Macworld December

10 NEWS

HOT STUFF

A selection of Apple, Mac and iOS news from Macworld.com.au at the beginning of the event, with

improved LTE support, iSight camera and

developers earning over US$13 billion

FaceTime HD camera.

since its launch.

Apple has kept the original iPad mini, and like the iPad 2, lowered the price to

iPAD AIR

$349 16GB Wi-Fi model and $499 for the

Apple has unveiled a new tablet, the iPad

16GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

Air. The new tablet replaces the full-size,

iPad mini with Retina display Wi-Fi

9.7in iPad in the company’s tablet range

models begin at $479 for the 16GB model,

with a new thinner, lighter package.

$598 for the 32GB model, $699 for the

The new tablet is surrounded by a 43 percent smaller bezel and powered by the A7 chip revealed in September in

64GB model and $799 for the 128GB model. iPad mini with Retina display Wi-Fi +

Bountiful October

the iPhone 5s. It features a M7 coprocessor,

Cellular models will be available at $629 for

5MP iSight camera, new FaceTime HD

the 16GB model, $749 for the 32GB model,

camera and dual microphones.

$849 for the 64GB model and $949 for the

Apple shows off new Macs, tablets and software.

the original iPad and offers up to twice as

OS X MAVERICKS

fast CPU and graphic performance when

First shown off at WWDC mid-year,

compared to the fourth-generation iPad.

Apple’s latest Mac operating system OS X

Maintaining the 10-hour battery life of

Mavericks is available as a free download

A

Apple believes the iPad Air is up to 72

pple unveiled a series of updates

the previous version, the iPad Air begins at

across its Mac and iOS range at

$598 for the 16GB, Wi-Fi model.

a media event in San Francisco

128GB model.

times faster in graphics performance than

The 32GB, Wi-Fi model is $699, the

from the Mac App Store.

Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi

on 22 October, revealing a new iPad Air,

64GB model is $799 and the 128GB

took to the stage to show off the new

a Retina display iPad mini, OS X Mavericks

version is $899.

system, and announced the software team

and the new Mac Pro.

The cellular versions start at $749 for

focused on three areas in OS X 10.9: core

the 16GB model, $849 for the 32GB model,

technologies, features and new apps.

the company also squeezed in a

$949 for the 64GB model and $1049 for the

The software chief believes OS X

new MacBook Pro line-up and redesigned

128GB model.

Speaking at the Yerba Buena Centre,

iLife and iWork applications.

Apple CEO Tim Cook opened the event in his traditional manner: beginning with a series of updates on the company’s

Apple has continued the iPad 2 at $449 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and $598 for the 16GB Wi-Fi + 3G model.

Read more on Page 16.

Mavericks will provide up to an hour of extra web browsing on a 13in MacBook Air and up to 1.5 hours of extra video.

OS X Mavericks is also smarter when it comes to integrated graphics, with the system being able to allocate different

recently released iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. Highlighting the significance of

iPAD MINI WITH RETINA DISPLAY

September’s iPhone event, Cook

The biggest issues with the first-generation

confirmed it was “the biggest iPhone

iPad mini according to many users were

the operating system also, with Shared

launch ever” with over nine million iPhones

the lack of Retina display and internal

Links in Safari, enhanced notifications to let

sold in the opening weekend.

hardware. Apple has been listening, with

you respond in the notification, tags in the

the second-generation iPad mini featuring

Finder and big improvements to handling

was iOS 7 and, according to Cook, it was

a 7.9in, 2048 x 1536 pixel display and a

for multiple displays.

the biggest and fastest software upgrade

64-bit A7 chip.

Accompanying the iPhone in September

in history, with 200 million devices running

The spec-bump means the device is up

the mobile operating system in five days.

to four times faster at CPU tasks and up to

The App Store, which has provided

amounts of RAM to the GPU if required.

There are a number of new features for

Read our review of OS X Mavericks on Page 18.

eight times faster at graphics tasks than its

MACBOOK PRO

over 60 billion app downloads, continues

first-generation counterpart. The second-

Apple has updated both the 13in and

to grow in size and scope, Cook said

generation tablet has a 10-hour battery life,

15in MacBook Pros, releasing thinner,

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NEWS

11 DECEMBER 2013 www.macworld.com.au

lighter and cheaper laptops with

The new-generation Mac, which is being

VRAM each, 12GB of memory and 256GB

extended battery life.

assembled in the US, is packed full of

of PCIe-based flash storage.

The $5299 Mac Pro is available with a

The new 15in MacBook Pro features an

high-performance features, including the

Intel ‘Crystalwell’ chip, up to eight hours of

fastest processor ever put in a Mac – the

3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor

battery life, PCIe-based Flash, 802.11ac

next-generation Xeon E5.

with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz,

Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt 2 starting at $2499.

Inside the Mac Pro is the fastest ECC

dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB

memory ever in a Mac, dual workstation

of VRAM each, 16GB of memory and

available with a 2.0 GHz quad-core Intel

graphics, AMD FirePro graphics, up to

256GB of PCIe-based flash storage.

Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost

128GB of VRAM, over half a terabyte of

speeds up to 3.2 GHz, 8GB of memory,

bandwidth and up to seven teraflops of

iLIFE AND iWORK

256GB of flash storage and Intel Iris

computing power in a package an eighth

Moving away from hardware, Apple

Pro graphics.

the size of the previous version.

announced free versions of iLife and iWork

The $2499, 15in MacBook Pro is

A $3199 version features a 2.3 GHz

Apple was also cut the number of fans

for both Mac and iOS devices.

quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with

in the previous Mac Pro down from eight

Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.5 GHz,

to one in the new edition, making the

iPhoto, iMovie and Garage Band for iOS 7

16GB of memory, 512GB of flash storage,

powerhouse computer as quiet as a Mac

and OS X Mavericks.

and Intel Iris Pro and NVIDIA GeForce GT

mini.

750M graphics.

The Mac Pro has a number of

The company revealed new editions of

iPhoto has received a speed bump thanks to 64-bit performance, a new, clean

Thunderbolt 2, 20GB/s ports, is compatible

look in iOS and Photo Books has moved

slightly longer battery life of up to nine

with three 4K displays and utilises PCI-e

from the Mac to the iPad as well.

hours and also 802.11ac Wi-Fi and a

based Flash that is 10 times faster than

The new version of iMovie has a number

Thunderbolt 2 port.

a hard drive. The Mac Pro is 70 percent

of new features also. Apple has completely

more power efficient than the previous

redesigned the software with iOS 7 in

generation and begins at $3999 in Australia.

mind. According to Apple, it is now easier

The 13in MacBook Pro includes a

The $1599, 13in MacBook Pro is available with a 2.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds

This model is available with a 3.7 GHz

up to 2.9 GHz, 4GB of memory, 128GB of

quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with

flash storage and Intel Iris graphics.

Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual

A 2.4 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5

AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of

to browse and share your videos with family and friends.

Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services, Eddy Cue

processor with Turbo Boost speeds up

announced a new feature at the October

to 2.9 GHz, 8GB of memory, 256GB of

event called iMovie Theater. The feature

flash storage and Intel Iris graphics starts

puts all your movies, trailers and shared

at $1849 and top-of-the-line version

clips in one location. When you create a

features a 2.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5

movie on your iPhone, it’s available across

processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to

all your devices via iCloud.

3.1 GHz, 8GB of memory, 512GB of flash

Garage Band has got a new look in

storage, and Intel Iris graphics starts at

iOS 7 also, moving from eight tracks to 16

$2199.

tracks for 32-bit devices or 32 tracks for

Read our MacBook Pro reviews on Pages 26 and 27.

64-bit devices.

In the iWork range, Apple has redesigned Pages, Numbers and

MAC PRO

Keynote for iOS 7 and OS X, with full

Apple’s top-of-the-line Mac, the Mac Pro,

file compatibility across all devices or

will ship this month according to Apple’s

platforms and multi-user collaboration via

marketing chief Phil Schiller.

iWork for iCloud. C

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16

REVIEWS

Apple iPad Air The best tablet gets better. opening the door for new apps that can bring power traditionally reserved for ‘real computers’ to the tablet.

A FAMILIAR LOOK

I

t’s right there in the name: the most important trait of the iPad Air is that it weighs only 454g. For a company that obsesses over making devices thinner and lighter, it must have been torture for Apple to spend nearly three years making a series of iPads that were better than their predecessors, but not smaller. Now it has.

Nearly every aspect of the iPad Air is thinner and lighter than the previous model (the fourth-generation iPad).

That includes the battery, which is smaller – and less capacious – than before. Battery life, on the other hand, is pretty much the same, thanks to the improved power efficiency of the iPad Air’s A7 processor.

At the same time that the iPad got thinner and lighter, it also got more powerful. That A7 processor allows the iPad Air to run roughly twice as fast as the previous-generation iPad,

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It’s fair to say that the iPad Air takes its design cues from the iPad mini, which was introduced a year ago. The bezel around the new iPad’s screen has been reduced in height and (more dramatically) in width.

Like the mini, the Air comes in two colour choices: a white front with a silver back, or a black front with a dark grey back. Also like the mini, software makes sure that stray thumb touches on the display next to the narrow bezel are ignored.

We’ve never have a problem with holding the iPad mini by the narrow bezel and never noticed any trouble on the iPad Air either.

The iPad’s display itself is unchanged from those of the previous two models. It’s a 2048 x 1536-pixel display, with a density of 264 pixels per inch. That’s what Apple calls a Retina display, with resolution so high that most people can’t perceive the individual dots that make up the image.

The iPad Air also features the same 4:3 aspect ratio used by all iPad models (and old-fashioned TV sets), giving it a less extreme rectangular shape than many competing tablets, which tend to use the widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio.

The Air’s got the usual collection of ports: a headphone jack, Apple’s Lightning connector port and (on

cellular models only) a SIM slot. There are now two microphones on the device, rather than one, which Apple says improves audio when you’re shooting videos or video-chatting via FaceTime.

The rear-facing camera remains a five-megapixel model that won’t win any awards, but will do in a pinch, and the front-facing camera has been slightly upgraded, with a backsideilluminated sensor that should improve image quality in low-light FaceTime sessions.

At the bottom of the iPad Air, on either side of the Lightning connector, are stereo speakers. We found that they produced sound of roughly the same volume as the previous-model iPad, but it seemed fuller to our ears.

The two speakers are placed so close together that it’s difficult to really notice much stereo effect from them.

TWO HANDS ARE BETTER THAN ONE A year ago, we stopped using the full-size iPad and switched to the iPad mini, entirely because of its small size and light weight.

The iPad Air, with its reduced size and weight, changes the variables quite a bit. But in the end, we don’t foresee a mass exodus of iPad mini users switching to the iPad Air. Not only does the iPad mini with Retina display offer a substantial upgrade in terms of that smaller model’s display and internals, but it’ll still beat the iPad Air as a onehanded device.

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REVIEWS

17 DECEMBER 2013 www.macworld.com.au

True to its name.

The iPad Air is 28 percent lighter than its predecessor, weighing less than 500g.

If you want an iPad you can hold in one hand while you read for hours, the iPad Air isn’t for you. We could hold ours in one hand for a while – especially in portrait orientation, which really benefits from the device’s decreased width – but it was never as comfortable as reading on an iPad mini.

Though it’s a much more comfortable device to use than the previous full-size iPads, it’s probably still best when being held in two hands, propped up by another part of your body, or lying flat on your lap.

The decreased width of the iPad Air also makes it easier to thumb type in portrait orientation than it was in previous models. We could type with our thumbs on the normal iPad software keyboard without any ungainly stretching, and with a decent amount of speed.

Still, for top speed we prefer to put the iPad Air on our lap and use the larger software keyboard that’s available in landscape orientation.

The iPad Air’s screen is large and gorgeous, as you’d expect. We read a lot of comic books on the iPad, and the iPad Air’s screen shows them in all their glory, while on the iPad mini they all feel just a bit too small.

Scanning an issue of Hawkeye in the Comixology app showed off numerous artwork details, and the comic’s colours popped.

39751_16-19_ipad air.indd 017

Essentially, in a year Apple has almost doubled the speed of both the iPad and the iPhone. Not bad.

FASTEST iPAD EVER? OF COURSE

Slimming.

Apple’s fifthgeneration continues the trend towards thinner with a width of 7.5 millimetres.

The iPad Air is powered by the A7 processor, the same chip used in the new iPhone 5s. It’s a fast, 64-bit processor that does indeed blow previous iPads out of the water.

The Geekbench speed-test app showed the iPad Air to be faster even than the iPhone 5s. (The iPad Air’s A7 runs a little faster than the iPhone’s, owing to its larger battery and possibly its greater ability to dissipate heat.)

And it was almost (but not quite) twice as fast as its predecessor model, the fourth-generation iPad. Essentially, in a year Apple has almost doubled the speed of both the iPad and the iPhone. Not bad.

The iPad Air also aced the two web-browsing tests we tried: the Peacekeeper HTML5 test and the SunSpider JavaScript test. Results were similar to the Geekbench test results – in the vicinity of double the speed of the previous iPad, and slightly faster than the iPhone 5s.

The question is what to do with that kind of power. Benchmarks can tap that power, of course, but what about real-world apps?

We’re finding the iPad Air fast at launching apps and smooth at scrolling, and we spent some time playing graphics-heavy games on the tablet. It handled everything with aplomb.

We still haven’t run any apps that feel like they’re taking true advantage of the processing power of this device, but we’re sure there’s some mad-scientist developer building an outrageously power-hungry app right now, and we’ll see it in the App Store before too long.

We also ran some graphic tests using the GLBench app. On this test, iPads are at a disadvantage against iPhones because of the size of the iPad display; an iPad has four times the pixels to manage as the iPhone 5 series.

Still, the iPad Air showed a dramatic improvement (between nine and 11 frames per second) in frame rates over the fourth-gen iPad, even if it lost to the iPhone 5s on three of our four tests.

The iPad Air also includes the M7 coprocessor, which debuted in the iPhone 5s. This chip allows iOS devices to monitor sensor

12/11/13 1:27 PM

34

PRODUCTS

GEAR S GIZMOES GOODI

XMAS GIFT GUIDE Killer Duck Decals Super Hero keyboard skin If you are seriously into superhero comics, then Killer Duck Decals’ US$12 Super Hero Skin for your MacBook keyboard should furnish you with no end of delight, referencing Batman, Thor, the Punisher, Iron Man and dozens of other heroes to create a busy, frenetic and indisputably super keyboard.

Suitable for 13in and 15in MacBook Pros and most MacBook Airs.

US$12 + shipping Killer Duck Decals www.killerduckdecals.com

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STM Studio for iPad Air Introducing the studio - magnetic folding and protective iPad case. The patent pending, magnetic closure and folding system allows for a super-easy and convenient way to carry and protect your iPad. Fold the cover and feel the satisfying snap when the magnets auto-locate the perfect viewing and typing positions. Secure yet simple to use. Available in black, red, lime and purple. $59.95 / STM / Stmbags.com.au

Divoom Bluetune Bean

Cygnett WORKMATE UTILITY for iPhone 5/5s

Portable and vibrant in appearance, the Divoom Bluetune Bean features a Bluetooth speaker and speakerphone that children can clip to a bag or an item of clothing. Available in six colours, the Bluetune Bean has a built-in rechargeable battery with a six-hour playback time, comes with a metal carabineer and weighs 107g.

Melbourne-based case maker Cygnett has unveiled a new protective case for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. The WORKMATE UTILITY, which features a quadmaterial system for 360-degree protection and is available in three colours, comes in two pieces that snap together to cover an iPhone and offers button overlays and dust and weather resistant ports. Watch the case in action at au.cygnett.com/project_utility.

$49.95 Anyware www.anyware.com.au

$39.95 Cygnett au.cygnett.com

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PRODUCTS

35 DECEMBER 2013 www.macworld.com.au

Western Digital My Passport Ultra

Soundmatters foxL DASH7

Bowers & Wilkins P7 headphones

Western Digital’s My Passport Ultra features USB 3.0, 500GB or 1TB of storage, password and hardware encryption security and integrated Dropbox connectivity. The portable hard drives are available in four colour options – black, blue, red and grey – and offer USB 2.0 backward compatibility.

From the people who brought us the small but amazing foxL speakers comes this flat (1.8cm), light (201g) Bluetooth speaker that can sit against an iPad without blocking your view but delivers audiophile-quality omnidirectional sound. A mic allows for its use as a speakerphone. Available in Vibrant Red, Arctic White, Midnight Black and Steel Silver.

English audio company Bowers & Wilkins has launched its first over-ear headphones, the P7. The black headphones feature noise-isolating, dual cavity ear cushions, brushed aluminium, soft leather, in-line remote and microphone and two 40mm drivers. The headphones weigh 290g and can be folded to slide into the accompanying case.

$99 (500GB); $139 (1TB) Western Digital www.wdc.com

$259 Sound & Image www.foxL.com.au

$449.95 Bowers & Wilkins www.bowers-wilkins.net

Bang & Olufsen BeoLab 14 Bang & Olufsen’s BeoLab 14 is a minimalist surround sound system from the Danish high-end audio company.

Compatible with all TVs, the BeoLab 14 system consists of four satellite speakers with 2.5in treble/midrange drivers and a subwoofer with an 8in bass driver. The system is available in six colour choices from blue to red, and the speakers can be wall mounted. $3995 Bang & Olufsen www.bang-olufsen.com

Just Mobile AluCup The AluCup from European designer Just Mobile is a multipurpose stand for an iPhone, iPod or iPad mini. The desktop stand is a combination of high-grade aluminium and soft rubber and features four, 90-degree slots for a cable to charge the device. The AluCup is available in four colours – black, red, blue and yellow. $29.95 + shipping / Just Mobile / www.just-mobile.com

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