MacworldFebruary 2016的目錄

The end-of-the-year tradition of list-making and reflection on the past, as well as pondering the future, often spills into the new year itself. Our foothold in 2016 is now complete. I’ve taken down my old calendar and put up the new one, a practice that always stokes my curiosity about what’s to come. I can’t actually peek into the future, but I’d like to share a list of things I hope we see from the Mac in 2016. A NEW NAME FOR OS X I’ve banged this drum (go.macworld.com/namechange) a couple of times (go.macworld.com/endofosx) this year, but 2016 seems like the right time for Apple to retire the “big X” and put the Mac back in OS X. In 2015, we saw tvOS and watchOS join iOS in Apple’s operating-system…

LEEF iACCESS Leef’s $50 iAccess (leefco.com) is an expandable storage device for the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and it’s a nifty one at that. This tiny dongle plugs in to your devices Lightning port, and at the base of the white, plastic unit is a slot for a microSD card up to 128GB. Weighing only six grams, iAccess is angled in the shape of a hook, which gives the reader a low profile by extending only 16.6mm from the device. The remaining 40.5mm wraps out of sight around back, leaving a 5mm gap from the device—enough clearance for the bulkiest of cases. It’s a pretty ingenious design that solves a big problem with earlier card readers that stuck out like a sore thumb. —J.R. BOOKWALTER GUITAR HERO LIVE FOR…

EDWIN THE DUCK Ever thought the world would need an app-controlled rubber duckie? Well, we’ve got one. Edwin the Duck (edwintheduck.com) is a $100 device—a bit pricier than your usual bathtime toy—that’s tricked out with Bluetooth technology. That way, your child can experience stories, play games, and sing songs with the duck thanks to the Edwin the Duck app. BEDDI Beddi (wittidesign.com) is a docking station and Bluetooth speaker with an array of features that show your iPhone off in its best light. It has multiple USB charging ports, a wake-up light, one-touch Uber calling, a white-noise generator, a built-in FM radio and more. Beddi has already made its crowdsourced funding goal, so look for this to be on the market soon. ALPHA AUDIOTRONICS The $279 Skybuds (skybuds.com) is a…

In the previous article of this primer series, we enabled your server for remote access. Enabling your server’s remote management features allows you to remotely control your server’s screen, and use the Server app to remotely manage services on your server. Now it’s time to check and see if remote management works. To perform this part of the setup you’re going to need another Mac with the Server app installed. Before we begin, double-check to make sure that both Screen Sharing And Apple Remote Desktop App and Using Server App On A Remote Mac are checked under the Settings tab in the server app. 1. Click your server’s name in the sidebar of the Server app. 2. Click the Settings tab. 3. Verify that both the screen sharing and remote…

The ability of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus to capture Live Photos is nothing short of magic. Live Photos are not GIFs nor video, but still JPEG images that “move” once you deep-press on your iPhone screen. Anyone with an iPhone running the latest iOS 9 can view them, but the only way to share them is sending them via iMessage or posting them on Tumblr, which just recently became the first photo-sharing app to support Live Photos. And the only way to store a fully animated Live Photo is by uploading it to the iCloud Photo Library. Just because Live Photos don’t have widespread support on social media and file storage services yet doesn’t mean that you can’t share them on Instagram or save them in Google Photos.…

When it comes to showing off your pictures and movies, nothing beats a great slideshow, and the ones you can craft in Photos for Mac are gorgeous. You can also export a saved slideshow project as a movie in order to share it with others. However, the way you share exported slideshow movies depends on the capability of your recipient. Do they have a computer? Do they have an Apple TV? Do they have a DVD or Blu-ray video player? Will you be there in person with an iOS device? In this column, you’ll learn strategies for each of these situations. HOW TO EXPORT A SAVED SLIDESHOW AS A MOVIE Once you finish crafting a saved slideshow—made by choosing File ? Create Slideshow or by clicking the + (plus-sign) icon…

An inside look at Apple’s laboratories isn’t as rare as it once was. Over the past year, Apple has opened up its doors to Good Morning America, Backchannel (go.macworld.com/backchannel) and The New Yorker in a seeming effort to change its image as an ultra-secretive, inaccessible company ruled by the specter of an iron fist. 60 Minutes’ Charlie Rose was the latest journalist invited into the inner sanctum, and Apple practically rolled out the red carpet for him. But while Rose didn’t uncover any real secrets (at least none that he told us about), his report was fascinating nonetheless. Every peek we’ve gotten in the media has shed the smallest sliver of light on Apple’s private operations, but Rose’s report wasn’t the usual sanitized glimpse at life within Apple’s walled garden.…

SEEMS LIKE NEARLY EVERY MONTH, a new cloud storage service appears on the scene, arms open in the hopes of cradling your precious memories in its loving bosom for a low monthly fee. Having tried nearly all of them by this point, I can safely say none have yet achieved perfection—although sadly, more than a few have pulled bait-and-switch tactics, wound up being acquired by larger companies, or vanished entirely. To date, iCloud Photo Library has come closest to my own personal Holy Grail, mainly because everything is conveniently available from all of my devices, and new photos and videos are seamlessly synced in the background whenever I’m connected to Wi-Fi. Best of all, if I later decide to crop an image or apply a filter, those changes are automatically…

When Apple introduced Nightstand mode in watchOS2, most of the stands in our recent round-up became obsolete—well, obsolete for those of you who want to take advantage of this new convenient charging mode. Nightstand mode only activates when the Apple Watch is oriented horizontally (though it doesn’t have to be sitting at 90 degrees—45 will work just fine), and many stands on the market only let you orient your Watch vertically. AND THEN, A COUPLE of months after watchOS2 and Nightstand mode debuted, Apple also dropped its very own Nightstand-mode-ready $79 charging dock. But because Apple shouldn’t be your only choice for Apple Watch accessories, we tried out the Apple Watch Magnetic Charging Dock and four other Nightstand-mode-ready Apple Watch stands to see what your best bedside option is. APPLE’S…

NYRIUS The $40 Smart Outlet (nyrius.com) is a Bluetooth device—just plug your favorite appliance into the Smart Outlet (which, in turn, should be plugged into a regular old dumb outlet) and, voila, you have remote control of that appliance using your iPhone or iPad. SONY The $350 Sony HD Pico Mobile Projector (sony.com) connects to your mobile devices, and projects a 1920-by-720 HD picture. It also features a built-in 3400mAh battery, which can be used as a backup battery for your iPhone or iPad.…

Gmail raised the bar for what we expect in an email service. But if you’re only using its native features, you’re getting just a taste of its power. There are a wealth of Chrome extensions that expand Gmail’s capabilities and help you streamline your workflow. Here are four you should install today. FULL CONTACT Most of us have a similar reaction when we receive an email from a new professional contact. We immediately try to learn more about them by searching their profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. Full Contact (fullcontact.com) eliminates that legwork by providing the job titles, company details, and social accounts for each email sender. Without leaving your inbox, you can scroll through their Facebook posts, tweets, and other social updates. Add your own…

The last major step we need to take before turning on Profile Manager is turning on Server’s Open Directory service so that you can centrally manage network user accounts. Open Directory is required for using Profile Manager. If you’re not using a directory service, Open Directory is an excellent way to manage users in a small office environment. If you’re already using a directory service, such as Microsoft’s Active Directory, once you turn Open Directory on you can bind your server to your Active Directory server and use Profile Manager with users created in your Active Directory environment. WHAT’S IN A HOST NAME? In order for your server to be accessible over the Internet we first need to set it up for access over the Internet. Normally this would require…

Is it sensible to combine backup types on a single drive? Q: I have been using Time Machine for years. I am now considering adding SuperDuper and/or Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) as additional backup tools. Can I just use these on the same external hard-disk drive as where my TM backups reside, or do I have to partition it? — George Lai A: I have a bit of philosophy to go along with the pragmatic answer. The philosophy is: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Having incrementally updated full-drive Time Machine backups on the same physical volume as drive clones seems like a fundamentally bad idea. If something goes wrong with the physical mechanism, it renders both kinds of backups bad. I like to combine dissimilar backups for…

Boomerang (go.macworld.com/boomerangapp) is the latest offering from the folks at Instagram—it lets you take a few seconds of video that you can then loop back-and-forth, turning a simple action into a cha-cha dance. The resulting creations can, of course, be shared on Facebook or Instagram. NOAA Hi-Def Radar Pro NOAA Hi-Def Radar Pro (go.macworld.com/hidefradarpro) shows “real-time hi-def animated weather radar images in vivid color” letting you easily track storms and hurricanes while they’re developing. It even shows you lightning strikes as they’re recorded, and offers the hourly forecast for the next 24 hours. Most new weather apps try to pare down the information to the essentials; this goes the other direction—it’s for real weather nerds. Microsoft Selfie Microsoft Selfie (go.macworld.com/ msselfie) doesn’t just let you take selfies—it helps…

Photographers have been drawn to the iPad since the first model, hoping it can provide a mobile workflow when they’re away from their computers. The iPad Pro (go.macworld.com/ipadprorev) pushes the boundaries of tablets in interesting ways as a general-purpose laptop replacement, but how does it change the photography game? Editing photos, especially with the addition of Apple Pencil (go.macworld.com/applepencilrev) support in some apps, is a definite improvement, though limitations in iOS keep the iPad Pro from achieving its full potential as a photographer’s mobile companion. Photo editing It’s impossible to ignore the beckoning light of that brilliant 12.9-inch Retina screen, and the promise of nearly desktop-class processing power. Plenty of apps let you edit photos, such as standouts like Google’s Snapseed (macworld.com/snapseed), Adobe’s Lightroom mobile (lightroom.adobe.com), VSCO (vsco.com), and of…

Last month, we completed the process of installing El Capitan and the Server app on an external hard drive. Now we’ll look at the Server app’s features, and we’ll also get started with Server’s remote management features. APPLE’S SERVER (YUP! IT’S REALLY AN APP) If you’re used to working with typical server software, you’re also used to the notion of a server operating system, such as Microsoft’s Windows Server 2012. Apple’s Server app is a horse of a different color, which is to say, it’s an app running on Apple’s El Capitan operating system. Install and set up the app, and you have all the features of a server operating system. Drag the app to the Trash and the app will detect that it’s no longer in the Applications folder…

We have (finally) arrived at the day you’ve all been waiting for: It’s time to turn on Profile Manager. TURN ON PROFILE MANAGER The plan here is to use a Mac other than your server for setting up, connecting to, and managing Profile Manager. It’s not necessary for this lesson, you can perform these tasks on your server, but you will need a second computer for every episode following this one. On a second computer: 1. Download and Open the Server app. 2. Locate your server in the list of servers, select it and click Continue. 3. Authenticate using the directory administrator ID and password you created in the last lesson. 4. You should now see a window asking you to verify your server’s SSL certificate. (If you don’t, it…

Once in a while you may want to print your photography, whether a picture that you’ll frame, a greeting card to send friends, or a calendar, book, or other photo project to order online. Because it’s challenging (if not impossible) to print some of this stuff at home, it’s best to leave the printing to pros such as Apple (using iPhoto or the Photos app), services such as mpix.com, your local camera store, or even Costco. The downside is that if you use an image-editing app such as Photoshop, Elements, or Lightroom, the colors in your printed pictures may not look like you expect, as you can see from the three versions of the tulip image at right. The problem is rooted in the difference between the color space of…