Macworld October 2015 AU

acworlt a ee “ a sesh le OCTOBER 2015 $7.95 inc GST” www.macworld.com.au REVIEWS | HELP GUIDES | APP REVIEWS | iSNAP OWC Memory Upgrades This is performance, upgraded. This is commitment to reliability. This is lab-tested. This is guaranteed for life. This is OWC memory. www.macsales.com Memory Upgrades for Every Mac An OWC memory upgrade is not only at the innovation. There's a custom-made OWC memory very heart of getting the most from your Mac, upgrade to suit every Mac from the last decade, fully it's at the very heart of what we believe in. OWC tested and guaranteed for life. Because you deserve Memory represents our unwavering commitment a performance upgrade you can rely on to work to excellence and to the DIY spirit that drives our flawlessly for life, you deserve OWC Memory. ‘Apple, Mac and Mac Pro is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other counties. Features 16 AUTOMATE YOUR LIFE Anew battlefield is forming and your home is at the centre. As Homekit and other home automation apps and standards emerge, we look at what you can do today and what's coming in the world of home and life automation 34 EL CAPITAN We take a deep dive into the recent beta releases of Apple's new computing platform to see what's on offer in El Capitan. 08 10 14 22 24 30 32 40 42 48 56 60 Regulars MAIL HOT STUFF iSNAP MAC GEMS BUSINESS GUEST COLUMN: Saying goodbye to an old friend GADGET GUIDE APP GUIDE SPECIAL FEATURE: El Capitan — need to know SECRETS HELP GROUP TEST: Smart lights GLOZ 4390190 ne‘woo"poMaeU MMM, Reviews 62 63 64 66 iRig Mic Studio Linksys AC2600 MU-MiMo Gigabit Router Belkin WelMo Ecosystem Popcast 6 EDITORIAL Star date: 46254.7 ne of the fun things about my work is getting to play with lots of interesting gadgets. About 15 years ago, | remember reading about the house Bill Gates was building in Seattle with his then new wife Melinda. A major feature of that home was automation. When guests arrived at the house, they'd be presented with a pin that would activate various devices as they moved around the house, according to their personal preferences. At the time it was practically science fiction. Over the last few weeks I’ve been playing with some home automation gear and a new app on my iPhone. In my home I've been using various devices from WeMo - Belkin’s new home automation product range. Being able to control lights and other devices has made it easy for me to better manage my power use and automate operations, so that it looks like my home is occupied even when I’m not there. But there’s a downside. I'd really like to control all my devices from a single app. For example, | have a pair of Sonos speakers at home. What I'd really like is a single tool that turned on the lights, dimmed them appropriately and turned the music on to my preferred online channel. Today, | need to open ISSUE No. 212 thony Caruana antha a@niche com ay ‘Subeditor Madoleine Swain madolaine swain@riche.com au ‘National Advertising Manager Lachlan Oak ‘oakley@nich separate apps to do what to me feels like a single activity. In the car, I've started using an app called Tour — we looked at it briefly in last month's iOS app guide. If you need to maintain a vehicle logbook for work, it’s a great time saver. Interestingly, it can use iBeacons, so the software knows when you get into the car. And there are also other apps that integrate with WeMo, as well as other home automation systems to bring it together. It still looks like it’s hard work, however, and it will require companies to simplify the integration. We're coming up to the time when the next versions of iOS, watch OS and OS X will be here. Jason Snell takes a deep look at El Capitan and Adam Turner looks at a number of different smart lamps - the gateway drug to home automation in my view! Christopher Phin pays tribute to his recently retired 2008 MacBook Pro - try finding a PC-toting friend with a seven- year-old notebook that’s still going strong! As usual, we've got lots of reviews, news, tips, tricks and the prize-winning photo from iSnap. Have a great month! MACWORLD AU PRODUCTION: Production Manager Jamun Ra jarnuna raj@niche.com.au Design and Digital Prepress Monique Blair NICHE MEDIA: Managing Director Paul Li Dsubscrptions@mac Commercial Director Joanne D: STAFF PICKS As we think about home automation — what's the job you do regularly that you most want to have automated? ANTHONY CARUANA MADELEINE SWAIN JAMUNA Bb RAJ MONIQUE BLAIR G6 facebook.com/ausmacworld ‘witter.com/macworldau ® Content Director Civis Rennie Financial Controller Sonia Justa (2) High-powered USB 3.0 Audio out FireWire (2) Thunderbolt ports (3) USB 3.0 Audio in Gigabit Ethernet HDMI SIMPLICITY. THE ENGINE OF POSSIBILITY. The OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock is the unmatched connectivity platform for your Thunderbolt-equipped Mac. Redefining what’s possible in the absence of complication, Thunderbolt 2 Dock is the catalyst for tremendous expansion. 12 ports united with one cable, from $229. aNernnminerecurts DOCK www.macsales.com | + 1-815-338-8685 | Free 24/7 customer service ova HAVE YOUR SAY LETTER OF THE MONTH COSTLY GADGETS Most of Macworld Australia | find is great reading, and | particularly enjoyed the recent article on Siri. However, the Gadget Guide seems to feature only the top end of the price range. A kickstand case for iPhone 6 at $64.99, an Adonit stylus at $129.99, and a Tabletop Radio at $449 are all highly priced. Google the products or their equivalents and you will find a range of products at a range of prices. | know you have to pay for quality, but how much? A recent purchase of a charging stand for an iPhone 4s cost me $6, including postage from China. Paid for by PayPal, delivered within five days from order, and a happy customer thank you. Not so good, a charger for my MacBook Air set me back $28 ($99 from Apple) and arrived OK, but it did not function properly. | raised a complaint with PayPal and they promptly refunded me in full. Although | have not bought them, both an iPhone case and a stylus are available from eBay and others from about $12 upwards. All in all, a bit more effort, and sometimes more hassle, but definitely worth it, especially if you are a bargain hunter like me. Sam Luxemburg Thanks Sam. That’s a great reminder for us. We can be a little spoilt here at Macworld Australia as we get to play with the latest and greatest gear and can get carried away. Every couple of weeks, | do a walk through some of the local retailers to see what people are looking at and where real world prices are. However, we'll do a better job of looking for products across a range of different prices, so that we’ve got something for everyone. Well, there’s nothing like a story about broadband access and the Australian digital divide to stimulate conversation by our online readers. Here’s what a few of you had to say about the state of broadband access in Australia. The introduction of NBN is being done ‘on the cheap. | am about to have my connection joined from outside the house to the inside. | have been told that the contractors doing the work are allocated $80 per household to connect. They therefore opt for the easiest installation for them, but not necessarily the best location in the house for the occupant. Another business that | know of has a contract to fix up the mistakes the first contractor made. Where is the sense in all this? And what is now the government policy on future installations? They have been very quiet on the subject since taking office. Steve Sanders | sometimes think that it'd be better if | was still on dial-up [currently on ADSL2]... because there are times when I have little or no connectivity at all... and my closest Exchange is approximately four kilometres away. | have a cable to the pole in front of my house, but am not able to connect as it's an Education Department connection only. Mick McMillan Since the mid 90s, [when] | moved in from the bush and even the suburbs | have lived in since then [my connection has] been determined by available access speed. | took this course due to many years of frustration with services, but it is not just broadband access that is a problem. It is virtually everything: medical, educational, cultural, retail, postal, rubbish collection, gas, legal, accounting, employment — the list goes on and | accept that you simply can’t expect otherwise — these things will always be related to population density and it's unrealistic and unfair to expect otherwise. | understand the frustration, and | wish it weren't so (as I'd love to be back in the bush myself) but connecting ‘every’ property in Australia to a fast line in two years just isn’t going to happen, just as you aren't going to get hospitals, police or even gas in every two-horse town. It just isn’t economically feasible, especially with the current state of financial affairs. Too bad the funds burned up in school halls and pink batts etc weren't instead used on equalising net access, but that is the point — when you ask governments to pick winners, they usually pick duds. Andy W Until the powers that be get their priorities right, we're doomed to be the laughing stock where communications are concerned, and while Rome burns the fiddlers play to the house, and to their own amusement. Jan We live in rural New South Wales, 10 kilometres out of Albury in table top NSW (new developing area) and are in a similar situation to your Queensland friends. We only have access to ADSL1 from Telstra. At dial-up speeds. No plans to upgrade to ADSL 2 as NBN is supposed to be arriving in the next 10 years if we are lucky. | am a medical specialist and require access to my work server from home. Not at those speeds. We rely on Telstra wireless 4G (it's not even 3G speeds, as we live in a black hole) and 15gb costs over $100. Only lasts for 15 days. Then it's back to 64kbbs. It sometimes takes 24 hours to update my Mac. We have just returned from Europe where householders have access to 200Mbps and business owners 700Mbps. This country is never going to be able to compete. Ever. | am a Kiwi. | think it's time to go home. Richard Tustin = = - @ Letters should be emailed to editor@macworld.com.au with a subject header of ‘Letter to the Editor’ or by post to: Macworld Australia Mailbox, 142 Dorcas Street, South Melbourne, Victoria, 3205. Please include your full name and address, including state or territory. 1 Comments on stories or Forum posts on www.macworld.com.au are also eligible for the prize. 1 We reserve the right to edit letters and probably will. '@ Letters of fewer than 200 words are given preference. belkin This month's prize to the Macworld Australia reader who has submitted what we think is the most interesting letter is a WeMo Switch - a home automation device that lets you switch off electronics from your Android and iOS smart device via the free WeMo app. The WeMo switch retails for $69.95 The WeMo Switch lets you turn electronic devices on or off from anywhere. It uses your existing home Wi-Fi network to provide wireless control of TVs, lamps, stereos, heaters, fans and more. www.belkin.com.au ‘TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Leto he month. Instructions on how to enter form pat ot these corions of entry 2. o enter send ips or quai to ector@macworld com. wth a subject header of “Letter ote Eto. Eines wl be ucgel ty the ecto tralia. The judges’ decision in cy aspect ofthe competion i inal an binding very person who ener, Noe 2 wll entered ro. Chance plays no part determining the winner), Each erty beni judged based ons degree of nee 4. Employees, heir mmedato families and agencies assocared with this competion ae not armited to enter. 5. The Promote accepts no responsibly fr ate or misaocte ents. 5. The bos ntyontis as determined by tho judges wilwe the pr2os). 7. The Prosar s nother responsibe ra ible or any change inthe value of he pez occuring betwen the publsh dat and the date the prizes) claimed 8. The prizes) rot ransferabo and ‘ot be exchanged fr cash 9. The winne() wil be noid by eral. 10, Al entias become the propery ofthe Promoter. 1. The eolacton, use and dclsire of personal omation provided in coercion with this competion is governed by he Pvacy Notice 2. Te Promters Nehe Mec Py Ud of 142 Doreae Stet, Sou Melbourne, Vitoria S205 Pr 03 9048 4900, (ABN 18068613 52) GLOZ 4390190 ne‘woo"poMaeUMMM uy NEWS | OT ST U F F Aselection of Apple, Mac and iOS news from Macworld.com.au WHAT DO ALL THE NEW APPLE PRODUCT RELEASES MEAN? A heavily refreshed Apple TV, an iPhone where the only thing that has changed is everything (except the outside!) and a completely new iPad ~ what does it all mean? SOFTWARE IS THE SECRET SAUCE The various Apple execs that took the stage at Apple's September event went to great pains to tell us about faster processors, new ways to deal with noise in high-resolution images and all sorts of other very technical details. While the speeds and feeds are interesting — it's the software that makes it all useful. Apple announced, either loudly or subtly, no fewer than four different operating system releases. WATCH OS2 Watch OS2 was released on 16 September Pacific Time (17 September in our patch of the planet) The big ticket change here is the ability to run software directly on the watch. The initial release of Apple Watch seriously dumbed down Apple's newest platform, making it little more that a terminal for the iPhone. But developers can now create complications, watch faces, messaging apps and all sorts of other tools. In other words, the Apple Watch has become a proper computing. iOS 9 We've already looked at iOS 9's new features online and in this magazine. Suffice to say, this release continues to add new features and functions — many of which will only be usable if you spring for a new iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus. The new Peek and Pop gestures look interesting and the ability to carry out ‘TRAINING TO BECOME THE FIRST CIVILIAN ARTIST IN SPACE common actions by using the new 3D Touch system changes smartphone usability. In short, the combination of iOS 9 and the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will have sent shudders through the ranks of Samsung and Google, as Android will be playing a big game of catch-up over the coming months. TVOS We've been waiting for this for some time but, finally, apps are coming to the Apple TV. Like iOS 9 and the iPhone, tvOS and the new Apple TV is a potential game changer for the digital lounge room. While the crowd during yesterday's special event swooned and gushed at the new remote control and ability to use Siri to control your TY, the likes of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo will be a little less secure from now on as they contemplate what Apple could do to their markets. The new Apple TV costs about half as much as most gaming consoles and can manage media far more elegantly. The new tvOS SDK, which most iOS developers will instantly be able to leverage, will deliver a slew of applications that we can't even imagine. Business, education, gaming. not a use-case or scenario that won't be there's targeted. We won't see tvOS in action until November when the new Apple TV hits the stores. And it won't run on older Apple TVs. OS X EL CAPITAN A couple of weeks after we update our iOS and Apple Watch devices, we'll need to fire up our updaters for the new version of OS X — dubbed El Capitan. We won't say too much here as the software has been in public beta for many weeks, other than to say it's a significant release, even if Apple isn’t making a big deal about it. All the new software announced by Apple or set for imminent release continues Apple's grand plan to integrate every aspect of your life. While Apple may have lost the battle for the desktop during the operating system war of the 1980s and 90s, they are winning the war for the rest of your life. In addition to the four new software releases we heard about in September, Apple released two significant new products and a couple of minor facelifts THE SMALL FISH The iPad mini 4 and new Apple Watch Hermes collection didn’t get a whole lot of attention yesterday — and that was about the right amount The iPad mini 4 received a speed bump, courtesy of a heart transplant. It gets an A8X processor, but is otherwise the same device The new Apple Watch collection adds some new case and band options, but under the covers it's the same as the hardware released earlier this year. Which is a good thing as new hardware released so soon after the initial release would have caused significant customer outcry. THE BIG FISH The three big product releases were the iPad Pro, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, and the Apple TV. = mn = wn The iPad Pro may have been in development for some time — the new Apple Pencil accessory, pressure sensitive screen technology and upgraded display haven't been created in a knee-jerk way, But we can't help feeling that the success of the Surface Pro, which has been displacing the iPad in many schools and capturing enterprise sales, forced Apple's hand, It seems to be the same sort of market- driven product development that delivered larger iPhones a year ago. The new iPhones may look the same on the outside but, unlike most iPhone ‘s’ releases, looks to be worth considering 3D Touch, improved cameras, faster processors, a new Touch ID sensor and haptic feedback suggest this is basically an all new model in old clothes — a bit like fitting a Porsche engine into a Yaris GLOZ 4390190 ne"woo"poMoeU MM NEWS —well, perhaps not a Yaris, but you get the picture. Although we're running with an iPhone 6, we're thinking an iPhone 6s is definitely on the cards. Apple's hobby project has become a bona fide member of the family. The new Apple TV includes inbuilt storage (just like version one did!) and the new controller, which uses Bluetooth to connect to the Apple TV, includes accelerometers and gyroscopes so it can be used for gaming and other apps. Although we've also begun using a Chromecast for one TV (as it's a cheap option for getting Netflix and YouTube onto a second TV), we're rusted-on Apple TV users So there's little doubt a new Apple TV won't become part of our lounge room setup. In fact, if video playback apps that support non-Apple formats and support DLNA make it to the Apple TV App Store then we may clear a gaming console out. In short, the September product announcements were a big deal. The NEWS Apple share price dropped a couple of percent following the announcements, but it’s hard to know what the stock market is thinking or reacting to. With the iPad Pro and new Apple TV not hitting the market until November, we won't really know their impact on Apple's business until pre-orders open and sales commence But it's our view the new hardware and software represent significant steps forward. Fi, 02 4380190 14 SG sunrise at Blackwattle Bay Working near the newly opened Blackwattle Bay foreshore walkway that links Rozelle Bay and Glebe to the Sydney Fish Market gives this month's iSnap winner, Anatole Zurrer, ample opportunity to capture stunning views “The view of Sydney from here is unfamiliar to many Sydneysiders, but is very striking,” says Zurrer. “It is a wide, uninterrupted vista crowned by Sydney Tower. On a clear morning the bay is calm like a lake and the sky is clear blue, with golden sunlight breaking up and silhouetting the skyline. | am born and bred Sydney, so | am biased, but | believe Sydney is the most photogenic city in the world. On this particular morning | felt the balance was just right, so | put my new iPhone 6 to work.” Zurrer has been a keen photographer for 30 years, finding peace and quiet behind the camera. Although he has invested in DSLR cameras and lenses, In iSnap we're on the lookout for some of the best photographs being taken with iOS devices. Submit your favourite original shots to macworld@macworld.com.au for your chance to be featured in the online iSnap gallery www.macworld.com.au/isnap. Each month’s winner will win a prize and appear on this page! spending a lot of his time tinkering and finessing large files in Lightroom and Photoshop, his iPhone has allowed him to engage in extra photography time. “| love it — small and powerful and with an ever-growing herd of photography apps | take lots of photos. Mostly for the web, but also to print. The quality of my iPhone 6 camera is great. | love it and | love the pan mode,” he says. Other than straightening the edges, Zurrer didn't make any other edits or adjustments. However, when he does edit on his iPhone he uses Snapseed. “It just works on the iPhone better. | am a Mac devotee and use Canon gear and This month’s prize is a Keep Calm and Selfie On Remote by PADACS. PADACS specialises in the design and development of accessories for the iPad and iPhone. Many of us love taking selfies, but it can be awkward trying to pose, hold the phone and press the button all at the same time. The new Keep Calm and Selfie On Remote by PADACS iPhone mobile accessories, makes easy work of taking the perfect selfie or group photo. It uses Bluetooth technology to pair with your iPhone, allowing you to remotely trigger the camera and capture your selfie with ease. To see the full range of products visit www.padacs.com. Epson printers,” he adds. When he’s not working, Zurrer likes to travel and take photographs. “Recently | got to photograph a concert inside the Sydney Opera House and that was a real buzz. | am in the process of slowly commercialising my photography, setting up a website, expanding my stock and getting my head around how and who to sell my work to.” With a passion for capturing Sydney through his lens, Zurrer says he can't resist the city's charms. “From the street art on Bondi Beach to Vivid in the CBD, you are spoilt for choice and | can’t resist her charms.” 1I2G. Blackmagic Introducing Blackmagic URSA Mini, the lightweight Super 35 4.6K digital film camera with 15 stops of dynamic range! Introducing URSA Mini, a handheld Super 35 digital film camera with an incredible 4.6K image sensor, global shutter and a massive 15 stops of dynamic range! The super compact and lightweight design is perfectly balanced, making it comfortable enough for all day shooting. URSA Mini lets you shoot at up to 60fps, features a 5" foldout viewfinder, dual RAW and ProRes recorders, and more! Incredible 4.6K Sensor URSA Mini can capture images at a resolution and dynamic range that goes well beyond that of traditional motion picture film so you can shoot your own epic, cinematic masterpiece! You can capture images up to 4608 x 2592, which is larger than 4K DCI, with 15 stops of dynamic range so you get incredibly clean pictures with amazing detail in everything from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights! URSA Mini can record 4.6K at up to 60fps, or 1080 HD at up to 120fps. Lightweight and Portable URSA Mini's perfectly balanced body is made out of space aged magnesium alloys so it's rugged, yet lightweight and comfortable enough to be used all day. You get a super bright 5" fold out touch screen for on-set monitoring, that can also display overlays for timecode, histograms, audio meters, focus peaking and more! URSA Mini features full size, professional connectors, even 12G-SDI, so you don't need custom cables, plus high quality stereo microphones and a side grip mounted on a standard rosette. www.blackmagicdesign.com/au Electronic Viewfinder, lens and accessories sold separately. Completely Customizable Blackmagic URSA Mini is completely customizable so you can create a rig that’s built specifically for your production! Add accessories like the Blackmagic URSA Viewfinder and Blackmagic URSA Mini Shoulder Kit, or choose from hundreds of third party accessories. URSA Mini has 9 standard ¥%" threaded mounting points on the top and bottom of the camera so you can mount it directly to a tripod as well as add accessories such as rails, matte boxes and more. Non-Stop Recording You never have to stop recording because URSA Mini features two CFast 2.0 recorders! When one card is full, recording automatically continues onto the next. URSA Mini uses the latest, incredibly fast CFast 2.0 technology for recording speeds up to 350 MB/s. Wide dynamic range images are saved as 12-bit RAW files, which are perfect for high end grading and effects work, or as broadcast quality ProRes, for easy post production workflows with minimum storage requirements! Blackmagic URSA Mini Models. Blackmagic URSA Mini 4KEF $4,235 Blackmagic URSA Mini 4K PL $4,925 Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K EF $7,035 Blackmagic URSA Mini 4.6K PL $7,755 All models include DaVinci Resolve 12 Studio FEATURE FEATURE AUTOMATE YOUR LIFE tar date: 46254.7. Captain Jean-Luc Picard walks into his quarters. “Lights - 35 percent, tea: Earl Grey, hot,” he says to no one. A few seconds later all of the captain's requests are fulfilled. Welcome to the world of home automation. When Star Trek: The Next Generation was being made in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the sorts of applications and hardware that were common in that fiction were fanciful compared to what we could do at the time. Voice control, artificial intelligence, fast processors and storage ~ what was hard to imagine in a large computer system is almost here today and we carry it on our iPhones. So, like the original series of Star Trek that foreshadowed the mobile phone, the crew of the Enterprise D demonstrated what we'd be able to do just a few years later. Today, near ubiquitous connectivity, low cost sensors, Siri, Apple's HomeKit and numerous other standards, hardware and software make it possible to control and automate almost every device in our home from almost anywhere. WHERE ARE WHERE ARE The challenge with home automation, and pretty much any other emerging technology, is coming up with scenarios where it will be useful. If you've hung around enterprise IT boffins you've probably heard about the Gartner Hype Cycle - we've mentioned it in the past, but in case you've forgotten, here's how it goes. When a new technology is announced or developed it goes through five distinct stages in its life. BY ANTHONY CARUANA At the start, there’s some trigger that makes it possible for the new technology to develop. If you think about new services such as Uber and Airbnb, the development of the smartphone and availability of data networks made it possible for developers to create new apps and services. Once the new technology is created, lots of hype builds and there's what Gartner calls the “peak of inflated expectations”. At this point, people are using words like ‘revolutionary’ and ‘paradigm shifting’ If you follow technology, when this starts happening, it's time to get ready for the ‘trough of disillusionment’. At this stage, vendor and developer hype is failing to deliver on the inflated expectations. It's like when someone tells you to see a particular movie and tells you it’s sensational. Your expectations are so high the movie can’t be anything but a disappointment when you finally get to see it. The good news is we can dig our way out of the pit and move towards enlightenment and, finally, productivity. That’s when the technology matures, we set more realistic expectations and find a practical use for the new service or application. Where are we with home automation? We feel that we're past the peak of inflated expectations. The good news is we don’t think the trough of disillusionment will be too deep. While many of the products on the market are quite new (see our round-up of smart lights and Belkin’s WEMO ecosystem on pages 60 and 64 respectively), the technology underpinning them is quite mature. That means we're moving towards enlightenment and productivity quite quickly. Already, it’s possible to remotely control many devices and there are frameworks and protocols in place for linking different devices and using features such as voice control. However, it's still all emerging. That means having realistic expectations about what the technology can do today while keeping an eye on tomorrow. Fortunately, Moore's Law is on our side. Sensors and processors continue to fall in price, so the cost of entry to basic automation is coming down. It's possible to automate and remotely control a lot of your home for under $1000. Although that's not a paltry amount, it's a fraction of what it cost five years ago and we can do far more today. The significant investments will come when major household appliances such as heaters, air-conditioners and refrigerators are connected to your smart home. But those will also deliver benefits in cost savings as you'll have much better control of them when energy prices fluctuate. SHOULD WE E ABOUT HomeKit is a curious beast and is one of the many signs Apple is planning to be a part of our entire way of living. Long-time readers of Macworld Australia will recall that in the early 2000s, we had a section in the magazine called The Hub. It was a deliberate strategy for the magazine to walk in step with Apple's strategy for the Mac being the hub of your digital home. Apple has not abandoned that goal, although its way of achieving it is different. HomekKit is a framework that allows hardware and software developers to integrate their own solutions. It was introduced with i0S 8. =) S102 ¥380100 ne"woo"pjomaeu MMM FEATURE Until recently, if you wanted to set up a home automation system, you'd need to choose a vendor. Then you'd be committed to that vendor and whatever hardware and software they made available. If another manufacturer came up with a nifty device then you would, most likely, not be able to take advantage of it. HomeKit allows hardware and software creators to build solutions that can work together using Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs. By using common APIs for the discovery, configuration and communication, it becomes possible for devices from disparate manufacturers to interoperate. For example, your air-conditioning and lighting systems most likely are made by different companies and can’t work together. However, if they are both HomeKit enabled, you can create a set of rules that dim the lights slightly and change the temperature by collecting power pricing information from a HomeKit-enabled electricity meter. Although your comfort level may not be impacted - lights dimmed by 10 percent and a temperature change of a degree or two are not likely to be noticeable ~ you could save significantly when power prices are at their highest. It also means you can cut back on greenhouse emissions. The control and monitoring of this can be managed by any iOS device and, in time, we'd expect this to be a feature of the Apple TV. The neat thing about HomeKit is its openness. Almost any software developer or hardware maker can use it. However, there is downside - it locks you into Apple's ecosystem. HOW {OMEKIT WORK ‘As HomeKit is a standard defined by Apple, in order for products to operate they need to be certified. That means looking for the ‘Works with HomeKit' logo on the box. However, as it’s still quite new to the market, it's possible that existing products might be retrofitted through firmware updates to work with HomeKit. That's potentially good news f you have some home automation gear already installed, although there's no guarantee everyone will upgrade their gear. Our guess is that some equipment ~ particularly if it's more than a year old, may not be upgradeable to work with HomeKit. Remember, that doesn’t make it useless ~ it just means you may need to run two different systems side by side until your older equipment is ready for replacement. Every HomeKit-ready device has a unique ID that is used during setup. Once the device is set up on your iOS device, you can use Siri to control things, For example, you can walk into a room and tell your home to turn on the bedroom lights at 50 percent brightness. Or, if you group some devices such as the lights, coffee machine and TV, you can tell your home to get ready for breakfast. The the lights will turn on in the kitchen, the coffee machine will start and the TV will turn on to your preferred morning viewing. Apple also supports iBeacons ~ a standard it published in 2013 for small devices that can transmit and receive information. These small devices use Bluetooth LE to broadcast and receive a signal. As they use Bluetooth, the beacons (iBeacon is the name of the Apple-created standard ~ beacons are the devices) can react to your presence. For example, a beacon in a car can automatically launch your logbook software. At home, you can have a beacon in the room that detects when a particular person enters with their iPhone or iPad. Then, appliances such as lights, music and climate control can be automatically started, set to the person's preferences, and tured off after they leave. When Bill Gates built his home in Seattle, he created a system like this using pins that people wore on their clothes. Given practically everyone carries a smartphone, there's no need for the pin as a beacon and some smart software and hardware can achieve the same outcome. The challenge of great home automation isn’t a lack of innovation or clever ideas. The real challenge is integration. For example, in our home, there are light switches, power points, an air- conditioner with its own thermosta heating system with another thermostat, a sound system that works with cloud services, a smart TV, router, exercise equipment and many other connected devices. While point to point connectivity is easy ~ I can easily use an app to control the sound system, or another app to control the lights - getting some interaction between the two, so the lights dim and Barry White starts playing during a romantic dinner is the stuff of Hollywood and not suburban Melbourne! For different systems to communicate, you need them to either speak the same language or communicate coherently with a universal translator that can take information in from one device and pas on to another. For that to work, you need some standards ~ particularly around connectivity and information exchange. If devices cannot communicate and react to each other's data home automation becomes very difficult. Most of our mobile devices already use Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, So it makes sense for these communications standards to be used. Many switches and light bulbs use these as they make it easy for people to get started. Bluetooth used to be notoriously power hungry, but recent changes mean it no longer empties batteries in a few short hours. So, look for Bluetooth LE or Bluetooth Smart labelling if you're considering Bluetooth-enabled smart devices. iOS, Android, Windows Phone, OS X, Linux and Windows 8 all natively support Bluetooth Smart, and the Bluetooth SIG, the body that manages the Bluetooth standard, predicts that by 2018 more than 90 percent of Bluetooth-enabled smartphones will support Bluetooth Smart. The other home automation communications standard you may hear about is ZigBee. ZIGB ZigBee is a low power communications protocol that’s been around for over a decade. Although it’s not one you may have heard about, it’s commonly used in smart electricity meters. Like any home automation scenario, ZigBee is only limited by the developers of equipment and the people using it. There are some obvious applications such as adjusting thermostats during times when power prices are at the highest or automatically activating swimming pool pumps when prices are at their lowest. Recently, the ZigBee Alliance - the body that manages ZigBee ~ published new specification covering the charging of electric vehicles and new control systems for TV and other home devices that offer better control than current remote controls. RTT With HomeKit still in its infancy and vendors still playing their silly ‘my ecosystem is the best’ game, it can be challenging to link up different systems. If This Then That, or IFTIT (www. ifttt.com), lets you either create your own automation recipes or borrow those published by other users. The beauty of IFTTT is that it works with a massive number of different services as well as home automation. IFTTT You exit = sree reaTure QE Turn off Foyer When | leave home, turn off my WeMo Bulbs For example, you can create an IFTTT recipe that grabs all of the tweets for a particular hashtag and writes them to a new note in Evernote. Or you can capture a list of what you listened to with Spotify and have it emailed to you each week - thus solving the “what was that song I listened to on Wednesday?” problem. The beauty of IFTTT is how it connects services that weren't designed to be linked. For example, Fitbit activity trackers can monitor your sleep. It's possible, using IFTTT to have the lights turn on automatically when you wake up. As the Fitbit ‘knows’ when you're awake, it can communicate with smart lights from Philips. Or a similar recipe can be used to turn something on that’s connected to a Belkin WeMo switch. As the name suggests, IFTIT looks for some event to trigger another — if this happens, then do that. Although we've been largely focusing on home automation, there are dozens of everyday tasks we carry out that could use some automation. In your business, you can create an IFTTT recipe that captures every post and comment made to your company's Facebook page. This can be handy as there are times when Facebook makes it hard to find past posts because of the way its display algorithms work. Or, if you're at a conference you can have all the tweets using the event hashtag added to a note in Evernote. Or you can have all your Facebook images automatically stored in Dropbox. S102 ¥380190 ne“woo"pjomseu MMM BE) Feature Before you can create recipes using IFTTT you need to add the channels you're going to connect. A channel is an application or service you plan to use in your recipe. For example, if you want to use IFTTT to turn the lights on with your WeMo system when you wake up, then you'll need to add the WeMo and Fitbit channels. When you wake up in the morning, assuming your Fitbit is automatically logging your sleep, the light you've linked in the recipe will turn on. If you have a device or service that collects or creates data you can use that to trigger some other event or action. PLANNING A HOME AUTOMATION uP With so many options on the market - how do you plan a home automation setup? It’s tempting to go all in and buy a bunch of gear and start automating everything, but our advice is to start small and add devices as you go. That way, you can tinker and refine each piece before adding too much complexity. Have your final goal in mind, however, so you make smart decisions about what devices you choose to add. Here's what we did. Audit and plan. We started with an audit of what power and light we have. We also noted what devices we wanted to control, such as the entertainment system. We live in a three-bedroom house with a main living area. The area between the bedrooms is almost the size of a small room and has its own power and light, creating a small foyer in the centre of the home. Each bedroom has a central light fitting and double power outlet on the wall. One of the bedrooms is also a study and the main bedroom has a TV and small sound system. The lounge room houses the entertainment system and there are two light fittings, each with a three-bulb fitting. For lighting control, there are two options: smart switches and smart bulbs. Here, the question is almost entirely financial. If a smart bulb costs around $60 and a smart switch costs around $100, then it makes sense to change the switch on multi-bulb fittings and the bulbs on single bulb fittings. Assuming we're planning to make almost every light in the house smart, we had seven single-bulb fittings and two three-bulb fittings controlled from a single switch. We didn’t bother with the garage and laundry. So, with lighting, we're planning to ultimately change all seven single-bulbs to smart bulbs and the switch controlling the two three-bulb fittings to a smart switch. There are two wall outlets that we particularly want to control: the entertainment centre in the lounge and the TV and audio in the master bedroom. Although there are many more outlets we could control, there seems little benefit for now. If things change, we can always add more control systems. Choosing a platform. For us, given the nascent nature of consumer friendly home automation, there were two factors we were particularly focused on - support for HomeKit and support for IFTTT. The neat thing about these is that you aren't limited to a single vendor. For example, you may like one company’s switches, but another's bulbs. This makes it possible to mix and match the products that best suit you without having to compromise. Of course, cost is an important consideration. By taking a ‘whole house but one room at a time’ approach, we're able to add pieces as we go, reducing the upfront cost without preventing us from supplementing the system in future. Deployment. The majority of the systems we're seeing that either support or will reaTuRE Gal S102 ¥380190 ne"woo"poMaeU MMM support HomeKit can be installed with limited expertise. The one exception is the addition of any device that is wired in, such as a light switch. For this, you should engage a registered electrical contractor. But light bulbs and devices that plug into power outlets can be installed by almost anyone ~ just be carefull if you need to climb a ladder to change a globe. THE FINAL WORD: Y Part of what makes your home automation system useful is the ability for it to be controlled from your iPhone or iPad. But, as Spider-Man knows, with great power comes great responsibility. When you start connecting devices in your home to the internet you increase what the experts call your ‘threat surface’ ~ the part of your network that can be potentially accessed by a suitably skilled and motivated party. The rules for connected devices in the home ~ part of the so-called Internet of Things ~ are the same as for any other connected device. © change all default passwords © keep all firmware and software up to date © where possible, carry out the initial setup disconnected from the internet ensure your iPhone and iPad are locked with a passcode, so your house stays safe even if your mobile device is stolen, and © don’t connect a device to your smart home network just for the sake of it ~ look for a concrete benefit such as convenience or cost saving so you don’t increase your threat surface for no reason. A} srruications MAC G E M S NEW SOFTWARE FROM THE MAC APP STORE TRIPMODE UTILITY TripMode US$7.99 QO Ever since it became possible to tether a computer to a cell modem, it’s also been possible to blow through one's monthly or service-plan limit and either run out of mobile data, be throttled to a trickle or face expensive overuse fees. TripMode is the first easy- to-use OS X utility to help with that problem. When installed, TripMode (tripmode.ch) appears in your system menu bar and monitors for network changes in Yosemite. Whenever you join a new Wi-Fi network or connect to a Personal Hotspot, TripMode activates and blocks all system-level and application network usage. The utility was built as an access whitelist, so all network usage is blocked until you allow it. You can check boxes next to any activity you want to approve from TripMode's drop-down menu. As new services or software tries to access the network or the internet, more entries appear in the list. You may be surprised by what appears, as many apps regularly poll servers in the background to check for software updates or event updates. TripMode can’t populate the list fully initially, because it only ‘knows’ that an app or service requires the internet when that occurs. The utility's icon turns red whenever an app that’s blocked tries to access the network. Individual software products have limited awareness of the network to which they're connected when you're on a Mac. The iOS operating system and iOS apps typically are more careful SS sm WessIPM Q = WWTERNET ACCESS ALLOWED FOR BF © wvowcwene Dewese TripMode Micronot Ovtioes | come DATA UBED 1 APG about letting you pick and choose what's sent over mobile and what's not. In OS X, Dropbox has a Pause button and CrashPlan lets you blacklist Wi-Fi networks by name. But OS X assumes it can always let apps use 100 percent of available throughput. Photos for OS X is an example of that. TripMode turns on automatically for every new network or new Personal Hotspot mode (such as a USB connection), but you can override the setting and it remembers that override. For instance, connect via USB to your iPhone or iPad to use its Personal Hotspot, and TripMode activates. If you click its switch from On to Off, the next time you connect via USB, TripMode will remain off. It retains this information for every network you connect with, restoring whatever state you left it in when you last connected. TripMode keeps track of data transferred while it’s active, though not by network, just cumulatively. You can view data in the last session, the current day or the current month. The software could do more. Allowing blacklisting rather than whitelisting, as well as creating groups and sets for different circumstances or for easier organisation, would be nice. | may want a ‘polite Wi-Fi network user’ set when I'm at a local café, ‘mobile throttled’ for typical Personal Hotspot use and ‘Starbucks Trenta usage’ for those mega-coffee outlets equipped with gigabit internet. Throttling apps could also be useful, though technically more difficult. These are quibbles and ideas for improvement in future upgrades or as paid in-app additions. What TripMode does is nice at the price. TripMode can be used for seven days with its full functionality, after which point it throttles to allow only 15 minutes of use per day ifa licence isn’t purchased. — BY GLENN FLEISHMAN LEGO STAR WARS SAGA GAME Feral Interactive $6.49 Star Wars comprising the first two games and expanding them with new characters, enhanced visuals and more bonus levels than you can shake a lightsaber at. It's family- friendly game, and lets you choose from over 160 characters to engage in combat, solve puzzles and work together as a team to defeat the dark side. DAISYDISK UTILITY Software Ambience Corp $12.99 Disk space ~ eventually we all find ourselves constrained. DaisyDisk searches through your disks using a visual interactive Map, so you can easily remove unnecessary files with a simple drag and drop. Its fast and the integration with QuickLook makes it easy to preview file Content before deciding on whether you're looking at trash or treasure. LOGIC PRO X ZZ MUSIC ss Apple $249.99 Apple’s latest iteration of Logic Pro, version 10.2, brings the sample manipulation synthesiser Alchemy to Logic Pro X users for free. Alchemy makes it easy to find and explore new sounds while also providing sophisticated tools for sound designers. A 14GB content library offers thousands of new sounds including content for APPLICATIONS EX MICROSOFT REMOTE DESKTOP BUSINESS Microsoft FREE We may love our Macs, but Windows is still the top of the pops when it ‘comes to which OS is most used. Microsoft Remote Desktop is an easy-to-use tool that lets you remotely control Windows systems running on your network. It's handy for support if you're running a screenless system for a specific task. | MYTUNER RADIO FREE AUSTRALIA MUSIC Appgeneration Software FREE Contrary to expectations, when podcasts emerged, radio became stronger than ever. And with most stations now streaming their content via the internet, myTuner makes it easy to listen to broadcasts from over 120 Countries from the comfort of your Mac. A menu bar icon makes ita snap to switch stations and find what you like from around the world. producers of hip-hop, EDM (electronic dance music) and a variety of underground and indie styles. Other extras include multiple synthesis engines and advanced morphing features, an enhanced keyboard browser for finding sounds quickly and performance controls to manipulate and craft new sounds. MainStage and Logic Remote have also been updated to support Logic Pro X 10.2 and Alchemy. $102 ¥380100 newoo'pjOMaeUr MMM BUSINESS WORD 2016 If Word is your primary tool for getting work done with words, run, don't walk, to upgrade to Word 2016 It doesn’t matter if you think Microsoft Word doesn’t matter anymore. It does — for tens, hundreds, thousands of people, Microsoft Word is an everyday event. An indispensable tool for getting daily business done. And without it, whether you like it or not, much of what must get done in the world of words wouldn't, if it weren't for Word. What matters most to those users is how it works: whether it works well. Whether it will get the job done without getting in the way. What matters to the hundreds of thousands of people who've traded up from a PC to a Mac and the tens of thousands of IT professionals who have to support them is whether or not Word on the Mac works in the world they work in. Is it invisible? Seamless? Unbroken? With few exceptions, Word for Mac 2016 is exactly that. ‘As a word processing tool, Word 2016 hasn't changed much since its last major release as Word for Mac 2011. How you create, edit and style text remains the same as it ever was. What you may notice is that Word now supports some Mac 0S-only features such as full-screen mode, multi- touch gestures and retina graphics. Microsoft has also added some Ma only features of its own, including a Smart Lookup feature that integrates Bing searches and other contextually relevant information from the web when you use the tool on selected text. All of the Office products also include something that Microsoft now refers to as the Task Pane, which is an awful lot like Office's old Floating Palettes, without the floating. In BUSINESS You have 2 Word documents with unsaved changes. Do you want to review these changes before quitting? If you don't review your documents, all your changes will be lost. Discard Changes short, the Task Pane provides an easy way for you to make quick formatting changes to text and other document elements without having to rely on a menu or Ribbon element. Over the past several years, Microsoft has undertaken a massive redesign of its Office products for Mac and iOS. These updates have streamlined the look and feel of Office apps, making them more like their Windows versions, but with what I find to be a far less cluttered look and feel. In fact, the new Mac version is as clean as Word on the iPad, which is an excellent app, and it also has some of the same limitations. The upside to this sameness is that, whether you're working on a PC at your office, on your iPad on the train or on your Mac at home, you'll find the tools you need in substantially the same places. While there is an essential ‘sameness’ to all these apps, you will still find that some features found in the Windows version are nowhere to be found on the Mac. For example, the option to add a pop-up calendar to a table ~ a feature you'll find in the Windows version ~ isn’t available on the Mac. But, if you use your Mac to add a properly formatted date to a document with a table including that feature, the field will retain the calendar option when you open it again on a PC. This raises an important point: Word for Mac is top-notch when it comes to collaborative work. This is obvious when it comes to basic document editing. Email a document to someone, have them make changes, and send it back to you. If they're using the current version of Word on the device they edit with, the transition is seamless. But, better yet, share your document using OneDrive (onedrive. live.com), OneDrive for Business or a Microsoft Sharepoint, and you can have dozens of people working on the same document at the same time, each without interfering with the other's changes. Word's collaborative tools also include Cancel threaded comments, so you can see and interact with others within the comments on a document. Word 2016 isn’t without disappoint- ments, but they are by no means deal killers. Word takes no advantage of Apple's Autosave and Versions features. So you're stuck with what now seems like a vestige of some ancient past. Have a power failure? Dog step on your power strip? You're relegated to the weeping and gnashing of teeth you no longer expect when bad things happen and you have unsaved changes in a document. This also seems to be tied to Word's collaboration features, which, while excellent, are not as dynamic as I'd like them to be. If you're editing a document while someone else is also making changes, you don't see their changes until both they and you save the document. (Compare this with Pages, which updates changes almost as soon as they're made, no matter who is editing t support Yosemite's option to rename and/ the document.) Finally, Word does: or move a document using the menu in the document's title bar. Bottom line. Microsoft Word 2016 is an excellent update to what is, for most users, an important business tool. Changes to the program's user interface make it easy for anyone to bounce from Word on a Mac to Word on any other platform with a minimal transitional curve. Word's collaboration features make it possible for business users to work on the computing platform of their choosing without making significant sacrifice: While the program doesn’t support some of Yosemite's more important, user- friendly and bacon-saving features ~ such as Autosave - the overall user experience is superb. In short, Microsoft Word gets the job done without getting in the way. If Word is your primary tool for getting work done with words, run, don’t walk, to upgrade to Word 2016. GLOZ 4390190 ne"woo"poMaeUMMM, BET cusiness POWERPOINT 2016 FOR MAC Whether you should use PowerPoint instead of Keynote depends on the features you need BY JOE KISSELL As I use PowerPoint 2016 for Mac, the word that keeps popping into my head is ‘pleasant’. Nearly everything about the massive visual overhaul from PowerPoint 2011 for Mac seems clearer, friendlier and more modern. It feels more like Apple's Keynote, which I mean as a compliment. The feature changes are mostly minor and subtle yet useful. Even so, PowerPoint 2016 for Mac still lags behind its Windows counterpart ~ and it has also lost a few interesting features that were present in PowerPoint 2011. NEW AND IMPROVED The most obvious change is a nicely redesigned ribbon, which is now nearly identical to the ones in PowerPoint for Windows and PowerPoint Online. If you knew where everything was in PowerPoint 2011, prepare for a bit of relearning. Almost every ribbon control is still there, but many have been moved, renamed and given new icons. The erstwhile Themes tab is now called Design; Tables, Charts and SmartArt (among other features) have been subsumed under a new Insert tab, and a number of tabs (such as Picture Format and Table Design) appear only when the appropriate object type is selected. The entire toolbar is gone, with only four vestigial icons (for File, Save, Undo and Repeat) next to the Close, Minimise and Zoom controls. Although most toolbar icons have been relocated onto one of the ribbon tabs (and also have corresponding menu commands), you can no longer create a customised set of icons for your most common tasks. A new sidebar (much like Keynote's Inspector) appears on the right side of the window when you invoke certain features, such as the Animation pane (which lists all the animations on your slide), the Format Pane (for editing the attributes of shapes, graphics and other objects - including previously hard-to-reach settings such as 3D Format and 3D Rotation) and Comments. Each pane gets its own tab, and you can tear off any tab to make it a floating palette. I like the way this context-sensitive interface consolidation (along with the streamlined ribbon) reduces screen clutter. When you open PowerPoint 2016, you're presented with 24 brand new themes. Although that's less than half the number of themes in PowerPoint 2011, there’s a new twist: each theme has numerous variants. With one click, you can select a different combination of colour palettes, fonts and background styles for your current theme (but with the same overall design) or you can apply those attributes individually. Although the theme chooser displays no templates (basically fill-in-the-blanks presentations, each with its own theme), you can type a keyword in the Search All Templates field at the top to display matching templates, which you can then download with two clicks. Another noteworthy improvement is better integration with OneDrive and Office 365. Presentations are now saved to your OneDrive by default, and if you want to use OneDrive for storing and syncing your data, it couldn't be easier. Unfortunately, unlike PowerPoint for iOS, the Mac version doesn’t have native support for Dropbox, iCloud Drive or other cloud storage services (although you can manually save a file to any folder on your Mac, including Dropbox and iCloud Drive). Sharing presentations (with or without editing privileges) is much simpler now too, and even someone without a copy of PowerPoint can view and edit your shared presentation in PowerPoint Online. And people collaborating on a presentation will appreciate the new threaded comments feature. Other minor new features include a more flexible presenter view, better conflict resolution (for when multiple people make changes to a slide at the same time) and a dozen or so new transitions (matching those in the Windows version). GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN A number of features have disappeared, too. The Help mentions only one of these: you can no longer save a presentation as a movie (you can work around this by using screen-recording software such as ScreenFlow; go.macworld.com/screenflow). In addition, you can no longer save your presentation a series of images, broadcast your slides live using the PowerPoint Broadcast Service, compare two versions of a presentation or use the Scrapbook to store and reuse text and graphics snippets. Macworld’s review of PowerPoint 2011 (go.macworld.com/ppt2011) lamented the absence of features found in the Windows version, such as the capability to adjust the starting and ending points of movies, sounds that play in the background across slides, and an advanced timeline for editing a slide’s animations in a graphical format. Those features are still absent in PowerPoint 2016 for Mac. Other Windows-only features are embedding YouTube videos; trimming, bookmarking and fading audio; stomisable keyboard shortcuts; animation triggers (animating an object when you click it); inserting online pictures from within PowerPoint; and embedding fonts in your presentation (for proper display on computers without the same fonts). Bottom line. For Mac users, the more apt question is how PowerPoint stacks up against Apple's free Keynote app. When I reviewed Keynote 6.0, I complained about features that had been lost in its most recent overhaul. Since then (it's now up to version 6.5.3), some of those features have been restored, and its reliability has improved. I now consider the two apps equivalent in usability, overall power and likability. However, each has features the other lacks which features are most important to you 0 your choice will depend on (and which ecosystem ~ OneDrive/Office ‘Aa Fonts 4 Background Styles POWERPOINT 2016 t's please BUSINESS 365 or iCloud/iWork ~ you feel most comfortable in). For example, PowerPoint has nothing like Keynote’s signature Magic Move transition, its tables lack Keynote'’s extensive spreadsheet capabilities, and Keynote (still) lets you trim audio and video and save your presentation as a movie or series of graphic On the other hand, PowerPoint offers easier and more flexible path animation, the fabulously useful Arrange Reorder Overlapping Objects command (for a 3D view of all the objects on a slide) and the option to play presentations in a separate window (which is especially useful when giving remote presentations using an app such as Skype). PowerPoint 2016 for Mac is, as I say, pleasant to use, not to mention powerful. If it had feature parity with the Windows version, support for Dropbox and iCloud, and a Magic Move-like transition, it would be nearly perfect ~ and I'd love to see that happen. & secs Format Sas Seckgroune _BREEEE Office 2007-2010 TEE Grayscale GLOZ 4390190 S| BE) susiness APPLE ACCOUNTS STOLEN VIA JAILBREAK APP BY JEREMY KIRK Credentials for more than 225,000 Apple accounts have been stolen by sophisticated malware that targets modified i0S devices, according to Palo Alto Networks. The malware, which is nicknamed KeyRaider, enables attackers to download applications from Apple’s App Store without paying or to lock devices in lieu of a ransom. “We believe this to be the largest known Apple account theft caused by malware,” wrote Claud Xiao of Palo Alto Networks in a blog post (http://researchcenter. paloaltonetworks.com/2015/08/keyraider- ios-malware-steals-over-225000-apple- accounts-to-create-free-app-utopia). Palo Alto Networks notified Apple of KeyRaider on 26 August and provided the stolen account information, Xiao wrote. Apple officials in Sydney couldn't be immediately reached at the time. KeyRaider can only infect those who have ‘jailbroken’ their Apple device. Jailbreaking removes Apple's protections that limit what apps can be installed on a device. Apple advises against jailbreaking for security reasons. Palo Alto Networks investigated KeyRaider with an amateur technical group in China called WeipTech. A member of that group, who is a student at Yangzhou University, discovered the attack, Xiou wrote. KeyRaider has been spread by being incorporated into jailbreak tweaks, or software packages that allow for some new function to be run on iOS. The malware has been found within tweaks published on the WeiPhone forum for jailbroken phones. It is suspected that a user, who goes by the username ‘mischa07’ on WeiPhone, may be responsible for seeding KeyRaider to his personal repository of apps. The same user name was hardcoded into KeyRaider as the encryption and decryption key for the malware, Xiao wrote. An analysis of mischa07’s repository shows the user has uploaded many tweaks to WeiPhone, including ones that allow users to cheat on games, tune their systems and strip advertisements from apps. KeyRaider taps into system processes within Cydia, which is the application used for downloading apps for jailbroken phones. It steals Apple account usernames, passwords and a device's GUID (globally unique identifier) by intercepting iTunes traffic, which it can then use to fraudulently download apps. The malware also collects certificates, private keys and purchase receipts. In another style of attack, KeyRaider was used for at least one ransom ware attempt. The malware can “locally disable any kind of unlocking operations, whether [or not] the correct passcode or password has been entered,” Xiao wrote. One person reported their phone was locked and showed a message to contact someone over the QQ instant messaging service. The stolen account information was found by WeipTech on a command-and-control server that communicates with KeyRaider- infected phones. That server had security vulnerabilities that allowed the group to obtain the stolen data. But KeyRaider’s authors figured out something was going on. WeipTech (www-weiptech.org) only recovered about half of the stolen accounts “before the attacker fixed the vulnerability,” Xiao wrote. WeipTech was set up as a service for people to see if their account was among those compromised. SALESFORCE SHOWCASES APPLE WATCH APPS FOR BUSINESSES KATHERINE NOYES Salesforce has long been a proponent of wearable computing’s enterprise potential, and recently it showed off five new Apple Watch apps created specifically for business users. All built by the company’s partners on the Salesforcel Platform using the Salesforce Wear toolkit, the new apps span a spectrum of purposes, including collaboration, scheduling and project management. BetterWorks Wear, for instance, is designed to help companies connect employees around common goals. A retailer, for example, could equip Apple Watch-wearing sales associates with the app to ensure they're always updated on progress toward team and individual sales goals. The ContactWorld for Wearables app from NewVoiceMedia, meanwhile, integrates caller ID with Salesforce data to give sales and service reps new visibility into who is calling and the value that Yy FileMaker. PROUDLY SUPPORTING MAC IN BUSINESS An Apple Subsidiary 413324 FOLLOW US f facebook.com/AusMacworld pinterest.com/macworldau WWW.MACWORLD.COM.AU thefancy.com/macworldau. customer represents to the organisation. Armed with that information, they can decide how to prioritise the call. ClickSoftware's FieldExpert app, on the other hand, provides mobile scheduling for workforces that are often away from the office. The app aims to help mobile employees review their daily schedule, update service requests and schedule additional services or upgrades right from the Apple Watch. A cable technician, for instance, could automatically notify a customer when they will be arriving. The TaskRay app by Bracket Labs is designed to help project managers keep tabs on a project's status via ‘at-a-glance’ completion gauges. A Dictation features allows users to speak their updates into the watch, converting the voice memo into text and automatically syncing it into Salesforce. pusiness GER Finally, Vlocity’s Wear app for Communications and Media connects to Salesforce's Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, so as to provide representatives with customer profile data. With that information in hand, they can initiate tasks directly from the app, such as updating a case, sending a bill or creating a new order. In August, Salesforce said it has a total of 20 new Apple Watch apps to unveil, but it didn’t provide details on the other 15 other than to mention the partners behind them: Alpine Metrics, Apttus, BrainHeart, Fairsail, FinancialForce.com, Footprints, HeyWire, InsideSales, Point of Reference, Proximity Insight, Remedyforce, Sage, ServiceMax, Skedulo and TeamSpirit. There were also no details provided about the new apps’ pricing or availability. &% 24/7 news, reviews, secrets, help & more! \BOms GLOZ 4390190 ne“woo"pjomseu MMM BE) cuest cOwWMN... BY CHRISTOPHER PHIN aN saying goodbye to a beloved 2008 MacBook Pro Christopher Phin loved his MacBook Pro so much that he kept it alive for seven years with various mods and hardware upgrades. But all good things must come to an end, eventual hen someone retires, it's customary to give a glowing speech that praises their long service and contributions. Well, I've just retired my 2008 MacBook Pro, and I'd like to do the same. This machine was — and is — a rook, completely solid and completely reliable. (It also feels like you're carrying a rock, by modern standards.) It has lasted me for seven years and, frankly, it’s still going strong. ‘Apple tax’, schmapple tax. The decision to retire it wasn’t made because of one big reason — it hasn't stopped working (though it’s beginning to fray at the edges a little) and it hasn't become too slow (though | was occasionally becoming frustrated with export times as | do more work in Final Cut Pro). It's just time to treat myself to something that will make my working life just a little more pleasant. y. There are three reasons it's survived and thrived through seven unremitting years of hard work. The first is how it's built and the materials from which it's built. Take the trackpad, for example On laptops I've had before, after a few months of heavy use, I'd start to wear a bald spot in the trackpad, which would gradually become inconsistently responsive. This one, though, was glass, and it looks and feels as perfect under my fingertips as it did on the day | excitedly lifted it from its box in 2008. | will allow, though, that the trackpad no longer always registers clicks — yay, tap to click — and that the black plastic material on the hinge is starting to crackle and flake. (Note that both problems are in the two areas that physically move.) These slight evidences of the hard life it's led aside, however, at a glance you wouldn't think this machine is old By technology standards though — especially the standards of someone who writes about and makes his living from the field — it most decidedly is. It doesn't look dated to any but the most attentive eye; a charitable interpretation is that Apple nailed the simple, distilled- down design language a long time ago, though alternatively you could argue it also suggests its design language has stagnated. The screen is stil bright and the sturdy aluminium chassis doesn’t show physical signs of ageing, The only really obvious sign that it's been a writer's main Mac for seven years is how shiny some of the key caps have become. But while outwardly little has changed since it was new, the same isn't true inside, which is the second reason it has been pressed into service for so long. First, the hard disk was swapped for a 256GB SSD from Crucial (transformative, as you'll know if you've done a similar thing), then the optical drive was swapped for a second internal drive using a kit from OWC and a 500GB hard disk donated by a friend of mine. Then, as the battery wore out, it too was replaced. And, finally, once SSD prices dropped significantly, the main SSD got switched again, this time for a 500GB MX100 from Crucial. It's natural, of course, to draw the obvious comparisons with the current crop of Macs - especially the popular laptops — which are in essence sealed boxes, and to tut, don a tinfoil hat and say that Apple is screwing us by not letting us give our machines the kind of longevity that only upgrading makes possible. I’m not so sure it’s relevant, though. For one thing, | suspect many people criticising the perceived high cost of having Apple replace the battery in a modern laptop not only conveniently overlook the benefits of anon-removable battery, but also crucially have forgotten that the old removable batteries themselves cost only a little less than this service. More importantly, though, | think we've probably reached a point where a midlevel computer will suffice for most people for a long time, unchanged, thanks in large part to the vast difference flash storage makes to a computer's apparent speed and responsiveness. In the past, you had to keep replacing your Mac regularly because the things we wanted computers to do outstripped their ability to do them. There's a danger that this kind of talk will come back and bite me like the (probably apocryphal) Bill Gates quote about 640KB of RAM being enough for anybody, but | think there’s a qualitative difference with this situation, and it’s this... For the whole of the life of the modern, GUI/WIMP. computer - though I'm simplifying dramatically here — we've essentially been asking computers to do the same class of things, and the basic underlying change in hardware since the early days has just been making storage, CPUs, busses and so on incrementally faster. Now, though, while the fundamental job we ask computers. to do hasn't changed - the paradigm remains the same — their hardware has come to the point where they can do it without breaking a sweat. Yes, rendering a video may take a while, but the elementary interface stuff of drawing windows and interacting with files no longer has a noticeable overhead. In other words, until the fundamental role of computers changes - VR? Wetware? Quantum? — the combination of high-enough clock speeds and, crucially, very fast storage perhaps means that there’s enough headroom now. Perhaps the traditionally prized ability to upgrade components is becoming less of a necessity if what you're trying to do is keep a computer running and relevant for years. Which brings me to the third reason: my beloved MacBook Pro is cuest couuMN EX running Yosemite, will run El Capitan and may run further versions of OS X beyond that. There’s no Handoff and no AirDrop to and from iOS, but in every important way, it's a completely modern Mac experience. That too, | think, is made possible by how mature and settled OS X has become; Apple can add features and change stuff under the hood, but because the basic business of ‘being an operating system’ hasn't fundamentally changed at the same time as hardware has become much more capable, even seven-year-old hardware is still easily capable of running the latest one. So raise a glass, ladies and gentlemen, to my 2008 MacBook Pro —doughty companion, colleague and friend for seven years. It doesn’t look a day older than when we first met, and it worked tirelessly until this, its very last day in the office. It deserves a happy, peaceful and rewarding retirement, and I'm sure you'll join me in wishing it the very best. To Chris’ old Mac! & GLOZ 4390190 ne"woo"poMaeU MMM BE) rrovucrs Logitech Blok Have you ever looked at your iPad and wondered what it would look like with a keyboard setup similar to Microsoft's Surface Pro 3? Neither have |, but here’s the answer: Logitech's Blok Keyboard Case. The Blok is part keyboard, part protective case. The keyboard offers Logitech's typical keyboard responsiveness and layout, while the case offers a box design aimed at protecting your iPad from drops of up to two metres. Almost all of the keyboards I've tested for the iPad offer some sort of channel for the tablet to rest in. The Blok, however, offers a stand-alone keyboard that attaches to a stand-alone case via a magnetic hinge. In order to hold the iPad up, Logitech includes a kickstand on the back of the case. It offers viewing angles ranging from 20 to 70 degrees, whether or not the keyboard is attached to the case. The kickstand held its position even after accidental bumps or over extended periods of time. | enjoyed propping up my iPad to watch a movie without having a distracting keyboard sitting in front of it. Logitech decided to forgo including a rechargeable battery altogether —a battery that usually netted a year's worth of battery life according to the company. Instead, the company is now using two CR2032 batteries. | wasn’t able to fully test the estimated four-year battery life of the Blok Keyboard, and I'll probably never have to. The keyboard itself uses the typical layout of most iPad keyboards. The top row is made up of shortcut keys to common iOS actions such as activating Siri, media controls and a lock button. Just below it sits a traditional keyboard layout, with numerical and character keys of ample size. The keys are responsive and somewhat forgiving. Actually, I'd put this keyboard in the same category as Logitech's Ultrathin keyboard — it’s one of the best iPad keyboards available. | was able to power on the keyboard and begin typing just after connecting it to my iPad. Furthermore, | enjoyed not being forced to leave the keyboard attached to its counterpart. | do wish the keyboard offered backlit keys, however. There's no getting around the fact the case is pretty ugly. It’s akin to a slab of wood a butcher would cut meat on. It's rather large and heavy, adding nearly 680g in weight, and 2.5cm of thickness to your iPad when the case and keyboard are present. Logitech offers three different colour combinations of the case: black, blue and teal, or red and violet. The latter two provide some much needed appeal to the boring black case. At the end of the day, the Blok’s keyboard design is one that's a pleasure to use. I'm not sold on the bulkiness of the Blok case, but | do wish Logitech would bring the keyboard's battery setup to something smaller and lighter. A battery- powered keyboard with enough juice to get me through multiple iPad upgrade cycles? I'm in. Logitech / $149.95 / www.logitech.com ~— BY JASON CIPRIANI Mophie H2pro Not all of us use our iPhones from the safety of dry land or an office. The Mophie H20PRO is 100 percent waterproof with military standard durability and the integrated 2750mAh rechargeable lithium- ion polymer delivers an extra 100 percent of battery life to your iPhone so you can stay connected when you're out and about. Mophie US$129.95 www.mophie.com Spire The wearables market is essentially made up of devices that count your steps, assess your activity or let you know when you're not moving enough. All of these devices track movement, but they don't track your breathing. Spire is a small device that you clip onto your belt or bra, and it detects your inhalations and exhalations. This data gets sent to your iOS device, which provides insights into how you inspire. Spire is a unique tool for monitoring one part of your health that other wearables ignore. By monitoring your breathing, Spire can help you better manage your stress levels. Spire US$149.95 www.spire.io Moshi Urbana Notebook bags used to be very boring and utilitarian. But that’s changed in recent years and Moshi is getting in on the act. The computer bags in its Urbana range are stylish and functional. Comprising two designs, the range includes the Urbana Mini for smaller devices and the Urbana Briefcase suited for notebooks up to 15in in size. Moshi from $149.99 www.moshi.com Velvetwire Powerline PRODUCTS Reserve Strap The Reserve Strap for Apple Watch looks chic and stylish, but contains a battery in the strap that gives an additional 30 hours of Apple Watch use. When it does need some extra juice, you can techarge it via a Micro USB. Plus, the thermoset elastomer silicone band has the same level of water resistance as the Apple Watch itself — consider it like a Sport band, but kicked up a notch. Reserve Strap US$250 reservestrap.com Velvetwire was founded by a husband and wife team, who learned how crucial it was to have power adapters that didn’t drain the boat's battery while on an around-the-world sailing trip. They make the Powerslayer line of chargers, as well as nautically inspired $30 Powerline Lightning cables. The cables are nice and thick and the braided jacketing makes them easy to coil. Velvetwire / from US$20 / velvetwire.com LOZ 4390190 ne"woo"pjomaeurMmMm FEATURE FEATURE QE S102 ¥380190. EL CAPITAN DEEP DIVE FEATURE pple announced OS X 10.11 El Capitan at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, due to ship in the spring, but with a public beta release that is out now. If you're just too excited about El Capitan to wait for spring, your chance to try out the next generation of OS X is here: Apple is releasing the first El Capitan beta to users who have joined its public beta program. Here's our look at what to expect, keeping in mind that El Capitan is still a work in progress and a lot can (and will) change between now and the release of the full, finished version in the spring. MAIL GETS MORE EFFICIENT When an 0S X update arrives, it’s also time for the annual upgrade to the Apple- built apps that are included with OS X. With El Capitan, Apple Mail is getting a big update. Some of the changes are cosmetic in nature. Taking a cue from iOS and from some third-party competitors, Mail now allows you to use the trackpad to swipe messages into the trash or to mark them as unread. Trackpad-oriented users will appreciate the shortcut, though I found myself wishing for a few more options such as being able to swipe to archive a message rather than delete it, or to swipe to flag a message. For quite some time now, OS X has had the ability to detect certain kinds of content in your email messages ~ names of contacts, events, dates and times. In El Capitan, Mail does a much better job of putting that information in context. Ifa potential event is mentioned in the text of an email message ~ ‘let's have lunch on Thursday’ ~ Mail will add a banner above the top of the message body that displays the event and provides an Add Event link to quickly add it to your calendar. Likewise, if the person mailing you doesn’t appear in your Contacts list, Mail will display a banner indicating that it's detected a possible new contact with a quick Add Contact link. But perhaps the best feature in Mail is one that lives under the hood and addresses a long-standing problem with the app. Perhaps because it was developed at Apple's campus, replete with high-speed internet connections, Mail has had a major blind spot: poor performance on slow connections. Have you tried using Mail on a slow, high-latency internet connection on, say, an aeroplane? All you want to do is check your Inbox, and Mail's trying to sync all your IMAP mailboxes rather than getting to the good stuff. In El Capitan, Mail prioritises showing you new mail in your Inbox and prioritises the downloading of the messages or mailboxes that you're currently viewing. It’s an improvement that’s been a long time coming. MISSION CONTROL AND SPLIT-SCREEN VIEW Only Apple knows for sure, but it seems that Mission Control is used largely by power users and not your average everyday Mac user. Still, new ways of moving and displaying windows find their way into every 0S X release, so clearly someone at Apple still loves them. In El Capitan, Mission Control's been revamped, with every window getting its own thumbnail - previously all windows from an App would be stacked together. All thumbnails are distributed while keeping geography in mind, so a window that's in the bottom left corner of the screen would have its thumbnail appear in the bottom left comer of the Mission Control view. El Capitan’s major new feature in this category, though, is the split-screen interface. This feature echoes the new split-screen app view in i0S 9, and it adds an extra dimension of utility to full- screen view. If you've got a large monitor, full-screen view is often overkill, because few apps really need to take up the entire screen. With El Capitan, you've got the option of having two different apps share full-screen view. Entering split-screen view is actually fun, and quite clever on Apple's part. If you click and hold on the green plus/ maximise button in a window's title bar, you'll be prompted to choose which side of the screen you'd like that window to be placed on. Then Mission Control will display on the other side of the screen, letting you choose a currently open window to use as the first window's split- screen buddy. It’s fast, cool-looking and efficient. Converting full-screen mode to split- screen mode isn’t without its interface quirks. I noticed that, depending on how an app presents itself in full-screen mode, sometimes it could be very hard to tell which app was active/frontmost. That sometimes led to unexpected behaviour; for example, | tried to zoom in on a PDF in Preview by spreading my thumb and index finger on the trackpad, but it didn’t work because I hadn’t clicked on the window to activate Preview yet. Since it seems that split-screen view is just a modified version of the old full-screen view, there are probably going to be some quirks like this - with apps assuming they're the only app you can see because you're in full-screen mode, even though they're not - until apps get modified to adapt to the El Capitan world. (Speaking of apps getting full- screen/split-screen updates, Mail is a good example of this. In El Capitan it's got several new full-screen features, including the ability to minimise composition windows and even add multiple composition windows in a tabbed interface.) A SMARTER SPOTLIGHT Between Siri and Spotlight, Apple continues to build up its collection of searchable data sources, making one wonder when Siri and Spotlight will stop being tools that use search engines and start being search engines themselves. With El Capitan, Spotlight now has access to weather, stocks, sports, transit and web video, as well as support for natural- language queries. Yes, this means you should be able to type Carlton standings into Spotlight and immediately be given the bad news from the AFL, or Coober Pedy weather and get the bad news from the blistering hot desert. It also means you can type queries like ‘PDEs from June 2013’ and actually get the result you're expecting. I like this approach, because the fact is that many people search using natural- language queries, regardless of whether their search engine of choice supports it. A lot of us want to type ‘how do I delete my Facebook account’ into Google, rather than carefully crafting a string of search terms. So Spotlight gets smarter, we get to be lazier, and it should all work out. With Yosemite, the Spotlight window itself came unglued from the Spotlight icon in the top right comer of the menu bar, and floated in the middle of the screen. In El Capitan, you can actually move the Spotlight box anywhere you want, and resize the results window. UPGRADED NOTES To paraphrase Yogi Berra, nobody likes the Notes app - it's too popular. The App Store is full of apps that outdo Notes at the job of taking notes, creating shopping lists, you name it. But Notes has one major thing going for it - it's on every Mac and iPhone and iPad in existence. That's why so many of us (and I'm including myself in this) use it. So if Notes is popular, why not give it an upgrade? That's what Apple has done in El Capitan. Now you can stick a whole bunch of different files ~ PDFs, images, even videos ~ into a note. Notes is also now an option in the Share button, so you can send data to Notes from any app that displays a share sheet. To create a checklist in Notes, you just select some text and click the Checklist button in the toolbar. That's it ~ every line gets a little checkbox in front of it, and you can check them on and off at will. The checkboxes aren't connected to anything, and clicking them doesn't do anything except check and uncheck them. But if you're making a quick to-do list, maybe that's all they need to do. Up to now, Notes was one of the rare Apple cloud-connected apps on OS X that didn’t actually use the iCloud infrastructure. Instead, it connected to a special IMAP mailbox in one of your 4 GF _B TWe 11:56 AM FEATURE connected email accounts. (If you've ever searched your Gmail and seen a dozen different notes files in your results, this is why.) But starting with El Capitan, Notes can also use iCloud proper. In fact, for some of the more advanced features ~ including checklists ~ you'll need to use iCloud. Fortunately, you can easily drag all your old notes from your email account right into iCloud, and they'll transfer over. SAFARI TWEAKS With El Capitan comes a new version of Safari, version 9, and it’s got some clever new features. I have to admit that I still use bookmarks (and don’t use RSS), and I'm looking forward to using the new Pinned Sites feature in Safari 9. Pinned Sites are like mega-bookmarks, or a simpler, more visual version of the Favorites Bar. Drag a tab into the left corner of Safari's title bar and it will stay there permanently, with a little icon (or letter if the site in question hasn't built a special custom icon for use with Pinned Sites) to distinguish it. Pinned Sites are kept refreshed, so with one click you can see what's new on your favourite site. Clicks that lead to other pages on the site are loaded in the pinned site’s tab, but external links all open in separate tabs, keeping your pinned site right where it is. As someone who likes to Q Q. weather san diega)- Westne:-sen oc Tor er San Diego, CA ; “gions x 66 B_toxSsandiego.com/ — FOX Sen Di Chance of Rain: 0% OG SEARCH High: 73° Low: 65" HE wunderground.com Il seatecons Now 127M 1PM 2PM 3PM 4PM SPM @ accuweather.com 7 7 . ¥ “4 eo «8 7 2 2 R Tuesday 73 65 Wednesday , 70 64 Thursday “ 70 63 Friday , 7m 64 ‘Saturday y il 72 64 ee S102 ¥380190 ne‘woo"poMaeU MMM, bookmark a few very-favourite sites and visit them regularly, this has the makings of a cool feature. Nobody likes blaring audio from pages that automatically play videos when the page loads, and if you're someone who likes to open articles in multiple tabs, you can very quickly have several different videos playing in different tabs. In Safari 9, you can very quickly mute audio in all of your tabs, and can also click to inspect which tab is making the noise, so you can jump to it and mute just that tab. This is a really great feature that I look forward to using when I'm browsing ESPN, Macworld and many of my other favourite sites, which I generally read only for the articles. Lalso like the fact that Safari Reader, which gives you a simplified view of a complicated page layout, has added more display preferences. In the Yosemite version of Safari, you can make the text larger or smaller, but that’s about it. In Safari 9, you can not only adjust text size, but also choose from four colour themes and eight typefaces. It's a good look. FIRST SET OF PHOTOS, IMPROVEMENTS The first version of Photos for Mac is not without its power features, but while I was working on my book about Photos, Istarted to compile a list of the most requested ‘missing features’ in Photos 1.0. Thad hoped those features would be added by Apple in a future update, and I'm happy to report that this seems to be happening with the version of Photos that will ship with El Capitan. The biggest addition is editing of image data, individually and in batches. In Photos you'll be able to add location information to a single photo or an entire batch, batch- organise faces, and batch-change titles. Another huge user complaint was about a lack of flexibility in sorting albums. (The first version of Photos let you sort them any way you want, as long as it was by date.) The new version of Photos will let you sort them by date, title and more. Photos will support image-editing extensions written by third-party developers. If there’ particular editing effect or tool that isn’t available in Photos, a developer can write an extension that provides that feature, and it can be accessed from within Photos. I wasn’t able to test this feature out because, unsurprisingly, I don’t currently have access to any of those extensions. GRAB BAG Of course there's more. Though I haven't been able to test the claims ~ and beta versions, even public ones, are not usually ideal for speed testing - Apple claims that in El Capitan, apps launch up to 40 percent faster, switching between apps takes half the time, and opening PDFs is up to four times faster. A lot of speed boosts in El Capitan are due to Apple's adoption of Metal, the high-speed graphics technology that came to i0S last year. Apple itself is using Metal for its key graphics technologies, including CoreAnimation and CoreGraphics, so this isn't a case where Apple’s tossing out a shaky new technology and hoping that third-party developers work out the bugs. As the saying goes, Apple’s eating its own dog food on this one. Other new features in El Capitan include transit support in Maps - though it's limited to even fewer cities in the beta version than the relatively small number of cities due when El Capitan ships this spring. Clicking the Transit tab when you’re in an unsupported city displays a banner that informs you there’s no transit data for that city. (Maybe the Transit tab could fade out when no data is available?) Using tomorrow’s OS X today is an exciting prospect! But even a public beta is still a beta. That means that some features won't be fully functional and there will be bugs. I highly recommend that you don’t install the El Capitan Public Beta on a system that you haven't backed up. If it’s the only Mac you've got in order to get your work done, think twice. Consider installing it on an external drive or separate partition, or be prepared to restore to an older version of OS X in case of disaster or (more likely) software incompatibility. Still, El Capitan feels pretty good to me. I love the audio-muting features of Safari and can't wait to use some slow in-flight Wi-Fi just so I can test out the new features of Apple Mail. And the speed boosts and support for Metal should improve everyone’s Mac experience by making everything just a little bit faster. Isn’t that what upgrades should be about? ll IN MOTION THERE EXISTS GREAT POTENTIAL. UP TO 433MB/s UP TO 240GB DESKTOP-CLASS SSD ~Gue), en vov PRO MINI www.macsales.com | +1-815-338-8685 | Free 24/7 customer service BE) srrucations AP P G U | D E Cool software for the iOS & Apple Watch. TRIPIT TRAVEL Concur iPAD, iPHONE & APPLE WATCH FREE (IN-APP PURCHASES) Tripits As a frequent traveller, keeping track of flights, accommodation bookings, car hire and meetings can get tricky. Triplt makes all of this much easier. The app is backed by a cloud service that can extract travel and accommodation information from itineraries and present it in an easy to use form. To use the app, you need to register with Triplt. You can create an account or leverage your existing Google, Facebook or Yahoo! account. Once that’s done, you can access your travel plans from just about any device. Adding travel plans is a snap. You can either enter them manually or simply forward your travel plans to plans@tripit.com from your registered email address. If you're really lazy, you can even give Triplt permission to check your email to find the itineraries for you. Although that works, we prefer not to give third parties direct access to our email. While Triplt is a handy repository for that information, a big part of its value comes from its ability to share information. For example, we have added family to the list of viewers for our travel plans. That way, if they install Triplt, they can easily look at our travel plans. You can also subscribe to your Triplt calendar, so that your travel appears in your schedule. ‘San Francisco to Las Vegas With online check-in now an expected feature for travellers, Triplt has integrated this into the app. When check-in for a flight is available, you simply tap a button on the flight information screen and follow the airline's process. This includes sending boarding passes to Passbook. We've stumped up the $61.99 subscription fee for Triplt Pro (available as an in-app purchase), as we use the app so much. This has been invaluable as it delivers alerts about flight delays and lets us know of connections that are in jeopardy of being missed. In many cases, Triplt has alerted us to delays before Messages from the airlines were sent. This meant we were able to get onto the phone and beat the rush as we changed flights. The recent updates to Triplt have added alerts to the Apple Watch, so there's no need to fish our iPhone or iPad out when there's a message from the airline or a reminder. When you're on the ground, Triplt integrates with either Apple Maps or Google Maps. So, once you get to an airport, there are travel directions, in the app, to get you to your hotel or appointment — assuming you've got them loaded into Triplt. There have been occasions when Triplt hasn't worked perfectly over the last couple of years we've been using it. For example, at one time an airline we regularly use changed the format of its travel documents. But we alerted Triplt’s developers and they updated their systems. accordingly. Triplt can also track hotel and airline loyalty programs, as well as store details such as passport and driver's licence numbers, emergency contact information, such as credit card and embassy numbers. Even if you lose your iPhone or iPad, you can access that information from any computer with a web browser. Even for occasional travellers, Triplt can be useful. If you're on a long holiday, having all your details in one place can be handy and you can easily share plans with family and friends. In short, if you travel —Triplt can be hugely useful. — BY ANTHONY CARUANA i LIQUIDTEXT ' PRODUCTIVITY Liquid Text Inc iPAD, iPHONE FREE LiquidText offers gesture-based reading and annotation for documents (PDF, DOC, PPT, web pages) so you can compare distant sections, take notes, build upon thoughts and pull out key facts from the text. It includes a workspace for extracting excerpts, assisting with research and making it a great tool as we head into school exam time. FING UTILITIES Overlook Soft iPAD, iPHONE FREE RM, Home and office networks are getting aan more and more complex with more devices connecting than ever before. Fing scans your network and provides a list of connected devices, their network addresses and MAC addresses. This makes it easy to identify rogue devices and you can store notes and other information, So you know what's happening on your network. MEDICAL Fodmap Friendly iPHONE $2.49 The FODMAP friendly app contains data on specific FODMAP levels in foods, and lists them as percentages, giving you more control over your diet than ever before. It lists numerous new super foods, product availability, manufacturers’ details, information about the FODMAP diet itself, and contact details for dieticians with a background in FODMAPs. The app includes FODMAP content of hundreds of various foods including over 50 previously untested foods as well as each food’s overall pass/fail rating according to the FODMAP Friendly Certified levels. And if you're on the look out for a FODMAP dietician, the app has a database you can search to find a practitioner near you. appLicaTions Qi 5} STAR WARS COMMANDER GAMES Disney iPAD, iPHONE FREE The Galactic War rages on. Where does your allegiance lie? Will you side with the Rebellion or the Empire? You get to build your base, recruit and train your army, strategically plan your defences and lead your troops to victory on war- torn worlds throughout the galaxy. It's your chance to make your own Star Wars and avoid George Lucas’ continual rewrites! EVERYTHING MACHINE EDUCATION Tinybop Inc iPAD, iPHONE $3.99 +, The Everything Machine lets kids build anything they can imagine using the hardware and sensors already on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. It uses a visual programming language to combine your device's camera, microphone, speakers, gyroscope and screen to make a light, a stop-motion camera, a kaleidoscope, a voice disguiser or anything else you can think of. Pick a side and join the fight. S102 ¥380190 ne‘woo"poMaeU MMM FEATURE FEATURE GEM S102 ¥380190. EL CAPITAN NEED TO KNOW FEATURE t Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference last June, the company revealed El Capitan, the next major version of OS X (version 10.11). El Capitan will be officially released in the spring, but Apple has made a pre-release version of El Capitan available to the public. What's the difference between the beta version of El Capitan and the shipping version? How do you get the beta software? Will the beta work on your Mac? You have questions about the beta, and fortunately, we have answers. WHAT IS THE EL CAPITAN PUBLIC BETA? Apple's Beta Software Program lets Mac users install beta (pre-release) versions of OS X and provide Apple with feedback on those versions. ‘Beta’ is a term that developers use to indicate when software is close to being ready for release, but still requires testing. The version