Índex per May 2022 a Macworld

The launch of the Mac Studio (see page 54) was a big moment for Apple. Following years of preparation, that launch marked an important milestone in the Mac’s journey. Apple exec John Ternus’ declaration that the M1 chip family is complete marks the end of the first Apple silicon product cycle. But the wheel keeps turning. The first cycle answered numerous questions we had less than two years ago—but many more remain. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, this is only the end of the beginning. MYSTERIES REVEALED Before the Apple silicon transition was announced in June 2020, there were many questions about how it might work. Many of us had concerns that Apple’s processors, designed for the iPhone and then beefed up for the iPad, would not be able to handle the…

The recent introduction of the Mac Studio got me thinking about how strange the final few years of the Intel-based 27-inch iMac were. When the 27-inch iMac was refreshed in 2020, we all knew it was the end of the line. Apple silicon iMacs were coming, but just before Apple shut the door on the old iMac, it got a final revision out the door. Consider the features of that iMac: an optional nano-texture display and a 3.6GHz 10-core Intel Core i9 processor. Macworld’s reviewed iMac configuration cost $4,499—it was clearly aimed at pro users. Now consider that the original iMac, when it was introduced in 1997, was underpowered and cost $1,299 for the general consumer. The evolution of the iMac took a strange turn. What happened? NO PLACE TO GO…

If you subscribe to Apple One or Apple TV+, Apple may soon have a new iPhone to sell you. According to Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple has been working on a new subscription service for the iPhone and other hardware products that will let customers subscribe to Apple hardware with a monthly recurring payment. According to Gurman’s sources, Apple has been working on the subscription program for several months and is expected to launch it at the end of 2022. Unfortunately, that’s all the detail we have right now. We don’t know anything about pricing, bundles, which Apple hardware would be offered (other than the iPhone), or terms for trade-ins and upgrades. Apple already offers the iPhone Upgrade Program in the U.S., U.K., and China, which lets users pay for a…

As the M1 rollout continues in the Mac lineup, Apple is now in the part of the cycle where the computers aren’t for everyone. The Macs being introduced late in the transition are meant for users who think M1 fast isn’t fast enough and need every ounce of processing power they can get. Those Macs are also an investment that is anything but affordable for the general consumer audience. The Mac Studio is ideal for content creators of any level. But here’s the thing: The Mac Studio’s performance over the M1 in the Mac mini or 24-inch iMac isn’t just a marginal boost like we used to see with Intel-based Macs—it’s a serious speed improvement. Add to that an attractive mix of features, and you’ll find in Mac Studio a computer that…

The past two years have put new emphasis on how important an internet connection is to our daily lives. At the same time, some of us have never experienced such slowdowns and erratic performance as in these past two years, coupled with overloading our previously capable home networks. Measuring internet networking performance can help us stay efficient, find entertainment, and avoid a lot of frustration. Several tools can help you measure or monitor your internet and network performance, and many of them are free. One is even built into macOS Monterey. MONITOR VS. MEASURE, INTERNET VS. NETWORK Checking in on your network health is always complicated by your position relative to the internet. Within your network, the speed of your connection via ethernet or Wi-Fi can constrain your internet bandwidth.…

My dad was selling an old iMac a few days ago and finally had a buyer. He’d gone through the steps to erase it and set it up for a new owner, making sure he had wiped his data. He powered it down one night. The next morning, right before the buyer was slated to arrive, he fired it up: It wouldn’t boot. After a few attempts, including holding down the power button for 10 seconds, he finally had liftoff but reported to me that it sounded quite loud—like the fans were working overtime. What should he do? I told him to blow it out his fans—the accumulated dust, that is! My remote diagnosis was that after nearly 10 years, it was likely the iMac had accumulated dust during normal…

Astell&Kern has a sterling reputation in the audiophile world, so you have to think it carefully considered the decision before it put the A&K name on a pair of wireless in-ear headphones priced for a broader market. The AK UW100 ($260) utilize technology originally developed for the company’s hi-fi gear and certainly qualify as a product that deserves the Astell&Kern name. Building high-quality in-ear headphones is quite a challenge. Sure, there are plenty of inexpensive earbuds that will keep a Bluetooth connection, and there are also plenty of listeners who can’t tell the difference or don’t care. When a manufacturer aspires to make something better, it usually gets tripped up at the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) stage. Most choose low power consumption DACs to maximize battery life, but that trade-off severely…

Recycling is good. Just ask Apple. After Greenpeace repeatedly called out the company for poor performance on environmental issues, it began a process to detail all the ways it was being green, including that now-familiar slide that appears at the introduction of every Apple product detailing how it’s made from recycled materials, doesn’t contain toxic byproducts, and more. You know the one. But in recent years Apple has also become an expert at a different kind of recycling. The company has found strategic advantages in designing an increasing amount of its hardware in-house—and then, to make the most of it, it uses that hardware again and again in different products. The most obvious example, at least this month, is the Apple Studio Display. It has the same Center Stage camera…

When Apple discontinued the Thunderbolt Display in June 2016 after a five-year run, it wasn’t pulled off the shelf right away; it stuck around for a few months until its stock ran out. Instead of issuing a new display to replace it, however, Apple worked with LG Electronics, and by the end of 2016, the UltraFine 4K and 5K displays went on sale. So for nearly three years, Apple’s “official” display offerings were the LG UltraFine displays. The LG displays were fine displays (pun intended)—despite an early hiccup with Wi-Fi interference—but the design was typical of any ordinary PC display. Apple’s partnership with LG seemed to focus on the technical aspects of the screen. I’m not downplaying it at all, but one of the reasons Apple customers love Apple products is because Apple’s…

There’s no reason to let your iPhone keep secrets from you, especially when those secrets could be so helpful in your everyday life. For instance, you may not be aware that any iPhone with a relatively modern version of iOS installed has hidden apps you might actually want to use. Here’s how to surface the ones that aren’t so easy to find. 1. CODE SCANNER You can scan a QR code by opening your Camera, but there’s also a Code Scanner app in iOS 14 and later that doesn’t come up when you search your iPhone apps. From Settings, tap Control Center, scroll down to find Code Scanner, and then dlidk on the plus sign (+) to move it into the Included Controls section. When you’re ready to use Code…

As part of the iOS 15.4 and watchOS 8.5 update released this week, which brings new emoji and a new Siri voice, Apple has posted a support document that explains how to restore your Watch if an error message pops up. While error messages are relatively rare on the Apple Watch, in the past they often required a full factory reset or a trip to the Apple Store. In watchOS 8.5, your iPhone can help. Apple lays out the following steps if your watch suddenly displays the setup animation showing a watch and iPhone being brought close together: 1. Put your Apple Watch on its charger. 2. Double-click the side button (the button below the circular Digital Crown) on your Apple Watch. 3. Follow the steps that appear on the iPhone. Apple…

The iPhone SE is sort of a brilliant concept. Recognizing that there’s a huge market for people who can’t afford the typical price of a new iPhone (or just don’t want to spend that much), Apple takes a somewhat outdated model, replaces the processor with the latest one, and sells it at a greatly reduced price. In 2016, the original iPhone SE put the latest processor (A9) in the body of a two-generations-old iPhone 5S for just $399. It took four years for Apple to release a second-generation iPhone SE, which once again put the latest processor (A13) in a two-generations-old iPhone 8, still for just $399. Now two years later, Apple has abandoned this winning iPhone SE formula. It’s still the latest processor (A15), but instead of putting it…

If you’re like me, you are constantly trying to bridge the gap between paper and digital documents. While I’ve managed to decrease the amount of paper that comes in, it’s not zero, and often government agencies, medical offices, and my children’s schools insist on sending forms that must be filled out “by hand.” Your iPhone is often the best camera you have with you, and it’s also the best scanner for your Mac. You can perform powerful tricks in transforming paper to bits with your iPhone by itself, using software like Adobe Scan, JotNot Pro, PDFPen, or Evernote—or even Apple’s Notes app. But you can save a step and use a bigger screen for editing and other tasks by selecting an option you might not have known existed. It’s easiest…

The creative arts have long had a troubled relationship with money. Somewhere along the line, you have to suck up to somebody with a checkbook, whether it’s the local banking dynasty or a bunch of Patreon subscribers. Most artists don’t have the power to tell their backers, as Ben Affleck does in Shakespeare in Love, “You may remain, as long as you remain silent. Pay attention, and you will see how genius creates a legend.” Affleck’s financier timidly refers to himself as “the money,” but such reticence is rare in real life. Most patrons of the arts use the exercise to publicize themselves, promote their favorite causes, or art-wash their past. If they didn’t stand to benefit, why would they cough up the cash in the first place? For disinterested…

Guitar amp vendors are known for selling the best-sounding consumer audio devices, and given the target audience—musicians—I suppose that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Marshall and Fender, for example, both deliver the sonic goods, and now here comes Positive Grid with its fantastically portable yet beefy-sounding Spark Mini Bluetooth speaker. The $229 (retail) Spark Mini is a great-sounding little speaker considering its diminutive proportions, which do impose some sonic limitations. It’s also a stellar, ultra-portable practice amp for guitar and bass players if you happen to know one. DESIGN AND FEATURES Originally a software company, Positive Grid created waves two years ago with its first hardware product, the Spark practice amp. It was small by amp standards, but large for a Bluetooth speaker, and it lacked a battery for true portability.…

As Apple releases more Macs with its M1-series system on a chip, it seems like Apple’s lineup is getting more complicated. When the rollout is complete, it will be easier to discern what Macs address which markets. There’s one consideration users don’t need to make any more thanks to Apple silicon: You don’t have to worry about compromising performance if you decide to go with a laptop instead of a desktop Mac. Before Apple started using its own silicon in Macs, the company used Intel processors. Intel’s processors are designed as mobile or desktop chips, and they differ based on thermal dynamics and power consumption. That usually meant a MacBook would be slower than a desktop Mac. We’ve reviewed a few of Apple’s M1-equipped Macs, and for the most part,…

It happens every spring and fall. For a period of weeks, major regions that observe daylight saving time (that’s “saving” without an “s,” thank you) fall out of sync. For instance, most of the United States and Canada are offset by one fewer hour from Western and Central Europe than we are the rest of the year for about two weeks. The reverse happens in fall. If you work or have family across international time zones a bit east or west of you, or you’re just trying to remember how far ahead or back is Rocky Mountain Time, the free app Clocker provides those details at a glance—and some warnings, too. You populate Clocker with one or more cities or time zones around the globe and mark your most commonly…

Every time there’s a big iOS update–either a major yearly release or a particularly feature-packed point release like iOS 15.4–you’ll find users complaining that their battery doesn’t last as long as it used to. On social media, users will complain of significant battery drops just hours after the update. Those who follow this issue closely have maintained that this is to be expected. The operating system is performing background operations, optimizing all sorts of data, and sometimes doing stuff like rescanning your photos with new machine-learning algorithms, and this increases battery drain. That’s not to mention that battery management is handled by sophisticated algorithms, which may need several charge-and-drain cycles to adapt. In a rare official comment on the matter, the Apple Support Twitter account confirmed this to be true.…

Apple is reportedly preparing to make a major change to the way it sells iPhones. You’ll still be able to plunk down $1,000-plus on the latest and greatest iPhone if you want, but the company is rumored to be launching a new subscription service (see page 46) that lets you essentially lease iPhones and other devices for a fixed cost. There aren’t a lot of details about the program, but it will reportedly begin with the iPhone before expanding to other devices. As it stands, Apple already offers the iPhone Upgrade Program, which lets you spread the cost of a new iPhone with AppleCare+ over the course of two years. That program is essentially a loan that requires a credit check and monthly payments to a bank, with an option…

Oh, iPad Air, how we have missed you. Ignored for the whole of 2021, the Air went from best in class—we called the previous model “the best iPad for most people” in our 2020 review—to runt of the litter, superseded by up-to-date versions of the 10.2-inch iPad, iPad mini, and iPad Pro. The Air needed an update. Thankfully Apple announced precisely that at its “Peek Performance” spring event. The Air is roaring back to relevancy with a 2022 upgrade that adds a Pro-level M1 processor, 5G support and a much-improved front-facing camera. But is that enough to restore its status as the best iPad in Apple’s range? Short answer: Yes. For the long answer, read on. DESIGN: REFINED ELEGANCE We’ll get to the elements that have changed in a moment,…

The $300 Mercury Pro U.2 Dual is a Thunderbolt 3 storage box featuring two U.2 (a server and enterprise-level NVMe connector) bays. To add up to the eight M.2 SSDs touted by OWC, you have to use a four-slot OWC Shuttle U.2 to M.2 caddy/adapter included in the box, and then buy another adapter ($150) to max out at eight SSDs and 64TB. Or you can buy it pre-populated from OWC. For eight drives (fastest), pricing starts at $1,500 for 4TB and ends at a whopping $12,799 for 64TB. Yup, 8TB SSDs are pricey. Note that running mirrored RAID 1 or mirrored/striped RAID 1+0 will halve available capacity. Regardless, the bare box allows you to upgrade at your leisure and need, and the included SoftRAID XT software allows you to…

The HDHomeRun Flex 4K from SiliconDust is a clever little box that will stream broadcast TV signals to televisions, smartphones and tablets across your home network. It’s a great addition to any cord-cutting household, and it’s also among the cheapest ways to receive ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) broadcasts that might be on the air where you live. I’ve been testing the HDHomeRun Flex 4K for the last month and I’ve been surprised at its usefulness and simplicity, as well as impressed with the quality of its TV reception. The device itself is a lot smaller than I was expecting it to be. Because it streams TV across your network, it doesn’t need to be located anywhere near your TV. It has just four connections: a power socket, wired ethernet, a…

WHAT TO DO IF YOU CAN’T LOG IN TO YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT ON YOUR MAC Apple makes it simple to log in to accounts for email, calendars, reminders, and notes run by other ecosystems, like Microsoft and Google. But you may have been bitten by some Apple or Google bug that prevents successful completion of a Google account login. This can occur either in System Preferences → Internet Accounts when you click Google and then click the Open Browser button, or in Mail when you go to Mail → Preferences → Accounts, click the plus (+) sign, select Google, and click Continue. What you expect to see isn’t a moderately large empty dialog box with a gray spinner inside and a Cancel button at the bottom. You would prefer to…