Tabla de contenidos para No. 220 en iCreate

“We’ll help you make an informed decision on which device is right for you” Being an Apple devotee is a stressful business. No sooner have we seemingly upgraded our tech to the latest iPhone and iPad models than Apple doubles down on the next batch of releases, providing more options than ever and leaving us even more bemused by which models to buy. This is why we have compiled the Ultimate iPhone & iPad Buyer’s Guide, to weigh up the pros and cons of each new (and old) iOS device to help you make an informed decision on which devices are right for you. Head to page 14 for answers. We’ve also had great fun customising our Home Screen icons this month - something you too can do with ease…

APPLE HAS ANNOUNCED THE VERY BEST APPS AND GAMES IN 2020. The awards are across the iPhone, iPad and Mac App Stores, so the winners cover all of Apple’s major platforms, including Apple TV and Apple Watch. “This year, more than ever before, some of our most creative and connected moments happened in apps. This was thanks to the amazing work of developers who introduced fresh, helpful app experiences throughout the year,” says Phil Schiller, Apple Fellow. 2020 might already be a fading memory, but these apps are still great in 2021, so we thought we’d highlight eight of the best here. There were ten winners announced, so in addition to these eight there are two more than we’ve got room for, which we’ll give a little mention to right…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed The macOS Photos app used to treat video clips as second-class citizens. You could view them alongside your stills but you couldn’t adjust clip properties such as colour and tone. With Big Sur the macOS Photos app has got up to speed with the iOS version of Photos. You can now adjust the colours, tones and even composition of your video clips from your desktop Mac’s Photos app. This enables you to warm up a clip’s cold colour cast or straighten a tilted horizon before sharing a clip with friends, family or followers. Thanks to Big Sur the macOS version of Photos now boasts editing tools that aren’t available in either iMovie or iOS Photos, such as the ability to selectively adjust a clip’s…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Perhaps the hardest part of mastering GarageBand isn’t in the app itself. No matter what level of proficiency you have, recording musical performance is never effortlessly easy. You can practise your parts like a pro but when the record button is pressed and that red light blinks, even the best make mistakes. GarageBand knows this and tries to make the capture process less pressured with cycling and auditioning. Cycle mode allows a region to be looped so you can continuously perform a section over and over until recording is stopped. Each recorded take is then ‘stacked’ in a pile, ready for auditioning and picking the best. Here, we’ll first look at the cycle mode recording bit before examining auditioning and selection. Auditioning annotated Identifying…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Reminders is a great app for creating lists of things to do and the macOS Big Sur version is even better. Although it has been possible to share Reminders lists with other people in the past, now you can actually assign tasks to people, which opens up a lot of possibilities and additional use cases. For example, you can share a project with co-workers and team members and then assign the tasks to specific people. Everyone knows what they must do and when it is due. There are also personal uses and you could plan a wedding, listing all the things that need to be organised and then assign them to family or friends. Brilliant, but everyone must have Big Sur on a Mac…

Developer Microsoft Difficulty Time needed Machine learning is revolutionary, allowing computers to make sense of vast reams of data. It’s possible to train machines to recognise images, detect objects and classify data but many casual users may believe such technology is beyond them. Not any more. With Lobe, a free app by Microsoft, you can import or capture images on your Mac and classify them according to what they are showing. You don’t need any coding ability and refining your results is simple. Once your model is trained, you can test it with subsequent images and even use the data in your own apps. Check out examples of what you can achieve at https://lobe.ai/examples. There you’ll find a Download button and further assistance. Step-by-step Begin training your model 1 Start…

Apple’s Shortcuts app is a very useful tool for automating certain tasks on your iPhone or iPad. You can use it to speed up the processes for the actions you perform every day and then save them to your Home Screen to cut out needless tapping and prodding in performing those tasks. With the release of iOS 14, the Shortcuts app has gained more functionality, even allowing you to customise aspects of your device that wasn’t possible without jailbreaking it previously. You can also install shortcuts from third-party sources, not just the official Gallery within the Shortcuts app, meaning that you have access to many more automations. In this feature, we have scoured the shortcutsgallery.com website for interesting new shortcuts that may be of interest to you, but there are…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Apple Maps continues to grow, add new features and improve existing ones and the latest iOS 14 Maps app is the best yet. Its street views are brilliant and you can explore many cities around the world, walking down the roads and looking at the sights. If you ever wanted to tour London, New York and many other places, Maps lets you do it. There are three streets views, full-screen, around a third of a screen, and a tiny postage stamp size. The size depends on how you interact with the map and what activity you are engaged in. Information is available about places of interest and shops and in full-screen view, look out for the icons. Step-by-step Explore the sights with Maps 1…

Developer GameClub Difficulty Time needed Apple Arcade offers a completely new way to experience mobile games without the hassle of endless adverts and in-app purchases. We do not know yet how successful it has been, but there is an alternative available called GameClub that you may not be aware of. It follows the same pricing route through a monthly subscription and it is also the same price so your decision will come down to which of the services you prefer. This is actually not an easy choice to make because you have to base it on the games on offer and it is likely that one or two will become indispensable to you. We will show you how to use GameClub and will offer a sense of what titles are…

Developer McAfee Difficulty Time needed Netflix probably includes more media than you could watch in your lifetime and it is growing all the time. However, when you know that there is different content available in another country, and at times content that is better, the temptation to want to try it out is strong. The problem is that the regionalised nature of film and TV means that there are legalities involved which stop all of the content being made available everywhere and so you will need to improvise. The trick is to make your location look as if it is somewhere else and this is where VPN comes in. It is a surprisingly easy trick to pull off on your iPad. Step-by-step Watch Netflix US on your iPad 1 Choose…

The Apple Watch is designed for helping you to get fit, to notify you and of course to tell the time, but it can genuinely be a mini games console. You will not be playing arcade-quality games, obviously, but some developers have found clever ways to leverage the minimal controls on the Apple Watch and used them to their advantage. The crown should not be ignored as a natural controller in simpler games and in our experience it can work exceptionally smoothly when needed, which only adds to the positive experience. We highlight some of the best games you can try, which are almost always paired down to support the Apple Watch, and you may find some entertaining gems here that are perfect to play when you have a few…

£999/$999 Key features Apple M1 chip • 8GB RAM • 256GB SSD • Touch ID • 15+ hours battery life Learn more apple.com/uk/macbook-air Available from apple.com APPLE IS BILLING THE NEW MACBOOK AIR (M1, 2020) as a radical reinvention of its thin and light laptop. By ditching the Intel processor for its own ARM-based M1 chip, the MacBook Air can perform better and run for longer, and it launches at the same price as the previous model, giving you considerably more pizzazz for your pound. The base model features an M1 chip with an eight-core CPU and seven-core GPU, 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD. A higher-spec model is also available with an extra core in the GPU and double the storage, and both models can be upgraded to 16GB…

Price Free Requirements MacOS 10.15 or later Learn more highlightsapp.net Available from Mac App Store IF YOU DO SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNTS OF PDF-BASED research then Highlights has just been updated for Big Sur and makes the compiling of information effortless. You can highlight text in any document to get an instant markup menu, and if you click on the ‘Highlight’ icon in the toolbar, any text you highlight will be instantly added to a note in the sidebar that you can export. The software makes it so easy to pull key facts and figures out of the main text so that you’re left with your own digest to pick through. The interface is very similar to that of Apple’s own iWork suite of apps - simple and effective - and you…

David Crookes Our iOS expert shows you how to add Shazam Music Recognition to your Control Centre and make sure people are socially distanced using People Detection. Shaun McGill This month, our tech specialist provides tips for fine-tuning your security in Big Sur and shows you how to turn your Mac into a games console using Stadia. George Cairns Our creative genius shows you how to edit video in iOS 14, tweak and share your HDR movies and use animated Photoshop layers to create unique title sequences in Final Cut.…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed With the release of the iPhone 12 range you can now capture HDR (High Dynamic Range) footage. The new 10-bit Dolby Vision format enables you to create clips that boast a wider contrast range and feature more detail and colour than you’ll see in the 8-bit SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) clips captured by older iPhone models. However, because HDR clips feature more tones and colours than most devices can reproduce, they can look over-exposed and garishly coloured. To view the full range of colour and tone in an HDR clip you need a compatible display (such as the iPhone 12 Pro’s Super Retina XDR OLED screen). We’ll show you how to shoot and edit HDR clips and then share them in a format that…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Logic comes with a glittering array of built-in synths and effects, but you can never have too many sound sources, so it also allows you to plug in and use external audio devices within projects. This isn’t just limited to hardware synths - you can also connect iOS devices running software synth apps. This is in some ways more convenient as transmission of audio and MIDI all happens via a standard USB charging cable, negating the need for an additional MIDI interface. There are many iOS synth apps out there, both free and paid for. Even better, once you’ve set this up, you can use Logic’s AutoSampler plugin, explained last issue, to create playable, multi-sampled Sampler instrument versions of your favourite hardware. Step-by-step Use…

Developer Google LLC Difficulty Time needed Most hosting providers will offer stats as part of your package and these are useful for understanding if your site is growing. The problem is that with a lot of the statistics they offer you cannot really get to understand what is driving your traffic and exactly where it is coming from. Google is obviously a good option for understanding more about your traffic because it is so dominant in the search arena and fortunately the company offers a free Analytics package that you can set up in minutes. From here on in you will be able to check your reach every day at which point you can go deeper and make adjustments to grow your site further. The small time investment will reap…

Developer FIPLAB Ltd Difficulty Time needed Screen Tint is a deceptively simple app that is designed to do one thing, but in a variety of ways. It includes a very easy to use interface that lets you quickly adjust the settings and this makes it ideal for setting up depending on the time of day and also the task that you are currently undertaking. Everything you need is listed in one small panel and there is also a small menu bar icon for you to access it and tweak as needed. The entire premise is built around changing the tint of the screen when you need to and that is it. It may not sound particularly exciting, but it is an app that you might be running for every single…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Apple snapped up the Shazam app in 2017 and now it’s making it easier to listen out for a tune and discover the name of the track and artist. All you have to do is add a new Music Recognition button to the Control Centre and tap it whenever you want to identify a track. It works with any tunes playing in the background and it will even identify any song that is being played on your device. To make use of this function, you will need to have iOS/iPadOS 14.2 installed, but it works without having to download the standalone Shazam app. It’s discreet, easy to access and it’ll even pick up on tunes playing on a pair of AirPods which is handy…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed The search feature on iPhones and iPads started out as a simple way to find apps, but it has grown into one of the most powerful features of iOS. Apple has built a huge knowledge database that it can call on when you search for something on your iOS device. It also fetches information from Wikipedia and has extensive data on websites. Search and Siri not only knows what apps are on your iOS device, it knows what is in those apps. This means that searches can turn up results in Mail or third-party email apps, Messages conversations, files stored in iCloud, films and TV shows not just in TV+, but other TV apps, and more. You probably aren’t using search as much as…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed The iPhones 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max and the iPad Pro come equipped with a LiDAR scanner. With iOS 14.2 or iPadOS 14.2 you can use this depth sensor to detect people around you and determine how far away they are. Primarily designed for anyone visually impaired, People Detection is part of the Magnifier app. It uses machine learning to divulge the distance between you and others. One use for all is the role it can play in maintaining a social distance. You can set the feature to alert you if someone comes within as many as 15 feet or five metres, picking up on the nearest person if you’re in a crowd. It’s also possible to pop a pair of AirPods Pro…

Developer SendtoReader Difficulty Time needed There are multiple services available that aim to save long web articles for reading offline later and it would be true to say that performance varies greatly. Some, such as Pocket and Instapaper, work with their own apps to clean-up articles and present them in a unique form, but in our tests some sites simply do not play ball. Amazon offers the ability to save web articles to the Kindle app but, again, there are times when the formatting is not as accurate as we would wish for. Enter SendtoReader, which has surprisingly managed to format every single article we have tested so far with complete accuracy. Unusually, it is not an app, but is a web service. And although some setup is required, it…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Apple removed the Apple TV Remote app from the App Store in October but that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to control your Apple TV using your iPhone (or iPad). Rather, since the app remains available from the built- in Control Centre, it’s simply a matter of heading there each time you want to use your device to navigate, view and play content on Apple TV. Here we show you where the function resides and how to activate and use it. It’s worth noting, however, that it only works with third-generation or higher Apple TVs as well as Apple TV and Apple TV 4K. It will also work with smart televisions that are AirPlay 2-compatible. These are televisions that have the Apple TV built-in…

£99.99/$99.99 Key features Six-microphone array • seven beamforming tweeters Learn more apple.com/uk/homepod Available from apple.com APPLE IS FINALLY BACK IN THE SMART SPEAKER GAME, shrinking down its behemothic HomePod and bringing us a new, more compact version. The HomePod mini is one of the cheapest devices Apple has ever put out and the combo of Siri and excellent sound quality it delivers makes it far preferable to the Amazon Echo Dot or Google Nest Mini. A mini marvel The first thing that impresses is the setup process. You can simply hold your iPhone or iPad near the HomePod mini and connection is instant. All Wi-Fi passwords and accounts are synced and if you’re setting up multiple HomePods then they’ll pair together. It only takes a minute or two to get…

Beautiful Mac desktops Kit macOS out with some stunning wallpapers Exclusive video tutorials Discover how to get more out of your devices Tutorial project files All the assets you’ll need to get creative All of this is yours… • Over 15 minutes of expert iOS and macOS video guides from MacMost • This issue’s creative tutorial files to follow along with • Royalty-free fonts • Stock video clips to enhance your video-editing armoury • Stunning new wallpapers to brighten up your Mac desktop Log in to www.filesilo.co.uk/icreate Register to get instant access to this pack of must-have creative resources, how-to videos and tutorial assets Free for digital readers too! Read on your tablet, download on your computer The home of great downloads - exclusive to your favourite magazines from Future…

So you want a new iPhone? Or you’re looking to buy your first iPad? And you came to Apple because you know its devices are the leaders in their respective markets. But how do you decide which one to buy? The amount of options could easily confuse even the most switched-on, tech-savvy customer. It’s certainly a far cry from the days of only one iPhone or iPad being released a year. While those were simpler days, we are now blessed with an amazing range of options. And more options is always good news for the customer – aka, you. So, we’ve done all the research for you. Over the following pages we’ve detailed the key information about every iOS device you can currently buy. We know the types of stuff…

Developer Apple Inc Time needed Difficulty Download available Final Cut Pro X has plenty of title templates you can modify. However it also enables you to animate layered Photoshop documents to create unique graphics. By designing a title sequence in Photoshop you can take advantage of that app’s sophisticated compositing tools. We used Photoshop to make an iPhone’s screen transparent so we could insert video footage into the phone’s display in Final Cut Pro X. We also created graphical components using Photoshop’s 3D modelling tools. We’ll show you how to use Final Cut’s transitions to reveal a Photoshop document’s layers one by one - adding movement to a static graphic. This is the key to creating slick title sequences for YouTube channel posts for example. Working with layers Add effects…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed When it comes to computing, the issue of privacy is more of a personal thing than a technical limitation. Almost all operating systems allow you to make tweaks to what you share and it is true that macOS makes it easier than most with privacy set up by default. Some apps and social networks, however, seem to go out of their way to ensure that you are sharing as much as possible and so we recommend that you understand the basics and remain as vigilant as possible. One spring-clean of your privacy settings followed by regular minor checks should be enough to ensure that you are doing all you can to secure your personal information. It is a constant battle though and should not…

Developer Google LLC Difficulty Time needed MacOS is not viewed as a particularly strong gaming platform; Windows certainly offers more flexibility and potential. We also have the Xbox and PlayStation platforms, which take everything to a whole new level, but there is an alternative. Stadia not only works on the Mac, it supports a variety of platforms and devices, and it uses the web to deliver high-quality games without the need for matching hardware to keep them powered. There are, of course, some specifications that are required to allow smooth functionality, but the main thing to ensure is that you have enough bandwidth to take advantage of the titles on offer. Aside from this you can take a risk-free ride with Stadia to see if it works for you. Step-by-step…

Developer Sindre Sorhus Difficulty Time needed Dato is a very simple app that performs a function that you will only need now and again. In short it offers a new Date & Time shortcut on your menu bar in macOS which lets you quickly access calendar events and timezones. The beauty of the layout is that it is very simple in its implementation and it actually looks cleaner than the current macOS shortcut when the time is clicked. It also lets you change the style of the Date & Time display which is not on offer by default in macOS and at the low price of entry these features feel like good value overall. It may not be overly exciting, but Dato does help you to add some customisation to…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for your health and you will feel better and be more alert the next day. Apple has steadily improved the sleep capabilities of the iPhone and in iOS 14 there is a new Wind Down feature in the Health app. You can monitor sleep with a Watch, but Wind Down works with just an iPhone. The basic idea is simple, and you tell the health app what time you normally go to bed and what you like to do to get you in the right mood for sleep. For example, you might like to read a book, listen to a podcast or music, and so on. Wind Down enables you to create a sort of to-do or…

Developer Eden Software Difficulty Time needed Widgets in iOS 14 continue to be very useful, allowing users to view lots of different types of information at-a-glance. The minimalists among us, however, may not like seeing solid widget blocks cluttering up the home screens but, for some information such as the time, date and battery status, there is now a more elegant solution. Clear Spaces is an app which lets you present widget data over a transparent background and it works with three widget sizes: a small 2x2, a medium 2x4 and a large 4x4. It’s also compatible with any background, regardless of complexity. As such, it’s another great way to produce unique Home Screen layouts, although bear in mind that its a paid-for app, albeit costing just £1.99/$1.99. Step-by-step Set…

Developer Apple Inc Difficulty Time needed Forms aren’t a new feature in Numbers for iOS, but they have been made easier to create in version 10.2 (or later). Along with Scribble, which allows natural text input using the Apple Pencil on a supported iPad, you can now set Numbers up for simple data gathering for jobs like carrying out a survey, taking an inventory, or marking class attendance. There’s a new Basic Form template in Numbers’ template browser – it has a green dot next to it the first time you open it - but we’ll be creating one from a new spreadsheet instead. Another new feature in the updated Numbers is Reading View, which moves all the clutter of icons from around your spreadsheet data, allowing you to concentrate…

Developer Google LLC Difficulty Time needed Google pulled its popular Maps app on the Apple Watch three years ago but now it’s back, letting you enjoy the benefits of step- by-step directions on your wrist as well as estimated travel times. It makes getting from ‘A’ to ‘B’ much simpler, particularly since locations saved in your Google Maps account can be activated straight from the Watch without having to fumble around for your iPhone. If you don’t have a location saved, you can start a route on your iPhone and immediately get the directions on your wrist, allowing you to put the phone away and either view the screen or take note of the haptics for each step of the journey. What’s more, there’s a choice of travel modes which…

£699/$699 Key features 8GB RAM • 256GB storage • Video support for two displays Learn more apple.com/uk/mac-mini Available from apple.com WITH THE NEW MAC MINI, we finally see the smallest Mac get a much- needed update. And it arrives with bold promises as Apple is claiming up to three times faster CPU performance than the previous Mac mini, and up to six times the graphical performance. M1-powered This is all thanks to Apple’s new M1 chip that allows the Mac mini to compile Xcode up to three times faster, play intensive games and render complex Final Cut Pro scenes much faster than the previous model, all while retaining its small and compact chassis. The Mac mini comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, however, we should point out…

Price Arcade subscription Requirements IOS 13.0 or later • 165.1MB Learn more en.bandainamcoent.eu Available from iOS App Store THE GAMING ICON GETS A PARTY-INFUSED MAKEOVER in this enjoyable Apple Arcade app. It cleverly combines the retro feel of the arcade original with combative four-player action as four players battle it out to be the last Pac standing. Collecting the pills gradually increases your speed and it isn’t over if you get turned into a ghost - chase down another player and you can get your solid status back to resume the battle. Another twist comes into play if you take too long to establish a winner (by eating every other player). After a certain amount of time the arenas will gradually crumble away from the outside and if you aren’t…

•Processor: 466MHz PowerPC G3 • Memory: 64MB of PC100 SDRAM (soldered to the logic board) • Hard Drive: 10GB ATA • Display: 12-inch active-matrix TFT display, 800x600 pixel resolution • Graphics: ATI Rager 129 with 8MB of SDRAM Original price: £1,299/$1,599 Price now: £230/$325 What self-respecting Apple aficionado doesn’t remember the iBook G3, aka the ‘Clamshell’, or the ‘iMac to go’? Back in 1999 it was the last piece of Apple’s ‘four box’ strategy of desktop and portable computers in professional and consumer models. The newly introduced iMac was the consumer desktop, with the blue and white G3 ticking the professional box. But whereas the PowerBook portable line served professionals, it was a bit conservative-looking, wasn’t it? Enter the iBook G3 to entice consumers to the mobile laptop market -…