2022 01 01macworld

REVIEWED: AIRPODS (3RD GENERATION)
JANUARY 2022
AWESOME TIPS & TRICKS
PLUS: HOW APPLE SILICON CHANGED THE MAC

CONTENTS
60
NEWS 17 Report: Apple accelerating

4 Apple’s next chips could have plans to make a self-driving car
40 cores and mind-blowing
speeds MAC
7 Apple’s latest subscription 20 How the first year of
service takes aim at the office Apple silicon changed
and workplace the Mac forever
9 Apple’s Self Service Repair
lets you fix your iPhone at 20
home
11 iCloud+ Private Relay: Don’t
call it a VPN
15 Apple ‘looking at’ adding
Apple Pay support
for cryptocurrency
2 Macworld • January 2022

25 Apple silicon’s epic first year
was nothing compared to
45
what’s next
29 Memory leaks are crippling
my M1 MacBook Pro – and
I’m not alone
33 Why the upcoming M2 chip
shouldn’t stop you from
buying a Mac now
38 Apple’s keyboards are
suddenly boring again
iPHONE
42 What Wi-Fi 6E means for the
future of the iPhone
67 How to quickly navigate to a
AIRPODS folder
45 Review: AirPods (3rd gen) 69 How to turn on Low
Power Mode
FEATURE 71 How to use Keychain Access
50 Three products that could to view and manage your
transform Apple in 2022 passwords
74 How to keep your MacBook
REVIEWS battery fit
54 MacCleaner Pro 2 77 How to customize your Mac
57 BetterTouchTool keyboard like a pro
81 How to use Disk Utility in
MACOS MONTEREY macOS to manage your
60 How to create a bootable hard drive
installer drive 84 How to reset a Mac’s
65 How to improve your Bluetooth settings
Mac’s speed by adjusting
Spotlight’s settings HELP DESK
86 Help Desk
January 2022 • Macworld 3

NEWS
Apple’s next chips could

have 40 cores and
mind-blowing speeds
The M1 Pro and M1 Max could be the slow ones. Roman Loyola reports
T
he M1 Pro and M1 Max M1 series being based on a 5nm
might still have that new- process with a single die. The next
chip smell, but that’s not generation of chips – presumably the
stopping Apple from moving M2, M2 Pro, and M2 Max – will use an
ahead with the next generation of its enhanced 5nm process, according to
desktop processors. And according to The Information. That likely refers to
a new report by The Information, the TSMC’s N4P node, which represents
future is bright for Apple silicon. a small 6 per cent die shrink and a 10
Apple makes its current chips per cent performance boost over the
in partnership with TSMC, with the current node, according to reports.

However, there’s more to the story. MacBook Pros, with a lower-end
The Information’s report also states chip (Ibiza) likely ending up in the
that the next-gen chips will have two MacBook Air and iPad Pro.
dies, resulting in more cores than The M1 series still has plenty of
the M1 series. TSMC has started trial life in it. The report states that a
production of these chips, which twin-die M1 Max is planning to be
should be the M2 Pro and M2 Max used as the first Apple processor in
Macs coming in late 2022 or 2023. the company’s high-end Mac Pro.
The changes get more interesting According to separate reports, the
with the third generation of Apple new Mac Pro could feature a design
silicon. According to The Information, that’s smaller than the current one,
the chips are code-named Ibiza, with the higher-end Mac Pro sticking
Lobos and Palma, and Apple and with the latest Intel processors. Intel
TSMC plan to implement a 3nm recently revealed its new 10nm Alder
process with up to four dies and 40 Lake desktop CPUs, though there
CPU cores. That would represent a have been no reports on whether this
massive leap over even the M1 Pro, chip will make its way into (or can even
which has 10 CPU cores on a single die. be used in) a Mac Pro, which currently
The Information says that uses Intel’s higher-end Xeon chips.
production on
these chips won’t
start until 2023,
which probably
means its
introduction into
Apple’s product
line-up will go
into 2024. Lobos
and Palma may
make their debut
in pro Macs such
as the second-
generation While Apple makes plans to move to a 3nm process, Intel just
14- and 16in released its first 10nm desktop chip.

NEWS
For reference, the current M1 has

eight CPU cores, seven or eight GPU
cores, and a 16-core Neural Engine.
The M1 Pro and M1 Max double the
number of CPU and GPU cores, with
the Max’s GPU cores jumping to up to
32 cores. The Pro and Max also switch
up their CPU core allocation, reducing
the number of efficiency cores to two,
while the rest of the CPU cores are
performance cores. The Information’s
report doesn’t say how many cores
would be delegated for performance
in the next-generation chips.

Apple’s latest subscription
service takes aim at the
office and workplace
The new service brings device management and iCloud storage to
business with up to 500 employees. Jason Cross reports
A
pple has always changing with the new Apple
encouraged the use of Business Essentials service.
Apple devices at work, Currently in beta with a full
often pitching Macs launch in the spring of 2022, Apple
and iPads as powerful productivity Business Essentials combines
machines, but the company hasn’t device management, iCloud storage,
really directed a lot of software employee onboarding, and service/
and services specifically at support into a single monthly
the corporate interests. That’s subscription package. It’s aimed as

NEWS
business with up to 500 employees, to that user’s Business Essentials

and features a simplified set of iCloud storage space.
three price tiers: The service also installs a new
Business Essentials app where the
Single device: $2.99 (£tbc)/month user can download business software
(per user), supports one device and that is assigned to them and can
provides 50GB of iCloud storage. request support. If a user logs in to
Multi-device: $6.99 (£tbc)/month their managed Apple ID on a personal
(per user), supports up to three device, it uses different cryptographic
devices and provides 200GB of keys for work data, to keep it separate
iCloud storage. from personal data.
Multi-device, more storage:
$12.99 (£tbc)/month (per user),
supports up to three devices and
providesmonth2TB of iCloud storage.
When the service exits beta in the

spring of 2022, businesses will be
able to add AppleCare+ to their plans
and get prioritized Apple Support,
training for IT and employees, and
up to two device repairs per plan
per year. Google and Microsoft offer
similar storage and support for small
business with Google Workspace
and Office 365, respectively.
The service lets IT departments
easily manage systems with new
managed Apple IDs that are separate
from their personal Apple IDs. When
users add those to devices, it can
push things like Wi-Fi and VPN
settings, enforce important security
settings like FileVault, and connects

Apple’s Self Service
Repair lets you fix
your iPhone at home
Genuine iPhone parts and tools available. Michael Simon reports
A
fter backtracking on a programme that lets anyone repair
move that would have their broken iPhone at home with
made iPhone 13 screen Apple genuine parts and tools.
repairs nearly impossible The new Self Service Repair
for all but the largest repair centres, programme, which is launching early
Apple has announced a new next year in the US and expanding to

NEWS
additional countries throughout 2022, earlier this month after iFixit, a long-
will offer consumers access to Apple time Right to Repair advocate, found
parts and repair manuals as well as a small Face ID chip embedded in
recycling for the parts that are being the iPhone 13 that made it nearly
replaced. Apple says the programme impossible to repair without going to
will initially focus on the most an Apple Store or authorized service
commonly serviced parts, such as the provider. Apple backtracked on that
iPhone display, battery and camera, plan in the upcoming iOS 15.2 update.
and expand to more technical repairs
later in the year.
The programme will offer more
than 200 individual parts and tools
via a dedicated online storefront and
is ‘intended for individual technicians
with the knowledge and experience
to repair electronic devices’. The
programme is initially limited to the
iPhone 12 and 13 but will soon expand
to M1 Macs, according to Apple.
Apple says customers must
first review the Repair Manual
before placing an order, but offers
few specifics on the programme,
including how much parts costs.
It’s not clear whether the Self
Service Repair includes phone
support or access to Services
Toolkit 2, Apple’s diagnostic tool.
For years, the Right to Repair
movement has been fighting for
nationwide legislation that allows
equal access to the tools and parts
needed to repair modern electronic
devices. Apple came under criticism

iCloud+ Private Relay:
Don’t call it a VPN
The new privacy component will launch as a ‘public beta’ feature
soon. Jason Cross reports
I
f you’ve downloaded iOS 15, you the existing iCloud storage, sync,
might have noticed something and cloud features, but the most
different about your iCloud interesting might be something Apple
account. Apple is upgrading all calls iCloud Private Relay. At first, it
paid iCloud accounts to something sounds like a VPN: your web browsing
it calls iCloud+. It includes several traffic is encrypted and sent through
interesting new features on top of a relay to hide your exact location,

NEWS
IP or the contents of your browsing and then sent to Apple, so your ISP
traffic. It’s not a VPN, though. Not can’t see any of your web browsing
quite. There are important differences, requests. Once at Apple’s proxy
which we’ll describe here. But iCloud server, the DNS request (the thing
Private Relay may be enough for that points a domain name like
most people, giving the most obvious ‘macworld.co.uk’ to a specific server
benefits of a VPN to millions of users IP address) and your iPhone, iPad
who would never consider signing up or Mac’s IP address are separated.
for one. Here’s what this Private Relay Your IP address is retained by
feature is, how it works, and how it’s Apple, while your DNS request is
different from a traditional VPN. passed on, encrypted, to a ‘trusted
partner’ that has the decryption
HOW DO YOU TURN ON key, along with a fake intermediary
iCLOUD PRIVATE RELAY? IP address that is based on your
iCloud Private Relay is a free upgrade approximate location. Apple didn’t
in iOS 15 for anyone who pays for name its partners, but some web
iCloud storage either separately or as sleuths have figured out that they are
part of an Apple One bundle. To turn it major internet backbone companies
on, head to the Settings app, then tap such as Akami, Cloudfare and Fastly.
your Apple ID name at the top. Then This means that Apple knows your
tap iCloud and Private Relay (Beta) IP address but not the name of the
and flip the toggle green to turn it on. sites you’re visiting, and the trusted
You can also choose between two IP partner knows the site you’re visiting
address locations: General ‘so that but not your IP (and therefore not
websites can provide local content in who or where you are). Neither party
Safari’ or broader country and time can piece together a complete
zone for more anonymity. picture of both who you are and
where you’re going.
WHAT IS iCLOUD The website you’re visiting
PRIVATE RELAY? typically gets your exact IP address
When Private Relay is enabled, all of and DNS request, so it can easily
your browsing activity in Safari will build a pretty detailed profile of
be routed through two Internet ‘hops’ exactly who you are, where you
or relays. Your data is encrypted are, and where you’re going online.

a region, and won’t
ever make it seem
like you’re coming
from a totally different
place. In other words,
if you want to use it to
access geographically
locked content in
the BBC iPlayer or
Apple’s two-proxy system makes it very difficult for any other online services,
one company to build a profile of your web activity. you’re out of luck.
Combine that with a few cookies, HOW IS iCLOUD PRIVATE

even innocuous-seeming ones, and RELAY DIFFERENT
it’s pretty simple to have your entire FROM A VPN?
online activity profiled, tracked, traced As cool as this Private Relay feature
and sold to advertisers (and others). is, it’s definitely not a VPN. It will do
What iCloud Private Relay does a great job of preventing profiling of
is make the websites you’re visiting your web activity based on your basic
totally ignorant of this information, connection data. But it has a lot of
so the sites can’t build profiles of shortcomings compared to a real
your activity. VPN. Some of these include:
The IP addresses Apple uses in
place of your real one are still roughly • It only works with Safari, not any
approximate to your general area; it’s of the other apps or web browsers
not enough to identify you personally, you use. Technically, some other
but it will allow sites that use your DNS information and a small subset
IP address to deliver local news, of app-related web traffic will use
weather or other info to keep working it, but it’s best to think of it as a
fine. There’s an option to use an even Safari-only thing.
broader IP address, but it might make • It’s easily identifiable as a ‘proxy
some of those sites work incorrectly. server’, which many large networks
Note that Apple does not allow like those at schools or businesses
you to choose an IP address or even will not work with. Most good VPNs

NEWS
disguise themselves to look like

regular non-proxy traffic.
• As mentioned, it can’t hide the
region you’re connecting from,
only your specific IP location, so
you can’t access content locked
out of your region or experience
websites as if you’re connecting
from another country.
If all you really want to do is stop

websites from building a profile of you
and selling it around to advertisers
and data brokers, then using iCloud
Private Relay on your iPhone, iPad or
Mac is a great option. It’s fast, easy
and if you already pay for any amount
of iCloud storage, you’ll get it for free.
You should know that, as of iOS
15.1 and watchOS 8.1, iCloud Private
Relay and Mail Privacy Protection do
not work on Apple Watch. If you use
the Mail app on your Apple Watch or
open a web link (say, sent to you via
Messages), the watch will use your
real IP address.
If you want real privacy and
security for everything you do on the
Internet, or want to access content
that’s available in countries other than
your own, you’ll still need a VPN.

Apple ‘looking at’ adding
Apple Pay support for
cryptocurrency
But you won’t be able to buy your uPhone with Bitcoin ‘in the
immediate future’. Michael Simon reports
A
s one of the biggest During an interview as part of
and most influential The New York Times’ DealBook
companies in the world, Online Summit, Tim Cook offered
Apple is usually on board his thoughts on the digital currency
with the latest tech trends. But when currently valued at over $60,000 per
it comes to cryptocurrency, the Bitcoin. For one, he’s an investor. He
company is taking its time. said cryptocurrency is “interesting”

NEWS
and thinks “it’s reasonable to own it However, Cook definitely left

as part of a diversified portfolio”. the door open for support. He said
However, speaking as a CEO, cryptocurrency is one of the “things
he said Apple is “looking at” that we are definitely looking at” for
incorporating cryptocurrencies Apple Pay and was coy when pressed
into Apple Pay but doesn’t have for specifics. When asked “Like
“immediate plans” to support the what?” following his comment, Cook
payment. Additionally, he “(isn’t) laughingly said, “Like I wouldn’t have
planning in the immediate future to anything to announce today.”
take crypto for our products as a
mean of tender”.
Adding cryptocurrency as a form
of payment within Apple Pay would
be a big move for Apple. While there
is some cryptocurrency support
Apple Pay, it works through third-
party credit cards such as Coinbase,
which converts all cryptocurrency
to US dollars first. You can also
download third-party apps to
buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, or other
popular currencies. PayPal also
lets users buy one of four types of
cryptocurrency in its app.
However, those solutions are more
workarounds than integrations, and
are not quite the same as allowing
users to buy things with Bitcoin
in Apple Pay. Bitcoin or Ethereum
support would let users select their
crypto account as an option like their
Apple Card or other credit card to pay
for things at places that accept the
digital currency.

Report: Apple
accelerating plans to
make a self-driving car
Project Titan could arrive by 2025. Jason Cross reports
A
ccording to a new report Apple has been hiring engineers
from Bloomberg’s Mark and automotive veterans for years
Gurman, Apple is stepping under what is widely believed to
up its car ambitions. The be called Project Titan. In fact, the
company now aims to launch a fully project has gone on so long that many
autonomous vehicle in four years, of Apple’s original hires have since left
though that 2025 target date is fluid. the company. Notably, Apple poached

NEWS
Tesla veteran Doug

Field for VP of
Special Projects,
but Field left earlier
this year to serve
as Chief Officer
of Advanced
Technology at Ford.
Apple then handed
the project over to
Kevin Lynch, the
software engineer
responsible
for the Apple Kevin Lynch is to lead Apple’s car ambitions.
Watch’s software.
Under this new leadership, the Bloomberg’s report claims that
report claims, Apple has settled on Apple’s ideal car would have no
the more ambitious of two potential steering wheel at all, and Apple has
plans: A fully autonomous vehicle, explored several different interior
rather than one that focuses only layouts and designs. ‘People familiar
on driving assistance similar to with the matter’ claim that Apple
many vehicles sold today. The report has reached a major milestone in
says that if Apple can’t get its fully its self-driving system, completing
autonomous system done in time the core work on the internally-
for the 2025 date it could either designed processor it intends to
delay the car’s release or sell one ship in the vehicle. The chip is the
with lesser technology. most sophisticated Apple has yet
Apple currently tests autonomous developed and is expected to run hot
vehicles in California, where it has and require special cooling as Apple
fewer than 70 autonomous vehicles begins using it in retrofit test vehicles.
registered with the DMV, as of 2020. The project’s timetable is still quite
That’s a pretty low number, though aggressive. It often takes at least two
Apple could have expanded its or three years for an established car
testing fleet in 2021. company to go from a final prototype

design it can show the public to mass
production and customer deliveries,
and Apple is still a long way from a
completed design. It will also need a
car production partner, which in itself
could prove difficult considering how
demanding Apple can be over design
details and branding and how difficult
it is to mass-produce cars at scale
with quality and price that meets
Apple’s standards.
The report offers other interesting
titbits, such as the fact that the
car is intended to use standard
CCS charging systems and that
Apple considered taking the ‘fleet
of cars’ approach that would see
customers simply summoning rides
similar to Uber or Lyft, but has
instead settled on making cars for
individual ownership.
It seems like every time we hear
new leaks about Apple’s car, the
launch is just three or four years away.
Apple’s plans are ambitious and it
is clearly serious about this project,
having hired top talent for many
years, but it never seems to inch
closer to the finish line.

MAC
How the first year of

Apple silicon changed
the Mac forever
A look back – and forward – after a thrilling year of Apple silicon.
Jason Snell reports
A
year ago last month the processors, but that optimism was
era of Apple silicon truly tempered by Apple’s recent Mac
began, as the first reviews missteps. There were also a lot of
of M1 Macs arrived, questions about a processor that
followed shortly thereafter by M1 had only really seen success in
Macs arriving in Apple Stores and in iPhones and iPads. Would there be
the hands of Mac users everywhere. unexpected pitfalls of abandoning
We had hope that the future would Intel? Could Apple pull off its latest
be brighter with Apple-designed Mac chip transition with the same skill

that it showed during the two previous MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1
transitions? Twelve months later, the Max chips, we got the answer. It’s
answers are much clear: we’re in the a definitive yes.
brightest timeline. This was not a given. It’s easy
to say “just throw more processor
THE MAC IS IN and graphics cores at the problem”,
A SAFER PLACE but computer performance doesn’t
Right away it was clear that the M1 necessarily scale so easily. Apple’s
would provide to the Mac what we advantage really came into play with
had all hoped it would: impressive its unified memory architecture,
performance and excellent power which doesn’t just offer a lot of fast
efficiency – leading to great battery memory for processing operations,
life on laptops. Over the past year, as but also offers an enormous pool of
Apple-designed chips have spread to fast memory for GPU use.
most Mac models, those facts have A few years ago, if you had told me
remained intact. that Mac laptops would be shipping
In just the past couple of months, with 10-core processors with 32-core
one of the biggest questions of GPUs, I would believe you, but I would
the entire chip
transition has
been answered.
The M1 chip was
capable enough
to run lower-end
systems that
needed about as
much processing
power as an iPad
Pro, but could
Apple’s chips scale
to meet the needs
of professional
Mac users? With Apple’s unified memory architecture gives the company an
the release of the advantage over Intel.

MAC
have been seriously impressed that native code that runs at full speed.
Intel had managed to make those (For example, an Intel-built game
processors and that Apple had been using the Apple silicon-native Metal
able to ship them in its laptops. graphics engine may run faster on an
Bottom line: Apple’s skill in making M1 Mac than it did on an Intel model.)
chips for iPads and iPhones does As someone who relies on a few
translate to the Mac, after all. apps that were what Steve Jobs used
to call “laggards” – they took a long
THERE WERE VERY FEW time to run natively on Apple silicon,
GROWING PAINS or are still not there – I am happy to
Shifting to an entirely new processor report that they run just fine, to the
architecture isn’t easy, but Apple point where it doesn’t matter that
has done it to the Mac three times, they’re not native. (And yet, I am
and in every case it’s acquitted angry at those laggard developers,
itself well. That said, there’s because I know their software could
probably nobody left at Apple who run much faster than it does. One of
worked on the PowerPC transition, these days they’ll release an update
and even the Intel transition is and all of a sudden, those apps will
probably only a distant memory fly. I continue to wait.)
in the mind of the most grizzled of Even better, it seems like there
veteran Apple engineers. are very few apps that are actually
And yet the streak remains intact. laggards. Most of my apps embraced
In fact, I’m tempted to call the past Apple silicon very, very quickly.
year painless. Compatibility has That’s down to the flexibility and
largely been a non-issue, starting motivation of Apple’s developer
with Rosetta 2, the code-translation community, and to Apple for
system that allows Intel-based apps providing them with tools to make
to run on Apple silicon without trouble. the transition relatively painless.
Rosetta got a huge leg up with the
speed of the M1 chips, of course – it’s THE COMPETITION DOES
a lot easier to run translated code NOT HAVE AN ANSWER
when it’s running on a really fast Apple’s long-time frenemy Qualcomm
processor – but Apple also did a good insists that it is going to make chips
job in letting translated apps tie into that can match up with Apple silicon –

performance. Now it’s shown that
it can extend that performance to
the Mac–and in the process, use
all the tricks it used to surpass
Qualcomm to blow past Intel, too.
But rest assured, they all know
now. Qualcomm’s next-generation
processor (which might challenge
the M series in a couple of years)
will be designed by a company
founded by Apple silicon engineers
which was recently bought by
Qualcomm. Intel talks about having
to beat Apple at its own game – or,
The system on a chip that Apple puts in the failing that, convince Apple to use
Mac Pro will be an important indicator of Intel’s factories to build Apple-
the capabilities of Apple silicon. designed chips.
The game continues. The future
maybe by 2023. Fans of PCs running isn’t guaranteed. But Apple has the
AMD and Intel processors cling to drop on the competition, and this past
the fact that while the new MacBook year has shown that everything we
Pros might be the fastest laptops thought Apple’s chips might be able
around – especially if you unplug to do, they can do.
them from the wall – at least there
are still more powerful computers on THE TRANSITION
the desktop. (Let’s see what happens IS HALF OVER
when Apple releases its Apple As with the transition from PowerPC
silicon-based Mac Pro.) to Intel, Apple’s first steps from Intel
The truth is, Apple caught the to Apple silicon were conservative.
tech world flat-footed. They’re all The MacBook Air, Mac mini and 13in
scrambling to catch up. Apple was MacBook Pro were identical on the
already more than a year ahead outside, but transformed on the
of Qualcomm, every single year, inside. Then came the next step,
in terms of smartphone processor with new designs (the iMac and

MAC
MacBook Pro) being coupled with

upgrades to M-series processors.
A redesign of the MacBook Air is
likely on the horizon.
Now that the professional-level
version of the M1 chip has arrived,
there really aren’t that many chapters
left to write in the story of the
transition to Apple silicon. All along,
Apple has said that this is a two-year
transition, and it sure feels like it will
meet that self-imposed timetable.
All that is left to revise is the Mac
Pro, the larger iMac, and the high-end
Mac mini. All but the Mac Pro could
probably be solved with the existing
M1 Max and M1 Pro chips. And with
a second generation of M-series
processors due in 2022, who wants to
bet against Apple shipping an M2 Max
Mac Pro about 12 months from now?
Not me. If the past year has
taught any of us anything, it’s
that Apple silicon delivers. I don’t
expect the next year to change
that perception one bit.

Apple silicon’s epic
first year was nothing
compared to what’s next
If you thought the first chips were fast, just wait until the next
generation. Michael Simon reports
W
hen Apple released Here’s how the Apple silicon transition
the M1 chip at the end has gone so far – and where it’s going.
of last year, we were
blown away by the M1: DECEMBER 2020
speed improvements over its Intel Apple’s current M1 processor is based
predecessors. A year later Apple did on the 5nm A14 chip the first arrived
it again with the M1 Pro and M1 Max in the iPad Air and later the iPhone 12.
and rumours suggest that the next It has 4 high-performance cores with
generation will be an even bigger leap. 192 KB of L1 instruction cache and 128

MAC
KB of L1 data cache and shared 12MB next-gen processors the M1 Pro and
L2 cache and 4 energy-efficient cores M1 Max, and true to their names, they
with 128 KB of instruction cache, are a massive leap over the M1.
64KB of L1 data cache, and shared Built using the same 5nm
4MB L2 cache. That makes a total process as the M1, the M1 Pro and
of 8 cores split evenly among power M1 Max bring a new 10-core CPU,
and efficiency leading to tremendous including eight high-performance
speed boosts over the prior models. cores and two high-efficiency cores,
The system-on-a-chip also has an that delivers speeds up to 70 per
8-core GPU in most models (the cent faster than the M1. The M1 Pro
entry-level MacBook Air and 24in offers up to 200GB/s of memory
iMac have a 7-core GPU) with 128 bandwidth with support for up to
execution units and up to 24,576 32GB of unified memory while the
concurrent threads. M1 Max delivers up to 400GB/s of
Memory has also changed. With memory bandwidth with support for
the M1, the LP-DDR4 memory isn’t up to 64GB of unified memory.
just soldered to the motherboard, it’s On the graphics side, the M1 Pro
actually part of the chip itself. That has a 14- or 16-core GPU that is up to
means it’s faster and more efficient 2x faster than M1, while the M1 Max
than before, but it’s also a bit more adds a 32-core GPU options for up
limited – you can only get 8- or 16GB to 4x faster graphics performance
in an M1 Mac and there’s no way to than M1. According to Apple, the new
upgrade it after purchase. (That won’t M1 Max MacBook Pro can transcode
be a surprise for MacBook buyers ProRes video in Compressor up to 10x
but the same also applies to desktop faster compared with the Intel 16in
models, though we’re no sure about MacBook Pro.
the Mac Pro yet.) And finally, the chip Additionally, the chips also have
has a 16-core Neural Engine, along a 16-core Neural Engine, additional
with the Secure Enclave and USB 4/ Thunderbolt 4 controllers, and a new
Thunderbolt support. display engine that can drive up to
We started hearing about the four external displays on the M1 Max.
development of an M1X chip earlier You can find them in the MacBook
this year, but the rumours weren’t Pro and likely the upcoming 27- or
quite accurate. Apple is calling its 30in iMac.

M2: 2022
Apple’s M2 chip will
likely arrive in the next
MacBook Air, which
looks to get a complete
redesign with new
colours to match the
24in iMac. According
to Bloomberg, Apple’s
next-generation
processor “will include
the same number of
computing cores as Apple is reportedly developing a new Mac Pro with an
the M1 but run faster”. incredibly powerful custom chip inside.
That’s similar to how
Apple approaches A-series upgrades, establishing non-Pro and -Max chips
which has had six cores since the A11 as consumer products for users who
processor despite vastly improved aren’t as demanding.
performance. As far as the GPU
goes, Bloomberg reports that the M2 PRO & M2 MAX: LATE
cores will increase from seven or 2022/EARLY 2023
eight to nine or 10. The M2 will likely The next generation of Apple’s
be based on TSMC N4P enhanced high-end laptop processors could
5nm process similar to the A15 have several tiers of performance
processor, according to a report by like the M1 Pro and M1 Max, with as
The Information. many as 20 computing cores, made
We don’t know yet how speeds up of 16 high-performance and four
compare, but based on rumours and high-efficiency cores, according to
Apple’s positioning of its chips thus a Bloomberg report. That’s due to a
far, we can expect the M2 processor new unique two-die processor the
to actually be a bit slower than the will effectively double the cores in
M1 Pro. The same M1 limitations on each chips, according to a report
USB 4/Thunderbolt and RAM will in The Information.
likely remain as well since Apple is Apple is also working on a

MAC
workstation-calibre desktop chip likely be based on a 3nm process.

for the next generation of its Mac
Pro tower that could also fall under
the M2 Pro and M2 Max name. It’s
rumoured to have up to 40 cores due
to a four-die process or the pairing of
chips with 32 performance cores, as
well as a 64- or 128-core GPU. Those
specs are comparable to what Intel
and AMD offer in their top-of-the-line
workstation chips and graphics cards
and would challenge the fastest PCs.
We don’t know if Apple will
continue to offer PCI slots for graphics
and storage or add more ports for
expansion, but the Mac Pro is the most
interesting Mac in the Apple silicon
transition. We could get a peek at the
machine at WWDC with a launch likely
in November or December.
M3: LATE 2023/2024

Apple is already working the third-
generation of its M-series processor,
according to The Information. It will
likely be its first desktop processor
to use a 3nm process and offer a
significant speed boost over the M1.
Its code name is Ibiza.
M3 PRO & M3 MAC: 2024

We don’t know much about the M3
Pro and M3 Max other than their code
names are Lobos and Palma, and will

Memory leaks are
crippling my M1 MacBook
Pro – and I’m not alone
I hope Apple is listening. Michael Simon reports
F
or the past 10 months, I’ve upgrade over my previous 2016 model.
used a 13in M1 MacBook Pro But some days it’s nearly impossible
supplied by my employer. to get anything done. More than
Most days it’s great, with any Mac I’ve owned, this MacBook
exceptional battery life and excellent regularly experiences freezes,
speeds, and is an overall massive crashes, and restarts that often seem

MAC
spot spikes when

using Safari
and Photoshop
Elements and
have seen more
sporadic issues
with Mail and other
apps. Sometimes
the issues cause
slowdowns
that work
themselves out
in a few minutes,
Activity Monitor often shows my memory pressure in the red. other times my
machine locks up
to be related to memory issues. It’s and forces a restart it.
been nearly impossible to pinpoint
a pattern, but I assumed it was So glad I got 64GB of memory on
something installed on my machine by my new Mac so I can use 26GB of it
my company. After reading numerous for control centre… Wait… what. pic.
reports recently about similar issues, twitter.com/inCOPaii1o
I’m not so sure.
When Gregory
McFadden tweeted
that Control Centre
was using 26GB of
the 64GB of RAM
on his new MacBook
Pro, the screenshot
looked very familiar.
While Control
Centre never ate
up that much RAM
for me, I regularly Gregory McFadden’s screenshot.

Gregory McFadden (@ to be growing. And I hope Apple is
GregoryMcFadden) October 28, 2021 paying attention.
I now keep Activity Monitor open MEMORY LOSS

while I work and it’s rare that the When the M1 chip was released, Apple
memory pressure monitor isn’t yellow changed the way we think of RAM on
or red. Like most Mac users, I tend our Macs. As in the iPhone and iPad,
to keep several apps idling in the the memory was now affixed on the
background – Mail, Music, Safari, same package as the system-on-chip.
Outlook, Word, and so on – but with The M1 Pro and M1 Max come with
the M1 MacBook, I often need to quit higher memory options, but the M1
apps to free up application memory. tops out at 16GB and that’s that.
Closing Safari tabs is a regular task As Jason Snell wrote back when
necessary to free up memory and the M1 was released, that tidy system
keep my machine running smoothly. has benefits: “The M1 processor’s
That’s extremely similar to the memory is a single pool that’s
MacBook Pro and Monterey issues accessible by any portion of the
I’ve read recently – except I’m still processor. If the system needs more
running Big Sur. That leads me to memory for graphics, it can allocate
believe it’s a bigger problem that that. If it needs more memory for
wasn’t as widely reported until the Neural Engine, likewise. Even
now. Perhaps
it’s because
developers tend
to be more hyper-
aware of things
like this or it’s
exacerbated by
the extra RAM in
the new MacBook
Pro, but the
number of people
experiencing this Warnings like these – which I received while I was writing this
issue appears article – are common.

MAC
Safari sites spiking memory use happen on a regular basis.
better, because all the aspects Maybe now that it’s more of a
of the processor can access all widespread issue, Apple will figure it
of the system memory, there’s no out. We’ve reached out to Apple for
performance hit when the graphics comment but haven’t heard back,
cores need to access something that and it’s entirely possible that Apple
was previously being accessed by a fixes it in a future version of macOS
processor core. On other systems, without ever addressing the issue
the data has to be copied from one publicly. That’s what happened with
portion of memory to another – but on the excessive SSD usage earlier this
the M1, it’s just instantly accessible.” year, though that Apple says that
It’s possible that macOS isn’t was a “data reporting error” and not
managing this unified memory an actual problem. The memory bug
structure properly, and will continue is an actual issue that needs to be
to allocate RAM beyond what is fixed as soon as possible.
available without freeing up RAM that In the meantime, there are a few
is no longer needed. This is commonly ways to mitigate the issue. The first is
referred to as a ‘memory leak’. to be vigilant. As I said, keep Activity
Performance gradually deteriorates Monitor open, and when you see
until you need to either wait for the an app’s memory usage creeping
RAM to clear, force-quit the app, or up, address it. You can also use a
restart the machine. third-party memory cleaner that
Sometimes a warning will appear lets you quickly clear RAM. Running
when no single app is even using that periodically will help keep your
that much memory and other times resources available. And finally, stay
apps are seemingly using way more up to date with the latest version
memory than is available. I’ve seen of Big Sur or Monterey, as a fix will
single websites report using as much hopefully arrive soon.
as 20GB of RAM for no discernible
reason, crippling my machine.

Why the upcoming M2
chip shouldn’t stop you
from buying a Mac now
New chips are reportedly around the corner, but how much better
will they be? Roman Loyola reports
E
ven before Apple’s M1 Pro M2, this chip is the likely successor to
and M1 Max MacBooks hit the M1 that powers the MacBook Air,
the market, rumblings of 13in MacBook Pro, Mac mini and the
future Apple silicon were 24in iMac. According to reports it will
already hitting the wire. Dubbed the arrive in the first half of 2022.

MAC
So if you’re wondering whether Pro has much more power, especially

you should wait for the M2 instead of when using apps that take advantage
investing in an M1 MacBook Air or M1 of more than one core. The M1 is a
Pro MacBook Pro, we’re here to help. very good chip, but the M1 Pro is a
great one with mind-blowing speeds
M1, M1 PRO & M1 MAX and excellent upgrade options. As
Apple’s first three Mac chips are all you can see in the CPU benchmarks
built on the same architecture, but below, the extra cores go a long way
they’re quite different: and that’s before you take graphics
and RAM into account. Apple has
M1 delivered a chip that’s great for pros
CPU core (performance): 4 but might be too fast for casual users.
CPU core (efficiency): 4
GPU cores: 7/8 Geekbench 5 (multi-core)
NPU cores: 16 14in MacBook Pro M1 Max 10-core
Memory: 8GB/16GB (2021): 12,590
14in MacBook Pro M1 Pro 10-core
M1 Pro (2021): 12,544
CPU core (performance): 6/8 16in MacBook Pro 2.4GHz 8-core
CPU core (efficiency): 2 (2021): 7,383
GPU cores: 16 13in MacBook Pro M1 8-core (2020):
NPU cores: 16 7,569
Memory: 16GB/32GB 24in iMac M1 8-core (2021): 7,708
M1 Max Geekbench 5 (single-core)

CPU core (performance): 8 14in MacBook Pro M1 Max 10-core
CPU core (efficiency): 2 (2021): 1,774
GPU cores: 24/32 14in MacBook Pro M1 Pro 10-core
NPU cores: 16 (2021): 1,778
Memory: 32GB/64GB 16in MacBook Pro 2.4GHz 8-core
(2021): 1,277
As you can see the chips are quite 13in MacBook Pro M1 8-core (2020):
different. While they’re all built on 1,724
the same 5nm die process, the M1 24in iMac M1 8-core (2021): 1,742

M2: SPECS AND SPEED than the iPhone 12’s A14 chip when
According to several reports, the compared with the higher-end iPhone
M2 will make its debut in the next 13 Pro and about 25 per cent higher
MacBook Air. It will be faster than the with the 4-core GPU in the iPhone 13.
M1, but Bloomberg reports that it will Compared to the M1, we’ll
have the same number of CPU cores probably see the M2 increase in
as the M1 and up to 10 graphics cores. CPU performance to be about 15
That would put the M2 closer to the per cent with a bigger jump in GPU
M1 than the M1 Pro. performance. The M1 Pro, with its
The M2’s debut in Apple’s thinnest eight or 10 CPU cores (two efficiency
and lightest laptop says a lot about cores, the rest are performance
the chip. Like the current MacBook cores), boasts multi-core CPU
Air, reports say the 2022 MacBook performance that’s about 70 per
Air won’t have a fan for cooling, which cent better than the M1, so even
could mean Apple will be limiting the with a nice increase, the M2 will still
M2’s performance in order to maintain be significantly slower overall than
a proper operating temperature. If the M1 Pro.
the A15 is any
indication,
the M2 chip
could bring a
single-core
performance
boost of roughly
10 per cent over
the M1 and 20
per cent better
multi-core CPU
performance.
On the GPU
side, we saw
speeds that
were 40 to 50 The 2022 MacBook Air could look very different from the
per cent faster current Air (pictured), and it could have an M2 chip.

MAC
M2 VS M1 PRO: Pro – and probably any subsequent

NO COMPARISON Pro chip – is overkill for what you
The M1 Pro is built for software that do in the first place. Single-core
can take advantage of multi-core performance is important for common
processing and GPUs. If you’re a pro apps such as Mail and Photos, so
who uses CPU-intensive apps, don’t the speed gains there could be
wait, invest in an M1 Pro MacBook more worthwhile than the multi-core
Pro now. Based on what we know performance of the M1 Pro. But the
about the M2, it will offer a decent M1 is already great for that stuff, so
improvement over the M1 and creep we’d recommend one of those unless
a little closer to the M1 Pro, but not you’re interested in the MacBook Air’s
enough to anywhere near matching it. rumoured redesign – at which point
But for common tasks, the M2 the chip doesn’t really matter.
could be still faster than Apple’s There’s also the question of the
flagship processors. The M1 Pro’s 13in MacBook Pro: Will Apple decide
single-core performance is essentially to keep it, and if so, will it get an M2?
the same as the M1 (which is The current model has the same
expected, since the
M1 Pro is based on
the M1), and if the
M2 follows the path
of the A15, single-
core speed will be
a bit faster than
all of the M1 chips,
including the Pro
and the Max.
If the idea that
the M2’s single-
core performance
could be better
than the M1 Pro
piqued your The 14in MacBook Pro has a great screen, but it wouldn’t be
interest, an M1 anything without the M1 chip.

chip as the MacBook Air, but its fan
keeps things a little cooler so it can
run at higher speeds for longer. In
our testing, the 13in M1 MacBook Pro
was marginally faster than the M1
MacBook Air, though the MacBook
Pro can sustain its speeds longer than
the Air, and we expect similar results
for the M2. That’s still not enough
incentive to wait for an M2 instead of
buying an M1 Pro.
M2 PRO: THE FUTURE

According to rumours, Apple isn’t
done with the M1 Pro and M1 Max. Far
from it. The new chips will likely end up
in at least two more Macs in 2022: the
27in iMac and the high-end Mac mini.
So what about an M2 Pro? That’s
surely coming after the M2, but it
could be a while. The M1 Pro just
made its debut, and the rumour is
that the new M2 MacBook Air won’t
be available until mid-2022, about 18
months after the M1 was released. If a
Pro chip is on a similar cycle, the M2
Pro won’t be available until late 2022
or early 2023. However, we’re hearing
that it will have two dies and possibly
twice as many cores as the M1 Pro and
M1 Max. But that’s years away. For
now, the M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max will
be plenty fast for whatever you need
your Mac to do.

MAC
Apple’s keyboards are

suddenly boring again
And that’s just fine. Jason Snell reports
W
ith the removal of the 2015’s ‘butterfly’ keyboard, out with
Touch Bar from top-of- 2016’s Touch Bar, in with the Magic
the-line MacBook Pro Keyboard and a row of full-height
models – and make no function keys.
mistake, the grim reaper is coming for For some reason, in the middle of
the 13in MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, the 2010s, Apple decided it was ready
too – Apple’s era of experimentation to reinvent how keyboards on laptops
with the keyboard is over. Out with work. It was a bad decision that the

company has spent years trying to sending an email or writing a college
fix. Of all the innovations from that paper or filling out a web form, but
period, the only one that remains it’s usually important.
intact is the Touch ID sensor on the Reliability matters. Especially on a
power button. The rest of the changes laptop keyboard, since it’s integrated
are just a bad memory. So now what? with the rest of the device. On an
iMac, I can swap out Apple’s included
STICK WITH external keyboard for one I like better.
THE CLASSICS On a MacBook, I don’t have that
Never say never, but it sure feels like option. And if an external keyboard
Apple has learned its lesson–or at breaks, you can substitute a new
least has been beaten up enough one and keep on working, but with a
for its decisions for a good, long laptop, you have to take it in for repair
while. While it’s not very Apple-like and lose your entire computer.
to consider any area of its products And then there’s the fact that
completely solved and impervious to keyboards have worked pretty well
innovation, when Apple pushed on the for decades, looking more or less like
keyboard, the keyboard (and its users) they do today. (In fact, these days I
pushed back.
Hard.
Taking it easy
for a while seems
like a very good
idea. The truth
is, we rely on our
computers – and
the keyboards
attached to
them – to do
our work, day
in and day out.
It’s not always
glamorous, The Globe key (lower left with the Fn key) was introduced with
whether it’s the iPad external keyboard and is now on the MacBook Pro.

MAC
write on a mechanical keyboard that bears from the mid-2010s, I’ve got to
looks and sounds a lot like something think Apple designers and engineers
I would have written on in the 1980s.) will continue to ask themselves if
Longevity also leads to ubiquity, and there are ways they can improve the
ubiquity equals familiarity. Pretty input experience on Mac laptops.
much everyone knows how a keyboard A few years ago I pondered this
works, and we can all pick up a very question with more than a
computer and start using it without little trepidation. Over the years,
needing to familiarize ourselves with we’ve seen patent filings for various
how text input will work. keyboard ‘improvements’ that made
That’s boring and not cutting it seem like Apple was driving to a
edge… but it’s powerful all the same. future where the physical keyboard
Everyone knows how it works. If would be entirely replaced with a
you want to change it, you’d better second touchscreen. No moving
change it for the better. parts, no key travel, but maybe a
In fact, the only real recent little tactile feedback. The ultimate
innovation Apple has introduced victory of the Touch Bar.
to the keyboard is its rechristening That seems… a lot less likely now.
of the venerable Fn key – used to In 2020 Apple introduced the Magic
toggle between functions on the Keyboard for iPad, which seems like
function-key row of the keyboard – a pretty solid admission that physical
as the Globe key. iPadOS 15 makes keys and a trackpad are the answer,
great use of the Globe key for global not just on the Mac, but on any
keyboard shortcuts, but that globe laptop-like device.
symbol also appears on the Mac, Still, there might be ways for
and it seems like Apple is going to Apple to move input forward on the
lean into it as an additional layer Mac. Making the Mac’s display a
for keyboard shortcuts. touchscreen is still out there as a
possibility, despite Apple’s refusal
IT’S HARD TO RESIST thus far to consider it. A future
And yet, it’s hard to imagine that Mac that could be used with an
Apple isn’t still dreaming of ways Apple Pencil is another possibility.
it could improve or reinvent the Ergonomic considerations probably
keyboard. So despite the scars it prevent this from being very likely. The

a button-driven interface with custom
software that allows the buttons to
display custom labels and change
appearance in different modes.
I wonder if there’s something
there that could combine
some of the appeal of the
Touch Bar with the tactile
feel of the traditional
function-key row. I use a
Stream Deck Mini, and while
I could attach all of the functions I’ve
Apple’s next input innovation could take assigned to its buttons to the function
some cues from devices like Elgato’s keys on my keyboard, it’s much better
Stream Deck. to be able to see exactly what I’m
going to get when I press the button.
trackpad, which Apple has continued Maybe Apple will get excited about
to enlarge, is an interesting possibility taking another crack at the traditional
for a successor to the Touch Bar. keyboard someday. I’d love to see
Imagine a larger trackpad surface Stream Deck-style programmable
with a display underneath, allowing labels in the function row. Or maybe
portions of the surface to be mapped Apple will decide to put new focus
to different functions with visual on the Touch Bar, as Macworld’s
feedback. It could happen, though Michael Simon has suggested. But
after a decade spent unwinding its you know what? If the price we all pay
keyboard mistakes, I’m not sure Apple for Apple’s dalliance with the Touch
wants to risk screwing up the trackpad. Bar and the butterfly keyboard in the
There’s one area where there’s mid-2010s is that for the next decade,
recently been a lot of excitement Apple just focuses on shipping a
when it comes to key input, reliable traditional keyboard, it’s
though, and perhaps Apple could probably worth it.
take a lesson from it: macro pads We’ve all seen the alternative.
like Elgato’s Stream Deck and Boring and traditional isn’t so bad,
Loupedeck’s Loupedeck Live combine after all.

iPHONE
What Wi-Fi 6E means for

the future of the iPhone
New frequency spectrum means faster speed and better reliability.
Jason Cross reports
I
t was just a few short years ago And now we have an even newer
when we told you about a then- name, Wi-Fi 6E. It’s an updated version
upcoming wireless technology of Wi-Fi 6 that includes access to the
called Wi-Fi 6. At the time, what new 6GHz frequency band. But while
was once known as 802.11ax was it doesn’t bring new technology over
henceforth given a much more Wi-Fi 6, this new frequency could be a
consumer-friendly name, and previous huge deal and will make a major impact
convoluted Wi-Fi standards got on the future of wireless networking.
similar names: 802.11ac became Wi-Fi Rumours suggest that Wi-Fi 6E could
5, 802.11n became Wi-Fi 4, and so on. show up in the iPhone 14.

WHAT’S UP
WITH THAT E?
It’s hard to believe,
but the Wi-Fi
standard has been
using the same
chunks of the 2.4-
and 5GHz frequency
bands for over 20
years. Wi-Fi 6 is just
the latest attempt to
use fancy processing
to wring more bandwidth out of it and MORE SPECTRUM MEANS
make it more reliable. MORE BANDWIDTH
In April of 2020, the FCC took The 1,200MHz of new spectrum in
the long-awaited step of offering the 6GHz range is divided up into
up 1,200MHz of new unlicensed fourteen 80MHz channels and seven
spectrum in the 6GHz range, more 160MHz channels (they overlap).
spectrum for Wi-Fi than we’ve ever Wi-Fi 6E routers can use these new
gotten at once. Wi-Fi 6E is simply the channels in addition to the 2.4GHz
first technology to support these new and 5GHz channels already available
radio frequencies. It didn’t get a new to them, which means they can move
name because it’s not actually a new a lot more data at once.
technology – the encoding standards How much more bandwidth? Well,
and block size and all the other stuff that will depend on the router and
are exactly the same as Wi-Fi 6. the device and what features they
That’s also why it’s not called support, but we’re talking about
Wi-Fi 7, which is otherwise known as multi-gigabit speeds at the high end.
802.11be and is still a few years out. Wi-Fi 6E sets up Wi-Fi to support the
Since it’s still Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E is still internet of the future, speeds that are
classified as 802.11ax, but they stuck currently way faster than the internet
an ‘E’ on there so people know which coming into almost any home.
products are able to use the new Technically, the top theoretical
6GHz spectrum. limit of Wi-Fi 6E is the same as you’d

iPHONE
get on the 5GHz band of Wi-Fi 6 of course: higher frequencies also

(9.6Gb/s), but you’re much more likely don’t travel as far or through walls as
to one day test those limits with the well, so Wi-Fi 6E doesn’t necessarily
big spacious 6GHz spectrum. offer any improvements to range over
Wi-Fi 6E also uses more antennas. regular Wi-Fi 6.
With Wi-Fi 6 on the iPhone 13,
Apple uses 2X2 MIMO (Multiple- WHEN IS WI-FI 6E COMING?
Input Multiple-Output), which is a It’s already here. You can buy Wi-Fi
two-antenna configuration with two 6E routers today from companies
receiver antennas. Wi-Fi 6E could like Linksys or Netgear. Of course,
double that capability to 4X4, which they’re very new and very expensive,
would increase the bandwidth and and they’re only going to help if the
download speed. devices you connect to them also
support Wi-Fi 6E. And most of them
LESS INTERFERENCE don’t, including the most recent
MEANS BETTER iPhones, iPads and Macs.
RELIABILITY Apple isn’t always the first to
The other big selling point of Wi-Fi support a new Wi-Fi technology, but
6E is that there’s nothing else in it doesn’t wait very long. With the
that range contending with it. With Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra already
Wi-Fi 6’s 2.5- and 5GHz spectrums ushering Wi-Fi 6E support on Android
have to fight with a ton of old Wi-Fi phones, there’s a very good chance
networks, microwave ovens, you that the iPhone 14 will support Wi-
name it, Wi-Fi 6E enjoys a bunch of Fi 6E. Higher-end Macs and iPads
big, wide channels. There are other released in 2023 stand a very good
technologies broadcasting in the chance of supporting it as well as
6GHz frequency range, but with so Apple gets on board with the latest
many big channels to work with, in wireless technology.
automated frequency control should So if you’re looking to update your
be able to easily take care of it. router, you might want to wait a bit for
Higher frequencies tend to mean the Wi-Fi 6E routers to come down in
lower latency, too, so your Wi-FI price. Wi-Fi 6 is great but Wi-Fi 6E is
could get closer to wired networking even better.
responsiveness. There’s a downside,

Review: AirPods (3rd gen)
Price as reviewed: £169 from fave.co/3oTGuqe
W
e’ve been waiting for it improved battery life and added
Apple to release an hands-free ‘Hey, Siri’ support and
update to its basic not much else.
AirPods for quite AirPods Pro are a wonderful step
some time. First released five years up from basic AirPods, but the £239
ago, AirPods have become a huge price is out of reach for many.
hit and nearly ubiquitous everywhere Now we have the third-generation
you see in-ear wireless earbuds, but AirPods. Finally, basic and more
the second-generation update two affordable AirPods bring some of what
years ago left much to be desired – we love about the AirPods Pro down

iPHONE
to a more affordable level. Longer manage to avoid turning into a muddy

battery life, a more comfortable mess, which is more than I can say
design with shorter stems, and greatly for listening with second-generation
improved sound quality combine to AirPods. C Lo Green’s ‘Bright Lights
make this an upgrade worth paying a Bigger City’ keeps its clean stereo
little extra for. separation and holds on to those
subtle background crowd noises,
BIG IMPROVEMENTS TO both of which are easily lost on
SOUND QUALITY lesser earbuds.
The AirPods’ new look will be the first Spatial audio is a treat when it’s
thing you notice, but the improved well-supported. On stereo tracks,
sound quality will make the most enabling the feature in Control
lasting impression. Panel (long-press the volume slider)
Apple uses a new driver in its new definitely provides a more open
design, which makes a big difference sound space, but can sometimes lose
to clarity and the ‘punch’ of bass- subtle cues. Tracks mixed in Dolby
heavy tracks. You also get software Atmos, of which Apple Music now
features like Adaptive EQ and spatial has quite a few, sound fantastic.
audio with head tracking while Spatial Audio adds a whole
watching videos in supported apps. new sense of space and position
Listening to my playlist of audio to surround-sound movies and TV
test tracks – a diverse set from shows. If you use AirPods to watch
classical to rock, modern pop to streaming video, third-generation
remastered classics – is a totally AirPods are a massive improvement
different experience than it is on over the second generation for this
second-gen AirPods. I would go so reason alone.
far as to say the new AirPods sound
nearly as good as AirPods Pro when A NEW DESIGN, A
you listen in a quiet environment. DIFFERENT FIT
In particular, bass response is It’s no stretch to say that the third-gen
greatly improved, and overall clarity AirPods look like the AirPods Pro. The
is enhanced. Busy, heavy tracks short stems and large black pressure-
such as Foo Fighters’ ‘These Days’ equalization grilles on both the pod
or Mötley Crüe’s ‘Kickstart My Heart’ and the top of the stem make them

in my rather small ear
canal. I’m constantly
adjusting second-gen
AirPods as they worm
their way loose bit by bit,
whether I’m just walking,
working out, or even
sitting in a chair if I make
a lot of jaw movement.
The third-gen
model fits differently
Third-generation AirPods (centre) are more compact but I wouldn’t say it’s
than second-gen (left), and resemble AirPods Pro necessarily better. I
(right) without the rubberized tips. still have problems with
earbuds slowly working
look nearly identical. The in-ear ‘pod’ their way free, just as before, though
itself is reshaped, less round and more your mileage will vary depending on
bulbous, similar
to the AirPods Pro
but without the
rubberized tip.
Regular AirPods
have a fit that is
best described as
personal. Some
people find them
comfortable, and
they stay put easily.
Others, like me, find
that while the size
and weight is quickly
The shorter stems are nice, but whether the new AirPods
forgotten, the rigid (centre) fit in your ears better than the old AirPods (left)
plastic and shape comes down to your ear shape. AirPods Pro rubberize tips
don’t like to stay put (right) provide the best fit.

iPHONE
your ear shape. I suggest trying them shape of your ears will determine just
on before you buy, if at all possible. how secure and comfortable the fit is.
The shorter stems are nice, and
help reduce incidents where they BATTERY LIFE AND
get caught on a hat or strap or CHARGING CASE
bumped free. Apple has replaced Apple promises that the battery will
‘tap’ controls with the ‘squeeze the last up to six hours, and that seems
stem’ force sensor as found on the a pretty accurate claim. I managed
AirPods Pro. It gives you a little more to get just a bit more than that on a
control but, as ever, I find it hard to full charge, but volume plays a factor,
use without messing up the AirPods and you can expect less when using
fit in my ear. I generally control them spatial audio, too. These are the
either through voice or the controls longest-lasting AirPods you can buy,
on my iPhone or Mac. though you can buy wireless earbuds
There’s certainly no way in which with longer battery life (they are
I feel that the third-gen AirPods are usually larger, though).
a worse design than the second- The charging case, which looks
gen, and the shorter stems and very much like that for the AirPods
water/sweat resistance are both Pro but is just slightly less wide, holds
improvements I can appreciate. But another 4 full charges, so you can
as with the second-gen model, the juice up the earbuds several times
before you have
to find a plug.
Speaking of
finding a plug,
the charging case
supports charging
via Lightning or Qi
wireless charging
and has magnets to
attach to MagSafe
chargers.
The third-gen AirPods case (centre) is just a touch less wide Apple claims
than the AirPods Pro case (right). that about five

quality should still choose
AirPods Pro.
I feel the longer battery
life and vastly improved
sound of the third-generation,
along with Spatial Audio
support, make them worth
the upgrade price. If you have
a choice, get these over the
second-gen model, even if
you pay more.
You may not ever have a real need for MagSafe on But the AirPods Pro, at
your AirPods case, but it’s there. £239, are still my personal
choice. Active noise
minutes in the case will give you cancellation makes a huge difference
enough charge to last for an hour, just in providing a comfortable listening
as with the AirPods Pro. In my testing, environment, and the rubberized
the buds went from zero to over 30 tips go a long way to making them
per cent in that short time and lasted stay put in my ears better.
almost 90 minutes before dying. AirPods are often found on sale if
you shop around. My recommendation
VERDICT would be price-conscious buyers get
Apple sells three AirPods now. The the third-generation AirPods and skip
second-generation are still on sale for the second-gen model, and those who
£119 with a wired case. The new third- can afford to go for the Pro model do
generation will set you back £169. so without hesitation. No matter what
The seal you get from the you buy, look for a sale. After they
rubberized tips on the Pro improves have been on the market for a few
bass response and helps reduce months, AirPods are often available
outside noise, while active noise- for £20 to £40 off. Jason Cross
cancellation makes listening in all
but the quietest environments a lot
more pleasant. For those reasons,
those looking for the best sound

FEATURE
Three products that could

transform Apple in 2022
From the HomePod to AR, game-changing new products could be
on the way. Dan Moren reports
A
s the waning days of 2021 launches of new iPhones and iPads,
are upon us, it’s time once and a continued transition on the
again to look ahead to Mac that is redefining the product
the future, to the horizon. line for the next generation.
Despite a global pandemic and supply But in the tech business, you’re
chain woes aplenty, Apple has had only as good as your next move. No
a blockbuster year, with successful company can afford to rest on its

laurels, and even Apple, with all of MacBook Pro update also embraced
its success, is not an exception. So conventional options like HDMI and
as we start thinking about closing an SD card slot, forwent the bright
the books on 2021, it’s worth looking colours for traditional silver and
ahead to that puck that Apple’s space grey, and actually got a little bit
skating towards. And while we may thicker than their predecessors.
have good reason to anticipate some From those data points, we can
of its upcoming products, there are perhaps interpolate the larger, more
always places where Apple could have powerful iMac as taking something
something surprising up its sleeve. from both ends of the spectrum.
No doubt it will include the M1 Pro
THE MOST and M1 Max processors, with more
POWERFUL MACS RAM and storage options, and
Given the impressive performance perhaps a smattering of additional
of the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips in ports. (Though I do think that the
Apple’s new MacBook Pros, the positioning of the SD card reader
company has quelled any doubts on the back of the current iMac has
that it can produce professional- always been a bit inconvenient;
level computers based on its own perhaps Apple might consider moving
silicon. Which is good, because it to the side, à la the headphone jack
with the recent discontinuation of on the 24in iMac.) Here’s hoping it
the Intel-based 21.5in iMac, the embraces fun and colour, even though
company’s shifted the vast majority it seems possible Apple has decided
of its product lines to its own chips. that ‘professionals’ like grey.
And, as anticipated, it’s left the most That 24in iMac also boasts a
powerful for last. screen that’s certainly far larger than
This year’s redesign of the 24in even the 16in MacBook Pro, but the
iMac gave us some idea of what we specs on the latter put it to shame:
can expect to see when the company 254 pixels per inch, compared to
presumably refreshes the current 27in 218 ppi on the iMac, and double the
iMac sometime next year, including a average brightness (500 nits on the
focus on Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, iMac versus 1,000 nits standard, let
eye-popping colours, and a slimmer alone 1,600 peak, on the MacBook
design. On the other hand, the recent Pro). It would be a bit of a head-

FEATURE
scratcher if Apple
didn’t bring its
high-end iMac
up to the Liquid
Retina XDR
standard in the
MacBook Pro.
It’d be nice if
it bumped the
display size up a
bit further than
27in, just as the
21.5in iMac went A new HomePod that can compete with Google’s and
to 24 inches, but Amazon’s offering is long overdue.
rumours seem
split on that. of their strategies and, in the case of
Of course, the high-end Mac the latter, their very identities.
mini and the Mac Pro are also still Rumours of an Apple headset
waiting for the Apple silicon chips have been circulating for some time
to power them. It seems likely that now, and they’ve started to coalesce
we’ll see them by the end of 2022, as on next year as a time when they
Apple puts the bow on its two-year might finally see the light of day. The
processor transition. most persistent is about a device
that does ‘mixed reality’, with both
GETTING META AR and VR functionality.
Apple’s talk on augmented reality But Tim Cook has also spoken
has been a constant over the last much more positively of the
several years, but it has continued to experience of AR than of VR, and
focus on improvements to software, Apple is always going to put its own
and we’ve yet to see a big push spin on things. The company will have
on the hardware end. Meanwhile, its work cut out for it to explain why
companies like Microsoft and Meta this device is one that the average
(née Facebook) have been making consumer is going to want – although
these technologies an increasing part perhaps that’s a low-bar, given Meta

CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent at- colleagues over the internet has
best lacklustre, at-worst eye-roll- become even more prevalent during
inducing concept videos. the pandemic, and crowding around
an iPad or a MacBook has made the
GOING HOME experience cramped and sometimes
Apple’s had a challenging couple unpleasant. A device that integrates
of years in the home space. It’s with your Apple TV to provide a more
discontinued its full-size HomePod welcoming group chatting experience
in favour of the smaller HomePod could be a big winner, and might
mini, and while it’s ramped up support cement Apple’s place in the home.
for the upcoming Matter initiative
that aims to interconnect smart
home devices across manufacturers,
that really won’t kick off in earnest
until next year.
But word of a ‘homeOS’ project
reared its head once again this
month, after a mention in an Apple
job posting. The term had cropped
up ahead of 2021’s Worldwide
Developers Conference, but nothing
more was heard of it until now. It could
suggest a more in-depth investment
in smart home tech for Apple, and,
combined with a recent hire to
oversee HomePod software might
mean the company is reinvigorating
development in that area.
My biggest hope for homeOS
is the rumoured living room device
that would combine elements of the
HomePod with the Apple TV and a
FaceTime video conferencing device.
Chatting with friends, family and

REVIEWS
MacCleaner Pro 2
Price: £29.36 from fave.co/3nF00rf
T
here’s no shortage of tutorial system that opens when
cleaning and optimization you activate each new module for
utilities for the Mac these the first time. Once you give each
days, and while Ukranian tool full permissions and access to
developer Nektony’s MacCleaner Pro folders such as Downloads, Desktop,
2 doesn’t offer the most revelatory Documents and others, they’re free to
set of features, its utilities are go to work and dig around for files that
competent, clever and run smoothly may be clogging up your Mac.
while delivering what’s promised. The Speed Up Mac module allows
Each of MacCleaner Pro 2’s tools both standard and expert modes,
is fairly powerful, and it has a good offering changes such as freeing up

RAM, disabling
obtrusive
start-up
applications,
reindexing your
Mail database,
disabling
browser
extensions, and
others. This
won’t turn your
Mac into an
absolute speed A handy tutorial system shows the highlights of each
demon, but it MacCleaner Pro module when you open it for the first time.
helps remove
the kludge that makes your Mac run mode and expert mode, which
like an iron pig in mud. allows you to view application
Nektony’s Duplicate file remover components and note where
proved to be excellent and shows they’re located on your Mac.
you just how many extra copies of With the Analyze disk usage
a single image might be occupying module, you can easily view and
your hard drive. In one case, I wound gauge which file types are taking
up deleting over 700 cached copies up the most space on your Mac and
of an image from my hard drive that work to slim them down. Another neat
were occupying over 100MB of space. feature of this is that it was able to
Recovered space is tracked almost view and gauge the files that took up
like a scorecard, thereby pushing the most space on my Boot Camp
you to recover more space while you partition, an unexpected bonus.
have the program open. While I’m running a pretty lean
In the case of the Uninstall system on my MacBook Pro, the
Applications module, it’s easy ‘Clean up Mac’ module was able to
to locate and remove unwanted nix 3.28GB of extraneous caches and
applications. A handy toggle allows language files. The application allows
you to switch between standard you to refine your search, choosing

REVIEWS
which folders
are targeted
for clean-up.
While the
module was
able to get the
vast majority
of the files,
it didn’t have
system-wide
permissions
to remove
five small MacCleaner Pro 2’s Funter module, which allows quick access to
files, which hidden files within the macOS.
presented
a small hiccup that needed to be field of utilities, complete with speedy
worked around. replies to email requests, a good
The Funter module allows macOS interface, and smooth operation. It
to show and work with hidden files may not be the flashiest thing out
without having to unlock these via there, but it offers a good interface,
Terminal commands, which is useful good set of utilities, and is worth your
in instances where you need to consideration. Chris Barylick
work with or remove these files. The
module’s name may be unusual, but
the module itself comes in handy.
Finally, the Memory Cleaner
module allows you to quickly free up
RAM on the fly, as well as monitors
which applications are chewing up
this resource.
VERDICT
MacCleaner Pro 2 comes as an
unexpected surprise in a crowded

BetterTouchTool
Price: $9 (around £6.75) from fave.co/30KQRo5
B
etterTouchTool offers the rabbit hole of BetterTouchTool’s
features that are missing incredibly deep and broad options
in macOS. Apple would for input triggers and actions that
never, ever include the you might forget to get actual work
kind of extensible configuration for done. Fortunately, it’s as easy to add
adding input shortcuts to provide a few missing gestures as it is to build
the degree of power this app brings an entire ecosystem of Touch Bar
to your fingertips, gestures, and buttons and Siri Remote actions.
clicks, extending Apple’s modest I initially installed BetterTouchTool
but incomplete set. My only proviso years ago when Apple discontinued
is that you could fall so far down the three-finger swipe up and down

REVIEWS
to simulate the Home and End when that trigger fires. The number
movement keys. (It looks like that was of actions from which you can select
in Mac OS X 10.8 in 2012.) The app is fairly huge, drawn from navigation,
was a simple and inexpensive way to typing, system events, Shortcuts,
regain gestures I used hundreds of clicks, and much more. Fortunately,
times a day. That barely scratched there’s a convenient search field.
the wax polish on top of the surface You can also scope triggers to work
of BetterTouchTool. only with a particular app in the
The app centres around input foreground, in the Finder or in all apps.
methods, assigning trigger sets Vastly more complicated
to common items like a trackpad, sequences can be built to trigger
Magic Mouse or trackpad, regular and perform actions in ways that
mouse, keyboard, and Touch Bar. more closely resemble Keyboard
But it can also accept inputs from a Maestro (or the late, lamented
paired Siri Remote, MIDI triggers, key QuicKeys), TextExpander, LaunchBar
sequences (like a macro or shortcut and other automation and shortcut
app), and even things you draw. If that apps. Each of those apps has a
doesn’t sound like enough, there’s significantly different purpose from
also BTT Remote, a way for the app BetterTouchTool, so it’s more precise
to receive remote input through a free to say BetterTouchTool has a core
iOS app.
In the
simplest
case,
you pick
an input
device,
click ‘+’
to add a
trigger, and
choose at
least one
action that
occurs You can set up BetterTouchTool with useful gestures in a few clicks.

integration
with macOS
Shortcuts. For
$9 (around
£6.75), you get
two years of
updates and
a permanent
license to the
last version
released in
that period.
An active community uploads their own sets of BetterTouchTool A lifetime of
triggers and actions, which you can add with a double-click. updates is
$21 (around
competency around input methods, £15.75). The app is also available
and intersects and overlaps with through a Setapp subscription (fave.
parts of the features of other common co/3FGYtHn).
automation and workflow utilities. BetterTouchTool is inexpensive
I would replace TextExpander with enough to use for a handful of gesture
BetterTouchTool, but I sometimes or input additions, but powerful
have a choice between the two for a enough to build an entire universe
given purpose. of triggers and actions to customize
If it seems daunting to build macOS to the finest degree you could
extensive trigger/action sets from possibly desire. Glenn Fleishman
scratch for software you want
to augment, an active user base
at community.folivora.ai posts
exported settings that can be
downloaded and imported into your
copy with a double-click.
The app’s latest release, 3.600,
brings it into full macOS 12 Monterey
compatibility, including deep

MACOS MONTEREY
How to create a bootable

installer drive
Put the Monterey installer on an external USB thumb drive or hard
drive and use it to install the OS on a Mac. Roman Loyola reports
Y
ou’ll find the latest version what you need to create a bootable
of macOS – Monterey – in macOS Monterey installation drive.
the Software Update pane (These instructions are for the
in System Preferences. officially released version of Monterey,
However, if you want to update the not a beta. It was performed on a Mac
old-fashioned way, we’ll show you running macOS Big Sur.)

Use Disk Utility to format your USB flash drive.
GET AN EXTERNAL DRIVE and format it to Mac OS Extended

AND MAYBE AN ADAPTER (Journalled). You can do this in the
The macOS Monterey installer Mac’s Disk Utility app, which is in the
software is over 12GB, so you need a Utilities folder inside Applications.
USB external drive that can hold that
much data. The drive can be a thumb GET THE MACOS
drive, hard drive, or SSD. MONTEREY INSTALLER
If you have a 2015 or newer Mac SOFTWARE
laptop that has Thunderbolt/USB-C Monterey is available through Apple’s
ports, you may need Apple’s USB App Store. Click on the Get button
to USB-C adapter. This will allow on the upper right, and the Software
you to connect a storage device that Update system preference will open.
uses a USB type-A connector. If you Click the Download button. The
don’t have an external drive and you download may take a while.
have a USB-C Mac laptop, you could But after the download is complete
buy the SanDisk Ultra USB Type-C and the installer launches, do not
Flash Drive, which has a USB-C click the Continue button. Quit the
connector. You need to erase the drive installer by pressing Command-Q.

MACOS MONTEREY
Then go to your Applications folder

and you should find an ‘Install macOS
Monterey’ app. You need to have the
app there to make the bootable drive.
USE THE TERMINAL

TO MAKE A BOOTABLE
MACOS BIG SUR
INSTALLER DRIVE
1. Connect the external drive to
your Mac. In these instructions, I 7.
use Untitled as the name of the
external drive. If your drive is named you that your external drive needs to
something else, you need to change be erased. To proceed, type Y at the
Untitled to the name of your drive. prompt and press Return.
2. Launch Terminal. It’s in the 7. An alert may appear asking for
Applications > Utilities folder. permission for Terminal to access a
3. Select and copy the following: removable drive. Click OK.
8. You’ll see that Terminal erases
sudo /Applications/Install\ your drive and then copies the
macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/ installer file to your drive. This will
Resources/createinstallmedia take a few minutes.
--volume /Volumes/Untitled 9. After copying, Terminal is done.
You should see Terminal display a
4. Go back to Terminal and paste message saying your drive is ready
the copied code at the prompt. for use.
Remember to change
Untitled to the name
of your drive. Press
Return.
5. Terminal may ask for
your password. Enter it
and press Return.
6. Terminal will warn 9.

HOW TO BOOT FROM THE want to erase the drive first, quit the
INSTALLER DRIVE installer and run Disk Utility from
1. With the external drive plugged in: the Recovery menu. You can then
erase the drive, and then go back
Intel Mac: Restart/power up the Mac to the Recovery menu and install
and hold down the option key on the macOS Monterey.
keyboard during the boot process.
Apple silicon Mac: Restart/power IF YOUR MAC WON’T BOOT
up the Mac and hold down the Mac’s FROM THE INSTALLER
power button during the boot process. Macs with a T2 security chip (Intel
Macs made since 2018) may not let
2. The Start-up Manager should you boot from the macOS Monterey
appear. Select your external drive. installer. (Here’s a list of Macs with
It should appear as ‘Install macOS T2.) To fix this, there’s a setting in the
Monterey’. Security Start-up Utility that needs to
be adjusted. Here’s how to do it.
3. The Mac will boot into Recovery
mode and the installer will launch 1. Boot into Recovery mode by
automatically. You can Continue one pressing Command+R while you turn
with the installation from here. If you on the Mac.
2. A list of users will
appear. You need to select
an account that you know
the password for.
3. When the Mac is done
booting, select the Utilities
menu, and then select
Start-up Security Utility.
4. You may be asked
to authenticate. Enter
macOS Password, then
choose an administrator
account and enter the
password.

MACOS MONTEREY
5.
5. After the app launches, look for the

External Boot section at the bottom of
the window and select, ‘Allow booting
from external media’.
6. Quit the app and restart the
Mac. You can try to boot from the
installer drive as detailed in the
instructions above.

How to improve your
Mac’s speed by adjusting
Spotlight’s settings
macOS constantly indexes any new files, which can cause mysterious
slowdowns. Glenn Fleishman reports
O
n any Mac, you can a drive, or testing drive performance.
experience odd That’s because Spotlight never
slowdowns when copying sleeps. It’s constantly looking for
or acting on a large modified or new files to index.
number of files, such as duplicating Spotlight’s ‘polling’ can have
a folder with many items in it, cloning a significant performance toll. For

MACOS MONTEREY
example, cloning speed

might be half the rate you
expect or even lower. But
you can tell Spotlight to
keep its hands off while
performing operations
that it might otherwise
slow down. The secret is
the Spotlight preference
pane’s Privacy view
(System Preferences >
Spotlight > Privacy).
Apple uses the term
‘privacy’ to indicate you
don’t want items indexed
that are shown in the
volumes or folders list in Drag an item into the Privacy view to add it, or click
that view. But it’s really a the ‘+’ to select a folder or volume.
‘don’t index me’ list.
You can use the Privacy list in a using the Blackmagic Disk Speed
lot of ways: Test, a free app for determining
drive performance, that placing
• Add external volumes that contain its test file in a Spotlight-indexed
backups, like networked Time folder dramatically reduced tested
Machine volumes or local clones. throughput compared to a folder
These don’t need to be indexed. excluded from Spotlight.
(Volumes that are entirely devoted to • When creating or updating a clone,
Time Machine are already excluded, drag its volume icon to the list before
but don’t show up in the list.) starting. You can remove it later,
• Create or add folders that commonly but you likely don’t need the clone
hold large numbers of temporary indexed within the current start-up
files or are used for rapid reading volume’s system.
and writing of data that doesn’t
need to be indexed. I discovered in

How to quickly navigate
to a folder
The Finder’s Go To Folder feature now brings up non-exact patterns.
Glenn Fleishman reports
A
secret weapon in the working with low-level settings files
Finder arsenal is the Go or items hidden away in the user or
> Go to Folder feature. system Library folder.
Choose that menu item (or Apple made a significant change
type Command-Shift-G) and you can between macOS Big Sur and
leap around the macOS file system Monterey in how it helps you find
without having to navigate folders. folders: Monterey offers a squishier
This is frequently useful when you’re set of matching options, making it

MACOS MONTEREY
suggests Users >

gif > .ssh, the path
to the .ssh folder in
my user folder. But
it also matches
.dvdcss, which has
Big Sur limits matches to exact autocompletions. two s’s in a row,
and then suggests
even looser
potentials, like
.zsh_history and
.keybase-installer.
As you go down
the list, matches
become even
more tangentially
related to what
you typed.
Monterey provides matches, not just autocompletion, in

declining order of exactness to what you typed.
more likely you’ll find a folder that

you don’t know the precise name of,
or if you type fewer characters to
make a match.
In Big Sur, start to type a path
and macOS will offer only auto-fill
suggestions. In Monterey, however, it
offers exact matches, but also fuzzier
ones. Type in ~/.ss, and macOS

How to turn on Low
Power Mode
Reduce energy consumption, increase battery life, and operate more
quietly. Roman Loyola reports
I
f you have an iPhone, you’re and system clock speed to save
probably familiar with Low Power battery life and make your Mac run
Mode, an option you can set so the more quietly.
device preserves battery life. Now Low power mode is available on
the Mac has a low power mode too, the MacBook (Early 2016 and later)
and it does a similar thing: Reduces and MacBook Pro (Early 2016 and
energy consumption by automatically later) running macOS Monterey.
turning down the screen brightness Here’s how to turn it on:

MACOS MONTEREY
1. Launch System Preferences. off of the MacBook’s battery.

2. Select the Battery pane.
3. In the left column, click Battery. You can also turn on low power
Check the box for Low power mode if mode when plugged in. In the left
you want to use it while you’re running column, click Power Adapter. Check
the box for Low power
mode if you want to use
it while your MacBook is
connected to the power
adapter. Your Mac will
presumably run cooler and
quieter when enabled.
HOW TO QUICKLY
TURN ON OR OFF
LOW POWER MODE
Monterey doesn’t have
a quick way to turn Low
Low Power Mode setting while on battery power. Power Mode on or off. But
developer Jordi Bruin made
a little menu bar utility that
you can use to do this. It’s
called Cooldown and it’s
free (though you do have the
option to toss the developer
a few pounds).
Low Power Mode setting while connected to the

power adapter.

How to use Keychain
Access to view and
manage your passwords
The Keychain Access utility can store your most sensitive information.
Lance Whitney reports
H
idden inside the Mac If you think managing your
Utilities folder, Keychain passwords on the Mac is limited
Access provides access to to Safari, you’ve never explored
the passwords and other the Keychain Access utility. With
private information saved through Keychain Access, you can review,
your Mac’s keychain. change, delete and create passwords

MACOS MONTEREY
for your online accounts and examine certificates and keys. Click the tab
security keys and certificates and add for Passwords, then in the left pane,
password-protected notes. select the option for iCloud.
First, you’ll need to make sure The list will most likely be sorted
that iCloud Keychain is enabled. by name in ascending order, but you
Open System Preferences, click can change that by clicking any of the
the icon for Apple ID and click the other column headings. For example,
checkbox for Keychain. Then when to see your most recent saved
you browse to a password-protected accounts, click the heading for Date
website, iCloud Keychain will ask Modified and then click the arrow to
if you want to save the password. display the list with the most recent
Click Save Password and it’ll be items at the top.
securely stored in your Keychain. To edit a user name or password,
As you visit websites, you’ll double-click a specific entry. A pop-
automatically accumulate logins up window displays the attributes for
and passwords, which you can that account, including the website
view by clicking the Go menu in name, the account username, and the
the Finder, selecting Utilities, and URL. Click the checkbox for Show
then double-clicking the icon for password. You’re prompted to enter
Keychain Access. The tool starts your Mac’s password. Enter it, and the
by showing you all saved Keychain password for the selected account
items, including passwords, appears in plain text.
Once
unlocked, you’ll
be able to see
your existing
passwords
and enter new
ones like in
a third-party
password
manager. Click
the icon at the
To edit a user name or password, double-click a specific entry. top for Create

aren’t passwords,
such as security
questions or
recovery keys that
you won’t need
often. It’s like the
way Locked notes
work in the Notes
app, but you don’t
need to set a
As you visit websites, you’ll automatically accumulate specific password
logins and passwords. for each one.
Your Mac’s login
a new Keychain item. In the pop-up password locks them all down.
window, enter the Keychain item
name or the URL if this is a website
account. Type the username and
then enter the password. Keychain
Access displays a graph showing the
strength of the password.
You can also edit passwords if
you feel one is too weak or simple
(or just want to practice good
password maintenance). To change
it, type the new password in the
Show password field and click Save
Changes. Beyond changing the
password, you can change other
attributes, including the website
name, your account name, and the
URL. Again, click Save Changes after
you’ve changed any attribute.
Switch over to the Secure Notes
tab and you can store things that

MACOS MONTEREY
How to keep your

MacBook battery fit
Things have changed: macOS handles battery wear, so you mostly
don’t have to. Glenn Fleishman reports
W
hat a difference a year from readers asking exactly how to
and a few months avoid overcharging their battery and
make. My advice in shortening its lifetime. Fortunately,
July 2020 about how Big Sur swept in a new approach to
to keep your Mac laptop’s battery in battery charging, and the upcoming
good shape included lots of hedges, macOS Monterey adds more options.
provisos, and tweaks. Despite that, The upshot? Plug in when you
Mac 911 continues to receive email want, unplug when you want. For

most people, macOS will manage and even fire.
charging better than we can and The trick is to charge a battery
with zero effort. just enough all the time to meet your
Before Big Sur, macOS charged needs without keeping it at a level that
a laptop to 100 per cent power produces enough heat to degrade the
whenever it was plugged in and kept battery’s life. This is the Big Sur and
charging it to make sure it stayed at Monterey strategy.
that level. That can be useful during Big Sur adopted changes already
the times you need your laptop brought to iOS and iPadOS that
topped off, something that was true charge your battery to 80 per cent for
when various MacBooks couldn’t periods when the operating system
make it through a day of use, and for has determined you don’t need a full
many people before the pandemic. charge. It then kicks in to charge to
But recharge time is relatively fast 100 per cent with some margin of time
compared to discharge, and most before it estimates you’ll take the
of us don’t use our laptops while device off power and use it on battery
asleep Why charge to 100 per cent for an extended period.
and stress the battery, keeping it Starting in Big Sur, the overhauled
there during the several hours we’re Battery preference pane’s Battery
asleep? Or if we don’t need 100 per view offers a lot of tweaks about
cent to get through the times we’re how macOS consumes and charges
not plugged in? This is especially a battery. The key one? ‘Optimized
the case with M1-based laptops, battery charging’. When checked,
which are absurdly power efficient. macOS watches your usage
The maximum capacity of a behaviour so it doesn’t charge past
lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery is an 80 per cent if it doesn’t anticipate that
estimate of how much it can be safely you need to remove power from your
charged. The charging system in any laptop in the near future. The 80 per
sensible device that uses a Li-ion cent threshold is where chargers stop
battery monitors feedback as it feeds performing a quick charge on most
it electricity, including temperature Li-ion batteries and slow to avoid
sensors. The system reduces what overheating them.
it considers ‘100 per cent’ on that I’ve found in my normal usage
battery over time to avoid damage with an M1 MacBook Air at home, it

MACOS MONTEREY
slightly less
brightness, it can
add hours to run
time.
Optimize video
streaming while on
battery: while M1-
based laptops can
seemingly stream
video forever,
older Intel models
benefit from
having this setting
enabled.
Low power mode
In Big Sur and Monterey, you can optimized battery usage (Monterey only):
with a check of a box; Monterey adds low-power mode, too. Monterey will offer
the low-power
consumes so little energy when not mode added previously to iOS and
in use and the screen is dim, macOS iPadOS. When selected, this mode
doesn’t limit charging to 80 per cent – reduces background activities that
it seems to keep it at 100 per cent. But drain the battery. This can keep
that’s because it’s essentially micro- you running for an extra hour or far
charging: it provides a trickle of power more, depending on how intensive
to keep it at that rate. According to your foreground task is. (In iOS and
Apple’s algorithm, that’s ideal. iPadOS, you’re prompted to enable
If you’re trying to eke out the most Low Power Mode when the battery
life from your battery, check out the drops to 20 per cent; Monterey, so
other settings in Big Sur and the far, appears to require checking
upcoming Monterey: this box manually.)
Slight dim the display on battery

power: This reduces one major
battery drain, and if you don’t mind

How to customize your
Mac keyboard like a pro
Switch between different languages. Roman Loyola reports
T
he Mac can support keyboard layout in macOS Monterey
different keyboard layouts and Big Sur. First, you’ll need to go
and you can switch between to System Preferences and open the
them quite easily. It’s one Keyboard pane. The keyboard layouts
way you can get more out of the appear in the Input Sources tab, and
keyboard, especially if you work in the ones you currently have active
multiple languages. will be in the left column. Apple offers
However, it’s not slap-your- several keyboard layouts based on
face obvious on how to change the different languages, and you can add

MACOS MONTEREY
more by clicking on the ‘+’ button on the Use Caps Lock key to switch to
the lower left (clicking ‘-’ removes a and from last used Latin input source
layout). A pop-up window will appear checkbox. With this active, you’ll need
with the layouts that are available. to press and then hold the Caps Lock
You can add as many keyboard key to enable typing in all caps.
layouts as you want. The trick then • Also under Input Sources is an
becomes how to switch the layout. option to Automatically switch to a
You have a few options: document’s input source. This allows
you to assign a layout to a document.
• If you check the box for Show input For example, if you are using the
in menu bar, a menu bar icon appears, Maori layout but use English in a
and you can quickly change the layout Microsoft Word document, macOS
by clicking that icon and selecting the will automatically switch the layout
one you want. when you’re using Word.
• If you prefer a keyboard shortcut,
you can activate it in the Shortcuts CHANGE KEYBOARD
tab. Select Input Sources in the left LAYOUT AT LOGIN
column, and you can use the default You can set up macOS so that
key combination or set up your own. whenever a user logs in, they can
• Under Input Sources, you can select select the keyboard layout at the login
The default Keyboard menu bar icon (left) doesn’t look like a keyboard. When
you set up Keyboard with different layouts (middle), the icon changes to a flag or
symbol that represents the language that is active. If you activate the keyboard
shortcut and use the default Control-spacebar combo, a layout switcher (right)
appears in the middle of the screen and you tap the spacebar until the layout you
want is highlighted.

When the Input menu appears at login, you can select the layout you want to use
when you log in.
screen. To do this, you need to have keyboard layout you want, and then
administrator rights. Users can still log in to the Mac.
change the layout in the Keyboard
system preferences after logging in. CHANGE THE DEFAULT
Here’s how to set it. KEYBOARD LAYOUT IN
THE TERMINAL
1. While logged in to an administrator If you use multiple keyboard layouts
account on your Mac, go to System and want to change the one that
Preferences > Users & Groups. is the default, you have to do that
2. Click on the padlock on the lower in the Terminal, the command-line
left corner to unlock the settings and interface for the Mac. The Terminal
enter an administrator’s username is located in Applications > Utilities.
and password. Here are the instructions.
3. Click Login Options in the bottom
of the left column. 1. Set macOS to the keyboard layout
4. In the right section, check the box you want to use as your default.
for Show Input menu at login window. 2. In the Finder, hold down the Option
5. Click the lock and exit. key, and select Go > Library.
3. In the Library window that appears,
With that option on, the Keyboard open the Preferences folder.
icon appears in the upper right of the 4. Look for the file called ‘com.apple.
login screen. Click it and select the HIToolbox.plist’ and then select it and

MACOS MONTEREY
copy it by pressing Command-C. If the Terminal prompt comes back

5. Go to the Finder and then select up and no other messages appear,
Go > Computer. You should see your you’re good to go. Restart the Mac
Mac’s storage device in the window. and you should see the keyboard
We’ll use the default Macintosh HD layout that you picked as the one
here, but you might have named it the Mac boots into.
something else. If you want to revert the settings,
6. Open your storage device, then go to Macintosh HD > Library
open Library > Preferences. >Preferences folder, delete the ‘com.
7. Find the file called ‘com.apple. apple.HIToolbox.plist’ file. Then
HIToolbox.plist’ and add ‘-old’ to the look for the file named ‘com.apple.
end of the name. You will need to enter HIToolbox.plist-old.plist’ and rename
your password to confirm the change. it ‘com.apple.HIToolbox.plist’. Then
This will be your backup file. restart your Mac to apply the changes.
8. Now press Command-V to paste
the file you copied previously into
this folder. You will need to enter your
password to confirm this.
Before restarting the Mac to

implement this change, confirm that
the files can be read by using the
Terminal. Launch the Terminal and
then enter the following (you can copy
and paste the syntax below):
sudo chown root:wheel /

Library/Preferences/com.apple.
HIToolbox.plist; sudo chmod
644 /Library/Preferences/com.
apple.HIToolbox.plist
After you enter that command,

Terminal will ask for your password.

How to use Disk Utility in
macOS to manage your
hard drive
Get to know one of the most powerful tools on your Mac. Lance
Whitney reports
W
hether you need to view details on your hard drive, add
better organize your or remove partitions and volumes,
hard drive or resolve and check the disk for glitches.
disk errors, Disk Here’s how it works.
Utility is the tool for the job. Built into To access Disk Utility while logged
macOS, Disk Utility allows you to in, go to the Finder and click the Go

MACOS MONTEREY
menu, select Utilities, and then in the and space sharing. With space
window that appears, double-click sharing, a single APFS container or
the Disk Utility icon. The tool displays partition can dynamically allocate
details and a graph of your hard drive space as needed to different volumes.
configuration, showing the overall Now let’s say you want to
capacity as well as the used and free organize your physical drive into
space and the various volumes. different sections, maybe one for
To dig up more information on your operating system, a second one
your drive, click the Info icon at the for your personal files, and a third
top. The window that pops up displays for your work-related files. You can
a host of details, including the OS certainly set up multiple partitions.
name and version, file system, drive (A partition is a specific segment of
connection type, encryption status, space on your Mac’s storage device.)
and much more. But if you opt to use volumes instead,
Before we go further, a quick your free space is allocated among
primer on the Mac’s file system. With them on the fly.
macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Apple To create a new volume, select any
replaced the old HFS+ format with existing volume on the left and click
APFS (Apple File System). AFPS the ‘+’ sign for the Volume icon at the
offers certain benefits, including top. Change the name from Untitled
faster performance, greater reliability, to something specific and click Add.
When the
process is
finished,
click Done.
Next, you
may want
to change
the name of
an existing
volume.
To do this,
right-click on
The Disk Utility main user interface. the volume,

Fixing drive errors in Disk Utility.
select Rename and type the new it finds. When the process is done,
name. In the Finder, if you click the click the entry to Show Details to
Go menu and select Computer, you see the results.
should see the new and renamed
volumes you created.
If you no longer need or use a
volume you created, right-click on it
and select Delete APFS Volume.
If you wish to keep a volume you
created but want to remove the data
stored on it, right-click on it and
select Erase. Then click the Erase
button to confirm.
Finally, maybe you’re bumping
into errors or problems with your
hard drive. Select any volume on the
drive and click the First Aid icon at the
top. Click Run. A scan kicks off and
tries to resolve any disk errors that

MACOS MONTEREY
How to reset a Mac’s

Bluetooth settings
If your Bluetooth set up appears messed up beyond repair, hit reset.
Glenn Fleishman reports
B
luetooth can be a useful your Mac seems to get the wrong idea
technology for short-range about one or more devices. Even after
connections, sometimes unpairing and re-pairing, you can’t
known as personal area make a connection. Or, worse, macOS
networks (PANs). We use Bluetooth won’t let you remove a paired device
for fitness bands, earbuds and from the Bluetooth preference pane.
headphones, hotspot tethering and Apple hides Bluetooth reset options
input peripherals. But sometimes in the Bluetooth menu:

• In any version of macOS, hold
down Shift and Option and click the
Bluetooth menu in the menu bar. (If
that menu doesn’t appear, open the
Bluetooth preference pane and check
‘Show Bluetooth in menu bar’.)
• In Big Sur or later, click to open
the Control Centre and then hold
down Shift and Option as you click
the right-pointing arrow in the
Bluetooth lozenge.
You have three reset options. If

you have an intractable problem,
I suggest starting with ‘Reset the
Bluetooth module’ and then restart
your Mac. This should clear up most
problems with no further intervention.
If you still have devices you can’t
remove or pair properly, try ‘Remove
all devices’. You then have to re-pair
any Bluetooth hardware you use
with your Mac.
The third of those reset options,
‘Factor reset all connected Apple
devices’ lets you nuke the settings
on Apple keyboards, earbuds,
headphones, trackpads and mice
all at once and restore them to
their factory state.

HELP DESK
Credit: Getty Images/MadVector

Help Desk
Solutions to all your Mac problems. Glenn Fleishman reports
HOW TO LET IMPORTANT However, what if want to provide an

PEOPLE GET THROUGH exception for people important in your
iOS 15’S DO NOT DISTURB life, particularly for emergencies?
OR FOCUS SETTINGS iOS has offered a bypass for
The Do Not Disturb option added to several releases in a couple of
iOS, iPadOS, and eventually macOS different places; iOS 15 improves
should be entered in history books upon this.
for their contributions to people’s With Do Not Disturb, you could
uninterrupted periods of sleep allow anyone in your Favourites list
and focused times while working. in the Phone app to bypass the DND

setting for calls. A separate option
for calls and the only way to pass
through text notifications required a
non-obvious process: open a contact,
tap Edit, tap Ringtone (for calls) or
Text Tone (for texts), and then tap
Emergency Bypass. You can make this
change in either or both Ringtone or
Text Tone. Tap Done when complete.
This Emergency Bypass feature
is still available in iOS 15, but the
update gives you a lot more options
in customizing your Focus modes,
including Do Not Disturb, now a
subcategory of Focus.
Go to Settings > Focus and tap any
Emergency Bypass, hidden in the
of the categories, like Do Not Disturb, Contacts editing screen, grants
Driving, or Sleep. Under Allowed permission to contacts to bypass your
Notifications, you can choose settings Focus and Do Not Disturb settings.
separately for People and Apps.
Tap People and you can find the
old option for passing through calls,
now under Also Allow as Calls From.
Tap that menu to switch between
Favourites and options like Everyone
(a little self-defeating?), No One, only
people in your contacts, or Groups.
You can also opt to allow repeated
calls or not – otherwise, calls will only
be passed through more than three
minutes apart for selected people.
But Allowed Notifications also Add individuals through the Allowed
lets you add individual people by Notifications section’s People list in
tapping the Add Person ‘+’ button. any Focus mode.

HELP DESK
For all calls/text: Emergency Bypass

overrides any Focus mode in iOS 15,
just like overriding Do Not Disturb in
iOS 14 and earlier.
Per Focus mode: Allowed People can
be set distinctly for each Focus mode.
The whole point of these various

bypasses is to make sure you don’t
miss something that’s vital. Choose
wisely and use the range of options
to your advantage to tweak incoming
calls and text notifications to fit.
HOW TO SPLIT UP AN
APPLE ID AMONG FAMILY
The Allowed People section lets you MEMBERS AND FORWARD
pick individuals to override Focus for THEIR EMAIL
text notifications and incoming calls. I have noted many times that the
Apple ID is the centre of one’s Apple
This setting affects both calls and life. It’s your ID across all stores
notifications. This is parallel to but and services, and a tool to recover
managed entirely separate from the access to your Mac, iPhone, and
Emergency Bypass option above. iPad (or erase them remotely if lost
What are the differences between or stolen), depending on how you’ve
Emergency Bypass and Allowed configured things.
Notifications > Allowed People? But many, many people started
down a path years ago, where a single
Calls: Emergency Bypass can be set adult in the family set up an Apple
just for calls; Allowed People can’t be ID, then shared it with a partner or
limited to just calls. spouse, then extended it to their
Texts: Likewise Emergency Bypass parents or children. You may even
can be set just for texts; Allowed have added aliases for email and as
People cannot. backup contact emails to your Apple

ID. Suddenly, you realize you’re all non-Apple address to your Apple
getting each other’s messages and ID as a ‘reachable at’ or ‘rescue’
email, and everything is a mess. address, this column from 2018
Apple doesn’t let you split Apple (fave.co/3oNzE7g) should help you
ID accounts up, something I think migrate it to a new Apple ID.
is overdue. But here’s a set of Next, enable Family Sharing.
strategies that can help. Family Sharing costs nothing, lets
you choose to pool total storage
• Migrate non-Apple email addresses among family members while keeping
to their own Apple IDs. These are each person’s storage private from
addresses that don’t end in icloud. everyone else, and lets people in
com, mac.com, or me.com. Those the group opt to share purchases. To
addresses can’t be moved; they’re enable Family Sharing, go to Settings
effectively permanently associated > account name > Set Up Family
with the main Apple ID. Sharing > Get Started in iOS and
• Enable Family Sharing for the group iPadOS. In macOS 10.14 Mojave or
of accounts to continue to share earlier, open the iCloud preference
and access media and apps across pane and click Set Up Family. In
these accounts. This ensures nobody macOS 10.15 Catalina or later, open
loses access to things they bought or the Family Sharing pane.
use – as long as the Family Sharing Finally, create new Apple IDs for
group remains intact and with the children or other people who have
same members. (Many apps don’t addresses already associated with
allow shared in-app purchases and your existing Apple ID.
subscriptions; developers choose
to allow that.) 1. Log out of Apple ID on all their
• Create new Apple IDs for everyone existing devices via the iCloud
who doesn’t have a third-party email controls: in iOS/iPadOS, Settings >
address, particularly children, even account name > Sign Out; in Mojave
if they already have aliases in your and earlier, sign out from the iCloud
main Apple ID account. preference pane; in Catalina and
later, use the Apple ID preference
Let’s take this one step at a pane’s iCloud view.
time. First, if you have added a 2. When prompted to save or delete

HELP DESK
say one of your kids’

names is Jesse
Smythe, and you
had jessesmythe@
icloud.com
registered as an
alias with your
Apple ID account.
Their new account
is jessie_bessie@
icloud.com. iCloud
lets you forward
A forwarding rule lets you keep old iCloud aliases in use email via rules
even as you create a new Apple ID for people who formerly directly at icloud.
shared your account. com, so you don’t
have to keep a Mail
items synced via iCloud, figure out app running on a Mac to make this
which you want, as it will vary by happen.
person, device, and service. 1. Log in to iCloud.com with your
3. Create a new Apple ID by following main Apple ID.
prompts in any of those locations 2. Switch to the Mail app, click the
while logged out. gear icon in the lower-left corner and
4. Log in to that new Apple ID for each select Preferences.
person on each of their devices. 3. Click the Rules tab.
5. Go back to Family Sharing and 4. Click Add a Rule.
invite each of the new Apple IDs you 5. Using pop-up menus and fields,
created to join the Family Sharing create a rule that reads, in effect,
group. ‘If a message, is addressed to,
Now, you can forward email from jessesmythe@icloud, Then, Forward
your main Apple ID account for to, jessie_bessie@icloud.com’ and
those iCloud accounts that you can’t click Done.
transfer to the new iCloud addresses 6. Repeat Step 5 for any additional
for people you just made. associated iCloud addresses and
Take this as the example. Let’s aliases.

Your account is now as split up account name > Media & Purchases
as it can be without losing access and tap Sign Out.
to email or purchases at each 2. Launch the App Store.
account through forwarding and 3. Find an app you can download at
Family Sharing. no cost. Such apps will have a Get
button. Tap Get.
HOW TO SET UP AN 4. The App Store prompts you for an
APPLE ID WITHOUT A Apple ID. Tap Create New Apple ID.
PAYMENT METHOD 5. When prompted for a payment
What if you want an Apple ID but method, select None.
plan to never pay for a single thing 6. Follow the remaining steps to
from Apple through that ID? Apple validate your account.
makes that possible, though it’s
not a highlighted method, since it’s In macOS:
frequently the case that you will pay
Apple for a service or for software. 1. Launch the App Store.
2. If you have an existing Apple
If you don’t have an Apple ID ID account you don’t want to use,
account or want to set up a choose Store > Sign Out.
fresh one 3. Find an app you can download at no
You can create
an Apple ID via
the App Store in
both iOS/iPadOS
and macOS.
In iOS
and iPadOS:
1. If you have an
existing Apple ID
account you don’t
want to use,
log out: go
to Settings > You can remove payment methods from your Apple ID account.

HELP DESK
cost. Such apps will have a Get and click Remove. Repeat for each
button. Click Get. payment method.
4. In the Apple ID dialog that appears,
click Create Apple ID. HOW TO SET UP SLEEP
5. Follow prompts. At the point where MODE ON A MAC THAT
you’re asked for a payment method, HAS BUS-POWERED
select None. EXTERNAL STORAGE
6. Follow the remaining steps to An external hard drive or SDD can
validate your account. be very useful with a Mac that has
a low-capacity internal drive. Some
If you have an existing Apple ID Mac laptop users routinely keep an
You can remove payment methods external drive plugged in, and they
from existing Apple ID accounts may have encountered a problem
in some cases. Apple requires a with unmounting that can be easily
payment method on file if you are the solved with sleep settings found
family organizer for a Family Sharing in the Energy Saver or Battery
group, and for accounts set up for preference pane (depending on your
children under 13. version of macOS).
In iOS and iPadOS: If your drive has its own power
adapter that plugs into an AC
1. Go to Settings > account name > outlet, you almost certainly haven’t
Payment & Shipping. encountered this situation with either
2. Tap the Edit button. a laptop or desktop Mac. The AC
3. Tap the remove (minus in a red power keeps the drive running even
circle) button for each method. when your Mac goes to sleep.
4. Tap Done. However, if you’re using a bus-
powered drive – one that gets its juice
In macOS: from a USB or Thunderbolt 3 port of
your Mac, or a connected hub – you
1. Launch the App Store. can wind up with settings that power
2. Choose Store > View My Account down the drive and thus unmount it
and then click View Information. without proper safeguards.
3. Click Manage Payments. (A side piece of advice: this can
4. Click Edit next a payment method also sometimes happen when a USB

In macOS 10.15
Catalina and earlier,
the Energy Saver
preference pane’s
Power tab has two
separate settings
you should configure;
in macOS Big Sur,
look to the Battery
preference pane’s
Power Adapter view:
Energy Saver in Mojave offers an array of options; the • In all versions of

top two are the ones to focus on. macOS, enable
‘Prevent computer
or Thunderbolt cable is in the midst from sleeping automatically when
of failing, particularly if your drive the display is off’.
unmounts randomly at other times. • In Catalina and earlier, disable ‘Put
Swap in another cable to see if the hard disks to sleep when possible’.
behaviour goes away.)
This is typically an issue
only with a Mac laptop, and
not a desktop, as laptops
are designed to reduce wear
and tear on the battery, even
when they’re plugged into
power. And not all drives
work the same: readers
report that some drives
recognize sleep mode and
properly power down, while
others lose the connection
with the Mac, resulting in an Big Sur’s Battery preference pane has a single
error when it wakes back up. setting to modify.

HELP DESK
The first setting keeps your Mac click sound. Many of us prefer to
from going to sleep while plugged in avoid that sound.
unless you explicitly choose Apple Remarkably, there’s no click on/
> Sleep. This way, you can eject off switch in the Camera settings!
your drive manually before putting Instead, you have one of three
the Mac to sleep. While this adds alternatives:
cognitive overhead, it will prevent
drive integrity problems. Enable Live Photo: If you’re hearing
The second option disables a click, you don’t have this feature
macOS from attempting to put hard turned on, which retains some still
disk drives (HDDs) to sleep; it has images from before and after the
no effect on SSDs. An external HDD point at which you take a pictures,
may correctly respond to this effort providing some animation – and
by the Mac to reduce usage that can audio. If the click were on, it would
reduce its lifespan, but apparently be captured in a Live Photo. You can
not all HDDs interpret macOS’s have Live Photo always on when
command correctly, so it can cause an you launch the Camera by enabling
unintentional unmounting, too. Settings > Camera > Preserve
With a fresh external drive, you can Settings > Live Photo.
test which of the two settings should Mute switch: With the hardware
be used separately or together, and Ring/Silent switch set to Silent, the
then use Disk Utility’s First Aid feature snapshot sound is disabled. You can
to ensure that the drive’s logical flip this switch on and off at will if you
structure remains intact if its volume prefer to have the click off sometimes
or volumes unmount incorrectly and on at others. However, the Silent
during testing. switch is a system-wide mute, so no
iPhone sounds will be made.
HOW TO DISABLE THE Set system volume to zero: You can
CAMERA SHUTTER SOUND also or instead set your alert sounds
ON AN iPHONE OR iPAD volume to zero. If Settings > Sounds
Apple tries to simulate the experience & Haptics > Change with Buttons
of a snapshot camera when you is enabled, you can use the Control
take a picture in the Photos app on Center or the side volume down
an iPhone or iPad by issuing a little button. However, if that switch is

disabled, you have
to separately slide
the Ringer and Alerts
level to the far left in
Settings > Sounds
& Haptics.
One further note:
a few countries
require a shutter
sound on devices that
take photos. While
in those countries,
which include Japan
and South Korea,
the snapshot sound
will always trigger.
It appears to be
based on the SIM, as Optimize Mac Storage lets you offload unneeded files to
travellers from other iCloud Drive across many apps and for general storage.
countries who swap
in a local SIM find their snapshot When planning the transition,
preference overridden. I highly recommend that you try
to keep free at least 50GB on a
WHAT TO DO WHEN 256GB drive and 100GB on drives
SWITCHING TO A MAC that are 512GB and larger. Here’s
WITH A SMALLER DRIVE how you can reduce your storage
For reasons of cost, we might buy a requirements before migration.
new Mac with a smaller drive than
the one we’re replacing. If your • Enable iCloud Photos and set
current Mac has more data stored Photos (in Photos > Preferences
than the capacity of the new one, you > iCloud) to store only optimized
probably feel you’re in a pickle. But versions of your images. This does
you can strategize how to make this result in you not having the ability to
transition work. create a full local backup of all your

HELP DESK
media, and may require

an upgrade from your
current iCloud storage
level. However, it can
be worth the trade-off
of hundreds to several
hundreds of pounds for a
larger-capacity drive on
the new Mac.
• Use optimized storage
in macOS via the iCloud
preference pane in macOS offers insight into the files that fill your drive,
Mojave and earlier or including forgotten ones – like a massive beta macOS
the Apple ID preference installer here.
pane’s iCloud view
in Catalina and later. Selecting be sure you retain but don’t need
Optimize Mac automatically offloads ‘online’ – in other words, directly
files synced via iCloud Drive to your and always connected to your Mac
iCloud storage as needed. – transfer them to an inexpensive
• Get help from macOS in finding external hard drive, but be sure you
items to delete. Choose Apple > have separate backups of that drive.
About This Mac > Storage and click (Some online backup services will
Manage, and macOS makes a number only keep archives of attached drives
of suggestions about how to reduce for about a month at their basic
drive consumption. You may find (as I service level without them being
did) some large files you’d forgotten attached. Either set a reminder to
about. On my laptop, I had a nearly 13 attach and power them up monthly,
B Big Sur beta installer. or pay an additional fee, as with
• Use Spotlight to identify large files Backblaze [fave.co/3FHkd5S], for
and apps (fave.co/3q3bwhV) with a longer-term storage.)
Finder-based search. This can reveal Once you’ve reduced occupied
items that the Storage view in the space below the level needed to
previous bullet point does not. transfer to a new Mac – being sure to
• If there are items you want to empty the Trash – you can perform

your migration. You can use Migration folder at the top level of your start-
Assistant to transfer between the up volume, it’s ~/Applications
two machines either while both are (technically, /Users/short-account-
booted into macOS, or if you’re name/Applications).
starting up the new machine fresh Some apps offer a way to control
or after having erased the drive and how broadly they are installed,
installed macOS from scratch. providing options during installation
If you want to use Time Machine for that read something like ‘install for
the migration, be sure after deleting all users of this computer’ and ‘install
files to select the Time Machine menu for this user only’ (the language may
in the system menu bar and choose vary by installer).
Back Up Now. This doesn’t delete When installing an app from a
the files you’ve removed from your disk image or that’s downloaded as a
Mac from the Time Machine backup compressed file, you can copy it right
immediately (fave.co/3k3n6pk). to your personal apps folder. Choose
That will happen in time. But it does Go > Go to Folder in the Finder and
immediately create a new snapshot paste ~/Applications into it, and then
with the just the current, reduced set click Go (see 1. overleaf). Now, just
of files that you can use to migrate to drag the app into that folder.
a new Mac. However, if you’re installing through
another method that places apps by
HOW TO MAKE MACOS default into the main Applications
APPS AVAILABLE TO A folder, including Mac App Store
SINGLE USER INSTEAD downloads, follow these steps.
OF ALL USERS
During the pandemic, many people 1. Open /Applications, either via Go to
have found themselves sharing their Folder, or by opening the main level of
Macs with family members and room- your drive in the Finder and double-
mates. In that situation, you may not clicking the Applications folder.
want every app that you install to be 2. Open a separate window with your
available to everyone who uses the app folder via the method noted
same Mac. There’s a folder within your above or navigating in the Finder
account that holds apps only you can through Users > full account name
run: instead of the main /Applications > Applications.

HELP DESK
or another
company
for trade-in
credit, handing
it down to a
family member,
selling it, or
recycle the
1. failing unit.
If you used
3. Hold down the Command key iCloud on that device, Apple has tied
and drag the app from the main a lot of your identity to the device,
Applications folder into your personal including synced data and making
one. (You must hold down Command services available on your hardware.
or macOS will create an alias instead iPhones, iPads, Macs and Watches
of moving the app.) with a Secure Enclave may also have
4. You may be prompted to enter an Activation Lock enabled if you have
administrative password, or if you Find My turned on. (Apple builds
have a Mac with Touch ID, to validate Secure Enclave into a large range of
the move with a fingertip. its hardware. This includes all iPhones
starting with the iPhone 5s, all Intel
This doesn’t prevent another Macs with a T1 or T2 Security Chip,
user from installing the same app, if and all M1 Apple silicon Macs. You
they have access to an installer or can see a list at fave.co/2Vv01ST.)
download, into the main Applications You can sign out from any device,
folder or for themselves, however. but take care with the next step:
HOW TO PROPERLY • In iOS and iPadOS, go to Settings >

LOG YOUR DEVICES account name and tap Sign Out. This
OUT OF iCLOUD signs out any Watch associated with
There are many occasions on which an iPhone, too.
you need to sign out of iCloud on • In macOS 10.14 Mojave and earlier,
a device. Maybe you’re returning it open the iCloud preference pane and
to an employer, sending it to Apple click Sign Out.

• In macOS 10.15 Big Sur and later, device-based end-to-end encryption
open the Apple ID preference pane, across any iPhone, iPad or Mac
click Overview, and click Sign Out. for which you’ve enabled iCloud
Keychain. If you sign out of iCloud on
On an Apple TV, go to Settings a device, it can retain a local copy of
> Accounts > iCloud and select the last synced version. However, if
Sign Out. After selecting Sign Out you sign out from all your devices or
on all devices except an Apple TV, all but one, there’s no copy retained
you’ll be prompted about whether on iCloud.com: when there aren’t
you want to save local copies of two or more devices using iCloud
synced data. Apple provides a full Keychain, this secure data isn’t
list (fave.co/3weh2Pu) of potentially synced across iCloud.
downloaded data types, like photos Apple has tied so many services
and notes. You can choose for each that you may rely on to iCloud,
whether to save
or delete.
If you opt to not
save the information
on the device, your
data remains on
iCloud.com as well
as on any other
Apple hardware you
own logged into
the same iCloud
account, although
each device can
be set to sync a
different set of
iCloud services.
There’s one
exception to
that rule. iCloud Sign out from iCloud in macOS, and you can retain a local
Keychain employs copy. But you lose access to a huge number of services.

HELP DESK
it’s worthwhile reviewing its list

(fave.co/3GYmXxt) of what you
can’t access on a phone, tablet,
or computer after signing out, too.
That includes Apple Pay, Continuity
and Voice Memos.
If you later sign back into iCloud
from the same device, your operating
system will offer to merge data or
replace it. Once again, choose wisely:
iCloud tracks data fairly carefully, so
your newest versions of each contact,
calendar entry, photo and other data
should be retained in a merge. But if
you’ve made extensive changes on a
logged-out device to items that could
be synced, there’s a potential some
might be overwritten.

DECEMBER 2021
REVIEWED:
MACBOOK PRO
WELCOME TO THE AGE OF THE M1 PRO MAC

NEW AIRPODS
• FULLER SOUND
• IMPROVED DESIGN
• BETTER BATTERY LIFE

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REVIEWED: AIRPODS (3RD GENERATION)

AWESOME TIPS & TRICKS

PLUS: HOW APPLE SILICON CHANGED THE MAC

NEWS 17 Report: Apple accelerating

2 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 3

Apple’s next chips could

4 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 5

For reference, the current M1 has

6 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 7

business with up to 500 employees, to that user’s Business Essentials

When the service exits beta in the

8 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 9

10 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 11

12 Macworld • January 2022

Combine that with a few cookies, HOW IS iCLOUD PRIVATE

January 2022 • Macworld 13

disguise themselves to look like

If all you really want to do is stop

14 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 15

and thinks “it’s reasonable to own it However, Cook definitely left

16 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 17

Tesla veteran Doug

18 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 19

How the first year of

20 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 21

22 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 23

MacBook Pro) being coupled with

24 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 25

26 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 27

workstation-calibre desktop chip likely be based on a 3nm process.

M3: LATE 2023/2024

M3 PRO & M3 MAC: 2024

28 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 29

spot spikes when

30 Macworld • January 2022

I now keep Activity Monitor open MEMORY LOSS

January 2022 • Macworld 31

Safari sites spiking memory use happen on a regular basis.

32 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 33

So if you’re wondering whether Pro has much more power, especially

M1 Max Geekbench 5 (single-core)

34 Macworld • January 2022

January 2022 • Macworld 35

M2 VS M1 PRO: Pro – and probably any subsequent

36 Macworld • January 2022