Macworld October 2014

At this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced—among a great many other things— HomeKit, a suite of tools for controlling devices such as thermostats, furnaces and air conditioners, lights, cameras, smart appliances, garage-door openers, and security systems. You’ll be able to control them all from your iOS device. And it sounds great. Imagine your garage door sliding open and your back door unlocking as your car approaches the driveway, or the lights dimming and the fireplace blazing into action as you near the front door with your date. But imagine this as well: You’re halfway across the country on a business trip, and your kids call and ask if you can flip on the lights downstairs because they’re afraid of the dark. Or a heat wave hits home while you’re…

WWhen recommending (or sometimes not recommending) computers for purchase, I tend to focus on system performance. But the truth is, many people buy computers based largely on price. After all, it doesn’t take the horsepower of a high-end Mac to surf the Internet, run office applications, send email, and take care of other basic computing chores. Some buyers simply don’t need to invest in the latest PCIe-connected flash storage, quad-core i7 processors, and discrete GPUs capable of supporting 4K video. Apple is focusing on such budget-minded users with its latest, lower-priced iMac. Until recently, the standard iMac lineup consisted of two 27-inch models and two 21.5-inch models. A third 21.5-inch iMac is joining the team. Priced at just $1099—$200 less than the previous low-end iMac model—this new system is externally…

With every iteration of OS X, iOS, and iCloud, we see Apple increasing privacy protections for its users. The company has consistently striven to empower its customers to protect their data from advertisers, government agencies, third-party developers, and even Apple itself. Take a look at the fine print in Apple’s official privacy policy (apple.com/legal/privacy), and you’ll find that the company goes to enormous lengths to keep your personal information just that—personal, rather than fodder for marketing. THE USER RULES Even beyond that policy, Apple clearly indicated in the 2014 WWDC keynote that it intends to protect your privacy at every level. It has designed the extensions in iOS 8 so that they can’t circumvent a user’s privacy settings. In both HealthKit and HomeKit—Apple’s new iOS frameworks for managing health and…

With rare exceptions, it’s unusual to see non-Apple retailers offer Apple products at significant discounts. And yet, recently, that’s exactly what has happened. For example, Walmart just cut its prices on Apple’s mobile handsets. For $99, the retail giant will sell you a 16GB iPhone 5s and activate the device on AT&T’s network; Apple’s official $199 price for that same phone will set you back twice as much. If you’re in the market for a 16GB iPhone 5c, which normally costs $99, the price drops even more, to a mere $29. Along the same lines, retail warehouse chain Costco, which stopped selling Apple products in 2010, just announced that it has started carrying iPhones, iPads, and iPods again, and at even deeper discounts than Walmart’s. But that’s not all: Apple…

Ihave seen the future of desktop computing, and it is very small. Imagine a Macintosh the size and shape of a smartphone. Pull the unit out of your pocket, and it works like an iPhone with a touchscreen interface. Connect it to a wireless mouse, keyboard, and AirPlay monitor, and it provides a full-blown OS X desktop experience. And all this comes for the low, low price of $699 unlocked. It’s the MacBook Pocket, and I just made it up. So far, Apple has strongly resisted the concept of merging touchscreen devices and desktop machines, choosing instead to keep its OS X and iOS platforms distinct. Apple’s position makes sense: The hardware that’s required to cram a satisfying OS X desktop experience into your pocket is not ready for prime…

Now that blazing-fast routers based on the IEEE 802.11ac wireless networking standard are finally entering the mainstream, intrepid engineers are busily cooking up all-new hardware that will make the current gear’s performance seem downright poky. The truth is, most of the first 802.11ac routers were based on draft versions of the standard. Although some newer Wave 1 models, such as Netgear’s six-antenna Nighthawk X6, are implementing cool tricks to squeeze more performance from that technology, Wave 2 802.11ac routers will hit in early 2015—and they will be a lot faster. The next standard, 802.11ax, is not far behind. There’s no point in trying to cheat obsolescence by putting off your next router purchase, because the industry is always hard at work developing the current standard’s successor. NEW-WAVE TECHNOLOGY What’s so…