Discover how to find missing files and folders with our guide to smarter searching

The old days of remembering where you stored every created file are long gone. For most of us this is a good thing, as we rarely remembered where everything was and wasted time searching for files. Modern versions of OS X augment files in the Finder with a huge amount of metadata – additional information that describes a file’s data. A photo will have a name and a file type, but also all kinds of other information: when it was taken, what camera was used, where it was photographed, the camera’s aperture setting, dimensions, colour space, and so on. All this information can be used to find files, no matter where they are located, using Spotlight. So if you want to get better at finding files, you should learn to spot the metadata attached to each file. Select a file and choose File > Get Info. Look under the More Info section of the Info window to see what metadata is attached to that file. This is the sort of thing you can search for in Spotlight. If you want to view all the metadata for a file, open a Terminal window and type mdls followed by a space, then drag a file onto the window to add its path to the command and press ®. Yosemite emphasises Spotlight’s ease of use in searching, assuming you would prefer to type what you’re looking for into a search field, rather than locate it in a familiar folder. So if you can’t find a specific file, press ç+[Spacebar] to call up the Spotlight search bar and type the file or folder name or a word it contains. Select a file in the results and hold down the ç key to view the path to where it’s stored. Click a result with ç held to open a Finder window at its location. If you’re going to rely on Spotlight to find files, it’s a good idea to start naming files intelligently so you can identify them in Spotlight. Try to include a description, project, version and even a date in the file’s name.

Getting back Finder locations
Sometimes you still end up digging around for files in Finder, though. Recent versions of OS X have changed a few things: new windows show the All My Files view by default, and a few of the pre-created folders in your home folder are no longer listed in the sidebar. However, both of these things are customisable to help you reach what you need more quickly. You can drag any folder into the Favorites group in the sidebar to make it reachable in an instant. Folders can be added to the Dock by dragging them into the area to the right of the dividing line, and the appearance of these shortcuts, called Stacks, can be customised by ≈-clicking them. To change the folder that new Finder windows display, go to Finder > Preferences > General and set ‘New Finder windows show’ to any folder. Files created in iOS apps are stored in your iCloud Drive, yet you don’t have to open those files from within apps on a Mac, like you would in iOS. Choose Go > iCloud Drive or select the iCloud Drive shortcut in a Finder window’s sidebar to browse them. However, be careful about moving around files that are still syncing to your Mac (indicated by a progress bar) as this can cause them to be lost. Deleted files can be recovered in Settings > Advanced at icloud.com.

Problems with updating to El Capitan macintos

El Capitan is Apple’s upcoming version of OS X, due to be released in the autumn. But Apple’s public beta program (beta.apple.com) means anybody can install OS X El Capitan right now. Installing the beta version of OS X is a double-edged sword. It isn’t finished yet, and there are problems being reported with Aperture, Disk Utility, iCloud Keychain, iTunes, Mail, networking and language settings. That’s enough to give even seasoned developers a headache. These gremlins are likely to be fixed for the full release, but even when the final version of OS X El Capitan is released, we urge caution before upgrading. Development problems will be long gone, but there may still be issues with third-party software. Even major apps, such as those made by Adobe and Microsoft, have been troublesome in the past as they struggled to adapt to Apple’s release schedule. El Capitan could exacerbate this with a new feature called System Integrity Protection (SIP). This new feature prevents programs from making changes to key OS X system folders. This protection even applies if you are using the ‘root’ user account, which is why SIP is often called ‘rootless’. As a general rule, if you have to ask: “should I update to the new version of OS X?” then the answer is probably “no” – at least not until a couple of weeks have passed and you can see what problems are being reported.

My Mac struggles with Yosemite

The upgrade from OS X 10.9 to OS X 10.10 introduced new versions of built-in apps that made greater use of iCloud for collaborative working. However, there have been teething troubles with syncing documents using iCloud Drive. Alongside this, many users have reported ongoing networking and Wi-Fi problems in Yosemite. On the whole, people are hoping that Apple concentrates on fixing problems in the upcoming release of El Capitan. Yosemite’s issues have mostly been addressed by Apple in a series of software updates. If the system is still giving you problems, the first thing you should do is make sure you have the latest update (10.10.5 is currently the latest version). Go to the App Store and click Updates. If any are available for OS X, they’ll be listed above app updates – click Update next to them, or Update All. The same advice applies to troublesome apps: user feedback and technical updates contribute to frequent app improvements, so install newer versions whenever you can. You can set OS X to perform automatic updates for apps installed from the Mac App Store. Open System Preferences > App Store, select ‘Automatically check for updates’ and then enable all of the download and install options below.

Fixing Wi-Fi woes
Yosemite doesn’t always work smoothly with existing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices, as early upgraders discovered. A subsequent Apple update has apparently fixed the Wi-Fi problem, but if you still have trouble with Bluetooth accessories, try resetting your Mac’s NVRAM (see page 38). Graphical issues were relatively common on Mavericks and persisted in Yosemite, particularly on Macs that struggle with its demands. 8GB of free drive space and 2GB of RAM are essential. More of both is preferable. It’s hard to update the graphics card on a Mac, but some older Macs have upgradable RAM. Use Crucial System Scanner (uk. crucial.com) to determine if an upgrade is available for yours. If upgrading your hardware is out of the question, try reducing the impact of the newer system features on your Mac. Widgets in Notification Center can be sacrificed in System Preferences > Extensions > Today; try deselecting real-time items such as Stocks and Weather. On a Mac with a very low specification, visual effects on the Dock – magnification as you move over icons and, less so, animating icons as apps open – can get juddery. You can turn these off in System Preferences > Dock. Some users report that they occasionally can’t save a document because the Save dialog box hangs off the edge of the screen. There is an annoying bug in Yosemite that increases the Save As dialog box’s size each time you use it. Hold down ß and put the pointer over one edge of the dialog and drag it inwards to reduce its height and width together. You can then reach the Save button.

Visual guides Mac and ios problems solved

Monitoring CPU and RAM

Use Activity Monitor (in /Applications/Utilities) to establish what apps and processes are using up the most CPU or RAM. Its CPU tab lists active processes in a real-time view of what’s going on.

Switch to different stats
Activity Monitor details five different resources: CPU, Memory, Energy, Disk, and Network usage. Switch between them by clicking on the tabs at the top of the windows. If you think your Mac is running slowly, the CPU and Memory sections are likely to be of most interest.

Sort by usage
Each tab’s columns show how processes are using that particular resource. Typically the second column is the most important. Click a column name, such as % CPU or Memory, so the arrow points down to sort processes so the ones using the most amount of that resource are at the top. Items at the top of the list are usually the ones using the highest percentage of CPU power. Fluctuations and spikes in this are shown on the graph at the bottom. It’s perfectly normal for these to occur as you open an app, download a video or render a complex, layered image. If Safari shows a web-based game or video clip using a significant portion of the CPU even after you’ve stopped using it, it’s likely to have stalled.

Force quit unruly apps
When a process is shown in red, this is Activity Monitor’s way of saying it’s unresponsive. This is usually accompanied by unresponsive behaviour from the app in question (although some processes run behind the scenes). To force quit an item, click it in Activity Monitor’s list, then on the X at the left of the toolbar, then confirm you want to force quit it.

Search and monitor
Use the Search bar to check on a specific program or process. If you have Dropbox or Spotify installed, it’s worth checking whether they are using too much network bandwidth, for example. You can check whether large backups or downloads are taking place in the Network tab

Generating diagnostics
Choose View > run System Diagnostic to generate a diagnostics report containing files that allow Apple to investigate issues with your Mac. Accept the privacy agreement, then enter your account’s password to allow Apple access the information for the diagnostics test.

ENERGY USAGE
You can consult your apps’ energy usage by clicking the battery icon in the menu bar on a MacBook. In Activity Monitor, you can see which apps are using the most processing power. Click the Energy tab and then sort the Energy Impact column to see which apps are using the most power over time. Also consider installing Coconut Battery (free, coconut flavour. com), which provides information about how many charge cycles your battery has been through, and its remaining capacity and health status.

Is your Mac running slowly ? These tips grease its cogs and shift it up a gear

How to speed up a Mac is one of the most common requests, not least with Macs which are more than a few years old. Slow performance is one of the most irritating things to happen to any user. The good news is that Apple tests upgrades to OS X against older machines and makes sure they’re capable of running everything correctly, so if you are experiencing slowdown it’s usually fixable. Having said that, Yosemite was a significant operating system upgrade from Mavericks, with plenty of additional features. If you are encountering slow performance, the very first stop should be to empty the Trash. OS X needs some free space to move files around, and typically we advise around 10 percent of your hard drive space, or at least 10GB. Before you even start to examine your disk space, get rid of any unwanted files. Items stored in Trash are taking up valuable disk space, so right-click it and choose Empty Trash Now to purge them from your Mac. Check the available disk space by clicking Go > Computer from the Finder menu bar, selecting the icon for your main hard disk and choosing File > Get Info (ç+I). Available space is listed in the status bar (you might need to choose Show Status Bar). If you don’t have at least 10GB free, it’s time to delete or archive your old files. Good places to look are your Movies, Downloads and Documents folders. DaisyDisk (£7.99, daisydiskapp.com) can help you find space-hogging files. Applications tend to take up a lot of space. You can drag apps you no longer use to the Trash or use an app like AppZapper ($12.95 – about £8, appzapper.com) to get rid of them. Creating a backup with Time Machine is a good idea before you start to trash files. Connect an unused or new external drive with sufficient space, and go to System Preferences > Time Machine to use it for backups. Backing up to a directly connected hard drive is faster than using a drive such as the Time Capsule, which backs up over Wi-Fi. If you do have a Time Capsule, it’s a good idea to connect to it using an Ethernet cable for the first backup. Even so, backing up several gigabytes of data will take an hour or two and will impact your Mac’s ability to perform other tasks. After the initial run, only incremental changes will need to be backed up, so it’s worth gritting your teeth and getting the first, full backup out the way. Then you can delete older, less critical files and folders, which should have the effect of making your Mac a little more sprightly.

Turn off features 
If you’ve freed up some hard drive space and are still experiencing slow performance, then it might be time to try disabling some features. To begin, go to System Preferences > Extensions > All and deselect any extensions you aren’t using. Open System Preferences > Energy Saver. On some older MacBooks, you may see a Better Battery Life and Higher Performance options. Choose the latter, then restart your Mac. This turns on the discrete graphics card, but it will drain the battery faster. A good trick for older Macs is to uninstall Flash. It’s a resource hog and drains your battery. Of course, you won’t be able to access Flash-based web content, but many sites have moved to a more modern HTM5 implementation now. You can find a Flash uninstaller at http://adobe. ly/1P9sdfw. In your web browser, remember to close down tabs and windows you no longer need as these are a drain on resources.

Quit some apps 
App Nap is a built-in feature that slows down apps that are obscured by other windows and not currently doing something. If an inactive app is using valuable memory, recent versions of OS X will compress the data it has in memory. That isn’t always possible, in which case the OS will write incompressible data to disk to free up space for another app. You can tell OS X the memory used by those apps can be used right away by other things by quitting them. If you find it hard to know which apps are open, in System Preferences > Dock make sure ‘Show indicators…’ is enabled. To prevent napping apps reappearing after a restart, go to  > Log Out… and deselect ‘Reopen windows when logging back in’. Turning off visual effects such as transparency, can deliver incremental but important performance gains. In System Preferences > Accessibility, turn on Reduce transparency. Even if text doesn’t seem blurry, go to System Preferences > General and toggle ‘Use LCD font smoothing’ to check its appearance before and after. MacBooks that start up slowly may not have been fully shut down the last time. This can happen if you closed the lid of your MacBook before the shutdown process finished, so don’t be too hasty when powering down for the day. After following these tips, you should find OS X runs much faster than before.

Fix any Mac or iOS problem in seconds

 Macs and iOS devices run smoothly and efficiently, but nothing lasts forever and over time you will run into problems. Bloated apps, upgrades that stretch your device’s hardware resources, and more demanding apps and games can all make your Mac struggle. Even though OS X and iOS are incredibly robust operating systems, you will eventually encounter a problem. In this feature, we’re going to look at common problems and how to fix them. In many cases, routine maintenance such as backing up and archiving old files and remembering to perform incremental updates to the operating system and apps makes a huge difference. Resource-hogging apps, stalled updates and backups that take days to complete are all easy-to-address issues which, once resolved, will improve your Mac. We’ve got a slew of tips on how to fix system performance, file management, and network niggles. Some issues will only have reared their head when you made the leap of faith from one version of OS X to the next - almost certainly from Mavericks to Yosemite. Jumping to the upcoming version of OS X, El Capitan, is bound to reveal additional gremlins. Issues with photos no longer being where you expect to find them, and other files seemingly going missing, are common annoyances. Many users have reported ongoing Wi-Fi and network problems in Yosemite, and iTunes 12 has also had some unwelcome surprises for unwary users. With Yosemite still exhibiting problems, and the beta version of El Capitan now available, this is a great time to learn about common Mac problems and prepare yourself for any trouble that might arise

Make iOS more like OS X

When it came to making an operating system for the iPhone and the iPad, Apple chose a different direction than it did for the Mac: a much simpler interface and a controlled environment. This control makes iOS a fast, safe and relatively trouble-free environment. The problem is that it comes at the expense of some powerful features. Unlike OS X, you have no direct access to files. Instead you have to access them from inside apps. The first thing you should do is get your files into Apple’s iCloud Drive system. Transferring files to iCloud Drive makes them accessible across all iCloud Driveenabled apps, including all of Apple’s iWork apps and Microsoft’s Office suite. In the upcoming iOS 9 you’ll be able to activate an iCloud Drive app by going to Settings > iCloud > iCloud Drive and switching on ’Show on Home Screen‘. This installs the iCloud Drive app on your iPhone or iPad’s Home screen, which is much more like using Finder in OS X. If this isn’t enough, then you should investigate remote access software, which enables you to view and control your Mac from an iPhone or iPad. Parallels Access (http://bit.ly/1INfAVU) is the best of the bunch, because it formats OS X and its apps to fit perfectly on the smaller iOS screen, and it has a great interface. It costs £13.99 per year. For a free solution, search for Google’s Chrome Remote Desktop in the App Store on your iOS device, and install Chrome and the corresponding extension

macintos Get to grips with file permissions and manage all of your files

In OS X (but not iOS) you can have more than one user account – typically one for yourself and perhaps others for your family. At the heart of this sits a system known as File System Permissions and understanding this can make your life a lot easier. Every single item on your Mac – all the files you have created, and every file and folder in the operating system – has permissions attached to it. These permissions determine who ‘owns’ the file, and who else has access to it. In Unix, the system that sits beneath OS X, there are three types of access: reading, writing and executing. Read determines who gets to view the contents of a file, Write determines who gets to edit (and save) the file, and Execute determines which user accounts can run an app or script. In OS X, you only get to change who owns the file, and who gets to read or write to it. You’ll need to dig into Terminal to adjust the execution status of files. But for the most part, you’ll be fine adjusting permissions inside OS X’s graphical interface.

Changing file and folder permissions
Select any file, or folder, in OS X and choose File > Get Info (ç-I). Scroll down to find Sharing & Permissions. For most files, you will see your account name followed by (Me) and the privilege set to Read & Write. Below your account will be two further users: ‘staff’ and ‘everyone’ (both typically set to Read Only.) The former group is all the accounts you have set up on your Mac, and the latter one includes any other accounts that may access your Mac (such as a Guest account or another Mac on your network). You change the permission status of files and folders in the Get Info window. If you are the owner of the file, just click in the Privilege column next to staff or everyone and change them to Read & Write, Read Only, No Access (only for ‘everyone’), or Write Only (for folders). Most of the time you’ll want to change permissions on a file that you don’t own (typically because your access to it is blocked). This block may be because you have transferred the file from one user account space to another, or because you are trying to view files on a different user account. To change the permissions for a file, or folder, owned by another user, you first click the padlock icon in the bottom-right corner of the Get Info window. Enter an Admin user’s credentials and click OK. Now you can change the privileges. If you have moved a file manually from one account to another, you may see the name field set to ‘system’ rather than your name (or the name of another user account). You can change the staff group to Read & Write and access the file that way, or make yourself the owner of the file. Click the + button and choose your account name from the list of Users & Groups, then click Select to add it to the item’s privileges. Click the Settings cog and choose ‘Make me the owner’. Choose ‘system’ in the Name list and click the – (minus) button to get rid of it. You’re now the owner of the file as if you’d created it. You can also use this method to make files owned by other people yours.

Viewing folders in other accounts
A common problem is trying to view the contents of a folder on another account on your Mac. Choose Go > Computer and select your startup drive and then the Users folder on it to see folders for each user with an account on your Mac. Open a folder for an account that isn’t yours, and you’ll see a red Stop icon next to most folders. Trying to view the contents of one of these folders bring up the error: “The folder can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.” You can bypass this lock by adjusting the permissions. Select a locked folder, choose File > Get Info, click the Lock icon and enter an Admin user’s credentials. Click the + button, choose your name from the list and click Select. Change your privilege to Read & Write and you’ll be able to access that folder as if it was in your account.

compare Mac Pro and iMac with 5K Retina display

Mac Pro
The Mac Pro is not for the average, everyday user. Despite its new cut-down chassis (it’s just 25.1cm high and weighs 5kg) the Mac Pro is packed full of cutting-edge components designed to deliver astonishing performance. It’s aimed firmly at creative professionals who need to crunch a serious amount of numbers as part of their craft. To this end, the Mac Pro is more than qualified – Xeon processors, dual AMD graphics cards and support for up to 64GB RAM ensure it delivers on all fronts, and the PCIe-based flash storage keeps it running smoothly. You supply your own monitor, and the Mac Pro supports up to three 4K displays. There’s no longer room for expansion cards in this model, but six Thunderbolt and four USB 3.0 ports handle external add-ons. However, it’s here we hit the Mac Pro’s biggest issue: it’s sorely overdue for an update. With Thunderbolt 3.0 just around the corner, we strongly recommend you hold off until Apple finally unveils the next-generation model.

iMac with 5K Retina display 
need a more complete package? When it comes to a desktop – including a gob-smacking Retina 5K display – then choose this iMac. Although the new entry-level 3.3GHz model squeezes the price down to £1,599, there are too many compromises – a hard drive by default, and a less powerful graphics chip – so the 3.5GHz model remains the one to look at; it ships with a Fusion Drive as standard, while the AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics ensure it’s great for games. The 5K iMac also has an access panel in the back for upgrading the RAM, so while it only ships with 8GB as standard, you’ll save money by upgrading the memory yourself – you can get 32GB of it from Crucial for £20 less than the price Apple will charge you for 16GB. The large, 5K Retina display opens up a wealth of possibilities – run multiple apps side-by-side, for example, or compare lots of photos at once – and thanks to the powerful spec, you’ll get a long-lasting machine

compare macbook and macbook pro

MacBook
Apple’s new MacBook is designed for portability over everything else. It’s just 13mm thick, weighs under 1kg and manages to pack a 12-inch Retina display and full-size keyboard into a smaller frame than the 11-inch MacBook Air. Its battery lasted 7.5 hours in our extensive tests, and due to the fanless design, it’s exceptionally quiet too. It even sports a Force Touch trackpad for even more control when you click. There are compromises – a less-capable processor, but you won’t notice it in everyday use because the flash storage and 8GB RAM mean OS X and apps like Pages and your web browser work quickly and flawlessly. However, it will struggle with more demanding tasks, and does occasionally stutter in surprising places, such as using Google Maps in Safari. If you’re looking for more power from a thin and light notebook, then the MacBook is outclassed by its Air sibling, but if you want something feathery light that will run basic tasks all day while unplugged from the mains, this is it.

MacBook Pro 
The MacBook Pro sees Apple successfully square the circle of portability and performance. While its 13-inch models with Retina display step things up from the less capable MacBook, cast your glance at the recently refreshed 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display if you want the power of a desktop on the move; its quad-core processor may be an older generation (Haswell), but it still delivers comparable performance to the 5K iMac. The MacBook Pro’s flash storage is exceptionally quick, and graphics performance is also decent, with the top-end model sporting an AMD Radeon R9 M370X chip with 2GB discrete memory. Apple’s even managed to eke more life from the battery at the same time as boosting performance – in our real-life tests, the 15-inch model lasted for over six hours, which isn’t far short of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. And while it’s twice the weight of the entry-level MacBook, the 15-inch MacBook Pro is still svelte enough that you’ll be able to carry it around.

Get a great deal macintos

There’s a surprising amount of choice when it comes to who you buy your Mac from – make sure you spend at the right place

once you’ve settled on the Mac you want, the obvious thing to do is take yourself to your local Apple store or visit its product page at apple. com/uk to make your purchase. But just hold off for a second. There are some pitfalls to avoid – and, more importantly, some opportunities to get a better deal if you think outside the box and consider the unthinkable: purchasing your Mac from someone other than Apple!

Buy now, or wait? 
Before you hit the buy button, ask yourself this: how long has the Mac model you’re planning to purchase been available? When did Apple last refresh the product line? If it’s less than six months, then it’s unlikely to be superseded in the very near future – move on to the next stage of your purchase. However, if the Mac has been around for longer than six months, then stop and consider the possibility that a newer, faster model is on the horizon. It’s difficult to know when Apple is about to launch new models, but you can gain some useful insights before you begin. Turn to our Upgrade pages at the back of the magazine, where you’ll get a handy ‘days since refresh’ guide to every single Mac currently available, coupled with our recommendations about buying or waiting now. It’s also worth noting that even if you’re happy with the current model, there’s a financial bonus if you wait for its successor to launch. You may find limited stocks of the Mac you desire are made available at a discount as local stores strive to clear them from their shelves ahead of the new model’s arrival.

Shop around 
The margins on Macs are so tight that you might be forgiven for thinking you won’t get a better deal than Apple’s prices, but discounts can be found. Currys occasionally offers 10% off most Mac models, for example. It’s also worth popping into your local Apple Premium Reseller store or browsing a few online to see whether they offer discounts – most don’t, but there are exceptions, such as KRCS (krcs.co.uk). Even so, discounts will be slim. Just make sure the model on offer is the right model by matching the specs with those available on Apple’s website. Nevertheless, there are other compelling reasons to consider purchasing your new Mac from a Premium Reseller. There’s the convenience of being supported locally, obviously, but also look out for stores offering discounts on previous-generation models, such as Jigsaw24 (jigsaw24. com), or extended guarantees as opposed to the standard 12 months. John Lewis is one example, offering two-year guarantees on all Mac products, but it’s trumped by Premium Reseller Stormfront (stormfront. co.uk), which offers three-year guarantees as standard when you buy from one of its 23 stores across the UK.

Refurbished bargains
Another way to save money is to investigate the second-hand market, particularly if you’re happy with an older model that doesn’t have the latest components, or is easier to upgrade than the current one. The obvious place to look is eBay (see its closed auctions for the kind of prices you’ll pay), but remember you’re usually buying privately, so there’s no protection, and no guarantee. It makes more sense to pay a bit more from a reputable dealer that offers some protection. The obvious place to look is Apple’s own Certified Refurbished store and use the sidebar on the left to filter down your choices). Here you’ll find ex-display models and returned Macs that have subsequently been refurbished and repaired to Apple’s exacting standards for 10-20% less than the normal price, complete with 12-month guarantee. Make sure the model you’re buying is the one you think it is, and bear in mind that stocks are limited, so be prepared to wait until the model you want is available. You can also pick up refurbished models from some Apple Premium Resellers –typically in-store rather than online. Also take a look at second-hand seller CEX (uk. webuy.com), which often offers the best prices of any store, while including a 12-month guarantee on all its Apple products.

Other considerations 
If you’re in higher education then you can get discounts on your next Mac simply by showing your work or student ID. Visit Apple’s own store at http://apple.com/ uk-edu/shop or speak to your local Apple Reseller to see what discounts they can give you. If you can’t afford to purchase your new Mac outright, many stores, including Apple, offer some form of credit, with the cost spread over a number of years. If you can afford to pay over 10 months, then Stormfront offers interest-free credit on all purchases over £400, while the benchmark APR on offer from Apple and others is around 14.9% if you need to spread the cost over a longer period. Finally, if you plan to buy your Mac in-store, don’t be hassled. Apple and Premium Resellers are not supposed to be pushy.

Insurance 
It’s one thing protecting your Mac from problems that may develop after the warranty has run out, but you’ll also want to protect your expensive investment from accidents in the home as well as the risk of theft, particularly if you’ve bought a MacBook and are ferrying it around from work to home and everywhere in-between. First, check your home insurance policy to see if your Mac is covered – you might find your Mac is already covered at home, but check carefully to see protection extends outside for your MacBook too. If not, compare the cost of increasing your home cover with taking out a dedicated policy with lower excess (just £25 in many cases). Expect to pay anything from £5.99 to £13.99 per month, depending on your model.

Configure a Mac 
At first glance, it looks like you’re hampered when it comes to choosing your perfect Mac, straitjacketed into a relatively narrow set of options. For those coming from the world of Windows, it can be a bit of a culture shock to discover your choices are relatively limited, but if the specs don’t quite match up to your expectations, don’t worry – you can often customise key aspects of your Mac prior to purchase. The service isn’t just limited to Apple’s own stores either; some Premium Resellers also offer it, so check before you set off to purchase. It’s worth sitting down and deciding exactly what you’re going to need from your new Mac, thinking five years ahead. In most cases, once you’ve made a choice about memory or hard drive, you’re stuck – the days of easily upgrading those components on a Mac are fading fast. When you select a Mac on Apple’s site, you’ll be taken to a screen where you can upgrade various components – they depend on the model you pick, not just the type of Mac. Choose upgrades carefully as the price can quickly spiral (usually with RAM). Make sure your upgrade will make a real difference – a 200MHz bump on the processor’s speed will have little effect, but going from dual-core to quad-core will. For most people, the most critical upgrades to consider are storage and RAM (memory). For the latter, consider 8GB a decent amount for a range of tasks, but bump it up to 16GB if you perform high-end creative tasks like video editing or rendering. To improve day-to-day performance, choose an SSD or a Fusion Drive (which contains a small SSD cache) – this will speed up loading times and make a real difference to how responsive your Mac feels

How to buy your next Mac

Today, tomorrow, next year – at some point you’re going to need to replace your current Mac with a newer model, and who wouldn’t want a shiny new one? Discover how to make the right choice.

Macs are built to last, but there comes a time when yours starts to show its age. When that happens, you’ll find yourself looking for a new model, and these days the variety of Mac desktops and laptops on offer can be mind-boggling. It’s an expensive purchase, so it pays to take your time and get it right – computers are like cars in that in their value goes down and they’re quickly replaced in the showroom by a better model. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t allow yourself to be paralysed by fear – whichever Mac you buy, it’s almost certainly going to be faster than your current one, so even if it’s superseded a few months down the line, your new Mac will still feel like it flies compared to the trusty friend you’re moving on from. In this feature we’ll steer you through the buying process – from helping you find the right place to buy your Mac, to giving you the lowdown on options such as insurance and configuration. We’ll also debunk a few Mac-buying myths along the way. If you’re still stumped as to which model is right for your needs, then we compare four popular models – MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac 5K and Mac Pro – based on which person they’re best suited for. And don’t forget to check out our Upgrade section (see page 107), where you can compare all major Macs side-by-side. Think you’ve got a good idea of which one you want? Good, now turn the page to find out how to get it at the right price from the right supplier and with all the options and protection you’ll need…

Advertisers are appalled at Apple’s support for ad blocking, but our resident grouch isn’t.

Imagine if every time you read a newspaper or saw a billboard, a man in a cheap suit followed you. He’d be alone at first, but one would become two, two would become ten, ten would become twenty. They’d follow you everywhere: on buses and trains, down streets and through shops, when you walked the dog or worked out at the gym, and their expenses – their fares, their food, their data connections – would be charged to your debit card. That’s pretty much what’s happening whenever you use the web – and because Apple wants to help stop it, Apple is being accused of being evil. The row is over content blocking, which Apple will make much easier to do in iOS 9 and El Capitan. Apple’s support for ad blocking alongside the launch of its own ad-based app, Apple News, has got website owners and advertisers in a tizzy. How dare Apple help people block their ads! Doesn’t Apple know they have mouths to feed? Apple does know, but Apple also knows that those ads and trackers are making every one of its users’ online experience worse. In the last few years there’s been a huge decline in internet speeds despite ever-faster broadband and Wi-Fi. It is particularly noticeable on iOS, which doesn’t benefit from the adblockers and anti-tracking services I use on my Mac to keep the web usable. Every ad tracker and every third-party ad slows things down, because the trackers and ads need to communicate with the ad networks or other websites, and they can make page sizes significantly bigger too. Those witless “iPads for £20 with this special trick!” ad panels, auto-playing videos and invasive pop-ups are spying on you, killing your MacBook’s battery and bursting through your mobile data allowance. According to the HTTP Archive, which studies these things, the average web page has increased in size from 828KB in 2012 to over 2MB today. Those are average sizes: we’ve seen 75KB of text magically turn into 12MB of bloat once all of the ads, videos and trackers have loaded. That’s affecting your device, your privacy and your connection, which is why Apple wants to make it easier to block. I’m with Apple on this one. I’m not antiads, but I am anti- advertisers apparently believing they can do whatever they like irrespective of how badly it affects web use. If what you do is so useless, so unpopular and so anti-consumer that people are installing tools to stop it, take the hint: you need to think different

Introducing Blackmagic URSA mini

Introducing URSA Mini, a handheld Super 35 digital film camera with an incredible 4.6K image sensor, global shutter and a massive 15 stops of dynamic range' The super compact and lightweight design is perfectly balanced, making it comfortable enough for ail day shooting URSA Mini lets you shoot at up to 60fps, features a 5" foldout viewfinder. dual RAW and ProRes recorders, and more!

Incredible 4.6K Sensor
URSA Mini can capture images at a resolution and dynamic range that goes well beyond that of traditional motion picture film so you can shoot your own epic. cinematic masterpiece' You can capture images up to 4608 x 2592, which is larger than 4K DCI, with 15 stops of dynamic range so you get incredibly clean pictures with amazing detail in everything from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights' URSA Mini can record 4.6K at up to 60fps. or 1080 HD at up to 120fps.

Lightweight and Portable
URSA Mini's perfectly balanced body is made out of space aged magnesium alloys so iUs rugged, yet lightweight and comfortable enough to be used all day You get a super bright 5 fold out touch screen for on -set monitoring, that can also display overlays for timecode, histograms, audio meters. focus peaking and more , URSA Mini features full size, professional connectors. even 12G -SDI, so you don't need custom cables. plus high quality stereo microphones and a side grip mounted on a standard rosette

Completely Customizable
Blackmagic URSA Mini is completely customizable so you can create a rig that's built specifically for your production! Add accessories like the Blackmagic URSA Viewfinder and Blackmagic URSA Mini Shoulder Kit, or choose from hundreds of third party accessories. URSA Mini has 9 standard 1/4" threaded mounting points on the top and bottom of the camera so you can mount It directly to a tripod as well as add accessories such as rails, matte boxes and more

Non -Stop Recording
You never have to stop recording Decause URSA Mini features two CFast 2 0 recorders! When one card is full, recording automatically continues onto the next URSA Mini uses the latest, incredibly fast CFast 2.0 technology for recording speeds up to 350 M13/s Wide dynamic range images are saved as 12 -bit RAW files, which are perfect for high end grading and effects work. or as broadcast quality ProRes, for easy post production workflows with minimum storage requirements!

WATCHme

What is it? Given the abundance of brushed aluminium and silvery sleekness pervading the industry, you’d be forgiven for thinking Apple Watch chargers all look rather similar. Say hello, then, to the WATCHme stand, a charger that does its bit to stand out from the crowd. When’s it due? Watching you from December 2015. Why are we excited? You can customise the blobby little body with moustache and bow tie stickers! And it comes with an app that plays a cartoonish animation of an eye on your Watch, giving the WATCHme surreal one-eyed vision. This must surely be the most characterful Watch stand out there.

Oprostation

What is it? Despite its fierce appearance, the Oprostation is a protective case for your Mac Pro. If you’ve ever despaired at the clutter of cables emanating from your Mac Pro – or worried that it may topple over – then this is for you. When’s it due? Protecting your costly Mac Pro from October 2015. Why are we excited? Although it looks like a space-age cannon, the Oprostation is all about safety. The four curved bars encasing the Mac Pro ensure that should it tip over, it will be gently cradled. A cable organiser, Kensington lock adaptor and carry handle mean it’s also designed for portability.

Sphericam 2

What is it? Big resolution, tiny camera. In its camouflaged tones of green or black, the Sphericam 2 looks like something unearthed at a secret military base. But fear not, it’s actually a mountable 4K, 60-framesper- second, 360-degree video camera. When’s it due? Available December 2015. Why are we excited? Recording 4K video is blowing up in a big way, and this looks like a great way to do it. Its six integrated cameras enable full 360-degree capture – perfect for creating VR projects – while its manufacturer claims it’s the only camera of its kind with a ‘global shutter’ that captures every pixel from each camera simultaneously. Action!

Lumos

What is it? As increasing numbers of cars hit the roads, safety is more important than ever for cyclists. That’s why the Lumos, a bike helmet with integrated indicator lights, is a very welcome product. When’s it due? Lighting you up in April 2016. Why are we excited? It’s water resistant and comes loaded with useful features. A large red light on the back alerts drivers to your presence, and then automatically flashes to form a brake light when you slow down. Left and right turn signals are activated by a handlebar remote, while the front-facing LED light will show you the way at night and ensure drivers can see you.

Zapata Racing Flyboard Pro

What is it? Using a Flyboard Pro is like having rockets strapped to your feet. Used in lakes or at sea, the contraption takes in water then fires it out again from two jets in a powerful plume of spray. The result is out of this world, with seasoned Flyboarders performing flips, spins and more, all up to 15 metres above the surface of the water. When’s it due? Available now. Why are we excited? It really has to be seen to be believed. This Pro model is said to improve safety. Zapata also make a water-jet-powered hoverboard and even a jetpack, allowing for even more aquatic acrobatics. The price is insane, but then so is the experience.

Leatherman Tread

What is it? Bracelets and wristbands are, for the most part, fashion statements and not much else. Not so with the Leatherman Tread, which doubles as a toolkit boasting 25 different tools, including a box wrench, bottle opener, cutting hook and a selection of screwdriver heads. When’s it due? September 2015. Why are we excited? The Tread just does so much that you can pretty much leave your toolbox at home. You don’t even need to take it apart to use many of the tools either, as the strap folds in such a way that you just need to take it off your wrist to get stuck in. It’s the perfect portable companion for the DIY lover.

Cusby USB-C

What is it? Cusby looks like an ingenious solution to the new MacBook’s single USB-C port. It’s a system of interlocking blocks, each with a different mounted port. Currently on offer are USB-A, USB-C and HDMI adaptors, and the developers plan to release versions for Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, Ethernet and more soon. When’s it due? Get connected from October 2015. Why are we excited? There are a few multi-port USB-C docks out there, but all with a fixed number of ports. The beauty of Cusby is that you can start with what you need and add as more ports as you go, ensuring you always have exactly what you need in terms of connectivity.

WE’RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT PALETTE

What is it? Editing photos and creating art on a Mac can often feel constrained by the input devices at our disposal; sometimes a mouse just isn’t precise enough. Palette aims to make this a thing of the past by providing you with a system of physical dials, sliders and buttons to make editing a more accurate, enjoyable experience. When’s it due? November 2015. Why are we excited? What makes Palette so useful is its customis ability. Its modular input devices are mounted on blocks that magnetically connect to each other, and can be swapped out quickly and easily. You can snap any two blocks together in a layout and combination that suits your workflow, enabling you to build a control panel designed around the way you edit.

PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX

This is Pac-Man with a twist: dozens of ghosts lie in wait, giving chase as he passes and forming a growing chain that tracks and restricts his movement. Pop a power pellet to turn the tables and try to top the Game Center leaderboards, like in the arcades of old.

Homeworld Remastered Collection

This collection comprises of two classic real-time strategy games in which alien races engage in space battles that require tactical thought. The two games here are old, but their textures and sound have been upgraded and they support modern display resolutions, making them a treat to play once more. One thing that’s sadly missing, though, is a multiplayer mode.

TYPED £22.99 Developer Realmac Software

Typed from Realmac Software is another minimalist writing app for the Mac – and finally it’s on the Mac App Store, too. Typed was originally released at the end of last year but until now it was only been available to purchase direct from Realmac’s website. Since the likes of WriteRoom appeared, developers have been trying to find the perfect balance between features, depth and a clean writing environment, and there are some tough competitors out there, including Byword and the aforementioned WriteRoom. Typed uses Markdown and exports text into HTML, RTF and PDF formats. It features a minimal user interface, as you’d expect, but you can display word/character counts, choose backgrounds (including dark mode), typefaces, and preview your work on a cleanlooking page. For writing, Markdown support and associated keyboard shortcuts, Typed makes structuring your documents a breeze. Typed’s Zen mode takes full-screen views a step further too, with six calming Zen soundtracks available to play in the background to aid your focus. It’s not for everyone, but drowning out background noise can be helpful when you’re in full creative flow. We reckon Typed has a superior findand- replace capability and nicer typography than most of its rivals. There’s also a handy way of exporting just selected text to HTML, rather than an entire document. Nice!

Clem Chambers, CEO of ADVFN, the leading stocks & shares website

Apple has taken a dive. In the last issue I wrote that I had just gone short; this was at $124 a share and as I write it is at $114. In a strange way this neatly demonstrates the difficulty of stock speculation because, like all good traders, I put a 5% stop loss in. Apple shot up to $133 before it slumped, so while I can say I was correct in my guess of a falling Apple, I lost money. It is theoretically impossible to time the market, so calling the top on Apple must only be the vaguest of gestures. Yet the Apple Watch may be a bearish wake-up call for some stock fans. It has nice bits but it isn’t set for $18 billion sales in year one as predicted by Wall Street. Apple’s imminent releases will need to come to the rescue because the ‘new’ miracle product just isn’t. It doesn’t help that the market as a whole is looking sickly. It will take a fairly significant set of negative events to get Apple under $100, but this year has already seen sudden and violent market moves, so it could happen

Our industry expert rounds-up the biggest Apple corporate stories circulating this month

IBM says Macs are for the enterprise
IBM has announced a new scheme under which it will help its enterprise clients deploy Macs within their IT infrastructure. “Shipments of Macs are growing faster than the industry average, and the Mac has outgrown the PC industry every year for the last decade”, IBM observed in a press release announcing the new scheme. IBM is currently replacing PCs with up to 300,000 Macs across its organisation and says it is sharing what it has learned about largescale Mac deployments with its clients. It is offering integration services for Mac via the cloud as a SaaS (software as a service) solution and also on-premises in client data centers to its clients, while JAMF Software’s Casper Suite will provide enterprise-class Mac management tools.

Windows for iOS
In support of its release of Windows 10, Microsoft has introduced a set of ‘bridging’ technologies developers can use to easily port iOS apps to the Windows Store. Dubbed ‘Project Islandwood’ during development and set to ship in final form in the autumn, the software makes explicit Microsoft’s attempt to maintain the relevance of its operating systems by facilitating the process of bringing apps across from other systems. This matches CEO Satya Nadella’s focus on making Windows applications and services widely available on any platform and device.

11 million plus
Apple has announced it has 11 million active Apple Music users even as an EU investigation found no collusion between the company and music labels concerning the launch of streaming music services. Despite strong initial interest, Apple Music has been criticised for user interface inconsistencies and software bugs. Responding, Apple is actively developing the iTunes application that drives its service and rapid updates are expected. Music industry executives had accused Spotify of urging the EU to look into the sector ahead of Apple Music’s launch. Spotify has 20 million fee-paying users worldwide on its Premium tariff.

The top 5 Apple stories we’re talking about

Watch your weights?
 An Apple patent suggests it is developing iOS software capable of tracking weightlifting and other human movements.

Apple for Android
Apple is recruiting developers to help build Android apps for Apple Watch – does it plan to support the rival OS?

Faster MacBooks?
An end of year MacBook refresh may take place as Intel ships faster ‘Skylake’ Core M processors with improved power use.

iPad stylus
Apple has reportedly developed several versions of an iPad stylus, and recent reports suggest it may ship one with the iPad Pro.

Human television
Apple’s plans for TV channel services to replace satellite and cable may have a curated human touch.

New interactions pegged to arrive with next iPhone

Force Touch support in iOS will be seen as a huge step forward for mobile device user interfaces, eventually becoming as intuitive as Multi-Touch gestures 

force Touch on iPhone will be “the most significant change” to the iPhone user interface yet, according to KGI analyst, Ming-Chi Kou. Originally introduced with the Apple Watch and later on the 12-inch MacBook, Force Touch will transform the way we use iPhones, iPads and Macs, making it much easier to use apps across all of Apple’s platforms. Apple’s pressure-sensitive Force Touch technology enables users to trigger a range of controls through varying levels of pressure and a single touch. On an Apple Watch, you use the feature to change watch faces or summon contextual menus, such as the option to flag or delete a message in the Mail app. Essentially it enables users to get much more from their app with a single touch. On MacBooks, Force Touch lets you access contextual menu items that previously required a ≈-click or right-click, and the Force Touch trackpad offers haptic feedback in response to on-screen events.

An added layer
So how might this translate into additional functionality with iPhones and iPads? In part it will enable Apple and third-party developers to build similar user interfaces across all the platforms, making it much easier for users to gain intuitive familiarity with applications across mobile devices and Macs. The tech also turns the entire iPhone display into a pressure-sensitive button, enabling true handwriting recognition, graphics input and editing features based on touch. In conjunction with faster 64-bit A9 processors, there’s potential to unlock increased sophistication in app design across all Apple’s platforms. Eran Kinsbruner, Mobile Technical Evangelist at Perfecto Mobile explains: “By adding a new level of precision for input into the device, Apple can be expected to offer a more fluid and intuitive user interface for many apps, and it would not be unexpected to see the company continue their exploration into the gaming industry.” There are clear implications in gaming, graphics and across app design. For example, third-party developers will be able to design apps that work differently when touched with different levels of force: in a graphics app, a soft touch may draw an image, a harder touch may enable colour or contrast edits, while a hard touch might act as an eraser. With notifications about messages, you might press to launch an app, tap to view the whole message, or Force Click to respond or delete the message. “Force Touch on the iPhone will be used to clear up some control space across the system, and potentially replace some long press-and-hold button interactions”, 9to5Mac reported in May. Enthusiasm at the potential of Force Touch must be tempered with a sense of realism. We don’t yet know how Apple will make the feature available to developers, though we understand the company is working to introduce Force Touch support within some flagship iOS apps. “If developers on iOS are able to get information about how hard a person is pressing on the screen, in addition to the information we can already get about the number and location of finger touches, it opens all manner of new possibilities", Agile Tortoise developer, Greg Pierce told Fortune. So will Force Touch utterly transform your Apple user experience from day one? That’s unlikely. Apple is known to deliver new technologies (like Multi-Touch) and develop them incrementally, extending their utility only when it makes sense. “If Force Touch isn’t very discoverable, if people don’t think to do it automatically, then it’s something we won’t rely heavily on”, said Litely developer, Cole Rise. Apple’s task as it innovates the new user interface is to ensure it makes that interface utterly logical and intuitive to use.