Macworld February 2014

The I’s Have It: Apple and Innovation Innovation is more than a few iterative changes; it’s what changes the way we do things. You’ve undoubtedly seen the headlines: “Apple no longer innovates!” And while I know that these headlines and the accompanying stories are generated largely to raise dander and attract clicks, I must agree with their main thrust. Currently, Apple isn’t innovating. Whoa, whoa, hang on there, Guy With Angry Fingers Poised Over Keyboard. Before you dash off the kind of note that you’ll later regret, let me finish. Yes, Apple’s latest work is not innovative. But here’s the important postscript: Whose is? This boils down to semantics. The word “innovate” in its native sense refers to something that is new or original. At one time you could reasonably…

The Best of the Best WE LOVE THE MAC, EVEN AS SALES DECLINE You can’t expect to sell 800 million iOS devices and not see a decline in the percentage of people who opt for a PC. My laptop is a 2006 MacBook Pro, and it has been superb for me. I swapped in an SSD, and it keeps plugging along. Sure, I would like a new one. But my budget thinks otherwise this year. Many of my video-pro brethren are juiced about the new Mac Pro. But almost all of them are really quite content editing on their Retina MacBooks. —quakerotis, via Macworld.com The iPad is wonderful, but I need a Mac. I need to transfer files easily, manage what file goes in what folder, write a file in…

News and Analysis About Macs, OS X, and Apple Review Apple 15-inch MacBook Pro/2.0GHz (Late 2013) RATING mmmh PRICE $1999 COMPANY Apple URL apple.com Recently Apple released its second update to the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. These late-2013 MacBook Pros have the same 2880-by-1800-pixelresolution Retina display that their predecessors—the early-2013 Retina MacBook Pros (go.macworld.com/rmbpearly2013)—did; but they also incorporate such features as the latest quad-core Haswell processors, Iris Pro graphics, and PCIe-connected flash. Externally identical to the 4.46-pound, 15-inch models released in February 2013 and June 2012, this edition of the Mac-Book Pro introduces a number of changes beneath its aluminum surface. You’ll find a quad-core 2.0GHz Intel Core i7 (Haswell) processor in the $1999 laptop and a quad-core 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 processor in the $2599 model. These…

Maybe you love its aluminum tower design, and you consider “cheese grater” a term of endearment; maybe you want a Mac that holds all your storage devices and expansion cards internally, regardless of its processing power. Whatever your reason for wanting an aluminum tower Mac Pro, time is running out. Apple has removed the old Mac Pro from its online Apple Store, creating a void that the new cylindrical Mac Pro (shipping by the time you read this) will fill. You might still be able to find an old Mac Pro at your local retail Apple Store. Recent phone calls to randomly selected Apple Retail Stores found the 12-core tower Mac Pro in stock at the San Francisco Stonestown Mall store and the Sherway Gardens store in Toronto, and the…

With its latest Mac Pro, Apple is signaling that it hasn’t abandoned the professional computing market. But the workstation faces competition from its own sibling iMac as computer buyers weigh their options. Mac Pro loyalists have been clamoring for an upgrade to the high-end desktop, which last received a face-lift in 2010. Starting at $2999, the new workstation has the latest Intel Xeon E5 processors, a solid-state drive, Thunderbolt 2, and dual graphics cards tightly packed in a cylindrical chassis. The Mac Pro primarily targets creative professionals and engineers, and it has drawn interest for its unusual design and its use of the latest technologies. The new Mac Pro supports external 4K displays and uses customized Apple motherboards with SSD storage provided via PCI-Express 3.0 slots. The $2999 model has…

To fill its need for an executive to oversee its stores, Apple has hired Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to the newly created position of senior vice president of retail and online stores. It’s the latest move in the wake of former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson’s 2011 departure. Johnson had helped build Apple’s strong retail presence but then left to become CEO at retailer JCPenney. Apple hired John Browett as a replacement in 2012, but fired him later that year. Burberry is a British luxury fashion brand, and being a successful leader of a style-conscious retail brand has long been considered an ideal trait for a new Apple retail head. Last year Ahrendts earned total pay of roughly $27 million from Burberry, including salary and stock options. Ahrendts won’t join…