Table of contents for May 2015 in Macworld Australia

It is with a heavy heart that I am leaving Macworld Australia. I have had a fantastic chance to delve into the Apple world with you all, but it is time I moved on to a new experience and focused my efforts on a new challenge. The Apple events, product reviews and ever-changing rumours will remain with me wherever I go and much of that has been the result of this community. I got a fantastic opportunity to work on Macworld Australia after a, possibly too-short, internship and I have enjoyed the ride ever since. So, before I am ejected from the Macworld Australia offices, I thought I would look back at the three years I have been here and document my five biggest Apple moments. 5. iPhone 5. The…

TARGETED PRODUCT In reference to Macworld Australia’s online article, ‘Why the new MacBook’s single port is all you really need’ (bit.ly/1BNvj1h), the last sentence sells the argument. It will likely be adequate for many users. Great. If you need more, buy something else. For me personally, I’m still grieving the loss off the optical drive, which I use seldom but appreciate when I’ve got a CD or DVD to install something from. I am old enough to remember when laptops became notebooks, when desktops didn’t have optical drives and some programs needed 30 floppy discs to do a full install (and HDDs were 40 MB, yes I did say Megabytes). I rejoiced in the addition of the CD drive in the early ’90s and again in 2000 when I bought…

Apple’s revelation of a single-port MacBook had been leaked months ahead of time. Still, many were in denial and remain so. From their perspective, which you can read in comments on articles, a single port is a nonstarter. They point to the many uses of a port besides charging its battery: to charge and sync iOS and other devices; for tethering a phone or tablet to use its cellular connection; to connect to monitors, printers and scanners; and more esoteric uses, like target disk mode, in which a laptop can be mounted as a disk on another Mac. In fact, that’s how I use my laptop! But here’s the thing: when you use technology versus write about it, you’re a pundit for yourself. Unless you make a special effort, your…

Taking an iOS screenshot ! Many OS X users know how to take a screenshot on their Mac, either by pressing Command-Shift-3/4 or via an application, but you can also take screenshots on your iOS device. To do this, simply press the Home button and the power button at the same time, the screen will flash black for a split-second and the image will appear in your Camera Roll. If your power button is broken, you can use the Accessibility settings. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and scroll down to AssistiveTouch and switch it on. Press the dot when it appears to open the option palette, select Device > More > Screenshot . Devon • EACH MONTH, STM gives a prize…

JONATHAN STEWART AFL Footy season is here and the best way to stay up-to-date is to dive into the official app. MADELEINE SWAIN GOLDEN DAYS RADIO The Golden Days Radio app – 'the music is heaven on 95.7' and it broadcasts my film reviews too (plug). TYNAN McCARTHY PODCASTS An oldie but a goodie. Just makes the commute to and from work that much easier. MONIQUE BLAIR BUBBLE MANIA Currently my favourite app on my phone is Bubble Mania. It definitely kills the time during the daily commutes to work.…

When you’re an Apple user it’s easy to become blasé about security, but malware and other security threats aren’t just for Windows and Android users to worry about. While hackers don’t tend to focus on Apple, history shows that Macs and iGadgets are not impervious to attack. It’s better to be safe than sorry. There’s no magic bullet when it comes to security. The best approach is to rely on layers of protection and ensure you keep up with the latest software patches. You’ll want to take extra precautions if you’re trying to keep children safe online. Finally, a healthy sense of paranoia is a great last line of defence against security threats that target human foibles rather than technical flaws. ON YOUR MAC You can break down security threats…

Apple’s recent announcement of the relaunched MacBook product line has been met with mixed reactions. With a CPU that sits it in the niche between high-powered notebook and tablets, it’s something of an ‘inbetweener’ – the sort of thing the late Steve Jobs said of devices like the iPhone 6 Plus. Perhaps the most interesting innovation has been Apple’s adoption of the new USB-C connector. This one connector can carry enough data and power to supply the needs of the modern notebook computer. But it’s not all plain sailing. A BRIEF HISTORY OF USB USB has been around since 1990 when it was introduced via the myriad different connectors available in computers of the time. USB-A is the rectangular connector that we’re most familiar with. Until now, the USB ports…

Apple’s Device Enrolment Program (DEP) is now officially available in Australia at CompNow. The family-run organisation has become the first IT provider to offer businesses and education institutions the program, which easily deploys and configures iOS and OS X devices. DEP, which is apart of the Apple Deployment Program (ADP) “provides a fast, streamlined way to deploy organisation-owned iPad and iPhone devices and Mac computers purchased directly from Apple, or from participating Apple Authorised Resellers or carriers”, explains Apple. CompNow, the first Authorised Apple Reseller in Australia explains, “Through combining your Device Management Software (MDM), your Volume Purchasing (VPP), and purchasing your hardware directly through CompNow, you can now enjoy true zero-touch configuration of your devices – both iOS and OS X.” VPP allows organisations a simple solution in purchasing,…

Introduced with OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, iCloud Drive is like having a personal hard disk on the internet. Files placed in iCloud Drive are automatically and invisibly synced ‘to the cloud’. Files already there that are edited are also synced as soon as you save. Syncing means that: • the file is copied to iCloud Drive online • the file is downloaded to the iCloud Drive of any Macs signed into the same Apple ID, and • the file is made accessible to iOS, and some iOS apps sync with iCloud Drive when you open them, while others grab a file from iCloud Drive when you request it. iCloud Drive must be activated on each iOS device and Mac you own. On your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch…

Fitbit Charge HR Fitbit is well and truly the largest player in the fitness tracker market, with as much as 70 percent of the market according to some reports. The Fitbit Charge HR is part of its latest set of updated products – the Fitbit Surge sport watch is the other major new product – and adds to its growing ecosystem. The Charge HR is a minimalist watch and fitness tracker. The simple display is black most of the time, but you can configure the device so that a single tap will display the time, your current heart rate, the number of steps you’ve taken today or one of several other metrics the Charge HR captures. Heart rate is captured by two lights that are at the heart of Fitbit’s…

APPLE GIVES STAMP OF APPROVAL TO NEW STEVE JOBS BIOGRAPHY Just when you thought you knew everything there was to know about Steve Jobs, a new book is about to set the record straight with some help from Apple. Becoming Steve Jobs, an unauthorised biography from Fast Company reporters Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, wasn’t given the stamp of approval from Jobs himself, but the book has plenty of support from Apple. CEO Tim Cook, design head Jony Ive and Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP of software and services, have all publicly bashed Walter Isaacson’s official look at Jobs, which was published after his death in 2011. Jobs picked Isaacson to write his biography and didn’t exert any editorial control over the end result, which painted the Apple co-founder in…

WHATSIZE UTILITIES ID-DESIGN  $18.99 WhatSize will help you figure out the mystery of what’s filling your drive and give you both advice and tools to trim the fat. WhatSize combines the functions of analysis and utility. Its analysis scans every file and folder on the disk and builds sortable, browsable and visual directories. Its utilities can suggest files to remove. It all starts by selecting a drive in the Devices list: WhatSize goes about its indexing business or loads a previously completed scan. The analysis part is divided into Browser, Outline, Table and PieChart. Browser and Outline correspond to the columns and views in the find. Table comprises every file and folder on a drive, and can be sorted and filtered. The PieChart view visualises how storage is divided up…

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: your smartphone’s contacts app isn’t the best contact manager around. A wide variety of third-party apps is available, making it easier than ever to keep track of all those names and numbers. And just like your list of contacts, these apps are constantly being updated – some of them much improved since last time I looked at them. FULLCONTACT FullContact doesn’t look like the Cobook Contacts app I tried out last winter, nor does it act much like it. So I was very surprised to find out that it is, technically, the evolution of that app. FullContact previously was a web-based contact manager. The company behind that product acquired Cobook and worked that app’s mobile functionality into FullContact’s feature set. The…

Microsoft is pretty much done with Windows 7 and, now, so is Apple. The new 13in MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops introduced in March will not run Windows 7 via Apple’s dual-boot assistant, Boot Camp. According to Apple’s support documentation, Boot Camp only supports Windows 8 and 8.1 on the new devices; however, official Windows 10 support will likely roll out later in 2015. This is the second time Apple has decided to give Windows 7 the cold shoulder. The late 2013 Mac Pro also ceased to support Windows 7 in Boot Camp, but other Macs released in 2014 did support Microsoft’s operating system. Apple hasn’t officially said if the lack of Windows 7 support for Boot Camp is the new normal going forward, but it seems likely. In…

ADOBE COMP CC PRODUCTIVITY Adobe iPAD FREE Instead of being chained to the desktop while roughing out an initial draft, designers can now create more freely from nearly anywhere using only an iPad, safe in the knowledge that the work they’ve done so far will actually be part of the final project. Comp CC enables designers to dummy up designs using stock placeholders for image frames, text, lines and shapes. The app comes equipped with vectors for basic shapes, while other assets (such as those created with Adobe Shape CC) can be placed directly from a Creative Cloud Library, camera or iPad photo library. It may not be a full-featured solution, but there’s more than enough here to knock out quick comps for clients or even attractive first drafts for…

The Find my iPhone service is free, easy to set up, and could be the most valuable app on your iPhone. It also works on your iPad and Mac, so you can keep track of all your Apple devices. TURN ON FIND MY iPHONE IN SETTINGS Like many of the advanced features in iOS 8 Find my iPhone uses iCloud to store and sync data, so you’ll need an iCloud account to use the service. The chances are you already have one, as Apple prompts you to create one when you first set up your iPhone or iPad. To check go to Settings > iCloud and you should see your account name listed. If not, just follow the instructions and set up an account. You just need to remember that…

For many people, sports headphones are more about working out than listening to tunes. We’re looking for sweatproof, water-resistant, tangle-free earbuds that deliver adequate musical performances while allowing just a bit of ambient noise to creep in so we can jog on the street without fear of being run over. If you’re as passionate about exhilarating audio performances as you are great workouts, you may not mind that Sennheiser’s MX 686G Sport earbuds don’t have some of the whiz-bang features you’ll see in some of their competitors. SIMPLE, PRECISE DESIGN The MX 686Gs aren’t clunky and oversized sports earbuds. There’s no built-in heart rate monitor, they’re not wireless; in fact, they’re not designed for anything other than excellent audio while you work out. Sometimes simpler is better. The MX 686Gs…