Inhaltsverzeichnis für June 2016 in Macworld Australia

Each month, I receive quite a few emails from readers of Macworld Australia. Some are requests for assistance, others are comments on articles we’ve published and others are questions about the content in the magazine. As I’ve just clicked over a year in the editor’s chair, I thought it was a good time to reflect on our magazine. I see my role as editor as being the current custodian of Macworld Australia. That means bringing together the best content I can for each issue of the magazine to meet your needs. The big challenge there is that, despite the magazine being called Macworld Australia, the magazine has, for most of its existence been about Apple products. When Apple pretty much only made computers, this made sense. Until 2001, when the…

KEEP WAITING FOR THE APPLE CAR The speculation over an ‘Apple car’ (Macworld Australia, April) is getting lots of people excited, but to suggest that the first demonstration models could appear in ‘late 2017’ and production models in 2019 is completely fanciful and totally misunderstands the time it takes to get a car from concept to production. Tesla Motors is the closest ‘start-up’ parallel we have to a potential Apple Car. Tesla was incorporated in 2003 and delivered its first hand-built car, the Roadster, in 2008. It took the company five years to get a very expensive and low production run vehicle out of the door. Since 2008, it has delivered approximately 125,000 vehicles in total, with production only ramping up to 50,000 vehicles per year from 2015, with a…

This is the next chapter of our Profile Manager Primer series. While we haven’t yet talked specifically about Profile Manager since I mentioned it in the first instalment, every step we have taken thus far is an important foundation for working with Profile Manager. And I promise that after this instalment, we’ll turn Profile Manager on and go to work in earnest on managing devices. The last major step we need to take before turning on Profile Manager is turning on Server’s Open Directory service so that you can centrally manage network user accounts. Open Directory is required for using Profile Manager. If you’re not using a directory service, Open Directory is an excellent way to manage users in a small office environment. If you’re already using a directory service,…

VIDEOSLAM 1.2 PHOTOGRAPHY FieldApps iPHONE FREE There’s a good reason folks leave point-and-shoot digital cameras at home in a drawer most of the time these days. After all, iPhones take pictures matching or exceeding the quality of many standalone cameras, and smartphones offer mobile data connectivity from just about anywhere, so images can be shared as soon as they’re taken. Of course, if you want to spice things up by creating compilation videos instead of boring loved ones with hundreds of still photos, there are apps for that, but most require a passing knowledge of editing and the time it takes to put it all together. Now you can create compilation videos too in a matter of minutes with VideoSlam. I recently took VideoSlam for a spin, which aims to…

It’s a common criticism of iOS devices – there’s no way to expand the internal memory capacity or easily access data on other devices via simple USB exchange. The ADATA UE710 memory stick looks like a regular USB data device, but boasts both USB 3.0 connectivity and a Lightning connector so it can be connected to either your Mac or an appropriately equipped iOS device. It comes in three different capacities: 32GB, 64GB and 128GB. I connected the UE710 to my Mac mini and copied some movies and music to the device. Copy performance was excellent, with about 3GB of data copying in just a couple of minutes. To use the UE710 with an iOS device, I needed to install the free i-Memory app from the App Store. i-Memory gave…

ANTHONY CARUANA I’ve tried to give up my portable Mac, but there are some things I can’t do on iOS yet. Maybe one day, but not quite yet. MADELEINE SWAIN Pretty traditional here – still using iPad to consume and Mac to create. ALICIA PINNOCK While an iPad would be a nice addition to the family, my MacBook holds all my memories! MONIQUE BLAIR As much as I love the latest iPad Pro, I need my MacBook for my design work and could never give it up. I could, however, justify purchasing both!…

With the help of security researchers, Apple recently quickly blocked a cyber attack aimed at infecting Mac users with file-encrypting malware known as ransomware. The incident is believed to be the first Apple-focused attack using ransomware, which typically targets computers running Windows. Victims of ransomware are asked to pay a fee, usually in bitcoin, to get access to the decryption key to recover their files. Security company Palo Alto Networks wrote that it found the ‘KeRanger’ ransomware wrapped into Transmission, which is a free Mac BitTorrent client. Transmission warned on its website that people who downloaded the 2.90 version of the client “should immediately upgrade to 2.92”. SNEAKING PAST THE GATEKEEPER It was unclear how the attackers managed to upload a tampered with version of Transmission to the application’s website.…

A funny thing happened while I was reviewing the 9.7in iPad Pro. I forgot and left my computer at home and only brought the iPad to work. This wasn’t intentional. I wasn’t doing the ‘Can the iPad Pro replace my laptop?’ challenge. I tried that briefly with the 12.9in iPad Pro, and didn’t have the best results, constantly running into annoying little roadblocks and workarounds that slowed down my workflow. The reason I didn’t notice that my laptop wasn’t in my backpack that morning is simple: I’m carrying two iPads right now, both the 9.7in iPad Pro and its big old 12.9in sibling, and the larger iPad Pro is almost as big as my laptop. Yes, at 713g, the big iPad Pro is lighter than my 1.35kg 13in MacBook Air,…

Apple AirPlay An integral part of the Apple ecosystem, AirPlay makes it easy to fling music to the far reaches of your home. AirPlay streaming is built into Apple’s Airport Express Wi-Fi extenders, which have a combination analogue/optical digital output on the back for connecting to powered speakers and amplifiers. You can send audio to these speakers across your home Wi-Fi network, streaming from an iGadget, some Android apps, your Mac or a PC running iTunes. AirPlay is also built into the Apple TV, although the new 4th-gen Apple TV lacks a separate audio lineout and only features HDMI. Unlike Bluetooth, you don’t need to be in the same room as the speaker you’re streaming to – you’re only limited by the reach of your Wi-Fi network. AirPlay can also…

i Rig Blue Turn is a battery-powered Bluetooth device that turns pages on my Mac or iOS device. Designed with musicians in mind, it sits on the floor with two large arrow buttons, Up and Down. These are backlit, which allows easy control by foot in low light to flip silently through set lists or music scores completely hands-free. This is a big deal for musicians who turn their scores by hand during practice or performance. The sturdy plastic unit is powered by two AAA batteries and uses the Bluetooth for longer battery life. It can be set at start-up in any of three modes: page turning on an iOS device, page turning on a Mac, and page turning left and right. Blue Turn can be purchased individually or as…

Dear Subscriber This is a first for me, writing a piece for the publication, yet I have been involved with Macworld for over 25 years, starting out as a production coordinator and fast moving into the commercial area and in recent years as the publisher. Working with multiple editors over the years, many of whom you will remember fondly, starting with Osmund Iversen (and his crazy April fool’s jokes) followed by Matthew J C Powell, Macworld Australia has been a huge part of my career. And, while many of you have been loyal and passionate about reading Macworld over the years, I have been passionate about delivering it to you. You may be aware that print media as a whole has diminished substantially over recent years, many publications ceasing completely,…

MACSCAN 3 UTILITY SecureMac US$50 Mac users have been spoiled, historically having little to fear from those nasty Trojan horses, spyware and other malfeasants that create frequent headaches on Microsoft’s desktop operating system. But malware attacks are on the rise and OS X is no longer immune to such threats. According to a study from Bit9 and Carbon Black, 2015 was a banner year for malware on the Mac, with more than 1400 unique samples collected and analysed, a whopping five-fold increase over the previous five years combined. MacScan 3 is designed to identify and eradicate malware, spyware, Trojan horses and tracking cookies from your system. Rewritten from the ground up for OS X 10.8 and later, the software is well-organised and simple to use. Malware Scan and Internet Clutter…

! Securing the Apple Pencil I’ve read reviews of the iPad Pro with interest and noted complaints about the Pencil rolling around. There are some simple solutions. 1. The Easy-Peasy way: type the words ‘pencil grips’ into a browser and look at the images – a wide variety, but the main requirement is a flat side to prevent the Pencil rolling. Look for them in stationery stores or other shops, especially during the ‘Back to School’ promotions that happen during the year. 2. The Low-Tech way: Buy a cheap, plain, kitchen sponge, about 1cm thick. Cut a strip about 2cm wide by 6cm long. Bend it in half around the Pencil; hold it while you put on a line of an appropriate glue (I used Strongbond’s Clear Quick Grip Adhesive…

I spend a lot of time wearing headphones, working in the library, on aeroplanes and at other times when I want to enjoy some time alone. For that to work, I need headphones that are comfortable, do a good job of blocking ambient noise and let me enjoy the music I’m listening to. Plantronics has a long pedigree of delivering great audio for a number of different environments. The Plantronics Backbeat Pro+ are active noise-cancelling headphones that deliver excellent sound. Connectivity to the iPhone 6s I tested with was via either a 3.5mm cable – a technology that is rumoured to be on its way out, replaced by either Lightning or Bluetooth, in future iPhones – or via Bluetooth. The supplied 3.5mm cable has an inline controller that delivers volume…