Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2018 i MacFormat

GoSpace A 3-in-1 device that’s great for frequent travellers There are battery packs, there are Qi charging mats, and there are wireless streaming devices. Well, GoSpace is all three in one. It creates its own wireless network, so you can stream files to eight devices at once using 5GHz Wi-Fi, or connect it to Google Drive and Dropbox. It contains a 5,500mAh battery, and you can charge your devices either wirelessly or using the USB-A and USB-C ports. There’s even an SD card slot. GoSpace’s combined talents make it ideal for travelling, saving you space (and money) when you’re out and about. > From $99 (about £71) > WEBSITE getgospace.com > INCLUDES GoSpace drive, USB-A to USB-C cable…

A lot of tech companies have a big blind spot when it comes to design. Steve Jobs famously said that Microsoft’s problem was that “they just have no taste”, a barb that felt almost cruel in its precision. In the era of tech firms getting into interior design, effectively, by creating smart home products, it now fits more as a jab against a whole industry than one against Redmond. Recently, I saw a template design from Amazon of a possible smart lamp with Alexa built in. It was basically an Echo Plus, but the top three quarters are a tube of light instead of silver plastic. And it was exactly as ugly as that sounds. The Amazon Echo is, subtly, an excellent piece of technical design that actually avoids some…

Hide apps temporarily You can hide an app’s windows without quitting it: ctrl-click its Dock icon and pick Hide, press command+H, or hold option when you click another app’s icon to switch to it. Or, use command+option+H to hide all other apps. Jump between windows Save time jumping between windows in the same app: press command+` (the key next to Z); repeat to go to the next or press shift+command+` to go to the last – helpful when repeatedly going between two windows. Quickly maximise windows Clicking a window’s green button (top left) ‘zooms’ to what’s thought to be the best fit for its contents. To make a window fill the desktop instead, hold option and then double-click one of its corners. Minimised windows A window’s yellow button shrinks it…

Reopen closed tabs Press shift+command+T to reopen the tab you just closed (or window with all its tabs). This includes its history: click and hold the Back button to see it, then jump to an earlier page with one more click. Tab to tab To switch tabs without taking your hands off the keyboard, press ctrl+tab to go one right of the current one, or ctrl+shift+tab to go left. This also works in Finder, Pages and many other apps that support tabs. Monitor downloads A new button appears at the top-right corner of Safari during downloads. Click it to monitor progress. You can drag the popover away to keep it visible, rather than having to come back and click. Open multiple sites at once If you often use a group…

You can change Control Centre’s contents in Settings > Control Centre > Customise Controls. To use the following shortcuts, apply a firm press if your device has 3D Touch, or hold a finger on the control for a moment. 1 Apple TV Remote You needn’t reach for your Siri Remote when your iPhone or iPad is in hand. Tap Control Centre’s Apple TV button for a touchscreen trackpad and Siri button. 2 Screen recording This is useful for sharing iOS tips and troubles. Tap it to record to the Camera Roll, or press to pick one of your apps that can broadcast live, such as Facebook. 3 Camera This provides a quick route to take a selfie, record a regular or slo-mo video, or take a portrait photo. 4 Wallet…

Key flicks on iPad If you’re using iOS 11 on an iPad (excluding the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, unless you’ve set its display mode to Zoomed), make use of the Key Flicks feature of the on-screen keyboard. It lets you type symbols without switching keyboard layout: flick downwards on a key to type the second character shown on it. Clear all notifications On an iPhone that has 3D Touch, you can get rid of several alerts in Notification Centre in one fell swoop: rather than tapping an ‘x’ to the right of a heading (such as Earlier Today) to clear only that group, press firmly on it to reveal a Clear All Notifications command. Check Pencil’s battery If you use an Apple Pencil, your iPad warns you when the Pencil’s battery…

The Mail app handles emails from all your accounts in one place. You can set up mailboxes, like folders, within each online account, or offline by hovering over On My Mac and clicking the +. Organise messages in these by dragging them manually, or automatically by using Mail Rules. Using Mailbox > New Smart Mailbox, you can collate messages based on your criteria (without moving the originals). Mail Drop enables you to send large attachments that most mail servers will reject. Here’s how to use these features. 1 Make mailboxes Hover over an account name and click the +, or ctrl-click its Inbox and pick New Mailbox, to add a mailbox. Click a mailbox to see its contents. From your Inbox, drag messages to mailboxes to file them. 2 Set…

Lost access to vault with iOS 11 Q I had an iPad app, called My Photos, in whose ‘vault’ I kept photos and documents hidden from view and protected with a passcode. The app isn’t compatible with iOS 11, so it stopped working when I upgraded. It’s no longer on the App Store and I can’t locate its developer. Can I install it on another iOS device running iOS 10 to access my protected documents? by HARRY WILLIS A A few apps have offered a vault feature, including Private Photo Vault, which is compatible with iOS 11. We’ve been unable to trace your app on the App Store – it does appear to have vanished. For a short period after iOS 11 shipped, you could have returned to iOS 10…

Given that it houses your notes, photos, reminders and much more, iCloud is unsurprisingly pretty secure. Between your Apple ID, iCloud Keychain and Apple’s encryption methods, your files are kept safe and sound in the cloud. One simple way to keep your iCloud account secure is to set up two-factor authentication (2FA). This adds an extra layer of security to ensure that someone can’t gain access to your account if they have your password – they also need a code sent to your trusted devices. We’ve outlined how to set up 2FA opposite. Bear in mind that you should set up 2FA for every Apple ID you have. If you signed in to iTunes on an old Windows PC years ago, then bought a Mac and set up a new…

As awareness of online security threats has spread, a lot of websites have started offering ways to protect yourself. As we explain below, one of the main ways a lot of websites do this is through two-factor authentication (2FA), which helps to protect your accounts on popular websites like Facebook and Amazon. By enabling 2FA, these websites know that it really is you trying to log in, thus shutting out anyone trying to gain unauthorised access to your account. As well as that, browsers have begun integrating new security features. Safari, for example, now enables content blockers, which can stop malicious code (such as malware embedded in adverts) running on your Mac or iOS device. Another good way to keep safe on the websites you browse is by using an…

The tiny Raspberry Pi computer costs as little as £10, and there are lots of DIY projects online that show you how to use the Pi to control smart devices in your home. You can connect the Pi to an iPad and use the iPad as a screen, and even get the Pi to work with devices that use Apple’s HomeKit software. If you’re intimidated by programming, then Logitech’s Pop (£80) is an easy-to-use ‘smart button’ that uses simple commands to control a variety of different devices, including lights, blinds, locks and even Sonos speaker systems.…

> £354.99 FROM Yi Technology, yitechnology.com > FEATURES 5.7K and 360° video, 4K live streaming, automatic stitching These days, in the world of 360° cameras, 4K is just not enough. Since 360° videos are stretched as far as the eye can see, more pixels mean better images. This camera comes with 5.7K resolution at 30 frames per second (fps). It also has a host of manual controls, and streams in 4K to YouTube. A 5.7K resolution won’t produce pin-sharp 360° images, but the results are good, and we only know of one other camera that offers such a high resolution – the much pricier Garmin VIRB 360. The Yi’s 360° fixed-focus Sony IMX377 image sensors capture 5760x2880 pixels – about 16MP, for both video and stills. One of the main…

> £179 > FROM Instax, instax.co.uk > FEATURES Wi-Fi, 318dpi square-format prints The app has access to your camera roll; there’s no drawn-out import step The Instax Share SP-3 printer certainly costs plenty to run, with film in packs of 10 costing around £9. That’s way more expensive than using a photo lab or even a desktop printer. But the whole point of this printer is to produce a handy instant memento. On-the-spot photo prints are enjoying a significant resurgence for this very reason – and the Instax Share SP-3 provides them, without the bulk, cost and relative crudeness of an instant camera. Instead, you simply send pictures from your smartphone to the printer, via Wi-Fi, from the free companion Instax Share app. The app has access to your camera roll,…

NOTE-TAKING APPS ON TEST… > Bear Free (Bear Pro £14.99/year) > Evernote Free (Evernote Premium £44.99/year) > GoodNotes £7.99 > Notebooks £6.99 (plus £2.99 for PDF Reader) > OneNote Free > Whink £4.99 One of the best things about the iPad is its convenience and portablility, which is why it’s a great platform for taking notes. The size, shape and screen are ideal for scribbling, wherever you are, and the arrival of high-quality styluses such as the Apple Pencil can deliver a paper-like experience, backed up by the iPad’s connectivity and rich media capabilities. There’s more than one way to take a note, though. Some of us are scribblers; others, touch typists. Some of us scrawl comments on photos; others prefer to record information using voice memos. Some of us…

> Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat Siri rival Google Assistant’s big step forward In the race for smart assistant dominance, Google has taken a big step forward. At its recent I/O conference, the company showed off updates to Google Assistant. Among the most interesting was its ability to conduct phone conversations with people on your behalf. During the show, Google Assistant was able to understand nuances such as a restaurant worker explaining that tables could not be booked for small parties. The update puts pressure on Apple to bring meaningful improvements to Siri, which is widely considered to be trailing behind rivals’ capabilities. Other updates announced at I/O included the ability to string multiple actions into a single voice command, something Siri is unable to…

[MOVIE] Black Panther £13.99 Power struggles, truly charming characters relatable risk to the world, and a believable foe make this one of Marvel’s best films. [PODCAST] Data Skeptic FREE Does scientific thinking turn you on? This show puts all sorts of topics under the microscope, from game theory to quantum computing. [TV SHOW] Episodes (Series 5) £14.99 Episodes ends its run on a high by ramping up the disregard for consequences shown by its fictionalised take on Friends’ Matt LeBlanc.…

LETTER OF THE MONTH! Apple price drop? We’ve all grown used to paying a premium price for Apple products here in the UK, especially so after the price hike a couple of years ago after the Brexit referendum. It was encouraging to note recently that the greenback was exchanging above 1.40 to the pound, very close to early 2016 levels. If this trend continues, it’d be really nice if Apple would consider reducing its UK prices once again, perhaps in September with product upgrades, as a bonus to those of us who are still loyal to the brand but unlucky enough not to be able to benefit from the recently announced share buy-back. Or is this just wishful thinking? BY JOHN FRASER ALAN SAYS… I was fortunate to avoid the…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! SAVE UP TO 57% Turn to page 34 Alex says… “I’VE BEEN THINKING OF GETTING A SMART TV. SHOULD I GET APPLE TV?” Alan says… I’ve had loads of TV show recommendations from friends, but I don’t have a smart TV or a box to get them. Which should I get? My TV is a smart TV in and of itself, so I get apps like iPlayer and All 4 through that. I have Apple TV 4K too, but have mixed feelings. You’ve had several models, haven’t you? If Apple TV 4K isn’t hugely impressive, why haven’t you saved with Chromecast? Well, my TV being smart is part of it. I mostly use Apple TV for work purposes, and I like extending my desktop onto my TV. That’s…

Continuity is a suite of features in macOS and iOS that save you time when working across devices. The devices must be signed in to the same iCloud account, have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on, and (in some cases) Handoff too – look in General settings. With Universal Clipboard, you can copy text, images or videos from one device, then paste on your nearby devices. For many apps, Handoff enables you to move a task between devices. To move to your Mac, click the icon left of Finder in the Dock. On iOS, open the app switcher and tap the banner at the foot of the screen. You can use AirDrop to share directly to a nearby Mac or iOS device. Tap a recipient in the top row of iOS’s Share…

1 Text navigation aids Learn a few key combos to be able to move the text insertion point (caret) without using your mouse or trackpad. In TextEdit, Pages and many other text editors, use command+▲ to go to the start of the doc or command+▼ to go to the end. command+◀ or command+▶ goes to the start or end of the current line. option+◀ or option+▶ moves back or forward by one word, option+▲ or option+▼ or by a paragraph. Add shift to these to additionally select text between the start and end positions. 2 Paste in style Save yourself having to reformat text after you copy and paste it from elsewhere – a web page, say – into TextEdit or Pages. The source’s formatting is usually preserved, but often…

The Share sheet is available in most apps – its icon is a square with an arrow pointing outwards – and comes preconfigured with a number of options for sharing content from your iPhone or iPad. To save time, you can customise which options appear on the middle and bottom rows by tapping the More item (three dots), which is always rightmost in each row. In the Activities list that then appears, toggle the switches beside each item to indicate which ones you want to show in the Share sheet. Conveniently, you can alter the order in which Share sheet actions are displayed. Drag on the lines at the right end of a row to move an action. The vertical order of items in this list reflects the order items…

Find text on a page You can search for a word or phrase on a web page in Safari, and there are two ways to get started: tap Find on Page in the Share sheet’s bottom row, or type in the search field and then tap the last item in the suggestions, under On This Page. Close all tabs in an instant It’s easy to lose count of the number of tabs you have open in Safari for iOS. Fortunately, a long press of the Tabs icon (two overlapping squares) reveals a Close All Tabs option, which indicates how many are open before you close them. Add to the Home screen Some online utilities and services aren’t available as standalone iOS apps, but you can add such web apps –…

NEW IDEAS Your in-depth guide to getting more from your Apple kit GET MORE FROM PAGES p50 Understand iOS gestures 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. Master Mac keyboard shortcuts When you see a shortcut like command+option+C, hold all but the last key,…

LIVE SMARTER The smart home is here – live the Apple dream today! You can spend a fortune buying the latest smart devices for your home – high-definition security cameras, interactive disco lights, and, of course, Apple’s own HomePod with Siri voice control. But there are other ways of introducing smart tech into your home that don’t require you to remortgage the place in order to pay for it all. A simple smart plug is an affordable option that will work with any of your existing household appliances, allowing you to turn lights and other dumb devices on or off by remote control, while low-cost motion sensors can provide affordable security for every room in your home. It can even be fun to try a few simple DIY programming projects…

BUYING ADVICE Our authoritative reviews help you make more informed choices Manifesto – our ratings explained Our reviews are totally independent; we’re not affiliated with Apple or anyone else, nor are we influenced by advertisers. You can trust us to give an honest assessment of a product’s worth. The prices quoted for products are correct at the time of writing and are the best we can find from a reputable online dealer, excluding delivery. A brilliant thing in all regards, and worth every penny Strongly recommended; any flaws are only minor concerns Worth considering, though there may be better options Notable flaws; look at alternatives as a priority A waste of your money and everyone’s time; do not buy! The MACFORMAT Awards Awarded to a five-star product we believe is…

Like for like, OneNote leaves Evernote in the dust. The only niggle is that you have to use OneDrive to sync its contents. However, it’s rather like Microsoft’s other behemoth, Word: it can do everything, and sometimes you crave something simpler. Something like Bear, perhaps. It’s a brilliant app for writers, and it happens to be handy for notes and lists too. It’s very good, but limited in this company. Notebooks is a serious tool for serious business, while Whink feels more like a creative’s canvas GoodNotes is better for stylus and Apple Pencil users: it’s useful for scribbling on PDFs, and making and finding handwritten notes. It isn’t for power users, but it’s practical and useful. Notebooks is a serious tool for serious business, while Whink feels more like…

> Free > FROM Tayasui, tayasui.com > NEEDS iOS 9 or later Tayasui Sketches is an iOS app for drawing or painting. On the iPad, it has a clean, minimal interface, with tools down the left side. On the iPhone, it’s pared down even further, showing just one brush and an eraser; you can tap to fill the screen with more choices. Used with either a finger or a stylus, Sketches adds variation and smoothing to create stylish strokes. For finer control, a £5.99 Pro in-app purchase supports Apple Pencil and a range of third-party pressure-sensing styluses, such as Adonit’s Pixel. The upgrade also adds layers, pattern fills and a colour mixer. Brushes aren’t fully editable as in Procreate, but you can alter size and opacity. The default settings are…

> Free > FROM Gyroscope Innovations, gyroscope.pe > NEEDS iOS 9.3 or later Third-party app Gyroscope tries to go one better than Apple’s Health, by integrating data points and more into a unified personal profile with detail–rich report cards. Initial setup involves granting the app permission to retrieve data from a variety of sources. The more sources you allow the better, to facilitate this “operating system for the human body”. A good example is the way Gyroscope tries to detect your sleeping habits. The app’s algorithmic AI uses step count and combines it with data from RescueTime to decide if you were asleep. It then looks at location data from Moves or Foursquare, and modifies recorded sleep times if it sees locations changing during periods that it ‘thought’ you were…

MONITOR Philips 328P6AU BREB £400 philips.co.uk Getting a colour-accurate display used to cost a pretty penny, but this monitor is both impressive and affordable. It hits 99% of the Adobe RGB gamut – great for colour-critical work – and supports 10-bit colour. Throw in a host of ports (including USB-C), an IPS display and a great price, and you have a seriously good screen. NETWORK STORAGE Drobo 5D3 £749 drobo.co.uk With two blazing fast Thunderbolt 3 ports and a 5Gbps USB-C port to boot, the Drobo 5D3 can provide you with rapid file transfers to and from your Mac. You can load it up with up to five HDDs or SSDs of differing capacities, giving you plenty of flexibility for storage options. It’s pricey, but a worthy investment. PRINTER Epson…

The Macmillan… … Collective! We’re in a brilliant situation here at MacFormat Towers, in that you photography fans are supporting our Photo Stream page so enthusiastically, we’re struggling to choose individual images! This month, we’ve actually chosen a collective from Greg McMillan as he’s posted so many stunning shots. Greg actually runs his own iPhone photography website (shotoniphoneonly.com), so be sure to check out more of his fantastic shots online. Share your pics with us using the hashtag #MacFormat on Instagram. In each issue, we’ll pick our favourite to feature on this page. WHAT TO DO! > 1 Open an Instagram account. > 2 Follow @MacFormatUK (of course). > 3 Take a picture of, or with, your Apple kit. > 4 Share it on Instagram or Twitter. > 5 Use…

Jo Membery Operations Editor Jo wants to eliminate any security concerns on her Apple devices, so she can relax in the sunshine on her patio. How else can she truly enjoy her G&T! Alex Blake Commissioning Editor Alex is really enjoying the summer weather – although his Watch keeps nagging him to go for a run when he’d rather be lying in the sun. Paul Blachford Art Editor Paul has spent the last month off the internet to see Infinity War unspoiled, and found that an endless supply of blockbusters works as the ultimate social media detox!…

APPLE RUNS ON RENEWABLES USES 100% GREEN ENERGY ACROSS GLOBE Apple has announced that all of its facilities, including retail stores, offices, data centres and co-located facilities, are now completely powered by renewable energy. The facilities are located across 43 different countries. As well as that, nine more of its suppliers have also committed to running on 100% green energy; 23 of Apple’s suppliers now do so. APPLE AIRPORT DISCONTINUED WILL ONLY BE SOLD WHILE STOCKS LAST After more than a year of speculation, Apple has announced that it will be discontinuing the full range of its AirPort routers. It will continue to sell the routers on its websites, but only while stocks last. In November 2016 it was reported that Apple disbanded its AirPort development team, and in January…

1 30,000 In order to accurately analyse your facial features, iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera projects over 30,000 invisible dots to create a depth map of your face. 2 1 in 1,000,000 Apple claims the chances a random person could fool Face ID are one in a million, and that the odds for Touch ID are one in 50,000. 3 5x An imposter can’t keep trying to trick Face ID indefinitely – your passcode is required after five failed attempts. 4 90% In a survey of iPhone X users by Experian and Creative Strategies, more than 90% of owners said they were happy with Face ID. 5 48:00 If you haven’t unlocked your iPhone X using Face ID for more than 48 hours (or haven’t unlocked it with a passcode in…

TIM COOK apple.com “In every way and every turn, the question is not what can we do, but what should we do.” Apple CEO on the company holding privacy sacrosanct JONY IVE apple.com “Since the 1970s [Apple] has made difficult-to-comprehend and inaccessible technology easy to understand.” Design chief explains one of Apple’s key successes since its founding HORACE DEDIU asymco.com “It set a standard for novelty, creativity and dynamism.” The iMac was the first device to make consumer computing cool TIM COOK apple.com “If you begin to merge the two… you begin to make trade-offs and compromises.” Apple doesn’t want to merge iOS and macOS, says company CEO…

Surprisingly, the Dock has a number of options that can make it an even more useful and effective timesaver, yet these features aren’t available in its System Preferences pane. To use them, you’ll need to use Terminal, which you’ll find in /Applications/Utilities. If that intimidates you, we’ll introduce you to a third-party app that provides the same results. Before you begin, make sure you have a recent backup of your entire system – Terminal is very powerful, and although you’ll be fine if you type exactly the commands here, it has the potential to royally muck things up. As a precaution, make a backup of the Dock’s current settings: in Finder, hold a and choose Go > Library. From the folder that opens, copy com.apple.dock. plist to another folder. If…

1 Quick reference In an app, swipe up from the bottom to reveal the Dock. Press on an icon till it grows, drag up, then let go to use that app in a floating pane. Flick the top line to swap sides, or to hide it off the right edge; swipe left there when needed again. 2 Side by side Again in an app, reveal the Dock and hold a finger on an app icon. This time, drag it to the left or right edge of the screen and let go to open it alongside the first app. Drag the divider to adjust the split, or on the line at the top of the right app to switch them around. 3 Keep watching If you’re using FaceTime or watching a…

1. In Settings > General > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut, you can choose which of this practical set of features are listed when you triple-click the side button (the one that sleeps/wakes your device). Smart Invert Colours works as a dark mode for much of iOS; images in Mail and Safari will display as normal. If nothing else, it’s worth turning on Magnifier one level up, under Vision. 2. In Mail, you can hide and rearrange items in the list of mailboxes (reached by tapping at the top left till you see something like the screen shown here). Tap Edit, then tap rows to toggle the visibility of mailboxes, and drag on the handles to the right to reorder things.…

Affinity Photo adds a range of extra editing tools to Photos Apple’s Photos app is designed to help you import, organise, fix and share your shots. As a result, it’s an effective ‘one-stop shop’. However, while Photos enables you to fix common problems with colour, composition and exposure, it lacks some of the more sophisticated tools found in other apps. Powerful and versatile, Affinity Photo enables you to perform a wider range of edits than you can with Photos’ built-in tools. For a one-off purchase (£48.99), Affinity Photo provides many of the functions of Photoshop without an ongoing subscription fee. As well as running as a standalone app, Affinity Photo adds a range of extra editing tools to Photos. So, you can enjoy using more powerful tools from the comfort…

EXPERT ADVICE Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems Investigate and fix slowdowns Q I bought a new iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, Late 2015), which worked fine until I updated to macOS 10.13.3. Now it runs very slowly, with Microsoft Office apps taking two minutes to open, and Pages up to a minute. I also have Kaspersky and Avira antivirus products installed. Can you help to restore my Mac’s former speed? by BRIAN BOYD A EtreCheck (free, etrecheck.com) is a valuable tool for resolving performance problems like yours, and antivirus software is the most likely cause here. Run EtreCheck and attend to anything it recommends, then uninstall both those antivirus products and run it again. Some antivirus tools can be persistent and tricky to remove. Their most important…

Although they’re both intended as convenience features, not security features, Face ID and Touch ID are still very secure. That is due to the built-in Secure Enclave, an isolated hardware mechanism used to protect your fingerprint and facial data. That doesn’t store that data as an image, but as ‘a mathematical representation’ that can’t be reverse engineered. That data is encrypted and is not sent to Apple, and it’s protected with a key that’s only available to the Secure Enclave. That’s not the only method Apple uses to protect your data. The latest MacBook Pro design comes with a Touch ID sensor embedded in its Touch Bar. This was powered by a dedicated T1 chip, which houses the Secure Enclave to process your data. The iMac Pro then introduced the…

App downloads Only get apps from the App Store or directly from developers approved by Apple. Never tell your Mac to run other apps, unless 100% confident in the source. Passcode length Don’t use a short four-digit passcode on iOS. Instead, consider increasing it to eight characters or more and including numbers, symbols and mixed-case letters. Password managers Try using Safari’s password suggestions or a password manager like LastPass. Make sure it’s not a word that can be easily associated with you or someone you know. Admin account Don’t use the main account on your Mac day to day – create a new standard account instead. Add a firmware password to prevent any account’s password being reset without your permission. Authentication Make sure to enable two-factor authentication on websites you…

Apple’s reputation for supertight security has taken a hit over the last year or two. Of serious concern was a bug involving the root user account in macOS. It was found that this powerful account could be accessed by anyone, simply by typing the username ‘root’ followed by a blank password on a Mac’s login window, then repeatedly hitting the return key. In 2015 and 2016, Apple was at the centre of a row with the FBI when it refused to unlock an iPhone possessed by one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino shooting. Apple argued that doing so would weaken the security of all iPhones and create a backdoor, but its critics stated it was hindering the investigation of a terrorist incident. The App Store has also come…

REUSE OLD KIT Inspiring ideas for revamping old Apple kit Vintage Macintoshes never stop being desirable. Long after they have retired, there will always be a grateful new owner happy to receive a Mac 512K, Mac SE or Mac Plus from my stockpile. Some will be stripped for parts, so that another, nearly working Mac can be restored. Others will just see their case converted into something retro and whimsical. Either way, the keyboard is just unwanted ballast. Consequently, I have a lot of them piled into a large cardboard box. And this is a shame, because the early Apple keyboards are just as much design classics as the Macs they plug into. In MF #310, I converted one of them to work with USB and I still use that…

Travelling can be a great experience, but it also brings its own set of potential problems. You can lose your valuable gadgets, run out of power and forget to pack the right adaptors – not to mention the constant hassle of keeping your stuff organised when you try to pack it. But fear not, as we’ve rounded up the best accessories for the gadget-conscious sightseer. With these accessories by your side, you’ll be well equipped to head off on your travels with your trusty Apple kit in tow. BentoStack XL > $49.95 (about £37) > FROM Function 101, function101.com > Features Adjustable dividers, two silicone straps Instead of haphazardly chucking your cables into a bag on your travels, use the BentoStack XL. It’s a neat compartmentalised box, giving you four…

> £39.99 > FROM Feral Interactive, feralinteractive.com > NEEDS macOS 10.13.4 or later, 2.3GHz Core i5, see website for graphics cards The combat remains highly enjoyable; stealth and action are deftly blended The opening of Lara Croft’s latest adventure had us worried. It starts with Lara trudging slowly through snow, the only requirement being to hold W as the game plays itself around you. We had flashbacks to the previous game’s interminable, set-piece heavy intro. During a cutscene-laden climbing tutorial, we missed a prompt, fell and died. We managed it on the next try, climbed a bit higher, and had to watch another cutscene where Lara falls but is fine. Here we go again? Actually, no. The opener is frustrating, but over quickly. Rise then sticks to a mostly consistent…

PHOTO EDITOR (MAC) Affinity Photo £48.99 serif.com It’s hard not to love Affinity Photo. Whether you fancy yourself as a seasoned pro or a photo novice, you’ll find this image editor powerful and easy to use. Its interface offers the perfect blend of ease of use and quick access to powerful features, and its useful batch processing is a great addition. An app that packs both power and practicality for less than £50? We’re in! WRITING APP (MAC) Scrivener About £34 literatureandlatte.com It’s not often that a sequel is even better than its predecessor, but Scrivener 3 is a great example. Version 2 was already good, winning MF319’s group test, but version 3 adds so much. Its revamped interface is hugely customisable, its templates are fantastic, managing footnotes is a…

ALSO INSIDE… > Get to grips with Photos and iCloud Photo Library > App Store anniversary How it changed the world > Learn how to self-curate your news sources > 4K displays under £550 … and more! Contents subject to change DON’T MISS IT – SUBSCRIBE TODAY! ISSUE 328 ON SALE 3 JULY 2018 IN PRINT & ON YOUR IPAD > Our print and digital bundle gets you the paper magazine as well as our iPad edition myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/macformat ON YOUR MAC Read digitally on your Mac: subscribe with Zinio at zinio.com/macformat Zinio subscriptions do not include a print copy of the magazine.…