Innehållsförteckning för March 2015 från Macworld

News and Analysis About Macs, OS X, and Apple VIDEO To view this video, go to go.macworld.com/verify We recently put out a call for topics you‘d like to learn more about and one of the most popular suggestions was how to verify a Time Machine backup. After all, you‘ve gone to all the trouble to create such a backup, it would be nice to know if it works. It turns out that there‘s not a completely clear-cut answer to this one. Let me explain. I‘ll open the Time Machine preference and ensure that the Time Machine menu appears in the menu bar. I‘ll then hold down the Option key and click on this menu and, look at that, there‘s a Verify Backups command. But wait, it‘s grayed out. It‘s grayed…

Tune into just about any Top 40 radio station these days and it becomes evident that a producer has as much (or more) to do with a song’s arrangement and presentation as the recording artist. While this has long been the case with hip-hop and electronic tracks, even the music performed by such mainstream artists as Taylor Swift would have far less impact without the ministrations of the behind-the-scenes producer. This trend has not escaped Apple’s notice as evidenced by January’s release of Logic Pro X 10.1. Although the free update includes a vast number of improvements and fixes, its target is clearly the producer and, more specifically, those working with elements of electronic music (which, again, is just about any of today’s popular artists and producers). Here are some…

GRAPHICS & DESIGN SOFTWARE AWAKENING FROM SEVEN YEARS of slumber, a new version of Painter Essentials has finally hit the streets. Targeted toward hobbyists, art enthusiasts and emerging photo painters, Painter Essentials 5 was redesigned to be smoking fast and far easier to use. It includes a whopping 31 new and useful brushes—including some of Painter 2015’s hot new Particle Brushes—plus two new tools for creating mirror and kaleidoscope paintings, a vastly improved photo painting engine, a powerful brush-tracking utility, real-time effect previews, and more. Whether you’re an aspiring artist or a photographer, there’s a lot to enjoy in this new release. SPEEDY AND SIMPLIFIED INTERFACE The 64-bit and Apple Retina-happy Painter Essentials 5 was rebuilt from the ground up using the new code base of its pro-level sibling, Painter…

GADGETS THE LATEST iOS PRODUCTS REVIEWED & RATED VIDEO To view this video, go to go.macworld.com/scale I LOVE TO BAKE, but it can be such a finicky process. Add too much baking soda? Your cookies are ruined. Try to substitute regular milk for buttermilk? Disaster. It doesn’t allow for interpretation the same way cooking does. That’s why Drop’s new iPad-connected scale (getdrop.com) is so compelling: It simplifies even complicated recipes down to baby steps, no measuring required. I already bring my iPad into the kitchen to replace my recipe collection and to act as my spirit cooking guide. Setting up Drop’s $100 Bluetooth scale and companion app just makes my tablet even more useful. THE SETUP Drop lacks a display of any kind, but it’s incredibly easy to set up.…

KEYBOARD AS I MENTIONED IN the first Work Beyond Mac column (go.macworld.com/beyond), my go-to iPad keyboard for the last few years has been Logitech’s Ultrathin Keyboard Cover (go.macworld.com/ultrathin). It’s lightweight, portable, has a battery that lasts forever, doubles as a screen cover when traveling, and has an adjustable viewing angle. Despite having a preferred keyboard, I’m still eager to try new products as part of my never-ending hunt to refine and perfect the way I work on an iPad. So when Logitech announced a new Bluetooth keyboard for iOS devices, Keys-To-Go (go.macworld.com/keys), it naturally piqued my curiosity. The $69 keyboard is compact, covered in a spill-resistant fabric, boasts three months battery life, and most intriguingly lacks any method for connecting itself to your iPad. Up until this point, I had…

While the rest of his peers were knee-deep in selfie drones, wearables, and smart washers at CES, Mark Gurman of 9to5mac (go.macworld.com/9to5) published a scoop that trumped anything to come out of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Apple intended to release a 12-inch MacBook Air (go.macworld.com/air) sometime in 2015. Ho-hum, right? Maybe not. It’s not just that he reported about an unreleased Apple product that no one had an inkling of (though that surely helped). Gurman’s report garnered so much attention because it described a laptop so intriguing it was practically unbelievable: a MacBook Air so thin and light that it had only two ports, and neither of them were dedicated to supplying power. In the renderings it seems like a fantastical concept, something we would ooh and aah over…

DeskConnect’s Workflow (go.macworld.com/workflow) is a relatively new app that’s a bit like Automator for iOS. I like it, but I’m still figuring out how to put it to best use as a productivity tool. While it’s had a spot on my home screen since it was first released, I’ve used it largely to create animated GIFs and for other “fun” features. Now that I’ve been able to dig into the app some more—and spent countless hours (not an exaggeration) combing through Workflows posted on Twitter (go.macworld.com/wflwposts) by fellow users—I’ve found some handy ’flows I think we can all benefit from. If you have Workflow installed on your iOS device, use it to view this post and tap on the name of the workflow (in blue) to install each one. File…

IPhones and iPads are limited in the media file formats they can play. You can listen to MP3 and AAC music files, Apple Lossless (ALAC), AIFF and WAV, and you can watch MP4 and M4V video files. But you can’t play FLAC or MKV, APE, or AVI. Plenty of third-party apps will let you play these files, but first you have to manually sync your files, either using the file sharing feature (go.macworld.com/isharing) in iTunes, or over a network. The $30 Mac app Waltr (softorino.com/waltr) takes a different approach. Relieving you of the hassle of converting files, Waltr does it for you, and copies the files to your iOS devices. Drag files onto Waltr’s window, and it will convert and copy files in most any media format. There are no…

AUDIO The Latest Mac Products Reviewed & Rated MAC GEMS ARE APPS THAT OFFER STANDOUT UTILITY OR UNIQUE FEATURES AT A GREAT PRICE. ROGUE AMOEBA’S AUDIO HIJACK PRO has been a longtime favorite of many who wish to capture sound routed through their Mac—whether from apps or audio input devices. Inventive and powerful though the app was, however, its interface could be challenging to the uninitiated. With the release of Audio Hijack 3, the company has taken a large stride forward in making the app both capable and easy to use. JUMPING IN If you were a person not accustomed to capturing audio you could be forgiven for launching previous versions of Audio Hijack and thinking “Now what do I do?” The app offered a lot of power under the…

GEE-WHIZ SMARTPHONE PROJECTOR For $27, the Gee-Whiz Smartphone Projector (photojojo.com) is a lot of fun. You assemble it yourself from cardboard pieces and a magnifying lens—no cords or batteries needed. Slide your phone into the stand, which has silicon grip pads to prevent slippage, and watch your videos projected eight times larger on a wall. It works best if your brightness is turned all the way up, and unfortunately doesn’t fit an iPhone 6 Plus. But we still think its name is accurate.…

The responsive touchscreen of an iPhone or iPad is perfect for creating within games as much as simply playing them—it’s part of the reason why Minecraft has been even bigger on phones and tablets than computers or consoles. Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time already has a number of App Store entries (go.macworld.com/cnat), but the new Game Wizard ($5, go.macworld.com/wizard) takes a new tack, letting you construct your own side-scrolling game worlds from scratch and then share them with the online community. It has one other big, interesting thing: the ability to sketch out your levels in specially marked, printable grids, and then scan it into the game using your device’s camera. Got a knack for constructing elaborate, well-composed game worlds? You can print out a dozen sheets of paper and design…

CHARGERS CHARGING IS AN integral part of life. No matter where I go I’m forever scouting outlets and lugging around expansion packs to make sure I have enough juice to get through the day. My battery percentage is constantly on my mind, and at any given moment I’m acutely aware of how much is left and how long it’ll take to get back to a safe level. But for all my voltage vigilance, I don’t know a whole lot about what makes one power adapter better than another. PLX Devices knows charging. Its original Legion (go.macworld.com/legion) external battery redefined charging with its built-in OLED display that provides live feedback for a variety of useful stats. It quickly became my favorite way to charge, even when there was an outlet within…

FUNNY OR DIE WEATHER Do you love looking at the forecast, but wish that checking the weather wouldn’t distract from your constant stream of comedy podcasts? Funny or Die Weather (go.macworld.com/weather) mixes climate with comedy, fun with forecasting, the weather with waka-waka-waka! Be My Eyes This free app is for two kinds of people: Blind folks, and sighted folks who want to help them. If a blind person needs help identifying something—say, the “sell by” date on a carton of milk—they can start up a live audio-visual connection and aim the iPhone’s camera at the object they need help with. Sighted folks—volunteers who download the app—will be alerted that help is needed, open Be My Eyes (go.macworld.com/eyes) on their iPhone, and see what the camera’s aimed at. Then they can…

Tips, Tricks, and Tools to Make You and Your Mac More Productive When you own a small business, the temptation is natural to hand over a business card with your personal cell number plastered on it. You’re merely offering a direct line to the person who can make decisions. Accessibility is a key selling point when touting the advantages of your business over larger corporations. But you can oversell your accessibility—and the end result is interrupted dinners, missed birthday parties, and alarming calls at 2 in the morning. Customers want what they want, when they want it. These interruptions might be good for business, but they’re bad for personal health and relationships. Carrying around a second phone to separate business from work is inconvenient and expensive. What about taking advantage…

If you’re in business—any business—the bigger you get, the more likely it is that tracking and managing documents is one of the biggest challenges you face. Enter CHL Software’s DocMoto (docmoto.com), a server-based application designed to manage every document your organization touches, from email messages to Office documents. It tracks changes, controls access, maintains revision histories, locks documents for editing, and guarantees that everything you do is centralized, organized, and easy to access. DocMoto is a client-server application that you purchase either as a cloud-based, hosted service or that you can install and host on your own servers. The cloud-based version is hosted by CHL Software and is backed up on their servers. (Side note: For the purposes of this review I only tested the cloud-based version, but, other than…

Even though you can set up your Mac to automatically log into your user account without a password, your computer is going to be more secure if you use one. Of course, there’s a slight danger that a day will come when that password doesn’t work—you’ve modified your Mac in some way that’s password-unfriendly or you’ve been negligent. Or you may simply forget what your password is, which can happen if you use a standard user account for daily tasks and haven’t touched the administrators account in awhile. Fortunately, if you have lost your password, there are several approaches you can take for either regaining complete access to your Mac or, at least, getting to the specific data you need. Here are some tips for doing just that. Resetting your…

PHOTOGRAPHY SOFTWARE IT’S EASY TO CAPTURE digital memories, but managing all those photos and videos is a galactic drag (after all, there’s no fun in workflow). Unless you’re a pro photographer, it’s hard to force yourself into good habits around renaming, keywording, organizational, and most importantly backup. If you don’t, you can lose a lifetime of memories, plus it’s impossible to find specific photos because they’re stored across various computers, iOS devices, external hard drives, bras (kidding!), and social media sites. Heck, you’ve taken a slew of photos you’ve not yet seen. Enter Mylio, a database-driven, nondestructive editing and syncing app launched in October 2014. It’s designed for anyone who takes pictures (hobbyists and pros), managing all your photos—iPhone, Facebook, point-and-shoot, DSLR, whatever—in one place, side by side. Mylio also…

Think of the Jamstik+ (jamstik.com) as a “smart guitar,” but it’s actually a lot more versatile than that. Connecting to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac with Bluetooth LE, this instrument helps you learn to play, or lets you lay down tracks in GarageBand or other apps that support MIDI instruments. And you’re not just limited to guitar— the Jamstik+ can be a banjo, piano, harp, or even a sitar. At only 16 inches long and 2 pounds, 4 ounces, it’s perfect for travel, and the strings are real guitar strings so experienced players will feel right at home. Plus, it’s always in tune.…

VIDEO To view this video, go to go.macworld.com/wakie There are lots of alarm clock apps out there—alarms with traditional tones, alarms that ditch the sound for a screen brightening approach (morningsun. picobrothers.com), alarms that get angry (meetcarrot.com/alarm) when you try to snooze. And then there’s Wakie (wakie.com). Part alarm, part social network, Wakie is a community-based alarm clock, where members of that community will call you to wake you up in the morning. That’s right: Instead of an alarm, your phone will ring, with an anonymous stranger on the other end who is supposedly ready to coax you out of bed. Here’s how it works: Set an alarm just as you would in any other app before going to bed, and you’ll get a call from someone within five minutes…

APP WHEN THE iPAD made its debut in April 2010, the first Touchpress app—The Elements: A Visual Exploration (go.macworld.com/visual)—was right there with it. The app was actually an ebook in disguise, with stunningly beautiful and interactive 3D illustrations, and it seemed almost perfectly designed to rebut skeptics (and there were many. See go.macworld.com/many) who believed tablets could only be niche gadgets. Elements truly showed us the iPad’s potential as a vessel for rich, interactive experiences that wouldn’t be the same on the iPhone or even on your Mac. Since then, Touchpress (touchpress.com) has released more than 20 similarly rich coffee-tablebook-esque apps on science, math, music, literature, geography, and history. The studio’s latest release, Molecules (go.macworld.com/molecule), is a worthy successor to The Elements—and, like that pioneering app, it was written and…

Your greatest security and privacy risk relates to data in transit, as it passes to and from your devices. In a coffee shop, airport, or other public space using Wi-Fi, your information passes in the clear between your hardware and the network’s hub. You may not be sure how and whether the hotspot secures access to the wired side of its routers, either. Even if you’re using a secure Wi-Fi network at home, work, or school—or even wired Ethernet—your bits still pass across a broadband modem and through intermediate points on the Internet before reaching the destination server and vice-versa. (Cellular networks are generally considered quite secure unless you are being either individually targeted or swept into a government-backed interception project.) While most email servers offer secure connections, not all…

Everything You Need to Know About iPods, iTunes, and Mac-Based Entertainment As you’re likely aware, iTunes 12 brings a lot of changes to Apple’s venerable music/everything-else-in-the-world app and, because of these changes, some people find it frustrating. And a subset of those people find it frustrating because they find its unfamiliar interface a little tricky to navigate. My goal in the next few minutes is to show you how to more easily move around the interface. LET’S START WITH RIPPING CDS. When you insert a CD into your media drive (presuming you have one), you’ll be prompted to import the tracks on it. If you click Yes, iTunes will rip the tracks and import them into your iTunes library. But if you choose No, how do you later get back…

Answering Your Questions and Sharing Your Tips About Getting the Most From Your Mac How to share files between OS X user accounts In a recent column about making the most of Migration Assistant (go.macworld.com/migration) I made the off-hand remark that it’s no big deal to move files from one account on your Mac to another. This caused concern from at least one commenter who considered the process onerous. Given that moving files between accounts isn’t entirely clear to everyone, I thought I’d provide the details now. We start with the understanding that OS X is designed as a multi-user operating system—one where files stored in one account are not easily accessible in another. For example, if Susie and Chris share a Mac, Susie should not be able to see…