MAC GAMING REVOLUTIONIZED OVERNIGHT! p10
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< INSIDE THE iPHONE’S “NAUGHTY APPS”
SCANDAL p12
WAYS iPAD APPS WILL
ASTONISH YOU
Mac Life M AY 20 1 0 NO. 4 0
ULTIMATE MAC UPGRADES! How To Supercharge Your Gear >>Upgrade your RAM, hard drive, video card, and more >>18 killer peripherals for the dream Mac setup
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ALSO... A TUbE-bASED iPOD DOCk? YES!
Aperture 3: Does Apple’s prosumer photo editor topple Photoshop? p58
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FEATURES COVER STORY
22 Build a Better Mac You know your Mac is awesome. Want to maximize its awesomeness? No problem. We’ll show you how to upgrade RAM, hard drives, video cards, and more. By Adam Berenstain
34 Supercharge Your Mac with Great Gear Strengthening its core is one way to get your Mac in better shape. But for even more muscle, power up with our picks of the best highperformance peripherals. By Zack Stern
44 10 Ways iPad Apps Will Astonish You 50 Apps Plants vs. Zombies, the best cycling apps, and more!
COVER ILLUSTRATION: ADAM BENTON
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MAY• 10 maclife.com
How will Apple’s new wonder gadget transform what we expect from an app? Top developers weigh in. By Andrew Hayward
10 DEPARTMENTS
4 ONLINE AT MACLIFE.COM Revel in the wealth of Mac news, how-tos, videos, rumors, and podcasts on MacLife.com. 6 CONSIDER Is a closed system the beginning of the end? 8 SHARE Our Facebook friends share their fave iPhone apps, and we get picky about color. 10 START Will Steam’s arrival on Mac mean the dawn of a gaming renaissance? Plus: the iPhone’s “naughty apps” scandal, learn whether IP addresses are running out, and more. 20 CRAVE All the gear that’s fit to covet—including ceramic speakers. So pretty. 96 WIN Go directly to page 96 if you want to win a Mysterious Box of Mystery (dangling carrot: one of the prizes has four wheels).
CREATE
80 Ask Make PDFs editable in Pages ’09. Override Snow Leopard’s preference for file extensions. Maximize MobileMe with Back to My Mac. We show you how to do all this and more. By Susie Ochs & Scott Rose 84 Create a Guest Wi-Fi Network Enable web access for visitors without compromising your security. By Cory Bohon 88 Trick Out Your Menubar with 10 Free Apps There comes a time in every geek’s life when the menubar’s potential simply must be tapped. By Arvind Srinivasan 91 Seven Amazing Uses for Hazel Keep your Desktop and folders sorted with the help of Hazel, an automated housekeeper for your computer. By Susie Ochs
REVIEWS 56
67
56
PLAY 76
56 Music Cocoon MC4 iPod dock 76 Tales of Monkey Island 58 Aperture 3 photo editing point-and-click adventure and organization app 77 Star Trek D-A-C top-down shooter 60 Thoughts information manager 78 The Sims 3: World Adventures 62 BassJump portable subwoofer expansion pack 63 Refresh charging station 64 Data Rescue 3 data-recovery app 65 EPH-30 earbuds 67 8x Telescope with Hard Case for iPhone iPhone zoom lens 69 Coolpix S1000pj point-and-shoot camera/projector 70 Sport 20 iPod accessory 70 PowerCurl cable wrap 71 CorePack Fly Messenger Bag laptop bag 72 Tough-’N’-Tiny USB Drive 73 Diva Lamp iPod dock and lamp 74 iAdapt 20 and Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter II display adapters
63
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10 reAsoNs whY You cAN’t AlwAYs relY oN GPs oN the iPhoNe maclife.com/article/feature/technical_reasons_why_ gps_has_forsaken_you
the mAc user’s Guide to cool thiNGs You cAN do with steAm maclife.com/article/feature/mac_user_steam_cool
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coming next month in the june iSSue THE DEFINITIVE REVIEW You know what time it is? That’s right, iPad review time! We’ll put Apple’s latest gadget through its paces to suss out just how wonderful—or not—it really is.
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MAY• 10 maclife.com
Mac |Life
EDITORIAL EDITOR-In-ChIEf Paul Curthoys MAnAGInG EDITOR Jan Hughes SEnIOR EDITOR Susie Ochs REvIEwS EDITOR Ray Aguilera COnTRIBUTORS Leslie Ayers, Adam Berenstain, Violet Blue, Cory Bohon, Peter Cohen, Andy Dyer, Mitch Dyer, Andrew Hayward, Scott Rose, Michael Simon, Arvind Srinivasan, Zack Stern, Nic Vargus
ONLINE OnLInE EDITOR Roberto Baldwin ASSOCIATE OnLInE EDITOR Florence Ion ARChDUKE Of ThE InTERnET Jason Amor ART ART DIRECTOR Robin Dick ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR Mark Rosenthal PhOTOGRAPhERS Samantha Berg, Mark Madeo PhOTO ASSISTAnT Patrick Kawahara ILLUSTRATOR Adam Benton BUSINESS PUBLIShER Kate Byrne, 650-238-2049 SEnIOR REGIOnAL SALES DIRECTOR Dave Lynn, 949-360-4443 REGIOnAL SALES DIRECTOR David White, 650-238-2502 SALES MAnAGER Aida Rodriguez, 708-562-0686 SEnIOR MARKETInG MAnAGER Andrea Recio-Ang MARKETInG COORDInATOR Allyson Kardel ADvERTISInG COORDInATOR Jose Urrutia, 650-238-2498 PRODUCTION PRODUCTIOn DIRECTOR Michael Hollister PRODUCTIOn COORDInATOR Lewis Lee PRInT ORDER COORDInATOR Jennifer Lim CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR Of COnSUMER MARKETInG Rich McCarthy CIRCULATIOn DIRECTOR Crystal Hudson nEwSSTAnD DIRECTOR Bill Shewey COnSUMER MARKETInG OPERATIOnS DIRECTOR Lisa Radler REnEwAL & BILLInG MAnAGER Mike Hill BUSInESS MAnAGER Elliot Kiger SR. OnLInE COnSUMER MARKETInG MAnAGER Jennifer Trinkner CUSTOMER SERvICE MAnAGER Mike Frassica FUTURE US, INC. 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San francisco, CA 94080 www.futureus.com PRESIDEnT John Marcom vICE PRESIDEnT/ChIEf fInAnCIAL OffICER John Sutton vICE PRESIDEnT/InTERnET DEvELOPMEnT Tyson Daugherty vICE PRESIDEnT/PUBLIShInG DIRECTOR MUSIC Anthony Danzi vICE PRESIDEnT Of SALES AnD MARKETInG Rachelle Considine EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/TEChnOLOGy & LIfESTyLE Jon Phillips EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/GAMES GROUP Stephen Pierce EDITORIAL DIRECTOR/MUSIC Brad Tolinski GEnERAL COUnSEL Charlotte Falla DIRECTOR Of hUMAn RESOURCES Nancy Durlester DuBois future US, Inc. is part of future plc. future produces carefully targeted special-interest magazines, web sites, and events for people who share a passion. we aim to satisfy that passion by creating titles offering value for money, reliable information, smart buying advice, and which are a pleasure to read. Today we publish more than 150 magazines, 65 web sites, and a growing number of events in the US, UK, france, and Italy. Over 100 international editions of our magazines are also published in 30 other countries across the world. future plc is a public company quoted on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: fUTR).
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>>>Consider
CHECK OUT OUR STAFF BLOGS AND ARTICLES @ WWW.MACLIFE.COM
WHY THE iPAD MIGHT NOT BE FOR YOU
A
re you ticked off because the iPad doesn’t run OS X? Do you roll your eyes at the closed ecosystem that Apple’s creating on its tablet—just like it did on the iPhone?
Well, don’t get too bent out of shape. Apple isn’t especially interested in selling you an iPad anyways. Don’t get me wrong. They’ll take your money and even be glad to have you. But we’ve been talking to a lot of app developers about their iPad projects, and one of the most interesting and resounding messages we’re hearing is that these devices are not intended for techies. Sure, we’ll enjoy them, but Apple is really hoping to sell one to your mom and the other tech-challenged people in your life. Boxed in by NDAs with teeth bigger than Godzilla’s, the developers we’ve interviewed can only talk in broad strokes, but those strokes suggest that Apple is encouraging them to prioritize mass-market accessibility. The emphasis is on simple yet sophisticated design that, for example, creates calendar apps that look and work like real calendars. In Andrew Hayward’s terrific story on page 44, one dev describes his goal as creating the illusion of manipulating real-world objects that are contained under a piece of glass. That’d be a pretty powerful achievement, especially if it can break the useability barrier that even keyboards and mice represent for some people. Sure, plenty of iPad apps will have wonky interfaces, but when a critical mass of inspired, well-designed apps is achieved, the iPad’s going to start taking off. Imagine getting those millions
of people who struggle to merely cope with technology hooked on iPads. These folks won’t give a hoot that their iPad’s OS is a closed system. They’ll just be thrilled to encounter a device they can use for email, web surfing, and more without needing to collar the nearest nerd for help. Picture the additional truckloads of money that’ll roll into Cupertino as Apple takes a slice of all this newfound app-sales revenue, and the broad strokes of Apple’s genius plan become clear. With the iPad, Apple’s Apple’s trying to do trying to do for computing for computing what what iPods did for music and iPhones did for iPods did for music. smartphones. That potential is why I’m signed up to go along for this iPad ride, wherever it takes us. (Check back next issue as we assess its first step with our exhaustive iPad review.) I view the iPad at as a “netbook+”. I never bought a netbook because my MacBook worked just fine, but the iPad’s snagged my attention because it appears to have netbook functionality nailed down (especially if you spring for the nifty keyboard dock) while also offering much more: e-reading of books and magazines, gaming, movies, music, and whatever magic the app developers brew up. Besides, I’ll always have my Mac when I need to stretch my legs in a more open computing environment. Unless OS 11 takes Macs down the closed-ecosystem road… but nah, Apple would never do that. Would they?
Paul Curthoys, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
>>>OVERHEARD AT MAC|LIFE THIS MONTH....
“I used a Jedi mind trick.” —Jan, on talking the officer out of issuing the ticket for not having her lights on at dusk when she was giving Ray a ride home.
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“It’s hard for us to think like non-computer people. But, you know, try.” —Susie, on the difficulty of getting her fellow tech journalists to consider the iPad’s lack of Adobe Flash from a non-geeky point of view.
“Anyone have a riding crop? Just askin’.” —Robin, checking off items on her prop list for the photo shoot with Violet Blue (p12).
“Hey... if it includes sand and swords, count me in!” —Flo, letting us know how much she’d love to be part of a pirate-themed photo shoot.
“Steam on the Mac makes me question my relationship with my Xbox 360.” —Robbie, when considering his console-playing future.
“If IT asks why I was browsing these sites, I just want you to know it was totally work related.” —Ray, explaining to Paul why he was surfing some questionable sites while working on a story about the Great App Store Purge (p12).
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>>>Share
Your opinions, r ants & r aVEs
Color Control Thanks for the interesting article regarding painting in Pantone colors with Photoshop Elements (“Modernism Meets Its Mac,” Mar/10, p32). As usual, you create a lot of interesting ideas for how to use your Mac. The article states that “unless your monitor is perfectly calibrated, it won’t display Pantone swatches with absolute accuracy.” I should point out that even if it is perfectly calibrated, some Pantone colors are outside of the RGB color space and could never show perfectly on a monitor. Having said that, it is an interesting and helpful article, and most users won’t expect that level of color control anyhow.—Kevin Williamson
QueSTION Of THe MONTH: Name your favorite iPhone/iPod touch app, and tell us why—in 10 words or less. Dennis Wood FlightTrack, because it works. D.J. Meister Flashcards Deluxe: easily create your own or use growing shared library. Michael Chaconas LogMeIn. It transforms my phone into a remote computer from anywhere. Sammy Martin Epic Pet Wars, because I’m a geek. Kyle Stegh TweetDeck: digital omnipresence :) Don Nelson Shazam. It’s brilliant and original. Makes finding new music so easy. Matt Wilson Facebook, because I’m addicted. Casey Kerrick Plants vs. Zombie— Pretty Flowers... Dead Zombies... ’Nuff said. Jamieson-Lee Scott Phoneflicks: Who would use anything else during filmappreciation class? Matthew Clement USAA. Check balances. Pay bills. Deposit checks with the camera! David Peat II WhitePages. It finds who I’m looking for—and takes me there! Carol McCoy Run Mate. Got me running in no time. 5 weeks to 5k and beyond! Aaron Hughes Peggle! It is fun and replayable, and the challenges are fun! John Priest The Price Is Right. One word: Plinko. Be Mac|Life’s friend on Facebook (go to www .facebook.com/maclife) or follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/maclife).
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> Thanks for the kudos, Kevin. Also, you are absolutely correct about a display’s inability to render the full brilliance of the Pantone universe. Andy Hatkoff, Pantone’s vice president of technology licensing and business development, tells us, “It is very difficult to obtain a 100 percent accurate correlation between how a monitor displays color and ink on paper or paint on paper. A calibrated monitor will improve the representation of color, but we always recommend referring to one of our printed publications for the most accurate results.”—Jon
Judge Not, Lest… You always belittle non-iPhone users. Witness your article, “Sync Your Android Phone to Your Mac” (Create, March/10, p86). Have you ever considered that the reason many of us non-iPhoners are out here is because of the iPhone carrier... AT&T? The last time I contracted with AT&T, I had to stand outside my house to make a call. The first thing a phone must do is act as a phone. If the iPhone doesn’t do that because of AT&T’s poor service, what more is it than an iPod touch? I already have a touch. I also use Mac(s). So, please don’t be so condescending when it comes to noniPhone users. I would switch to an iPhone in a heartbeat if Apple would switch to a provider like Verizon. Until then, I will stay with my Droid. At least I can sit on my couch and make (or take) a call when it’s raining. Apology accepted.—Don P. My intent wasn’t to belittle non-iPhone users. If anything, I’ve been extremely vocal about AT&T’s inability to upgrade its network to handle the iPhone. The phrase “We know you have your reasons for buying an Android phone instead of an iPhone. We won’t judge you.” shows that I understand the myriad reasons (including AT&T’s network) a person would purchase a non-Apple smartphone. If I really thought that there wasn’t a market among Mac users for the third-party smartphone, I wouldn’t have written the how-to. I’m a fan of the Android OS, and I believe that it’s the one real threat to Apple’s smartphone dominance. Any jabs I took at the iPhone, the Android OS, or any other device was meant in good fun.
Now the Blackberry, that’s a different story…—Robbie
Great Minds… I hope you’ll be reviewing Aperture 3 soon; I was reading that it sucks up a lot of memory. Please keep memory usage in mind when you do review this.—Paul Bucci funny you should mention it, Paul. Check out our review on page 58.—Jan
Penny Saver With regard to your article “Make a Bootable Rescue SD Card” (Create, Feb/10, p84), I too swear by having a bootable rescue SD Card. But the prices you listed are a lot higher than what those cards can be had for! For example, Amazon stocks a “mainstream” 16GB Transcend card for $42. But if you really must have the “Extreme” (aka Class 10) 16GB Sandisk model you listed, Amazon has that too, at a price of $108—nearing half the $196 you listed. I haven’t used that fast one, but the Transcend has saved my glutonians twice before. And a cursory search shows, while not as popular yet, Transcend has a 16GB Class 10 available for sub-$60.—Torley Thanks for sharing your research. We are firm believers in letting our fingers do the walking.—Jan WRITE TO US:
[email protected] or Mac|Life, 4000 Shoreline Court, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080 FOR SUBSCRIPTION QUERIES: Call toll-free 888-771-6222 By submitting unsolicited material to us, you grant Future a license to publish the material in whole or in part in all editions of the magazine, including licensed editions, in any and all media throughout the world. Future is not responsible for the loss of, damage to, or return of any unsolicited materials.
>>>Start
FEED YOUR MIND. FEAST YOUR EYES.
Full Steam ahead
VAlVe BringS SteAM to the MAc The biggest thing to happen to Mac gaming since Marathon! BY ROBERTO BALDWIN
S
team’s arrival on Mac doesn’t just mean Mac users can finally mow down zombies with chainsaws while playing Left 4 Dead 2. Don’t get us wrong—we love nothing more than defending
human honor and dignity while tearing through the undead flesh of a brain-sucking zombie. But Steam means that the Mac could be on the verge of an actual gaming rebirth. Steam is an online gaming service run by developer Valve. It allows players to create friends lists, download games from Valve and thirdparty developers, chat and play games with those friends online, take part in tournaments, and enjoy special deals on games—all within the Steam client. It’s like Facebook for gaming, just with really good games, rather than farming for the mob and sending hearts to people you haven’t seen since high school. Games are downloaded directly from Steam and stored on your hardware, so there’s no need to find a CD or DVD to insert into your Mac to play a game. Serial numbers and codes
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are tied to your account, so you can actually download your games onto another computer and begin playing your game on your MacBook when you’re on the road (or at work if your boss is super-cool—or you’re super-sneaky). Industrious gamers can even create their own dedicated Steam servers for use at LAN parties or over the internet. Valve isn’t the only company that distributes games via Steam. Major developers have jumped aboard this online-distribution channel, including Electronic Arts, Activision, 2K Games, Ubisoft, THQ, Sega, Codemasters, LucasArts, Capcom, Telltale, Rockstar, and others. These days, if a developer wants their game to succeed, they’re looking at Steam as one of the primary distribution channels. This means there’s a possibility that, as the Steam-on-Mac community grows and thirdparty developers see that there is money to be made on the Mac side of the business, they’ll be more likely to port their games to Mac and distribute via Steam. John Cook, the Steam project manager at Valve,
If it’s hardcore deathmatches you crave, Team Fortress 2 is tough to beat.
told us that “releasing Steam on Mac OS X will also make the Mac gaming market much less of a mystery to the industry in general. Due to the real-time sales reporting capabilities, our partners will be able to better understand how their products are performing across Steamsupported hardware platforms.” So the Valve announcement isn’t just another few games on the Mac—it’s a chance for the Mac gaming universe to get a serious reboot. As of press time, third-party developers hadn’t completely dedicated themselves to Steam-on-Mac plans, but Valve’s library of games should be enough to keep Mac gamers busy while they wait for developers to catch up. Like all of Half-Life 2 is Valve’s game library, Mac|Life-staff widely regarded favorite Portal, with its space-bending as one of the best games ever made. guns and hilarious writing, will be available day one, and Portal 2 will be available sometime during the upcoming holiday season on the Mac, Xbox 360, and PC. In the interim, if FPS games get your fingers all twitchy, you can enjoy the adventures of Gordon Freeman in the Half-Life series or test your teambuilding skills while playing Team Fortress 2. Of course, you’ve gotta save yourself from the onslaught of zombies in Left 4 Dead and the new Left 4 Dead 2. All those games will be available as soon as the Steam beta goes live in April. One thing we should be ready for as Mac gamers is that we’ll be competing against Windows players on Steam. Cook says, “Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates. Furthermore, Mac and Windows players will be part of the same multiplayer universe, sharing servers, lobbies, and so forth. We fully support a heterogeneous mix of servers and clients.”
Simultaneous updates means all of those Windows gamers that have been practicing for years on a certain game will be ready to pounce upon the unsuspecting new Mac users. Initially, it’ll probably be a bloodbath, but putting us in the mix with Windows users means that all those skills you honed playing Unreal Tournament five years ago will finally get a chance to be put to good use, and eventually we’ll be able to frag Windows users faster than you can say, “Where’s your Zune now?!” If you happen to use a Mac and a Windows machine and you’ve been partaking in the Steam party with that Windows machine, Steam will allow you to download your Valve games to your Mac without doubledipping into your wallet. Yup, you pay for a game once, and it works on both platforms via Steam Play. Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve, explains how it works: “We’ve added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. [That] allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.” Probably the most important piece of information to come out of the announcement is that Valve will be creating native Mac games instead of using the Cider “wrapper” environment. Cider allows developers to create quick “ports” of their games by placing them in a “wrapper” that translates Windows API calls to OS X on the fly. This translation layer, while incredibly helpful to developers that don’t have the time or resources to build a native OS X version of their game, means that Cider games will never be as quick as native versions. Thankfully, Valve is having none of that: “We’re treating the Mac as a tier-one platform,” says Cook, “so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and Xbox 360. Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with Windows updates.” Until the Valve announcement, it’s been hard to proclaim the Mac a true gaming machine. We’ve been promised games that never materialized, and the games that do end up on the Mac appear years after their Windows counterparts. With Valve standing firmly behind the Mac, we expect developers to finally give us the games we long for. That way, we can start fragging our Windows frenemies from the best OS on the planet.
If you haven’t tried Portal yet, stop, put your pencil down, and go play this masterpiece immediately.
Left 4 Dead’s frantic zombiekilling mayhem is as intense as multiplayer gets.
maclife.com MAY• 10
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T h e “ N au g h T y a p p s ” s c a N da l !
Of Apps And Men
Apple’s contentious relationship with naughty apps is locked in frigid mode. How did it get there, and where’s it going? By vioLET BLuE PARENTAL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: MARK MADEO
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T
he only thing missing from Apple’s naughty-app saga is—ironically
enough—actual sex. There’s enough drama, duplicity, conflict, girls in bikinis, jilted developers, titillated geeks, and destroyed businesses to make a great feature film. Although it’d be rated PG-13, rather than X or even just R. The iPhone is a sexy gadget, but Apple wants to make sure it’s not that kind of sexy. Much ado has been made over its zealous monitoring of the App Store’s so-called vulgar content and its uneven enforcement of content standards. And when Apple selectively purged over 5,000 naughty apps from the App Store in February, the conversation grew louder. But what are we really talking about? Before we can look at the current situation, a little history is in order. At the outset of the App Store, Steve Jobs singled out “porn” as one of the things that would be prohibited from the iPhone’s virtual shelves. And despite the current monkey business, it bears emphasizing that there still isn’t—and never has been—actual porn in the App Store, even if Apple critics frequently confuse true, dictionary-definition pornography with the lingerie-catalog and bikini-contest caliber of material that was available. You know the stuff: Simple slideshow apps showing photos of pinup models, prompting the perennial question, “How did these things make the Top Paid Apps list in the first place?” Apple’s content problems actually began early in the life of the App Store. Six months after its debut, its first “porn issue” arose over text—not explicit imagery. In December 2008, David Carnoy’s fictional detective novel Knife Music became the poster child for objectionable content when wordmatching software found an F-bomb used in a sexual context within the e-book’s virtual pages. Apple rejected the book, citing a clause in the iPhone SDK that states: “Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive, or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgment may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.” A little over six months later, July 2009 saw tech blogs going hype-haywire with headlines exclaiming “First Apple-Approved iPhone Porn App” after a previously approved bikini-girl application, Hottest Girls, began showing topless images. But even with the release of iPhone OS 3.0 and its parental controls, Apple-approved porn was not to be. Within an hour of those stories hitting the blogs, Hottest Girls was removed from the store and banned. Meanwhile, oodles of actual porn companies were making their websites iPhone-compatible, erotic photographers and porn stars were shilling
Dr. Drew is still offering sex advice over his iPhone app.
Because Playboy is a “well-known company already broadly available,” explains Apple’s Phil Schiller, its app lives on in iTunes.
Sports Illustrated swimsuit models withstood Apple’s recent purge.
nude and explicit iPhone wallpaper, and all of it was being hyped as “iPhone porn” without ever coming near the App Store. Euro-porn emporium Wild Dolls created a movie interface formatted perfectly for the iPhone, and there are tons of other iPhone-optimized sites available that any teenager with Mobile Safari can find in an instant. But many believed that you could actually find pornography in the App Store. Which you never could. Just so we’re clear. Which brings us to the Purge of 2010. On February 19, selected developers received an email from Apple’s reviews department, telling them that their previously approved applications contained “content that we had originally believed to be suitable for distribution. However, we have recently received numerous complaints from our customers about this type of content and have changed our guidelines appropriately. We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.” The vague phrasing annoyed developers, but irritation gave way to panic when over 5,000 applications were removed from the store—that’s over 3% of the store’s 150,000 or so applications. Some developers’ incomes plummeted to zero with no advance warning, and the move prompted tech blogs to accuse Apple of leaving devs high and dry. According to PinkVisual, one of the store’s more popular naughtyapp makers, its CutestGirls app took around 100 hours to build, and “the administration and approval process took weeks.” Apple negated that work and other projects just like it 5,000 times over in that one day. It was a fitful time for iPhone and potential iPad developers, Apple sin-thusiasts, and adult consumers alike. Jon Atherton, the jilted developer of the Wobble app (which added wobbly bits to already-existing images), relayed guidelines for Apple-appropriate content to TechCrunch, a tech blog. These included rules about “no women in bikinis” or ice-skating costumes and nothing that could be “sexually arousing” or “imply sexual arousal.” In the first few days after the purge, some apps were removed and some were quietly reinstated with no transparency whatsoever. Apple deepened the controversy by not applying its own rules unilaterally—it chose to keep Playboy and Sports Illustrated apps while removing identical content from small developers. In the New York Times, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, pointed fingers at “a small number of developers” who had been submitting “an increasing number of apps containing very objectionable content.” On the App Store’s seeming double standard around retention of the Sports Illustrated app, he said “the difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format.” So where does that leave Apple fans on either side of the “should they or shouldn’t they” debate? At the end of the day, it’s a business decision. Consumer maclife.com MAY• 10
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Sex sells—even if it’s free. But Apple is willing to forego a bit of revenue in favor of keeping it clean.
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reaction has been mixed, ranging from relief to outrage at an imposed nanny state and sharp accusations of hypocrisy. Some think that this, too, shall pass. Most people just want to know why Apple cares so much about what turns them on. Others, especially after the February 24th addition—and then hours-later removal—of an Explicit category in the
that bills itself as an adult-app store, currently rules the naughty Android space, and it knows a business opportunity when it sees it. MiKandi reacted to the purge with an open call to devs, posting this offer to its company blog: “We look forward to working with any developer who has been displaced by Apple in recent weeks. Don’t worry, developers—
App Store, see a business in an identity crisis. No one feels more cuckolded than the developers. While Wobble got the spotlight for leaking Apple’s no-swimsuit brouhaha to TechCrunch, PinkVisual is a prime example of a developer left confused by Apple’s actions. Its accepted-then-rejected CutestGirls app contained photos and videos of 10 models. Liam Colins, director of PinkVisual’s new business development and special projects, says “the app was about as risqué as a Victoria’s Secret catalog, but [it] was rated 17+ in the App Store for Frequent/Intense Nudity... which it had none of.” Smaller developers with fewer resources are in worse condition; as Colins points out, options outside the Apple’s App Store are “really very few. We can make [apps] available for jailbroken iPhones, which is not our favorite option, or we can focus our app-development efforts on more welcoming platforms, like Android. It’s a sad state of affairs.” Like many in his position, Colins considers the purge to be tragic because “Apple could have opted to implement the parental controls and ageverification protocols that are already present in iTunes.” He sees the move as “punishing partners who had invested in their product.” PinkVisual, which lost three apps in the purge, came out swinging, but other developers who have more to lose are worried about going on the record for fear of reprisal from Apple. They simply hope to get their apps resubmitted and accepted. Joanna Angel, model and CEO of Burning Angel, is in the process of resubmission, and she explains, “I had five apps live. There were eight others in various states of the approval process that were all rejected. We may be able to resubmit them. I’m waiting on Apple to tell me what they want to happen.” Other sexy apps made it into the App Store and remain there; no nudity, no porn stars, and no indie developers means no problem. MyPleasure.com’s free MyVibe and Sex Dice apps remain Appleapproved, although the vibrator app was rejected upon first submission (there are no visuals; the app simply controls the iPhone’s vibration). Also still available at press time were Adult Sex Life, which features sex positions, sex tips, and a diary; iKamasutra and its sex positions and progress diary; LoveLine with Dr. Drew, where people can listen to his sex advice; and of course Playboy and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2010. I’ll be the first to say it: These apps are not hot. In all, the Great NotPorn Purge of 2010 proves that probably the hottest thing we’re going to get out of our iPhones is a few tired eye rolls. Meanwhile, developers left at the altar are making eyes at Android. MiKandi, an app distributor
MiKandi supports you and your sexy apps. Come to the dark side. We have cookies.” And in an interesting turn of events, as this story was going to press, reports began to trickle in that more banned apps were being reinstated. Clearly this is just the first chapter in an ongoing saga. But the question is: Will developers stick around long enough to see how this all shakes out? After all, despite Apple’s scattershot enforcement of its policies, plenty of customers are willing to shell out for mildly risqué apps, 99 cents at a time. <<<
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Before the purge, literally hundreds of apps like these filled the App Store, causing an outcry from some customers that prompted Apple’s action.
>> Violet Blue is an author, journalist, and expert in the fields of sex and technology. Forbes named her one of its “Web Celeb 25,” and she’s made appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, and other national media outlets. Blue is also the author of several award-winning and best-selling books. For more, visit her website at tinynibbles.com—but heads-up that it’s NSFW (“not safe for work”).
66.94.234.84...
...23.101.68 Countdown to IPv6
INFINITE INTERNET? NOT YET.
The current system of IP addresses has limitations that threaten the growth of the Internet. Fortunately, the information superhighway is about to get a bunch more lanes. By AdAm BerenstAin It’s a fact of life with computers—sooner or later, you’ve gotta upgrade your gear. That goes for the internet too. The web we know and love is about to get a lot bigger, one network at a time. Ready or not, a big change is coming to the web. In less than two years, the world will run out of IP addresses, the unique numbers that identify websites and all devices that connect to the internet. These addresses use the current version of the Internet Protocol, IPv4, which has provided standards for online networking since the 1970s. That’s a long time, and perhaps unsurprisingly, IPv4’s limitations now threaten the growth of the internet. The problem is that IPv4 can only generate four billion different addresses. Back in the day, that seemed like plenty. But thanks to the internet’s explosive popularity, we’re now down to 9% of the remaining IPv4 address pool. As time runs short, the world’s five Regional Internet Registries (RIR) have stepped up efforts to get the word out. Since the 1990s, these nonprofit, nongovernmental agencies have overseen the distribution of IP addresses to governments, universities, and businesses throughout the world. Our RIR in North America is ARIN, the American Registry for Internet Numbers. “It’s not quite a crisis,” says ARIN president John Curran. “Nearly twenty years ago, the Internet Engineering Task Force, which was responsible for IPv4, realized we were going to run out of addresses. What they came up with was what we call IPv6 today.” IPv6 is the next version of the Internet Protocol, and it can generate 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses. That’s a quantum leap over IPv4 and will make possible a nearly infinite internet. “The comparison I’ve heard made is that if all IPv4 addresses were packed into a golf
ball, the ball made with IPv6 addresses would be the size of the sun,” explains Curran. But widespread transition to the new standard is a work in progress. “All your popular operating systems, including Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux, support IPv6,” Curran says. “The challenge is that IPv4 networks don’t automatically speak IPv6.” Existing systems must be upgraded to recognize IPv6 networks without resorting to complex workarounds that can slow down internet traffic. Much of that work will be done by ISPs. This year, Comcast is conducting voluntary trials to introduce IPv6 technology to their subscribers. But with millions of customers on the line, the company is proceeding carefully. “We want to make sure that we don’t adversely affect our subscribers,” says John Brzozowski, Comcast’s chief architect for IPv6. “We expect to learn from each of these trials and determine our next steps.” For IPv6 advocates like Geof Lambert, chair of the California IPv6 Task Force, the transition can’t come soon enough. “We’ve been very, very slow to make this adoption,” he says. “Ask a thousand people when IPv4 addresses will be depleted, and you’ll get a thousand answers. Hence you’ll get a thousand strategies and opinions.” “We’ll be dealing with this for years,” responds Curran. “The internet will keep running. As new users connect with IPv6, there will be ways to make it work.” But he notes there will be consequences for organizations that wait too long to address the changing web: “Consultants right now will help you out or do IPv6 training for you. There’s not a lot of demand, and the fees are inexpensive. I guarantee you that when a million websites are getting upgraded at once, the people who know what they’re doing will be very hard to get.”
in less than two years, the world will run out of iP addresses.
76.01.960.33 maclife.com MAY• 10
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p o i n t/ c o u n t e r p o i n t
THE DEMISE OF MACWORLD EXPO?
Scaled-back gathering of the faithful raises questions about the seminal Mac event. BY MICHAEL SIMON
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n an alternate Mac world, visitors would have been lined up three deep at the Apple booth to be among the first to leave their fingerprints on the iPad, snapping photos and tweeting their glee to the world. But at this year’s Macworld Expo, the guest of honor was nowhere to be found; attendees had to settle for scale mock-ups of Apple’s latest innovation. Housed entirely in the smaller North Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Center (previous iterations of Macworld Expo used the North and South Halls), this year’s Expo reported some 20,000 attendees and 250 exhibitors (compared with 48,000 and 500 in 2008), but Apple’s absence cast a definite pall over the show’s usual liveliness. Gone were the giant banners adorning the convention-center windows and the clever slogans hanging from the ceiling. Elaborate, sprawling booths gave way to a village of cozy kiosks with little room to wander. “This year the show felt small and irrelevant. I usually take two or three days to see the whole show. This year I was done in two hours,” said Robert Spears, a devout Apple user who has attended Macworld Expo since 1987. “It was depressing to see that the largest booth at the show this year appeared to be Microsoft.” Other attendees were even more blunt, such as Macrumors.com member Shrinkfit, who posted: “I have attended every Macworld since its inception. I had hoped Macworld would survive without Apple. It didn’t; it was simply awful. It was the worst Macworld ever.” Of course, these types of reactions were to be expected. After Apple stunned event organizer IDG by turning its back on Macworld in late 2008, there was bound to be a period of adjustment.
“[Macworld 2010] represented a major change to the show, and we knew that in order to avoid the fate of some of the previous events that Apple had pulled out of, we would need to communicate accurately and often what our plans were,” said Paul Kent, general manager of Macworld Expo. “We used social media extensively. New programs, vibrancy, and innovation all were required to help people understand what the new era was all about.” For some, the absence of a few big names from the show floor was actually an asset. Dex Craig, a show attendee, stated, “Apple and Adobe sitting out didn’t kill it for me. It gave more room for the little guys to shine.” Ryan Cash of Marketcircle, makers of productivity and billing software for Mac, says, “The show floor wasn’t quite as busy as last year. With Apple out of the show, there were less teenyboppers looking for iPod cases and not as many of the same old tirekickers. It seemed like a more mature crowd, full of business owners looking for solutions. We saw mostly new faces, which we found to be a positive thing.” Of course, some of those new faces were undoubtedly seeking the “magical and revolutionary” product Apple had unveiled just weeks earlier. “About an hour after the iPad announcement ended, we announced our own iPad Special Event that was open to all attendees,” Kent said, “and we saw Twitter and Facebook chatter—and event registrations—spike. Our event was presented to an overflow crowd of around 1,200 people.” That excitement naturally spilled over onto the trade show floor, where developers eagerly chatted about their plans for the device. “Apple
“I had hoped Macworld would survive without Apple. It didn’t; it was simply awful.”
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wasn’t present, [but] the iPad generated a lot of interest,” said Todd Bernhard, founder of No Tie Software, makers of iPhone apps. “We had nonstop activity for most of the show, and the show floor was crowded.” Giulia Giovanelli of Canson Inc. echoed that feeling about his company’s Papershow booth. “We had four people working, and we were all constantly busy throughout the show,” he said. Outside of the expo, Macworld 2010 introduced a number of attractions to lure first-time attendees, including a special “Late Night With David Pogue” segment (curiously held at 9 a.m.) with the venerable New York Times columnist and “The Gruber Ten,” featuring noted Mac pundit John Gruber of daringfireball.com. IDG is already tweaking the formula for 2011, starting with a move back to January and a major expansion of the Mobile Applications Showcase, a popular new addition to this year’s show. “As an exhibitor, I found [the apps pavilion] to be an overwhelmingly positive experience,” said iPhone developer Ramin Firoozye, who sees Macworld evolving into “something like Mobile World [Congress],” a cell phone expo that’s roughly double the size of Macworld. After all, he continues, “I didn’t even have a chance to go visit the other booths until a half hour before closing on the last day.” And Kent intends to keep it that way. Now that the cloud of drama surrounding Apple has cleared, IDG is hoping to build on that momentum to make the 2011 show a bigger and better experience for attendees. But the question of longevity hangs in the air, and it remains to be seen if Macworld can survive when its Boston and Tokyo arms crumbled without Apple’s support. The 2010 show may have proved that attendees “really like and want Macworld,” as Kent put it, but he and the IDG team need to convince a few hundred exhibitors that
the show will remain a relevant, significant part of Apple’s sphere of influence for years to come. “Some of the greatest products I have seen at past Macworlds have been from the smaller companies,” said Spears, who thinks Steve Jobs “is missing something” by skipping Macworld. “I wonder how many of these companies will continue to spend significant percentages of their corporate budgets to attend a show that Apple no longer supports?” he asks. It’s a question Kent intends to tackle head on: “The task at hand now is to work with the development community to increase the number of companies exhibiting at the show. I’m confident we’ll have success there, and next year’s show will have many more cool things for attendees to discover. “Those who sat on the fence this year will hopefully see that Macworld continues to be a place where a critical mass of customers and technology press wants to come to discover all the great things going on in the third-party development community,” he added. “I believe attendees will evaluate Macworld for what it is, not for what it isn’t.” Macrumors.com member Blinktoo did just that, posting this… succinct evaluation: “It was really more of an iPhone flea market. Charging an entrance fee is like charging a fee to go to the mall.” But Kent isn’t about to let a few sour apples spoil the bunch. “We look forward to Apple continuing to lead the tech market and come out with cool and interesting things—and for customers to come to Macworld to discover new things and skills to help them enjoy the products more. In the end, people who came really enjoyed the event.” Well, some of them, anyway.
“Apple sitting out didn’t kill it for me. It gave more room for the little guys to shine.”
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Best App ever?
FLY AN RC COPTER… WITH YOUR iPHONE! Parrot thinks way outside the iPhone box with an inspired design for its wickedly fun AR.Drone. We see a lot of gadgets and gear here at Mac|Life HQ. In fact, we have a standing joke that unless your iPhone app or Mac accessory flies, we’re not impressed. The folks over at Parrot must be bugging our office because they created an iPhone app that flies a slick remote-controlled quadricopter over the Wi-Fi connection. Even better, the AR.Drone is equipped with a camera and circuitry so that you can do battle with
Taking off is as simple as touching a button, which starts up the Drone and makes it hover a few feet off the ground. The AR.Drone sets up its own Wi-Fi network, which means it’ll work anywhere— even outside at the park. If you lose the Wi-Fi connection, the AR.Drone will automatically descend for a soft landing.
Video streaming to your iPhone gives you a bird’s-eye view from the AR.Drone. Beacons can be used with AR.Drone games to create onscreen virtual enemies, and the camera detects other Drones for multiplayer gaming. Parrot also offers a Software Development Kit so that developers can take advantage of the Drone’s AR capabilities to design new games.
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virtual foes, play other augmented-reality (AR) games, or surveil your enemies from above. Parrot invited us to spend some one-on-one time flying the AR.Drone from our iPhones, and we’ve been drooling ever since. Pricing was not available at press time, but the Parrot team tells us that they expect the AR.Drone to be available later this year. And trust us—you really, really want one.—Ray Aguilera
There’s a button interface for steering the AR.Drone with your iPod touch or iPhone, but the real magic is in the accelerometerbased controls. Just tilt left or right to bank into turns, while tilting forward and back controls your airspeed. Take your hands off the controls, and the Drone will stabilize itself and hover.
Once you get confident in your flying skills, the foam shroud can be removed from the Drone for a sleeker look and increased maneuverability.
SHAREWARE PICKS WAKE UP, GO TO SLEEP
This month’s picks integrate with iTunes to wake you in the morning, then sing you to sleep at night.
AWAKEN
iTUNES SHUT
Embraceware, embraceware.com/awaken/ Price: $10 Canadian
GuguSoft, web.me.com/gugulino1/GuguSoft/ Price: Free
Awaken is a flexible alarm app that can wake you up with an iTunes playlist, then launch any applications or files you need to see first thing. Its egg-timer feature is good for one-time alarms, plus it’s got a sleep timer that can gradually decrease the volume and put your Mac to sleep after you nod off.
This little freebie will shut down your Mac after a set number of songs, a certain amount of time, or when the playlist is over. If you don’t want to shut down, iTunes Shut can also pause or quit iTunes, run an AppleScript, restart your Mac, or put your Mac to sleep.
Our wake-up alarm also launches Things, our to-do list application.
Shut ’er down.
YOUR BURNING — QUESTIONS— ANSWERED! od to Can’t get your iPod ook can’t sync? Your MacBook i-Fi? Has Time connect to Wi-Fi? Machine stopped working?
Get breaking Apple news and...
...all our reviews on your iPhone!
COMING SOON!
THE MAC|LIFE APP
Hey, there’s an app for us! That’s right, we at Mac|Life have cooked up an app for your iPhone and iPod touch that grants you instant access to your favorite Apple news, reviews, how-to’s, and more. We can’t decide what we’re more excited about—the fact that it also runs on iPad (as
most apps do) or that it’s free (as not enough apps are!). So fire up the App Store and search for “MacLife” to track it down. Note: Availability of the MacLife App is subject to Apple’s review process. We don’t anticipate any hurdles, but if it’s not up when you search for it, then we anticipated wrong and we’re busy hurdling. Give us a few and check back later—we’ll get ‘er done.
The Mac|Life editors want to hear from you. We’re working on a cover story for an upcoming issue where we get down to business and answer your most vexing Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod questions. But we can’t fix your most pressing problems (Apple-related problems only, please) unless you send us your questions at www.maclife .com/burningquestions. We’ll pick the most interesting conundrums and irksome bugs, then show everyone how to vanquish them for good. Thanks! maclife.com MAY• 10
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Crave
All the geAr thAt’s fit to covet
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iPhone 3g/3gs capsule case $39.95, getuncommon.com iPhone cases are a dime a dozen, but Uncommon’s polycarbonate cases come custom-printed with any image you can dream up. Inks are transferred deep
MyPassport studio $149.99–$199.99, wdc.com WD’s latest portable external drives bump up capacity to 640GB and add a label and capacity gauge. Also, they just look cool.
ceramic speakers $495, joeyroth.com The simple amp and exposed binding posts give these speakers a cool industrial design, while the custom drivers warm up your favorite tracks.
Max sleeve $39.99, belkin.com The Max is perfectly sized to fit your new favorite Apple gizmo. A quilted inner lining keeps your iPad scratchfree… but dealing with fingerprints is up to you.
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Wondering if your Mac is as awesome as it could be? Want to make sure it is? We’ve got the answers to all your questions on upgrading RAM, hard drives, video cards, and more. BY AdAm BerenstAin
Y
our Mac is a hefty investment, so it’s in your best interest to keep it running well for as long as you can. Upgrading its components instead of going for a new machine is a smart idea. (Bonus: Better components will also increase the resale value.) Still, like we said, your Mac is a hefty investment. So before you crack it open to drop in a larger and faster hard drive, add more system memory, or even slap on a fresh new battery, you’ll have questions. You’ll want to be confident in choosing components, finding the right tools, and knowing what to do before you find yourself digging into your Mac’s circuitry. Unfortunately, we can’t walk you through your upgrade step by step—each model of Mac is different, and they’re revised on a regular basis. But we can answer your questions about upgrading and give you the know-how you need to pick out the parts, locate the instructions, and get it done. Your upgraded Mac will work much better, plus you’ll be a happy camper knowing you did it all yourself.
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ILLUSTRATION: ADAM BENTON
BUILD A BETTER MAC
RAM The low-hanging fruit of any Mac upgrade, more RAM equals more get-up-and-go.
SHOULD I ORDER MY MAC WITH EXTRA RAM INSTALLED BY APPLE, OR JUST ORDER THE STANDARD AMOUNT AND UPGRADE LATER? It’s wise to compare prices before you check out at the Apple Store. Sometimes Apple’s RAM is cheaper than thirdparty prices, but often it’s much more expensive. And since Apple’s build-toorder options don’t always allow you to max out RAM when you buy, upgrading later may be the only way to load your Mac with as much memory as it supports. That said, if you’re squeamish about opening your computer, the convenience of getting extra RAM preinstalled may be worth the compromises. RAM not installed by Apple isn’t covered under your Mac’s warranty or AppleCare, and neither is damage caused by faulty RAM modules or their installation. But just between us, installing your own RAM is an easy and typically trouble-free procedure when done correctly.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RAM? The RAM modules—or, more accurately, SDRAM modules—used by modern Macs come in a variety of speeds and two physical designs: desktop-sized DIMMs and compact, laptop-friendly SO-DIMMs. Many flavors of RAM have come and gone over the years, but the latest is DDR3, which moves data even faster than earlier DDR memory, while using less power. Although it may seem like there’s a galaxy of RAM to choose from, the memory you need depends on which Mac you want to upgrade, and your Mac’s needs are specific. So don’t worry about having to decide between cheaper DDR2 RAM and speedier, more expensive DDR3 RAM—you won’t have a choice.
This laptop-sized SO-DIMM has 204 pins, to a larger DIMM’s 240 pins. The pins are what connect the module to the RAM slot.
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HOW DO I FIND OUT WHICH TYPE I NEED AND HOW MUCH MY MAC SUPPORTS? Apple lists the type of RAM each currently selling Mac uses on the Tech Specs page for that Mac on Apple.com. For example, the current iMacs come with 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM in two 2GB SO-DIMMS. The iMac’s four SO-DIMM slots can support a total of 16GB, meaning four 4GB SO-DIMM modules. But that’s just the Macs for sale right now. To find out what kind of RAM is in your own Mac, click the Apple Menu and select About This Mac. The Memory section will tell you how much RAM you have installed and what kind it is—according to the screenshot, our MacBook Pro has 4GB (amount) of 667MHz (speed) DDR2 SDRAM (type). For more details on the individual RAM modules installed in your Mac’s memory slots, click More Info to launch System Profiler, then click Memory in the sidebar (under Hardware).
DO I ALWAYS WANT TO MAX OUT MY RAM? Want to? Sure. More RAM lets your Mac handle memory-intensive tasks like gaming, video editing, and running multiple applications simultaneously. Adding as much RAM as possible helps ensure your Mac will be ready for a variety of tasks— and RAM-hungry software updates—for years to come. Need to? Not so much. While RAM is an easy, inexpensive way to boost your
HOW AND WHERE CAN I COMPARISON-SHOP FOR RAM? First, arm yourself with as much information about your computer and its supported RAM as possible. Many vendors use detailed technical specifications—even screen size—to differentiate one Mac model from another. Crucial (crucial.com) even has a System Scanner tool that can autodetect your Mac model.
However, this won’t tell you the maximum amount of RAM your Mac supports. If your Mac isn’t a current model, research sites like Everymac.com or simply go shopping. Many RAM vendors’ websites list a Mac’s capacity alongside its compatible memory.
Click the Apple Menu and select About This Mac to see how much RAM you have.
computer’s performance, an extra gigabyte or two over Apple’s stock configuration may be enough for everyday use.
Crucial (crucial.com) is happy to tell us our MacBook Pro supports up to 4GB of RAM.
Ramseeker.com lets you compare RAM prices based on specific Mac models. Sites like Pricewatch.com, PriceGrabber.com, and larger Mac-friendly retailers like Other World Computing (macsales.com) let you compare prices based on RAM type and manufacturer.
Other World Computing carries RAM from several manufacturers for one-stop comparison shopping.
>>>
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Peace-of-mind protection on two levels When the power goes out, our popular Back-UPS units go to work. They instantly switch your home technologies to emergency power, allowing you to work through brief power outages or safely shut down your systems so you won’t lose valuable files—such as digital photos and media libraries. They also feature surge outlets to guard your electronics and data from “dirty” power and damaging power surges—even lightning. So you get two levels of protection in every APC Back-UPS unit!
Energy-saving insurance for what matters most Our Back-UPS units protect your home office, digital living and home media applications, notebook computers, DVRs, and gaming application. And since we now offer energy-efficient models that reduce electricity costs through unique power-saving outlets, you can realize true energy savings regardless of the applications you’re backing up. Throughout your home, the APC Back-UPS is the cost-saving insurance you need to stay up and running and reliably safeguarded from both unpredictable power and wasteful energy drains.
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[email protected] • 132 Fairgrounds Road, West Kingston, RI 02892 USA • 998-2509
BUILD A BETTER MAC
RAM continued DO THE MODULES REALLY HAVE TO BE BOUGHT IN MATCHED PAIRS? Some Macs, like many Xserves and Mac Pros, require RAM to be installed in two modules of the same size and specifications—
WHERE CAN I FIND INSTRUCTIONS FOR MY MAC? Your Mac’s instruction manual or support documents on Apple’s website (support.apple .com) will show you how to install memory in your computer. Failing that, some Mac hardware vendors like iFixit.com, Crucial, and Other World Computing offer instructions on their websites—often as easy-to-follow videos—for a wide variety of Macs.
This DDR3 DIMM can go in a current Mac Pro.
check your manual to be sure. Others, including all Intel Macs, don’t require matched pairs, but will see some speed benefits with matched memory. But even in these machines, more unmatched memory (say, one 2GB module and a 1GB module for a total of 3GB) generally provides greater benefit than a smaller amount of matched RAM (say, two 1GB modules for a total of 2GB).
HOW DO I KNOW IF THE INSTALLATION “WORKED,” AND WHAT SHOULD I DO IF IT DIDN’T? Choose About This Mac from the Apple Menu. You should see your new RAM total in the
Find Other World Computing’s how-toinstall videos at eshop. macsales.com/ installvideos/.
Memory section. If the number isn’t what you expect, shut down your computer, unplug all the cables, then access your Mac’s RAM slots again and make sure the new RAM modules are firmly seated.
RAM GLOSSARY So many acronyms, am I right? >>DIMM Dual inline memory module. Also known as a RAM module or chip, installed into a slot in your desktop Mac. >>DDR2 Second-generation doubledata-rate SDRAM; bandwidth up to 8.5GB/sec. >>DDR3 Third-generation doubledata-rate SDRAM; bandwidth up to 12.8GB/sec. >>ECC Error-correcting code. ECC RAM modules, which are used in Mac Pros, have extra chips that detect and fix errors in reading or writing to the memory. >>SDRAM Synchronous dynamic random-access memory. Or just “RAM” for short. >>SO-DIMM Small outline dual inline memory module. (See why we need acronyms?) Smaller than a DIMM, SO-DIMM modules are used in Mac laptops and iMacs.
SHOP DIFFERENT Here are our favorite Mac-centric dealers on the internet, compared on the basis of what you’ll pay for a 4GB RAM upgrade kit and an SSD for Susie’s trusty workhorse, a 2.4GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro (late 2007 Santa Rosa model). Prices change all the time; these are accurate as of press time.
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STORE NAME
URL
RAM PRICE
SSD PRICE
NOTES
OWC
macsales.com
$97.50 OWC 4GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz Upgrade Kit (two 2GB modules)
$399.99 Crucial 128GB M225 2.5-inch SSD
Site is somewhat cluttered, but we still manage to find what we need easily. Live chat with customer service.
Crucial
crucial.com
$97.99 Crucial 4GB Kit PC5300 DDR2 667MHz (two 2GB modules)
$399.99 Crucial 128GB M225 2.5-inch SSD
Memory Advisor tool and System Scanner help you find compatible parts for your Mac. Live chat with customer service.
MacMall
macmall.com
$149.99 Kingston Upgrade to 4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz (two 2GB modules)
$542.99 Axiom 128GB 2.5-inch SATA SSD
Confusing navigation. No way to see all compatible parts for your Mac.
iFixit.com
ifixit.com
$119.90 Two 2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 667MHz modules ($59.95 each)
$299.95 Intel 80GB 2.5inch SATA SSD (128GB capacity not available)
Our favorite site for upgrade and repair instructions.
Powerbook Medic
powerbookmedic.com
$97.90 Two 2GB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz modules ($48.95 each)
$349.95 128GB SSD MacBook and MacBook Pro Upgrade
Lots of parts and detailed instructions. Send in your Mac if the repair is too tricky.
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hard drives Your Mac’s hard drive is like a closet that stores your whole digital life. Might as well make it a walk-in.
Why upgrade my imac or laptop’s internal drive instead of just adding on external drives? Convenience and cost. A laptop with a large hard drive lets you carry more files with you without requiring extra gear. External drives are great for backup, but you don’t want to have to juggle them—and the power cords they may require—while you’re on the go. In desktop Macs, more built-in storage reduces the need for workspace-cluttering external drives and helps you avoid lengthy searches for files across multiple devices. Plus, internal drives tend to be much less expensive than their external counterparts, so your dollar will go further when you boost a Mac’s built-in storage. This can pay off down the road when you’re finally ready to replace your Mac with new model—a large internal drive will make your computer more desirable to buyers on the secondhand market.
How do I fInd out wHIcH sIze and speed drIve my macHIne supports? Your Mac’s manual can tell you what internal hard drive specifications your computer supports. If you’ve lost your manual, just find your Mac’s serial number in System Profiler— click the word Hardware at the top of the left-hand pane, then locate your Mac’s serial number and copy/ paste it into the Search Manuals box at support.apple .com/manuals/. Or consult the website of your favorite Maccrucial’s 2.5-inch centric retailer (see 256gB sata ssd “Shop Different,” will set you back $700 at crucial.com. left) to see available drives for different Mac models. But we’ll get you started with some basics. All modern Macs use a hard drive connection called Serial ATA, or SATA. This simplifies your shopping a little, but
a desktop-sized 3.5-inch sata drive comes in larger capacities.
Mac hard drives aren’t quite one size fits all. The SATA drive you need depends on what kind of Mac you have. MacBooks and MacBook Pros use 2.5-inch hard disk drives (or HDDs) that run between 5200 and 7200 RPM. These speeds determine how quickly data can be read from and written to the drive. The more revolutions per minute, the faster your drive. Currently, most 2.5-inch HDDs offer a maximum capacity of 750GB. Solid-state drives (or SSDs) are increasingly popular in laptops—they’ve been build-to-order options in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro for a few years. These drives use flash memory that has no moving parts, so data can be read from them even faster than from HDDs. This increased speed is an SSD’s main benefit. They’re currently more expensive and offer much smaller capacity than conventional drives. Anything larger than 256GB will currently cost you four figures, moneybags. Desktop Macs use 3.5-inch HDDs that run at 7200 RPM. These drives offer much greater maximum storage capacities than their laptop counterparts—up to 2TB.
wHIcH mac laptops Have user-replaceable Hard drIves? MacBook owners, you’re in luck. All MacBook models sport hard drives you can replace without voiding your warranty. Unfortunately, not all MacBook Pro owners are as fortunate. MacBook Pros with a unibody design (those sold after October 2008) have user-replaceable hard drives, but older models don’t. No model of MacBook Air offers a hard drive users can swap out for another. However, you don’t need Apple’s say-so to upgrade the drive in an unsupported machine. Unofficial drive-replacement instructions for any Mac laptop are available on the internet at Powerbookmedic.com, iFixit.com, and elsewhere. All that’s required is a Google search, steady hands, and a flagrant disregard for AppleCare coverage. But be warned—these renegade procedures aren’t for the faint of heart. Some involve significantly dismantling your computer, and any damage incurred definitely won’t be covered by Cupertino. Then again, if your warranty is up anyway, grab a screwdriver and get cracking.
hoW and Where can i comparisonshop for hard drives? First, gather as much information about your Mac and the type of drive it supports. Stores often differentiate internal hard drives only by a confusing alphabet soup of numbers, acronyms, and manufacturer names. A little research up front can make your shopping that much easier. When you’ve done your homework, it’s time to hit the internet. Sites like Pricewatch .com and PriceGrabber.com let you compare drives by size, manufacturer, capacity, and other features. But don’t forget to visit Mac-savvy retailers such as Other World Computing, Small Dog Electronics, or MacMall. These stores make it easy to find a specific Mac model and choose a compatible drive. If you know what you want, Newegg’s and Amazon’s prices are often tough to beat.
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BUILD A BETTER MAC
is one branD better than another? Almost every computer user swears by a particular manufacturer, and one fan’s favorite will be another person’s “Worst. Drive. Ever.” So who’s right? The facts are that any computer equipment can fail unexpectedly, and any manufacturer can put out a batch of problematic hard drives from time to time. After all, a hard drive’s delicate moving parts are subject to wear and tear over repeated use just like anything else. Your best bet is to buy a known brand with a good warranty like Samsung, Western Digital, or Seagate. Buy from a reputable store, and make multiple backups often.
HARD DRIVES continued hoW can i tell if my harD Drive is Dying? If you hear a clicking sound, that’s bad. Really bad. But monitoring your drive’s S.M.A.R.T. status can clue you in before it gets to that point of no return. In Disk Utility, select your hard drive from the sidebar and look for “S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified,” which means the Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology built into your drive isn’t detecting any problems. To keep the S.M.A.R.T status front and center, SMARTReporter (free, www.corecode .at/smartreporter) can put it in your menubar. A green hard-drive icon in the menubar means everything’s okay.
The insides of a 3.5-inch SATA drive, which hopefully you’ll never see. Ooh, shiny.
smartreporter pops up an error when the s.m.a.r.t. status of your hard drive is anything other than “verified.”
Western Digital’s 2.5-inch drives fit in Mac laptops.
What are some best practices for installing a neW hDD or ssD myself? First things first—back up all the data on any drive you’re replacing (see “How to Transfer Data to Your New Hard Drive,” right), then print out and read thoroughly the instructions for installing your new drive. Carefully organize any tools the installation requires. Setting aside a container to hold the tiny screws and other parts you may need to remove can save you time—and stress—when putting your Mac back together when the job is done. We like to stick the screws to our printed-out instructions with double-sided tape, so we know exactly which step in the process those screws go with. Next, turn off your computer and let it cool down for 10 minutes to
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make sure any heat lingering inside has a chance to dissipate. Unplug all cables (especially the power cord) from your Mac before you get started on the installation. Electricity runs your computer, but it has no place in a hard drive transplant. Work on a static-free surface—no wool sweaters or shag carpets for you—and touch a metal object to discharge any static electricity you’ve picked up before you handle your Mac’s internal components or the new drive. Many stores that sell internal hard drives also offer anti-static wrist straps that help ensure you don’t accidentally zap anything as you work. Get one if you want to stay as safe as possible with your Mac.
HOW TO TRANSFER DATA TO YOUR NEW HARD DRIVE When it’s time to upgrade your hard drive, you have to get your current data—including Mac OS X and your applications, naturally—moved over to the new device. Mac|Life recommends you clone your whole drive onto the new one. BY SUSIE OCHS
1
CLEAN First banish the clutter from your current hard
drive. Take a spin through your Documents, Pictures, Music, Movies, and Applications folders and delete items you’re sure you don’t want. AppCleaner (free, freemacsoft.net/ AppCleaner/), AppZapper ($12.95, appzapper.com), or Hazel ($21.95, noodlesoft.com, see p91) can help you delete the application and its preference files along with the app itself.
AppZapper finds and deletes an app’s related files.
2
3
CONNECT When you pick out your new hard drive, buy an enclosure for it too. They aren’t expensive—Other World Computing sells them for less than $20. Get an enclosure made for SATA drives that connects to your Mac via USB (same size as the drive you’re buying—2.5 inches for laptops and 3.5 inches for desktops). Install your brand-new hard drive in it, and connect it to your Mac with a USB cable. It should mount on your Desktop as a removable drive.
4
CLONE Download Carbon Copy Cloner (donations
accepted, bombich.com) or SuperDuper! ($27.95, shirtpocket.com), and use it to make an exact, bootable clone of your current hard drive on the new hard drive you formatted in Step 3.
Carbon Copy Cloner will copy everything on your current hard drive to your new one.
5
INSTALL Eject the removable hard drive from your Mac in the normal fashion, then remove the drive from the enclosure. Find and follow the instructions to install the bare drive in your Mac—your Mac’s manual or the guides at iFixit.com, Powerbookmedic.com, or Other World Computing will walk you through it.
FORMAT Launch Disk Utility, select the drive you just attached, click the Erase tab, and format the new drive (not your old one!) as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This will also erase anything on the new drive; sometimes they ship with included utilities and software you don’t care about. We want it empty.
iFixit’s illustrated instructions are specific to each Mac model.
6
BOOT When your new hard drive is installed, boot up
your Mac and make sure everything looks right. Now you can install your old hard drive in the empty enclosure, and use it like an external drive. All done!
Reformat your drive with Disk Utility.
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buIld A BETTER MAC
vIdeo cards and opTIcal drIves Mac Pro owners only: Your spacious case leads to easy upgrades and longer life. Is IT cheaper To geT apple’s sTock opTIons and upgrade myself or JusT have apple buIld-To-order? Video cards available for preinstallation by Apple can sometimes be found cheaper at other stores, but not always. As with RAM, it’s smart to compare Apple’s prices with those of third-party vendors before you buy. But upgrading yourself can offer more choices. Not every Mac-compatible card—such as the
look at all that room inside a Mac Pro. Makes you want to roll up your sleeves and swap out some components…
Why can only Mac Pro oWners (and PoWer Mac G5 oWners) uPGrade their video cards and oPtical drives? These highpowered machines are the multipurpose workhorses of the Mac world, and they’re designed to be easily upgradeable to perform a variety of jobs. Expandability also helps protect the steep financial investment these Macs represent—and require—against early obsolescence.
Why should I upgrade my vIdeo card? Power and flexibility. Gamers and media pros know that replacing an older card with the latest pixel pusher from Nvidia or ATI extends a Mac Pro’s useful life. Not only can new cards handle images, video, and 3D fragfests at higher resolutions, they speed up some everyday tasks in OS X as well. But don’t kick your old card to the curb when you upgrade. Two video cards let you use up to four monitors with your Mac Pro, offering significantly more screen real estate for all your applications. Video cards can be bought from Apple or almost any vendors specializing in Mac hardware. Apple publishes a partial list (tinyurl .com/ykfot9r) of cards compatible with the Power Mac G5 and Mac Pro lines that can help you plan your shopping trip.
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Nvidia Quadro FX 4800—is available as a build-to-order option from Apple. Optical drives are a different story. Currently, the only way to customize a Mac Pro’s spare optical drive bay at checkout is by adding a second SuperDrive that’s identical to the first. Go ahead and leave that bay empty. You can install a comparable DVD drive yourself for less than half of Apple’s asking price.
don’t pay $100 for a second superdrive in your mac pro. you can fill the empty optical-drive bay yourself later.
should I puT a blu-ray drIve In my mac pro? Adding Blu-ray to your Mac Pro makes sense only if you need to work with Blu-ray data discs or author your own movies in the format (you’ll also need a copy of Toast or Final Cut Studio to do either). Until Cupertino hops on the Blu bandwagon, OS X can’t natively read Blu-ray,
Where should i shoP for bluray and What Models Will fit? Almost any store that sells computer components offers internal Blu-ray drives that will fit your Mac Pro. But for the simplest shopping experience, stick with stores that cater to Mac customers (see “Shop Different,” p26). Some, like Other World Computing, offer bundles that include necessary software and other extras along with the drive. You’ll want a 5.25-inch Blu-ray drive to fit your Mac Pro’s spare optical drive bay. These drives connect using a standard SATA interface, so they’ll install in Mac Pros sold since March 2009 with no fuss. For an older Mac Pro, you’ll need to buy inexpensive adapter cables to connect it to the PATA (also known as ATA/IDE) optical drive interface in these Macs. Installation instructions can be found in your Mac Pro’s manual, the support section of Apple’s website, or even from the store that sold you the drive.
much less play District 9 in glorious 1080p on your 30-inch Cinema Display. This lack of system-wide support—and hardware costs higher than those of standard DVD drives—make Blu-ray on the Mac a technological no-man’s-land for the average user. But if you’re still tempted, it’s easy to add a Blu-ray drive to your Mac Pro.
The rIghT Tools for The Job While you’re shopping for parts to upgrade your Mac, don’t forget to pick up any tools you might need. These are essential for your toolbox. Find them at your local hardware store, or at Other World Computing (macsales.com) or iFixit (iFixit.com). >>Phillips screwdriver set. Or at least the 00, 0, 1, and 2 sizes of Phillips screwdrivers. Newer Technology’s 11-piece toolset is only $17.95 and has everything you need. >>torx screwdriver set. You’ll most likely need the T6 or T8, but pick up a whole set if you can so you’re never stuck without
the right size. iFixit sells a 26-Piece Bit Driver Kit for $14.95 that includes every Torx and Phillips screwdriver they carry. >>spudger sticks. These nylon pry tools help you seat RAM modules, remove other computer parts, and open up iPods. >a putty knife. You’ll need one if you’re planning to open a Mac mini. >>>
BUILD A BETTER MAC
BATTERIES Your laptop’s battery is nearly as essential as its screen—and it’s easier to replace.
HOW MUCH OF MY BATTERY’S ORIGINAL CAPACITY IS LEFT? How much juice your battery still holds on a full charge depends on your charging habits and which laptop you have. Apple claims the nonremovable batteries in MacBook Pros retain 80% of their original capacity for up to 1,000 charge cycles, and you can expect roughly the same performance from batteries in the latest MacBooks. A MacBook Air’s battery offers similar results for up to 750 cycles, and the most recent Apple laptops with removable batteries will keep delivering at 80% capacity for 300 cycles. What’s a charge cycle? It’s a full discharge of your battery followed by a full recharge. To find out how many your battery has gone through, launch System Profiler from your Mac’s Utilities folder, then click Power in the sidebar. Your battery’s cycle count is in the Health Information section of the resulting window. If the number exceeds Apple’s benchmarks, and you find yourself scanning rooms for power outlets, it may be time for a new battery.
WHERE CAN I BUY A REPLACEMENT? Replacing the batteries built into Apple’s latest laptops requires taking your Mac to an authorized service center. Replacement batteries for other Mac laptops are available from Apple or from many stores that specialize in Mac hardware. Some third-party manufacturers, such as NewerTechnology (newertech.com), sell their own Mac-compatible batteries for less money and at higher maximum capacities than Apple’s offerings.
NewerTechnology’s batteries are a little cheaper than Apple’s.
ARE EXTERNAL LAPTOP BATTERIES WORTH THE MONEY? The HyperMac batteries sure don’t come cheap. Depending on which MacBook you own, you’re looking at $200 to roughly double your battery life or $400 to more than triple it. (HyperMac also offers $300 and $500 batteries; hit hypershop.com for the gory details.) It’s important to note that those performance stats really vary depending on what you’re doing—watching
DO BATTERY CONDITIONERS DO ANYTHING WORTHWHILE? Battery conditioners automate the monthly full discharge and recharge cycle recommended by Apple if you don’t use your laptop often. This helps keep the battery’s electrons active and can improve the accuracy of its “fuel gauge” in OS X, giving you a more accurate picture of its remaining charge. Newer Technology sells battery conditioners ($149.95, newertech.com) for every Apple laptop.
a DVD movie, for instance, drains batteries approximately twice as fast as just writing in Word or browsing the web. That can be invaluable, and we really appreciate how HyperMacs include a USB port for charging your iPod or whatever. So, yes, they’re a great option if you need to extend your battery life and can afford the steep pricing, but if that’s not you, we’d recommend putting those greenbacks toward something else... like that iPad you know you want.
System Profiler can fill you in on your battery’s health.
IS THE BATTERY IN MY LAPTOP CONSIDERED USER-REPLACEABLE? All MacBooks released before October 2009 and MacBook Pros released before October 2008 have user-replaceable batteries. You just buy a new one and slap it on; heck, you can even tote a spare for marathon computing sessions. The batteries in all MacBook Airs, unibody MacBooks, and unibody MacBook Pros aren’t considered user-replaceable.
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With the unibody’s slim design comes a trade-off: a nonremovable battery.
HOW CAN I EXTEND MY BATTERY’S CAPACITY? Keep your software up to date. System updates have the latest powermanagement features, and Apple occasionally releases updates that address battery issues. Protect your Mac from extreme temperatures, especially heat. “Exercise” your battery by charging it intermittently throughout the day, and avoid leaving it plugged in for long periods. If your laptop will be stored for more than six months, give it a 50 percent charge before shutting it down.
HOW TO REPLACE YOUR iPHONE’S BATTERY Once your iPhone is a couple of years old, you might notice the battery lasting less time on each charge. Apple can replace it for $79 plus $6.95 shipping (apple.com/support/iphone/service/battery/), but you can buy a new battery for around $20 online and do it yourself. These abridged instructions are for the iPhone 3G and 3GS, which is the simpler method. Replacing the battery on an original iPhone requires some soldering, making it a little trickier. We have helpful, step-by-step videos for all iPhones on our website at maclife.com/iphone_battery_videos. They point out every single screw, connector, and part you need to know.—Roberto Baldwin
What You Need: > New iPhone battery ($19.95, ifixit.com) > Phillips 00 screwdriver (iFixit includes one with your battery) > Two spudgers (we used one pointy black spudger and one flatter greenish spudger) > A soft cloth to cover your work surface > Small suction cup ($2.95, ifixit.com)
Our online how-to videos walk you through the process, explaining each step in detail.
3
4
6
8A
8B
9
10
12
1 2 3 4 5 6
TURN OFF THE iPHONE. Then remove two screws from the bottom on either side of the 30-pin dock connector.
7
POP THE CAMERA OUT of its housing, but don’t remove it all the way. It’s still connected to the logic board, and we want it to stay attached. Use your spudger and be gentle.
USE THE SUCTION CUP to separate the screen from the metal bezel. Pull from the bottom, but go slowly because there are connectors inside that you don’t want to rip off. SLOWLY PULL APART the two halves and remove the six connections, which are numbered. Use the pointy end of your spudger and be careful to just disconnect but not break them. THE iPHONE 3GS has a seventh connection near the bottom right that you also need to remove. The iPhone 3G has a tiny sticker in its place that says Do Not Remove. Remove it anyway. EJECT THE SIM CARD TRAY by sticking a straightened paper clip into tray’s hole next to the Sleep/Wake button on top of your phone. Remove the whole SIM card tray and set it aside. REMOVE EIGHT SCREWS around the edges of the inside of your iPhone. One of the screws is right over the camera, and when you remove it, a tiny piece of gold-colored metal comes off too. Note its orientation so you can replace it correctly.
GENTLY PRY UP THE LOGIC BOARD (see 8A; it’s the large flat metal piece that you can’t miss), starting from near the dock connector. Lift the logic board (8B) over the No. 4 connector and gently slide it down and remove it.
8
THAT EXPOSES THE BATTERY. It’s stuck in there with some adhesive, so firmly but carefully use your spudger to loosen all the way around the battery before you pull it up.
9 10 11
TAKE YOUR TIME because there are some ribbons near the top and the left side that you don’t want to disturb. Remove the battery completely using the pull tab on top. PEEL THE PAPER off the back of your new battery’s adhesive, and insert it in the hole left by your old battery. The battery connects to your iPhone by a connector toward the bottom-left. Make sure the battery isn’t squishing any of the ribbons around it, and press it down to set the adhesive. REASSEMBLE YOUR iPHONE. Insert the logic board, reseat the camera, replace the eight screws and little gold piece, and reattach the connectors. Make sure all the connectors are done, and close your iPhone’s case.
12
TURN IT ON to make sure it works, then replace the last two screws in the bottom of the iPhone, on either side of the dock connector. Replace the SIM card drawer. Test everything to make sure it works. You’re all done. <<<
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Your Mac with Great Gear Building a better Mac doesn’t stop with components like RAM. Upgrading your Mac’s peripherals can refresh your entire computing experience, and the only hard part is plunking down a credit card. BY ZACK STERN
S
till using your Mac’s original keyboard and mouse—only now they’re covered by a thin layer of finger grime? That display starting to look a little dingy and dull? Is your external hard drive running out of room for all your cat photos, or are you interested in stepping up to a network drive so you can access your files from anywhere? Upgrading your Mac’s accessories and peripherals is a no-brainer—after all, they’re such an integral part of the Mac experience. Plus, unlike when upgrading internal components, you won’t have to dig around inside your Mac’s case or fumble with a bunch of screws that seem as small as the period at the end of this sentence. Really, the shopping is the hardest part. As always, we’re here to make it easier with our picks for the best keyboards, mice, all-in-one printers, displays, external hard drives, and network storage. Each category has budget, midrange, and high-end options because as much as we love our Macs, we all still gotta eat.
P36 ALL-IN-ONE PRINTERS P38 KEYBOARDS P40 MICE P41 DISPLAYS P42 EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES P43 NETWORK HARD DRIVES
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SUPERCHARGE YOUR MAC WITH GREAT GEAR
ALL-IN-ONE PRINTERS To get your ideas on paper or to scan papers into your Mac, a jack-of-all-trades printer is just the thing.
$$$ HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One $399.99 hp.com Who says inkjet owners need to lust after laser printers? The Officejet Pro 8500 might invert that expectation with its speedy 35-page-per-minute black and 34-page-perminute color prints. With up to 1,200 dpi (dots per inch) for black and 4,800 dpi for color, the crisp results stand up to family scrutiny or business presentations. You can even reach it over an Ethernet or Wi-Fi network, like a typical laser printer. But a typical laser lacks the Officejet’s individual color cartridges, which let you replace each color as it runs out. Advantage: inkjet all-in-one.
$$ EPSON Artisan 810 All-in-One $299.99 epson.com Like other inkjet all-in-one printers, the Artisan 810 (5 out of 5 stars, Dec/09, p55) prints, scans, faxes, and more. Built-in Ethernet and Wi-Fi networking interfaces let anyone in your household print, even directly onto inkjet DVDs. You can also print from an iPhone over WiFi through the free Epson iPrint app, and the touchscreen panel directly allows printing and copying too. The Artisan is versatile enough for working from home or for doing homework, producing great-looking text and copies.
$ CANON PIXMA MX340 $99.99 canon.com You got your photo printer in my fax machine! You got your scanner in my copier! This budget printer touches many categories, all great for a home office. There’s a 30-sheet feeder to queue up copies, scans, and faxes, and from your Mac, you can decide whether to print over USB 2.0 or Wi-Fi. You can even print photos from an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, or iPod touch through Wi-Fi. You got your printer in my party trick!
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>>>
PUT YOUR PAPER MONSTER IN ITS PLACE
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· Scan and organize receipts, business cards and documents in a digital filing cabinet · Create expense reports, IRS-accepted tax reports, digital contacts and searchable PDF files
TO ORDER VISIT
neatco.com/ML912 OR CALL 866-399-7514
· Export data to Excel®, Quicken®, Mac Address Book, or PDF
FREE DELUXE TRAVEL CASE WITH PURCHASE USE COUPON CODE: MLTC
SUPERCHARGE YOUR MAC WITH GREAT GEAR
KEYBOARDS You touch your keyboard all day long, so you might as well get a nice one.
$$$ MATIAS Tactile Pro 3 $149.95 matias.ca You might type more than a thousand words in a single day, so your fingers will thank you for a high-end keyboard. The Tactile Pro 3’s mechanical key switches feel like a clackity dream—but only if you can put up with the sound. Its distinct springs help you hear and feel each key press, which is a striking difference compared with a mushy rubber-membrane keyboard where you can’t always feel if you’ve pushed far enough. In addition to its Mac layout, this keyboard also has markers for all special characters, so you’ll never stab randomly to find an accent, copyright symbol, or Greek omega again. $$ APPLE Wireless Keyboard $69 apple.com Great design can be more about taking away than adding on. This tiny keyboard (5 out of 5 stars, Mar/08, p66) shaves off nearly all of its extraneous edges to leave just the keys. And that’s really what it’s all about. It even cuts the number pad, but when was the last time you relied on those redundant buttons? More importantly, it cuts away the cable. All that’s left is a battery-powered Bluetooth keyboard with an elegant, aluminum style. Taking things away never felt like such a gain.
$ KENSINGTON SlimType Keyboard $39.99 kensington.com Scissors aren’t just for barbers; laptop keyboards usually include a scissor switch in each key. These Y-shaped levers tilt in a similar manner to your stylist’s tools. The SlimType Keyboard takes those sharp key mechanisms to your desktop, so if you like the feel of a MacBook or another laptop’s keyboard, you’ll get nearly the same action. It even adds a number pad, mediaplayback buttons, and full-sized F-keys. Your fingers will thank you for the short travel distance, plunking down prose like rocks skipping on a glassy lake.
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>>>
SUPERCHARGE YOUR MAC WITH GREAT GEAR
MICE It’s an infestation of dreamy point-and-click peripherals.
$$$ KENSINGTON SlimBlade Trackball $129.99 kensington.com Mousing can be a chore, especially if you’ve upgraded to a high-resolution screen, say, 1920x1200 or more, or you rock a double-display setup. If that’s you, go for the SlimBlade Trackball (4 out of 5 stars, Jun/09, p62). Spin its meaty sphere, and the pointer effortlessly responds, sprinting across massive monitors. It’s as elegant as it is gentle on your wrist. You can even twist the ball to scroll or click two of its four buttons to enable commands like zooming or pausing iTunes.
$$ APPLE Magic Mouse $69 apple.com Want to touch the future? Apple’s Magic Mouse (4 out of 5 stars, Jan/10, p48) grafts multitouch gesture commands onto a Bluetooth pointer. It might feel—or sound—clumsy at first; we’re fans of tactile buttons too. But a few simple commands instantly become natural. You can use scroll gestures anywhere on the surface or make swiping motions to browse through certain items, like your iPhoto library. It might even speed up your Mac control while adding a touch of whimsy.
$ LOGITECH Corded Mouse M500 $39.99 logitech.com Some days, it feels like wireless technology should’ve come first and wired should’ve been the upgrade. Just plug it in, and it works: no syncing or recharging. The M500 hits this utilitarian target while adding a few extras that should outclass your original pointer. The big, weighted scrollwheel whisks through documents, and you can also tilt to navigate horizontally. Forward and Back buttons help web surfers, and its laser-based sensor delivers excellent movement tracking.
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DISPLAYS “I can see clearly now. I can see all icons on my display.”
$$$ LACIE 730 LCD 30-inch $3,599.99 lacie.com Your Mac is a creative powerhouse. Even your home-office hardware can be good enough to create box-office blockbusters, but you’ll need a high-end display to match. LaCie stakes its reputation on its 2560x1600 730 LCD and its superb color reproduction. The display includes a calibration tool so that you can be absolutely sure that what you see on the screen matches the final look of your movie, magazine, or other visual media. Sure, it’s overkill for most home users, but visual-media pros will see the difference. v
$$ APPLE LED Cinema Display 24-inch $899 apple.com Apple’s 1920x1200 LED Cinema Display (4 out of 5 stars, Apr/09, p44) nails both crisp design and bright images. You can connect the Mini DisplayPort plug to any recent Mac Pro, iMac, Mac mini, or Mac laptop, but it won’t work with an older Mac that lacks a Mini DisplayPort connection using Apple’s adapters. Three USB 2.0 ports, built-in speakers, and an iSight camera pile on useful extras. The Cinema Display especially shines with a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or MacBook Air because its built-in MagSafe power connector charges those laptops.
$ DELL G2410H 24-inch $339 dell.com Don’t be ashamed, dude—Mac users have been using Dell displays for years. Take a proud stand for value. The G2410H lacks a Mini DisplayPort—Apple’s favorite connector of the moment. It doesn’t even have HDMI. But you do get VGA, DVI, and a great price for this 1920x1080 (1080p) screen. That might seem cheap, but its rich image quality outclasses some competitors with higher costs. And energy-conserving features, such as a light sensor that dims the brightness, can save even more.
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SUPERCHARGE YOUR MAC WITH GREAT GEAR
EXTERNAL HARD DRIVES
With hard drives, size matters, and these three can hold all the junk in your trunk.
$$$ OTHER WORLD COMPUTING Elite-AL Pro mini $849 for 200GB SSD macsales.com Keep your red, typo-correcting pen holstered; that price and size were accurate as we went to press. At that cost, you’ll naturally get every major disk interface possible: FireWire 400/800, USB 2.0, and eSATA. And the paperback-sized enclosure and swank aluminum style look great, but what else is there? Speed and reliability. This solid-state drive blazes through any kind of data, plus it has no moving parts to damage. The combination makes this perfect for ferrying Final Cut Pro edits, photos, and other huge files.
$$ DATA ROBOTICS Drobo S $799 without storage drobo.com Any disk drive can add storage, but the Drobo S adds redundancy and flexibility. Normally with redundant disks—think RAID—you have to add pairs of like-sized drives at the same time. But with the Drobo S, you can install any size SATA drive at any time, mixing and matching to create a storage box that makes automatic duplicates and backups. (Some configurations already i include storage.) Its FireWire 800, USB 2.0, and eSATA c connections give you speedy access to huge files.
$ WESTERN DIGITAL My Book for Mac $139.99 for 1TB wdc.com Hard drives are cheap, but your data is priceless. The MyBook for Mac makes a great Time Machine backup disk, or you can just use it for additional storage. It’s a sleek, sturdy drive that connects via the USB 2.0 found on nearly any Mac. And an optional hardwarebased security tool protects your data from theft. Just enter your password when you plug it in, and the drive will unlock its 256-bit encryption. It can even install the decryption utility first if you connect it to a new computer.
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NETWORK HARD DRIVES Cut the cable: A network hard drive lets you access your files from any computer in the house.
$$$ HP MediaSmart Server EX495 $699.99 for 1.5TB hp.com The MediaSmart Server hits every major feature Mac users would want, including Time Machine support and iTunes streaming. This Gigabit Ethernet server has room for four total internal disks, plus you can connect four more through USB 2.0 or one via eSATA. You can even stream files online to an iPhone. But one aspect might draw boos: It runs Windows Home Server. While you’ll have to initially configure the system from a PC (or in Boot Camp), we think Windows Home Server can actually be a boon because you can keep adding additional features through software.
$$ PROMISE SmartStor Zero $399 for 2TB promise.com Network storage can get needlessly complicated, but Promise aims to simplify your files. While you can optionally install a small utility, you’ll mostly just plug the SmartStor Zero into your network ju and go, configuring it through a web browser. It a supports most major protocols—including Samba and AFP—so it works well on Macs and other systems. You can send it Time Machine backups, serve iTunes media, and stream files to living room devices. And you can remotely access it online to use your files and media wherever you are.
$ LACIE Network Space 2 $189.99 for 1TB lacie.com In multi-Mac households, plugging the Network Space 2 into your network via Ethernet gives disk access to everyone. You can use it for typical network file storage, including allocating private areas to certain family members. Or let Time Machine connect to it for network backups. You can even plug in a USB 2.0 disk to directly back up this drive. But we like its media features the best. The drive serves iTunes music and can stream media files to network devices, such as an Xbox 360, PS3, or that newfangled Ethernet-enabled TV you just bought.
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10 WAYS WILL iPAD APPS BE AS TRANSFORMATIVE AS iPHONE APPS? SIGNS
POINT TO “YES,” AND SEVERAL TOP DEVELOPERS TELL US HOW AND WHY iPAD SOFTWARE WILL SURPRISE AND DELIGHT US IN THE MONTHS AHEAD.
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iPAD APPS WILL
ASTONISH YOU “T
here’s an app for that.” Clichéd as this phrase has become, it’s taken on a life of its own, and that’s a testament to both the flexibility of the iPhone experience and the incredible variety of the App Store’s offerings. Now, the same developers who helped transform Apple’s phone into a mobile wonder-device are striving to do the same for the iPad—and based on our conversations with several top app creators, they’re up for the challenge and thrilled about the new, untapped possibilities. We’ve boiled down those interviews into 10 explanations of how iPad apps might surprise us all, complete with first details on several anticipated new iPad apps. BY ANDREW HAYWARD
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10 Ways iPad Apps Will Astonish You
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THEY’LL CHANGE THE WAY WE READ
True, the iPad doesn’t have the eye-friendly e-ink display of dedicated e-reader devices like the Kindle, but it has something better: the flexibility to display all sorts of content, ranging from novels and textbooks to magazines, comic books, and everything in between. In color, naturally. “By launching their own iBookstore, [Apple is] indicating that they recognize this device has a strong potential in the bookreading world, and it’s going to be an instant competitor to Kindles and Nooks because it brings more capability to you than the Kindle can,” says Tim Harris, CEO of Questia, whose Questia Library app delivers a portable research Ave!Comics will offer a large selection of fullscreen comic books for iPad from a variety of indie publishers.
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fans should also find its screen a perfect fit for digital issues. While Marvel and DC weigh their options, indie publishers seem particularly poised to claim the space, and Aquafadas CEO Matthieu Kopp tells us his studio is feverishly updating its Ave!Comics
Making popular magazines interactive is one of the goals of Zinio’s iPad app.
iPhone app to help those indies take advantage of the iPad’s larger screen. The app will utilize enhanced animations and “other super-secret features” to deliver his company’s richest comic-reading experience to date. Kapow!
3 LIKE THE REAL THING
In unveiling its Calendar and Contacts apps for the iPad, Apple set a standard that suggests the most impressive and successful apps may be those that best emulate their real-life counterparts.
If only falling in love was as easy as making a to-do list.
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library to iPhone users. “The Kindle’s just about reading. The iPad’s about reading and all those other things that other apps do, plus access to the internet for whatever you want to do.” Questia Library is one of those “other apps”; it allows students to tap into more than 76,000 full books and 4 million research articles for a single access fee. Though Harris says his company is still tackling plans to create an iPad version of Questia Library, other developers have already seized the opportunity, including Zinio, whose cross-platform app serves up digital versions of top magazines like Esquire and National Geographic. “What we’re doing is really optimizing our reading, shopping, and My Collection experiences to take advantage not only of the screen real estate, but also the interactive elements that you can apply to the reading experience,” says Rich Maggiotto, president and CEO of Zinio. It’s hard to argue with how perfect the iPad seems for magazines, and comic book
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“Apple really put forth the paradigm that what you’re looking at are objects behind a piece of glass that you’re manipulating with your finger,” explains Werner Jainek, developer of Things iPad and co-owner of Cultured Code. As Cultured Code works on the enhanced iPad version of its popular todo app, Jainek says his team is following Apple’s lead in an effort to attract all sorts of users. “I think [the iPad] lowers the entrance barrier for a lot of people, and we really wanted to be contributing to the experience of this device,” he says. And while Jainek had only a rough sketch ready (left), it looks like Things will maintain an organic, notebook-like aesthetic as it takes shape on the iPad.
SURPRISING SPEED
While some are upset at the iPad’s inability to run multiple apps simultaneously, there’s an upside: Developers we spoke to say the increased processing power makes the device much faster than an iPhone. “People are going to be really impressed by the speed, maybe even to the point where the multitasking issue—for anyone who really is worried about it— might disappear a little bit because you can move so quickly between apps and do a lot of things much faster,” claims David Chartier, chief media producer at Agile Web Solutions, maker of the password-storing app 1Password. And because developers will be able to show so much data on the screen at one time, there will be less of a need to “drill in and out” of menus, as Cultured Code’s Jainek explains. That will only speed up the app-using experience.
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IT’S A REAL GAME-CHANGER
Using Need for Speed: Shift and N.O.V.A. as examples at the iPad unveiling back in January, Apple demonstrated its new tablet’s ability to revitalize popular iPhone games with flashier visuals, improved multitouch actions, and customizable interfaces. According to Andrew Stein, director of mobile platforms at PopCap (which is known for iPhone hits like Plants vs. Zombies), the iPad’s large display is key to its enhanced gaming experience. “It’s going to be more than what people expect,” says Stein. “In my mind, it’s kind of the same as going from playing PlayStation 2 on a 27-inch TV to playing Xbox 360 on a 46-inch high-def screen. It’s not just bigger, but it [also] enables so much more. It’s right there in your face.” Alawar Entertainment, publisher of the Farm Frenzy franchise, sees the iPad as
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THE 2X BUTTON IS A BRIDGE
While existing iPhone apps can be doubled in size on the iPad screen, don’t expect the best and most popular apps to rely on that feature for long. Most of the developers we spoke with are anxious to redesign their apps for the iPad and aren’t content with just a super-sized iPhone app. “We definitely want to design 1Password for the iPad to take advantage of all of the iPad’s benefits,” says Agile’s Chartier. “We’re not happy with just telling users to use that 2X button. So we’re spreading out the layout. We’re trying to display more information at once.” “Our engineers are pretty actively thinking about how can we adapt our games—not just port the iPhone games over—but really make them that more complete experience,” says PopCap’s Stein. “There’s never been a platform that offers what the iPad does. That’s the main thing. What’s the game vision we want to bring to the device?”
Zen Bound 2 for iPad updates the popular iPhone app with significantly enhanced visuals.
an opportunity to bring a Mac-like visual experience to a portable device. “We get back to the same art and resolutions that our customers are used to seeing on Macs,” says Valentin Merzlikin, vice president of sales at
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Alawar, which is prepping iPad versions of its Natalie Brooks and Treasures of Mystery Island titles. “We’re really excited about these games.” On that front, striking images of Secret Exit’s iPad follow-up to the popular iPhone puzzler Zen Bound hit the web as we were working on this story, and while we couldn’t reach the studio before press time, this screenshot (left) offers a compelling taste of what the iPad can do. So although it may be a great new home for existing products, Stein expects we’ll also see a wave of innovative new games, much like we saw with the iPhone. “We’re thinking about it more as a console, rather than an upgraded iPhone,” he says. “And over time, as we really get a grip on what the device can do and what people expect, I think you’ll start to potentially see game modes that are new and haven’t been done before.”
LET’S COLLABORATE
Having a device that’s large enough to the bigger screen and all the multitouch be held by multiple users or laid flat on a inputs, you have the possibility of having table opens up the possibilities for both a couple people using it at once,” says work and fun. “Productivity applications PopCap’s Stein. Imagine playing chess, are particularly well suited for a mobile Clue, or some sort of co-op game where device that you can bring into a coffee both players hold the iPad—and never worry about losing the pieces! shop and work with somebody across the table,” says Ken Case, founder and CEO of Omni, a Mac and iPhone app developer. “They can see the same thing you’re looking at on the table in front of you, and you can sit there and manipulate the wire frames you’re mocking up.” Omni is working on bringing five of its apps to the iPad, and design apps OmniGraphSketcher and OmniGraffle are due out first. This work-in-progress screen shows how Omni is reshaping As for games, its OmniGraphSketcher app for the iPad. “multiplayer becomes very interesting because, with
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10 Ways iPad Apps Will Astonish You iPAD DEVELOPER CHALLENGES Here are some of the early obstacles iPad developers are facing en route to the App Store. 1. THEY DON’T HAVE iPADS Apple is keeping prerelease iPads close to the vest, leaving developers to work with simulators and faux iPad mock-ups. 2. HOW WILL PEOPLE HOLD IT? Getting iPads in the hands of average users will let developers make better, more informed decisions about how to design user interfaces and features. 3. WAIT, HOW MUCH? At press time, app prices remain up in the air, and developers are very curious how Apple will design the pricing structure. 4. RESOURCES ARE SPREAD THIN Studios with just enough manpower to handle iPhone development must now contend with supporting another device. 5. IT’S A TOTALLY NEW DEVICE The iPad’s large multitouch display is a first, leaving developers without many existing examples to learn from.
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If you play a musical instrument, you undoubtedly know the hassle of tracking down or printing out endless pages of tablature or sheet music. No more—thanks to the iPad and apps like TabToolkit, you’ll be able to carry an entire library of tabs wherever you go. The iPad is even the perfect size to rest upon a music stand. Better yet, TabToolkit will automatically flip through pages as you play, letting you concentrate solely on your performance. “It’s not just a larger screen—it’s really the ideal way to consume guitar tablature and sheet music,” says Jack Ivers, principal at TabToolkit developer Agile Partners. “The
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touch interface is actually far superior to desktop and laptop computers right now. If you’re going to move around a tab or a piece of sheet music, there’s no better, easier, or more comfortable way to do so than to touch the screen.”
Save trees— pop an iPad on your music stand instead of printing out tabs or sheet music.
10 business development at Cultured Code. “So the ones that are already looking beautiful can get even more beautiful and will be even more user-friendly.” Of course, on the flip side, having that much screen can lead to disaster if not utilized properly. “Someone made the comment, ‘Four times the pixels [equals] four times the ugly,’” recounts Agile Partners’ Ivers. “A bad design looks four times worse on iPad.” Expect a lot more effort to be put into fantastic UIs—ugly apps will definitely be on a shorter leash.
KEEPIN’ IT SIMPLE
The enhanced multitouch display lets studios create apps filled with complex actions, but the developers we spoke to are actually charting a different direction. “The big thing that we are focused on is just trying to make the stuff even simpler and easier to work with,” says Omni’s Ken Case. “This should be an app that is even more approachable for most people. More of the focus has gone towards usability,
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REPLACING SHEET MUSIC
STUNNING INTERFACE
With about four times the screen space as an iPhone, the iPad has a lot more potential to pump out beautiful, well-engineered user interfaces. “The iPad craves deliciousness. It craves beautiful graphical-user interfaces,” says Michael Simmons, Password-storing app director of 1Password looks to make a marketing and big splash on the iPad.
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rather than, ‘Here are some features that we couldn’t do before.’” Citing the iPad’s potential to be a “computer for the rest of us,” Cultured Code’s Simmons says, “With that comes the responsibility to design an application that is even easier, even better, and more powerful—not necessarily powerful from a feature-rich point of view, but powerful from an easy-to-use and intuitive point of view.”
SO MUCH TO SEE
The iPad’s glorious 9.7-inch screen will not only impress you with its ability to display movies, games, and magazines, but also with just how much data can be comfortably shown at one time. Now programs that were dialed back to fit on the iPhone screen can once more take advantage of a large display, which will only improve the user experience. “We [want] to show users more information,” admits Cultured Code’s Jainek, whose iPhone version of Things was dramatically simplified from the original Mac release. “Now with the iPad, we have much more screen space available, so [everything] can be displayed again.” In the case of Read It Later, an app that compiles saved web stories for offline reading, creator Nate Weiner of Idea Shower is using the increased screen size to create a newspaper-like interface that separates saved articles into categories. “Having the same type of mobile experience [as the iPhone], where it can be with you a lot more in that ‘white space’ time, but you actually have a bigger screen where you can present it a lot more beautifully and a lot easier to digest—that’s what I’m most excited about,” he says. <<<
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Interested in advertising in Mac|Life magazine?
Call David White at 650-238-2502 or Aida Rodriguez at 708-562-0686
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Interested in marketing your iPhone app or product here? Contact your Mac|Life advertising representative for more details Aida Rodriguez at 708.562.0686 www.maclife.com MAY• 10
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>>>Apps
D ISCOVER THIS MONTH’S MOST INTERESTING i PHONE & iPAD APPS!
PLANTS VS. ZOMBIES THE TERRIFIC STRATEGY GAME SPROUTS UP ON THE iPHONE. Let’s say you’re having a bad day. Zombies shamble toward your house, hoping to eat your brains. Your only defense comes from backyard flora. Think Little Shop of Horror’s Audrey Jr.; your garden actively shoots peas, tosses cabbage, and otherwise confronts the undead. This off-kilter premise shines in the iPhone adaptation of the excellent Mac game. But like an omnivore at a fancy vegetarian restaurant, we wanted just a little something more. The touchscreen controls beat the original’s, but too many of the quick-play minigames are omitted, while most of the game is directly copied otherwise. That cornucopia of snack-size modes would have perfected this mobile game. Still, don’t get us wrong—Plants vs. Zombies is great. It’s just a little short of its potential. The strategy behind the game gradually sprouts and flourishes. Zombies stumble across the screen, staying in their rows. They’ll eat their way through obstacles, but the plants fight back. You’ll have to pick the best vegetation to combat an ever-changing roster of zombies; cactus plants shoot needles that pop zombies floating on balloons, or a tall nut will stop pole-vaulting zombies from launching over. Progressive levels introduce more than two dozen different zombie types, and most of them require a special strategy to defeat. While the game’s basics are right there in its name, Plants vs. Zombies Plants vs. Zombies 1.0 PopCap Games popcap.com Price: $2.99 Requirements: iPhone or iPod touch with 2.2.1 OS or later Excellent art and audio. Nuanced humor and action. Good touchscreen controls. Lots of levels to complete. Slows down on iPhone 3G when brimming with action. Our favorite Mac minigames didn’t make the transition. Can’t play any minigames until completing all main levels. GREAT
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Next time zombies attack our house, we’re sending out the garden to defend. Yes, “next time”!
kept twisting the rules just before we got bored with what it last showed us. After starting in sunlight, you’ll play at night with mushroom defenders. Swimming pool levels introduce aquatic zombies and plants, and fog blocks your vision in some areas. You’ll even battle on the roof, where you have to first set down pots before adding plants. The game’s core stays familiar and fun, but variety ripens the specific situations. Plants vs. Zombies shows off its care and craft far beyond a typical iPhone release. We laughed at certain zombie types and the interstitial dialogue with the crazy neighbor. Audio cues tie back into the game; each action triggers a sound specific enough that you can tell what’s happening without even watching. Because of this attention to detail, we can overlook the way that some of busiest action slows down on an iPhone 3G. Naturalfeeling touchscreen controls also help,
elevating much of Plants vs. Zombies above the Mac original. Tapping welcomes beginners more than a mouse, while advanced gamers can use multiple fingers to quickly pick up on-screen items, select and lay plants, and otherwise manage the game. But aside from the touch controls, Plants vs. Zombies partly misses its short-attention-span iPhone audience. The Mac version includes many quick-play minigames that creatively remix the premise. After you complete all of the iPhone levels, you can play basic versions of a few minigames. But our favorites—playing as the zombies or trying to solve levels as untimed puzzles—are omitted on the iPhone. Those bite-size extras could have been the centerpiece of this portable game. The bottom line. While Plants vs. Zombies never perfectly blooms, its simple strategy, variety, and humor expertly blossom on the iPhone.—Zack Stern
HERE, FILE FILE! You can’t have it all, but at least you can preview it with Here, File File. This document browser connects over Wi-Fi, 3G, or EDGE to a password-protected server application on your Macs that lets you view their files remotely. Documents can’t be copied to your iPhone, but the option to email files—or links to them—as attachments is a handy workaround. However, not all files are equal. Images, PDFs, Office, and iWork docs display and email correctly, but package-style documents like GarageBand projects appear as folders full of bits and pieces, not recognizable files you can preview or share. Bummer. DRM-free iTunes files, however, don’t just preview; they stream in their entirety. But don’t throw out those flash drives and iDisks yet. Browsing is sluggish, and choppy scrolling and occasionally unresponsive controls sometimes require relaunching the app. Worse, out-of-memory errors frequently prevent files from displaying at all. Until these bugs are fixed, Here, File File is promising but still feels like a work in progress. —Adam Berenstain Here, File File! 1.1.1 Graceful Construction, LLC herefilefile.com $9.99
Log in to any Mac on your network just by tapping its stylin’ icon. OKAY
ASSASSIN’S CREED II: DISCOVERY Even though it ignores what made the console version of Assassin’s Creed II such a spectacular experience—slowly sneaking around massive cities, for instance—we dig AC II: Discovery. The brisk platforming and quick combat make it enjoyable in spite of its brevity and crummy “Ezio kills some Spaniards” story. Because it focuses on speed rather than stealth, you’re racing to the end of each stage for the best possible time. Ironically, the biggest bummer is that slowerpaced stealth missions regularly break up the thrill of sprinting across rooftops, discovering alternate routes, leaping over massive chasms, and escaping Have to stop to catch your breath sometime! alerted enemies. We much preferred the chaos and reckless abandon of the regular missions—the jumping, climbing, and killing are far more exciting than hiding in haystacks. Throwing caution to the wind goes against the series’ stealth philosophy, but the breakneck speed of a 2D sideAssassin’s Creed II: Discovery 1.0.1 scroller is a change of pace we Ubisoft assassinscreed.us.ubi.com can get behind. $2.99 —Mitch Dyer GOOD
BROTHERS IN ARMS 2: GLOBAL FRONT
FROM OUR SISTER MAG!
Given how poorly Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front ran on our iPhone 3G—we reinstalled it twice to fix freezing, and the frame rate regularly dipped into unacceptable territory—we’re surprised to love it like we do. The World War II first-person shooter is gorgeous, and the crunchy audio that accompanies each impressive set piece is surprisingly solid. We also dug the responsive analog overlay controls You’ll get to mess around with the insta-kill flamethrower pretty early on. and the subtle placement of the crouch and aiming buttons at the screen’s corners. Although those technical issues ended up being a huge weight on our device’s shoulders, blowing buildings to bits with a tank between stopand-pop shootouts is just plain Brothers in Arms 2: cool. BIA2’s six-player online Global Front 1.0.9 multiplayer is similarly rad, but Gameloft brothersinarmsiphone.com again, stuttering ultimately limits $6.99 the game’s audience to folks with GOOD 3GS hardware.—Mitch Dyer
From the world’s loudest rock magazine comes this hardcore, ear-splitting app! Revolver TV connects you to exclusive insider video footage from your favorite metal bands, including Slayer, Slipknot, and Alice in Chains. You can access six different video channels with music videos, behind-thescenes segments, and special concert footage that’ll make you feel like you’ve got your favorite band hanging out in your back pocket. The app also includes instructional how-to’s from Guitar World, and you can even bookmark your favorite videos for easy access. The app, which was developed in part by GoTV and Revolver magazine, costs $1.99 and is available now in the App Store.
Revolver magazine brings metal to your iPhone.
Now you can get your metal fix, along with sweet guitar how-tos, on your iPhone.
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HOME INTERIOR LAYOUT DESIGNER: MARK ON CALL Simplicity and functionality—the stuff of great design. We recently tested two Mac apps that, theoretically, help you design 3D floor plans of your home’s interior (“Modernism Meets Its Mac,” Mar/10, p33). Their interfaces were vexing piles of fruitlessness, leading us to ask whether one really needs the intrinsic complexity of 3D software just to create a room layout? Turns out you don’t—we’ve found the lengthily named Home Interior Layout Designer: Mark On Call to be the preferred digital assistant for home decor. Using a simple top-down screen view, Mark On Call has all the tools and templates you need to quickly create accurate room dimensions, even for rooms with odd nooks and angles. Once you have your wall dimensions set, you can add furniture, appliances, and architectural elements at will—chairs, tables, floor plants, dog beds, grand piano, spiral staircases, and more. Tap an object to edit its dimensions; skin it with
OUR FAVORITE APPS
PAUL
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a color, texture, or photo source; jot down its price and vendor source; and add it to a shopping list. Our favorite tool, the tape measure, provides an accurate measurement of the distance between design elements. Other cool features abound, but at the end of the day, Mark On Call is a simple tool, which is all it needs to be for 99 percent of any homeowner’s design needs. And this app will only get better if (or when) it’s redesigned for the iPad—we’d like more screen real estate to plan our ambitious redesign of the Mac|Life Indoor Beer Garden and Nerf Gun Arena. —Jon Phillips Home Interior Layout Designer: Mark On Call 2.1.1 M.O.C. Interior Designer, LLC whatwouldyoudowiththisroom .com/mark-on-call/ $2.99
Each month, the Mac|Life staff gives you a peek inside our iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches to show you the latest gems, oddities, and WTFs that we’ve uncovered in the App Store.
SUSIE
The Moron Test
Meebo
I’ve never enjoyed being irritated before, but this app gets under my skin and makes me want to win. Its Simon Says instructions masterfully trick you into misreading or picking the popular wrong answer, and the game’s sunny snarkiness is somehow as endearing as its maddening tricks. Besides… I. Am. Not. A. Moron. Wait, it said push the green button seven times? Crap!
All-in-one IM app Meebo supports chatting over AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, MySpace, ICQ, Jabber, Facebook, and yes, even Windows Live. Not to mention dozens of other networks I’d never even heard of. So no matter which service my more difficult friends insist on using, I can still chat away with them from my iPhone. Who needs to bother with talking when you can thumb-type?
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Redecorating just got a little easier with Mark On Call.
EXCELLENT
ROBBIE
RAY
FLO
Voice Central Black Swan
Space Ace
Cupcakes!
Space Ace brings the adventures of Dexter/Ace out of the arcade, circa 1984, and into your iPhone. Unfortunately, the intervening 25 years haven’t made me any better at the game, but the beautiful animations—and the annoying pauses between scenes—faithfully reproduce the original. It’s retro gaming at its best, and it doesn’t cost 50 cents a pop anymore.
I’m not one to resist the lure of a delicious cupcake—especially a virtual one. That’s why I love Cupcakes, which lets you bake and decorate these tasty treats. Once they’re out of the oven, you shake your iPhone to get them out of the pan, then choose from a variety of toppings. After that, you can save them, send them to your friends, or devour them onscreen! Best of all, these cupcakes are calorie-free.
Riverturn’s VoiceCentral Black Swan not only raises the bar for web apps, it also brings Google Voice functionality back to the iPhone. Check your voicemail, send SMS, check your voice mail transcripts, and make calls directly from a web app that has the look and feel of a native iPhone app. Once the app syncs with your Google contacts, you’re good to go.
TOUCH AND GO Cycling apps—when nerds and bikes collide.
T
he wife and I have become those irritating cyclists that constantly check our local Bicycle Coalition’s map for the quickest and flattest route to our destination. You know the ones: They’re always pouring over maps and elevations. God forbid you go out to dinner with these low-level Magellans. It’s a dark world filled with bicycle pumps, arguments about the quickest routes, and discussions about bike-seat comfort. It was only a matter of time before we started incorporating our iPhones into our new two-wheeled lifestyle. Now before I get all “White & Nerdy” on you, staring at your iPhone while riding a bike, especially on a crowded road with inattentive drivers, is right up there with lighting a match to find a gas leak. With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s gather around the virtual bike rack and talk about our vertical climb. After outfitting my bike with lights, reflectors, and those fancy streamers that flow out of the side of the handlebars, I fired up iMapMyRide+ (MapMyFitness, imapmy .com, $4.99), which is tied to MapMyRide.com. I’m not a big fan of apps being tied to sites. It seems most of the information they have on the site could be easily crammed into the app. Regardless, this app uses GPS to track your ride’s route, speed, and other vital stats. Once you’re done with your ride and you
The world needs to know how far and fast I rode.
Mile-by-mile breakdowns help me track my ride.
and Outdoor Pro is Cyclemeter (Abvio LLC, abvio.com/cyclemeter, $4.99). In addition to displaying the regular speed, distance, and time data that’s found in almost all of the cycling apps I tested, the map within this app shows your mileage markers and has fancy graphs of your speed fluctuation and elevation. Routes can easily be shared via exported GPX or KML data (via a Google Map export with your mile markers and the average speed of each mile) or to Twitter. The app was easier to navigate than Outdoor Pro and didn’t make my brain swim. I was able to concentrate on not passing out while I rode uphill, instead of trying to decipher data. In the end, I decided to hang my bike helmet on Cyclemeter for my rides. So the next time someone questions your claimed distance and vertical climb, bust out your iPhone and show them your stats. Whether you’re a social butterfly, a datahungry pro, or just a guy that likes to ride to
It was only a matter of time before we started incorporating our iPhones into our new two-wheeled lifestyle. return to the route on the iPhone, you get a Google map with your route overlaid on it. What iMapMyRide does well is provide the option to share your ride over Facebook, Twitter, and email. You can even set the app to automatically tweet your stats when you’re finished. Too bad that once you save the route, all the really cool information is stored on MapMyRide.com. The opposite end of the social-mediafriendly spectrum is the data-intensive Outdoor Pro (yaffaworkscom, yaffaworks .com/outdoor, $0.99). We’re pretty sure that the developers of Outdoor Pro also develop the software that runs jet fighters. This app tracks and stores an immense amount of data, which means that the app can be a bit difficult to navigate when you first open it. But if you’re one of those riders that’s dressed like a low-level superhero in a fancy form-fitting jersey and bicycle shorts, this app might help you gauge your performance. If you’re looking to share that performance via Twitter or Facebook, you should look elsewhere. Smack-dab in the middle of iMapMyRide
the park and back, your iPhone is your new cycling odometer. Just don’t cheat by driving around in your car.—Roberto Baldwin
This is what jet fighters see when they ride bikes.
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VISIT MACLIFE.COM FOR ONLINE-EXCLUSIVE REVIEWS, UPDATED DAILY
>>>Reviews
TOUGH TESTING, TRUSTED RATINGS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMANTHA BERG
For detailed definitions of every score on Mac|Life’s ratings scale, go to maclife.com/ratings.
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ROTH MUSIC COCOON MC4
Better Sound froM A VAcuuM
Roth’s vacuum tube amp improves iPod tunes… most of the time.
L
ike X-ray glasses and sea monkeys, vacuum tubes are the stuff of 1950s pulp-fiction cool. They even glow in the dark! And it turns out that they can improve the sound of modern digital music—if you stick with high-quality, lossless files, that is. When you unpack Roth’s Music Cocoon MC4, a vacuum tube amp with a built-in iPod dock, you’ll get plenty of warning that this is the kind of fancy audio gear that’ll sniff at your lowbrow 128kbps MP3s. You’re greeted with a pair of white gloves to wear while handing the MC4, lest your sweaty palms taint its brushed aluminum surfaces in their excitement. We laughed, then enjoyed it as the kind of creative extra that takes a little sting out of the MC4’s sky-high price—it lists for $750, but we’ve seen it go for well under $500. (The gloves are also necessary should you ever need to handle the vacuum tubes, which are safely ensconced under an enclosure that protects them from everyday contact.) The MC4 is a breeze to set up—you can drop in any iPod with a Dock connector (or an iPhone 3G or 3GS in Airplane Mode), wire up a CD player (via stereo RCA jacks), or connect a third audio source to its 3.5mm input. Its overall look is very British in its sturdiness (Roth is based in England)—no swoopy Scandinavian curves, just beefy knobs on a very classy casing. The MC4’s remote must be used to power it up, which is kind of annoying, but fortunately the remote also controls an attached iPod/iPhone. Just don’t plan on making this a centerpiece on a display table or mantle because the MC4’s big honkin’ power brick gets pretty hot and needs to be stashed roughly 2–3 feet from the MC4. Its cord is that short. The star of the show, the vacuum tubes, emit only a faint red glow in a well-lit room, and while the effect was substantially cooler in a darker setting, it was never as dramatic as it seems on the MC4’s box or website. But sweetening your music is the
primary function of those tubes, and that’s where they do their best work. The MC4 definitely warms up music of all types, reducing that digital brightness and making your tunes sound richer and more detailed. It’s not a transformative difference—it’s an audiophile’s improvement, rather than something that’ll leave you gaping in awe at newfound textures. Jazz in particular really shines on the MC4, but there’s plenty of power here to drive music of any kind at earshattering volume, if that’s your thing. There is, unfortunately, a catch. When playing some 192kpbs AACs with thumpy, deep bass (Vampire Weekend’s “A-Punk” and Sade’s “By Your Side”), the MC4 completely barfed, spitting out a buzzing, distorted sound that was just like a damaged woofer trying to keep up. The problem vanished when playing those songs on the CDs the AACs were ripped from and reappeared when running the AACs through different speakers, Music cocoon proving that the MC4 can’t cope with some Mc4 medium-quality rips. Other AACs of the same roth rothaudio.co.uk caliber played just fine, but it’s an odd flaw Price: $750 that points out how the MC4 tries to appeal requirements: iPod with Dock to both audiophiles, who would never listen to connector, iPhone 3G or 3GS, or audio source connected via 3.5mm anything but lossless music, and the general jack or stereo RCA cables; speakers iPod crowd, who will be dismayed that the Sharp improvements to music high-quality rips or CDs. MC4 fails to process their run-of-the-mill rips. from Compact, elegant British styling. S-Video out for playing back iPod The bottom line. The MC4 is a high-end, videos on your TV. And freakin’ nichey iPod amp that requires high-end vacuum tubes! input, so if you loyally stick with top-quality Very expensive. Fails miserably at processing some lower-quality rips or CDs, it’s a beaut. But it’s overpriced music files. Vacuum tube glow isn’t and inflexible, sometimes struggling to as cool as we’d hoped. properly process lower-quality music GOOD Mac | Life R A T E D files.—Paul Curthoys
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>>> Reviews Tough testing, trusted ratings
Apple Aperture 3
A BusheL of New Photo-editiNg feAtuRes Last year, photographers interested in Apple’s software had to choose between Aperture, a pro-level image organizer and editor, and its farm-club counterpart, iPhoto ’09. It was a tough decision because power users needed the editing tools in Aperture but were tempted by Faces, Places, and other iPhoto-only tricks. Aperture 3 rebalances the roster, adding those iPhoto functions
You can brush in most tools to alter a specific area, as we’re doing here with Levels to brighten the faces.
Aperture 3 Apple apple.com Price: $199; $99 upgrade Requirements: Mac OS 10.5.8, 10.6.2, or later; Intel processor New editing tools, including Brushes, let photographers do everything within Aperture. Places feature displays images on maps and lets you search by location. Many useful updates and additions. Takes advantage of 64-bit hardware. Overhauled slideshow tool works with video. Brief slowdown can sometimes happen even on powerful Macs. Faces feature can also be sluggish.
Mac | Life EXCELLEN T R A T E D
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while also juicing up with high-end tools like Brushes. It’s an impressive update, and Aperture’s streamlined, iPhoto-esque interface welcomes intermediates while meeting the demands of power users. But Apple didn’t just add those three headlining new features to Aperture—Version 3 boasts 200 additions. When we see a list of new stuff that runs that long, we worry about bloated interfaces and useless additions, but Aperture proved us wrong. As an intermediate photographer, I used many of the new bells and whistles—or could foresee situations where they’ll come in handy. For instance, if you’re shooting RAW plus JPEG together, you can have Aperture handle them as two files, combine them into a single file embedded with two formats, or just discard one. Aperture is packed with these little bonuses without getting too cluttered. Aperture’s handy new Places geotagging tool assigns locations to your photos in several ways. Text searches reference Google and Apple databases to assign metadata. We entered “Mill City flour museum Minneapolis,” and it found the proper location— and name—for the Mill City Museum. Better yet, Aperture automatically updated photo tags so we could find images from searches for those words or for “Minnesota,” which Aperture inferred from “Minneapolis.”
Faces also moves over from iPhoto, and it recognizes and names the people in your pictures. As in iPhoto, you’ll have to train the tool by identifying people in a few dozen pictures. But even on a quad-core Mac Pro with 6GB RAM, the software took so long to complete its part of the process that we thought it had stalled. After about a half hour, it finally blurted out the results. It’s a useful trick, but it can be a slow one. Advanced photographers will most appreciate the updated editing tools; there’s enough power to forgo Photoshop for much of their work. The new Brushes make the biggest difference, selectively painting in adjustments to specific areas of a photo with newbiefriendly options for not making a mess of things. This tool lets you brush in Dodge, Blur, Contrast, and many other adjustments—including Curves, one of the new high-end color-correction tools. Photoshop’s Layers and Masks still rule for advanced compositing and manipulation, such as mixing multiple images into a photorealistic scene. But Aperture’s alternatives adeptly handle many single-image scenarios. An Edge Detection toggle does a good job keeping you within the lines on photos—for example, when lightening an underexposed person in front of a bright treetop background. Instead of layer editing, you can go back and change individual Brush parameters for best results. If you’re ever unhappy with an edit, you can hit Undo or just toggle changes off and on—Aperture’s fully nondestructive. All of this makes it feel much more approachable than Photoshop. Aperture also offers dozens of manual adjustments, including Levels, Exposure, Curves, and White Balance tweaks. You can save your favorites as presets or pick from Aperture’s included bundles—or even see how presets will affect your photo before applying. An improved full-screen mode presents big images without distractions, and you can upload images automatically to MobileMe, Flickr, and Facebook, or export a web gallery ready for uploading to your own server. Our biggest complaint: Aperture felt fast enough working with our RAW files, but it never quite seemed speedy. When processing other tasks in the background, photos sometimes took a half-second to appear. At least they get cached, letting you instantaneously flip between recent images. And when clicking quickly, we sometimes had to wait just a moment for the interface to catch up. The bottom line. With these great new editing tools, many pros won’t need to open Photoshop. And intermediate users will be able do what they want without getting lost in the deep feature set—and can learn new photo-editing techniques without feeling intimidated.—Zack Stern
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(available on the iTunes App Store) The iLuv APP. alarm clock becomes a big display digital clock for the iMM190 Big clock display with weather information. Multiple alarms to wake to your own favorite iPhone or iPod music.
www.i-Luv.com iLuv is a registered trademark of iLuv Creative Technology. iPod is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S and other countries. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc. iPod and iPhone are not included. For more information on iLuv products, please visit www.i-luv.com. Actual products may differ slightly from products displayed.
>>> Reviews Tough testing, trusted ratings
Green & slimy ThouGhTs
GET YOUR THOUGHTS IN ORDER
you adjust font, style, and size attributes; create lists using a variety of styles; and even make tables and copy (or drag and drop) images into place. We were able to easily embed hyperlinks, links to local files, and other pages in a book. Thoughts also exports to RTF, PDF, Word, and ODT (OpenDocument) formats for easy data portability. Books are automatically saved as you work, and a built-in search feature quickly drills down to the specific information you’re looking for. Thoughts makes data entry easy, but once our thoughts have been entered, we’d like more to actually do with them. Indeed, the software isn’t nearly as robust as more mature idea-management apps available for the Mac. We’d like to see better integration of iCal and Address Book information, built-in backup support (though Thoughts does work on iDisk and the You can mix graphics, tables, and formatted text together in your Thoughts pages. ever-popular Dropbox), and support for audio and video annotation, to name a few. information, however, isn’t built into the iLife suite— The bottom line. Thoughts helps you organize, although it probably should be. And so the daftly find, and share ideas in a format that’s easy to named Green & Slimy has released Thoughts, an Your Mac does a lot of cool things straight out of the box: You can edit movies and make music, or turn to more mundane tasks like surfing the web and checking email. A tool for organizing scraps of digital
ThoughTs Green & Slimy thoughtsapp.com Price: $32.75 (converted from 24 euros at press time) Requirements: Mac OS 10.5.6 or later Simple interface. Easy-to-use editing tools. Lacks robust feature set.
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information manager designed to serve as a catch-all for your digital scraps, enabling you to store, search, and organize them in useful ways. Thoughts is a freeform affair that you can use for a variety of purposes, such as setting up to-do lists, taking meeting notes, writing story outlines, drafting blog entries, researching info on the web, organizing bookmarks, storing snippets of code, and even digital scrapbooking. How you use Thoughts is largely up to you—its interface is more blank slate than organizational dogma. The software uses a book as its basic metaphor. Books rest on a virtual shelf, where you can store as many books as necessary to organize your information. You can use one book to manage todo lists, for example, and another to keep track of webpage bookmarks. Individual books can contain any number of pages, and built-in editing tools let
Separate notebooks keep your thoughts organized.
understand and a breeze to work with. But Thoughts is still very much a 1.0 release, lacking features present in other more robust apps for to-do lists and data organization.—Peter Cohen
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BEFORE Cene genics®, Age 64 27% Body Fat 157.6 lbs. Lean Muscle Tissue AFTER Cenege nics®, Age 69 10% Body Fat 164.2 lbs. Lean Muscle Tissue Data compiled by the GE Dr. Life’s photo is no Lunar Prodigy DXA scan. t enhanced in any wa y.
>>> Reviews Tough testing, trusted ratings
T w e lv e s o u T h B a s s J u m p
FEEL THE BEAT
BassJump Twelvesouth twelvesouth.com Price: $79.99 Requirements: Mac OS 10.5.8 or higher, MacBook Gives an impressive boost to your MacBook’s sound. Portable. No AC adapter required. Uses one of your two precious USB ports.
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Your MacBook’s built-in speakers are fine for the odd YouTube clip of dogs jumping in slow motion or for listening to NPR streams. But when it comes to bringing the rock to your desktop, they’re pretty weak sauce. Twelvesouth aims to improve your audio situation with its BassJump, a USB subwoofer built to boost the beats coming out of your MacBook. Hooking up BassJump literally could not be easier. Connect it to a USB port with the included cable, and you’re done. The first time out, you’ll have to download and install the BassJump Preference pane, but once that’s done, your system will automatically recognize the subwoofer when it’s plugged in. And at less than one and a half pounds, you’ll probably be moving the 5x5x2.24-inch BassJump frequently— either between Macs or in and out of your travel bag. But remember that BassJump is designed with MacBooks in mind. So while it provided marked improvement in the audio performance of our favorite laptop, it was less impressive when hooked up to our iMac. That’s because the iMac has more powerful speakers—a fact that, to its credit, Twelvesouth freely admits on its website. So for most of our testing, we wired up the BassJump to our 13inch MacBook Pro, listening
to everything from A Tribe Called Quest’s oldschool hip-hop jams to Yeasayer’s indie electronica beats—and to good effect. The sound coming out of our MacBook went from being tinny and paperthin to full enough to rock our office. If you do a lot of listening at your desk, the BassJump is a great alternative to the innumerable iPod speaker docks crowding the market at about the same price point. Its Preference pane is also clever, allowing you to adjust the crossover point, fine-tuning the frequencies that get sent to the subwoofer. There’s also a separate slider to control the BassJump’s volume. Between the two settings, you can tune the system to your liking—or just use one of the five presets for different genres of music. The included padded carrying case makes BassJump attractive for travelers too. It’s hard to find fault with BassJump—it performed well with minimal fuss. We love that it grabs audio and power via a single USB connection, although a pass-through USB port would have been a nice touch since BassJump eats up one of your two precious ports. The bottom line. BassJump turns your MacBook up to 11. If you listen to iTunes while you work, it offers a significant boost in sound quality with minimal cable mess.—Ray Aguilera
Bluelounge RefResh
GAdGet OAsis
In my ongoing quest to never again leave the house without my iPhone, I’ve tried to adopt the zealous-organizer habit of using a landing strip inside my front door. This island of unclutteredness is supposed to give me a place to stash my can’t-forget-’ems—I’m
thinking the modern trinity of keys, wallet, and phone, or anything essential that regularly hitches a ride in my pocket. Once I’ve fully trained myself to deposit those items there without fail, I’ll be more apt to remember to take them every time I leave. And avoid running around searching for my keys while the carpool idles outside and considers leaving my lagging behind… well, behind. Adding a Bluelounge Refresh multiple-gadget charging station to this landing strip has really helped—its 9.5x5.6-inch rubberized tray holds my gadgets while mostly hidden connectors and cables keep them all charged. The tray can’t fit more than three or four gadgets—iPhone, iPods, digital cameras, Bluetooth headsets, external iPhone batteries, cell phones—but it includes six connectors in all and comes in glossy black, white, or bright pink. The Refresh’s connectors include two 30-pin iPhone/iPod plugs, a mini-USB, a micro-USB, and two standard-USB sockets that you can use to connect any other device with your own cables. It’s basically a smaller version of the Sanctuary (3 out of 5 stars, Aug/08, p75). The Sanctuary includes eight brand-specific plugs for various cell-phone manufacturers, but the Refresh sticks to USB, which is
Plug it in, plug it in.
quickly becoming the standard. The Refresh also provides about half as much surface space as the Sanctuary, and its rubberized tray doesn’t fit snugly into the base with a reassuring click. It just rests on top while ably hiding the cable clutter underneath and keeping your gadgets from sliding around. The charging station gets its power from a “wall wart” AC adapter, but Bluelounge thoughtfully includes interchangeable tips for power sockets in the USA, the UK, and the European Union. The bottom line. The Refresh is pretty expensive for simply giving you a dedicated place to charge your devices without having to unplug and replug various chargers from a wall. Of course, if your wall socket is under a desk or otherwise difficult to access, the convenience factor alone could be enough to make it worthwhile. And for scatterbrains like us, anything that coaxes us into a reliable routine for remembering our gadgets—our fully charged gadgets, even—is worth a look.—Susie Ochs
Now available for: RefResh
iPhone 3G /3GS iPod touch 2G
Bluelounge bluelounge.com Price: $89.95 Requirements: iPod, iPhone, and/or any other gadgets that charge via USB Attractive and convenient. USB sockets and iPod, mini-USB, and micro-USB charging tips included. AC adapter works in the USA, UK, and European Union. Expensive. Tray doesn’t fit securely in the base, just rests on top.
Mac | Life
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>>> Reviews Tough testing, trusted ratings
P R O S O F T DATA R E S C U E 3
DIY DATA RECOVERY
that it doesn’t recognize out of the box. When scanning a drive, you can opt for a Quick Scan, Deep Scan, or Deleted Files Scan. The Quick version is faster than the other two, as you’d expect, and the Deleted Files scan restricts itself to free space on your drive, so it’s best used for files you’ve accidentally emptied from the trash. The Clone feature is designed for instances where you suspect there are mechanical problems with the drive itself. Data Rescue can clone the dying drive to another disk, and then you can recover data from that copy, which reduces wear and tear on a drive that’s already in dire straits. Once you complete a scan, Data Rescue presents you with a list of files it found, and you can pick and choose which files to restore to your secondary drive. We tested several scenarios where we deleted files and otherwise destroyed them to test Data Rescue’s chops. We easily recovered deleted files, and were even able to recover the contents of files 3D Arena View is cool the first time, but it quickly becomes distracting eye candy. We preferred the Detail View. that we deliberately made unreadable. Data Rescue even mounted a troubled drive that the Finder had corruption or simply to being overzealous with given up on months ago. One caveat: Data Rescue the Empty Trash command (we’ve all done that at turns up lots of data, but filenames are often lost. least once). A Quick Look–style Preview button lets you see the When you fire up Data Rescue for the first time, contents of files to help with deciding which ones you’re dropped into Arena View, which presents you to select for recovery. It can be painstaking finding with an animated 3D menu of the application’s main what you’re looking for, but investing some time for functions—or you can use the Detail View button this manual sorting is better than losing something for a more traditional list. Unlike disk-repair tools, DATA RESCUE 3 important forever. which try to fix problems, Data Rescue is focused on While the software itself is easy to use, be warned data recovery. So if you don’t have a Mac Pro with Prosoft prosofteng.com that intensive data-recovery operations are going a secondary internal drive, the app prompts you to Price: $99 Requirements: Mac OS 10.4.11 or to take a while. It took nearly two hours to scan the attach an external drive, and either way, Data Rescue later, secondary drive to recover free space on our MacBook Pro with a 160 GB drive— uses that second drive as a place to write recovered files to Losing data sucks. Your spreadsheets from work are one thing, but the truly heart-wrenching losses are the things you can’t replace: pictures of your kids at Disneyland, the Great American Novel you’ve been working on since college, or your 300GB iTunes Library that you’ve been lovingly curating for the last decade. Luckily, tools like Prosoft’s Data Rescue can help get your data back whether you lost it to file
Can resurrect borked files and drives. FileIQ feature can learn to work with obscure file types. Isn’t foolproof (but nothing ever is). Scans can take a long time, depending on the amount of data and state of your drive.
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GREAT
data. Recovering to another drive helps protect your data by ensuring that your Mac doesn’t write over something you might want to recover. Basic operations include different levels of scans to recover data, a Clone feature useful for duping entire drives, and the new FileIQ feature, which you can use to teach Data Rescue to read proprietary file types
anything larger than that, and you’re really better off setting Data Rescue to run overnight. And it bears mentioning that having a copy of Data Rescue handy is not the same as sticking to a good backup strategy. The bottom line. Hopefully, you’ll never have to use Data Rescue. But recovering important data just once is well worth its price.—Ray Aguilera
for Apple iPad Ya m a h a E P h - 3 0
’Buds with soMe BooM
Great-sounding headphones that don’t cost an arm and a leg are kind of like aliens—you’re pretty sure they’re out there somewhere, but they’re really hard to find. Yamaha’s EPH-30 earbuds should come packaged like a flying saucer—they offer a terrific listening experience at an affordable price. Since they’re in-ear models, they provide some sound isolation, which gives you better audio at lower volumes, and fortunately, the EPH-30s come packaged with three pairs of rubber eartips in small, medium, and large sizes. Apple design purists will appreciate that the ’buds come in white or black. They easily slide into place, and if you get weirded out by sticking things in your ear canals, the Yamahas go in much shallower than many in-ear models. In addition to providing a comfortable, secure fit, the design dampens ambient noise and improves bass response—both key ingredients for a good listening experience. One of the biggest complaints we hear about budget headphones is that bass is often weak. But for their price, we were very happy with the boom of these earbuds. Beats are tight without that muddy, underwater quality that so often comes with inexpensive headphones. In fact, some users might feel that the bass is too heavy, but for most fans of rock, hip-hop, and other beat-based genres, the boom will be a welcome punch in the ear. Midrange is clean, and the Yamaha’s had no problem with details like the crisp hi-hats in Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” or the Sparkletts water bottle in The Beach Boys’ “Caroline, No,” although the EPH-30s are probably best enjoyed with pop music than more delicate classical pieces, where some of the finest detail was lost. The build quality of the EPH-30s is strong, but as with most in-ear ’buds, the thin wires can transmit loud noises to your ears if you’re using them while active—even walking down the street. Beyond the spare earpads, Yamaha doesn’t include any extras, but you should be buying earbuds based on sound quality, not whether there’s a cool little zip case in the box. The bottom line. For the price, Yamaha’s EPH30 earbuds offer great sound quality and comfort. They’re also easy to insert and remove, making them great for first-time users of in-ear ‘buds. —Ray Aguilera
Great sound at a good price.
EPH-30 Yamaha yamaha.com Price: $39.95 Requirements: Audio source with 3.5mm jack Comfortable, even for users new to in-ear earbuds. Tight bass and clear sound overall. No extras, like cases or cord wraps, included. Lacks the fine detail that audio purists spend top dollar to experience.
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USBFEVER 8X TELESCOPE WITH HARD CASE FOR iPHONE 3G/3GS
GIVE YOUR iPHONE BIONIC VISION Although the camera in the iPhone got a boost to 3 megapixels in the 3G-to-3GS refresh, it’s still not what anyone would call “powerful.” So if you’re among the many iPhone owners who take a lot of photos with your smartphone, it may be time to supersize that built-in camera with an add-on like the USBfever 8X Telescope with Hard Case. What you get for your $29 is a telescope-style fixed optical zoom lens (which attaches to an included case) and a miniature tripod that steadies your iPhone while you shoot photos or video. The lens lets you manually zoom in on a subject up to 8X, so you can get much closer without ever moving a muscle. Attaching the lens is straightforward: Snap on the thin case, then screw on the lens. It’s a good idea to clean both your phone’s lens and the telescope’s lens first. And when we weren’t careful to screw on the lens tightly, we noticed that some of our photos showed a sliver of the black lens housing. Otherwise, we found the telescope’s ability to magnify portions of a scene quite impressive. Zooming is a manual affair, and it’s fun to experiment with the 3GS’s tapto-focus feature to get the best shot. The tripod
CIRCUS PONIES
comes in handy for steadying the phone, especially when shooting video, but its design limits you to shooting in a horizontal (landscape) orientation. That’s ideal for video, but it sometimes was limiting for still shots. And fortunately, the tripod is extremely portable—as is the lens—so they can
go with you anywhere. The bottom line. It’s not going to transform your iPhone 3G or 3GS into a camera to rival pro-level shooters. But if you’re using your iPhone to take pics of subjects you care about, this lens/case/tripod combo is affordable and easy enough to use to warrant a spot in your accessory bag.—Leslie Ayers
USBfever usbfever.com Price: $28.99 Requirements: iPhone 3G or 3GS Portable, affordable iPhone zoom lens.
Using the 8X Telescope for iPhone made us feel like peeping toms because the lens protrudes 2.5 inches from the case when attached. Even though it looks a bit silly, it does its job as a zoom lens quite well.
Tripod only accommodates landscape orientation. Lens housing visible in upper corner of photos if not screwed on tightly.
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N i ko N Co o l p i x S 1 0 0 0 p j
POCKET PICTURE SHOW A dozen new kinds of point-and-shoot cameras flood electronics stores each year, and that’s often just from a single company. To distinguish itself, Nikon took an interesting approach with its Coolpix S1000pj. Instead of focusing on pictures, this camera shines—literally. It can project photos and movies on a wall so everyone can see them. We like the concept and had fun presenting instant vacation slideshows while still traveling. But the average quality of both its photos and its projection make this camera purely a technoholic’s toy. Discerning photographers and home buyers on a budget should think twice. We’ve seen video projectors of about the same size as the S1000pj, but Nikon impressed us by cramming one into the camera without adding any perceptible bulk. The tiny 640x480 LED projector can throw big images—about 5 feet or more. But you’ll have to carefully manage lighting conditions, especially at that size. Images look moderately bright in a room with several lights turned off, but they perform best without any lights. On the flip side, they’re practically undefined in daylight or near bright windows. At an image size of a few feet diagonally with controlled lighting, we enjoyed sharing snaps with a group. At huge sizes, color saturation and image details fade alongside the brightness even in fairly dark rooms. And pictures lose sharpness as they get bigger. Because of these limitations, we enjoyed the projector for what it is—a fun toy. It’s more of a novelty than a truly productive component of the camera. When the thrill of the projector dims, the S1000pj remains an adequate workhorse of a camera, and its images approximate the quality of its competitors (meaning cheaper point-and-shoots without projectors). Our test photos never excited us, but they always seemed sufficient. We got the best pictures shooting outside in moderate sunshine, which is typical for any compact camera. Colors and shapes looked defined, and the lens caused little distortion. We captured portraits with clear, smooth skin tones in average daylight, for example, that were quite usable. But fine picture details suffer in any kind of light. When we closely reviewed a photo of garden woodchips, we saw a pointillist jumble of messy browns instead of individual pieces. Image quality also declines outdoors in shade and indoors without the flash. Colors look muted, and noise—in the form of pixelated speckles—creeps in. A flash brightens up the foreground, at least.
The onboard projector allows you to bore impress more than one person at time with your latest snapshots.
Fortunately, the camera felt fast enough. It turned on and started taking pictures in about three seconds, and it could snap its full 12.1-megapixel resolution about once every two seconds—not speedy enough for sports, but quick enough otherwise. You can adjust a few settings—condition-specific modes, exposure compensation, focal point, and others—but some users will miss manual controls for shutter, aperture, and ISO. We wanted those options at this price point, but that projector doesn’t come without trade-offs, right? None of the camera’s extra features seem crucial. You can capture video at up to 640x480 pixels at 30 frames per second, but you can’t tune the focus during a shot. In-camera retouching makes basic photo adjustments, but it’s hard to preview what will happen. Smile and blink sensors sometimes worked to capture the right moments, but neither feature was consistent enough for us to rely on. All together, this camera captures sufficient, reliable images, although its photo features are limited. Gadget fans who buy a new camera every 18 months will enjoy the S1000pj overall, but both the projector and average photo quality make it lose its luster rapidly. The bottom line. While its image quality is only adequate, the novelty of its built-in projector lifts the Coolpix S1000pj above otherwise similar point-andshoot cameras.—Zack Stern
Coolpix S1000pj Nikon nikon.com Price: $429.95 Requirements: SD card and USB port In dark rooms, built-in projector will wow friends. Vibration reduction helps hold images steady. Fun novelty features include smile and blink detection. Image details can lack definition. Room lighting washes out projector. Lacks full manual controls. Extra features aren’t useful on a regular basis. Red-eye mode only moderately effective. SOL I D Mac | Life R A T E D
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Armpocket Sport 20
Tie One On
Sport 20 Armpocket enterprises armpocket.com Price: $34.95 Requirements: An iPhone or iPod touch Comfortable. Eco-friendly. 20 cubic inches of storage capacity. Moisture resistant. Reflective piping for safety. Requires a bit more pressure to operate your device through the clear window.
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Fanny packs may have gone the way of mom jeans, but while they were in vogue, they were pretty darn useful. The modern equivalent is the Armpocket Sport 20, a Velcro-strapped pouch that enables you to carry your iPod touch or iPhone and other small items on your arm when you’re working out or just traveling light. Constructed out of recycled PET (plastic soda bottles) and bamboo fabric, the eco-friendly Armpocket is embedded with memory foam to ensure a comfortable fit, and it’s designed to keep air flowing through its ventilated ribbing so your device stays moisture-free. We loaded up the pocket, strapped it on, plugged in earbuds to our iPod touch through the cable port, and put it through its paces on an elliptical trainer and during a run. Despite the thrashing of our arms, the pocket didn’t budge, and our earbuds’ connector stayed firmly in place. Admittedly, we never stopped noticing that we had a “pocket” on our upper arm as we exercised, but the accessory is not overly bulky and didn’t impede our workouts. As a bonus, the internal compartments kept our keys from jangling up against our scratchable devices.
The Armpocket has a clear window through which we could easily control our iPod’s capacitive touchscreen—though the added layer means you’ll need to use a bit more pressure than normal to operate your device. And we ended up wearing the pocket upside down so we could see our screen rightside up. Neither issue is a big deal, but if you plan on taking calls or changing tunes while you are on the go, you may have to slow down to see what you’re doing. The bottom line. This little fanny pack for your arm keeps your music pumping and your credit cards and keys safely zipped in when you’re on the run. —Jan Hughes
You can stash your keys in it—along with your iPhone or iPod touch.
Quirky powercurl
POWeR, SQUAReD
powerCurl Quirky quirky.com Price: $14.99 Requirements: MacBook with a 45W, 60W, or 85W power supply Keeps your power cables together neatly. Cheap. It’s orange. Bulky. It’s orange.
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Cable management is an ongoing battle for many road warriors. Some of us just stuff our cables into various pockets in our bags. Others actually have small, individually labeled bags to keep their piles of cables separated and ready to unleash at a moments notice. Meanwhile, accessory companies continue to release more and more cable-management systems. They’re usually just a piece of plastic that you wrap the cable around once, then realize you’ve wasted your money and toss it aside. But the Quirky PowerCurl manages to actually be useful, and it strikes a good balance between easy and OCD. And wow… it’s orange! Quirky.com, a self-described “social product development company” that relies on user feedback to choose and perfect products, says that PowerCurl was designed by Apple enthusiasts in 24 hours. Sure, it makes a great story, but the reality is that the PowerCurl is actually a great cable-management system for MacBooks.
Currently, you can wrap the thin power cable permanently attached to your MacBook power brick around the flip-up prongs, but you’re still left with the thicker wall-plug cable to roll up and toss in your bag. The PowerCurl secures the power brick at its center, and then you roll both cables around the PowerCurl. There’s even a handy clip to secure the end of the thicker cable and keep it from unraveling. Once rolled up, we found the cables easy to unfurl for use, and we could toss the PowerCurl in a bag without fear that it would unravel. While the PowerCurl does indeed store your cables neatly, it ends up being a bulky package. We didn’t have any trouble using it, but at 5.25x5.25 inches with cables wrapped, the Power Curl ends up being mildly huge. The bottom line. The orange PowerCurl may or may not fit into your design aesthetic, but it definitely cured the wayward-cable blues for our MacBooks. —Roberto Baldwin Orange you glad you got those cables organized?
S p e c k c o r e pa c k F ly M e S S e n g e r b a g
uP in the AiR
Finding a laptop bag that does it all is not a simple task, and we often have to make compromises between style, utility, and comfort. Speck’s CorePack Fly nails two out of those three, faltering a bit in the comfort department. The CorePack’s black-and-white pinstripe design (also available in a blue-gray check pattern) makes it a fashionable laptop bag that pairs well with our favorite—and only—pair of designer shoes. This lightweight bag also offers good protection and storage for our stuff without adding much extra heft when we’re hauling around our MacBook. The CorePack Fly can accommodate up to a 15-inch MacBook Pro with extras. Its innards are similar to the regular CorePack Messenger Bag, which means you’ll find a full complement of pockets that provides plenty of organization for notebooks, peripherals, AC adapters, and other gear. You can unzip the side pocket to accommodate a water bottle, and the adjustable front buckle can handle any extra bloat. The “Fly” portion of the CorePack is the bag’s most notable feature. A padded laptop compartment unsnaps to lay flat on the conveyor belt at airport
security. It meets TSA requirements, so you don’t have to bother removing your MacBook from your bag to prove it isn’t a bomb. This feature is great for frequent flyers, but cubicle dwellers might find the side-loading laptop compartment a bit awkward, especially compared with standard top-loading models. As far as comfort goes, Speck has emphasized airport-friendliness with this bag. So it’s fine when you have a rolling suitcase to plop the bag on top of, but carrying the bag over your shoulder is less than ideal. The straps are attached to the top of the bag by a pair of metal hooks, and they have a tendency to rotate from side to side, which becomes bothersome because the bag swings as you hustle down the street—or through the terminal. The tuck-away handle also isn’t much help when the bag is filled with stuff. The bottom line. Speck’s CorePack Fly is a pretty stylish bag that we enjoyed using, but it’s obviously intended to be paired with the ubiquitous roll-aboard. So while it’s great for racking up frequent-flyer miles with your trusty MacBook, it’s definitely not suited for more earthbound commuters.—Florence Ion
COREPACk Fly MEssENgER BAg Speck speckproducts.com Price: $89.95 Requirements: 15-inch Macbook Pro or smaller laptop Stylish patterns. Plenty of pockets. Unfolds to get you quickly through airport security. It’s better off riding on your roll-aboard suitcase than slung over your shoulder.
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ATI RADEON HD 3870 MAC & PC AMD www.amd.com Price: $219 Requirements: Mac Pro, Mac OS 10.5.2 or later, one PCI Express 2.0 slot or later, one PCI Express Noticeable performance boost over stock card. Faster than 8800 GT overall. Quick installation. S-video output. None significant. Noticeable performance boost over stock card. Faster than 8800 GT overall. Quick installation.
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V e r b a t i m t o u g h - ’ N ’ -t i N y u S b D r i V e
the incRedible shRinking dRive
It wasn’t that long ago that we burned files onto CD-Rs and were amazed by their gargantuan 702MB of storage. But even they seem antiquated now—we
Tough-’N’-TiNy uSB Drive verbatim verbatim.com Price: $30.99, 2GB; $35.99, 4GB; $46.99, 8GB Requirements: USB port So small that you really can take it anywhere. Fits in even the most cramped USB ports. Static-, dirt-, and water-resistant. So tiny that it’s easy to lose. Security software is Windows-only.
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routinely carry around several gigabytes of data in our pockets on USB flash drives. Verbatim’s new line of Tough–’n’-Tiny drives takes flash drives to the next level of shrunkeness, reducing them to a speck of plastic and embedded electronics that seems barely big enough to fit into a USB port. At 1.19x0.5x0.06 inches, the Tough-’n’-Tiny is hardly bigger than small piece of chewing gum. Verbatim includes a lanyard for attaching the drive to your key ring, cell phone, or some other object that’s less likely to be lost. Which is a good thing—since it is so small, it’s very easy to misplace the tiny drive. We keep files scattered across several flash drives and portable hard drives, but the Tough-’n’-Tiny is the first one we worried about losing. If the worst does come to pass, Verbatim includes a Windows-only app for securing your data with a password, but Mac users can roll their own solution by creating an encrypted disk image with Disk Utility on their Mac.
Shown here at actual size (next to a quarter for perspective), Verbatim’s tiny flash drive fits in even the most cramped USB ports.
Functionally, the drive works exactly as you’d expect. Pop it into a USB port, and it mounts in Finder, where you can copy over files to take with you. Verbatim makes the Tough-’n’-Tiny in three color/ capacity versions. The orange version holds 2GB, while green and purple ones hold 4 and 8GB, respectively. Once we figured out the correct orientation, we had no problems using the Tough-’n’-Tiny in a variety of Macs and USB hubs. Verbatim says the drive is “resistant to everyday encounters” with water and dirt, and it worked just fine after we dropped it into a glass of water in the name of science. The bottom line. It’s ultraportable and practically unbreakable. The Tough-’n’-Tiny’s biggest drawback is that it’s small enough to disappear.—Ray Aguilera
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R o ta l i a n a D i va
CUE LIGHTS. CUE MUSIC. CUE POLARIZING DESIGN AESTHETIC. “’80s coke dealer.” That’s how one Mac|Life staffer libeled the Rotaliana Diva when trying to describe its visual statement. True enough, this multitalented iPod dock—brazenly slick and swoopy, unapologetic in its design flamboyance—does look like the kind of thing that Tony “Scarface” Montana might place on an end table in his Miami mansion. Are the Diva’s lines too over the top? That’s for you to decide. What we can tell you is that a host of interesting features make this ostentatious obelisk a compelling bundle of functionality. A slide-out cradle reveals a 30-pin Dock connector for iPod and iPhone playback. Four 3-watt speakers ringing the base provide 360-degree audio. Given the Diva’s small size, its sheer volume is impressive, and the speakers exhibit only the slightest bit of distortion when pushed to their maximum setting. Bass response, however, is anemic, and doesn’t improve when corner-loading the device. So if you want to party on the dance floor with bootyshaking bass, this is not the dock you’re looking for. But if you just want to complement your next cocktail party with a little Sérgio Mendes, the Diva can oblige. In fact, the Diva excels in other “civilized” activities. The sturdy, diecast aluminum chassis hides a swing-out arm with an integrated LED lamp. Place the Diva couch- or bed-side, and you have plenty of light for reading. The device also sports an FM tuner—perfect for listening to NPR if you don’t want to mess with one of the public radio apps or are using an iPod that doesn’t sport an FM tuner. The Diva also comes with a USB port, so if you plug in a USB flash drive loaded with MP3 or WMA files, those tracks can be easily navigated, played, and paused with the Diva’s IR remote. The remote’s signal remained strong at more than 40 feet, and we found its interface to be surprisingly intuitive for navigating all of the Diva’s various functions. There are also stereo mini-jacks for plugging in an auxiliary sound source and speakers. However, the Rotaliana Diva red LED display shows the time in 24-hour Rotaliana Diva “military” time, which can take some www.rotaliana.it getting used to. And Diva can charge your Price: $490 (converted from 360 euros at press time) iPod or iPhone, but it has to be turned on Requirements: iPod with Dock connector or iPhone first in order to charge your devices. Plentiful playback options. The bottom line. The hefty price tag Integrated lamp. Sturdy build doesn’t deliver amazing music playback, quality. Bold design statement. but you do get solid build quality, a bright Gutless bass response. Only displays “military” time. Must reading lamp, a clever variety of audiobe powered on to charge iPods. Expensive. Bold design statement. source options, and a design statement that provokes conversation.—Jon Phillips SO LID Mac | Life R A T E D
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> K anex iadap t 20 > d r . b o t t M i n i d i s p l ay p o r t t o H d M i a d a p t e r i i
ADAPT-A-MAc iaDapt 20 Kanex kanexlive.com Price: $59.99 Requirements: Mac with Mini DisplayPort, display or TV with HDMI input Outputs your Mac’s audio and video to HDMI. Self-powered. Supports up to 1080p resolution. Gets warm with use. HDMI cable not included.
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Mini Displayport to HDMi aDapter ii Dr. Bott drbott.net Price: $29 Requirements: Mac with Mini DisplayPort, display or TV with HDMI input Inexpensive. Only outputs your Mac’s video, not the audio. HDMI cable not included.
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If you’ve got a Mac with a Mini DisplayPort, you could connect it to Apple’s gorgeous but super-pricey 24-inch LED Cinema Display ($899, apple.com). Or you could pick up an adapter and connect that puppy to the flat-screen TV or third-party monitor you already own. Dr. Bott’s Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter II is a 13-inch-long adapter with a Mini DisplayPort plug on one end and a female HDMI jack on the other. You supply your own HDMI cable, which you can then connect to a TV, monitor, or other display with an HDMI input. Dr. Bott’s adapter works beautifully, but since it only connects to your Mac’s Mini DisplayPort, it outputs just the 1080p video signal to your display, not the audio. If you can settle for getting audio from your Mac, that’s fine; otherwise, you’ll need a separate audio cable. This seems like a drawback, but it might be a plus if, say, you want to send the Mac’s video output to your HDTV but run the audio through your home stereo. However, some TVs don’t accept a separate audio source when the video source is HDMI—typically, an
HDMI cable delivers both audio and video. If that’s the case—or you just don’t want to mess around with a second cable for audio—the Kanex iAdapt 20 is the solution. The 3-foot adapter has a Mini DisplayPort plug as well as a USB plug, and you connect both of those to your Mac. The other end has a female HDMI port, and again you provide your own
HDMI cable. Then open your Mac’s Sound Preference panel and set the Output to USB Audio Device, which is the Kanex adapter. The iAdapt 20 then sends both the audio and 1080p video from your Mac to your display—piece of cake! The USB plug provides twochannel audio, but if you need surround-sound audio, Kanex also sells the iAdapt 51 ($69.99, kanexlive .com). It’s similar to the iAdapt 20 but has a third cable for your Mac’s digital audio output. Between the Mini DisplayPort, the USB connector, and the audio cable, you’ll get full HD video and 5.1-channel surround through your display’s HDMI input. The bottom line. Both the Dr. Bott and Kanex adapters work great. Which one is best for you depends on your particular setup. For simplicity’s sake, we prefer the convenience of the Kanex because it’s nice to have one adapter that handles both audio and video. But if you’ve got a display that will accept separate audio and video inputs, save some cash with the lower-priced Dr. Bott model.—Susie Ochs
Kanex’s iAdapt 20 can send both video and audio to your TV.
Dr. Bott’s adapter is for video only.
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OLD PIRATE, NEW TRICKS
A swashbuckling hero returns to the high seas in all-new episodic adventures. After a decade at sea, the quirky pirate Guybrush Threepwood has found his way to shore in Tales of Monkey Island, the latest installment in a highly stylized point-and-click adventure series that’s much loved for its zany banter. This episodic romp begins in the middle of its story as Guybrush accidentally resurrects his arch-nemesis, loses his wife, curses his hand, and releases a malicious pox across the oceans. Fans of this long-running series, which began in 1990, are probably already smiling at these typically goofball conundrums. They continue through five chapters as players guide the famous pirate through an ever-twisting plot to restore order to the Caribbean. Even the simplest tasks are TALES OF MONKEY ISLAND never as straightforward as they seem, Telltale Games and hundreds of puzzles must be solved telltalegames.com before Guybrush sails off into the sunset. Requirements: Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Mac OS 10.5 or later. While hilarious wordplay is the calling Not recommended for Macs with integrated graphics. card of this series, the dialogue here is hit Veteran fans won’t be or miss, ranging from eye-rolling clichés disappointed. Witty dialogue. to pure comedic gold. Fortunately, Tales Overarching narrative between episodes. Sense of accomplishment introduces updated graphics and controls after solving difficult puzzles. that improve on its predecessors without Some ridiculously far-fetched puzzles. Throwaway secondary spoling the series’ distinctive gameplay characters. Back-and-forth and visual flair. journeying gets redundant. Perhaps most importantly, Tales heralds GO O D Mac | Life R A T E D itself as the most streamlined and least
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frustrating of the series. When the game senses that a player is stuck, Guybrush often insinuates what should be done next. Even so, the rationale behind certain puzzles seems entirely abstract. An early puzzle in the first chapter finds Guybrush rolling a cheese wheel from his inventory over prison walls. Later, players are required to pour molten pyrite from the crest of a cliff. Huh? Aside from a few exasperating exceptions like these in each chapter, the puzzles are usually coherent and enjoyable, and players will march through the majority of the game with a sense of direction and purpose. The true question is whether a game such as Tales of Monkey Island is still relevant in today’s marketplace. In a time of open-world games with hundreds of ways to finish, Monkey Island’s singular completion style can be incredibly frustrating. Instead of rewarding players for ingenuity, the game dolls out its thrills when players think exactly like its creators. When this mindset fails, gamers are likely to take to the internet to solve their problems, diminishing the intended sense of achievement. On the other hand, when a confusing puzzle is presented, reflected on, and then completed, the result is a sense of accomplishment rarely felt in today’s games. The bottom line. Newbies should at least try out the first chapter—available separately for $8.95—and vets should have no reservations about downloading the full five-chapter saga ($39.95). Even with its faults, Tales of Monkey Island is a treasure, hidden or not.—Nic Vargus
I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain.
S ta r t r e k D - a - C
In ThIs sPAcE, no onE cAn hEAR You scREAM Imagine being put at the helm of a gargantuan Federation ship, zooming from base to base, relying on your allies as you gun down a Romulan fleet before laying siege to their luminescent base. Sounds fun, right? Well, Star Trek D-A-C didn’t get the memo, or at least it didn’t get the budget to pull “fun” off. D-A-C stands for Deathmatch, Assault, and Conquest, the three main modes. And if that name seems weak, just try playing this unimpressive game. The fighting should feel familiar to anyone who’s ever played a top-down shooter. Ships fire lasers, shields lower, and eventually ships explode. As always, floating orbs serve as your ship upgrades. The modes, too, are simple enough. You can attack your enemies, attack their bases, or capture those bases, King of the Hill–style. There’s almost too much simplicity—is
one creative idea, weapon, or mode too much to ask, even for the bargain price of $10? The gameplay fares little better. At the beginning of each match, you choose one of five ships to fly, but the only difference between the Federation and Romulan ships is their colors and shapes—the fleets boil down to virtuous round blue ships and malevolent spiky green ships. The aesthetic is fairly attractive, and the ships look like Matchbox Cars as they zip across the
semi-realistic skies. The music comes straight from last summer’s blockbuster and booms an ironically dramatic orchestra over the laser pings of tiny, implausible ships. Okay, that’s probably sounding a bit better, but hang on. Although the ships are distinguished by ratings of their health, firepower, and speed, every ship controls equally terribly regardless of speed, and some of the faster ships are actually too fast to control accurately. For that reason, certain large, slow ships have an advantage. But even those feel more like they’re slipping through space than conquering it, and the laggy controls make complex fighting tactics nearly impossible. Worse, your semi-opaque targeting reticule gets lost in the midst of frantic dogfights, so you’ll find yourself shooting in the wrong direction more often than not. The bottom line. Fun can be had with Star Trek D-A-C, but only small doses of it—for instance, capturing objectives with a fully decked-out Romulan Centurion is briefly gratifying. Unfortunately, it all feels so imprecise and tacked on that even steadfast Trekkies will surely find a better way to feed their fandom.—Nic Vargus
Star trek D-a-C Paramount Digital Entertainment gametreeonline.com Price: $9.99 Requirements: Intel Core Duo processor; Mac OS 10.5.8 or later; 2GB RAM; ATI X1600, Nvidia 8600 GT, or better video card, 450MB disk space. Intel integrated graphics not supported. Cheap! Elaborate backgrounds. Simple enough to be straightforward. Music straight from last year’s movie. ESRB rating: Everyone. Difficult controls. By-thenumbers gameplay. No strategy whatsoever. Just not that fun.
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>>> Play Have Mac, will game
The game isn’t buggy. But Egypt’s tombs sure are!
THE SIMS 3: WORLD ADVENTURES
Hit tHE RoAd, SiMS!
When the first Sims 3 expansion pack hit our desks, we figured it might be worth a look—y’know, maybe if
The SimS 3: World AdvenTureS Electronic Arts ea.com Price: $39.99 Requirements: Intel Core Duo processor; Mac OS 10.5.7 or later; 2GB RAM; ATI x1600, Nvidia 7300GT, or Intel GMA X3100; 128MB VRAM; full copy of The Sims 3 Great locations. Lots of exploration and collectibles. New skills to learn. Tombs are fun. The puzzles are a bit basic.
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GREAT
our sock drawer had other plans that night. Good thing duty called—it turns out World Adventures is worth more than a look. In fact, we think any self-respecting Sims 3 fan should purchase it immediately. Since The Sims 3 rebooted the franchise, its developers can now revisit previous expansion packs for their inspiration. And here, as it was in The Sims: Vacation (okay, okay, and The Sims 2: Bon Voyage), the idea is to take your sims abroad to three exotic locations. That’s where the similarity ends, though, because World Adventures is a much more ambitious expansion, offering not just a selection of extra bits and pieces to play around with, but a welcome break from the core gameplay. This expansion pack offers three global locations for your sims to explore: France, China, and Egypt. When you first travel to a location, your movements are initially limited by your low visa rating, but the more you globe trot, the more expansive and exciting your adventure will become. Upon arriving at a destination, you should visit the market to meet the locals and get a taste of the culture. However, this game is really about adventuring, and so it won’t be long before you make like Indiana Jones and go off treasure hunting— or, more accurately, tomb raiding.
Plenty of tombs and catacombs lay beneath all three of the locations, and you’ll have a great time exploring them, solving their puzzles, and locating treasure. Your progress will be hampered by pesky mummies who want to curse you, but you can tempt them with a mummy snack, offer them coins, or, later in the game, even take control of them and summon them to your home. Above ground, your sims can integrate with their new surroundings and learn diverse new skills such as photography, nectar making, and martial arts, gradually increasing their knowledge base and expertise while upgrading their equipment as they progress. Sims traditionalists will be very pleased to discover that, alongside all the newfangled adventuring, plenty of regular expansion-pack fare is stuffed into World Adventures. The enhanced building options let you add basements and additional floors to your residence. It’s fun to display the wealth of collectibles you acquire during your travels, and exotic fruits and vegetables can even be introduced to your garden. The bottom line. World Adventures is a really superb expansion pack, and this fresh, imaginative experience proves that EA isn’t content to churn out formulaic accessory packs. It certainly strikes just the right balance between new gameplay twists and plenty of content for the avid collector.—Andy Dyer
Y W! R T O N IT
Available now in iVersions
Suitable for iMac, MacBook, iPhone or iPod
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>>>Ask
TECH SUPP ORT & TECHSPL ANATIONS
>>>PDF TO PAGES? I’m trying to scan a number of legal documents into Pages in order to circulate them among family members for their review and comment. They all have Apple computers with iWork ’09’s Pages and would be able to use the Comment and Track Changes features to post their suggested changes. While my Epson Stylus NX415 will scan a copy of each page into my computer, the file format scans the documents into PDF, and Pages will not import them so that I can make my changes for the family to review and comment on. Is there some way to convert the PDF files so we all can use our Pages program to get consensus on these documents without having to type them into Pages first? It’s true that Pages won’t import your PDF as an editable file. You can drag a PDF into a Pages document, but it’s added as an image, and you and your family still won’t be able to edit the text. We’ve got two workarounds that won’t cost you any money or cause you much trouble. One is to forgo Pages and have your family open the PDF files in Preview (if they’ve all got Macs, they’ve all got Preview, after all). Preview has annotation tools that let your family make comments and even let you see who made those comments. To access them, click the Annotate button in the toolbar along the top, which launches an annotation toolbar at the bottom. Its buttons, from left to right, let you draw arrows, circles, and
rectangles right on your PDFs; make text boxes to type right over the PDF; add notes and comments in the margins that are date-stamped and include the commenter’s name; and strike out, underline, or highlight text. When they save the marked-up PDF and send it back, you can see a whole list of annotations by opening Preview’s sidebar (View > Sidebar > Show Sidebar) and clicking the little pencil button at the bottom, or pressing Command-Option-4. The second workaround: If you really, really want to use Pages, you can first open the PDF in Preview, select all the text, and copy/paste it into Pages—although most, if not all, of the formatting will be gone. This will work fine if it’s only the words that matter, but if your family needs to see what the document looks like, stick with marking up the PDFs in Preview. Or if you don’t mind spending some money, PDF2Office for iWork ($59, recosoft .com) will convert your PDFs into editable files for Pages or Keynote, and it does a better job of keeping the formatting more or less intact. Pasting the text from a PDF into Pages can do a number on its formatting.
Preview’s annotations tools let you mark up PDF files.
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Creator Codes
Photocheap?
Please help! I’m a web designer, and I just upgraded to Snow Leopard.
Can you get me a discount on Adobe Photoshop? I’ve been a reader of Mac|Life forever, and I know you can get me a deal. Please? I’ll be your best friend? We’re sorry to inform you that even though the Mac|Life staff possesses superpowers on top of good looks, we have no ability to get you (or us!) discounts on software. But we hear you—at $699, Adobe has
As soon as I did that, everything went awry. Text files that I created in BBEdit are now opening in TextEdit, HTML files that I created with Dreamweaver are now opening in Safari, JPG images that I created with Photoshop are now opening in Preview, and PDF files that I created in Acrobat Pro are opening in Preview! What in the world is going on here?
We’ve got multiple solutions for your problem, but to understand what’s happening, let’s take a brief walk down history lane. In the past, your Mac has always opened your documents based on their “creator code,” an invisible code embedded into each file that tells your Mac which application created that file. For example, if you created a JPG file using Photoshop, that JPG file would always reopen in Photoshop. But if you created another JPG file with Illustrator, that JPG file would always reopen in Illustrator. However, starting with Snow Leopard, the creator code is now ignored by the OS in favor of the file extension. This means your Mac acts a lot more like a Windows PC because a file’s extension dictates which application will open it. So in Snow Leopard, all JPG files will now open by default in Preview, regardless of which program created them. You can override this behavior on a case-by-case basis by manually dragging-and-dropping a file onto any application that can open that type of file. You can also set a file’s opening application by selecting your file in the Finder, choosing File > Get Info and choosing an application for “Open With.” If you click the “Change All” button, that will change the default opening application for every file with that extension. But who wants to go through extra steps when this whole process used to be so easy? Fortunately, a System Preferences pane called Magic Launch ($14, michelf.com/software/magic-launch/) lets you reenable creator codes in Snow Leopard. Even better, Magic Launch gives you new functionality that you’ve never had before. Similar to the rules that you can create in Apple Mail, Magic Launch lets you create rules to determine which application should open which documents, based on criteria such as file location, file name, or text contents. So, for example, you could put all of your BBEdit text documents into one folder and those will always open up in BBEdit, regardless of any other application settings on your Mac.
priced Photoshop CS4 way out of reach for most people who aren’t professional designers. Luckily, the consumer-focused Photoshop Elements 8 is only $79.99. And Photoshop.com is free both for online storage of up to 2GB of images and its editing functions. Of course, Photoshop.com doesn’t offer all the editing features of Photoshop, but you can crop and resize images, adjust color tint and exposure, fix red eye, distort your image, play with the white balance and focus, and even add decorations such as text bubbles, clip art, and photo frames. It’s fun to play with and produces great results considering its low, low price of nothing. You can even drag-and-drop images from Photoshop.com to other photo-sharing sites including Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and Photobucket. But if you still need an image-editing app on your Mac, and iPhoto’s basic adjustments aren’t enough for you, consider the more robust Photoshop Elements 8. Current students with valid ID can score discounts of up to 80 percent on Adobe software at Adobe.com (mouse over the word “Store” in the top navigation bar and select the Education store). Aperture 3 is also a terrific option—check out our review on p58 for all the details. We also really like Pixelmator ($59, pixelmator.com), which provides a Photoshop-like experience right down to the same keyboard shortcuts. Pixelmator reads and writes Photoshop files, supports more than 100 image-file formats, and handles virtually all the tasks we typically use Photoshop for: manipulating layers, saving images for the web, and changing image sizes. Mac integration includes capturing images from an iSight, browsing your iPhoto Library, creating Automator actions, and using Quick Look.
This may look like Photoshop, but it’s actually Pixelmator.
Magic Launch understands creator codes and lets you set other rules for launching files as well. Photoshop.com is a free web app for storing and editing your pics.
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Entourage Woes
Ignore an Update
My IT department just made me switch from Mail to Entourage 2008, which they swear plays nicer with our Microsoft Exchange server. A few of its quirks really bug me, though, and my trips through the various settings menus and help topics haven’t helped. First, when I’m starting a new message, I have to click between lines in the To field to add more recipients—commas or
My Software Update application keeps asking me to install these Digital Camera Raw Compatibility updates, but I don’t have an SLR or any camera that shoots RAW images, so I’d rather not install that update. How can I get Software Update to stop asking me? It’s easy to tell Software Update that you’re not interested in a particular update—its feelings won’t even be hurt. Just highlight the update in the list, and either press the Backspace key or go to Update > Ignore Update in the menubar. That update will disappear from the list, and Software Update will never bother you about it again. But what if you get a shiny new SLR for your birthday and decide you want those compatibility updates after all? No worries. Fire up Software Update, and choose Software Update > Reset Ignored Updates, which adds all the ignored updates back to your list, where you can download and install them, or re-ignore them, at your leisure.
semicolons between the addresses don’t work. Really? Second, it keeps auto-correcting iPhone to “Iphone,” which just makes me look like I can’t spell. And how do I include my signature on all messages by default? Oh, Entourage. The 2008 version is head and shoulders above previous iterations, but it still annoys us by keeping the settings in so many places—there’s Entourage > Preferences, Entourage > Account Settings, and several options in the Tools menu… whew! And the Help system is okay, but some topics want us to watch instructional videos when we think a line or two of text ought to do it. To that end, here are answers to your questions about its quirks: To address one message to multiple people without grabbing for your mouse, just press the Tab key between addresses. That bumps the cursor down to the next line, and you can type in another address and press Tab again. If you Tab from a blank line, the cursor jumps to the next field (first To, then CC, then BCC, then the email’s subject line, and finally its body). That iPhone > Iphone problem is Microsoft’s auto-correct feature, which doesn’t include all the names of Apple products and just wants to fix the funky internal capitalization. For that, head to Tools > AutoCorrect, click the Exceptions button, then the Initial Caps tab, and enter iPhone (and iPod and iPad and whatever else) to the Don’t Correct list. Signatures are under Entourage > Account Settings. Double-click the account you’re using, then in the Edit Account pop-up window, click the Options tab and look for the Default Signature dropdown to specify a default signature to be attached to all messages. You can edit that signature or create others in Tools > Signatures. And to have your signature appear before quoted text in a reply, go to Entourage > Preferences > Reply & Forward, and under Mail Attribution select the third option: “Place reply at the top of messages and include From, Date, To, and Subject lines from original messages.” Yes, it’s just that simple! Ahem.
So many settings. Yet so hard to find what you’re looking for.
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Sorry, Digital Camera Raw Compatibility—you’re not invited to my update party.
Bring That Tab Back I used to be a Firefox loyalist, but after reading your browser roundup (“¡Lucha Libre de Web!” Dec/09, p38), I switched to Safari. I’m loving the speed, but I miss being able to reopen the last closed tab. Safari will reopen my last closed window, but I typically use just one window a day, opening and closing dozens of tabs. Check out Glims for Safari (free, machangout.com), a handy add-on that lets you undo closing a tab. Yep, you just press Command-Z and your last closed tab reopens. Press Command-Z again, and the tab you closed before that reopens. Glims has other tricks up its sleeve too, like letting Safari run in full-screen mode, letting you change the default search engine, adding thumbnails to your Google search results, and more. After you install Glims, you can control its many behaviors via the new Glims tab added to Safari > Preferences. One caveat: Glims’ developers don’t recommend you use Glims alongside similar Safari plug-in Saft ($15, haoli.dnsalias.com/Saft/), or you could get “unexpected results.” If the letter-writer had Saft, they probably wouldn’t have written us this letter, but the rest of you should proceed with caution if you’re already running Saft.
Glims adds many tabwrangling features to Safari, even letting you specify the location of newly opened tabs in Safari’s tab bar.
Quick, Look Closer I love Quick Look, easily the best feature Apple’s added to the Mac OS in years. But sometimes when I Quick Look a PDF, the text is too small to read. Can I zoom in on that, or do I have to just open the PDF in Preview and zoom in that way? Quick Look does have a couple of zoom controls, but they only work on PDFs and images. We tried them on a Word doc (Quick Look shows the text sooooo tiny) and got nothing. But if you’re using Quick Look to view an image or PDF, press Command-= (equals sign) to zoom in, and Command-- (hyphen) to zoom back out again. While we’re on the subject of Quick Look keyboard shortcuts, remember that you can press the spacebar to enable Quick Look, Escape to exit, and if you’re viewing multiple files in Quick Look, you can use the right and left arrows to navigate through them. If you’re looking at a file from a long list of files in a Finder window, the up and down arrow keys will Quick Look the file before and after the current file, respectively. Now that’s quick.
select Users And Groups in the left pane of the pop-up window, and choose your own username. Now when you’re in the wild blue yonder, you can open a Finder window on your MacBook Air, expand the Shared section of the sidebar, and there’s your iMac, waiting patiently. (Well, provided it’s turned on back at your house and connected to the internet via your home network, and your MacBook Air has an internet connection too.) You can click on it to start the connection, log in with your iMac’s username and password, and then see all your iMac’s files, open ’em, move ’em around, drag them over to your MacBook Air, whatever. If you have a Time Capsule on your home network or an AirPort Extreme Base Station with an external hard drive attached, those files will be available to you too. If you want to see your iMac’s screen, say to launch your email app and read messages, find your iMac in your MacBook Air’s Finder window, then click the little Screen Sharing button that appears, and you’ll get to see the iMac’s screen and control it as if you were a ghost or something. LogMeIn is cool too (see “Trick Out Your Menubar with 10 Free Apps” on p88 for more), especially for non-MobileMe subscribers. If you just want to see and control your iMac from the MacBook Air, LogMeIn Free will work just fine. But if you want file transfers, you’ve got to upgrade, and LogMeIn Pro for Mac is in beta at press time ($12.20/month or $69.95/year per computer, logmein.com). So we recommend trying Back to My Mac since you’re already paying for MobileMe (other readers, remember that MobileMe has a free 60-day trial), and if it doesn’t fit your needs somehow, try LogMeIn. But we think you’ll get a more seamless and Mac-like experience with Apple’s product—that Finder integration is something only Cupertino can provide.
Zooming in on a Quick Look window of last month’s masthead. Yep, they spelled my name right.
Back to Your iMac I use a MacBook Air for work, which keeps my backpack light. I’d like your recommendation for software that will let me access my iMac at home from the MacBook Air. I just want to access the iMac to retrieve a file, maybe an email, and that’s it. I know there’s LogMeIn and Back to My Mac (I’m a MobileMe subscriber), but I’d appreciate your expert opinion. Thanks for the compliments, but we’re actually on the same wavelength. If you already subscribe to MobileMe and you’re not using Back to My Mac, you’re not getting your money’s worth, we’d say. It works well and it’s dead simple to use. Head to System Preferences > MobileMe, click to the Back to My Mac tab, and turn on the service on both your home iMac and your MacBook Air. While on that screen, click the Open Sharing button to open the Sharing pane of System Preferences, and turn on both File Sharing and Screen Sharing. To make sure only you can wield these powerful technological swords, use the Allow Access For menus to make yourself the only allowed user—click the plus sign to add a user,
Turn it on, and it just works.
Ask is written by Susie Ochs and Scott Rose, a Los Angeles– based FileMaker developer and Mac consultant. Visit him at www.scottworld.com. GOT A TECH QUESTION OR A HELPFUL TIP TO SHARE? Email
[email protected] or write to Mac|Life, 4000 Shoreline Ct, Suite 400, South San Francisco, CA 94080
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>>>Create>>>>> HOW TO DO ANYTHING ON YOUR MAC
Create a Guest Wi-Fi Network A guest network is smart thinking—it’s like letting someone into your house but making sure they can’t rifle through your desk drawers. Increasingly, we depend on internet access to run our lives, and when we have guests over to our house, apartment, or workplace, normally we either have to open our wireless network or give the guest our network password. Either way, you open up your wireless network to security risks. No worries—we’ll show you how to easily setup your own guest network using either an AirPort Extreme (early 2009 model) or
another brand of router (we’ll use a Netgear). On newer routers that have two antennas and therefore support dual bands, the tools needed to create a guest network usually already exist in the provided software. However, you’ll need to check your particular router to see if this type of functionality is provided. BY CORY BOHON
LEVEL:
easy
>>>WHAT YOU NEED >>A router (either AirPort Extreme 2009 or another dual-band brand) >> Extra Ethernet cabling (if not using a dual-band wireless router) >> An existing wireless or wired network
AirPort Extreme Base Station
1 Get Manual
On your Mac, navigate to and open the AirPort Utility, an application used to manage your base station, found in /Applications/Utilities. Click the Manual Setup button and enter your management password.
Clicking Manual Setup lets you manually manage your AirPort Extreme.
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2 Roll Out the Welcome Mat
Click the AirPort tab, and then the Guest Network tab. In this area, you’ll be able to configure your AirPort for guest access. Check the Enable Guest Network checkbox and type in an identifiable name for your guest network. Computers connecting to it will not have any access to your personal network and won’t be able to communicate with each other. However, if you check the box that says “Allow guest network clients to communicate with each other,” guests will be able to exchange files with and otherwise connect to one another. Want to let your guests’ Macs talk to each other? It’s more social that way.
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3 Secure It
In the Guest Network Security dropdown, you can select between different types of encryption. When you do this, you will be able to enter a password for your guest network. Don’t use the same password as you do for your main network, obviously, or this whole exercise will have been pointless.
When encrypting your wireless network, we recommend using WPA encryption, because it’s more secure and less vulnerable to attacks.
4 Start It Up
Once you’ve entered all of the required fields, you can click Update. After your AirPort Extreme restarts, you should see an additional wireless network appear with the name you specified in Step 2. Guests can now log in to that network using the password you chose in Step 3 and access the internet. Again, guests won’t have access to your personal network and shared resources (network printers, After a short restart, guests will be able to disks, and so on). connect to the wireless network that you just created.
Netgear Router
1 Open the Control Panel While connected to your Netgear dual-band wireless router, open your web browser and navigate to routerlogin.net (or http://192.168.0.1). You’ll be prompted for your username and password. By default, your username is “admin” and your password is “password.” Yup, not so tricky.
After you have set up your network, you really gotta change your router’s default password for security.
What if My Router Isn’t a Dual-Band? As you can see, getting a guest network up and running is have guest networking without a mess of cabling or having to easy if you have a router that supports dual bands. If not, you deal with blocking and opening ports, you may want to consider can do this with virtually any spare router that you connect getting a dual-band router. Some can be pricy, but the AirPort to your existing wired or wireless network for this purpose. Extreme ($179, apple.com) and Netgear routers (netgear.com) Refer to your specific router’s documentation for port usually last a long time. blocking to block all ports except port 80 (used for accessing HTTP content) and port 443 (used for accessing HTTPS content). This will limit that router’s internet access to only web traffic. You can then unblock additional ports as necessary for different services, such as POP (110) or IMAP (143), which will allow email. Commonly used port numbers can be found at support.apple.com/kb/TS1629. By blocking/unblocking these port numbers, you’re restricting/allowing access to the people that connect to the guest network. Apple’s AirPort Extreme Base Station is an investment at $179, but it’ll Port blocking is easy to do, but just the name may scare last a good long while, and it’s incredibly easy to administer from a Mac. some. If you are in the market for a new router and wish to
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>>> Create How to do anything on your Mac
Create a Guest Wi-Fi Network (continued)
2 Decide What Guests Can Do
Once logged in, select Guest Network from the list of options on the left. You’ll be presented with many options for configuring your guest network. By checking Enable Guest Network and specifying an SSID, you can be up and running in no time. However, you can also allow or disallow access to your local network by checking or unchecking the option for Allow Guest To Access My Local Network.
If you uncheck Enable SSID Broadcast, people will not be able to “see” the network on a regular Wi-Fi scan and will have to manually type the SSID.
3 Security Blanket
Under the Security Options, you can choose from a plethora of security algorithms, including WEP and WPA2, and you can then specify your passphrase. This is the password you’ll give to guests, so don’t use the same password as you use to secure your router’s settings (Step 1) or the password you use on your own Wi-Fi network.
Nice and secure.
4 Voilà!
After you type in your information and click Apply, your router will restart. Your guest network will then be created, and you’ll be able to view it from the wireless menu on your Mac or PC. Your guests will be able to get online without you having to give up your main network’s password, and they won’t be able to access your network’s computers or other equipment.
Looky there… a guest network that you created, and if you’re using WPA2, it’s pretty secure too.
Wireless Security: Which Should I Choose? When putting together a wireless network, the most important piece of the puzzle is the wireless security. Unless you live in an extremely remote area, you need to enable some type of encryption. Most modern routers come with at least two types of encryption: WEP and WPA. While both do a good job, they were not created equal. WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) was one of the first styles of wireless encryption brought about and is inherently insecure— several tools are available online that allow anyone to hack into a WEP-encrypted Wi-Fi network. WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is a more modern and more secure way of encrypting your wireless network. A newer standard of WPA, called WPA2, increases the security by adding additional behind-the-scenes features. WPA also has the advantage of letting you specify your own passphrase instead of using hard-to-remember hexadecimal values. So yes, use WPA2 whenever possible.
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>>> Create How to do anything on your Mac
Trick Out Your Menubar with 10 Free Apps Useful software that stays tucked away yet readily accessible, right at the top of your screen.
The OS X menubar is a strange beast. It never goes away, its menu items change with every application, and most users could care less what is or isn’t on it. However, there comes a time in every geek’s life when the menubar’s potential simply must be tapped. For help getting through that wilderness, check out our list of the 10 best completely free applications that run solely from the menubar. BY ARVIND SRINIVASAN
1 Dropbox
Stop us if you’ve heard this one: You install Dropbox, it creates a Dropbox folder on your hard drive, and that folder stays in sync with all the Dropboxes on your different computers and at dropbox.com. Storage is free up to 2GB and is easily accessible from your menubar. Caution: Once you try it, you will no longer be able to live without it.
With all of these apps (plus a couple more) installed, our menubar stretches past 14 inches. (The ruler we’re using is Free Ruler, pascal.com/software/freeruler/.)
2 Visor
True geeks are always in and out of the Terminal, and Visor (visor.binaryage.com) creates an instant Terminal window right from your menubar (you can even assign it a hotkey). Visor requires the SIMBL plug-in (culater.net/software/SIMBL/SIMBL .php), and full installation instructions are on its homepage.
3iStat Menus
We obsess over memory usage, but that puts us in a conundrum: If we keep Activity Monitor open to track our open applications’ memory usage, we waste RAM by having it open. iStat Menus (islayer.com/apps/istatmenus/) keeps track of RAM usage, CPU usage, hard drive temperature, and a plethora of other esoteric information—all from the menubar.
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4 Caffeine
To keep your display from darkening or your screensaver from launching in the middle of your Hulu marathon, Caffeine (lightheadsw.com/caffeine/) lives in your menubar and couldn’t be easier to use. Click it once to enable and again to disable. That’s it!
5LogMeIn Free
LogMeIn Free (logmein.com) is technically a web app, but the client software runs from the menubar, plus it’s just awesome. Essentially, you add any of your computers to your LogMeIn remote-sharing list. Anytime that computer is running the client software, you can log in from any other computer and share their screen.
Unread Menu 6Mail
If you typically keep your Dock hidden from view, you can’t see Mail’s unread-messages badge on its Dock icon. Mail Unread Menu (loganrockmore .com/MailUnreadMenu/) fixes this problem by putting a new-mail indicator in your menubar. How convenient.
8 MozyHome
Time Machine is easy, but if you’re backing up a laptop, it can be a drag to be tethered to an external hard drive. Online-backup service MozyHome (mozy.com/home) is feature rich, free for up to 2GB of storage, and runs from the menubar, backing up select folders to MozyHome’s off-site data centers.
7 Google Notifier
If you use Gmail instead of Mail, Google Notifier (toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/notifier_mac.html) lives in your menubar to alert you to new messages and let you launch the web app. Bonus: It can also remind you of any Google Calendar appointments.
9 Echodio
Echodio (echodio.com) offers Dropbox-like syncing, but integrates seamlessly with iTunes, meaning that you can sync playlists and music across multiple computers while preserving the metadata and tagging information. This way, the Hannah Montana album you renamed to show up as Iron Maiden will stay that way on all your Macs, saving you from embarrassment.
10 pulpTunes
pulpTunes (pulptunes.com) creates a webpage that can stream your iTunes music (selected tracks or your whole library) in Flash. The application is simple: You launch it, designate a port for it to listen to (15000 is default), and then you can navigate to it in another computer’s browser and listen to your music.
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>>> Create How to do anything on your Mac
Seven Amazing Uses for Hazel Hazel is like a housekeeper for your Mac, and it’s time to put her to work. If your Downloads folder is so stuffed with disk images, random MP3s, and PDF bank statements that you’re starting to get afraid to look in there, you need Hazel. If your Desktop is cluttered with so many icons that it takes more than 30 seconds to find one, you need Hazel. This über-useful System Preference pane lets you create rules to keep specific folders automatically organized and maintained, so it’s perfect for those problems. But Hazel doesn’t just move your files around—it can rename them, run scripts on them, and so much more. We’re just scratching the surface of what Hazel can do here and already see a sequel to this how-to on the horizon. So if you’ve devised a brilliant use for Hazel, send an email to
[email protected], and we’ll tell the world about it. BY SUSIE OCHS
>>>WHAT YOU NEED
LEVEL:
easy
>> Hazel ($21.95, noodlesoft.com, free 14-day trial) >> A Mac running Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) or later Even if your Mac was crammed with this many files, Hazel could sort them all in a snap.
1 Take Out the Trash
After you install Hazel, open it up—it lives in System Preferences. Click to the Trash tab, and you can set rules for how large your trash will get and how long items will languish in there before being deleted. Before we told Hazel to keep our trash under 5GB and delete all trashed files after 1 week, we had about 11GB of files just sitting in there. Hazel brought back that wasted disk space.
Keep the amount of trashed files under control.
2 App Sweep
Also under the Trash tab, enable App Sweep. This builtin feature mimics standalone applications like AppCleaner (free, freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/) and AppZapper ($12.95, appzapper.com). When App Sweep is enabled, and you delete an item from your Applications folder, Hazel automatically searches for related items such as caches, preference files, and support files, and pops up a window asking if you want those deleted as well. Even better: If you drag the deleted application from the Trash back to the Applications folder, Hazel asks if you want the related files restored, and puts them back in their original locations, good as new.
When we undeleted iConquer, Hazel offered to restore all its supporting files too.
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>>> Create How to do anything on your Mac
3 Sort Downloads
One of the most obvious uses for Hazel is to watch your Downloads folder and color or sort new items based on type or how long they’ve been in there. Under the Folders tab, click the plus sign to add a new folder, and select your Downloads folder. Then click the plus sign under Rules, and set the conditions to Kind Is Music (or Movies, or Disk Image, or PDF). Then set an action to be carried out when files in Downloads match those conditions. We’re having all downloaded MP3s automatically installed in our iTunes library, then deleted from Downloads. Click OK to add the rule to your list, and check the box next to it to have Hazel carry it out.
4Organize Screenshots
Snow Leopard is great at time-stamping your screenshots, but Leopard and Tiger save screenshots right to your Desktop as Picture 1, Picture 2, and so on—those files can accumulate
No more manually dragging MP3 files into our iTunes library.
5 Run a Script
quickly. Hazel can watch your Desktop for new PNG files whose names begin with Picture, then rename those with a time stamp, and move them to the location of your choice. The default date stamp is just the day, but you can click Date Created in the rename pattern for more options.
Hazel can do more than just delete, rename, and move files—it can even run a script on them. This works like Automator’s Folder Actions feature, which runs a script on any item you put in a particular folder, but with Hazel, you can add conditions. For example, using a Folder Action to resize images will resize any image in that folder, but you can tell Hazel to only run the resizing script on images of a certain file type. Hazel can run Automator workflows, shell scripts, and AppleScripts.
New screenshots will be renamed with date-and-time stamps and saved to a New Screenshots folder.
This rule watches for really large photos and runs an Automator workflow to resize them as 600-pixel JPGs.
6 Archive a Project
Create a folder called Archive This, and add it to your Finder window’s sidebar. Set up a rule in Hazel that when a folder is put in the Archive This folder, Hazel should compress the folder into an archive, append its name with the date it was archived, and then move it to your external hard drive or other backup location. Now when you complete a project, drop its entire folder of files onto that Archive This “droplet” in your sidebar, and it’ll be whisked away to archive land.
7 Highlight Unused Apps
Hazel doesn’t have to get all hands-on with your files—you can have it take a lighter touch by adding color labels to your files to give you a visual reminder to process them manually. For example, have Hazel watch your Applications folder and color red any app that hasn’t been opened in a year. (Don’t move them to a Neglected Apps folder, though, because some Applications act wonky if you try to run them outside the Applications folder.) When you see red-highlighted applications in that folder, you can decide whether to keep or delete them.
I excluded Adobe apps since I’m not allowed to delete them from my machine anyway. No more manually archiving finished projects yourself.
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James's collection of retro Apple gear could easily give the Computer History Museum a run for its money.
We asked you to send us pictures of your vintage Apple gear for this month’s contest, and all we have to say is “wow!” We got pictures of everything from unreleased Japanese Newton models to Pippins (Apple’s mid-1990s gaming console) to all sorts of prototypes—including pre-production iPhones and a Macintosh SE in a cool clear case. But the most impressive bushel of Apples belongs to James Savage, who writes: “I began collecting in earnest about six years ago in an effort to recover my Apple 2 files from high school. I purchased an Apple IIe through eBay, and that led to finding and owning nearly every Apple computer ever made. I produce and host a weekly podcast called the RetroMacCast (retromaccast .com), where we talk about Apple and Macintosh history. “These are pictures of my personal Apple/Macintosh museum, ‘Macca.’ This room displays about a hundred of my approximately 175 Apple computers, everything from the Apple II+ to a Power Macintosh G5. Some highlights include an original 128k Macintosh, Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, Lisa 2, Apple III, Power Mac Cube, Macintosh TV, and Pippin.” James, we’re thoroughly impressed.
Is That an iPad App in Your Pocket? Enter this month’s contest!
D re am i paD a pp C Ha L L e n ge the ipad has landed! now that apple’s “magical” device is finally here, we want to know how you’d take advantage of that giant touchscreen. tell us what kind of ipad app you’ve been dreaming about. Maybe you want a monster-sized tiVo remote app that can tweet what show you’re watching, or maybe a killer interface for browsing Flickr.? or how about an alarm clock that will also fire up your toaster and start your wi-Fi-enabled coffee maker in the morning? (You do have one of those, right?) whatever it is, go crazy. design your perfect app and sketch it out on a cocktail napkin, or get all hardcore and create a render in illustrator of your interface. and don’t forget to tell us both what your app does and what makes it so awesome. include your full name, email and mailing addresses, and phone number with your entry. send us an image of your app’s interface (Jpgs please, 5 MB max) along with a description of what your app does and why it’s awesome (100 words max) to
[email protected] with the subject line “dream ipad app challenge.” deadline for entry: May 31, 2010. contest results will appear in the aug/10 issue. For coMplete contest details and rules Visit: www.maclife.com/contest
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JAMES'S PrizE 500GB G Drive Mini ($159.99, g-technology.com) and some surprise goodies from the Mac|Life staff.
WIN THIS! the most creative entrant will receive a Mysterious Box of Mystery, containing fantastic prizes hand-picked by the Mac|Life staff. this one’s really good. and here’s a hint: one of the prizes has four wheels. But if you want a chance to win, you’ve gotta play.
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