Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2014 i MacLife

MORE MAC|LIFE, LESS PAPER The Hottest Articles on MacLife.com 10 Apps for Grown-Up LEGO Fans Everything is awesome! The LEGO Movie showed that LEGO is fun for folks of all ages. Here are 10 iOS apps for the older fans. http://www.maclife.com/lego Microsoft Excel for iPad Review We’re reviewing Word for iPad in this issue (see page 52), but that’s not the only productivity software that Microsoft has on offer. Part of what makes Excel for iPad great is its customized keyboard that’s designed to make data entry a snap. http://www.maclife.com/excel_ipad_rev Star Wars: Assault Team Review Like last year’s Star Wars Force Collection, Star Wars: Assault Team is a card-battling game. Unlike Force Collection, however, Assault Team is actually good. The turnbased combat is fun, and the RPG-style progression system is…

You know the slogan: “There’s an app for that.” But what if there isn’t an app for that? What if you need an app for personal use, or for your particular business, or maybe you have a great idea that no one else has thought of yet—but you don’t have the programming know-how to turn it into a functioning product? No worries; soon, it’ll be within anyone’s grasp to turn their app ideas into reality, thanks to PencilCase app-creation software for Mac. Developed by a company called Robots and Pencils, PencilCase gives fledging app-makers a simple-to-use, visually oriented, drag-and-drop interface so they can make their own iOS apps, including games, visual novels, instructional tools, teaching programs, interactive videos, and more. Likening it to a modern version of the vintage HyperCard…

THE GEAR WE’RE LUSTING AFTER CHRIS S. GOGROOVE BLUESYNC WUD BLUETOOTH SPEAKER www.accessorypower.com $89.99 Normally, I’m a slick-and-modern kind of guy, but there’s something to be said about the rustic, authentic wood design of the GOgroove BlueSYNC WUD Bluetooth Speaker. Though it looks like it’d be right at home in a 1950s farmhouse, the WUD promises modern sound, a streamlined singleknob interface, NFC syncing, and a microphone for hands-free phone calls. My only fear: termites. JOHN EB1 BACKUP FLASHLIGHT www.surefire.com $225 Hey, what’s that outside the window? Can’t tell? The EB1 Backup can help with that. It isn’t just any old flashlight—it’s an extremely compact high-output flashlight comparable to what law-enforcement officers might use. The aluminum body is sleekly designed, and both the lens cover and the LED are built…

The importance of backing up your data has always been beyond doubt, but in the past it could be a hassle, involving third-party apps or Apple’s (now-discontinued) Backup application. Time Machine was introduced with OS X 10.5 Leopard and provided a new, pain-free way to securely and automatically back up all your stuff. Integrated at system level, it’s evolved into a powerful tool with some hidden, handy features. We’ll focus on OS X 10.9 Mavericks here, but much of what we show you works in earlier versions of OS X, too. This feature is all about Time Machine—since it’s an easy-to-use good first step that’s built into any Mac running at least 10.5—but for added security, you should consider keeping bootable backups using tools such as SuperDuper or Carbon Copy…

Apple’s game controller framework supports OS X as well as iOS 7, yet there’s no support from Mac developers, and no controllers being released for the Mac. You might assume that the Bluetooth wireless controllers that work with iOS 7 would work with Mac, but that’s not necessarily the case—at least for the early ones. The SteelSeries Stratus doesn’t, and the Signal RP1 won’t. Exactly why these controllers aren’t compatible remains something of a mystery, with manufacturers cagey on details. “It’s actually a function at the OS level,” says Olsen. Prince adds, “What I can tell you is that the Bluetooth protocol is a little bit different for iOS and for OS X. You’re basically talking about creating a dual-mode device. Right now, there is no Apple guideline for creating…

Monument Valley I’ve got to second Andrew’s review of Monument Valley ($3.99, universal)— it’s the first iOS game to totally blow me away. With beautifully minimalist visuals and controls, M.C. Escher–style puzzle play, and a magical, melancholy sense of some other place, it really sticks with you. 999: The Novel Without the object-based puzzles of its Nintendo DS counterpart, 999: The Novel ($4.99, universal) isn’t quite as captivating as it once was, but it’s still very worthwhile as a visual novel. Complex characters and intriguing situations will keep you hooked in this mysterious life-or-death tale. Instagram As my one-year-old son grows more remarkable with each day, I’ve found that I’m using Instagram (free, universal) constantly to share photos and quick clips with family and friends. I’ve enjoyed the app for…

Is it possible to generate more speaker-like sonic “space” for listening to music with headphones? CanOpener promises just that, and thankfully, delivers in many respects. The app functions as an alternative to Apple’s own Music app, and comes with the standard array of features, like playlists and shuffle play—no support for streaming audio, however. The “crossfeed” effect instantly made our soundstage more expansive, especially when listening to older rock and classical music originally mixed with hard-panned left or right audio elements. It’s less noticeable with newer music, and the effect is often very subtle regardless—but it can be a big boost with the right kind of tunes. The bottom line. If you want to wring more performance from your headphones-listening experience, drop a dollar and see if you can hear…

Supercell’s Boom Beach sticks close to the smash freemium formula of Clash of Clans, but brings an enticing new combat system that grants you greater control over your own fate. It’s a war of oceanic proportions as you work to liberate the natives of one island after another from the evil Blackguard (and rival players). You’ll work to build up your base and keep it protected from invaders, as well as craft an army strong enough to take down rival locales. But there’s not a lot of playing in Boom Beach, really. You’ll spend a few minutes here or there completing a task—otherwise, expect plenty of waiting. It’s ultimately a stellar example of habitual, piecemeal gaming, for better or worse. The bottom line. Boom Beach’s solid, yet unspectacular freemium combat…

Although it’s been a long time since we crammed for our SATs, we still do our best to learn new words whenever we can, even if it’s just flipping through the pages of our word-a-day desk calendar. But if you’re a little more serious about augmenting your lexicon, there are many unique ways to train your brain in the App Store. The surefire way, of course, is to go straight to the source. Those heavy, unabridged behemoths we bought in college may do little more than collect dust on our bookshelves, but our iPhones have shown us that dictionaries don’t have to be so daunting. With so many great ones to choose from, it’s hard to pick a favorite—but we’ve narrowed it down to two. When a quick definition is…

myTuner Radio has been around for a while for iOS, but with this new release, it comes to the Mac, too. A lightweight application for listening to Internet streaming broadcasts, it can pick up 30,000 live radio stations from more than 120 countries. It’s operated through a menulet, much like rival Internet radio app Radium. Click it and a drop-down interface lets you tune in. myTuner’s interface is far more navigable than Radium’s, allowing you to restrict searches and browsing to a single country with a pull-down menu—useful, given the number of stations. Unlike Radium, it also lets you record the station you’re listening to, but it doesn’t have Radium’s graphic equalizer, AirPlay support, album art display, or notifications for what program or song is currently being broadcast. Both apps…

It’s somewhat ironic the iPhone has made many owners less reliant on traditional means of communication like talking on the phone, instead favoring messaging, surfing, or social networking. But if your iPhone winds up glued to your ear all day, there’s a new case on the market that will have you swiping for joy. Available in steel-black or brushed titanium, Moshi SenseCover is a portfolio-style iPhone cover combining a protective polycarbonate back with a stylish leatherette front that magnetically latches for maximum protection while closed. This hybrid design allows iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s owners to answer calls and even talk on the phone without actually opening the cover. Moshi accomplishes this feat by embedding four proprietary “SensArray” pads into the cover’s face, capable of picking up the swipe of…

This quick and easy-to-use batch-processing app uses predefined settings to resize and crop multiple images. You can also create your own settings to resize pictures to a specific width, height, or resolution. This is great for creating low-res images for a web gallery or changing one image type to another. It may not sound glamorous, but for photography aficionados and image-editing professionals, it’s a huge time-saver. Using Resize Sense 2 is straightforward, with its basic and unfussy UI. The small, uncolored buttons can initially be confusing, but its rich, option-filled menus make up for this. What makes it different than applying an action in Photoshop or doing it individually through iPhoto is you can edit images as you go, applying straightening or specific crops to individual images rather than all…

Mad Catz’s F.R.E.Q. M purports to be a gaming device—which the longtime peripheral maker is known for producing—but it’s actually a rather versatile all-purpose headset for iOS users. It’s Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad certified, and pairs wirelessly over Bluetooth with any semi-recent iOS device (or a Mac), plus you can attach a standard 3.5mm audio cable and use it with anything that’ll take a headphone jack. The foldable cans pump out great stereo sound with music and movies as well as they do with games, and the built-in mic means you can take calls with decently clear back-and-forth audio without having to shed the headset. But all of that functionality comes at a rather steep price—one that makes for a tougher sell than expected. Designed for portability, the ear cups of…

TECH SUPPORT & TECHSPLANATIONS CRISP DISPLAY REVISITED Enabling the Hi-Res item in the Display Preferences is a feature that may or may not be fully compatible with your external display. If the display is not a hires display, then you may encounter an issue where fonts look jagged. That being said, you can enable font smoothing, which may either help or worsen the situation, but is worth a try if you wish to keep the hi-res feature enabled on your external display. To enable global font smoothing on all displays that the MacBook is connected to (including its own internal display), you’ll want to open the Terminal application (located in /Applications/Utilities), and perform the following commands (on one line), followed by the enter key after entering each command: defaults-currentHost read-globalDomain…

Preview is one of the unsung heroes of OS X. Its status as the default app for opening images and PDFs means it’s often not taken as seriously as it should be. Preview is fast, powerful, and very versatile. What other free app lets you edit and resize your pictures, open iWork documents, and many Microsoft Office ones, too? It’s a great alternative to apps like Adobe Reader, but you can also use it to fill in PDF forms. When you open a PDF form, Preview automatically detects the fields you need to fill in, and you even have the ability to add a digital version of your signature. To do this, sign a piece of white paper in black ink, open the doc that needs signing in Preview, and…

When filmmaking was in its infancy, making transitions was tricky prospect. You had to do it all “in the real world,” so to speak, by superimposing two projected videos and recording the result. Needless to say, it was hard work and only used in specific parts of the film—such as the end of a scene—but once the effect was done, it was done. If it was off by a few frames, unless you could afford to reshoot the transition, that was that. These days, with the advent of digital desktop video editing, the process is infinitely simpler. You can choose where to apply the transition, alter it as you please, and even replace it with a different one that’s more to your liking. In comparison to what you had to…

HERO WORSHIP Batman vs. Superman? The X-Men vs. The Avengers? Sure, those are big events, but the biggest comic book crossover yet could be digital comics distributor ComiXology being acquired by Amazon, as was announced in April. Potentially, this could mean more exposure and more attention for the thousands of titles that are available from ComiXology, which includes everything from indie publishers to heavyweights like Marvel and DC. If you haven’t given digital comics a try yet, there’s never been a better time. Here are our picks for some of the best content ComiXology currently has on offer. BATMAN What better way to celebrate Batman’s 75th anniversary than by reading this excellent book? And don’t worry about being overwhelmed by continuity—this run by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo is meant…

WILL SLOW AND STEADY LOSE THE RACE? Rival tech companies have learned a lot from the folks at Apple, and will even outdo them from time to time in some areas, but for my money, the ecosystem, style, and ease-of-use of Apple products continue to set the bar. One thing does worry me about the company, though: it’s taking much too long to introduce new products. The post-Jobs Apple still hasn’t brought anything wholly new to market, not even its worst-kept secrets, the iWatch or the new Apple TV, which have reportedly been in the works for years. (The redesigned Mac Pro is sexy as hell, but a $3,000+ pro-aimed machine will never make a major mark.) Not only has this been a worryingly long drought for a company known…

For a long time, the Mac gaming market felt like an afterthought—at least compared to Windows PCs and home consoles. If a major game eventually hit Apple’s platform, it was typically well after its initial debut and with much less fanfare. The reasons were many and often interconnected: the PowerPC processors didn’t live up to their name in terms of gaming performance, Mac users were few compared to PC players, and gamers with higher-end setups were even fewer. Excellent games still came to Mac, but that reputation as a second-class platform lingered. While many noteworthy games today still release first on PC before being ported over, the Mac gaming market has improved dramatically in recent years. Again, it’s difficult to point to any single reason why; rather, it’s been a…

As digital devices age, their performance degrades, just like you and me. Well, especially me, seeing as how I celebrate my 26 birthday this month—but I digress. The techniques outlined in a patent recently granted to Apple by the US Patent and Trademark Office can’t do much to help you and me, but it can help revitalize our iPhones and iPads as they get on in years. When you and I reach that dreaded “certain age,” our joints get creaky and our youthful vigor wanes. Our iDevices, on the other hand, feel the effects of age in their chips’ transistors—those teensy-weensy on-off switches managing the ones and zeroes that make the digital world go round. As time goes by, transistors can require more power before they’ll switch on—what’s called their…

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that our workspaces attract clutter. New items appear on our desks as if by magic: everything from bills, magazines, receipts, and junk mail to phones, flash drives, and electronics. They pile up, and we don’t know what to do with them. And then we have the necessities like office supplies, speakers, monitors, and hard drives—plus the tangled mess of cables linking it all together. You’re doing better than many if you can even remember what the surface of your desk looks like. It’s time to say enough is enough. In the following pages, we look at a variety of ways to minimize clutter and create a workspace that inspires you to do your best rather than one that weighs you down. STARTING OUT Like…

Purchase an iPad for a loved one or family member, and without fail, the recipient will ask, “Does this work with Microsoft Word?” Thankfully, the answer is now a resounding yes—at least for those willing to pay for the privilege. With few exceptions, Microsoft Word for iPad is well worth the wait. While it doesn’t offer the same full-frontal feature assault of the Mac or Windows editions, the majority of the most frequently used, make-or-break tools (including track changes, charts, and rich formatting) are all present and accounted for. Although the app itself is free, Word documents can initially only be viewed. To create, edit, or share, iPad owners must purchase an Office 365 subscription ($9.99 per month and up). That sounds like a bum deal, but the price includes…

Despite a plethora of fun and colorful interactive elements and engaging animations, Incredible Numbers isn’t a dumbed-down app for the digital generation. Rather, Professor Ian Stewart uses the iPad’s boundless teaching tools to take the mystery out of some of mathematics’ most difficult concepts, including factorials, Fibonacci numbers, and heptadecagons. Tap on the red Music category, for example, and you’ll learn about vibrations and patterns, watching as sound affects sine curves and experimenting with how complex waveforms are split into harmonics. It’s all very elegant and relatively easy to follow, and we quickly became engrossed in the numerous interactive theories and activities. Each lesson is more stunning than the last, and there’s even a breathtaking beauty in doing something as simple as sorting a list of prime numbers. Incredible Numbers…

Death comes in many flavors in FTL: Faster Than Light. Will your crew slowly suffocate from depleted oxygen? Be eviscerated by carnivorous space spiders? Get caught by the heavily armed armada fleet that’s always in hot pursuit? Or something far worse, perhaps? An unpleasant fate is almost a certainty in this challenging strategy affair, but the push to survive and conquer the obstacles thrown your way with each light jump is where FTL’s magic lies. Life at the helm of a rickety space cruiser—manned by a misfit crew—is never dull. FTL’s galaxy-hopping adventure throws you into crazy, random encounters that put your captaining skills to the ultimate test. Between managing your ship’s systems effectively and conducting your crew in combat, there’s a lot of pulse-pounding fun on tap. Plus, scavenging…

Scrabble and poker seem like an unlikely pairing, but the two have joined forces in the free-to-play Words & Cards. The result is unique to be sure—a colorful blend of vocabulary and card-playing that provides a few engaging sessions of casual, online head-to-head play. Over time, unfortunately, it becomes evident that the game lacks any real sense of depth or replayability. Each match is composed of alternating rounds, but the connection between words and cards proves a weak one. The poker component especially seems tacked on and unessential, and frankly doesn’t feel like real poker at all. And without time limits on moves, cheating is common and matches can drag on for ages. The bottom line. Words & Cards’ founding concept is distinctive, but a novel idea isn’t a substitute…

TOUGH TESTING, TRUSTED RATINGS QRONOCASE Whatever luxury value the iPhone originally had has surely been dampened by its wild popularity. It may still cost a pretty penny (off-contract, at least), but with more than 50 million sold in the last quarter alone, it’s hard to call the device a rare commodity. Maybe that’s why something like the QronoCase exists. Limited to 2,000 units sold for $199 apiece, the iPhone 5 and 5s case comes in the kind of box that might house perfume—and it’s almost as noxious. This attempt to add opulence to Apple’s slim and sleek device rings false, as the case comes off as over-designed and under-considered. The iMac-inspired brushed aluminum QronoCase adds a hulking shield around your phone, thanks to two primary pieces—a heavy backing and a…

Ringer is all about making the process of creating a ringtone effortless. You can load any QuickTime-compatible file (including videos), and the app helpfully places your iTunes media in its sidebar. This is rapidly filtered, Spotlight-style, so you can easily access a particular song or snippet of audio saved from another app just by typing a couple of words. Once you’ve selected something to use as the basis for your ringtone, it’s loaded into the main editing area. You can then crop it to suit, add fades at the start and end, and determine the gap between “rings.” Hit Create and the edit is fired over to iTunes, ready to sync with your device. If that all sounds easy, that’s because it is, although a couple of snags stop Ringer…

Anyone who lived through the ’80s will remember those ridiculously large “portable” boom boxes that were popular toward the latter half of that decade. If you’re still sore after years of carrying a briefcase-sized stereo on your shoulders, Logitech has a new wireless speaker so small and light that even your chiropractor would approve. The Logitech X100 is a Bluetooth A2DP-enabled wireless speaker aimed at the mobile crowd, serving up rich audio from smartphones, tablets, computers, or other devices within a 30-foot range. Not much bigger than a donut, the X100 is sold in five stylish colors (green, grey, orange, red, or yellow), each with a rubberized exterior rugged enough to take the music anywhere you want to go. Around the side of the device are power, volume control, and…

OmniOutliner Pro is all about structure. It’s like a combination of a word processor and the listand table-making capabilities of Excel. In fact, if you commonly use Excel as a simple list-based database, you’ll find OmniOutliner a more powerful dedicated option. Likewise, if you want to create long documents that depend on a rigorous application of structure, such as technical documentation, OmniOutliner is a great option. Version 4.0 features a redesigned interface and is now Mavericks-only. As with previous versions of OmniOutliner, it’s easy to create consistently styled outlines. Unlike the outliners built into word processors, there’s a strong focus on keyboard commands, which, for the professional writer, is a huge advantage. Features such as Focus View (which lets you display only the current row and all its “children”) are…

Compared to most popular collectible-card games, Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is relatively straightforward. Simple rules make it incredibly welcoming to new players, but they also allow for elegant strategies and varied tactical possibilities. Unfortunately, as a free-to-play game, Hearthstone runs into the same problems that have long plagued tabletop card games: it’s hard to get worthwhile new cards without breaking the bank. Based in the same universe as World of Warcraft and the real-time strategy entries, Hearthstone’s battles see two opponents square off, each armed with a deck of 30 cards and 30 hit points. During each turn, you’ll draw a card from your deck, play an attacking creature (called a minion), and gain a mana crystal. Eventually, someone runs out of hit points and the match is over.…

Quick Look is an under-appreciated OS X gem. Before its arrival, you had to laboriously open a document to see what it contained, often after first launching the app it was created in. Imagine! But as of OS X 10.5, you merely select the file in Finder and tap Space to get a preview. This much you’re probably familiar with, but Quick Look has a slew of hidden tips that can power up previews on your Mac. Keyboard shortcuts can provide fast access to functions and hidden information, and Quick Look’s extensibility means that if it can’t properly preview a file, chances are someone’s written a plug-in to get around that problem. The technology is also dotted around OS X, providing the means to save you time. For example, you…

Audiobooks are a great option because they mean you can enjoy a book while doing something else—or just because it’s always nice to have a book read to you! With Siri on the iPad offering voice control and dictation, you might think you can “convert” your books into audio books by enlisting the help of Apple’s virtual assistant, but sadly, it can’t help. While Siri can speak out individual passages from iBooks, you can’t just sit back and let it read out the whole thing. However, all is not lost. There is a great app available called Natural Reader that reads out the text from all kinds of documents, including Word files, PDF documents, ePub digital books—you can even use it with web pages. This means work documents or reference…

You’ve got a microphone. You’ve got some web space. And you have a great idea for a podcast. Now, it’s onto the fun bit—the recording. Remember, you may have a couple of false starts, but this is completely normal, especially if you haven’t had much recording practice. But eventually, it will be time to begin. NO ROOM FOR ECHO Before beginning to record, and whatever your specific equipment, take time to prepare and give yourself the best chance of a good-quality recording. Ideally, use a room that has plenty of space for you to work and that contains primarily soft furnishings—this cuts down dramatically on echoes/reverb, which can’t really be removed in post-production. If you don’t have such a room, don’t fret. Luckily, podcast audiences don’t demand anything like the…

YOUR OPINIONS, RANTS & RAVES LETTER OF THE MONTH I was not happy about the release of the 5c. Apple products are what they are: the finest-made computer and handheld devices on the market. Like most Apple users, I get excited when Apple announces a launch; I want to see what and how the creative folks at Apple have made products that are intuitive and beautiful in their simplicity; something that you aspire to own. I don’t upgrade with every new launch but I love seeing and reading about these products. I know that when I do upgrade, it will be wonderful and it will be Apple. Apple products are and should remain aspirational.—Mary Brandon I was quite happy with my iPhone 5c, but your editor makes it sound like…

No longer merely a hobby, Apple TV faces increased competition in the living room with the introduction of Amazon’s Fire TV. We sat down to determine which content-streaming device offers the most bang for $99, and discovered that while Apple continues to offer a better overall experience, Amazon could actually teach Cupertino a thing or two about turning its pastime into more of a crowd pleaser. HARDWARE They’re both little black boxes with nearly identical ports, so how different can they really be? For starters, despite being slightly wider and deeper than Apple TV, Amazon’s box is nearly half as thick. But it’s what’s inside that counts: Fire TV features a quadcore processor with 2GB RAM, which absolutely blows the ATV’s comparatively weak single-core CPU and meager 512MB RAM out…

GRAVITY $4.99 (HD rental) There’s a reason why Gravity walked away with seven Oscars at this year’s Academy Awards: it’s both an unpredictable story of human perseverance and a fantastic technical achievement that presents a very convincing illusion of being alone in the vast nothingness of space. Despite the pervasive feeling of isolation, the film feels very human and real, thanks in no small part to Sandra Bullock’s performance, and the story will keep you guessing until the credits roll (and perhaps even afterward). THE ESSENTIAL SARAH MCLACHLAN Sarah McLachlan $14.99 I might be in danger of losing my manliness card over this one (as if I had one to begin with), but for my money, no one can put on an amazing musical performance like Sarah McLachlan. Every song…

Back in June 2013, Apple announced official game-controller support as part of the then-forthcoming iOS 7 update. Apple would provide the code for developers to use in their apps, which would work with Apple-certified controller hardware from manufacturers. You wouldn’t need to worry about which games would work with which hardware—as long as developers supported Apple’s official framework, their game would work perfectly and consistently with any certified controller. To achieve this, Apple specified not only the code that developers should use in their games, but the number of buttons and features the controllers themselves would have. There are three types of official Apple controller: a simplified iPhone shell “case” that includes a D-pad, four face buttons, two shoulder buttons and that connects using the Lightning port; an extended iPhone…

Adobe Lightroom mobile isn’t just a tablet version of Adobe’s popular photo software—it’s a robust companion app allowing Creative Cloud subscribers to sync image collections and edit them using gesture-based tools specifically designed for touchscreen devices. (An iPhone version is planned for later this year.) Edit a photo on the desktop and the changes automatically sync across to the iPad within seconds, and vice versa. To establish this connection, you’ll simply tick an icon next to photo collections in Lightroom 5 to create smaller DNG versions that upload to the cloud and look great even on a Retina Display, retaining more than enough resolution to be shared straight from iPad to Twitter, Facebook, or Flickr. While Lightroom for iPad is capable of syncing up to 60,000 photos, this is not…

Sure, you can shoot pretty great 1080p HD video with recent iOS devices, but Ultrakam promises even better: 70 percent more pixels, offering 2K-quality footage with the same hardware. But while it lives up to its claims of cramming a whole lot more pixels into each frame of video, there are too many trade-offs made to get there. The most glaring are the non-standard frame sizes, which require rendering in order to be used in video-editing applications. Separately recorded audio is another headache, as is the locked landscape mode. Pro touches like independent focus, exposure and white balance, and multiple frame-rate options are appreciated, but overall, the app feels like a proof of concept. The bottom line. Ultrakam does produce higher-resolution clips, but also many irritating idiosyncrasies. —J.R. Bookwalter…

Monument Valley charms with remarkable ease, delivering a quiet, contemplative trek through illusion-soaked puzzle stages, wherein spinning the perspective or tweaking a dial reveals new pathways to traverse. Your routes change based on your current camera orientation—previously separate platforms may merge together with a tweak of your view, while barriers may become hidden and new stage elements may appear. Frustration is thankfully rare across the 10 multi-stage chapters, though some solutions do require a fair bit of tinkering to discern the right pattern of moves to guide your heroine to an exit. What makes Monument Valley magical is its sensational presentation. It’s a compact experience—less than two hours in total, unless you dawdle—but we kept taking screenshot after screenshot from start to finish, as each locale proved more magnificent than…

Big-budget shooter developer Crytek is known for pushing graphical boundaries, and The Collectables is no exception, with detailed and realistic environments that sparkle in all the right places. But beneath the glitz and the glam—and beyond a strong core, top-down arena shooter design—The Collectables suffers from a toxic progression system, which forces you to spend big or grind repeatedly through already-completed levels. It’s disappointing that what are otherwise well-designed and engaging (albeit straightforward) missions can be so hampered by the game’s insistence that you play each five times through. Certain mission objectives are nigh impossible without specific, earned item cards from these repeated completions. The alternative, of course, is to drop real money on in-game gold, which can be used for card packs and fuel for upgrading soldiers and special…

Ever viewed a photograph that partially came to life with motion? These so-called “cinemagraphs” are a relatively recent innovation that typically require hours of painstaking effort for deceptively simple results, but can now be created within minutes. Cinemagraph Pro allows Mac users to import QuickTime movies and turn them into a breathtaking “living photos.” While most of the frame remains motionless, the viewer’s eye is drawn toward one or more areas with movement, and the results can be quite striking. Any video camera or DSLR can be used to create cinemagraphs, but for best results, a steady tripod is a must. Despite the pro-level price, the user interface makes the process effortless. Select up to 10 seconds of video and then mark a static frame, which can be exported to…

Perhaps the most eagerly anticipated music-related software of the past few years is Bitwig Studio, a full-featured DAW (digital audio workstation) designed by former employees of Ableton, the company that made the popular program Ableton Live (http://bit.ly/ML_Live8). It bears more than a passing resemblance to that application, with a slew of additional enhancements and unique features to clearly differentiate it and make it a viable tool for live and studio work. Bitwig veers away from the standard multitrack approach of traditional DAW software and instead embraces the mind-set established by Ableton Live: clips are self-contained, layered musical segments created with internal softsynths, samplers, or pre-baked musical loops, and are triggered via a clip-launcher panel (designed for live performance), while the Arrange panel is where clips are sequenced in a timeline…

For all intents and purposes, there are but two names in the desktop-presentation app business: Keynote and PowerPoint. Apple’s version might have a bit more gloss than Microsoft’s, but for the most part, it’s an either/or scenario. Each offers an attractive set of themes with an easy drag-and-drop interface that contains everything you need to make professional, engaging presentations. Deckset wants you to consider a third option. With a stripped-down interface that stays far out of the way as you work, Deckset puts a fresh spin on the standard formula that skips the fancy graphics and hypnotizing animations, and focuses on what really matters: what you want to say. As soon as you launch, it’s clear that Deckset is different. Where its heavyweight contemporaries dazzle us with floating pallets and…

Thanks to Siri, we’re all getting familiar with voice recognition. Where the technology really comes into its own, though—in a business sense—is in OS X, where Dragon Dictate is the long-time leader in converting what you say into neatly typed documents and accurately executed commands. Most of the features have been carried over from the previous edition, which already boasted excellent recognition and zippy performance even on mid-range Macs. Transcription tools are new this time around, having previously been sold as Scribe, a separate app. Feed it a 90-second sample of your subject’s voice and it should be able to transcribe a recording. Nuance reckons this will benefit students who’ve recorded a lecture on their phone, and business users who dictate quick notes while on the go. We found the…

Vlambeer specializes in twitchy, arcade-style games that get really hairy (while remaining plenty fun) in a hurry—like iOS greats Super Crate Box and Ridiculous Fishing—and its latest Mac entry, Luftrausers, certainly maintains that philosophy. You’ll pilot a tiny plane as enemy fighters and carriers launch a barrage of gunfire, zipping about and laying waste to foes while trying to maintain a score-boosting combo streak. And much as the combat itself proves entertaining, it’s matched well by an awesome customization system that allows you to swap various parts to create the fighter of your dreams. Luftrausers’ sepia-drenched 2D backdrops are minimal but effective, with attractive details like your ship’s propulsion kicking up pixelated water right below—but you’ll rarely linger in a play session for long. Lasting a few minutes amidst the…

Evernote is a free cloud service that lets you store virtual notes, either individually or in notebooks. These notes can include text, documents, and even audio recordings, and can be accessed via your computer, a web browser, or your mobile device using a dedicated app. If you have trouble remembering where you put something, you can tag notes, or just search by keywords to find what you’re looking for. Better still, your notes are automatically stored in your online account, so whichever device you happen to be accessing Evernote from, you always have access to your latest notes, as long as you’re connected to the Internet. Although Evernote offers a premium service for $5 a month or $45 a year, most people find the free account more than sufficient. You…

Organizing your life in Calendar has never been easier, thanks to practical enhancements in the latest version. They make it easier to plan your schedule and to make sure you leave plenty of time to get to meetings. You can create multiple calendars and assign each a different color to help distinguish your commitments for the day, week, or month ahead. Create additional calendars by choosing File > New Calendar, and assign colors by right-clicking a calendar in the sidebar and choosing Get Info. Calendars can be selectively hidden to show only what you need. Click an event to see a summary of it. This doesn’t overwhelm you with spaces for every possible detail that can be added. Places to enter information only appear when you click one of the…

Are you one of those people who likes to organize your life around to-do lists? If so, Mavericks’ Reminders app is here to help. Just as on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, Reminders makes it easy to create to-dos and synchronize them seamlessly with all your devices using iCloud—with any changes made on one appearing on all the others. You get a default Reminders list to start things off, but it’s easy to add new ones. You can rename a list by right-clicking on its name, choosing Rename from the pop-up menu, typing a new name, and pressing Return. Reminders also lets you set up categories of lists so that you can get a quick overview of specific tasks, such as birthdays and anniversaries. We’ll show you how to…