Macworld articles from May 2009

Macworld archives from May 2009

Macworld.com's top 5.(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... The top 5 stories on Macworld.com are: 1 First Look: Safari 4 Beta Rob Griffiths looks at Apple's new browser and finds that improvements abound (macworld.com/4464). 2 Review: iPhoto'09 High-profile upgrade of iLife application debuts...

Apple marches on: the company moves forward on Macs, iPods, and the iPhone.(Editorial)
May 1, 2009... For a company that was supposed to ease up on the throttle while its CEO was out on medical leave, Apple is keeping pretty busy. And judging by its series of product announcements in March, it's doing so on several fronts at once. Desktop...

Winners and losers: the Eddys stir controversy while Leopard takes a beating.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... * Eddys Almost a third of your winners are not Mac-specific ("The 24th Annual Editors' Choice Awards," February 2009). Your list includes Web sites, digital cameras, and printers that should be getting their awards from a Cameraworld- or...

Overheard on the forums.(FEEDBACK)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Apple has denied its roots by making it nearly impossible for individual hobbyists to develop and distribute their work as freeware or shareware. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Flowney macworld.com/4463 It's not bandwidth hogs that...

Piling on Leopard.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... Rob Griffiths' rant on the problems with Leopard ("Leopard's Lingering Annoyances," MacUser, February 2009) is dead-on. It is mystifying to me that Apple, would implement changes that provide less information or require more steps. Yet another...

Back to my whack.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... Glenn Fleishman's article about Back to My Mac confirms all my frustrations with the program (Mobile Mac, February 2009). The problems are worsened by Apple's apparent indifference to those of us unable to make it work. What really puzzles me...

CS4 Responses.(FEEDBACK)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... Your review does not comment on the increasingly PC-like interface that Photoshop CS4 is inflicting on us ("Photoshop CS4 and CS4 Extended," February 2009). It may solve some of the shortcomings in the Windows version, but on a Mac the...

MacBook Air V2.(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2009... Regardless of the merits of the MacBook Air versus the MacBook ("Refreshed Air," Reviews, February 2009), after my first few hours with the Air, I'd definitely say that solid-state drives are the way of the future. The new 1.86GHz Air model is...

Reader poll.(Survey)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... READER POLL Do you plan to buy the new iLife suite? No 44% Yes 56% Source: Macworld.com online poll, February 2009 Note: Table made from pie chart. [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

First look: Safari 4 Beta: improvements abound in updated browser.
May 1, 2009... When Apple released a public beta of Safari 4 recently, the company demonstrated not only its commitment to the continued development of its Web browser, but also its willingness to make stark interface changes that give Safari a bold new look....

Apple previews iPhone 3.0 software.(iPHONE)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... During a special event at the Apple campus in March, the company showed off the next major update to its iPhone operating system, which includes more than 100 new features. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Topping the feature list is the ability...

By the numbers.
May 1, 2009... 77% Portion of U.S. Mac users who run Microsoft Office, according to Microsoft. 6 Variants of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 operating system. 1.6 million Number of processors in IBM's Sequoia supercomputer, to reside at the Lawrence...

iPod shuffle gets smaller.(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... The iPod shuffle has always been the smallest iPod, but Apple's newest shuffle is now nearly half the size of the previous model--only 1.8 inches tall and 0.3 inch thin. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The new iPod shuffle (read our review at...

Exilim Zoom EX-Z29.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2009... Exilim Zoom EX-Z29, from Casio (exilim.casio.com): 10-megapixel camera features 23 shooting modes, digital image stabilization, and a 3x optical zoom ($150).

ATI Radeon HD 4870 Upgrade Kit.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2009... ATI Radeon HD 4870 Upgrade Kit, Apple (store.apple.com): 512MB video card provides a Mini DisplayPort connector to early-2008 and early-2009 Mac Pro models ($349).

OptiBay Hard Drive.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2009... OptiBay Hard Drive, from MCE Technologies (www.mcetech.com): Hard drive replaces the optical disk drive in unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros (starting at $1.90).

Phaser 6218MFP.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2009... Phaser 6218MFP, from Xerox (www.office.xerox.com): Multifunction device prints up to 12 color and 16 black-and-white pages per minute and produces 600-by-600-dpi output ($600).

ShareSpace.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2009... ShareSpace, from Western Digital (www.westerndigital.com): Four-bay network storage RAID appliance now comes in an 8TB version ($1,700).

tvTray.(HARDWARE)
May 1, 2009... tvTray, from H-Squared (www.h-sq.com): Wall mount designed for the Apple TV is compatible with VESA-standard mounting hardware ($50).

CheckUp 2.1.(SOFTWARE)
May 1, 2009... CheckUp 2.1, from App4Mac (www.app4mac.com): Updated diagnostic utility improves the interface and adds support for RAID disks (about $24.50; upgrade, free).

FlickrExport 3.(Connected Flow)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... FlickrExport 3, from Connected Flow (www.connectedflow.com): iPhoto Flickr export plug-in now lets users sort photos, add photos to multiple groups, and import GPS information ([pounds.sterling]12; upgrade, [pounds sterling]6)

Fliq 2.0.(Mark/Space Softworks)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Fliq 2.0, from Mark/Space (www getfliq.com): Sharing utility lets you send tasks from iCal as well as files and documents, over a network ($20; upgrade, free).

iBank 3.4.(SOFTWARE)
May 1, 2009... iBank 3.4, from IGG Software (www.iggsoftware.com): Updated financial management software offers improved migration of Quicken data formatted in QIF ($60; update, free).

iClipboard 2.(Chronos)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... iClipboard 2, from Chronos (www.chronosnet.com): Clipboard manager adds rapid-fire pasting feature and access to the app from the Finder's menu bar, among other changes ($30; upgrade, $15).

ScreenFlow 1.5.(SOFTWARE)
May 1, 2009... ScreenFlow 1.5, from Telestream (www.telestream.net): Screen-recording application now lets you add titles and audio effects to videos ($99; update, free).

iPods and iPhones forbidden at gates home.(iPod + iTunes News)(Interview)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Everything you need to know about digital music In an interview with Vogue (macworld.com/4474), Bill Gates' wife, Melinda, said that Apple products are not welcome in the heavily fortified Gates compound. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Apple snags four iF design gold awards.(iPod + iTunes News)(International Forum Design)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Although Apple's products seem to keep winning design awards on an almost-daily basis, I'm sure the company is always happy for more. Thankfully, Apple recently took home four International Forum Design (iF) product design awards. ...

iPOD: the latest soccer accessory.(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Being an American, I don't know much about soccer. But I do know iPods are everywhere. Now, it seems, these two cultural obsessions have found one another--on the soccer pitch. When Manchester United battled Tottenham Hotspur in Britain's...

AirPort extreme and time capsule get updated.(NETWORKING)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Apple has released new versions of its AirPort Extreme base station and Time Capsule backup device. Both peripherals now feature simultaneous dual-band capability, letting you run 2.4GHz- and 5GHz-band networks at the same time; this means you...

Amazon brings Kindle to the iPhone.(iPHONE)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Not long after releasing the second incarnation of its Kindle e-book reader, Amazon.com started offering iPhone users the ability to read more than 240,000 Kindle-formatted books from Amazon's e-book library through the free Kindle for iPhone...

Don't worry: FireWire is FireWire.(HARDWARE)(Apple Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... One notable aspect of Apple's recent hardware announcements was the fact that the Mac mini's FireWire 400 port was being replaced by a FireWire 800 port, and that all iMacs would use FireWire 800 only. Besides increasing performance, this...

Safari surges.(Tech Trends)(Brief article)(Statistical data)
May 1, 2009... In the past two years, Safari has accounted for 8 percent of the Web browsers accessing sites around the world--an increase of about 77 percent. During the same period, Internet Explorer's standing dropped 14 percent to 67 percent, and...

Click to flash.(Hot Stuff)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... What we're raving about this month The Web is rife with content created using Adobe Flash. Besides being distracting, Flash can slow down your browser and eat up your Mac's memory. If you surf in Safari under Leopard, Click To Flash--a...

The Tony Maserati Collection.(Hot Stuff)(Waves)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... The newest set of plug-ins from Waves Audio, the Tony Maserati Collection, upholds the company's reputation for quality. Mixing engineer Tony Maserati has worked with some of the biggest names in music, including Sting and David Bowie. This...

DiNovo keyboard Mac Edition.(Hot Stuff)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Logitech's $100 diNovo Mac Edition uses the same standout key technology that makes the Eddy-award-winning diNovo Edge Mac Edition ([VERY GOOD]1/2; macworld.com/3974) so appealing, but instead of the Edge's touch-sensitive scroll pad and volume...

F.lux.(Hot Stuff)(Stereopsis)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... As important as brightness is, it isn't the only factor that determines how comfortable it is to stare at a computer screen. Stereopsis's free f.lux automatically adjusts your display's color temperature depending on the time of day. During the...

Understudy.(Hot Stuff)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... Services like Hulu and Netflix make viewing streaming Internet Video on your computer easy, but there's not always a convenient way to watch that content from the comfort of your couch. If you don't mind hooking up your Mac to your TV, check...

MacBook pros get refined: Apple redesigns 17-inch laptop; 15-inch model gets a speed boost.
May 1, 2009... Apple recently released a pair of updated MacBook Pro models. The new 17-inch 2.66GHz MacBook Pro, announced at Macworld Expo in January, is the last Apple laptop to get a unibody makeover. It also features an innovative new battery design....

Road Tripper: Mac GPS software traces your jaunt from desktop to open road.(GPS Software)(Global Positioning System)
May 1, 2009... An old saying about road trips is "Somewhere--anywhere--is better than here." Road-tripping in the United States emerged with the invention of the interstate highway system; and for the last several decades, a road-tripper's best partner has...

Aquaria 1.1.(SOFTWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: $30 COMPANY: Ambrosia Software URL: www.ambrosiasw.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Aquaria is an undersea adventure game where you must guide a water nymph named Naija to unravel the mystery of the underwater...

Black and White 2.(SOFTWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $50 COMPANY: Feral Interactive URL: www.feralinteractive.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In this god simulation game, how you treat your worshippers determines your power and supernatural prowess. As the game...

Movie outline 3.0.5.(SOFTWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $215 COMPANY: Movie Outline Software URL: www.movieoutline.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nearly every good screenplay starts with a solid outline, and Movie Outline 3.0.5 aims to set itself apart from the...

Painter 11.(SOFTWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $429 COMPANY: Corel URL: www.corel.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The best software just keeps getting better, and in the case of Painter 11, it's even gotten a little faster. Users of the previous...

Suitcase fusion 2.(SOFTWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: $100 COMPANY: Extensis URL: www.extensis.com Extensis has entirely rewritten this professional font-management utility designed for individual users, using code borrowed from its Universal Type Server...

E-30.(HARDWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING:[VERY GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: body Only, $1,300 COMPANY: Olympus URL: www.olympusamerica.com This digital single-lens reflex (SLR) has a handful of surprising new features that serious photographers will find quite useful. The new Digital...

EOS 5D Mark II.(HARDWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: body only, $2,699 COMPANY: Canon URL: www.usa.canon.com The successor to Canon's popular EOS 5D digital SLR camera, the EOS 5D Mark II features small but significant design changes. The 3-inch LCD is a...

NeatReceipts for Mac.(HARDWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: $200 COMPANY: The Neat Company URL: www.neatco.com NeatReceipts for Mac lets you scan receipts, business cards, and other documents, automatically extract data from them, and then store that data in the included...

MacBook Pro Anti-Glare Film.(HARDWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [GOOD]1/2 PRICE: $35 COMPANY: Power Support URL: www.powersupportusa.com If you're tired of the glare on your new MacBook Pro, the MacBook Pro Anti-Glare Film offers a solution. You apply this sheet of film to the laptop's glossy...

MFC-790CW.(HARDWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [GOOD]1/2 PRICE: $l8o COMPANY: Brother URL:www.brother-usa.com This multifunction device has a color ink-jet printer, a flatbed scanner, an automatic document feeder for copying and scanning, a 50-sheet printer tray, a built-in...

2GHz MacBook (White).(HARDWARE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: $999 COMPANY: Apple URL: www.apple.com [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] While Apple's MacBook ([VERY GOOD]; macworld.com/4061) and MacBook Pro ([VERY GOOD]; macworld.com/4062) laptops have been reengineered to...

App Store selections: iPhone and iPod touch software that's caught our eye.(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... GAMES Days of Thunder 1.0.1 RATING: [VERY GOOD]1/2 PRICE: $3 COMPANY: Freeverse URL: macworld.com/4429 Tom Cruise's 1990 stock-car flick didn't leave much of a cinematic mark, but it did inspire this enjoyable racing game....

BeejiveIM 2.0.1.(CHAT)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] PRICE: $16 COMPANY: Beejive URL: macworld.com/4437 This full-featured IM client boasts talents that almost put it on a par with desktop chat apps. The unintuitive interface frustrates, but handy features such as...

More reviews.(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... See more iPhone and iPod touch apps we've tested at iPhone Central (macworld.com/4164). APPLICATION DESCRIPTION PRICE RATING FIND CODE[R] Attendance...

Stage Hand 1.5.4.(PRODUCTIVITY)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $8 COMPANY: Wooji Juice URL: macworld.com/4433 Apple's $1 Keynote Remote app for controlling Keynote presentations from your iPhone or iPod touch suffers from some limitations. In contrast, Stage Hand has...

iFitness 8.9.(LIFESTYLE)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] 1/2 PRICE: $2 COMPANY: Medical Productions URL: macworld.com/4431 Using iFitness can be a great help to newbie gym-goers, thanks to the app's simple graphics and instructions for more than 150 exercises. Tap on an...

SimCity 1.4.0.(GAMES)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
May 1, 2009... RATING: [VERY GOOD] 1/2 COMPANY: Electronic Arts URL: macworld.com/4435 The venerable city-building game SimCity appears on the iPhone and iPod touch, but the transition to Apple's mobile devices is not an entirely smooth one. Some of...

Top products your guide to the best hardware we've tested. See more at macworld.com/reviews.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2009... CAMCORDERS High Definition PRODUCT RATING PRICE TYPE FIND CODE Vixia HV3o VERY GOOD $579 MiniDV 3708 (pictured) www.canon.com HDR-SR11 Handycam VERY GOOD $984 hard drive, 3731...

Mac gems: discover great, low-cost Mac products.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2009... PRODUCTIVITY Pear Note 1.1.2 RATING: [GOOD]1/2 PRICE: $40 COMPANY: Useful Fruit Software URL: www.usefulfruit.com When you're taking notes and recording audio from a presentation, class, or other event, syncing your notes with the...

Desktop invasion! We review Apple's latest iMACS, Mac minis, and Mac pros.(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2009... New Macs have landed. From consumer level to pro, Mac aficionados get a revitalized slate of choice. On March 3, Apple replaced its entire line of aging desktop systems with two new Mac minis, four new iMacs, and two new Mac Pro towers--and in...

Mac mini: Apple's affordable desktop Mac gets a graphics boost.(Desktop Invasion)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2009... It took Apple such a long time--11 months--to release the previous update to the Mac mini line that many people wondered if the company would discontinue the mini. So you can imagine the speculation that has occurred in the 19 months since that...

Mac pro: Mac tower pumps up performance despite speed drop.(Desktop Invasion)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2009... Though you wouldn't know by looking at it, Apple's new tower, the Mac Pro, has just received a major overhaul. The two tower models each pack a brand-new processor and video system, and feature a reorganized internal design. However, they both...

Buy a better drive.
May 1, 2009... Macs come with hard drives that have a vat amount of free space on them, but once you add applications, buy (or make) digital music and videos, and move photos form your camera to your computer, your Mac may tell you that "your startup disk is...

Search smarter: tips for faster, easier, and more-effective Web searches.(Working Mac)
May 1, 2009... Whether you're researching a business proposal or looking for the latest information about digital cameras, you probably search the Web many times a day, often using the search field built into your browser. Run-of-the-mill Google searches...

Should you upgrade to iTunes Plus? Sound-quality and usage tips.(Playlist)
May 1, 2009... One of the announcements Apple made during Macworld Expo was that all music sold by the iTunes Store would be iTunes Plus tracks, free of digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, and encoded at the higher-quality 256 Kbps, by the end of...

Get great photos in low light: don't be a slave to your flash. Make the most of existing light.(Digital Photo)
May 1, 2009... Light is photography's essential ingredient. Abundant illumination makes our job easy--we simply compose and shoot But what happens when the lights go down? Do we become slaves to the unflattering bursts of an electronic flash? Not at all. By...

Working offline: keep up with e-mail and the Web without Net access.(Mobile Mac)
May 1, 2009... Although the Internet seems to be everywhere these days, there are still times when it's beyond your reach--on most planes, for example, or anyplace that lacks a hotspot. But you can still do two things that typically require a Net...

Troubleshoot your network: six tricks that can resolve a host of networking problems.(Connect)
May 1, 2009... Does your network seem to have a mind of its own? Does it suffer from intermittent slowdowns or even complete outages? The longer you use a network at home or at work, the flakier it can get. As you add more machines and change network...

Mac OS X Hints: the insider tips you won't get from Apple.(Help Desk)(briefs)
May 1, 2009... Print Noncontiguous Pages in Leopard's Preview You can use the Mac's Print dialog box in any program to print a single page or a range of pages, but you can't use it to print a noncontiguous selection of pages--say, pages two, four, five,...

Mac 911: solutions to your most vexing Mac problems.(HELP DESK)
May 1, 2009... Create Slide Shows with Titles and Watermarks Q: Is there a way to create title slides and watermarks for iPhoto '08 slide shows? Bill Curry A: Some people find it useful to introduce their slide shows with a title slide or to...

Bugs & fixes.
May 1, 2009... * Prevent Installation Error When you install an OS X update, the installer may freeze as the message "Configuring Installation" appears. Apple eradicated this bug as of the OS X 10.5.6 update. However, you may still see this error while...

Choose, but choose wisely: apple, the iPhone, and the smart-phone alternatives.(SPOTLIGHT)
May 1, 2009... When it comes to smart phones, the iPhone might seem like the only option for most Mac users. But as more companies target the iPhone market, consumers will be inundated with new alternatives. Working with T-Mobile and HTC, Google has rolled...