Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i MacFormat

If you love your iPhone as much as we do, you’ll want to keep it powered up and full of juice for as long as possible. But using it everywhere you go can take you down to 0% awfully fast. Fortunately, we’ve teamed up with mophie to make that a thing of the past. You can win a brand new 16GB iPhone 6s featuring Apple’s amazing 3D Touch tech, plus two fantastic battery packs. To ensure you never run out of power when you’re on the go, we’re giving you the chance to win a mophie juice pack H2PRO. While most battery packs are rather basic affairs, mophie’s sturdy case boasts full waterproofing to a depth of 1.2m for 30 minutes. Its 2,750mAh cell provides 100% extra battery power, and…

Devolo Radiator Thermostat £230 devolo.com/uk This option connects directly to a radiator to control the heat in an individual room. You can buy it individually and program it manually for just £60, but you’ll need Devolo’s Starter Kit for network connectivity (£230 total price). Hive Active Heating £249 hivehome.com Designed to look like an update to the traditional big-dial thermostat, this versatile option includes useful features such as frost protection and heat-boost for those cold winter nights. The price also includes installation by a British Gas engineer. Nest Learning Thermostat £199 nest.com/uk The most well-known option, thanks to its $3bn takeover by Google. Nest sets the bar high, with a bright, attractive display and intelligent features such as ‘auto-away’, which monitors activity in your home. Installation is an extra £50,…

For even more smart home advice subscribe today! See page 46 1 Elgato Avea Flare £90 elgato.com You can buy Elgato’s Avea light bulbs on their own, and use these power-efficient multi-coloured LED bulbs to jazz up your existing light fittings at home. However, Elgato is also planning a range of Avea lighting products that provide additional features, starting with the portable Flare. The pod-shaped Flare stands 22cm tall and has a built-in rechargeable battery, so you can easily pick it up and carry it from room to room. Its battery will last for about eight hours with the Flare at maximum brightness, or a bit longer on lower settings. The Flare’s housing has an IP65 rating for water-resistance – similar to many of the ‘rugged’ hard drives that you…

THE HANGER-ON There’s good news and there’s bad news Old Macs are the easiest Macs to upgrade, because they were built before Apple started sealing its cases and soldering components onto the logic board. The bad news, though, is that the older your machine is, the more difficulty you may have in finding new memory. Crucial, who we recommend for most memory upgrades, didn’t have the memory we needed to boost our 13-year-old anglepoise iMac G4, so our only option was to revert to second hand sites like eBay and Gumtree. We have less confidence buying second-hand memory as you don’t know its history and can’t tell how carefully it was removed from the original host computer. However, if you decide to go down this road, we’d still recommend using…

PATA Parallel ATA has a blue connector on a grey ribbon cable. It’s used in older models of Mac Pro to connect drives to the logic board. SATA Serial ATA has a black connector on a red ribbon cable. It’s used to connect drives at higher speeds than PATA, which it replaced. USB Universal Serial Bus is a robust port that’s used to connect external devices: printers, scanners, storage, media players, and more. FIREWIRE Also known as IEEE 1394. Developed by Apple, used on the original iPod, and once a stalwart of the video community; increasingly rare. THUNDERBOLT A high-speed interface used to connect monitors, storage, and also able to power peripherals. It can also be used to network two Macs. USB-C A small port used on the 2015 MacBook…

THE HANGER-ON Understand the risks of running an outdated web browser on a Mac Safari 9 only works on Macs running Mavericks and later, so if your OS is older you’re out of luck. Meanwhile, support for versions 6.2.8 and earlier (for Mountain Lion and before) has been discontinued. The most recent versions of Chrome and Firefox support operating systems as far back as Snow Leopard (10.6), so if you’re running 10.6 to 10.8 we recommend switching to one of those. Further back If you need to go back further, consider TenFourFox (http://bit.ly/1IvVWy2), which runs on Macs with PowerPC G3 processors and later, yet supports HTML5 and promises fast JavaScript performance. It requires Tiger or Leopard, while a sister project, Classilla (http://bit.ly /1ljAg09) , supports OS versions all the way…

1 CHECK YOUR PERMISSIONS If your account lacks permission to access a file, it can cause an error or a crash. Prior to El Capitan, open Disk Utility, click your startup disk, then First Aid > Repair Permissions to check every file. OS X El Capitan repairs permissions itself. 2 BRUTE FORCE CORRECTIONS If step 1 doesn’t help, restart your Mac and hold c+s when you hear the startup sound to start up your Mac in single-user mode. When it finishes starting up and you reach single-user mode’s command line, enter fsck -fy and then press R to check file permissions. Once the process has completed, enter reboot and press R to restart your Mac as normal. It’s sometimes necessary to run through this process more than once, so don’t…

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to activate hidden settings that improve your Mac experience. YOU’LL NEED OS X 10.11 Many of these hidden features are so good we feel a bit lost without them Genius Tip! If you need to perform multiple calculations, run several instances of Calculator with open -n /Applications/Calculator.app several times. (You can do this for any app, but take care with more complex ones; some apps act oddly when multiple instances are running.) Delve into System Preferences or the preferences of many Mac apps and you’ll find a lot you can customise. Curiously, though, many commands and features are hidden from you, especially when it comes to Apple’s own apps. Outside of Apple, no one knows why. Perhaps these things aren’t considered…

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to keep your website credentials and, optionally, bank card details up to date across all your devices. YOU’LL NEED OS X 10.9 or higher. iOS 7.0.3 or higher Genius Tip! When setting up a new Mac running Yosemite or El Capitan, your iCloud password is, by default, also used to sign in to your user account. You can set this up retrospectively in System Preferences. Open the Users & Groups pane, select your account and click the Change Password button, then select Use iCloud Password in the dialog that appears. Passwords, bank card numbers, email account settings… living in the modern world requires us to memorise more obscure information than ever before. No wonder so many of us pick a single,…

What to do when you think your App Store apps become damaged Q Three apps I bought from the Mac App Store will no longer open, as they are reported as being damaged. Two reinstalled fine, but the third no longer supports my version of OS X, and cannot be reinstalled. How were they damaged, when others were not? by JOH N BROWN A The awful truth is that there was probably nothing wrong with them. When you start an app bought from the App Store, it checks an Apple security certificate. Late last year the certificate expired, and a new one replaced it. However Apple changed the type of hash key used to check it, and some apps could not cope with that. Sporadic problems continued, but should have…

How Apple Watch and iPhone stack up to other heart rate monitors Q As a keen cyclist and hillwalker, I am interested in using my iPhone 6 to track my performance and routes completed, but I do not want to post that information online. I am tempted to buy an Apple Watch Sport for its heart rate sensor. Is that a good choice, or are third-party devices better supported? by DAN ROBERTS A Until Apple shipped watchOS 2 in September, apps were essentially unable to access the Watch’s own heart rate data, so third-party sensors were the only real option. Since then, developers have been steadily adding better support for the Watch and its sensors to their apps. Some, such as Runtastic, can load heart rate data once you have…

1 Go to Photos If you have dead time or unwanted content at either end of a video, or you just want to make it shorter to upload to Facebook, you don’t need a special app – you can trim it in the Photos app. 2 Select the video to trim In the Camera Reel, tap the video’s thumbnail and then tap Edit. If you’re having trouble picking out your video clips, go to the top of the Albums view and select Videos to hide still photos. 3 Trim away in edit view Drag either end of the yellow border around your clip inwards to trim footage from the corresponding end of the video, then tap Done. You can save the trimmed clip as a new file or overwrite the…

£1,199 MANUFACTURER Apple, apple.com DISPLAY 4096x2304-pixel P3 IPS PROCESSOR 3.1GHz Intel Core i5 MEMORY 8GB STORAGE 1TB 5,400rpm hard drive GRAPHICS Intel Iris Pro 6200 integrated graphics processor CONNECTIVITY 4x USB 3.0 ports, 2x Thunderbolt 2 ports, SDXC port, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 We’ve nearly reached saturation point with Retina displays. The only holdouts in Apple’s hardware line-up are the MacBook Air, the Thunderbolt display, and, until recently, the 21.5-inch iMac. Now, though, there is a Retina 4K iMac, which packs a 4096x2304-pixel display into the same body as the regular, Full HD iMacs. At £1,199, the Retina 4K iMac is the top-of-the-line 21.5-inch model (just like the Retina 5K iMac was in the 27-inch line-up when it first appeared), and so comes with the most powerful processor…

£90 FROM Edifier, edifier.com FEATURES Bluetooth, RCA stereo in/out VERDICT A fine speaker set for the price, and ideal for a Mac setup with some classic style. + Great look and finish + Rich, detailed sound Macs come with decent speakers, but nothing that compares to having a good external set. These speakers are definitely that. Finished in rich, dark walnut vinyl, they look the part, too. This two-speaker system packs everything into its left and right units, including subwoofers. The right speaker features the RCA stereo input and output, the power input, and the controls. The left speaker connects to the right with a single cable, which carries both sound and power. They’re easy to set up – plug them in, bring up Bluetooth on one of your audio…

Welcome to MacFormat’s new look Store Guide, the place to go to find out about all the Apple kit that matters. We’ve chosen our top products from Apple’s product line-up, plus the best third-party kit that meets our quality standard. Whether you’re a recent convert or a seasoned Apple user, we highlight a model in each product category that’s ideally suited to your needs. So, if you’re looking for a new Mac, iPhone or iPad, just head to our handy tables to see exactly which model is best for you. We’ve also highlighted the gold standard in audio, storage, cameras, and many other categories so you can complement your Mac or iOS device with only the best accessories. Who’s it for? ENTRY LEVEL You’re just getting started in the world…

ALSO INSIDE… How to master iCloud Family Sharing The best free apps for iOS devices Put an old iPod touch to good use! ISSUE 297 ON SALE 16 FEB 2016 DON’T MISS IT – SUBSCRIBE TODAY! IN PRINT & ON YOUR iPAD Our print and digital bundle gets you the paper magazine as well as our iPad edition myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/macformat ON YOUR MAC Read on the big screen: subscribe with Zinio at zinio.com/macformat Zinio subscriptions do not include a print copy of the magazine.…

GET INVOLVED! The iPhone is the world’s most popular camera, but it takes a bit of work to get a truly excellent shot. Why not show us your creations? Simply email us at photos@macformat.com and your work could be showcased on these pages! Walking the Line by NIC DAVIES EQUIPMENT iPhone 5 I travelled up to The Peak District from London for what has become an annual cycling weekend with a couple of friends. Time and schedule meant my DSLR had to stay in London. The limitations of my iPhone 5’s camera, wouldn’t do justice to the scenery, so I resigned myself to enjoying the beauty of the landscape without the pressure of recording it. As we prepared the bikes, I saw this couple returning from walking their dog. They…

[MOVIE] STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON £13.99 This biopic charts the rise and demise of NWA, a pivotal group on the US West Coast hip hop scene of the late 80s. [APP] INFUSE 4 FREE If you don’t like how Apple TV presents your videos, this app gives your library a fresh feel with better movie browsing and watching. [GAME] GEOMETRY WARS 3 £7.99 The iOS twin-stick shooter is now on your Apple TV. Blast away waves of enemies to your heart’s content. A fast-paced classic.…

I heard their second-to-last gig of 2015 at the Sage Gateshead, where Ronnie Spector happened to be playing the next room. When you think of Ronnie, you think of Be My Baby and its radical production by her sometime husband Phil, which compressed orthodox instruments in unorthodox combinations into a magnetic motor of sonic euphoria. There’s something of the ‘Wall of Sound’ in the harmonic cathedral constructed nightly, under Green’s restlessly multitasking governance, by Lau. Spector had a full orchestra and a recording studio. Lau is three guys, and they do it live. And amid it all they still sound like a folk band, playing, as guitarist Kris Drever puts it, the music of a made-up country. It‘s worth seeing, if you get the chance. Don’t look for Green’s iPad.…

NEW SECTION! The smart home is here – live the Apple dream today! The great British winter is upon us once more – cold, wet and gloomy as ever. That’s why we’ve decided to focus the first edition of Apple Home on the new generation of smart thermostats. As well as keeping you warm and cosy, these new thermostats can also save you a lot of money on your heating bill. And that’s what Apple Home is all about. Some home tech is all about fun – Apple TV and multiroom speaker systems let you create the perfect entertainment system. A smart lighting system can help create the right mood, but it can also save you money by turning itself off, should you forget to do so. Security systems can…

THE HANGER-ON Get different generations talking to each other The earliest Macs of the new generation (introduced immediately after Steve Jobs’ return) had Ethernet but lacked Wi-Fi. Apple fixed this in 1999 when it introduced AirPort , an optional add-in card for the iBook, which was later added to the PowerBook, eMac, iMac and Power Mac. If your computer was produced between 1999 and 2003 (when AirPort Extreme debuted), you need the original AirPort card , which you can pick up on eBay for around £10 (search for part number M7600LL/A). Recent versions of OS X offer several protocols that enable one Mac to connect to another, including SMB, NFS and FTP, but Macs running OS 9 or earlier only support AFP (Apple Filing Protocol), which is a development of…

THE HANGER-ON Webmail may be your best option for reading email on very old Macs Mail might not look much different on your vintage Mac to the way it does now, but it has changed significantly under the hood. You can’t index messages using Spotlight if you’re not running at least OS X 10.3 Panther, your IMAP downloads will be far less responsive if your Mac is not running OS X 10.5 Leopard, and you have no Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 support without OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. So, it pays to update to the most recent version that’s available or, if possible, manage your messages using a web browser. Older mail If you need a new email app for an earlier operating system, check out OldApps (http://bit.ly/1SmsEc) , which…

NEW SECTION! Your new-look guide to getting more from your Apple kit MASTER AFFINITY PHOTO p54 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, then…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to create art on iPhone 6s with apps that use 3D Touch to measure how firmly you are pressing on the screen. YOU’LL NEED iPhone 6s. Canvas. 3D Touch’s sensitivity makes a good substitute for real painting One of the marquee features of the iPad Pro is the Apple Pencil, a pressure-sensitive drawing tool that measures how firmly you are pressing on the screen. The iPhone doesn’t support Apple Pencil, but the latest models – the 6s and 6s Plus – are equipped with a 3D Touch display that’s also able to detect the pressure you apply to the screen and relay that information to software. Apple designed 3D Touch to allow new gestures, but clever developers have taken advantage of…

IN PRINT ON iPAD & iPHONE ISSUE 295 JANUARY 2016 63 ways to improve your Mac Master OS X El Capitan today Get fit with Apple kit Secure your files in the cloud iPad Pro reviewed ISSUE 294 DECEMBER 2015 Unlock your Mac’s full potential with El Capitan The ultimate Apple gift guide Improve your iPhone photos Why you need an Apple TV ISSUE 293 NOVEMBER 2015 75 hidden secrets of OS X El Capitan What the pros think of iPad Pro Macs of the Future The best Mac newsreaders iPhone 6s reviewed To order back issues of the print magazine, go to http://goo.gl/B7aFdk or phone +44 (0)844 848 2852 and we’ll post them out to you. Download back issues onto your iOS device at any time and keep them…

£549 MANUFACTURER DJI, dji.com RESOLUTIONS 4K (4096x2160), Ultra HD (3840x2160), 1080p Osmo opens up a world of sweeping movements that would be impossible to pull off with just a DSLR or a smartphone VERDICT Innovative and great fun to use, this is the most powerful video stabilisation for the price, though it is not bug-free or of DSLR image quality. + Great stabilisation + Well-designed app + Detailed yet noisy 4K - Doesn’t compensate for bounce of walking Now you can recreate Garrett Brown’s legendary Steadicam work on The Shining with what is basically a high-tech selfie stick. The Osmo is very close to the overall look and feel of a Steadicam, yet it fits in a backpack, weighs 200g, and can be used one-handed. It opens up a new…

In our last group test of 4K displays there were slim differences in picture quality, but this time we could barely fit a knife in the gaps, making it tough to choose a winner. The quality of IPS tech is clear. ViewSonic’s screen stands out though, as it’s 25% brighter than the others (but you really pay for the privilege). In terms of features, Asus takes the lead with its wide array of inputs, along with its flexible stand and good sound. Meanwhile, the Acer looks great, but the stand’s unusual design is inflexible. Overall, it’s the massive display area of AOC’s U3277PQU that most grabbed us. We think a large display such as this benefits all aspects of Mac use. Having a massive desktop for working on tasks side…

$ 666.66 THE PRICE THAT THE APPLE I FIRST SOLD FOR Steve Wozniak said that it was simply because he “liked repeating digits”, and when the price worked out at $667 (a markup of a third) he changed it to $666.66 because it was simply an easier number to write. 10% THE STAKE THAT RONALD WAYNE HAD IN APPLE Wayne was the third Apple co-founder and held a tenth of the company on 1 April, 1976. He sold up for just $800 on 12 April, 1976. He also accepted $1,500 to not claim against Apple in the future. In 1982, Apple made its first billion dollars and is now worth more than $700 billion. 481 THE NUMBER OF APPLE STORES IN THE WORLD Apple’s stores have expanded steadily since 2005,…

1 1,000,000,000 iPhones Apple is on course to reach this landmark sales figure for iPhone in 2016, likely before September’s iPhone 7. During Apple’s Q4 2015 financial results call, Tim Cook revealed a breathtaking 231 million iPhones were sold during the last 12 months alone. That stacks up against around 55 million iPads and 21 million Macs for the same period. 2 30% switched from Android The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are reporting the highest ever switch rate from Android smartphones. This figure was also quoted in the Q4 2014 financial results, with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus being the catalyst for mass migration. 3 70% of all Apple’s revenue Apple would be nowhere near its current size if it wasn’t for the iPhone’s unstoppable rise since launch…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 3 ISSUES FOR £5! * Turn to page 46 *INCLUDES PRINT AND DIGITAL EDITIONS “WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE NEXT APPLE WATCH?” Longer battery life. I don’t run it down entirely in one day, but the goal should be two days’ use before charge – but shaving off some bulk and still getting that is hard. Alan says… Yes, but with my 42mm Watch I’m going well past a day. It’s going to be an issue in the same way it is for iPhone – Apple couldn’t make a battery pack for the Watch! I’d like more changes in watchOS than physical changes to the Watch. App launch times still need to be better and apps more independent of the iPhone. watchOS 2 was a…

It’s only natural to want to stay indoors and keep warm at this time of year but, of course, that can mean running up big heating bills during the winter months. That’s where the new generation of smart thermostats comes in, as these intelligent devices provide both comfort and control so you can make the most efficient use of your heating system. A conventional thermostat simply sits on the wall and turns your heating on or off whenever it gets too hot or too cold. Some may also provide a timer option that turns the heating on and off at specific times during the day. The new generation of smart thermostats can do all those things, and they can do a whole lot more as well. Like every good gadget…

Genius Tip! To save time, most thermostat apps allow you to create a schedule for one day, and then quickly copy and paste that schedule onto other days as well. 1 Hot stuff In the Netatmo Thermostat’s app, the upper figure is our desired temperature and the lower one is the current room temperature. There’s also Away mode for holidays, and Frost-Guard to protect your pipes in really cold weather. 2 On schedule Each day can have its own schedule. The different colours represent temperatures you’ve set for different times of day – typically you’ll want it on for a while in the morning, off during the day, and back on in the evening. 3 Out and about You can use your iPhone to change your heating schedule remotely. If…

THE HANGER-ON Things are a little more complicated on older Macs If you’re running Mac OS X 10.6 or earlier you won’t have access to the Mac App Store, so you can’t download a fresh copy of OS X directly. You won’t have a Recovery system, either, so you can’t use its OS X installer. Instead, put your original installation DVD in the drive and hold down C while restarting to start up from the optical disc. This will almost certainly be slower than your Mac’s usual startup disk, so be patient. If you’re reinstalling because you’ve been having problems with your storage (and, if possible, you’ve taken a recent backup), open Disk Utility to erase your Mac’s storage at this point. (Beware: only do this if you’ve backed up,…

THE HANGER-ON It’s time to give your hard disk a health check-up Unless you’ve replaced it already, your Mac’s internal hard drive could well be approaching the end of its life. It won’t be expensive to replace in a five- to 10-year-old Mac (storage prices are falling all the time), but replacing the data on it, in the event of catastrophic failure, could prove impossible. Now is the time to do something about it. Start by connecting an external drive and manually dragging your files across Upgrading the internal hard drive in modern Macs isn’t to be taken lightly. It’s not possible on all models, and even on those where it is, it’s not always easy. The most recent iMacs are officially not upgradable , although as sites like EveryMac…

If your external devices work with Windows 7, 8 or 10, they’ll almost certainly work on the Mac, and they should be detected automatically. To switch to a USB audio device, hold a (Alt) while clicking the speaker icon in the menu bar. If that icon isn’t present, choose System Preferences from the Apple menu, click the Sound icon, then choose your audio interface in the Input and Output tabs. Click Printers & Scanners in System Preferences to add those devices. Drivers download when you connect a device and add it using the + button. Updates to drivers are delivered through the Mac App Store’s Updates tab. Before moving an external drive from your PC to your Mac, back it up on your PC and consider reformatting it using Disk…

FOR MORE SEE LOVE YOUR MAC page 77 iTUNES SERVER Share your music over your local network iTunes has local sharing built in, using either Home Sharing or simple library sharing. The former exposes your library to everyone on your network who signs in using the same Apple ID on a Mac, iOS device, or Apple TV; the latter makes your music available without an Apple ID, and allows you to restrict which playlists are available and set a password. Home Sharing requires the latest versions of iTunes and iOS, but library sharing has been available since iTunes 4.0.1, so it’s the best choice if you have Macs of different ages. 1 Simple sharing Open iTunes’ Preferences (press c+,), click Sharing and check the box next to ‘Share my library…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to pair your iPhone with your Mac. How to automatically lock and unlock your Mac using Touch ID. How to unlock your Mac with a custom tap. YOU’LL NEED OS X 10.10 or higher. iOS 8 or higher. Bluetooth 4.0 in both devices. Touch ID. MacID provides a convenient way to lock or unlock multiple Macs Not everyone uses password protection to lock their Mac, but everyone should. With so many sensitive details like passwords and bank accounts accessed online, the last thing you want is anyone peeking at your private data. The only bugbear about locking and unlocking your Mac repeatedly, especially away from home, is that you end up typing your password over and over again. Apple’s newer iPhones…

What is 4K? 4K is a video standard that offers dazzlingly levels of detail. Although 4K cameras offer four times the detail of Full HD (1080p), the term ‘4K’ comes from the fact that each frame of video is about 4,000 pixels wide. 4K cameras are capable of shooting widescreen eightmegapixel moving images at an epic resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. Before 4K, we recorded and viewed the far less detailed two-megapixel images. The difference between two and eight megapixels may not seem much if you’re used to a DSLR camera with a 24-megapixel sensor, but it makes a phenomenal difference to video quality. 24 megapixels only bumps up resolution to 6K, and here we hit the law of diminishing returns. 4K is the sweet spot for cinematic-looking video for the…

21.5-INCH iMAC WITH RETINA 4K DISPLAY p90 NEW SECTION! Our revamped 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 Fundamentally flawed; look at alternatives as a priority A waste of your money and everyone’s time; do not buy! The MACFORMAT Awards Awarded…

£153 FROM Synology, synology.com FEATURES 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB and SDXC ports VERDICT It’s expensive, but the RT1900ac ticks all the right boxes with its performance, feature set and ease of use. + Top-of-the-line performance - No built-in modem Synology has jumped the shark to launch its first ever wireless router, and it’s a good one too. It’s robustly designed and setting it up couldn’t be simpler. The router has all the top-notch specs you’ll want, with four Gigabit Ethernet ports joined by the latest 802.11ac wireless standard, plus a USB 3.0 port for printers, 3G/4G modems or extra storage, and an SDXC card slot, too. 802.11ac ensures super-fast connections over a wider range. Our tests showed excellent wired transfer rates up to 950MB/s, and wireless rates of 140MB/s…

£4.49 FROM SewUp, mobile.sewup.io MADE FOR iPhone, iPod touch, iPad There are two types of people: those who love the challenge that comes from having a busy schedule, and those who don’t. For those in the former camp, SewUp offers a comprehensive calendar that allows scheduling in five ways, from important meetings and all-day events to a general to-do list. SewUp’s interface feels a little overburdened at first, but starts to make sense as you use it. One of the features we like most is the vertical timeline used to establish start and end times – it’s intuitive, easy to use and, best of all, displays already-scheduled events in the same period so you don’t double-book. Should that happen, however, SewUp provides tools for dealing with conflicts. Unfortunately, all this…

MONITOR ViewSonic VP2772 £569 viewsonic.com If you’re not fussed about 4K but still want exceptional image quality, this IPS display is truly superb. It offers 99% coverage of the Adobe RGB colour space, 10-bit colour and a 2560x1440-pixel resolution. It has HDMI 1.4, DVI and Mini DisplayPort connections, and four USB 3.0 ports for expansion. NETWORK STORAGE Western Digital My Cloud Mirror £255 wdc.com Winner of MF294’s NAS group test, the My Cloud Mirror provides Apple-like ease of use – but it’s no Time Capsule knock-off; with top performance (thrashing its group test rivals when it came to writing large files), whisper-quiet operation and a good range of features, it’s great if you want more from a NAS. PRINTER Samsung Xpress SL-M2026 £50 samsung.co.uk For simple home printing at an…

LETTER OF THE MONTH! iCLOUD NIGHTMARE I have encountered a problem with iCloud’s two-step verification feature. Devices affected are my iPad Air 2 running iOS 9.2 Beta 4 and my iPhone 6s running iOS 9.1. I recently tried to sign in to iCloud.com from my iPad Air 2. I used Safari’s Request Desktop Site feature to access the full version of the site. When I arrived at a page that asked me to sign in, I did so, and then I was asked to verify my identity. Tapping Verify allowed me to pick which device to send a verification code to. Tapping Next sent the code to my other device and the iPad advanced to a screen where I was supposed to enter the code. This is where the problem…

1 Crop to thirds Nic’s winter walk shot works because of the ‘rule of thirds’, framing the walkers in one corner. Here we have a path through some woods but it was central in the image. A quick crop in Photos sorts it out. 2 Apply vintage filter A quick export to Instagram provides you with more vintage filter options. Nic’s recommendation was its Crema filter. Tap to apply a filter, and then save the image back to your iPhone’s Camera Roll. 3 Blur the edges The excellent Enlight app is one of the best ways to add a tilt-shift effect to a photo. Move your fingers outwards to apply a radial blur, softening the edges of the photo for a stronger focal point.…