Table of contents for May 2015 in Macworld

What’s lighter than Air? The all-new MacBook. Apple’s newest, goldest laptop is lighter and thinner than the MacBook Air, and sports a gorgeous Retina display like the top-of-the-line MacBook Pros. But this isn’t an Air or a Pro. It’s just a MacBook, and yet... it changes everything. The first thing I noticed during my hands-on time is the MacBook’s screen. The colors are bright and vivid, and the 2304x1440 resolution shows all the detail you’re used to seeing on a Retina display. The bezel around the screen has shrunk significantly. The screen doesn’t go completely edge to edge, but it’s pretty darn close. A KEY UPGRADE The laptop is incredibly thin and light, but keyboard real estate doesn’t suffer. Apple put a full-size keyboard on the new MacBook, and even…

PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE The Latest Mac Products Reviewed & Rated MAC GEMS ARE APPS THAT OFFER STANDOUT UTILITY OR UNIQUE FEATURES AT A GREAT PRICE. AS APPLE’S CALENDAR APP for iOS and Mac OS X moved across recent releases from inconsistent, inadequate, and irritating to more or less just fine, the market for replacements grew and matured. Fantastical for iOS, now in its second release, filled a gap. It doesn’t just present a clean list and offer strong support for different calendar systems, it also has excellent natural-language processing. Type in a semblance of an event, and Fantastical would parse it and place it for you without fuss. Fantastical’s makers, Flexibits, brought a kind of snippet of Fantastical to OS X in its first version: a drop-down day view closely reminiscent…

If I were Tim Cook right now, I wouldn’t be worrying about Apple Watch sales potential. Oh, it will sell. The new TV spot is inspiring, and the stainless steel polish on these watches looks fan-frigging-amazing. Add in Apple’s trademark surprise-and-delight, and all signs point to long lines on launch day. I’d be more concerned about people using the Watch than buying the Watch packed silly with features—far too many of them borrowed from the catalog of smartwatch failures. A troubling number of smartwatch owners eventually toss their gadgets aside. The most detailed data on this problem, a July 2014 Endeavor Partners study (go.macworld.com/wearablestudy), tells us that about a third of all smartwatch and fitness band owners abandon their wrist wearables after six months. Poor battery life certainly contributes to…

THE ZAGG SLIM BOOK iPAD AIR CASE (go.macworld.com/slimbook) with Backlit Keyboard is not only one of the longest-named products I’ve ever encountered, but also a competent Bluetooth keyboard. It offers backlit keys for late night typing sessions. Shortcut keys let you quickly access commonly used commands on iOS, such as Spotlight search, Siri, media controls, and quick-lock. Even though I grew fond of the Slim Book during my testing, it had some shortcomings. IS THERE AN ECHO IN HERE? There’s no other way to say this: The keys sound hollow. I’m not sure if it’s due to the material that sits behind the keys, or the material the keys themselves are made out of, but the sound as you hammer away on the keyboard elicits the feeling of using a…

PORTEFEUILLE FRANÇAISE The Portefeuille Française (iPhone 6 and 6 Plus; $100 to $120; carteblanche.com) is a stylish pink wallet case, with gold accents and a black trim lining. The wallet includes five card slots, a cash pocket, and a zippered compartment where you can store all of your necessities. It also sports a wristlet strap for easier carrying and can be combined with the optional Coque case for additional protection. PORTENZO The Faux Ostrich iPhone Sleeve (iPhone 5/5S, 5C, 6, and 6 Plus; $50 to $60; portenzo.com) is a genuine leather sleeve that sports a faux-ostrich texture and finish. Handcrafted to slim perfection, this trendy sleeve not only provides basic protection, but its unique texture and look makes it easier to grip while still looking great. TRIDENT The Apollo Folio…

The latest MacBook update has given people who follow Apple news plenty to talk about. But for Mac users, the biggest news has to do with all the ways the new MacBook diverges from what we’ve been used to. No MagSafe, Thunderbolt, or standard USB ports, all replaced by a single USB-C port—that’s big news, undoubtedly. But I’m just as interested in the different approach Apple is taking with input devices. After all, the new MacBook’s keyboard and trackpad are unlike any of those currently found in the Mac line. THE MAC STANDARD In the past few years, the Mac product line has been more consistent than I can remember it having been for ages. USB and Thunderbolt are everywhere. (It’s never been easier to be someone who brings a…

UTILITY MILLIONS OF FILES LURK in your OS X installation, many of them useful! In an age of spinning hard-drive plenty, in which a 3-terabyte drive is cheap and fits in the space a 250GB or 500GB one did a few years ago, many of us are still constrained by the size of an SSD—or the irritation of a Mac model that has a hard drive that’s nearly impossible to safely upgrade. 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…

OWC THUNDERBOLT 2 DOCK The new single-port MacBook has us dreaming of a slick USB-C dock, but great docks for Thunderbolt Macs are already here. OWC’s newest Thunderbolt 2 Dock (macsales.com) sports 12 connectivity ports: dual Thunderbolt 2, five USB 3.0, FireWire 800, HDMI (with support for 4K), gigabit ethernet, and audio-in and -out. For $250, you’ll never run out of ports again. —SUSIE OCHS ELGATO THUNDERBOLT 2 DOCK Elgato’s Thunderbolt 2 Dock (elgato.com) undercuts the competition with its price of $230 (including a cable!), and it puts one USB 3.0 port, plus inputs for your headphones and microphone on the front. On the back you’ll find gigabit ethernet, two more USB 3.0 ports, and two Thunderbolt 2 ports, plus HDMI. A menubar utility lets you eject all drives plugged…

WITH THE APPLE WATCH scheduled for a release, is there still a place in the market for another smartwatch? Garmin’s latest entry into the field, the Vivosmart (garmin.com/vivosmart), looks to differentiate itself from Apple’s offering by being a fitness tracker with smartphone features, rather than a smartwatch that also happens to track your activity. The $170 Vivosmart is first and foremost a fitness tracker, keeping tabs on your activity by covering the number of steps you take, steps remaining to your daily goal, distance covered, calories burned and time spent inactive—more on that later. (A separate heart monitor can provide additional metrics.) The Vivosmart looks like a traditional fitness band too, a slim, soft rubberized band with smooth, rounded edges. While many were skeptical when Apple executives claimed they slept…

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 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 (fullcontact.com) doesn’t look like the Cobook Contacts app I tried out last summer, 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 result is a…

When news of a new Mac notebook leaked in January, one of the aspects that seemed absurd was the omission of multiple ports. There would be just one hole and it would be USB-C, a format never before seen in a Mac and unfamiliar to most people, as it was only unveiled in production equipment last September. Turns out, it wasn’t absurd at all. With the new 12-inch MacBook (go.macworld.com/newmb), Apple has gone all in for all-in-one, using USB-C to provide power, display output, and USB connections. Thunderbolt is gone. The SD card slot is gone as well. And the MagSafe component of the power connection has disappeared into very thin Air—I mean, thin MacBook. (Magnets? How do they work?) Apple says that USB-C adapters can provide HDMI, DisplayPort, VGA,…

SECURITY THE GOLD STANDARD FOR PASSWORD VAULTS on the Mac is 1Password. Now in its fifth major release, 1Password has matured along with its userbase. One of its most stalwart longtime competitors, LastPass, has had an iOS version, but OS X customers have had to work through browser plug-ins or its website, putting it at a disadvantage. The release of the free LastPass for Mac puts the two popular secrets-protection packages head to head. And LastPass comes out reasonably well in aspects of the comparison: The two apps carve out different spaces, which will vary in importance by users’ specific security preferences and access needs. But in most respects, LastPass feels unfinished and clunky—a work in progress that works, but needs more work. The Mac version is free. A $12-per-year…

Apple thinks its new software framework can solve some of the biggest challenges facing medical researchers, including recruiting people for studies and collecting health data more frequently. Called ResearchKit, the framework will allow developers to create apps for medical research studies that turn a smartphone into a diagnostic tool, Apple said during an event in San Francisco. ResearchKit (apple.com/researchkit) will be released as open source in April and the first five apps are available now, said Jeff Williams, Apple’s senior vice president of operations. Because it’s releasing ResearchKit as open source, apps can be developed for mobile platforms other than iOS, such as Android. Apple teamed up with several hospitals to develop the initial apps, said Williams. Massachusetts General Hospital helped create an app for diabetics and Mount Sinai Hospital…

OMNIOUTLINER 2.3 FOR iOS AT A GLANCE: Version 2 added iOS 8 polish and a lot more power. Version 2.3 extends the productivity to your iPhone too. PROS: • Universal app as of version 2.3 • Improved performance when viewing complex outlines • Excellent syncing with Omni Sync Server. CONS: • New cells initially partially obstructed • Thumbnail-only Documents view is limiting PRICE: $30 COMPANY: omnigroup.com A GOOD OUTLINE IS an evolving idea. It’s a workshop for hammering out the greater shape of something—a paper, presentation, business plan, book, screenplay—by adding, discarding, and rearranging information. And like most ideas, an outline isn’t confined to one location, such as your Mac. In 2011, The Omni Group extended the flexible outlining capabilities of its OmniOutliner Mac app to the iPad by releasing…

Looks like the franchise might be in good hands with Disney. Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions (go.macworld.com/starwarsrebelsrecon) is a spinoff game of the new animated series that takes place in the years just before “A New Hope.” This is a freemium game with plenty to do, with 30 levels of challenges immersing you in George Lucas’ universe. Periscope Not long ago, we told you about Meerkat, an app that lets users stream live video through their Twitter feeds. Competitors are now arriving. Periscope (periscope.tv), in fact, is owned by Twitter itself—but it has pretty much the same easy, intuitive handling that its predecessor does. One big difference: Periscope makes the video available as a replay on its network for up to 24 hours, whereas Meerkat videos disappear just as…

I had a $17,000 Apple Watch Edition strapped to my wrist today. Rose gold (go.macworld.com/rose). 38mm. Rose gray strap that felt like butter, with a modern buckle also in solid 18-carat gold. It was beautiful. But as luxe as the materials are, my hands-on demo time with the Apple Watch made me confident that I can go with the entry-level Apple Watch Sport and be just as happy. Why? It’s the software, silly! The Apple Watch’s apps (go.macworld.com/wapp), glances, and notifications are so easy to use and well-thought-out that once I started tapping, pressing, and scrolling around the tiny display, I quickly forgot what materials were in the case and strap. Here’s what I found so compelling in my brief demo time, and why I’m looking forward to strapping an…

There’s more to the recently revamped Gmail app for iOS than pretty Material Design: It also comes with some new features that will make Google App users’ lives a heck of a lot easier. You can respond to a message straight from Notification Center, open attachments in other apps, and more. Read on for four Gmail tricks—some new, some old, all awesomely helpful. 1 SET A VACATION RESPONDER You can set a vacation reminder directly from the Gmail app, perfect for letting friends, loved ones, and coworkers know that you won’t be replying for awhile. Tap the menu button in the top-left corner of the page, then tap the Settings button (the one shaped like a gear) next to your email address. Flip the Vacation Responder switch, then fill in…

Making DVDs from old iMovies and slideshows I still remember the glorious day when I first encountered writable CDs. It was in the early 1990s with a $100,000 system designed by Kodak to produce its Photo CDs, discs that worked with its CD/DVD player and with computer software to provide galleries and high-resolution scans. It took years before CD burners were included in inexpensive PCs (and, late to the party, Macs), and the CD media dropped in price. Then the DVD format went through a similar, but much more rapid cycle, and then on to Blu-Ray, the winner in the high-definition home video format years ago. But I haven’t owned a computer that can burn DVDs for years. Once hard drives outstripped the capacity to back up to more than…