Table of contents for February 2018 in Macworld

Surely by now you’ve heard about the Spectre and Meltdown CPU flaws, but you might not fully understand what the issue is and how you can protect yourself against the risks. We’re here to help. Here’s how these vulnerabilities affect your Apple devices and what you can do to keep them safe. MELTDOWN AND SPECTRE FAQ One more time, what is the issue here? There are three separate potential security issues at play here, one named Meltdown and two named Spectre. They all take advantage of something called speculative execution. Basically, modern CPUs try to speed things up by taking educated guesses to predict what the next operation will be, and will go so far as to execute them ahead of time. If the prediction is correct, the CPU has an answer…

Recently, in taking stock of my primary computing hardware, I noticed an interesting trend: Over the course of the last year, I’ve swapped out almost all of the devices that I use every day. I replaced a 2011 iMac with a new 2017 5K model. My iPad Air 2 got superseded by a 10.5-inch iPad Pro. And, of course, my iPhone 7 was turned in for an iPhone X. Some of this is the nature of the job. I write about tech, and people want to know about the latest and greatest devices, and there’s not much to say if I don’t have access to those devices. But some of it is about my own usage, too. That iMac was getting too long in the tooth for some of the…

Ahead of the iPhone X’s announcement back in September, there had been plenty of rumors about it including biometric security based on facial recognition, as well as whether Apple was struggling to incorporate Touch ID into this new model. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of handwringing over this move, with plenty of pundits who insisted that Face ID was only a sop until Apple could figure out how to incorporate Touch ID into its new all-screen phone. Now the iPhone X is here, we’ve gotten more perspective on the matter. Not only have we seen how Face ID is a major departure from previous facial recognition systems, but we’ve also had Apple executives point out that the company had long ago made the decision to ditch Touch ID for Face…

A Wi-Fi–enabled DSLR or mirrorless camera, paired with a smartphone or tablet, offers several advantages, such as wireless transfer of images, the ability to review shots on a screen larger than the LCD on the camera body, remote shutter control, and other features. All of that requires good software, and too often the manufacturer’s efforts are basic or unreliable. Cascable 3 for iOS is the better alternative that adds features many of the camera companies don’t. It’s available for free with a limited but solid set of capabilities. An in-app purchase adds Cascable Pro features. REMOTE SHUTTER One of the main reasons to use Cascable is to control the camera without being near it. Instead of setting a timer and dashing into a family photo, you can compose the shot on…

Lineage II: Revolution Vast and beautiful massively-multiplayer online games are usually found on computers, but Lineage II: Revolution manages to streamline the experience enough to work on mobile—and it’s no less attractive as a result. Lineage II is a 3D stunner that effectively looks like a glossy Mac game running on your iOS device. Far From Noise Many games deal with death, but very few actually bother to contemplate it, or focus on the moments before its seeming imminence. Given that, Far From Noise feels like a very distinctive experience. You see a car teetering over a cliff with the ocean below, and there’s a woman inside. You’re the woman, and you’re kind of freaking out. Puzzle Fighter Capcom’s Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo is one of the all-time great puzzle games, pairing color-…

With the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Apple has finally joined the wireless charging revolution. For years, many Android users have had the ability to simply plop their phone on a pad to juice it up, but to do that with an iPhone used to require a special (and bulky) case. Wireless charging isn’t always a great substitute for plugging in, but it’s a very convenient way to keep your phone topped off through most of the day. A wireless charger on your desk means no more plugging and unplugging throughout the day and a full charge when you head home from work. A wireless charger next to your bed makes it easy to grab and go in the morning, or just pick up your phone to “check one thing” without…

That noise you heard recently was the sound of millions of modems across the U.S. crying. As expected, the FCC voted 3-2 to kill its own net neutrality rules, and the internet as we know it could be forever changed. Under the current net neutrality rules (classifying ISPs under Title II of the Communications Act), which were only just enacted in 2015, internet service providers are required to deliver all online content with the same speed and accessibility, meaning they can’t charge more for faster Netflix speeds or restrict YouTube access. There are particular exceptions for medical services, public safety communications, and other data that is deemed to be in the public good. Telecom providers claim that these regulations hindered growth and innovation, while supporters of net neutrality—including Apple, Google, and…

Detroit—car capital of America—has had difficulty recovering from a decadelong economic downturn. Many companies have left the Motor City, outsourcing their manufacturing, assembly, and materials production overseas. Shinola is bucking that trend, manufacturing headphones, luxury watches and watch straps, hand-built bicycles, and high-end leather goods here. (You can read the larger story behind Shinola’s drive to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. at go.macworld.com/manf). It’s a noble effort to be sure, but it’s not enough to make Shinola’s Canfield over-ear headphones worthy of their substantial price tag. THE CANFIELD ARE LUXURIOUS HEADPHONES Shinola’s $595 Canfield headphones are designed, assembled, and tested in Detroit. Most of the components inside them, however, are manufactured overseas. The Canfield display meticulous attention to detail. My review pair came in the company’s cognac shade, though…

App Store and iTunes purchases: You can’t delete history We don’t typically run one-word answers to reader questions, but it’s worth it in this case, because we regularly receive a question similar to this one from Macworld reader JLR: I want to dump, forever, some music and iPhone apps from my iTunes account and not have to deal with them just “hiding.” Is this possible to do? No. OK, I can’t help myself, I need to give a complete answer here. Apple lets you hide purchases from appearing where they typically display in a list or are available via Family Sharing, but the purchase remains part of your account information and can be viewed when you examine your account. Apple hasn’t explained why you can’t delete your purchase history. Is there a…

Macs see a fair number of new games—enough for us to comfortably pick 10 strong options for our monthly roundup, at least—but the selection still lags well behind Windows PCs. Release parity has gradually climbed over the past few years, but while we get a lot more indie games day-and-date with or soon after their PC counterparts, most bigbudget, AAA games arrive late on the Mac, if at all. Hopefully that situation continues to improve over time, but Nvidia has another solution in mind: PC games streamed over the internet to your Mac with minimal delay. It’s a service called GeForce Now, and it’s currently available in a free, open beta for the Mac. Essentially, Nvidia has powerful, GTX 1080 GPU-equipped servers running high-end Windows games remotely, and you can…

NEST CAM IQ OUTDOOR The all-new IQ Outdoor shares many traits with the Nest Cam Outdoor, including a 130-degree field of view, up to 1080p video, and a similar sturdily built cup-style design. But in every other way, the IQ Outdoor is a leap forward, with features such as a 4K color sensor, High Dynamic Range (HDR), and person detection. If the IQ Outdoor sees a human, it will zoom in up to 12x without any loss in clarity and follow the person’s movements. It will also balance lighting conditions so that details aren’t blown out in highlights or lost in deep shadows.—MICHAEL ANSALDO iHOME IAVS16B The iHome iAVS16B is an alarm clock and speaker combo that is fully internet-connected, so in addition to, you know, telling the time, it…

There’s nothing more frustrating than firing up your luxurious new smartphone, tapping one of your favorite apps or games from your last device, and finding that it just doesn’t look right. In the case of the iPhone X, apps not updated for the new extra-tall, notch-adorned OLED display have black bars bookending the experience on the top and bottom. It’s fine, but you don’t want fine with the iPhone X—you want the best, right? Games that fill the full frame of the iPhone X really pop without all of that extraneous bezel, too. With that in mind, here are 10 of the top games you can play on Apple’s new phone, and every last one of them has been optimized for that dazzling screen. Some are newer releases and others…

Anker’s ever-expanding line of smartphone accessories and products is impressive. Case in point is the Anker PowerDrive Speed 2 car charger ($25 on Amazon). The charger, which features an attractive carbon fiber pattern, fit snugly enough in our test car’s power port that we had no worry about it coming loose on a bumpy ride. The charger features two ports, each one capable of Quick Charge 3.0 speeds— eliminating any guesswork. If you have two QC3.0-compatible devices plugged in, both ports will continue to charge at full speed. The blue ports are illuminated, making them easy to locate it in a dark vehicle or an obscured nook. In our tests, the Anker PowerDrive Speed 2 charged an iPhone X at 5V/1.4A. Testing with a Galaxy S8 immediately triggered Fast Charging,…

INSIDE ($7) Playdead’s Limbo is an absolutely mesmerizing game—a shadowy journey through the wilderness, just a boy and his wits against unseen dangers. And the studio’s new game, Inside, essentially builds upon that same premise. It’s still a side-scrolling game starring an unarmed boy, it’s still a bit bleak-looking, and it still doesn’t feature any dialogue or overt storytelling. But it’s just as marvelous. Inside finds your young hero exploring a factory where some seriously bizarre experiments are taking place, and the atmosphere builds steadily as you enter and even participate to evade capture. It’s unsettling, to say the least, but the environmental puzzles are clever and the atmosphere is fantastic. SID MEIER’S CIVILIZATION VI ($60) What’s more surprising about this listing: that the full-blooded Sid Meier’s Civilization VI has…

So, the iMac Pro is shipping (see page 62). After many years’ worth of fretting and worrying, Apple once again has a pro-level desktop that boasts the modern technology. And all is right with the world. But is it? There’s no disputing that the iMac Pro is a capable machine: with up to 18 cores, a maximum of 128GB of RAM, and a hefty video card, the benchmarks indicate that this is a machine that can take everything you throw at it. And yet it’s not Apple’s whole “pro” story. In an interview with select outlets back in April 2017, Apple executive Phil Schiller had multiple shoes to drop, including this: With regards to the Mac Pro, we are in the process of what we call ‘completely rethinking the Mac Pro.’…

For Apple watchers, the company is always a bit like the proverbial duck: floating seemingly calm and placid above the water while paddling furiously just below it. Which is why it’s often hard to gauge exactly what the company is up to, especially when the current is changing. In the last few weeks, both my colleague Jason Snell and I have looked ahead to what Apple might be envisioning for the future of its devices. I’ve opined on ARM-powered Macs; Jason’s wondered about the possibility of a laptop running iOS. In a recent conversation—on our secret podcast, which you should check out—we started to put some pieces together and conjectured that maybe these aren’t two different stories but rather one larger tale of what Apple’s future might hold. What if,…

Discovering that Edifier’s retro/ modern-styled Luna e25 HD Bluetooth stereo speaker pair costs only $250 was a bit of a shocker. After two days of hands-on without reading the press release, I figured they had to cost twice or perhaps three times that. They’re that good. They’re not portable, and they require a cable strung between them to ply their trade, but if you’re looking for something to blast sound about the living room, they’re the real deal. SPEAKER DESIGN What we’re dealing with in the Luna e25 HD is a sort-of-classic or retro-modern ovoid. I tested the red version that evoked thoughts of a Pac-Man who’d eaten a few too many pellets. They’re also vaguely reminiscent of a certain recent period in kitchen appliance manufacturing. Yes, that’s why they…

Apple’s new iMac Pro is mostly just a faster Mac. It’s the first professional Mac desktop the company has released in over three years and the fastest Mac yet made, granted, but still entirely familiar. Yet in many ways—some noticeable, some entirely invisible—this new Mac is completely different from all past Mac models. The iMac Pro may be an outlier today, but in the future we’ll probably look back on it as the start of a new era for the Mac, all because of the Apple-built T2 chip it carries inside. Here’s how the T2 makes this iMac Pro unlike all other Macs. THE POWER BEHIND THE THRONE The T2 processor isn’t doing the heavy lifting in the iMac Pro—that’s the Intel Xeon processor with between 8 and 14 processor…

The dividing lines between Apple products are clear. Apple makes phones and tablets that run iOS, and laptops and desktop computers that run macOS. But it’s time for Apple to start breaking down those barriers and experimenting with new kinds of products that cross the streams. It’s time for Apple to expand beyond the MacBook and MacBook Pro. It’s time for the first iOS laptop. Consider the iPad Pro. With screens that measure 10.5 and 12.9 inches diagonally, they’re practically the size of Apple’s old MacBook Air models. The iPad Pro was the first iOS to ship with an Appledesigned keyboard, the Smart Keyboard. When the Smart Keyboard is engaged, at a glance the iPad Pro already looks like a strange laptop. The problem with the iPad Pro is that…

Shazam was a true gamechanger as one of the first apps to appear in the App Store back in July 2008. With just a tap, Shazam could identify nearly any song you heard without needing to know anything about it. Shazam was a magical app that I used to show off my iPhone, and unlike all those other apps whose novelty wore off in just a few weeks (anyone remember iBeer?), Shazam has only gotten better over the years. Apple has long partnered with Shazam to power Siri’s song identification service, but now the Cupertino giant has confirmed that it is buying the company outright for a cool $400 million, a relative bargain in today’s tech dollars. On the surface, a Shazam purchase ensures that Siri will always be able to…

The Anker PowerLine+ is basically everything you want in a Lightning cable. This premium, nylonwrapped cable is super durable, comes in a variety of colors and lengths, and it won’t leave you broke. It’s not dirt cheap— the 3-foot cable costs about $14—but even the longest version is a couple of dollars cheaper than Apple’s Lightning cable. It’s not necessarily the cable to get if you’re on a rice-and-beans budget, but you’ll save over Apple’s cable and also get a better-looking and betterperforming cable. The PowerLine+ comes in four colors (gold, gray, red, and white) and four sizes (1 foot, 3 feet, 6 feet, and 10 feet), and costs between $13 (for the 1-foot version) and $17 (for the 10-foot version). The slim, round cable is made with ultra-strong aramid fiber…

The long-awaited iMac Pro is finally here. On Thursday, December 14, Apple’s new workstation-class Mac became available on the company’s website. The 8- and 10-core iMac Pro ships immediately, while the 14- and 18-core models ship in January. The release of the iMac Pro is significant for Apple. The Mac Pro, released in 2013, has had only one minor update in four years, and Apple earlier this year admitted that the machine is a mistake. And while the company could say that a top-of-the-line iMac has plenty of processing power, it’s not the workstation-level computer that demanding professionals want. This machine is a sign that Apple still values pro users and wants to offer a Mac that can meet their demands. During an iMac Pro media event (attended by Macworld), company…

Apple’s sure-sellers for the holiday season have been on store shelves for a while now, but for fans of high-powered Macs, Christmas came early with the release of the iMac Pro. It’s undoubtedly going to take the crown as the most powerful Mac ever made—and will undoubtedly hold onto that distinction until a new Mac Pro arrives on the scene. There’s a lot to be said for the iMac Pro. It’s the first Mac with workstation-level processors with a plethora of processor cores (8 and up!) since the Mac Pro in 2013. The Radeon Pro Vega is the most powerful graphics processor ever in a Mac. If you’re someone who uses a 5K iMac to get work done today, should you consider buying the iMac Pro or not? Here’s a…

Late last year, Apple announced that it would delay the promised release of its HomePod smart speaker to early 2018. It was a disappointment for those customers hoping to score one for the holiday season, but in an interview with Dutch site Bright.nl, Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller said Apple needed “more time to make it right.” IT’S MORE IMPORTANT TO BE RIGHT THAN FIRST That’s hardly a new sentiment for the company to espouse. Apple’s reputation has long been to do things right instead of rushing them out the door just to compete. And when it comes to the HomePod, the competition already promises to be fierce: Amazon and Google are already entrenched, while everybody from Lenovo to Sonos has been jumping in with me-too offerings. A new…

Given the brand’s reputation and the traditionally steep price of its hardware, I expect a lot from a Bang & Olufsen product. True to form, B&O’s Beoplay M3 multiroom speaker is an excellent choice— for the right set of ears. At $300, the lowest price for a B&O multiroom speaker yet, corners were cut in the name of affordability. These cuts were made in the area of audio quality. Understand that this speaker sounds very, very good. But the monaural listening experience it provides, in concert with the digital signal processing B&O employs, might be unappealing to audio purists. DESIGN Sized at 5.9 by 4.4 by 5.5 inches, the M3’s footprint is small enough to sit on a countertop or shelf without eating up too much space. A rubber baseplate,…