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Your iPhone is an incredible feat of

hardware and software engineering, Meet the team
and yet it’s one we often take for
granted – doing the same old things
every time we pull it out of a pocket
Jo Membery
or bag. Turn to p22 though, and you’ll
Operations Editor
discover over 67 ways to make the
Jo kinda triggered
most of your iPhone – from brand new
Emergency SOS on her
ways to do the things you always do,
iPhone earlier this month –
to some incredible new ones that you
luckily, she did it by accident,
may not have come across before.
rather than by being in an
Result? An even greater appreciation of all the things your
accident. Phew!
iPhone has to offer you and a happier experience all around.
Talking of happiness: if your Mac isn’t quite hitting the spot
when it comes to features and functions, maybe our next big Paul Blachford
feature will help. On p62, you’ll discover 42 amazing utilities Art Editor
that’ll not only get your Mac just so, but will help boost your Paul’s been making
productivity and creativity too. And then on p70, you can find a right dog’s dinner of
out how you can keep an older Mac up and running, including spatial video – sorry, he’s
lightweight alternatives to the apps you use each day. been making spatial
Taking the opposite tack are two other features looking at videos of his dog eating
key developments in the Apple ecosystem: on p10 we take a its dinner. Amazing.
proper hands-on look at Apple’s first spatial computer, the
Vision Pro. And on p18, we explore the changes Apple is making SUBSCRIBE
to the App Store and what they might mean for you in future. TODAY!
Finally! Great news: all our current print subscribers now TURN TO PAGE 36
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APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 3

 Issue 402
April 2024
macformat.com

22
WHAT TO EXPECT…
6 From iPhone 16 and iOS 18

APPLE CORE
6 RUMOUR & NEWS
The latest updates from Cupertino and beyond

9 APPS & GAMES

Our top picks of the month for Mac and iOS

10 APPLE NEWS SPECIAL!

AMAZING
We take an in-depth look at the new Vision Pro
and put spatial computing through its paces

iPHONE
17 OPINION
On understanding Apple’s new app review
process in light of sideloading changes

HACKS
18 MACFORMAT INVESTIGATES
How the EU’s new Digital Markets Act will
affect Apple, developers, and consumers…

iOS 17 secrets revealed!

SUBSCRIBE
TODAY!
18
MACFORMAT INVESTIGATES & SAVE UP
Sideloading is finally coming to
iPhone – here’s how it’ll affect TO 21%
Apple, developers, and you TURN TO PAGE 36

4 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024

 Issue 402 CONTENTS

44 Work with HDR images APPLE CHOICE

78
Mobile Pixels
Geminos

62 HARDWARE

THE 78 Mobile Pixels Geminos

APPLE SKILLS BEST MAC 80 Astell & Kern HC4
UTILITIES 81 Nomad Stand One Max
40 CREATE COOL PRESENTATIONS EVER 82 Edifier S1000W
Use Keynote’s new features in your slideshow Improve your Mac 83 Asustor AS5402T
experience and boost
productivity with these 84 Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2
42 CONTROL THE MENU BAR awesome utility apps
Tame unruly icons with Bartender 5 85 Nebula Mars 3 Air
86 Group test: Six colour
44 WORK WITH HDR IMAGES
inkjet photo printers
Edit and share High Dynamic Range images

46 DETECT TEXT AND MORE 86

Get up close with the Magnifier app

48 BOOST iPHONE SECURITY

Stop ne’er-do-wells accessing your iPhone
71
50 CAPTURE YOUR BEST IDEAS
Channel your thoughts with help from Funnel Keep your
52 MAKE HOME COOKING EASY old Mac SOFTWARE

Keep track of favourite recipes with Pestle

running 92 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024
PART ONE 94 Screens 5
54 DOCKKIT-COMPATIBLE STANDS
Discover motorised gizmos for easy tracking Do you have a legacy
Mac that’s no longer 95 To Hell With The Ugly
updated? Don’t throw
96 App round-up: Six of the
GENIUS TIPS
it away – there’s plenty
you can still do with it best Safari extensions
for better browsing

Howard Oakley solves all

56 your Mac hardware, software 76
and iOS and iPadOS issues 98 STORE GUIDE
BACK Get help with picking accessories
and apps to go with your Apple kit
ISSUES
Head here if you’ve 105 NEXT MONTH
missed an issue What’s coming in MF403 on 2 April

106 ONE MORE THING…

Graham Barlow is already wondering what
next year’s release of the Vision Pro will bring

Image credits: Apple Inc, George Cairns, Pixelmator Team,

Mobile Pixels, Bombich Software Inc APRIL 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
NEWS SPECIAL!
Our first-look guide
to Apple’s Vision Pro

17
OPINION
On understanding
Apple’s new app review
process in light of
sideloading changes

18
MACFORMAT
INVESTIGATES Despite RCS support coming to iOS, Android users
HOT TOPIC! won’t be getting blue bubbles any time soon.
The effect of the EU

Apple has big iPhone

sideloading ruling on
Apple, developers,
and consumers…

plans for this year

Big updates coming to iOS 18 and the iPhone 16
here are still months to go
T before the iPhone 16 launches,
but already we’ve been inundated
with interesting news, rumours and titbits
surrounding the device and the software
Contact us it will run. Put together, there could be a
lot to look forward to.
Let’s begin with iOS 18. This could be a
Email your queries to major upgrade after a couple of fairly subdued
letters@macformat.com updates from Apple, says Bloomberg reporter
Mark Gurman, who declares that iOS 18 will be
Join the conversation at “one of the biggest iOS updates – if not the
facebook.com/macformat biggest – in the company’s history.” That’s
or on Twitter @macformat due to two major additions, the first of which
is generative artificial intelligence (AI). Tim
Cook recently commented that generative AI
is coming to iOS “later this year,” and Gurman
believes it will be used to augment Siri and
make it far more useful than it already is.
Both Siri and the Messages app will be able to
better understand queries and auto-complete
sentences, Gurman says. Apple has also
explored adding generative AI to some of its
other apps, the reporter claims, including
Music, Xcode, Keynote, Pages and Shortcuts.
Aside from that, iOS 18 will also come with
support for the RCS (Rich Communication
Services) messaging standard, which will

6 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


enable Messages to have greater
interoperability with Android text
platforms. Right now, there are many
restrictions on cross-platform messaging
between iOS and Android, including
poor-quality media and limited support
for group chats. With the adoption of
RCS, that should end.
That particular change came after
years of complaints from users concerning
the “green bubble” issue – that is, texts
sent by Android users would show up
as green bubbles instead of blue ones
in Messages, creating a kind of stigma.
However, Apple has announced that even
though Messages will work with RCS,
those green bubbles aren’t going away.
iPhone adapted
for spatial videos
Now that we’ve covered the software side,
what about iPhone hardware? Well, big
changes are coming there too, and at
least some of them are linked to Apple’s
brand-new Vision Pro headset.
That’s because the iPhone 16’s
camera arrangement could change to
feature two vertical lenses instead of the
diagonal layout you’ll find on the iPhone
15. The reason for that? The lenses will
Apple debuts AI generator
Apple has joined the generative AI fray
with a new tool that lets you create
images from a simple text prompt.
Called MGIE and developed with
researchers from the University of
California, the tool is multimodal, meaning
it can work with text, images, videos and
more. It also understands natural language,
Image credits: Apple Inc, Omid Armin
The iPhone 16 could
see a move to a side-
by-side lens system to
enable spatial video
recordings.
then be side-by-side when you take a
landscape video, which is required for
capturing so-called spatial videos used
by the Vision Pro. Elsewhere, the iPhone
16 will reportedly come with a slimline
Action button (like the one on the iPhone
15 Pro), as well as a capacitive ‘Capture’
button. The purpose of the Capture button
is currently unknown, however.
Looking further ahead, The
Information has reported that Apple is
working on two foldable iPhones, and that
while the plans are continuing apace, the
devices will not see the light of day until
2026 at the earliest. These phones will
fold widthwise, the report says, and will
come in two different sizes. There’s no
guarantee the phones will actually be
launched, The Information warns, as
they might not meet Apple’s standards.
There have been reports that Apple
is also developing a folding iPad, which
would allow the company to test the
product’s reception on a smaller scale
before launching a folding iPhone. Right
now, rumours suggest Apple is attempting
to eliminate fold marks in the centre of
the folding display, as well as designing
a hinge that can fold flat rather than
producing any kind of bump or depression.
so if you say something like “make this
food look healthier,” it would know what
to do with your request.
To try MGIE, you need to download it
from the project’s GitHub page at github.
com/apple/ml-mgie. Note that performance
will vary based on your hardware and it
could hog a lot of your Mac’s resources.
Customers got to try out the Vision Pro for
the first time when the device went on sale
in the US on 2 February.
Vision Pro
goes on sale
in the US
pple’s Vision Pro headset
A has gone on sale in the
US and finally made it into
the hands of the public. The company
opened up its stores for people who
wanted to buy the headset in person,
for customers who had ordered one
from Apple’s website, and for those
who were simply curious about trying
the Vision Pro without necessarily
buying one (for our take, see p10).
In some larger stores, a section
of the retail space was dedicated
exclusively to the headset. Apple
redesigned these areas to feel like
a person’s lounge might, with sofas
and even carpet in some areas. These
places allowed users to go hands-on
with the Vision Pro, learn how to
navigate its visionOS operating system
and use apps, and get fitted for things
like the headset’s Light Seal and lens
inserts, if required.
There’s been no word yet on when
the Vision Pro will go on sale here in
the UK, but Bloomberg reporter Mark
Gurman has indicated his belief that
we shouldn’t have too long to wait.
Apple has just launched a generative AI tool, and the
tech could mean big things for Siri in the future.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 7
 With an OLED display, the next
iPad Pro could extend its lead
over rival tablets even further.

APPLE
NEWS
ROUNDUP
APPLE CAR
HITS A
ROADBLOCK
APPLE SCALES BACK
THE PROJECT
> The secretive Apple New Macs and iPads could
Car project has allegedly
been delayed until at
least 2028, according
be just around the corner
to a Bloomberg report,
First-ever OLED iPad Pro and M3 Ultra Macs among planned products
which also claims the ccording to multiple reports from Speaking of Gurman, a recent report from
product’s tech has been
scaled back massively.
A sources with solid track records,
a bevy of new Apple products are
the Apple tipster has claimed that a new Mac
Studio with an M3 Ultra chip will be shown off
Now, instead of being a on the way. That includes a new iPad Pro with at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference
fully self-driving vehicle, a mouth-watering display upgrade, as well as a (WWDC) in June, while a spruced-up Mac Pro
the Apple Car will slate of new Macs joining the M3 chip generation. will follow later in the year.
supposedly be more like a Starting with the iPad Pro, Korean outlet The There had previously been speculation that
Tesla – that is, an electric Elec believes that the device will come with an Apple might skip the Mac Pro upgrade in 2024,
vehicle with some limited OLED display for the first time. It adds that these as a report from researchers at TrendForce
autonomous features OLED panels have just entered production, which said the Mac Studio was coming but made no
like lane centring and puts the iPad Pro in line for an April release date. mention of the Mac Pro. With Gurman’s latest
adaptive cruise control. That lines up with claims from Bloomberg’s Mark analysis, though, Apple’s top-end Mac seems
Gurman, who reckons Apple will release an iPad to be back on track, which will shorten its
Air with a new 12.9-inch size at the same time. upgrade cycle considerably.

iOS 17 SLOW ON
THE UPTAKE
USERS MORE
CAUTIOUS TO
UPGRADE
> Apple likes to boast that
its users upgrade to new
versions of iOS quicker
than Android users do,
but things haven’t been
quite so simple with iOS
17. According to Apple,
iOS 17 has been installed
on 76% of iPhones
launched in the last four
years, compared to 81%
for iOS 16, suggesting
users have been a bit
more cautious about
upgrading this time. On
the bright side, iPadOS 17
has seen better adoption
than iPadOS 16 did.
Security researcher’s alleged scam
Roskin-Frazee is accused of obtaining over $3 million from Apple
pple prides itself
A on its security, but
it looks like the
company has suffered a
damaging incident close to
home. A security researcher
who reported bugs to Apple
– and was publicly thanked by
the company for his efforts –
has been arrested for using
an internal Apple tool to
steal millions of dollars.
The researcher, named
Noah Roskin-Frazee, has
been accused alongside a co-
conspirator of scamming Apple
out of over $3 million over the
course of nearly 25 suspicious
orders. That apparently
included around $2.5 million in
gift cards and over $100,000
in products and services.
According to the
indictment, in 2019 Roskin-
Frazee used a password-reset
tool to gain access to the
Despite Apple’s much-lauded security
practices, a researcher was apparently
able to swindle the company.
account of an employee
at a company that handles
customer support for Apple
products. That access led
the accused to additional
accounts, which Roskin-Frazee
purportedly used to enter
Apple’s systems and place
fraudulent orders, change
order values to $0, add extra
products to orders, and extend
AppleCare coverage.
Interestingly, Apple thanked
the researcher in a support
document less than two weeks
after they were arrested. If
convicted, Roskin-Frazee could
be sentenced to more than
20 years in prison.

8 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024 Image credit: Apple Inc

 Apps & games APPLE CORE

APP OF THE MONTH

Media
Picks
What you should
be playing and
reading this month

[A L BU M]
[M AC A PP]
Rebel Diamonds
ScreenFloat 2 £14.99 The Killers
£11.99
Screenshots, but done better with all sorts of options On the 20th anniversary
of their debut album, The
Apple provides a decent whole lot more. It can detect faces, barcodes,
Killers have released Rebel
number of tools when taking text and data, which can all be edited (for
Diamonds, a new greatest
screenshots and screen instance, you can quickly blur out faces). Your
hits album covering their
recordings in macOS, but images can be made to float above your other
two decades of fantastic
ScreenFloat goes one better with a great windows for quick reference, and ScreenFloat
music making.
selection of extra tools and features. Now, even integrates well with the Shortcuts app.
its version 2 update sees the app completely If you frequently take and edit screenshots
rewritten and improved throughout. on your Mac, ScreenFloat 2 could be a great
Once you’ve taken a screenshot, you can addition. Given its power and feature set, you
add tags, change its file type and resolution, may never go back to the Mac’s default
copy the file, share it with other apps, and a screenshot system.

[AU DIOB O OK ]
Crypt
Alice Roberts
£13.99
Crypt delves into
Medieval burials to shed
light on the fascinating
lives of common people
1,000 years ago, helping
[iO S A PP] [iOS GAME] [M AC GA M E] us better understand our
Arc Search Art of Rally Anode Heart ancient ancestors.
FREE £7.99 £14.99
Arc Search merges A well-loved Mac Miss the top-down
a minimalist layout racer has made the monster tamer
with AI powers to leap to iOS. Art of games of old like
level up your web browsing. Rally’s sun-dappled landscapes, Pokémon and Digimon?
Enter a search term and tap pulsing soundtrack and Anode Heart is a love letter to
‘Browse for Me’ and the app emphasis on drifting and that gaming era where you can [PODCAST]
scours the web for info before flowing your way through train over 140 creatures, battle Oh What A Time…
crafting a custom web page its tracks make it a beautiful against rivals, and learn new Forget the wars and
with all the information you driving experience that techs to gain an edge. Its focus pestilence, history is full
need. It also automatically challenges you to master it. on exploration and fast-paced of laughs. To prove it,
blocks adverts and archives Now that it’s on mobile, you battling will be perfect for this podcast takes a
your tabs to prevent overload. can race wherever you go. retro RPG lovers. comedic look at life
Why you need it: It’s a clever Why you need it: It plays as Why you need it: Classic pixel in days gone by, from
new way to surf the web. good as it looks. gaming brought to life. marriage to holidays.

Image credits: Eternal Storms Software, Island

Records/UMG Recordings Inc, Simon & Schuster UK,
The Browser Company of New York Inc, Funselektor
Labs Inc, Stove Powered Games, CBW Productions APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 9
 APPLE CORE Vision Pro
SPECIAL REPORT
A revolution in progress
It’s pricey, and far from perfect, but it’s also amazingly immersive
WRITTEN BY
hat the heck is happening?”
“W That’s what we said as we
played virtual DJ, spinning
two records in front of us with a cross-fade
knob and special effects we could control
with our hands in mid-air. We just reached
out and touched them.
We had a similar ‘What the heck’
moment – in a good way – when we looked
at a MacBook to connect and supersize its
display on the wall in front of us. Then we
pinned the Apple Music app to the left of
our desk and Slack to the right. This is
what Apple means by spatial computing.
And we were left almost speechless
when we viewed a 3D spatial video of three
dogs coming towards the camera. It’s so
immersive you may get a bit emotional.
Oh, and you can watch regular 3D movies
in the Apple TV app that will blow your
local cinema away.
It’s not for everyone – but for those who take the
plunge, it offers an incredible user experience.
10 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
MARK SPOONAUER
The Apple Vision Pro is an incredible
piece of technology, with an eye and hand
tracking interface that puts the competition
to shame. But there’s some early bugs and
some very weird things that come along
with this revolution, including a freaky
digital Persona version of yourself that
can appear in FaceTime calls.
Starting at $3,499, the Vision Pro is
obscenely expensive and for well-heeled
early adopters only. But it is the most
innovative product Apple has created in
over a decade and a fascinating look at the
future of computing and entertainment
rolled into one very sleek package. Here’s
what it’s like to use so far…
Price and availability
This headset may be able to track your eyes
with amazing precision, but it also starts at
an eye-watering price of $3,499 in the US
– the only country it’s available to buy in
right now. The entry-level model comes
with 256GB of storage, and it’s $3,699 for
512GB and $3,899 for 1TB.
Wear glasses? The Zeiss optical inserts
for readers cost $99 and prescription lenses
cost $149, though we do like how easily they
magnetically attach to the Vision Pro.
Apple Care+ costs an additional $499,
which gives you two years of unlimited
repairs and damage protection.
Cheat sheet >
What is it?
> A spatial computing headset that
combines augmented reality
experiences and virtual reality.
Who is it for?
> People big on multitasking, enjoying
3D entertainment, capturing photos
and videos and business travellers.
What does it cost?
> $3,499 plus more for additional
storage and accessories.
What can you do with
Apple Vision Pro?
> Supersize your Mac display by
looking at it, use and pin multiple apps
around your space, capture and view
3D photos and videos, watch 3D
movies, experience augmented reality
apps and play immersive games.
How long does the Vision
Pro’s battery last?
> 2 to 2.5 hours
Vision Pro APPLE CORE

APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 11

 APPLE CORE Vision Pro
The Vision Pro comes with a bunch of
accessories, including an external battery.
In terms of accessories, there’s plenty
of options, but the one we recommend most
is the $199 travel case, which is big and
bulky but will protect the Vision Pro when
you’re flying or just going to and from the
office. Other accessories include Belkin’s
battery holder for $49.
Vision Pro comes in a big box, and
there’s lots in it, including the headset itself,
the Light Seal fitted for your face, the Light
You can’t wear glasses while wearing Vision Pro,
but you can opt for prescription lenses instead.
6 of the best Vision Pro apps so far>
Djay
If you want to amaze yourself and your
friends you have to try Djay. It puts a
turntable right in the centre of your field of
view for you to start mixing music. You can
control all the knobs and buttons in front of
you, lift the needle and also create effects
and transitions just by waving your hands.
12 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
Seal Cushion and both the Solo Knit
Band and Dual Loop Band.
There’s also the Apple Vision Pro
battery, which remains tethered to the
headset at all times, a second thicker
Light Seal Cushion, a polishing cloth
and a 30W USB-C power adaptor.
Design and comfort
The Vision Pro is easily the sleekest
headset yet, with a curved glass front panel
and a modular design that makes it very
customisable. When ordering it, you’ll scan
your face (similar to how you set up Face
ID) to get a personalised Light Seal that
stops light from leaking into your view.
Of the two supplied head bands, the
Solo Knit Band is stretchy and makes it
really easy to take the Vision Pro on and
off, and you can quickly tighten and loosen
the fit with the built-in knob.
JigSpace
A demonstration of what’s possible in
augmented reality. You can view complex
3D models with realistic animations and
place them in the room with you. We viewed
a Formula One car and the light reflecting
off its paint job looked very realistic; You
can also resize and spin the models around.
The Dual Loop Band provides more
stability because there’s a strap that goes
across the top of your head and the back.
We found this to be better for longer Vision
Pro sessions as there’s more support for
what’s a pretty weighty headset.
The Vision Pro weighs 600-650g
(depending on the Light Seal and head
band configuration), which is more than
an 11-inch iPad Pro on your head. For
context, the Meta Quest 3 weighs 515g
and the Meta Quest Pro 722g.
Despite trying the Vision Pro on and
off over several hours, we didn’t find it
uncomfortable. However, we did feel like
taking periodic breaks because of the heft.
It also left light red marks on our cheeks.
The right side of the Vision Pro houses
the Digital Crown, which brings up the
Home View from wherever you are.
Turning the Digital Crown dials up the
What The Golf?
This app takes mini golf to the next level
by letting you place a full course anywhere
in your space. You can move around the
course to get just the right angle. To shoot,
you touch the ball in augmented reality and
pull it back, when you’ll see a power gauge
appear in your view. It’s fantastic fun.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Algoriddim GmbH, JigSpace, Triband
 Multitasking is easy on the
Vision Pro – and you can even
include your Mac’s desktop.

Multitasking on Vision Pro

Vision Pro is a multitasking
champ thanks to an Apple
silicon M2 chip that runs its
operating system: visionOS.
For example, we launched
Safari in the centre of our
space, then turned to our left
and asked Siri to launch Slack.
We then turned to the right
and opened Apple Music too.
It’s easy to move apps
around your virtual space by
selecting the bar beneath
each app, and you can resize
their windows by looking at
their bottom-right corner and
dragging with your finger. To
close an app, you can either
stare at the ‘X’ beneath the
window or ask Siri to close all
apps. You can also go back
to the Home View by long-
pressing the Digital Crown.
Control Centre can also be
invoked at any time by looking
up and clicking on the floating
downward-facing arrow. From
there you can change
Environments, access Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth and more.
Control Centre also gives
you the ability to connect to
your Mac, although you can
also bring your Mac’s desktop
into the Vision Pro by looking
at it. We saw a Connect button
floating above our MacBook,
pinched our fingers together
and saw its desktop popping
up on the wall in front of us.

immersion level on whatever Environment
you’re in and it also controls the volume.
The button on the left side of the headset
is a top button, which you can use for
capturing spatial photos and videos,
as well as for confirming purchases.
We really like how modular the
Vision Pro design is. The Light Seal
and Light Seal Cushion attach magnetically
to the device, and it’s easy to swap out the
two band options by pulling on little
orange tags. However, the magnetic
connection could be a bit stronger; a couple
of times when picking up the Vision Pro,
the Light Seal detached. So you’re better
off holding it by the metal and glass frame.
The Vision Pro feels revolutionary
because of how easy it is to operate. There
are no controllers to deal with. You just use
your eyes to look at the element you want to
select, then tap your thumb and index
finger together to ‘click’.
While setting up the Vision Pro we
immediately got accustomed to the input

Encounter Dinosaurs LEGO Builder’s Journey SkyGuide

Technically, more of a demo than a fully
fledged app, but this app is jaw-dropping.
After the opening credits, a butterfly flies
towards you and lands on your real-world
finger. Then dinosaurs enter the frame and
see you looking at them, with one leaping
through the screen into the room you’re in.
The Apple Arcade game has come to the
Vision Pro in a compelling way. You can
pick up LEGO pieces and place them where
the game tells you to in Story mode, with
awesome animations of water washing away
your bricks as you complete challenges. Or
you can just have fun in freestyle mode.
We couldn’t help but be impressed with
SkyGuide, which is a fully immersive VR
app. As you look up and around, you’ll see
various constellations light up the night sky,
and you can even use a virtual laser pointer
to trace beams of light above you. Or you
can just relax and enjoy the view.

Image credits: Apple Inc, LEGO System A/S, Fifth Star Labs LLC APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 13
 APPLE CORE Vision Pro

Environments
One of the unique aspects of the Vision Pro is your
choice of multiple Environments. Think of them as 3D
desktops on steroids. There are several options
available, ranging from Yosemite to the Moon.
We pulled up Mount Hood and were floored by the
level of realism, with detailed sand and rocks beneath
our feet, rippling water in front of us and a towering
mountain in the background. And you get to decide
how immersive the Environment is by turning the
Digital Crown clockwise or counterclockwise.
There are also Environments that are unique
to specific apps. For instance, Apple TV+ has its own
Cinema environment for watching movies that makes
it feel like you’re watching a 100-foot screen, while
Disney+ lets you use the Avengers Tower as your
backdrop — complete with a collection of Iron Man
suits — before watching a TV show or movie.
The Vision Pro also lets you type on a floating
keyboard, although it’s not very satisfying. For one,
there’s no tactile feedback, even though you hear clicks
as you type. And you can’t type very quickly; it’s more
a peck-peck-peck scenario with one or two hands. We
do like that you can enter text with your voice, though,
and you can also use a Bluetooth keyboard.

The Vision Pro is wants to bring digital content to

already a first-class
entertainment device
because you’re walked through a
calibration process that involves following
a dot around the screen and selecting it.
Then you’re greeted with a Home View of
iOS-like icons that float in front of you.
visionOS starts with your real-world
view as the baseline because the Vision Pro
The external battery uses a proprietary MagSafe-like connector on the Vision Pro’s left strap.
your environment instead of taking
it over. And the video passthrough
is very life-like, as the dedicated R1
chip is fast enough to stream images
to the Vision Pro’s displays.
As you look around the Home View
and move your eyes from icon to icon, they
light up ready to be selected. This is very
satisfying, relaxing and easy to do, as the
Vision Pro has downward-facing cameras
that can track your hands in your lap.
The eye tracking is so good it’s also
used to authenticate you via Optic ID,
which measures your pupils for security.
So think Face ID for your eyes. When it
works, it works well, but a couple of times
during testing it didn’t work, and so you
need to enter your PIN via a floating
keypad to enable Optic ID.
So what about gestures? You can easily
scroll from left to right and up to down by
pinching your fingers together and drag
the direction you want to move. Zooming
in on a photo or web page is as easy as
pinching your fingers together with both
hands and spreading them apart.
The Apple Vision Pro on day one is
already a first-class entertainment device,
and it will make even the biggest sceptic
a believer in 3D movies.
There are hundreds of 3D movies
available in the Apple TV+ app, and we
couldn’t believe how good Man of Steel
looked. As Superman took off for the first
time, it was like he flew over our shoulder.
This is a good time to detail how the
Vision Pro sounds. There are two audio
pods built into the strap positioned close

14 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


to your ears, and they deliver rich and
balanced spatial audio. When listening to
SZA’s Kill Bill through Apple Music, the
audio pods had plenty of punch in the
drums and the vocals were crystal clear.
Performance
Vision Pro packs plenty of power between
its M2 chip for overall performance and
the R1 chip for processing input from its
cameras, sensors and microphones. We
found the Vision Pro responsive and fluid,
whether it was pinning multiple apps in
our space, watching 3D movies or playing
games. It also remained cool to the touch.
While you could use the on-screen keyboard, a
connected Bluetooth keyboard will work better.
Image credit: Apple Inc
EyeSight and Persona
Apple doesn’t want people to be
closed off from the rest of the world
while using the Vision Pro, so they’ve
developed a few technologies to keep
you at least somewhat connected.
The first is EyeSight, which enables
others to see a digital version of your
eyes when they try to engage you while
you’re wearing Vision Pro. So while
you’re watching content and they
walk into the room they might see a
shimmer of light on the front display,
but as they get closer and start to chat
to you you’ll see the person break
through into your view and they’ll see
your eyes. It’s a subtle effect and a bit
creepy looking, but it’s effective.
The more controversial feature is
Persona, which is in beta and on the
However, we did encounter bugs at
times. For example, during one session the
headset refused to open the Photos app we
were looking at and clicking on. Taking the
headset off and putting it back on fixed the
problem. On another occasion Siri refused
to open Slack and Apple Music while
opening others. It wasn’t a consistent issue
but still annoying. During another session
the Vision Pro wouldn’t accept our Optic
ID to sign in, though we do like that the
headset will guide you to place it further
down on your head if you’re off centre.
As for endurance, the Vision Pro’s
battery is rated for two hours of general use
and 2.5 hours of video playback. In our test
of on and off use over two hours, the Vision
Pro was down to about 60% and then down
to 40% after another couple hours.
Vision Pro APPLE CORE
surface feels very Metaverse-like and
un-Apple. But it started to grow on us
once we started making FaceTime calls.
Persona is a 3D avatar of you that
you create by scanning your face with
the front cameras of the Vision Pro.
You’ll be guided through the process
step by step, which includes holding the
headset in front of you, turning your
face side to side and up and down, as
well as smiling, raising your eyebrows
and closing your eyes.
From there, the Vision Pro builds
your Persona in less than a minute.
The result is impressive, but also quite
Uncanny Valley. The good news is if
you don’t like how you look you can
always recapture your Persona, as
well as use its customisation options.
To use the Vision Pro continuously,
you can always just plug in the included
USB-C power adapter into the battery.
However, the battery always needs to be
with you to use the headset, which isn’t
great. It’s also heavy at 352g, and while the
cord is long enough most of the time, if
you’re really immersed in a game or other
experience and you move suddenly you
could accidentally tug the battery off a
table or couch onto the floor. Plus, the
cord can also get tangled at times.
The Vision Pro is easy to scoff at
because of its price, but it’s also easily the
most innovative Apple product since the
original iPhone. There’s an insane amount
of ingenuity on display here and we’re
impressed with the spatial computing
experience that the Vision Pro offers.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 15
 Meet the
technology
experts

The world’s most comprehensive technology website

An unrivalled mix of news, opinions, reviews and features
All-new design, new homepage, new features and special reports
Backed by over 300 years of editorial experience

www.techradar.com
 Opinion APPLE CORE

MATT BOLTON…
WASN’T SURE ABOUT APPLE’S
CONTROL EVEN OUTSIDE THE
APP STORE, BUT IT’S BETTER
THAN LEAVING IT TO META
hen Apple announced that it would be
W handling the EU’s new rules forcing it to
allowing sideloading and alternative App Stores
(see p18) by introducing a review/approval process for
any apps someone makes, not just those sent to its store,
a lot of people I spoke to said it was a “typical Apple”
moment. You know – “typical Apple, swapping Lightning
for USB-C on the iPhone 15, but limiting it to USB 2.0 speeds”
or “typical Apple, still putting 8GB of RAM in pro laptops
and overcharging to upgrade”.
This one was “typical Apple, even when the law says
it needs to open up the system, it invents new methods of
control”. I wasn’t very surprised to see that Apple wanted
to retain some measure of control over apps (to be able to stop
malware or scams), but I imagined it might be quite light-
touch, such as using the code Apple being the arbiter of worthy apps is weird, but less

And suddenly I got signing system (a way of

confirming the code in an
weird than it being Facebook, I gotta say…
done to vulnerable people once those are
why Apple insisted app you install hasn’t been
tampered with, because it
on their device. Facebook would never step
up to pre-emptively stop this happening; it
on a whole new matches what’s on record with
Apple) to easily kill the ability
would only act later, if it had to.

review process
of an app to run on iOS, no
matter where you installed
it from. Adding a whole new review process that can enforce
the company still taking a cut of revenue is beyond what I
expected, and at first I felt it was needlessly heavy-handed too.
And then I read that Meta had been incredibly excited by the
idea of basically turning Facebook ads into a way for people to
install apps from outside the App Store, and suddenly I got
why Apple insisted on doing it this way.
While Apple likes to tend and
nurture its walled garden, Facebook
opts to basically cultivate the Swamp
of Sadness from The NeverEnding
Story. It is rich with scams and ads for
boondoggles, and the idea that basically
scam apps could be pushed to non-tech-
savvy people there with basically no
oversight on those ads from the company
is such a clear recipe for disaster. I’m
sure many people reading this happily
use Facebook or Instagram, but think
Of course, how many will actually want
to sideload apps? Especially if those about the ads you see there, and think
apps still have to follow Apple’s rules. about the potential damage that could be
When we imagine freedom on iOS, we
probably imagine ourselves making smart
decisions, and using the good online safety
skills we have. But it won’t just be us that
this change affects, and ad-desperate online
platforms could become attack vectors
in ways we never imagined.
So here we come back to Apple’s firm grip
on its platform. Typical Apple, even when
forced to open iOS up to installation on other
platforms, it’s done it in a way that not only
means it could prevent scam apps, but also
actively disincentivises large platforms from
shovelling scammy apps at you. There are
other issues with Apple’s new plans, but the
level of control maybe isn’t so bad.
ABOUT MATT BOLTON
Matt is Managing Editor at
TechRadar.com, and previously worked
on T3, MacLife and MacFormat. He’s
been charting Apple’s ups and downs
since his student days, but still hopes
to hear “one more thing”.

Image credit: Apple Inc, Meta APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 17


INVESTIGATES
Beyond the
App Store
New regulations are changing the way Apple operates
in the EU, but their impact could be felt far and wide
WRITTEN BY CHARLOTTE HENRY
he combination of Apple
T software and hardware
have always been
something of a closed
shop. This is by design. The company
argues it has created a walled garden
so that it can offer only the best, safest
products to customers and allow them to
pay in the most straightforward, secure
way. Meanwhile, its critics claim that
it has created a silo so that it can trap
customers in its ecosystem and keep
taking a 30% cut of all apps and services
purchased through the App Store and
through Apple Pay.
Both arguments are true to a certain
extent. But, irrespective of who is right,
things are changing. When iOS 17.4 is
released in March, Apple is going to
allow so-called sideloading in the EU
because of the bloc’s Digital Markets Act
(DMA). This means that app makers will
be able to distribute their products via
alternative app stores or directly from
18 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
For our latest
subscription offer
see page 36!
the web. They will also be able use
alternative payment systems.
The most obvious change for
consumers is that they will not be limited
to products solely from the App Store.
However, just as significantly, Apple
will also have to make the near-field
communication (NFC) technology used
in the iPhone and Apple Watch available
to third-parties. This means Apple Pay
and Apple Wallet will no longer be
the only payment app options in the
European Economic Area (EEA); users
will also be able to set alternative default
payment apps and app stores.
The way app developers pay Apple
will also change. If a developer chooses
to use an alternative payment system for
an app in the App Store, the usual 30%
commission drops to 10% if the developer
qualifies for a ‘small business’ rate, or
17% if they don’t. There is an additional
3% fee for any developer who wants to
use Apple’s payment processing system.
Makers of popular
apps will be subject
to a Core Technology
Fee, which charges
developers €0.50
the first time anyone
installs the app in
a 12-month period.
It is hard to
overstate what a major
change this is. Back in
2021, Apple published a
report entitled ‘Building a
Trusted Ecosystem for Millions
of Apps: A threat analysis of
sideloading’. In it, it said:
“Supporting sideloading through
direct downloads and third-party app
stores would cripple the privacy and
security protections that have made
iPhone so secure and expose users
to serious security risks.”
The report went on to argue that,
amongst other things, sideloading
The EU’s requirement for sideloading means that
consumers will no longer be tied to purchasing
apps from Apple’s own App Store, enabling them
to purchase from third-party app stores.

APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 19

 APPLE CORE Sideloading & the App Store
would mean “more harmful apps
would reach users because it would
be easier for cybercriminals to target
them” and “users would have less
information about apps up front,
and less control over apps after they
download them onto their devices.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook has also
been uncharacteristically outspoken
on the subject. In April 2022 he used
a speech at the IAPP conference to hit
out at the Digital Markets Act (DMA)
and similar legislation proposed in
the US. While he didn’t name these
things specifically, nobody was in any
doubt about what he was referencing.
Cook said the company was “deeply
concerned about regulations that
would undermine privacy and
security in service of some other aim.”
He also said that “proponents of
these regulations argue that no harm
would be done by simply giving
people a choice. But taking away
a more secure option will leave
users with less choice, not more.”
The forcefulness of these
comments can be interpreted two
ways. For some, the fastidious Cook
choosing to speak out against senior
global politicians demonstrates his
passion and concern for user privacy
and security. For others, it reveals
how fundamental ecosystem control
and service fees are to Apple.
Either way, Apple, as you might
imagine, is not exactly thrilled by
what it is having to introduce.
However, some have welcomed the
changes and believe they don’t go far
enough, not least because they will not affect
those in the UK. “Apple don’t like competition
and they don’t like their profits being
threatened,” Jim Killock, executive director
The decision will have repercussions for developers
of all types including those working on visionOS apps.
20 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
Managing the risks
The EU’s Digital Markets Act means you’ll no longer battle with Apple. Sweeney posted on X
have to pay for an app through the App Store.
What is the DMA?
The Digital Markets Act (DMA),
along with the Digital Services
Act, has been a particularly
high-profile piece of EU
legislation that came into force
in May 2023. It aims to reign
in ‘Big Tech’ and does this by
assigning certain companies
as ‘gatekeeper’ firms. Apple
was considered one of these
and so had various obligations
placed on it in the EU.
of the Open Rights Group told MacFormat.
“At the moment we in the UK can’t benefit from
lower prices and greater choice from sideloading.
Security risks need to be managed, but security
cannot be used as an excuse to protect insane
monopoly profits.”
Announcing the upcoming changes, Apple
fellow Phil Schiller could hardly have been less
enthusiastic, pointing out the boundaries Apple
is setting up. Schiller said that the changes Apple
is introducing “comply with the Digital Markets
Act’s requirements in the European Union, while
helping to protect EU users from the unavoidable
increased privacy and security threats this
regulation brings. Our priority remains creating
the best, most secure possible experience for our
users in the EU and around the world.”
Apple says that the provision it is introducing
offers the best consumer protection it can within
the confines of the DMA. Firstly, there is
Notarisation for iOS apps. This is what Apple
describes as a ‘baseline review’ and applies
however an app is distributed. From that,
comes app installation sheets which describe
apps to consumers before they download them.
Marketplace developers must also be authorised
and Apple has introduced extra protections to
try to prevent installed apps that contain
malware from launching.
Apple may not have welcomed the
introduction of sideloading, but their way of
navigating it didn’t go down particularly well
with others either. These include Tim Sweeney,
the CEO of Epic Games; Epic Games makes
Fortnite and has been involved in a long legal
(formerly Twitter) that Apple’s approach
Furthermore, iOS and Safari
were designated ‘core platform
services’. The obligations imposed
on Apple include third-party
interoperability, leading to it
having to allow sideloading.
Sanctions for not complying
with the legislation include fines
of 10% of the company’s total
worldwide annual turnover. This
can be increased to 20% for
repeated infringements.
 Tim Sweeney of Epic Games is unimpressed with
Apple’s attempts at revising consumer protection.
was “a devious new instance of Malicious
Compliance” and went on to describe it
as “hot garbage” and a “horror show”.
By contrast, Spotify, which has been
similarly critical of how Apple controls the
ecosystem and takes a 30% cut, was more
positive about the forthcoming changes. It said
that it will update its service to highlight how
EU users will be able to buy subscription
upgrades and audiobooks directly through
the app again. It had stopped facilitating
transactions within its iOS app as it did
not want to be subject to the “Apple tax”.
None of the possible solutions – allowing
sideloading and third-party app stores, keeping
things as they are, or some compromise between
the two – are perfect. While there’s plenty of ‘less
great’ software in the App Store, customers can
have some level of confidence in many of the
products sold there. Using Apple’s infrastructure
is easy for both developers and consumers. But
yes, the fees are very high for developers.
Focus in UK
It is not just the EU where Apple’s
control of its platform is under
scrutiny. In the UK, the Competitions
and Market Authority (CMA) has been
digging into the mobile ecosystem for
years and has effectively branded
Apple and Google a duopoly.
In one report that mentioned the
issue of sideloading, the CMA outlined
how the concept had been proposed
and noted the concerns about privacy
and security. It did say, though, that
such “concerns are likely to be
Image credits: Apple Inc, Epic Games Inc
It’s not just surmountable. The report also said: “Sideloading
and alternative app stores, in isolation, may not
the EU where be a ’silver bullet’. They have had relatively
Apple’s limited impact to date within Android – although
they are undermined by other factors… How
control of much these changes move the dial is also likely to
its platform be linked to other interventions, and both would
is under need careful design and implementation. There
are also risks that Apple and Google could
scrutiny impose restrictive terms of access through their
control of the operating systems, undermining
the effectiveness of any such changes.”
One of the things the CMA does want to
do is stop Apple insisting that all web browsers
installed on an iPhone must use the same WebKit
engine as Safari. Apple hit back, telling the CMA
that such a move “would effectively turn Apple
into a clone of Android.” However, this is exactly
what is happening as a result of the DMA in the
EU. Will Apple really be able to fight off the
provision in one jurisdiction but have to abide
by it in another in perpetuity? We will likely
start to see a domino effect.
This might seem like a separate issue to
sideloading, and one that has a less
immediate and noticeable effect on
consumers. However, it is part of the
same bigger picture – Apple’s ability
to entirely control its own platforms.
There can be no doubt that
Apple having to facilitate sideloading,
alternative app stores and payment
systems in the EU is a hugely significant
moment. It causes a major fracture in the
Apple ecosystem, meaning a significant
Apple isn’t the only company to charge fees for access number of consumers will have a very
to its platforms – Google, Sony, and others do too. different experience to the rest.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 21
 Are you getting the most
from your iPhone? Let’s
take a look at some great
advanced tips and tricks
Written by Ian Osborne

22 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024

 W
hether you’re new to
iPhone, a recent upgrader
or have owned an Apple
smartphone for several
years, this guide takes a deep dive
into some must-try tips, tricks and
secrets that take your iPhone-owning
experience to another level – and also
makes you the envy of all your
Android-using friends!
Even if you’re an experienced iPhone
user, there might be features offered by
its apps and the iOS 17 operating system
of which you’re not aware. That’s what
we’re looking at here. Did you know, for
example, that swiping an email left or
right in the iPhone’s Mail app reveals
additional options? Or that you can
unsend messages and emails after
you’ve sent them? Or that you can
identify features in photographs and
automatically look up information on
them? Or that you can add a link to a
note in the Notes app, so you can tap it
and be taken directly to another note?
Or that in the Safari web browser, you
can opt to listen to a page instead of
reading it? With our help, you can
do all these things and more.
Whether you use your iPhone as a
work phone or purely for personal use;
whether you’ve got a new handset for
Christmas or have had one for years,
or you’re a fan of using its full range
of tools and features to the absolute
max or prefer the simplicity of having
a handful of regular go-to apps, there’s
something here for you.

Image credit: Apple Inc APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 23

 FEATURE Amazing iPhone hacks

Mail, Messages,
Notes & FaceTime
Great tips and tricks you might not know…

A
pple’s key communication
and note-taking apps have
some awesome features.
In the iPhone’s email client,
Mail, for example, you can swipe an email
message right to access more options;
tap Unread to mark that email as unread,
or tap Remind Me to set up a reminder
about the email, so you can deal with it
later. If you swipe that email left, different
options present themselves. Tap the Bin
to delete it, Flag to mark it with a flag
or More for an options window that lets
you reply, forward, archive the message
and more, without actually opening it.
The Hide My Email feature lets
you send an email without giving the
recipient your email address. Before you
send it, tap the From field to open the
CC and BCC fields. Tap the From field a
second time and you can choose which
email account you can send it from, or
tap Hide My Email to create a random
address that forwards to your mailbox.
To schedule an email instead of
sending it straight away, instead of
tapping Send, press and hold it for a
menu with sending options. Tap Send
Later and choose a date and time for
it to be sent on. To format emails, when
typing a message, tap the chevron
(top-right of the keyboard) and then tap
the ‘Aa’ icon for the formatting controls.

Take note of these tips

In the Notes app, you can add links to other notes
and to websites right there in your note.
In a note in the Notes app, you can add
a web address or a link to another note.
In the note, tap and hold where you want
the link. In the menu, tap the chevron By swiping an individual email left or right,
then choose Add Link. You can then add you can access a range of new options.

HOW TO Use Chat Reactions in FaceTime >

1 Thumbs Up/Down
In video chats, including FaceTime, you
can summon some great graphical effects
with hand gestures. For example, if you
make a thumbs up or thumbs down with
one hand, you get a bubble showing a
similar gesture.
2 Two Thumbs Up/Down 3 Hearts
Make that thumbs up gesture with
two hands, and you get an exciting
fireworks display that fills the screen.
Make a two thumbs down gesture and
you get a rain shower. Hope the weather
in real life is better.
Make a heart gesture with both hands
by placing your thumbs and the tips of
your fingers together to make a heart
shape. A spray of hearts flies from your
hands – it’s a great way to appreciate the
person you’re chatting to.

24 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


Ssh! Secret tip
You can’t make a FaceTime call on a
Windows or Android device, but you
can accept incoming calls made from
an Apple device. To do this, on your
iPhone’s FaceTime app, make a link
using the Create Link button, then
send it to your Android or Windows
using pal. If they open it in Google
Chrome, they can accept the FaceTime
call directly from their web browser.
the web address or the title of the note
you want to link to, and choose link text
for it if you wish. When using an app, tap
Share and choose ‘Add to New Quick
Note’ and copy whatever it is you’re
looking at to a quick note. Add text if
you want, and tap Save; the note
is then available in the Notes app.
4 Peace
Make a peace sign, a ‘V’ with your
forefinger and middle finger and your
palm pointing outwards, for a bunch of
balloons rising up the screen. It’s party
time – now you can celebrate without
leaving your seat.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Amazing iPhone hacks FEATURE
Unsend messsages
You can recall an email or
message for a short while
after sending. In Mail, you
have 10 seconds to tap the Undo
Send button at the foot of the email
window. The email reappears, so
you can edit it before resending,
or cancel it altogether. In Messages,
you can recall a message up to two
minutes after sending; press and
hold the message and select Undo
Send. Note: if the recipient hasn’t
updated to iOS 16 or later, they will
still receive the message.
Check In
This safety feature lets
someone know when
you’ve arrived home safely.
Open a Messages chat with the
person you wish to alert, and tap
the ‘+’ button (bottom left). Swipe up
and tap Check In. A Check In message
appears; edit it if you wish, then tap
Send. It doesn’t go immediately, but
is sent when you arrive at home. If
you’re delayed, you’ll get a Check In
message. If you don’t respond, your
friend gets a message giving your
current location using Maps.
5 Double Peace
Make a peace sign with both hands
and you get a spray of confetti falling
6 Horns
Make a horn gesture by extending
your forefingers and little fingers and
from the top of the screen. As with all keeping your other fingers and thumbs
these gestures, make sure your hands folded in with both hands. You get a great
are wholly visible to the camera or the laser display in a range of flashing
graphics might not appear. colours. It looks amazing.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 25
 FEATURE Amazing iPhone hacks

Camera, Photos & AR

Get even more from your iPhone’s amazing cameras

T
he Camera and Photos apps
have some useful advanced
features, and there are some
great apps out there to make
use of your iPhone’s augmented and
mixed reality capabilities.
In Photos, Visual Look Up gives
instant access to information about
things in your photograph. This includes
landmarks, pets, flowers, books, works
of art and more. It’s easy to use. Open a
photograph in the Photos app. At the foot
of the screen there’s an ‘i’ in a circle icon,
which gives information about the photo.
If this icon is augmented by a star, or
changes shape to resemble something in
the photo, Visual Look Up is available. Tap
the icon, and at the top of the panel that
pops up is an option marked ‘Look Up
The Photos app’s Visual Look Up feature now covers
dogs, cats, landmarks, plants and more.
Ssh! Secret tip
If you see a QR code on product
packaging, on an advertising poster
or anywhere else, you can open it
using your iPhone. Just open the
Camera app and point your camera
at the QR code. It’s identified and
framed with yellow corners. When
Instead of editing a series of photos one by one, the web address to which it refers
you can copy and paste the edits. appears under the QR code on your
[Object]’. Tap this option for information, screen, tap it to be taken there.
links, similar pictures and more.
Styling and sorting
If you have a series of photos to which
you wish to apply the same edits, you
can copy and paste them. After editing
a photo, tap the ‘…’ button and select
Copy Edits. Open the next photo, tap the
‘…’ button again and select Paste Edits.
It’s as simple as that.
You can also recover recently deleted
pics and videos, and access those you’ve
hidden. Tap Album at the foot of the
Photos app, and scroll all the way to the
bottom. There you see the Hidden option;
tap it and enter your passcode to see

HOW TO Use your Camera’s advanced features >

1 Quick video
With an iPhone XS, iPhone XR or
later, you can take a video without using
the slider to put your Camera app into
Video Mode. Just tap and hold the
shutter button, or slide it right, and
you record a quick-take video.
2 Action mode
On an iPhone 14 series or later,
there’s a new Action mode that steadies
the footage as you record video. To turn
it on, switch to video recording and tap
the crossed-out picture of someone
running; the icon turns yellow.
3 Night mode
In very low light conditions, the
iPhone automatically turns on Night
mode. If it doesn’t, tap the black and
white icon showing a partly shaded
moon. When active, it’s yellow and
accompanied by an exposure time.

26 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024

 Amazing iPhone hacks FEATURE

Top 5 augmented reality apps

Clips Museum Alive Apollo’s Moon For All Mankind: ARki

> Free > App Store
>A free video app
from Apple. You
can use the iPhone’s
LiDAR capabilities to detect
space, and turn your room into
a disco, leave a trail of stars
behind you as you move and
more. There’s some great
camera effects to play with too.
> £2.99 > App Store
>This educational
app brings extinct
creatures back from
the dead and into the real
world. Featuring David
Attenborough as a guide,
you learn about the fish-like
Opabinina, the flying dinosaur
Dimorphodon and more.
Shot AR
> Free > smithsonianchannel.com
> Relive NASA’s
journey to the
moon. You get to
meet the crew of the Apollo 11,
take a selfie on the moon,
launch a Saturn V rocket, play
a couple of augmented reality
(AR) games and more.
Time Capsule
> Free > App Store
> If you watch For
All Mankind on
Apple TV, why
not try the companion app?
As a son of astronauts, you
pick through a time capsule of
interactive objects, offered
in glorious AR.
> Free (IAP) > darfdesign.com
> Using the latest
LiDAR technologies,
you can create
designs and superimpose
them onto the real world. It
supports the FBX file format, so
you can import objects from 3D
modelling apps such as 3ds Max,
Cinema 4D, Revit and more.

your hidden media. Below that is Recently
Deleted, for which you also need your
passcode. Deleted media is kept there for
30 days before being deleted
permanently, so if you bin something
accidentally, it can be recovered.
Another option at the foot of the
Albums screen is Duplicates. Tap this
to show pictures that are appearing twice.
Tap Merge next to one of the duplicates
to merge them, or tap Select to merge
more than one at a time.
At the foot of Photos’ Albums section, you can review
deleted, duplicate or hidden pictures.
A useful feature in the Photos app is
Live Text. Find a picture with text on it,
and highlight it with your finger like you
would text on a website or in a document.
A bubble menu appears above the text
that lets you copy, look up, translate and
more. Tap and hold a website address in
a photo and you can open it; tap a phone
number and you can call it.
You can add a caption to a photo
too. Open it, tap the ‘i’ in a circle at the
foot of the screen (whether or not the
icon has been modified by Visual Look
Up, as described earlier) and type it in
the ‘Add a Caption’ field.

4 Burst of photos
To take a ‘burst’ of photos, in the
Camera app’s Photo mode, tap and hold
5 Faster shooting
the shutter button and drag it to the left.
A quick series of photos are taken. Lift
your finger to stop the camera from
taking photos.
In Settings > Camera, you can turn
on the Prioritise Faster Shooting option.
6 Spatial video
With an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max,
you can record spatial videos to watch
This makes the iPhone spend less time on an Apple Vision Pro. In the Camera
processing a shot, so it’s ready to take app’s Video mode, hold the phone in
another quicker. A little photo quality is Landscape mode and tap the Spatial
lost when using this feature. Video icon – it looks like the Vision Pro.

Image credits: Apple Inc, Alchemy Immersive Ltd, SN Digital LLC, Darf Design Ltd APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 27
 FEATURE Amazing iPhone hacks

Fitness, Health & Well-being

Use your iPhone to guard your physical and mental health

O
ne of the best things about
the iPhone’s Health app is its
versatility. You can link many
health-related apps offered by
third parties to your Apple Health app,
allowing health and medical data gleaned
by the third-party app to be imported into
Health. This is especially useful for apps
You can log your moods and keep an eye on
your mental well-being in the Health app.
that support health-related peripherals
such as smart scales, fitness monitors and
blood pressure meters. Set up your device,
pair it with its dedicated app and then link
that app with Health, and information it
records is imported into your Health app.
To link a third-party app with Health,
open the Health app and tap your account
picture in the top-right corner. Under
Privacy, tap Apps and Services and then
tap the app you want to link. Choose what
you want to share with Health there.
Personal check-in
A new feature that arrived in the Health
app with iOS 17 is logging your moods.
Open the Health app and, in the Browse
tab (foot of the screen), tap Mental
Wellbeing then State of Mind. Tap Get
Started, or Log if you’ve used this feature
before. Tap Emotion then Next, and input
how you feel. At the end of the day, do the
same for your overall Mood. You can then
review your potential level of anxiety or
depression in Browse > Mental Wellbeing.
Ssh! Secret tip
If you have an Apple Watch, distances
are measured in kilometres by
default. If you would rather show
distances in miles, open the Health
app on your iPhone. At the foot of the
screen, tap Summary, then scroll to
‘Walking + Running Distance’ and tap
it. Scroll to the bottom of this screen
to see an option titled ‘Unit’. Tap
this, and you can switch between
kilometres and miles, on both your
Health app and your Apple Watch.
Another new feature is Screen
Distance. This is turned on by default for
children under 13 in a Family Sharing group.
It alerts when you hold your iPhone too
close to your face for extended periods
(at least 30cm away is recommended).
To turn it on and off, go to Settings >
Screen Time > Screen Distance.

Top 5 apps that link with the Health app

Withings
Health Mate
> Free (IAP)
> withings.com
> This app records
readings from Withings’
health devices and compiles
them together. It works
seamlessly with Apple Health,
enabling you to keep your
information in one place.
Clue Period Tracker
& Calendar
> Free (IAP) > helloclue.com
> Track your
menstrual cycle,
predict when your
period will start and find out
when you’re most fertile. You
can sync data with Apple Health,
the app’s developed by scientists,
and your data is secure.
Garmin Connect
> Free > garmin.com
> If you use a Garmin
fitness tracker, you
can use this app to
record your progress and sync
it with your iPhone’s Health
app. Garmin fitness trackers
include smart watches, swimming
wearables, cycling computers,
golf watches and more.
WeightWatchers: Qardio Heart Health
Weight Health > Free (IAP) > qardio.com
> Free (IAP) > Qardio is
> weightwatchers.com designed to help
> Develop healthy you manage your
eating habits to heart health. It works in
lose weight. You combination with the QardioArm
can scan barcodes, record the blood pressure monitor and
food you eat, and see how many QardioBase smart scales, and
calories you’re consuming. It it exchanges data with the
syncs with Health too. Apple Health app.

28 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024 Image credits: Apple Inc, Withings, Clue by Biowink GmbH, Garmin Ltd, WW International Inc, Qardio Inc

HOW TO Build a Fitness workout >
1 Open Fitness+
With iOS 17 and an Apple Fitness+
subscription, you can create a Custom
Plan using the various exercises on offer
to look after your fitness. First of all,
open the iPhone’s Fitness app, and
tap Fitness+ at the foot.
4 Programme length
How long do you want your workout
programme to last? By default it’s four
weeks, but if you tap this option next
to Length of Plan, you can change it
to between two and eight weeks,
however long you like.
7 Trainers & music
When you’re happy with your plan,
tap on Trainers and choose which fitness
trainers you’d like to have helping you
while you work out. Tap Music to choose
which genres you like to listen to during
your exercise sessions.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Amazing iPhone hacks FEATURE
2 Build your plan
Tap the Build Your Plan link in the
Custom Plans section of the Fitness+
home screen. Tap the days you want
to work out; they’re circled in green.
To cancel a day again, tap it once
more and the circle is removed.
5 Choose activities
Now it’s time to choose the fitness
activities you want to pursue during your
workouts. You can choose up to five, but
if you choose more than you have time
for, you’ll have to increase the duration
of your workouts.
8 Create your plan
When you’re done choosing, tap
Create Plan. You return to the Fitness+
home screen, with Your Plan listed at
the top. Today’s exercise activities are
shown. When you’re ready to work out,
tap the Let’s Go button.
3 Workout length
How long do you want your
workouts to last? Tap the time next
to Total Time Per Day (30 minutes
by default) and choose a length from
between 10 minutes and 90 minutes
from the menu that pops up.
6 Review your plan
Tap Review Plan, and take a look at
what you’ve created. Choose on which
date the workout plan starts, and tap an
individual workout to change between
activities, adjust the time and more.
Customise it to suit your needs.
9 Delete your plan
If you want to delete your plan,
open the Fitness app, tap Fitness+ and
tap View Plan. Tap ‘…’ in the top-right
of the screen, then tap End Plan on
the menu. You can easily build and
start a new plan at any time.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 29
 FEATURE Amazing iPhone hacks
Siri & Spotlight
These two amazing iPhone features can do more than you think
W
hen you give Amazon’s
digital assistant a
command, do you say,
“Hey, Alexa” out of
habit? When you return to Apple’s
service, do you forget the “Hey”? With
iPhone 17, you can solve this problem
by changing Siri’s wake word from
“Hey Siri” to simply “Siri”. To do this,
open Settings and tap Siri & Search.
At the top of the screen is an option
called ‘Listen for’. Tap this, and choose
your wake words.
You can get the Siri digital personal assistant to read
a web page to you instead of reading it yourself.
HOW TO Retrain Siri >
1 Restart Siri
If Siri is struggling to understand you,
you can retrain it. Open Settings > Siri &
Search > ‘Listen for’, and tap ‘Off’. Now
tap your wake option of choice again.
Siri now restarts, asking you to train it.
30 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
You can get Siri to read a web page
to you now too. Just open the page and
say “Siri, read this to me”. It might not
work if a page isn’t very text-heavy.
If Siri makes a mistake while listening
to you, it can be corrected, as long as
you’re set up to see what you say on the
screen. Just tap the incorrect word and
type in the correction. When you’re
finished, tap Done; Siri then responds to
the corrected version of what you said.
Another new feature, available on
iPhone 11 or later is follow-on requests.
If your iPhone meets the requirements,
you can chain commands and questions
in a more natural way than asking them
one at a time. For example, you might
say, “Siri, what’s the time in Tokyo?” and
after the reply, add, “And what about
Paris?” Siri understands the second
question is a follow-on from the first,
and answers it accordingly.
If you want to change Siri’s voice,
go to Settings > Siri & Search > Siri Voice.
There are several accents and voices
to choose from. To change its language,
go to Settings > Siri & Search > Language.
Just the thing if you’re learning a foreign
language and want to practise.
2 Train Siri
Remember how you had to train Siri
when you first used it? You’re now taken
through the same procedure. You’re
asked to speak a series of on-screen
phrases, which your iPhone listens to.
Ssh! Secret tip
It’s amazing what Spotlight can do.
Place your finger in the middle of
the screen and swipe down to open
Spotlight. As an app launcher, you
can type the name of the app you
want to open, and when it appears
in the Top Hit field at the top of the
screen, tap it to launch. Recent
documents created using the
app can be opened this way too.
Type a sum and Spotlight carries
out calculations. Type a conversion
such as ‘12km in miles’, and it gives
you the answer. It can convert
currencies using exchange rates
from Yahoo! Finance too.
3 Finish off
There are five phrases for you to
speak during training. After each one’s
been said, you get a tick to show it’s been
recognised or an instruction to repeat it.
At the end, tap Done and you’re ready.
Image credit: Apple Inc
 FEATURE Amazing iPhone hacks

Maps, Find My & Safari

Are you getting the most from some of Apple’s most popular apps?

A
s long as you’re running
iOS 17, the Maps app can
download maps and use
them offline. This is very
useful if you’re travelling to areas
with poor mobile phone coverage.
To download a map area, first tap your
account icon (your initials, or a picture
if you’ve set one up), next to the Search
field. Tap Offline Maps, and your current
location is offered as a suggestion.
If that’s not what you want, tap Download
Ssh! Secret tip
In Safari, if you want to surf the
web without anyone knowing where
you’ve been, tap the Tabs icon in the
bottom-right corner. Tap or swipe to
Private, and tap ‘+’ to open a new
Private Browsing tab. The address bar
is dark, to show you Private Browsing
is active. Now, when you search,
tracking is blocked so you don’t get
adverts inspired by your search and
details of where you’ve been isn’t
recorded in your search history.
New Map. From here, you can search
for the location you want to download,
or choose it from the list of recent
searches. On the next screen, you’re
shown the area you’re choosing
to download. Drag the map behind the
box, and/or resize the box by dragging
its handles. When you’re ready, tap
Download. The map is then available for
offline use. To delete a downloaded map
in Maps, tap your Apple ID to the right of
the search field then tap Offline Maps.
Tap the map you want to delete and
choose the Delete Map option.
If you’re driving and using Maps as
a GPS, you can get traffic information Maps: Flyover tours
on your maps. Tap the folding map icon, In the Maps app, you can
and in the window, tap Driving. Traffic get a Flyover tour of
jams, roadworks and more are then selected cities. First, search
shown on your route. Tap one for for a city. If a Flyover tour is available,
more information. you’ll see a Flyover button at the top
of the window. Tap it followed by Start
Transport options Tour for a great 3D show. Cities which
If you’re travelling by train or bus, tap offer Flyover Tours include London,
the folding map icon, then tap Public Liverpool, Birmingham, Los Angeles,
Transport. Or when looking at directions, New York, New Orleans and more. A
tap the icon that looks like a train in the complete list of Flyover Tours list can
Directions window. You’re then shown be found at apple.co/4aZ5NyB.
the way using buses, trains and so on.

HOW TO Share AirTags in Find My >

1 Share an AirTag
You can share an AirTag – or a third-
party tracker that’s compatible with the
iPhone’s Find My app – with up to five
people, so everyone can see its location
in their own Find My app, subject to a
few requirements.
2 Add 2FA
Before you can share an AirTag,
two-factor authentication (2FA) for your
Apple ID must be active. The people you
share with must have iOS 17, an Apple ID
and be signed into iCloud with it. You
can’t share with a child’s account.
3 Add a person
Open your iPhone’s Find My app
and tap Items at the foot of the screen.
Tap the name of the AirTag, or third-party
tracker or device, that you want to share.
Next, tap Add Person under the Share
This AirTag option.

32 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024

 Amazing iPhone hacks FEATURE

Top 5 Safari alternatives

Opera Google Chrome Firefox DuckDuckGo Brave

> Free > opera.com
A customisable
web browser with
a built-in VPN,
Opera is very fast and private.
It has a native ad blocker to keep
things snappy, and is designed
to be easily used with only one
hand, so it’s perfect for on the
go. It’s free too.
> Free > google.com/chrome
Another free web
browser, the main
advantage of
Google’s popular Chrome
app is it’s compatiblility with
just about every website. If
you struggle to get something
to work in Safari, download
and use Chrome.
> Free > mozilla.org
The mobile
version of the
Firefox browser
boasts a streamlined home
screen that lets you pick up
where you left off with open
tabs. Like all Firefox browsers,
it’s backed by the independent,
non-profit Mozilla Foundation.
> Free (IAP) > duckduckgo.com
DuckDuckGo has
been designed
with privacy in
mind. Private browsing is on by
default, so you don’t need to
worry about turning it on when
you don’t wish to be tracked.
You’re protected from targeted
ads and more.
> Free (IAPs) > brave.com
The Brave web
browser is built
for speed. It
promises up to three times’
faster surfing than with other
browsers. It has a night mode
for low light, battery and data
optimisation and a host of other
speedy features.

When on foot, you can be shown the
way to your destination in augmented
reality (AR), but only on an iPhone with at
least an Apple A12 chip and in a city that
supports it. Bring up directions to where
you want to go and tap the Walking
button in the Directions window.
When prompted, scan the nearby
buildings with your rear camera.
Directions are then superimposed
onto the view through your camera.
You can now download maps in the Maps app,
and use them for offline navigation.
You can augment Safari’s capabilities
by downloading and using extensions. Go
to Settings > Safari > Extensions, and tap
More Extensions. You’re taken to the App
Store’s Safari Extensions. Explore, and
download any you’d like to use.
A new iOS 17 feature allows you
to listen to a Safari web page instead of
reading it. On the page, tap the ‘aA’ icon
in the left of the address bar and
tap ‘Listen to Page’.

4 Add their Apple ID

Enter the Apple ID of the person
that you want to add. To add more than
5 Accept sharing
one person, tap ‘+’ in the top-right corner
and enter their names too. When you’ve
finished adding the names of the people
who you want to have access, tap Share.
The person or persons you added
will receive an invitation, which they can
accept or decline. Assuming they accept,
they appear on the AirTag or device’s
page; under Share This AirTag, you can
see everyone who’s sharing it.
6 Stop sharing
To stop sharing an AirTag or device
with someone, simply go to Find My >
Items and tap the item you’re currently
sharing. In the Share This AirTag section,
tap the name of the person that you want
to remove and tap Remove.

Image credit: Apple Inc, Opera Norway, Google LLC, Mozilla Foundation, DuckDuckGo, Brave Software Inc APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 33
 FEATURE Amazing iPhone hacks
Focus modes, Notifications,
Settings & more
More deep cuts from your iPhone’s famous features
F
or fans of Focus modes, there
are some interesting tips and
tricks you can try. If you want
to quickly change between
Focus modes on the Lock Screen, touch
and hold the name of the Focus mode
you’re currently using, or if your phone
isn’t locked, open the Control Centre
Shake to Undo
You can shake your iPhone
to undo the last thing you
typed. A window called
‘Undo Typing’ pops up, inviting you to
Cancel or Undo. If you keep activating
it accidentally, you might want to turn
it off. Either way, go to Settings >
Accessibility > Touch, and turn
‘Shake to Undo’ on or off.
Photography settings
There are a number of
useful changes you can
make to how your camera
works in the Settings app. By
default, pictures/videos are taken
in the HEIF/HEVC formats. If you
regularly import them into other apps
and have to convert them first, you
can change the capture formats to
Settings > Camera and changing from
High Efficiency to Most Compatible.
There are settings for helping
with composition too. Go to Settings >
34 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
(swipe down from the top-right corner),
and tap and hold your current Focus
mode from there. Either way, you’re
shown a list of available Focus modes,
from which you can choose a new one.
Another quick and easy way of
changing between Focus modes is by
using Siri. All you have to do is say,
“Siri/Hey Siri, turn on [name] focus”
or “turn off [name] focus”. It’s excellent
for turning off the Sleep focus first thing
in the morning, for example.
You can customise Focus modes
to suit your needs, and also create new
ones from scratch. To edit a focus, go
to Settings > Focus and tap the name of
the focus you want to edit. From there,
you can choose which contacts and apps
you want to allow, even though all others
are silenced, customise its Lock Screen
and set a schedule to turn it on and
off. Under Options, you can further
set up the Focus by having silenced
notifications appear on the Lock Screen,
hide notification badges and more.
You can customise your notifications
in the Settings app too. Go to Settings >
Notifications, and you can choose how You can set up your Focus options to suit your
they arrive (as a count, a stack or a list), needs, and edit them later if necessary.
Camera. If you would rather your
selfies appear as a mirror image,
turn on Mirror Front Camera under
Composition. Other useful settings in
this section let you add a level and/or
a grid to help you compose your
photos, and to have the image from
your camera extend outside the
frame while measuring up a shot.
Tap Photographic Styles and you
can choose a default style for your
photographs too. Very useful if you There are some great settings you can activate
have a preference. to help you compose photos on your iPhone.
 Amazing iPhone hacks FEATURE

Ssh! Secret tip StandBy notifications

You can tap the back of your phone
to turn the torch on and off, open the
Camera app, raise or lower the volume,
trigger a shortcut and more.
Go to Settings > Accessibility >
Touch, and at the foot of the screen, tap
Back Tap. You can then set actions for
Double Tap and Triple Tap; just tap one
of these options and choose from the
list offered. There’s some useful stuff
in there, and if you change your mind,
you can switch it off again.
When your iPhone is charging
and in landscape mode, your
phone goes into StandBy
mode. It displays a clock, which you can
customise if you wish; swipe the screen
left/right to cycle through the options.
You can choose whether or not to show
incoming notifications when in StandBy
mode. Go to Settings > StandBy and turn
the Show Notifications switch on or off.
You can also turn StandBy on or off on
this screen, as well as other settings.

and you can set when scheduled
summaries arrive. Scroll down for a list
of apps that send notifications. Tap one
to customise it on a per-app basis; set
whether it arrives immediately or only in
scheduled summaries, choose how alerts
arrive, how they’re displayed and
grouped on the Lock Screen and more.
If you don’t want an app to send you
notifications, turn them off using the
Allow Notifications switch at the top.
You can manage a notification as
it comes in too. Instead of opening
Settings, simply swipe an incoming
notification left to reveal two options;
Options and Clear. The latter is pretty
obvious, but if you tap Options you get
a menu that lets you mute notifications
If you’re getting bombarded with notifications
from a particular app, you can mute them for
a while or add them to your summary instead.
from that app for an hour or the rest of
the day, add it to your summary or turn
off the app’s notifications altogether. Tap
the Settings option to go straight to that
app’s notification settings.
Talking of Settings, it’s a good idea to
explore it again. You might be surprised.
For example, in Settings > Music you can
set your songs to crossfade into each
other like they do on the radio. Turn on
the Crossfade option, then use the slider
to set how long the crossfade should be.
Take a look at the Sounds & Haptics
section in Settings too. You can change
the ringtone and alert sounds, change
their volume independently of the
iPhone’s overall volume and choose
whether to use haptics too.

HOW TO Create focus profiles >

1 Start a custom focus

Open Settings > Focus, and tap the
‘+’ sign in the top-right corner. You’re
offered a list of ready-made Focus
options such as Gaming, Mindfulness
and Reading. Choose one, or tap
Custom to start one from scratch.
2 Populate the focus
Follow the on-screen instructions,
stage by stage. Give your focus a name
and an icon, add people and apps you
want to get through even when the focus
is on, add Focus filters for individual apps
and so on. When done, close Settings.
3 Try out your focus
You can now use your newly created
Focus from the Control Centre, just like
the others. Tap the ‘…’ next to a Focus
for options to turn it on for an hour,
until the evening, or until you leave
your current location.

Image credit: Apple Inc APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 35

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EDITED BY JO MEMBERY letters@macformat.com

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.
The thin, left arrow or
outlined pointer with ‘X’
inside is the Delete key, which 40
deletes to the left. Pressing
the Function key (Fn) and the
Delete key deletes to the right. WHAT’S INSIDE
The thin, right arrow key with
a small vertical line at the end
40 CREATE COOL PRESENTATIONS
is the Tab key, which shifts the
Use Keynote’s new features in your slideshow
focus between some controls.
42 CONTROL THE MENU BAR
iOS Tame unruly icons with with Bartender 5
A tap is a brief contact
of (usually) one finger 44 WORK WITH HDR IMAGES
on your device’s screen. Edit and share High Dynamic Range images 44
To drag is to move a finger
across the screen to scroll 46 DETECT TEXT AND MORE
or pan around content. Get up close with the Magnifier app
Swipe means move one or
more fingers across an item 48 BOOST iPHONE SECURITY
or the screen, then let go. Stop ne’er-do-wells accessing your iPhone
A flick is like swiping, but it’s
quicker, and is often used to 50 CAPTURE YOUR BEST IDEAS
scroll content more quickly. Channel your thoughts with help from Funnel
Pinch means move two
fingers together or apart, 52 MAKE HOME COOKING EASY
usually to zoom in or out. Keep track of favourite recipes with Pestle
Touch and hold means lightly 52
rest your finger on an item 54 DOCKKIT-COMPATIBLE STANDS
and wait for a reaction. Discover motorised gizmos for easy tracking

Image credits: Apple Inc, Pixelmator Team, Pestle APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 39
Create engaging slideshows
The latest Keynote update has a bunch of exciting new features to try
IT WILL TAKE Keynote has long been a
20 minutes powerful tool for creating
compelling presentations
YOU WILL LEARN but now there are even more
How to make use of reasons to cast PowerPoint to one side.
the new range of With version 13.2 of this easy-to-use app,
Keynote features Apple has rolled out some very useful new
features that will make your Keynote slides
YOU’LL NEED virtually burst from the screen. These include
macOS 13 or later the ability to add 3D objects, live video and
new Dynamic themes – items that will make
your work feel far less static.
Live videos enable you to place yourself in
a slide – perfect if you’re presenting remotely.
Dynamic themes use procedurally generated
ambient animations to add motion, while
3D objects embedded with animation can
effortlessly bring a slide to life. Even if a 3D
object isn’t animated, you can use a Magic
Move transition to give the appearance of
movement or rotation. With so many
customisation options, and many other
features, audiences are sure to be amazed
by the quality of your work. David Crookes

HOW TO Use animated backgrounds

1 Use Dynamic themes

Keynote has added new Dynamic
themes: Waves Light and Waves Dark.
Together with Clouds Light, Clouds Dark
and Rainbow, they bring presentations
to life with animated backgrounds. Find
them by selecting File > New.
2 Customise effects
Alter a Dynamic theme’s background
via the sidebar. Select a preset colour
combination under Background or click
a colour stop under the Colour slider to
choose a different colour. Slide a stop
to alter how the colours blend.
3 Change the style
You can also make changes to
the Dynamic background appearance.
These options will differ depending on
the theme but, with the new themes,
you can change the speed of movement,
their amplitude, wavelength and focus.

40 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024

 Make great presentations APPLE SKILLS

HOW TO Stream live video

1 Add live video

Click Add Slide and you can include
a slide containing a large or small live
video placeholder. Select the sidebar’s
Live Video tab to alter the corner radius
and the video’s aspect ratio. You can
even choose a circle.
2 Alter the placeholder
Click the Style tab and you can
alter how the placeholder looks. As well
3 Stream a video
as being able to choose a preset option,
you can manually add a border, shadow
or reflection. You can also use the slider
to change the opacity.
Live videos use a Mac’s camera but
if you connect an iPhone, iPad or digital
camera via a cable, you can change the
source. While streaming, you can use
the Scale slider to zoom in/out and
even change the background.

HOW TO Add 3D objects

1 Add 3D objects
Keynote lets you add 3D objects in
the USDA, USDC and USDZ file formats.
Either drag the object to a slide; copy
and paste the object to a slide, or select
Media in the toolbar, click Choose, find
it and click Insert.
2 Position the object
Click and drag on the Rotate wheel
in the centre of the object to move it
3 Resize and edit
around and see it from all angles. If
there’s a Play button (bottom-right
corner), you can click it to view the
object’s embedded animation.
Drag the selection handles around
the object to resize it. If you click the
3D Object tab in the Format sidebar,
you can set the X, Y and Z-Axis, choose
to play the animation in the Slideshow
and add a description.

SVG images
Add resolution-independent images
The Scalable Vector Graphics file format (ending in .svg) works well for big-screen
presentations since it allows 2D graphics, charts and illustrations to be resized
without loss of quality. With Keynote 13.1 and higher, you can add them to slides:
either drag and drop; select Media and choose Photos or Videos, or select the
bottom-right button on a media placeholder. Some SVG images can also be
broken into editable, combinable shapes. Select the image, click Format >
Shapes and Lines > Break Apart, then click the shape you’d like to edit.

Image credit: Apple Inc APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 41

 APPLE SKILLS macOS

Take control of the menu bar

End the menu bar nightmare once and for all with Bartender 5
IT WILL TAKE Your Mac’s menu bar is a good Mac has a notch, which can end up obscuring
10 minutes place for apps to store icons icons if they get pushed behind it.
providing quick access to their Enter the recently updated Bartender 5.
YOU WILL LEARN settings, but it can quickly fill The popular Mac app automatically hides
To use Bartender 5 to up with macOS features and third-party surplus icons and shows them only when you
reorder and reorganise apps. When that happens, your menu bar choose to reveal them. Its latest version comes
your menu bar goes from ordered neatness to unruly bedlam, with a plethora of helpful extra features that
overflowing with tiny icons and with no way to make managing menu bar items a breeze.
YOU’LL NEED hide them. The problem is compounded if your
macOS Sonoma or End menu bar mayhem
later, Bartender 5 For example, you can set hotkeys that will
($16, about £15, not only reveal hidden icons but click on
macbartender.com) them too, helpfully opening menus for you.
You can add spacers to the menu bar for
better organisation, or tell Bartender 5 to run
an AppleScript when you arrive at a location
or when your battery reaches a certain point.
And that’s just a snippet of what it can do.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the
Genius tip! different features of Bartender 5. Most of our
If you can’t find an tips revolve around the app’s settings menu,
item, Ctrl-click the ‘…’ which you can access by holding Option and
button to open a search clicking the ‘…’ button that appears in your
bar. You can pick from menu bar. Now, let’s start organising your
Bartender 5 can be configured to show menu bar items when
a list of hidden items a certain app is open, when you visit a location, or when one items and reining in the menu bar chaos.
or search by name. of several other conditions are met. Alex Blake

42 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


HOW TO Take control of your menu bar with Bartender 5
1 Show hidden items
When you first launch Bartender 5,
it will automatically hide your menu bar
items. You can show them again by
clicking any empty menu bar space,
clicking the ‘…’ button, or swiping left
to right on the menu bar.
4 Style the menu bar
Click Menu Bar Style. Under ‘Menu
bar tint’ you can change the menu bar
to have a solid colour or gradient. This
section also lets you add a border,
shadows, rounded corners and more
to change the menu bar’s appearance.
7 Combine with Presets 8 Assign shortcuts
Triggers are more powerful when
combined with Presets. Click Triggers >
Add Trigger, then pick a preset from
the menu. Click Add Trigger Condition
and set your conditions, then click
Done when you’re finished.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Surtees Studios
Tame the menu bar APPLE SKILLS
2 Show items separately 3 Create a group
By default, hidden items are
revealed inside the menu bar, but you
can instead show them below it in a
separate box. In the app’s settings, click
General and enable ‘Show items in bar
below menu bar (Bartender Bar)’.
5 Create handy presets
Use presets to switch between sets
of menu bar items. In the Presets sub-
menu, click ‘+’ then add a name. Drag
icons from the bottom area into either
the Shown, Hidden or Always Hidden
areas. At the end, click Done.
The Hotkeys menu can assign
shortcuts to certain tasks. Click ‘Add
menu bar item hotkey’ to add a hotkey
for a menu bar app or item you define.
For instance, one shortcut could Ctrl-
click the Wi-Fi icon to open its menu.
Under Menu Bar Items, drag and
drop icons into a section to either always
show them or always hide them. Use
‘Add a menu bar item group’ to create
an icon that shows a select group of
apps when you click it.
6 Set up basic triggers
Triggers let Bartender do things
when specified conditions are met. For
instance, you can automatically show
Time Machine in the menu bar when your
Mac is backing up, or show the battery
icon when its percentage is low.
9 Go even further
Select the Advanced menu for more
fine-grained control. You can hide an
app’s own menu items (such as the File
and Edit menus), set how long Bartender
should wait before hiding temporarily
revealed items, and more.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 43
Work with HDR images
Edit and share HDR images (and videos) with Pixelmator Pro 3.5 Flare
IT WILL TAKE To capture more detail in
10 minutes shadows and highlights, your
iPhone can shoot HDR (High
YOU WILL LEARN Dynamic Range) images by
How to edit and automatically combining a series of rapidly
share images and clips shot exposures into a single Raw or JPEG
in HDR format image. This HDR format also produces photos
boasting more colour and tonal information than
YOU’LL NEED SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) images can.
Pixelmator Pro You can view and edit HDR shots within the
3.5 Flare (£49.99, Photos app on your iPhone’s Retina display but,
pixelmator.com/pro) thanks to the latest version of Pixelmator Pro,
you can edit an iPhone-sourced HDR photo from
the comfort of your Mac’s larger display (though
older Macs may not support working in HDR).
Pixelmator Pro 3.5.3’s new HDR tools enable
you to produce more vibrant-looking colours
while teasing out more detail in shadows and
highlights. You can then share edited HDR Raw
files as lighter and more easily shareable HDR
JPEGs that will look great in a social media
feed on an HDR-compatible display.
The app also offers support to HDR video
clips (shot in ProRes), giving you access to a
wider suite of video-grading tools than you’ll
find in iMovie. George Cairns

EXPLAINED… The Pixelmator Pro HDR workspace

1 1 3
HDR Clarity
When working The Clarity
with an HDR sliders allow
image (such sharpening
as one in Apple adjustments
ProRAW format), to emphasise
tap here to 2 details such as
toggle on the full clothing without
HDR display. overdoing faces.

4
2 Split
Tonal sliders comparison
Drag the tonal Drag this slider
4
sliders to reveal left or right to
more detail in a compare the
scene’s brightest before and after
highlights 3 version of
and darkest different parts
shadows. of the picture.

44 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


HOW TO Edit and share HDR clips and stills
1 Activate HDR
On a Mac that supports HDR (such
as a new MacBook Air), go to Pixelmator
Pro > Settings. Click Load HDR Content.
The HDR button (see left-hand page) will
now be clickable, enabling you to work
with more colour and tones.
4 Before & after
Choose View > Split Comparison. A
vertical line divides the shot. The before
version of the image is on the left. The
edited version with more detail in the
shadows is on the right. Drag the line
to compare different areas.
7 Transfer to iPhone
To share your processed shot on
the iPhone’s Retina display Ctrl-click on
its thumbnail. Choose AirDrop to send it
to your iPhone. You can view the edited
image’s full range of HDR colours and
tones in the Photos app.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Pixelmator Team, George Cairns
Edit HDR images APPLE SKILLS
2 Open image
Go to File > Open, and browse to
select an HDR image. We used an iPhone-
sourced image shot in Apple ProRAW to
ensure that the image has a high dynamic
range. Make sure the HDR button is
toggled on to see the wider tonal range.
5 Boost Clarity
To give the picture a bit more
‘punch’, toggle on the Selective Clarity
slider. Click Midtones and drag Texture to
40% and Clarity to 18%. This selectively
sharpens delicate texture details, such
as clothing and brickwork.
8 Grade video
If you shoot video in Apple ProRes
format, it will be editable as an HDR file
in Pixelmator Pro 3.5 Flare. For this
Apple ProRes video, we’ve selectively
brightened the shadows and applied a
creative Landscape filter for a new look.
3 Make tonal tweaks
Press ‘A’ on your Mac’s keyboard to
go to the Color Adjustments panel. The
subject is in contrasting lighting so some
details are lost in shadow. Here, we’ve
brightened the Exposure by 70% and
selectively lightened the shadows by 43%.
6 Share your shot
Before sharing your processed
shot come out of Split Comparison
mode. Choose File > Export. To create
a lighter and more shareable file that
can still be viewed as an HDR image
choose the HDR JPEG format.
9 Export HDR clip
When you’ve finished processing
your HDR clip, choose File > Export.
Then, from the Format menu, choose
a format such as MP4. This creates an
HDR10 type video that will look great
in your social media streams.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 45
 APPLE SKILLS iOS

Detect objects,
text and people
Go beyond simply taking a closer look at stuff
IT WILL TAKE
10 minutes
YOU WILL LEARN
How to make use of
the advanced detection
features of the
Magnifier app
YOU’LL NEED
iOS 17 or later,
an iPhone 12 Pro/Pro
Max or later to detect
people and objects
Sherlock Holmes was often
found using his trusty
magnifying glass when on
the hunt for clues. Today, we
reckon he’d ditch that in favour of an iPhone,
thanks to its wonderful, feature-rich
Magnifier app. After all, it goes far beyond
merely allowing you to zoom in and out of
things since this built-in app also has smarts
which will detect people and objects around
you and even describe your surroundings.
Most of these advanced features
are aimed at people living with a visual
impairment and, because object detection
depends on having a LiDAR scanner, they’re
only available on Pro and Pro Max models
from iPhone 12 Pro onward. That said, the
features can be useful to anyone. Don’t
fancy getting too close to certain people for
fear of catching germs? People Detection
will tell you how far away they are. Room
too dark to read fine print? Magnifier will
light it up and read it for you. Let’s see
what else it can do. David Crookes

HOW TO Zoom in with the Magnifier app

1 Take a closer look

At its most basic level, the Magnifier
app lets you zoom in and out of text or
objects placed in front of your iPhone’s
camera. But it also includes a range of
secondary controls viewable by swiping
up from the chevron.
2 Make viewing easier
You’ll see a sun-shaped Brightness
button and a two-tone Contrast button.
Tap either and use the sliders. You can
also tap the Filter button to swipe
through many colour filters or tap
the flashlight for illumination.
3 Explore more controls
If you tap the gear icon and select
Settings, you can customise the controls.
You can add a Switch Camera button,
add Focus Lock to lock the focus on the
object you’re magnifying or tap Filters
to remove those you’d never use.

46 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


CONTINUED… Zoom in with the Magnifier app
4 Take a photo
You can magnify objects in real-time
but it can be more comfortable to tap the
shutter button, take an image and zoom
in on that. To snap multiple frames, tap
the Multi-photo icon to the shutter’s
right then tap View.
7 Identify doors
It’s also possible to detect doors or
entryways via the rear camera – tap the
Door icon and you’ll be notified. You can
be told if a door is open or closed, its
shape, size and colour and whether
there is any text on it.
10 Activate text detection 11 Use Point and Speak
If you want the Magnifier app
to detect and read out any text it comes
across, tap the Text Detection button
and make sure Speech is enabled in the
Settings. The app can also automatically
turn on the torch in low light.
Image credit: Apple Inc
Magnifier app APPLE SKILLS
5 Enter Detection Mode 6 Detect people
Now we’re getting more advanced.
If you have a Pro model iPhone, you can
use its LiDAR scanner to detect people,
text and objects. Tap the box-shaped
Detection Mode button and select an
option from the left-side menu.
8 Customise detection
Tap Settings to alter the distance
at which sounds intensify and to choose
sound, speech and haptic feedback.
Indicate the door information you need
and choose to get more info by double-
tapping the back of the iPhone.
Activate Point and Speak and the
app will focus on reading out any text
that you’re pointing to with your finger –
this works more effectively if your phone
is about 12 inches away. A yellow box is
placed around the text.
Select the People icon and point the
rear of the camera away from you so it
can pick up on others. If the Magnify app
detects someone, it’ll notify you. Sound
feedback will intensify the closer you
get to that person.
9 Get image descriptions
Live descriptions can also be turned
on/off from the left-hand menu – as you
move, the Magnifier app will constantly
describe what the camera sees. Tap
Settings and you can choose to have
text and/or speech descriptions.
12 Practice makes perfect
Play around with the detection
features – the more you use them, the
more comfortable you’ll be. You can
activate multiple detection functions
at one time and, in Settings > Detection
Modes, even detect other languages.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 47
 APPLE SKILLS iOS

Make your iPhone

more secure
Stop ne’er-do-wells accessing your iPhone
IT WILL TAKE Your iPhone contains loads
10 minutes of data – financial as well as
personal. Yet, without effective
YOU WILL LEARN protection, a thief only needs
How to activate knowledge of your passcode – potentially
security features gained by peering over your shoulder.
including Stolen They can then access information and
Device Protection make important changes. It’s been known
for victims to be locked out of accounts
YOU’LL NEED and for money to be stolen.
iOS 17.3 or later Apple takes such matters very seriously,
rolling out many security features. The latest
is Stolen Device Protection. Activate it and
thieves can’t rely on passcodes to authenticate
if they want access to saved passwords/
passkeys, turn off Lost Mode, erase content,
autofill payment information and more.
They’ll need to use Face ID or Touch ID.
What’s more, if your iPhone is in an
unfamiliar location, changes to security
settings or your Apple ID password will also
be delayed by an hour. So let’s look at how
you turn it on and consider other ways of
beefing up security. David Crookes

HOW TO Add extra security layers

Genius tip!
You can force the
iPhone to erase data
after 10 unsuccessful
passcode attempts. Go
to Settings > Face ID
& Passcode and turn
on Erase Data.

1 Set up your iPhone

Upgrade to iOS 17.3 and ensure you’re using
two-factor authentication (activate via Settings
> [your name] > Sign-in & Security). Go to
Settings > Find My to turn Find My on as well,
in order to track your iPhone if it’s ever stolen.
2 Create secure password
Create a longer number/letter combo
passcode to make life harder for thieves. Go
to Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Change
Passcode > Passcode Options and select
Custom Alphanumeric Code.

48 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024

 Extra iPhone security APPLE SKILLS

CONTINUED… Add extra security layers

Jargon buster
Face ID and Touch ID use
biometric authentication
which relies on your
unique biological
characteristics. Face
ID matches against 3D

3 Turn on Face ID/Touch ID

Face ID and Touch ID add an extra layer
of security – thieves would need your face or
4 Enable locations
These features need to be active if you
want to use Stolen Device Protection. You also
depth mapping data.

fingerprint to gain access to your iPhone. Go need to have Significant Locations enabled.
to Settings > Face ID/Touch ID & Passcode and Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location
tap Set Up Face ID or ‘Add a Fingerprint’. Services > System Services for the option.

5 Activate protection
With all that set up, it’s time to activate
Stolen Device Protection. Go to Settings >
Face ID & Passcode then enter your iPhone
passcode. Scroll down until you reach Stolen
Device Protection. Tap Turn On Protection.
6 Thwart thieves
Your iPhone is now protected. If you are
in an unfamiliar location, your iPhone will place
extra limits on some settings (such as the one
shown). You, or anyone unlocking your iPhone,
would need Face ID or Touch ID to access them.

Genius tip!
Be sure to back up
your data and make
sure your app and
account passwords are
as secure as they can be
– the longer and more
complex the better.

7 Disable Control Centre

Disable Lock Screen access to the Control
Centre, stopping thieves from activating
Airplane mode and preventing tracking. Go
to Settings > Face ID & Passcode and, in Allow
Access When Locked, toggle Control Centre off.
8 Remove passcode option
You can go even further and remove the
Face ID & Passcode menu from Settings. Open
Settings > Screen Time and set a passcode.
Then go to Content & Privacy Restrictions
and alter Passcode Changes to Don’t Allow.

Image credit: Apple Inc APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 49

 APPLE SKILLS iOS

Quickly capture your

best ideas with Funnel
Manage your thoughts in a flash
IT WILL TAKE When inspiration strikes, you
5 minutes want to quickly capture your
ideas before they vanish
YOU WILL LEARN into the ether. You might
How to triage your use different apps for that – Things for
ideas to different apps your to-do list, OmniFocus for tasks and iA
using Funnel Writer for long-form notes, for example. But
there’s a better way to rapidly capture your
YOU’LL NEED thoughts without constantly switching apps.
iOS 17 or later, It’s called Funnel: Quick Capture, and its
Funnel: Quick Capture premise is very simple. All you have to do
(Free, offers IAPs, is load it up, enter your thoughts, then let
notesightlabs.com) it send them off (or ‘funnel’ them) to an
app of your choice. Funnel handles all the
sorting for you, placing your notes and
tasks in the right folders with the right due
dates. It works for text, images, voice notes,
and music (via Shazam). It also lets you
capture photos and can recognise text
in your pictures using OCR.
You get 30 free captures, then it’s
£14.99 a year for unlimited captures.
We’ll show you how it all works so
you can get started. Alex Blake

HOW TO Quickly log your best ideas

Genius tip!
Funnel’s capture
process can be started
from anywhere. For
instance, press and hold
an image in Safari,
switch to Funnel and
drop it in place.

1 Create destinations
On Funnel’s home screen, tap Destinations >
Add New Destination and pick an app from the
list. In this example, we’ll use the Reminders
app so we can quickly create working
reminders from inside Funnel.
2 Add specifics
Tap the newly created destination. On
the Main tab, give it a name. Tap Optional and
enter a Reminders list (what you type must
match an existing list) and any time or text
you want added to each reminder. Tap Save.

50 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


CONTINUED… Quickly log your best ideas
3 Choose destination
Tap Capture and select a media type.
We’ll pick Text. Type your note, then tap a
destination. You can tap the Scan button to
take a photo to attach, or tap the calendar to
add today’s date. Tap Send when you’re done.
5 Use natural language
The app lets you set parameters using
natural language. Create a new text note, then
try typing “Add ideas to planning document
tomorrow at 3pm.” You’ll see Funnel shows
the relevant due date in blue below your text.
7 Send more
You can capture more than just text. On
the Capture page, tap Media, then select an
image. Tap a destination underneath the image
and tap Send. You can see which apps support
images when you add them as a destination.
Image credits: Apple Inc, NoteSight Labs Aps
Capture and sort ideas APPLE SKILLS
Genius tip!
You can create
multiple destinations
for the same app, each
with different settings.
That’s helpful if you use
the same app in
different ways.
4 See a recently sent note
Funnel shows the most recently sent note
on the Capture page, including the contents
and destination of what you sent. Depending
on what you capture, it might show the date
too. Tap it to go straight to the note.
6 Add tags to notes
You can prepend or append text to notes
like tags. For example, create a ‘Food ideas’
destination and then append ‘ #recipe’ in its
settings. Make sure to add a space before the
‘#’ so the tag is separated from your note. Genius tip!
Press and hold the
Funnel icon from your
device’s Home Screen
to access a handful of
quick actions, such as
uploading media or
using the camera.
8 Funnel from the widget
Funnel comes with a Lock Screen widget
that lets you start funnelling content without
first opening the app. Long press your Lock
Screen, tap Customise > Lock Screen, then tap
the widgets gallery to add a Funnel widget.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 51
 APPLE SKILLS iPadOS

Make home cooking easy

Take control of your cooking and keep track of all your recipes
IT WILL TAKE With an iPad armed with the
15 minutes Pestle app, cooking has never
been easier. Pestle not only
YOU WILL LEARN enables you to view any recipe
How to take your you find online from within the gorgeously
home cooking to designed app, it also enables you to build
the next level a library of your favourite recipes, set up
meal plans, discover new and exciting things
YOU’LL NEED to cook, and build shopping lists too.
Pestle app (Free, Pestle is available on iPhone and iPad,
IAPs, pestlechef.app) but you’ll get the best experience by viewing
your recipes on the tablet’s bigger screen.
The free app also has the option to pay
for a monthly Pro subscription for £1.99 to
unlock even more useful features. But don’t
worry, users who stick to the free version
will not feel like they’re missing out.
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to use
Pestle and take advantage of some of its useful
iPad features – importing recipes to Pestle is
brilliantly easy. From converting and scaling
recipes to having your very own sous chef to
hand as you cook, Pestle is the ultimate app
for any home cook. John-Anthony Disotto

2 3 4

1 2 3 4
Cookbook Shopping List Discover Meal Plan
Here you can view all Create a shopping list Find new recipes from Plan your weekly meals
your recipes at a glance from a recipe you like to your favourite food blogs to help you eat healthier
and easily search for your make your next trip to the and make exciting meals and budget better with
perfect evening meal. grocery store a breeze. you’ve never tried before. grocery shopping.

52 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


HOW TO Get cooking with Pestle
1 Import any recipe
Often, online recipes are littered with
ads and confusing measurements. We
2 Add your own recipes
can fix that. Find a recipe using Safari,
tap the Share button, then the Pestle
app icon, and tap Save. You can now view
your recipe in your Pestle cookbook.
4 Cooking for less
Online recipes are often for large
serving numbers, but what if you’re only
5 Avoid tapping buttons
cooking for two? Pestle converts recipes
for different serving amounts. Tap Scale
or Convert, then Scale Recipe, and use
the slider to choose your serving size.
7 Create a shopping list
Now that you know what you want
to cook, you need to buy ingredients. On
8 Discover new ideas
any recipe, tap the Folder icon (top right),
then ‘Add to Shopping List’. Select the
ingredients, then tap Add. View your
list by tapping the Shopping List panel.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Will Bishop, Immediate Media Company Ltd
Collate recipes APPLE SKILLS
In the Cookbook panel, you can
add recipes from multiple sources. Tap
the ‘+’, then either add your own recipe
from scratch, enter a web address, or
scan a recipe from a magazine or
cookbook, image, or even a PDF.
Follow a recipe even if you have
dirty hands. Tap Start Cooking, followed
by the Microphone icon (top right). Pestle
will display your recipe in steps, and you
can easily move between steps by saying
“Next” or “Back”.
It can be hard to find inspiration.
In the Discovery panel, you can add any
cooking website’s RSS feed. Tap Edit,
then Add New Feed and paste in a feed
link. You can now browse thousands of
recipes and add them to your cookbook.
3 Convert a recipe
If you’ve found the perfect recipe
but it uses imperial rather than metric
measurements, Pestle has you covered.
Open the recipe in Pestle, tap Scale or
Convert, followed by Convert Units, then
Convert to Metric (or vice versa).
6 Plan your meals
Planning meals is the best way to
eat healthier and spend less on food. Tap
the Meal Plan button, then pick a day to
add one of your recipes by clicking the ‘+’
button next to the date. Choose from any
of your recipes already added to the app.
9 Find your favourite
Once you’ve built a library of
recipes, you can easily find a dish. In the
Cookbook panel, type a recipe in the
Search field or tap Filter. You can filter
based on how you’ve rated the recipe,
the time to cook, or different cuisines.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 53
 Now you can be the centre of
attention on your iPhone, not
just your iPad or Studio Display.
HOW IT WORKS
Using DockKit-compatible
stands for iPhone videos
Apple’s new API can control motorised tripods and stands for subject tracking
YOU WILL LEARN
How DockKit can be
used for action videos
and photography
Key fact
Most recent iPads have
Ultra Wide cameras that
provide 122° field of view
(FOV). The Centre Stage
feature can follow you
around within that 122°
viewing angle, but will
lose sight of you if you
move beyond that. In
contrast, DockKit is
designed to rotate a
motorised stand through
a full 360° horizontally,
and also to tilt the
camera through 90°
vertically as well.
54 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
few years ago, Apple came up with
A a feature called Centre Stage, which
allows FaceTime and other video
apps to follow your movements and keep
your face in focus if you need to move around
during video calls. This is useful if you need to
give some sort of presentation or demonstration
during a video call, for teachers giving lectures,
or for content creators, such as fitness
instructors producing workout videos.
Centre Stage does have some limitations,
though. At the moment, Centre Stage only works
with the Ultra Wide front-facing camera that’s
built into certain iPad models, as well as the
webcam that is built into Apple’s Studio Display.
There is a workaround for the iPhone that
involves using it with the Continuity Camera
feature in macOS Ventura, but the iPhone
doesn’t currently have full support for Centre
Stage as the iPad does. And while that camera
may have a very wide field of vision, it is still
fixed in place, so it will eventually lose sight
of you if you move too far to one side.
DockKit kit
It is possible to buy attachments that will let
you mount an iPad or iPhone on a tripod so
that you adjust the angle of the camera yourself,
and you can even buy motorised tripods and
stands that can be controlled by an app so that
they turn automatically when required. However,
that locks you into using products from specific
manufacturers, such as the Matterport range
of tripods, which are aimed at professional
photographers and business users and require
the use of the subscription-based Matterport
app. There are some less expensive motorised
tripods that are aimed at vloggers and content
creators, but all these products still rely on being
controlled by the manufacturer’s own app, which
may not provide all the features that you need
and may not be compatible with other video
apps such as FaceTime or Zoom.
To solve this, Apple recently came up with
a solution called DockKit, which is specifically
designed to allow an iPhone to control a
motorised tripod or stand. DockKit was
introduced – rather quietly – during some of
the developer sessions at last year’s WWDC,
and hasn’t really attracted much attention so far.
However, Belkin (belkin.com) recently launched
the first DockKit-compatible motorised stand at
this year’s CES, called the Auto-Tracking Stand
Pro (£169.99), and gave us a demo. The Stand
Pro can work on its own, just sitting on your desk
and acting as a stand for the iPhone, but it can
also be used to attach the iPhone to a tripod, and
has a five-hour rechargeable battery for outdoor
use as well. Belkin has made other motorised
stands in the past, but the Auto-Tracking Stand
 DockKit API APPLE SKILLS

Combining APIs for one vision

The DockKit API can tell the
difference between human figures
and animals, and can focus on a
primary subject within a scene
that may contain several different
people. However, DockKit can
also be used in conjunction with
another API, called Vision, that
uses machine learning to analyse
your video recordings in much
greater detail.
As well as detecting human or
animal figures within a scene, the
Vision API can focus on 19 different
joints in the human body and can
recognise a variety of different
poses, such as a footballer
kicking a ball. It can even detect
‘landmarks’ on the human face
or on a human hand that indicate
specific facial expressions or
hand gestures. When it was first
launched in 2020, Vision only
worked in 2D, but has now been
updated so that it can also capture
3D data relating to a person’s body
and movement. Again, this is
something that should become
more important with the new
spatial computing features that
are a key part of Apple’s new The Vision API can detect different poses,
involving 19 different joints in the human body.
Vision Pro headset.

Pro is the first one to support
DockKit, so keep an eye out
for DockKit on the features list
for any motorised stands that
you might think about buying
in the future.
Making a stand
Rather than relying on a specific
app, DockKit is an API (application
programming interface) that is part
of the underlying iOS 17 or iPadOS 17
operating system. This means that
DockKit works automatically with
the standard Camera app on your
iPhone, and also allows other
developers and manufacturers
to quickly update their own apps
Belkin’s DockKit-compatible
to work with DockKit as well. Just iPhone stand offers 360°
remember that the motorised tripod rotation and 90° tilt.
or stand that you use will also need
to work with DockKit as well.
Like Centre Stage, DockKit can
automatically track you as you move around,
so that it always keeps you in focus and in the
centre of the frame. But, of course, a motorised
stand can move freely and isn’t limited by the
camera’s field of vision (FOV). This means that
DockKit can control the motorised stand and
easily turn the iPhone camera to follow you
wherever you move. This will be handy if you
DockKit can also use machine
need to stand up or sit down during
a presentation, or for sports videos
that involve people hurling themselves
around on a sports pitch. A
motorised stand that supports
DockKit can also include additional
controls, such as an indicator light
that tells you when you are in the
frame, so that you know when you
can start talking. You can even
switch between the front and rear
cameras on the iPhone, depending
on which one you want to use.
Developers can also use an
AI feature – which Apple tends to
refer to as ML, or machine learning
– called an ‘inference’ to control
their apps. An inference can tell the
difference between a human body
or an animal such as a cat or dog. Key fact
And, if there are several people DockKit is part of iOS 17
in the frame, DockKit can even focus on one and iPadOS 17, so it will
primary subject, and follow that specific person work with any iPhone or
even while other people may be moving around iPad running the latest
within the scene. DockKit can also use machine version of those
learning to anticipate the trajectory of moving operating systems. It also
objects, allowing it to smoothly control the works with Mac Catalyst,
movement of the motorised stand in order the programming tool
to avoid blurry or jerky video recordings. that allows developers to
Belkin’s Stand Pro is the first DockKit- create Mac versions of
compatible stand that we’ve come across, but their existing iPad apps.
it fits in well with Apple’s current emphasis This might allow you to sit
on spatial video and spatial computing, so we at your Mac and control

learning to anticipate the can expect to hear more about DockKit

following the launch of Apple’s new Vision
the movement of your
iPhone camera using
trajectory of moving objects Pro headset. Cliff Joseph your mouse or trackpad.

Image credits: Apple Inc, Belkin APRIL 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

Finder What to do with a failing Fusion Drive

doesn’t leak The SSD in my iMac’s Fusion Drive arrives you’ll be unimpressed with its

after all Q is starting to fail. As I’m waiting for

a Mac Studio, I don’t want to replace
performance and usefulness. If you can, get a
fast NVMe SSD in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, as
it just yet. What’s the best way forward? that should deliver the high transfer rates you’ll
eep a watch by A N T O N Y C L E A V E S expect with an Apple silicon Mac. It also has the
K on how much
memory the Replacing a Fusion Drive is a costly
advantage that macOS can check its SMART
health indicators, and can Trim it reliably to
Finder uses while you’re
browsing images and
A repair for a Mac whose days are
numbered. While you could split it
maintain its performance.
There are relatively few ready-made
other files with custom and run your iMac from just its hard disk, that’s Thunderbolt 3 SSDs, although OWC offers
thumbnails or icons, and also getting old and at increasing risk of failure. a useful range of sizes that perform as well
you’ll see that increases If you can, and as preparation for your new Mac, as any. Its recent Express 1M2 enclosure is
steadily. Browse or select a better option would be to buy an external SSD available empty if you’d prefer to add an M.2
hundreds of files, and it and start your iMac from that. format SSD of your choice, and should deliver
can rise to GB. Many had Although a SATA-USB 3 SSD would be a the full 3GB/sec read and write speed you’d
assumed that’s a memory great speed improvement, when your Studio expect of Thunderbolt.
leak, and the only way to
get that memory back is
to restart the Finder.
We were wrong! That
memory hasn’t leaked away,
it has just been borrowed. If
your Mac’s memory comes
under pressure, or after a
couple of days, the Finder
should return its loan.
Although this may not
be the way you’d want the
Finder to behave, its purpose
is to keep thumbnails handy
in case it needs to display
them again. This makes
scrolling through them
smooth, as long as you
don’t get jittery over where
all that memory has gone.
Fusion Drives are getting old now, and expensive to replace. Consider getting a fast external solid-state drive (SSD) instead.

Email your queries and your questions

56 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024 to genius@macformat.com
 iOS software GENIUS TIPS

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

Quick-fire How to share

questions
Can I use Contact
Contacts and
Key Verification
with iPadOS 16?
Calendars
> The most stringent How can we share Contacts and
requirement for using
Contact Key Verification
Q Calendars across devices using
iCloud Family Sharing?
with Messages is that all by J O H N V A R C O E
your Macs and devices
must be running at least Sharing from Calendars is simple:
macOS 14.2, iPadOS 17.2,
iOS 17.2 or watchOS 10.2.
A tap Calendars at the foot to list all
calendars, and tap Info for the one
If you want to use it, you want to share. Then add the person to
then you’ll need to sign you want to share it with.
out from iMessage Contacts doesn’t offer a similar facility,
on that iPad before although some alternatives like Google
you can enable the Contacts can. Apple’s Contacts does make
service on the rest. it easy to share individual contacts, but not
a whole address book. It’s not ideal, but the
How to get instant best solution is to create another iCloud
access to my account for the purpose, perhaps using
iPhone’s camera? a free Google Mail (Gmail) address, and then
> If it’s an iPhone 8 or add that account to your family.
later and running at Assemble the new address book for this
least iOS 14, the neatest account on a Mac if you can. Select all the
way to get immediate items in that address book and drag them
access to its camera to form a single vCard in a folder on that
is with a Back Tap. In Mac. Then log that Mac into the new
Settings > Accessibility account and populate its address book
> Touch > Back Tap by importing the vCard you created.
> Double or Triple Check through that address book,
Tap, enable Camera, removing duplicates and those you don’t
and try it out. want to share, and ensure that Contacts
is shared in iCloud for that account.
Then add that account to Settings >
Contacts > Add Account > iCloud on each Add the new iCloud account to those for Contacts
of the devices where you want to share on each of the Macs and devices you want to share it.
that address book. Network-Attached Storage (NAS) devices
Beyond that, you can use any server with used for network backups, but not Apple’s
a secure CardDAV service to which you have Time Capsule, for instance. Adding that is
access, where you can host your combined similar to adding any other account to
address book. Those can be hosted on most Internet Services, hence to Contacts.

Image credit: Apple Inc, OWC APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 57

 GENIUS TIPS Networking

Networking
We help to solve your Wi-Fi woes
and connection conundrums
Quick-fire
questions
Does Private Relay impair connections?
Why does my Mac Web connections seem less into Bryan Christianson’s WhatRoute,
change its name
every few days?
Q responsive when I’ve enabled
iCloud+ Private Relay. Is that right,
donationware from whatroute.net.
To use this, select the Net Quality
> This is likely to and what can I do to improve their speed? test and run it without Private Relay, noting
result from that Mac by D A R R E N F O X the Responsiveness and responses per
having two network minute (RPM). Then tick the checkbox to
connections. When It’s not uncommon for some to notice use Private Relay and repeat, comparing
macOS checks every
couple of days to ensure
A a reduction in network responsiveness
when using iCloud+ Private Relay, even
the Responsiveness and RPM. You may see
little or no difference in uplink and downlink
that its name is different though their connections are still transferring capacity, which are essentially the same
from others on that local data at high speed. This isn’t something that’s as transfer speed or bandwidth.
network, it sees itself assessed reliably by normal online speed tests, Responsiveness results may well vary
through the other so using sites like Ookla’s at speedtest.net at different times of day, and can depend on
interface, assumes won’t return meaningful results. which servers are being used in the two stages
it’s another Mac, so Apple introduced a new command tool in required by Private Relay. Although at higher
changes its name. Monterey, networkQuality, that’s designed to connection speeds poorer responsiveness may
measure network responsiveness according be less noticeable, many still see the effect in
Can iCloud Drive to a new standard proposed by some of its their browsing. If your Mac consistently suffers
mirror files like own network engineers, led by the expert poor responsiveness the only solution is to
Google Drive? who pioneered what we now know as Bonjour. disable Private Relay; alternatives such as
> Yes. That type of cloud If you’d rather not use it in Terminal, it’s built VPN are guaranteed to be significantly worse.
service is a ‘replicated
file provider’, and files
stored locally in your
iCloud Drive folder are
the same as those in
iCloud Drive, and kept
in sync. To enable that,
turn Optimise Mac
Storage off in System
Settings > [Apple ID] >
iCloud. Turning that
on allows local files
to be removed.

While there may be little difference in capacities reported, responsiveness can be greatly affected by Private Relay.

Email your queries and your questions

58 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024 to genius@macformat.com

Checking which version of SMB is being
used over a connection to a network
share requires a command in Terminal.
Which SMB version?
How can I discover which version
Q of SMB my Mac is using?
by J O H N G O R D O N
There are two different version
A numbers you might need: that of
Apple’s SMB software, and the
version used over a connection to a network
share. The software version is given in System
Information; select the Extensions item in the
Software section, and scroll down to smbfs,
where you’ll find the current version is 5.1.
To discover which version of SMB is being
Is my iCloud
Drive full?
macOS has warned me that I
Q need to free up storage space
in iCloud, but when I check
how much is used in the Finder, there
should still be plenty left. Is this just a
ploy to get me to pay for more space?
by J O H N H A R R I S
When you use the Finder’s
A Get Info on the iCloud Drive
item in its sidebar, that doesn’t
measure what’s stored in your iCloud
Drive, let alone the overall total in
iCloud. Instead, the Finder shows the
size of what’s being stored locally on
your Mac. If you have the Optimise
Mac Storage setting turned on, many
of the files there may have been
evicted into cloud storage, so taking
Image credit: Apple Inc
What’s the fastest
local network
connection?
> Without any hardware
more costly than a
cable, the fastest is
Thunderbolt. Connect
two Macs back-to-back
with the cable, open
Network in System
Settings, add a new
service using the ‘…’
(ellipsis) pop-up menu,
and it’s easily set up.
Diagnose and fix my
Wi-Fi problem?
used over a connection, ensure that share is > The only network utility
connected to your Mac, then in Terminal type
‘smbutil statshares -a’
left in macOS is Wireless
Diagnostics. Although
and press Return. You’ll be given a list hidden away in /System/
of current SMB connections, within which Library/CoreServices/
is the line for SMB_VERSION. As of Sonoma
14.2.1 that’s likely to be 3.0.2, although older
Applications, the easiest
access is holding the
versions can be used. The version used for Option key and opening
macOS as a server and that as a client may the Wi-Fi item in the
differ, and can be checked the same way – menu bar. That also
eg, macOS Sonoma appears happy to connect shows useful details
to a server using SMB 3.1.1, but may only be about the current
prepared to offer 3.0.2 when it’s the server. Wi-Fi connection.
The only reliable indication of how much iCloud storage
is in use, and how much remains free, is in iCloud settings.
no space at all on your Mac’s local disk. The only way to check its status
What’s in iCloud Drive is also only a is in System Settings > [Apple ID] >
part of what takes up space in your iCloud, where there’s a bar giving
iCloud storage allocation. That includes the breakdown by data type, and
databases such as Contacts if you put a clear figure for what remains free.
those into iCloud, any photos and If that doesn’t match the warnings
videos including Photos libraries, you’re seeing, contact Apple Support
mailboxes if you access those in who can investigate this further with
iCloud, and all your Messages. iCloud engineers.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 59
 GENIUS TIPS macOS

macOS
Shine a spotlight on the solutions to
your most irritating Mac problems
Quick-fire
questions
Where should I use
case-sensitive
APFS volumes?
> The only place you’re
required to use case-
sensitive volumes is for
Time Machine backup
storage, probably for
compatibility with iOS
and iPadOS, which use
case-sensitive APFS.
Copying case-sensitive
to case-insensitive could
lead to data loss. Case
sensitivity isn’t needed
for any other purpose.

How to remove Rather than migrating from your old Mac when setting
a file from Time the new one up, it’s often better to defer that until later.
Machine backups?
> Although you can
delete files from older
backups made to HFS+
Move media libraries to a new Mac
volumes, newer backups I’m replacing my old Mac with The Music app should then be able to connect
made to APFS volumes
are turned into
Q an Apple silicon model. How can
I move my Music Library on its
to it, and perform any conversion required.
As your iMovie Library is already on an
snapshots, which can’t internal hard disk, and my iMovie Library external disk, you should be able to connect
be changed by removing on an external drive? it to your new Mac and set iMovie to use it
or changing files, as by R O Y M I L L I N G T O N as it stands.
they’re read-only. One robust plan for doing this is to delay
Although inconvenient, Normally the best way to transfer these until after you have set your new user
this ensures the integrity
of those backups: if you
A existing documents, settings and
apps to a new Mac is using migration,
account up, and brought the new Mac up
to date with macOS. Try using the fastest
could change them, so either when you’re personalising your new connection between your Macs, preferably
could an error or Mac, or afterwards with Migration Assistant. with Thunderbolt 3 if it’s supported on your
malicious app. This works best when moving between the old Mac. Once they’re connected open the
same version of macOS, and the further apart Network settings or pane on each, and set
they are, the less reliable it becomes. up that Thunderbolt network connection. If
Your Music Library should move just as you want to use Migration Assistant, connect
well by simply copying the Media folder and the two Macs first, then open that app from
.musiclibrary from the old Music folder to that the Applications > Utilities folder on each Mac
on your new Mac, once it has been fully set up. to start the migration.

Email your queries and your questions

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

How does the

Back up those virtual
machines using a
third-party utility such
as Carbon Copy Cloner,
to their own backup
storage volume.
Finder often copy
files instantly?
> When you copy most
files or duplicate them
within the same APFS
volume, macOS tries
to create a ‘clone’ –
a separate file that
initially shares data
with the original, so
doesn’t copy any data.

Store virtual machines on their Why is the

own volume and exclude that Recovery folder
from Time Machine backups, empty on my
to save wasting space.
Mac?
> In the Finder,
Back up a virtual machine /System/Volumes/
Recovery appears to
What’s the best way to keep backups excluded completely from Time Machine be an empty folder on
Q of a Linux virtual machine (VM)?
by R I C H A R D H O R N S E Y
backups, so they won’t have snapshots either.
Third-party backup utilities such as Carbon
Intel and Apple silicon
Macs running Big Sur
Copy Cloner are ideal for making nightly or or later versions of
Exclude VMs from Time Machine weekly copies of VMs to their own volume on macOS. The Recovery
A backups, as they’re large files that
change relatively frequently, and
your backup disk. Unlike Time Machine, those
won’t perform more efficient block copies,
system is stored
separately on a
would swell those backups. Also avoid them which only back up parts of the VM that have secure disk image,
being captured in backup snapshots, as those changed. That will take longer, but if the and only mounted
changes will make snapshots large as well. backup runs overnight that shouldn’t be when entering
Store your VMs on a dedicated volume, a problem unless your VMs are very large. recovery mode.

Where you can’t use an alias

My Mac has an external disk
Q named Mac User. Can I create
an alias to it in the Volumes
folder so I can also access it using
a different name?
by N E I L L A N G D O N
Sadly, it’s not as simple as that,
A as the top-level Volumes folder
can’t be changed by the user,
only by the system, which uses it to
automatically mount volumes.
There’s one notable exception
to that: it also mounts a link to your
current startup volume there, for
convenience of access. No matter how
you try to create a Finder alias file there,
you’ll be refused because you don’t have
the permissions to do so.
The simplest way to address this is to There is a second Volumes folder,
change the name of that volume on the
external disk. There’s no straightforward
inside the main System folder, but that’s
used by the system too, for mounting
way to mount a volume using two hidden volumes and folders like VM,
different names at the same time, used to store virtual memory caches.
although you might
be able to achieve
that in Terminal
by creating a
temporary mount
point in /Volumes
and mounting the
volume using the
mount command.
However, the
moment you shut
down or restart your macOS automatically mounts
volumes in the hidden Volumes
Mac, that will be folder, and offers no way to
blown away. create an alias in that folder.

Image credit: Apple Inc APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 61

 Utilities...
Improve your Mac experience and boost
W
productivity with these awesome utility apps
hile macOS
has most
bases covered
when it comes
to core apps and features,
third-party tools can add
extra features and go a long
way to improving your Mac
experience. In this feature,
we’ll guide you through the
best (ever) utilities for Mac
– both free and paid for –
that can do exactly that!
Utility apps may not be
the most exciting that come
to mind, but they can prove
a game-changer for how you
62 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
Written by Phil King
use your Mac. First off,
we take a look at apps to
customise your macOS
experience and help you
get everything organised.
Personalising your Mac
experience is akin to doing so
for your physical workspace,
providing a comfortable and
efficient environment to
work in and stay focused.
Something as simple as
automatically shifting the
display to warmer colours
or decluttering the menu bar
can make a real difference.
Next, we delve into the dry
but important business
of data backup and system
maintenance. A Mac’s storage
can soon become cluttered
with all sorts of redundant
files and apps, so utilities
that give it a spring clean are
always useful – as are those
that detect and remove
malware, or recover lost files.
Finally, we explore
productivity boosting apps.
From power-search tools to
automatic file sorters and
meeting aggregators, these
utilities will help you to
improve your workflow.
 Image credits: Apple Inc, 1Password, Frank Reiff, MacPaw Way Ltd, Surtees Studios, eyeo GmbH, William Gustafson, Nektony,
Surtees Studios, St Clair Software, Reincubate Ltd, Bombich Software Inc, Will Stone, MacPaw Way Ltd, 508 Software LLC,
Software Ambience Corp, Kornel Lesinski, Charlie Chapman, Abhishek Banthia, Yugen GmbH, F.lux Software LLC, Grammarly APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 63
Inc, ChouTi.io, Nate Thompson, Houdah Software sàrl, Jumpshare, Parallels International GmbH, MacPaw Way Ltd
Customise,
T E A M P I C K

XMenu

organise
Free FROM devontechnologies.com
NEEDS macOS 10.11 or later
An oldie but a goodie,
XMenu adds extra menus
to the right-hand section
of the menu bar. Menu items can
be files, folders, aliases, or even
snippets of text. Use the presets or
build your own custom menu with
Personalise macOS and keep everything in order unlimited hierarchies of submenus.

Wallpaper Wizard 2 Bartender 5

£9.99 FROM macpaw.com NEEDS macOS 10.12 or later £16.80 FROM macbartender.com NEEDS macOS 14.0 or later

A classic
customisation
option for any Mac
is to freshen up its desktop
with a new wallpaper.
If you want more
variety than the small
selection of dynamic and
static wallpapers found in
System Settings, and don’t
want to fiddle around with
editing and adding your own
photos, Wallpaper Wizard 2
is well worth a look. It offers
a staggering 25,000+ HD
wallpapers, with new
collections added monthly.
They’re all static, but
high-quality images.
One of its strongest
points is the way it arranges
wallpapers into categories
and subcategories,
everything from small
insects to megacities.
Browsing these themed
collections is fun and you
can add wallpapers to a
favourites list – so you can
find them easily – and also to
your ‘roll’. The roll is a kind
of playlist for wallpapers
and can be set to change at
chosen time intervals – from
every 15 minutes to a week
– with options to show the
same or different images
on multi-monitor setups.
Too many icons
cluttering up
your menu bar?
Bartender 5 (see p42) offers
an ingenious solution. By
dragging and dropping items
in its settings applet, you can
select which icons are always
shown in the main menu bar.
The rest are only revealed
when you click on an empty
space on the menu bar.
There’s also the option of
showing the other icons in
a secondary ‘Bartender Bar’
below the menu bar, which
only appears when triggered.
That in itself would be
useful, but Bartender 5
offers a whole lot more
functionality. Another useful
feature is the ability to create
groups of multiple menu bar
items. Again, you simply drag
and drop icons into a group,
which can be shown on the
main or secondary menu bar.
You can also create
presets for different
menu bar arrangements
and switch between them
– and even trigger the switch
automatically when certain
conditions are met. Add in
custom styling settings
for the menu bars and
Bartender 5 is the ultimate
custom menu bar app.

64 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024 Image credits: Apple Inc, DEVONtechnologies LLC, MacPaw Way Ltd, Surtees Studios
Shifty
Free FROM shifty.
natethompson.io NEEDS
macOS 10.12.4 or later
While Night Shift in
macOS is helpful for
reducing eye strain
at night by making display
colours warmer, it is applied
universally for a time range.
Shifty expands its usefulness
by enabling you to disable it
for certain app and websites.
Hand Mirror
Free FROM handmirror.app
NEEDS macOS 12.0 or later
Always reaching for
the Photo Booth app
to check how you
look on camera before a video
meeting? With Hand Mirror,
you can just click a menu bar
icon to see yourself in a
popover window. Extra
features can be unlocked
with a £5.99 in-app purchase.
App Tamer
£14.95 FROM stclairsoft.com
NEEDS macOS 10.9 or later
Available on a 15-day free
trial, App Tamer sits in the
menu bar and monitors all
your app processes. True to
its name, it’ll ‘tame’ any unruly
apps to limit the resources they
use when idle. On Apple silicon
Macs, it’ll also run busy
background apps on the
chip’s efficiency cores.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Nate Thompson, ChouTi.io, F.lux Software LLC, William Gustafson, Rafa.Design,
Frank Reiff, Abhishek Banthia, St Clair Software, Kornel Lesinski, Houdah Software sàrl, Will Stone
Lickable Menu Bar
Free FROM Mac App Store
NEEDS macOS 11.0 or later
Do you ever yearn
for the old-style
menu bars found in
earlier versions of macOS?
This very simple app enables
you to revert the macOS menu
bar style to the one in Mavericks
(matte), Catalina (flat) or Tiger
(shiny). We wouldn’t advise
licking it, however.
A Better Finder
Rename
€29.95 (about £31)
FROM publicspace.net
NEEDS macOS 10.7 or later
This app makes
it easy to rename
multiple files. You
can insert/remove text, replace
characters, add a sequence of
numbers, and much more.
The free version is limited
to 10 files at a time.
ImageOptim
Free FROM imageoptim.com
NEEDS macOS 11 or later
Drag and drop image files
into ImageOptim’s window,
or its Dock icon, and it will
automatically reduce their
file size by running a
combination of optimisation
tools. By default, no image
quality is lost, although you
can enable ‘lossy minification’
for even smaller file sizes.
f.lux
Free FROM justgetflux.com
NEEDS macOS 10.9 or later
Once activated,
f.lux automatically
adjusts the display
colours after sunset, based
on your location. There’s also
a bedtime mode with even
warmer shades. You can adjust
colour settings for each mode,
including daytime, and disable
f.lux for certain apps.
Clocker
Free FROM abhishekbanthia.com NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later
Checking the
time difference
when scheduling
international meetings is
essential to avoid missing
each other. But it can be
a chore, typically involving
opening an app or website.
Clocker offers a more
HoudahSpot
£33 FROM houdah.com
NEEDS macOS 10.14 or later
Searching for files can be
frustrating using Spotlight
or Finder search. HoudahSpot
is a more powerful tool, offering
a wide range of filtering criteria
such as extensions, text, tags,
size, and resolution. You can
also limit the search down to
a selection of folders and
subfolders.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 65
Amphetamine
Free FROM Mac App Store
NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later
While auto sleep
mode saves power,
sometimes you
want to keep your Mac
awake. Amphetamine lets you
start a keep-awake session for
a set time, or for events such
as when a file is downloading,
a certain app is running, or
headphones are in use.
convenient solution, enabling
you to check time zones direct
from the menu bar.
Add as many locations as
you like and it’ll tell you the
current time for each – or use
the ‘time scroller’ to see future
or past times. It can also show
upcoming calendar events.
Browserosaurus
Free FROM browserosaurus.
com NEEDS macOS 14.0 or later
For those of us who use
multiple web browsers, having
to select just one as the
default browser to open all
links in non-browser apps
is a bit limiting. Choose
Browserosaurus as the default
and, whenever you click a link,
it’ll come up with a pop-up menu
to choose a web browser or app.

FEATURE Best Mac utilities
Backup and
maintenance
Apps to improve system efficiency and security
CleanMyMac X
From £29.95 per year FROM cleanmymac.com NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later
There are many system-
cleaning and maintenance
apps available for macOS, but
CleanMyMac X is a lot smarter
and more user-friendly than most. It’s an
all-in-one tool that can not only clean up
clutter from your drive, but also detect and
remove malware. In addition, it promises to
speed up your Mac to make it feel like new
again, in performance terms at least.
From the app’s slick interface, you can
start off by simply clicking the large Scan
button to do a Smart Scan on your system.
This then runs through a series of tools,
starting with disk cleanup to detect unneeded
junk files, then moving on to checking for
potential malware threats, and finally looking
for ways to optimise your system speed.
Once it’s finished, you can then click the Run
66 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
T E A M P I C K
Grand
Perspective
Free FROM grandperspectiv.
sourceforge.net
NEEDS macOS 11.0 or late
Giving a visual view of
a drive or folder, with
files represented by
rectangles of relative size, this app
makes it easy to spot space hogs.
Hover over one to see its file path;
click it for options such as open,
quick look, and reveal in Finder.
App Cleaner &
Uninstaller
$14.95/year (about £14)
button to run all the related tasks. FROM nektony.com NEEDS
Alternatively, use the left-hand sidebar macOS 10.13 or later
to select individual options in each of those Uninstalled apps
categories. For instance, under Cleanup, may leave behind
you can focus on system junk, mail files. App Cleaner &
attachments, or trash bins. The Protection Uninstaller purges them for any
category includes a handy privacy protection app you opt to remove. It also
option along with malware protection. The detects leftover files from
Speed category covers optimisation and previously uninstalled apps.
maintenance. There are also two extra Download it for a free trial
categories: Applications comprises an before deciding whether
uninstaller, updater, and extensions to pay for a subscription.
manager, while Files offers Space Lens (a
visual representation of your Mac’s storage),
a large and old files remover, and a shredder DriveDx
to obliterate any trace of them. $19.99 (about £19)
While a CleanMyMac X subscription costs FROM binaryfruit.com
from £29.95 per year to cover a single Mac, NEEDS macOS 10.9 or later
you can get a seven-day free trial. DriveDx will monitor
how your hard drive
or SSD is performing
and give you the metrics
and advance warning of any
potential problems. This will
give you crucial extra time to
back up your files and data
before a drive failure.
5 best Safari
web extensions
Grammarly
Free FROM grammarly.com
It checks your online writing for
errors in real time. Features
include generative AI.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Erwin Bonsma, MacPaw Way Ltd, Nektony, BinaryFruit, Grammarly Inc

DaisyDisk
£9.99 FROM daisydiskapp.com NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later
After using your
Mac for a while,
it will typically be
cluttered up by all manner of
redundant files. Cleaning up
this disk detritus is usually a
chore, but DaisyDisk makes it
fast, easy and maybe even fun.
Select your drive and the app
will scan it in seconds. You are
DiskDrill
Free FROM cleverfiles.com
NEEDS macOS 10.15.7 or later
DiskDrill can scan
and recover data and
lost partitions from
virtually any storage device.
After scanning, it’ll show a list
of files that can be restored.
Note: to grant it full disk
access, you’ll need to use
reduced security on macOS
Ventura or later.
PayPal Honey
Free FROM joinhoney.com
This smart shopping assistant
helps you find coupon codes
from over 30,000 websites.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Software Ambience Corp, Parallels International GmbH, 508 Software LLC,
Bombich Software Inc, Honey Science LLC, eyeo GmbH, Read It Later Inc, Stefan Van Damme
then shown an appealing
colour-coded circular graph
that gives you a great visual
guide to what is taking up
space. The main folders are
located in the centre, with
subfolders in outer circles. Click
on one to drill down and drag
any files you want to delete
to the bottom-left corner.
Carbon
Copy Cloner
£40.75 FROM bombich.com
NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later
This easy-to-use
app can be set to
make one-off or
regular backups of selected
files and folders. This can be
automated for a certain time
period – hourly, daily, etc – or
whenever files are modified.
There’s a free 30-day trial.
Adblock Plus
Free FROM adblockplus.org
Surf the web without pop-ups
or annoying ads. It can be
disabled for selected sites.
Best Mac utilities FEATURE
Parallels Toolbox
£20.99 per year FROM parallels.com
NEEDS macOS 10.14 or later
Talk about a box viewed in the Library tab,
of tricks! Parallels helpfully arranged into
Toolbox is a categories: Audio, Files,
collection of over 50 tools Images, Internet, and
to simplify your everyday Productivity. They can be
tasks. While many help favourited to move them to
you to clean and organise the Dashboard. Each app
your Mac, others are also has a gear icon for easy
aimed at boosting your access to its settings.
productivity. There’s an Some of the more
annual subscription fee, obviously useful tools
but you can get a free include a drive cleaner, app
seven-day trial. uninstaller, screen recorder,
The tools are quick and clipboard history, and one
easy to access via a pop-up to free up memory. Others
window, from the Parallels include a barcode reader
Toolbox menu bar icon, and generator, a breaktime
which by default shows the reminder, audio converter,
Dashboard tab with a few video downloader, text case
tools. The rest can be changer, and a GIF creator.
Save to Pocket Turn Off The Lights
Free FROM getpocket.com Free FROM turnoffthelights.com
Click the toolbar button Automatically dim the area
to save web pages to your around any video player, or
Pocket library to read later. add an Ambilight effect.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 67
 FEATURE Best Mac utilities

Productivity
boosters Hocus Focus
T E A M P I C K

Free FROM hocusfoc.us

Optimise your workflow with these apps NEEDS macOS 10.10 or later
A cluttered desktop is
bad for your focus and
productivity. Hocus Focus
can automatically hide inactive app
windows instantly or after a set
time. You can even set up profiles
for different hiding behaviour to
suit whatever you’re working on.

Alfred
Free FROM alfredapp.com NEEDS macOS 10.14 or later
This universal
search app could
change the way
you use your Mac, offering a
wide range of power features
to boost your productivity.
Core search functionality is
similar to Spotlight, bringing
up results instantly as you
type a search term. The
results seem a little more
focused, though, and each one
has its own keyboard shortcut
for quicker access. Files aren’t
shown by default: instead, you
use a prefix such as ‘find’ or
‘open’; you can also preview a
file by pressing Shift. For web
search, you can use and
create keywords for custom
searches on specific sites.
While the core search
and macOS system control
features are free, a Powerpack
(£34) is needed to unlock the
others. This is where Alfred
really comes into its own,
however, with advanced
features such as a searchable
clipboard history and text
snippets. Automated
workflows are ideal for
handling repetitive tasks –
use existing ones or create
your own with the simple
block-based editor.
Hazel
$42 (about £40) FROM noodlesoft.com
NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later
When you want
to focus on being
productive, having
to keep organising your Mac’s
files can be a laborious
distraction. Hazel can save
you a lot of time by doing it for
you using folder-based
automation, helping to
spring-clean your system. Just
specify a folder you want it to
monitor, set some rules for it to
follow and then sit back and let
it take action whenever the
folder contents are altered.
For instance, in the
Downloads folder, you can set a
rule for it to automatically to
move files to other folders, or
even into system apps such as
Music or Photos, based on their
kind. Or colour-code files added
more than, say, four weeks ago.
Other criteria include source
URL, size and subfolder depth.
Renaming of files can be
based on lists and tables to
match against. Whatever you
need to do, there’s no need for
any coding knowledge and you
can preview what a rule will do.
Hazel integrates with Spotlight,
Photos, Automator and
AppleScript, too.

68 || MACFORMAT
MACFORMAT || APRIL
APRIL 2024
2020 Image credits: Apple Inc, Hocus Focus, Running with Crayons Ltd, Noodlesoft LLC
Self Control
Free
FROM selfcontrolapp.com
NEEDS macOS 10.10 or later
Fed up of getting
distracted by social
media apps and
various website notifications?
Well, you can use Self Control
to temporarily block any
websites you add to the list for
a specified time, so you can
focus on your work.
1Password
From $2.99 (about £3)/
month FROM 1password.com
NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later
Any web security expert will
advise you to use a different
password for every website,
but how can you remember
them all? 1Password stores all
your passwords, passkeys and
sensitive info in one place –
a vault secured with a single
password and a secret key.
Dark Noise
Free FROM darknoise.app
NEEDS macOS 13 or later
Working in a noisy
environment can
be very distracting.
Dark Noise offers a solution,
playing a range of ambient
sounds. You get a few, such
as rain and waves, for free;
a subscription unlocks more,
along with a custom mix tool.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Charlie Stigler/Steve Lambert, Reincubate Ltd, folivora.AI GmbH, Jumpshare, 1Password, MacPaw
Way Ltd, Andrii Leitsius, Duet Inc, Charlie Chapman, Yugen GmbH, Marcel Bresink Software-Systeme, Nord Security
Camo Studio
Free FROM reincubate.com
NEEDS macOS 14.0 or later
Make your videos
look slicker with
the easy-to-access
features in Camo Studio. You
can link it to an iOS device to
use its camera as a high-quality
webcam. Nifty video options
include customisable overlays
and watermarks, auto panning/
zooming, and filters.
The Unarchiver
Free FROM macpaw.com
NEEDS macOS 10.9 or later
While macOS has its own
native unarchiving tool to
unzip compressed files, this
one is compatible with a lot
more file formats. As well as
familiar ones like Zip, RAR, 7z
and Tar, it works with older
formats such as StuffIt and
Disk Doubler, along with exotic
types like XAR and RPM.
Flow
Free FROM flowapp.info
NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later
Taking regular
breaks when working
is important and can
improve overall productivity.
Flow functions as a Pomodoro
timer that helps you break your
work time into smaller chunks.
Extra features are unlocked
with a $1 per month sub.
BetterTouchTool
$10 FROM folivora.ai
NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later
Available on a
45-day free trial,
this tool enables you
to customise input devices
including trackpad, mouse
(Magic and standard), touch
bar and keyboard. Choose a
device trigger, then assign it
an action – to work in all apps
or a selected one.
Meeting Bar
Free FROM meetingbar.app
NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later
Joining a video meeting
isn’t always quick and
easy. Integrating with your
calendar, Meeting Bar lets you
access all your meetings from
the menu bar item – no matter
whether they’re on FaceTime,
Zoom, Teams, Meet or any of
50+ services. So you can join
with just one click.
TinkerTool
Free, bresink.com
NEEDS macOS 13.0 or later
TinkerTool gives
quick access to
buried features in
macOS and some system
apps. Click on a category, such
as Dock, in the left-hand sidebar
and toggle a range of options.
Tinker as much as you like – a
handy reset button reverts all.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 69
Jumpshare
Free FROM jumpshare.com
NEEDS macOS 10.14 or later
When you want to
share something
quickly with
colleagues, Jumpshare is
ideal. Click its menu bar icon to
capture screenshots or screen
recordings, or upload files by
dragging them in. Then just
share the link. The free Basic
plan has 2GB of cloud storage.
Duet Display
From $4 (about £4)/month
FROM duetdisplay.com
NEEDS macOS 10.13 or later
A second screen can help to
improve productivity. No extra
monitor? No problem. Duet
Display enables you to use an
iPad, iPhone, Android device –
or another computer – for that
extra screen space. You’ll need
to sign up for a subscription to
use it, though.
NordVPN
From £2.79/month,
nordvpn.com
NEEDS macOS 10.15 or later
A VPN protects your
connection and
privacy by masking
your IP address. And you can
use overseas servers to access
regional-specific content that
would otherwise be blocked.
NordVPN is one of the best.
 LOVE YOUR
MAC
Keep your

PART ONE
Do you have a legacy Mac that’s no longer
updated? Don’t throw it away – there’s
plenty you can still do with it
Written by Ian Osborne

H
ow often do you
replace your
Mac? Every
couple of years?
Every five years? Only when it
can’t run the latest operating
system? And what do you do
with the old one? Sell it? Give
it to a family member? Put it
in a cupboard? Do you still
have an out-of-date Mac you
haven’t switched on in ages?
Perhaps it’s time to put it to
some use.
An older Mac can do
more than you think. It might
not boast the same features
as a modern machine, and it
probably can’t run the latest
software, but this doesn’t
mean it’s useless. In this, the
first of a two-part series, we
take a look at an older version
of macOS and a Mac that can’t
be updated any further, and
discuss to what use it can be
put in the mid-2020s. As our
starting point, we take a Mac
that can go no further than
macOS 13 High Sierra.
As you might remember,
High Sierra was a performance
update that had the same
system requirements as its
predecessor, Sierra. High
Sierra’s successor, Mojave,
ended support for quite
a few models of Mac,
such as iMacs from
late 2009 to late 2011,
MacBook Airs from late
2010 to mid 2011 and
MacBook Pros from
mid 2010 to late 2010.
If you’ve a redundant Mac
in the attic or a cupboard,
there’s a fair chance it’s
running High Sierra.
But whatever unsupported
Mac you own, there’s no need
for it to languish unused and
unloved. We hope these tips
and tricks give you some ideas
for bringing back that Mac.

70 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 71
 FEATURE Keep your old Mac running

Pep up your Mac: Quick fixes

What you can do to keep your older Mac in tip-top shape

W
e strongly recommend
the first thing you do
when bringing your
retired Mac back into
service is wipe its internal drive,
reinstall its operating system and start
again. See the guide later in this article for
instructions. But if you don’t wish to do
this, there are a few steps you can take to
polish its performance.
Download AppCleaner from
freemacsoft.net/appcleaner. Make sure
Use AppCleaner to remove apps you no
longer want on your old Mac.
you download the correct version for
your operating system – for High Sierra,
it’s AppCleaner 3.6. It’s free, and there
are versions for even older Macs available.
Launch it, and open your Applications
folder. Drag apps you’re not likely to use
on to the AppCleaner window and click
the Remove button. This clean-uninstalls
the application, so it doesn’t leave files in
your system folder. Be ruthless. For
example, do you need Mail on your older
Mac, or would webmail services suffice?
Now open Disk Utility – it’s in It’s a good idea to run Disk Utility to check
Applications > Other. Alternatively, your old Mac’s hard drive.
do it from Launchpad; look for the icon NVRAM. To do this, turn off your Mac,
showing a rocket on a silver circle in the then turn it on again while holding down
Dock. In Disk Utility, click on the Mac’s the Cmd+Opt+P+R keys. Release these
boot drive in the left-hand sidebar, then keys when you hear a second chime.
click on First Aid. Follow the instructions The System Management Controller
to check your drive for errors. (SMC) deals with hardware issues. For
There are a few troubleshooting tips a desktop Mac, turn it off and unplug it.
you might have forgotten about that Wait 15 seconds then plug it in again. On
are well worth bearing in mind. If you’re a notebook, unplug and plug in the charger,
having problems with the speaker volume, then start it while holding Shift+Ctrl+Opt
screen resolution, startup disk and so on, on the left side of the keyboard. Hold them
it’s probably necessary to reset the for 10 seconds, then start up your Mac.

5 best lightweight apps

Bean Plex Aperture iPhoto Google Chrome

bean-osx.com
Bean is a free
word processor
that demands
few system resources.
It’s been going for 15
years; the current version
– from Oct 2023 – runs on
High Sierra. You can even
download versions for
PowerPC Macs.
macupdate.com
The most
recent version
of Plex won’t
run on High Sierra, but
you can get an older one
on MacUpdate. It’s a
great media server – ideal
if you want to use your old
Mac to enjoy music and
movies in any room.
Mac App Store
You can’t run
Aperture on a
modern Mac,
but Apple’s impressive
photo editor runs fine in
High Sierra. It’s no longer
available to buy, but if
it’s in your App Store
purchase history, you can
still download and use it.
Mac App Store
Another app
available on
the Mac App
Store to former users
is iPhoto. You might be
fine just running Photos,
as it also runs in High
Sierra, but if you want
to keep some photos
separate, it’s ideal.
google.com/chrome
Safari straining
under the
weight of the
demands of modern
websites on your old
Mac? Then download the
Google Chrome browser.
It’s free, and designed to
be as lightweight and
efficient as possible.

72 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024 Image credits: Apple Inc, FreeMacSoft James Hoover, Plex, Google LLC
Investigating iCloud
iCloud was first introduced
in 2011, so it was already up
and running when macOS
High Sierra launched in 2017.
Log into the service on your older
Mac, and it still syncs your data with
your other Apple gear. The latest
versions of Pages, Numbers and
Dashboard
Remember Dashboard? First
introduced with OS X 10.4
Tiger and dropped forever
with macOS 10.15 Catalina, it gave quick
and easy access to mini-applications
called ‘widgets’. By default, there was
a Clock widget for telling the time, a
simple Calculator, a Calendar widget
that showed today’s date and month,
and a Weather widget for forecasts.
You could also add a Dictionary, iTunes
controller, Address Book, Stickies, a
Stocks ticker and more.
Third-party developers produced
their own widgets, which you could
download and use on your Mac. The
most popular download site was
dashboardwidgets.com, but this has
now been retired. But if you want to try
out the preinstalled widgets on your
High Sierra Mac, you can. The feature
The High Sierra Dashboard in overlay
mode, with its four default widgets.
Keynote won’t run in High Sierra, but if
you open the Mac App Store and go to
the Purchased tab, you can download
earlier releases from there.
If not, go to support.apple.com/
downloads/iWork-09 and download
iWork ’09, then launch and quit each
app in turn. You can then update to
You can add more widgets to Dashboard,
and arrange them to your needs.
is disabled by default. Go into System
Preferences > Mission Control and
turn it on, either as a desktop space
or as an overlay (your call). Add more
widgets by clicking the Dashboard’s ‘+’
icon and choosing one. Remove them
by clicking the ‘–’ icon and then the ‘X’
next to the widget you want to remove.
When installed, you can drag them
around on the dashboard, arranging
them as you see fit.
the latest version that runs on your
old Mac’s operating system in the
Mac App Store.
If your old Mac is a notebook, this
is ideal for working away from home
in situations where you don’t want to
risk taking your current MacBook –
if you’re camping, for example.
Legacy ports
Your older Mac is likely to have
ports that your current favourite
computer lacks. FireWire ports,
for example, haven’t been used
in a Mac since 2016. Do you have
a FireWire drive you’d like to use
for archiving, or a FireWire iPod
gathering dust like your old Mac
was? Get ‘em out. Your older Mac
will have old-school USB-A ports
too, so can use peripherals that
need this connector without having
to use adaptors or hubs.
Older Macs might have ports that modern machines
lack, so why not make use of them?
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 73
 32-bit games such as 3D Mini Golf can’t run on
modern Macs, but High Sierra has you covered.
Use your 32-bit applications
Apple stopped supporting 32-bit apps, but they still run in High Sierra
U
nfortunately, in computing,
nothing lasts forever. When
32-bit processors gave way
to the more efficient 64-bit
chips, it was inevitable software written
for 32-bit CPUs would eventually be
abandoned. It was a long time coming
Which Macs
will run
macOS High
Sierra?
macOS 13 High Sierra was a
performance release. That is, it
was primarily designed to solidify its
security and polish the performance
rather than introduce new features.
You can install it on any Mac that ran
its predecessor, Sierra, though its
successor, Mojave, left a lot of Macs
behind. The Macs that can run High
Sierra are as follows:
Mac (Late 2009 or later)
MacBook (Late 2009 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2010 or later)
MacBook Pro (Mid 2010 or later)
Mac mini (Mid 2010 or later)
iMac Pro (2017)
Mac Pro (Mid 2010 or later)
It needs an Intel processor, at least
2GB of memory and 20.12GB of
available disk space.
74 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
on the Mac. If you bought a Mac in 2007 or
later it’s likely to have a 64-bit processor,
but support for 32-bit apps wasn’t dropped
until the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina
in 2019. That’s a very generous window
for developers to get their apps in order.
Even so, some apps were left
untouched and abandoned. If you try to
open one on a modern Mac, you get an
alert saying ‘[app name] needs to be
updated’. But if you have an older Mac,
you don’t need to look for a replacement.
If you play video games on Mac, you
probably lost access to several titles when
32-bit support was dropped. By the time
you read this, Valve will have discontinued
Steam support for High Sierra and Mojave
(from 15 February 2024), but if you still
have – or can get hold of – the client, you
can still play 32-bit Steam games. This
means you can once again play classics
Install macOS High Sierra
with a patcher tool
It’s possible – but not particularly
easy – to install macOS High Sierra
on a Mac that’s too old to support it
officially. A hacker known as DOSDude1
has written a patch tool that can install
such as BioShock Infinite, Broken Sword:
Shadow of the Templars, Call of Duty:
Black Ops and Metro 2033, as well as
a host of independent titles.
As well as games, there are numerous
applications that were never updated to
64-bit. If you have older copies of Adobe
apps such as Photoshop, Illustrator and so
on, you’d need to update to a subscription
model to get them on a modern Mac. You
can still use the versions you have on your
High Sierra Mac. Apple’s own iDVD has
long been discontinued, but you can run
it on High Sierra. iWeb also works, but
expect a few problems. Microsoft Office
2011 is 32-bit, so if it’s your productivity
suite of choice – or you simply have to
produce a document or two for a client
who can’t seem to open anything from
your modern Mac – using it on an older
Macintosh is a viable solution.
High Sierra on Macs manufactured
as long ago as 2008. There’s a tutorial
and a download link on his website
at dosdude1.com/highsierra.
Think carefully before you use it.
There’s a reason why High Sierra isn’t
supported on those Macs. It’s likely to
run less than optimally, especially on
lower-powered Macs, so you might be
better off leaving your Mac on an even
older version of macOS. It’s fun to do
if you’re up for it, though.
You can patch the High Sierra operating
system to work on an unsupported Mac.
Image credits: Apple Inc, dosdude1, z-software

HOW TO Clean install macOS >
1 Back up your Mac
Before reformatting your Mac’s
boot drive, you should back it up with
Time Machine, just in case anything goes
wrong. Plug in an external drive, go to
System Preferences > Time Machine
and back up in the usual way.
4 Make an install drive 5 Launch X 7
You can reinstall High Sierra
over the internet, but that can prove
unreliable, so we’re making a bootable
install drive. Go to diskmakerx.com/
download and download DiskMaker X 7
(for High Sierra). Install it on your Mac.
7 Wipe the drive
The installer is created. It might
take some time; you get a notification
when it’s finished. Shut down your Mac,
then restart holding Cmd+R to boot in
recovery. Open Disk Utility, and erase
your main internal drive.
Image credits: Apple Inc, DiskMaker X
Keep your old Mac running FEATURE
2 Back up data
Check your Mac for documents,
photos, videos and other files you don’t
wish to lose, and back them up too. If
your Mac was languishing in an attic
or cupboard there probably won’t be
any, but check anyway.
Plug in an empty USB stick or drive
of at least 8GB in size. Launch DiskMaker
X 7; if you’re offered a newer version,
decline. It’s DiskMaker X 7 you need.
The installer is found and located on
your Mac. Click ‘Use this copy’.
8 Install High Sierra
Click the Apple icon in the top-left
corner, and select Startup Disk. Choose
the installer drive you made earlier from
the menu, and then follow the on-screen
instructions to reinstall macOS High
Sierra on your Mac.
3 Download High Sierra
Point your web browser at apple.
co/3umd76Z, which is the Mac App Store
listing for High Sierra. Click on View
in the Mac App Store, then click the
Download button to download the High
Sierra installer. Quit it when it opens.
6 Choose the drive
When invited to do so, choose
the USB drive you plugged in. It will be
erased, so make sure there’s nothing
on it you need. Follow the on-screen
instructions, typing your admin
password when asked to do so.
Apple Store
If you have problems that render your
Mac unable to install the High Sierra
operating system, take it to your local
Apple Store Genius Bar. They can
wipe the drive and reinstall the OS
from their own servers.
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 75
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 BUYING
ADVICE
Our authoritative reviews
help you make more
informed choices

Contact us

Email your queries and

your questions to
EDITED BY ROB MEAD-GREEN letters@macformat.com

Our ratings 81
Our reviews are totally
independent; we’re not
affiliated with Apple or
anyone else, nor are we
influenced by advertisers.

78

A truly exceptional product.

Award given solely at the HARDWARE
discretion of the editor.

78 Mobile Pixels Geminos

80 Astell & Kern HC4 86
81 Nomad Stand One Max
82 Edifier S1000W
The best example of its 83 Asustor AS5402T
kind when pitted against
comparable products. 84 Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2
85 Nebula Mars 3 Air

A brilliant thing
86 Group test: Six colour
inkjet photo printers

Strongly recommended SOFTWARE

Worth considering 92 Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024

94 Screens 5

Notable flaws
95 To Hell With The Ugly
96 App round-up: Six of the
best Safari extensions
92
A waste of your money for better browsing

Image credits: Mobile Pixels, Nomad Goods Inc, Adobe Inc APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 77
 APPLE CHOICE Hardware
Mobile Pixels
Geminos
A vertical-stacking dual-monitor display with limited appeal
£619.99 (scan.co.uk) FROM mobilepixels.us FEATURES 2x 24-inch IPS monitors (1920x1080 pixels resolution), 60Hz refresh rate,
250cd/m2 (nits) brightness, 2 USB-C (100W USB-C pass-through charging), 2x HDMI, 2x USB-A, 1x Ethernet port, 1x 3.5mm headphone
jack, TF/SD card slot, built-in 1080p webcam, speakers and microphone, 56x50x11cm
Use either hile Mission Control in macOS can
one as a main W give you as many virtual desktops
as you need, sometimes only a
display and multiple monitor set-up will do – especially if
you like to have lots of windows open when
the second as working. For most of us, that means using a
an extended MacBook display along with a second screen,
an ultra-wide monitor, or parking two monitors
one, or simply side by side on your desk. Or for serious
mirror both multitaskers, there’s always the option of a
multi-monitor VESA mount. But Mobile Pixels
Geminos has a different take.
That’s because the Geminos takes two
24-inch monitors and stacks one on top of the
other vertically, on a height-adjustable stand
that enables you to arrange the displays just
so. Weighing a hefty 9.07kg, the Geminos is
no lightweight, but its base also includes two
USB-C, two USB-A and two HDMI ports, an
Ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and
integrated stereo speakers, plus a TF/SD card
slot. It also offers 100W passthrough charging
for your MacBook and enables you to be up and
running in minutes – simply plug in the supplied
cables and you’re ready to go.
Mobile Pixels recommends that you use the
red-ribboned USB-C/A cable in the box to drive
both displays while only taking up a single port
on your Mac. However, this didn’t work for us;
we ended up using a USB-C and an HDMI cable
combo connected to an M1 Mac mini instead.
With the displays connected to your Mac,
The unusual dual-monitor
set-up offers plenty of macOS Sonoma will recognise the displays and
connectivity options. support them natively (although a driver is also
78 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
available to download from the Mobile Pixels
website). System Settings > Displays enables
you to use either one as the main display and
the second as an extended display, or you can
simply mirror both.
Both displays have fairly narrow bezels at
the sides, to help maximise overall screen size,
but the top-most display’s top bezel has been
made wider to incorporate a 1080p webcam,
while the bottom bezel of the lower display
contains front-mounted touch controls for both
monitors – three for each one. Using them is
slightly complicated by the fact that each of the
controls is simply marked by a white circle,
although the on-screen menus enable you to
adjust each display’s brightness, contrast and
saturation, colour temperature, switch between
sources and adjust the speaker volume.
While the stand allows the twin displays to
be raised or lowered vertically (with either the
bottom or top-most monitor – or both – tilting
towards you), the stand does not swivel, so if
you need to change the viewing angle when sat
in front of it, you need to move the entire thing
– base and all. As it uses IPS displays with
wide-viewing angles, though, being able to see
clearly what’s on screen isn’t too much of an
issue. However, accessing the ports, all found
on the back of the display’s base, is, especially
if you regularly want to hook up peripherals.
The TF/SD card slot is more accessible as it’s
mounted on the left side of the base.
Performance
When it comes to performance, the Mobile
Pixels Geminos is something of a mixed bag –
with both displays offering Full HD resolution
(1920x1080 pixels), rather than 4K or even
Retina quality. That can make some small text
look fuzzy when working on documents or
surfing the web, and you shouldn’t expect
stellar movie viewing or game performance
If you need extra screen
estate, but are confined
by a narrow desk space, the
Geminos could work for you.
either, thanks to
the displays’ rather
ordinary brightness and contrast
levels, and 60Hz refresh rate, as well
as the disappointingly muddy and weak-
sounding built-in speakers.
For anyone who wants to edit photos and
videos semi-professionally the lack of support
for wider colour gamuts is a disappointment,
as is the Geminos’ lack of HDR support – while
your Mac may offer it, switching the displays
into HDR mode isn’t a good idea as you’ll simply
make the display’s limited 250cd/m2 (nits)
brightness look even dimmer.
We’re also not completely convinced by the
vertical stack arrangement. While having the
top-most monitor tilted forward and the
lower-most monitor completely vertical is fine,
things don’t really work the other way around.
With the top-most monitor completely vertical,
the lower-monitor slopes backwards with the
bottom half of the screen jutting out over
your desk space. We also found that as the
displays are arranged vertically, we were
robbed of the ability to raise the lower screen
to a more comfortable reading/writing position
Image credit: Mobile Pixels
– ideally you should have the
middle of the screen at eye height,
but that’s exactly where the fold for the
monitors is. Moving the document to the VERDICT
top-most screen didn’t help as that meant we If you must have
were craning our necks upwards instead. A two displays and desk
vertical arrangement like this may make more space is limited, the
sense if you’re using a PC and opt for Mobile Mobile Pixels Geminos
Pixels’ Geminos X model, as that version’s is worth a look. You’ll
lower display supports Windows’ touchscreen have to make some
capabilities; macOS, sadly, does not. compromises though.
There are certainly some use cases where
the Geminos might work to your advantage – ★★★★★
when using a standing desk, say, or for Space-saving
music-making or creating social media content vertical design
while keeping an eye on your DMs (direct Plenty of ports
messages). But given the relatively modest Limited brightness
spec, limited flexibility and high price, you may and resolution
be better off with a more traditional monitor Some usability
arrangement instead. Rob Mead-Green compromises
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 79
 APPLE CHOICE Hardware
Astell & Kern HC4
This portable DAC provides audiophile music quality on the go
£219 FROM astellnkern.com FEATURES 3.5mm/4.4mm headphone connectors, USB/Lightning cables; 31g
It can handle stell & Kern is best known for
even the A making seriously expensive hi-fi
equipment, but it also produces
highest quality a popular range of portable DACs – digital
audio converters – that are designed for
audio files use with computers and mobile devices.
available on The HC4 is the latest addition to the range
and, at £219, it’s a little more expensive than
Apple Music the earlier HC2 and HC3 models (which still
remain on sale). All three models provide
high-quality digital audio output, but they all
have slightly different features, so it’s worth
taking a close look at the HC4 to see if it
provides the features you’re looking for.
Like most Astell & Kern products, the
HC4 has a rather chunky design, with A&K’s
distinctive sharp angles on the top panel.
It’s slightly larger than some of its portable
rivals as it includes both a standard 3.5mm
headphone connector alongside a 4.4mm
connector for high-end audiophile
headphones. And, unlike most portable
DACs, it also has a volume control on the
side. Even so, it only weighs 31g and measures
just 14.5mm thick, 29.5mm wide and 64.5mm
VERDICT
It might be overkill
for some, but the
sound quality of the
HC4 is hard to beat.
★★★★★
Great sound quality
Lightweight,
portable design
3.5mm and 4.4mm
The HC4 provides hi-fi
connectors sound quality and features
Expensive in a pocket-size design.
80 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2023
long (without the cable), so it’s easy to slip into
your pocket when you’re travelling. There are
both Lightning and USB-C cables included in
the box, so you can use the HC4 with a wide
range of Macs, PCs, and mobile devices, and
even with most games consoles (although
you may need an adaptor for some consoles).
Top quality
Digital audio features are handled by
an AKM AK4493S DAC chip that supports
high-res audio formats up to 32-bit/384kHz,
so it can handle even the highest quality audio
files available on Apple Music and most rival
streaming services.
You can hear that sound quality too –
the HC4 makes a great companion for, say,
the Beats Studio Pro headphones. There’s
a wonderful, icy tone to the steel guitar on
Violence by Low, with each note lingering
in the air like gently falling snowflakes. The
harmonies of Mimi Parker and Alan Sparhawk
sound wonderfully warm and smooth, but the
sharp stab of Parker’s percussion adds tension
and hints at the menace lurking just below
the surface. Turning to something a bit more
upbeat, the HC4 effortlessly rolls up its sleeves
for Sturgill Simpson’s glorious country/rock/
EDM mash-up on Sing Along. There’s a lot
going on in this track, but the HC4 expertly
balances the heavy grinding guitars and the
fizzing electronic keyboards. The ticking
percussion is sharp and precise and keeps
the song driving forward, and the swooping
bass drop towards the end of the song
wouldn’t be out of place in an Ibiza nightclub.
Not everyone will need features such as the
4.4mm connector, but if it’s high-quality sound
you’re looking for, the HC4 is one of the best
portable DACs available. Cliff Joseph
Image credit: Dreamus Co
 Hardware APPLE CHOICE

Nomad Stand
One Max
A capable, but expensive, 3-in-1 charger
£152 FROM nomadgoods.com FEATURES MagSafe charger, Apple
Watch Fast Charger, AirPods Qi charger, 2m USB–C to USB–C cable

The Stand One omad’s Stand One Max is

Max is one N a 3-in-1 charger, allowing

you to rest and charge
of the most your iPhone, Apple Watch and
AirPods (or whatever Qi device
substantial you want to wirelessly charge). It’s
charging a seriously hefty piece of hardware;
one of the most substantial charging
stands we’ve stands we’ve ever come across.
come across The chunky base, with its
rounded edges, measures in at
141x82mm, and houses the Qi charger
on the right-hand side. It’s constructed from
solid aluminium, with a TPU (thermoplastic
polyurethane) top surface, while the underside
features grippy rubber which ensures that it Nomad has partnered with Climate Neutral, though this
particular stand doesn’t feature any recycled materials.
never moves an inch, wherever it’s placed.
To the left-hand side of the base is the Overall, the Stand One Max is very
iPhone stand, which is also made from solid aesthetically pleasing, and the entire thing
aluminium, with a glass panel on top, along weighs in at a reassuring 816g. Two different
with a TPU MagSafe charging pad. Sticking colour combinations are available – either
out to the right of this is the Apple Watch pad, Silver (which looks very Apple–like) or Carbide.
which once again is solid aluminium with Included in the box is a lengthy braided USB–C
a TPU magnetic charging pad, while the to USB–C cable but, as is the norm these days,
arm is shiny chrome. you’ll need to supply your own power adaptor.

Lacking in landscape
The MagSafe wireless charging pad means
your iPhone gets the full 15W charging rate.
VERDICT The Apple Watch pad features fast charging
As beautiful and (which Apple says gets you 80% charge from
capable as they come, dead in 45 minutes), so that’s the same
Nomad’s 3-in-1 stand as you’d get with the official Apple Watch
is well worth a look, magnetic puck. The Qi charging pad offers
though it is pricey. the standard 5W of output.
Strangely, the location of the Apple Watch
★★★★★ charger in relation to the iPhone stand means
Excellent The layout of the stand you can’t mount your iPhone in landscape
build quality means you can’t place mode while your Watch is charging. This
your iPhone in StandBy
Fast charging mode while your Apple means you’ll miss out on the neat functions
Expensive Watch is charging. in StandBy mode, such as the bedside clock
No StandBy mode or calendar. If you wear your Watch at
while Apple Watch night, though, it won’t be a big deal.
is charging Nick Odantzis

Image credit: Nomad Goods Inc APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 81

The speakers’ hi-fi
design hides a
wealth of wireless
streaming options.
Edifier S1000W
Play all your analogue and wireless music
£399.99 FROM edifier.com FEATURES Wi-Fi/Bluetooth streaming; Alexa, Tidal, Spotify support; RCA and optical inputs, remote control
The sound difier’s S1000W wireless speakers
they produce E blend conventional ports with
newer tech – with a bunch of inputs
is really very and outputs both analogue and digital – in
an attempt to provide lots of options. The
impressive – a first thing you’ll notice is their size and weight
powerful, rich – they’re 16kg as a pair and really quite hefty.
Though well built, you’ll want a decent-sized
and accurate shelf or some stands to place them on so
soundstage they don’t dominate too much.
The left speaker contains all the electronics
and power, and connects to the right speaker
via a special cable. This is a bit less elegant
than you’d ideally like but does mean that
your signal only has to be sent to one device,
making things simpler overall. Hooking up hi-fi
gear is pretty straightforward, with two phono
line inputs on the back as well as optical and
VERDICT coaxial inputs which can be useful for home
Great-sounding, cinema systems. Given that Edifier pushes
physically imposing this as a use case for the speakers, it’s odd
speakers with a useful that there’s no HDMI input available.
mix of analogue and The rear panel also features a dual volume/
wireless input choices. input select dial and these can also be adjusted
using the simple but handy bundled remote
★★★★★ control. Treble and bass dials can also be found
Rich, accurate sound on the speaker’s rear – slightly fiddly, but you
Analogue and may not need to adjust them frequently.
wireless inputs More interesting are the wireless capabilities.
Decent app Download the Edifier app to get your speakers
No HDMI input on your Wi-Fi network and they become
82 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
available as an AirPlay 2 destination,
and there’s also support for Bluetooth 5.2
streaming with AAC and SBC codecs for Apple
users and aptX HD for those with compatible
devices. That’s less of an issue since you’d
probably use Wi-Fi for streaming anyway,
and Amazon Alexa, Spotify Connect and
Tidal Connect are all supported via the app.
Sizeable range
The speakers’ size allows for 5.5-inch
aluminium woofers, bass porting and dual
tweeters with a total of 120W of class-D power
and a frequency response of 45Hz-40kHz,
with crossover managed by internal DSP
(Digital Signal Processing). The sound they
produce is really very impressive – a powerful,
rich and accurate soundstage helped by the
slight angling of the cabinets’ design. They’re
able to cope admirably with a wide range of
material from music to movies.
As a playback solution, the speakers give
you solid options to connect CD players and
wireless sources alike with no additional amps
required. There’s no phono preamp, but vinyl
enthusiasts would generally use a separate
preamp anyway. Your usage might tend more
towards wireless streaming or lean more on
hardware players but both are easy to hook
up here, and sound great when played back.
Hollin Jones
Image credit: Edifier
 Hardware APPLE CHOICE

Asustor Nimbustor 2
Gen 2 AS5402T
Network-attached storage and more
£369 FROM asustor.com FEATURES Bays for two 3.5-/
2.5-inch hard drives and four M.2 NVMe SSDs, dual Superfast
2.5-Gigabit Ethernet ports, Time Machine support, with
both SMB and AFP available

Coupled with etwork-attached

Data Master N storage (NAS) has

capacity and flexibility,
goodies, but it’s slow. Asustor’s Flashstor
broke new ground in performance
there’s a great for those who can switch completely
deal more you to NVMe solid-state drives (SSDs). Its
two new Nimbustor models bridge
can do with between past and future, with two
this NAS (this AS5402T) or four (AS5404T)
3.5-/2.5-inch drive bays as well as
four NVMe M.2 2280 SSD slots,
giving you the best of both worlds.
Powering the Nimbustor is an
Intel Celeron N5105 Quad-Core
2GHz processor with 4GB memory
expandable to 16GB. The two-bay model tested
supports RAID 0, 1 and JBOD, with optional
hardware encryption. Its two Ethernet ports can
be combined through an external switch to give
SMB Multichannel speeds approaching 4Gbps.
Coloured indicators on the front show when a
network connection is running at 2.5GbE, and
give separate hard disk warnings. There are also
three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports for additional storage,
and an HDMI 2.0b port for direct video display.
Installing SSDs is quick and simple, provided
you remove the disk trays first. Remove two
VERDICT screws from its back, and the case slides open
A perfect bridge to to reveal the four M.2 slots, numbered clearly in
faster storage and order of use. Modules are retained using a neat
networking, its ratchet to save messing around with screws. We
performance excels have asked Asustor to give clearer guidance on
with SSDs and 2.5GbE. the need for heatsinks on SSDs, although we
experienced no thermal problems.
★★★★★ Setting up is a breeze using its Control
Choice of storage Center app and Data Master browser-based
High performance interface, where we joined two 2TB SSDs in
Time Machine RAID 0 for testing. For file sharing alone,
support enabling SMB is sufficient, but to get Time
Full SMB and AFP Machine to recognise the NAS for backups, you’ll
Its compact case can
contain two 3.5-/2.5-
inch hard disks and
four M.2 2280 SSDs.
need its Mac extensions and AFP for Bonjour,
although it will then connect using SMB.
And there’s more
Before backing up, Time Machine runs
performance tests on the storage, which
completed at 80% of that of a directly attached
Thunderbolt 3 SSD. On a first full backup, overall
file copying rate was just under 15,000 files per
minute, and over 4GB per minute, nearly 70MB/
sec. Results were slightly faster than Asustor’s
Flashstor 6, making it the fastest NAS we have
tested. Coupled with the goodies provided in
Asustor’s Data Master, there’s a great deal more
you can do with this NAS. It supports four free
surveillance cameras, and up to 40 more can be
added in camera licence purchases. Portainer
offers Docker containers, and you can stream
media, with 10-bit 4K and HEVC hardware
decoding over its HDMI port.
The Nimbustor’s combination of high-
capacity hard disk bays and high-performance
SSDs, with dual 2.5-Gigabit Ethernet, is the ideal
modern network storage. This what you should
replace your Time Capsule with. Howard Oakley

Image credit: Asustor Inc APRIL 2023 | MACFORMAT | 83

 APPLE CHOICE Hardware

Shure AONIC 50 Gen 2

Wired or wireless listening with tons of options
£349 FROM shure.com FEATURES Bluetooth, 3.5mm or USB connection,
six microphones, multiple ANC modes, customisable EQ, spatial audio

There are also he second generation of Shure’s

two wired T Aonic 50 wireless headphones

packs a lot of technology into
listening modes their lightweight yet robust frame,
paired with a capable mobile app for
available for customisation. The headphones
uncompressed come in a well-made hard case for
transportation, and the fit is snug
playback yet comfortable for long periods
of listening. The earpads fold down
flat for storage and the mechanism
is solid, where sometimes these
can be a little on the flappy side.
The headphones pair easily
with your devices and there’s
customisable multipoint for
device switching and a range of
up to 100m. A range of codecs are
supported from Apple’s basic SBC
and AAC through to those found on
other devices including the higher
bitrate aptX HD and even LDAC. Happily,
there are also two wired listening modes
available for when you want uncompressed The headphones are sleek but boast a wealth
playback. A 3.5mm cable is supplied to enable of microphones for calls and noise cancelling.
old-style analogue listening, and there’s a USB you to hear your own voice, for on-the-go
cable which allows high-quality digital streaming conversations. In the more conventional
from your computer at up to 32-bit/384kHz. modes, cancelling is highly effective.
That’s impressive, though at far above CD
quality you’re not likely to have much digital Bags of features
content that warrants it. Still, playing back 24-bit, Battery life has been doubled from the previous
VERDICT 44.1kHz WAV files as you’re more likely to do generation and now provides up to 45 hours –
Great all-round does result in a richer and more detailed sound we found real-life figures a fraction shorter
headphones with when you use the USB connection. One end of but still very good – with a 15-minute quick
strong battery life and the bundled cable is USB-A which is a minor charge giving five hours of playback. Onboard
ANC, as well as dual annoyance, though you can use an adaptor. processing offers several spatial audio modes
wired listening modes Switching to USB mode disables some call- including music, movies and podcasts. As ever,
for enjoying music making features, but it’s not a real problem since this works best where the source is already in
in higher quality. you’re doing audiophile things at that point. surround format, and tends to make regular
In Bluetooth mode the sound is still excellent, stereo music sound a little odd.
★★★★★ powerful and well balanced with a crisp upper These are great headphones and, while they
Excellent feature set range and a solid but not oppressive bass end. perhaps lack the absolute pinpoint accuracy of
Great noise cancelling The app is particularly well designed and lets you some models, they do have bags of features.
Two wired use preset or custom EQ as well as setting the Great noise cancelling and call quality, and
listening modes various active noise cancelling modes with customisable on-body controls – and the dual
Lack the absolute several strengths available including ‘max wired listening options are the icing on the cake.
fidelity of some others aware’, which blocks some sounds while allowing Hollin Jones

84 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024 Image credit: Shure Distribution UK

Dinky, smart and packed with
features, the Mars 3 Air is a
great home movie projector.
Nebula Mars 3 Air
A tiny portable projector for big screen thrills
£549.99 FROM uk.seenebula.com FEATURES DLP portable projector, 150-inch max display size, 1.21:1 throw ratio,
Full HD (1920x1080 pixels) resolution with HDR, 400 ANSI Lumens brightness, 2x 8W speakers, up to 2.5 hours battery life,
1x HDMI ARC, 1x USB-A, 1x Aux, Bluetooth 5.1, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Google TV OS
VERDICT
The Nebula Mars 3
Air is a great little
projector for casual
movie viewing.
★★★★★
Compact and portable
Straightforward set-up
Watchable
display quality
No AirPlay or USB-C
Image credit: Fantasia Trading LLC
very night is movie night when you
E can watch the latest blockbusters
on your own projector. Measuring a
tiny 178x122x133mm and weighing just 1.7kg,
you can plop this little beauty down on your
coffee table and start watching right away –
you don’t even need to plug it into the mains
as it has a 2.5-hour battery on board.
While its bigger sibling, the Nebula Mars 3
(reviewed in #MF396) runs Android TV, this
model sports Google TV. You get easy access
to all your favourite streaming services –
including Apple TV, Netflix and Amazon Prime.
Plus, its rear panel also includes an HDMI ARC
port so you can always plug in a Blu-ray player
or an Apple TV 4K box instead. While there’s
no USB-C port, the Nebula Mars 3 Air does
include USB-A and Aux ports as well as
802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.1.
Like the Mars 3, the Air takes away the
faff of getting the projector set up by using
Intelligent Environment Adaptation. This
enables the projector to detect what it’s
pointing at (ideally a white-painted wall or
a dedicated projector screen) and adjust its
settings accordingly, with keystone correction
and focusing all taking place in a few seconds.
While its bigger brother can display images up
to 200 inches across at a max brightness of
1,000 ANSI Lumens, the Nebula Mars Air 3 is
more modest, with a max screen size of 150
inches and 400 ANSI Lumens – but then it’s
also half the price. The Air shows 1080p Full
HD rather than 4K images – an inevitable
compromise with a projector this compact.
Casting couch
In use, the Mars 3 Air is a delight, with playback
controls easily to hand on the projector’s
dished top, although you can use the supplied
remote, which is backlit so you can still see the
buttons in the dark, or the free Nebula Connect
App for iPhone and iPad.
Aside from the usual streaming apps, the
Mars 3 Air also includes Nebula Cast, which
enables you to ‘cast’ content from your iPhone,
iPad or Mac to the projector. However, while
this works with the Disney+ app (using the
app’s built-in Cast option) using AirPlay via the
Apple TV app won’t play ball – that’s down to
digital right management (DRM) restrictions,
though, rather than the projector itself. And
there’s also the Nebula Life app, which has
some lovely looking video screensavers.
The sound from the built-in 2x 8W speakers
sound pretty credible too.
For casual evening movie viewing, the
Nebula Mars 3 Air is great. Rob Mead-Green
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 85
 APPLE CHOICE Group test

Six best inkjet

photo printers
Turn your iPhone photos into stunning
keepsakes with these colour printers

86 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024

 hat do you look for
W in a printer? Do you
want a device with great
networking capabilities and high
speeds for small office use? Would
you prefer a cheap and cheerful
printer just for outputting the odd
letter? Or maybe a high-end printer
geared towards designers and
publishers, that offers accurate
colours and poster-sized prints?
Obviously, the best printer for
you depends on your needs. For
this group test we’re looking for the
best all-round inkjet printer that’s
great for printing photographs.
A decent device for the home or
home office. Something that does
more than gather dust between
printing letters to your bank
manager or the tax office, but
not a pro-level printer for use in
a bigger office or design studio.
An all-round printer that can scan
and photocopy documents as well
as print, and that does a decent job
of printing photographs in addtition
to handling mono and colour
documents. In other words, a
printer for the Mac owner with
regular, not specialist needs.
But which of the six printers in
our test offered the best all-round
performance? Let’s take a look.

How we tested
We tested the printers using both
text files and pictures. Our test
document used text of diminishing
point sizes to see how well the

Group
printers coped, and our photo
print test image checked for things
like sharp lines, flesh tones and so

test
Reviewed by
on when printing on photo paper.
We also scanned a MacFormat
cover using the Mac’s bundled
Image Capture app, again to see
IAN OSBORNE how sharp and accurate each
ON TEST… model was. We also took into
> Canon MegaTank Pixma G650 consideration what features
> Canon Pixma TS5350i each printer offers.
> Canon Pixma TS8750
> Epson EcoTank ET-1810
> Epson EcoTank ET-2856
> Epson EcoTank ET-8500

APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 87

 APPLE CHOICE Group test

Things to
consider…
How good is the
1 photo printing?
Check for things like colour accuracy,
flesh tones, sharp lines and more. Try
printing on quality photo paper, at
A4 as well as 6x4-inch prints.

How good is text

2 reproduction?
Look for sharp, clearly defined
characters, even at very small point
sizes. Is it vibrant and black, or does
it look dull and washed out?

The feature set

3 Is a printer packed with features,
or is it a bare-bones basic model? The
latter isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but
it depends on your needs.

Build quality
4 You want a printer that will last
several years, so consider how well
built a printer is. Is it robust and solid,
or fragile and flimsy? 1

Canon MegaTank Canon Pixma TS5350i

Pixma G650 £89.99 FROM canon.co.uk

£279.99 FROM canon.co.uk
The Canon MegaTank
1 Pixma G650 has six
ink tanks, but surprisingly,
one of them isn’t pigment
black. Instead, we get cyan,
magenta, yellow and black,
with grey and red. You fill the
printer’s ink tanks from
bottles instead of disposable
cartridges. The G650 lacks an
internal tray, so whatever you
print on has to be placed in
the rear paper feeder. It lacks
a decent screen, and the
two-line LED makes the
interface hard work.
What it lacks in versatility
and features, it makes up for
in photo printing quality. It’s
amazingly good, with accurate
flesh tones, sharp lines and
vibrant colours. Our two-page
PDF document on plain paper
looked good, with no ugly
banding. Text printing is a
little grey and can’t compete
with printers that have a
pigment black ink tank, but
it’s perfectly serviceable.
A great printer for photos,
but mediocre overall.
VERDICT
Amazing photo prints
Robust build
Weak feature set
Mediocre interface
★★★★★
Although it’s the
2 cheapest printer we
tested, the Pixma TS5350i
has a respectable feature
set. It has an internal paper
cassette for plain paper and
a rear tray feeder for photo
paper. It has USB, Wi-Fi and
Cloud connectivity, and a
useful – if small – OLED
screen. You can get it in black
(TS5350i) or white (TS5351i),
and it has automatic Duplex
for two-sided printing.
The TS5350i uses two ink
tanks; a black and a tri-colour
cartridge combining cyan,
magenta and yellow. Although
by no means a specialist
photo printer, it does a good
job of printing in high quality
on glossy photo paper. The
colours don’t leap out at you
in the same way they do with
the six-tank behemoths, but
they’re strong and deep, with
excellent skin tones. Our
two-page PDF looked vivid
and strong, with very little
banding, and text printing was
solid enough and readable at
low point sizes. Overall, it’s an
excellent printer for those on
a bit of a budget or who don’t
print all that often.
VERDICT
Affordable price
Respectable feature set
Two ink cartridges
Small screen
★★★★★

88 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024


3 4
Canon Pixma TS8750
£149.99 FROM canon.co.uk
At a penny under
3 £150, this one’s pretty
good value for money. It has
six ink tanks, direct-to-disc
printing, a paper catcher that
automatically extends when
printing (nice!), friendly
touchscreen controls and
Duplex for printing on both
sides of the paper.
The quality of the photo
prints is very good. Flesh tones
are well realised, and the
images are sharp and natural-
looking. The colours could be a
little more vibrant, but they’re
rich and solid, even if they
don’t leap out at you. A digital
image’s fine details are well
reproduced, with every hair
on a cat’s back visible, and
a satellite picture of Britain
covered in snow produced well
with near-white shades. Text
printing is excellent, with the
pigment black tank making for
vivid and striking characters,
visible at the lowest of point
sizes. Our two-page, Duplexed
PDF document looks good too,
despite a little banding on the
solid colours.
Overall, it’s a very capable
printer at a reasonable price.
VERDICT
Good value
High-quality photo prints
Beautiful touchscreen
A little banding on
our colour PDF
★★★★★
Photo printers APPLE CHOICE
Epson EcoTank ET-1810
£189.99 FROM epson.co.uk
You can get some
4 decent quality photo
prints out of this one, but
that’s all it has going for it.
It’s for printing only – there’s
no scanner, and therefore no
photocopier either. It lacks a
built-in display too, making the
interface very awkward. Don’t
expect an internal paper
cassette; it’s rear tray only,
and there’s no automatic
Duplex for two-sided printing.
It’s a speedy printer for
quick prints, but it slows down
dramatically when you switch
to photo paper and ramp up
the quality. But do so and the
quality is there, with excellent
skin tones and striking
colours. Some of the lines
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 89
aren’t as sharp as they might
be, but overall, the quality is
better than you’d expect from
a four-tank inkjet printer.
Switching to plain paper,
our two-page PDF colour
document was sharp and
clear, though not free from
banding. Text printing was
equally OK, but lack of a
pigment black ink tank means
it’s not as vibrant as that
offered by some of the
other printers in the test.
VERDICT
Good photo prints
Speedy for standard prints
Very poor feature set
Awkward interface
★★★★★
 APPLE CHOICE Group test
5 6
Epson EcoTank ET-2856 Epson EcoTank
ET-8500
£309.99 FROM epson.co.uk
Epson’s EcoTank
5 range eschews
the usual disposable ink
cartridges in favour of
integrated chambers where
you add ink from a bottle.
It’s cheaper this way, as well
as better for the environment.
This particular model is
supplied with 70ml of cyan,
magenta and yellow inks, and
two 127ml bottles of black
– enough to last you three
years, according to Epson.
It’s an attractive printer,
and its four ink tanks are easy
to fill. At this price, we’d have
liked an internal paper
cassette as well as the rear
tray, and its display is small
at 37mm, but it is in colour.
90 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
The photo prints were
good, but not great. They’re
sharp and solid, but their
overall appearance is slightly
washed out, especially when
compared to the four-tank
printers. Our PDF document
was a little too light and had
a bit of banding, but overall
it was well reproduced.
Text printing benefits from
pigment black, and looks
outstanding, whatever
the point size.
VERDICT
Robust and well built
Great text printing
Photos a little washed out
No internal paper tray
★★★★★
£649.99 FROM epson.co.uk
This printer uses
6 economical, ecological
EcoTank ink management
with six tanks, including a
pigment black. You can print
from a USB flash drive or SD
card, as well as from a mobile
device, and connecting to
your Mac with USB or your
network through Wi-Fi.
It boasts Duplex two-sided
printing, a catch tray that
opens automatically and an
internal cassette as well as a
rear feed. It also has another
cassette for photo paper (up
to 10x15cm), and supports
direct printing onto optical
discs such as a CD, DVD or
Blu-ray. It’s quiet, and fast
enough for home use.
Print quality is stellar.
Photos are vivid and vibrant,
with excellent colour and
beautiful skin tones. Details
are excellent, as is shading.
Thanks to the pigment ink,
text is crystal clear and deeply
black, and our two-page PDF
document printed with no
banding or blur at all.
VERDICT
Robust build
Six EcoTank ink system
Fantastic print quality
Expensive
★★★★★
THE WINNER

Epson EcoTank ET-8500

Superb photo printing and an excellent feature set
es, it’s expensive, philosophy over to your a huge touchscreen mean to purchase, but you certainly
Y but how much did
you pay for your
printer? This is the most
expensive device in this test,
it’s every printer you could
ever need. We love the
save on ink costs.
If you’re on a budget, or
Mac? How much was your you sometimes you have to EcoTank system too. Why do too little printing to justify
iPhone? You could’ve bought pay more to get more. waste money on disposable the ET-8500’s asking price,
a cheap Windows laptop and The Epson EcoTank cartridges when you can the Canon Pixma TS5350i
a bargain-bucket Android ET-8500 has it all. Stellar pour in your ink from bottles? won’t disappoint. It’s a solid,
phone, but you wanted better, photo and text printing, an This system makes the capable device that has no
something you’d really enjoy excellent feature set, solid ET-8500 very economical to significant drawbacks, and
using. Why not carry this build, a great scanner and run too. It might cost more it’s good value for money.

How
do they
compare?
> Specs Canon MegaTank Canon Pixma Canon Pixma Epson EcoTank Epson EcoTank Epson EcoTank
Pixma G650 TS5350i TS8750 ET-1810 ET-2856 ET-8500
Website canon.co.uk canon.co.uk canon.co.uk epson.co.uk epson.co.uk epson.co.uk
Price £279.99 £89.99 £149.99 £189.99 £309.99 £649.99
Connectivity USB, Wi-Fi, USB, Wi-Fi, Cloud USB, Wi-Fi, USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi
Apple AirPrint Apple AirPrint Direct, Ethernet,
Apple AirPrint
Maximum paper size A4 A4 A4 A4 A4 A4
Paper capacity Rear tray: 100 sheets Front cassette: Rear tray: 100 sheets, Rear tray: 100 sheets Rear tray: 100 sheets Rear tray, internal
(plain paper) 100 sheets; Front Cassette: cassette, small
Rear tray: 100 sheets 100 sheets photo paper tray
Speed (pages 3.9 monochrome 13 monochrome 15 monochrome 33 monochrome 33 monochrome 16 monochrome
per minute) 3.9 colour 6.8 colour 10 colour 15 colour 15 colour 12 colour
Ink tanks 6 – Black, Cyan, Yellow, 2 – Black and colour 6 – Pigment Black, 4 – Black, Cyan, 4 – Pigment Black, 6 – Black, Pigment
Magenta, Grey, Red Black, Cyan, Yellow, Yellow, Magenta Cyan, Yellow, Magenta Black, Cyan, Yellow,
Magenta, Grey Magenta, Grey
Duplex No Yes Yes Manual only Yes Yes
Screen Monochrome two-line Monochrome OLED, 109mm colour None 37mm, colour 109mm colour
LCD 36mm touchscreen touchscreen
System macOS 10.12. 6 or later macOS 10.12. 6 or later macOS 10.15.7 or later Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later Mac OS X 10.6.8
requirements or later
Dimensions 445 x 340x 167mm 403 x 315 x 148mm 372 x 345 x 142mm 375 x 347 x 169mm 375 x 347 x 187mm 403 x 369 x 162mm
Weight 6.6kg 6.3kg 6.6kg 2.9kg 5.4kg 8.4kg
> 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.
Note: The Epson EcoTank ET-1810 is print only – it does not scan or photcopy

APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 91

 APPLE CHOICE Software

Adobe Photoshop
Elements 2024
Get creative in a few clicks and create eye-catching social media content
£99.99 FROM adobe.com NEEDS macOS 12 or later

A new Add he full, monthly subscription

Text Guided T version of Adobe Photoshop

features many tools that the casual
Edit enables photographer won’t require, such as the
ability to animate layer content or edit
you to add properties of brush tips. As a result, it can be
captions for a challenge for the Photoshop novice to wade
through the full version of the app’s menus to
social media find more commonplace photo-fixing tools.
Fortunately, Adobe’s streamlined
Photoshop Elements focuses on the needs
of the average photographer, to help quickly
edit photos to fix problems with colour and
exposure. Photoshop Elements also offers
plenty of fast ways to produce creative image
content that will catch the eye of your friends,
family and social media followers without them
having to be an expert image editor.
Adobe understands that the average
iPhone photographer doesn’t want to spend
hours pushing pixels around, so Photoshop
Elements 2024 is designed to keep things
Speed up selections of sky or other background types
using Photoshop Elements’ AI-assisted one-click tools.
simple (while still producing great results).
For example, the new Color Match effect tool
enables you to ‘grade’ a shot (aka, edit colours
and tones) in a single click. It works its magic by
enabling you to take a sample from a collection
of images and then apply that colour palette
to your current image. This enables you to add
vibrant colours to your shot or make a striking
monochrome conversion of it, just by clicking
on the appropriate sample image. You can

APP TIPS

How to add text and style it up

Choose to add text Type on the path Modify your text

Choose File > Open to view a shot that
you want to enhance with creative text.
To find the new Add Text Guided Edit,
click Guided, then click on the Basics
tab. Now click the Add Text thumbnail
option (with the bee image on here).
By following step-by-step instructions,
you can select the ‘Text on Path’ tool
and draw a path that suits the style of
your photo/subject. Place the cursor at
the start of the path. You can then type
text and it will follow the path.
Click the Advanced button. This gives
you a box where you can adjust the
colour of the text, add a glow and
bevel its edges for a 3D look. You can
also click to add a gradient to the text.
Click Next to finish and share.

92 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2023

fine-tune the transplanted look by tweaking
saturation, hue and brightness. You can then
click Share to send your graded shot to Flickr
or Facebook. For the option to share directly
to a wider range of social media sites you
can use the new Photo Reel tool in the Create
menu. This enables you to create an Instagram-
formatted reel from the comfort of your Mac
instead of making one in the Instagram app
on your iPhone’s smaller display.
From guided to expert
To help you work more quickly, Photoshop
Elements uses artificial intelligence (in the
shape of Adobe Sensei). This powers a host of
creative features – from adding motion to parts
of a still image (such as animating a waterfall)
to opening the eyes of a subject whose eyes
are closed. The AI toolset has been updated
in Photoshop Elements 2024 to include new
You can create an Instagram-friendly reel from
a series of still images in just a few minutes.
Image credits: Adobe Inc, George Cairns
one-click Select Sky or Select Background The new Color Match tool
tools. These time-saving tools can be found transplants the look of a
sample image to your photo.
in the Selection Brush tool’s options bar.
One of Photoshop Element’s key features
has always been its Guided Edits workspace.
This newbie-friendly feature walks you step by
step through a host of image editing techniques
so you can master a variety of tools. A new Add
Text Guided Edit enables you to add captions to
your shots for social media use. For example,
you are shown how to draw a curved path and
have your typed text follow the curve. You can
then insert colourful gradients within the text
for a more eye-catching look.
Guided Edits are the springboard to a host
of creative image edits and are well worth
exploring. You can then apply the skills you
learn to images directly in the Expert edit
workspace once you’ve grown in experience.
On the downside, we found Photoshop
Elements 2024 was not immune to crashing
during a guided edit, forcing us to start the VERDICT
step-by-step process from scratch. We had a Photoshop Elements
couple of crashes within 20 minutes of each 2024 enables you to
other which didn’t bode well, despite running do more than you can
the app on a MacBook Air 2023 with M2 chip. using smartphone
All in all, Photoshop Elements 2024 is a photo-fixing apps.
great app to explore, especially if you need step
by step instructions to grasp new photo editing ★★★★★
skills that would be more tricky to perform on New guided edits
an iPhone app. You can check it out for a month AI assistance
for free by downloading the trial version. Prone to crashing
George Cairns Limited Raw tools
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 93

Screens 5
This VNC remote desktop allows enables easy screen sharing
£2.99/month (£65 lifetime) FROM edovia.com NEEDS macOS 14 or later/iOS 17 or later
here’s still something magical in
T checking documents on your Mac
when you’re miles away, or sorting
out a parent’s Mail problem without being
there. Typical examples of what you can
achieve using a VNC remote desktop.
Screens 5 is the latest version of a product
that has brought VNC (Virtual Network
Computing) to Macs and devices for half that
period. It requires macOS Sonoma or iOS/
iPadOS 17, although it can connect to Macs
running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and systems
running Windows, Linux or Raspberry Pi.
macOS contains all it needs for you to share
VERDICT the screen and take control of that Mac using
Screens 5 sets the Screens. Normally those are set up by enabling
standard for VNC Remote Management in Sharing settings, but to
apps on macOS and make it simpler Edovia provides its free Screens
devices by making all Connect app for macOS and Windows.
the fiddly bits simple. Controlling a Mac on a local network is just
a matter of logging into it using Screens. When
★★★★★ your target is accessed over the internet,
Convenient features Screens provides simplified management
Simple remote through its ID system. Log the app into Edovia’s
connections server to act as middleman and it sets up a
Excellent local secure connection through an SSH (Secure
performance Shell) tunnel. Screens maintains a window of
Lack of audio (VNC) previous connections for your convenience.
94 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2023
When controlling a local Mac with a 27-inch Retina
display, Screens 5 copes well with Stage Manager.
Screens provides options for quality
and scaling of display contents. Over a local
network, we found full quality worked well with
a 27in Retina display, even with Stage Manager
switching between apps. There’s a slight lag
and animation is juddery but usable; you may
need to opt for lower quality when remote. One
omission reflecting the age of the protocols
used is that audio sharing still isn’t included.
Full integration
Screens has the benefit of many extensions
including Apple Remote Desktop. Although
controlling a Mac from an iPhone probably
wouldn’t be a choice, it’s possible, and Screens
5 is highly usable on an iPad, where its touch
controls are well mapped to the Mac’s clicks
and taps, and aided by a toolbar. Trackpad
gestures are fully supported, and Screens
copes fine with remote Macs with multiple
displays. Anything that might have become
irksome or awkward when controlling a remote
Mac has been integrated, from Curtain Mode
to unlocking and password entry. Edovia’s
documentation and support is also exemplary.
Screens 5 should be your first choice if you
regularly want to share screens with or control
another Mac. Howard Oakley
Image credit: Edovia Inc
The game’s distinctive art style
makes it feel like a comic adventure.
To Hell With The Ugly
Our air-headed protagonist proves it ain’t easy being gorgeous
£16.75 FROM lapoulenoire.fr NEEDS OS X 10.8.5 or later
Rejecting ock Bailey has a problem: he’s too
untold amorous R damn beautiful. But his struggles to
bat away unwanted romantic
advances and attention soon pale into insignificance one
night as he’s drugged, kidnapped and beaten
maintaining – and that’s just the start of his troubles.
his celibacy is He soon finds himself thrust headfirst into
a nefarious plot to abduct beautiful people all
Rock’s ‘cross over Los Angeles. With gorgeous starlets and
to bear’ hunky singers going missing all over the city,
Rock must move fast to save Tinseltown’s most
stunning residents (including himself).
Based on the satirical novel by Boris Vian
(writing as Vernon Sullivan), To Hell With The
Ugly is a comical, eccentric parody of the noir
crime genre. Humour is laced throughout and
is frequently found in the air-headed utterings
of Rock, who takes himself very seriously
despite being rather dense. He’s gorgeous but
VERDICT he’s saving himself for his 20th birthday –
Short but sweet, rejecting untold amorous advances and
To Hell With The Ugly maintaining his celibacy is his ‘cross to bear’.
has a face that’s
hard to forget. A real looker
Painted in thick oranges and blacks, the game’s
★★★★★ visual aesthetic is immediately arresting.
Beautiful, distinctive Redolent of retro comic books, it suits its
visual style subject matter perfectly. As you navigate,
Plenty of humour you’re tasked with solving puzzles and getting
Interesting story to the bottom of the strange disappearances.
Quite short There’s none of the complexity of genre
Image credit: La Poule Noire
classics like Day of the Tentacle; you rarely
have to combine objects, and To Hell With The
Ugly requires much less sideways thinking.
Its puzzles are mostly straightforward – a
little stealth here, a touch of deduction there
– and don’t take long to complete. Every now
and then, though, a baffling headscratcher
comes along, and one task left us thoroughly
confused with the apparent solution.
Aside from puzzles, there’s also a fair
helping of combat. This is turn-based and relies
on quick time events (QTE). Whether attacking
or defending, you need to time key presses
to execute your moves. This can be tricky,
as the speed at which each QTE moves varies
between characters. It’s not particularly deep,
but there are allies with various abilities to help
you, and even humour too – Rock heals by
brushing his hair as sparkles flash around him.
The game’s ending may not please
everyone. We didn’t feel it was especially weak,
but it was rather abrupt. Without giving too
much away, it’s not your conventional finale,
but instead has a logic that flows from Rock’s
shallow character and motivations, as strange
as they may seem.
At roughly four hours, To Hell With The
Ugly is a short game. But with its striking
visuals, bizarre story and a lead character
hilariously lacking in self-awareness, it’ll live
long in the memory. Alex Blake
APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 95
 APPLE CHOICE iOS
to improve Safari
Safari extensions for enhanced browsing
PayPal Honey:
Coupons, Rewards
Free FROM joinhoney.com
NEEDS iOS 13 or later
No one likes paying full price
if they can help it. While there
are plenty of websites listing
vouchers and coupon codes, wouldn’t it
be easier if an extension could apply them
for you? That’s what you get with Honey.
When you go to the checkout on a website
that Honey has coupons for, it will
automatically try all the codes it has and
apply the one with the biggest saving. It
only takes a couple of seconds but could
save you a ton of money.
96 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
6 to ways
1Password:
Password Manager
Free (IAPs) FROM 1password.com
NEEDS iOS 16.4 or later
Everyone knows they should
use stronger passwords, but
doing that is tricky when you
have to remember something complex.
Let 1Password handle everything for you.
This extension will create tough-to-crack
passwords for you and quickly enter them
into login forms when required, meaning
it only takes a couple of quick taps to sign
up and sign in. Staying safe online doesn’t
have to be an arduous chore when you
have this extension.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Honey Science LLC, 1Password, Aarhus University
Consent-O-Matic
Free FROM consentomatic.au.dk
NEEDS iOS 15 or later
Ever since the EU’s General
Data Protection Regulation
(GDPR) gave you the power to
opt out of cookies, websites have been
making it as hard as possible to do so.
From obscured ‘decline’ buttons to
misleading wording… To fight back, use
Consent-O-Matic. Instead of hiding GDPR
messages (without opting out) like some
alternatives, this extension automatically
declines every cookie on almost every
website pop-up. Banish the pop-ups and
claw back your privacy in one fell swoop.

pple’s Safari web browser has
A a lot going for it on iOS, but we
all have complaints we wish
were addressed. Fortunately, you don’t
have to sit back and accept them – you
can fix things up with a few bite-sized
extensions. These mini apps extend
GoodLinks
£6.99 FROM goodlinks.app
NEEDS iOS 14 or later
If you’re anything like us, there
will be plenty of times you’ll
stumble across an interesting
article but don’t have time to read it.
In cases like that, GoodLinks can be a
godsend. Its handy extension lets you save
articles you’re browsing in Safari, ready to
read later. As soon as you’ve got a little
downtime, head to the GoodLinks app and
pick up where you left off. You can sort
saved articles with tags and star favourite
ones too, helping to neatly organise your
reading list with minimal effort.
Image credits: Apple Inc, Ngoc Luu, Jeffrey Kuiken, IOSPIRIT GmbH
Safari extensions APPLE CHOICE
Safari’s functionality in various ways,
such as protecting your privacy, blocking
annoyances or saving you money with
vouchers. In this article, we’ve rounded up
six of our favourite Safari extensions that
will enhance your browsing experience
from here on out. Alex Blake
Noir – Dark Mode
for Safari
£3.99 FROM getnoir.app
NEEDS iOS 15 or later
Some websites lack their own
dark mode, so even if you’ve
enabled it in iOS, you still risk
unexpectedly searing your eyeballs with
a bright white website every now and
then. Noir puts paid to that by enforcing
dark mode on every website you visit, even
if it doesn’t have its own. Noir uses each
site’s colour scheme to create a dark mode
that looks natural and as if it was designed
by the website itself. You can tweak it to
work everywhere or on just a few websites.
Vidimote for Safari
£2.99 FROM iospirit.com
NEEDS iOS 15 or later
Watching iPhone videos is
something many of us do on a
regular basis, but Safari’s iOS
video player is less feature-rich than
we’d like. Vidimote rights that wrong by
giving you extra controls for videos played
in Safari. That includes fine-grained
controls for video playback speed, skip and
rewind buttons, a display showing the time
so you never get sidetracked, and more.
It’s everything that Apple forgot to build
into iOS video playback, and works with
websites like Netflix, YouTube and more.
APRIL 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 | APRIL 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
APR 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.
APRIL 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 | APRIL 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 APRIL 2024 | MACFORMAT | 101

 EXPECTED
SEPT 2024
STORE GUIDE Apple kit UPDATED
SEPT 2023

EXPECTED
MAR 2025
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 Vision Pro Apple AirPods Max/

$3,499
Marking the start of what
Apple hopes is a new era of
spatial computing, the Vision
Pro is now available in the US.
Equipped with a custom 23 million
pixel microOLED display, the twin
lenses inside the Vision Pro boasts
better than 4K resolution and it
has spatial audio onboard too.
Driving the whole thing are Apple
silicon M2 and R1 chips, upon which
sits an entirely new OS: visionOS.
AirPods Pro/AirPods
£499/£229/From £169
The AirPods Max are super comfy
and boast Transparency Mode and ANC.
The second-gen AirPods Pro add in
Adaptive Audio. The third-gen AirPods are
available with either a Lightning (£169)
or MagSafe (£179) charging case. All three
come with personalised spatial audio.

102 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 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 APRIL 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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N E X T M O N T H

DO MORE WITH YOUR iPAD

>Discover the incredible things you can do with your Apple
tablet – from working with others to creative projects

ALSO INSIDE… ISSUE 403

>Create your dream smart home with Apple’s HomeKit ON SALE
>Add password protection to shared documents
> Get started with Apple Arcade 2 APR
… and much more! 2024
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 GOODBYE Until next issue…
One more thing
Apple Vision Pro
Graham Barlow wonders if next year’s UK release
of the Vision Pro will see some changes
pple’s Vision Pro has had its US
A release; people are getting their
hands on it, and we’re starting to
see how it might function in the real world.
While it looks amazing, I’ve yet to see a killer-
use case or perfect app that I can see justifying
spending that much money on this new thing
called ‘spatial reality’.
Apple recommends that Vision Pro is used
indoors, in a controlled environment, like your
front room. However, there are videos of people
riding subways and walking around Times
Square in New York while wearing a Vision
Pro. There are even videos of people wearing
one while sitting in the driver’s seat of Tesla’s
new Cybertruck! (It should be noted that all
current self-driving cars require the driver
to be present and aware at all times.)
But in all these videos, I haven’t seen one
killer app that would actually make me buy it.
106 | MACFORMAT | APRIL 2024
The Vision Pro needs a
‘must-have’ app that’ll
turn it into a must-buy.
I already have multiple devices with screens dotted
around my home – switching them from physical to
virtual wouldn’t really make me any more productive. But
it’s as an entertainment device that the Vision Pro shines.
The experience of watching a movie in your own movie
theatre on a (to you) massive screen does look amazing.
The vision for Vision
We haven’t seen a game yet on the Vision Pro that
redefines what’s currently possible in gaming. I wonder
if a forthcoming game release turns out to be the killer app
that makes people really want to invest in a Vision Pro.
The problem is that Apple isn’t really that interested in
gaming – and if that’s where the Vision Pro’s future
lies, it might have to change its tune.
In Britain, we’ve may have to wait at least
another year before we get a chance to buy a
Vision Pro, and I wonder if the marketing will NEXT ISSUE ON SALE
have changed significantly by then, based on 2 APRIL
what people actually use it for…
Image credit: Apple Inc
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