Macworld USA TruePDF april 2019

MAC USER7 features we want to see in a redesigned 2019 MacBook Pro 7 The 7 best Safari extensions for the Mac 12 Now is the time for Apple to re-think its retail priorities 17 How will

108 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

HELP DESK M AC 9 1 1

Microsoft, among others

> The export in

Reminders produces a single

ICS file that contains all to-do

items you’ve ever set and

never deleted when

complete, as well as all

active items

> Select a particular

calendar in the Calendar’s

left sidebar and then

choose File →; Export →

Export and an ICS file

containing all that

calendar’s associated events will be

exported, past and future This file

doesn’t include reminders that are

associated with that calendar, however

Archive, and the Calendar app produces

an ICBU file This is a macOS package

(a folder that acts like a file) that

contains the entire structure of all

calendars and their events as well as

all reminders, all in ICS format Apple

highlights that by naming the export

“Calendars and Reminders” plus the

current date and time

Because the underlying calendar

and reminders files get backed up by

Time Machine and drive cloning (if not

third-party cloud backup software,

which can vary), there’s typically no

good reason in modern times to back

up the data But it’s a useful interchange format if you’re changing calendar software (from Apple to Microsoft) or setting up a new system in some very clean way in which you don’t want to sync from an old account ■

The splayed out contents of the ICBU package file, which is full of folders of ICS files.

Create backups of Calendar by choosing File → Export → Export or File → Export → Calendar Archive.

MAC USER

7 features we want to see in a redesigned

2019 MacBook Pro 7

The 7 best Safari extensions for the Mac 12

Now is the time for Apple to re-think its retail priorities 17

How will Apple redesign the iPad home screen? 43

How to use the iPhone’s Today View and manage its widgets 46

How to make 3D photos on iPhone and post them to Facebook 49

iOS Central Reviews 53

What’s new at the App Store 59

5 great iOS games from the past month 60

WORKING MAC

Apple’s bug bounties need to get with the program 81

ESET Cyber Security Pro for review 84

How to reinstall macOS if macOS Recovery

roadmap can tell us

about the future of

the Mac 73

How the iPad might influence

the future of the Mac interface 67

4 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Matt Egan

EDITOR IN CHIEF, CONSUMER BRANDS Jon Phillips

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Editorial

STAFF WRITERS Jason Cross, Michael Simon

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Leif Johnson

SENIOR CONTRIBUTORS Glenn Fleishman, Rob Griffiths, Joe Kissell, Kirk McElhearn, John Moltz, Dan Moren, Jason Snell

COPY EDITOR Sue Voelkel

Design

DESIGNER Rob Woodcock

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SMALL DONATIONS

MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

MAC USER News and Analysis About

Macs, OS X, and Apple

I’m daring to believe we’re living in one

of the best years for the Mac in ages

A recent report (go.macworld.com/

pr19) from trusted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo

brims with rumors regarding everything

from a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an

“all-new design” to a 32-inch 6K standalone Apple monitor There may even be a 32GB upgrade for the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and it looks as though we’ll

7 features we want to see in a

redesigned 2019 MacBook Pro

An ‘all-new design’? We’re ready for Face ID, more ports, a better keyboard, and more

BY LEIF JOHNSON

8 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MACUSER F E AT U R E S W E ’ D L I K E TO S E E I N 2 0 1 9 M AC B O O K P R O

finally be getting the modular Mac Pro

But it’s that “all-new design” that

intrigues me the most Kuo didn’t offer

many specifics, so I’ve allowed my

imagination and wishlist to run wild For

the most part, I’ve left out hardware

upgrades—such as a better graphics card

(like the Vega)—and focused on the

general user experience With these

changes, I believe Apple could recapture

some of the wonder the MacBook used to

spark in years past

1 MORE PORTS! MY KINGDOM

FOR MORE PORTS!

I doubt we’ll ever see USB-A ports return

to the MacBook (although, yes, I’d love to

have at least one for emergencies) After

all, USB-A is ancient; a relic from the days

of CDs and flip phones Apple is right to

assume the versatile and smaller USB-C port should replace it, not least because you never have to worry about a USB-C cable being upside down when you try to plug it in

But at least give us more USB-C/

Thunderbolt 3 ports The mere two USB-C ports on the new MacBook Air and the older 13-inch MacBook Pro make it hard for me to take them seriously as work machines I tend to keep one of these ports stuffed with a power cable, and at the office, the spare port usually connects

to an external Cinema Display That means

I need to unplug one of these whenever I want to use an SD card reader, wired mouse, or a wide range of other peripherals, and it’s maddening That’s not

“pro”—that’s a problem

Three ports on all MacBooks would be

an improvement Since Apple is going big, let’s

go ahead and wish for either a USB-A port or an

SD card reader on the 16-inch Pro along with the four USB-C ports we’re familiar with from the 15-inch models

2 DITCH THE TOUCH BAR

The Touch Bar is a nifty idea that sounds great

Would more ports make a new MacBook Pro more portly?

pressing the Home button while using the iPad in landscape mode, including payments, logons, and simply unlocking that machine.

The change wouldn’t be as extreme with the MacBook, but it would still streamline authentication beyond even the welcome addition of Touch ID

on newer keyboards It could also allow Mac users to use Animoji and Memoji in their Messages much as they do on their iPhone As a side benefit, a TrueDepth sensor would simplify some tasks for 3D modelers

4 THINNER BEZELS ON THE DISPLAY

Speaking of the new iPad Pro, it’s hard to

go back to using another device once you’ve gotten used to that lovely, bright display Apple describes it with some hyperbole as “edge to edge,” but there’s no mistaking that it comes closer

to matching that description than

on paper, but in practice it’s needless and

distracting fluff It’s innovation for the sake

of innovation In many cases it complicates

workflows rather than simplifying them

Apple should kill it and give us the old

setup with escape and function keys, and

the latest MacBook Air suggests Apple

may be comfortable with that direction

Apple should limit any future

“touchscreen” elements to the Touch ID

square we find on the MacBook Pro and

MacBook Air keyboards, as it simplifies the

act of logging in, entering passwords, and

paying for apps

I gave the Touch Bar a good go, but

these days I keep it set to the digital F1–

F12 keys If Apple feels it needs to keep

the Touch Bar, it should include both the

Touch Bar and the function keys

I didn’t even feel like resetting it for this photo.

10 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MACUSER F E AT U R E S W E ’ D L I K E TO S E E I N 2 0 1 9 M AC B O O K P R O

previous models

That’s mainly

because the bezels

are thinner I’d love it if

Apple worked

something like this

design into the new

MacBooks, particularly

if it also mimics the

iPad Pro by including

TrueDepth sensors

without a notch

While we’re at it, I

wouldn’t mind an OLED

display But let’s not be

greedy Right now I’d settle for having

Apple’s ProMotion technology from the iPad

Pro on a MacBook so that all of us can enjoy

faster refresh rates on our screens

5 APPLE PENCIL SUPPORT ON

THE MACBOOK TRACKPAD

The Apple Pencil currently only works with

the iPad Pro, but I see little reason why it

can’t also work with the sprawling six-inch

trackpads we already find on the 15-inch

models (or, for that matter, the standalone

Magic Trackpad) This setup probably

wouldn’t fully replace a Wacom tablet for

some creative pros, but it would be great

to be able to open Adobe Photoshop and

Illustrator and make quick corrections to

sketches without the need to hook up

If Apple isn’t going to go this route, it should shrink the trackpad on the larger models I find the trackpad is the perfect size on my 12-inch MacBook, but it too often gets in my way on the 15-inch model

6 A KEYBOARD WITH BETTER KEY TRAVEL

Almost any professional writer reports a twinge of pleasure when they place their fingers on the keys of pre-2015 MacBooks

Seriously, that’s way more room than you’ll get in a Moleskine.

They were springy and blessed with

satisfying key travel; it felt like writing

listicles on a grand piano By comparison,

the “butterfly” keyboards on the new Pros

can make typing loud, brutal, and

unsatisfying I don’t hate the new

keyboards as much as some folks—in fact,

I love typing on the 12-inch MacBook—but

there’s no mistaking the difference

Apple needs to recapture some of that

magic If it won’t bring back the old

keyboard, it should at least meet writers

halfway with a hybrid model (and one that

hopefully doesn’t cost a fortune to repair)

It’s not a stretch to say that journalists

and writers in general are a key market for

Apple, as it wasn’t too long ago that you

could walk into any media junket and see

the press room aglow with dozens of

Apple logos That’s less the case now, as more and more scribes are turning to Chromebooks and Windows laptops that offer a better typing experience than Apple That’s a shame

7 BRING BACK THE GLOWING APPLE LOGO

Was the old glowing Apple logo necessary? Nah Did it add a degree of playfulness and wonder that we didn’t find

in the bland machines cranked out by competitors? Heck, yeah

Maybe Apple ditched it because it unnecessarily drained a MacBook’s battery life (although I can’t see it demanding much more juice than the Touch Bar) Maybe it worried that it warranted too many repairs when the lights fizzled out

But that stylish glowing fruit made MacBooks stand out

in the best way Not only did it look cool,

it suggested that technology could lead us to a future that was bright, even hopeful If Apple wants to stay close to the current design, it need only make the logo smaller ■

And it’s quite the difference.

12 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MACUSER

IMAGE: APPLE

Browser extensions add specific

capabilities to Safari by reading

and modifying web content to

promote an integrated

browsing experience that’s tailored to your

needs There are two places to find

Apple-approved Safari extensions: The App

Store (go.macworld.com/apst) and the Safari Extensions Gallery webpage (go.macworld.com/xtgl)

With Safari 12 on macOS Mojave and iOS 12, Apple revised the way its native web browser operates with extensions Whereas in the past, you could easily

The 7 best free Safari

extensions for the Mac

You can add more useful features to Safari by installing one of these extensions

BY JACKIE DOVE

$19.99 Here are the best of the free extensions from both sources.

1 GHOSTERY LITE

Ghostery Lite (go.macworld.com/ghlt) is the free version of Ghostery that blocks ads and trackers that transmit and receive user information Using the browser’s own Content Blocker API, the extension

discards content, cookies, and tracking scripts to cut down on the information Safari shares with other websites, without sacrificing performance

You can customize Ghostery from the toolbar button by choosing either the default setting or individually blocking some ads while leaving others for sites you want to support You can also use the extension to control analytics, audio or video players, adult content and more

download an extension

from a developer,

today you must

download and install a

Mac app or an Apple

approved extension

from the Safari

Extensions Gallery

page The gallery is still

operative for browser

versions as far back as

version 9, and is still

considered a safe way

to download and install

Safari extensions Regardless of the

browser version, all apps from the App

Store and Gallery page can update

automatically

Safari 12 blocks legacy extensions from

third-party sources, and is now in the

process of deprecating its own Extensions

Gallery It quit accepting new Gallery

extension submissions at the end of 2018,

accelerating a transition away from the

Gallery in favor of the App Store Many

extensions continue to work just fine in

Mohave’s latest browser

Right now, there’s not much to the

browser extension section of the App

Store, which you can access via the

Safari → Safari Extensions menu Of the

66 App extensions currently available,

only 27 are free Another half dozen are

99 cents and the rest range in price to

Ghostery Lite Safari extension.

content, it’s distracting

not to be able to read it

in context Translate

(go.macworld.com/tran)

lets you translate pages

from any language to

any other language via

either the Microsoft or

Google Translate

function You can also

choose from a host of

other translation services via the toolbar

button, contextual menu, or keyboard

shortcut Within the settings you can also

choose whether to translate pages

automatically or manually and choose to set

up a preferred service region

An updated Mac App Store version

called TranslateMe (go

macworld.com/trme) costs

$9.99

3 ZOOM

Sometimes webpage

content is just too small (or

large) You can fix such

issues with Zoom (go

macworld.com/zoom), a

simple extension that lets

you adjust the scale of

content on any webpage

Just invoke the app from the toolbar, and you get a slider that spans from 0 to 400 percent, making any size text or images easier to see in a full page context You can adjust sizes with the slider or the plus or minus buttons A Default button immediately reverts the page to 100 percent

Zoom Safari extension.

Translate Safari extension.

4 TRAFFICLIGHT

The web often seems like a giant mirror

looking inward at every user, spying and

recording most activities for both

commercial and nefarious purposes

Bitdefender, the company behind the

popular anti-virus program of the same

name, offers the TrafficLight (go.macworld

com/tflt) Safari extension as

an advanced malware

protection filter that guards

your browsing experience

against phishing attacks It

finds hidden trackers that

follow and analyze your

browsing activity, while a safe

search feature specifically

monitors search results to

warn users about malware

and fraudulent websites

5 HOVERSEE

Content scaling can

be an issue on some websites, with some images especially difficult to decipher HoverSee (go

macworld.com/hovr) enlarges all images and image-based video links as you hover your mouse over them and shows any available

descriptions alongside the preview

It works especially well on thumbnail images like Facebook and Twitter, links to image galleries, and direct image links If you hover on YouTube, it will automatically play your video in its magnified mode You can adjust visual display delay, minimum and maximum zoom, white list or black list

HoverSee Safari extension.

TrafficLight Safari extension.

16 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MACUSER B E S T F R E E SA FA R I E X T E N S I O N S F O R M AC

certain sites, use a hot

key to control zoom on

your default search

engine, you can still

take advantage of the

search engine’s privacy

and security features with this Safari

extension The extension brings up a

search interface that lets you search

without storing your search history or

following you around the web Just click

the icon in the toolbar to get the search

box, or invoke it from the

right-click contextual menu

7 SHORTLY

When you want to include a

URL in an email or social

media post, it helps to chop

long ones into short bits—

and that’s where Shortly (go

macworld.com/shtl) comes

in You can choose your

preferred service of Google,

Bitly, TinyURL, or Custom

Endpoint Just enable the extension in the Safari Preferences, and then click the browser toolbar button or set up a hot key

to automatically shorten any URL Your trim URL appears ready to copy and paste either as a pop-over or an alert window ■

Shortly Safari extension.

DuckDuckGo Safari extension.

Federico Viticci said it best on

the Connected podcast last

week (go.macworld.com/cnpd):

The departure of Angela

Ahrendts as Apple’s retail chief (go

macworld.com/ahrn) is a Rorschach test

One’s reaction to the news will reveal a

lot about one’s feelings about the current

state of Apple’s retail stores

I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Ahrendts featuring aspects of the Apple Store experience that actually preceded her No, she didn’t invent the where’s-the-line, where-do-I-stand setup that completely breaks everything we ever learned about how to behave in a retail store Under her

Now is the time for Apple

to re-think its retail priorities

An executive change is a chance for Apple to adjust what the company wants to

accomplish with its stores

BY JASON SNELL

18 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MACUSER A P P L E M U S T R E -T H I N K I T S R E TA I L P R I O R I T I E S

tenure the approach was modified, not

discarded, and in recent years I’ve noticed

a more aggressive positioning of

employees at the front of stores to

intercept new shoppers and put them in

the right place

Perhaps the biggest source of Apple

Store frustration in recent years wasn’t

based on any Apple Retail initiative It was

the decision to address a public-relations

nightmare involving failing batteries that

impacted iPhone speeds by offering a

yearlong, discounted battery-replacement

program That bit of damage control

flooded Apple Stores with traffic and repair

jobs it was not prepared to handle Service

suffered as a result

A STABLE FORCE FOR

APPLE RETAIL

My gut feeling is that overall, Ahrendts did

just what she was hired to do (go

macworld.com/bceo) In the wake of one

of the worst executive hires Apple has

ever made (go.macworld.com/jnbr), she

provided stability and a deep knowledge

of the retail world Apple has opened a

new set of showcase stores in major cities

with an entirely new store design The new

Today at Apple (go.macworld.com/t0dy)

curriculum, featuring more than four dozen

new courses designed to help people use

their Apple devices for practical and

creative pursuits, just launched and by

most accounts is quite good

Then there’s the Apple Watch, a product unlike anything Apple has ever made before The arrival of the Watch forced some creative thinking in terms of letting people try on different watch models and a plethora of watch bands If you’ve never tried on an Apple Watch at

an Apple store, you’re missing out—it’s a really well-thought-out experience right down to all the hidden drawers and cleaning cloths

Still, perhaps what Ahrendts was hired

to do five years ago isn’t what Tim Cook and the rest of Apple’s leadership want out

of retail today Ahrendts’ fashion-industry resume may have seemed more relevant when Apple was planning on launching that gold Apple Watch Edition, but that strategy has been folded The beautiful new stores and detailed course curriculum suggest a company that viewed massive retail sales as a given—when current sales suggest that the iPhone is no longer

selling itself and that Apple Store staff needs to spend time actively convincing customers to buy

THE FUTURE OF THE APPLE STORE

My hope for the future of the Apple Store

is that it goes back to basics, focusing not just on product sales but on service Back

in the day, the Genius Bar made Apple’s

to make the experience of buying a new Apple product exciting and fun and not even a little bit harrowing.

The fundamental functions of a retail store are sales and service Community events and concerts and providing a feel-good public space with trees and benches are all nice, but they’re extras Apple Retail might have gotten its priorities

a bit mixed up the last few years Was that Angela Ahrendts’s doing, or was she simply implementing the vision of Apple’s executives circa 2014? It doesn’t really matter

In 2019, Ahrendts’ departure is an opportunity for a fresh look at what’s working and what’s not working at Apple Retail I hope Deirdre O’Brien takes that opportunity, and that Tim Cook supports her in making the necessary changes ■

retail efforts stand out—

but today I hear far more

complaints than

compliments about

post-sale support in Apple

Stores Some of that is

understandably due to

Apple’s enormous growth,

of course, but Apple Retail

has to figure out a way to

cope with that growth

I’m an Apple customer

whose closest Apple

Store is not one of the big

flagship entries but a small one in a nearby

outdoor shopping mall As spacious and

impressive as Apple’s glass boxes in San

Francisco, Chicago, and elsewhere are, my

local store is small and crowded,

sometimes unpleasantly so The

employees there smile and work hard and

my experiences there have generally

been positive, but between the tables of

products and the benches and giant

screens and the rest, it’s 50 pounds of

Apple stuffed into a 25-pound bag

I hope that Deirdre O’Brien (who

replaces Ahrendts; go.macworld.com/

dobr) and her team can tweak the formula

and find the right combination of features

to make all Apple Stores—the big ones

and the small ones—run a little bit better,

to make Genius Bar appointments more

delightful and less like going to the dentist,

Deirdre O’Brien is a 30-year Apple veteran.

WHY DOES IT TAKE A DISASTER TO BRING US TOGETHER?

WATCH NOW AT LOVEHASNOLABELS.COM

AN ORIGINAL SHORT FILM FROM EMMY ® WINNERSDAVID NUTTER & LENA WAITHE

The Latest Mac Products Reviewed & Rated

of audio hardware, or if you’ve wanted to route the sound output of an app into Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, or another conversation, Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback is the program you need The latest version improves significantly on its predecessor, which itself was quite

powerful

The app lets you combine hardware audio—like mics and line input—with the audio output of apps and system-level

22 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MAC USER REVIEW: LO O P B AC K 2

components, like Text-to-Speech, to create

virtual audio devices A combined audio

device appears as a single item you can

select as an input in programs like

GarageBand or Skype You can also select

it as an output device, too, playing into the

virtual audio equipment system audio or

the sound out of apps that allow audio

output selection

Version 2 simplifies the previous

interface, making it easier to connect

audio sources and providing you with a

better view of how you’ve configured a

virtual audio device at a glance It also

adds volume controls for every

component in an audio workflow, which

lets you really mix the sound together

instead of having to control it from the

source—often not a possibility—or dealing

with out-of-balance levels

Loopback can be used in both

extremely simple and complicated ways, and it benefits from practical examples Here are a few

> Taking the output of a tab in Safari that’s playing cable channel news and recording it through QuickTime player

> With multiple USB mics attached, combining their input to feed into a FaceTime call

> Managing a call with people across multiple internet audio apps, like audio calls within Slack or Google Hangouts,

so that you and everyone can hear each other

> On a podcast with remote guests, where you want to have background music, live music, or snippets play during the recording that everyone on the connection can hear just as you can

That scratches the surface But if none

of these uses remind you of tasks you’ve

A typical configuration

lets you route the output

of multiple apps into a

single device that you

could use to record or

pass to another app.

tried to manage or want to do, Loopback

likely doesn’t meet your interests

ONE STEP SHY OF LITERALLY

‘PLUG AND PLAY’

Setting up Loopback is a simple matter,

made more visual and easier to

understand in version 2 You click a + (plus

sign) to create a new virtual device, then

select sources A drop-down menu shows

all running apps and connected audio

input devices Hold down the Option key

and a Running Processes menu item

appears, letting you select the audio

output of anything currently running in the

foreground as an app or in the

background as a system process or

agent—this includes Siri and other parts of

macOS that produce audio or “speak.”

Every new device automatically

includes Pass-Thru, which lets it be used

as an audio input as well as a combined output, useful for apps that let you choose

a specific audio output device For example, you might want to dump the output from an audio editor program as the input of a Skype call, so someone else could listen to changes and approve them

as you edit

Loopback 2 supports up to 64 channels of passthrough audio, letting you take up to 64 input channels (32 stereo channels) and pipe to any combination of

up to 64 output channels That is a heck of

a lot The previous limit was already quite high at 32, and clearly some users asked for more With large recording projects using a lot of mics or other sources, Loopback could allow a producer or mixer

to bypass more expensive software

You can even capture Siri talking.

24 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MAC USER REVIEW: LO O P B AC K 2

You can monitor outputs, too, which is

useful when you’re plugging them into

places that aren’t playing the results as

well, or where you want to listen to a

combined set of audio without routing it

to a program You could pipe

simultaneous calls you linked together,

as in one of the above examples, and

then use a monitor to listen to them all on

a headphone output

The graphical approach in version 2

lets you drag output connections almost

like you’re grabbing audio cables and

plugging them into different jacks This can

get a little tricky in three ways before you

get fully used to it First, you always drag a

new wire from the output channel “jack” of

a source to an output channel, or from an

output channel to a monitor You cannot drag to move the link from an input side, which seems like a logical and intuitive action—except it isn’t supported

Second, you can route an output to multiple inputs, dragging repeatedly from the same output jack But dragging a new

“wire” doesn’t re-reroute existing connections, even though that might also seem logical Third, to avoid accidental deletion of audio routing, when you select

a route and it highlights by thickening its line, pressing Delete on its own doesn’t remove it Instead, you have to use Command-Delete

Loopback pairs neatly with two other Rogue Amoeba products: Audio Hijack (go.macworld.com/adhj, $59), which has a

I’m sure some folks need this many channels,

and if so, Loopback is there for them.

few feature overlaps, and

Farrago (go.macworld.com/

frgo, $49), a soundboard that

lets you store and play sound

effects and audio snippets

Audio Hijack includes

recording and effect options,

and is aimed more at a

front-to-back audio-capture process

Loopback makes it easier to

create and control sets of

devices to feed into Audio

Hijack, however, and make

them available systemwide Farrago can

be just another sound source into a Loopback interface Rogue Amoeba has two bundles that reduce the cost:

Loopback and Audio Hijack for $130 and those two apps plus Farrago and its Fission simple audio editor for $175

BOTTOM LINE

Loopback 2 offers significant ments to the initial release across the board, even though version 1 was quite useful and good The interface change to allow a more visual drag-and-drop

improve-approach helps considerably, as does exposing Pass-Thru as yet another element in sources The addition of volumes controls for setting balance is completely invaluable

Apple didn’t include robust audio

routing and mixing controls in macOS, and it’s hard to blame the company for that, because only a small subset of Mac users need them Loopback bridges that gap, although its

$99 price tag aims the product

at audio professionals, podcasters with a budget, or business users It’s not a casual tool, but it can be vital and affordable for those people who read this review and are left pumping their fists ■

mmmmh

Loopback 2

PROS

• Easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface.

• Excellent, clear documentation.

CONS

• Pricey for non-pro users.

• A learning curve for the clever interface and conceptual hurdles.

PRICE

$99

COMPANY

Rogue Amoeba

photo-of Apple’s Aperture had to deal with the demise of the app Then there’s Adobe Lightroom, which used to be sold with a perpetual software license, but then Adobe changed it to a subscription-based model.

If you’re a photographer seeking a powerful, traditionally licensed package, Skylum Software’s Luminar may be what you need The new Luminar 3 (go.macworld.com/lmn3)—also known

as Luminar 3 with Libraries—offers a

Luminar 3 debuts a new

digital asset management

feature called Libraries,

which allows the app to

compete with Lightroom

functionality both in editing

and photo management It

syncs with folders and

subfolders and tracks all photo edits in a

catalog, so you never have to move your

photos out of their current location on

internal and external hard drives, cloud

storage, or card readers

If you change the name of a folder on

your hard drive, or create a subfolder

within the app’s image folder, the app will

immediately record and sync the change

on both ends If you have a disorganized

folder on your drive containing several

shoots on a single card, for example, you

can use Luminar to organize and sync

them Photos are arranged by date, but

you can also create collections or search

by star rating, color labeling, favorites,

and virtual albums, though it would be

nice if the thumbnail library also revealed

file names

Luminar’s library offers additional quick

ways to find photos, like Recently Edited, Recently Added and Quick Edits You can create virtual albums on the fly, but there is

no smart album feature The Info tab contains only the bare bones camera metadata: the app does not yet support keywords, geotags, captions, or IPTC data

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FEATURES

Artificial intelligence has become a buzzword in the photographic world where software compensates for the deficiencies of smartphone cameras and operator error Skylum’s two new AI features, Accent AI Filter and AI Sky Enhancer, tackle the most frequent shooting issues

The slider-based AI Filter lets you dynamically improve your image even

Luminar’s expansive photo wall gives a scenic overview of your collection.

28 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MAC USER REVIEW: LU M I N A R 3

when you’re not sure what the problem is,

or there are too many issues to individually

correct The Sky Enhancer offers an

automated way to bring out more sky detail,

often an issue for photographs While the AI

features are cool and useful, I found myself

using them less often than I thought—at

least not as a single mode of correction More advanced photographers may find AI filters provide a good starting point to layer in additional edits

PHOTO EDITING

Luminar 3 presents you with a wall of photos so you can view whole portions

of your library at a glance, complete with adjustable thumbnail views As with previous versions, Luminar 3 is completely non-destructive, with each edit recorded in the catalog You can go back into the history panel to revert to a previous edit or

to the original photo

The app includes eight built-in workspaces that govern which editing tools are automatically available The Quick & Awesome workspace has only four settings, including the two

AI tools But using the AI tools doesn’t prevent you from piling on additional edits via the Add Filter button, which lets you

Accent AI Filter and AI Sky Enhancer are all you may need to punch

up your photo.

You can use the AI intelligent filters as a starting point for more

targeted editing.

Even after you apply edits

or Looks, you can still tweak photos with filters.

The History panel records all edits for your image and allows you to revert

to a previous state or remove all edits.

access dozens of built-in professional,

utilitarian, artistic and creative filters from

which you can create your own

customized workspace

Luminar provides an extensive library

of Looks, one-click presets that fix or

enhance your images The program

comes with seven built-in Looks

categories such as Essential, Street,

Landscape, and more Each is equipped with a slider that lets you adjust the intensity Additional Looks collections, as well as additional LUTs (lookup tables), Overlays, Workspaces, and Textures are available from the Luminar website Some are free and others range in price

up to $29

It’s quick and easy to batch process

30 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MAC USER REVIEW: LU M I N A R 3

with Luminar’s Sync Adjustment feature

With it you can edit one photo, and when

you’re happy with it, you can select others

and use the command to apply the same

edits or Looks

PERFORMANCE

Even on older Macs, adding photo folders

to the catalog was swift, with the resulting

thumbnail previews showing up almost

instantaneously Single images, edits, and

Looks take a fraction of a second to come

The Sync Adjustments feature lets you apply a combination of edits to a single photo and then apply that same formula to other photos.

into focus, which can get irritating if you’re sorting through many images

The more serious performance issues came from processes like the Erase tool—for content aware object removal—which took longer than was comfortable most of the time While it crunched on the image, there was no progress bar or any

indication of how long the operation would take

Luminar does not support video at all While I do not expect a full-blown

Luminar ships with preset Looks in various categories that apply one- click fixes and enhancements to your photos.

Organize and search photos according to various criteria.

• Friendly, intuitive interface.

• Convenient basic asset management tools.

video editor, most photo

apps can at least import and

play video files

BOTTOM LINE

Luminar 3 is an outstanding

prosumer editing alternative

for people seeking abundant

automation and creative

options for a wide range of

photos Despite its many

professional features,

Luminar is easy to learn and

use and lets you create

stunning photos

Luminar’s new asset management system is rudimentary, so if you need more than the basics, you may want to continue using your current utility to track

keywords, geotags, and IPTC data However, development

is ongoing, with a published roadmap (go.macworld.com/sklm) that acknowledges needed features and outlines company plans to release them as free updates throughout the year ■

32 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

MAC USER

What We’re Raving About This Month

Hot Stuff

KAITERRA LASER

EGG 2+

kaiterra.com

A good air quality monitor like

the Laser Egg 2+ can help

you understand what’s in

your home’s air, so you can

take the appropriate actions

to clean it up It monitors

particulate matter with a

diameter of less than 2.5

micrometers (PM2.5) and the

total volatile organic compounds

(TVOCs) that are emitted from

paints, cleaning products, and even

cooking The Laser Egg 2+ is HomeKit

enabled and you can set it up by scanning

or typing the HomeKit code right in the

Kaiterra iOS app and assigning its various

sensors to a room You can use Siri voice

commands to check on that room’s air

quality.—MICHAEL ANSALDO

“see” obstacles and change direction before impact It generally did a great job of sucking up the pet hair, food crumbs, dust, and dirt littering the carpet and hardwood on our test floor.—MICHAEL ANSALDO

Hot Stuff

APRIL 2019

Your smart home,

from A to Z.

ONLY AT

Get reviews and buying advice on all

of the latest smart home gear

Everything you say and do creates an impact.

becauseofyou.org

Kailee M.

iOS CENTRAL The Latest on the iPhone, iPad,

Apple Watch, and App Store

Perhaps the most important

feature of the modern era of the

smartphone is the camera The

operating systems are mature,

the processors and data connections are

fast, the apps are plentiful, and the

high-resolution screens are large and brilliant

Having a camera with us wherever we go

has changed how we view the world and share our lives with others, and the thin shell of a smartphone puts some pretty severe limitations on photography

Compared to a decade ago, of course, today’s smartphone cameras offer eye-poppingly good image quality But if you’re shopping for a new smartphone, the

How will Apple’s 2019 iPhone

counter the Google Pixel camera?

Apple may need to rethink its classic approach to iPhone upgrades if the company wants

to keep up in the battle of smartphone cameras

BY JASON SNELL

38 MACWORLD APRIL 2019

iOS CENTRAL H OW 2 0 1 9 i P H O N E W I L L C O U N T E R P I X E L’ S C A M E R A

camera matters—and the competition is

fierce For years, Apple has promoted the

iPhone as offering a high-quality camera,

even if it didn’t always match up to

competitors with more raw megapixels

But if Apple did possess the smartphone

camera throne, it feels like it’s lost it in the

last year or two

Google’s Pixel 3 is generally

considered to be the best overall

smartphone camera, and its Night Sight

feature offers the ability to shoot

low-light images that blow away those on

the iPhone It offers deep-focus effects

with a single camera that seem to beat

the dual-camera setup on the iPhone

XS and XS Max And it’s got a

wide-angle selfie camera to make capturing

large groups easier

THE HARDWARE SHOULD ALWAYS GET BETTER

Of course, Apple will continue to work on making the iPhone camera better—

regardless of the presence of strong competition in the market It’s been a while since Apple released an iPhone and

declared that the camera wasn’t any better than last year’s model Apple is always pushing the iPhone cameras forward

There’s already a rumor (go.macworld.com/19rm) out there that the 2019 revision

to the iPhone will include a three-camera successor of the iPhone XS Max It’s unclear just why an iPhone would need three cameras, though it’s possible that the additional lens will offer more levels of zoom I’m sure Apple will build some clever software that will allow it to capture

images even better with three cameras than it does with two

It does feel like maybe Google’s on to something with the wide-angle selfie camera The notch on the front of the iPhone X series devices is already pretty large, but I wonder if Apple might consider making room for a second lens in order to let users upgrade their selfie game just that much more

The consensus is that the Google Pixel 3 has the best

smartphone camera right now.

THE MAGIC’S IN THE

SOFTWARE

The real arms race in smartphone

photography, though, seems to be on the

software side Apple has been driving the

iPhone camera with smart software for a

long time, most recently with Smart HDR, a

feature that has no user interface but

dramatically improves the dynamic range

of images But in the last couple of years

Google has been aggressive in adding

new features of its own

Take Night Sight (go.macworld.com/

ntst) It’s an approach that Google uses to

get shockingly clear photos out of

relatively dark spaces The camera takes

longer exposures and multiple exposures

and uses a bunch of machine-learning-based techniques to clean up the image—but the results are spectacular I assume Apple’s camera

hardware could

do something similar…but it just doesn’t Taking pictures in dark environments isn’t a weird edge case, and Apple should

be more aggressive in offering a feature like Night Sight

In general, I wonder sometimes if there’s a little too much dogma inside the group that’s in charge of iPhone

photography It’s a tough line to walk between creating images that are crowd pleasing and those that are accurate depictions of what was captured Apple’s legacy of users who are in creative and artistic fields means that it’s probably right

to be a little conservative when it comes to these sorts of decisions, but the iPhone is

a mass-market product and if people feel that iPhone photos lack the “punch” of Google Pixel photos, that’s bad for Apple—

A night kitchen image as taken by the iPhone XS (left) and the original

Google Pixel with Night Sight.