Table of contents for July 2015 in Macworld Australia

You’d think with all the technology I’m surrounded by I’d be able to do a better job of being productive. The trouble is, I sometimes spend so much time looking for the technology-based solution that I may have been quicker doing this ye oldefashioned waye. I’ve been using Apple’s two latest pieces of kit – the Apple Watch and MacBook. Both are exceptionally well-made pieces of equipment. And barely a day passes when someone doesn’t randomly stop me to ask about one or the other while I’m out. What I’ve been wondering is, ‘Am I more productive than I was before?’ And I think the answer is probably not. I really like both devices, but I’m looking for more. With the MacBook, the one port idea is very elegant. But…

Small to medium businesses, or SMBs, are the lifeblood of the Australian economy. SMBs are defined by most as businesses with fewer than 200 employees or a turnover under $100 million. There are over two million of these businesses in Australia and they are the main employers in our workforce. For many of us, running your own business is the dream. Flexible work hours doing something you love with no one to answer to. The reality is quite different. Most small business owners work long hours and spend a lot of time on administrative tasks rather than the work they’re passionate about. However, creating the right setup can make a huge difference to productivity. And it can also make work far less of a chore. START WITH A SPACE Many…

BLOCS DEVELOPMENT Cazoobi US$69.99 Blocs lets you create appealing, up-to-date websites. It deliberately limits its features for simplicity’s sake, but accomplishes its chosen goals with elegance and style. Blocs discards the standard Mac UI (user interface). Its unorthodox use of the right mouse button – instead of summoning contextual menus, it switches you to a different mode for dropping in page elements – takes some getting used to. But Blocs’ initially steep learning curve soon plateaus. Slender vertical stripes mark the three areas of each page you’ll create in Blocs: the header (blue), body (green) and footer (purple). Within each, a single click brings up a library of premade Blocs – rectangular containers that stack atop each other on the page. Each is filled with other page elements including headers,…

STM READER TIP! Yosemite network flakiness There’s a bug in OS X 10.10 where Macs are unable to ‘talk’ to other machines in a Windows-based network, as the DNS names for the devices can’t be resolved. This appears to be due to Apple changing from using mDNSResponder to using discoveryd. It’s possible to roll back to the older software, but this risks that later OS updates will either not work or will break the ‘fix’ put in place. I've found a work around: I have a small network and only have four other devices for which I need to have remote access. So, I’ve added these as DHCP reservations on the server. Since I now know the IP address that each of these machines will have, I’ve been able to…

ANTHONY CARUANA The new iOS needs to be a little less about apps and more about actions. I hate having to move between apps for simple workflows like integrating Twitter, Facebook and Contacts profiles. MADELEINE SWAIN Waterproof. That’s all. That bit in Gulliver’s Travels where Jack Black went through the Bermuda Triangle and his iPhone still worked? Total lie. JAMUNA RAJ Customisable widgets! I want my screen to look pretty. MONIQUE BLAIR I want PayPass integrated into it like in the US. Maybe for a bit of fun though, a retinal scanner as well!…

ENCRYPTO SECURITY MacPaw FREE Here’s some food for thought: one of the most commonly used communication methods that everyone uses daily is actually one of the least safe. Email is extremely convenient, but it was never designed with any real security or privacy in mind. This extends to the files we attach to those communiqués, a predicament the folks at Kiev-based MacPaw have set out to resolve with Encrypto. Encrypto wraps files with AES-256 encryption prior to you sending them. Drag-and-drop one or more files onto a small window, add a password (and optional hint), click Encrypt and within seconds the files are securely swaddled and ready for electronic delivery. On the Mac, Encrypto works with the OS X Share Menu extension to deliver encrypted bundles via Mail, Messages, AirDrop…

After a few weeks of wearing an Apple Watch and trying to live inside the newest country in Apple’s world, we’ve learned a lot about what makes a great smartwatch. The Apple Watch comes close – closer than any other smartwatch we’ve tried – but it’s still lacking in a few areas. THE USER EXPERIENCE The best hardware in the world is nothing without great software. I’m going to get this off my chest. While there are some great elements to the Watch OS interface, there are some parts I find downright frustrating. Let me start with the positives. It’s taken some tweaking, but I’ve settled on the Modular watchface with the Activity, Weather, Battery and World Clock complications. I’ve changed the text colour to yellow as I find that…

The other day my daughter was frustrated by her maths homework. She was plotting x and y coordinates onto a grid, but a few of her answers just didn’t line up. I suggested that we check her work and, in the back of my mind, I recalled that there might be a quick way to do that right on my Mac. The app in question is Grapher, a utility you probably never realised has been installed on your Mac since 2005. It is one of the unsung heroes of the Utilities folder. Placed inside the Applications folder, Utilities is the subfolder where Apple banishes apps that it wants to keep as a standard part of OS X without giving them the exposure that the main Applications folder supplies. As you…

Beats Solo2 wireless Offering the most well-rounded sound of the bunch, the closed-backed Beats Solo2 wireless headphones are only hampered by a hefty price tag. With an elegant and understated designed, but a range of bright colours, the Beats Solo2 wireless headphones can either blend in or stand out in a crowd. The closed-back design offers decent bass, supported by 35mm drivers producing the sound. The pads are built to sit on your ears rather than over them – which can get a bit warm and uncomfortable after a while. The cans fold into the arms, so the headphones can slip into a smaller carry bag than the Liberate XLBT. You’ll find inline volume and play/pause controls on the detachable cord, plus a mic for hands-free calls. There’s also built-in…

While iPads are amazing jack-of-all-trades devices, they’re not always the best tool for the job. eBook readers with an eInk screen, like Amazon’s Kindle, have several advantages when it comes to reading novels. Kindles are cheaper, smaller and lighter than iPads. More importantly, Kindles offer a much longer battery life – weeks instead of hours – and they’re easier on the eyes. If you want to read for hours at a time without draining the battery on your iGadgets or straining your eyes, then a Kindle could make for a wise investment. The icing on the cake is Amazon’s collection of slick Kindle mobile apps, which let you jump from your eBook reader to your iGadget and pick up reading where you left off. Now you’ve got the best of…

SCROLL BARS In reply to the heartfelt plea from Pat in the June Macworld regarding restoring the Scroll Bars… you can! In System Preferences: General: in the second paragraph is all about the Scroll Bars. This is on Yosemite, 10.10.2 From Jinty Kubale This is one of the great things about Macworld Australia – the community of users helping each other. Remember, you can all be part of that by either sharing help though your letters and emails, on our Facebook page or through our online forums at macworld.com.au/ forums. STARTING A NEW BUSINESS I am wondering if you could provide some information in regards to a specific app for iPad – if one actually exists! I am currently establishing a health services business and aim to use my iPad…

HANDS-OFF WITH APPLE DICTATION KEITH WHITE Macs running Mavericks or Yosemite have a reasonably competent speech-to-text program in their system software. Here's how to get it started. In System Preferences, select the Dictation and Speech icon and turn Dictation on. Check the Enhanced Dictation option and wait while it downloads. This will use your computer to do the recognition. If you don't choose Enhanced Dictation, your speech will be sent to the Apple server system in short chunks for recognition. Not recommended. Then, select your language. I chose Australian English, but there are over 30 options to choose from. Select a keyboard shortcut to toggle Dictation on and off. This brings up a microphone icon with an active volume level indicator. You can also use this icon to turn Dictation…

In Australia, we’ve become huge adopters of Tap & Go, payWave and other contactless payment systems in a very short time. According to research by the RFi Group, two-thirds of Australians know they own a contactless payment card and more than half have made a contactless transaction. That’s the highest penetration of any economy on the planet. In contrast, the US has the lowest penetration of any Western country with just 14 percent of Americans owning a contactless card, up from about 10 percent in 2014, and just nine percent have used their contactless cards to make a payment. So, you can see how Apple Pay has caused such a stir in the US and Australians, while interested, are wondering what all the fuss is about. Richard Moulds, the vice…

External hard drives have almost become a consumable product. With storage prices plummeting over the years and almost every computer accessory company on the planet putting their own products out, it’s hard to find something that’s a little different. The Adata HD710A is trying to carve out a niche by offering waterproofing and a shockproof body to protect your data. When we first picked up the HD710A, we were surprised how light it felt. Despite the bulky case, which is made of solid plastic and elastic silicone to protect the 1TB drive in our review unit, it weighs just 220g – that’s only 48g more than an iPhone 6 Plus. Unlike many portable drives, the HD710A won’t fit into your pocket easily because of the protection that contributes to the…