macworld au 2009 05

aa tiers ToS ULL LAB TEST: Waewar ld f Since we started in 1985, Australian Macworld has been helping new Mac users get to grips with their computer systems, as well as teaching more experienced users tricks they didn’t know, and generally helping people make the absolute best of their investment in the Mac. Now covering areas as diverse as photography, | movie-making and digital music (not to mention mobile phones), AMW has grown and matured with \ the market we serve. More than ever the Mac is a part of people's lives, and the magazine is all about ——— helping people get the most out of their Mac. IT’S YOUR MAC. IT’S YOUR WORLD. www.macworld.com.au >) 29729 2 coment Fr ore il one 205 X 10.6 previewed at WWDC jew Go Window Help ‘Australian Macworld verlg.com.au/ Joo! _News (740) istock Apple (108) Apple images cheh press weather celeb New FileMaker’ Pro 10 Macworld News IPhone Central Reviews HelpTips ‘Blogs Forums EEN \— _ browsing Aople's App Store in search of new ys > applications for your iPhone or iPod Touch, you a Lar | ~ BSR | find an interesting-sounding program and start Tees ROS easing ts ser reviews. May are oneruteringly me Upbeat, their wording eerily similar rowsing & ~N © nape’ Aap store in search of new appieations for your iPhone or iPod Touch, you find an Interesting-sounding program and start eading its user reviews. Many are overwhelmingly upbeat theie wording eerily similar. Are the reviews fake? Latest Reviews : ‘Anacking tool gets ‘sxeeemoninenssi Mac Gems: Safari and “Two wellknown Mae widely uses hacking = na 8.1, espectiveh) rn Review: Google Earth 5 if youve ever wanted tobe BE Tecate erie comeion mummy, 2 rte ten aes ie Giga on Thursday announces Asie seme 0 Be Nappy wth Most dramatic new version in a decade oD rm ‘And many more. EventsiGroups Podcasts Magazine Competitions Eizo Eizo monitors ~~ = 2009 READER SURVEY We want to know what you want, tts your Ma, It's your World. MacBook Air Seriously FAST Machines! Mac Pro Run-Outs! Designwyse has secured the last quantity of previous model Mac Pro’s. They’re fully optioned high end units with 8 Core 3.2 Ghz processors, hi-end graphics cards plus dual Superdrives. Crazy prices & limited stock, so hurry! 8 Core 3.2 Ghz- top of the line previous models. Comparable with new 8 Core 2.66 Ghz at $8,499 ome Mac Pro 3.2 Ghz 8 Core 2GB Ram Mac Pro 3.2 Ghz, 8 Core, 2GB Ram, 500GB HD, Dual Superdrives, Hi-End 8800 Graphics Card. Was $6,790* Discounted AppleCare 3yr Warranty - Add $350 N OW $4,695 inc MacPro 3.2 Ghz, 8 Core, 6GB Ram, 500GB HD, Dual Superdrives, Hi-End 8800 Graphics Card. Was $7,590* Discounted AppleCare 3yr Warranty - Add $350 Now $4,995... Save e G Apple 20” LCD Display Mac Pro 3.2 Ghz 8 Core 6GB, 20” Display MacPro 3.2 Ghz, 8 Core, 6GB Ram, 500GB HD, Dual SDs, Hi-End 8800 Graphics Card, Apple 20” Disp. Was $8,489" Discounted AppleCare 3yr Wty - Add $350 Save Now $5,845 ine $2,644 Runout Offer - Extra Options ine Gt Samsung 24” LCD Display - 3 yr Wty (1920 x 1200)...$599 AppleCare Mac Pro Ext 3yr Wty (normally $398)........$350 Apple 20” Cinema Display (1680 x 1050) 4GB Mac Pro Ram Kit (2 x 2GB Lifetime Wty) ... $300 Apple 30” Cinema Display (2560 x 1600) Creative T40 2.0 - Excellent Speakers (Was $199).......$95 New Mac Pro - Models and Prices inc Gt _yisa.No‘Burchenya? -uatiig- Aaa DMG Mac Pro 4-Core 2.66 Ghz, 3GB Ram, 640GB HD, S/drive, KB & Mouse. .$4,499 | MCard-No Surcharge Diners - Add 2% | Mac Pro 8-Core 2.26 Ghz, 6GB Ram, 640GB HD, S/drive, KB & Mouse. -$5,899 4 Mac Pro 8-Core 2.66 Ghz, 6GB Ram, 640GB HD, S/drive, KB & Mouse.........$8,499 @ Authorised Reseller Mac Pro 8-Core 2.93 Ghz, 6GB Ram, 640GB HD, S/drive, KB & Mouse. 10,599 All prices include Gst. All units include Apple Ext KB, Mouse & OSX. # Based on Apple's previous webstore price. Prices subject to change without notice. E&OE. Available only while stocks last. Payment by Cash, Credit Card, Bank Transfer, or Finance. Full 1 yr Guar- antee can be extended to 3 years On-Site with AppleCare at prices shown above. Low priced delivery Australia Wide. Ph (03) 9554 6000 FreeCall 1800 334 684 Desionwyse 1 Fairborne Way Keysborough VIC sales@designwyse.com.au WWW.designwyse.com Professional Computer Solutions Epson Large Format Printers Epson Stylus Pro 7900 - 24” The Epson Stylus Pro 7900 — the new generation 24-inch large format printer featuring Epson's Chrome HDR Ink 10 Colour Inkset including orange and green Reduced cost through high capacity inks : and dramatically increased print speed $6,950 Inc Gst RRP $7,694 ’ ; : r wae Epson Stylus Pro 9900 - 44” Pro 9900 is Epson's 44-inch large format printer featuring Epson's Chrome HDR Ink 10 Colour Inkset including orange and green. Features reduced cost through high capacity inks and dramatically increased print speed. $1 1 ,950 Inc Gst RRP $13,195 Call our colour team for colour calibration and proofing services EPSON EXCEED YOUR VISION 48" (111mm) wide AO BO 7880 RRP $8,795 Inc Gst 24" (610mm) wide A1+ $7,950 inc Gst RRP $5,054 Inc Gst $4,590 inc Gst All prices include Gst. Prices subject to change without notice. E&OE. Available only while stocks last. Payment by Cash, Credit Card, Bank Transfer, or Finance. Low priced delivery Australia Wide. 17" (432mm) wide A2+ RRP $3294 Inc Gst $2,950 inc Gst 1188 Visa - No Surcharge MCard - No Surcharge ‘Amex - Add 2% Diners - Add 2% 64” (1626mm) wide RRP $19,795 Inc Gst $17,950 inc Gst Ph (03) 9554 6000 FreeCall 1800 334 684 Desionwyse 1 Fairborne Way Keysboroug ‘ signwyse.com.au WwWw.designwyse.com.au Professional Computer Solutions Other World Computing WL 5 ; ; @ Serving the Mac Universe since 1988 Boot And Swap D m: n/voyager Data Access Now Made Simple! 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Other ‘marks may be the trademark or registred trademark property oftheir ners, Prices specications, and avail ae subjec to change without notice Meet Bento. 2 The new personal database from FileMaker that's as easy to use as a Mac. coquseg All together now. Bring together Address Book, iCal, Mail, and more! Now you can organize your important information—from contacts and calendars, to emails and events, to files and photos-all in one place The perfect complement to your spreadsheet. If you're managing lists in Microsoft Excel or iWork Numbers, you can easily bring them into Bento to view your information in beautiful Bento forms, get easy iTunes- style searching, instant sorting, quick summary stats, and much more! Get organized with style. Even if you're brand new to the Mac community or to databases, it's never been easier to get organized thanks to ready-to-use templates and elegant themes designed by Mac artists. Buy Bento at a store near you, or visit www.filemaker.com.au/bentoMac to buy Online - Only AU$79 © 2008 FileMaker, Inc. All rights reserved. FileMaker, the file folder logo, Bento and the Bento logo are registered trademarks of FileMaker, Inc. in the US and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. hava il c 012 Chris Oaten Genius explained 015 AMW readers Got a beef? Spill it here 3-1 026 Danny Gorog Half-baked idea has potential 36-0 036 Keith White Keith's farewell column d6-L 038 Michael Jenkins Just clouding about business o6-¥ 042 Martin Levins Trimming the fat 36 078 Back Page Button down the, er. buttons 36-N 019 The month that was Wacom’s new tablet; iPhone 3.0 intrigues but Jobs irrelevant; Freeview —clearing up some confusion 028 Aussie, Aussie, Aussie We trawl the Oz iTunes Store, so you don't have to. 040 Gadget Central Gizmos? Yeah... we got gizmos. We got gadgets. We got trinkets. Gizmos, gadgets and trinkets, oh my! 044 Macworld writers Apple's new hardware, and what a lovely bunch of hardware it is, too. Benchmarked. If you need to com- pare Apples with Apples, this is the place to look. AMW May 09 09 4 »010 AMW May 38-9 055 GarageBand walkthrough David Holloway reveals how he created the AMW podcast theme. < d-J 063 AMW lab: budget photo printers Epson R290 068 Olympus E-30 Liz ae Canon CP770 atte 069 Canon Powershot G10 HP D5460 Aah ee Pentax K-m Kodak ESP-3 ttthe Rekie Brother MFC-250C 070 Apple 17in MacBook Pro Lis ie Canon Pixma Pro9000 aaee 07) Apple 24in LED Cinema Display tat 072 Three E180 Internet Key ate iLynx hub be 079 Targus Bluetooth Presenter Webi 074 Logitech Squeezebox Boom the Voila tie All your favourites from the Mac family. Online now www.nextbyte.com.au/store rane iMac MacBook \ Mac mini ! The latest range of Mac computers, software, accessories and more. Everything you need to grow your Mac family. RPayPalk The ultimate Apple experience. Visit our Online Store at www.nextbyte.com.au/store or call 1300 361 119 Chris Oaten maintains an unshakable faith in Apple's genius. No matter what anyone says. Even himself View from the edge Genius. On their own terms. he time has come to explain fr that personal statement just to the left of this column - the one about an unshakable faith and genius and all that. I've received a few emails about it, so just in case anyone else was wondering, let me explain what seems to some to be a contradiction in terms. On the one hand, being the editor of such an esteemed magazine as this one means | have to wear a special hat - the one with the press badge wedged into it that demands | should be impartial and report the facts with- out prejudice or bias. This is no easy task when it comes to Apple because the company gives away nothing. Defence contractors could learn something from Apple about keeping secrets. On the other hand, I'm a big fan of Apple. | have always loved the company’s business style and adored its products. Or most of them, anyway. Our tech guy unearthed an early iBook laptop the other day; the one with the unfortunate handle, and I'm not talking about the carrying device, I'm talking about its moniker - the “toilet-seat” laptop. There is no forgiveness left in heav- en or earth for that design, although | recall a lot of people thought it was pretty cool when it was released. Then again, a lot of people thought pet rocks were cool, too. For the most part, however, Apple's products are bundled with oodles of wow factor, so there are times when | throw off the shackles of my editor- ship and embrace my fanboy side with reckless abandon. Today is one of those days. And I'm going to talk about Apple's genius. 012 AMW May 09 Itcame in a small package. Great things often do. | refer to the new iPod shuffle. And yes, this product is genius incarnate. Here's why. The previous models had one major flaw. They had no display and, without a display, you couldn't easily search for a song Apple wanted you to ignore this short- coming and embrace life by shuffling through it. Many did, myself among them. | have two of the second-gen shuffles and love them. But it didn't wash for a lot of potential buyers. So Apple addressed the prob- lem without giving in to demands for a display. Apple put a little man inside who talks to you. Squeeze the controller integrated into the earbud cable and he'll tell you the track that’s playing. Squeeze it a little longer and he'll cycle through the playlists. Pause the music before you squeeze and you can find your way around all the music on your shuffle in short order. | don't think anybody saw this prod- uct coming. Apple just figured it out and made it happen. And not only did Apple release it to everyone's surprise and with a little man inside (| wonder if he knows the guy who turns the fridge light off when you close the door?) they managed to make it half the size of the previous model while boasting double the capacity. Genius. If | can just get a third-party set of earbuds with over-the-ear hooks that prevent the buds from falling out while I'm kicking a heavy bag, I'll have found iPod nirvana. | mention all of this because two things make me feel more confident about Apple releasing a “netbook” product, a device that continues to be ‘on the wishlist for many Mac fans. The first was the shuffle. Genius in a half-shell. The second was a Sony Vaio TT-series sub-notebook, an impressive little machine with all the bells and whistles (even support for Blu-ray!) and a pretty price tag to match. Sony's little wonder serves to remind that in a market saturated by low-cost offerings, there's room for someone to do this kind of product their own way. And if Sony can do it, Apple can, and I'm sure Apple will throw in a dose of genius into the deal as well The podcast returns. The revival of the podcast is overdue and | offer my apologies for that Australian Macworld will be offering a podeast on a fortnightly basis with a new episode now online. It's a shorter format and | trust you'll support us as we continue to hone it to your liking. The podcast is being produced by AMW contributor Keith White, who after many years is retiring his book review page. Please join me in congratulating Keith for a splendid innings at AMW and offering him your support in his new role. 2 www.macworld.com.au Cc O i Authorised fT lO _ GoD eo. Adobe Dealer | vodafone = Premium Reseller eZ compnow.com.au...- —<F NEW Vodafone Unlimited Cap for iPhone 3G FREE* 8GB + Unlimited + 2GB = $114 iPhone 3G talk, txt & data a month for more 24 months Unlimited standard calls, TXT, PXT and voicemail to any Australian network, anytime* *Terms & conditions apply. Approved customers only. Ask instore for full details ( EDUCATION TAX REFUND Up to $750 back!** Up to $375 for each Primary school student. Up to $750 for each 1 Secondary school student. With the Education Tax Refund, your child can learn on an Apple Mac everyday, laptop or desktop, while you enjoy a tax refund. To find out if you are eligible for the Education Tax Refund, visit www.australia.gov.au/educationtaxrefund** NEW SwitchEasy ThumbTack Mini Microphone Tiny recordable mini-mic. Plug and play with your ee Nano 4G or Touch 2G. Instore now $29.95 1x82 SAVE $50! Apple Pro Applications sees. SM MacWorld Special $268 NOW $218 aiing adver instore to quality Aperture 2, Final Cut Express 4, Logic Express 8 only. aa as Computers Now Apple On-Campus Reseller : For Apple student discounts via our On-campus stores!* Chadstone Shopping Centre t: 03 9568 8655 | Sth Melbourne 64 Clarendon Street t: 03 9684 3600 Doncaster Westfield Doncaster t: 03 9684 3688 | South Yarra 409 Chapel Street t: 03 9827 5011 Geelong Westfield Geelong t: 035223 1550 | CrowsNest — 222 Pacific Highway t: 02 9951 7979 Malvern 1420 High Street t: 03 9508 2600 | UNSW* Main Campus, Randwick —_t: 02 9385 2377 Monash* Campus Centre, Clayton _t: 03 9684 3655 | UTS*NEW — 235 Jones Street, Ultimo _t: 02 9951 7940 RMIT* Main Campus, Swanston St t: 03 9654 8111 | All stores : sales@compnow.com.au | Need help with a purchase or just need some info? comp email us on sales@compnow.com.au, or visit us on www.compnow.com.au MOW E compnow.com.au | All prices include GST. Images for illustrative purposes only. Prices & specifications subject to change and stock availability. E&OE. www.compnow.com.au * Education Tax Refund refers to a tax offset that an eligible taxpayer may be entitled to receive for eligible education expenses under the Tax Laws Amendment (Education | ‘Act 2008. An eligible taxpayer may claim the tax offset in their tax return, which may or may not result in a tax refund, The content of this advert does not constitute tax adv for general information only. As tax legislation is complex, you should obtain you own advice about the effects of this Act on your own circumstances before purchasing any product in question. For further detail, visit www.australia.gov.au/educationtaxrefund. For the period 1 July 2008 to 30 June 2009, a taxpayer may be eligible for a tax offset that is the lesser of, one half of their combined education expenses for the relevant tax year and, $750 for each secondary school student or $375 for each eligible primary school student. 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Coffs Computing Streetwise LightForce - Byron Bay 160a Pacific Highway 826 Glenferrie Road Unit 1, 10 Brigatine Street Coffs Harbour NSW 2450 Hawthorn VIC 3122 Byron Bay NSW 2481 Ph. 02 6651 5655 Ph. 03 9818 2100 Ph. 02 6685 8796 Web. www.coffscomputing.com.au Web. www.streetwise.com.au Web. www.lightforce.com.au Ideal store iShop Palaeographics Shop 4, 124 Forest Road 116a Grafton Street 296 Glenhuntly Road Hurstville NSW 2220 Cairns QLD 4870 Elsternwick VIC 3185 Ph. 02 9570 5411 Ph. 07 4051 9966 Ph. 1800 289 622 Web. www.idealstore.com.au Web. www.ishopcairns.com Web. www.buymac.com.au Mac and Me Mac Centre Talk to the Mac Shop 3, 364 Barrenjoey Road Shops 1 & 4, 241 Commonwealth Street 32 Grafton Street Newport Beach NSW 2106 (Cnr of Foveaux Street) Surry Hills NSW 2010 Cairns QLD 4870 Ph. 02 9999 4763 Ph. 02 9281 4444 Ph. 07 4041 6000 Web. www.macandme.com.au/ Web. www.maccentre.com.au 5 Web. www.talktothemac.com.au le stocks last, Purchase either a MacBook model number (MBBB1X/A, MB4G6K/A & MB467X/A], MacBook Pro model number MB470X/A, MB471X/A, MBGO4X/A & MCO26XIA] or MacBook Air model numbers a bonus Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac - Student and Home Edition model number (SZA-00006] valved at $229.00 inc GST, Promotion only ales to notebook partcodes listed above and AppleCare Plan part code JA & MAS'QFE/A), Only available from the stores listed above. Notebooks and AppleCare Plan must be purchased atthe same time tobe eligibe for promation. Limit one per custome only. Nat available in conjunction with any other offer. EO8E. Platinum Pariner Logo, copyright Simms International 2008, ‘Terms & conditions: Vaid on @ platinum partner Parallels Desktop 40 for mac run Window on Yur Mot Siout Reboot co Each month Conexus is giving a prize to the Australian Macworld reader who submits what we deem to be the most interesting letter. This month, the prize is a copy of Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac, which offers its user the most complete Windows-on-Mac solution in the industry. Optimise your Windows-on-Mac experience with a turbo-charged virtualisation engine and the latest Mac hardware support. Use essential tools including a complete protection suite and Parallels’ trademark easy-to-use OS integration and instant data access technologies that make Windows programs run seamlessly, safer and more Mac-like. For those times when a Windows. software solution is unavoidable, Parallels Desktop for Mac is the way to go. Letters should be e-mailed to amweditor@niche.com.au with a subject header of “Command -V”" or by post to Australian Macworld Mailbox, 170 Dorcas Street, South Melbourne, Victoria 3205. Letters of fewer than 200 words are given preference. Comments posted to the forums on www.macworld. com.au are also eligible for the prize. We reserve the right to edit letters and probably will. To be eligible for the prize, you must in- clude your full name and address, including state or territory. I made the mistake of leafing through the Feb 09 AMW with a cup of coffee. | actually shot coffee out my nose when | read the article on page 26 titled "Macs beat all comers on reliability, support” Let me explain. | switched from XP about six months ago and | switched absolutely. | have thrown out one Windows server, eBayed another, and since started my XP laptop twice to retrieve a file or two. Sol am sold on OS X. Completely. | have used Apple's telephone support for software support and it is great. | rarely have to wait, they know what they are taking about, and they speak a version of English that | can easily understand. This is not the problem, The one misgiving | have is the appalling hardware support from Apple. | am an IT consultant in the SAP arena, and | do a lot of house calls. | am the only person know who uses Apple machines for work. My MacBook Pro 17in got dinged on the second day out. Quote to repair: $250 for the case plus two hours at more than $100 each. Iived with the ding, but it makes me wince every time | start the machine. More recently, the machine was dropped on one comer from a small height. The machine stil works but now the case is seriously bent and it has to be replaced because the lid won't shut. I rang the nearest of Apple's cottage industry repair shops and they quoted 14 days to repair due to high workload, during which time they would retain custody of the machine even though it is working fine, Tales from the vault Did | see an invitation to tell you about my first Mac? | remember it well (it is still sitting ona shelf at home). In 1982-83 | was on an RAAF posting to England, which involved post-graduate courses and some research. | used the mainframe computer at the research institute, and also used an Apple Il | was on the lookout for a word processor for personal use, and there were some on the market, but they required that | buy a TV to use as a display. | didn't want that, as because that is the way the system works. My previous machines were from Dell. | bought them with three-year, next business day, onsite suppor, plus three-year accidental damage cover, all for an extra $500 added to a $4500 machine. During the seven years that | used the Dell machines, | never felt the need to have a spare, because it would be fixed with no inconvenience within half a day. With Apple, | have to have a spare machine, and for some software, a spare licence, too. For a non-fatal problem, | am looking at two weeks of machine downtime. ‘And that is why, despite all the benefits that Apple offers, serious business people stick to Windows. | have demonstrated to friends and colleagues the manifold benefits of OS X. They agree that itis much better than Windows. They agree that they would lke to use it themselves. But they buy Dell because for $500 over three years, they get industrial-grade hardware support. And they don't need to buya spare. What I want is a MacBook with Dell support. Apple will never crack the business market without it. Russell Day via email Agreed. Mostly, But especially with the requirement that a working machine be parked in a service bay awaiting a repair when it could be working for its owner while the job queue shortens. Can anyone in the service and repairs business tell us why this isso?—CO | felt it would adversely affect our children’s education. | returned to Australia, not having bought anything. In 1984, at a conference in Perth, there was an Apple booth in the commercial section, displaying a Macintosh. This machine blew away its competition. It had an integrated screen (no need to buy a TV), a whole 128k of RAM (more than twice its rivals), used a 400k hard case floppy drive and a bunch of software including a word processor (Macwrite), and a graphics program your forum, 8 The praeis) § 3s Sveet, Sou Melbourne, Vora >016 AMW (Macpaint). There was also a wonderful printer, the Imagewriter, which could actually print pictures. No other consumer printer at that time could do that Iwas convinced. | returned home from the conference, and bought it, and the printer, for a mere $3600 (in 1984 dollars!) | don't know if many people remember this computer now, but it was so much superior to other computers of the time. ‘The operating system, and an application or two, could fit onto the 400k floppy. My original operating system, | think, was OS 1.5. Itis interesting to see how the genes of this system have passed down to subsequent machines, with much evolution along the way. The Apple at the top left corner of the screen, and some drop-down menus across the top. And, of course, the icon-based file system. Other software came along - Microsoft Multiplan was my first spreadsheet, Mac Draw was a useful program and there was game program called Amazing, which generated 2-D and 3-D mazes, which entertained my children during long car trips from Sydney to Perth and back When in Sydney | was a member of the aptly named SMUG (Sydney Macintosh Users Group) in the mid-1980s. Ihave had a range of Macs: a MacPlus, alllVi, several Mac laptops and two generations of iMacs. | have been happy with all my Macs, and despite my years, | think | keep up with the technology reasonably well (I did my first computing programing course (Algol) at Sydney Uni in 1967) Our five grown-up kids are, of course, all computer savvy with Macs and the other ‘ones, and have gone on to great things in their professional careers I think early decisions, such as avoidance of TV when they were young, have contributed to this. | would like to think that the Mac also helped. Max Hubble via email Yes, I'm a sucker for yams about people and their Mac history. Sosumi. Any readers out there with massive collections of old’ ‘Macs in your shed? Please let me know about it. — CO AppleWorks. It works. Peter Schaper (AMW April 09) raises some interesting points about the now-defunct AppleWorks. With my Intel iMac, iLife was of course bundled but | am generally uninterested in it Peter's point about Macs becoming competitive price-wise due to the “free” applications is a good one, but many of these apps are not for me. My interest is mainly in Office-type apps I haven't used Microsoft Office for years and have not tried iWork, but | do have OpenOffice and NeoOffice, both of which are free, for which | am grateful. | assume they have similar functionality to the aforementioned software. When | said goodbye to my PowerPC G4 eMac and welcomed the gorgeous 24in iMac, | copied AppleWorks over. To my surprise, it worked on the new platform. I'm sure that it lacks some of the features of the free applications | have mentioned, but at about 19MB as opposed to the 300MB- plus of Open and Neo, it will satisfy the needs of many users. Worth a thought. Dick Garner Maryborough,Queensland AUSTRALIAN Macworld May 2009 / Issue No. 135 COMING TO AUSTRALIAN MACWORLD Pro roundtable - Music. Al/W speaks to a panel of professional musicians and audio gurus, answering reader questions gleaned from the forums and providing hints and tips to improve your musical projects. AMW Lab Test: Speakers. The options for getting sound out of your Mac may seem daunting AMW gives you the drum on sound, To advertise. Call Liana Pappas 03 9948 4974. To subscribe. Free-call 1800 804 160. COMING TO DESKTOP The annual “Green” issue. Exploring climate change issues and environmentally- frienaly technology, The major feature will focus on being green through design, in which Desktop finds out what designers are doing to help the environment and delve further into this wonderful concept called “sustainable design’ To advertise. Call Chantelle Ford 03 9948 4984. To subscribe. Free-call 1800 804 160. Publisher Niche Media ‘Associate Publisher Nick Harris nick harris@niche.com au 03 9948 4976 Ezitor Chris Oaten cchvis oaten@niche.com.au Business Development Manager Liana Pappas liana pappas@niche.com au 03 994e 4974 Designer Hannah Ogivie hannah ogivie@niche.comau Production Coordinator Alison Copley alison.copley@niche com.au Prepress Emma Meagher ‘emma,meagher@niche.com.au IT Manager Joe! Robertson Joel robertson@niche.com.au (niche) ‘Australian Macworld is a publication of Niche Media Pty Lid ABN 13 064 613 529 170 Dorcas Street, South Melbourne, Victoria $205 Tel: 03 9948 4900 / Fax: 03 9948 4999 Chairman and Publisher Nicholas Dower Managing Director Paul Lidgerwood Financial Controller Sonia Jurista Studio Design Manager Keely Atkins keely atkins @niche.com.au Subscription Inquiries Free Call: 1800 804 160 subsctiptions@niche.com au CTP/Print Bluestar print - Australia (03 8514 6000 ISSN 1929-9484 T. (02) 8383 1600 T. (03) 9662 9666. F. (02) 9386 9381 F. (03) 9662 9855 www.mymac.com.au. www.mymac.com.au © My Mac Sydney My Mac Melbourne a C 20 Bronte Rd, 172 - 192 Flinders St Bondi Junction, NSW, 2022 Melbourne, VIC, 3000 FEATURED PRODUCTS iMac Mac Pro Mac mini iPod shuffle | From $1,999.00 From $4,499.00 From $1,049.00 4GB Just $129.00 MacBook MacBook Air MacBook Pro From $1,649.00 From $2,899.00 From $3,199.00 iWork 09 iLife 09 Adobe CS4 Microsoft Office From $129.00 From $129.00 Call us for best price From $229.00 Modbook | iPhone 3G The one and only Mac Tablet. | My Mac has partnered with Optus The Axiotron Modbook is the i to provide you with the best iPhone award-winning tablet Mac consumer and computer that enables users ResInessisEE: to draw, sketch and write | Come and talk to our specialists to directly on the screen. | tailor an iPhone plan to best meet your requirements. es « | $3,949.00 inc tax ACO DESKTOPCREATE:2009" Call for entries now open! Now the stakes are even higher! Share in up to $50,000 in cash and prizes Photography, Illustration, Website Design, Design for Print, Packaging Design, Digital Media, Multimedia, Fashion & more! Head to the website now for more information or to enter wWww.createawards.com.au SPONSORS: W FE impact ss Ze. ganyiesin =... Kodak ‘gantm wacom AGIdeas — semi-Permanent PARTNERS: Wacom’s new tablet a stunner update to Wacom’s pro tablet some years behind us, but at last the Intuos 4 pen tablet has made it to market. I t's been a long time coming, with the last major Australian Macworld enjoyed a sneak preview of the Intuos 4 back in February but couldn't reveal details in print until now due to a media embargo. Even back then, using a pre-production model, it was clear that here was a tablet that should have graphic artists on their knees, begging their bosses to find room in their budget for an upgrade. They might even just go out and buy their own. But they shouldn’t need to. They should just make the argument that the Intuos 4 offers measurable productiv- ity improvements. This tablet not only looks great, it has features that speed the creative process. Among these features is the user-defined Touch Ring, which can control up to four different functions in any application. A button located in the centre of the ring toggles the ring between functions such as zoom, scroll, brush size adjustment, canvas rotation and layer selec- tion. An LED located along the perimeter of the Touch Ring indicates the current function. Wacom explained that the design of the Intuos 4 was “inspired by members of Wacom’s professional com- munity” leading to amazing new levels of performance, with the pen capable of capturing the slightest nuance of pen pressure against the tablet, as well as offering 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. The Intuos 4 Grip Pen features Wacom's new propri- etary Tip Sensor technology, offering users near-zero starting pressure for the most natural feeling experience of any digital pen to date. “The lightest touch will activate the pen, emulating the same feel, response and results derived from work- ing with traditional art tools,” said Glenn Tsunekawa, Wacom’s Asia Pacific marketing manager. When AMW tried it, the sensitivity was so acute that the pen almost perfectly replicated the action of an airbrush. Specific workflow and productivity tools include the shortcut and modifier keys with multiple, customis- able and application-specific profiles as well as OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays beside the keys for quick reference. AMW will soon have an Intuos 4 review unit and we look forward to presenting a review in the June edition. Each Intuos 4 pen tablet includes the following bundled software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, Corel Painter Sketch Pad, Autodesk Sketchbook Express, Nik Color Efex Pro filters and Wacom Brushes. The Intuos 4 comes in four sizes - small ($378), medium ($598), large ($798) and extra large ($1328) - to meet different workflow and workspace require- AMW May 09 019 4 d6-N [NEWS] Intrigue high for iPhone, CEO Jobs sidelined US company ChangeWave Research - voted the company most likely to ask you about every little (annoying) detail of your smartphone usage habits - has released the results of its latest consumer survey. ChangeWave talked to 4292 mobile phone owners in March, asking about their reaction to Palm’s announce- ment of its forthcoming Pre smart phone and the features that Apple showed off around the same time for its up- coming iPhone OS 3.0 release. While there was a slight dip in the percentage of con- sumers who said they were planning on buying a smart phone within the next 90 days (compared to a December 2008 survey), the survey pulled the third-highest posi- tive response recorded by the company. Apple’s share of prospective smartphone buyers re- mained steady since the December 2008 survey, register- ing at 30 per cent, trailing Research In Motion’s 37 per cent. That marked a steep decline since the June 2008 (pre-iPhone 3G launch) survey, which had Apple at 56 per cent. However, it seems the announcement of iPhone 3.0 features has helped Apple out, with 20 per cent of those surveyed saying that the iPhone 3.0 features made them more likely to buy an iPhone. That's a pretty significant impact, given that the ma- jority of Apple's iPhone 3.0 presentation focused on features available to developers and that the end-user features demonstrated at Apple's launch event were not necessarily major, flashy improvements - as welcome as cut-and-paste support is. It implies that consumers realise that the strength of the iPhone is as a platform that has robust third-party application support. As the two-year anniversary of the original iPhone's launch approaches, it appears that Apple is continuing to maintain the appeal of its mobile devices, even in the face of increased competition. ChangeWave also threw in a wild card question, asking consumers if, in the event that Steve Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO, whether his departure would have any ef- fect on their purchasing decisions. A considerable majority - 80 per cent - said that it would have no effect whatsoever, while only nine percent said they would be less likely to buy Apple products. The latter number dropped five percent since the ques- tion was asked in September of 2008 (at which point 74 per cent said that Jobs's resignation would have no ef- fect). In January, Jobs announced that he would be taking a six-month leave from the company to deal with health issues. The survey results bode well for Apple and suggest that the public is confident that Tim Cook and the rest of the Apple executive team have been ably steering the company during Jobs's self-enforced leave of absence. & Hotlinks www.webdu.com.au Web experts gather Web Down Under: The Web Technology Conference (webDU 2009) returns for its seventh year with five action-packed tracks focusing on user experience, web development, mobile apps, ColdFusion and the Flash platform. The event is being held at Star City Convention Centre, Sydney, from 21-22 May. The conference offers attendees the opportunity to obtain hands-on technical training, gain new skills, hear news and developments from the web industry, network with peers and industry leaders, and ultimate- ly become more successful in developing and deliver- ing web applications. This year, webDU has a stellar line-up of speakers from Microsoft, Google and Adobe along with the best local talent from Australia. There will also be international experts from Switzerland, India and Germany. If you're involved in web development, or even if you just want to be involved or inspired, come and experi- ence the latest knowledge, tools and techniques. & racworld.com.au Freeview launch gives pause for Mac TV watchers The 1 May launch of Australia’s Freeview service may signal a new era in free-to-air television, but those who prefer to watch their TV on their computers will need to make sure their tuning and EPG preferences are up to date to benefit from the service. Contrary to some media reports, Freeview does not introduce any new broadcast standards, and existing digital TV equipment will continue to function as it did before the launch. However, the March 26 introduction of Ten Network's new One all-sports network - the first completely new channel under the new regime - meant that users of STBs, PVRs and computer-based TV tuners such as Elgato EyeTV and Equinux TubeStick should re-scan their channels and adjust scheduled recordings appro- priately, if they haven’t already done so. More channels will follow as rival networks clarify relevant business cases. SBS and ABC, for example, are both considering adding extra channels focused on chil- dren's programming. Freeview is a marketing strategy to unify the growing number of digital free-to-air TV channels under a sin- gle banner that will eventually include up to 15 distinct channels. Freeview is certifying set-top boxes and personal video recorders as being compliant with its capabilities, which includes the first electronic program guide (EPG) backed by all five FTA networks - a competitor to the popular third-party IceTV EPG. It wasn't clear at the time of writing how this will af- fect subscribers to the IceTV EPG but as soon as it does become clear AMW will share the news. With a formal testing and compliance program in place, Elgato, Equinux and other computer-based tuner makers will need to ensure they remain relevant to Australian users. Yet the companies are confident their products will pass muster. “We support the audio/video formats already and we expect to be able to supply EPG data through IceTV right from the start,” said an Elgato spokesperson. “We're still looking into the possibility, requirements and the cost to get a Freeview certification.” Freeview mandates support for newer MPEG-4 video standards as well as the MPEG-2 currently used by all Australian networks. The group is also seeking to stem reductions in adver- tising revenue by preventing Freeview-branded devices from including ad-skipping features. This last feature could be problematic for computer-based recording, since Freeview-certified software would presumably www.macworld.com.au need to disable the ability to export videos for editing, or even to skip through recordings. Equinux was also confident its products would make the jump into the Freeview era unscathed, pointing to the ability of one of its products, The Tube, to support new EPGs through dedicated software plug-ins. MPEG-4 support would also be relatively easy to add, a spokesperson said, since it could be implemented in software and most computers already support this encoding standard. Performance-wise, this isn't as desirable as a dedicated hardware encoder but a soft- ware solution is a very flexible one. Freeview’s support for MPEG-4 was misinterpreted in a newspaper article as suggesting that current digital TV tuners, which only support existing MPEG-2 transmis- sions, would be unable to pick up Freeview's channels - sending Freeview and government representatives scrambling to rebut the reports. MPEG-4 is used in some overseas digital TV deployments because it is more bandwidth-efficient. This feature has led many networks, including SBS, to anticipate its eventual use to broadcast more digital TV channels over the same amount of radiofrequency spectrum - but such a changeover is still years away. The government-backed Digital Switchover Taskforce is managing the transition from analogue to fully digital TV over the next few years. Mildura, Victoria, will be the first area to shut off analogue altogether later this year, with a staggered switchoff moving through rural areas and culminating with capital-city switchoffs throughout 2013. AMW May 09 021 4 d6-N [NEWS] [MUG] Hotlinks www.niche.com.au Niche marks milestone Melbourne-based publishing and events company, Niche Media, recently celebrated 20 years in the industry with more than 250 guests attending a special screening of Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino at the Jam Factory in Melbourne's South Yarra. The event was held to recognise Niche’s clients and contributors for their support over the decades. Niche Media publishes a range of mastheads across print and online, with titles comprising Architectural Review, Australian Macworld, Desktop, Marketing, Inside, Facility Management, Helinews and the luxury travel series Welcome to. The stable also includes a consumer-oriented discount coupon booklet, MoneySaver, which launched an online offering earlier this year. Niche hosts the annual event and awards evenings IDEA and CREATE. Managing director Paul Lidgerwood has been with Niche for eight years and is excited about the upcoming projects for 2009: “We are doing incredibly well in a challenging environ- ment, which is testament to an intelligent, experienced and hard-working team,” he said. “We have a diverse range of publications that over the past 20 or so years have developed an affinity with their markets. In tough economic times advertisers tend to gravitate to media that offers either very little wast- age or great return on investment and Niche is well positioned to take advantage of that.” The company has bucked the industry trend of falling readership with subscriptions to its special interest publications increasing by 17 per cent during the past year. Australian Macworld has been among the leading magazines in the group, with a healthy increase in subscription revenue. Niche Media plans to continue broadening its scope and reach by pursuing new publishing projects. “Mid-year, we will witness the highly-anticipated launch of Crystal - a custom magazine for Crown Casino and the introduction of at least one expo,” Mr Lidgerwood said. We will also launch another two websites and become more active in the custom communication space. It will be an active year for us, that's for sure.” MUG activities: May Frit Sun 17 SA Apple Users Club [SA] MW SAQUC O19. ak Sat 2 AUSOM Incorporetett [vic] Southern Highlands Computer Users’ Group nsw ww shoug org. au Gold Coast Macintosh User Group [QLD] AMUG 5 Sygney ins iepage y Tue és MacTalk - Newcastle & The Hunter Macintosh User Group [NSW] Wed 6 SA Apple Users Club [SA] wn saauc.org.a Toowoomba Apple & Mac UG [QLD] BEAUT [VIC] Thu 7 Hervey Bay Mac User Group [QLD] hbmug.com TasMac [TAS] »022 AMW May 09 ree sue? (NSW romepage.mac.com/sydamug Sun 10 Gold Coast Apple Users Group [QLD] in.to/gcusers Mon 11 Southern Highlands Computer Users’ Group ins igc alu wactapple.org.au Bellarine Mac User Group [VIC] ww. bellarinemac.org. au Macintosh Multimedia Group [VIC] North Queensland Macintosh Users Group {QLD} www. ngmug. Wed 13 Retiree & Others [VIC] www.ausom net.au Coffs Harbour Mac User Grou [NSW] Chae INS] mww.clubmac.org.a Apple-Q [QLD] wwapple Mon 18 Southern Highlands Computer Users’ Group INSW} www shou, Byron Shire Macintosh Users Group [NSW] ozs toed 9 North Queensland Macintosh Users Group [QLD] www.ngm dar. ph y.au/pages/ce jet/bsmug) Wed 20 Melbourne Cocoaheads [VIC] www melbournecocaaheads.com Sun 24 Apple-Q [QLD] apple-q.org.au/pages Mon 25 Southern Highlands Computer Users’ Group INSW} www Tue 26 iMug [VIC] www.imug.com au Thu 28 Central Victorian Macintosh Users Inc [VIC] www. v.macworl They come knocking on our door every day. The homeless, the isolated, the exploited and the broken. People in crisis, desperately seeking Salvation. By opening the door to us, you’re helping us open the door to them. Your donation is the key to helping men, women and children across Australia lift the crushing weight of despair that is enveloping their lives. You'll help free their spirits and provide them with hope for a better, brighter future. So please give now to The Salvation Army 2009 Red Shield Appeal. Donate online at salvos.org.au/rsamac or call 13 SALVOS (13 72 58) RED SHIELD APPEAL d6-N [OFF THE NET Hotlinks Presentation Assistant is available on CD for $10 from participating Apple User Groups, including homepage.mac.com/sydamug MUG Sydney www.ausom.net.au/discofthemonth AUSOM Incorporated www.beaut.org.au/tips.html BEAUT www.bsmug.ozshop.net Byron Shire Mac User Group www.cvmu.net Central Victorian Macintosh Users Inc groups.yahoo.com/group/coffs_mac_users Coffs Harbour Mae Users Group www.gmug.org.au Geraldton Macintosh User Group goin.to/gcusers Gold Coast Apple Users Group www.mactalkhunter.org.au MacTalk Hunter www.saauc.org.au ‘South Australian Apple Users Club Presentation Assistant his month’s list is a collection of applications and resources to help get the most out of your Keynote Presentations. These have been broken up into three categories - one to help in pre-produc- tion, the next with presenting, and the lat comprising helper apps for after the show. Pre-production Art Text: Create high quality text graphics, headings, logos, icons, web site elements and buttons. Shareware Clips: Your Mac OS X clipboard reinvented: manage snippets, expand text on-the-fly. Keynote Jam: 56 high-quality, 3D-rendered images specifically designed for Keynote. Keynote Objects: 50 Keynote Objects FX including sand, glass and spheres. All images are included so a designer can find the ideal objects for their presentation. / Screenium: Quickly make live videos of your Mac's screen capture including mouse pointer, selections and movements in real-time! Si Snapz Pro X: Effortlessly record anything on your screen, saving it as a QuickTime movie or screenshot TextExpander: Listens to what you type and inserts us- er-defined snippets on the fly prompted by correspond- ing abbreviations. Sha TextSoap: The premier text designed to make you more productive with all your transformation tool text. S) are Presentation helpers MacTimer: Makes it easy to run multiple timers on your Macintosh. Fi Mira: Take personal control for any application, on any Mac, using the Apple Remote Control (additional hard- ware required on some systems). S Mousepose: Dims the screen and puts a spotlight on the area around the mouse pointer, easily guiding the audiences attention to an area of interest. Derm On Air Recorder: A highly visual digital timer applica- tion that provides the ability to control audio and video recording through its start and stop buttons. Demo Pointer+: A simple application that enlarges the section of your screen underneath the pointer. Poster Print: Create a poster with only a few clicks and you can extend your poster using other elements such as text and images. 7 Present Your Apps: Lets you easily remove or hide the Dock and menu bar when launching selected applications. ProfCast: Versatile tool for recording lectures and creating enhanced podcasts using an integrated work- flow that makes creating, recording, and publishing podcasts easy. Demo Remote Buddy: Allows you to remotely control any- thing on your Mac with your iPhone, iPod Touch, Apple Remote or Wii Remote. Includes a virtual on- screen keyboard and mouse and virtual remote control emulating an Apple Remote. Demo Sofa Control: Control applications with the Apple Remote Control using a specialised Front Row-inspired user interface accessing application-specific menus or select movies and documents. Stage Clock: Control information monitors for all your production team and stage performers. Post-production Business Card Composer: Create and print business cards, calling cards and badges. Cheap Impostor: Takes any PDF (such as your Keynote Notes) and turns it into a booklet that can be folded and stapled. e Watermarks: Tool for creating watermark-imprinted PDF files. And for extra security, you can use Water- marks to rasterise your PDF document, eliminating the editable text completely. jareware @ iPhone3G There's an app for just about anything. 8GB iPhone 3G : 0 | over 24-months on the Optus $79 cap for iPhone 3G Visit your local My Mac store today. My Mac Melbourne, 172 - 192 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC, T. (03) 9662 9666 My Mac Sydney, 20 Bronte Rd, Bondi Junction, Sydney NSW, T. (02) 8383 1600 My Mac www.mymac.com.au BRA) Premium dealer Terms and Conditions. 1. ‘yes’ $79 Cap + Unlimited Text for iPhone 3G: Copyright© 2008 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Requires 24-month connection with a minimum monthly Cap amount of $79 for the iPhone 3G 8GB. Minimum total cost over 24 months is $1896. Included value may be used for National Voice and Video Calls, Standard international SMS, Voicemail, 1800, 13 and 1300 numbers after which these services are free up to a maximum of the $550 per billing period. Cap Included value excludes some call and message types including calls to national fixed or GSM mobile services that then divert/switch or re-route overseas. When you reach your Cap included value, your calls are charged at standard Plan call rates. Included value excludes all other call and message types. Optus 36/HSPA Service: Use of Optus 3G/HSPA Services is only available with compatible handsets and Optus 3G/HSPA SIM card, To access 3G services on iPhone, you must bein a 3G/HSPA coverage area. The Apple Phone will not provide you with access to 36 services in Optus 3G/HSPA service areas where a dual band (UMTSZ100/ UMTS900) 3G/HSPA handset is required. For coverage details on 36/HSPA please see www.optus.com.au/coverage. If connection is not maintained for 24 months, early cancellation fees apply. Offer applies to new and credit-approved customers only. While stocks last. Offer ends 30/04/09 uoing? oop Video solutions Hotlinks Danny Gorog is wondering when Apple will expand its product line to include car stereos, white goods and TVs. doubleTwist is only half-baked oubleTwist is a new media ) player developed by a small team that includes the infa- mous DVD Jon, creator of the DeCSS DRM-stripping software. As a Mac user, you know that when you buy anything with an Apple logo on it, it should play nicely with all your other Apple devices. But things get tougher if you try and introduce a third-party product into your Apple ecosystem. In particular, trying to share the media that’s on your Mac (in iTunes, iMovie and iPhoto) with any smartphone or other media player that’s not an iPhone or iPod can be tricky for the non-geek crowd. To simplify things, you'll either need a third-party product from your phone manufacturer (such as RIM or Nokia) or know how to mount a USB volume and manually copy files over. But doubleTwist, among other things, aims to make this process as seamless and Mac-like as possible First up, doubleTwist lets you copy any media (images, music or videos) to any device you plug in, such as an Android G1, Sony PSP Windows Media device and even the Amazon Kindle 2. This includes any music you have that is wrapped in Apple's Fairplay DRM. Rather than break Apple's DRM, doubleTwist simply plays your DRM- protected music file and re-records it as anon-DRM file to transfer to your media player. Also, double Twist can transfer photos and videos to your media device but these need to be non-DRM files, yet can be in any format you want as double Twist will transcode them depending on the requirements of your media player. doubleTwist is a free download from http://tinyurl.com/yrr390 +026 AMW Ma This software is being marketed as more than just a tool to transfer media to your device. Like many products, there's an aspect of social networking thrown in for good measure. Photos can be uploaded directly from double Twist to Facebook or Flickr and you can send any other media file to your friends as long as they've signed up to doubleTwist. To send a file just click on the media file and use the Send link at the bottom of the toolbar. When transferring media this way, doubleTwist uploads the media to their data servers and then sends the recipient a link. The Mac version of doubleTwist is in beta. In my testing the product worked but not reliably. Firstly, | had problems signing up for an account. Until you register and verify your account, you can't run the software. After a number of emails over as many days | finally received my verification code that let me use the software. In all likelihood, if | weren't reviewing the software | probably would have given up at that point. | tested doubleTwist with an HTC G1 and a Nokia E71. On a number of oc- casions doubleTwist froze while | was trying to move photos and music over to the handsets. When doubleTwist freezes it stays responsive but doesn't do anything. It all felt like too much hard work and made me appreciate the work that Apple does to create such an integrated experience. If you're looking for more advanced syncing technology you won't find it in double Twist. There's no playlist or album support, so adding and moving content is a manual process. The concept of sync-this-file-but-don't- sync-that-file doesn't exist. Likewise, | couldn't see the benefit in using doubleTwist as a social networking tool. On the plus side, the interface is very Mac-like, consistent and easy to use. It's easy to see that with a bit more development and with more user feedback doubleTwist might actually be on to something, However, with iTunes Plus and DRM fading (on music at least) there's not much room for this type of app in my library. Couple that with the fact that my iPhone and iPod syncs with everything on my Mac (with full playlist and album support) makes me feel sorry for those that have to bother with a program like doubleTwist. Honestly, you have to wonder, why on Earth wouldn't you just get yourself an iPhone? & ww.macworld Announcing New FileMaker Pro 10 Manage people, projects, assets and more-the easy way! Ob ora sonenens @ Sleek new look. Intuitive new design. vy New FileMaker Pro 10 Fil Pro is th ea application. Regardles jon with each other through a Get started quickly th in jaker Pro 10, installatior and se’ Reporting made easy FileN (and your colle: o) Share in a couple of clicks share FileMake Learn more, visit: www.filemaker.com.au/mac09/Products FileMaker AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE! - APP, APP, APP! Strewth. Apps built for Aussies and more of them than you could poke an iPhone at. Chris Oaten, Danny Gorog and Anthony Caruana scoured the Oz iTunes Store for apps made specifically for or by Australians, and nominate their must-have international apps that should be on every iPhone. +028 Amy May 09 www.macworld.com au Australian Broadcasting Corporation There are some very clever people at the ABC. The national broadcaster's website is a joy to use and so is this app. Get news stories, check program schedules, get radio shows over Wi-Fi, check movie reviews from the At The Movies show with Margaret Pomeranz and David Strat- ton, and more. And it's free! Further proof that the ABC is a national treasure. A great range of stories and impartial coverage makes this a compelling app to have. Price: Free Developer: Australian Broadcasting Corporation ‘a Australian First Aid - Pocket Guide There is no substitute for actually taking a first-aid course. You might just save someone's life with the right knowledge. This app, however, is the next best thing, offering a wealth of information on dealing with medical emergencies such as an asthma attack or common injuries such as burns and cuts. Price: $4.99 Developer: LoL Software Aussie Insult Generator Miss out on this one and you'd be a legless boofhead with a block like a stopped clock. Or something like that. This app seems to randomise loosely connected strings of insults rather than quote anything that you're likely to hear in a front bar on a lonely highway but... it's a bit of fun all the same. Price: $1.19 Developer: Phlogistic Apps Aussie Rules Live The perfect app if you're into AFL. Aussie Rules Live sources its data from Champion Data and Sportal. Both are the official stats provider to Telstra, which owns the mobile AFL football rights so it’s as official as you can get. It’s got all the info you'll need including live scores, fixtures, and a complete profile of each team including the latest injury lists. Price: $3.99 \ if Developer: Room tone wy Australian Rugby Time 09 There's not a lot to this app, but if it’s an Australian rugby app you're looking for, there doesn't seem to be much else on offer. It takes the Australian National Rugby League fixtures and converts the scheduled time to your local time zone, so no matter where you are, you know if your favourite team is about to hit the field. Price: $1.19 Developer: lan Limm www.macworld.com.au Aussie Slang Mate Crikey! You'd be up the creek without this little bewdy from a true-blue Aussie developer. Learn the lingo. Have a cackle. It's a bloody rippa. Finding a more ridgie didge Aussie slang guide would be harder than week-old damper. Price: $1.19 7 Developer: kolordesign Australia Zoo: Zoo Quest Here's one for the kids. Zoo Quest is a race against the clock to stop Aussie animals from becoming extinct. Before you unlock each level, Zoo Quest rewards you with information and photos about the animal you've just saved and you can upload your high score to the online ranking system to see how you compare against the rest of the world. Price: $2.49 Developer: Wired Developments ae a Australian Learner Driver Test It costs a pretty penny to sit for your driving test, what with a required number of professional lessons and the cost of the test itself. You'd want to do your best to ensure the best chance of success. This app can run you through as many trial tests as you like so you feel absolutely confident when the real thing comes around. Other than that, it’s a handy way for licensed drivers to check their road rule knowledge. he Price: $3.99 Australian Oxford Dictionary The Australian Oxford Dictionary lets you carry around the definitions of more than 110,000 words plus 10,000 encyclopaedic entries with special attention to Austra- lian culture and history. The iPhone/iPod Touch edition includes progressive look-up for quick searching, a three way cross-referencing index and the ability to bookmark words. Price: $29.99 Developer: Enfour AUSTRAU OXEOR Australian Postcodes If you're constantly looking up Aussie postcodes, this app is a godsend. Search for postcodes by number or name. Much faster than loading the Auspost website in Safari. You may be surprised at how often you use it. ka Banjo Blue Bushfire Price: Free Developer: Zebrafive Back in the “olden days” we used to have Blinky Bill and Snugglepot and a wealth of bush characters to enter- tain us. Banjo Blue is the iPhone-friendly, 21st century AMW May 09 029 4 >030 AMW equivalent, presented in a “Talkie Book” with Zoe the Crocodile and Rusty the Kangaroo, narrated by Richard Galbraith, Other titles in the series include Banjo Blue's Party and Banjo Blue Goes to Sea. BOMRadar Price: $1.19 Developer: LoL Software There are other weather apps that have radar infor- mation but radar is all this app does. You can specify locations to obtain animated radar images in local time in 64k, 128km, 256km and 512km radii. The animation comprises the last four area-specific images issued by the Bureau of Meteorology. You can store locations as favourites and the Locate Me option shows readouts specific to your map coordinates. Price: $1.19 Developer: ZethosOrg Be Constitution What do you mean “boring”? The Constitution of Australia lies at the cornerstone of Australian law and your rights as a citizen of this wide, brown land. Surely you should at least take a glance at it? There is, after all, a clause that supports your right to fol- low “Jedi Knight” as a religion. This is not an “of- ficial” reprint, warns the developer, and should not be used for offering legal advice. It’s intended only as a reference. Price: Free 7. Developer: Ben Kremer Didg-Session The hard thing about playing the digeridoo is the cir- cular breathing required to keep that growling sound constant. It's made difficult mostly by the good deal of air pressure required on the player's part to get a sound out of the instrument. Not so on the iPhone. The gentlest breath into the iPhone’s microphone will keep the didge going, making it much easier to push air from the cheeks while inhaling. Add sound effects and four types of didgeridoos and this becomes one of the most fun apps on the market. fs Price: $1.19 a Fairfax Radio News Smack Down Productions We reckon Aunty’s done a pretty good job of radio news for free but if you're after another flavour, this one’s a pretty good option. News bulletins are of three-minute duration and are updated hourly around the clock and half-hourly between 6am and Iam. Price: $1.19 re Developer: Fairfax Radio Syndication FileAid FileAid uses Wi-Fi or USB to let you copy files between your iPhone and desktop system by FTP. That can be tricky but the documentation guides you through the process. There's no need to install a desktop app and FileAid lets you view files on your iPhone from a va- riety of different formats. Among its many uses is the ability to transfer PDFs of useful data (such as public transport timetables) that have not yet become iPhone apps. Price: $5.99 A Developer: DigiDNA Fringe ’09 OK, so this is not actually much use now that the Ad- elaide Fringe Festival has passed but we're making the assumption there will be a 2010 version. Based on the ‘09 version, it'll be an app to look out for. Get info on who's playing, where and when. ig IceTV Price: Free Developers: 2moro If you're using Elgato’s EyeTV software and the IceTV EPG then the IceTV app is practically mandatory. IceTV provides an online TV program guide. If you spot a show of interest, hit the record button and, assuming you've done the correct setup on your Mac, you'll have remote- ly programmed EyeTV to record your show. Price: Free (requires subscription) ws Developer: IceTV iCricket If you're a cricket tragic and must have the latest scores and news in your pocket then you need iCricket. It scrapes content from Cricinfo, presenting it in a mobile-friendly format. There are live scores and access to news from the cricketing world. As well as matches involving the Auss- ies, it covers all international matches. : iiQuota Price: Free Developer: Kuchbi If you need to keep a check on your Internet account usage, this is a must-have. Simply input your username/ password details for iiNet, Optus, Bigpond, Internode, Telstra Mobile or Vodafone Mobile, A very useful aid for avoiding excess charges. ( Price: $3.99 in i Developer: SouthFreo Software \ Income Tax Calculator Not sure whether you can afford to take that job or not because you can't figure out your take-home pay? If you're in the job market or need to know for whatever reason, this app will help you figure the tax man’s cut. There's another app with more features called Australian Tax Calculator, priced at $1.19. if Price: Free gS ; Developer: Perceptionz.Net v4 iSkateboard Skaters rejoice. Here is the easiest way to find the nearest place to grind and ollie. Info is split into four streams: skate spots, skate parks, skate shops and skate news. Once you've found a spot, you can invoke a map to find your way there. The only thing we're left wondering about is how iPhones stand up to the Ready, willing, Enabled Among Australia’s iPhone app success stories, few shine more brightly than that of South Australian com- pany Enabled Solutions, which made a big splash with the release of Newton's Cradle last year. The app - a simulation of an apparatus that demon- strates conservation of momentum and energy and which has become a popular “executive toy” - shot to top-10 downloads lists around the world, eventually attracting more than 1.5 million downloads. Not bad for a proof-of-concept project, which com- pany director Grant Hull, pictured, explained was pursued to test the requirements of app development - from the initial idea through workflow to getting the app on the iTunes Store. Enabled recently released Newton’s Cradle Pro as a paid app, which is receiving positive reviews with steady sales. “This success cemented the concept of creating a dedicated iPhone development team, which we im- plemented this year,” said Grant. “It has definitely formed a new facet of our business, giving us another method of helping clients market themselves, but also in creating our own IP, which can very quickly reach a mass market. Grant said Enabled also has a number of clients with whom they’re working to develop iPhone apps as part of their marketing strategy but couldn’t share any details due to the “rapid development time and nature of iPhone apps, where a new idea today can be old news tomorrow”. “We aren't so restricted with our own IP, though,” Grant said. “We are currently working on a number of apps for both short and long-term release.” One is a game called Shutup & Get Back to Work. Grant said the app plays on the irony factor consid- abuse. Do skaters do their thing with iPhones in their pocket? jaa Price: $4.99 1 Developer: Sneaker Pimps es Macca’s Free Wi-Fi Store Locator Take the “Wi-Fi” out of the title and this app would be appropriately named but, surprisingly, it wasn’t developed by McDonald's. In case you didn’t already know, every golden arches “restaurant” is a free Wi-Fi hotspot. Yes, hence the value of being able to find one. You don’t think we'd be recommending the food, did you? Price: $1.19 Developer: redbridge solutions ering how much time people spend playing iPhone games. “It is also a bit of an inside joke. Watching the team having fun developing these games, | was often tempted to say ‘shutup and get back to work’. Can productive work really be so much fun?” The game will test the reaction time of players, who must have an excellent sense of rhythm to activate controls in time with music, with instructions barked by Frank the Foreman. “A longer term project of ours has the working title Mexican Jumping Bean. The idea behind this app is to use an episodic format where an underlying story builds over time with new levels and features. “We feel the episodic approach could be the future of gaming. It allows developers to put something out there quickly at a low cost. Consumers can then buy it affordably and get a feel for it. If the response is favourable, developers will add to it over time, allow- ing consumers to go further and deeper, resulting in a progressive and high quality game.” dd from the AMW May 09 031 4 »032 AMW May 09 Mobility magician It can happen to the best of us. We carefully prepare for some period away from our main computer by copying important files to our laptop. You get to the destination and realise that something’s missing or you need to change somethii ind the application you need is on the computer back at the office. LogMein is an online service that lets you remote- ly access your computer. While this is possible by installing software such as VNC or using Apple’s Remote Desktop, those options aren’t easy to use as they require configuring your router or firewall. A tricky task for many. LogMein’s approach is simpler. Run a program on your computer that registers its presence with Log- Mein and then access it from any web browser. We tested LogMeln on a MacBook Air with Sa- fari, a PC running Internet Explorer and an iPhone with LogMeiIn’s Ignition application. Once you've created an account at www.logmein.com and logged in you can add a new computer that you'll remotely control to your account. The free version of LogMelin supports basic connectivity. There are paid services that deliver this functionality if you need it. Allcommunications are protected by SSL encryp- tion and logging in to a computer requires access to both your LogMeIn account and a user account on the computer. LogMelin’s performance is de- pendent on the quality of your Internet connection. However, if you’re bandwidth constrained you can reduce the video quality from colour to grayscale. If you're a desktop computer user who is on the road a lot with business, this is one app you really can’t do without. LogMelIn Ignition Price: $36.99 Developer: LogMein My Mac Pro ‘By MacBook Pro Windows XP Machine Work PC Mawson’s Hut It’s a lonely place, is Mawson’s Hut. It also holds an important place in the timeline of Australian Antarctic exploration. Offering a navigable 3D view of the hut's interior and immediate surroundings, the app’s most in- triguing aspect, sadly, is figuring out how to use it. Worth a look, though, for it’s historical value. Price: Free Developer: Paul Bourke Metro Melbourne, Metro Sydney, Metro Perth Developer Nick Houghton provides detailed timetable information for the Melbourne, Sydney and Perth pub- lic transport system. The Metro apps use the built in A-GPS to work out where you are and suggest the clos- est stop (tram, train or bus) and even shows you how to get there. Price: $3.99 (Metro Melbourne is free) Developer: NCM Dev Navionics S.p.A. The company behind this app is one of the most re- spected names in marine charts, so you know you're getting information you can trust. It's pricey, but when you're dealing with navigation through unfamiliar wa- ters, you won't be thinking twice about how much it cost you. @ NodeWiFi Price: $79.99 Developer: Navionics Those Internode guys have some cluey marketing ideas. When Adelaide opened its new airport, it was Internode that stepped up to provide what is probably the fastest public Wi-Fi network of any Australian airport. With this app, the company wants to help you find any one of Now Playing We still love the movies, so what could be more use- ful than an app for checking out the screening times at your nearest cinema? Type in your location (suburb and postcode); specify your search distance, date and review source (RottenTomatoes, Metacritic or Google) and make your choice. Price: Free Fe: Developer: Cyrus Najmabadi OzWeather Another app that provides local weather information from the Bureau of Meterology, with a different layout to Pocket Weather AU. While both apps provide radar their hotspots around the nation. Price: Free Developer: Internode information, OzWeather lets you flick between cities in a similar fashion to the Weather app that comes included with the iPhone. Price: $2.49 Developer: ozPDA ae | PennyTe! Mobile The PennyTel app lets you make calls using your PennyTel account in a variety of different ways. If you're connected to Wi-Fi you can call anyone using your PennyTel VOIP account, so overseas calls are incredibly cheap. But PennyTel mobile also lets you use a CallBack service which means you can access PennyTel rates even if you're not connected to Wi-Fi. Pocket Weather AU Price: Free Developer: defyne Why get your weather from the iPhone's built-in weather app (which uses yahoo.com) when you can get it from the Australian Bureau of Meterology? Pocket Weather AU uses up-to-date info from the BOM to provide you with accurate weather reports at each load. There are a num- ber of different “skins” which let you show more or less information (just shake the iPhone to change the) and full access to radars. Pocket Weather can also use your GPS to find the nearest weather station in case you want the weather but don't know where you are. Qantas Price: $2.49 Developer: Shifty Jelly If you're a Qantas frequent flyer then you need the Qantas iPhone app. As well as regular timetables, the app provides up-to-date departure and arrival informa- tion for both domestic and international flights. Qantas contact numbers are there and can be dialed directly. This one is a must-have for Qantas customers. Cost: Free + Developer: Qantas Airways aanras, Toilet Mate Provides a complete listing of all public toilets in Aus- tralia, with GPS functionality to work out your closest public toilet. Perfect when you need to go, but you don't know where to go. Those who are likely to be caught short of comfort, and you know who you are, will find this one invaluable. Price: $1.19 wi Developer: NCM Dev Traffic Australia Ever wondered why the traffic around you isn't mov- ing, or whether you'll encounter traffic en route to www.mac ric d.com.at King of rain It was once said that on the Internet nobody knows if you're a dog. Similarly, in the iPhone app developer universe, nobody knows you're not one of the “big boys” hunkered down in a development lab in a met- ropolitan technology precinct. When it comes to developing iPhone apps, you could be anybody. Anywhere. You could even be in a farming community in Tasmania. In Derby, to be precise. Just about the last place you'd expect to find an app developer. That's where you'll find Terry Monro, pictured, who developed Rain, an iPhone app that provides a selection of rain recordings for those who find it therapeutic, soothing or, for some, a vital aid to falling asleep. Just as well, then, that Terry lives in one of the wet- test states of Australia, where there’s no shortage of “talent” to make recordings of. Terry and his fiancée gave up Melbourne’s hectic pace 18 months ago and moved to Derby in north east Tasmania. With a background in film and sound editing, it was a snap to capture sounds for Rain. “Tasmania is blessed with rainfall and one dark, rainy and stormy night | thought to myself, why am | not recording this?” Terry said. “So | bought a Tascam Digital recorder on eBay for about $300 and a mic and off | went and have never looked back.” Rain is a free download from the iTunes Store. +034 AMW May 09 Steaming success There’s more to a good espresso than buying the right machine. There’s technique. Your choice of beans and how you grind them. The way you heat the milk, and so on. You need help, don’t you? Rest easy, Barista is here to help. Developer Graham Clarke, pictured, created the iPhone app to help coffee lovers make the perfect brew. The app has been a massive hit, was nomi- nated in March as an App Store Pick of the Week, and has educated coffee lovers around the world about the do’s and don'ts of making coffee. Graham lists some of the plaudits. “Barista has been given positive feedback from the CEO of a 500-plus room hotel in Beijing. An ex-Starbucks employee has told us he’s glad to be ‘unlearning’ what he was taught at the ‘big green monster and, probably most surprisingly, the owner of an Italian cafe in London wanted a hard copy of our instructions in order to train his staff.” Graham explained that Barista’s development kicked into gear after a chance Facebook collision. “Rewind to November. | was just checking my Facebook status on my iPhone and saw that one of my mates said he was working on an iPhone app for one of his clients when we discovered our fields of expertise were totally complementary and two months later we had Barista ready to go,” Graham said. He said that one of the major aspects of being a success on the App Store was that even if you get over the initial hurdle of creating an application that fills a need and is well-designed and bug-free, you still somehow need to reach your customers. “This is no easy task,” he said, though of course he’s managed to do a pretty good job of it thus far. Graham is looking forward to iPhone 3.0 ... “From our point of view, maps, push notification and in-app purchases are all great advances”. your next destination? Traffic AU sources traffic data (the same stuff you see on those electric boards as you roar down the freeway) from the SUNA Traffic Channel and can determine traffic conditions based on a user-configurable radius and your current loca- tion. Use it and you should never find yourself stuck in traffic. Price: $3.99 6 Developer: CLO Software = Trapster If the traffic’s not holding you up there’s more chance you'll be caught speeding, but not if you've got Trapster running on your iPhone. Trapster taps into the database at trapster.com to source details on fixed speed and red light cameras, and can even tell you where mobile speed cameras are located provided other Trapster users report them. Because iPhone apps don’t run in the background, you'll need to keep Trapster running while you're driving so Trapster can give you an audio alert if you're about to come across a reported speed trap. see & Price: Free ee Developer: Trapster , ees Westpac Westpac customers will find this iPhone app indispens- able. It provides a single port of call to access online banking and find the nearest ATM or branch using the iPhone's GPS receiver. If you need to call Westpac, a list of the main phone numbers for business and personal banking are just a screen tap or two away. WiFi Finder Price: Free Developer: Westpac Banking JiWire is a searchable database that uses Location Ser- vices to let you know of which Wi-Fi hotspots, both paid and free, are near you. Despite finding the database to be a little out of date - for instance, the local McDonalds is now a free hotspot but JiWire still thinks it requires payment - it’s very useful. Price: Free Developer: JiWire Internationals While the following apps weren't designed specifically for Australian users, they should still be on every iPhone user's list of must-haves. They are: AroundMe, eBay, fring, Google, Stanza and Urbanspoon. Look them up at the iTunes Store. log on to our new webstore at www.creativefolks.com.au for our monthly specials on all product lines = — @¢o'ocve All Epson 220ml inks for all Epson Stylus Pro large format printers WIN an 8GB iPhone’ *Be the 50th online order from the 1st May 2009 to WIN a great 8GB iPhone creative Keith White has been a Mac addict since 1984 and can't fathom Why anyone isn't Open up you don't need me anymore. or most of the 12 or more FE years that I've been writing this column it has been called ReadMe, not Command-O. But now, by mutual agreement between the management of Australian Macworld and myself, it's time to call it a day. So this last time I'm reflecting on some of the changes that have occurred since | first began. And musing on a few other things as a final indulgence. For starters, I'm not hunched over the keyboard any more as | was for most of this column's history. I'm leaning back in my chair talking into MacSpeech Dictate via a headset microphone. It still seems like magic as my text appears instantly on the expansive 24in iMac display. When | started this column it was hunt and peck on the keyboard of my sexy new black Mac 5500, which, unfortunately, was the only lemon of all my 15 Macs. Then there are the changes over time in the instructional materials | have been privileged to review, largely driven by the increase in speed and efficiency of the Internet. For example, for one of my recent projects, | needed to remind myself how to produce an animated GIF. | set out with a search for “animated road map”. Within a couple of minutes | had decided from a number of Googled alternatives that an Hotlinks www.atomiclearning.co.uk Atomic Learning Video/digitutor/eng/d90/index.html Nikon D90 tutorials www.takecontrolbooks.com Take Control books http://missingmanuals.com Take Control books >036 AMW May 09 animated GIF was probably the most effective way to go. A subsequent “animated GIF” search led me toa very concise text tutorial based on nice big screenshots. The whole procedure looked easier than it used to be. In those days, | used Adobe Image Ready. Some time since then, apparently, the construction of simple animated sequences has been moved inside Photoshop's Animation window. Anyhow, 10 minutes of trial and error in Photoshop and I had the animated GIF | was after, of a ship's route from England to Australia via Rio. No book, no Help file or DVD tutorial. Just a focused Internet search. This short, targeted approach is very much like the way Atomic Learning delivers its online video tutorials. Most people don't want to do a three-year degree ona particular software package just to produce something like an animated GIF. They just want to know how to perform a particular technique or routine. Atomic Learning therefore breaks down the material into very short segments - “atoms” - which quickly teach you a particular skill The online instruction revolution has filtered through to some company websites. Recently, | was considering purchasing a new digital SLR camera. One of the particular models | was considering, the Nikon D90, was featured on the company website. ‘A 40-minute Digitutor video package, beautifully produced and cleverly designed, showed me - even with my inbuilt hype filter set to the Very Cynical point - most of what | needed to know. And don't forget the online help manuals that accompany most soft- ware packages. In revisiting Final Cut Express after a separation of some years | found Apple's instructional material, in hyperlinked PDF format, www.mac' very accessible and useful. It stays ‘open on the desktop whenever I'm using FCE It's become obvious over the years that much of the tutorial material has moved from books alone, firstly augmented by CD-ROMs and then by DVDs, to total online delivery. Not that books don't still have their place. In this column | have been featuring, over the past few years, reference manuals for popular software packages and titles which demonstrate, both in print and usually onan accompanying DVD, practical examples and routines to achieve professional results in image and text. Two other highlights of my journey have been the TidBITS series of Take Control ebooks and the ground- breaking Missing Manual series. ‘Adam Engst and his team at Take Control have made great advances in bridging the gap between print and online materials. They do this by massaging initially print-based manuals into more user-friendly online readable tracts. Increase the font size and white space a little provide generous hyperlinks to other parts of the manual, but also to video, print and sound files on the Internet, and you are starting to merge into a different experience David Pogue and the Missing Manual folk stayed within the traditional boundaries of print but managed to move far beyond the often ignored printed or online manuals that come with many software packages. Lively, tightly-written and profusely illustrated, these publications were a delight to review. | still use their iLife titles for quick reference And to all the other writers and illustrators of the myriad outstanding books I've reviewed, thank you for the care you have taken to make your cash. SUGHEu000R }s}o} [ep] o]x]-] BS eacceo0s = Access Your Desktop From your iPhone Maximize your mobility with LogMeln Ignition. teaching accessible to your readers and for the passion for the task that shines from your pages. Anyhow, the executioner awaits. But as they say, one door closes, another opens. I've been lucky to be able to choose when to go. Better than being dragged out of the door screaming Management at Niche Media has been very supportive of my decision to wind up my current contribution to Australian Macworld magazine. And then to offer me a gig producing the second coming of the AMW podcast, how good is that? I'm looking forward to working with AMW editor Chris Oaten, the regular contributors and, most importantly, the ordinary folk from the Australian Mac community to produce infor- mative, entertaining and thought- provoking podcasts celebrating the special delight of working with Macintosh. 2& LogMe(t) ignition Now available in the iTunes App Store. > Learn more at www.LogMeln.com/iPhone Michael Jenkin Head in the cloud Hotlinks http://creatiq.com/ +038 AMW Ma Business in a browser he everyday tasks of running a business can be challenging enough but in addition to the mundane chores of enterprise, you need to locate and obtain the right business software and tools, at the right price, for your industry. Over the last month, I've replicated key aspects of my business into applications in the cloud. My first goal was to find the right functionality and solution, for my industry (IT Professional services IT support), and then see if the subscription costs outweighed owning software, licences and infrastructure To run my business | need to be able to use spreadsheets, word processors, email and a client retention manage- ment system (CRM) To satisfy my goal, the solution needed to be fast, accessible over the Internet, and secure. | needed to feel like | had control of my data while maintaining the illusion that | was using a local suite of applications at my workstation. | have been pleas- antly surprised by what I found Paying GoogleApps $12 a mailbox for spam prevention and using docu- ments in their other online business (or personal) GoogleApps stable, from anywhere in the world, is fantastic. | can increase productivity and complete my tasks from anywhere. This has now become foundation technology for me. | now need to build on this. | need to push the envelope and find some real business intelligence tools. | need a tool to present information that is easily gathered and then will mine data that is useful to me. | need to extract information on prospective clients or other key information that will ultimately bring value into my business. | need a client retention management system, too. My search for these tools started and ended with Haiku from Creatiq. | started a 30-day trial with this online application and ran the simple set-up wizards. | was then introduced to a whole new world, and some of what | saw was familiar. Most of it | experienced for the first time. ‘Two other solutions | considered were absolutebusy.com and salesjunction.com but in each case | found the depth of their services package a bit shallow. Haiku now runs my website and is my central customer database. It is my email marketing, eCommerce, web analysis and customer profiler. It's my central console with everything I need to run my business online. Garering awareness and acquiring customers is one of my great challenges. It's fair to say that any customer who finds your business or website is highly valuable to you and you want to hold on to them as long as possible. That's where the idea of the database comes in, allowing members to logon, request help, post in the forum or for you to email them Certainly, this covers me for my website, email tracking, CRM and data mining services but does it give me more time and money to get on with my business? The Haiku technology is updated and maintained online. You don't install upgrades. It is backed up and protected. When you log into Haiku, you can see the latest updates on the right side of the dashboard. The updates and new features so far have been frequent. One of my favourite Haiku features is Archive and Rollback. Daily back-ups are generated and stored in the cloud. Anytime | want to rollback a specific page to a certain date, | can do this quickly and simply. Sitting back and reviewing my weekly emailed Haiku report, | get email statistics, website visitation statistics, who bought what and how much from my eCommerce site, and a list of new users and forum posts | don't have to generate the report, it just arrives via email with pie charts and graphs showing me my week in review. It's an easy way to manage my activity and enables cost-effective strategic planning. 1am certainly happy with this cloud application but does it do this for less cost than buying a mainstream CRM application? It certainly does. In assessing the costs of an upgrade cycle of every 2-3 years for my server-based software, licences, patches and maintenance, it all makes sense to head for the cloud. If | were a sole trader without a network server, it would make even more sense The costs for Haiku are subscription- based, paid monthly, and based on the number of users. | am not going to list those prices here as the cost and cost savings will be different for each business operator. For me, the costs are worth it compared to my previous solution. What you should consider when examining your own cloud solution is the amount of time you can save. In my case, | was up and running in less than 25 minutes. & 1) AUSTRALIAN | : Whether you're new to computers, or just new to Mac, or whether you're an experienced Mac user looking to hone their skills — you'll find the book of value MAC BASICS bey (a ~~» SUBSCRIPTION: WATERPROOF WONDERS Take your music to the beach, to the pool, on your kayak, anywhere you wouldn't normally mix gadgets and water. You can now submerse yourself in sound with H2O Audio Surge waterproof headphones and Amphibx waterproof iPod and iPhone cases. With small, medium and large cases to fit all iPods, and a dedicated integrated second-gen shuffle headset swimcase endorsed and used by Natalie Coughlan of USA Olympic swim team fame, H2O Audio provides the highest quality waterproof protection to 3m. A deep dive case to 90m is also available, s0 you can listen or watch a movie while decompressing H20 Audio Amphibx Waterproof Armband RRP: $110 - $130 Surge Waterproof Headphones RRP: $110 www.h2oaudio.net.au KEY CONCEPT Brilliant! LaCie has released a range of USB thumb drives shaped like keys. Some call these devices key drives. Get it? Keys, shaped like key drives? Of course you do. The keys, in three models — itsaKey, iamaKey and passkey - are built tough to last and are available in 4GB and GB versions. The keys not only look cool, they offer transfer rates of up to 30MB/s (read) and 10MB/s (write) LaCie Key Drives RRP: From $44 LaCie www.lacie.com/au GORILLA WITH GUSTO The strongest, largest Gorillapod yet, the Gorillapod Focus is designed with the professional photographer in mind. Its machined aluminium sockets offer incredible flexibility while ensuring a rock- solid hold in almost any environment. Best of all, it supports a 5kg rig. Like Joby's entire line-up of Gorillapod tripods, the Focus is cleverly designed to help you capture the perfect time-lapse, available-light, night-time or long-exposure image. Wrap it around a railing, hang it from a tree, or stand it on a table in the studio... the Gorillapod Focus provides the stability of a professional tripod at a fraction of the size, weight and price GorillaPod Focus RRP: $239 Maxwell International Australia www.maxwell.com.au 1300 882 517 d6-2 POWER TRIP You can't have enough chargers for USB devices, right? Absolutely. This adapter can power up to five USB devices simultaneously from one wall socket off four built-in female ports and one mini-B connector. It is an ideal charger kit for travellers who need to support a number of USB devices with the minimum burden. International plugs for the AC socket are available, making this charger even more versatile USB multi-port charger RRP: $31, plus shipping www.shop.brando.com.hk/ CANS WITH COPIOUS COMFORT FACTOR Razer, manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and electron- ics peripherals, has launched the latest addition to its headset range with the Carcharias, a circumaural gaming audio headset designed for extended hours of gameplay. With a focus on uncompromised comfort and audio clarity, the Razer Carcharias features a circumaural shape to allow full over-ear coverage, as well as interchangeable ear pads for a custom fit. Coupled with a fully adjustable headband, the headset delivers a comfortable package that any user can wear over long periods of time. Razer Carcharias Headphones RRP: $199.95 Audion Innovision www.audion-mm.com/v2/ 1300 300 364 POINTING THE WAY It seems literal design interpretations of hardware devices is all the go. Elsewhere, we have a thumb key shaped like a key. Here we have a mouse shaped like an arrow. You know, as in a pointer. This USB Arrow Optical Mouse tracks at 800dpi, has a retractable USB cable design with a 75cm cable, and comes in red or black USB Arrow Optical Mouse RRP: $17, plus shipping www.usb.brando.com.hk/ > GADGET CENTRAL Gear, gizmos and goodies for your Mac or iPhone TINY TYPERS Anyone with a gadget that can accept an external keyboard input and who wants the smallest possible keyboard or mouse to plug into it, look no further. Brando has a range of miniature keyboards that will get you out of, or perhaps into, a tight space. The maker seems to have an infatuation with miniaturisation. A visit to the company’s site reveals all manner of Lilliputian wonders. There are USB-powered Christmas trees, a fridge, waterfalls and, well... take a look for yourself. Frivolous? Definitely. We enjoyed the maker's gear so much we've featured some more products on the inside pages of Gadget Central. If you're familiar with ThinkGeek.com, you'll feel right at home here. This is like the oriental version of ThinkGeek. Go lose yourself. Brando miniature keyboards, mouse, pretty much any USB gadget you can think of. RRP: prices vary http://usb.brando.com.hk/ AMW May 09 SOUND INVESTMENT For listeners after a great sounding speaker system with easy portability, Canadian audio company Edifier offers the MP300 2.1 Audio System. The system features a unique, aluminium tube subwoofer, which works to deliver detailed bass designed to handle audio from your notebook, PC, MP3 player or portable DVD player. Completing the system are two spherical full range speakers - no bigger than the palm of your hand - for added sound clarity. With three colours available - black, silver and white, the MP300 can fit into any environment. Edifier Sound System RRP: $149.95 Audion Innovision 1300 300 364 www.audion-mm.com HITTING THE RIGHT NOTES DISPLAYING THE WAY FORWARD Featuring stereo speakers built into a panel sitting above the keyboard, this Verbatim keyboard is just the thing for users with cramped desks who want more oomph in their tunes than their iMac or laptop can offer. It also has easy keys to control volume and boost bass and a media console designed for iTunes. It also has backlight illumination you can turn on or off - depending on your surroundings or your mood Verbatim TuneBoard RRP: $74.85 Verbatim www.verbatim.com.au (03) 9823 0999 Sony's XEL-1 is the next development in TV technology, with an astonishingly thin 3mm organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel that delivers high contrast (1,000,000:1 ratio), high peak brightness, amazing colour reproduction, and rapid response time. Really, you have to see it to believe it. OLED is a light- emitting technology, which eliminates the need for a separate light source such as a backlight system. The XEL-1 panel consists of an organic layer of material with two extremely thin glass panels on either side, resulting in a new TV form factor. Many pundits believe OLED will be the dominant display technology in the near future. The XEL has an 11in screen. Sony XEL-1 OLED TV RRP: $6999 Sony Australia 1300 720 071 www.sony.com.au. EYETV DIVERSITY - SUPERCHARGED TV Enjoy superior digital TV (DVB-T) reception on your Mac deep indoors and in conditions that are challenging for reception out- doors. Where HDTV is broadcast, enjoy stunningly clear 720p or 10801 HDTV (MPEG-2 as well as H.264/AVC). In Dual-Tuner mo