Issue 301 July 2016 macformat.com @macformat
Perfect your film edits with our advice on the best techniques + Make an iPod classic live on!
Get more from 23 amazing add-ons to make you a true Apple Genius Apps to improve memory usage Refresh all your workspaces Clone an OS X installation PLUS!
iCLoud Music Take full control of all your iCloud Music Library tracks
Boost AirPlay’s performance
Secure your home with iOS
More control of your audio
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iPhone
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IP cameras, locks and more!
Watch
iCloud
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Photos
iOpener Game-changing tech from the world of Apple and beyond
Pictar gives you DSLR-style controls for your iPhone photography.
Pictar Take your iPhoneography further – who needs a DSLR? There are many iPhone accessories that claim to revolutionise your phone’s photography, but few are as interesting as Pictar. It’s a DSLR-like grip for your iPhone that massively extends its camera’s capabilities. From a multistate shutter release to zoom control, exposure compensation wheel and a customisable ‘smart wheel’, Pictar gives you much more control over the pictures you shoot. It’s even got a cold shoe mount so you can attach lighting accessories, and a tripod socket too. It’s the ideal accessory for taking your iPhoneography to the next level. $90 (about £62) includes Pictar, wrist strap (neck strap also available) website mymiggo.com works with iPhone 4 to 6s (Pictar Plus model for 6 Plus/6s Plus)
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July 2016 | MACFORMAT | 3
What’s inside 8–10 RUMOUR & NEWS The core Apple news you need to know about
11 APPS & GAMES
Edited by
christian hall
Our top picks of the month for Mac and iOS APPLE RUMOUR
12 apple facts Amazing stats from the world of Apple
14–15 NEWS FEATURE How good are Apple’s green initiatives?
16 opinion Adam Banks casts a sceptical eye at AI
18 SPLIT VIEW The team’s views on the latest Apple tech
Contact us Email your queries and your questions to letters@macformat.com Keep up to date by following us on Twitter @macformat Join the conversation at facebook.com/ macformat
8 | MACFORMAT
iPad Pro 2 A plus-size upgrade for a plus-size tablet? For all its noteworthy design chops, the iPad Pro has one rather glaring omission: 3D Touch. Sure, the Apple Pencil is a superb drawing tool and helps you produce amazing artwork, but its pressure sensitivity isn’t used to replicate the functionality of the iPhone’s 3D Touch tech. Besides, we’d rather see those features in the form of 3D Touch on the larger screen, so that you don’t have to spend an additional £79 on Pencil to use them. Will 3D Touch make it into the next-gen iPad Pro? KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo doesn’t believe so, citing production issues in Apple’s supply chain as the main obstacle. Apple may not be able to scale up the tech to iPad 1 Pro screen sizes, and it may not be able to meet demand for such a tablet in any case. But Apple is Better Apple Pencil famous for its supply chain management, and we’ve A recently-unearthed Apple been surprised before. Don’t rule this one out yet. patent hints at interchangeable Beyond that, we’re looking here at the iPad Pro nibs, an integrated eraser and in the main, simply because we don’t know whether even Touch ID for the Apple Apple will even continue working on the iPad Air Pencil. Whether the patent range come September. Now that the iPad Pro comes will ever become a reality is in two sizes and packs in a whole lot of power, is the debateable, but we’d love to see Air a redundant line? Time will tell, but for now here’s these features in the Pencil. what we expect to see in the Pro come autumn.
Alex says…
I’d love 3D Touch to be added to the iPad Pro – it may persuade me to buy one!
2
Better camera The 9.7-inch iPad Pro debuted with a 12MP rear-facing camera. Could Apple go one better and upgrade that come September, say to a 16MP shooter? Your snaps would look great even if it’s quite a bit of bulk to shoot with.
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Rumour APPLE CORE
THE POLL We asked… When did you last purchase something from the Mac App Store?
2
0-3 months ago
4-6 months ago
49.5% 3
17.25% 27% More than 1 year ago
6.25%
7-12 months ago
Log on and see next issue’s big question! twitter.com/macformat facebook.com/macformat 1
4
RUMOUR MILL
Hot on the heels of the tech giant’s latest moves…
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2017 iPhone design The iPhone 8 will come with an edge-to-edge, bezel-free display that has an embedded Touch ID sensor, according to noted blogger John Gruber.
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OLED display
3
4
Thinner body
3D Touch
If there’s one thing we’ve come to expect from Apple updates, it’s thinner designs for its products. The 12.9-inch model isn’t exactly bulky, but considering how much Apple squeezed into the thinner 9.7-inch iPad, a more slimline 12.9-inch model may be possible.
You never know, Apple may pull a rabbit out of its hat and bring 3D Touch to the iPad Pro after all. This would certainly be a headline feature and would help take Apple’s most powerful tablet to the next level – provided it can overcome its supply chain issues.
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An alternative theory put forward by Ming-Chi Kuo gives the 2017 iPhone a 5.8inch curved OLED display, but only in the large Plus model.
3
Apple Car
The Wall Street Journal says Apple’s purchase of ridesharing app Didi Chuxing provides a “rich data source” on self-driving vehicles – useful for the Apple Car.
juLY 2016 | MACFORMAT | 9
APPLE CORE Split View
APPLE IN quotes Matthew DeBord businessinsider.com
“Cook isn’t a person who brims with mad visions and wants to take wild risks.� Apple won’t buy Tesla, says journalist, because Tim Cook would clash with Elon Musk
Split View
Subscribe today!
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The MacFormat team debates the hot Apple issues of the day, using their iPhones of course!
“What do you want in the MacBook Pro?â€? Paul says‌
Turn to page 44
Alan says‌ My bit that ☠đ&#x;’ťđ&#x;’ť is from Late 2013, and the đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“? really lets it down is its ageing GPU. đ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Ž âš–đ&#x;”Ľđ&#x;”Ľ
Yeah, Apple’s graphics processors look a bit long in the tooth! ☠đ&#x;’ťđ&#x;’ť
Neil Cybart aboveavalon.com
âš–đ&#x;”Ľđ&#x;”Ľ
“We’re no longer going to refer to Apple as the iPhone company.�
I doubt I’d notice a difference in CPU and ☠đ&#x;’ťđ&#x;’ť storage. It’d be great is the 15-inch model could shed some of its 2kg weight. âš–đ&#x;”Ľđ&#x;”Ľ
Above Avalon analyst says cars could be big for Apple
The Pro was slim for 2012, but last year’s MacBook, well‌ Thunderbolt 3’s USB-C ports might help shed a bit of bulk, too.
Barry Chang cupertino.org
I wonder if Thunderbolt 3 and Skylake would help with ☠đ&#x;’ťđ&#x;’ť slimming down. Will we even get a 15-inch model with a discrete GPU? Pro models tend to get hotter. âš–đ&#x;”Ľđ&#x;”Ľ
“They’re making profit, and they should share the responsibility for our city, but they won’t.�
Don’t forget Apple’s terraced đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“? tech, either!
đ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Ž
Cupertino mayor complains that Apple isn’t paying its full share of tax to the city
đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“?đ&#x;“?you’ve I’d forgotten about that! Okay, convinced me. Bring it on,đ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Žđ&#x;?Ž !
Tim Cook apple.com
“Powering your iMessages with 100% renewable[s] – because our planet deserves our best thinking.� On Apple’s commitment to sustainability on Earth Day
18 | MACFORMAT | JULY 2016
next issue What was your WWDC 2016 highlight?
Siri...ously?
“Can I borrow some money off you� tap to edit
You still haven’t returned the lawnmower I lent you.
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Apple home Smart Home Security
Get started with
Smart Home Security The latest ingenious tech allows you to keep an eye on your home even when you’re away from it
Who goes there? Always check whether a security camera includes a night-vision mode, so it can capture good quality images when it’s dark in your house. Also, check whether the camera’s specs list the distance this mode is able to cover. Some cameras also offer a ‘cloud vision’ feature that’s designed for outdoor conditions, which can be quite useful for monitoring a garden and similar exterior areas.
22 | MACFORMAT | JuLY 2016
e all want to keep our homes safe, so it’s not surprising that so many companies have entered the home security market in recent years. For most people, though, a security camera is their obvious first choice. There’s a huge range of options available here, and you don’t have to spend a fortune to keep your home safe either. You shouldn’t cut too many corners, though, as many cheaper cameras are really just designed for video calls with friends, or for use as a baby monitor. We’d recommend spending a decent amount of money on a camera that’s
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specifically designed with security in mind. The best security cameras that we’ve seen recently generally come in at around £150 to £200, and should provide a resolution of at least 1280x720 pixels, or preferably Full HD resolution (1920x1080), as well as options such as a night-vision mode for 24‑hour security.
Software security The software included with these cameras is also important. Logitech’s Circle has a neatly designed app that can create a time-lapse video summary of the events it records each day. Another standout security feature is face recognition technology used in Netatmo’s Smanos’s app offers remote control of its W100 alarm, and you can monitor what the camera and mic are picking up.
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Smart Home Security Apple home
When you don’t want to be observed at home, you can cover the Myfox Security Camera’s lens.
The Smanos W100 connects to your phone line so it can still alert you even if Wi-Fi’s down.
Welcome camera, which scored a publicity coup recently when it caught a burglar at an owner’s home in Paris. Most security cameras are designed to work on their own, but Netgear’s Arlo Q and Arlo Wire-Free cameras allow you to link up to 15 cameras together to monitor larger homes or offices. Mind you, some people find it a bit creepy having a camera watching them at home, so you could consider the Myfox Security Camera, which includes a remote control shutter for privacy when you want it. But, like a number of these cameras, Myfox requires a monthly subscription if you want to store your video recordings online, which is something you need to check before buying any security camera (see What Else Should I Consider, p27).
Netatmo Welcome’s face recognition enables it to send a message to your phone if it doesn’t know someone’s identity.
One other video option worth considering is a video doorbell, such as DoorBird’s D101 Video Door Station or the forthcoming Smart Video Doorbell from Smanos. Neither records video, but both have motion sensors and can warn you if there’s someone loitering around your front door, and you can stream the live video to your phone to see what’s going on.
Sensors A camera can be a useful security tool, but putting one in every room can turn out to be pretty expensive. A more affordable option that you can use in several rooms is a contact sensor that can be attached to a door or window frame to alert you when an intruder enters your home. Contact sensors only work with individual doors and windows, but you can also buy motion sensors that can detect any type of movement within a room, or in an area around a front or back door. These sensors are generally sold as part of a larger security kit with a hub that can control multiple sensors and other devices, and the hub provides the tech that connects the sensors to your home network, allowing them to send an alarm to your iPhone or iPad when you’re away. Samsung is perhaps the best-known name.
Let’s go outside! To monitor outdoor areas you’ll need to ensure your camera can cope with a bit of rain. Netgear’s Arlo Wire-Free system gets brownie points for its weatherproof design. Netatmo has a new outdoor camera called Presence coming in the summer that’s also weatherproof, and it includes a floodlight that turns on when it detects an intruder.
A contact sensor can be attached to a door or window frame to alert you to a break-in
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JuLY 2016 | MACFORMAT | 23
Get more from Kenny Hemphill shows you how to tweak your Mac to boost its performance – and your own!
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e’ve shown you in previous issues how you can get the best from El Capitan by tuning it, personalising it and optimising it. If you’ve implemented the tips and advice in those features, it should be running very well – but there’s still more you can do to make OS X faster, more effective and, just as importantly, even more enjoyable to use. Third-party tools in the form of free and paid-for apps and system extensions allow you access to parts of the operating system Apple makes it difficult to reach in order to
30 | MACFORMAT | JULY 2016
optimise or personalise it. Whether its tweaking settings and features of built-in apps, customising the look and feel of the OS, or under-the-hood fine tuning, there are a number of tools to do the job. Of course, Apple provides tools of its own, such as Terminal, to allow you to access built-in but hidden tweaks. We’ll cover those too. We’ll also show you the best way to prevent disaster if things go wrong, by looking at the options for backing up your Mac. Just in case things do go irretrievably pear-shaped, we’ll take you through the process of reinstalling OS X from scratch.
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Three great free OS X apps >
1 Evernote, evernote.com
There are few all-rounders on the Mac App Store better than Evernote. Designed to store notes, Evernote has evolved into a powerful tool to help you manage research and run multi-person projects. From clipping web pages to storing notes from recordings made on your iPhone, there are many ways to use it.
2 Wunderlist, wunderlist.com
The Mac has no shortage of list-making apps, but Wunderlist stands out from the crowd for its powerful features. You can assign tasks to other members of a team, for example, and they can assign things to you too, of course. Syncing with the iOS version is instant and, importantly, free.
3 Dashlane, dashlane.com
Password managers are fast becoming a must-have for anyone who uses a computer or mobile device. Dashlane’s one of the best, enabling you to create and securely store passwords, bank card details and anything else that you need to keep safe. Dashlane even performs an audit of your login details.
1 3
2
El Capitan’s best bits > Split View Perfect for research, Split View divides the screen vertically between two apps – the default split is 50/50, but that’s adjustable by dragging from where the apps meet in the middle.
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Clever Spotlight OS X’s search tool is smarter than before. Give it a Premier League team name and it’ll show the team’s last result. Type ‘yesterday’ to see docs you worked on and events from the previous day.
Mute tabs in Safari Fed up of videos auto-playing and making a racket? Safari lets you mute a specific tab from the speaker icon on it, or mute all but one tab by å-clicking the speaker icon on it.
Manage Mail Mail alerts you, just below a message’s subject, when it finds new info in the body that it can add to Contacts or Calendar for you. It also has swipe gestures, like on iOS, for triaging messages.
JULY 2016 | MACFORMAT | 31
APPLE SKILLS Mac Software
Make more of Keynote
Go beyond business docs and make eye-catching animated videos it will take 30 minutes you will learn How to make sophisticated video animations using Keynote. You’ll need Keynote 6
The powerful Magic Move transition is Keynote’s pièce de résistance
Keynote is a great tool for making presentations; clever, intuitive and full of nifty tricks. In fact, it’s too good to be used only for staid business presentations. Here, we’ll explore the app’s animation tools, which you can use for infographics and similar projects to get across your message. The trick to not making something too cheesy and distracting is to ignore practically all of the options available in Keynote’s list of animations. If you use ‘Fireworks’ or ‘Comet’ more than once in your life it’ll probably be too often! We’ll look at three different effects: drawing lines, creating magical charts that animate the display of data, and the Magic Move transition, Keynote’s pièce de résistance.
Beyond build effects Magic Move is particularly well named. Unlike the other effects, which animate objects on a single slide, Magic Move compares attributes of those that exist in two adjacent ones – their size, colour or position, say – and, over the
transition’s duration, morphs each from its first state to its second. By setting strategic effects to play automatically when a slide or object is shown, you can build up an amazing sequence of animated objects and layouts. The walkthrough opposite details how to set objects to animate. You’ll also want to play around with the duration of each build effect and transition between slides. Use the Preview buttons found in the Animate inspector and the Build Order window to test effects in isolation, or select a starting slide on the left and click Play in the toolbar. When you’ve nailed orders and timings, pick File > Export To > QuickTime. If any part of your ‘presentation’ would require a click to advance, the export dialog lets you set how long the rolling animation will hold on those states before it advances. Also note its Format option, which determines the exported video’s resolution; before you build any slides, open the Document inspector and check the slide size is appropriately set for where the video will be presented. Keith Martin
explained… Keynote’s animation controls 1
3
The Navigator This panel on the left gives you a bird’s-eye view of your slides, which helps with Magic Move creations.
4
1
2
Sequencing Use the Build Order window to group objects’ animations and to set delays between them.
48 | MACFORMAT | July 2016
2
4
Animate
3
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This sidebar shows options for the chosen effect. ‘Build In’ will have some differences to ‘Build Out’.
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Preview/Play Use the Preview buttons to test effects, and the toolbar’s Play button to check a longer sequence.
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Animations in Keynote APPLE SKILLS
How to Use Keynote’s animation tools
1 Draw a sketchy line
2 Animate the line
3 Set the build order
4 Dynamic data
5 Animate together
6 Split into steps
Animating lines can be an effective way of putting life into something. Use the Shape button in the toolbar to create a line, select the line, then open the Format inspector’s Style pane to give the line arrowheads and a hand-drawn look.
Interactive charts bring data to life. Click the toolbar’s Chart button, choose Interactive, and pick column, bar, scatter or bubble. Each comes with sample data; select the chart on the slide, then click Edit Chart Data to provide your own.
Open the Animate inspector from the toolbar, go to its Build In pane, then click the Add an Effect button. Select Line Draw from the list and tweak its settings; try setting a duration under one second. Add a few more lines like this.
The Animate Inspector’s Build Order tool works with interactive charts too. Try animating a chart alongside other objects. With thought and practise you can produce effective combinations of movement for infographics.
7 Magic Move keyframing 8 Magical text effects Copy and paste objects from one slide to the next, then change their looks and position – or duplicate the first and change the copy. Select the first slide, open the Animate inspector and set Magic Move as the slide’s transition.
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If there’s a text box present on both slides, the options to match by word or by character can fade or slide things around. You can use the latter to reveal the solution to an anagram, say. Try them out to get a feel for their behaviours.
Click Build Order to show all of the objects on the slide that have animations applied. Select the first line and set it to draw automatically (After Transition), then select the other lines and set them to build with the first one.
Change a chart’s Delivery setting in the Build In pane. You can choose to build all sets continuously (one after the other), or specific sets from your data. Use the latter to focus on a particular set, pausing the animation’s progress till a later slide.
9 Effects sequence
In the Animate inspector, set the slides to start automatically. Build effects on the first one will play, then the Magic Move transition, then any build effects on the second slide – tailor their durations, as most are a little long by default.
July 2016 | MACFORMAT | 49
APPLE CHOICE Apple Kit
MacBook (Early 2016) One year on, can Apple’s tiny marvel rekindle our love for the ultraportable? Reviewed by CHRISTIAN HALL £1,049 Manufacturer Apple, apple.com/uk Display 2304x1440-pixel Retina display Processor 1.1GHz Intel Core m3 (Skylake) Memory 8GB Storage 256GB flash storage Graphics Intel HD Graphics 515 Connectivity USB 3.1 (Gen 1), 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
hen we first picked up the 12-inch MacBook last year, we were all awash with the kind of awe that only Apple seems to be able to pull off with products. Packing the kind of tech it did into the diminuitive housing made Steve Jobs’ jiffy bag trick with the 2008 MacBook Air seem rather mundane, even by the standards of its time. You can’t help but love this MacBook’s form factor, which makes you feel like it’s the laptop you ought to own for true portability and that ‘throw-in-a-bag’ need we all get sometimes – don’t actually throw it, though! The tiny MacBook was something of a revelation for us last year. Apple’s penchant for the super-slim was once again brought to the fore, thanks to some rather clever terraced battery technology, making this the thinnest Apple laptop to date. However, with its low-power (and therefore low-performance) Intel processor and single port for power and data, we thought it might turn out to be a bit like the first-generation MacBook Air: a brilliant ultraportable concept that would need time to mature into a genuine contender for our cash. But we rather
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In true Apple style, a new upgrade means a new colour option, too. This time it’s the turn of Rose Gold!
90 | MACFORMAT | JULY 2016
When you get used to the travel of the keys and the Force Touch trackpad, you’ll love this portable wonder.
underestimated it: not only was it plenty powerful enough for light use, but its fanless operation, Force Touch trackpad, smart new keyboard and Retina display made us fall in love with it. Now we’ve got a second generation, with a more powerful Skylake processor, significantly faster storage, better graphics and longer battery life. Let’s begin with the processor. This is Apple’s first dip into Skylake architecture on its mobile range, and the model we tested had the entry-level 1.1GHz Core m3 processor. In our benchmarking tests using Cinebench and Geekbench, we saw an improvement that was less than 10% over the 2015 model’s Intel Core M (Broadwell) chip. That was initially disappointing, but the real game changer came when testing the speed improvements in the new flash storage. Here, write speeds showed a boost of around 46% (678.8MB/sec,
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MacBook APPLE CHOICE
your other choices…
up from 464.7MB/sec). Read speeds were also seriously impressive, improving by more than 20% to reach 930MB/sec, up from 773MB/sec in the 2015 model. Coupled with faster memory (now 1866MHz LPDDR3, instead of 1600MHz), this year’s MacBook does see some dramatic improvements to test results under certain conditions. While it made little difference to gaming frame rates in our benchmarks, its video encoding abilities absolutely smashed the time in which the 2015 MacBook could convert a 30-minute, Blu-ray-quality video, which we partly attribute to the faster memory and much improved flash storage. So, what we get here isn’t a vast leap in performance in all departments, but the
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MacBook 1.2GHz £1,299
MacBook Air 11-inch £899
Specifications 1.2GHz Intel Core m5 processor 8GB memory (1866Mhz) 512GB flash storage Intel HD Graphics 515 USB 3.1 (Gen 1), 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
Specifications 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor 4GB memory (1600MHz) 256GB flash storage Intel HD Graphics 6000 2x USB 3.0 ports, 1x Thunderbolt 2 ports, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
speed tweaks do result in a generally more responsive notebook than last year’s model. Together with a better graphics processor for smoother animations, plus a longer-lasting battery (we squeezed an extra 16 minutes out of it in our BBC iPlayer streaming test, taking us to 470 minutes overall), this is certainly a reasonable upgrade given none of the housing has been reconfigured to cater for the newer components inside it. It’s worth remembering that the MacBook is totally fanless too, so it operates silently. That’s an experience we’re used to with iOS devices, so it’s a joy to have it in a Mac as well. We hope the next MacBook Pro follows suit.
Driving forward
Alan says…
A second USB-C port is conspicuous by its absence. Apple has stuck ridgidly to its one-port policy here, but a year on from the original we’re still not quite on board with it. The single USB-C port for data and power is, much like the processor, perfectly fine most of the time, then suddenly it’s a source of frustration. Yes, it’s a wonderfully portable machine, the finest Mac ever produced in
Although the design remains unchanged, Apple has done a good job of updating its tiny MacBook. I just wish it had added another USB-C port so I don’t have to choose between data and power – an issue we faced when getting our benchmark software onto this lustfully light Mac!
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APPLE CHOICE Apple Kit
Like the 2015 MacBook, we adore this tiny laptop’s finish, which dispenses with the black ‘clutch cover’ found on other kinds of portable Mac.
benchmarks Our analysis explained MacBook (early 2016)
MacBook (early 2016) 30
470 MacBook (early 2015)
MacBook (early 2016) 16
MacBook (early 2015) 454
MacBook Air (11-inch, 2015)
MacBook Air (11-inch, 2015)
456 0
VERDICT
There’s still much to love about this tiny machine, and it’s definitely speedier than the original.
HHHHH Extremely portable Slight CPU boost Very good flash storage improvement Not for everyone
92 | MACFORMAT | JULY 2016
100
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300
MacBook (early 2015) 14
98
400
MacBook Air (11-inch, 2015)
57 500
600
0
20
40
15 60
80
100
120
0
5
10
15
20
25
Minutes (Higher is better)
Duration (lower is better)
Frames per second (higher is better)
Battery life test With the MacBook using Wi-Fi to get online, we continuously stream the news channel from BBC iPlayer until the laptop’s battery is depleted. The display’s brightness is permanently set to 50% during this test.
Handbrake video encoding We transcode a Blu-ray–quality video file into H.264 format using Handbrake to test multi-core processor performance, which pushes all cores to max output.
Batman: Arkham City 1080p For a real-world gaming test, we use the benchmarking tool in the game Batman: Arkham City, with graphics set to High and the resolution set to 1080p.
that category, but you still get a sense of wanting at least one more USB port, perhaps on the opposite side, to allow for mains power while another is freed up for data. Regardless of what add-ons you buy for the MacBook, you’d better be sure you’re using cloud-based services like iCloud Drive or Dropbox to move files around. For many that will already be the case, but others will demand physical storage rather than using the cloud.
Worth the upgrade? We said last year that it felt like Apple was a little ahead of its time with the MacBook, and we can’t entirely shed that feeling this year either. But, if you want to go all-in on USB-C and its good points (speed, charging and video output in one port), you’ll be on the cusp of the ‘one-port revolution’ with this Mac. Note, though, that the USB 3.1 specification used is Gen 1, just like last year. Gen 2 offers transfer speeds up to 10Gbps, but the older port spec found here is limited to 5Gbps.
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In considering the early 2016 MacBook, you really have to weigh up your MacBook options quite clearly. It’s not the easiest purchase decision to make in the world of Apple, and it’s the 13-inch MacBook Pro that many people will be better off with overall. A boost in processing power is always welcome, but as we’ve seen, the new Skylake chip used here doesn’t really offer enough of a boost if you’re looking to run demanding, processor-intensive tasks. The lack of a 16GB memory upgrade means multitaskers and high-end video editors ought to be looking at the Pro. The flash storage improvement here, though, means that if you were set on this variety of Apple laptop, now’s the time to buy. We’re sure Apple is committed to this ultraslim design going forward, and the tiny logic board inside could be bolstered further. A 2017 model may well get 16GB memory and further CPU changes, but as it stands this is a limited yet surprisingly capable laptop you’ll love a little more each time you open its lid.
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Philips 5K APPLE CHOICE
Philips 275P4VYKEB Massive resolution in a well‑designed but costly case Reviewed by Keith Martin £908 FROM Philips, philips.co.uk features 5120x2880pixel resolution, 2x DisplayPort, USB, audio
If you need a 5K display with accurate colour, this is the display to get – if it works with your Mac
VERDICT It’s only compatible with some of the latest Macs, but it works extremely well when paired with the right models.
HHHHH 98% Adobe RGB Huge resolution Sturdy build Only works with a few Mac models
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fter an agonising wait, the new Philips 5K monitor is finally with us. This display has a massive 5120x2880 resolution, which equates to 14.7 megapixels. The result is more space for tool palettes, multiple documents side by side, or the ability to show 4K video plus editing tools on a single screen. In typical fashion Philips has named this the 275P4VYKEB, but we’ll call it the ‘5K display’. Physically, this is a well-designed screen. The display is substantial, unsurprisingly, and the stand allows tilt, swivel and height adjustments with more-or-less fingertip control. Philips calls it the ‘SmartErgoBase’, and it does its job well. The display has a few extras including three USB 3.0 ports – one with fast charging – plus a 2MP webcam, microphone, and couple of speakers. The speakers are rated at 2W, so while they’re stereo and perform fine for video playback, they’re not going to fill the room with tunes. The display controls are touch-sensitive, but the labels are positioned where they’re easy to see, so it’s simple to tweak settings as needed. This 5K display is a bit of a beast. We don’t mean so much its overall size; while it’s a little thicker than today’s average display, this is a 27-inch display after all. No, it’s a beast in what it demands from your Mac. First of all, if you don’t have a Mac that can support dual-cable 5K output then forget it. You might be able to use this at a much lower resolution, but you lose the entire point of this device. Rather minimally, Philips says that “all Macs that support a 5K resolution” will work with this display; what this boils down to is the Mac Pro from late 2013, the Retina 5K iMac from late 2014, or the MacBook Pro from early 2015 – or newer, of course. As this display is a dual-cable monster it needs two
A
Unlike some displays, this one has a capable, sturdy base.
DisplayPort sockets to run. Either that, or two Thunderbolt ports and a couple of DisplayPort adaptors.
Is it worth the expense? Philips says this 5K monitor display achieves 99% Adobe RGB and 100% sRGB. As with the 27-inch E-line 4K display, it comes near-asdammit to this; DataColor’s Spyder Elite pegged it at 98% Adobe RGB, making it an excellent display for critical colour work as long as you keep it freshly profiled. It supports more than a billion colours, and in use this equates to colour and clarity that’s among the best we’ve seen. It has the same ultra-wide 178-degree viewing angle as the 4K display, and it can even be rotated 90 degrees to portrait orientation. We’re not sure how often this would be used, but it’s a feature. The price for this 5K monitor almost £1,000, so this is obviously not a budget device, and it does cost substantially more than its 4K brother. Also bear in mind that the 5K iMac starts at £1,449 for an entire computer. But if you absolutely, positively need to have the most pixels in the room, and need them to be delivering highly accurate colour, get your wallet out. But remember, only if your Mac can handle the dual-cable requirements of this demanding 5K monitor.
JuLY 2016 | MACFORMAT | 93