Inhoudsopgave van June 2021 - Macworld

Apple on Monday released macOS Big Sur 11.3, an update to the Mac operating system. The update includes improved support for AirTag, iPhone and iPad apps on Apple Silicon Macs, new Safari features, and more. VULNERABILITY FIX Among the many new features detailed below, the macOS 11.3 Big Sur update fixes several security issues, including one where “A malicious application may bypass Gatekeeper checks” (CVE-2021-30657) and another where “A malicious application may be able to bypass Privacy preferences” (CVE-2021-1849). According to Ars Technica, CVE-2021-30657 was actively being exploited in the wild to suppress macOS security warnings. IMPROVING iPHONE AND iPAD APPS ON M1 MACS If you have a Mac with Apple Silicon (the M1 chip) and have been running iPhone and iPad apps, this is an update you’ll want to…

Despite all the intriguing new devices that Apple showed off this week, it’s never too early to start musing on what might be up the company’s sleeves next. As ever, you can glean a lot about the direction Apple is heading in by seeing what kind of things it is focusing on, especially when it’s rolling out new products with new capabilities. Features and technologies that we haven’t seen before can often point to places in which the company has invested significant time and energy—and, in many cases, it’s with an eye to more than just a single device. One of Apple’s great strengths, after all, is a “build once, deploy anywhere” mentality that lets the company bring the same features to many products. With the first event of 2021 behind…

Apple released a new iPad Pro in 2020—a year and a half after the prior update—but it wasn’t much of a change. A new camera module that included LiDAR and an Ultra Wide lens were fine features, but the iPad isn’t really the thing people reach for when they want to take great photos. The processor was updated to the A12Z, which was just the same as the A12X but with a single GPU core, disabled on the A12X, reenabled. The iPad had more storage, but that’s just a function of the inevitable march of time. So the iPad Pro was overdue for a more significant update, and with the new 5th-generation iPad Pro, we finally have it. Here are the highlights that make this year’s iPad Pro special. THE…

We love the simplicity and convenience of iCloud Photo Library: Take a picture or shoot video on an iPhone or iPad, and that content magically appears on every device you own. But sometimes it’s preferable to make local backups instead, like when you’re shooting storage-hungry 4K videos without access to reliable Wi-Fi. That scenario is exactly what OWC Copy That was made for. Brainchild of venerable storage guru Other World Computing, this free iOS app takes most of the friction out of backing up photos and videos from an iPhone or iPad to external or network-attached storage. Using an optional hardware adapter (more on that in a moment), simply connect the external disk to your mobile device, then select the type(s) of media you want to transfer: Photos, Videos, Screenshots,…

Apple recently opened up its Find My network to third-party device makers, but that’s not stopping the company from making its own item tracker. We’ve heard rumors about AirTag since around 2019, and the company has finally released them. They’re pretty simple, really: You add the AirTag to your account and attach the tag to some object, and then the Find My app will tell you where it is in the Items tab. Since nearly all modern Apple products can passively (and privately) use their Bluetooth radios to locate lost devices, you’ll have a pretty good chance of locating something you accidentally leave somewhere. You can locate devices in real time, and also set a device to Lost Mode, which will notify you and display an optional phone number and message…

Disabling notifications in macOS is a great help during meetings, whether you’re sharing your screen or trying to avoid being distracted. In macOS Mojave and earlier, you could Option-click the notifications icon in the upper-right corner of the screen to temporarily shift into Do Not Disturb mode. In macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple shifted Do Not Disturb into a more sensible location, while still keeping most settings in the Notification preference pane. To switch on DND mode: 1. Click the Control Center in the system menu bar. 2. Click Do Not Disturb. 3. Pick an interval: For 1 Hour, Until This Evening, Until Tomorrow, or Always On. While DND is enabled, a titled partial moon icon appears in the menu bar, too, giving you a shortcut from which to select…

Apple ignited the legal music-download revolution with iTunes, fed the fire by dropping copy-protecting DRM from its music downloads, and in 2007 led a major upgrade in digital-music quality with the launch of iTunes Plus. But a decade-plus later, the company finds itself a music-streaming laggard, to borrow a term Steve Jobs used to throw around. When it comes to music quality, Apple’s not streets ahead—it’s streets behind. It’s time for Apple Music to get a huge upgrade—and some recently launched Apple technologies could even allow it to surpass its rivals when it comes to audio quality. THE FACTS ABOUT AUDIO QUALITY This week Spotify became the latest music service to jump on the high-quality audio bandwagon, joining Amazon, Tidal, and other services in offering lossless audio to subscribers. We…

HOW TO RECOVER DATA FROM A MAC WITH T2 OR FILEVAULT ENCRYPTION AND WITHOUT A PASSWORD Spinning disks are slow and solid-state drives (SSDs) used to cost a digital arm and a leg. That led many people to stick with hard drives or purchase Macs with low-capacity SSDs—like 250GB or 500GB—because the next increment up added many hundreds of dollars to the cost. (I’m sitting here with a 2017 iMac with a 1TB Fusion drive, so I am one of you.) It’s a hard thing to discover that a loved one is incapacitated or has passed away and you can’t unlock the Mac or Macs they left behind to retrieve photos, important financial or legal information, or any of their digital traces. If the main account or any administrative user…

We were somewhat surprised when the new iMac arrived with an M1 chip at Apple’s Spring Loaded event. We had heard rumors that Apple was working on the successor to the M1 processor, and Apple’s all-in-one seemed like a great place to debut it. That didn’t happen. Instead, we got the same M1 chip that is in the MacBook Air, right down to the cheaper option with seven GPU cores instead of eight. Granted, it’ll still be a very fast machine, but we were really hoping to get a glimpse of the second generation of Apple silicon. Now it seems that chip is on the way. According to Nikkei Asia, the next generation of Apple silicon chips has entered mass production and shipments “could begin as early as July for use…

The sleek Corsair TBT100 Thunderbolt 3 Dock ups the game for a Mac laptop, Mac mini, or iMac by providing a full complement of ports for those that lack them and offering additional—and more easily accessible—ports for those that already possess many. The compact dock, which weighs in at a pound (0.5 kg), provides ready access to useful jacks while offering a solid design contrast that doesn’t imitate Apple’s aesthetic. The $259.99 price is right in line with the array of options. The TBT100 has five high-speed data ports: two USB Type-A SuperSpeed (3.2 Gen 1 or 5Gbps), two USB Type-C SuperSpeed+ (3.2 Gen 2 or 10Gbps), and one Thunderbolt 3. That Thunderbolt 3 port, however, is reserved to connect to a Mac, as the 40Gbps throughput is necessary to power…

With iOS 14.5, Apple is finally making good on a promise made at WWDC last summer to give iPhone and iPad users more control over the ways app developers track and collect their data. The feature, called App Tracking Transparency, was supposed to ship with iOS 14 last fall, but Apple delayed the release to give developers more time to update their apps as required. Now that it’s available, let’s take a look at what it is, what it does, and why you want to opt in. WHAT IS APP TRACKING TRANSPARENCY? App Tracking Transparency (ATT for short) is a new feature of iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS 14.5 that requires applications to ask permission if they want to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites. Your Apple devices have…

Nobody needs to convince me that Apple is at the top of its game when it comes to designing iPad hardware. The 2018 iPad Pro was so fast that more than two years later, it can still handle more or less anything that you can throw at it. The 2020 iPad Pro essentially operated at the same speed—and that was so fast it didn’t matter. So here comes the 2021 iPad Pro (see page 39), which is an even more extreme dunk in terms of features. Adding an M1 processor isn’t going to add the same boost as it did on the Mac side, because the iPad Pro was always powered by an energy-efficient Apple processor. But it’s still an upgrade of two processor generations, and that matters. A revamped…

Silver and black had a good 13-plus-year run, but in April Apple put an end to it and started a colorful new chapter for its all-in-one Mac, the iMac. The colors aren’t all that’s new; the iMac features Apple’s new M1 system on a chip, new sizes, and a lot more. Here are the top five features of Apple’s new all-in-one. NEW DESIGN WITH A RAINBOW OF COLORS The iMac is now available in blue, green, orange, pink, purple, and silver with a matching Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. (You might even be able to match a new iMac with the colored iPad Air if you bought one of those recently.) The new iMac has an elegant, minimal look compared to its predecessor. The bezels around the display are much smaller…

Big Sur is a major upgrade to macOS, and some people are ready for it. However, if you’ve been running Mojave or an earlier version of macOS to keep 32-bit applications running, you may still be holding back. If you’re otherwise ready to move forward, you have a few options for keeping your Mojave installation active. In each case, I’d recommend starting by making a full disk image backup of your current macOS setup with Disk Utility, SuperDuper!, or Carbon Copy Cloner. In case something goes wrong, you can revert to it or restore from it. Your easiest path is to buy or use a sufficiently large external drive and clone to it directly from your current Mac. This lets you even boot from it in a pinch, so you don’t…

There aren’t that many VPN services that offer multiple packages with different services, but TorGuard from Florida-based Data Protection Services LLC does. In addition to providing a straightforward VPN service, TorGuard offers a business-grade package and a streaming bundle. The parent company also offers an encrypted email service called Private-Mail, which is included in TorGuard’s business packages. For this review we had access to the regular VPN service. As for the name, the “Tor” in TorGuard has nothing to do with the TOR (The Onion Router) project, and instead refers to “torrents and guarding one’s privacy when using BitTorrent,” as the service explains on its website. TORGUARD: SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SERVERS, AND SPEED TorGuard doesn’t list its team on its website, but a quick search of LinkedIn shows the CEO is Benjamin…

French audio maker Focal is one of the most storied brands in high-end audio. The company’s products cover a wide range, including loudspeakers that cost upwards of $200,000, headphones, and automotive audio speakers. Focal’s Chora 806 pair of bookshelf speakers ($990) joins Focal’s latest speaker lineup, which looks to merge modern styling with some significantly more down-to-earth prices. SUPERB FIT AND FINISH The Chora 806 bookshelf speaker is a member of the Chora family, which includes two tower speaker models, a surround speaker, a center channel, and a subwoofer. The Chora line targets two-channel purists as well as audiophiles looking for full-blown home theater setups. Unpacking the Chora 806, I couldn’t help but notice the solid build quality and styling. The Chora’s satin-finish wood-grain veneer is superb. The Chora 806…

The M1 Mac’s inability to run Windows might seem like an obvious limitation, but it’s actually a major issue for a lot of Mac users. Boot Camp is gone, so you can’t run Windows natively, which means you need to use a virtualization app. A few months ago, Parallels previewed its Parallels Desktop for Mac virtualization software on M1 Macs, and in recent weeks the company announced that Parallels Desktop 16.5 for Mac—which brings full native support for both M1 and Intel Macs—is out of beta and now available to the general public. If you want to run Windows on your M1 Mac, you can launch Parallels Desktop 16.5 to run the Windows 10 ARM Insider Preview, the only version of Windows that can run on Apple silicon. To get the…

You may have noticed that external SSDs from top-tier vendors are pricey—especially when they’re Thunderbolt. If you’re looking to lessen your financial pain a little, then OWC’s $79 Envoy Express T3 (Thunderbolt 3) enclosure might be just what the doctor ordered. Populate it with a budget M.2 NVMe SSD, and you’re on your way to external storage nirvana for a very reasonable price. The kicker is a clever caddy that adheres (semipermanently) to your computer, laptop, or display and allows you to keep the drive handy, but securely in place and out of harm’s way. DESIGN AND SPECS The Envoy Express measures approximately 4.1x1.6x0.5 inches and weighs around 3.3 ounces—including the SSD. The metal case is all black with a brushed-metal stripe down the middle bearing the name and OWC…

With the release of iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4, Apple has solved one of the most vexing iPhone problems of the past year-plus: the fact that Face ID doesn’t work when you’re wearing a mask. Here’s how to set it up on your phone and watch. REQUIREMENTS First, you’ll need an iPhone that has Face ID and an Apple Watch. The iPhone must be updated to iOS 14.5 and the Apple Watch must be updated to watchOS 7.4. Furthermore, you must secure your Apple Watch with a passcode, wear it on your wrist, and unlock it. The Watch must also be near your iPhone. In other words, the requirements for unlocking your iPhone with your Apple Watch are basically the same as those for unlocking your Mac with it. ENABLING APPLE…

With a company as secretive as Apple, those wanting to divine the company’s intentions and future plans often seize upon the slightest shred of material that escapes the curved glass walls of Apple Park. So it is with patent filings. While some might see them as painting a picture of Apple’s future products, the truth is definitely murkier. For a company that spends as much time and money on research and development as Apple does, there are always bound to be some technological cul-de-sacs and some roads not taken. Sometimes patents are closer to science fiction: ideas from a future that might never be. Despite all of that, Apple’s many patents can often provide insight into what the company is thinking about in the here and now. While its engineers…

If you’re running into problems with your M1 Mac, you don’t need to panic and call Apple just yet. Like Intel Macs, your computer has a mode called “macOS Recovery” that you can use to run emergency maintenance on your Mac. However, the method is different for Apple silicon Macs, so the old keystrokes won’t work. You may remember that you could get to Recovery on an Intel Mac by holding down Command-R on the keyboard as the Mac boots. Here’s how it’s done on an M1 Mac: 1. Turn off your Mac. As you power it back it on, press the power button and hold it down while the Mac boots. 2. The screen will show icons of the bootable storage devices connected to your Mac, plus an Options…

Apple may still be in the HomePod business, but the original high-end speaker is no more. Apple recently gave its original hi-fi smart speaker an unceremonious burial. The timing of the news may have been surprising, but the substance was less so. The bigger, pricey HomePod, which Apple promises to continue supporting, has been languishing in a limbo that’s familiar to high-end, Apple-branded speakers, while the arrival of a smaller, more affordable follow-up last fall turned out to be a harbinger of things to come. Originally selling for $349 before Apple chopped its price to $299, the HomePod brings to mind the iPod Hi-Fi, a big white speaker with an iPod dock that landed with a thud in 2006. Cupertino scuttled the iPod Hi-Fi, which even the Apple faithful shunned, after…

Soundbars with one or a just few HDMI inputs are supplanting A/V receivers with six or more HDMI inputs. That was supposed to simplify our home entertainment systems, but many of us have discovered that we have too many video sources—set-top boxes, streamers, gaming consoles, Blu-ray players, and so on—and not enough HDMI inputs to handle everything. The solution? An HDMI switcher and audio extractor. We recently found one such device marketed under two different brand names: J-Tech Digital and Monoprice. It’s apparent that neither J-Tech nor Monoprice actually builds these devices. The companies must source them from an other manufacturer, because they’re identical apart from the labeling. We thoroughly tested both the J-Tech Digital JTECH-SWE41 and the Monoprice Blackbird 4K 4x1 HDMI Switch (P/N 39666) and found that each…