Tabla de contenidos para January 2017 en Macworld

Mac users are fortunate to have not one, but two excellent commercial virtualization software packages to choose from, not to mention less-polished free alternatives like Virtual Box. In what has now become an annual ritual, VMware and Parallels have updated their respective Fusion and Desktop products to coincide with the recent release of macOS Sierra. Last year, both companies delivered ambitious new versions to capitalize on back-to-back debuts of Windows 10 and OS X El Capitan, but the 2016 editions are somewhat more subdued by comparison. VMware marked the occasion by launching Fusion 8.5, a maintenance update with no new features. Having celebrated its tenth anniversary for Desktop earlier this year, Parallels encouraged engineers to come up with at least one unique new feature to justify the upgrade to version 12, although the company’s…

An up-to-date font management utility is a necessary tool in every creative professional’s toolbox. While not as huge an upgrade as the previous version, FontExplorer X Pro 6 ($99, $49 upgrade) adds a variety of helpful new features for modern designers. If you skipped version 5, you’ll appreciate the Welcome Tour, available under the Help menu. FontExplorer Pro is an extremely robust program, and version 5 added many powerful new features. The Welcome Tour includes an overview of the product, its key features, what’s new, and how it interacts with Monotype’s FontExplorer Server product (sold separately). ENHANCED FONT TOOLS In previous versions, FontExplorer allowed users to assign categories to each font. Version 6 brings a new user interface for classifying fonts and many new sub-categories, all of which can be…

Apple’s desktop and mobile operating systems provide a full suite of applications that allow you to do most of what you want without downloading any additional apps. You can browse the Web, send and receive email, manage calendars and contacts, and much more, all with the stock apps included in macOS and iOS. But on macOS, you have the choice to not use those apps. Say you want to use Microsoft Outlook instead of Apple Mail; you can make this change, and when you click a link to send an email, Outlook will open. Or if you want to use Chrome instead of Safari, the same thing will happen: URLs you click will open in Google’s browser. You can even change the default app to open any specific file type…

Smartphone apps have made it easier to go on vacation and discover interesting landmarks, eateries, and other local hotspots. But most maps work with a single destination. There’s no easy way to map out an entire sightseeing excursion across town in advance. MAPPING MULTIPLICITY Relay ($2 on the App Store) is a universal iOS app designed to address this admittedly first-world problem. Powered by Apple Maps, Relay allows users to search for and pin multiple locations on a single map, then recall them all when the time comes to make that journey. In addition to multiple destinations, Relay is built to handle an unlimited num ber of maps. For example, a Summer Vacation 2017 road trip could span multiple states with all of the stops along the way. Or you…

Apple gave its new MacBook Pro a thinner, sleeker case, which demanded a new, lower-travel keyboard, a new venting system, and even a smaller battery. But while I appreciate a Mac that’s smaller and lighter, I’d rather have a Mac that’s easier or just more fun to use. These 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros with Apple’s new Touch Bar are both. To watch the video below an internet connection is required.   The Touch Bar brings my favorite things about the iPad Pro’s software keyboard to the Mac. The amount of useful shortcuts it adds is ridiculous, and this is before most third-party developers have even had a chance to add Touch Bar support. Even for a premium price—and these Macs aren’t cheap—I think the Touch Bar makes this a…

An apparently huge number of iOS and macOS users received calendar invite spam recently. If you began seeing an invitation to an event in your calendar listings for Ugg Boots, Ray-Ban sunglasses, and other products, it’s because spammers took advantage of a long-avail able feature in iCloud that extracts invites from email and presents them as notifications in calendar apps. The ones I received were set as a repeating event, making the invitation show up on every day of my calendar. Some users started receiving this spam weeks ago (go.macworld.com/calspam), but the distribution accelerated only around November 23 or 24. I’ve found scattered references as far back as August. The standard iCalendar format can package an invitation in an ICS file, a format you’re probably familiar with for adding events…

Dear Mr. Cook, I was chagrined to learn that Sal Soghoian, who was Apple’s Product Manager of Automation Technologies, was let go for “business reasons”. Mr. Soghoian had been with Apple for nearly 20 years, and was the keeper of the flame for technologies such as AppleScript, Automator, and more. In my writings about iTunes, I’ve often explained to readers how they could extend iTunes’s feature set using AppleScripts. Most of these have been written by Doug Adams, proprietor of Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes, a site that started out as a repository of tools to extend iTunes, but has become an essential resource for iTunes users. [Full disclosure: Doug and I host a podcast together.] No application can do everything its users need, and none should offer everything they want.…

The best way to migrate an old Mac’s system to a new Mac Q: After five years, I am considering the purchase of a new iMac. In migrating from the old to the new is the best choice Migration Assistant, Time Machine, or SuperDuper? — Les Rosenbaum A: It depends on the vintage of machines you’re migrating from and to. If the new Mac can run the same operating system as the old one, I’d lean towards using SuperDuper (go.macworld.com/superduper) or Carbon Copy Cloner (bombich.com). However, if you can’t run the same version of macOS/OS X on both computers, a clone won’t work: it can’t boot on the new machine, and you need to pick Time Machine or Migration Assistant. If you want to use a cloning tool, follow these steps:…

With every release of a new iPhone powered by another cutting-edge processor designed by Apple, the rumbling grows. It’s amplified by the perception that the Mac is being delayed and hamstrung by the moves of the Mac’s chip supplier, Intel. It’s the theory that, one of these days, Apple is going to break from Intel and power its Macs with an Apple-designed processor related to the ones in the iPhone and iPad. It’s a story with a certain amount of sense behind it. It seems like several Mac models have been delayed because Intel’s chips just weren’t ready in time, or weren’t ready in enough supply. The latest hubbub about the MacBook Pro being limited to 16GB of RAM is due to Apple’s choice of a low-power Intel chipset that couldn’t…

Although macOS looks deceptively simple to end users, anyone who’s launched Activity Monitor may be shocked to discover just how many helpers, daemons, services, and other processes actually run behind-the-scenes, helping power your favorite software. Such background tasks often feed off available Internet bandwidth, consuming precious memory at the same time. If you’d like to curtail this kind of covert background activity, there’s an inexpensive, well-designed, and easy-to-use Mac utility that not only keeps tabs on which apps are beaming signals back to the mothership, but also selectively blocks them from doing so. FIREWALL BUDDY Four years ago, Macworld reviewer Brendan Wilhide praised Radio Silence as “perhaps the easiest firewall [he’s] ever used” and like fine wine, this Mac Gems utility has only improved with age. Radio Silence 2.0 ($9) loses…

For a few weeks this summer, it seemed like everyone was playing Pokémon Go. You could tell at a glance, typically, as players stared slavishly at their screens (more so than usual) while stumbling about, congregating around real-world landmarks as they passed them. But just as quickly as the phenomenon ramped up, it faded away as players complained about repetition and tedium. Pokémon Go was pretty rough around the edges at launch, and it still has plenty of room to grow and improve, but the experience has already gotten quite a bit better—especially of late. Haven’t fired up the app in months? Here’s a look at what you’ve missed, and why you might want to get back to the hunt. DAILY BONUSES Part of the reason that Pokémon Go loses…

Pie Pie (free) lets you create 360-degree videos, even though your iPhone isn’t equipped with a 360-degree camera. Take a panoramic video “slice” by moving your phone in an arc—here’s video of the results—then share your creations with friends on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media services. TrueBill Truebill (free) has a been around a few months, drawing attention as a cool new way to help users track and manage their finances and keep their heads above water. Sign up and link your bank accounts, after which you can instantly see everything you’re paying for on a recurring basis. Want to unsubscribe from that recurring payment? It takes one click. Version 2.0 recently launched with a new, easier interface to guide new users. Bear Bear (freemium) “ is a beautiful, flexible…

In a moment of somewhat unexpected nostalgia at its most recent media event, Apple pointed out that it was the 25th anniversary of the PowerBook. (It’s good to know that, 27 years later, Apple still would rather nobody remember the Mac Portable.) I’ve been a Mac laptop user since the original PowerBook era. That ancient history is my history. Since 1991, Apple has gone through seven distinct eras when it comes to its laptop strategy and design. THE CLASSICS: THE 680x0 ERA The original PowerBooks (and, sure, the Mac Portable) used the Mac’s original processor, the Motorola 680x0 series. The first generation of PowerBooks took the world by storm, which is why it’s their anniversary that Apple noted. I distinctly remember a magazine story attentively describing entertainment-industry executive Barry Diller…

My sister texted me last week, “I need Apple advice”. “I got a message that my computer is blocked due to an unexpected error. It gives me a number to call to fix it. Does that sound legit?” No. It did not sound legit. What’s worse, the error message gave her an 800 number to call, which she did, and the person on the other end of the line offered to share her screen and tried to sell her $200 in security software. That was the point at which her instincts kicked in and she got off the call and asked me for help. The culprit in all this was a pop-up message in Safari, which read in part: “Your Apple Computer has been blocked. Mac iOS alert! System might…

When you’re browsing your iTunes library, trying to choose what music to listen to, there are several ways to do this. If you’ve made playlists, you can look in the sidebar and pick one of your favorite mixes, or choose a smart PLAYLIST playlist based on your favorite music. If you’re an album-only person, you can switch to Albums view, then scroll until you find an album you like. It’s easy to do this if your music has artwork, because you can spot your favorites at a glance. But perhaps you want to scan the artists in your library to see if there’s one who grabs you, or perhaps to find an old favorite you haven’t listened to in a while. You switch to Artists view, and, if you’re a…

Readdle’s PDF Expert is a fast, slick document viewer with annotation tools that gives Apple’s Preview a run for its money. ACROBAT WHO? With the release of PDF Expert 2, Readdle not only delivers PDF editing, but also comes surprisingly close to feature parity with the reigning PDF heavyweight, Adobe Acrobat DC. Want to add links or redact text inside a PDF document? No problem. Need to keep PDF files from potential prying eyes by protecting documents with a password? Consider it done. By far the most impressive new features are the ability to edit text and images. Whether fixing a last-minute typo or swapping out a company logo, PE2’s slick user interface makes it a snap, although the tools are fairly basic. I successfully replaced one image from a magazine…

Apple has said that a few iPhone 6s smartphones are unexpectedly shutting down, confirming a problem reported recently by a Chinese consumer protection group. The company said the problem is restricted to a small number of phones within a limited serial number range that were manufactured between September and October last year. Apple said it was not a safety issue, and appeared to suggest that the problem would be resolved by a replacement battery which the company offered for free. It did not say how many iPhone 6s phones were affected and in which markets. The China Consumers Association asked Apple to investigate problems with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s phones that were automatically shutting off. The unexpected shutdowns were said to happen when the phone’s battery charge dropped to…

HEX ICON WALLET With a vast selection of colors and patterns to choose from, the Icon Wallet (iPhone 7 and 7 Plus; $49.95 to $59.95 MSRP, starting at $17.63 on Amazon) is a standard folio case with a not-so-standard look. With room for up to five credit cards, the case includes interior cash pockets, an elastic closure, and a molded phone bed that grants full access to the iPhone’s buttons and ports. VAJA MESSENGER BAG The Messenger Bag (all iPad models except 12.9-inch iPad Pro; $280) sports a dedicated compartment for your iPad, with a fold-over flap secured by a magnetic closure for safe transportation. Made with genuine leather, the bag also features an external zippered pocket for your accessories, a quick-access front pocket for your iPhone, and an adjustable…

A proof of concept from security researcher and software developer Samy Kamkar shows that macOS, Windows, and Linux computers can have any previously active Web logins hijacked merely by plugging in a tiny Unix device via USB or Thunderbolt, even if the computer is locked and password protected, and possibly even when it seems to be asleep. It can also hijack many router brands on the same network. PoisonTap (samy.pl/poisontap) exploits several interlocked network and browser design features, rather than relying on an operating system, hardware, or browser flaw. This will make it harder to root out and resolve. Kamkar said in an interview, “The interesting attacks to me are by design: how do you exploit the protocol rather than a single buffer overflow that gets patched the next day.”…

I have long been on a search for a good time tracking app that integrates well with a business accounting package. While it’s been quite some time since we’ve taken a look at it, FreshBooks offers excellent built-in time tracking and continues to up its business accounting game. For my money (For real! I pay for and use) Marketcircle’s Billings Pro is the best time tracking and invoicing software I’ve had the pleasure to use, but it’s not an accounting package, so I still have to pay for QuickBooks Online to track income and expenses. I also have to create duplicate invoices, one that I send from Billings Pro and another for accounting from Quickbooks Online. I’ve recently had the pleasure of playing with TSheets, an online timecard app that integrates with QuickBooks…

Sometimes too much information makes things confusing; iTunes’ display of iCloud Status for movies and TV shows is one example. I explain what this means. I also discuss how to delete songs from a playlist on iOS 10, how to combine playlists in iTunes, and what happens when iTunes Match is turned off. CLOUDY iCLOUD STATUS Q: A friend showed me his iTunes library recently. In his Movies library, he has a column called iCloud Status, which says something about each of his movies. In my iTunes library, if I display that column, everything is blank. Why is this? A: This is an interesting question, but the answer is rather prosaic. The iCloud Status column is meant to show the status of music tracks in iTunes Match or iCloud Music…