Indice dei contenuti per July 2021 in Macworld

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…

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…

BLUESOUND POWERNODE NODE 2I V2 This high-resolution multi-room audio streamers offer direct access to hundreds of internet radio stations, dozens of streaming music services, and your own local digital-music library via dual-band Wi-Fi and AirPlay 2, or a wired gigabit ethernet connection as well as Bluetooth aptX and USB. The Bluesound PowerNode 2i has a beefed-up power amp that pumps out 80 watts/channel into 8 ohms and its DAC operates at 32-bit/384 kHz with a differential output and supports audio resolutions up to 24-bit/192 kHz. It also boasts a lower signal-to-noise ratio of -113 dB and THD+N of 0.002 percent. —SCOTT WILKINSON SHARP FXJ80UW AIR PURIFIER The FXJ80UW is a big air purifier designed for rooms up to 502 square feet. It uses a two-step process to clean the…

To commemorate Global Accessibility Awareness Day, celebrated on May 20, and better support many of its differently abled customers, Apple announced a big batch of new accessibility features across multiple products and services. Some, like a new SignTime service and Today at Apple sessions in ASL and BSL, launched on May 20. Others, like AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch and background sounds for neurodiverse users, are coming in software updates later this year. (Apple did not specify when, but it’s likely they will appear in this fall’s releases of iOS 15, macOS 12, and watchOS 8.) ACCESSIBILITY UPDATES ON MAY 20 Some of the accessibility features and services that launched in May include: SignTime: This feature enables customers to communicate with AppleCare and Retail Customer Care using American Sign Language (ASL) in…

The iMac was long overdue for a change. Its basic design is about 17 years old, and sure, it had some changes happen during that time, but they were incremental and didn’t alter the way we think about the iMac. To its benefit, it was a design that worked for a long while, but over the past couple of years, the iMac was feeling dated. With the new 24-inch iMac, the iMac line gets the new life that it needed, and Apple succeeds in making the iMac exciting again. The redesign starts with the bold use of color on the outside and a new slim and minimalist design, and it ends with Apple’s impressive M1 system on a chip (SoC) inside. It all combines to make a cutting-edge desktop computer…

Over time, your Mac probably accumulates a lot of crud: old applications you no longer use, data you have no use for, a desktop full of icons (only four of which you actually ever use)—you know what I mean. With so many people working from home lately, the problem has only gotten worse. Now is as good a time as any to tidy up your Mac, freeing up storage space and probably CPU cycles and RAM in the process. Here are a few tips to make quick work of your Mac “spring cleaning.” OPTIMIZE STORAGE Open the Storage Management app, either by using Spotlight (Command-space) or by clicking the Apple logo in the upper left of the menu bar, choosing About This Mac, clicking the Storage tab, and then clicking…

Too many surge protectors look like they’re designed to be hidden behind your desk, and that’s all well and good, so long as you don’t intend to swap plugs too often. But if you do need easy access to your surge protector, you’ll probably want to pick one that isn’t flat-out ugly. The Anker PowerExtend USB-C 3 Capsule can’t accommodate a lot of devices, but it’s attractive enough to leave out in plain sight, and its AC outlet orientation keeps wall warts out of sight while leaving its three USB charging ports easily accessible. These outlets are well spaced and arranged at angles that allow for easy cord management. I had no problem plugging three oversize DC power supplies into them. You only get two USB-A and one USB-C charging…

Apple pushes its Music subscription service heavily, to the extent of killing off iTunes in macOS with the release of macOS 10.15 Catalina in 2019 and replacing it with several apps, including one simply called Music. But if you subscribe to Apple Music, you might find you can’t purchase music—you can only listen to it. Apple has retained the name iTunes just for purchases, as in the iTunes Store, and disables showing results from it by default when an Apple Music subscription is active. (I checked among my family after we subscribed to the new Apple One bundle, and none of us had iTunes Store active any more.) It’s easy to fix: 1. Open the Music app. 2. Choose Music → Preferences and select General. 3. Select the iTunes Store checkbox.…

ERASE AN ENCRYPTED MAC VOLUME IF YOU DON’T NEED ITS CONTENTS MacOS offers a number of drive encryption options. With a Mac with a T2 chip built in, the startup volume is always encrypted. On other Macs, enabling FileVault encrypts that volume. (On all Macs, FileVault provides additional protection for a powered-down Mac, too.) You can also select a drive in the Finder, Control-click it, and choose Encrypt drive name, setting a password of your choosing. If you forget that password or were given or purchase a drive that’s encrypted, you might think you’re at a dead end. However, as long as you don’t need the data on the drive, you can still erase it using Disk Utility: 1. Launch Applications → Utilities → Disk Utility. 2. Select the volume…

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 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…

Let’s face it: Kids want iPhones. They see their favorite celebrities using them and their parents using them, and some of their friends have them. But which iPhone is best for your kid? There are lots of factors to consider, not the least of which is the age of the kid in question. Whatever iPhone you get, you should consider using Screen Time to manage their use. Built into iOS, Screen Time lets you set limits on how long your kid can use their phone, what apps they can download and use, and when they need to put it down for the night. It’s a great way for busy parents to keep tabs on what their kids are doing when they’re not within eyeshot, and it ought to be the first…

Apple made a big deal about 5G in the iPhone 12, but there was one thing that wasn’t mentioned in the keynote hype—the company isn’t making the modem. It’s one of the few essential iPhone chips that Apple doesn’t manufacture, and a new report says that isn’t going to change with the next few models. Apple has been working on a 5G modem since last year following its purchase of Intel’s shuttered mobile modem business. The billion-dollar deal brought patents, intellectual property, and a couple of thousand employees as Apple looked to cut ties with Qualcomm, which currently supplies the X55 modem in the iPhone 12. However, TFT Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports (via MacRumors) that Apple isn’t close to making its own mobile modem: “We predict that the ‌iPhone‌…

It has been more three years since Apple last updated its streaming media box. The old Apple TV 4K was too good to need an update, really. With an A10X processor and Apple’s excellent tvOS software, it was already more responsive and performant than nearly all its competitors. There’s a very healthy app ecosystem, and it even supported Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Its biggest problem was its price: $179 for 32GB or $199 for 64GB. So what changes does Apple make after three years? Not many. The new Apple TV 4K replaces the A10X for an A12, which is a fairly small upgrade. It still costs $179/$199 for 32GB/64GB, and it even looks identical. The biggest upgrade is the new Siri Remote, which is a sweeping overhaul and a…

One of the most powerful additions to the computing arsenal that arrived in the early 2000s was automatic saving, particularly incremental saves that happened quietly and continuously. These keep you from losing your work in progress between saves. But how can you bring back both explicit saves (Command-S or File → Save) and incremental automatic saves? Apple offers a built-in feature for its document-focused apps, like Pages and Numbers, and a framework that some other developers tie into as well. You find it in File → Revert To → Browse All Versions. It resembles Time Machine but doesn’t require that you be using a Time Machine backup. Select that option, and an interface appears that shows the current version of the document at left and the most recently saved version…

In June 2021, Apple Music got a big update, and it’s free to all subscribers. The entire catalog of over 75 million tracks will be available in a lossless audio format using ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Compression), starting with 20 million tracks and expanding to the entire catalog by the end of 2021. Eventually all tracks will be available in a hi-res lossless format at a maximum of 24bit and 192kHz. In addition, some tracks will gain Dolby Atmos support, which can be played with lots of Apple and Beats headphones. You’ll see labels on albums that show you which formats are available (see above). But not everyone will be able to enjoy these formats; you’ll need specific hardware for each of them. (And software: You have to have your…

California-based RSL has been delivering monitor speakers that defy their size and price for 50 years. The company has manufactured speakers that are the darlings of some Hollywood record producers. RSL’s newest flagship lineup, the CG5, is the successor to the highly acclaimed CG4, and it consists of two models: a two-way monitor, the CG5 (reviewed here), and an MTM monitor design, the CG25. The CG5’s sonic performance, build quality, and price point ($800 for the pair) left me awestruck. Read on to discover why you just might want a pair. RSL’S HISTORY RSL (the acronym stands for Rogersound Labs) is a well-known brand in die-hard audio circles, but it’s far from being a household name. Founder Howard Rogers started selling speakers factory direct from his store in North Hollywood…

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…

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…

If you’re looking for a tracker that will motivate your kids to exercise, there are precious few options. There’s one, really: the Fitbit Ace 3. It arrived this week for $80 and comes in a kid-friendly case with kid-friendly colors and kid-friendly watch faces. My 9-year-old son has used a Fitbit Ace 2 for the past year and he loves it. It’s water-resistant for swims and showers, basically indestructible with a silicon case, just the right size for his wrist, and gives him the stats he wants, and the battery life lasts for the entire school week. The Fitbit app even has easy-to-use privacy controls. Apple wants you to believe it sells a kids’ watch too. On the new Apple for Kids support page, it directs you to the watchOS…

In the past few years, smart home tech has gone from a niche category to one that’s started to worm its way throughout our entire world. Apple’s HomeKit has played a part in that, but as the market becomes more advanced, Cupertino’s implementation is starting to strain at the seams. Perhaps it’s time for a serious rethink of HomeKit: not just how it works, but the very fundamentals that have taken us this far. The good news is that there’s some evidence Apple may be headed down that road already, and hopefully we’re getting closer to seeing exactly what that reality might look like. CHIP AHOY! In December of 2019, Apple teamed up with Amazon and Google to announce the launch of Project Connected Home Over IP (CHIP). The top…

Apple’s new AirTag trackers are even smaller in person than they appear in pictures. While it’s roughly the size of a half-dollar coin or a button on an overcoat, the convex design makes it feel smaller than either of those things. And compared to the square Tile tracker, it’s downright puny. Depending on what you want to use AirTag for, however, the size might not matter. Since Apple didn’t include a keychain hole anywhere on the AirTag, you’re going to need a proprietary dongle that could double (or in the case of the Hermes Luggage Tag, quindecuple) the price of the investment and turn it from an inexpensive impulse buy into an overpriced luxury accessory. The market will no doubt be flooded in short order with dirt-cheap tags and key rings, but…

We have all known the frustration of being told to press Control-Option-Command-Shift and some other letter—most of us don’t do daily finger exercises to prepare for such nimble maneuvers. Apple’s Sticky Keys option can help with that. An adjacent feature, Slow Keys, can assist when your typing style and your actual results are out of sync. Both features are found in System Preferences → Accessibility → Keyboard. In the Hardware tab, you can enable either Sticky Keys or Slow Keys or both and set their parameters. WHAT STICKY KEYS DOES With Sticky Keys, you can press the Shift, Command, Option, and Control keys individually and release them, and they remain pressed down so you don’t have to hold them all down at once for various commands. By default, as you…

We’ve been hearing rumors of a new AirPods design for some time now. (Many people keep calling them AirPods 3, though there was never really an AirPods 2.) Depending on whom you believe, those are due to be announced at any time—at WWDC, or this fall, or maybe even sooner. They were supposed to accompany a new Apple Music subscription tier that launched recently after a raft of rumors, but they didn’t appear. While a new AirPods design is welcome, this high-end Apple Music tier is not. High-fidelity music has always been snake oil; a way to part music-loving audiophiles convinced of their golden ears from their hard-earned money. It has never caught on, mostly because it’s simply not needed. With Amazon and Spotify adding hi-fi tiers to their services, I’m not…

At first glance, I thought Zound Industries—the company that builds speakers and headphones under license from Marshall Amplification—had to be pulling my leg. The cups on the $150 Marshall Major IV aren’t big enough to fit around a five-year-old’s ears, let alone an adult’s. Then I put them on. I’ll be darned. There’s a method to this on-ear versus traditional over-ear madness. IN YOUR CUPS I’d love to have been in the meeting where the idea for the first pair of on-ear headphones was presented. Raised eyebrows aplenty, I’m sure. I’m also sure doubts disappeared once the executives being pitched actually tried them on. They can be comfortable, and if the first batch sounded anything like the Marshall Major IV, those eyebrows went up again for entirely different reasons. So…