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| (003_004 Contents MAR15.indd. 3
Macworld Contents
MARCH 2015
Spotlight: David Price
Apple vs Samsung
News
Apple's best ever quarter
Best-value Mac
If you’re looking for a low-cost
Mac we'll help you choose
10 amazing Mac tricks
Bet you didn’t know your Mac did this
Set up a new Mac
We show you how to get started
10 apps for a new Mac
Enhance your user experience
15 iTunes tips & tricks
Get more out of iTunes 12
Mac security options
Four essential security tools
Ask the iTunes Guy
We demystify artwork and wishlists
Apple Watch revolution
Taptics, haptics and the body fantastic
10 fascinating Apple facts
Test your Apple knowledge
Lessons for Apple
Seven lessons Apple could learn
from Microsoft
Group test: Smart heating
41 Tado Smart Thermostat
44 Hive Active Heating
46 Nest Learning Thermostat
48 Heat Genius
Group test: Cameras
55 Canon EOS 7D Mark Il
55 Fujifilm X-T1
56 Kodak PixPro S-1
56 Nikon D810
57 Olympus OM-D E-M10
57 Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4
58 Samsung NX1
58 Sony A7 Mark II
MARCH 2015 « MACWORLD 3
0322015 16:15, |
60 Reviews
60 Apple Mac mini 2.8GHz
62 Mac mini 2014 vs mini 2012
64 OS X Yosemite vs Windows 10
67 Epson Ecotank L555
68 Synology DS414j
69 Seagate NAS
Help Desk
Answering your tech questions
70
72 Spotlight: Neil Bennett
Are weak passwords okay?
73 Locating iPhoto images
Find your long-lost photos
74 New and noteworthy
Best new kit for your iOS device
What is Homekit?
Apple's smart home vision
76
79 Top tips for Safari
iniOS 8
Master Apple’s updated browser
4 MACWORLD + MARCH 2015
| (003_004 Contents MAR1S.indd. 4
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Best iPad work apps
Boost your productivity
Best free iPhone games
14 of our favourites
Spotlight: Ted Landau
The iPad isn’t doomed
Steve Jobs: The Movie
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By David Price) Spotlight
Apple’s bumper results
Good news for Apple, bad news for Samsung (and the rest of us)
ne day the predictions will
come true and Apple will get
knocked off its perch;
transit gloria cupertini.
But that day has yet to come, as we
discovered at the company’s earnings
call last month. There is only one thing we
say to Death: “Not this fiscal quarter’.
In fact, Apple did a great deal more
than put off the Grim Reaper for a few
more years, which is what you might
have expected from those predictions
| mentioned just now: some of the analyst
comment before the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
came out verged on the apocalyptic. The
firm's Q1 2015 was the most lucrative
quarter of any public company in
American history and arrived, with brutal
timing, just days before erstwhile rival
Samsung was obliged to trot out its own
(less than triumphant) numbers. The great
handset war of the first half of the 2010s
may be drawing to a close. If the fat lady
isn’t singing quite yet, she’s definitely
doing her gargling exercises.
Yet | for one hope that the present
dip in the fortunes of Samsung’s mobile
business is not terminal. (It does at
least have numerous other subsidiary
businesses to lean on, from insurance
to theme parks, although some would
argue that the Korean giant's sprawling
jack-of-all-trades approach is one of the
reasons why it's losing to laser-focused
Apple.) Competition is good for everyone,
and in hardware terms, Samsung has
been Cupertino’s most credible rival for
years. An unchallenged Apple is a far
less appealing prospect.
Google and Amazon are Apple's real
rivals, of course, and in broad terms the
second half of this decade will be all
about those three companies fighting it
out for tech-market dominance. But each
one currently concentrates on a different
segment: Google rules data gathering
sic
| 007 David Price.indd 7
Competition is good
for everyone, and
in hardware terms,
Samsung has been
Cupertino's most
credible rival for years
and free software services, Amazon is
the king of content and distribution, and
Apple does the best and most popular
hardware. The sad fact is that, if
Samsung were removed as a credible
threat, none of these companies would
be truly tested in their own realm.
Areas of overlap
Granted, outside the specialisms
listed above there are areas of overlap.
Google continues to assault Apple's
homelands through proxy hardware
makers. Apple and Amazon are both
phenomenal shifters of digital content,
and while they presently slide past one
another somewhat (music, video content
and — most lucratively of all — apps are
Apple’s cash cows, while Amazon is
unrivalled in the field of digital books)
these areas are likely to blur.
And from time to time, the big three
make more overt land grabs on one
another's territories — but they are usually
repelled. Google makes a smartphone;
Amazon makes a tablet; Apple makes a
mapping service; things generally
proceed much as before. Each giant
seems too strong to be defeated on its
own turf, reminding me a little of the
politically convenient perpetual war
between the three superstates in
Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Nobody would argue that tech
consumers face a future as dystopian
as that, but a world of semi-competing
but largely separate monopolies is a
dispiriting thought. As an Apple fan, | like
the fact that Samsung gave the company
a run for its money in the premium
smartphone space: it forced it to innovate,
to sharpen up its software, to show up
the bad ideas and copy the good ones.
It made the iPhone what it is today.
For an idea of what Apple is like
when it sits in splendid isolation, take a
look at the unchallenged first-party apps
on iOS - the ones you're obliged to
keep as the default even when better
alternatives exist. Calendar is a pale
shadow of Fantastical. iBooks is weaker
than the Kindle app. Newsstand and
Stocks simply aren't very useful for most
people. Imagine if all these apps had to
fight for their place on your iPhone.
Imagine how brilliant they could be.
So | hope Samsung lives to fight again,
and that Apple has to keep releasing
amazing smartphones to stay competitive.
Then again, the mechanisms of free-
market capitalism are pretty reliable at
filling competition vacuums, and perhaps
we just need to wait for the next
Asian success story to take Samsung's
place. How about it, Xiaomi?
MARCH 2015 « MACWORLD 7
03022015 11:01 |
News
os |
Apple’s Q1 2015 was most profitable
quarter any company has ever had
Apple reported profits of $18 billion in its latest earnings call, with $74.6 billion revenue
BY SUSIE OCHS
pple on 27 January announced
its earnings for Q1 2015,
revealing that it made $18 billion
in profit in three months. It's not only the
best quarter Apple has ever had, it's the
best quarter any company has ever had.
The jaw-dropping 74.5 million iPhones
sold is a big reason behind this success.
But a record-shattering $74.6 billion in
revenue wasn't the most interesting part
of the earnings conference call, in which
Tim Cook took questions from analysts
about the rest of Apple's plan for success,
& and how to keep this momentum going.
Apple Watch hints
The Apple Watch has a more solid ship
date — sometime in April (at least for the
US). Cook said in his prepared statement,
“Development for Apple Watch is right on
schedule, and we expect to be shipping
in April. Developers are hard at work
on apps, notifications and information
summaries that we call Glances, all
designed specifically for the watch’s user
interface. The creativity and software
innovation going on around Apple Watch
is incredibly exciting, and we can’t wait
for our customers to experience them
when Apple Watch becomes available.
An analyst later pressed for more
detail, and Cook took the opportunity to
make us jealous — he already has an
Apple Watch. “My expectations are very
high on it. I'm using it every day, and love
it, and | can’t live without it. We're making
great progress on the development on it,
the number of developers that are writing
apps for it is impressive and we're seeing
some incredible innovation.”
Apple sold a record number of iPhones
in the quarter, 74.5 million units. That's
& MACWORLD + MARCH 2015
l | o08.041 Nows:nad
23.4 million more than the same
quarter last year. Cook
doesn't expect the
iPhone train to stop
rolling anytime soon,
either: “I would point
out that only a small
fraction of the installed
base has upgraded, so
there's a lot more people
within the installed base, but
| would also point out that we
had the highest number of customers
new to iPhone last quarter than any prior
launch. And also that the current iPhone
line-up experienced the highest Android
switcher rate in any of the past three
launches in the three previous years.”
Cook declined to break out figures of
iPhone 6 versus 6 Plus, but he did say
this: “What | can tell you is that iPhone 6
was the most popular iPhone last quarter.
But obviously to sell 74.5 million, they
were really all popular. And all did well.
There is clearly a geographic preference
difference, where some geos would skew
much higher on their preference to
iPhone 6 Plus than other geos. So it’s
not consistent around the world.”
Apple's growth in China also
contributed to the iPhone 6's successful
launch. Despite not being on sale for the
full quarter in China (the iPhone 6
launched there in mid-October), Apple
saw 100 percent year-on-year growth.
Expect China to become a bigger chunk
of Apple's revenue over time, too.
“We'll hit 20 [Apple Stores] soon and
we're doubling that by mid 2016,” Cook
said. “Our online revenues in China last
quarter were more than the sum of the
previous five years.”
iPad sales were soft this
quarter at 21.4 million,
which is 4.6 million fewer
than that sold during the
same quarter last year. But
Apple remains bullish on the
iPad’s long-term prospects.
First, iPad is attracting
new customers: “I see
that the first-time buyer
rates are very high. By very
high, | mean that if you look at
some of the developed markets, like the
US, Japan and the UK, you would find
that 50 percent of the people are buying
an iPad for the first time. If you look in
China it's over 70 percent. And so when
you have that kind of first-time buyer
rates, you don't have a saturated market.”
People who like their tablets use them
a lot, too: “When | look at the usage, the
usage is six times our nearest competitor.
Usage measured in web browsing is like
71 percent of total tablets.”
Over time, Cook thinks people will
keep buying iPads, but probably not as
often as they tend to upgrade their
iPhones. With iPhones getting bigger and
MacBook Airs dropping in price last year,
the iPad is also getting squeezed from
both sides by Apple’s own products:
“There's probably some level of
cannibalisation going on, with the Mac on
one side and the phone on the other.”
The Mac had a great first quarter,
selling 5.5 million, up 14 percent year on
year. Globally, PC sales continue to creep
down slowly, but the Mac’s market share
has grown in 34 of the past 35 quarters.
Cook also teased that 2015 would hold
big advancements for HealthKit, HomeKit
and CarPlay.
cacon01s 1425 | |
os |
Apple acquires Semetric’s Musicmetric
Apple's acquisition of UK company Semetric shows it wants to know more about your listening habits
BY MIKAEL RICKNAS
pple has acquired UK
firm Semetric and its
Musicmetric analytics
platform, which could allow the
company to keep better track of ‘
Vane Ado he
—sfttre thy
what its customers listen to.
There is little doubt that Apple
has plans to step up its music push
following last year’s acquisition of
the Beats headphone vendor and
streaming music service for about
|v serie ve vom]
a SS
Ss
demographics and see what's
happening on social networks.
Musicmetric Pro can also be
integrated with iTunes (the two firms
are not new acquaintances), Spotify,
Facebook Insights and Google
Analytics data for in-depth analytics.
Integrating Musicmetric would
possibly help Apple makes its own
offerings more attractive to artists
and labels, which depend on attracting
$3 billion. The acquisition of Semetric
and Musicmetric hints that Apple has
larger plans for its future offerings and
associated services.
In early January, Semetric changed its
registered address, as recorded at the UK
Companies House, to that of Apple
Europe. The move was first spotted by
Music Ally, which also pointed out that
Semetric has a new director: Gene Daniel
Levoff of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino,
California — Apple’s global headquarters.
Apple hasn't confirmed the deal and
did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
What Apple might use Semetric’s
platform and know-how for remains to be
seen, but Musicmetric would allow it to
dig deep into user behaviour. The
Musicmetric Pro offering first gives a
quick snapshot of how an artist is
performing online. It is then possible to
drill down to keep track of downloads,
as many users as possible, but also
making them as attractive as possible
for labels and artists. Having a strong
analytics platform would help with that.
Apple could also use the underlying
technology to improve recommendations
for users of its services.
In addition to music, Semetric’s
platform can also be used to analyse the
use of television, film, e-book and video
game services, which makes the
company an even better fit for Apple.
Patent reveals plans for an Apple GoPro
GoPro shares fall as patent hints at a similar product in the works at Apple
BY CAITLIN MCGARRY
oPro shareholders may be
panicking after Apple's patent
application for a wearable camera
was approved. One look at Apple’s plans
shows why — the application details a
GoPro-like wearable for action shots and
underwater recording. Apple even takes
aim at GoPro in the patent filing.
Apple might not ever make a wearable
camera, but if it does it'll be a GoPro on
steroids. The patent covers a camera that
can be mounted to bike helmets and
scuba masks or fastened to motorcycles
and surfboards. The patent also details
l | 008.041 Nowsinad 9
plans for waterproofing so an iPhone
could be used for underwater snapshots.
Apple critiqued GoPro’s action cameras
in the filing, specifically the HD Hero 2
camera sold as part of an ‘Outdoor
edition’ bundle. It said that the Hero 2’s
single image-capture system causes
“excessive wind resistance” and has
a large profile that sticks out from the
camera “making it more susceptible
to damage”. Apple aims to create a
camera that can be used in handheld-
and mounted modes, with high-quality
results both ways.
The patent covers an image sensor,
optical system and a remote control.
GoPro shares fell by more than
12 percent in light of this news.
MARCH 2015 « MACWORLD 9
oaanors 1404 | |
News
App Store broke sales record on NYD
Apple has announced that 1 January 2015 was the biggest day ever in App Store sales history
BY LEAH YAMSHON
pple has announced that
1 January 2015 was the “single
biggest day ever in App Store
sales history’, with customers spending
nearly half a million dollars on both apps
and in-app purchases.
Apple's press release went on to boast
of record-breaking sales in 2014, too.
App Store sales rose 50 percent in 2014
— and that's just in paid apps and in-app
purchases, not including free apps and
upgrades — and generated more than
$10 billion in revenue for developers.
Taking a look back, 2014 was a great
year for apps, with the range including
HealthKit apps that communicate with
the iPhone's M7 or M8 co-processor to
deliver your personal data in an easy-to-
understand format, and third-party
keyboard apps. Plus, some of the games
released in 2014 could rival the quality of
console titles, not to mention amazing
puzzlers and titles from other genres.
The launch of iOS 8 could have had
something to do with this highly
successful year. iOS 8 introduced Apple's
Swift programming language and the
Metal graphics technology to developers,
giving them different tools to create rich,
robust apps more efficiently.
Other campaigns could have
contributed to this success, too, such as
Apple's year-end (RED) initiative where
all proceeds from specific app
purchases when to the Global Fund to
fight AIDS. Apple also introduced app
bundles to the App Store in 2014, which
lets developers package their apps
together for users to purchase at a lower
price than what those apps would cost if
bought individually.
“We're so proud of the creativity and
innovation developers bring to the apps
they create for iOS users and that the
developer community has now earned
over $25 billion,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s
senior vice president of Internet and
Software services.
Apple sued over iPhone storage space
Apple accused of misrepresenting the amount of user-accessible storage on 16GB iPhones and iPads
BY GREGG KEIZER
pair of Florida men have
sued Apple for allegedly
misrepresenting the amount of
storage space available to owners of
16GB iPhones and iPads.
Paul Orshan and Christopher Endara
accused Apple of “unfair, unlawful and
fraudulent business acts or practices’,
including false advertising, and asked a
California federal judge to designate the
lawsuit as a class action so that others
can participate.
In the complaint filed on 29 December,
Orshan and Endara’s lawyers claims
Apple failed to tell buyers that a fifth of
the 16GB in low-end iPhones and iPads is
40 MACWORLD « MARCH 2015
l | 008.011 News: 10
occupied by the operating system and
preinstalled apps, leaving consumers less
than the full amount for their own content.
“Reasonable consumers do not expect
this marked discrepancy between the
advertised level of capacity and the
available capacity of the devices, as the
OS and other storage space unavailable
to consumers occupies an extraordinary
percentage of their devices’ limited
storage capacity,” the complaint states.
By the plaintiff's calculations, a 16GB
iPhone 6 has 13GB of space available
to the user, while the 16GB iPhone 6
Plus and 16GB iPad Air have 12.7- and
12.6GB respectively. The portions of
the 16GB inaccessible to users ranged
from 19- to 21 percent.
The lawsuit also charges Apple with a
strategy that used the disparity between
the advertised- and actual user-available
storage space to push customers into
paying for iCloud premium plans.
The class-action lawsuit is similar to
one that targeted Microsoft in 2012 over
the available space on Surface tablets.
On its website Apple explains how
it calculates storage space on its iOS
devices, but has not published figures
for user content.
Lawyers for the iOS lawsuit's plaintiffs
have not responded to questions.
caco01s 1425 | |
Apple updates OS X Yosemite and iOS 8
os |
OS X Yosemite adoption has been swift, but iOS 8 is running on only 68 percent of iPhones and iPads
BY CAITLIN MCGARRY, GREGG KEIZER, LEAH YAMSHON
pple pushed out OS X Yosemite
1010.2 and iOS 81.3 on 27
January to fix bugs on Macs,
iPhones and iPads.
For Yosemite users, 1010.2 aims to fix
the sluggish Wi-Fi issues that 10.101 also
promised to fix but didn't. Updating to
1010.2 should also improve iCloud Drive
and VoiceOver, and keep Spotlight from
grabbing remote email content in search
when you have specifically told it not to.
iOS 8113 is said to reduce the amount
of storage required to perform a software
update. If you were waiting to upgrade
from 7 to 8 because your phone didn't
have enough space, now may be the time
& to get onboard. Apple requested just
136MB of space on our iPad for the iOS
8.1.2 download, and 248MB on an iPhone.
The update also aims to fix a glitch that
prevents users entering their Apple ID
password for Messages and FaceTime,
and another that prevents multitasking
gestures on the iPad.
Both updates are available for
download, with Yosemite 1010.2 available
in the Mac App Store and iOS 8.1.3 by
going to Settings + Software Update.
OS X Yosemite adoption
Apple's OS X Yosemite continues its
rapid pace of adoption since its October
release, with uptake exceeding that of
any of its predecessors, according to data
from analytics vendor Net Applications.
The numbers hint that as Apple’s 2013
decision to give away upgrades becomes
the norm, future OS X adoption will
increase in speed.
In December Yosemite accounted for
45 percent of all instances of OS X tallied
by Net Applications, and for the first time
became the most popular OS X edition.
By comparison, OS X Mavericks, an
October 2013 upgrade, ended December
2014 with a user share of 37 percent.
l | 008.048 News:nas 11
Mountain Lion, released in 2012
and Apple's last paid upgrade,
ended its second year post-launch
at 26 percent. Mavericks and
Mountain Lion took 4- and
12 months respectively to
reach Yosemite's
two-month mark.
Although Yosemite
had a head start —
unlike Mavericks,
Yosemite was offered
to Mac owners as a
beta for several months before launch —
the preview no longer was the cause of
the gap. The eight-point difference
between the two was double the four
points provided by Yosemite's beta
before official release.
Yosemite's brisk uptake tempo also
indicates that even though many have
questioned Apple's software quality and
called for the company to slow down its
release pace, large numbers of Mac
owners have continued to upgrade. Net
Applications’ data tells nothing about
customer satisfaction with Yosemite, of
course; rolling back to an earlier version
after upgrading requires a backup and
more time than most people would
want to spend.
What's clear is that Apple's bet on
free OS X upgrades has been more
successful at moving Mac users to the
new edition than low-priced upgrades.
iOS 8 adoption
Apple has shared its latest data on iOS
8 adoption. As of 5 January, 68 percent
of iPhones, iPads and iPod touches are
running the latest version of Apple's
mobile operating system. Apple tracks
iOS adoption by looking at devices that
access the App Store, and marking
which version of iOS is running on each
of those devices.
—
a
The App Store Distribution data also
shows that 29 percent of devices are still
running iOS 7, and 4 percent are still
clutching to iOS 6 or earlier. Apple’s last
iOS adoption data was from November
2014, which showed 60 percent of
devices had upgraded to iOS 8. An 8
percent uptick in two months is pretty
slow, given the sales boost Apple must
have seen during the Christmas season.
iOS 8 had a particularly tough time
getting off the ground compared to older
versions of iOS. iOS 8 saw sky-high
installs when it first launched — it hit 46
percent of devices just six days after it
launched in September 2014 — but then
downloads steadily tapered off. By
comparison, iOS 7 hit 74 percent of
devices just three months after launch,
and quickly became Apple's fastest
growing mobile operating system.
There are several theories on why
iOS 8 installations are lagging. Bugs
plagued early releases — iOS 8.01 made
some iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models
basically unusable. It continues to have
little problems here and there, and some
older devices might not be equipped to
handle the update even if they are
technically compatible.
Or, it could have been the massive size
of the install itself, which has significantly
reduced since iOS 81.3 arrived.
MARCH 2015 * MACWORLD 11
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— ll Ue * | |
Features 8ST VALUE MAC, BEST DESKTOP MAC
TA
\ VAL
DESKTOP
(012_019 best value macindd 12 as 0202/2015. 14:01
o ae
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A LOW-COST MAC THE £399 MAC MINI AND THE
£749 MACBOOK AIR ARE LIKELY TO BE YOUR TOP CHOICES, BUT WHICH OF
THE PAIR WILL GIVE YOU THE BEST DEAL? PLUS, iMAC VS MAC MINI — WHICH
DESKTOP MAC IS BEST? By Karen Haslam
he £749 entry-level MacBook
Air is almost twice as expensive
as the £399 Mac mini, but
there is a great deal missing
from the Mac mini - not least a mouse,
keyboard and display. On the other
hand, you may decide there is a better
deal to be had if you buy the £799
version of the Mac mini, with its faster
processor and larger storage options.
The new entry-level Mac mini and the
MacBook Air have a lot in common. The
cheapest Mac mini has the same 1.4GHz
dual-core processor as the MacBook Air
range, for example. The two Macs also
share the same Intel HD Graphics 5000
integrated graphics card.
There are three standard Mac mini
models and four MacBook Airs, plus a
number of build-to-order options. So let's
look at the pros and cons of each and
offer buying advice to suit your needs.
SPEGS:
Let's start with the MacBook Air. It comes
in two different sizes: an tin model and a
13in. The main and most noticeable
difference is the resulting screen size
— an 11.6in diagonal on the tin MacBook
compared with a 13.3in diagonal on the
18in model. You'll notice that the aspect
ratio is different too: the lin MacBook Air
is 16:9, like a widescreen TV, while the
Port paradise With an HDMI port as well as
Gigabit Ethernet and Thunderbolt 2, the Mac
mini offers more ways to get stuff in and out.
012.019 best value mac.indd 13
—_—
13in is 16:10. This means that there is a
little more height in the 13in version,
which might be beneficial.
Beyond that there is little difference
between the MacBook Airs other than
storage capacity and price.
Each offers a 1.4GHz Intel dual-core i5
processor as standard, along with the
Intel HD Graphics 5000 integrated
graphics and 4GB of RAM. The only
choice is between the 128GB or
256GB of flash storage.
There are also build-to-order options
for the MacBook Air. You can get it with
8GB of RAM at point of sale for another
£80 — and we recommend you do so. You
can also swap out the standard 1.4GHz
chip for a 17GHz dual-core Intel Core iS
for an extra £130. If you think you might
need 512GB of flash storage, then that
will cost you £240 extra.
And then there’s the Mac mini range,
which was updated at the end of 2014.
Portable paradise The MacBook Air comes
with its own keyboard and an integral 11.6in
or 13.3in screen.
The mini is sold in three configurations.
The cheapest has the same 1.4GHz
dual-core Intel Core iS processor and
integrated graphics chip as the MacBook
Air and entry-level iMac desktop. It also
has a S00GB hard drive. These are
essentially the same specs as the
£899 iMac, but at a cost of just £399;
that’s a saving of £500, more than
enough to buy a separate monitor
and keyboard and mouse.
The other Mac mini models offer quite
a step up from the entry-level model,
although they lag behind the now
discontinued 2012 Mac mini.
The 2.6GHz dual-core iS Mac mini
offers 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard disk, and
Intel Iris Graphics. It costs £569. The RAM
can be upgraded to 16GB at point of
purchase. There are also options for
configuring the Mac mini with flash
storage or a faster i7 processor.
The £799 2.8GHz dual-core i5 Mac
mini offers 8GB of RAM, a 1TB Fusion
Drive (combining a hard drive and flash
storage), and Intel Iris Graphics.
These two Mac minis — the 2.6GHz
and the 2.8GHz — have comparable
MARCH 2015 « MACWORLD 43
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Features BEST VALUE MAC, BEST DESKTOP MAC
processors to those inside the 13in Retina
MacBook Pro, but you can expect the
faster flash storage in the MacBooks to
give those models a boost.
Specs verdict
Given the similarities of the specs, it is no
surprise that the new Mac mini’s
processor and graphics performance is
similar to that of the MacBook Air.
In our tests the entry-level 2014 Mac
mini scored 5401 points in the multi-core
speed Geekbench 3 processor/memory
test. Back in July, Geekbench 3 indicated
an average score of 5392 for the lin
MacBook Air and 5400 for the 13in model
we were testing. While those results
aren't identical, the difference is mainly
due to the Mac mini being tested while
running OS X 10.10, while the test
MacBook Air device was running 10.9.
We would expect the MacBook Air to
be slightly faster than the Mac mini,
thanks to its flash storage.
STORAGE
The storage options vary enormously for
the MacBook Air and Mac mini ranges.
The Mac mini features a 500GB hard
drive at entry-level, a 1TB hard drive at
the mid-range, and a 1TB Fusion Drive
at the high end.
The MacBook Air offers the choice of a
128GB or 256GB SSD - this flash storage
is considerably faster than the old-
fashioned hard drive in the Mac mini.
However, the Fusion Drive option in the
top-of-the-range Mac mini offers the best
Extras With a
keyboard and
monitor added, the
Mac mini can be a
powerful desktop.
of both worlds — the additional storage
offered by a hard drive combined with
faster flash storage.
The ability to get a 1TB Fusion Drive as
standard on the £799 Mac mini is in its
favour; you can't upgrade the MacBook
Air to a Fusion Drive at all. The most
storage you can get in a MacBook Air is
512GB, and that will set you back £240.
Storage verdict
If you're prepared to pay £799 for your
new Mac, the Mac mini with its 1TB Fusion
Drive for £799 may well be a better
option than the entry-level MacBook Air,
with its paltry 128GB of storage. However,
you could always buy an external hard
44 MACWORLD * MARCH 2015
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drive to store media files on that might fill
up your limited storage; it’s pretty simple
to run your photo and music library off an
external hard drive, for example.
PORTS
The Mac mini's big plus here is that it
includes an HDMI port, making it really
easy to plug into your TV, and so a
perfect choice if you want a media centre
for your living room. While you could use
an adaptor to turn the Mini DisplayPort
output on the MacBook Air into HDMI,
that would come at an extra cost.
Prior to Apple's 2014 upgrade to the
Mac mini, FireWire 800 was another port
the Mac mini had and the MacBook Air
didn’t. That, however, is no longer the
case. The old MacBook Pro is the only
Mac that still features this port.
Other ports on the Mac mini include
Gigabit Ethernet, two Thunderbolt 2
ports, four USB 3 ports, the HDMI port,
audio in and a headphone port, an IR
receiver, and an SDXC card slot.
The ports on the MacBook Air are: one
Thunderbolt port, one USB 3 port, and a
Width-wise The tin MacBook Air has a 16:9
aspect ratio, and the 13in model a 16:10.
conoaois 1421 | |
headphone port. Only the 13in model
offers an SDXC card slot.
Crucially the MacBook Air lacks Gigabit
Ethernet, so you can only use it wirelessly
unless you buy a Thunderbolt or USB to
Gigabit adaptor (25 each).
Ports verdict
Here the Mac mini has the edge because
of its HDMI port, which is great if you're
hoping to attach it to your TV. The Mac
mini also comes with faster Thunderbolt 2
ports, and Ethernet, although the ports
offered by the MacBook Air may be
enough for your needs.
DISPLAY OPTIONS
The MacBook Air comes with an
integrated 1in or 18in display. Screen
resolution is 1440x900 for the 13in model
and 1366x768 for the Min
The 13in version has the usual 16:10
MacBook aspect ratio — a good balance
between 16:9 widescreen for fullscreen
video, and a taller display that aids
productivity. The 1lin model of the 2014
MacBook Air has a 16:9 display.
Unfortunately, the display on both
MacBook Airs stands out as the poorest
performing of any current Apple product.
We measured only 63 percent of the
sRGB colour gamut with our Datacolor
Spyder4Elite display calibrator, and
viewing angles for the twisted-nematic
(TN) glossy panel are limited. You could
always plug in an external display and
use your MacBook Air with that when at
your desk.
The Mac mini doesn’t come with a
display supplied as standard, so you will
need either to use one you've already
got, or buy one. You can pick up a
separate monitor for around
£100. Or you could spend
more than twice as what
you lay out for the Mac
l | 012 o19best vate macings 15
mini itself and buy an Apple Thunderbolt
Display for £899.
As mentioned, you can also plug your
Mac mini straight into your widescreen
TV. However, we wouldn't recommend
working on a Mac with a television screen
as a monitor, though:
Display options verdict
The key difference here between the
MacBook Air and a Mac mini is the
former's integrated display, but given that
this display is small and not as good as
other Apple screens, you may find
yourself factoring in the cost of a display
anyway. If you add the cost of a decent
display to the price of the lower-cost Mac
mini it doesn’t look like such a cheap,
option, but you may want to factor the
cost of a decent display into the price of
the MacBook Air too.
PORTABILITY
The (lin MacBook Air is the lightest Mac
you can get, at just 1.08kg. The 13in
model isn't much heavier at 1.35kg. The
iPad Air 2, for example, weighs 444g, so
the lin MacBook Air is approximately the
same weight as two iPad Airs.
The tin MacBook Air measures 30cm
by 19.2cm and is 1.7cm thin, tapering to
0.3cm at its edge. The 13in model is 32cm
by 22.7cm and, like the lin model is 17cm
thin, tapering to 0.3cm at its edge.
The 2014 Mac mini, on the other hand,
is a tiny 20cm square box that's less than
4cm deep. You could probably carry it
around in your bag, although you'd also
need to drag around a monitor, mouse
and keyboard too. But if it's a desktop
Mac you want that takes up very little
space, then the Mac mini is perfect.
Portability verdict
The MacBook Air is clearly more portable
than the Mac mini. And while the Mac
mini might be light, it’s not really one to
carry around given its limited use without
a monitor.
UPGRADABILITY
One of the best things about the 2012
Mac mini was that it was more
upgradable than any other Mac. It used to
be possible to upgrade both hard drive
and RAM with parts purchased
separately, rather than having to choose
the upgrade options available from Apple
at point of purchase.
Sadly the new 2014 Mac mini is not so
upgradable. Apple has soldered the RAM
in place. However, there is one factor in
the Mac mini’s favour: you can still
upgrade its storage.
iFixit.com gave the old Mac mini a
repairability rating of 8 out of 10 in its
teardown. The new 2014 Mac mini
soldered-on RAM makes it impossible to
update it at any time after purchase. iFixit
gave the 2014 Mac mini a 6 out of 10.
The MacBook Air ships with only 4GB of
RAM; you can boost this to 8GB for an
extra £80 when you buy it and we
recommend you do so because there will
be no opportunity to upgrade later on,
because, as with the new Mac mini, the
RAM is soldered on. As with the Mac mini,
you can upgrade the storage,
although doing so would void
your warranty. iFixit gives the
2014 MacBook Air a repairability
score of 4 out of 10.
Light as Air The smaller
MacBook Air is the lightest
Mac around at just over 1kg,
while the 13in model isn't much
heavier at 1.35kg.
MARCH 2015 * MACWORLD 45
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Features
Upgradability verdict
The Mac mini used to be the Mac for
people who liked to tinker. Not any more.
You won't be able to touch the RAM, for
example, as it is soldered on.
The MacBook Air is a similarly tricky
machine to upgrade, although if iFixit’s
rating is anything to go by, the Mac mini
still has the edge.
BEST VALUE
The Mac mini is Apple’s cheapest Mac at
£399, but you will have to factor in the
cost of a monitor, mouse and keyboard.
Add even the cheapest monitor (around
£150) and the cheapest Apple keyboard
and mouse options (£40 each), and you
are looking at around £629 altogether.
The cheapest MacBook is the £749
‘tin MacBook Air, with a 1.4GHz
processor, 4GB of memory and a
128GB SSD. The entry-level laptop is
almost twice the price of the entry-
® level Mac mini. For £50 more you
could get the ultimate Mac mini with a
BEST VALUE MAC, BEST DESKTOP MAC
faster 2.8GHz processor, 8GB of memory
and a 1TB Fusion Drive.
Best value verdict
The price of the £399 Mac mini — along
with a monitor, mouse and keyboard — is
comparable to the £749 MacBook Air with
its 11in monitor. That model has the same
spec as the Mac mini and you get a
built-in display. However, any display you
buy to use with the Mac mini is likely to
be much larger than the MacBook Air's
in or 1in options, so we reckon the Mac
mini has the edge there.
Ifyou have the budget for a £749
MacBook Air and already own a screen,
we recommend spending the money
instead on the 2.8GHz Mac mini, which
costs £50 more at £799 and includes
8GB of memory and a 1TB Fusion Drive
as standard. That's assuming that you
don't need a portable Mac, though.
Possibly the best value way to buy a
Mac is to purchase it second-hand. There
are a variety of ways you can do this.
Apple's Refurbished store (at tinyurl.
com/Spdvyo) sells Macs that have been
returned (if there was a fault it will have
been rectified and the Mac still has a
one-year warranty). You may also find a
good deal on eBay or on Macworld's
own mResell site (mresell.macworld.
co.uk), where we buy and sell old
Macs, iPads and iPhones.
Which is the cheapest of them all? The
entry-level Mac mini for £399,
BEST DESKTOP MAC: iMac vs Mac mini
fyou are in the market for a desktop
Mac, you may be wondering whether
to buy an iMac or a Mac mini. The
Mac Pro is also a possibility, but as.
that’s such a very high-end Mac, with a
very high price, we'll consider just the
iMac and the Mac mini here.
SPECS
There are six different iMacs and three
different Mac minis available with a
number of build-to-order options.
The iMac is an all-in-one desktop
computer with an integrated display.
Screen sizes available include 21.5in and
27in (a 21.5in and 27in screen diagonal
respectively), and there's a variety of chip
speeds (all processors are Intel's Haswell
generation), hard-drive sizes, graphics
cards and RAM options.
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Last year Apple introduced the 21.5in
iMac, with 1.4GHz dual-core processor
and 8GB of memory (not upgradable,
even at point of purchase, as it is
soldered on), Intel HD Graphics 5000
and a 500GB hard drive. It costs £899.
Joining the iMac line-up at the end of
2014 was the Retina 5K iMac. At the other
end of the scale from the £899 iMac, this
27in model offers a 3.5GHz quad-core i5
processor with 8GB of RAM as standard
(you can add 16GB or 32GB of RAM and a
4GHz quad-core Intel i7 at point of
purchase — for a price). The Retina 5K will
cost you £1,999, more than double the
price of the entry-level model, and even
more if you spec it up to the max.
There are four other standard versions
of the iMac to choose between. These
were introduced in October 2013 and
have not been updated by Apple since.
The standard chip in those models is
an Intel quad-core iS that ranges from
2.7GHz to 3.4GHz (although there is a
configuration option of a 3.5GHz quad-
core Intel 7). Each comes with 8GB of
RAM as standard (configurable to 18GB or
32GB at the high end) and a 1TB hard
drive as standard (configurable to 3TB, an
SSD option or a Fusion Drive, which
combines an SSD and a hard drive).
One of these standard models offers
the Intel Iris Pro Graphics card — a step up
from the Intel HD Graphics 5000 in the
£899 model. The rest offer variants of the
nVidia GeForce GT series (750M, 755M
and 775M). This dedicated graphics card
has its own 1GB of memory on most
models (2GB on the high-end model,
configurable to 4GB).
All the iMacs feature an SDXC card slot,
four USB 3 ports, two Thunderbolt ports
conoaois 1421 | |
Eye-stretchers There are
six iMac models, all supplied
with a 21.5in or 27in screen.
(Thunderbolt 2 on the Retina model),
Gigabit Ethernet and a Mini DisplayPort
output. All come with an Apple Wireless
Keyboard and Magic Mouse.
The 2014 Mac mini is a different beast
altogether. It fits in a tiny 20cm square
box less than 4cm deep. There is no
monitor, mouse or keyboard included.
Updated at the end of 2014, the Mac
mini is now sold in three configurations.
The entry-level Mac mini and the
entry-level iMac introduced in mid 2014
have much in common. The cheapest
Mac mini has the same 1.4GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5 chip and integrated graphics
chip as the entry-level iMac. It also
features a 500GB hard drive. For what
are essentially the same specs as the
£899 iMac, you pay just £399 for the Mac
mini — that's a saving of £500, more than
enough to buy a separate monitor,
keyboard and mouse.
The other Mac mini models include one
with a 2.6GHz dual-core i5 chip, 8GB of
RAM, a 1TB hard disk, and Intel Iris
Graphics. It costs £569. At point of
purchase it is possible to upgrade the
RAM to 16GB, and add flash storage or a
faster i7 processor.
The 2.8GHz dual-core i5 Mac mini
comes with 8GB of RAM, a 1TB Fusion
Drive and Intel Iris Graphics. It costs £799.
Specs verdict
In terms of specs the iMac is a better deal
than the Mac mini because of its more
l | 0%2.o1@best vate macinds 17
modern processors, bigger RAM and
better graphics. It also offers an
integrated monitor. However, if you look
to the top-of-the-range Mac mini models,
the specs are impressive for the price.
STORAGE
The iMac and Mac mini storage options
are very similar. Each offers a 500GB
hard drive at entry-level, a 1TB hard drive
at the mid-range and a 1TB Fusion Drive
at the high end.
os |
Being able to pick up a Fusion Drive as
standard on the £799 Mac mini (it’s a £160
option for the mid-range Mac mini and a
£200 option for the £399 model) is
undoubtedly a point in its favour. Having
a Fusion Drive will make a huge
difference to your Mac’s performance.
The iMac range also offers Fusion
Drive options. You can add a Fusion Drive
to the entry-level iMac for £200 — worth
doing because with the Fusion Drive the
machine is as good as the next step up
and will still cost less. The Fusion Drive
upgrade is £160 across the other iMacs.
Storage verdict
The storage upgrade options are the
same, but the starting price is so different
that you can essentially get a pretty
decent Mac mini for less than the cost of
the entry-level iMac.
PORTS,
When it comes to ports, the Mac mini
has the advantage of including an HDMI,
which makes it really easy to plug it into
your TV to act as a media centre for
your living room. You could use an
adaptor to turn the Mini
Bigger picture Add the
cost of a good display
and the Mac mini is not
so cheap.
MARCH 2015 * MACWORLD 47
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Features BEST VALUE MAC, BEST DESKTOP MAC
DisplayPort output on the iMac into HDMI,
but that would cost extra.
Other ports on the Mac mini include
Gigabit Ethernet, two Thunderbolt 2
ports, four USB 3 ports, the HDMI port,
audio in and a headphone port, an IR
receiver and an SDXC card slot.
The ports on the iMac are: Gigabit
Ethernet, two Thunderbolt (only the
Retina iMac has Thunderbolt 2), four USB
3, a headphone, a Kensington lock slot
and an SDXC card slot.
Ports verdict
Here again the Mac mini has something
of an edge because of its HDMI port,
which is great if you were hoping to
attach it to your TV. However, you
wouldn't need to connect the iMac to
your TV in the first place as it comes with
a screen as standard, which takes us to
our next point.
To boggle at The
Retina screen of the
top-range iMac displays
147 million pixels
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DISPLAY OPTIONS
The iMac comes with an integrated 21.5in
or 27in display. The ultimate iMac has a
Retina display boasting an astonishing
5120x2880 pixels — a total of 14.7 million.
The other iMac displays may not be as
ground-breaking, but they are still good
quality. They feature IPS (in-plane
switching) technology, which makes a
huge difference to colour vibrancy and
reproduction. Earlier iMac models were
criticised by some for too reflective a
display. The 2013 model remedied this
and the Retina iMac went one step
further, adding a special film that
improves off-axis viewing.
However, if you are a designer and
need colour accuracy, you might be
better off with another display. The good
news here is you can plug another
display into the back of your iMac and
have two displays.
The Mac mini doesn’t come with a
display at all, so if you don't have one
already, you'll need to buy one
separately. You can pick up a monitor for
around £100, or you could double the
cost of the Mac mini by buying an Apple
Thunderbolt Display for £899.
Although you can plug your Mac mini
into your TV, we wouldn't recommend a
TV screen as your working monitor.
Buy with an eye to the future Because
upgrading an iMac is not for the faint of heart.
Display options verdict
The key difference here is the presence
of the integrated display on the iMac. If
you add the cost of a decent display to
the price of the lower-cost Mac mini it
doesn't look like such a cheap option.
UPGRADABILITY
One of the 2012 Mac mini’s best features
was its enormous upgradability. You could
not only upgrade the hard drive and the
RAM, but do so at any time with parts
purchased separately.
The new 2014 Mac mini is very
different. Apple has soldered the RAM in
place, so it can't be changed. You can,
however, still upgrade the storage.
iFixlt.com gave the old Mac mini a
repairability rating of 8 out of 10; it gave
the 2014 Mac mini a 6 out of 10.
When it comes to the iMac, upgrading
is no job for the faint-hearted. If you aren't
prepared to pull your Mac apart, you may
be wise to fully spec the iMac out when
you buy it. There are a number of build-
to-order options, so if you think you may
need more RAM or a bigger hard drive, or
an SSD at a later date, get it put in when
oaeanors 1404 | |
you buy it. However, you will pay much
more for the extra RAM and storage
doing it like this than if you do it yourself.
You can't add your own RAM to the 21in
iMac without hassle. You'll need to take it
apart and cut through a lot of adhesive to
get to the memory slots, which are hidden
behind the logic board. So unless you
really like to get your hands dirty, you are
stuck with Apple's base 8GB or expensive
build-to-order options. As for other
upgrades, don't even go there. The CPU
is soldered to the logic board, so it can't
be replaced if something goes wrong.
Upgrading the RAM in a 27in iMac is
easier. According to iFixit's teardown of
the 27in iMac, the hard drive and CPU
can be replaced, although you'll need to
cut the adhesive. The Retina iMac scored
5 out of 10 for repairability on iFixit, the
21.5in iMacs even lower: 2 out of 5 for the
entry-level 21in iMac.
Upgradability verdict
The Mac mini used to be for people who
liked to tinker. No more. The RAM, for
example, is untouchable.
If you buy an iMac (especially the 21.5in
model), your specification is pretty well
fixed. There again, it has better specs
than the Mac mini to begin with.
BEST VALUE
The Mac mini is Apple’s cheapest Mac at
£399 although it lacks monitor, mouse
and keyboard. Add even the cheapest
monitor (£150) and Apple keyboard and
mouse options (£40 each), and the total
price is around £629. That makes it
comparable to the £899 iMac, which has
the same spec as the Mac mini. To
compare like for like, you'd need a more
l | 012 o19bestvatiemacings 10
expensive monitor to go with your Mac
mini, although you may already own that
monitor. So in terms of the entry-level
iMac and Mac mini, it certainly looks like
the Mac mini is the best value.
The iMacs and Mac minis are less
comparable outside the entry-level
category, as the Mac mini uses dual-core
chips while the iMac has a quad-core. So
even if you take the most highly specced
Mac mini — the £799, 2.8GHz dual-core
— and compare it to the £1,049 2.7GHz
iMac, the latter has a quad-core chip and
Intel Iris Pro Graphics (the Mac mini has
Intel Iris Graphics). The one thing in that
Mac mini’s favour is its 1TB Fusion Drive,
which will help speed it up. The iMac will
cost you £250 more than the Mac mini in
this case, and another £160 if you wanted
to add the Fusion Drive. That's at least
£250 for a quad-core processor, which is
essentially the only difference, apart from
the display.
Mod quad iMacs have a quad-core
chip, as well as more RAM and better
graphics than the Mac mini
Basic bargain The entry-level Mac minis
starting price is so low it has to be considered.
Beyond those two iMacs there isn’t
really a comparable model to the Mac
mini range.
Best value verdict
We'd recommend the entry-level £399
Mac mini over the iMac. But beyond that
it gets a bit murky.
If you are considering only the entry-
level Mac mini, the price of the iMac is
significantly higher. You could equip the
cheaper Mac with a monitor, mouse and
keyboard, and still have cash left over. So
the Mac mini is undoubtedly the cheapest
way to buy a Mac.
But if it's cheap you are after, it’s worth
considering the £749 MacBook Air, which
has the same specs as the entry-level
iMac and Mac mini — 4GB of memory and
1.4GHz dual-core Intel i5 chip. It also has
an Intel HD Graphics 5000. The only
difference is that the MacBook Air ships
with 128GB of flash storage — which will
make it faster than the Mac mini — and an
lin display, which may be big enough for
your needs. That entry-level MacBook Air
costs £350 more than the
Mac mini.
MARCH 2015 * MACWORLD 19
oaeanors 1404 | |
| oO e
l | 020.022 Mac Trcksinss. 20
Features / 10 mac TRICKS
MAC TRICKS
10 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNO
~ YOUR MAC COULD DO
MACS ARE INCREDIBLE COMPUTERS BUT WITH A LITTLE SECRET
KNOWLEDGE AND A HANDFUL OF ADD-IN APPS YOU'LL BE STUNNED BY
WHAT THEY’RE REALLY CAPABLE OF BY KEIR THOMAS
DISPLAY iPAD AND IPHONE GAMEPLAY
Beaming iOS games to your TV is possible via an Apple TV box
and AirPlay, and is great for sharing your fun with others, but
what if you want to show iOS output on your Mac's screen?
If your Mac is running Yosemite or later, and your device is
running iOS 8 and has a Lightning USB connector, then you've
everything you need. Just attach the iOS device to your Mac,
then start QuickTime Player on the Mac. Click File + New Movie
Recording, and you'll see QuickTime Player attempt to record via
your Mac’s iSight camera. However, if you click the small down
arrow next to the record button on the controller, you can select
your iOS device under the Camera and Microphone headings.
There’s no need to actually record anything, and moving the
mouse cursor out of the window will hide the controls and
window border. You can even switch the QuickTime Player
window to full-screen in the usual way by clicking the
green maximise button.
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Not got the hardware or software required? Try using
AirServer, which runs on a Mac or PC and works with any
iOS device capable of AirPlay (iOS 4.2 or later).
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RUN WINDOWS APPS NATIVELY
There's still a handful of Windows-only apps around
that many people absolutely rely on, such as Quicken
financial software.
A solution here is provided in the form of CrossOver
Mac, which is a commercial version of the Wine project,
which aims to recreate the Windows under-the-hood
components on both Linux and Mac.
It’s not cheap at £38, but there’s a 14-day free trial
available, and it's worth noting that CrossOver Mac
can even run many Windows games.
Ifyou fancy a free-of-charge approach, then try the
more hands-on WineBottler.
CrossOver lets you run Windows
‘applications on your Mac.
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your Mac, then you can raid the social
networks’ profile pictures to update your
iCloud address book.
To do this, open System Preferences, click
Internet Accounts, then select your
Facebook or Twitter account at the left.
Then click the Update Profile Photos button.
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l | 020.029 Mac Ticksings 24
BEAM MOVIES TO YOUR
TELLY — WITHOUT AIRPLAY
AirPlay is a terrific way of viewing movies on your TV or
listening to songs, but it requires an Apple TV. If you've a
modern internet-compatible TV, though, you might find it's
compatible with DLNA, which means you can beam files
directly to it over the network. Alternatively, most games
consoles are DLNA-compatible.
To use DLNA on your Mac, you'll need an app like PS3
Media Server, which regardless of name should work with all
DLNA-compatible TVs and is free although you have to install
Java (you'll be prompted during installation).
Once the app is installed you'll need to point it at where your
video or audio files are stored on your Mac by clicking the
Navigation/Share Settings tab, and then clicking the Restart
Server button. Your Mac should then appear automatically on
your TV or PS3 in the list of available devices to play from.
MARCH 2015 « MACWORLD 24
conono1s 1945 | |
Features / 10 MAc TRICKS
USE ANDROID GAMES
AND APPS
By installing GenyMotion on your Mac,
which is free for personal use, you can
use a virtual Android tablet.
Click the Add button on the
GenyMotion toolbar and then select
Custom Tablet in the Device Model
drop-down list. Choose Custom tablet
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Once the emulated Android installation
has been set up, you'll need to add in a
few hacks in order to make it into a full
Android system.
Start your emulated tablet by double-
clicking its entry in the list so it boots to
the unlock screen. Then on your Mac
download the ARM translation software,
and drop the zip file you downloaded on
top of the tablet emulation program
window (don't unzip it first!
Click OK to install, wait until a second
dialog box appears, then close and restart
your emulated tablet (if you see a failure
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message, just restart anyway). Then on
your Mac, download the Google Apps zip
and again drop it over the emulated
tablet window, and follow the instructions
before restarting (again, don't worry if you
see a failure message).
Angry Birds
When you restart the tablet, you'll
then need to follow the instructions in
order to set it up as a new device, but
you should find that Play Store is now
available and will allow you to install apps
and games.
CREATE A FILE SERVER
An old Mac you no longer use you can be
turned into a file server for other Macs
and Windows computers to store data on
— useful for backup purposes, especially
if you attach an external hard disk.
Just open System Preferences, click
Sharing, and then put a tick alongside File
Sharing. You'll be shown an address to
use. On a Mac that wants to save files on
your new server, open Finder and click
Go + Connect To Server, then type the
afp:// address provided.
On a Windows computer, open the
Start menu and in the Search field type
two backslashes and just the part of the
address following the afp:/ part of the list
(something like \\192.168.15).
Your users can log in using the Mac's
username and password if they don't
mind seeing each other's files, or you can
use the Users & Groups component of
System Preferences to create a separate
account for each user.
22 MACWORLD - MARCH 2015
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RUN VINTAGE MAC OS
If you want a nostalgia blast, you can run older versions of
Mac OS on your Mac. Apple’s made the older Mac OS 7
and 9 releases free of charge and although you can get
System 9 directly from them (tinyurl.com/m3q3www),
System 7 has been lots to the mists of time. However, a
quick Google will reveal it for download at several sites.
The equally free Sheep Shaver software is able to run
them. Getting it all working can time-consuming, however,
and by Googling you may find some ready-made
operating system images you can install and double-click
SPEAK WHAT YOU WANT
This is an old trick but one that’s been given a new lease
of life in recent versions of OS X because of extremely
realistic voice synthesis. To make your Mac say what you
type, open a Terminal window (you'll find it in the Utilities
folder of Finder), then type ‘say’ and hit Enter. Then type
what you want to say and hit Enter after each line. When
you've finished, just close the Terminal window.
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l | 020.022 Mac Trcksinda 20
RESCUE FILES FROM
A DAMAGED MAC
If a Mac is misbehaving to the point where it won't boot, but
you believe the hard disk is still intact, then you might be
able to use another Mac to access its files.
Turn on the Mac that’s broken and immediately hold
down the T key. This will boot it into Target Disk Mode,
which should work even if the Mac can’t boot normally.
Then connect the Mac to the second Mac via a FireWire or
Thunderbolt cable. The damaged Mac will appear in Finder
as an external drive, just like a USB stick.
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TEACH YOURSELF DEEP ENGLISH
Most people know that Macs include a very capable
Dictionary app, which can be found in the Applications list.
But what most people don't know is that it not only contains
the entire dictionary, but also introductory pages explaining
how the English language is structured and how dictionaries
are created. To access it, just open the Dictionary app, then
click Go + Front/Back Matter.
MARCH 2015 - MACWORLD 23
02/02/2015
1240 | |
Features / seTTING UP ANEW MAC
Setting up a new Mac
Getting anew Apple Mac computer is cause for celebration. Lou Hattersley shows how to get started
etting up a new Mac should be
easy, quick and above all fun.
It's not every day you get a
brand new Apple computer,
so it's best to start off on the right foot.
In this article we're going to look at
setting up and getting started with a new
Mac. We'll look at switching on the
computer, running through the setup
process, entering your account details
and transferring data from an old Mac.
Starting your new Mac
Starting a new Mac couldn't be easier.
Unbox it and plug in the power supply
(most MacBooks carry some charge
from when they were tested, but it's
24 MACWORLD + MARCH 2015
| (024_025 Set up aNew Mac.indd 24
best to plug it in anyway). If you've got
a new Mac mini or brand new Mac Pro,
then you'll also need to attach a monitor,
and either a USB keyboard or mouse.
Make sure that you have batteries
Setting Up Your Mac.
inside the Apple Magic Trackpad, Magic
Mouse or Apple Wireless Keyboard.
Press the Power button!
Setup Assistant
When an Apple Mac runs for the
first time, it launches a program called
Setup Assistant. This is used to help you
set up your Mac, connect to the internet
and guide you through the account
creation process. It also runs you
through the legal documents and helps
you decide on your privacy settings
(these affect apps such as Find My
Friends). Each screen offers selections
and a Continue button. Here are the
screens on Setup Assistant:
20212015 10 | |
* Welcome to your new Mac This
screen displays a Map. Select a country
near you and press Continue. Select
your keyboard. Check that the keyboard
is set to British (not US). You may need
to click Show All to reveal the British
keyboard layout.
* Choose your Wi-Fi Network
You need to connect to a network.
These will typically be a Wi-Fi network.
Choose your network’s SSID (name)
and enter the password. If you don’t
know your Wi-Fi password it may be
written on the side of your router.
* Transfer information to this Mac If
you are upgrading from an old Mac, you
can use the Time Machine backup to
transfer information to your new Mac.
This uses a program called Migration
Assistant. It's worth noting that you can
Tun Migration Assistant at any time, you
don’t need to do it just now. So click on
Not Now and Continue.
if you don’t fancy getting an Apple
ID you can click Skip and sign up for
one later.
* Terms and Conditions You'll now be
asked to read and agree to the Terms
and Conditions. Read through these
and click Agree, then Agree again.
* Set up iCloud Next you'll be asked
to set up iCloud. This requires you to
have signed in with your Apple ID. We
think iCloud is fantastic. It syncs up
your contacts, calendars, Mail accounts,
web browser information, reminders,
notes and provides you with SGB of
storage space to store documents in
the new iCloud Drive. Enable Set Up
iCloud on this Mac and click Continue.
* Setting up FaceTime and Messages
The next window asks whether you want
to use your email for FaceTime and
Messages. Your iCloud email will appear
by default, but if you have registered
other emails with Apple they may appear.
We'll look at switching on the computer, running
through the setup process, entering your account
details and transferring data from an old Mac
* Enable Location Services Location
Services enables apps to locate your
position on earth. You have to give each
app permission to do this, and Apple
apps and services, like Maps and Find
My Friends make good use of this.
We think it's a good idea to tick Enable
Location Services on My Mac and
Continue, but it’s up to you.
* Setting up your Mac with Apple
ID It's now time to enter your Apple ID
and Password. This is the same Apple ID
that you use to make purchases from
the App Store. It is an email address,
and usually one that ends in ‘icloud.com’.
If you don't have an Apple ID, then
it's a good idea to create one by
clicking on Create a Free Apple ID.
You'll need to provide a credit card to
get an Apple ID, but it can be used to
locate missing Apple Mac computers,
provide a good password lock, and it
enables you to download new (often
free) apps from the Mac App Store. But
| (024_025 Set up aNew Mac.indd 25
Tick the checkbox next to email
addresses you want to use with FaceTime
and Messages and click Continue.
* Find My Mac Now you'll be asked
whether you want to use iCloud with
Find My Mac. This is a service Apple runs
which helps you to locate lost Macs. A
Mac you own will send its location when
you ask it from another devices, or from
the iCloud.com website when you sign
in to it. We think it's a great idea to tick
this on and click Continue.
* Accounts You'll next be asked to set
up your account. You need to fill out the
Full Name field, this will give you an
Account Name and Password fields.
Makes sure you pick a good password,
but also one you can remember. In this
screen you will also see two options:
Allow My Apple ID To Reset This
User's Password; Require Password
When Logging In.
We think it’s a good idea to keep both
of these ticked on. Click Continue.
* Select your Time Zone If you agreed
to Location Services earlier, you can just
leave the Set Time Zone Automatically
Using Current Location and click on
Continue. This way the Mac will change
time zone if you enter a new time zone
area. Otherwise pick the time zone you
want to use and click Continue.
* Diagnostics and Usage
This is a new feature in OS X Yosemite.
In this window Apple requests whether
you want to share information with
Apple and other app developers.
There are two options here:
Send diagnostics & usage data to Apple
Share crash data with app developers
The first option is ticked by default,
the second you'll have to tick manually (if
you agree to sharing crash data with
developers). We share our crash data with
developers because we want them to be
able to improve the apps we use, but it
depends on your privacy concerns. Click
Continue when you are ready to move on
* Should you register your new Mac
with Apple? Finally, you can choose to
Register your Mac with Apple. We tend to
register my Macs with Apple, and they
already send me marketing emails (which
are the few marketing emails we
welcome). But you can click Skip if you
don't want to get marketing from Apple.
That's it. The final screen will simply
say Thank You. Click Continue and start
using your Mac. The best thing you can
do before going any further is to click on
the App Store app and click on Updates.
Now click on Update All. There will
almost certainly have been some new
software released since the Apple Mac
left the factory, and updating the
software before you go any further
makes sure you are off to a good start.
MARCH 2015 « MACWORLD 25
20212015 1308 | |
Features / 10 APPS TO INSTALL ON A NEW MAC
The first 10 apps to
install on your new Mac
Glenn Fleishman reveals 10 apps that will enhance your user experience
t used to be all the rage to
photograph in excruciating detail
the ‘unboxing’ of a new piece of
gear, especially hardware that few
people (or no-one else) yet had. This
was great, but it's sort of like a wedding:
the event is relatively brief and the
important stuff comes afterwards,
26 MACWORLD « MARCH 2015
| (026 029 10 Apps to Installindd 26
as you spend years together. Likewise,
unboxing a new Macintosh may be
exciting, especially if it's a surprise.
But the important part comes next.
While Apple includes some software,
and offers more to download for free
via the Mac App Store, what else should
a new user or a fresh system get?
We have 10 suggestions that will
make your life better by shaving off the
irritations that remain in OS X Yosemite
and in Apple's bundled software. A new
Mac user will be happier than otherwise,
while a veteran user looking to refresh
a system will find the time and effort
savings rewarding as well.
03022015 10:57 |
LaunchBar
Devine OS X's Launchpad and
Spotlight can, in different ways, let you
quickly find and open apps, documents,
and other things, they can be maddening.
Launchpad’s interface is hardly useful
when you have more than a handful of
apps, and Spotlight searches everything,
rather than specific categories and in
specific ways. Instead, pick LaunchBar
(obdev.at, €23 [£18] individual; €39 [£29]
family), which indexes and links to all
sorts of stuff: music, contacts, apps, emoji,
search history, bookmarks, and more.
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The app can be invoked from a
keystroke — we use the default 3¢-Escape.
Then you just type a few letters to select
the thing you want, and press Return to
launch it or open it with the appropriate
app. LaunchBar’s bar, however, also lets
you perform most Finder actions with a
38-shortcut and carry out calculations.
LaunchBar can also add Clipboard
depth, turning into something like the
old pre-OS X Scrapbook: you can revert
to and cycle through previous items
you've copied or cut.
Default Folder
2 ec are three elements of
Yosemite itself that we spend more time
interacting with than any other: the Open
dialog, the Save dialog (and variants like
Export), and Finder window navigation.
Default Folder (stclairsoft.com, £25.50)
enhances all of these to your advantage
in efficiency and organisation.
When installed, the app wraps your
open and save dialogs in a bunch of
extra interface items. On one side, you
can select from volumes and special
| (026_029 10 Apps to Installindd 27
locations, Finder windows, favourited
locations, and recently visited folders.
The file-navigation dialogs can also be set
to snap to the last document opened or
other locations, while pressing Alt, plus
the down or up arrow cycles backward or
forward through recent folders. Another
item allows a variety of Finder-style file
actions directly within the dialog, like
rename, duplicate, and move to trash.
A pane at the bottom reveals a
preview, Spotlight comments, tags and
permissions, as well as file data such as
creation date and whether the item is
locked or not. There's a host of other
options, too: tap a key combination,
and the current folder is opened in the
Finder. With Default Folder installed,
you never have to painstakingly
navigate your drives and folders.
TextExpander
3 eWe know this is crazy talk, but what
if you could replace the tedious repetitive
typing of common phrases with a few
keystrokes? Such shortcutting dates back
decades — once known as ‘macros’ — and
TextExpander (smilesoftware.com, £26
individual, £35 family) is the modern
mature version of it.
Start with figuring out a few characters
to type instead of your name or mailing
address, then advance to using its tools
for tapping a few keys to insert the
current date, formatting it as you like. As
you become more familiar with the
software, you can move on to employing
prefabricated AppleScript to tap into URL
shorteners, handling the round trip from
clipboard to a tiny path. Graduate to its
fill-in forms, which allow you to compose
Beo eats
a message with selectable fill-in values
to automate replies.
Smile revised its iOS version,
TextExpander 3 (£3.99) to work within
the add-on keyboard approach in iOS
8. Snippets can sync using Dropbox
among Mac and iOS devices.
Password
Security pundits recommend that
you create a unique strong password for
every site or service you use. That's
impossible for most of us to manage, but
an integrated password generator and
secure storage app such as 1Password
MARCH 2015 * MACWORLD 27
03022015 10:57 |
| TT &
Features 10 APPS TO INSTALL ON A NEW MAC
6) Password
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length —O- 8
a san
Separator
(tinyurl.com/ohfhjmm, £39.99) handles
that with ease. It can create random
password according to rules you set, or
those absurd ones imposed by sites,
and then securely store them for you.
That would be perfectly dandy, but
not terribly useful if that's alll it did.
However, 1Password also comes with
web browser plug-ins for Safari, Chrome
and Firefox, which let you invoke the app
while visiting a site. Tap a keystroke, and
it either prefills a username, password,
and more, if there’s only one match; or
lets you choose among multiple
accounts for a site. When creating an
account, the password generator can
be invoked in the same way.
1Password also stores and can fill
in one or more identities (address
information), as well as credit card details.
Versions are available for Windows, iOS,
and Android, and a password database
can be synced among them. (The App
Store version is required for iCloud
sync with OS X and iOS.)
The similarly featured LastPass (tinyurl.
com/mj77n44, free) is an alternative
for those who want to be able to gain
access to passwords via website, which
1Password doesn't offer.
Dropbox
5. Keeping files up to date among
multiple computers was a pain for many
years. It wasn’t until Dropbox (dropbox.
com, free tier with 2- to 16 GB; 1TB
Dropbox Pro, £7.69 per month or £79 per
year) appeared — a harbinger of cloud
storage — that it became simple. Dropbox
has a single folder into which you can
place anything, and it’s copied to its
28 MACWORLD « MARCH 2015
| 026_029 10 Apps to Installindd 28
internet storage in your account, while
also synchronised to any computer
logged into the same account. (You can
selectively omit specific subfolders on
each machine.)
That would be enough, but it also
offers two kinds of sharing. Shared
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folders sync the contents to any members
who have joined the folder. A shared link
allows any recipient to download a file or
folder, or browse a folder’s contents.
Because Dropbox keeps a copy
centrally, it keeps track of every change.
Older versions and even deleted files are
available for up to 30 days after a change
or removal, and an upgrade to Dropbox
Pro, called Extended Version History,
extends that to a year. Dropbox's iOS
client lets you browse its cloud-stored
versions, forward files, and download
them to the app or open in other apps.
Fei
You already have FaceTime
available on your computer and iOS
devices, so why would you need Skype
(skype.com/en, free)? Because not
everyone you know has a Mac, iPhone or
iPad, and because FaceTime doesn't
come with a calling plan, even though in
Yosemite, OS X can access your iPhone
la
ry
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ion
lo
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to make and receive calls to landlines
and mobile numbers.
Skype has a tattered history of Mac
updates, but it remains the lingua franca
for person-to-person and group internet
telephone calls. The service also has
inexpensive calling plans for making
unlimited phone calls to specific
countries (such as the US), and cheap
per-minute rates without a plan or to
countries not included in a plan. You can
pay for one or more incoming ‘real’ phone
numbers, too, placing them in countries
from which you routinely receive calls,
making it a local call for residents there.
It offers audio only and video calls, as
well as screen sharing, file transfer, and
instant messaging, along with SMS. I've
used Skype for years as my main
incoming and outgoing business line to
avoid the fixed cost, and as it's typically
higher quality than a mobile call.
CrashPlan
y pee (code42.com) can back up
any selection of files to a locally
connected drive, a local-area network
volume, a peer’s drive elsewhere, or its
cloud service — in any combination. Only
the cloud storage comes with a fee
attached, $5 (£3.30) per month individual,
$15 (£9.90) per month family. The latter
subscription option lets you pull in any of
your otherwise backup-adverse relatives
without them having to manage the
details of a separate account themselves.
The peer-to-peer option allows you to
push your encrypted files to someone
else's drive anywhere on the internet.
That other person gives you a code,
and off your files go onto their backup
volume or a separate volume you could
provide, offering true offsite backup
without a recurring fee.
CrashPlan isn't a full-system clone,
though. For that, Time Machine or Super
Duper (shirt-pocket.com, £20.40) is a
better option. Rather, CrashPlan is best at
archiving your documents, preferences,
and applications, and can store endless
revisions of the same files for recovering
older drafts.
We have about 1.5TB stored with
CrashPlan’s cloud service across our own
03022015 10:57 |
computers, and have relied on restoring
files from the cloud and local drives
many times, both through its Mac
interface (including over 600GB after a
recent drive failure) and its iOS app
(tinyurl.com/mzw3kmy, free).
CrashPlan's major down side is that
it continues to require Java, an extra
installation in OS X for years. Installing
Java for CrashPlan is safe, because
it’s not enabled for use on the web
without extra steps. Still, if that's a
stumbling block, Backblaze (unlimited
storage, $5 (£3.30) per month for each
computer) is a good option.
Airfoil
AirPlay is one of the best things
about Apple's ecosystem of audiovisual-
friendly devices, and many strictly audio
devices support AirPlay audio playback,
too. But AirPlay has a number of limits.
For example, iTunes is the only Apple
software that has a specific AirPlay
option, which includes simultaneous
playback to multiple devices. Otherwise,
you're limited to choosing a single
device from Sound preferences to
which to shunt all system audio.
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©) Computer
Available
[© Glenn's MacBook Air (3)
Available
The Office AirPort Ex.
Available
Airfoil (rogueamoeba.com, $29 [£19]
works around this limit by letting you take
just the audio output of any software or
audio input device and route it to one
or more AirPlay-compatible receivers,
including an Apple TV or AirPort
Express. Better still, Rogue Amoeba
offers Airfoil Speakers apps, free software
for receiving Airfoil audio for Mac,
Windows, Android, iOS, and Linux
VLC
VLC (videolan.org, free) is the Swiss
Army knife of video playback software.
QuickTime Player can handle most
popular formats, but for those it can't
there's VLC. It can play internet streaming
video of all sorts, read various disc
formats, and convert some files it can’t
read. If you deal with older file formats,
say, those used by people that eschew
H.264 because of patent issues, or video
created or distributed for Windows and
Unix variants, VLC is a one-stop shop.
Beyond video file support, VLC can
open and convert tons of audio formats,
which you might find in sorting through
several decades of rubbish on the web
and in your own digital history, depending
on your age. It can also directly open
YouTube URLs, subscribe to podcasts,
make video playlists, and play Internet
radio stations from a large, built-in list.
GraphicConverter
1 0.x: VIC is to video (and audio)
formats, GraphicConverter (lemkesoft.de,
€34.95 [£26.30] is to image files. While
Apple's Preview offers a decent subset of
image viewing and manipulation controls,
GraphicConverter has more in common
with Photoshop. It can open just about
anything, offers photographic (non-linear
levels) and image-editing (gradients, fills,
and like) tools, and the basics such as
cropping, canvas resizing, and up-
and downsampling. We often use
GraphicConverter’s Browse command
to view images in a directory, where we
can preview and see file data, as well
as rename or delete them.
You can directly import images from
scanners and cameras (including in RAW
format), and GraphicConverter can upload
directly to Google+, Flickr, and other
services. And if you need to process a
number of images — converting a folder
from TIFF to JPEG, for instance — the
program has simple batch processing,
with more advanced options available
to those who need them.
| 026_029 10 Apps to Installindd 29
MARCH 2015 * MACWORLD 29
03022015 10:57 |
| (030_032 15 iTunes Tips.indd 30
Features / iTUNES TIPS AND TRICKS
iTunes tips
and tricks
Martyn Cassely's tips will help
you get more out of iTunes 12
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Show sidebar
Vetooe has been hiding the sidebar in recent versions of
iTunes. To get it back in iTunes 12 simply select the Playlists
options at the top of the screen and it will appear on the left.
Temporary playlists
Right-click a track and select the option Add to Up Next,
and the song will be placed in the queue. To see what songs are
lined up, go to the play windows at the top of iTunes and click
on the three horizontal lines to see the playlist.
My Muslo Pi
2000 Miles (Stockhol
| Saw That Years Ago
Home Sharing
To set this up, go into iTunes and select File + Home
Sharing + Turn on Home Sharing and enter your Apple ID. Now
repeat the process on your other machine, then you'll see a little
house appear in the top left of the main iTunes window. Click
this to see the content on other machines.
30 MACWORLD « MARCH 2015
Family Sharing
Family Sharing
Go to System Preferences, choose iCloud » Set up Family
and follow the instructions. Then you can add the Apple IDs of
your loved ones and make the each others content available to
your Mac or iOS device.
& 0310272015
1100 | |
I can name that tune! | think
it's ‘Santa Claus Is Comin’ to
Town’ by Bruce Springsteen.
Use Siri to fin what
5 song is playing
If you're out and about and
suddenly hear a song that you
must have, but don’t know
what it’s called, Siri can help
you. Simply ask “what song
is this?” and the digital
assistant will search its data
FRA Santa Claus Is
tage Comin’ to Town
—=
banks and return with the
results. Then you can click on
the iTunes store link and the
track will be purchased and
added to your library.
ShES2REeE
- a a
iTunes University
6 In this separate store, you'll find a wealth of courses from
renowned educational bodies such as Oxford University. Each
course is broken into several lectures, with many including notes
that you can read on your iPad or print out. The best part is that
they are all completely free.
Album artwork
7. Click Store + Sign and enter your Apple ID and password.
Now click iTunes + Preferences + Store and ensure there is a
tick in the ‘Share details about your library with Apple’ option.
Now Ctrl+click any album and choose Get Album Artwork.
Manually add artwork
Bucicx an album cover and select all the tracks in this list
beneath it. Choose File + Get Info (or press 3¢+l). Open Safari
and search for the image in Google Image Search. Drag the
image directly from Safari to the Artwork box to add it to iTunes.
@_Tiunes File Eat View Controls
e
mae Home Onn
Recently Added
iTunes Match
Quiyou have iTunes Match, you can use it to upgrade music
you have imported from a CD. Delete a track but don’t click the
Also Delete This Song from iCloud button. The song will still be
in your iTunes library. Click the iCloud icon to redownload it. The
download will be at the full quality.
| (030_032 16 iTunes Tips.indd 31
Create a playlist to update to iTunes Match
1 O cis on File + New + Smart Playlist. Set Match to all of
the following: Bitrate is less than 256kb/s; Media Kind is Music;
iCloud Status is Matched. Click OK. Repeat the process but
replace the last line with iCloud Status is Purchased.
MARCH 2015 « MACWORLD 31
o3/022015 1100 | |
Features / iTUNES TIPS AND TRICKS
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Show duplicate items
1 Choose My Music and click on the drop-down menu on
the right side of the screen, just beneath the Search Library box,
then select Songs. Choose View + Show Duplicate Items, to see
just the songs of which there are more than one copy. Now you
can go through and manually delete the unwanted tracks.
12
Change media kind
‘elf you add movies to iTunes to watch, then you're
probably wondering why they're always added to Home
Movies. You can change them by clicking on the file and
choosing File + Get info. Choose Options and use the Media
Kind window to move it over to Movies (for Films) or TV Shows.
Use the MiniPlayer
13 .cc up to the artwork displayed in the play window at
the top of the iTunes app and you'll notice a couple of small
squares appear, click on this to switch to the player. Otherwise
you can go in iTunes to Window + Switch to MiniPlayer.
ee, € =
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14
device:
device:
Use multiple AirPlay devices
‘elf you have multiple AirPlay devices (such as an Apple
TV and AirPlay speaker), you can play music through all
s at once. Click AirPlay and Multiple, and tick all the
s you want to use.
15 Redeem a payment card
ewith iSight
Ifyou have an iTunes store card, you
can redeem it by holding up the card to
your iSight camera (instead of tapping
in the code). Apple iTunes will scan the
card using the camera and redeem it
for you automatically. Open the iTunes
Store and click on Redeem and select
Redeem with Camera.
32 MACWORLD - MARCH 2015
| (030_032 15 iTunes Tips.indd 32
Redeem Code
itunes
spansson204ss
Redeem your gift card using your computer's camera.
‘You can aio ener your code mera
o3/022015 1100 | |
a ||
MAC SECURITY OPTIONS / Features
Mac security options
Topher Kessler reveals the four Mac security options everyone should know
Enable the OS X firewall
The firewall in OS X is a network filter
that allows you to control which programs
and services can accept incoming
connections. While classic firewalls do
this on a per-port basis, OS X’s can
work on a per-application or per-service
basis, giving you more flexibility.
To set up your firewall, go to the
Security & Privacy system preferences,
click on the Firewall tab, and then
unlock the preference pane, after which
you will be able to click the Turn On
Firewall button. This basic option is the
best for most purposes, but you can also
click the Firewall Options button to see
the specific settings for each application,
as well as access some extra features,
such as stealth mode and an option for
blocking all connections.
The firewall is a good option to enable
if you're connected to a public Wi-Fi
network, such as one at a cafe, library, or
other hotspot. For home networks, you
can usually rely on your router’s firewall
for protection, though, enabling the OS
X firewall for added security generally
won't cause additional problems.
Enable FileVault
FileVault is the full-disk encryption routine
in OS X that will secure all files on the
drive. To enable it, go to the FileVault
tab of the Security & Privacy system
preference, unlock the preference, and
click Turn On FileVault. When you do this
you'll be asked to choose the user
accounts that are authorized to unlock
the disk. Click Continue and your Mac
will begin encrypting your drive.
Full disk encryption is primarily useful
for protecting a stolen Mac. When your
drive is unlocked, files on it can be read.
However, before it’s unlocked, all data on
the drive will be scrambled. This prevents
data recovery by unauthorised third
parties, who might try to access it using
Target Disk mode on your Mac or by
removing your Mac's hard drive and
attaching it to another computer.
Password management
If you use numerous online services
regularly, then you will (or should) have
different credentials for each one. These
may be difficult to remember. In OS X,
you have a built-in alternative for
managing passwords called the keychain.
The keychain is enabled by default to
store your various passwords for online
services, email accounts, and other
authentication routines. Whenever you
see a checkbox for saving your password,
or in a drop-down menu when using
Safari, this is OS X asking you to store
these passwords in an encrypted file
called the login keychain.
This can be managed using the
Keychain Access utility (/Applications/
Utilities). In most cases, there’s little need
to use this. Instead, use the option to
save your passwords and OS X will
automatically enter them when needed.
Locking and locating
A final couple of options for protecting
your Mac include securing your computer
when you have to leave it unattended
and enabling remote access to it — not
only to interact with it from afar, but also
to track and lock it down, if needed.
You set up the first of these options in
the General tab of the Security & Privacy
system preference. Just enable the
Require Password option and choose
Immediately or five seconds from the
pop-up menu and you'll be required to
enter a password to use your Mac after
it's gone to sleep or the screen saver has
started. The shorter the time interval you
use in this feature, the better. Just close
the lid to lock the system.
For Find My Mac, if your system is ever
stolen you can log into iCloud.com or use
the Find My iPhone app on an iOS device
to locate your device, send it a command
to lock it down unless a password is
supplied, have it issue a sound (also a
great option for locating a misplaced iOS
device), or remotely wipe the device.
Overall, while Apple can do very little
to prevent your computer from being
stolen, OS X does its best to protect the
data it holds as well as offers a chance
that you can pinpoint its location. With
these options enabled, you can be sure
your Mac’s data is as safe as possible,
with little to no inconvenience for you.
MARCH 2015 « MACWORLD 33
| (083 Security indd 33 & 02/02/2015 1318 | |
Features / itunes Guy
Ask the iTunes Guy
Kirk McElhearn demystifies artwork, wish lists, and alerts in iTunes 12
With increasing numbers of users
updating to iTunes 12, we've been getting
a huge amount of questions about how to
use this new version. This month, we look
at questions about iTunes 12. We discuss
adding artwork to files, deleting artwork,
and changes to the iTunes Store’s Wish
List and My Alerts section.
Q: How do | add album art to my
music and movies in iTunes 12?
A: iTunes 12 has changed the Info window
that appears when you select one or
more items and press %-I. The old
window had an Artwork well, where
you could either drag or paste graphics
to add album art to your files. In iTunes
12, the Info window is different.
34 MACWORLD - MARCH 2015
| (034_035 iTunes Guy.indd 34
a ||
Bach, Johann Sebastian
‘tof Fugue - Hewitt
EI wor options sorting
‘Bach, Johann Sebastian
‘tof Fugue - Hewitt
‘Bach, Johann Sebastian
Keyboard
‘Album is a compilation of songs by various artists
Bach, Johann Sebastian
‘Artof Fugue - Howitt
Detats BEESETI optons soning
Note that the window you see
displays information about files that
already have album art, but it doesn't
show that album art when you select
multiple items. (The iTunes 11 Info
window didn’t show graphics in the
Artwork well either) There are now three
ways to add album art to your files:
* Click the artwork square at the top-left
of the window — the one with the musical
notes — and it becomes highlighted. You
can paste a graphic that you've copied to
your clipboard by pressing 3-V or you
can just drag a graphic onto that square.
* Click the Artwork tab and
paste a graphic, or drag it
onto that pane.
* Click the Artwork tab, click
Add Artwork, choose a file
that’s anywhere on your Mac,
such as one you've
downloaded, and click OK.
These techniques work for
multiple items, such as the
songs on an album, or
for single items,
such as a movie
or TV show.
Q: How can | delete
artwork from all the
tracks of an
album in
iTunes 12
iTunes 12 Info window On the leftis the
window that shows a summary and the
main tags of your files. On the right is
the Artwork tab of that window.
A: As we said in the previous answer,
iTunes 11's Info window had an Artwork
well. If you checked a box next to it and
then clicked OK, that told iTunes to
reset that metadata to what was in the
well. If the well was empty, iTunes
would delete the artwork.
In iTunes 12, since you can't see
the artwork when you display the Info
window for multiple items, it doesn't look
like there's any way to delete artwork.
The same is the case on the Artwork tab
in the Info window; there’s no artwork
visible, and no sign of anything that
lets you delete the existing artwork.
The trick is to click the artwork
square in the Info window, then press the
Delete key. That square then looks like
the figure to the right. Click OK and
iTunes will remove the artwork. Click
Cancel if you change your mind.
Q: | used to have several hundred
tracks in my iTunes Store Wish List,
but after upgrading to iTunes 12,
all but 32 of those tracks have
disappeared. | don’t see any
button that says ‘See All’ or
‘Show Entire List’ or anything of
20212015 roa |
Details Artwork
year
track — of 21
rating
genre Keyboard
Add Field
Bach, Johann Sebastian
Art of Fugue - Hewitt
Options Sorting
artist Bach, Johann Sebastian
album Art of Fugue - Hewitt
composer Bach, Johann Sebastian
options ~ Album is a compilation of songs by various artists
Cancel
the sort. Is there any way to get
those tracks to appear again?
A: Apple did something strange with the
iTunes Store Wish List in iTunes 12. Not
albums you've added to the Wish List
display. (I didn’t test with other types of
content, but it's likely the same.)
We admit that this is confusing,
especially since Apple wants you to add
In iTunes 12, since you can't see the artwork when
you display the Info window for multiple items, it
doesn't look like there's any way to delete artwork
only is the display different, but it shows,
as you say, just 32 tracks. However, the
tracks you saved aren't lost. If you delete
some of them — hover over a track and
then click the X icon at the top-right
corner — and then press 3£-R to reload the
Wish List page, you'll still see 32 tracks. In
other words, the Wish List only shows the
most recent 32 tracks in your Wish List.
We also tested this with albums. And
it’s the same story as only the last 32
| (034_035 iTunes Guy.indd 35
tracks to the Wish List — notably if you
use iTunes Radio — so that you buy more
music. There's also no Buy All button,
which seems counter-productive, but
that's been gone for a while now.
Q: | recently updated to iTunes 12,
and it seems that now the ‘My
Delete item Hover your cursor over an item
to remove it from the iTunes Store Wish List.
When you click The artwork square, then
press the Delete key, iTunes sort of shows
you that the artwork is being deleted.
Alerts’ section of the iTunes Store
is gone. | am disappointed by this,
as that was the best way I had of
knowing when artists | like have
released new stuff.
A: Several readers wrote in about this
as it seems to be a popular section of
the iTunes Store.
First, you can set up alerts for any
artist by going to their page — to get
there click on the artist's name on an
album page, for example — and then
look for the tiny share button near the
top of the page. Click that button and
then choose Alert Me.
As the reader pointed out, there used
to be a link for My Alerts, but the latest
redesign of the iTunes Store removed
that. If you go to the main page of the
Music store and scroll down a bit, you'll
see a New From Your Artists section,
which seems to include both art
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