Macworld Middle East February 2011

REVIEWS

NIKON D5000 HP OFFICEJET PRO 8500A ALTEC LANSING OCTIV STAGE

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FEBRUARY 2011

We Choose the Hottest Hardware and Coolest Software

BEST MAC

PLUS

PRODUCTS IPAD HERE FINALLY IN REGION

APPLESCRIPTS

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We interview We discuss We debate We review We entertain

COVER STORY

20

Editors’ Choice

We select the best hardware and software from the past year

OPINION

07

CONTENTS

From the Editor’s Desk

What to expect from Apple in 2011 46 The iPad killers amass

February 2011

MAC USER

08

My first week with a Macintosh PC user talks about his switching experience 12 Apple opens Mac App Store

CLASSIC APPLE

14

Apple Mac mini iOS CENTRAL

16

iPad arrives in Middle East

Users in the region can finally buy Apple’s tablet and get full support and warranty 16 iPhone 4 arrives on Verizon in US 18 Apple Releases iOS 4.3 Beta for developers

WORKING MAC

28

HP OfficeJet Pro 8500A Plus 29 The iPhone cash register

PLAY LIST

30

Altec Lansing Octiv Stage 32 10 great Applescripts for iTunes

DIGITAL PHOTO

34

Control your camera settings 36 Nikon D5000: budget DSLR

CREATE

38

HTML 5: what does it mean for you?

40 Adobe Acrobat X 41 Canon Paris Expo

HELP DESK

43

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Mac 911

We answer some tricky questions from readers

GET IN TOUCH!

How are we doing?

What do you think of the magazine, the web site, and everything else?

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© Copyright 2011 CPI. All rights reserved. While the publishers have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

Publisher Dominic De Sousa

FROM THE EDITORS DESK

COO Nadeem Hood Editorial Director Dave Reeder dave@cpidubai.com +971 (0) 4 440 9100

Apple in 2011

Group Editor Magnus Nystedt magnus@cpidubai.com @mnystedt +971 (0) 55 883 2009 ADVERTISING Sales Manager Crystal Nystedt crystal@cpidubai.com @cnystedt +971 (0) 55 2020 227 CIRCULATION Database and Circulation Manager Rajeesh M rajeesh@cpidubai.com +971 (0) 4 440 9147 PRODUCTION AND DESIGN Production Manager James P Tharian james@cpidubai.com +971 (0) 4 440 9146 DIGITAL www.cpilive.net www.cpidubai.com Webmaster Tristan Troy Maagma troy@cpidubai.com Web Designer Erik Briones erik@cpidubai.com Web Developer Elizabeth Reyes eliz@cpidubai.com

Published by 1013 Centre Road, New Castle County, Wilmington, Delaware, USA Head Office PO Box 13700 Dubai, UAE Tel: +971 (0) 4 440 9100 Fax: +971 (0) 4 447 2409

What can we look forward to from our favourite fruit company in 2011? Even with the best crystal ball, predicting the future is hard, nay impossible, but in the wild world of Apple and the latest tech let’s try to see what it’s in store this year.

Of course we’re expecting iPhone 5 somewhere this summer but what it’ll feature is still very sketchy even on the common rumour Web sites. More details are available about iPad 2, coming in the next couple of months we expect. At least one camera is added, higher-resolution display, faster processor, and more. With every manufacturer imaginable, and many not imaginable, coming out with tablets this year, most of them based on Android, Apple will have to come up with something pretty cool in terms of iPad. Concerning iTunes I think a safe bet would be on it going to the cloud in 2011.

Apple will have to put that giant data centre in North Carolina to good use so iTunes

in the cloud and a revamped MobileMe service would be interesting.

Although the Macintosh is no longer all that Apple is, the line of computers is still critical to Apple’s business and will so remain for a long time.

I hope you read our January issue where the feature article talked about what kind of technologies are we likely to see in Macs in the future.

This year I suspect we’ll see more touch interfaces even on Apple’s computers but not touch screens, at least not vertical ones. We know Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is coming this summer and it’ll bring a number of new features and functions, including what seems to be an iOS-inspired interface.

Besides new models of existing products, exciting enough it itself you would think, will Cupertino bless us with something brand new? I don’t think so simply because there’s no chatter about a brand new product like there was before iPhone came, and iPad. That doesn’t mean it

won’t happen though. I guess we can always hope for “one more thing.”

Much of this is not hard to come up with, which is why people like I can write columns like this. But, of course, don’t take my word for what Apple’s year in 2011 will be like. Follow developments on our Web site and in the magazine.

We’re already working on some pretty exciting things of our own, which I hope we can spring on you soon, our unsuspecting readers.

Finally, let’s send all the best wishes we can to Steve Jobs and his family. He’s on a medical leave of absence again and I’m sure we’ll find out sooner or later what the reason is this time but let’s hope he recovers quickly. I’m not saying that for Apple’s sake as I think the company will be just fine without him.

Hopefully he’ll return fully recovered to the helm of Apple during the year.

Printed by Printwell Printing Press LLC © Copyright 2011 CPI All rights reserved While the publisher have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information in this magazine, they will not be held responsible for any errors therein.

Magnus Nystedt Group Editor

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 7

MACUSER

News and Analysis about Macs, OS X, and Apple

My First Week With a Macintosh

By Sanjeev Mulay

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T

he first question I had to answer was “Do I want to do this? What is it that is really wrong with my PC experience?”

After all, Windows 7 is out, it’s pretty good, looks nice, user friendly, stable (well, better than Vista anyhow), not overly intrusive when it comes to security, etc. Over the years, there is also the matter of getting used to a certain way of doing things, not to mention the investment in software.

However, even after going through all this I wanted to try something different. I was in the market for a new laptop, and the just-released MacBook Air looked fantastic. This is a recollection of my first week with a Mac after having been a Windows user for all my life.

First Impressions This thing is beautiful! It is so light that it feels like a different category of device, like say my old Kindle DX. There is nothing “laptop” about the way it looks (with the lid closed that is). It’s so light that am sure I would not notice the weight when carrying it in a bag or sleeve. By the way, I never realised that the Apple logo on the lid actually lights up when the laptop is powered on. Nice.

The Macbook Air (‘MBA’) boots up fast, very fast. I am talking about approx. 5-8 seconds for the first boot, which is usually an eternity in any version of Windows. Thereafter, every boot is in the range of approx.

5 seconds or less. But that’s not all, the MBA has something called “Sleep Mode” which in effect turns it into almost an iPad. I mean, you press the power switch and it turns on instantaneously. No delay.

Period. If this is not phenomenal and groundbreaking, I don’t know what is. Essentially, we have a always-on laptop, that is ready to do your bidding without the (now extremely annoying) boot delay of a Windows machine. Apple claims that the MBA will last for a month on Sleep without charging. I have not been able to verify this claim, but in my experience, Apple is usually conservative about their battery life claims and I have no reason to disbelieve it. Think about this – a February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 9

MAC USER

laptop that stays for a month and is always-on. Wow!

Setup What setup? Apart from asking me to enter my name and password and offering to take a mugshot for my profile picture, there was no setup to speak of. I was launched headlong into the desktop with the famous dock bouncing at the bottom of the screen. All in all, much better than the “Wizards” we are used to in Windows So here I am in Mac OSX Snow Leopard. Next thing – apps. What follows is a list of applications that I installed. Time will tell if these are essential or they get booted off the paltry 128GB Solid State Disk. Just a note before I launch into the list of applications – I was essentially

there. I use it because it is fast, crossplatform, starts automatically when the folders connect and is flexible.

The second application was the free and excellent Filezilla, to help me manage my web site, etc. I know that Finder can connect to FTP servers, but it insists on opening folders in a new window. So my navigation through the FTP tree structure left a dozen or so windows open on the desktop. Not cool. Filezilla is nice.

VLC media player. Plays practically everything you can throw at it.

Everyone needs to get this. If for some reason you prefer to use Quicktime and want to add additional codecs, install Perian. Be warned, however that the performance of VLC, particularly if you are viewing (ahem, legally backed up) HD

The MBA is snappy to use for everything I have thrown at it so far. flummoxed by the “how” of installing apps, because it is so darn simple. You just download the DMG file (Apple-speak for disk image), and (for most applications) just drag the application’s icon on to the Applications folder in the dock, and its done. Honest! Not kidding!

Since the MBA has only 128 GB of space, it was obvious that I would need external storage, and to sync that storage with other PC’s in the house, what better than Goodsync?

It costs $30, and I m sure there are free sync programs available out 10 | www.macworldme.net | February 2011

movies is much better than Perian/ Quicktime.

Evernote – this is one software I am big on, as I use this across my iPhone, office (Windows laptop), iPad and obviously needed it on the Mac as well. It works just as well as the Windows version. Again, something I recommend for everyone. Make sure you set up the secret email address, so that anything you email to this address is added to your notes. Nice.

Since I do my media management from a PC, I wasn’t that big on getting iTunes configured. However, I do plan to use the MBA extensively for photo management, which to me means the following workflow: acquire images from my digital camera(s), pProcess them, choose the best ones, correct, fine-tune, etc., and finally, add the finished product to my library, with appropriate tags, captions and other meta-data as appropriate. Then I can send the images to either Facebook or to my own self-hosted Gallery 2 installation.

Since most of my photos are family pictures, face recognition was quite important. I used that feature in Picasa for Windows and I wanted to carry over the same functionality when I moved to the Mac. So, more on my choice of photo editors another time, but I finally decided to try out Aperture, mainly because it supports face recognition and it also is compatible with iPhoto. Let us see how the trial goes.

So, this is essentially the software I am using as of now. It seems to be adequate for most of the stuff that I am doing so far on the Mac, without using up too much of my precious SSD space. I have also installed the trial of Office 2011 for the Mac, but without the ability to connect Outlook over Outlook Anywhere, it’s a bit of letdown. I may as well use OpenOffice, or the new fork, LibreOffice.

MAC USER

Compared to Windows Listed below are some of the things that I find are very different from the Windows usability experience.

However, do note that none of these items are what I would consider unsettling – it’s just a different way of doing things that takes a bit of getting used to.

Lack of a two button mouse or trackpad. In Windows we are so used to click and drag that I found this the most weird part. How do you drag a window to a new position? In the end, I have ended up using a variation of the “click and drag” technique anyway. I click on any portion of the trackpad and then drag using another finger. So it’s really multitouch rather than clicking on an assigned button. On the same note, I just love the two finger scrolling on the multitouch keypad.

No real maximise function. In Windows, clicking the maximise icon makes the window occupy the entire screen real estate, except the taskbar. I didn’t see anything of that sort on the Mac. Clicking the green “+” button simply increases the size of the Window, nothing more. If you want it to occupy all the screen real estate, you have to manually drag the window to increase the height and width as required.

The menu bar. In Windows every window has its own menu. In Mac OS X, there is one menu at the top, and it shows the menu entries of whichever window has focus, or is the active window. So until you

get used to the fact of the menu bar being far away from the window, you will end up digging around and wondering where to find that setting.

No Delete key (at least on the Macbook Air). To “forward delete”, you have to use Fn+Backspace.

I still haven’t found out a substitute for Ctrl + Right/Left arrows for jumping around words. That’s one thing I need to search for.

Window buttons (Minimise, Maximise, Close) on the left instead of the right. So I find myself scrolling to the right and then, oops, to the left.

Again, something that is pure habit and will take some time to cure.

Closing a window is not the same as quitting the program. Unlike most programs in Windows (except those that close to the system tray), Mac OS X applications have to be explicitly closed using the Command+Q key combination. Again, not that it should matter to most users – just an observation.

A note on performance While doing the research prior to buying the MBA, I saw a lot of remarks about the seemingly “underpowered” notebook, usually pointing to its oldish processor and only 2GB or RAM. What I can say is that like most things Apple, you can’t really judge this kit by its specs. The MBA is snappy to use for everything I have thrown at it so far, including loading large libraries in Aperture, doing some photo processing, running Microsoft Office, etc. Of

course, I haven’t done any video editing, but that’s not what I bought this laptop for. As for games, I much prefer my PS3, Wii, iPad or iPhone anyways, thank you very much, so that’s also not an issue for me.

Hardware – what’s left out There are some notable exclusions on the hardware side of things.

There is no Ethernet port, so if you must have a wired connection, you need to get a USB to ethernet dongle. There is no FireWire port, either, nor something to hook this up to a projector. Another problem that needs a dongle, mini display to VGA, in this case. There is also no built-in optical drive. You can get an external one from Apple. If any of these things are important to you, please ensure that you have the appropriate accessories, which will push up your tab.

Overall impressions After all this, I am finding my Windows laptop a very unattractive block of plastic and metal. I am also finding Windows 7 not that great now, but then I used to prefer Ubuntu over Windows 7 anyway.

I really like Mac OS X– the simple software install, the no-setup experience, the overall “fun” elements, like the bouncing icons on the dock, etc. They make no tangible impact, as the suits would say, but they sure make it a joy to use.

My final thought is that using this computer leaves a smile on my face and that’s something new for me.

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 11

MAC USER

Apple Opens Mac App Store Cupertino wants to replicate the success with the iOS App Store

BY MACWORLD MIDDLE EAST STAFF

O

n January 6, Apple opened the Mac App Store, releasing a software update for Snow Leopard that allows Mac users to buy software using the same mechanisms they use to buy iOS apps and media via iTunes.

To enable the Mac App Store, Snow Leopard have to update to Mac OS X 10.6.6, either by using the Mac’s built-in Software Update or via a download from Apple’s Website.

Announced by Apple in October, the Mac App Store lets Mac users discover and purchase apps, though some familiar Mac software won’t be available due to the store’s

exacting requirements.

According to Apple, more than a thousand apps will be available initially, including many of Apple’s own iWork and iLife apps, as well as apps from vendors such as AutoDesk, Evernote, Omni Group, Pixelmator, and many others.

Once Mac OS X 10.6.6 is installed, users will find a new App Store app in the Dock, right next to the Finder. This new app, rather than iTunes, is the conduit to the store. But while the Mac App Store isn’t within iTunes like its iOS counterpart, it sports an interface that will otherwise be quite familiar to any iOS user.

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The Mac App Store streamlines the process of purchasing Mac software: you buy the software with one click while using an iTunes ID and password.

Apps are downloaded and installed automatically, including automatic placement in the Dock.

And shopping for apps also has an iTunes flair, including charts for the top free, paid, and top-grossing apps as well as browsing by category.

Some major Mac software vendors, notably Microsoft and Adobe, weren’t present in the Mac App Store on day one. It’s unclear whether Apple will work with those developers to bring their

more complex installation and licensing procedures into the Mac App Store, or if it will be incumbent on those companies to modify their approaches in order to fit the Mac App Store’s guidelines.

Positive reaction The technology-industry analysts we spoke with seem to feel that Apple is making a savvy move in bringing the success of the iOS App store to the Mac, suggesting that it’s a strategy that opens open another difference between the Mac and PCs running Windows.

“It’s groundbreaking,” said Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies. “I think this

MAC USER

will be more than just an experiment--I think it’ll be quite successful within the Apple community. Those who are familiar with the Mac way of doing things will easily accept this, and probably embrace it.”

“The computing universe has evolved in a huge way from the days when, if you wanted software for your computer, you went to [a store] and bought a shinkwrapped box and took it home,” said Gartner Group analyst Michael Gartenberg.

Gartenberg added that the flexibility of developers being able to sell apps both in the Mac App Store and on their own Websites-including to use their own sites to beta-test new

“The [iOS] App Store really revolutionised the way you acquired apps on a mobile platform... we think there’s a really great opportunity to do the exact same thing on the Mac.” - Eddy Cue, Apple Vice President of Internet Services. versions--was a useful approach. “You almost say, gee, why not apply that that to the iOS as well? But for now iOS is staying iOS,” he said. And conversely, Gartenberg said, the idea of being able to install anything you

want on your computer is too strong for Apple to diverge from it.

NPD analyst Ross Rubin agreed that the Mac App Store is great news for Mac developers. “Particularly for smaller developers, or developers looking for

more flexibility, this is a big opportunity,” Rubin said.

One day after the Mac App Store opened, Apple announced that in the first 24 hours, the store had achieved 1 million downloads.

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AppleClassic One piece of Apple gear from history

Mac mini

I

ntroduced in early 2005, the diminutive Mac mini has grown tremendously since it’s birth.

It’s grown in terms of functionality, features and performance but actually shrunk in size. The very first model ran a 1.42GHz PowerPC G4 processor and had 256MB RAM (333MHz PC2700 DDR SDRAM), 80GB hard drive, 8x DVD/CD-RW Combo drive, and ATI Radeo 9200 graphics card with 32MB DDR SDRAM. In terms of connectivity, the Mac mini had DVI port, USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and headphone/line out jack. Airport and Bluetooth were optional and only later became standard. The first Mac mini cost $599 when launched.The current Mac mini starts at $699 and has a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor,

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2GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive, and Nvidia GeForce 320M graphics (256MB). In terms of ports there are four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 800 port, and SD card slot. Although there is a Mac mini model with 8x slot-loading SuperDrive, buyers can also opt for a model without the optical drive that has two 500GB hard drives instead.

Set your ideas free.

iOScentral

The Latest on the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and App Store

T iPad Arrives in Middle East Almost a year after Apple introduced its tablet, users in the region can buy official iPads.

BY MAGNUS NYSTEDT

he Twitter account of iStyle, Premium Apple Reseller, announced the arrivel of the official iPad in the Middle East: “We are glad to announce the official launch of iPad in the UAE this coming Friday.” Prices are competitive with current gray market: iPad WiFi – 16GB Dhs 2,199, 32GB Dhs 2,649, 64GB Dhs 3,099; iPad 3G+WiFi – 16GB Dhs 2,799, 32GB Dhs 3,249, 64GB Dhs 3,699. According to Hani Nehme, Business Development Manager at iStyle, the iPad 3G model will be sold without any data bundle. He says he’s unaware of whether the telecommunications

providers in the UAE, du and Etisalat, will offer any special data bundles for Apple’s tablet. Both carriers already offer Micro SIM cards and various data plans, which can be used by iPad customers.

Apple’s iPad has been available in the UAE since shortly after Apple started selling it almost a year ago. Imported iPads have been without warranty valid in the UAE and service for customers has been a problem. Currently EmiratesAvenue.com, an online reseller in Dubai, which has been selling imported iPads, at time of press lists iPad 16GB Wi-Fi for Dhs 2,149.

iPhone Arrives on Verizon in US For the first time since its launch in 2007, iPhone expands beyond AT&T in US

BY MACWORLD MIDDLE EAST STAFF

U

S iPhone fans rejoice, the rumours have finally come true: Verizon, one of the largest telecommunications carriers in the US, has announced that it will offer

Apple’s iconic iPhone 4 on its network, becoming the second carrier in the US to offer the smartphone after AT&T. Although the Verizon iPhone is useless to customers in the Middle East because it runs on a cellular technology, which is incompatible with the GSM networks we have in the region, this is big news as it signals Apple’s willingness to broaden the access to its market-leading smartphone.

The smartphone will run on Verizon’s 3G EV-DO network, and will become available on Feb. 10, said

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Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer, at a Verizon launch event in New York.

“All of Apple is very very happy to bring the iPhone to Verizon’s 93 million customers,” he said.

AT&T has been the only carrier offering the iPhone in the US since its launch in June 2007. Users have complained about the performance on AT&T’s network and believe they’d have better luck on Verizon’s network.

The specifications of the phone are almost identical to original iPhone 4 that started shipping in June

last year. It comes with a 3.5-inch “Retina” screen that displays images at a 960 by 640 resolution, dual cameras and more.

Apparently the antenna is slightly redesigned and buttons have shifted so some cases or skins made for iPhone 4 may not fit. The Verizon iPhone also includes a Personal Hotspot that will let users share connections with five other devices via Wi-Fi. This functionality is expected to be introduced in an upcoming software release for all iPhone 4.

IMATION, MEMOREX

IOS CENTRAL

Apple Releases iOS 4.3 Beta For Developers What you can expect from the latest update to Apple’s mobile operating system

BY DAVID CHARTIER

The iOS 4.3 beta covers the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad; there’s also a pre-release version of new software for the second-generation Apple TV.

H

ot on the heels of Verizon’s long-awaited iPhone announcement, Apple ha released a new beta of iOS to developers.

One of the major features included in this iOS 4.3 beta is third-party access to AirPlay, the much-touted media streaming feature that arrived in iOS 4.2 (see Macworld Middle East January 2011 issue).

The iOS 4.3 beta covers the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad; there’s also a pre-release version of new software for the secondgeneration Apple TV. The iOS 4.2 update introduced AirPlay

support on iOS devices, but the feature was then only available to some of Apple’s built-in apps, such as Safari and YouTube. In iOS 4.3, developers will be able to harness AirPlay in their own apps, extending the potential of the feature.

The pre-release version of the Apple TV software will allow developers to test streaming to Apple’s little black box.

Another feature of iOS 4.3 is a set of new multitouch gestures that could significantly enhance interactions on the iPad. While the tablet is capable of accepting input from more than two fingers at

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a time, Apple’s official set of multitouch gestures has so far only employed two fingers for things like pinch-to-zoom on a Web page or twisting to rotate images in the Photos app.

In iOS 4.3, the iPad can use four- and five-finger gestures (and only the iPad appears to get these features, at least in this release). Apple even details specific examples for developers to test, such as pinching out of an app to the Home Screen, swiping up to reveal the multitasking bar (which in iOS 4.2 is only accessible by double-tapping the Home button), and swiping left

and right between apps.

And, to the delight of many iPad users, iOS 4.3 appears to add an option for returning the hardware orientation lock that disappeared in iOS 4.2.

Screenshots on MacStories. net show a preference that allows users to choose whether to use the switch on the side of the iPad for hardware orientation or the current function, muting.

Also included in this beta is full-screen iAd banners on the iPad and HTTP Live Streaming Statistics for tracking how viewers interact with streaming content. Notably missing, however, is any mention in Apple’s documentation of the mobile hotspot feature that Verizon showed off on its version of the iPhone. The OS running on Verizon’s device was version 4.2.5, and a rumor quickly began circulating that all iPhones would get the feature in iOS 4.3. But as far as we can tell, it isn’t in this release.

The betas are available now to iOS developers in the Apple Developer Center. As the center’s name suggests, you’ll need a membership to Apple’s iOS developer program to download and help test the new OS.

IOS CENTRAL

Joby GorillaMobile At long last, Joby has released its popular Gorillamobile flexible tripod and bumper case for the iPhone 4. The $40 Gorillamobile is a much-loved portable, flexible tripod whose legs consist of a series of interlocking round joints. This allows you to use it like a traditional tripod, but also to bend, twist, and wrap it around other objects for extra versatility. Gorillamobile for iPhone 4 includes a protective bumper case that works as a rail system for the stand’s connector clip, as well as a universal camera-adapter clip so you can use the stand with a traditional camera. You can position your iPhone horizontally or vertically on the tripod mount, making it perfect for taking snapshots, watching videos, or using FaceTime.

TestFlight makes iOS app testing a lot easier If you’re an iPhone or iPad app enthusiast, you’re probably familiar with the tedious procedure Apple mandates for developers testing new versions of their apps. But there is an alternative: TestFlight (testflightapp. com) is a new service, just out of private beta, that brings the joy back to iOS beta testing.

Helping a developer beta test a new version of an iOS app before it is submitted for approval usually goes something like this: First, you track down your device’s UDID (its unique identity code) and send it to the developer, who manually adds it to their pool of testers in the Apple Developer Center.

The developer then e-mails you a testing copy of the app along with a provisioning file (a sort of temporary license for the app), both of which you have to drag into iTunes before syncing your device. Rinse and repeat for every developer you help test apps for, and every app you help test. Yeah, it’s delightful.

Thanks to iOS 4, TestFlight can alleviate most of the pain of iOS beta testing. The service leverages some of the wireless app installation features that Apple added in iOS

4, which were designed mainly for in-house enterprise apps.

TestFlight acts as a bridge between the developer, the tester, and the Apple Developer Center.

With TestFlight, developers don’t have to manually distribute files, and users don’t have to deal with iTunes’s penchant for choking on ad-hoc installations. Instead, developers just upload their apps to their TestFlight account for testing. Users, on the other hand, get a Web-based dashboard (optimised for iPhone and iPad, of course) with a list of apps they can test from each developer they’ve signed up to help. Justin Williams of Second Gear Software (a TestFlight user) explained that developers can even create distribution lists with a subset of users who are willing to test some of the really cutting edge or experimental updates.

But the best part of TestFlight—at least, for end users—is that it just takes one tap in your TestFlight dashboard to install an app wirelessly.

MobileMe’s “Find My iPhone” Is Free for Some iOS 4.2 Users As part of iOS 4.2, Apple made the Find My iPhone service previously found in its $99-per-year MobileMe service available for free to owners of at least one iPhone 4, iPad, or fourth-generation iPod touch.

As the name suggests, this feature enables you to find a lost iOS device.

To access Find My iPhone, users can log in to Apple’s MobileMe site or use the Find My iPhone iOS app.

An iOS device can use two different methods to determine its location: The iPhone and 3G iPad come with a GPS receiver, letting them triangulate their location using satellite technology; a Wi-Fi–only device uses a less precise (but still effective) system that scans nearby Wi-Fi base stations to figure out its location (although this requires the device to be on a Wi-Fi network).

Though Find My iPhone does indeed let you view the location of all your iOS devices on a map, that’s not the only thing the feature can do.

If you lose your iOS device but just know it’s around somewhere, you can use Find My iPhone to make it play a sound, even if it’s been set to operate silently. You can also make it display a message, which can be useful if you want whoever found your lost device to give you a call and return it to you.

Two other features of Find My iPhone let you secure the device when it’s out of your hands: With Remote Lock, you can add a lock code to your device remotely, so that whoever has it can’t access your data; Remote Wipe irrevocably deletes all your data.

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 19

20 | www.macworldme.net | December 2010

EDITORS

CHOICE T h i s

y e a r ’ s

b e s t M a c h a r d w a r e s o f t w a r e

a n d

2010 was a big year for the Mac. The

beginning of the year was all about the iPad—followed by the iPhone. But the buzz and success of those two products trickled down to the Mac. Later in the year, we saw upgrades to the Mac lineup, as well as solid signs from Apple that the Mac hasn’t been forgotten. With Apple posting record Mac sales, it’s a very good time to be making products for the Mac. Among the many hundreds of products that are released every year, we look for the ones that truly stand out, the products that offer the best quality, innovation, and value. At the end of the year, we assemble a list of the most noteworthy products, and then we spend several weeks debating the merits of each and every one of them.

Eventually, we arrive at the list like the one you see here—the best products of 2010. Take a look at these winners, and you’ll see that the Mac market is very much alive and well.

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 21

FEATURE

1PASSWORD 3 1Password 3 is a systemwide password manager that lets you save to its encrypted database login information for any Website (even those that try to prevent you from doing so) and retrieve that information at any time, even from within a different browser.

To make your login passwords more secure, 1Password includes a powerful password generator.

1Password also saves encrypted notes, software licenses, addresses and phone numbers, and credit card information. It can even automatically paste the data from any identity or credit card, making it easier to complete Web forms or to shop online. Such automatic pasting is also safer, because you won’t be tempted to have those sites save your personal info for convenience.

Perhaps best of all, 1Password can sync its secure database using Dropbox, making your info accessible from within any browser, on any Mac or Windows computer. $40; five-user license, $70; Agile Web Solutions, agilewebsolutions.com

SONY ALPHA NEX-5 This small, fun, and powerful camera is a standout in a burgeoning class of interchangeable-lens cameras. The Alpha NEX-5 has done an impressive job of packing advanced features into a slim and light body. It has a 14.2-megapixel CMOS sensor, HD video recording, a 25-point autofocus system, and a great 7-frames-per-second burst mode. Even though the body of the camera is small, it has a solid grip and an adjustable 3-inch LCD screen. The NEX-5 is an impressive step forward for compact cameras with interchangeable lenses and DSLR-size sensors. $700; Sony, www.sonystyle.com

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PHOTOSHOP CS5 Adobe’s Photoshop CS5 focused a concerted effort on boosting technical advancement, usability, and performance. The myriad improvements include the Smart Radius technology, the Content-Aware Fill feature, a completely rebuilt brush engine, Bristle Tips, Puppet Warp, and HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Lens Correction features.

From its new 64-bit capability on the Mac to niceties like drag-and-drop file integration, Adobe’s CS5 upgrade to Photoshop is the most significant and impressive since the Creative Suite started shipping in 2003. $699; Adobe, www.adobe.com

FEATURE

B&W P5 MOBILE HI-FI HEADPHONES Bowers & Wilkins’s P5 redefined portable headphones by offering great sound quality and comfort in a package that easily fits in your bag. Tipping the Eddy scales is the P5’s iPhone-compatible inline remote/microphone. $300; Bowers & Wilkins, bowerswilkins .com

CANON POWERSHOT S95 A deceptively simple-looking camera, the PowerShot S95 is a high-quality point-and-shoot with a full range of advanced controls, including impressive image quality and full manual settings, 720p HD video, and an HDR mode. $400; Canon, www.canon.com

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iPAD Anyone who dismisses the iPad as simply a big iPod touch is missing the point. Because of its size and the fact that it’s based on an OS designed solely for touchscreen devices, the iPad could be called the first truly usable tablet.

It’s a great way to read, watch TV shows and movies, surf the Web (sans Flash, yes), take notes and even write longer-form items (with or without an add-on keyboard), and do a hundred other things. Businesses are finding ways to use them, as well.

With every new tablet released, pundits proclaim the arrival of an “iPad killer”—claims that echo the many false predictions regarding the fate of the iPhone. The fact is that the iPad has a big head start, and Apple and the huge community of developers will continue to make it better.

There’s no such thing as an iPad killer—get used to it.

Apple, www.apple.com

MACBOOK AIR, 11-INCH

FEATURE

The 11-inch MacBook Air is only 11.8 inches wide, 7.56 inches deep, and a mere 2.3 pounds. It has a full-size keyboard, a high-resolution (1366-by-768-pixel) display, and battery life. In Macworld Lab’s battery tests, the 11-inch Air lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes—you’ll get even better results if all you’re doing is working in productivity programs or accessing the Internet.

The 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor isn’t the latest and greatest Intel has to offer, but it’s powerful enough for general-purpose tasks. The flash storage contributes to the new Air’s ability to perform much better than its predecessors.

In a year when the iPad got most of the attention (and rightfully so), the 11-inch MacBook Air proved that, without a doubt, Apple is still dedicated to the Mac. $999 and $1199; Apple, www.apple.com

EVERNOTE 1.11

STARCRAFT II: WINGS OF LIBERTY StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is an opus of violence, fire, and flawed humanity. StarCraft II picks up four years after the events of Brood War, the expansion to 1998’s StarCraft. Jim Raynor, the embittered Terran hero from the first game, has now been reduced to mercenary work for a company seeking mysterious alien artifacts. The game’s story follows the exploits of the cowboy-like Raynor’s Raiders as they try to find their place in a galaxy torn apart by Zerg invasions, cruel emperors, and fragile alliances.

After playing ten years of games that were trying to be StarCraft, it’s nice to see Blizzard come back with StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and once again raise the bar for sci-fi real-time strategy gameplay. Oh yeah, it was worth the wait. $60; Blizzard, www.blizzard.com

In the last couple of years, Evernote has gone from being a cool, cloud-based notetaking utility to a must-have productivity powerhouse.

Whether you’re at your computer or on your iOS device, you can save a Web page, an audio clip, a piece of text, and more to Evernote, and you’ll be able to access it from anywhere you are. You can use scanners to scan items directly to Evernote. with ads, free; ad-free, $5 per month or $45 per year; Evernote, www. evernote. com

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 25

FEATURE

iPOD TOUCH (FOURTH GENERATION, LATE 2010) Like the iPhone 4, the fourthgeneration (4G) iPod touch includes front- and rear-facing cameras, a Retina display, a built-in microphone, FaceTime video-calling support, and iMovie for iPhone compatibility.

As a pint-size media player/ gaming device/Internet communicator/pocket computer, the 4G iPod touch has no peer.

8GB, $229; 32GB, $299; 64GB, $399; Apple, www.apple.com

TEXT EXPANDER 3 Smile’s TextExpander just keeps getting better. Several new versions of the text-expansion utility (which inserts saved snippets of text wherever you want with a quick keystroke) were released in 2010, adding new features including keyboard shortcuts for creating snippets, the ability to sync snippets between Macs via Dropbox or MobileMe, search improvements, and interface tweaks.

TextExpander remains fresh and vital, and that’s why it’s one of our favorite apps of the year. $35; Smile, smilesoftware.com

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EXCEL 2011 Excel 2011 contains hundreds of improvements and new features, making it a must-have upgrade for Excel users.

With the new version, Microsoft has completely redesigned the interface, and users will love features like sparklines, which display charts within a single cell, and the new PivotTable Builder, which eases the building and modification of pivot tables. Macros have also made a triumphant return.

If you’re using Excel 2004 or Excel 2008, it’s time to step up to Excel 2011. The new features strengthen Excel’s place as the best spreadsheet program for the Mac. $119; Microsoft, www.microsoft.com

iMOVIE ’11 With iMovie ’11, Apple included tools that make more-complicated edits easy. The Single-Row View looks more like the traditional timeline view. The new One-Step Effects add effects in a few seconds. And Apple’s fun new Movie Trailers feature helps you create quick videos in the style of the movie previews you see at the theater. Most importantly, Apple improved the audio-editing features in iMovie ’11.

Part of the $49 iLife ’11 suite; Apple, www.apple.com

FEATURE

APERTURE 3.1

STEAM The Steam online gaming service is more than just an iTunes Store–like place for games; the free service from Valve offers exemplary social-gaming functions and demos of many of the games. Steam has become the go-to place for gamers to shop, find new friends to frag with, and stay up-to-date with the latest patches. free; Valve, store.steampowered.com

Apple’s Aperture 3.1 photo-management software, added a handful of great new features that made it an appealing option for photographers who’d outgrown iPhoto. Though typically aimed more at professional shooters, Aperture 3.1 added consumer-level features such as book design, Faces, and Places. These features, combined with the application’s intuitive layout and easy-to-understand tools, make it a great crossover program for all levels of photographer. $199; Apple, www.apple.com

NEC MULTISYNC PA271W The MultiSync PA271W is a serious tool for color pros who demand superior performance and require granular adjustment capabilities. The PA271W offers Picture-in-Picture and Picture-byPicture modes, as well as support for displaying billions of colors and virtual profiles. NEC includes some nifty new technologies to help its CCFL backlighting get up to a stable operating state in seconds rather than minutes and to maintain consistent backlight performance over time. For those who depend on accurate color, the PA271W has the necessary tools. $1399; NEC, www.necdisplay.com

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 27

WORKINGMAC

Tips, Tricks, and Tools to Make You and Your Mac More Productive

HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus Solid albeit somewhat expensive multifunction business printer

BY PAUL CASTLE

T

he HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus (est.

Dhs 1,450) colour inkjet multifunction printer may look expensive at isn’t the cheapest on the market, but you get a lot for the money. It’s a comprehensive small-office machine with excellent speed and print quality, and low ink costs. The machine’s touch controls and A4-size scanner lift it

above competing models.

In addition, it’s one of the currently few printers that can take advantage of the AirPrint feature available in iOS 4, making it possible to print from iPads and iPhones.

Paper-handling features include a front-mounted 250-sheet input cassette and a 150-sheet output tray directly above it. Automatic duplexing is included for printing, copying, and scanning, the latter two via the 35-sheet automatic document feeder. For loading digital images, you can use the USB/PictBridge port or the media card slots for MMC, MS/Duo, and SD Cards.

The entire control panel--from the large, 2.4-inch colour LCD to the surrounding controls (which light up only when needed)--is touch-sensitive.

The menus shown on the LCD are laid out logically.

The Officejet Pro 8500A Plus is also ePrint-enabled, meaning that you can send the MFP print jobs as attachments via e-mail; and it has access to HP’s Webbased apps for printing

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an ever-widening variety of things, including news digests, puzzles, movie tickets, and maps.

Speed and print quality shine on the Officejet Pro 8500a Plus. Crisp-looking plain-text pages sprinted out of the machine at 9.3 ppm. Snapshot-size photos took about 4 ppm on A4-size plain paper and a little under 2 ppm on HP’s own A4-size photo paper.

A 22MB, high-resolution photo took nearly 3 minutes to print.

Regardless of platform or paper type, photo quality was smooth and detailed, with a slightly cool, but mostly accurate colour palette--save for orangey fleshtones in plain-paper prints. We noticed little difference in results when we shifted between the

printer’s default and higherquality settings. Copies emerged quickly, as did scan previews; however, full scans decelerated to merely average speeds.

The AirPrint feature comes in handy the most when in use with an iPad, adding a great deal to the usefulness of the device.

However, it’s a pretty basic feature at this point. There are almost no controls to configure a print job; it seems to be little more than a “Print Screen” or “Print this web page” feature.

Presumably there will be some in improvements in future versions of iOS. The HP Officejet Pro 8500A Plus may cost a lot, but its features and performance justify the investment. You’ll also save over time on the inks.

The iPhone Cash Register

iOS credit card readers give small businesses new possibilities at a lower cost

BY JOEL MATHIS

W

hen Web comic artist Rich Stevens sells his original work at conventions, he offers his customers two payment options.

“My favorite thing to do is ask people, ‘Cash or future?’” he says.

Choose the “future” option, and Stevens whips out his iPhone. Stevens swipes the customer’s credit or debit card through a small, plastic square plugged into the headphone jack. On his phone, the Square app processes the card— customers use a finger to sign for the transaction on the device’s Multi-Touch screen—and then the app deducts the price of the sale from the customer’s account, crediting it to Stevens. It’s a typical credit card transaction, only cooler.

Stevens may be at the vanguard of e-commerce.

A growing number of companies—including Square (squareup .com), Inner Fence (www.innerfence.com), Simply Swipe It (store. simplyswipeit.com), and VeriFone (www. paywaremobile .com)—are using Apple’s iPhone and iPad as the foundation for inexpensive,

Small Business Boon Jerad and Justin Morrison, co-owners of Sightglass Coffee, show off the iPad they use as a cash register at their San Francisco coffee bar and roastery.

low-commitment cardreading systems.

Small Businesses San Francisco’s Sightglass Coffee uses an iPad running the Square application as its cash register and card reader.

“It was convenient for us, because we didn’t have to set up a merchant account with the bank and pay annual fees,” says Jerad Morrison, who co-owns the shop. “This is a transparent, clear process.”

Some of these iOS credit-card-processing companies, like Square, provide businesses with the card-reading devices and iOS apps for free. Credit

Card Terminal, which requires merchants to key in card numbers, charges them $1 to download the app and a $25 monthly fee. All the companies charge merchants a fee per transaction, ranging from 15 to 25 cents, plus an additional, varying percentage depending on the type of transaction.

The transaction fees are “similar to what you’d be charged for a credit card,” says Kay Luo, a spokeswoman for Square.

She adds that merchants still make out better because the equipment costs are so much smaller.

All the companies promise

strenuous encryption of card data, and Square offers to e-mail a receipt to customers.

Back in Massachusetts, artist Rich Stevens is helping Square promote its product by word-of-mouth.

He takes the little plastic card readers and hands them out to artist friends who want to use credit cards to take payments.

His experience promises a bright future for the fledgling industry.

“Every cartoonist I bump into jumps the moment I offer them one,” Stevens says. “It’s like being Santa.”

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 29

PLAYLIST

Everything You Need to Know about iPods, iTunes, and Mac-based Entertainment

Altec Lansing’s First Foray Into iPad Market is Mixed Bag

I

n the growing market of iPad-ready speaker docks, Altec Lansing’s first foray proves a mixed bag. The Octiv Stage (MP450) (Dhs 899) doesn’t sound horrible, but it doesn’t sound like a $150 speaker dock, either; it has very little low end and distorts at high volumes.

The clever dock arm poses the iPad in horizontal, vertical, and even flat positions, but that’s the dock’s only great feature.

Altec Lansing’s free alarm clock app isn’t compatible; the dock goes into sleep mode and, much like you if you try to use it, it won’t wake up when the alarm goes off. The iPad doesn’t yet support full remote control navigation, so the included remote has some useless buttons as well (though that’s not entirely

Altec’s fault). It seems Altec (as well as a smattering of the competition) has perhaps entered the iPad dock market before Apple is ready to fully support it.

Design Measuring 4.3 by 8.6 by 6.0 inches (HWD), the base of the Octiv Stage is a rounded black plastic rectangle with sloped side panels and black cloth grilles housing a pair of two-inch speaker drivers.

The dock arm extends from the top panel, and features an excellent swivel mechanism that allows you to easily place the iPad exactly how you want it—flat for easy typing, at a near 90-degree angle, or any degree in between.

You can also just as easily swivel your iPad between vertical and horizontal

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positions, as well as every angle in-between. The arm’s design is simple, but quite useful, and by far the best feature of the speaker dock. Along the bottom of the front panel, a Power LED and Power and Volume buttons are situated in a thin band of metallic-looking plastic, just below the Altec Lansing logo. The back panel has a 3.5mm Aux input and a connection for the included power adapter. It’s worth noting that, although the dock is aimed at iPad owners, you can also dock and use iPods and iPhones without issue.

Included with the dock is a excellent remote control that ought to be excellent.

I say “ought to” because, if it were controlling a traditional iPod, it would

be terrific, but the menu navigation of the iPad isn’t what it could or should be.

This is basically Apple’s fault for not supporting full navigation yet, but does it matter who’s to blame?

The remote, as a result, has some useless buttons.

Often, pressing one of the arrow or menu navigation buttons does nothing, and scrolling, say, the Artists list is a click-per-name process that can get tedious if you are listening to the (A)fghan Whigs but want to switch to the (V)elvet Underground. Basically, the remote is suited for earlier iPods, like the iPod nano and iPod Classic, and not so much the iPad. It will control basics like Play, Pause, and Skip with no problems, but don’t expect it to do much more.

Performance The audio performance of the Octiv Stage could be described as: what you see is what you get. What you see, unfortunately, is not a lot—the dock’s base is on the small side, and it is obvious even before powering the unit up that it can’t handle too much bass. It can get fairly loud, but not cleanly. Blasting The Knife’s “Silent Shout” at top volume will distort the speakers greatly, while at lower, more reasonable levels, the system does not distort but offers only hints of low-end reponse.

Orchestral music sounded better on the dock, but John Adams’ “The Chairman Dances” still lacked the subtle low frequency response that makes percussion and lowerregister instruments stand out. Basically, the Octiv Stage is more suited for casual listening—perhaps at work or for background music—than for the discerning listener, which makes its Dhs 899 price seem high.

Another issue I ran into was the auto-sleep mode.

If your connected iPad sits

idle for long enough—say, 10 or 15 minutes—the dock turns itself off. That’s great for saving energy, but not so great if the iPad doesn’t wake the dock up when the alarm app you downloaded goes off. Even Altec Lansing’s own “Alarm Rock” app suffered from this issue, but Altec Lansing reps confirmed that they hope to eventually update the app to work with the Octiv Stage and iPad. If you don’t need an iPad-specific dock, Altec Lansing’s Octiv Duo M202 is a similar-sounding, but far more rewarding, dock experience. Apps work, as does the remote, and it’s cheaper.

In this price range, the excellent dock options for even iPods and iPhones are slim, so it’s hard to knock the iPad-focused Octiv Stage too much for its flaws. Indeed, this is the first iPad-specific dock we have reviewed. That it acts as an excellent stand for the iPad, holding it in a variety of angles for you while it charges, makes some of the disappointment with its audio performance easier

to swallow. The issues with the remote control’s lack of full navigation is more a fault of the iPad than of the dock. Whether it’s Apple’s fault or Altec Lansing’s that the Octiv Stage doesn’t really do the basic things an iPhone or iPod dock does, however, isn’t your problem. Altec Lansing’s strength of late has been its free apps that transform its modest docks into

multi-use devices. None of them save the day here, however, because none are compatible, and you’re left with an excellent docking arm, some decent speakers, and not much else. The Octiv Stage, by no means a piece of junk, nonetheless feels like an overpriced, premature entry into the iPad dock market.

EmiratesMac.com EmiratesMac Apple Users Group Discounts - Support - Debate - News How to join: Contact: Paul Castle, Community Evangelist, paul@emiratesmac.com, @daddybird, +971-55-580 1829

November 2010 | www.macworldme.net | 31

PLAY LIST

10 Great AppleScripts for iTunes 10

BY KIRK MCELHEARN

4. Search YouTube This one will look up the currently selected song and artist on YouTube, to find related videos, and switch to your Web browser to show you the results.

5. Change Hidden iTunes Preferences

Hide Ping buttons, show a global Library playlist, use half-stars in ratings, and much more by simply selecting a few checkboxes. It used to be you could change most of these via iTunes itself, but the options were removed from the interface.

6. Remove n Characters from Front or Back

Classical CDs often put the composer’s name at the beginning of the track name. I count the characters in the unwanted name and then run this script.

Your Own Top 10 The Spins script shows lists of your most-listened-to songs, artists, albums, and more.

W

hile some people think that iTunes has become bloated with too many features, others might find it lacks some specific features they’d like to have—tools for tagging files more efficiently, for example, or for working with podcasts or videos.

Fortunately, iTunes offers a huge AppleScript library. Script wizard Doug Adams has taken advantage of that, and the results are found on Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes (dougscripts.com). There, he has collected hundreds of free scripts that he and others have written. Here are some of my favorites.

(Note: To use any of these or other iTunes scripts, you’ll need to put them in the yourusername/Library/iTunes/ Scripts folder. If there isn’t a Scripts folder in that location, you’ll need to create one.)

1. PDF Adder This suite of scripts lets you add PDFs to iTunes and tag them the way you want. Add any kind of PDF file for later syncing to an iOS device, print a Web page as a PDF and then sync it, and more, all in a few clicks.

2. Search Wikipedia

If you want info about the music you’re listening to, this script will search Wikipedia using the Name, Album, Artist, or Composer tag of a selected or currently playing track.

3. Have a Quick Look

Want to play just one track, but not the music following it in its playlist or in your library? This script will do so by playing the song with Quick Look.

Nice bonus: The song will continue playing even if you switch to another program.

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7. Update Expired Podcasts

If you haven’t listened to a podcast in a while, iTunes stops downloading new episodes. Normally, it takes several clicks to tell the app to resume the downloads. Running this script resumes the downloads for all your podcasts at once.

8. Embed Artwork

Artwork is not embedded in music files, but is stored within your iTunes folder. If you move the music files to another computer, the artwork won’t go with them. This script copies the artwork and pastes it into each track’s file.

9. Albumise Selection

If you download music that isn’t tagged correctly, set the correct order and then run this script; it’ll add track numbers (in the form “1 of n”) so albums sort correctly.

10. Spins

Not a script per se and not free, Spins ($10) lists your most-listenedto songs, artists, albums, and more, giving you an overview of what you really listen to.

PLAY LIST

Griffin slap If you were around in the late 1980s or early 1990s, you might remember the slap bracelet. Now, Griffin gives you a chance to relive those happy times with the $25 Slap, a flexible wristband for the latest generation of the iPod nano. The Slap is made of memory metal with a soft silicone skin. It lies flat and rigid until you smack it on your wrist. Then it automatically adjusts to wrap itself around your wrist. The silicone frame holds your iPod nano securely while keeping the headphone port accessible (www.griffintechnology. com).

iTunes’ Returned Genius

WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit

Apple introduced Ping in iTunes 10—and in the process got rid of the Genius sidebar. It later rolled out a hybrid iTunes sidebar: The currently playing song shows at the top, with buttons to “like” or comment about it. A section called My Recent Activity shows you what your Ping friends have been doing (perhaps a way to keep Ping users coming back). But the third and largest section ushers in the return of the Genius sidebar. It’s now a Genius Recommendations section that displays similar music from the iTunes Store—as long as iTunes can track down the currently selected song, of course (www.itunes.com).

HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and media players can play lots of cool content over the Internet.

But to do so they need to be connected to the Internet. Western Digital’s new WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit makes that easier, by enabling you to use electrical outlets to provide network and Internet access throughout your home. The $140 kit includes a pair of network adapters, with four ethernet ports each. Western Digital says that the adapters transfer data at up to 200 mbps— enough for HD video (wdc.com).

Etymotic Research mc3 Headset + Earphones If you’re shopping for in-ear earphones in this price range, you should give the mc3 a listen. The clarity is impressive, but the bass impact is relatively low. If you’re a basshead, you’ll probably want to steer clear. But for others, the mc3 is a great headset. You can purchase custom eartips for a relatively low $100. But if you’re willing to spend that amount, you might want to consider springing for better-sounding headphones. $99; Etymotic Research, www.etymotic.com.

EmiratesMac.com EmiratesMac Apple Users Group Discounts - Support - Debate - News How to join: Contact: Paul Castle, Community Evangelist, paul@emiratesmac.com, @daddybird, +971-55-580 1829

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 33

DIGITALPHOTO

Techniques and Gear for Shooting, Editing, and Managing Great Photos

Control Your Camera Settings More and more point-and-shoot cameras are coming with advanced manual controls like those found on DSLR cameras (Digital Single Lens Reflex). Here are three must-know manual settings and what they control.

BY TIM MOYNIHAN

Shutter Speed Manual shutter speed controls are usually indicated by the letters S orTv on a camera’s dial.

Using a slow shutter speed lets you capture more light over the course of a shot, and it turns moving objects into a blur. In most cases you should use a tripod (or at least a flat, solid surface) when you’re shooting at slow shutter speeds. As long as both your camera and your subject remain very still, a slow shutter speed is the ultimate weapon for capturing a crisp, bright,

well-detailed shot in poorly lit environments.

If you use a slow shutter with a moving subject, the blur effect can work to your creative advantage, conveying speed or adding an otherworldly effect to flowing water. Conversely, use the fastest shutter speed possible to freeze a fast-moving object in place.

Aperture Manual aperture controls are usually indicated by an A or Av on a camera’s mode dial. Aperture is the yin to the shutter speed’s yang—use them in perfect

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balance. A wider aperture lets in a lot of light, allowing you to use faster shutter speeds. Lenses with wide apertures also permit shallow depth-offield effects that keep the foreground in focus and the background a bit blurry.

Finding the sweet spot can be tricky: Some combinations of aperture and shutter speed lead to pitch-black photos, and others look completely overexposed. To help you find the right balance, many cameras have aperture priority and shutter priority modes

in which you select your preferred setting for aperture or shutter and the camera automatically optimises the other setting.

ISO Higher ISO numbers let you shoot in dark situations and at faster shutter speeds without using a flash. This setting is usually accessed through a camera’s on-screen menu.

Although a high ISO helps you brighten an image without messing with aperture or shutter settings, it also tends to degrade image quality. With most point-and-shoots, high ISO settings translate into more visible noise in photos. In fact, the quality of high-ISO results is one of the biggest differences between DSLRs and pointand-shoots—DSLRs have large, powerful sensors that eliminate most of the graininess you’ll get with a lower-end camera.

Boosting the ISO settings in your camera also takes a toll on a photo’s color accuracy, as the exposure often takes on a red or orange tint as the sensor’s light sensitivity increases.

DIGITAL PHOTO

Nikon D5000: Budget DSLR Nikon D5000 is well positioned to stand up to competing entry-level SLRs and crossover cameras

BY MELISSA J. PERENSON

T

he Nikon D5000 strikes a great balance between price and features. It deviates from the nomenclature of its closest siblings, the Nikon D60 and Nikon D90, but no matter: It combines many of the best aspects of both while adding its own extras to the mix.

The D5000’s most distinctive feature is its 2.7-inch, 230,000-dot, tilt-and-swivel LCD screen--a first among Nikon cameras. The display provides surprising clarity given its image depth (the D90’s LCD clocks in at 920,000 dots). It doesn’t articulate and swing out; but it does flip out and down, and it can turn around and inward for protection.

Although I would have preferred a greater range of motion, I still loved the freedom and enhanced creativity

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that the movable screen provided.

The camera’s compact size and light weight also enable users to make the most of unusual camera angles, such as shooting overhead or close to the ground.

This model brings many of the features found in the more expensive D90 to people who want a smaller, lighter, and less costly SLR camera. The D5000 isn’t as rugged as the D90, and it’s slightly larger and heavier than the D60. The camera has a pleasing balance to it, though, with logical button placement (similar to the D60, but with a few modifications). I especially liked the five-way

directional pad and the Live View button located just above it.

However, I missed having an easy-access button to set focus points (the D5000 has an 11-point autofocus system, same as the D90). And initially I was puzzled by the presence of two similarly labelled information buttons; I had to read the manual to tell them apart (one invokes the detailed on-screen settings and status display while the other changes the options within the status display). At least the manual is clearly presented and written.

Like the D60, this model lacks an integrated autofocus motor; that means you can use only AF-S mount lenses. Its battery is rated for about 500 shots, and that’s about what I achieved in real-world use.

In my evaluation of image quality,

DIGITAL PHOTO

the D5000’s photos looked a bit dark and muddied at automatic settings, but improved at manual settings. In my casual shooting outdoors, the manual settings were more consistent, but the Program mode setting often overexposed my images. For example, a daytime scene shot under Program mode appeared too bright at the camera’s auto selected 1/125 of a second at f5.6 exposure; but that same scene looked far more balanced when shot under Shutter Priority mode and using the camera’s internal metering to gauge the appropriate exposure (which ended up at 1/250 of a second, at f5.6).

Live View worked well, but only after I set it to single-point focus. At the default focus setting, the camera caught a blurry image more often than not.

The 12.3-megapixel D5000 uses an APS-C (DX)-size sensor, same as the D60 and the D90. It has 19 automatic-

exposure scene modes, and a maximum burst mode of 4 frames per second, half a frame shy of the D90’s maximum. Like the D90, this model can take limited-length (5 minutes or 2GB) Motion JPEG video at 24 fps and up to 720p resolution, but regrettably it can’t autofocus while shooting video.

Overall, the Nikon D5000 is well positioned to stand up to competing entry-level SLRs and crossover cameras such as those from Olympus and Panasonic based on the Micro Four Thirds system. Its price should appeal to digital-SLR novices, and it offers a large enough boost in features over the Nikon D40x and D60 to entice users of those models who wish to improve on what they own now but still want to have a compact digital SLR. Just be aware that to maximize your results, you’ll have to learn your way around this camera’s settings.

Macworld Middle East’s Buying Advice

Info: bit.ly/nikon-d5000-dsrl Price: Dhs 3,949 Pros: Tilt and swivel LCD enables creativity; Records HD video to Motion JPEG Cons: Battery life not as long as larger units; Automatic controls produce middling pics February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 37

CREATE

Using the Web for Video, Graphics, Web Publishing, and Other Creative Pursuits

HTML5: What Does It Mean for You?

BY DAVID CHARTIER

O

ne of the latest tech buzzwords given wings by the success of the iPhone and iPad is HTML5. Apple has pitched this up-and-coming iteration of the Web’s main building block as everything from an alternative App Store platform to the Flash-less future of multimedia on the Internet. But what exactly is HTML5, and what are its real-world benefits to average users like you and me?

HTML—HyperText Markup Language—is the fundamental blueprint of all Websites. When you visit a site, you see pages with text, photos, videos, and games. But your browser displays all that stuff because it downloaded a big chunk of HTML code that instructs it where to access that media and how to lay it out on a virtual page.

38 | www.macworldme.net | February 2011

Web designers can build Websites using everything from powerful tools like Dreamweaver and Coda to plain ol’ TextEdit—in the end, the blueprint is still just a bunch of HTML text instructions for placing this picture over here and that chunk of text over there. HTML is an open standard, which means that (for better or worse) no single party controls it. And browser makers—like Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera, and Google—can support its various layout and content display features as thoroughly—or not—as they choose.

Upgrade from HTML 4

HTML5 is not new—it began life in 2004 as a seedling specification called Web Applications 1.0, from the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), a loose affiliation of browser

manufacturers and others interested in browser technology. Since then, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)—the primary Web standards organisation with more than 300 members including Apple, Hitachi, Real Networks, Google, Opera, and Microsoft—lent a hand to fleshing out new specifications and features.

HTML5 is not ushering in a new era of the Web by itself.

Many of the new features and fundamental changes are powered by accompanying technologies, such as CSS3 (the latest version of Cascading Style Sheets, the technology that lets Web designers control the layout and style of a page) and JavaScript, technology that powers special effects and interactivity on Web pages. So to keep this discussion simple, let’s stick with using HTML5 as an umbrella for

these symbiotic technologies.

HTML5 covers a lot of ground when it comes to new features and better accessibility. Cool things like Gmail’s ability to work and store e-mail offline, geo-location features that automatically find where you are, and drag-and-drop moving of simulated windows and widgets in your browser, are all part of HTML5.

Also included are new ways to make Web pages more accessible to things like screen readers for the blind, editing documents within browsers with Zoho Docs (docs.zoho.com) and Google Docs (docs.google.com), and even dropping files from your desktop onto a Web page to upload them.

By standardising the implementation of these features, browser makers have a much easier time building them into their apps.

That means you can enjoy a more uniform, intuitive experience on the Web no matter which browser you use.

Flash Fuss One of HTML5’s most important innovations—and a lightning rod for the recent tussle between Apple and Adobe—is support for a new tag in the markup language called video.

This Video tag makes it much easier for Web designers to embed video—a media type that is exponentially increasing in popularity thanks to fast Internet connections, powerful computers, and portable devices like the iPhone and iPad—without the need for Adobe’s Flash plug-in.

Flash technology—which is used for complex animations, interactive banner ads, video, and games on the Web—is created with an Adobe program called Flash. You experience Flash content in your browser via Adobe’s Flash Player plug-in, which was probably pre-installed on your Mac. Adobe also makes plug-ins for Windows and Linux systems, which mostly gives developers a “write

once, run anywhere” advantage that is rarely seen in the technology industry.

Remember that letter Steve Jobs posted on the Apple Website, unassumingly titled Thoughts on Flash (bit.ly/flash-letter)? If you didn’t read it or our coverage, here are the Cliff Notes: Apple isn’t too keen on Flash.

In recent years, Apple has gone on the offense against Adobe’s Web media platform, publicly denouncing it as a poorly performing, crash-prone battery vampire whose days are numbered. Apple also cites Flash’s potential security flaws as a reason to protect its customers from malware and other unwanted or controversial software. Among Snow Leopard’s many tweaks, Apple separated plugin processes from Safari 4 to improve stability, and specifically called out Flash’s penchant for crashing its browser.

Not surprisingly, Apple does not allow Flash on the iPhone or iPad— two devices that are leading the charge into a new world of portable, do-it-all devices that excel at rich media and gaming—two of Flash’s long-term specialties.

Apple has even gone so far as to rally publishers—particularly videoheavy outlets like TV studios—to create HTML5-friendly versions of their sites and services that work on the iPhone and iPad. While sites like YouTube or ABC.com deliver Flash video in most desktop browsers, they now offer HTML5 and QuickTimefriendly video when viewed on Apple’s iOS devices. To promote these efforts, Apple also maintains a Ready for iPad (bit.ly/ready-for-ipad) list of publishers who have hopped on board the HTML5 train.

Apple also has a business incentive to protect its App Store ecosystem; after all, Flash can be used to create rich, Web-based applications that could threaten App Store sales if developers chose to market them

independently. Today, Apple gets 30 percent of every paid app, game, magazine, and even in-app purchase from its store—that’s a hefty chunk of revenue that Apple rakes in because Flash is banned from the party.

However, HTML5’s sovereignty over Flash is anything but a foregone conclusion. The standards based technology still faces a number of significant obstacles, the most fundamental of which is that it isn’t done yet, and might not be for another year, or three, or ten. (Just last week, the W3C cautioned against developers being too quick to adopt the unfinished spec. bit.ly/holdhtml5) When a platform as important as the Web’s native language is still in flux, it’s hard to get software makers and content producers to commit time and money to overhaul their code.

To further complicate HTML5’s potential as a Flash replacement for many uses on the Web and portable devices, Adobe has scored some recent wins with Flash. The company introduced a new version of its Flash Player plug-in this past summer that supposedly boosts performance. Adobe has also renewed its Flash support for non-Apple mobile devices, namely smart phones running Google’s Android mobile OS. Plus, Flash got an unexpected boost from Apple itself when the company recently relaxed its strict control over development tools for iPhone and iPad. Apps that are first created with Flash and then exported to a native App Store format may once again be submitted for App Store approval.

Consensus Building Because HTML5 is controlled by a large and amorphous standards body whose members have varying priorities, lack of consensus on key issues has delayed finalisation of even small parts of the overall spec.

Among the most important of these controversial issues is which video format(s) should be supported by

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 39

CREATE default in HTML5’s new video tag.

Apple has had quite a bit of success pushing H.264 across the Web. iTunes Store video is distributed in (DRMencumbered) H.264, and other major companies, like YouTube, ABC, CNN, and Fox have adopted it for their HTML5 initiatives. But portions of the H.264 technology are covered by patents, which in theory, could someday be used to force content makers to pay hefty licensing fees.

Ogg is another HTML5 video format option being pushed by the open source community, but the W3C is also concerned over patent issues.

Google recently introduced a new video format, dubbed WebM, and open-sourced its technology in an effort to settle the matter. But none of the key players can agree on One or Two Formats To Rule Them All yet, so their sites are stuck supporting different video formats for non-Flash, HTML5 video.

What’s It to You? It’s still too early to tell whether HTML5 will usurp Flash or if the technologies will eventually coexist, perhaps carving out mutual niches where they excel. After all, Flash is used for more than just cute kitten clips on YouTube. It lets designers create immersive, animated Website experiences and complex games that simply cannot be created with HTML5—at least, not yet, and likely not for a long time.

But things can move pretty quickly in the technology arena, so who knows—Adobe could demonstrate a convincing, long-term commitment to improving Flash’s performance and resource demands, or it could even open source Flash. Conversely, the W3C could finish the HTML5 spec early with an agreement on an official, non-Adobe video format or two that tips the industry’s scales in its favor.

But in the bigger picture, HTML5 could usher in an era of unprecedented accessibility for text, video, and other

Adobe Acrobat X

BY PARIAH S. BURKE

A

crobat X Pro is an impressive release, with new features and improvements for anyone who creates or works with PDF files.

Acrobat, like many mature products targeting a wide range of users, suffers from feature bloat. There’s something in it for nearly everyone, but unfortunately Adobe is still struggling to find the best way to provide users with quick discovery and easy access to every function.

The first thing you’ll notice about Acrobat X Pro is, of course, its new user interface. Sadly, this streamlined interface is not an improvement.

Instead of merely navigating through some 20 menus on the application bar and toolbars to find a particular function, as you did in Acrobat 9, you must now search through the

application bar menus, the icon toolbars, and three sidebar-styled task panes loaded with vertically arrayed commands—nearly half of which are hidden by default.

One of the most exciting improvements in the new Acrobat is the expanded and highly customisable PDF Portfolios feature.

A PDF Portfolio distributes a set of electronic files—not only PDFs but any files—in a single package offering a professional, pleasing, optionally branded experience.

The ability to highlight text and add notes is standard in version 10 of Adobe Reader. No need for the PDF

40 | www.macworldme.net | February 2011

media on the Web. Never before have we had so many different connected devices and so much potential for sharing information and experiences across geographical, lingual, and even visual boundaries. And in the Web’s short history, the key browser makers—including Microsoft, Apple, and Mozilla—have never been this close to cementing the markup language in which the Web speaks.

A truly standard language and media format for the Web means that your friend with an iPhone, your father with a Windows PC, and your nerdy tech support guy with a Linux something or other tablet can all laugh at the Web pages and video clips you e-mail without worrying about who has what plug-ins or whether the right browser is installed.

As HTML5 matures and Adobe either fixes the fundamental problems of Flash or eventually retires the technology, the result is the same: We users are the ones who win.

creator to enable special functions within Acrobat X Pro. The PDF file format was originally conceived as a final distributable unit—meaning that content distributed as a PDF would never need to be converted to or extracted for other uses. Despite that, frequently we want to get textual content out to a word processor and tabular data into our spreadsheet applications from finished PDFs. Adobe has addressed these needs by improving content export functionality over time. Acrobat X is the best version yet, exporting accurately formatted content to Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, and HTML, and XML and tabular data to Microsoft Excel and XML spreadsheet formats.

In terms of speed and performance, I found Acrobat X Pro to be about the same as Acrobat 9 Pro.

Read the full review online at bit.ly/acrobat-review.

Canon Expo 2010

CREATE

BY PAUL CASTLE

I

n Paris, France, Canon held their Canon EXPO 2010 at the Grande Halle de la Villette, an event occurring once every five years to showcase the wide range of Canon products and solutions. Canon was founded in 1937 as manufacturer of cameras and has throughout its history expanded its scope to offer a variety of imaging and optics solutions for many purposes. Canon’s slogan “We Speak Image” notes the company’s commitment to applying their core imaging expertise across a spectrum of practical applications.

The space of the Grande Halle was demarcated into multiple themed zones, in which the company exhibited hundreds of products for a great variety of personal and business uses, starting from their familiar lines of still and video cameras, printers and copiers, to high end machines for commercial photography, industrial printing, medical imaging, production display, as well as their newer offerings in consultancy and business services, and developments in cutting edge imaging technologies.

An Environmental zone was included, expressing Canon’s commitment to sound ecologic policies and processes, including recycling and the use of earth-friendly materials.

On display at Canon EXPO 2010 was their current line of Pixma All-

In-One photo printers boasting an impressive array of updates features.

Most notable amongst these is the Intelligent Touch System, a touch control panel that guides the user easily through the completion of the currently desired task by lighting only the controls needed to complete it, greatly reducing the possibility of confusion that is sometimes presented by multi-function printers adorned with a dizzying array of buttons and controls.

An impressive feature available with the higher end Pixma printers is HD Movie Print, which allows users to easily grab stills from their compatible HD videos and produce 4x6 prints.

This allows picture takers to capture and save many active moments that can be difficult to get when shooting still pictures. HD video shot with Canon’s EOS and PowerShot digital cameras can be imported to the Canon Solution Menu software. The video can then be viewed and inspected frame-by-frame if one wishes, to choose just the desired moments.

The selected images can then be sent directly to the Pixma printers.

Image enhancement, including noise reduction can also be applied to the images to smooth out the action shots.

Although still in the prototype stage, an interesting sight at Canon EXPO 2010 was the 4K Multi-purpose

Camera, intended for taking both still images and video at professional quality. The relatively lightweight camera can shoot super-highdefinition video with a resolution four times greater than current Full HD. The camera features an 8-megapixel CMOS capable of capturing highdefinition video at more than 60 frames per second. Live video images captured at the demonstration were very impressive, especially when viewed on the Canon’s 8-megapixel monitors also on display at the exposition. Additionally the camera is more environmentally friendly with petroleum-based plastic being replaced by plant-derived compounds.

Another prototype presented was the Expert Photo Printer and high quality printer that employs dyesublimation instead of laser or inkjet processes. This printer is capable of rapidly producing high quality prints equal to high-end photo labs and professional inkjet models.

Additionally the printer uses photo paper in the form of a roll that it cut during the print process so that pictures can be printed at a variety of aspect ratios without wasting paper.

Photo produced are frame or photo book ready.

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 41

For more information please visit: Me.kaspersky.com

HELP DESK

Answering Your Questions and Sharing Your Tips about Getting the Most From Your Mac

Mac 911 Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems

BY CHRISTOPHER BREEN

Import iPhone Clips into iMovie

Q

I’m new to Macs and can’t seem to copy videos taken on my iPhone over to iMovie. The Mac opens iPhoto and sees the videos as a picture. Is there another way? -Via the Internet

A

With iMovie ’11, yes. This is how it was done prior to iLife ’11: Shoot a movie with your iPhone or fourth-generation (4G) iPod touch and then attach the device to your Mac via the sync cable. By default, iPhoto and iTunes open. iPhoto’s Library pane will list your iPhone as a camera, and its contents will appear in iPhoto’s main window. Movies you’ve captured with your iPhone will appear as thumbnails with a small camcorder icon in the bottom left corner. Import the movies you want just as you’d import a still image.

When you then launch iMovie, it will likely ask if you want to update thumbnails for videos in your iPhoto library. Click the Now button to let iMovie do that. You should then see the clips you’ve recently imported into iPhoto.

With iMovie ’11, however, there’s a more direct route. Launch iMovie ’11, attach your iPhone or 4G iPod touch to your Mac, and click the Camcorder icon that appears just above the Event Library. In a short while, iMovie will recognise the iPhone or iPod touch and produce an Import From window that includes all the videos on the attached device. Import the clips just as you would from any compatible camera or camcorder (see “Importing

Importing iPhone Movies iMovie ’11 lets you import movie clips directly from an iPhone or a 4G iPod touch.

iPhone Movies”).

In the sheet that subsequently appears, choose the event you want to place the clips in (alternatively, you can create a new event). If you like, enable the After Import Analyze For option and, from the pop-up menu, choose one of the following options: Stabilization And People, Stabilization, or People. Click Import to begin importing the clips.

Convert E-books for iOS Devices

Q

I have some old electronic books in different formats.

Some work on my iPad and others don’t. Is there a way to convert them so I can read all my books? -Duane Campbell

A

The iBooks app supports electronic documents in the PDF and EPUB formats. To get these documents onto your iPad, just drag them February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 43

HELP DESK

MAC 911

to your iTunes library and they’ll be filed under Books in iTunes’ Source list. Once they are, you can select them for syncing in the Books tab that appears when you connect your iPad to your Mac. For those e-books that aren’t available in these formats, there’s Calibre (calibre-ebook.com). This free, opensource utility can convert from a wide variety of formats (CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, SNB, TCR, TXT) to a not-quite-as-wide variety of formats (EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, SNB, TCR, TXT). For our purposes, you care only about EPUB. In addition to its ability to convert formats, it can also rescale font sizes, detect and create chapters and tables of contents, and grab metadata (title, author, description, and cover image) from the Web. Within Calibre you can also choose to sync converted e-books to your connected iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch.

Note that Calibre may produce e-books with far-from-perfect formatting—you could easily find pages with too many lines between paragraphs and hyphenated words in the middle of a page. If you’re unwilling to put up with imperfections, you should look further to Sigil (code. google.com/p/sigil), an open-source WYSIWYG e-book editor that can help you clean up ill-formatted text.

The Case for Affordable Adapters

Q

I recently traded in my old PowerBook for a MacBook Pro. I’m travelling soon to give a presentation and will need to connect my new

44 | www.macworldme.net | February 2011

laptop to a projector. I see that Apple sells two Mini DisplayPort adapters, one for VGA and one for DVI. As they’re $29 each, I’d prefer to not buy both. Which should I get? -Tom Wilcox

A

If you can carry just a single adapter, get the DVI-to-VGA flavor. The quality of the resulting video isn’t as good as what you’d get from DVI, but there may be occasions where you’re presented with an older projector that doesn’t support DVI. That said, I’d suggest that you carry all the adapters you need—and you can do this affordably. Good as Apple’s adapters are, you needn’t drop $58 to be fully prepared. For the price of a single Apple adapter you can have both a DVI and a VGA adapter from MonoPrice.com (www.monoprice.com). As I write this the company’s Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter is just $7.65. The Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter is more expensive at $18.36. I’ve used each one and have yet to have a problem with them.

While you’re shopping, also consider purchasing MonoPrice’s $7.65 Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter and an HDMI cable. It’s possible that you’ll encounter a late-model multimedia projector that has such a port. Best to be fully prepared.

Cures for a Funky Keychain

Q

Something about Keychain Access on my Mac is messed up. I’d like to delete Keychain Access and reinstall a fresh copy. How do I do this? -Via the Internet

A

You’re putting the cart before the horse. Before tossing out the Keychain Access application I’d run through the steps necessary to cure whatever ails your keychain.

The first step is to launch Keychain Access and, from the Keychain Access menu, choose Keychain First Aid. In the same-named window that appears, make sure the Verify option is enabled, enter your administrator username and password, and click the Start button. If any entries appear in red, click the Repair button and click Start again. With a measure of luck, the red entries disappear and you’re left with nothing but black entries and keychains that perform as they should.

If this doesn’t happen and you continue to have keychain problems, quit Keychain Access, go to youruserfolder/Library/Preferences, and move the com.apple.keychainaccess.plist file to the desktop. This is Keychain Access’s preference file. If it’s corrupt, it could be causing the problems you experience. You needn’t fear losing the data stored in your keychain, as this file doesn’t contain any of your keychain data.

MAC 911 HELP DESK

Still having problems? If it’s only specific items that are causing you grief, open Keychain Access and use the Search field to locate related items. For example, if you’re having MobileMe login problems, search for .mac in Keychain Access’s Search field and delete those entries.

No luck? If you have a backup of your keychains (as you would if you’ve run Time Machine), quit Keychain Access and locate those backed-up keychains (found in youruserfolder/ Library/Keychains). Try substi­tuting them for your current keychain files (move the current ones to the desktop in case you need them later).

If that does no good (though I’m not sure why it wouldn’t), launch

Keychain Access, choose Preferences from the Keychain Access menu, and, in the General tab of the resulting window, click the Reset My Default Keychain button. You’ll be prompted for your administrator password.

When you choose this option, your old default keychain (which is likely the “login” keychain) is renamed and a new, empty login keychain is created. You do this simply to get a fresh start. All your old keychain entries will be gone, so we’ll hope you’ve written down your passwords and login information so that you can reenter them when prompted.

If you’ve failed to write them down and you’re the adventurous type, you could try copying keychain entries

from your old keychain to the new one. To do this, go to youruserfolder/ Library/Keychains, locate the login_ renamed_1.keychain file, and doubleclick on it. This will launch Keychain Access (if it’s not already running) and cause the login_renamed_1.keychain item to appear in the Keychains list.

You’re now at liberty to select items in the old keychain and copy them to the new login keychain. This could be helpful if the old keychain itself was the problem rather than the entries in it. (Of course if the old keychain is that mucked up—as it might very well be—it’s possible it won’t appear when you double-click it.)

MAC 101

Tinker with the Finder’s Column View

Q:

I prefer to use Snow Leopard’s column view but I’m tired of having to constantly resize columns because I can’t see the full names of the items in them. Is there some setting I can use to see those full names?

Alec Decker

A:

Open a Finder window in Column view and double-click on the Resize handle at the bottom of the window (to the right of the column you want to resize). The column will expand to the width of the longest name in the column. For example, instead of seeing a cryptic Macworld…

anuary 2011 you’ll see Macworld Podcast January 2011. Here’s another trick: When you Option-drag on a column handle and then close the window, the Finder will use that column size settings for every Finder window you open.

More? OK. Control-click (or right-click) on a column handle, and you’ll see three options: Right Size This Column, Right Size All Columns Individually, and Right Size All Columns Equally (see “Customizing Columns”). The first option does what I outlined earlier—makes that column the width of the longest name in the column. The second option does this same thing for each individual column that contains items (so each column will be a different size based on the length of names within each column). And the third imposes the widest column length on all the columns.

Have you got a problem?

HELP DESK

Email your question to mac911@ macworldme.net or connect with us on Twitter at twitter.com/macworldme.

You can also check out the forums at www.emiratesmac.com. EmiratesMac is an Apple Users Group based in Dubai.

February 2011 | www.macworldme.net | 45

MAC COMPATIBLE

The iPad Killers Amass

I

t’s been pretty amusing monitoring the coverage of the January’s annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and beginning-of-the-year tech news in general. The buzz has consistently been that “Tablets are HOT!!” That’s one way of putting it.

A more accurate way is, of course, “The iPad is hot, and now every other tech manufacture wants to try to copy its success.” CES was awash with planned tablets from every conceivable manufacturer, many offering multiple models.

One might remember that at tablet were also “hot” at last year’s CES, with numerous “coming soon” tablets on display. Microsoft and HP made waves with their concept for tablets, for example. This was all just before the revelation of the iPad, of course. A year later and almost all the tablets of 2010’s CES have faded from memory unrealised, while Apple has sold over 14 million iPads. Clearly it is the iPad that is hot.

Some might point to the “success” of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab as evidence of a wider tablet groundswell. And it has been successful, beating even Samsung’s own sales projections, selling over a million in just a couple of months, which of course pales in comparison to iPad’s number.

Also, the Galaxy Tab didn’t succeed on its own merits. Although a useful device, it is, unfortunately, a mediocre product. It actually succeeded base on two external factors. First, there was a large number of people that were anxious to finally have an Android based tablet. Secondly, there were many people who wanted any tablet,

as long as it wasn’t an Apple product.

(There is, of course, some overlap between these two groups.) Still this only gave Samsung a fraction of the success that Apple achieved with the iPad. So, will this year end up following last year’s pattern when it comes to the tablet landscape? Probably not.

With the rumored improvements in the next edition of the iPad, Apple will like continue to keep a strong lead in the market, but there are finally going to be some truly interesting competitors. New developments are going to make this a little more of a horse race.

New processors are going to make the competing tablets very powerful, while minimising power consumption. Leading this pack is Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset with a dual-core processor. Also, there’s the upcoming release of Android 3.0, which is meant for tablet devices and appears to have some very attractive new features. Tablets such as Motorola’s Xoom and Asus’ Eee Pad will have both of these, making them the most interesting of the coming lot.

But on top of Apple’s huge head start, these worthy competitors still have some other hurdles to overcome is the tablet race. First, there’s apps; even with Android Market threatening to catch up with Apple’s App Store in number of available

apps, there is still a large gap in quality and breadth of apps available.

This isn’t a complete deal-breaker, but it does make for some lowering of the attraction of the platform.

Secondly, there’s battery life. One of the iPad’s greatest features is it’s terrifically long battery life. (How common is it for a product to live up to and even exceed the manufacturers assertions on battery life?) The Tegra 2 of similar processors should go a long way in facilitating this, but Android is going to have to help hold up it’s end of the bargain. Androids vaunted “full multitasking” means that one can unknowingly end up with with a surprisingly long list of apps and services lurking in the background.

(Can Android programmers PLEASE start uniformly including quit/exit features in their apps, so we users can stop having to install other programmers’ task killers to shut them down??) Hopefully, Android 3.0 will have some better management built-in to improve on this.

I, for one, am very much looking forward to the new “iPad killers”. As a lover of technology, I’ll be happy to have another great tablet to add to my collection, and the competition is only going to keep Apple working harder to stay ahead of the rest.

Winner: you and I.

Paul Castle is a freelance ne’er-do-well. Mostly harmless. Often aims to misbehave. Sometimes writes and edits things.

Tweets entirely too much as @daddybird about tea, cats, Macs and Bollywood.

46 | www.macworldme.net | February 2011

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