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 I N C O R P O R AT I N G M A C U S E R

June 2015 CONTENTS

MacUser
USB-C adapters and cables,
tested 6
In praise of the Utilities folder’s
unsung heroes 12
MacUser Reviews 16
Hot Stuff 46

iOS Central
Hands-on: Phorm takes the
awkwardness out of thumb-
typing 50
Game Changer brings major
league scorekeeping to little
league games 54
iOS Central Reviews 58
What’s new at the App Store 76
iOS Accessories 77
Review: The new 12-inch MacBook is
a laptop without an ecosystem 80 Working Mac
Take the hassle out of scanning
documents 106
Why I prefer CrashPlan for online
backups 112
3 easy ways to share your Mac’s
screen 120

Create
Beat boredom with these fun
photo ideas for iPhone and iPad
126
7 reasons to love QuickTime
Player X 130
5 tips for Photos for OS X 134

Help Desk
Mac 911: Photos Q & A 140

Apple Watch review: Beautiful form,

frustrating function 94
COVER PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF APPLE
MASTHEAD

CCO & SVP, U.S. MEDIA AT IDG John Gallant

EDITOR IN CHIEF, CONSUMER BRANDS Jon Phillips
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Susie Ochs
DESIGN DIRECTOR Rob Schultz

Editorial
SENIOR EDITOR Roman Loyola
ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR Leah Yamshon
SENIOR CONTRIBUTORS Adam C. Engst, Glenn Fleishman, Lex Friedman, Rob Griffiths,
John Gruber, Jim Heid, Andy Ihnatko, Joe Kissell, Ted Landau, Rick LePage, Ben Long,
Kirk McElhearn, John Moltz, John Siracusa, Derrick Story
COPY EDITOR Sue Voelkel

Design
DESIGNER Monica Lee
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER Peter Belanger

Advertising Sales
SALES MANAGER Duane Hampson (415/978-3133)

Production
DIRECTOR, PRODUCTION Nancy Jonathans
SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER Tamara Gargus

INTERNATIONAL DATA GROUP CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

Walter Boyd
IDG COMMUNICATIONS, INC. CEO
Michael Friedenberg

4
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5
MACUSER News and Analysis About
Macs, OS X, and Apple

Tested: The first

batch of USB-C
adapters and cables
As new cables and adapters trickle out with USB
Type C support, there are still tangles to resolve.
BY GLENN FLEISHMAN

6
W
hen Apple announced the MacBook
in March, the new USB Type C port
caused head shaking and chin
scratching. Though the standard had
been released in September and shown off at the
CES trade show in January, no ecosystem existed. It
was hard to know how a single-port USB-C laptop
would function in the real world.

In the days following the announce- (SuperSpeed). Future

ment, cables and adapters started to
be announced and even ship. The
MacBook landed in people’s hands—
including ours at Macworld—in
mid-April, and I’ve been purchasing
and receiving review versions of
adapters for several days.
Here’s a rundown of what’s
currently available and what it can do
for you. But first, let’s define some
basics.
How fast is USB-C? USB-C is a
cabling standard that incorporates
various versions of numbered USB
standards, passes power bidirection-
ally, and is compatible with VESA’s
DisplayPort 1.2 and later specifica-
tions. In Apple’s first use in the
MacBook, the maximum data rate is
5Gbps.
Doesn’t USB 3.1 support 10Gbps?
Yes, but that mode isn’t mandatory.
Apple has implemented a perfectly
acceptable version that’s only 5Gbps
and called USB 3.1 Gen 1, which is
effectively a rebranded USB 3.0
versions of laptops
from Apple and other companies will
certainly offer the full potential speed
under the standard USB 3.1 Gen 2
and the brand name SuperSpeed+.
What’s the difference between a
power and sync cable? Apple ships
the MacBook with what it’s calling a
charging cable (go.macworld.com/
charging; $29 when purchased
separately) with USB-C male connec-
tors on both ends. It’s designed to
pass power using USB-C standards,
which allow for up 100 watts, and the
MacBook has a 29W adapter (go.
macworld.com/29w; $49 separately).
However, data on this cable only
works using the USB 2.0 standard.
Does USB Type A only carry USB
2.0? Just to make things harder, no!
Some USB cables with a Type A
connector can carry USB 3 data
between USB 3 ports. You should
see SS for SuperSpeed molded on
the correct side up of the male
connector if it supports either 3.0 or

7
 MACUSER USB-C ADAPTERS AND CABLES
3.1 Gen 1 speeds. Cables with SS+
handle 3.1 Gen 2 speeds. However,
some early cables merely have the
generic USB icon even when they are
packaged and work at USB 3 speeds.
Right now, I have two nearly identical
unbranded cables, one of which is
USB 2.0 only and the other USB 3.0.
(Apple explains USB-C, its adapt-
ers, Target Disk Mode over USB, and
more on a dedicated support page:
go.macworld.com/as.)
APPLE’S ADAPTERS
Apple isn’t expected to
have its multiport HDMI (go.
macworld.com/hdmi) and VGA (go.
macworld.com/vga) adapters gener-
ally available for two to four more
weeks, but the company sent us
review units. We also purchased
Apple’s USB-C male to USB 3.1 Gen 1
Type A female adapter (go.macworld.
com/atof; $19).
The Type A adapter is designed
to support any USB 2.0 or 3.0/3.1
Type A male cable, and in testing, it
did. This included a third-party
ethernet adapter that required a
Yosemite-compatible driver, dis-
cussed in the next section.
Apple’s multiport adapters are
ungainly, looking like tiny manta rays,
but perfectly functional. Each has a
USB-C power-only passthrough port
and a USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type A female
port, just like on the simple adapter.
The center port is either HDMI or
VGA. The ungainly formal names for
each $79 adapter are the USB-C
Digital AV Multiport Adapter (go.
macworld.com/avm) and the USB-C
VGA Multiport Adapter (go.mac-
world.com/vgam).
I tested the HDMI adapter
with both an HDMI-to-DVI and
HDMI-to-HDMI cable, and
each worked just as expected
with an Asus VG248QE, a
1080p (1920 by 1080 pixels)
with HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort, and
dual-link DVI-D inputs. The
VGA adapter also tested as
expected with a Dell monitor APPLE’S $79 MULTIPORT
AV adapters let you
with native VGA support. connect a display,
I did not have a 4K monitor on your charger, and one
hand to test. Apple says resolutions USB device.
of 3840 by 2160 at 30Hz and 4096
by 2160 at 24Hz are supported, and
reports elsewhere indicate mixed
results with 60Hz monitors or
monitors in a 60Hz mode.
The USB Type A converter works
as expected, as well as with all the
cables I tested it with, including
some uses I didn’t expect.
DISPLAYPORT, USB TYPE A,
AND ETHERNET
Apple’s MacBook launch included
some confusion, because the
8
company said that the USB-C port it
included had “native” DisplayPort 1.2
video output. But Apple neither sold
such an adapter, nor has it appar-
ently announced any plans to do so.
It fell to arch-rival Google, which
just a few
days later
announced
a USB-C to
DisplayPort
cable (go.
macworld.
com/dp;
$40). I
tested it with
the same Asus
monitor I GOOGLE’S USB-C TO
mentioned DisplayPort cable works
earlier, and it with the new MacBook.
again performed
as expected: it
worked with no flicker-
ing or interference, and
setting up multiple monitors on the
MacBook through the Displays
preference acted as I expected. (A
nifty advantage of a multiport input
monitor is connecting multiple Macs
through different methods, leaving
cables attached, and switching as
needed.)
While I acquired both USB-C to
USB 2.0 Type A and 3.0 Type A
cables, these are trickier to test,
because of Apple’s limited support
for USB-based transfer, except with
Migration Assistant and Setup
Assistant. The 2.0 cable won’t work
at all between Macs, and because
it’s a Type A connection at the end,
it typically can only plug into “host”
devices, like a computer. Printers,
drives, and other peripherals almost
always sport a square Type B port.
Apple says that
Target Disk Mode
is supported
with a
MacBook
over USB
so long as
the cable
is USB-C
to Type A
3.0 or 3.1.
However,
with such a
cable, I could
not get it to work.
This may be a firmware
issue in the MacBook’s controller
or a cable issue, and I’ll be testing
this further. (The cables tested were
Cable Matters USB-C to Type A 2.0
[go.macworld.com/cm; $13] and an
unbranded USB-C to Type A 3.0
cable [go.macworld.com/un; $11].)
I wanted to test the C-to-A cables
with a USB 3 hard drive, but most
drives use the USB 3.0 Micro B jack,
and include a cable with that type of
plug on one end and a Type A on
the other. I was able to confirm via
9
 MACUSER USB-C ADAPTERS AND CABLES
Apple’s Type A female adapter that
such an arrangement connects and
transfers data at 3.0 speeds. At some
point, we expect to see USB-C
alongside or instead of Micro B,
reducing adapter and cable types
required.
While I had an Apple 100Mbps
ethernet USB 2.0 adapter on hand, I
wanted to bump it up a notch. The
Thunderbolt gigabit ethernet adapter
was, of course, not an option, but
Cable Matters offers—take a
breath—a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to
RJ45 Gigabit ethernet Network
Adapter in Black (go.macworld.com/
super; $18).
The color matters when you’re
trying to figure out the driver to
download, because it’s shipped
different versions of similar adapters.
Yes, this adapter ships with a CD-ROM
and a note to download a driver from
the web. Fortunately, ASIX, which
makes the underlying hardware for
this adapter, is up to date with an OS
X 10.10 Yosemite driver, which
installed and worked perfectly at
both 100Mbps and gigabit speeds.
SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME
Apple’s main stumble regarding
USB-C is coming out ahead of
passthrough cables. Its two multiport
adapters are expensive and ship-
ping late, which will lead to some
frustration. There are just a smatter-
ing of connectors out now, hinting at
the ecosystem yet to come.
It includes almost nothing related
to power, which will be where we’ll
see the most diversity and options,
as multiport splitters, power adapt-
ers, and batteries will be produced
for many USB-C devices and
ostensibly will all be compatible (go.
macworld.com/comp) with one
another.
We’ll add new installments as
more hardware appears. ■
10
 MACUSER

Activity Monitor AirPort Utility Audio MIDI Setup Keychain Access Migration Assistant

ColorSync Utility Console Digital Color Meter Disk Utility Terminal

System Information Grab Bluetooth File Exchange Grapher Boot Camp Assistant

In praise of the Utilities

folder’s unsung heroes
From staples like Disk Utility and Activity Monitor to once-in-a-while life
savers like Grab and Migration Assistant, OS X’s Utilities folder is a goldmine.
BY JASON SNELL

12
T
he other day my daughter was frustrated by her math
homework. She was plotting x and y coordinates onto
a grid, but a few of her answers just didn’t line up. I
suggested that we check her work, and in the back of
my mind I recalled that there might be a quick way to do that right
on my Mac.

The app in question is Grapher, a

utility you probably never realized
has been installed on your Mac since
2005. It is one of the unsung heroes
of the Utilities folder. Placed inside
the Applications folder, Utilities is the
subfolder where Apple banishes
apps that it wants to keep as a
standard part of OS X without giving
them the exposure that the main
Applications folder supplies.
Grapher is, as you might have use the most. CAN WE graph it?
gotten from the name, a tool for Activity Monitor (go.macworld. Yes we can.

graphic equations. It’s got a lot of com/am) keeps me informed about

complex modes in both 2D and 3D,
but for my daughter’s simple eighth-
grade math problem we used the
most basic of 2D graphs. Type in an
equation and Grapher graphs it.
If you didn’t know that Grapher
existed, would you know to look for
it? Such is life in the Utilities folder.
Unlike more stellar stock apps
such as Calculator and Chess (both
living large in Applications), Grapher
must live in the relative obscurity of
that subfolder. But it shares space
with some pretty great apps, includ-
ing Activity Monitor, one of the apps I
how my Mac’s processor, network-
ing, memory, and storage are doing.
Also shining in the Utilities folder:
Disk Utility (go.macworld.com/du),
which lets you format and partition
disks as well as create disk images;
Migration Assistant (go.macworld.
com/ma), which aids in transferring
data from your old Mac to a newer
model; and Terminal (go.macworld.
com/tm), the app that gives you
access to all the power of the Unix
command line.
There are still a few oddballs,
though. Keychain Access (go.

13
 MACUSER IN PRAISE OF UTILITIES
macworld.com/kc) is where OS X
stores a lot of saved passwords,
including the ones from Wi-Fi
networks. If your Mac remembers
the password to a Wi-Fi network but
you’ve forgotten it, you can look it
up using Keychain Access. Just
search for the access point’s name,
click on the network in the list, and
type Command-I or click the i button
at the bottom of the window. Check
the Show Password box at the
bottom of the resulting window,
enter your Mac account password,
and the Wi-Fi password will be
displayed in plain text.
Grab (go.macworld.com/grab) is a
screenshot utility that, in the early
days of OS X, was really the only
way to get good screenshots. It’s
long been surpassed by other
utilities and the built-in Command-
Shift–3 and Command-Shift–4
shortcuts, but it can still be useful
on occasion, most especially for its
ability to take a screenshot 10
seconds after you select the Timed
Screen command from the Capture
menu. If you need to jockey a Mac’s
interface into just the right location
for a screenshot, that can be useful.
I probably use Grab once a year, but
it does come in handy.
If you’re very lucky you may find
QuickTime Player 7 (go.macworld.
com/qtime) in your Utilities folder,
too. The current version of Quick-
Time Player lacks all sorts of features I USE Activity Monitor
that the older version still supports, constantly.
so Apple allows it to kick around in
the Utilities folder.
But don’t pity the apps that live in
/Applications/Utilities too much. After
all, it could be worse. Another ragtag
collection of apps lives in /System/
Library/CoreServices/Applications,
including the quite useful Network
Utility, Archive Utility, Screen Sharing,
and Wireless Diagnostics. These
apps are generally launched from
other parts of OS X, rather than by
double-clicking, which explains why
they’re so hidden away. ■
JAS O N S N E L L IS THE FOR ME R ED I TO-
R I A L D IR ECTOR OF M ACWOR LD, A ND
H AS R EV IEW ED EV ERY MA J OR A PPLE
P R OD UCT OF THE LAST FEW Y EA R S,
I N CLUD IN G THE OR IG INA L i PH ONE A ND
i PA D AS W ELL AS EV ERY MA J OR V ER -
S I ON OF M AC OS X. CHE CK OU T SI X-
C O LOR S. COM F OR HIS L AT EST A PPLE
C OV ER AG E.
14
You might know Joshua .
He loves video games, and he
owns enough to know they’re not
all meant for kids. That’s why he
reminds his friends (at least the
ones that have kids) that they all
have big black letters on the box
to help parents find the ones that
are best for their families.

You can learn about those

ratings at ESRB.org

Los Angeles, CA
 MACUSER

Reviews MAC GEMS ARE APPS THAT OFFER

STANDOUT UTILITY OR UNIQUE
FEATURES AT A GREAT PRICE.

PHOTOS FOR
OS X 1.0
mmmh
AT A GLANCE:
Photos is a big step up for
iPhoto users, with better
speed and editing tools.
Power users of Aperture will
probably want to stay with
Aperture or switch to another
pro-level app like Lightroom.
PROS:
• Fast performance overall.
• Editing tools improvement
on iPhoto’s.
• Ability to connect to iCloud
Photo Library and Apple’s
greater photo ecosystem.
CONS:
PHOTOGRAPHY SOFTWARE
• Not a good option for
PHOTOS FOR OS X IS FASTER dedicated Aperture users.
• iCloud Photo Library
THAN iPHOTO BUT LESS sometimes stalled.
• Hard to know the fault
POWERFUL THAN APERTURE of delays.
• Some odd choices in user
interface (like the floating
JEFF CARLSON
Info window).
PRICE:
LAST JUNE, Apple announced the impending retirement of iPhoto and Free with OS X Yosemite
Aperture in favor of Photos for OS X (apple.com/osx/photos), a new 10.10.3
COMPANY:
application it demonstrated briefly at the Worldwide Developers Confer-
Apple.com
ence (WWDC). For most of the intervening 10 months—a long lead time
for a company that prefers to ship software soon after announcing it—we
didn’t know the new application’s capabilities.
Would it be friendly enough for casual users but also include the depth
to satisfy Aperture’s professional photographers? Would it be like a few
other notable Apple software rewrites, like iMovie and Final Cut Pro X,
that took bold steps forward at the expense of stripping away features
and alienating users?

16
 It’s time to find out. Photos for OS X is available now as part of the OS X
Yosemite 10.10.3 update. The new version of the operating system is required,
since Photos takes advantage of a new system framework to function.

MULTIPLE MASTERS
A modern photo library application has two jobs: organize the photos
you add to the library so you can locate them easily, and edit photos to
make corrections or change their appearance. (Sharing photos, upload-
ing to social media, and ordering prints are also important, but I don’t
cover those features in this review.)
Photos for OS X handles them with varying levels of success, but it
also stretches to take on another, more ambitious task. Apple hasn’t
been simply creating a new photo application for the Mac—this is the
Mac component of the company’s grand photography effort that con-
nects the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and the
web. With iCloud Photo Library, Apple is attempting to make all of your
photos—not just the ones you capture with any one device—available
on every Apple product you own.
ALL YOUR PHOTOS,
everywhere. It’s
a simple idea, but
tough to pull off.

17
 MACUSER REVIEWS | PHOTOS FOR OS X

THE INTERFACE for

Photos for OS X.

LOOK FAMILIAR? The

interface resembles
Photos for iOS,
shown here on iPad
(left) and iPhone.

All that said, I’ll offer one spoiler up front: Photos is not an Aperture
replacement, even though it can open Aperture libraries. If you’ve only
scratched the surface of Aperture’s tools, then you can probably expect
a smooth transition. If you’re a photo professional or enthusiast whose
workflow revolves around Aperture, you’ll want to stick with it for as long
as you can, with an eye toward switching to another application like
Adobe Lightroom at some point. Aperture and iPhoto continue to work
under Yosemite, but they’re no longer being updated.
Also note that this review is based on the latest developer beta

18
versions of Photos for OS X and OS X Yosemite 10.10.3. At this stage of
development, main features are nailed down and showstopper bugs are
usually sorted out. (Stay tuned to Macworld for any changes that might
take place between the beta and the shipping release.)

A NEW LIBRARIAN
If you own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 7 or iOS 8, Photos for
OS X will be immediately familiar. The interface is patterned after the

IN YEARS VIEW your

thumbnails are so
tiny, so you click to
drill down...

...AND YEARS
are divided into
Collections by
location and date.

19
 MACUSER REVIEWS | PHOTOS FOR OS X

CLICK A COLLECTION to
split it into Moments.
And if you click any of
these images, you can
see it by itself.

mobile version of Photos.

If, however, you’ve ignored Apple’s devices lately, here’s a quick
overview of how you navigate the interface. Photos appear in chrono-
logical order, with the most recent images at the bottom of the list (and
no option to sort in reverse chronological order). Views are broken out
into a sort of “zooming” hierarchy that increases the size of the image
thumbnails as you drill down: Years, Collections, Moments, and individ-
ual photos, which you switch using the unmarked arrows in the upper
left corner of the window or by clicking photos in the views.
Perhaps the best news is that Photos feels fast. Even on an older Mac
(my main machine is still a 2010 MacBook Pro), Photos is speedy and
responsive. The application switches to very low-resolution thumbnails
when scrolling quickly, and photos pop when you view them solo.
Photos seems to handle thumbnails internally better than its predeces-
sors. (The first time you convert a library, you’ll notice some lag as the
initial thumbnails are built.)
I didn’t run into any serious problems converting iPhoto or Aperture
libraries in my testing. In one case a library didn’t have correct permis-
sions and Photos offered to repair it for me during the conversion
process. Large libraries can take a long time to convert, though, from
hours to days depending on the size of the library and the speed of your
Mac. (Regardless, make backups of your photo libraries!)

20
FACES AND PLACES
You do need to be aware of some structural changes that occur in the
transition. Notably, star ratings are converted to keywords, like “1 Star,”
and “2 Star.” Photos now uses a binary Favorite label to mark photos you
want to stand out (those Favorites will automatically copy to the Apple
Watch). EXIF metadata is retained, even though not all of it is exposed in
the Info window. Any custom metadata fields you created in Aperture
are stripped away entirely. Events (iPhoto) and Projects (Aperture) are
converted to regular albums.
The Faces feature also comes across, only in Photos it appears as a
special album in the Albums view. Sorry, Aperture users who were able

IT’S LIKE
Twister for
faces!

FINDING
additional
faces.

21
 MACUSER REVIEWS | PHOTOS FOR OS X

CLICK A NAMED
location to view
the map.

to turn the Faces KEYWORDS ARE an

feature off: it’s on in easy workaround
for the lack of star
Photos. However, it’s ratings.
not nearly the perfor-
mance drag that it
was in iPhoto, I’m
happy to report.
In fact, Faces seems
faster and more
accurate in Photos,
although the interface
for assigning faces is a bit odd. Suggestions appear at the bottom of the
window; you can double-click a face and type a person’s name, or drag
it to any existing faces you’ve identified above.
However, dragging works with only one face at a time; you can’t
choose multiple faces and assign them this way. Instead, you can take
an alternate route and click the Add button to see which images Photos
thinks contains a person already named.
I admit I was dubious about Faces, a star feature in iPhoto, being
relegated as an album in Photos, but it works alongside several other
special albums that collect favorites, panoramas, videos, slo-mo and
time-lapse videos, and bursts (the multiple shots captured when you
hold the shutter in the iPhone’s Camera app).
Another former star feature, Places, is retained in Photos, but it’s easy
to miss. In the Years, Collections, or Moments views, click the name of a
location to view the photos on a map. The iOS version of Photos exhibits

22
the same behavior, which seems oddly hidden to me. If geolocation data
is attached to a photo (such as a shot taken with an iPhone), a map also
appears in the Info window, if the window is visible.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to assign geo information to photos that
don’t already have it. For example, if I shoot several photos of a location
with my iPhone, I can’t copy that data to photos shot at the same place
with my DSLR.

EASY KEYWORDS AND SPEEDY

SEARCHES
All of these components are built in
service of locating photos without
endlessly scrolling through the
library (even if that is faster now).
Turning star ratings into keywords
puts more emphasis on keywording
as an organizational feature (an
approach I applaud). The Keywords
Manager is a separate window that
you’d probably never open except
for an important shortcut. To restore
a semblance of star ratings, drag the
rating keywords (“1 Star”) to the Quick Group area, which allows you to SEARCH RESULTS.
apply the keywords by pressing a number on your keyboard. The catch
is that the Keywords Manager must be open when you’re doing the
tagging. You can also simply type keywords into the associated field in
the Info window.
The benefit of tagging is making photos easier to find. Aperture users
will miss the ability to assign tags and other metadata during the import
process (and speaking of importing, tethering a DSLR is no longer an
option). However, the Search function finds matches beyond just key-
words, including locations and Faces names. In my testing, searching
was quick and accurate (although the Info window showed information
for the entire library instead of the current search result).
I must admit that I’m a bit perplexed as to why the Info and Keywords
Manager windows are free-floating entities, even when Photos is
expanded to full-screen mode. Perhaps Apple is no longer pushing for

23
 MACUSER REVIEWS | PHOTOS FOR OS X

applications to be limited to one self-contained

window, or this is just the byproduct of developing a
1.0 product (albeit one with 10 years of experience
behind it). As it is, I find myself moving the supple-
mental windows more often than I’d like. Many people
coming from iPhoto may simply never access them.

EDITING PHOTOS
The editing tools in Photos are surprisingly sophisti-
cated and easy to intuit, even if you have little
experience editing photos. As with iPhoto, adjust-
ments are applied to the entire image, not selective
areas, as is possible with Aperture’s Quick Brushes.
At the surface level, you can drag sliders for Light,
Color, and Black & White and let Photos do the
computation to improve the image. It doesn’t simply
turn up the exposure for Light, for example.
In fact, clicking the expansion button that appears
at the right edge of the control reveals separate
sliders for Exposure, Highlights, and so on. As you
drag the master Light slider, for example, the other
controls adapt to balance the image. For photos with
decent exposure, I wasn’t usually able to blow out
the highlights by just maxing out the Light slider; the
software kept the levels in check.
And if those feel limiting, several other controls are
tucked in the Add menu, including White Balance,
Vignette, Sharpen, and Levels.
When working with Raw+JPEG pairs (where the camera captures THE ORIGINAL (top), with a
both a raw image and a full-size JPEG image, and presents them as less-than-ideal exposure. Basic
adjustments (middle). Advanced
one photo), Photos gives you the option of choosing which version to adjustments (bottom) allow me to
use as the original. bring out detail in the shadows.
I was also impressed with the Retouch tool, primarily because of its
design: it smartly combines two tools, an automatic retoucher and a
clone tool. Click once on a spot to attempt an auto fix. Or, to sample
from a nearby area, Option-click there first before clicking the spot to
be repaired.

24
iCLOUD PHOTO LIBRARY
Building a new flagship photo application on the Mac
is a tall order, and yet Apple is being more ambitious
by incorporating iCloud Photo Library. The feature is
not turned on by default—there’s no requirement that
your photos be stored on Apple’s iCloud servers.
If you do enable it, Photos uploads copies of your
original images to iCloud, which are then shared with
any device on which you’ve enabled the feature. In this
way, your entire photo library can be accessible on
your iPhone or iPad.
There are, of course, some caveats. Most people’s
photo libraries are larger than even the highest-capac-
ity device (currently 128GB for the iPhone and iPad,
512GB for a maxed-out MacBook Air). In that case, you
have the option of optimizing the photo storage, which
stores only low-resolution versions on the device for when you’re EVEN MORE
adjustment
browsing the library. When you tap or click a photo thumbnail to view it,
types.
the high-resolution version is downloaded as needed.
This implementation is both clever and frustrating. Opening an optimized
photo makes a small status wheel appear, which immediately fills to 25
percent and then, in my experience, often idles for a bit while waiting for the
data to arrive—in some cases longer than a minute. I experienced this on a
variety of Wi-Fi and cellular networks. However, I’ll also note that perfor-
mance seemed to improve as the release date drew closer, so I can’t rule
out that the lag I witnessed was due to testing or optimization before
Photos was available. How the service performs under load when poten-
tially hundreds of thousands of people are accessing it is an open question.
iCloud Photo Library works with only one library that you designate
as the System Photo Library. Also, if any of your photos are referenced—
the files exist somewhere other than the Photos Library.photoslibrary
package that is the default storage location—those images are not
included in the iCloud Photo Library (but you can consolidate the library
and bring the files in-house).
In addition to being able to view all of your photos on other devices,
iCloud Photo Library transfers edits between devices. After you make a
photo black-and-white on the Mac, for instance, it appears on your

25
 MACUSER REVIEWS | PHOTOS FOR OS X

iPhone and iPad (and Apple TV and Apple Watch) the same. OPTION-CLICKING TO enable the
You don’t get the same level of editing detail between OS X and iOS clone mode of the Retouch tool
worked fine. (Before, left. After,
versions of Photos, though. When you edit a shot on the Mac, the
right.)
revised version appears on the iPhone, but editing that same photo on
the phone reveals the sliders set back to zero. You can revert to the
original version, but not tweak the existing settings.
It doesn’t appear that Photos prioritizes syncing depending on what
you’re doing; if I edit a photo while other images are downloading in the
background, the edits appear to be at the end (or near the end) of the
queue. Again, we’ll have to see how iCloud handles the influx of data,
but at this point Apple needs to overcome the performance stigma that
is commonly associated with iCloud.
I also often found myself craving more information. Is iCloud syncing
stuck? Photos for OS X said I needed more space on my hard disk to
store originals, but how much? I get that Apple wants to streamline the
experience and not bombard users with numbers and technical details,
but the alternative can be a state of anticipatory ennui—something will
surely happen soon, but I don’t know when.

BOTTOM LINE: SHOULD YOU SWITCH?

Photos for OS X is a free update that arrives with OS X Yosemite 10.10.3,
so the question isn’t whether to install it or not. Should you use it, or
continue with iPhoto or Aperture for the time being?
By necessity, Photos for OS X is an application that arrives with a
multitude of compromises. It needs to replace iPhoto for millions of
people whose photo libraries are stored in Apple’s default consumer
photo application. It also technically replaces Aperture in the sense that
Apple will no longer offer that professional app. And it has to also

26
 THE HIGH-
RESOLUTION version
is downloading, as
evidenced by the
status indicator in the
lower right corner.

embrace the mobile reality that SHARING your

photos to the
Apple itself created by making sky.
iPhones and iPads camera
replacements for so many people.
If you’re coming from iPhoto,
Photos is definitely a step up. It’s
fast, it has improved editing tools,
and even the loss of star ratings
can be worked around (though I’d
like to see them return).
If you’re a longtime Aperture
user, Photos is definitely a step
back. Or rather, it’s the clear signal that says it’s time to look for other
professional photo pastures. I can’t recommend Photos as a full-time
replacement, although I can envision situations where it would work
alongside Aperture, such as creating small libraries for sharing with
clients who don’t own Aperture (both iPhoto and Aperture can open a
library after it’s been converted, but edits don’t sync).
And if you’re new to the Mac, drawn to Apple’s computers after
experiencing the iPhone or iPad, Photos for OS X will be immediately
familiar, and even improve on your photo experience with better editing
tools and iCloud Photo Library syncing. ■

27
 MACUSER REVIEWS

MATIAS ERGO PRO

KEYBOARDS
mmmm
MATIAS ERGO PRO: EVEN AT A GLANCE:

ADJUSTABLE KEYBOARDS Matias makes excellent

keyboards, and this one is no
exception. But any ergonomic
AREN’T ONE SIZE FITS ALL keyboard can be tough to
adjust to, so don’t be afraid
to return it if it doesn’t work
GLENN FLEISHMAN for you.
PROS:

THE MATIAS ERGO PRO (matias.ca/ergopro) is the latest keyboard • Made with the same care as
Matias’s other keyboards.
that tries to help computer users with a well-known problem: key-
• Easy to adjust to.
boards aren’t designed for hands. Instead, typists since the late CONS:
1800s through the present have had to adapt themselves to the • No mechanical way to
demands of, first, mechanical layouts and, later, the constraints of keep keyboard halves in
fixed position.
one-size-fits-all arrays of electric or electronic switches.
• Odd cabling/port choices.
So-called ergonomic keyboards are designed to break and PRICE:
reshape a keyboard to better fit varied constraints, so that we $200
can exercise some choice in matching the keyboard to our COMPANY:
particular fingers. Matias.ca

28
 I’ve been testing ergonomic keyboards for more than 25 years,
dating back before one of my favorites, the Apple Adjustable Keyboard
(1993). Its list price was $219, or $356 in today’s
dollars. It was rumored that Apple killed this
keyboard under the notion that if it MATIAS ERGO PRO
offered a keyboard
designed to better help
users avoid repetitive
strain injuries (RSI) from
carpal-tunnel syndrome
and other conditions, it
meant the regular
keyboard must be a
hazard. The keyboards
were prone to failure and
the subject of patent and
invention lawsuits, and
perhaps the easier story is that Apple was distracted in the mid-1990s,
and just killed it off.
I have a clear memory of watching Stewart Cheifet’s Computer
Chronicles TV program, a show that combined coverage of the com-
puter industry with press-tour-like visits from product makers, in which
the maker of a chorded keyboard talked about “antique keyboards,”
referring to the standards. Suffice it say, chording keyboards didn’t take
off, though they arguably are faster input methods and better for your
hands. (Listen to this 99% Invisible podcast episode, “Of Mice and Men,”
[99percentinvisible.org/episode/of-mice-and-men] for more.)
I’ve used a standard Matias keyboard since nearly their introduction
over 11 years ago, using the key molds and switches of the original,
beloved Apple Extended Keyboard. I put the Ergo Pro up against Matias’s
tactilepro (matias.ca/tactilepro) and Quiet Pro (matias.ca/quietpro), which
for my 100 word-per-minute typing needs, I consider the gold standard.

CLEVER AND ODD COMPROMISES FOR A TWO-HALF KEYBOARD

The Ergo Pro comprises two pieces, split across the touch-typing divide
(5/6, T/Y, G/H, etc.). It’s not a full-featured keyboard, as it lacks a stand-
alone numeric keypad, but it incorporates all the items one typically

29
 MACUSER REVIEWS | MATIAS ERGO PRO

needs. The left half has dedicated Undo, Cut, Copy, and Paste keys.
The right half has mini-sized but easily accessible Home, End, Page Up,
Page Down, and arrow buttons. There’s even a forward-delete key
hidden at the far upper right, and F13, F14, and F15 do double duty on top
of [, ], and . (the brackets and the period). A Num Lock key nestled to the
left of the N key turns a grid of letters into the keypad. (The model I
received had a slightly different arrangement of numbers that Matias says
it reworked based on feedback for its next production run.)
The spacebar is duplicated across the split, and is extra tall—the
equivalent of nearly two keys’
height. The Option key (left side
only) and Command keys (left and I WAS ABLE TO GET USED TO THE
right) are also extra deep. The KEYBOARD QUICKLY AND TYPE
Control key is huge! It’s as wide as a NEARLY AT MY NORMAL RATE.
Shift key and as tall as the spacebar. (THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN WITH
The key action seems a touch THE KEYBOARD, NATURALLY.)
less solid than Matias’s other
keyboards, meaning a little stiff or
less fluid than the keyboards I’ve used daily for a decade. However, I was
testing a freshly made unit, and new keyboards often need a bit of
break-in time. The key action is still superior to nearly any other keyboard
I’ve used, even with that proviso.
I was able to get used to the keyboard quickly and type nearly at my
normal rate. (This review was written with the keyboard, naturally.) Within
a few hours of use, I rarely had to look down for special keys. I did
regularly tap the Num Lock key by accident, and I suspect I’d get used to
that over time.
The strangest aspect of the keyboard isn’t its split or nature but, rather,
the connections. The company connects the two halves with a cable
typically used with mobile phones for audio and remote control: a four-
conductor, 3.5mm TRRS cable. Matias supplies a flat cable in a spring-
loaded retractable spool, although any similar cable can be used; it’s not
proprietary. It’s awkward and bulky, though, and doesn’t fit the design
aesthetic.
The keyboard connects to a computer via micro-USB, and Matias
supplies a short and long cable, each with a right-angle connector. It also
sports three USB Type A ports. However, because full USB power is fed

30
just into the right half, the three ports are all on that keyboard slice. One
of them is on the left edge near the top, making it unusable in many
configurations, as it will be too close to the left half of the keyboard.

HIS PATTERN
INDICATES TWO-
DIMENSIONAL
THINKING
An ergonomic key-
board has to solve
three kinds of issues
relating to how hands
function: extension and
flexion, ulnar deviation
and radial deviation,
and supination and
pronation. Each of
these is a different form
of bending or twisting.
Extension is how the hand bends up at the wrist, and flexion how it PRO PALMRESTS
bends down. Ulnar and radial deviation are how the hand bends left and
right at the wrist. Supination and pronation are rotating the wrist palm up
and palm down.
Like snowflakes, no two people’s hand position across all those
rotations and extensions will be the same. Regular keyboards require that
everyone deviate outward, extend or flex depending on the keyboard’s
height, and pronate towards the middle. Finding a relaxed position of
comfort puts the least stress on one’s tendons.
Frankly, this makes an ergonomic keyboard impossible to review gener-
ically. Given that I’ve been writing about them for more than half my life, I
come back to the same point: they have to be built in such a way that there
is a very wide variety of positions and opportunities, both to allow variation
among people, and to let people choose different positions over time.
On that score, the Ergo Pro is too limited. The keyboard is two entirely
unconnected pieces, and you cannot make the angle between them stay
put, despite rubber pads and feet. In normal use, I found it easy to jar one
or both halves, and then have to fiddle to restore them to the way I liked.

31
 MACUSER REVIEWS | MATIAS ERGO PRO

There’s also a reasonable amount

of surround and edge where the THE TROUBLE IS THAT IT’S GOING
two halves “meet,” so you cannot TO BE HARD FOR YOU TO KNOW
push the sides closely together to WHETHER THIS KEYBOARD WORKS
make an easy tent in the middle. FOR YOUR PARTICULAR HANDS
The split allows you to adjust BEFORE TRYING IT OUT.
ulnar and radial deviation, but the
other factors rely entirely on three
kickstands on each keyboard half. In various combinations, you can
elevate (or “tent”) the keyboard in different inclines. But there are no
fine-tuned elevation controls.
The keyboard comes with two deep, soft palm rests, which some
people like. I do not, and they can be taken off by removing three
screws on each keyboard half. However, removing the palm rests also
removes two of the elevating kickstands.

BOTTOM LINE
The trouble is that it’s going to be hard for you to know whether this
keyboard works for your particular hands before trying it out. Matias is
ramping up production and is accepting pre-orders (matias.ca/order) now
for a batch that will ship in June (including worldwide free shipping as a
pre-order bonus), although they hope to get them out earlier. Matias offers
a 30-day full-refund return for its direct sales, and while the company is
based in Canada, American purchasers can ship back to a New York
warehouse to avoid international shipping charges. The keyboard will also
be available through resellers (matias.ca/resellers), which should allow
either an opportunity to try one out in person or to ship a return back even
more cheaply.
Ergonomic keyboards that allow extremely fine degrees of manipula-
tion of angles and rotation typically cost far more and come with many
more tradeoffs than the Ergo Pro. Matias has sculpted a keyboard with
its typical quality and care that fits better in the budget for a serious
typist with existing repetitive motion issues or concerns about develop-
ing them. For those for whom there’s a match between hands and
keyboard adjustments, it’s a bargain for what it offers. ■

32
NOVELS ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
STAND-UP COMEDY JAZZ
VIDEO GAMES MOVIES
COMIC BOOKS TALK RADIO
EVERY NEW ART FORM HAS ITS FIGHT FOR FREE SPEECH.

OUR TIME IS NOW

FIGHT FOR YOUR VIDEO GAMES
V I D E O G A M E V O T E R S . O R G
 MACUSER REVIEWS

CONTROLAIR
mmh
AT A GLANCE:
ControlAir uses the FaceTime
HD camera to allow
touch-free, gesture-based
control over a handful of
media player software using
UTILITY SOFTWARE
only your index finger.
PROS:

CONTROLAIR: A TOUCH-FREE • Touch-free control over

many popular Mac media
FUTURE IS HERE, AS LONG AS players
• Audio can be muted by
YOU HAVE ENOUGH LIGHT holding finger to your lips
CONS:

J.R. BOOKWALTER • Requires bright,

well-lit environment
• Limited control
PC MAKERS REALLY TRIED to make touchscreen computers a thing functionality
in recent years, but it’s little surprise why those efforts have largely • Volume buttons
failed. Hunching over a keyboard pawing greasy mitts all over the control system level,
not media player
display doesn’t exactly inspire a great user experience. PRICE:
The folks at eyeSight Technologies believe there’s a better way Free
with ControlAir (eyesight-tech.com/controlair), a free Mac application COMPANY:
capable of controlling media player software using nothing but an eyesight-tech.com
index finger held away from the screen.

34
TOUCH-FREE CONTROL
ControlAir enables touch-free, gesture-based control over seven Mac
media player apps including iTunes, Spotify, Rdio, QuickTime Player, and
VLC. Running in the background, ControlAir hijacks the built-in FaceTime
HD camera, waiting for users to raise their hand in the direction of the
lens with a finger held upright, at
which point a controller pops up on
the screen. ON-SCREEN BUTTONS ALLOW
Onscreen buttons allow for FOR BASIC PLAYBACK CONTROL
basic playback control (play/ (PLAY/PAUSE, PREVIOUS OR NEXT
pause, previous or next track, and TRACK, AND VOLUME UP/DOWN)
volume up/down) but little else. BUT LITTLE ELSE.
Artist and track names are dis-
played in the upper left corner
next to an icon representing the application currently being controlled.
When held between one and five feet from the screen, users can move
their finger left or right (and yes, any finger worked in our tests) to high-
light buttons on the control bar, bend a finger to make a selection or hold
it to your lips in a “shush” gesture to mute or unmute the sound.
It’s a pretty neat trick, and with enough ambient light in the room, CONTROLAIR superimposes
ControlAir can be fairly responsive. The biggest problem was getting the onscreen playback buttons
that can be controlled using
software to recognize a finger in the first place, which often required a finger held up to the built-in
multiple attempts. FaceTime HD camera.

35
 MACUSER REVIEWS | CONTROLAIR

GIVE ‘EM THE FINGER CURLING A FINGER activates a

As impressive as the software might be, ControlAir worked best on a selected onscreen button in
ControlAir.
mid-2012 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro in a brightly lit room. This light
limitation makes the software not reliable enough yet for daily use.
In an average or darker environment, the menu-bar icon displays a
“low frame rate” error, warning that the software may have trouble
recognizing gestures—there’s no remedy other than moving to a better-
lit location. MacBook
users holding the note-
book on their lap will also CONTROLAIR ONLY
want to hold their hand SUPPORTS BUILT-IN
close to their face for CAMERAS, ALTHOUGH
best results. IT WORKED JUST FINE
ControlAir only sup- WITH THE CONNECTED
ports built-in cameras, THUNDERBOLT DISPLAY
although it worked just SELECTED BY DEFAULT
fine with the connected ON OUR MACBOOK PRO.
Thunderbolt Display
selected by default on
our MacBook Pro. However, there’s no way to manually switch between
multiple cameras, and ControlAir completely ignores third-party
enhancements like iGlasses, which could brighten up the image and
potentially improve gesture recognition.
The volume and mute options are disappointing—they actually control
at the system level, rather than the player software itself. This limits
ControlAir’s functionality on Macs with external audio hardware con-
nected, at least until the developer provides direct volume control over
the media player.

36
BOTTOM LINE CONTROLAIR INCLUDES
ControlAir offers a glimpse at the future of how users might someday support for popular media
interact with Macs, but in its current incarnation, the software is best player software such as
Spotify, iTunes, and VLC.
viewed as proof of concept rather than a utility for everyday use. The
current controls are extremely basic and won’t replace the need for a
mouse to hop between playlists or select specific tracks and albums. ■

37
 MACUSER REVIEWS

PHOTOSHOP
LIGHTROOM CC
2015
mmmmh
AT A GLANCE:
With facial recognition, easier
editing tools like the great
new filter brush, and better
performance from using the
GPU, the latest edition of
Lightroom should appeal to
former users of Aperture
who might not be as well
served by Photos for OS X.
PROS:
• Improved performance
due to GPU interaction.
• New filter brush.
• Built-in HDR and panorama
merge features.
• Still a standalone product
for customers who don’t
want a Creative Cloud
subscription.
CONS:
PHOTOGRAPHY SOFTWARE • Older computers will see
minimal or no performance
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP LIGHTROOM increases, depending on
the hardware.
CC 2015: NEW FEATURES AND • It would be nice to see
People more specifically
MAJOR PERFORMANCE GAINS included in searches and
smart collections.
PRICE:
BY JEFF CARLSON
$10/month with Creative
Cloud Photography
SOMETIMES WINNING CAN BE the worst outcome. With Aperture subscription. Up to $50/
month as part of other
now effectively retired by Apple, and its successor Photos for OS X Creative Cloud subscriptions.
not up to the task of replacing it, the market for pro and enthusiast Available on its own as
Lightroom 6 for $149.
photo software is now led by Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. For the COMPANY:
latest version, it would be easy for Adobe to add a few marketing- Adobe.com
friendly features and coast into the future on its growing train of
subscription revenue.
Fortunately for existing and incoming Lightroom customers, that
doesn’t seem to be the plan. The new Lightroom CC (go.macworld.

38
com/lrcc) does add some new features, such as built-in HDR and pan-
orama merge tools, facial recognition, a filter brush, and an improved
slideshow builder. But more interesting is its performance: Lightroom CC
takes advantage of your computer’s graphics hardware to speed up the
app in some welcome areas.

PERFORMANCE
Our computers will probably never feel as fast as we’d really like, but we
sure notice when they start to bog down. It was that sluggish behavior
that pushed me toward Lightroom in the first place: Aperture 3.0 was a
dog on my old Mac at the time, but upgrading to a new MacBook Pro
didn’t improve the performance much. Lightroom was the oddly twee
alternative, its curlicue design
flourishes distracting from the fact
that it was working hard to be a fast OUR COMPUTERS WILL PROBABLY
and nimble photo organizer and NEVER FEEL AS FAST AS WE’D
editor. But as libraries have REALLY LIKE, BUT WE SURE NOTICE
expanded and image sizes bal- WHEN THEY START TO BOG DOWN.
looned, even Lightroom 5 started to
feel poky in areas.
Lightroom CC now takes advantage of your computer’s GPU (graphics
processing unit) for image-intensive tasks, so the main processor isn’t
shouldering as much of the load. Computers with discrete GPUs see the
most improvement, but machines with integrated GPUs (soldered onto
the motherboard, such as many Intel processors) also see improvements.

MAKE AN HDR from

two or more shots.

39
 MACUSER REVIEWS | LIGHTROOM CC

Performance does depend on hardware. As you might expect, the THE HDR PREVIEW.
difference on the iMac with 5K Display is dramatic. For example, scrolling
through the Grid (the thumbnail view) of a library containing more than
100,000 photos was a marked improvement on Lightroom 5—scrolling
was fairly smooth, and there were only occasional empty thumbnails.
Panning within large images was also an improvement.
But I also saw better performance on a 2010 MacBook Pro containing
an Nvidia GeForce GT 330M GPU, as well as on a late-2013 Retina
MacBook Pro with an integrated Intel GPU. The former isn’t a race car (it
meets the minimum OpenGL 3.3 cutoff for being able to use the GPU),
but it’s better than before.
(Want to see the difference yourself? In Lightroom’s preferences, you
can turn off the Use Graphics Processor option in the Performance
screen, an option no doubt included in case compatibility issues arise
with graphics cards.)

BUILT-IN HDR AND PANORAMA

Speeding up performance doesn’t happen just at the processor level.

40
Lightroom 5 offered a way to create HDR (high dynamic range) photos
by selecting two or more shots of the same scene captured at different
exposures and shuttling them over to Photoshop CC’s HDR Pro module.
Instead of taking that round trip through Photoshop to merge the shots
into one, Lightroom CC now includes its own HDR Merge feature.
Staying within Lightroom is not
only more convenient, but processing
is faster, too. The HDR Merge module
LIGHTROOM MERGES THE
is basic, with options to automatically
PHOTOS AND CREATES A NEW
align and tone the images and
DNG (DIGITAL NEGATIVE) FILE
optionally remove ghosting caused
THAT CAN THEN BE ADJUSTED
by objects in the scene moving
USING LIGHTROOM’S OWN
between shots. Lightroom merges
DEVELOP CONTROLS.
the photos and creates a new DNG
(digital negative) file that can then be
adjusted using Lightroom’s own Develop controls. If you’re merging raw
files, you don’t need to go through Photoshop’s Adobe Camera Raw
intermediate step, since Lightroom handles raw files natively. In my
testing, the automatic adjustments also provided good starting points for
editing.
Similarly, the Panorama Merge feature is simple but quickly stitches
photos together into a single DNG image using one of three projections:

THIS PANORAMA
was created from
eight stills.

41
 MACUSER REVIEWS | LIGHTROOM CC

spherical, cylindrical, and perspective. You can opt to let Lightroom THE FILTER BRUSH keeps
automatically crop the merged image or do it yourself after the merge is the mountains snow
white (shown here with
complete. the mask visible in red).

FILTER BRUSH
One new feature that may not get the recognition it deserves is the filter
brush. When you apply an adjustment such as a graduated filter, you
previously were not able to mask areas. So, using the panorama image
above as an example, making the sky darker blue would also affect the
snow on the mountains. The filter brush lets you paint areas to be
included or excluded from the overall effect.

FACIAL RECOGNITION
One reason I prefer Lightroom to other photo organizers is its extensive
support for adding metadata that makes it easy to find photos later. The
capability to identify and recognize faces has been part of iPhoto,
Aperture, and Adobe’s own Photoshop Elements for years, but if you
wanted to identify people in Lightroom you’d have to do it by assigning
your own keyword tags. Now Lightroom CC can help you out.
The feature shows up as just another view in the Library module—look
for the People button just above the filmstrip—and operates as we’ve
come to expect in other applications: Lightroom locates faces, and you
identify a few to get started. The more photos you identify, the better
Lightroom does in locating people in other photos.
Initially I was surprised that the feature seems to be (forgive me) skin

42
deep. Although it can locate and identify
people, you won’t find a People attribute ADOBE ALSO ADDED A PAN
or metadata category when performing a AND ZOOM SLIDER TO ADD
search or creating smart collections. MOTION TO EACH SLIDE.
However, it turns out Lightroom is doing
something basic and clever: people are
identified as keywords, so to find photos of someone in my library, all I
need to do is a text search for their name. According to Adobe, the
People keywords are treated separately under the hood—to help maintain
privacy, those keywords are removed before exporting or sharing the
photo. (You can choose to override that default in the Export dialog.)

SLIDESHOWS
The last area to receive a sizable update is the Slideshow module, which
adds a few ways to customize slideshows. A show can now include up
to 10 songs (hopefully preventing countless earworms in the process),
and the slide changes can be synced to the music; in my testing, Light-
room did a good job of making this seem natural. And an Audio Balance
slider lets you choose which audio is dominant when you include video
clips in the slideshow.
Adobe also added a Pan and Zoom slider to add motion to each
THE PEOPLE VIEW.

43
 MACUSER REVIEWS | LIGHTROOM CC

slide. The setting applies to the NEW SLIDESHOW

options add
entire slideshow, so you won’t have variety.
the type of granular control you
would get from dedicated slide-
show applications, but the feature
works fine.

BOTTOM LINE
Maybe Adobe has been too busy to
realize they’ve won the market of
photo organizational and editing
software. More likely, the Lightroom
developers understand that winning
at software is an illusion as long as
upstarts—like Lightroom when it
started out—are out there. Light-
room CC is a welcome update that
builds on its predecessor not only in
terms of features but performance.
That’s a win in my book.
Lightroom CC is available through Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscrip-
tion service, the least expensive of which, the Creative Cloud Photogra-
phy plan (go.macworld.com/ccp), costs $10 per month and includes
Lightroom CC, Photoshop CC, and the use of Creative Cloud–enabled
mobile apps such as Lightroom mobile (go.macworld.com/lrm) —which
itself gains a small update and adds Android tablet support.
For some people, that “CC” may represent the crumbling of one of the
last subscription plan holdouts, but Lightroom isn’t exclusively subscrip-
tion based: Adobe is also releasing a standalone version, Lightroom 6,
for $149. It doesn’t include any Creative Cloud features such as synchro-
nization with Lightroom mobile (which is a free app for iOS and Android,
but requires a Creative Cloud subscription to work). ■

44
How many light bulbs
does it take
to change an American?

It’s no joke: climate change is a critical issue for all life

on Earth. But can the actions of one individual really
make a difference? Visit nature.org to calculate your
impact on the world around you and learn about steps
you can take to make the world a better place for us all.

nature.org/calculate
Photo © istockphoto.com / Color of Time
MACUSER

Hot Stuff What We’re

Raving About
This Month

PAD & QUILL

TIMBER CATCHALL
The $99 Timber Catchall
(padandquill.com) is one of
our favorite Apple Watch accessories
so far, because it acts as a stand for
both your Watch and your iPhone—and
would look awesome on either a nightstand or desk. This handcrafted
wooden stand features a pull-up dock for your Watch, a spot for your iPhone,
and a smaller spot for your keys. It also provides routing channels that keep
the Watch and iPhone’s charging cables neatly hidden in the back.—MARCO TABINI

46
 MOPHIE SPACE
PACK FOR iPHONE 6
AND 6 PLUS
The $150 Space Pack for
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus (mophie.
com) is a double-duty device: It
serves as a backup battery, of
course, doubling your iPhone’s
life. It also serves as an exter-
nal hard drive, giving your
phone an extra 32 ($150), 64
($200), or 128GB ($300) of
extra space for movies, music,
or other files. Your super-sized
iPhone just got bigger on the
inside. —JOEL MATHIS

47
MACUSER

Hot Stuff What We’re

Raving About
This Month

MONOPRICE’S
USB-C CABLES
Cables: Every nerd has a shoebox full of
them, but never the one that’s really, really
needed. For that, we have Monoprice
(monoprice.com). The online retailer is our
go-to source for cheap but sturdy cables of
all kinds, and now it’s our go-to source for
USB-C cables for the MacBook as well.
Monoprice has all sorts of USB-C configura-
tions available, but the cheapest cable, at
$10, is a USB-C Male to USB-A Male cable.
Apple hasn’t announced its own version of
that cable yet, but you might need one to
connect a USB external hard drive, or
attempt to charge your new MacBook off a
USB backup battery. —SUSIE OCHS

48
iOS CENTRAL The Latest on the iPhone, iPad,
iPod Touch, and App Store

Hands on: Phorm takes the

awkwardness out of thumb-
typing on an iPad mini
Phorm’s tactile guides are there when you need them, and fade away like magic when you don’t.
BY SUSIE OCHS

50
 VIDEO
To view this
video, go to
go.macworld.
com/phormvid

T
he Phorm (getphorm.com) case, from Tactus (tactustech-
nology.com), adds a tactile layer to the software keyboard
when you’re holding your iPad mini in portrait mode and
engage the switch on the back—supposedly being able
to “feel” the keys will make it easier to type.

Yeah, right, I thought. without adding too much bulk or

I admit it, I was skeptical. I pictured
bulging bubbles right on top of each
letter, having to mash those bubbles
with my thumbs, and seeing my iPad
mini’s battery life suffer, because of
course a case with an on/off switch
requires power, right?
Wrong. I was wrong about all of it.
First of all, Phorm uses no power.
The switch on the back is purely
mechanical. The case, which com-
pletely encloses your iPad mini
weight, has a thin, double-layered
membrane over the screen, and a tiny
reservoir built in to the side of the case
that holds a small amount of liquid.
The switch on the back is completely
mechanical—when you push it from
one side to the other, the liquid is
physically forced out of the reservoir
into tiny channels between the two
membrane layers, where it settles into
place above each key on a standard
software keyboard.

51
 iOS CENTRAL PHORM CASE
Yes, the bumps are slightly above
the keys, not right on top of the letter
you’re aiming at with your thumb.
The liquid creates small bumps,
shaped like little crescent moons,
that act more as borders for the keys,
guiding your fingers to the sweet
spot. But you’re not hitting the
bubble itself. (And even if you do, it
isn’t soft or mushy.) If your thumbs
happen to strike the keyboard
between keys, they won’t feel that
guide there, and it really did seem to
train me to hit the right spot. Think of
Phorm’s bumps like training wheels
for your thumbs, rather than physical
keys you’ll need to push down.
Phorm only works in portrait
mode—getting it to work in land-
scape would require separate
channels and probably a second
reservoir of liquid. But Phorm makes
more sense in portrait mode on the
iPad mini, since that device is narrow
enough that you can hold it and
comfortably type with your thumbs.
Plenty of external keyboards exist to
use the iPad mini in landscape
orientation, but since the device is
smaller than the iPad Air, I tend to
find them a little cramped.
And Phorm has some advantages
over an external Bluetooth keyboard,
too. When you use a Bluetooth
keyboard, you don’t get the predic-
tive text features you get with the
software keyboard, not to mention
the shortcuts (holding down the
period to get “.com” and “.net,” for I FOUND THAT the
example) and special characters. guides did make it
easier to type. Color
Tactus is taking orders for the me surprised!
Phorm now. The iPad mini case
comes in slate gray (gray and black)
or sky gray (gray and white) for $99,
and it ships this summer. Next up is a
version for the iPhone 6 Plus. And
Tactus doesn’t plan to stop there.
The company even has a prototype
Android tablet with the technology
built right in—it’s lighter than a
similarly sized tablet since the
Phorm’s membrane replaces the
topmost glass layer over the screen.
Better yet, the technology is tied into
the OS, so there’s no switch to
flip—the bumps come up automati-
cally whenever the keyboard comes
on screen, and fade away again
when the keyboard goes away.
If you do a lot of thumb-typing on
an iPad mini, Phorm’s guides could
speed you up and provide a satisfy-
ing tactile experience. It’s definitely a
niche product, but I’m glad my initial
skepticism was proved wrong. ■
52
HELP KEEP
THESE KIDS
IN PLAY. 175,000 KIDS WILL BE
DIAGNOSED WITH
CANCER THIS YEAR.
Children are our greatest hope for the future.
Let’s be their greatest hope too.

Cancer strikes infants and children. For teens

and young adults, survival can depend on
treatment by a pediatric oncologist, designed
specifically for them.

The St. Baldrick’s Foundation and Stand Up To

Cancer are funding groundbreaking collaborative
research to bring the most effective therapies to kids
fighting cancer. To learn how you can help keep
these kids in play, go to stbaldricks.org/inplay and
standup2cancer.org/pediatrics.

Julia Hernandez
Diagnosed at 16,
in remission. Samuel L. Jackson
Stand Up To Cancer and
St. Baldrick’s Ambassador
Photo by Nigel Parry

St. Baldrick’s Foundation is a charitable 501(c)(3) organization funding childhood cancer research.
Stand Up To Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a 501(c )(3) charitable organization.
 iOS CENTRAL

GameChanger brings major league

scorekeeping to little league games
With real-time game updates from amateur leagues, GameChanger helps players track their
progress—and allows parents to follow along when they miss their kid’s game.
BY JASON CIPRIANI

54
M
y junior year of high school was the last year I would
play competitive baseball. As the season came to a
close, I sat in the last row of the team bus on a return
trip from a game that was played three hours away.
I had the scorebook on one knee and a piece of paper and pen
on another. I went through the book and tallied my batting aver-
age, runs batted in, errors, and a slew of other baseball stats.

The tedious process took the entire On the surface, GameChanger

ride back, yet it felt like time well
spent. I knew where I did and didn’t
contribute to the team throughout
the season, and was able to confirm I
was in the midst of the best season
I’d ever had. But I was the only one
that knew any of this, as I was the
only one that actually took the time
to go through the book.
That bus ride is the first thing that
came to mind as I got off the phone
with GameChanger (gc.com) CEO Ted
Sullivan. GameChanger (go.macworld.
com/gchanger) is a free app for
iPhone and iPad that offers a digital
alternative to the paper scorebook
long used for sporting events.
appears to be nothing more than a
digital scorebook. The app replaces
the sloppy stack of bound paper
sitting on the scorer’s table at a
basketball, softball, baseball, and
(soon) lacrosse game. Tap here for a
base hit. Touch there for a wild pitch.
Press here and here to log a foul and
count the basket.
Stats are automatically calculated
in real time and provided to anyone
who follows a team or player. “If only
this technology existed when I
played sports,” I thought, while going
over the app for the first time.
But there’s much, much more to
the app than just compiling statistics.

GAMECHANGER

55
 iOS CENTRAL GAMECHANGER

Sullivan estimates that scoring at agement without forcing him to detail

95 percent of amateur games is
done using pencil and paper. And
what’s more, most of the score
keeping is left up to volunteers. From
my experience, many volunteers
often don’t fully understand how to
properly score a game, leading to
incorrect statistics—a fact that can
have an impact on the dreams of
young players who hope to play in
college and beyond.
GameChanger aims to be a
“collector of all in-game amateur
sports data,” according to Sullivan. By
using prompts to eliminate the learn-
ing curve of how to properly score a
game, GameChanger makes collect-
ing data easier and more accurate.
Statistics and scouting reports
aside, perhaps the most powerful
how bad of a game it really was.
I talked with Dwight Schmidt, a
baseball coach, Marine, and airline
pilot who has used GameChanger
for the last six years. He was able to
address the experience as both a
coach and a parent of young athletes.
Schmidt told me that as a coach
he’s able to “keep tabs on pitch
counts to combat Tommy John
injuries,” as well as ensure he is
playing all kids fairly. He also uses
GameChanger stats to pinpoint areas
for each player to work on improving.
Best of all, the information is avail-
BESIDES BASEBALL, you
can track basketball
and softball games,
too, with lacrosse
coming soon.

aspect of GameChanger is that it

allows for a parent to follow a child’s
game—in real time—should he or she
be stuck at work, overseas, or any-
where with an internet connection.
Take the game alerts you’ve long
associated with your favorite sports
app, and apply that to your child’s
little league or high school game. You
can receive a text alert when Katie
gets a base hit, then congratulate her
using FaceTime after the game, all
without waiting to hear how the
game went because you already
know. Or if the game didn’t quite go
Johnny’s way, you can offer encour-

56
able as soon as it’s entered. He no
longer has to spend hours combing
through a “paper scorebook with [a]
stubby pencil and eraser” to compile
the stats on his own.
As a parent, he’s powered up his
iPhone in South Korea or Afghanistan
and received alerts from both of his
sons’ games—something that meant
a lot to him, and understandably so.
My kids aren’t old enough to follow
within GameChanger, but I did follow
some teams who use the app. I
watched a live game in Georgia, and
was mesmerized by the game
updates constantly updating within
the app. At times there was a bit of a
delay, which was followed up by a
rapid stream of what had occurred.
But overall, you get the general idea
of what’s going on in the game
beyond what the score is.
After the game is over, Game‑
Changer processes the stats from a
game and creates a newspaper‑
worthy recap that is then emailed to
paid followers of a team.
GameChanger is free for coaches,
who can then add two additional
admins to the account. The three
accounts combined can keep scores
and have full access to a team.
Parents can sign up and become a
“fan” of a team for free, with access
I OFTEN TALK ABOUT MY
JEALOUSY TOWARDS THE
CURRENT GENERATION
GROWING UP WITH ACCESS
TO TECHNOLOGY I COULD
HAVE ONLY DREAMED OF
WHEN I WAS YOUNGER.
GAMECHANGER IS A PRIME
EXAMPLE OF MY JEALOUSY.
to live scores. If you want to receive
live updates and in‑depth stats, you
can sign up for a monthly plan of $40
per year, or $8 a month.
I often talk about my jealousy
towards the current generation
growing up with access to technol‑
ogy I could have only dreamed of
when I was younger. GameChanger
is a prime example of my jealousy.
Instead of sifting through page after
page of barely legible handwriting in
a scorebook managed by a freshman
volunteer on the bus ride home, I
could have only dreamed of launch‑
ing an app on a contraption called
an iPhone and viewing my stats.
Who knows, maybe a scout would
have taken notice of the season I
was having and encouraged me to
keep playing. ■
57
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS

MOMENT LENSES: THESE TOP-

NOTCH iPHONE CAMERA LENSES
ARE A TRAVELER’S DREAM
BY EMILY PRICE

THE IPHONE MAKES for a pretty good camera on its own, but adding an
additional lens can really help your photos shine. Moment’s (momentlens.
co) $100 Wide Lens (go.macworld.com/wide) and $100 Tele Lens (go.
macworld.com/tele) offer something a little different—unlike other iPhone
camera lenses that sit on top of your phone, Moment’s lenses attach to
your iPhone’s lens using a special plate. It’s a thin, strong piece of metal
that adheres to the back of your phone like a sticker and allows you to
screw on different lenses similar to how you might with a DSLR. Perhaps
that’s why Moment had no trouble reaching its Kickstarter funding goal for
this pair of lenses in 2014.

58
 While the lenses really do help you take better photos, its innovative
mounting solution leaves something to be desired.

SETTING UP
Installing the Moment lenses’ adhesive plate doesn’t take much time at all.
This plate-based installation system offers a huge advantage for early
adopters who always have the latest iPhone model—the lenses are inter-
changeable between devices, so instead of upgrading to buy new lenses at
$100 a pop, you just have to buy a new $10 plate matched to your new
iPhone. The downside, of course, is that you have to semi-permanently attach
the mounting plate to your iPhone. If you decide down the line that you don’t
want to use the lenses anymore, you’ll have to heat it up using a hair dryer in
order to get it off your device—it won’t just peel off. That means you have to
be pretty committed to the lenses before you install the plate.
I have a silver iPhone 6, so the black plate really stands out—enough that,
aesthetically speaking, I might be reluctant to walk around with my iPhone
case-less while it’s still on there. That said, the metal is thin enough for a case

MOMENT’S TELEPHOTO
lens (left). Moment’s
wide-angle lens (right).

THE ADHESIVE back

plate pops a little
too much for my
liking against my
silver iPhone 6.

59
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS | MOMENT LENS

to fit right over it. If you are a case user, then the plate will blend right in.
MOMENT
I tried the Moment lenses with Apple’s Leather Case for the iPhone 6, as WIDE LENS
well as with comparably sized cases by Hex, Reach 79, Sonix, and Speck. The
mmmm
Speck cases were the only ones I had issues with: the cutout in the case for AT A GLANCE:
the camera is a bit too deep, and I was unable to screw on the lenses with the Moment’s removable wide-
case still on. You’re likely to have a similar problem with other thicker cases, angle lens for the iPhone
takes brilliant photos and is
so first check out Moment’s list of compatible cases (momentlens.co/case- great for travelers, but can be
compatibility). Since you likely won’t be using the lenses all the time—they’re a pain to set up and remove.

more of a “for special occasions” type of accessory—you could just take your PROS:
• Compatible with future
case off before using them. Still, it’s something to keep in mind. iPhones
• Works with most iPhone cases
THE RIGHT MOMENT • Excellent image quality
The “special occasions” thing is key. Neither lens is huge by any definition, CONS:
but they’re both bulky enough that you’re probably not going to want to take • Lens is time-consuming to
attach
them with you everywhere. Both come with a small pouch to keep them
• Mounting plate is
protected, but the pouch’s thin material may not protect the lenses if the semi-permanent
pouch is thrown around in a book bag or purse all day. PRICE:
Attaching the lenses isn’t exactly a quick process, either. When you see $100
something you want to snap a shot of, you have to reach into your bag, pull
out the pouch, take out the lens, and then line the lens up just right so that it MOMENT
locks into place. None of that is particularly hard on its own, but if you’re trying TELE LENS
to take a quick group shot or casually capture a shot of a seagull in your path, mmmm
you might opt to skip it, since the lenses require so many steps. AT A GLANCE:
Moment’s removable tele-
photo lens for the iPhone takes
THE LENSES are awesome, brilliant photos and is a great
but pretty bulky—especially solution for travelers, but can be
compared to a naked iPhone a pain to set up and remove.
6. You wouldn’t want to leave PROS:
these lenses on all the time. • Excellent image quality
• Works with most iPhone
cases
• Compatible with future
iPhones
CONS:
• Mounting plate is
semi-permanent
• Lens is time-consuming to
attach
PRICE:
$100

60
 CAPTURED with
Moment’s telephoto
lens.

The lenses are also large and heavy compared to the thin, light iPhone.
You won’t want to walk around town with one of these attached. There’s no
lens cap, so you can’t just throw your iPhone into your pocket or bag and
keep going—you’ll to have to take it off and put it back on, or else risk
damaging it. When you think about all that, it might be easier to just bring
along a standalone camera.

PUTTING THE LENSES TO WORK

On the bright side, all that extra work eventually pays off. I took both lenses
with me on a walking tour of San Francisco, and the photos I captured were
outstanding—well beyond what I could have done with my iPhone alone.
The telephoto lens allowed me to capture a closeup photo of Alcatraz from
a dock where I could barely make it out with my bare eyes, and it brought me
closer to the sea lions that had moved far away from the pier to sit in the
afternoon sun. When using the telephoto lens along with the iPhone’s built-in
zoom, I was able to get close enough to read previously unreadable signs
and get a good look at people who were once just small figures in the frame.
Zoomed all the way in, however, small movements I made while breathing
and my slightly shaking hands were very apparent. To get a clear shot, I had
to brace my iPhone on a fence or newspaper stand nearby. A small travel
tripod could have helped out a lot; I’d definitely recommend using one to

61
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS | MOMENT LENS

push the limits of the lens and your iPhone.

The wide-angle lens captured the entire crowd gathered to watch a
Chinese New Year performance and made it possible for me to take a picture
of the entire Ferry Building while standing across the street. There’s a bit of
vignetting on the corners of the images, but nothing that couldn’t be easily
removed in a photo editor or with a little cropping.

BOTTOM LINE
The Moment lenses made obvious improvements to my photos, and I
wouldn’t hesitate to throw them in my purse anytime I was headed out for a
similar casual afternoon. Likewise, the lenses could be a great solution for
travelers, who want to take high-quality shots but don’t want to lug a full-size
camera along with them all day.
The stick-on plate, however, means that you need to be committed to using
CAPTURED with
the lenses, something that might be a bit more of a hassle than it’s worth for Moment’s wide-
everyday use. ■ angle lens.

62
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS

OPTRIX EXOLENS
FOR iPHONE 6
mmmh
AT A GLANCE:

EXOLENS FOR iPHONE 6 REVIEW:

The ExoLens adds more
flexibility to the iPhone 6
camera, but you’ll have to

LENS KIT WIDENS YOUR iPHONE deal with a lack of sharpness

and distortion on the edges

6’S POINT OF VIEW of your pics.

PROS:
• Lenses allow 165-degree
BY RAY AGUILERA
wide-angle, and powerful
3x 90mm telephoto shots
• Bracket includes tripod
EXOLENS IS A lens system built for the iPhone 6, intended to give you mount
more shooting flexibility than the standard iPhone lens. The kit comes • Well made
with an aluminum bracket that slides over your phone, and a pair of CONS:
lenses that screw into the bracket. • Mounting bracket doesn’t
work with cases
The bracket itself is well made, and the inside is lined with a rubber
• Lenses distort near edges
material to keep from scratching the finish on your phone. Tolerances
• Bracket includes
are tight, however, and ExoLens (exolens.com) will only work on your tripod mount
naked, un-cased iPhone. Slide the bracket onto your phone, and the PRICE:
lens mount aligns perfectly with your iPhone camera. All the buttons are $130.00

64
 iOS CENTRAL

accessible, and the bracket

features a standard 1/4-20
tripod mount. Unfortunately,
the mounting bracket covers
the iPhone’s flash, but does
anyone really use that
anyway?
Installing a lens is as easy
as screwing it onto the
SHOT USING THE iPHONE 6.
mounting bracket. The lens
housings are sturdy, and are
clearly built to stand up to
repeated swaps. That said,
the lenses are small-ish,
relatively heavy objects you’ll
be manipulating with your
fingertips—exactly the kind of
thing that is easy to drop.
The wide-angle lens offers SHOT USING THE TELEPHOTO EXOLENS.
a 165-degree angle of view.
Looking at the results of my
test shots, however, it’s clear
that there are some draw-
backs. Most noticeable is the
distortion toward the edges
of the frame, making straight
lines appear bowed.
The effect can be some-
what mitigated by cropping SHOT USING THE WIDE-ANGLE EXOLENS.
images slightly, a technique
the company recommends on its website. It’s more apparent in shots
where you are relatively close to your subject. The edges of the frame
also lose sharpness. Depending on what you’re shooting, this can either
come across as a pleasant blurring that draws your eye inward, or an
annoying distraction.
The 3x telephoto lens lets you get much closer to your subject than
the standard iPhone 6 lens. It tends to work much better at bringing

65
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS | EXOLENS

more detail to far-off subjects

than zooming in to closer
ones. As shown in my shots
down a San Francisco street,
the telephoto lens skewed
the apartment building across
the street into something
out of Alice in Wonderland.
At shorter distances, you’re
SHOT USING THE iPHONE 6.
much better off walking a
few feet closer to your
subject. As with the wide-
angle lens, distortion is
much less evident in the
center of the frame.
To cut down on glare
problems when using the
telephoto lens, the ExoLens
comes with a screw-on lens SHOT USING THE TELEPHOTO EXOLENS.
hood that helps in certain
situations. Unfortunately, the
included carry bag is tiny—
you’ll have to arrange every-
thing just so in order to fit all
three pieces inside. I was
also frustrated by the inner
lens caps, which frequently
popped off, leaving the
lenses exposed to dust and SHOT USING THE WIDE-ANGLE EXOLENS.
fingerprints.

BOTTOM LINE
Even with the distortion and lack of sharpness around the edges, the ExoLens
is fun to shoot with. All wide-angle and telephoto lenses exhibit these charac-
teristics to varying degrees, so they’re not unexpected. With a little bit of
practice framing shots effectively, and a small amount of post-processing, the
ExoLens can help you capture dramatic, dynamic iPhone images. ■

66
Welcome to Greenbot,
a website for
Android enthusiasts.

We’ve got the ’droid info you’re looking for.

Helpful tips, critical reviews, and expert
analysis for passionate Android users
of every experience level.

www.greenbot.com
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS

ADONIT JOT PRO AND JOT MINI:

THESE STYLUSES FEEL NATURAL
IN YOUR HAND
BY EMILY PRICE

SINCE ADONIT LAUNCHED its first styluses in 2011, the company has
expanded its lineup. In January, it refreshed the two styluses that started
it all: The Jot Pro (adonit.net/jot/pro) and Jot Mini (adonit.net/jot/mini).
Priced at just $30 and $20, respectively, the styluses are the most
affordable in the company’s lineup.

FAMILIAR TOUCH
The Pro and Mini will be very familiar to you if you’ve used Jot’s preci-
sion-disc styluses before. Both maintain a similar design as their prede-

68
cessors while adding a new, improved carrying clip (previously only
available on the Mini) that allows you to easily slip the stylus in a shirt or ADONIT JOT PRO
(2015)
bag pocket. The Pro version also has an etched grip to help you hold on
to it, as well as an improved cushion tip for a quieter, more pen-like mmmm
experience while drawing and writing. PROS:

Like their predecessors, each stylus has a screw-on lid that protects • Lightweight
• Beautifully designed
the tip when its not in use. When you remove the lid, you can screw it
CONS:
onto the bottom of the device, making the stylus longer and ensuring you
• Stylus tip makes a
don’t misplace the cap while you write. It’s a sleek, high-end look more noticeable clicking noise
reminiscent of a fancy pen than a stylus, and one that works really well. when contacting the screen
• Tip loses screen contact at
certain angles of use
THE EXPERIENCE PRICE:
Both the Pro and Mini are made of a lightweight aluminum that makes $30.00
them exceptionally easy to hold, and the new dampening tip on the Pro
gives it a natural feel while writing. Unlike other styluses, the clear precision
tip on the Pro and Mini make it easy to see where the stylus is contacting ADONIT JOT MINI
the screen. While not quite as pen-like as Adonit’s more expensive Jot (2015)
Touch (adonit.net/jot/touch), I found writing and drawing with both styluses mmmm
to be precise and pleasant. Both can be used on any touchscreen and AT A GLANCE:
neither requires power or Bluetooth connectivity to work. The Jot Mini takes notes,
sketches, and navigates on
With Adonit’s original precision-tip styluses, I ran into issues with the
the go, with the precision of
tip popping off, something that didn’t happen with the new models. the Jot Pro but in a shorter
build.
PROS:
BOTH THE Adonit Jot Pro and • Lightweight
Jot Mini have a natural feel.
• Beautifully designed
CONS:
• Stylus tip makes a
noticeable clicking noise
when contacting the screen
• Tip loses screen contact at
certain angles of use
• May be difficult to hold
during a long work session
PRICE:
$20.00

69
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS | JOT PRO AND JOT MINI

THE JOT PRO and Jot

Mini have the same
kind of tip, which
works well with
writing.

However, I did have a minor tip-related issue when trying to draw. Each
stylus is capable of functioning at an angle up to 45 degrees—great for
most writing, but when it comes to drawing I found myself often trying to
hold the stylus at a smaller angle, which caused the disc to not make full
contact with the screen.
The tip hitting the display also makes a bit of a clicking noise and can get
a bit annoying over time if you’re in a meeting or sharing a room with others.
Another small issue with the Mini: I really enjoyed using the stylus on
my smaller phone screen, but at about the size of a golf pencil, it’s a bit
too small for writing on my iPad. The smaller profile was difficult to hold
for long periods of time, and I found that my hand cramped up quite a bit.
That’s something to keep in mind if you’re considering the smaller model
for portability. If you plan on using the stylus with your iPhone, then the
Mini could be the perfect size to tuck inside a BookBook (go.macworld.
com/bookbook) or similar case and have on hand when you need it.

BOTTOM LINE
Either the Jot Pro or the Jot Mini stylus is an excellent value. They feel
nice in the hand when writing and have high-end designs. The Mini may
be too small for some, and you may have issues with the tip at some
angles while drawing. Overall, the Pro and Mini are great choices for
someone who wants a pen-like experience on their iPad or iPhone. ■

70
Join The Nature Conservancy to plant a billion trees,
one tree at a time, in the fight to end climate change
at plantabillion.org
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS

ANY.DO’S DAY list. There’s

also a standard list, and a
ANY.DO 3 REVIEW: DON’T priority list.

LIKE APPLE’S REMINDERS?

YOU MIGHT LIKE ANY.DO
BY ROMAN LOYOLA

ANY.DO 3
MAYBE THE LAST THING you want to fuss with when you’re trying to
put together a to-do list is the list itself. That’s why Apple’s Reminders mmmh
app works for so many; you can easily create lists, set notifications, and AT A GLANCE:

check off items. That’s about it. If you want a few more
organizational features than
The free version of Any.do 3 (any.do) has similar features plus a few what Reminders offers, Any.
more, and it offers a different UI treatment that you might find more do may have what you need.
PRICE:
pleasing, if such things matter to you.
Free; Premium available
When you first launch Any.do, there are four default lists set up for for $3 per month or $27
you, but you can easily change the names of these. Adding another list per year

72
just takes a simple click of the + box.
Besides the UI, what differentiates the free version of Any.do from
Reminders are the three list views: a day view that displays your list
based on what you need to do on that day or upcoming days; a standard
list; and a priority view.
Your lists can be displayed in each view, so even your grocery list can
be seen in the day view, which, at first, may not make sense at all. But
actually, I found it handy—I put a grocery list that I need for the weekend
in the Upcoming section of the day view, for example.
Another differentiator: Click on an item in a list, and you can add a
note, create a subtask, add an attachment (1.5MB limit), or email the item
to someone.
The OS X app can
sync with the Any.do
iOS app (go.mac-
world.com/adios), but
the OS X app and the
web version (web.
any.do) are missing
the Moment feature
(go.macworld.com/
moment). Moment is
a quick way to see
and manage your
task list for the day.
It’s a key feature on
the iOS app so you
don’t have to navi-
gate through the app for your daily tasks. It’s not so much of a hassle to
sift though your lists on the OS X and web versions, though it’ll be a
welcomed feature when it’s available. The free version limits your access
to Moment to only five times a month anyway, so if you don’t want to
pay, you’ll eventually need to live without it, regardless.
If you opt for the premium version (any.do/anydo/premium, $3 per
month or $27 per year), you get a few more features. You get more
flexibility when scheduling reoccurring tasks, unlimited task sharing, a
100MB file attachment limit, location-based reminders, multiple themes,

73
 iOS CENTRAL REVIEWS | ANY.DO 3

THE ITEMS on your list can

hold notes, subtasks, and
attachments.

and unlimited Moments.

BOTTOM LINE
The different list views make the free version of Any.do better at orga-
nizing your task list than Apple’s Reminders. And the ability to create
subtasks and add notes and attachments is handy. The premium version
of Any.do has features that’ll make you seriously consider using it
instead of Reminders, but you have to be willing to pay for it on a regular
basis. ■

74
 The Hunger Is campaign is a collaboration between The
Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation
to raise awareness and improve the health of hungry children.
The Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation are 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organizations. Photo by: Nigel Parry
 iOS CENTRAL
What’s new
at the App Store
WWE IMMORTALS
WWE Immortals (go.macworld.com/wweim-
mortals) takes heroes whose physiques
and abilities have tested the bounds of
science and placed them in a supernatural
setting. What if The Rock really was made
of stone? Now you can find out.
76
Automatic
Automatic (automatic.com)
improves your driving
experience by taking data
transmitted from a sensor
installed in your vehicle and displaying it
on your iPhone. Its latest update lets you
use and collect the car’s data even if you
don’t bring the phone with you. Next time
you do bring the phone, you’ll be able to
download the distance, fuel efficiency,
duration and more data.
Fit in Minutes
Fit in Minutes (go.macworld.
com/fitinminutes) lets you
choose from 10,000 workout
possibilities to create five-
minute workouts that developers promise
will “help you lose fat, look and feel
younger, get a flat stomach, or generally
get leaner and tighten up.”
Fradio
Fradio (fradio.com) is one of a
new generation of “create
your own media” apps that
have become more prominent
in recent weeks. Most are video-based but
this free iPhone app basically lets you
create your own live radio show, complete
with callers and the ability to play the
songs of your choice. A $10-a-month
subscription makes the experience
ad-free.—JOEL MATHIS
Watch, out!
With the Apple Watch here, this month’s roundup of iOS accessories includes
a couple of new wrist-based items; plus a printer for your iPhone and an
accessory that will help you draw your long-awaited masterpiece.
BY JOEL MATHIS

OSMO
The $80 Osmo (playosmo.com) looks pretty cool: You fit a
reflector over the camera on your iPad, that lets the
camera see your hands for touch-style games you can
play without ever actually touching the tablet’s screen. We
loved it, saying in our review, “You can feel good that if
kids are using Osmo, they’re using their brains.” A new app
is out since that review, called Masterpiece, that helps kids
improve their drawing skills.

CLICK
The Click (get-click.com)
is designed to match just
about any watch band to
your new Apple Watch.
Developers say: “Click
comes in three materials: a
durable polymer starting at
just $12, anodized aluminum
starting at just $20, and
stainless steel starting at
just $35, each precisely
machined to perfectly blend
with Apple Watch.”

77
 iOS CENTRAL

Watch, out!

GRIFFIN COVE
This prolific accessory maker has
gone the crowdfunding route
with its latest product. The $200
Cove (griffintechnology.com) is
designed as a charging station
for up to five iPhones, iPads, and
e-readers at a time — it’s also
crafted with a “contemporary
design and neutral color palette”
to complement your decor, while
minimizing the mess that can
come with a multi-device charger.
You can close the door to Cove
to hide the mess, or use the
device as a stand for your tablet.

DODOCASE
CHARGIN STAND
The $79 Charging Stand for Apple Watch
(dodocase.com) is a pretty little thing, made of
“Calfornia American Walnut,” with a weighted
steel base for sturdy placement. It has a carved
hidden compartment to keep the charging wire
hidden, and a “travel mode” lets you keep the
cable and charger together in one package.

78
 VAAVUD
The $60 Vaavud (vaavud.com)
is a wind meter that plugs into
your iPhone, letting you take
precise wind-speed
measurements on the go. You’ll
need the accompanying app to
make the whole system work.
When you’re done? Unplug it
and stick it back in your pocket.

POLAROID ZIP INSTANT

The $130 Polaroid Zip Instant Mobile Printer (polaroid.
com/zip-instant) is pretty simple: It lets you print pictures
directly from your iPhone. The basic model lets you print
up to 10 photos; upgrade to the 110-print model for $180.
Photo paper comes in packs of 50 for $25.

79
 FEATURE

IF YOU VALUE PORTABILITY OVER

POWER, AND YOU DON’T NEED
TO PHYSICALLY CONNECT TO
MUCH, THE NEW MACBOOK
MIGHT BE FOR YOU.

REVIEW:
THE NEW
12-INCH
MACBOOK
IS A LAPTOP
WITHOUT AN
ECOSYSTEM
BY JASON SNELL
80
A
pple’s often been a company that pushes new
technology into a world that’s reluctant to
receive it or doesn’t know what to make of it.
It’s a company that’s often designing for what
it sees as the world of the future and not today. The first iMac
dropped off legacy ports and embraced the then-unknown
connection standard called USB. The MacBook Air ditched
optical media. Even the current Mac Pro is a complete redefi-
nition of what the standard features of a professional worksta-
tion should be.

81
 FEATURE REVIEW: 12-INCH MACBOOK

This approach has its strengths Retina display, and yet it boasts
and weaknesses. Apple has rightfully all-day battery life. Using it alone will
gained a reputation for being on the be a pleasure, but trying to plug it in
cutting edge. Its designs push the to all your existing technology will be
entire computer industry forward— a pain.
sometimes kicking and screaming.
But it can be painful to live on the EXTERIOR
cutting edge. New iMac buyers Clearly Apple’s goal with the new
couldn’t use any of their old Mac MacBook was to reduce it in every
accessories without buying adapters, conceivable dimen-
and it was months before USB sion. Its width is
accessories were widespread. defined by the width IT FEELS LIKE
MacBook Air owners had to grapple of the keyboard,
with their inability to insert a CD or bringing to mind the
IT CAME FROM
DVD to install software. old 12-inch Power- THE FUTURE,
Using a computer that feels like it Book, which was AND DIDN’T
fell through a time warp from the similarly constrained.
future is fun, but if that computer That makes it seven-
BRING ITS
drops through the wormhole without tenths of an inch ECOSYSTEM
any compatible accessories then narrower than even WITH IT.
there’s going to be some aggrava- the 11-inch MacBook
tion, too. Air, and 1.7 inches
The new MacBook is one of those narrower than the 13-inch Air. I deeply
Apple products. It feels like it came loved that old 12-inch PowerBook, and
from the future, and didn’t bring its one of the reasons was that it was no
ecosystem with it. With its single wider than its keyboard. Ten years
USB-C port for both charging and later, Apple has once again created a
peripherals, it’s unlike any Mac
previously made. It’s the smallest,
lightest Mac laptop ever, offers a

USB-C IS THE ONLY port you get, besides

the headphone jack. This’ll be no
big deal someday, but today it’s
kind of a pain.

82
THE NEW MACBOOK is noticeably
thinner and lighter than even the
11-inch MacBook Air.

laptop whose keyboard goes right to impossibly thin.

the edge, and I love it.
The MacBook is 7.7 inches deep,
At its thickest
point, the Mac-
I’VE USED AN
making it deeper than the 11-inch Book is 0.52 11-INCH MACBOOK
MacBook Air, but not the 13-inch inches thick. The AIR FOR MANY
model. This added depth owes to the 11-inch Air, in
YEARS, AND THE
ratio of the MacBook’s display—it’s a comparison, is
16:10 aspect ratio like the 13-inch Air, 0.68 inches thick MACBOOK SEEMS
rather than the 16:9 ratio found on at that same point. IMPOSSIBLY THIN.
the 11-inch model. Much more about I admit that 0.14
that display in a little bit. inches, or 4
But of course, the dimension Apple millimeters, is not a whole lot of
has tended to be most obsessed with difference, but shaving one-fifth of the
is thickness, or as it’s been called thickness off the MacBook Air is still a
since the Titanium PowerBook G4 pretty impressive accomplishment.
was “1 inch thin,” thinness. And of Then there’s the weight, which is
course the MacBook delivers: I’ve 2.03 pounds, down from 2.38
used an 11-inch MacBook Air for many pounds on the 11-inch Air, and 2.96
years, and the MacBook seems pounds on the 13-inch Air. Again, this
PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON SNELL
83
 FEATURE REVIEW: 12-INCH MACBOOK
is a major reduction—especially for
13-inch Air users—and even as a user
of the 11-inch Air, I noticed how light
the MacBook was as I toted it around.
To make the MacBook this thin,
Apple’s had to make some compro-
mises. The device is positively
iOS-like in its lack of ports—it’s got a
headphone jack and a single USB-C
port rather than the Lightning port
found on iPads and iPhones. This is
about as minimal as a computer can
get, at least until wireless charging
becomes standard.
THE SPACE GRAY matches my
iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2, and so
does the reflective Apple logo.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JASON SNELL
The MacBook also shows a familial
resemblance to iOS devices in its
color options: silver, space gray, and
gold are now on the menu. The
MacBook I tested is a base model of
the space gray variety, and while the
difference is subtle, it’s fun to use a
Mac laptop that isn’t silver for the first
time in ages. It matches well with my
space gray iPhone 6 and iPad mini.
The Apple logo on the device is also
no longer backlit by a cutout that
allows the screen backlighting to
shine through, but is instead mirrored
84
like the Apple logo on an iPad. it’s controlled by software. THE FORCE TOUCH
With the darker gray color, taller This has several ramifications. First, trackpad has
software-controlled
display, and the large square keys, Apple’s added a new click gesture haptic feedback,
the MacBook actually reminds me of called the Force click—which is what which developers
Google’s Chromebook Pixel (itself a happens when you click and then will be able to take
advantage of too.
gorgeous bit of hardware), only much push a little bit harder, until you feel a
smaller. Physically, this is a device second click. Apple’s built in force-
that shows off all of Apple’s skill as a click actions to many of its apps,
hardware developer and everything including the Finder (it opens a Quick
it’s learned from building iPhones Look window),
and iPads. This is the iPad of laptops. and other devel-
opers can choose THE NET EFFECT
TRACKPAD to support it too. IS THAT IT FEELS
Like the 13-inch MacBook Pro that Developers also
preceded it to market by a few have the ability to
LIKE A CLICK, BUT
weeks, the MacBook features access the haptics IT’S CONTROLLED
Apple’s new Force Touch trackpad in the trackpad to BY SOFTWARE.
(go.macworld.com/forcetouch). I like provide another
it, though it took me a day or two to dimension of inter-
get used to the more subtle click feel. face feedback. Apple can vibrate the
To say that this trackpad’s surface trackpad to provide extra feedback—
doesn’t move isn’t entirely accurate— for example, imagine an app letting
the material flexes, subtly, but the you know that the object you’re
clicking sensation you feel is gener- dragging has reached the center of
ated by a haptic device that’s shaking the document by giving you a brief
the surface slightly when sensors bump on the trackpad. It will be
detect that you’ve applied an appro- interesting to see experimentation
priate amount of pressure. The net with this new piece of hardware.
effect is that it feels like a click, but But the bottom line is, this is a

85
 FEATURE REVIEW: 12-INCH MACBOOK
trackpad, and it feels like one—plus
it’s programmable.
KEYBOARD
One of the biggest compromises
Apple made in designing the Mac-
Book to be as thin and light as
possible was to create a new, thinner
keyboard. In order to make the
keyboard thinner, Apple reduced the
amount of key travel—the amount of
distance that the keys move when
you press them.
As someone who types for a living,
and who types roughly 115 words per
minute, this is a huge change. The
reduced key travel is instantly
noticeable—there’s just much less
THE MACBOOK’S KEYS
have much shallower
travel, and it’s my
biggest problem with
this laptop. (Then again,
I type an awful lot.)
physical feedback as you press each
individual key. It feels like a cross
between typing on a more traditional
Mac keyboard and tapping on the
hard glass screen of an iPad. (No
travel at all there!)
Apple seems to have realized that
the reduced travel has made this
keyboard less appealing, and has
attempted to offset the change with a
bunch of other changes that improve
the typing experience. There’s a new
butterfly key mechanism atop stain-
less steel dome switches, which
Apple says increases key stability,
and the keys are all a bit wider than
on a traditional keyboard, so there’s
more area to hit on each key.
86

These changes help, but they don’t
really offset the reduced travel. The
MacBook keyboard’s better than I
expected it to be—I was able to score
118 words per minute on TypeRacer
(typeracer.com) using it—but it never
felt particularly comfortable. If you’re
not a keyboard snob, you may not
even notice the difference, but if
there’s any single feature that would
make me reluctant to buy a MacBook,
it would be the keyboard.
Beyond the changes to the key
movement itself, this keyboard offers
a few other interesting features. Each
key is individually LED backlit, which
is supposed to reduce light leakage,
but I found the lighting of the key
labels not to be uniform. Edges of
THE ESC KEY
HAS BEEN
ELONGATED
AND THE
FUNCTION
KEYS
NARROWED...
several key labels (the left side of the
Esc key, the bottom of the delete and
tab keys) were darker, as if they
weren’t properly lit.
The Esc key has been elongated
and the function keys narrowed,
which didn’t really bother me.
However, the redesign of the arrow
keys really shook me–the up and
down arrows are still half-height, but
the left and right arrows are now full
sized. It turns out that I used the gaps
above the left and right arrow keys
on prior keyboards to orient by feel,
so I knew which arrow key was
which. On the MacBook’s keyboard,
there’s no longer a gap–and I kept
having to look down to make sure I
was tapping the up arrow key.
87
 FEATURE REVIEW: 12-INCH MACBOOK
PORT, JUST
THE ONE
The MacBook will probably go down
in history for a single reason: It’s got
a single port for both charging and
connecting to other devices, and that
port is of the USB-C variety.
First, the single port thing. MagSafe,
the magnetic charging technology
that has adorned all Apple laptops
since 2006, is gone. The MacBook
comes with a USB-C charging brick
and a USB-C-to-USB-C cable, and
that’s what you use to charge.
I have to say, I’m going to miss
MagSafe. I can pick up my MacBook
Air and push off the power connector
in one quick motion, but with the
MacBook I have to grab the laptop
with one hand and then pull the cord
out with the other hand. It’s the tiniest
of inconveniences, to be sure, but it’s
a regression nonetheless. And yes, if
someone trips over the power cable,
the MacBook will go flying.
The MagSafe connector included a
small LED that lit up to indicate that it
was attached and charging. That’s
gone, but in a nice touch, when you
insert the USB-C cable into the
MacBook (or plug the already-
inserted cable into the wall), the
MacBook sounds an iOS-style chime
to let you know it’s charging. There’s
no visual indication, however.
Then there’s the fact that this
MacBook is the very first Mac to ship
IT’S ANNOYING TO have
to buy cables and
adapters to use this
MacBook, but Apple’s
embrace of USB-C
will lead to cheaper,
with a USB-C connector. In a few more ubiquitous
cables in the long run.
years, this connector type will be
common, and we’ll not-so-fondly
remember the days of the original
USB port shape. But right now this is
a port type that’s on the cutting edge,
and the transition will be difficult.
When I first started up the MacBook,
I wanted to use Apple’s Migration
Assistant utility to move files from my
MacBook Air. I held down the T key
at startup to put the MacBook into
Target Disk Mode, and then I realized
that I had no way to connect it to any
other device I own. (I finally was able
to connect the MacBook to my
Ethernet network by attaching
Apple’s $29 USB Ethernet adapter to
Apple’s $19 USB-C to USB adapter,
and attaching that monstrosity to the
MacBook itself.)
As I write this, Monoprice has
announced a whole bunch of
USB-C cables (go.macworld.com/
monoprice), including one that
would’ve worked perfectly (go.
88
macworld.com/mono1) to attach the
MacBook to another Mac for target
mode. Belkin announced a similar
clutch of products (go.macworld.
com/belkin) a few weeks back. The
USB-C ecosystem is coming, and
that’s good, but out of the box
today the MacBook is basically not
compatible with anything you own.
You’ll need to buy a bunch of adapt-
ers and cables if you need to make
it work with the rest of the world. If
you ever need to hook into a
projector or other video display,
you’ll want to buy a USB-C video
THE USB-C ECOSYSTEM IS
adapter and carry it with you, COMING... BUT OUT OF THE
because for quite some time BOX TODAY THE MACBOOK
nobody else is going to have one
for you to borrow.
IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH
And then gradually, over time, the ANYTHING YOU OWN.
MacBook’s use of USB-C will cease
to be an issue. USB-C itself is an
exciting new technology. You don’t who are not plugging and unplugging
have to worry about whether you’re external devices every day, and there
plugging it in upside-down or not, so are more of those people now than
it’ll save you time and frustration. ever. But if you’re not one of those
Someone will make a great docking people, this is not the laptop you’re
station to use with it. This will all looking for.
become mainstream, eventually, but
right now it’s not. DISPLAY
Apple’s argument with the Mac- Everyone’s talking about the size of
Book, as it was back in 2008 with the the MacBook and its single USB port,
first MacBook Air, is that everything’s but the marquee feature of the
becoming wireless, so ports don’t product is really its screen. This
matter. That’s certainly more true now 12-inch retina display introduces
than it was seven years ago. The high-resolution Mac display good-
MacBook is a device built for people ness to a small, light laptop for the

89
 FEATURE REVIEW: 12-INCH MACBOOK
12-INCH MACBOOK: GEEKBENCH SCORES
SINGLE CORE MULTI-CORE
MacBook
(2015)
MacBook Air
(13 in. mid-2012, i5)
MacBook Air
(11 in. mid-2013, i7)
MacBook Air
(11 in. mid-2011, i7)
1814
iPad Air 2
first time ever. The display’s physical
resolution is 2304 by 1440 pixels,
meaning that at standard “2x” retina
resolution, it’s the equivalent of a
1152x720 display.
But here’s the thing: At that
resolution, the 12-inch display seems
small. Like, really small. Nearly
unusably small. So Apple has made
the decision to ship the MacBook
with its default resolution scaled to
emulate a 1280x800 display, roughly
the same screen area as you’d find
on an 11-inch MacBook Air. Fortu-
nately, the scaled resolution looks
really good. But after a little while, I
decided I wanted my display scaled
2416
4571
2549
5295
2995
6148
2388
4902
4500
even more, so I switched it to the
More Space setting, which emulates
a 1440x900 display, the equivalent
number of pixels as the 13-inch Air.
This was the setting I used for the
rest of my time with the MacBook.
The MacBook’s display is covered
edge-to-edge with glass, with a black
bezel underneath. This is the style
that the MacBook Pro line has had for
some time, but it’ll be a change for
MacBook Air users. The MacBook
Air’s display has a large silver bezel
around the screen, but this look is
much simpler and more attractive,
and I didn’t notice any real difference
in glare versus the Air’s display.
90
 NO NEED
FOR SPEED?
The MacBook is powered by Intel’s
Core M processor, which is designed
to be power-efficient and cool. (The
MacBook has no fan—it’s completely
silent, even when stressed out.) It’s not
designed to be fast, and by the
standards of all of Apple’s other current
laptops, it’s not. It’s not fast by the
standards of last year’s models. Or
those of the year before. I pulled out
every laptop in my house dating back
four years and the base model Mac-
Book is slower than all of them–though
to be fair, my four-year-old MacBook
Air is the top-of-the-line model. Still, it’s
not a stretch to say that the MacBook
is bringing 2010 performance to 2015.
Does it matter? If you’re a power
user who likes to read super-long
reviews of Apple laptops, it might. I
honestly gave some thought to not
even including test scores in this
91
 FEATURE REVIEW: 12-INCH MACBOOK
review, because if you’re the kind of
person who seeks the longest bar,
the MacBook just won’t please you.
But the Intel processors in Mac
laptops have been so powerful for so
long that I’m not sure it matters for
most users. I fancy myself a bit of a
power user, what with my Photoshop
and my Logic Pro, and you know
what? I was able to edit a multi-track
Logic project on the MacBook just
fine. Yes, bouncing the final project
to disk took longer than it does on
my 5K iMac or even my 2014 Mac-
Book Air, but it still exported.
Similarly, although the MacBook is
limited to 8GB of RAM, this seemed
sufficient for all of my tasks. If you’re
someone who can’t use a laptop if it
doesn’t have more than 8GB of RAM,
there are better options in Apple’s laptop
line—specifically, the MacBook Pro.
I never found using the MacBook
sluggish. Then again, I didn’t try to
play games on it. But again, if you’re
trying to play games on the Mac-
Book, you may be missing the point.
The integrated Intel HD Graphics
5300 processor is more than enough
to drive the Retina display with no
lag, and I found Apple’s various
interface animations ran smoothly.
Like a great many computer
features that used to be essential,
speed appears to have become a
high-end luxury. In 2010, if you
handed me a new laptop that was as
fast as the average Mac laptop from
2005, it would probably have felt
sluggish and unusable. But honestly, I
wouldn’t have any qualms using this
MacBook as a travel machine, just as
I’ve chosen to use the 11-inch Mac-
Book Air rather than a MacBook Pro.
Opting for a tiny, thin laptop doesn’t
mean you can’t get your work done.
It’s a lesson the 11-inch Air taught me,
and the MacBook fits that tale well.
BATTERY
By using the Intel Core M and
packing in a whole lot of battery,
Apple claims that the MacBook
boasts “all day battery life.” Of
course, these things are relative—
editing a Logic Pro project will suck
the battery out of even the hardiest
laptop. But in general, I was
extremely impressed with the battery
life of the MacBook.
During my testing (go.macworld.
com/sixcolors) I tried to spend as
long as possible between charges,
and was continually surprised at how
little the MacBook was draining its
battery. I spent most of a workday
with the MacBook in my living room
and at a nearby Starbucks and didn’t
get close to running out of battery.
It will take a long time to break
old-school laptop users out of the
habit of constantly seeking a power
plug in order to avoid “range anxiety,”
but if there’s a laptop that can do it,
92
it’s probably the MacBook.
BOTTOM LINE
The MacBook is a gorgeous piece of
hardware. The Retina display is
excellent, and I’m really loving the
Force Touch trackpad. The keyboard
is more of a hit-or-miss affair; if you’re
someone who is particular about your
keyboards and spends a whole lot of
time typing, it may be a deal-breaker.
This is a laptop that will serve its
audience well. That audience is one
that prioritizes size, weight, and
stylishness over compatibility and
ports and computing power. I’d say
that this isn’t a laptop for power users,
but I don’t think that’s true—there are
whole classes of “power users” who
don’t actually need more power than
the MacBook can provide.
But if your workflow includes lots of
USB flash drives and external hard
drives, if you’ve invested in Thunder-
bolt hard drives or displays, or if your
work really does require 16GB of RAM
and the very fastest processors
around, the MacBook won’t be a
good fit. Fortunately, Apple’s isn’t
ceasing production of the MacBook
Pro—and it offers all of that and more.
As a longtime user of the MacBook
Air line, I look at the MacBook with a
mix of excitement and trepidation. This
is the future of Apple’s thin and light
laptop line, as well as a warning that
we’re about to enter a transition period
for devices as Apple begins to
embrace USB-C. And ultimately that’s
the trade-off here: To get the cutting
edge technology, you’ve got to deal
with the incompatibilities and limita-
tions that go with it.
People who are willing to deal with
the pains in order to get their hands on
a product like this, you know who you
are. It’s waiting for you. The rest of the
world will catch up, in time. ■
93
 FEATURE

A P P L E W AT C H R E V I E W :

BEAUTIFUL FORM,
FRUSTRATING FUNCTION
BY SUSIE OCHS

94
 VIDEO
To view this
video, go to
go.macworld.
com/awatchvid

I
’m all-in on Apple products. At my house, I’ve got
two Macs, an Apple TV, an iPad, two iPhones, and
an Apple router. I’ve never owned an MP3 player
that wasn’t an iPod, or a tablet that wasn’t an iPad.
And now I’ve got an Apple Watch to converge my
Apple universe right on my wrist.

95
 FEATURE APPLE WATCH REVIEW
I really do like my Apple Watch, even
though it drives me crazy. It’s slow.
The navigation can be confusing. I
like wearing it, but I’m still unsure if I
want to wear it every day, forever (or
at least until there’s a new one). After
a week and two weekends of non-
stop use, it’s yet to change my game
in any profound or major way.
Apple calls the Apple Watch its
most personal product ever, and as
such, people’s reactions to it and
opinions about using it will be highly
subjective. One person might be
delighted by the gentle taps on the
wrist every time she gets a text
message, while another might find
those same taps jarring, and rush to
turn them off.
This review contains my subjective
opinions on the Apple Watch, intend-
ing to serve as a reality check for
anyone still on the fence. In a world
of Macs, iPhones, and iPads—not to
mention accessories, peripherals,
apps and services for them—we have
to prioritize our spending on technol-
ogy, and $350 and up is a lot to ask.
For a lot of people, I don’t think this
first-gen Apple Watch needs to make
the cut.
APPLE’S BANDS FEEL
FIT AND FINISH luxurious and are
That’s not to say you shouldn’t get easy to change, but
we hope more
one if you really want one, and I affordable third-party
understand why you would. The bands crop up too.
96
Apple Watch is a beautiful object. It
doesn’t dominate my entire arm like
a larger-screened Android Wear
watch or even a Pebble. At 10.5
millimeters thick, it protrudes from my
wrist enough that I do bang it on
doorways and walls occasionally, but
it doesn’t seem clunky or unwieldy.
(And I haven’t yet picked up a single
scratch, although your mileage may
vary, of course.)
I’m wearing the 38mm stainless
steel Apple Watch with the Milanese
Loop band. I love that the metal band
is comfortable and infinitely adjust-
able, and it goes with everything,
casual to dressy. The magnetic clasp
snaps shut and stays put, so I’m
never worried about it falling off or workouts on my stationary bike while THE APPLE WATCH
loosening in the slightest as I wear it. wearing the Milanese Loop, and it was looks great, and the
Milanese Loop goes
One day I had it on from 8 a.m. fine. Apple says the water resistance
with every outfit.
straight through until 1 a.m. (and the rating is IPX7 (not including leather
battery was still at 13 percent when I bands). So you can wear it while
took it off). By 1 a.m. the band was exercising, while outside in the rain,
starting to feel itchy, and I couldn’t and when washing your hands, but
wait to take it off, but usually it’s fine. submerging it isn’t recommended.
The Apple Watch Sport is a little bit IPX7 is technically rated as submerg-
lighter: My configuration weighs 73 ible in up to 1 meter of water for up to
grams (40 for the case, and 33 for the 30 minutes. So if you drop it in the
band), while my colleague Leah toilet accidentally, or jump in the
Yamshon’s 38mm Apple Watch Sport shower without taking it off, it should
with pink Sport Band weighs 67 be fine. Tim Cook says he showers
grams (25 case, 42 band). But the with his—I’m too nervous to try that
Apple Watch doesn’t feel heavy or myself, plus I wouldn’t want soap
cumbersome. gunking up my pretty Milanese Loop.
I’ve ordered a Sport band to wear Battery life has been excellent.
when running, but I’ve done lighter Using the Workout app hits the

97
 FEATURE APPLE WATCH REVIEW
battery a little harder, so if you work
out once (or more!) every day, you
might just barely make it to bedtime
with power left. But on days I don’t
use Workout (I’m typically up around
7 a.m. and go to sleep around
midnight), it’s rare for me to get
below 20 percent charge remaining
when it’s time to plug it in.
This definitely feels like a high-end
product, which shouldn’t surprise Apple
fans. But being pretty isn’t enough to
justify paying hundreds for the Apple
Watch and keeping it charged up and
strapped to your wrist every single day.
It’s got to be useful too.
WHAT’S THE POINT?
The Apple Watch isn’t designed to
suck in your attention—you’re
supposed to use it in small bursts, so
you aren’t holding your arm up in the
air interminably. For example, I used
the Phone app to call for a pizza, tell
someone I’d be late, and find out
when the library opened, but I
wouldn’t use it for a sit-and-chat call
with a friend. It’s handy for checking
the weather, periodically triaging
incoming email (after you’ve
skimmed a message, you can do a
deep “force press” to flag it for
follow-up or delete it), and looking
over new notifications to decide if
any of them are worth answering on
ON THE LEFT is the
your phone. 42mm Apple Watch
But most notifications do need to with black Classic
be dealt with on your phone. The Buckle. On the right
is the 38mm Apple
Apple Watch has Handoff, so you can Watch with Milanese
pick up on your iPhone and reply to Loop.
98
the same email you just saw on your MOST OF THE APPLE
Watch’s settings are
watch. (Just wake your phone and
configured in the
look for a Mail icon in the bottom left Apple Watch app for
corner. Swipe that up to open the iPhone—expect to
use it quite a bit in the
same message you’re viewing on
early days.
your watch.) You can reply to text
messages directly on the watch,
which is convenient as well as fun, but
dealing with notifications for Face-
book, Twitter, email, and most other
apps happens back on your iPhone.
The Apple Watch did get me to
rethink which notifications are
important. I like being able to see the
score of the Giants game from my
wrist, but I don’t need to know when
new podcast episodes are available
in Instacast. You can tweak which
notifications go to the watch in the
Apple Watch app for iPhone, and of
course you can adjust which notifica-
tions go to your iPhone in the Set-
tings app. But be prepared to spend wrist. I like how a workout isn’t
a lot of time fiddling with both in your counted as Exercise minutes if your
first week with the Apple Watch. I’ve heart rate isn’t high enough. But the
said it before, and I’ll say it again: I prompts to stand up and get active
hope Apple overhauls the notifica- aren’t as smart as I’d like: for exam-
tions system in iOS 9, because the ple, I hate when the Watch asks me to
Apple Watch just added another stand during my bus commute,
layer of complexity. especially because my phone can tell
when it’s in a vehicle. I would also
THINGS I LOVE love for the Watch to factor in what’s
ABOUT IT on my calendar, perhaps prompting
I’ve found Apple Watch’s fitness me to move for a few minutes right
features more motivational than before I’m scheduled for a long
using a Fitbit or a Jawbone UP2, meeting or call.
since the progress goal is right on my The Apple Watch excels as a

99
 FEATURE APPLE WATCH REVIEW
remote control. The Remote app is
great—I love being able to control my
Apple TV without hunting for the
actual remote. It’s got all the features
of that remote, and I can navigate
menus and select items without even
looking at the watch. The Now
Playing glance is terrific too, provid-
ing play/pause, forward/back, and
volume control for whatever app my
iPhone is using to play music.
I’m really looking forward to when
HomeKit finally launches (maybe with
iOS 8.4?), and I’m finally able to
access lights and security cameras
on the watch, and use Siri to set
scenes. It’s a little frustrating that
Apple didn’t launch HomeKit before
the watch, since the company started
teasing it nearly a year ago as part of
iOS 8, and we’re at 8.3 now.
I’m glad that the Apple Watch
opens Apple Pay to more users, too.
(Apple Watch requires an iPhone 5,
5c, 5s, 6, and 6 Plus, and of those,
Apple Pay only worked on the 6 and
Once you set up your cards
using the Apple Watch app on
your iPhone, you don’t even
need your iPhone present to
use Apple Pay on the watch.
6 Plus.) Once you set up your cards
using the Apple Watch app on your
iPhone, you don’t even need your
iPhone present to use Apple Pay on
the watch. It’s just as easy as using
your iPhone—two taps of the button
is all it takes to call up your card.
But it’s slightly more awkward,
because with the iPhone the screen is
pointed toward you, but with the watch,
you typically have to point the screen
to the reader. Still, you’ll feel a buzz and
hear a beep when your payment goes
through. I do feel more self-conscious
using my Apple Watch to pay for things
than my phone (it gets noticed!), but
that might fade over time, as the watch
becomes less novel.
I love getting wrist-taps to signal
turns when using the Maps app on
THE APPLE WATCH’S
ACTIVITY rings and
notifications have
motivated me better
than other fitness
bands and apps I’ve
tried.
100
the watch. When I’m in the car, I use
the iPhone to navigate, but I also like
to listen to podcasts, and it’s a drag
when the Maps app’s voice prompts
keep interrupting my podcast. But if I
turn off the voice prompts, I’m liable
to get too engrossed in the podcast,
space out, and miss my turn. So having
the watch tap me on the wrist—10
taps before a right turn, and 6 taps as
3 pairs for a left turn—is great. I tend
to still glance at the iPhone’s screen
in my Tackform dashboard mount to
confirm I’m turning onto the right
street, but it’s been great, and I’ll be
using Maps instead of Waze from
now on, at least when I’m listening to
podcasts on the road.
But the Maps app isn’t all bliss: I
quickly turned off its corresponding
glance because I don’t need to
pinpoint my position on a map very
often (maybe I’ll turn that back on
when traveling), and the Maps glance
loaded more slowly than any other
besides Heart Rate . . . which has a
reason to be slow!
THINGS I HATE
ABOUT IT
That brings me to my main complaint
with the Apple Watch: its poky
performance. Since the lion’s share
of the data it presents comes from
your iPhone, be prepared for lags.
Even scrolling around its face, the
refresh rate seems slow compared
with what I’m used to (and spoiled APPLE PAY TYPICALLY
with) on the iPhone and iPad. Loca- requires you to press
your screen right up
tion-based apps, like Maps and against the reader,
Weather, seem the slowest, as well but you’ll feel a buzz
as third-party apps that pull data from and hear a beep
when it works.
apps I haven’t used on my iPhone for
a while. The lagginess isn’t a deal-
breaker, but it is a bummer. The
watch is definitely the slowest Apple
product I’ve used in years.
Speaking of apps, with such a
small home screen, Apple should let
users hide built-in apps they don’t
plan to use. You’re stuck with each
app that comes on your Apple Watch,
and you can’t even banish them to a
folder like you can on your iPhone. I
don’t plan to use the Stocks app, but
it’s going to take up space on my
home screen anyway.
The timekeeping functions of the
watch are broken out into five sepa-
rate icons on your home screen: the
watch face, plus World Clock, Timer,
Alarm, and Stopwatch. I don’t want to
remote those functions from my Apple
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 FEATURE APPLE WATCH REVIEW

THE MAPS APP is

Watch entirely, but they really don’t
need to take up five icons—I would be
happy to hide the icons and launch
the apps with Siri, or just have Siri
interface with the apps for me. (She’s
happy to tell me what time it is in
Barcelona, or to set an alarm for 7
a.m.) Calling the un-delete-able,
un-hide-able Stocks app “bloatware”
seems a little harsh, but it really does
annoy me to no end that I don’t have
full control over my watch’s icons.
I’m also annoyed that the watch
keeps me so tethered to my iPhone.
Just being on the same Wi-Fi network
as your iPhone isn’t enough to main-
tain a connection—you need to be in
Bluetooth range as well. The Apple
Watch has both Wi-Fi (b/g/n) and
Bluetooth 4.0, but it seems to use
Bluetooth to broadcast its presence,
and only engages Wi-Fi to actually
transfer data. (I’ve asked Apple to
confirm this beyond what’s in the user
guide, but haven’t gotten a definitive
answer.) My house is pretty small (1100
square feet and cute as a button), so
I’m almost always in Bluetooth range
of my iPhone, even if it’s charging in
another room. But at the office, my
Apple Watch will lose the connection
to my iPhone on my desk once I get
more than 30 feet away, even though
the Wi-Fi network extends through the
entire floor. This isn’t a dealbreaker
either, but I had assumed I’d need
either Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, not both.
especially great if you
hate having your
music or podcasts
interrupted with
audible turn-by-turn
directions.
YOU CAN REARRANGE
the app icons, but
you can’t delete or
hide any of the
built-in apps.
JURY STILL OUT?
I have mixed feelings about some of
the Apple Watch’s other marquee
features as well.
DIGITAL TOUCH The exclusive
watch-to-watch communication
feature is fun to play with—an author
can tap my wrist from 3000 miles
away if I don’t notice that she submit-
ted a story for editing, which is great.
But drawing tiny images with your
finger is more whimsical than useful,
and sharing a heartbeat is almost too

102
intimate to do with anyone you’re not
getting naked in front of on a regular
basis. But I do think it’ll be the
biggest seller of his-and-hers Apple
products since FaceTime.
HANDOFF FOR SO MUCH I get
that you can’t—and shouldn’t—do
everything from the Apple Watch,
and using Handoff to send some
tasks, like answering email, back to
the phone is really the best way. But
when Siri hands me off for something
I can do on the watch, it’s frustrating.
If I ask Siri to play an unheard
voicemail, she hands me off to my
iPhone instead of launching the
Phone app on the watch, which has a
button for playing that voicemail.
SIRI Raising your arm should wake
your watch (if it doesn’t, go to
Settings on the watch and look for
Activate On Wrist Raise), and then
you can say, “Hey, Siri.” But I’ve
found this a little hit and miss.
Sometimes nothing happens. Some-
times Siri comes up and waits for me
to ask something. Sometimes Siri
pops up but immediately jumps to
processing what I said, but I didn’t
say anything, so I just have to wait
until she realizes I didn’t say anything
and asks me for a command. Press-
ing and holding the Digital Crown
has been more reliable. (Some
righties are even reorienting the
watch’s display so the Digital Crown
is on the bottom left instead of the
top right, just to make it easier to
press with the right thumb.)
BOTTOM LINE:
WHO’S IT FOR?
The Apple Watch isn’t an essential
FEELING ANOTHER
Apple Watch wearer’s
heartbeat on your
wrist is neat, but not
something you’ll do
very often.

WORLD CLOCK, the

watch face, and
Stopwatch all have
their own home
screen icons, as do
Timer and Alarm. The
apps are nice, but I
wish I didn’t need five
icons.

103
 FEATURE APPLE WATCH REVIEW
tool for most people. I can’t say that
“no one needs this” after reading
Molly Watt’s excellent piece (go.
macworld.com/mollywatt) about
using the Apple Watch as someone
with Usher’s Syndrome. She’s deaf
and blind, and the haptic feedback
and Digital Touch feature are already
making a big difference for her.
It absolutely isn’t perfect, but it
does what it set out to do, and I don’t
necessarily agree that Apple is trying
to make the watch do too much.
Different people will find different
killer uses for it, and those will
change over time as people use it
more and experiment with different
apps. I could go on and on about
how the watch is the perfect way to
navigate in the car while listening to
podcasts, but that’s a specific use,
and maybe only 10 percent of people
who read this will care—and only 10
percent of those will care enough to
spend $350 to solve that problem.
If you’re the experimental, early-
THE DIGITAL CROWN
makes scrolling
through lists in the
Music app pleasantly
tactile, just like the
Click Wheel did on
the iPod.
TO HEAR VOICEMAIL
on the Apple Watch,
I have to ask Siri to
launch the Phone app
instead.
adopter type, well, you already know
if you want it or not. If you’re on the
fence, I’d let the software mature and
the hardware get faster before
jumping in. It’s a lovely piece of
hardware, and the Apple Watch Sport
is a decent value since it does
everything the more expensive
versions do, but I think the respon-
siveness needs to improve, and the
process for adjusting notifications
needs to be overhauled, before it’s a
mainstream must-have. ■
104
Save a life. Don’t Drive HoMe buzzeD.
BUZZED DRIVING IS DRUNK DRIVING.
WORKING MAC Tips, Tricks, and Tools to Make You
and Your Mac More Productive

Take the hassle out of

scanning documents
Need to convert a paper document into a digital format?
Here are a few solutions that work well.
BY JASON CIPRIANI

106
S
canners are slowly going the way of fax machines.
Phone and tablet photo quality and software algorithms
continue to improve, and the devices don’t take up
precious desk space like a flatbed scanner does.

There are, however, a few problems SCANBOT

with switching over to a mobile-first
approach to scanning documents.
Speed, quality, efficiency, and cost
are all factors to consider.
The App Store has countless
apps that claim to be the best
scanning app for your iOS device. I
tried to sort through the noise,
catchphrases, and mumbo-jumbo to
find the best scanning apps that
work on both an iPhone and iPad.
Scanbot (go.macworld.com/scanbot)
is arguably the best designed app
out of this bunch. It looks right at
home on iOS 8, with fluid transitions
and fun animations throughout its flat
interface. For example, toggling the
switch to enable iCloud Drive sync
results in a wave animation. The
animation is simple and brief, as well
as a pleasant indicator that the app is
doing something based on your

SCANBOT 3.7.1
FOR iPAD

107
 WORKINGMAC SCANNING DOCUMENTS
interaction. Small touches like this go
a long way in creating a solid user
experience.
As for the main purpose of scan-
ning documents, Scanbot does a fine
job of that, as well. Launching the
app results in your camera automati-
cally being opened, ready to scan
any document placed in its way.
Actually, you don’t even have to
press a button to scan a document—
Scanbot does it automatically.
Gentle instructions are presented
on the screen, letting you know if
you’re too close or too far away from
what you’d like to scan. And when
you’re at just the right height, you’re
asked to stay still.
SCANNER PRO 5.5.4
FOR iPAD
Cloud storage is available with
Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote,
Box, and a few more services. Also
available is the ability to automati-
cally upload documents to your
preferred service once a scan is
complete. Again, a feature that’s
included for free.
An in-app purchase of $5 unlocks
OCR (optical character recognition),
smart naming of documents, themes,
and the option to passcode-lock the
app on your device.
With OCR, you can scan a docu-
ment and then copy and paste text
within it to another app or search
through your scanned library using
keywords.
108
SCANNER PRO
Scanner Pro (go.macworld.com/
scannerpro) is an app that’s received
high-praise from Macworld (go.
macworld.com/mwpraise), even
when it was listed in the App Store at
$7 in 2012. Fast-forward to today, and
it’s currently priced at $3 and offers
even more features than it did back
when we first reviewed it.
With Scanner Pro, you’ll also find
the ability to upload and sync files
using various cloud services. Auto-
matic upload is available, both on
Wi-Fi and cellular networks (can turn
the latter option off).
The process for scanning does
require a bit more interaction than
Scanbot, but it’s nothing to scoff it.
Point your camera at the document,
ensure it’s identified properly (a
transparent blue box is put over the
document) and snap the photo.
Continue snapping for multiple
pages, or save the document within
the app.
Once a document is scanned, you
can upload and share it via the usual
means, or you can fax it. Faxing is
done through the app, with the cost
of each scan calculated at the time of
sending and paid for via an in-app
purchase.
Unfortunately, Scanner Pro is
missing an OCR feature to recognize
text within a scan. This may sound
like a small detail, but for those who
rely on scanned documents to fill out
expense reports (or, say, business
cards for entering contact info), the
lack of this feature only creates extra
work.
NEATCONNECT
Even with the advances in technol-
ogy making mobile scanning a
possibility, there’s still something to
be said about a dedicated scanner
that’s smaller and connected. That’s
where the NeatConnect (go.mac-
world.com/neatconnect) comes in.
Forgoing the older, flatter, scanning
method, the NeatConnect sucks
NEATCONNECT
documents through one of three
different openings and spits them
out on the other side; after digitally
duplicating the documents, of course.
I was able to scan around thirty
business cards in a matter of sec-
onds, all of which were then
109
 WORKINGMAC SCANNING DOCUMENTS
uploaded to Neat’s cloud service.
Neat then attempted to identify
pertinent information on the cards
and create a contact entry on my
behalf. After verifying the informa-
tion, using either the iOS or OS X
app, I was able to add the contact to
my address book with a few taps.
For the most part, the service
properly identified the contact info.
In the instances where it was off, I
was able to manually adjust it and
then save it. Alternatively, you can
pay for NeatVerify credits for send-
ing a receipt or business card scan
to a real person, who then verifies its
contents.
One thing I experienced with
NeatConnect that you’ll never face
with a scanning app is a paper jam.
In fact, the first receipt I attempted to
run through the machine was eaten.
Subsequent tests resulted in better
outcomes, for the paper.
The biggest benefit of using
NeatConnect is speed. Whereas a
mobile scanning app makes you
scan one page at a time, you can
place a stack of documents, receipts,
or business cards in the appropriate
slot, tap a button and walk away.
WHEREAS A MOBILE
SCANNING APP MAKES YOU
SCAN ONE PAGE AT A TIME,
YOU CAN PLACE A STACK
OF DOCUMENTS, RECEIPTS,
OR BUSINESS CARDS IN THE
APPROPRIATE SLOT, TAP A
BUTTON AND WALK AWAY.
Once it’s done, NeatConnect will
upload everything to the cloud
account of your choosing (or email
it on your behalf).
Naturally, a drawback of using a
dedicated scanner is that it’s not
mobile. Neat, of course, thought of
that and offers a mobile application
for scanning on the go. Arguably,
Neat is the solution that best covers
all possible use cases, but unfortu-
nately it’s also the most expensive.
The NeatConnect is normally priced
at $500, with monthly Neat cloud
plans starting at $6 a month. I should
note, the monthly plan isn’t required
to use the scanner. That’s only if you
want to use Neat’s cloud service in
lieu of Dropbox or a similar service
to store your documents. ■
110
 SURE,
AT FIRST I WAS A LITTLE TAKEN ABACK
BY THE WHOLE PEEING STANDING UP THING.
BUT I TAUGHT HIM TO THROW A STICK
AND NOW HANGING OUT WITH HIM
IS THE BEST PART OF MY DAY.

— EINSTEIN
adopted 12-09-10
WORKINGMAC

Why I prefer CrashPlan

for online backups
I’ve tried them all: MozyHome, Backblaze, Carbonite, and Dolly
Drive. But I keep coming back to CrashPlan, Java app and all.
BY JOE KISSELL

112
A
s an enthusiastic evangelist for backups, I recom-
mend and use online backup services—not exclu-
sively, but as a simple way of maintaining secondary
backups offsite that would still be available even if my
Mac and backup drives were stolen or damaged. Among the
many providers of online backups, I personally prefer CrashPlan.
In fact, I liked it enough to write a book about it several years ago.

But increasingly, people have been services: Backblaze (backblaze.com),

asking me why I use CrashPlan
(crashplan.com)—not in an “Oh, just
wondering” way but in a “Seriously?
You? Still?” way, as if it should be
obvious to anyone that there are
better choices out there. So I’d like to
tell you why, and in the process offer
comparisons to a few competing
Carbonite (go.macworld.com/carbo-
nite), DollyDrive (dollydrive.com), and
MozyHome (go.macworld.com/mozy).
But let me preface my remarks by
saying that having good backups is
vastly more important than which app
or provider you use. If you’re happy
with a different provider, that’s terrific,

WITH ALL THOSE LINKS

and tabs, CrashPlan
looks more like a Web
page than a Mac app.

113
 WORKINGMAC CRASHPLAN

and I’m not here to convince you

to switch.

JAVA JIVE
The No. 1 worry I’ve heard about
CrashPlan is that it’s a Java app, an
increasingly rare animal in 2015.
Java (or, more specifically, the Java
Runtime Environment, or JRE) has
a long list of well-known security
issues (go.macworld.com/tidbits),
enough that Apple stopped including
it with OS X starting with 10.7 Lion. You
can still download Java from Oracle
(go.macworld.com/java) yourself if you
like, but Oracle has begun bundling
adware (go.macworld.com/adware)
with it, which makes it even more
unappealing. Apart from security
issues and ads, apps written in Java
tend to have somewhat odd-looking,
un-Mac-like user-interface elements.
And indeed, the CrashPlan app looks
more like a series of web pages than
a Mac utility.
CrashPlan developer Code 42
publicly stated a few years ago that a
native Mac app was in the works, but
for some reason it has so far failed to
materialize. Instead—perhaps as an
interim measure while the native app
is being perfected—CrashPlan now
bundles its own copy of Java. That
means you can run CrashPlan on
your Mac without having to download
Oracle’s Java—it behaves just like a
stand-alone app. More importantly,
CrashPlan’s built-in version of Java WHILE BACKBLAZE is
is self-contained, inaccessible to easy to use, a few of
its quirks drove me
other Java apps and to websites, away.
which are where most Java security
exploits originate. And it doesn’t
include the adware.
So although I could wish for a
more modern, Mac-like look and feel,
CrashPlan’s use of Java is a non-
issue when it comes to security.
ONLINE BACKUP BASICS
In terms of basic features, online
backup services are more alike
than different.
All the services I looked at let you
specify which files (or file types) to
include or exclude, although they
make different assumptions about
which ones to select by default. None
of them will let you restore your entire
Mac (including OS X and apps) to a

114
bootable state, so they avoid backing
up those files in the first place and
instead focus on user-created data
such as the contents of your home
folder (/Users/you).
Most of these services can back
up your data to local hard drives as
well as to the cloud. But CrashPlan is
the only one that offers peer-to-peer
backups too: I set aside some space
on my backup disk for your files, you
do the same for me, and our Macs
back up data to each other over
the Internet, but without relying on
third-party cloud storage. (Your data
is kept encrypted the whole time so I
can’t see your files, even when your
backups are on my disk.)
CRASHPLAN VS.
THE COMPETITION
CrashPlan lets you use its app for
local or peer-to-peer backups for free
(with some restrictions, such as only
one backup per day). Paying for
online storage also gets you continu-
ous backups, stronger encryption,
mobile access, and a few other
features. Pricing starts at $6 per
month for unlimited backups from a
single computer, or you can save by
paying for one year ($60), two years
($115), or four years ($190) at a time.
CrashPlan’s Family Plan covers
unlimited data for up to 10 computers,
and it’s a better deal if you have
three or more computers to back
CRASHPLAN GIVES YOU
the flexibility to
restore any version
of a file to either the
original location or
another destination
of your choice.
115
 WORKINGMAC CRASHPLAN
up. The Family Plan costs $14
monthly, $150 for one year, $290
for two years, or $430 for four years.
What about the others?
Backblaze: I’ve heard nothing but
positive comments about Backblaze.
I’ve met the guys who run the
company, and they’re great. The
native Mac software is clear, reliable,
and easy to use, and it worked well
for me during the year or so I used
it. So I’m reluctant to criticize it, but I
do have a few bones to pick.
First, file restoration drives me
nuts. You log in to your account on
the Backblaze website and select the
file(s) you want to restore, and what
you get back is a Zip file containing
those files—in a replica of their
original folder structure. So, if you
restore a single file that was stored
10 levels deep in a series of nested
folders, your expanded Zip file will be
a series of 10 nested folders with
your file inside the last one. After
digging down to it, you’ll have to
drag it manually to the corresponding
spot on your disk. That’s a minor
inconvenience for one file, but a
huge hassle if you’re restoring lots
of files from different locations.
By contrast, the CrashPlan app
gives you the option to restore any
file to its original location—either
overwriting or renaming any file of
the same name. Which is exactly
what I want, 90 percent of the time.
Or, if you prefer, you can restore files CARBONITE CAN ALSO
to your Desktop or any other arbi- help you move your
user account to a
trary folder. new Mac.
My second issue involves pricing.
Backblaze costs $5 per month (or
$50 per year, or $95 for two years),
per computer, for unlimited storage.
That’s pretty good, and slightly lower
than CrashPlan’s annual, single-user
fee. But my family currently has three
Macs that need online backups, so
Backblaze would cost us $142.50 per
year. With CrashPlan’s Family Plan,
paid for four years at a time, my total
family cost works out to just $108
per year. If I were backing up 10
computers, CrashPlan would save
me $1,470 over four years compared
to Backblaze.
Finally, and least significantly,
Backblaze lets you back up external
drives, but the only destination is the
cloud. If you want local backups, too,
116
you’ll have to use another app, such
as Time Machine. Peer-to-peer
backups aren’t supported at all.
Carbonite: Carbonite is the only
online backup service I’ve seen
advertised on TV, and it seems to
be both well known and widely
respected. Unfortunately, although
Carbonite is pretty good on
Windows, the Mac version lacks a
number of features I consider essen-
tial, including versioning (go.mac-
world.com/versions), storing old
versions of backed-up files after the
original changes. Only Windows
users with a Plus or Prime plan can
back up external hard drives or
create local backups. By default,
Carbonite backs up any new or
changed file only once per day, which
is far too seldom in my opinion.
Carbonite Basic for Mac costs $60
per year per computer for unlimited
storage. You can get multi-year
discounts (such as $162 for three
years) but there’s no family plan. (Pro
plans to back up multiple computers
start at $270 per year for 250GB.)
DollyDrive: DollyDrive started out
as a cloud destination for Time
Machine backups, but later morphed
into a stand-alone cloud backup and
sync service that doesn’t require
Time Machine (a smart move). You
can back up data on both internal
and external drives, and the Dolly-
Drive software can also clone your
Mac’s disk to an external drive.
DOLLY DRIVE CAN HELP
you find files based
on which application
created them.
117
 WORKINGMAC CRASHPLAN

The software is prettier and easier

to use than CrashPlan’s, although
less flexible.
But unlike the other services
mentioned so far, DollyDrive doesn’t
offer unlimited storage. Pricing tiers
start at $10 per month for 250GB of
data (discounted to $96 per year or
$168 for two years) and go all the
way up to 8TB for $198 per month.
On the other hand, DollyDrive’s
Family Plan, which lets up to 10
computers share the same account,
is available at no extra charge. So
depending on how much data your
Macs need to back up, it could turn
out to be less expensive than Crash-
Plan’s Family Plan.
MozyHome: EMC’s MozyHome
was one of the first modern mass-
market online backup services,
originally offering unlimited backup
storage for $5 per month per computer
(equal to Backblaze’s current pricing).
But now the prices are higher and
more complicated. You can store
50GB of data from one computer for
$6 per month, $66 per year, or $126
for two years, or 125GB from one
computer for $10 per month, $110 per
year, or $210 for two years. Add extra
computers for $2 each per month,
and extra storage at $2 per 20GB
per month. All that makes Mozy-
Home’s cost per gigabyte significantly MOZY CAN HELP
MIGRATE data from
higher than the competing services. an old Windows PC
Pricing aside, MozyHome has a nice to a new Mac.
set of features, including cloud sync of
selected files. Alas, only the Windows
version supports using a local hard
drive as a backup destination.
FINAL THOUGHTS
For me, the choice to use CrashPlan
is partly a matter of its helpful fea-
tures (notably local and peer-to-peer
backups, and flexibility in how files
are restored) and partly a matter of
economics—it gives me the most
bang for the buck given my family’s
backup needs. If you’re on the
fence about CrashPlan (or any of the
others), download a trial version,
put it through its paces, and see for
yourself if it meets your needs. ■

118
 Ready.gov/business

Up to 40% of businesses never recover after experiencing a major disaster.

Do you have a plan to keep your business running if disaster strikes?
For a free online tool that helps you develop an emergency plan,
visit Ready.gov/business.
WORKINGMAC

IN A PINCH, FACETIME
CALLS between iOS
devices can be used
to make remote
support possible
for technically
challenged family
members.

3 easy ways to share a Mac’s screen,

great for long-distance tech support
BY J.R. BOOKWALTER

120
P
art of the beauty of buying a Mac is that it will mostly
live up to Apple’s classic mantra: “It just works.” (At least
when compared to systems running Windows, that is.
Or when you’re trying to set up the new MacBook.) But
what happens when it no longer does?

SCREENS 3 IS THE
CLOSEST thing you
can get to sitting in
front of a remote
Mac, but you’ll pay
handsomely for the
privilege.

That’s generally when the tech
support emails or phone calls from
family and friends begin pouring
in. After all, as loyal Apple users,
we practically insist our loved ones
also buy Macs, effectively turning
us into unpaid Geniuses at the first
sign of trouble.
This may not be a problem if the
afflicted Mac was in the next room,
down the street, or even across town,
but what happens when it’s located
too far away to drive over and offer
assistance in person? That’s where
screen sharing comes to the rescue,
offering a remote helping hand from
hundreds, or even thousands, of
miles away.
SCREENS TO THE RESCUE
One of our hands-down favorite
methods for accessing a remote Mac
is Screens (edovia.com/screens), a
virtual network computing (VNC)
solution available for OS X and iOS.
With support for clipboards, multiple
displays, and a customizable toolbar,
Screens is the next best thing to

121
 WORKINGMAC EASY WAYS TO SHARE A SCREEN
actually sitting in front of a distant
computer.
Best of all, developer Edovia offers
a free Screens Express utility
designed to allow temporary access
to any Mac running OS X 10.8 Moun-
tain Lion or later through a shareable
link, making it perfect for impromptu
tech support calls from loved ones.
To get started, point the owner of
the ailing Mac to the Edovia website
and have them download the latest
version (go.macworld.com/edovia).
Once installed, Screens Express will
verify that the router is set up prop-
erly, and if not, it will go through the
process of opening a public port
capable of serving up
the necessary incoming remote
connection.
The remote user will need their
administrator username and pass-
word to allow such configuration to
take place, so be prepared for at
least one phone call prior to being
able to log in. (Edovia also has an
extensive Troubleshooting section
on its website for tough cases where
UPnP or NAT port mapping is dis-
abled or unavailable, including a
Google search form tuned to specific
router brands and models.)
MAKING THE CONNECTION
Once Screens Express is actually
running, the remote user will see a
green dot and the words “Configura-
tion successful,” along with a button
to share a link to the Mac in question.
Clicking this button opens the built-in
Share options, which include Mail,
Messages, Twitter, Facebook, and
any other services configured on
that system.
SCREENS 3 KEEPS A
LIBRARY of available
Macs, which can
include those in your
local network as well
as remote systems.
122

Email and text
messages are the
most direct of the
available options, so
have the remote
user send one to
you, and then click
or tap that link to
open Screens at
your end and initiate the connection.
The remote user will need to authenti-
cate the connection by clicking the
Share Screen button that pops up,
and within a moment, their screen
should appear on your Mac or iOS
device.
The beauty of Screens Express is
that the remote user remains in full
control of the experience: They
can close the connection at their
end, or choose to create a new link
whenever the utility is launched for
extra security.
Although Screens is one of the
fastest and easiest ways to get
connected, there are a couple of
CONNECTING TO a
remote Mac is a
snap with the free
Screens Express
utility.
THE REMOTE USER
must confirm the
screen sharing
request before
a connection is
made.
potential downsides. For one, the
Mac and iOS apps are not cheap
($30 and $20, respectively), although
we consider them indispensable
even for infrequent use. Also, the
remote Mac will need to be of fairly
recent vintage—this tip won’t do
much good for anyone still rocking
an older Mac running OS X 10.7 Lion
or earlier.
THE FREE OPTION
If you can get by with a less elegant
(and therefore less expensive)
screen-sharing option, there’s
another tool for the job, and it won’t
cost a dime—at least for noncommer-
123
 WORKINGMAC EASY WAYS TO SHARE A SCREEN
cial use, which definitely applies in
the case of homegrown tech support
for family and friends.
TeamViewer (teamviewer.com) is
actually equivalent to a Swiss Army
knife for remote support, offering
screen sharing as well as the ability
to video-chat, share presentations,
and transfer files between systems.
Best of all, the software requires no
login—TeamViewer connects using
nothing more than a nine-digit ID
code and randomly generated
password.
To begin, download and install the
full version of TeamViewer (go.
macworld.com/teamviewer) on your
own Mac first, then instruct your
family member to do the same for the
TeamViewer QuickSupport version, a
stripped-down edition optimized for
instant support and minimum fuss.
Have them make note of the unique
ID and password, then enter those
credentials under the “Control
Remote Computer” section of your
own installation, making sure the
Remote Control option is selected.
TeamViewer may not be a glamor-
ous option, but it definitely gets the
job done in a pinch, and it works
great with older Macs. The company
even maintains download links for
previous versions (go.macworld.com/
tvprevious), which allowed us to
connect to an early 2005 Power Mac
G5 stuck on Mac OS X Leopard
10.5.8—just the kind of trustworthy
relic a longtime Mac user might pass
down to a family member.
WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS
As great as Screens or TeamViewer
may be, software-based options won’t
do a thing to help in cases where the
Mac in question refuses to start or is
having other hardware-related issues.
Those are generally cases in which
the system will require a trip to the
local Genius Bar anyway, but it would
be nice to remotely diagnose such
problems beforehand first.
If your distant relative has the
same good taste in Apple products
you do, chances are they also have
an iPhone, iPad, or even iPod touch
ONE BIG ADVANTAGE
with TeamViewer is
the ability to install
older versions when
working with older
Macs.
124

lying around—and if they do, Face-
Time makes a pretty great down-and-
dirty tech support system. (In a pinch,
Skype, Google Hangouts, or similar
VoIP services will work, even from
Android smartphones or tablets.)
Make a FaceTime connection the
usual way, have your family member
switch to the rear camera, and then
guide them through pointing the iOS
device in the general direction of the
troubled Mac. This also works great
for technically challenged family
IT’S NOT AS PRETTY,
but TeamViewer gets
you connected to a
remote Mac with a
minimum of effort.
members and friends unable to
install the necessary client software
for our previous solutions, assuming
they can hold the device steady and
close enough to make the screen
readable at your end.
One last word of advice: If you’re
helping a loved one purchase and set
up a new computer, install the neces-
sary client software for remote access
at the same time! You’ll thank yourself
when the inevitable first late-night
support call comes through. ■
125
CREATE Using the Web for Video, Graphics, Publishing,
Photography, and Other Creative Pursuits

Beat boredom with these fun

photo ideas for iPhone and iPad
All you need for these creative photo projects is an iPhone or
iPad and a couple of free apps.
BY JEFF CARLSON

126
T
rapped inside due to weather? Itching to make photos
but you’ve been too busy? Or do you just have a few
hours to kill? It’s easy to think we can’t capture photos
unless we wake up before dawn to welcome the sun-
rise or travel to picturesque locales, but fun photos can be made
anywhere and at any time. They also don’t require expensive,
dedicated photo gear. Here are three photo ideas for boring
days that you can create with an iPhone or iPad.

FUN WITH LONG EXPOSURES

The iPhone and iPad cameras are
designed to capture the best possible
image in a fraction of a second,
without your worrying about the
individual capture settings. But it’s
within those particulars, namely the
shutter speed, that you can have fun.
Using an app such as Manual
(shootmanual.co), Long Expo Pro
(eyetapsoft.com), or Slow Shutter Cam
(go.macworld.com/shutter), you can
play around with longer shutter
speeds. Generally, a longer speed is a leisurely 60 seconds before it stops BLUR, BABY, blur. Long
Expo Pro lets you
used in dark situations to bring more recording the image. Both of the latter
play with
light to the image sensor. There’s a apps also include a Bulb mode that shutter speeds to
drawback, though: if anything moves keeps capturing until you press the create more abstract
results.
in the frame, it ends up blurry. shutter button again.
But on a boring day, that’s where Long Expo Pro and Slow Shutter
things get creative. Keeping the also include modes that are designed
shutter open results in interesting to enhance motion blur or star trails,
visuals when you move something in even in daylight where normally a long
front of the camera lens (or move the exposure would wash out the image.
device itself). Manual can keep the
shutter open for up to half a second CLONE YOURSELF AND
(shown as 0”5); Long Expo Pro can do OTHERS
16 seconds; and Slow Shutter can wait It’s not possible to actually clone

127
 CREATE FUN PHOTO IDEAS

CAPTURE YOUR subject in a variety of poses.

To combine the images, open

Photoshop Mix (go.macworld.com/
mix)—it’s free, but it requires an
Adobe ID, which you can get for free
online (accounts.adobe.com) or in the
app. Create a new project by tapping
the + button, and then choose two of
ourselves (which would finally enable the images.
me to do all my laundry), but we can Next, use the Cut Out tool to draw
photograph whimsical scenarios over the subject. Don’t forget to
where we appear multiple times. The select any shadow areas created by
trick is to take multiple photos and the person’s placement (like the
combine them into one. shadow to the right of the girl’s legs).
To save yourself a lot of hassle When you release your finger from
when merging the photos later, put
DRAW OVER the area
your iOS device on a tripod or other you want to keep.
stable mount so it doesn’t move
between exposures. Then, capture
two or more photos where the
subject (you or someone else)
appears in different locations within
the frame. Make sure you don’t place
the person where he or she might
overlap one of the other positions,
and keep an eye out for shadows that
would normally fall across them all.

128
the screen, the app creates a mask,
hiding everything in the photo
except for the area you selected.
The other photo shows through,
combining the two into one image.
Mix works only with two images at
a time; if you want to add more
clones, export the combined image
to the Camera Roll, and then create
a new project with that as the base.
CREATE A TIME-LAPSE MOVIE
Fun photos don’t need to be limited to
still images. Apple’s Camera app now
includes a Time-Lapse feature that
captures one image every 8 seconds,
then stitches those shots together to
make a video. The video can be of
anything: light moving across a floor,
snow falling outside, people moving
around in a room. This is another
example illustrating the helpfulness of
a tripod or other mount, but one is not
required. In the Camera app, frame
your subject and swipe the screen to
switch to Time-Lapse mode. I recom-
mend locking the focus and exposure
by pressing and holding an area of
the screen until you see a yellow
indicator that reads AE/AF LOCK. That
prevents unexpected color and
exposure shifts during the course of
the recording. And because captures
take a long time, you may want to
plug the device into a power source
while shooting. Tap the Record button
to start, and then come back later and
FIRST SET your focus
and exposure and
lock it. I’m going to
take a time-lapse
of the sun moving
shadows across this
chair.
tap it again to stop. It should turn out
something like the video below.
I also recommend the free app
Hyperlapse (hyperlapse.instagram.
com) for easy time-lapse creation.
When you want more control over
how often the shutter fires, look at
Lapse It (lapseit.com).
MAKE BORING FUN
A friend of mine used to say that
boredom doesn’t exist—if you’re
feeling bored, then go do something
about it. With a camera, even the one
in your iPhone or iPad, you can soon
pass the time and have fun making
new photos. ■
VIDEO
To view this
video, go to
go.macworld.
com/timevid
129
 CREATE

7 reasons to love QuickTime Player

Apple’s free, light video player has some capabilities Photos and iPhoto lack:
recording videos, making simple edits, even recording your iPhone or iPad’s screen.
BY LESA SNIDER

130
T
he QuickTime Player app lives a lonely, quiet life in the
Applications folder of many Macs. It’s often ignored
because folks assume it’s just a video playback app.
This couldn’t be further from the truth. Here are a few
useful things you can do to your videos in QuickTime Player that
you can’t do in iPhoto or the new Photos app.

RECORD VIDEO AND AUDIO PRESENT OR RECORD YOUR

Using the built-in camera on your iPHONE OR iPAD SCREEN
Mac (or even a USB webcam), you QuickTime Player can show or
can record your own video. You can record a live view of whatever is
also record audio using your Mac’s happening on your iOS device. If
built-in microphone, an external mic, you’re using your Mac for a presen-
or a musical instrument connected tation, this trick lets you show your
with a USB cable. Or perhaps you iOS device’s screen centered within
want to record what’s happening on your Mac’s screen. USE THE MENU shown
here to pick your iOS
your screen—say, for a video tutorial. To do it, attach your iOS device to device for display or
QuickTime Player can do that, too. your Mac via a USB cable and then recording.
To do it, choose File → New Movie
Recording, New Audio Recording, or
New Screen Recording. The first two
options require that you pick an
input source and quality, and then
you click the red Record button. The
last option summons a pane with the
Record button and a couple of audio
options: click once to record your
entire screen, or drag to specify a
particular area to record. When
you’re finished, click the Record
button again (when recording your
screen, a black Record button choose File → New Movie Recording
appears in your menu bar). Once in QuickTime Player. Point your
you stop the recording, the file cursor at the QuickTime window and
opens in QuickTime Player, so be the Record button appears. From the
sure to choose File → Save to save it. menu next to it, pick your iPhone or

131
 CREATE QUICKTIME PLAYER
iPad from the list of cameras. You
(and your audience) will then enjoy
the biggest version of your iOS
device you’ve ever seen! To record
the action, click Record.
ROTATE OR FLIP A CLIP
If your video needs to be flipped or
rotated, reach into the Edit menu for
the Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Flip
Horizontal, and Flip Vertical com-
mands. Many a Mac user has gone
blind trying to locate the same
commands in iPhoto or Photos,
because while both programs can
rotate pictures till the cows come
home, they can’t twirl a video.
SPLIT AND COMBINE VIDEO
CLIPS
To split a video clip into two (or more)
pieces, open a file and choose View
→ Show Clips (or press Command-E),
and then drag the QuickTime Player
playhead (it’s circled above) to the
spot where you want the video to
split. Choose Edit → Split Clip (or
press Command-Y), and you see both
THIS PLAYHEAD MARKS
the spot where the
clip will split (top).
Now you have two
clips; click one clip
to deselect the other
so you can scoot it
around in your video
(bottom).
clips highlighted in yellow.
At this point, you can insert
another clip (as described next) or
rearrange the clips by dragging them
left or right. If you split the clip into
three chunks, you can select the
middle one (a yellow outline appears
around it) and zap it by pressing the
Delete key on your keyboard.
To combine clips, open one clip
and then choose Edit → Add Clip to
End. In the Open dialog box, double-
click the clip you want to tack on. You
can also drag icons of video clips
from the Finder into a video window.
QuickTime Player adds them to the
end of the existing video. (You can
then repeat the process to combine
several clips.)
If you want the second video to
appear somewhere in the middle of
THE NEW FOOTAGE appears after the clip that’s
currently selected .
132

the first one, split the clip
and then click the clip
that appears just before
the spot where the new
video will go. Choose
Edit → Insert Clip After
Selection, and in the
resulting dialog box,
double-click the video
file you want to bring in. You can also
drag a video file from the Finder
directly into the gap between two
video clips.
EXPORT AND SHARE
When you’re finished editing your
video, choose File → Export and you
get the usual roundup of resolution
options (480, 720, and 1080p),
settings for iOS devices and Apple TV,
and an option to export audio only.
The iTunes option gives you these
same iOS and Apple TV optimized
settings, but sends the video file
directly into your iTunes library.
DEPENDING ON THE size of your
movie, all iOS/Apple TV export
options may not be available
(top). (When you pick Facebook,
you can specify privacy and add
a description (bottom).
For quick exporting and sharing
with others, choose File → Share. The
resulting menu includes Mail, Mes-
sages, AirDrop, and the social media
sharing sites Vimeo, Facebook, Flickr,
and YouTube. Pick your poison and
QuickTime optimizes your video for
that particular program or service.
To save the changes to your video
file, choose File → Close, and in the
resulting dialog box, name your
newly edited video and click Save. To
see the edited video over in iPhoto
or Photos, just import it. (Happily,
Photos lets you include videos in
saved slideshow projects!) ■
133
CREATE

5 surprising
tips for
Apple’s new
Photos app
BY LESA SNIDER

134
M
ost of the reporting about Apple’s new Photos app
logically focuses on getting your pictures into the pro-
gram, dealing with iCloud Photo Library (the syncing
service used to copy all your pictures onto all your
devices), discussing the Adjustment panel’s smart sliders, and so on. In
this column, you’ll learn a few slick Photos tricks that you may not have
read about anywhere else. Read on and prepare to be impressed!

EIGHT LEVELS SLIDERS channel, which produces a histo-

Photos sports some seriously
advanced image-editing controls in
its Adjustments panel, the most
powerful of which is Levels. But
wherein a Levels adjustment in
Photoshop or Photoshop Elements
has just three sliders, Photos’ has
eight. This gives you precise control
over the brightness levels—hence
the adjustment’s name—of all the
tones in your image. For example,
you can control brightness levels in
just the darkest shadows, just the
midtones, just the lightest highlights,
in the tones that fall between shad-
ows and midtones, and in the tones
that fall between midtones and
highlights (and you can control which
tones are affected by the latter two
by using the sliders perched at the
top of the histogram).
Plus, you can adjust the RGB
histogram—the one that shows the
red, green, and blue graphs superim-
posed atop each other—or each
color channel’s individual histogram.
You can also adjust the luminance
gram based on how our eyes
perceive color. To open a Levels
adjustment, open the Adjustments
panel, click Add, and choose Levels
from the resulting menu.
PHOTOS’ EIGHT LEVELS
sliders (one is hidden
behind this menu).
ADD TEXT TO ANY SLIDE IN A
SLIDESHOW PROJECT
Yes, you read that right—you can
add custom text to any slide. To do
it, activate a slide in a saved slide-
show project and click the + symbol
at the lower right of the Photos
window (not shown). From the
resulting menu, choose Add Text.
Highlight the placeholder text that
appears and enter whatever you
want. You can’t change the position

135
 CREATE PHOTOS TIPS
of the text, but you can change fonts,
size, and text color using OS X’s
Fonts panel.
CUSTOMIZE PAGES IN A
BOOK PROJECT WHILE
VIEWING ALL THE PAGE
THUMBNAILS
Happily, you can change page
layouts, swap pictures between
pages, and add pictures to pages
while you’re viewing all the page
thumbnails in a book project (in other
words, you don’t have to double-click
a page to do it). As a result, you get a
much broader view of the overall
book project than you ever did in
iPhoto because you can see all the
PRESS COMMAND-T
to summon the Fonts
panel. Using the
eyedropper tool in
OS X’s Colors panel,
you can steal a color
that exists in the
image and use it
for text.
pages while you’re designing the
layout. To swap pictures between
pages, click and hold your mouse
button until the picture on the page
sprouts a blue border, and then drag
it atop an image on another page. To
move the pages themselves, click to
activate them and then drag the
handle that appears underneath
them.
To change the layout of a page,
click to activate the page and then
open the Layout panel by clicking the
button circled below. Scroll through
the resulting Layout panel to find the
layout you want, and give it a swift
click to apply it. If you’ve got any
unused images in your project, they
136
 THE LAYOUT PANEL
gives you access
to all the page
layouts a design vignette bigger, or to the left to
theme contains. make it smaller. Use the Softness
slider to control the width of the
transition area between what is
darkened and what isn’t—drag it
right to increase the feather effect,
thereby making the transition wider
and softer. Click the blue circle with
a white checkmark to toggle the
vignette off and on, to see a before
and after.

EDIT A SLOW-MOTION VIDEO

appear in the Unused section at the
bottom of the window—just drag a
photo onto a page to place it.
When you capture a slow-motion
video on your iOS device, the
footage seems to start out fast,
then it slows in the middle and THE KEY TO swapping
speeds up again at the end; but pictures between
that’s not really what’s happening. pages is to keep
holding down your
In the background, your iOS device mouse button until
captures the entire video at a high the picture itself, not
frame rate (120 or 240 frames per the page, is active.

ADD A CUSTOM DARK EDGE

VIGNETTE
You can easily apply a customizable
dark-edge vignette to any picture.
Open an image in Edit mode and
click Adjust (or press the A key on
your keyboard). Next, click the Add
button in the upper right and choose
Vignette from the resulting menu.
Use the Radius slider to change the
size of the vignette or, rather, the size
of the area over which it’s visible—
drag it to the right to make the

137
 CREATE PHOTOS TIPS

A DARK EDGE vignette gives

your portrait a classy
and elegant final touch,
and helps tone down a
distracting background.
Your author’s kickboxing
instructor, Ms. Logevall, is
pictured here.

second, to be exact), which is what sleeves. Apply what you’ve learned

creates the illusion of slow motion. here, and you’ll be a creative force to
The iOS device merely speeds up the be reckoned with! ■
beginning and end of the video, but
you can change the timing of that P HOTOLESA . COM F OUND E R LE SA

speed-up and slow-down. Open a S N ID E R TEACHES THE WOR LD TO

slow-motion video in Photos on your C R EATE B ETTER G R A PHI CS . SH E’ S TH E

Mac or in Photos on your iOS device, AU THOR OF THE B EST- S EL LI NG PH OTO-

and a row of tick marks with two S HOP: THE M ISSING M A NUA L BOOK S,

handles appears. Drag the handles to C OAUTHOR OF i PHOTO: T HE M IS SI NG

mark where you want the action to M A N UA L, AUTHOR OF T HE S KI NNY

slow down and speed up again. To BOOK EB OOK SER IES, A FOU ND I NG

slow the entire video, position the C R EATIV ELIV E IN STR UCTOR , A ND A

handles at the far left and far right. R EG ULA R COLUM N IST FOR PH OTOS HOP

As you can see, Apple’s Photos U SER A ND PHOTO ELE ME NTS T EC H-

app has several surprises up its N I Q UES M AGA ZIN ES.

138
 S U B S C R I B E T O D AY !

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HELP DESK Answering Your Questions and Sharing Your
Tips About Getting the Most From Your Mac

Mac 911
Solutions to your most vexing Mac problems.
BY GLENN FLEISHMAN

Where did you go?

Photos’ different approach to displaying location information embedded in a
photo or video’s metadata have caused the most consternation, because
Apple has chosen an entirely different approach.
Jason Snell addressed how to geotag photos without using Photos (go.

140
macworld.com/geotag). But readers
are still trying to find out how to see
locations on a map. Here’s some
more information on that. Wayne
Koabel’s question was typical: “After
[the] change to Photos from iPhoto, I
can not find any places in my Source
list. How do I access the Places map
in the new program?”
Media retain geotagging, but that
information isn’t presented in a single
map view. However, if you select View
→ Metadata → Location, a pushpin-in-
a-square icon overlays the lower left
of an image or video. (More on this
Metadata item later.)
With the Info pane visible (Windows
→ Info), any image, video, or multiple
WITH MULTIPLE MEDIA ITEMS selected with at least
one geotagged item, the Info pane shows grouped
placement on a map.
IMAGES REVEAL that they have a location tag with
an overlaid pushpin-on-a-square icon, as long as
that metadata detail is set to display.
selection that contains geotagging
information will appear on a map at
the bottom of the pane.
With nothing selected, the Info
pane shows the coarse placement of
all the photos in your library. You can
zoom in to see fine detail about
where images are clustered, but
there’s no way to select a moment
from that map, which seems like an
oversight.
When viewing moments, if there
are one or more geotagged media
items in the set, the label for that
place or range of places appears as
the moment name in bold. To the
right of the moment’s name, a
broader place name appears in
fainter type. Click that, and a full-
window map shows all the moment’s
photos. You can show larger incre-
ments of time, up to years, and click
the location. (You can opt to show in
larger or smaller groups by checking
or unchecking the Summarize Photos
option in Photos → Preferences in the
General pane.)
We’re all assuming Apple will add
the ability to geotag media in a future
141
 HELP DESK MAC 911
release, although
it’s hard to know
philosophically if
it’ll return the
Places view—per-
haps as an album,
the way it treats
Faces.
Events,
albums,
metadata, WHEN YOU CLICK the location information to the right of a moment name
that has geotagging information, Photos reveals the images on a map in
and sorting its main view.
The switch to
moments as a key organizing meta-
phor has caught people off guard as
well, and many are still trying to sort
out how to adapt their previous
method of working to Photos or
restore what they had. If you aren’t
seeing a list of albums and other
special items at the left of Photos,
choose View → Show Sidebar.
John P. Fosdick asked, “In iPhoto,
my events were in chronological
order. In Photos, they’re reversed.
How do I arrange the events in
chronological order again?” John
Murdin noted with frustration, “I
updated yesterday in the middle of a
project that needed me to be able to
sort according to photo name—which
of course I could do with iPhoto
yesterday but don’t seem to be able
to do today with Photos!”
And Ray McEneaney discovered,
“On converting to Photos for Mac,
most of my captions have disap-
peared, and the ones that are left I
can no longer put in alphabetical
order. For example, I had my complete
bird-list photos in taxonomic order.”
For now, except in albums, Photos
only organizes images from oldest to
newest. There are no other sort options
by date, name, or other characteristics.
In an album, you can drag photos into
an arbitrary order, or choose View →
Keep Sorted by Date to lock them in
that same old-to-new view.
Several readers asked about
converting iPhoto Events, which aren’t
supported in Photos, which has
Moments in lieu of Events. In the
Albums list, you’ll find iPhoto Events
as a folder. Inside are all the Events
from iPhoto. You can drag these into
the main Albums view or create new
folder hierarchies.
Luis Quinones found 800 albums
142

THE INFO PANE shows additional metadata, such as
an item’s description.
created from Events in one of his
imported iPhoto libraries, and won-
dered if they could be converted to
Moments. Unfortunately, Photos
automatically identifies Moments:
there’s no way to override and create
them yourself.
Several readers preferred to
merge multiple Events into a single
one, and aren’t sure what to. In
Photos, automatically created
Moments and user-created manual
and smart albums are the only
organizational tools. And albums
can’t be merged: you can reorder
them in the sidebar under the
Albums label, but you can’t select
multiple albums in the sidebar or
drag one on top of another.
The default Photos view doesn’t
bring in metadata settings from
iPhoto, and not everything is shown
in the main view. The View → Meta-
data submenu has many options, but
each of which works differently. Oy,
Apple. (Location’s utility is noted
above.)
Title A title appears below the
image if any is set. If not, it just
leaves a space. Hovering over an
image shows Untitled, which you
can click to change. (And, as men-
tioned, you can’t sort by name.)
Keywords A tag icon overlays the
image, which, if carefully clicked,
reveals associated keywords.
However, the keywords can’t be
clicked. To search by keyword, you
have to enter one in the Search field
in Photos’ upper right corner.
Edited Edited images show a
toolbox icon overlaying them in the
lower right.
File Type For videos, slo-mo, and
time-lapse clips, an appropriate icon
is overlaid on the image.
Favorite This reveals whether
you’ve marked an image as a favor-
ite, and you can click while hovering
over an image to give it some love.
Referenced File Images that aren’t
stored in the Photos library but are
elsewhere have a square-plus-arrow
icon. Choose Show Referenced
Image in the Finder by Control-click-
ing the image or, with the image
143
 HELP DESK MAC 911
selected, choose the item from the
File menu.
A caption or description doesn’t
appear in any view, but it will appear
in the Info pane when an image is
selected.
Erase and leave no trace
Reader Jim Kay, who asked about
migrating from one Mac to another,
had a second question that opens a
delightful can of worms:
Since I’m looking to resell my
current Mac, how do I reinstall OS
X so as to wipe my hard drive and
resell it knowing the new buyer
has a cleaned-up computer and
that my files are nowhere to be
found on it?
SECURELY ERASE
your hard drive
with Disk Utility.
Wiping or erasing a hard drive has
a surprising number of definitions. In
the olden days, in the long ago, we
ran utility software that often came
from third parties, which would
simply delete the catalog and related
records. Such an erase was, in
practice, the best way to create a
clean installation. But it doesn’t make
all the files on the disk unrecover-
able—it just makes them harder to
retrieve.
To get rid of old data in a thorough
fashion, you need to use a multipass
approach, in which every bit of
storage in the disk is overwritten with
new data (often zeroes). That’s been
built into Apple’s Disk Utility for
years. When you select a volume in
Disk Utility and then the Erase tab,
144
you can click Security Options to pick
how many times the drive is overwrit-
ten: once, three times, or seven
times. Once is considered enough for
regular purposes, while three and
seven correspond to different U.S.
government security guidelines.
Before Lion, you had to boot from
a CD or DVD system disk or a
third-party utility, like Disk Warrior, or
from an external drive with OS X
installed. Then you’d run Disk Utility
to erase your startup drive. But this
has become easier since OS X
Recovery (go.macworld.com/recov-
ery) was added in Lion. Restart a Mac
and hold down Command-R after the
startup chime sounds, and the
computer boots into the recovery
mode. Select Disk Utility from the
startup menu, and you can erase
your startup drive securely.
There’s a slightly different way to
accomplish the same goal. First,
erase a drive without the overwriting
part, and reinstall OS X. After you
boot, launch Disk Utility, select the
startup volume, and click the Erase
tab. Now use the Erase Free Space
option, which also offers 1, 3, and 7
YOU’LL SAVE A LITTLE
time if you erase
without overwriting,
and then reinstall
OS X, then Erase
Free Space with an
overwriting option.
145
 HELP DESK MAC 911
passes of erasure, and only empties
out unused parts of the disk. The
advantage is that your computer
remains available (though often slow)
while this operation is underway.
Along with both Secure Erase and
the Erase Free Space options, which
can take a very, very long time even
for a single pass, you’ve got two
other options, one of which you don’t
need to enable.
Even better with SSD and
FileVault 2
If your Mac has an Apple-installed or
third-party SSD, you can’t use Secure
IF YOU USE FILEVAULT,
any data “left behind”
on your erased hard
drive will be totally
unreadable by your
Mac’s next owner.
Erase, but you don’t necessarily need
it, as Apple explains in a support
document (go.macworld.com/support-
doc—see the note at the end). SSD
data can’t be trivially recovered
because of how SSDs optimize
storage to reduce wear and tear.
This is by no means foolproof, and
one should assume that there are
forensic tools available that can
reconstruct erased SSDs—some are
for sale, but I haven’t tested their
claims. Apple doesn’t provide in-
depth details on why it made its
statement about SSDs, as it does for
some other security concerns, so I
146
can’t confirm what Apple says.
However, there’s a simple way
with both SSD and regular hard
drives to perform a fantastically
quick and reliable erasure: use
FileVault 2. FileVault 2 (go.macworld.
com/fvault2), the full-disk
encryption (FDE) option
that first appeared
in OS X 10.7,
keeps your
startup drive
encrypted at all
times. Whenever
you boot your
Mac and log in
to one of the
accounts that’s
authorized to boot
with FileVault 2, OS X encrypts
everything written to disk and
decrypts everything read on the fly.
With a FileVault-encrypted startup
disk, you can restart into OS X
Recovery and launch Disk Utility to
erase the volume. However, before
erasing, you need to select the disk
and then choose File → Unlock
“volume name”. Enter the password
for any FileVault-enabled user
account, and the disk unlocks and
can be erased.
Erasing a FileVault-encrypted
volume discards the key that’s
associated with it, turning a disk into
a nearly perfect cacophony of
irrecoverable randomness. Without
the key, which is uncrackable in any
realistic period of time by any current
technology, the erased data is as
good as gone, as if it had been
written over millions of times.
You can then
install OS X on that
partition, either
from the recovery
system or via an
external drive (go.
macworld.com/via).
A few other
recovery and
FileVault issues
Reader Peter wondered
how FileVault figures in to
cloning a disk. Because
FileVault encrypts an entire drive
and only decrypts files when you’re
logged in, it has no effect on how or
whether you make a clone, use
Migration Assistant, or copy files.
However, if you’re planning on
using FileVault on the new computer,
I would heavily suggest enabling
FileVault on the new machine before
moving any files to it. This will speed
up the operation by encrypting the
new computer’s fewer files first.
When FileVault has finished and your
new Mac has rebooted and you’ve
logged in, then start the migration
process, and all new files are
encrypted on the fly.
Andrew Robertson writes that
147
 HELP DESK MAC 911
when he upgraded to Yosemite, his
recovery drive remained out of date
with 10.9 Mavericks. Then, when
trying to set up FileVault and enable
iCloud-based recovery of his key, he
doesn’t see an option to do so when
booting into OS X Recovery.
Fortunately, there are answers for
both:
> You can reinstall 10.10 on the
startup disk without damaging the
rest of your setup, but make a
backup first. This should upgrade the
recovery partition. Carbon Copy
Cloner (go.macworld.com/ccc) can
clone a recovery partition from one
drive to another, but it can’t create
one from an installer or from scratch.
> The Reset Password option isn’t
available with FileVault 2, but you can
store a copy of your recovery key
with Apple. To recover a key (go.
macworld.com/recoverkey), first start
up OS X normally, and enter the
wrong password three times. (This is
also how to use iCloud password
recovery on non-FileVault systems.)
Ask Mac 911
We’re always looking for problems
to solve! Email us at mac911@
macworld.com, tweet them at me (if
brief) @glennf, or call 206-337-5833
and leave a voicemail message.
(We’ll be experimenting with some
audio in the future, and may put
your question “on the air.”)
Mac 911 can’t provide direct email
responses or answers for every
question. For that, turn to Apple-
Care, an Apple Store Genius Bar, or
the Apple Support Communities.
You’re then given the option to
contact Apple, which requires
speaking to a representative, and
answering multiple questions exactly
as you entered them when setting up
the recovery option. If you answer
these questions correctly, Apple
gains access to the stored key, which
it then provides to you. ■
148