Table of contents for September 2018 in Macworld

When Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1997, he didn’t like what he saw, so he set about changing the corporate culture. A decade later, one proof of his success was the fact that the company seemed to follow a rulebook, largely behaving with a consistency that allowed those of us who covered the company to react to wild rumors with phrases like “Apple wouldn’t do that” or “That’s not how Apple does things.” But in the years following Jobs’s death—and after the departure of some other Jobs-era executives—Apple has continued to evolve, and, in many cases, it’s torn up the old rulebook. A lot of the changes strike me as being for the better. I feel like after Steve laid down the law in the late 1990s, some…

Apple unveiled new MacBook Pros in July and they bring much of the enhancements we expected they would: Powerful new eighth-gen Intel processors, new DDR4 RAM with double the maximum capacity, and—hallelujah—a quieter keyboard. It also has a bigger battery, but before you get too excited, there aren’t any actual real-world gains from it. The new MacBook Pros are rated for the same “up to 10 hours wireless web and iTunes movie playback,” but good luck getting anywhere near that with actual work. Anyone who is using their Mac primarily for “wireless web” surfing probably shouldn’t be wasting their money on a $2,000 MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro updates are about speed. Apple claims a boost of up to 70 percent for the 15-inch MacBook Pro and a whopping 100 percent…

NEATO BOTVAC D7 CONNECTED The Neato Botvac D7 Connected’s trademark “D” shape allows it to clean along walls and in corners better than its round competitors. The D7 gave low-pile carpet, hardwood, and linoleum a thorough scrubbing, pulling up food crumbs, pet hair, cat litter, and various debris easily. It also had no issue transitioning from one floor surface to another. The D7’s companion iOS app can initiate cleanings, set different cleaning options, check the battery status, and more.— MICHAEL ANSALDO LEEO SMART ALERT NIGHTLIGHT The Leeo is equipped with sensors for temperature, humidity, and ambient light, and a microphonetuned to recognize the specific frequencies and audio patterns that smoke and CO detectors generate. If the Leeo nightlight detects your smoke or CO detector going off, the Leeo service will…

Since the earliest days of iOS, Apple has kept tight control on its users’ relationship with apps. The very first iPhone, of course, only shipped with a dozen or so preinstalled software programs: you couldn’t add more, you couldn’t delete the ones you had. Over the years, Apple has loosened those strictures a bit. First you could add new third-party apps. Later, developers were even able to create and sell software that competed with some of those default options. More recently, you’ve even been able to delete some of those built-in apps. (Adios, Stocks!) But more than a few restrictions have remained nonetheless. Most obviously, the prohibition on installing software from anyplace other than the company’s own App Store. I don’t take particular issue with that; the prevalence of malware…

The very high end of phone photography has been primarily occupied by Moment lenses and pretty much no one else. Sandmarc, known for its filters and photography accessories for GoPros and drones, is now producing high-quality lenses for iPhones—and Sandmarc is giving Moment a run for its money with new wide, fisheye, and macro lenses. The Sandmarc Photography Edition is a set of three lenses that include a Wide, Fisheye, and Macro lens. Each lens is also sold individually. HOW TO MOUNT THE SANDMARC LENSES Every lens comes with both an iPhone X case and a clip. It’s rare a case comes with a lens, so I appreciate the inclusion, despite the case being of generic quality and its thinness probably provides only a minimal amount of drop protection for the…

Apple Watch might have started as a device wholly dependent on your phone, but it’s transformed into one that can function all day on its own. However, just like your iPhone, you won’t get the most out of your Apple Watch until you fill it up with apps. Here are 10 of our favorite paid apps and then 10 free ones. PAID APPS 1. Outcast Price: $0.99 Apple is finally providing proper podcast support in watchOS 5, but if you want more than the basics, we recommend giving Outcast a look (and a listen). Designed specifically for the Apple Watch (in fact, the companion iPhone app is merely instructions on how to use the Apple Watch app), its simple, elegant interface lets you stream all of your favorite…

The Data Transfer Project addresses one pain point we all experience on our phones: moving our stuff around. While it’s certainly gotten easier over the years to share individual photos, songs, and files from one app to another, shifting large chunks of data or entire libraries and histories between services is often an exercise in futility, even with hundreds of gigabytes of cloud storage at our disposal. The open-source Data Transfer Project initiative aims to solve that problem once and for all. It already has four major players pledging support—Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft—with the ultimate goal of separating the data from the service. Once it’s up and running, the project will make it easier for users to switch to a new app or network, or simply try out a different…

Detroit-based Shinola is back. The company, whose diverse product portfolio includes watches, leather bags, and audio gear, is expanding its audio portfolio with the Canfield Pro In-Ear Monitors (IEM). Shinola says that the Canfield Pro IEMs were developed in conjunction with Campfire Audio. TOP-NOTCH STYLE AND BUILD Like their larger sibling, the Canfield Over-Ear Headphone, the Canfield Pro IEMs display outstanding build quality and exquisite styling. In fact, build quality and styling were the first things that caught my eye when I unboxed and held the Canfield Pro IEM’s for the first time. Even though there’s substantial weight and balance to these headphones, they never felt fatiguing while I wore them. The cable is a thing of beauty. It’s supple with a smooth nylon braid, making it virtually tangle-free no…

Blackmagic in July released a new external graphics processing unit (eGPU) targeted at users looking for a simple-to-integrate device over Thunderbolt 3. The new $699 device was introduced to the media during Apple’s showcase of its new MacBook Pro laptops. The Blackmagic eGPU houses an AMD Radeon Pro 580 graphics card with 8GB of GDDR memory. The integrated design means that, according to a Blackmagic representative, the card inside the device is not upgradeable. The eGPU can provide a 2.8x increase in performance over the stock graphics in the new 15-inch MacBook Pro and its discrete Radeon graphics. With the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, the jump is more dramatic: 8x over the integrated Intel Iris Pro. The eGPU unit itself measures 7 by 7 by 12 inches, similar to a Mac…

McAfee Total Protection is one of the best bargains among the options for antivirus and malware-protection software—but only for the first year. Its introductory rate of $45 includes a one-year subscription for up to 10 computers, plus a password vault system for desktop and mobile called True Key. But after those first twelve months, when the price rises to the regular annual rate of $100, Total Protection’s lack of features relative to other competitors makes it hard to recommend as a long-term option. Moreover, the software is the only package we’ve reviewed in early 2018 with no score from either AV-TEST or AV Comparables’s 2017 testing, so we can’t provide an apples-to-apples score on macOS and Windows malware and macOS unwanted/adware apps. PERFORMANCE That said, in our own hands-on spot-testing,…

A little over a decade ago I bailed on the Ph.D. program that had consumed my life for three years. The piles of papers—filled with highlighted quotations—had started to look like skyscrapers. Keeping the whole mess organized felt like rebuilding the Golden Gate Bridge from its component atoms. My soul screamed for an app that would let me compare photos on the fly. I had better reasons for jumping ship, of course, but it’s these frustrations that slice through my memories all these years later. All things considered, I don’t regret my decision. And yet. All the recent talk about the App Store’s 10th anniversary makes me wonder if I’d have finished it if I had access to the same apps I now enjoy on my iPhone and my iPad. That…

When it comes to selfies, you want to put your best face forward. Making subtle fixes to a splotchy complexion or taming wrinkles and under eye shadows doesn’t necessarily present a false face to the public—just a better one. Some selfie apps let you go all-out glam, complete with face shapers, eye makeup, nose thinners, and stylish lighting and airbrushing. How far you go is your choice, but keep in mind that too much fixing can result in a fake or even creepy look. Moderation is key. Many selfie apps are free or ad-based, but nearly all offer in-app purchases for specialized enhancements and pro-level portrait features as well as to disable watermarks and ads. An increasing number of apps are adding subscription options, which may be ideal for habitual…

ARK: Survival Evolved After finding a huge audience on PC, Mac, and consoles, we’re surprised to see ARK: Survival Evolved make the leap to iOS so solidly intact. This is a massive experience, and while the controls and UI aren’t perfectly suited to touch (despite some smart tweaks), it’s still a pretty compelling game to snag and give a shot. Suzy Cube Suzy Cube plays a lot like the Super Mario 3D Land and 3D World games from a few years back, even borrowing the interface and feel and flow of the levels as you explore various worlds, overcome obstacles, and avoid enemies. It doesn’t pack in quite as much personality as a Mario game, but Suzy Cube controls well and is a nice mobile alternative that costs only a few bucks. Golf…

Apple has officially unveiled its latest upgrade to its MacBook Pro line of laptop computers. While the design hasn’t changed, the new MacBook Pro promises to reach new performance heights that video editors, audio producers, animators, developers, and other professionals will truly appreciate. That performance boost is supplied by Intel’s eighth generation of Core processors, along with a change in the RAM being used, and new graphics processors. The heart of the new laptops, Intel’s “Coffee Lake” processors, actually became available last April, and Coffee Lake PC laptops have been on the market for a couple of months. Now Apple users get a taste of what Coffee Lake can do for the Mac: Apple claims a boost of up to 70 percent for the 15-inch MacBook Pro, while the 13-inch…

QR codes can be really handy. A grid of seemingly random black-and-white squares can hold enough information to store website URLs, contact information, email addresses, pre-defined SMS text messages, and even your Wi-Fi SSID and password. Put a QR code on your business card, and people can copy all your contact info into their phone in a heartbeat. Post a QR code somewhere in your house, and guests can use it to instantly sign on to your Wi-Fi network. You used to need a third-party app to scan QR codes, but, with iOS 11, Apple built it right into the camera app. It couldn’t be easier to use. HOW TO SCAN A QR CODE 1. First, open the Camera app. 2. Then, point the camera at a QR code so…

RESTORE A DELETED SHARED ALBUM IN PHOTOS iCloud Photo Sharing lets you create albums from your images and videos and then share them to invited parties, or create a link that anyone can access. It’s a great way to leverage your existing photo libraries without having to set up sharing on other services. However, Macworld reader Grace ran into one of the downsides: if you delete a shared album, there’s no way to restore it. MacOS and iOS warn you when you try to delete, noting that the shared album will be deleted from all your linked accounts and all of those with whom you shared photos. But once you confirm, poof! It’s gone. All your original media remains in place, so there’s no worry about losing images or videos,…

If you’re a fan of Apple’s photo printing service, you won’t like this news one bit. According to a new message popping up in the Photos app and confirmed with Apple by Macworld, Apple is discontinuing its Photo Print Products service. Launched in 2002, Photo Prints Products grew from just supporting simple prints to producing albums, calendars, and photo books. The message, first spotted by 9to5Mac, instructs users of macOS 10.13.6 to make their “final purchases” by September 30 of this year. MacOS Mojave’s Photo app has already scrapped any mention of the service. The message also encourages users to download the Photo Project Extension from the Mac App Store to get access to a range of third-party printing services. The message also encourages users to download the Photo Project…

The first thing you need to know about a Douchebag is that the word itself appears nowhere on the bag. The most you’ll find is a sleek Db logo peeking out from no less than six spots across the bag, along with a massive 2.5-inch monogram that hugs the small of your back when it’s worn. True, it looks a little like the Op logo that dominated T-shirts in the early ’90s. Did those count as “douchey”? That’s something you’ll have to decide. A DOUCHEBAG AND A SCHOLAR For my money, though, this is a bag that has no right calling itself a “douchebag.” That’s not the case with some of the company’s other bags, admittedly, as it sometimes embraces style over substance. The Scholar, though, is practically understated; its…

Lizzie Nichols tells me she’s mildly insulted that painting programs like Procreate get stuffed under “Entertainment” on the iPad App Store. I can’t say I blame her. Nichols is one of the visual development artists for Sony Pictures Animation’s Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, which hit theaters recently and has consistently racked up praise for its art and animation (if not its crass humor). Art is her business—specifically, the painting of environments and props that inform 3D designers how a production should look, along with the painting of characters—and she does it well. She worked on the previous Hotel Transylvania film, and her long list of credits include The Emoji Movie, Smurfs: The Lost Village, Futurama, along with freelance work for the likes of Disney Television and Cartoon Network. And…

When the iPad was introduced, critics dismissed the device as only good for ebook reading, internet browsing, and casual gaming. But when iMovie debuted on the iPad less than a year later, it was clear Apple’s tablet ambitions were more grandiose. Although great for quickly assembling short videos, the free iMovie for iOS never quite lived up to lofty expectations. There’s no indication the no-frills app will ever acquire the more robust mobile video-editing skills of Final Cut Pro—and that’s just fine, because there’s already an app that does this quite nicely. FINAL CUT LITE LumaFusion is the first mobile video editor that lives up to the hype, one so ridiculously feature-packed, it seems unfair to pay the developer so little ($20) for it. Rather than reinvent the wheel, LumaFusion enables…

UP LEFT OUT Up Left Out’s challenges are all about “unlocking” the blocks within seemingly simple sliding puzzles. Each block must be moved to unlock it and complete the stage, all while you’re working within confined layouts. But here’s the catch: Some blocks can only be moved in certain directions--which means working out your pattern of decisions—and then you have to deal with the various modifiers that further tweak the concept. It all adds up to another clever gem from Rainbow Train. WESTWORLD Can’t get enough of HBO’s sci-fi western hit, Westworld? Well, the second season just ended and it’s likely to be some time before the next one begins—but maybe you can while away the time with Warner’s new Westworld game for iPhone and iPad. It’s a simple freemium…

When it’s time to give up a Mac, you typically don’t want to give up its secrets—your private and personal data—when it goes. This can be at the time you sell it, or, in the case of Macworld reader Dane, when you leave a job and you need to return the Mac to your employer. (You might be asked to return a computer even while you keep a job, too, of course.) Not preparing a computer before you return it can sometimes have consequences. A friend returned a work machine and was eventually paid a visit by police. His previous employer had examined the web history of the computer returned, and found a set of searches about news and travel they decided were suspicious but that had been conducted innocently…

In July, Sonos released support for Apple’s AirPlay 2, giving a dramatic boost in functionality to certain Sonos smart speakers via a software update. If you’ve got a Sonos One, Beam, Playbase, or second-generation Play:5, you’ll need to update your Sonos iOS app and then use the new app to install the software update. This is a big step forward in flexibility for Sonos products—keep in mind that Sonos speakers don’t do Bluetooth or AirPlay 1, so they’ve been pretty firmly locked in their own universe unless you added a dongle or ran a software bridge. But once a Sonos speaker gets AirPlay 2, you can do a lot more than just play audio directly to that speaker from a Mac or iOS device. Perhaps most impressively, all AirPlay 2…