MacworldJune 2017的目錄

When Apple met with select members of the media to talk about the Mac Pro, Apple VPs also mentioned that the company plans to update the iMac this year. The gap between updates for the iMac isn’t as long as the Mac Pro, but it’s been a while. The current iMac was released in October of 2015, well past the yearly updates Apple used to issue. So the iMac is due. Pike’s Universum, which has an eagle eye for finding references to future Apple products in Apple’s operating system code, reported on some specs that could be used for the new iMac—though the site says that the information should be “handled with care/skepticism.” I’ll point out Pike’s findings in each section I discuss, along with my commentary. THE LATEST CPUS…

The word free seems like a good thing, right? After all, who doesn’t like not paying for things? The recent announcement that Apple’s productivity and creative software— namely Pages, Numbers, Keynote, GarageBand, and iMovie—is now free to all users was mainly greeted with a positive reaction from pundits and consumers alike. I’ll agree that making these apps (which were already provided no charge to people who bought new Macs, iPhone, and iPads) free across the board is largely a positive move. But that decision does have some consequences that could be a downside for end users, developers, and even Apple. NOT-SO-FIERCE COMPETITION The effect is probably most pronounced for small and indie developers. Since Apple can afford to fund the development of these apps and then just give them away, it’s…

If you accidentally left your USB-C laptop charger during a layover at Batman Airport (yes, it’s real), consider yourself lucky, because you now have an excuse to upgrade to a much sexier, much lighter power brick, like the FINsix Dart-C (available for preorder for $100). I can’t confirm FINsix’s claim that this is “The World’s Smallest Laptop Charger,” but damn, is it small (approximately 2.5 x 1 x 1 inches) and it punches well above its weight. As its name implies, the Dart-C is a USB-C Power Delivery (PD) charger, so it’s compatible with most devices that use the reversible USB-C port. A second USB Type A charging port is integrated into the cable. The placement of the second port looks clumsy but fortunately doesn’t add much to the overall…

It’s easy to compare Apple’s new iOS app, Clips, to video-sharing social networks like Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook. But that’s not exactly fair, because Apple’s Clips isn’t social at all—it’s designed simply to help you create and edit fun videos. What you do with them after that is up to you. This approach makes Clips less anxietyinducing. To share a video on Instagram or Snapchat, you’ll want to shoot in Instagram or Snapchat to make sure the moment you’re capturing is perfectly framed. You can shoot in Clips, too, but this feels more like an app you’ll use after the moment has passed to stitch together memories and add a soundtrack and captions. Clips is way more low-key. You can also easily trim video clips—just tap on the clip in…

The Peri Duo ($190; $150 on Amazon) combines a protective case for iPhone 6/6s with a pair of stereo speaker grilles molded into the back for pumping up the jams without carrying around a separate Bluetooth speaker. It’s a novel idea, but as you might imagine, the speakers add weight (5.4 oz) and over three-quarters of an inch of extra bulk to the device that make it less than ideal as a smartphone case. Thankfully, the Duo has been designed with this dilemma in mind. Unlike many cases that require a crowbar to pry a device from its grasp, this one uses a patent-pending mechanism that slides down the Lightning connector, clearing a path for the iPhone to be inserted with ease. Slide the connector into the iPhone and it’s…

CHARGE FORCE We’ve often praised the toughness of Otterbox’s cases for iPhone and iPad. Now they’ve teamed up with battery-maker Mophie to create Otterbox-compatible products: The Charge Force Battery ($69.95) adds 39 hours of talk time to your phone and fits Otterbox’s uniVERSE case, while and the Charge Force Adapter ($49.95) turns the case into a wireless charging case. Now Otterbox cases can be tough and powerful. SLXTREME 7 This company has teamed up with Mossy Oak to offer the SLXtreme 7 in Break-Up Country camo ($150) a camouflage-themed version of its rugged solar-powered iPhone case. It includes a 4,000-mAh battery, can survive a two-meter drop, and is waterproof up to two meters deep. (Of course, it’s camouflaged: If you drop it in the forest, you might never find it…

If you’re an iPhone, iPad or Mac user, your iCloud password is the key to your digital realm. With your iCloud password, you can access such personal data as your iCloud mail messages, your calendar, your contacts, and your stored iCloud credit cards. Your iCloud password could even be used to track, lock, and wipe your precious devices. Needless to say, it would be a very bad thing if your iCloud password landed in the wrong hands. But by taking just a few basic steps, you can secure your iCloud account from the most common threats, and you can take all those steps directly from your device. Let’s start with the easiest—and most important—way to protect your iCloud password, which is... CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD (AND DON’T USE THE SAME ONE…

When security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski took a job at Apple recently, I heard from many people concerned about the future of his macOS app, Little Flocker, a tool that restricts apps and system processes access to files without permission. He was unable to talk details, but recently F-Secure, a leading security developer and analysis company, announced its purchase of Little Flocker, which it’s rebranded as Xfence. I spoke to Sean Sullivan, security advisor at F-Secure, about the changeover and the general current set of risks to Mac users. He said Xfence, which was in release form as Little Flocker, will shift into a free beta mode for the foreseeable future. (Those who paid for a Little Flocker license will get some currently unspecified benefit as future pricing for Xfence and…

I’ve been giving some thought to the future of iTunes and I’ve reached the conclusion that, well, it probably doesn’t have one. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news and all that. Almost two years ago, around the time Apple was rolling out Apple Music, I reasoned that it was a good opportunity to break up iTunes, the app—which, if you’re keeping score, didn’t happen. But the longer I’ve considered the matter, the more I’ve come to think that the name iTunes is due to ride into the sunset. And how about this for confirmation: Apple just rebranded iTunes Podcasts as Apple Podcasts. iTunes, your days are numbered. WHAT’S IN A NAME? Starting with the release of the iMac, Apple jumped wholeheartedly on its “i” branding. But over the…

Apple never used to announce what its road map looked like. Instead, the company held its cards close and let the rumor mill run amok. But lately, Apple is being much more open about its future. Expect new iMacs later this year, company executives said earlier this month, but that’s not all: Apple plans to make all of its products with recycled materials. That means the end of mining metals from the earth, which is a tall order. Apple doesn’t have a time line for moving to a completely closedloop supply chain, said Lisa P. Jackson, the company’s vice president of environmental and social initiatives. Jackson, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama, told Vice News Tonight that Apple is trying to move the industry in…

You can’t avoid handling PDF (Portable Document Format) files: every website and program seems to generate them, either as a preferred choice or an option. And, often, you need to make some tweak or change in a PDF or fill it out when it hasn’t been set up by its creator to have preset form elements. If you’re working as a design professional, you probably already subscribe to or have access at work to Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which includes Adobe Acrobat pro tools. If not, you likely rely on Apple’s Preview app, which has basic PDF handling, but suffered a series of glitches in Sierra that made it hard to use with PDFs. (Those all seem to be fixed now.) But I’ve found in my own work and in correspondence…

Despite the proliferation of apps capable for turning an iPhone camera into a handheld mobile scanner, nothing quite beats the quality of dedicated imaging hardware. Combined with an auto document feeder (ADF), document scanners convert business cards, invoices, and other paperwork into digital equivalents in a jiffy. NO AC REQUIRED The Epson DS-320 ($249; available on Amazon) checks off nearly everything on a potential portable document scanner buyer’s wish list: It’s small (11.3 x 3.5 x 2.0 inches), lightweight (2.4 lbs.), and high quality, thanks to the three-color RGB LED capable of scanning documents at up to 600 dpi optical resolution. It’s fast, too, with a 20-page auto document feeder for scanning color, grayscale, or black-and-white sheets up to 44 inches long at 25 pages per minute using the most…

The Apple Watch is actually pretty durable—and, since it’s worn on your wrist, it’s nowhere near as likely as your iPhone is to sustain a fall. Even the old Apple Watch Sport, which is the cheapest, weakest model, is built out of an aluminum alloy that Apple claims is 60 percent stronger than standard alloys. But the Apple Watch is still a wristbased watch, which means it’s susceptible to damage from scrapes and scratches. We took a look at several bumpers and cases that you can fit over your Watch’s case to protect it from this kind of superficial damage and keep it looking as good as new. Here’s how they held up, protectionand style-wise. CASE-MATE SHEER GLAM AND CLEAR NAKED TOUGH BUMPER Case-Mate’s Naked Tough Bumper ($15) is available…

It seems like every new fitness band on the market has a built-in heart rate sensor, but now headphone companies are baking sensors into their devices, too. The ear has become a popular place to put a sensor, because properly fitting earphones will stay put and presumably measure your heart rate more accurately than a wristworn sensor prone to moving around during exercise. That’s why companies like Samsung, JBL, Jabra, and Bose are shipping biosensing Bluetooth earphones designed for workouts. Wearable technology company LifeBeam raked in $1.7 million on Kickstarter last summer to produce a new kind of heart rate-tracking headphones called Vi. And while Vi has an optical heart rate sensor built in, that’s not really its selling point. What sets these headphones apart is Vi herself, a voice…

You already know that your iPhone can create great-looking video right out of the box. But how do you take your game to the next level? Besides always shooting in landscape mode, you can invest in a number of hardware accessories that will both supercharge your creativity as well as mitigate some of the problems that plague everyday iPhone videos. Some of the hardware here apply the same principles as professional video equipment—and that’s something we can really appreciate as the production team behind Macworld’s videos. The accessories we describe aren’t necessarily limited to iPhone 7 Plus—in fact, we tested with an iPhone 7. But still, we highly recommend Apple’s latest and largest smartphone if you want the best iPhone camera experience around. MOMENT LENS SYSTEM In digital videography, your…

It’s been almost two years since Microsoft bought the cross-platform task master Wunderlist, but you wouldn’t know it to look at it. Unlike Sunrise and Accompli, which were shuttered and combined into Outlook mobile, Wunderlist has mostly been left alone. But now Microsoft is finally ready to show off what it’s been working on. Called Microsoft To-Do, the new app might have an uninspired name, but it’s been completely reimagined. With a simple design and ultra-minimal interface, the app looks like a pretty standard task manager, allowing you to create to-dos and lists, and add reminders and due dates. You can add notes inside tasks, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to create subtasks like you could in Wunderlist. The notable addition in To-Do is the focused My…

I’d prefer to think I’m ahead of my time instead of a contrarian. My wife and I cut the cord many years ago, and have survived ever since on discs, downloads, streaming media, and over-the-air (OTA) programming. OTA has been a surprisingly rich source of enjoyable shows, especially from our local PBS stations and alternative standard-definition channels from network-affiliated broadcasters. One thing we’ve faced, however, is a shortage of options to record programs. Because digital video recorders (DVRs) shifted a few years ago to being mostly a commodity item offered by a programming provider like Xfinity or Dish, the market for standalone units shrunk. There are a few: Tablo, Tivo, and a couple of more niche brands. However, these standalone units record data to internal drives, and rely on apps,…

Why read/write permissions go awry with macOS File Sharing Q: I have six computers and use a Mac mini as a fileserver with sharing set up on it. About every week some of the files become read-only for some of the users. When I open the files on one computer two servers show up with the same info in each. —Jan Miller But her request for both is the same: “How do I make this more reliable?” The first problem is a limitation with the underlying Unix system upon which macOS is built upon+. Many operating systems have the concept of “file permissions,” which are metadata attributes set for each file and folder (or directory) about who june create, manipulate, and delete items, as well as who june execute or…

The iTunes Store was launched 14 years ago, and has morphed from its initial music-only offering to embrace all forms of digital media. It’s now just another digital purveyor among many, though still the leading seller of digital music in the world. While music files were protected with digital rights management (DRM) in the early years, it’s now been eight years since this was removed. But other types of content sold on the iTunes Store still have DRM: movies, TV shows, apps, audiobooks, ebooks, and ringtones. For these types of media with DRM, there are restrictions as to how many devices you can use. It gets complicated, though, because there are two types of restrictions. The first is for computers that are authorized to sync and play content from the…

Optical character recognition (OCR) software provides a way to quickly convert printed or scanned documents into editable text or searchable PDF files. In recent years, OCR has found its way into numerous cloud services and mobile apps, allowing consumers to take advantage of the technology without the need for stand-alone software. If you need OCR on the Mac, the reigning heavyweights are Abbyy and Canon-owned I.R.I.S., whose respective FineReader and Readiris products continue to offer affordable alternatives to OmniPage, which abandoned the platform nearly 15 years ago. IMAGE TO TEXT Readiris Pro 16 ($99) is the latest edition of the company’s consumer OCR software. If you frequently convert scanned documents into editable text files, it’s hands-down the fastest way to get the job done. Version 16 introduces an all-new user…

ELAGO M4 STAND FOR iPHONE 7 The super-cute retro M4 Stand from Elago ($35) is old-school: Slip your iPhone in and it becomes an old Mac monitor. While your phone is charging, you can still use it to watch movies or surf the web, and the device is made of scratch-free silicone to give your iPhone the protection it deserves. Or, pair your iPhone with a Bluetooth keyboard to make it even more Mac-like.—JOEL MATHIS EDIMAX AC1200 DUAL BAND WI-FI USB ADAPTER If your Mac’s Wi-Fi has failed and you’ve tried everything free, and it’s running OS X 10.7 to 10.11 or macOS Sierra, drop $20 on the Edimax AC1200 Dual Band Wi-Fi USB Adapter and put yourself back in wireless business. This adapter doesn’t just offer any old flavor…

In 2015, Uber almost got itself kicked out of the iOS App Store. Apple CEO Tim Cook brought Uber CEO Travis Kalanick into the company’s Cupertino offices and laid down the law, the New York Times reported. So what exactly did Uber do to land itself in hot water with Apple? The original NYT report initially said the company was tracking iPhones, but it has since been clarified to describe Uber’s actions as “identifying and tagging iPhones even after its app has been deleted and the devices erased.” The reason Uber did that, the company said, was to prevent phone thieves in China from creating Uber accounts and requesting rides before wiping the devices and doing so again and again. “We absolutely do not track individual users or their location…

Untitled Ready to make some movie magic? Untitled: Screenwriting Notebook ($5, iPad only) helps you “turns your notes and ideas into a fully formatted screenplay automatically.” Features include a “focus” mode, iCloud syncing, and the ability to export your notes as TXT, PDF, or HTML. Vanido We’ve seen a few apps that help you learn how to play piano and guitar. Vanido (free, iPhone) joins the gang as “your personal singing coach,” with daily sessions that offer three different vocal exercises, with real-time feedback on your pitch that helps train your ear and improve your timing. Sky Guide Sky Guide ($3, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch) has long been a great app for exploring the stars from your front yard. Now the makers have unleashed a “supermassive” update that includes a…

If there wasn’t already a mountain of pressure on Apple to deliver something spectacular with this year’s iPhone update, there surely is now. If you haven’t noticed, Samsung has released the Galaxy S8 and S8+, and they’re pretty remarkable. As a former iPhone 7 Plus user, I think the S8+ might very well be the best phone I’ve ever used, with a stunning screen, speedy processor, and, yes, a gorgeous design. But what makes the S8 so amazing is how unique it is. I got to spend a week with it while writing my review, and I came away stunned. For the first time in a while, Samsung is standing alone on the cutting edge with a phone that needs to be seen to be believed. From its barely there…

Back in January, while I was helping our sister site PCWorld with CES coverage, my Internet blinked out. After scurrying around the house in a panic—I was in the middle of a story—my sister came to the rescue with her iPad, which she set up as an Internet hot spot. Whew. Setting up a wireless hotspot on your iOS device is a simple process, and it’s useful for more than bailing out freakedout freelance tech journalists. Here’s how to go about it. Before you begin, you’ll need to make sure your cellular service plan supports the wireless hotspot feature. If it doesn’t, check with your carrier for plan pricing and availability. Also, you’ll need to make sure your iPhone or iPad has mobile data switched on. Lastly, keep in mind…

I’m not a fan of the playlists on Apple Music. I don’t care that much for the so-called curated lists of songs that focus on an artist, a decade, or an activity. (Specific playlists for barbecues? Or Classical Music for Elevators? Seriously?) But I do appreciate the breadth of music available on Apple Music. While I listen much more to my own large music library, I often want to sample something new on Apple Music, or simply queue up some music that might surprise me. I’ve long been a fan of Genius, the feature in iTunes that finds “songs from your library that sound great together.” This may, in fact, be the best feature in iTunes. I can pick a song, start a Genius playlist, and listen to similar music…