Those M1 Macs are pretty, but where does a poor iPad user start? I’m there for you — Apple didn’t do the iPad any favours in 2020. It replaced Intel processors with in-house silicon on Macs. Soon its laptops would be as power-efficient as its phones with processors honed for macOS.. iPad users realised that their beloved iPads had lost a USP. A MacBook Air would be as…

I show you how to turn a heater on or off based on room temperature. Log daily temp and humidity too — Who knew? Apple’s HomePod Mini product has temperature and humidity sensors, but the company kept it quiet. The second version of the HomePod has them too. Room temperature and humidity are important because they have health implications. The role of temperature is obvious, but high humidity levels can cause problems…

My iPad Pro and Mac have been connected to one for two months. We’re very happy together — Apple has finally deigned to support external monitors properly on iPadOS, as long as you’re on an M series processor. This transforms the iPad as a productivity platform, so I decided to get a decent monitor. Unlike other Apple geeks, I hadn’t convinced myself that spending £1,499 on a 27”…

I was suspicious of Apple’s x3 zoom claims, but this phone has some tricks up its sleeve. — Photography of distant objects is one of the few areas of photography that smartphones haven’t annexed. Reach for your mirrorless camera or DSLR if you want to photograph that eagle or surfer cresting a wave. But can’t I do that if I have a 3 times zoom? …

Apple’s app doesn’t offer bulk import, but you can fill that gap using Apple Shortcuts. Existing Notes users benefit too — Apple Notes has come a long way since being a very basic text editor. You can embed and markup images, photos, and PDFs, which it scans for text and objects. You can write and draw, and it scans that too. …

Match your guesses against a database of nearly 40,000 five-letter words — Like me, is Wurdle is part of your daily routine? How many times have you found 2 or 3 letters, but can’t think of any words that might fill in the blanks? Wouldn’t it be great to know which words could match whichever pattern of letters you’re contending with? Provide…

It was a roller-coaster ride that got emotional but had a happy ending — It’s hard to express in words how happy I was when Apple finally added full external monitor support to iPad — well, iPads with M series processors. In fact, I was so pleased that I decided to upgrade from my ASUS 4K monitor to something with a better panel. Long…

Markdown is a handy way to format text that you can easily add to your Share Menu — Many applications (GoodNotes, Day One, Ulysses, etc) support Markdown for text formatting. It’s a lightweight markup language. Why is it so popular? You can keep your fingers on the keyboard, which matters a lot if you’re in the zone. It’s simple, and it can really boost your productivity. (Don’t know…

Apple should have borrowed a Windows feature, but here’s what to do instead to improve productivity — Stage Manager has been the bane of Apple’s life in 2022, but it’s finally available on Mac and iPad. It definitely adds important functionality to iPad, but what does it add to the Mac? In this article, I look at Mac Stage Manager, and how it works. I then talk…