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This month’s cover stars are the

brand new iMac and MacBook Pro, Meet the team
which suprisingly arrived at the tail
end of October with a completely new
generation of Apple silicon chips: the
Jo Membery
M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max. While anyone
Operations Editor
hoping for a 27-inch or bigger iMac
Jo’s already started on her
will come away disappointed (we
New Year’s resolutions, if
know we did), the direction of travel
by resolutions, you mean
is fascinating, with the new MacBook
eating mince pies 24/7.
Pro in particular showing not only just
Might as well start as you
how far Apple silicon has come – but where it might go next.
mean to go on, eh Jo?
You can read our in-depth reviews of both the iMac and the
MacBook Pro starting on p78, while we also look at how Apple
silicon is progressing in MacFormat Investigates on p16. Paul Blachford
Whether you plan on upgrading to the latest Apple silicon Art Editor
or not, hopefully by now you’ll have at least installed Sonoma Paul’s spending the
– the latest operating system to grace the Mac. In Secrets of holidays binge-watching
Sonoma (p20), you’ll discover some of the cool things that ‘buddy’ movies with his
macOS 14 can do, while also learning some new tips and dog, starting with all-time
tricks along the way – we hope you enjoy it! classic Santa Buddies: The
Talking of enjoyment, it’s now party season and that Legend of Santa Paws.
means plenty of opportunities to take photos of friends and
family. To help, this month’s iPhone photography guide (p62)
is entirely focused on taking amazing portraits in any light. SUBSCRIBE
But whatever you’re up to this holiday season, have a TODAY!
fantastic Christmas and very merry New Year,
HURRY! & GET A
ROB MEAD-GREEN
TIME-
LIMITED
OFFER
GREAT GIFT
EDITOR WORTH £69.99
TURN TO PAGE 34
editor@macformat.com

macformatuk.tumblr.com facebook.com/macformat twitter.com/macformat Instagram.com/MacFormatUK

JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 3

 Issue 399
January 2024
macformat.com

20

Secrets of
6 APPLE ADDS RCS SUPPORT
Cross-platform messaging

APPLE CORE
Sonoma
> Are you getting the most from macOS
Sonoma, or are there features you’ve
not yet seen? Let’s take a look
6 RUMOUR & NEWS
The latest updates from Cupertino and beyond

9 APPS & GAMES

Our top picks of the month for Mac and iOS

10 CRAVE
The hot new gear we’re lusting after

12 LETTERS
Have your say on all things Apple related

13 FACTS & FIGURES

We crunch the numbers behind the M3 chip

14 OPINION
Issues with vision in the Vision Pro headset

SUBSCRIBE
HURRY!
TODAY!
TIME-
LIMITED & GET A
OFFER
GREAT GIFT
16 MACFORMAT INVESTIGATES WORTH £69.99
Where are we with Apple silicon TURN TO PAGE 34

4 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 Issue 399 CONTENTS

44 Indentify people and pets 62

APPLE CHOICE
iPHONE 78 MacBook Pro (Late 2023)
PORTRAIT
PHOTO
GUIDE
> Take amazing

APPLE SKILLS portraits by day

or night

38 MASTER YOUR DESKTOP

Customise wallpapers and screen savers

40 GO FURTHER WITH MESSAGES

Use the latest features in Messages on Mac
81 82
42 CUSTOMISE FOCUS MODES
Automate switching between Focus settings HARDWARE

44 INDENTIFY PEOPLE AND PETS

Use the people and pets ID powers in Photos
78 MacBook Pro (Late 2023)
81 iMac (2023)
46 COPY BETTER WITH PASTE 82 Soundcore Motion X500
Manage your clipboard with more control
83 AOC Gaming 16G3
48 COUNT DOWN TO EVENTS 84 Denon PerL Pro
Get cool countdowns for upcoming plans
85 Ember Travel Mug 2+
50 FIGHT SCAMS AND SPAM
Sort real mail from imposters on iPhone SOFTWARE
71
52 TAKE WEBSITES FOR A SPIN
Master the
86 Group test: News readers for Mac
Discover a new way to browse websites
92 Goodnotes 6
54 EXPLAINED: THUNDERBOLT 5
The latest advance in connectivity technology
Health app 93 Storyteller
Keep an eye on your 94 RichCast
health and well-being – 95 Photon Camera
GENIUS TIPS we show you how!
96 App round-up: Six apps
to help you pack your bags

56 Howard Oakley solves all 76

your Mac hardware, software
and iOS and iPadOS issues 98 STORE GUIDE
BACK Get help with picking accessories
ISSUES and apps to go with your Apple kit
Head here if you’ve
missed an issue 105 NEXT MONTH
What’s coming in MF400 on 9 January

106 ONE MORE THING…

How watchOS 10 transforms the Apple Watch

JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 5

 What’s inside

6–8
RUMOUR & NEWS
The latest updates
from Cupertino
and beyond
EDITED BY ROB MEAD-GREEN
9
APPS & GAMES
Our top picks of the
month for Mac and iOS

10
CRAVE
The hot new gear
we’re lusting after

12
LETTERS
Have your say on all
things Apple related

13
FACTS & FIGURES
We crunch
the numbers on
Apple’s M3 chips

14
OPINION
On the issue of vision Messaging between iPhones and Android devices
behind Apple’s vision has been a bit of a mess in recent years, but
HOT TOPIC! Apple’s support for RCS might help improve things.
for Vision Pro…

MACFORMAT
16

INVESTIGATES
Apple finally adds RCS
Where we’re at
with Apple silicon
support to iMessage
Threat of legal action seemingly forces Apple’s hand
Contact us espite constant prodding and In a statement, Apple announced that
D pleading from Google, Apple has
long refused to add support for
“Later next year, we will be adding support for
RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently
Email your queries to Rich Communications Services (RCS) to published by the GSM Association. We believe
letters@macformat.com its messaging platforms. Yet in a highly the RCS Universal Profile will offer a better
surprising about-face, the company recently interoperability experience when compared to
Join the conversation at told TechRadar and 9to5Mac that it would SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage,
facebook.com/macformat support RCS after all. As TechRadar’s headline which will continue to be the best and most
or on Twitter @macformat blared, “Hell freezes over”. secure messaging experience for Apple users.”

6 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 RCS is a messaging standard meant
to replace the SMS (Short Messaging
Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging
Service) services that came before it.
It should allow greater interoperability
between iPhone and Android devices by
offering features like cross-platform group
chats, read receipts, typing indicators and
high-resolution media.
Why all the shock surrounding Apple’s
announcement? Well, for a long time Apple
has either ignored RCS or taken a sceptical
view of it. RCS doesn’t have end-to-end
encryption built-in, for example, and it’s
ran the risk of stiff fines. In its latest
attempt to get Apple to open up to RCS,
Google sent a letter to the EU arguing
that iMessage is “an important gateway
between business users and their
customers” and should therefore be
designated a ‘core’ service – which
would mean forcing Apple to make it
interoperable with other messaging
apps and services.
It seems that this threat is what
forced Apple’s hand. Rather than wait for
regulation, Apple has decided to act now The iPhone SE 4 could become a lot more like the
iPhone 14, if a leak from MacRumors is correct.
while it still has some choice. Apple told

RCS should allow

TechRadar that it intends to work with the
GSM Association – the developer of RCS – iPhone SE
cross-platform group
to improve the standard and add proper
encryption. That could ultimately benefit
set for major
chats, read receipts, all users and lead to improvements in the
same way that Apple’s work on MagSafe
overhaul
and high-res media has prompted development of the Qi2 umours have persisted

not even used on the majority of Android

handsets, according to some estimates.
Because of that, Apple hasn’t felt much
pressure to change. Tim Cook even chimed
in, saying “I don’t hear our users asking
that we put a lot of energy into [RCS] at this
point.” But now, that’s all about to change.
Apple vs the EU
So, what caused Apple’s sudden change
of heart? In a word, regulation. Foremost
here is the heavy weight of the European
Union. The body has been investigating
Apple under the Digital Markets Act, which
could sanction any ‘gatekeeper’ company
that is deemed to be abusing its market
dominance. Without RCS support, Apple
wireless charging protocol.
It’s important to note that, for Apple
users, RCS will not replace iMessage.
It still offers many more features than
RCS, including end-to-end encryption,
Memojis and stickers. Instead, RCS will
be integrated into Apple’s messaging
services to provide better compatibility.
Apple has said, however, that the green
Android bubbles will remain.
It’s rare to see Apple cave in like this.
It goes to show how much the company
fears regulation, with Apple adding USB-C
to its iPhones and working to allow app
sideloading in the future, both to head off
the threat of EU action. With the addition
of RCS support, mobile messaging is
entering unfamiliar territory.
R for months that the next
iPhone SE will adopt an
all-screen design to replace the
wide bezels and Home button of
the current design. If sources cited
by MacRumors are to be believed,
the iPhone SE 4 will usher in that
new era. Set to be released in 2025,
the new iPhone SE will look like a
‘modified’ iPhone 14, MacRumors
says, with an all-screen design, Face
ID, a Dynamic Island and no Home
button. On the chassis there will be
an Action button on the side and a
USB-C port on the bottom. It’ll only
have a single camera, though, an no
capacitive ‘Capture button’ that has
been rumoured for the iPhone 16.

Apple extends Emergency SOS coverage

Apple’s iPhone 14 range launched in
2022 and, when it did, it came with two
years of Emergency SOS via Satellite
coverage for free. This lets you use
satellites to contact emergency services
if you are lost in the wilds with no signal.
With one year left, Apple has decided to
extend the coverage for another 12 months,
ending in November 2025.
Apple has never revealed how much
Emergency SOS via Satellite will cost once
the grace period is over, and that
uncertainty has been punted into the long
grass with this latest update. There has
been some speculation that Apple extended
the free coverage simply because it hadn’t
worked out how much to charge people,
although we can’t know that for sure.
Emergency SOS via Satellite sits
alongside other emergency safety features
in Apple’s devices, like Crash Detection and
Fall Detection. Customers in the US have
access to Roadside Assistance via Satellite, Emergency SOS via Satellite can help you out
but that’s not available in the UK yet. of a situation if you’re struggling for signal.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 7

 Nothing Chats was meant to be an attempt to
improve communications between iPhones and
Android phones, but it backfired spectacularly.

APPLE
NEWS
ROUNDUP
iOS
SIDELOADING
APPLE TO LOOSEN
GRIP IN 2024
> Apple has been
feeling the pinch from Nothing’s attempt to beat Apple’s
the EU recently, and
it could lead to the RCS support did not work out
company opening
up iOS to allow the
Unencrypted messages, deceptive marketing and security issues
installation of apps pple recently announced it would According to Roussel, Sunbird had access
from third-party stores.
According to Mark
A add RCS support to its Messages
app (see p6), but just before that
to every single text, image, video, contact card
and other media file sent using the service. In
Gurman, this could happened, phone maker Nothing claimed it fact, anyone could access these files if they
happen in the first half had its own solution. In theory, Nothing Chats wanted. What’s more, messages were not
of 2024, with Messages would have allowed greater text interoperability end-to-end encrypted, despite Nothing
and payment apps also between iPhones and Android devices. claiming that they were.
changing. Still, it won’t Unfortunately, Nothing Chats turned out The revelations led to Nothing Chats being
be a free-for-all, as to be a privacy and security nightmare. pulled from the Google Play Store. Roussel
Gurman believes Apple In order for it to work, you had to sign over described it as “probably the biggest ‘privacy
will use a “highly your iCloud login details to Nothing and app nightmare’ I’ve seen by a phone manufacturer
controlled system” – developer Sunbird on the promise that they in years.” The whole sorry saga suggests that
whatever that entails. were well protected. That idea was undermined when it comes to things like this, it really does
by what Android developer Dylan Roussel pay to stick with apps and companies that take
discovered when investigating the app. your privacy seriously.
HEADSET
EARLY IN 2024
VISION PRO’S
MARCH LAUNCH
Apple plans OLED display changes
> When Apple revealed
New screen tech coming to iPads and Macs from 2024
the Vision Pro headset pple is on the brink year, alongside the 13-inch perhaps by up to 20%, the
in June 2023, it said it
would launch in ‘early”
A of switching up the
displays in its
and 15-inch MacBook Air and
the 14-inch MacBook Pro.
report suggests.
Interestingly, ET News
2024. The first rumours entire iPad and MacBook From 2027, Apple will claims that a few new iPad
claimed that meant ranges, Korean outlet ET apparently upgrade the sizes are also in the works.
January, but now News has claimed, with 12.9-inch iPad Pro to a second- The OLED iPad mini (due in
Bloomberg’s Mark every device getting an generation OLED screen. This 2026) will have an 8.7-inch
Gurman says the date OLED screen over the next could reduce battery drain, display rather than its current
has been pushed back few years. It’s a change that 8.3-inch size, says the report,
to March. That’s could help elevate these while the iPad Air will get an
because Apple “still devices to new heights – if the all-new 12.9-inch version the
needs to get its report is accurate, of course. following year, in 2027.
distribution plans in The article argues that the Since the report concerns
shape and conduct iPad Pro will get OLED tech events years in the future,
further testing.” The first, pairing it with ProMotion it might not prove to be
company often hosts in 2024. That will be followed accurate, but it suggests that
a spring event, which by the 16-inch MacBook Pro in Apple has a major display
Apple is apparently rolling out plans to
would be an ideal time 2025, with the iPad Air and add OLED displays to its devices, and shake-up on the cards.
for the launch. iPad mini following the next possibly a few new screen sizes. We’ll have to wait and see.

8 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024 Image credits: Nothing Technology Ltd , Apple Inc
 Apps & games APPLE CORE

APP OF THE MONTH

Media
Picks
What you should
be playing and
reading this month

[M AC A PP] [A L BU M]
1989 (Taylor’s Version)
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 £86.56 Taylor Swift
£12.99
One-click photo edits with a helping hand from AI The latest step in
Swift’s quest for control
Adobe has launched Photoshop a tool to select a sky or background in a single
of her master tapes, the
Elements 2024, weaving click, and more. The app’s look and feel has also
revisited 1989, is deeply
artificial intelligence (AI) been refreshed, with options for light and dark
personal for the singer –
technology ever deeper into mode plus a quick actions panel housing popular
as she has said, the
its one-off purchase photo-editing app. one-click edits. The fonts and icons, meanwhile,
original changed her life.
The latest version aims to make your edits have been given a fresh lick of paint.
quick and easy. You can match colour and tone Adobe has also updated Premiere Elements
from any image into the picture you’re working for 2024, with colour matching, automatic
on, or pick from a range of predefined looks for highlight reel creation, a new look, plus additional
your photos – and create shareable photo reels. audio effects and graphics. Both are great
In addition, there are new stylised text options, options if subscription apps aren’t your thing.
[AU DIOB O OK ]
Unruly
David Mitchell
£12.99
An uproarious look at
Britain’s historical kings
and queens, “a tale of
narcissists, inadequate
self-control, excessive
beheadings” and a
[iO S A PP] [iOS GAME] [M AC GA M E]
whole lot more.
ExpressVPN Keys Subpar Pool Stray
FREE (offers IAPs) £4.99 £24.99
ExpressVPN is Think you know Stray is set in a
a virtual private pool? Think again. dystopian future
network that Subpar Pool takes of urban decay and
protects your privacy online. this classic game in a whole societal collapse. But, instead
Now, the developer has added new direction, with of playing a human protagonist,
a built-in password manager procedurally generated levels here you operate as a stray cat, [PODCAST]
to conceal all your logins and ramping up the ingenuity – and where you use your feline Waterlands
bank card information from the randomness. Try to pot abilities to overcome threats Wetlands support up
prying eyes. If you’ve been everything in as few moves as and solve an ancient mystery. to 40% of the world’s
looking for a multi-purpose you can while contending with A tale of companionship in a wildlife, yet they’re
app to keep you safe on the portals, fragile glass balls, and lonely world, Stray has received disappearing fast. This
web, this could be it. much more. rave reviews. podcast explores these
Why you need it: Super-security Why you need it: It’s a brilliantly Why you need it: It’s a whole new vital landscapes and the
in a single package. ridiculous pool game. perspective on cyberpunk. beauty they contain.

Image credits: Adobe, Taylor Swift, Penguin Books

Ltd, ExpressVPN, webbfarbror ab Annapurna
Interactive LLC, Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 9
 APPLE CORE Hot new kit
THE GEAR WE’RE LUSTING AFTER
Loewe radio.frequency
> £199 > From int.loewe.tv
> Marking the 100th anniversary of
Radio Frequenz (the company started
by the Loewe brothers in Berlin in
1923), Loewe has brought out this
celebratory ‘smart radio’. With a few
nods to the company’s original Loewe
OE33, the radio is made beautifully made
with Canadian oak inlays – so each one is
unique – and basalt-coloured acoustic
fabric. There’s also plenty of good tech
on offer with DAB+, Bluetooth 5.0 and
10 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
USB-C charging. You also get an
easy-to-read, monochrome 2.6in
high-contrast LCD display, and up to
14 hours of playtime. Despite its size
(21.1x13.2x6.8cm) and portablility, the
radio packs two full-range speakers for
an impressively wide stereo soundstage
and a bass radiator for some gutsy audio,
as well as 28W of power.
If you’re a fan of the company, this
speaker is a nice, affordable investment. The radio combines modern tech with classic looks.
Image credit: Loewe Technology GmbH
Sony HT-AX7
> £499 > From sony.co.uk
> Sony’s Portable Theatre System
eschews the standard single-speaker
soundbar format in favour of a central
main unit and two satellites that can
be detached from or attached to the
main unit using magnets.
Netatmo Smart
Door Lock
> €379 (about £330) > From netatmo.com
> Netatmo is a leader in smart home
tech, and the company has now brought
out a smart door lock. Available now in
the EU and expected to launch in the UK
soon, the Lock features a high-strength
stainless steel cylinder, reinforced with an
anti-drilling plate and three security pins.
Its smart key is inserted like a normal key,
but it can also be locked or unlocked with
your iPhone too – thanks to a built-in NFC
connection. It’s also easy to deactivate the
keys if you lose them, and the Lock is
compatible with Apple Home.
Image credits: Sony Europe BV, Netatmo, Zagg Inc, Leica Camera AG
Built-in Bluetooth makes it easy to
connect the HT-AX7 to audio sources like
your Mac or iPhone and easily switch
between them. Bluetooth also supplies
the connection between the main unit
and the satellites – no cables required.
Zagg 3-in-1
Extendable Stand
> £169.95 > From uk.zagg.com
This 3-in-1 extendable stand with
MagSafe (MFi certified) delivers up
to 15W of power to your iPhone, Apple
Watch and AirPods. The MagSafe
charging stand extends to save space on
your desk. Being able to extend the height
– from 19cm to just over 40cm – and adjust
the head is particularly useful for charging
your phone while on a video call. You can
have your iPhone in portrait or landscape
mode, and the base is made from weighted
steel so it feels stable and secure, even
when your phone is in a raised position.
The really clever bit, though, is Sony’s
360 Spatial Sound Mapping, which
enables the HT-AX7 to deliver immersive
3D sound. Plus, the whole thing comes
with a built-in battery offering up to 30
hours of power between recharges.
Leica Sofort 2
> £350 > From leica-camera.com
> The Sofort 2 combines the best of both
instant print and digital worlds. You can
shoot instantly to the Instax Mini format
(Sofort translates to immediately, fact
fans!) or save images digitally to the
camera’s internal memory or SD card. The
camera only measures 123x87x44mm but
features a 28mm-equivalent lens with an
f/2 to f/16 aperture range, and there are 10
Filmstyles and 10 Lensstyle options for
various filters and effects. When used in
combination with the Sofort app, images
can easily be transferred to iPhone, and
you can even remotely control the camera.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 11
 CONTACTS Get in touch
Have your say on all things Apple!
LETTER OF THE MONTH!
STANDBY YOUR BEDS!
iOS 17 has arrived with several tasty little
morsels and some really good tweaks,
9:41am eg video messaging for FaceTime. But
StandBy? It’s a great idea, you plug in your
charger, prop your phone on its side, and
voila, you get a clock (and other widgets).
Fantastic, I thought – that’s a perfect
replacement for the ageing bedside clock
I have. But then, 10 seconds later the display goes back to black. You have
to tap it to bring it back up. Like probably the majority of Apple users, I do
not have the latest, always-on-screen phone. Anyway, let’s think how this
feature will be used: The office? There’s likely to be a clock, or you’ll be
on your laptop, which has a clock. School? Unlikely. On the go? Can’t.
In fact, it’s going to be the bedroom, isn’t it? Not least because Apple
have kindly thought to include a low-light mode. So, you’ve plugged it in
on your bedside table, and propped it against a pile of books. You drop off.
Early hours, you wake up, reach to tap the front of your phone; it falls over,
the books fall on the floor, and you have to get up to see the time and clear
up. Or the phone is on your partner’s side. You wake up… what time is it?
You have to lean over your sleeping partner, probably waking them, and
suffer the same falling pile of books. Of course you could buy a lovely
stand, but that would probably cost twice as much as… a real clock!
Come on Apple, what were you thinking? Just have it stay on all the
time – it uses a tiny amount of juice, and anyway, it’s plugged in. Add a
toggle for those who would prefer the tap.
by P E T E R B E N S O N
ROB SAYS…
StandBy is a great feature, but it certainly could do with a little
improvement. We’re forever accidentally changing the view while
fumbling about in the dark with no glasses on. Also, the photo view only
works when your phone is unlocked, which seems a bit silly really.
DUPED GURU?
I tried to download dupeGuru to my Mac (running macOS Ventura). I was
confronted with the following: ‘dupeGuru can’t be opened because Apple
cannot check it for malicious software. This software needs to be updated.
Contact the developer for more information.’ Can you advise please,
perhaps describing how you managed to get around Apple’s check?
by B E R N A R D J O N E S
ROB SAYS…
This can sometimes happen when you try to install software from third-
party developers – often because Apple can’t verify them using features
12 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
Contact us
Email your queries
and your questions to
letters@macformat.com
such as Developer ID. We can assure you,
though, that dupeGuru is completely safe.
So to bypass the check macOS makes in this
instance, go to System Settings > Privacy &
Security and, where you see the warning for
dupeGuru, click the Open Anyway button.
BATTERY BLUES
I use a number of old MacBooks. They are
very good, if dated machines. Naturally, I have
had to buy replacement batteries for them
over the years. I have found that the new
batteries with only a few charge/discharge
cycles, and the occasional older one, seem to
have failed. Either the machine thinks there is
no battery present or, if the voltage is lower
than about 9.2, does not charge them. Using
an external power supply it is possible to
charge the batteries sufficiently to have the
computer recognise them. I am sure you must
have heard of this problem before now.
by L I O N E L C WA R I N G
ROB SAYS…
We know how you feel, having experienced
similar issues ourselves. While the Apple-
made ones tended to the last the longest,
even they can give up the ghost after a
couple of years. And some of the third-party
ones are terrible. Unfortunately, Apple no
longer sells replacement batteries for older
MacBooks, so your best bet would be to buy
from a reputable source such as ifixit.com.
© www.ifixit.com
If you’re thinking of replacing an old battery in your
MacBook, make sure you buy it from a reputable source.
Image credit: Apple Inc.
 Facts & figures APPLE CORE

THE M3 IN
22 hours
> Maximum battery life of
a MacBook Pro with M3 Pro
when use for wireless TV
Discover the key facts and stats behind all the latest and movie streaming.
Apple silicon M3 chips – the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max Regular web use enables it
to last for up to 15 hours.

92 billion 128GB
> Number of transistors inside
the top-spec M3 Max chip. The
M3 Pro has 37 billion and the
M3 has 25 billion.
> Maximum amount
of memory that can be
fitted to a MacBook Pro
with M3 Max.

40
> Maximum number of GPU
cores available in the M3 Max,
giving it up to 50% faster
performance than an M1 Max.

3-nanometre (nm) 50% faster

> The process used in M3 manufacture that allows > Maximum speed increase of the M3
transistors to be packed into an even smaller space for family’s efficiency cores over the M1
increased speed and efficiency. Previous Apple silicon generation; the M3’s performance
chips have used a 5nm process. cores are up to 30% faster.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 13

 APPLE CORE Opinion

MATT BOLTON…
THINKS THE BIGGEST OBSTACLE
TO THE SUCCESS OF APPLE’S
VISION FOR VISION PRO IS
PEOPLE’S VISION
here’s a lot of detail around Vision Pro that
T Apple has yet to reveal, or that will take more
time to become clear. Apple seems content to
trickle information out ahead of the headset’s launch in
2024. Not long before writing this, Apple showed a number
of US journalists the experience of capturing ‘Spatial
Video’ (ie, Apple’s flavour of 3D video) on iPhone, which
they could then watch on the headset. Over time, we’ll
hear more of this – no doubt there will be a moment when
journalists are invited to try using it as a Mac substitute,
or to use virtual film-making tools, and other areas Apple
especially wants to show off. Apple can cram all the technology it wants into here, but none of
But this latest media access to the device drove a it helps if I can’t actually see it properly because of my eyesight.
problem home for me that I had glossed over at the device’s pitches computing – just look at all the AR
launch: the need for prescriptive lenses inside the Vision Pro. (augmented reality) segments on iPhone
Journalists had the Vision Pro headets pre-prepared for their demos at its WWDC keynotes. Limb
demos. We knew from the scanning for physios is work, exploring a
The Vision Pro launch that adding prescription
lenses would add to the cost,
recreation of the human body on your table
is education, firing catapults at castles is fun.
headset requires which was frustrating – but
what occurred to me this time
I have no doubt that education is going
to be at the heart of future versions of the
prescription lenses is that this cost isn’t likely to
be a one-off. My eyes have
Vision Pro hardware… but childhood is
often the period when someone’s eyes are
– and they’re likely settled in the last few years;
I haven’t needed a significant
changing at the fastest rate. And won’t
headsets be shared between kids? Any
to need changing change in my glasses for a device where the prescription has to be built
while. But our eyes deteriorate into it, rather than relying on correction by
continuously and steadily for years, and mine will no doubt the user (whether that’s glasses or contacts)
require a change in prescription as I get older. Is the Vision has an inherent, major problem. Well, two
Pro the first piece of hardware that may become obsolete problems: the inconvenience and the cost.
not because the technology’s moved on but because I have This isn’t unique to Vision Pro. I tried
changed? No doubt I’ll be able to get new lenses when I need a demo of some microOLED personal screen
them, but it certainly won’t be a low-cost glasses that also used insertable prescription
option. And it’s not just middle-aged lenses; they couldn’t find suitable lenses for
professional users of the Vision Pro me, so I couldn’t see anything. As long as
that I’m thinking about here… that’s even a possibility, Vision headsets will
The Vision Pro demos herald a new be stuck on the outside, looking (hazily) in.
dawn for computing and screen time. A
freedom from the physical confines of a ABOUT MATT BOLTON
laptop’s small screen, or an iMac’s lack of Matt is Managing Editor at
portability. The ability to merge the real TechRadar.com, and previously worked
world and the virtual in ways that could on T3, MacLife and MacFormat. He’s
mean all kinds of new approaches to been charting Apple’s ups and downs
With Spatial Video now available, ready for
the Vision Pro’s launch, Apple is clearly work, education, and fun. These tend since his student days, but still hopes
serious about the future of 3D video. to be Apple’s three pillars with how it to hear “one more thing”.

14 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024 Image credit: Apple Inc

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JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 15

INVESTIGATES
Apple silicon –
the story so far
With the arrival of the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max, Apple silicon shows
no sign of slowing down. Here we take a look at how it’s performing
WRITTEN BY CHARLOTTE HENRY
ack in June 2020,
B Apple announced it was
transitioning the Mac to
what it broadly referred
to at the time as ‘Apple silicon’. Instead
of Macs containing chips made by Intel or
another third party, Apple itself would
create the hardware. In November that
same year, we saw the first iteration of
this – the M1 chip.
Apple has always insisted the move
away from previous provider Intel would
allow it to make more rapid progress in
improving the Macs. “There has never
The latest M3 SoC chip comes in three variations, with the M3 Max offering the biggest CPU/GPU gains.
16 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
been a chip like M1, our breakthrough
SoC for the Mac. It builds on more than a
decade of designing industry-leading chips
for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, and
ushers in a whole new era for the Mac,”
said Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice
president of Hardware Technologies,
upon the release of the M1. Generally,
this has proved to be correct.
Intel itself was rather taken aback by
the release of Apple silicon. In October
2021, CEO Pat Gelsinger told Axios’ Ina
Fried in a televised interview: “Apple
decided they could do a better chip
For our latest
subscription offer
see page 34!
themselves than we could. And, you know,
they did a pretty good job.”
Meanwhile, Apple were buoyant.
Srouji continued the positivity when
Apple released the M3 in October 2023.
He said that “Apple silicon has completely
redefined the Mac experience.” This may
be a somewhat boastful PR statement, but
it is certainly true that the Mac has seen
rapid progress over the last three years.
MacFormat Investigates has dived
into Apple silicon before, but it is worth
recapping some of the key features before
we move on. The M-series chips are
actually a System on a Chip – the ‘SOC’
Srouji referred to. Basically, all the key
components required for a computer to run
are all together on one chip. This means
machines perform better and have lower
latency. Users find their computers are
doing things in a quicker, smoother
manner and they don’t heat up when
doing heavy-duty tasks.
A major development in the M3 range
of chips was the use of 3-nanometre
technology. This allows a greater
 The 40-core GPU on the M3 Max
chip is up to 50% faster than the
M1 Max, and the 16-core CPU is
up to 80% faster.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 17

 APPLE CORE Apple silicon

number of transistors to be put in a smaller

space, further improving speed and efficiency. The M3 chip really been known for gaming,
despite its best efforts, this is
“With 3-nanometre technology, a next-generation introduces new another significant step forward.

Dynamic Catching
GPU architecture, a higher-performance CPU, Apple claims that the M3
faster Neural Engine, and support for even more GPU can perform at the same
unified memory, M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max are
the most advanced chips ever built for a personal
and ray tracing level as the M1, but it does so
using just about half the power
computer,” explained Srouji. of its predecessor. Furthermore, its peak
One thing that has always been a focus as performance is 65% better than the M1.
the M-series has developed is how the chips Apple makes similar claims about the
would help creatives. From the M1 start, 4K CPU as well. It says that performance is 30%
video streaming and 3D rendering could be better than the M1, so everything from coding
done without putting much strain on a device. to creating music is faster and more efficient.
This was again enhanced by the launch of (By now, you’re probably noticing a theme…)
the M3 range. There’s a big focus on the GPU – ie, As time has gone on, Apple has introduced
the graphics portion of the SOC. As part of this, variations to each generation of M-series chip too.
Apple introduced its new Dynamic Caching Both the M1 and M2 generations come in Pro,
technology. This means that each task only takes Max and Ultra options, while we now have the
up the amount of memory it requires and no new M3 series in Pro and Max form. No doubt
more. The chips also facilitate ray tracing, we will see the M3 Ultra in the not too distant
which, to simplify things somewhat, makes future. As you might imagine, each iteration
things like shadows and reflections more provides even greater performance than the
accurate in gaming. Given Apple has never previous offerings.
With this progress, the landscape has
actually become rather confusing, with certain
chips only available in certain devices. The new
MacBook Pros can have an M3, M3 Pro or M3
Max chip in them. However, the updated 24-
inch iMac only comes with the standard M3.
Similarly, the latest Mac mini can have an M2
or M2 Pro in it, while today’s Mac Studio is
powered by either an M2 Max or an M2 Ultra.

Great leap forwards?

So – M3 computers are fast, efficient and have
great graphics. Max is better than Pro. The
decision to upgrade is a simple one. Right?
Well, before you head to your local Apple
The focus of the M-series chips is on creative tasks and the M3 boasts further improvements. Store and spend thousands of pounds on a new

18 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


The release of the M3 chips came
quicker than some pundits expected,
launching just four months after the
15-inch M2 MacBook Air arrived.
computer, it is worth considering how much
the M3 has increased performance in reality
for those doing everyday tasks.
The initial jump from Intel chips to the
M1 was genuinely staggering. Reviewers were
pushing new machines to the absolute limit and
barely getting the fan to turn on or the computer
to heat up. It has taken years for Apple’s rivals
to get anywhere close to delivering the same
performance as M-series chips.
To M3 or not to M3
With Apple moving from a 5-nanometre to a
3-nanometre process for the new chips, some
had high expectations about what these next-
gen chips could do – only for the results tend
to be a bit more nuanced than that.
Take the standard M3 that’s included in the
new iMac and entry-level MacBook Pro. While
it has the same multi-core performance today as
the M1 Pro, M1 Max and M2 Pro did when they
made their debut in 2021 and 2023, the M3 is
Apple’s entry-level chip not a high performance
one like the M1 Pro, M1 Max or M2 Pro. It also
has two fewer processor cores than any of them,
making the leap in performance notable.
What makes things complicated is that all
Apple silicon chips contain various combinations
of performance and efficiency cores, with each
generation and version of the chips coming with
more or less of both, depending on what the use
case might be. There are also other components
to consider: Apple silicon doesn’t only come with
CPU and GPU cores, but also incorporates both
a Neural Engine and a Media Engine, each of
which help lighten the load on the CPU and the
GPU when performing certain tasks.
To give you a true indication of where Apple
silicon is heading, you need to look at the M3 Pro
Image credit: Apple Inc
The M2 Ultra-equipped Mac
Pro was released in June
2023, and an M3 Ultra release
is no doubt imminent.
Apple silicon APPLE CORE
and M3 Max in the brand new MacBook Pro (see
the review on p81). While the M3 Pro is a step up
from a stock M3, the real grunt kicks in with the
highest spec M3 Max, which has a 16-core CPU
(12 of which are high-performance cores) while
also sporting a 40-core GPU. It says a lot that
even Apple admits that an M3 Max will
outperform the M2 Ultra inside the current Mac
Studio and Mac Pro at times. And the M3 Max
isn’t even Apple’s most powerful chip – we’re
still waiting on the M3 Ultra after all. It’s also
true to say that by focusing on GPU performance
with the M3, Apple is addressing what has, until
now, been Apple silicon’s biggest weakness.
Perhaps the strangest thing about Apple
silicon, though, is its somewhat idiosyncratic
update cycle, with chip families overlapping and
with next-gen chips appearing shortly after the
previous generation’s most powerful chip has
just arrived. Case in point, the M3, M3 Pro and
M3 Max all arrived just four months after the M2
Ultra made its debut in the Mac Studio and Mac
Pro. The arrival of the M3 also marks the second
time in a year that Apple has updated its ‘pro’
Mac notebook – the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro
and M3 Max only arrived in January 2023.
That means it can get confusing when you’re
trying to decide which Mac teamed with which
Apple silicon is going to be right option for you,
especially when there a whole host of other
options to choose from, including unified
memory and storage space. Not to mention
the configure-to-order options, which can
muddy the waters even more.
The smartest advice, always, is to buy the
best machine you can, based on your current
needs and budget, while also attempting to
predict what your future requirements might
be. Need a lightweight portable for everyday
tasks? Buy a MacBook Air. Need a Mac for
video-editing and complex graphics? Try the
Mac Studio or MacBook Pro. Whichever Mac
you choose, you’ll end up with a great machine
that’s head-and-shoulders, in performance and
efficiency terms, above that almost anything
offered by the old Intel models. And if you
already own an M1 or an M2 Mac – you can
probably hold on for a while longer yet.
Finally, it’s worth noting that while Apple
silicon is chiefly associated with the Mac, it’s also
central to other devices like the iPhone and iPad
too. That means that a leap forward in processing
and graphics power in one area can percolate
across into other devices – just look at the
ray-tracing capabilities of the latest iPhones –
and that’s an innovation that benefits us all.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 19
 Secrets of
Are you getting the most from macOS Sonoma, or are
there features you’ve not yet seen? Let’s take a look

Written by Ian Osborne

A
pple’s latest macOS is packed
with all kinds of features great
and small, but many of them
aren’t documented, are hard to
remember, or are so new you might not have
come across them just yet. From things that
save you time, effort and maybe even money,
to those that cause you to smile and let out
a ‘Eureka!’ shriek when you discover them,
these are the secrets of Sonoma.
Did you know, when you place widgets on
your macOS 14 desktop, you can have them
sit there in full colour instead of reverting to
monochrome when they’re not in use? Or that
you can bring exciting effects to a video chat
using hand gestures? Or that also in video chat,
you can decide where to appear when using
Centre Stage; it no longer has to be the middle
of the screen? Or that when writing a note in
the Notes app, you can switch it to the Pages
app and carry on? Or that you can use your
Sonoma-based Mac with devices for the hard
of hearing that are made for the iPhone? It’s
all in macOS Sonoma.
Over the next few pages, we take a look at
the secrets of Sonoma. Features and facets of
the new Apple Mac operating system of which
you might not be aware, but are sitting there,
just waiting to be discovered. So what are you
waiting for? Let’s delve into Sonoma’s darkest
corners, and get even more from our Mac’s
latest operating system.

20 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 21
 FEATURE Secrets of Sonoma

All about the screen savers

How do you make the
most of the new slow-
mo screen savers?

S
onoma takes a new look
at screen savers. The old
ones are still there, but they’ve
now been joined by some
awesome slow-motion video screen savers
featuring areas of great beauty from all
over the world.
Each of these screen savers has
a companion wallpaper too, so you can
have a slow-motion view of a beautiful
scene while you’re not using your Mac,
which steadies into a static desktop when
you return to it. They’re easy to use too.

1 Screen saver
settings
First of all, click the Apple menu in the
top-left corner of your screen and select
System Settings. In the window that opens,
click the Screen Saver option in the
left-hand sidebar. The Screen Saver
settings are now shown.
2 Screen saver
categories
As you can see, you’re offered new screen
savers in four categories; Landscape,
Cityscape, Underwater and Earth. Below
this are options to shuffle new screen
savers, that is, pick one at random from
one or all of these categories, and ‘Other’,
which is the older screen savers if you
prefer to stick with what you know.
3
Show all
To the right of each
of these categories is a link
marked ‘Show All’. Click one
of these to be shown every
screen saver in that particular category.
The number in brackets after ‘Show All’ is
the number of screen savers from which
you can choose.
4 Choose a
screen saver
Choose a screen saver from those on offer.
Unless you’ve used it before, it needs to
download to your Mac before you can set
it as your screen saver. A progress circle is
shown at the top of the screen.
Sonoma has some gorgeous animated
screen savers, featuring slow-motion
video of scenes from around the world,
such as Hong Kong’s skyline, Arizona’s
Monument Valley and Sonoma, California.
5 Setting as
a wallpaper
When your chosen screen saver has
downloaded to your Mac (it shouldn’t
take too long), choose how you want to
use it. Toggle the ‘Show as wallpaper’
switch off if you don’t want to use it on
your desktop; it’s then only used as a
screen saver. If you do this, you can then
click on the Wallpaper category in the
left-hand sidebar of System Settings
and choose a different wallpaper.

Colour widgets
Adding widgets to your desktop is easy.
Ctrl-click on the desktop and from the
contextual menu, select Edit Widgets.
A Widget Gallery appears, from which you
can drag widgets onto your desktop. But
did you know you can have the widgets
retain their colour when not in use,
instead of fading into the wallpaper?
Click on the Apple menu (top-left
corner) and go to System Settings >
Desktop & Dock. Look for Widgets. Here
you can decide whether they should
appear on the Desktop, only in Stage
Manager or both. You can also use the
menu marked Widget Style to choose
between Automatic (widgets are
monochrome when not in use but
coloured when they are), Monochrome
(widgets are always monochrome) or Widgets usually fade into your wallpaper when not in
Full-colour (always fully coloured). use, but you can have them in full colour if you want.

22 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 Secrets of Sonoma FEATURE

Keyboard and dictation integration

For a long while, you’ve been able to
write text using your voice instead of
typing. But before, you had to do it one
way or the other; you couldn’t alternate
between typing and dictation without
switching the Dictation feature on and
off. With Sonoma, these input methods
are more closely integrated, making it
much easier to use a combination of
speaking and typing to create your text.
First of all, make sure Dictation is
switched on. In the Apple menu, select
System Settings. In the sidebar, click on
Keyboard near the bottom. Towards the
end of the Keyboard settings is a section
called Dictation. Switch the feature on
here. You can also choose a
language, a microphone source
and a keyboard shortcut
to activate Dictation.
You can now switch to
dictating your text instead of
typing it. If you make a mistake –
maybe a non-standard word isn’t
correctly formatted, or a stray
‘um’ or ‘er’ creeps in – you can use At last, you can switch seamlessly between using dictation
or your keyboard for text entry.
the keyboard to fix it, and then
carry on dictating without having Make sure you tap it and don’t press and
to switch the feature on again. hold it, otherwise you summon Siri. If
A quick word about the keyboard you find this annoying, you can go to
shortcut to activate Dictation… By System Settings > Siri & Spotlight and
default, you do so by tapping the F5 key. change Siri’s default keyboard shortcut.

6 Show on all spaces 7 Screen saver

Look for the switch labelled ‘Show
On All Spaces’ at the top of the window.
If you want to use your chosen wallpaper
on every desktop, on all connected
monitors, this option should be on. Turn
it off and swipe to a new desktop and you
can then choose a wallpaper for this
desktop alone. Choose a connected
display using the menu that appears
under the image at the top of the Screen
Saver or Wallpaper System Settings
screen to set up different monitors.
When your computer goes to sleep,
an animated screen saver plays. When you
is thereafter used as your desktop image
(unless you chose otherwise earlier, of
course). The switch from screen saver
wake it by tapping your trackpad, moving to desktop is beautiful and seamless.
your mouse or pressing one of the keys on
the keyboard, you see the time and date
at the top of the screen and your login
options at the bottom. This is so they don’t
9 Sneak preview
If you want a sneak preview of your
new screen saver without sitting in front
get in the way of the scene on your Mac. of your Mac waiting for it to go to sleep, in
System Settings > Screen Saver, drag your
8 Log on
Log on in the usual way, and your
new screen saver comes to a slow stop and
pointer over your chosen saver shown at
the top of the screen. The word ‘Preview’
appears. Click here to check it out.

HOW TO Move from Notes to Pages >

1 Start in Notes
In Sonoma, you can turn a note in
the Notes app into a Pages document,
which you can then continue to edit.
Open the Notes app, and open a note
or start a new one. Make whatever
edits you wish in the Notes app.
2 Switch to Pages
When you want to move to the
Pages word processor, click the Share
button in the Notes app’s toolbar. Near
the foot of the menu that appears is
an option called ‘Open in Pages’.
Select this option now.
3 Continue in Pages
The note then appears as a Pages
document, with attachments and text
intact and the title gleaned from the note.
You can carry on editing in Pages, but
any changes you make are not synced
back to the note in the Notes app.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 23

 FEATURE Secrets of Sonoma

Add to Dock
You can now add a
website to your Dock,
and use it as an app

D
o you ever wish your favourite
website was available as a
self-contained app instead?
On mobile devices, this is no
problem at all. Just open a website, tap
the Share button and select ‘Add to Home
Screen’. The website appears as an app
icon. It’s great if you want, for example, to
add Wordle to your Home Screen so you
can use it like an app when you wish to
play. With macOS Sonoma, you can do
In macOS Sonoma’s Safari app, you can navigate to a website and add it to the Dock to use as a standalone application.
something similar on the Mac. It’s a great new way to access your favourite websites, and it’s easy to do.

1 Open website
Launch Safari and open the website
you wish to use as an app. Click on the
Share button, and in the menu that opens,
select the option ‘Add to Dock’. A window
appears, from which you can edit its name
(which will be the name of the app) and the
web address. Click the Add button.
3 Manage the app
If you’d rather have the web app in
your regular Applications folder, you can
depending on the website, but you won’t
have to wade through the entire Safari
toolbar when using a web app.
move it there if you wish. You can remove
it from the Dock too; it still opens when you
click it in the Applications folder or the
Launchpad, or type the name of the app
5 Cookies and logins
Links on sites you’ve turned into
web apps function as normal. Cookies
into Spotlight and launch it from there. from Safari for that site are carried over
to the web app, so if you automatically log

2 Find the app

The website then gets turned into a
standalone app. You can see it in the Dock,
just to the left of the first divider. It can
also be found on the Launchpad, with the
other apps, and in the folder Macintosh HD
> Users > [your name] > Applications. The
website’s tab icon is used for the app icon.
4 The app in action
The app you made from the website
functions independently of Safari. It can be
minimised or made full screen, and works
with Mission Control and Stage Manager,
just like any other app. The toolbar at the
top of the app window is greatly simplified.
It might have navigation controls,
in to the site, this is also true for the app.
If you need to enter your details to log
on, the web app has the same access
to Passwords and AutoFill as Safari, so
you can log in without too much fuss –
especially if you have Touch ID on your
keyboard. Notifications settings
are retained too.

Disable pointer acceleration Audio messages

You can change the default pointer behaviour when using
a mouse in macOS Sonoma. By default, the pointer tracks
the speed at which you move the mouse. Drag it slowly, and
the pointer moves slowly. Move it quickly, the pointer moves
quickly. If you want to change this behaviour, open System
Settings and go to
Mouse > Advanced and
switch off the Pointer
Acceleration option. The
pointer will then move
at a consistent speed,
regardless of how fast
you move the mouse.
You have a number of new options and features when
listening to audio messages in the Messages app. As
you’ve probably noticed, an incoming voice message is now
transcribed and shown as text under the waveform. If you
press and hold the Play icon, a window appears from which
you can elect to play the
audio at regular speed
(1x), 1.25x, 1.5x or double
speed. Just the thing if
you’ve been left a long
message and you need
to speed through it to
get to the information.

24 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 Secrets of Sonoma FEATURE

Live Speech
On Apple silicon Macs, Sonoma’s
text-to-speech feature can use your
personal voice. It’s not perfect, but it’s
very close to how you sound. As all
information is kept on your Mac, it’s
private and secure too. You have to train
the Mac to use your voice. Ideally, you
should use an external mic, but the
computer’s internal microphone will
suffice if you don’t have that option.
To begin, go to System Settings.
Click Accessibility in the left-hand
sidebar, and in the Speech section, click
Personal Voice. Click ‘Create a Personal
Voice’, and enter your password or use
Touch ID. Read the introduction screens
and click Continue to begin. You have
to read out 150 phrases, which takes
about a quarter of an hour, but you can
pause and return to it later. Follow the
on-screen instructions to create your
personalised voice. It’s not perfect, but with training, your Mac can
offer a fair reproduction of your own voice.
Now go to System Settings >
Accessibility > Live Speech (in the switch at the top to turn on Live Speech,
Speech section). In the Voice menu, and you can use your voice on your Mac
choose your saved voice. Click the in all text-to-speech situations.

HOW TO Link notes in the Notes app >

1 Link notes
In macOS Sonoma, and also iOS 17
and iPadOS 17, you can add links to
notes in the Notes app. These links can
take you to another note, or a website
too. It’s a great way of linking notes on
a similar subject.
2 Add a link
Open the note on which you wish to
add a link. Here we’re linking notes about
a trip to an existing note on train times.
Ctrl-click the place in the note where the
link will sit, and from the drop-down
menu, choose Add Link.
3 Type the note name
A window appears. In the Link To
pane, type the name of the note to which
you want to link. You can just type the first
few letters, and use the autocompletion
option that appears to help you finish off
the note title.

4 Name the link

By default, the name of the linked
note is used for the text that appears as
the link. If you want to use a different
name, uncheck Use Note Title and type
in the link text you wish to use in the
Name field. Click OK when finished.
5 Edit your links
You can add multiple links to the
same note if you wish. Click on one and
you’re taken to the note it links to. If you
want to edit a link, Ctrl-click on it and
choose Edit Link. It can be deleted like
any other text on a note.
6 Add web addresses
You can add a link to a website in
the same way; paste the web address into
the Link To window instead of typing a
note title. Adding a name for link text is
obligatory with web addresses. Links sync
between your Apple devices over iCloud.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 25

 FEATURE Secrets of Sonoma

Video chat
reactions
You can trigger effects
with your hands in
most video chat apps

I
n these post-pandemic days, video
conferencing is increasingly used
in place of face-to-face meetings.
Video calls with friends and family are
growing ever more popular too. Sonoma
brings us a fun feature that works
in almost every video chat
application, including FaceTime,
You can activate exciting video effects using easy-to-learn hand gestures, or by clicking the icon in the menu
Zoom, Teams, Webex and more, and bar and selecting them from a menu.
they can be triggered with simple hand
gestures as well as through a menu.
Reactions fill your screen with a three-
dimensional effect, such as fireworks,
1 Turn Reactions on
While you’re making a video call, a
button showing a white video camera on
down, and more. You can click on one of
these to activate a Reaction, that is, a 3D
graphic display on your video feed. You
thumbs up/down, and hearts. a green background appears in the menu can also trigger these Reactions with
Reactions triggered with your hands bar at the top of the screen. Click on it for the following hand gestures.
take a few seconds to appear. Hold the a menu. There’s an entry towards the
gesture in place until the Reaction is
triggered; don’t just flash it at the screen
and remove it straight away. Make sure
bottom called Reactions. If the icon next
to the word ‘Reactions’ is green, the
feature is on. If it isn’t, click it to turn it
2 Hearts
To activate the Hearts reaction,
make the heart sign with your two hands.
the whole hand gesture is visible on your on. Next, click the chevron after the word Place your thumbs together, bend your
video feed too. Here’s a guide to how to ‘Reactions’ to open a panel showing eight fingers downwards and bring the
use gestures to trigger Reactions. icons; a balloon, a heart, thumbs up and fingernails of your thumbs and forefingers

HOW TO Use the kanban (column) view in Reminders >

1 Start a column view list 2 Adding columns

Kanban is a way of displaying tasks in
columns, and it comes to Reminders with
Sonoma. In Reminders, click Add List. Give
the list a name, colour and icon, and make
sure that Standard is selected from the
List Type menu.
Go to the View menu and select As
Columns. Ctrl-click the main window, then
select New Column from the menu.
Alternatively, use the keyboard shortcut
Opt+Cmd+N. Add as many columns as
you like and name them.
3 Editing columns
Click the ‘…’ at the top-right of a
column and you will be able to delete or
rename it. Ctrl-click and select Edit
Columns in the menu and you can rename
and/or reorder them. Individual items in
Column View are shown as grey rectangles.

26 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


Visual Look Up
If your Mac runs macOS 12 or later,
you can use Visual Look Up, which
lets you learn about photo subjects
such as landmarks, art, plants,
flowers, pets and more.
And now with macOS Sonoma, the
feature expands. It can now recognise
the symbols on the dashboard lights
of your car, or the washing instructions
on a clothing label. Use Visual Look Up
on a meal and it can suggest various
recipes. You can now use Visual Look
Up in a still frame of a video too.
together to make a heart shape. A spray
of hearts flows from your hands on screen.
3 Balloons
Who doesn’t love balloons? This
one’s a little less obvious to trigger than
some of the others. You have to make the
peace sign, that is, clasp your little finger,
ring finger and thumb to your palm and
make a ‘V’ shape with your forefinger and
middle finger. Show it palm outwards, and
balloons float up the screen.
4 Thumbs up/down
You can produce a bubble showing
a thumbs-up or thumbs-down gesture;
4 Adding reminders
Click one of the grey reminder
rectangles and type a name for it. Click the
‘i’ icon that appears when you hover the
pointer over a reminder and you’ll be able
to add alerts, priorities, notes, web
addresses, images and more.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Secrets of Sonoma FEATURE
Open the Mac’s Photos app,
and open a photo in which you’d
like to use Visual Look Up. Click
the Information icon (the circle
with sparkle), and subjects that
can be looked up are identified;
an icon appears on each. Click
on these icons and a window
opens, offering info on the item In Sonoma, Visual Lookup now lets you identify pets,
plants and more in your photos.
in question. The chevrons at the
foot of the window let you toggle similar images found on the web. The
through potential identifications. Move window generally offers a web link you
all the way to the end for examples of can follow to find out even more.
just the thing to show approval or with both your hands and wave them in
disagreement in a fun conversation. Can front of the camera. Again, make sure both
you guess how to trigger these Reactions hands are fully visible in your video feed.
using a hand gesture? That’s right – give
a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
7 Fireworks
Two thumbs up triggers an array
5 Rain
You can even make it rain in video
chats. To do so, make thumbs-down
of fireworks that explode behind you.
It’s a very eye-catching Reaction.
gestures with both hands, and you get
an on-screen downpour. Make sure your
hands are both on the video screen.
8 Lasers
Finally, for a laser display, make
a ‘horns’ gesture with each hand. This
is done by clasping your middle and ring
6 Confetti
For a confetti shower falling from
the top of the screen, make a peace sign
fingers to your palm with your thumb and
extending your forefinger and little finger.
You get an exciting laser display.
5 Moving reminders
Move a reminder by Ctrl-clicking it
and choosing ‘Move to Column’ and then
6 Mark as done
You can mark reminders as done by
clicking the empty circle on their left, and
a column to move it to. Choose ‘None’ and show or hide completed reminders using
it goes to the default ‘Other’ column. Hold the Show/Hide button at the top-right. In
Shift and click multiple reminders to move the sidebar your Column View reminders
several columns at once. list is shown with all the others.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 27

More on Safari in Sonoma
Apple’s amazing web browser has gained some great new features
S
afari has long been the web
browser of choice for Apple
users, and Sonoma gives it
some great new features. You
might be using some of them already, but
if you want to delve deeper, take a look at
some of these amazing capabilities.
1 Safari profiles
By using Profiles, you can
compartmentalise your browsing, with
separate bookmarks, browsing histories,
cookies and extensions for work, home, a
hobby club, and so on. If you use a specific
website for two different reasons (home
and work, perhaps) with two different
logins, you can sign into them separately
and switch between them instantly.
With Safari open, go to Safari >
Settings, then click the Profiles tab and
add or remove profiles with the ‘+’ and ‘–’
icons (bottom left). You can easily switch
between active profiles using the button
menu in the top-left corner.
2 Favicons
These are website icons used in
your Safari Favourites bar. To show and
hide this Favourites bar, in the menu bar,
click View and choose Show/Hide
28 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
Favourites Bar (or press Shift+Cmd+B for
the keyboard shortcut). The Favourites Bar
appears below the toolbar. To show or hide
the icons displayed next to the favourites
shown here, Ctrl-click anywhere in the bar
and check or uncheck Show Icons.
3 Auto close tabs
If you have a lot of tabs open, you
can Ctrl-click on one and close it, close all
the tabs except the one you clicked on or
close all the tabs to the right of it. In
Sonoma, you can even have tabs close
automatically. With Safari open, go to
Safari > Settings. Click on Tabs in the
Settings window’s toolbar, and look for
the ‘Automatically close tabs’ option. By
default, it’s set to Manually, but if you click
here to open the menu, you can choose to
close tabs automatically if they haven’t
been accessed for a day, week or month.
4 Share passwords
and passkeys
You can share passwords and passkeys
with family and friends, rescinding the
share whenever you want and having them
update automatically if you make changes.
In Safari > Settings, select the Passwords
tab at the top, and unlock it by entering
In Sonoma, you can separate your
Safari browsing into Profiles such as
Work, Home, School, and so on, and
switch between them when need be.
your password or by using Touch ID. In
the ‘Share Passwords with Family’ section,
click Get Started.
There’s already a group in there, called
Family Passwords. Open it, to see it has
one member: you. You can now add more
members, as long as they have an Apple
device and are in your Contacts app. Click
Add People, and then add contacts from
the suggestions list or by typing a name
into the To field. When you’ve added
everyone you want to, click Create. Scroll
through your passwords, and click the
checkbox next to the ones you want to
share, then click the Move button.
To remove a person from your group,
click Manage on that group, click the ‘…’
icon next to their name and click ‘Remove
from Group’.
5 Verification codes
To have verification codes sent to
you by email or message automatically
delete after it’s been used, in Safari
Settings, click Passwords and then
Password Options. Make sure the switch
marked Clean Up Automatically is on, and
spent verification emails or messages
will no longer clog up your Mail or
Messages app.
Image credit: Apple Inc
 FEATURE Secrets of Sonoma

Camera tricks
in macOS Sonoma
Apple has made some significant advancements in this area

E
very Mac model (except the
Mac mini and the Mac Pro) has
a built-in FaceTime camera,
and even ‘headless’ Macs
benefit from a 12MP Ultra Wide camera
if you pair them with an Apple Studio
Display. In macOS Sonoma, Apple has
paid attention to the camera with a range
of new and improved features.

1 Studio Light
If you have an Apple silicon Mac, you
can use the Studio Light feature directly
from your Mac’s FaceTime camera. This
increases the lighting on your face, and
dims the background. In a video chat app,
Sonoma has some great features for video chat, such as Portrait Mode and Studio Light.
click the Video button – the white video
camera on a green background, found in chevron once again opens and closes a click the green-and-white Video button
the menu bar. In the menu, click Studio slider that sets the strength of the effect. while using the FaceTime camera. Is there
Light to turn the effect on and off. Click Portrait mode blurs the background, while a Centre Stage option at the top of the
on the right-facing chevron to the right keeping your face and body sharp. It’s menu? If not, try connecting your iPhone
of Studio Light to open a slider that lets ideal when you need to video chat but and using it as an external camera. To do
you increase and decrease the effect. your room is untidy. that, open the Video menu again, only this
time go to the Camera section and select

2 Portrait, for
background blur
Also found in this menu is the Portrait
option. Again, this can be activated and
deactivated by clicking it – the icon to its
left turns green when it’s on – and the
3 Centre Stage
With a recent Apple silicon Mac and
either a built-in camera or an iPhone 12
or later, connected to your Mac using
Continuity Camera, you can enjoy the new
features offered by Centre Stage. Again,
your iPhone. The Centre Stage option
should now appear in the Video menu.
Again, you can switch the feature on or
off by clicking on it; a green icon next to
Centre Stage means it’s on. Switch it off
and the icon turns grey.

Turn Game Mode on and off

When you’re playing a game on your
Apple silicon-powered Mac, Game Mode
triggers automatically. It prioritises
resources on your Mac’s Central Processing
Unit (CPU) and Graphics Processing Unit
(GPU) for the game, reducing the priority
given to background tasks and other apps
that are running. This makes the game
snappier and more responsive. Game Mode
also doubles the Bluetooth sampling rate,
which is great if you’re using
Bluetooth peripherals. Controller
Game Mode makes games more responsive, and inputs are more responsive, and
it works in almost any game, current or future. the audio is better synced with
the on-screen action; very useful if you’re
listening for audio cues such as footsteps.
Game Mode comes on automatically
when you launch almost any game; look for
the notification that appears in the top-right
corner. While it’s running, if you can still get
at the menu bar (top of the screen or top of
the second screen if you have a secondary
monitor connected), you’ll see a menu
showing a game controller. Click on this for
a menu that lets you switch Game Mode on
and off. If you switch it off, it remains off for
that game until you switch it on again, even
if you quit and reopen the game.

30 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


Click the chevron next to Centre Stage
for two options. The Main option gives you
a regular Centre Stage view, while Ultra
Wide allows more of the area around you
to be seen. Either way, if you move around,
Centre Stage works to keep you in the
centre of the frame.
4 Presenter overlay
– large option
This is a video conferencing feature that
lets you share a screen with those you’re
chatting to, but also have yourself in the
video. It’s no longer the case that you have
to choose between sharing your screen
and your video feed. Now you can do both.
The Presenter Overlay feature is controlled from the
Video Menu, but only after starting a video chat.
Image credit: Apple Inc
The Large Overlay option places
your screen between you and the
background. To use it, you must be in a
video call. Unfortunately, unlike most of
the new and existing video chat features
described here, you can’t simply open an
app and practise using Presenter Overlay
with no audience watching. First, click the
Video button, the white video camera on
a green background that appears in your
menu bar when you have a video chat
application open. In the Presenter Overlay
section, click Large. Now click the Screen
Share button, the one that looks like a
person silhouetted in front of a screen.
To share a window, drag the pointer on
to it and click on the message Share This
Window that appears. Alternatively, click
App in the Video menu, move to the app
window you want to share and then click
Share All [App] Windows. On an Apple
silicon Mac, you can click Add Window in
the Video menu to share another window
alongside that or those you’re already
sharing. Click the ‘–’ button on the left of
the window’s preview to stop sharing it.
To share your entire screen, in the
Video menu click on Screen, move the
pointer to the screen in question then
click on Share This Screen.
To change which window you’re
sharing, in the shared window preview
click Change Shared Window and then
move the pointer to the window you want
Presenter Overlay is a great way
to show a presentation, while
keeping yourself on the screen.
to share instead. When a ‘Share This
Window’ message appears, click it.
5 Presenter overlay
– small option
The Small Presenter Overlay option is
operated in the same way as the Large
one, but click Small instead of Large in the
Presenter Overlay section. Now, instead
of placing the shared screen between you
and the background against which you’re
being filmed, the screen being shared fills
the whole of the video feed, with your face
appearing in a bubble that sits on top of it.
If it’s covering something important, you
can drag this bubble around the screen
and drop it somewhere else.
6 Share window
Screen Sharing has had a boost in
Sonoma. There’s now a Screen Sharing
application available. You can find it in
the Applications > Utilities folder. Recent
connections are listed in the Connections
window, so if the one you want is listed
there, click on it to reconnect. If not, click
the ‘+’ sign to start a new connection and
enter the Apple ID of the person you want
to connect to in the Screen Sharing
window that appears. When they accept,
you can observe or control their Mac’s
screen on your own Mac, depending on
the level of access they have given you
– for more, see the tutorial in MF397.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 31
 FEATURE Secrets of Sonoma

Sonoma’s privacy
and security features
Apple is keen to guard these things in the new Mac operating system

P
rivacy is incredibly important
to Apple. In fact, the company
considers it a human right.
The macOS Sonoma operating
system brings several privacy and security
features to the Mac, all of which are
designed to keep your data, web browsing
activities and personal information as
private as possible.

1 Set private browsing

search engine
In Safari, you can set up a different search
engine to use when you’re in Private
Browsing mode. This way, for example, you
can use the ubiquitous Google for general
browsing, but the more secure and private
DuckDuckGo when you’re in a Private
Browsing window. With Safari open, select
Safari > Settings from the menu bar, then
choose the Search tab in the window that
appears. Here, you can see your chosen
search engine, and underneath, your
Private Browsing search engine. If the
latter says ‘Default’, it’s the same as your
regular search engine. Click on either
menu to choose a search engine. You can
choose different options for your primary
If your Mac locks, private browsing tabs also lock, and need to be opened with a password or Touch ID.
search engine and your Private Browsing
search engine if you wish.
2 Private browsing
authentication
If you leave your Mac with a Private
Browsing window open, and your Mac
goes to sleep, your Private tabs lock too.
They can only then be seen by unlocking
them with your password or Touch ID,
independently of unlocking your Mac. A
locked Private Browsing tab is completely
blank. The toolbar and smart search field
aren’t shown, so it’s impossible to see
where you’ve been on the web. All that’s
visible is the field for entering your Mac’s
password and instructions for using Touch
ID. This feature is on by default, but if you
wish to turn it off, in the Safari app, click on
Safari in the menu bar. Select Settings, and
in the Privacy window, uncheck ‘Require
Password/Touch ID to view locked tabs’.

Caps Lock Indicator

In Sonoma, when you type with your Caps Lock key on,
you’ll see a thicker text cursor and an indicator.
The Sonoma operating system gives
us a new indicator when you have your
Caps Lock on. When it’s on, not only do
you see an LED light on the Caps Lock key
on your keyboard (which is still there, of
course), but underneath the text cursor
you’ll see a bubble with an upwards-facing
arrow on it, the same icon seen on your
Caps Lock key.
This is especially useful when typing
passwords. At last, if you’ve pressed the
Caps Lock key accidentally (maybe while
trying to press the ‘A’ key) you can see
you’ve done it as you type, so you won’t
enter capitals by mistake and get the
password wrong. The text cursor, the
stick that flashes on and off and shows
where you’re about to type, is thicker
than before to make it easier to spot.
Also, predictive text appears as
you type, with much more accurate
predictions. It can complete entire
sentences now too. If you find this a little
too much, click on the Apple menu, select
System Settings and click on Keyboard in
the left-hand sidebar. Click the Edit button
next to Input Sources and turn off the
‘Show inline predictive text’ option.

32 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


3 Communication
safety
If you’re concerned about your children
– or yourself – receiving unasked for
explicit pictures, this opt-in feature in
macOS Sonoma is exactly what you need.
It’s enabled by default for children under
13 who are part of a Family Sharing group,
but you can actually switch it on for
anyone if you wish.
First of all, in the Apple menu in the
top-left corner, select System Settings.
In the left-hand sidebar of the System
Settings window, click on Screen Time.
Look for the Communication Safety
option. Click on it, and turn on the
Communication Safety switch at the top.
Now any photos or videos containing
nudity are detected in compatible apps,
such as Messages and FaceTime, and
automatically blurred and the recipient
warned. This warning also offers
information on how to get help if the
person in question feels like they’re being
harassed. All processing and detection is
For the first time, in macOS Sonoma’s Safari app, you can now choose a different default search engine for your
regular browsing and for your private browsing.
Image credit: Apple Inc
done on the device in question; Apple
never gets the pictures or videos.
4 Website extensions
There’s a new feature in Safari’s
website extensions that lets you set them
up on a per-website basis instead of having
them on or off for all websites, and you can
also set them up according to your
Browser Profiles.
In Safari, open the Settings using
the Apple menu (top left). Click on the
Extensions tab. In the left-hand side, you
see a list of extensions you currently have
installed. An empty box to the left of an
extension means this extension is off for
all sites. A tick here means it’s on for every
site, and a dash means it’s on for some
sites and off for others.
Click on an extension in the left-hand
sidebar. On that extension’s window, you
can choose whether or not it’s available
in Private Browsing by checking the box.
Click Edit Websites – or click the Websites
icon in the menu bar – and you can use the
In Sonoma, your Safari extensions
can be turned on or off on a
per-profile or per-website basis.
extensions menus to choose whether
you want a particular extension to be
active on websites you currently have
open, which are displayed in the right-
hand pane. Click on an extension in
the left-hand sidebar and review the
websites on the right. The options
available are Ask, Allow and Deny.
From the Extensions tab, click on
Manage Profiles (or click the Profiles
icon in the toolbar) and you can set up
extensions to be on or off on every profile
other than the default one. In the right-
hand pane, click Extensions at the top
and just check and uncheck the ones you
want to be on or off when that particular
profile is active.
5 iCloud passwords
extension
You can now use the Mac’s iCloud
password manager in web browsers other
than Safari, such as Google Chrome and
Microsoft Edge. You no longer have to
manually port your passwords across
to the third-party browser.
To do this, you need to install the
iCloud Passwords extension in the browser
in question. This will be slightly different in
each third-party browser, but it’s not too
difficult. For example, in Chrome, open
the Chrome browser, and in the Chrome
menu bar choose Settings, then click
Extensions. It opens in the browser
window. On the left, you’ll see an option to
go to the Chrome Web Store to find more
extensions. Do so and look for – and install
– iCloud Passwords.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 33
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Master Apple
shortcuts
macOS
Cmd is the Command key.
Alt or Opt is the Option key.
Ctrl is the Control key, also
shown as ‘^’ in shortcuts in
the menu bar.
The thick, outlined up
arrow is the Shift key. 40
The thin, left arrow or
outlined pointer with ‘X’
inside is the Delete key, which WHAT’S INSIDE
deletes to the left. Pressing
the Function key (Fn) and the
38 MASTER YOUR DESKTOP
Delete key deletes to the right.
Customise wallpapers and screen savers
The thin, right arrow key with
a small vertical line at the end
40 GO FURTHER WITH MESSAGES
is the Tab key, which shifts the
Use the latest features in Messages on Mac
focus between some controls.
42 CREATE FOCUS MODES
iOS Make a Focus switch to suit what you’re doing
A tap is a brief contact
of (usually) one finger 44 INDENTIFY PEOPLE AND PETS 44
on your device’s screen. Use the people and pets ID powers in Photos
To drag is to move a finger
across the screen to scroll 46 COPY BETTER WITH PASTE
or pan around content. Manage your clipboard with more control
Swipe means move one or
more fingers across an item 48 COUNT DOWN TO EVENTS
or the screen, then let go. Get cool countdowns for upcoming plans
A flick is like swiping, but it’s
quicker, and is often used to 50 FIGHT SCAMS AND SPAM
scroll content more quickly. Sort real mail from imposters on iPhone
Pinch means move two
fingers together or apart, 52 TAKE WEBSITES FOR A SPIN
usually to zoom in or out. Discover a fun new way to browse the web
Touch and hold means lightly
rest your finger on an item 54 EXPLAINED: THUNDERBOLT 5 52
and wait for a reaction. The latest advance in connectivity technology

Image credits: Apple Inc, Impending Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 37

 APPLE SKILLS macOS

Customise your desktop

Make your Mac look great at any point in the day with these easy tweaks
IT WILL TAKE One of our very favourite things In this tutorial, we’re going to concentrate
10 minutes about macOS Sonoma is that on two simple but really effective tweaks that
more than ever before, you can make your Mac look brilliant in any room. The
YOU WILL LEARN make your Mac perfectly you. first is your wallpaper, which is the image or
How to customise So you can have iPhone-style (or for older colour that lives on your Mac desktop behind
your Mac’s wallpaper Mac users, Mac OS X Tiger-style) widgets your icons and your apps; this can be static,
and screen saver on your desktop and Apple TV-style aerial or it can change as the hours or days change.
screen savers to turn your display into an And the second is the screen saver, which is
YOU’LL NEED atmospheric view of incredible landscapes, the image or video that displays when your
macOS 14 or later dramatic skylines and beautiful natural scenes. Mac has been sitting idle for a while; you can
set how long in Settings > Lock Screen.

Looking good
Although screen savers were initially designed
to prevent burn-in, which used to leave a
ghostly shadow on the screens of old cathode
ray monitors if they showed the same thing
all day long, today they’re much more about
simply keeping your Mac display looking good
Genius tip! when you’re doing something else or just
You can use your having a think or well-earned break. And, as
chosen wallpaper photo we’ll discover in this tutorial, the selection of
as a full-screen screen screen savers in macOS Sonoma is the best
saver too: just select looking, most comprehensive and most
Show As Screen Saver If you tap on Add Folder or Album, you can choose from the entertaining selection yet.
in Settings > Wallpaper. People smart album as well as your other Photos albums. Carrie Marshall

38 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


HOW TO Make your Mac perfectly you
1 Open Settings
To find Wallpaper settings, go to Apple
menu > System Settings > Wallpaper. The
currently selected wallpaper appears at
the top; you’ll see other available ones as
thumbnail images below. Simply click on
the one you want to select it.
4 Choose a colour
If you’re not fussy about having a
nice photo and would rather just have
a solid block of colour, you can do that:
just scroll towards the bottom of the
Wallpaper options and you’ll see a
range of colours to choose from.
7 Set a destination
You’ll see ‘Show as wallpaper’, which
uses a static version as your background,
and ‘Show on All Spaces’. If you have
multiple Spaces set up in Mission Control,
you can choose to show your screen
saver on some but not all of them.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Wallpapers and screen savers APPLE SKILLS
2 Set the darkness
With dynamic wallpapers, colours
change depending on the time of day or
whether your Mac is in dark/light mode.
To override the defaults, click on the
menu (top right): the default is Automatic
but you can select Light or Dark.
5 Set your timer
Before you pick a screen saver, use
the sidebar to access the Lock Screen
settings panel. Here you can tell your
Mac when the screen saver should begin.
Your Mac will tell you if your chosen
setting conflicts with your sleep settings.
8 Shuffle your saver
Scroll down to Shuffle Screen
Savers. These are themed collections
that’ll move from screen saver to screen
saver at the frequency you select. For
example, Shuffle Underwater provides
a selection of underwater scenes.
3 Scroll further down
As you can see, there are lots of
different options here ranging from
abstract shapes to aerial views of cities
and landscapes. If you select a Shuffle
Aerials option, the image will change
according to the schedule you select.
6 Explore the options
Using the sidebar, select Screen
Saver and you’ll see a collection of
screen savers – there’s a huge variety.
To preview one, select it then tap the
Space bar. Some more complex screen
savers may need to download first.
9 Set the frequency
You can adjust the frequency of
your shuffle screen saver by selecting the
menu towards the top right of the panel.
Your choices range from changing the
screen saver every 12 hours to changing
it once a week or once a month.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 39
Go further with Messages
Check out the latest features in the Messages app on Mac
IT WILL TAKE Although many of us have
10 minutes switched to WhatsApp and
Signal, there is still a whole heap
YOU WILL LEARN of life in Messages. In fact, there’s
How to get the most more than ever before now that Apple has
out of the Messages spruced it up with the arrival of macOS Sonoma.
app on your Mac With the updated app, communication is a
little faster thanks to the ability to reply more
YOU’LL NEED quickly. You can also find information within
macOS 14 or later Messages with greater speed due to more
advanced search filtering, and you can save
time when you receive an audio message –
by avoiding having to listen to it and reading
a transcript instead. Messages also helps you
to feel more connected to friends and family
– to the point where you could, with their
permission of course, pinpoint their location.
Here we take a look at the new additions
and refresh our memories with features that
have been around a little while longer but are
often overlooked. Since Messages is at your
fingertips on the Mac, we’re sure you’ll dust
it down and give it another chance.
David Crookes

HOW TO Master the Messages app

1 Search more effectively 2 Swipe to reply

Messages now lets you combine
search filters to help you narrow down
to the result you want. Instead of just
typing a word or phrase, you can enter
a field such as link or photo, a person’s
name, and a search term.
If you want to quickly send an
inline reply to a specific message or
attachment in a thread, you can now
swipe right on it using two fingers on
a trackpad or Magic Mouse (or you
can still Ctrl-click and select Reply).
3 Request a location
If you need to know exactly where
somebody is, perhaps because you’re
supposed to be meeting them, you can
ask them to share their location. Open
a conversation and click the ‘i’ (info) icon
top right. Select Request Location.

40 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


CONTINUED… Master the Messages app
4 View a location
When someone is sharing their
location with you (they’ll need to be
signed into iCloud), click the info icon in
the conversation to see their position on
a map. You can click the map to enlarge
or select Directions.
7 Read an audio message 8 Add a tapback
When someone taps the Record
icon in the text field and sends you an
audio message, Messages automatically
transcribes it, displaying the words within
a conversation. You can still click to listen
but you don’t have to.
10 Find shared content 11 Join SharePlay
When a contact shares content
from apps such as Safari, Books, News
and Notes via Messages, you’ll see it
listed in the apps’ ‘Shared with You’
section. For example, a shared news
link will be listed in the News app.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Messages on Mac APPLE SKILLS
5 Create Live Stickers
Breaking from the Mac… you can
create Live Stickers in iOS 17’s Messages
app: select a conversation, tap ‘+’, select
Stickers, tap the Stickers icon and choose
New Sticker. Tap the Live tab, select an
image and the subject becomes a sticker.
You don’t have to respond with
words, stickers or even emojis. Ctrl-click
a message, or click and hold, then select
Tapback to add a reaction such as a
thumbs-up, love or laughter. The
same methods will remove them.
If someone is watching a movie or
TV show or listening to a song, they can
tap the Share button and invite you to
participate using SharePlay. Invitations
can be received in Messages and you
only need to click it to join in the fun.
6 Use Live Stickers
Back on Mac! Any Live Stickers you
create are available for use in Messages
on Mac. Select the app icon (like an ‘A’,
left of the text field) and select Stickers
(peeling sticker). Then click the stickers
tab where all your stickers now reside.
9 Send an Effect
The app icon hides other goodies
including Photos (where you can select
your images) and Effects. Type a
message and select Effects to choose
Balloons, Invisible Ink, Confetti, Slam
and more. Try typing ‘pew pew’ too!
12 Protect yourself
You can avoid being confronted
by photos and videos containing nudity
in Messages on macOS Sonoma. To set
this up, click the Apple menu, followed by
System Settings > Privacy & Security and
turn on Sensitive Content Warning.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 41
 APPLE SKILLS macOS/iOS

Create custom Focus modes

Make a focus automatically switch depending on what you’re doing
IT WILL TAKE Focus modes are a great way
10 minutes to reduce distractions but
rather than manually switch
YOU WILL LEARN between them, you can
How to use nifty automate the process instead. By setting
tricks to make Focus up multiple focuses and thinking about the
work more seamlessly circumstances in which you’re going to want
to make use of each one, you can ensure that
YOU’LL NEED the relevant mode is ready to kick in at all
iOS 15 or later, times of the day and night.
iPadOS 15 or later, or As you will see there are two ways of
macOS 12or later going about this. You can specifically indicate
the Focus mode to be used depending on time
of day, your location, or on the apps that you’re
using. You can also use Smart Activation to
monitor your usage patterns and learn when
you tend to have particular Focus modes active.
Certain modes, such as Driving, will also
auto-activate if, say, motion is detected or
your iPhone has been connected to your car.
Likewise, the Gaming focus will turn on when
you connect a controller while Sleep can be
aligned with the schedule in the Health app.
Let’s get set up. David Crookes

HOW TO Auto-change Focus mode

Genius tip!
Choose a Lock and/or
Home Screen for a
focus to make mode
changes clearer. Use
them to reduce
distractions and look
pro/fun depending
on the situation.

1 Choose a focus
First of all, go to Settings and select Focus.
You can then select a focus you have already
created or tap ‘+’ to start afresh. In the latter
instance, either choose one of the suggested
focuses or select Custom.
2 Enter the basics
For a Custom focus, enter a name, colour
and icon. These are automatically added for
suggested focuses (but you can change them
later). Follow the prompts and you’ll end up
on the Focus editing screen.

42 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 Custom Focus modes APPLE SKILLS

CONTINUED… Auto-change Focus mode

Jargon buster
A focus lets you
filter unnecessary
interruptions and
distractions but they
can also prevent
important notifications.

3 Customise notifications
You can fine-tune a focus. For example,
tap People or Apps to silence or allow
4 Start Smart Activation
Although a focus can be activated
manually via Control Centre (hold Focus and
The off switch is in
Control Centre.

notifications from certain contacts and apps choose), tap Smart Activation and they can
(the former includes phone calls). You can turn on automatically based on where you
select specific Lock/Home Screens too. are and what apps you’re using.

5 Add a schedule
Once Smart Activation is toggled on, it’ll
begin to learn your habits and work out when
a focus should be active (for example, turning
on Driving if you’re moving fast). You can tap
Add Schedule for more control.
6 Set a time
Tap Time and you can use the carousel to
quickly indicate when the focus should start
and end. You can also select which days the
schedule should kick in; you may not want a
Work focus to include weekends, for instance.

Genius tip!
To allow Focus to
gather more data about
your habits, use the
same Apple ID across
devices and tap Settings
> Focus to activate
Share Across Devices.

7 Choose a location
You can have a focus turn on/off when
you visit or leave a particular spot. Tap
Location then search for an address. Likewise,
you also can activate focuses depending on the
apps you use. Just tap App and select one.
8 Add more schedules
A focus can have multiple times, locations
and apps associated with them. Set up
different focuses with different schedules
and you can easily switch between them
depending on the circumstances.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 43

 APPLE SKILLS iOS/macOS

Identify people and pets

How to use Photo’s new abilities to recognise individual pets as well as people
IT WILL TAKE
15 minutes
YOU WILL LEARN
To teach Photos the
names of your cats and
dogs so you can find
them with ease
YOU’LL NEED
iOS 17 or later/
macOS 14 or later
Dogs and cats are such popular
pets that our Photos library
may be packed full of pictures
of our canine and feline friends.
In older versions of Photos, you could try to
find photos of your pets by typing ‘dog’ or ‘cat’
into the Search field. You’d then have to scroll
through hundreds of thumbnails of different
animals to find the best shots of a specific pet.
The Photos app has been able to identify
people ever since its inception, but changes in
macOS Sonoma, iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 mean
that Photos can now identify individual pets
too – as long as they are a cat or a dog! You’re
out of luck if you want to quickly find shots of
specific hamsters!
In this walkthrough, we’ll show you how
to name a particular dog or cat in a photo or
video so that Photos can gather other pics and
clips of that pet in an easy-to-find collection.
You’ll also learn how to use Photo’s Visual
Look Up too to find out more about your breed
of pet – though sometimes it does misidentify
one type of breed for another! George Cairns

EXPLAINED… Name your pet and look up breed details

1

4
2

1 2 3 4
Animal info Who’s that cat? Name it More info
If Photos recognises a pet, Recognisable pets will have Unidentified pets will have an Click the Visual Look
the ‘i’ icon changes to an a thumbnail of their face in ‘Unnamed’ label below their Up icon to discover more
animal icon. Click it to name the Info palette. Click on that face. Type their name in to about your pet’s breed
your pet and look up its details. thumbnail to name the pet. the text field. on Wikipedia.

44 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


HOW TO Use new pet recognition tools in Photos
1 Identify a pet
We’ll start by identifying pets in iOS
Photos since you use your iPhone to snap
the shots. Tap Albums, then tap on the
People & Pets album. (If there are no pets
in your Library this will just be labelled
the People album.)
4 Summon info
Scroll through the shots of your
named pet. Tap on a more flattering pic.
Tap the Info icon (the ‘i’ may be replaced
by a cat icon). Tap the circular thumbnail
at the bottom left of the pic to summon
a drop-down menu.
7 Remove pets
To remove unwanted pets that may
belong to other people, go to the People
& Pets album. Tap on an unwanted pet’s
thumbnail. Tap the ‘…’ icon at the top
right. Tap the ‘Remove This Pet
from People & Pets’ option.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Recognition tools in Photos APPLE SKILLS
2 Find pet thumbnail
You’ll see a collection of circular
thumbnails depicting people. Scroll down
to locate the pet thumbnails. Tap on
a particular pet’s thumbnail, and tap
Add Name. In our example here, we’ve
typed ‘Ebony’. Tap Next, then Done.
5 Key photo
Tap Make Key Photo. This menu
also enables you to remove pictures of
misidentified cats by tapping This Is Not
Ebony. You can also choose to Feature
Ebony Less to prioritise other pets in
the People & Pets album.
8 Image lookup
You can use Visual Look Up to find
out more about your pet. Here the ‘i’ icon
has been replaced with a dog symbol.
By tapping it, we can then tap Look Up
Cocker Spaniel for information on this
breed from Wikipedia.
3 Find other shots
When you tap the Ebony thumbnail
in the People & Pets album, you’ll see a
scrollable collection of pictures of that
particular pet. However, Photos may not
have chosen the best picture of your pet
as the thumbnail’s key photo.
6 People and pets
If a shot features a named person
and an unnamed cat or dog, tap the Info
icon. You’ll see small circular thumbnails
for the person and the pet. Tap the pet’s
circular thumbnail – it’ll have a ‘?’ by it.
Tap Name This Pet.
9 Continue in macOS
You can continue to identify your
pets in the macOS version of Photos. Tap
a pic or still’s Info icon. Tap a circular
thumbnail. A circle will appear around
your pet’s face. Add a label to the circle
to name your pet.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 45
Copy better with Paste
Manage your clipboard with more control than ever before
IT WILL TAKE Your Mac’s clipboard has always so you never lose anything you copied, and it
10 minutes felt like it could be way better, enables you to easily control how and where
yet here we are with the same everything is pasted. All your copied items are
YOU WILL LEARN feature-limited tool, year after housed in a handy overlay that lets you search
How to use Paste year. You can only copy one item at a time, and for items, group them in folders, and more.
to get a much better if you copy something new, the old item gets Simply put, Paste will change the way
clipboard experience overwritten for good. For such an advanced you manage your clipboard. It’s such a clever
operating system like macOS, it feels like a app that, before long, it’ll feel like a natural
YOU’LL NEED feature that’s stuck in the past. extension of macOS. Here, we’ll show you how
Paste (Free, IAPs), Luckily, you can fix it with a brilliant little app to use it, from basic first steps to mastering
macOS 12 or later called Paste. It has an unlimited clipboard history its advanced features. Alex Blake

HOW TO Get to grips with the basics

1 Copy and paste

Paste works as you’d expect: press
Cmd+C to copy an item, then Cmd+V
to paste. Since Paste has an unlimited
clipboard history, you can press Cmd+C
as many times as you like and you still
won’t lose or overwrite anything.
2 More options
You can also press Cmd+Shift+V
and double-click the item you want to
3 Paste multiples
paste, then open an app and it will paste
automatically. Or press Cmd+Shift+V,
then drag and drop an item onto your
chosen app to paste it.
To paste more than one item at
once, press Cmd+Shift+V, then hold Cmd
and click multiple items, then paste them
using one of the options above. You
can also hold Shift to select items in
a continuous line, like in Finder.

46 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 Clipboard management APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Use Paste’s clipboard history

1 History manager
Copy an item, then press Cmd+Shift+V
to open the Paste menu. Your copied
items will be shown in a row at the
bottom of your screen. The app the
item was copied from is displayed
at the top of each entry in the row.
2 Navigate items
Ctrl-click an item in Paste’s clipboard
history to open it, rename it, delete it,
and more. You can navigate your history
with your keyboard’s arrow keys, swipe
on your trackpad, or click the end item
with your mouse.
3 Clipboard search
With unlimited history, you might
worry about losing items. Click the
magnifying glass icon to search your
clipboard history – you can search for
a file’s name, text you copied, the app
it was taken from, and more.

HOW TO Learn the app’s advanced options

1 Create a pinboard
Click the ‘+’ at the top of Paste’s
overlay to create Pinboards, which work
like folders. Drag and drop items into a
Pinboard and their colour changes to
match the board’s colour. This is good
for organising your items.
2 Paste a stack
Need to paste things in a specific
order? Use a Paste Stack. Just press
Cmd+Shift+C and the item will get copied
to the Paste Stack window, then press
Cmd+C on subsequent items to add
them to the stack in order.
3 Paste the next stack
Pressing Cmd+Shift+C opens the
Paste Stack window. Each time you press
Cmd+V, the items will get pasted in the
reverse of the order you copied them in.
Use the sort button in the top-right
corner to change the order.

Keyboard shortcuts
An even quicker way to copy and paste
Paste comes with a wealth of handy keyboard shortcuts and quick actions. For
example, you can preview an item in your clipboard history by pressing Cmd+Shift+V,
selecting it, then pressing the Space bar just as you would in Finder. Or press Cmd+, to
open Paste’s settings (when clipboard history is open).
The app also lets you paste using numbers. Press Cmd+Shift+V, then hold Cmd –
you’ll see numbers appear next to each item. Keep holding Cmd and press the number
of the item you want to paste and it will automatically be sent to your foreground app.

Image credits: Apple Inc, Paste Team ApS JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 47
Create countdown calendars
Get regular updates of upcoming events with cool countdown notices
IT WILL TAKE Outside: Event Countdown is a All of the plans also remain within the app
5 minutes countdown app for iOS that can where they can be customised in multiple
even make putting the bins out ways with wallpapers and styles. By reaching
YOU WILL LEARN on a wet Monday morning in out to friends, you can use the app for group
How to create January seem exciting! As well as letting you chats and for swapping photos and GIFs and
different countdown create one-off or repeatable plans that can be it’s possible to meet new people via friends
calendars and kept private or shared with friends, you can of friends too. What’s more, all this is free.
customise them turn events into a countdown widget. This Pay for Pro (there’s a seven-day free trial)
means you can constantly see your plans and you can sync across devices and connect
YOU’LL NEED edging ever closer without having to keep calendars to Outside. Events created in the
Outside: Event opening the app. Two days to go before the calendar or Outside will sync both ways.
Countdown (Free, offers rubbish is collected? Bring it on! David Crookes
IAPs), iOS 15 or later

HOW TO Create a countdown calendar

Genius tip!
When you include a
location, you (and other
attendees) can tap to
see it on a map and get
directions. There’s also
a button to call an Uber.

1 Enter an occasion
Tap the ‘+’ icon and you can create your first
plan. There are many suggestions including an
anniversary, game night, surprise and wedding,
but you can enter your own before selecting a
date on the calendar. Tap Next.
2 Swap the image
The app displays your plan on top of
an image. To pick a new wallpaper, tap ‘Tap
to change’ and either select an alternative
picture, select a colour or tap Use Camera
Roll to find an image you’ve previously taken.

48 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 Calendar countdowns APPLE SKILLS

CONTINUED… Create a countdown

Jargon buster
With eight hours to go,
a Live Activity – which
shows real-time info –
appears on the Lock
Screen and Dynamic
Island. Pro users can

3 Choose a location
As well as being able to select a time
(or choose All Day), you can pinpoint a plan’s
4 Reminders and repeats
Want a nudge as the clock ticks towards a
plan? Tap Remind Me and choose to be notified
start a Live Activity
at any time.

whereabouts by tapping Location. You’ll be a month, week, day or hour before. If the plan
asked if Outside can use your current location is going to be regular, select Plan Repeats and
but you can type and add any address too. choose from daily to every year.

5 Add some notes

Plans often need additional information
so tap Notes and jot down details such as
dress code, present ideas and so on. Add
links if necessary then tap Save. Once you’ve
finished your plan, simply tap Create to add.
6 Share your plan
Completed plans can be changed (tap
various elements or Edit Plan). You can also
select Share to send your Plan to friends or
tap Invite Friends to share an invite link, letting
you group chat and see others’ plans.

Genius tip!
When a plan has been
and gone, it turns into
a (deletable) memory
under the Me tab.
Invited friends can
chat about the event
and share images.

7 Customise the countdown 8 Add a widget

You can also change the way the
countdown appears. Tap it and see the various
styles. You can customise them further by
tapping Colour, Emoji and Font but you will
need to pay a small fee to unlock them all.
There are many different Home Screen,
Lock Screen and StandBy widgets which
update as you make amends in Outside. They
show the days to go at-a-glance, with larger
widgets displaying multiple upcoming plans.

Image credits: Apple Inc, Outside HQ Ltd JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 49

 APPLE SKILLS iOS

Fight scams and spam

Use Norton Genie to sort real mail from fake imposters on your iPhone
IT WILL TAKE These days, we’re all inundated After all, just one mistake can be devastating.
5 minutes with spam, scams, hoaxes and So, what can you do to protect yourself in this
other tricks in our email online wild west?
YOU WILL LEARN inboxes every waking hour.
How to use Norton Luckily, most of that deluge should get AI analysis
Genie to identify scams automatically filtered off into the trash, Antivirus firm Norton thinks it has the answer
and spam emails but there are often one or two messages in the form of its Genie: AI Scam Detector app.
that escape the net. This lets you upload a suspicious email to the
YOU’LL NEED When that happens, you don’t want to app – either as a screenshot or as just the
Norton Genie (Free), fall victim to an internet ne’er-do-well with text itself – and Genie will use its artificial
iOS 15 or later intentions on your passwords and credit cards. intelligence (AI) powers to analyse the
message for the telltale signs of deceit and
deception. If it finds them, it can advise you
on what to do next. If everything looks safe,
Combined it’ll give you the thumbs up of approval.

with sensible Combined with a healthy dose of common

sense, it could become a useful weapon in
defensive your digital arsenal. As with most things

measures, security-related, you shouldn’t rely on one

tool alone – in this case, Norton Genie – but
Genie should combined with a robust scepticism and

help you banish If Norton Genie reckons an uploaded message is scam-free,

sensible defensive measures, it should help
you banish the scammers before they can
it’ll tell you after its scan has finished. It can help to upload
the scammers emails you don’t think are spam, as these help train the AI. do their dirty work. Alex Blake

50 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 Detect scam emails APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Detect scam emails

Jargon buster
Genie’s detection is
powered by artificial
intelligence, which
means its understanding
of what is and is not
a scam is constantly

1 Select a message
First of all, take a screenshot of a suspected
spam email you want Norton Genie to analyse,
2 Begin scan
From here, tap Add Image or Add Text,
depending on how you copied the spam email.
evolving.

or copy its text to your clipboard. Now open Upload your image or text, then tap ‘Begin
Norton Genie and tap the large ‘+’ button at scan’. Norton Genie will determine whether
the bottom of the app’s window. the email is a scam or a legitimate message.

3 Check the results

Now for the results. If Norton Genie
believes the content is malicious, you’ll see a
message box with information on the type of
scam it could be and what you should do next.
Otherwise, you’ll be given the all-clear.
4 Find out more
Tap ‘More details’ to see the app’s
rationale for its decision. At the top is a
definition of the scam. You’ll also see why
Genie has reached it’s conclusion – eg, the
email is impersonating a well-known brand.

Genius tip!
Norton Genie’s scam
detection gets better
the more you use it,
so it’s a good idea to
feed it a wide variety
of suspicious mail to
help it learn.

5 Take next steps

Tap the back arrow to see the original
report, along with prompts you can tap. For
instance, tap ‘Anything I should do?’ to see
what your next steps should be. You can also
type a custom question using the text box.
6 Go again
You can now go back to your email app
and safely delete the email if it’s spam, or reply
to it if not. To run another scan, grab another
screenshot or copy an email’s text, tap the ‘+’
button and tap ‘Begin scan’.

Image credits: Apple Inc, Gen Digital Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 51
 APPLE SKILLS iOS

Take websites for a spin

Discover a new way to browse your favourite websites with Web Roulette!
IT WILL TAKE Back in the Web 2.0 days moving on to the next thing. To begin, you tell
5 minutes of the early 2000s, the web it which web pages you love visiting; you can
was full of enjoyable toy-like then swipe left to view them all one after the
YOU WILL LEARN websites and browser other. The idea is you quickly check your top
How to quickly browse extensions that put a bit of fun front and destinations without having to think too hard
your favourite sites centre. Now that the web is a much more – as the developer jokingly puts it, it’s for
using Web Roulette commercialised beast, we rarely see that “mindlessly” browsing the web.
playfulness anymore – but Web Roulette
YOU’LL NEED is a great way to bring it back. All-in at no cost
Web Roulette! (Free), This brilliant little app is all about quickly As a bonus, you can shake your device to bring
iOS 15 or later catching up on your favourite websites before up a recommended random page to help you
discover something unexpected. This happens
with satisfying haptic and audio feedback,
adding to the experience. It’s all great fun
and entertainingly addictive.
There are no tabs, no distractions, and no
need to sign up or pay for anything. Instead,
Web Roulette you can just dive straight into the web on

is a refreshing your device. It’s a refreshing reminder

of what the web used to be like.
reminder of That means getting started in Web

what the web Roulette is quick and easy. Follow the steps
in this tutorial and you’ll be up and running,
Web Roulette lets you shake your device to be taken to a fun
used to be like random website – complete with confetti for added effect. and having online fun, in no time. Alex Blake

52 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024 Image credits: Apple Inc, Nicholas Gurewitch, Impending Inc, TheReadingLists.com
 Online browsing fun APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Try your luck on the web

Jargon buster
Web Roulette uses
haptic feedback when
you shake your phone.
You feel short, quick
taps from your device
that emulate a spinning

1 Add your sites

When you first load Web Roulette, you can
pick from a categorised list of websites to
2 Start swiping
Web Roulette will now load a website from
your list, which you can interact with as normal.
roulette wheel.

swipe through. Tap ‘–’ or ‘+’ to add or remove To move onto the next website, swipe from
a website, or tap ‘Add a site’ to enter a custom right to left. If you want to go back, simply
web address. When you’re ready, tap Let’s Go! swipe in the opposite direction.

3 Shake for more

Shake your phone and you’ll load a
random website that’s good for a fun scroll or
a quick laugh, as confetti briefly drops from the
top of the screen. You can shake again for
another random website, or go back to swiping.
4 Edit your sites
If you ever want to edit your list of saved
websites, just tap the button in the top-left
corner. To send a website or web page to a
friend, tap the Share button in the top-right
corner to access the iOS sharing options.

Genius tip!
You can add up
to 20 websites to
swipe through in
Web Roulette, but
the app developer
recommends sticking
to around 10 so you
don’t get overwhelmed.

5 Manage favourites
Next to the Share button in the top right is
a heart button. Tap it to add a website to your
6 Pull to search
Web Roulette’s interface is extremely
minimal, and you might think there’s no way to
favourites, ensuring you can quickly access it type in an address. While you can’t go directly
whenever you want to. Tap the button in the to websites, swiping downwards on any site
top left to edit your favourites. brings up a Google search box.

Image credits: Apple Inc, Impending Inc, G/O Media, Tim Holman, Damn Interesting/Alan Bellows, Left-handed Toons JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 53
 As well as being faster, Thunderbolt 5
adds support for more monitors, higher
refresh rates, and charging power.

HOW IT WORKS

Thunderbolt 5
Thunderbolt 5 had a low-key launch, but it will be key tech for Apple products
YOU WILL LEARN he timing of Intel’s announcement per second (Gbps), which was much faster than
How the forthcoming
Thunderbolt 5 offers
T of Thunderbolt 5 was surely no
coincidence – 12 September, the
the USB 2.0 interfaces that were in use at that
time, which only ran at around 480Mbps.
improved performance same day that Apple launched the new Like USB, Light Peak was designed as
and features iPhone 15, and finally brought USB-C to the an interface technology that would allow
iPhone range as well. There’s an irony there, computers to connect to a variety of
though, as Intel’s announcement was obviously peripherals and devices, such as hard drives
overshadowed by Apple’s iPhone extravaganza, and early digital cameras for capturing video
even though it’s always been Apple that files. But, as well as being faster than USB,
championed the use of the Thunderbolt Light Peak was also more versatile, and could
interface technology, long before it was be used to ‘daisychain’ multiple devices
adopted by the manufacturers of Windows PCs. connected to your computer, and even used as
But, believe it or not, it was actually Intel a video interface to connect external displays.
Key fact that developed Thunderbolt in the first place In fact, the early versions of Thunderbolt on the
Thunderbolt and USB – although it was originally called Light Peak Mac used the same Mini DisplayPort connector
cables now look almost when it was first introduced by Intel in 2009. as many computer monitors at that time.
identical, as they both Light Peak was initially intended to run on Macs have always been popular with
use the same USB-C fibre-optic cables, but Intel found that it was creative users who needed that sort of speed
connector. However, also possible to run a version of the Light Peak for working with large photos, graphics and
Thunderbolt 4 introduced tech on less expensive copper cables. This video files, so Apple was keen to work with Intel
a new logo, showing the provided transfer speeds of up to 10 gigabits to bring the technology to the Mac. But, of
zig-zag Thunderbolt course, Apple being Apple, it had to do things
symbol with the number its own way, so it trademarked ‘Thunderbolt’
‘4’ beneath it, so that and introduced the new Thunderbolt interface
you could tell the with a new MacBook Pro in 2011.
difference between Thunderbolt 2 then arrived in 2013
Thunderbolt and USB and doubled that speed to 20Gbps, and
devices. Thunderbolt 5 Thunderbolt 3 doubled up yet again to 40Gbps
will have a similar logo, in 2016. Thunderbolt 3 also switched to using
with the Thunderbolt Some Mac models still include older USB-A ports, but the now-standard USB-C interface – causing all
logo and the number ‘5’. future models will probably ditch USB altogether. sorts of confusion for people who didn’t really

54 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

 Thunderbolt 5 APPLE SKILLS

Thunderbolt vs USB
The fact that Thunderbolt and USB
devices now all use the same connector
– the slim, oval connector that is known
as USB-C – makes things really
confusing for everyone, as it’s hard to
tell which type of device you’re using
just by looking at the connector.
However, USB and Thunderbolt are
now slowly converging, and the current
USB 4 is actually based on Thunderbolt 4.
Back in 2019, the USB Implementer
Forum (USB-IF) – a non-profit corporation
that oversees USB technology –
announced that “the USB 4 architecture
is based on the Thunderbolt specification
recently contributed by Intel Corp”.
At the moment, USB 4 provides the
same 40Gbps speeds as Thunderbolt 4.
However, the USB-IF is also developing a
new version of USB, which will be called
USB 4 Version 2.0 (seriously, who comes
up with these names?). This will boost the
speed of USB 4 to 80Gbps, which matches
the speed of the forthcoming Thunderbolt
5. However, there’s no clear date for the
launch of USB 4 v2.0, so at least you don’t
have to worry about that for a while.

understand how Thunderbolt and USB could

be completely different technologies, with
different speeds and features, but still use
the same cables and connectors.

Intel takes control

Around this time, Apple also handed the
Thunderbolt trademark over to Intel, which
led to a few PC manufacturers also starting to
use Thunderbolt interfaces for their Windows
PCs as well. However, it wasn’t until 2020-
2021 that Thunderbolt 4 finally started to
become a standard feature for both Macs and
Windows PCs. Thunderbolt 4 actually has the
same 40Gbps speed as Thunderbolt 3, but it
introduced new features, such as the ability to
support two 4K monitors – compared to one
for Thunderbolt 3 – and it also enabled you to
connect one 8K monitor for the first time.
It’s worth mentioning that the ‘speed’ of
the Thunderbolt interface actually refers to
the total ‘bandwidth’ that is available when
using the interface to connect various devices.
The Thunderbolt standard reserves some of
that bandwidth for specific tasks, such as
sending video to a display or copying files
to an external hard drive. Thunderbolt 3 and
4 both have a total speed – or bandwidth –
of 40Gbps, but Thunderbolt 4 assigns a
minimum of 32Gbps to data transfer,
compared to 16Gbps for Thunderbolt 3.
This means that backing up files may be
faster when using Thunderbolt 4, even
though the theoretical speed of Thunderbolt
4 is actually the same as Thunderbolt 3.
Thunderbolt 5 is an even bigger step
forward, as it is both faster and more flexible
in the way that it uses that bandwidth. Due to
Thunderbolt 5 can also
handle displays with refresh
rates as high as 540Hz
arrive on Macs and PCs sometime in 2024, Thunderbolt 5 doubles its speed
Thunderbolt 5 will step up to an even higher to 80Gbps, with an additional
‘bandwidth boost’ that goes
speed of 80Gbps. However, this is the right up to 120Gbps.
‘bi-directional’ – two-way – speed that you
might get when using devices such as an
external hard drive, which can be used to copy
files both to and from your Mac. Thunderbolt
5 also provides a ‘Bandwidth Boost’ feature
that can increase the speed of one-way data
transfer – such as video output from your Mac
to an external display – to a full 120Gbps.
That’s three times the speed of current Key fact
Thunderbolt 3 and 4 devices, and is designed Some current Mac
to pave the way for next-gen devices, such as models have a set of
8K displays – and VR headsets, such as the ports that are labelled
forthcoming Vision Pro from Apple. ‘Thunderbolt/USB4’.
With VR and gaming in mind, Thunderbolt However, the ports on
5 can also handle displays with refresh rates the latest Macs are just
as high as 540Hz, compared to 120Hz for the labelled ‘Thunderbolt 4’.
ProMotion displays used by some current Some desktop Macs still
Apple devices. Of course, Apple always keeps have older USB-A ports,
its plans for new products under a tight veil but Thunderbolt 5 will be
of secrecy, but there are several Mac models compatible with future
that are overdue for an update with Apple’s versions of USB, so we’d
new M3 processor, so we don’t think it’ll be expect future Mac
that long before Thunderbolt 5 makes its first
appearance on the next generation of Macs.
models to ditch USB
altogether and just
Cliff Joseph use Thunderbolt 5.

Image credits: Apple Inc, Intel Corp JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 55

 EXPERT
ADVICE
Our resident genius
solves your Mac and
iOS problems

Contact us
Email your queries and
your questions to
EDITED BY HOWARD OAKLEY genius@macformat.com

The mother Protect a notebook from power glitches

of all iCloud How best to protect my MacBook Pro Neither do notebooks need the fallback
syncs Q from mains power problems?
by E W A N L I T T L E W O O D
power from a UPS, as they have their own
battery that will supply power for longer
hanks to a bug than the UPS could. What they do need,
T in iCloud Drive,
dating back to
A
The conventional protection afforded
by an Uninterruptible Power Supply
though, is good surge protection. Many
mains power problems bring sudden spikes
its debut in Yosemite, the (UPS) is of limited value with Mac in supply voltage, that can at least damage
Optimise Mac Storage notebooks, as they don’t support the USB a notebook’s charger, and at worst could
option had a mind of its connection provided from the UPS to signal to even fry its logic board. A good surge
own. As a result, many of the computer that mains power has been lost, protector is considerably cheaper, more
us were able to turn the so the notebook can’t shut itself down in portable, and well worth the cost.
option off, but still remove readiness. Desktop Macs provide for this in You may still need to provide for powered
local copies of files that a UPS Options button System Settings > peripherals like storage or an external display.
remained stored in iCloud. Energy Saver. Some more advanced UPS offer As there’s no way for a UPS to warn those of
Although it’s good to SNMP support, but that’s fiendishly difficult power loss, the best you can do is ensure
see that fixed in Sonoma, to set up even on a managed network. they’re also covered by good surge protection.
without warning, its effects
can be unwanted and
alarming. If you upgrade
with storage optimisation
turned off, all those files
you had evicted to cloud
storage can return to haunt
you in an epic sync that can
take days to complete.
If ever we needed to
be warned of a change in
behaviour resulting from
fixing a bug, it was surely
with Sonoma. If you haven’t
upgraded yet, beware, if
you’ve turned Optimise
Mac Storage off, you could
be in for the mother of all
iCloud syncs when you do.
Mac notebooks deserve good surge
protection, so mains power glitches
don’t damage them with a voltage spike.

56 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024 Image credit: Schneider Electric

 iOS software GENIUS TIPS

iOS software
Swipe away your touchscreen troubles and
rekindle your love of Apple’s mobile devices

Quick-fire Restore access

questions
How to stop
to a subscription
unsolicited
incoming calls? My partner and I both
> You can filter incoming
calls to divert those from
Q subscribe to a daily newspaper
app that was recently updated.
numbers that aren’t in My subscription still works fine, but
your Contacts; aren’t hers is now broken and won’t accept
from numbers you have her password. How can she restore
called recently; and access to her subscription?
those not in Siri by I A I N P R I E S T L E Y
Suggestions. They’ll be
sent automatically to First step through the basic
voicemail, and shown in
Recents. Tap Settings >
A checks for any App Store
problem: in Settings, your
Phone and turn on partner needs to tap her name at the
Silence Unknown Callers. top and ensure that Sign-In & Security is
all correct, and that Account Settings in
Why don’t some Media & Purchases are also accurate.
Messages appear While there, if that subscription is
on my iPad? managed through the App Store, tap
> By default, SMS texts Subscriptions and check that it’s listed
aren’t shared across as Active and has a renewal date in the
other Messages apps, future. Occasionally subscriptions can
only on your connected lapse when a payment fails; if that has
device. To forward them happened, it should be apparent here.
to selected devices, tap If those are all in order, she should
Settings > Messages > open the App Store app and check that
Text Message the newspaper’s app is included in her
Forwarding and enable previous purchases. Those will be listed
the devices that you after opening her account by tapping
want to allow to send on the avatar or icon (top right), then
and receive SMS texts tapping Purchases > My Purchases. If
through that device. that list is long, she needs to search for
the app by name. If it’s shown either
with an iCloud download icon or an Search for the original app in your App Store
Open button, then the app has been purchases. You can then safely delete the
purchased correctly. app and download it again.
If it has, and is still refusing to open Purchases and tap the iCloud download icon to
properly, tap and hold on the app’s icon on reinstall it. Sometimes, even after reinstalling
the Home screen, and delete it from the the app, you may need to open it and Restore
device. Then go back into the list of My Purchases or reconnect the account.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 57

 GENIUS TIPS Networking

Networking
We help to solve your Wi-Fi woes
and connection conundrums
Quick-fire Fix a huge iCloud sync
questions
Does Apple still Before upgrading to Sonoma, my Apple introduced iCloud Drive, there has been
update Safari
in Big Sur?
Q Mac had Optimise Mac Storage
turned off, and many downloaded
a bug, though, that enabled files to be evicted
to iCloud even when Optimise Mac Storage
> Apple provides security files were removed. Now it’s trying to was disabled. Sonoma finally fixes that bug;
fixes including Safari download all my files and seems stuck. the bad news is that those with optimisation
updates for the current What has gone wrong and how do I fix it? disabled may get all their iCloud Drive
and two previous major by W A R R E N T O W N S E N D contents downloaded soon after upgrading.
macOS. Big Sur’s last If you have hundreds of gigabytes of files
security update came in Files stored in iCloud are in one of in iCloud Drive, that can require many hours or
September 2023, and
the latest version of
A three states: a full copy is in your
Mac’s local storage and another in
days to complete. You must therefore choose
between turning optimisation on, if you want
Safari it can run is 16.6.1. iCloud’s servers; a placemarker file is stored to allow some files to be stored only in iCloud,
If you can upgrade to locally, and the complete file is only held in or waiting for this sync to complete if you do
Monterey, that will iCloud; or they can be in the process of want all files to be stored locally as well.
provide Safari 17 and downloading from iCloud to local storage. During that sync, you may find that Time
another year of When Optimise Mac Storage is turned off, Machine is unable to make its regular hourly
security-only support. all files should be stored locally, and none backups, but once it’s complete your Mac
should be removed or ‘evicted’ to iCloud. Since and iCloud should work normally again.
Does Spotlight
search files
stored in iCloud?
> Spotlight can only
index and search files
stored in iCloud Drive
when held locally. If
Optimise Mac Storage is
enabled, and the local
download has been
removed or ‘evicted’,
then it’s removed from
Spotlight’s indexes
and its contents can’t
be found until it’s
downloaded and
re-indexed.

If files in iCloud Drive have been removed from local storage, and Optimise Mac Storage is off, Sonoma could cause a huge sync.

Email your queries and your questions

58 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024 to genius@macformat.com
 Networking GENIUS TIPS

Why won’t my
Mac Studio run
10Gbps Ethernet?
> Both Studio models
support speeds of
1-10Gbps, so yours
should be fully capable,
provided that it’s
connected to a router
or network switch that
can also run at that
speed, using a good
Hidden behind the ‘…’ button at the foot of System Settings > Network is the menu and this window for location features.
Cat 6 or 6A cable.

Set up network locations Why does macOS

hide older copies
Before upgrading from Monterey, This is hidden in a drop-down menu opened of Safari?
Q I need to know how to retain access
to my three network locations, one
using the ‘…’ (ellipsis) button at the foot of the
Network section in System Settings.
> From Catalina to
Monterey, Safari can be
for my home network, another for a VPN Set up Network settings for the first of your seen easily. In Ventura
when travelling, and the third for trusted locations. In that menu’s Locations entry, select and Sonoma, it comes
Wi-Fi networks. Is that possible in Sonoma? the Edit Locations command, and in the floating in a secure disk image,
by A N D R E W E C C L E S T O N E window duplicate the current location and and is only mounted for
rename it as appropriate. Add a new location the active system. If
Although this feature was omitted for another you wish to use, then select that your Mac can run both
A from the initial release of Ventura,
it was restored for 13.1 and later,
and set it up as you require. Once you’ve made
your three locations available, use that menu
versions, you’ll only see
Safari in the version it
including Sonoma, using their replacement to switch between them, and this should work started from.
for Network Locations in System Preferences. as well as it used to in Monterey and before.

Use web apps on other Macs

I made myself a new web Their number and signature details web app on multiple Macs signed into
Q app, but it wouldn’t work
when I copied it to my other
are recorded by macOS, and checked
every time they’re launched. However,
the same Apple ID, open the same web
page on each and use the ‘Add to Dock’
Mac. What went wrong, and how can as their details are specific to the user item in System Settings > Sharing on
I copy it over? that created them, other users on that each to create identical web apps on
by I A N R O W L A N D S Mac can’t open them, and they can’t be those Macs. If you’ve already made the
copied to and run on another Mac, even web app on one Mac, use its ‘Open in
New with Sonoma, web apps by the same user. To create the same Safari’ command in Sharing to start off.
A are peculiar as they are run as
apps but don’t actually contain
any code of their own. All they have
inside them are details of the link they
open and the domain that they’re
restricted to.
When they’re made by macOS,
they’re assigned a unique number, and
their contents are signed using an ‘ad
hoc’ signature to enable them to be
verified before they’re run. That
prevents them from being changed
maliciously, for instance. Copy a web app to a different Mac, even when it has the same user, and macOS won’t allow you to run it there.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 59

 GENIUS TIPS macOS

macOS
Shine a spotlight on the solutions to
your most irritating Mac problems
Quick-fire
questions
How to check
disks without
repairing them?
> First Aid in Disk Utility
offers no option to skip
making repairs, but if you
note the Device name
given in Disk Utility, you
can run ‘sudo fsck_apfs
-n /dev/[device]’ in
Terminal, where [device]
is the Device name
of that volume or
container. You’ll need
to authenticate that
command with your
admin password.

How to turn
Installing a fresh copy of Sonoma in Recovery mode is closest to a ‘clean’ install, but is no better than a simple upgrade.
Game Mode
on in Sonoma?
> Currently, the best way
to turn Game Mode on
Clean install Sonoma
is to put a recognised How should I clean install Sonoma That will clean your Mac’s Data volume and
game into Full Screen
mode, when it engages
Q on my Apple silicon Mac?
by M A R C B O O T H
you’ll have to migrate from your backup.
For the ultimate cleanliness, you can
automatically. Similarly, wipe the whole internal SSD and restore
turn it off simply by Because of the way that macOS it using another Mac. This too relies on
leaving Full Screen mode.
This only works on Apple
A is installed to create its Signed
System Volume, every copy is
migrating from your backup, and is
detailed in bit.ly/mac399firmware.
silicon Macs, and seems to guaranteed to be perfect, and exactly the For that you’ll need to put your Mac
be compatible with all the way that Apple intended, down to the last into DFU mode and restore it over a USB-C
games we’ve tested. byte and bit. An Apple silicon Mac can’t start not Thunderbolt cable, using an IPSW file
up from anything less, so a regular upgrade from Apple. You can either use Apple
will create as clean a system as you can get. Configurator 2, free from the App Store,
To go a step further, you could install or the Finder in Sonoma.
Sonoma in recovery mode, although you’ll A full restore returns your Mac to the
still get the same system at the end of that same condition as when you unboxed it, and
slower process. Alternatively, you could requires it to go through initial configuration
ensure you have a good backup, and use with Apple, and full personalisation, just as
System Settings > General > ‘Transfer or if it were new again, but still installs exactly
Reset’ > ‘Erase All Content and Settings’. the same system as an upgrade.

Email your queries and your questions

60 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024 to genius@macformat.com
 macOS GENIUS TIPS

Should my new
Mac have Apple’s
MRT installed?
> Apple’s old Malware
Removal Tool (MRT) was
effectively discontinued
with its final update last
year, and usually isn’t
installed with macOS
any more. It has been
replaced by XProtect
Remediator in Catalina
and later versions
of macOS.

Boot Camp Assistant steps you through creating a disk partition for Windows, and installing it. How to run First
Aid on my Mac’s

Upgrade Boot Camp to Windows 10 startup disk?

> Although First Aid can
attempt to check and
How can I upgrade my iMac’s Assistant, in the Utilities folder. As you have repair the startup
Q Boot Camp in Mojave from
Windows 8.1 to 10.1?
already upgraded your iMac to Mojave, you
needn’t worry about a problem that can occur
volumes in your Mac,
you’re much better off
by C L I F F O R D M O I S E Y with iMacs containing 3TB hard drives, starting your Mac up in
explained at bit.ly/mac399bootcamp. recovery mode, opening
If you want to keep documents and Boot Camp Assistant may need a 16GB Disk Utility there, and
A other contents from your current
Boot Camp partition, make a backup
USB flash drive to create a bootable drive for
the installation. Otherwise it should guide you
running First Aid. That
should check and make
of Windows first, because the best way to through the process of removing your existing any repairs without any
perform this upgrade is to replace your partition and creating a new one ready for spurious errors.
current Windows partition using Boot Camp Windows 10.1 (see bit.ly/mac399win10).

HOW TO Restore old doc versions to a different location

1 Where to restore
Currently, although the Time Machine
app gives the impression that you can
2 Open backup storage
choose where to restore to from a
backup, in practice it will only restore
items to the same location, although it
does give you the choice of keeping both
the latest and restored copies there.
It’s simpler to access the backup
directly in the Finder. Open backup
storage there, locate the backup you
want to restore using the datestamp
used for its name. Locate the docs in its
folders, drag them from that window and
drop them on the destination.
3 Browsing all versions
If you can’t find the versions that
you’re looking for in your backups, they
could still be available from the current
documents, by opening them in the app
you use to edit them, and browsing all
versions from the Revert To command
in the File menu.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 61

 Take amazing portraits by day or night
A
s we head into
the festive
season and new
year celebrations,
there will be plenty of photo
opportunities to enjoy with
friends, family and work
colleagues. Your ever-present
iPhone is most likely going to
be your best camera, both for
instant access and quality,
especially when it comes to
capturing stunning portraits
of the people in your life.
This feature is packed full
of tips, tricks and techniques
to help you make the most of
the iPhone Camera app’s
many shooting modes. We’ll
also look at how your iPhone’s
various built-in lenses quickly
give you a wide range of
compositional choices (without
having to pause and swap
lenses like you do with a bulky
Digital SLR camera).
62 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
Written by George Cairns
As the nights get longer
you’ll face the challenge of
shooting people in low light, so
we’ve devoted two pages to
capturing colourful low-light
portraits. We also recommend
The iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 5x zoom can
capture street portraits from a distance.
some third-party gadgets
(such as portable LED lights)
to improve the quality of
low-light shots, as well as
adding three-dimensional
‘modelling’ to a subject’s face.
Your iPhone is a one-stop-
shop! As well as capturing
portraits it enables you to
change their colours, tones
and composition in its digital
darkroom – the Photos app.
We’ll explore wide range of
post-production techniques
(such as adding background
blur) to help make your
portraits look more like
the work of a professional
photographer. Your edited
portraits will then catch the
eye (and the ‘likes’) of friends
and followers when you use
the iPhone to share your shots
via social media sites such as
Instagram, Facebook or X
(formerly known as Twitter).
Image credit: Apple Inc
 1

3
The Camera
app interface
explained
2 1
Portrait mode
3 To guarantee a flattering background
blur, select Portrait mode. This mimics the
professional ‘bokeh’ effect produced by
a DSLR lens. Thanks to iOS 17, it’s also
possible to add blur to some portraits
2 when shooting in Photo mode (see p65).

2
Focus reticule
Your iPhone recognises and tracks a
subject to keep them in focus, courtesy
of this rectangular, yellow focus reticule.
When editing a Portrait mode image in the
Photos app you can change the focal point
by tapping on a background object.

4 3
Aperture value
Portrait mode mimics a DSLR camera’s
ability to create a sharper or blurrier
background by adjusting the camera’s
aperture (which is measured in f-stops).
5 Tap here to adjust the f-stop and change
the blur strength before shooting.

4
Light effects
5 By tapping these buttons you can mimic
4 a range of photo studio light effects to
emphasise the contours of a subject’s face
for example. You can do this before you
shoot or afterwards in the Photos app
1
(as long as you use Portrait mode.)

5
Lens
Tap here to select a lens for your
portrait. Here we’re shooting on an
iPhone 15 Pro Max so we can use its
5x zoom lens’s 120mm focal length
to snap our subject from a distance.
This is great for capturing candid
street photography portraits.

JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 63

 FEATURE iPhone portrait guide

Master portraits
on your iPhone
Shoot better people pictures

B
efore capturing a portrait
consider whether you want
to share your shots as small
electronic images via social media or
as larger, high-quality physical prints.
You’ll also need to consider how
much storage space your portraits will
take up (as this will have cost implications
if you need to increase your iCloud
Photos storage space, for example).
There’s a huge difference in the size of
images you can shoot. For example, a 48
megapixel (MP) Raw file from an iPhone
Choose an image resolution and format in Settings.
You can also change image formats in the Camera
app with a press and hold.
15 Pro Max takes up 85 megabytes (MB)
of storage space. A JPEG Max image has
the same dimensions but takes up much
less storage space at 10.3MB. You can fit
more photos on your iPhone by shooting
in the space-saving HEIF (High Efficiency
Image File) format. A HEIF Max file has
the same resolution as a 48MP Raw file
but it only takes up 7.1MP. This means
that one Raw Max file needs as much
Understanding
storage space as 11 HEIF Max files! filters and
photographic styles
Choose a format
To choose an image format, go to By default, your iPhone works hard to
Settings > Camera > Formats. In Camera capture a portrait’s true colours and
Capture choose High Efficiency for tones, however the Camera app also
space-saving HEIF files, or tap Most enables you to adjust a photo’s look
Compatible to capture less compressed for creative purposes!
JPEGs. You can also choose a ProRAW For example, you may want to boost
default such as 12MP, or ProRAW Max (up colours for a more vibrant portrait, have
to 48MP). Bear in mind that ProRAW files a stronger contrast to make the subject
have more info to work with in the editing stand out, or cool down colours for an
stage, leading to better-quality portraits atmospheric effect. You may even want
(but at a trade off of larger file sizes). If to jettison all colour information to create
in doubt, shoot JPEGs for online sharing a striking monochrome shot that evokes a
and ProRAW for print.

HOW TO Take an amazing portrait photo >

1 Better groups
Live Photo mode helps capture better
group pictures. In Photos, tap Edit. Tap
the Live Photo icon. Swipe to a frame
where everyone is smiling and has open
eyes. Tap the Make Key Photo icon.
Tap Done then share the frame.
2 On the level
The iOS Camera app’s spirit level
helps you avoid capturing wonky
horizons in your portraits. The line
remans white if the horizon is tilted
but turns yellow (and gives a haptic
click) when you have a level horizon.
3 Seeing double
Go to Pano mode. Tell the subject
to pose. Tap the shutter icon. After a few
seconds, tell them to move to the right.
Tap to stop the capture. If you’re lucky,
the stitched image will include two
versions of your subject.

64 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024

vintage film noir look. The iPhone provides
two tools to creatively adjust a shot’s
colours – Photographic Styles and Filters.
Photographic Styles produce subtle
colour and tonal changes. Go to Settings >
Camera > Photo Capture > Photographic
Styles. Swipe between five different
Photographic Style presets to change
the look of every portrait as you snap it.
The default preset – Standard – produces
true colours. Rich Contrast gives darker
shadows and richer colours. Vibrant creates
brighter and more vivid colours. Warm adds
golden undertones while Cool creates a
bluer, cooler look. Tap Use to choose a style.
4 Enlarge landmarks
To make a landmark look bigger
choose a maximum zoom (such as 5x).
The high focal length (120mm) will
compress foreground and background
distance, making the landmark look
much larger. Great for travel portraits!
Image credit: Apple Inc
You will need to shoot in JPEG or HEIF
format for a Photographic Style to be
applied – styles won’t be applied if you
shoot in Raw.
In the Camera app, choose a different
Photographic Style by swiping up and
tapping the Styles icon. Each style’s Tone
and Warmth slider lets you customise a
style’s default look (for example, you can
swipe to change a style from Warm to Cool).
There’s also a Reset option to change a
custom style back to its default.
An alternative way to creatively change
a portrait’s colours and tones is to use
Filters. These produce more dramatic
5 Beautiful bokeh
To blur backgrounds in Portrait
mode, tap the ‘f’ (depth) button and
swipe the dial to adjust blur intensity. If
you shoot JPEGs in Photo mode, an ‘f’
icon indicates that you can blur the
background later when editing in Photos.
results than Photographic Styles and
there are more filters to choose from
as you can see from the images above.
From left to right we have Original, Vivid,
Vivid Warm, Vivid Cool, Dramatic,
Dramatic Warm, Dramatic Cool,
Mono, Silvertone and Noir filters.
Unlike Photographic Styles, you
can edit a filter’s look after you’ve
applied it. After tapping the Photo app’s
Filters icon, you can dial down the
strength of a filter, swap it for another
one or remove it completely. Unlike
Photographic Styles, you can apply
filters to Raw files.
6 Go low
To capture a striking selfie, pop
your iPhone on the floor or against a
wall. Choose the 0.5x ultra-wide lens.
Set it to timer and strike a pose. The low
wide angle elongates the subject and
includes more of your location.
JANUARY 2024 MACFORMAT | 65

Shooting portraits in low light
Use opportunities for vibrant colours and slower shutter speeds
A
s the party season’s nights
get longer, there are more
opportunities for low-light
portraits, especially as we socialise
more at this time of the year.
City lights can add an extra
dimension of colour and atmosphere to
your portraits. However, whether you’re
shooting indoors or out, low light can
prove problematic for even the most
accomplished photographer. By default,
your iPhone’s Camera app works
Here the iPhone’s on-camera flash has created an
unflattering flat-lit face (and darker background).
66 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
automatically to try and capture detail in
low light. It will choose a slower shutter
speed to let in more light and get a
better exposure (though this can lead
to motion blur if the subject moves).
The Camera app may also use a
higher ISO speed which causes the
sensor to be more sensitive to available
light (though this result in a grainier
portrait). In low light, your iPhone’s flash
may deploy automatically, but this burst
of on-camera light can lead to a flat-lit
and bleached out face. Flash can also
bounce of the subject’s retinas and
create a case of the dreaded ‘red-eye’.
Off-camera light
You can get the iPhone to use a faster
shutter speed and a less noisy ISO
setting by carrying a small LED light with
you. There are many reasonably priced
LEDs available, such as the SmallRig
RM120 RGB (£58.99, smallrig.com).
Some LEDs also produce a wide range
of colours to complement city lights
or change the mood of your low-light
By placing an LED light to the side (instead
of using the iPhone’s built-in flash), you can
emphasise the contours of your subject’s face.
portrait. By placing an off-camera LED
at an angle to the subject, you can add
modelling-style light that emphasises the
contours of their face and creates a more
flattering three-dimensional look (rather
than the flat look produced by the flash).
Indeed, you can force the iPhone’s
less-than-flattering flash to stay off by
swiping up in the Camera app, tapping on
the Flash button and choosing Flash Off.
Slow shutter
Because low light often leads to a longer
exposure, try shooting your subject
against a backdrop of city traffic. The
Camera app’s automatic slow shutter
speed causes moving vehicles to produce
light streaks that add colour and energy
to your portrait. You can also shoot in
Live Photo mode, then tap the Long
Exposure option in the Photos app to add
motion blur. You can also use a third-
party app such as Slow Shutter Cam
(£2.99, cogitap.com) to take even more
control over the duration of an exposure
– check out step 4 in our walkthrough.
 iPhone portrait guide FEATURE

HOW TO Shooting portraits in low light >

1 Add modelling light

By placing available light (or an LED)
at an angle, you can add ‘modelling’ light
to a low-light portrait, giving your subject
a more three-dimensional look. A JOBY
GorillaPod (from £16.95, joby.com) lets
you clamp the LED to street furniture.
2 Change the mood
An LED such as the JOBY Beamo
Reel Color (£42.95, joby.com) enables
3 Add motion blur
you to add washes of colour to low-light
portraits. This enables you to mimic (or
complement) neon city lights and change
the mood and atmosphere of your shots.
In low light, you can force the
Camera app to use a slower shutter
speed. Tap the Night Mode button. Swipe
the slider to a lower value like 3 seconds.
Hold steady as you take the shot. This
causes moving subjects to blur.

4 Add light streaks

The Slow Shutter Cam app (see
p66) enables you to manually choose a
5 Capture a reflection
slower shutter speed to add dramatic
light streaks to portraits. Just make sure
that your portrait’s subject stands very
still during the exposure.
Find a puddle. Crouch down, holding
the iPhone low down near the puddle
6 Use light bracelets
The Spekular KYU-6 Duo (£98.99,
spekular.com) kit consists of two light
(being careful), then shoot upwards to bracelets that snap around a subject’s
capture a mirror image of your subject. wrist. You can change colour outputs in
The reflection of background city lights a few taps. These wearable LEDS also
will add extra colour and symmetry. add light streaks to slow shutter shots.

Add background blur using depth information

When shooting in the
Camera app’s Portrait
mode, the iPhone’s
Photonic Engine recognises
a person (or people) and
creates a mask around
them. It then uses the mask
to blur the the background
to simulate the bokeh (blur)
captured by a DSLR’s lens
when using a wide aperture
setting such as f1.2. The recognise and record depth faces are detected and depth
iPhone’s LiDAR sensor also in a shot captured using the info can be captured, a little
helps the Camera app Camera app’s Photo mode ‘f’ icon appears. You can then
understand the depth in (as long as you shoot JPEG add background blur to the
a scene and create a rather than Raw format). If Photo mode image in Photos.
convincing bokeh.
You can change the blur
strength before you shoot
the portrait or afterwards in
Photos. Since the release of
iOS 17, the iPhone can

Image credit: Apple Inc

Make the most of
your portrait photos
How to edit your portraits to perfection
As well as boasting many other
talents, the iPhone does an excellent
job of capturing stunning portraits
that boast true-to-life colours and
crisp, clear detail thanks to its
Photonic Engine.
Even when shooting a subject backlit
by the sun, the iPhone can process the
person and sky separately to reveal detail
in the brighter and darker parts of the
HOW TO Easily fix your portrait photos >
1 Crop for Instagram
To make a 16:9 portrait display
correctly in Instagram, choose Edit. Click
Crop. In Aspect, click 4:5. This shape may
crop the subject’s feet so drag in the
image to keep the feet in frame. Click
Done. Export the shot as a JPEG.
68 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
frame. This selective adjustment is
applied even when shooting in ProRAW.
Edit makes perfect
There are times, however, when an
almost perfect portrait will benefit from
some post-shoot processing to make it
look even better. If you have a wonky
horizon then you can use the Straighten
tool in Photos to counteract a tilt. You
2 Retouch
To hide blemishes that make-up fails
to conceal, click on Edit. Scroll down to
the Adjust panel’s Retouch tool. Click on
the Brush icon and choose a small tip
using the Size slider. You can just click
and spray on a blemish to remove it.
may also need to tweak composition to
make the subject look their best when
shared on a specific social media site.
For example, a vertical Instagram
portrait has a 4:5 shape. If you upload
a vertical 16:9 portrait then Instagram
may automatically chop off important
parts of the shot (such as head or feet!).
By cropping the image to a 4:5 ratio
before uploading, you can ensure that
the key areas of the portrait will reman
visible (see step 1 below).
The subject of your portrait may
be having a bad skin day, so it’s not
unreasonable to touch up their face in
Photos to remove spots, pimples and
even shiny sweat reflections. In step 2,
we’ll show you how to produce a more
flattering complexion.
3 Change focus
Since iOS 17, you can now change
the focal point in any image captured
using Portrait mode. Click on Edit. Click
on any part of the image to choose a new
focal point. A yellow square will indicate
the area in focus.

Gadgets such as the Hohem iSteady MT2 gimbal
(£329, store.hohem.com) and its Hohem Joy iOS
app (Free, App Store) enable you to get more
creative with your portrait shoots.
Whether you use the iOS or macOS
version of Apple’s Photos app, you can
change the amount of background blur in
Portrait mode pictures (or even change
the focal point from a foreground to a
background person). Photos also
provides a range of studio lighting tools
to help bring out the contours of a
subject’s face or isolate them completely
from a cluttered background (see step 5).
As we explained earlier in this
feature, it’s best to disable the iPhone’s
flash and use an off-camera LED for
more attractive lighting. This also avoids
cases of ‘red-eye’. However, not everyone
wants to lug around an LED (even if it’s
pocket-size), so Photos is quite capable of
restoring glowing red eyes to a healthier
black pupil as you’ll see in step 6.
4 Enhance lighting
Find a Portrait mode shot and click
Edit. At the bottom you’ll see circular
studio light icons. Click the Contour
light to add contrast to the face and
emphasise the subject’s cheek bones.
Fine-tune the Light slider.
Image credit: Apple Inc
iPhone portrait guide FEATURE
5 best apps for
post-shoot editing
Apple’s free Photos does a fine job of
providing you with classic darkroom
tools to tweak colour, tone and
composition, but is lacking some
tools that other apps offer, such as
editing in layers and extra filters…
DxO FilmPack 7
£129 dxo.com
FilmPack 7 expands the
amount of creative filters
you can use to stylise your
portraits or give them a vintage look.
Each look is fully customisable. It
doesn’t work with Apple ProRAW
format files though, just JPEGs.
Adobe Photoshop CC
£9.98/month adobe.com
The original photo editor
incurs a monthly
subscription but it boasts
powerful tools for creative portrait
editing such as the ability to
composite images in layers. AI-
assisted tools enable you to select
a person in just a click.
5 Isolate the subject
When editing a Portrait mode shot,
click on the circular High Key Mono light
button at the far right to create a striking
black-and-white portrait. This also looks
like a portrait shot against a clean
studio backdrop.
Photos
Free apple.com/uk
Photos enables you to
perform edits that you can’t
do as easily in third-party
apps, such as changing the strength
of background blur in a Portrait mode
shot, adding studio lighting effects and
even choosing a different focal point.
Adobe Lightroom
£9.98/month adobe.com
Lightroom has a wide range
of selective adjustment tools.
It automatically masks people
or skies for faster edits. You can start
editing on the iOS version and continue
on the synced macOS app. It is happy
to edit Apple .dng files.
Affinity Photo 2
£67.99 affinity.serif.com
Affinity Photo 2 offers
photo-fixing and creative
tools that rival much of
Photoshop’s powerful capabilities
(such as compositing in layers), but
without the expense of a rolling
monthly subscription. An iPad
version is also available.
6 Remove red-eye
Open a flash-induced red-eye shot
in Photos. Choose Edit. Go to the Adjust
panel, and scroll down to Red-Eye. Click
the Brush icon and adjust the size so the
tip is as large as the pupils. Click each
pupil to turn it back to black.
JANUARY 2024 MACFORMAT | 69
iMore is THE destination on the web
for everything iPhone, iPad, iPod,
Mac, MacBook and Apple Watch.

www. iMore.com
 Beginner’s Guide to the

Monitor your health and potentially spot problems

early with Apple’s Health app for iPhone and iPad
WRITTEN BY DAVID CROOKES
he Health app has been that’s been optimised for at-a-glance lifestyle. And, by storing vital health

T a staple of iOS since 2014

and, as of iPadOS 17
released in 2023, it’s
now available on iPad too. The app
works in much the same way on both
devices, bringing a host of health-related
data from various sources together in
one place. The big difference is that you
now have the option of viewing your
health data and metrics in an app
viewing on a larger screen.
In either case, there are some major
benefits to using the Health app. The
main one is that it gives you a better
picture of your overall well-being, both
physically and mentally, allowing you to
spot problems and seek help and advice
from professionals if need be. You can
also motivate yourself to improve your
fitness and make vital changes to your
information, you could potentially save
your life in an emergency too.
Of course, logging such sensitive
information can give rise to privacy
concerns but don’t worry. Your data
remains private and encrypted on your
device and it’s only shared if you grant
explicit permission. So let’s spend some
time exploring the app and discovering
what it can do.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 71

 Beginner’s Guides Apple Health

How to get started with Health

It’s worth spending a bit of time becoming familiar with the Health app
pple Health lets you store and track

A your data whether that be your

activity levels, blood pressure, sleep,
nutrition, or any one of many other
examples. It pulls data from third-party apps and
1
devices and enables you to enter you own information.
You can then use a host of tools to make sense of your
data with the aim of taking better care of yourself.
There are three key sections: Summary, Sharing
and Browse. These make it easy to view your health
2
highlights, involve others in your care and dive deeper
into your metrics. Go to Browse and tap Activity, for
example, and you can see how many calories you’ve
burned and steps you’ve
travelled. Select Nutrition and
you can track your food intake.
With iOS 17 and iPadOS 17,
3
there have been some notable
additions. A Mental Wellbeing
section lets you complete
questionnaires about your
state of mind and indicate
current moods. You can also
help improve your visual
health by selecting Other Data
in Browse and checking your
Health lets you monitor your
well-being by collating and Time In Daylight which helps
presenting lots of data. reduce the risk of myopia.

EXPLAINED…
Your Medical ID
1 2
Health details Medical notes
To create a medical Tap these fields to
card for use by health add medical conditions,
staff in an emergency allergies, reactions
tap Profile image > and medications. Jot
Medical ID > Edit. down additional notes.

3 4
Personal info Allow access 4
Add your blood group, Scroll down the
weight, height and screen and toggle
emergency contact – Show When Locked
use Emergency SOS so your Medical ID
and they’ll be sent can be accessed on
a message. locked iPhones.

72 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


HOW TO Set up the Health app
1 Add your medications
You can create a list of your
medications, vitamins, supplements
and creams. To do so, tap the Browse
tab and select Medications, then tap
Add Medication. Next, input the name
and select its type and strength.
4 Activate a Focus
Sleep schedules tie in with a Sleep
Focus and you’ll be prompted to set one
up (or go to Settings > Focus > Sleep). Tap
Enable and the Focus will activate 45
minutes before bedtime, blocking
notifications and calls.
7 Check walking patterns 8 Add more data
Monitor how steadily you’re walking
by popping your iPhone in a pocket. This
amasses data viewable by going to
Browse > Mobility > Walking Steadiness
(it’ll be OK, low or very low). Check per
month, six-months or year.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Apple Health Beginner’s Guides
2 Set up reminders
When you add medications, you’re
prompted to create a schedule. Enter the
times you need to take each one (and
the quantity required) and specify the
frequency. Select an image to represent
the medicine and select Done.
5 Track mental well-being 6 Log menstrual cycles
You can also track how you’re
feeling at any point in the day. Tap
Browse > Mental Wellbeing > State of
Mind and log an emotion using a slider
before describing the feeling. You can
set reminders to input this data.
Other data is added automatically
too: your steps, walking speed,
headphone volume level, flights climbed
and more. But you may see Add Data,
allowing for manual input, for nutrition
or symptoms, for instance.
3 Create sleep schedules
You can also set sleep goals to
ensure you’re getting sufficient rest.
Tap Browse and select Sleep then set
your first schedule, inputting the number
of hours you want to sleep daily and
when you’ll go to bed and wake.
If you menstruate, logging cycles
can predict periods and fertile windows.
Tap Browse > Cycle Tracking > Get Started
and input details of your last period. Then
tap Cycle Tracking to log period days,
flow and symptoms.
9 Shows relevant records
Health trend data is presented in
the Summary tab. To ensure you only see
the records that are most important to
you, tap Edit in the Favourites section
then use the stars to add or remove
categories from the Summary.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 73

Go further with Health
The Health app doesn’t have to work in isolation – discover more
o make sure you’re getting
T the most out of the Health
app, it’s worth tapping
your Profile image and
selecting Health Checklist. This lets
you view, consider and enable available
health features to ensure you’re not
missing something useful.
Being familiar with features such
as Crash Detection, notifications and
HOW TO Make use of third-party apps
1 Connect with Health
Health can share data both ways with
third-party apps. You’ll see suggested
apps when browsing data under
Summary. Compatible installed apps
can be seen via Summary > Profile
image > Apps and Services.
74 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
Emergency SOS can help to keep you
safe (as well as being able to add an
emergency contact, the latter lets you
activate a Call Quietly feature to make
emergency calls more discreet). But
there’s more. Much more.
Select Other Data under the Browse
tab and you can track how long you brush
your teeth or wash your hands for each
day. You can keep an eye on your alcohol
2 Choose shared data
You usually need to set up a
third-party app. In the exercise tracker
Strava, for example, tap Settings in the
app and go to Applications, Services &
Devices > Health. Toggle buttons to
control which data can be used.
You can control what you see in Health.
There’s a large number of options.
consumption or the number of times
you use an inhaler – and that’s only
the tip of the iceberg.
If you like a particular metric you
can add it to your favourites. You can
also read numerous explanatory articles
exploring various health matters. It’s
always worth playing around and
exploring, so don’t be afraid to make
more of dive deep and take a look around.
3 Control read access
You can always control data
sources. In the Health app, tap Browse
and select a Health Category. Choose a
data set then scroll and tap Data Sources
& Access. Now determine which apps can
read data from the Health app.
 Apple Health Beginner’s Guides

HOW TO Protect your hearing

1 Access Hearing data

The Health app gathers data with the
ultimate aim of allowing you to monitor
your well-being. By monitoring the
volume of your headphones when you
listen to audio, it helps to protect your
hearing. Tap Browse > Hearing.
2 View audio levels
You will see an at-a-glance view
of your headphone audio levels and
whether it is deemed to be OK. But tap
the data and you can view the actual
decibel levels. Select Show More Data
to check the average and range.
3 More headphones
Have more than one pair of
headphones? Check the data for each
under ‘Filter by Headphone Type’.
AirPods and Beats headphones give
more accurate readings than wired
headphones and speakers.

HOW TO Track and share data

1 View your trends

Although you can tap the Summary
tab to see your data (and tap to view
graphs or show more information), you
can also see any significant changes to
your health. Just scroll down and select
Show All Health Trends.
2 Add health records
You may be able to add health
records from your healthcare provider.
Tap your Profile image and select Health
Records. Tap Get Started and use your
location or enter a search term to find
a provider and connect to it.
3 Share health data
Share data with up to five people
via the Sharing tab. Select Share With
Someone, find a contact and then
control what you want to share. Want
to export data? Tap your Profile image
and select Export All Health Data.

The Apple ecosystem

And there’s even more on offer
As well as being able to connect third-party apps to Health, you can
also hook up third-party devices that use HealthKit. This enables you to
sync data with body composition scales, the Peloton bike and treadmill,
sleep monitors and more. Apple’s own Watch trumps most of them,
however. It’ll gather heart-rate data, pull in fitness information and
monitor environmental noise exposure among lots of other things.
Indeed, make use of Apple’s Fitness app (and consider Apple
Fitness+) and you’ll help to keep yourself in tip-top shape.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 75

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 APPLE CHOICE Hardware
MacBook Pro (Late 2023)
Apple’s best laptop is now even better with more power and a new colour
From £1,699 FROM apple.com/uk FEATURES M3, M3 Pro or M3 Max chip, 16GB unified memory, 512GB storage, 16.2-inch Liquid
Retina XDR display (3456x 2234), MagSafe 3, 3x Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports (M3 Pro and M3 Max only), 1x HDMI port, SDXC card slot,
Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3. Model tested: £4,099 M3 Max with 16-core CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB unified memory, 1TB storage
While the ell, here’s a surprise – just 10 months
M2 series saw W after Apple updated the MacBook
Pro with M2 silicon, here comes its
modest gains, successor. Unveiled at the company’s Scary
Fast event in October, the new version marks the
the M3 family arrivals of the latest chips in the Apple silicon
is a different family – the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max – and a new
colour: Space Black, which joins the existing
beast entirely Silver and Space Grey.
– scary fast Apple’s justification for the upgrade is that it
says it always wants to bring its most powerful
indeed silicon to its customers, and while the M2 series
saw modest gains over the M1, the M3 family is
a different beast entirely – Scary Fast indeed.
For anyone wanting to upgrade from an
older model, the MacBook Pro (2023) offers
plenty of choice. The 14-inch is available in three
configurations: the entry-level (£1,699) comes
with an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU M3 with 8GB
of unified memory and 512GB of storage; the
mid-range (£1,899) gets identical specs but
offers 1TB of storage; and the top-tier (£2,099)
gets an M3 Pro with an 11-core CPU/14-core
GPU, but drops the storage to 512GB.
The 16-inch line-up steps things up a gear
with four stock configurations, two with M3 Pro
chips and two with M3 Max. The entry-level
16-inch gets a 12-core CPU/18-core GPU M3 Pro
with 18GB of unified memory and 512GB of
storage for £2,599; the step-up model gets the
same M3 Pro chip and storage, but gets 36GB of
memory for £2,999. And then we enter M3 Max
territory. Here, the line-up starts at £3,599 for a
The new M3 Max can be 16-inch with a 14-core CPU/30-core M3 Max with
configured with up to 16 CPU and
40 graphics cores. And up to 36GB of unified memory and 1TB of storage for
128GB of unified memory. £3,599; and tops out at £4,099 for an M3 Max
equipped 16-inch with a 16-core
CPU, 40-core GPU, 48GB of unified
memory and 1TB of storage. Phew!
Naturally there are plenty of
configure-to order options too:
you could, for example, kit out
your 14-inch MacBook Pro with
a 16-core CPU/40-core GPU M3
Max, 128GB of unified memory and
8TB of storage for £6,999. Or max
78 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
out the 16-inch model similarly for £7,299. But
if colour is a determining factor in your laptop
choice, please note: to get the new Space Black
finish, you’ll need a model with either an M3 Pro
or an M3 Max chip onboard. M3 models only
come in Silver or Space Grey.
Design and features
Aside from the new colour option, the design
of the MacBook Pro remains unchanged with
a slim aluminium unibody design, a generously-
sized trackpad, backlit Magic Keyboard with
a Function key row and combined Touch ID/
Power button and a decent selection of ports:
all models get MagSafe 3, HDMI, a 3.5mm
headphone jack and an SDXC card slot,
although there are differences on the number
of Thunderbolt ports you can have.
M3 models get two Thunderbolt/USB 4
ports (with support for one external display at
6K), while M3 Pro and M3 Max models get three.
The M3 Pro’s Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports support
up to two external displays at 6K, while the
M3 Max’s Thunderbolt ports support three.
Additional external display support at 4K
is offered by HDMI.
There won’t be many external displays
that can match the lickable performance of
the MacBook Pro’s Liquid Retina XDR though.
Capable of displaying over one billion colours
with support for the P3 colour gamut and with
120MHz ProMotion onboard, it looks gorgeous,
with a peak brightness of 1,600 nits, and True
Tone, which adjusts the brightness and
whiteness of the display depending
on the ambient light. We love
that recent Mac laptops have
edge-to-edge displays with
narrow bezels, too, although that
inevitably means that your MacBook Pro will
come with a notch at the top of the screen
where the 1080p FaceTime HD camera resides.
As before, the new MacBook Pro
comes with Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E, plus
surprisingly decent-sounding speakers on either
side of the keyboards as well as three studio
Image credit: Apple Inc
 MacBook Pro (Late 2023) APPLE CHOICE

The new MacBook Pro is arguably

the fastest and most powerful
laptop Apple has ever made – and
it looks great in Space Black too.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 79

 APPLE CHOICE Hardware
As before, the MacBook Pro
comes with a physical Function
key row as well as Touch ID for
faster logins and Apple Pay.
VERDICT
A truly stunning
laptop with incredible
performance, the new
MacBook Pro is great
– if you can afford one.
★★★★★
Mind-blowing
performance
Gorgeous to
look at and to use
Very expensive
Entry-level specs
could be better
M3 Pro and M3 Max MacBook Pro models come with three Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports – M3 models, though, only come with two.
80 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
quality beamforming microphones
for sound recording and FaceTime
calls. The new MacBook Pro also
continues to come with very long
battery life, with the 14-inch M3
model offering up to 15 hours of
power when wireless web surfing,
while the 14-inch M3 Pro and M3 Max
models last for up to 12 hours each.
16-inch MacBook Pro models with
M3 Pro and M3 Max last up to 15 hours.
Performance
With the Apple silicon M2 still being reasonably
new, questions inevitably arise over exactly why
you’d want to upgrade to an M3 version, and it
all comes down to performance. Even entry-level
Apple silicon Macs will perform brilliantly with
day-to-day tasks, but they’ve not always been
as accomplished graphically. Apple’s M3 family
addresses that, while offering yet more jargon
to get your head around: Dynamic Caching.
While computers traditionally have had
separate central processor (CPU), graphics
processor (GPU) and memory (RAM), Apple
silicon combines them into a single chip along
with other components like its Media Engine and
Neural Engine. The result is a massive increase
in efficiency, although there is a caveat: while
GPUs in traditional computers have their own
video memory (VRAM), the GPU in Apple silicon
shares that memory with other components.
Unified memory claims to reduce latency,
but it can also mean that very memory-intensive
tasks may slow your Mac down. Higher-spec Mac
Pros get around that by increasing the amount
of unified memory available, but Dynamic
Caching increases the amount of headroom
across the range. It does this by dynamically
allocating the caches and memory space that
tasks or workloads need, while reducing the
amount that sits idle. Apple’s vice-president for
worldwide product marketing, Bob Borchers
claimed recently that this meant “8GB on an
M3 MacBook Pro is probably analogous to
16GB on other systems. We just happen
to be able to use it much more efficiently.”
While Apple is clearly trying to deflect
criticism of the lowly 8GB of memory that’s
included in the base model MacBook Pro, the
same can’t be said of the model submitted for
review: the £4,099 model with a 16-core CPU,
40-core GPU and 48GB of unified memory.
To put it to the test, we swapped out some
of our previous benchmarking apps with next-
gen replacements: Geekbench 6 instead of
Geekbench 5 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider
instead of Rise of the Tomb Raider, while also
running the latest versions of DaVinci Resolve
and video-conversion app Handbrake. We
also ran single-core and multi-core tests in
Cinebench, and fired up the graphically intensive
Resident Evil Village, while also assessing other
aspects of the MacBook Pro’s performance –
from day-to-day tasks to movie playback.
Not surprisingly, the 16-core CPU/40-core
M3 Max MBP aced every test. In single-core, the
M3 Max bests a 24-core M2 Ultra equipped Mac
Studio, scoring 3,200 points compared to the
Mac Studio’s 2,827 (a difference of 373) while
in multi-core, the M3 Max also pulled slightly
ahead scoring 21,439 vs the 21,422 score
achieved by the Mac Studio. Apple itself has
admitted that the M3 Max can outperform an
M2 Ultra-equipped Studio at times, but the figure
is even more surprising when you consider
we’re pitching a laptop against a desktop here.
In the Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the M3
Max’s result was stunning, averaging 110 frames
per second (fps), even at the highest setting,
delivering butter-smooth performance. In
DaVinci Resolve, the M3 Max rendered our
effects-laden video in 4 mins 36 secs, five
minutes faster than the M2 Pro MacBook Pro we
tested in MF389. And in Handbrake, the M3 Max
converted a one-hour 4K video in 9 mins 8 secs
vs 14 mins 2 secs for the M2 Pro MBP. Although
we weren’t able to benchmark Resident Evil
Village, the game performed brilliantly, never
slowing or stuttering. And in Cinebench, the
MacBook Pro achieved single-core and multi-
core scores of 1,935 and 23,999 respectively.
The new MacBook Pro with M3 Max is an
incredibly accomplished, super-powerful laptop
that will give even a Mac Pro or a Mac Studio
a run for its money. But it’s not for everyone.
Designed to appeal to creative pros, it comes
with premium pricing and will be overkill for
most of us. That won’t stop you wanting one
though. Rob Mead-Green

iMac (2023)
Apple’s all-in-one gets an M3 upgrade
From £1,399 FROM apple.com/uk FEATURES M3 chip, 256/512GB storage,
8GB unified memory, 23.5-inch 4.5K Retina display (4480x2520), 2x Thunderbolt/
USB 4 ports, Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3, Gigabit Ethernet option.
Model tested: £1,799 M3 with 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 1TB storage,
24GB unified memory, 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, 2x USB-C ports
Inside, the new inally! Two and a half years after
M3 chip gives F Apple unveiled its all-new iMac, it’s
finally been given an upgrade, with
the machine the latest Apple silicon M3 chip replacing
the M1 version. Anyone hoping for a
a timely bigger screen or even more
performance powerful Apple silicon will
be disappointed though.
boost Like the 2021 iMac, the 2023 edition
is available in three versions. The £1,399
entry-level sports an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU
M3 chip with 8GB of unified memory and a
256GB solid-state drive (SSD). The mid-tier
(£1,599) has the same amount of memory and
storage, but gets an 8-core CPU/10-core GPU
M3. And the top-tier model (£1,799) gets the
same specs as the mid-tier, but with 512GB of
storage. As for colour choices, the entry-level
iMac comes in four: Blue, Green, Pink and Silver
while the mid- and top-tier models add three
more: Yellow, Orange and Purple.
There are other differences: the entry-level
model comes with two Thunderbolt/USB 4
ports, a colour-matched Magic Mouse and
Magic Keyboard. The mid- and top-tier models
get an additional pair of USB-C (USB 3.1) ports,
Gigabit Ethernet (included in the power supply)
and a Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.
Any of the stock models can be upgraded
using configure-to-order options – you can, for
VERDICT example, choose to add up to 24GB of memory
The M3 iMac retains and up to 2TB of storage. Aside from the new
all the features that M3 chip, though, the iMac is unchanged – even
made the M1 version down to the Lightning accessories, despite
great – but comes Apple moving to USB-C elsewhere. True, it
with its fair share remains the best all-in-one computer available
of limitations too. today, but it could have been so much more.
★★★★★ A minor upgrade
Good-looking design The biggest disappointment is the screen size.
Still the best all-in-one While the 24-inch model looks great with its
Lightning accessories narrow bezels and ultra-thin design, its Retina
Limited screen size 4.5K Display feels tiny when compared to the
and upgrade options old 27-inch iMac, let alone the 32-inch and
Hardware APPLE CHOICE
The iMac is still the best all-in-one computer on the market,
but the 2023 upgrades are a little underwhelming.
larger screens that are now commonly
available. Inside, the new M3 gives the machine
a timely performance boost, even if we’d have
liked the option to upgrade to either an M3 Pro
or M3 Max chip… In day-to-day use, though, the
upgraded iMac (2023) remains easy to use,
with apps launching quickly and most tasks
carried out with ease – even watching movies
or playing games is fun, thanks to the quality
of both the screen and the built-in speakers.
To see how the update performs, we put
the iMac through a series of benchmark tests.
Note that the following results are for an
8-core CPU/10-core GPU model with 24GB
of memory and 1TB of storage. The iMac you
choose may perform differently. In Geekbench
6, the iMac scored 2,999 points in single-core
and 11,480 points in multi-core. In Cinebench,
the iMac achieved 1,901 points in single-core
and 9,622 points in multi-core. And in Shadow
of the Tomb Raider, the iMac achieved a
consistently playable 35fps (frames per
second). In Handbrake, the iMac took 23 mins
10 secs to convert an hour-long 4K video.
Finally, in DaVinci Resolve, the iMac rendered
our effects-laden video in 18 mins.
We loved the redesigned iMac when it
arrived in 2021, and the upgraded model is still
a great computer. However, its relatively small
screen size and limited upgrade options means
it only gets a passing grade this time around.
Rob Mead-Green
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 81
 APPLE CHOICE Hardware
Soundcore
Motion X500
Stylish portable speaker with Spatial Audio
£169.99 FROM uk.soundcore.com FEATURES Spatial Audio, hi-res audio,
40W stereo, nine-band EQ, Bluetooth 5.3, IPX7, USB-C to USB-C cable
It’s the sound outed as the ‘world’s most
quality that’ll T portable Spatial Audio speaker’,
the Soundcore Motion X500 is
bowl you over, Anker is also one of the best, thanks to its
incredible build quality and great sound.
and Spatial Standing at just under 23cm tall, including
Dynamic its fixed carry handle, the Motion X500 includes
two-front firing speaker drivers, plus a third
offers the most upwards-firing one to make its sound feel more
expansive expansive, while the sloping top also includes
power, playback and Bluetooth 5.3 pairing
sound controls plus a Sky Light. The speaker, which
is waterproof to IPX7, offers up to 12 hours of
playtime via its built-in battery, while on the
back, behind a rubber flap, you’ll find a USB-C
port for charging.
Sorry, did you say ‘Sky Light’? Yes, the light
is integrated into the top-mounted driver on the
speaker’s top, and can change colour according
to which EQ setting you’ve chosen either by
pressing the button with the person-shaped
logo on it or via the free Soundcore app for
iPhone and iPad. The app and the button
enable you to choose from Spatial Signature,
Spatial Dynamic and Bass Boost EQ modes
or you can create your own Custom EQ using
the nine-band graphic equaliser. You can also
customise the colours the Sky Light displays
when choosing EQ modes – so you could
VERDICT
The Soundcore
Motion X500 looks
great, sounds great and
has Spatial Audio too.
What’s not to love?
★★★★★
Great sound
Onboard
Spatial Audio
Built-in battery power The top panel makes for easy manual control, and you’ll
Limited connectivity find customisation options in the Soundcore app.
82 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
The ‘Sky Light’ at the top lights up
when you’re listening to music, and
can be customised to your liking.
have blue for Spatial Dynamic, say, and Red
(pale pink in reality) for Bass Boost.
Like other Anker products, the Motion
X500’s build quality is great, thanks to the
use of high-quality plastics and perforated
aluminium for the front speaker grille. You can’t
fold down its carry handle, unfortunately, and
aside from USB-C and Bluetooth there are no
other connectivity options. And the speaker
does have a bit of heft to it, weighing in at 1.6kg.
Little but large
In use, the Motion X500 plays a little tune
every time you power it on and Bluetooth
pairing is easy. But it’s the sound quality
that’ll really bowl you over.
With 40W of power, the speaker can go
very loud, though it can sound a little harsh
when pushed. It works best when using one of
the EQ modes – of the three, Spatial Dynamic
offers the most expansive sound, especially
when teamed with Spatial Audio tracks from
Apple Music – Dua Lipa’s Houdini sounds just
great with lashings of controlled but punchy
bass, while the Motion X500 delivers a suitably
faithful, and moving, rendition of The Beatles
final track, Now And Then. Even classical
sounds great. To make a portable speaker to
look and sound this good in 2023 is quite some
feat. And you can even pair two Motion X500s
for true stereo sound. Great. Rob Mead-Green
Image credit: Anker Innovations Co Ltd

Not just for gamers – the
16G3 can easily double as
a decent, portable second
screen for a MacBook.
AOC Gaming 16G3
A 15.6-inch portable monitor that’s just too good for gamers
£249.99 FROM aoc.com/uk FEATURES 15.6-inch LCD IPS display, Full HD (1920x1080 pixels) resolution,
4ms response time, 144Hz refresh rate, 250cd/m2 (nits) brightness, 1x USB-C (DP Alt mode) port, 1x USB-C
(power) port, 1x microHDMI 2.0 port, 2x 1W speakers, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack, 6x18x15cm, 2kg
The screen is n-the-go gaming might not be
bright enough O the first thing that springs to
mind when looking for a portable
for day-to-day monitor, but AOC’s Gaming 16G3 offers
exactly that, and so much more besides.
use when Team its 15.6-inch WLED-backlit display with
gaming or a 144Hz refresh rate and 4 milliseconds (ms)
response time, and it’s ideal for watching your
watching favourite TV shows and movies as well as for
movies gaming. And it works great as a second screen
for a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, as well as
for a ‘headless’ Mac like the Mac mini.
While most portable displays tend to be
aimed at the business world and so rather
sober, the AOC 16G3 lifts the design of its flat
panel with classy deep orange edges and
VERDICT a patterned metal back, part of which folds
A great-looking out to act as a foot to prop up the display.
portable display that’s On the left, you’ll find two USB-C ports –
ideal for use as a one for providing power when used with the
second screen for included power brick, or power and data
your MacBook. when connected to a Mac – plus a miniHDMI
2.0 port. You can use the HDMI port, of
★★★★★ course, to connect the 16G3 to any Mac that
Stylish and portable also has one, although we suspect its real
Onboard HDMI port purpose is for connecting games consoles
Default contrast and the like. In use, it’s also the port that
Weak-sounding delivers the best performance when gaming.
speakers We found gaming while connected to only
Image credit: AOC
Hardware APPLE CHOICE
the USB-C (power) port delivered somewhat
jerky on-screen results.
With an average brightness of 250cd/m2
(nits), the 16G3 is certainly bright enough for
day-to-day use and when gaming or watching
movies. The only time it appeared to struggle
was in very dark scenes in Resident Evil Village
where a lack of contrast using the default
setting sometimes made things tricky to see.
Tweaking options
Luckily, along the top-right edge of the 16G3,
you’ll find a set of buttons for the monitor’s
on-screen controls. While the buttons and the
interface are fiddly to use (like they are on
most monitors), you’ll find plenty of options
for tweaking the display’s settings – we found
the Game mode particularly effective at
boosting contrast, making it that bit easier
to identify the zombies lurking in the
Resident Evil Village murk.
With two 1W speakers on board, sound
output isn’t great, although you do have
the option of connecting a pair of wired
headphones to the 3.5mm headphone jack.
Overall, though, the design and features of
the 16G3 make this a great portable monitor
– whether you’re a gamer or not.
Rob Mead-Green
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 83
 APPLE CHOICE Hardware
The earbuds are large, but
Denon provides several sets
of eartips to provide a good fit.
Denon PerL Pro
Earbuds with ‘personal listening’ tech to enhance sound quality
£299 FROM denon.com FEATURES 10mm drivers, supports AAC, aptX Lossless; 8-hour battery, wireless charging case
The AAT enon mostly tends to operate in the
feature D higher regions of the hi-fi market,
but it recently released two sets
definitely of relatively affordable earbuds as part of
its new ‘PerL’ range – which stands for
improves the ‘Personalised Listening’. The standard PerL
clarity of earbuds cost £189, which pits them right
against Apple’s AirPods, while the high-end
sound PerL Pro that we review here cost £299. The
two models look very similar, with large, circular
earpieces that look – and feel – rather chunky
compared to the more streamlined AirPods.
The main difference between the two models is
that the PerL supports Apple’s AAC and aptX
for Android, while the PerL Pro also adds
support for aptX Lossless, and has longer
battery life, lasting for around eight hours
on a single charge.
The chunky design may not suit everyone.
VERDICT Denon includes four sets of rubber eartips in
The large earbuds different sizes, as well as one set of memory
won’t suit everyone, foam eartips. There are also two sets of rubber
but the sound quality ‘wings’ that fit into the outer ear to help hold
will appeal to the earpieces in place, but people with smaller
audiophiles. ears might prefer a more compact design.
★★★★★ Clarity and cancellation
Good sound quality Both sets of earbuds use AAT – ‘Adaptive
EQ in app Acoustic Technology’ – that enables the Denon
Expensive app to scan the inside of your ears and create
Large earbuds a personal sound profile that provides the best
84 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
sound quality for your individual ears. The app
includes a number of other useful features too,
including a five-band equaliser that lets you
further fine-tune the sound, although it does
feel a bit clumsy and confusing at times. We
had to download a PDF manual from Denon’s
website to discover that the ‘Immersion’ feature
in the app is actually the bass control, and we
found ourselves frequently switching back and
forth through various menus in order to adjust
noise cancellation and other settings.
But, with a little patience, the app does
provide good results. Using the AAT feature
definitely improves the clarity of sound. When
streaming Low’s Cut from Apple Music, it did
a good job capturing the icy tone of the steel
guitar as it hangs gently in the air. There was
a silky smoothness to Sparhawk’s whispered
vocal, accompanied by a deep, menacing pulse
on the bass guitar.
The noise cancellation features are
something of a mixed bag. The PerL Pro was
very effective at blocking the low-frequency
rumble from a simulated aircraft engine, but it
did let some higher frequency sounds through
when faced with the more varied sounds of a
busy airport. And, of course, Apple users won’t
really benefit from the aptX Lossless support
provided by the PerL Pro, so you could save
some money by opting for the basic PerL model
without sacrificing sound quality. Cliff Joseph
Image credit: Masimo
 Hardware APPLE CHOICE

Ember Travel
Mug 2+
A consistently hot brew? We’ll drink to that!
£199.95 FROM uk.ember.com FEATURES 12oz (355ml) capacity, touch
display, adjustable temperature range (50-62.5°C), Bluetooth, up to 3 hours
of battery life between recharges, works with Find My, Charging Coaster
(included); Car Charger option (£49.95)

The drink here are plenty of alternatives to

capacity is T the disposable cups doled out at

coffee shops – from reusable plastic
supplemented ones that’ll cost you a tenner to the Thermos
Icon Travel Mug at a princely £30. But then
by plenty of there’s this: The Ember Travel Mug 2+, which
onboard costs a kingly £199.95.
As you’d expect from the price, this is no
smarts ordinary travel mug: made from stainless steel
with a ceramic outer and coated in soft-touch
silicone for a non-slip grip, its 355ml drink-
carrying capacity is supplemented by a 360°
non-leak lid, and plenty of onboard smarts.
For one thing, it comes with its own
microprocessor-controlled heating system
that’ll keep your favourite beverage warm for
up to three hours, with temperature adjustment
available on its on-cup display that ranges from
50- to 62.5° C. The touch display (which
activates when you press the Ember logo near
the top of the cup) also displays the Travel Mug
2+’s battery life (up to three hours between
recharges) and can also be set to display your
name. The Mug charges wirelessly when used
with its own Charging Coaster, and there’s an
optional Car Charger available too. The Travel Mug 2+ is pricey, but can you put a price on
your drink being kept to the perfect temperature?
Cheers to this clever cup can keep track of its whereabouts and get it
VERDICT Where the Travel Mug 2+ really comes into to play a sound when you’re hunting it down.
A smarter-than- its own, though, is when you use it with the If its high price gives you pause, consider
average smart mug accompanying app (Free, Apple Store). The this: the Ember Travel Mug 2+ is rough,
that works with Find app enables you to set the temperature on tough and beautifully made, and its seven
My too. Great, if your iPhone, iPad or Mac, create temperature temperature and liquid sensors ensure your
expensive. presets for different drinks (57°C for coffee, drink stays at an even temperature from start
say, and 55°C for tea), track your caffeine to finish. We tried the mug on several journeys
★★★★★ intake, and even includes a timer so you’ll across the UK and its design, features and the
Works with your know when your tea is at just the right brew prospect of a hot brew made us smile every
Apple devices strength for you. time. Pop it back on its Charging Coaster when
Temperature The app can send you a notification when you get home and it carries on working – no
adjustment its battery needs a recharge (or your drink is at more cold cuppas or trips to the microwave.
Crikey, it’s pricey the temperature/brew strength you set). Plus, Just delicious drinks and a warm glow of
Body is handwash only the Travel Mug 2+ works with Find My, so you satisfaction. Rob Mead-Green

Image credit: Ember Technologies Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 85

 APPLE CHOICE Group test

NEWS
READERS
FOR MAC
Get to the heart of the news
stories you want to read
86 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
 eally Simple
R Syndication or RSS
feeds became hugely
popular in the first decade of
this century but there’s even
more of a need for them today.
As the web continues to feel
cluttered, algorithms attempt
to decide what you may want
to see and social media remains
awash with noise, RSS helps to
bring order to chaos.
With an RSS reader, news
feeds can be curated in one
place so that you don’t need to
hop from one website to
another to remain up-to-date
with the latest goings on. As
such, a reader puts you in total
control, enabling you to decide
which content appears and how.
The best apps will also give you
the opportunity to discover,
organise and filter articles.
They’ll strip away adverts and
enable you to customise how
content appears.
But how do you know which
reader is worthwhile, given that
most expect you to pay for the
privilege? Well, that’s the focus
of this group test. We’ve put six
of the best RSS readers for the
Mac through their paces to
discover which of these
headliners are most likely
to grab your attention.

How we tested
Each app was installed and

Group
initially tested to see how
quickly we could add feeds and
get them up and running. We

test
Reviewed by
paid particular attention to
their import facilities and
search engines. We then
checked to see how easy the
DAVID CROOKES readers were to navigate
ON TEST… (including via keyboard
> Feedly shortcuts) and how cleanly the
> lire articles were presented, before
> NetNewsWire exploring the filters and other
> News Explorer features in greater depth to
> ReadKit assess whether they worked
> Reeder 5 well and were actually useful.

Image credit: Silvio Rizzi JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 87

 APPLE CHOICE Group test

Things to
consider…
The interface
1 The whole point of an RSS reader
is that it makes it easy to browse content
across multiple sources. It’s important,
then, that the interface is intuitive,
enabling you to find the feeds you want
and the articles within them in seconds.

Great filters
2 At the very least you’ll want to be
able to favourite articles, put pieces in
order of date or feed and be able to see
only those pieces you haven’t read.

Solid search engine

3 Speed is of the essence so look
for readers that let you enter keywords
in a search engine and quickly sift
through articles. Being able to find new
RSS feeds to follow without using a
third-party service can be useful.

Wide integration
4 Do you want see social media
updates too? Or integrate podcasts
1
and YouTube channels?

Feedly lire
Free (IAPs) FROM feedly.com £9.99 FROM lireapp.com

If you’ve never used
1 an RSS reader before,
Feedly is a great place to
start. Available via the web
for Mac and as an app for
iPhone and iPad, it’s incredibly
user-friendly and contains a
host of useful features. Want
an AI assistant to filter your
feeds and suggest new topics
or fancy creating a shareable
Board for articles you find
interesting? Feedly has got
you covered.
Adding feeds is as simple
as entering a topic, website
or RSS link and clicking Follow.
You can also connect to
Reddit, Google News,
newsletters and YouTube
channels. By prompting you
to set up Folders, organising
your feeds feels like second
nature and, with nice touches
such as the ability to highlight
text, post snippets on Twitter
and choose views, it can feel
rather meaty.
That said, you can quickly
outgrow Feedly. You only get
100 RSS feeds and three
folders for free. Juicy features,
such as saving to Evernote and
Pocket, are squirrelled behind
a monthly subscription.
VERDICT
Well thought-out design
Adding feeds is simple
Includes an AI assistant
Power users need a sub
★★★★★
lire’s USP is that it
2 always shows you the
full text of an article. You
don’t need to press a button
or click through to a website
– it will do the necessary work
for you. This works, to an
extent. Some articles contain
a bit of clutter and images
don’t always present well. But
articles appear quickly and
it’s possible to enjoy this
app offline. Besides, you
can always fiddle with an
article’s presentation,
changing the font and
alignment, for example.
As with a lot of readers,
lire syncs with popular
services such as Feedly and
Inoreader. It can be used to
create feeds synced between
Mac and iOS via iCloud, too.
Articles can be shared with
Read Later services,
downloaded as ebooks (either
ePUB or MOBI) or speed-read
using Bionic Reading. You can
also use a wide range of filters
and, uniquely, even sift
through articles by author or
view posts from feeds that
post infrequently. Even so, lire
doesn’t feel quite as polished
as some other apps.
VERDICT
Great for offline reading
Lets you filter by author
Many unique features
Some presentation clutter
★★★★★

88 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024 Image credits: Feedly, Kunal Sood


3 4
NetNewsWire
Free FROM netnewswire.com
The main attraction of
3 NetNewsWire is that
it’s free. No subscriptions,
no ads, no in-app purchases.
Nothing. Given your wallet is
safe, you may assume that
you’re getting a substandard
product but that’s not the
case. NetNewsWire includes
features not even some
paid-for RSS readers contain.
This app looks like a
Finder window but that means
it feels at home on the Mac.
It also appears to be stable
and bug-free – just get on
with adding as many feeds
as you want. You can use
NetNewsWire to directly
add RSS feeds or, to make
organisation easier, connect
Image credits: Brent Simmons, Betamagic
News readers for Mac APPLE CHOICE
News Explorer
services such as Feedly,
NewsBlur and Inoreader.
Articles sync very quickly and
you can also sync between
the Mac, iPhone and iPad
apps using iCloud.
With the ability to create
folders, read articles offline,
make use of a reader view,
use multiple accounts and
share articles, this is quite
the versatile RSS reader. You
can also play around with
different article themes.
VERDICT
Familiar-feeling interface
iCloud syncing
Open source
No Read Later integration
★★★★★
£9.99 FROM betamagic.nl
News Explorer
4 ensures you don’t
miss a beat. By enabling you
to view your RSS, Mastodon,
Atom, Reddit, YouTube and
JSON feeds on your Mac,
iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
and Apple TV, it’s a flexible
offering (that also makes use
of Podcast RSS feeds). But it’s
not as hand-holding as some
other readers.
Since it tackles its own
RSS feed updates, you’re not
asked to sync with a RSS
service such as Feedly.
Instead, you can import
an OPML file and get News
Explorer to handle the rest,
syncing via iCloud. Feeds can
be added manually, via an
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 89
RSS feed link or through
the built-in search engine.
Creating folders is simple too.
You can alter the Feed
view to resemble a news
website. And while smart
filters are limited and updates
are infrequent, it feels solid.
Toggle the Reader View
to download the entire text
and peruse images using the
Slideshow button. Articles can
be sent to Instapaper, Pocket
and X (Twitter).
VERDICT
Cross-device compatibility
Includes a news site layout
Listen to podcasts
Smart filters limited
★★★★★
 APPLE CHOICE Group test
5 5
ReadKit
Free (IAPs) FROM readkit.app
ReadKit impresses
5 right away by asking
you to select from a large
number of news reader
services. It also lets you
choose Read Later providers
– Instapaper, Pinboard, Pocket
and Wallabag. Your feed then
loads quickly but try to add
another and you must
upgrade. A lifetime Premium
Mac licence costs £19.99.
Paying gives unlimited
Smart Folders and feeds (the
latter otherwise limited to 20).
You’ll also unlock themes,
benefit from Reader Mode to
display an article’s full text,
and get to manage folders
and tabs. Premium feels a
must, especially because the
90 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
Smart Folders are useful.
They let you add complex
rules involving article, folder
or feed titles, dates, author
names and web addresses.
They automatically fill your
folder with the required
content. Yet there’s a lack of
iCloud syncing across devices.
ReadKit will sync with feed
aggregators or Read Later
services once set up on each
device but having to recreate
smart folders is a real hassle.
VERDICT
Smart Folders
Customisation options
You will need Premium
No iCloud syncing
★★★★★
Reeder 5
£9.99 FROM reederapp.com
Reeder looks a bit
6 grey and there’s
nothing you can do about it.
But if that’s a deal-breaker,
perhaps we’re focusing on the
wrong thing. For behind the
admittedly blank yet clean
and polished design is a clear
interface and a colorful array
of features. Articles are
beautifully presented within
the in-app browser, feeds can
be organised into folders and
there’s iCloud functionality so
your feeds will sync across
your Mac, iPhone and iPad.
It’s literally got it all.
Although Reeder will work
without using a third-party
service, you can make use of
Feedly, NewsBlur, Feedbin and
the like. Articles are
downloaded for offline
reading and there are
customisable keyboard
shortcuts. You can mark
articles as read when you
scroll and use the Read Later
function with tag support. It’s
also possible to increase your
reading speed, in theory at
least, by activating the Bionic
Reading feature which makes
parts of words bold so they’re
easier to process.
VERDICT
Includes iCloud syncing
Doesn’t need other services
Can improve reading speed
It looks rather dull
★★★★★
Image credits: Balazs Varkonyi, Silvio Rizzi
THE WINNER

Reeder 5
A fast, clean feature-packed RSS reader that puts content first
hile all of the RSS
W readers here are
worth considering
and have their own merits,
Reeder 5 reigns supreme. It’s
beautifully designed (despite
its greyness), easy to navigate
and packed with features that
you’ll use over and over again.
What’s more, as well as being
a wonderful RSS reader on
Mac, it has equally fantastic
iPhone and iPad apps. It’s
going to take a lot to beat it.
Yet some readers are
pushing it close. lire throws
curve ball after curve ball with
little nuances not found
elsewhere and it’s brilliant for
offline reading – if only the
articles were presented better.
NetNewsWire has been totally
overhauled in recent years
and, as a free reader, there’s
no better choice so long as you
don’t mind being unable to
include Read Later services.
For a small one-off outlay,
though, Reeder 5 excels and
since you don’t need to use a
third-party service like Feedly,
you don’t necessarily have to
pay extra for subscriptions
either. It’s improved greatly
over the years and continues
to do so. A worthy winner.

How
do they
compare?

> Specs Feedly lire NetNewsWire News Explorer ReadKit Reeder 5

Price Free (IAPs: Pro £9.99 (various tips Free £9.99 Free (IAPs: Premium £9.99
Monthly £7.49, Pro+ available as IAPs) annual £6.99;
Monthly £15.99) Premium Lifetime
Universal £24.99,
Premium Monthly
£1.79, Premium
Lifetime iOS £9.99,
Premium Lifetime
macOS £19.99)
Website feedly.com lireapp.com netnewswire.com betamagic.nl readkit.app reederapp.com
Smart filters Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Bionic Reading No Yes No No No Yes
Notifications No Yes Yes Yes No No
Social media Yes (Reddit) No No Yes (Reddit, Yes Yes
feeds Mastodon, YouTube) (YouTube) (Mastodon)
Read Later feeds No No No No Yes Yes
Offline reading No Yes No Yes Yes No
Auto Reader No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
View option
iCloud sync No Yes Yes Yes No Yes
> Overall ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★ ★★★★★
Note: The final verdict scores reflect the overall opinion of a product and are not necessarily an average of the criteria listed in the table.

Image credits: Feedly, Kunal Sood, Brent Simmons, Betamagic, Balazs Varkonyi, Silvio Rizzi JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 91

Goodnotes 6
AI smarts could help you become a smarter note taker
Free (IAPs £9.99 per year/£23.99 one-time purchase) FROM goodnotes.com NEEDS macOS 12.3 or later
Features make oodnotes 6 is the latest version
editing feel G of the popular note-taking app and
PDF editor and the big question for
more natural many will be whether it’s worth an upgrade
from the previous version. If looks alone were
and seamless to make that decision then, yes. The first big
upgrade in four years feels fresh thanks to a
new interface that remains intuitive to use. But
the most important thing is whether or not the
many extra features are going to prove useful,
particularly if you’re using the Mac version.
The developers of this app clearly have the
iPad first and foremost in their minds. After
all, it’s the device that the app was originally
designed for in 2011 and many love it because
you can freely handwrite notes. Writing by
hand is more cumbersome on a Mac but if you
try it, you’ll find that it will pick up on spelling
VERDICT mistakes. Not only that, it’ll suggest alternative
A solid app with words and then enter them on the page in your
some promising AI own handwriting (or an interpretation of it –
experimental features we did find this was a bit hit and miss).
that help it stand out There are lots of other neat new features.
from the crowd. Goodnotes 6 can predict and finish what you’re
writing if you have an Apple silicon Mac (using
★★★★★ the Neural Engine). You can also scribble over
Intuitive note taking content you want to erase or draw a circle
Notebook options around items you want to select and move –
Handwriting both features make editing feel more natural.
feels clumsy Typists aren’t left in the cold. Select text and
Cheaper alternatives choose AI Typing to fix grammar and spelling,
92 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
The iCloud sync features are well worth
having but do require a purchase.
change the tone of your words, paraphrase
sentences or make them longer or shorter.
Great on paper
Whichever way you decide to create your
notes, the app now goes to great lengths to
make sure they’re presented just as you’d want
them. When creating a notebook, you can
choose the size, orientation and colour of the
pages and select different papers, whether
that be dotted, squared, ruled, legal or
columned. The selection stretches to planners
and music papers, and you can also buy more.
But what’s that? Buy? ’Fraid so. Although
you can get free content such as cards, stickers
and interactive exam preps (which have AI
maths assistance that checks your work),
some are confined to subscribers while others
require additional cash to be splashed. And
yes, subscribers. You can buy Goodnotes 6
outright for access to the macOS, iPadOS
and iOS apps with iCloud sync but you need
to subscribe for access to the Android,
Windows and the web versions too.
Still, it doesn’t detract from what is a solid
offering. While it’s a tad clumsy to use on a Mac
if you want to handwrite notes, Goodnotes 6
remains powerful. It adds audio recordings
and continues to offer great mark-up abilities
for PDFs, superb search and collaboration
functions too. David Crookes
Image credit: Goodnotes Ltd

Storyteller
It’s time to tell tall some tales and weave your way to the end
£12.49 FROM annapurnainteractive.com NEEDS OS X 10.10 or later
Can you ome stories craft masterful epics
ensure that S through enchanting dialogue, but
not so Storyteller. This short but
‘heartbroken sweet game contains a little text but no audible
speech, instead relying on its distinctive
spouses are illustrations to do the talking.
reunited’ with The aim of the game is to weave a tale
from start to finish across a set of comic
the wedding, strip panels: fill each box with settings and
death and characters, then rearrange them until your
scene depicts the name of the story. Can
revive scenes? you ensure that ‘heartbroken spouses are
reunited’ with the wedding, death and revive
scenes? Or how about describing ‘butler’s
rampage’ in three panels using a gun, a
ballroom and three characters?
Puzzles start simple but ramp up in
complexity. In an early level, you must get
a character to give himself a scare. At your
VERDICT disposal are three scenes – death, amnesia and
Regrettably brief, a mirror – and a person named Edgar. Arrange
Storyteller has you the scenes in the right order and place Edgar
spinning classic correctly and you solve that puzzle.
yarns to your Although there is no speech in Storyteller,
heart’s content. the audio work is excellent. Characters gasp,
cackle and hum their way through the story. A
★★★★★ fight scene plays a discordant piano note, while
Great visual style placing a marriage scene triggers a ding from
Simple to play a tiny bell. Shuffling the characters prompts
Very short a rustling sound, which is perfectly on point
No hint system for Storyteller’s bookish format.
Image credit: Daniel Benmergui/Annapurna Interactive
Storyteller puts you in
control of the narrative.
When you rearrange things, subsequent
panels are affected. For example, someone
drinking wine in one box can keel over and die
if you introduce poison into the barrel in an
earlier panel. There are myriad ways you can
place items, increasing both the trickiness of
each brainteaser and the options available.
While most puzzles can only be solved in one
way, there are occasional bonus challenges.
One tasks you with healing a heartbreak
without causing any deaths. In another, you
must have a queen marry a dragon rather
than the person who scared it off.
Short but sweet
A few times, we were sure our chosen solutions
were correct, yet the game said otherwise.
There’s no hint system, which felt like an
omission, and no overarching narrative – the
game just ends somewhat abruptly. Our main
criticism, though, is that the game is very
short. It’ll only take you one and a half to two
hours to complete it, and there are no extra
challenges or replay value once you’re done.
Despite its brief innings, we enjoyed
Storyteller. Puzzles are satisfying and offer
plenty of variation. It’s been made with love
and care, and the attention to detail in its
visuals, sounds and level building are
admirable. As a lightweight brainteaser, it’s
a fun way to spend a few hours. Alex Blake
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 93

RichCast
Interactive stories suffering from script problems
Free (offers IAPs) FROM richcast.com NEEDS iOS 11 or later
The biggest ver dreamed about creating your
pitfall is that E own interactive games and
stories? RichCast could be the way
there just isn’t to get started. It allows you to write detailed
tales full of different characters, choices and
that much settings, and control them with your thumb or
interesting voice. Once finished, you can upload them to
the app’s servers for other users to download.
content out Is it any good? To answer, we need to look
there at the two sides of RichCast: playing and
creating. The former is a mixed bag. There is
a large amount of free content to download in
the app, from murder mysteries to historical
lessons. These are split between stories made
by RichCast’s developers and those put
together by community members. The former
are generally higher quality, but there are
some impressive creations among the latter.
VERDICT However, the quality does vary. Characters
A powerful way to often fade in and out far too slowly, while the
create stories, albeit AI-generated animations and audio can seem
one with its fair a bit low quality and out of place. But perhaps
share of issues. the biggest pitfall is that there just isn’t that
much interesting content there. Things are
★★★★★ slow going, and even the tales of murder and
Wide variety of deception are unlikely to get your pulse racing.
interactive games
Flexible creation tools Create your own adventure
Mixed content quality Creating your own stories requires
Frequent errors downloading the macOS app, as you can’t
and irritations make anything on iOS. RichCast’s storyboards
94 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
RichCast has plenty of tools to help
you create scenes and stories.
are like flow charts, and this method works
fairly well for stitching together the various
elements of a story.
You can add tiles for voice-overs, visuals,
music and more, then run them together or
sequentially. A player’s decisions can take the
story in different directions, and you can use
logic to tie everything together. There is a
huge amount of choice over how you structure
your work and it’s pretty straightforward to
weave together a complex, layered narrative.
The problems, though, lie in the details.
For instance, the audio selection was in a
pretty sorry state during our testing. Filtering
sound files by category barely worked
properly, with most categories apparently
having zero entries and others being
miscategorised, making it difficult to find
appropriate sounds for our scenes.
What’s more, the interface feels clunky.
The mouse pointer is overly large and key
elements, like text cursors and progress bars,
are often missing. Perhaps a more standard
interface would have been a better choice
over a custom one.
It feels like RichCast contains a powerful
engine burdened by an underdeveloped
outer shell: while you can create meaningful
interactive stories, you need plenty of patience
to do so. There’s a lot of potential here, but it’s
some way off being reached. Alex Blake
Image credit: Panivox
Photon Camera
Shoot Raw format images with manual control on iOS
Free; full feature set £3.99/month, £19.99/year, £39.99 one-off purchase
FROM latenitesoft.com NEEDS iOS 16 or later
There’s hoton is the latest iOS camera
support for the P app from LateNite Soft, developer
of Camera+, and appears to
new Action have replaced it as the company’s main
photography app. Where Camera+ was quite
button on the feature-heavy, Photon strips things right back
iPhone 15 Pro to provide a straightforward experience and as
an entirely new app it’s better able to harness
and Pro Max the power of more recent iOS hardware.
models The idea is to provide access to manual
shooting controls that Apple still doesn’t allow
in its own Camera app, though many third-
party apps do. You can shoot in JPEG/HEIC
and Raw modes with the option to shoot both
formats at once as separate or combined files.
ProRAW is also available on supported phones
and the latest update adds support for the
Action button on iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max
VERDICT models where it can be used to trigger the
A solid and easy-to- shutter. The subscription unlocks manual
use app for manual controls plus Raw, while the free version
shooting that focuses offers Auto plus Raw only.
on the basics. The app has a cache where you can view all
the shots taken in your current session, but no
★★★★★ editing tools – you can only delete unwanted
Very easy to use shots. Otherwise they’re saved to your Camera
Manual controls Roll – a good solution as maintaining separate
feel natural galleries in different apps can be fiddly.
Raw and JPEG The interface is slick and uncluttered, and
No Portrait adjusts its controls to portrait or landscape.
shooting mode Auto mode is on by default but tapping any of
Image credit: LateNiteSoft
Photon Camera gives you
access to full manual controls
plus Raw format shooting.
the manual buttons – shutter speed, ISO or
white balance – reveals a manual wheel that’s
easy to change with your thumb. The same
goes for focus, with a handy loupe appearing
to help you achieve perfect manual focusing.
Other assistive tools include focus peaking,
a histogram and exposure clipping all in the
main view, which is useful for helping you to see
which areas of an image might be under or over
exposed or out of focus. There’s a grid and a
timer option, and a lens selector for switching
between lenses. Manual focus isn’t available on
the super wide lenses on some older phones,
which is a limitation of Apple’s hardware.
There are some things omitted that you will
find in other – admittedly often more complex
– apps, like support for Portrait mode, or for
bypassing Apple’s image pipeline to capture
shots that are then better able to be edited in
pro software. There are no filters or image-
editing capabilities, though serious iPhone
photographers may well opt for a better
shooting app such as Photon paired with a
developing app like Darkroom for editing.
What Photon gives you is access to core
manual shooting tools, in an easy interface
that’s intuitive to use. Its monthly and yearly
costs are more than the comparable Halide
Mark II, though its one-off purchase price is
considerably less. You can download it for free,
and then consider the options. Hollin Jones
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 95
 APPLE CHOICE iOS
6 apps to help you…
pack your bags
Never forget your toothbrush again
PackPoint Travel
Packing List
Free (IAPs) FROM packpnt.com
NEEDS iOS 14 or later
Ensuring you bring everything
you need on holiday is about
more than just making a simple
checklist. You need to account for the
weather, the activities you’ll do, the places
you’ll go, and more. PackPoint understands
all this, and it lets you input all of these
things as you’re compiling. Armed with
that info, it helps you build the perfect list
with everything you need. Then, when
you’re done, you can share the list with
anyone else who will be travelling with you.
96 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
Packr Travel
Packing List
Free (IAPs) FROM packr.app
NEEDS iOS 11 or later
Packr is a highly rated packing
app that covers almost every
base to ensure you’re ready for
your holiday. Tell it where you’re going,
what you’ll be doing and how long you’ll be
away for and it’ll suggest everything you
should bring. The app learns from what
you take on your trips, meaning it can give
more intelligent recommendations the
next time around. No more wasting time
removing items from your lists, just solid
ideas for what you should bring.
Packing List
Checklist
Free (IAPs) FROM packingli.st
NEEDS iOS 11 or alter
Sick of typing in everything you
need to pack? Try Packing List
Checklist. It gives you categories
for your items – think beach, camping,
essentials, and more – and populates your
list with everything you need. To help you
stay on top of your tasks, it divides things
into ‘to pack’ and ‘to do’ lists, and it lets
you set reminders to check things off your
list. Plus, it syncs over iCloud so you can
start planning on one device and pick up
on another, ready to finish things off.
Image credits: PackPoint, JeremieLeroy.com, Mariano Rezk

hether you’re travelling for
W work or leisure, packing your
bags can be stressful enough.
But remembering to include everything
you need – without overpacking – can
make the whole thing worse. Luckily, there
are plenty of apps ready to offer a helping
PackLight for
Backpacking
Free FROM twitter.com/PackLightApp
NEEDS iOS 14.1 or later
If you enjoy backpacking as
much as you love jetting off
for a beach holiday, you’ll know
that the two require vastly different
packing lists. That’s where PackLight for
Backpacking comes in. It’s specifically
designed to help you get ready for
backpacking trips, where weight is key.
To ensure you don’t overpack, PackLight
displays a running tally of your items’
weight, with graphs showing which
categories are contributing the most.
Image credit: Mark Oliveira, Andreas Krawczyk,Quinn Genzel
Packing your bags APPLE CHOICE
hand to make things go swimmingly. From
sharable lists that guarantee everyone has
properly packed to virtual assistants that
build an inventory for you, all six of the
apps here let you concentrate on having
a relaxing break free from suitcase anxiety.
Alex Blake
Pack The Bag Pro
£2.99 FROM packthebag.de
NEEDS iOS 13 or later
Pack The Bag Pro is ideal if
you travel as a family or with
friends. That’s because it lets you
add people to a master list, then duplicate
items so they’re on every traveller’s
inventory. That means there’s no need to
repeatedly write out the same items for
each person. The app also lets you add
weight to your items, sort items depending
on whether you’ve packed them yet, and
even sort your list by where each item is
stored, so you can pack methodically
instead of running back and forth.
Packing Pro
£2.99 FROM quinnscape.com
NEEDS iOS 8 or later
Sometimes, it’s hard to know
where to start when it comes
to getting ready for a trip.
Packing Pro makes things easier by
presenting you with a bunch of sample
lists, giving you ideas for a range of
destinations and holiday types. As well
as that, it comes with a smart assistant
that suggests packing lists based on the
weather, trip type, and the number of kids
and adults who will be travelling. There
are plenty of sharing options and even
a customisable design, too.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 97
Your guide to the best Apple hardware and third-party accessories

EXPECTED
OCT 2024
UPDATED
OCT 2023

iMac From
£1,399

In October 2023, Apple updated its

only iMac – the 24in model, so that it now
benefits from Apple’s also newly-released M3
chip. You can now choose between an 8-core
CPU/8-core GPU at the entry-level, or an 8-core
CPU/10-core GPU on the mid-range and top-tier
versions. You still get a 4.5K (4480x2520)
Retina display, and all models come with 8GB of
memory as standard, but this is now upgradeable
to 24GB throughout. The solid-state drive (SSD)
storage ranges from 256GB on entry-level and
mid-range versions to 512GB on the top tier,
although you can add up to 1TB on the entry-level
and up to 2TB on mid-range and top-tier models.
The entry level version is available in Blue, Green,
Pink and Silver, but the mid- and top-tier models are also
available in Yellow, Orange, and Purple. Each M3 iMac also
comes with a 1080p FaceTime camera, and a six-speaker
sound system with support for Spatial Audio. You’ll also find
two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports on each model, with mid-range
and top-tier options offering two additional USB 3 (USB-C)
ports. Rather surprisingly – and pleasingly – the starting price
remains unchanged at £1,399.

iMac 24in £1,399 iMac 24in £1,599 iMac 24in £1,799

(Entry level)
Display: 23.5in 4.5K Retina (4480x2520) with True Tone
Chip: Apple M3 with 8-core CPU (4 performance cores,
4 efficiency cores), 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 8GB (upgradeable to 24GB)
Storage: 256GB (upgradeable to 512GB or 1TB)
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4, 1x Gb Ethernet (option)
(Mid-range)
Display: 23.5in 4.5K Retina (4480x2520) with True Tone
Chip: Apple M3 with 8-core CPU (4 performance cores,
4 efficiency cores), 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 8GB (upgradeable to 24GB)
Storage: 256GB (upgradeable to 512GB, 1TB or 2TB)
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4, 2x USB 3, 1x Gb Ethernet
(Ultimate)
Display: 23.5in 4.5K Retina (4480x2520) with True Tone
Chip: Apple M3 with 8-core CPU (4 performance cores,
4 efficiency cores), 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 8GB (upgradeable to 16GB)
Storage: 512GB (upgradeable to 1TB or 2TB)
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4, 2x USB 3, 1x Gb Ethernet

Apple Magic Apple Magic

Mouse Trackpad
From £79 From £129
Design quirks aside, This Multi Touch glass
Apple Magic Keyboard with (we’re looking at you, trackpad is a thing of
Touch ID and Numeric Keypad Lightning Port) the Magic beauty, giving you lots
From £179 Mouse is a great pointing of control over macOS
This extended keyboard is a great upgrade device, thanks to its Multi and it’s rechargeable
option for any Mac and comes with Touch ID for Touch support. The black too. The black version
faster Mac logins. The black version costs £199. version costs £99. costs £149.

98 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024


EXPECTED
JUNE 2024
UPDATED
JUNE 2023
MacBook Air
Released in June 2023, the 15-inch
MacBook Air actually has a 15.3-inch
Liquid Retina display. The laptop boasts
a silent, fanless design, a six-speaker
sound system (the 13in has a four-
speaker set-up), and immersive Spatial
Audio. As per the 2022 Air update, the
15in model also comes with an M2 chip.
The M2 features an 8-core CPU, offering
18% faster performance than the
previous M1, along with a 10-core GPU,
giving a 35% boost in graphics
performance. The M2 also has up to
50% more memory bandwidth than the
M1. Both M2 MacBook Air models come
with 8GB of memory as standard,
configurable to 16 or 24GB.
According to Apple, the 15in MacBook
Air is the thinnest 15in laptop available –
MacBook Air £1,149
(Mid-range)
Display: 13.6in Liquid Retina with True Tone
Chip: Apple M2 with 8-core CPU (4 performance cores,
4 efficiency cores), 8-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 8GB (upgradeable to 24GB)
Storage: 256GB (upgradeable to 512GB, 1TB or 2TB)
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4, 3.5mm headphone jack
TV 4K
From £149
Apple’s third-gen
little black box with
A15 Bionic chip now
adds HDR10+ to the
mix. Prices now start at just
£149 (Wi-Fi only); the standard version now
comes with 64GB of storage, while paying £20
extra gets you 128GB, Ethernet and Thread.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Apple kit STORE GUIDE
EXPECTED
MAR 2024
UPDATED
JAN 2023
From
£999
40% thinner than comparable PC
laptops; it’s just 11.5mm thin and weighs
1.51kg. The 13in Air is 11.3mm thin and
weighs 1.24kg. The Liquid Retina display
in the 15in MacBook Air has a resolution
of 2880x1864 pixels, while the 13in has
2560x1664. Both support up to one
billion colours.
Both the M2 MacBook Air models
come with 1080p FaceTime HD cameras,
MagSafe 3, two Thunderbolt/USB 4
ports and a headphone jack as well as
Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. You also get
up to 18 hours of battery life when
viewing video or 15 when web surfing.
Prices for the M2 13in Air start at
£1,149, while the 15in model options start
at £1,399. (The M1 MacBook Air is also
still available from £999.)
MacBook Air £1,399
(Ultimate)
Display: 15.3in Liquid Retina with True Tone
Chip: Apple M2 with 8-core CPU (4 performance cores,
4 efficiency cores), 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 8GB (upgradeable to 24GB)
Storage: 256GB (upgradeable to 512GB, 1TB or 2TB)
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4, 3.5mm headphone jack
Apple HomePod/
HomePod mini
£99/£299
Apple’s Siri-powered
speakers sound great,
you can link two for
stereo sound, and use them
as smart home hubs. The mini comes in five
colours; the 2nd-gen Midnight/White HomePod
(£299), offers higher spec and Spatial Audio.
Mac mini From
£649
Apple’s most affordable desktop
may not come with a mouse, a
trackpad or keyboard, but it’s also
great value starting at even less
than the last model at £649.
Despite the reduction in price, the
Mac mini now boasts Apple’s M2 chip,
boasting an 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU
and 16-core Neural Engine. The 8GB of
memory can now be boosted up to
24GB, while SSD storage options
range from 256GB all the way up to
2TB. There is now also an M2 Pro
version with a 10-core CPU/16-core
GPU (configurable to 12-core CPU/19-
core GPU), with 16 to 32GB memory
and 512GB to 8TB SSD storage.
Entry-level and mid-range M2 Mac
mini models continue to come with
two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, but
the M2 Pro model has now has four.
Mac mini £649
(Entry level)
Chip: Apple M2, 8-core CPU (4 performance cores, 4
efficiency cores), 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 8GB (upgradeable to 24GB)
Storage: 256GB (upgradeable to 512GB, 1TB or 2TB)
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI 2.0,
3.5mm headphone jack, Gb Ethernet (10Gb Ethernet option)
Mac mini £1,399
(Ultimate)
Chip: Apple M2 Pro with 10-core CPU (4 performance cores,
4 efficiency cores), 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 8GB (upgradeable to 16GB)
Storage: 512GB (upgradeable to 1TB or 2TB)
Ports: 4x Thunderbolt/USB 4, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI 2.0,
3.5mm headphone jack, Gb Ethernet (10Gb Ethernet option)
Watch
Series 9,
Ultra 2, SE
From £219
The SE and
Series 9 are water resistant to
50m, but the titanium Ultra 2 is water resistant to
100m. The Series 9 and the Ultra 2 now run on an
S9 SiP and boast an Always-On Retina display, and
all three offer Emergency SOS and Crash Detection.
JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 99
 STORE GUIDE Apple kit
MacBook Pro
From £1,349
October 2023 saw the introduction
of the M3 chip family to the MacBook
Pro. The new 14-inch M3 model is
available with an 8-core CPU/10-core
GPU. Alternatively, if you step up to the
M3 Pro option, you can opt for either an
11-core CPU/14-core GPU or 12-core
CPU/18-core GPU or the M3 Max for
14-core CPU/30-core GPU.
The 16in options start with the M3 Pro
chip with a 12-core CPU/18 core GPU and
either 18GB or 36GB of unified memory.
Or you can opt for the M3 Max chip with
MacBook Pro 14in £1,699
(Entry-level)
Display: 14.2in Liquid Retina XDR (3024x1964) with True Tone
Chip: Apple M3 with 8-core CPU (4 performance cores, 4 efficiency
cores), 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 8GB (upgradeable to 24GB)
Storage: 512GB (upgradeable to 1TB, 2TB)
Ports: 2x Thunderbolt/USB 4, HDMI port, SDXC card slot
Mac Studio
£2,099
The Mac Studio finally received a
long-hoped-for update in June 2023
with the latest model sporting Apple
silicon M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips.
The Mac Studio is up to six times faster
than the most powerful Intel-based
27-inch iMac and up to three times faster
than the M1 Ultra Studio that preceded it.
The Studio’s aluminium body is very
compact for a desktop Mac, measuring
197x197x95mm, but it’s what’s inside that
counts. The M2 Max chip has a 12-core
CPU, a 30-core GPU (upgradeable to
38-core), and 32GB of memory
(configurable to 96GB). The M2 Ultra
comes with a 24-core CPU, 60-core GPU
(upgradeable to 76-core), and 64GB of
Mac Studio £2,099
(Entry level)
Chip: M2 Max with 12-core CPU (8 performance cores,
4 efficiency cores), 30-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 32GB (upgradeable to 96GB)
Storage: 512GB (upgradeable to 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB)
Ports: 4x Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB-C, 2x USB-A, HDMI 2.0,
3.5mm headphone jack, 10Gb Ethernet, SDXC card slot
100 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024
EXPECTED
OCT 2024
UPDATED
OCT 2023
either a 14-core CPU/30-core GPU or
16-core CPU/40-core GPU. The unified
memory can be upgraded to a max of
128GB on the M3 Max models, while SSD
MacBook Pro 16in £2,599
(Mid-range)
Display: 16.2in Liquid Retina XDR (3456x2234) with True Tone
Chip: Apple M3 Pro with 12-core CPU (6 performance cores,
6 efficiency cores), 18-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 18GB (upgradeable to 36GB)
Storage: 512GB (upgradeable to 1TB, 2TB, 4TB)
Ports: 3x Thunderbolt/USB 4, HDMI port, SDXC card slot
From
EXPECTED
JUNE 2024
UPDATED
JUNE 2023
The Mac Studio is Apple’s most powerful
desktop Mac to date – it’s pricy though.
unified memory (upgradeable to 192GB).
Storage options on both scale up to 8TB.
The Mac Studio M2 Max starts at
£2,099, and the M2 Ultra starts at
£4,199, so these machines are not for
everyone. But both offer an incredible
array of connectivity options and
support for the more pro user.
Mac Studio £4,199
(Ultimate)
Chip: M2 Ultra with 24-core CPU (16 performance cores,
8 efficiency cores), 60-core GPU, 32-core Neural Engine
Memory: 64GB (upgradeable to 192GB)
Storage: 1TB (upgradeable to 2TB, 4TB, 8TB)
Ports: 4x Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB-C, 2x USB-A, HDMI 2.0,
3.5mm headphone jack, 10Gb Ethernet, SDXC card slot
storage can be upgraded to a max of
8TB on M3 Max models. The 14in M3 and
and 16in M3 Pro and M3 Max models now
offer up to 22 hours of battery life.
MacBook Pro 16in £4,099
(Ultimate)
Display: 16.2in Liquid Retina XDR (3456x2234) and True Tone
Chip: Apple M3 Max with 16-core CPU (12 performance cores, 4
efficiency cores), 40-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Memory: 48GB (upgradeable to 128GB)
Storage: 1TB (upgradeable to 2TB, 4TB or 8TB)
Ports: 3x Thunderbolt/USB 4, HDMI port, SDXC card slot
Studio Display
From £1,499
Launched alongside the Mac
Studio in March 2022, the Studio
Display is a great addition to any
Mac set-up.
Powered by Apple’s A13 Bionic
and running iOS, it features a
27-inch Retina display with 5K
resolution (5120x2880 pixels)
and True Tone, a 12MP Ultra Wide
camera with Centre Stage, and
a six-speaker sound system with
support for Spatial Audio. A range
of stand options are available, and
you can choose nano-texture glass
for £250 more.
 Apple kit STORE GUIDE
EXPECTED
APR 2024
UPDATED
OCT 2022

EXPECTED
APR 2024
UPDATED
MAR 2022

EXPECTED
APR 2024
UPDATED
OCT 2022

iPad/mini iPad Air From

iPad (10th gen) From £499
iPad mini From £569
Apple celebrates the iPad’s 10th
incarnation by increasing the
display to 10.9in and boosting its
internals to an A14 Bionic chip. You
now get an Ultra Wide 12MP front and
updated 12MP back camera. The iPad
now also finally adopts the USB-C
port, and comes in Blue, Pink, Yellow
and Silver. Prices start at £499.
The iPad mini is like a shrunk
down iPad Air, with an all-screen
design centred around its 8.3in Liquid
Retina display. The £569 version
comes with 64GB of storage (but can
be upgraded to 256GB), comes with a
12MP Wide camera, second-gen Apple
Pencil support and USB-C charging.
£669
Like the iPad, iPad mini and iPad
Pro, the iPad Air has an all-screen
design that makes the most of its
10.9in Liquid Retina display. Inside its
super-slim chassis, you’ll find the same
Apple silicon M1 chip as the entry-level
MacBook Air and Mac mini. Plus it’s
available in a choice of storage options
(64GB or 256GB), has 802.11ax Wi-Fi
(aka Wi-Fi 6) and Bluetooth 5.0
onboard, and there are Wi-Fi+Cellular
variants with 5G starting at £719.
The iPad Air also supports Apple’s
second-gen Apple Pencil and can be
teamed with Apple’s Magic Keyboard
for powerhouse productivity on the go.
Augmented reality fans will love its
LiDAR-equipped 12MP Wide camera,
plus it also has Centre Stage.
iPad Pro From
£899
Apple’s priciest iPad is also its
most fully featured. Available in 11in
and 12.9in sizes, the iPad Pro models
now boast M2 Apple silicon, which
turbocharges the performance, and
iPadOS 16 enables the Apple Pencil
‘hover experience’.
The 12.9in model’s Liquid
Retina XDR display boasts miniLED
backlighting, but even the 11in model
gets 120Hz ProMotion refresh rates,
plus a Thunderbolt/USB 4 port for
charging and connection to a wide
range of external devices. And both
support the second-gen Apple Pencil,
Magic Keyboard, and Centre Stage.
The 12.9in now makes an even
greater MacBook replacement.

iPad iPad mini iPad Air iPad Pro

Display: 10.9in Display: 8.3in Display: 10.9in Display: 11in or 12.9in
Chip: A14 Bionic Chip: A15 Bionic Chip: Apple M1 Chip: Apple M2
Storage: 64GB, 256GB Storage: 64GB, 256GB Storage: 64GB, 256GB Storage: 128GB-2TB
Ports: USB-C Ports: USB-C Ports: USB-C Ports: Thunderbolt 4
Unlocking: Touch ID Unlocking: Touch ID Unlocking: Touch ID Unlocking: Face ID

Apple Smart Folio Apple Pencil Apple Magic

From £69 From £79 Keyboard
Available in a range of stylish colours, these Apple has recently released a From £279
wrap-around magnetic cases will keep your iPad, more affordable Pencil with USB-C The Magic Keyboard
iPad mini, iPad Air and iPad Pro looking good for charging, although the pricier 1st- (for iPad Air/iPad Pro),
years, and they double as handy stands. and 2nd-gen variants are still comes with backlit
available. The Pencil brings keys and easy-to-use
accuracy to iPad interactions, trackpad. There’s also
making it great for sketching, a Magic Keyboard
painting and handwritten notes. Folio for iPads.

Image credit: Apple Inc JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 101

 EXPECTED
SEPT 2024
UPDATED
STORE GUIDE Apple kit SEPT 2023

EXPECTED
APR 2024
UPDATED
MAR 2022

EXPECTED
SEPT 2024
UPDATED
SEPT 2023

iPhone SE iPhone 15/ iPhone 15

From £429
Apple’s most affordable iPhone
is now even better value, thanks
to a September price reduction of
£20. As with the iPhone 14 range,
the SE works on an A15 Bionic
chip. The iPhone SE offers plenty of
the things people love about iPhone,
including iOS’s phenomenal ease of
use. There’s only a single 12MP Wide
main camera and no Night mode, but
you do get True Tone, a Photonic
engine, and 4K recording.
Battery life is decent too with the
iPhone SE lasting for up to 15 hours
between recharges (with Qi wireless
charging onboard too). The main
thing the iPhone SE misses out on
is Face ID unlocking, making do with
Touch ID on the Home button instead.
Plus
iPhone 15 From £799
iPhone 15 Plus From £899
In September, Apple launched its
iPhone 15 range. The base model
retains its 6.1in screen, and the Plus
stays at 6.7in, while both handsets
are still of an aluminium build.
Both models now benefit from the
Dynamic Island, while the dual-camera
system has been improved with a
48MP Main camera and a 12MP Ultra
Wide, plus a Photonic Engine for low-
light images and Smart HDR 5. The
iPhone 15 lasts for up to 20 hours
when playing video playback; the Plus
up to 26. And the best news? The 15
and 15 Plus are each £50 cheaper than
the 14 and 14 Plus before them.
Pro/Pro Max
iPhone 15 Pro From £999
iPhone 15 Pro Max From £1,199
The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max
boast a lightweight titanium shell
with a textured matt glass back.
There’s now a new fast Action button
on the side of the handset that acts
as a handy physical shortcut.
The quad-pixel sensor on the
Main camera provides 48MP, 12MP
Ultra Wide, 12 MP Telephoto with up
to 5x optical zoom on the Pro Max.
The 15 Pro and Pro Max are powered
by a graphics-friendly A17 Pro chip.
Video playback times remain at up to
23 hours for the Pro, while the Pro
Max can keep going for 29.

iPhone SE iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max

Display: 4.7in Display: 6.1in Display: 6.7in Display: 6.1in Display: 6.7in
Chip: A15 Bionic Chip: A16 Bionic Chip: A16 Bionic Chip: A17 Pro Chip: A17 Pro
Storage: 64GB-256GB Storage: 128GB-512GB Storage: 128GB-512GB Storage: 128GB-1TB Storage: 256GB-1TB
Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi
Unlocking: Touch ID Unlocking: Face ID Unlocking: Face ID Unlocking: Face ID Unlocking: Face ID

Apple AirTag Apple Apple

£35 AirPods/ AirPods Max
Ideal for keeping track AirPods £499
of keys, bags and other Pro 2 Apple’s premium
easily mislaid items, From £179 headphones have
AirTag hooks into Apple’s Third-gen recently been reduced
Find My network, with AirPods and by £50 (from £549).
precision finding on the second-gen AirPods Pro boast Spatial Audio They are also supremely
iPhone 11 or later, thanks with dynamic head tracking. The Pro also comfortable and sound
to their built-in U1 chip. support ANC and Adaptive Transparency. particularly good.

102 | MACFORMAT | JANUARY 2024 Image credit: Apple Inc

 Third-party kit STORE GUIDE

BEST BUYS… BEST BUYS…

Third-party iPhone,
iPad & Watch apps
VIDEO EDITOR (iOS/iPADOS)
LumaFusion 3
£29.99 luma-touch.com
EXTERNAL DISPLAY BLUETOOTH SPEAKER NAS DRIVE A powerful and reasonably priced
Marshall Middleton Asustor Lockerstor 2 video-editing suite. Existing users
Philips 27B1U7903 can upgrade for free.
£1,099, philips.co.uk £269.99, Gen2 AS6702T ★★★★★ MF372
An excellent monitor that marshallheadphones.com £469, asustor.com
satisfies on every level. It’s Meaty, beaty, big and Excellent and versatile NOTE-TAKING (iOS/iPADOS)
expensive, but you do get a bouncy, the Middleton mid-range network Notability
lot of quality for your money. knows how to rock. storage. £8.99 notability.com
★★★★★ MF392 ★★★★★ MF391 ★★★★★ MF390
Notability is a superb note-taking
app with lots of flexibility. It’s ideal
OUR TOP 3 OUR TOP 3 OUR TOP 3
for a variety of projects.
MESH NETWORK DEVICES PORTABLE SSDS SUPERFAST CHARGERS
★★★★★ MF360
ASUS ZenWiFi XT9 Crucial X8 Satechi 200W
> £459.99 > MF386 > £211.99 > MF388 USB-C 6-Port PD GaN
> asus.com/uk > uk.crucial.com £159.99 > MF392 SCANNING/OCR (iOS/iPADOS)
> satechi.net
GeniusScan+
Linksys Atlas 6 SanDisk Extreme Anker 737 Charger
> £179.99 > MF386 > £99.99, > MF388 GaNPrime 120W £8.99 grizzlylabs.com
> linksys.com/gb > westerndigital.com £84.99 > MF392 Fast, flexible and useful scanning
> anker.com/uk
with good optical character
Devolo Magic 2 OWC Envoy Pro SX Ugreen Nexode recognition (OCR).
WiFi next > £285 > MF388 200W USB-C Desktop
> £174.99 > MF386 > owc.com £199.99 > MF394 ★★★★★ MF368
>devolo.co.uk > uk.ugreen.com
PAGE LAYOUT (iPADOS)
Affinity Publisher 2
BEST BUYS… Third-party Mac apps £17.99 affinity.serif.com
Serif’s page layout app finally arrives on
iPad and it’s great – even if the interface
takes some getting used to.
★★★★★ MF391

PHOTO EDITOR (iPADOS)

Capture One
£4.49/month captureone.com
PHOTO EDITOR PRODUCTIVITY TIMER WRITING APPS
A comprehensive photo editor offering
Luminar AI Vitamin-R 4.14 Scrivener powerful Raw conversion and desktop-
quality editing tools on the iPad.
£9.99/month skylum.com €27.95 (about £30) £49.99 ★★★★★ MF384
If you want to improve publicspace.net literatureandlatte.com
your photos without Break your working day A genuinely outstanding RSS READER (iOS)
spending too much, this up into short bursts of app that has almost Reeder 5
is the app for you. distraction-free activity. everything you could ever £4.99 reederapp.com
★★★★★ MF361 ★★★★★ MF384 need. ★★★★★ MF385
Version 5 brings minor, but welcome
improvements to an already great
OUR TOP 3 OUR TOP 3 OUR TOP 3 RSS news-reader app.
VIDEO EDITORS NOTE TAKING APPS EMAIL ★★★★★ MF361
Wondershare Filmora Agenda. Spark
> £17.49/month > MF387 > Free (IAPs)> MF389 > Free > MF375 GAME (iOS/iPADOS)
> wondershare.com > agenda.com > sparkmailapp.com
Overboard!
HitFilm (Creator) Bear Edison Mail £5.99 inklestudios.com
> £7.99/month> MF387 > Free (IAPs) > MF389 > Free (IAPs) > MF375
> fxhome.com > bear.app > mail.edison.tech A gem. A small, but perfectly formed
and entertaining game about a ship-
Lightworks Create Simplenote Airmail Pro
> £7.99/month> MF387 > Free (IAPs) > MF389 > £5.99/month > MF375 based murder mystery.
> lwks.com > simplenote.com > airmailapp.com ★★★★★ MF372

Image credits: Koninklijke Philips NV, Marshall Amplification PLC, Asustor Inc, ASUSTeK Computer Inc, Linksys
Holdings Inc, devolo AG, Micron Technology, Inc, Western Digital Corporation, Other World Computing Inc,
Satechi, Fantasia Trading LLC, Ugreen Ltd, Skylum, publicspace.net, Literature & Latte Ltd, Wondershare, Artlist JANUARY 2024 | MACFORMAT | 103
UK Ltd, LWKS.com, Momenta BV, ShinyFrog, Automattic Inc, Spark Mail Ltd, Edison Software, Bloop, Luma Touch
LLC, Ginger Labs, The Grizzly Labs, Serif (Europe) Ltd, Capture One, Silvio Rizzi, inkle Ltd
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Carrie Marshall, Howard Oakley, Ian Osborne
ART: Apple Inc, Getty Images, Olly Curtis, Phil Barker
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 GOODBYE Until next issue…
One more thing
watchOS 10
Graham Barlow has entered a better relationship
with his Apple Watch, thanks to watchOS 10
‘I can see clearly now, the apps are large…’ Don’t give up on your Apple smartwatch until you’ve tried it with watchOS 10.
ather round, and I’ll let you into
G a little secret – until quite recently
I was thinking about ditching my
Apple Watch altogether. I’ve got an old Series
7, which is still perfectly good to use, but I found
I was using it less and less. It was useful for
reading text messages when I couldn’t pick up
my iPhone, but apart from that I didn’t seem to
be getting much out of the old thing. Then Apple
released watchOS 10 and everything changed
overnight. Now I use my Apple Watch all the
time. What was the secret sauce that Apple
added to watchOS 10 that changed everything, I
can hear you ask? Well, it made the icons bigger.
As daft as that sounds, that was all it took.
Not only that, but in watchOS 10 each app
has been redesigned to actually use as much of
the display as it can. But really, it’s just the bigger
icons in the interface that make the difference to
me and my bad eyesight. Now I can actually see
them without putting my reading glasses on.
And once I could actually see what the icons
were I started to use the apps instead of using
my iPhone to do everything. Now I start timers
on my Apple Watch, play and pause podcasts
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and use the calculator all from my wrist. I’ve even used
the ECG app to test if I have atrial fibrillation (I don’t,
thanks for asking) and I’ve discovered all sorts of fun stuff
like the compass, Apple Maps and the Night Sky app for
identifying star patterns. All of these things were there
before of course, but the previous interface just put me
off exploring and finding them. And if the new icons still
aren’t big enough for you, you can also have your Watch
apps appear in a list view, where you scroll through them
alphabetically. I like this because it says the name of each
app in nice, clear text next to its icon.
Bigger is better!
‘Bigger icons’ is not really how Apple markets watchOS
10, but really, it should. To Apple, it’s all about the new
features, a lot of which require a new Series 9 Apple
Watch to work. Apple needs to understand that there’s
really no point in adding extra features if you don’t
make it as easy as possible for people to find
them. Why it’s taken Apple this long to
improve the Apple Watch interface, I don’t
know. My tip for watchOS 11? Apple needs to
add a slider so people like me, who can’t use NEXT ISSUE ON SALE
an iPhone without reading glasses, can make 9 JAN
the icons even bigger than they currently are.
Image credit: Apple Inc
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