iCreateの No. 217 の目次

Places The Places panel enables you to access your photos according to where they were shot rather than their chronological capture. It displays them as clusters of thumbnails on a world map. Click a thumbnail to jump to a Grid view displaying that location’s photos. Search field To find a particular location quickly, type in the name of a town or country in this field. A list of location options will appear in a drop-down. Click on a location’s text label to jump to it on the map. Satellite To view a more detailed version of the map click the ‘Satellite’ button. This makes it easier to identify a location’s topographical features or landmarks. Click a thumbnail to view that location’s collection of shots in the Grid view. 3D When…

Different shot sizes Our supplied project footage was shot on an iPhone 11 Pro. By tapping on the .5, 1x and 2x icons we could create a range of shot sizes that helped us capture both the big picture and small details. Zoom or cut? By tapping on the Camera app’s 1x and 2x lens we can zoom from a wide angle to a close-up during the recording of a clip. Here we’ve split a clip and removed the in-camera zoom to create an instantaneous jump cut from wide to close. Snap a still You can capture a still photo while shooting a video clip by tapping on the white button adjacent to the record button in the Camera app. Alternatively use the Modify>Flash and Freeze Frame command to add…

Added value You can adjust parameter values in smaller or larger increments by clicking to highlight the individual digit you want to change, then using the up or down arrows either side to adjust just that value. X marks the spot You can use the ctrl+X keyboard shortcut to quickly access the Remove Silence window directly from the Tracks area without having to enter the Audio Editor. Regions to be cheerful The overall number of detected regions to be created is displayed here. There’s no audible preview for this feature – just tweak the numerical values until it ‘looks’ right. If there are issues, simply undo, adjust and redo. Boundary redraws The detected region boundaries update in real time as you adjust each parameter, reflecting the eventual result of the…

Mobile views How does a website look on mobile devices like the iPhone or iPad? Show the Develop menu and select ‘Enter Responsive Design Mode’ to see. Click on any device to emulate it. Fix faults Safari saves webpages in a cache and occasionally problems can occur with sites. If a site won’t work properly, close all tabs, open the Develop menu and click ‘Empty Caches’. Web Inspector Selecting this option opens the Web Inspector at the bottom of the current page that allows you to see and examine the elements that went into creating the page. Experimental features This sub-menu is filled with minor features that may be included in future updates of Safari. Unless you are skilled in software development it’s hard to see what they do. Knowledge…

Global Library startup These two folders are in the Mac’s Library folder in the root of the disk and they list the start-up items that apply to the users. Too many of these will slow down your Mac’s startup, so find them and then uninstall them if you don’t need them. Check your Library This LaunchAgents folder is in your personal Library folder and it lists the apps that load when you sign in to macOS. Each of these will add to the time it takes for your Mac to start-up each time. Check the Preferences Check the Preferences/Settings in all of your apps to see if there is an option to prevent them from automatically starting. Your Mac will boot up faster without them. System Preferences Make sure the…

Copy and paste Universal Clipboard exists between macOS and iOS. As long as the requirements outlined here are met, you can copy content from one device and paste it into another. Turn on everything! For Handoff and Universal Clipboard to work, both devices must be connected to the same iCloud account and Wi-Fi network and Bluetooth must be turned on. Using Handoff With Handoff set up, if you are using an app on your iOS device, then the app will appear in your Mac Dock with a special Handoff icon above it. Click it to pick up the action on your Mac. Handoff Make sure that the Handoff option is enabled on your Mac and iOS devices and you’ll be able to pick one up to carry on where you…

Apps suggestions The top section in the App Library will be reserved for the apps that you use the most. These will be automatically added to this section as you regularly use your device after the iOS 14 update. Find apps alphabetically If you tap on the search field at the top of your App Library, all of your installed apps will be listed in alphabetical order. Priority apps Apps you use the most in their respective section within the App Library will appear bigger than the others, making it easier to find and select them when you need to. App actions You can still long-press on the app icons within the App Library to enjoy the Quick Actions that are unique to that particular app. You can also long-press…

Abort the mission If you or your young children get too freaked out from the ghost-busting then you can tap the ‘Abort’ button to end the detecting. This will force an ad, which is a bit of a thrill-kill, but you can pay to upgrade and go ad-free. Ask a question When a ghostly presence is detected, you can opt to ask it a question (up to five in the free version) to find out its name, whether it is friendly or not and discover its backstory. This adds welcome substance to the experience. Share your findings Any ghosts you encounter can be shared across social media, but try to act fast as the ghosts themselves may get spooked and vanish in a puff of, erm, ghost smoke. The app…

Key features 10mm graphene coated drivers • 20Hz–20kHz Learn more technics.com Available from amazon.co.uk IN-EAR HEADPHONES STRUGGLE to generate the deep, satisfying bass of their on-ear or over-ear counterparts, but Technics has utilised wide, 10mm dynamic drivers to create a broad soundstage that feels like it’s being generated by much larger speakers and, as a result, its EAH-AZ70W wireless earbuds sound much bassier than most. Spin control The technology utilised within the earbuds is impressive. The polyether ether ketone (PEEK) diaphragms have been treated with graphene coating to not only increase their strength, but also reduce the amount in which the components vibrate to produce a clearer sound. Large acoustic control chambers have also been positioned on the back end of the drivers to precisely control the airflow to the…

Price Arcade subscription Requirements iOS 13.0 or later • 2.9GB Learn more wayforward.com Available from iOS App Store JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU’VE SEEN IT ALL BEFORE in terms of action RPGs, along comes Marble Knights, an action RPG that does everything you’ve seen before… but adds spherical physics into the mix. The result is a very enjoyable multiplayer hack, slash and explore game, but with the added jeopardy of edges that you can roll off and assorted other pitfalls that involve speed and counter-motion. It’s good fun, and the realms you explore are colourful and packed with intrigue and wonder. It’s best played online with friends as you can team up against the many sword-swinging enemies and plunder the worlds for all they’re worth. It gets very challenging very…

Are you experiencing problems with your Mac? If so, don’t be scared and freak out because there may be a quick and easy way to solve the problem. Over the following pages, we cover the most common problems that people experience with their Macs and outline possible solutions to fix them. Of course, nothing is 100 per cent guaranteed to work perfectly, and you may have to try multiple work-throughs to solve a particular issue, but hopefully we have all of the possible solutions outlined here in some shape or form. Before you do anything, though, try working through the quick-fix solutions on the right, as often something as simple as restarting your Mac can resolve certain problems, especially if you aren’t in the habit of doing so. Not having…

If you shoot with a camera that doesn’t support geotagging, then you can manually assign the photograph’s location so that it will appear in Photo’s Map view. This enables you to add more photos to a specific location even if they weren’t shot on your iPhone. In this example, we’ll demonstrate how to geotag a photo that was captured using a DSLR camera so that it appears in the same map location as our iPhone-sourced snaps. 1 Search for location View a photo at full-size and click the ‘i’ button to open the Info panel. Go to ‘Assign a Location’ and type in the name of the location where the photo was captured. 2 Fine-tune location Hit return to choose a location and then zoom in for a closer look…

Where to look within GarageBand’s workspace when working with click tracks Tempo and time signature Found in the LCD, the default 120bpm tempo and 4/4 time signatures are adjusted here. Click and drag up/down to raise or lower the tempo, or click the time signature and choose from the pop-up. Drum loops Simple percussion or single-hit drum loops can also be used as basic click tracks to perform alongside, with Apple Loops or Drummer tracks with non-complex patterns and kit piece selections a favourable option. Custom clicks Software instrument tracks (green) are editable regions ideal for forming custom single-hit click tracks that can be consistently looped, with library patches applied and switched quickly to offer a wider variety of strike tones. Metronome and Count-in The metronome button (K) toggles the…

Extra options This section of the view options panel appears only when icon view is selected. Use it to set the background colour or an image background for the Finder window. Adding images If you would like to add a picture background to a Finder window, then click on the ‘Picture’ option and drag your preferred image into this square. It will then become the background of your window. Group files Click on this icon to view the files in list mode. You can also go to View>Sort By to determine exactly how you want the files arranged, such as by name, size, etc. You can drag to arrange the columns. View selector Different features are available in each viewing mode. For example, in icon view you can set a…

Drag to position You can drag the Picture in Picture viewer around your iPhone screen and release to have it snap to any of the four corners. You are unable to move the video window to a custom point on the screen, just the corners. Swipe to reduce If you swipe the PiP off to the side of the screen closest to where it is positioned then it will be reduced to a small tab. Tap the active video window and you can drag this tab up or down the screen to position it where you want. Return to app If you tap on the video to reveal the controls and then tap on the PiP icon again, you will be instantly returned to the parent app through which you…

Rinse and repeat You will need to repeat the process outlined in this tutorial for all of the app icons that you would like to replace. It’s a good idea to follow a particular theme for all so they look unified. Out with the old… By following this tutorial you will effectively be left with two app icons on your Home Screen – the original one (in this case, Camera), and the new one. So one of them has to go, right? Press and hold Press and hold on the old app icon and a contextual menu will appear. From this menu, choose the ‘Remove App’ option and a confirmation will appear. Add to library Don’t worry, you aren’t deleting the old app from your device, you are just removing…

Weekly or monthly Visit the Sleep section of the Health app and you can view your data by week or month. Just select one of these two tabs. See your averages You are able to check how long you’re spending lying in bed each night and how long you’re actually sleeping for by looking at the averages. Monitor the data The graph makes it easy to see when you were actually asleep – shown by the darker green colouring. You may find this is broken up – if so, that will indicate a disturbed sleep. Check out the extra info Tap ‘Show More Sleep Data’ and you’ll see your sleep goal and the number of measurements. Sleep tracking can also be set up on your iPhone. Knowledge base What happens…

• System-on-chip: Apple A9X • CPU: 2.26GHz dual-core 64-bit ARMv8-A • Memory (12.9-inch): 4GiB LPDDR4 SDRAM • Storage: 32GB, 128GB, 256GB • Display: 2732x2048px (264PPI) • Graphics: 12-core PowerVR series 7XT Original price (256 GB model) : £1,019/$1,229 Price now: £350/$399 Available in silver, gold and space grey colour options, the iPad Pro was the largest ever iPad released up to that point, and Apple’s A9X chip and M9 motion coprocessor, coupled with a 2.26GHz CPU, certainly provided a weighty power punch. Other new features included a smart connector for an external keyboard and four stereo speakers, situated in pairs at the bottom of the tablet. The 2732x2048, 12.9-inch (diagonal) display, with a resolution of 264PPI and a variable refresh rate, made the iPad Pro a mouthwatering prospect for all…

APPLE’S SEPTEMBER EVENT SAW THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF TWO NEW iPADS AND APPLE WATCHES. The big announcement was an exciting new iPad Air that brings some of the features of the iPad Pro line to the Air for the first time, particularly in the look and feel department, as it now has the ‘narrow border’ design you associate with the Pro range, and a Liquid Retina display which (in the same footprint as the previous iPad Air) features a large 10.9-inch display with 3.8 million pixels. As with the iPad Pro models, the Home button is gone completely, but since there’s no Face ID in the iPad Air, Apple has cleverly integrated Touch ID into the top button instead. On the inside, a brand-new A14 Bionic chip with five-nanometer processor technology…

Vignette Mask A Vignette Mask gradually mixes the warmer and brighter colours and tones on the top layer with the colder, darker, details on the layer below. This helps create the look of light emanating from the lighthouse. Compositing We placed the brighter blood moon behind the darker silhouetted objects by setting the moon graphic’s blending mode to ‘Overlay’. This avoided the need to perform a complex keying/masking operation. Color Board We used the Color Inspector’s Color Board to creatively grade the background layer with a high contrast and nocturnal blues. We also used the Color Board to add warmer light effects to the top video layer. Keyframes By using keyframes, we can make the top layer’s Opacity mix from 0% to 100% (and back to 0%). This makes the…

Safari improves with each new system update, but development doesn’t stop the moment a new macOS update is released. It is constantly evolving behind the scenes, and if you want to get a sneak peek at upcoming web technologies in macOS and iOS then there is a special version of Safari that you can download for your Mac. Safari Technology Preview allows you to try out key features of the Safari app of tomorrow, and here we show you how to get it. 1 Download the app Go to developer.apple.com/safari/ download and you will see links to download the Safari Technology Preview app for macOS Catalina or Big Sur. Click the applicable link. 2 Try it out You will now be able to road-test the very latest version of Safari…

Knowledge base Streamers and cameras The AtHome Video Streamer app for Mac just sends video and is controlled by the AtHome Camera app on another device. There are AtHome Video Streamer and Camera apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. This enables them to send or receive video depending on which app is run. There isn’t an AtHome Camera app for Mac, though. Night mode When the light level is low where your Mac is, pressing this button to enable Night Mode can help. It boosts the sensitivity of the Mac’s camera to brighten the picture. Streaming quality There are streaming quality settings to choose from – High, Good and Low. If you are using 3G/4G on your iPhone then you can lower the quality to reduce the data used. Tap…

An extension of Handoff mode is Universal Clipboard, a simple means of copying something from one device and then pasting it into the other. All you have to do is open an image or select some text on your Mac, grab your iOS device and then navigate to the app you wish to paste the content into. Then, if you tap on the screen and choose the ‘Paste’ option, whatever you copied will be pasted from the Mac to the iPhone, as if by magic. 1 Copy on one… Make sure all of the setup requirements in our tutorial are met and then, on your Mac, open an image and go to Edit>Copy or press cmd+C. Now pick up your iOS device. 2 Paste on another Open an app on…

Adding the Stack On the widgets screen, tap ‘Edit’ then the ‘+’ icon to add the Smart Stack to your widgets screen. You can then drag and drop it onto your Home Screen for easy access to your favourite widgets. Swipe to find You can swipe up and down through the Smart Stack to access the widget that you want. You can edit which widgets are included and the running order. Smart rotate Long-press on the Smart Stack and choose the ‘Edit Stack’ option. If you make sure that the ‘Smart Rotate’ option is enabled then it will display the widget it thinks you’ll need as and when. Tap to access As widgets represent easy access to key features from your favourite apps, you can tap on a widget to…

As Picture in Picture mode is restricted to Apple apps, it isn’t currently possible to use this mode with the YouTube iOS app. However, if you access the YouTube website through the Safari app then you can use PiP mode as normal. Simply start watching a video through the YouTube website, tap on the video to show the controls, and then tap on the icon in the lower-right corner of the video to enlarge the video to fullscreen. Tap the video in fullscreen mode to see the PiP icon. 1 Go big! Start watching a video in Safari through the YouTube website and then tap on the icon in the lower-right corner of the window to enlarge the screen. 2 Activate PiP mode When the video is fullscreen (portrait or…

View all your messages When you click the option marked ‘Filters’, three potential views will appear in place of your conversation list. The first – All Messages – lets you see all conversations grouped together. See any Unknown Senders If you’ve received a message out of the blue, then it’s going to end up here. That includes any spam, confirmations, verification codes or cold approaches, making managing your messages much easier. Find the filters If you want to have access to filters in Messages, you need to delve in the Settings app. Go to Messages>Filter Unknown Senders and activate the option. Converse with Known Senders Selecting ‘Known Senders’ will enable you to see conversations with people you’ve either added to your contacts or touched base with recently. If you’ve called…

My Mac Safari app has been playing up. Sometimes it has scrollbars at the side and sometimes it doesn’t, why? Jo White 1 Open prefs Apple has been trying to make the macOS interface more iOS-like in having scrollbars that vanish from view when not being used. You can rectify this by opening System Preferences. 2 Choose setting Click on the ‘General’ pane and you should see the ‘Show scroll bars’ option and three possible settings: Automatically based on mouse or trackpad, When scrolling and Always. Select the ‘Always’ option. 3 Try it out Now relaunch your Mac’s Safari app and you should find that the scrollbar to the right of the Safari window will have been restored for you to browse pages in comfort. How do I know if…

Key features Chromecast built-in • Bluetooth • 4K HDR • Voice Adjust Learn more polkaudio.com Available from amazon.co.uk “The MagniFi 2 offers an immersive surround-sound experience from a 2.1-channel configuration” THE STRANGE SHAPE OF THE MAGNIFI 2’S PACKAGING made us think we’d taken receipt of a shrunken arcade game cabinet, or at the very least a chair. It was similarly baffling to unbox, with so many flaps and folds that we were uncertain as to which way up we were even supposed to open it. Once outside the box though, Polk’s new high-performance home theatre soundbar and wireless subwoofer combo couldn’t be easier to set up. A quick press of the ‘Connect’ buttons on the back of each unit and they pair together, and then you can connect your Mac…

NO SOONER HAS CONTROL CENTRE COME TO YOUR MAC IN BIG SUR, it gets instantly trumped by something more substantial. Parallels Toolbox exists in your Mac’s menu bar and expands into a huge menu of items (34 to be precise) that covers an impressive range of chores. “If you can level any criticism at this then it would be that the menu doesn’t look very Mac-like” Tasks such as archiving, taking pictures (through your Mac’s iSight camera), recording/ taking screenshots of your display or anything relating to time (alarms, stopwatch, timers, etc), tasks which have multiple options, reside in folders at the top of the toolbox – just click on a folder to see the options inside. All of the other tools, which just perform single tasks, are neatly arranged…