Home//Macworld/October 2012/In This Issue
Macworld|October 2012Apple: Take Your TimeMake no mistake: Mountain Lion is a big deal—in his review (page 32), Editorial Director Jason Snell calls it “state of the art.” Apple’s apparent plan to release a significant Mac OS upgrade every year is a big deal, too.As impressive as Mountain Lion is, there’s something mildly disquieting about Apple’s annual OS updates. To maintain such an aggressive schedule, the company may by necessity be shying away from making deeper, more substantive changes to the Mac experience.Foolish Consistency?Mountain Lion offers huge improvements over every prior iteration of OS X. Despite all its new features, however, the latest iteration of the Mac OS looks awfully similar not just to its OS X predecessors, but also to the earliest Mac OS versions.Even way back then, you double-clicked to open files and…4 min
Macworld|October 2012Future of Retina-Ready Apps Looks GoodJune’s launch of the MacBook Pro with Retina display initially caught third-party software developers flat-footed. But now developers are beginning to catch up with the new screen.Updated titles that have been released include popular productivity apps such as Silvio Rizzi’s Reeder and The Iconfactory’s Twitteriffic. We’ve also seen a handful of Retina-ized games from vendors such as Aspyr, including titles from the popular Call of Duty and Star Wars franchises.And it looks like more Retina-ready apps are on the way. Macworld contacted two dozen app developers to check the status of their updating efforts. Most said they were on the verge of releasing Retina-enabled updates for their software.“Being a small company, we can’t devote the resources to update everything all at once,” said John Champlin, a spokesman for Ambrosia, “so…2 min
Macworld|October 2012The Macintosh II: Celebrating 25 YearsTwenty-five years ago, Apple released the Macintosh II, a powerful, expandable desktop computer that echoed the experimental philosophy of Apple’s earliest machines and ignited a new wave of enthusiasm for the Macintosh platform.In 1986, a 28-year-old Apple engineer named Michael Dhuey wrote a two-page proposal for a six-slot, modular, color-enabled Macintosh. Jean Louis Gassée, then vice president of product development for Apple, quickly signed off on Dhuey’s proposal as one of three competing Mac upgrade projects. Dhuey’s design won out, and a 16-person team brought the Macintosh II to life.Apple offered both monochrome and color monitors for the Mac II, but customers mostly sprang for the color models, which marked a significant upgrade in a computer line that had previously displayed only black or white pixels. That preference threw Apple’s…2 min
Macworld|October 2012The App Store’s Rough SummerIf the iTunes App Store were a real-life emporium, this past summer might have convinced the proprietors to close up shop and move to Florida. There was the in-app–purchase hack, and then the apps that crashed as soon as they were downloaded, and finally the app that stole users’ contact lists.Despite the headaches, the Store was still open last time we checked.Free MoneyWhen you make an in-app purchase, Apple sends the app a receipt to confirm that you’ve done so. The app then pings Apple’s servers to confirm the validity of the forwarded receipt.At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen. And it did, until a Russian programmer came up with a hack that fooled apps into believing that they were communicating with the App Store, when they were actually communicating…3 min
Macworld|October 2012APP GUIDEAir MailGAMESThe flight simulator Air Mail is one of the few App Store games that truly offers entertainment for all ages. You’re a delivery pilot stationed on a chain of islands, carrying cargo, putting out fires, and helping with a freedom fight that takes place over several different landscapes. Core gameplay centers on simple aviation, and while Air Mail’s physics are on the cartoonish side, they’re forgiving enough to allow you to avoid most obstacles. The game lacks polish in a few areas, but overall Air Mail offers a charming and original ride.—CHRIS HOLTiPhone/iPad | ; $3; ChillingoRemarks 1.4PRODUCTIVITYAnother entry in the growing list of PDF reader and annotation apps for iOS, Remarks is a good tool for making quick notations on PDFs and for taking short notes. The app…4 min
Macworld|October 2012REVIEW: OS X Mountain LionONE YEAR AND one week since it released OS X Lion (aka OS X 10.7), Apple has released its successor, OS X Mountain Lion.Like Lion, Mountain Lion adds numerous features that will be familiar to iOS users. This OS X release continues Apple’s strategy of bringing iOS features “back to the Mac.” Those features include iMessage, Reminders, Notes, Notification Center, Twitter integration, Game Center, and AirPlay Mirroring. At the same time, other features that are making their debut in Mountain Lion will find their way into iOS 6 this fall.As the first OS X release since the debut of iCloud, Mountain Lion integrates tightly with Apple’s cloud-data service. It also provides new security options that allow you to specify the kinds of apps you feel comfortable installing. Mountain Lion offers…23 min
Macworld|October 2012iCloudWHEN APPLE INTRODUCED iCloud at the 2011 Worldwide Developers Conference, the company touted the online service’s ability to seamlessly sync your contacts, calendars, reminders, notes, images, documents, and other data, along with a free mail account, remote access to other iCloud-enabled computers, and a locator for tracking down lost portable devices.While iOS 5 took early and extensive advantage of iCloud on both the iPhone and iPad, OS X Lion did less with it: You could sync your mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, and notes, and send images to your iPhoto library via Photo Stream, but you couldn’t use iCloud with your documents or program settings.With Mountain Lion, however, Apple has added new features to iCloud and integrated those sorely missing from its desktop OS.DOCUMENTS IN THE CLOUDThe biggest addition is called…5 min
Macworld|October 2012RemindersWHY SHOULD THE iPhone and the iPad have all the fun? In Mountain Lion, Apple continues its process of porting the most appealing features from iOS to the Mac. Among those is an app that debuted with iOS 5: Reminders.Reminders, of course, is a tool for recording and storing to-do lists, tasks, and any other little bits of whatever you want to remember. And if you’re familiar with the Reminders iOS app, you’ll feel right at home working with the Mountain Lion version—it is a near-perfect clone.LISTSLike the iPad version of Reminders, the Mac application divides your tasks and notes into lists. You can base a list on a task category (Work vs. Personal, for example) or on context (Groceries, say). However you define them, lists are visible on the…5 min
See Also
Jury can hear Richard Allen's alleged confessions to Delphi murdersPolice ID Gunman in Mass Shooting at Indianapolis FedEx Facility21 people federally charged in drug trafficking, dog fighting investigation in central IndianaVideo shows ex-Indiana teacher encouraging students to fight 7-year-old with disabilitiesMacworld|October 2012SafariSAFARI HAS been around forever, and you might not think Apple could do much to improve it in Mountain Lion. But the company has found some clever—and welcome—ways to update the app.TABS AND SEARCHOne way Apple accomplished that positive result was by taking some inspiration from other browsers. The most obvious example is the new unified address and search bar. Like Google Chrome, Safari 6.0 has a single text box up top (instead of supplying one box for Web addresses and another for searching).Type a URL in the new box, and the browser goes to that site. Type some text in it, and Safari performs a search for that term. As you type, the browser shows you a drop-down list of possible hits. First comes a section that it calls…3 min
Macworld|October 2012STM’s Vertical Laptop Shoulder BagWhen you want to travel light, STM’s $70 Vertical Laptop Shoulder Bag (www.stmbags.com) can help you do it in style. This upright messenger bag—I tested the small size—is designed for 13-inch notebooks. The main compartment sports foam padding and a plush corduroy lining, and closes with a protective hook-and-loop flap. A general-purpose pocket fits a couple of magazines or a slim book. Store your iPad in a thin pocket, lined with a feltlike material, at the bottom of the bag. Smaller trinkets, a power adapter, cables, and the like can go in the compartment at the front. Closing this compartment gets a bit challenging if you’ve stowed thicker items in it. The STM Vertical is a solid bag at a competitive price, but I recommend it with a caveat: If…1 min
Macworld|October 2012Sign PDFs Electronically with PreviewElectronic documents are becoming more and more popular: Instead of mailing paper documents or sending faxes, we can just email important files. But for many people, the biggest hurdle to going all-digital is signatures. How do you sign, say, a PDF document?You can electronically sign your PDF documents using tools you’ve already got on your Mac: a FaceTime or iSight camera, and OS X’s Preview application.The first step is to launch Preview and open its Preferences window. Click Signatures in the window toolbar, and then click Create Signature.Next, sign your name in black ink on a plain white piece of paper, and hold that signature a few inches in front of your Mac’s camera. When the on-screen image of the signature approximately fills the preview box and sits on the…2 min
Macworld|October 2012All the Magazines You Can ReadWe’re all very familiar with the concept of “all you can eat,” from the artery-clogging Vegas buffet to less-literal digital equivalents such as Netflix or digital music subscription services.In April, Next Issue Media launched with a similar idea for magazines (www.nextissue.com): Pay a monthly fee and get access to many titles from Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp., and Time Inc. on some Android tablets. Now iPad users can join in the fun with a catalog of nearly 40 magazines, and the promise of more to come.What You GetFor $10 a month, you get the Unlimited Basic plan, which includes 34 magazines such as Bon Appetit, Car and Driver, Cooking Light, Fortune, GQ, and Wired—basically the monthly and biweekly magazines on offer. For $15 a month, the Unlimited Premium plan…5 min
Macworld|October 2012REVIEWSHARDWARE: Geneva Lab Sound System Model XSGeneva Lab’s Sound System Model XS is a small, portable speaker system that sticks to the visual aesthetic of Geneva’s products and comes in white, black, or red. The Bluetooth-enabled speaker—which doubles as a travel alarm clock—includes a built-in rechargeable battery. The XS lives inside a clamshell case and is attached to it by pins. When closed up, it latches shut snugly and securely, with integrated magnets to seal the deal. When you want to use the XS, you fold it into a triangle by latching the top of the case into grooves on the top of the XS itself. We didn’t love the touch-sensitive controls on the Model XS. It’s too easy to graze the wrong button accidentally, and we prefer the tactile…2 min
Macworld|October 2012CHAOTIC, KINETIC, DELICATE TANGLE FONTDepending on the view, Tangle, a free experimental display font by designer Claire Mitchell, is either lovely or freakish (macworld.com/7911). Recognizable sans serif letterforms emerge within a wild swirl of lines mimicking the floating action of dandelion fluff or a heart-stopping dervish made from bioengineered cells waiting to go berserk. Despite the chaotic ornamentation, Tangle’s characters read loud and clear.Tangle emerged during Mitchell’s coursework at the University of the West of England. Students developed a 26-character font around a single word. Mitchell chose chaos. The result is a bold set of lowercase characters composed of atmospheric motion lines. It’s a beautiful feat of engineering, but the emotional range is limited. Tangle’s characters are easily recognizable, although they are best teased apart with letterspacing. The action surrounding each letter is included…1 min
Macworld|October 2012Aperture 3.3 Embraces Retina Display and iPhotoREVIEWThe Mac App Store has changed how we access and update software. A perfect example is the latest release of Aperture. While the version number—3.3.2—suggests a minor, incremental release of software that’s more than two years old, in fact this update includes enhancements and features that in the past might well have been considered a major upgrade. And there’s no charge to update to this version, which is essentially a rewritten app.The headline changes in Aperture 3.3 include Retina display support for the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, a substantial performance boost, and a unified library structure for both iPhoto and Aperture.Retina Display SupportRetina display support does not remove or diminish features for users of non-Retina computers; it just enhances the experience of using Aperture. When you look at thumbnails in…4 min
Macworld|October 2012The Balancing ActBACK TO THE MACIt doesn’t matter what the iPad or iMac does “better” (“iPad vs. iMac,” August 2012). It’s about cultural shift. Users under 50 want their computers with them everywhere and all the time. Tweeting, browsing, shopping, gaming, and streaming now go on 24/7, even in the presence of other people. If doing real work is klutzier on an iPad, it’s a small price to pay. I’m a geezer. I use my iMac for writing, editing videos, and managing college courses. I don’t play games, tweet, or stream. I can only hope that iMacs will still be made for professionals, so I can keep being a Mac user.Richard Posner, via emailI wholeheartedly agree with Stephen Hackett’s comments in the August issue with regard to his not being ready to…3 min
Macworld|October 2012Record Q3 iPad Sales Help Apple Enjoy Revenue, Profit GrowthApple’s sales hit $35 billion for the third quarter of 2012, up 22 percent from $28.6 billion in the same period last year, while profits rose 20.5 percent to $8.8 billion from $7.3 billion. Earnings for the quarter were $9.32 a share, up 20 percent from last year. Reported earnings topped Apple’s forecast, but fell short of Wall Street expectations of $10.35 per share on projected revenue of $37 billion.Apple sold 17 million iPads during the quarter, the most the company has ever sold during a single quarter. The company broke records in this quarter for both Mac and iPhone sales—the latter figure coming even as customers have held off on purchasing a new iPhone in anticipation of a new model coming out later this year.Despite the sales records, the…2 min
Macworld|October 2012HOT STUFFRocketStor 5122BGot a bunch of bare hard drives and solid-state drives (SSDs), but no cases for them? You needn’t buy a case for each drive. Instead, try HighPoint’s $90 storage dock, which features a pair of 6-gigabits-per-second docks that can accommodate SSDs and hard-drive mechanisms equipped with SATA. The RocketStor 5122B has a pair of independent USB 3.0 ports, with each port dedicated to one of the drive bays to help optimize performance. Just slip a drive into a bay, and the drive appears on your Mac’s desktop like a regular drive. You can easily remove a drive when you don’t need it. Each port is designed for use with 2.5-or 3.5-inch drive mechanisms (highpoint-tech.com).—ROMAN LOYOLAST-UHA USB 2.0 HubYou can never have too many USB ports, and Satechi’s $28 USB…2 min
Macworld|October 2012ReviewsHARDWAREiHome iD9iHome’s iD9 is a portable, rechargeable stereo-speaker dock for your iOS devices and iPods. Simply place your iOS device in the iD9’s cradle and start rocking out. An internal battery packs enough juice to last for around 4.5 hours of playback at a reasonable volume. If you connect the dock to AC power, it will even charge your docked device. The basic device generates nice, though not jaw-dropping, sound around your home, and it can even provide a battery-powered soundtrack for a small outdoor gathering.; $100; iHome;www.ihomeaudio.com/Incipio OffGrid ProIncipio’s OffGrid Pro backup battery case offers a unique take on a case that combines protection and extra juice for your iPhone 4 or 4S. The removable 1700mAh battery sits in a recessed space in the inside back of the case,…2 min
Macworld|October 2012Big in ChinaAPPLE HAS had huge success in China lately, most particularly with the iPhone. With Mountain Lion, the company is trying to improve support for users who write in Chinese.On the text-input side, Mountain Lion offers better suggestions and corrections via a dynamically updated dictionary. Apparently Chinese users often insert English words in Chinese text, so Mountain Lion allows the mixing of Pinyin and English without making you switch between keyboard layouts. Apple says Mountain Lion also doubles the number of characters recognized by trackpad-based handwriting recognition.On the Internet services side, Mountain Lion offers support for Chinese alternatives to several worldwide services. Search engine Baidu is now an option in Safari. Chinese microblogging service Sina Weibo is supported in Share Sheets, just as Twitter already is. In addition to supporting sharing…1 min
Macworld|October 2012SharingONE OF THE many features that Mountain Lion has borrowed from iOS is the idea of system-wide sharing. In many apps you’ll see a Share button (an arrow popping out of a box), which makes it easy to disseminate whatever you’re viewing—files in the Finder, websites in Safari, and the like. While in the past you might have copied and pasted a URL into your Twitter client, now you can share that link right from your browser.SOCIAL SHARINGBy default, Mountain Lion lets you share items through built-in OS X apps and services, such as Mail or iMessage. But sharing is extensible in a couple of different ways.For one thing, you can add accounts for Flickr, Twitter, Vimeo, and (later this year) Facebook in the Mail, Contacts & Calendars preference pane;…2 min
Macworld|October 2012AirPlay MirroringWhen iOS 4.2 debuted, Apple changed the name of AirTunes—the feature that let you stream music from iTunes to an AirPort Express—to AirPlay, and in the process upgraded it considerably. In addition to streaming audio from iTunes on your computer, you could stream from any AirPlay-enabled iOS app—you could even stream video to any Apple TV. As of iOS 5, you could actually mirror the screen of an iPhone 4S or an iPad 2 (or later): Whatever was on that screen could appear on the display connected to your Apple TV.AirPlay mirroring was so great that people wanted it for their Macs. And in Mountain Lion, Apple has delivered.MIRROR YOUR MACYou can now send your Mac’s screen to any second-or third-generation Apple TV on the same local network to mirror…3 min
Macworld|October 2012MessagesMESSAGES IS NOT just iChat with a new skin. Sure, the interface looks different. But in addition to its updated interface, Messages introduces a big change to the way instant messaging works on the Mac.That’s because, unlike iChat, it works with the iMessage platform that Apple introduced with iOS 5. It still works with standard IM networks such as AIM and Jabber, and it can still send SMS texts to non-iOS phones.But iMessage isn’t just another messaging platform like all the others. Rather, it ties your Mac and iOS devices into a single unified ecosystem. You can—in theory—start a conversation on your Mac and then pick it up later on your phone. You can—again, in theory—see your entire chat history with a contact, regardless of the devices you used for…6 min
Macworld|October 2012And That’s Not All ...WE CAN’T COVER all of the new features in Mountain Lion (Apple claims there are more than 200) in depth. Here are a few additional highlights.MAILMountain Lion makes it easier to keep track of messages from the people who matter most to you, by letting you designate them as VIPs. Once you do so (by clicking the star icon next to the name in a message), every message to or from that person is flagged with a star. Each VIP receives an entry in the new VIPs section of the Mailboxes sidebar, where you can see all messages to or from that person.Also, Mail uses Notification Center to alert you to new messages (you can customize which ones). It gains a Safari-like inline find feature, too: When you type a…3 min
Macworld|October 2012Automate Tasks with Folder ActionsOne of the great things about OS X is that it’s like the real world. You store your files in folders; when you don’t want something, you put it in the Trash. But on your Mac, a folder isn’t really just a folder, and that’s not a bad thing. Take, for example, Folder Actions. With this handy feature, you can attach AppleScripts to specific folders; these scripts run whenever someone adds files to the folders. That means the scripts can trigger an alert whenever new files are added to a specific folder, change the Finder labels when you put files in a folder, and automatically unzip file archives. Here’s how Folder Actions work.Turn On Folder Actions GloballyTo use Folder Actions, you must first turn this feature on globally. To do…4 min
Macworld|October 2012Hot StuffV-Moda Vamp Headphone AmpIf you have golden ears, a golden pocketbook, and an iPhone 4 or 4S with a music library encoded in Apple Lossless, you’ll want to know about the V-Moda Vamp. This exquisite headphone amp and DAC (digital-to-analog converter) comes in the form of an iPhone case with a built-in battery, and is priced at a cool $650. The Vamp taps the iPhone 4’s digital audio output and passes the bitstream to a DSP (digital signal processor), a DAC, and, finally, a high-end Burr-Brown operational amplifier, which is what ultimately drives your headphone (v-moda.com).—MICHAEL BROWNUrban Pixels CanIStream.It?I have no cable subscription, choosing instead to satiate my television-and movie-watching desires with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, and Amazon. The appropriately named Can I Stream.It? is a free website…2 min
Macworld|October 2012MotionArtist Public Beta Released at Comic-ConArtists seeking to create comic books or graphic novels on their desktop computers have a new app to look forward to. Smith Micro—maker of Poser, Anime Studio, and Manga Studio—has launched a free public beta of MotionArtist, an animated comic-authoring program that lets you create HTML-based interactive comics and graphic novels. The company released the beta in conjunction with International Comic-Con 2012.MotionArtist will be available online until the first quarter of 2013, during which time artists can download and use the program for free. Due in mid-February 2013, the full release of MotionArtist will cost about $50.“Motion Artist is designed as a bridge between traditional comic creators and getting those comics digitized and out into the wild,” says Steve Yatson, Smith Micro’s senior director of productivity and graphics. “There’s a…3 min
Macworld|October 2012Mac OS X HintsView an App’s Graphics in PreviewWhether you’re preparing a presentation or assembling how-to documents for your staff, there may come a time when you want access to a program’s built-in graphics—perhaps to adorn a presentation or a how-to guide at work. You may be especially curious about the images in applications like Apple’s Pages, which include plenty of graphical elements in their themes.You can view all of an application’s graphical resources—including its icons, pictures, user-interface elements, and the like—by dragging the program’s icon onto the Preview icon. When you do this, Preview’s sidebar shows all of these items, and you can click any one of them to view it in the main window.With Keynote, for example, you’ll gain access to all the graphical elements in the various themes that program…6 min
Macworld|October 2012Scratching an ItchI love Macs. The hardware is outstanding, and the operating system is beautiful and powerful. However, it’s the vast selection of high-quality, third-party apps that makes the Mac—and, by extension, iOS—the best choice for me. The quality, ease of use, and aesthetics of the applications on Apple’s platforms surpass those on any other operating system I’ve used.In talking to my fellow developers about why that is, I’ve found a common thread: By a large margin, the most interesting apps come from people who are out to solve a problem they’ve encountered themselves; I call it “scratching an itch.”Problem SolversSometimes those itches come from observing the friction in someone else’s workflow. But the idea is the same: If you can figure out a solution to a problem for yourself or for…3 min
Macworld|October 2012Ultimate MacBook Air 2012 Models: Worthy Upgrades for the MoneyApple usually offers optional upgrades that allow you to tailor a standard-configuration system to suit your individual needs. Macworld Lab ran performance benchmarks on two MacBook Air build-to-order (BTO) models, and the results show that while both custom systems are faster than the high-end stock MacBook Airs, the upgrades to the 11-inch model offer a bigger performance bang for the buck.11-Inch BTO MacBook AirYou can customize the stock $1099 11-inch 1.7GHz dual-core Core i5 MacBook Air with a 2.0GHz dual-core Core i7 processor for an extra $150. We gave our custom system 8GB of RAM rather than the standard 4GB, for an extra $100. Finally, we upgraded the flash storage from the standard 128GB to 256GB for an additional $300. The total price for this BTO MacBook Air came to…4 min
Macworld|October 2012UltraDock 5 Great for Connecting Bare Hard DrivesThe WiebeTech UltraDock 5 is a multi-interface dock that enables users to connect a variety of drive mechanisms to a Mac.Targeted at IT professionals, but handy for any user who works with hardware components, the UltraDock 5 has eSATA, FireWire 400, FireWire 800, and USB 3 ports for connecting compatible drives to a computer. The UltraDock 5 also has native SATA and IDE/PATA connections for your hard drives, making the dock compatible with most drives on the market.At a pocket-size 4.3 by 2.95 by 0.87 inches and encased in a durable aluminum body, this adapter is small and hardy enough to travel anywhere.Macworld’s Buying AdviceThe $249 WiebeTech UltraDock 5 is a great piece of hardware. This compact device lets you access virtually any kind of drive from your Mac, and…1 min
Macworld|October 2012The iPhone at FiveOn the surface, the iPhone of today may resemble the one that Steve Jobs introduced in January 2007 and that arrived in stores some months after that. But in the five years since, Apple’s smartphone has improved in countless ways, major and minor.A few moments in the iPhone’s lifespan were particularly significant—the kinds of moments when everything changed, even if we didn’t realize it at the time. But cumulatively those changes have made the iPhone into the technological phenomenon that it is today.Cheaper PricingHard as it may be to believe, the original iPhone was downright expensive: $499 for the 4GB model, $599 for the 8GB version, and $699 for the 16GB alternative. AT&T didn’t subsidize these prices; instead, Apple took a cut of the monthly fees that customers paid for…5 min
Macworld|October 2012What’s New at the App StoreiBank for iPadFor people who track their finances in fine detail, IGG Software brings its iBank software (macworld.com/7898) to the iPad. The app lets you track your stocks, bonds, mutual funds, IRAs, 401ks, ETFs, CDs, and other assets, and manage multiple accounts while doing so: A dashboard provides a financial overview at a glance. The app costs $15 to download, plus $40 a year for the service.WTHRIf you want your weather forecasts uncomplicated—and soothingly beautiful—then David Elgena’s $1 WTHR app (macworld.com/7902) is for you. With its stripped-down aesthetic, WTHR offers local weather conditions, a seven-day-forecast, and the ability to toggle between Fahrenheit and Celsius displays of the temperature. But the app doesn’t get much more complicated than that. Even in a hurricane, checking the WTHR forecast will make you feel…1 min
Macworld|October 2012OS X MOUNTAIN LIONA little over a year ago, Apple released OS X Lion (10.7). Since then, the company has also released one new generation of its operating system for tablets and phones (iOS 5) and previewed the next (iOS 6), and expanded its online syncing service, iCloud. Now, with the release of OS X Mountain Lion (10.8), it’s bringing those three product lines closer together than ever.Mountain Lion extends and improves features introduced in Lion. It inherits ideas and even apps from iOS. And it integrates tightly with iCloud. So while the changes in Mountain Lion might not seem dramatic, this update is still a significant step in the evolution of the Mac OS.Here’s our take on the new version of OS X, along with a deeper look at its new features.…1 min
Macworld|October 2012Auto SaveAUTO SAVE—the feature introduced with OS X Lion that allowed you to browse back through previously saved versions of a document—gains some nice new capabilities in Mountain Lion.In the Lion version of Auto Save, you could click the title of a document and choose to lock, duplicate, revert to the last saved version, or browse all versions of the file. Mountain Lion adds new options: Now you have commands for renaming and moving files, as well as for retrieving the last saved version of the file.Which of those commands you see depends on whether you’ve saved the file and where you saved it. For example, if you create a TextEdit document and type something in it, the file’s title bar will read Untitled — Edited. The Edited label means that…3 min
Macworld|October 2012Charge!Admit it: Your carry-on bag is stuffed full of digital gear you can’t bear to leave at home. Keeping all of these devices charged when you’re constantly on the go or stuck on a plane can be a challenge. Here are a few things you can do to extend battery life and save power.Invest in a Battery CaseA battery case for your iPhone is a great accessory to keep in your carry-on. These cases add extra battery life to your iPhone while also keeping it safe from the occasional drop and bump. Most sport dock-connector plugs that pair up with the iPhone’s 30-pin port, which is how they deliver the juice. The only downside is that you can’t use any dock-cradle accessories without removing the iPhone from the case.One of…5 min
Macworld|October 2012Two Great Folder ActionsOS X’s Folder Actions let you attach AppleScripts to specific folders so actions are performed automatically when you add items to the folders. Here are two to try out.1. Print Files AutomaticallyIf you only have a single printer, and you don’t need to tweak settings for different types of documents, you can create a Folder Action that prints any files you add to a folder.Launch the Automator applications (in/Applications). When the program opens, select Folder Action in the template sheet that appears, and then click Choose.To the right of the Automator window, above the workflow space, a line of text appears that reads ‘Folder Action receives files and folders added to.’ Click the Choose Folder menu at the end of the sentence and then select the folder to which you…2 min
Macworld|October 2012REVIEWSHARDWARECanon Pixma MX372The Canon Pixma MX372 color inkjet multifunction printer will meet the needs of anyone who prints or scans only a few pages a day. The unit offers a single-sided automatic document feeder for the scanner—surprising for a printer this inexpensive. It has no automatic duplexer, however, and it omits manual duplexing support on the Mac; its black-ink costs are high, too. The Pixma MX372’s output is easy on the eye, though color graphics have an orange cast. Text appears sharp and black, but the edges of letters are a tad soft. Grayscale graphics have a slightly purple tinge. Monochrome pages print at 6 ppm on the Mac. Snapshots print at 2.4 ppm on plain paper and at 1.2 ppm on glossy photo stock. The Pixma MX372 has the…5 min
Macworld|October 2012Move iTunes Media Files to Other Locations with TuneSpanOver the years, my iTunes library has grown in size from manageable to humongous. And as I continue to add more content—music files, videos, podcasts, and more—that library sure isn’t getting any smaller.So I, like many iTunes users, have been looking for an easy solution for putting some of my iTunes content on another drive while keeping it accessible.Enter TuneSpan (www.tunespan.com). This $10 app from Random Applications is designed to move, or span, some or all of your iTunes library to another drive. (Note that the developer lists $10 as a limited-time sale price, and says he may raise the price to $15 in the future.) You can even move part of your library to one drive and another part to a different drive.When you launch TuneSpan, it examines your…3 min
Macworld|October 2012The Fine Art of Computational Photography and iOSEver since the 1880s, when light could first be captured accurately on a substrate, photography has nearly always boiled down to this: a bit of space preserved across a slice of time. Even as analog photography and filmmaking have given way to digital, cameras still capture a piece of light focused through a lens for the length of a given exposure and then fix it in place—but now in electronic bits rather than silver halide.Computational photography may fundamentally alter how you conceive of and take pictures. In fact, you might already be using computational photography and not even know it. Part of the reason you may be using it is that such algorithmic techniques are in the apps you use on a smartphone. The ever-improving processors and cameras in phones…5 min
Macworld|October 2012Mac 911Share a Wireless Keyboard and MouseQ: I have an iMac and a MacBook Pro. I control the iMac with a wireless keyboard and mouse, and I want to use these devices to control my MacBook Pro as well. Is there a Bluetooth KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) switch I could use to share my keyboard and mouse with my laptop?Alan LynchA: KVM switches require a wired connection between the mouse and keyboard, and that presents a difficulty for you, as your input devices are wireless. I’m not aware of any intermediary switch that you can pair to your Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and then use to switch between computers. But you have other ways.One is the open-source Synergy project (synergy-foss.org). This software allows you to share a keyboard and mouse not…6 min
Macworld|October 2012Disappearing ToolsQ: I’m running Snow Leopard on my iMac, and something has gone wrong with my copy of Mail. When I select a message and click Reply, the Reply window appears but doesn’t have a Send button. Instead, I have to choose Send from the Message menu. Where did that button go?Via the InternetA: It’s time you became familiar with the button in the top right corner of many windows on the Mac—the one that’s supposed to look like it’s transparent. That’s the toolbar button. When you click it, that exposes hidden toolbars or hides exposed toolbars. My very best guess is that you clicked the button at one time or another, hiding the toolbar in the Reply window as a result. Click the button again, and the Send button, along…1 min
