MacLife UK - January 2017

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Secrets of Apples
apps revealed p44
Discover the
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syncing service
on all your
devices p20
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Run old Mac software and OS versions
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Master iCloud Drive
The ultimate Mac

survival guide
The power of Apple apps
iCloud Drive enables you to work smarter

across your Mac and iOS devices. Heres
our guide to getting the best out of
Apples online storage service
Keep your Mac secure. Prevent

unnecessary crashes. Fix problems. Its
allhere in our detailed survival guide!
Delve deeper into Apples latest iOS

appsand youll find communication
andproductivity features thatll boost
thecapabilities of your iOS device.
GO
Check out our

latest subscription
offers on
p52
We explore all the

benefits that iCloud
Drive brings to
macOS and iOS.
maclife.com jan 2017 3
>>> Contents
78
06
57
76
54
Scanbot 6 Pro
55
FabFocus
Matt Bolton ponders the

concept that computers
are bicycles for our minds.
55
Picniic
56
MyScript Nebo
Share
57
Cosmic-Watch
Digital|Life
64
Head over to techradar.com.
08
09
12
Premiere Elements 15
70
OmniGraffle 7
71
CalcPad
The Complete Fairytale

Play Theater
71
Acronis True Image 2017
58
Tinkerblocks
72
Aurora HDR 2017
59
Mini Metro
74
Wilde
59
The Bug Butcher
75
Radio Silence
60
Invisible, Inc.
75
QuickQuad
61
6 brain-testing
iOS games
76
LifePrint
77
Lumo Lift
100 Use iWorks new

Collaboration feature
77
Satechi Slim
Aluminum Keypad
102
92
15
18
Lifestyle-enhancing
gadgets for your home.
94
Apple TV
Apps and hardware
foryourApple TV.
96
62
FM Radio PRO
6 great accessories for

the new MacBook Pros
63
Cat Translator Deluxe
Get more from USB-C

and Thunderbolt 3.
63
AtomicBox Arcade
78
Bowers & Wilkins

P7 Wireless
Game Loop
63
How to: Use IFTTT

DO Widgets
79
MaskTouch
79
LaCie Rugged
USB-C 4TB
Crave
The gear were lusting after.
80
Starry Station
$50 iTunes card
82
Sid Meiers Civilization VI
83
Mad Max
Starry
Station
4 jan 2017 maclife.com
Run very old

Mac software
106 Make your websites

words work
108 Make use of richer
iOS notifications
110
Master iOS 10s

Music app
112
Create a photo
slideshow in iMovie
114
Random Apple Memory
What would you buy?
80
Ask
Our Apple experts answer
your burning hardware
andsoftware questions.
The Shift
Brianna Wu looks at how

Apple needs to up its game
against fresh competition.
16
Get smart
Meet Setapp
David Chartier looks

forward to whats next
afterthe Touch Bar.
14
Heres the tech that can

give you a sporting edge.
69
Pro user issues
Is this about to become the

Netflix of Mac apps?
13
Smart sports
Photoshop Elements 15
57
How pro is the MacBook
Pro? And a look at ceramic
casing for iPhones
84
68
Consider
Email: letters@maclife.com.
10
MacBook Pro 13-inch

2GHz Late 2016
59
The launch of Lisa, and

anew generation of
computers. Plus, what
toexpect next issue.
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Watch Video!
Visit techradar.com
The march of technology never
stops, so neither do we. Mac|Lifes
website is now part of the new and
improved TechRadar, so you can
grab your fix of Mac and iOS news
over at www.techradar.com.
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EDITORIAL
Editor Matt Bolton
operations EDITORS Jo Membery, Ed Ricketts
CONTRIBUTORS Adam Banks, J.R. Bookwalter, George Cairns, Jamie Carter,
DavidChartier, EmmaDavies, Craig Grannell, Kate Gray, Kenny Hemphill,
Cliff Joseph, Joseph Leray, GaryMarshall, Amber Neely, Howard Oakley,
Joe Osborne, Nick Peers, JenniferPhin, Nik Rawlinson, Dave Stevenson,
Alan Stonebridge, Luis Villazon, Brianna Wu
ART
aRT editor Mat Gartside
Contributors Apple, Simon Claessen, ThinkStock
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vice president sales Stacy Gaines, stacy.gaines@futurenet.com
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have an
adventure in
technology
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Segways for the mind?

I think one of the things that really
separates us from the high primates is
that were 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 didnt 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 thats what a computer is to me. What a computer is to
me is its the most remarkable tool that weve ever come up with,
and its the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.
Thats a Steve Jobs quote, and its one Ive been thinking about
a lot in the context of the new MacBook Pros Apple has released.
Tools are created to solve a problem for the people who use them.
To relieve a burden. The new MacBook Pros have an all-new way
of doing this in the form of the Touch Bar, but with their only data
connections being Thunderbolt 3 ports, you now need adapters for
many different totally standard connection types.
The previous Pros handled this burden with their SD card
readers, standard USB 3 ports, Thunderbolt 2 ports, and HDMI.
Now Apple has placed this burden on you. You must make sure
that you never forget your adapters wherever you go. If your work
depends on it, and youve forgotten or dropped one, you suffer.
The question is whether the balance of new features is worth
it. This will depend on your situation for me, the Touch Bar
models are a good fit (we didnt receive them in time to fully
review this issue). But it still makes we wonder whether we can
confidently say the new Pros are bicycles for the mind, or more
like Segways, adding as many complications as they solve.
>>>the team
Mat Gartside
Art Editor
Mats glad theres a 2TB
iCloud Drive option now.
He has a lot of cat pics.
Jo Membery
Operations Editor
Jos Desktop is a mess,
but at least its a mess
across all her devices!
Gary Marshall
Contributor
Gary is switching from
Dropbox to iCloud Drive.
Hes a bit tense.
Matt Bolton, Editor

Twitter: @matthewbbolton
8 Jan 2017 maclife.com
Your opinions, rants & raves
Your article on email signing and encrypting

(#121, p104), was easily one of the most
important pieces Ive seen in quite some time.
Good job! You helped me make my own selfsigned certificate, something which is entirely
adequate for my needs. Its far easier than the
one-year certs that Ive used in the past. You
really need to do more on this topic because of the continued threat
ofemail hacking. Im not a national figure, and not doing illegal
activities, but I dont 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
Im really glad you found this article helpful by now youll have seen
our follow up in issue #122 extending this to iOS, too. Weve been gently
increasing our coverage of apps and services relating to personal privacy,
such as file encryption apps, or tools such as Radio Silence on p75,
because we agree that people need to know how to protect their sensitive
data. We believe macOS 10.13 will offer new, powerful tools too.
We use Alt, but youve got Options.

your Mac. Just drag and drop.
They also include backup tools
for your iPhones data overall,
or for individual elements,
such your messages, calendar,
contacts, and so on. In fact,
iMazing is included with the
Setapp subscription software
package see p12!
Alt beef
Control Center
offers shortcuts,
but could they
be shorter?
Airplane turbulence
Classic connection
Every app capable of connecting

to the internet displays a tiny
airplane icon in the upper left
corner of the screen when in
Airplane mode. Couldnt Apple
make it a switch for turning that
mode off, rather than requiring
us to thumb up the Control
Center, tap the airplane icon
there, and then dismiss Control
Center to return to what we
were doing?
Doug
What do you guys recommend

as the best software I can use
totransfer content stored on
myApple iPod Classic to my
iTunes library?
David Hill
Once upon a time, wed have

said Apple reserves tapping
the top bar for skipping to the
top of a page, but as of iOS 9
it included the back button
up there to take you back to
previous apps, so maybe it
would consider adding an
option like this in the future.
SHARE WITH US!
PodTrans (imobie.com) is a
free app designed to transfer
music to and from an iPod
without needing to use iTunes
sync, so is probably your first
step for this task. Other iOS
device management apps
thatweve reviewed in the
past can also help here:
iMazing 2 (imazing.com) is
ourcurrent pick of these,
buttheres also iExplorer
(macroplant.com). Both cost
$39, but also enable you to
transfer any data between
your iPod, iPhone, or iPad and
If you can show me one Apple

keyboard with an Alt key
onit,Ill buy you lunch. It just
aggravates me every time I
seeit in Mac|Life. Why?
Nick
Make mine a Reuben sandwich,
Nick, because every one of
Apples current keyboards has
a key labeled Alt. Some know
it as the Option key (which its
also currently labeled as), and
Apple has used the symbol
for it. The problem is that
Apple hasnt been consistent
with its labeling over the
years some older keyboards
say Option, while some dont,
but do use the symbol. Some
had both! For a time, Apple
was selling different keyboards
with different versions of the
Alt key, but they all still said
Alt, so thats what we go with.
Email: letters@maclife.com
Facebook: facebook.com/maclife Twitter: twitter.com/maclife
FEED YOUR MIND. FEAST YOUR EYES.
GO
See our latest

subscription
offers
p52
Is Apple keeping
upwith the kind of
advances pro users
are crying out for?
Is Apple leaving
the Macs pro
users behind?
With the arrival of the new MacBook
Pros, some are wondering if there
are too many cons in Apples Pros
BY Matt Bolton
Apples recently released new MacBook Pro line-up

was the kind of dramatic redesign that usually excites its
community of users, but reaction to the two new 13-inch
models and the 15-inch model has been mixed.
The new models are smaller in volume, thinner, and
lighter than their predecessors the 13-inch model is
thinner than the MacBook Air, even. They have updated
processors with more powerful graphics chips, and new
brighter screens with the wide color gamut seen in the
iPhone 7 and Retina iMacs. And they have the Touch Bar
a touchscreen strip that replaces the function keys
above the keyboard, offering controls depending on
thecontext of the app youre in. (The low-end 13-inch
model on p64 includes a row of function keys still.)
Its an impressive redesign, bringing elements of the
12-inch MacBook and iPad Pro designs into the
Feed your mind. Feast your eyes.
Will your next iPhone

be ceramic?
Why it might (and might not) be Apples
material of the future BY Matt Bolton
notebooks. But it has high-end
usersasking questions about some
ofApples decisions.
high-end hopes
The new MacBook Pros are limited
toa maximum of 16GB of RAM, for
example, due to the use of LPDDR3
RAM, which is a low-power memory
type, to extend the Pros battery life.
The 16GB restriction is a limitation of
the Intel chips Apple is using, but if
Apple had opted to use DDR4 RAM,
itcould have offered a 32GB option
but battery life would have been
lower. For most people, 16GB is
much more than enough RAM
butMacs have never been about just
the majoritys needs. For high-end
video and image-editing pros, or
developers working with many
virtual machines, 16GB can bevery
limiting. Similarly, it includes only
Thunderbolt 3 ports forconnectivity.
These are very flexible, powerful
ports, but pros with existing
accessories they rely onwillrequire
adapters. Apple did cut the price of
adapters to mitigate this, however.
These changes come on top of
Apple having not updated the Mac
Pro for over 1,000 days, the Mac mini
for over 750, and forcing high-end
apps to either dumb down or leave
the Mac App Store due to technical
restrictions placed on apps there.
Each problem isnt the end of the
world in itself, but when viewed as a
whole, it leaves pros wondering if
Apple really gets them still.
An iPhone with an edge-toedge display has been rumored

for a while, but while its easy to
imagine an iPhone with a screen
that fills the front face, its 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 with the new Jet Black finish
on the iPhone 7 and goes
intriguingly with a rumor that
Apple is planning a Jet White
iPhone in the same shiny finish
as the Jet Black model. The
material also wouldnt scratch
inthe same way the JetBlack
iPhone is prone to ceramic
canbe as hard as sapphire.
As if to show off just how good
ceramic can be for phones,
Chines manufacturer Xiaomi
hasalready made a handset
verysimilar to what people are
predicting for the iPhone. Called
the Mi Mix, it has a 6.4-inch
edge-to-edge touchscreen, but
because theres only the tiniest

hint of bezel around most of the
display, its barely any bigger
than the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus.
Its rear case and buttons are all
high-end ceramic, in glossy black.
And its a real looker.
However, there is a problem
with ceramic phones: actually
making them. Ceramic is a lot
harder to manufacture at large
scales than aluminum, so while
Xiaomi can produce a relative
handful of phones to show off its
design strength, producing tens
of millions is another matter.
Apples entire manufacturing
process is geared for aluminum,
and to switch to emulating the
ceramic Watchs process for
iPhones, product designer Greg
Koenig estimated that Apple
would need over 10 times the
number of milling machines
andan additional 200,000
employees. We hope it happens,
but dont hold your breath.
The Xiaomi
Mi Mix is a
very cool
design.
>>> Start Feed your mind. Feast your eyes.
Meet Setapp:
theNetflix of
Macapps
Subscription service Setapp could
be the post-App Store future
BY matt bolton
Subscription-based apps are one of the biggest trends

in software right now. After Adobe proved how successful
it could be for pros with Creative Cloud, lots of consumer
apps are beginning to experiment with it as a source of
income especially with Apple announcing that it would
allow more apps on the App Store to use subscriptions.
The problem is making this work for us, the users: if
we use a dozen apps, and they all want a subscription, it
could really add up. The reason Creative Cloud works so
well is that it offers a range of software, but most of the
Mac apps we know and love are from indies with just one
or two products. But there may be a solution.
Setapp (setapp.com) is a new service, currently in
beta, that promises to be the Netflix of Mac software,
providing you with access to over 40 apps from different

developers, ranging from useful little utilities to big
creative software. You get the likes of HTML5 animation
studio app Hype; word processor Ulysses; iPhone data
transfer app iMazing 2; duplicate file finder Gemini II;
personal finance software Chronicle; and lots more.
At the moment, the planned price at launch is $9.99
per month, and the whole thing is really easy to use.
You download the Setapp app, sign up, and a folder is
added to your Application folder, containing icons for all
available apps. To use one, just double-click it like any
other; an installer screen appears and the app is
downloaded, ready for use. Its simplicity itself, and
having all the apps at your fingertips even before you
technically install them is especially cool.
In a world where more people than ever are willing to
try software, but few are willing to pay, Setapp is a really
bold experiment, bringing the Mac app community closer
together. Developers dont have to worry about the
restrictions the Mac App Store enforces, and users get
the latest versions, with new apps added in the future.
Most importantly, theres nothing like it on any other
platform. With an even more rounded collection of apps,
wed go so far as to say Setapp could be the Macs killer
app for the future in a way the Mac App Store should
have been, but never was cementing it as the computer
platform with the best tools, readily available.
>the shift
Change is coming to Apples notebooks,
anddavid chartier says the new
TouchBar shows us the direction
e often hear how Apple

isan iterative company.
Itplots and plans, they
say, and rolls out new
ideasand technologies in a
gradual, deliberate process in
orderto train us for whats
comingnext. I believe this is
whats happening with the new
MacBook Pros Touch Bar. I think
something major this way comes.
Think about the first iPhone
in2007 no App Store, no copy
orpaste, no App Extensions,
noDocument 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 the Touch
Bar.A replacement for the whole
Function key bar, the Touch Bar
can display basic buttons, rich
color palettes, music- and
photo-editing tools, you name
The MacBook Pros

Touch Bar? I think
something major
thisway comes
it.As a sign of its commitment,

Apple highlighted new Touch Bar
features and controls for nearly all
of its own apps. Clearly, its been
working on this for a while.
I believe the Touch Bar
represents the start of something
significant a set of training
wheels for a major new shift, this
time for notebooks and possibly
even traditional desktop
computers. Reading between the
lines of recent interviews with
Apple execs like Craig Federighi,
Senior Vice President of Software
Engineering, and Chief Design
Officer, Jony Ive, I believe Apple is
preparing us for a new kind of
desktop, laptop, and/or other type
of computing experience that
incorporates touch and contextual
interfaces at its core.
If we speculate about the
nextstep after the Touch Bar,
itseems pretty clear to me that
amultitouch, color trackpad in
MacBooks could be next. Apple
already spent the last couple years
turning it into glass, removing the
physical movement, and adding 3D
Touch and haptic feedback the
foundation is all there, now it just
needs to turn into a screen.
But what about the keyboard?
Well, new MacBooks have a much
thinner keyboard with keys that
travel far less than any other
MacBook, and touchscreen typing

is becoming the norm for a new
generation of customers, an
increasing number which have
grown up touchscreen-first and,
insome cases, touchscreen-only.
After the trackpad takes the next
step into touch, something like
atouch-based, haptic-powered
keyboard that is also a contextual,
The Touch Bars contextual capabilities are

impressive, and a sign of things to come.
multitouch display doesnt seem
too far-fetched anymore.
The last piece of this puzzle is
the software that will power it all.
macOS has too much core design
centered around mouse pointers
and clunky file systems. It would
be something entirely new not
iOS scaled up for desktops, and not
macOS with bolted on touch-based
options. Something built to fit the
needs of a new kind of computer.
>>> David Chartier is a content strategist and writer with vast experience analyzing the tech world.
He runs the website Finer Things in Tech (finerthings.in) and hosts its podcast, The Finer Things In.
6 great accessories for

the new MacBook Pros
Get more from USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 with these add-ons
BY Matt Bolton
LGs UltraFine 5K display opens up a world

ofcolor. And offers three USB Type-C ports.
amagnetic
breaking point.
Just like Apples MagSafe connectors, Griffin BreakSafes breaking point design means the cable
will detach when its suddenly pulled, saving your notebook from a dangerous drop.
Apples redesigned 13- and

15-inch MacBook Pros are its
thinnest and lightest pro-level
notebooks ever, and along with that
change in design comes a change in
its ports. The new models include
four Thunderbolt 3 ports and a
headphone jack as their only
connections (the $1,299 model that
doesnt include the Touch Bar has
two Thunderbolt 3 ports). This brand
new connection type is physically
the same as USB Type-C, as seen on
the 12-inch MacBook, making the
two connectors interchangeable.
Its also how youll power the new
notebooks. A new design and new
connection type means new
add-ons, too, so weve collected six
of the best MacBook Pro accessories.
Satechi USB-C
Combo Hub
This tiny multiport hub plugs
into a USB Type-C
port, and provides
three standard
USB 3 ports, as
well as SD card
and microSD card
readers. For $35,
its a no-brainer.
Belkin
Thunderbolt 3
Express Dock HD
Taking advantage
of Thunderbolt 3s
40Gbps speeds,
this dock provides
Ethernet, three
USB 3 ports, two
Thunderbolt 3
ports, DisplayPort
video output, and
more. It can
support two 4K
displays at once.
Griffin BreakSafe
Worried about the
lack of MagSafe
charging on the
new MacBooks?
This USB Type-C
cable adds it back
in one of its
connectors has
LG UltraFine
5K Display
Connect this 5K
display to your
MacBook Pro
using a single
Thunderbolt 3
cable for glorious
5K images in a
wide color gamut.
It also acts as a
connection hub,
thanks to its three
USB Type-C ports.
Kanex USB-C to
HDMI 4K Adapter
Want to plug your
new MacBook Pro
into a TV? This
$20 adapter can
handle up to 4K.
iKlear
Cleaning Kit
No one wants to
have a fingerprintsmeared Touch
Bar. This kit will
keep it clean!
Take advantage of Thunderbolt 3s 40Gbps

speeds with Belkins comprehensive HD dock.
>game loop
Apple is dominant in portable gaming, but a
new device is coming. Brianna wu looks
at how Apple needs to step up its game
he 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
atailspin. As Apple monopolized
thecasual game market, Wii sales
plummeted and Microsoft and
Sony were forced to concentrate on
hardcore gamers. Nintendos 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. Its 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
Versatility and affordability should make the

Nintendo Switch a popular gaming option.
are versatile, and can be snapped

on the sides to play games like
Zelda - or unsnapped to play
multiplayer games with friends.
Most Nintendo hardware has a
cheap, toy-like feel - but the
Switch understands its competing
with iPads and iPhones.
Even though sales of games on
iPhone are slowing, the tablet
market is still strong. Last year,
games sales on mobile eclipsed
consoles. Nintendo knows this,
which is why its newest console
aims directly at that market. We
dont know what the price will be
for Nintendo Switch, but its all but
certain it will be cheaper than a
PS4 or Xbox One; for the price of an
entry level iPad, gamers will have
an entertainment device that can
be used as a tablet and an Apple
TV. As with their past consoles, its
a good bet that steaming services
like Netflix will be available.
From a hardware perspective,
the Nintendo Switch is made
witha very popular Android
architecture: Tegra. While its
unlikely the Switch will be built
tonatively run Android games,
itsnot out of the question.
Fortunately, theres a lot Apple
can do to cement their position as
the mobile game leader. Somehow,
Apple still doesnt have a mascot
in 2016. Nintendo has Mario, Sega
has Sonic, Apple needs a character

that speaks to their values. Apple
also needs their own high-profile
first-party games, free of In-App
Purchases. Without these exclusive
offerings, Apples gaming
ecosystem will continue to be a
series of ephemeral experiences.
Apple also need to work with
developers to improve controller
support on Apple TV games. One of
the biggest draws of the Nintendo
Switch is the mobility from couch
to coffee shop. On iOS, features
Apple cant expect

itsmobile domination
to go unchallenged it
must be ready to fight
such as iCloud and Continuity are

already built to compete, but Apple
doesnt have game experiences
that draw you in. Chances are, this
would also boost iPad sales.
Theres no company that makes
accessible games like Nintendo.
Yet, despite having better games,
theyve been losing to Apple
hardware for almost 10 years.
In2017, Apple cant expect
itsmobile domination to go
unchallenged - they better
showup ready to fight.
>>> Brianna Wu is the head of development at Giant Spacekat, developer of Revolution 60 on iPhone and iPad,
and is a regular speaker at industry events, as well as host on the podcasts Isometric and Rocket.
CRAVE
THE GEAR WERE LUSTING AFTER
Naim Uniti Atom

naimaudio.com
Around $2,000
>>> While Naim is marketing the Uniti Atom as
an all-in-one music player, you do actually
have to add speakers and its multiroom too,
so thats more than one pair. Still, the highfidelity sound is incredible, while the wireless
connectivity and app control work faultlessly
(as does the remote, which pairs with the device
so you can even use it from a different room).
You can stream over AirPlay, Spotify, Tidal, and
more, or plug in a USB drive. The software can
also receive over-the-air updates, effectively
futureproofing the system.
Oakley Radar
Pace smartglasses
oakley.com $449
>>> The Oakley Radar Pace smartglasses are very
clever indeed for runners or cyclists. Pairing with
external sensors (speed,distance, and so on) and
internal sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope), they
feed performance data to the Radar Pace app and
provide a personalized coaching system, relaying
information via a pair of removable earphones. The
glasses are primarily hands-free, but you can also
interact using taps and swipes on the touchpad in
the temple. The lenses themselves filter out UV rays
and have been tested to high-impact standards.
Bowers & Wilkins P9

Signature headphones
bowers-wilkins.com $899
>>> To celebrate the companys 50th anniversary,
Bowers & Wilkins has developed the gorgeous P9
Signature headphones. A slanted driver improves
the fit of the earcup, which in turn helps to eliminate
distortion, producing the kind of audio youd expect
from high-quality loudspeakers. The headband and
earcups are made from fine Italian cross-hatch
leather. The headphones are wired only register
the purchase of a pair of these headphones from
early 2017 onwards, and youll receive a
complimentary Lightning cable.
Star Trek TNG Bluetooth

Communications Badge
shop.startrek.com $79.95
>>> In my experience, communication is a matter
of patience, imagination, says Captain Jean-Luc
Picard. But now, its also a thing of frivolous sci-fi
cosplaying! Star Trek fans can pay homage to their
heroes with this fully functional, officially licensed
Bluetooth communications badge. Connect your
phone, iPad, or Mac to enjoy hands-free chat, or
give it a press to access Siri. You even get the
classic chirp sound effect to emulate that genuine
Enterprise experience. While it may not be made
tothe highest of specs considering the price, it
isaworking device, and a lot of fun.
>>> Start
$50 iTunes Card

How would you blow 50 bucks on music,
movies, books, TV shows, and apps?
BY matt bolton
The BFG
Mark Rylance, Penelope
Wilton, Ruby Barhill
$19.99
Steven Spielberg and
RoaldDahl are one hell
ofamatch, and this new
version of The BFG lets
therenowned director
mixtheheart and flair he
puts into his films with the
creepiness and emotion
ofDahls story. The film
follows 10-year-old
Sophieafter she spots a
mysterious figure lurking
the streets after dark, and
is whisked off to the world
of giants, who arent all as
kindly as the Big Friendly
Giant. Visually, its just as
inventive as it should be,
too especially the dream
world. Its very true to its
source material, in thebest
possible way.
SteamWorld
Heist
Image & Form
$6.99
We recently reviewed
thisturn-based game of
cartoony robots having
shoot-outs when it released
on the Mac, and gave it a
glowing verdict and the
iOS port works excellently.
Youll steer a ragtag crew
of robots around a galaxy,
trying to stop the threat
ofscrappers turning your
rusty friends into spare
parts through carefully
aimed gunplay. Levels
arefreshly created every
time you play, so its never
quite the same, and
different levels can have
different restrictions or
objectives, keeping things
interesting. Its really well
written, and super fun.
Born to run
Bruce Springsteen
$14.99
No, not the album: the
book. A few years off
his70th birthday, Bruce
Springsteen reveals the
fullstory of a life of rock
and roll stardom with this
autobiography, tracking
everything from his musical
awakening and religious
upbringing, the early days
of being a band leader in
New Jersey, hitting the
bigtime with the E Street
Band, tohis life now. Its an
amazingly open and honest
book, where he reveals as
many mistakes as triumphs,
and doesnt try to ignore or
spin the low times. It tells
you huge amount about the
man behind the icon, giving
you an ever greater insight
into his music.
Im Alone, No
Youre Not
Joseph
$7.99
This second album from
family band Joseph (made
up of three sisters) is full
ofrich melodies driven
byacoustic instruments.
Itmoves deftly from
70s-style harmonies
andpounding drums,
tomore soulful fare that
floats along through
twanging guitar chords.
Itsengrossing, really
enjoyable stuff, perfect
tolose yourself in for
thecold winter days.
TOTAL
spend
$49.96
The premier source for everything video games, TV, films, and more.
www.gamesradar.com
>>> Feature
Master
iCloud
Drive
Master iCloud Drive
With iOS 10 and macOS

Sierra, iCloud Drive has
grown up. Find out how
tomake the most of
Applesdocumentsanywhere approach
by Craig Grannell
eve come a long way from the

dayswhen that sole copy of an
important document went up in
smoke if your computer happened
to have a bad day. Today, the internet
enables youto store all manner of content
inthe cloud, safe in the knowledge you can
later retrieve it, while simultaneously
adding theconvenience factor of easy
access acrossarange of devices.
The snag is that cloud-based storage can
be a tricky concept to get your head around,
and available services each have various
limitations and quirks you must be aware
of. Apples iCloud Drive is as of macOS
Sierra and iOS 10 perhaps the most
intuitive example of cloud storage on
themarket and yet even that is something
youneed to figure out and master.
Fortunately, Mac|Life has done the heavy
lifting for you. In this feature, we explore
how iCloud Drive works across the Mac,
iPhone and iPad, how to share your Desktop
and Documents folders, privacy concerns
tobe aware of, what eats into your storage
allocation, and the importance of backing
upyour iCloud Drive data.
>>> Feature
iCloud and
your devices
Find out how iCloud Drive
works on your Mac,
iPhone and iPad
One of the least appealing aspects
ofcloud-based storage and syncing
services on the Mac has been their
tendency to require some kind of
special folder. Whether youre using
the likes of Dropbox or Google Drive, you have
toalter where you save your files bydefault,
tomake them accessible on all your devices.
Apples system with iCloud Drive still uses
aparticular dedicated folder (named iCloud
Drive unsurprisingly), but its thinking is to
have the process cause the least amount of
impact on your existing habits.
Apples at its most audacious here with
Sierras single-click moving of the Desktop
and Documents folders to become sub-folders
Sierra
How to Master iCloud Drive on your Mac
Easy access
The fastest way to iCloud Drive in
Finder is by pressing ++I (the
shortcut for Go > iCloud Drive). If a
Finder windows open, you can access
iCloud Drive from its sidebar, provided
that shortcut is enabled in the Sidebar
tab in Finders preferences.
iCloud in apps
When opening files from within
an app, you can select iCloud Drive from
the Open dialogs sidebar. iCloud Drive
locations are also in the Recent Places
pop-up menu. Similarly, in Save dialogs,
you can save your documents to an
apps iCloud Drive folder.
File management
In Finder, you can drag and drop
files between iCloud Drive folders, but
be mindful of apps that expect their
docs to stay in the apps own folder,
especially when working across macOS
and iOS. Within an app, File > Move To
lets you move the current document.
Master iCloud Drive
within iCloud Drive (without affecting how

youuse these two folders normally), which we
explore on p26. Elsewhere, apps increasingly
have thecapability to save documents to their
own dedicated folder in iCloud Drive, which
can be immediately accessed in the apps iOS
version, should it be fully compatible with the
Mac versions files. The trick is to have apps
save to the iCloud Drive folder by default,
rather than you having to manually select it.
Pages, Keynote and Numbers work like this,
forexample. GarageBand, however, does not,
because the Mac version is more advanced
thanthe one you get oniPhone and iPad
(though files created on an iPhone or iPad
canbe transferred to Mac).
These folders are all readily accessible in
Finder, too click the iCloud Drive icon in the
Finder sidebar; ifit isnt visible, go to Finder
> Preferences, click the Sidebar tab, and ensure
iCloud Drive isticked in the iCloud group.
Note that should you later move a file from
iCloud Drive to a folder on your Macs local
storage, an alert will interrupt the action.
Forexample, drag something from TextEdits
iCloud Drive folder to your Downloads folder
and youll be prompted to confirm that youre
sure, and stating the item will be deleted
fromiCloud Drive and your other iCloud
devices. However, should you choose to
deletea file thats located in iCloud Drive
simply by sending it to the Trash, you get
nosuch warning.
Although theres variation
inhow Mac appshandle file
management, differences are
muchmore overt on iOS, which
canhave a substantial effect on
howyou interact with iCloud Drive. In the
earlydays of iOS, it was common forapps to
save documents in their own dedicated folders.
As far as you would see, your documents were
being saved inside the apps. So, if you want
toopen a Pages document, you would open
Pages first, then the document; contrast
thiswith the Mac, where you can use Finder
tolocate a document and then double-click
itto open an app, or use an Open dialog within
an app to navigate the entire file system,
rather than one app-specific folder.
iOS
Tap Locations in Pages to view alternative storage options.
In many cases, this is still how iOS works.

Plenty of apps havent moved on at all
youstill only get access to files housed in the
appsdedicated folder. Others, such as Apples
iWork apps, give you access to such afolder as
the default for saving work, but add further
options. Usingthe Share icon, you can move
afile to a new location within the iCloud
Drivefolder, or tap Locations to gain access
toalternative locations (which you can use
toget items from remote servers using the
likes of Panics Transmit) or iCloud Drives
document picker, which enables you to create
>>> Feature
new folders in iCloud Drive beyond just the

default app folders, as well as select where
youwant to save your file.
The last of those things is also accessible in
the iCloud Drive app. Ifyou dont see its icon
on the Home screen or in Spotlight, search for
iCloud Drive on the App Store to access it on
your device. (In iOS 9, the app is instead added
by going to Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive and
turning on Show on Home Screen.) If you
remove the app, it wont affect your documents
in iCloud Drive it just acts as a way for you to
view, open, and even rearrange the documents
stored there. Just tap a folder to view its
contents, and tap a file to open it in an
appropriate app, if iOS recognizes that it has
one (this works with Pages, Numbers, and
Keynote files, for example). If you want to open
a file with an other than the default, tap and
hold your finger on it, and choose the Share

option, then select the appropriate app.
Files without recognized apps will open with
a preview if theyre in a format which iOS can
read, or otherwise just aview of the file type.
You can tap the Share button to select an app
in which to open the file. You can also delete
the file using the trash can symbol, or move
them using the Folder symbol. You can also
access the Move option by tapping and holding
on a file.
If you want to move or delete more than one
file at a time, tap Select at the top, tap all the
files you want to affect (which adds a check
mark), then tap New Folder, Move, or Delete at
the bottom, depending on what you want to do
with the files. Deleted files can be
recovered, but not from the iOS
app or Finder see p30.
explained iCloud Drive on iOS
Build a
selection
Tap Select to mark
and take action on
one or more items.
Files and folders can
be deleted; docs can
also be moved, and
you can create new
folders here, too.
Search
for files
If you dont want to
hunt through your
folders in iCloud
Drive, usethe Search
bar. As youtype,
matching files and
folders will be
displayed below.
A different
view
By default, iCloud
Drive displays icons,
but you can switch
itto a view thats
akin to a hybrid of
the List and Column
views from Finder,
using this button.
The status
bar
The foot of the
screen shows how
many files and
folders are in the
current view and,
importantly, displays
howmuch iCloud
space you have left.
>>> Feature
Your desktop,
anywhere
In Sierra, all those files you
dump on the desktop can be
put online automatically,
making them available on any
Mac, PC, or iOS device
ne big advantage of cloud-based
storage is that it frees you from
needing to have a specific device to
hand in order to get at essential files.
If all your files are readily accessible on all of
your devices whether youre currently using
an iMac with a huge screen, putting your feet
up with a MacBook, cradling an iPad or iPhone,
or even using a PC or Android tablet youre
freed from having to worry about where you
saved an important document and whether
you can access it. (At least if your devices can
connect to the internet to sync things!)
With iCloud Drive, Apple doesnt yet enable
you to sync the entirety of your Macs storage
to the cloud, but it does now offer an almost
absurdly simple method for sharing your
Desktop and Documents folders between all
your devices. As shown in the walkthrough
opposite, the process is as simple as checking

abox, waiting a while for everything toupload,
and then accessing your files and folders
anywhere youre able to signin to iCloud.
However, there are caveats tobe mindful of.
First and foremost, iCloud Drive isnt a
bottomless pit. In fact, its not even a terribly
deep pit if you stick with its free tier, which
gives you a miserly 5GB of space, beyond which
you have to pay. If you want to store 1TB of data
on iCloud Drive which, admittedly, is pretty
excessive itll cost you $9.99 per month.
Secondly, iCloud Drive is reliant on internet
connectivity to keep everything in sync across
your devices. If you have the worlds slowest
connection (bear in mind its upload speed is
likely slower than downloading), you should
perhaps steer clear of putting massive files in
iCloud Drive.
Sadly, Apple doesnt provide granularity
iniCloud Drives settings. Wed love to have
theability to put our Desktop online and keep
Documents on local storage. Right now, you
cant do this, so if you want to omit files from
iCloud Drive, you must put them in other
folders on your Mac.
However, Sierra makes allowances for
whenyou have lots of free space in iCloud
Drive but little on your Mac; it stores locally
files it thinks youll need (those youve used
recently) and keeps others online; they stay
where you left them in Finder, with a cloud
icon, and download on demand.
Master iCloud Drive
How to Work with Desktop and Documents in iCloud
Set things up
During Sierras install, youll be
asked whether to store Desktop and
Documents folders in iCloud Drive. If
you initially declined, you can enable it
in iClouds System Preferences pane:
clickOptions next to iCloud Drive and
check Desktop & Documents Folders.
Try an older Mac

Although pre-Sierra Macs cant
sync Desktop and Documents to iCloud
Drive, they can access those synced
from Sierra. In Finder, pick Go > iCloud
Drive. Items dragged from iCloud Drive
to a pre-Sierra Mac are moved; hold Alt
at the same time for a copy.
Access your files

Files awaiting upload or in the
process of uploading show a progress
indicator. Once done, theres no real sign
anythings changed with your Desktop
and Documents folders compared to El
Capitan, other than them being under
iCloud in Finders sidebar.
iCloud Drive on iOS

In iOSs iCloud Drive app, you can
access Desktop and Documents folders
synced from Sierra. Tap a folder to open
it, then tap a file to download and view
(if its type is supported). Alternatively,
tap the Share icon to send the item to
another app for viewing or editing.
Use multiple Macs

If you activate syncing of
Desktop and Documents on more than
one Mac, their contents and changes
are synced to those Macs (if online).
IfaMac joins in later, its Desktop/
Documents go in a folder named after
the Mac; things arent merged for you.
Find files online

When youre using a non-Apple
device, you can get to your files: sign in
using your Apple ID at iCloud.com and
click iCloud Drive. Your folders will
(sometimes slowly) load. This works in
Chrome on Android by checking
Request Desktop site in the menu.
>>> Feature
Get more from

iCloud Drive
Top tips for working smarter
with online storage
Deal with conflicts

One of the dangers in having documents
stored in the cloud is they can potentially
beopen on multiple devices simultaneously.
Whenthat happens, the app in question should
alert you that modifications are not in sync,
andoutline the open versions of the document,
and what devices are using them. You can then
pick which version or versions to keep.
>
Upload using a web browser

We noted earlier you can get at your files in
iCloud Drive by signing in to iCloud.com. By clicking
the upload button there, you can select a document
to send to the folder youre viewing. This can be
useful if you use a PC at work, want to read a
document onyour iPad on the way home, and
workon it in a compatible Mac app in the evening.
>
Manage
Should you have
Mac or iOS apps you dont
want to use iCloud Drive
for storage, access can be
disabled individually. Mac:
Go to System Preferences
> iCloud and click Options
next to iCloud Drive. In
Documents, clear the
checkboxes next to the
relevant apps. iOS: Use
the switches inSettings >
iCloud > iCloud Drive.
>
transfer
Although you can
useother services alongside
iCloud Drive, easy integration
of files and folders across
devices might make migration
appealing. The simplest way
isto drag and drop in Finder
from Dropbox to Documents,
say. First, check you have
enough space in iCloud, and
archive old items offline, so
you use less iCloud space
andthings upload sooner.
>
Master iCloud Drive
Dont duplicate
media
If youre using other
Apple cloud-based
systems, dont duplicate
content within iCloud
Drive. Theres no point
using iCloud Music Library
in iTunes and iOSs Music
app and storing identical
copies of your audio files
in iCloud Drive at that
point, youre effectively
paying twice.
local
documents
If you put Desktop and
Documents in iCloud, that
doesnt mean you cant
have a local folder, too.
Inyour Home folder, add
afolder for things you
want to keep locally, call it
Local Documents and file
consistently so you know
where specific items are
located, and add it to
Finders sidebar, too.
>
Use the Dock

Adding iCloud Drive folders to the Dock
can present interesting options. Drag a folder
from Drive to the right part of the Dock for
quick access. Also, in Finder hold Alt, choose Go
> Library and drag Mobile Documents to the
Dock for access to synced iCloud files beyond
even those you can see in Finder. This is useful
for backing up content created by iOS apps that
lack their own iCloud Drive folder but still save
there say, shared audio projects in Korg
Gadget, or saved progress for games.
>
>
Make more folders

By default, iCloud Drive will contain folders
for those apps that have created one for their
documents. If youre syncing your Macs Desktop
and Documents folders, theyll also be located
there. However, theres nothing to stop you adding
your own folders. On your Mac, doso the usual way
(File > New Folder in Finder). On iOS, use the iCloud
Drive app: go to the folder where you want to make
a new one, tap Select and then tap New Folder. In
the dialog, give your folder a name and tap Create.
>
>>> Feature
Check storage
levels
You can see how much
ofyour iCloud storage
allowance youve used
inSettings > iCloud on
aniOS device, in System
Preferences > iCloud on
Mac, or at iCloud.com
bychoosing the Settings
option. You can upgrade
your storage to a bigger
plan from the first two
ofthese options.
Recover
deleted data
In iCloud.coms Settings
option, scroll to the bottom
tosee four options: Restore
Files; Restore Contacts;
Restore Calendars and
Reminders; Restore
Bookmarks. If youve
recentlydeleted data in
thesecategories and have
come to regret it, you can
view recently deleted files
here, and bring them back!
>
>
project dependencies
One of the new features in iCloud Drive is
Optimize Mac Storage (in iClouds preferences,
under iCloud Drive > Options > Documents). The
idea is if your Mac lacks the storage to contain
all your iCloud Drive documents, older items
will be stored online. Such prioritization should
be seamless, but weve seen reports that the
system does not always recognize when you
have projects reliant on a number of external
files. For example, design, video, and audio apps
often require templates and resource files. If
Sierra decides some arent current, they may
sit in iCloud rather than on your Mac, causing
issues not least if youre offline when you
need them. There are workarounds: dont use
Optimize Mac Storage; carry a copy of all your
docs; or store key projects in a local folder.
>
disable sync
You would think
that if you decided to
stop syncing Desktop &
Documents to iCloud
Drive, Apple would
leave your files and
folders alone, and no
longer sync them to
iCloud. Instead, Apple
creates fresh, empty
Desktop & Documents
folders in your Home
folder. If you want docs
from iCloud back, you
must manually move or
copy them from iCloud
Drive. Moving them will
free up space on iCloud
Drive, but they wont be
>
available on other
devices; copying them
doubles the space they
take up, as therell be
two copies. Should you
later re-enable the
feature, the freshly
made folders vanish.
Anything in them is
placed in the folder of
the same name in
iCloud Drive, in a folder
named after the
computer it came from
(say, Documents Mac
mini). Turn the feature
off and on several times
and you may end up
with several such
folders, and a mess.
Master iCloud Drive
iCloud,
privacy
and security
Worried about the safety of
cloud services? Keep your
account and data safe
ecurity and privacy are major
concerns when utilizing any
cloud-based service. Ultimately,
anydata thats online could in theory be
accessed by someone other than you. Of
course, Apple makes it extremely tough for
anyone to break intoyour account, through a
mix of technology and recommendations.
Apple states iCloud uses a minimum
of128-bit AES encryption the same
levelofsecurity employed by major
financialinstitutions and never
providesencryption keys to any third
parties. Apple adds that encryption keys
forthe likes of iCloud Keychain (which
syncsSafari usernames andpasswords,
payment card info, and Wi-Finetwork
details) are created on your devices, and
Apple cant access the keys, nor can it see
oraccess your data. When setting up,
devicesrequire approval from another,
already authorized device to ensurenothing
untoward isgoing on. But when it comes to

simply signing into iCloud Drive and other
services or content that use your Apple ID,
they are by default protected only by your
username and password. The former is an
email address and may be easy to guess;
therefore, ensure your password is not easy
to work out. Similarly, when asked to input
answers to security questions, obscurity is
recommended. Social engineering could
enable someone to blaze through such a thin
barrier if they know enough about you, but
not if rather than entering the street you
grew up on, you instead use a string of
symbols that you note down somewhere safe
so you yourself can later refer to them.
Under lock and key
To further secure your account, turn on
two-factor authentication. This can be
started in System Preferences iCloud pane:
click Account Details, then the Security tab.
e m a i l a dd r ess es ca n
b e g u ess e d : m a k e
passwo r d s t r i c ky
Turn on two-factor authentication and run
through the process. Once done, when you
sign in to Apple services using your Apple ID
youll be asked to verify your identity with
asix-digit code sent to another device, or
aphone number you trust.
When it comes to privacy in general,
itsalso worth noting that Apple talks about
thesubject a lot, including at its high-profile
events. Apple wears high standards when
itcomes to privacy like a badge of honor,
because it wants you to trust the company
and sell you more hardware and services.
Youre not the product to be sold in your
relationship with Apple which isnt the
case to the same extent with some of
Applescompetition.
To read more about Apples stance on
iCloud security and privacy, read its tech
noteat apple.co/2ezyxUN. The company
alsooffers a specific note regarding security
and iCloud at apple.co/2eAHBVQ.
>>> Feature
iCloud Drive
myths debunked
Discover what uses your iCloud space and whether
backups are still necessary (spoiler: they are)
wo areas where there are often

misconceptions regarding iCloud
relate to storage space and the safety
of data (in the sense of iCloud being
treated like a backup system). Ifyou plan to
use iCloud Drive a lot, you need to be aware
that doing so almost certainly wont be free.
Apple provides just 5GB of storage per iCloud
account, and in some cases thats not enough
for a single iOS device backup. Right now,
Apple offers four paid tiers: 50GB for 99;
200GB for $2.99; 1TB for $9.99; 2TB for
$19.99.These charges are billed monthly.
So, how do you know how much space youll
need? Well, if you run out, youll be alerted and
iCloud Drive will stop syncing until you either
shell out more money to upgrade to a more
expensive tier, or you free up space by deleting
content stored in iCloud. Things are a bit more
As you commit more

data to iCloud and
outgrow the 5GB of
space Apple gives
you for free, you
canget more for
amonthly fee.
complicated than that, though, because not

everything you store in iCloud counts against
your storage plan.
In short, the following eat into your iCloud
storage plan space: iOS device backups; iCloud
Photo Library; email and attachments in an
iCloud email account; data within apps that
useiCloud; anything synced using iCloud Drive
(including Desktop and Documents folders).
Photo Stream, however, does not count against
your iCloud storage plan, nor does Apple Music
including matched and uploaded files (since
youre paying for that separately). Purchased
content from iTunes (apps, games, movies
andso on) also doesnt count against your
storage, unless you download files to a synced
folder. Dont do that, though, since you can
always access such files through iTunes on
Mac, or by using relevant apps (App Store;
iTunes; Music) on iOS.
Burgeoning demand
If moneys no object, go for a tier that will
giveyou room to breathe beyond all the data
you currently need to store online. If youre
prudent, spend a little time managing what
gets put there. You could, for example, just put
current work in Desktop and Documents and
archive old and completed projects to a local
folder on your Mac. Its also worth periodically
clearing out and archiving files saved within
iCloud apps, which can sometimes be weighty,
especially with high-quality audio files and
multi-layered images made in photo editors
like Pixelmator.
As noted earlier, the other subject that
cancause confusion about cloud storage is
thenotion that it always safeguards data,
protecting files and folders in case of a local
storage disaster. There is some truth in this.
Master iCloud Drive
Should your MacBook suffer a sudden drinks

spillage or take a tumble, you can access your
iCloud Drive from another device, and sync
them to a replacement Mac. But that doesnt
mean iCloud Drive shouldnt be treated with
alittle caution.
First, its worth remembering that Sierra
is new, and so it will have kinks that need
ironing out. If one such kink were to blaze
through your files like a forest fire, you may
have aproblem. Similarly, iCloud in general
occasionally loses a random thing. When
thatsaCalendar entry, it can be frustrating.
Ifit were to happen to a report youve been
working on for months, it could be careerending. Then theres the issue that iCloud
Drive only enables you to restore or get at files
that still exist. Accidentally wipe a file and it
vanishes from all of your devices.
Fortunately, there are ways to protect
against disaster. If you delete something by
mistake, sign in to iCloud.com, click Settings,
scroll down to the bottom of the page and click
Restore Files (under Advanced). Youll see a list
of items you can restore to their previous
location on iCloud Drive. Its worth noting that

anything deleted over 30 days ago is gone,
though. On that basis, its worth investigating
a backup system to regularly back up yourMac
and keep older files safe. Time Machine is a
great start, but if you want more flexibility,
weve got you covered: see p43.
Selective, scheduled backups
Regular readers may recall we recommend
making bootable clones of Macs in addition to
using Time Machine, but thats not what we
want here. Instead, we want to safeguard only
whatever new files you store on iCloud Drive.
In Get Backup Pro, you could schedule a daily
backup of your iCloud Drive folder only to an
external drive, and set Delete older backup
versions to Never, so you can dive back
through your files in an emergency. If you use
SuperDuper! (see p42), you could use its Copy
newer or Copy different settings; click
Options and look under the General tab.
Respectively, they overwrite files only when
newer or different ones are found, so you just
back up new or changed files in iCloud Drive.
The contents of your

iCloud Music Library
arent counted
against your iCloud
storage; your Apple
Music or iTunes
Match subscription
imposes a100,000song limit instead.
>>> Feature
Mac
The ultimate
survival guide
Nik Rawlinson equips you
withthe knowledge you need
tokeep your data safe and
yourMac in working order
SECURE
A work computer,
games console, family
planner, photo album,
and a music library
your Mac is an integral
part of your life. To
prevent that information
falling into somebody
elses hands, or your
Mac being compromised
by outside attack, well
walk you through
various options for
tightening its security.
1
PREVENT
Prevention really is
better than cure when the
cure for a significant crash
could be spending days
trying to reclaim your data.
Take practical steps to
monitor your Mac when a
problem crops up, or even
ahead of time, and you
canpredict or forestall
problems before disaster
iseven able to strike.
2
Mac Survival Guide
RECOVER
Should the worst
happen, dont panic
well show you how
tofix common Mac
problems without
reaching for your
backups. If you need
toseek help, well also
show you how to check
for obvious hardware
faults without first
hauling your Mac
toaGenius Bar, and
howtogather evidence
that could help resolve
your problem.
3
>>> Feature
How to Go beyond the built-in firewall
Install
Little Snitch 3
This app (about $35, obdev.
at) tracks network traffic
going in and outof your
Mac. When it detects a new
connection itll ask whether
to allow or block it.
1
what totrust
If youre sure you
trust the connection, you
can authorize it forever
oruntil you quit the
associated app. You can
deny those you dont
truston the same basis.
2
Tighter control
Pick an alternative
duration from the pop-up
menu, and specify below
whether to block specific
ports and services or
subdomains on an
internetserver.
3
Mac Survival Guide
Mac security
Macs are generally considered more secure

than PCs, but there are further steps you
cantake to protect your data
Set your Mac to

demand a password
immediately after
falling asleep or
running the
screensaver.
Manage rules
Over time, the
number of alerts will reduce
as you give instruction to
the app. You can change
previous choices by deleting
or amending entries inits
main window.
4
Youve already taken a sensible

step to keeping data secure: youve
chosen a Mac. macOS is widely rated
as one of the most secure operating
systems, and Apples continued
focus on encryption and privacy is
avalid reason to remain optimistic.
However, its best not to be
complacent about security.
Local security
Start boosting security by setting
astrong password, and change it
regularly. In the Users & Groups
preferences pane, we recommend
opting to use your iCloud password
to log in if youre 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
isnt possible in Sierra, though: it
asks you to set a different user
account password on first run.
Set macOS to demand a password
upon waking from sleep or the
screen saver in the Security &
Privacy panes General tab, and
minimize the number of apps that
have access to core data such as your
contacts, calendar, and photos in
that panes Privacy tab.
Network security
Go to the Firewall tab and make sure
the firewall is switched on. It will
run in addition to any firewall on
your router to control what can (or
cant) use your network connection;

unlike many firewalls, it enables you
to manage communications on a
per-app basis, rather than blocking
specific ports more brutal in its
effect, but easier to manage. Click
Firewall Options and consider
unchecking the option to allow
signed apps to receive incoming
connections automatically. You can
also enable stealth mode so that
your Mac ignores attempts to probe
it with small packets of data;
hackers can do that to identify
vulnerabilities. By not responding,
your Mac wont give anything away.
Finally, boot in macOS Recovery
(see p40) and choose Utilities >
Firmware Password Utility to stop
an intruder resetting account
passwords see apple.co/29LBlOl
for instructions.
macOSs firewall makes it easy to manage

whichof your apps can reach the internet.
>>> Feature
Problem prevention
OS X will often alert you to upcoming problems,

if you know where to look
Mac old-timers will often advise keeping
around 10% of your startup disk free for
temporary storage. These days, that figure
mayseem a bit excessive now that drive
capacities are far larger.
However, if youre using an older computer,
or a Mac with a small amount of memory,
either add more memory or free up some
storage to improve performance. Use Activity
Monitor to check memory usage; if the Memory
Pressure graph regularly shows orange or red,
more memory will mean macOS doesnt have
to write the contents of memory used by idle
apps out to disk in order to free up some for
apps that need it.
On a Mac with a hard drive (not flash
storage), keep at least the same amount of
freestorage as your Mac has memory, so the
latters contents can be saved to disk if the
Macenters Safe Sleep when its battery runs
low or its left idle for a long time.
You might want to think about upgrading
toa faster hard drive, or even an SSD, for
If you suspect
your Mac isnt
able to run its
maintenance
scripts
automatically,
run them
yourself in
Terminal.
further gains youll find visual guides

formany Macs at ifixit.com.
Optimal performance
macOS runs optimization scripts overnight if
your Macs turned on or in sleep mode, but you
can force them to run manually at any time by
opening Terminal (in /Applications/Utilities)
and typing: sudo periodic daily weekly
monthly (or any combination of the last three
words), then pressing .
Though macOS is good at keeping things
inorder, apps can interfere with its settings,
causing problems. Permissions define who
canaccess, execute, write to or delete a file
ondisk, and are used to limit the damage that
unauthorized users or routines can cause. Its
possible for an app to erroneously lock a file by
changing its permissions, which could cause
other apps to crash when they cant access a
required resource, such as the place where
iTunes records play counts for tracks.
Up to OS X 10.10, open Disk Utility, select the
startup disk, click the First Aid tab, then Repair
Permissions. As of OS X 10.11, System Integrity
Protection (apple.co/29LWvsP) protects the
permissions of important system files and
apps, which are now checked and repaired
automatically when you install systemupdates.
If your Macs running slow, you should be
able to diagnose the problem using Activity
Monitor (again, in the Utilities folder). If your
Mac is hot or its fans are running at high
speed, click the CPU tab, then the % CPU
column header to sort processes by usage.
Similarly, use the Disk tab to diagnose which
app is thrashing storage, and Memory and
Network to check general slowness or a
slowinternet connection. You can force
anunresponsive app or a process hogging
resource to quit, but do this with care: only quit
those for which your own username appears in
the User column, and save your work first, if
possible, to minimize potential data loss.
Mac Survival Guide
Check SMART status of disks
How to Maintain a keychain
SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting

Technology), isbuilt in to many hard drives and some
SSDs,allowing them todetect potential problems and
predict their own demise. In Disk Utility, select a drive
inthesidebar to view its SMART status (bottom of the
window). This may help you to back up and install a new
drive in time to avoid losing data. Disk Utility cant check
the status of most external drives, though. See p40
foranother great monitoring tool.
Keychain contents
Your keychain stores usernames and
passwords for automatic insertion into web
forms, authentication windows, and apps.
Itsa timesaver, but get into the habit of
revoking access rights.
1
D
Investigate your data
Open Keychain Access from the
Utilities folder, select a keychain at the top
left, then All items under Category. Scroll
through the entries to find keys for apps
thatyou no longer use.
2
Activity Monitor
Diagnose unresponsive apps
Resource
management
Switch between various resource
monitors by clicking the tabs
that run across the top of
Activity Monitor.
A
Identify any
resource hogs
Click a heading to sort the list
onthat particular attribute and
highlight those that are
resource-hungry.
B
Excise old information

If you find an item you no longer use,
such as an old email accounts password or
certificate for a site you no longer visit, rightclick it, choose Delete, then enter your
password to authorize its removal.
3
Kill stalled
processes
Click a sluggish or unresponsive
process, then click the X
(topleft) to force it to quit. If
possible, save your work first.
C
Identify things
Many items are crucial
elements of OS X. You can
search online to learn more
about them dont quit them
just forthe sake of it.
D
>>> Feature
Recovery options
When quick fixes dont work,all is not lost

If your Mac is unresponsive or exhibiting
problems that cant be resolved using the
tipsin the previous section, use your Macs
diagnostics tools to check for physical
problems before contacting Apple for support.
First, eject and detach all external devices,
then shut down your Mac. Power on your Mac
and hold d while it starts up until you see
either Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware
Test. (If youve completely erased your Macs
startup disk in the past, you can start Apple
Diagnostics from the internet by holding
Alt+d instead.)
On Macs introduced in June 2013 orlater,
your Mac will run Apple Diagnostics. When
finished, either return to macOS if no problems
are found, or restart in macOS Recovery (hold
+r), a hidden partition that enables you to
repair certain problems or reinstall macOS.
Macs introduced prior to June 2013 use
AppleHardware Test. If this utility finds any
problems, it gives an error code for you to
quote to Apple or an authorized service
provider when seeking their assistance. If your

Mac shipped with OS X 10.7 (Lion) oran earlier
version, youll need to use the diagnostics tools
supplied with it on Applications Install Disc 2
or the MacBook Air Software Reinstall Drive.
Theyre accessed by inserting the original
optical disc or connecting the USB drive to your
Mac and then following the same steps
described to the left.
Repair in the Recovery system
If you are running OS X 10.10 or an earlier
version, have tried repairing permissions
inDisk Utility as described in the previous
section, and it hasnt solved your problems,
repeat the operation after starting up in OS X
Recovery, which you can enter by holding
+r at the startup sound. Select Disk Utility
from Recoverys main menu and repeat the
repair process. Recovery also lets you reinstall
the operating system from scratch. This will
give you the most recently installed version
ofOS X if you use the local Recovery partition,
or the one that shipped with your Mac if you
use Internet Recovery.
Recovery also provides an option to restore
your Macs contents from a Time Machine
backup (provided you havent excluded
systemfiles from your backups). Any of
thesemethods is an effective means of
solvingmost problems, but will lead to
dataloss if youdont have a recent backup.
If youre suffering from persistent kernel
panics, in which the screen dims and is
overlaid by multi-language messages, or
yourMac is forgetting small but important
details between sessions, such as preferred
volume or startup disk, reset your Macs
NVRAM (non-volatile random-access
memory), which stores key settings.
Power on your Mac and hold +Alt+p+r
as soon as you hear the startup sound until you
hear the sound a second time, then release and
allow startup to complete. The 2016 MacBook
Pros dont have the startup chime hold the
Mac Survival Guide
checklist
How to Make an OS X install disk
>>> Keep your backups up to

date, and dont rely on just
one. Pairing a local backup
onan external drive with
anonline service such as
Crashplan, Backblaze, or
Carbonite is ideal.
>>> After an app or OS X
crashes, save the details from
your Macs log files andsubmit
them to the developer. Even
ifyou dont understand
theinformation, they will.
USB drive
Connect your drive (12-in
MacBooks need a USB-C adapter
or drive). Open Disk Utility, select
the drive (in the sidebar), click
Erase, enter a name, select OS X
Extended (Journaled) as format
and GUID as scheme. Click Erase.
OS X installer
Download macOS from the
Mac App Store but quit the
installer when it opens you dont
want to reinstall the OS. Instead,
youll use a media creation tool
hidden inside it to turn your USB
drive into an install disk.
copyfiles
In Terminal, type sudo then
aspace; drag the installer onto the
window to add the full path to the
command line. Press to remove
the space, then add /Contents/
Resources/createinstallmedia,
thenadd a space.
Finish up
Type --volume and a space.
Press ++c in Finder and
drag your USB drive onto Terminal.
Leave the space, type
--applicationpath and a space,
drag in the installer, again leave
the space, add --nointeraction.
Wait a while
Press . After entering
your password, Terminal will reach
into the installer to use the media
creation tool to copy installation
files to your USB drive and make
itbootable. Leave Terminal alone
until you see Done.
install disk
Your disk is ready to install
macOS on other Macs. Connect it
to one and reboot, hold Alt at the
startup sound until youre asked
toselect a startup disk. Choose
thedisk you just prepped and
themacOS installer will load.
>>> If your Mac crashes on

startup, restart in safe mode
by holding after you hear
the startup sound, then
disable login items for your
user account in System
Preferences > Users & Groups.
3
keys for 20 seconds immediately

after powering on the machine.
help the helpers
Should all else fail and you need
professional help, give as much info
as you can by pulling crash reports
from logs. macOS can send crash
data to Apple and app developers
ifyou allow it in Security & Privacy
prefs, under Privacy > Diagnostics
&Usage. You can review whats
beensent by opening Console
(Utilities folder) and choosing
Diagnostic & Usage Data best
donefrom an admin user account.
Automatic reporting is described at
apple.co/2fr3oRN. If you opt out,
your selection in Console can be
exported (El Capitan or earlier) using
File > Save Selection As, or copied
and pasted into TextEdit in Sierra.
>>> Feature
Additional protection
Continue to monitor your Mac with these third-party options

> TechTool Pro 9
TechTool Pro ($99,
micromat.com) provides an
extended selection of checks
of your Macs health, some
ofwhich are those built in to
OS X, such as SMART status
testing. However, it includes
many more checks: of
Bluetooth and other
networking hardware,
electrical and temperature
sensors, and even fan
operation. These can help to
highlight a small issue before
it becomes a big one. Sierra
support isnt available at the
time of writing, but Micromat
says its coming soon.
The app provides a System
Preferences pane, TechTool
Protection, that monitors a
subset of its tests in the

background. This also
includes a check of how much
free space remains, which is
especially helpful on small
drives as you can be alerted
earlier than macOSs own
warning would kick in.
> Data Rescue

Data Rescue ($99,
prosofteng.com) can
help recover lost files,
even after erasure or
reformatting, or if a
disk fails to mount.
Quick Scan only
works on volumes,
recovering files in
original hierarchy.
The Deleted Files
Scan searches for
patterns in the hope
IftheMac you want to

monitor is a headless one,
perhaps used as your file
server and to cache personal
iCloud data and store
downloads, the app can
beconfigured to email you
whena problem is detected.
> Backup apps

of finding files; its
supported by FileIQ
drag in new file types
to teach the app.
Deep Scan looks at all
data on a drive and
takes about three
minutes per GB.
Theres also a cloning
feature that attempts
to make a one-to-one
copy of a disk, so you
can scan that instead.
A bootable clone of
your disk is a very
useful backup tool in
case your main drive
fails, and the basic free
version of SuperDuper!
(shirt-pocket.com) is a
great way to create
them. Its paid-for
version ($27.95) adds
extra features including
scheduling, scripting,
and more.
For many of these

features, though, weve
teamed up with Get
Backup Pro ($19.99,
belightsoft.com) to get
you them for free! See
the next page for more
of its features, but this
app offers scheduled
clone creation, regular
backups, and even
folder syncing to
external drives.
Giveaway
Keep your data safe with

your FREE backup app
Download Get Backup Pro 2 today and secure your files!
> Create bootable disk clones
> Encrypt and compress your backups
> Sync files between computers and drives
> Automate your backup and sync schedule
FREE
backup
app
worth
$19.99
In association with
The most precious thing about your Mac

is the information you create and store
on it! Its vital to have a comprehensive
backup option, and Get Backup Pro 2
from BeLight Software offers just that.
Quickly back up data, create bootable

and encrypted backups, sync folders
across Macs and attached drives, and be
confident that your data is safely stored
in case of system failure or file loss.
Download Get Backup Pro 2 now from

belightsoft.com/maclife-offer/
Reader offer valid until Tuesday, January 10 2017
>>> Feature
Unlock
the
power
of
Apples
apps
Theres more to
your iPhone and
iPads default apps
than meets the eye.
Gary Marshall
shows you how to
take advantage of
iOSs hidden power
44 JAN 2017 maclife.com
he 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 Apples 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 doesnt mean theyre not
surprisingly powerful. The amount of
options they give you is often
overlooked, even by those who use
themregularly. Here, were 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.
However you use your iPhone or iPad,
these tips could make your life easier.
Mail
How to Make Mail even smarter
Manage your mail
Search the cloud
Intimidated by your inbox, or any other folder?

Tapon the funnel icon in the bottom left corner and
Mailfilters email according to set criteria. By default
itshows unread mail, but if you tap Filtered By, you
cansetyour own criteria.
When you add a file attachment to a Mail message,

youre not just limited to the images on your iOS device.
You can attach a document or image from iCloud, Dropbox,
or other storage apps you have installed, too. Just tap the
paperclip and then tap Locationsto select the source.
Book your events
Follow the thread
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 youll see the familiar
Calendar pop-up with the relevant details already added
for you; you can then add more details if necessary.
Mail can automatically organize your mail by

conversation, pulling in messages from wherever theyre
stored so you can see the entire thread. This is either
brilliant or insanely annoying, and if you dont like it
youcan turn it off in Settings.
maclife.com JAN 2017 45
>>> Feature
Calendar
Calendar now communicates effectively with other iOS apps
> Never forget
> Better together
One of our
favoriteCalendar
features in iOS 10
isitsability to
interrogate other
apps to find out
ifyou should
haveadded
something
toyourschedule
but didnt. In our
case that means
scanning Mail
messages for ticket
confirmations, but
it works for travel
reservations too.
One of the most important

changes in iOS 10 is the
communication between
different iOS apps (and thirdparty apps), which can make
lifea lot easier. For example,
ifyou have an appointment
somewhere youve 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 a Calendar invite to accept
orreject it.
> Everything in its place

This image shows Calendars
app-aware cleverness in all its
glory. Weve booked a flight and
received an email confirmation,
and as youcan see from the gray
color, Calendar has spotted it and
added it to its Events Found In
Apps calendar. What might not
beso obvious is what else its
done. Its interrogated our booking
email toget the flight departure
and landing times, its pulled out
the airlines confirmation code and
thenames of the passengers, and
its even pulled up a map of our
destination airport.
Theres more. It links directly

tothe original message in Mail
sothat we can pull up additional
information, such as scannable
boarding cards, and if the event
was created by somebody else we
can tap on Created By to see the
Contacts card for that person - so a
FaceTime call is just two taps away.
Its clever stuff, and while it
doesnt always happen quite so
smoothly - for example, Calendar
may have spotted our flight, but
itdidnt notice our Airbnb
reservation - when it works
itsgenuinely helpful.
Messages
How to Be a Messages master
Stop the spam
Scribbles
Messages is often the target

ofpeople trying to sell stuff or of
companies trying to annoy us when
were watching TV. Go into Settings
>Messages and enable Filter
Unknown Senders to silence them.
Text and emoji are so last

year.Messages now enables you
toreply with a er, a beautiful piece
ofhandmade art like the one you
seehere. Just tap the icon of a
heartwith two fingers on it.
Save your data
Silence is golden
If youre on a limited data

planor 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.
If youre in a busy group chat,

the constant notifications can become
irritating. You dont have to leave the
conversation, though: tap the i in the
top-right corner and turn on Do Not
Disturb. It silences that conversation.
Archive your audio
Get to the point
Do you want to keep your

friends or partners audio messages
forever rather than see them vanish?
Go into Settings > Messages > Expire
and you can remove the two-minute
limit for permanent preservation.
One particularly useful timesaving feature in Messages is the

ability to tap on a conversations
information button and scroll directly
to the images or file attachments
shared in that conversation.
>>> Feature
Contacts
Its just a name and a number, right? No, theres so much more
Link Contacts combines multiple

contact details into a single
contacts card for one person.
OS 10s Contacts app might not look

like the most exciting thing on your
iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, but its
adeceptively powerful information
manager. While you can use it as
asimple phonebook, its 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.
Theres also a new Emergency Bypass option. This
overrides Do Not Disturb, so if theres a particular
contact who absolutely must get through to you day
or night, you can set that up.
Once youve done that, you have the familiar
options for home and work addresses, more phones
than any sensible person should have, Facebook,
Twitter, web addresses, and so on. There are also
fields for instant messaging apps - Skype, MSN,
Google Talk, Facebook Messenger, even our old
friend ICQ - and profiles on networks such as
LinkedIn, and in the unlikely event a site or service
isnt listed you can add one. You can also add
custom fields to your contact cards to store

information that hasnt already been catered for.
Contacts communicates with Maps to get maps
for the physical addresses you enter, and you can
share those maps when you share the contacts card.
Tapping on the map opens it in Maps, and you can
tap to get directions from your current location.
You can take a note of the persons birthday or
wedding anniversary, record names of their family
members or colleagues, and add notes for anything
else. You can combine multiple contacts for the
same person into a single contacts card by scrolling
down to Link Contacts. And of course, if youre
syncing contacts between devices, you can be
talking to somebody on your phone while reading
their info off another device. They dont know that
the reason you can remember their husbands
name is because the informations in front of you.
One thing that isnt immediately obvious is to
put your contact Favorites on the Today view as a
widget. It follows the Favorites section of the Phone
app and has room for up to eight entries, so you
might have home and mobile numbers for your
partner, FaceTime for the kids, and Messages for a
friend. Iteffectively puts a speed dial on your Lock
screen. Dont forget about Siri, either. You can train
Siri to use particular contacts, so for example if
youtell Siri that Daphne is my wife then Siri
remembers that for future reference, enabling
youto say Hey Siri, call my wife. And you can
tellSiri to call you anything you like.
If you dont want to miss a call from a particular contact when

DoNot Disturb is turned on, use the Emergency Bypass feature.
Maps
How to Get the most out of Maps
Explore options
Go public
Maps has had a dramatic

facelift in iOS 10, and we think its
avast improvement. Here weve
askedfor directions to a particular
location, and Maps is showing usthe
possible routes and live traffic.
If you live in or near a big

citytheres a very good chance that
Apples public transit information is
available to you. Its particularly
handy in confusing and really
busyplaces such as cities.
AirDrop it
Discover more
In iOS 10, once youve 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.
Apple has worked very hard

onmaking Maps as useful as possible,
and when you search for a place of
interest youll see all kinds of
information: contact details, photos,
Wikipedia entries, and reviews.
Open it up
Get to the point
The new, more open Apple

realizes that not everybody wants to
stick with Apples own apps - so you
can now send the route to another
GPS app. Maps shows whats installed
as well as App Store suggestions.
The latest version of Flyover,

which enables you to see 3D models
of buildings and entire cities, is really
stunning. The level of detail is
absolutely astonishing, and its
asfunas it is useful.
>>> Feature
Reminders
1 Scheduling
iPad notifications
are day-based, but
on iPhone you can
be notified when
you arrive or leave
somewhere.
5
1
2 Priority
After None, there
are three levels
ofpriority. The
exclamation marks
appear next to
theitem.
2
3
3 List
Reminders enables
you to keep multiple
lists and sync via
iCloud. You can
share lists with
others too.
4 Notes
Keep background
info, thoughts, URLs
and other data here
and theyll appear in
small print below
the item.
5 Tick list
The interface is
deliberately simple.
To mark a task as
complete, just
check the circle to
the left of the item.
6 Speak to Siri
Reminders works
well with Siri: Hey
Siri, remind me to
get milk at the
store automatically
creates a reminder.
ets be honest.
Reminders is probably
iOS 10s least impressive
app. But while its not
going to satisfy the
productivity crowd and its not
something youd want to use to
manage a project, its still a great
littleapp for organizing everyday
activities and sharing lists with
friends. And when you combine
Reminders with Siri and/or the
AppleWatch, it does actually
becomeconsiderably more
impressiveand 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
itcomplete, just tap on the circle
nextto it. Incomplete items stay
visible, and completed ones disappear

from view.
And thats pretty much it. You
cancolor-code your lists for easy
identification and share them with
other iOS users, but if youre looking
for the kind of app that you can use to
manage every minute of your day then
this isnt the app for you. But thats
okay, because what Reminders does,
itdoes beautifully. It sits there in the
Notifications area soyou can see what
youve got on for the day. It pings if
you want it to, and doesnt if you
dont. And if you use iton the iPhone,
you can tell Siri to remind you at a
particular location andfeel like youre
living in the future.Its well suited to
the Apple Watch too, with its simple
interface working well on the Watchs
comparatively tiny screen.
Notes
How to Use Notes to organize everything
Get marking
More the merrier
Notes can include images and

PDF documents, and that means you
can use Markup to annotate them,
highlight key points or sign them off.
Its particularly handy if you want to
point to a particular detail.
Notes arent just for you: you

can share your Note with others via
an invitation on Messages, Mail,
Twitter or Facebook. Any changes
toyour Note will then be shared
automatically with everybody.
Check it off
Find what you want
The lines between the Notes

and Reminders apps look awfully
blurry at times: you can use Notes
tomanage to-do lists and checklists,
although you cant schedule
reminders by time or location.
Just like Messages, Notes

enables you to see just the file
attachments. Look for the thumbnails
icon at the bottom left of the screen.
This takes you to Attachments view
for the current folder.
Add images
Keep a secret
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
isthen embedded in your Note.
Not every note wants a wider

audience. To keep top-secret world
domination plans away from prying
eyes, tap on the Share icon and then
on Lock Note. Use a password others
wont guess and you wont forget.
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maclife.com Jan 2017 53
APP LIFE
THIS MONTHS MOST INTERESTING iPHONE & iPAD APPS
Scanbot 6 Pro
Improved feature set for this scanning app

Free ($7.99 Pro upgrade) Developer doo GmbH, scanbot.io
Platform Universal Requirements iOS 9 or later
Scanbot 6 Pro
adds new
annotation
colors, as well
asmore robust
tools for editing
and managing
PDF files.
If you typically
snapphotos of
documents and
savethem in the
Camera Roll, Scanbot 6 is a
revelation. The app provides
afar 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
ofPDF or JPG files
witha minimum
resolution of 200 dpi.
The core app is free,
which includes the
ability to also scan
QRor other barcodes,
enhancements (filters,
crop, rotate), and
automatic upload to
cloud services iCloud
Drive, Dropbox, or
Evernote; the latest
update adds OneDrive
and Amazon Drive to
the mix. But the
one-time Pro in-app upgrade

is highly recommended for
those who want to do even
more with their scans.
For starters, Scanbot 6 Pro
automatically performs optical
character recognition (OCR),
which enables extracted text to
be copied or searched. Smart
file naming speeds up the
process, along with WebDAV
and FTP uploads, and the
ability to add pages to existing
scans. You can even capture
documents and immediately
send via text message,
although the iMessage app
lacks the full complement
ofediting features.
With version 6, Scanbot has
also become a capable PDF
editor. Users can now reorder,
add, delete, and rotate pages
within documents, add
encrypted password
protection, or run OCR on
imported documents created
elsewhere. The built-in
annotation features have
likewise been overhauled with
additional colors and tool sizes,
although we do wish there
wasa way to import or sync
existing signatures and sign on
the iPhone in landscape mode,
Scanbot 6 intelligently automates the

process of capturing documents.
rather than scribbling on
anarrow portrait display.
The biggest change in the
latest version is relatively
subtle the interface has been
refined and simplified, with a
new emphasis on workflows
that allow users to perform
common tasks more quickly. If
you frequently scan documents
and immediately print or share
them, Scanbot 6 streamlines
this process considerably.
the bottom line. Scanbot
6is the best mobile scanner
around, but do yourself a favor
and spring for the Pro upgrade.
J.R. Bookwalter
SCANBOT 6 PRO
High-quality mobile scanner app

Integrates directly with
popular cloud services
Occasionally slow edge detection
iMessage app lacks editing
functionality (crop in particular)
excellent
Tough testing, trusted ratings
FabFocus
A very capable portrait-enhancing tool

$1.99 Developer Secondverse, secondverse.org
This review goes out to all

the iPhone photographers
who are looking to take
theirphotography skills
tothe next level. Today we check out
FabFocus, a point-and-shoot photography
app that aims to produce images that
look like theyve 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
youcan 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 as the portrait style ones
youcan now take with the new iPhone 7
Plus. Were going to be very honest here:
no, theyre not. An app isntgoing to
beable to fully simulate cutting edge
hardware, but that doesnt mean that
youshouldnt give it a whirl. Itdoes
agreat job as a piece of entry-level
software and provides absolutely
fantastic results for anyone who wishes
to give their portraits a bit of a boost.
Overall, we think this is a fantastic app
to add to your iPhone photography
The masking tool can be used to select fine

details of subjects in the foreground.
arsenal. Sure, its not going to replace a
high-end camera, but if you havent made
the leap to the iPhone 7 Plus yet, or if
youre not looking to spend the money
ona DSLR, its a good tool.
the bottom line. A great app to
keep on your iPhone, especially if youre
into selfies and portraits. Amber Neely
great
Picniic
Family organizer with teething problems

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,

theres 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 app doesnt
offer native iPad display support tablets
and desktops require signing into the
web app, which is only available with a
paid subscription (currently $11.99 per
month or $49.99 annually). This was kind
of a deal breaker in our case, since the
kids have iPads, where Picniic only runs
in extra-chunky 2x mode. (Yuck.)
A subscription also unlocks additional
features like a meal planner, info locker
for storing secure contacts or other data,
and events tracker. Some of these tools
are genuinely useful, but theres no free
Picniic keeps tabs on the whole family,

butmany features require a subscription.
trial period to get a sense of how they
work; others like the Find My Friendsstyle family locator are redundant.
the bottom line. Picniic brings the
whole family together, but the lack of a
native iPad app makes it less useful for
households with younger kids without
iPhones. J.R. Bookwalter
solid
The Pencil fluidity

is great, as is the
palm rejection for
accurate writing.
MyScript Nebo
Futuristic note-taking on iPad Pro

Free Developer MyScript, myscript.com
Platform iPad Requirements iOS 9.1 or later
Shapes and
arrows are
converted easily
for diagrams.
MyScript Nebo is
afairly standard
note-taking app in
that you can make
hand-scrawled notes with the
pencil, or draw sketches, or
add images from elsewhere.
Whats clever is that is detects
your writing live as you note
things down. You see a little
gray line of text above your
words, showing
what the app
thinks they say
(which is usually
accurate, but if
its slightly off,
you can tap a word
to choose near
alternatives).
When youve done
making your note,
you can doubletap what you
wrote, and the
app converts it
into clear, typed text instantly.

But you can also format notes
this way! Draw bullet points
and they get turned into bullets
in a list when you convert.
Underline headings and they
get made bigger and bolder
during conversion. Then you
can copy this text to paste
elsewhere. Oh, and if you make
a mistake, you just scribble
over the incorrect part, and it
instantly vanishes and this
works on handwriting or
already converted text. And
ithas adiagram mode for
drawing shapes and arrows
that get converted to neat
graphics, along with a special
mode for math formulae.
It is phenomenally cool, and
it really works. Mostly. It can
struggle to see lines of written
notes as connected, so you
gettwo separate blocks after
conversion, which is fiddly
forcopying. We also found it

mixed words from one line into
another a few times. You cant
edit text using standard text
tools once its converted,
which seems odd (though
youcan rewrite with the Pencil
in converted blocks, which
helps). It all works like magic,
but Fantasia magic, where you
might not be totally in control.
Its also weak in terms of
note organization. Multiple
individual notes can be stored
in a Collection, and multiple
Collections can be stored in a
Folder but you cant move
notes around once created.
Youcant give notes aname,
and you cant add tags, or
search for notes (you can
search within a note, which
isexcellent). It does have
goodexport options, though.
The app was free at
thetimeof writing, but is
plannedto have a cost later.
the bottom line. When it
works, its brilliant. But it has
foibles, and needs better note
organization. Matt Bolton
MyScript Nebo
Converts notes to text easily

Lots of clever, fast ways to work
Detection has some issues
Note organization is weak
Good
Tough testing, trusted ratings >>> App
Life
Cosmic-Watch
The skys (not quite) the limit

$3.99 Developer Celestial Dynamics, cosmic-watch.com
If youre into outer space

and stargazing, CosmicWatch 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 whats 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
thesun, and a feature that shows you

where planets and eclipses are going to
be visible. Not only can you see whats
currently going on, you also can skip
back and forth through time to find
outwhat the sky looked like, or will
looklike, on any other day.
Our only problem with the app is that
it doesnt provide any additional info
no encyclopedia-style articles about the
planets, constellations, or anything else
not even links to the relevant article
onWikipedia. This app is designed solely
asa sky map, which may make it a less
attractive option for learning than
something like Sky Guide. With that
Star maps show where constellations are

in relation to points on the globe.
inmind, its mainly older kids and adults
who are already interested in simple
stargazing who will find Cosmic-Watch
particularly useful.
the bottom line. Cosmic-Watch is
polished, easy to use, and could become
the at-home astronomers go-to app
when preparing for an evening of
scanning the skies. Amber Neely
good
The Complete
Fairytale Play Theater
Get the kids playing with plays
$4.99 Developer Nosy Crow, nosycrow.com
If you have kids, you need

this app: its 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 (were 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 its 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 you
can flip your character round or move
them offstage, for instance. You can also
add preset background music or record
your own sounds. The children loved this
element coming up with crazy dialogue,
adding explosive sound effects, and
singing songs. Our only minor gripes
arethat you cant add text if, say, you
The illustrations are gorgeous, and there are

so many different options to choose from.
wanted to make it more like a storybook
(that said, its a theater app, not a book
creating app) nor import your own
images, which would have been great
forusing akids photo as a character.
the bottom line. Offers beautiful
illustrations, an incredible range of
elements to choose from, and a real
child-friendly ease of use. jo membery
awesome
Its easy to try out a preset program

and then make your own tweaks to
theactions to explore the options.
Tinkerblocks
A bright, colorful coding app for kids

$2.99 Developer Urbn Pockets, urbnpockets.com
It looks like
modern art as
much as a way
tobuild code.
Every time a new

coding app for kids
gets released, we
wonder if this will
be the one to really get them
engaged. TinkerBlocks looks
the part, with its colorful,
simple layout, and tools to let
kids build basic programs.
At first we thought wed
hitInfo to get ourselves
acquainted, via a mini tutorial
maybe. But no, this displays
an adult-led description of
the app: The blocks have the
potential and scalability of any
real procedural programming

language. We also thought
the thumbnails at the top were
example programs, but they
were IAPs (with a pretty weak
math question as security,
although kids have to get past
your iTunes restrictions, too).
From the Home page, you
cantap a question mark for
annotations to discover more.
On the right are a number of
basic starter projects: tap one
to see the bare bones, or use
the stylus icon to edit.
The options are pretty
impressive. You can add input/
output controls (image, video,
text, and more), control
features (countdown/timer),
animpressive set of sensors
(location, tilt, shake, face and
motion detection, and more),
and a few effects (such as
preset graphics, text, and
sounds). If the icons are not
obvious, you can press one to

find out what it does, then drag
one over to the list of actions.
Its easy to change order using
drag-and-drop, and easy to
delete an action by dragging it
left until the trash can appears.
We found the image tool
alittle frustrating. On our
iPhone, the app couldnt access
our Camera Roll despite having
given it permission; then it
could access it but reported
an issue with every image.
This worked fine on an iPad.
We experienced a similar
working/not working issue
with face detection.
Theres definitely a learning
curve to the app, and parents
will almost definitely have to
assist young developers.
Once comfortable with the
concept, though, the results
should keep your kids engaged
so they enjoy tinkering without
supervision. And its easy for
them to share their creations
maybe a bit too easy. As with
the IAPs, the restriction is just
a simple math question.
the bottom line. Theres
a lot to take in, but also a lot on
offer once your little coders get
the hang of things.
JO MEMBERY
Tinkerblocks
Colorful, engaging interface

A lot of tools to play with
D espite annotations, theres
quite a learning curve
R estrictions are possibly too easy
for slightly older kids to bypass
good
Life
Mini Metro
Its all on the line in this smart puzzle game

$4.99 Developer Dinosaur Polo Club, dinopoloclub.com
Its 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
youre 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. Its your job to connect

the stations with lines in an efficient
manner to make sure that overcrowding
doesnt happen because thats how you
lose the game.
The simplicity and minimalism of the
design and the interaction are perfectly
done and make Mini Metro a wonderful,
easy game to pick up. However, the tight
quarters of a smaller iPhone screen can
make it difficult to make the exact moves
you want to, and less-than-accurate
touchscreen controls mean that
sometimes youll try to delete a line and
end up creating some hellish nightmare
of tangled lines and resentment.
The line colors in each level correspond to

the ones used in each citys metro system.
Its fun to replay, and new cities such
as Paris, Montreal, and Berlin are
unlocked as you play, but the issues with
the touchscreen make it really difficult to
progress past a certain level. Once youve
started messing up by accident, its hard
to claw it back. Its better on iPad.
the bottom line. An excellent,
minimalistic game that doesnt quite
translate to smaller touchscreen devices.
Kate Gray
great
The Bug Butcher
Youre an exterminator IN SPACE

$3.99 Developer Noodlecake Studios, noodlecake.com
Classic arcade action with

updated graphics thats
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 youve 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.
Its repetitive, but quite satisfying, and

the fact that your character is shooting
vertically the whole time feels quite
novel. Its awfully small on a four-inch
iPhone screen, though, which makes
quick decisions and reactions quite tricky.
Whats more, the controls are the
standard left/right in one corner and
shoot/use special move in the other,
which, while it does replicate that arcade
feeling, means its easy to mess up
without the tactile feedback of a
controller. The levels get quite frantic
as they progress, which means youll die
more frequently, so it would feel more
fun if the controls werent quite as slippy.
Avoiding the bounce of the different enemies

is key to surviving each wave.
Overall, its a snappy and fun arcade
game that doesnt quite translate
perfectly to mobile: it requires accuracy
and speed that touchscreen controls just
cant handle. Still, if your thumbs are
sufficiently small and grippy, you might
get on just fine.
the bottom line. A novel,
fast-paced arcade game, but with touch
controls that suffer on some iOS devices.
Kate Gray
good
Stepping into a yellow-highlighted spot

gets you into cover. Whether youll
remain safe for long is another story.
Invisible, Inc.
Think youre a smooth criminal?

$4.99 Developer Klei Entertainment, kleientertainment.com
Platform iPad Requirements iOS 8 or later; iPad Air/iPad mini 2 or later
Everything youve
not at least
peeked at is
shrouded in
ominous,
intriguing
darkness.
To be honest, we
dont know how
James Bond does it;
spying is stressful
work. As an employee of the
titular Invisible, Inc., youre
acyber-spy tasked with
gathering intel to ensure the
success of a counterstrike on
afellow corporation. Think
thats pressure? You aint
heard the half of it.
What it boils down to, in

playing terms, is controlling a
pair of agents (you start with
two, but unlock more as you go
along) as they infiltrate various
offices in bids to smuggle out
data, steal augmentations, and
so on. Each turn grants you a
certain number of action
points per agent, which you
use for movement, peeking
around corners, anticipating
patrol routes and, in rare cases,
actually attacking.
Sometimes youll really need
to get guards off your case
and steal their keycards but
once knocked-out hostiles
come to, theyll be extrasuspicious but using your
firearm alerts everyone else to
your presence. Youre backed
up by Incognita, your AI
assistant. As long as shes got
power (which you can boost by
hijacking computers), she can
hack security cameras and

other systems. Careful use of
her power points is key to your
success, and adds an extra
layer of consideration disable
this camera rather than
sneaking around it, or save
some juice for whats ahead?
Every few turns, the security
level ratchets up along with
your blood pressure. The fact
you can only see the parts of
the level that your agents have
set eyes on adds to the tension
could that newly recruited
security detail be lurking
around this corner? If they are,
youll only have a single move
or so to dodge out of their line
of vision once theyve spotted
you. If theres more than one
of them, its often impossible.
Trust us, you will get caught,
repeatedly. What results is an
incredibly tense, well puttogether turn-based strategy
game, with plenty of
replayability thanks to its
procedural environments.
the bottom line. Its as
tough as graphene and not
always entirely fun but
Invisible, Inc. is deep, varied,
and rewards perseverance.
Emma Davies
Invisible, Inc.
L ooks and sounds slick,

with decent voice acting
C ampaign encourages
multiple playthroughs
L ower difficulty settings offer
rewinds to take you back a turn
Interface is sometimes clumsy
great
Life
Roundup
6 brain-testing iOS games

Give your mind a workout with these IQ-stretching apps
BY KATE GRAY
Sometimes its 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 youre not a
huge fan of logic, steer well clear
but if youve always wanted to
trythe terrifying art of learning
how a computer thinks, then this
will really test you. Theres 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:
swipe. Threes! tasks you with one
goal, which is to make bigger
numbers. You do that by swiping
matching numbers into each other
(they giggle every time), making
them bigger. You carry on, at least
until you run out of matches and
the game totals up your high score.
Then, you play again. And again.
Human Resource Machine puts the fun in

learning coding fundamentals.
Blek takes drawing into a strange new

frontier youll need to think ahead.
Youll never be done with Threes!,
and youll never be satisfied with
your high score. In a good way.
The Room (Free, iPhone; 99,
iPad) is more narratively-driven
than most other puzzle games,
although it might take a while to
figure out what the narrative is.
The Room is a bit like a video game
version of a Japanese puzzle box, as
you twist and turn and walk around
a confusing yet beautiful cabinet,
poking and prodding until you find
a secret compartment containing
akey that hopefully opens up
another secret compartment.
Itsalso absolutely beautiful.
Some of the best puzzles are the
most simple. You can play them
over and over, chasing a high score
or next level, and never worry that
you dont understand whats going
on. With Hundreds ($2.99,
Universal), you tap gray circles
until they total 100. If they touch
when they are red, you die. Its a
game of fast-paced tapping and
adrenalin as you try to avoid the
various traps and other floating
circles thatmean your doom.
Its really satisfying to swipe a
touchscreen and see it transferred
into digital calligraphy, and Blek

($2.99, Universal) plays on that
create a gesture, like an arced line,
and the game automates that
gesture over and over. The goal is
to touch all the blue dots, but not
the black ones your gestures
have to be perfect to get each level
right. But watching your gesture
repeat without you means letting
go of a certain amount of control
- can you do that?
Probably the most cuddly game
on this list, Alphabear (Free,
Universal) is for word-lovers.
Letters appear on a grid, and you
select them one-by-one to create
words. Longer words mean more
points, words with rare letters in
like Scrabble are worth more.
And theres the sweet little
addition of the titular bears. After
each level, theyll say a prewritten sentence like Life is
better when you have ____
where the blank is filled in with
aword youve played that round.
Hilarity ensues.
Word puzzling just got cute. As you use

letters, you create bigger and bigger bears.
>>> App Life
Watch
apps and guides to get more from your watch
FM Radio PRO
Virtually spinning the platters that matter

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 its easier to browse for
something to listen to.
watch tip
Scribble a reply
Prefer to reply to
text messages by
hand? In watchOS
3, scroll past the
emoji, voice, and
drawing options.
Tap Scribble, and
use the grid to
write a letter.
Delete incorrectly
recognized letters
or add a space
before tapping
Send.
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 a bit more limited
by hard pressing the screen,
you can search by genre or go
directly to favorite stations
youve already marked in the
main app. You can also start,
stop, and skip to the next or
previous track, but this only
controls playback from the
connected iPhone; no audio
comes out of the Watch itself.
The main app makes up for
its Apple Watch limitations in
a few ways, most notably the
ability to record a currentlyplaying station for up to two
hours, which is then available
for offline playback. Sadly,
theres no way to initiate
recordings (or access them
remotely) on the Watch.
Last but not least, FM Radio
PRO also includes alarm and
timer functionality, for those
who like to wake up and go to
sleep with their favorite
stations already in progress.
The app pulls content from
SHOUTcast, and offers an

ad-free experience for no
more than a buck.
the bottom line. There are
more radio stations than you
can shake a stick at, but Apple
Watch support is limited in the
initial release.
J.R. Bookwalter
FM Radio PRO
T une in to 70,000-plus radio stations

around the world
Remote control for genre and favorites
atch app offers basic
W
remote control functionality
No Watch audio playback
solid
Cat Translator Deluxe
Its a scientific breakthrough! Oh, wait
How to
Use IFTTT DO
Widgets
99 Developer Dima Komar, vk.com/dima.komar

We know what youre

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.
Its 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 its little

more than a soundboard for playing
short cat samples.
On the iPhone and iPad, theres also
a Siri-like microphone button, which
you might expect is for recording your
cat and translating their meows back
to plain English. What it actually does is
translate human to cat theres no
way to do the reverse. As a bonus, the
app includes an iMessage sticker pack.
the bottom line. A mixed bag,
and not of the cat food kind.
J.R. Bookwalter
okay
AtomicBox Arcade
Free of charge
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 havent 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
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.
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 cant be used
toactually play the game, but it does
integrate with Game Center to show off
your high score and leaderboards.
the bottom line. A fun
distraction, but gameplay tends to get
slow once theres too much action
on-screen. J.R. Bookwalter
good
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.
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.)
VISIT MACLIFE.COM FOR ONLINE-EXCLUSIVE REVIEWS, UPDATED DAILY
TOUGH TESTING, TRUSTED RATINGS
MacBook Pro 13-inch

2GHz Late 2016
A new low-end Pro, or a new high-end Air?

$1,499 Manufacturer Apple, apple.com
Feature 2GHz Intel Core i5, Intel Iris Graphics 540, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
ou could be forgiven for thinking that the lower-end model of Apples

newest MacBook Pro is a Pro in name only. When Apple talks about it,
itcompares it to the MacBook Air, rather than the previous Retina
MacBook Pro models. It didnt 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 Airs thickest point, has a smaller overall
footprint, and is essentially the same weight. Based on a quick glance, you
almost feel like it would make more sense if Apple had made this a new
13-inch version of the MacBook, with the Pro name reserved for models
withthe Touch Bar it would have made for a clearer line-up, arguably.
As we started to test and use it, we could see why Apple was happy with
the Pro name for it, though. Its dual-core Intel Core i5 processor seems like
itcould be lightweight, but it actually proved to be approximately as powerful
as the 2.7GHz processor in the previous-generation entry-level model (which
is still available). That machine managed our real-world video encoding test
in57 minutes, while this machine took 55 minutes. This amount of processing
power makes it more than capable of mid-range video editing and photo work
impressive to fit in a smaller, lighter frame with the same battery life.
Even more impressive is the big step forward in graphics power of the new
chip. Intels Iris 540 GPU is a much more advanced design, and this can
produce some big results. In our Batman: Arkham City test, we got an
improvement in frame rate of more than 50% over the previous model,
taking it from a game that youd have to play with the settings turned down,
to one you can happily play with everything on High. This is great for other
intensive apps, such as Photoshop or Final Cut Pro, which can use GPU power
to speed up certain tasks. Its still no gaming powerhouse (Batman is quite an
>>> Reviews
HAndbrake video encoding test
Device
Time
13-inch MacBook Pro (Late 2016)
57 minutes
13-inch Retina MacBook Pro (Early 2015)
55 minutes
13-inch MacBook Air (Early 2015)
74 minutes
To test real-world processor capability across multiple CPU cores,

were-encode a Blu-ray-quality video. Lower numbers are better.
Frames per second
13-inch MacBook Pro (Late 2016)
35 fps
13-inch Retina MacBook Pro (Early 2015)
20 fps
13-inch MacBook Air (Early 2015)
14 fps
bo
er
und
Device
Th
The
BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY BENCHMARK 1080p
lt
3p
or t
s al
so c
harge
it
o.
y tw
l
n
o
but theres
We run the built-in benchmark in Batman: Arkham City at

1920x1080, with settings on High. Higher numbers are better.
The MacBook Pro

is thinner and
lighter than ever
more like a
MacBook Air.
old game, and anything even slightly newer, such

as Tomb Raider, cant be played smoothly on
High settings) but its a big improvement.
Another huge improvement is the storage,
which is now so fast, its getting ridiculous. In
BlackMagics Disk Speed Test, we recorded a
speed of 1,241MB/s for writing to the MacBook
Pros internal SSD (which is almost three times
what we recorded in the previous model). We had
to switch to Xbench to get accurate drive read
speeds (BlackMagics tool stops at 2000MB/s),
which recorded around 3,000MB/s at the peak,
as promised by Apple. Its just an astonishingly
fast set of storage perfect for those working
with giant media libraries, including video
editingand photography.
The machine comes with 8GB of RAM, which
should be fine for most people. You can upgrade
to 16GB when you buy, and you can also get
more than the 256GB of storage it comes with
by default, or upgrade the processor to a 2.4GHz
Intel Core i7 model but the $300 price for the
latter is the same cost as upgrading to the
2.9GHz Touch Bar model, so just do that instead.
Theres more than just internal changes in

theMacBook Pro. There are usability changes
throughout the new design, from the screen to
the trackpad. The display is still a 2560x1600
Retina display, but is now much brighter and
features the wide color gamut seen on the
Retina iMacs, iPad Pros, and iPhone 7. This is
nice for pros working on cinema-quality video
orhigh-end photographers, though perhaps
theywont be using this particular machine
forthat work. However, it does let anyone view
the wide color photos that the iPhone 7 takes
intheir full glory. The brightness is something
thats often more subtle, since a lot of time youll
likely have it down around the half-brightness
level just in standard home lighting. But if youre
in a much brighter place at risk of reflection, it
can help a lot. Overall, its just a really detailed,
vivid, stunning screen.
The keyboard is now the new style that
premiered with the 12-inch MacBook, though
inan updated form, with switches that have
amarginally clickier feel, offering a bit more
feedback. We know the new keyboard is a
divisive topic: we really liked it on the MacBook,
and this version is slightly improved. We love
thecrisp feel with the large size of keycap, and
find it perfectly accurate and comfortable. But
we know the lack of travel (and accompanying
short, sharp feedback) isnt to everyones taste.

If you didnt like it before after giving it a chance,
we doubt anything will have changed.
The trackpad has had a size increase too,
though again we found this also to be a subtle
improvement. More space for dragging your
finger around is nice, and the bigger size
didntinterfere with our typing at all, but
itsnotquite a revelation.
Loud and quiet
Apple has also included new speakers, which are
a vast, vast improvement. They deliver a much
more full sound across the range, with especially
improved bass helping to make everything feel
less tinny. They also go a bit louder than on the
old model. Ironically, in other ways, Apple has
made the machine impressively quiet we only
noticed the fans make significant noise when
running our Tomb Raider graphics test. Just
browsing the internet was silent.
Battery life is fantastic, too. Apple still rates
for around 10 hours of usage, so it can last a
whole work day, but that depends on what your
work entails. We used the machine on and off
The keyboard is an
improved version of
the12-inch MacBooks
which some people
love,and some hate.
Asareplacement for an entry-level MacBook
Pro, its a major drop in native connectivity. How
much of a problem this is will depend on your
setup. If you have quite the command center
ofconnected accessories, youll want to look
toeither the Touch Bar model (which has four
ports), or getting a powered hub (which will
costabout the same as upgrading).
That idea of approaching this as an Air vs a
Pro holds true in a lot of aspects when it comes
to judging this machine. As an Air replacement,
its wonderful more powerful, more usable, with
a Retina display though its also massively
t wo thunder b olt 3 p orts don t go far

w hen one is also your p ow er connection
power without ever pushing it down past 65%.
For writing the first draft of this review, we
unplugged, wrote in Pages for over an hour
withthe display at half brightness, and used
just5% of the battery.
All that said, we cant talk about usability
without discussing the ports. Two Thunderbolt 3
ports dont go very far when one of them is also
your power connection. Adapters for basic USB
and SD card readers are inexpensive (see p14),
but youll definitely need to invest in one. For
those coming at this machine as a MacBook Air
replacement, this will probably seem okay.
more expensive at $1,499 compared to the

13-inch Airs $999. As a new entry-level Pro, its
areally nice machine for those who work on the
go, but youd need to value the extra portability
and better screen a lot to buy it over the $1,299
previous model still on sale, while also not being
willing to spend the extra $300 to upgrade to
the superior Touch Bar version.
the bottom line. We really, really like this
machine its fast, usable, with a lovely screen.
But its sitting in a slightly awkward middle
ground in Apples line-up one of the other
models may suit you better. Matt Bolton
MacBook Pro
13-inch 2GHz
late 2016
T hin and light

newdesign
G ood usability
improvements
J ust two ports
couldbea problem
P rice is an awkward
middle ground
Good
>>> Reviews
Adobe Photoshop Elements 15

Nice new features, but a costly option
$99.99 (Upgrade $79.99) Developer Adobe, adobe.com
Requirements OS X 10.10 or later, 4GB RAM
The Guided edits feature

has been expanded.
Adobe Photoshop
Elements 15
ew Guided edits
N
make good learning
opportunities
S mart keywords make
searching images easy
ot a particularly
N
compelling upgrade
V ery close in price to
a years Creative Cloud
subscription
solid
Photoshop Elements challenge is not only

to keep adding features that dont step on
the toes of its bigger Creative Cloud brother,
but also to justify its very existence and
price. After all, its only $20 cheaper than a
years worth of a Creative Cloud subscription
to both Photoshop and Lightroom.
Front and center this year is Elements
ability to liquefy shots of people. Faces are
automatically recognized and features can
be subtly tweaked: a mouth can be made a
little smilier, or you can adjust the spacing
between someones eyes or the height of
their forehead. Its certainly possible to
accidentally achieve silly results, but by
keeping the size of our adjustments under
control we were pleasantly surprised at the
subtle effectiveness of some of our changes.
Dehazing has also made its way down
Adobes product line. This applies an
intelligent contrast boost to images with
atmospheric haze. In our experiments,
landscapes showed the feature to its best
effect, boosting contrast in hazy areas while
leaving clear foregrounds untouched. A

promising-sounding shake-reduction tool
isalso included, theoretically allowing
photographs shot at too-slow shutter speeds
to be salvaged. This also falls into the
surprisingly effective category, although
our tests showed the telltale haloes of
over-enthusiastic sharpening.
Photoshop Elements Guided panel
a range of step-by-step edits has gained
new tricks, such as the Photo Text tool,
which creates a block of text, masked off so
that your background image assumes the
shape of the words you type.
Elements Organizer a cut-down version
of Bridge has also had an injection of new
features: select a group of images and click
Quick Fix and youre able to batch process
images with saturation, exposure, and clarity
tools. Its search tool has also grown
impressively: as Organizer rakes through
your photo folders, it allows you to search
not only by face or geolocation, but by the
content of a photo. Enter Taj Mahal, for
instance, and Organizer will return any shots
of that landmark you have.
the bottom line. A reliable bit of
software with some useful new features.
Think carefully before choosing this over
a Creative Cloud subscription, though.
Dave Stevenson
Its also easy to see previews of nearly every effect,

which is great for beginners in particular.
Adobe Premiere Elements 15
Get to grips with fixing, editing and sharing video
Guided mode helps you

produce creative results
with Expert tools, such
as showing video in text.
$99.99 (Upgrade $79.99) Developer Adobe, adobe.com

Requirements OS X 10.10 or higher
Premiere Elements 15 works with

Photoshop Elements via Adobe Elements
Organizer. The Organizer lets you import
and view stills and clips, plus add
keywords and ratings. If you need to fix,
edit and share video clips, you can launch
Adobe Premiere Elements from within the
Elements Organizer and get to work.
The Premiere Elements workspace
looks similar to that of Photoshop
Elements. It even features a Guided editing
modethat takes the video novice through
various editing procedures.
You can overcome a videos exposure

and color problems in Premiere Elements
in similar ways to Photoshop. For
example, Photoshop Elements 14
introduced haze removal; this tool is in
Premiere Elements 15 as an automatic
drag and drop effect. The effect works
well, although its arguably a bit of a
gimmicky tool, since haze can help add

atmosphere and depth to a landscape.
Premiere Elements now has the ability
torecognize people in clips; this helps its
Smart Trim feature to remove problem
sections while prioritizing moments
featuring friends and family. You can
alsouse facial recognition to add camera
moves, such as Pan and Zoom. The new
Remix feature analyzes your music track
and cuts it into segments so that it will
end on an appropriate moment. The Video
Collage tool provides a quick way to drag
clips and stills into template windows so
that they play on the screen at the same
time, and is an entertaining way to share
memories to Facebook or YouTube.
the bottom line. A great entry-level
app for Photoshop Elements users who
want to develop their video skills.
george cairns
Adobe Premiere
Elements 15
Guided editing mode

Creative templates
Effective music remix
Gimmicky de-haze
great
>>> Reviews
OmniGraffle 7
Is it lucky number time for this leading graphics tool?

$99.99 (Standard), $199.99 (Pro) Developer The Omni Group, omnigroup.com
Requirements OS X 10.11 or later
OmniGraffles
diagramming smarts are
clear when connecting
boxes in diagrams.
OmniGraffle 7
E fficient, customizable
and usable interface
Infinite canvas with
optional limitations
Improved export panel
with new preview
S ome of the really
great new stuff
requires Pro
great
OmniGraffle is primarily a tool for working

on precision graphics for prototyping,
wireframes, charts, and diagrams. However,
its toolset and functionality is such that it
nudges into territory occupied by Illustrator
and Sketch when, respectively, used for
(fairly simple) illustrations and the kind of
flat interface design that remains in vogue.
As such, OmniGraffle provides a selection
of drawing and shape tools, inspectors to
adjust the properties of selected objects,
powerful layering functionality for arranging
artwork, and the means to export everything
to formats suitable for screen or print.
As objects are added to the canvas, smart
and manual guides make lining things up a
cinch, and magnets make connecting boxes
in diagrams painless. Workflow can be
further sped up by way of reusable
components (Stencils), which include
icons, device wireframes, basic shapes,
colors, and home furnishing objects.
In use, OmniGraffle has a friendliness
that belies its underlying power. Rather than
deluging you with palettes and options, the
clean, straightforward interface feels like
something almost anyone could get to grips
with. This latest update has seen refinement
in this area, and the new unified sidebar now

houses tabs for canvas, guides, outline, and
selection views. For newcomers, the features
within should impress: for example, manual
guides can be set very precisely, and the
selection tool enables you to quickly get at
related objects, filtering by canvas and object
type. Neatly, guides can be toggled just by
clicking on a ruler.
Another new feature is the infinite
canvas. This is great for projects of initially
unknown dimensions. Usefully, its infinite
nature can be limited to specific directions.
Working on a fixed-width web page mockupwith content of unknown length?
OmniGraffle has you covered. Using the
sidebar, you can also easily get at objects
on massive canvases, through commands
to scroll or zoom to a selection. (This also
alleviates an annoying quirk of the app:
huge jumps between zoom settings.)
Be warned some of the best features are,
frustratingly, reserved for the Pro version,
most notably sharing layers across multiple
canvases, and artboards containers that act
as export regions for objects on layers above.
Still, the 14-day trial should help you
pinpoint features you favor.
the bottom line. A strong update that
improves OmniGraffles workflow,
efficiency, and scope. Craig Grannell
Stencils can speed up workflow when working on projects

with common elements.
Acronis True
Image 2017
Copy to the cloud
From $49.99 Developer Acronis, acronis.com

Requirements OS X 10.9.5 or later
CalcPad
Type out sums, watch totals appear

$3.99 Developer Ekin Koc, kovan.io
Seemingly taking its cue from Acqualia Softwares Soulver,

CalcPad is a notepad that does sums as you write them. It
covers all the basics you can perform basic calculations,
write out conversions, and dabble with variables. Unit
conversions happily accept a level of natural language input
(such as 27 meters in feet), and currency conversions use
current rates if you have a net connection.
Variables are defined in a basic math-like manner, with
a little added intelligence. For example, you can set x=4
and then use x in subsequent calculations. But you can
also recall a previous line with prev and assign that
valueas a variable. This provides scope for more complex
calculations, given that your note and its values can be
updated at any point.
Its impossible, though, to not make comparisons
withSoulver, which is a far richer app. Soulvers natural
language smarts are superior, and it enables you to drag
and drop line values as dynamic tokens. CalcPads also
lumbered with a rather limiting single-window interface.
the bottom line. Simple and quite effective, but less
feature-rich and flexible than its rival. Craig Grannell
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. Its 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;
its the default option whenever you set a backup.
Youll 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 allows you to
search and recover individual files from images.
True Image still doesnt feel particularly quick
it took over two hours to back up 178GB from a
SSD drive to fast USB 3.0 storage, for example.
the bottom line. Capable enough, but we
dont like its increasing cloud focus. Nick Peers
acronis true image 2017
Lots of backup choice

Flexible and adaptable
Not particularly fast
Increasingly reliant on the cloud
solid
CalcPad
Straightforward to get started with

Can cope with conversions and variables
Interface can be restrictive and limiting
Trash/delete icon offers no undo
solid
>>> Reviews
Aurora HDR 2017

gives users an
amazing range
of options.
Aurora HDR 2017
Professional editing for HDR enthusiasts

$99 Developer Macphun, aurorahdr.com
Requirements OS X 10.10.5 or later
AURORA HDR 2017
reat range
G
of flexible tools
HDR-specific filters
f limited appeal
O
to more general users
Costly
GREAT
DR photography is the practice of

merging multiple exposures of the same
composition to create shots with greater
dynamic range than normal cameras can
produce. So, if you have a landscape photo
with very bright highlights and very dark
shadows, high dynamic range processing can
produce an image with neither over-exposure
or under-exposure. The main purported
benefit is an image with lots more detail in
bright and dark areas, but over the years
HDR processing has come to define an entire
style of digital photography, noted for its
highly saturated, metallic-looking images.
The effect itself falls squarely into the
like-it-or-loathe-it category of image
processing, but for converts of the style,
Aurora HDR offers a wealth of tools for
merging bracketed exposures, or creating
HDR-style images from individual shots.
Youll get the most value from Aurora if
you commit to HDR photography, taking at
least three different bracketed exposures
each time you take a shot. With this approach
you can take advantage of Auroras excellent
shot-alignment tool, which lines up images
that differ slightly in their composition due
towobbly tripods and so forth.
For those looking for a quick hit, Aurora
also offers a wealth of one-click filters. In
keeping with HDRs polarizing aesthetic,
these filters range from the fairly subtle
to the positively eyeball-watering, but
photographers who want more control and

are willing to get their hands a little dirtier
will find Aurora worth its admittedly high
asking price.
The right-hand toolbar offers a vast
number of sliders and controls, from the
industry standard (curves, color temperature,
exposure, and so on) to HDR-specific tools
missing from the likes of Lightroom or
Affinity Photo: controls such as a software
polarizing filter, HDR-specific denoising, as
well as an ingenious luminosity mask that
allows you to select parts of an image based
on how bright they are. You can also create
adjustment layers, unlike Lightroom.
A further boost to Auroras credentials is
the presence of a professional-grade batch
processing mode. Very usefully, this lets you
select a folder full of images and not only
choose a filetype and resolution for them,
but will also automatically align folders that
contain bracketed exposures again, a boon
for purist HDR photographers.
Its those photographers who will get the
most from Aurora using its presets on
single exposures wont produce radically
different results from most other
applications. But the integrated imagealignment tools, batch processing, and
fine-grained editing controls make it well
worth the asking price for fans.
the bottom line. An awesome selection
of tools for power users. Dave Stevenson
>>> Reviews
Wilde
An app for posting to WordPress blogs, but with flaws

$29.99 Developer Moray Taylor, theescapers.com
Requirements OS X 10.11 or later, internet connection, WordPress blog
Previewing existing
articles: you can also
view, trash, like, and
replyto comments.
Wilde
T he basic setup
seems pretty good
arkdown and HTML
M
views work fine
A slew of problems
writing and editing
Q uite a few crashes
during testing
poor
These days WordPress is a pretty great web

content system, with a surprisingly solid
editing interface. Whether you use
WordPress.com or self-host a WordPress
blog elsewhere, setup is usually a case of
clicking a few buttons. Editing then takes
place in a window with basic word processing
controls (structural formatting and the like),
a distraction-free mode, and the means to
hack in HTML via a Text tab. The point is
thatany Mac-based WordPress blogging
apphas a lot to live up to, and Wilde does
notmake the grade.
Conceptually, at least, its well considered.
You can create local or remote drafts, the
former meaning you can tap out blog posts
while cruising along on a plane without
internet access, and later schedule them.
At that point they upload to your blog, and
move to a scheduled posts tab. Theres a
media sidebar for quickly looking through
uploaded images and adding new ones,
plus the editing view enables you to switch
between Markdown, HTML, WYSIWYG,
and if its available a live preview.
During testing, connecting Wilde to
existing blogs was simple, if a touch
unfriendly. Existing content was displayed,
albeit only after a manual refresh. Edits
could then be made and submitted.

However, any changes made to articles on
our test blogs reset their publication dates
to the moment the edit was sent. Not good.
With new content, things too often had a
tendency to fall apart in more dramatic fashion.
We posted several articles that showed up
blank before realizing we needed to manually
save prior to publishing. (The tiny dot
indicator on the articles tab isnt obvious,
especially if the tab is hidden.)
The WYSIWYG view, though, is the low
point. It seemingly cant parse basic HTML
from existing content, and has all kinds of
problems with styling add a blockquote,
and getting back to normal text on
subsequent lines is a trial. It also spits
outHTML that would have sensitive
webdevelopers breaking down in tears.
The Markdown option is better,
fortunately, but you can use Byword
forwriting in Markdown and posting
toaWordPress blog and it has a nicer
interface and much lower price. As it
stands,that or nothing at all seems
abetter bet thanusing Wilde.
the bottom line. A blogging app
thatcould find favor with many people,
butthat right now just doesnt cut it.
Craig Grannell
The WYSIWYG view doesnt tend to work very well,

although the Markdown and HTML views are fine.
QuickQuad
Great gradients
$2.99
Developer Elena Drozhzhina, imagestudiopro.com
Requires OS X 10.10 or later
Radio Silence
Inexpensive firewall and monitor

$9 Developer Juuso Salonen, radiosilenceapp.com
There was a time when Mac applications operated entirely

without phoning home to a remote server. These days,
its rare to find an app that doesnt check in with some
faceless mothership. Radio Silence runs in the background,
keeping tabs on these apps and behind-the-scenes
components, and also acts as a secondary firewall,
preventing software from making connections to the
outside world, rather than blocking incoming connections.
The app is separated into Firewall and Network Monitor
tabs. The former is used to block individual applications;
the latter provides real-time feedback on active
connections, each of which can be blocked with a mouse
click. There are no additional settings to fiddle with, and the
application is always working in the background without
impacting performance. The only downside is the free trial
version is limited to just 24 hours, which isnt nearly long
enough. The developer also offers a generous 30-day return
policy, but this app is so good, wed be surprised if anyone
ever actually took advantage of it.
the bottom line. As easy to use as it is awesome does
exactly what it promises. J.r. BOOKWALTER
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. Dont like them? Hit a
button and it creates a new set of 36. See one
youlike? 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.
Pros will bemoan the lack of adustment over
how the colors mix, but its a nice tool for giving
options to the artistically challenged. There are a
few annoyances, though: you cant easily view the
corner colors of the gradients as web-ready RGB
values, for example, and it produced too few
softer, pastel gradients for our liking.
the bottom line. Gradients for dummies!
Anice little tool. Matt Bolton
QuickQuad
Save and export gradients at any size

Adjust gradient colors easily
Doesnt display RGB values
Little here for pros beyond inspiration
Good
radio silence
Easy to use firewall and real-time network monitor

Selectively block applications and processes from remote connections
Works completely in background, even when application is closed
Trial version limited to 24 hours
excellent
>>> Reviews
LifePrint
Add some magic to printed pictures and some dollars

$129 Manufacturer LifePrint, lifeprintphotos.com
Requirements iOS 8.1 or later, active Bluetooth connection
haring lifes precious moments on social

networks is fun, but for those raised with
old-school prints, nothing beats holding
memories in your hands. LifePrint is a portable
printer that attempts to merge the analog past with
the digital present.
LIFEPRINT
P ortable 2x3
photo printer
yperPhoto adds
H
augmented reality
video to still images
B elow average
print quality
elies on expensive
R
custom photo paper
solid
Weighing seven ounces and measuring five

inches long, three inches wide, and an inch thick,
LifePrint is among the smallest printers weve
seen. Powered by a USB-rechargeable battery,
this Bluetooth-connected device prints 2x3
images from your iPhone or social networks
using special sticky paper, which can be peeled
and attached to anything.
LifePrint uses Zink technology for ink-free
printing, so image quality and color reproduction
leaves a lot to be desired. Prints take about 30
seconds, although it seems longer because the
app first uploads images to a built-in social

network, which also allows you to print photos
shared by others. Theres no way to print without
posting, although photos can be made private.
Photo paper is sold in packs of 10 sheets; a
three-pack costs $19.95 plus $8 shipping, which
comes out to a pricy 93 per sheet. But this
printer has a trick up its sleeve: the ability tolink
a 10-second video to the image, which is revealed
by holding the print in front of the iPhone
camera while in HyperPhoto mode. While this bit
of augmented reality delight initially feels like
something pretty special out of a Harry Potter
story, its actually a gimmick that wont hold
yourinterestfor long.
the bottom line. LifePrint is a neat idea,
but the print quality and consumables cost
impact on its desirability. J.R. Bookwalter
Satechi Slim
Aluminum Keypad
Extend your keyboard
$39 Manufacturer Satechi, satechi.net

Features Bluetooth connectivity
Lumo Lift
This slouch sensor could lift its game

$79 Manufacturer Lumo, lumobodytech.com
Features Lumo Lift sensor, set of clasps, USB charging dock
This little wearable is designed to improve your posture

when sitting. Attach the Lumo Lift to a shirt or bra just
under the collar bone, then enter weight and height into
theapp. Sit at your desk, with your back straight, and
double-tap the Lumo Lift. You can get the device to buzz
just three seconds after you start slouching, or after 10
minutes. You need to alignthe sensor each time you
changeposition, which is tiresome. During testing it
feltlike it was picking up a move forward with the
shouldersoften, rather than a slump in the back,
andwefoundthe results inconsistent and unreliable.
The app provides a posture goal, but the trends graph
lacked real insight. Having said that, the app isnt too
preachy, and it does get you thinking about posture. The
device itself is neat, and battery life is good, lasting about
five days. However, its easy to leave the device attached
tothe previous days clothes and forget about it the next
day maybe even leading to a laundry accident.
the bottom line. Gets you thinking about posture,
butalack of meaningful data means mixed messages
andun-actionable goals. jamie carter
If your job involves a lot of number crunching or

data entry, a dedicated keypad can be a big help,
but Apple has eliminated them from its current
product range. This Bluetooth keypad is designed
to match Apples new Magic Keyboard in its looks
(its an aluminum wedge shape), though it also
comes in gold to match the 12-inch MacBook,
andSpace Gray to match the MacBook and
newMacBook Pros.
Its keys are a different style toApples latest
keyboards (they more match the older chiclet
style of its previous models, with longer travel)
and are just alittle on the soft side for us just
abit more feedback would be preferable. Some
may also beannoyed at the factthat the = key
has been swapped for a backspace. The change
iseasyto get used to, and we didnt mind it, but
its something to be aware of. Italso pairs easily,
though you may need to skip Apples keyboard
setup assistant.
the bottom line. A useful add-on that
matches your Apple gear well. Matt Bolton
Satechi slim aluminum keypad
Get the keypad back!

Easy to pair and use
Rechargeable battery
Slightly soft keys
Great
LUMO LIFT
Encourages good posture

App fetches activity data
Unscientific data
High price
okay
>>> Reviews
Bowers & Wilkins P7 Wireless

A luxurious Bluetooth sound stage
$399 Manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins, bowers-wilkins.com

Features Bluetooth 4.1 Class 2, 3.5mm cable, micro-USB, AAC, aptX and SBC codecs
T
Bowers & Wilkins
P7 Wireless
Gorgeous sound
ireless, but still with
W
brilliant sound quality
o active noise
N
cancellation
Initial discomfort
great
hese over-ear headphones are Bowers &

Wilkins second entry into the world of
wireless headphones. Sensibly, a detachable
3.5mmcable acts as a fallback for when the
integrated battery runs out (around 17 hours).
The leather padding on the over-ear cups
issoft, butthe headband isnt very flexible at
first; we could feel the outline of the cushion
shape against our head, and though this got
better after acouple of weeks, and will ease up
more as you fit and remove the cans, that and
the 11.4 oz weight give a poor initial impression
ofcomfort. For storage, the cups tuck inwards
into the headbands arch, and a quilted pouch
isprovided to add protection.
Active noise cancelling isnt featured, and at

low volume you can clearly hear people around
you, though dynamic range from music is good
regardless even quiet sounds stand out. With
the volume set at 50%, some chatter is still
audible, but the music dominates. We couldnt
listen for long beyond that volume, as things are
simply too loud to bear. The midpoint gives crisp
sound, instruments are easy to distinguish, and
bass is satisfying, justifying the high cost. If you
can handle tightness while wearing in, this is a
beautiful audio experience.
the bottom line. The P7 Wireless lacks
perfect isolation, but the gorgeous sound quality
is worth the investment. AlanStonebridge
LaCie Rugged
USB-C 4TB
Bumper storage
$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
MaskTouch
DIY touchscreen for iMac

$239 (21.5-in), $259 (27-in) Manufacturer AOGEK, aogek.com
Requirements iMac 21.5- or 27-inch (2009 or later),
Mac OS X 10.7 or later, available USB port on iMac
MaskTouch affixes to the front of any 21.5-inch or 27-inch

iMac released since 2009, including current Retina 4K and
5K models. About a quarter-inch thick, the glassless frame
uses an infrared beam to detect when fingers are placed
onthe iMac, turning the entire display into a touchscreen.
MaskTouch works without software drivers, and requires
notools for installation. The frame ships with double-sided
tape on all four corners, so mounting is as easy as peel and
stick. A short USB cable snakes under the iMac, plugging
into a free port on the back for both power and touch input.
Your iMacs vanishes behind the all-silver frame, but the
FaceTime camera and Apple logo remain exposed. When the
panel powers up or registers touch input, the bottom cutout
glows blue. MaskTouch is undeniably cool, but the lack of
touchscreen support in macOS makes this more of a novelty
than a useful tool. Itshandy for drawing, navigation, and
Mission Control, butnot precise enough for tapping
on-screen buttons.
the bottom line. Nice concept, but macOS limits the
accessorys true potential. J.R. Bookwalter
This bumpered drive boasts a USB-C port and

cable for the latest Macs, a USB-A cable for other
models, and its 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
insequential writes. LaCies 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 weve
tested. Infact, it delivered slightly faster mean and
peak rates. The drive weighs in at 14 oz, and LaCie
says the drive works, with aesthetic damage, after
being driven over by a one-ton car.
The bottom line. Impressive performance
for a portable hard disk, and the rubber bumper
and the firmness of the metal body instil
confidence. Alan Stonebridge
lacie rugged usb-c 4tb
Good speed and build

Drop, shock, and rain resistant
Pretty compact and light for such a protected drive
Costly per gigabyte
great
MaskTouch
Infrared touchscreen display frame for iMac

Easy installation, requires no tools or software drivers
Too imprecise for clicking small buttons
Not all gestures match those used by Magic Trackpad
good
>>> Reviews
Starry Station
Simplicity is the name of this routers game.

Oh, and reliability and speed
$299 Manufacturer Starry, starry.com
Features Dual-band network with additional 5GHz, touchscreen interface to identify issues,
support-center callback
STARRY STATION
E legant, simple
touchscreen offers
lots of information

Steady,
reliable
connection
ay need to move
M
source connection
for best results
Gets noticeably loud
great
onfiguring Wi-Fi setups ranges from the

annoying to some sort of sorcery that
wedare 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. Thats good for Starry,
because its 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 devices focus is on wireless.
Inside are dual-band, 4x4 MIMO 802.11ac
(a/b/g/n, too) transceivers, and the whole
thing is powered by two dual-core processors
one for the network and one the interface.
Setting up the Station takes quite
literally five minutes. Youre then provided
with a Wi-Fi Health percentage score, which
collates your ISPs provided speed, your
connected devices capability, and the signal
strength to each device. From there, you can
test the specific speed that your ISP is
providing from within the device. Swiping to
the left provides deeper details and trends
over time. This way, if you see that youre not
getting what youre paying for, you now have

the proof to take to your ISP.
In an idle state, the Station displays the
devices on its networks as planetary bodies
orbiting a star. Those in red are in bad shape
network-wise, while those in blue are doing
fine. The size of the orb is dictated by how
much bandwidth that device is using. If you
have an issue with your Wi-Fi, you can
request a call from customer support straight
from the device by leaving your number.
We found that the Starry Station provided
a stable connection, with download speeds
remaining at their peak for longer, and with
fewer dips in Mbps, than a standard Verizon
router. Of course, your connection depends
on your devices hardware as well, but we
experienced barely a hiccup with connection
or download speed.
We did find that the devices fan is
noticeably loud, something weve rarely
encountered in routers before. Wed have
preferred to see more granular control over
device access and bandwidth considering the
$299 price tag, too. And if your routers been
hidden away in a closet, you may have to
consider moving the source connection to get
the best possible positioning for the Starry.
the bottom line. If youre only
remotely tech-savvy, Starry Station is well
worth considering. Joe Osborne
>>> Reviews
Sid Meiers Civilization VI
25 years on, the strategy ruler returns once more

$59.99 Developer Firaxis Games, aspyr.com
Requirements OS X 10.11 or later, 2.7GHz Intel Core i5, 6GB RAM, 1GB graphics card/Intel Iris Pro
Beset by America to the

west and Arabia to the
east, the French Empire
isnt long for this world.
Sid Meiers
Civilization VI
F lexible enough to
accommodate most
player styles
ew tweaks encourage
N
interesting choices
from the ground up
Excellent music and art
R ival AI remains
diplomatically and
tactically uneven
excellent
Civilization, celebrating its 25th anniversary,

has never strayed from its expansionist
spirit: turn by turn, tile by tile, build units
and structures to grow your empire and fight
(or engineer) your way to victory. The sixth
entry arrives with a colorful if slightly
cartoony art style, a new way to win, and
arefreshed focus on city administration.
Of the four victory conditions available
inCiv VI, Domination, Science, and Culture
remain unchanged, while a Religion victory
replaces Vs Diplomacy route: found a
religion and proselytize more than 50% of
the cities in each nation. These four paths to
victory seem discrete, but no single decision
is separate from the spider-web of strategic
choices that came before and after. Even a
straightforward Domination victory relies
on a campus district to keep stay ahead of
the constant technological arms race.
Districts may be the biggest change facing
long-time Civ players. Instead of cramming
everything into the city center, specialized
buildings theaters, harbors, barracks
now occupy their own tile on the map,

conferring a host of empire-wide benefits.
The hexagonal tiles introduced in Civ V take on
greater importance, since districts receive
bonuses based on their surroundings. Squeezing
the most out of your Russian Lavra means
reserving a tile flanked by mountains and
forests, and because districts cant be razed
or rebuilt, Civilization VI demands
purposeful, long-term strategy.
This extends to international diplomacy
as well. Each rival leader sets agendas that
guide their behavior and relationships
move a knight too close to Delhi, and Gandhi
wont hesitate to threaten nuclear winter;
destroy too many wetlands and face the ire
of environmentalist Hojo Tokimune.
Sadly, AI leaders remain cartoonishly
over-reactive and trigger-happy, despite
their aversion to sound military tactics. This
would normally tarnish a strategy game of
Civilizations pedigree, but online and
hotseat multiplayer effectively mitigate any
AI clumsiness, and Civ VIs new look skews
any expectations of realism or finesse: when
the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are built in
downtown Birmingham, does it matter that
Cleopatra is grumpy?
the bottom line. Civilizations subtleties
reveal themselves over dozens of games. If
history is any pointer, future expansions will
build on this rich foundation. Joseph Leray
Marshaling each individual unit for an invasion can be

tedious, but the tactical advantages are worth it.
Mad Max
The post-apocalypse on your Mac, shiny and aluminum
Not surprisingly,
crunching vehicular
combat is a big part
ofMad Max.
$29.99 Developer Feral Interactive, feralinteractive.com

Requirements OS X 10.11.6 or later, 3.2GHz Intel i5, 8GB RAM, 2GB VRAM
Mad Max isnt an adaptation of any of

George Millers seminal post-apocalyptic
odes to internal combustion. Still, this
game faithfully recreates the Mad Max
films tone and timbre.
You play as the eponymous Max
Rockatansky in a desolate, open-world
wasteland, and spend the bulk of the
experience working with the petty war
chiefs who oppose Lord Scabrous Scrotus
expansion into their territory. In practice,
this means destroying the guzzolene
refineries, War Boy strongholds, and
supply convoys that dot the ruined
landscape. Doing so lowers Scrotus
threat in a given region and confers
scrap, Mad Maxs ubiquitous and
infinitely collectible currency.
Maxs car christened the Magnum
Opus is the defining experience.
Theres a fundamental joy in taking in the
Outbacks austere beauty at high speed,

but theres equal pleasure in ramming
enemy vehicles. The Magnum Opus is also
the primary beneficiary of the threat
system, with the best upgrades unlocked
by lowering it.
Open-world games tend toward repetition
and an overreliance on collecting, and Mad
Max is no different. While there are usually
a few ways to approach any given fight,
there simply isnt enough variety in the
types of missions available. The
Wasteland is ostensibly divided into three
factions, but reused assets for enemies
and NPCs render them indistinguishable
in practice, which is a shame
the bottom line. Languid and
relaxed, Mad Max lacks Fury Roads
operatic frenzy, but offers solid combat
and riveting driving mechanics.
Joseph Leray
mad max
C ombat and driving

are fundamentally solid
C aptures the mood
and tone of Mad Max
ice interplay of
N
narrative and sidequest systems
R epetitive side-quests
and re-skinned enemies
solid
home LIFE
Better living through smarter technology
> get started with
Sma rt
sports
Need to improve your golf swing or
your backhand, or just to swim a bit
faster in the pool? Heres the tech
that can give you a sporting edge
BY CLIFF JOSEPH
>>> Home Life
The Wilson X
Connected
Football
measures spin
rate, velocity,
and more.
pple has been helping us all with

our exercise routines ever since
the first iPod made trips to the
gym a bit less tedious, way back
in2001. The iPhone went further, allowing you
monitor distance and speed, and could even
work out how many calories you were using.
But sport isnt just about burning
calories.There are many sports where
youcanusedigital technology to improve
yourperformance and technique whether
itsstroke efficiency in the pool, top-spin
intennis, or perfecting your long football
n o t a ll s p o r t s a r e a b o u t
s p ee d . W he n p l ayi n g t e n n is
o r g o lf, t he a cc u r a cy o f y o u r
backhand or putting counts
throws upfield. Apples clearly got its eye on
the sporting market with the new Apple Watch
Series 2, and there are plenty of other devices
now available for both the amateur and
professional athlete.
Fitness trackers have been one of the great
technology success stories of recent years, with
dozens of attractively designed fitness bands
and sports watches now offering a variety of
features for monitoring performance during
exercise. However, most fitbands and watches
are simply designed as general purpose devices
for use in the gym or when youre out running.

Theyre fine for checking how far you run or
walk each day but, of course, there are many
people who focus their efforts on other sports
that may require more specialized features.
Apple was clearly aiming at a more serious
sporting audience with the Series 2 version of
the Apple Watch. The original Apple Watch
was limited by the need to pair it with an
iPhone, which immediately ruled out it out for
many sports as you could only use it if you also
had an iPhone strapped to your arm. However,
the new Apple Watch Series 2 now includes
built-in GPS, which means that you can leave
your iPhone safely at home and use the Watch
Series 2 to monitor your speed and distance
travelled for running, cycling, hiking, and
many other pursuits. Admittedly, Apples got
plenty of competition here, with products such
as the new TomTom Spark 3 range, which
includes a number of models between $130 and
$250 that are designed for a variety of different
sports. Garmins another big name here, with
its high-tech Fenix watches that look like
something out of a James Bond film and are
even more expensive than the Apple Watch.
And, of course, the other big improvement
in the Watch Series 2 is that its waterproof
or, rather, water-resistant opening up
theWatch Series 2 to swimmers. There are a
number of alternative fitness bands that are
waterproof and can be used in the pool, such as
the Swimmers Edition of the popular Misfit
Shine ($120), but the more competitive
Smart sports
swimmer might want to look at

a specialized swimming watch,
such as the Garmin Swim ($150),
which can track speed and
distance, and can even analyze
the efficiency of your strokes.
Take Your Best Shot
Of course, not all sports are
about speed. You can cover a lot
of ground when playing tennis
or golf, but thats less important
than the accuracy of your
backhand or your putting.
There are quite a few smart
devices designed for golfers,
including hand-held sensors
and watches that can compile
statistics such asthe number and distance of
shots. But if you want to improve the actual
quality of your shots then you can try the
popular Zepp Golf 3D Swing Analyzer, which
was recently upgraded, and costs around
$150.This can be attached to your glove and
monitors the full 3D movement and speed of
each swing, so that the Zepp app can offer tips
on how to improve your technique.
Zepp makes a similar sensor for tennis
andone for baseball too which can be
attached to the racket handle in order to record
data on your racket speed, backswing, and
spin. It also has a special serve mode that
animates your service action on your iPhone
screen so that you can see where all those
double faults are coming from. Babolat makes
a tennis racket with a built-in sensor, but that
obviously limits your choice of racket.
And, yes, you can even get a smart football

too. There are a number of wearable sensors
that you can use to monitor your movement
and speed on the field, butfor technique, you
need the Wilson X Connected football, which
can measure the spin rate, distance, velocity,
and even spiral efficiency of your throws. Its
$200, but if youre serious about improving,
its one hell of a coach to have, with all data
sent to your iPhone for analysis. Wilson also
make a basketball with the same kind of
sensors, while soccer fans should look for the
Adidas miCoach Smart Ball, which is similar.
There are more advanced devices too,
including motion-capture systems that can
monitor every movement of your entire body
in order to improve performance or reduce
therisk of injury. Thats getting more into
therealm of professional sport, but most of
thedevices weve looked at here are affordable
enough for many amateur athletes. Of
course,buying one of these devices doesnt
automatically make you better at your chosen
sport, but it can at least show you areas where
you need to improve and the rest is up to you.
Zepps tennis
andgolf sensors
track and monitor
your swing, offering
three-dimensional
analysis to help
improve your racket
or club position.
>>> Home Life
Five of
the best
We recommend five of the best smart devices for sport and exercise
Wilson X Connected
football
$200
wilson.com
Apple Watch Series 2

From $369
apple.com
Garmin Swim
$150
garmin.com
TomTom Spark 3
Music
$170
tomtom.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
runningapp.
> A good, affordable option

for the keen swimmer, the
Garmin Swim can monitor
your speed and distance
covered in the pool, and
also record your SWOLF
(swimming efficiency)
rating to help you improve
performance. It can even
tell the difference between
butterfly, freestyle, and
other strokes.
> Designed to match the

size and weight of a
regulation football (it also
comes in a junior version,
and theres 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.
> The new Spark 3 range

isa good all-round choice
for sport and fitness. Prices
start at $130 for a basic
model with GPS and
water-resistance to 40m.
However, the Spark 3 Music
model also includes 3GB
ofmemory for storing and
streaming your favorite
workout tunes.
Smart sports
> What Else Should I think About
The f ut ur e
is s mart
spand ex
Forget smartwatches and fitness bands
and take a look at the relatively invisible
future of fitnesswear
ost of the sports
devices that are
currently available
either go on your
wrist,or are attached directly to
apiece ofequipment, such as a
football ortennis racket. However,
theres a lot of work going on with
wearable technology, particularly
5
Zepp Golf 2 3D
Swing Analyzer
$150
zepp.com
> Zepp makes sensors for
several different sports,
but its most well-known
forthis popular golf sensor.
The sensor clips onto your
glove while youre playing,
and can evaluate your
swing speed, backswing,
and other details, and
thenoffer tips on how
toimprove.
with smart fabrics that are capable

of monitoring your physical
conditionwhile youre 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 didnt
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 developed smart shorts
that can monitor muscular stress in
your quads and hamstrings. These
shorts are expensive (between
400and 800) but if they can
helpprofessional athletes perform
better, or even prevent injury, then
they could help bring wearable
technology into the mainstream.
Forget having to wear or carry a device:

datacaptured by your clothing is the
NextBigThing in fitnesswear.
>>> Home Life
How To
Ge t fi t wi t h A pp le Watch Ser ies 2

jargon
buster
SWOLF A mash-up of
swimming and golf,
SWOLFrefers to the
efficiency of your strokes
when swimming. The
number of strokes and
thenumber of seconds
needed to swim a length
are added to give your
SWOLF score. A lower
SWOLF scoreis better.
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,
suchas on an exercise bike.
Run along now

During a run, you can see distance, your
heart rate, calories, and how far through your
workout you are. You can divide your run into
segments. GPS accurately tracks you, and you
can review your route on a map.
color
coding
After your workout, the
Activity app on your
iPhone can color-code
thespeed data from
WatchSeries 2, enabling
you to analyze your
performance in detail
during each stage
of your workout.
Start a swim
Watch Series 2s swim tracking can tell
what kind of stroke youre doing, and it also
detects your change of direction at the end of
the pool once youve told it the pool length.
Itcan track open-water swimming via GPS.
View your activity

Workout data is fed into the Activity
app, so you can also view details on an iPhone.
For an outdoor run, say, those details include
aroute map, calorie info, heart rate, pace,
distance, and any segments you recorded.
The home of technology

techradar.com
>>> Home Life Better living through smarter tech
get Smart
Connected gadgets to enhance your lifestyle
TP-Link Talon AD7200

tp-link.com
$350
>>> TP-Link has become the first
manufacturer to support the 802.11ad
standard for Wi-Fi, with its Talon AD7200
router. Its costly, but this new standard is
a step forward and designed for heavy-duty
tasks such as streaming 4K video.
Also known as WiGig, this new form of
Wi-Fi transmits a signal on the high-speed
60GHz band, capable of speeds as high as
4600Mbps. The Talon is also backwardscompatible with 802.11ac and 802.11, so total
throughput on all three bands is a massive
7200Mbps. TP-Link says that the Talon can
transfer 4K movies as large as 100GB in
around eight mins, compared to 14 mins for
802.11ac routers, or a full hour for an 802.11n

router. The 60GHz band has limited range,
though like Bluetooth, its pretty much
confined to a single room. Although the
Talon can use 802.11ac to transmit a signal
with longer range. Its not going to change
things overnight; youll need super-fast
broadband in order to stream 4K video and,
of course, your Macs, iPhones and other
devices would need to support 802.11ad in
order to get the benefit. Still, Apple has
always been keen on Wi-Fi technology, and
we dont think well have to wait long to see
new gear from Apple that supports this new
generation of super-fast Wi-Fi.
Sengled Snap
sengled.com
$150
>Smart
home
living
>>> Security and lighting

are probably the two
most popular types of
home automation
devices, so Sengled has
decided to bring them
together with its Snap
lighting system. This
power-efficient LED
lightbulb is sturdily built,
so it can be used indoors
or out in a garden or
porch. And, hidden
sneakily inside, is a
1080p high-def camera
with a microphone,
motion detection, and
infrared night mode.
Ituses Wi-Fi to stream
the footage, so you
caneasily view it
fromanywhere.
Change isnt easy. So

Jennifer Phin is
enlisting some smart help
Neato D3
neatorobotics.com
$450
>>> Robotic vacuum
cleaners sound like a
great idea, but many
models are expensive.
Neatos bringing the
price down with its new
Botvac D3, which now
sneaks in at under $500.
Like other models in its
range, the D3 can be set
to automatically sweep
different rooms and
areas within your home,
and its built-in battery
can cover up to 1,800
square feet on a single
charge. Theres also a D5
model, priced at $675,
for larger homes up to
3,000 square feet.
>>> Ive made a resolution: to eat

healthily. Easy. Eat more veg; dont
stockpile Reeses Pieces like youre
hoping to use them as rudimentary
currency come the apocalypse; join
agym instead of a Wine of the
Monthclub. 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,
andtoilet paper. The baby has often
helpfully shoplifted an avocado, but I
really cant rely on infant kleptomania
in the long-term.
So Ive dug out an old fitness
friend:Withings Wi-Fi Scales, a scale
thatmeasures weight and body fat
then tracks both in a variety of nerdpleasing graphs. Ive also set up
iTakeControl, a tracking app designed
to help with binge eating disorders but
that can also be helpful for anyone who
needs to snack more mindfully. My final
effort to live as a functioning adult
rather than a human carb refinery
isaReminders list synced with my
husband, so we can keep a running
listof sensible foods, including allcapsnotes like FRIENDS DONT LET
FRIENDS BUY BUNDT or GOT (1%)
MILK? So hopefully, this time next
year,fancy guests should find more
than crumbs in the cookie jar, and my
daughter wont appear in headlines like
Hass Hassle As Baby Bandit Strikes
Again! Its probably for the best.
>>> Home Life
apple tv
The latest tvOS apps and the hottest hardware
Sonic CD
Still in glorious 16-bit

Free
Sniff out the hot deals on iTunes without having to wade

through all the categories yourself.
CheapCharts
Shop and save
Free
Between apps, movies, TV shows,

music, and books, theres plenty
of great stuff to buy on iTunes. But
why pay full price? Smart shoppers wait for the
best deals to hit before spending any hardearned cash. Wouldnt it be great if there were
an app for tracking all the deals on iTunes?
Enter CheapCharts, a free Universal app that
tracks whats on sale at iTunes and makes it easy
to buy in a couple of taps. There are no ads and
no In-App Purchases to contend with, although
the Apple TV version strictly focuses on movies,
TV, and apps, since that content is the most
readily available there.
CheapCharts features large, colorful artwork
along with IMDb ratings and Rotten Tomatoes
scores, and highlights movies that offer iTunes
Extras, to help you make a buying decision. You
can even sort the display by various criteria
including Latest Price Changes, Price, Greatest
Savings, and more. Go save! J.R. Bookwalter
Sega America
continues
bringing its
classics back to the big screen,
this time with Sonic CD. With
both of the original Sonic the
Hedgehog adventures ported
to Apple TV, it was just a
matter of time before the
distant shores of Never Lake
appeared on our TV screens.
This retro favorite has been
lovingly restored to its former
16-bit wonder. That includes the
original standard-definition
introduction animation,
presented in its native 4:3
aspect ratio, for authenticity.
(The rest has been adapted for
16:9 HDTV screens, though, so

its easier to play, and looks
excellent.) The game works well
with Siri Remote, but youll
ideally want to invest in a
Bluetooth controller.
Best of all, Sonic CD is now
free, and includes Universal
support for iPhone, iPad, and
iPod touch in addition to Apple
TV. Yes, youll have to deal with
the occasional ad, but they can
be removed with a $1.99 In-App
Purchase. For the retro gaming
crowd, nothing compares to
seeing an old favorite back in
action or perhaps you can try
it for the first time.
j.r. bookwalter
Replicate the original experience by leaving your Apple TV on for days

at a time in order to save your progress.
Better living through smarter tech
Channels 2.0
home
theater
Real live TV
$24.99
Apples half-baked TV
app doesnt go nearly far
enough in bringing live
television to Apple TV, but thankfully
there are third-party developers busy
working on the ultimate cord-cutting
experience. The recently redesigned
Channels gets a whole lot closer,
complete with the ability to pause,
rewind, and fast-forward live channels.
However, youll need external
hardware to power the experience,
inthe shape of an HDHomeRun box,
which can be used with local over-theair channels or a cable subscription.
What Channels brings to the experience
is rich guide data, HD streaming with 5.1
Make the most of

home entertainment
Whats on TV? Live TV, that is yes, it really

is still a thing outside of sports.
surround sound and closed captioning,
and the ability to peek at what else is
on while youre watching another show.
Theres no DVR capability, but
HDHomeRun gear works with the Plex
DVR beta for that. j.r. bookwalter
ManilowTV
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.
He still writes (some of) the songs

Free (subscription required)
Barry Manilow: for those

of a certain age, the
name sends a chill of
pleasure or dread down the spine. Now
ManilowTV has arrived on Apple TV.
Powered by VHX and also available
on iPhone, iPad, Android, and Roku
devices, this all-access subscription
streaming service offers five specially
curated performance videos, benefit
concerts, award evenings, private
shows, rehearsals, and more each
and every month, for only $9.99 after
a seven-day free trial period.
Were talking about a 1991
Showstoppers concert at the
Paramount Theatre in New York,
Her name was Lola she was a showgirl

And the story continues on ManilowTV.
a 55-minute Making of 2AM Paradise
Caf behind-the-scenes video, and a
greatest hits performance in Sydney,
Australia from 1994 each with written
personal memories of the event by the
Man(ilow) himself. j.r. bookwalter
iCarbons Dark Wood Skin

$14 icarbons.com
Heres 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.
Ask
TECH SUPPORT & TECHSPLANATIONS
that you must enter into the web page.

If youve enabled two-step verification,
you may also receive a code on your
designated device. Once done, you can
sign in using your new Apple ID (the
new email address) on each device.
If your Apple ID is tied to a special
Apple address (ending icloud.com,
mac.com, or me.com), you cant
change it for another but you wont
need to, as its separate from your ISP.
Of course, in your case this all is
pretty moot, as you can no longer
access your old email. You may need
to contact Apple for help via apple.
co/2dfUXdI as your current Apple ID
may no longer work.
Removing a stubborn
kernel extension
Before changing your Apple

IDs primary email address,
sign out of your account.
Changing an
Apple ID address
I recently changed ISP, and my email address changed
as well. I notified Apple of that change, but since then Ive
been unable to use any Apple service or the Mac App Store.
Whether I try my old or new passwords, they always fail.
How can I restore access to my Apple ID?
Your Apple ID is an email address
which you must be able to access,
because Apple will contact you on it.
That address can only be associated
with one Apple ID.
When your email address changes,
youll need to inform Apple using a
specific method. First, sign out of your
Apple account on every device that

signs into it. Then, preferably on a Mac,
sign in at appleid.apple.com and click
Edit to the right of the Account
section, click Change Email Address,
then enter your new email address.
Apple will next send an email to that
address, containing a verification code
I found and removed the Soundflower

extension from the Library folder in
/System, and now it has reappeared
in the top-level /Library folder. How
can I get rid of it permanently?
Soundflower is an old kernel
extension. Its designed to capture,
as a single stream, all audio which
isoutput by the operating system,
enabling you to route it as an audio
input to another app for processing.
Originally developed by developers
Cycling 74 for use in its audio apps, it
was later taken on by Rogue Amoeba,
and is now available through GitHub
(bit.ly/1ZLIUnn) as open source
software. Unfortunately, development
is currently dormant, and its almost
certainly best avoided with recent
versions of OS X/macOS, including
10.10, 10.11, and 10.12.
El Capitan wont enable you or an
installer to place such extensions in
/System/Library/Extensions, but your
first copy of Soundflower will have
migrated from your previous system,
which did allow that, when you
upgraded to El Capitan.
Any more recent installation of
it, perhaps as part of other audio
software, could only place it in
/Library/Extensions because of
El Capitans System Integrity
Tech Support & Techsplanations
> Locked files wont go away
Its trivial to remove kernel extensions like

Soundflower that have been installed into
the top-level Library.
Protection (SIP) technology, which
prevents non-Apple files from being
placed in system folders. That can only
be deactivated very deliberately by
restarting in the Recovery system and
entering a command in Terminal.
Whichever folder its in, simply drag
the file to the Trash; SIP doesnt
protect non-Apple items, but you will
have to enter your credentials as an
admin user to move the file. Its wise
then to restart your Mac and empty
the Trash.
I have some old files on

my Desktop that I think
must be locked, as I cant
move them to the Trash
to delete them. How can
I get rid of them?
Locked files are shown
with a padlock on their
icon, and if you try to
drag them to the Trash
you should be asked
whether you actually want
to remove them. If you
confirm that you do, you
should then be able to
empty the Trash normally.
There are other ways in
which files can become
blocked from being
trashed in this way. If
theyre still marked as
being in use by an app,
you should see an error
reporting that. Similarly,
if you dont have the

appropriate permission
to remove them from the
folder theyre in, that will
be detailed in a dialog.
You can determine which
of these is the likely
cause by selecting a file
in Finder and choosing
File > Get Info to inspect
its settings: the window
that this opens contains
useful clues, such as the
files locked/unlocked and

permissions status.
Files that are damaged
can also be blocked
from deletion. You
may find it helpful to
start up in safe mode
(apple.co/2d366vG), or
even to start up in the
Recovery system (apple.
co/2cC1uhX) and run Disk
Utilitys First Aid feature
on the relevant drive.
How to reboot in safe mode?

Does the Mac have a safe mode and
how do I activate it? Ive come from
a Windows computer.
Yes, theres a very similar mode on
the Mac which essentially loads just
the bare minimum level of drivers and
other system software, so you can try
to diagnose if any third-party apps are
being troublesome.
Shut down the Mac, wait 10 seconds,
then press the Power button to start
up. At the startup sound, hold down
until you see the Apple logo and
progress bar. Check in System
Information that Boot Mode says
Safe. Jut reboot to get back to your
normal Mac mode.
Why do Time Machine

backups take so long?
Id been happily running OS X 10.9
on my Mac mini, and just upgraded it
to 10.11. Now it seems to be taking
forever for Time Machine to prepare

a backup. How long should it take,
and should I just let it run?
The first backup after such a major
upgrade is likely to take a long time,
and is also more likely to get stuck
partway. Tens of thousands of files at
least will have changed, and Spotlight
will have a major task reindexing your
backups, too. The latter is essential
now, and cant be turned off.
Let that first backup run overnight.
If it still doesnt appear to be making
progress, you can try restarting,
possibly even starting up in safe mode,
and letting it have another attempt.
Also check logs in Console. Time
Machines entries are relatively simple
and clear, and start with the identifier
com.apple.backupd. Even if other

entries are incomprehensible, those
ones should make some sense. You
can always try the time-worn method
of turning Time Machine off and on
again in its System Preferences pane.
Time Machines preferences pane gives you

a good idea as to whether its making any
progress through a backup.
>>> Ask
How can I remove

Parallels completely?
To make a new shared album, select some pics and click the Share icon then iCloud Photo Sharing.
>>>
How to share from Photos

over iCloud
Im running the latest release of OS
X 10.11 El Capitan and Photos 1.5 on
my Mac. How can I share a folder of
photos with a friend using my
iCloud account?
First turn on a feature in the iCloud
pane in System Preferences: click the
Options button next to Photos and
ensure that the last item, iCloud Photo
Sharing, is enabled. Next, open the
Photos app and assemble an album of
images that you want to share. It can
contain a maximum of 5,000 photos
and videos in all.
Remember that these will be
uploaded to and stored in iCloud,
soyoull need a robust internet
connection, particularly if there are
many images in the album thats to be
shared. They dont count against your
iCloud storage use, although Apple
imposes some (fairly liberal) limits on
shared albums, which are detailed at
apple.co/2cL1htp.
When youre ready to share the
album, select it and then choose File >
Share > iCloud Photo Sharing. This will
generate a link that you can send to
your friend, so they can safely access
your shared photo album. You should
never give anyone access to your
iCloud account as a shortcut, of

course. iCloud Photo Sharing works
with Macs and iOS devices, and PCs
that have iCloud for Windows (apple.
co/2ctTjXx) installed on them. The
latter is detailed in apple.co/2cL2QHL.
If your friend wants to access the
photos from an Android device or
unsupported system (such as an outof-date web browser), or they cant
connect to iCloud, you may have to
look at other photo-sharing services,
which may charge a subscription fee
or be more complex.
Why dont Energy Saver

settings work?
Ive got a custom set of settings in
the Energy Saver control panel in
Preferences, but for some reason
they always revert to the default
settings when I reboot. Help?
Its most likely to be a problem with
the settings file itself, perhaps to do
with permissions or slight corruption.
Click Restore Defaults in its pane, or
try moving its settings file from
/Library/Preferences/
SystemConfiguration/com.apple.
PowerManagement.plist to your user
accounts Documents folder, restart,
and try again. Thatll clear a stuck
settings file by creating a fresh one.
Although I thought that Id need to

run Windows software on my iMac,
Parallels Desktop is just wasting
disk space. How can I remove it from
my Mac to free up storage?
The Parallels Desktop app and its
supporting files take quite a lot of
space, but its usually the virtual
machines you create in the app that
use the most.
You can just drag the Parallels
Desktop app to the Trash and then
restart your Mac, but this still leaves
some remains behind, so Parallels
provides a proper uninstaller and
instructions at bit.ly/2cu0PSd to do
amore complete and tidier job of it.
Virtual machines are disk images
containing the hosted operating
system, such as Windows, and all the
files for that system. Before removing
them, make sure you have copied all
documents and other files that you
might want to keep from them.
Trashing a virtual machine loses its
contents completely, and theres no
undo (unless youve backed up the
machine elsewhere, of course).
By default, Parallels stores your
virtual machines in ~/Documents/
Parallels (the ~ being your user
folder) or /Users/Shared/Parallels;
their extension is .pvm. To remove
them, drag them to the Trash and
empty it.
As you can see, uninstalling complex
software can be quite difficult these
days. For other software, first check its
Parallels Desktops uninstaller isnt signed,

so you must right-click it and choose Open
rather than double-click it.
Tech Support & Techsplanations
publishers support pages. Some more

generic strategies for removing apps
from your Mac are detailed at
bit.ly/2cwfM2I.
Bought and paid for

How do I sort iTunes tracks to see
songs Ive bought online, rather than
those Ive ripped from CD and so on?
Select the Songs view and choose

View > Show View Options. Add the
Purchase Date column, then click its
header to sort tracks to see those from
Apple Music or the iTunes Store,
grouped by album when possible.
Adobe CS5 and

system upgrades
Id like to upgrade my iMac to OS X
10.11 El Capitan in prep for later
moving to macOS Sierra, but Im
worried my main apps Adobe
InDesign and Photoshop CS5
willbe incompatible. Any ideas?
Although Creative Suite 5 apps are
now unsupported, most people find
they work well on El Capitan, with few
if any significant glitches. Creative
Suite 6 is even more compatible, and
ifyou can afford it, Creative Cloud
hasno problems at all working with
ElCapitan or macOS Sierra.
The main problem with CS5 apps
after an OS X upgrade relates to Java.
They need the legacy Java SE runtime
from apple.co/2ccIPFI. If you dont
install that afterwards, your CS5 apps
SHARE WITH US!
> Routed to the spot

Ive just installed a new
modem-router, which
works well with my Macs.
However, our iPad has
lost several apps, Maps
wont work, it cant check
for updates, or download
the missing apps. What
has gone wrong?
Check that your iPad
is properly connected to
the internet through your
new router. In its Settings
app, tap Wi-Fi and ensure
that the Wi-Fi switch
at the top is in its on
position. Tap the info icon
for the selected network
connection and then
check that the iPad has an
IP address assigned to it,
either automatically using
DHCP or a static one, as
in a Macs Network pane.
Go back to the top level

of Settings and check the
iPad is signed in with the
correct Apple ID: Scroll
down and tap iTunes &
App Store, and then verify
the Apple ID at the top.
If those are correct,
go back to the top level
of Settings again and
to General > Software
Update. This should check
that the iPad is running
the latest version of iOS.
If not, an update should
be offered for download
and installation, during
which you should connect
the iPad to power.
Persistent problems
in spite of a good Wi-Fi
connection and correct
Apple ID can sometimes
be overcome by
wont run. Other apps may need

Oracles latest Java (bit.ly/2dd8L62).
Install it after the legacy version and
the two should coexist fine.
Once youve upgraded, check that
file paths, particularly for scratch
disks, point correctly to your startup
disk, as those sometimes get mangled
in the process.
So far, all reports weve seen
suggest that CS5 works well under
Sierra after following the Java update,
though there may be small issues.
restarting: hold down the

Sleep/Wake button, drag
the slider to turn off the
iPad, then hold the Sleep/
Wake button again to
start up.
If this still doesnt
resolve things, there may
be an issue with the Apple
ID, for which youll need
Apples help.
Creative Suite 5 apps need the legacy Java

6 runtime, which is available for download
from Apples website.
Email: letters@maclife.com
Facebook: facebook.com/maclife Twitter: twitter.com/maclife
Create
HOW TO DO ANYTHING ON YOUR MAC, iPHONE & iPAD
Use iWorks 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
andwork jointly on
yourdocuments
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
ofyour iWork apps in macOS Sierra,
iOS10, and even through supported web
browsers on PC and Mac (namely Safari,
Internet Explorer, and Chrome).
Once invited, each users changes
areclearly color-coded to make them
easyto follow and your document is
dynamically updated in real time as the
changes occur. The document owner can
also switch on Tracking Changes to keep
a close eye on what edits have been made,
and by whom. Note, only those editing
the document on another Mac or iOS

device can edit the document when
Tracking Changes is switched on;
iCloud.com users have view-only access.
You can get a quick overview of how
your document is being shared with a
quick glance at the Collaborate button
if its checked, the document has been
shared with others, and if that check
changes to show a number, thats how
many people are currently editing it. Click
the button for a more detailed overview;
the document owner can also change how
(and with whom) the document is shared.
Not all of your iWork apps features are
currently supported when collaboration
mode is switched on theyre grayed out
in the apps menus. nick peers
Quick Look iWork collaboration
Track Changes
If switched on, all changes
are clearly marked and
color-coded according to
who made them.
Real-time
changes
Watch edits as theyre
made by other people
cursors and selection
boxes are labeled
and colored.
Collaborate
button
The button also shows
you how many people
are currently editing
the document.
Manage
collaboration
Click the button for a
menu giving you a more
detailed view and access
to sharing options.
How to do anything on your Mac, iPhone & iPad
How to Collaborate with others
Start collaborating
Open your document and click
the clearly marked Collaborate button.
An information message pops up
check the box Dont show this again
before clicking Continue to move on to
the next step.
Set permissions
By default, anyone who
accesses the document by link or
invite can edit the document. To
restrict access to viewing and printing,
click the Permissions drop-down menu
to choose View only.
Monitor changes
Both parties will now be able to
see what the other person is doing to
the document as its edited in real time
using the tools provided (see the
annotation for details). Choose Edit >
Track Changes to monitor edits.
Invitation method
Next, choose which
communication method to use. Youll
be prompted to enter contact details at
this point unless youre using Messages
or Mail matches will pop up from your
Contacts as you start to type names.
Choose recipients
Click Share. If sharing via Mail
or Messages, a new message will be
composed with a clickable link for your
recipient to use. Add their name or
email to the Message window and click
Send to fire off the invite.
Review edits
All edits are color-coded to help
you see whos done what. Roll your
mouse over an individual change to
reveal a pop-up menu allowing you to
accept or reject that change. All
collaborators can do this.
Add password
Click Share Options to choose
who has access. Invite-only means only
specific people have access; Anyone
with the link provides a shareable link.
If you choose the latter, click Add
Password to add extra security.
What happens next

Your recipient will receive the
link via email or Messages if its
invite-only, clicking this will prompt
them to open the relevant iWork app
on their Mac or iPad. A shared copy is
downloaded to their iCloud Drive.
Stop sharing
Document owners can revoke
sharing via the Collaboration button
expand Share Options and click
Stop Sharing. Invitees can roll the
mouse over their own name, click the
button and choose Remove Me.
>>> Create
A USB floppy drive will

cost you very little, and
enable you to read the
disks on which very old
software was supplied.
Run very old Mac software

Necromantic tricks to bring long-forgotten software back from the grave
REQUIRES
A Mac installed with
the old OS (even if it
nolonger works)
you will learn
How to run outdated
versions of OSX, and the
classic MacOS, onyour
current Mac
IT WILL TAKE
1 hour
Its a strange quirk that

software becomes obsolete
much quicker than hardware.
You can still buy an external
USBfloppy disk drive from Amazon for
less than $15 that will read disks created
on a Macintosh Classic from 1990; yet
there are apps written for Leopard that
wont run in ElCapitan just seven years
later. Documents that you access regularly
survive the passage of time because they
get migrated from one format to the next,
as you upgrade your Mac. But the dusty
box of floppy disks with that unfinished
first novel inMacWrite, and your fathers
carefully researched family tree in an old
version of FileMaker Pro, are unreadable
binary detritus on a modern Mac.
Being able to run old software is the
best way to rescue these files, but old
Macapps can be fun, too. Even though
weundoubtedly live ina golden era of
computer and video games, there are
still some genuinely worthy classics from

the 80s and 90s. But you dont need to
lovingly restore an actual Macintosh Plus
just to play Lode Runner; modern Macs
easily have enough horsepower to
emulate the older Mac operating systems.
Virtually a PowerPC
Lets start with OSX. A lot of apps
originally developed for 10.5 Leopard or
10.6 Snow Leopard wont run on later
versions. Snow Leopard was also the last
version of OSX to support PowerPC
processors. So, if you have any software
that originally ran on a G3,G4,or G5 Mac,
thats as far as it could beupgraded.
Unfortunately, running Snow Leopard
isnt as simple as just taking the original
install DVD and putting the system on an
external drive. An operating system from
five years ago doesnt have the right
drivers for lots of the hardware on a
modern Mac, such as a Retina display or
Revisit the wonders of Mac OS 9 using SheepShaver

but youll need to find a Mac ROM image too.
USB3 ports. Instead, you should use

either Fusion 8.5 ($68, vmware.com) or
Parallels Desktop 12 ($80, parallels.com).
Either of these can create a virtual
machine that runs within your existing
OS and allows you to install and run a
completely different operating system
on top of that. The virtualization software
takes care of interfacing with your
modern hardware, so it works even with
older operating systems.
The only tiny complication is that
Apples licensing agreement doesnt
allow the regular edition of Snow Leopard
to be installed on a virtual machine, so
you need to buy a copy of Snow Leopard
Server instead. This works just the same
as the regular edition of Snow Leopard
(apart from some system administration
features that youll never use) but
usefully, it will also install correctly under
Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion. You
can pick up a copy of Snow Leopard Server
on eBay for about $50.
Perhaps you need to roll the clock back
even further and run software designed
for Mac OS 9? If you still have a Mac
running 10.4Tiger, you might be able to
run them using the Classic environment,
but this will only work on a Mac with a
PowerPC processor. Youcant run the
Classic environment on an Intel Mac,
even if youre running 10.4 fromwithin
Parallels or Fusion. Forthat, youll need
to download SheepShaver (free,
sheepshaver.cebix.net). This strangely
named utility emulates the PowerPC
hardware so that you can install OS9

or even OS8. Because its emulating a
different hardware architecture,
SheepShaver needs to use the system
ROM files from one of the older Macs.
These are copyrighted by Apple, so you
cant legally use them unless you also
own the physical Mac they came from.
ROM files for various older Mac models
are available for download, though, so you
dont need to go through the rigmarole of
copying off the system ROM from that old
G3-powered Mac in your basement.
JARGON BUSTER
get to the good stuff
Once you have OS 9 running inside your
emulator see the walkthrough on p105
youre ready to install some apps. Even
if you no longer have the original disks for
your software any more (or perhaps even
a drive that will read them!) there are lots
of apps that are classed as abandonware.
This is a legally gray area wherebyvery
oldsoftware thats no longer available
commercially is distributed for free by
enthusiasts. Its technically still software
piracy, but the original copyright holder
either cant be traced or chooses not to
enforce their copyright.
In any case, some would argue that
downloading it is an ethical act of
software preservation. Macintoshgarden.
org maintains an extensive library of Mac
abandonware, including some classic
games from the 90s.
An emulator is an app that

mimics another computer
or operating system so
that it can run software
designed for thatsystem.
You can run Snow Leopard and its apps using virtualization software.
>>> Create
Quick Look Using Mac OS 9 in an emulator
Menu bar
The Special menu is like
the menu in macOS.
Shutdown ends your
session andcloses
the emulator.
Mac OS 9
virtual disk
This folder in
SheepShaver acts like
theinternal hard drive
ofthe emulated Mac.
Control Strip
This is similar to macOSs
System Preferences.
However, many of the
settings in this strip
areoverridden by
SheepShaver.
Sharing disk
This actually points to
afolder in OSX. Use it
tomove files between
OSX and Mac OS9.
Although you can download apps directly

fromthe web browser running in OS 9,
youll generally find it much easier to
download the files in macOS and then
move them to theemulated OS 9
environment. SheepShaver uses a shared
folder for this purpose; files you place in
that folder from macOS will appear in a
virtual disk called Unix on the OS9
desktop. Bear in mind that when you add
a new file, youll need to close and reopen
the Unix folder in OS9 tosee the changes.
Quick tip
Having trouble reading
oldinstall disks? Youll
findan archive of Apple
abandonware, including
System 1.0 to Mac OS 8,
atbit.ly/2ceWFMu.
going back even further

Most software you find online will in the
form of .sit files, which have been
compressed using the StuffIt utility, and
soyoull need StuffIt Expander (free, bit.
ly/mlsitexp) to enable you to double-click
a .sit file in OSX to expand it; youll then
normally see a.img disk image. Mount
these in the emulated OS9 by adding
them to the list of disks in SheepShavers
preferences. When you quit SheepShaver
and restart it, the disk image will appear
on the OS9 desktop, and you can open it
and run the apps installer.
Finally, if you want to get really retro,
there are apps written back when Macs
used the Motorola 68000-series of

processors, before even the PowerPC
chips. These models ran System 7 and
earlier. Modern Macs have so much more
computing power than these that you can
run a faithful emulation of System 7 using
JavaScript inyour web browser (bit.ly/
2cHZW6C). This is a great way to give you
a feel for what youre letting yourself in
for, but only a few apps and games are
available this way.
To run anything else, youll need to
install Basilisk II (basilisk.cebix.net).
As before, youll need to own a copy of
the OS and the system ROM that youre
emulating. Think of this as a more
convenient way to access thesoftware on
an old Mac you already own, rather than
a way of getting a whole extra virtual
computer. Emulating your old Macs OS
is also a great way to get atsoftware on
a Mac that no longer works its a sort
of virtual repair.
Basilisk II can emulate a Macintosh
Classic or aMacintosh II, and it can
theoretically run operating systems back
to version 1.0 from 1984. In practice,
System 6 is usually the furthest back
youneed to go. Luis Villazon
How to Emulate OS 9 in SheepShaver
JARGON BUSTER
Download SheepShaver
SheepShaver is a free emulator
available from emaculation.com. To use it
without infringing Apples copyright, youll
alsoneed toown a PowerPC Mac, because
theemulator requires a copy of the system
ROM to work.
Start up the emulator

With the ROM file in SheepShavers
folder, open the app. The blinking ? shows
theROM is recognized by the emulator. If you
no longer have the OS9 install discs for your
Mac, youcan download adisk image file from
redundantrobot.com.
The system ROM

There are utilities that will copy the
ROM file from your old Mac, but its much
easier (and necessary if that Mac no
longerworks) to get a working copy from
bit.ly/2cqx5W2. Save it as Mac OS ROM
in the SheepShaver folder.
A system ROM tells the

operating system how to
connect to the computer
hardware. Itsroughly
equivalent to the EFI
firmware used on a
modern Mac.
Name your disks

Click Browse to locate the ROM file
from earlier. Click Create and name the virtual
hard disk MacOS9HD. Use the other Browse
button to point to a folder outside
SheepShavers so you can transfer files
between OS9 and macOS.
make room
Tweak other settings

Choose a memory (RAM) size for your
virtual machine (you can be generous), then
click the Miscellaneous tab, turn on Use Raw
Keycodes and browse tothe keycode file in
the SheepShaver folder. Enter slirp in the
Ethernet Interface box.
Install OS9
In macOS, select the OS 9 image file,
press +I and lock the file. SheepShaver
will see it as a CD. In SheepShaver, click Add,
select the file, then press + to restart the
emulator. In OS 9, initialize the disk as Mac OS
Extended and wait for it to finish.
Make sure you specify

alarge enough virtual
diskfor your emulator.
Remember, the size
islisted in megabytes
rather than gigabytes!
>>> Create
Make your websites words work

Learn why you need to think about words for humans and robots alike
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 sites
visual design and dont pay
too much attention to the
words on their web pages. Thats a
mistake, because the words on your site
make a massive difference to the two
groups thatll be looking at them:
humans, and Googles robots.
Lets start with the latter. Googles
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 You dont
have to be Britney Spears to get a great
gravel driveway! dont work any more,
andwhile its important to include any
relevant keywords in your website,
theres no need to get carried away.
That doesnt mean you cant give
Google ahand, though. META tags, which
are bits of data that describe a page,

arent visible to human visitors to your
site. However, they are visible to Google,
and the right ones can help make your
site easier to classify and find. Youll
learn how to work with META tags in
RapidWeaver in the walkthrough on the
next page.
As for the humans, who better to turn
to for inspiration than Apple? One of its
copywriting tricks is to talk about you;
to say Take them out and theyre ready
to use with all your devices about
AirPods instead ofeulogizing about
frequency ranges. The old adage Sell the
sizzle, not the steak isgood advice for
sales sites but even completely unsalesy sites benefit from this, too. You can
talk about what you can see, door feel,
where you can go, what you can
experience, how whatever youre writing
about makes your life better.
GaryMarshall
Visual guide Formatting tools
The sidebar
This is where your
sites pages are
accessed, along with
global site settings.
The editing
window
Click the buttons
atthe top center
toswitch between
theediting and
preview modes.
The
Inspector
This is where you add
extra code and tweak
the settings for the
page in the middle.
Formatting
options
Use this set of
controls to apply
styles and basic
formatting, such as
left/right alignment,
bold and italics.
How to Make your site worth reading
JARGON BUSTER
Write your words

If you havent already done so, add
pages toyour site by clicking the + (Add)
button and choosing Styled Text. Select a page,
click Edit (top center), and then type words into
the page, using the toolbar for formatting.
Add global tags

Adding meta tags such as your sites
description helps Google scan your site. For
tags that need to apply across the whole site,
select Code under Settings on the left, click
Metatags and enter the appropriate text.
Keep it simple
Click the Preview button to see the
results. If you see a large part of white space
atthe right of the page, thats because your
template has room for a sidebar. Dont want it?
You can turn it off in the Inspector on the right.
Metadata is data that

describes data. A page
title is metadata: it tells
Google and your web
browser what the current
page is called.
Be more specific
Its also a good idea to add pagespecific meta tags, such as descriptions. To do
so, select the appropriate page and then click
the Meta Tags button in the Inspector. Youll
see a box where you can add a description.
keep it
connected
Customize page titles

Many of RapidWeavers templates use
the page title as a headline, and you can
customize this at the bottom of the Inspectors
General tab. Here were changing the title and
slogan for our example accommodation page.
Check for readability

Using a readability gauge such as
bit.ly/2cTKQHk is a great way to check you
havent written something thats hard to read.
Click the Test by Direct Input tab, paste your
text in, and then click Calculate Readability.
The more sites that

link to yours, the better
your search ranking
butonly if theyre
goodquality links
fromreputable sites.
>>> Create
Make use of richer iOS notifications

Learn how to stay on top of things with iOS 10s improved notifications
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
the basics of notifications

havent changed much in
iOS10. 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 events youve
got to catch up on.
But theupdated operating system
enables apps toprovide more than just
a bit of text and a few actions you might
take in response. For example, when
youreceive a text message, as well as
responding to it in place you can scroll
back through your conversation to
checkwhat was previously said. These
capabilities apply to third-partyapps
from the App Store too, and provide you
with much greater control without the
need to pull you out of an app.
Notifications work largely thesame

across all iOS devices, but your iPhone is
a 6s/6s Plus or 7/7 Plus, 3D Touch provides
you with a more consistent experience for
dealing with things like notifications,
from the Lock screen or a banner.
Notice that there are no longer tabs at
the top of Notification Center for moving
between the Today view and Notifications.
The Today view is still present: you only
have to swipe left to right on Notification
Center to find it. So, on aPlus-size
iPhone, you can reach and interact with
the Today view much more easily while
using your device one-handed. The Today
view is also available at the Lock screen,
as we explained last issue. Just swipe left
to right to view it.
Finally, after youve configured an app
in Settings > Notifications, tap its name
in the bottom group at the top level of
Settings; often the same controls are
repeated here, but occasionally youll find
extras. Also check any configuration page
within the app itself. Alan Stonebridge
How to Work with notifications
Clear a
notification
Banners and alerts can
get in the way of things.
To quickly dismiss one
without taking action,
swipe upwards on it.
Set up app notifications

To configure notifications for any app
that uses them, go to Settings > Notifications
and tap the apps name. Each has the same
basic set of options. Some provide extras, such
as previewing messages on the Lock screen.
Refine your choices

To disable all notifications from an app,
switch off Allow Notifications. Otherwise, set
whether items appear on the Lock screen, are
added to Notification Center, play a sound, or
show as a badge on the apps icon.
JARGON BUSTER
Respond to a banner
Opening notifications
When a banner (or alert) appears at the

top of the screen, tap it to go to the relevant
place in the corresponding app, or swipe down
from it (or apply 3D Touch if your device has it)
to respond from where you are.
At the Lock screen, swipe right on an

item to jump to the corresponding place in
itsapp todeal with it. To respond to one in
Notification Center, tap it instead, as swiping
right there will take you to the Today view.
Richer notifications
Without 3D Touch
iOS 10 enables apps to show richer

content when you open a notification in place,
instead of going to its corresponding app. If
your device has 3D touch just press hard to
pop open the richer view.
An apps notifications that

appear at the top of the
screen while youre busy
can be configured to
disappear (banners) or
stick around (alerts).
On devices without 3D Touch, you can

swipe right to left on the notification to reveal
an option to View the notification. Tap this and
you get the same rich notifcation view as if
youd used 3D Touch.
lock it off
You can disable access to
Notification Center atthe
Lock screen in Settings >
Touch ID & Passcode
(orPasscode on some
older devices).
Clear old notifications

Regardless of whether your device has
3DTouch, at the Lock screen or in Notification
Center you can dismiss an item by swiping left
on it and tapping Clear. Depending on the app,
other commands may be available here, too.
Clear all notifications

Notification Center groups old items by
reverse order of date. To clear a whole group
of items, tap the X to the right of its heading.
To get rid of all notifications, apply 3D Touch
toan X and then tap Clear All Notifications.
>>> Create
Master iOS 10s Music app

Discover the improvements that help you browse and listen to tracks
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
apple has made many

changes to Music in iOS 10,
and its 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 theres no longer anellipsis
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 without it you have to hold a finger
on an item for a couple of seconds
instead. This works on song and artist
names in the alphabetical lists, album and
playlist artwork, and even the Mini Player
bar that appears across the bottom of the
screen when musics playing.
The actions available differ by item, but
they generally include adding it whether
its one track or a collection of them to
a playlist or the queue, downloading it so
you can play itwhile offline, or marking
itas something youlove or dislike to
influence the suggestions in For You.
Youll find an important new item
called Optimize Storage listed under the
Downloads heading in Settings > Music.
However, its only present if iCloud Music
Library is enabled further up the page.
When this features off, iOS doesnt touch
your music when it needs space to
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.
You can ensure your device always contains some

songs with Optimize Storage.
You can apply 3D Touch to many items to take quick

action, assuming your device supports it.
download an app or play other media.
When its switched on, you can tell iOS
to retain no less than a certain amount of
music on your device, or you can choose
None to give it free rein to remove all of
your music if need be.
taking control
If you prefer to manage things manually,
you can now do this from the apps own
page in Settings, rather than having to dig
around elsewhere. Tap Downloaded Music
(even if you sync music from iTunes on
your Mac) for an overview of whats using
space. Whether you are at the list of
artists, albums, or an albums track list,
you canquickly reclaim space by swiping
left on any item and then tapping the
Delete button.
If youre not interested in Apple Music,
you can switch it off in Settings > Music.
This hides For You and Discover, but
moves Connect posts from artists and
curators to the bottom bar. As in iOS 9,
you can hide Connect by going to Settings
> General > Restrictions and turning off
the switch labeled Apple Music Connect.
This leaves Library, Radio, and Search in
the bottom bar.
Sadly, theres no way to separate out
the Playlists view from your library. Even
so, this leaves you with a much leaner and
more efficient view. alan stonebridge
How to Browse and interact with Music
Browse your library

Your library has moved from
the right-most position in the bottom
bar to the leftmost. On iPad, theres no
longer a separate Playlists icon in the
bar; theyre available through the
pop-up, top left of the Library page.
Recommendations
Tap For You for hints on music
you might like, based on your listening
habits and things youve rated. Swipe
on rows to see additional items, then
apply 3D Touch or a long press to a
suggestion to react to it.
Search for music

Tap Search and youll see your
recent searches and what other people
have looked for, saving you typing the
same things. Otherwise, tap the box,
specify whether to look in your library
or Apples collection, then type.
Customize
Tap Library, then tap Edit to
choose which categories are shown
or hidden. Here youll find the
Compilations, (Music) Videos and
Genres options to add, and you can
remove any from theLibrary page.
Connect with artists

Scroll past the suggestions on
the For You page to find posts from
artists. Tap the account icon (top right)
to review suggested artists, or apply
3D Touch/long press to an artist name
in the Search results to follow them.
Interact with results

Search results respond to 3D
Touch or a long press too, giving an
option to download an item if its
already in your library, or to add it and
then download it. Use this to stock up
on tracks before you go offline.
Quick access
To change the order in which
categories are listed, drag from the
handles to the right of them. Next, tap
Done, then swipe upwards to see new
additions to your library. These support
the 3D Touch/long press gesture.
Internet radio
Tap Radio to listen to Beats 1 or
a themed station. Personalized stations
youve previously created, by applying
3DTouch/a long press to an item you
chose as an indicator of your mood,
can befound by scrolling down.
Browse local music

The Library tab includes a view
that shows solely music downloaded
for offline playback. A reminder that
youre not seeing your whole library
appears atthe top. Tap Library in the
bottom bar to see everything again.
>>> Create
Create a photo slideshow in iMovie

Put together a movie of your images using iMovie for iOS
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

iniOS 10 enables you to create
photo slideshows from images
in your photo library and
customize them but its no substitute
for creating your own photo slideshow
from scratch. Of course, theres an app
forthat too, which you may have on your
iPhone or iPad already: iMovie.
Screen time
Its really straightforward to pull photos
from your Photo Library into iMovie and
create slideshows, adding the transitions
you choose, specifying exactly the music
youwant and even tweaking the moving
Ken Burns effects so they work in exactly
the way you want.
You can add a soundtrack, too either
oneof iMovies built-in theme music
tracks orasong from your own Music
library. If you choose one of your own
songs, it needs to be stored on your
device. If you want to add some fun to
your slideshow, you can choose from one
of iMovies library of sound effects. Each

effect can be applied to an individual
photo. With a little creativity you could
make your slideshow very entertaining!
By default, each photo in the slideshow
is onscreen for four seconds, but you can
easily change that to match the length
of a sound effect, for example by
tapping thephoto in the timeline and
dragging the yellow bar onthe right edge
left or right.
Once youve finished your slideshow,
iMovie makes it very easy to share on,
forexample, iCloud Photo Sharing or
YouTube. You can also save it on your iOS
device to play later.And, if you choose
that option and havean Apple TV, you can
replay iton a TVusing AirPlay.
The first step in our process is to create
analbum in the Photos app to host the
photos you want to use in the slideshow.
Its not essential, but itll be easier later
on if you do itthis way it saves having to
hunt for photos when you come to import
them to iMovie. Kenny Hemphill
How to Create and edit an iMovie slideshow
Create an album
In Photos, tap Albums and then
the+ at the top of the screen. Give the
album a name. Tap Save then navigate to
the photos you want to add. Tap a photo
to add it, then navigate to the next one.
Tap Done when youre finished.
Create a slideshow
Launch iMovie and tap Movie.
TapCreate Movie at the bottom of the
screen. Then tap the + at the left of the
screen to add a photo. Tap Albums, then
the album you just created. Tap a photo
toadd it to the slideshow.
Add more photos

The photo you added is now on
iMovies timeline. To add another, tap
the+ again and repeat the process.
Repeat as needed until all the photos
you want in your slideshow are on the
timeline in iMovie.
Change the order

If the photos are in the order you
want them to play, great. If not, tap and
hold on one until it pops, then drag it
towhere you want it on the timeline.
Repeat until all the photos areinthe
right order.
Add a song
In the Media Browser, tap Audio,
choose from Albums, Artists, or Songs,
and navigate to the song you want to
add. If the track is in iCloud, youll be
prompted to go to the Music app and
download it first.
Add a filter
Tap the photo in the timeline to
which you want to add the filter. Tap
Filters at the bottom of the screen and
tap a filter to preview. If you dont like it,
try another. When you find one you like,
tap the timeline to apply it.
Change transitions
By default, iMovie puts a onesecond dissolve between photos. To
change it, tap the transition icon between
two photos, then choose a transition and
length from the menu. Repeat for each
transition you want to change.
Add sound effects

In the Media library, tap Sound
Effects and scroll through the list of
effects until you find the one that you
want to add. Tap Use and then drag it
onto the photo in the timeline where
youwant it to play.
Add a project filter

Instead of adding filters to photos,
you can add one to the entire slideshow.
Tap the settings cog at the top of the
screen and choose the filter you want.
Optionally, turn on the Fade in from
black andFade out to black filters.
Ken Burns effect

Tap on the photo you want to
customize; the Ken Burns controls are
atthe bottom right of the image. Tap the
start button and drag the image to where
you want it at the start. Do the same with
the end button. Tap the timeline to finish.
Add titles
Tap the photo in the timeline you
want to add titles to (usually the first
one), then tap the T at the bottom of
thescreen. Tap a style, then tap the
placeholder in the viewer and type
inthetext for the title.
Export slideshow
When youre finished editing, tap
Done and then tap the share button at
the bottom of the screen. Choose where
you want to share it. For YouTube, tap
theicon then log in to your account and
fill in the options form then Share.
>>> RAM
Random Apple Memory
Lisa
SIMON CLAESSEN CC2.0
Adam Banks remembers the all-in-one computer

that brought us the graphical user interface
Before the Macintosh

changed everything,
therewas Lisa.
be impractical to deliver such a product

by 1981, he was replaced by John Couch,
assisted by Jef Raskin.
It was at this time that Raskin
persuaded Jobs to visit Xeroxs PARC
(Palo Alto Research Center), and the rest
is history. Instead of an upgraded Apple
II, the Lisa would be a new generation of
computer with a graphical user interface.
Officially, Lisa stood for Local Integrated
System Architecture. Unofficially, it was
named for Jobs own new generation, his
estranged daughter Lisa, born in 1978.
Both the software and hardware were
cutting-edge, and a full suite of office
software was included. This pushed up

the price. Launched in January 1983 at
$9,995, the Lisa sold a few thousand
units to ambitious early adopters, but
never took off.
By now Jobs had wrested the
Macintosh project from Raskin, and it
was this more affordable system that
would ignite the personal computer
revolution. Couch is now Apples Vice
President for Education.
NEXT ISSUE on sale

NEXT
MONTH
>>> Get more

fromiOS 10
>>> The big guide to

Photos for Mac
>>> MacBook Pro w/

Touch Bar reviews
jan 10
Contents subject to change
In 1978, Apple was the wunderkind of

the computer industry. The Apple II
thefirst complete system you could
takehome and use was selling well to
enthusiasts, and corporate users would
soon flock to it with the arrival of Dan
Bricklins VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet.
It was time to plan the next machine for
the lucrative business market.
For $2,000, Apples marketers
decided, it should offer a built-in green
screen, more professional than the Apple
IIs TV set connection, and a highcapacity floppy drive. When the original
project manager told Steve Jobs it would
MAC
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