Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i MacLife

Why Major League Soccer is a major deal for Apple TV+ Major League Soccer is going through one hell of a glow–up right now. Apple has a ten–year deal on the rights to MLS, thanks to a rather surreptitious turn of events, where the owners of the MLS found themselves owning the entire rights for every single team and every single game, both locally and globally. Given the knotty rights for other leagues (Premier League included, which sees its broadcasts split between Sky Sports, Amazon and TNT in the UK), this was an opportunity for a broadcaster to come in and “own” the entirety of MLS’ coverage globally. Which is a pretty big deal! STREAM THE ACTION In a few short months from acquiring the rights, Apple created the MLS…

EVERY YEAR APPLE unveils a new generation of operating systems at the June Worldwide Developers Conference. It then releases them as developer and public betas a little while later, and as a finished product by the fall. The public beta of iOS 17 was released on July 12, and the developer beta was made available for free too. iOS 17 boasts a range of new features for any iPhone that can run them. For instance, there are personalized Contact Posters to design and use, and Live Voicemails where incoming messages are transcribed and the text shown in real time, so you can decide whether or not to take the call. Or, if you ring someone using FaceTime and they don’t pick up, in iOS 17 you can now leave a…

AIRDROP IS BY far the easiest and most convenient way to share files such as photos and videos between Apple devices. Simply open the file in question, tap the Share menu and select AirDrop. Nearby Apple devices will be shown, and all you have to do is tap the one you wish to send the file to, and it’s automatically transferred using an ad hoc wireless connection. But with the launch of iOS 17, AirDrop is about to get even easier — at least when it comes to transferring content between two iPhones. Instead of going through the Share menu and selecting AirDrop, in iOS 17 all you have to do is bring your iPhones close together and the file transfer is carried out automatically. It’s as easy as that.…

THERE ARE EVEN more fantastic features coming to iOS 17. For instance, the Health app will now enable you to log your moods and emotions, and when sufficient data has been built up, it will offer information to help you manage your wellbeing. If you use AirTags — Apple’s Bluetooth trackers used to keep tabs on your possessions — there’s a new feature just for you. In iOS 17, an AirTag can be shared with up to five other people, a feature that also works with all other Find My network accessories. This means your designated contacts can also track the location of an item protected with an AirTag using their own Find My app. They can also ping the AirTag so that it plays a sound, and when you’re…

EVER SINCE THE first Apple silicon Macs arrived in 2020, they’ve offered an additional benefit — the ability to run iPhone and iPad apps too with no messy conversion required. That’s because devices like your iPhone, iPad, and M1 and M2 Macs effectively run on identical architecture — the major difference being that while Mac apps are designed to be used with a mouse or trackpad and a keyboard, iPhone and iPad apps use touch–based taps, swipes, and other gestures. To get around that, macOS has a feature called Touch Alternatives that “remaps” iPhone and iPad apps so they can be used with your Mac’s input devices. This should work with the overwhelming majority of iPhone and iPad apps, but there are exceptions. Developers can, if they wish, explicitly prevent their…

The artist Andy Warhol is famously quoted as saying that in the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes. He got the number right and the unit wrong: today, everybody can be famous for a mere 15 seconds, with short–form content on the likes of TikTok earning creators viral fame. There’s been an explosion of people uploading music, video and podcasts for audiences to stream live or listen to at their leisure, a huge increase in places to share content, and a whole new world of hardware and software to help make the most of it. It’s never been easier to share on social media — although making money from it is more difficult. But money isn’t the only reason to broadcast yourself. It’s a lot of fun, and…

Making a podcast, vlog or live stream won’t magically attract an audience. And unfortunately, attracting an audience is where the bulk of the work is. There’s no single trick to successfully building your following, but there are lots of little things you can try and everything starts with knowing who your potential audience is and where to find them online. Collaborating with other creators, for example by going on their podcasts or having them in your videos, is a great way of introducing yourself to new audiences. And using your existing social media is a good method for introducing what you do to the people who follow you. Collaborating with other creators is a great way of introducing yourself to new audiences Go where your target market is — so…

BEFORE YOU CAN start to clear the clutter off your Mac, you need an overview. Open System Settings and navigate to General > About, then click Storage Settings. At the top, you’ll see a color–coded chart representing your internal storage and how the space on it has been used up; this will be represented in categories such as Documents, Apps, and System Data. Beneath this chart, you’ll see these and other categories (iCloud Drive, Mail, Messages and Other Users), all displayed with the actual amount of space they’re taking up shown in gigabytes (GB) or megabytes (MB). Next to most of these is an “i” button; click this and a new window will open enabling you to view the selected category in more detail, such as a list of applications with…

$249.95 From https://jbl.com Features Bluetooth 5.3, AAC; 10 hours battery (8 hours with noise cancellation); charging case with 1.45” touch display; True Adaptive Noise Canceling; Find My Buds feature AT FIRST GLANCE, JBL’s Tour Pro 2 earbuds look like just another AirPods clone. However, a quick look at the ingenious design of the charging case tells you that JBL has brought some of its own ideas to the table too. Available in black or silver, the little earbuds are light and comfortable to wear, but they’re rated IPX5 for water resistance, so they’re tough enough for outdoor use or exercise. They also provide impressive battery life, lasting for ten hours on a single charge, or eight hours when using noise cancellation. The case also lets you recharge the earbuds three more…

Andrew Cottle Art Editor Can iOS 17’s health additions, such as the Screen Distance and Time In Daylight features, break Andrew’s addiction to fantasy football apps? Rachel Terzian Production Editor It’s the little things that make Rachel excited for iOS 17, such as multiple timers, adding links to Notes, and creating stickers from Live Photos. Nick Peers Contributor Nick shows you how to go about cleaning your Mac’s hard drive if it’s running out of space, and thankfully it won’t cost you a penny (p61)!…

HANKERING AFTER AN Apple Studio Display? Samsung’s 27–inch ViewFinity S9 is now available for the same price ($1,599) but features a tilt– and height–adjustable stand, which is $400 extra on the Studio Display. The screen can even rotate 90 degrees, for reading documents with less scrolling. The ViewFinity S9’s specs are competitive: 5K resolution (5,120 x 2,880), 218ppi, 600 nits typical brightness, a matte display to minimize reflections and glare, and Thunderbolt 4 and Mini DisplayPort inputs in addition to three USB–C ports. It comes with a built–in, tiltable 4K camera with Auto Framing that (like Apple’s Center Stage) keeps you in–shot even if you move around, and the screen can be color–calibrated simply using the SmartThings app on an iOS or Android device. It has built–in speakers with Adaptive…

WHEN I SIT down at my fine mahogany desk and dip the quill to begin writing these columns — at my leisure, safe in the knowledge that the magazine’s errand boy must wait in the rain until I’m good and finished — I’m obviously looking at the biggest tech stories around as a starting point for ideas, to see whether there’s anything that’ll affect us Apple users. And I’m looking at leaks and rumors about future Apple products to see if I have something to say about Apple’s likely direction of travel, and what that tells us. On a day like today, when the stories are all about what an incremental change the Apple Watch 9 and iPhone 15 will be, and how Apple won’t launch a folding phone for…

TAKING CARE OF your eyesight is important when using screens, especially for children whose eyes are not yet fully developed. It’s been estimated that around 30 per cent of the world’s population is short–sighted (myopic), and this figure is set to rise. According to eyecare experts, there are two key ways that children can look after their eyesight and reduce the risk of short–sightedness, and both are addressed in the iOS 17 update. Going outside during daylight hours is very good for the eyes, and Apple’s new Time In Daylight is great for measuring how much time you and your children are spending outdoors. Find this feature in the Health app — go to the Browse tab in the bottom–right, look for Mental Wellbeing and tap it to find the new…

QUICK LOOK Work with the Remove Color feature A REMOVE COLOR The new Remove Color tool lives in the Color Adjustments panel. Toggle it on to get started. B SAMPLE After picking the eyedropper use the Loupe tool to magnify and sample the color that you want to remove. C FINE–TUNE These sliders fine–tune the range of colors that are removed, which is effective for removing unevenly lit backgrounds. D LAYERS Once you’ve created a transparent background on the top layer you can add a new background on the layer below. THE MACOS VERSION of Apple’s Photos app has a Selective Color panel that enables you to target a specific color in a picture and change its hue, saturation and brightness. This powerful tool is a springboard to a range of creative…

First things first, in order to turn your bright ideas into something others can see or stream, you’re going to need a few items of both hardware and software. The hardware you need depends on the content you plan to make and where you’re going to put it. For example, you can make videos for TikTok or Instagram reels with just an iPhone and Apple’s free Clips app, and you can also get iMovie for free in order to access more professional tools, such as effects and editing. You can record a podcast directly into GarageBand and use its built–in effects to make it sound great, and if you want to record people over Zoom or FaceTime there’s our old favorite Audio Hijack, which can record pretty much any audio…

AFTER YOUR FIRST cleanup, you’ll be able to use the tools we’ve covered so far to keep your system in check, but over time you’ll find the space being regained lessens even as your drive capacity continues to shrink. So what else can you do to ensure you’re not left facing dreaded “disk full” messages? One major cause of wasted storage space is duplicate files. Don’t confuse these with backups; they’re simply redundant copies of files and may be spread across multiple folders or even storage drives. Duplicates don’t have to be identical either — how many times have you taken multiple photos with the aim of keeping only the best shot, only to leave them all piling up, slowly eating away at your storage space? There are two free…

$99.99 From www.twelvesouth.com Features 2.5 to 6 inches of height adjustability, MagSafe housing in the base, 1.65 lbs, suitable for MacBook Air 11–inch (2015) up to MacBook Pro 16–inch (2023) THERE ARE PLENTY of MacBook stands out there to choose from, so what makes Twelve South’s latest HiRise Pro worth looking at? For starters it’s very high quality, with an overall metal design that matches the MacBook aluminum aesthetic perfectly, with a vegan leather trim on the base of the unit, which feels soft and looks great. It’s also height adjustable — in its default form, with the piston–style arm recessed inside the stand, it measures 2.5 inches, but can be raised to 6 inches to make it suitable for those with a higher seating position. The adjustment is completed…

Like many other readers, I miss the print version. It’s too easy to forget a new issue is out amongst all the other digital icons on my iPad. But I know there’s no going back on that one. Reading onscreen does make it easier to skip over things I’m not interested in; all the spatial computing stuff from a previous issue, for instance, which is not relevant to me and likely won’t be any time soon. However, I was disappointed to see in the August issue (#209) a malware scare article published that advised readers to “run antivirus software” without any recommendations of such. There wasn’t a category for it in “Best of the best”, either. Also, I’d think that with digital publishing, you could have pulled the Apollo Reddit…

NO UPDATE TO iOS would be complete without new features for Safari, and this one definitely delivers. The way Private Browsing works has been overhauled, giving you more protection when using a private tab. If you leave a Private Browsing tab open and your phone locks, then the private tab also locks. When you unlock your phone again, you have to unlock your Private Browsing tab separately with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. This new feature is useful if you forget you had the private tab open and hand your phone to someone else; they can no longer see what you were looking at, which is what private browsing is all about. A feature that was built for private browsing but has made its way to regular browsing…

JOURNALING IS A great way to clear your head, organize your thoughts, and can really benefit your mental health. If you don’t want to dust off your old paper diary, the Day One app for Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch can help you build a multimedia journal, or even multiple journals. You can include photos and text, and the app can tag your location too, mapping where you journal. For a more authentic journaling experience on iPad, Day One will accept input from either an Apple Pencil or from a third–party device such as a Logitech Crayon. A free version is enough to get you started, but the Premium tier ($34.99/year via in–app purchase) offers cross–device syncing, support for unlimited photos/video and input via audio recording, among other additional features.…

THE MAIN THING that prevents us from being global art superstars is, well, our complete lack of drawing skill! ShadowDraw promises to help with that. If, like us, you’ve always wanted to draw but haven’t been taught how, or if you just don’t feel very confident, it’s a great way to bring out your inner Degas or Dürer. The app is designed for absolute beginners, and it takes you step by step through the process of turning an idea into an artwork. Rather than tell you how to draw something, it shows you; you’ll see the pen or brush strokes of an artist on your iPad’s screen, and you learn how to draw by copying the artist’s own moves. Get it right and you’ll move on to the next bit;…

> Blocked email accounts My ISP says it’s going to block basic authentication, so I can’t collect my email using an app on my Mac, but have to use its web interface. How can I keep my local mailboxes? Some ISPs are telling those with bundled mail facilities that this authentication block is being done by Microsoft to improve mail service security. Authentication using a username and password has been replaced with modern authentication, typically OAuth2. That requires your mail client to run a one–time setup with the mail server, so it can log in and fetch your mail using either POP or IMAP, and send using SMTP. But those providers aren’t enabling that to let Microsoft’s own Outlook 365 or clients like Postbox collect their mail securely. Instead, the…

$2,559.99 From www.dell.com/en-us Features 31.5–inch LED backlit IPS LCD display, 6K (6,144x3,456 pixels) resolution, 5ms response time, 450cd/m2 brightness, DCI–P3 color (99%), integrated 4K webcam (3,840x2,160 pixels) with 5x digital zoom, 2x array microphones, 2x 14w speakers, height–adjustable stand WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING for a best–in–class monitor for work or for home, the Dell UltraSharp U3224KB is a great place to start. The price, though, will make you wince; it’s over a $1,000 more than Apple’s Studio Display — and that was hardly cheap to begin with. Let’s start with its design: the monitor itself is clad in silver and pale gray plastic with thick black bezels around its 31.5–inch 6K screen. The bezel is particularly thick at the top, where the soundbar and the webcam reside. The soundbar itself is…

$169.99 From www.anker.com Features 2x USB–C, 2x USB–A, 60,000mAh capacity, built–in light, solar input option STRIKING A GOOD balance between capacity and portability, Anker’s 548 Power Bank is designed for recharging your devices on the move. It has a convenient carrying handle, though oddly for a product that makes mention of camping, no specific water resistance rating. It charges over USB–C and a cable is supplied. The internal LiFePO4 EV-grade batteries have a capacity of 60,000 mAh, 192Wh. Anker says that’s enough for 2.9 full charges of a MacBook Air, 3.2 of an iPad Pro, or 7.4 of an iPhone 14 Pro Max. They’re also rated for 3,000 charge cycles, which should ensure longevity. There are two USB–C ports on the front panel, one of which accepts input for charging the…

$169 From www.audio-technica.com Features USB–C power, up to 192kHz operation, pop shield, latency–free monitoring, capacitive mute button, USB–C cable and a USB–A adapter included AUDIO–TECHNICA HAS updated its AT2020 USB microphone family with a new model that adds very high–quality recording options with up to 24–bit, 192kHz sample rate possible via its new analog to digital converters. When plugged in to your Mac or USB–C iPad it appears as both an audio input and output device, with a 3.5mm headphone jack on the body letting you monitor both your own voice and audio streamed back from your Mac. This has a high–output amplifier that is able to provide plenty of volume so you won’t struggle to hear yourself back. Direct, latency–free monitoring is supported and as well as a headphone level…