Macworld Australia June 2014

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…