Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2016 i MacLife

Crank and Goggles $6.99 This is a top-down racing game set in the ’20s and ’30s, which looks chunky and arcadey, but actually controls with something approaching a level of simulation – careful with your braking round the corners or you’ll find yourself flipping easily. It plays well on weaker machines, and has a nice selection of races already. Version Tested: Update #1 Wayward $7.99 The genre of survival games taking place in a procedurally generated world is packed already, but Wayward puts some fun spins on it. You control a guy in a top down view, and must explore to find resource and build tools if you’re going to survive. It’s got a cool line-of-sight system that adds atmosphere and tension. Version Tested: 2.0.5…

1 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead $14.99 Though this film’s name and producer (J.J. Abrams) tie it to 2008 monster blockbuster Cloverfield, this is no sequel. It’s a slow-burning exercise in paranoia, mistrust, and mystery. After a car crash, Michelle (Winstead) wakes up in a bunker, occupied by Howard (Goodman) and Emmet (John Gallagher Jr). Howard explains that there’s been some sort of attack on the country, and that the three of them must stay in the bunker to avoid fallout. But Michelle becomes increasingly unsure about Howard’s honesty and sanity, and plans to escape. It’s tense, brilliantly acted stuff. 2 WILD THINGS Ladyhawke $9.99 Ladyhawke is an obscenely talented musician from New Zealand who has a habit of taking four years to perfect her albums. Man,…

HE MESSA GES app is getting a huge boost in iOS 10, turning it into a truly modern chat app. The key thing to know is that the app is getting much more fun and interactive. Conversations shown as simple, colored speech bubbles decorated with emoji will be a thing of the past. Sadly, at the time of writing, Messages for macOS is only able to view these new features, not create them – though that could change by Sierra’s release. ANIMATIONS You can make a message bubble appear with an effect, such as growing huge to seem like shouting, shrinking like a whisper, or slamming down. Fullscreen animations play for certain phrases, such as confetti falling down the screen for “Congratulations.” INTERACTION You can now “Like” a message with…

Though Siri can be extremely helpful, it’s always felt contrained by its reliance on only a few sources of information, and compatibility with only Apple’s apps. Ever since we saw it working with third-party apps on the Apple TV, we’ve been hoping that functionality would come to iOS, and in iOS 10, it will. For the first time, developers will be able to make certain commands and information within their apps available to Apple’s voice assistant, so you can ask it to perform tasks without having to fiddle your way through the app itself. It can work in a very simple way, such as just to trigger a call using an internet voice service: tell it “Call Jo using WhatsApp” and it can begin the call through WhatsApp’s VoIP feature.…

THOUGH THE cost of flash storage looks destined to drop further given time, most MacBooks still come with a paltry amount of it as standard. The prices Apple asks you to pay for more are expensive when you get into the realms of a hard-drive-rivalling 1TB capacity. The result, on portable Macs in particular, can feel like stepping back in time as it puts a burden on you to clear out old files. Sierra can take on this burden of manually archiving or trashing old files, which should avoid the situation where free storage space runs low. Its Optimized Storage feature puts documents you haven’t touched in a while, Mail attachments and even photos in the cloud. However, the files will appear to you like they’re still in their original…

Free (with IAP) Developer Soundness, soundness-llc.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8.1 or later One of the biggest problems when recording video using an iPhone or iPad’s built-in mic is unwanted noise. Whether it’s cars passing by on a busy road or the background hum of a rowdy office, it’s an undesirable distraction. VideoSoap aims to solve that by removing that noise from your videos – but that’s not all it does. It can boost audio that’s too quiet, or dampen audio that’s too loud. New to version 5, the app also allows you to use your iPhone as an external mic and cancel noise before it’s recorded. You need to run a cable between your iOS device and the microphone socket on a DSLR or camcorder. The app then picks…

$3.99 Developer Thix, thix.co/space Platform iPad Requirements iOS 8 or later SPACE is billed as an educational app/game, but we’re not convinced. It’s hard to understand what exactly about SPACE is educational: you are in space, you can add celestial bodies (stars, planets, black holes, etc.) to your own personal space, and you can watch as planets get vaporized because you placed them too close to the sun and stars turn supernova because… well, that’s what they do sometimes? The minimalist, sparse controls mean that you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing or why, and the tutorial is finicky – if you do the wrong thing halfway through the tutorial, it will start up from the beginning next time you open the app. There’s certainly an appeal to it –…

$3.99 Developer Michael Brough, mightyvision.blogspot.co.uk Platform Universal Requirements iOS 6 or later Damn, David Bowie’s labyrinth had nothing on this place. Imbroglio plops you down in a four-by-four maze of tiles, split up by walls placed at random. Monsters are spewed forth from any of the four corners at regular intervals, and every tile is a weapon you can use against them. The systems are complex in explanation, yet surprisingly intuitive after a few short games of practice. Damage is split into two types: red or blue. You start with an equal amount of life points for each, and enemies attack either one or the other. Monsters’ life points are unequally weighted between the two, so some are best attacked from red tiles while others are best taken on from…

Using filters to add that certain look to your photos is just the tip of the fun editing iceberg. The App Store is full of great photo tools that can do everything from add text overlays to combine multiple photos into impressive works of art. OVER (Free, Universal) is a simple yet powerful tool for turning photos into everything from backdrops for inspiring quotes, to greeting cards, to event promotions. It’s free and comes with a core set of tools to enhance photos with text, filters, graphics, and so on – but things get even more interesting with the add-ons (from 99¢), which add more advanced tools, stock photo directories, and a world of fonts. When a single photo won’t do, MIXGRAM (Free, Universal) is a popular collage and layout…

Free Developer Cardiogram, cardiogr.am Platform iPhone, watchOS Requirements iOS 9 or later Living with a heart condition is a bit like driving with a blindfold – you don’t know you’re in trouble until it’s too late. A new iPhone app called Cardiogram helps pull back the shroud of mystery about what’s going on inside your chest, turning the Apple Watch into a mobile heart-rate monitor. With Cardiogram, it’s easy to visualize how your heart reacts to intense workouts, and compare your resting heart rate against a trio of scenarios (average runner, average biker, and couch potato). Resting heart rate is used as a key indicator of cardiac health, so being able to record data automatically throughout the day helps illuminate potential problems before they arise. From the Apple Watch app,…

$5,999 (body only) Manufacturer Canon, usa.canon.com Features 20.2 megapixel images, 14 fps with AF/AE tracking, 4K 60 fps video capture The EOS-1D X Mk II is Canon’s new high-end model for photos and video, replacing not just the original 1D X, but also the EOS-1D C pro video camera. In some areas, the Mk II seems like a modest upgrade of the tech in the 1D X; in others it breaks entirely new ground. It has a brand-new sensor, for example, but with a relatively modest resolution of 20.2 million pixels. That may seem low in comparison to the 50 million pixels of Canon’s cheaper 5DS and 5DS R, but the 1D X Mk II is all about speed and sharp low-light shooting – it’s a workhorse for sport and…

From $159 Manufacturer WD, wdc.com Features 2x drive bays, 1x Gigabit Ethernet, 2x USB 3.0 The EX2 Ultra is a network drive that can take two hard disks – you can supply your own, or buy it with up to 16TB. It’s easy to set up, and the interface is simple to navigate. Annoyingly, there are no power or backup buttons on the drive. The Ethernet and USB ports are on the rear, with the latter accepting drives for backups or extra network shares, but not printers. Mac-focused features include AFP support, Time Machine backups and an iTunes audio server. There are only 14 apps in WD’s store, but they’re good quality and cover most bases, though not everything. Our review unit came with with two 4TB drives configured as…

>>> “Did you just turn on the lights with your phone?” asked a guest, pointedly, just last week. Yessir, yes I did. I live in uneasy coexistence with my husband’s beloved Philips Hue lightbulbs. To me, they may as well be magic — I could no more explain to you how they work than I could explain crop circles, or the Mary Celeste, or the continuing employment of Ryan Seacrest. I know it’s great to sync the bulbs with our TV and trip out to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s certainly useful to switch on the lights in the house before I arrive home alone on a dark night. And when the rain is lashing outside, I like that I can conjure up a tropical-style sunset or a cosy…

99¢ Tech fans are quite familiar with unboxing videos, those loving first looks at the complete package for new smartphones, tablets, and other devices shot by someone lucky enough to lay hands on them before anyone else. But why should big kids have all the fun? Toys Collection delivers unboxing videos aimed at infants, babies, toddlers, and preschool children. Instead of new gadgets, kids will find a channel chock full of on-demand video reviews for all things Play-Doh, Spongebob Squarepants, Angry Birds, Barbie, My Little Pony, LEGO, Sofia the First, Minions, Shopkins, and more. There are also plenty of videos spoiling the surprise inside Kinder eggs that are so popular across Europe. If it’s related to toys, you’ll find it all in one place, in bite-size videos perfect for little…

REQUIRES > OS X 10.9 or later, Airfoil for Mac, an AirPlay receiver LEVEL > Medium IT WILL TAKE > 20 minutes ONE OF THE BIGGEST benefits of Apple’s ecosystem is the built-in ability to stream music to speakers on your local network. AirPlay enables you to send your Mac’s audio output to an AirPlay-compatible device. This can be an Apple TV, whether the latest version or the third-generation model; an AirPort Express router, which includes a 3.5mm mini-jack that can output an optical or analog signal; or various third-party AirPlay-compatible devices costing from about $30 up to several hundred for high-quality speakers. The drawback is that selecting an AirPlay receiver in your Mac’s Sound preferences (or by Alt-clicking the speaker icon in the menu bar) results in all sound…

AS RECENTLY AS two years ago, Apple’s fall season of software updates included just two operating systems: OS X and iOS. (And OS X wasn’t even a yearly update until Mountain Lion). When OS X moved to a yearly update, some people worried about Apple being able to maintain its high standards across two operating systems working to strict deadlines. After all, according to reports, Apple had to pull OS X staff to help finish iOS 7 on time, delaying Mavericks. But while some people do have criticisms of Apple’s current software output, generally the transition has been smooth. But it’s not two operating systems any more. Last year added a third to update in the form of watchOS, and this year adds tvOS to make four. All on a…

THE FILE SYSTEM is a vitally important part of any operating system – as it sounds, it’s the layer responsible for handling the raw files, and the operations around them. This leads to a dilemma for companies like Apple: you don’t want to to change it often, because getting it wrong can potentially break… everything, really. But you also don’t want to be stuck with an old one that makes it difficult to implement important features. Apple has been using its current file system, HFS+, for nearly 20 years – but its time is running out, because macOS Sierra includes a preview of a system named APFS. One of APFS’s primary purposes appears to be to make features that Apple is already doing easier on the system. For example, it…

HARDWARE announcements are rare for WWDC, so my expectations were in check for Apple’s big announcement in June. Instead, as a games developer, I was hoping for signs from Apple of a more serious effort in 3D games. On that front, we came up empty. No big news about Metal, no signs for virtual reality tools in Xcode – it was a mostly quiet week for Apple game news. The biggest news for gamers was Apple dropping the requirement that Apple TV games must support the Siri Remote as a controller. While this made sense for the first year of the tvOS App Store, action games like Zen Pinball and Galaxy on Fire are extremely frustrating experiences with Apple’s Remote. However, when you play with a SteelSeries Nimbus controller, which…

WE HAD hoped for Siri to debut in Yosemite, then expected it in El Capitan, so frankly it just had to happen in Sierra. The voice-controlled assistant has been a central part of iOS since 2011, debuting in iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S. As macOS and iOS continue to converge, Siri’s appearance on the Mac needs to add real productivity gains if it’s to be anything more than a nice bolt-on. Judging from Apple’s demo, users of Siri for the Mac will be able to interact with Siri using their voice to give a much more intuitive way of performing everyday computing tasks. Sports results, making appointments, checking the weather; sure, they’re all there, as you would expect, but what really makes Siri work on the Mac is how…

The ability to take control of smart devices in your home may seem like a recent development, but the technology has been around for many years – and Apple is far from alone in wanting to command this space. One-time Apple Store darling Nest (nest.com) was snatched up by Google in 2014, with the company creating its own “Works with Nest” system that gadget makers can harness for their own devices, and it’s iOS -compatible. Rivals also include ZigBee (zigbee.org), an open standard, cross-platform wireless technology that’s been around since 2002. There’s also Z-Wave (z-wave.com), a proprietary home automation technology that’s already been integrated into hundreds of devices, and is iOS -and Apple Watch-compatible. For iOS users, HomeKit naturally offers the easiest way to get started, but rivals such as…

$1.99 Developer Igor Khmurets, getspace.me Platform iPhone Requirements iOS 8.1 or later Do you really need every photo in your Camera Roll? After all, some are probably duplicates, accidental screenshots, or just too blurry to be usable, and take up valuable storage space. GetSpace Photo Gallery Cleaner PRO eliminates unwanted pics. Launch the app, and the learning algorithms scour your library, sorting bad photos into Duplicates, Blurred, and Screenshots categories. You then select images to delete. In the case of duplicates, GetSpace attempts to identify the best version, although we found it wasn’t accurate enough to be trusted on its own. In general, the app is better suited to detecting blurry images and screenshots. With nearly 20,000 images in our iCloud Photo Library, the scanning process took over an hour…

$1.99 Developer Anshul Bhagi, bit.ly/getUmmo Platform iPhone Requirements iOS 9 or later Ummo is a rudimentary speech coach on your iPhone, helping you to cut out filler words (such as “um” or “y’know”), and it’s worth trying even if your only public speaking is in meetings or with customers. The app listens while you talk, and flags up the filler words; it’s got a solid preset range, but you can add new ones. By transcribing your speech as you talk, it tracks not just banned words, but your overall pace and any pauses. By default, it plays an alert when you say a filler word, which is great for pointing out your reliance on them at first, but can be distracting if you’re practicing a speech – you can turn…

$2.99 Developer Fishlabs, warpshift.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8 or later Remember those puzzles you had as a kid, where you had to slide about tiles on a grid until they formed a picture? Well, Warp Shift is the adventure video game equivalent of that – both in mechanics and levels of satisfaction. You start in one square room, with an exit portal in another. Rooms can have exits on any – or even all – of their four sides, and you need to shift the rooms about on their grid so that the exits align for you to make your escape. As you move through the game, things of course get more complex: different colors of exit that can only be aligned together, switches, a perky sprite buddy-cum-key who…

APPS AND GUIDES TO GET MORE FROM YOUR WATCH iTranslate 10 Going away? Get iTranslate first Free Developer Sonic, itranslate.com Platform Universal, watchOS Requirements iOS 8 or later Many of you may have traveled through foreign countries during the dark days before smartphones, missing out on the convenience of having a translation app to communicate with locals. But no more: one of the best around is iTranslate, which recently released a big update that makes it easier to travel abroad, especially in regions where cellular data is spotty or unavailable. We’re talking about offline mode, which allows translations between the most popular languages, no internet connection necessary. There’s also a voice conversation mode available for over 40 languages, and the ability to translate websites using Safari or the in-app browser…

1 TAPPED OUT If your Apple Watch won’t make it until the day’s end, press and hold the side button along the right edge, directly underneath the digital crown. 2 SLIDE RIGHT Slide a finger across Power Reserve. Once activated, all Watch features will be disabled, except for displaying the current time (24-hr format) for up to 72 hours. 3 POWER UP To exit Power Reserve mode, hold the side button until the Apple logo appears, and then wait for your Watch to restart.…

$499 Manufacturer Audeze, audeze.com Features 10Hz-50kHz frequency response, 6 watt power, leather design The Audeze Sine, unlike most other headphones, are ready for a future that actually may not come to fruition. Specifically, that’s the possibility of an iPhone 7 devoid of the traditional 3.5mm headphone socket, and how Apple’s move could signal a big change in the way manufacturers make headphones. If Apple does decide to juke the decades-old standard, Audeze will be prepared with the Sine. If you’re an iPhone user, you should really be listening to them through the Cipher Lightning cable, which features an amplifier, digital signal processor and digital-to-audio converter. It houses all of these components because the Lightning port bypasses the iPhone’s default audio system, which means that the data coming out of the…

$49 Manufacturer Twelve South, twelvesouth.com Features 180° case hinge, magnetic closure, clips Traveling with an Apple Watch means traveling with yet another charger, so we’ve been eagerly waiting on a good way to pack it and its cable away with the rest of our luggage. TimePorter is a Watch charging stand and carrying case all-in-one. Pack your magnetic charging cable by wrapping it around the rubber loop at the case’s edges and hold it neatly in place with the three clips – or go straight ahead and poke the charging disc through the hole at the top. The center of the case allows you to put in a spare strap and even has space for a portable battery pack for charging on the go, provided you get one that’s the…

JARGON BUSTER Many digital scales can measure your BMI (body mass index), which is the ratio of your weight to your height. A BMI between 18 and 25 is normal for most adults. Above 25 is considered “overweight,” while over 30 represents “obesity,” with increased risk of diabetes and other illnesses. EXTRA INFORMAT ION The Health Mate app can also work with your iPhone’s accelerometer, enabling it to act as a basic fitness tracker. You could also use one of Withings’ own fitness trackers and combine all your data in one app. 1 Weight watchers When you stand on the Body Analyzer its display will initially show your weight, and then cycle through a number of additional readings. It can check your fat levels, BMI, heart rate, and even air…

Free (with IAP) If the sound of constantly running water doesn’t make you have to run to the bathroom all the time, you’re probably a big fan of waterfalls. And if you can’t make the trek to one of the many international locales where the real thing exists, why not spend a few bucks to bring them to your living room instead? FromWaterfall is packed full of high-definition videos of waterfalls taken all around the world. The first one, the Spodnji Waterfall in Slovenia, comes free when you install the app, but nine others are available via In-App Purchase for 99¢ each. (There’s a background preview, so you’ll know what to expect.) Whether it’s Misiones Iguazu Diablo Gorges in Argentina, Shrimp Waterfall in Guadeloupe, or Anatalya Falls in Turkey, the…

HOW TO DO ANYTHING ON YOUR MAC, iPHONE & iPAD REQUIRES > iTunes 12.4 (earlier versions may include critical bugs) LEVEL > Medium IT WILL TAKE > At least 15 minutes IF YOU WANT to sync your music collection between your Mac and iOS devices, set up iCloud Music Library. You’ll also need a subscription to either Apple Music (from $9.99/month) or iTunes Match ($24.99/year). Subscribing to either service turns on iCloud Music Library in iTunes’ General prefs. Music bought from the iTunes Store or added from Apple Music’s catalog is added to your iCloud Music Library and appears in My Music. Existing content in your local library is then processed to make it available online. The same process is followed when you add new music, whether it’s from CD…

REQUIRES > iOS 8 or higher, Scanbot LEVEL > Easy IT WILL TAKE > 20 minutes SCANBOT USES YOUR iOS device’s camera to snap documents, barcodes, QR codes and even photos, and then saves them as PDFs or JPEGs ready to share on a wide range of cloud-based services, on a WebDAV or FTP server, or by email. While the free version of Scanbot provides access to almost all of its features, we recommend the Pro ($7.99) or VIP ($9.99) version. You’ll then be able to create folders, annotate and sign documents, and use optical character recognition (OCR) to search or copy a document’s text. You’ll soon find all kinds of uses for Scanbot, and it’s by far the easiest way to digitize your documents. On the opposite page we’ll…

REQUIRES > iOS 7 or later, Google Maps app LEVEL > Easy IT WILL TAKE > 15 minutes WANT A COMPREHENSIVE mapping tool that doubles as a route planner and makes it easy to access local amenities and places of interest? Google Maps is perfect for the job. It trumps Apple Maps in a number of ways: first, there’s comprehensive support for public transport, so you don’t need to be a car driver or living in Los Angeles to get the most from it. Just tap a station or stop for a list of departure times and stops for your selected service. Next there’s Street View: tap the photo beneath an address and you’ll be taken to an interactive 360° view. Shift position using the arrow controls, or drag your…

I just wanted to point out a slight error that I noticed in the “What We Want from iOS 10” story in the latest issue of Mac|Life (#116): You stated that you want to see more keyboard shortcuts than we currently have in iOS 9 (which I totally agree with; hello play/pause, fast-forward, rewind, and volume). Regardless, you mentioned specifically that you’d like to see the ability to use Spotlight. We can now! If you haven’t discovered it since the story was written, ç+Spacebar (just like the Mac) invokes it! I know it’s only a minor niggle, but I want to make sure we’re all properly informed! Matt Smithers You’re totally right, Matt – this was bad phrasing on my part. Spotlight control with ç+Spacebar is present in iOS, but…

ONE OF THE biggest changes coming from Apple in iOS 10 later this year isn’t what it’s included, but what it’s opened up. A number of Apple’s apps won’t just have new features developed by Apple: the company is also handing over the keys to developers. Maps, Phone, Messages, and even Siri are being opened to third-party app creators, so they can develop tools to give them all new features that work with other apps and services. Craig Federighi even said on stage, “iOS 10 is a fantastic release for our users, it’s also a gigantic release for our developers… notifications, the phone, Maps, Messages, every major area of iOS now open to developers.” This is a big step - bringing Apple closer to the open platform that Google provides…

CONTROLLING OUR devices using voice ceased to be sci-fi some time ago, but we still have a lot of work to do before we give Star Trek a run for its money. Still, at its developer conference in June, Apple took a large leap towards the undiscovered country by opening Siri to third-party apps. The voice inside your iPhone, iPad, and (soon!) Mac is about to get much, much more useful, and it’s probably time for nearly every app to start thinking like an assistant. Now, it’s important to note that Siri is not open to every kind of app, at least not yet. Apple is being cautious and restricting this initial third-party Siri support to apps for messaging, searching photos, starting workouts, booking rides, and sending/receiving payments. But it’s…

ONE BIG feature we really wanted to see in iOS 10 is a more useful Lock screen, and that’s exactly what we’re getting. One of the new features is that you’ll be able to access much richer instant responses for notifications. For example, you can press on a notification from Messages to see the larger conversation in a view that looks just like the Messages app, instead of just the last message, complete with the option to reply. If you press on an event invitation, you’ll be shown your calendar for the proposed day, with options to accept or decline – all without unlocking your phone or opening the full version of the notifying app. App developers can make these incredibly useful, and they can even have live elements, such…

The first big update to tvOS focuses on developing the existing platform, rather than adding all-new features. Siri remains central to the experience, and gets a few new tricks. For a start, there are new apps it will work with, and it can now access live TV streams through apps for you. It also now knows about more types of movies, so you can ask it for recommendations in new ways. It will work with your HomeKit devices too, so you can tell your Siri Remote to turn down the lights before you ask it to find the latest blockbuster. You can even then ask it to switch to tvOS’s new dark mode, turning the background black. Improved features across Apple’s range are present here as well, most notably the…

HONEYWELL LYRIC ROUND THERMOSTAT $229 Manufacturer Honeywell, yourhome.honeywell.com Features Automatic temperature adjustment, simple touchscreen, geofencing capability With a smart, simple glass face and motion-sense illumination, this thermostat is easy to use but packed with features. It’s appcontrolled, of course, can use geofencing with your phone, and tracks humidity. PHILIPS HUE WHITE STARTER KIT $79 Manufacturer Philips, philips.com Features Automated light schedules, preset and custom lighting modes This kit of two white bulbs and a HomeKit-compatible bridge is Philips’ cheapest option. For $199, you can get a pack with three full-color bulbs, letting you adjust the ambience of your rooms as part of your scenes. INSTEON HUB PRO $75 Manufacturer Insteon, insteon.com Features Schedules and scenes, works with Insteon and HomeKit devices Insteon is famous for its range of smart home…

Bez Vector drawing for iPad Free ($7.99 for all features) Developer JuicyBits, juicybitssoftware.com/bez Platform iPad Requirements iOS 9 or later This vector-drawing app – named after Bézier curves – provides all the tools you’d expect in a basic desktop app, and does a very neat job. The Bézier pen tool worked as expected for creating perfect curves, but it can be tricky to hit the first point on a path again to complete a closed shape. There’s a reason why vector artists use a mouse or a graphics tablet, not a touchpad. Apple Pencil support makes this easier, but there’s no support for third-party active styluses on older iPads. If you’re not too familiar with Béziers and prefer to draw freehand, you can – a pop-up control lets you smooth…

$3.99 Developer OneReminder, staysorted.com Platform Universal Requirements iOS 8 or later There are many scheduling apps available on the App Store, all claiming to offer a comprehensive solution. This app certainly seems to have taken some inspiration from one of the App Store favorites, Clear. However, the developer claims that “Sorted helps you stay organized faster than ever before.” Like Clear, the app is gesture-based. Creating a reminder is a cinch – just drag down from the top of the app window, let go and a colored bar appears for you to type in text. You can also simply press and hold anywhere on the screen. Use a timer scroller to amend the time (scroll slightly to the left of the dial to change the hour, to the right to…

Free Developer Tagrem, tagrem.com Platform Universal, watchOS Requirements iOS 8 or later If you owned a Nokia phone in 1997, chances are you were playing Snake, the addictive little game where players maneuver an ever-growing line around the screen in four different directions, all to avoid your own “tail.” There have been many variations in the nearly two decades since, including this latest arrival for Apple Watch. Watch the Snake (get it?) uses the Digital Crown to turn left of right, and push the snake to consume its prey. There are two modes (Easy or Hard), although both are fairly difficult considering how fast the snake is moving around on such a tiny screen. Although there’s a setting option to recognize taps instead of the Digital Crown, you can’t actually…

$19.99 Manufacturer MacPaw, macpaw.com Requirements OS X 10.10 or later Duplicate files are a pain to stay on top of, but thanks to Gemini they’ve become more manageable. The original app targeted duplicates only, but version 2 can flag up similar files, making them easy to compare and remove through its clear interface. It also promises to learn from your decisions, such as which folders you favor when choosing files to keep, to ensure its one-click “Smart Clean” is safer to use. Gemini can search iTunes and Photos libraries as well as folders. You can choose to trust the scan’s findings and click Smart Clean, or exercise the more cautious option to review each entry. Duplicates and similar files are listed separately, and only the former are selected for deletion…

$49.99 Developer BeLight, belightsoft.com/art-text Requirements OS X 10.10 or later This app simply applies effects to text, but the effects are something special. Dozens of presets range from 2D textures to bevelled 3D extrusions with bump maps and lighting. You can apply 3D warps on top – an excellent way to add drama or a cartoonish feel. Once you’ve finished clicking through all the options while muttering “Wow,” you’ll start to see the limitations. The painted effects are just fills; there are no brushed strokes, and switching your text into a cursive font isn’t fooling anyone. The 3D options are where the real action is at, even if bump maps don’t quite work as they ought to on objects’ edges. As long as one of the presets is roughly what…

$39.99 Developer Paragon Software, paragon-software.com Requirements OS X 10.7 or later, 64-bit processor This app offers sector-level drive backup, allowing volumes to be migrated to another computer or virtual machine with the operating system, applications, and files intact. And unlike Apple’s Migration Assistant, Paragon’s Snapshot feature works without a system restart. It can also be used for day-to-day backup, with incremental imaging that excludes duplicate data. The interface is clear, with complete information about each drive. Clicking the gear icon displays a list of actions, such as wiping data, redistributing free space, or restoring a deleted partition. And it’s not just for Mac-formatted disks – it works with NTFS, ExtFS, FAT, or exFAT partitions. Last but not least, if the new System Integrity Protection (SIP) Apple introduced with OS X…

1 ELGATO EVE ROOM $80 elgato.com > Most air-quality sensors simply measure the level of CO2 in the air, but the Eve Room includes additional sensors that can detect fumes from paint and cleaning equipment, and other chemical compounds. It works with Siri as well, so you can ask your iPhone for a quick update whenever you feel the need to. 2 FITBIT BLAZE $200 fitbit.com/blaze > Fitbit’s range of fitness trackers are really popular, and the top-of-the-range Blaze can give the Apple Watch a run for its money (if you’ll pardon the pun). It provides GPS fitness tracking, heart-rate monitor, sleep tracking, touchscreen controls, and you can even play music from your iPhone to help get you fired up. 3 JAWBONE UP2 $100 jawbone.com > The UP2 is a…

1 Sengled Pulse Flex sengled.com $TBC (around $149) >>> The original Pulse was a bit of a headscratcher – a bulky LED lightbulb controlled by an iPhone app via Bluetooth, with a speaker built into the bulb as well. To be honest, the speaker wasn’t all that great either. Undeterred, Sengled has refined the idea with this latest addition to the Pulse range. Available with either silver or gold casing, the Flex uses a power-efficient LED bulb that is rated at 470 lumens. That’s roughly equivalent to an old 50W light bulb, so it should be bright enough for use in most rooms around your home. You can use it out in the garden too, as Sengled says that the Flex has an IP43 rating for water resistance (though your…

$3.99 Part storybook, part game, Batman Unlimited: Gotham City’s Most Wanted is a puzzle adventure pitting the Caped Crusader against the most infamous members of his rogue’s gallery. Players must hone their detective skills to clear the names of Bat-colleagues by piecing together clues and discovering which villain is responsible for the crime. But you’re not alone: You have help from other members of the DC Universe! Get Cyborg’s help to hack into a computer and track down a secret hideout, practice archery skills with Green Arrow to sneak into a heavily-guarded laboratory, direct the Flash through the streets of Gotham to collect clues at lightning speed, and more! Colorful graphics and fun gameplay bring Batman to life like never before.…

SONY XBR-75X940D $5,999 sony.com As the saying goes, “Go big or go home” – but with Sony’s latest 75-inch 4K 3D wonder, you can truly do both at the same time. Already a contender for the best panel of the year, this Android TV-powered HDR cinematic masterpiece offers outstanding picture quality in a super-slim package. Pretty irresistable for design-conscious, rich-color home theater fans. IPHONE LIGHTNING DOCK $39 apple.com Just because it’s made for iPhone doesn’t mean this affordable Lightning Dock can’t be used with your Siri Remote instead. Sure, the remote lasts three months on a single charge, but why not top off in style? It’s also a great way to repurpose an old Apple USB power adapter you might have lying around.…

Go beyond boring business and make eye-catching animated videos REQUIRES > Keynote 6 LEVEL > Easy IT WILL TAKE > 30 minutes WANT TO CREATE a video with animated information to share with people? You can in Keynote! We’ll look at three of its effects: drawing lines, creating magical charts that animate the display of data, and the Magic Move transition. Magic Move compares attributes of two adjacent slides – their size or position, say – and, over the transition’s duration, morphs them from the first state to second. By setting effects to play when a slide or object is shown, you can build up an amazing sequence of animated objects and layouts. You’ll want to play with the duration of each effect and transition, and test everything well as…

REQUIRES > Pages, an iPad, text and some images LEVEL > Medium IT WILL TAKE > 20 minutes PAGES IS OFTEN described as a word processor – even by Apple – but word processing is just part of what it can do. It includes powerful graphics tools that enable you to create very complex designs with very little effort, and its text layout features give you complete control over even the smallest details. It’s the ideal app for designing a flyer or a newsletter, a brochure or a catalog, or anything else your creativity demands. Of all the things Pages offers, our favorite is simplicity. Pages has an uncanny ability to know what you’re trying to do and to help you do it. For example, if you’re dragging images or…