Sommaire pour May 2024 de MacFormat

Apple has reportedly cancelled Project Titan, its long-running attempt to build a self-driving electric car. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that the decision was taken in late February and came as a surprise to the almost 2,000 Apple employees then working on it. Apple’s self-driving car project has allegedly struggled over the years, with multiple changes of strategy and an apparent lack of clear direction. The company has reportedly spent $10 billion over the course of a decade but never came close to launching a finished product. Apple will now refocus its efforts on generative artificial intelligence (AI), Gurman says.…

Apple has launched a brand-new free app for tracking sports scores and updates. Called Apple Sports, the app is designed to display your favourite teams’ latest scores, stats and more in a straightforward, easy-to-navigate interface. In an interview with Fast Company, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue said the premise was simple: “It’s getting you in, giving you what you need, and doing it really quickly.” He added: “We’re not trying to have you spend 30 minutes on the app. You can spend five seconds to go look at the score, or you might spend 30 seconds, or you might spend three minutes going playby-play because it’s the end of the game.” You can follow individual teams or entire leagues and the app will show…

For our latest subscription offer see page 34! Spotify and Apple Music are the two largest music streaming services in the world, attracting millions of listeners each day. For years, their parent companies have been locked in PR, political and legal battles. Essentially, Spotify thinks the iPhone-maker treats it unfairly and favours its own product. Apple says that Spotify has to play by the standard App Store rules. This includes paying Apple a 30% cut for payments made via the App Store and accepting it has banned other forms of transactions (read on for more about changes here). Spotify is classed as a reader app by Apple. This means that it is allowed to provide a link within the app that takes users to a website from where they…

Since they were first released in May 2011, Apple’s iWork suite for iPad – that’s the Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet and Keynote presentation app – have gone from strength to strength. While the iPhone versions are OK for editing and modifying docs on the go, the larger screen offered by Apple’s tablet makes the iPad’s iWork apps as powerful and easy to use as their Mac counterparts. To get the most out of Pages, Numbers and Keynote you need a keyboard. Apple’s own Magic Keyboard Case is ideal, as it offers a trackpad that’s great for the precision needed when selecting a spreadsheet cell or piece of text. You might consider getting an Apple Pencil too. The Apple Pencil is an excellent optional extra that again gives a greater…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to collaborate on and share documents (and even password protect them) YOU’LL NEED macOS 13 or later, Pages Documents are often made for sharing. This is certainly true if you’re knocking out a report for work or writing an article for a top-notch magazine such as this one. It’s why Apple makes it easy to allow others to access your documents in Pages. Whether you want to collaborate on a document in real time, allowing other people to make changes whenever they wish, or wish to finish your work and share the end result, Pages has you covered. You can also password-protect a document so that unwanted eyes can’t catch a glimpse. Here we’re going to walk you through your various…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up Apple Arcade and play games on all your devices YOU’LL NEED Apple Arcade (£6.99/ month), macOS 10.15 or later, iOS 13 or later, iPadOS 13 or later, tvOS 13 or later, visionOS Genius tip! Game Mode optimises your Mac to achieve consistent frame rates. It automatically launches when you start playing a full-screen game. You might have heard of Apple Arcade, the gaming subscription service from Apple, without ever really giving it a shot. Well, now is a great time to get stuck in, as it’s chock-full of excellent titles that’ll have you battling, puzzling and adventuring away for hours on end. Apple Arcade tries to do things a little differently to most gaming platforms. For one thing,…

QWhat hardware do I require to transfer audio from reel-toreel analogue tapes on my tape deck, with its phono socket outputs, to my MacBook Air? by TIM JONES ASome older Macs had analogue microphone inputs that allowed you to connect them with just a cable, and had hardware to convert their audio signal. More recent models require the conversion of signals from analogue to digital before they enter your Mac. It’s also better if you have the option of using line rather than microphone input, as that’s more likely to retain the original quality of your audio tapes. As with most hardware, analogue to digital audio converters range widely in price, and you tend to get what you pay for. Cheap models at around £20-30 will do the job, but don’t…

One of the first modern smart home tech products available was Philips Hue smart lighting. And the company’s been adding to its collection of smart lights ever since with a range that includes outdoor lighting, batterypowered lamps, TV light strips and bulbs of every kind. And there are interesting smart lights from Eve and from Nanoleaf, whose normal bulbs are supplemented by really fun shaped lights that can produce dynamic decorative illumination. What’s great about smart lights, bulbs and associated devices – such as smart plugs, remote dimmers, switches and increasingly, smart blinds and curtain openers and closers – isn’t just that you can control them remotely, via Siri or even by geolocation so they activate when you come home. It’s that you can combine them into scenes. For example,…

What can you do to bring an old Mac back to life? Can you make it useful again? The answer is a definite ‘possibly’. If the hard drive is failing, or maybe just too small, you can boot your computer from an external drive. Older Macs might have user-serviceable storage or memory, so you can give your ageing machine a boost this way. What files and data do you have on your old Mac? Have a root around. Could it be hosting photos and videos from a nearforgotten holiday or event, precious pictures that really bring back some memories? There could be documents you put together for a since-abandoned work project. Could your efforts be revisited, rekindled and renewed for something in the future? And what about those MP3s of your…

£169.99 FROM uk.1more.com FEATURES In-ear wired headphones with five-driver array, detachable 1.25m oxygen-free copper (OFC) cable, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3.5mm to USB-C adaptor, eight pairs of ear tips (Silicone: XS, S, M, L, XL/Foam: S, M, L), 20Hz-40kHz frequency response, 32 ohms impedance, 21g VERDICT Sometimes the old way of doing things is best – and the 1More Penta’s performance proves it. Fantastic sound quality Passive noise reduction Detachable cable No Lightning adaptor Vinyl’s back, indie record shops are booming, and now wired earbuds are gaining popularity again too – and for anyone who takes their old-school listening pleasures even remotely seriously, that’s a good thing. Trust us. China’s 1More is leading the charge on the wired headphone front with its Penta P50 in-ears eschewing the Bluetooth connectivity and compressed…

£6.99/month (Apple Arcade) FROM sonicdreamteam.com NEEDS macOS 11 or later The dream theme means each level is a weird and wonderful creation, bursting with colour VERDICT Fast, fun and fantastic on the eyes, Sonic Dream Team breathes new life into the franchise. Beautiful levels Fun arcade gameplay Forgettable story Too short Sonic has been around for decades, finding his way on to myriad games platforms, including Apple Arcade. Unlike some past Sonic titles that were 2D side-scrollers or on-rails endless runners, the latest effort, Sonic Dream Team, is a 3D arcade adventure where each level can be explored for secrets and challenges. Don’t expect much from the story, though. While the details may have changed, there’s precious little innovation. Doctor Eggman has captured Sonic’s friends for some dastardly scheme, would…

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When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPad in 2010, it was seen of a more ‘lean back’ rather than a ‘lean forward’ device like the Mac is – in fact Jobs took to an armchair during his presentation to explain how it was more “intimate than a laptop”. A lot has changed since then. Today’s iPads are so capable and so powerful that you almost don’t need a notebook at all. Not only can you surf the web, edit photos and catch up on your favourite TV shows, you can do way more than Steve Jobs ever imagined. On p20, you’ll discover some of the cool uses you can put your iPad to – from being super-productive on the go, using features like multitasking and a Smart Keyboard, to creating…

Given how much glass it contains, you’d think the Vision Pro headset would be rather fragile and prone to breakages. That notion has been called into question by a destructive series of drop tests, but there’s still some cause for concern. YouTuber Sam Kohl put his Vision Pro through a painful slate of drop tests, but it was only after the eighth fall – from the top of Kohl’s ceiling – that the headset’s front glass finally cracked. Even then, the glass never shattered. In fact, the device still worked without it thanks to having additional layers underneath the front panel. As well as the drop tests, Kohl repeatedly banged it against a wall, all with only minor scuffs to show for it. It suggests that the Vision Pro is…

Want to enlarge a photo but can’t do it without the image becoming a blurry mess? You might need Topaz Gigapixel AI 7. As the name suggests, it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to scale up your pictures while keeping the quality and sharpness intact, making it brilliant for all kinds of projects. The latest version brings improvements to denoise tools and blur-removal consistency, ensuring you’ll get better results with fewerissues and artefacts. The AI engine has been updated to make it much faster in use, while the interface has also had a tune up to make it easier to work through and apply changes to your images. Whether you’re looking to print your pictures out or sharpen them up for use on the web, the latest version of Gigapixel AI…

18 hours > Maximum battery life of the MacBook Air when watching streaming video, that’s three hours longer than when wirelessly surfing the web. 6K > Maximum display resolution of the MacBook Air when connected to a compatible external display. It’ll also support a second external display at 5K when its lid is closed. 24GB > Maximum amount of memory that can be fitted to the MacBook Air at an additional cost of £200- £400. Entry level 13-inch and 15-inch models both come with 8GB as standard, while the stock top-tier version has 16GB. 8 > Number of CPU cores inside the M3 chip in the new MacBook Air. Full review next issue! 40Gbps > Maximum data throughput of the MacBook Air’s two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports. 13x faster > Speed…

Back when the iPad was first released in 2010, it was criticised as being OK for consuming media, but not much use as a productivity machine. Now, almost a decade and a half later, things have changed dramatically. You can do all sorts of things with your Apple tablet. In fact, it’s so versatile, some people use it as an alternative to a desktop computer. And why not? Connect it to a keyboard case and you have a perfectly viable notebook. If you need more storage, you can use a USB-C flash drive or portable drive. Pair an Apple Pencil, and you’ve an excellent digital drawing tool. And with Apple’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote productivity apps, you can work on the go too. The iPad is perfect for the creative…

The iPad is ideal for creating digital art, especially if you have an Apple Pencil, and is also good for photo editing. In fact, the Photos app – bundled with iPadOS – includes a powerful photo editor that helps you really get the most from your snaps. The iPad’s touchscreen and the Apple Pencil’s precision drawing, low latency, tilt sensitivity and pressure sensitivity (unless you have a USB-C Pencil) make it an ideal environment for creating digital masterpieces with apps such as Procreate, ArtRage, Adobe Fresco and Affinity Designer. A word of warning, though. These apps give you all the tools you need, but don’t expect them to produce your artwork for you. They help you make the most of your skills, but they won’t paper over a lack of…

The iPad isn’t all work, work, work. There’s plenty of ways to relax with your Apple tablet, or to get the adrenaline flowing with a fun game or an exciting movie. Do you do Wordle? Every day, The New York Times nytimes.com/games/wordle/index.html. Plenty of other newspapers and media organisations offer daily crosswords or puzzles. When you find one you like, you can launch it from the Home Screen as if it was an app. Just open the web page in question, tap Share and choose ‘Add to Home Screen’. You can read ebooks on your iPad, using Apple’s own Books app (bundled with iPadOS) and the free Amazon Kindle app, which is ideal if you also have a Kindle device. offers a different Wordle puzzle. Try it yourself at You…

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to create an inventory of your most important possessions YOU’LL NEED macOS 11 or later, Blue Plum Home Inventory 4 (£20.40) While it’s easy to try to imagine you have no possessions, in reality most of us have far too many. And that can make it tricky to keep track of them all – especially when you need a list of them for insurance purposes, a packing list when moving home, when writing a will, or for those increasingly frequent occasions when Next Door Norman pops around to borrow the lawnmower. Again. The solution is to create a home inventory: a detailed catalogue of all the things you own. While you could use a spreadsheet to do that it’s a bit…

QHow can I make a snapshot of a volume before I change it around? by CHARLES UNDERWOOD ASnapshot features have been strictly limited to apps that make and manage backups, because of the danger that, if left for any length of time, they’ll grow in size until they fill the volume. For the time being there’s no app that can simply make a snapshot without making a backup at the same time. This is where you can get devious. If you don’t want to make a full backup of that volume, you can configure Time Machine or a third-party backup utility like Carbon Copy Cloner ($49.99, about £45, bombich.com) to back up just a single file or a folder on that volume instead. Time Machine will automatically make a snapshot,…

What can replace a Time Capsule? QWhat should I replace my two Time Capsules with, to store all the Time Machine backups for our four different Macs? by TIM HUBBARD AApple made its last Time Capsules in 2018 and even that late model is now approaching the end of its support period. At the very least both yours should have their hard drives replaced before they fail, taking with them all your backups. There’s no direct replacement that integrates Wi-Fi with networked storage in the same way, so you’ll need to make separate provision for Wi-Fi if you don’t already. There’s a wide range of well-supported Network Attached Storage (NAS) systems if you really do need your backup storage to remain networked. Locally attached storage is invariably quicker, cheaper and…

Group test Reviewed by DAVID CROOKES ON TEST… > Canary Mail > Mail > Microsoft Outlook > Spark +AI > Spike > Thunderbird Email doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. Indeed, figures suggest that we’re sending and receiving more emails each year than ever before (according to Statistica, 347 million were sent last year and 2024 looks set to surpass that number). With that in mind, it’s crucial we’re using the correct tools to manage our overflowing inboxes. One thing’s for sure, we’re not short of choices. As you’ll discover in this head-to-head of six email apps for Mac, there are some exciting approaches to this age-old method of communication. As well as Apple Mail itself, which we include as a benchmark of sorts because it’s the default on macOS,…

Free; Premium subscription £14.99/month; £39.99/year FROM calm.com NEEDS iOS/iPadOS 16 or later, tvOS 11.2 or later, watchOS 8.3 or later VERDICT One of the best meditation app offerings around with incredible sleep features. Wide range of Sleep Stories Easy-to-use with gorgeous design A meditation program for almost anything Need premium to get the full experience Self-help apps are very popular on the App Store, with hundreds of offerings to help shape your life and control your stress. One app, however, stands out above the rest: Calm: Sleep & Meditation. Calm is a gorgeous app available for iPhone, Apple TV and Apple Watch, but it especially shines on the iPad. With a wide range of meditation offerings for those looking to try meditating for the first time or those who…

Apple tends to launch fresh products in the spring, and with a new MacBook Air already making an appearance this year, the company hasn’t let us down. Alongside that good news, there’s even more that could be on the way. Over the past few months, speculation mounted that Apple was going to update its MacBook Air line with M3 chips for better performance. That was expected to happen in March, and sure enough, a new M3 MacBook Air was revealed in the first week of the month. Apple says the new laptop’s chip is up to 60% faster than the M1 and 13 times quicker than the best Intel MacBook Air. That’s possibly a little bit of an unfair comparison, but the improvement over the M1 is certainly notable. Apple…

BenQ PD3225U Designer Monitor >£1,099.99 > From benq.eu > Created with Mac users in mind, this 31.5-inch Thunderbolt display could be your next must-buy upgrade. Its 4K (3840x2160) IPS panel is factory calibrated for colour accuracy, where it meets 98% of P3 and 99% of Rec.709 colour spaces, and has Pantone and Pantone Skin Tone Validation, making ideal for photo and video work. Rounding out BenQ’s offer are macOS-ready versions of the company’s Display Pilot 2 software. Plus, it also comes with Hotkey Puck G2, an external controller that gives you quick access to your most-used commands and settings. The PD322U also has built-in HDR10 and DisplayHDR 400 support as well as a height- and tilt-adjustable stand that can pivot up to 90º. It’s also equipped with two Thunderbolt 3…

Contact us Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com LETTER OF THE MONTH! WHAT RUBBISH! How dare you dismiss the 2013 ’trashcan’ Mac Pro as ‘a rare modern-Apple flop’ (‘40 years of Mac’ in #MF400). The Mac Pro is the most futuristic, interesting, well designed and well built Mac ever. Designed in California and built in the good ol’ US of A too. No glue, no tape, no fragile connectors and best of all, no ’system on a chip’ nonsense. It has been the most reliable Mac I’ve ever owned (of many). I take it apart every six months to clean and service the heatsink, CPU and video cards. Everything unscrews and goes back together again without breaking. I have upgraded the processor, blade SSD and RAM. It runs…

Multitasking is, in a nutshell, doing more than one thing at once. On your iPad, there are several ways you can multitask. The most obvious is Split View, whereby you divide the screen, with one application on one side and another on the other. You can then drag content between them, quickly and easily. You can even open the same application twice if you choose. To open a second app in Split View, drag up from the foot of the screen to open the Dock, and either drag a second application out of the Dock onto the left or right side of the screen, or tap the App Library, and drag an app to the left or right. You can drag the line dividing the two apps to resize them.…

NEW IDEAS Your in-depth guide to getting more from your Apple kit Contact us Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com macOS Master Apple shortcuts Cmdis the Command key. Altor Optis the Option key. Ctrlis the Control key, also shown as ‘^’ in shortcuts in the menu bar. The thick, outlined up arrow is the Shift key. The thin, left arrow or outlined pointer with ‘X’ inside is the Delete key, which deletes to the left. Pressing the Function key (Fn) and the Delete key deletes to the right. The thin, right arrow key with a small vertical line at the end is the Tab key, which shifts the focus between somecontrols. iOS Atapis a brief contact of (usually) one finger on your device’s screen. To dragis to move…

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to work with Bluetooth devices from headphones to speakers, keyboards to mice YOU’LL NEED Mac, Bluetooth devices Bluetooth technology cuts the cord on many devices, enabling you to enjoy a whole host of kit from keyboards, games controllers, speakers, headphones, mice and trackpads without the need for trailing wires. So long as your devices are within around 10 metres (33 feet) of your Mac, you can quickly connect and use your accessories. But, for some reason, it’s not always easy to connect. So how can you make working with them a little easier? Here we look at ways of making the most of your Bluetooth devices whether you’re sticking with macOS’s excellent built-in options or looking a bit further afield. For…

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use an AI chatbot to make life easier YOU’LL NEED ChatGPT (Free, IAPs), iPadOS 16.1 Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, and ChatGPT is the best example of the capabilities of an AI chatbot with seamless integration on iPad thanks to a well-built dedicated app. ChatGPT gives access to GPT-3.5, which is perfect for most everyday tasks, allowing you to do everything from creating a workout plan to finding you info on any topic in a matter of seconds. ChatGPT will change the way you use your iPad, allowing you to process tasks quicker than you can imagine or gain knowledge on the fly like never before. With an almost unlimited amount of capabilities, ChatGPT is something you…

YOU WILL LEARN How MEMS speaker technology uses silicon chips to create ‘solid-state speakers’ and headphones Key fact Creative Technology – formerly Creative Labs – knows a thing or two about digital audio. Its SoundBlaster range of upgrade cards brought high-quality digital audio to PCs back in 1989, and dominated PC audio for almost 20 years. All Macs and PCs now have multi-channel sound built in, but the SoundBlaster name lives on with audio products such as the MEMS-based Aurvana earbuds. Technology in the computer industry tends to change so quickly that it’s often hard to keep up with all the latest developments. That’s not the case in other industries, though – it took almost a century for electric cars to provide an alternative to the gas-guzzling internal combustion engine.…

QI’m having trouble saving JPEG images to a USB stick for a Windows user. Is that not possible on a Mac? by BOB BARKER AYes, it is, although there are a couple of catches that can baffle: formatting and hidden files. Before using any USB flash drive, format it using Disk Utility. Connect the drive, select it in the left section of Disk Utility’s window, then click on the Erase tool at the top. Smaller drives can be formatted using MS-DOS (FAT), but it’s simpler to use ExFAT which also works with those over 32GB. Give it a name not exceeding 11 characters. When copying JPEG images to it, use the file extension .JPG or .jpg to ensure they’re properly recognised by all Windows software. Because Mac files also contain…

Another way to make your old Mac run faster is to declutter its hard drive. Getting rid of old, unwanted apps, backing up and archiving media and files you’re not likely to need any time soon and moving currently used media to external drives. Moving large media files such as your music, movie and photos libraries does much to free up valuable hard drive space. Back up, back up, back up You can never have too many backups. Before migrating your media libraries from your old Mac’s hard drive to an external drive, it’s a good idea to back them up. There are numerous ways to do this. As discussed before, you can clone your hard drive in its entirety. You can simply drag your media onto another external drive…

£232.99 2TB as tested (from £95.99 500GB to £427.99 4TB) FROM lacie.com FEATURES Bus-powered solid-state external drive, 1x USB-C port (USB 3.2 gen 2x2), water and dust-resistant to IP54, 17.3x66.9x105.3mm, 114g Its rubber plug keeps dirt out, and the luminous orange cover is highly visible VERDICT Well designed and thoroughly proficient rugged solid-state storage built to withstand rough use. Robust and compact Distinctive design 1GB/sec speed limit No SMART indicators LaCie first launched its rugged external drive in an iconic luminous orange rubber enclosure, designed by Neil Poulton, nearly 20 years ago. This latest model follows in that tradition, replacing the spinning hard drive with modern solid-state storage. These are inherently more robust, and LaCie’s new Rugged Mini SSD gains much from its clean and distinctive design. LaCie claims the…

£219.99 FROM logitech.com FEATURES 4K at 30fps or 1080p at 60fps, 8.5MP sensor, autofocus, automatic light correction, 90° field of view, dual beamforming microphones, privacy cover, 1.5m USB-C to USB-C cable In low light conditions, the Logitech MX Brio performed outstandingly well VERDICT An excellent (if pricey) webcam that trades blows with Continuity Camera. Brilliant lowlight performance Fine-control software Built-in privacy cover Show Mode is a bit fiddly Ever since Continuity Camera came along, it’s been hard to justify buying a standalone webcam – few devices can compete with your iPhone’s lenses, after all. The Logitech MX Brio, however, might change your mind. It’s one of the only webcams that can trade blows with an iPhone. Logitech has taken its standard 4K Brio camera and given it a series of…

P refer to stick with Apple’s Mail? It’s a more than capable contender in its field. In recent years, the app, already hot on privacy, has grown in stature, adding many features from its rivals. It’s now hard to justify looking elsewhere – certainly if that means you’re going to have to start shelling out money. But that’s not to say you shouldn’t consider other options, some of which may better suit you. AI is fast becoming a standard feature, helping to compose messages and stay on top of your inbox, and both Spark Mail +AI and Canary Mail are ahead of the game. For teamwork, you may enjoy the message approach of Spike despite its flaws. And, for flexibility, Thunderbird can be built into a powerful unit, albeit one…