Innehållsförteckning för November 2020 från Macworld UK

Apple has just taken the wraps off the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro. Each are available in two sizes (the regular iPhone 12 now comes in a 6.1in model and a 5.4in ‘mini’), but as was the case with the iPhone 11, the ‘Pro’ models have some differences that set them apart and help justify their higher price tag. 1. A NEW, SLIGHTLY LARGER DESIGN As with the iPhone 11 Pro, the iPhone 12 Pro comes in two sizes. This year, the display on the two models measure 6.1 inches and 6.7 inches, up from 5.8 inches and 6.5 inches. (Bear in mind that a 6.1in display is the same size as the regular, non-Pro iPhone 11.) This means the phone bodies themselves are a bit larger as…

Apple has added a new member to its smart speaker line-up. The HomePod mini is a smaller version of the HomePod speaker Apple released in 2018, and if it takes off, it will help Apple grab a bigger piece of the burgeoning smart speaker market. The HomePod still has the mesh grill exterior available in Space Grey or white, but it has an entirely different shape. It’s round, not a cylinder like the full-sized HomePod. It reminds us of the mesh-protected apples you might find at the supermarket. While we haven’t seen it in person, the screen at the top of the HomePod mini seems more prominent, even brighter. Here are the top six things you need to know about the HomePod mini. 1. SIZE, SPEAKERS AND MICROPHONES The…

It is only a matter of time before Face ID will also arrive on the Mac. Further indications have emerged that suggest Apple is actively working on an implementation. It’s a feature that Apple fans have been wanting for since the introduction of facial recognition on the iPhone X. A few years have passed since Touch ID has found its way onto the MacBook, but Mac owners are still waiting in vain for Face ID. That could change soon, as there are repeated indications that Apple is working on a corresponding solution. A new patent application that Apple submitted to the American patent office refers to the technology. The application with the title ‘USER DETECTION BY A COMPUTING DEVICE’ was submitted on 22 May 2020 and approved on 10 September.…

i Pad Pro, you’re on the clock. Last month’s announcement of the new iPad Air continues Apple’s aggressive importation of iPad Pro features into the lower ends of the iPad product line. But it also brings the £579 iPad Air surprisingly close to the £769 iPad Pro in numerous ways – perhaps too close for comfort. That’s why the announcements are great for the iPad product line in two ways. Not only is there a cheaper, more powerful iPad with a bunch of features that were previously limited to the highest-end models, but it’s now clear that Apple will need to supply new high-end features to the iPad Pro in short order. PRO FEATURES MIGRATE FAST There was a time when Apple had a real iPad problem. Sales were lagging…

For the first time since its launch in 2016, there are three Apple Watch models to choose from that all look very similar at first glance. But upon closer inspection, you’ll find that there are very distinct differences between them that go much deeper than their price differences. Here’s how they stack up. DESIGN AND DISPLAY Apple hasn’t strayed very far from its original square design over the seven generations of Apple Watch, so there’s not a huge difference between the three watches. Apple hasn’t shared exact dimensions for the Series 6 and SE just yet, but they will presumably be a bit larger and thinner than the Series 3, just like the Series 5: Series 3: 38.6x33.3mmx11.4mm Series 5: 40x34x10.74mm But your wrist won’t notice the difference. Apple has…

Price: £17.99 (inc VAT) from fave.co/34ADFjT The macOS menu bar is convenient for quickly accessing favourite widgets, but it doesn’t take long for this real estate to become overcrowded. That’s why I love apps that perform multiple tasks while consuming a minimal amount of precious space along the top of our screen. iClock is an alternative to the standard macOS menu bar clock, offering separate date and time menus that display the current day and hour in any custom format, font and colour you can conjure up, all from one of the most configurable preferences windows I’ve ever seen. The time menu drop-down offers an exhaustive list of related data and productivity shortcuts including favourite international locations, so you’ll always know the current local time at a glance. World clocks…

Services: they’re so hot right now. Earlier this year, Apple beat its self-stated goal of doubling Services revenue in 2020 with time to spare, and the company has not only recently announced that it will be launching a new service, Apple Fitness+, but also finally elected to offer a competitively priced bundle of its many services to consumers. With all of that said, there are some elements of Apple’s services that are still a bit lacklustre, and more than a few of them are parts of the very systems on which the company and its users rely. In the same way that you might want to look to patching a foundation before worrying about painting the walls, there are a few places where Apple might want to shore up its…

It took a little longer than usual, but the iPhone 12 is finally here. And just like we expected, there are four phones this year, with Apple adding a new ‘mini’ model to the lower-end of the line-up. But even with an extra option, the choice of which one to buy might not be so difficult this year. That’s because the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini are closer than ever to the higher-priced Pro models that cost hundreds more. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini might not have all the same features, but when you break down the differences between the standard and Pro lines, they’re a lot closer than you’d think. Here are the surprising iPhone 12 features that make the baseline iPhones a lot more pro.…

A little over two years ago, Apple launched the T2, a chip designed to improve the security of the company’s Mac computers. Now, however, Belgian security researcher Niels Hofmans claims to have found a serious vulnerability in the T2 chip which, in the worst case scenario, could be used by hackers to bypass passwords and encryption. If an attacker has physical access to the Mac, he can install a keylogger, change installations or install his own kernel extensions. The process is based on the same Checkm8 exploit that makes it possible to jailbreak certain iOS devices – which isn’t as odd as it sounds, given that the T2 is based on the A10 chip found in some older iPhones and iPads. AFFECTED MACS All Intel Macs whose T2 chip is…

Price: £329 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3jBr5Y3 The new iPad was comprehensively outshone by the new iPad Air at Apple’s Time Flies event on 15 September, offering only a dull (albeit significant) spec bump while its costlier sibling got a redesign and raft of new features. But the Air isn’t ready to buy yet, so while we wait for the big show, here’s the warm-up act. What Apple is calling the eighth-generation iPad is in almost every respect the same as the 10.2in iPad Apple launched in 2019. It differs only in having a processor that’s two generations newer – thereby promising a handy boost in speed – and being very slightly heavier. Is that enough to justify the cost? Almost certainly not if you’re thinking of upgrading from the 2019…

Price: £379 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3jFEcYa While there are plenty of decent options out there, including Apple’s own SE, the Apple Watch Series 6 is the only real choice when buying a smartwatch. You might not need all of the things it does right now, but if you’re going to spend a few hundred pounds on a smartwatch, it pays to future-proof your wrist. I’ve been testing quite a few watches and bands recently – the Fitbit Sense, Apple Watch SE, Fossil Carlyle Gen 5, Samsung Galaxy Watch 3, even the Amazon Halo band – and the Apple Watch Series 6 is the undisputed leader of the pack. Yes, you’re paying more for a Series 6 than any of those devices, but the extra money is so well spent you’re…

Six years in, the Apple Watch is at a bit of a crossroads. After a few years of explosive growth in terms of improving the hardware, Apple seems to have hit a bit of a lull. Last year’s Apple Watch Series 5 only added a single major feature, the always-on display, but it was a huge milestone. This year’s Series 6, though? It’s clear that even Apple knew how incremental this update was. An oxygen sensor is good, but since it’s not approved as a medical device, Apple’s implementation feels a little bit weak. A brighter always-on screen? Great, but the very definition of incremental. You know an update is feeling a little bit lacklustre when Apple throws in a bunch of new colours to stir some excitement. In six…

VPNs can greatly strengthen your online privacy, assist in keeping your personal information secure and even spoof your location in the world – allowing you to access websites or services that would otherwise be off limits due to region-locking. With the increased popularity of VPNs has come an increased number of providers vying for your business. That makes finding the best one to suit your needs difficult. To help you sort out the right provider for you, we’ve committed to extensive research and testing of VPN services that cater to Mac owners. WHAT’S A VPN? VPN stands for virtual private network. If you’re not using a VPN, when your computer connects to the Internet, it does so through the local gateway provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Doing this…

The great joy of technology is in what it can do for us – especially those tasks that we don’t want to spend our own precious time on. Over the past few years, Apple has taken strides to bring automation capabilities to iOS in a variety of forms, including HomeKit and, more recently, Shortcuts. But, as good as those options are, there are still places where they fall short of what we could have. Certainly, there are third-party offerings that can help bridge the divide, but given what Apple has already built into its operating system, it seems like a few improvements could go a long way to making its innate automation more capable right out of the box. Recently, I’ve been spending more time exploring the powers of Apple’s…

Remember MagSafe? The beloved charging plug for MacBooks was given the boot when Apple moved to USB-C charging, but the company just brought it back as a new standard for iPhone charging and accessories. With a ring of magnets around a new charging coil design, along with improved shielding and NFC, you can sort of ‘snap’ the iPhone 12 or iPhone 12 Pro to a new MagSafe wireless charger, just like you do with the Apple Watch. The more precise alignment and improved internal components allow for faster charging – up to 15 watts instead of 7.5 on earlier iPhones. That’s about as fast as charging previous iPhones plugged in! This doesn’t make existing Qi chargers are useless. The new iPhones still support existing Qi-enabled wireless charging at rates up…

At the start of the fourth quarter of 2020, Apple will start mass production of its A14X processor, DigiTimes reports. This is significant because the A14X will be used in the company’s very first publicly available Apple Silicon Mac. DigiTimes claims the Apple supplier TSMC is currently preparing to mass-produce the A14X chips. According to industry insiders, the manufacturer plans to manufacture up to 6,000 wafers using the new 5nm (nanometre) process; a wafer can contain several hundred individual chips. With the new process, TSMC expects more energy-efficient and faster processors than with the 7nm process used for the A13 in the iPhone 11. According to the manufacturer, the new generation of chips will use almost 30 per cent less energy than its predecessor for the same tasks. The performance…

Apple has revealed the newest iterations of its iPad line-up, with a significant performance boost for the standard 10.2in version and a new design for the iPad Air. We see how the two compare and offer advice on which one you should buy. PRICE The iPad (2020) comes in two storage variants, each with either just Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and cellular configurations. Here are the prices: 32GB: £329 128GB: £429 32GB, cellular: £459 128GB, cellular: £559 This is good news for UK consumers as it means the entry-level model is now £20 cheaper than the previous version, although sticking with 32GB of storage does seem a particularly mean move. Prices see a sharp increase with the new iPad Air models, presumably due to the major redesign that the platform has…

Price: £269 (inc VAT) from fave.co/3d3eQRn The Apple Watch SE isn’t quite the iPhone SE of Apple’s wearable line. While it does have a starting price tag that’s about 30 per cent lower than the flagship Series 6 watch, the Apple Watch SE doesn’t have the latest processor or an outdated design, nor is it the cheapest Apple Watch you can buy. That puts it kind of in no man’s land for now, an unenviable position for a product expected to move the needle. But you’ll be happy with the Apple Watch SE if it is your first smartwatch. It has all of the features you want in a modern smartwatch – a big screen, next-gen sensors, swappable bands, good battery life – at a price that probably won’t break…

Price: £5.36 per month (inc VAT) from fave.co/34CjVwf It’s impressive how much ExpressVPN packs into its service. In addition to supporting the usual VPN connections across nearly 100 countries, ExpressVPN supports Smart DNS on consoles and set-top boxes – a great feature for anyone working abroad. It has a built-in speed test to help you make better decisions about which connections to use – if speed is your priority. The company is also working on trust with diskless servers, and it underwent a security audit from PwC. It’s moving in the right direction, but how does it measure up overall? SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SERVERS, AND SPEED ExpressVPN is based in the British Virgin Islands. The company says it’s doing this to remain outside of the ‘14 Eyes’ group of countries that…

The new 27in iMac comes with a special option for the display called Nano-texture glass. This is something that was first introduced on the incredibly expensive Pro Display XDR, but now Apple has brought it to more accessible lands. So, what is it and should you spend the additional £500 to have it adorn your screen? WHAT EXACTLY IS NANO-TEXTURE GLASS? Glare is often a problem in brightly lit offices and homes, which can render the large, glossy 27in displays on iMacs little more than hugely elaborate mirrors. One way to combat this is through matte displays, but these are not really on offer at the Apple Store, until now. When purchasing the new 27in iMac you can opt for the new Nano-texture glass, which drastically reduces glare, but seems…