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As the global COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to retreat into our four walls, our Apple devices have become more important than ever. They enable us to keep up with the latest news, shop for essential groceries, communicate with our beloved friends a

THE CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK HASN’T STOPPED APPLE RELEASING TWO BRAND NEW iPAD PROS WITH TRACKPAD SUPPORT. The new iPad Pro range comes in two different screen sizes – 11-inch and 12.9-inch and has storage options from 128GB to 1TB. To complement the new

Apple stores around the world have closed in response to COVID-19. Staff are working from home and orders have switched to online-only. “There is no mistaking the challenge of this moment. The entire Apple family is indebted to the heroic first respo

With the main logic board and optical drive mounted directly behind the LCD panel, at two inches thick this Mac became the slimmest desktop computer on the market in 2004 ■

If the light is low this icon appears. Tap to turn it yellow. It’ll then use an auto slow shutter speed (such as one or two seconds) to capture a well-exposed image. You can manually dial in slower speeds of up to 30 seconds. On older iPhones you can

Because you carry your iPhone with you wherever you go you’ll use its Camera app to document daily events, snap a selfie or capture photo opportunities such as a striking sunset. Newer iPhone models such as the XR and the 11 series enable you to take

Hold your iPhone with both hands. A more stable camera is less likely to add shake-induced blur, especially if you’re shooting in a low light location. After snapping a shot, tap here to review your picture for quality. If there’s a problem with focu

When shooting into direct sunlight your subject will be backlit, making it a challenge to capture detail in both the shadows and the highlights at the same time. Your iPhone’s HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode enables you to capture more detail in contra

£20.81 If you own an older iPhone without multiple lenses you can expand its photo composition options with third-party clip-on lenses. Choose the right clip for your particular iPhone model. You’ll need an olloclip iPhone case too. £8.99 When sh

The iPhone 11 Pro’s three lenses let you vary your composition without moving. It also gives you the option of preserving extra image data around the edge of the frame so you can fine-tune the composition in the Photos app. The iPhone 11 Pro’s ultra-

DSLR camera users can manually open the aperture wider to create a shallower depth of field. This causes the background to blur. This blur (bokeh) helps draw attention to the focused subject. The iPhone can mimic this bokeh effect and even adjust it

Tap here to change photo properties such as format and aspect ratio. FirstLight has more image shape choices than the default Camera app (including 5:4, and 3:2). Shooting in the uncompressed .DNG (Digital Negative) format creates larger files that a

Click here to access alternative photo editors that you may have installed (such as Camera+ 2 ). You can also summon Apple’s Markup tools and add text to your photo. To see how sharp a shot is (or spot image noise), pinch to zoom in for a closer look

When compositing a shot within the Camera app it can be a challenge to know if a particular subject is sharply focused. In the glare of a sunny day it’s also hard to see onscreen if a particular area is over- or under-exposed. FirstLight offers extra

In high-contrast lighting your iPhone may struggle to set an exposure that features detail in the shadows, midtones and highlights. It may prioritise highlights which will under-expose shadows. If it prioritises shadow detail the sky will be blown ou

Most photographs will benefit from a bit of post-production processing before they look their best and are suitable for sharing. Fortunately, your iPhone’s Photos app has all the tools you need to correct problems with colour, composition and tone in

Photos enables you to change an image’s mood quickly using creative filter effects. You can add effects as you snap a shot or apply them in the editing process. You can also apply filter effects to video clips. Before taking a photo with your iPhone’

Once you’ve snapped, edited and organised your shots you’ll want to share them with friends, family and followers on social media sites such as Twitter. Fortunately your iPhone has plenty of sharing tools for you to exploit. However, before sharing y

In the Years view you can watch the animated thumbnail change to display a single shot from each month in that year. Swipe left or right to scroll through the months. Tap on a particular month’s thumbnail in the Year view to zoom into the Month view.

In your iPhone go to Settings>iCloud. Tap ‘Photos’. Scroll down to ‘Shared Albums’ and toggle it on. This setting enables you to share albums that others can add to and comment on. Tap on ‘Albums’ then tap the ‘+’ icon. Tap ‘New Shared Album’. Label

Photos recognises faces in your photos. You can use this AI feature to gather multiple photos of your favourite people into an easy to find collection. Tap on ‘Albums’ to see a People album in the automatically curated People & Places category. You c

When shooting action, hold your finger down on the shutter icon. You’ll hear multiple shutter clicks and see a counter indicating the amount of shots you’ve captured. On iPhone 11 models press and hold the shutter while swiping left (or down if in la

The easiest way to transfer multiple photos from iPhone to Mac is via the Apple’s iCloud. When you come in range of a Wi-Fi connection your latest iPhone snaps will automatically be uploaded to iCloud Photos and synced to your Mac. On your iPhone tap

When shooting video an iPhone captures 30 frames (or images) per second and then plays them back at the same rate. This reproduces movement at a normal speed. Your iPhone’s Time-lapse mode causes the camera to capture a series of frames at wider inte

£34.95 This tripod helps you shoot in a more disciplined and considered way, leading to improved composition. It’s handy for snapping a selfie from a distance. It also holds your video footage rock steady, resulting in more professional looking foot

Go to Albums in the Photos app and scroll to Media Types to see a range of automated collections. Shots and clips captured using the iPhone’s front-facing camera lens are collected in a Selfies album. When you snap a shot on your iPhone the image f

Your iPhone can use the lightweight high efficiency HEIF format to cram more photos onto your device. It can also shoot compressed JPEG files. JPEGs are easier to share via social media and email. Apps such as Firstlight capture Raw images as Digital

The chroma key compositing technique involves keying out a colour (such as blue or green) and replacing it with footage from another layer. If the green screen is unevenly lit (or if you cast a shadow on it) then traces of green can remain. Green is

If you shoot in Pal format your camcorder may capture footage at a frame rate of 25 frames per second. The iPhone Camera records video in other frame rates like 30 or 60 fps, causing your iPhone footage to look perky when added to a 25 fps timeline.

The iPhone is a useful addition to any filmmaker’s toolkit due to its ability to shoot in HD and 4K formats. Thanks to the free DoubleTake app from FiLMiC Pro, your iPhone can be even more versatile when generating assets for your Final Cut Pro X pro

Both the Mixer and Splitter utility units can be repositioned within the Router area as required. Most simply, dragging them left or right horizontally moves the ‘downmix’ or split point to earlier or later in the pedal chain. Pedals themselves are t

Smart Controls are specific to each track’s channel strip, rather than a specific plugin or instrument. That means that you can set up controls for parameters from more than one plugin in each layout. So, with an eight-control layout, you could map f

So you may ask, what’s the point of having two buses in our pedalboard? Well, by splitting the path and achieving two effects chains we can output a mono blend or a panned stereo mix of two differently processed signals. On one side you might have a

Hopefully you won’t ever need to call upon your new emergency Catalina drive, but here are a few warning signs that your Mac may need some TLC: your Mac is slow to turn on and load your desktop; hangs at the spinning gear when turning on; frequent ra

Logic’s Smart Controls are onscreen controls whose function changes automatically according to whatever instrument or effect plugin window you currently have open in your project. In most cases, this will be an array of what Logic reckons are the mos

You can also set up emergency contact details in the Health app and make them accessible from your Lock Screen by tapping on your avatar and then going to Medical ID>Edit>Show When Locked. To access it, the person would need to try and unlock your iP

If you are watching embedded videos in sites such as Vimeo then the process of initiating Picture in Picture mode is slightly different. Look to the right of the playback controls and you will see the PiP icon just to the side of the AirPlay icon. Cl

If you are running an older version of macOS that doesn’t display a mini-menu when right/Ctrl+clicking on the speaker icon then there is an alternative method of accessing the Picture in Picture mode that entails right/Ctrl+clicking on the video wind

An animated GIF can be made from one or many slides. Choose which slide to export as a GIF here. The file size grows as slides are added, so keep the number to a minimum. Animated GIFs viewed on the computer can be any size and they will be fine. How

The safest Safari extensions can be downloaded from the Mac App Store and are the ones we would recommend you use if possible. You need to keep your system safe at all times. Some of the most useful Safari extensions are linked to official Mac apps b

Safari extensions are not talked about so much these days, but if an app developer takes the time to develop an effective one that complements their main offering the benefits can be huge. It can reach the level where you are using particular extensi

To make the most of extensions you will want to set them up in a way that makes sense for you and which makes them easily accessible. Apple does a very good job of ensuring that the Safari interface is as minimal as possible and with just enough opti

As we use our Macs for so much – work, entertainment, creative projects and managing our household budgets, etc – they soon get filled up with files and documents. And however robust and impervious to common viruses and malware our Macs appear, a com

Launch the YouTube app and tap your profile icon. Select ‘Settings’ and scroll down to ‘Siri Shortcuts’. Tapping that will bring you to this screen. If you like the sound of a shortcut displayed here, just tap the ‘+’ next to it. You can then view th

Reach this screen by going to Settings>Accessibility in iOS 13 and scrolling right to the bottom of the list of options before tapping ‘Accessibility Shortcut’. Go down the list and select the options that you want to map to the triple-click action.

Are you the sort of person who tends to create many notes throughout the day to help you remember various bits of information? If so you will find the Instant Notes feature on the iPhone particularly useful. Instant Notes is a feature of the Notes ap

Each individual item can be tapped which will not only show you the image, but also enable you to tap it to access the original web page. The active content helps. The way the images are displayed ensures that you know what you are looking at all of

To view your current subscriptions, go to Settings> Apple ID>Subscriptions and all of your current subscriptions, including free trials, will be listed in the ‘Active’ section. Turning this option on means that receipts are sent to you every time a s

To prevent anyone from picking up your iPhone and accessing your instant notes, select this option. It is the most secure and the most private, but it may not be the most convenient for you. If you choose to resume a previous note, choose ‘Created on

When you launch the Shortcuts app, select the ‘+’ icon in the top-right of the screen, tap the three-dot icon next to New Shortcut and give it a name. Decide if you want to add the shortcut to your Home Screen and tap ‘Done’. You’ll then reach this s

Select this option and you can ensure that any notifications which appear from that app to your Watch will go straight to the Notification Centre. As of watchOS 5, you can manage notifications on your Watch for specific apps. When a notification arri

How do I send files from my Mac to my Android phone using Bluetooth… I can’t figure it out? Jeff Ames Your Mac will have a handy built-in app called Bluetooth File Exchange, which usually resides in the Utilities folder in Applications. Perform a S

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AirPlay 2 • Bluetooth • Wi-Fi 5 & 24GHz • HEOS built-in • 20W denon.co.uk richersounds.com MANY COMPACT WIRELESS SPEAKERS boast a good sound, but not necessarily a big sound, producing a decent range that doesn’t necessarily project to fill the ar

£27.99/$28.99 macOS 10.12 or later • 64-bit processor • 10.8MB rogueamoeba.com Mac App Store IF YOU FIND AUDIO EDITING A CUMBERSOME CHORE then Fission eradicates the monotony by making everything a finger-snapping cinch. Through the simple interfa

Free macOS 10.12 or later • 64-bit processor • 101.3MB facebook.com/help Mac App Store RELEASED JUST IN TIME FOR SELF-ISOLATION, Facebook’s Messenger app makes the leap from iOS to your Mac desktop to allow you to stay connected to your friends an

• System on chip: Apple A10 Fusion • CPU: 2.34GHz quad-core 64-bit • GPU: Custom IMagination PowerVR GT7600 Plus • Memory: 2GB • Storage: 32, 128 or 256GB • Display: 4.7-inch Retina HD: LED-backlit IPS LCD • Rear camera: 12MP 2nd-gen Sony Exmor RS wi