Macworld Australiaの December 2015 の目次

GOOGLE MAKES ITS AI SOFTWARE OPEN SOURCE Google’s TensorFlow is the machine learning tool it developed to automate many of the repetitive actions we take for granted when using a Google service. For example, it’s the technology behind facial recognition – the ability to see pictures of two different faces and recognise that they are the same person. TensorFlow replaces Google’s existing machine learning tool. It’s faster, smarter and more flexible than its old system, making it more adaptable as new products and research come to light. According to Google, TensorFlow will be a port of everything from speech recognition to search and even its recently released Smart Reply function in Gmail that automatically responds to your email for you. While many companies assiduously guard such technology, Google sees great…

In 2002, Apple fired its corporate PR manager for prematurely releasing a Gartner study that found the usage and total cost of ownership around 10,000 PCs and Macs at Melbourne University was about 36 percent less expensive to maintain than PC-based networks. For those involved in system support, that’s probably not a big surprise. Fast-forward to today and we’re hearing a similar story. However, this time we’re hearing it from IBM – Apple’s onetime mortal enemy (at least if you believe everything from the excellent movie The Pirates of Silicon Valley). IBM is planning to deploy up to 200,000 per year according to IBM’s CIO Jeff Smith. During Apple’s most recent earnings call, Luca Maestri, SVP and chief financial officer, said, “There are currently over 30,000 Macs deployed within the…

Your Mac gets a bit slow and creaky as it gets older, and we can probably all identify with that. Unlike with our stupid, weak-willed bodies, though, we don’t have to accept our Macs’ slowing down and eventual obsolescence as a crashing inevitability. There is a lot you can do to breathe new life into your ageing computer to extend its useful life, and though some options cost money – albeit vastly less money than it would take to buy a new Mac – many are free. This isn’t about those wacky, cutesy projects to turn your iMac G3 into a fish tank or a Cube into a tissue dispenser, nor is it about celebrating the Zen of using an old, slow Mac that’s cut off from the internet as…

WHAT YOU CAN’T AND CAN DO Before you start there are a couple of things that you can’t do. First off, it’s not possible to boot your Mac into Recovery mode and revert to Yosemite, because this method can only be used for reinstalling the system that’s currently on the Mac, which in this case is El Capitan. Second, you can’t run the Yosemite installer within El Capitan, because the Mac always wants to have the latest version of OS X. What you can do is erase the beta of El Capitan, reinstall Yosemite and then restore your original pre-El Capitan data from the Time Machine backup you made before you installed El Capitan. Before you begin, make a backup of any new files you’ve recently added in El Capitan…

After years of being a hobby project, Apple signalled how serious it’s becoming about the lounge room with its new Apple TV. Officially called Apple TV 4, this new lounge room entertainment hub, while not perfect, shows the potential to change the way we access media and games. I connected a new 64GB Apple TV to a 4K TV. That internal storage is critical as the new Apple TV, unlike all its predecessors, now has access to its own App Store. So that space will be used for installing apps, as well as holding the operating system. Other than a power cable and HDMI connection – that’s it. All up, from removing the shrink-wrap from the box to having the tvOS on screen it took but a few minutes –…

Introducing URSA Mini, a handheld Super 35 digital film camera with an incredible 4.6K image sensor, global shutter and a massive 15 stops of dynamic range! The super compact and lightweight design is perfectly balanced, making it comfortable enough for all day shooting. URSA Mini lets you shoot at up to 60fps, features a 5" foldout viewfinder, dual RAW and ProRes recorders, and more! Incredible 4.6K Sensor URSA Mini can capture images at a resolution and dynamic range that goes well beyond that of traditional motion picture film so you can shoot your own epic, cinematic masterpiece! You can capture images up to 4608 x 2592, which is larger than 4K DCI, with 15 stops of dynamic range so you get incredibly clean pictures with amazing detail in everything from…

Backing up a Mac with a terabyte or two of internal storage poses no particular challenge. Creative professionals, however, tend to generate massive quantities of new photo, video or audio files on a daily basis, resulting in multiple terabytes of data that may require a more elaborate backup approach. SPLIT DECISION My first recommendation for creative pros is to think of your backups as two separate operations: one for your large media files (which may be on external storage anyway), and one for everything else. You can tell Time Machine to exclude a folder or volume that stores your media files by opening System Preferences > Time Machine, clicking Options, dragging the item to the list, and clicking Save; most other backup software offers a similar capability. By doing this,…

When you come to a fork in the road, take it, Yogi Berra is alleged to have said. Microsoft chose this bon mot to guide its Windows 8 strategy, converging mobile and desktop. And now the new iPad Pro sits beside the 12in MacBook to suggest Apple is approaching that very same fork. I was confused during Apple’s introduction of the iPad Pro, which has a display so large it can nearly fit two iPad Air 2s side by side. The Pro’s focus on drawing seems highly specialised. And despite some other productivity features, the iPad Pro doesn’t seem to have a natural audience. Yes, it has amazing specs, but can a bigger, pencil and keyboard compatible iPad really be the answer to Apple’s stalled tablet sales? But don’t get…

There’s nothing like printing your own photography, though adorning your walls with your own art can be intimidating. A safe way to print – and thus enjoy – your digital memories is to create a calendar in Photos for OS X. At 33 by 25cm, Apple’s calendars are big and printed on thick, high-quality paper so they look better than the ones you get anywhere else. They’re stunning and they make great gifts. The calendars you create in Photos can be customised in myriad ways. You can choose from a variety of themes, customise the look of each page, add captions and national holidays, pull events from your Calendar app, and plop pictures onto individual date squares (great for birthdays!). You’re not stuck with a 12-month calendar either – you…

Looking back over the year, I can’t believe how much has happened. We’ve seen new products from Apple and significant updates on existing ones. The company has continued to grow and also invest in the future. On the local front, Jonathan Stewart moved on from the editor’s chair at Macworld Australia and the sceptre was passed on to me. Here’s the year that was! NEW PRODUCTS Without a doubt, Apple’s ‘hero’ product for 2016 is the Apple Watch. Apple took its time entering the wearables market and, unlike most of the other entrants to the market, which had a focus on fitness and well-being or notifications, Apple used its control of the hardware and software, as well as its immense manufacturing expertise to design and create a device that tried…

Security vendor FireEye has found “210 enterprises with XcodeGhost-infected applications running inside their networks, generating more than 28,000 attempts to connect to the XcodeGhost Command and Control (CnC) servers”. In addition, the vendor has also detected a vulnerability targeting ads that may be injected into iOS apps. XCODEGHOST S XcodeGhost was first seen when app developers in China used compromised versions of Xcode to create apps. They did this as access to the official versions published by Apple was difficult given China’s tight restrictions on internet use. Consequently, Chinese developers used pirated versions of the free developer tools that were distributed within China. Unfortunately, malware was injected into the pirated versions of Xcode. When XcodeGhost first appeared, Apple was quick to remove infected apps from the App Store. FireEye’s analysis…

Apple CEO Tim Cook caused a minor kerfuffle recently while promoting the iPad Pro in an interview with a UK newspaper when he asked, “Why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?” The question baffled Mac users, and seemed to suggest that Apple may, one day, phase out the Mac – or combine it with the iPad to make a hybrid device similar to Microsoft’s new Surface Book. Cook clarified the meaning behind his question in a new interview with the Irish Independent, telling the newspaper that Macs and PCs are not the same. Snark on PCs aside, Cook said he understands that some people need desktops and notebooks while, for others, a powerful tablet like the iPad Pro will suffice. “We feel strongly…

Apple Music’s free three-month trial, which began when the service launched on 30 June, is winding down for those who signed up early on. Now it’s time to decide whether Apple deserves your monthly payment, or if you should return to the streaming service you abandoned for the last three months with your head hung low in shame. For some, the decision was made shortly after the trial began, when iCloud Music Library ran roughshod over carefully curated iTunes catalogues. For others, the marriage of purchased tracks with streaming ones is the ultimate music solution. There were some early bugs that have been mostly worked out and, almost six months in, it’s time to decide whether to pay up or split. So, let’s break down the pros and cons of…

When OS X shipped on a DVD you always had the convenience of a bootable installer – an OS X installer that could be used to boot your Mac if its own drive was having problems. But to install or reinstall a recent version of OS X, you must either download a nonbootable installer from the Mac App Store or (via OS X’s invisible, bootable recovery partition) download 6GB of installer data from Apple’s servers during the installation process. In other words, you no longer have the same safety net or convenience. This is why I recommend creating your own bootable El Capitan (OS X 10.11) installer drive on an external hard drive or USB thumb drive. If you need to install El Capitan on multiple Macs, using a bootable…

Sonos makes it simple to enjoy your favourite music around your home. You can group the speakers into zones – playing the same song in sync throughout the house during a party. Afterwards you can mix things up and play different songs in different rooms when family members go their separate ways. The speakers create their own 5GHz wireless mesh network, letting you control everything from your computer, smartphone or tablet. You can stream music from a wide range of subscription services – with Apple Music support coming by the end of the year. Unlike connecting your iGadget to a single AirPlay speaker, you can stream online music to multiple Sonos speakers simultaneously. You can’t send music directly to a Sonos speaker via Bluetooth or AirPlay, but the speakers show…