Table of contents for October 2016 in Macworld Australia

Most iPhone releases are focused on the new features we’ll be getting, but the iPhone 7 had a very different focus. The iPhone 7 coverage was all about what was lost – the 3.5mm headphone jack. As I write this editorial, it is just over a day since the iPhone 7 and Apple Watch Series 2 were announced – such are the vagaries of the print publishing business. But with all the leaks and speculation of the last few weeks, there were few surprises. As I said in an online post, there are some challenges the combination of wireless and Lightning-connected headphones will pose. Wireless headphones are not permitted on aircraft and charging your iPhone while using wired headphones isn’t possible. But, already I see at least one accessory manufacturer…

The ‘but’ began on a Tuesday morning, after I started walking from the parking lot to the front door of my office building. I began feeling short of breath. No matter how deeply I inhaled, it felt like my lungs weren’t filling up completely. At first, the feeling just seemed odd – nothing serious, just… weird. By the time I climbed the flight of stairs to my floor, the feeling had grown worse. Along with the shortness of breath, I could feel my heart racing in my chest. Stopping to talk to a colleague on the way to my office, the mere act of speaking left me practically gasping for air. I cut the conversation short and continued to my office. Sitting still made me feel better, but not great.…

CHROME REMOTE DESKTOP PRODUCTIVITY Google/google.com iPAD, iPHONE FREE I find I’m spending more time away from OS X and macOS and more time with iOS. And far fewer of my working hours are in my office, with airports, events and the local library becoming more common workplaces. The problem is I really can’t afford to buy software licences for everything to run on multiple computers and there are some applications that simply won’t run on every device I use. That’s where remote desktop software comes in handy. The technology behind remotely accessing a computer isn’t new. The VNC (virtual network computing) protocol has been around since the mid-1990s, but it traditionally needed some tricky network configuration to work. But, over recent years, remote access has become simpler. Rather than relying on…

ANTHONY CARUANA The iPhone looks OK, but the new Apple Watch ticks the boxes when it comes to all the first model’s shortcomings. Looks like a more compelling buy than the first model. MADELEINE SWAIN I’d love to get a new phone (the Smithsonian wants mine back), but don’t see myself with a spare $679 for an SE, never mind over $1000 for a 7. ALICIA PINNOCK The Apple Watch 2 has been developed further for more intuitive use, so I’ll definitely be clutching one soon. I don’t know if I could get over the iPhone 7 having no headphone jack! MONIQUE BLAIR Longest battery life ever in an iPhone and twice as fast as the iPhone 6 – I will definitely be camping outside the doors of Apple for…

iPHONE 7 AND 7 PLUS SHIPPED ON 16 SEPTEMBER SANS HEADPHONE JACK BY CAITLIN MCGARRY The rumours were true: Apple’s next-generation iPhones, the 7 and 7 Plus, traded the headphone jack for Lightning EarPods. What this means for you: now there’s one port instead of two. The company is including Lightning-connected EarPods with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Apple is also including a Lightning to 3.5mm adapter in the box to avoid causing too much outrage over supporting non-Lightning headphones, or you can buy one separately for $12. So why that lack of a jack? “It’s been with us for a really long time,” Apple marketing VP Phil Schiller said during Apple’s iPhone presentation at the September event. “It comes down to courage – courage to move on, do…

MX Master The MX Master is a mouse with five buttons for righties. There are the left and right buttons and along the left side of the mouse are back and forward buttons that are set by default to be used as the back and forward functions in your browser. The fifth button is located on the thumb cradle and, by default, it’s set as a ‘gesture button’, where you hold the button down and then move the mouse up, down, left or right to perform the same three-finger gestures you can perform on Apple’s Multi-Touch touchpad. All the button functions can be customised from their defaults using the Logitech Options software, which is accessible through System Preferences after installation. You’ll also find two scroll wheels. The main scroll wheel…

With macOS Sierra, iCloud Drive has the ability to automatically sync files saved in your Desktop and Documents folders to the cloud. All files saved to Desktop and Documents count against your iCloud Drive storage allocation. Apple provides 5GB of free iCloud Drive storage per Apple ID, but you can upgrade for a monthly fee. 5GB: free 50GB: $1.49 200GB: $4.49 1TB: $14.99 2TB: $29.99 HOW TO TURN ON iCLOUD DRIVE DESKTOP AND DOCUMENTS ACCESS IN MACOS SIERRA In macOS Sierra, go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > iCloud. iCloud Drive appears at the top of the list in the main section of the window. Check the box for it and click on Options. In the Documents tab, there is a section labelled, ‘Apps that store documents and…

I’ve been an iPad fan ever since the first version of Apple’s tablet hit the market. I went as far as bringing one in from overseas when it wasn’t going to be released locally for a few weeks after the US release. And, since then, I’ve been on an ongoing quest to find a way for the iPad to replace my MacBook Pro. My incentives for doing this are simple – weight, battery life and ease of use. The trouble has always been that the original 9.7in iPad, and its successors have represented a major compromise. While the 9.7in display makes for a convenient size for handheld use, it’s too small to make it a notebook computer replacement. But the 12.9in iPad Pro changes the equation. So, I’ve been road…

Who would pay hundreds just to get an exclusive Hermès watch face? People who can’t do maths. It’s really hard to tell the difference between the new Apple Watch Series 2 models and the originals – the aluminium and steel versions anyway – until you place them side by side. It turns out, the Series 2 models are ever so slightly thicker than their predecessors. Just a hair, not enough to even complain about, really, and it’s certainly not a deal-breaker. But from Apple, a company with a track record of sacrificing ports and redesigning keyboards in order to make its products thinner and thinner and thinner, the Apple Watch’s extra bulk is a sign that the company is still adding hardware features to find the best mix. In this…

REVIEWS ACROSS INTERNATIONAL APP STORES I was browsing for GIS software, and on the ESRI website found a reference to Explorer for ArcGIS – Explorer for ArcGIS | ArcGIS. Following the link for download at the Mac App Store I came to Explorer for ArcGIS on the Mac App Store. This had three negative customer reviews, though the webpage states there are 33 ratings. I opened App Store, and searched unsuccessfully for QGIS. From curiosity I then searched for ‘esri arcgis’, which brought up Explorer for ArcGIS. No customer reviews! I switched to the US App Store, and found there are eight customer reviews for the current version. I tested this in the iOS iTunes App Store, and found (for ESRI ArcGIS) that the same situation applies – customer reviews…

While you don’t have many options with AirPlay Mirroring (streaming both audio and video; you can do this from a Mac or iOS device to an Apple TV), using AirPlay with music is incredibly flexible. There are ways to use AirPlay you may never have thought of. Here are some of the ways you can send music throughout your home using AirPlay. PICK A SPEAKER When you’re playing music from iTunes, you can choose an AirPlay target by clicking the AirPlay button to the left of the iTunes LCD. Choose a single device or, if you want to send music to multiple locations, click Multiple and check the devices you want to use. On an iOS device, tap the AirPlay button in Control Center, or in a music app, and…

I’ve just finished a hands-on session with ScreenFlow 6, the latest version of my preferred screen capture software. There are some impressive new features, more about which later. I’m currently using ScreenFlow on two projects, the first of which is a set of tutorials for a large FileMaker database I’ve been working on at a school where I help to manage their archives. Here’s how it works. First, I fire up the database and then configure ScreenFlow for a new recording. I’ll set it to record the desktop on my iMac and the audio from a connected headset, which shows up in the options window. A neat new feature in version 6 is the ability to select a certain area of the screen before recording, so I now click and…