Inhaltsverzeichnis für January 2025 in MacLife

SECURITY FEATURES ARE STREAMLINED, AND THERE’S MORE CONSISTENCY BETWEEN MACOS, iOS AND iPADOS WITH THE LAUNCH of macOS Sequoia, Apple has made many of macOS’s security features easier to find and simpler to use, and there’s more consistency between macOS, iOS and iPadOS too. Sequoia’s System Settings has been given a significant redesign, and the previous Passwords features have been taken out and moved into a new app. System Settings has two key places for privacy: under Apple Account > iCloud, and in Privacy & Security. But it’s not the only place with privacy protection. In the Mail app, you can use Settings > Privacy to hide your IP address and block remote content such as hidden tracking images. Safari can also hide your IP address from websites, and there’s…

GARAGEBAND IS AN incredible app for amateur and pro music makers alike; it may look simpler than its professional sibling Logic Pro, but it still has lots of pro-level features. Like Logic Pro, you can expand the selection of built-in instruments and effects with third-party ones. Those extras are plug-ins called Audio Unit Extensions (AUE), and they literally plug in to GarageBand; they’re bits of software that install themselves into your instrument and effects libraries you can then use in your songs. There are synthesizers and reverbs, virtual instruments and filthy distortions. Whether you’re making scuzzy rock, soulful beats or shimmering electronica, third-party plug-ins and instruments can expand your audio options and help you make interesting things happen. LESS IS MORE Many Audio Unit Extensions are paid-for, require a subscription…

REMEMBER THAT NOW–INFAMOUS Apple advert, showing an entire creative studio suite being crushed and replaced by an iPad? It proved controversial among content creators, but its underlying message was clear; your iPad — and other Apple gear — can do an amazing amount of things. In this feature, we’re going to explore exactly this (the creation bit, not the crushing), as well as throwing in a few general tips and tricks you might not know about. Whether you’re making a podcast, or recording a meeting or lecture for later perusal, writing a letter to your bank manager in Pages, or working on your first novel in Scrivener, making a ringtone for your iPhone, or recording the next chart hit, your Apple devices can get the job done. So let your…

From $1,299 (model tested $2,899) From www.apple.com Features M4 chip, 24–inch Retina display (4,480 x 2,520), 16GB unified memory (24GB/32GB available), 256GB storage (512GB/1TB/2TB available), Wi–Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 2x or 4x Thunderbolt 4 ports WHILE THE MAC mini got a radical overhaul for 2024, the same can’t be said for the iMac. Instead it’s now available in seven colors across the range, with USB–C accessories (instead of Lightning) and has M4 chips inside. Anyone hoping for a bigger–screen version than the 24–inch Retina display on offer here will come away disappointed. However, it remains a great and stylish all–in–one. Available in blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, green and silver, the iMac range starts at $1,299 for a model equipped with an 8–core CPU, 8–core GPU M4 with 16GB of unified…

APPLE ALMOST NEVER reveals details of future products, but sources report some exciting releases that are due in 2025. > iPHONE SE 4: A fourth–generation iPhone SE is said to be on track for release in Q1 2025. The current SE, introduced in March 2022, has a 4.7–inch Retina HD LCD display, an Apple A15 Bionic chip, and a Lightning connector. It’s the last model with a Home button with Touch ID. The next SE is expected to have a larger 6.1–inch OLED display, USB–C, and Face ID, but no Home button. The SE 4 will likely have at least an A17 Pro and 8GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence. The current model has a single 12MP rear camera, but the upgraded SE may have a single 48MP camera,…

EVERYBODY NEEDS A time–saving tip or two. Easy ways to get things done on their Apple gear, banking a few precious minutes here and there to spend researching your next project, spending time with the family or watching cat videos on YouTube. Saving time is what this feature’s all about. Over the next dozen pages, we show you how to get things done, faster and easier. With our help, you can start up your Mac faster, rename files, keep your desktop organized, speed up your workflow with keyboard shortcuts and more. A second display is a great way to make you more productive, as is getting the most from Spaces, Mission Control, and other handy features in macOS. There’s plenty of time–saving tips for your iPhone and iPad too. These…

JUST TO BE CLEAR, we’re not talking about Microsoft Windows here. We’re looking at proper, stylish Apple–designed windows and the new ways you’re now able to organise them in macOS Sequoia. By exploring the many options available to you in Apple’s latest Mac update, you can wave goodbye to desktops cluttered with myriad open apps. Instead, you’ll be welcoming windows that are neatly arranged in a grid which should allow you to work and play much more productively. Window tiling builds on Split View which has been a well–used feature of Macs since 2019, but it goes further by allowing you to choose a layout that works best for you. It suggests tiled positions and enables you to have windows side–by–side or in corners. While dragging the windows around does…

THE MORE YOU use a music–streaming service, the more locked into it you become. If you decide to switch, you’re faced with rebuilding all your custom playlists, one by one — if you have more than just a handful, this can be enough to put you off switching altogether. But there’s a solution: Playlisty. This app does the heavy lifting by transferring your playlists from one service into another in just a few taps. It can also build new playlists, back up existing ones, work with all manner of file types, use Apple’s Shortcuts app, and much more. Here, we’ll show you how to use Playlisty for Apple Music, which imports tracks into Apple’s service. There’s a Playlisty for Spotify companion app that imports into Spotify, and both also work…

BEING OUT OF REACH of Wi–Fi and cellular connections can be frustrating. Without access to the internet, you can feel cut off from the world but there are some circumstances in which you can also feel vulnerable and may find yourself in danger. If you desperately need to get hold of emergency responders, being in a remote area with no signal, for example, is sure to be very scary indeed. In 2022, Apple took steps to reassure users of iPhone 14 models that they wouldn’t necessarily be left in the lurch. The company rolled out its safety service “Emergency SOS via satellite” to customers in the US and Canada then expanded its reach to parts of Europe. Should users travel off the grid, the feature lets them message emergency services…

WATCHOS 11 IS the most beautiful watchOS yet. But in addition to its good looks there’s tons of substance to match its style — so while the three new watch faces and the redesigned widgets can make your Apple Watch even prettier, the big news is in the range of new health and fitness features that are designed to help you live even better. From new workout types, improved fitness goals and a brand new Training Load feature to new health trackers, sleep health checking and features designed specifically for pregnant people, watchOS 11 is a really big deal. As ever with watchOS, almost all of the new features are available for all supported Apple Watch models rather than just the very latest ones: that means the Series 6 onwards,…

SEQUOIA’S NEW PASSWORDS App takes the previous features split between Safari and System Settings and houses them in a dedicated password manager. The app automatically accesses passwords and passkeys stored in the keychain you can share in iCloud, sparing most of us from having to import or add anything to get started, and syncing across devices when enabled in iCloud. Menu commands can import from other password managers using CSV files that won’t overwrite existing entries, and export in the same format. By default, Passwords suggests strong passwords in Safari, and automatically creates passkeys where supported. Codes for two-factor authentication (2FA) are generated for websites that support them within Safari like passkeys, as listed separately. It also detects and reports compromised, weak and duplicated passwords and helps you change them…

iPHONE MIRRORING IS One of the standout features of macOS Sequoia, and it makes it easier than ever to quickly access apps and features of iPhone without ever leaving your Mac — and it’s super–easy to do. To use iPhone Mirroring, you’ll need a Mac running macOS Sequoia with Apple silicon or a T2 Security Chip on board as well as iOS 18 on iPhone. You’ll also need to have Wi–Fi and Bluetooth enabled on both devices, and they must also be logged into the same Apple Account with two–factor authentication (2FA) enabled. Finally, your iPhone will need to be locked — unlock your iPhone at any point and iPhone Mirroring will stop working. With all that in place, there are all kinds of things you can do — from…

ALTHOUGH IT HAS long been possible to personalize your iPhone using different wallpapers, adding widgets, putting apps into folders and pulling off some tricks using third–party apps such as Widgetsmith, with iOS 18, you can go further than ever before. Built–in options enable you to rearrange your app icons and widgets anywhere on the Home Screen — now having some gaps is perfectly fine. You can also alter the color and size of icons and tweak the background too. Customization is a lot of fun. Here we’re going to look at how you can perform these various tricks and get the most out of the options available. The changes will not always work perfectly — some third–party app icons won’t always change color, for instance, but we envisage that will…

From $599 From www.apple.com Features M4/M4 Pro chip, 16GB unified memory (24GB/32GB/48GB/64GB available), 256GB storage (512GB/1TB/2TB/4TB/8TB available), Wi–Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 3x Thunderbolt 4 (Thunderbolt 5 on M4 Pro) WITH A DESIGN THAT makes it looks like a shrunken–down Mac Studio, the all–new Mac mini is a thing of wonder. Measuring 5–inches square, it’s not that much bigger than an Apple TV 4K (3.66-inches square), yet is taller than before, standing at 2-inches high. For comparison, the previous gen Mac mini was 7.75-inches square and 1.41-inches tall. That’s quite a difference. Other changes are plentiful too — the Mac mini (2024) now has two handy USB–C ports on its front, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack, while on the rear there are three Thunderbolt 4 ports (three Thunderbolt 5 ports…

From $1,599 From www.apple.com Features M4/M4 Pro/M4 Max chip, 16GB unified memory (24GB/32GB/36GB/48GB/64GB/128GB available), 512GB storage (1TB/2TB/4TB/8TB available), Wi–Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3 THE LATEST MACBOOK PRO REPRESENTS THE STATE OF THE ART IN NOTEBOOKS CHIEFLY AIMED AT creative pros who need plenty of power on the go, the MacBook Pro has long since gone past the point where it’s affordable for most of us, but that’s OK — we have the perfectly brilliant MacBook Air instead. But this year’s MacBook Pro is no less worthy of attention. For a start, it represents the state of the art in the notebook world — being both beautifully made and incredibly powerful — with this year’s model sporting a choice of M4, M4 Pro and M4 Max chips. It’s available in two notebook…