NOVEMBER 2023 MACWORLD 101 slides back to reveal the earbuds, and there’s a lot of empty space inside the case. That means they’re very light, despite their textured concrete appearance, but it also means they feel a bit flimsy. There’s a surprising amount of give to the lid when pressing down on the closed case, and that lid feels like it could snap off when it’s open. The case is a tight fit in the front pocket of a pair of jeans, and I wouldn’t want to put it in a back pocket and accidentally sit on it. That’s mostly because the lid seems like it’s going to crack, even though it didn’t break during testing. The Final case takes some getting used to if you’ve used other earphones with rock-solid cases. THE FINAL ZE8000 DELIVER ACCEPTABLE BATTERY LIFE Final says the ZE8000 will deliver 5 hours of continuous playback, but I never managed to get more than 4.5 hours on a charge. A fully charged case is rated for a total of 15 hours of playback, but my experience puts the total at something like 13. That’s an acceptable number for earbuds that offer both ANC and signal processing. You’ll need to plug the case in via USB-C to charge. Not supporting wireless case charging seems like a big omission for a product at this price. On the upside, those wires will give you a full earbud charge in 1.5 hours and a full case charge in 2. A rapid-charging option provides 45 minutes of listening after a 5-minute charge. ARE THE FINAL ZE8000 COMFORTABLE TO WEAR? The Final ZE8000 come with multiple sizes of eartips, and I had no trouble getting a great seal with them—they went straight into my ear canal with no twisting required for a good fit. My first impulse was to twist, since that’s a requirement for the best fit with most earbuds. At least for me, twisting the ZE8000 caused substantial discomfort after only a few minutes. The Final ZE8000 case can only be charged with a USB-C cable.
102 MACWORLD NOVEMBER 2023 PLAYLIST REVIEW: FINAL AUDIO ZE8000 Once I figured out that I got a great fit without twisting, I was able to wear the ZE8000 for a couple of hours before they became uncomfortable. A substantial amount of their weight sits on the stem outside of the ear, so that’s not a surprise. I’m able to wear the secondgen Apple AirPods Pro (fave.co/ 3ZFswdK) and the Google Pixel Buds Pro (fave.co/3tgZ8OP) for a lot longer without discomfort, sometimes for the full length of a battery charge. Removing the ZE8000 for a couple of minutes made any discomfort disappear, and I was able to wear them for another long stretch right away. Your audiologist would certainly tell you that you shouldn’t wear earbuds for five hours at a time, so maybe Final’s design should be considered a safety feature. HOW DO YOU CONTROL THE FINAL ZE8000 EARBUDS? All the touch controls are preset by Final, so users can adjust them to their preferences. The good news is that they’re responsive and provide both audio and spoken feedback, so it’s relatively easy to keep track of what you’re doing while mastering the controls. The earbuds don’t automatically pause music when you remove one from your ears, but a single tap on the right-hand earbud controls play and pause. A single tap on the left switches between ambient sound and noise cancellation. A 2-second touch and hold on the left-hand earbud activates or turns off wind-cut mode, and the same gesture on the right controls voice-through mode. If you want to activate your phone’s voice assistant, you can tap either earbud five times. This gesture takes some practice, and I never quite mastered it. Five taps are too many, at least for me. WHAT’S THE FINAL CONNECT APP LIKE? The Final Connect app for iOS and Android allows users to switch between Most of the weight of the Final ZE8000 earbud is in the stem that sits outside the ear canal.
NOVEMBER 2023 MACWORLD 103 mmmm Final Audio ZE8000 PROS • Design sure to attract attention. • Exceptional audio performance. • Well-designed app. CONS • No wireless charging. • 8K Sound+ is a huge power drain. • Expensive. PRICE $340 COMPANY Final Audio the four noisecancelling modes, make EQ adjustments, and use Final’s Volume Step Optimizer technology for finer volume adjustment. Users can also switch the voice prompt language between English and Japanese. Users can access the manual via the app, which includes a helpful chart detailing the earbuds’ touch controls. The app includes a four-band equalizer, so users can create and save a single custom EQ setting. You can also see the battery level for each earbud (but not the case), update the firmware, and switch between audio-processing modes. VERDICT The Final ZE8000 are the best-sounding ANC earbuds I’ve tried, improving on the 2nd-gen Apple AirPods Pro audio if not quite matching their noise cancellation quality. The ANC had little impact on audio quality, so they compared well to the Astell&Kern and Campfire Audio earbuds, which don’t use any kind of digital signal processing. Whether the Final ZE8000 earbuds are for you ultimately comes down to your reaction to their design. Final took the kind of design risks that were common for audio manufacturers in the 1970s and 80s. Not every one of those creative decisions worked, but we got some iconic audio gear out of the experimentation. At a time when most in-ear monitors look so much like each other that it would be nearly impossible to figure out who made them, Final has made some bold choices that give listeners a compelling alternative to the norm. ■ The Final Connect app is straightforward and offers detailed explanations of how each function works.
104 MACWORLD NOVEMBER 2023 PLAYLIST IMAGE: INSTA_PHOTOS/SHUTTERSTOCK C rossfading between tracks— fading out the end of the current track while fading in the start of the next one to eliminate gaps in playback—has been a feature of most mainstream music apps for many years. It has been a feature in Apple Music’s biggest competitor Spotify for ages, and has been a feature of the Mac version of Apple Music since…well, it even goes back to the iTunes days. But for some reason, Apple Music on iOS and iPadOS has never offered a crossfade feature, despite consistent iOS 17: How to set and adjust crossfade in Apple Music After years of longing for this feature, you can finally crossfade tracks in Apple Music on iPhone and iPad. BY JASON CROSS
NOVEMBER 2023 MACWORLD 105 1. 2. The same steps apply to iPadOS 17. outcries from the community. With iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, that finally changes. Here’s how to enable or disable Crossfade and adjust the length of the transition. 1. OPEN SETTINGS AND SELECT MUSIC Most of the settings for Apple Music are found in Settings, not the Music app. First open Settings. Then scroll down to Music and select it. 2. LOOK FOR CROSSFADE OPTIONS IN THE AUDIO SECTION Scroll down to the Music section and you’ll see a toggle for Crossfade. Tap the switch to enable or disable it. When enabled, a slider lets you select the length of the crossfade from 1 to 12 second. ■
106 MACWORLD NOVEMBER 2023 PLAYLIST IMAGE: INSTA_PHOTOS/SHUTTERSTOCK A pple has added new service features for its Podcasts app (fave.co/3RM2jZ0) that give users access to more content, thanks to the newly included ability to tie shows to in-app subscriptions, Apple Music, and Apple News+a. Apple is also offering Apple News+ Narrated, a new show that narrates articles in Apple News+. Available now, Apple Podcasts has over 60 podcasts for subscribers to Apple Music, Apple News+, and the Calm (fave. co/3tk1nkA) and Lingokids (fave.co/ 3ZHgoc3) apps. When running iOS 17, iPadOS 17, or macOS Sonoma, users can launch the Podcasts app and subscriptions will automatically link to the app—a splash screen will display what subscriptions and Apple connects Podcasts app with Music, News+, and other subscriptions Subscriptions to eligible services automatically appear in the Podcasts app. BY ROMAN LOYOLA
NOVEMBER 2023 MACWORLD 107 Apple News+ Narrated requires an Apple News+ subscription. apps have been connected. Users can also manually connect by visiting the app’s channel page in Podcasts. Apple is rolling out a number of app and podcast connections. Podcasts will be available to app subscribers of Bloomberg, Curio, L’Équipe, Mamamia, Sleep Cycle, The Economist, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, WELT News, and Zen. Apple has also made shows from Apple Music Radio available in the Podcasts app. “Apple Music is home to hundreds of original shows featuring the world’s top artists and tastemakers, and our listeners love them,” said Rachel Newman, Apple Music’s global head of editorial, in a press release. “There is truly something for everyone, which is why we’re excited to make it all available on Apple Podcasts, so subscribers can follow their favorites, save episodes to their library, get notified when new episodes are released, and listen offline across their devices.” APPLE NEWS+ NARRATED: AUDIO VERSIONS OF POPULAR ARTICLES Apple News+ is also tied into the new Podcasts app subscriber service, with the new Apple News+ Narrated among the available shows. “Now subscribers can enjoy narrated articles representing some of the best journalism from News+ publishers on Apple Podcasts as well as in Apple News,” said Lauren Kern, Apple News editor in chief, in a press release. Apple News+ Narrated features selected articles narrated by professional actors rather than AI-generated voices. An Apple News+ subscription is required and available in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, and Australia. The podcast market has become very competitive, with Spotify and its exclusive offerings of popular podcasters, as well as Amazon and other services. Apple’s ability to tie podcasts to its App Store gives it a unique service it can offer to companies selling app subscriptions. It also provides exclusive access to users invested in the Apple ecosystem. ■
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NOVEMBER 2023 MACWORLD 109 Mac 911 Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems. BY GLENN FLEISHMAN HELPDESK Answering Your Questions and Sharing Your Tips About Getting the Most From Your Mac IMAGE: APPLE HOW TO FIND A PICTURE THAT APPEARS IN A PHOTOS MEMORY Apple’s algorithmically generated Memories collections in the Photos app in iOS, iPadOS, and macOS can surface some great images and videos from the past, even if the themes are sometimes erratic. I understand why it might remind me of Independence Day 2008 or various trips, but sometimes a collection of eating pictures across many years is baffling. As you view a memory, you might want to jump to an individual photo and see it in context in your Photos library or share it with someone else. There’s a way to do this with a few taps and holds. iOS or iPadOS: How to find a picture that appears in a Photos memory 1. While the memory is playing, tap in the center of your device. 2. Tap the grid icon in the lower-right corner.
110 MACWORLD NOVEMBER 2023 HELPDESK MAC 911 3. Scroll to find the photo or video you’re interested in, and press and hold. 4. Choose Show in All Photos from the menu. macOS: How to find a picture that appears in a Photos memory 1. Use your pointing device to hover over the memory while it’s playing. 2. Click the grid icon at the lower-right corner. 3. Control-click or right-click an image or video and choose Show in All Photos. You can instead select an image or video and choose File → Show in All Photos (1). HOW TO SHARE RAW AND HEIC PHOTOS FROM YOUR iPHONE Ever since Apple added a raw mode to iPhone and iPad camera shots, the pathway diverged for how to send the highestresolution format of a file to other people. Raw mode (sometimes capitalized as RAW, even though it’s not an acronym) incorporates less-processed color and image data that allows better postcapture tuning—and even higherresolution photographs, as with the iPhone 14 Pro camera system. Any iPhone 14 Pro model can capture 48 megapixels (MP) in raw mode. However, when you try to transfer raw images or even regularly processed images stored locally in the HEIC format, you can wind up unable to send someone a file that contains the full information load. In the interests of ensuring a compatible or smaller file, iOS and iPadOS convert a raw file to HEIC or JPEG or a HEIC file to JPEG. (Even with Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC set to Keep Originals enabled.) After pressing and holding on an image or video, you can choose to view it in Photos. 1.
NOVEMBER 2023 MACWORLD 111 First make sure While Driving engages automatically (left); then confirm who gets your auto-reply message. Recently, on the road, I attempted to transfer a raw image file from my iPhone to a colleague when he wasn’t nearby, and I didn’t happen to have my Mac handy. Sharing from Photos via Messages or email always results in a downsampled image, as does saving to iCloud Drive and then sharing a link via Share → Send Copy. Instead, you can try one of the following in Photos in iOS or iPadOS after tapping the Share icon: > Use AirDrop. > Copy iCloud Link. > Save to Files, then switch to the Files app, tap the image, choose Share, choose Collaborate, then choose the method to send, like Messages or email. > Save to Dropbox. If you have access to your Mac, you can export the image directly via File → Export → Export Unmodified Original for 1 Photo, preserving the original format, and then send that via a variety of ways—but not via Messages! Messages will quietly downsize it while retaining the raw format. In a test, a 68.6MB raw image was downsampled to 2.5MB without warning. HOW TO SET MESSAGES TO AUTO-REPLY WHILE YOU’RE DRIVING The worst thing for your safety and that of others while you’re driving is to interact with your phone, particularly attempting to engage with texting (fave. co/3RDUe8M). However, sometimes you want to let people know you’re unavailable while driving. Apple offers an auto-reply to help. First, you need to make sure that the While Driving mode of Focus turns on automatically while you’re driving. Go to Settings → Focus → Driving Focus → While Driving to set options: Activate: The Automatically option should be set by default. However, you might prefer to use When Connected to Car Bluetooth if you’re never driving without connecting—that is, other times,
112 MACWORLD NOVEMBER 2023 HELPDESK MAC 911 you’re on transit or you’re a passenger. You can also set Manually to enable from Control Center—before driving, not while! Activate With CarPlay: If you’re one of the many people with an automobile that has CarPlay installed, enable this switch so that While Driving is synced with your use of CarPlay. Having now ensured While Driving will activate…while you’re driving, you can now set up responses. In Settings → Focus → Driving Focus → Auto-Reply, you can compose a message; there’s one there by default: “I’m driving with Focus turned on. I’ll see your message when I get where I’m going.” You can choose whether it’s sent to No One (more like temporarily turning off the feature), Recents, Favorites, or All Contacts. In an especially dire situation, someone responding can send an additional message reading just “urgent” as a reply to override your Focus state. I would hope no one would do that without good reason. WHAT DOES ‘ALLOW MORE DATA ON 5G’ DO AN iPHONE? When Apple introduced the iPhone 12 series, the company added an option designed to improve your experience on your iPhone when you were on a Wi-Fi network, but your cellular plan gave you access to a higher-throughput 5G network. For instance, you can enable this option to have higher-quality FaceTime connections where using a Wi-Fi network would only provide lower-definition FaceTime. On an iPhone 12 model or later and on iPads with cellular introduced after that (fave.co/3PAhxO6), enabling Settings → Cellular → Cellular Data Options → Data Mode → Allow More Data on 5G lets your device make different choices. Some carriers may enable this option by default if you have an unlimited-usage plan. (That option might be under Settings → Cellular Data or Settings → Mobile Data, and nested under a carrier’s settings if you have a SIM and eSIM or two eSIMs installed.) You may have been aware of this feature when it was introduced. However, I discovered recently that Apple quietly updated the feature without changing the explanation of how it works in Settings or introducing it as a new feature. As a result, many discussions of Allow More Data on 5G rely on Apple’s initial features. The newer details mix together data usage and quality into a single group of settings, particularly around video and downloads. With Allow More Data on 5G turned on, your device may switch to Wi-Fi for what Apple describes as “higherquality FaceTime,” high-definition content for streaming video via the TV app, all
NOVEMBER 2023 MACWORLD 113 The Allow More Data on 5G option picks the highest quality given your carrier plan and Wi-Fi network connection. music and videos played from the Music app, system updates, and automatic iCloud backups. Third-party apps can also tap 5G with the option on for higherbandwidth purposes. How does it choose when to do so? If you’re on an insecure Wi-Fi network, one that requires no password to join, or one you use infrequently (as tracked silently by your iPhone or iPad), your device may switch to 5G. The other two choices don’t incorporate Wi-Fi usage at all: They’re really a binary choice—Standard and Low Data: > Low Data reduces cellular data usage by pausing automatic downloads and many background tasks. (You can also set Low Data as an option on a Wi-Fi network.) > Standard is a “normal” mode, essentially what we’ve seen for many years with an iPhone or iPad over cellular. Video streaming and FaceTime are throttled to “standard quality,” an ambiguous term only meaningful in contrast to what is ostensibly higher quality over 5G or high-performance Wi-Fi networks connected to high-speed Internet. On a network that iOS or iPadOS has decided to boost data over 5G, you can opt to override the operating system’s choice. You can override this choice for Wi-Fi networks for which your device has decided to override Wi-Fi. This option appears only if your iPhone or iPad has performed that override—otherwise, you won’t see it. Go to Settings → Wi-Fi and tap the info (i) icon next to the connected network. If your device ever preferred 5G to Wi-Fi, you’ll see an option labeled Use Wi-Fi for Internet. Enable it to block the override for a current network or a future connection. All three options above are distinct from Wi-Fi Assist, found at the very bottom of Settings → Cellular, which will use any generation of a cellular network to provide a data boost—but only when connected to a poorly performing Wi-Fi network. ■
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