Macworld articles from July 2007

Macworld archives from July 2007

On the road again: wherever we go, technology follows.(FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK)(Editorial)
July 1, 2007... Several times a year, my family and I drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles to visit my wife's parents. It's an eight-hour drive. Back when I was a kid, that would've meant eight hours of boredom. But our kids actually look forward to it...

What to do with old Macs.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... Regarding your story about what to do with old Macs ("New Life for Old Macs," April 2007): Another way to responsibly dispose of an old computer--and many other useful things--is through Freecycle.org. Registered users can give away items or...

The speed of light.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... In your review of DSLR cameras, Ben Long wrote, "A 1.8 lens is considered faster than a 3.5 lens because it gathers light so quickly that it can operate with a very wide aperture." Certainly I won't be the only reader to point out that a 1.8...

The luggable Mac.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... If you can't afford a MacBook as a second Mac ("Macs on the Move," April 2007), then consider turning an iMac into a transportable Mac. I'm writing this on mine, using the wireless network of an extended-stay hotel. An iLugger carrying case...

Must music be free?(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... I am a professional musician and have been since I was 10 years old. It's all I've ever done, all I've ever known. After 35 years in the business, I'm finally making money and can afford to buy Macs and iPods. So imagine my frustration when I...

Making room.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... I enjoyed the column about reclaiming your laptop's hard-disk space ("Reclaim Hard-Drive Space," Mobile Mac, March 2007). Is there anything wrong with deleting some of the old packages in the /Library/Receipts folder in order to reclaim more...

New and improved spam filters.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... Joe Kissell's "Stop Today's Spam" (Working Mac, April 2007) provided the perfect method for filtering annoying image spam. I noticed, however, that after I'd implemented it, even though Mail was properly routing junk messages to the Junk...

Power to the people.(Letter to the editor)
July 1, 2007... Macworld performs a bunch of very useful tests on hardware to help consumers decide which products are best. But one test is missing: power consumption. As electricity prices climb and as global warming increases, the environmentally conscious...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
July 1, 2007... In April's Mac 911 column, Ted Landau advised readers to delete the Tieng Viet.html file that comes with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Illustrator CS2. When you try to delete that file, you may get the following message: "The operation cannot be...

Reader poll.
July 1, 2007... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] READER POLL How soon do you plan to upgrade to Leopard? The day it's released. 13% Within a week of its release. 17% Within a month of its release. 23% Eventually. ...

Overheard on the forums.
July 1, 2007... About ten years ago, my office used Lotus Notes and cc:Mail. We all customized our incoming e-mail alert sounds--from The Addams Family (whoop, whoop, whoop--"Mail's in!") to Looney Tunes (Bugs: "What's this? A letter! For me!") and many more....

Is Apple moving away from its roots? Consumer electronics focus could affect company's future.(BUSINESS)
July 1, 2007... Apple has made some huge announcements this year that will affect the direction the company takes in the future. Strangely, however, none of the big product announcements have anything to do with the Mac. With items such as the iPhone and the...

Apple shows off Final Cut Studio 2: new program joins video-editing suite.(desktop video software)
July 1, 2007... After a two-year lull, Apple has announced a major update to its professional video-editing suite. Final Cut Studio 2 includes Compressor 3, DVD Studio Pro 4 (the only application in the suite not updated in this release), Final Cut Pro 6,...

Io HD.(digital television from AJA Video Systems )(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Io HD, from AJA Video Systems (www.aja.com): Audio and video I/O box works with Final Cut Pro 6 to provide video and audio capture; it includes Apple's ProRes 422 codec in the hardware ($3,495).

Lexmark X4550 Wireless All-In-One.(HARDWARE)
July 1, 2007... Lexmark X4550 Wireless All-In-One, from Lexmark (www.lexmark.com): This ink-jet printer has wireless networking capabilities and prints 26 black-and-white and 18 color pages per minute ($130).

Apple adds Final Cut Server.(desktop video software)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... When announcing its updated video-editing suite, Apple also introduced Final Cut Server, asset-management and workflow-automation software that's designed for use with the Final Cut Studio applications. The scalable server software includes a...

Former Apple employee charged.(Nancy Heinen )(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... In the ongoing legal proceedings over alleged stock-option backdating at Apple, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged former Apple counsel Nancy Heinen with helping to backdate options given to top Apple executives,...

LED-backlit displays coming soon: jobs mentions LCD change in open letter.(DISPLAYS)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... It was hard to tell what the bigger story was in Steve Jobs's open letter outlining Apple's environmental policies--the company's plans to remove toxic chemicals from its products, or the fact that a company that's normally so tight-lipped...

Tech trends.(Apple Inc.'s iPod sales)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... 100 Million Sold In early April, Apple announced that it had sold its 100 millionth iPod after just five and a half years on the market--making it the fastest-selling music player in history. And this milestone is no small feat in the...

MacTrain-ulator: virtual model lives inside a Mac Plus.(DESIGN)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... After a visit to Germany's Wartburg Castle (founded more than 900 years ago and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site) with his wife, Eric Foxman decided to re-create a bit of their experience at home. And so was born the MacTrain-ulator, which...

Game buzz.(Runesoft introduced Chicago 1930 game for Spellbound Entertainment)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Chicago 1930 Demo Runesoft has released a playable demo of Chicago 1930, a real-time strategy game from Spellbound Entertainment, the developer of Airline Tycoon and Robin Hood. The game takes you to Chicago during the Prohibition, a time...

How the Mac was hacked: experts are not surprised by recent break-in.(SECURITY)(Brief article)(Column)
July 1, 2007... Security researcher Dino Dai Zovi sent a shudder through the Macintosh community in April when he successfully hacked the Mac with an exploit that he sent to a friend attending the CanSecWest security conference. Dai Zovi won a $10,000 prize...

Widget of the month.(hypertext markup language coding)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Symbol Caddy If you spend time writing or coding for the Web, you know how difficult it can be to remember the HTML entity codes for obscure characters such as o, a, and [euro]. Brian Haslanger's free Symbol Caddy keeps track of these...

Coda.(SOFTWARE)
July 1, 2007... Coda, from Panic (www.panic.com): Visual Web site editor offers one-window Web development with an integrated text editor and a built-in Cascading Style Sheet editor ($79).

Live Interior 3D.(SOFTWARE)
July 1, 2007... Live Interior 3D, from BeLight Software (www.belightsoft.com): Interior-design application features more than 50 editable templates, a material library and editor, and the ability to import 3D Studio, Google Sketchup, and Ogre XML content...

Saving Internet radio: bill would prevent large royalty increases.(LEGAL)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Following the approval of a new royalty scheme that Internet broadcasters say will shut them down because it will cost them too much money to operate, two Congressmen have submitted a bill that could save Internet radio. U.S....

The rise of Firefox: Web browser is taking a bite out of Safari.(Mozilla Firefox)(Column)
July 1, 2007... A lot is made of browser market-share figures. They're a way to track the penetration of OS X, via the appearance of Safari in server logs. And of course, they also track the growth of the Firefox Web browser, as it gradually eats into the...

Shiira 2.0.(web browser )(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Safari is my Web browser of choice, in part because of its pretty interface--I like pretty things. Sometimes, though, I wish I could customize Safari, as I can Firefox or Opera. If you feel the same way, give Shiira 2.0 a try. Although Shiira...

USBPhonoPlus 2.(Hot Stuff)
July 1, 2007... I've got boxes of old tapes and records--yes, records--that I want to convert to digital files. I've seen a few gadgets designed for such conversion tasks, but Applied Research and Technology's $129 USBPhonoPlus 2 is more versatile than most....

Clocky.(Hot Stuff)
July 1, 2007... Before I had a child to wake me up at the crack of dawn, I had three alarm clocks. They were positioned strategically around my room with alarms set five minutes apart. But now snooze-button abusers like me have a new ally in our quest to wake...

Peel.(Hot Stuff)
July 1, 2007... The blogosphere has all sorts of free music that's up for grabs, but it takes a lot of effort to regularly check each of your favorite MP3 blogs for new music. This is where Hjalti Jakobsson's Peel (currently a free beta, $15 upon release)...

Quicken Kids & Money.(service from Intuit Inc. for money management for children)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... Kids ages five to eight learn how to count money in school, but not how to manage it. With consumer debt at an all-time high, let's face it--as parents, we can probably do a better job of showing them. That's where Intuit's new Quicken Kids &...

Visual Impact: Revamped Adobe CS3 design package introduces a pro edition of Photoshop.
July 1, 2007... The third version of Adobe's Creative Suite is unique: It's Intel-native; integrates programs derived from Macromedia; features audiovisual programs--resurrecting Premiere Pro and introducing Soundbooth; and has a new, pro version of Photoshop...

Photoshop CS3: Sprawling upgrade offers new features and goes Intel-native.(image processing software)(Product/service evaluation)
July 1, 2007... It's simple, really: if digital imaging is an important part of your creative life, you'll want Adobe Photoshop CS3. The new version provides so many improvements in so many areas that no serious digital photographer, video artist, or designer...

Photoshop CS3 Extended: New tool set extends to architecture, science, and medicine.(image processing software)(Product/service evaluation)
July 1, 2007... Photoshop CS3 Extended includes all the same tools as Photoshop CS3 ([VERY GOOD]; page 33) but adds a brand-new set of tools and capabilities for the integration of 3-D models, video and animation, and image measurement and analysis. In CS3,...

InDesign CS3: Abundant enhancements add up to an enticing upgrade.(desktop processing software)(Product/service evaluation)
July 1, 2007... Adobe InDesign CS3 is chockfull of enhancements and new features, but very few of them will create a stir among designers the way version 2.0's transparency feature did. But don't let that first impression fool you. InDesign CS3 will grow on...

Illustrator CS3: A few new features make a huge difference.(drawing software)(Product/service evaluation)
July 1, 2007... Adobe has made some significant interface changes to Illustrator CS3. It has also updated important components and added some innovative new features, such as Live Color, a complete color-exploration environment that makes it easy to experiment...

Acrobat 8 Professional: Industry standard gets new features.
July 1, 2007... With Acrobat 8 Professional, Adobe offers a redesigned, Universal version of its flagship software for creating and distributing PDF (Portable Document Format) files. The new release focuses on and underscores the growing importance of...

Home Design Studio 11.0.(interior design software)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: $150 COMPANY: Punch Software URL: www.punchsoftware.com Home Design Studio 11.0, a 3-D architecture program, is aimed at people who want to remodel a room, design a home, or landscape a yard. The dilemma with...

Lineform 1.3.(drawing software)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $80 COMPANY: Freeverse URL: www.freeverse.com Lineform 1.3.2 is a refreshingly simple drawing program whose interface is similar to that of Adobe Illustrator (and other vector graphics programs). The application's...

Midnight Inbox 1.1.(desktop utility)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $35 COMPANY: Midnight Beep Softworks URL: www.midnightbeep.com When you consider the load of digital detritus that crosses your Mac's virtual desktop every day--in addition to the day-to-day stuff that crosses...

Scrivener 1.0.(word processing software)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [VERY GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $35 COMPANY: Literature and Latte URL: www.literatureandlatte.com Professional or aspiring writers seeking a powerful, inexpensive program for producing prose, scripts, or research papers should consider...

The Sims Life Stories.(computer game)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: $40 COMPANY: Aspyr Media URL: www.aspyr.com The Sims Life Stories is sort of what happens when The Sims meets an afternoon soap opera. Some might argue--successfully--that The Sims franchise is soap operatic...

DCP750.(personal media player)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: $150 COMPANY: Philips URL: www.consumer.philips.com We've tested four portable video players that let you dock your fifth-generation iPod and view its contents. Of those, the Philips DCP750 is the most...

DCR-HC96.(camcorder)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $650 COMPANY: Sony URL: www.sony.com The DCR-HC96 is Sony's high-end MiniDV Handycam camcorder, and this is reflected in its price. It offers step-up features such as a higher capacity battery, a charging dock, and...

FireWire Speakers.(LaCie)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $90 COMPANY: LaCie URL: www.lacie.com LaCie's FireWire speakers are unique among speakers we've tested in that they get both audio and power from your Mac's FireWire port. They have a surprising range and offer...

FX 500.(iPod speakers from Kensington)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [GOOD] PRICE: $50 COMPANY: Kensington URL: www.kensington.com The FX 500's EVA-foam body looks and feels somewhat inexpensive, but it's unexpectedly rugged. The speakers-in-a-case design protects your iPod from minor bumps, as well...

Pixma iP1800.(inkjet photo printer from Canon)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $50 COMPANY: Canon URL: www.canon.com At the very low price of $50, the Canon Pixma iP1800 photo printer comes with the bare essentials it needs to perform its duties: it includes a sheet feeder, a...

Personal Ancestry Writer II 69.(genealogy software)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: free COMPANY: Howard H. Metcalfe URL: www.lanopalera.net While its interface is quite space compared with Leister Productions' Reunion, Personal Ancestry Writer II 69 is intuitive and easy to use. It has...

Reunion 9.0.(genealogy software)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
July 1, 2007... RATING: OUTSTANDING PRICE: $90 COMPANY: Leister Productions URL: www.leisterpro.com Reunion 9.04 is a topnotch genealogy program. It's beautifully designed, user-friendly, and a pleasure to work with. Rewritten from scratch, Reunion is now...

Top Products: Your guide to the best hardware we've tested. See more at macworld.com/reviews.(Buyers guide)
July 1, 2007... PRINTERS LASER PRINTER C6100dn RATING: [[VERY GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $1,102 COMPANY: Oki Data URL: www.okidata.com The C6100dn, from Oki Data, produces great-looking prints, and it includes built-in duplexing. It has easy network...

Mac Gems: Get more and expanded reviews at macworld.com/macgems.(Dates to iCal 1.0.3)(FileCutter 1.2.2)(MagiCal 1.0.9)(Skim 0.2)(Product/service evaluation)
July 1, 2007... PRODUCTIVITY Skim 0.2 RATING: [GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: free COMPANY: The Skim Team URL: macworld.com/2704 Mac OS X's Preview application is surprisingly powerful, but if you're in the market for an even more advanced PDF reader, check...

Macworld's summer travel guide: 53 gadgets, sites, and tips that'll help you have more fun on your next vacation.(FEATURE)(Column)
July 1, 2007... If the rising mercury has you dreaming of exotic drinks on a distant beach, perhaps it's time to trade in the ol' cubicle for an oceanside cabana. But going on vacation doesn't mean you have to leave your technology at home. A few travel-worthy...

The new digital darkroom: Aperture and Lightroom both promise to help you take control of your photo collection. So which is right for you?(FEATURE)(Product/service evaluation)
July 1, 2007... When Apple introduced Aperture ([VERY GOOD]) in late 2005, the program was a revelation. By beefing up the simplicity of iPhoto with intelligent image-management and photo-editing features, Apple jump-started a whole new product category for...

Play the stock market: how to get professional results with inexpensive images.(methods of image processing)(Column)
July 1, 2007... Your job title may be something like teacher, salesperson, or HR manager, but somehow you end up creating newsletters, brochures, presentations, and Web sites. True, you weren't trained for these tasks, but just because you're not a designer...

Breathe new life into an old iPod: create a hard drive, a diagnostic tool, or a music library.(Playlist)(Column)
July 1, 2007... Has the battery of your faithful second-generation iPod recently given up the ghost? Have you been neglecting that iPod mini because you've bought a newer model? Or have you succumbed to the attractions of the iPod video, leaving your iPod...

New AirPort, old network: mix the new AirPort Extreme with older networking hardware.(Apple INc.'s AirPort Extreme Base Station)(Column)
July 1, 2007... Apple's new AirPort Extreme Base Station, based on the still-in-progress IEEE 802.11n standard, can wirelessly transmit more than 90 megabits per second (Mbps) of data. The previous generation of AirPort Extreme (which relied on the older,...

Share and share alike.(AirPort Extreme wireless networking equipment)
July 1, 2007... One of the most talked-about features of the new AirPort Extreme is its USB port. As with older AirPort Extreme Base Stations, this port lets you share a USB printer with computers on your local network (as long as they're running Mac OS X 10.4...

Redirect domain names: want two URLs to point to one Web site? Use redirection.(uniform resource locator)(Reprint)
July 1, 2007... Registering more than one domain name to point to a single Web site isn't unusual. Nor is it strange to host a Web page at an ISP or community site and want a subdomain to bring people directly to what's often a long and hard-to-remember URL....

Mac OS X Hints: the insider's tips you won't get from Apple.(Help Desk)(Column)
July 1, 2007... Check for Unsaved Changes Whether or not you're an obsessive saver--tapping [??]-S whenever you pause to think--you might be interested to know that your open files give out subtle signals that tell you if they have unsaved changes. For...

Mac 911: solutions to your most vexing Mac problems.(using Bose SoundDock iPod speakers)(Brief article)(Column)
July 1, 2007... Of Overcharging and iPods Q: I recently got a Bose SoundDock and wanted to know whether it was a bad thing to keep the iPod permanently mounted in the dock. The SoundDock continuously charges it. Can that hurt the battery? Danny Sat...

Watch different: how the Apple TV changes the whole television landscape.(set top box)(Column)
July 1, 2007... Maybe it's because I like the underdog, or maybe it's because I'm a full-time television critic. But that $500 cell phone everyone's been waiting for does nothing for me. It's the other new Apple product, the $299 Apple TV, that has my full...