectly positioned after connecting the dock more than once or twice. (A reboot was required to get it sorted.)

The lack of HDMI is also a limitation for those without DP or USB-C monitors.

> VERDICT

Good mix of ports M1 MacBook undocking

HH

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 85

APPLE CHOICE Group test

Group test Reviewed by CARRIE MARSHALL

ON TEST…

Brave Epic Privacy Browser Firefox Opera Tor Vivaldi

Best secure Safari alternatives You don’t need to wait for iCloud+ to surf more securely 86 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

Secure web browsers APPLE CHOICE

A

pple’s Safari is a great web browser, and if you’re an iCloud subscriber it’ll become even more so this autumn with iCloud+ and iCloud Private Relay. That routes your traffic through a relay to hide your IP address, your exact geographic location and your browsing data.

It’s not quite a Virtual Private Network (VPN), but it’s pretty close. That’s great if you’re an iCloud subscriber upgrading to macOS Monterey. But if you aren’t, the browsers on test here all promise to keep you safe, secure and private when you’re online.

You’ll notice that one browser is conspicuous by its absence: Chrome. That’s because Chrome is at heart a browser built to connect to Google, and as Mozilla told Forbes magazine: “Chrome is the only major browser that doesn’t offer meaningful protection from tracking.”

While Chrome itself may not be the best choice, the Chromium engine it’s built on is very fast and very powerful. Some of the browsers here use it to deliver a Chrome-like experience without the Google stuff.

How we tested We tested each of the six

browsers on the same M1 MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina, connected via 802.11ac Wi-Fi to 150MB fibre broadband for the fastest possible internet connection. Where possible we browsed with privacy features on and off so we could see what difference those features made to browsing speed and site rendering, and we investigated their privacy settings to see what control they offered over what kinds of trackers and adverts.

Image credits (left to right,top to bottom): The Tor Project Inc, Mozilla Corporation, Hidden Reflex, Opera Norway

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 87

APPLE CHOICE Group test Things to consider… there enough 1 Are extensions?

>Secure browsers often restrict the choice of available extensions and plug-ins. If they don’t, it’s important to ensure that you’re not undoing the browser’s good work by running privacy-breaking add-ons.

2

Do you need it to sync between devices?

3

Are you sharing stuff voluntarily?

4

Do you need a VPN?

>Some of the browsers have iOS/iPadOS versions or versions for other platforms that can sync with your Mac’s browser. >No matter how secure, browsers can’t stop you from sharing data if you do it voluntarily. Don’t use social media accounts to log in to other websites, and be careful what personal data you give to sites. >Some browsers can hide your address and traffic, but only for your web browser. If you need to use other apps privately too, you’ll need a dedicated VPN.

1

Brave

Epic Privacy Browser

FROM Brave, brave.com

1

Brave is Chrome with the Google taken out.

The browser includes built-in ad blocking, password management, script blocking and tracking protection, and it supports most Chrome extensions – which of course means you can undo all the privacy protection if you don’t also check the privacy of any extensions you install. It also has its own search engine, currently in beta, which offers fully anonymous searching rather like DuckDuckGo does.

Brave has been somewhat controversial; in 2020 it attracted lots of negative publicity over its redirection of cryptocurrency URLs to

FROM Hidden Reflex, epicbrowser.com

affiliate links. That redirection no longer happens.

Brave isn’t the fastest browser but it’s quick enough and the one-click Shields Up/ Down toggle is useful if the privacy features break a page’s layout. You can opt in to Brave Rewards – a nuanced kind of advertising that enables sites to run ‘privacy-respecting ads’ – that earns you tokens which you may then redeem at participating sites.

> VERDICT

Chrome without the Google Has its own search engine Alleged URL misbehaviour No mobile version

88 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

HH

2

Epic offers ‘extreme privacy’ as its default. That means no third-party cookies, no password saving, no DNS pre-fetching or caching, no trackers or URL tracking, no WebRTC IP address leaking, no referral header data…

You can configure it to use secure DNS servers and set per-site permissions for hardware/system features.

The browser is based on Chromium and adds a built-in encrypted proxy server that effectively acts as a VPN. It doesn’t collect browsing data and it’s always in private browsing mode.

The default search provider

is Yahoo but Epic’s own search engine costs $2.50 (about £1.80) per month.

The browser runs incredibly quickly: the M1-optimised version in particular is screamingly fast on even the most complex pages. The downside is that you don’t get the same massive extension library as you do with Chrome; at the time of writing there are just 10 to choose from.

> VERDICT

Very, very fast Built-in proxy server Small extension library Search engine isn’t free

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Image credits: Brave, Hidden Reflex

Secure web browsers APPLE CHOICE 2

3

4

Firefox

Opera

FROM Mozilla, mozilla.org

3

After nearly 20 years, Firefox is one of the most trusted and most customisable browsers around. Because it’s open source you can be confident it doesn’t have any little nasties lurking in the code (although that doesn’t necessarily apply to all plug-ins). Firefox’s default settings do share some data about you – telemetry data on performance and stability, location data for targeted recommendations and snippets, Pocket integration and so on – but it’s easy to disable them.

There is a large collection of security add-ons from a variety of well-known names Image credits: Mozilla Corporation, Opera Norway

FROM Opera Software, opera.com

that you can use to enhance the already impressive default tools. The private browsing mode does a good job of protecting you from tracking, and the browser also includes anti-phishing and anti-device fingerprinting protection.

We’re impressed by the Firefox Privacy Notice on Mozilla.org, which goes into great detail about what the browser might be sending to Mozilla’s servers.

> VERDICT

Almost infinite customisation Fully open source You’ll need to tweak defaults Rivals can be faster

4

Opera has been around since 1995.

While the current version is based on Chromium it delivers a very different user experience to Chrome-alike browsers. The interface is cleaner and more colourful with good browsing options, and the security settings are comprehensive: Opera has a built-in ad blocker and VPN as well as fraud and malware protection. However, by default Opera does share data with third parties unless you disable such sharing, and its VPN is not as anonymous as you might think; it’s more like a secure web proxy as it only covers

your browsing activity, not protocols for things such as email, file transfer or media streaming. It doesn’t throttle your connection, limit your bandwidth or demand personal data to sign up, though, so it may be a better option than a free thirdparty VPN. Opera delivers a great browsing experience, but if you’re serious about privacy it may not be the best browser for you.

> VERDICT

Lots of useful features Very different to Chrome Shares a lot of user data VPN is basic

HH

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 89

APPLE CHOICE Group test

5

Tor 5

6 FROM The Tor Project, torproject.org

If it’s good enough for privacy activist and whistleblower Edward Snowden, Tor should be good enough for us, right? In many cases, yes. Tor is doing a lot of work under the surface to keep your browsing private. It blocks trackers and ads, wipes cookies when you’re done, makes device fingerprinting very difficult and encrypts your data three times as it passes through the Tor network. If you’re worried about being tracked, Tor will make you feel safer.

There are some downsides, though. All that encryption and relaying does

slow down your browsing considerably – sites that load instantly in Chromium browsers take several seconds in Tor – and the focus here is on privacy rather than malware, which Tor doesn’t detect or block.

And while Tor is based on Firefox, it doesn’t support many Firefox add-ons – if you need them you should try the privacy-focused Waterfox instead.

> VERDICT

Superb privacy protection Triple-layer encryption It’s very slow It’s very basic

90 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

HHH

Vivaldi

FROM Vivaldi Technologies, vivaldi.com

6

Vivaldi is a great browser for power users, with the speed of Chromium wrapped in a more attractive and configurable interface.

There are some inspired ideas including calendarbased history views, stackable tabs and the option to specify different search engines for normal and private browsing modes.

Vivaldi can block annoying cookie permission banners as well as third-party cookies; it blocks ads and trackers and uses Google’s phishing and malware protection. The privacy settings are displayed clearly

so you can see exactly what you are and aren’t blocking, whether that’s abusive ad tech or your IP address in WebRTC sessions. You can also set Vivaldi so it won’t install Chrome Web Store extensions or log in to Google accounts. The range of customisations, settings and controls here is probably overkill for the average user but it’s a very powerful Safari alternative.

> VERDICT

Does absolutely everything Customisation options May be overkill for some Google to detect bad sites

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Image credits: The Tor Project Inc, Vivaldi Technologies

Secure web browsers APPLE CHOICE

THE WINNER

Firefox Still one of the most secure browsers around

P

rovided you change the default settings, Firefox is a very powerful, secure and privacy-protecting browser, and because it’s completely open source you can be confident that the code doesn’t contain any unhappy surprises. The browser is very fast and very easy to use, and thanks to the add-ons library it’s almost infinitely expandable too.

If you prefer a more Chrome-style interface, Epic is pretty epic. It’s extremely fast and the only real downsides are the lack of available extensions and the lack of an iOS/iPadOS companion app. Brave is also very fast and its search engine is impressive but it falls down one place due to the loss of trust over its URL redirecting.

Vivaldi and Opera are very similar. We think Vivaldi is more fun for power users, but Opera may be a better choice for most. Its VPN isn’t up to the standards of a paid-for VPN but it’s nice to have.

Last but not least, there’s Tor. It isn’t a bad browser but it’s a slow one and feels quite dated in this company.

How do they compare?

Specs Price Website Private browsing Ad blocking Antifingerprinting Anti-malware Proxy server Platforms Overall

Brave Free brave.com Yes Yes Yes

Epic Privacy Browser Free epicbrowser.com Always Yes Yes

Firefox Free mozilla.org Yes Yes Yes

Opera Free opera.com Yes Yes Via extensions

Tor Free torproject.org Always No Yes

Vivaldi Free vivaldi.com Yes Yes Via extensions

Yes iOS only Mac, iOS, Windows, Android

No Yes Mac, iOS, Windows, Android

Yes Via extensions Mac, iOS, Windows, Android

Yes Yes Mac, iOS, Windows, Android

No Always Mac, Windows

Yes Via extensions Mac, iOS, Windows, Android

HH

H

HH

Note: The final verdict scores reflect the overall opinion of a product and are not necessarily an average of the criteria listed in the table.

Image credits: Brave, Hidden Reflex, Mozilla Corporation, Opera Norway, The Tor Project Inc, Vivaldi

HHH

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OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 91

APPLE CHOICE Software

Squash 3.0

Batch resize, filter and convert a range of file formats (or with Analog Filter and Analog Border packs) FROM Realmac Software, realmacsoftware.com NEEDS macOS 10.14 or later

Squash has a slick-looking interface that can be set to a light or dark theme

VERDICT

S

quash is a batch image processor that has a range of tricks up its sleeve. For starters, it can take any file formats that you throw at it and quickly convert them into easily shareable JPEG files.

This is especially useful if you capture images on an iPhone as HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format) files or larger DNG (Digital negative) files shot in Apple ProRAW. While an HEIF file takes up less space (around 1MB) it is not as useful as a JPEG file that can be shared via email or uploaded to social media platforms. DNG files can weigh in at 25MB so are too large to be sent via email. They also need to be converted to JPEG format before they can be viewed online. Fortunately, Squash can take any file format (including Camera RAW files from DSLR cameras) and convert them into the more compatible JPEG format. You can also convert a batch of images into other formats such as PNG or a high quality TIFF. You can change Squash’s preferences from the default Grid view to Editor. This enables you to swipe across the image to see a before and after version. The Preferences menu also gives you the option to turn on a Zen Track, which provides a series of ambient

soundtracks to accompany your batch processing. Squash has a slick-looking interface that can be set to a light or dark theme. We found that the dark version makes the app look more like other image-editing apps, such as Photoshop.

As well as converting files from one format into another, you can batch edit a wide range of properties. Simply drag and drop a collection of files into Squash and then modify a series of panels to process the files. For example, if you plan to share images on Twitter you can use the Resize panel to set them all to a Twitter-friendly width of 1,200 pixels. The Adjustments panel lets you batch sharpen shots and boost their vibrance to give them more impact in your social media feed.

Although you can’t directly adjust image properties such as contrast or exposure, a collection of one-click effect filters enable you to creatively process your shots’ colours and tones to produce eye-catching looks. You can purchase extra filter packs to expand Squash’s creative capabilities, such as adding retro camera ‘light leakage’ effects to your images. You can further enhance the retro filtered look by adding borders, from the traditional white photo frame to a contactsheet style edge.

Protect your assets

Reduces the timeconsuming chore of batch processing images in an easyto-use workspace.

H

Converts multiple formats Batch resizes images Protects your shots Limited manual adjustment controls

The Edit workspace lets you compare the filtered look, size and watermark of your batch-processed images

Convert a host of file formats into web-friendly lightweight JPEGS.

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Once you share shots online, you can lose control over where they end up. Squash enables you to add a personalised watermark to every image (such as a Twitter handle or a copyright notice). To protect the privacy of people in the shots, you can toggle a switch to remove embedded metadata such as the GPS coordinates of an image’s location. Squash will also batch-rename your files while it creatively processes and resizes them once you click the Export Images button.

George Cairns Image credit: Realmac Software

Software APPLE CHOICE

Planny 5 An all-new look for organising life Premium FROM Kevin Reutter, kevinreutter.de NEEDS macOS 11 or later

P

VERDICT Planny is capable

but rivals are better.

HH

Improved interface A few interface quirks

lanny combines notes, calendar, reminders and to-do lists in a single app.

Version 5 has been rewritten, and it has a new interface too.

Although Planny is free, the £14.99 annual Premium subscription unlocks features like the ability to set priorities and pin items, create subtasks and unlimited lists. It also allows you to create and search by tags.

The interface has a colour-coded sidebar with Favorites – categories such as Overdue, Upcoming and Pinned – and Lists, where you

Filmage Converter Convert any video or audio format

Planny’s Mac interface looks identical to the iPad version.

can organise different kinds of content such as groceries or project items. There are game-style awards and graphs to show productivity.

This version is visually identical to the iPad version, and pre-populated items refer to tapping icons rather than clicking on them. That’s good in terms of cross-device consistency but means a lot of empty white space on Mac and some jarring font sizes.

Planny can be frustrating.

Anything involving changing dates uses a menu with tiny arrows rather than a more efficient calendar control, and you can’t set a task as a repeating task or event from the Calendar view, so you need to set it up as a new item in Routines. We also encountered the occasional crash.

Planny is not a bad app, but it’s competing with better options. Carrie Marshall

FROM Filmage, filmagepro.com NEEDS Mac OS X 10.11 or later

P

VERDICT

A great video toolbox for converting to and from any format.

H

Range of formats Downloader seems hit-and-miss

Image credit: Kevin Reutter, PDF Pro Team Inc

laying movies in anything other than Apple’s preferred MP4 and MOV formats on a Mac, is tricky.

You need a third-party app to change legacy or unusual formats such as WMV, AVI into Mac-friendly movies.

Filmage Converter puts a simple interface on to video codecs and libraries. Drag any movie for conversion on to the app and choose an output format or device type. Pretty much everything is available from iPad or Apple TV formats through Apple ProRes, WMV, and more, all with frame size,

Batch convert movies and audio in any formats that you need.

rate, and quality presets. You can click to edit any preset and reveal options on the level of quality – as well as codec, frame, and bit rate settings and audio bit and sample rates.

Presets can be saved once edited, and presets to save audio files separately from video are really useful.

You can merge videos, but it’s not a linear editor. That said, clicking the Edit button for a video reveals tools to trim

start and end points, crop frames, add subtitles, effects, and watermarks. These are super easy to use.

There’s also an internet downloader where you paste a video’s URL to make a local copy, but this is a little hit and miss. There’s batch processing – performance varies depending on how much you’re crunching a video file and while not fast, is decent.

Hollin Jones

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 93

APPLE CHOICE Software

RipX DeepRemix AI-powered audio extraction for music makers FROM Hit’n’Mix Ltd, hitnmix.com NEEDS macOS 10.10 or later

There’s a lot of potential and power here, but RipX has a steep learning curve

VERDICT

RipX is powerful and has fun features to transform clean audio, but the audio extraction gave mixed results.

HHHHH Lots of power

AI audio extraction Artefacts on extracted audio Unfriendly interface

R

ipX is related to the same developer’s Infinity, an audio studio that enables you to extract and manipulate audio.

This is more focused and more RipX resembles Melodyne or Logic Pro’s Flex features, but the tiny text affordable. It enables you to can be really quite hard to read. extract vocals or instruments RipX treats the audio in a very similar from MP3s and other audio way to apps such as Melodyne or the Flex formats and then mix them with other Pitch in Logic Pro. You can move notes or samples. You can also export the stems phrases, change the pitch or tempo and add (individual files for each audio track) for use effects. You can have lots of fun with the in a digital audio workstation such as Logic toolkit here as you detune guitars or finally Pro X or Ableton Live. get the lead vocal to sound right.

There’s some powerful technology here but it’s wrapped in a pretty horrid interface; we’ve seen the PC version and that isn’t Extraction issues brilliant but the Mac version is worse. It’s a The big selling point here is the audio wall of black pixels occasionally punctuated extraction, which we found delivered mixed by tiny text, some of which is mid-blue; light results. At the highest-quality settings we had mode changes the main editing panel from great results with drum tracks, especially black to grey but the rest of the interface on hip-hop and dance music, but our vocal remains blue and white on black. results were often disappointing. When we RipX isn’t optimised for M1 processors tried ripping vocals from rock songs the app – system requirements are macOS 10.10 or correctly isolated the singing but the resulting later – and that’s apparent when you rip WAV was very heavily phased with a lot audio: on a 16GB M1 MacBook Pro it took of unwanted swooshing in the higher between 9 to 28 minutes to extract the vocal or frequencies; Eminem appeared to be calling drum track from a commercially released us via Skype on a really bad connection. On song. The app does enable you to queue quieter tracks we often encountered very multiple files in multiple formats so you can noticeable harmonics, as if we’d stuck the start it ripping while you do something else. singer’s mic through an octave/harmoniser pedal. The app does have tools you can use to try and remove the phasing and other problems, such as noise or unwanted frequencies, but we found them ineffective.

If you’ve already got stems to play with, though, RipX is a lot of fun. There are lots of tools to completely transform your audio, for example by adding extreme harmonics, tuning the notes to a particular semitone or changing its tempo, and the app is scriptable: its RipScripts use Python. There’s a lot of potential here but the learning curve is steep.

RipX can be extended with ‘ripscripts’ written in Python Carrie Marshall to interact with the app’s programming interface.

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Image credit: Hit’n’Mix Ltd

Software APPLE CHOICE

OnMail – Fast & SiSendingmploutemixedEmai l messages /year (about £40, Personal plan) FROM Edison Software, onmail.com NEEDS iOS 10 or later

Swipe up on your inbox and you can search your email in natural language

VERDICT Full of great ideas

but could do with a little fine-tuning.

HHHHH Clean and

attractive inbox ‘Done’ action is satisfying iOS app feels limited vs web app Must pay to import accounts Image credit: Edison Software

O

nMail’s app is billed as ‘email built for today’. It comes with a host of thoughtful features but it really needs a little refinement going forward.

Starting on the inbox view, you will find a few neat tricks. Swiping from left to right on a message gives the usual options to mark it as unread or trash it. Swipe the other way, though, and you can move it to the Done folder, which is a repository for mail you have dealt with but do not want to delete. It’s a great way to keep your inbox tidy without viciously purging it. There are other nifty inbox features too. You can approve unknown senders before their messages enter your inbox. Attachments are popped out below their associated emails. Tracking pixels are automatically removed. However, there is no way to add flags or starred indicators, which feels like an oversight to us.

Most of the key tools you need are housed in a swipe-up tab at the bottom of the app.

Swipe up on your inbox and you can search your mail in natural language. You can also jump to various standard folders or OnMail’s AI-powered ‘smart folders’. These contain travel documents, parcel tracking details, and more. Leave the tab down and you can switch between your Primary inbox view and any others you have added (annoyingly, right now you can only add new sections from OnMail’s web app, not its iOS app).

Tap the Other button on the tab and you get a taste of Preview Mode, which samples newsletters and promotional emails in a feed.

It is a great way to quickly browse messages, but OnMail misses a trick by not letting you swipe to deal with them. It slows down what is meant to be a quick viewing mode. The swipe-up tab is also visible when you view an individual email. Here, you can reply, mark the message as done or unread, or access more

OnMail’s inbox organisation is great, but individual messages aren’t quite as strong.

actions like moving the message to spam from the three-dot menu. Swipe up and OnMail shows the email thread’s participants; tap one and you see their profile, along with any attachments and messages they have sent.

Transfer fees

Sending emails is easy and fuss-free. Backing out halfway through composing does not prompt to save the message to drafts but it should save. However, we encountered a bug where our drafts only appeared in the web app, not in the iOS app.

OnMail is totally ad-free. We reviewed the Personal plan for $49.99 per year (about £40), which has extra storage, the ability to password protect files, and support for custom domains. Frustratingly, importing third-party accounts is also locked behind this paywall, which we feel should be a free feature. There’s also a $99.99 per year (about £75) Professional plan.

OnMail is a promising email app with some great features. It needs a little tweaking, but its main issue is that you have to pay to bring existing inboxes with you. Alex Blake OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 95

APPLE CHOICE App round-up

6 apps made amazing by a great Watch companion app These Watch apps hit the big time Reviewed by ALEX BLAKE

T

he App Store is teeming with Apple Watch apps, but some are better than others. While some cover the bare minimum, others are the total opposite, offering tailored experiences that take advantage of the Watch’s form factor and make the most of everything it offers. We want to highlight those apps here.

Whether you are dashing to catch a train or checking off items on your grocery list, these apps understand the ways you use your Watch and what you need from an excellent wrist–based app.

Their companion iPhone apps may be good, but in terms of easy wrist-tapping, these Watch apps are truly great, and will simplify your life.

Just Press Record

Citymapper: All Your Transport

1Password – Password Manager

Sometimes you might want to record something but it is inconvenient to whip your iPhone out. For those times, there is Just Press Record. This app is already great on iPhone, but its Watch app takes it to the next level – to record, just open the app on your wrist and press the big red button. It is quick, easy, and hassle-free – just what a Watch app should be.

Citymapper is already popular on iPhone, and it’s suited to the Apple Watch too, where quick directions are all you need. Just raise your wrist to see exactly where to go next on your journey – you can check which bus you need to catch, how many stops are left on your train journey, and more.

It has a bunch of handy Watch complications, too.

One of the benefits of the Apple Watch is that you don’t need to take your iPhone everywhere.

With the 1Password Watch app, you can carry your most important data and leave your iPhone at home. It lets you add important passwords, credit cards, and more to your Watch, so all you need to log in, pay for items, or check details is a quick swipe on your wrist.

NEEDS iOS 13 or later

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(IAPs) NEEDS iOS 12.3 or later

(IAPs) NEEDS iOS 12.2 or later

Image credits: Open Planet Software Ltd, Citymapper Limited, 1Password

THINGS 3

Grocery – Smart Shopping List

CARROT WEATHER

Things is already a superb tasks app, and it gets even better on Apple Watch. It is focused just on what’s on your plate today, helping you stay on track. You can check off tasks, create new ones, or reschedule tasks. You will have everything you need to get things done each day, with none of the extras that could get in the way on your wrist.

Grocery is more than just a shopping list app. Its algorithm learns what order you check items off your list and presents them in this order for next time, meaning less time spent scrolling past less significant stuff. It’s a great, speedy approach for your supermarket sweep. Just raise your wrist, check off an item, and the most logical next one is right there waiting.

CARROT Weather shows how an Apple Watch app can be packed full of detail without ever overwhelming you. By using plenty of colour, smart detail organisation, and useful complications, you get all the weather info you need without ever having to pick up your iPhone. It all comes with CARROT’s hilariously sadistic AI that brightens up any day.

NEEDS iOS 12.1 or later

Image credits: Cultured Code, Conrad Stoll, Grailr LLC

(IAPs) NEEDS iOS 11 or later

NEEDS iOS 13 or later

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 97

STORE GUIDE Apple kit

EDITED BY ROB MEAD-GREEN

Your complete guide to the best Apple hardware and third-party accessories

iMac

From £1,249

The 24in iMac released in April brought with it a return of colour to the Apple spectrum.

Choose an iMac MODEL 24in, M1

PRICE £1,249

£1,649

D N E HGIH

£2,299

yalpsid aniteR =

KEY SPECIFICATIONS MEMORY 8GB of unifed memory GRAPHICS Seven-core GPU STORAGE 256GB SSD DISPLAY Retina 4.5K (P3 gamut) ALSO Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard 24in, M1 MEMORY 16GB of unifed memory GRAPHICS Eight-core GPU STORAGE 512GB SSD DISPLAY Retina 4.5K (P3 gamut) ALSO Magic Mouse with Touch ID, Magic Keyboard 27in 3.8GHz MEMORY 8GB of 2,666MHz DDR4 eight-core GRAPHICS AMD Radeon Pro 5500 XT Intel Core i7 STORAGE 512GB SSD DISPLAY Retina 5K (IPS, P3 gamut) ALSO Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard

REDARGPU

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The new iMacs all feature a 1080p FaceTime camera, a highfidelity six-speaker system, a studioquality three-mic array and support for spatial audio. You’ll also find two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on each model, with middle- and high-end options gaining two additional USB-C ports. Thunderbolt 2, HDMI, DVI and VGA are supported using adaptors.) All come with a Magic Keyboard, with the mid- and highend versions boasting Touch ID. Prices start at £1,249.

The 27in iMac, last updated mid 2020, sports SSDs across the line and you can choose from six-core tenth-gen Intel Core i5s on the entry level models, or an eight-core tenthgen Intel Core i7. The 27in iMacs also boast AMD Radeon Pro 5300 graphics on the entry and midrange models, and an AMD Radeon Pro 5550 XT GPU on the £2,999 model. All three models have 5K Retina displays with True Tone. You can add up to 128GB of memory and up to 8TB of solid-state storage.

LEVEL YRTNE

Ever since the Bondi Blue iMac debuted in 1998, Apple’s all-inone desktop computer has been setting standards in gorgeous design and powerful performance.

And Apple’s April 2021 Spring Loaded event delivered the new, colourful 24in iMac, available in green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. The larger screen has also been bumped up to a 4.5K Retina display with a 4480x2520 resolution.

Inside, Apple’s own M1 chip combines with macOS Big Sur, and Apple promises up to 85% faster CPU performance and up to two times faster graphics performance than the 21.5-inch iMac models.

All the models come with 8GB of unified memory (upgradeable to 16GB). The eight-core CPU/sevencore GPU option comes with a 256GB SSD (configurable to 512GB or 1TB). The eight-core CPU/eightcore GPU versions come with either a 256GB or 512GB SSD and can be upgraded to 1TB or 2TB.

EXPECTED AUG 2022 UPDATED APR 2021

Apple kit STORE GUIDE EXPECTED DEC 2021

Mac Pro From £5,499

EXPECTED SEP 2021 UPDATED NOV 2020

MacBook Pro

and opting for the top SSD storage of 2TB takes the price to £2,299.

So far, only the 13-inch model has been updated to the M1 chip, but the 16-inch is obviously due to follow. The 13-inch 2.0GHz Intel Core i5 Quad Core model with Intel Iris Plus Graphics, starting at £1,799, is still available. As are the 16-inch ninth-gen Intel Core models, which start at £2,399.

Choose a MacBook Pro MODEL 13in, M1 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU

L E V E L YRTNE

13in, M1 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU

REDARGPU

16in 2.4GHz 8-core Intel Core i9

DNE HGIH

In November 2020, Apple rather surprised the tech world with an earlierthan-expected release of the first MacBook Pro with its own custom designed 5nm Apple M1 chip.

The eight-core CPU is said to offer 2.8 times faster performance over its predecessor, while the eight-core GPU has five times faster graphics. The 16-core Neural Engine completes the powerhouse spec sheet for advanced machine learning.

All this, coupled with a 61W battery, translates to the longest battery life for a MacBook Pro so far, with an impressive 17 hours of web browsing and 20 hours of video play. The Pro comes with 8GB of unified memory but you can upgrade to 16GB. Storage starts at 256GB SSD, and can be configured up to 2TB. The physical build remains the same as the May 2020 model (1.56x30.41x21.24cm), and still features the Magic Keyboard, Touch Bar, Touch ID and Force Touch trackpad.

There are now two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. As well as Bluetooth 5.0, the 13in Pro now supports 802.11ax Wi-Fi. 13-inch model pricing starts at £1,299; while upping the unified memory to 16GB

From £1,299

The MacBook Pro 13-inch (Late 2020) features Apple’s own silicon 5nm M1 chip.

Aimed at creative pros, Apple’s high-end desktop has always been designed to deliver as much power and flexibility as possible.

Ironically, the previous ‘trash can’ Mac Pro proved to be a design dead-end, and so Apple came up with this: a stainless steel and aluminium tower that’s almost infinitely configurable – you can even add wheels if you want to.

If the price at the top makes you wince, that’s just the start – prices rise incredibly steeply once you get beyond the standard spec, and even those wheels will cost you £400, while adding six 128GB DDR4 EEC memory cards costs £14,000.

Given that you can fit everything from a 28-core Intel Xeon W processor to 8TB of SSD storage that’s hardly a surprise, though.

KEY SPECIFICATIONS MEMORY 8GB of unified memory STORAGE 256GB SSD TOUCH BAR Yes TOUCH ID Yes MEMORY 16GB of unified memory STORAGE 512GB SSD TOUCH BAR Yes TOUCH ID Yes MEMORY 64GB of 2,666MHz DDR4 GPU AMD Radeon Pro 5500 4GB STORAGE 1TB SSD TOUCH BAR Yes TOUCH ID Yes

PRICE £1,299

£1,699

£3,799

The new Mac Pro has been designed to be as configurable as possible.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 99

EXPECTED SEP 2021 UPDATED NOV 2020

STO

Mac mini

EXPECTED SEP 2021 UPDATED NOV 2020

MacBook Air

Choose a MacBook Air MODEL 13in, M1 8-core CPU, 7-core GPU

KEY SPECIFICATIONS MEMORY 8GB of unified memory STORAGE 256GB SSD TOUCH BAR No TOUCH ID Yes 13in, M1 MEMORY 16 GB of 8-core CPU, unified memory 8-core GPU STORAGE 2TB SSD TOUCH BAR No TOUCH ID Yes

REDARGPU

100 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

with increased storage; you can add up to 2TB of SSD storage for £800 on the base model or £600 on the eight-core GPU model.

The M1 MacBook Air can be teamed with Apple’s Pro Display XDR, although none of the M1 Macs can be used with an external GPU (eGPU).

You also get Touch ID for secure logins, and a Force Touch trackpad.

The MacBook Air is also equipped with two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports and a headphone socket. The laptop now supports 802.11ax Wi-Fi (aka Wi-Fi 6), has Bluetooth 5.0 onboard, and is equipped with a 720p FaceTime camera for video chats.

So with the new internal upgrades, does the MacBook Air still boast its legendarily long battery life? Yes, and some! You can now get up to 18 hours of Apple TV app movie playback, or 15 hours of wireless web surfing, thanks to its 49.9W battery. Like the earlier 2020 incarnation, the new MacBook Air comes with Apple’s Magic Keyboard for fast, fluid typing.

L E V E L YRTNE

Apple’s thinnest, lightest laptop now also gets the M1 treatment.

But without a price hike! Prices still start at just £999. The next step model (with increased SSD storage and eight-core GPU) even costs £50 less at £1,249. Like the MBP, Apple’s own unified memory silicon enables faster performance and better graphic speeds. And the 16-core Neural Engine results in nine times faster machine learning.

It may be Apple’s most affordable laptop, but the MacBook Air certainly doesn’t feel like a budget machine, thanks to its 100% recycled aluminium unibody, and 13.3-inch LED-backlit Retina display, which has a resolution of 2560x1600 (227ppi) and True Tone, which automatically adjusts the display’s colour temperature depending on the ambient light.

The inclusion of the M1 chip has changed none of the Air’s physical characteristics – the portable laptop is still just 1.61cm thin, and weighs 1.29kg. Despite the performance boost, the Air is now fanless, using an aluminium heat dissipating panel instead – which also means that it runs in complete silence.

The base model comes with an eight-core CPU, but a seven-core GPU, and 256GB SSD storage. While on the step-up model, the CPU and GPU are both eight-core, and the storage starts at 512GB. Both offer the option to upgrade to 16GB memory, and are configurable

From £999

The M1-equipped MacBook Air (Late 2020) is an incredible portable performer.

PRICE £999

£2,049

From £699

Despite a near two-year wait for the last update to the Mac mini, within just eight months, Apple released it again in November 2020 with the homegrown M1 chip.

The processor boasts far superior processing and graphics performance to the Intel innards of the previous incarnation. Like the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the base model starts with 8GB of memory that can be boosted to 16GB. The SSD options go from 256GB all the way up to 2TB. The Mac mini now supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0. You get two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, as well as two USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.0 port and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The entry level Mac mini is available for £699. Taking it to its max memory and SSD capacity will set you back £1,699. The 3.0GHz Intel Core i5 model is still available from £1,099.

EXPECTED APR 2023 UPDATED APR 2021

Apple TV 4K From £169

Apple’s media streamer has been around since 2007, and in April 2021 Apple unveiled the sixth generation. Running an A12 Bionic chip and its own OS (tvOS), the latest model offers 4K high frame rate HDR. You get Apple TV+, as well as access to thirdparty content using apps such as BBC iPlayer. You can also use it to play Apple Arcade games, run Apple Fitness+ content, stream photos and your music library, and more. The Siri Remote has been redesigned with an improved touch-enabled clickpad.

EXPECTED SEPT 2021 UPDATED SEPT 2020

EXPECTED SEPT 2021 UPDATED OCT 2020

iPhone

From £699

In October 2020, Apple launched the iPhone 12 family of handsets. The Pro features Apple’s A14 Bionic chip, with either a 6.1-inch or 6.7-inch (Max version) Super Retina XDR all-screen OLED True Tone display, and comes in 128, 256 or 512GB storage options. The 12MP camera system incorporates Ultra Wide, Wide and Telephoto lenses with Portrait mode, plus HDR video with Dolby Vision.

The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini have the same A14 Bionic processor as their pricier sibling, but come in 64, 128 and 256GB storage options. Both boast the Super Retina XDR True Tone display.

The standard screen size is 6.1-inch, while the mini is 5.4-inch. These phones feature 12MP Wide and Ultra Wide cameras, but can also record HDR video with Dolby Vision. All the new iPhone 12 models connect to 5G, and feature Face ID, Apple’s U1 chip and Haptic Touch.

Choose an iPhone

£849

£1,399

MODEL KEY SPECIFICATIONS PRICE 10.2in iPad CAPACITY 32GB £329 PROCESSOR A12 Bionic CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi CAMERA 8MP UNLOCKING Touch ID 10.9in CAPACITY 64GB £579 iPad Air PROCESSOR A14 Bionic CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi CAMERA 12MP UNLOCKING Touch ID 12.9in CAPACITY 128GB £999 iPad Pro PROCESSOR M1 CONNECTIVITY Wi-Fi CAMERA 12MP UNLOCKING Face ID

DNE HGIH

DNE HGIH

iPhone 12 Pro Max (6.7in Super Retina XDR)

PRICE £699

Choose an iPad

REDARGPU

REDARGPU

iPhone 12 (6.1in Super Retina XDR)

KEY SPECIFICATIONS CAPACITY: 64GB PROCESSOR: A14 Bionic FACE ID Yes CAMERA 12MP photos (dual lens), HDR video CAPACITY: 128GB PROCESSOR: A14 Bionic FACE ID Yes CAMERA 12MP photos (dual lens), HDR video CAPACITY: 512GB PROCESSOR: A14 Bionic FACE ID Yes CAMERA 12MP photos (triple lens), 4K video

From £329

In September 2020, Apple brought out the eighth-gen iPad featuring a new six-core A12 Bionic chip. The processor update allows for a Neural Engine to support image processing and Augmented Reality experiences.

Built for iPadOS, the iPad is great at multitasking. You can slide a second app over the right side of the one you’re working on. Picture in Picture enables you to watch video in a corner of the screen. There’s also Split View, which lets you work on two apps side by side. iPad also supports external drives and, since the iOS 14.5 update, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 DualSense controllers for more immersive gaming.

The iPad comes in Gold, Silver and Space Grey with 32GB or 128GB options.

At 490g, it is light yet the recycled aluminium enclosure is one of the most durable built by Apple.

L E V E L YRTNE

L E V E L YRTNE

MODEL iPhone 12 mini (5.4in Super Retina XDR)

iPad

Apple kit STORE GUIDE EXPECTED OCT 2021 UPDATED OCT 2020

iPad Air

From £579 There are changes aplenty for the iPad Air. The larger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display also boasts slimmer bezels. You now get an A14 Bionic chip with Neural Engine for 40% faster performance. The device still uses Touch ID but has replaced the Lightning connector with USB-C. The device is compatible with the secondgen Apple Pencil and the Magic Keyboard with trackpad.

Watch

From £379 (Series 6) The world’s number one smartwatch now boasts an always-on Retina display.

Along with the two size options (40 and 44mm), the EXPECTED SEP 2021 Watch is available in aluminium, UPDATED stainless steel and titanium.

SEPT 2020 The ceramic option has now been discontinued. Along with the W3 and U1 chips, the 64-bit S6 dual-core processor promises to make the watch 20% faster than Series 5, while retaining the same 18-hour battery life.

Series 6 now boasts a blood oxygen sensor and makes the most of the new watchOS 7 features, such as Family Sharing, improved sleep and fitness tracking, and more customisable faces.

AirPods Max

From £549 Apple’s rather expensive over-ear headphones are finally here. The aluminium cups rotate independently, the knitted mesh headband helps reduce on-head pressure, and EXPECTED the Digital Crown helps you to DEC 2021 control your audio with ease. More NEW DEC 2020 importantly, the high-fidelity audio performance is exceptional, and the H1 chip uses computational audio to assist ANC and Transparency mode. In addition, spatial audio with dynamic head tracking ensures that the headphones deliver an immersive experience.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 101

STORE GUIDE Accessories

BEST BUYS… Curated picks of third-party kit DESKTOP SPEAKER

QHD DISPLAY

PORTABLE SPEAKER

Ruark MR1

ViewSonic VP2768a ColorPro

Sonos Roam

Winner of MF357’s head to head, the MR1 speaker set looks and sounds the business. The dome tweeter and longthrow 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.

If you’re looking for a screen for creative colour work, the 100% sRGB VP2768a ColorPro should be a definite contender.

The frameless 27in 2K QHD display offers a 2560x1440 resolution, and a 14-bit 3D lookup table that generates 4.39 trillion colours. In terms of connectivity, there’s an integrated gigabit Ethernet port, USBC, USB3.2 Gen 1 HDMI, and a DisplayPort.

According to Sonos, this is its smartest speaker yet. You get Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, and Alexa and Google Assistant AI. The lightweight but rugged speaker’s extensive feature list includes Sound Swap, throwing sound to the nearest Sonos speaker, and Auto TruePlay, where it automatically tunes itself to the environment. It also sounds great!

£329.99 ruarkaudio.com

IN-EAR WIRLESS EARPHONES

£379 viewsonic.com

HEADPHONES

£159 sonos.com

EXTERNAL SSD

Sony WF-1000XM4

Beats Solo Pro

OWC Envoy Pro FX SSD

The WF-1000XM4 are slightly smaller than their predecessor and the case is 40% smaller – and more ecofriendly. The true wireless earbuds have a good audio ability, support voice-assistant control and the Headphones Connect app provides lots of customisation and ease of use. As well as LDAC, the WF-1000XM4 are compatible with SBC and AAC codecs.

Beats on-ear wireless headphones pack an impressive 40-hour battery life and Active Noise Cancellation.

We love the unfold to power design and sound reproduction is excellent. Powered by Apple’s H1 processor, the Solo Pro also offer simple pairing, Hey Siri detection and audio sharing with iOS 13 or later.

Don’t let the size of this neat little SSD fool you – it’s both tough and efficient.

Not only is it dustand waterproof (IP67), and drop tested to military standards, it boasts blisteringly fast read and write speeds, and the supplied cable is capable of transferring data at 5,000MB/sec over Thunderbolt. Storage capacities range from 240GB to 2TB.

£250 sony.co.uk

KEYBOARD (MAC/iOS)

£269.95 beatsbydre.com

£365.99 (1TB) owcdigital.com

WI-FI ROUTER

MACBOOK BAG

Logitech MX Keys For Mac

Zyxel Multy U WSR30

Hex Technical backpack

If you spend a lot of time at your desk, you’ll know how imperative the right keyboard is. The MX Keys is full size with spherically dished, smooth-touch keys.

The keyboard can pair with up to three Mac or iOS devices, and you can switch between them without having to re-pair.

Battery life is good and the backlight is cleverly triggered by a proximity sensor.

Zyxel’s Multy U mesh router hits the sweet spot, offering great performance at a competitive price, making it ideal for homes and small offices. The AC2100 router offers up to 280Mbps with a range of 6,000sq ft, and the nodes are easy on the eye, too. The companion app comes with helpful speed tests and diagnostic tools, as well as parental controls.

Looking for a bag that hits the sweet spot for generous storage and stylish looks? Look no further. The Hex Technical’s 17.5-litre capacity is made up of device-hugging padded pockets for a MacBook (up to 16in), iPad, power bank and more. The bag is waterproof and has a 1680D Cordura ballistic bottom so it’s also reassuringly rugged.

£99.99 logitech.com

102 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

£199 zyxel.com/uk

$149.95 (about £110) hexbrand.com

Image credits (left to right, top to bottom): Ruark Audio, ViewSonic Corp, Sonos Inc, Sony Europe BV, Apple, Other World Computing Inc, Logitech, Zyxel, Hex

Software STORE GUIDE

BEST BUYS… Curated picks of additional apps PHOTO EDITOR (MAC)

TEXT RECOGNITION (MAC)

NOTE-TAKING (iOS)

Luminar AI

TextSniper

Notability 10

If you want to improve your photos without spending too much, this is the app for you. If you’re worried that you don’t have the know-how for technical image edits, this is also the app for you! The software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse your photos with templates for various categories, instantly enhancing your shot.

And, once the AI has worked its magic, you can make your own easy tweaks.

Not only can TextSniper extract and recognise text from anything you see on your Mac’s screen, it can do so very quickly.

The app can handle just about any type of copy – be it a screenshot, PDF, scanned photo document, and so on. It’s easy to use, works almost instantly, and we’re really impressed with its accuracy. If you need a decent text recognition app, try this excellent affordable option.

Notability is a very flexible note-taking app.

It can combine different mediums, such as illustrations, handwriting and audio recordings, and import PDFs and scan documents. Version 10 also brings an in-house Shop for purchasing additional stickers, themes and features, such as handwriting conversion. The app works well with Apple Pencil and supports a range of cloud-based services.

From £59 skylum.com

TO-DO (MAC/iOS)

£6.99 textsniper.app

DISK UTILITY (MAC)

£8.99 gingerlabs.com

SCANNER/OCR (iOS)

Todoist

Carbon Copy Cloner 6

Genius Scan+

Task management apps should be clear and simple but with features on hand for you to be as productive as possible. Todoist provides that platform, and the Premium £3.99 tier in particular gets our vote. The interface is very easy to navigate and the comprehensive toolset is accessible without being overwhelming. The price includes both Mac and iOS apps, file uploads, and collaborative tools.

If you’re finding Time Machine backups somewhat inflexible, look no further than CCC for your replacement.

Carbon Copy Cloner 6’s comprehensive feature set includes flexible backups, disk cloning and snapshot management. A help book is on hand which also links to the company’s online Knowledge Base, so you’re always assured of access to technical and specialist advice.

Genius Scan uses your iOS device’s camera and processing power to deliver comprehensive scanning and textrecognition capabilities. The free app (Genius Scan 6.0) provides document detection, background removal, distortion correction, as well as the ability to export to PDF and create multi-page PDFs, but the £7.99 Genius Scan+ (available as an IAP) introduces a superb OCR engine.

From Free todoist.com

PHOTO EDITOR (iOS)

Pixelmator

£4.99 pixelmator.com Pixelmator is a fullyfledged layer-based photo editor, graphic design and painting app.

It offers over 100 brushes, dozens of tools and 32 blending modes giving you full control, all for a really affordable price. The app works with iCloud to sync all your projects across devices including Mac. It also supports formats like PSD, PNG and JPEG, making it the best app for all your graphic needs.

£29.45 bombich.com

CALENDAR & TASKS (MAC/iOS)

Fantastical 3

From £3.25 per month flexibits.com If your calendar and reminders are getting out of control, Fantastical can sort things out. It has support for natural language entry, so you can enter events and reminders as you would say them. It’s got a nifty menu bar shortcut, plus a great interface, clever calendar management and a powerful iOS app. Its predecessor won MF338’s group test.

Image credits (left to right, top to bottom): Skylum, Valerijs Boguckis, Ginger Labs, Doist Inc, Bombich Software Inc, The Grizzly Labs, Pixelmator, Flexibits, Readdle

£7.99 thegrizzlylabs.com

EMAIL MANAGER (MAC/iOS)

Spark

Free sparkmailapp.com Feeling inbox anxiety?

The solution could be Spark, our favourite iPhone email app after winning MF340’s group test. Its ‘smart inbox’ prioritises emails based on perceived importance – no more vital messages getting lost in a sea of spam. You can snooze messages to be reminded about them later, and search your mailboxes using natural language. And to top it all off, it’s free.

OCTOBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 103

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NEXT ISSUE

iOS 15 Superguide Everything you need to know about Apple’s next iOS update PLUS: Must-try tips and tricks

> The next big update for your Mac is coming – here’s how to make sure you’re ready for the big day!

Back to basics

> Master Parental Controls and Family Sharing – in-depth guide

ALSO INSIDE…

> Create your own macOS shortcuts > Group test: portable printers > Master the Files app on iPad … and much more!

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PageMaker RANDOM APPLE MEMORY

Charlotte Henry looks back at how PageMaker – and Apple – helped launch the desktop publishing industry Now discontinued, PageMaker played a crucial role in the evolution of desktop publishing.

B

ack in July 1985, Aldus PageMaker 1.0 was released for the Macintosh. Along with the LaserWriter printer it helped create the modern desktop publishing industry, with Apple devices right at the heart of it. (A version of the software for IBM PC didn’t start shipping until January 1987, and the PC release of subsequent versions tended to trail behind those for the Mac.) Indeed, Apple and Aldus played off each other, with the former’s ground-breaking graphical interface the perfect platform on which to use design software like PageMaker.

The popularity of PageMaker also helped drive Macintosh sales in the late 80s and the two firms worked closely together for years.

PageMaker 1.0 included key features, such as free-form drag and drop to position page elements and a variety of type and drawing tools. It also let you import text and graphics, including EPS files, from third-party applications. Crucially, PageMaker offered native support for Adobe’s PostScript page description language, which had been released in 1984 and translated digital documents to printed ones. You could now see on paper what you had created on screen!

106 | MACFORMAT | OCTOBER 2021

Indeed, Adobe eventually bought PageMaker and other assets from Aldus in 1994.

Early versions of PageMaker were generally well received by the relevant industries. For instance, Version 3.0. was released in March 1988 and earned a ‘Distinction’ at the BYTE awards the following year. The magazine said that it remained “one of the finest desktop publishing packages” and “the program that showed many of us how to use the Macintosh to its full potential.”

The last major standalone PageMaker release came with version 7.0 in 2001. This only works on devices running macOS 9 or earlier – there was no active support for Mac OS X and in January 2004, Adobe discontinued development of the software. Instead, a PageMaker Plug-Pack was initially made available for InDesign, before key PageMaker features became available as part of InDesign CS2.

ABOUT CHARLOTTE HENRY

Charlotte Henry is a journalist and author covering media and technology. Based in London, she is the UK Associate of The Mac Observer, hosts its Media+ podcast, and has written for various other outlets. Her first book, Not Buying It, was published in 2019.

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