Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i MacFormat

As much as we love our Macs, iPhones and iPads, and how brilliantly and stylishly they work most of the time, they don’t always work all of the time – and to that end, this month’s lead feature (p20) should help. In it, you’ll discover 85 fast fixes that should help restore your devices to full working order – and with that your computing sanity – whatever bit of Apple kit you use. Another thing that can help make using your devices easier is having the right tools, accessories and environment to use them in, which is why on p62, you’ll discover the best gear to use with all your devices. Whether you’re lucky enough to have room for a dedicated home office or just a space on the end…

Ever since Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency (ATT) to give users more control over how they were tracked by apps, Facebook owner Meta has complained about the policy. The impact ATT has had on Meta’s revenues is not pretty. In February 2022, Meta reported it expected to lose $10 billion in revenue over the next year thanks to ATT, showing the impact Apple’s feature has had. Meta also reported a fall in daily active users for the first time in its history, while its share price tumbled 26% in its largest one-day drop ever. In an earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg explained that Facebook was working on rebuilding its advertising infrastructure so that it could “continue to grow and deliver high-quality personalised ads”. It was doing this in the face of…

1 Samsung Odyssey Ark > £TBC > samsung.com > The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a great time to see some outlandish tech, and Samsung did not disappoint this year with its Odyssey Ark monitor. This display behemoth is a mammoth 55 inches across — more than double Apple’s largest 27–inch iMac — and uses a heavily curved screen to make using it a little more comfortable and immersive. Like the latest MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, the Odyssey Ark uses miniLED tech to ramp up the display quality and offer increased contrast and brightness. You can rotate the screen 90° into a portrait orientation, and thanks to its curvature and enormous wingspan, this makes the monitor loom ominously overhead — to the height of three 16:9 monitors stacked on…

Alongside their multitude of new features, Apple’s latest operating systems change how to tackle many of our everyday problems. Here’s your up-to-date toolkit Fixing problems in our Macs, iPhones and iPads can be tricky as the devices continue to evolve. You can’t employ the same tools and techniques when the chips keep changing, and each year brings a full suite of new operating systems. Tricks we once relied on, like repairing permissions, are now long gone. With its signed and sealed System volume, that once-popular fallback of clean re-installing macOS is seldom of any use today. Fortunately, if you want to check whether Monterey is in mint condition, all you need do is restart, and macOS checks every file on its System volume against Apple’s blueprint. Some well-proven tools have…

26 Mail can’t send outgoing messages Check your internet connection and mail service status, such as Apple’s at apple.co/2suZulx. In Mail > Preferences, select the affected service in Accounts, then show Server Settings. Ensure that the correct Outgoing Mail Account is selected. If that doesn’t have an impact on your outgoing messages, select Edit SMTP Server List… Review Server Settings there against recommendations. Sometimes that list gets damaged and may need to be cleared and started afresh, ensuring you have a record of settings first. 27 An email service doesn’t work In Mail’s Window menu select Connection Doctor. This run checks on each of active incoming and outgoing connection and warns of problems in the Details column. Use this again to check any changes you make to account settings to…

IT WILL TAKE > 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN > How to use Planny to organise big projects and little reminders YOU’LL NEED > Planny, macOS 10.15 or later The Mac App Store can hardly be accused of being short of planning and productivity apps. Whether it’s Apple’s own Reminders and Calendar or third party apps such as Things, Fantastical and OmniFocus, there’s plenty on offer. Planny is one of the more affordable options, coming in at £16.99 for an annual subscription. It enables you to schedule one-off and repeating events, manage projects and easily find key bits of information, and it’s very easy to use: it effectively combines tasks and Calendar events in a single app. In this tutorial, we’ll focus on the essentials; how to create new events…

IT WILL TAKE > 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN > How to backup and move your music library, and run two libraries YOU’LL NEED > Apple Music In the final part of our Apple Music tutorial series, we’re going to deal with libraries. In Apple-speak, your music library is where Music stores details of all the files you have imported, downloaded or added from Apple Music’s streaming service, as well as information about playlists. The library is not, as we’ll see, necessarily where the music itself is stored. That could be on Apple’s servers, in a different folder on your Mac, or on an external drive. It’s likely that the music you play in Apple Music is stored in multiple places Whatever you like It’s likely that the music you…

IT WILL TAKE > 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN > How to get online using your iPhone’s data connection YOU’LL NEED > Mac, iPhone or iPad Genius tip! > Although you can use Wi-Fi to connect an iPad to your iPhone’s hotspot, Bluetooth and USB connections only work with a Mac or PC. Public Wi-Fi is so widely available these days that most of us are able to find a network to connect to when we need to get online with a Mac or an iPad. But there are occasions, when your Wi-Fi is just not available. There are also occasions when your home or office internet connection disappears and so Wi-Fi is useless. When that happens, the only way to get online is to use a 4G or 5G…

Keyboards, trackpads and other add-ons Apple’s Macs are great computers by themselves, and they get even better when paired with a top selection of accessories and peripherals. Apple knows this, and has crafted a selection of extras to complement your MacBook or iMac. You don’t have to stick to what Apple has to offer, though. There are tons of third-party peripherals that outshine Apple in many ways, from multifunctional mice to Thunderbolt docks that do it all. We’ve got a great selection here for you to choose from. Just a few of these can take your home office to the next level, helping you be more productive and use your Mac in positive new ways. Once you start using them, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without. 1 Logitech…

From what we’ve talked about already, it may seem like going for an M1 Max-powered MacBook is a no-brainer. However, you should actually think carefully about splashing out on an M1 Max. Why? For a start, the price leap between an M1 Pro MacBook and an M1 Max MacBook is around £500 – a not insubstantial price for an upgrade. Before you put down that kind of money, you need to be certain that you’ll be making the most of the extra power it offers you compared to the M1 Pro. In fact, the biggest obstacle to us recommending people go out and buy an M1 Max-powered Mac is because the M1 Pro is just so darn good itself. Sure, the M1 Max dominates it in seriously intensive graphical workloads,…

£696 FROM Philips, philips.co.uk FEATURES 42.51-in widescreen VA LCD display, 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160 pixels), DisplayHDR 400, sRGB colour, 4ms response time, 400cd/m2, 4,000:1 contrast ratio, 178° viewing angle, 1x HDMI 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x USB-C (1x 90W Power Delivery, 1x 15W Power Delivery), 3x USB 3.2, 1x headphone output, 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 2x 5W speakers; 978x677x281mm (max height with stand), 18kg (with stand) It’s the connectivity options that really stand out here Whether you’re into movies, photos or games, or just want extra desktop real estate, the Philips Brilliance 439P1 could be just the thing. It’s a 42.51-inch vertical alignment (VA) LCD monitor with 4K Ultra HD resolution (3840x2160 pixels) and high dynamic range (HDR) support – potentially enabling it to deliver a wider range…

Free/$39.95 (about £35) for premium FROM redsweater.com NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later If you’ve ever done more than dabble with AppleScripts, or any other scripting on the Mac, you’ll know that macOS’ Script Editor gives the option to put a Scripts menu in your menu bar. That menu gives you access to scripts in the default Scripts folder, so you can view and edit them easily. FastScripts also does that and a whole lot more. Version 3 has been updated with a host of new features and makes it even more of a ‘must-have’ for anyone who uses AppleScripts on a regular basis. There’s a new search box at the top of the menu, enabling you to use Spotlight to search for scripts. Click the menu, start typing (there’s no…

£4.99/month (Apple Arcade) FROM Mobge, oddmargame.com NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later You never end up stressed out in a last chance saloon facing the ‘game over’ screen Oddmar+ is a fun little platformer that will appeal most to children and young adults, with varied challenges and beautiful graphics throughout every zone. But its mobile heritage is evident, and it won’t allay concerns that Apple Arcade is filling up with iPhone ports that aren’t best suited to the Mac. The game tells the story of the titular Oddmar, a Viking who is the shame of his village and a poor warrior who has never lived up to his potential. When the entire population of his village disappears – coincidentally at the same time as Oddmar is granted magical powers by a…

If there’s one thing that Apple has put above all others in recent years it’s your privacy. For instance, Apple was willing to go up against the biggest names in tech when it introduced App Tracking Transparency (ATT) to its iOS platform in 2021, stopping ads from tracking you without your consent. In many ways this attitude is the key differentiator between Apple and all the other big tech companies, whose business models often seem to revolve around capturing as much data about you as possible and then monetising that data through advertising. Instead, Apple wants you to have a great experience using its hardware, so that you buy more of it. It’s therefore curious to find Apple generating headlines about security concerns. I’m talking here about AirTags, of course.…

Spring is a good time to look out for new Apple products, and the last few years have seen a plethora of special events and glitzy device launches around this time of year. If the rumours are accurate, 2022 will be no different, with multiple sources alleging we will see a showy event in March or April. But what exactly might be announced? As it turns out, quite a lot. Rumours have alleged Apple is going to bring forth a slew of devices across its product line-ups, including iPhones, iPads and Macs. Let’s start with iPhones. Apple normally launches its new iPhones in the autumn, but often holds one back for the spring: the iPhone SE. Numerous reliable sources have claimed this phone will get updated to its third generation…

If you enjoy creative writing, there have probably been times when you’ve wanted a way to learn new skills and work on honing your craft. That’s exactly what you get with Writerly, which bills itself as a ‘creative writing toolkit and author’s playground’. It’s packed with exercises to help improve your writing, from building characters and setting the scene to overcoming writer’s block and warming up each day. These exercises help address two key concepts: Creativity and Craft. The former gets your creative juices flowing, while the latter ensures you can organise and develop those thoughts. Writerly works across Mac, iPhone, and iPad, so you can pick up where you left off on all your devices. Whether you’re sitting down at your Mac or creating on your morning commute, Writerly…

PRIZES WORTH £750! One of 10 lifetime licences for Infuse Apple TV+ is a great service for streaming films and TV shows. But if you just want to play a video locally on your Mac or iPhone, Apple’s options are not so great. And it gets worse when you start thinking about library management. Luckily, there’s a superb solution in the form of Infuse 7. This app works across macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS and makes it easy to keep your movies organised and shared across your whole household. And this issue, you can win one of 10 lifetime Pro licences for the app. Infuse 7 supports a ton of video formats, including 4K HDR in H.264 and H.265. It offers video upscaling, and drag and drop over AirDrop and…

GIFT WORTH £50 Call or visit our website… www.magazinesdirect.com/mac/A26B Or call: 0330 333 1113 and quote ‘A26B’ HURRY! TIMELIMITED OFFER Other benefits of subscribing to the UK’s best-selling Apple magazine… ✔ For more than 25 years, we’ve been helping Apple fans get the most from their kit. ✔ Our tutorials and guides empower you with the knowledge to get things done in smarter and faster ways. ✔ MacFormat is for Apple fans of all experience levels. Whether you’ve just bought your first Mac, iPhone or iPad, or have been using one for years, we’ll ensure you don’t miss out on top tips and techniques. Choose your package! 6-MONTH DIGITAL ONLY (Gift not included) SAVE 35% £21 every 6 months 13 issues of MacFormat in digital, and save 35%. Gift not…

IT WILL TAKE > 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN > How to create radar charts in Keynote YOU’LL NEED > Keynote 11.2 You can plot multiple series of quantitative variables on one two-dimensional chart Data visualisation is one of those buzz phrases that people, especially in business, like to throw around. Distill it down to its core principles, though, and data visualisation is just charts and graphs, albeit made to look fancy. And there are few better tools on the Mac for producing fancy charts than Keynote. Its close integration with Numbers and Apple’s eye for good design make it a brilliant tool for wowing audiences with your data presentations. Compare and contrast In this tutorial, we’ll focus on the latest addition to Keynote’s library of chart options, the radar…

IT WILL TAKE > 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN > How to use Noir to automatically turn websites dark in Safari YOU’LL NEED > Noir £2.49, iOS 15 or later Genius tip! > Under Noir’s More tab, you can enable Sync Website Settings using iCloud. This means there’s no need to repeat yourself on each individual device. Many websites have dark modes on iOS to shield your eyes when you use Safari in the evening. Yet even big sites like Wikipedia fall short here – open a site that lacks a dark mode and you’ll blast your eyes with shining white light. Luckily, Noir can help. This app automatically adds a dark mode to any website that lacks it – preserving the site’s aesthetic while it does so – making…

Docks, stands and other peripherals Apple is increasingly integrating its devices, with Universal Control and the Magic Keyboard case helping to bring your iPad on board as a genuine workspace companion. The iPhone isn’t left out either, as Apple and third parties work to help it join the party. Whether an iPad is your sole work device or you complement things with an iPhone, you’ll find plenty on the next two pages to boost your devices’ productivity and utility in your chosen workspace. We’ve got drawing implements, USB hubs, device holders and stands, storage expanders, and handy cables and cable organisers. All of them are aimed towards making your home office a little more focused, whatever you want to use it for. 1 Twelve South HoverBar Duo £79.95> From Twelve…

> IN PRINT > ON iPAD & iPHONE ISSUE 375 MARCH 2022 > Do more with iCloud and iCloud+ > Make any Mac easier to use (and your iOS devices too) > Power up your passwords ISSUE 374 FEBRUARY 2022 > Power up your Mac – we show you how! > 82 of the best apps for Mac, iPhone, iPad and commandWatch > Take better pics in low-light conditions ISSUE 373 JANUARY 2022 > Mac secrets revealed: 71 must-try tips > New MacBook Pro and AirPods tested > AirPlay everything for easy streaming > What next for Apple in 2022 To order back issues of the print magazine, go to bit.ly/macformat_backissues or phone +44 (0)330 333 1113 and we’ll post them out to you. Download back issues onto your iOS…

> £179.99 FROM Zound Industries, marshallheadphones.com FEATURES Active noise cancellation, touch controls, charging case, IPX5 (headphones), IPX4 (case) Marshall delivers its signature style with its new true wireless headphones – its third stab at the genre – with the Motif ANC. They’re the most expensive of the bunch, but feature decent upgrades, including active noise cancelling (ANC) and a wireless charging case. Visually, they’re classic Marshall fare – the case is shrouded with a mottled effect black plastic, synonymous with its legendary amps, while the earbuds – black, naturally – feature AirPod-style stems with a knurled finish, like the control knobs on its pedals. The case is small and lightweight, with a small button for connecting the earbuds, along with a single LED for displaying the charge state. As wireless…

$59.99 (about £50) FROM BuddyPhones, buddyphones.com FEATURES 20Hz-20kHz, detachable boom mic, Bluetooth, BuddyLink cable, decorative stickers, travel pouch The priority behind BuddyPhones is safe audio for children. The build quality of the School+ Wireless is good, and the foldable headphones are comfortable thanks to the padded, sweat-wicking fabric on the headband and cups. The adjustable headband is white with a colour contrast, and you get four pairs of ear cup stickers for customisation. There are three set limits – TravelMode goes to 94dB, KidsMode 85dB, and ToddlerMode 75dB. Audio is clear, especially when StudyMode is also enabled, making them good for dialogue. The detachable boom mic captures speech clearly while minimising background noise. The buttons are chunky; there’s a multifunction button for answering/ending calls, playing and pausing sound and, if…

ON TEST… Asustor Drivestor 2 Pro AS3302T QNAP TS–253D Synology DiskStation DS920+ TerraMaster F2–422 WD My Cloud Home Duo For a decade, Apple sold millions of Time Capsules, simple appliances combining a Wi-Fi router with network storage. Popular with families and small businesses, they quietly kept Time Machine backups for several Macs. Now we have better Wi-Fi, and their hard drives are reaching end of life, what should you replace yours with? What’s the best way to store backups, shared photos, and documents on your network? These are among the many roles that can be served by Network Attached Storage (NAS). Here, we look at five leading NAS systems aimed at homes and smaller businesses, with the primary role of storing Time Machine backups for several Macs. They range from…

Free (Chronicle Pro £8.99/year) FROM LittleFin, chronicleapp.com NEEDS macOS 11 or later Chronicle 10 is a major upgrade that changes the way the bill-tracking app synchronises data across your Apple devices. It moves from iCloud to Chronicle Cloud. The app is now free to download, but limits you to five subscriptions. To track more, you need to go Pro (£8.99/year). That cost covers the Mac, iPhone, and iPad versions. The interface is now threepane; the sidebar on the left enables you to choose which charges – due soon, paid, etc – or reports to view. The middle window lists bills or reports in that category and the right pane, shows the details. With everything in a single window, it’s a lot neater. A monthly history report lists the bills in…

DESKTOP SPEAKER Ruark MR1 £329.99 ruarkaudio.com Winner of MF357’s head to head, the MR1 speaker set looks and sounds the business. The dome tweeter and longthrow woofer can handle a variety of audio styles with aplomb. You get a good variety of connectivity options, and we love the chunky function/volume dial too. IN-EAR WIRLESS EARPHONES Beats Fit Pro £199.99 beatsbydre.com/uk The Beats Fit Pro are compact and sporty in design with integrated silicone ear hooks. The earbuds match Apple AirPods Pro almost feature for feature. And cost nearly £40 less. You get Apple’s H1 chip, Active Noise Cancelling (ANC), Find My, Siri support, and Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking. What’s more, these Beats boast longer battery life than the AirPods Pro. KEYBOARD (MAC/iOS) Logitech MX Keys Mini £99.99 logitech.com…

When Apple unveiled its WWDC updates in June 2021, one of the most exciting new features was Universal Control. Apple explained this would let you control multiple Macs and iPads using a single keyboard and mouse. Disappointingly, though, the feature was nowhere to be seen for months on end – until now. With macOS Monterey 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4, Apple has finally released Universal Control (at the time of writing, in beta form). As long as you have at least two compatible devices and the latest software, you can give it a try (see Apple’s website for info on requirements, etc). Universal Control lets you move a mouse pointer seamlessly from a MacBook to an iPad, for example, or from a MacBook to an iMac. You can go from typing…

Apple’s critics and rivals frequently point out areas in which they perceive the company is stifling competition. The row over app payment methods, particularly with Fortnite maker Epic Games, is a notable recent example. Another area of contention is messaging – the way Apple differentiates messages sent via its own iMessage system from other text messages. iMessage and its features are not available on Android devices. As it happens, the background to a vital part of the messaging issue – whether Apple will allow its iMessage service onto Android devices – emerged during the trial with Epic Games. Documents made public during the trial revealed an internal debate at Apple, with software chief Craig Federighi arguing in a 2013 email: “In the absence of a strategy to become the primary…

16 AirDrop won’t work Check both devices have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on, have clear line-of-sight between them, and are within nine metres. option-click command then choose System Information > Network > Wi-Fi to check that AirDrop is supported. On a receiving Mac, open AirDrop in a Finder window using its Go menu. Click the ‘Allow me to be discovered by’ item and select Contacts Only or Everyone as appropriate. Ensure the Firewall, in the Security & Privacy pane, isn’t set to block incoming connections. On the receiving Mac, accept any notification which appears. 17 When USB-C devices don’t work Check you’re using the right cable. Many designed for charging don’t carry the data a peripheral might need to exchange with your Mac. Tag your USB-C cables clearly so you…

IT WILL TAKE > 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN > How to use the new features in Messages in macOS Monterey YOU’LL NEED > macOS 12 or later Messages is the hub for the Shared with You feature that surfaces content others have shared While the new features in Messages in macOS Big Sur were focused on bringing into line with the iOS version of Messages, and allowing you to have conversations in groups, among others, Messages in Monterey is all about sharing. Messages is the hub for the Shared with You feature in Monterey that surfaces links, photos, podcasts, and other content others have shared with you. The idea is that when you, for example, open a new homepage in Safari, you see thumbnails of the links others have…

IT WILL TAKE > 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN > How to use the Magnifier tool on an iPhone YOU’LL NEED > iPhone Genius tip! > Try using an adjustable stand or clamp to keep your iPhone steady while you use Magnifier; every little movement is exaggerated when it’s in use. One of the least heralded but most useful tools on your iPhone is the Magnifier. This handy utility enables you to use your iPhone like a magnifying glass to enlarge text and objects. It uses the back camera to capture the image and displays it on the screen so you can zoom in and out of it. However, it does more than just enlarge whatever you point it at. You can apply colour filters to make text easier to…

Desks There’s no doubting a good sturdy desk can be the foundation of your workspace. A solid, reliable desk not only looks great, but will support all the Macs, monitors and accessories you use, banishing worries of wobbles and (dare we say it) collapses completely. A high-quality desk can be a notable expense, but it will pay dividends in the long run as the centrepiece of your office. If you’re new to home working, you’ll find it infinitely better than working from a sofa. On this page, we’ve put together a batch of recommended desks, each with their own strong points. Whether you prefer to stand, need plenty of storage, or want the ultimate corner desk, you’ll find it all here. 1 FlexiSpot E8 > From £419.99> From FlexiSpot, flexispot.co.uk…

Contact us > Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com > Our ratings > Our reviews are totally independent; we’re not affiliated with Apple or anyone else, nor are we influenced by advertisers. > A truly exceptional product. Award given solely at the discretion of the editor. > The best example of its kind when pitted against comparable products. > A brilliant thing > Strongly recommended > Worth considering > Notable flaws > A waste of your money BUYING ADVICE Our authoritative reviews help you make more informed choices…

£119.99 FROM Trust, trust.com FEATURES 3840x2160 resolution at 30fps, 74° field of view, dual microphones, stick-on privacy cover, included tripod, USB-A to USB-C adapter The Trust Teza 4K webcam costs £120. Considering the Razer Kiyo Pro costs £200 for a 1080p picture, is Trust’s camera too good to be true? Well, it has its limitations. In good light, the Teza performs well and is able to balance light and dark areas. You’ll need to pair it with a good light, though, as it produces a darker picture than is desirable in dimly lit areas, with grain a problem too. The Trust cam is akin to the £45 Creative Live! Cam Sync 1080p in low light, despite costing nearly three times as much. Its performance in brighter light is far superior,…

All these systems provide reliable storage for Time Machine backups, and could replace a Time Capsule and provide shared storage for photos and docs. They differ in availability of other services, expandability, and cost. WD My Cloud is good and inexpensive, but won’t do much more than those basics. The four conventional NAS systems offer different services and expansion. Their manufacturers also offer related models: QNAP’s four-bay TS-453D compares with the Synology tested, and Asustor offers its AS3304T. Each is a Linux computer with a file system more complex than your Mac’s, controlled through a web browser. If you’re not comfortable with that, or need macOSspecific services such as Content Caching, making your own NAS using a Mac is fine, if expensive. Picking a winner on services or performance is…

Free (IAPs) FROM Ahoy-hoy Inc, slapdash.com NEEDS OS X 10.10 or later (separate version for Apple silicon) Spotlight is the Mac’s Swiss Army Knife. Imagine, then, a tool that can do many of the same things, but also access documents in cloud storage sites, manage Slack conversations or Google Calendar, and toggle light/dark mode. Imagine SlapDash. You ‘connect’ SlapDash to online services, such as Dropbox, Slack, Todoist, Trello, or Zoom then use SlapDash’s web-based tool or Mac app to perform actions. In Chrome, SlapDash can search bookmarks, open tabs, and history. Do so using point and click – each click adds a parameter or instruction to SlapDash’s Spotlight-like bar – or with keyboard shortcuts. One of SlapDash’s most powerful features is Spaces – groups of items you create to help…

Cool kit for the great outdoors Top quality accessories for your Apple devices – whether you’re on top of a mountain or just sat in the garden Printing made easy The best ways to set up and use any printer - on Mac, iPhone or iPad ALSO INSIDE… Get started with Universal Control Batch rename files in macOS Compose messages on your Watch … and much more! Contents subject to change ISSUE 377 ON SALE 5 APR 2022 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 magazinesdirect.com/macformat-magazine-subscription ON YOUR MAC Read digitally on your Mac: subscribe with Zinio at bit.ly/ziniomacf…