Innehållsförteckning för September 2014 från Macworld Australia

JONATHAN STEWART BATTERY My iPhone runs for a day without issue, but a bigger battery would provide some peace of mind – even if it adds a little bulk. MADELEINE SWAIN KEYBOARD Apart from a game-changing low price so I could actually afford one? A bigger keyboard, tired of typing mistakes. TYNAN McCARTHY NFC I hoped for NFC in the last two models. Would be really handy to be able to make small transactions with nothing but your phone. MONIQUE BLAIR WATERPROOF In the next iPhone, I would really like to see a waterproof feature for underwater photos and videos of snorkelling and friends at the beach!…

MY PERFECT PHONE After a couple of months of using both an iPhone and an Android phone (LG G2) I think I have finally worked out what my ‘perfect’ phone would be. The most important thing is screen size, the 5in display on the G2 is absolutely gorgeous and blows any of the displays on the iPhone out of the water. The second most important thing is speed – having not used an iPhone 5s, I cannot comment on its speed, but the G2 is faster that the iPhone 4s and any iPhone 5 that I have used. The third most important thing is stability and I’m afraid that at the moment the G2 wins here – iOS 7.1.2 is not that stable on either my iPhone 4s or my…

The challenge is finding a balance. You want the tech to support and motivate your exercise regime, but not get in the way of it. The last thing you want is to have to stop what you’re doing to press a button or tap an icon. So, what’s out there? The range of products and services is almost limitless. Almost every activity that you can participate in for the sake of your health or fitness can be automatically tracked, recorded and shared – everything from your golf swing via your running speed to your velocity through water. FITNESS TRACKERS AND SPORTS BANDS There are literally dozens of different fitness tracking devices on the market now. The majority of these are wristbands that are paired with an app that runs on…

BY LIANE CASSAVOY Texting used to be nothing more than a form of entertainment for teens and young adults who wanted to stay in touch – constantly – with their friends. But these days, texting is a business tool, and a serious one at that. Businesses are using texting as a means of inter-office communication and as a way to reach out to business contacts and even customers. And while your smartphone comes with its own, perfectly serviceable texting app, if you’re relying on that alone to fill your texting needs, you might be missing out. A third-party texting app can offer more features and an improved design and save you money as it won’t rely on your monthly messaging plan. Here are four apps for business users to consider.…

While many Mac, iPhone and iPad owners use their devices for purely personal pursuits, there are those who document, record and share as part of the their day to day work. What are the most efficient and effective hardware and software options for your needs? How can you start using it immediately to drive sales, connect with colleagues, create powerful presentations, reduce communication charges? We examine the latest technology for enterprise users to help you make the best use of your time and resources for your business. Jonathan Stewart - Editor of Macworld Australia We started this section as we appreciate that technology is a critical foundation for the success of your business.…

Navman MY600LMT Looking for a new navigator? The latest MY-Series GPS unit from Navman may just be the perfect solution for you. The Navman MY600LMT includes live traffic updates, parking assistance, and spoken safety and speed limit alerts. The unit features Bluetooth Hands-Free and Rapid Map Refresh, which offers a monthly GPS map and speed camera update. $199 Navman Technology www.navman.com.au RØDE NT-USB The RØDE NT-USB is a studio-grade microphone with a digital USB interface compatible with Mac, Windows and iPad. The NT-USB features a 3.5mm zero-latency stereo headphone monitoring jack, dials to control monitoring levels and mix between the computer and microphone input. The NT-USB can be used for recording musical performances, podcasts, voiceovers and more. $169 RØDE www.rodemic.com Moshi Digits If you can’t let go of your iPhone…

When you collaborate on documents, sharing a folder on a cloud-based storage system such as Dropbox is a convenient way to keep everyone’s copies of the docs up-to-date automatically. But nothing in that system prevents users from opening and changing a given document at the same time, which can lead to version conflicts and confusion. You could avoid this problem – and see who made which changes when – with a formal version-control system such as Apache Subversion (subversion.apache.org), Concurrent Versions System (nongnu.org/cvs) or Git (git-scm.com) to manage their files. These tools ensure that only one person at a time can modify a file. They list who’s working on a file at any moment, and they keep a record of changes so that users can recall any earlier version of…

The iPhone will be bigger. That is the constant theme we keep hearing in the lead-up to Apple’s most exciting event of the year. And I hope it is for both Apple and me. I am not a Doomsday preacher; the financial numbers coming out of Cupertino continue to break records and I cannot foresee this ceasing anytime soon, but I think it is time for a change. I am not talking about innovation – the idea of innovation is skewed. The word should be held for new chapters in the tech world, the creation of a new product category or significant advancement. I am talking, rather, about the next step for the smartphone that I use. The iPhone saw a physical change in 2010 with the arrival of the…

CONTEXTS PRODUCTIVITY Contexts $10 Contexts supplements – and can even replace – OS X’s window management tools, and it does so in a way that is legitimately useful, especially if you rely on keyboard shortcuts to navigate your Mac. Want to find a Finder window in a hurry? Press Command-Space to get a Spotlight-like open-window picker, start typing the window’s name, and watch as Contexts narrows the list down to the window you want. It’s quick and it works well, but Contexts doesn’t include browser tabs in the list. If you’re looking for a webpage opened in a background tab, you’ll still have to hunt for it. Contexts also assigns a number to each open window, so you can pull them up readily with a keystroke. Available via contexts.co. PLAY+…

We all know that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But it is possible to get business apps, legally for no cost. This is due to lots of different applications that are available through the open source community and from large vendors that have released some applications at no cost. However, it’s important to note that free software usually also means you don’t have access to the same level of support as commercial applications. However, that doesn’t mean you’re completely out on your own. Many open source applications have vibrant user communities that support each other. If you’re looking at open source or free applications for your business, take time to: • Evaluate a few alternatives for the type of application you want. For example, there are several free…

TWODOTS GAMES Betaworks One iPHONE & iPAD FREE Produced by Betaworks One, the aim of the game is to produce as many vertical and horizontal lines from the same coloured dots as possible. Although connecting dots may not be the most thrilling of concepts, the introduction of levels with increasing difficulty adds a level of addictiveness the original Dots can’t match. Each player is assigned five lives, which if lost are replaced every 20 minutes or can be bought for more impatient players. Lives are lost if the player fails to compete the level in the assigned number of moves or restarts the level from the beginning. With its simple, minimalistic design, TwoDots is engaging enough to provide even the most skilled puzzlers a lengthy gameplay. FLY PHOTO & VIDEO…

Music has a way of making people a bit compulsive. If you’re going to spend time sorting your songs, at least do it efficiently. We asked KIRK MCELHEARN for advice on tagging tracks – the key to iTunes organisation. Follow his tips and maybe you’ll have time to actually enjoy all that music. ENTERING DETAILS THE RIGHT WAY TO TAG EVERYTHING IMAGINE WHAT YOUR iTUNES LIBRARY WOULD BE LIKE IF ALL YOUR SONGS HAD RANDOM CHARACTERS FOR THEIR SONG, ARTIST AND ALBUM NAMES. YOU WOULD NEVER FIND WHAT YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO. BUT EVEN IF YOUR LIBRARY’S TAGS ARE MOSTLY CORRECT, ANY ERRONEOUS TAGS – A MISSPELLED ARTIST NAME, FOR INSTANCE, OR A SONG TITLE WITH A TYPO – MAY PREVENT YOU FROM LOCATING THE FILES YOU’RE SEEKING. AND…

Now that blazing-fast routers based on the IEEE 802.11ac wireless networking standard are finally entering the mainstream, intrepid engineers are busily cooking up all-new hardware that will make the current gear’s performance seem downright poky. The truth is, most of the first 802.11ac routers were based on draft versions of the standard. Although some newer Wave 1 models, such as Netgear’s six-antenna Nighthawk X6, are implementing cool tricks to squeeze more performance from that technology, Wave 2 802.11ac routers will hit in early 2015 – and they will be a lot faster. The next standard, 802.11ax, is not far behind. There’s no point in trying to cheat obsolescence by putting off your next router purchase, because the industry is always hard at work developing the current standard’s successor. NEW-WAVE TECHNOLOGY…

SCHOOL MENTALITY In reference to the news that a security research team has found a backdoor into iOS, ‘Apple responds to allegations of iOS ‘backdoor’ from hack conference’ (bit.ly/1vdLQ0d), we shouldn’t trust any of these devices to safeguard us – our property or our information – but we do. While this feature/backdoor may not be all that convenient to take advantage of, somebody will one day find a way. Besides, it isn’t like we can trust any company or government to act in our best interests. We are sitting ducks and we know it, but we are too addicted to the conveniences offered by technology and we have already made the compromise. To use another wildlife analogy, we have decided to use the security strategy that schools of sardines use,…

Tim Cook’s instruction from Steve Jobs was clear: Don’t let Apple become paralysed like Disney did in the wake of Walt Disney’s death, endlessly asking how the esteemed founder would react in any given situation. The only directive from Jobs’ tenure that mattered after his death was the one that freed Cook and everyone else at Apple from playing ‘What Would Steve Do?’ Criticism of post-Jobs Apple tends to run in one of two directions: Either Apple is doomed because it’s slavishly following the old playbook of its former CEO, or it’s doomed because it isn’t following the playbook of its genius former CEO. As a close observer of Apple before, during and after Jobs’ tenure, I can tell you that the Apple of today is not playing by the…

Several years ago, I implemented the world’s first whole-school, one-to-one iPad program (bit.ly/1AsK9MK), in which all students in the school use iPads full-time. The iPad has served us well, but recently I started to worry that it would always be the Mac’s little sibling. Before WWDC last year, I wrote a blog post about the limitations of iOS that we’d discovered when using it for serious productivity work. Last year, I didn’t get much that was on my iOS 7 wish list. (We did get AirDrop, and it has been transformational in how easily it lets us move large files around the classroom.) At WWDC 2014, Apple delivered on a huge chunk of my wish list with iOS 8, and I couldn’t be happier. EXTENSIBILITY The critical iOS 8 feature…

FRITZ!Box 7490 This aerodynamic-looking 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi router can run 2.4 and 5GHz Wi-Fi networks simultaneously, plus it also features four Gigabit Ethernet ports. While there’s a built-in ADSL2+ and VDSL modem, the first Ethernet port can act as a Gigabit WAN port, which is fast enough to handle the NBN (national broadband network) when it lands on your doorstep. You can also use a 3G/4G mobile dongle, but there’s no auto fallback when your DSL connection is down. The FRITZ!Box 7490 has two built-in VoIP adaptors, with phone jacks on the back and an ISDN (integrated services for digital network) connection. It can also act as a DECT (digital enhanced cordless communications) base station for linking up to six cordless phones. You can set up multiple VoIP numbers, assigned…