Indholdsfortegnelse for February 2022 i Macworld

Apple is in the midst of a two-year rollout of its own Mac processors, with the first Mac System on a Chip (SoC) blowing away expectations. The entire company’s consumer lineup is outfitted with the incredibly fast M1, and with the recent release of the M1 Pro and Max in the MacBook Pro, we got a taste of what Apple can do with its silicon to meet the performance demands that pro users put on high-end Macs. When it comes to pro Macs, however, the model that most readily comes to mind is the Mac Pro, Apple’s high-end workstation. What optimizations does the M1 Max have that will dictate the demise of the old Intel guard? One important battle will come down to the graphics processor, which is traditionally the…

The 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro has a new feature that everyone is talking about. No, it’s not the blazing processor speed, it’s the notch at the top of the display. Some people don’t like how it looks, even though it doesn’t take away from the workable space of the screen. Apple made the bezels on the laptop super thin in an effort to provide the user as much screen space as possible. But there is a module that cuts into the screen to house the 1080p FaceTime camera, thus the notch. It’s important to point out that the notch doesn’t infringe on the screen area—you still get a 16-by-10 screen below the notch, so the notch area is “extra” screen space compared to the older MacBook Pro. Apple has…

MacOS is magnificent at allowing us to add audio destinations. You can target internal speakers, external ones added via USB, Apple TVs, third-party compatible receivers and smart TVs, and even the seemingly isolated HomePods and HomePod minis because of their networked nature. But if you want to orchestrate directing sound to multiple speakers or have controls at your fingertips to pick and change destinations, macOS doesn’t offer much. In iTunes or Music, you can click the AirPlay button to select audio output devices, including choosing more than one if they’re AirPlay 2 compatible, but that’s as sophisticated as macOS gets. iOS and iPadOS offer much richer options. Airfoil steps into that audio breach as it has for 15 years. The single-minded app lets you choose one or more audio destinations…

It’s a new year, and if you’re looking for a fresh start, you can begin with your iPhone. Just by changing a few settings you can vastly change and improve your overall user experience. Even if you’ve been using your phone for years, these often-overlooked toggles and tweaks can make your iPhone feel brand-new again. 1. SILENCE UNKNOWN CALLERS If it seems like robocalls have increased exponentially over the past year, it’s because they have. Spam callers have gotten more sophisticated and plentiful since the start of the pandemic, and they’re a regular nuisance on our iPhones. But you can put a stop to them without needing to block every number that comes in. In the Phone settings, you’ll find a toggle to silence unknown callers, which will stop your…

Apple added support in the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max to record 1080p and 4K video directly in the company’s ProRes format. This video format is primarily for video-production workflows. It preserves the highest-fidelity capture from an iPhone, making it ideal for professional production. ProRes files are massive, however, and not generally useful for outside of high-end video editing, although Apple includes ProRes support in Photos and iMovie apps on an iPhone and in many Mac apps. Outside the Apple ecosystem, ProRes support is widespread but not assured. This is particularly the case with consumer users of Windows who aren’t video professionals and may not have the software installed that allows playback. The older the operating system or software, the less likely it is to play ProRes.…

The M1 processors in Apple’s Macs provide a significant performance boost and energy efficiency over the Intel chips they replace. But the M1 also has features that aren’t found on Intel Macs, such as a Neural Engine and ProRes acceleration, which allows Apple to create macOS features that you won’t find on Intel Macs. macOS Monterey starts to take advantage of Apple silicon and has several features that you’ll find on M1 Macs and not on Intel Macs. Here’s a list of the Monterey features that require an M1. 1. FACETIME PORTRAIT MODE Everyone loves the drastic effect of Portrait Mode, where the subject in the foreground appears against a blurred background. But this feature makes use of the Neural Engine of the M1 so it can’t be done on…

My wife felt like she was back at a typewriter: Her text in Word kept scrolling rightward as she typed, moving the left edge of her virtual paper off the screen to the left. She expected to hear a bell ding and to have to locate a virtual carriage-return lever. Fortunately, the problem in Word was simple to fix: A negative right margin was the culprit. (And the solution was discovered by our 14-year-old, proving that the Mac 911 impulse is a family inclination.) This can be set by accident when you set up style sheets or use the Format → Paragraph dialog to configure margins. > With a style sheet, choose Format → Style, select the style sheet, and click Modify. From the Format menu in the lower-left corner,…

The new Universal Audio Volt 276 Studio Pack is a starter kit for people who want to get into broadcasting (like on YouTube or podcasting) with a minimum of fuss—however, it’s hardly amateur or entry-level. The Pack includes Universal Audio’s Volt 276 USB interface, a condenser microphone, an XLR cable, and headphones. The Volt 276 interface itself is as good as or better than anything in its price range, and the microphone is surprisingly good for a $429 kit. There’s also a software bundle that covers the basics very nicely. As for the headphones—well, they will do for a start. If you have your own microphones, headphones, and so on, you can pick up the Volt 276 interface on its own for $299, and there are a couple of reasons…

Since Soul Nation launched a decade ago with a line of Chris “Ludacris” Bridges–branded headphones, it’s a been an unapologetically lifestyle brand that makes some pretty good audio products. The $90 Soul S-Storm Max Bluetooth 5.0 speaker fits squarely into that tradition. The S-Storm Max is a solid speaker with some interesting features that might interest more serious listeners, plus a couple that are just for fun. IN THE BOX The speaker is an 8-inch-wide by 3-inch-deep cylinder that weighs 1.5 pounds. A USB-A-to-USB-C charging cable and a 3.5mm aux cable are provided in the box, and the manufacturer throws in a lanyard attached to the speaker with a serial number sticker wrapped around the string. Take a photo of that serial before you take the speaker out of the…

Mac users have a lot of alternatives in obtaining software. You can buy directly from a developer’s Web site or through the Mac App Store. Some software is bundled or discounted by third parties. You might purchase a one-time license upfront for a flat fee, one that could seem relatively high. Or pay an ongoing monthly or annual subscription price to get continuous software updates. The Setapp subscription bundle offers an intriguing combination of the above. Run as a division of software developer MacPaw, it’s a third-party monthly or annual license to over 200 Mac apps that seems to offer the best of all worlds for app users and software developers alike. The collection of apps provides unlimited, ad-free access to a subscriber for as long as they’re paying the…

DuckDuckGo started as a simple idea: a search engine site that respects your privacy. It doesn’t remember your searches, store information about you, embed trackers, or in any other way violate your privacy. It works well and has become quite popular, so the company wanted to go further. First, it built a mobile browser for iOS and Android that’s just as privacy-minded as the search engine, with a nifty Fire Button that instantly “burns” all your data and local history. It enforces encryption, blocks hidden trackers, and more. In a blog post summing up the company’s accomplishments through 2021, the company revealed that a desktop browser is also on the way for multiple platforms, starting with macOS. The announcement is light on details, but DuckDuckGo says the browser is built around “OS-provided rendering…

Mechanical keyboards have risen in popularity for several years with the reintroduction of something remarkable in the peripheral world: innovation. When keyboards became highly commoditized and inexpensive, paired with many computer systems including a perfectly good to excellent typing device, the larger keyboard market deflated. But people missed the ability to have choice, quality, and pizzazz. Keychron is one of the companies that rose to fill this gap. Their latest keyboard, the Q1, is an excellent addition to their existing portfolio of keyboard sizes, styles, and features. For a customizable mechanical keyboard that comes with high-quality keyswitches and is compatible with others, the Q1 is also affordable. A basic assembled version runs $179 (currently $169). Keychron will sell you alternative keyswitches, keycaps, and other parts for competitive prices, or you…

2020 brought a redesigned iPhone, but in 2021 the iPhone was fairly static, while the iPad Pro took a big step forward. Given Apple’s longer cycles for iPhone redesigns, I don’t expect a revolutionary new iPhone to spur sales ever higher. But Apple will tinker around the edges with the iPhone, spending most of its time upgrading the iPad and launching new products the likes of which we’ve not seen before…from Apple, anyway. These are my predictions for 2022 for the iPhone, iPad, and the rest of Apple’s non-Mac product line. I’m doing this with the risk of being dead wrong in public, but I’ve been there before, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. iPHONE GETS TWEAKS AROUND THE MARGINS The iPhone of 2023 will probably look dramatically…

If you happen to be reading this story on a Blackberry phone, your device is officially obsolete. The company has announced that BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, and BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 will no longer be available after today, and warns that “devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.” The end comes almost exactly 15 years after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone at Macworld San Francisco—and back on January 7, 2007, few people would have believed that BlackBerry would suffer such a fate. At the time, BlackBerry was one of the leading names in smartphones and approaching 10 percent market share, a number that would grow to…

If you’ve just got a new Mac, you’ve obviously already started using it to surf the web. But before you get too far along, you should make a few simple tweaks to your Mac’s settings to make it more comfortable and familiar, not to mention safer. Here are 10 quick settings to change on a new Mac. 1. AUTOMATE YOUR SOFTWARE UPDATES Apple rolls out regular updates for macOS, so there’s a good chance the Mac you just got wasn’t running the latest version out of the box. If you haven’t updated already, click the Apple menu in the top left and select About This Mac. At the Overview window, click Software Update. To install the latest update, click Upgrade Now. To avoid having to manually check every time, click…

For most of us, the release of Safari 15.2 as part of iOS 15.2 and macOS 12.1 came and went with little fanfare. On the surface, it was a standard maintenance release with bug and security fixes. But a blog post by the WebKit team outlines a new feature that will have a big impact on web viewing. As Cameron McCormack explains, sites using Safari 15.2 can now choose between two color spaces for creating canvas contexts (basically anything other than images and text): the standard sRGB and wide-color P3. Apple users will recognize the P3 color space that has been used in Mac and iPhone screens since 2015, but until now neither Chrome nor Safari took full advantage of it for anything other than images. Safari 15.2 changes that with support…

There’s no shortage of cleaning and optimization utilities for the Mac these days, and while Ukrainian developer Nektony’s MacCleaner Pro 2 doesn’t offer the most revelatory set of features, its utilities are competent and clever, and they run smoothly while delivering what they promise. Each of MacCleaner Pro 2’s tools is fairly powerful, and it has a good tutorial system that opens when you activate each new module for the first time. Once you give each tool full permissions and access to folders such as Downloads, Desktop, Documents, and others, it’s free to go to work and dig around for files that may be clogging up your Mac. The Speed Up Mac module allows both standard and expert modes, offering changes such as freeing up RAM, disabling obtrusive startup applications,…

Every Marshall-branded home-audio product I’ve tested of late has been in the 95th percentile in terms of audio quality, style, and features. The $200 Marshall Motif ANC true wireless headphone reviewed here is the latest example of that trend. Sweden’s Zound Industries builds home audio products—speakers, headphones, and earbuds—under license from rock-music icon Marshall Amplification. Zound does a faithful job of conjuring the Marshall spirit by way of covering one element or another of its licensed products with Tolex, a rough-grain textile reminiscent of alligator skin. You’ll find it here on the exterior of the Motif’s charging case. If the vaguely reptilian appearance doesn’t disturb you, you’ll like the feel and the grip that Tolex imparts to the case. The charging case holds enough juice to charge the earbuds for…

While everyone else is reflecting on the last 12 months, a graphic designer has created a project that goes back even further than the beginning of 2021—way further. Michael Feeney’s (mac)OStalgia project is a fascinating look at how macOS Monterey would look in 1999 before OS X ever came along. As he describes it, (mac)OStalgia explores how his work-from-home routine in 2021 would look with “the limitations of yesterday. Unreliable internet, little disk storage, macOS 9, and much more.” It’s all here: Chrome, Zoom, Notes, Spotify, even Slack, and Figma, all looking and working as well (or not) as they would in 1999. Feeney’s project is most impressive for its attention to detail, capturing the beauty and simplicity of macOS 9 while highlighting how today’s apps would struggle. Check…

CHIPOLO CARD SPOT Apple’s AirTag has become a popular accessory for keeping track of your stuff, but its thick disc shape makes it ill suited for placement in a wallet. The Chipolo Card Spot is a better fit that slides into a standard sleeve. It hooks into Apple’s Find My app on iOS and macOS. Find My taps into the gigantic Apple user base to help find your items if they are lost—and the process is encrypted and anonymous, so your privacy remains safe.—ROMAN LOYOLA BEATS STUDIO BUDS ‘YEAR OF THE TIGER’ To commemorate the Lunar New Year celebrated in China. Beats by Dre has released a special edition of its Studio Buds earphones. Adorned with red and gold strips to celebrate the Year of the Tiger, the earbuds…

Apple has released Swift Playgrounds 4, an iPad and Mac app used to create apps in the Swift programming language. Apple originally announced the app at WWDC but delayed its release when macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 launched last fall. Before version 4, Swift Playgrounds users had to have a Mac to submit an app to the App Store, but now iPad users no longer need to switch and can make submissions directly from the iPad. Here are the release notes that list the new features for the iPad version: > You can build iPhone and iPad apps with SwiftUI right on your iPad (requires iPadOS 15.2 or later) > App Store Connect integration lets you upload your finished app directly to the App Store > App Preview shows live updates as…

The Chipolo One Spot offers highly accurate location tracking using Apple’s Find My crowdsourced network. It’s nearly as good as Apple’s AirTag in some regards and better in others. Chipolo provides a worthwhile alternative in the small category of tiny, low-power, long-lived trackers. That’s a nifty feat from a company vastly smaller than the multi-trillion-dollar Cupertino behemoth. Apple licensing access to its Find My network makes this possible—even if the company might have done so under duress. FIND MY INTEGRATION Apple’s AirTag introduced a new degree of capability to an existing category of device: a low-power Bluetooth-based location tracker that could help you find lost, left behind, or stolen items to which it was attached or in which it was embedded, like a knapsack, purse, or car. The AirTag built on…

Over the past few weeks, you’ve read a lot of stories predicting the many wonderful things that will come out of Cupertino this year. But along with all that newness comes some inevitable death. Apple has killed numerous products over the years, and this year will likely be no different. Here are five products that might have a hard time surviving 2022. 1. MACBOOK SKINS The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are beautiful machines inside and out, but compared to the iPhone and iPad, they’re not all that colorful. For years, Apple has only offered plain color choices of silver, space gray, and gold for its laptops, leaving people to turn to stickers and skins to add some flair or personality. That might not be necessary in 2022. Apple is rumored to be releasing a new MacBook Air that…

The Notes app, particularly paired with iCloud syncing, provides an easy way to jot down shopping lists, share information with other people, and record your private thoughts. But because some people might feel a little exposed by that, Apple lets you set a password for Notes on your devices and selectively lock notes for which you want extra protection. This password syncs across iCloud if you have Notes enabled in iCloud settings on your devices. But set that password carefully! The password is not stored in iCloud Keychain, nor can it be retrieved from anywhere else. If you can’t remember and haven’t stored it manually in a password manager, the notes locked with it are unrecoverable forever. Apple can’t unlock them. That’s a bit of a scary thought because locking…

In the interest of removing friction, Apple adds automatic behavior that should make our digital lives better. Sometimes this invisible assistance backfires when it makes a change that affects how we use our devices without telling us why they’re behaving differently. That’s the case with the AirPods automatic Bluetooth roaming feature, which was added over a year ago to iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS 11 Big Sur, and tvOS 14. Starting with those releases, 2nd-generation and later regular AirPods and all AirPods Pro and AirPods Max will roam based on your microphone or phone use across all devices linked to the same Apple ID account. For instance, you could be listening to music on your iPhone when you answer a Zoom invitation on your Mac. If Zoom is set to…

The DALI Spektor 2 compact speakers deliver a powerful punch for their size and price ($399 for the pair). Many listeners will find them a perfect listening option for a small space, even though they can easily get loud enough to annoy the neighbors. They have remarkable low end for speakers this size, and while they offer exceptional detail at low volumes, they can shake the rafters without distorting when the volume gets cranked up. Designed and engineered in Denmark, the speakers are part of Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries’ Spektor series. The company suggests them as the rear speakers in a surround-sound setup anchored by its Spektor 6 floor-standing speakers ($849 a pair) and Spektor Vokal center-channel speaker ($249). It also offers the smaller Spektor 1 compact speakers ($279 a…

MOVED A WI-FI ROUTER? THAT COULD MESS WITH AN iPHONE’S LOCATION You pull up the location of your iPhone, Mac, or other devices in Find My, and they’re located somewhere other than you expect them to be. Or you’ve shared your location with a friend or family member, and they see you far off from your current position. What’s happening? It might have to do with the relocation of a Wi-Fi router. Bear with me, as this sounds like I’m tacking red string to a corkboard and connecting the dots. It has to do with how Apple approximates positions and leans on Wi-Fi—no conspiracy theories required. Wi-Fi is one leg of Apple’s location-finding system used across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and used by Apple’s Find My, Maps, and many other apps,…