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THE APPLE LOVER’S MAGAZINE April 2009

The New Macbook

We explore the new design, features & technologies

THE ICONIC IPHONE. HOW? & WHY? WHAT IS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?

PRODUCTS REVIEWED THIS MONTH: MACBOOK IPOD TOUCH & IPOD NANO

FEATURE -APPLE WITHOUT JOBS?

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How much do you love your Mac?

THE APPLE LOVER’S MAGAZINE Send us pictures of your devotion and you could win great prizes ilovemymac@macaction.co.za

from the editor WELCOME TO THIS, THE EXCITING FIRST ISSUE OF MAC ACTION. ALL YOU MAC AFICIONADOS THAT HAVE FOR SO MANY YEARS BEEN STARVED OF MACRELATED EDITORIAL NOW HAVE A GOOD QUALITY LOCAL MAGAZINE TO READ. GOOD NEWS I’M SURE YOU’LL AGREE SO LETS HAVE A LOOK AT WHAT SORT OF CONTENT YOU WILL FIND BETWEEN THE COVERS. We will entertain and inform you, helping you to get the best out of your Apple Mac computer with in depth “How to” articles complimented with a question and answer section.

Our news features will keep you in touch with everything that’s going on in the World of Apple computing, both locally and internationally. We will of course, bring you all the latest products, both hardware and software in our reviews section.

As if that wasn’t enough, we will bring you features and we will give you an insight into how other people use their Macs.

We, in common with most Mac users, love the Apple Mac platform and we hope to convey our passion in the pages of Mac Action. As a friend of mine pointed out, you often hear of people changing from PC to Mac. You don’t hear of people moving the other way.

There are several reasons that Mac users are so dedicated to the platform. We don’t get treated like criminals for

using the operating system, which is more than can be said about a certain PC-based environment.. There is so much more that we can do with our computers without having to buy expensive third party software. Yes, we are all a little bit individualistic but the main reason we love the Mac so much is that, in the words of the Apple marketing people, It just works!

O.K. I will admit, there is a hint of smugness when a PC user details a long list of problems and things that don’t work.

When the PC user has related all the problems and you have wiped the tears off your shoulder, you say, “Well, you should have bought a Mac”.

We really hope that you are going to enjoy the magazine.

Please feel free to write in and tell us what you would like to read about.

Apples for Africa Steve

MAC ACTION TEAM Editor: Steve Allison Deputy Editor: Russell Bennett Editorial Contributors: Steve Allison, Russell Bennett Art Contributors: Plutonic AVC Management: Steve Allison, Russell Bennett Advertising Sales: Sean Tingle sean@plutonic.co.za Hosting : www.virtualmags.co.za Subscriptions: www.macaction.co.za All data contained in this magazine is for information only and every effort is made to ensure its accuracy. However reviews, comment and instruction are the views of the authors and may contain inadvertent errors, for which Mac Action apologises but takes no responsibility for any actions of any person resulting from the use of information contained herein.

Any prospective contributor or correspondantsubmitting unsolicited material with a view to its publication automatically grant Mac Action license to publish such material in whole or in part in any edition of this magazine. Any material submitted is at the risk of the sender and Mac Action cannot be held liable or accountable for its loss or damage.

Whilst this magazine is devoted to the operation and usage of Apple Mac hardware and software products and such third party software and peripherals which may be attached to or installed on Apple Mac products, Apple Mac Corporation do not own in whole or in part this magazine or its publishers. Nor does the Apple Mac Corporation agree to or accept any responsibility for any text or graphic material published herein.

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contents

THE APPLE LOVER’S MAGAZINE April 2009

NEWS 04. All the most up to date Apple

HOW TO 14

40. Convert Garmin Maps to Mac

news right here.

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44. OS X Basics 52. Make iTunes Work for You

PRODUCT REVIEW

51. Q and A

22. 13 inch Macbook 25. iPod Nano 8 GB Gen 4

MACS IN ACTION 22

28. iPod touch 8GB

50. Staff Macs – Steve’s Macbook

FEATURES

56. The African Commons Project and Apple

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14. The iconic iPhone – Why? How?

GAMES REVIEW

32. An Apple without Jobs?

58. Macs in Space!

COLUMNS

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12. Of Apples and Astons

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10. Cloud computing is the future

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news CONSUMER DESKTOP LINE

*RECESSION BUSTERS

20-inch as well as 24-inch models have been updated, however the updates to the 24-inch model are the most significant. The 24-inch iMac now has double the memory and twice as much hard drive space. The memory has been increased from 2GB to 4GB, now DDR3. The hard drive is now a 640GB unit, up from the 320GB unit in the previous model. As in previous models, all iMac machines feature WiFi, Bluetooth, integrated microphone and speakers as well as an iSight camera.

Graphics are provided by an Nvidia GeForce 9400M card in the lower spec models and a GeForce GT 120 unit in the top spec model.

If you thought that it was only students benefiting from recession busting deals, think again. Nothing could be further from the truth.

NEW ISTORES OPENING AROUND THE COUNTRY Core has just opened two more stores. The Melrose Arch iStore opened on the 26th March and the Flagship Sandton iStore on the 28th March.

In addition to the new iStore which was opened last December in Vodaworld, Core plan to open 2 more stores. The Melrose Arch iStore is scheduled to open on the 26th March and the Flagship Sandton iStore on the 28th March.

Nip down to your nearest iStore and pick up a new Mac or iPod and you can have 6 months interest free credit.

The way the deal works is that you buy the item using the budget facility of your credit card. The interest will be paid for you so the net effect is that you get interest free credit.

BUY THE ITEM USING THE BUDGET FACILITY OF YOUR CREDIT CARD. THE INTEREST WILL BE PAID FOR YOU

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news TESTDRIVEAMAC.CO.ZA MAKING GOOD STRIDES Exclusive South African Apple distributor The Core Group is wooing student buyers into the stylish yet simple world of the Mac with vigour these days, and reports having excellent success with its thus targeted testdriveamac.co.za web offer.

In addition to providing details for various official Apple retailers and promising the opportunity to play with one of those sleek new MacBooks with assistance for a while, this website is all about making these sought after machines that bit more affordable for students looking at the brand.

The financing packages, negotiated in conjunction with Vodacom and including a 3G modem and account for the

36-month repayment period, have seen strong takeup already.

added bonus of a 4GB iPod Red thrown in to sweeten the deal further still.

REPAYMENTS STARTING AS LOW AS R598 A MONTH FOR THE 13.3” MACBOOK

A valid student card gets you access to these appealing deals, so there’s no longer much of a financial excuse not to get the Mac you’ve always wanted, right now. And you’ll be going mobile straight away as well, with Vodacom good for one year’s worth of internet subscription on a cash-back basis.Exclusive South African Apple distributor The Core Group is wooing student buyers into the stylish yet simple world of the Mac with vigour these days, and reports having excellent success with its thus targeted testdriveamac.co.za web offer.

With repayments starting as low as R598 a month for the 13.3-inch MacBook and ranging up to R1148 for the bigger 15.4-inch model with upgraded Core 2 processor, adopting this leading brand has never been as immediately financially viable. Less cash-strapped students can take advantage of a saving of up to R1500 on the highest-spec machine, and the

AND THEN THERE WAS NEHALEM...

Standard-setters Apple Inc has replaced its existing grunt fest the MacPro with a newer version built around Intel Corporations latest leading processor product, Xeon CPUs built on the Nehalem core behind the all-powerful Core i7 range from this global chip megalith.

With this hardware update come some massive leaps in 4

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performance, despite a falling clock speed. The Nehalem cores feature an extensive redesign with a new inter-processor I/O bus and the emergence of integrated memory controllers on each of the four cores per die. This move dramatically boosts memory access speeds in complex operations while the improved interconnect makes for a more efficient reaping of benefit when scaling-up

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processor cores. Further capitalising on this newly engineered architecture power is the full virtual multiplication of cores through Intel HyperThreading technology, which makes for a total of 16-cores on a new Mac Pro with 8 physical cores installed, which the OS recognises and capitalises on straight away. If the user runs demanding, older software which isn’t so multi-core optimised, Nehalem features a trick called Turbo Boost which shuts down un-utilised cores while clocking up processor speed to 3.33 GHz in the case of the 2.93 GHz product, in effect adding pure number-crunching processing oomph on the fly and as required.

The fast 1066MHz DDR3 memory modules feeding these data-hungry Xeon processors complement their raw power perfectly boasting memory bandwidth 2.4-times faster than the previous Mac Pro, while the myriad platform enhancements show benchmark figures 1.9-times that of the outgoing machine.

whether you opt for the 512 MB Nvidia GT 120 chipset or upgrade to the ATI HD4870 setup, also with 512 MB. Both solutions offer dual DVI outputs as well as new connections for the newer display connectivity standards.Using the Nvidia solution, Apple can chain as many as four cards into the system for up to eight DVI screens to be hooked-up.

You’ll see an even bigger graphics performance boost,

CARING FOR THE WORLDS NATURAL REEFS WITH ITUNES The ubiquitous global content platform iTunes further entrenches Apple’s unrelenting focus on education with the availability of Reef Monitor, a collection of videos detailing the studies of University of Toledo endocrinologist Dr John W. Turner, targeted at high school students.

Reef Monitor is the culmination of over a decade’s worth of field studies, and it reveals

in worrying, precise detail the factors driving the steady erosion of the worlds coral reefs, and subsequent destructive impact on the species which live on these natural marvels.

Using iTunes as the platform, these highly educational videos and presentations can be easily spread throughout the US universities’ student base whether on a laptop or mobile

device, and in fact are now freely available across the globe for furthering the global awareness of marine conservation. Partnerships of this nature make the iTunes platform so much more than merely a provider of entertainment-oriented content, but a key link in the chain of global environmentalism and scientific progress as well.

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Mac mini – the herald of a new era APPLE’S LATEST MAC MINI IS SO MUCH MORE THAN WHAT IT AT FIRST MIGHT APPEAR TO BE – AN UNDENIABLY CUTE COMPUTER. Apple engineers have gone to extreme lengths to make this latest product the first available product of a new era in computing, the Green Age. The results manifest in much more than simply the headlinegrabbing energy efficiency, which pegs power draw at a measly 12W in its idle state, making it Energy Star 5.0 compliant (a standard only being kicked-off in the middle of 2009) and a real winner at the electricity “pumps” in largescale deployments. It isn’t just power draw that has earned it EPEAT (Electronic Products Environment Assessment Tool)

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Gold status. It’s the details which truly impress.

For instance, the company has yanked all the BFRs (brominated flame retardants) and PVC from not only the platform but every cable and connector in the mini. And they’ve taken these new production policies to every other product in the Apple range, by the way, while shifting to highly recyclable materials in production across the board.

Finally it’s characteristically cutesy dimensions themselves form part of the total environmental impact equation, not only utilising fewer raw materials to create but burning fewer fossil fuels in transporting large quantities to their respective markets! Computers don’t haul themselves from the factory despatch to your local Apple retailer, after all. It is the totality of this approach towards environmental efficiency at all levels that

makes the new Mac mini such a revelation in IT-related planetsaving efforts.

And many of the results are being transferred to the full Apple product range as well, the adorable mini is just the harbinger. Only Apple, in its forward-thinking position as the controller of every facet of its products’ creation, has been able to not only dream up but implement so holistic a step towards minimising environmental impact.

And it still provides all the plug-in-and-go computing power needed of a sensible workstation acquisition to boot. Shipping as standard with the new iLife09 suite as well as OS X Leopard, the Mac mini just needs input devices and a display plugged in to start delivering the full Mac experience. It may be a mini, but its capabilities have been proven to have nothing insignificant about them.

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& iWork now available in South Africa Apple has released a major update to the iLife suite and it is available now. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs says that the iLife suite is one of the biggest reasons that people choose to get a Mac. iPhoto adds two new browsing options, in addition to Events, Faces and Places have been included. iPhoto will scan your

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he newly updated Apple office suite, iWork 09 is available from your local Apple reseller. With the inclusion of a spreadsheet application, iWork became a serious competitor to Microsoft Office in its previous version, 08.

Keynote is widely regarded as the best presentation graphics application on the planet. New in the 09 version are Magic Move, a way to animate images, graphics and text by choosing a slide transition. Object transitions, text transitions as well as new styles and animations for 3D charts are

photo library and detect any picture that has a face in it. You can type in a name for one of the faces in the picture and iPhoto will go and find all the pictures with that particular person in and group them together. There is a browse tab called faces, click on the persons name and see all the pictures of that person. It even works if the person is in a group shot with other people.

Places groups images together according to where in the world they were taken. It works best when pictures were taken using a camera with GPS capability although the location can be manually assigned. iMovie has had some powerful new editing options added.

some of the other updates to the application.

Pages, is actually 2 applications in 1. It is a word processor as well as a page layout tool. New features in this version include a new full screen view, mail merge with numbers and dynamic outlines.

Numbers, the spreadsheet application has proved itself to be a fully featured, powerful but easy to use tool. Updates in the 09 version include an easy formula writing tool and an expanded function browser with more than 250 functions to

iMovie now includes features previously only found in expensive heavyweight applications. Picture in picture, Cinematic effects and the new Precision Editor to name a few, make iMovie a comprehensive application. Amateur videographers will appreciate the image stabilising function.

GarageBand helps budding musicians by adding piano and guitar lessons. 2 lessons are available immediately with further lessons available for download. Various rock and pop stars have created lessons, which can be downloaded for a small sum of money.

Unfortunately, the pop star lessons are not yet available in South Africa.

choose from. Linked charts allow you to paste charts into Keynote or Pages with automatic linking to Numbers.

All 3 of the applications, as you would expect, have new Apple designed templates. The iWork applications can open documents created in Microsoft Office formats. Documents can be saved in Native format, Microsoft Office format and, of course, PDF. If you’d like to try iWork for 30 days before making up your mind, you can download it from www.apple.com/iwork

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speak to your people. mac people.

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Speak to your people. mac people.

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Advertise Here Call: Sean Tingle Mobile: 082 568 62 14 email: sean@plutonic.co.za

THE APPLE LOVER’S MAGAZINE Mac Action

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CLOUD COMPUTING IS THE FUTURE…

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CLOUD COMPUTING IS THE LATEST BUZZ IN THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY. IT ALL SOUNDS GOOD; YOU WON’T NEED TO STORE HUGE AMOUNTS OF DATA ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER, YOU COPY EVERYTHING TO A “CLOUD” OF SERVERS. The idea is that there will be servers all over the world linked together so that your data would not be stored on a single machine. Your data would never be compromised if a server goes down; another one would take over. All of this would happen via an Internet connection.

Not only would you store your data on Internet based servers, you would also run your applications via the Internet as well. Why have multiple copies of the same application, on your desktop and your laptop for example. Your applications will always be up to date and you can access applications and data no matter where you are in the world. No longer would you have to carry external drives or memory sticks around with you.

One of the big selling points

is security; It’s easy to sell a concept based on fear. We are continually being told that our data is at risk from hackers collecting and selling our personal information. Identity theft is, so we are told, on the rise so we need to continually protect our personal details.

The cloud computing concept would, in theory protect us from these threats because data is stored across multiple servers, hackers would have to compromise several machines to get any meaningful information.

Small businesses could increase or decrease capacity instantly without having to buy or decommission servers.

The concept sounds good but there are several problems that the drivers of the concept have neglected to point out. The first problem is that, particularly here in Africa, the Internet is slow and unreliable. Not only that, we have ridiculous data caps. Let’s assume you use your video camera on holiday to record the trip. When you get home, you want to send 3Gigs of film to the cloud. Oh dear!

That’s your Internet capped for the rest of the month, no more computing for you.

More worryingly, a few companies such as Google

and Microsoft have the infrastructure to offer a cloud to users. Once we have all accepted the concept and sent our data to one of these providers, they control that data. If they then decide to charge you a large monthly hosting fee, you will have no choice, pay up or lose your information.

Software companies will lease software which, as discussed, will always be up to date. You might be quite happy to use an old version of the application.

Why should you continually pay for features that you are not going to use.

Internet reliability is also a problem. I once worked for a company that insisted all contact and calendar information was stored on the server. One morning, the server went down. I knew I had an appointment but couldn’t get the address. I couldn’t even find a phone number to phone and ask.

I certainly will be at the back of the queue when it comes to sending my information to a cloud system. As for security, if a hacker wants to hack my computer and download a photograph of my friends sitting around the braai, then that’s just a chance I’ll have to take.

-Steve Mac Action

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APPLES & ASTONS HELLO, GOOD PEOPLE, AND WELCOME TO THE FIRST ISSUE OF MAC ACTION! That’s all the welcome I’m giving though, as I know that my associate in this exciting endeavour, Steve Allison, has likely already given you the “Full Monty” in that regard.

Which basically leaves me to introduce myself. Although I’ve been an IT journo, specifically focussed on the hardware side of the fence, for just over a decade now, I’ve largely focussed on PCs and consumer electronics in that time, so you long-time Mac addicts may not know me from these publications.

My particular forte lies in getting to grips with a new

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product – very quickly – and analysing its performance, stability, and functionality in a similarly short time frame.

In that time, I’ve seldom paid much attention to the design of a product, preferring functionality to form pretty much every single time, which is not the Apple way.

However what I have already learned of the Apple philosophy, is that the opposite is also not at all true, form trumping over function. In point of fact, products from this powerful brand tend to successfully merge both of these sometimes-conflicting strengths. By design, Apple clearly means a holistic view of the subject, and although this does mean that the results tend to be aesthetically very appealing, it goes deeper as well, the same perfectionist philosophies extending to the innovative function of the device in question and, crucially, a user interface which invites the person “at the wheel” to try new things, perform new tasks, and generally make

use of whatever it is to the fullest possible extent. When I joined the motoring journalism fraternity a few years ago now, I entered with a similar disregard for appearances that I always followed in my IT avenues. But I think this is where the concept of beauty over pure capabilities started to make a lot more sense to me. In fact I can recall one particular twin-test which startled me in my ivory tower of “performance being the be-all and end-all”, which I’d like to share with you briefly now.

It came in the form of two highbrow monstrosities, and although I didn’t actually compare the two back to back, I had the vehicles in within a couple of days of one another and the obvious corollaries couldn’t escape my musings.

The BMW M6, followed by the Aston Martin V8 Roadster.

Both are elegant, svelte-bodied coupes packed with opulence inside and gifted with vocal, potent mechanicals. In the case of my test cars, both featured paddle-shift gearboxes (SMG II

and SpeedShift, respectively) and both are front-engined but rear-wheel-drive.

They diverge somewhat under the hood, the M6 featuring a fabulous, multiple awardwinning V10 producing a headspinning 373kW – enough grunt to put this beautiful Beemer firmly into supercar territory. Meanwhile the “baby supercar” which is the V8 Roadster, is blessed with one of the most gloriously vocal V8s in the business, a 4.3-litre lump churning out “just” 283 kW – a respectable figure in its own right but you could feel the deficit to the race-bred M motor when your foot met the carpet.

Now in my overarching affirmation of function, in the case of cars like these meaning performance mixed with dynamics, being the king of the hill in every respect, the more brutal delivery of the V10 coupled with superb, electronically-controlled damping for flatter, faster cornering prowess, should have in every respect taken top honours.

But at one stage during the

photography, an M6 trundled past our Hartebeespoort location and for a moment my eyes locked with those of the driver of that car, also a convertible like “my” Aston, out for a great drive on a gorgeous day, and it was clear that he would have swopped steeds with me in a heartbeat.

And despite the performance advantage of the Bavarian bruiser, I wouldn’t have offered him the keys for the fortune of the Sultan of Brunei. Well, OK, perhaps for that much I would’ve, and promptly gone out and bought myself another of these epic British sports cars.

I’VE SELDOM PAID MUCH ATTENTION TO THE DESIGN OF A PRODUCT, PREFERRING FUNCTIONALITY TO FORM PRETTY MUCH EVERY SINGLE TIME, WHICH IS NOT THE APPLE WAY. That was an emotional victory

for Aston, crafted by the combination of a trousertightening form, hand-stitched interior upholstery (even though the switchgear came largely from the Ford parts bin), and a voice which, to a petrolhead, came through like a full-blown operatic sensation.

That day, these less tangible qualities – fortunately backed by soul-stirring performance in its own right, actually justified the difference in price between the protagonists, and left my foundations shaken.

The Roadster was a better car, despite being slower down the straights and through the corners, and substantially more expensive.

For me, Apple products are like this beautiful British beast.

Great to look at, and combined with a grin-inducing depth which will bring you back for more, time and time again, and I really look forward to delving deeper still into this alien (to me) realm.

-Russell Bennett

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THE ICONIC IPHONE WHY? HOW?

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ES, APPLE’S IPHONE IS UNDENIABLY A ST YLISTIC SENSATION, ALTHOUGH THERE ARE THOSE WHO DENY THAT IT WAS ORIGINALLY THE COMPANY’S DESIGN IN THE FIRST PLACE. I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THOSE CLAIMS, BUT I DO KNOW THAT FROM AN AESTHETIC PERSPECTIVE, THE IPHONE IMMEDIATELY “FITS” WITH THE APPLE RANGE OF PRODUCTS. IT’S SLEEK, SVELTE, AND STYLISTICALLY FRAMED IN LIGHT. IT’S A DELIGHT TO BEHOLD, EITHER WAY. But the mobile phone market, much like the desktop computer market in fact, is sensitive about aesthetics overtaking functionality, and looking beyond the appearance of the thing, that’s really where the iPhone has proven as revolutionary as the ubiquitous iPod, only even more so.

Today this little handheld device is so well-recognised in all circles of life, and so widely coveted despite being (globally) widely available in good numbers.

That’s one of the core beauties of the philosophy behind the iPhone, a philosophy which states that something which is popular need not immediately be unfashionable. A great product can be both commonplace and still maintain its high-fashion

consciousness.

BREAKING BARRIERS The secret lies in the relentless surge against boundaries and barriers which we as members of the human race have engrained in our DNA. The iPhone since its first release has pushed beyond the boundaries in terms of user experience and the full integration of operability on the carrier side to support new social mechanisms in place in this 21st century.

It’s worth going back to the previous sentence to note one point – the first release of the iPhone was in fact the first time that Apple had so much as ventured into the proverbial mobile phone waters. And as its first foray it chose to release an elegant monster of a smartphone which

proceeded to redefine, for instance, how wireless service providers operated in each country that the phenomenon spread to.

It’s very first effort became the icon which traditional providers suddenly found themselves chasing. The new goalposts of the industry, as it were.

As much as sheer aesthetics played their role in the raging success of the iPhone, a revolutionary level of interactivity combining an incredibly crisp Multi-touch screen, motion-sensing gyrometers and a uniquely integrated multi-channel communications medium cemented its place as a new leader in smartphone products.

CONSUMER SENSATION It is these under-the-hood

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IT IS THIS SOCIAL ELEMENT OF THE ENTIRE EXPERIENCE UNDERPINNING THIS APPLE PRODUCT’S METEORIC SUCCESS STORY WHICH WILL CONTINUE TO BE A MAJOR FORTE FOR THE TECHNOLOGY HOUSE. reasons which drove the iPhone in the consumer space. It became an almost-overnight sensation, and by the time the updated 3G version hit the market in mid-2007, iPhone had become both a must-have fashion accessory and a nextgen communicator’s wet dream.

Seldom do these two worlds agree so completely.

The stunningly rendered iPhone OS, complete with fluid 3D animations rendered by a

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PowerVR MBX 3D chipset via “Core Animation” component from Mac OS X 10.5, is vivid, intuitive, and responsive. It is also a completely functional Apple OS in its own right, and even though Apple has tried to retain strict control over precisely what applications are made available to iPhone users through its App Store, such was the popularity of the new device that the technique of jail-breaking quickly became public-domain knowledge. The App Store itself exploded with new applications and user downloads since the launch of the iPhone, but there are always likely to be functions which you want that don’t come up through these officially sanctioned channels, which is why this technique was at first so demanded by the consumer base.

latest 3G models naturally, and a practically infinite number of apps, toys, and gizmos which you can download and install from the App Store. Some are fun, some can be useful, and some are pure gimmicks, but it is this wealth of little widgets that play a major role in making the iPhone experience so cool.

It’s a handset you won’t quickly get bored of, certainly.

As a PDA or productivity tool it features full rich-HTML support for displaying your messages, and includes a diary which is as slick and intuitive as the OS as a whole. Typing using the virtual keyboard is quite accurate and can be accomplished quickly, with a learning dictionary providing word-completion options to speed things up even further.

Multifunctional As a cellphone, it excels, offering a friendly and quickly intuitive interface which is highly graphical and easily customisable. It also features some excellent value added capabilities, such as the ability to conference-in multiple calls at the press of an onscreen button, as well as the vaunted (but controversial) visual voicemail.

Finally, as a mobile Internet device is where it has had it’s greatest impact, and network operators in various regions have reported that iPhone users usually tend to transfer at least 50 times the data over their handhelds as any other smartphone on the market, which is indicative of both the type of user who acquire an iPhone and of the changing communications mindsets of this generation.

It boasts a 2MP camera, WiFi as well as 3G support in the

The Safari browser allows for easy, natural surfing of Web

content, and the gyroscopecontrolled, seamless transition of the display from portrait into landscape mode provides a good viewing area, before even making use of the handy zoom functions. The hardware automatically detects and selects between supported data networks, with a 3G connection being automatically chosen and switched to in favour of a 2G signal, and WiFi by default preferred to 3G when in range of an AP you have authorisation on.

WiFI for everyone In fact it was this seamless, automatic integration of the WiFi network facilities which changed the way wireless service providers conducted their business in America when the iPhone was first introduced. There had been smartphones which capitalised on this technology before the Apple product, but none which grew so popular quite so

quickly, complete with a user base hungry for highspeed mobile data services of all varieties.

It is this social element of the entire experience underpinning this Apple product’s meteoric success story which will continue to be a major forte for the technology house. It feeds this element through that bevy of fun apps as

well as easy integration with IM platforms, social networking sites and even video streaming from Webbased content providers like YouTube.

Outright design success?

And by wrapping all of this up into an elegant, sexy, and as downright timeless a

piece of design as this fastpaced and fickle industry is ever likely to see, Apple grabbed the number two spot for number of units shipped during the last half of 2008, and looks set to continue to play a leading role in this industry which it only very recently joined. Perhaps the clearest indication of the threat which the iPhone poses to more established players has been the slew of responses, many of them due during the course of 2009 still, in the shape of new products which specifically target some of the iPhone’s strengths and attempt to further develop and refine these revolutions, truly a case of impersonation being the biggest compliment.

The Apple iPhone was nothing short of revolutionary, and it will long be the product remembered as the building blocks of a whole new era of multi-facetted mobile voice and Web-based communications.

-Russell Bennett Mac Action

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Product reviews

The New Macbook

iPod touch

Whats your flavor?

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product review: 13” Mac Book

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HERE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A CHOICE, WITH NEARLY ANY PRODUCT, FORM OVER FUNCTION OR FUNCTION OVER FORM. APPLE HAVE NEVER SUBSCRIBED TO THIS THEORY THOUGH, THEY MAKE STYLISH PRODUCTS THAT REALLY DO WORK WELL. THE NEW MACBOOK IS NO EXCEPTION, IN FACT, IF ANYTHING, IT’S BETTER THAN ANY MACBOOK THAT HAS GONE BEFORE.

The first thing you notice when you buy the new Macbook is how small the box is. Apple has come in for a lot of criticism recently from the environmental lobby. The new packaging is in answer to that. The smaller box not only uses less trees to manufacture but also, the smaller footprint means that more units can be shipped for the same carbon emission. The unit is, according to Apple, highly recyclable, toxin free and Energy Star 22

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compliant. You can own a new Macbook with a clear conscience, knowing that your new laptop has very little environmental impact.

Out of the box, the Macbook looks magnificent with its new aluminium chassis. Although it’s a reasonably lightweight unit, there is a feel of quality about it created, as it is from a single block of aluminium. If you are looking for a good quality, well-built laptop, you won’t be

disappointed. If your laptop is a fashion accessory, you will be proud to display it wherever you go.

The ultra thin display is of the glossy type and really makes colours stand out. It’s clear, sharp and vibrant. It does, in common with most glossy displays, reflect light so sitting near a window can be a little bit distracting and, if you are prone to touching the screen, fingerprints show up distinctly.

product review: 13” Mac Book All in all though, the display does add to the quality feel of the Macbook.

The keyboard has a nice tactile feel to it making typing a breeze. The keyboard sadly has lost the “Apple” key.

The key itself is still there but the Apple symbol has gone and it is now labelled the CMD for Command. It has, of course always officially been the Command key but ask a Mac user to tell you the keyboard shortcut for something and they’ll say “it’s” Apple N” for example. Expose has been moved to the F3 key and Dashboard to F4. It might be a little confusing for seasoned Mac users but there are icons on the keys to show where to press.

Along the side of the case, you get 2 USB ports but the Firewire port has gone. Firewire never really made it into the main stream so I don’t think that will affect to many users although if you do have a Firewire external hard drive, you’ll need to find another use for it. There is also a Gigabit Ethernet port, an eternal display output and audio

connections. The microphone and external speaker ports are both combined optical and analogue ports. The MagSafe power connector is a stroke of brilliance on the designer’s part. The power connector

throwing your computer to the floor.

On the other side of the case is the SuperDrive slot, which is the optical drive. The slot loading optical drive has been a feature of Macbooks for as long as I can remember.

It is much neater and easier to use than a tray that comes crashing out.

The SuperDrive is a DVD and CD writer. It reads and writes DVD+R\W as well as –R\W as well as CD-R\W discs. It would have been nice to see an update to the SuperDrive with new technologies like BluRay now becoming mainstream.

Style and fashion are all very well but it’s what’s under the bonnet that really counts. There are two variations to choose from, one higher spec than the other. The lower spec unit has a 2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR 3 memory and a 160GB hard drive.

The higher spec model benefits from a faster 2.4GHz processor and a slightly larger, 250GB hard drive.

attaches to the laptop using a small magnet. If you snag the power cable whilst moving the laptop or trip over it, the power cable drops away and saves you

Regardless of which variation you chose, both benefit from a new graphics processor.

The Nvidia GeForce 9400M is Mac Action

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product review: 13” Mac Book said to deliver 5 times more performance. Of course, statements like that are open to interpretation, 5 times better than what? Nevertheless, it does seem to perform very well and will be a big selling point for those partial to 3D gaming.

The graphics card doesn’t have it’s own memory but borrows 256MB from the system memory.

The most impressive feature of the new Macbook, in my opinion, is the trackpad. At no point during the review was I tempted to plug in an external mouse. In fact an external mouse would have been more of a hindrance than help. The Glass Multi-Touch trackpad has no button, simply push down wherever your finger happens to be to click.

THE MOST IMPRESSIVE FEATURE OF THE NEW MACBOOK, IN MY OPINION, IS THE TRACKPAD. AT NO POINT DURING THE REVIEW WAS I TEMPTED TO PLUG IN AN EXTERNAL MOUSE. Apple have transferred the technology from the iPhone and iPod Touch to the new trackpad. Pinch the trackpad, 24

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iPhone style to zoom in and out. Place two fingers on the track pad and turn them to rotate an image, fantastic. There are several options for scrolling, page up, page down and so on depending on the number of fingers that are on the trackpad, even expose works using the trackpad.

So, how does it perform?

I’ve never been a believer in lab tests and performance numbers. I prefer to run some heavyweight applications and get a real world feel. Our review unit was the lower spec 2.0GHz unit.

Using Aperture to work with some reasonably large Raw files, I was impressed with the performance of the Macbook. Images opened quickly without any sign of the spinning colour wheel. Editing images, again demonstrated excellent performance. All changes happen without any perceptible delay. Video editing, using the all-new iMovie 09, failed to show up any limitations. The computer performed without stress and without the fans running furiously. The performance was, in fact, so good that it left me wondering if anyone would want to spec the Extra R4000.00 on the higher spec machine.

Battery life, on the other hand, didn’t fare quite as well.

Although the battery life is no worse than previous Macbooks, I was expecting more. Apple make a bold claim that the battery will last for 5 hours. I found that the battery, in day-to-day usage, lasted just short of 3 hours. A quick test when returning the unit showed that this particular one had shipped with a faulty battery. Lets hope that the 5 hour claim is true, battery life is often the deciding factor when shopping for a new laptop.

The speakers produce a reasonable sound, they are not hifi speakers obviously but by laptop standards they are at the higher end of the scale. Perfectly adequate for listening to a few tunes. The microphone is absolutely amazing.

I was able to walk around the room whilst having a conversation on Skype and that was without raising my voice.

We could sit and debate for hours comparing specifications of laptop computers. The simple fact is that this is the most stylish and by far the most user-friendly laptop I have ever laid my hand on. Do I want one? You bet I do!

For product specifications click here.

Steve

product review: iPod Nano 8 GB Gen 4

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ncreasingly surrounded by ever sleeker, more modern peers bearing the same renowned Apple logo, the last generation of iPod nano was really starting to stick out like a sore thumb. Being the most affordable (apart from the very limited shuffle) and therefore best-selling iPod was, in short, not a great design success.

Which is why with this fourth generation of the ubiquitous mobile media player, Apple has returned to the slim but long design aspect of earlier generation nanos, while further slimming the unit down, to the eye but more especially to the touch, by using a

shapely curved aluminium case tapering down from the thicker middle to a nice rounded edge.

In addition to the design rethink, the company has further enhanced the aesthetic appeal by moving away from the pastel tones

and into brighter, funkier, and altogether more modern hues, although our 8GB test unit looked just plain sophisticated in silver, like naked brushed aluminium.

The same 2-inch 320X240 widescreen display is used,

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product review: iPod Nano 8 GB Gen 4 although rotated through 90 degrees from the control pad in this implementation, while none of the mechanics of the user interface have been messed with at all. There is now an accelerometer built-in however, echoing the trend set by the all-conquering iPhone, so that reverting back to regular widescreen viewing takes no more than reorienting the nano in your palm.

E R. M S L I M R. I T ’S S E X I E R T E R I T ’S S S M A I T ’ O! , D TO 0 9 0 AN 2 CE R I R P

That said, this fourthgeneration nano isn’t entirely about its pretty new face and a bright colour scheme, the Genius playlist creator feature from iTunes 8 is in as well for quick and fast playlist creation, while that motion sensitivity means that shuffling randomly to the next track is just a brisk shake of your nano away. More interactive song selection is easier than ever thanks to the ability to browse through Cover Flow, and the easy addition of favourite songs to your on-thego playlist using the centre button.

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The curved aluminium frame not only looks so much nicer, it feels substantially more, well, substantial in your hands than the previous iPod nano, while the integration of that accelerometer has opened that screen up to a whole host of new gaming applets as well.

You can also sync contacts from iTunes naturally, and there’s an integrated multinational clock (although lacking the option of selecting Johannesburg for some reason) and even calendar function to boot.

That same touch-sensitive circular dial with centre button remain all the control mechanism one could want for navigating the fairly rudimentary menu structure, with the software doing a great job with managing to combine such physical simplicity with good, easy to use functionality yet again.

WITH THIS FOURTH GENERATION OF THE UBIQUITOUS MOBILE MEDIA PLAYER, APPLE HAS RETURNED TO THE SLIM BUT LONG DESIGN ASPECT OF EARLIER GENERATION NANOS

Apple once again owns the top spot as the sexiest mobile MP3 player, movie player and photo viewer with this redesigned nano, a position which the third-generation device unusually failed to sparkle in.

If it’s the definitive multimedia experience in your pocket you want, the iPod nano remains your best buy if your budget won’t stretch to big daddy, the iPod touch.

our verdict: 8/10

It’s a welcome evolution of the nano with more swish thanks to that curved case and vibrant colour range, and some nice new features too.

For product specifications click here

-Russell Bennett

MAC

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product review: iPod touch 8GB

iPod t ouch

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product review: iPod touch 8GB

ets g e hon rvy P i ior ly cu n u J ing 3298 h c a eR c i r P

W

hen Apple’s original iPod touch hit the market in 2007, it set new benchmarks as a portable entertainment device and delivered a whole new paradigm in the interface of the handheld PC. The world is now more familiar with this sleek interface with the rapid explosion of iPhone users spreading across the globe, as the touch features the same large, crisp Multitouch screen and OS environment, just updated to version 2.2 with a few key additions which we’ll get to soon, but is if anything even more appealingly styled. It’s slimmer than an iPhone, although this secondgeneration model is actually half a millimetre thicker than its predecessor, but the contour of

the shiny silver backplate fools both your eyes and hands into thinking it’s shrunk.

A couple of consistent criticisms of the original touch just kept on recurring in user reviews across the globe when it launched, so Apple took an altogether evolutionary approach in creating this version, addressing all of these shortcomings and adding a ton of stuff users hadn’t even realised they really wanted as yet. The aesthetic redesign was subtle but effective, while the addition of a pair of slim buttons along the edge now make adjusting volume onthe-go a cinch. Meanwhile the headphones jack was made capable of accepting microphone input as well, and a built-in speaker was inserted,

although you’d never know to look at it.

Although cosmetic or elementary user interface enhancements, these changes make the latest-generation iPod touch even more of a pleasure to use – surely the best portable entertainment device available on the planet in fact. But beyond just the hardware, it’s the new software environment which really thrusts the touch into a competitive plane upon which it finds itself completely alone, unrivalled and unchallenged, as the leader of this particular technology pack.

When you first extricate your touch from its clear, hard plastic packaging, even if you’re entirely unfamiliar with a conventional PC or Mac Action

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product review: iPod touch 8GB Mac OS interface, you’ll be able to start delving into the features immediately thanks to the blindingly intuitive operation of the device. The latest iteration of the Safari Web browser is included in the upgraded OS version 2.2, and it maintains its excellent reputation as probably the best mobile browser in the market today with improved stability and performance, as well as a wider variety of streaming media supported. If you’re in a WiFi hotspot, the touch will detect the network making your joining it as simple as selecting it when prompted and supplying your valid authentication credentials, if required.

Browsing the features and apps on the touch is as fun as using them thanks to the splendid manner in which this touch screen interface has been built. And Apple has recently patented many of the control mechanisms it uses, effectively barring the opposition from producing devices using the same easy and intuitive gestures. The screen is just about as clear as that on the iphone, with a single major control button lost beneath acres of animated, pagescrolling, responsive touch screen.

Requiring iTunes 8 to sync 30

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media files between PC and iPod, this touch benefits from the nifty Genius playlist creator built into this media library management package, This function allows the creation of a 25-song playlist based on one song selected, using information culled from the millions of iTunes users across the globe to create a list of songs which match the selected one on a variety of criteria.

download,

and sort podcasts, MP3s, and video files, and play these stored files through the playlists built-in to the iPod itself. Your lists of stored files can be played alphabetically, by genre, or by album making it easy to quickly find exactly what you want.

And then there are all the toys, many of them capitalising on the responsiveness of the

WHENEVER YOU’RE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET VIA A WIFI HOTSPOT, YOU CAN ACCESS YOUR EMAIL, LOG IN TO FACEBOOK, WATCH YOUTUBE VIDEOS, CHECK UPDATED STOCKS INFO, ACCESS THE FULL RANGE OF ITUNES FUNCTIONALITY, AND OF COURSE BROWSE THE APP STORE FOR OTHER WIDGETS, TOOLS, OR GAMES WHICH MIGHT BE OF INTEREST TO YOU. Whenever you’re connected to the internet via a WiFi hotspot, you can access your email, log in to Facebook, watch YouTube videos, check updated stocks info, access the full range of iTunes functionality, and of course browse the App Store for other widgets, tools, or games which might be of interest to you. And there are absolutely thousands to select from, ranging from obscure visual toys like the iWater toy to fullblown 3D shoot-‘em-ups.

Via iTunes you can access,

touch screen or the builtin accelerometer. These vary from endless fun to curious entertainment for a few moments. Despite its uselessness, everyone loves the Zippo app for instance, and the way the flames of the virtual lighter dance according to the angle at which you’re holding the touch, although I must confess this to be one of the few apps where lag was actually an issue.

It’s at this point that you realise

that the iPod touch is a unique amalgam of entertainment device, handheld internet device and universal party trick all in one. Sheathed in its sleek and shiny casing, the touch can be whipped out and demonstrated even at highfashion gigs without being branded a terminal nerd, as you would be if you dragged out any version of Palm for instance, or even Blackberry device.

Its productivity features are useful, although the virtual keyboard is less precise than a physical one, even a tiny physical one like on my old Nokia E61. Once you have become accustomed however to letting your finger linger for a moment until your eyes verify that the right letter is being displayed, you can be pretty fast with it, but you can never touch-type for instance.

Also, the applications aren’t always completely stable, occasionally just terminating in the middle of your activity, which can be annoying.

But judged purely as an entertainment device, that great display and the brilliant OS makes it pretty much untouchable. With the secondgeneration came another additional benefit, the new 8GB entry-level model (as tested here) fell substantially

in its price to an altogether more reasonable in these tight economic times R3 298, bringing this talented and sexy device to a larger audience than ever before.

The only thing that would make me hesitate to buy one, is the fact that the iPhone offers all of this as well as an excellent cell phone, genuinely mobile 3G internet environment, and even built-in GPS functionality, for not that much more of an investment.

It isn’t as slim, shiny, or quite so delectable in its design, though.

The iPod Touch is, and you feel somehow sexier yourself just holding it.

Advertise to your people.

Mac people.

our verdict: 9/10

The only mobile infotainment product that competes, is the iPhone. And it’s not as hot to behold.

Advertise Here Call: Sean Tingle Mobile: 082 568 62 14 email: sean@plutonic.co.za

For full specs click here.

-Russell Bennett Mac Action

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INCE THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR, ALREADY SET TO BE A CHALLENGING O N E AC R O S S E V E RY I N D U S T RY AND SECTOR, APPLE COMPUTERS HAS BEEN WITHOUT ITS VISIONARY, HIGHLY I N V O LV E D L E A D E R I N T H E F O R M O F STEVE JOBS. THE COMPANY DROPPED THE BOMB IN JANUARY, AFTER RELEGATING CONCERNS WHICH AROSE IN DECEMBER OF LAST YEAR, TO A MERE HORMONE IMBALANCE, BUT SENT CONCERN FOR THE FUTURE OF APPLE ROCKETING INTO THE STRATOSPHERE WITH THE ADMISSION IN JANUARY THAT MR JOBS’ HEALTH ISSUES WERE SERIOUS ENOUGH THAT HE WOULD BE TAKING A SIX-MONTH SABBATICAL FROM HIS POSITION AS CEO.

AN APPLE WITHOUT JOBS?

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This announcement had the not-unexpected effect of sending everyone spinning.

Apple shareholders debated holding onto their stocks until the storm had been weathered and the share price continued its inexorable march towards the US$100 mark, which it has been on since Jobs returned to the company he co-founded just over a decade ago, or shedding these investments for options with more assured growth profiles. Journalists and the media in general raged about how this information, crucial to the future of the company in the eyes of many, had been kept from them and hidden beneath the thin excuse of a harmless hormone imbalance. In short, the news caused shockwaves throughout the technology industry.

While the potential loss of such a strong, assertive leader pivotal to the success of a company is always major news, the disproportionate reaction of punters to this announcement proved one thing. The world saw the Apple brand and the man Steve Jobs as one and the same. Too deeply intertwined to be disentangled from one another.

In truth, Jobs had indeed become, personally, the face of Apple Computers.

Quite understandable really 34

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considering that he also while maintaining its focus on factor have made the words happened to be the last of incorporating the most user“iPod” and “MP3 player” all but the founders of the original, friendly interface available for synonymous in the minds of the major IT companies still rapid market penetration. consumer. With the platform actively involved in the beast This approach has yielded a firmly established, the company he’d helped create. Even for slew of “firsts” beneath Apple’s proceeded to capitalise fully the 10 years while he was belt in the personal computer on this new position with the away from the company, Jobs’ and consumer electronics iTunes music-purchasing and – work ended up driving Apple arenas, many of which Apple management platform. towards its current leadership fans will gleefully point out position. After all, Mac OS X were ideas which mainstream Even more recently, Apple was developed by the company PC rivals Microsoft emulated turned its attention to the he started upon being ousted with great success. Apple for cellular phone industry, and as from the top chair in the instance was the first to offer you can read elsewhere in this Apple boardroom, issue proceeded to WHILE THE POTENTIAL LOSS OF SUCH NeXT Computers, offer consumers the A STRONG, ASSERTIVE LEADER PIVOTAL innovation they were and originally known as NeXTSTEP. Apple TO THE SUCCESS OF A COMPANY craving for in cellular acquired the platform handsets from the I S A LWAY S M A J O R N E W S , T H E in its acquisition of this very first generation company in 1996, with DISPROPORTIONATE REAC TION OF of its iPhone product.

Jobs retaking control PUNTERS TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT However although of the company in Jobs undeniably PROVED ONE THING. THE WORLD SAW 1997 as so-called focussed the THE APPLE BRAND AND THE MAN STEVE attentions of the Apple “Interim CEO”. engineers along such JOBS AS ONE AND THE SAME. Although not profitable avenues, the directly involved in the actual a graphical user interface, actual spirit of innovation has process of creating new Apple WYSIWIG document creating been deeply entrenched in the products, many employees platforms, and even using the company since its birth. tell tales of Jobs’ ruthless mouse as an input device. and sometimes difficult More recently the company It cannot be denied that Jobs management style being seems to have the recipe for steered Apple unerringly down very effective at extracting taking existing devices and a massively successful path, the best possible result from revolutionising them to such but the loss of this visionary the talented design teams. an extent that the Apple brand leader, whether temporary or Since the company’s inception would leapfrog to the forefront permanent, does not mean that it has differentiated itself of these industries. The iPod the Apple staff roll has suddenly through innovative design, MP3 player for example was surrendered its competence and the deeply-entrenched not the first device of its kind or passion for cutting-edge philosophy of combining ever built, but the beauty product design. technological leadership with of its design, simplicity of the style of superior design, use, and unparalleled style As far as the day-to-day Mac Action

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operations of the company go, Apple will continue to tick along very nicely thank you on the collective shoulders of the talented, driven team of individuals who surrounded Jobs in the Apple upper management echelon. The company’s COO Tim Cook is a logistics master, and its chief designer Jonathan Ive will continue to be recognised as one of the greatest designers on the planet. Jobs has always held true to his belief that a great company requires a great team leading it, and built a management team on that principle quite capable of carrying on more than adequately without the famous Steve Jobs at the helm.

After all, no one man can carry an entire company, and so massively successful an organisation at that, on his own shoulders alone, indefinitely.

Even CEOs are flesh-and-blood human beings at the end of the day, as the worrying reports on Jobs’ health certainly proved.

Sooner or later, the time would have come when the Apple brand was to have stood alone, without the support of a highprofile head man at the helm.

Besides which, even during his medical leave period, Jobs is still in charge of the company and therefore involved in every high-level decision. Although 36

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certainly a less hands-on role than he is accustomed to, this nevertheless means that the direction and energies of the company will continue to be focussed by this unique and brilliant mind.

What Jobs has built is a brand so powerful that it causes whatever product brandishing the logo to be an overnight sensation and an undisputable market leader in its segment.

But, despite being “The face” of the Apple brand, these products represent the work and dedication of a substantial, well-picked and stronglymotivated staff team working behind the scenes. It is this team which will largely govern the direction of the company in his absence, be it just a few months or for a longer period than this, and I believe that if Mr Jobs has faith in their ability to continue his legacy, we can be pretty darned sure that that’s exactly what they’re going to do.

The one Jobs mantra that they must, must stick to moving forward however, is the saying that “Real artists ship”. Three simple words, but a powerful message effectively bringing the creative and business elements of this great company together and mutually driving for untold measures of success.

-Russell Bennett

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how to?

OSX 101 learn the basics

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Get the best from itunes

Converting Garmin Maps – the details

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how to: convert garmin maps to Mac

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NE COMPANY THAT HAS BEEN SLOW TO SUPPORT THE MAC PLATFORM IS GARMIN. FORTUNATELY THE WAIT IS OVER, GARMIN HAVE RELEASED ROADTRIP, WHICH IS EFFECTIVELY MAPSOURCE FOR MAC. SHOULD YOU HAVE MAPSOURCE INSTALLED ON A WINDOWS VIRTUAL MACHINE OR ANOTHER COMPUTER, YOU CAN CONVERT THE MAPS AND USE THEM IN THE NEW NATIVE MAC APPLICATION.

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Nothing in life is ever simple so there is a bit of work you need to do before you can enjoy the benefits of RoadTrip. The first step is, of course, to download the program, which you can find at http://www8.garmin.com/ macosx/index.jsp. There are several utilities available for download but for this operation you will need RoadTrip and MapInstall, which includes MapManager. You will also need a Windows utility called MapConverter which you can download from http:// www8.garmin.com/support/ download_details.jsp?id=3897.

It will be easier to download MapConverter directly to where your Mapsource is installed, Parallels, a BootCamp partition or a separate Windows computer.

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Once you have downloaded the Applications, you will need to install them. Double click on the RoadTrip dmg file and follow the prompts. The Mapinstall .dmg file includes two applicaions, Mapinstall and MapManager, again follow the prompts to install the applicatons. When you have finished, you should have all 3 programs in your Applications folder.

02

The next step is to boot up your Windows computer or virtual machine.

Download MapConverter and click on “Run” once the file

has downloaded. Follow the onscreen prompts to install the program. After you have installed the program, you should be able to run it by clicking “Start”, “Programs”, “Garmin” and then click on the MapConverter icon.

03

A pop up window will explain what MapConverter is going to do, read through it and then click “Next”. The next screen will offer you the option of checking to see if MapConverter needs to be updated. Since you have just downloaded the program, it probably won’t be necessary. If

how to: convert garmin maps to Mac The default is C\Garmin but it is far easier to use a memory stick. Alternatively, you can save the maps in the default location and then write them to a disc afterwards. Click on the “Browse” button to select the memory stick or an alternative folder.

browser window will open from which you select the location, either memory stick or CD, where you have the maps. Click on the volume on the left hand side and then click on the map file. Once you have selected the map file, click on “Open”.

05

you downloaded the program some time ago and haven’t used it yet, go ahead and check for updates. Click on the “Next” button and a list of Map Products available for conversion will be shown.

Garmap products will probably not be listed by name but will more likely be shown as “FAMILY” and a number, in my case, FAMILY_1096.

04

Click to place a tick in the checkbox next to the map set and then click on the “Next” button. The next step is to choose a folder where the converted maps will be saved.

The next screen will offer you the option of compressing the maps. This is important, click “NO” even though it tells you that “Yes” is recommended.

Several users have found that compressed maps haven’t worked. The conversion takes a few minutes; the next screen will inform you that the process has been completed. Click on the “Finish” button and you are done. You can remove your memory stick, shut down the Windows computer and head back to the comfort and security of your Mac.

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Slide the memory stick into a free USB slot on your Mac or insert the disc that you copied the maps onto. Open the MapManager utility, which we installed earlier and should, by now, be in your Applications folder. A

Another window will pop up asking you to confirm that you do actually want to install the maps that you have just selected to install. It seems that a Windows programmer must have written this application.

Click on the install button and wait a few minutes for the maps to install. Once the process has been completed, you will get a confirmation that the maps have installed successfully and the option to Close or Quit.

Click the Quit button to close down the application or the Close button if you want to go back and install another set of maps.

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how to: convert garmin maps to Mac

07

Open the RoadTrip application and you will think that the maps haven’t actually installed. You will probably mutter words to the affect, “I thought it was too good to be true.” Fear not, all you have to do is click the drop down arrow at the top right of the screen.

It will probably be showing US Basemap v2. Select the map set that you have installed and your maps will be on the screen.

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Plug your Garmin unit into Your Mac, assuming that it has a USB interface, most modern units do. The unit will be identified in the top right corner of the screen.

Next to the unit ID, there are 2 buttons, “send” and “receive”.

Click the receive button and all of your waypoints, routes and, if your GPS has the facility to record tracks, they will also be imported. Your waypoints will now be listed down the left hand side of the screen, click on the waypoint and then click the “Show on Map” button.

09

Now that you have your maps on the screen, you can create waypoints on your Mac and then send them to the Garmin by clicking on the send button. An in depth guide on creating waypoints 42

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routes etc will be the subject of a future article.

You may have maps that are not yet loaded on your GPS, for example if you purchased European maps. The conversion process is exactly the same as it was for your South African maps. Once you have converted and loaded your maps, they will be available by clicking the drop down on the top right of

the screen.

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Loading the maps onto your Garmin

unit is quite simple using the MapInstall application.

Connect your GPS to your Mac and then open MapInstall, which should be in your Applications folder.

As usual, there is a welcome screen, click on the “Continue” button to start the process.

Again, make sure that your GPS

is connected to your Mac; it should be identified alongside the “Device” button. If it isn’t,

click on the “Find Device” button. Click on the “Continue” button once your GPS unit ID is displayed.

either you have used all of the available memory or you have selected all the areas you want.

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Once you have made your selection, click on the “Send Maps” button and wait, it does take quite a long time. Even when the progress bar reaches the end, it still takes a while. Eventually it will advise you that the maps are loaded, click on the “Done” button and that’s all there is to it.

Click on the drop down arrow at the top left of the window and select the map set you want to load, for example “City Navigator Europe”. You will see a graphic representation of the area covered by the map set. The region is broken up into pieces allowing you to select only the sections that you require. There is a scale on the left allowing you to zoom in, making it easier to make your selection.

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Click on the sections you want and they will appear darker allowing you to distinguish between selected and deselected areas. The scale along the bottom of the screen which there is a scale, which displays the available and used internal memory of your unit. Hover your mouse pointer over a section and the scale will show, by turning light green, how much memory the selection will use. Click on an area to select it and the amount of memory required will be displayed on the scale in a darker green. Free memory is displayed in white on the right hand side of the scale. Continue clicking on sections until

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Garmin have done a good job creating the Mac software and, as with all things Mac, it just works.

-Steave

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how to: OSX

A

Those of you using 10.4 Tiger will still find much of the article relevant, although some of the features are not on your system.

I will be describing the version 10.5 Leopard operating system since it is the current version.

Let’s assume that your computer is switched on and has completed the boot process. Along the top of the screen you will see the menu bar. This changes depending on the application open at the time. Some items on the menu bar will, however, always remain visible. Starting from the left, the first item on the menu bar

S THIS IS OUR FIRST ISSUE, I THOUGHT WE MIGHT DISCUSS THE BASICS OF THE MAC OPERATING SYSTEM. ALTHOUGH SOME OF YOU ARE, I’M SURE, ADVANCED USERS, THOSE OF YOU NEW TO THE MAC PLATFORM WILL GET MUCH MORE OUT OF FUTURE ARTICLES WHEN YOU HAVE GRASPED THE BASICS.

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is the Apple symbol. The Apple icon is constant regardless of the active application.

how to: OSX Clicking on the icon displays a list of menu items, the first of which is About This Mac. Click here to show a little pop up displaying the specs of your computer . Very handy if you are about to install a new application and you want to make sure your machine meets the minimum requirements.

Click on the More Info button to see a comprehensive description of your computer’s components.

The Software Update menu item starts the Software Update application. This connects to the Internet and checks if there are updates available for your operating system and any installed Apple applications.

Software Update doesn’t check for updates to third party software. The Mac OC X Software menu item simply opens up a browser window at the Apple downloads page.

The System Preferences menu item does, as the popular expression goes, what it says on the tin. It opens the System Preferences where you can customise every aspect of the operating system. The Dock menu item sets the preferences of the Dock, which I will discuss when we look at the dock.

The Recent Items menu item is a very hand y tool. Click on it to see a list of recently opened

applications and documents.

Just click on the one you want to open. The Force Quit item opens a list of all running

applications and allows you to choose any that you want to close down. This is designed to shut down an application that has hung and can’t be closed in the normal way. The words “not responding” will usually be seen to the right of the troublesome applications name. Click on the Force Quit button to close the application. Force Quit works very effectively and I have never known it not to close a problem application. You will of course use it a lot less often than PC users would.

when you want to turn your computer off.

The last item on the menu is Log Out, followed by the name of the user that is logged in. Click here to log out, allowing another user to log in. This is assuming that your Mac has more than one user account.

The rest of the menu items relate to the active applications. If no applications are open, the menu defaults to the Finder menu. On the right hand side of the menu bar there is a display which shows the day of the week and the time of day.

Click on it to display the full date. There are various other icons showing, for example, the strength of your WiFi reception and the Bluetooth status.

The last item on the right hand side looks like a magnifying glass. This is the link to one of OS X’s best features, Spotlight

The next three menu items are fairly self-explanatory.

1. Sleep forces the computer into sleep mode 2. Restart reboots the computer and 3. Shut Down is where you click Mac Action

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how to: OSX — the brilliant search facility.

Click on the magnifying glass icon and type anything you want. Spotlight will find any file, folder or application that contains the text you typed.

Spotlight looks at not only the title but also the contents of the file, metadata or anything related to the text you typed.

We will feature a more detailed look at Spotlight in a future article.

The finder is the key to, as the name suggests, finding any file or folder on your computer. Open a finder window by clicking on the first icon on the left hand side of the dock. – To the left of the Finder window you have a sidebar, which is divided into four sections. The top section, headed Devices, lists all volumes connected to your computer.

These include internal hard drives, external hard drives, flash drives (memory sticks) and, if there is a disc loaded, optical drives. The iDisk icon links you to your Mobile Me account, which we 46

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will discuss in another article.

The next section is labelled Shared and lists all shared computers on your network. If you don’t have a Shared section on your sidebar, it means that no shared computers are connected to your network.

The Places section is where you can put shortcuts to folders on your computer. Select a folder from the main window on the right and drag it into the Places section. If you decide at later stage you don’t want it there, drag it back into the main window and let go of the mouse button. It will disappear into a cloud of smoke.

Don’t panic, it’s only the shortcut that you have vaporised, not the folder itself.

The Search for section makes it easy to find items on your computer. Theses are ’Smart‘ searches.

You will become familiar with Smart items, several Mac applications use Smart items; for example, Smart albums in iPhoto.

A Smart item is a clever tool. You decide on a set of criteria and any item that meets those criteria is moved into

the folder, album etc., without you having to do anything. The great thing is that these are just links to the item, you don’t store multiple copies of the same file.

Some searches have already been created for you. The ones that have a clock next to them relate to the time the item was last opened. For example, all documents or applications opened within the last week. It even includes emails which is a nice feature. The purple folders are smart folders with the criteria you have set.

To create a Smart search, click on the File menu and select New Smart Folder. A new finder window opens so that you can set the criteria.

Probably the easiest way to demonstrate the Smart search feature is to use an example.

I frequently download PDF brochures, user manuals and so on. I sometimes save them on the desktop, sometimes in the Documents folder or, if I’m feeling very organised, a folder related to the product.

The problem is, I can never find them when I want them.

Along the top of the main window you will see Search: and then two tabs, select This Mac to search the entire computer or the user name to search only items related to the particular user. Select Contents

how to: OSX or File name to narrow your search even further. Contents will search within a document, which is really handy. I have chosen to search the entire Mac and I have chosen File since I’m looking for a file type. Click on the + button on the right to add more criteria. Using the drop down, I have chosen Kind, which is the Mac way of saying file type and then I have chosen PDF. To narrow my search further, I clicked the + button again and chose Created Date, then This Month. Click on the Save button to save your search. A pop up appears asking you for a name; make sure there is a tick in the Add to Sidebar checkbox.

You can choose how the items in the main window are displayed; there are four different options. Along the top of the finder window, there is a block of four icons; click on the icon to change the view.

The first icon is the icon view; items in the finder window are displayed as icons. The second option is the list view, which list all of the items including related information such as file size and date modified. The third option is the Column view.

All the items appear in the left hand column. Click on a subfolder and its contents appear in the next column.

The Cover Flow view, the fourth

option, is new in Leopard and is named after a similar feature in iTunes. All files and folders are displayed jukebox style at the top of the window, actually displaying a graphic representation of the file. Cover Flow makes it really easy to find a document because you actually see the document rather than just it’s name. This feature is also an excellent way to find pictures.

Another really cool feature in Leopard is the Quick View

button. It also lives at the top of the Finder window and looks like an eye. Select any file and click on the Quick View button to see the contents of the file. You can actually read a document without having to open its application. Quick View also works with movie clips.

Along the bottom of the Desktop, we have the Dock, which contains shortcuts to

applications, folders, and is also where the trash basket lives.

Application icons are on the left hand side and other items are on the right. If you look closely, you will notice a dotted line separating the two sections.

Adding an application to the dock is quite easy. Open the folder where the application lives, probably the applications folder. Click on the applications icon and hold the mouse button down. Drag the icon to the dock and the other icons

move aside and allow you to drop the icon.

You can add folders and individual files to the dock on the right hand side of the dotted line. Again, using Finder, locate the file or folder you want. Click on the item and hold the mouse button down as you drag the item to the dock.

Two folders have already been placed on the dock for you; your Mac Action

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how to: OSX Documents folder and your Downloads folder. You can add as many folders or files as you like. You might, for example, be writing a book and want to use the same document every day.

Having it on the dock makes it much easier to find and open.

There are 3 different ways that you can choose to display the contents of a folder on the dock. Right click, or [ctrl] click on the folder icon to display the options . Under the heading View contents as, click on the display option that you like best. Fan looks great but only displays a few items before it runs out of space.

You have to click on the item at the top of the list and open a Finder window to see the remaining contents of the folder. Grid opens a semitransparent grid, which displays more items than the fan but also has a finite number of icons it can display.

The bottom right icon is an arrow with a caption underneath telling you how many items are not being displayed. Click on the arrow 48

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and a Finder window opens showing the entire contents of the folder. List is the easiest to use if you have several files and sub folders within the folder.

List displays the entire contents of the folder; you simply use the scroll wheel of the mouse to move up and down. An added advantage is that you can get to items in sub folders by hovering your mouse over the item. If you can’t decide which option you prefer, select automatic and the choice will be made for you, depending on the number of items in the folder.

There is a problem with adding so much to the dock — the icons shrink.

Those of you averse to eating carrots might begin to find locating the item you want somewhat difficult. You know, of course, that there is a solution. You wouldn’t be a Mac user if there weren’t.

Click on the System Preferences icon on the dock. It’s the one that looks like cogs in a machine.

Click on the preferences for the Dock and you are given a few options. The

first option is to set the size of the dock. Move the slider left to make the Dock smaller or right to make it bigger. There is, however, a physical limitation.

The dock cannot extend past the edge of the screen. If you have too many icons on the dock, the slider will only extend the dock to the edge of the screen, after which it will have no effect.

The Magnification slider is the one you want. Click the checkbox on the left to enable magnification. Move the slider left or right to adjust the amount of magnification.

Once you have done that, move your mouse over the dock and the icon under your mouse is magnified. Not only does it assist the visually impaired, it looks good too. Unused Dock items can be removed by clicking and dragging the item away from the dock. Again, they go up in smoke which is quite fun.

You can, if you prefer, display the dock vertically on either the left or right of the screen. Click the button you prefer under the Position on Screen heading.

If you choose Minimize using: Genie Effect, applications take

on the appearance of a Genie going back into his lamp when you click on the minimize button. There’s no reason for it, it’s just amusing and why not?

Putting a tick in the checkbox next to Animate, opening applications causes the icon on the dock to bounce up and down as the application opens.

The last option to Automatically hide the dock which saves you a bit of screen real estate by hiding the dock. To see it again, move your mouse to the edge of the screen where you have placed the Dock, and it reappears.

We have only scratched the surface in this article and we will continue to delve deeper in future issues.

Don’t forget our questions and answer section. send your queries to questions@ macaction.co.za you never know, you might win something nice -Steave

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Staff Macs – Steve’s Macbook

T

HIS MONTH I HAVE BEEN UPGRADING HARD DRIVES, APPRECIATING THE BENEFITS OF TIME MACHINE AND LINKING MY GPS WITH MY COMPUTER. The old 13 inch Macbook has been working well with just one limitation. The 80 Gig hard drive just isn’t big enough, I decided it was time for an upgrade to 250 gigs. I also decided to stick with a 5400 spec drive, which is the same as the original and I though might ease the pain in terms of compatibility. I’m not saying a faster drive wouldn’t work; I just wanted the process to be as simple as possible.

Armed with a document downloaded from the Internet and the Macbook user manual I began. It looked like a simple procedure from the documentation and it would have been except for one small problem, the L bracket.

“Remove the L bracket” is the instruction, the only problem is, there isn’t a screwdriver in the world that will remove the three screws - we’ll, of course, I’m exaggerating; Apple technicians must have one.

After visiting hardware shops and computer repair shops trying to buy a small enough screwdriver, I was on the verge of giving up. Eventually I found a tiny screwdriver attached to 50

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the top of a novelty pen, which worked. Needless to say, that screwdriver is now safely stored in my computer repair toolkit.

Once the L bracket had been removed, it is simplicity itself.

Pull the tab which draws the old hard drive out and then slide the new one in. Armed with my little screwdriver, putting the L bracket back was no problem and the job was done.

EVENTUALLY I FOUND A TINY SCREWDRIVER ATTACHED TO THE TOP OF A NOVELTY PEN, WHICH WORKED. NEEDLESS TO SAY, THAT SCREWDRIVER IS NOW SAFELY STORED IN MY COMPUTER REPAIR TOOLKIT. It’s when you upgrade the hard drive that you really appreciate just how good Time Machine is. I slid the OS X Leopard DVD into the drive and was offered the option, among others, of a clean install or “Restore from Time Machine”. I chose to restore from Time Machine and by the time it had finished, it was as if I had never switched the computer off. All my email settings, browser favourites, desktop wallpaper and everything else were all there

just as they had been on the old hard drive.

Another advantage is that you don’t have to spend hours updating the operating system and programs. If you’re not using Time Machine, get an external drive and start using it today.

The next big thing this month was finally installing Garmin Road Trip, which is basically Mapsource for Mac. Garmin have been promising Mac software for the last two years and have been very slow at getting it done. It probably would have worked with the Beta which was called Bobcat had I known the trick about not compressing the maps.

No matter, I’ve got it now and it’s working. I don’t have to open Parallels to look at the map anymore, hooray. Now I’m scratching my head deciding if Parallels is really necessary anymore. I can pretty much do whatever I need to, or want to do using native Mac applications.

-Steave

Q&A

how to: Q&A WE WOULD LIKE YOU, OUR READERS, TO SEND IN YOUR QUESTIONS THAT YOU WOULD LIKE OUR EXPERTS TO ANSWER. PLEASE SEND YOUR QUERIES TO QUESTIONS@MACACTION. CO.ZA. WE CAN’T GUARANTEE THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO FEATURE ALL QUESTIONS IN THE MAGAZINE BUT WE?LL DO OUR BEST. OBVIOUSLY, AS THIS IS OUR FIRST ISSUE, WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY QUESTIONS SENT IN SO I HAVE USED A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS THAT MAC USERS HAVE ASKED ME RECENTLY.

Q

I have spent hours loading all of my photos into iPhoto. It works brilliantly for cataloguing and keeping my pictures in some sort of order.

The problem I have is that all the pictures are displayed so that they fill the screen. I would like to see my pictures at their original size before I print them to make sure they are sharp.

Q

I find it easier to have 2 finder windows open when I copy files from one

folder to another. If for example I?m

A

It would be nice if there was a 100% view button in iPhoto but for the moment, there isn’t. All is not lost though; there is a way to zoom in an out. Click on the image you want to view, it will be highlighted with a

yellow border and then Click on the ‘Edit’ icon. Alternatively, you can use the icon that looks like two diagonal arrows at the bottom of the screen to open the picture in full screen view. Once you are in edit mode or full screen view, there is a slider along the bottom of the screen. Slide the slider to the right to zoom in and to the left to zoom out. If you want to see the image at exactly full size, use the keyboard shortcut [?]+[1]. If you would like to see it double the original size, use [?]+[2].

A

You are quite right, there is an easier way. Once you have opened your finder window, use the keyboard shortcut, [Command]+[N] to open a second finder window. Even easier than that though is copy the files to

your memory stick using just 1 finder window. The memory stick will appear on

copying files to a memory stick, I

the left of the finder under the heading “Devices”. Drag the files you want to copy

open a finder window then go back

over the memory stick icon and drop them there. If you want to drop them into

to the desktop and double click the

a sub folder on the memory stick, drag the files and hold them over the memory

memory stick icon to open another

stick. The finder will then display the memory stick in the main window. Again,

finder window. There must be an

hold the mouse over the folder and it will open, then you can drop your files there.

Q

the disc was faulty and couldn’t be

A

formatted. The disc is now stuck in

That will force the drive to eject and you can get your disc out. In exceptional

the drive. It doesn’t appear in my

circumstances, when the disk still stubbornly refuses to eject, restart your

device list so I can’t drag it to the

Mac in Open Firmware mode by holding down the [??]+[?]+[O]+[F] keys while

trash. Pushing the [Command] key

the computer is booting. At the command prompt, type “Eject cd” and press

has absolutely no effect.

[Command Enter]. Should that not work, it almost certainly means that the disc

I am using a 20-inch iMac. I tried to format a rewritable CD but it seems

It is a problem; a disc that hasn’t been correctly formatted cannot mount and therefore cannot be ejected in the normal way. There is however a way to force the drive to eject regardless of what disc is inside. Restart

your computer and hold down the left mouse button during the boot process.

is warped so that the drive is unable to eject. A trip to a specialist repair centre would be the best course of action.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT IMAC AND MACBOOK DRIVES DO NOT ACCEPT MINI CDS OR DVDS. ONCE THEY ARE IN, IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT TO GET THEM OUT AGAIN. Mac Action

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how to: itune

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ONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN OUR MUSIC COLLECTION WAS A PILE OF SCRATCHED VINYL RECORDS. EVEN CDS ARE BECOMING OLD HAT AS MORE AND MORE PEOPLE DOWNLOAD MUSIC FROM THE INTERNET. Digital music is so much more convenient and of course more portable, which makes the case for ripping all those CDs that you do have in your collection.

Those of you that have seen your 40th birthday come and go will remember trying to carry a pile of LPs to a party.

And then once you got there, 52

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some of them got scratched, a couple went missing and there was always one that someone had used as a beer mat or worse still, an ashtray. Nowadays, you slip an iPod into your pocket with your entire music collection stored inside.

What you need, in this modern digital age, is to store all your music on your computer and you don’t get a better computer for the task than a Mac. iTunes is a brilliant application for not only storing but organizing your music as well. As with any computing task, garbage in equals garbage out, so take some time to

organize your collection and you will be rewarded with a comprehensive, fully indexed music collection.

The first step to creating a comprehensive music collection on your Mac is to create digital files from the CDs that you already own. Whilst time consuming, this is a very simple operation. Insert a CD

how to: itune into the optical drive slot of your Mac. Assuming you are connected to the Internet at the time, the CD will be identified and all the track names, artist details and so on will be downloaded. This makes life easier for you as you don’t have to spend time entering all this information. A window will ask you if you would like to import the album. If you are happy that all of the information is correct and you want to import the entire album, click the Yes button. Click the No button if you would like to edit any of the information or you only want to import selected tracks. You can also click the no button if you would like to listen to a CD directly from the optical drive without importing it. Deselect the tracks you don’t want by clicking the checkbox to the left of the song and then click the import CD button at the bottom right of the screen.

To select multiple tracks, hold the [Apple] key while you select tracks or click the first track, hold the Shift key and select the last track. To edit the song information, right click or [ctrl] click the

track or tracks you would like to edit. Select Get Info and a popup window will open; select the Info tab at the top of the window. You can Change any information you like for example you may disagree with the genre and decide to change it. The information downloaded from the Internet is supplied by independent databases so you may find spelling mistakes on track titles and album titles.

By default iTunes will “rip” your CDs using AAC encoding which is excellent quality and creates small files. You may prefer to have your music encoded in the more popular MP3 format so that you can share music with friends or you might want to change the quality of the AAC encoding. From the iTunes menu, select Preferences and then click on the General icon on the left hand side at the top. Click on the Import

Settings button and then click the Import Using: drop down menu and select the type of encoding you would like. Apple Lossless creates huge files but is the best quality. The Settings: drop down menu is where you decide what bit rate you would like. Bit rate is techno speak for quality, the more bits, the better the quality.

You might have a collection of MP3 files either on a CD or on your hard drive. To import these files select add to library from the File menu. Navigate to the folder or volume where your files are stored, select the songs you want and click on the Open button. A copy of the music file is copied to your music folder. If you prefer that the file is not copied to your music folder, select preferences from the iTunes Menu. Click on the advanced tab and then click the General button. Click on the checkbox to deselect the “Copy files to the iTunes music folder” option. You can drag files from a finder window to the iTunes window as an easier way of importing songs.

Once all your songs have been imported, you might have to [ctrl] click on songs or groups of songs and select Get Info as discussed earlier in order to correct any information.

MP3s are often encoded with incorrect Album, Artist Mac Action

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how to: itune and Genre information. This information is stored as Metadata and is attached to the song file. It is a time consuming job to correct all of the metadata but well worth the effort. As I mentioned earlier, garbage in…..

With all the correct information, your iTunes library will be a lot better organized and searching for music will be much easier.

If you find that your library displays two of the same album, each with half the songs, this is because the Metadata is incorrect. You might find for example that the album name is spelt differently in each case.

Another problem when importing MP3 files is that quite often the track number information is missing. This is the number of the track on the original CD. When the track number is missing, the tracks will be stored in alphabetical order. Not too much of a problem if you just want to find individual songs. When you want to listen to an entire album though, you want the tracks to played in the same order that they were on the CD. I find the best place to find the correct running order is Amazon.com. Search the site for the album you want and they list all the tracks on the album in order. Again, select Get Info and you will see a filed for track 54

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number. If there are 12 tracks, enter track 1 of 12. The Disc Number field is used for double albums and boxed sets. The Genre fields is a drop down list, if the particular Genre you want isn’t listed, you can type it in and it will be stored in the list.

There is a comments field where you can add any information you like. You could for example enter “reminds me of Gary Moore” or “this is an excellent album”.

On the menu bar there are 3 square icons with the word “view” underneath. No prizes for guessing that these icons change the view of the iTunes window. Clicking the left icon will display a list of all your songs. Clicking the middle icon will display a list of your songs grouped into albums with album art to the left of the song list. Album art is the cover picture that appeared on the CD or vinyl record. The right hand icon displays a list of your songs with a Juke Box style display of the album cover art above the song list. This is, out of interest, my favorite view.

You will notice, at first, that there is an empty space where

the album art should be. iTunes automatically inserts the album art when you open an account at the iTunes Music Store.

Unfortunately due to, I’m told, South African copyright laws, we South Africans can’t have an account. All is not lost; there are other ways to get hold of the album art.

My favorite is the album art dashboard widget, which is a free download. There are times that the album art widget fails to find the cover picture.

A search in Google is the next option. Save the picture to your desktop, [ctrl] click any song from the album and select “Get Info”. Click the Artwork button and then click the “add” button.

Find the artwork file that you saved and then click the open button. Alternatively, you can drag the image file into the empty space in the pop up window. Once the Album art is displayed, you can safely delete the downloaded file.

As with all Apple applications, the search function is very powerful and will search using all metadata as well as title and artist information. You can for example search for a songwriter or comments that you have added. Had you added comments as described earlier, you could search for excellent and the search will find any and all songs with excellent in the

how to: itune comments field. You could also type Gary Moore in the search box and see a list of all Gary Moore songs as well as the ones that remind you of Gary Moore.

To the left of the iTunes window there are playlists, which you can add to. Click the + sign at the bottom of the screen and a new playlist will be created, which you can name, I have called mine “My favorite tracks”. Once you have created a playlist, drag songs from the iTunes main library and drop them into your playlist. Songs stay in the main iTunes library; it’s simply an easier way to find your favorite songs.

Albums contain links to the song only so you are not saving multiple copies of the same track.

Smart Playlists are playlists that songs are added to automatically. Select New Smart Playlist from the file menu. Lead by example is my motto so here is an example of a Smart Playlist. Let us suppose that we are having an 80’s party and we need some music.

We want track of 4 minutes or less because people won’t dance to 12 minute long prog rock songs. We also want to exclude any tracks by Chris Rea because all the music he produced in the 80’s is just too depressing.

Select New Smart Playlist from the File menu and a pop up will appear, which is where we set the criteria for the playlist.

Click on the first drop down and select Year from the bottom of the list. Select is in the range from the next drop down list and then type 1980 in the first box and then 1989 in the second box.

Click on the + button to add another element to the criteria. Select Time from the first drop down and is less than from the second.

Type in 4:01into the text box so that we include all songs that are exactly 4 minutes and again, click on the + button. To

exclude Chris Rea, select Artist from the first drop down, does not contain from the second and then type Chris Rea in the text box.

Make sure there is a tick in the Live updating check box and then any songs you add in the future that meet the criteria will automatically be added to the playlist. The Smart playlist will appear under the playlist heading at the bottom of the sidebar. It will be ready for you to change the name to something meaningful. Apple have created a few Smart Playlists to get you started. All the playlists and smart playlists that you create are available on your Apple TV should you have one and of course on your iPod. The beauty of the Mac is the way everything works together.

-Steve

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macs in action: building the future

THE AFRICAN COMMONS PROJECT AND APPLE

T

HE AFRICAN COMMONS PROJECT IS AN NGO WHICH FOR THREE YEARS SO FAR HAS WORKED TO “MOBILISE COMMUNITIES THROUGH ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DIRECT BENEFIT OF THE COMMUNITIES”.

At least, that’s according to director Kerryn McKay (right), and no we didn’t exactly understand what that mouthful actually meant at first either.

Excuse me?

Sure we understood the words themselves and their structure in the sentence but what was it all about, really? Well the reality of the matter is that it’s not that easy to pin down exactly what this organisation focuses on. The generalised description in McKay’s response really is about as complete a description of their operations as can be given, and the body works on massively varied projects all generally centred on this same theme. Empowering local communities using modern technology while many governments seem more intent

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on stifling this same tech.

An illustration on one of their current projects is in order, and certainly made things somewhat clearer for me. The Project is currently working on building a comprehensive platform of digitised content highlighting local customs, cultures, and history, dubbed iHeritage, as part of a larger Local Context Global Commons project set in motion by the Ford Foundation.

Setting up iHeritage is a substantial first step, and African Commons is in the process of investigating the challenges of copyright

digitisation and access in our SA context, training heritage organisations in communitybuilding skills, and even hosting seminars aimed at bringing the custodians of these organisations closer through idea sharing.

Queens of content With so much of their work involving the creation of digital content and the general sphere of the arts, the six staff members of this visionary NGO have standardised on Apple equipment in the office despite no formal policy in place insisting on Apple as a sole technology provider. This is what piqued our interest in the organisation, and what we went

mac in action: building the future

to discuss in more detail with McKay. “Some of us were previous Apple users already familiar with the operating system, which we found to be logical, streamlined, and not at all clunky. The brand is also considered to be a standard in many of the open, collaborative communities we worked in so it made sense to go this way, although we’ve never actually instituted an Apple-only policy.

Still it’s the only computer we use, and of course the appreciation goes deeper in that almost every member of our staff listens to their music on the de facto iPod.” She continues; “Between us we run an old G4, Powerbook G4, a pair of Macbooks and one Macbook Pro. And we see the value of these machines every day, in their daily use. Very little goes wrong with our Macs even the older machines are still largely hassle-free, and in terms of functionality and therefore productivity we find that the slick environment is a clear, key factor.”

Support and productivity And this despite something of a rocky beginning for the Mac brand since the organisation opened its doors, with Mckay refusing to name the business but explaining that originally African Commons had used a support service which wasn’t particularly Apple-literate.

“Now we’ve moved over to an authorised Apple reseller, The Big Orchard, and run with very few problems,” she confirms.

“In terms of our on the job activities, we’ve found huge benefits to our Apple standardisation on that front as well, and have noticed that informal computer training sessions for, for instance, the keepers of SA heritage we’re currently speaking to for iHeritage, can actually get to grips quite quickly with the optimised and user-friendly Apple environment,” concludes Mckay.

Check back next month This first Mac user case study beautifully illustrates why people and organisations committed to making a difference are increasingly choosing to pursue their lofty

goals from the platform of an Apple. When you’re wholly focussed on your objectives, a computing environment which is reliable, intuitive, and inherently superb at delivering basic and advanced levels of functionality to both novices and power users alike.

We’ll be talking to success stories like the African Commons Project every month from now on to find out how each organisation from large publishing specialists to small one-man shows derive value from their Apple-supplied technology environment.

There’s no doubt that, at the moment, the power of the brand and it’s unique approach to technology as an enabler is gaining even more traction than ever before. More and more organisations are added daily to the customer list.

Keep fighting your good fights, African Commons Project, and may your computing environment continue to be blessed with unshakeable reliability and rich, intuitive functionality!

-Russell Bennett

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gaming

E

VE ONLINE IS NOT A NEW GAME. IT’S PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MMORPG (MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE-PLAYING GAMES) OF ALL TIME IN FACT, AND HAS BEEN LIVE FOR A GOOD SIX YEARS NOW. YES, YOU’LL HAVE MORE READILY HEARD OF WORLD OF WARCRAFT AS THE DEFINITIVE MMORPG, BUT EVE FRANKLY PLAYS IN A WHOLE OTHER LEAGUE. A LEAGUE IT LARGELY HAS TO ITSELF, IN FACT. One universe You see, Eve offers just a single, global server. A single universe.

No shards here and standalone, isolated servers with paltry player limits. Eve’s main server, called Tranquility, is the only server that Eve players log onto. All at once. In fact during a recent Alliance Tournament event, Tranquility broke it’s older record of concurrent users connected at any one moment, taking the figure to an incredible 51 700 players.

And these pilots are a mix of PC, Mac, and Linux users with clients available for all three platforms.

Eve’s second defining feature is its absolute nature. It’s a demanding, challenging game, and small slips can mean the loss of a vast fortune of personal resources.

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Resources which can only be replenished through time and some dedication to your chosen in-game industry. So when you choose to go into PvP (Player versus Player) dominated low-sec space to have an engagement, the adrenaline fuelling the fight is real. Although it’s only virtual money, it’s your virtual money that you’ve cleverly accumulated, and if your 120M ISK battleship goes boom with 100M ISK worth of T2 fittings on board, you feel that circa 150M loss in your own wallet (ship insurance does mitigate the blow somewhat). So you do not want to lose, at any cost.

Final frontier But on the positive side, the Eve universe is just dripping with options. The playing styles you can adopt, from combat-

avoiding commodity trader, ship or module builder, through to purely combat-oriented player pirate, are all richly faceted and in their own ways intriguing. Your skills tree is technically limitless, with each new and comparably regular patch adding new skills for employing new ships, modules, and weapons that need to be trained up.

The skill training system is a treat. Basically, depending on your basic character attributes (which can be enhanced through further education or costly, destructible implants) each of the five levels you’ve reached in every one of the hundreds of skills you’ll train will take a certain time, in real time, to complete once you initiate the training of it.

Then, say it’s a seven-day skill

gaming launch your ship out of that station into the gorgeous Eve universe, often filled with over 50K other pod pilots these days to interact with on whatsoever level you might choose, and you get this impression of sheer immensity. CONCORD-protect “high-sec” space alone consists of hundreds of systems, with more than twice that circling these comparatively safe zones – the sprawling free for all that is lawless 0.0 space.

you’ve set, you can not log on for seven days, and when you return your new skills will be ready for you to use, at which point you start up the next one you need.

What’s bewildering at first though is exactly what to train up on. It all depends on what you want to be in the game.

Industrious miner, effective item creator, player versus player combat specialist, or mega-corp manager.

Don’t worry too much about it at first though, and just

Hustle and bustle And these safer systems are bursting with activity, as the hordes of Eve pilots bustle around trading items, running AI-manned missions, fighting corporation and faction wars and generally harvesting the wide variety of resources on offer. You can join one of the hundreds of player-controlled or AI-controlled corps active in the four basic factionallyorganised areas or head solo out to the vast, often quiet expanses of 0.0 for potentially more risk and assuredly more pulse-pounding action. Just be warned. You will die at first. And then again, and several dozen more times thereafter. Although the latest Apocrypha build of the game does give smaller ships a largely free ride, you will encounter huge fleets which will blow you out of the void just for fun.

Of course there’s voice capability built-in so the moment you’re invited to a fleet you have the option of joining the fleet voice channel, a must for successful group-based PvP engagements. The overall interface is cluttered and at first confusing, but once you’re used to what’s important and what, well, less so, it becomes more intuitive and with all the data you need presented right there in the centre bottom of the screen.

Like most MMORPGs, this is not a quick game. This is a game that you could play, well, for the rest of your life and not “finish”.

Again, that’s the nature of the genre really, and the frequent updates which CCP provide to their paying user base for free mean that new skills, items, and ships are still being added to keep players old and new from boredom or ever reaching the ultimate level.

The unforgiving nature of conflict in this game is what makes it truly addictive however. It’s a genuine rush of fear and excitement every time you gamble your ship in combat, and this surge will keep you coming back for more while the sheer scope ensures an almost unlimited longevity.

It is the best MMORPG ever made, period.

-Russell Bennett Mac Action

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