Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2020 i MacLife

TWO MAIN TYPES of screen are used in laptops, tablets and phones, and the difference is not so much in how each pixel turns light the right color, but where the light comes from. The IPS LCD panels found in Macs and some iPhones, including the iPhone 11’s Liquid Retina display, rely on an array of LED backlights. White light from these is filtered by the LCD component in each pixel to adjust color and brightness. One limitation of such “LED” screens is that some light leaks through pixels that should be black. The difference between the darkest achievable pixel and the maximum backlight brightness dictates the contrast ratio. Organic LED (“OLED”) screens, including the iPhone 11 Pro’s Super Retina XDR display, don’t use backlighting. Instead, organic electroluminescent materials in…

AS I WRITE this, the Mac Pro has just gone on sale, so we can see for the first time the scale of what it costs if you want to really give it the beans. Or, well, given how it looks, maybe I should say give it the cheese… Inevitably, this has resulted in plenty of people losing their minds because Apple sells a $52,000 computer, quoting the price of a fully loaded Mac Pro and pretending the huge cost of 1.5TB of RAM means anything to 99% of people. With everyone implying that Apple is once again overcharging (which, to be fair, we all know it does for extra storage and RAM in its machines), I made a real comparison against an HP workstation designed for the same kind…

1 Phonocut phonocut.com $TBC >>> This is a vinyl recorder. That is, it enables you to create your own vinyl albums, which you can play on regular turntables. It takes special 10–inch blank discs, which offer 10–15 minutes of sound on each side. You place one into the Phonocut, connect a music source, and start playing music, which will be written onto the vinyl. You can bring back the era of the mixtape (but rounder), or record your own music or voice. If you love vinyl, this lets you take it to the next level. Well, it will when it’s released in December 2020, for around $2,200. 2 Logitech 4K Pro Magnetic Webcam logitech.com $199.99 >>> For all the advanced technology packed into Apple’s Pro Display XDR, there’s one thing…

WHY CAN’T I EMPTY THE TRASH? IT KEEPS GIVING ME AN ERROR Emptying the Trash (Ctrl–click it for the option) erases any files in it forever, freeing disk space. However, if a process has marked a file as in use, it won’t be able to remove it. Get information on the file (Cmd-I) and ensure Locked is unchecked. Hold Opt while emptying, or press Shift+Opt+Cmd+left key. If this fails to work, you will need to try a restart of your machine. I CREATED A FILE, BUT WHERE DID I PUT IT? When you lose track of something, just press Cmd+Space Bar to launch Spotlight and type all or part of the sensible file name you gave it… or failing that, any text that you think would be in the document.…

IS THERE A WAY TO CHECK MY MAC FOR HARDWARE PROBLEMS? HARDWARE FAULTS ARE thankfully relatively rare, but if you can’t find the cause of a problem elsewhere, use the built–in Apple Diagnostics. First shut the Mac down (don’t just put it to sleep) and disconnect everything except power, keyboard, mouse, display, and internet. Then turn your Mac back on and immediately hold the D key until you’re asked to choose a language. Apple Diagnostics then takes a couple of minutes to do its work, and lets you know the verdict. If it looks like you will need professional help to resolve the issue, see “Professional repair options” over on page 29. WHY CAN’T I LOG IN TO MY MACOS USER ACCOUNT? WE’VE ALL BEEN there: you enter the password…

WHAT CAN I DO IF MY MACBOOK’S BATTERY IS GIVING UP THE GHOST? IT’S OBVIOUS WHEN your MacBook’s battery starts to struggle: it runs down faster, then might charge erratically. These symptoms can have other causes, so try resetting the SMC (see page 22). To check the battery, Opt–click the Apple menu and go to System Information > Power. Compare the cycle count to bit.ly/apple-battcycnote, which lists the design life for each model. If it’s well under its limit, suspect something else is up; but if you’ve eliminated other problems and the battery is failing early, Apple will normally replace it free, in line with your consumer rights. If the battery is at the end of its natural life, it’ll cost $129-$199 to swap it out: see bit.ly/apple-macservrep. Other repair…

GRIFFIN BREAKSAFE $39.99 griffintechnology.com This USB–C charging–only cable is basically MagSafe — remember that? — for your iPad Pro (or MacBooks smaller than 15–inch). Yank the cord and it safely detaches. Lightning versions also exist from generic brands. LOGITECH R500 $59.99 logitech.com Presenting from your iPad is great, but you may not want to peer at the touchscreen, and swiping to the next slide is error–prone. This useful clicker gives you hands–free forward and back buttons, plus a laser pointer. iRIG STREAM $99.99 amazon.com Powered by your iPad (Lightning and USB–C cables are included), IK’s audio interface features stereo RCA inputs with a gain knob plus a headphone/mic jack for voiceovers. A great starting point for iPadOS audio mixing. SANDISK EXTREME PORTABLE SSD 500GB $129.99 westerndigital.com This portable 500GB USB–C…

From $99 From InvizBox, invizbox.com Features Multiple VPN hotspots, ad blocking, parental controls The InvizBox 2 is a simple VPN router which makes it easy to protect every device in your home. There’s no tricky setup process. No need to install and learn assorted apps. You don’t even have to buy a VPN subscription or enter any account details — the InvizBox 2 is powered by the excellent IPVanish VPN, and comes with everything it needs to access 30+ locations across 20 countries. Setup is simple: plug in the InvizBox 2, connect any device to one of its two Wi–Fi hotspots, and traffic is automatically directed through the VPN. In a convenient plus, it enables setting up multiple hotspots to point at different VPN locations. Bonus features include built-in ad…

$129 From Apple, apple.com Features Dedicated camera button, silicone exterior Apple’s smart battery case offers up to 50% more battery life for all iPhone 11 models, and comes in black, white or pink sand (for Pro/Pro Max). The soft–touch silicone shell adds grip, and there’s a definite feeling of added protection. For those who like to swap between cases, the elastomer hinge makes it really easy to do so. It’s bulky, sure, but that’s to be expected. One of the most welcome additions is the dedicated camera button, discreetly located on the side, making it easy to get to the one function on the iPhone 11 that you’re likely to use the most. The added battery life means you’ll rarely touch the main battery on your iPhone 11, even after…

$79.99 From Satechi, satechi.net Features USB–C rechargeable, multi–device connection (up to three over Bluetooth), backlit illuminated keys This bluetooth keyboard has excellent build quality and is small and lightweight enough to be carried around, but feels equally at home on a desktop. The key action is pleasant to the touch, responsive, and suitable for extended periods of use. It charges over USB–C, and Satechi claims up to 600 hours of use between charges depending on whether and how brightly you use the backlit key option (there are ten levels of brightness). It connects to your recent Mac or iOS device using Bluetooth 5, and pairing is quick and easy. You can pair with up to three devices and switch between them using the device select buttons on the keyboard. This…

$79.99 From Satechi, satechi.net Needs Mac mini 2018 or later Until 2018, the Mac mini looked like it might become a casualty of Apple’s relentless focus on iOS devices and higher–end Macs. But the much-loved and relatively affordable desktop mini was finally brought up to date with the latest technology. It remains a great option if you need a compact desktop Mac but also want to use your own choice of screen, keyboard and other peripherals. Now Satechi has created a stand and dock for the new Mac mini — since the computer’s design changed with the revamp, the dock only fits the new model. Unlike Apple’s laptops, the mini retains a decent selection of physical ports, but people are always hungry for more. It’s solid and well put together.…

We set up each app with the same basic passwords and account information, and then used them to log into various apps and services on Safari and Chrome*. (*iCloud Keychain was excluded from the Chrome test as it doesn’t work with Chrome.) ▲ HIGHER… STICKY PASSWORD PREMIUM LIFETIME Around $209 stickypassword.com Sticky Password offers a lifetime price. As well as autofill forms, the manager is compatible with 16 browsers. ▼ …OR LOWER? SECRETS Free (IAPs) outercorner.com Sync with iCloud, import from other managers and store notes, bank details and software licence details.…

Everyone has a book in them that people would love, we just don’t all know how to get it out, and these apps will help. Note that we didn’t say everyone has a novel in them, but we’re talking about all kinds of books: recipes, local restaurants, obscure–but–crucial methodology specific to your job, kids’ stories… and, yes, also novels. You don’t have to get into making books in the hope of being the next James Patterson, just like you don’t have to expect to be this century’s Picasso just because you like painting. Most of us know stuff that would be useful or fascinating to other people if we wrote it down, so why not get started? PAGES Free Made for iPhone, iPad The most versatile app for laying out…

APPLE MAPS HASN’T always been everyone’s go–to navigational tool. Its limited features meant that it struggled to compete with Google Maps. Thankfully, in iOS 13 the app boasts some great new additions, such as sharing estimated time of arrival with your friends and real–time travel information to make it a much more useful tool. Maps now also offers the option to create collections, so that you can group venues for certain locations. For example, you could build up a collection of all the must–see landmarks for your next holiday, or list the top visitor attractions for an upcoming city break. You can create as many collections as you like, saving places of interest by location, type, or whatever you fancy. Collections can also be shared with your contacts, making it…

SELECTING AND EDITING text has always been a bit easier on the Mac than on iOS thanks to the keyboard shortcuts you have at your disposal. However, with iOS 13, Apple has worked hard to introduce new gestures that should help close the gap between your mobile devices and your Mac when it comes to text editing. All of these iOS gestures also work on iPadOS, the new dedicated operating system for the iPad, and there are even some unique gestures designed purely for iPadOS. And if you have an Apple Pencil, you can perform a number of text–editing gestures using that instead of your fingers, which can help speed up your workflow. If you have an external keyboard for your iPhone or iPad, things become a lot easier. What…

THE LEADING COMPANIES in the Smart Home market — including Apple, Amazon, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance — are getting together to develop an open–source Smart Home standard. The goal of the new working group, Project Connected Home over IP, is to make it easier for manufacturers to create devices that work together, securely, reliably, and seamlessly. A Google Nest spokesman said: “Developers and consumers will benefit from this new universal Smart Home connectivity standard. For developers, it simplifies product development and reduces costs by giving them one standard for building their products. [Consumers] will then have the power to choose how you want to control your homes, independent of which Smart Home technology you choose. Smart Home devices will be compatible with various platforms, so you can choose between…

1 ARM and a leg The big maybe for 2020 is the first Mac based on a new Apple ARM processor. With closer alignment of software development for Intel–based macOS and ARM–based iOS hardware, it makes sense — but the spec and price are anyone’s guess. 2 Five times OLED Analyst Jun Zhang reckons we’ll see six iPhone 12s, including “Pro Plus” units with time–of–flight depth sensing (and presumably extra caffeine). All but one low–end, mid–sized model will have OLED screens. More surprisingly, they could also have Touch ID, now behind the screen. 3 Chin up A new iPhone SE, possibly called the iPhone 9, could arrive early in the year. It’s rumored that it will be styled like the iPhone 8, but could Apple get away with top and…

WHAT DOES A FLASHING QUESTION MARK ON STARTUP MEAN? Your Mac can’t find a drive to boot macOS X from. The first thing to do is wait, because occasionally a minor problem causes this to happen as a one–off. If the Mac eventually starts up, go to System Preferences > Startup Disk and select your startup drive. If not, try Recovery (see “How do I use Recovery to get my Mac working again?”, below right). COULD RESETTING THE NVRAM OR SMC HELP TO SOLVE MY PROBLEM? NON–VOLATILE RAM (along with PRAM, parameter RAM) stores things like your startup disk selection, screen resolution, time zone, and sound volume. The system management controller (SMC) deals with battery and heat management, what happens when you press the power button or open or close…

WHAT DOES iCLOUD PHOTOS DO, AND SHOULD I USE IT? IN iOS’ SETTINGS > Apple ID > iCloud > Photos and in macOS Catalina’s Photos > Preferences, what used to be iCloud Photo Library is now just called iCloud Photos. If you activate iCloud Photos in iOS, all your photos are kept online until your iCloud storage fills up. To buy more, go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage > Change Storage Plan, or in macOS’ System Preferences go to Apple ID (or iCloud) and click Manage. On your Mac, check iCloud Photos to upload all photos from your Mac in the same way (check “Copy items to the Photos library” in Photos > Preferences > General to include newly imported pics) and display all iCloud…

$269 (router and point) From Google, store.google.com Features 802.11ac radio, AC2200 2x2 antennas, dual–band 2.4/5GHz Google Wi–Fi was a hit: a simple, inconspicuous mesh router that did the job. Google being Google, they’ve replaced that with a new product that does the same thing. But does its Nest Wi–Fi match up? It’s lost a few features. Where Google Wi–Fi’s nodes each included a pair of Ethernet ports, Nest Wi–Fi offers only one useable port on the router module and none on the mesh points. No wired backhaul (or dedicated wireless backhaul channel) here. The Google Home app, used to set it up, currently lacks a few more advanced control features, meaning you’ll also need the updated Google Wi–Fi app to see, for example, which devices are connected to which mesh…

Free (IAPs) From Red Sweater Software red-sweater.com Needs macOS 10.12 or later, 64–bit processor If crosswords are your thing, Black Ink 2 may hit the spot. The veteran Mac game has been updated with its second version, which brings a number of quality-of-life and accessibility improvements to the table. For example, you can have Black Ink 2 highlight incorrect letters as you type them, giving you a visual indication of where you’ve gone wrong. There are numerous options for changing the focus as you enter solutions, and it even works with macOS’s Dark Mode. Another welcome change is the fact that the app is now totally free to play. A number of premium features are locked behind a $29.95 paywall, but they’re not necessary for you to enjoy Black Ink…

$299.95 From Beats by Dr Dre, beatsbydre.com Features Active Noise Cancellation, H1 chip, Siri enabled, 40–hour battery life The Beats Solo Pro headphones might be the latest in a long line of noise–cancelling headphones, but these beauties really stand out. The new cans from Dr Dre look stunning; they’re also very powerful at kicking out sound and offer really impressive battery life. The headphones are available in six colors, including three More Matte options. However, we’re surprised that you’re only provided with a soft, textured case — a hard case would have been more reassuring, especially given the price tag. They power up when you unfold them. It’s great that they automatically switch off when folded up, but it’s not so handy that you manually have to pause the music…

$479.99 From Philips, philips.com Features 3440x1440 resolution, VA panel, USB–C with PD (90W) dock, KVM switch, built–in speakers The Philips 346B1C is a very nice package for all–round productivity rather than color accuracy and gamut support, with extras like full USB Type–C connectivity for a slick single–cable hook–up, a KVM switch, and support for up to 100Hz refresh. It’s also classy, feels very nicely made, and the stand is stable and offers tilt, height and swivel adjustment. As for the display itself, the core specs involve a 34–inch 21:9 aspect panel with the obligatory 3,440 by 1,440 native resolution. Dig a little deeper into the spec list and you’ll find that the 346B1C doesn’t make dramatic promises when it comes to color accuracy. It covers 90% of the Adobe RGB…

Tracking doesn’t, it’s fair to say, have the finest reputation. Few of us actively seek it out, but none of us can avoid it. The web’s biggest entities keep tabs on you everywhere you go online — something which has been one of the most powerful drivers in the rise of VPNs. Automated facial recognition threatens to follow us around on the streets (do we wear full–face masks next?) and tomorrow’s connected cars will, for all their new smarts, no doubt report back on our activities on the road. Even your phone collects a whole host of data; if they need to, the authorities can determine your precise location by triangulating the signal strength of the cell masts your handset is connected to. You’re being tracked, whether you agree to…

HOW TO TURN PERSONAL HOTSPOT OFF IN iOS 13? In iOS and iPadOS 13.1 and later you can’t turn Personal Hotspot off unless you disable your mobile connection or turn Airplane Mode on. It’s always available to other devices on the same iCloud account and through Family Sharing, but you control whether to Allow Others To Join. HOW TO UPLOAD BURST PHOTOS TO MY PHOTO STREAM? By default, Photos only uploads photos in burst mode to My Photo Stream when you make that photo a favorite. To change that, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, or Settings > Photos, and enable Upload Burst Photos, but beware you don’t hit your stream upload limits. HOW TO REPLACE A 32–BIT PRINTER DRIVER FOR 10.15? Check if the printer…

SCREEN TIME, APPLE’S tool for checking the amount of hours you spend staring at a screen, has been around since iOS 12, and it’s now made its way to the Mac. That means you can not only configure it from your Mac, but can include usage of the Mac, and any other Mac running macOS Catalina that’s linked to your Apple ID, in the calculation of total screen time. In addition to monitoring how much time you spend in different apps, you can schedule downtime; set limits for apps, groups of apps, and websites; and use Family Sharing to set these limits up for your children. By grouping certain apps together, you can ensure that you or your children can only use a device to work or study, say, rather…

PEOPLE ARE ONE of the most popular subjects for a photo. However, it can be a challenge to make our friends and family look their very best. Many issues can affect a decent portrait picture. A blast of on–camera flash can make our nearest and dearest’s eyes glow a ghoulish red. Flash can also create hotspots that make your subject’s skin look unflatteringly shiny and sweaty. When shooting a group, one of your subjects will invariably have their eyes closed when you take the shot. Fortunately, Photoshop Elements can counteract common shooting problems like these. It can even coax a smile from a reluctant subject if you’re particularly clever with it. People can be picky when it comes to approving their portrait, especially if it’s intended for social media. They…

It’s quick and easy to cut, copy and paste using the new gestures in iOS 13 and iPadOS. To copy a selection, highlight it then pinch inwards with three fingers. It’ll be copied to your clipboard. If you want to cut the selection, pinch inwards with three fingers twice; it’ll disappear, having been added to your clipboard. When you’re ready to paste it, spread three fingers outwards. Alternatively, highlight a selection, then press and hold three fingers on the screen. This places icons for cut, copy, paste, undo, and redo at the top of your screen.…

THE MAIL APP has become a much more functional and powerful tool with every upgrade, and iOS 13 brings some amazing new features. Apple has now ported over the Format menu from its iWork suite on iOS, enabling you to change fonts, format text, add indents and bullet points, and pick from nearly 100 colors, all from a single easy–to–access menu. And there’s now support for third–party fonts, so you can really customize your mails and make them stand out. QUICKER ACCESS iOS 13 also adds shortcuts to access the gallery, camera, Files app, document scanner, and sketches from the predictive QuickType bar at the top of your keyboard. Tap the arrow on the right side of the bar, or swipe left on the bar to see these options. You…

> APPLE BUILDING ITS OWN SATELLITE NETWORK? Apple is well known for creating its own proprietary “ecosystems” of devices that work together. Now a Bloomberg report claims Apple is developing its own network of satellites. It’s not clear whether this network would be designed to enable Apple devices to communicate with each other independently of other internet and cellular carrier services, or to provide an independent location and mapping service, or for some other purpose. It is also unclear whether Apple is aiming to build its own satellites or just developing the tech it wants, for more established manufacturers to produce and deploy. Apple hired two former Google employees with expertise in space tech back in 2017, and there’s now reportedly a team of around a dozen aerospace, satellite, and…

WHERE IS THE POWER BUTTON, ANYWAY? A desktop Mac will have a physical power button, usually on the back, marked with the “standby” symbol, a circle broken by a line. MacBooks have a button at the top right of the keyboard; this includes Touch ID models, but to start from cold you’ll need to hold the button down, not just touch it. WHY WON’T THE POWER BUTTON RESPOND? A common reason for not being able to power up your Mac is that it’s already powered up but failing to wake from sleep. It’s similar to when macOS hangs while you’re working, usually because an app or Finder has crashed — it’s just less obvious because you can’t see what’s happening. All you need to do is hold down the power…

WHAT SHOULD I DO WHEN MY MAC WON’T CONNECT TO THE INTERNET? IF YOUR WI–FI stops working, click the Wi–Fi symbol in the menu bar at the top right of the screen (if it’s not there, go to Network in System Preferences, select Wi–Fi on the left and tick “Show Wi–Fi status in menu bar”). Check that the correct network is selected and showing plenty of bars. Choose Turn Wi–Fi Off, wait a few seconds, then go back and Turn Wi–Fi On. It should connect automatically, but again, pick your network if necessary. If it’s a wired connection that’s playing up, such as an Ethernet cable to your broadband router, go to System Preferences > Network and select the connection on the left. Switch “Configure IPv4” from “Using DHCP” to…

WHY CAN’T I ACCESS MY iPHONE IN THE FINDER WHEN I CONNECT IT VIA USB? IN MACOS 10.15 Catalina, desktop file exchange with iOS and iPadOS devices is now done in Finder. Connect your iPhone or iPad with a suitable USB cable and it should appear in the sidebar of a Finder window; select it to see options similar to those previously found in iTunes. To make this happen, you need to unlock your iPhone (with your passcode, Touch ID or Face ID), then select it in the sidebar, click the Trust button, and tap the Trust option on your device. You can check “Show this [device] when on Wi–Fi” to see it listed in the sidebar in future without a cable, whenever it’s on the same network as your…

TIM COOK ONCE said the iPad could be a “replacement for a notebook PC”. Weird flex for a guy who makes the world’s leading notebook PC, but can it really be done? Like learning a foreign language, I reckon the way to do this is by total immersion, so I cast aside my MacBook Pro, having set iCloud to sync my stuff. That includes the Documents folder for my macOS user account, so I can access work that isn’t already on iCloud Drive or Dropbox; iCloud is also set up on my iPad. I’m using my iPad 10.2–inch ($429, 128GB of storage), which I’ve equipped with a Smart Keyboard ($159) and Pencil ($99). Obviously, if you’re an iPad Pro user, you can use the Smart Keyboard Folio (from $179) and…

$39.95 From Electronic Team, sync-mac.com Needs macOS 10.10 or later Apple’s iCloud services do a good job of syncing photos, contacts and other data across all your Macs and iOS devices, but iCloud isn’t so good when it comes to working with other types of devices that don’t come from Apple. SyncMate allows you to sync data to Android devices as well as online services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or Microsoft’s OneDrive. You can use it to connect Macs and iOS devices together as well, perhaps to transfer specific groups of files for a work project. There is a free version of SyncMate, which allows you to sync calendar and contact info. You can then decide whether or not you want to buy the Expert version, which unlocks the…

$8.99 From Gerald Koeder, start.innovative-bytes.net Needs macOS 10.13 or later, 64–bit Mac We last checked out Start two years ago, and thought it a launcher with promise. It sits in the menu bar, and when clicked displays a searchable alphabetical list of installed apps. You can refine the list in Start’s settings, and add folders and files to it. Individual items can be tagged, thereby creating arbitrary groups of related items. Updates have since brought usability improvements like system–wide shortcuts for your items, meaning you can launch them without using Start’s menu. Also, it’s now possible to drag documents from Finder to Start and then to a listed app to open the file in it. Start has also been refined for Catalina and had a visual refresh. There are quirks.…

$129 From Telestream, telestream.net Needs Intel–based Mac with 64–bit processor (Core i3+ recommended), macOS 10.13 or later ScreenFlow is a screen capture and editing package that lets you create screencasts, which have become increasingly popular in our always–on world. While QuickTime has basic screen recording tools, ScreenFlow is much more advanced with animation, titling, graphics and “callout” tools, amongst other things, to let you create professional–looking and sounding videos. To its already–impressive feature set, version 9 adds some new tools to improve workflow. To begin with, there’s the customary under–the–hood improvements that ensure compatibility with the latest version of macOS, and the graphics cards in the most recent Mac models. Although ScreenFlow is very user–friendly, the technology behind hi–resolution screen recording is complex, so it’s always good to have the…

PASSWORDS ARE OF critical importance today, as the number of services we sign up to keeps on increasing. To simplify logging in, most people tend to reuse their passwords, which is bad practice. To avoid this kind of repetition, password managers generate random passwords — usually a combination of numbers, letters and symbols so that they are harder to crack. In addition, the apps gather your credentials and store card details to make entering online details quicker and easier. Think of the information as being stored in a “vault” that can only be accessed using a single master password. Apple’s own built–in iCloud Keychain works very well. The service offers unlimited storage of passwords and account information, syncs seamlessly with all your Apple devices and can suggest random passwords, unique…

> Apple Mail failure caused by “unwanted software” Mail in High Sierra has stopped sending messages, and now only receives them intermittently. I noticed a window flash at me about giving “CalypsoLookup” access to my files, which I denied, but it’s listed in Activity Monitor. What’s wrong? Before worrying about Mail, you must rid your Mac of CalypsoLookup, which is at best unwanted and may well be causing these problems. Download, install and run an anti–malware app such as Malwarebytes (malwarebytes.com/mac). Let it remove any malware that it finds, then restart your Mac. Once restarted, review Safari’s settings carefully. One important control is in the General section of its Preferences: at the bottom, ensure that the Open “safe| files after downloading option is unchecked, which makes it harder to inadvertently…

EVERY TIME YOU log in to a website or app using Facebook or Google, the two tech giants collect data about you. While you can use a custom login instead (often using an email address), there’s an alternative. Sign in with Apple is a quicker and more private method of logging in to websites and apps, as it doesn’t track or profile you. It uses two–factor authentication (2FA), which either sends a random six–digit code to your device if you’re on a Mac, an old iOS or non–Apple device; or uses Face ID/Touch ID if you’re on a recent iOS/iPadOS device. For improved security, you can choose to create a randomly generated email ID, which Apple then shares with the developer. Any emails sent from the developer are sent through…

By shooting your photos more carefully, you won’t need to spend as much time fixing problems using Element’s post–production tools. When snapping a portrait, set your camera to burst mode (or hold your finger on an iPhone’s shutter button to capture a rapid burst of consecutive shots). This will help you capture a picture that doesn’t contain an eye blink. You can also avoid causing red–eye — if your camera has a pre–flash option, turn it on. This triggers a burst of flash that makes the pupils contract, stopping the main flash from bouncing off the subject’s retina.…

THE MOTIF EXTENSION on Mac has been around for a while, making it easy to create and order photobooks long after Apple discontinued its own service. And now the easy–to–use software is available on iOS. RR Donnelley — the company behind Motif — was actually responsible for printing Apple’s photobooks, so you can be assured that you’ll end up with a quality product. Just like on Mac, the iOS app comes with multiple customization options, including an automatic selection tool that avoids duplicates and photos that aren’t focused properly. If you’d rather not rely on this, and fancy your own design freedom, you can also create your own book from scratch. You can design each page, add custom text, and choose between hardcover and softcover options. If you’re thinking of…

LAUNCHED AT AN Apple Special Event on 9 March 2015, the 12–inch MacBook was, unexpectedly, so thin that Tim Cook, holding it sideways, asked plausibly: ‘Can you even see it?’ Compared to the 11–inch MacBook Air, it was one–sixth thicker at its thinnest but 30% thinner at its thickest, and weighed the same fraction under a kilo as the 11–inch weighed over. Despite a smaller surface area, it packed in a 16:10 Retina display with three times more pixels than the old 1366x768 widescreen. No wonder the 11–inch would bow out the next year. Then again, the Air started at $899. The $1,299 12–inch was priced like a more powerful MacBook Pro, but specced in the opposite direction. The low–power Intel Core M processors that enabled its fanless design were…