Macworld July 2021

The Apple rumor mill has been churning lately with reports that Apple is readying a new consumer laptop that’s thinner than the MacBook Air, available in various colors, and possibly equipped with the next generation of Apple silicon. Of course, it could very well be an update to the MacBook Air, but it seems to me that Apple is likely taking another crack at replacing its iconic notebook. Apple has tried to replace the MacBook Air before—a disastrous attempt that ended up with the cancellation of both of its potential replacements and the revival of the Air. If Apple is indeed trying again, will this time be different? Will Apple’s customers, who appear to adore the MacBook Air, follow the company’s lead? It all depends on how Apple approaches the transition—and whether…

Once upon a time, Apple was all over the iMac VESA wall-mounting standard. With the iMac as the world’s premier all-in-one, it made perfect sense to offer buyers a post-purchase option if they wanted to clear space on their desk or use a stand that allowed adjustment of the height and horizontal viewing angle. Apple was a bit mercenary about it, charging a cool $80 for a very simple adapter, but it was a fairly easy operation to switch from a stand to a VESA mount and back again. All that changed with the advent of the thinner-profile iMac that was introduced in 2012. The iMac’s set screws were rotated 90 degrees forward and were no longer accessible without disassembling the entire computer right down to the motherboard. That means that…

A technology invented at the dawn of the desktop-publishing age is about to expire. Developed by Adobe way back in the early 1980s, PostScript Type 1 fonts—a way of encoding vector-based type designs into a particular file format—will lose full support in Adobe Photoshop this year, and gradually disappear from other Adobe products by 2023, as well as from other companies’ products. If you have a long history in design or using a Mac, you might find yourself unable to use some old type standbys you didn’t realize relied on outdated technology. If you never purchased typefaces, only bought them in roughly the last 20 years, or predicated a long time ago that this would be a problem and took advantage of downloading newer versions of fonts you bought (either at…

If you’re reading this article, you already know all about the Safari start page. A great way to start a web-browsing session, the Safari start page gives you quick and easy access to favorite links, frequently visited sites, and various other online destinations. What you might not know is that you can reorganize everything to make that page less cluttered, more personal, and easier to navigate. It’s not quite as customizable as the Chrome browser, but you can still make it your own. Here are the start page sections that are available: Favorites: Websites added to the Favorites bar. Frequently Visited: A set of websites you often read. Privacy Report: A summary of the number of tracking attempts made while you browse. You can click it and get more detailed…

A VPN service can often be distinct or unique in its app design, approach to privacy, extra services and tools, and general branding. Despite this, you might be surprised to learn that a number of VPNs are under a single corporate umbrella. IPVanish is one such example—it’s owned by J2 Global, under its Netprotect division, which also houses VPN brands Encrypt.Me, SaferVPN, StrongVPN, and Vipre. Netprotect also runs SugarSync, an encrypted backup and cloud storage service, which offers 250GB of storage as an add-on with every IPVanish subscription. IPVanish, according to Netprotect, is all about “protecting personal information online…with a carefully-architected network spanning more than 1,300 servers across 75 plus locations.” So how well does IPVanish accomplish this task? Let’s take a look. SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SERVERS, AND SPEED IPVanish uses OpenVPN…

The truism that good things come in small packages reigns supreme in the case of the Envoy Pro Elektron. It’s small and it’s good–by good I mean it’s rugged, fits easily in a shirt pocket, and delivers 1GBps reads and writes over SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps. (If you’re not up to speed to the latest USB naming conventions, that’s USB 3.X Gen 2.) DESIGN AND SPECS The Envoy Pro Elektron is a small, silvery rectangle measuring 2 inches wide (the site says 2.1), by 3 inches long, by 0.5 inches thick. The bottom is heavily beveled on three sides with two rubberized strips inlaid crosswise to keep it from sliding about. The strips are surprisingly effective. On one end is the Type-C port, which is labeled USB 3.2 10Gbps so you…