Table of contents for August 2012 in Macworld

Like his predecessor, Apple CEO Tim Cook occasionally invokes the idea that we’re living in a post-PC world—one in which, for many people, the iPad is enough of a computer that they don’t need a Mac. In the same vein, friends and family members often ask me whether they could get by with “just an iPad” instead of buying a new laptop. Questions like that inspired this month’s cover story, in which we compare the upstart iPad and the venerable Mac head-to-head on a variety of tasks (see “iPad vs. Mac,” page 34). You may find our conclusions surprising, largely because the iPad can do a heck of a lot more than many people think. But to me, what makes the iPad-versus-Mac question really interesting is the fact that people…

After June 30, iCloud replaces MobileMe, but some MobileMe customers can’t use iCloud just yet—specifically, those who chose to stick with OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Apple previously informed MobileMe customers who hadn’t yet transitioned to iCloud that they could, in fact, continue using their me.com or mac.com email addresses and calendars after the June 30 deadline. Apple’s updated MobileMe transition and iCloud page states: As of May 1, you can choose to keep using your mail after MobileMe ends, even on devices that don’t meet the iCloud system requirements. Just go to me.com/move and select the option to keep using your email after MobileMe ends. Once you have completed this short process, your mail will continue to work on devices that don’t meet the iCloud requirements after MobileMe ends…

With the arrival of the Mercury Accelsior PCI Express SSD, OWC claims to have the only Mac-bootable PCIe solid-state drive currently on the market. The Mercury Accelsior comes in four different size configurations—120GB, 240GB, 480GB, and 960GB—and will set you back $350, $515, $880, or $1850, respectively. Though its relatively high price might be daunting, the drive’s performance is on a par with that of the best SSDs we’ve seen. To test this drive (we tested the 480GB version), we inserted it into an available PCI slot in a Mac Pro and booted from an Intel 520 Series SSD, using the Accelsior as a secondary drive. To gauge the 520’s performance, we ran it through the AJA System Test; the drive yielded an average write time of 226.9 megabytes per…

Nobody knows what’s going to happen to Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service, once it becomes part of Facebook’s online empire. In April, the social networking giant announced plans to buy Instagram for $1 billion—the deal was still awaiting regulatory OKs at press time—and while the plan seems to be that Instagram will remain a stand-alone service, changes are always a possibility. Just the notion of Instagram adopting a Facebook-style privacy policy has some users wondering if they should take their photo sharing elsewhere. Fortunately, Instagram users who are concerned about the app’s future with Facebook have plenty of options to choose from, even beyond Facebook Camera (macworld.com/7816), a free photo-browsing and photo-sharing app launched by the social networking service in May that also offers its own filters. Several other iOS…

Folio-style keyboard cases are one of the more common types of iPad keyboards, but Logitech hopes to prove there’s something new under the sun with its Solar Keyboard Folio (macworld.com/7827). The $130 accessory for second-and third-generation iPads is considerably thinner than most of its rivals, but the light-powered Bluetooth keyboard doesn’t sacrifice typing experience in the service of slimness. It also provides two prop-up positions—one for typing and the other for watching videos. In the latter position, the bottom row of keys can control playback and volume. In addition to supporting the iPad’s magnetic sleep/wake feature, closing the folio’s cover also turns off the keyboard.—DAN FRAKES…

HARDWARE: Kanex Sydnee Smart Recharge Station Electrical outlets are often at a premium in homes with multiple iOS devices. Kanex takes on the challenge of electrical congestion with its Sydnee Smart Recharge Station, which can charge up to four iPads (or other dock-connector devices) at a time. Its four powered USB ports each provide 5V of power at 2.1 amps for full-speed iPad charging, and its cable-management features keep cords from getting too cluttered. 3.5/5.0; $149; Kanex; www.kanexlive.com Macally iKey30 Macally’s iKey30 forgoes the Bluetooth connectivity used by so many keyboard accessories in favor of a wired connection that plugs into the dock connector of your iPad or iPhone. A full-size keyboard, the iKey30 manages to provide more keys than just about any iOS accessory, including an array of keys…

I write an awful lot. I write professionally by day for Macworld, I write blog posts for pleasure, I write technology and humor books, and of course I do casual writing like email. Since the late 1980s, I’ve done the vast majority of that writing on a Mac—which has long suited me just fine. But that changed when Apple introduced the first iPad. Here was a new, extremely portable device that I could use to write. But does it really replace a Mac? iPad’s Robust Tools When it comes to writing on my Mac, I’m not like most people: I do the bulk of my writing in BBEdit (4.5/5.0; macworld.com/a/1163399), rather than fancier text editors like Microsoft Word or Pages. It doesn’t bother me with a lot of formatting, spelling…

As a photo-editing app for consumers, iPhoto for iOS is easy to use and surprisingly powerful. However, it presents an ironic juxtaposition: Its many advanced editing functions are sometimes easier to use and just as powerful as the Mac version’s, but its organizational tools aren’t as good. If you want to search for a photo, say, or add some keywords, you’re out of luck with iPhoto for iOS. iPad for Editing iPhoto ’11 (4.0/5.0; macworld.com/a/1155185) and iPhoto for iOS (4.0/5.0; macworld.com/7823) function similarly—if you already know iPhoto ’11, you can basically find your way around the iOS version. The editing modules are also quite similar. In fact, photo editing on the iPad is an actual pleasure. I find it gratifying to be able to control nondestructive edits by brushing the…

Robert Corrao has seven different Macs, an Apple TV, and, of course, an iPhone and an iPad that he carries with him wherever he goes. The chief operating officer at LAC Group (www.lac-group.com), a professional services company in Los Angeles, he doesn’t mind loading himself down with technology, but he’s not always a fan of what it brings: email, and plenty of it. He estimates that he receives 500 emails a day—and that the average inbox in his organization contains 5,000 messages. It’s all too much, and too little of it is important. “It kills me,” he says. “Just deleting—not even reading—that still takes a good chunk of the day.” So Corrao is leading his company in an effort to get rid of email—not the individual messages that clutter up…

Getting ready for summer traveling? Spigen SGP’s $90 Klasden Levanaus Backpack (www.spigen.com) is one of the most comfortable backpacks I’ve ever used. Made out of sturdy yet lightweight water-resistant nylon, this compact bag maintains its shape even when stuffed to the gills. The Levanaus is well designed for organizing gadgets and accessories. A faux-fur–lined interior pouch accommodates laptops up to 15 inches, and a smaller interior pocket is the ideal size for an iPad or other tablet. It provides several other interior organizer pockets and four exterior pockets, including a faux-fur–lined one perfect for a mobile phone or an iPod. The bag comes in both muted and vivid colors (charcoal, navy, gray, violet, and bright red).—KARISSA BELL…

One downside to being keyboard-centric is the sheer number of keyboard shortcuts that exist. Consider Mail’s menus: I count 89 keyboard shortcuts in just that one app. Add in the shortcuts for your other apps, as well as those you’ve created yourself, and you could have literally thousands of keyboard combinations. How could you possibly remember them all? The honest answer is that you can’t, so don’t even try. You memorize your most-used shortcuts through sheer repetition. Past that, you need help. Use a Cheat Sheet You’ve got keyboard shortcuts that you use a lot, but not often enough to fully commit to memory. How do you recall those quickly and easily? Ergonis Software’s €20 KeyCue (4.0/5.0; macworld.com/a/1031000) lets you pop up a list of every shortcut in an application’s…

Q&A We’ve gotten more questions about iTunes Match than about any other aspect of iTunes. This installment of Ask the iTunes Guy looks at some of the issues plaguing the $25-a-year service. Q: I’m not seeing lyrics on my iOS devices. Does iTunes Match not handle lyrics? A: iTunes Match does retain lyrics you’ve added to your music. When you download a track from the cloud to iTunes, the lyrics are there. (One exception: In my tests, lyrics I’d added to purchased tracks disappeared when I re-downloaded those tracks.) Those lyrics don’t, however, display on iOS devices. I see lyrics on my iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch for music synced directly from iTunes, but not for music downloaded from iTunes Match. I’m hoping this is a bug that Apple will…

Olympus reached back to its design roots when crafting the new OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera. The original OM line of film SLRs was known for its rich feature set and stylish, compact design. The first offering in the OM-D line of digital-body cameras is the E-M5. This new generation is destined to achieve greater glory than the original. Physical Features The E-M5 body measures 4.8 by 3.5 by 1.7 inches and weighs just under a pound. It’s available in two colors, black and silver. While designed to look like a DSLR, it is closer to the size of a compact system (aka interchangeable-lens) camera. The top panel features an exposure mode dial on the left side and a main dial on the right side. There’s also a subdial…

When the spotlights turn on, the iPhones come out. Digital photography has taken great strides in recent years—especially on mobile phones. Concert photography, on the other hand, seems to have gotten much worse. Everyone posts photos of their most recent concert experiences on Facebook, but few are truly exceptional. These basic tips will make your photos really stand out in your newsfeed. Get Close If you’re in a small club setting, ask the band and venue staff permission for access to the front of the crowd. Though some venues require press passes, if you ask nicely and in advance, you might be allowed in the front for a little while. Most fellow concertgoers are respectful of a camera-wielding fan. Understand the venue and work your way to the front for…

Automatically Encrypt Files for Cloud Storage Q: I want to use Google’s cloud storage service, Google Drive, but I’m concerned about putting unprotected files on the Internet. Is there an easy way for me to encrypt them? Jack Tempas A: Like you, I appreciate the idea of free cloud storage, but I’m just the tiniest bit wary of sharing files with Google, given the company’s penchant for using information I share with it to hone its advertising. For this reason, I’m determined to encrypt any files I place on my Google Drive. And you can do so too, with Automator. To begin, download a copy of Armin Briegel’s free Create Disk Image From Files action (macworld.com/7811) from Automator World. Launch Automator and create a new Application workflow. Choose File Import…

At the January 2010 keynote in which Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, he said that for a device that was somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop to be successful, it would have to be “far better at some key things.” These key things, according to him, included Web browsing, managing email, looking at photographs and videos, listening to music, playing games, and reading ebooks. But at the same event, Apple showed off iWork for iOS. The company had rebuilt Keynote, Pages, and Numbers for the tablet, with new menus and tools that brought much of the desktop versions’ power to the iPad. With iWork (and later iLife), Apple made it clear that it wanted prospective customers to view the iPad as a device for productive work, not just for…

iTUNES ON ICE Thank you for the nice editorial regarding iTunes [“Syncing Ship,” From the Editor’s Desk, June 2012]. Many iTunes users could not agree more. You are spot-on with the idea of Apple splitting iTunes into separate apps—one for syncing, one for media playback—and removing the iTunes Store from the mix as well. Let’s hope Apple is already delving into this issue. Ken Canevari, via email The addition of wireless sync and the iCloud has only made things worse. I no longer sync my iOS devices regularly for fear that something will be screwed up in the process and never sync automatically. An extensive article about the right (and wrong) ways to sync would be appropriate for Macworld to include in a future issue. Bob Morgan, via email iTunes…

With its new Amazon Cloud Drive app, Amazon is the latest company to dive into the Desktop Cloud Storage Wars of 2012. The Cloud Drive service debuted more than a year ago. In May, Amazon began offering the Cloud Drive desktop app for Macs running Snow Leopard or Lion. You get 5GB of storage free with Cloud Drive. You can pay for more storage, with simple pricing: At each level, the price is a dollar per gigabyte; the 20GB plan costs $20 per year, with plans also available at 50GB, 100GB, 200GB, 500GB, and 1000GB storage levels. You get unlimited storage of Amazon-purchased MP3s with any plan; with the paid tiers, you can also store an unlimited amount of digital music acquired elsewhere. Installing Amazon Cloud Drive is easy enough…

DRIVE MONITOR: FreeSpace 1.1 4.0/5.0; $1; LUMUS WORK; MACWORLD.COM/7812 I previously reviewed FreeSpace 1.0, a utility that displays, right in the menu bar, the boot volume’s free space, with a drop-down menu showing the free space on every other mounted volume. Choose a volume from the menu to open it in the Finder, or click a volume’s little eject button to unmount it—the FreeSpace icon blinks to let you know when the volume has successfully unmounted. There’s even an Eject All command to unmount everything but internal drives with a click. It’s a utility that has become a permanent fixture in my menu bar. FreeSpace 1.1 adds a number of features and addresses several shortcomings of the original. The new version lets you Option-click any partition of a drive to…

Thanks to the Beaming feature in iPhoto for iOS, you can share photos over a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection with other devices running the app. And since iPhoto uses nondestructive editing, you can easily edit an image on multiple devices. For Beaming to work, both devices must be connected to the same Wi-Fi network or paired with the same Bluetooth device. You need to turn on Location Services in the Settings app on both devices, and enable wireless beaming in iPhoto by tapping the gear icon on iPhoto’s main screen and selecting Wireless Beaming. Once you’ve enabled the proper settings, you’re ready to start beaming. In iPhoto, open an image, tap the Share icon, and select Beam. Choosing Selected beams the individual photo you picked, Flagged beams all flagged photos,…

Spotify Carries a Tune to the iPad Subscribers to Spotify’s music subscription service are no longer restricted to the iPhone. The 0.5.0 update to the free Spotify iOS app (macworld.com/7798) adds iPad compatibility. The app continues to give listeners access to millions of tracks of music, even when they’re offline, as well as support for AirPlay wireless streaming. New features include enhanced graphics for both the app’s interface and album art, as well as gapless playback and crossfading.—JOEL MATHIS Contacts Journal Links Documents with Contacts Zaal has expanded the feature set of its CRM (contact relationship management) app by letting users attach documents to contacts and view those documents from within the app. Users can import documents from their computer over Wi-Fi, email, Dropbox, or any app that supports iOS’s…

Whether it’s a technology journalist or market analyst pontificating about the wave of the future, or Apple’s own executives at an event to unveil the company’s latest and greatest, you’ve no doubt heard someone talk about the post-PC era. The world is shifting from big computers that sit on your desk or that you fold up and carry in a case, to small, lightweight gadgets so portable that you keep them with you all the time. Tablets like the iPad are replacing traditional desktop and laptop Macs. The iPad is so powerful and the software it runs so useful that you don’t need a Mac anymore. Or do you? Can an iPad really handle the kind of work that you currently use a Mac for? And if it can, what…

I’ve been doodling or sketching via computer pretty much since I learned how to hold a mouse. In the first photo I have of me at a Mac—a Classic, in 1989—I’m using MacPaint to draw a Disney character. As time progressed, my tools improved: I acquired a Wacom pen tablet, learned Photoshop, and put in plenty of practice. So when the iPad came out, I was intrigued by the idea of using it as a sketching tool. Though it doesn’t have the pressure sensitivity so valued by Wacom enthusiasts and creative professionals, interacting directly with a screen is still heights above tinkering with a mouse or trackpad. Mac’s Power My Mac is inherently more powerful than my iPad at running illustration software. Though Apple’s tablet enjoys a wide variety of…

Not long ago, you needed a MacBook Pro if you wanted a mobile video-editing station. With the advent of iMovie for the iPad, that old laptop setup seems almost primitive. But can you really replace iMovie on a Mac with iMovie for iOS? For some projects, yes—if you work within the software’s limitations. iPad for On-the-Spot Edits An app originally designed to take advantage of the iPhone 4’s video-capture capability, iMovie for iOS (4.0/5.0; macworld.com/7649) excels at letting you quickly assemble video that you’ve just captured. The iPad’s biggest strength isn’t really a feature per se, but the fact that you can shoot video with the tablet and start editing it immediately—trimming clips to the desired length and adding titles, transitions, background music, and sound effects. TRIMMING CLIPS AND MOVING…

The first emails, starting in about 1965, traveled over computer systems less powerful than a modern digital watch. An email message was simply a way to copy a file to another user’s file directory. Since then, a lot of things have changed.—GLENN FLEISHMAN 1971 Ray Tomlinson, sends the first networked email, opting to use an @ (at symbol) to connect the user’s name and the machine at which the mailbox is located. Legend has it that the message read as follows: “QWERTYUIOP.” 1977 Modern email emerges. Tomlinson’s approach works only for networked systems running the same software. The use of such systems, connected via the Department of Defense’s ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), grows in the 1970s. 1981 The ASCII encoding scheme, developed decades before, becomes the standard for…

Q&A If you’ve ever sent, or received, a big file via email, you’ve undoubtably encountered a zip file. Double-click one of these and it expands to show the files hidden inside. A zip file, or archive, takes up less space than the original files, making your documents and images easier to send and store. But what do you do if a file won’t expand or if you come across a different type of archive? Here are answers to frequently asked questions about working with compressed files. Q: How does compression work anyway? A: File compression technology looks for repeated data and writes archives that eliminate these repetitions to save space. You’ll find that some files shrink a lot—compressed text files can be half the size of the originals—and others not…

HARDWARE: G-RAID with Thunderbolt 8TB With its 8TB configuration, G-Technology’s G-RAID with Thunderbolt is one of the highest-capacity external two-drive RAID 0 devices on the market. According to the company, every 1TB on the drive can store 84 hours of HDV 1080i, 17 hours of DVCPRO HD video 1080/60i, 10 hours of ProRes 422 HQ video, 500,000 photos, or 250,000 MP3s. With such a large amount of storage space and lightning-fast Thunderbolt transfer speeds, this drive is ideal for filmmakers, photographers, and audio producers. And, since there are two Thunderbolt ports on the back of the drive, the G-RAID easily fits in a Thunderbolt daisy chain. While the G-RAID has a lot of things going for it, it also suffers from a few minor drawbacks, but they’re the same set…

HARDWARE: Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight Barnes & Noble has made the best e-reader currently available even better by integrating a light source into it. The Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight E Ink–based e-reader sets the standard for silky-smooth reading and shopping. And even better, you can enjoy reading it wherever you happen to be, whether you’re lounging on the lawn in bright sunlight, or sitting under the covers with little to no light in the room. The LED light guide sits inside the Nook’s bezel, at the top of the 600-by-800-pixel, 6-inch E Ink Pearl display. The light shines down on the display, creating a mostly evenly lit surface. The illumination runs a little brighter near the top of the screen, but not distractingly so. 4.5/5.0;…

Requiemme Decorum, a display typeface by California designer Gene Buban, combines the dark beauty of a traditional black letter with the gothic quality of light seen through cathedral glass (free; macworld.com/7817). This font reminds us that hope and solace can be captured in unexpected places, even in typographic form. The 58 characters of Requiemme Decorum include full upper-and lowercase followed by the barest of punctuation: a period, a comma, and an apostrophe—no extraneous glyphs. It appears simple, but it is made for setting words to contemplate. That would be words like Grace, Hope, Memory, and Forgiveness. Start with capitals and write large. The characters sit on the page in a kind of inky glory. Also striking is the way the ornamentation behaves as the point size increases. What looks like…

Software upgrades come and go, but the newest version of Adobe’s flagship image editor, Photoshop CS6, is outstanding. This release sports a darker interface, a faster graphics engine, and new features. The autosave and autorecovery functions keep you from losing work; the new Content-Aware Move tool lets you scoot objects around the canvas; new blur filters create shallow-depth-of-field and tilt-shift effects; the new Adaptive Wide Angle filter fixes lens distortion; and the standard edition now includes video editing. As in the past, Adobe offers two versions of the program—Photoshop for $699 and Photoshop Extended for $999. Photoshop Extended supplements the standard features with extensive 3D capabilities, quantitative data extraction, and DICOM medical file support. Workspace Updates The CS6 workspace looks completely different thanks to a new charcoal-gray color theme with…

Recovering Very Old Word Files I had some old (circa 1996) Microsoft Word files that wouldn’t open. Normally, older Word files open fine in the latest version of Word. However, these files apparently were too old for Word for Mac 2011 to handle. When I double-clicked the document icon in the Finder, an error popped up that said: “[File name] uses a file type that is blocked from opening in this version.” I next tried opening the file via Word’s Open dialog box. The file did open, but showed only a lot of nonsense characters. Not ready to give up, I selected Recover Text From Any File from the Enable menu in the Open dialog box. When I now chose to open the file, the document’s text showed up intact.…

The great convenience of MobileMe’s iDisk was that it provided Internet-based file storage that appeared as a mounted volume in the Finder. You could mount iDisk, transfer items to it, and access it from anywhere. MobileMe and iDisk disappear on June 30, and while iDisk was never an ideal storage solution, it was useful, and you may be looking for a replacement. A Net disk is one option for getting Internet-accessible file sharing and storage. OS X enables you to mount certain kinds of file-sharing services (FTP and WebDAV) in the Finder, but its approach isn’t robust or flexible enough. It also omits two popular ways to access files stored on a remote server (SFTP and Amazon S3). If you have file-sharing access via a hosting company, a storage system…

The number of Thunderbolt cable makers is growing, with numerous companies announcing cables that also work with upcoming Thunderbolt-equipped Windows PCs. StarTech announced a €57 ($90) Thunderbolt cable that is 3 meters long, the longest copper cable available yet (uk.startech.com). StarTech’s TBOLTMM3M cable also carries power, reducing the need for some peripherals such as storage devices to connect to power outlets. Kanex started shipping a 2-meter cable for $60 (www.kanexlive.com). Sumitomo offers a 2-meter cable in Japan for ¥4500 ($56; global-sei.com). But Apple’s $49 cable remains a cheaper option (www.apple.com). Thunderbolt is a high-speed connector technology that offers data transfer speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second, making it a faster alternative to USB 3.0. A high-definition movie can be transferred from an external storage device to a laptop…

HP OfficeJet 150 Mobile All-in-One Portable Printer Ever wish that carrying a printer was as easy as carrying a laptop? That’s what HP envisions with the company’s new $399 OfficeJet 150 Mobile All-in-One portable printer. As its name hints, the OfficeJet 150 is a multifunction printer, scanner, and copier, and boasts printing capabilities of 500 pages on a single charge. The printer has an ISO-rated speed of 3.5 ppm for color, and a maximum optimized print resolution of 4800 dpi (1200 standard dpi). The scanning bed measures 8 by 14 inches, and the scanner is capable of 600-dpi resolution. Connectivity options include USB, Bluetooth, PictBridge, and a memory card slot. The OfficeJet 150 weighs in at 6.8 pounds and measures 13.98 by 6.95 by 3.52 inches—a little on the bulky…

A wave of nostalgia seems to be sweeping over iOS accessory makers. Three recently released iOS add-ons augment the technology of today with products that may trigger some misty watercolored memories. iPhone users who grew up on Charlie Brown and his pals will be pleased with iLuv’s Peanuts Collection, a series of $20 to $35 cases for the iPhone 4 and 4S that feature many of the beloved characters from Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip (macworld.com/7810). The collection includes five different cases featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy—we particularly like the one in which Snoopy dons his World War I aviator attire—plus protective film decorated with the Peanuts gang. If your cherished childhood memories veer more toward the drawings you created yourself, try the Crayola Classics case from Griffin Technology (macworld.com/7802).…

PDFpen 1.1 PRODUCTIVITY It may be a latecomer to the party for PDF readers and editors on iOS devices, but PDFpen brings the polish of Smile Software’s Mac PDF editing tool to the iPad. You can move documents into and out of the iPad app with ease, and it puts the standard highlighting, underlining, and strike-through features at your disposal. PDFpen stands out with its libraries of pre-created objects, proofreading symbols, and other frequently used items that make PDF editing a breeze. Its price tag is high compared to those of rival iOS apps, but its integration with the Mac version and user-friendly interface make the app a worthwhile download.—BRIAN BEAM iPad | 4.0/5.0; $15; Smile Software Madcoaster 1.3 GAMES In Madcoaster, you have to keep a small roller coaster…

There are many tasks for which a Mac is better suited than an iPad, but reading isn’t one of them. In fact, for all but a few uses, the Mac can’t hold a candle to an iPad when it comes to reading PDFs, ebooks, RSS feeds, and all the other text that’s available today. iPad Advantages The iPad’s advantages start with the screen. The Retina display on the third-generation iPad is (as you’ve no doubt heard and/or seen) stunning. Text is as clear as on a written page—often clearer. Reading on an iPad’s backlit screen is more enjoyable than reading on the Amazon Kindle’s excellent e-ink screen. And that remains true even when you enlarge or reduce the size of text. But it’s not just the quality of the screen…

If we’re truly in a post-PC era, then an iPad should be able to do all the things that a Mac can do—especially some of the less-glamorous desktop computing tasks, such as creating and working with spreadsheets. Numbers Add Up Numbers for the iPad (3.5/5.0; macworld.com/6130) does many things well. It also takes good advantage of the iPad’s unique features. And it’s fun to use—not something you can say about Mac spreadsheet apps. In fact, Numbers for the iPad could fully replace the Mac version—as long as you don’t require 100 percent Excel compatibility (Numbers’ support for Excel files is limited) or need to share worksheets with other users who don’t use Numbers. In addition, if you’re building large, complex spreadsheets that contain thousands of data cells and complex charting,…

The Mac and iOS versions of GarageBand bear the same name, but in many respects they’re very different programs. And because they are, it’s possible to construct scenarios where one program is more appropriate than the other. Big Projects Demand a Mac We’ll start with podcasting. Although you could construct a podcast with the iOS version of GarageBand, it would be an inordinate amount of work. You can’t record more than a single track at a time, which means that podcasts featuring more than one speaker are out of the question unless you pass a microphone back and forth. It’s difficult to import audio created outside the app (you can import audio bits as loops when syncing your iPad to your computer), so assembling clips from different sources on the…

With Lion, Apple wants you to pick up where you left off. Applications open when you log out or shut down and automatically reopen when you restart. When you launch an application, it reopens windows that were open when you last quit, even if you saved the files and assumed you were done with them. Most users want to start with a clean slate, not wait for all the previous programs to relaunch and deal with leftover document windows clamoring for attention. Luckily, you can turn off these resume options and set up your own startup scenario. Turn Off the Resume Defaults It’s easy to turn off the option to automatically relaunch applications and reopen windows: When you shut down or log out, deselect Reopen Windows When Logging Back In…

Google launched Google+ (www.google.com/+) last summer with the idea of saving us all from Facebook and Twitter. Twitter is too much like shouting in a coffee shop, Google argued, and Facebook’s garden, large and beautiful as it may be, has walls that are too high and opaque—particularly to Google’s search bots. Here are two tips to help you get the most out of this up-and-coming social networking site. 1. Mute Overly Chatty Posts If you comment on a lot of posts, you’ll start seeing all the replies to those conversations. Likewise, you may be annoyed when some posts keep popping back to the top of your stream or a Circle because they’re so active and popular. Not to worry; any time you feel overwhelmed you can mute these posts to…

You’re well aware that you can purchase music online—from Apple’s iTunes Store, Amazon MP3, Google Music, and a host of other sites. And these are perfectly fine options if you want to own your music. But for those who like to listen to a vast library of music, there’s an alternative: a music subscription service. Cough up $5 or $10 a month and you can listen to any of millions of tracks in a wide variety of genres, whenever and (within reason) wherever you want. I took a look at the major subscription services: Mog (mog.com), Rdio (rdio.com), Rhapsody (www.rhapsody.com), Slacker (www.slacker.com), and Spotify (www.spotify.com). Here’s how they shake out. Lots of Music Each of these services offers millions of tracks. Slacker—a new entrant in the subscription business—streams the least…

SRS Labs iWow-U Like the iWow 3D for iOS devices (which plugs into the 30-pin dock connector found on iPods, iPhones, and iPads) the $70 iWow-U is a hardware adapter meant to improve the audio quality of sound coming from your devices. But this model works with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. As SRS describes it, the iWow-U “retrieves audio cues that are buried deep within the original source material to restore the integrity of the original recordings, providing an immersive three-dimensional sound stage with renewed depth and clarity, as well as deeper bass.” The iWow-U plugs into the headphone jack on almost any smartphone, tablet, computer, or even game console, and works to improve the quality of music, videos, movies, and games. Then it can connect to headphones, speakers,…

You’re shopping for a camcorder, and you’re swamped by a sea of letters, numbers, and indecipherable acronyms—AVCHD, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-2, and so on. What do they all mean and which ones should you care about? Get the lowdown. A Tale of Two Formats Each label describes a compressed video format. Fortunately, most people have a simple choice: MPEG-4 or AVCHD. You decide between convenience (MPEG-4) and a wider variety of features (AVCHD). However, as camcorders, computers, video players, and editors grow more powerful, AVCHD is becoming more convenient to shoot, edit, and preview. MPEG-4 MPEG-4, a standard format from the Moving Picture Experts Group, has been around for more than 20 years. The current version is officially called H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, but it’s usually shortened to a snappy MPEG-4. Social networking…

Send Files from Mac to iOS via Messages Sometimes you want to send a file, a URL, a text snippet, or an image from your Mac to your iPhone (or vice versa). I generally use email for this purpose, but one reader found another way: Messages, the new instant messaging client that OS X Mountain Lion will include (it has been available in beta form for many months). So, for example, to send a file from your Mac to your iPhone, open Messages and click the Compose button at the upper left of the main window. At the To prompt, start typing your own name, and then select your iMessage address from the list. Drag (or copy and paste) your file, URL, or text snippet into the text-entry field at…

Pinpoint Your Location Q: When I’m out with my iPhone, I sometimes need to mark locations nearby. I try to do that by dropping a pin in the Maps app, but I can only drop one pin. Can I add more? A: The ability to drop only one pin is a limitation of the Maps app, but you’re not entirely out of luck. In Maps, drop your first pin by tapping and holding on the iPhone’s display. The familiar purple pin drops down. Tap on the blue angle-bracket button (>) on the right side of the small label that appears and, in the resulting Dropped Pin window, tap Add To Bookmarks. In the Add Bookmark window, enter a name for your pin and tap Save. Repeat this process for any…