Inhaltsverzeichnis für June 2014 in Macworld Australia

It is June and that means Apple is preparing for the first event of 2014, the first peek into the tech giant’s yearly plan and, fingers crossed, a number of new products. While Apple has updated its MacBook Air lineup (reviewed on Page 59) in April, Tim Cook has explained the current financial state of the company to a crowded auditorium of journalists twice and the Apple legal team has been in the media over patent disputes with Samsung, Apple is yet to bring real excitement to the madly awaiting throng of people hungry for new product and software revelations. The series of new apps from Microsoft, reviewed in this issue from Page 60, are an exciting addition to the App Store for business-minded iPad owners and everyday users of…

I was just wondering if one of the reasons we haven’t seen an iWatch yet was that it hasn’t had a real reason for being. Yes, you could make a sports watch better, but Apple wouldn’t just want to make its own version of what everyone else was doing. In addition, one of the ways to tell ‘young people’ from us older folks is that the younger people tend not to wear watches at all. All of our fantastic technology means that they are always aware of the time – and accurately so. However, I have noticed many people wearing several security ‘dog tags’ to get them through various buildings in an office complex or hospital, for example. Swipe here and swipe there. In addition, many modern apartment buildings have…

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SPREADSHEETS If your job requires you to do anything substantial with numbers, chances are good that you use a spreadsheet app to do it. For most of us the choice comes down to Microsoft’s Excel 2011, Apple’s Numbers (version 3.2) or the browser-based Sheets portion of Google Docs. Whichever app you use, the question is: How well do you know how to use it, really? I came up with the following list of things that I think every savvy spreadsheet jockey – not beginners, but people who’ve been using one of these apps for a while – should know. I’m not talking about any specific task. Rather, these are the general techniques and concepts that you should know in order to graduate from casual…

NAME MANGLER 3 UTILITIES Many Tricks $23.99 If you deal with lots of files, there are surely times when you have to rename a whole bunch of them at the same time. Name Mangler lets you do just this in a variety of ways. The app’s renaming modes include Find and Replace, Sequence, Add Prefix or Add Suffix, Insert; Remove, Change Case and Advanced. The last one lets you create new filenames using a kind of scripting language that supports constants and functions, including logical connectors such as ‘if’, ‘and’, ‘not’ and ‘or’. If you’re a power user, and you’re willing to put in the time to learn the Advanced mode, Name Mangler will be your renamer of choice. Even if you aren’t, you may prefer it for the relative…

OS X has a set of systemwide text-manipulation tools, but they aren’t necessarily easy to find, and their functions may not be obvious in some instances. Right-click or Control-click in an app’s editing window to see the available tools. Some of these settings are also available from the Edit menu. Here’s a look at some of the menu items below the familiar Cut, Copy and Paste options. Fonts. From the Font menu, you can choose the font for your document (Show Fonts) and set formatting, such as Bold and Italic. You can also use styles – preset combinations of font, size and formatting – with some text editors. Spelling and Grammar. To toggle OS X’s spelling checker and grammar checker on or off, select the Spelling and Grammar menu and…

LaCie CloudBox The LaCie CloudBox comes with desktop software to automatically back up files from your Mac, or you can simply point your Time Machine backups at this network drive. You can access the drive across your home network as a standard Samba network share, as well as copy files to it via AFP (advanced function presentation) or S/FTP (secure file transfer protocol). For an extra level of protection, the CloudBox can back up its contents to LaCie’s affiliated cloud storage service Wuala. It’s a handy option, but not the cheapest – starting at around $4.50 per month for only 20GB. It’s frustrating that you can’t use alternatives such as Dropbox or Google Drive. As a consumer-focused NAS, the CloudBox is designed to be the hub of your multimedia library…

It took less than five minutes of using Word for iPad to have an overwhelming first impression: I hope Word on every platform becomes what Word on the iPad is. Sleek, uncluttered, well-organised and beautiful, Word for iPad is impressive. An app that encompasses everything great about the desktop application, with none of the clutter. If Word for iPad is in your future, it’s an app I expect you’ll love to use. At the outset, it’s important to note that Word for iPad is different from any version of any Office application you’ve used before. Which is to say, while you can download this app for free, it requires a subscription if you want to use it for anything other than viewing Word documents. A 30-day trial is available also.…

Rather than sticking its head in the sand, Foxtel seems keen to embrace the internet. It already offers the Foxtel Play subscription, providing stripped-down Foxtel packages, which can be watched on a wide range of home entertainment gear along with computers and tablets. Now it’s launched Presto, a separate subscription service which offers all-you-can eat access to Foxtel’s movie library, but no television shows – at least not at this point. Presto draws on around 1000 movies from a range of Foxtel movie channels, including the Premiere channel, which picks up movies around nine months after they’ve been released in the cinemas. This means you’ll find recent movies on Presto that are still overnight rentals on competing subscription services like Quickflix (which admittedly is only $9.99 per month). Unlike Quickflix,…

What should launch at WWDC? JONATHAN STEWART RETINA MBA I would love to see MacBook Airs with Retina displays. The lightweight laptops would become the ultimate portable and complete the Mac lineup. MADELEINE SWAIN WEARABLES I’d like to see a brand new product – a wearable perhaps. If for no other reason than to at least pause the continual ’Apple doesn’t innovate anymore’ complaints. TYNAN McCARTHY iOS 8 It would be great to see what Apple has in store for its mobile platform. iOS 8 could be another big leap for Apple.…

A selection of Apple, Mac and iOS news from Macworld.com.au iPHONE UP, iPAD DOWN AS APPLE REPORTS STRONG SECOND-QUARTER EARNINGS Even in a quarter that saw no product introductions, Apple boosted its sales and profits over the previous year. The company released its fiscal second-quarter earnings report in April, reporting revenue of US$45.6 billion and a net profit of US$10.2 billion. Those numbers were up from the second quarter of 2013, when Apple tallied US$43.6 billion in revenue and US$9.5 billion in net profit. The iPhone juggernaut. iPhone sales were up 17 percent compared to the second quarter last year (43.7 million phones sold versus 37.4 million the year before). Revenues from the smartphones were up, too, from US$22.95 billion to US$26.06 billion, an increase of 13 percent. The iPhone…

It’s easy – so very easy – to point at proclaimers of Apple’s doom without an iWatch and laugh. But it’s worth thinking about why people who make similar assertions about Apple (and the tech industry as a whole) are so completely clueless. THE BOREDOM FACTOR I think there are two reasons for the cluelessness. Reason number one. People want to be entertained. For the past few years, the technology industry has been supremely entertaining. New tech products, even entirely new product categories, that change the way we live? Super-exciting. The iPod, iPhone and iPad have definitely been those. Steve Jobs was the master in converting the slow, often dull march of technological progress into shows in which world-changing innovation seemed to take place live on stage. Reason number two.…

Australian made – it’s a slogan we should be proud of. Despite our relatively small population, we punch well above our weight in many areas. One that doesn’t get a lot of attention is software development. It can be a tough market to crack. In a world where Flappy Bird can become a huge hit with mediocre, or should we say ‘retro’-style, graphics, it can be hard to get a foothold. Apple’s iOS App Store passed the million app mark last October and the number of OS X apps, both in the App Store and distributed independently is almost impossible to count. Among all those apps, there is a lot of repetition and some apps that were perhaps best left on the drawing board. So, what are local developers doing?…

In an ideal listening environment, with perfect music files and perfect headphones, you wouldn’t need to boost bass or tweak treble – so your iOS device wouldn’t need an equaliser (EQ). But most of us spend time listening through less-than-perfect headphones on the train, at the gym, on city streets and in other situations that from an aural perspective are less than ideal. That’s where EQ can make a big difference. EQ adjusts audio signals at particular frequencies, relative to other frequencies. A person with fairly good ears has a hearing range of 20Hz to 20kHz (20,000Hz), with bass residing in the lower frequencies and treble tones at the higher end of the range. When you apply EQ to music, you can raise or lower specific frequencies. iOS’S BUILT-IN EQ…

Building and designing techprotective gear since 1998 near Sydney’s Bondi Beach, STM has continued to produce laptop bags that suit the modern tech-junkie. The STM trust, a part of the company’s new Annex range, is another laptop messenger bag for the fully equipped Apple fan. With a padded sleeve for laptops up to 13in, a padded sleeve for iPads, and a softlined and departmentalised pocket for multiple smartphones and/or iPods, the trust offers protection and access for all portable Apple gear. The front of the messenger bag is a series of overlapping compartments; the first two can be zipped shut, while the third is the spacious main compartment. The outside pocket is where I would store my smartphone, with two equally divided departments, a soft lining and easy access. The…

There are any number of spreadsheet apps available for the iPad, but the market changed dramatically when Microsoft released the full Office suite for iPad, including a version of Excel. While you can argue that Excel is many years late to the iPad party (and I wouldn’t disagree), the iPad version of Excel is a solid entrant, and instantly changes the landscape for competitive apps. THE INTERFACE For a company with a history of not doing well with touch, the interface in Excel for iPad is surprisingly well thought out. The window features six small buttons across the top of the screen, along with five words that are actually tabs on the yes-there’s-a-ribbon. But, unlike desktop Excel, where I often find the ribbon too big and too cluttered, the ribbon…

Software writer Who are you, and what do you do? I spent my formative years at the University of Michigan, hacking on operating systems and other projects. Since then, I’ve worked on infrastructure at Google and Twitter. What hardware do you use? I use a 13in Retina MacBook Pro. At work, I hook it up to a 27in Dell display and use a wireless Evoluent VerticalMouse and an Apple Wireless Keyboard. I also have a Linux box running Ubuntu. It mostly does builds, benchmarking and other periodic tasks. I use an iPhone 5 and an iPad. At work, I listen to music with Beyerdynamic DT 1350 headphones, when it’s quiet enough or with Bose QuietComfort 15s. And what software? I used to be quite exacting about my software environment. I…

AN EXTRA YEAR I would like the people of Australia to know that if they have a problem with any Apple product, and it happens outside the 12-month warranty, please don’t worry. As long as the problem has happened within 24 months, take it back to Apple and they should either fix it, or replace the product for you. I found this on the ACCC website: In the undertaking Apple has publicly acknowledged that, without limiting consumers rights’, Apple will provide its own remedies equivalent to those remedies in the consumer guarantee provisions of the ACCC at any time within 24 months of the date of purchase. Don’t be afraid to go to the Genius Bar and escalate the matter if need be, because we, as consumers, have rights. If…

In Berri for work, a town 238 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, Don Giles captured a kaleidoscopic sunrise across the Murray River with his iPhone 5 and was nice enough to share the result with us all. So how did Don come to be on the edge of the Murray so early in the morning? “I was out for an early morning run while away on a work trip. I just had to stop and try and capture the feel and beauty of the landscape at that very moment. “The way the small amount of light from the early morning sunrise was able to illuminate the river and surroundings just enough to give it an almost oil painting appearance. The colours and calmness of the landscape really captured my attention.” The…

Sol Republic Tracks AIR The first pair of wireless headphones from Sol Republic and Motorola, the Tracks AIR cans offer Bluetooth and NFC (near field communication) pairing, multi-device connectivity, a 15-hour battery and a wireless range of 45 metres. The Sol Republic headphones are available in Ice White, Gunmetal, Electro Blue and Vivid Red, and allow wearers to answer calls with the aid of two microphones. Sol Republic / $299 / www.ehifi.com.au Hex Gallery waist pack The Gallery is a stylish waist pack that sports enough room for your iPad mini, a smartphone and plenty of accessories. Both the main compartment and front pocket are zippered and padded for safety and the US$49 bag is finished with a special water-resistant finish that keeps bad weather (and accidental spills) at bay.…

THE WOLF AMONG US EPISODE TWO: SMOKE AND MIRRORS GAMES Telltale Inc iPHONE & iPAD $6.49 The Wolf Among Us is an adventure in five parts where you play Bigby Wolf, sheriff of Fabletown and once the Big Bad Wolf. Episode Two: Smoke and Mirrors picks up directly after the events of Episode One and largely focuses on dealing with the fallout. The visuals continue to present a brooding atmosphere that pulls you in. An excellent soundtrack and good animations once again contribute to making Fabletown feel authentic and believable. The Wolf Among Us Episode Two: Smoke and Mirrors is a compelling game, with its mixture of character exploration, crime-scene solving, humour and violence. It can feel rushed at times and not as full as the first episode, but is…

! SEARCH TEXT IN GOOGLE THROUGH CONTEXTUAL MENUS Unlike with the Mac, in iOS there is no way to select text and search for it on Google in a new tab. There is, however, a workaround that brings about the same result on iOS. Select text in Safari to bring up the context menu on iOS and then tap on Define. This brings up the dictionary panel for the selected text. If you’ve selected a word that is not in the dictionary, multiple words or usually even if the word that is in the dictionary, on the bottom right there is Search Web button. Tapping it will open a new tab with a Google search for the selected text. This is equivalent to selecting text, copying, opening new tab and…

There’s not much new about Apple’s updated MacBook Air lineup. Fortunately, the Air was already a top-notch portable computer. And while the faster processor did help the new MacBook Air in our application tests, the flash storage didn’t always perform as well as we’ve come to expect. The latest MacBook Air models are available in four standard configurations, two with 11.6in screens, and two with 13.3in screens. All four configurations have the same Intel 1.4GHz dual-core Core i5 processor, which is 100MHz faster than the 1.3GHz dual-core Core i5 processor found in the mid-2013 MacBook Air. Everything else about new MacBook Air is the same as last year’s model: 4GB of DDR3 memory, Intel HD 5000 integrated graphics, and either 128GB or 256GB of PCIeconnected flash storage. Prices start at…

Microsoft’s PowerPoint for iPad finally makes it possible to open, edit, create and present native PowerPoint files on your iPad, no file conversion required. This is a huge benefit for anyone who frequently uses PowerPoint on a Mac or PC, but likes the iPad’s portability. But comparisons with PowerPoint for OS X on the one hand, and Apple’s Keynote on the other make it clear that, though PowerPoint for iPad is very nice as far as it goes, it doesn’t go far enough. Like the other Office for iPad apps, PowerPoint requires you to have an Office 365 subscription. Each subscription includes access to OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage solution, which you’ll need to transfer files to and from your iPad. (You can also add a SharePoint location.) Alternatively, if another…