Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2017 i MacLife

WE OFTEN hear how Apple is an iterative company. It plots and plans, they say, and rolls out new ideas and technologies in a gradual, deliberate process in order to train us for what’s coming next. I believe this is what’s happening with the new MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar. I think something major this way comes. Think about the first iPhone in 2007 – no App Store, no copy or paste, no App Extensions, no Document Providers, no iMessage... not even multitasking or folders. Year after year, Apple rolled out a couple of the features we now take for granted, trying not to hit us with too much too quickly. The little details can ebb and flow, but there was always a greater vision, a course plotted. Now think about…

Sierra ONE OF THE least appealing aspects of cloud-based storage and syncing services on the Mac has been their tendency to require some kind of special folder. Whether you’re using the likes of Dropbox or Google Drive, you have to alter where you save your files by default, to make them accessible on all your devices. Apple’s system with iCloud Drive still uses a particular dedicated folder (named “iCloud Drive” unsurprisingly), but its thinking is to have the process cause the least amount of impact on your existing habits. Apple’s at its most audacious here with Sierra’s single-click moving of the Desktop and Documents folders to become sub-folders within iCloud Drive (without affecting how you use these two folders normally), which we explore on p26. Elsewhere, apps increasingly have the…

YOU’VE ALREADY taken a sensible step to keeping data secure: you’ve chosen a Mac. macOS is widely rated as one of the most secure operating systems, and Apple’s continued focus on encryption and privacy is a valid reason to remain optimistic. However, it’s best not to be complacent about security. LOCAL SECURITY Start boosting security by setting a strong password, and change it regularly. In the Users & Groups preferences pane, we recommend opting to use your iCloud password to log in if you’re on OS X 10.11 El Capitan or earlier, so you can change it on all of your Macs at once to minimize the duration a cracked system remains vulnerable. This isn’t possible in Sierra, though: it asks you to set a different user account password on…

> Never forget One of our favorite Calendar features in iOS 10 is its ability to interrogate other apps to find out if you should have added something to your schedule but didn’t. In our case that means scanning Mail messages for ticket confirmations, but it works for travel reservations too. > Better together One of the most important changes in iOS 10 is the communication between different iOS apps (and thirdparty apps), which can make life a lot easier. For example, if you have an appointment somewhere you’ve already been, Calendar will look at your Maps history to find the address, and use Maps’ traffic and public transit data to suggest setting out early for an appointment. 3D Touch has been implemented well too, so you can hard-press on…

1 Explore options Maps has had a dramatic facelift in iOS 10, and we think it’s a vast improvement. Here we’ve asked for directions to a particular location, and Maps is showing us the possible routes and live traffic. 2 AirDrop it In iOS 10, once you’ve planned a route you can AirDrop it to someone else with an Apple device, or you can send the journey through what Apple calls a Routing App – an app such as Google Maps – as in the next tip. 3 Open it up The new, more open Apple realizes that not everybody wants to stick with Apple’s own apps - so you can now send the route to another GPS app. Maps shows what’s installed as well as App Store suggestions. 4…

Free ($7.99 Pro upgrade) Developer doo GmbH, scanbot.io Platform Universal Requirements iOS 9 or later If you typically snap photos of documents and save them in the Camera Roll, Scanbot 6 is a revelation. The app provides a far slicker user interface, plus a robust set of tools to capture, manage, and share single or multi-page documents with ease. Automatic edge detection eliminates the need for manual cropping, although recognition tends to be slow in low light situations or when documents blend into the background too much. However, the quality is fantastic, and documents are saved in your choice of PDF or JPG files with a minimum resolution of 200 dpi. The core app is free, which includes the ability to also scan QR or other barcodes, enhancements (filters, crop,…

99¢ Developer Dima Komar, vk.com/dima.komar Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8 or later We know what you’re thinking: seriously, an app for translating what your cat is saying? But the “Made for ages five and under” rating and the “This is for entertainment only” disclaimer in the description makes it clear this is a bit of fun for cat lovers. It’s a novelty app for pet owners with particularly chatty felines. The main app offers 12 icons, each with a cutesy drawing of a cat emulating the emotion that will be played once you tap it. The entirety of the Apple Watch app comprises five of these, so it’s little more than a soundboard for playing short cat samples. On the iPhone and iPad, there’s also a Siri-like microphone button, which…

$1,499 Manufacturer Apple, apple.com Feature 2GHz Intel Core i5, Intel Iris Graphics 540, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD You could be forgiven for thinking that the lower-end model of Apple’s newest MacBook Pro is a Pro in name only. When Apple talks about it, it compares it to the MacBook Air, rather than the previous Retina MacBook Pro models. It didn’t equip it with its new Touch Bar control strip. And compared to the two models with Touch Bar, it has fewer ports, and a considerably lower processor speed at 2GHz (the $1,799 13-inch model is 2.9GHz). Apple emphasizes that this new MacBook Pro is actually thinner than the MacBook Air at the Air’s thickest point, has a smaller overall footprint, and is essentially the same weight. Based on a quick…

$2.99 Developer Elena Drozhzhina, imagestudiopro.com Requires OS X 10.10 or later Color gradients are a really nice way to add some flair to designs, but like any design technique, it takes a lot of practice to create good ones. This super-simple app generates 36 square random color gradients for you. Don’t like them? Hit a button and it creates a new set of 36. See one you like? Click it for more tools. Each gradient has four mixing colors, and you can manually adjust these, or use the sampler tool to copy a color from anywhere on-screen. You can also save the gradient in the app to view or alter in the future, export it to various image formats at any size you want, or open it in other apps.…

$249 Manufacturer Lacie, lacie.com Features USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 1) and USB-A (USB 3.0) cables, 1.2m drop resistance, rain resistance This bumpered drive boasts a USB-C port and cable for the latest Macs, a USB-A cable for other models, and it’s powered over USB. Inside is a single 4TB hard disk. LaCie quotes a max transfer rate of 130MB/sec, though our tests showed the drive is capable of more, peaking at 161.7MB/sec in sequential writes. LaCie’s figure is reasonably close to the mean averages our tests measured for sequential reads (117.2MB/sec) and writes (119.7MB/sec). Random read/write operations held up well against other portable hard disks we’ve tested. In fact, it delivered slightly faster mean and peak rates. The drive weighs in at 14 oz, and LaCie says the drive works,…

Most of the sports devices that are currently available either go on your wrist, or are attached directly to a piece of equipment, such as a football or tennis racket. However, there’s a lot of work going on with wearable technology, particularly with smart fabrics that are capable of monitoring your physical condition while you’re exercising. The spandex experts at Under Armour actually launched a “smart shirt,” called the E39 about five years ago. It included sensors that allowed it to monitor your heart rate and breathing, although it didn’t really take off at the time. More recently Ralph Lauren has launched its new PoloTech Shirt ($295), which performs similar functions and communicates its readings to an app on your iPhone or Apple Watch. A Finnish company called Myontec has…

>>> I’ve made a resolution: to eat healthily. Easy. Eat more veg; don’t stockpile Reese’s Pieces like you’re hoping to use them as rudimentary currency come the apocalypse; join a gym instead of a Wine of the Month club. Standard stuff. Sadly, knowing what to do and actually doing it are two different things. My home is filled with boobytraps: fancy guest cookies! Toddler lunch cheese! All of my meal planning goes out the window at the grocery store, when I enter a fugue state that ends with me outside, clasping three tomatoes, a bread roll, and toilet paper. The baby has often helpfully shoplifted an avocado, but I really can’t rely on infant kleptomania in the long-term. So I’ve dug out an old fitness friend: Withings Wi-Fi Scales, a…

REQUIRES RapidWeaver YOU WILL LEARN How using words in different places in your websites helps build your search rankings IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes PART 3 OF 5 NEXT ISSUE: Working with media and advanced options SOME WEBSITE owners focus really hard on their site’s visual design and don’t pay too much attention to the words on their web pages. That’s a mistake, because the words on your site make a massive difference to the two groups that’ll be looking at them: humans, and Google’s robots. Let’s start with the latter. Google’s software crawls the web, scanning pages and classifying them. The specifics of how it does that change over time, but fundamentally Google cares about the quality of a web page. Old tricks such as sticking in popular keywords…

“I THINK ONE of the things that really separates us from the high primates is that we’re tool builders. I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. And, humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing, about a third of the way down the list. It was not too proud a showing for the crown of creation. So, that didn’t look so good. But, then somebody at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of locomotion for a man on a bicycle. And, a man on a bicycle, a human on a bicycle, blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts. “And that’s what a computer is…

AN iPHONE WITH an edge-toedge display has been rumored for a while, but while it’s easy to imagine an iPhone with a screen that fills the front face, it’s much harder to engineer it. One of the major problems is with the strength of the frame around it – as you go thinner and thinner and take away space for support, aluminum could be too soft for the job. An alternative material is needed, and one that Apple has recently started using for the first time is perfect for the job: ceramic. The new Apple Watch Edition is made in white ceramic, which is four times harder than stainless steel. It also dissipates heat well, and it looks just fantastic. In fact, its glossy white finish is a fine pair…

1 THE BFG Mark Rylance, Penelope Wilton, Ruby Barhill $19.99 Steven Spielberg and Roald Dahl are one hell of a match, and this new version of The BFG lets the renowned director mix the heart and flair he puts into his films with the creepiness and emotion of Dahl’s story. The film follows 10-year-old Sophie after she spots a mysterious figure lurking the streets after dark, and is whisked off to the world of giants, who aren’t all as kindly as the Big Friendly Giant. Visually, it’s just as inventive as it should be, too – especially the dream world. It’s very true to its source material, in the best possible way. 2 STEAMWORLD HEIST Image & Form $6.99 We recently reviewed this turn-based game of cartoony robots having shoot-outs…

THE APP STORE has always been the big promise of the iPhone and iPad – a world of amazing apps, just a few taps away. But when you get your first device, the only apps available to you are Apple’s own default apps. These sometimes get a bad rap, with a lot of people replacing them with other options as soon as they get the chance. But just because these apps are the default apps doesn’t mean they’re not surprisingly powerful. The amount of options they give you is often overlooked, even by those who use them regularly. Here, we’re giving these apps their due, and showing you how you can get a whole lot more from your iOS device than you realized, without having to change a single thing.…

1 Stop the spam Messages is often the target of people trying to sell stuff or of companies trying to annoy us when we’re watching TV. Go into Settings > Messages and enable Filter Unknown Senders to silence them. 2 Save your data If you’re on a limited data plan or often wander where data connections are sluggish, the last thing you want to do is send huge hires images. Use Settings > Messages, Low Quality Image Mode. 3 Archive your audio Do you want to keep your friends’ or partner’s audio messages forever rather than see them vanish? Go into Settings > Messages > Expire and you can remove the two-minute limit for permanent preservation. 4 Scribbles Text and emoji are so last year. Messages now enables you to…

LET’S BE honest. Reminders is probably iOS 10’s least impressive app. But while it’s not going to satisfy the productivity crowd and it’s not something you’d want to use to manage a project, it’s still a great little app for organizing everyday activities and sharing lists with friends. And when you combine Reminders with Siri and/or the Apple Watch, it does actually become considerably more impressive and useful. Reminders is a simple list manager, and you can store lists on your device or sync them via iCloud. To add an item just type in the space; to mark it complete, just tap on the circle next to it. Incomplete items stay visible, and completed ones disappear from view. And that’s pretty much it. You can color-code your lists for easy…

$1.99 Developer Secondverse, secondverse.org Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8 or later This review goes out to all the iPhone photographers who are looking to take their photography skills to the next level. Today we check out FabFocus, a point-and-shoot photography app that aims to produce images that look like they’ve come from a DSLR. The ideal situation for using FabFocus is to simulate those high-end portrait images you can take on the iPhone 7 Plus. Simply open the app, snap a portrait, preferably one with a distant background. Using the masking tool you can paint over your subject. From there, you can blur your background and even change the way background points of light look, just like a DSLR camera. You may be wondering if the photos are as good…

$3.99 Developer Celestial Dynamics, cosmic-watch.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 7 or later If you’re into outer space and stargazing, Cosmic-Watch is a great app to check out. While it does tell you the time in any part of the globe, the primary goal of Cosmic-Watch is to give you insight into what’s going on around the Earth at any moment. Cosmic-Watch is simple enough for anyone to use, from space-loving kids to adults who are well-versed in astronomy. There are a few options on the left side of the screen that enable you to check out what constellations are visible and where to find them, where the inner planets are on their journey around the sun, and a feature that shows you where planets and eclipses are going to be…

$4.99 Developer Dinosaur Polo Club, dinopoloclub.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8 or later It’s tempting to look at a subway map and think, ah, that looks easy – but Mini Metro helps you learn that no, it is not easy at all. There is just one important thing to do in Mini Metro: connect differently shaped stations using train lines. The instant understanding that what you’re looking at is a map of a metro means that the game is able to use very few words or instructions to guide you, and your stations and passengers are all helpfully coded by what shape they are. Triangle passengers want to go to triangle station, squares want to go to square stations. It’s your job to connect the stations with lines in an…

Sometimes it’s nice to wake yourself up on the commute to work with a nice little brainteaser. Be warned, though – these particular iOS games are not easy, but if you relish the idea of having something to challenge you on your phone, then step right in. The ultimate in brain-testing games, HUMAN RESOURCE MACHINE ($4.99, Universal) attempts to make programming fun and accessible. If you’re not a huge fan of logic, steer well clear – but if you’ve always wanted to try the terrifying art of learning how a computer thinks, then this will really test you. There’s a mysterious, slightly creepy overarching story about the apocalypse, too. What more could you want? THREES! (Free/$2.99, Universal) can be played one-handed, as there is only one thing you can do:…

Free Developer Yreaction Multimedia, yreaction.com Platform watchOS Requirements iOS 10 or later A fun smartwatch variation on the Pong theme, AtomicBox Arcade uses the Digital Crown to rotate a small box and collect charged atoms (the black dots) while avoiding uncharged atoms (the red dots) which threaten to derail your gameplay. Sounds easy enough, but once charged atoms that haven’t yet been captured start coming into contact with uncharged atoms, it gets a whole lot harder. At first, it plays surprisingly fluidly with responsive control, but things get a little more sluggish once a bunch of atoms start bouncing all over. The game is complemented by sound effects, which is a nice touch for a standalone Watch app, and the frame rates are quite good overall. The connected iPhone app…

$299 Manufacturer Starry, starry.com Features Dual-band network with additional 5GHz, touchscreen interface to identify issues, support-center callback Configuring Wi-Fi setups ranges from the annoying to some sort of sorcery that we dare not meddle with. But the Starry Station promises to simplify Wi-Fi in your house with an interface that makes sense. The front of the device sports a glossy white plastic shell, while the back is a brushed aluminum plate with concentric cooling vent holes, and the good-looking touch interface makes it attractive enough to have on display. That’s good for Starry, because it’s counting on customers placing the Station in open areas for the best possible signal. Equipped with just two Ethernet ports, one for the WAN connection to your modem or gateway, the device’s focus is on…

JARGON BUSTER SWOLF A mash-up of swimming and golf, SWOLF refers to the efficiency of your strokes when swimming. The number of strokes and the number of seconds needed to swim a length are added to give your SWOLF score. A lower SWOLF score is better ?COLOR CODING After your workout, the Activity app on your iPhone can color-code the speed data from Watch Series 2, enabling you to analyze your performance in detail during each stage of your workout. 1. Start a workout GPS and waterproofing make the Apple Watch Series 2 a truly useful fitness device. As well as running, walking, and swimming, the Workout app can track indoor workouts, such as on an exercise bike. 2. Run along now During a run, you can see distance, your…

Use iWork’s new Collaboration feature Discover how to jointly edit documents live in Pages, Keynote, and Numbers REQUIRES macOS Sierra or iOS 10 or later; latest versions of iWork apps, or suitable browser YOU WILL LEARN How to invite others and work jointly on your documents IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes Want to collaborate in real time with others in Pages, Numbers, or Keynote? Thanks to the newly unveiled iWork Collaboration feature, you can. The feature works with the latest versions of your iWork apps in macOS Sierra, iOS 10, and even through supported web browsers on PC and Mac (namely Safari, Internet Explorer, and Chrome). Once invited, each user’s changes are clearly color-coded to make them easy to follow – and your document is dynamically updated in real time…

REQUIRES iOS 10 YOU WILL LEARN How to keep track of, and attend to, events and communications, and filter out things that can wait IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes ? CLEAR A NOTIFICATION Banners and alerts can get in the way of things. To quickly dismiss one without taking action, swipe upwards on it. The Basics of notifications haven’t changed much in iOS 10. They still appear for a moment in a strip across the top of the screen when your device is unlocked, accumulate in Notification Center, and are shown on the Lock screen so you can attend to any you might have ignored or missed from one place later on. They also still display numbered counts on apps’ Home screen icons to remind you of how many missed…

REQUIRES iMovie for iOS YOU WILL LEARN How to add photos, effects, and music to an iMovie project on iOS IT WILL TAKE 1 hour THE NEW Memories feature in iOS 10 enables you to create photo slideshows from images in your photo library and customize them – but it’s no substitute for creating your own photo slideshow from scratch. Of course, there’s an app for that too, which you may have on your iPhone or iPad already: iMovie. SCREEN TIME It’s really straightforward to pull photos from your Photo Library into iMovie and create slideshows, adding the transitions you choose, specifying exactly the music you want and even tweaking the moving Ken Burns effects so they work in exactly the way you want. You can add a soundtrack, too…

Your article on email signing and encrypting (#121, p104), was easily one of the most important pieces I’ve seen in quite some time. Good job! You helped me make my own selfsigned certificate, something which is entirely adequate for my needs. It’s far easier than the one-year certs that I’ve used in the past. You really need to do more on this topic because of the continued threat of email hacking. I’m not a national figure, and not doing illegal activities, but I don’t like the thought that other people might read my mail. We live in a new “normal,” and your information helps make our lives a bit more secure. Keep up the good work! Alan Wilcox I’m really glad you found this article helpful – by now you’ll…

THE 2007 release of the iPhone is probably the most seminal event in technology history. It devastated camera sales and portable music devices, and sent the game industry into a tailspin. As Apple monopolized the casual game market, Wii sales plummeted and Microsoft and Sony were forced to concentrate on hardcore gamers. Nintendo’s 3DS and Wii U stumbled hard out of the gate, sharing the casual market with increasingly ubiquitous Apple devices. Enter 2016 and the release of the Nintendo Switch - the first truly post-iPhone console. It’s a sexy concept - a thin tablet that can be placed in a dock to play on your television, or thrown in a bag to play on the go. The controllers are versatile, and can be snapped on the sides to play…

1 Manage your mail Intimidated by your inbox, or any other folder? Tap on the funnel icon in the bottom left corner and Mail filters email according to set criteria. By default it shows unread mail, but if you tap Filtered By, you can set your own criteria. 2 Book your events When Mail spots what it thinks is an event in your messages, it shows the “1 Event found” status bar at the top of the email. Tap on Add and you’ll see the familiar Calendar pop-up with the relevant details already added for you; you can then add more details if necessary. 3 Search the cloud When you add a file attachment to a Mail message, you’re not just limited to the images on your iOS device. You…

iOS 10’S CONTACTS app might not look like the most exciting thing on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, but it’s a deceptively powerful information manager. While you can use it as a simple phonebook, it’s capable of a lot more. If you add someone to your Contacts, you can specify a particular ringtone or incoming text, so you might have some doomy music for the parents and the sound of birds singing for your partner. There’s also a new Emergency Bypass option. This overrides Do Not Disturb, so if there’s a particular contact who absolutely must get through to you day or night, you can set that up. Once you’ve done that, you have the familiar options for home and work addresses, more phones than any sensible person should…

HOW TO Use Notes to organize everything 1 Get marking Notes can include images and PDF documents, and that means you can use Markup to annotate them, highlight key points or sign them off. It’s particularly handy if you want to point to a particular detail. 2 Check it off The lines between the Notes and Reminders apps look awfully blurry at times: you can use Notes to manage to-do lists and checklists, although you can’t schedule reminders by time or location. 3 Add images Pictures can communicate more effectively than words. Notes can add images in two ways: by importing from your library, or by taking a photo or video. The result is then embedded in your Note. 4 More the merrier Notes aren’t just for you: you can…

Free (subscription required for some features) Developer Picniic Labs, picniic.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 9 or later, optimized for iPhone 6 When it comes to families, there’s nothing harder than getting everyone on the same page. Between juggling the kids’ afterschool activities, special events, and staying on top of where everyone is at any given time, parents have their work cut out. Picniic is an iPhone app designed to bring order to everyday family chaos. After setting up an account, parents add each member of the household, who log in using the same credentials. The free version includes a shared calendar, grocery, recipe, and to-do lists, and group events schedule, with the ability to subscribe to cloud-based calendar services or automatically share events created inside the app. Unfortunately, the iOS…

$4.99 Developer Nosy Crow, nosycrow.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8 or later If you have kids, you need this app: it’s a brilliant concept, executed with aplomb. It enables the little ones to set a stage, choose characters, and record their very own story. Tap to start, edit your title, and tap your first scene. You can choose from a variety of backgrounds (we’re talking a lot of options here), then select your characters and furnish them with props if you like. While adding elements, you can zoom in and out for more control of where things go, and it’s easy to just pull things offstage at any point. Our kid panel initially thought that the Record button was for audio only, but it actually records the action too; so…

$3.99 Developer Noodlecake Studios, noodlecake.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8 or later Classic arcade action with updated graphics – that’s the pitch behind The Bug Butcher, in which you take on a bunch of space-nasties that bounce and ricochet around the room. The game takes place in several different levels, each with several waves of enemies – huge, bulbous pink balls that split in two when you’ve shot them a few times; electrified enemies that belch out bullets; spiders that attempt to eat your friend. You have limited lives, and several special moves and effects that can do things like increasing your rate of fire or freezing enemies. It’s repetitive, but quite satisfying, and the fact that your character is shooting vertically the whole time feels quite novel. It’s awfully…

WATCH APPS AND GUIDES TO GET MORE FROM YOUR WATCH 99¢ Developer AppAspect Technologies Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8.1 or later When we were young, FM radio was good for about 15 or 20 different stations at the most, and limited only to what could be picked up by the antenna from a fixed radius around our house. The advent of the internet has broadened that scope dramatically… to include the entire world. FM Radio PRO touts 24/7 streaming from more than 70,000 radio stations around the globe, sorted by genre so it’s easier to browse for something to listen to. From the Universal app, you can also search for station names, or even narrow the focus to specific artists, albums, or countries. On Apple Watch, FM Radio PRO is…

1 GET READY On your connected iPhone, download version 3 or higher of the IFTTT app from the App Store. Swipe right from the Home screen and add the IFTTT widget. 2 ADD WIDGETS Open IFTTT on iPhone and select My Applets. Go to Settings (gear icon) > DO widgets > Get Widgets to select from a selection of ready-made applets. 3 ONE TAP Launch IFTTT on Apple Watch and use the Digital Crown to scroll through your installed DO widgets, then tap to activate. (Compatible widgets only.)…

From $49.99 Developer Acronis, acronis.com Requirements OS X 10.9.5 or later Acronis True Image 2017 is best described as a hybrid backup product – it can create disk images of entire drives, or back up selected files and folders. It’s also increasingly tying itself into Acronis’ cloud-based backup service, with annual subscription packages available – the base price gets you a one-year sub with 50GB storage. The cloud options are increasingly pervasive; it’s the default option whenever you set a backup. You’ll also need it to back up your iPhone or iPad, or if you want to take advantage of the two biggest new features in True Image 2017: Facebook profile backup, and the Online Dashboard, to use True Image remotely through your web browser. One other welcome new feature…

1.WILSON X CONNEC TED FOOTBALL $200 wilson.com > Designed to match the size and weight of a regulation football (it also comes in a junior version, and there’s a basketball equivalent), this ball is full of sensors that can detect spin, velocity, distance, and more. The data is fed back to your iPhone, so you can improve your technique. 2.APPLE WATCH SERIES 2 From $369 apple.com > The Apple Watch Series 2 includes built-in GPS, 50m water-resistance, and an improved screen for outdoor use, making it much more suitable for running, cycling, swimming, and other sports. The Nike+ model is best for sport, with a perforated strap and the Nike running app. 3. GARMIN SWIM $150 garmin.com > A good, affordable option for the keen swimmer, the Garmin Swim can…

SONY XBR-65Z9D $5,999 sony.com Many AV enthusiasts are loath to spend this kind of money on a 65-inch panel, but Sony has outdone itself with stunning HDR picture quality, color, and contrast like never before. And no wonder: there are more than 600 LEDs powering this backlit screen, although the built-in audio and Android TV OS are fairly average. ICARBONS DARK WOOD SKIN $14 icarbons.com Here’s an inexpensive way to customize the media box and Siri Remote with a “premium quality vinyl decal” that offers a dark, textured 3D woodgrain look and feel. The residue-free 3M Comply adhesive applies bubble-free, but nevertheless remains easy to remove when the day comes you want to go back to simple black.…

REQUIRES iOS 10 YOU WILL LEARN How to navigate and get the most from the redesigned Music app IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes ? QUICK MINI CONTROLS Tap the Mini Player and scroll down for loop and shuffle controls, or to manage the queue. You can start shuffled playback from anywhere in your library. APPLE HAS made many changes to Music in iOS 10, and it’s now a much better app to use. However, among the changes is one that may require you to think a bit harder at first. Notice that there’s no longer an ellipsis next to library items, which used to reveal contextual commands. On a device with 3D Touch, you only have to press firmly on an item to reveal the same options, but on those…