Innehållsförteckning för July 2015 från Macworld

News and Analysis About Macs, OS X, and Apple Apple has brought Yosemite to the mountain: El Capitan, specifically, which is the name of OS X 10.11 as well as a peak in Yosemite National Park. Revealed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, El Capitan is intended to reach a higher point, but not dig new ground. Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, emphasized the release is about an improvement in experience and performance. El Capitan’s (go.macworld.com/elcapitan) announcement focused on small points of irritation and big bumps in efficiency. NEW OPTIONS Safari adds pinning, letting users keep particular pages readily available. The sites will be regularly updated in the background to keep them up to date. In a feature that received plenty of applause among…

MAC GEMS ARE APPS THAT OFFER STANDOUT UTILITY OR UNIQUE FEATURES AT A GREAT PRICE. CLEANMYMAC 3 IS the new version of MacPaw’s catch-all utility to scan your Mac and remove gigabytes of assorted kerfuffle and gunk that builds up over time. Like its previous versions, CleanMyMac 3 (macpaw.com/cleanmymac) wraps itself around a series of tests and services and works to remove generally unused, developer-oriented, extraneous, and backup files associated with your most commonly used applications that take up available disk space. CleanMyMac 3’s selection of available tests has grown to add tools such as an uninstaller, general maintenance, online privacy functions, and file shredder to its previous suite of tests. This is on top of the Smart Cleanup, System Junk, iPhoto Junk, Mail Attachments, iTunes Junk, Trash Bins, and…

NOW THAT THERE’S a new ultraportable laptop in town in the form of the 12-inch MacBook, what’s the deal with the MacBook Air? It’s still an active part of Apple’s lineup, and in case you missed it, was updated on the day the 12-inch MacBook was announced. The 13-inch MacBook Air changes are relatively minor, but its standing in Apple’s lineup is what changed the most. While the MacBook Air is still an ultraportable laptop, there’s a newfound emphasis on its value—the four recently refreshed models make up the affordable end of Apple’s laptop lineup. 13-INCH MACBOOK AIR AT A GLANCE: The MacBook Air marches on as a solid, lightweight laptop with enough performance for a large number of users to serve both on the road and on an office…

In case you missed it, Google launched a new mobile payment service at its annual I/O developers conference. It’s called Android Pay (go.macworld.com/androidpay). But didn’t Google already have a mobile payment service? Yes, yes, Google Wallet. That’s not going away—in fact, it’s getting a reboot as a peer-to-peer payment service—but Android Pay works a lot more like Apple Pay than Google’s last attempt. That’s a good thing. Google Wallet required you to wake your phone, open the Wallet app, and enter a pin number if you decided to protect the app with a passcode, all before waving your phone near the payment terminal. That’s a lot of work. Android Pay will work just like Apple Pay: Upload your card information to the app, and Google will create one-time account numbers…

COUNTLESS APPS FILL the App Store, many promising to help keep you organized and on task by applying the same basic method, but with a slight twist. Recently highlighted by Apple as a best new app in the iTunes Store, Glass Planner (go.macworld.com/glassplanner) is the latest entry into this already crowded space. Only the team behind Glass Planner are proud of the approach it takes when helping you get things done. That approach is composed of three different parts. GLASS PLANNER AT A GLANCE Glass Planner sets itself apart from the rest of the pack by compiling all of your calendar entries and tasks into one list, with one view. PROS • Intuitive, interactive interface • iCloud integration CONS: • Tutorials are everywhere • No dedicated iPad app • Lacks…

PAPER Everybody has loved Paper (fiftythree.com/paper) as an app that spurs and shows off your creativity, but now its developers are getting more work-minded. The newest features are grouped together under the label “Think Kit”—users can now create flow diagrams, org charts, axis lines, and wire-frames, create freeform color fills for trend lines and pie charts, and cut to rearrange shapes and create patterns. Movie of the Day! Like movies? Like bargains? Movie of the Day! (go.macworld.com/movieoftheday) features a different movie from from the Fox archives each day, heavily discounted for download to your iTunes video library. All deals are available for 24 hours. Fit Men Cook We’re suckers for self-improvement apps. The $3 Fit Men Cook (fitmencook.com/ app) iOS app offers more than 100 healthy recipes from…

Ever since Apple debuted Siri as a virtual assistant with the release of iOS 5 and the iPhone 4S, folks have been asking her all manner of questions, serious and frivolous, in an effort to test just how smart Cupertino’s artificial intelligence technology really is. ONE OF THE MORE NOTORIOUS EXAMPLES was made public last year during the murder trial of a 20-year-old Florida man who reportedly told Siri, “I need to hide my roommate” and in return was given a list of potential places to get rid of a body, such as swamps, reservoirs, metal foundries, and dumps. (The same inquiry now returns the cheeky response, “I used to be able to answer this question.”) I decided to sit down and put Siri through a battery of our own…

You may have been led to believe that you don’t have to worry about computer viruses on your Mac. And, to some extent, there’s truth to that. While your Mac can definitely be infected with malware, Apple’s built-in malware-detection and file-quarantine capabilities are meant to make it less likely that you’ll download and run malicious software. Apple introduced malware detection to Mac OS with Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6). This system consists of the quarantine of any app downloaded from the Internet, the use of Code Signing certificates to verify that an app is coming from a legit source, and regular security updates that include databases of known malware targeting Mac OS. Because of this system, called File Quarantine and occasionally referred to as XProtect: > Apps in quarantine display…

Spotlight, Apple’s search technology, has been available on Macs since Mac OS X 10.4, back in 2005. For many years it remained relatively stable, offering no new features. But with OS X Yosemite, Apple added a slew of new search results to Spotlight. If you use Spotlight, you may only invoke it to search for, say, contacts or emails, or the occasional file. But Spotlight can search for much more: it can search the web, find information on Wikipedia, convert pounds to grams (or dollars), define words, and more. In other articles, I’ve looked at Spotlight basics (go.macworld.com/spotbasics) and have shown you how to construct search queries (go.macworld.com/spotqueries) with Spotlight. In this article, I move from Spotlight to the Finder, and show you how to perform even more advanced searches.…

GOPRO HERO+ LCD GoPro’s latest is the $300 Hero+ LCD (gopro.com), featuring built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support that let you connect the camera to a corresponding app on your iPhone or iPad. From there, you can take a look at shot previews, have total camera control, and then share your footage to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or more. But we understand you’re only allowed to purchase it for surfing, skydiving, or skydiving into the surf. —JOEL MATHIS LUTRON CASETA Lutron just baked HomeKit into its Caseta (casetawireless.com) lighting system, so you can use the Caseta app and a little help from Siri to control your lights room-by-room through your iPhone or iPad. We recommend its $230 HomeKit-enabled Wireless Lighting Starter Kit, which includes a Smart Bridge, two plug-in dimmers, and two…

VIDEO To view this video, go to go. macworld.com/padnquillvid To design a charging stand for the timepiece of the future, Brian Holmes looked to the past. A few years ago, his grandmother gave him an old pocket watch that had once belonged to his long-deceased grandfather. He needed a way to show off the timepiece, and vaguely remembered seeing elegant, collapsible wooden stands made for this purpose. Scouring the Internet, he found and snapped up a couple of these stands, both about a century old yet in decent condition. One of them turned out to be a reasonably good fit for his grandfather’s pocket watch. Holmes runs Pad & Quill (padandquill.com), a Minneapolis-based Apple accessory maker that is best known for iPhone and iPad cases consisting of wooden frames wrapped…

LAST YEAR, I reviewed Ulysses III for OS X, explaining that it “is much more than just a Markdown editor […] as it includes a good number of organizational features.” Since then, The Soulmen, the app’s developer, has updated the OS X app to version 2, and introduced an iPad app. The $20 Ulysses for iPad (ulyssesapp.com) attempts to reproduce the OS X experience—interface and features—on an iPad, and does so quite well. ULYSSES FOR iPAD AT A GLANCE Ulysses for iPad is a nearly complete writing app. Its file-sync features leave much to be desired, but if you use the Mac version, you’ll like the iPad version. PROS • Powerful Markdown editor • Duplicates most of the features of the OS X version • Includes excellent document management tools…

POPSLATE For those times when one screen just isn’t enough, the PopSLATE (iPhone 6; $129; popslate.com) is an Apple-certified case that comes with a dedicated secondary screen made from e-paper—the kind of display also used by Amazon’s Kindle. The screen is powered by a rechargeable 240Ah battery that lasts about a week under normal usage and can be charged via USB. It connects to your iPhone via Bluetooth, and can be used to display your favorite images and text, or play a slideshow of your choosing. AIRCHARGE When charging cables become your worst enemy, the Aircharge (iPhone 6; $40; air-charge.com) offers the convenience of wireless charging while protecting your iPhone 6 from drops and other hazards. The case features a protective bumper to help prevent damage around the iPhone’s edges,…

Tips, Tricks, and Tools to Make You and Your Mac More Productive My mid-2011 Mac mini had slowed down. Way down. Starting with Mavericks, the mini would eventually bog down after a number of days between restarts, and require a force restart or manual one. It took several minutes to power up and start loading apps, and then around 20 minutes, if not longer, to be fully responsive—this, despite 16GB of RAM. My late-2011 MacBook Air, with just 4GB, restarts and is available within a couple minutes. What gives? I had to figure it out, because I increasingly found myself wasting time and waiting. NO PRESSURE, HONESTLY You’d think someone writing the Mac 911 column would have plenty of ideas, and yes, I did. Restarting would often free up 20GB…

You’ve got a Mac and, from what you’ve heard, there’s no evil that can touch you. No viruses. A Mac App Store with guaranteed clean applications. No worries whatsoever. And then... your favorite web browser suddenly seems to have a mind of its own; taking you places you have no interest in going and warning you of evils on your Mac that don’t actually exist. . Over the last several months I’ve had several people report that their computers have been hijacked. This hijacking takes a variety of forms, but most often it’s an inescapable barrage of ads or warnings of impending doom. In many cases these result in pop-up windows loading that can’t be closed or navigated past. This kind of browser hijacking attempts to create fear about an…

FROM THE OUTSIDE, the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display looks like the MacBook Pro we’ve come to know from the recent past. The major changes to the laptop are only apparent once you start using the machine: increased speed, and a new Force Touch trackpad that provides new input functionality. The changes are most certainly welcome, but overall, they may not be enough for anyone who bought a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro within the past three years to upgrade. But if your laptop is older, or you’re thinking about upgrading from a MacBook Air, you’ll see great benefits. 13-INCH RETINA MACBOOK PRO AT A GLANCE: If you have an older non-Retina Mac laptop, it’s a good time to upgrade. Obviously, you’ll see a huge performance boost. But you’ll…

WIRELESS KEYBOARDS for the iPad come in all shapes and sizes. Some duplicate Apple’s Smart Cover approach by only covering the screen when it’s not in use. Others forgo attaching to the iPad, letting users decide which case to use. And some keyboards offer complete protection. Such is the case (forgive the pun) with the Zagg Folio (go.macworld.com/zaggfolio). The Folio is available in black or white, complete with a faux-leather back to add an appealing flair to its otherwise mundane plastic housing. ZAGG FOLIO FOR iPAD AIR 2 AT A GLANCE All in all, the Folio is a quality keyboard-case combo for someone looking to keep their investment safe and add a productivity tool to the iPad. PROS • Protection is first and foremost • Magnets turn wake or put…

VIDEO To view this video, go to go.macworld.com/voycevid EVEN IF YOU RETIRED YOUR FITBIT or Fuelband to a desk drawer long ago, you may still find room in your heart for another activity-tracking wearable. No, not for you—for your dog. The Voyce health and wellness monitor (go.macworld.com/voyce) bypasses human biology entirely, and sets its sights on Canis familiaris, a species with much less capricious technology habits. Yeah, it’s another canine wearable. But instead of merely recording pawsteps, the Voyce band also tracks resting heart and respiratory rates, two biometrics that can provide deep insights into a dog’s health. My border collie mix, Whiskey, has been wearing Voyce for just over a month, and I’ve gathered a wealth of interesting data about just how much activity and sleep she’s really getting—along…

Everything You Need to Know About iPods, iTunes, and Mac-Based Entertainment Spotify took the wraps off its new app at a major New York press event (go.macworld.com/event) that featured appearances from D’Angelo, Questlove, DJ Tiësto, and Broad City stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer. Streaming music’s dominant player spared no expense to prove it’s the company to beat. And with more than 60 million active users, 15 million of whom pay for a premium subscription every month, Spotify currently reigns supreme. But with Apple reportedly set to relaunch Beats Music next month and new kid on the block Tidal nabbing exclusives from artists like Beyoncé and Rihanna, Spotify needed to do something to remain the industry leader. That’s where the new Spotify comes in. The Browse option has now been…

If you work hard to ensure that the music files in your iTunes library are tagged exactly right, you may be frustrated with iTunes’ tools for doing this. The iTunes 12 Info window is less efficient than that of previous versions, and while there used to be a way to display the old-style window, you can no longer do so. Metadatics (markvapps.com/metadatics) is a powerful tool that’s a bit more efficient to use and offers more features for changing tags than iTunes. You can use it for basic tagging, as you would with iTunes, when you rip tracks from CDs or add downloads to your library. But it goes much further. When you use this app, you need to work on files in the Finder, not in iTunes, so it’s…