Tabla de contenidos para January 2023 en MacLife

> iCLOUD.COM REVAMPED The iCloud.com website has been redesigned with widget–like tiles. On the site, currently in beta, you can now choose which apps are on the home page, and some have a new, streamlined design. > DUCKDUCKGO FOR MAC The public beta of DuckDuckGo for Mac is available for download. Its core feature is private search that blocks hidden trackers, so you see what you’re after and not endless ads for what you searched for yesterday. The app includes web and app tracking protection, Smarter Encryption, voice search and more, with platform–specific features for iOS, Android, Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari. The Burn After Reading feature clears your tabs and browsing data with a very satisfying flame animation. > FIRST METAL 3 GAME RELEASED Resident Evil Village, the first…

Leica Cine 1 $TBC From leica-camera.com >>> Leica is known for its cameras, but the firm has now found a new area to explore: projectors. The Leica Cine 1 is the company’s first ultra–short–throw laser projector and can beam out 4K images up to 100 inches across without needing a massive distance between itself and the projection surface. It looks classy, incorporating Leica’s renowned design sense into a sleek aluminum body with an automatic dust cover to protect the lens. There’s built–in Dolby Atmos sound too, so it’s also easy on the ears. Leica has been coy on any further details, but according to The Verge, the company is said to be working on two models: one producing about 2,500 lumens for a 100–inch 4K picture, and another with 2,100…

Collaborate with others iPADOS 16 IS the most sociable iPad OS yet. There are multiple ways to share with others and for others to share with you, from SharePlay for music, TV, movies and apps, to the Shared With You tabs in Messages and Safari. Sharing and collaboration is built into all of Apple’s key creative and productivity apps including Pages, Numbers, Safari and even Reminders, and it’s increasingly available in many third party apps too. Whether you’re communicating about a big work project or doing something fun with the family, it’s easy to start a Messages conversation or FaceTime chat from the Share icon. HOW TO Edit or Unsend in Messages 1 Make your message In this example we’ll send a hilarious audio message to someone and then realize…

Isolate from background WE LOVED PHOTOS’ cutout feature when it arrived in iOS 16 and we’re just as addicted to it on our iPad: simply long–press on the subject of an image until you see it briefly shimmer and you can then copy it to another app or share it with others — so as you can see in our screenshot you can take a fairly busy photo and remove its background very effectively. You can then use it as an image in Pages, send it in Messages or even use it as an iMovie background. The feature works best with images that have strong contrast between the subject and background, but we’re frequently surprised by how well it copes with tougher images too. The feature isn’t just in Photos:…

Being able to take hundreds of photos on your iPhone or iPad is a wonderful thing, as is the ability to edit them in Photos or a third–party app such as Photoshop CC. You can even share pictures with friends and family via iCloud — but what if you want to share your photos in physical form, printing them out to keep in a frame or photo album? And what can you do about those irreplaceable old analog slides and negatives — how do you digitize and print them? In this feature we’ll look at how to do this and more. We’ll explain how you can prepare your digital photos for printing so that they look their absolute best in terms of color, tone and detail. We’ll explain what the…

Marvelous mugshots! $21.30 saal-digital.com A picture of a pet on an everyday object such as a mug is easy to produce using Saal Digital’s online template. We created this design with the High–Key Light Mono option in the Photos app’s Portrait Mode. Personalized postcards $1.70 saal-digital.com A postcard personalized with your own photo is an effective way to send greetings to friends and family while on holiday. A social media post will soon disappear, but a postcard will be cherished for longer. Create a calendar $22.99 Motif, App Store Motif was the company used by Apple to print photo books from Photos. Download Motif as a plug–in for Photos and use File > Create to print straight to products such as calendars from within Photos. Get on the case From…

$149 From audio-technica.com Features 20Hz–20kHz frequency response, 24–bit/96kHz audio resolution, cardioid polar pattern, microphone/computer mix dial, 3.5mm jack, touch–sensitive mute button, mute indicator light, USB–A to USB–C adapter, two–meter USB–A to USB–C cable AUDIO–TECHNICA IS WELL–KNOWN for its selection of high–end microphones, most of which use the XLR connector. That’s fine if you have the right equipment to plug it into, but it’s not so useful if you just want to make some quick–and–dirty recordings on your Mac. The company’s AT2020USB–X microphone changes that. It’s not actually Audio–Technica’s first USB mic offering (it’s a "reimagining" of the AT2020USB+), but it is a serious contender for your cash if you’re looking for the perfect partner for your Mac when it comes to streaming, podcasting, and video calls. The AT2020USB–X comes with…

$899 (4TB, range starting from $219 for 240GB) From eshop.macsales.com Features High–performance SSD, Thunderbolt 3/4 and USB 3 compatible, water, dust and drop resistant Needs Thunderbolt 3/4 preferred for best performance THERE ARE FAST SSDs and versatile SSDs, but only OWC’s Envoy Pro tries to be both, and more. How can it be rugged yet fit into a pocket, and push nearly 3GB/sec over Thunderbolt 3 while still connecting to Macs with only USB 3 support? The Envoy Pro FX is the same size as most SATA SSDs and significantly heavier at 9oz in its heat–dissipating aluminum case. OWC claims IP67 rating for resistance to dirt, dust and water, and military standards for robustness to dropping. These were good enough to take it into space in one of Jeff Bezos’…

$149.99 From satechi.net Features 1x USB–A (3.2), 2x USB–C, 1x HDMI 2.1 (4K @ 60Hz), 1x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, 1x audio in/out Needs Mac with USB–C THERE’S NO SHORTAGE of portable USB hubs available for use with your MacBook, but choosing the right one can be tricky. With no mains power supply these portable hubs can only offer a limited selection of ports and connectors, but Satechi’s new USB–4 Multiport Adapter manages to provide a good set of ports and connectors that will be useful for many MacBook users. It’s also up to date with some of the latest technologies that provide good performance for the devices that you connect to your Mac. The Multiport Adapter isn’t quite pocket–size, but it’s easy to carry in a bag with your laptop…

THE LAST COUPLE of decades have seen Apple transition from being a maker of hardware and software, into a full–blown media company that secures distribution deals for movies and buys screening rights to major sports leagues. Since it started selling music downloads in 2003, Apple has added movies and TV shows to rent or buy, books, magazines, streaming music, streaming TV shows and movies, games and, of course, apps. Most recently of all, it’s entered the realm of Peloton and the like by enabling you to subscribe to exercise classes through Apple Fitness+. All of these can be bought, rented or subscribed to from your Mac or iOS device. But the way in which you do so, and just as importantly, the way in which you cancel a subscription, is…

> No ARM Boot Camp Why don’t Apple silicon Macs support Windows for ARM in Boot Camp? In terms of hardware, Intel Macs are only really a special build of PC, and getting them to start in and run Microsoft Windows was relatively straightforward. Although made a bit more complicated with the addition of the T2 chip, they have remained highly compatible with other PCs. Not only do Apple silicon Macs have a completely different processor, but all the supporting electronics in their chips are different too. While the special versions of Windows made for Microsoft’s ARM–based Surface touchscreen systems are built to run on ARM processors, they’re designed for completely different firmware and supporting hardware systems. Apple silicon Macs have to start up from their internal SSD, from which…

REQUIRES macOS 11.0 or later, iPadOS 14 or later, Keynote 12.1 YOU WILL LEARN How to use dynamic background animations in Keynote IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes DYNAMIC BACKGROUNDS ARE a new feature introduced with Keynote 12.1, which was released in June of this year. If you’re not up to date with the latest version of Keynote, make sure you update before starting this guide. You must be running macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) or later, or iPadOS 14 or later if you’re using an iPad. The new dynamic backgrounds feature lets you add subtle motion to your Keynote slides, which move continuously as you view. If you use the same dynamic background on consecutive slides, the animation continues to play without interruption as you move between them. It’s also worth…

APPLE HAS RELEASED a next–generation Apple TV 4K. There’s a $129 Wi–Fi model with 64GB of storage, and a $149 Wi–Fi+Ethernet model with 128GB storage, Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, and Thread mesh networking to connect to more smart home accessories. App and streaming service subscriptions are not included, although Apple is currently offering three months of Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade for free when you buy the hardware and have not previously taken up a free trial. The A15 Bionic chip in both models delivers CPU performance up to 50% faster than the previous generation, promising greater responsiveness and faster navigation. GPU performance is up to 30% faster for even smoother gameplay. Both models now support HDR10+ alongside Dolby Vision, although relatively few TVs currently have support for HDR10+ built in,…

OVER THE LAST few weeks, I have been testing out the new Apple Watch SE. My review can pretty much be summed up as: it feels like such a premium Apple Watch experience overall that I switched to it from the Apple Watch Series 7, and I didn’t feel any major loss. I barely noticed it was a different device, other than the fact that it was even lighter and didn’t have an always–on screen. And then I switched to testing the Apple Watch Series 8, and it didn’t really feel any different compared to using the cheaper Watch. I liked having the always–on screen back, yes, but overall it feels like a bit of an anticlimax. For $150 more, you get changes you barely notice. Some people will make…

WE’VE COME A long way since the first iPad in 2010. That one ran iPhone OS 3.2, and critics mocked it as a giant iPhone. They did have a point, but even then Apple was making the iPadOS different from the iPhone one — and with each new release, those differences have become much more significant. iPadOS 16 really blurs the lines between iPads and Macs, especially when it comes to multitasking. iPadOS 16 isn’t trying to turn your iPad into a Mac, though. It’s still very much a mobile operating system that plays to the iPad’s strengths: its portability, its touchscreen and its ability to completely transform based on the app you’re using. This is a very big update. It introduces a brand new way of working with multiple…

STAGE MANAGER, THE new multitasking interface in iPadOS 16, has had a bit of a bumpy ride: it’s been widely criticized by many prominent developers for its bugs in the iPadOS betas, and it’s been suggested that those bugs are at least part of the reason for the delay in getting iPadOS 16 released. As things stand at the moment Stage Manager is now officially a beta feature, and even one of its previously announced benefits — external monitor support — has been temporarily removed. Device compatibility has been changed too: what was originally reserved only for M1 and M2–powered iPads now works on iPad Pros with A12X and A12Z chips. Stage Manager isn’t on by default: you have to switch it on in the Control Center. Once you do,…

PASSWORDS HAVEN'T REALLY aged well: they’ve become so complex that we need iCloud Keychain to manage them, and even then websites keep leaking them to the baddies and undoing all our best efforts to make them completely incomprehensible. Enter the simple and secure passkeys, which are designed to change all that. Passkeys are a new way of identifying yourself to online sites and services, and in Safari they are very simple to use: when you’re creating a login for a site that supports passkeys, Safari will ask if you want to create one and then ask you to use Touch ID to confirm you’re you. That then generates a unique, encrypted identifier that tells the site that you’re not an impostor. It’s much more secure than a password and pretty…

Printing photos can often lead to disappointing results. The vibrant colors and rich contrast of a photo viewed on your iPhone or Mac’s display can often look dull and flat when the image is printed out physically. This is due to a variety of factors. For starters, your Mac or iPhone’s screen displays millions of colors by mixing reds, greens and blues. In general, printers create color by mixing cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) inks (CMYK), which results in thousands rather than millions of colors (though some printers use extra inks for more faithful results — see opposite). As a result a printer’s dots of color may not match the rich color palette of the original digital photo’s pixels. Sometimes colors such as blue in a digital photo will…

In your attic, cupboards or basement, you may have boxes full of old photos that haven’t been seen for years (or even decades). You may also have envelopes full of negatives. Some of your prints might be easier to access in physical photo albums, but, over the decades, time and chemical reactions often cause colors to shift in hue and tones to fade. Other well–loved (and well–handled) prints may suffer from tears, scratches and even coffee stains. You may also have photos stored on long–lost memory card formats that you can no longer access. Fortunately it has never been easier to digitize these precious assets and share them as prints or post them on social media sites to delight friends, family members and followers. Signs of wear and tear can…

$219 From daskeyboard.com Features Aluminum unibody, stainless steel top, two–port USB–C hub, Cherry MX switches MECHANICAL KEYBOARDS MADE for Mac are few and far between. If you want a solid mechanical typing experience with a macOS layout and keycaps, you’re limited to one or two choices among a sea of Windows boards. Now, there’s another option. Das Keyboard has just launched the MacTigr, a set of keys designed specifically for Mac users. They use high–quality Cherry MX Red switches, giving a comfortable, lightweight typing feel that’s a step above the vast majority of traditional Mac keyboards. Unlike some other switches, there’s no tactile bump or audible click, meaning they’re still (just about) quiet enough for an office environment. Right from the off, the MacTigr impresses. Its chassis is all–metal and…

$49.99 From kensington.com Features 1080p resolution, fixed focus lens, Kensington Konnect software, privacy cover Needs macOS 10.15 or later KENSINGTON’S WEBCAM IS designed for those who want more control over the video feed than Apple allows with its own FaceTime cameras. The W1050 has a relatively lightweight build but feels solid enough, and a hinged foot that can rest on the top edge of a laptop or monitor or be mounted on a separate stand via its screw thread. The body can be moved through 360–degrees horizontally and 37–degrees vertically, covering any angle you’d realistically want to use. A privacy cover can be slid across the lens when required. The wide lens has a 95–degree field of view which is quite large if you’re sitting a little way away from…

Free with limitations; subscriptions from $1.99/month From bookfusion.com Needs iOS 12 or later; iPad OS 12 or later; macOS 11.0 or later WHEN THE iPAD first launched, it seemed like the perfect platform for reading eBooks that, for whatever reason, weren’t suited to e–ink readers like Amazon’s Kindle. In addition to Apple’s iBooks, as it was at the time, several third–party eBook readers launched and created what seemed to be a vibrant, growing market. And then… nothing. Apple’s app improved and very quickly didn’t just become the standard, it pretty much killed innovation in the eBook space. That might all have changed with BookFusion, however. This EPUB and PDF reader and organizer is more flexible and more open than Apple’s Books app, and plays much more nicely with other platforms,…

From $99.99; upgrades $69.99 From parallels.com Needs macOS 10.14 or later, 4GB of memory VERSION UPDATE A YEAR AGO, Parallels delivered the first virtualization app to make full use of Apple silicon Macs, including Monterey virtual machines (VMs). Five new Mac models later, including the first M2 Macs, Parallels Desktop 18 remains the only commercial app to run macOS as a guest on those Macs. Unlike open–source rival UTM, Parallels can’t emulate different architectures: it runs ARM guests on Apple silicon Macs, and Intel x86 guests on Intel Macs. On Apple silicon Macs, this new version still virtualizes Windows 10 and 11 for ARM, four Linux distros for 64–bit ARM processors, and macOS from Monterey onwards, but not Big Sur. On Intel Macs it will virtualize Windows from XP and…

UNTIL RELATIVELY RECENTLY, if you wanted to listen to or buy music on your Mac, rent or buy a movie, or subscribe to a podcast, you would head for the same app: iTunes. Now, you have three apps to navigate, depending on what you want to do. Despite the increase in the number of apps, though, it’s now easier to find what you want. iTunes had become a sprawling mess of an app, and its replacements are a big improvement. However, the iTunes Store lives on. There’s still an app in iOS 16 and the store in the Music app still bears its name. In the TV app, however, it’s just called Store. The iTunes Store app sells music, TV shows and movies, while on the Mac, as we’ve discussed,…

REQUIRES 1Password 8 for Mac, macOS 10.15 or later YOU WILL LEARN How to secure logins, sensitive info, private notes, and more IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes WE ALL KNOW we need to use strong, unique passwords for our accounts, but doing this for every single login is a slog. No wonder so many people reuse “Password123” for everything. But there’s a better way — use a password manager. 1Password is one of the best there is, and it can generate and save strong, unique passwords so you never even need to think about them. All you need to remember is a master password — and if you have an Apple Watch, you can unlock the app with that instead. It even goes beyond passwords. The app can save your…

REQUIRES iOS 16 or iPadOS 16 YOU WILL LEARN How to use the new features in the Messages app IT WILL TAKE 30 minutes MESSAGES HAS GRADUALLY been catching up with apps like WhatsApp and Microsoft Teams, and in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, it gets some of its most useful additions yet. Until now, if you sent an angry message to your boss, there was nothing you could do except wait for the fallout. Now, you can unsend the message and they won’t know anything about it. Alternatively, you can edit the message — although, be warned: your boss will be able to see the edits you have made. Messages also joins the SharePlay party. When SharePlay first launched, you could only use it while you were on a…

HOW MIGHT TWITTER change following its acquisition by the world’s wealthiest individual, Elon Musk? Several senior executives have left, including CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and chairman of the board Bret Taylor, among others, but culls of management are standard in such takeovers. It is unknown whether there will be wider layoffs, although sources close to Musk say he may axe “projects that aren’t going anywhere.” The acquisition cost Musk $44bn, $13bn of which is a debt that Twitter will now need to service, so it needs to turn its finances around. The company currently reports “negative cashflow” of more than $120m, and has only about 240m accounts active daily, compared with nearly two billion on Facebook. So Musk needs it to grow fast, increase revenues, cut costs, or…

A while ago my son was traveling on a bus and received unsolicited graphic images — someone had sent them to him via AirDrop. He was really upset and it’s had a big impact on his well–being. How do I stop this from happening in future? I am surprised that his iPhone is able to receive content from anyone who’s nearby on another iPhone. It’s very irresponsible of Apple. ANON By default, AirDrop on an iPhone should be set to only receive content from contacts, so you would have to manually set it to receive from everyone. This is an easy thing to do — we’ve been guilty of changing this ourselves and later forgetting to turn it back to a more secure setting, so it’s understandable that this can…

MANY FELT THAT Mail was overdue some attention from Apple, and if you agreed, then you’ll like the changes in iPadOS 16. The new Undo Send can help you in those heart–in–mouth moments when you’ve accidentally sent the wrong thing or to the wrong person, and Mail will also warn you if your message says you’ve included a file or photo and forgotten to attach it. You can now schedule emails to go at specific times rather than right now, put sent messages in your inbox for you to remember to chase the recipient, and you can also get Mail to remind you about emails that you’ve looked at but haven’t responded to. One of our favorite improvements is the least spectacular–looking but by far the most useful, though. Search…

IF YOU HAVE an M1 or M2–powered iPad Air or iPad Pro, there’s a new display scaling option in iPadOS 16 to make better use of your screen space: if you go into Settings > Display & Brightness > Display Zoom you can select More Space. This reduces the size of on–screen elements such as toolbars and icons so there’s more room for content. It’s particularly good in Slide Over and Split View. iPadOS 16 also enables M1 and M2–powered iPads to display a separate desktop in a 16:9 aspect ratio. That’s primarily done through the Stage Manager, but you can also view apps on a second display in Split View or Full Screen. Or at least, you could until the very final beta of iPadOS 16 when Apple pulled…

The problem with shooting digitally on your iPhone is that great shots can often get lost as your photo library increases in size day by day. You may take the time to create themed albums in Apple’s Photos app and even share these albums with other iCloud users, but many digital images will barely be glanced at for more than a few seconds. A more effective way to give a particular picture more prominence is to print it in a professionally bound photo book, which you can showcase on a coffee table for visitors to flick through. By viewing prints as physical items they are more tangible than pixels on a screen and are therefore deemed to be more valuable and important. However, as physical photo books can still end…

$99.99 From usa.1more.com Features LDAC codec support, 70 hours battery life, hybrid noise canceling, wired option, Bluetooth (plus multipoint for pairing with two devices), 3.5mm audio output THE SONOFLOW IS 1MORE’s first over–ear headphone. Lightweight at just 250g, they’re comfortable for extended listening sessions or wearing during a commute but also feel well–built. In the box there’s a USB–C to USB–A charging cable and a full charge of 80 minutes will get you 70 hours of playback with ANC off or 50 with it on. A five–minute quick charge provides up to five hours of playback and though using full volume will reduce these numbers a little, we found them to be broadly accurate. You do get a wired option which is always nice to have, and a 2.5mm to…

$99 From creative.com Features USB–C DAC and amplifier, up to 115 dB SNR at 24–bit/96kHz playback resolution, plug–and–play USB–C interface. Dimensions: 175 x 67 x 9.7mm, 15g FOR ALL ITS boasts of innovation, Apple still has a tin ear when it comes to audio technology. Its own AirPods can’t play high–quality "lossless" audio, so music fans who want the best sound quality still need to use ye olde wired headphones and a DAC — digital/analogue converter — that can boost the sound quality. There are several portable DACs available for iPhone/iPad, and Creative’s new Sound Blaster X1 is one of the most affordable DACs we’ve seen recently. But, somewhat oddly, it’s primarily designed for use with Macs, PCs and gaming consoles rather than mobile devices. The X1 has a USB–C…

$579.99 From marshallheadphones.com Features Five separate amplifiers, Bluetooth, aux and HDMI, playback and EQ controls, Dynamic Loudness — adjusts the tonal balance depending on the volume THE LARGEST OF Marshall’s new Home series speakers, the Woburn III is relatively heavy at around 16lb and very clearly styled after the company’s legendary family of guitar amplifiers. Its finish is of high quality and though you wouldn’t guess, is PVC–free and also 70% recycled plastic, with beautifully machined brass on the top panel. It leans more towards a conventional notion of a speaker so there’s no Wi–Fi or smart features like voice commands, though it does have Bluetooth 5.2 both for streaming from devices and for managing settings. The companion iOS app allows firmware updates as well as control of a five–band…

EVER STRUGGLED TO get decent Wi–Fi coverage throughout your home? If you have dead spots in key areas, or your network is overwhelmed with too many devices trying to stream at once, you need a mesh network. This utilizes two or more devices — routers and satellites — to blanket your home in a strong, stable wireless system. Traditionally prices have been prohibitively expensive, but as the technology matures and new options come to market, investing in a mesh network has become increasingly affordable. In this roundup we’ve taken a selection of systems spanning various budgets and technologies, from older Wi–Fi 5 (or 802.11ac in “old speak”) to newer Wi–Fi 6 and 6E technologies that can deliver blistering speeds at greater ranges than before. We’ve deliberately focused on systems that…

Free From notenik.app Needs macOS 10.13 or later NOTENIK IS A note–taking app that gives you complete control over your notes. They are stored in folders as text files and you can access and edit them in any text or Markdown editor. You can sync notes (though only with another Mac, as this is a Mac–only app), but how you choose to do that is on a folder–by–folder basis. For example, you could host one folder, known as a Collection in Notenik, in iCloud and another in Dropbox or Google Drive. Notes can be formatted using Markdown and you can add footnotes, citations, generate a table of contents for a long note or collection of notes, and link to other notes using double brackets. When it comes to getting notes…

MUSIC, TV SHOWS and movies are only a few of the digital goodies Apple now offers. You can buy books in the Books app, subscribe to newspapers and magazines in News, get access to hundreds of games in Apple Arcade, and pay for premium versions of podcasts in the Podcasts app. And Fitness+, Apple’s suite of exercise classes, is now available to all iPhone owners instead of being restricted to those who also have an Apple Watch. Add to all that the variety of subscription options for third–party apps, different tiers for iCloud storage and the Apple One grouped plans, and it can quickly become complicated, with lots of different subscriptions to keep track of. Thankfully, every subscription you pay for via Apple is available to view on any device…

REQUIRES Calendars (from readdle.com), macOS 11 or later, optional subscription YOU WILL LEARN To manage events with this Readdle app IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes APPLE’S CALENDAR APP is fine for managing your day–to–day appointments, but it’s no great shakes. Swap it out for the (similarly named) Calendars from Readdle, though, and you’ll have a more modern way to keep track of everything. Calendars boasts a plethora of power tools, from natural language entry to integrated reminders. It syncs across Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, works with popular video–calling apps like Zoom and Google Meet, and lets you create new events with Siri. Got events that you frequently add to your calendar? Calendars lets you save time with its Shortcuts feature. These work like templates that are stored in…

REQUIRES An M1–powered iPad for Stage Manager, iPadOS 16 YOU WILL LEARN The different ways to multitask on iPad IT WILL TAKE 10 minutes EVER SINCE THE very first iPad was unveiled way back in 2010, users have demanded Mac–style multitasking — and Apple has tried various ways to deliver it, with mixed results. In addition to the two existing ways to multitask, Slide Over and Split View, some recent iPad Air and iPad Pro models now have a third option available: Stage Manager. Stage Manager is in iPadOS 16 (and macOS Ventura), and it’s the most Mac–like interface Apple has used on the iPad. It enables you to run several apps in their own resizable windows, just like you would on a Mac desktop, and you can switch between…