Índex per March 2013 a Macworld

When I first got my iPad, I changed the email signature to read, “Lovingly handcrafted just for you by Jason Snell,” to remove Apple’s baked-in self-promotion from every email I sent. But in hindsight I think it’s true that the words that spring from an iPad are not necessarily the same words that would come from other devices. As anyone who has read my liveblog coverage of Apple press events may have guessed, I’m an extremely fast typist. On a physical keyboard, I can go as fast as 120 words per minute. My typing speed is no constraint on my brain. If I can think it, I can get it down—fast. But I’m starting to suspect that my writing can change radically just by changing the tool that I write…

Macworld Lab received two new iMacs—build-to-order systems with the fastest optional processors and equipped with the new Fusion Drive—and we decided to see how these maxed-out models performed in our lab tests. The new iMacs come in four standard configurations, all with updated processors and graphics, and all with 8GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM and 1TB hard drives; see our review of the standard 21.5-inch models on page 12 for more details. The BTO models we tested had Core i7 processors: a 3.1GHz quad-core version in the 21.5-inch model, and a 3.4GHz version in the 27-inch model. Both processor upgrades are $200 options. The 21.5-inch iMac had 16GB of RAM (a $200 upgrade), while our 27-inch model had the stock 8GB of memory. The 21.5-inch iMac had the stock Nvidia…

VIDEO: Beamer 1.5.3 4.0/5.0; $15; Tupil; beamer-app.com I know more than a few people who connect a Mac to their TV, using cables, to play videos. Most of these people would love to stream wirelessly to an Apple TV, but their Macs aren’t new enough to support Apple’s AirPlay technology and the AirPlay mirroring feature of Mountain Lion. Thanks to Beamer, however, AirPlay streaming is possible for older Macs. The app works with 64-bit Intel Macs (any model from 2007 or later, plus some 2006 Macs) running OS X 10.6 or later, and streams to a second-or third-generation Apple TV. Beamer’s window shows all compatible Apple TVs on your network. After you choose one, you drop a movie file into the Beamer window; seconds later, the movie starts playing. (One…

Nothing’s perfect, and operating systems are no exception. Now, don’t mistake my complaints about iOS 6 for complete dissatisfaction. While Apple should be proud of what it’s accomplished with iOS, the company needs to focus on improving some of the system’s core foundational elements. Tough Text Selection Highlighting text in iBooks is a pleasure: You just swipe your finger over the text you’re after. But when it comes to selecting text in other apps, you tap, hold, use the magnification loupe, and futz around. It’s worst on the iPhone, but troublesome on the iPad, as well. Some apps have tried to improve matters by implementing the “Hooper Selection” concept, where swiping across the keyboard can move the cursor and select text with broader, less precise gestures. Obviously, though, text selection…

1Password SECURITY AgileBits’ 1Password 4 is a password management software that works by creating a virtual “vault” where you can save sensitive information such as passwords, credit card and bank account numbers, passport data, and software keys. My favorite interface feature is a built-in browser that allows you to navigate the Web and that lets the app automatically fill in forms for you using your secure data. All your data is protected by strong encryption and can only be unlocked by a single password that you choose when you first set up the app. The app is also adept at generating strong passwords, plus it supports manual sync through iTunes and automatic sync through either Dropbox or iCloud. But one thing that has been removed from this version is the…

I don’t mean to alarm you, but—well, actually I do. Your password strategy, if you have one at all, might be seriously out-of-date. In the past year, several well-publicized attacks on major online services exposed users’ passwords. For example, in June 2012, more than 6 million LinkedIn passwords were stolen and posted online. Just over a month later, more than 450,000 Yahoo passwords were leaked. The direct damage resulting from public disclosure of the passwords was bad enough, but the security breaches also revealed that vast numbers of people follow dangerous password practices that can result in far worse problems. If you haven’t examined your approach to making and using passwords recently, now is a good time to rethink your assumptions. Here are a few important facts about passwords you…

Here’s a tip: Don’t carry Slappa’s $90 Transit Messenger Bag (www.slappa.com) unless you’re prepared to get a constant barrage of compliments, questions, and remarks from strangers. The first week I carried the bag around San Francisco, I got seven compliments on it in one day. However, the Transit Messenger is not just a looker, it’s also an ample bag that can carry a generous amount of gear. Made from a water-resistant poly-coated 1680D nylon, the bag has a three-gallon main storage section, a super-cush-padded 16-inch laptop compartment, and several zippered pockets with molded alloy zipper pulls. Feel like changing things up a bit? Just zip out the front flap and swap in one of five other custom designs ($22 to $27 apiece). For the record, I carried the Tokyo Subway…

The latest version of iTunes (go.macworld.com/itunes11) makes a number of changes to the way you view the content in your library of digital media files. Most significantly, iTunes 11 adds a new set of views and gets rid of most of the viewing options that were available in previous versions. With iTunes 10, you could view your music (and other media content) in any of four ways—via List view, Album List view, Grid view, or Cover Flow view. (Some types of iTunes content, such as apps, didn’t offer all of those options, however.) In iTunes 11, those four views are more or less gone. Here’s a look at the different views that iTunes 11 offers. Songs View What Apple used to call List view is now known as Songs view.…

Olive One Olive Media is known for its high-end music servers, which range in price from $1499 to $4999. But with the just-announced Olive One, the company appears to be trying out a couple of new things: a price that’s more likely to appeal to the masses (the Olive One starts at $399), and crowd funding of the project through Indiegogo. The Olive One provides a way to access all of your music through a 7-inch touchscreen interface. You can stream music to it via Bluetooth 4.0, dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11n and Wi-Fi Direct, or from a UPnP or DNLA server; or you can play your music directly from an optional built-in hard drive. It includes a 32-bit/384KHz Burr-Brown digital-to-analog converter and dual amplifiers for connecting to speakers, plus a 24-bit…

HAND-ON Many shoot-and-share-video options are available via the Apple App Store. But none of them had YouTube in its name—until now. Google, the parent of YouTube, which is practically synonymous with home-made video, has released YouTube Capture (go.macworld.com/capture), a free app for shooting and sharing video on your iPhone or iPod touch. Getting started with Capture is no-sweat simple. Download the app, sign into your Gmail account, and connect your account with your YouTube channel. Preferences and Settings At the Get Started screen, you can begin swiping your way through preferences such as ‘Enhance Automatically’ and ‘Stabilize’. You can choose to see all of your existing videos through the app by enabling the Camera Roll setting. The last setup step lets you define where else you want to share your…

Play Podcasts in iOS 6’s Music App Q: I liked listening to podcasts within the previous version of iOS’s Music app. Now it seems that I have to use Apple’s Podcasts app, which I don’t like much. Is there any way for me to put podcasts into the new Music app? Arthur Cantu A: There is, but you have to meet several conditions in order for it to work: > Your iOS device can’t have a copy of the Podcasts app on it. (The same goes for the iTunes U app, if you’d like that content to appear in the Music app.) > You must not try to download pod-casts or iTunes U content from your device’s iTunes app. If you do, iTunes will inform you that you must have…

AppleScript appeared in System 7.1 in October 1993 as the first and eventually canonical Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) scripting language. The idea at the outset was that OSA would provide a low-level architecture for scripting at both the inter-and intra-application levels. In other words, it would act as a consistent, system-wide mechanism for multiple applications to communicate and exchange data, and for users to automate tasks within any scriptable application. Instead of leaving it up to each application to create its own macro language (inevitably incompatible with others), there would be one universal way for Mac apps to be automated. AppleScript was not intended to be the only OSA scripting language. Indeed, OSA was supposed to be language-agnostic, and the plan was for there to be several of them eventually.…

How Do You Back Up? Our readers tweet about their preferred backup strategies. @mikecary: Time Machine, SuperDuper! Plus portable hard drive backup once per month. @chigaze: Three backups: Time Capsule, ChronoSync to a Drobo, and Backblaze to the cloud. @fjpoblam: Backup? Time Machine. Two laptops. iPads and iPhones to laptops. Websites (ours and clients’) to cloud. Docs also to Amazon. @british_geek: All of my work and important documents are synced over Dropbox so I don’t have to back up locally. Takes the hassle out of it. SECURING PASSWORDS The moral here is to use an unrelated password for each site. So if a password is hacked from one site, the hacker will not be able to use it to access any of your other sites. —Stargazer, via Macworld.com All this…

Review RATING: 4.5/5.0 PRICE Free COMPANY: Evernote URL evernote.com You have lots of information—heck, you’re practically drowning in it. You need an “everything box,” a program that stores and sorts all those email messages, photos, clippings, and files, indexes them, and allows you to add your preferred organizational structure. Evernote is an everything box, as are programs such as DevonThink (4.0/5.0; go.macworld.com/devonthink), Yojimbo (4.0/5.0; go.macworld.com/yojimbo), and SOHO Notes. Evernote differs, however, in that it’s free (with a paid Premium tier), it’s available for Mac and Windows and as a Web app, and it has iOS and Android apps. Evernote uploads your material to the company’s servers, making it available for syncing to all your devices. The Price Is Right Most users will be satisfied with the free basic service and…

Google Maps for iPhone Drives Competition With Apple Review RATING 4.0/5.0 PRICE Free COMPANY Google URL google.com Given the celebratory hubbub over the release of Google Maps for the iPhone, you’d be excused for thinking that Google had instead perfected some new form of transportation—portal technology, perhaps. The truth is somewhat less spectacular, though it will still delight many users of iOS 6: Google Maps for the iPhone is a very good mapping application that returns some much-missed features to the platform, but it’s not without its shortcomings. Look and Feel If you like the look of Apple’s Maps app for iOS 6, then Google Maps won’t be terribly jarring: The apps look strikingly similar, but with a key aesthetic difference: Google eschews the use of gray/silver title bars and…

Despite its status as one of the early popular photo-sharing sites, Flickr has seen its domain increasingly threatened by Facebook on the Web and Instagram in the mobile realm. In a bid to keep the service relevant, Flickr’s parent company, Yahoo, recently launched a heavily overhauled iPhone app. The program had more or less languished since its introduction in 2009, but the new update includes many of the features users expect from their photo-sharing apps these days. Chief among those are filters. Flickr now includes 16 filters—assorted monochrome and color effects that you can apply before uploading your photo to the service. Also in the mix are editing tools that let you crop and straighten, adjust brightness and contrast, remove red eye, tweak blemishes, whiten, and even add text. Despite…

Hardware BioLite CampStove 4.0/5.0; $129; BioLite; biolitestove.com The CampStove is an ingenious device that uses a special fan to maintain a fire inside a small, stainless-steel chamber. The fan is powered by a rechargeable battery, and once the battery is fully charged, any excess electricity produced can be used to charge your other gear through a USB port on the side of the stove. It is a useful, well-designed device that’s incredibly easy to operate. If you bring USB-chargeable gear on your trips, its convenience and efficiency make it well worth the price.—MARCO TABINI LifeProof NŸŸd Case and Cover/Stand 4.0/5.0; $150; LifeProof; lifeproof.com This bundle offers serious protection for the iPad. The LifeProof team claims that it will protect your iPad from water, snow, ice, dirt, and impacts. The front…

When you hit the road for business or pleasure, it’s easy to get paranoid—especially if you are carrying thousands of dollars’ worth of technology. However, you can alleviate some of your worries by taking security measures to protect yourself against someone running off with your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook. Password-Protect Your Devices What if a thief does get your device—is that just the beginning of all your problems? It might be if you haven’t bothered with the basic methods for protecting your devices and data. Passcode-lock your iPhone and iPad Just because someone steals your phone or tablet, that does not mean that he or she also gets unrestricted access to all your email messages, all your contacts, and—just for good measure—your Amazon.com account. Even if you don’t normally use…

Review RATING 4.0/5.0 PRICE $50 COMPANY BusyMac URL busymac.com If you rely on a calendar app to help keep yourself focused and productive, you’ll run into the limitations of Apple’s Calendar. And when that happens, many individuals and workgroups who need to share calendars turn to BusyMac’s BusyCal app. Sporting a face-lift and a slew of welcome new features, BusyCal 2 is a worthwhile upgrade for most users, but it will require workflow changes for others. If your organization depends on Microsoft Exchange, BusyCal is not, for now, an appropriate choice. Syncing and Sharing BusyCal 2 requires Mountain Lion (although it still supports BusyCal 1.6 clients running on previous versions of OS X). It supports OS X’s Notification Center, synchronizing and sharing calendars between two or more people using the…

If you want better sound from your smartphone, tablet, media player, or computer, new headphones will do wonders. And they’re essential if you want to listen to your music without bothering people around you. Unfortunately, though the range of styles and options is wider than ever, the opportunities for in-person testing are fewer. Look and Listen Usually, the main differences between headphone models involve type, comfort, and sound quality. Here’s what to look (and listen) for when you seek the perfect set of headphones. Specs and Sound Quality Manufacturers’ specifications—especially frequency-response numbers—don’t mean much. No standard testing methodology exists for headphone frequency response, and many vendors exaggerate their headphones’ specs. But even accurate specs won’t tell you much about how a particular set of headphones actually sounds. So instead of…

A growing number of enthusiast photographers are traveling with iPads instead of laptops. Its lighter weight, thinner body, and Wi-Fi + Cellular connectivity make the iPad a good companion on the road. But just because you leave the computer at home doesn’t mean that you should ignore it when you return. Its greater horsepower and broader storage options make it a better choice for managing large photo libraries. So those hundreds of travel images that you shot will need to migrate from memory cards and mobile devices to your Mac and integrate into your existing photo workflow. Let’s figure out how that’s going to work. iPad Basics It’s important to know how photos are stored on your iPad. When you upload shots from your camera’s memory card, they automatically appear…

Hardware Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 5.0/5.0 | $650; Sony; sony.com Serious shooters who are on the prowl for an ultraportable camera have an exciting new option in Sony’s DSC-RX100. Sony put a larger sensor and a better processor into a smaller body, and created a camera that exceeded my expectations in almost every way. The sensor in the RX100 is a 1-inch (13.2mm by 8mm) Exmor CMOS sensor with an effective picture resolution of 20.2 megapixels. Equally important is the size of the sensor. A larger sensor means better light-gathering ability, and the RX100’s sensor packs twice as many photosites (individual light-sensing points) as the sensors in the Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 and Lumix DMC-LX7—despite fitting them into a space that’s almost three times as large. The Sony RX100 performs well at…

Apple tends to be pretty tight-lipped about acknowledging software bugs. It doesn’t even like to use the word “bug.” Rather, it refers to fixing “issues.” However, Apple’s support articles sometimes include information about bugs that Apple is currently working to resolve. Here are two such “issues.” System Preferences Stops Responding After Viewing Desktop & Screen Saver Pane An Apple article reveals that “System Preferences may stop responding if you select an iPhoto Event that is no longer available in iPhoto as the source for your desktop picture.” The recommended temporary fix is to force-quit System Preferences and select a different valid iPhoto event. Presumably, in a future OS X update, unavailable events will no longer show up or selecting one of them won’t cause System Preferences to freeze. Login Window…

Review RATING: 3.5/5.0 $1299 (2.7GHz Core i5) $1499 (2.9GHz Core i5) COMPANY: Apple URL apple.com Using friction stir-welding, Apple designers managed to connect the front and back of the case while reducing the width to just 5mm at the edges. Apple has updated the 21.5-inch iMac with Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs, a RAM boost, and new Nvidia GeForce graphics hardware. The biggest changes, however, are the thinner design—which introduces compromises—and the option to upgrade to Apple’s Fusion Drive. Using a process called friction stir-welding, Apple designers managed to connect the front and back of the aluminum case while reducing the width to just 5mm at the edges. Apple also cut the weight by more than 7 pounds. The new iMac is positively striking when viewed from the side—many curious coworkers…

NuStand Alloy NewerTech’s $20 NuStand Alloy is an aluminum stand that can keep your Mac mini upright and stationary. Sporting a silver tone that matches the Mac mini, it securely holds a 2010 or later Mac mini upright to produce a smaller footprint (just 7.0 by 3.8 inches). Nonskid rubber feet keep the stand in place, a rubber ring lines the stand opening to shield your Mac from scratches, and a rubberized-aluminum finish protects the stand itself (eshop.macsales.com).—DAN FRAKES USB 3 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter The $50 Kanex USB 3 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter offers an easy way to add a gigabit ethernet port to any USB 3.0-enabled computer. Particularly aimed at travelers, the adapter allows you to share and access files over local networks at rates of 1GB per second (kanexlive.com).—JOEL…

Apple has reported that it sold a “record” 2 million units of the new iPhone 5 during its first three days on sale in China. This report emerged as Wall Street analysts downgraded Apple’s stock because of perceived softness in demand for the new phone. “Customer response to iPhone 5 in China has been incredible, setting a new record with the best first week-end sales ever in China,” Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said in a press release. “China is a very important market for us and customers there cannot wait to get their hands on Apple products.” This strong start mirrored previous launches in China, where stores had reported shortages after two days of iPhone 4 sales in 2010, and where high demand had forced the company to sell the…

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Already familiar to owners of Xbox and PlayStation consoles, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is now available as a $5 game for the iPhone and iPad. It’s a crime story that takes players deep into the underworld of 1980s Miami—a time and place of two days’ stubble, big hair, pastels, and Don Johnson solo records. If you like mayhem, you’ll love this game.—Joel Mathis The Orchestra This $14 app shows how classical music is created. It features a conductor at work, along with a real-time display of the score that he is working with. You also get commentaries from various musicians in the orchestra. This app really shows off the iPad’s impressive range of capabilities—and offers a rarely seen look at an orchestra.—Joel Mathis Evernote…

Whether it’s the guilt you feel because you aren’t attentive enough or the anxiety that impels you to go overboard, backing up your Mac can be an oddly emotional matter. It doesn’t have to be. You can set up some backup plans once, in about 10 minutes, and then forget about them as they run from here to eternity. If, on the other hand, you’re paranoid about data security, it isn’t much harder to set up a backup system that’s practically bullet-proof, with multiple layers of redundancy that will make it possible to restore not only your Mac but also one or two tiers of your backups when disaster strikes. So take a deep breath, calm down, and read on to find out how to set up the backup plan…

Q&A Notifications are OS X’s chief tool for keeping you on top of things. A notification can alert you to impending Calendar events and reminders, as well as to email, Facebook, and Twitter messages. Though it’s new to Mountain Lion, the Notifications feature may look familiar if you’ve been using an iOS device for a while. You have seen such notifications there: banners that pop up on your lock screen to display alerts for Calendar events or to let you know that you have received text messages. Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about this OS X feature. Q: What are the things notifications can notify me about? A: Any application can use notifications, as long as the app hooks into OS X’s Notifications feature. For starters,…

Hardware Das Keyboard Model S Professional for Mac 4.0/5.0; $129; Das Keyboard; www.daskeyboard.com The Model S Professional for the Mac is a premium mechanical keyboard. It weighs about 3 pounds and has a contoured shape with pop-out feet under the back edge. It connects to your Mac via a 6-foot USB cable. The keyboard’s sculpted, black plastic keys have a matte finish, and its gold-plated key switches give them a pleasant, solid feel. You can also remove most of the key caps to clean dust that gets underneath. The Model S Professional has a solid, mechanical heft. To increase precision, Das Keyboard has equipped it with circuitry that permits five-key rollover: You can press up to five keys at the same time, and the keyboard will still detect all the…

Hardware Roku Streaming Stick 4.0/5.0; $100; Roku; roku.com The space-efficient Roku Streaming Stick looks like a USB flash drive but delivers high-definition media streaming just like Roku’s current high-end box, the Roku 2 XS. However, the Streaming Stick works only with sets that support MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link), a relatively new standard for high-def connections between various devices (including cell phones and tablets) and HDTVs. The MHL connection can power the device, and it lets you use your TV’s remote to control the Streaming Stick. I tested the device with an MHL-enabled Hitachi Ultravision S606 LED-backlit 1080p TV. Setup couldn’t have been easier. Video quality was quite good, even in a crowded Wi-Fi network environment. I used the Hitachi remote to control the Streaming Stick while I accessed and viewed…

HOW-TO For many folks, including a copy of a family newsletter with a birthday or greeting card has become a tradition. Using Pages or iPhoto to assemble a newsletter makes the job simple. Here, we’ll focus on Pages (go.macworld.com/pages)—a top-notch, easy-to-use page-layout program that offers great templates. Step 1: Choose a Template Go to File → New From Template Chooser; when the Template Chooser appears, click News-letters in the left column. The templates you see there will serve as a starting point for your own effort. I’ll use the first one, Informal Newsletter, for this example. Step 2: Make It Your Own For a quick start, here are a few possible tweaks. Change fonts. Double-or triple-click any text block to select all of the text. The Format Bar (just below…

View Tweets Made by Your Contacts If you keep track of the Twitter handles of your friends and colleagues in your Contacts, you can easily view any tweets that those people have posted to their Twitter accounts. To do so, simply open a card in Contacts, click Twitter, and choose View Tweets. If you have the official Twitter app installed on your system, the app will open and display tweets from the person you’ve indicated. If not, the relevant page will open on the Twitter website. You also have the option of tweeting to someone from OS X, by clicking Twitter and then choosing Tweet, if you have previously set up your Twitter account in the ‘Mail, Contacts & Calendars’ pane of System Preferences. Use HTML Signatures in iOS 6…

Q: I’ve been using the Onyx utility for years to tweak the Mac OS. But after I up-graded to Mountain Lion and downloaded a compatible version of Onyx, I find that I can’t open it because I didn’t get it from the Mac App Store. What’s going on? Richard Patterson A: One approach is to configure Gatekeeper to allow non-App Store applications from nonregistered developers. Launch System Preferences, select Security & Privacy, and click the General tab. Click the window’s lock icon, enter an administrator’s username and password, click Unlock, and in the area marked ‘Allow Applications Downloaded From’, change the setting to Anywhere. But don’t use this approach unless you always want to open applications from anywhere. Instead, <Control>-click the application you want to launch, and select Open from…