f7u 5d

Issue 368 September 2021 macformat.com @macformat

Mac tips galore! > 108 pages of help & advice

iPHONE

Do more with HomePod mini >Smart speaker tips and tricks

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

Twelve South accessories, prizes worth

Shoot incredible portraits, landscapes and more How to edit, organise and share images on your Mac

From zero to hero

Get started with Keynote

Master presentations

ViewSonic 2K display Sony WF-1000XM4 Eero 6 mesh Wi-Fi

Mac

iPad

ISSUE 368

iPhone

Watch

iCloud

Music

PRINTED IN THE UK £6.49

Photos

Your iPhone’s not only a powerful pocket computer, but a brilliant photo taker too – and to prove it this month’s lead feature (p20) will show you how! You’ll discover all kinds of tips, tricks and techniques to help you shoot landscapes, portraits and more, as well as how to finesse them on your Mac using the Photos app and the best third-party extensions.

When you’ve done that, turn to p62, where we reveal how Apple turned its TV ‘hobby’ into the streaming colossus it is today, and in MacFormat Investigates (p16) we examine whether Apple TV+ and services like Apple Music, News+, Fitness+ and Apple Arcade are worth the cash.

Continuing our series of Beginner’s Guides, our five-page introduction to Keynote (p71) should help get your creative juices flowing, and we also look at the six of the best outdoor speakers (p84) as well as some super apps for summer (p96).

If that weren’t enough, we have 24 pages of how-tos and Genius Tips, where you’ll discover – among other things – how to perform live music with your Mac, set up and use Emergency SOS, and how Apple Pencil works. Plus we have all the latest Apple news and reviews, including what you can expect from the next iPhone 12s or iPhone 13 update.

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

Meet the team

ROB MEAD-GREEN EDITOR editor@macformat.com

macformatuk.tumblr.com

facebook.com/macformat

Jo Membery Operations Editor

Jo’s been grappling with spatial audio. “I’ve seen Alien,” she says. “Surely in space no-one can hear you scream?” We’re now all screaming internally.

Paul Blachford

Art Editor

Paul no longer has to ask where his daughter, Lauren, has been. He can tell from her photos – as this month’s incredible cover image shows.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! & GET A GREAT FREE GIFT WORTH £50 TURN TO PAGE 34

twitter.com/macformat

Instagram.com/MacFormatUK SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 3

Issue 368 September 2021 macformat.com

iPHONE UPDATE

06 What to expect from

Apple’s next handset

APPLE CORE 6 RUMOUR & NEWS

The latest updates from Cupertino and beyond

9 APPS & GAMES

Our top picks of the month for Mac and iOS

10 CRAVE

iPHONE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

Shoot incredible portraits, landscapes and more

20

The hot new kit we’re lusting after

12 FACTS & FIGURES The M1 iMac in numbers

13 LETTERS

Have your say on all things Apple related

14 OPINION

On Apple software updates vs actual hardware

16 MACFORMAT INVESTIGATES Apple’s shift to the world of services

15

One of three Twelve South accessory bundles for your Apple devices

4 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

& GET A GREAT FREE GIFT WORTH £50

TURN TO PAGE 34

Issue 368 CONTENTS 40 Improve your photos

APPLE SKILLS

FEATURE>

62

How Apple’s TV ‘hobby’ went from zero to hero and revolutionised TV

38 PLAY LIVE WITH YOUR MAC Take your Mac and your music on stage

40 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOS

Use lookup tables to adjust colours and tones

42 USE MICROSOFT TEAMS

Chat, meet and share with friends and family

44 USE HANDOFF & CONTINUITY Make your Apple devices work in harmony

46 SAVE ARTICLES FOR LATER

Put the www’s reading material in your pocket

48 SET UP EMERGENCY SOS

Get help when your need it on Apple devices

50 GIVE YOUR MUSIC A SPIN

Get into a retro turntable vibe with Vinyls

FEATURE>

71

BACK TO BASICS

Create the perfect presentation in Apple’s Keynote

52 HOMEPOD MINI TIPS

Make the most of Apple’s scaled-down speaker

54 HOW IT WORKS

56

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

REVIEW 78 Sony WF-1000XM4 HARDWARE 78 Sony WF-1000XM4 80 Amazon eero 6 81 Rapoo 9500M Multi-Mode Desktop Set 82 ViewSonic VP2768a ColorPro 84 Group test: Portable Bluetooth speakers SOFTWARE 90 Carbon Copy Cloner 6 92 F-Secure TOTAL 93 Genius Scan+, TouchRetouch 94 Fantasian 95 Head to head: Yoga apps 96 6 best apps to make the most of the summer

96

Apple Pencil: the clever capacitive stylus

GENIUS TIPS

APPLE CHOICE

6 BEST APPS

76

BACK ISSUES

Head here if you’ve missed an issue

To make the most of the summer 98 STORE GUIDE

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

105 NEXT MONTH

What’s coming in MF369 on 24 August

106 RANDOM APPLE MEMORY A look back at the PowerBook family

SEPTEMBER 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

12 FACTS & FIGURES

The M1 iMac in numbers

13 LETTERS

Have your say on all things Apple related

14 OPINION

On Apple software updates vs actual hardware

16 MACFORMAT INVESTIGATES

The wide range of Apple services

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

iEverything Phonewe13know HOT TOPIC!

As the launch date nears, here’s what you can expect

T

he next iPhone is only a few short months away, but we may already know a thing or two about what to expect. Here, we have collated together all the key news and rumours.

We should probably start with the name, as this is a little contentious. According to Taiwan’s Economic Daily News (EDN), the next iPhone will be dubbed the iPhone 13. There has been plenty of speculation that Apple might instead opt to call the device the iPhone 12s, apparently to allay the worries of superstitious users, but those claims now look to be in doubt. The EDN report also noted Apple will release four variants with the same screen sizes as the

6 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

current iPhone 12 range. That means a 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini, 6.1-inch iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro models, and a 6.7-inch iPhone 13 Pro Max. What about rumours that the iPhone mini is on the way out? Well, those look to be partially true, although it will have one last swansong in the iPhone 13 range. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that the iPhone 14 range, however, will omit an iPhone 14 mini model and replace it with an iPhone 14 Max, with the same features of the iPhone 14 but in a larger size.

While the display sizes are likely to remain the same this year, the devices might get slightly thicker. Japanese site Mac Otakara believes we could see a jump of around

MacBook Pro update later this year T

he MacBook Pro has been doing the rounds of the rumour mill for months, with a wide-ranging redesign highly anticipated, but it looks like we will have even longer to wait for it to arrive. Several leakers and analysts have posited that the new laptops will be launched around late summer or early autumn, where before they were expected around the middle of the year.

Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has said that the MacBook Pro is coming “later 0.26mm, plus a slight weight increase thanks to larger batteries.

Longer-lasting performance

Apple’s device chips are the best in the industry, and it’s a dead cert that the iPhone 13 will get an improved chip, probably named the A15. This is expected to use a tweaked 5nm (nanometre) process to boost performance.

Elsewhere, the built-in magnets used for MagSafe could be increased in size to improve charging or perhaps facilitate reverse wireless charging (where the iPhone charges other devices inductively), although that is unlikely to occur this year.

We do expect to see larger batteries, improved 5G performance and the introduction of Wi-Fi 6E, though, based on numerous rumours and sources.

The next models? We're expecting longer battery life, improved 5G and the introduction of Wi-Fi 6E.

THE POLL WE ASKED…

this year”. He previously stated it would launch in summer, which runs until 21 September; that lines up with a new report from DigiTimes, which claims we should expect a reveal in the third quarter of 2021, which runs from 1 July until 30 September.

There are dissenting voices. Taiwan’s Economic Daily News predicts an October or November launch date, while Twitter leaker dylandkt has claimed the same time window. Time will tell, but either way it looks like there is still plenty of time to go.

Other improvements

Plenty of changes could be coming to the camera systems, on both the Pro and non-Pro versions. Leaker EverythingApplePro has claimed to have received official CAD renders of the upcoming phones, and these show a much larger camera array than on existing models (something possibly confirmed by leaked third-party iPhone case designs).

Rumours have been floating around that Apple is planning to increase the sensor size and bring sensor-shift image stabilisation to the Wide and Ultra Wide cameras on both the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max (currently it only exists on the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s wide camera).

On the front, the notch at the top of the iPhone will likely see some changes too.

According to various sources and leakers, the notch is expected to shrink down in size, in part by moving the earpiece higher up into the iPhone’s bezel. That is good news if you find the notch to be a little intrusive.

As for the display, Apple could finally introduce the 120Hz ProMotion tech that has been rumoured for so long. This offers much smoother scrolling than Apple’s standard device screens, and made its debut in the 2017 iPad Pro but has not yet made the jump to any other devices.

This year, that could change.

Lots of changes, then, but expect an evolution rather than revolution of the iPhone line this year.

Which macOS Monterey feature are you most excited about?:

New-look Safari

Universal Control

New FaceTime features

Shortcuts for Mac

26.5%

23.5%

14.7%

35.3%

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

HomePod firmware causing overheating > HomePod users have recently been feeling the heat – literally – as an AppleSeed beta for the now-discontinued speaker has apparently been causing devices to overheat and fail. The problem was first documented on Reddit, where a user explained their HomePod was hot on top and worried the logic board could fail.

While HomePod does not use developer or public betas, users can be invited to special AppleSeed betas. Unfortunately, HomePod users have no way of reverting to an earlier version of the software once it is installed.

A reminder of why you should not install beta software on primary devices: things can go wrong!

A HomePod beta update has allegedly caused units to overheat and fail.

APPLE NEWS ROUNDUP 3NM CHIPS IN iPAD PRO POSSIBLY ARRIVING IN 2022

> The global chip shortage has been ravaging the tech industry, but Apple is at the head of the queue for parts. Chipmaker TSMC has announced Apple and Intel will be the first adopters of its 3nm (nanometre) chips, which could debut in the iPad Pro as soon as next year (and other Apple devices later).

That could offer a big step up in performance over the 5nm chips in the current iPad Pro’s M1 chip.

AVOID THIS NETWORK NAME! COULD DISABLE iPHONE WI-FI

> Want to rename your Wi-Fi network?

Avoid calling it: “%secretclub%power” (without the quotes), as this might cause serious trouble with your iOS device. The discovery was made by security researcher Carl Schou, who said the network name can cause a bug that permanently disables Wi-Fi on your phone. Schou previously found the “%p%s%s%s%s%n” network name to be a troublemaker too, but that issue was fixable.

In iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey, you will be able to share content across devices much more easily.

Apple launches public betas Try out new features in iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey L

ooking forward to experiencing some of the new features in Apple’s upcoming software for iPhone, iPad and Mac? You’re in luck, because Apple has launched the public betas of iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey, full of updates and new tools for your devices.

Be warned, though, that since these are all beta versions, they will contain bugs and unexpected behaviour, so make sure you back up first and do not install them on your primary devices lest something goes wrong.

All three operating systems contain features that emphasise cross-compatibility and shared working. For example, SharePlay

is a new tool to help you share content with other people on a FaceTime call. In the beta it only works with Apple’s TV and Music apps, but Apple is letting third-party developers build it into their own apps.

Another interesting new feature is Universal Control. When you place an iPad or Mac next to another Mac, Universal Control kicks in and lets you move your pointer from one device to another with no setup required, just like a built-in KVM switch.

Apple is planning to release iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey in the autumn. If you want to try the betas, you will need to sign up at beta.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

Apple wins key privacy battle Chinese developers back down after attempting workaround W

hen Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) revealed the company’s intention to enable users to choose whether apps could track them on their devices, developers in China leapt into action.

Earlier in 2021, news emerged that developers like TikTok’s ByteDance and WeChat’s Tencent were working on a new advertising framework called CAID, which could bypass ATT and enable app-makers to continue tracking users, even if denied permission to do.

However, Apple moved quickly to thwart CAID, blocking App Store updates to apps caught using it. The

8 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

action has seemingly had the desired effect, as the Financial Times has now reported that CAID is essentially dead in the water, writing: “Several people in China and Hong Kong said that, following Apple’s retaliation, CAID lost support and the whole project failed to gain traction.”

Interestingly, it seems that ATT is now pushing advertisers to direct more money towards Android rather than spend it on iOS. Android does not feature privacy protections as stringent as iOS does, which is perhaps unsurprising seeing as it is developed and maintained by Google, whose entire business model relies on harvesting vast amounts of user data.

CAID was seen as a major dilemma for Apple as denying it risked irking the Chinese government. In the end, it wasn’t a problem.

Apps & games APPLE CORE

Media Picks

APP OF THE MONTH

What you should be playing and reading this month

[A L B U M]

The Golden Casket

Squash 3$39.99 (about £24.30) Juice up your image batch-processing work [MAC APP]

Editing reams of images individually can quickly become a chore, especially if they all need to be edited in the same way.

There’s no need to struggle on, though, as Realmac’s Squash has had a significant update to version 3, and can do the hard work for you.

Just drag and drop your images into Squash, tell it what to do, then let it get started.

It’s super simple to use – perfect for when

Modest Mouse £9.99

you’re trying to get a tedious task done quickly.

The latest update brings a new design, preset actions, straightforward file name workflows, plus a host of new tools. It also integrates photo filters from Realmac’s Analog app, works with multiple files at once, and can now convert HEIC files into more universally compatible extensions like JPG and PNG. So, if you have a ton of images to edit but are intimidated by the workload, try Squash 3.

The Golden Casket is a tactile, sample-heavy exploration of ideas and influences, from the tumult of 2020 to frontman Isaac Brock becoming a father.

[AUDIOBO OK]

How to Save a Life Eva Carter £7.99

[iOS APP]

Pin Drop

[iOS GAME]

[MAC GAME]

FREE

Baba Is You

Apple Maps lets you pin locations, but they’re largely unorganised. Pin Drop steps in to bring order to this situation. You can group pins by tag and add the best ones to your favourites, while everything is encrypted securely and privately. A complete app redesign has brought it up to date, too.

Why you need it: Organise your favourite places.

£6.99

Baba Is You is one of the best-loved puzzle games on the Mac, and now makes its debut on iOS. Each level has its rules posted on a series of blocks. The twist? You can manipulate these blocks to change the rules, unlocking new ways to complete each level. Work outside the box if you want to get ahead.

Why you need it: It rewards clever, lateral thinking.

£4.99/month (Apple Arcade)

Solitaire may be hundreds of years old, but this game proves there are still new ways to play it. Solitaire Stories has you progress through a series of levels, each with their own backstory, difficulty level, deck designs, soundtrack, and more. It’s a fresh and fun way to play a card classic.

Why you need it: It’s a modern take on Solitaire.

Image credits (left to right, top to bottom): Realmac Software, Epic Records, Pan Macmillan, Salucia Ltd, Hempuli Oy, Red Games Co, Global

Solitaire Stories

Three friends discover that saving a life is just the beginning, and over the next 20 years, Joel, Kerry and Tim are repeatedly drawn back to that one fateful night.

[PODCAST]

If It Bleeds, It Leads

What goes on inside the minds of criminals?

This podcast interviews convicts, police officers, investigators and experts in order to lift the veil.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 9

Crave

APPLE CORE Hot new kit

THE GEAR WE’RE LUSTING AFTER

1

XGIMI Horizon Pro > £1,699 > uk.xgimi.com > This surprisingly affordable compact projector throws a full–fat 4K HDR picture up to 300 inches in size. It’s based on the True 4K pixel shifting system which uses a non-4K image sensor to create the 8.3 million distinct pixels required for a 4K picture. Brightness is 2,200 ANSI lumens with an LED light source rated at 30,000 hours. There’s also a neat AI image-sensing system which

autofocuses and auto keystone corrects the picture. The 20.8x21.8x13.6cm body has an aluminium frame with a 16W Harman Kardon speaker system, and is Bluetooth-enabled for wireless music streaming. Apps are available via the Android TV 10 OS which uses Google Assistant voice control, or hook it up straight to your TV streamer of choice.

2

Linn Klimax DSM > From £30,000 > linn.co.uk > Just wow. Wow to the looks of Linn’s Klimax DSM, which absolutely maintains the company’s reputation for high-end uniqueness and irrepressible class. The network music player’s machined aluminium frame hosts a mirror-hidden display, and a cut-glass dial floating on a brass bearing with 100 indicator lights shining through. Wow to the quality of the internals, all designed to be completely 10 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

isolated from room vibrations and, indeed, between the digital, analogue, and digital power stages. And wow to Linn’s DAC innovation, abandoning thirdparty chips for the first time in order to debut its own Organik architecture, based around an FPGA processor, a discrete D/A converter, and Linn’s ultra-precise in-house circuit board layout tech.

The Klimax DSM is a premium music streamer, ready for 24–bit 384kHz and DSD256 transport.

Image credits: XGIMI, Linn Products Ltd

Top gear APPLE CORE 3

LG SP11RA Soundbar > £1,449.98 > lg.com/uk > LG’s soundbar and TV departments are drawing ever closer with its 2021 range, which universally supports the company’s AI Sound Pro feature. This makes for easy switching between sources, and shares the TV’s sound modes and audio processing capabilities with the soundbars for optimal output.

There’s a host of new models, each

carrying hi-res certification, tuning by Meridian Audio, and both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X compatibility. The premier entry is the SP11RA. It’s a booming 770W 7.1.4 channel setup, including up-firing speakers in its rear satellites for huge 3D audio, and 4K passthrough with Dolby Vision support.

4

Master & Dynamic MW08 True Wireless > £279 > masterdynamic.co.uk > We can see the MW08’s ceramic-coated earpieces becoming a new in-ear style icon, particularly in their blue spin. The fact that those angular cases coddle a set of serious 11mm beryllium drivers means they sound superb, too. And then there’s the tech package, which includes Bluetooth 5.2 with subtle

external aluminium antennas, a six-mic array for clearer talking, and sound-tweaking smarts including customisable EQ, and two modes of ANC and two modes of transparency.

You should get around 12 hours’ play time before the MW08s need to hit the striking charging case, or 10 hours with ANC.

5

LG UltraWide 34WN780 > £519.98 > lg.com/uk > The LG Ergo concept first showed up on a pair of UltraFine displays last year, and it has obviously gone down well. LG has now brought the concept to a pair of its UltraGear series of gaming monitors and this, the 21:9 UltraWide 34WN780. The Ergo system replaces the traditional monitor Image credits: LG Electronics ,Master & Dynamic

stand with an arm that bolts onto the back of your desk, offering you the chance to reclaim a bunch of tabletop space and position the screen at a precise height and distance. The actual monitor part isn’t half bad either, with HDR10 and FreeSync support,

99% of the sRGB color gamut covered, a 3440x1440 resolution and a price which, while not outrageously cheap, is on the more affordable end of extra-wide screens.

SEPTEMBER 2021 MACFORMAT | 11

APPLE CORE Facts & Figures

The M1 iMac Apple’s cute and colourful iMac is more than just a pretty face. It has the horsepower too, as this numerical rundown reveals

Maximum data transfer speed of the iMac’s two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. Step-up models have two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports offering up to 10Gb/s.

Total number of pixels in the iMac’s 4.5K Retina display, which has a resolution of 4480x2520 at 218 pixels per inch.

Depth of the iMac’s super-slim chassis, which houses the entire computer and its display inside its slender frame.

100%

Maximum amount of solid-state storage available on the M1 iMac, although most models ship with a 256GB or 512GB SSD.

The iMac is one of Apple’s greenest ever devices – using 100% recycled rare earth elements in its magnets, 100% recycled tin in its solder and is made using 100% renewable energy.

12 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

5,000m

Maximum operating altitude of the iMac – so if you plan to lug it up Mont Blanc (4,810m), it should still work when you get there (power supply issues notwithstanding).

The number of cores in the M1’s Neural Engine. The iMac can also be specced with an 8-core CPU and an 8-core GPU as well as up to 16GB of memory, all mounted on a single System on Chip (SoC).

6

Number of speakers inside the iMac, comprising two pairs of force-cancelling woofers and a pair of tweeters for a rich, rewarding soundstage.

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! I WISH I WAS SPATIAL

In MF 367 Matt Bolton states: “This issue, I wanted to write about spatial audio, because it’s just arrived in the Music app as I write this, yet only a fraction of people who see that Dolby Atmos logo next to songs will be able to try it, because it remains limited to AirPods Pro and AirPods Max owners so far.” This isn’t true. Apple states on its website that if you wish to experience spatial audio with a non-Apple headphone simply toggle Settings > Music > Dolby Atmos to Always On.

Dolby ATMOS

BY SCOTT FILE

ROB SAYS… Both you and Matt are right. The confusion occurs because while Dolby Atmos, on its own, will work on any headphones, Apple’s spatial audio does not. This means that to enjoy spatial audio with Dolby Atmos (as Apple calls it), you do indeed need either AirPods Pro or AirPods Max.

THAT SYNCING FEELING

For many years, my iPhones have not synced properly to my Mac. Either it never happens or only intermittently. Having changed my 2010 iMac for a 2020 iMac the situation has not changed.

I have searched online and found this n LETTER OF is very common, yet none of the suggested THE MONTH solutions work. I have switched on and off all manner of ways, logged in and out, Win an AirFly Pro! inchecked all the settings, etc. Often my The author of our Letter iPhone shows two iMacs as text forwarding of the Month receives a targets though I now only have one. prize! Email us for your This looks like a longstanding problem chance to win an AirFly for a lot of people, so something fairly Pro – the wireless fundamental is wrong. Can this be fixed? headphone Bluetooth It is not a big deal in the great scheme transmitter, perfect for of things, but… use with Apple’s AirPods

BY GEOFF MOORE and AirPods Pro. Find out more at twelvesouth.com.

ROB SAYS… We’ve experienced this too, on different machines and at different times. The usual solution is to turn everything off and on again, but as you say that’s no guarantee.

Hopefully, the next OS updates from Apple will finally put this issue to bed.

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

iPHONE VS PACEMAKER

My wife has recently been fitted with a pacemaker further to a heart operation.

However, reading a US website recently, I note that the latest iPhone 12 can interfere with a person’s pacemaker. I gather Apple has issued a warning about the risk.

This was news to the hospital team involved with my wife’s pacemaker — but they provided no guidance. Do you have any info?

BY COLIN STEVENS

ROB SAYS… The MagSafe tech used in the iPhone 12 relies on magnets to work – and this can cause interference on some medical devices.

However, while US researchers did raise the alarm – which led to Apple issuing its guidance at bit.ly/mac368magmed – the risks may be overstated. The best advice is to talk to your GP or pacemaker clinic.

DIGITAL EDITION BACKUP

I subscribe to the digital edition of MacFormat, downloaded to my iPad. As I’ll be continuing this arrangement, the downloads will take up more of its storage. I can’t find the files using the Files app. Where are they stored and can they be moved to iCloud?

BY ROY DARCY

ROB SAYS… The issues are encrypted within the app, so there’s no way to store them in iCloud. You can, however, remove any issues you’ve read within the app and redownload them later.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 13

APPLE CORE Opinion

MATT BOLTON… IS WONDERING WHAT’S SUPPOSED TO FILL THE AIRPODS AND HOMEPOD-SHAPED HOLE IN APPLE’S CURRENT FEATURE LIST

T

rite as it is to say it at this point, Apple’s strength is its ability to mix hardware and software, and offer features that either don’t work as well (or at all) when they’re tried by other companies that don’t have that level of integration.

Sometimes, you look at a product differently after a big software update – or maybe even a software update to a totally different product – as suddenly new options are revealed.

But this year, I found myself experiencing a new sensation: watching Apple announce features, and thinking that the product they seem clearly designed for doesn’t actually exist. Yet. First was the push for spatial audio in more areas during WWDC. It’s coming to Apple TV! It’s already in Apple Music Dolby Atmos tracks! But all stereo tracks will be upgraded with it too! It was an awful lot of fanfare that currently works with exactly two pairs of headphones in the world, and both are rather niche, given that the AirPods Pro are the cheaper option and have an RRP of £250. As the next version of regular AirPods are kind of an open secret at this point, and are said to have spatial audio support, the whole rigamarole would have had a lot more effect if those were actually available to bring this feature at an affordable price. Instead, it just felt awkward, like there was one band member who was too hungover to turn up to the show.

It was even more odd with the second rather large Apple product hole, which actually came during the announcement of the new Apple TV 4K. You see, the Apple TV has a very clever feature, which is to take audio from your TV (and anything connected to it), and send it over AirPlay. That means you can turn your HomePods into home cinema no matter what video source Word is that AirPods 3 will basically borrow the speakers you’re using! (Previously, you could Pro’s design, but will lack noise cancellation. only do this with things you were Sounds like a good upgrade.

It feels like we’re getting features for products that don’t yet exist

14 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

As of the time of writing, there’s an entire feature of Apple TV that you can’t buy any hardware to access.

watching on the Apple TV box.) And with Dolby Atmos advanced audio, no less.

Brilliant! With the small wrinkle that Apple had discontinued the HomePod – its only Dolby Atmos speaker product – a couple of weeks before. And HomePod mini isn’t Atmos-capable, or even compatible with the home theatre audio feature (again, yet).

So… who is this feature for? Existing HomePod owners? That’s fine, as long as you have a pair you want to use together.

And now that those 150 people are happy (I kid, I kid), who else?

Just like it felt as though there should have been new cheaper AirPods for spatial audio, it seems like there was supposed to be a HomePod 2, or an Apple soundbar (HomeBar?) that this feature pairs with.

Of course, we are living in strange times, so who knows what may have happened behind the scenes. Hopefully something will fill in the blanks for us soon enough.

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”. macformat.com @macformat

PRIZES WORTH

In association with

£810

Win

One of three Twelve South accessory bundles for your Apple devices

Over the last 18 months, we have all had to adjust to new working conditions. But getting your home office set up quickly does not necessarily mean it is set up optimally. Luckily, Twelve South is here to help with an outstanding prize package for all your devices – and three lucky winners will each win a bundle.

First is the Curve, a beautiful MacBook stand that makes working from home simple and painless.

Instead of hunching over your laptop and ending up with back strain, place your MacBook on the Curve and it rests

HOW TO ENTER…

comfortably at eye level. Just pair it with a keyboard and mouse or trackpad and you’re good to go.

For your iPhone, we have the Twelve South Forté, a superb desktop stand for your MagSafe charger that allows you to use your iPhone handsfree while charging. You can also use it to charge your AirPods or AirPods Pro. The third addition to this bundle is the HoverBar Duo. This clever iPad holder can carry your tablet at multiple angles and works as a stand or by connecting to an overhead fixture.

It’s so good, we awarded it our Editor’s Choice award in MF365.

> To enter, you can visit our website at bit.ly/MFTwelveSouth (web address is case sensitive). > For full terms and conditions, go to bit.ly/MFTwelveSouth. 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 Published Limited and carefully selected third parties, if you have given us permission to do so on the entry form. > This competition closes on 23 August 2021. Over 18, GB residents only. > The winners’ details will be shared with Twelve South for the purpose of providing prizes.

Rounding out the prize pool is Twelve South’s StayGo, which offers a host of ports in a neat, sturdy USB-C hub. You get 4K HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, 3x USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, a microSD slot, plus 85W of passthrough power. You’ll never be without the ports you need again.

QUESTION >ToTHE be in with a chance of winning one

of three Twelve South bundles for your Apple gear, just answer this question:

How much passthrough power does the Twelve South StayGo USB-C hub offer?

A) 50W B) 70W C) 85W

> For more information about Twelve South and the company’s other products for your Apple devices, head to the company’s website at twelvesouth.com.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 15

For our latest subscription offer see page 34!

INVESTIGATES

Apple Music, Apple TV+ and more

Apple has been broadening its horizons with a range of services and curated content.

Why Apple is all about services – and which ones are worth your time (and money) WRITTEN BY CHARLOTTE HENRY ne of the major strategic shifts undertaken by Apple is offering an increasing range of services alongside the hardware it has long be known for. Apple TV+, launched in November 2019, gets much of the publicity thanks to the presence of global superstars (Oprah, Prince Harry, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon…) and breakout shows (Ted Lasso, Defending Jacob).

However, there is much more to Apple’s service ecosystem, with offerings covering everything from storage to music to fitness. It’s certainly comprehensive, which can all leave you wondering what-is-what, and what is worth spending money on.

O

16 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Apple TV+ Apple TV+ launched in 2019, with the

television and movie streaming service attracting inevitable comparisons with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. There is, however, an important difference between Apple’s service and its rivals – TV+ (almost) exclusively offers originals.

With cinemas once again welcoming keen movie-goers, some of the films purchased by Apple will appear on the big screen as well as in the home, but series like The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, and For All Mankind, are not available elsewhere. This ‘originals only’ approach initially led to criticism that the library of content was too small.

And it was. This has significantly

improved over the nearly two years that have followed. There is now a wide range of content for both adults and children, including dramas, comedies and documentaries, with more to come.

It’s all at a very competitive price point of £5.99 per month too, cheaper than most rivals, and many new devices come with three free months of Apple TV+.

Apple News+

Apple News+ is perhaps one of the company’s more underrated services. It provides subscribers with digital access to hundreds of high-quality newspapers and magazines – including this one!

Most regular magazine readers will be able to find a few publications of interest within the service, and the magazines

Apple Arcade boasts some really beautiful – and challenging – games, such as Chameleon Run!

are redesigned to look good in a digital format, this is not just about flicking through a PDF. That said, at £9.99 per month, News+ is one of the more expensive Apple services and is certainly not for everyone. Note that although News+ is found within the News app, the two should not be confused. The app itself supplies some content from partners for free as well as acting like a glorified RSS reader by enabling you to follow publications and topics.

Apple Music If Apple TV+ is the Netflix competitor,

Music is the Spotify challenger. It costs £9.99 per month for an individual membership, £14.99 per month for a family membership and £4.99 per month Image credit: Noodlecake Studios

if you’re a student. Apple Music has a library of 75 million tracks, all of which are going to become available in lossless for those audiophiles who notice such things and have the appropriate hardware. Spatial audio, essentially Apple’s version of surround sound, is available on some tracks too, initially via AirPods Pro and Max. However, those are not the things that will make a difference when choosing between Apple Music or Spotify. The curated playlists offered by Apple are really fantastic – promoting new artists, compiling top tracks from certain genres and building up collections of tracks based on your listening history. The ability to listen back to shows on Apple Music One and the other Apple radio stations (free

Apple Music has a library of 75 million tracks all of which are going to be available in lossless.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 17

APPLE CORE News feature The Fitness+ team of motivators will be sure to offer a workout regime that suits you.

users can only listen live) is also excellent, with big names like Zane Lowe (formerly of BBC Radio 1), Lady Gaga and Elton John all presenting shows. Unlike Spotify, Apple Music does not integrate podcasts. If you’re interested in such content, head instead to the Podcasts app where you can also see if any of the recently unveiled Podcasts+ paywalled content is of value, the pricing of which is decided on a show-by-show basis.

Apple Fitness+

Apple Fitness+ is a workout service designed around the Apple Watch that offers a wide range of sessions for all body types and abilities. In typical Apple fashion, the content is glossy and impeccably produced whilst integrating different aspects of Apple’s hardware and software ecosystem. This includes Time to Walk – walking workouts designed to be inspirational and narrated by an array of high-profile stars. Users need an Apple Watch and AirPods (or other compatible Bluetooth headphones).

The music playlists are also available through the Fitness app and Apple Music.

There is, of course, a host of alternative workout content available across a range of platforms – not least for free on YouTube.

Fitness+, with that high-end production and chirpy, recognisable trainers, is though seemingly designed to take on Peloton. The thing that makes Fitness+ standout is the integration with the Apple Watch. You get data like your heart rate live on screen 18 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

What’s in the Apple One bundles? >

alongside progress about hitting your activity targets, known as ‘closing your rings’. After an initially free three months, Fitness+ costs £9.99 per month or £79.99 for a year.

Individual

Apple Arcade is a service that offers a range of classic and original games. It has certainly developed since its initial launch in September 2019, when it was just focused on originals. By April 2021, there were 180 games on offer to subscribers including ‘Timeless Classics’ like Backgammon and ‘App Store Greats’ like Fruit Ninja.

As with TV+, Apple has given a competitive price point to Arcade – £4.99 per month after a month’s free trial. That’s the same as Google’s Play Pass, although that has a £29.99 annual offer too. As with all service subscription it works across multiple Apple devices, so you can choose whether to play on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. There is now plenty available, even for casual gamers, but you

> £14.95 > 50GB iCloud storage,

TV+, Arcade, Music

Family

> £19.95 > 200GB of iCloud Storage,

TV+, Arcade and Apple Music Family Sharing.

Premier

> £29.95 > Everything in the Family

Bundle, but iCloud storage is 2TB and Fitness+ and News+ are also included.

Apple Arcade

Apple Arcade is well priced and has some great games on offer but your favourite game might not be included…

Apple services APPLE CORE

After a pretty chilly reception and a limited catalogue of content, Apple TV+ now has some standout original material on offer.

Apple News+ gives you access to a broad range of publications – and keeps you on top of the news.

2020, Apple bundled its services into a package called Apple One. There are actually three different versions of Apple One – Individual, Family and Premier. These cost £14.95, £19.95, and £29.95 per month respectively (see ‘What’s in the Apple One bundles’ for what is included with each).

Of course, their value to you depends on the services you actually want or need, but each bundle is cheaper than buying all of the services within it by themselves. The Individual tier costs £21.96 à la carte, the Family one £28.96 and the Premier tier £55.94. It is also really easy to shift your current subscriptions to a bundle – simply go to Settings > [your name] > Subscriptions on your iPhone or iPad and you can pick the bundle that’s best for you. Any current subscriptions are automatically ended and refunds for any outstanding time on them is issued automatically too, meaning you won’t pay twice for anything for any period of time.

With Apple News+, you can even listen to your magazine articles rather than read them.

probably need to play a variety of games pretty frequently to get real value from it, plus your favourite game might not be included.

iCloud iCloud is, as the name suggests, a cloud

storage tool. Think Dropbox if Apple made it.

Boring, right? Maybe, but it’s pretty essential too, acting as the facility through which you access your photos, mail and documents across your devices. There are three different tiers now available – 50GB for £0.99 per month, 200GB for £2.99 per month, or 2TB for £9.99 per month. Apple storage of all types is generally considered expensive, iCloud is broadly on a par with Dropbox (although the latter offers 2TB of storage for £95.88, the equivalent of £7.99 per month, if you pay for a year and has 3TB options too). As our data continues to live increasingly in the cloud expanded iCloud storage is going to become evermore crucial to us Apple users.

Apple One If many of the services described above sound appealing, but paying for all of them sounds expensive and a bit of a pain to manage, well… you’re right! It is! That’s why, in October

Image credit: Gameloft (left); Essence Communications Inc, Meredith Corp

More to come In the grand scheme of things, we are still The Podcasts+ option means you can now pay on a show-by-show basis for particular content.

relatively early in the life of Apple as a services company. It will be a part of the company that continues to expand, both through adding new features to existing services and launching new ones. It is an area that all of us should keep an eye on.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 19

iP E ULTIMATE GUIDE TO

W

Discover how to master the controls and settings in your iPhone (and Photos app) to capture well-composed, correctly exposed and artefact-free shots

e all love taking photos on our iPhones – but are we making the best of them? Over the next 12 pages, we’ll show you how to avoid the ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ syndrome by improving the quality of the images that you shoot, then explaining how you can make them look even better courtesy of the iOS or OS versions of Apple’s Photos (plus we’ll look at some third-party Camera apps along the way).

Written by George Cairns

Newer iPhones give DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) cameras a run for their money. For example, iPhone 11 Pro and 12 Pro users can switch from telephoto to wide to ultra-wide in a few taps (capturing moments that a DSLR user might miss while they manually swap detachable lenses). Thanks to the new Apple ProRAW format iPhone 12 users can capture more information about a subject’s colours and tones, narrowing the image-quality gap

between iPhone and DSLR. The iPhone has the edge when it comes to exposure thanks to Smart HDR 3, which uses machine learning to combine multiple exposures that reveal maximum detail in different parts of the scene (even when you capture in ProRAW).

In this feature, we’ll show you tips, tricks and techniques to help improve the composition and quality of your photographs, as well mimicking DSLR looks, such as slow-shutter motion blur.

About our cover image photographer

Lauren Blachford

Lauren is the daughter of our Art Editor, and this image is proof you don’t need the latest cutting-edge phone or camera to take a good shot. Lauren’s picture was taken on an iPhone 8, and captures the beauty of the Somerset countryside.

20 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

3

Camera app options

1

2

1

Go Raw

Tap here to toggle between capturing compressed quality formats, such as JPEG or higher quality Apple ProRAW format files.

3

Exposure adjustment

Go to Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings and turn on Exposure Adjustment, then tap here to call the Exposure slider.

5

Aspect ratio

Tap to change the shape of the frame. 4:3 creates a cropped image.

16:9 captures shots that fill the display (or a widescreen TV).

4 5

6

7

Front camera

7 8

Tap to switch to the front-facing camera to capture a selfie. You can shoot selfies in every mode apart from Pano.

2

Chevron

Tap here to toggle between displaying the shooting modes and their additional options, such as Portrait mode’s f-stop slider.

4

Lens selection

Tap to jump to ultra-wide (0.5x), wide (1x) and telephoto (2.5x) on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. Other iPhones only go up to 2.0.

6

Timer

Tap to select a 3-sec or 10-sec countdown that triggers the back camera to grab a burst of 10 images. Perfect for family selfies.

8

Preview

In 4:3 mode, you can preview areas outside the frame to help compose a shot. (See page 22 for information on the settings.)

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 21

ortrait and landscape photography PART 1

P

You can take incredible vista photos on your iPhone. Here’s how…

ortraits and landscapes are common subjects, but it can be a challenge to capture these shots well.

When look at a snap of a landscape, it rarely lives up to our memory of the scene. This can be because our peripheral vision takes in a wider field of view than the iPhone’s lens, especially in a 4:3 shaped photo.

To capture more of a landscape, you can set the Camera app to the Pano shooting mode. This enables you to pan the iPhone left to right (or right to left by tapping the arrow icon) to include more of the landscape. As you pan, the Camera app stitches the video feed together to produce a wider

Common photography mistakes avoid themand how to Your iPhone’s Camera app works hard to capture correctly exposed colours and details in different parts of the frame, but you can give it a helping hand to avoid common mistakes.

Be aware of how you’re holding the iPhone. Your finger may inadvertently appear in shot if it obscures one of the three lenses. For example, the frame can be finger-free when you shoot using the Telephoto (2.5x) and Wide (1x) lenses, only appearing in shot when you tap to access the Ultra Wide angle. If you do capture an obscuring finger then the 22 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

panoramic image. However, the hit-and-miss Pano mode can lead to some ugly artefacts. If a person moves during your pan, parts of their face may become distorted due to the auto-

stitching process. If you tilt the iPhone during the pan, you may get jagged black blocks of missing detail at the top and bottom of the frame. The straight lines of a building can also appear curved when shot in Pano mode.

Alternatively, go to the Camera app’s Photo mode and tap the chevron (see number 2 on ‘Camera app options’ on p21) to reveal aspect ratio controls.

By changing 4:3 to 16:9, you get a wider shot. And by switching to the Ultra Wide (0.5x) lens, you’ll capture more of the landscape with less distortion than the Pano mode produces.

Classic painters adhered to the Rule of Thirds to produce landscapethemed masterpieces. If you go to

only cure is to crop it out using the Photos app’s Crop tool. A blast of flash can cause a subject’s eyes to glow with a case of ‘red-eye’. Fortunately, the latest iPhones work well in low light so the auto-flash is unlikely to be triggered. You can tap the Photos app’s Flash icon just in case to make sure that it stays off.

When snapping candid documentary style street photos, switch the iPhone to silent mode to mute the tell-tale shutter button sound effect. Go to Settings > Camera > Composition and turn on View Outside the Frame. This will help you keep (or hide) particular objects as you compose your shot, meaning you’re less likely to frame a lamppost growing out of a subject’s head.

Here the Telephoto and Wide lenses are clear but the finger will appear when you switch to Ultra Wide.

The Rule of Thirds grid helps you create a more classically considered composition.

Best iPhone photography apps

Shooting in Pano mode helps you capture a wider field of view.

Perfect for urban landscapes.

FiLMiC Firstlight

Change exposure more quickly by swiping vertically anywhere in the display and adjust focus by swiping horizontally.

Clipping warnings tell you which areas are over- or underexposed and focus clipping tells you which areas are sharp or blurred.

You can also use Firstlight to capture raw .dng files on older iPhone models.

Halide MK II (In App Purchases)

The Ultra Wide angle gives you more choice in composing striking urban landscape shots.

Settings > Camera, and toggle on the Grid option in the Composition section, a Rule of Thirds grid will be overlaid on your Camera app’s display. The grid’s nine horizontal and vertical boxes help you arrange a more considered composition. For example, you could use the grid to help you place sky in the top row, sea in the middle and land in the bottom. The viewer’s eye is also drawn to areas in the frame where the horizontal and vertical lines of the grid intersect; try placing a subject in these intersecting areas for a more aesthetic and classical composition. In our example image (left), the Rule of Thirds grid helps us centre the landmark. The man

This feature-packed Camera app uses focus peaking to check that a subject is sharp or summon a focus loupe magnifier to double check. A histogram display helps you capture detail throughout the tonal range, while haptic feedback and an overlay ensures that your horizons are never tilted. The app can also save in ProRAW on an iPhone 12 Pro.

is offset to the left where the grid lines intersect. Placing a person in a landscape helps put the viewer in the picture too.

When it comes to capturing a portrait, DSLR cameras enable you to manually open up the aperture to a wide f-stop setting such as f2.6. This creates a background blur (or bokeh) that removes distractions and helps the eye focus on the subject. If you shoot close to your subject using the Telephoto lens, you’ll capture a natural bokeh in Photo mode. The Portrait mode uses a depth map to digitally blur the background with the added bonus that you can change the strength of the blur after you’ve snapped the shot.

PS Camera (In App Purchases)

HOW TO Master bokeh on your iPhone >

1 Set f-stop

Tap to select Portrait mode. Tap the f-stop icon to dial in an aperture value.

The lower the number, the blurrier the bokeh will be. Here we’ve gone for f8.0.

By default we’re using the Natural Light preset. Take the shot.

2 Adjust blur

In Photos, tap Edit. Tap the f-stop icon. Drag the aperture slider to a larger number (such as f16) to reveal more background detail. Drag it to a smaller number for more blur. The 12 Pro Max can open to a wide f1.4.

This is well worth a look if you want to make a splash on social media with creatively filtered photos. You can also replace a dull sky with a more interesting one while you take the shot, or add retro effects such as light leakage and scratches for a more analogue look. You can also add and fine-tune filters after you’ve taken a picture.

3 Adjust lighting

Tap the hexagonal icon to access the Lighting Effects wheel. Drag to experiment with different studio effects, such as the face-modelling Contour Light. Here we’ve gone for Studio Light to brighten the face.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 23

Master low-light photography PART 2

L

Get the best results in low light with an iPhone 12

ow-light locations can be a challenge for photographers.

The built-in flash only has a short range and tends to create washed out foreground subjects against jet-black backgrounds. And the use of flash is often forbidden in locations such as museums and churches.

The 12 Pro’s LiDAR scanner helps the camera focus in low light without having to zap a blast of flash on your subject.

The 12 Pro’s Wide lens can also open the aperture to f/1.6 which lets in more light than its other lenses. By letting in more light, a lower ISO speed is required to expose the subject, resulting in less noisy

(grainy) results. 11 and 12 Pro iPhones can also automatically activate Night mode in low-light locations. This causes the Camera app to use a slower shutter speed, again letting in more light and revealing detail. The Night mode icon automatically appears when the light is low. It sets the exposure time but you can tap the icon to summon a slider that lets you dial in a longer or shorter exposure.

This level of control enables you to capture blur-free shots at night even when shooting handheld. Using a tripod and a longer exposure time, you can capture creative effects such as streaks of light from moving cars or distant stars.

Photo formats explained

> Go to the Settings > Camera > Formats and choose a format. High Efficiency creates a lighter HEIC image file that takes up less space on your iPhone, but it will suffer from compression artefacts. Most Compatible creates a compressed JPEG that contains more information and is easy to share online.

An Apple ProRAW file is uncompressed, so it is packed full of data that the Photos app can use to restore missing tonal details without adding artefacts. ProRAW creates much larger files but produces the best results.

HOW TO Take more control of the Camera app >

1 Night mode

Night mode automatically chooses an exposure time (such as 10 seconds), but you can drag the countdown slider to choose a different duration. During the shot a Hold Still message appears. Keep the crosshairs aligned to avoid blur.

24 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

2 Change focus

In Photo mode, the iPhone focuses on the closest foreground subject.

However, you can tap on a background object to place the square focus/ exposure reticle on that. Drag the sun icon up or down to tweak exposure.

3 AE/AF Lock

In contrasting locations, the Camera changes exposure to reveal highlight or shadow detail. Hold you finger on the screen to summon the AE/AF Lock. This preserves detail in a bright sky when you reframe the shot.

Best iPhone photography accessories

Magnetic PowerFROM BankWireless 2.5K belkin.com

DJI OMFROM4dji.com

You’re quite likely to run low on battery if shooting in HDR Dolby Vision video. This MagSafe wireless charger will boost the iPhone 12 (and 12 Pro’s) battery. It’s designed to keep clear of your iPhone’s lenses so you can continue shooting while charging.

This gimbal enables smooth handheld camera moves (which is useful for older iPhones that don’t stabilise the footage in-camera like the 12 Pro does).

It also comes with a stand and free app that enables the gimbal to track your moves like a virtual camera operator or perform panning and tilting time-lapses.

iXpand Flash Drive Go

Anker iPhone LED Flash

Canon SELPHY Square QX10

4 Manual exposure

5 Zoom wheel

6 Timer

From FROM shop.westerndigital.com This useful gadget’s Lightning connector enables you to transfer shots from your iPhone to a flash drive to free up valuable storage space (and perform a backup of valuable photos while still on location).

You can then plug the USB 3.0 connector into your Mac to transfer your images across.

Exposure is set automatically but it may be useful to tweak it manually in high-contrast locations. Tap the Exposure icon above the shutter button. A dial will appear. Drag to open or close the aperture to reveal desired detail.

FROM uk.anker.com The iPhone’s built-in flash is weak and creates a washed-out flat-lit subject. By placing this 4x brighter LED flash at the side of the iPhone, you can add a little modelling to your portraits and fill in harsh shadows with the optional diffuser. Also provides extra lighting for video footage.

The iPhone 12 Pro Max switches between three lenses with a tap to capture Ultra Wide (0.5x), Wide (1x) and Telephoto (2.5). By dragging on these icons, you can summon a zoom wheel that lets you dial in a custom increment.

Manfrotto Mini Tripod with Clamp FROM manfrotto.com

This tripod helps you shoot in a more disciplined way, leading to improved composition. It’s handy for capturing time-lapse sequences or snapping a selfie.

The lockable ball head enables you to adjust the iPhone’s angle and capture straight horizons.

FROM store.canon.co.uk Having a tangible print in your hands gives extra value to an iPhone-sourced image. This mobile printer uses Wi-Fi to download your favourite shots from your iPhone. Its dye-sublimation printing produces vibrant and rich colours and tones on sticky square-format prints with a writable border.

To put yourself in the picture using the rear-facing camera lens, pop the iPhone on a tripod and tap the chevron at the top of the viewfinder. This gives you access to the Timer icon. Choose a three- or 10-second countdown.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 25

Master Video, Slo-mo, Live Photo and more PART 3

Y

The Camera app on your iPhone has plenty of features to explore our iPhone doesn’t just take stills. You can also use it to shoot video clips in up to 4K resolution, ‘live’ photos, slo-mo clips, time-lapses and more. The iPhone 12 models can also shoot video in a High Dynamic Range (HDR) Dolby Vision format. This new 10-bit format enables you to capture clips with a wider contrast range and more detail and colour than you’ll see in the 8-bit SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) clips captured by older iPhone models.

To activate HDR, go to Settings > Camera and tap on Record Video. Toggle on the HDR Video (High Efficiency)

Quickly share your photos and videos If you can’t get to your Mac, don’t worry. There are plenty of ways to edit and share your photos and video clips with friends, family and followers directly from your iPhone. Select a photo (or video clip) then tap Edit. Here you have a suite of digital darkroom tools to help you tweak colour, tone and composition in a few taps. (We’ll cover iOS editing techniques in more detail on the following page.)

Once you’re happy with the look of your still or clip, tap Done. Tap the Share icon at the bottom left. You can then tap to send the image to your contacts via 26 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

The slo-mo mode is a fun way to present fastmoving subjects in a creative way.

option. Choose a size such as 1080p HD. When you switch to the Camera app’s Video mode, you’ll see an HD icon at the top left (when shooting in horizontal SMS or email. You can also tap a social media app’s icon, compose a post and share the shot with your online followers.

Alternatively, if a friend is close to hand, you can tap AirDrop to send the asset straight to their iPhone.

Another way to share a shot is via an iCloud Album. For this option to work, go to Settings > Photos and turn on Shared Albums. This enables you to create albums in the Photos app that you can share with other iCloud users. In Photos choose a shot and tap Add to Shared Album. Tap ‘+’ then New Shared Album, tap Next and invite your contact. Tap Next to comment on the shot and then tap Post. Your friend will receive a link to view the album in their Photos app.

Send your edited photos and clips to a host of destinations by tapping the Share icon.

landscape orientation). Tap on HD to choose a larger 4K resolution. A 4K HDR clip will look amazing on a 4K HDR TV, with more vibrant colours and richer tones. One downside of shooting and viewing HDR clips on your iPhone is a shortened battery life, so take a charger if you’re on a location shoot.

The iPhone provides many ways to swap from recording video to stills and vice versa, so you won’t miss a thing!

While filming video footage, you can snap a photo by tapping on the white circle next to the red video record icon. The act of taking the photo won’t interrupt the flow of your footage. In Photo mode you

Time-lapse footage presents moving subjects such as clouds and water in a more dramatic way.

Burst mode helps you capture the perfect moment during sporting activities.

can drag the shutter button right (or up if you’re holding the phone horizontally) to quickly record video footage. Another quick way to record video while using the Camera app is by pressing and holding the Volume Down button.

When shooting action photos it can be a challenge to capture the perfect moment. In Photo mode, hold your finger down on the shutter icon and slide left if holding the iPhone vertically, or down if shooting horizontally. You’ll hear multiple shutter clicks and see a counter indicating the burst of consecutive stills that you’ve captured. You can also capture a burst by pressing the Volume

While recording video, you can simultaneously snap a photo by tapping on the white circle.

Up button if you go to Settings > Camera and toggle on Use Volume Up for Burst.

After capturing a burst of shots, go to the Photos app and you’ll see a thumbnail

To activate an HDR recording go to Settings > Camera > Record Video. Toggle on HDR Video (High Efficiency).

with a Burst label. The amount of shots in the burst appears in brackets. Tap Select at the bottom of the screen and swipe through the images. Tap to tick the best shots then tap Done to keep your favourites while deleting the rest. One thing to note is that Burst mode won’t save still images in the Apple ProRAW format, they’ll just be JPG format files.

When shooting video, your iPhone captures 25, 30 or 60 frames per second (fps) and then plays them back at the same rate at which they were recorded.

This reproduces movement at a normal speed. Your iPhone’s time-lapse mode causes the camera to capture a series

HOW TO Add motion blur effects using Live Photo >

1 Go Live

In the Camera app’s Photo mode, tap the Live icon to activate Live Photo. Hold the iPhone steady and tap the shutter button to record a three-second clip of a moving object such as a train. Snap a couple of shots for safety.

2 Choose effect

In the iOS Photos app, tap Albums.

Swipe down to media Types and tap on Live Photos. Tap to view your shot. Swipe up to view Effects, such as Loop and Bounce. Swipe left then tap on the Long Exposure effect.

3 Motion blur

After applying the Long Exposure effect, swipe up to see the edited image.

Only the moving subject (such as a train) should appear motion-blurred. Static objects like the background should remain nice and sharp.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 27

FEATURE iPhone photography of frames at wider intervals. As there’s a gap of time between each captured frame, the action plays back at a much faster speed in the resulting time-lapse clip. Time-lapse is an effective way to record the ebb and flow of traffic at a junction, but a tripod is essential for this kind of footage as any camera movement will be exaggerated. In the Camera app swipe to time-lapse mode and tap the Record button. To capture a 20-second long time-lapse clip you’ll need to leave the iPhone recording for 10 minutes. At this record duration it will capture one frame every second and play them back at 30fps.

You can record video quickly by pressing and holding the Volume Down button.

Your iPhone’s camera app also offers a hybrid between still and video thanks to the Live Photo option. A Live Photo captures a three-second video snapshot

of your subject. In Photo mode, tap the Live Photo icon (top left in horizontal orientation/top right in vertical). A LIVE label will appear. Tap the shutter button to snap the Live Photo. To see and hear the moving Live Photo, hold down your finger on the image in the Photos app.

As Live Photos are a series of still frames you can do more with them using the Photos app. For example, if your subject has their eyes closed, tap Edit, then the Live Photo icon and scrub to a frame where they have their eyes open.

Tap Make Key Photo. You can even use Live Photos to add DSLR-style, longexposure motion blur (see p27).

HOW TO Edit your clips on the go >

1 Wide-angle woes

2 Straighten horizon

4 Improve exposure

5 Enhance definition 6 Trim and save

When shooting a time-lapse using the Ultra Wide lens, you may notice perspective distortion that causes vertical lines to converge towards the top of the frame. A tripod-mounted iPhone’s horizon may be tilted too.

If a clip is underexposed, tap Edit.

Tap the Adjust icon. Tap Auto to instantly adjust properties such as Exposure, Shadows and Saturation. You can then swipe through each icon and tweak the slider to fine-tune the look.

28 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Tap the Edit button followed by the Crop tool icon. This gives you access to a Straighten tool. Drag the Straighten tool’s slider to counteract the tilted horizon. A Rule of Thirds overlay grid will appear to help you get a perfectly straight horizon.

Here we’ve increased Warmth and selectively boosted the saturation of weaker colours by increasing Vibrance.

Definition helps bring out textures such as brickwork. Pinch to enlarge the clip for a closer look.

3 Perspective distortion

Tap the vertical perspective control icon and swipe to make the building’s converging vertical lines run parallel with the edge of the frame. Drag the clip to make sure that the top of the building remains in shot.

Tap Done when you’re happy with how you’ve tweaked the clip’s look. To create a shorter version that’s easier to share, tap the Video icon. Use the yellow trim handles to select the best bit of the clip. Tap Save Video as New Clip.

ON SALE NOW!

Available at WHSmith, or simply search for ‘T3’ in your device’s App Store

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE! www.magazinesdirect.com/t3-magazine

FEATURE iPhone photography By automatically syncing via iCloud, you can keep your Photos app’s content identical on any device.

Import and organise your images on Mac PART 4

W

How to upload, sync, and share your shots hile you can perform edits on your iPhone’s version of Photos, the Photos app for Mac gives you greater control due to a more powerful set of tools (such as the Retouch tool for removing unwanted objects). You can also check the quality of a shot more effectively when viewing it on your Mac’s larger display (especially if you need to smooth out noise caused by a high ISO speed, for example).

One way to get iPhone-sourced videos and stills on to your Mac is to automatically upload them to your iCloud account. They will then be ready to edit

and share in the Photos app on any iCloud connected device such as an iMac or an iPad. To set up iCloud syncing, go to your iPhone’s Settings, then scroll down and tap on iCloud Photos. Set iCloud Photos to On so that your snaps will automatically be uploaded to your iCloud account (and then synced with your other devices). To save storage space on your iPhone, turn on Optimise iPhone Storage in Settings > Photos. When the phone becomes low on storage space full-sized shots will be replaced by low-res versions. The original high-res versions will be stored safely in iCloud. If you need to edit and share a shot on your iPhone

Click on Places to view photos according to where they were shot; toggle between Map and Grid buttons.

30 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

or Mac then the full-sized version will be downloaded to the device.

It’s worth noting that if you shoot a burst of shots on your iPhone then only the favourited frame will be uploaded to your iCloud account by default. To upload the entire burst to iCloud, turn on the Upload Burst Photos options in Settings > Photos. You can then choose your favourite frame from the comfort of your Mac’s display.

Uploading clips and stills to iCloud runs the risk of devouring your mobile data allowance (especially if you shoot in Apple ProRAW format). To preserve your data allowance, go to Photos > Settings, tap Mobile Data and then turn it off. Now your iPhone will only upload shots to iCloud when it’s connected to Wi-Fi. You’ll also need to turn off the iPhone’s Low Power Mode or the automatic upload process will be paused.

To make sure that your Mac is also talking to iCloud, launch the macOS Photos app. Go to Photos > Preferences.

Click the iCloud icon. Tick the iCloud Photos box to keep your iPhone and Mac’s Photos apps in sync. You can save valuable storage space on your Mac by clicking on the Optimise Mac Storage button. If you choose this option, the full-size photo or clip will automatically download when you click the Edit button.

Master faces in Photos The Photos app can use AI to tag people pictures automatically, but it sometimes gets it wrong.

Fortunately, you can lend a helping hand to identify important people (and remove random strangers).

Tap on the People category in the Photos panel on the left and a collection of faces will appear. Tap the heart icon to favourite a face. You’ll find that favourites appear in larger thumbnails at the top of the People panel. If a face is un-named, click in the text field below the thumbnail to identify the person. You’ll be presented with a collection of thumbnails of that person’s face. Tick to confirm their identity (or untick a thumbnail if Photos is in error). Click Done. Double-click on a named

thumbnail to view more shots of that person. You may be asked to review possible shots to add them to that person’s collection. You’ll see a collection of photos of that person, and you can click to play a slideshow of photos (and Live Photos) of them. If you click the Face button (top right), all the photo thumbnails will crop to display a close-up of the chosen person’s face. ≈-click on a shot and choose make Key Photo. This uses that particular image to represent that person in their main thumbnail.

HOW TO Organise your photos >

1 Favourites

2 Albums

3 Get smart

4 Making memories

5 Use keywords

6 Search by object

The fastest way to sort the ‘wheat from the chaff’ is to tap the heart-shaped Favourite icon. You can do this in the iPhone or Mac version of Photos. Click on the Favourites category to display all favourited files.

Photos automatically gathers some images into collections based on criteria such as where or when the images were captured. Tap Memories to see collections such as Best of The Year or memories based on a time and location.

Photos mimics the traditional way of storing photos by enabling you to place them in albums. Choose File > New Album. Name the album. You can then drag relevant photos to the album in the My Albums panel.

Press ç+I to open the Info panel.

Type in a description of the photo. Type in some keywords to describe the contents of the image. Think ‘what’, ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘when’. You can then type keywords into the Search field.

Choose File > New Smart Album.

Label the album. From the menu choose a property for Photos to look for, such as Keyword or Camera Model. Photos will automatically gather shots that meet your criteria.

If you’ve not taken the time to add keywords to shots or pop them into albums, Photos can still help you find subjects. Simply type a word (such as ‘dog’) into the Search field and Photos will display all relevant results.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 31

Fix problems and enhance your images with tools and filters in the Photos app and third-party options.

Edit your images on Mac PART 5

O

Improve the look of your photos and video using the Photos app’s built-in tools n the whole, the iPhone excels at capturing detail in both shadows and highlights. It can also reproduce accurate colours in various lighting conditions. However, you may still run into exposure problems in contrasting light, leading to shots where the sky is overexposed or the shadows are underexposed. As different light sources produce different colour temperatures, your photos may suffer from cold or warm colour casts as well as green/magenta tints. You may also notice unwanted objects or annoyingly tilted horizons. Fortunately, the Photos

app has most of the tools you’ll need to overcome typical pic problems. As well as improving your shot, the Photos app boasts filters that can help to make your images stand out in social media feeds.

The macOS version has more tools than the iOS version, though the iPhone version boasts a unique perspective distortion correction tool (see p28).

In this spread, we’ll show you how to use the macOS version of Photos to counteract common problems with colour, tone and composition, as well as produce more creative looks.

You can expand Photo’s functionality by adding third-party extensions. After

downloading an app that provides a Photos extension (such as Luminar AI), go to Apple > System Preferences > Extensions. Go to Photos Editing and tick the extension that you want to access in Photos. In Photo’s Edit workspace, click the Extensions icon (…) at the top. Click to launch an extension. You can then use the extra tools provided by the extension, save the results then continue working with the edited image in Photos.

Photos lacks the ability to composite images on multiple layers, so here we’ll also suggest some third-party apps that enable you to perform more creative edits, such as sky replacements.

HOW TO Master Photo’s editing controls >

1 High contrast

In a high-contrast scene that lacks shadow and highlight detail, use the Brilliance slider to simultaneously lighten shadows and darken highlights. Fine-tune Shadows and Highlights independently to claw back more detail.

32 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

2 Colour casts

In mixed lighting, some skin tones can look too cold (blue) or warm (orange).

In the White Balance panel, set the drop down to Skin Tone. Click the eyedropper on skin to automatically counteract cold or warm casts.

3 Composition

To tackle a tilted horizon, click Crop.

Drag the rotate wheel to counteract the tilt. A grid will appear to help you get a straight horizon. Tick a value in the Aspect panel to crop your shot to a common print size and shape.

Third-party apps and extensions

Luminar AI FROM skylum.com

Lightroom Classic per month FROM adobe.com

Photoshop Elements 2021 FROM adobe.com

DxO PhotoLab 4

PhotoDirector 365

Capture One 21

4 Noise reduction

5 Creative portraits

6 Filters

Luminar uses machine learning to recommend a suitable template (or file) for each image (such as a portrait or landscape). It also enables you to quickly and creatively enhance a landscape by adding a new sky (without needing to be a compositing master).

You can also summon it as a Photos extension.

FROM dxo.com PhotoLab 4 uses machine learning to remove noise and colour fringing (chromatic aberration) while preserving important details. A powerful Control Point tool enables you to make selective adjustments to a sampled circular region. The downside is its inability to read Apple ProRAW files.

In low light, the iPhone may use a high (and noise-inducing) ISO value.

When editing a JPG you can smooth out noise using the Noise Reduction slider.

Raw files add extra Luminance and Color Noise sliders for more control.

If you have multiple hard drives containing thousands of old DSLR photos, Lightroom Classic will help you create a catalogue that knows where every file is located (even if the drive isn’t plugged into your Mac). It boasts a powerful set of Raw processing tools, making it essential for pro photographers.

/year FROM cyberlink.com PhotoDirector 365 looks similar in layout to Lightroom Classic but it benefits from a Guided mode that takes you through a range of advanced editing techniques. It also boasts some eye-catching filters that will help give your images extra impact on social media feeds, such as Twitter and Instagram.

If you snap a shot using Portrait mode then you can adjust Depth and Light from in the desktop version of Photos. The High-Key Mono lighting effect removes any background to create a studio style portrait.

This cut-down version of Adobe Photoshop still gives you the ability to edit in layers and make powerful selective adjustments using masks. Guided Edits help you get to grips with a range of editing techniques. Unlike the subscription-only full version, you can buy Photoshop Elements outright.

/year FROM captureone.com Like Apple’s Photos, this app enables you to make selective adjustments to shadows and highlights using sliders. Capture One 21 gives you greater control by enabling you to make adjustments to a host of properties using brush-based styles, like teasing out more sky detail using a Deep Sky brush.

To creatively grade your shots’ colours and tones in a few clicks go to the Filters section and experiment with the nine different effects. You can dial down the strength of each effect using the adjacent slider.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 33

SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE Never miss an issue

and get your STM Portable Wireless Charger

GIFT WORTH £50 It’s easy to subscribe…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE! www.magazinesdirect.com/mac/stm21 Or call: 0330 333 1113 and quote ‘97AK’

34 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Never miss an issue SUBSCRIBE

HURRY! TIMELIMITED OFFER

Other benefits of subscribing to the UK’s best-selling Apple magazine… ✔For more than 25 years, we’ve been helping Apple fans get the most from their kit.

✔Our tutorials and guides empower you with the knowledge to get things done in smarter and faster ways. ✔MacFormat is for Apple fans of all experience levels. Whether you’ve just bought your first Mac, iPhone or iPad, or have been using one for years, we’ll ensure you don’t miss out on top tips and techniques.

Choose your package!

DIGITAL ONLY NO GIFT

SAVE

44%

SAVE

ANNUAL PRINT EDITION + GIFT

22%

£36 £65 every 12 months

every 12 months

13 issues of MacFormat in digital, and save 44%.

Gift not included with a digital subscription

13 issues of MacFormat in print over 12 months and save 22%

ANNUAL PRINT & DIGITAL + GIFT

SAVE

53%

£70 every 12 months

13 issues of MacFormat over 12 months in print and digital, and save 53%

Terms and conditions: Offer closes 28 September 2021. Offer open to new UK subscribers only. Pricing is guaranteed for the first 12 months and we will notify you in advance of any price changes. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas). Your gift will be delivered separately within 60 days after your first payment has cleared. Gifts only available to subscribers on the UK mainland. Gift not available with a digital subscription. The full subscription rate is for 12 months (13 issues) and includes postage and packaging. If MacFormat changes frequency per annum, we will honour the number of issues paid for, not the term of the subscription. For full terms and conditions, visit www.magazinesdirect.com/terms. For enquiries please call: +44 (0) 330 333 1113. Lines are open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm UK Time or email: help@magazinesdirect.com. Calls to 0330 numbers will be charged at no more than a national landline call, and may be included in your phone provider’s call bundle.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 35

Stay up to date with the

latest Apple news and tips Connect with the Apple community > Every newsletter includes a curated selection of news

Exclusive tips

> Get more from your kit with tips written specially for newsletter subscribers*

Early-access magazine pages

> Before each issue goes on sale, you’ll get access to hot content from it

The latest news on an Apple VR headset.

Plus next-gen AirPods image leak

Apple VR headset – the latest predictions Rumours of an Apple-branded VR headset have been gaining pace of late. The latest intel suggests that the project could now be looking to combine both AR ( reality) and VR (virtual reality) t the same piece of kit.

That said, the e headwear to foc things as ther Apple’s AR-f source piec e

* Tips may feature in our magazine at a later date.

Sign up for our regular email newsletter at

macformat.com

NEW IDEAS

Your in-depth guide to getting more from your Apple kit

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

EDITED BY JO MEMBERY

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 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOS WHAT’S INSIDE 38 PLAY LIVE WITH YOUR MAC

Take your Mac and your music to the stage

40 IMPROVE YOUR PHOTOS

Use lookup tables to adjust colours and tones

42 USE MICROSOFT TEAMS

Chat, meet and share with friends and family

50

44 USE HANDOFF & CONTINUITY

50 GIVE YOUR MUSIC A SPIN

46 SAVE ARTICLES FOR LATER

52 HOMEPOD MINI TIPS

48 SET UP EMERGENCY SOS

54 HOW IT WORKS

Make your Apple devices work in harmony

Put the www’s reading material in your pocket Get help when your need it on Apple devices

Get into a retro turntable vibe with Vinyls

Make the most of Apple’s scaled-down speaker Apple Pencil: the clever capacitive stylus SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 37

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

Play live with your Mac Burst out of the bedroom and take your Mac on stage IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to loop in Logic and export to Ableton YOU’LL NEED Logic Pro X

In the last few months, we have focused on creating and recording music on your Mac, but what about performing?

Whether you’re a rock band or a bedroom techno overlord your Mac can be a really powerful tool when you want to play live.

In this tutorial, we’ll look at two big-name apps, Apple’s Logic Pro and Ableton Live. They aren’t the only options – most loop-based

Genius tip!

Live Loops are also available in the iPad and iPhone versions of GarageBand. You don’t need an external controller; just tap the screen.

Apple offers the MainStage app for backing tracks and taking your Logic sounds on the road, but we’ve encountered problems with its stability.

38 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

music apps can happily play live too – but they’re the most popular choices. Ableton is a familiar sight on big stages; unlike Logic it was created specifically for live performance.

But with the arrival of Live Loops, Logic has now caught up.

Taking it to the stage

Apple has another app for live performance called MainStage, which enables you to bring all your Logic instruments and tracks on stage, but our experiences of it haven’t been brilliant: for us it did the one dreaded thing you don’t want your live music app to do, and that’s crash mid-song.

When you’re using music apps on stage there are typically two ways to do it. There’s the electronic way, where everything is either happening in your Mac or controlled by it (for example, by playing sampled instruments and controlling MIDI instruments), and there’s the more traditional way where you have live instruments playing to a backing track or tracks. With both versions you’ll need an audio interface to connect your Mac to the mixing desk or PA. Carrie Marshall

Perform live music APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Loop in Logic Pro and export to Ableton

1 Prepare your project 2 Add a loop

3 Add some variety

4 Record a new loop 5 Add the live bits You can import existing audio files to the Live Loops view or record your own playing. We’re playing some live bass guitar here: just add and record-enable a new track, select the box you want to record into and click Record.

In a live performance, you can now trigger individual loops by clicking them or an entire column by clicking the footer.

You can also set up a new track such as a vocal mic, enabling you to sing over the top of whatever loops you’re playing.

6 Bring the band

7 Sort out stems

8 Label everything

9 Import the audio

You can access Live Loops from within an existing Logic Pro X project or you can start a new one via the Choose A Project window. There’s also a good Live Loops tutorial in the Tutorials section here.

Let’s start a new Live Loops project.

To export tracks as stems (individual audio files), select File > Export > X Tracks As Audio Files (or as MIDI if exporting for use in a MIDI app). You can also extract individual regions to add them to the loop library for future loopiness.

The grid in the centre is where loops live, organised by instrument just as tracks are in a normal Logic Project. This time, though, they’re also organised by columns. To add a loop, drag it from the Loop Browser to the appropriate square.

This looks a bit complex but it’s quite simple: it enables you to set how Logic names each exported track – for example, here we’ve got the project name, the BPM (which we’ve entered manually), and the name of the track.

Each column can contain multiple loops, so you might have the first for your intro, the second for your verse, and so on. You can adjust how loops behave – so if you want to reverse a drum loop, for example, ≈-click it and choose Reverse.

What if want to export a backing track to play along to? No problem. Open your project, make sure that the yellow Cycle bar at the top runs from the start to the end and then select the track(s) you want to export.

Once you’ve exported your stems, you can drag and drop them into a live app such as Ableton Live, shown here, and organise them into songs. You can also add effects such as compression to ensure consistency across your set.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 39

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

Improve the look of your photos

1

Filters

Click here to browse a selection of filters that change the look of a photo by altering various sliders within Pixelmator Pro.

How to use lookup tables to creatively adjust colours and tones in your pictures IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to apply LUTs, modify them, and even use them in other apps YOU’LL NEED Pixelmator Pro, macOS 10.14 Mojave or later

Apple’s Photos app has a limited collection of filters that change a shot’s colours and tones in a click. Pixelmator Pro enables you to go much further with your creative processing by applying lookup tables (LUTs) to your images. LUTs are like filters in that they adjust colours and tones to add drama and change mood. You can also add film grain for a more analogue retro look.

Unlike filters, you can also customise and export LUTs in a format that’s compatible with other apps. This enables you to design a creative look in Pixelmator Pro and use that LUT to grade footage in Final Cut Pro X, for example. Pixelmator Pro enables you to open files directly from within an Apple’s Photos Album, Moment or Collection, so you can use Photos to organise your images and then use Pixelmator Pro’s LUTs to creatively process them. George Cairns

2

Custom LUTs

Click here to toggle on the Custom LUT options. Unlike filters, you can export a LUT to apply it in other apps.

HOW TO Create, modify and share LUTs

1 Open image

Choose File > New from Photos. Give permission for Pixelmator to access your Photos library. Browse to an image in Photos. In the Tools sidebar, click on the Color Adjustments icon. Scroll down and turn on Custom LUT.

40 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

2 Explore LUTs

LUTs are gathered in five categories, such as Duotone or Cinematic LUTs. As you move the cursor over each LUT, you’ll see a preview of how an LUT will alter the image’s colours, tones and texture. Click to apply the LUT.

3 Customize LUT

Here we’ve applied the Cinematic 04 LUT. Drag the Intensity slider to 75% to reduce the effect. For a more analogue look, turn on Vignette. Set Exposure to 30%. Set Softness to 20%. Turn on Grain for a more filmic look.

Use lookup tables APPLE SKILLS 5

Export

1

By exporting the LUT as a .cube file, you can open and apply it in apps such as Final Cut Pro X.

5

Jargon buster To create colour and tonal adjustments that third-party apps can understand, Pixelmator Pro exports LUTs in the universally recognised .cube format.

2 3

Apply LUT

Place the cursor over a LUT to preview its effect.

Then click to apply the LUT. Drag the intensity slider to fine-tune the look.

4 Go further

4

More options

3

The More icon gives you the option to save the LUT as adjustments that you can fine-tune using sliders.

Click on the More (…) icon. Choose ‘Convert LUT into Adjustments’ to adjust the settings of various sliders in the Tools sidebar. You can tweak sliders to finetune the look. Alternatively, you can export the LUT to other apps.

4

Genius tip Not every property of

a Pixelmator Pro LUT can be read by a thirdparty app. For example, grain and vignette effects won’t appear in Final Cut Pro X.

5 Export LUT

After applying the LUT click on the More (…) icon and choose Export Adjustments as LUT. In the Save As box choose a name that makes your LUT easy to identify. Click Export to save the LUT in your Documents folder.

6 Apply LUT

In Final Cut Pro X, drag the Effects browser’s Custom LUT effect on to a clip.

In the Video Inspector, go to the Custom LUT panel. Click the menu and simply choose the LUT that you created to apply the look to the clip.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 41

APPLE SKILLS Mac/iOS software

Use Microsoft Teams

Chat, schedule meetings, and share your screen with friends and family IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use Microsoft Teams YOU’LL NEED Mac/iPhone/iPad; Microsoft Teams (macOS 10.14 or later; iOS 12.2 or later)

While many of us have been working predominantly from home over the last 12 months, Microsoft Teams hasn’t had quite the same profile of Zoom or Skype.

That said, it has been crucial for many companies and large organisations in keeping people connected and working together; schools in particular have been using it as a platform for accessible home learning. Teams isn’t just for business and education, though…

Genius tip!

Friends and family members don’t have to have the app installed to join a meeting. They can click the link you send and join in a web browser.

As well as allowing you to hold conversations with friends and family, Teams has a calendar that you can use to schedule meetings.

42 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Microsoft is pushing to make Teams popular among friends and families as an alternative to Zoom, Skype, and Apple’s FaceTime. As such, it’s currently free to download and use, without the need for an Office 365 subscription – though you will need to create a Microsoft account if you don’t already have one.

Extra features

Along with the ability to send text messages, hold audio and video conversations and group meetings, Teams has one or two features not seen in its nearest competitors. For example, Teams has a Calendar which displays meetings you’ve arranged or committed to, along with invitations to which you haven’t responded, for example. It also has some quirks. For example, you can’t currently manage Teams notifications in Notification Centre We’ll show you how to get started with Teams so you can try it out with friends and family. We’ll also show you how to share your screen, and you can use the same process to share video from your device’s camera or photos you’ve taken. Kenny Hemphill

Microsoft Teams APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Set up and use Microsoft Teams

1 Download and install 2 Sign up or log in

3 Start on iPad

On an iPhone or iPad, go to the App Store, search for Teams and download it.

The Mac version is not on the Mac App Store, so go to bit.ly/msoftforhome and download the installer, then double-click it to install Teams.

If you already have a Microsoft account, you may be prompted to sign in to it. If you want to use a different account, choose ‘Sign in with another account’. Or ‘Sign up for free’ to create a new account to use with Teams.

4 Start on Mac

5 Create a group on iOS 6 Create a meeting

Click the New Chat (ç+N) button and type the email address of the person you want to invite to chat. Click their name, then add a group name. Type a message and click Send. Next time, just click their name in the sidebar.

Tap the New Chat icon, then ‘New group chat’. Type a name for the group and add an image if you want. Scroll through the list of contacts and tap those you want to add to the group. Tap Next.

Type a message and tap Send.

On iPhone or iPad, you’ll be prompted to allow Teams to access Contacts. If you agree, start a dialogue by tapping the New Chat icon and starting to type a name in the ‘To’ field, then tapping on the contact.

To start a meeting immediately on a mobile device, tap Meet then ‘Meet now’. Give the meeting a name, then tap ‘Copy meeting link’. You can share the link by pasting it into an email or message, then tap ‘Start meeting’.

7 Schedule a meeting 8 Share the meeting 9 Share your screen If you want to arrange a meeting for later, tap More, then Calendar and ‘Add an event’. On the Mac, click Calendar then ‘New meeting’. Fill in the name of the meeting and the date, time and any other details you want to add.

On the Mac, click Save and then Copy link. Then close the dialog box.

On iPhone or iPad, tap ‘Invite a group’ to invite people to the meeting, and choose the group. Tap Done. To join the meeting, go to Calendar and tap Join.

On the Mac, click the Share button in the toolbar and choose ‘Share screen’.

If you have more than one screen, click on the image of the one you want to share. On iPhone or iPad, tap More, then Share and ‘Share screen’.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 43

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

Use Handoff and Continuity Make your Mac and Apple mobile devices work in perfect harmony IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN To use Continuity features in macOS 11 YOU’LL NEED iPhone; iPad; Mac; Apple Watch; iPod touch (system info at bit.ly/mfcontsysreq)

One of the best things about using a Mac is the way it works seamlessly with other Apple devices in all kinds of ways.

Apple collectively calls the features that make it easy to switch between Mac, iPhone and iPad ‘Continuity’. Perhaps the best-know Continuity feature is Handoff, which enables you to start using an app on one device and pick up exactly where you left off on a different device. However, Handoff is only one element of Continuity…

Other features include Continuity Camera, which allows you to use your iPhone’s camera to scan documents to your Mac, or take photos, controlled from your Mac, and Instant Hotspot, which allows you to connect your Mac to your iPhone Personal Hotspot and use its mobile data network connection. The ability to make phone calls and send SMS messages from your Mac also falls under the Continuity banner. Note: you’ll need to use two-factor authentication with your iCloud account to use Continuity features. Kenny Hemphill

HOW TO Take a photo with your Mac

1 Get set up

Make sure both your Mac and mobile device have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on and signed into the same iCloud account. Continuity Camera works in Finder, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Notes, Mail, Messages, and TextEdit.

44 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

2 Choose your application 3 Take the photo ≈-click in a document in the app you want to import the photo to, or on the Desktop, and choose Import from iPhone > Take Photo. To scan a document, choose Import from iPhone > Scan Documents.

Point your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch at the subject or document you’re scanning and tap the shutter button. Tap Use Photo. The photo will appear in the application on your Mac or on the Desktop if you were in the Finder.

Handoff and Continuity APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Handoff to and from your Mac

1 Set up Handoff

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth should be on and you should be signed into iCloud with the same Apple ID on both devices. Go to System Prefs > General > Allow Handoff.

On iOS, it’s Settings > General > AirPlay & Handoff, then switch on Handoff.

2 Handoff from Mac

Start using a compatible app on your Mac (most Apple apps and many third-party apps work). When you want to Handoff, pick up your iPhone or iPad, activate the App Switcher and tap the bar at the bottom of the screen.

3 Handoff to Mac

Start using a compatible app on your iPhone or iPad. When you’re ready to switch to your Mac, go to the Finder and look in the Dock for the app’s icon with an iOS device in the corner. Click it to complete the Handoff.

HOW TO Annotate a PDF or image

1 Set up Continuity Markup 2 Choose a doc to markup 3 Annotate the document Your Mac will need to be running macOS 10.15 or later, and mobile device iPadOS or iOS 13 or later. You’ll need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on and be signed in to iCloud. Continuity works with most Apple and some third-party apps.

On your Mac, locate the image or PDF you want to mark up. ≈-click on it in the Finder and choose Quick Actions > Markup. You can also invoke Quick Look, click Annotate, and then the device icon at the right of the toolbar.

A window will open on your device.

Use an Apple Pencil or your finger to annotate it, or tap ‘+’ to access more Markup tools. When you’re finished, tap Done. On your Mac, click Done to save the annotated document.

Going deeper with Continuity

Continue to connect your devices

The three examples of Continuity we’ve covered here only scratch the surface of what this group of features can do. Some of the other elements of Continuity are familiar, such as AirDrop, and using Apple Pay on your Mac and authenticating on iPhone or Apple Watch. Others are less obvious – auto-unlocking your Mac with an Apple Watch, for example. Then there’s Continuity Sketch, that enables you to sketch on an iOS device into a document on your Mac, and Sidecar, with which you can use an iPad as a second display or graphics tablet.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 45

APPLE SKILLS Mac software

Save articles to read later Put the whole world (wide web) in your Pocket IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to save and discover interesting articles with Pocket YOU’LL NEED The Pocket Safari extension, macOS 10.12 or later; Pocket app for Mac/iPhone/ iPad optional

The web is teeming with incredible articles to read, from eye-opening interviews to in-depth explorations of fascinating subjects. Whether you want to settle in for a long read or just get the latest news, the web leaves you spoiled for choice.

But with so many places to find all this varied and amazing content, just knowing where to start looking can be a daunting prospect. And what do you do if you come

Genius tip!

Copy an article’s

web address to your clipboard. In Pocket’s Mac app, press ç+S and the copied article will be added to Pocket.

Pocket can save videos from sites like YouTube and Vimeo.

It strips out all the extra information on the page, instead saving just the video (and its chapters) for your viewing.

46 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

across a particularly enticing read but don’t have time to get started? It’s a mess.

Thankfully, Pocket (free with in-app purchases) is a Safari extension and app that cuts through the potential chaos. It lets you save articles to a central repository, where you can tag and organise them for later reading. You’ll never again have to lose a promising article just because you don’t have time to read it straight away.

Discover and save

Pocket’s real beauty lies in its Discover feature, which highlights interesting stories that have been saved by Pocket’s other users.

It is a great way to find new reading material without having to trawl the web yourself. And if you are following anyone on Pocket, their recommendations will show up here too.

Pocket is not just limited to text-based articles – you can also save videos to your collection. Visit a site like YouTube and when you add a video to Pocket it will be extracted and saved for you to watch. Whatever you want to save for later, Pocket is a great option.

Alex Blake

Save online content APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Use Pocket like a pro

1 Sign up and install

2 Start saving

3 Formatted for reading

4 Reading options

5 Tag and favourite

6 Highlight key areas

7 Find more to read

8 Archive old articles 9 More ways to read

Create an account on getpocket.com.

Once logged in, you will see any saved articles on your homepage. On the App Store, install the Save to Pocket extension for Safari. This adds a button to the left of Safari’s URL bar.

Once an article is in your account, click it to read it. A toolbar will appear at the top of the screen. Click the AA toolbar button to adjust text size, font, and background colour. There are paidfor options here too.

Go back to your Pocket dashboard and click Discover. This shows a selection of articles that other people have saved to Pocket. Click one to read it, or you can click the Save button to add it to your list of saved articles.

Every time you visit an article you want to save, click Pocket’s Safari button and you’ll find it is added to your account.

Alternatively, copy an article URL, then click the ‘+’ on Pocket’s dashboard, paste it, then click Add.

There are other tools in the top bar.

Click the tag button to categorise the article with tags, which you can peruse from Pocket’s My List page. Or click the star button to add the article to your favourites list.

When you are done with an article, you can add it to Pocket’s Archive. This does not delete the article entirely (there is a separate button for that), meaning you can restore it if you then change your mind about it later.

Saved stories strip out most of the original formatting, instead grabbing the text and any images embedded in the article. Although it’s not perfect 100% of the time, this approach helps you focus on enjoying the story.

If you select a passage of text, a dialog box appears with options to highlight and share it. Highlighted pages are kept on your Pocket dashboard. On an article with highlights, use the lefthand sidebar to browse them.

There are also Pocket apps for macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. The latter two are great for reading on the go. There is even an iMessage extension. Note that the macOS Pocket app lacks the Discover feature, though.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 47

APPLE SKILLS iOS/watch

Set up Emergency SOS With your Apple devices you can get help when you need it IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up and manage Emergency SOS on your iPhone and Apple Watch YOU’LL NEED An iPhone, an Apple Watch (optional)

No one wants to be in an emergency, but if things wind up that way, your iPhone and Apple Watch can offer a lifeline in the form of Emergency SOS. This calls the emergency services when you really need them and provides vital information like your location and medical details. It’s easy to activate and could save your life.

Emergency SOS usually needs a signal. If you do not have any, you must be connected to a Wi-Fi network and have Wi-Fi calling

enabled in Settings > Phone > Wi-Fi Calling.

Make sure this is sorted before you need it.

Emergency SOS gets even more useful with an Apple Watch. If you fall, it can call the emergency services with an automated message that explains your situation, gives your location and, if you have enabled it, shares your Medical ID info. If you have an Apple Watch Series 5 or later or an Apple Watch SE and are travelling abroad, your Watch can even call the local emergency services for you. Alex Blake

HOW TO Use Emergency SOS on iPhone

1 Add emergency contacts 2 Activate an SOS call 3 iPhone 7 or earlier Open the Health app and tap your profile icon > Medical ID > Edit. Scroll to Emergency Contacts and tap ‘+’. Tap a contact and phone number, then set their relationship to you. Tap Done, then add other contacts if you want.

48 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Press and hold the side and volume buttons, then drag the Emergency SOS slider to start a call (use this if you need to be quiet). Or continue holding the buttons until a loud countdown begins.

Release to cancel.

If you are on iPhone 7 or earlier, rapidly press the side (or top) button five times. The emergency call slider will appear – drag it across to begin an emergency call. To cancel the call, press Stop, then Stop Calling.

Emergency SOS APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Get started on Apple Watch

1 Use the side button

On Apple Watch, activate Emergency SOS by pressing and holding the side button. Swipe across the last option to use Emergency SOS and place a call. If you don’t have a cellular Apple Watch, your iPhone must be nearby.

2 Fall Detection

Fall Detection works on Apple Watch Series 4 or later and requires Wrist Detection. If you fall, it will sound an alarm and start Emergency SOS. If it detects that you haven’t moved for a minute, it will call for you.

3 End a call

If you accidentally start a call, you can end it by tapping the red End Call button, then Yes. You can choose whether to still send a message to your emergency contacts regardless of whether the call goes through.

HOW TO Tweak emergency settings

1 iPhone settings

In the iPhone’s Settings app, tap Emergency SOS. You can choose to use the side button as an activator, allow automatic emergency calls, disable the alert sound, and go to the Health app’s emergency contacts section.

2 Apple Watch settings 3 Share Medical ID For Apple Watch, open the Watch app on your iPhone, then tap Emergency SOS on the My Watch tab. This lets you enable or disable Fall Detection, and choose whether holding the side button initiates Emergency SOS.

To share your Medical ID, open the Health app on your iPhone and tap your profile icon > Medical ID > Edit, then ensure Show When Locked is enabled.

In Emergency SOS, drag the Medical ID slider to display your info.

More about emergency contacts

Another set of helping hands

It’s important to add emergency contacts because they might be able to reach you before the emergency services if they are nearby. After an emergency call has finished, your iPhone will send your chosen contacts a message with your current location (unless you cancel the message). This works even if location services are disabled, in which case they will be temporarily enabled. If your location changes, your contacts will be told and you will get a new notification regarding this about 10 minutes later. That way, they always know where to go.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 49

APPLE SKILLS iPadOS software

Give your music a spin Get back into a retro turntable vibe with the Vinyls app IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to give Apple Music a retro makeover YOU’LL NEED Apple Music, Vinyls app (£3.99, macOS 11 or later/iPadOS 14.1 or later)

For some music listeners, records are ancient artefacts like floppy disks

Apple Music is a wonderful service. It’s the ultimate jukebox, the greatest ever music collection, an alwayson, always-updated compendium of the most exciting artists of all time.

But sometimes we can’t help feeling that it’s maybe a little too modern, a little too shiny, a little too digital. Remember the feeling when

you pressed play on a tape deck or dropped the needle onto a vinyl record?

For some Apple Music users, the answer is no: physical music formats are historical artefacts, just like floppy disks, monocles and unicycles. But there’s something magical about music on vinyl, and Vinyls attempts to transfer that magic to the world of digital music. It’s a great interface for your Apple Music albums and playlists.

AR spin

You can turn on Display Vibrant Background in the app settings to display a blurred image of the cover behind the current song being played.

50 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Vinyls looks like a record player emulator, and it is: it takes the Apple Music interface and adds a spinning record, complete with tone arm. But it makes good use of hardware too.

You can AirPlay to your wireless speakers, or run the app on your Apple TV, iPhone, iPad or Mac (where it works with the Touch Bar), and on mobile there’s a fun AR mode that enables you spin a disc on the sofa. The app settings give you lots of control over how it looks and over gesture and touch controls, and there are good accessibility options too. Carrie Marshall

Spin your music APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Use Vinyls with your music Jargon buster Vinyls are vinyl

1 Give permission

2 Pick a song

3 Pick your player

4 Focus on fingers

Vinyls needs your permission for two things: to connect to other devices such as your Apple TV, and to connect to your Music app and Apple Music account. Vinyls doesn’t currently support other music streaming services.

There are lots of options in the Settings section, including some useful ones for people who need to reduce motion. The first section of Settings is all about the visuals: you can choose what bits you’d like to see on screen.

Vinyls looks similar to the Music app – the sidebar shows playlists, artists and albums; the currently selected playlist is in a second panel, then the selected song is in the main window.

You can swipe the playlist sidebar in and out.

records, which is what we oldies used to call our magical spinning discs of music in the pre-iPod, pre-streaming era.

Scroll down further to see the options for gestures, which you can use to control the app.

There are two kinds of gestures here: presses/ swipes with your finger, and taps from the second-generation Apple Pencil.

Genius tip!

Vinyls’ Settings >

5 Bring up extras

In addition to AirPlay (to stream to smart TVs, speakers and Apple TV), you can also long-press on the record to bring up this menu.

This gives you Repeat and two Shuffle options, and it also enables you to activate AR mode.

6 Put the record anywhere

Playful Options enable you to add the sound of dust and scratches to your music for extra retro realism

AR mode is fun. Point your camera at something, tap where you want your record to go and it starts spinning in place. The virtual record player components aren’t displayed; just a vinyl record spinning.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 51

APPLE SKILLS Mac/iOS softwar

Master your HomePod mini

Apple’s smart speaker is smarter than you know – find out how right here IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use Siri and other commands to do fun things with your HomePod mini YOU’LL NEED A HomePod mini, a recent Apple device

The £99 HomePod mini is a tiny ball of audio prowess, topped with Siri assistant smarts. You can control it from an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac running the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS and macOS and you can issue instructions using your voice – see the ‘Use Siri on HomePod mini’ (right).

The HomePod mini is versatile too. You can use it solo (perfect for a bedroom, study or kitchen), use multiple HomePod minis in multiple rooms (thanks to AirPlay 2), and you

can even use two HomePod minis as a stereo pair – perfect for listening to your favourite sounds in your living room. Plus, because it supports HomeKit and Thread, it can be used as a controller for your smart home too.

It’s important to note the things the HomePod mini can’t do – you can’t plug it in to a Mac via its USB-C cable to use it as a desktop speaker, for example, and it doesn’t yet support lossless audio or spatial audio with Dolby Atmos (although a future software update should fix that). Rob Mead-Green

HOW TO Get started with your HomePod mini >

1 Setup made easy

With your HomePod mini connected to the mains and powered on, bring your iPhone close to it. You’ll need to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled for this to work. Your HomePod mini will now appear on your iPhone’s screen.

52 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

2 Choose a location

Next, choose a room where the HomePod mini is located. There are 13 named locations to choose from (Kitchen, Living Room, etc), although unlike the AirTags there’s no Custom option for entering a more bespoke name.

3 Transfer your details

After a few more steps, it’s time to link the HomePod mini to your Apple ID. In the Accounts and Settings screen, tap Transfer Settings. This lets the HomePod join your Wi-Fi network, and transfer your iCloud, iTunes and Apple Music settings.

HomePod mini tips APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Play music on your HomePod mini >

1 Play music from iPhone 2 Play music from Mac 3 Stream from elsewhere To play music from your iPhone, open the Music app, then tap a track or playlist.

On the playback screen, tap the AirPlay icon, then choose your HomePod mini from the list of available AirPlay devices.

This also works from Control Centre.

It’s the same process on your Mac. Open the Music app, choose a track or playlist, then tap the AirPlay icon (top right) and choose your HomePod mini from the list of AirPlay devices. You can adjust the volume level here too.

While the HomePod mini works best with Apple Music and iTunes purchases, it also supports third-party music services such as Spotify. To do that on iPhone, say “Hey Siri, play music from Spotify” or “Play my Spotify” and choose AirPlay.

HOW TO Do more with your HomePod mini >

1 Listen in stereo!

If you own two HomePod minis, you can use them as a stereo pair. To do that, set up each speaker as in steps 1 and 2, choosing the same location for both speakers. In the menu that then appears, tap Use As Stereo Pair.

2 Use the Home app 3 Change your settings You can also control your HomePod mini from the Home app – open the app and tap its option to play or pause any audio there. Perform a long press to reveal a menu with further options, such as audio playback and alarm settings.

Still in the Home app’s HomePod mini screen, scroll down further until you reach the Settings (gear) icon. Tap this to reveal even more options, such as Audio Settings, Automations, Music & Podcasts settings, and more.

Use Siri on HomePod mini

Things you can do with the power of your voice HomePod mini comes into its own when you use it with Siri – say “Hey Siri” then the command you wish it to carry out. Examples include: “Hey Siri, turn it up”, “Hey Siri, turn the volume down”, “Hey Siri, next song”. You can also issue more complex commands like “Hey Siri, play my workout playlist in the living room” or “Hey Siri, play Billie Eilish everywhere”. One of the best features is Intercom. If you have multiple Apple device users in your home, you can say things like “Hey Siri, Intercom everyone, dinner is ready” and everyone will get the message.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 53

The second-gen Apple Pencil changed to a much-improved magnetic charging connector.

Apple Pencil OW IT WORKS

How Apple’s superb stylus does the write thing YOU WILL LEARN How the Apple Pencil works and the main differences between the two generations

It’s important to know that not all iPads support the first-gen Apple Pencil Key fact

The Apple Pencil is a capacitive stylus, which means that electrical current can pass through it.

That’s important for touchscreens because they use tiny currents to detect fingers (and anything else that can transmit current). If a stylus or pointer isn’t capacitive, your iPad won’t detect it.

The difference between an ordinary pencil and an Apple Pencil is pretty clear. The former is for writing, drawing and shading on paper; the latter, for writing, drawing and shading on iPads. The Apple Pencil may look a lot like a normal pencil but there’s a lot of technology crammed into its compact case. Which is just as well, as it costs quite a bit more than a normal pencil does.

The first-generation Apple Pencil was launched in 2015 and is still on sale; the second-generation launched in late 2018.

If you’re buying one, it’s important to know that not all iPads support the first-generation, or any generation. See below to check what works with what. The short version is that if your iPad has a USB-C connector, it only supports the second-generation Pencil.

Although there are important differences between the two generations of Apple Pencil, they work in the same way. The Apple Pencil

contains an ultra-low power ARM-based microcontroller with 64MB of flash memory, a 0.329Wh rechargeable lithium-ion battery, a Bluetooth module to connect to your iPad wirelessly and a three-axis accelerometer to detect motion and velocity.

The tip of the pencil is made from a hard capacitive plastic. Capacitive means it conducts electricity, just like your fingers do, which is important: if the tip wasn’t capacitive, your iPad wouldn’t be able to detect the pencil at all. It’s a softer plastic than the rest of the Apple Pencil, so it wears away over time – albeit over a very long time.

The combination of a capacitive tip and an accelerometer enables the Apple Pencil to identify how you’re holding it and adjust on-screen brushes accordingly, and it delivers accurate location down to the individual pixels on the screen with very low latency – especially on the 120Hz display of the iPad Pro. Latency is the gap between doing something

Which Pencil do you need?

At the time of writing, the Apple Pencil is iPad-only, so you can’t use it with your iPhone or iPod touch. But not all iPads support both Apple Pencils. Here are the iPad models that work with each Apple Pencil.

Apple Pencil (1st generation) iPad (6th, 7th and 8th generation) iPad Air (3rd generation)

54 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st or 2nd generation) iPad Pro 10.5-inch iPad Pro 9.7-inch iPad mini (5th generation)

Apple Pencil (2nd generation)

iPad Air (4th generation) iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation) and later iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation) and later

Apple Pencil APPLE SKILLS

EXPLAINED… Key features of both generations

1

Magnetic charging

The first-gen’s Lightning charging involved sticking a pencil into your iPad’s charging port – which felt like a broken connector waiting to happen. The second-gen doesn’t have any connectors – it uses MagSafe-style inductive charging when you magnetically attach it to a compatible iPad.

2

Tap sensor

The second-gen Apple Pencil doesn’t have buttons; inside it has a tap sensor that can detect a tap or doubletap. In Apple apps, doubletapping near the tip switches back to the tool you used last; you can configure this in Settings > Apple Pencil.

Third-party drawing or notes apps offer different options.

and your device responding, and the less there is the more real your Apple Pencil feels. Last but not least, the Apple Pencil is pressure sensitive too, so if you push the nib down harder you’ll get darker lines in your drawings. Because it and your iPad know not just where the pencil is but in what direction it’s moving and how you’re holding it, it can tell the difference between deliberate finger taps and accidentally brushing the screen with the palm of your hand.

Together these features make the Apple Pencil feel just like a real pencil and draw like one – or like a charcoal stick, or a fine brush, or anything else. But that doesn’t mean there wasn’t room for improvement.

The next generation

While the first-generation Apple Pencil has a Lightning connector for charging, the biggest difference between the first- and second-gen versions is that the latter doesn’t have a Lightning connector – so it’s not compatible with iPads with Lightning ports. Instead it charges wirelessly using the magnetic connector built into the third-, fourth- and fifth-generation iPad Pro and the fourthgeneration iPad Air. Taking out the Lightning connector enabled Apple to make the Apple Pencil slightly shorter, and the flat-sided magnetic connector meant that the second-

3

4

Sensors inside the Apple Pencil can identify the angle you’re holding it at and how hard you’re pressing down.

That’s useful for drawing and painting, because real-life materials and brushes work differently according to how firmly they’re applied. With Apple Pencil, virtual versions behave in the same way.

The first generation Apple Pencil doesn’t have magnetic charging; it uses a Lightning connector that you plug into your iPad for charging and pairing with your device. The connector is hidden by an easy-to-lose cover. You can also use the adapter that enables you to charge it from your iPhone or iPad’s charger.

Tilt and pressure sensors Lightning connector

gen Apple Pencil needed a redesigned casing.

We think it’s more comfortable than the first, but that was hardly unpleasant either.

The other big change is that the second Apple Pencil contains a touch sensor, which can detect even fairly gentle taps by your fingers. That enables you to create or use programmed gestures to carry out particular tasks, such as switching brushes in a drawing app or moving from writing mode to erase mode in a notes app.

What’s coming next

Many observers thought that Apple would announce a third-generation Apple Pencil at its early 2021 Spring Loaded event, but that proved to be overly optimistic. But a thirdgeneration is in development. Rumour sites have been reading the Apple patent runes, which include a pen that can detect colours like Photoshop’s eyedropper tool; a Touch Bar-style display on the side – which seems unlikely to us – haptic feedback and new gestures for zooming in and out.

The most tantalising patent they uncovered is for a stylus that writes in the air, which sounds a bit far-fetched until you consider Apple and Apple developers’ focus on augmented reality apps that exist in three– dimensional spaces beyond your iPad screen.

Apple Pencil Air, anyone? Carrie Marshall

Key fact The biggest difference

between the two Apple Pencils is how they connect and charge.

The first-gen has a built-in Lightning connector that plugs into your iPad’s charging port; the second-gen dropped that in favour of wireless charging. Unlike the iPhone, though, it doesn’t support Qi wireless charging so third-party charging mats won’t work.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 55

EXPERT ADVICE

Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems

Contact us EDITED BY HOWARD OAKLEY

The new Recovery position

H

idden behind friendly windows and menus is a different Mac, full of NVRAM, Recovery Modes and keyboard gymnastics.

Knowing how to run Safe Mode or Diagnostics isn’t straightforward on Intel Macs. When using an M1 Mac, this is transformed: Recovery and its tools are engaged simply by pressing and holding the Power button until they start loading. You then have consistent access to most old modes, and tools like Disk Utility and macOS Installer, which are available no matter why you entered Recovery in the first place.

Also gone are the old internet versions which loaded so infuriatingly slowly. That’s because M1 Recovery runs from a completely separate protected part of the internal SSD, alongside its firmware. These better tools are an important part of the Mac’s brighter future.

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

Bootable backups out of favour Q A How can I make a bootable backup of my M1 iMac’s internal storage?

by B R I A N K N O C K

Although you can do this reliably using the latest version 6 of Carbon Copy Cloner (see p90), it’s no longer such a useful procedure for M1 Macs, as you can’t clone that backup back to an M1 Mac’s internal SSD. That’s because these new Macs rely on quite a different process for restoring to your startup disk, which begins with installing a fresh copy of the macOS System volume and completes by migrating data from your backup.

This ensures that Big Sur’s sealed System volume is secure and completely intact, which

can only be guaranteed by Apple’s macOS installer app. Instead of starting up from the external disk containing the backup, installing and restoring are more easily performed in the M1’s much-improved Recovery Mode.

By default, utilities like Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper! now only copy and back up your files from the Data volume, which also saves you from wasting storage space with the System volume. If you really want to copy that as well, Carbon Copy Cloner offers a legacy mode which does that, but you won’t find it particularly useful on an M1 Mac because of its many limitations. To do this, select the destination disk and use the command from the contextual menu.

By default, Carbon Copy Cloner 6 doesn’t make bootable backups, but offers a legacy mode in case you have to.

56 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

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

Can I set a different ringtone on my second line?

> iPhones with dual SIM support let you add a second line, but there’s currently no way to set a different ringtone for each line. You can, though, set custom ringtones for specific callers in their entries in Contacts.

How to get an app working again in iOS 14.6?

> Several apps, including Momento Classic, are prone to stop working when you update to iOS 14.5 or later. To fix that, you could delete the app and reinstall it, but that wipes all its data.

A better approach is to offload the app instead, using Settings > General > iPhone Storage, tap the app then Offload App. Moments later, revisit this and tap Reinstall App.

Control where you want your documents saved by customising the sidebar in apps like Numbers.

Spreadsheets lost from iCloud Drive Q I edit Numbers spreadsheets on my iPad, and share them on my iPhone and MacBook using iCloud. I’m now finding that some of them work fine on my iPad, but I can’t find them on other devices.

What’s gone wrong, and how do I fix it?

by D O N F U L L B R O O K

A

If you can still load them on your iPad, that shows they’re being saved correctly, but to the wrong location.

Tracking them down and moving them to iCloud should solve the problem. The first place to look is local storage on your iPad. Open Numbers and, at the top left, tap the word Numbers to open the sidebar with Locations and Tags. If the selected location is On My iPad, tap that to see a list of local

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

folders in which the app can save its files. Tap the Numbers folder and see if your missing files are there. If you can’t find them, use the Search bar at the top. Enter the name of one of the files and that should reveal every copy of that document and its current location.

To move a document from local storage to iCloud, tap Select at the top right, select the document, and tap Move at the foot. Then select the folder, normally Numbers in your iCloud Drive, as its destination.

Once you’ve moved those files into the right place in iCloud, you can prevent files being saved to local storage back in the sidebar. Tap the ‘…’ button at the top, and Edit Sidebar. Disable the On My iPad item, leaving just iCloud Drive as the location for further spreadsheets to be saved.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 57

GENIUS TIPS Networking

Networking

Quick-fire questions

We help to solve your Wi-Fi woes and connection conundrums

How to get BT Cloud working in Big Sur?

> Like other BT online services, its cloud service works best with PCs, and doesn’t integrate well with Macs. Unless you have a specific need for it, make the most of iCloud and third-party cloud services such as Dropbox which integrate better.

Can I run less-used apps from my iCloud Drive?

> Yes, it’s easy to store and run them there if you prefer. macOS manages this by making a local copy when needed. But if that app has been ‘evicted’ to iCloud, you’ll have to wait for it to download before it can run, which could take time. Also beware that apps storing data in iCloud could slow that more.

Sharing files as a Time Machine backup destination in Big Sur doesn’t normally offer alternatives to SMB.

Accelerate network backups Q We set up a Mac mini for shared Time Machine backups over Wi-Fi in Big Sur, but found those backups may take forever to complete. How can we make them faster?

by E D L E E

A

Time Machine has had problems with backing up items like the hidden version database and apps like Xcode containing huge numbers of small files.

Although Big Sur’s new ability to back up to APFS backup volumes brings great improvements, when it backs up over a network this old problem returns, largely because of performance problems, even bugs, in Apple’s SMB implementation.

The simplest answer is to exclude folders containing a great many files. Big Sur does this automatically for the version database, and

58 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

you can manually add others such as Apple’s Xcode app. If you’re unsure which items are causing this problem, The Time Machine Mechanic (T2M2), free from bit.ly/ mac368t2m2, can help find them so you can add them to the list of inclusions using Options in the Time Machine pane.

Working around SMB problems is harder.

Apple’s older network file protocol AFP can perform better, but is now being progressively removed from Macs. If your Mac mini server can share backups using only AFP, you may be able to get your other Macs to back up as AFP clients. However, M1 Macs can’t serve using AFP at all, and Time Machine may refuse to recognise an AFP share for backup storage.

Most important of all, though, is keeping macOS updated fully on all your Macs. For instance, Big Sur 11.4 updates SMB which should improve performance.

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

Networking GENIUS TIPS Controlling extensions, the Start Page, and history are all easier once you can run Safari again.

Safari crashes when opened Q Safari in Big Sur has suddenly stopped working. Whenever I open it, the app shows its window for a split second then quits. How can I get it working again?

by L E N F E D U L L O

A

Although some recent Safari updates have brought problems, this isn’t one of them. It’s most likely that a new version of Safari on your Mac is crashing when it loads the Start Page, another important setting has broken, or it has an incompatible extension. Start your Mac in Safe mode, holding the ß key, then try opening Safari.

If it works normally, clear its history using that command in the Safari menu; you should be able to restart in normal user mode and use it again. If that doesn’t help, manually check and remove potential causes. Remove old or unrecognised files from the Internet Plug-ins folders in Library folders. Other locations worth checking are those inside the Safari folder in the Library of your Home folder. You can manually clear History files here, and remove extensions from their folder. If you have a custom local Start Page, check that.

Ultimately, if none of this gets Safari working again, reinstall the current version of Big Sur in Recovery mode.

Efficient Big Sur updates Q When Apple releases a Big Sur update, it takes two days to install it on each of our four Macs. Is there a better way?

by N A T H A N F O W L E R

A

Anyone with two or more Macs sharing an Apple ID should set one as a Content Caching server. Choose a Mac which is left running all or much of the time, with a good internet connection and sufficient free space, which can be on an external disk.

Identify where updates are going to be stored, open the Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com

Sharing pane and tick Content should use its cached update instead of downloading Caching. Decide whether you several gigabytes each time. want it to cache only shared M1 Macs are different: they content including updates, or to add iCloud content. Click on have to download 900MB of each macOS update before Options to set the Cache using the cache for the rest.

Location using Edit, adjusting Intel Macs benefit from the its max size. When you next whole of the cached update, start other Macs and devices, though, greatly reducing the they’ll connect to this service time it takes to update. and your server will only download one copy of updates and content.

Running Content Caching from one Mac will save large downloads for every OS update.

When you update macOS or anything of size, complete that on one Mac, preferably the server.

Once that’s restarted, subsequent updates

How to see iCloud Drive for both my accounts?

> Apple’s iCloud services are aimed at individual users and families, not at business. Although you can create multiple Apple IDs, each with its own iCloud Drive, macOS can only connect to a single Apple ID at a time as its primary user, and only shows that user’s iCloud Drive. You can access a second account’s iCloud services, by logging into that account at iCloud. com, however, that can’t put that second iCloud Drive into the Finder.

Can I let all my network devices use DHCP?

> Although there’s no reason that you can’t, DHCP works best for devices such as laptops and iPhones which visit your network rather than live on it full time.

Fixed devices including networked storage (NAS), desktop computers and printers are best assigned a fixed IP address. This saves them having to renew leases, which can change their IP address, and makes it easier to trace problems.

Configure a block of static addresses in the DHCP section of your router’s setup pages to allow this.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 59

GENIUS TIPS Mac software

Mac software

Quick-fire questions Why has my new antivirus disabled Maps?

> Maps relies on the internet for its data.

If antivirus software blocks that, Maps will either look blank, or contain limited info. If you want to carry on using that protection, read its documentation carefully, but you’ll probably be better using a different product.

Can I copy albums in Photos without using iCloud?

> Albums are an illusion created inside your Photos library, and can’t be copied even over iCloud. To copy the contents of an album so you can import it into another library, use the Export Album command. With iCloud, you can share albums easily, as detailed at bit. ly/mac368photoshare, but can’t copy them.

Resolving riddles and restrictions with what you want to run on your Mac

Testing Monterey on an M1 Mac Q A Can I test macOS 12 running in a Virtual Machine on my M1 iMac?

by A R T H U R C U T L E R

At present, no. Of the two major vendors of virtualisation software for Macs, VMware doesn’t yet offer a product which runs native on Apple’s M1 Macs, while the other contender, Parallels, does run native but doesn’t yet support running macOS in a virtual machine (VM).

Parallels already runs the ARM version of Microsoft Windows and several different varieties of Linux, again built only for ARM processors. There’s quite a lot of work required in getting macOS Big Sur to work reliably, and Parallels anticipates having that ready for release by the autumn of this year.

Hopefully that will also include support for Monterey VMs too. VMware is a bit further behind, and is still working on its ARM native release and support for Linux and Windows VMs. Initially it stated that it had no plans to get macOS to work, but once Apple silicon Macs have a choice of two releases of macOS, that might change. It appears unlikely that any macOS virtualisation is going to be available from VMware until at least the end of this year.

Monterey betas can be run in a VM on an Intel Mac, or you could install the beta on an external disk for your M1 Mac. Whatever you do, though, don’t let a beta-release of macOS near a production Mac which you rely on, unless it’s in a VM. Betas can do terrible things to computers, and sometimes put them out of action for many days or weeks.

Even when you try to create a Monterey virtual machine on an Intel Mac, you can encounter problems.

60 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

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

Mac software GENIUS TIPS

Redacting a PDF robustly Q A How can I remove private material from a PDF document, so others can’t see it? Could I use Preview?

by K E I T H PA R K S

This is redaction, and it’s fraught with dangers which have led to the revelation of many secrets.

Preview’s new redaction feature looks effective, but can leave hidden text behind, as seen here at the right edge.

The rather naive approach of superimposing black boxes doesn’t work because others can easily remove them to reveal underlying text. The PDF format is far from ideal in this respect, as it’s relatively simple to extract text from sections of a document which you think have been removed, as they’re retained in the file.

Preview now offers a simple redaction feature, but when tested it can easily leave hidden text behind, which you can’t see but can be recovered. Third-party PDF utilities offer improved reliability, but if it’s essential that a document is robustly redacted, the only app to trust is Adobe Acrobat DC. Unfortunately, though Acrobat DC is expensive and really quite hard to use.

Many simply print the document, redact it using marker pens, and scan it back in.

Although time-consuming and tedious, this is the only way to guarantee that others can’t recover sensitive content.

How big can a Photos library get?

Q I have one huge Photos library with hundreds of albums and more than 20,000 images. What’s the maximum size, and how can I avoid it?

by T O M M Y S H I E L D S

A

Apple doesn’t publish limits on the size of Photos libraries.

Early versions struggled with just a few thousand, but as the app has matured it has coped better with far larger. However, as libraries grow, and video clips are added, more users encounter problems. At present, trying to keep a library of more than 100,000 images is probably pushing Photos to its limits.

Those are a combination of: the number of files in the library, the size of the database which Photos uses to organise them, and how much you use features like albums, which unfortunately can’t break your library down into more manageable chunks.

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

The only way to do that is by splitting it into separate libraries. Switching between libraries isn’t convenient, as you have to open the app with the å key held to select the library. You also can’t drag and drop images between libraries, as Photos only

Does Big Sur improve column layout in Mail?

> Yes. Apple’s Mail app underwent many improvements from Catalina; you can now adjust column widths as well as selecting which columns to display and arranging them in order.

How to use drop caps to start chapters in Pages?

> Select the letter, and in the Format sidebar select the Style section.

At its foot, tick Drop Cap and set style, depth and other options. Add this as a new style of drop cap so you can apply it easily at the start of each chapter.

opens one at a time. Now’s a good time to start exporting images from your current library to secondary libraries, aiming to keep no more than 2030,000 images in each. This should also make it easier and quicker to navigate all your images.

Photos can only open one library at a time, when opened with the å key held, making it hard to split a library.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 61

m o r f t n e w ’ y b b ‘ho along the way s ’ e l p p A w o H ! s V Avaonttoi choemroraadned revolutionised T zer pple is a computer company; Apple is a gadget company; Apple is a lifestyle company – and Apple is now solidly a TV company, too. Apple TV+ is quickly growing from an also-ran to a serious contender in the streaming game, and Apple’s own studios are producing world-leading content. The days of the Videos app and iTunes rentals seem long behind us. This is the way things are done, and Apple is doing it well.

Confusing nomenclature aside – you do not need an Apple TV to watch Apple TV+, or indeed to use the Apple TV app, which is a way to connect to various TV services through Apple but on non-Apple TV devices – Cupertino’s own TV streamer is one of the

62 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

absolute best on the market today, with the ability and the operating system to cover the next few years, too.

But it wasn’t always that way. The story of Apple TV sees the company getting things spectacularly wrong on the way to getting them right, treating the Apple TV like an afterthought before making it core to its business, and generally sitting a little way behind others in the streaming world before making its play for the top. Whether you see this as a typically Apple trait is on you (and if you’ve watched the early growth of some of its other products, you just might), but there’s no doubt that Apple TV is now one of the very best streamers on the market, with value far beyond just putting movies on your TV.

S

ACFORMAT | 63

What was the Apple TV? No, seriously, we still can’t work it out Keeping the dream alive

Got a first-gen Apple TV? Apple may have deemed it obsolete, but jailbreaking it and using Rowmote (regularrateandrhythm.com) can get you remote access with an iPhone, AirPlay control, as well as certain third-party apps which make it at least partially useful as a second-TV streamer even today. Don’t expect improved resolution or super-fast speed, though. It is what it is.

Jailbreak your first-gen Apple TV and you might even be able to run Kodi – no guarantees, mind.

pple’s involvement in the TV game had been a long time coming. The company had dabbled with TV-adjacent devices in the past, of course, but to limited success. Whether or not you think 1993’s TV tunerequipped Macintosh TV counts (with only 10,000 sold, we’ll admit its relevance would be a stretch even if it’d been a runaway success), the justified bomb of the Apple Bandai Pippin multimedia platform, released in 1996, definitely does. It likely put a number of people within the company off non-computer hardware. Apple was a computer company, and was staying that way.

Until it wasn’t. The iPod, in 2001, set the cogs whirring towards Apple Computer’s final transformation into Apple Inc, and set in motion a chain of events which would, just before the launch of the iPhone, see Apple entering the consumer TV space. At a special event a month after 2006’s WWDC, Steve Jobs unveiled improvements to iTunes’ TV store (including an upgrade to a whopping 640x480 resolution) and a One More Thing introduction of “nearDVD quality” movies from the Disney camp, of which Jobs was a key stakeholder.

One Last Thing, though: those movies needed a new home, and Jobs revealed the iTV, due for release the next year. “You can take a movie, download it to a computer, put it on your iPod,” he said. “But what about your big flatscreen TV?” Apple’s solution – looking, today like a slimmed down Mac mini – was a box with HDMI, component video, optical and analogue audio, and wireless networking. “You need a box to drive that big screen TV,” said Jobs.

“I’m going to talk to it using [a] wireless network, to get the content from the computer to the box, from the box to the TV.” That first Apple TV, rechristened after UK TV network ITV threatened legal

64 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Apple’s early multimedia console, the Bandai Pippin, suffered from poor controls and a lacklustre range of games.

action, was released in March 2007, into a media market very different from today’s. So much so that many users just didn’t get it. What, really, was the point? Apple made it clear that it was taking its place in your living room – “Den, living room, car, pocket. I hope this gives you a little idea of where we’re going,” said Jobs, but it was arguably too early: the Apple TV landed when owning a DVD made more sense than picking up a device-locked lower-resolution download from iTunes. It demanded a widescreen TV with high-definition inputs, despite not being able to display HD content. The Digital Video Recorder (DVR) was the hot ticket at the time, but the Apple TV had no TV tuner, and couldn’t interact with over-the-air TV. For £299, you didn’t get a stand-alone product – you got an accessory.

Pricey peripheral Apple TV mark one wasn’t quite the same as the

devices we know today – or, indeed, the device it became less than a year later. Packing an Intel Pentium M CPU running a custom OS based on the core of Mac OS X Tiger, the Gen 1 Apple TV looked much like Apple’s Front Row multimedia skin for Mac OS X, and mainly acted as a way to pull content from a Mac or Windows machine and display it on a TV. It was basically a very expensive iTunes peripheral, auto-syncing content from one computer to its 40GB hard drive, and streaming content from up to five others without storing it. Steve Jobs told the New York Times that Apple TV was a “hobby” for Apple – but it wouldn’t stay that way.

In hindsight, the first-gen Apple TV released in 2007 was ‘too early’ in terms of consumer viewing habits.

Alternatives to Apple TV – Part I

Chromecast 3

From £30 google.com Google’s Chromecast as-was is still as limiting as it has always been – but if you’re happy to use your phone rather than a remote, its simplistic streaming style may appeal. It’s one of the cheaper streaming options, too, and easy enough for anyone to use.

Chromecast with Google TV

£59.99 google.com This wasn’t Google admitting defeat as much as realising that Android TV was actually pretty darned good and it really ought to have an Android-based streamer of its own. And it did a great job. Classy interface, nice remote.

Image credit: Google, Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc, Roku Inc

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K

£49.99 amazon.co.uk You can buy lowlier, cheaper versions of Amazon’s streaming stick but, if your TV can handle it, the 4K is the one to get. Smooth, well laid out, and compatible with just about every service there is. Watch for the ads, though.

Mac mini

From £699 apple.com/uk Why confine yourself to a bespoke streamer? If you’re managing your own content, a Mac mini is a superb choice for living room entertainment, and you can take it far further if you like – how about adding in a home file server, or a Plex box (plex.tv/en-gb)?

Roku Streaming Stick+

£49.99 roku.com Roku’s clean interface and unbiased voice search could be a strong deciding factor if you’re looking for an allplatforms 4K streamer – and Roku’s own deviceexclusive programming is expanding fast, which is a nice little extra.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 65

The pace picks up – here come movies and iOS

Apple TV Software 2.0 removed the requirement for a separate computer.

hough sales in the Apple TV’s initial period were reasonable, it took less than a year for Apple to rethink the whole concept. Apple TV Software 2.0 – cunningly subtitled ‘Take Two’ – was revealed by an uncharacteristically humble Steve Jobs during the company’s keynote at the 2008 Macworld Expo. “We’ve all tried to figure out how to do movies,” he said. “And you know what?

We’ve all missed. No one has succeeded yet. We tried with Apple TV. Apple TV was designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer. It’s not what people wanted. We learned what people really wanted was movies… And we weren’t delivering that.

So we’re back with Apple TV take two.”

The new software ditched the Front Row-esque interface, replacing it with a more bespoke look, and

removed the requirement for a separate computer; iTunes content could be downloaded (and, indeed, rented or purchased) in newlylaunched HD format directly on the device, direct access was available to YouTube, and functionality was added for podcasts and Flickr photo downloads. Sales tripled year-on-year, and tripled again by the launch of the 3.0 software in October 2009; a reshuffled, content-forward home screen aped the design language of iOS. Less than a year later, with home broadband speeds rising, high-speed Wi-Fi more common, and the widespread rollout of HDTV almost complete, Apple TV took the next step. Sort of.

Generation game The second-generation Apple TV ditched its

reskinned Mac OS X for a near-identical interface built on top of iOS 4.1, and swapped its Intel CPU for a far less power-hungry Apple A4 ARM processor. It threw away the internal hard drive, which had been made redundant by the changed focus on streaming media, replacing it with 8GB

EXPLAINED… Apple TV 4K connectivity 1

Inner power

Apple TV is so compact it incorporates its power supply for easy access to the rest of your plugs.

If you want optical out, you’ll need to find a third-gen Apple TV – the feature is now obsolete.

2

Advanced output

Older Apple TVs like this one have basic HDMI output; the 4K now sports HDMI 2.1.

66 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

3

Hot optics

4

1

2

3

4

Network dynamics

Ethernet is the best way to ensure good throughput, but the 4K version includes Wi-Fi 6.

The third incarnation brought full HD to Apple TV which chimed well with iTunes upgrade to 1080p content.

flash. The archaic analogue outputs were gone, in favour of a streamlined all-digital interface, and the plastic Apple remote of the first gen was switched out for a far sleeker aluminium version.

Sales soared, with the more modern take on the Apple TV far more satisfying than its predecessor, now supporting services like Netflix (and features like AirPlay which, in context, look like something of a throwback) for the first time.

Yes, it was certainly simpler than that original idea, but it was beginning to define what the Apple TV would become. There were downsides, though: the second-generation Apple TV was locked to 720p playback, for example. While the interface could display in 1080i or 1080p, its content could not.

The third generation, gifted an upgraded A5 chip, launched alongside iTunes’ upgrade to 1080p content in 2012, and brought Full HD to the Apple TV – though it allowed you the option to scale back the streaming resolution if broadband connections wouldn’t allow. A interface update, incorporating iOS-style icons and a Cover Flow-esque view dropped with it. And despite being one of the most significant upgrades the Apple TV had ever had, it was very much an ‘oh, yeah’ moment dropped in by now-CEO Tim Cook at a March special event keynote.

The Apple TV worked better than ever, it was driving iTunes sales – but given that the newlyRetina iPad, the by-now-ubiquitous iPhone, and a string of new Macs were swallowing up the headlines, the Apple TV remained that hobby product, a fourth-stringer treated almost as an afterthought. But its star was rising almost as fast as its sales, and the next iteration would see Apple TV finding its groove.

The ARM advantage

The Gen 2 switch from an Intel platform to ARM – in a box which was essentially a re-engineered iPod touch – wasn’t just a case of finding something suitable for iOS. It ran cooler, was far smaller (3.9in square, rather than 7.7in), and cut the price by almost two-thirds – making it more attractive to potential buyers.

Hardware-wise, the Apple TV was surprisingly close to the iPod touch.

Alternatives to Apple TV – Part II

Roku Streambar

£129.99 roku.com It may be far more expensive than the Streaming Stick+, but Roku’s streamer/soundbar combo is a pretty unique device, and it’s perfect if your TV needs an upgrade in terms of audio as well as content capability. Very compact, very neat.

Amazon Fire TV Cube Nvidia Shield TV Pro

£109.99 amazon.co.uk The Cube is Amazon’s best TV streaming hardware, and not only because of its picture-pushing power.

There’s also an Amazon Echo speaker built in, and a hexa-core processor which makes it a fair bit snappier in apps than its stick-shaped cousins.

Image credit: Roku Inc, Amazon.com Inc, NVIDIA Corporation, Microsoft, Xiaomi

£179 nvidia.com If gaming is your aim, the Shield TV Pro’s GeForce streaming features may appeal – and it’s great for Android games, too. Oh, and it’s certainly no slouch as a media streamer, with Chromecast 4K capabilities built in and Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos output.

Xbox Series S

£249.99 xbox.com Even if you’re not into next-gen gaming Microsoft’s lower-end console is a great little device to have attached to your TV, particularly if you’re happy to wrestle with its esoteric interface to take advantage of its media streaming smarts.

Xiaomi Mi Box S

£79.99 mi.com/uk Basic, yes, but if you’re looking for the flexibility of an Android TV streamer with suspiciously Apple TV-esque looks, the Mi Box S has everything – and you can plug in an external drive full of media to get it on your TV, too. Not bad for less than £80.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 67

The next generation of Apple TV hits the mark Emmy awards

Apple’s first two Emmys came from hardware, and its third, in 2018, from its involvement in James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke.

Since the launch of Apple TV+ it has earned a Primetime gong for Billy Crudup’s performance in The Morning Show, Daytime Emmys for Ghostwriter and Peanuts in Space, and 25 nominations in the most recent Daytime round.

Billy Crudup’s Emmy is likely the first of many major awards for Apple TV+.

im Cook was somewhat more effusive of Apple TV at Apple’s September 2015 special event. “This is the new Apple TV,” he said, revealing the fourthgeneration Apple TV, “and we believe it is the future of television.”

Through the lens of today, you’d have to agree that Apple was more on the mark: the newest Apple TV then was not only powerful enough to support 1080p content at 60fps, it brought with it a proper App Store, built on top of Apple’s newly ‘split off from iOS’ tvOS operating system. Third-party apps were available and encouraged, as long as they interfaced with another new feature: the touchpad-equipped Siri Remote, which brought voice search to Apple TV for the first time.

This wasn’t just a box for playing media: it was, at last, a TV computer, extensible and expandable, playing nicely with most streaming services, acting as a HomeKit hub, and supporting 7.1-channel audio. As the landscape changed, Apple continued to change with it.

Siri integration even earned Apple its second Apple TV-related Emmy, the first of which came in 2011 for developing FireWire.

In 2017, Apple rebranded the 32GB fourthgen as the Apple TV HD to make room for the new Apple TV 4K – something Tim Cook called TV’s “next major inflection point”, likening it to the jump between black-and-white and colour TV. Perhaps that was typical keynote bravado, given that 4K streamers had been on the market (and growing in popularity) for a couple of years by the time the Apple TV 4K hit – but there’s no doubt that it was a huge step up.

Super cool streamer 3GB of LDDR4 tied to Apple’s A10X processor

made the Apple TV 4K really fly, easily chewing through 4K footage, supporting HDR10 and Dolby Vision for the first time, and building in Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 audio output. This was now a state-of-the-art streamer. And in May this year, following Apple’s mid-term launch of its own Apple TV+ streaming service, it was superceded again by a second-generation Apple TV 4K both

10 best apps on the Apple TV Store

Apple TV+

£4.99 per month apple.com/uk If you’re not already taking advantage of Apple’s subscription service, you’re missing out. The content is strong (we recommend the tremendous Ted Lasso, in particular) and it’s only getting stronger.

Amazon Prime Video Netflix From £7.99 per month amazon.com Prime subscribers get access to Prime Video included, and while there’s a lot of strange bargainbasement content on there, Amazon’s growing selection of original shows are some of the best around.

68 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

From £5.99 per month netflix.com There’s a good reason Netflix’s name is on everyone’s lips. Although licensed content is slowly creeping away on to other services, its own shows and movies are as good as those from Hollywood studios.

YouTube

From Free youtube.com Want to keep the kids quiet? Want some of the best documentary and factual content there is?

Want to watch a man slowly mow a lawn? It’s all here, and much, much more.

YouTube is public access for the 2020s.

Plex

From Free plex.tv If you’re managing your own personal media collection – be it music, movies, photos or home videos – Plex is a smart way to do it. The Apple TV app makes accessing that self-hosted library quick and easy.

Image credit: Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix, YouTube, Plex

complementary to the company’s growing content offering and ready for the next generation of home viewing. Sporting an A12 Bionic chip with HDMI 2.1 support, it’s able to deal with high frame rate footage streamed over Wi-Fi 6. It integrates with the iPhone in unique ways, using its built-in light sensor as a calibration tool. It is super cool – a streamer capable of things which are not yet the norm.

Apple TV is on less of a definite cycle than some other products; you’ll see a new iPhone

Disney+

From £7.99 per month disneyplus.com Incredible original programming, a fantastic amount of archive content, every kids’ favourite you can think of, all in one place.

Disney+ has followed up its launch by basically making itself an essential choice for streaming TV and films.

VLC for Mobile

Free videolan.org Although Plex can play just about every media file there is, it’s not necessarily the right choice for everyone. If you’re fairly tech savvy and more of a DIY type person though, VLC’s mobile app works brilliantly on Apple TV, giving you access to a wide range of network video.

Image credit: Disney, videolan.org, Calm, Apple Inc

generally once every 18 months, but the gaps between Apple TVs have been between 18 months and, in this latest cycle, almost four years. The next version is likely some way away – which isn’t a problem, because the Apple TV has hit its groove. But it’s a safe bet to suggest that 8K support is in the pipeline somewhere.

And might Apple include its own picture processing tech, taking the function away from the TV to give maximum quality to any screen?

It might. We’ll have to watch and see.

Calm

From £28.99 per year calm.com Fancy using your TV as a screensaver? You could do worse than Calm’s tremendous backdrops, and its meditative sessions aren’t bad either. Calm does work out expensive if you want the full subscription experience, though.

Apple Arcade

From £4.99 per month apple.com/uk Not an app, but a whole series of ’em, many of which work just brilliantly through the Siri Remote or even via a Bluetooth controller.

Apple TV is a great way to enjoy that subscription.

There are some really great games available now.

Apple’s second-gen Apple TV 4K is certainly ready for the latest home viewing needs.

Apple Fitness+

From £9.99 per month apple.com/uk If you have an Apple Watch, Fitness+ absolutely works best on your big screen TV. Trying to peer at an iPad or a iPhone while you’re bouncing around covered in sweat just isn’t the right way to ‘enjoy’ these workouts.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 69

Start a 30-day digital trial and get an issue for free *

In iOS 11 or later, point the Camera app’s photo mode at this QR code to download our app. *First-time digital subscribers only.

Beginner’s Guides Introducing Keynote

How to use Apple’s Keynote presentation tool Take your presentation skills to the next level by getting to grips with Apple’s slideshow tool WRITTEN BY KENNY HEMPHILL

K

eynote is the third application in Apple’s iWork suite of tools.

And of the three, it’s the one that’s probably most viable as an alternative to its Microsoft rival. While Pages is a very different beast to Word, and Numbers is not considered to be a serious rival to Excel in business use, Keynote can go toe-to-toe with PowerPoint, albeit with Apple’s unique focus on slick design.

Keynote’s interface is similar to those in Pages and Numbers and uses many of the same tools in the Inspector (the sidebar on the right). If you followed our guides to the first two applications (see MF366 and MF367), Keynote will feel very familiar. You start by choosing a template then add your own words, pics, and videos. Templates can be either 16:9 widescreen (to display it on a TV or widescreen display), or 4:3 for use with old school projectors and screens.

While built as a traditional slide presentation creator, Keynote can also be used to create animated videos.

Presentations can be standalone kiosk-style, timed, or controlled by the presenter. And they can be delivered to a screen, in a file, or as an online live presentation. Over the next few pages, we’ll walk you through creating your first Keynote presentation, then show you some neat tips and tricks to make it really stand out.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 71

Beginner’s Guides Introducing Keynote

Create a presentation from a template Keynote templates make it easy to create your own presentations

K

eynote’s templates are things of beauty and make it really stand out from presentations created using other tools. They vary from text-only minimalist designs to those that incorporate large photographs and textures. Templates are split into different categories so whether you’re presenting a dissertation

to your tutor, a new product idea to the company board, or the results of your genealogy research to friends and family, there’s a template to suit.

In the example we’ll use to get started with Keynote, we’ll be pitching an idea for a new garden design. The presentation will use lots of images and its success will rely on persuading our target audience that the proposals will

not only look fantastic but be functional and suit the environment and climate.

We’ll start by choosing a suitable template, then add our own images and text. We’ll also add a few animated transitions to make the whole thing run smoothly. As with the other iWork apps, you don’t have to stick with the default fonts and colours in a template, so we’ll show you how to customise those, too.

EXPLAINED… The Keynote interface 1

Preview

Keynote’s toolbar is similar to the other iWork apps, but has a Play button to preview your presentation.

4 3

The sidebar displays thumbnails of your slides and you can drag and drop to reorder them.

4 Audio

2

Notes

You can display presenter’s notes, which only you will be able to see during the presentation.

3 Sidebar

1

2

72 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Keynote allows you to record audio, such as a narration track, to accompany your presentation.

Introducing Keynote Beginner’s Guides

HOW TO Create your own presentation

1 Choose a template

2 Choose a layout

4 Add text

5 Customise the text 6 Add the rest of the text

7 Add another slide

8 Edit image and text 9 Add a transition

Launch Keynote. If you don’t see the Template Chooser, go to the File menu and select New. In the top-right corner of the Template Chooser, choose Wide or Standard. Click on a template then click Create. We’ve chosen Academy.

Double-click in the Title text box to select all the text then type your own title over it. You may need to change the text colour to make it stand out. To do that choose the Text tab in Format, then Text Colour.

In the toolbar, click the Add Slide button. Click on a slide to use it was a template. We’re going to start with a section on hard landscaping, and we want to include a photo, so we have chosen an appropriate template.

We want an opening slide that will grab our audiences’s attention, which means a full-size image. Click on Format, then on the drop-down next to Slide Layout. Choose Title & Photo. We’re now ready to add our own words and photos.

If changing the colour still doesn’t make it stand out, go to the Style tab, select Colour Fill and choose a background colour for the text box.

To adjust the lines above and below the text box, select them individually.

Add an image and add text as we did for the first slide. To zoom in on part of the image, click on it and press Edit Mask. Use the slider to place more of the image in the masked area, zooming in on the image in the unmasked zone.

3 Add a title image

Click on the photo icon at the bottom right of the slide and you will be taken to your Photos library. Locate the image you want to use and click on it. If you change your mind, press ç+Z to undo and click the icon to start again.

Add a subtitle and your name as you did with the title. To change the font or size of any text, select it and choose Text in the Format palette. Use the options in the Style tab to make adjustments or choose a paragraph style.

Click on the first slide in the sidebar, then Animate. Click Add an Effect and choose a transition. Click Preview to preview the transition. Use the slider to adjust its length and the menu to select how it is triggered.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 73

Beginner’s Guides Introducing Keynote

Builds and animations

Add builds and transitions to slides to make your presentation stand out

N

ow you know how to add and edit slides in Keynote, you have everything you need to create a basic presentation.

But who wants to create a basic presentation? We want to wow our audience and dazzle them with a slideshow they will remember long after it’s finished. One way to do that is by

using animation. Keynote makes it easy not just to add transitions between slides, but to animate the appearance of elements within a slide. Want bullet points to arrive one at a time? You can do that. Want an image to fade in slowly after the audience has seen the headline? You can do that. How about adding video and audio? Keynote has you covered there too.

Before you jump in and add all the effects you can lay your hands on, though, take a step back and think about your audience. As with any other effect, builds and transitions are most effective when they are used sparingly.

We’ll also show you how to add your own notes so you can refer to them as you present, and how to prepare your slides and choose how to display them.

HOW TO Build elements in a slide

1Choose an element

Any object on a slide can have a build applied to it. So, choose the slide where you want your first build and click on an image, text block, or other element to select it. Choose Build In to define how the object ‘arrives’.

74 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

2Create the build

Click ‘Add an Effect’ and choose an effect. Those in the first section are more sober and those at the bottom more flashy. If you hover over an effect, you can click Preview to see how it will look. Click on it to select it.

3Adjust the effect

Select from the options to set its duration and any other available parameters. Click Preview to check how it looks or Change to choose another.

Click Build order to change the order in which effects are played.

Introducing Keynote Beginner’s Guides

HOW TO Add a video to a slide

1 Choose your video

Select the slide you want to add your video to and click Media in the toolbar.

If the movie is in your Photos library, choose Movies, if it’s on the web, choose Web Video, and if it’s elsewhere on your Mac, select Choose.

2 Place the video

Click on a corner of the video and drag it inwards to resize it. Click in the middle of the frame and drag it into position. Alternatively, click Format > Arrange and use the options to resize, position, and arrange it.

3 Edit your movie

Click Format then Movie. Click Play to preview it. Click the down arrow next to Edit Movie to access controls to trim it and set the poster frame. If you want the movie to play automatically, uncheck Start Movie on Click.

HOW TO Finalise and share your presentation

1 Add notes and customise 2 Rehearsal time In the View menu, choose Show Presenter Notes. Go through the slides and type notes in the window. From the Play menu, choose Customise Presenter Display. Choose from the options to set up the display the way you want it.

Choose Rehearse Slideshow in the Play menu. To see slide thumbnails, click Show Navigator. If you want to change the presenter display, click the icon next to ‘X’. When you’re finished rehearsing, press œ.

3 Play and share

The simplest way to present a slideshow is Play > Play Slideshow. You can also export it to use on a device that doesn’t have Keynote. Go to File > Export and choose PowerPoint, Movie, or another of the options.

Going deeper with Keynote There’s plenty more to discover

Keynote has some very sophisticated features that we haven’t even touched on here. For example, there’s an option in the Movie palette in the Inspector to continue playing a movie as you move from one slide to the next, as long as the movie is in place on both slides. A Light Table enables you to see your slides as if they were laid out in front of you, and rearrange their order. And an Object list shows you every element in a slide as a list, making it easy to select, lock or reorder them. Once you’ve got to grips with the basics, have a dig around in Keynote’s menus, you will be rewarded.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 75

BACK ISSUES Collect them all

Missed an issue?

Complete your collection of the UK’s No.1 magazine for Apple fans IN PRINT

ISSUE 367 AUGUST 2021

57 amazing Apple projects NEW APPLE KIT TESTED: iMac 24in, iPad Pro 12.9in, Apple TV 4K What’s coming in macOS Monterey

ON iPAD & iPHONE

ISSUE 366 JULY 2021

Say hello to the new iMac! Meet the all-new M1 iPad Pro PLUS: iPadOS 14 tips and tricks AirTag: Apple’s new tracker on test

To order back issues of the print magazine, go to bit.ly/macformat_backissues or phone +44 (0)330 333 1113 and we’ll post them out to you.

ISSUE 365 JUNE 2021

Big Sur secrets revealed!

Our predictions for Apple kit Ultimate guide: make music on Mac How to improve AirPods audio

Download back issues onto your iOS device at any time and keep them forever in your personal library. bit.ly/macformatipad

NEVER MISS AN ISSUE! SUBSCRIBE TODAY! IN PRINT & ON iOS

Our print and digital bundle gets you the real magazine and our digital edition for iPad and iPhone. bit.ly/magazinesdirect_macformat 76 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

ON YOUR MAC

Read on the big screen, too! If you prefer to read MacFormat magazine on a Mac, then subscribe with Zinio at bit.ly/ziniomacf

BUYING ADVICE

Our authoritative reviews help you make more informed choices

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

EDITED BY ROB MEAD-GREEN

Our ratings

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

A truly exceptional product.

Award given solely at the discretion of the editor.

The best example of its kind when pitted against comparable products.

HHHHH

A brilliant thing

HHHHH

Strongly recommended

HHHHH

Worth considering

HHHHH

Notable flaws

HHHHH

A waste of your money

78 Sony WF-1000XM4 HARDWARE 78 Sony WF-1000XM4 80 Amazon eero 6 81 Rapoo 9500M Multi-Mode Desktop Set 82 ViewSonic VP2768a ColorPro 84 Group test: Portable Bluetooth speakers SOFTWARE 90 Carbon Copy Cloner 6 92 F-Secure TOTAL 93 Genius Scan+, TouchRetouch 94 Fantasian 95 Head to head: Yoga apps 96 6 best apps to make the most of the summer

84

90 SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 77

APPLE CHOICE Hardware

Sony WF-1000XM4 Meet the new boss of the true wireless earbud set

£250 FROM Sony, sony.co.uk FEATURES True wireless headphones, active noise cancellation, Hi-Res Audio compatible, Bluetooth 5.2, USB-C port; up to 8 hours battery life (headphones)/16 hours (charging case); IPX4 rating

Your onestop shop for controlling the earbuds is Sony’s fully featured Headphones Connect app

T

he latest model in Sony’s WF-1000 line of true wireless earbuds are smaller, lighter and greener than ever – oh, and the XM4 also sound even more articulate and immediate than the model they replace.

Compared to their predecessors, the XM3, the new earbuds offer enough features to make them worth upgrading to, even if they are slightly more expensive. A more compact design means they’re more comfortable and easier to carry around, while the app makes it simple to adjust controls and EQ settings.

Features taken from the over-ear WH1000XM4 – including Speak-To-Chat, DSEE Extreme audio upscaling, and adaptive noise cancellation – mean you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more comprehensively-specced pair.

Small but fully featured

You can assign your function choice to each earbud using Sony’s Headphones Connect app.

The outgoing XM3 were big, and so was their charging case, and Sony has reduced some of this bulk in the new model. The charging case is 40% smaller (and is entirely paper-based, recyclable and eco-friendly), while the earbuds are 10% smaller.

As mentioned, the WF-1000XM4 incorporate some features first showcased on last year’s XM4 over-ears: active noisecancellation that can ascertain what you’re

78 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

The charging case is 40% smaller than the previous model’s and the earbuds 10% smaller.

doing and where you’re doing it in order to adapt; and ‘speak to chat’, which simply requires you to make a noise in order to pause your music so that you can have a brief chat. Noise cancelling is augmented by new polyurethane eartips (small, medium and large provided) designed to provide improved passive noise reduction.

Your one-stop-shop for controlling the earbuds is Sony’s fully featured, fully stable Headphones Connect app. Here you can fiddle with all the features that are partially duplicated on the capacitive touch surface of each earbud. In the app, you can decide what you’d like the left and right earbuds to control: volume up/down, play/pause/skip forwards/ skip backwards/summon voice assistant, active noise-cancelling on/off/adaptive.

There’s also EQ adjustment (the numerous presets include one racily titled ‘Excited’), with space for custom presses, and the option to turn auto-pause and DSEE Extreme on or off. You can also submit pics of your ears to help Sony optimise those music streaming apps that offer 360 Reality Audio or Dolby Atmos, and you can decide whether you’d like the Bluetooth connection to prioritise sound quality or connection stability.

Control is also available via the big three voice assistants – Siri, Google Assistant, and

Sony WF-1000XM4 APPLE CHOICE Take the earbuds out of your ears and the audio will automatically stop so you can have a quick conversation.

Alexa – which can be summoned via their established ‘wake’ words. No matter your assistant of choice, the WF-1000XM4 prove sharp-eared and alert to instructions, even in unpromisingly noisy environments.

There are three mics in each earbud, taking care of active noise-cancelling, call quality, and interaction with voice assistants.

A combination of feed-forward and feed-back mics capture the wearer’s voice directionally (from the mouth), though the feed-forward mics will mute when adverse conditions (wind noise, most likely) are detected. Sony has also included a bone conduction sensor, which picks up voice vibration, but doesn’t register it as ambient sound.

We found the earbuds a little fiddly to insert, and felt they should fit more deeply in the ear than is the case – but once done you can set up the touch controls, the EQ levels and the myriad other options.

Audio range

In terms of audio ability, the WF-1000XM4 impressed. They don’t give any area of the frequency range undue prominence, they don’t let any details go unnoticed, and they don’t let rhythms or tempos hang around.

There’s vigour and enthusiasm to their presentation, but this is also tempered by unarguable control.

At the bottom end, the earbuds freight bass sounds with substance, texture, and an absolute stack of detail. There’s drive and momentum to spare here, but there’s an equal amount of poise to go along with it. Entry into and exit from bass notes is clean and welldefined, which helps prevent the bottom end smearing up into the midrange.

The midrange itself is equally info-rich.

‘Communicative’ may seem an odd word Image credit: Sony Europe BV

when discussing a person’s singing voice, but here it’s appropriate: if they’re anything, the WF1000XM4 are communicative.

The handover from midrange to top end is smooth and naturalistic, and treble sounds themselves have plenty of shine and bite without ever getting shouty about it. Dynamically, too, there’s little to criticise. The earbuds are capable of switching from ‘ear-splitting’ to ‘almost silent’ and back again in an instant.

While the WF-1000XM4 can’t quite pull off an ability to utterly reject external sounds, the active noise cancellation certainly minimises the impact of ambient noise.

Battery life and connectivity

Even within the new and reduced physical dimensions, there’s much more going on than before. Connectivity is now via Bluetooth 5.2, which means simultaneous transmission to the left and right earbuds, and (when using Sony’s bespoke LDAC codec) Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification. Bluetooth 5.2 should, in theory, mean better battery life, too – but the best-case real-world scenario of 24 hours (eight to 12 in the earbuds, depending on whether active noise cancellation is on or off, plus another couple of charges in the case) is really nothing special. Still, at least the XM4 are Qi charging pad-compatible.

As well as LDAC, the WF-1000XM4 are compatible with SBC and AAC codecs – but there’s no sign of aptX in any of its guises. They also incorporate Sony’s DSEE Extreme technology, although we’ve never been entirely convinced by it. Simon Lucas

VERDICT Performance,

ergonomics, and build quality. They’re not perfect but, as an overall package, they’re hard to beat.

Rapid, full-bodied and eloquent sound Ergonomics and truly useful features Unremarkable battery life ‘B+’ noise-cancelling

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 79

APPLE CHOICE Hardware

Amazon eero 6 Another great mesh router from Amazon

FROM Amazon, amazon.co.uk FEATURES Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz, 1.2GHz, quad-core processor, 4GB flash memory, 512MB flash storage, 2x Gigabit Ethernet ports

The 1,800Mbps speed should be fast enough for streaming on most broadband connections

VERDICT Not the fastest

mesh system, but an affordable Wi-Fi 6 upgrade for larger homes with multiple devices.

E

ero is now owned by Amazon, and rather than being ‘version 6’ as the name suggests, the eero 6 is the first model to introduce Wi-Fi 6 technology (aka 802.11ax).

At just £279 for a three-piece kit, you get a primary router and two ‘extenders’, which provide dual-band Wi-Fi 6 capable of covering homes up to 5,000sq ft in size.

There are plenty of faster mesh systems available (including the tri-band eero 6 Pro), but the eero 6 stands out as being one of the most affordable mesh systems to offer Wi-Fi 6, and the 1,800Mbps speed should be fast enough for basic web browsing and streaming video on most home broadband connections.

Each compact, pod-like design measures 90mm wide and deep, and 57mm high. The main router has a USB-C port on the back for power, along with two Gigabit Ethernet ports for wired network connections. One of the Ethernet ports needs to be connected to your existing modem or router in order to use your internet connection, so you just have one Ethernet port for a wired connection. The ‘extender’ units don’t have Ethernet, which is disappointing but understandable given the price. The eero supports Alexa and Zigbee.

Oddly though, it doesn’t support Apple’s HomeKit as per the previous generations.

H

Affordable Wi-Fi 6 mesh system Easy to set up and use Covers homes up to 5,000sq ft Creates a single merged network

You get two Gigabit Ethernet ports, but one of them needs to be connected to your existing modem or router.

80 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

The units are neat and unobtrusive and help to cover an impressive range of up to 5,000sq ft.

The app is straightforward. There’s a speed test that allows you to check the performance of your network, and you can monitor the data usage of each device.

You can also create a guest network for visitors, and set up schedules to control internet access for different family members.

The app creates just a single network that combines the 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands, and while that helps to keep the initial set-up simple, it may deter more experienced users who prefer separate networks. And there’s no ‘QoS’ (quality of service) option that can give priority to devices that need max performance. Additional features, such as parental controls, ad blocking and security require an additional subscription costing either £2.99 per month or £9.99 per month, depending on which features you require.

Performance

The eero app uses Bluetooth on your mobile devices to connect to each eero unit and guide you through the set-up. As the app creates a single network that combines the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands you merely need to enter a single name and password.

It’s not the fastest mesh system, but the eero 6 supports a max speed of 1,800Mbps, which is more than adequate for a 100Mbps broadband service. And the router is designed to stream data efficiently to up to 75 different devices at once, which should keep even the most gadget-crazy homes happy.

Admittedly, you’re paying a bit of a premium for advanced features of Wi-Fi 6, but if you’re looking for an affordable Wi-Fi upgrade that is suitable for larger homes with lots of connected smart devices, the eero 6 fits the bill without costing a fortune.

Cliff Joseph Image credit: Amazon.com Inc

Hardware APPLE CHOICE

Rapoo 9500M Mul t i Mode Desktop Set A keyboard and mouse combo for Mac, PC and mobile devices FROM rapoo-eu.com FEATURES Full-size wireless keyboard with numeric keypad, navigation keys, media controls: wireless four-button mouse with scroll wheel; Bluetooth, USB-A

The slimline keyboard feels a little sturdier than Apple’s keyboard

VERDICT Essentially a low-

cost PC keyboard and mouse, but well built and versatile enough to use with Macs and iPads too.

A

pple’s keyboards and mice always seem to be overpriced and overdesigned – they look smart, but they’re not particularly comfortable, and not necessarily sturdy enough to cope if you’re a bit heavy-handed and/or working all day long. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of alternatives and, while Rapoo isn’t exactly a household name, its 9500M keyboard and mouse combo provides an affordable alternative to Apple’s designer devices.

Priced at just £49.99, the 9500M combo includes a compact mouse and a full-size keyboard with numeric keypad, navigation keys and controls for media playback and volume. Apple charges £129 for its own extended keyboard, so Rapoo clearly offers far better value for money. The keyboard and mouse support Bluetooth 3.0 and 4.0 and also include a small USB dongle – with USB-A interface – that provides a 2.4GHz radio connection. That enables you to connect three different devices, including Macs, PCs, and Android or Apple mobile devices, and to switch between them.

That wouldn’t matter if the keyboard and mouse didn’t work well, but the slimline

H

Bargain price Connects to multiple devices No rechargeable battery No dedicated keys for Mac/iPad Image credit: Rapoo

The mouse is neat – if a little petite – with curvy contours, and you have the option to adjust its sensitivity.

keyboard feels nice and sturdy, and the keys respond more firmly than those of Apple’s keyboards, making them more suitable for speedy typing. The mouse is neatly designed, with four buttons and a scroll wheel, and even an option to adjust the mouse sensitivity. The curvy contours and thumb-rest feel quite comfortable, but we did find the mouse rather small for big hands, and it feels more like a portable mouse for use with a laptop than a proper desktop mouse.

Mac compatibility

Rapoo says that the keyboard and mouse are ‘Mac-compatible’, and they did work fine with our office iMac and MacBook laptop. The keyboard’s media controls also worked with apps such as the BBC iPlayer on iPad. Even so, the keyboard is clearly designed for Windows PCs, with Windows menu and Alt keys rather than the Mac’s å and ç (although you can reassign these in the Mac’s System Preferences), and there are no dedicated controls – such as a Home button – for an iPad. The low cost involves some compromises.

There’s no backlight, and no status lights for Caps Lock and other signifcant keys. And neither device has a rechargeable battery – although Rapoo does include a set of batteries, which should last for up to 12 months before being replaced. There are more expensive keyboards and mice with features that are more focused on Macs and iPads, but if you simply want an affordable desktop combo that will work with multiple devices then the 9500M does the trick at a highly competitive price.

Cliff Joseph SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 81

APPLE CHOICE Hardware

ViewSonic VP2768a Col o rPro A QHD 2K display boasting good colour and connections

FROM ViewSonic, viewsonic.com FEATURES 2560x1440px IPS, USB-C, 2x HDMI, 2x DisplayPort, 2x USB-A, USB 3.0 B, Ethernet

An excellent screen for creative colour work and an excellent partner for a MacBook Pro

VERDICT While it’s not a

V

iewSonic’s VP2768a is part of the company’s ColorPro Professional line of displays. It is a widescreen 2K display with a native resolution of 2560x1440 pixels and a rotating mount that can turn the screen 90° to a vertical position in either direction. It has a slim, neat bezel around the display itself, and the stand is sturdy without feeling bulky. The stand has a tilt range of 26°, swivels through 120°, and the height can adjust through 130mm.

The VP2768a also includes a wealth of connectivity options, including two HDMI 1.4 ports, two DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, a USB-C port with Power Delivery of up to 90W, plus USB 3.2 Type A and Type B ports, an audio passthrough port and Gigabit Ethernet. All the ports can be accessed from the bottom of the display, at least when it’s in the normal horizontal position. This makes it an excellent partner for MacBook and MacBook Pro users as well as anyone aiming to have a tidy desk without compromising their connection options.

You can even daisy-chain monitors together with a single connector from your Mac. We tested and profiled this display with a DataColor Spyder5Elite colorimeter. This showed that the VP2768a is capable of rendering

cheap display, the ViewSonic VP2768a is a great choice for creative professionals.

HHHHH Multiple ports including USB-C Good colour rendering Swivels Quite pricey

The VP2768a’s stand comes with tilt, swivel and height adjustment, making the monitor extremely versatile.

82 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

The display’s colour accuracy is excellent – so it’s a great choice for a range of creative work, such as video editing.

100% – and in fact a little more – of the sRGB colour space, as advertised. More importantly, it achieved 79% of the significantly larger Adobe RGB colour space and 84% of P3. While there are displays that offer higher scores out there, that’s still much better than most. If you have one of the eight supported hardware calibration devices you can use ViewSonic’s own Colorbration software to manage calibrating and profiling your display, and the vDisplay Manager software makes fine-tuning and switching profiles very simple.

Frugal juice

With a max power consumption of around 25W (14 to 17W in Eco modes) and standby power draw of 0.5W, it’s relatively frugal in long-term use. The display’s controls are arranged as a set of six buttons including power, arranged neatly out of sight but within easy reach on the righthand side at the back. There are no physical labels, but on-screen virtual labels appear aligned with the different buttons; with a bit of practice these are easy to use. Finally, the IPS panel used has an excellent wide viewing angle, with no concerning colour or contrast shifts as you shift your position around the screen.

If you’re looking for a screen for dealing with creative colour work, from DTP to image editing to video production, the VP2768a should go on your shortlist. Keith Martin Image credit: ViewSonic Corp

New issue on sal w!

THE iPAD MAGAZINE YOU READ ON THE iPAD Find us on the App Store by searching ‘iPad User Magazine’ orscanning the QRcode!

APPLE CHOICE Group test

Portable Bluetooth speakers The freedom to enjoy your music anywhere

84 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Portable Bluetooth speakers APPLE CHOICE

Group test Reviewed by Hollin Jones

ON TEST…

Audio Pro C3 Bose Portable Smart Speaker JBL Link Portable Sonos Move Soundcore Motion+ Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2

A

s listening habits have changed in recent years, more of our music than ever is streamed from the cloud or a portable device. Being able to play your music outdoors – be it in the garden for a party, or in the park while working out – no longer requires the kinds of trade-offs it used to.

Ranging from ultra-portable to more audiophile-friendly, modern Bluetooth speakers have really upped their game when it comes to things like battery life, volume, audio fidelity, and even waterproofing.

A portable speaker connects to your iPhone or iPad and Macs directly over Bluetooth, and in some cases Wi-Fi: AirPlay makes it really easy to stream your music to compatible devices on your network. Higher-end models can also integrate Spotify and other streaming services, for added ease. Typically providing controls both on the body and via a smartphone app, some also have physical audio inputs for connecting other audio equipment.

Whatever level of features appeals to your particular needs, a portable Bluetooth speaker lets you enjoy your music with others wherever you are, and their sonic capabilities may well surprise you.

How we tested Starting with ease of setup and

connection, we also considered the build quality and portability of each speaker. Battery life was noted, as was the weatherproof rating of each model. Then, naturally, there’s audio performance, how accurately each one reproduced sound, and how loud it could go without distorting. Finally, we looked at other things like extra inputs or additional smart features that may set a model apart from the competition.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 85

APPLE CHOICE Group test Things to consider…

1 Weatherproofing If you plan to play music away from home or at the pool, a degree of weatherproofing is advisable — maybe even essential.

2

AirPlay

3

Smart features

4

Battery life

AirPlay has a greater range than Bluetooth and uses lossless audio compression for higher quality. Both the speaker and the source need to be on the same Wi-Fi network.

Higher-end portable speakers often include ‘smart’ features that let you do things like set timers or stream online from services like Spotify, Apple Music, and radio stations. These require a Wi-Fi internet connection .

Periods of extended play will benefit from a longer-lasting battery and the ability to recharge quickly over USB.

1

Audio Pro C3

FROM audiopro.com FEATURES 25W, AirPlay, Ethernet

1

Built more like a bookshelf speaker, the C3 uses wall power, which also charges its internal battery for up to 15 hours of playback. Its rear panel has Ethernet and aux-in ports, and for wireless there’s Bluetooth and AirPlay.

The gorgeous metal top panel has playback controls and an input selector for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or aux-in, plus four preset buttons. In the app you can assign the presets to store any of a multitude of online streams including Spotify, Tidal, Amazon Music and a host of online radio stations.

The app also provides basic EQ controls as well as

an alarm clock function and the option to set up Amazon Alexa for voice commands.

The 25W amp pushes two tweeters and a woofer and there’s a rear port for bass extension, though no weather sealing to speak of. There’s plenty of bass and a very decent level available but the midrange can get slightly lost at higher volumes, and the front-firing design makes it a little directional.

> VERDICT

Excellent build and finish Superb streaming options Sound can be directional Lacks weather sealing

86 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

HH

Bose Portable Smart Speaker FROM bose.com FEATURES AirPlay, IPX4

2

With Bluetooth 4.2 and AirPlay, this has an IPX4 water-resistance rating for protection from splashes, and a great build and finish. The app is slick and setup over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is easy. You can AirPlay any Apple device to the speaker while on the same network or use it in regular Bluetooth mode while away from Wi-Fi. The top surface contains core controls for playback and volume, with a circular light system giving feedback for power and volume.

The app lets you configure Alexa or Google Assistant voice services so you can

use voice control via the speaker’s microphone array to set timers, play Spotify, and the like. You can also share the speaker with other users of the app on your network.

Playback is great with an excellent sonic balance, and though Bose doesn’t advertise wattage, the speaker can go very loud, even if it loses focus a little at higher levels. Battery life is 12 hours and there’s an optional charging stand.

> VERDICT

Voice control Goes very loud indeed Great companion app A little pricey

H

Portable Bluetooth speakers APPLE CHOICE

2

3

4

JBL Link Portable

Sonos Move

3

4

FROM uk.jbl.com FEATURES 20W, AirPlay, IPX7

The JBL Link Portable charges over USB-C, offering a battery life of eight hours, and also comes with a charging cradle. Well built but slightly unsteady on anything other than a flat surface, it is nonetheless rated IPX7 water resistant and so can shrug off any soaking. It uses 360° sound, so it sounds good from any angle and playback is solid if perhaps not stellar, with a decent balance and a well-rounded bass. You can also pair two speakers for stereo.

There’s Bluetooth 4.2 and also AirPlay, with setup via the Google Home app which

involves filling in some personal info before it’s done, which isn’t to everyone’s taste.

Once you’re in you can tweak EQ, set reminders and set up Google Assistant, after which the onboard mics will respond to your voice commands and you can use it as part of a smart home network. A decent-sounding and very weatherproof speaker, though the reliance on Google for setup may grate.

> VERDICT

Excellent water sealing Solid all-round sound Relies on Google Home Design a little muted

HH

FROM sonos.com FEATURES 36W, AirPlay, IP56

The largest speaker on test, the Sonos Move weighs in at just under 3kg. The Move has an integrated carry handle as well as IP56 weatherproofing for protection from rain and dust. It comes with a charging base but also has a USB-C port, and capacitive touch controls on the top as well as a multiple mic array. It uses these not only for voice commands (Amazon Alexa and Google are supported) but also Trueplay, Sonos’ system for adjusting its playback based on the environment.

There is also AirPlay 2.

The app is very well featured, offering easy setup

and management of everything from EQ to stereo pairing, setting alarms and adding any of a long list of music streaming services and internet radio stations, which you can ask your device to play using your voice. Music playback is very good, with the larger cabinet allowing for a particularly accurate and rich low end. At 36W it’s the most powerful unit on test, though also the heaviest.

> VERDICT

Excellent sound Extensive smart features Powerful app Very expensive

HHHHH

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 87

APPLE CHOICE Group test

5

6

Soundcore Motion+

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2

1

6

FROM uk.soundcore.com FEATURES 30W, IPX7, aptX

This speaker is IPX7 rated, providing good water resistance, with its USB-C charging port and aux input sealed behind a thick rubber flap. It’s Bluetooth-only but pairing is simple and the companion app provides various EQ modes.

On the top of the speaker are playback controls as well as a Bass Up button, which boosts the low end.

Pushing up to 30W of power through its multiple drivers, it uses active crossovers and DSP (Digital Signal Processing) for better sound separation as well as Bluetooth 5 and the aptX high-quality streaming codec.

Playback is impressive, with a pleasing soundstage and lots of volume available.

A rear port combined with the Bass Up mode adds significant heft to the low end, more so than you would expect from a fairly compact unit, while remaining clear and very musical. With battery life rated at 12 hours on a full charge it’s a great speaker, especially considering its price.

> VERDICT

Excellent sound quality Impressive waterproofing A lot of speaker for the price App is relatively basic

88 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

FROM ultimateears.com FEATURES 17W, IP67

Among the most compact of Ultimate Ears’ portable speakers, the Wonderboom 2 is very small and light, sitting easily in the palm of your hand. With a woven outer mesh it’s IP67 water resistant, meaning it can be submerged in water for a short period.

Charging over Micro-USB, it’s all super simple to use, with no companion app and just a couple of controls. Pair by holding the Bluetooth button, then there’s playback controls and those large volume buttons on the front side.

Battery life is 13 hours.

It uses 360° sound, and two units can be paired to

create stereo sound. Playback is far better than you might expect, with a polished and balanced soundstage and plenty of bottom end.

Of course, the size does mean there are limitations at higher volumes but it’s still impressive. An Outdoor Boost button emphasizes mid and top end at the expense of bass, which tends to get lost outdoors anyway.

> VERDICT

Very portable and affordable Great sound for its size Serious waterproofing No app to change EQ

H

Portable Bluetooth speakers APPLE CHOICE

THE WINNER

Soundcore Motion+

An affordable, great sounding and waterproof speaker you can take anywhere

T

he differences in price between the speakers has less to do with sound quality and more with smart features. They all sound really good, but if you want voice control and cloud streaming you’re going to pay more. The snag is that those features and AirPlay require you to be on a Wi-Fi network. While that’s fine for your garden,

How do they compare?

Specs

Audio Pro C3 Price £189 Website audiopro.com Power 25W AirPlay Yes Water sealing No Battery life 15 hours Smart features Yes Aux input Yes Overall HH

being away from your Wi-Fi means relying on a Bluetooth connection.

The Sonos Move, JBL Link Portable, Audio Pro C3 and Bose Portable Home Speaker are all web-connected, with the C3 and Move in particular having the widest feature sets although also being the largest of the bunch. The Bose is a great balance of portability and features, but at a price.

Bose Portable Home Speaker £329.95 bose.com Not listed Yes IPx4 12 hours Yes No

H

JBL Link Portable £129.99 uk.jbl.com 20W Yes IPx7 8 hours Yes No

HH

Sonos Move £399 sonos.com 36W Yes IP56 11 hours Yes No

H

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.

With an honourable mention for the affordable and fun Wonderboom 2, it’s the Soundcore Motion+ that strikes the perfect balance. Well built yet portable, it’s effectively waterproof, has great audio quality and battery life, and even an aux input. It may not have smart features or AirPlay but considering its price, it’s the speaker you will want to take with you.

Soundcore Motion+ £99.99 uk.soundcore.com 30W No IPx7 12 hours No Yes

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 £89.99 ultimateears.com 17W No IP67 13 hours No No

H

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 89

APPLE CHOICE Software

Carbon Copy Cl o ner 6 Backup and disk copying utility £29.45 FROM Bombich Software Inc, bombich.com NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later

Even if you’re happy with your backup software, CCC’s cloning and snapshot tools are compelling

CCC 6 is the best tool for managing snapshots, and provides detailed audit information.

W

hen Apple killed off its Time Capsule devices, backing Macs up fell into a void. Apple’s own Time Machine languished in Catalina, and competitors such as Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) stood up. With Big Sur, the game has changed again: Apple decided Time Machine would at last back up to APFS volumes, and it does so excellently, but making copies of the new sealed System volume wasn’t going to be useful – or even possible until recently – any more.

Carbon Copy Cloner version 6 is Mike Bombich’s riposte: near-infinite flexibility against Time Machine’s rigid hourly schedule; navigators, audit and information before, during and after any backup; and an overhauled interface to ensure its wealth of features doesn’t overwhelm. From its original goal of cloning disks, CCC has become a fully fledged backup system.

CCC now not only backs up by schedule, but can do so when your Mac first connects to the backup disk, ideal for laptop users, or whenever the source files change. Setting up this automation is extremely simple, and when you think it’s right, you can preview the task to see what changes will be made on the backup store.

Backups are claimed to be faster than in previous versions, and CCC already has

Backing up can be triggered when a set quantity of data has been changed.

a deserved reputation for speed. While Time Machine is so slow in Catalina that there was no contest, backing up to APFS in Big Sur is faster, at least until it hits folders with many small files. Backing up the whole of Apple’s Xcode took CCC only 128 seconds for nearly half a million items in 30GB. A straight Finder copy between the same two folders took 339 seconds, two and a half times as long.

CCC supports backups to local and networked storage, although its performance with the latter will be constrained by the network file system used. When working with local disks, CCC 6 must now be the quickest in its class.

If you’re less worried about time but want backups to interfere as little as possible with your work, it has per-task control over its processor usage. It also features a rolling chart of speed which is far more informative than a progress bar.

Conventional and simple

Once a backup has completed, you can audit it to see exactly what was copied and why, helped by a visual comparison between source and backup. CCC can also verify a complete backup to double-check its integrity.

Because these backups are conventional copies, they can be moved to another disk and copied simply, unlike the elaborate snapshots now used by Time Machine to APFS. CCC set out as a utility for cloning disks, when making bootable copies was common if 90 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

Carbon Copy Cloner 6 APPLE CHOICE

not best practice. Catalina and Big Sur in particular bring an end to this by segregating much of macOS on a protected System volume. The most difficult of all to copy is macOS installed on the internal SSD of an M1 Mac. While CCC 6 can do this reliably now, it’s a legacy feature which shouldn’t normally be used. Instead, it’s better to copy just the Data volume, as CCC’s backups work fully when migrated into a freshly installed System.

Snappy snapshots

CCC is the best tool for managing snapshots on the Mac, not only those it makes when backing up, but those of Time Machine and others too. Select any mounted volume to list all its snapshots, identify what created them and when, and their size, or ≈-click to browse their contents, restore or delete them.

CCC’s own snapshots are retained according to its default rules, or you can set your own, and are normally retained for longer than Time Machine’s fixed period of 24 hours.

Even if you’re happy with your existing backup software, CCC is worth buying for snapshot management alone.

Considering the complexity and extent of the options and features in CCC 6, its interface is remarkably clean and easily navigated. Its sidebar determines whether you’re working Image credit: Bombich Software Inc

with backup tasks, or mounted volumes.

Its toolbar then gives immediate access to functions including restore, preview and compare, together with task history. Those who prefer Dark Mode can now rest their eyes with its new appearance.

Extensive help starts with tooltips controlled from the toolbar. Most topics are covered in full in its Help book, which links to Bombich’s online Knowledge Base to give access to the latest technical and specialist information. There’s also the facility to message its Help Desk, and submit logs to support questions and reports of problems.

The first release of CCC 6 did have some minor bugs which were fixed almost immediately with 6.0.1, which appears to work flawlessly.

CCC retains a traditional licensing model, with discounted paid-for major updates, and for non-commercial use a single licence covers all the Macs in one household, including use of versions 4 and 5 on Macs which aren’t yet running Catalina or Big Sur. Whether you want to make occasional copies of key folders, manage snapshots, or run a full tiered backup scheme, Carbon Copy Cloner 6 has got it covered better than any other app. If you’ve become disenchanted with Time Machine’s inflexibility, CCC should be ideal. Howard Oakley

Setting up backup tasks remains straightforward despite the wealth of different options.

VERDICT The best and most

capable backup, cloning and snapshot management utility handles complex tasks with ease.

Comprehensive feature list Faster than Time Machine Snapshot management tools Ease of use

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 91

APPLE CHOICE Software

F-Secure TOTAL Can this Finnish security product compete with the big boys? /year (1 device); /year 3 devices) FROM F-Secure, f-secure.com NEEDS macOS 10.11 or later

TOTAL’s ‘bonus’ tools are a password manager and VPN software

VERDICT The ultimate

FREEDOME provides basic VPN protection for an extra layer of security when online.

T

OTAL is F-Secure’s top-of-theline security product for Mac, and comprises three products, which you install separately.

F-Secure SAFE offers core antivirus protection, backed up with ransomware protection, browsing and banking protection, and parental controls. It’s easy to install, and steps you through the process of giving the app the access it requires. The main interface is straightforward, but bare. Configuration is virtually non-existent – a stark contrast to the likes of Bitdefender and Norton. There are just two types of virus scan: full or ‘choose what to scan’. Most other controls are on/off with a handful of advanced controls buried in the app’s entry under System Preferences.

Parental controls offer a bit more tweaking, although even here you’re limited to setting time and usage limits, plus web filters, for other users of your Mac. TOTAL’s ‘bonus’ tools are a password manager and VPN software. ID Protection protects passwords and other sensitive info – everything is double-encrypted behind your

example of ‘meh’: TOTAL provides adequate protection, but you can do better.

HHHHH Simple to set

up and use VPN adds extra layers of security Protection isn’t bulletproof Lacks configurable options

The F-Secure SAFE element is a no-nonsense – and definitely no-frills – security application.

92 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

master password, but there’s no additional security in the form of 2FA. The app also betrays its Windows focus by failing to provide a Safari add-on (Chrome and Firefox are supported). The omission is doubly strange given that SAFE’s browser protection component does integrate with Safari.

Not a TOTAL solution

Similarly, FREEDOME VPN can’t hold a candle to dedicated VPN services. On the upside, you can use it on your phone as well as your Mac to encrypt your internet connection when using public Wi-Fi networks, and it can also block tracking attempts via insecure HTTP traffic plus scan for malware, tracking cookies and other online threats. Weaknesses include restricting you to a choice of just 28 servers across 22 countries, with a focus on Europe and the Americas. Performance is noticeably affected too: Speedtest reported a 25-30% drop-off over our fibre connection when using FREEDOME. Nevertheless, it’s competitively priced as part of TOTAL, and is fine for occasional use, plus can be used to bypass geo-restrictions abroad too.

As a simple, set-it-and-forget-it solution TOTAL does a reasonable job. However, SAFE’s current AV-Labs test scores of 5.5 out of 6 for both protection and performance reveal two key issues. The first is less-thanperfect protection – a 99.6% malware detection rate isn’t bad, but four products (Norton, Trend, Bitdefender and avast) score 100%. And second, there’s a noticeable – if not cripplingly slow – impact on accessing files and opening programs thanks to SAFE’s real-time scanner.

You could definitely do worse, but there are better options out there. Nick Peers Image credit: F-Secure

Software APPLE CHOICE

Genius Scan+ Fast scans and excellent OCR FROM The Grizzly Labs, thegrizzlylabs.com NEEDS iOS 13 or later

G

VERDICT Fast, flexible, and

useful scanning with good OCR.

Fast OCR Multi–page PDFs Password and Face ID Expects simple formatting

enius Scan+ is a fully featured app that uses your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch’s camera and processing power to deliver scanning and text recognition.

Genius Scan+ offers smart scanning with document detection and background removal, distortion correction, and a range of filters and tools to get the best quality. You can export to PDF and create multipage PDFs either by scanning multiple pages or by combining scans and existing photos and PDFs, and you can tag and add metadata. The Batch Scanning

TouchRetouch One–touch object removal for pics

Once you’ve scanned a document, it’s easy to create and use tags.

The OCR copes well with even very small text sizes.

feature makes light work of grabbing documents.

While a free version, named Genius Scan, offers many of the above features, Genius Scan+ adds multiple cloud service support and an OCR engine that extracts text from documents and enables PDFs to be searchable. It also enables you to protect your scans with Face ID. The OCR works well and quickly even when the font

sizes are fairly small. Complex layouts can be confusing and documents with thin fonts or light text require good lighting.

Accuracy isn’t quite 100% but it’s close enough, and if you export your scans as text and then delete the originals you can store a lot of documents in very little space. Your export options are PDF, JPG and text, and you can share via email, cloud storage, Files, and even FTP. Carrie Marshall

Object removal is performed by drawing with a brush or lasso.

Smaller details can be removed — simply set the brush size.

precise selection easier, and a before and after button is helpful. The larger the object you want to remove, or the more cluttered the image, the trickier it may be. The app does an impressive job and produces good results.

A Quick Repair tool works similarly but on blemishes and dust, rather than whole areas of content. There’s also a Line Removal tool, where drawing over a line will remove it.

Finally, a clone stamp tool lets you replicate sections of an image. Any retouching of this kind has to be done carefully and strokes that are too broad will not work well, but you can undo and try again. With a little care it’s easy to remove unwanted elements with this app. Export options are good too, with solid format options for maintaining full resolution or shrinking down for email.

Hollin Jones

FROM ADVA Soft, adva-soft.com NEEDS iOS 12 or later

T

VERDICT This is a highly

effective and easy object removal tool for your photos.

Very easy to use Great results Attractively low price Full res output option

Image credit: The Grizzly Labs, ADVA Soft

ouchRetouch is an affordable app that aims to make object removal and repair simple. The Object Removal tool sets your brush size, and you can use a lasso tool and erase unwanted parts of the green mask. When you hit Go, the app analyses the area around your selection, and works out how to fill the mask and remove the object.

It is extremely effective.

However, an object on a uniform background is easier to remove than something on a busy background. You are able to zoom in, which makes

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 93

APPLE CHOICE Software

Fantasian

A flawed adventure story /month (Apple Arcade) FROM Mistwalker Corporation, mistwalkercorp.com NEEDS macOS 11 or later

The dioramas are beautifully made but look better on small screens.

As you journey through the game, you gain new abilities, and fight new foes

VERDICT Fantasian’s dioramas and Dimengeon are intriguing, but its compromises for Apple Arcade hold it back.

A

pple says it will not merge iOS and macOS because the combined result will be too compromised in order to work on both platforms. Fantasian is the perfect example of Apple’s thinking. Apple Arcade games like Fantasian must run on the smallest iPhone and the largest iMac, pushing developers to make compromises and resulting in something that is fatally flawed.

On paper, Fantasian seems like a classic Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) in the mould of Monster Hunter or Final Fantasy.

You play as Leo, a dead ringer for 2B from Nier Automata minus the blindfold, who has lost his memories and must fight to get them back. As you journey through the game, you meet new companions, gain new abilities, and fight new foes. The story is sprinkled with interesting characters, although most follow the standard RPG archetype. Dialogue is snappy and banterous, like chat between old friends who haven’t had their morning coffee.

Pretty, until you get up close

Fantasian’s world spaces take the form of handcrafted dioramas with Leo and other

HHHHH Pretty, handmade landscapes Great music Boring combat Poor Mac optimisation

Combat is disappointingly simplistic and routine, with little in the way of tactical thinking.

94 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

characters digitally superimposed on top. It looks extremely pretty – until you get a little closer, whereupon you notice the dioramas are vaguely blurry. It’s disappointing, but even if not perfect, the dioramas are still exquisitely gorgeous at times.

Another compromise lies in the interface.

On Mac, Fantasian’s buttons and dialog boxes are enormous, like they have been drawn with crayons instead of a fine pencil. There is also an incredibly simplistic hotkey system: Press C to open the menu and S for a designated shortcut. No J for journal, M for map, or any other quick keys Mac gamers are used to. It feels like the developers optimised Fantasian for iOS and then ran out of time.

Fantasian’s turn-based combat is easily its biggest stumbling block. As you progress you gain new skills, attacks, and potions, but battles boil down to the same formula: hit the enemy. Get hit back. Hit them again. Repeat.

This is especially egregious in the early stages, but even more advanced moves still follow the attack-wait-attack-wait script.

There is very little in the way of strategy or creativity, something which is incredibly evident when you compare Fantasian to the master of turn-based strategy games, Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Luckily, Fantasian’s combat is saved by the Dimengeon, a device that banishes monsters until you want to fight them. That both tempers the encounter spam and makes the battles more challenging, bringing some respite to the non-stop low-level snooze-fests that are the game’s standard battles. Yet one can’t help but feel that it’s a solution to a problem that would not exist if the fighting was simply less tedious.

Alex Blake Image credit: Mistwalker Corporation

Head to head APPLE CHOICE

Yoga apps H

Content variety

Down Dog offers 11 yoga styles, and these can be augmented with Boosts that focus on one area of your body. The duration of each workout can be adjusted, and you can tweak the amount of instruction, music, pace, and even video quality. The app lacks themed workouts and plans, though.

Ease of use

Getting started is super simple – just choose what you want and get stuck in. Because there are no predefined workouts, there is no catalogue to browse, with everything instead focused on the home screen. That limits what you can do but also means you are never overwhelmed.

Value for money

H

Bonus features

HH

EKALB XELA yb deweiveR

(offers in-app purchases) FROM Yoga Buddhi Co, downgoapp.com NEEDS iOS 9.3 or later

(offers in-app purchases) FROM Daily Yoga Culture, dailyyoga.com NEEDS iOS 10 or later

Content variety

Daily Yoga’s premium version has an enormous range of workouts, from multi-session programs to community challenges. Content is a little hit-and-miss due to the variety of providers, but most are good quality (in-house ones are the best). The free version is much more limited.

HH

Ease of use

Having so much content to choose from can make the process of using Daily Yoga a little confusing.

The app is geared towards helping you create a schedule of workouts; while you can just dip in here and there, it is not as easy as Down Dog.

Value for money

HH

Down Dog’s premium subscription costs £9.99 per month or £58.99 per year. For that, you get full access to all the customisation options in the app (the free version limits how many daily sessions you have). It is far cheaper than Daily Yoga and gives plenty of content for free.

Daily Yoga’s premium version is expensive at £20.99 a month. That gets you a lot: Apple TV integration, a Smart Coach that learns from you, premium sessions, workshops, and plans from renowned teachers, more detailed health data, and tons more. If you can afford it, it gives a lot of extra value.

There is a calendar that tracks your workouts over time, with optional weekly goals to reach. Your favourite routines can be saved and downloaded for offline use.

If there is a track you like from your workout, you can open it in Apple Music, Spotify, or Amazon.

Aside from the Smart Coach, there are videos teaching you yoga fundamentals, a video glossary of poses, and a community of other users with events and challenges to take part in. Daily Yoga packs in the extras – there is more on offer than we have space to detail here!

Affordable, easy to use and great for diving straight in, Down Dog is perfect for beginners making their first forays into the world of yoga.

Bonus features

H VERDICT

Image credits: Yoga Buddhi Co, Daily Yoga Culture Technology Co Ltd

Daily Yoga is overflowing with content – if you pay.

Its high price is comparable to in-person coaching sessions but delivers so much substance.

H

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 95

APPLE CHOICE App round-up

6 apps to make the most of the summer A serving of apps that deserve a place in the sun Reviewed by ALEX BLAKE

S

ummer is the ideal time to get out of the house and enjoy the sun, especially after the year we’ve all endured.

While you shouldn’t let your iOS device get in the way of the glorious weather, a few judiciously chosen apps can help enhance your enjoyment during the long days and warm nights.

We’ve picked six of the best apps for this purpose, from travel planners and organisers to apps packed with ideas for great outdoor activities. Some act as your guide every step of the way, while others provide simple snippets of help when needed. Whatever you want to do, though, you’ll find that there’s a summery app to help you.

TripIt

Packr

Wherever you go this summer, knowing what’s on your plate is key. Instead of juggling tickets, reservations, and itineraries in a million different places, use TripIt to keep everything together – just forward your confirmation emails to the app and it adds them to your master programme.

It even has handy destination guides for when you arrive.

You don’t want to turn up at your destination only to realise you’ve forgotten half of what you meant to set out with. If that sounds familiar, try Packr. Just tell it where and when you’re going and what activities you’ll do, then it will produce a packing list based on your input and the weather at the destination. You can customise the list as you like, too.

(IAPs) NEEDS iOS 13 or later

96 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

(IAPs) NEEDS iOS 10 or later

Wolfram Sun Exposure Reference App

NEEDS iOS 9.3 or later

Nothing ruins a beautiful summer day like a bad case of sunburn. Add this app to your arsenal, though, and you’ll be more protected wherever you go. It takes numerous factors, from your skin type to your location, and the level of sunscreen you’re using, then calculates how long you can stay in the rays without burning.

Image credits: Concur Technologies Inc, Jeremieleroy.com, Wolfram Alpha LLC

ALLTRAILS

Sky Guide

what3words

Going for a walk or hike is a great activity for a sunny day, and AllTrails is the perfect way to make the most of the great outdoors.

Enter your location and it presents curated lists of nearby walks, from popular trails and family friendly tours to those less-travelled. Whatever you’re looking for, AllTrails will have an enjoyable summer walk for you.

Few things beat stargazing on a summer night. Instead of trying to figure out which particular constellation you’re looking at, hold your device to the sky and this app will do the rest. It uses AR to superimpose star maps overhead, bringing the firmament to life. It can even show where heavenly bodies will be in the future, letting you snap the perfect photo right on time.

Summer trips can land you in unfamiliar places, but instead of trying to direct friends to your next meet-up point with vague instructions, use what3words. It divides the world into three-metre squares and assigns a unique three-word identifier to each one. Just use the app to get your identifier and you’ll find that group travel will be made far easier.

(IAPs) NEEDS iOS 10.3 or later

Image credits: AllTrails Inc, Fifth Star Labs LLC, what3words Ltd

NEEDS iOS 12 or later

NEEDS iOS 11 or later

SEPTEMBER 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

98 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

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.

SEPTEMBER 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 | SEPTEMBER 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, titanium. The SEPT 2020 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.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 101

STORE GUIDE Accessories

BEST BUYS… Curated picks of third-party kit DESKTOP SPEAKER

Ruark MR1

QHD DISPLAY

PORTABLE SPEAKER

ViewSonic VP2768a ColorPro Sonos Roam

£329.99 ruarkaudio.com

£379 viewsonic.com

£159 sonos.com

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!

IN-EAR WIRLESS EARPHONES

Sony WF-1000XM4

£250 sony.co.uk

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.

KEYBOARD (MAC/iOS)

HEADPHONES

EXTERNAL SSD

Beats Solo Pro

OWC Envoy Pro FX SSD

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.

£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 | SEPTEMBER 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)

Todoist

£6.99 textsniper.app

£8.99 gingerlabs.com

DISK UTILITY (MAC)

Carbon Copy Cloner 6

SCANNER/OCR (iOS)

Genius Scan+

From Free todoist.com

£29.45 bombich.com

£7.99 thegrizzlylabs.com

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.

PHOTO EDITOR (iOS)

Pixelmator

£4.99 pixelmator.com Pixelmator is a fullfledged 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.

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

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.

SEPTEMBER 2021 | MACFORMAT | 103

SUBSCRIBE Buy overseas

Subscribe wherever youlive… >Nevermiss anissueagain > Everyissue deliveredtoyour dooratafraction oftheprice > Getinstant accesstothe magazineon youriOSdevices >Hugesavings andthebest valueformoney > Annual print subscription from

€100/$132

and get MacFormat wherever you are!

It’s easy to subscribe…

Turn to page 34

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND SAVE! www.magazinesdirect.com/mac Or call: 0330 333 1113

104 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

MacFormat, Future, Quay House, The Ambury Bath, BA1 1UA Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244 www.futureplc.com facebook.com/macformat twitter.com/macformat

To email, enter firstname.surname@futurenet.com EDITORIAL Editor ROB MEAD-GREEN Art Editor PAUL BLACHFORD Operations Editor JO MEMBERY Global Head of Design RODNEY DIVE Design Director BRETT LEWIS Group Art Director JO GULLIVER CONTRIBUTORS EDITORIAL: Alex Blake, Matt Bolton, George Cairns, Alex Cox, Kenny Hemphill, Charlotte Henry, Hollin Jones, Cliff Joseph, Simon Lucas, Carrie Marshall, Keith Martin, Nick Odantzis, Howard Oakley, Nick Peers ART: Apple, Phil Barker (Future Photo Studio), Matt Lochrie ADVERTISING Chief Revenue Officer ZACK SULLIVAN Commercial Sales Director CLARE DOVE Head of Commercial – Technology DAVE RANDALL Senior Advertising Manager SASHA MCGREGOR Account Director ANDREW TILBURY INTERNATIONAL LICENSING MacFormat is available for licensing.

To find our more contact us at licensing@futurenet.com or view our available content at futurecontenthub.com.

Head of Print Licensing RACHEL SHAW PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS & BACK ISSUES Web www.magazinesdirect.com Email help@magazinesdirect.com Tel 0330 333 1113 CIRCULATION Head of Newstrade TIM MATHERS Tel 0330 390 6496 PRINT & PRODUCTION Head of Production UK & US MARK CONSTANCE Manufacturing Team Leader MATT EGLINGTON Ad Production Team Leader JO CROSBY Digital Editions Manager JASON HUDSON Production Manager FRANCES TWENTYMAN Ad Production Coordinator SZEKY BARRETT MANAGEMENT Chief Strategy Officer PENNY LADKIN-BRAND Chief Content Officer ANGIE O’FARRELL Chief Audience & eCommerce Officer AARON ASADI MD Tech Specialist KEITH WALKER Group Editor-in-Chief GRAHAM BARLOW Finance Director Magazines & Subscriptions DAN JOTCHAM PRINTED BY William Gibbons, 28 Planetary Rd, Wilenhall, WV13 3XT www.williamgibbons.co.uk Tel: 01902 730011 DISTRIBUTED BY Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9001 MacFormat, ISSN 0968-3305, is published monthly with an extra issue in June

by Future Publishing, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA. UK The US annual subscription price is $188.37. Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named World Container Inc, 150-15 183rd St, Jamaica, NY 11413, USA Application to Mail at Periodicals Postage Prices is Pending at Brooklyn NY 11256.

US POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MacFormat, World Container Inc, 150-15 183rd St, Jamaica, NY 11413, USA Subscription records are maintained at Future Publishing, c/o Air Business Subscriptions, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3DH. UK The Apple logo and various Apple products and services mentioned in MacFormat are trademarks of Apple Inc. MacFormat is an independent magazine and has not been authorised, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, certified forestry and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards.

The manufacturing paper mill holds full FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification and accreditation.

All contents © 2021 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England and Wales. Registered office: Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent and not affiliated in any way with the companies mentioned herein.

If you submit material to us, you warrant that you own the material and/or have the necessary rights/permissions to supply the material and you automatically grant Future and its licensees a licence to publish your submission in whole or in part in any/all issues and/or editions of publications, in any format published worldwide and on associated websites, social media channels and associated products. Any material you submit is sent at your own risk and, although every care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents, subcontractors or licensees shall be liable for loss or damage. We assume all unsolicited material is for publication unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to edit, amend, adapt all submissions.

NEXT ISSUE

Find and fix Mac problems fast! > In-depth troubleshooting guide > How to keep your devices juiced up for longer!

PLUS Essential add-ons and accessories

Back to basics

> Create your own blockbuster in iMovie

ALSO INSIDE…

> Improve photos in Pixelmator Pro > Free up storage on iPhone and iPad > Group test: alternative web browsers … and much more!

ISSUE 369 Contents subject to change

ON SALE

24 AUG 2021

DON’T MISS IT – SUBSCRIBE TODAY! INOurPRINT & ON YOUR iPAD print and digital bundle gets you the

paper magazine as well as our iPad edition

We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, certified forestry and chlorinefree manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper mill and printer hold full FSC and PEFC certification and accreditation.

magazinesdirect.com/macformat-magazine-subscription

ON YOUR MAC Read digitally on your Mac:

subscribe with Zinio at bit.ly/ziniomacf

GOODBYE Until next issue…

The PowerBook family RANDOM APPLE MEMORY

Charlotte Henry looks back at the groundbreaking product that launched Apple into the laptop market

T

he PowerBook 100 series of portable computers from Apple was launched in October 1999.

Unlike its predecessor, the Mac Portable, the PowerBook was (relatively) lightweight, and easy to carry, with the team behind it reportedly determined to keep the weight to under 3.6kg. It came in three versions, the 100, 140, and 170. They all had an eyecatching trackball built in, a feature then not offered by PC rivals. Only the top-end 170 model had an active-matrix display though.

The product was granted a marketing budget of just $1 million by then CEO John Sculley. This was mostly spent on deploying the advertising firm behind the famous 1984 advert to create a spot featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The former basketball star is crammed on to a plane but pulls out his new PowerBook, accompanied by a narrator saying: “at least his hands are comfortable.”

Despite his seeming lack of desire to push the product, the PowerBook became one of the major successes of Sculley’s tenure. It generated $1 billion of revenue for Apple in just its first year. Beyond the bottom line, the effect of the product on both the company and 106 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2021

the wider industry was significant.

The PowerBook proved to be attractive to those who had to travel for work and ultimately helped make Apple a major player in the modern laptop market. No surprise, then, that after the initial success Apple continued to upgrade the product line. It did so first with the PowerBook Duo in 1992, which lasted until 1997 over seven different iterations. Then there was the PowerBook 500 in 1994, which was a significant upgrade from the 100 line-up and is regarded as the first computer with a built-in trackpad. The product remained as Apple moved to PowerPC architecture, and there were redesigned G3 and G4 models too.

In 2005, Mobile PC magazine declared the PowerBook 100 the “number 1 gadget of all time”.

A year later though it was no more, replaced by the MacBook Pro.

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.

NEXT ISSUE ON SALE

24 AUG