Table of contents for January 2015 in Macworld

News and Analysis About Macs, OS X, and Apple Among the many new and improved technologies promoted by Apple, one of the most attractive has been the “Retina display.” This is a marketing term rather than a technical one and refers to displays with a pixel density where individual pixels are indiscernible to the human eye. You see it touted for iOS devices as well as Apple’s MacBook Pros. Like much of Apple’s marketing, it’s catchy and appealing to those who’d prefer to not dig deeper. However, there are occasions when the term just won’t do—particularly when Apple wants to boast about the specific number of pixels that a display houses. Such is the case with the $2,500 iMac with Retina 5K display. And it wants to boast for good…

UTILITY SOFTWARE iStat Menus 5 brings a wealth of information to your menu bar NO MATTER HOW many features OS X borrows from iOS, one big difference Mac and iOS users is that we want to know what’s going on under the hood of our computers. Where you might be content to quit a wonky app or restart an iPad, on your Mac you want to investi-gate the problem up close and personal, even tracking page outs and diving into crash logs. Apple offers such tools as Activity Monitor and Console for moni-toring system performance, but Bjango has always understood that this information is most useful when it’s instantly at your disposal, not tucked away in the Utilities folder. With the fifth version of its popular iStat Menus app, the…

INPUT DEVICES YOU’LL KNOW YOU’RE in the presence of a seasoned Mac user when they start speaking of “The Keyboard”—a favorite incarnation of Apple’s input device. For many, that revered device was the Apple Extended Keyboard II; a mechani-cal marvel that, while enormous, was known for its smooth feel. Although I maintain a preference for the good old IBM Selectric, I’ve been just fine with Apple’s offerings over the years, including the current brushed aluminum, Chiclet-keyed, Bluetooth-enabled Apple Wireless Keyboard. It’s sleek, the keys have a nice amount of resistance, and best of all, there’s no cord to tether me to my iMac. What this keyboard doesn’t have—and what I’ve come to sorely miss—is a dedi-cated numeric keypad, which is only offered on Apple’s wired keyboard. Fortunately, the folks at…

Apple is at last offering a simple way for former iPhone users to receive text messages sent into limbo by the company’s iMessage service. The problem affects former iPhone users who transferred their SIM card or phone number to a non-Apple phone. If they had set up their iPhone to route text messages to other iPhone owners via iMessage rather than their carrier’s SMS (Short Message Service) servers, they were often unable to receive text messages from those people after ditching their own iPhone. Affected messages continued to be routed through Apple’s proprietary iMessage service, which sends them direct to the specific device Apple has linked with the phone number, rather than the one the carrier currently associates with the number. Because iMessage only works with iOS devices, those messages…

VIDEO To view this video, go to go.macworld.com/air2vid It’s a little thinner. It’s a little lighter. It’s a whole lot faster. All of this makes the iPad Air 2 both more of the same and better than ever. The form-factor didn’t change since last year’s redesign, but even though the iPad Air 2 is slimmer than its predecessor, Apple didn’t sacrifice battery life. The company claims up to 10 hours using Wi-Fi, and in three battery rundown tests I averaged 10 hours and 14 minutes of continuously watching a 720p video. The camera is good enough that you might actually use it. Oh, and Touch ID gives it parity with the iPhone lineup, as well as enabling online-only Apple Pay—at least for now. (Don’t forget, iFixit found an NFC chip…

BATTLE ACADEMY 2: EASTERN FRONT Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front (go.macworld.com/battle) costs $20. Twenty dollars! It’s a World War II-themed strategy game set on the Russian front. You can control Axis and Soviet forces in more than 30 missions across four single-player campaigns. There’s enough depth and variety of experience here that playing the whole game could take as long as World War II itself. Molecules We’ll let this $14 iOS offering introduce itself: “Molecules by Theodore Gray (go. macworld.com/molecules) is the extraordinary sequel to The Elements, the bestselling book and app. It continues the story of the elements to show how they are assembled into the rich diversity of compounds, chemicals, molecules, rocks, and stuff that make up our world.” Oh, and it’s pretty neat, with features that let…

Caitlin, New York: I really thought setting up Apple Pay would be time-consuming. I sat down with my wallet and opened Passbook ready to tap in every number. And you can do that, if you want. But holding my credit and debit cards in front of my camera and watching it lift the numbers was infinitely cooler—and easier. All I had to do was enter the security codes and confirm the expiration dates. One credit card company required me to verify Apple Pay using its own app, which was easy enough. My bank didn’t require any verification, but did send me an email to let me know that my card had been set up on Apple Pay, just in case. Actually using Apple Pay is a breeze. Simply hold your…

Apple Pay isn’t the wallet killer it’s cracked up to be…yet. But we didn’t expect it to be, right at launch. Although Apple Pay has an impressive list of partners (go.macworld.com/apay), retailers and customers are still figuring it out—it’s unrealistic to expect shoppers to remember every single store where they can use Apple Pay, and in turn it’s unrealistic for merchants to plaster Apple Pay signage all around their cash registers (though we did expect to see that more than we actually did) However, the potential is massive. Apple Pay is secure, easy to use, and quick—rummaging through your bag or pocket for your phone takes considerably less time than digging for your wallet and then fumbling through until you find your card. Plus, users activated 1 million cards in…

There’s no shortage of choices for cloud storage, but that leads to another problem: how do you decide which services you truly need, and which files to put where? If you’ve signed up for as many cloud providers as you have files, it’s time for an intervention (or at least a moment of clear-headed contemplation). I’ll admit it: I’m an online storage junkie. At one time or another I’ve synced files to the cloud using Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon S3, Bitcasa, Box, DollyDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, SpiderOak, SugarSync, Wuala, and probably a few others I’m forgetting—not to mention using online backups from Backblaze, CrashPlan, and Mozy, and storing photos with services such as Flickr and SmugMug. Some of these services are free (at least for a…

Q&A With more and more users updating to iTunes 12, I’ve been getting a huge number of questions about how to use this new version. In this month’s column, I look at questions about iTunes 12. I discuss adding artwork to files, deleting artwork, and changes to the iTunes Store’s Wish List and My Alerts section. Q: I’m confused by iTunes 12. How do I add album art to my music and movies? A: iTunes 12 has changed the Info window, which appears when you select one or more items and press Command-I. The old window had an Artwork well, where you could either drag or paste graphics to add album art to your files. In iTunes 12, the Info window is different. Note that the window you see above…

Each version of Photoshop comes with new features that let you work smarter instead of harder, but old editing habits are hard to break—especially if you’ve been using the program for a long time. Here you’ll find a roundup of some common editing mistakes and how to avoid them. PERFORM EDITS ON SEPARATE LAYERS When you color-correct on one layer, zap blemishes on another, whiten teeth on another, and so on, you can back out of any edit, anytime you want, even after closing the document. You can lower the opacity of individual edits to make changes look realistic (crucial in portrait retouching), and by using adjustment and fill layers, you automatically get a mask that lets you hide layer content from parts of the image. In fact, the first…

How to make copies of all your old camera’s pictures Q: I’ve had a number of digital cameras over the years and I’m interested in retrieving all the images shot with a particular one. Any suggestions how I might find them? Kevin Kinkaid A: I have two, in fact. The first is to open iPhoto, choose File → New Smart Album, and in the sheet that appears create a condition that reads Any Text Contains [camera model], where the last entry is the model iPhoto recognizes for your camera. (If you’re not sure how iPhoto identifies your camera, just select an image taken with it and click the Info button at the bottom-right of the iPhoto window. In the resulting Info pane look near the top for the model number.)…

Like its National Park namesake, Apple’s newest operating system can be imposing, perhaps even a little daunting to newcomers. And although you won’t find any bears in the digital version of Yosemite, that doesn’t mean it’s danger free. After all, online security is rarely a walk in the park—and these three features of Yosemite could potentially impact your security. SPOTLIGHT KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE Spotlight became a lot more useful in Yosemite, but it also became more talkative. That’s because in order to return information about local services such as restaurants and other retail establishments it needs to know your location. That sounds logical, but it raised concerns (go. macworld.com/concerns) from privacy advocates—and privacy-minded users—about just what information was being transmitted and what else it might be used for. For…

UTILITY SOFTWARE TALK TO ANY “expert” in computing and if they’re really an expert you’ll Mac user, you should definitely be using Time Machine as one of your want to keep a backup off-site, for instance, or back up really important files using something in addition to time Machine. Enter Carbon Copy Cloner, version 4. Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) has been around for a long time—I reviewed an early version way back in April of 2002. Things have definitely changed in the intervening years, and Carbon Copy Cloner 4 is now all grown up, with a pleasant and easy-to-use interface. GETTING STARTED When you launch CCC, you’re greeted with a single window interface that displays a left sidebar, and a work area with three obvious interaction zones: Source, Destination, and…

STEELSERIES STRATUS XL The ipad and Iphone are capable of console-quality games, but controlling those on a touchscreen can hamper the experience. SteelSeries took user feedback into account when designing the Stratus XL ( steelseries.com ), a full-sized wireless controller that works with all the controller-enabled games in the App Store, like FIFA 15, Minecraft, and Real Racing 3. The $70 control-ler connects with Bluetooth 2.1 and is rated to last 40 hours on two AA batteries. Game on. —SUSIE OCHS If your monitor or iMac is propped up on paper…come on, you can do better than that. Satechi’s F3 Smart Monitor Stand (satechi.net) is reasonably priced at $45, plus it has a built-in four-port USB 3.0 hub along with ports for your head-phones and microphone, so you don’t have…

In November, Microsoft released a new version of Office for iOS that unifies the user experience across all devices—great and small—and opens the door to free editing and content creation, whether you have an Office 365 account or not. This new Microsoft Office for iOS suite includes Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Previously, there were two versions of Office for iOS devices: The nearly useless Office Mobile for iPhone and the nearly perfect Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad. This release (go.macworld.com/iosoffice) unifies the Office user experience across all iOS devices capable of running iOS 7 or newer and introduces a preview version of the Office apps for Android tablets. While Office Mobile for iPhone lacked every feature necessary to make it useful on your iPhone, Microsoft’s camp insists that the…

PRODUCTIVITY APP The latest iOS produtcs reviewed & Rated Spoiler Alert: Omni Focus 2 for iPad isn’t for everyone. If all you need to keep track of is a grocery list and a few one-off tasks each day, Omni Focus isn’t really the task manager you are looking for. On the other hand, if you juggle multiple areas of responsibility, and frequently need to break down large projects into more manageable steps, Omni Focus will keep your life organized, and turn you into a productive, task-obliterating machine. Omni Focus 2 for iPad represents the last piece of the Omni Focus pie being updated to version 2, bringing the app in line with Omni Focus 2 for Mac and iPhone. Yes, that means that to use Omni Focus across all your…

SPECK The iGuy (all iPad mini models; $30; speckproducts.com) features a playful buddy-like design, with two big handles on each side for easy holding. Designed with the little ones in mind, this flexible case doubles as a stand in landscape orientation, features a soft foam material for additional protection and easier handling, and comes in lime, mango, chill pepper red, grape purple, or caribbean blue. ILUV The Urban Folio (iPair Air 2; $30; iluv.com) sports an elegant, classic design with emphasis on all-around protection. Soft and smooth to the touch, the black or pink case features an elastic closure, doubles as a viewing stand in landscape orientation, and provides precise cutouts for all of your tablet’s ports and cameras. KENSINGTON The SafeGrip (iPad Air; $55; kensington.com) is a tough padded…

Caitlin, New York: My first Apple Pay experience was a late-night food run, because why not? My partner was craving a snack after watching the San Francisco Giants handily defeat the Kansas City Royals. After we got off the subway, we headed toward the closest food option that was still open: Conveniently enough, it was McDonald’s. I’m not much for fast food, but I’ll happily buy someone else a giant pack of McNuggets—plus, it was the perfect chance to test out Apple Pay. We ordered, I held my phone near the card reader, and the process was over almost before it even began. “Did it go through?” I asked the cashier. She nodded, excited to see Apple Pay in action. “Others here have seen it, but you’re my first customer…

Haptic technology—haptics (go.macworld.com/haptic)—uses force upon the skin to deliver real-time tactile feedback. These physical sensations are created by tiny motors called actuators. Done right, haptics can mimic the feeling of a pin prick by a wearable that tracks your blood sugar, simulate the plucking of virtual guitar strings on a tablet screen, or re-create the physical recoil of a phaser from your favorite game controller. To date, the technology has been held back by a lack of real-time accuracy. This is why even though we are surrounded by billions of computer screens, widespread consumer use of haptics has been limited. Several companies are working to improve accuracy (go.macworld.com/improve), so that you literally feel exactly what you expect when you tap an image on your screen or open a virtual door…

The reaction to iTunes 12 and its rejiggered interface was predictable. While some found the Yosemite-like look less cluttered and easier to navigate, others were confounded by the feature reshuffling and redesign. Each opinion has its merits, but few people would argue that iTunes is perfect. And that invites the obvious question: If iTunes in its current form (and past several forms) is imperfect, what can be done with it? This set me thinking So. Many. Features. A common rejoinder to complaints about iTunes is to love it or leave it—if you don’t care for it, use a different media manager. But it’s a short-sighted suggestion unless you think of iTunes only as a simple media jukebox. Sure, iTunes can wear that hat, but it handles far more tasks, including:…

If all you want to do is play music from your phone in the car, cheap and easy solutions abound, from a regular audio cable, to picking up a head unit with Bluetooth (go.macworld.com/wirecutter). Fancy in-dash “infotainment” systems promise more, combining music, navigation, and hands-free communication. But the few I’ve sampled have had clunky interfaces that made me go right back to performing those tasks with my phone—yes, I’m that jerk futzing with her phone at stoplights until you honk at me to go. Apple’s CarPlay software (go.macworld.com/carplay1) is intended to bridge the chasm between your iPhone and your car stereo, letting you access Maps, Messages, Music, and more, including compatible third-party apps like Spotify, Beats Music, Rdio, and iHeartRadio. CarPlay has a lot going for it—all the data it…

Adobe’s consumer-level, hobbyist-targeted image editor, Photoshop Elements, has long been a great next step for those who’ve outgrown iPhoto. It’s great for beginners, yet it gives your skills room to grow—plus it plays nicely with Photoshop Lightroom and is available with a perpetual license. Elements 13 isn’t the most feature-packed upgrade ever, but it’s now Retina display-happy and it’s got some timely new stuff for beginners: creating a personalized Facebook Cover image, crop suggestions, variations on Quick mode’s effects, a new selection refinement tool, three Guided Edits for converting photos to black and white, plus tutorials that are more easily discoverable. There’s even a new Photomerge Compose command that steps you through copying an item in one photo and pasting it into another, with matching lighting, to boot! However, the…

With Mac OS X Yosemite, Apple has largely left Dashboard behind. Instead, it’s replaced the tired apps that once lurked to the left of the home screen with polished and useful widgets in the updated Notification Center. To access these widgets, just click on Notification Center in the top-right of the Mac’s menu bar or, if you’re using a trackpad, swipe left with two fingers from the right edge and, in no time, you’ll be checking the weather, performing some quick math, or zipping through your email. Although Notification widgets are new with Yosemite, several developers have already jumped on board by adding widget support to their apps. To add a widget, just open Notification Center, click the Edit button, and click the plus (+) button next to the widget…

SECURITY SOFTWARE IF YOU’RE A FREQUENT Macworld reader, the topic of “good” passwords is unlikely to be new to you. My colleagues and I never seem to tire of recommending the use of a password manager to help com You keeps tabs on your digital secret handshakes –alongside other bits of private data like credit card numbers—and avoid falling into bad practices that can have dire consequences on everything from your job to your finances. Luckily, Apple’s software ecosystem suffers from no shortage of apps dedicated to this very goal; among these, AgileBits’ 1Password has always occupied a genre-defining role as one of the most compre-hensive solutions available. Their latest release, 1Password 5.0, is no exception. IN WITH THE NEW One of the hardest feats to pull off in software…

The Latest on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and App Store Don’t be fooled: iOS 8.1 (go.macworld.com/ios8.1) is no mere “dot” release. This rapid update from Apple is chock-full of great new features, several of which could change how you work, shop, and share. iOS 8.1 is available for the iPhone 4S and later, iPad 2 and later, and iPod touch (5th generation) and later—although many of its standout features are only compatible with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad mini 3. To get this latest release, go to Settings → General → Software Update. To take advantage of the many Continuity (go.macworld.com/continuityios8.1) features included with iOS 8.1, make sure to also install OS X Yosemite on your Mac OSX. Read on to learn the…

With the news that Microsoft is making all of its mobile Office apps free—the iPad and upcoming Android tablet versions—you knew there had to be some caveats. Of course, Microsoft still wants users to consider an Office 365 subscription, so in addition to offering unlimited cloud storage for subscribers, it’s also putting some of Office’s more advanced features behind the paywall. We reached out to Microsoft and got the full rundown on what will be free, and what will require a subscription. Here’s the high-level overview: Phone and tablet users will be able to view, create and edit documents for free, and they’ll be able to sync those documents with Dropbox or OneDrive cloud storage. Certain advanced editing features, such as the ability to accept or reject Track Changes in…

YOU SHOULD PLAY IT’S RARE TO FIND A MOBILE GAME that’s as simple, refined, and free as Gree’s new side-scroller, el. El is an effortless take on the side-scrolling flying game with beautiful artwork and a powerfully moving plotline. You play as El, a young boy who wakes up in a mysterious, “forgotten prison,” and “flies off in search of purpose” with the help of a magical umbrella. The game uses simple touchscreen mechanics—to open the umbrella and lift El into the air, you tap and hold the right side of the screen. To manipulate the wind and create a draft, you swipe side-to-side on the left side of the screen. Although most levels can be completed without much draft-work, it’s a useful technique if you’re interested in avoiding tricky…

TWO COASTS, 10 DAYS Apple Pay’s eventful early days were full of highs and lows. Excited iPhone users rushed to test the mobile payment service on day one and found it to be superseamless. At the same time, cashier confusion (go.macworld.com/cashier,) Bank of America’s double-charging foul-up, and Rite Aid’s and CVS’s move to block support for Apple Pay by disabling NFC recognition (go.macworld.com/cvsriteaid) marred the rollout, but a major product launch is never smooth. And who knew CurrentC, a QR code–based app that isn’t even on the market yet, would turn into such a huge thing (go.macworld.com/currentc?) As early reviews poured in, Macworld hit the streets of San Francisco and New York City to give the service a real-life test run in two vastly different environments. We didn’t try to…

Leah, San Francisco: Using Apple Pay within apps on your iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, or iPad mini 3 can vastly change the checkout experience, depending on the app. I used it to pay for a Lyft ride and to buy a top through Spring. Both of these apps already had a supersmooth checkout process, so on my end, Apple Pay didn’t feel very different. For Lyft, you have to preset your Apple Pay account as your default method of payment before you hail your ride. Once your ride is over, you add your tip and pay as usual, only this time you’re prompted for a Touch ID thumbprint. Spring (shopspring.com) is my favorite shopping app and has been since it launched—its Instagram-esque approach to following brands…

It’s been four long years since Microsoft released the last version of Office for the Mac, in 2010. And it will be one more before the next version arrives, Microsoft said Friday. But to tide you over until then, there’s a new version of Outlook. Although Microsoft released the latest version of its email client on Friday, the roadmap to the next version of Office is the real news. In the first half of 2015, Microsoft will release a public beta version of Office for Mac, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. In the second half of 2015, the company said, Microsoft will ship the final version. Current Office 365 subscribers will be able to upgrade for free, as expected; Microsoft also said that it would ship a “perpetual…

It’s been two years since the last major update to iTunes, with changes I called “the most radical alterations to the program’s interface since its inception.” I could use those same words to describe iTunes 12, which features yet another interface overhaul. But the other shock is that iTunes 12 is light on new features, just a Recently Added section in some views, and a new Get Info window, along with some minor changes to device syncing. It almost begs the question: Without new features, is it really necessary to alter the look and navigation of iTunes every couple of years? iTunes 12 feels like essentially the same app as iTunes 11, only less intuitive. NAVIGATION CHANGES In order to explain where the new Recently Added section shows up, I…

Now that ghosts and goblins have cleared the way for the turkeys and reindeer, the prime holiday picture-taking season is upon us. To avoid getting disappointing photos that you can’t reshoot, you can follow these tips to increase your photographic prowess and take better pictures with any camera…including your iPhone. HALF-PRESS YOUR SHUTTER BUTTON If you remember just one thing from this column, remember this: Always half-press your camera’s shutter button before taking the shot. This tells your camera which area to focus on and lets it calculate how to best capture your scene’s lighting. When you hear two quick beeps, depress the shutter button to capture the shot. On an iPhone, tap the desired focal-point on your screen; a little yellow box appears around the item when you do.…

If you need proof of Apple’s waning interest in consumer video editing on the Mac, look no further than the latest iMovie update, whose most noteworthy recent “feature” is an “updated look for OS X Yosemite.” Thankfully, Adobe is all too happy to pick up this torch and run with it, thanks to a new annual update to Premiere Elements. Last year’s version awkwardly coupled the software to the cloud by way of Adobe Revel (a union which remains sadly untouched 12 months later), but also introduced features like Guided Edits, which provided step-by-step guidance for video editing tasks. Adobe Premiere Elements 13 follows suit with more of the same, turning home videos from blasé to blockbuster. FAVORITE MOMENTS By far my favorite feature of PE13 is Favorite Moments. Perfectly…