MacFormat

This issue is all about making savings, big and small – from doing things on your Mac, iPhone and iPad faster and more efficiently, to saving money on your existing devices, to cutting the cost of buying your next one. To help get you started, this m

The summer is receding and autumn is rearing its head. That means one thing: it’s nearly iPhone season. And this year’s iPhone 14 range is shaping up to be one of the most interesting phone line-ups from Apple in recent years. We’ve collated all the

WE ASKED… Which rumoured Apple product would you like to see next? Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat > Do you remember your first visit to an Apple Store? Well, now you can relive the stores’ earl

T he Apple Car is the perennial story that just won’t go away, but in fairness, it’s easy to see why. A new, out-there Apple device (if you can call it that) that could change the way we go about our lives? That’s worth talking about. But Apple hasn’

T he M2 MacBook Pro has had its fair share of criticism due to the base model’s slow SSD performance. And now, the M2 MacBook Air has also come under fire, this time for its apparently poor heat regulation. Numerous reviewers have picked up on the is

APP OF THE MONTH Notion is a popular way to take notes, manage your projects, and organise your thoughts. And it was recently updated with a bunch of handy new features. Database pages in Table, Board or List views now slide across from the right ra

> £449 > porsche-design.com > Porsche Design is known for its striking, sleek products that turn heads at every opportunity. The company’s Wireless Speaker PDS50 is no different, with its imposing tower form and space grey finish making it feel like

6> Number of sensors included in Apple’s third-generation AirPods. These include dual beamforming microphones, an inward-facing mic, a skin-detecting sensor, motion- and speech- detecting accelerometers and a Force sensor. 5 > Number of colours avail

For our latest subscription offer see page 34! Q Individuals and companies around the world are feeling the economic pinch, and this time even Apple does not seem to be completely immune. From ongoing global chip shortages to production delays due to

There’s never been a better time to be an Apple user. Whether it’s your iPhone or iPad, Mac or Apple TV, Apple hardware and software is smarter, more useful and easier to use than ever – and it’s all about making you the centre of your Apple universe

Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com ⌘ is the Command key, which is also labelled cmd. ⌥ means the Option key, labelled alt or opt. ctrl means the Control key, labelled ctrl, and shown as ^ in shortcuts in the menu bar. ⇧ i

1 Make changes Once you have created your model, PhotoCatch enables you to scale, crop, or rotate it. 2 USDZ files Models are saved as USDZ files, Apple’s file format for storing info about 3D models. 3 Export model Once you’re happy with your mo

IT WILL TAKE 15 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to draw a logo in Pixelmator Pro YOU’LL NEED Pixelmator Pro (£34.99), macOS 10.15 or later In an expanding digital world, it’s becoming harder to stand out among the crowd, which is why a firm grasp of brand

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to run your Mac shortcuts automatically with Shortery YOU’LL NEED Shortery (Free, offers IAPs), macOS 12 or later Macs put a lot of power at your fingertips with shortcuts. But unlike on iOS, the Shortcuts ap

IT WILL TAKE 60 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to set up a secure and private email account YOU’LL NEED A web browser, macOS 10.12 or later > To move from the web and use Proton Mail in the Mail app, you’ll need to download Proton Mail Bridge. This optio

IT WILL TAKE 20 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to use storyboards, how to use Magic Movie YOU’LL NEED An iPad, the latest iMovie app, some footage iMovie is free for every iOS user to download, although the screens of larger iPads make it a better platfo

IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to create GIFs using Momento YOU’LL NEED iPhone or iPad, GIF Maker by Momento, iOS 13 or later To create a GIF in Photos, go to the Live Photos album, tap Live and choose Loop or Bounce. You can then share t

IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes YOU WILL LEARN How to organise, adjust and reset your Apple Watch YOU’LL NEED watchOS 8 or later You don’t need to remember to backup your Apple Watch; the iPhone app does it automatically, and it’s then included in your iClou

You can use Wi-Fi or Ethernet to set up a LAN (Local Area Network) that connects lots of different devices across a large area, such as a home or office. Bluetooth has much lower range than Wi-Fi, so it’s used to create a personal area network (PAN)

Our resident genius solves your Mac and iOS problems Email your queries and your questions to genius@macformat.com If you use Disk Images much, you’ll surely have noticed how slow they can be. When you’ve paid good money for a screamingly quick M1 Ma

How to downgrade the firmware in my Mac? > If it’s an Apple silicon model, you need another Mac and Apple Configurator 2 software together with a special IPSW image of its software. Intel Macs with a T2 chip can also be downgraded using a similar pr

Can I connect a Studio Display to a TB3 dock? > All good Thunderbolt 3 and 4 docks and hubs should support a connected Studio Display fully, and provided the Mac connected to it is running an appropriate version of macOS, its firmware should be upda

We’re all feeling the squeeze right now, and it may be that your best-laid plans for upgrading your Mac have bitten the dust or require a complete rethink due to changes in your circumstances. Well, that’s where we come in. Over the next six pages, w

Once upon a time, upgrading your Mac’s memory or hard drive was a relatively easy way to extend its usable lifespan by months, if not years. However, in recent years, newer models have become increasingly more difficult to upgrade, to the point where

MacOS is blessed with awesome built-in apps that won’t cost you a bean, but what about all the other things you might want to do? If you are strapped for cash, the good news is there are plenty of free or low-cost alternatives to just about every exp

Check the specs of any Mac carefully before you buy it, but stick to your true requirements. As much as we love Apple’s latest Macs, iPhones and iPads, you don’t need to pay premium prices to upgrade your existing models. With a little know-how, you

A pple’sBooks app started out as a way to encourage people to use its then fledgling iPad to read books. By then, Amazon’s Kindle had started to dominate the market for ebook readers and Apple wanted its share. The problem Apple had was that the iPad

Apple’sBook Store doesn’t get the attention of its App or Music stores, but it has plenty of bestsellers and new titles on offer, and at pretty reasonable prices. And there are lots of free books, too. It also doubles as an audiobooks store. When yo

Whiledownloading books from Apple’s Book Store is likely to be the main way in which you add them to the Books app, it’s not the only way to add content. We’ve already seen that you can import PDFs to Books and read them in the app. The other way to

The low end is punch and controlled, while the top end is politely aggressive The best active noise-cancelling headphones you can buy. But they don’t come cheap. ★★★★★ + Expansive, nicely balanced sound + Sony’s best-ever noise cancelling - Numerous

The image quality is perfectly adequate, and you can now record colour video at night >The Wi-Fi and 4G combo makes the Go 2 agood option for locations where Wi-Fi is unreliable. ★★★★☆ + 1080p Full HD with siren and spotlight + Uses both Wi-Fi and a

> Setup niggles are annoying, but the Lift is a well-designed, affordable and comfortable mouse. ★★★★☆ +Ergonomic design -No rechargeable battery The Lift Vertical Ergonomic Mouse from Logitech provides a more affordable option than its MX Vertical.

Playback reveals a pleasing mid-range and treble performance >It’s a little pricey, but this is a capable speaker system for all sorts of media uses. ★★★★★ + Solid, wellbalanced sound + Multifunctional remote control + Cool design - USB port is only

>An affordable smart speaker for the home, though Apple users may get more from a HomePod mini. ★★★☆☆ + Good voice command support - Needs Google Home app jBL’s Link Music is more compact than the Link Portable and requires mains power. It also lacks

A very elegant way to power and expand your portable Mac >An elegant combined charger and high speed Thunderbolt hub to suit all kinds of users. ★★★★★ + Neat all-inone solution +96W of power to MacBook Pro +Plenty of bandwidth +Tiny footprint Anyone

ON TEST… > LaCie Mobile Drive 2TB >SanDisk Professional G-Drive ArmorATD 2TB > Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB > Toshiba Canvio Flex 2TB > Verbatim Store ’n’ Go Alu Slim 2TB > WD My Passport 2TB Hard drives might be unfashionable right now, but for les

All six of the drives performed well, and shouldn’t disappoint in use. Considering compatibility, connectivity, cost and performance, the drive which came out top is Toshiba’s speedy Canvio Flex. At its best, when using the first and outermost 10% of

RapidWeaver will come in two flavours: RapidWeaver Classic and a new app, RapidWeaver Elements RapidWeaver was one of the first template-based website editors for the Mac way back in 2004: instead of having to code, you simply choose a template and a

> Free (Premium £14.49, Premium Lifetime £44.99) FROM user.camp >NEEDS iOS 14 or later A novel and creative notebook solution for iPad. ★★★★☆ + Lots of different stationery types + Mix and match pages + Sketch and draw in any style - Best results fro

There are no graphics settings, so even a trickedout Mac Studio will be stuck on potato quality >A sub-par Mac experience that’s decent for short sessions but lacks the drive to succeed. ★★☆☆☆ + Fun casual gameplay - Poor multiplayer - Disappointing

EXPECTED OCT 2022 UPDATED APR 2021 ˃ Ever since the Bondi Blue iMac debuted in 1998, Apple’s all-in-one desktop computer has been setting standards for design and performance. The current 24in model is certainly Apple’s finest yet – thanks to its 4

Apple has been slowly switching its line-up of Macs over to its own Apple silicon processors for a while now. Starting off in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13-inch and Mac mini, Apple launched its M1 processor back in 2020, quickly followed by the M1