Índex per January 2014 a Macworld

With the latest iPhone models racking up sales, Apple clearly isn’t in any rush to make handsets with a bigger screen. To be fair, a change in screen size would have been unlikely for this year’s iPhone; we’ve seen the product undergo a radical refresh roughly every other year, so it’s no surprise that the iPhone 5c and 5s are incremental updates to the iPhone 5. Still, big phones are everywhere, and it’s only natural to wonder whether Apple will follow suit. When Bigger Is Better Of course, not so long ago the iPhone was the big phone. When the product launched in June 2007, it entered a market in which manufacturers had spent decades miniaturizing the large, unwieldy handsets of the 1970s and 1980s. Even the smartphones of the…

Around the time you read this, power users with money to burn will have a present to buy for themselves, as Apple’s new Mac Pro desktop workstation—which the company previewed back in June—finally becomes available for purchase. The company announced the Mac Pro shipping time frame in October. The $2999 configuration includes an Intel 3.7GHz Xeon E5 processor with 10MB of L3 cache and Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz, 12GB of 1866MHz ECC DDR3 RAM (installed as three 4GB modules, leaving one RAM slot open), 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage, and two AMD FirePro D300 GPUs (2GB of VRAM each). Apple also offers a $3999 model, which has a six-core 3.5GHz Xeon E5 processor with 12MB of L3 cache and Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz, 16GB of 1866MHz ECC DDR3…

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak admits he has enjoyed many adventures in hacking pranks on friends and family, especially back in his college days and during the early years of working on computers and the Internet. “I like to play jokes,” Wozniak told an audience of thousands of security professionals attending a conference in Chicago in September. He confessed he also had some fun with lighthearted forays into computer and telecommunications networks in his college years. People with imagination in engineering are naturally drawn to the idea of finding ways to bypass security controls as part of the process of discovering how things work, and Wozniak said that this was especially true of himself. “But I never once hacked a computer for real,” he told his audience, meaning that his break-ins…

At its October 22 media event, Apple announced a new iPad mini with Retina display, with much-anticipated upgrades to its screen, processor, cameras, and more. New iPad Mini With Retina Display For starters, the new iPad mini with Retina display ups its screen resolution from 1024 by 768 pixels to Retina quality (2048 by 1536 pixels) at the same 7.9-inch (diagonal) screen size. This change increases the iPad mini’s pixel density from 163 pixels per inch to 326 ppi—nearly that of the iPhone 5s. The new mini gets some upgrades on the inside, as well. Whereas the original mini used the same dual-core A5 processor, at the same clock speed, as the two-and-a-half-year-old iPad 2, the new iPad mini line significantly bumps up its horsepower by using Apple’s 64-bit A7…

AT&T now requires all new customers to sign up for its Mobile Share plans, which allow unlimited voice and text, but also establish a ceiling for data usage that applies to all devices on the plan. AT&T customers with traditional plans that set monthly ceilings on voice minutes and text messages, and separate ceilings on data usage for each device, can keep their existing plans, upgrade or downgrade their plans, and buy new phones without being forced onto Mobile Share. Shared data plans are worth looking into if you need more than the basic amount of voice minutes and text messages. But if you need more data instead of unlimited voice and text, Mobile Share isn’t a great fit. AT&T’s basic Mobile Share plan starts at $70 per month with…

Hardware: Apple iPhone 5s Case 4.0/5.0; $39; Apple; apple.com Apple’s case for the iPhone 5s (which fits the iPhone 5, too) is a rigid shell that covers the phone’s back and sides, but leaves its screen exposed. Available in brown, beige, black, yellow, light blue, and Product Red, the case has a soft-leather exterior and sports a recessed Apple logo on the back. Soft microfiber covers the inside rear of the case. Apple’s case weighs just 13 grams (less than 0.5 ounce) and adds only about 4mm to the width and height of the iPhone 5s or 5—and even less to its thickness. The phone feels bigger with the case on, but not at all bulky or heavy. The case extends a bit past the screen in front, forming a…

I can sum up Keynote 6.0 for Mac in a few words: Apple giveth, and Apple taketh away. Keynote 6.0 offers useful new features, a reworked user interface, and vastly improved compatibility and consistency across platforms. But numerous features from the previous version are gone, which can wreak havoc with older presentations. As evidenced by the fact that most of the Mac App Store ratings for this new version are either 5 stars or 1 star, your reaction to Keynote 6.0 will depend on how you use the app—you’ll love it or you’ll hate it. What’s Missing and What’s Improved Let’s start with the missing features, since people are up in arms about them. One Apple Support forum thread is dedicated to compiling a master list (go.macworld.com/keynotemissing), but I’ll give…

Although iOS 7 packs a lot of changes, you may not have ever looked closely at one part of Apple’s mobile OS that you use often: your iPhone or iPad’s keyboard. Discover hidden characters and handy shortcuts with this guide. What You See in the Keyboard Depends on What You Need The iOS 7 keyboard displays different keys depending on an app’s function. Messages’ keyboard is simple and spare. In Mail, the @ key is prominently displayed in the bottom row, so you can easily type email addresses. (Before, you had to press the ‘123’ key to get to it.) In Twitter apps, the keyboard has both the @ and # symbols—the former for Twitter usernames, and the latter for hashtags. Find Web Necessities While the keyboard often anticipates your…

Something about the way Brits do TV can be as refreshing as a spot of tea. Here are five of my favorites from the UK, including recent additions to Hulu Plus. Coupling Coupling (2000–2004) is a near-perfect sitcom that stands up nicely to multiple viewings. It revolves around a group of six mostly friends with overlapping relationships, both past and present. Sort of like Friends but, you know, actually funny. There’s the dumb-but-well-endowed Patrick, the reality-challenged Jane, Susan with her “affinity” for Australians, the master of foot-in-mouth disease Jeff, and so on. True, some of the jokes don’t migrate well; the final season also suffers from the loss of the hilarious Richard Coyle as Jeff. But I dare you to watch without a smile on your face. And you’ll never…

Debuting with the Mavericks and iOS 7 operating systems for Macs and Apple mobile devices are new, free versions of Apple’s creative desktop and mobile apps for photography, video, and music. Updates of iPhoto, iMovie, and Garage-Band are compatible with the new OSs, and the changes span quite a range. For the desktop apps overall, the new setup remains fairly similar to the old. iPhoto 9.5 has numerous incremental, under-the-hood updates. iMovie 10 retains many advanced features from earlier versions, adds more, and offers a clean, clutter-free interface. GarageBand 10 provides familiar features from Logic Pro X, but removes popular podcasting tools. The debut of iOS 7 made mobile app redesign more visually urgent for the new iPhone and iPad versions. Despite iPhoto’s new iOS-inspired interface, however, the app offers…

Hands-On Of the three creative iLife applications for OS X and iOS—iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand—that Apple refreshed this fall, the last is of special interest to me because I’m a musician in my off hours. So I was quick to volunteer my services in evaluating the various features that the new GarageBand has to offer. Here are my first impressions of each version. GarageBand for iOS For users who have never purchased GarageBand for iOS, the 2.0 version is free but lacks some of the sounds and instruments found in the previous version. (It also requires iOS 7.) With a $5 in-app purchase, however, you can have all the features of the previous version, plus a few extras. Users who have previously purchased GarageBand get everything with the update. The…

When Read Mail Isn’t Q: After I updated to iOS 7, the Mail icon in my iPhone’s dock started showing over a thousand unread messages. They weren’t unread before I updated. How do I remove this bubble from the Mail icon? Arthur Raines A: Invariably this is a problem with Gmail accounts. You have an easy fix. Launch the Web browser on your Mac, go to your Gmail page, and mark all your messages as read. Then, launch Mail on your phone, and allow its message list to refresh; all the messages should be marked as read, and the unread-message count should disappear from Mail’s icon. Now, before you cry, “I have 10,245 unread messages. Don’t tell me I have to mark them in groups of 50!” allow me one…

IS APPLE DUMBING DOWN iWORK? I’m in the camp that dislikes the direction Apple software is taking. The dumbing down of things makes it more difficult to get what you want done. If you fit Apple’s mindset, and don’t want to do anything other than the prescribed workflow, maybe it’s slightly more efficient. When you deviate from that, the simplified interface is now in the way more often than it is helpful. Maybe as I use the software more, I’ll get used to it, but that’s a pretty drastic change from the past, where the software just made sense. I don’t remember having to hunt so much to find what I’m looking for as I do now with the latest updates. My 2009 apps are working just fine. I will…

The new 21.5-inch iMac is a beautifully designed all-in-one computer. Its gleaming aluminum body, seamless ultrathin edges, and bright, LED-backlit IPS screen make the iMac a droolworthy desktop. Its design, though, is externally identical to the late-2012 iMacs. The updates are all internal. The $1299 entry-level iMac has a 1TB hard drive, 8GB of RAM, a 21.5-inch screen with 1920 by 1080 resolution, and a 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU—just like the 2012 entry-level iMac. But whereas those iMacs used Intel’s Ivy Bridge Core i5 CPU, the 2013 units incorporate Intel’s fourth-generation Core processors, code-named Haswell, which are higher-performing and more efficient. Unlike other 2013 iMacs, the low-end iMac in this review uses Intel’s Iris Pro integrated graphics; Intel claims that it should perform similarly to a discrete GPU…

PHOTOGRAPHY: PhotoReviewer 2.2.1 4.5/5.0; $15; Stick Software; sticksoftware.com We all need a good way to “triage” the flood of photos from our digital cameras. PhotoReviewer has been around a long time, and for years it was the best app I’d found for this job, but it hadn’t been updated for newer operating systems—until now. It works great with OS X 10.8 and 10.9. To use PhotoReviewer, drag a folder or volume of images onto its icon (or into the setup window for a new review). Click Start, and PhotoReviewer shows your images in a viewer window, with thumbnails in a list on the left and the selected image on the right. By default, pressing the plus (+) key on your keyboard (or clicking the Approve button) accepts the current photo,…

In late September, a group of German security researchers announced that they had circumvented Apple’s Touch ID—the technology behind the iPhone 5s’s fingerprint scanner—by fooling the sensor on their brand-new handsets into accepting a fake fingerprint that they had photographed at high resolution, printed out, and transferred to a piece of latex. The success of this trick raises questions about how effective Touch ID is at keeping data secure from malevolent crooks. But don’t assume the fingerprint-based security system is useless. The idea behind using fingerprints to unlock your phone is that they tie your data to a unique physical identifier. Unlike a password, which someone may guess or crack without knowing anything about the user, fingerprints can’t be reproduced without access to the original. But fingerprints are supposed to…

Fotor HDR If you’d like to create cool-looking still photos, the $2 Fotor HDR (go.macworld.com/fotorhdr) app for iPhone is pretty nifty: For a single photo, it captures two pictures—one overexposed and one underexposed—and then combines them into a single image to create eye-popping high-dynamic-range photos. The app includes presets and filters that allow you to create engaging images and share photos easily on social media.—JOEL MATHIS Yahoo Mail Believe it or not, Yahoo Mail (go.macworld.com/yahoomail2) still exists—and Yahoo recently relaunched its iOS app as version 2.0. Among the improvements: Conversations are now threaded, you can personalize the app with custom themes, and 1TB of storage lets you save every message you’ve ever received or ever will receive.—JOEL MATHIS Shadowrun Returns The $10 Shadowrun Returns (go.macworld.com/shadowrun) features a Blade Runner–meets–The Hobbit…

The last time Apple released an OS X update for free, it was playing defense. OS X 10.0 was slow and buggy and adoption was sluggish; version 10.1, which rolled out in September 2001, was an apology release for the pioneers who were running Apple’s then-new Mac operating system. Twelve years later, Apple’s playing offense. OS X Mavericks (technically version 10.9) launches a new era of Mac operating systems, complete with a nonfeline nickname and a blank price tag. It’s free, whether you’re running Snow Leopard or Lion or Mountain Lion, and just as with the company’s many free iOS updates, Apple wants you to upgrade. So I can’t tell you whether or not to spend your hard-earned money on this upgrade, because, well, Mavericks won’t cost you a penny.…

Let me state this from the beginning: If you have been using Pages ’09’s more sophisticated page-layout features, Pages version 5.0 for Mac is not the program for you. Pages 5.0 is not an upgrade, but a brand-new application, and it is not (yet) the Pages you’ve been waiting for. This fact may make you sad; everyone wants something shiny and new. But don’t be—Pages ’09 still works, and you can get by with that for now. Your day is coming, but it isn’t today. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, allow me to say this: I like the new Pages a lot—not for a massive set of innovative features, and not because it’s completely stripped down, but because Apple appears to be establishing a foundation for…

Hardware: Kanex Multi-Sync Keyboard 3.5/5.0; $69; Kanex; www.kanexlive.com The Multi-Sync Keyboard pairs with up to three Bluetooth devices, but it also works as a wired keyboard with your Mac (or with an iOS device using Apple’s Camera Connection Kit or its Lightning to USB Camera Adapter). The keyboard draws power from the USB connection or two AAA batteries. The 17.4-inch-wide Multi-Sync offers a full complement of extended-keyboard keys, including a numeric keypad. It has 15 F-keys that double as special-function keys, and the last seven of these keys work with iOS devices, too (oddly, the brightness keys do not). You also get two additional keys for iOS: a Home key and a Spotlight-search key. Unfortunately, their size and location mean that the modifier keys (command, <Control>, and <Option>) are smaller…

Headphones represent an affordable luxury. A set of world-class headphones can be had for as little as $300 or so. The full-size, high-end headphones here, ranging in price from $310 to $400, are all supra-aural (overear), with closed (or sealed) designs to reduce external noise. V-Moda Crossfade M-100 The $310 V-Moda Crossfade M-100 continues V-Moda’s streak of producing well-built, cleverly designed headphones. Two stout hinges let you fold the earpieces into the headband for travel. The headband adjusts in discrete but unmarked steps. My review sample’s matte-black design had a Batman level of cool; glossy-black and white-and-silver versions are also available. And though “built like a tank” may be a cliché, it describes the M-100’s sturdiness. Hardware accessories include a $30 boom mic and a $30 coiled cable. The M-100…

Hands-On Apple has recently updated its signature consumer photo-editing and photo management software—the desktop iPhoto for Mac (go.macworld.com/iphotomac64) and the mobile iPhoto for iOS (go.macworld.com/iphotoios64), which is for both the iPhone and the iPad—with enhancements to emphasize iCloud integration and 64-bit compatibility. The move accompanied the unveiling of OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Though Apple has been more active on the mobile side of iPhoto in recent years, the Mac version, now sharing a database with Aperture (go.macworld.com/aperture33), remains the undisputed Mac-based photographic hub. iPhoto for iOS debuted last year with much fanfare, and for good reason. Though the beautifully rendered app wasn’t identical to its counterpart for the desktop, it offered many analogous capabilities. In some ways the mobile app—universal for both the iPhone and the iPad—had an even more…

Pinch and Zoom the Cover Art Album Browser in the Music App When you turn your iOS 7 device to landscape (horizontal) mode in the Music app, you get a lovely grid of album cover art from the music in your library. You can tap a cover to see that album in detail, but you may not realize just how interactive that grid is. You can swipe across it to drag other covers into view. Even better, you can pinch and zoom to change how many album covers fit onto the screen at a time, to see more covers at once. See Timestamps in iOS 7 Messages The Messages app in iOS 7 doesn’t introduce much in the way of new functionality from iOS 6, though it does sport a…

What do you do? I started my career at Apple, quit to earn a second B.A. in music, and then founded Red Sweater Software (red-sweater.com). I also host a podcast called Core Intuition (coreint.org) with Manton Reece and another called Bitsplitting (bitsplitting.org/podcast). What hardware do you use? My main work machine is a 2010 15-inch MacBook Pro. I keep a Mac mini always running at home to host my MacBook’s backups, integrate software projects, filter spam, and centralize home media. This year I tried a standing desk: I bought a GeekDesk frame and a $100 IKEA countertop. When I want to sit, I flip the switch to lower the desk so that I can relax back into my trusty Aeron chair. I’ve been gradually shifting to a paperless lifestyle, and…

You may not know it to look at them, but the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display models are thinner and lighter than the Retina systems they replace. Lighter is always better in a portable—but factor in the new MacBook Pro’s increased battery life and the faster integrated graphics, and you have a laptop you can love. The 13-inch models aren’t the only new laptops in Apple’s MacBook Pro line. The company is also releasing a pair of new 15-inch models: a $1999 Retina MacBook Pro with a 2.0GHz quad-core Core i7 processor, and a $2599 Retina MacBook Pro with a 2.3GHz quad-core Core i7 CPU. Macworld will have a full review of these two laptops in an upcoming issue. The new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pros look very similar…

The new 2013 iMacs come in four standard configurations: two 21.5-inch models, and two with 27-inch screens. You can have these new iMacs configured to order (CTO) at the time of purchase with an assortment of options. Macworld Lab obtained an “ultimate” configuration of a 2013 iMac that combines most of the upgrades. CTO Configuration Our CTO 27-inch iMac takes the $1999, high-end configuration and upgrades the processor from a 3.4GHz quad-core Core i5 CPU to a 3.5GHz quad-core Core i7, a $200 option. The memory stays at 8GB. Our ultimate iMac upgrades the standard 1TB, 7200-rpm hard drive to a 3TB Fusion Drive, a $350 upgrade. It contains an upgraded graphics card as well—an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M with 4GB of video memory rather than the standard GTX 775M…

It’s right there in the name: The iPad Air’s most important trait is its 1-pound weight. Apple obsesses over making devices thinner and lighter, so it must have been a relief to make an iPad that’s better and smaller than its predecessors. Most aspects of the iPad Air are thinner and lighter, including the smaller and less capacious battery. Battery life, though, is about the same, thanks to the improved power efficiency of the iPad Air’s A7 processor. But besides getting thinner and lighter, the iPad got more powerful. That A7 chip enables the iPad Air to run about twice as fast as the previous-generation iPad, opening the door for new apps that can bring laptop-strength power to the tablet. A Familiar Look The iPad Air takes its design cues…

Apple has pushed iOS 7.0.3 to iOS devices everywhere. The update adds support for iCloud Keychain and fixes an accelerometer-calibration issue that some users were seeing, as well as recent iMessage bugs. The update addresses several major complaints. For starters, the lock screen won’t display ‘slide to unlock’ when Touch ID is in use; Wikipedia and Web search have returned to Spotlight; and Accessibility’s Reduce Motion option now minimizes both animation and motion. iOS 7.0.3 also improves iWork system stability; quells a voice-quality issue with Siri and VoiceOver; patches a lock-screen bypass; and fixes several bugs in Voice-Over, Bold Text, and supervising software. You can get the update via the Software Update screen in Settings → General on an iOS device running iOS 7 or later. View the update’s security…

Infinity Blade III GAMES The first Infinity Blade was an infinite loop of challenge, punishment, and reward. It was fun to play because it delivered all the crucial elements of a typical RPG in its dungeon setting, and pruned everything else. While Infinity Blade III (go.macworld.com/infblade3) is more graphically polished than ever and adds various peripheral elements to the gameplay, it lacks big new ideas. Infinity Blade III does introduce a new category of opponent—the dragon—and the ability to play as a second character, a brunette with a crossbow. Unfortunately, she shoots everyone when she meets them, leaving you to take over for the subsequent sword fight. Infinity Blade III looks great and plays well, but the gameplay mechanics are getting a little tired. Series veterans might want to look…

Before the Genius Bar and before Apple’s own online forums, when the Mac was young and its users needed help, there were user groups: Part social clubs and part volunteer tech-support staffs, they disseminated tips, troubleshooting advice, news, and arguments about the Mac. They distributed loads of early Mac shareware and became important stops for vendors promoting new Mac products (including one Steve Jobs when he was trying to get Next Computer off the ground). And in that early Mac age, no user group was bigger or more important than the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, known to all as BMUG. Founded in 1986 and lasting for 14 contentious years, it at one point reportedly boasted more than 13,000 users, with satellite groups in Boston and Japan. While the original group…

You’ve probably seen the reports suggesting that sitting at a desk all day will kill you dead, long before your time. The new VariDesk line (www.varidesk.com) lets you switch between standing and sitting as often as you need. The cleverly designed platform fits on a standard desk; it lifts your Mac up into position to let you keep working while you stand, and lowers it back onto your desk for a sitter’s view. The VariDesk comes in a few sizes to accommodate everything from a laptop to a dual-monitor Mac. It’s also relatively affordable, costing between $275 and $300. Download the VariDesk app for reminders of when to stand or sit down. The app even has a calorie counter to estimate how many calories you’re burning with your new, virtuous…

Q&A This month, I cover questions about album art going AWOL on iOS devices, the iTunes Store app on iOS 7, gifting items from the iTunes Store, copying links to songs, and missing podcasts in iTunes 11.1. Q: A number of my album covers got scrambled in the move to iOS 7. Any ideas on how to fix this? A: The only solution I’ve ever found to troubles like this is a bit radical: Delete all the music on the iOS device and then resync the music. To do so, connect the iOS device to iTunes, select the device, and click the Music tab in the header bar. Uncheck Sync Music, and click Sync near the bottom of the iTunes window. After the syncing is complete, recheck Sync Music—iTunes will…

Hardware Sonos Play:1 4.5/5.0; $199; Sonos; sonos.com With the Play:1, Sonos has added a smaller, less expensive speaker to its product line—one that makes a multiroom system easier on the wallet and fits in more places. It sounds pretty sweet too. I tested out the Play:1 in my kitchen/living room area, as well as on my bedroom nightstand, with various types of music. In short: The Play:1 did a great job with pretty much whatever music I threw at it. The music can come from many sources, and the volume easily got loud enough to fill a fairly large room, undistorted. One seemingly small, but quite helpful, feature here is that the Mute button found on other Sonos models has been replaced with a Play/Pause button. (Volume buttons are still…

Hands-On Apple’s consumer filmmaking software, iMovie, has gotten its fair share of praise and scorn over the years. The company’s newest desktop and mobile versions aren’t perfect, but there’s plenty to like about them. Here are some of the best new features in iMovie for Mac and iOS. The interface is wonderful—and it’s seamless across Mac and iOS operating systems: This version of iMovie can stand proudly next to its pro sibling, Final Cut. Though its feature set pales in comparison to the options in Final Cut, it does pack a decent number of tools in its toolbox, and it has the same “space gray” coloration and timeline handling. Unlike in previous iMovie versions, however, those tools are secreted away behind reassuringly simplelooking buttons that won’t scare off casual filmmakers…

The Case of the Missing Apple TV Movies Q: After a recent update, I switched on my Apple TV, prepared to watch a movie I had ripped from a DVD I own. All my ripped movies are gone! What happened to them? via the Internet A: With the latest version of iTunes and the Apple TV, Apple categorizes such movies (and any sort of video that you didn’t obtain from the iTunes Store) as home videos. When you select Computers on your Apple TV, you will see a Home Videos entry as the fourth item in the media list. If you select that item and press the remote’s Select button, all your ripped movies should appear. If, like me, you find it a bit silly to separate your Apple-purchased movies…