INSIDE: HOW APPLE COULD FIX THE MAC APP STORE

JANUARY 2016

MACWORLD.COM

iPAD PRO REVIEW

Can it really let you leave your laptop behind?

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

January 2016 CONTENTS

MacUser
How Apple could fix the Mac
App Store 6
What gigabit Internet makes betterr 12
Create a custom calendar in Photos
20
Protect your Amazon accountt 28
MacUser Reviews 34
Hot Stufff 56

iOS Central
How I spent my Android vacation 60
Best task managers for iOS 68

Reviewed: iPad Pro 100

Apples $79 Apple Watch charging

dock is here 78
Use grid-style password entry on the
new Apple TV 82
iOS Central Reviews 84
Whats new at the App Store 95
Apple Watch Accessories 96

Working Mac
10 essential Mac utilities 116
Upthere hands-on 122
A primer on Profile Managerr 128
Profile Manager: The Setup 132

Playlist
Set up an iTunes library on a
network-attached serverr 138
Stream content from your iTunes
library to your new Apple TV
V 144
Create Smart Playlists to find which
of your songs are Apple Music, in the
cloud, and more 148

Help Desk

iPad buying guide: How to choose

an iPad Pro, iPad Air, or iPad mini 108

Mac 911: problem with iCloud Photo

Library and Family Sharing 152

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
STAFF WRITERS Caitlin McGarry, Oscar Raymundo
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 S. 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

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PUBLICATION INFORMATION
January 2016, Volume 33, Issue 1
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MACUSER

News and Analysis About

Macs, OS X, and Apple

How Apple could fix the

Mac App Store
A few simple changesand one major changecould improve the Mac
App Store experience for both developers and customers.
BY ROB GRIFFITHS

ecause I recently discussed the trade-offs (go.mac

world.com/appstoretradeoffs) involved in selling apps
only on the Mac App Store, some are convinced I hate
the entire concept of the App Store. Thats not the case,
thoughI just think the current implementation is flawed and
leads to bad experiences for both developers and customers.
However, with a few simple changes
and one not-so-simple changethe
Mac App Store really could be the
place to shop for Mac software,
instead of a place where you only find
apps that meet Apples narrow
definition of what an app should be.

THE SIMPLE CHANGES

The following changes should be
relatively easy for Apple to implement, as none involves fundamentally altering the stores operations.
They are, in fact, mostly policy
changes as opposed to complex
technical changes.

ALLOW DEMOS
There are no technical reasons
Apple couldnt offer demos. The
company could issue a license that
expires in a given number of days or
after a given number of uses. As a
user, I know I like to try apps before I
buy. As a developer, I want users to
try my apps before they buy so they
know theyre getting what they
want.

ALLOW REFUNDS
While you cant get refunds on
software you purchase at retail
stores, Mac developers have long
offered refunds on downloadable
software. Panic (go.
macworld.com/
IF YOU COMPARE
paniceula), BareTHE MAC APP
Bones (go.mac
STORE TO THE
world.com/bbsale
iTUNES STORE,
spolicies), Smile (go.
THE MAC APP
macworld.com/
STORE IS CLEARLY
smilegty) and yes,
THE IGNORED
even us at Many
CHILD.
Tricks (manytricks.
com) (and probably
hundreds more) all have generous
refund policies. I cant speak for the
others, but we see less than a 1
percent refund rate, which is an
acceptable trade-off for a customerfriendly policy. So why cant Apple
officially offer refunds, too?

ALLOW PAID UPGRADES

For many independent developers,
reduced-cost (but still paid) majorversion upgrades are a key revenue
source. Theyre also a benefit for
7

MACUSER

MAC APP STORE

existing customers, as they save

money compared to the full cost of
the new app.
For apps we sell in the App Store,
we have to either choose to release
a major new release for free, or set
it up as a new app and list it at a
discounted price to simulate upgrade
pricing. But by doing this, everyone gets
the low price, and prior customers arent
rewarded for their original purchase.
Apple could easily let developers
designate a release as a paid
upgrade with its own price, available only to those who already own
the app.

TREAT THE MAC APP STORE

LIKE AN EQUAL
If you compare the Mac App Store
to the iTunes Store, the Mac App
Store is clearly the ignored child
(go.macworld.com/macappstore).
iTunes Store apps can use videos
(go.macworld.com/app-previews)
to demonstrate how they work.
iTunes Store developers can use
Apples TestFlight (developer.apple.
com/testflight) to beta-test their
apps. iTunes Store apps can implement app analytics (go.macworld.
com/app-analytics) to help with
marketing and design decisions.
The Mac App Store gets none of
these tools. Speaking for Many
Tricks, wed use all of these tools
if they were available.

ALLOW INTERACTION BETWEEN

DEVELOPERS AND USERS
Pick any app at random on the Mac
App Store, and youll find a few
one-star reviews that have nothing to
do with reviewing the software.
Heres one example, taken at random
from a selection of many:
I purchased this app and trying
to burn disk with no success.
It keeps crashing and it wont
load at all any more. Ive gone
through five discs with no luck.
This review comes, of course,
with a one-star rating. But the user
isnt reviewing the software, theyre
asking for tech support help. But the
app developers have no way to
contact this user to solve their
problem. The best they can do is
leave another review, asking the
user to get in touch with them. But its
not a reply to the review, so theres
little chance the user will see it.
Apple could easily solve this
problem by letting the registered
developer of the app (youd have to
be logged in using the account
associated with your app) send a
response message to any posted
review. Developers wouldnt see the
users address, of course, as itd first
be anonymized by Apple. Amazon,
eBay, craigslist, and many other sites
do something similar when buyers
8

iOS DEVELOPERS can

use TestFlight to
beta-test an app. Mac
developers dont
get such a tool.

contact sellers; why cant Apple?

Regardless of the how, something should be done: The current
system is broken for both users
trying to find actual reviews, and for
developers trying to provide support.

should be some way for shoppers

to browse non-sandboxed apps.
Why? Because by removing the
sandbox restriction, Apple can
showcase an entire range of useful
applications that users are not seeing
today. Programs that rely on interTHE HARDER CHANGE
application communication, for
To really make the Mac App Store a
example. Programs could do
vibrant and lively storefront for Mac
more, too, if they were allowed to
apps, Apple should find a way to
implement features that werent
allow non-sandboxed apps, as well
sandboxable.
as other currently prohibited apps,
Beyond the sandbox, Apple needs
into the store. Danger! you scream? to let more complex apps into the
Keep in mind that the Mac App
store. Microsoft Office; virtualizaStore was open for over a
tion apps like VMware Fusion
year without any sandboxing
and Parallels Desktop;
requirements, and the world
Adobes entire product
didnt end.
suite; backup apps like
In fact, there are still
Carbon Copy Cloner and
non-sandboxed apps in the
Backblaze; alternative
App Store today. Of our
browsers such as Firefox
USEFUL MAC apps like
own Many Tricks prodand Google Chrome; text
TextExpander arent
ucts in the App Store, only
expansion utilities like
found in the Mac App
Name Mangler is actually
Typinator, TextExpander,
Store.
sandboxed. These
and TypeIt4Me. I could go
non-sandboxed apps exist because
on, but Dan Counsell of RealMac
Apple allowed them to remain (but
Software has put together a great list
not gain new features) in the store if
(go.macworld.com/notinappstore)
they were there when the sandbox
(which is still just the tip of the
rule went into effect (March of 2012).
iceberg).
For over three years, then, thousands
By keeping these apps out of the
of people have been buying and
App Store, Apple is presenting a
installing non-sandboxed apps, to
limited view of just what the Mac can
absolutely no ill effect.
do. And as the Mac App Store is
Im not suggesting that Apple
installed on every new Mac, many
removes the sandbox. Rather, there
users probably dont know any better
9

MACUSER

MAC APP STORE

and think that what they see is what

they can get. Thats not good for
users, not good for developers, and,
in the long run, not good for Apple.
But what about the danger, you
ask? Every developer in the App
Store has to be registered with
Apple. They can easily include
kill-switch functionality that would
disable any rogue apps that get
through the review process. And
yes, every app in the store would
still have to go through the review
process, and meet Apples non-technical requirements for functionality,
features, appearance, etc. But the
sandbox wouldnt have to apply, and
apps that require extensions or
System Preferences panels to run
would be welcomed, assuming they
passed the rest of the review.

Is this an easy thing for Apple to

do? I dont think so; the implementation details are complex (how would
users access these outside the box
apps? Do they show up in search
results?). However, for the good of
the platform and the App Store itself,
I think its critical that the store offer a
much broader selection of apps.

THE FINAL WORD

I honestly dont expect Apple to
address every item on this list. Im not
even sure if itll address any of them.
But for the sake of the Mac App Store,
and its customers and developers, I
hope Apple does implement many of
them, at least: In the long run, a much
better Mac App Store is better for
everyone involved.

10

ITS IMPOSSIBLE
TO BEAT CANCER.

Stand Up To Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Photo Credit: Randall Slavin

ALONE.

It takes all of us to beat cancer.

Doctors, researchers, volunteers,
and most importantly, people like
you. Join the movement to beat
cancer at StandUp2Cancer.org

MACUSER

Life in the
fast lane: What
gigabit Internet
makes better
An upgrade from a trickle to a flood has made your reporter feel like hes living
partly in the future: The Internet can still be really slow, even with a fiber link.
BY GLENN FLEISHMAN

12

was one of the very first DSL customers of what was

then called US Westlater, its name became Qwest, then
CenturyTel, and now CenturyLink. I upgraded in 1998 from
dual-channel bonded ISDN, a whopping 128Kbps, to
1.5Mbps downstream and 768Kbps upstream ADSL. It was a
huge improvement, and one I assumed was just the first step
in achieving LAN-like speeds of 10s and then 100s of Mbps.
Almost 20 years later, I was stalled on
18Mbps/3Mbps from Comcast Business. But with the press of a few
buttons and the right neighborhood
and timing, Ive leapt fiftyfold down
and three hundredfold up to fiberbacked gigabit Internet from CenturyLink. While Im new to gigabit and
fiber, after so many years of having
extremely poor upstream speeds, Im
at the forefront of what will be
millionsor even tens of millionsof
U.S. broadband customers upgrading
to 100Mbps and 1Gbps symmetrical
speeds over cable modems, more
advanced DSL flavors, and fiber.

What can you expect when youre

lucky enough to be able to pick such
fast service? In practice, its not always
as speedy as advertised, but when
up to is 1,000Mbps and youre
seeing only 200 to 800Mbps? You
dont feel the pain quite as much.
Andan important andthe structure of the Internet makes it hard to
figure out which link to blame. Often,
its a software problem or a local
network problem, rather than one of
routing or throughput.
I cant knock gigabit broadband
one bit, but the improvement is
unevenly distributed.

13

GOOGLES FIBERORIENTED speed test

is required because
other ISPs speed tests
can top out above 100
or 200Mbps.

MACUSER

GIGABIT INTERNET

MATHING UP THE COSTS

AND BENEFITS
I was paying $60 per month for
Comcasts service and about $30 a
month for an AT&T Home wireless
(go.macworld.com/atthomewireless)
line. The total from CenturyLink is
about $135 a month for 1Gbps
symmetrical service and a phone line
thats delivered over fiber. (Setup is
about $200, but $100 gets rebated
as a cash card after youve paid for
two months service if you sign up via
the phone companys website.)
For me, like most people already
paying for allegedly high-speed
broadband, $45 a month is neither a
little nor a lot. We didnt subscribe to
cable or satellite television service,
so our $135 is far cheaper than some
typical triple-play bundles with
voice, data, regular cable, and
premium programming. We have a
Netflix subscription and Amazon
Prime, and are trying Hulus ad-free
$12-a-month service, which we will
likely cancel. (Theres not enough
unique stuff at that price.) That adds
up to about $30 a month, if you
count all of Prime towards video
streaming, even though we use it
extensively for free shipping.
I can make back the $45 a month
by wasting less time, frankly. So
much of what I do involves moving
files around, syncing them up, and
testing online servicesespecially

cloud photo ones recentlythat as a

freelance writer, it was easy to make
the switch when it became available
in early October.
Why didnt I stick with the devil I
know and upgrade to 100 or 150
Mbps service with Comcast Business
or with its residential division? A few
reasons. Comcasts service has gotten
flakier and flakier for me. Id done a lot
of work to isolate causes on my
network, and it appeared to be
entirely their issueproven now that I
have a different ISP, since the network
infrastructure is the same and Im not
having the same problems.

PART OF WHY I SWITCHED IS

BECAUSE COMCASTS POSITION
ON CAPS AND OVERAGE FEES IS
INCREASINGLY ANTI-CONSUMER
AND PRO-MONOPOLY/DUOPOLY
BOTTOM-LINE.
And because Comcasts position
on caps and overage fees is increasingly anti-consumer and pro-monopoly/duopoly bottom-line. In most
markets, Comcast or another cable
operator is the fastest provider and
the only one with a triple-play over
the same wire. Some telcos partner
with satellite or run fiber (like
Verizons FiOS), but theyre at a
disadvantage. Switching away from
14

Comcast often means accepting

low-speed service without much of a
price advantage.
Comcast has been testing a
monthly throughput limit in some
markets, where it allows around
300GB and then charges $10 per
50GB (or fraction) above that. A few
days ago, it rolled out a new option in
some places: $30 or $35 a month
gets you unlimited usage (go.macworld.com/expunlimited) on top of
your existing fees. Comcast Business
offers service in the same cities and
regions with no caps, although it
requires unbreakable multi-year
contracts for the privilegecancel,
and you owe either 75 percent (in
one previous contract I signed) or 100
percent (according to a colleagues
recent contract) of the balance.
I asked the local Comcast folks
about residential service and caps.
They couldnt guarantee that I could
switch to home service and get any
exclusion. Comcast is starting to push
out 1 to 2Gbps service, but the price
is ludicrously high compared to
existing gigabit fiber run by both
municipal operations, Google Fiber,
and telcos like CenturyLink.
Id been collecting reports from
folks who had signed up and were
talking about it on Nextdoor (go.
macworld.com/nextdoorgigabit), the
hyper-local community message
board site. People were generally

pleased. And CenturyLink has no

caps on its fiber offerings. When I
discovered in early October that the
fiber Id seen being pulled to my block
in June was finally lit up, I was elated.

SOMEBODY PUT AN ANCHOR

ON MY SPORTS CAR
It takes a
few hours
COMCAST IS STARTING
for an
TO PUSH OUT 1 TO 2GBPS
installer to
SERVICE, BUT THE PRICE
mount a
IS LUDICROUSLY HIGH
new
COMPARED TO EXISTING
external
GIGABIT FIBER RUN
termination
BY BOTH MUNICIPAL
box on the
OPERATIONS, GOOGLE
house, and
FIBER, AND TELCOS LIKE
then set up
CENTURYLINK.
a batterybackup
system (primarily to keep phone
service working during an outage),
and the internal optical terminal.
CenturyLink uses a couple of routing
features particular to the enterprise,
so I went with its $100 modem, which
supports those directly. Its got
dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz Wi-Fi plus
gigabit ethernet, and it gives a
customer full administrative control.
(A software-engineering neighbor is
looking into a non-CenturyLinkprovided alternative with the same
features, but that CenturyLink cant
remotely configure or access.)
But after plugging everything in to
15

MACUSER

GIGABIT INTERNET

my existing network infrastructure

three AirPort models of varying
vintages connected via an ethernet
backboneI wasnt able to get a
speedtest to break about 70 or
80Mbps. I connected directly to the
CenturyLink modem and, boom,
several hundred Mbps! I was baffled,
as my routers were all linked via
gigabit ethernet switches.
Turns out I had a 100Mbps singleband-at-a-time 802.11n AirPort
Extreme near my basement office
computer. I dont move giant files
that often across the network, and
had frankly forgotten. For testing, I
set up and used the 5GHz network
on the telco-provided modem, and
then purchased the TP-Link Archer
C7, a well-reviewed 802.11ac router
that costs about $100. (I didnt need
another AirPort Extreme, but wanted
gigabit ethernet, which the AirPort
Express still doesnt offer.)
Once the stars and topology
aligned, I routinely saw several
hundred Mbps throughput. But
weirdness remained. Once you have
a super-fast connection, you notice
when its poor. My 12-inch MacBook,
which supports 802.11ac, would
routinely report sub-100Mbps
downstreams when I tested. After
various futzing, I found it preferentially connects not to either of the
closer 802.11ac routers (one upstairs
in our living room and one just below
it in the basement), but to the

100Mbps ethernet-connected 802.11n

AirPort Express several rooms away
and in the basement! Toggling Wi-Fi
off and back on forces a reconnection to an 802.11ac signal.
With everything working, is the
Internet a super wonderful dream?
Well, no. But its better.

WEBSITES
With a surfeit of bandwidth, I gorged.
I took a long-delayed move to shift
from one hosted backup to another
(go.macworld.com/hostedbackups),
and had 1.3TB of data to upload. It
took 48 hoursbut only because I
hadnt optimized settings in the first
day. Nearly 300GB uploaded in the
first day and then, after tweaking, 1TB
in the next.
I tried messing with various cloud
photo services, too. While Ive
uploaded a lot to Google Photos, Id
restricted myself to a subset. Now I
added many dozens of gigabytes
and tens of thousands more files. It
went quickly, but nowhere near as
fast as the upstream bandwidth
would allow.
I wanted to test out Amazons
Cloud Drive option for photos, which
is $12 a year for unlimited images
and 5GB of other data, including
videos, or free with a Prime membership. I pushed about 60GB there,
but it took hours rather than minutes,
due to throttling on Amazons end,
not mine.
16

UPLOADING VAST
amounts of data,
such as for priming a
cloud-hosted backup
or photo library, is
a totally different
experience on gigabit
broadband.

It was easy to see how unevenly

various websites and Internet
services performand how CPU- and
software-limited I was. Ive used
Firefox for years, from the point that
Safari still had odd behaviors related
to re-opening pages with forms, and
wasnt compliant enough to work
with some sites. But after quite a bit
of testing, I found Firefox was holding
me back: Safari and Chrome are both
lickety-split with the web, while
Firefoxs rendering time seems to
drag it down.
Even with Safari, latency can be a
killer when throughput is high.
Latency is how long it takes for
something to get underway, rather

than how fast it occurs once its

movinglike inertia versus momentum. Consider if turning on a water
tap triggered a valve far away to
open up and release liquid: even a
huge, high-pressure pipe cant make
the water get to you faster if its far
away. The same is true with some
sites and services, where each
interaction has a lot of handshaking
back and forth, or in which the initial
response is delayed.
Dropbox, for instance, isnt slow
by any means, but it does a lot of
collating and indexing when changes
are made, and is always seemingly
uploading file lists and checking
things. Once uploads or downloads
17

MACUSER

GIGABIT INTERNET

commence, they occur with lightning

speed over gigabit broadband,
however.
Another clog, impossible to tell
without a little sleuthing, is the
interconnection between CenturyLink and the rest of the Internet isnt
possible always clear to use. CenturyLink cant give me a dedicated
1Gbps channel, of course, and not
every path between the telco and an
Internet resource is going to be
uncongested.
The difference between local area
networking (LAN) and wide area
networking (WAN)i.e., the Internet
were sometimes profound in a
direction I didnt expect. Copying
something to another Mac on the
LAN could take longer than uploading it to a distant server. Apple Filing
Protocol (AFP) is hoary and inefficient, while Internet services have
streamlined their file-transfer
methods.

ITS JUST LIKE THE AIR WE

BREATHE
So many things cease to be burdens.
Downloading documents, files, or
videos in the hundreds of megabytes

to several gigabytes doesnt require

twiddling my thumbs and finding
something to do in the meantime.
They speed along and I can move on
to the next activity right away.
Uploading is the true dream, but I
was so constrainedmost
people with broadband in
SO MANY
America have more than
THINGS
3Mbps upstream.
CEASE TO BE
Particularly for streaming
BURDENS.
video and Skype, I find that
old frustrations are gone.
While Im capable of 4K
video streaming in the future, I only
have a 1080p HDTV, but I always get
the highest-speed auto-negotiated
rate. Skype is the most finicky of
services at times, but with the new
connection, I no longer have hiccups
or troubles.
The truth of gigabit broadband is
not that it feels profoundly different
or even faster. I havent changed
many habits at all. Rather, its that I no
longer have to consider Internet
throughput as a factor in what I do.
Instead of thinking about the net as
something other, my local network
has just been extended to be the
whole world.

18

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MACUSER

How to create a custom

calendar in Photos for Mac
A calendar is a great way to enjoy your favorite photos. And it also makes
for a great gift.
BY LESA SNIDER

heres nothing like printing your own photography,

though adorning your walls with your own art can be
intimidating. A safe way to printand thus enjoyyour
digital memories is to create a calendar in Photos for
OS X. At 13 by 10.4 inches, Apples calendars are big and printed
on thick, high-quality paper so they look better than the ones you
get anywhere else. Theyre stunning and they make great gifts.

The calendars you create in Photos

can be customized in myriad ways.
You can choose from a variety of
themes, customize the look of each
page, add captions, national holi-

days, pull events from your Calendar

app, and plop pictures onto individual date squares (great for
birthdays!). Youre not stuck with a
12-month calendar eitheryou can

TO INCLUDE ALL the images in an

album, open it and then create
the project. That way, you dont
have to select the images. Here
the calendar is based on the
Favorites album.

21

MACUSER

CUSTOM CALENDARS IN PHOTOS

ALL PAGES view

lets you reorder
pages, and, unlike
iPhoto, swap images
between picture
frames and change
page layouts.

include up to 24 months if you wish,

and you dont have to start with
January. Apples calendars are also
affordable: a 12-month calendar costs
$20 (add $1.49 for each additional
month). This column walks you
through the process of creating your
own. (Creating a calendar in iPhoto is
a similar process.)

STEP 1: PICK THE PICTURES

Unless you want one picture per
page, start your calendar with 25 to
35 pictures in an album made
specifically for this project. In the
album, drag to reorder the pictures,
however, you want them to appear in
the calendar (else Photos flows them
into the calendar chronologically
according to capture date). But if you

22

THE SETTINGS PANEL is available in both All Pages

and Single Page view and lets you change key
settings for your calendar project.

prefer, you can also start the project

by selecting a Collection or Moment,
individual thumbnails or even multiple albums (by Shift or Commandclicking).

number of months you want and the

start date. Click Continue and you
see a list of themes. Photos hops
online to see if Apple has added any
new ones (those thumbnails have a
tiny cloud icon at lower right). Double-click the theme you like and, if
necessary, Photos downloads it,
plops your pictures into it, and deposits you in All Pages view, which gives
you a satisfying sense of what your
calendar will look like (the Big Date
theme was used here).
If you want to experiment with
other themes, nows the time. Its best
to settle on a theme before you start
customizing each page, or else all
your design work flies out the window. To do it, click Settings in Photos
toolbar (circled in the image on the
left). In the resulting pane, you can
change themes, calendar length, start
date, and a slew of other options, as

STEP 2: CHOOSE THE LENGTH,

START DATE, AND THEME
Click the + button in Photos toolbar,
or the one that appears when you
point your cursor at the upper right of
thumbnails in Collections or Moments
view, and choose Calendar (you can
also choose File Create Calendar).
In the resulting screen, pick the
23

IN THIS IMAGE, two

pictures are being
swapped between
pages.

MACUSER

CUSTOM CALENDARS IN PHOTOS

THE LAYOUTS PANEL lets you determine how many

pictures appear on the page (usually 1 to 7) and
whether theres room for captions or not.

IN PHOTOS, YOU MOVE PAGES by dragging them atop

another page, rather than dragging them between
pages.

the screenshot illustrates.

STEP 3: CUSTOMIZE PAGES

While youre in All Pages view, you
can rearrange the pages as well as
the images they contain. To move a
page, point your cursor at it and then
click and hold down your mouse
button atop the gray rectangular icon

that appears beneath it. When the

page pops off the workspace, drag
the selected page atop the page in
the desired location. When the page
in the target location dims, release
your mouse button and Photos
moves the selected page to its new
home, as shown here.
To move pictures around, click an
image and hold your mouse button
down until the picture pops out of the
frame, and then drag it atop another
frame. If Photos wasnt able to place
all the pictures you began the project
with, they appear in the Photos
drawer at the bottom of the window
where you can drag them onto pages
24

yourself. To remove a picture from a

page, drag it to the Photos drawer. If
you prefer to place the pictures
yourself, click Clear Placed Photos
and all the pictures in your project
are moved to the Photos drawer. To

add more pictures to your calendar

project, click the Add Photos button
at lower right and then click to select
the images you want to add.
To change the number of pictures
per page, and their arrangements, or
ONCE YOU USE THE
Zoom & Crop slider to
zoom into an image,
you can click and drag
within the image to
alter its position within
the frame.

25

MACUSER

CUSTOM CALENDARS IN PHOTOS

WHEN YOU CLICK

to activate text,
the Options panel
automatically switches
to text formatting.

to change the background color of a

page, activate the page and then
open the Layout Options panel by
clicking the button to the left of the
Settings button. Scroll to find the
layout you want, and click its thumbnail to apply it. If the layout you pick
supports a background color, use the
swatches at the bottom of the panel
to change it.

STEP 4: CUSTOMIZE PICTURE

POSITIONING AND CAPTIONS
To fiddle with how individual pictures
appear in their frames, and to
customize text, double-click a page
to enter Single Page view. Thats
where you can change a pictures
zoom level and positioning, apply a
filter, or open it in Edit mode. Click
the picture you want to change and,
if the Options panel isnt open,
double-click the image, click the
Options button beneath the page, or
click the Options button in Photos
toolbar.
To edit your calendars title and
captions, click the placeholder text
and then type away. The Text
Options panel automatically opens,
letting you change the font, size,
style, color, and alignment. To add
custom text to a date square, click
the square and a text box appears.
For even more creativity, add a
picture to a date square. Simply drag
a picture from the Photos drawer

ONCE YOU ADD a picture

to a date square, use
the Caption menu
to determine the
captions location.

onto a date square to mark a birthday, anniversary, graduation or other

personal event.
To edit a different month, click the
left or right-pointing arrows on either
side of the calendar page, or use the
26

arrow keys on your keyboard. To

return to All Pages view, click the
back button at the upper left of
Photos toolbar.

STEP 5: FINAL INSPECTION

To proof your calendar, choose File
Print. Then either print it or export
it as a PDF using the PDF menu at
the bottom left of the Print dialog.
And for goodness sake, remember
to spell check your calendar by
choosing Edit Spelling And
Grammar. Typos on a calendar are
worse than typos in a book because
you have to stare at them for a
whole month!

STEP 6: BUY THE CALENDAR

When you click the Buy Calendar
button at the upper right of the Photos
window, the program examines your
calendar for problems such as
placeholder text, placeholder pictures, and text thats too long to fit in
its box. If Photos encounters any of
these issues, it alerts you and lets you
fix itjust keep clicking Buy Calendar
until you run out of error messages.
As you can see, its easy to create
a gorgeous calendar in Photos. But
be warned: when you give custom
calendars to loved ones, theres no
going back; theyll expect them
yearly. Until next time, may the
creative force be with you all!

27

MACUSER

How to protect your Amazon

account with two-factor
authentication
Amazon quietly added two-factor authentication as a security option for account
holders in recent weeks. Heres how to activate it.
BY IAN PAUL

28

ts not clear when it happened, but Amazon recently added

two-factor authentication as a login option for your Amazon
account. This is a key security measure thats long overdue
on a site that handles your credit card information.

For several years, weve encouraged

you to add two-factor authentication
to your accounts whenever possible,
and Amazon is no different. When the
new security option is active, signing
in is a two-step process. First, you
sign-in with your password as usual,
then youll be required to enter a
short code generated by a smartphone authenticator app or received
in a text message.
The advantage is that if your
password is compromised by a

hacker, they wont be able to access

your account without the short
codea much harder proposition.
If you want to add two-factor
authentication to Amazon, heres how
to do it.
Get started by signing in to your
account, and then click on Your
Account in the upper right-hand
corner.
On the next page, scroll down to
the Settings section and click on
Change Account Settings.

29

GET STARTED by going

to your Amazon
account dashboard.

MACUSER

AMAZON TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION

ON THE NEXT PAGE,

scroll down to the
Settings section
and click on Change
Account Settings.

THIS WILL TAKE YOU

to yet another page
where you must click
on the Edit button for
Advanced Security
Settings.

30

NOW WE COME TO
the start of the twofactor authentication
process. Click the Get
Started button you
see on the page as
pictured here.

NEXT, YOULL BE asked

if you want to receive
your codes through an
authenticator app or
text message.

This will take you to yet another

page where you must click on the
Edit button for Advanced Security
Settings.
Now we come to the start of the
two-factor authentication process.

Click the Get Started button you see

on the page as pictured here.
Next, youll be asked if you want to
receive your codes through an
authenticator app or text message.
For our purposes well use the

31

MACUSER

AMAZON TWO-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION

ON THE NEXT page,

youll be asked to
enter a backup phone
number,

authenticator app option. Personally,

I use Googles Authenticator app on
Android, but a third-party services
such as Authy (go.macworld.com/
authy) is also a good choice. Authy
has the added bonus of saving your
authenticator credentials in the
cloud, making them available on
multiple devices.
Whatever authenticator app you
decide to use, scan the barcode (its
blacked out in the image above),
enter the code the app generates for
your Amazon account into the text
entry box, and click Verify code and
continue.
On the next page, youll be asked
to enter a backup phone number
where you can receive either a text
message or voice call to receive
codes in the event you lose access

to your authenticator app.

Once youve entered your phone
number and selected to receive
either a text message or voice call,
youll receive a code as a test run,
enter it into the text field, and then
click Verify code and continue.
The final page just walks you
through the process of using twofactor authentication. If youre new to
multi-factor login, its a good idea to
read over this page.
This page also has the option to
not require sign-ins on your current
device, which is selected by default.
If youd rather not use this option,
un-check the box that says Dont
Require Codes On This Device.
Keep in mind that on a PC this
device really means this browser. If
you set up two-factor authentication

32

THE FINAL PAGE just

walks you through the
process of using twofactor authentication.

on Chrome and then move to Firefox,

you will have to use two-factor
authentication to log in on Mozillas
browser. Such is also the case if you
delete your browser cookies on your

current browser.
Once youre ready, click Got It.
Turn On Two-Step Verification. Thats
it. Now youre done.

33

MACUSER

Reviews

MAC GEMS ARE APPS THAT OFFER

STANDOUT UTILITY OR UNIQUE
FEATURES AT A GREAT PRICE.

UTILITY SOFTWARE

DATA RESCUE ONE

REVIEW: HARVEST DATA
FROM A FAILING HARD DRIVE
BY CHRIS BARYLICK

PROSOFTS DATA RESCUE PROGRAMS have been among the

go-to applications for data recovery. If you had a hard drive you
needed data from, and it was in semi-functional shape, capable of
mounting to some degree and not making terrible grinding noises,
theres always been a good chance you can run a Data Rescue
program across it for however many hours, days, or weeks that
the process required and get some of your data back, including
deleted files.
As of now, the old standby is now arriving in a Data Rescue One
(prosofteng.com/data-rescue-one) format, which bundles both the
Data Rescue 4 application with a 16GB USB thumbdrive or a 500GB

34

DATA RESCUE ONE

mmmmh
PRICE WHEN RATED

$49 to $409
COMPANY

Prosoft Engineering, Inc.

DATA RESCUE
4 SOFTWARE.

or 1TB external USB hard drive to save recovered data. The storage
device has three partitions: Prepare Data Rescue, Data Rescue One, and
Data Rescue Storage.
When you connect the Data Rescue One drive, you can either run the
Data Rescue One application from the Prepare Data Rescue partition to
boot into the Prepared Data Rescue partition, or you reboot, hold down
the Option key, and choose the Prepare Data Rescue partition to boot
into. After booting from the Prepare Data Rescue partition, the computer
will run low-level setup code and make the Data Rescue One partition a
bootable volume, and then youll be on your way.
For fans of the Data Rescue series, Data Rescue One has the Data
Rescue 4.2.1 application (go.macworld.com/datarescu41app) you know
and love, complete with its familiar bells and whistles. The application
still lets you choose what function you wish to perform with your drive
(Quick Scan, Deep Scan, Deleted Files Scan, Clone, etc.) as well as
includes expert features for working with RAID configurations, managing
your past drive scans, block level tools, and the absolutely indispensable
warning feature that tells you when your hard drive is having mechanical
slowdowns or may be near the end of its life.
Thats the good news, and during testing Data Rescue One was able
35

MACUSER

REVIEWS | DATA RESCUE ONE

to grind away on fully and semi-functional drives, recovering both

existing and previously deleted files from HFS-, HFS+-, and NTFSformatted drives.
The bad news came in the form
of a crash during a data recovery
THE BAD NEWS CAME IN THE FORM
wherein the Data Rescue One
OF A CRASH DURING A DATA
application froze in the middle of its
RECOVERY WHEREIN THE DATA
process, refusing to continue after
RESCUE ONE APPLICATION FROZE
the MacBook Pro it was running on
IN THE MIDDLE OF ITS PROCESS,
was awoken from sleep. Attempts
REFUSING TO CONTINUE AFTER THE
to boot into the Data Rescue One
MACBOOK PRO IT WAS RUNNING
partitions were met with either a
ON WAS AWOKEN FROM SLEEP.
freeze on boot or error 1101. It was
at this point that I contacted
Prosofts tech support, found I needed to boot back into OS X, reformat
the Data Rescue One partition with Disk Utility, set it up again with the
Prepare Data Rescue Partition, and run the test again. The program
worked without incident after that, and Prosoft said its working on a fix
in the near future.
While the crash and error were surprising, they come on the heels of
Apples only recently releasing OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which changed the
ground rules as to which partitions can be booted from and under what
circumstances. Apple has tightened this up, and under OS X 10.11 El
Capitan its impossible to, at present, use Data Rescue Ones command
to easily create a BootWell drive and boot into it. At present, if youre
running Data Rescue One under OS X 10.11 El Capitan, youll be booting
into specific partitions via the option-boot feature on your Mac, so get
used to this idea until a patch comes out to sort through this new
parameter set into place by Apple.
Even with this bug and small catastrophe, Data Rescue One came
through with flying colors. Prosofts tech support got back to me almost
immediately via email with the fix as to how to use Disk Utility to format
the Data Rescue One partition, and I was able to get back to working
with my test drives posthaste.
Data Rescue One retails for $49 for the 16GB USB thumbdrive version, $139 for the 500GB USB hard-drive version, $169 for the 1TB USB
hard-drive version, and $409 for the Professional versions annual
36

license, which includes a 1TB USB hard drive, unlimited online backup
space, free email and phone support, and partnership with Prosofts
Data Rescue Center.

BOTTOM LINE
Data Rescue One is a tough data recovery kit; its nice to have a storage
device for immediate data recovery. One could argue that there should
have been better communication between Apple and Prosoft over OS X
10.11 El Capitan functionality at this point, but at the end of the day, I was
able to leave Data Rescue One to harvest data from failing hard drives.

37

MACUSER

REVIEWS

GRAPHICS AND DESIGN

ON1 PHOTO 10
REVIEW: FROM
SUITE TO SWEET:
PHOTO EDITING
APP DOES IT ALL
BY WILLIAM PORTER

FOR ABOUT A DECADE, On1s photo-editing tools have been

marketed and used primarily as plug-ins for Adobe Lightroom, Apple
Aperture, or Adobe Photoshop. Each tool was an independent,
one-trick pony and appropriately named: Perfect Black & White, for
example, or Perfect Portrait. A couple of versions back, On1 began
rolling these mini-apps into a Perfect Photo Suite that allowed users
to access all the tools from a central dashboard independent of
Lightroom or Aperture. The latest versionrenamed On1 Photo 10
(on1.com/on1photo10)takes this plan to the next level. Photo 10 is no
longer a suite in name or design: Its now a pretty well-integrated app.
Yes, you can still use it as an adjunct for Lightroom or Photoshop; if
you do, you will welcome Photo 10s improved speed and cooperation
among the modules. But for at least some photographers willing to
think different, the big news with this release is that On1 Photo 10 is
ready to stand on its own as an alternative to both Lightroom and
Photoshop.

38

ON1 PHOTO 10

mmmmh
PRICE WHEN RATED

$120
COMPANY

ON1, Inc.

NEW NAME, NEW LOOK

The elements of the former suite have been rearranged in Photo 10 for a
cleaner, more efficient workflow. Perfect Black & White has been rolled
into the Enhance module. The features that used to be found in Perfect
Resize have been reassigned: resizing is now in a vastly improved
export pane, and cropping is now found in the editing modules. And the
various modules are no longer accessed via titles at the top of the
window, but instead, via buttons in a bumper on the right side of the
screen.
At the heart of Photo 10 are three editing modulesEnhance, Effects,
and Portraitand a kind of sub-editing fourth module for creating and
managing layers.
Like Lightroom or OS X Photos, On1 Photo 10s Enhance module can
read raw files and perform basic adjustments, corrections, and enhancements to aspects of the image such as exposure, contrast, color, noise
and sharpness, and spot removal.
While Photo 10s Enhance module is deliberately straightforward, its
Effects module is rich in possibilities. Youll get a quick start on your
images by selecting a preset from the drawer on the left, which is

39

AN ORDINARY VACATION
snapshot improved quickly
by simply adjusting tone and
color in the On1 Photo 10s
Enhance module.

MACUSER

REVIEWS | ON1 PHOTO 10

THE FIRST IMAGE (top) is the

picture I took in Udvar-Hazy
Museum of Flight outside
Washington, D.C. The second
image (below) was created
using layers in On1 Photo
10; the museum has been
masked out and a star layer
placed behind

organized by different types of shooting (e.g., Architecture, Weddings,

Landscapes, Sports) and different styles (e.g., Black & White, Cinematic,
Hipster, Urban). But Photo 10 isnt just a library of Instagram-style canned
40

THE EDITING INTERFACE of On1

Photo 10: The four modules
(Enhance, Effects, Portrait,
and Layers) are accessed via
buttons in the bumper on the
right edge of the window. In
the Effects module (active
here), you select presets
and/or filters and stack them
to get the result you want.
Every filter can be masked
using tools in the bumper on
the left.

looks that you can

slap on your images.
You can edit all the
presets and/or build
your own sophisticated renderings by
selecting and stacking
the filters that are the
components of
presets (e.g., Antique,
Blur, Black & White,
Dynamic Contrast,
Sunshine, etc.); and
every filter can be
masked and/or
blended as you like.
The third editing
module, Portrait,
provides specialized tools for editing the elements of a face discretely.
For example, you can enhance detail in eyes without exacerbating
41

FLYING AT AROUND Mach

3.5, the SR-71 Blackbird
flew from Los Angeles to
Washington, D.C. in 62
minutes. I processed this
image in On1 Photo 10 and
added a radial blur to give a
sense of speed to the image.

MACUSER

REVIEWS | ON1 PHOTO 10

wrinkles, or you can soften skin and remove blemishes without needing to make a careful mask that excludes eyes and mouth. Its a useful
module, as far as it goes. For more aggressive edits like adding
makeup, relighting or reshaping faces, youll need Photoshop or a
dedicated app like Anthropics PortraitPro.
Finally, theres that special fourth module: Layers. This is where Photo
10 goes beyond Lightroom and invites comparison to Photoshop. Even
within a single layer you can get layer-like effects by stacking filters and
by using masks and blending. The layers module has many uses,
including compositing.
Edits made to raw files by On1 Photo 10 are always saved from the
start in a separate file
(JPEG, TIFF, or PSD). By
comparison, many other
apps, including Lightroom, save edits internally. The latter
approach creates fewer
files in your project
folders; but it also
means that Lightroom
pretty much owns your
edited files until you
export them. If you work
entirely in Adobes
ecosystem and plan on
doing so in the future,
this works fine. But I
have always worked in a
variety of editors, and I
dont really trust any of
them (remember
Aperture?). For me,
keeping my edited files
independent of any one
app is a big plus.
Most of my editing in
Photo 10 is done in PSD
42

THE LAYERS MODULE in On1

Photo 10: This image has three
layers: the inactive unedited
original portrait at the bottom;
above it, a simple backdrop
layer; and on top, the edited
portrait, masked to allow the
backdrop to appear. This is a
smart photo PSD file, so the
modules used in the top level
are displayed as sub-layers
that can be re-edited later.

files, which support

layers. Photo 10 has an
optional smart PSD file
format that makes it
possible to reopen a file
later in Photo 10 and
make revisions.

WORKFLOW
COMPLETE
In addition to making
things more efficient in
the middle of your
workflowthat is, where
you do your editing
Photo 10 also provides
improvements at the
beginning and the end of
the processing chain, so
that Photo 10 can now
handle a raw workflow
from start to finish.
At the start, Photo 10
eliminates the need to
import files. Since it
doesnt store your edits
in a proprietary database, you copy images
from your camera to your
computers storage any way you like, then just click on a folder of
images in Photo 10s Browse module. The Browse module in Photo 10
renders images quickly on my new midlevel MacBook Pro, and I can
quickly rate, keyword, label, and/or caption a large folder of images.
Basic finds on these user-entered types of metadata are easy. Other
findssay, by camera, focal length, or file typecan be done using the
new Smart Albums feature.
At the end of your workflow, Photo 10 can export to multiple file
43

ON1 PHOTO 10S LAYERS

module makes compositing
easy. Here are two versions
of the same informal portrait,
with different treatments
and different backgrounds
from the collection that
comes with Photo 10.

MACUSER

REVIEWS | ON1 PHOTO 10

formats, resize files (making them bigger as well as smaller), add a

watermark, even add effects from editing presets (say, batch-converting
images to black and white). The new sharing feature hooks into OS X to
upload images to Flickr or Facebook, send to Photos or Messages, or
share via AirDrop. And Im especially fond of On1s PhotoVia feature,
which syncs selected images with my iPhone and iPad via Dropbox or
iCloud. Setting up PhotoVia took me about a minute, and before long I
had a selection of recent favorites on my iOS devices. I tried to achieve
the same result with Adobe Creative Cloud and Lightroom Mobile but
gave up after half an hour.

WHATS NOT TO LIKE?

On1 Photo 10 doesnt do everything. No pano stitching. No tools for
advanced lens corrections or perspectival correction. No support for
movie files.
And Photo 10 needs some polishing. Occasionally, it misbehaved in
ways that suggested there are still bugs to be squashed. Also annoying
are rough edges in the user interface and user experience. For example,
theres no way to view an image in full-screen. When I close a file in the
I STRAIGHTENED this shots
perspective in DxO
ViewPoint, then finished
processing and added a
border in On1 Photo 10s
Effects module.

44

THE BROWSE module in

On1 Photo 10 does just
about everything a photo
management app needs
to do. Because Photo 10
doesnt store your edits
in a database, theres no
Import command: You just
open folders and navigate
through them. You can
rate, flag, label, keyword,
and caption your images,
and organize images into
albums (standard or dynamic
smart albums).

ON1S PHOTOVIA APP on your

iPhone accesses images
that youve shared with it
via Dropbox or iCloud. The
app in turn can be used to
share with other services
(like Flickr or Facebook) and
also lets you view and edit
important metadata about
images.

Layers module, I expect to return to Browse, but I dont; and while there
are keyboard shortcuts for nearly everything else, astonishingly there is
as yet no keyboard shortcut for switching to Browse. Photo 10s unique
smart photo PSD files are clever and useful but cant be cropped. Ive
been told by the folks at On1 that some of these foibles will be fixed in
coming updates.
45

MACUSER

REVIEWS | ON1 PHOTO 10

BOTTOM LINE
No other single app in active development for Mac OS X provides the
range of features found in On1 Photo 10: competent file management
tools; outstanding editing tools (including support for compositing in
layers); and support for just about every export and sharing option you
can think of, including, in On1s PhotoVia, a drop-dead easy way to get
your masterpieces over to your iPhone or iPad.
With so much to offerand with so much competitionOn1 Photo 10
will appeal to different photographers for different reasons. Even if youre
a Photoshop virtuoso, you may be interested in On1 Photo 10 for the
creative presets in the Effects module. If you are already happy with
another app as your primary photo management and processing tool (say,
Lightroom, or even OS X Photos), you should check out Photo 10s easy
implementation of layers. But remember, On1 Photo 10 is now a complete
raw workflow app that can stand on its own. Bummed that Apple killed off
Aperture? Not enthusiastic about Adobes new subscription plan for its
apps? Feel that Lightroom isnt enough, but Photoshop is too much? Then
you should give Photo 10 a serious look. On1 provides a 60-day free trial,
so you have plenty of time to try before you buy.

46

YOU DONT HAVE TO get fancy

with On1 Photo 10, although
I did tweak a film preset
(KodaChrome) on this image
of a partridge.

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

GRAPHICS AND DESIGN

SWIFT PUBLISHER 4: FULLFEATURED DESKTOP PUBLISHING

FOR NEXT TO NOTHING
BY CHRIS BARYLICK

THE ORIGINAL MACINTOSH computer Steve Jobs introduced in 1984

might never have achieved such iconic status without the help of the
desktop publishing revolution. Together with the first LaserWriter
printer and software like PageMaker, the Mac made it easy for anyone
to lay out newsletters, brochures, or even entire magazines.
More than three decades later, the term desktop publishing isnt used
much now that the focus has turned to the web, social media, and mobile
computingbut developers havent turned their backs on the original
concept, which is easier and less expensive today than it used to be.

48

SWIFT PUBLISHER 4

mmmmh
PRICE WHEN RATED

$30
PRICE WHEN RATED

Belight Software

A QUALITY, full-featured Mac

page-layout application for
cheap? Swift Publisher 4
makes it possible.

ELEGANT DESIGN
Swift Publisher 4 (go.macworld.com/swiftpublisher4) is affordable pagelayout software for the Mac thats best described as a pared-down version of
PageMakers successor, Adobe InDesign. Featuring nearly all of the same
core functionality, its much easier to use thanks to exhaustive video tutorials
and help menus, even for those with little or no previous design experience.
At the heart of the software is a Template Gallery covering nearly 400
of the most common scenarios, including flyers, advertisements, catalogs, and restaurant menus. Fully populated templates provide a quick
way to get started, since text and graphic elements can be added,
customized, or removed in a few clicks of the mouse. In keeping with the
times, theres even an Electronic Media section for designing Facebook
and Twitter covers, or iOS device screens.
Designers can also start completely from scratch, selecting from
thousands of built-in, high-quality clip art elements (and another 40,000
49

MACUSER

REVIEWS | SWIFT PUBLISHER

available via in-app purchase), Photos/Aperture/iPhoto libraries, and

smart shapes from the source panel at left. The Insert menu allows the
placing of other media types into a document, including photos, text,
tables, calendars, and more.
Once placed, elements can be manipulated using the Layout tools at
right and a toolbar across the top; the majority of the window is reserved
for designing and managing single or multiple-page documents. Its not
a groundbreaking user interface, but one that will make iLife users feel
immediately at home, which consolidates the comprehensive feature set
while aiding in the design process.

PRO FEATURES, CONSUMER PRICE

What really makes Swift Publisher stand out is the adoption of features
usually reserved for professional layout software. Designs can include
multiple layers with non-printable elements, master pages, convert text
to curves, set up page bleeds, and even export CMYK tiff files for
sending to a print shop. (Oddly, this option isnt available for PDF or EPS
exports, however.)
Version 4.0 brings barcodes into the mix in a big way, making it easy
to insert QR, ISBN, and retail UPC codes into a document with custom
BARCODES HAVE finally met
their match, thanks to Swift
Publisher 4s built-in ability
to generate QR, ISBN, UPC,
and more.

50

THE INCLUDED Template

Gallery makes it easy to
design for a wide variety of
common document types, or
even iOS devices, Facebook,
and Twitter graphics.

valuessomething that requires additional software for many high-end

design applications. The update also introduces dynamic text fields, the
equivalent of Microsoft Words popular Mail Merge feature for quickly
swapping out names, address information, and more in a snap.
Swift Publisher includes built-in image editing capabilities, tapping
into OS Xs Core Image filters to adjust color, exposure, gamma, and a
wide range of other enhancements without round-tripping already
placed files to other software. I was even able to import older vectorbased Adobe Illustrator and EPS files, although they use a lowerresolution bitmap preview for on-screen display and printing.
Given the budget price, it shouldnt be surprising Swift Publisher
lacks a few high-end features like true CMYK preview and robust type
controls, but this wont be an issue for the target audience. Its an
exceptional value for parents, home business, educators, and just
about anyone else who needs to create paper-based products quickly
and easily.

BOTTOM LINE
Swift Publisher 4 keeps the desktop publishing spirit alive with inexpensive Mac software for designing just about anything that can be printed
on paper.

51

MACUSER

REVIEWS

UTILITY SOFTWARE

COMMANDER ONE PRO REVIEW:

A FREE FINDER ALTERNATIVE FOR
POWER USERS
BY J.R. BOOKWALTER

SINCE THE DEBUT OF THE CLASSIC Mac OS System 1.0 in 1984,

the Finder has been an indispensable hub of the graphical user
interface experience. Despite many improvements over the year
most radically with OS X in 2001the core functionality of Apples
Finder remains largely the same, despite efforts to improve upon the
experience even today.

COMMANDER
ONE 1.1

mmmh
PRICE WHEN RATED

Free; $10 Pro version

COMPANY

Eltima Software

TAKE COMMAND
Commander One (go.macworld.com/commanderone) is a Mac
application written entirely using Apples new Swift programming
language that provides an alternative to the Finder. The main window
is split into dual panes that can be used to act upon files and folders
in multiple locations at once. Similar to popular applications like
52

ForkLift (binarynights.com/forklift), the free version works with local and

network drives for search, preview, and other file operations, including
the ability to rename files during copy and move. (Try that with the
Finder and let me know how it works out for you.)
A paid Pro upgrade adds several unique power-user features like
archive compression and extraction, a built-in FTP manager, a process
viewer, and direct access to Dropbox accounts, MTP, or even iOS
devices. Commander One Pro also includes an assortment of color
themes, but most of them are fairly gaudy and only apply to the content
panes, rather than the entire window.
One of the more compelling features of Commander One are global
function key shortcuts for routine file tasks such as View, Edit, Copy,
Move, and Delete (others can be customized in preferences). These are
displayed across the bottom of the window so they dont have to be
committed to memory. There are also three different views available for
each pane: List, column, or thumbnail grid.

53

AVAILABLE IN free and Pro

versions, Commander One
is a powerful alternative
to the Finder, but is still in
need of some UI polish.

MACUSER

REVIEWS | COMMANDER ONE 1.1

JUST THE TWO OF US

Although Commander One checks off a laundry list worth of features,
not all of them are implemented with the same degree of polish. For
example, some buttons appear to have been placed randomly across
the user interface, and theres not always a clear indication which pane
youre actually working on at any given time; highlighting the active tab
would help rectify this oversight.
By default, the application displays every user interface option available, which tends to be overwhelming at first. Thankfully, users can
independently disable six different areas (Buttons, Command Line, Disk
List, Disk Info, Path Bar, and Selection Info) from the View menu to
streamline whats actually shown. One thing you cant do is collapse
Commander One into a single pane, although each side can optionally
contain an unlimited number of open tabs.
At least one Pro feature was downright buggy in my testing: Adding
an FTP server caused Commander One to hang with a spinning beach
ball. Repeated attempts produced similar results, requiring me to purge

54

COMMANDER ONE PRO

features a built-in FTP
Manager but wasnt always
reliable when adding new
accounts in my testing.

THE PRO VERSION of

Commander One includes
a number of color themes,
but most of them are garish
and none apply to the entire
window.

application settings and restart the computer in order to make FTP

Manager available again. (The FTP Manager login issue has since been
resolved with the latest 1.2 update.)

BOTTOM LINE
Commander One adds welcome utility that the Finder could only dream
of and manages to handle most core tasks quite well, but it could use
further UI refinement and a few bug fixes, particularly with the built-in
FTP Manager in the Pro version.

55

MACUSER

Hot Stuff

What Were
Raving About
This Month

TWELVE SOUTH BOOKARC MD

Twelve Souths $60 BookArc md (twelvesouth.com) is
a hardwood stand for any MacBook size and model,
whether it be the MacBook, MacBook Air or MacBook
Pro. The md was inspired by the Cherner chair, so you
can think of it as fine furniture for your laptop. The stand
keeps your MacBook upright to free up space on your
desk, and its got rubber rings hidden on bottom to
keep your cords securely in place, even when disconnected from your Mac. The md is also the perfect
place to keep your MacBook in closed-clamshell
mode next to your display. The BookArc md comes in
three wooden finishes: Birch, Espresso, and Walnut to
match any other wooden accessories you already
have. For starters, we recommend the Walnut finish to
add warmth to your workspace, otherwise filled with
Apples signature aluminum gear. OSCAR RAYMUNDO

56

BRYDGES BRYDGEMINI
While Apple was busy touting the benefits of increasing the iPads
overall size, iPad keyboard maker Brydge has been hard at work
creating a keyboard for the iPad mini. The $129 BrydgeMini
(brydgekeyboards.com) is available in gold, silver, and space grey,
naturally, to match your iPad miniand the keyboard is compatible
with every version of the iPad mini except for the iPad mini 4. Like
other keyboards for the iPad mini, the BrydgeMini is cramped, but
does a good job at hiding that factI could pair it to my test device
and begin typing relatively error-free almost instantly. The main
letter keys are sufficient in size, as are the number keys, and theres
a handy top row of iOS shortcut keys. JASON CIPRIANI

57

MACUSER

Hot Stuff
ULTIMATE EARS UE
BOOM 2 SPEAKER
If your friends are always fighting over who gets to
play DJ during your get-togethers, the $200 UE
Boom 2 (ultimateears.com) wireless speaker might
be able to solve a few disputes. The most recently
updated in Logitechs Ultimate Ears speaker line
now lasts for up to 15 hours of playtime, making it
an affordable option that delivers heart-pounding
360-degree sound. Besides being a reliable
Bluetooth speaker, the UE Boom 2 is also
equipped to receive firmware updates via the UE
apps for iOS and Android. The most recent update
introduced a new Block Party feature, so that three
smartphones can be hooked up to it to take turns
playing music. Only one person has to have the UE
app installed and the other devices can play music
from their streaming service of choice, whether
that be Spotify, Apple Music, or Pandora. If your
friend happens to have a UE Boom speaker too
(theyre a popular buy) you can link them up using
the app to double the volume. You can also
designate a left and right speaker to create stereo
sound. OSCAR RAYMUNDO

58

News, tips, and reviews about smart homes,

home security, and home entertainment.

TechHive helps you find your

tech sweet spot.
We steer you to smart-home tech products youll love
and show you how to get the most out of them.
www.techhive.com | Follow us

iOS CENTRAL

The Latest on the iPhone, iPad,

iPod Touch, and App Store

How I spent
my Android
vacation
Is the grass greener on the other
side of the walled garden?
BY MICHAEL SIMON

60

can remember the exact moment I stopped missing my iPhone:

Three days earlier, I had embarked on a brave new journey
with the Nexus 6P (go.macworld.com/nexus6prvw), a monthlong break from my long-term relationship with the iPhone. I
wasnt completely illiterate to Androidover the years Ive tried
a few Galaxies and a Moto or two, and even bought an original
Nexus 7but extended daily use was a bit of a shock to my system.
But it took less than 72 hours to wipe
away eight years of memories. Part of
it was the allure of the younger
Nexus 6P, but it wasnt just a newness thing; for a fleeting moment it
was as if iOS and Siri didnt exist. My
once-beloved iPhone 6 sat on my
nightstand, slowly draining its charge,
with a persistent No SIM card

installed message as if begging for

my attention.
I would eventually return to my true
love, but my time with Android turned
out to be more than a passing fling.
There were things about it that were
better and more exciting, but it also
made me appreciate aspects of my
iPhone that I took for granted.

61

NOVA LAUNCHER
PRIME (shown
here on a different
phone) has the look
of the Google Now
Launcher, but a ton
of extra flexibility.

iOS CENTRAL

ANDROID VACATION

BEING ABLE to leave

blank spaces on
your home screen is
welcome after years
of iOSs forced grid.

But in that one moment, the

Nexus 6P was my world. And I was
infatuated.

MERIT BADGE
Im not going to sugar-coat it: The
first couple days with Android were a
clunky, fumbling affair filled with
gestures that did nothing, taps that
led me astray, and a general sense of
confusion that left me staring at my
screen for long stretches of time.
Some of it was a lack of intuition, but
mostly it was my iPhone muscle
memory taking over. Much like the
computational distinctions between
OS X and Windows, Android and iOS
are fundamentally different in how
they are controlled, and while there
is definite feature overlap, executing
simple tasks requires a serious shift
in logic.
In fact, just getting to an appropriate level of comfort required manipulating my phone in ways Apple would
never allow. Despite purchasing a
pure Android phone for my experiment, I was struggling with the
out-of-the-box experience. In short, I
wanted badges.
I hadnt realized just how dependent I am on them. On my iPhone I
generally remove badges in favor of
discrete banner notifications, but with
the holy trinity of communication
appsPhone, Messages, and MailI
find them absolutely essential. Case

in point: Just a few hours into my

Android vacation I missed an urgent
text because I was on the phone
when it arrived.
So in a fit of exasperation I downloaded a launcher. I was hoping to
keep Marshmallow (go.macworld.
com/android6) as pristine as possible, but the allure of Nova Launcher
(go.macworld.com/bestandroidapps)
(with a little help from TeslaUnread)
was too great. A few toggles and
taps later and I had restored the little
missed, waiting, and unread markers
on the apps that needed them.
62

Ive always known Androids

biggest advantage over iOS was
customization, but using it to solve a
problem like this was pure joy. With
my iPhone, Ive always had to grin
and bear any issues and shortcomings I may have. Theres always
jailbreaking, of course, but that
exposes my phone in scary ways
(go.macworld.com/nojailbreak) and
detracts from the overall iOS experience with frequent crashes and
bugs. Android let me solve a problem
just by spending a few bucks in the
Play Store.

hasnt yet appropriated it under its

Mission Control trademark. Its the
best of both words: If you enjoy
looking at pages of app icons, you
can easily set up iOS-style homepages, but your apps can also stay
tucked out of view, making Android
feel more like a desktop operating
system than a mobile one. iOS feels
antiquated and downright amateurish
by comparison, and Im never going
to look at my iPhones home screen
the same.
I happily tinkered with the layout of
my home screen for a few days
I WAS EXCITED
about widgets at first,
but didnt wind up
keeping many around.

NEW WORLD ORDERED

Once I had badges in place, I could
focus on properly setting up my
home screen. Android lends itself to
a much different layout, and its here
where I became smitten. I have a lot
of apps on my iPhone863 to be
exact. Im something of a digital
hoarder, my iPhone divided into a
meticulous system of home screens
and folders containing hundreds of
apps I rarely use but still need to see,
something Ive always wished wasnt
necessary.
This is where Android truly begins
to set itself apart. With every upcoming iOS update Ive hoped in vain
that Apple allows us to delete the
stock apps we dont want, but
Androids drawer is such a perfect
solution Im kind of amazed Apple
63

iOS CENTRAL

ANDROID VACATION

ANDROIDS
NOTIFICATION CENTER
was far too needy for
my tastes.

before settling on a layout that Ive

stuck with for the rest of my time with
the Nexus 6P. I dont feel the need to
rotate my apps like I do on my
iPhone; my home screen consists of
just one home screen with 16 apps,
all of which I regularly use. At the top
is a solitary weather widget that
updates as I travel and provides
me with the at-a-glance forecast
and conditions Ive always craved
on my iPhone.

WIDGET FACTORY
When I started this experiment, I was
most interested in widgets (go.
macworld.com/androidwidgets). Even
more than the app drawer, widgets
represent the starkest difference
between the iOS and Android home
screens, adding a level of personalization thats not possible on my iPhone.
Ive always been attracted to apps like
Morning (go.macworld.com/morning
app) and Status Board (go.macworld.
com/statusboard2) that let me get
relevant bits of information, and on my
Nexus 7 tablet, I immediately cluttered
the screen with various time-saving
data widgets.
But the experience wasnt quite so
blissful on my phone. The widgets I
loved on my tablet didnt quite
translate to the smaller screen, and
very few of the dozens I installed
(and ultimately removed) were things
that I wanted to see every time I

unlocked my phone. Putting them on

different pages helped, but I was
surprised to find that I actually
preferred Apples method of hiding
them in the Notification Center.
Androids widgets may be visually
superior to iOSs (some of them,
anyway), but keeping them out of
view is smarter. When I want to see
stocks or sports scores, I know
where to find them, but they dont
need to be in my face every minute.
Androids widgets are more robust,
and maybe iOS has an opportunity
to use 3D Touch here to leap-frog
64

Androids static home screen

elements.

NOTIFICATION ANXIETY
But if widgets were a downer,
notifications were a downright
disappointment. Ive always had
complaints about Apples notifications, but I do appreciate how they

stay hidden from sight. Android

notifications are very much central to
the experience, and if it wasnt for
writing this piece, I would have
turned them all off in a huff.
Apparently, assigning simple
unread makers to apps would be too
convenient. Android demands
actionit wants you to continually

65

THE SAME APPS from

the same developers
can still feel like
afterthoughts. This
is MLB At Bat, on iOS
on the left, and on
Android on the right.

iOS
iOS CENTRAL
CENTRAL

ANDROID VACATION

check a series of tiny status-bar icons

to see your alerts and reminders, a
method that couldnt possibly be less
intuitive. Old icons stick around until
physically acted on, so its quite
difficult to discern which are new.
And unless theyre directly acted
upon, banners stay on the lock
screen too, even after repeated
unlocking.
The notification center itself is
accessed using a familiar pull-down
gesture, and I found myself using it
far more often than Apples. It wasnt
out of enjoymentafter just a few
hours, my status bar got so crowded
I angrily swiped down to get to the
Clear All button. Its a strange system
that definitely succeeded in getting
me to pay attention to notifications,
but its kind of like when a child puts
away their toys out of fear of being
grounded. Notifications neednt
be stressful or overwhelming, and
with Android they were constantly
on my mind.

APPS AND DOWNS

We hear a lot about Apples dominance when it comes to apps, but
truth be told, the Google Play store is
just as well-stocked as the App Store.
But while the icons may have been
the same, the experiences most

certainly were not. I had no comTHIS STATUS bar drove

me crazy.
plaints with any of the games I
played (it was refreshing not to deal
with the status bar for a while), but
many of my favorite appsMLB At
Bat, Todoist, Mailboxdidnt quite
measure up to the standard set by
iOS. Its not that they were bad; they
just werent quite as good.
For example,
I wrote most of
WE HEAR A LOT
this article in iA
ABOUT APPLES
Writer. While
DOMINANCE WHEN
much of the
IT COMES TO APPS,
experience was
BUT TRUTH BE TOLD,
familiar, there
THE GOOGLE PLAY
were little
STORE IS JUST AS
annoyances
WELL-STOCKED AS
with the Android
THE APP STORE.
version, things
like the menu
bar sporadically sticking around
while I typed and wonky swipe
gestures. But more glaring was the
comparative lack of options: no
find-and-replace, no specific settings
for Focus Mode, and no word count,
just to name a few.
Aside from a bit more crashing
than I was used to, many of my app
gripes were relatively small issues
that could be corrected in future
updates, but it just seemed that
developers didnt put as much
66

attention into their Android apps as

they did the iOS ones. Even MLB At
Bat, which has always been one of
the best sports apps on iOS, felt
like an inferior copy. Interestingly,
the best cross-platform experience
I had was with Apple Music (go.
macworld.com/androidapplemusic).
The interface struck a nice balance
between iOS and Android, and aside
from a few playback bugs, I was able
to download and listen to my entire
iTunes library without a hitch.

REALITY CHECK
Ultimately it was a collection of little
things that brought me back down
to earth. Android offers a bevy of
excellent features that iOS doesnt
and frankly, probably never willbut

its a matter of what Im willing to

trade off. Androids customization is
refreshing, but what iOS lacks in
tinkering it makes up for in usability.
Every feature Apple implements is
seriously considered for the effect it
has on the user, an attention I didnt
feel with Android.
Neither experience is perfect, and
Id be lying if I said I wasnt going to
miss my Nexus 6P at least a little bit,
once I put my SIM back in my
iPhone. But for a long-term relationship, Android just didnt do it for me.
It might have been touch-and-go for
a while there, but once my crush
wore off I was able to see just how
dependable and reliable iOS is. And
thats better than a pretty face any
day.

67

iOS CENTRAL

The best task managers

for iOS
Need to get things done? Youll need a task manager to organize all
of your to-dos. Heres our list of favorites.
BY MICHAEL SIMON

68

hile Getting Things Done (go.macworld.com/gtd) might

be a proven method for maximizing organization and
efficiency, you dont need to adopt a whole new philosophy just to get your life in order. All you need is the right app.

However, finding that one perfect

app can be the most difficult task of
all. Do a search for task manager or
list maker and youll get dozens of
apps solely dedicated to scheduling
and organizing your life.
The task managers on this list all
let you dive in and out of your lists
and to-dos with ease and efficiency,
showcasing not just the beauty of
iOS but also its power and versatility.
And of course, they will all help you
get things done. Here are our picks.

use it. Thankfully, you wont need to

look far. Whether youre a list maker,
project manager, or obsessive scheduler, Todoists deceptively powerful
interface has you more than covered.
Theres a minimal feel to it for sure,
but none of its design decisions get
in the way of your ability to quickly
set, schedule, and finish tasks.
A CLEAN, THOUGHTFUL
interface is just part of
Todoists charm.

THE BEST TASK MANAGER:

TODOIST
While Todoist (free; go.macworld.
com/todoist-mac) has actually been
around as long as the iPhone has, it
was born and raised on the web, only
emerging in its native form in 2012
after it had ample time to mature.
Life outside the App Store has
served it well. Where other some
other apps feel either rushed or
unintuitive, Todoist consistently gets
things right. From its minimal interface to its supremely functional task
management, Todoist is such a
pleasure to use you might find
yourself looking for extra excuses to
69

iOS CENTRAL

iOS TASK MANAGERS

Todoist breaks down your to-dos in

a logical way that helps you prioritize.
Like most task managers, youll get a
list of what needs immediate attention
each time you launch, but what makes
Todoist greatand gives it an edge
over its competitorsis the ease with
which it handles all of your projects
and appointments, no matter when
theyre occurring.
Theres a logical priority placed on
the tasks due during the current
week, but you dont need to use
Todoist as a conventional task
manager to take advantage of its
greatness. By utilizing an inbox to
organize your to-dos, it gives you a
degree of control over your schedule
that helps actually get things done
more efficientlynot just hastily
check them off a list.
Thats not to say you cant quickly
jump in and out to check on the days
tasks, but speed is only a small piece
of Todoists strong user experience.
Truth be told, there are any number
of apps that let you input and output
tasks much faster, but I didnt find
one that collected or organized them
better. Todoist understands that all
tasks are not equal, so the creation
of their reminders shouldnt be either.
Its not just about schedulingthe
app lets you collect like-minded tasks
into projects, giving them greater
importance and stature and helping
to separate them from the simpler

TODOIST EASILY LETS

you assign, prioritize,
and set reminders as
you add and organize
your tasks.

things going on in your life.

And Todoist wont cost you a thing.
You can choose to subscribe to a
premium account that greatly
expands the service with things like
custom filters, file attachments,
location alerts, and labels, but the
free version of Todoist is still comfortably ahead of that of its peers.

RUNNER-UP: TODO
Advanced features are one thing, but
the basic premise of a task managermaking lists and scheduling
tasksought to be a fairly instantly
70

understood process.
Thats what ultimately earned Todo
($5; go.macworld.com/todotasklist)
this spot. Todo edged out the others
all on the strength of its interface.
It offers a healthy servicing of
advanced features for power users,
but Todo really nailed the basic
tenets of a task manager.
Right off the bat, Todo distinguishes
itself with its smart, intuitive options.
Start a new to-do and youll immediately be asked to choose the type of

task youll be tackling: A reminder, list,

or project. Its a simple step but an
important one; many apps ignore the
fact that a good deal of our tasks only
need rudimentary checklists, and a
way to group items together neatly
and logically is often hidden inside
complex menus, if its not overlooked
altogether. Outside of list-centric apps
like Clear or Remember the Milk, Todo
handled things like packing lists and
bundled tasks better than any other
manager, and its dexterity made the

PERSONALIZED LISTS and smart sorting make Todo

an excellent home for your tasks.

TODOS INBOX lets you see whats happening now,

later and in the future.

71

iOS CENTRAL

iOS TASK MANAGERS

input process utterly painless.

But what Todo truly excels at is
organization. Where other apps
merely give you a repository for the
things you need to do, Todo actually
helps you organize your tasks in a
way that helps you complete them
more efficiently. No matter what type
of tasks you create, theyll naturally
be sorted into smart categories: An
Inbox filled with things yet to be
completed, a Focus List of anything
due within the next 24 hours, and
Starred Tasks for anything urgent.
On top of that, you can add personalized lists to divide your tasks by
theme. Youll need to do the sorting
yourself here, but its another
example of how Todo understands
the way tasks naturally fit together.
The interface isnt quite as polished as that of some of its competitors, but theres a certain appeal to
its custom backgrounds and whimsical use of color. Navigation is smooth
and intuitive, and youll find a wealth
of options in its settings, including
location awareness and contacts
integration. Like Todoist, theres also
an optional Todo Cloud subscription
that expands the apps capabilities
with powerful sharing, syncing, and
collaboration (along with a clever Siri
workaround), but most users will be
plenty pleased with the basic app.
Todo isnt just worth the price of
admission; its simple yet sophisti-

GOODTASK integrates
with your Calendar
events to create a full
picture of everything
going on your life.

cated task management will give you

and your life a new sense of order.

BEST FOR CALENDAR

LOVERS: GOOD TASK 2
If youre the kind of person who needs
to visualize your to-dos on a calendar,
your options are surprisingly limited.
Apps like Sunrise (R.I.P.; go.macworld.
com/sunrisereview) and Fantastical
(go.macworld.com/fantastical2rvw)
do an excellent job of keeping track of
your appointments and reminders, but
theyre not true task managers, and
many of the better to-do-centric apps
72

dont want to muddy their experiences

with tiny calendars.
GoodTask 2 (free; goodtaskapp.
com) fills the space between them.
With a tabbed interface that lets you
quickly switch between modes, it
strikes a neat balance between a
task manager and a day planner,
letting you visualize everything you
need to do without getting too
bogged down in the minutiae of days
and dots.
There are four tabs to choose from
in GoodTask, each with its own
unique view. List displays your to-dos
in classic task manager mode, while
the others break down the things you
need to do into daily, weekly, and
monthly segments. Its interface
conjures shades of Fantastical, which
is hardly a bad thingin Week mode,
a DayTicker-like bar lets you quickly
jump through your tasks and Month
view splits the screen between a full
calendar and a chronological list of
upcoming to-dos.
A nifty pull-down gesture lets you
create new tasks and you can easily
organize them with custom lists, but
the best reason to download GoodTask 2 is its built-in calendar. Fast
and functional, it puts your tasks in a
whole new light, aligning them with
the rest of your life and helping you
find the spaces where you can get
things done.

BEST FOR POWER USERS:

GNEO
All of the managers listed here do an
exemplary job with organizing and
alerting you to the tasks that need
to be done, but for the most part
theyre catch-alls, dutifully collecting
everything you input. If your days are
becoming bogged down with overlapping tasks, Gneo ($10; gneo.co) will
help you unjumble your schedule.
Gneo utilizes a panel interface that
helps prioritize your tasks based on
urgency, the most unique (and useful)
being an adjustable quadrant view
AN ADJUSTABLE
quadrant gives you
incredible control
over your tasks in
Gneo.

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iOS TASK MANAGERS

that divides things by importance. If,

for example, a deadline has shifted
from tomorrow to next week, you can
literally drag it from Urgent and drop
it into Important, freeing up time for
something that requires your immediate attention. You can also create
personalized notebooks that work
well to keep tasks of all sizeslongterm projects and goals can be
separated from menial things like
grocery lists, so you wont overlook
anything important.
Gneo was easily the most focused
task manager I used. Every step of its
interface is designed to maximize
efficiency and get your tasks prioritized and polished off, and power
users will appreciate its strict attention to detail. Even a mountain of
tasks will seem manageable once
they pass through its singular system
of checks and balances, and you
might even gain some perspective
on the other side.

BEST FOR LIST JUNKIES:

CLEAR
Clear ($5; realmacsoftware.com/
clear) was the first app to truly bring
task management into the multitouch era, introducing a slick, gesture-based interface that made
boring old to-do lists exciting again.
Its come a long way from its humble
beginnings, but its strongest suit is
still its most basic feature: Making

CLEAR has evolved

over the years, but
its gesture-based
navigation is just as
cool as its always
been.

lists, and crossing things off.

Clear isnt the only task manager
that utilizes gestures, but its the only
one I tested that relied exclusively on
them. Everything from creating new
lists to adjusting the settings is
accomplished through simple pulls
and swipes, giving Clear a fresh,
modern UI thats as slick as it is
intuitive. You wont find many of the
features common to the other task
managers here, but an excellent use
of color and item-specific reminders
make it easy to use for all of your
to-dos.
Rather than swiping through
screens to navigate your tasks, Clear
operates in a vertical space, which
74

takes some getting used to. But once

you learn the ins and outs of its
various screens, youll be able to
make and populate lists faster than
with any of its peersand youll have
a whole lot more fun doing it.

going to commit to doing. That

means if you want to add a new task,
youll need to complete one of your
old ones (or at least feel a pang of
guilt deleting it).

OTHERS OF NOTE
BEST FOR RESOLUTIONS:
STREAKS
Resolutions arent just for January.
Whether youre trying to quit smoking, save up for a trip, or lose weight,
Streaks ($4; iPhone only; streaksapp.
com) will help you accomplish your
goal.
Streaks is built to be a motivator
but its not just for tasks you need
extra motivation to accomplish. You
can schedule a customized daily
notification for anything that you
need reminding to do on a regular
basisbe it walking the dog or
calling your mom. And dont worry
about Streaks nagging you too
muchthe app doesnt rely solely
on badgering to keep you on top of
your tasks.
To mark off a particular task for the
day, you tap and hold its circle, and
the app has various views to show
how well youve done. Its a bit of
subtle gamification, but it works, as
does the integration with the Health
app for tracking exercise. And while
Streaks limits you to just six tasks, its
for your own goodit wants you to
focus on the things youre actually

While the six spotlighted task managers weve discussed are among the
very best in the App Store, there are
numerous others that deserve a
mention. Sporting a clever whiteboard-inspired interface, Trellos
(free; trello.com) system of customizable containers just barely missed
IF YOU HAVE recurring
tasks, Streaks wont
let you forget to keep
doing them.

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iOS TASK MANAGERS

out on the runner-up position. It does

a stellar job of organizing and
managing not just your tasks, but
attachments and notes as well.
Equally excellent is Any.do (free;
any.do), a powerful task manager
wrapped in an incredibly lightweight
interface. Lists, projects, and to-dos
are all handled with style and speed,
but its shining feature has to be the
daily Moment, which lets you plan the
days tasks all at once.
Another favorite is Swipes (free;
swipesapp.com/personal). Impeccably designed and built around one of
the most distinctive interfaces Ive
seen, Swipes smart, clean approach
to task managing will organize your
to-dos with gesture-based steps and
actions. Evernote and Gmail users
will love its seamless integration with
all of your notes and important
emails.
For list makers, theres the inimitable Remember the Milk (free;
rememberthemilk.com). One of the
original task managers, the app has
certainly matured since its in-browser
days, but it still retains much of its
classic charm, down to its paper-andpencil-styled skeuomorphic design.
Youll also get a clever panel interface that organizes your tasks by day
rather than datenot to mention the
cutest home screen icon ever.
If youre a serial procrastinator,
Carrot To-Do ($3; iPhone only;

SWIPES simple,
outline-inspired
interface gives your
tasks a sense of style
and place.

meetcarrot.com/todo) will give you

the motivation you need to finish you
taskswith a liberal dose of attitude.
You see, Carrot doesnt let your
to-dos languish past their due dates:
It will shame you with sass and
attitude until they get done.
And finally, I would be remiss if I
didnt include Things ($10; iPhone
only; culturedcode.com/things/
iphone). Another classic task manager, Things system is time-tested
and true, embracing the GTD philosophy and utilizing a drop-dead
simple interface that stays out of the
way while still helping you manage
and dutifully organize your tasks.

HOW WE MADE OUR LIST

During my extensive testingwhich
included more than two dozen task
76

managers and list makersI tried to

represent as much of a cross-section
as I could. Still, theres a good chance
your favorite one didnt make the cut.
So allow me to explain why.
First off, the apps on this list are all
inexpensive. I imposed a price limit of
$10, not because of a misguided
notion that iOS apps should cost as
little as possible, but because I
wanted to keep a uniform, if not level
playing field. By no means is this an
indictment of Omnifocus or premium
subscription models, but comparing a
$1 app to one that costs $30 seems
unfair to both.
No matter the price, every task
manager needs to do a few basic
things: Organize tasks, make lists,
and set a schedule. Some obviously
do a whole lot more, but those three
facets were a starting point for every
app I tested. If it didnt do one, it was
out. (For example, the fantastic
list-making app Paperless doesnt do
due dates, so it was chopped.) I also
discounted any app that wasnt yet
updated for at least the iPhone 6,
which notably eliminated Taasky,
Finish, and Zippy, along with a few
others.
From there, I used three more
criteria: interface, organization, and
time management. While each of

these are wholly subjective, there are

some standards I did my best to
apply. I tend to gravitate toward
cleaner interfaces, but function
trumped form. Folders (or some kind
of structural hierarchy) were an
absolute must, as was the ability to
quickly create a new task on any
page. Alerts and scheduling were
important as well, but so was the ability to snooze and delete tasks
without needing too many taps.
ITS ELECTRIFYING
personality will
motivate you to
complete your tasks
but you dont want to
get Carrot angry.

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iOS CENTRAL

CAITLIN MCGARRY
CAITLIN MCGARRY

Apples $79 Apple Watch

charging dock is here
BY CAITLIN McGARRY

78

ell, that was quick: Less than a day after leaked photos
of the Apple Watch charging dock spread around the
Internet, Apple put the $79 dock (go.macworld.com/
awmagdock) up for sale online and in Apple Stores.

Unlike third-party watch stands,

which are essentially charger accessories, the official dock comes with
the small inductive charging disc built
in. You plug the whole dock into a
wall charger using the Lightning
cable it comes with. You can place
your watch flat on top of the dock
with the band undone, as you would

on the standard charger it comes

with, or you can raise the charging
disc and wrap the watch around it to
charge in Nightstand mode.
Why this matters: The dock is
beautiful, to be sure. Its also one of
the more expensive Apple Watch
charging docks on the market, and
far more expensive than the $39

YOU CAN RAISE the inductive

charger on the dock to charge
your watch in Nightstand mode.

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iOS CENTRAL

APPLE WATCH CHARGING DOCK

iPhone charging dock. Between this

$79 charging dock and the $13 Siri
remote wrist loop (go.macworld.com/
siriremoteloop) the company sells
alongside the fourth-gen Apple TV,
its beginning to look like Apple
accessory pricing is out of control.
Of course, you dont need a
remote wrist loop or an Apple Watch
charging dock. And if you really want
a watch stand, weve rounded up
some of our favorite third-party
docks (go.macworld.com/best

awstands) at various price points,

including some that are more expensive than Apples official dock and
dont include an inductive charger in
that cost. A new Apple Watch
charging cable will cost you $29, if
you lose or break the one included
with the watch.
Apple Watch owners, is Apples
new watch dock compelling enough
to splurge on, or are you sticking to
the simple charger your watch came
with?

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iOS CENTRAL

How to use gridstyle password

entry on the new
Apple TV
Dont mess with the Apple TVs hair-pulling lineentry screen. Grab an older Apple Remote and use
the old grid-style password entry screen.
BY ROB GRIFFITHS

82

hen I woke up my fourth-generation Apple TV (go.

macworld.com/appletvrev), I was prompted for a
password and was very surprised when I saw the
password entry screen. It was not the two-row layout Ive grown
to hate. Instead, I saw the image below:

Yes, thats the third-gen Apple TVs

password entry screen, on my
fourth-gen Apple
TV. Just how
did I get it to
appear? Very
easily, though it
took me a bit to
figure out exactly
how I did it.
To use the
old-style password entry
screen on the
new Apple TV,
wake the Apple
TV using the old
silver remote,
and dont touch
the new Siri
remote.
And thats it. If you wake the
Apple TV with the silver remote
(go.macworld.com/appletvremote)

and dont touch the Siri remote until

after you get to a password entry
screen, youll get
the grid. If the
Apple TV pairs
with the Siri
remote, though,
youll get the
new-style line
entry screen.
I havent
extensively
tested this, but I
did try on two
different fourthgen Apple TVs
and got the
same results on
both. So if you
want to use the
old password entry grid on your new
Apple TV, get yourself a silver
remote, if you dont have one
already.

83

iOS CENTRAL

Reviews

STYLUS

APPLE PENCIL: MUCH SHARPER

THAN THE AVERAGE SMART STYLUS
BY JACKIE DOVE

APPLES PRESSURE-SENSITIVE PENCIL is a home run, exhibiting

remarkable performance on the new iPad Pro, but that should not come
as a shock: The two were engineered from the ground up to work
together and only with each other.
The iPad screen recognizes when you are using the Pencil (apple.
com/apple-pencil), and in response, dynamically boosts its scan rate
to 240 times per second (twice the speed it scans for your finger) to
minimize latency, the time between the Pencils point touching the glass
84

and a mark appearing on the canvas. Simultaneously, the Pencils

sensors work with the display to detect its position, force, and tilt via
APIs in iOS 9.1 (go.macworld.com/ios91api) that not only register current
location but predict future movement.
Press lightly to get a thin stroke, press harder to get a thicker stroke,
and rub lightly with the side of the Pencils tip to get shading action, just
like using a regular pencil, though the quality of that shading depends
on the app and the brush you choose.

APPLE PENCIL

mmmmh
AT A GLANCE

An all-around pleasure to use,

the Apple Pencil shows what
a Bluetooth stylus should be.
PROS

Easy pairing process.

Natural feel requires no
adjustment time.

SKETCHING AND WRITING

Straight out of the box, Apples Pencil is a joy to use. You dont need to
do any elaborate pairing or visit the Settings appjust plug the Pencil in
to the iPad Pros Lightning port to pair it, then go to town. It works as a
stylus with any app, letting you launch, navigate, scroll, and complete
basic operations. You can even trace over a regular sheet of paper.
But the Pencil doesnt do everything. Edge gestures to access Notifications or the Control Center dont work, and you cant use it to open a
second app in Slide Over or resize apps in Split View. You must still use your
finger for those functions, and Im good with that because its not necessary,
and you dont want to accidentally invoke functions with the Pencil.

Excellent performance with

no lag time or latency.
CONS

Only works with the iPad

Pro for now.
Slick, plastic surface.
Tiny adapter and cap are
easy to misplace.
PRICE

$99
COMPANY

Apple

THE NOTES app has a drawing

screen, complete with a ruler
for drawing straight lines.

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SO WHAT IF you think

you cant draw? The
Pencil even lets you
trace through a regular
sheet of paper.

I tested the Pencil with Evernote, Notability, Adobe Photoshop Mix,

Fix and Sketch, Complete Anatomy, LiquidText, Pixelmator, Procreate,
Paper, Notes, Apple Photos, and iMovie, along with the iPads built-in
apps. Remarkably, each app performed as advertised, and in accordance with its own conventions, including Notes nifty onscreen ruler
that helps you draw a straight line. The only anomaly was the reference
app Complete Anatomy, aimed at medical students, which suffered
from a slight lag time when I used the Pencil to annotate the text.
Cursive handwriting and printing can be a heartbreak with many
styluses, and performance varies widely. However, I have yet to see a
handwriting function that works
quite as well as on the Pencil.
(It reproduces my poor penmanship flawlessly.) The Pencil
is a totally natural notetaker
and such a pleasure to use, that
Im almost tempted to lug the
iPad Pro around for the sheer
joy of writing with it. And just
for the record, I thoroughly
enjoyed sketching with it too,
though Im far from a freehand
artist.
86

HANDWRITING feels fluid and

looks great too.

THE PENCIL ISNT just for

drawing. Complete Anatomy,
an interactive medical
textbook, supports the Pencil
for taking notes and marking
up drawings.

USE AND HANDLING

Styluses are a personal thing. What feels right to one paw doesnt necessarily translate to another. Apples Pencil has just the right amount of balance
and heft so that I can use it for long periods of time without feeling hand
strain, just like a traditional pencil. Thats actually a bigger deal than it
sounds. Only one other stylus Ive used competes, and thats Adobes Ink
(go.macworld.com/adobeinkrev). Most other styluses wear out my hand in
a surprisingly short period of time.
That said, I would have appreciated the instrument to have more of a
matte feel, as opposed to the slick plastic surface. It was not hard to grip,
nor did it slip from my fingers, but it would feel even better with an
ever-so-slight degree of velvety friction on the surface.
Thats also related to the diameter. Being a pencil, its thin. And for
drawing, thats great. But when Im taking notes with it, Im reminded of
how I tend to go for pens with a bit of a thicker barrel to ease the strain
on my hand as the words fly from by brain to my fingertips. Im not
advocating Apple make the Pencil barrel thicker, but rather expressing
that the variety of tasks the Pencil affords will offer different experiences.
The Pencil is pencil-like in length, so my small hand was just about
able to handle it in a natural way. It edges toward being a bit too long,
and Im glad Apple decided not to use the end tip as an eraser, like
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REVIEWS | APPLE PENCIL

traditional pencils, because at that length, it might feel awkward.

Most styluses are an either-or affair: Youre using your finger or youre
using the stylus. Thanks to a new touch subsystem in the tablet, the iPad
Pro can recognize both inputs simultaneously and accurately differentiate between the two.
iAutomatic and accurate palm rejection makes the Pencil convenient
because I can actually park my fist directly on the iPads glass while
writing, drawing, or painting without having to worry about errant marks
showing up on the canvas.
And that brings me to the screw-on tip. Most high-quality styluses
advertise their presence with a clicky little sound that gets old really fast.
When Im stressed or frustrated with a project, the last thing I want to
hear is a clickety-clack. The Pencil has a point, but its materials make a
very muted sound, which is much more agreeable. Apple thoughtfully
includes a replacement tip in the box, just in case.
The only problem is losing tiny things. The second tip can stay in the
box until you need it, but take care not to lose the adapter that connects
the Pencil to your Mac or an AC power adapter for charging, or the little
cap that covers the Lightning connector, as you cannot park both on the
Pencil at the same time.

PODCAST
To listen to our
podcast about
the iPad Pro and
Pencil, visit
go.macworld.
com/podcast
483
Internet connection
required.

THE PENCIL FEELS like

a pencil, only more
slippery since its
finished with smooth,
shiny white plastic.

88

YES, KITTY, just plug the

Pencil into the Lightning
port to give it a quick
battery boost.

LIMITED USE CASES

To use the Pencil (which at $99 I consider reasonably priced, though on the
high end of the spectrum) you also need the iPad Pro, which starts at $799
and goes to over $1,000. The Pencil is useless on any other iOS device.
Its a little disappointing that Apple limits the Pencil to iPad Pro users,
when it could potentially engage a larger audience of late-model iPad
users. Apple appears intent on creating a uniquely superior experience
with the Pencil, so that a different kind of interaction, with perhaps more
latency and less pressure sensitivity and tilt awareness, would defeat the
purpose. Nonetheless, some people will stick with their laptops and
smaller iPads and never need the iPad Pro. Depriving them of the Pencil
doesnt seem quite fair.
Both the Pencil and the iPad Pro hold up well in terms of battery life, and
when the Pencils charge does drain, it takes almost no time to get it up and
running again. The initial charge lasts about 12 hours, but 15 seconds
plugged into the Lightning connector of the iPad Pro gets you back to work
for another half hour before you can even lose your train of thought.
Getting a quick battery boost directly from the host devicewithout
having to get up out of your chair to hunt for a cord or chargeris the
way we all should work. Charging the Pencil is easier and faster than
sharpening a regular pencil.
Battery life, in this case, is academic, and the Pencil has no onboard
battery indicator. However, you can check the battery level by enabling a
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REVIEWS | APPLE PENCIL

Batteries widget in Notification Center; plus, an onscreen alert flashes

when the battery hits 5 percent.

BOTTOM LINE
If youre an iPad Pro owner, should you buy the Pencil? Thats a nobrainerApple hit it out of the ballpark in terms of ease of use and
performance. Even those who feel they have no specific use for it right
now will likely find it makes life easier in various, unexpected ways.
If you are an iPad owner that does not need an iPad Pro, its OK to be
annoyed that you cant use the Pencil with the rest of the iPad lineup
but that might not be the case forever. I think Apple should democratize
the Pencil, upgrading the next generation of iPads to take advantage of
at least some of the Pencils charms.

90

TO CHECK THE Pencils battery

life, just add the Batteries
widget to your Notification
Center.

iPAD ACCESSORIES

LOGITECH CREATE: BULKY iPAD

PRO KEYBOARD CASE HAS
AWESOME BACKLIT KEYS
BY J.R. BOOKWALTER

LIKE MANY PROSPECTIVE iPAD PRO OWNERS, I was eager to get my

hands on Apples companion accessories at launch, particularly the
keyboard case that takes advantage of the new Smart Connector.
Imagine my dismay upon picking up the massive device at my local
Apple Store, only to discover no such accessories in stock.
As fate would have it, Apple did my wallet a favor: One of the best
and brightest accessory makers around was better prepared with a
keyboard case of their ownone superior to what Cupertinos designers came up with.
91

LOGITECH CREATE

mmmh
PRICE

$150
COMPANY

Logitech

iOS CENTRAL

REVIEWS | LOGITECH CREATE

ON THE CASE
The Logitech Create (go.macworld.com/logitechcreate) is a keyboard
case providing all-around protection for the iPad Pro. And I do mean
all-around: Available in five colors (I tested the Black with Space Grey
model), the Create is the The Incredible Hulk of iPad cases, with an
exterior made from water-repellent fabric. Theres little fear such an
expensive device will take abuse inside this casethe iPad is entirely
sheathed, with small openings for the camera, ports, and four speakers.
The Create also encases the power and volume buttons, requiring a
little more force to use them. Coming from an iPad Air with a Smart
Cover, this took some getting used to, but lock and volume level controls
are also present on the keyboard. The added bulk and weight also

SMART CONNECTOR support

and a backlit keyboard make
Logitech Create a winner,
despite the bulky all-around
protection.

92

makes holding the device in portrait mode cumbersome, especially

when reading in bed. Unfortunately, a snug fit makes frequent removal
of the iPad somewhat tricky, despite the case holding only the top half
of the device.
When closed, the Create resembles a notebook computer, but at 1.6
pounds for the case and 3.25 pounds with the tablet inside, its a good
deal heavier than the latest MacBooks. Ive tried living with chunky
cases like this one in the past and always wound up ditching them,
but the keyboard alone makes this case a keeper.

NO BLUETOOTH NECESSARY
Although Apples Smart Keyboard (go.macworld.com/snellsmartkey
board) is lighter and slimmer, the Create has the upper hand thanks to
backlit keys and an extra row of shortcuts for home screen, brightness
settings (one pair for the display, another for the keys themselves),
search, switching between software keyboards, media playback, and
mute, in addition to lock and volume control.
Thanks to the larger tablet, the full-size, chiclet-style keyboard is the
same width and style as a MacBook, so I immediately felt comfortable
93

THE LOGITECH CREATE lacks

any real viewing angle
adjustment, but the iPad Pro
can be lowered for writing
or drawing in addition to the
upright position for typing.

iOS CENTRAL

REVIEWS | LOGITECH CREATE

using it. The Create makes the iPad Pro a more capable productivity
device, although it does expose a few lingering weaknesses in iOS 9:
Theres no Mac-style forward delete key or trackpad support, for example. Working with text on a touchscreen is downright awkward when the
experience otherwise feels so much like using a notebook. The Create
offers two viewing angles: The first works well for typing (even when
balanced on my lap), while the second positions the iPad almost flat
against the keyboard for writing or drawing.
Logitech is the first third-party accessory maker to take advantage of
the Smart Connector, the three-prong jack along the left edge of the
iPad Pro. The Create magnetically attaches to the tabletstrong enough
that I was able to pick up the entire tablet and case!while also supplying power and Bluetooth-free keyboard connectivity. This can only be
done in landscape mode (a limitation shared with Apples Smart Keyboard) and the backlit keys only stay illuminated a few seconds at a time
to conserve battery power, but otherwise the combination of the Smart
Connector and the Create keyboard is a winner.

BOTTOM LINE
Even if Apples Smart Keyboard were in stock right now, the
Logitech Create Backlit Keyboard Case is hands-down the
better choice. I do wish it didnt add so much bulk to the
tablet, but its hard to imagine anyone coming up with a
better typing experience for the iPad Pro. (And yes, I
used it to type this very review in Microsoft Word.)
IT MAY BE THE Humvee
of keyboard cases, but
the Logitech Create will
protect every side of
your iPad Pro.

94

Whats new
at the App Store

Earbits
Earbits Music Discovery Radio (go.
mac world.com/earbits) offers 400
commercial-free radio stationsakin,
developers say, to the mood and
activity playlists at Songza and 8Tracks. You can
even receive targeted recommendations based
on the music in your phoneassuming, of course,
you even bother to store music on your phone
anymore in this streaming era.

Miner
Miner (minerapp.com) lets you shop
and get great deals from Forever 21,
H&M, Banana Republic, Nasty Gal,
Bloomingdales, 7 For All Mankind,
Free People, Saks, Alice and Olivia, Tory Burch,
and J Brand, among other stores. It is, the
makers say, like having more than 20 clothing
apps all in one.

Vizable

BRAINSTORM
Brainstorm (brainstormthegame.
com) is a $3 iOS app that offers
nine categories of game play
everything from charades to trivia
to memory games and more. And
its designed for groups: Played
in two teams of any size, its
designed to keep players with
all types of skills and interests
having a blast.

Vizable (vizable.tableau.com) is an
iPad app that takes data stored in
CSV and Excel files and turns it into
interactive graphics, letting you
analyze trends and share information with
partners and colleagues.

Tribe
Tribe: Magical Messaging (tribe.pm)
makes it easier to send messages
one-handedjust press a button
featuring the message recipient,
then continue to hold the button down while you
record a short video message, then release to
send. If your recipient doesnt use the Tribe app,
no problem: Your recorded message will be
converted to text and sent as an SMS.
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iOS CENTRAL

Mighty mounts
This months roundup features several new stands and mounts for the Apple Watch.
Just because your watch isnt on your wrist doesnt mean it cant look nice.
BY JOEL MATHIS

SATECHI
The $15 Apple Watch Grip Mount (satechi.
net) is made for when you want to see your
Apple Watch, but dont want to leave it on
your wrist. One place to mount it? Your
cars steering wheel.

SENA
The $80 Leather Watch Case (senacases.com)
works as both a protective case and as a pretty
nice-looking stand for your Apple Watch. Its
wrapped in European leather and has gunmetal
accentsand its compatible with all Apple
Watch bands. It might even be nicer than most
of them.

96

GRIFFIN
The $20 Ultra Thin Case
(griffintechnology.com) for the
Apple Watch is exactly what
it sounds likea protective
case for your new devices
measuring just .5 mm thin. It
snaps into place without the
need to remove the wristband
and leaves the digital crown
accessible.

FANCY
Most Apple Watch docks have an element of verticality to them,
holding the watch display up and aloft for all to see. The $45
Dark Maple Apple Watch Dock (fancy.com) is all horizontal,
combining maple and iron to let your watch rest as it charges.
You know youve got something cool. You dont need to show it
off all the time.

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iOS CENTRAL

Mighty mounts

NOMAD
Pod Pro for iPhone and Apple Watch (hellonomad.
com) packs a compact high density 6000mAh
lithium ion battery which is enough to charge your
iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, twice each. Toss Pod in
your pack, and you will have enough power to get
through a long weekend. Pre-order now for $80.

LUNATIK
The Epik (lunatik.com) transforms the Apple
Watch into a ruggedly refined companion more
suited for the abuse your everyday active lifestyle
dishes out. Obsessively designed to protect the
Apple Watch, it provides enhanced tactile control
and unobstructed access to the watchs sensor
and features. It comes in a $60 polycarbonate
version and a $140 aluminum version.

98

Think It Up is a new movement created to

inspire students to pursue their passions
through student-powered, teacher-led
learning projects in classrooms across the
country with support from Staples for Students.
Students and teachers: How can you
spark great learning experiences in your
classrooms today?
Think It Up - because the work that students
and teachers accomplish today will change our
world tomorrow.
Join us at

Powered by

Think It Up is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

Nick Jonas,
Think It Up Ambassador
Photo by Patrick Ecclesine

Why the best iPad yet wont work

for everyone By Susie Ochs

REVIEW: iPAD PRO

FEATURE

100

ell, I tried. I tried the whole use the

iPad Pro instead of my computer for
a week thing and barely lasted a
day. It doesnt fit my workflow like

my MacBook Air does, so I stopped trying to force

itand thats OK. Apples newest largest tablet doesnt

iPad Pro

mmmm
AT A GLANCE

If price is no object, the

iPad Pro plus the Apple
Pencil let you do more
with Apples tablet than
ever before.
PROS

need to be a laptop replacement to be good, but for a

$300 premium over the cheapest iPad Air 2, it does
need to deliver more than just a larger screen.
In some ways it does. Thanks to a faster processor
and more RAM, the iPad Pro can enable a new class of
applications that feel as powerful as desktop apps.
Support for the Apple Pencil is limited to this iPad, so if
your work includes drawing or drafting, or youd rather
handwrite notes than type them, your choice is clear:
Buy this iPad Pro or wait a year to see if Pencil support
trickles down to more models.

101

Excellent battery life

Plenty of speed and
power
CONS

Software keyboard bug

PRICE

$799 (32GB Wi-Fi),

$949 (128GB Wi-Fi),
$1079 (128GB Wi-Fi and
cellular)
COMPANY

Apple.com

FEATURE

R E V I E W : i PA D P R O

But if you arent planning to

use the Pencil, it could be
hard for most people to
justify the extra cost over an
iPad Air 2 or even an iPad
mini 4at least, it is for me.
As a work tool, the iPad Pro
is a little like the Mac Pro, or
the MacBook Pro, or even
something specialized like a
SO MUCH SCREEN, you
miter saw: If you really need
could drive a truck
it to do your job, you likely
between those icons.
know you need it, and you
dont need me to tell you. If
you find yourself wondering if you
when paper and pencils were my
really need ityou probably dont.
daily tools of choice, and that futuristic
tingle of using something that feels so
The Pencil is the iPad
cutting edge.
Pros big selling point
Im not really sure why its so
Using the Pencil is awesome. It feels
roundI hate putting it down and
natural, and it writes naturally, and
seeing it roll awayand Im fairly
makes a cheap rubber-tipped capaciafraid of losing the little cap that
tive stylus feel like trying to write your
covers the Lightning port. And I dont
name with a hot dog. Drawing and
actually need the Pencil for my
even just doodling with it are wonderworkflow, since I mostly type text into
ful experiences thanks to the pressure boxes and edit JPEGs in Pixelmator.
sensitivity and tilt detection that help it So while I love using it like I used to
act more or less as you would expect,
use notebooks and pens, I could buy
with very little lag. I havent done
an iPad mini and a lot of very fancy
much drawing or painting since
notebooks and pens before I hit the
college, but the Pencil just makes me
$900 barrier to entry of the iPad Pro
want to use it, and the fact that I can
and Pencil. But graphic designers will
doodle, or color, or sketch, or mindthink this setup plus an app like
map while catching up on a show in
Astropad is a bargain compared to a
Hulu in a Picture-in-Picture window
Wacom Cintiq (go.macworld.com/
appeals to me in a unique way. Its a
cintiq13hdtouch). More uses for the
strange blend of nostalgia for the time Pencil could emerge over time as
102

VIDEO:
iPAD PRO
Take a closer
look at Apples
mega-tablet, the
iPad Pro with
the Smart
Keyboard and
Pencil. (go.
macworld.com/
ipadprofirstlook)

welldevelopers and tinkerers (go.

macworld.com/applepenciltricks) are
already experimenting. (See our full
Pencil review on page 84.)

Hits and misses when

trying to work
Some work apps really do benefit
from a bigger canvas. Drawing apps
like the wonderful Procreate, sure.
Editing photos with Pixelmator,
definitely. Apps with a lot of tools like
iMovie are a natural for a larger
screen. And when youre working
with two apps side by side, its great
to be able to give each of them the
space of an entire iPad Air. But the
apps I use the most on my iPad
Byword, Safari, Kindle, Mailare just

as good on a 9.7-inch iPad Air (or

even a 7.9-inch iPad mini) as they are
on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. (Full benchmarks are at go.macworld.com/
ipadprobenchmarks.)
Plus, running two apps side by
side isnt exactly multitasking. I kept
running into limitations that I could
work around, but didnt want to have
to. I liked having Byword open along
with Safari in Split View on the iPad
Pro. But on my Mac, I typically have
more than one Byword document
open at a timeone file with notes
and another with an article in progress, usuallyand the iPad cant do
that, since you cant have the same
app open in both sides of Split View.
If you want to see two webpages
103

THE PENCIL HAS next

to no learning curve,
since it reacts to your
movements pretty
much like a real pencil
would.

FEATURE

R E V I E W : i PA D P R O

side by side rather than just in tabs,

you have to open them in different
browsers. And of course, not every
iPad app supports Split View.
Thats not all. On my Mac, I use a
few utilities that can run in the
background, like RescueTime, which
logs every minute I spend using
various Mac apps and websites, but
has no iOS version. Only on my Mac
can I record Skype calls for the
podcast, while plugged into ethernet
for the occasion. My Mac lets me
download files more easily and
organize them however I like
although the iCloud Drive app in iOS

9 has made that easier on the iPad

than its been in the past.

Its still the best iPad ever

One of the things I like best about the
iPad Pro is that while it isnt as capable a work machine as my Mac, its a
way better iPad than my Mac. No,
reallyfor all the iOS creep into the
Mac (from iBooks to Maps to Launchpad to swipe gestures), the iPad is still
better at a slew of tasks that my brain
has firmly categorized as mobile
since iOS does them so well.
As I set up my iPad Pro, I first took
a look at the Applications folder on

iMOVIE ON THE iPAD PRO: Its faster and roomier

than ever, but Id still rather use a Mac.

104

iPad Pro
my Mac, so I could grab equivalent
iOS App Store offerings like Slack,
Byword, Pixelmator, Tweetbot, and
Things. But then I took a look at my
iPhone home screens, so Id remember to grab my favorites from the
mobile side, such as Kindle, My
Fitness Pal, Spotify, and Pocket
Casts. It was cool to be able to log a
snack or take a quick Instapaper
break, and then get back to my
writing and editing work, without
having to switch devices. And I loved
listening to podcasts or music while
writing full-screen, then just swiping
up to Control Center for the playback
buttons, always handy but tucked
neatly out of sight.
Still, everything in the paragraph
above is just as possible on the
smaller iPads than the nice, big,
roomy iPad Pro. Apps on the Pro
launch faster, which makes Split View
feel more fluid, since youre switching apps and flipping back and forth
in a blink. But aside from Pencil
support and overall speed, Im
hard-pressed to name a task I can do
better on the iPad Pro than on the
smaller (and more reasonably priced)
iPads in the lineup.

Its light in my bag, but

big on my lap
Big as it is, the iPad Pro feels a lot
lighter in my shoulder bag than the
13-inch MacBook Air I typically carry.

iPad Air 2

iPad mini 4

Even with the Smart Keyboard, which

bulks the iPad Pro up to 2.3 pounds,
its a noticeable change from my
2.9-pound, 13-inch MacBook Air.
When working at a table, the iPad Pro
doesnt feel too large, but when I curl
up in bed to watch Netflix or read
Kindle books on it, it starts to feel a
little unwieldyI want to prop it up
on pillows way on the other side of
the bed, or I feel like Im watching
movies too close to the screen.
105

AFTER USING THE

iPAD PRO for a week,
the iPad Air 2 didnt
suddenly seem
like a tiny childs
plaything9.7
inches is still a
respectable size.

FEATURE

R E V I E W : i PA D P R O

The speakers are much improved,

though, which does make a difference when using the iPad Pro as an
entertainment device. Apple included
four speakers, and the top two are
used for treble while the bottom two
are used for bassno matter how
you hold the tablet. They sound
good, loud enough to fill an average
room with music even if you dont
have a Bluetooth speaker handy.
Still, compared to using a laptop,
the iPad Pro is just less comfortable
all around. When sitting at a desk
with the Smart Keyboard, I didnt like
how I couldnt adjust the angle of the

screen, or keep my hands in one

relative position. (Reaching up to tap
the screen feels awkward at first, but
after about a day and a half, I found
myself reaching up to tap the screen
of my MacBook Air, instead of going
for the trackpad.) The software
keyboard keeps coming up even
when I have a Bluetooth keyboard
paired, thanks to a bug (go.macworld.
com/ipadprokeyboard) that Im told is
being addressed in iOS 9.2its not a
deal-breaker now, but it is annoying
for half the screen to be gobbled up
by a keyboard I dont need.
Battery life is excellentstarting a

THE BIG SCREEN and

powerful speakers
makes gaming and
watching videos
more immersive
and distracts from
the size of the tablet
youre holding.

workday at 85 percent charged, I didnt

get the 10 percent warning until almost
4 p.m. I do wish the iPad had the Low
Power Mode that Ive been enjoying so
much in iOS 9 for my iPhone, but that
mode works by throttling some performance behind the scenes (stopping
background app refresh, slowing down
the processor speed), and Apple might
have felt these werent acceptable
trade-offs to eke more power out of the
iPad Pro. The tablet ships with a 12-watt
USB power adapter for chargingboth
the battery life and the tiny universal
charger are big points for the iPad Pro
over a MacBook.

Bottom line
Apple offers multiple sizes of

iPhones, laptops, and iPods, so it

makes total sense to expand the iPad
lineup from two sizes to three, and
with the Pencil, Apples given the
12.9-inch iPad a rightful claim on the
name Pro.
For me, its just not worth the
considerable premium in price over
an iPad Air 2 (which starts at $499 for
16GB) or my favorite model, the iPad
mini 4 ($399). The Pencil is fabulous,
but instead of shelling out $799 for
the entry-level (32GB, Wi-Fi only) iPad
Pro and another $99 for the Pencil, I
could get a maxed out 128GB iPad
mini 4 with cellular for $729 and have
plenty of money left for all the fancy
pens and notebooks my heart
desires.

107

FEATURE

i PA D B U Y I N G G U I D E :

How to choose
an iPad Pro, iPad
Air, or iPad mini
These days, picking an iPad can be tricky, but heres the
lowdown on which model is right for you. BY JA SON SNE L L
ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL DOWNEY

108

o youre in the market for a new iPad.

Excellent choiceI couldnt live without
mine. Its my companion when Im catching
up on news and email in the morning over
tea, reading a comic book in the evening to unwind,
or watching a movie while traveling on a plane.
But these days, picking an iPad can be tricky.
Apple currently sells five different models of iPad,
with prices ranging from $269 to $1079. There are
size, storage, color, and connectivity options to
consider. All in all, there are 61 different variations
of iPad from which to choose. So which iPad is right
for you? Read on. 

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

109

FEATURE

i PA D B U Y E R S G U I D E

IF YOU WANT IT ALL: iPAD PRO

The iPad Pro (apple.com/ipad-pro) is the newest and biggest iPad, with a
12.9-inch diagonal screen. Its a bit like someone ripped the screen off
of a 13-inch laptop and turned it into an iPad. The iPad
Pro is also the fastest iOS device ever and
offers many features that arent
available on any other device.
If youre an artist who has dreamed
of having a larger and more responsive iPad to draw on, the iPad Pro is
a dream come true. Its the only iPad
that supports the $99 Apple Pencil
(apple.com/apple-pencil), and while
there are other pressure-sensitive
iPad styluses on the market, this is
the one thats made by Appleand
that means it will probably be the
best in its class, if for no other reason
than it will be deeply integrated into
the iPad Pros software. The iPad
Pros screen can scan for the location
of the Apple Pencil 240 times per
second, twice the rate of other iPads.
If youre someone who does a lot of serious
work on your iPad, the iPad Pro is made for you, tooits
larger screen is perfect for running two apps in Split View. And rather
than having to rely on Bluetooth to attach an external keyboard, the new
Smart Connector supplies data and power to both Apples $169 Smart
Keyboard (which doubles as a carrying case) as well as other forthcoming
keyboards, including the Logitech Create.
But despite its name, the iPad Pro isnt just a tool for artists and other
people wanting a more powerful and expansive iPad to get work done.
Its also a fantastic (albeit pricey) entertainment device, thanks to its stereo
speakers and that gorgeous 2732-by-2048-pixel display.
For all its size, the iPad Pro doesnt feel heavy. At 1.6 pounds, its about
as heavy as the original iPadbut its weight is spread over a much larger
area, making it comfortable to hold. 
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF APPLE

110

iPAD PRO
COLOR OPTIONS: Silver,
Gold, Space Gray.
STORAGE OPTIONS: 32GB
($799) or 128GB ($949).
CELLULAR OPTION: Only
the 128GB model is
available with a cellular
variant, for $1079.
WHO ITS FOR: Artists,
people who use their
iPads to get work done,
and anyone who wants
a big, bright screen
(and good audio) for
watching videos.

THE ALL-PURPOSE POWERHOUSE: iPAD AIR 2

It was introduced more than a year ago now, but the iPad Air 2
(apple.com/ipad-air-2) is still the beating heart at the center of the iPad
product line. It was so advanced compared to any other iOS device
that preceded it, that even a year later its the model that most people
should consider when theyre shopping for a new iPad.
In terms of tech specs, the iPad Air 2 is impressive: Its got a threecore Apple A8X processor and 2GB of RAM. This years iPad Mini 4
cant even match it in terms of speed, and the extra RAM improves
almost everything (sixcolors.com/post/2014/11/ipad-air-2-review) when it
comes to switching among a bunch of different apps. While its technically last years model, its probably more accurate to say that the iPad
Air 2 was next years model back in 2014, and in 2015 its still in its prime.
The iPad Air 2s 9.7-inch display puts it firmly in the center of the iPad
product line. Its got the same screen size as the original iPad model
from five years agobut of course, things have advanced an
awful lot since then. This screen is a Retina display at 2048 by
1536 pixels, and is laminated to an anti-reflective glass coating,
the result being a relatively low-glare screen that feels incredibly
close to the surface. Its also thin and light, weighing in at less
than a pound.
Yes, the displays of the iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 2 offer the
exact same number of pixels. What sets them apart is sheer size.
On the Air, those pixels are given room to breatheand if youve
got aging eyes, youll be grateful for that. Ive found reading
comic books much more pleasurable on the iPad Air 2 than on
the iPad mini, and its entirely
down to the fact that everything
on the screen is bigger.
To sum it all up, the iPad Air 2
is a powerful, thin, light iPad
with a beautiful screen. Its the
mainstream iPad and the one
that most potential iPad buyers
should consider first. 

111

iPAD AIR 2
COLOR OPTIONS: Silver,
Gold, Space Gray.
STORAGE OPTIONS: 16GB
($499), 64GB ($599), or
128GB ($699).
CELLULAR OPTIONS: 16GB
($629), 64GB ($729), or
128GB ($829).
WHO ITS FOR: Just
about anyone, but
especially people who
are happy to trade a
little weight and size for
a larger screen thats
more comfortable for
imperfect eyes to scan.

FEATURE

i PA D B U Y E R S G U I D E

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: iPAD MINI 4

Apple pretty much took 2014 off when it came to the iPad mini, adding
a Touch ID sensor (and very little else) to the iPad mini 3. But 2015 has
been very, very good to fans of the smallest iPad. The iPad mini 4 (apple.
com/ipad-mini-4) is powered by a speedy A8 processor and has 2GB of
RAM, making it almostbut not quitethe match of its big brother, the
iPad Air 2. The Air 2 is a little bit faster, but only by a hair. And the iPad
mini 4 has access to all the advanced features of iOS 9 that its predecessors didnt have, including Split View multitasking.
The iPad mini 4s screen is also to die for. The Retina display is
laminated directly to the glass, reducing reflection and making you feel
like the pixels are right underneath your fingers. The 2048-by-1536-pixel
resolution is the same as on the iPad Air 2the only difference is that all
3.1 million pixels are packed into a 7.9-inch diagonal screen, as opposed
to the Airs 9.7-inch diagonal.
But making the trade-off that favors smaller size is what the iPad mini
line has always been about. Its a pretty great size, at 8 inches tall by 5.3
inches wide, two-thirds of a pound. My 11-year-old son has been toting
around an iPad mini for the last couple of years, and he absolutely loves
it. As for me, I always found the smaller size of the iPad mini preferable
to the iPad Air, but in the last year Ive become aware that my aging eyes
feel a lot less strain when viewing all those pixels on a bigger screen.
If you want the smallest screen with the most power, though, the iPad
mini 4 delivers. 
112

iPAD MINI 4
COLOR OPTIONS: Silver,
Gold, Space Gray.
STORAGE OPTIONS: 16GB
($399), 64GB ($499), or
128GB ($599).
CELLULAR OPTIONS: 16GB
($529), 64GB ($629), or
128GB ($729).
WHO ITS FOR: Its the
perfect device for
someone who wants it
all, but wants to keep
it small.

BIG SCREEN, LOWER PRICE TAG: iPAD AIR

The original iPad Air (go.macworld.com/buyipadair), released in 2013, is
still available for sale. Its $100 or $150 less than the iPad Air 2, but its
quite a bit slower and doesnt have access to some new features like
Split View multitasking. The screen, while the same resolution as the
iPad Air 2, isnt laminated to the glass, so its got more glare and feels a
bit further away when you hold it.
This is not a bad iPad by any means, but it is two-year-old technology, and for the same price as the 16GB model you can buy the 16GB
iPad mini 4, which is faster and has more RAM. The best buy in the
line is the 32GB model, which is $150 less than the iPad Air 2but
also has half the storage capacity. And you cant get more than 32GB
of capacity in this modelif you want more storage, youll need to
buy a different model.
In general, were reluctant to recommend
that anyone buy an original iPad Air
unless price is absolutely
the biggest consideration, and even then,
the iPad mini 4 is worth
considering. Chances
are good that many
future iOS features will
not support this device,
so if you care about
speed and a long
device life, steer clear.
On the other hand,
the iPad Air has a big
9.7-inch Retina display
and is perfectly
suitable for everything
but the most taxing
productivity multitasking and the latest
cutting-edge games. 

113

iPAD AIR
COLOR OPTIONS: Silver,
Space Gray.
STORAGE OPTIONS: 16GB
($399), 32GB ($449).
CELLULAR OPTIONS: 16GB
($529), 32GB ($579).
WHO ITS FOR: Priceconscious buyers who
want a full-size iPad
and dont mind if its a
little slower than the
mainstream model.

FEATURE

i PA D B U Y E R S G U I D E

THE LOW PRICE

LEADER:
iPAD MINI 2
Like the iPad Air, the iPad
mini 2 (go.macworld.com/
buyipadmini2) was
originally released in 2013.
As a result, its slower and
has less RAM than modern
models. But its the
cheapest iPad by far,
starting at $269. For that
price, you get a light
(three-quarters of a
pound), small iPad thats
got the same 2048 by
1536 resolution as the
other iPad mini and iPad
Air models.
Yes, there are some
concerns about buying
a new iPad thats using
two-year-old technology. Certainly if you are someone who was
committed to cutting-edge games and multitasking between lots of
productivity apps, this model might not be for you. But if theres
someone in your life who just wants to play games, or surf the web, or
check Twitter, this is a pretty great little tablet for a pretty great price.
Until this summer, when I switched to the iPad Air 2 (go.macworld.
com/ipadair2rv), my everyday iPad was an iPad mini 2, and I loved it.
Yes, its not as good as this years models, but its still pretty great.
As with the iPad mini 4, my only caution is for people who are
older and are dealing with aging eyes or failing eyesight. My mothers
first iPad was an original iPad mini, but shes much happier now with
a full-size iPad Air. The mini screen size is ideal for people with
good vision.

114

iPAD MINI 2
COLOR OPTIONS: Silver,
Space Gray.
STORAGE OPTIONS: 16GB
($269), 32GB ($319).
CELLULAR OPTIONS: 16GB
($399), 32GB ($449).
WHO ITS FOR: Kids,
casual users, pretty
much anyone who
wants a low-cost iPad
and doesnt mind the
smaller screen size.

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

WORKING MAC

Tips, Tricks, and Tools to Make You

and Your Mac More Productive

10 essential Mac utilities

Whenever Kirk McElhearn sets up a new Mac, these are the apps he installs first.
BY KIRK McELHEARN

116

henever I set up a new Mac, I install a number of

utilities that make me more productive, that save
me time, or that protect my data. I bought a new
MacBook recently, and, as with every Mac, I
installed some essential utilities. Ive been using some of these
apps for many years; others are recent additions to my roster of
essential software. Heres a look at my 10 essential Mac utilities.
LAUNCHBAR
The first two apps I install on a new
Mac are the ones that help me get
everything else set up on my computer. LaunchBar is one of the rare
apps that has consistently garnered
5-mouse reviews here at Macworld
(go.macworld.com/launchbar6rv). I
use it to launch apps without needing
to rifle through my Applications
folder, to move and rename files from
the keyboard, to search the web, and
to search contacts, calendars, and
much more. And I do all this from the
keyboard, with just a few keystrokes.
LaunchBar does so many things
that its hard to summarize this apps
features. Calling it a launcher only
scratches the surface. If I use a Mac
without LaunchBar, I feel like I have
two left hands.

1PASSWORD
Next I install 1Password (go.macworld.
com/1pw). With the need for secure
passwords to protect your data and
your identity, this password manager is
as essential to me as a keyboard and a

trackpad. It stores all my passwords,

and when I need a new one, I use it to
create secure, random passwords.
But 1Password does a lot more. Its
a repository for software serial
numbers, so it allows me to install
other apps, those not purchased
from the Mac App Store. I also keep
a number of secure notes in 1Password, containing essential banking
information, and other personal
information. The apps integration
into web browsers, using an extension to quickly fill in your login and
password on websites, makes life
much simpler and more secure.
117

LAUNCHBAR is
more than just an
application launcher.

WORKINGMAC 10 ESSENTIAL UTILITIES

TEXTEXPANDER
When you write a lot, anything you can
do to save keystrokes saves time.
TextExpander (go.macworld.com/
textexpander5rv) saves me a lot of time
by allowing me to set up abbreviations
that the app, working in the background, expands to longer bits of text.
I have dozens of snippets set up
in TextExpander, for quick replies to
email (Please remove me from your
list, for example, for all the junk I get
from PR people), app names I type
often (iTunes, iTunes Match), my
address, my phone number, bits of
HTML code, and more. TextExpander
also reminds me when I type something frequently and suggests that I
create a snippet to save even more
time.

SPAMSIEVE
I get lots of
email, and
much of it is
spam. Ive tried
using serverside spam filters,
but there are too
many false positives; messages marked as spam that
arent. To tame my email, I use
SpamSieve (c-command.com/
spamsieve), a simple utility that
works in the background to filter all
my email as it arrives, and sort the
wheat from the chaff.

SpamSieve has a slew of settings

that let you determine how sensitive
it is, and what it does to your email
when it finds spam or ham (good
emails). SpamSieve also learns from
every new email that you mark as
spam or ham, so, over time, it
becomes more efficient as it learns
the type of email you receive.

iSTAT MENUS
As I work with my Mac, I like to keep
an eye on some system information
to make sure everything is running
smoothly. iStat Menus (go.macworld.
com/istatmenu5) keeps me
appraised of some important data,
such as how much RAM my Mac is
using, how busy its CPU is, how
much data is entering or leaving my
Mac over the network, and more.
iStat Menus is always visible in my
118

TEXTEXPANDER 5
watches for and
suggests ranges
of text you type
repeatedly.

menu bar, but its display is small and

unobtrusive. Whenever I want to
check something, a quick glance
shows me whats happening. Clicking
any of these graphs displays more
information. For example, if I see that
my Macs CPU is running hot, or
theres a lot of network throughput, I
can click to view a menu and find
which app is the culprit. iStat Menus
also offers better menu extras than
Apples for my MacBooks battery
status and for the date and time.

AIRFOIL SPEAKERS
Another utility I use with iTunes is
Airfoil Speakers, part of Airfoil (go.
macworld.com/airfoilformac). Airfoil is
designed to let you stream audio from
a Mac to all sorts of devices, and it is
an essential tool for doing this task.

iSTAT MENUS adds

menu extras to the
menu bar. Left to
right: RAM usage,
network throughput,
CPU usage, date, and
time.

SIZZLING KEYS
I listen to music a lot while I work,
and iTunes runs all day on my Mac in
the background. When I want to
pause music, change the volume, or
skip tracks, I dont like to have to
switch to iTunes and click its buttons;
I prefer doing it more quickly. Ive
never cottoned to using the media
keys on Apples keyboard, since
theyre just a bit too far too reach
easily. Sizzling Keys (go.macworld.
com/sizzlingkeys) lets me use a
number of custom keyboard shortcuts to control iTunes, rate tracks,
and even display a floating window
showing whats playing. There are
lots of other ways to do this, but I find
Sizzling Keys the easiest and most
flexible iTunes controller.

But Airfoil Speakers works in the other

direction: it turns any Mac into an
AirPlay receiver. This allows me to
stream music from my MacBook or
iPhone to my iMac. This is very useful,
because I only use Apple Music on my
MacBook, and I manage podcasts on
my iPhone using Overcast.
Airfoil Speakers stays dormant in the
background until I need it, but when I
119

AIRFOIL SPEAKERS
turns any Mac into an
AirPlay receiver.

WORKINGMAC 10 ESSENTIAL UTILITIES

want to stream any audio to my iMac, it

lets me do so transparently. I just select
it as an AirPlay device from another
Mac, or from an iOS device, and the
sound goes through my iMac.

DROPBOX
When you have
key files you
want to be able
to access on
multiple devices
computers or mobilethe cloud comes
to the rescue. Like many people, I use
Dropbox (go.macworld.com/dropbox14), which allows me to not only
access important files on my iMac,
MacBook, iPhone, and iPad, but also to
share files with others. I work on a
number of collaborative projects,
where shared folders allow me and
others to work on the same files.
And Dropboxs Public folder allows
me to share large files with friends
and clients, sending them a link they
can use to add the file to their Dropbox folder, or download it from the
web. Dropbox is an essential tool for
much of my work.

BITTORRENT
SYNC
I work with two
Macs: a 5k Retina
iMac and a MacBook.
There are a number of files I like to
be able to use on both of these

computers, and, while I could use

Dropbox to sync them, its not the
fastest solution for local syncs. I use
BitTorrent Sync (go.macworld.com/
bitorrentsync) to keep a few folders in
sync across my two Macs. Set up the
app, add a couple of folders, and
every time you make a change to one
of them, BitTorrent Sync transfers the
new files and deletes the ones youve
trashed.
In addition, my MacBook is my test
machine, and I often take screenshots on that Mac to use in articles I
write. So I put my screenshots in a
dedicated folder, which syncs from
the MacBook to my iMac. Its nearly
instantaneous, and it makes my life
easier; I no longer have to mount
network shares to transfer files from
one Mac to the other. And its a whole
lot more reliable than that AirDrop
thing, which never seems to work.

CARBON COPY CLONER

Last but not least is the tool that
keeps my files safe: Carbon Copy
Cloner (go.macworld.com/ccc4).
Theres nothing more important than
backups, and I have a complex
strategy where I run two Time
Machine backups, as well as several
backups of my startup volume, my
media disk, and other files. Carbon
Copy Cloner handles all this, allowing
me to set backups to run overnight,
to copy key files to external drives,
120

and to clone my entire startup

volume.
If anything happens to my Mac, I
can always boot from that clone, and
even restore it to the Mac. The app

can mount external drives automatically before backups, and eject them
when its finished. With Carbon Copy
Cloner, I can be sure that my files are
protected.
CARBON COPY CLONER

121

WORKINGMAC

Upthere hands-on:
Promising sync-free cloud
storage for Mac, iPhone
Currently in public beta, Upthere is a sync-free cloud storage
service for photos, videos, music, and just about anything
else on OS X, iPhone, or Android.
BY KIRK McELHEARN

122

ike it or not, cloud storage is the future, despite the fact

that even major players with deep pockets havent quite
nailed it yet. Now that Dropbox has come down to Earth
on pricing and capacity, its generally considered superior
to competing services from Amazon, Google, and Appleand
dont even get me started on Microsoft, which recently reneged
on its promise of unlimited storage for Office 365 subscribers.
Last month, a new player named
Upthere (upthere.com) burst onto
the scene, offering an alternative,
sync-free cloud computer. Currently available free with unlimited
storage while in beta (the company
has yet to announce pricing),
Upthere does have at least one ace
up its sleeve: Founder and former
Apple vice-president Bertrand
Serlet, who worked as software

engineering lieutenant under Steve

Jobs for more than two decades.
I managed to get in on the beta
and spent a couple weeks putting
Upthere through its paces. While
not yet as robust as other cloud
storage players, the service shows
plenty of promisebut without a
sync component, it could wind up
hamstrung by data caps and a lack
of fast, ubiquitous Internet.

123

SHARING IS a snap
from Upthere Home
for Mac, including
the option to make
content viewable on
the web to anyone
with a link.

WORKINGMAC UPTHERE SYNC-FREE CLOUD STORAGE

UPTHERE HOME for iPhone is nearly identical to the

Mac version, including a unified view of photos
and videos.

HOME ON THE CLOUD

Upthere is currently accessible from
Mac or a trio of mobile apps. The OS
X client, Upthere Home, monitors
Photos, Aperture, Photo Booth, or
iTunes libraries for new content and
uploads it automatically; theres also
an iPhone version that does the
same for your Camera Roll, a companion Upthere Camera app for
direct uploading of photos as theyre
shot, and a unified Home & Camera

app for Android.

Upthere Home splits uploaded
content into four areas: Flow, an
activity monitor for files that have
been added or shared; Photos &
Videos, which displays both media
types in one consolidated view;
Music, sorted strictly by artist name;
and Documents, where you can drag
and drop files such as documents
that dont fit into other categories.
Uploaded files remain private until
shared with friends or family as
Loops, which are displayed underneath the main categories on the
Mac, or in a separate tab on mobile.
The all-white user interface is quite
straightforward, intuitive, and easy to
use; sharing requires only a name or
email address. During the beta
period, anyone you share with can
also use Upthere free of charge. At
launch, theres no web component,
but shared photos can optionally be
set to appear online from the Details
124

MUSIC IS sorted only

by artist on Upthere
Home for Mac, but
users can find albums
or songs in a snap via
search.

tab, making them viewable to anyone

with the public link.
On a 5Mbps broadband connection, it took most of the weekend to
upload more than 18,000 photos,
around 30 videos, and my nearly
71GB iTunes library from a MacBook
Pro running night and day. The Mac
uploader completely locked up on
several occasions, but I was able to
pick up right where I left off after the
software rescanned the connected
application libraries (15 to 20 minutes
in my case). Although photos displayed just fine, videos wouldnt play
at all unless downloaded first, which
kind of defeats the purpose of using
a cloud service.

apps offer built-in image editing,

although users can view metadata
such as time/date and location.
Theres also an option to store new
photos in your Camera Roll, but this
has to be turned on prior to taking
pictures or theyll only appear in the

YOUR CLOUD CAMERA

On the surface, Upthere isnt significantly different from rival servicesin
fact, its downright underpowered in
some ways. On the Mac, theres no
central folder for syncing files like
iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive,
and desktop content cant be mirrored like SugarSync or Bitcasa
either. This is by design: Upthere was
designed as a central cloud repository for all of your files.
Although Upthere Home can be
configured to automatically upload
Camera Roll images, new photos can
also be taken with Upthere Camera,
which pushes full-resolution images
straight to the cloud. None of the
125

UPTHERE CAMERA
for iPhone offers a
simple way to snap
pictures that bypass
device storage and go
straight to the cloud
instead.

WORKINGMAC UPTHERE SYNC-FREE CLOUD STORAGE

UPTHERE HOME FOR

MAC consolidates
all current and past
activity into a single
Flow view where
users can see whats
being added or
shared.

cloud; in my tests, Upthere Home

was smart enough to skip any
duplicates that exist in both places.
The concept of a cloud camera
isnt particularly new: StreamNation
has offered an unlimited, free storage in its Shutter app for several
years. What makes Upthere Camera
unique is the ability to take photos
directly into existing Loops. Create a
new shared camera (or swipe to
select an existing one), snap a
picture, and its instantly shared with
everyone in that group.
Other than this neat trick, Upthere
Camera is a no-frills affairso basic,
in fact, Im surprised the developers
didnt roll its functionality into the
Upthere Home app like they did on

Android. For now, Upthere Camera

doesnt shoot video (although
Upthere Home will upload anything
shot with the built-in camera app),
and neither iPhone app works
natively on iPad at this time; support
for additional platforms is planned.

CAN IT COMPETE?
As the latest contender to the cloud
storage throne, Upthere is off to a
promising start. Mac uploader bugs
aside, the service is quite polished
for a beta, and sharing content is
about as frictionless as it gets. But
the verdict is still out on how much it
will cost, and whether consumers
want to entrust their content to yet
another fledgling startup.

126

Welcome to Greenbot,
a website for
Android enthusiasts.

Weve got the droid info youre looking for.

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

WORKINGMAC

A primer in
Profile Manager
Built into OS X Server, Profile Manager is used to manage the devices
in your business or organization.
BY JEFFERY BATTERSBY

128

rofile Manager is a tool you can use to take control of

all the Mac OS, iOS, and Apple TV devices you own or
are responsible for. It can also help you provide your
employees access to company resources, such as
VPNs, file servers, and email, using their own devices while still
requiring those employees to secure their devices in ways that
comply with your company security policies.
WHY USE A MDM SERVICE?
Whether youre a small business
owner with just a few users and
devices to manage or an IT manager with hundreds, youre faced
with similar challenges: How do you
provide users with a unified experience and make sure devices and
data are secure, while still handling
everything else needed to get the
job done.

Depending on the size of your

business, how you answer this
question can waver between blissful
ignorance and total control.
For the small business the answer
may be, I dont manage devices. I
give my users a computer, let them
set up their own accounts, download the applications they need
to perform their jobs, and hope for
the best.
OS X SERVERS
PROFILE MANAGER

129

WORKINGMAC PROFILE MANAGER

For larger businesses and educational institutions the answer may be,
I set the computers up, make sure
users have access to the resources
they need, then lock everything
down as tight as I can to keep users
from making changes.
In the end, neither solution is very
effective. For the small business
owner the devices arent really under
control and for the large business
theyre under so much control that
even small changes may require
every device to be touched by someone with administrative capabilities.
MDM gives you the ability to
manage and configure devices,
manage users access to business
resources, including apps purchased
from the App Store, and lock or wipe
devices, instantaneously and
remotely without ever having to
touch them.

WHY APPLES PROFILE

MANAGER FOR MDM
There are many MDM products on
the market, all of which offer excellent options for managing devices:
JAMF Softwares Casper Suite (go.
macworld.com/caspersuite), Ciscos
Meraki Systems Manager (go.
macworld.com/meraki), and Mobile
Irons Enterprise Mobility Management (go.macworld.com/emm), to
name a few. So, why use Apples
Profile Manager? For one, its built

into Apples $20 Server app, so you

get far more than just MDM when
you use Server. Its the least expensive MDM product on the market.
Additionally, as is often the case with
Apples Server app, its powerful but
very easy to use. While you do have
to have a basic understanding of how
security and device management
work, you dont need to be an IT
genius to make Profile Manager an
effective solution.

WHAT TO EXPECT
Weve set up the A Primer in Profile
Manager series of articles to get you
started using Profile Manager. The
first article: Install and setup Server
on OS X follows on page 132.
Well perform the following tasks in
various installments:
> Learn about Servers key features and how to manage your
Server
> Set up, configure, and begin
using Servers Open Directory
service for managing user accounts
> Set up device management and
Apples Push Notification Services
> Learn how to add device placeholders
> Import devices into Profile
Manager
> Create MDM payloads
> Understand, create, and deploy
configuration profiles
> Manage devices remotely
130

> Discover the Volume Purchase

Program and manage the remote
distribution of apps and books
> Allow users to enroll their own
devices
> Use the Device Enrollment
Portal so users can enroll their
own devices
To learn more about Proflle
Manager and these future installments, visit our site at go.macworld.
com/profilemanagerprimer.
At a minimum there will be ten

sections to this primer, but as we

begin to discover the features and
capabilities of Profile Manager you
may have questions that lead to
more sections. In other words, the
world is the limit, so send me questions on Twitter (twitter.com/reyes
point) and well make this as interactive and personal as possible.
So, sit back, get set, and lets start
managing devices with Profile
Manager. Up first: The Setup.

131

WORKINGMAC

A primer in Profile Manager:

The setup
Its time to set up your Mac server for the server software.
BY JEFFERY BATTERSBY

132

o begin our work with Profile Manager,

were going to start with a fresh install of El
Capitan (apple.com/osx) and a fresh install
of the Server app (apple.com/osx/server).
If you havent yet, please read the introduction to
this Working Mac mini-series before continuing.
A NOTE OF CAUTION
You may already have El Capitan
and Server installed on a Mac
somewhere, but its never a good
idea to play with server configurations on computers in a production
environment, so were going to
spend a little time here setting up El
Capitan and Server on an external
drive. Once youve practiced using
Profile Manager in a test environment, you can take what youve
learned here and introduce it to
your production environment.
If you choose to throw caution to
the wind and start performing these
exercises on your production server,
make a backup and set it aside.

That way you can easily restore your

server to its original state if something goes wrong.
You have several simple and
inexpensive backup solutions at your
disposal: Time Machine, Apples
excellent backup system thats built
right into your Mac. SuperDuper (go.
macworld.com/superduper), Shirt
Pocket Softwares disk duplication
utility. And Bombich Softwares
equally excellent Carbon Copy
Cloner (bombich.com). All three of
these solutions create bootable
backups you can use to restore a
complete copy of your current server
if you happen to make an irrecoverable mistake.

133

WORKINGMAC PROFILE MANAGER: THE SETUP

So, if youre not going to follow the

next steps to install a fresh copy of El
Capitan and Server on an external
drive, then back up your computer!
Believe me, its your only hope.

Download if youve downloaded it

before.
This will kick off the download
process and will give us time to
prepare a disk for installing the
operating system.

INSTALL A FRESH COPY

OF EL CAPITAN TO AN
EXTERNAL DRIVE

PREPARE A DISK FOR

INSTALLATION

Before you begin a fresh installation

of El Capitan, youll want to make
sure you have the installer downloaded (or at least downloading) from
the App Store before we start setting
everything up.
1. Open the App Store app.
2. Type El Capitan in the search
field.
3. Click Get if youve never downloaded the El Capitan installer or

If youre using and external disk to

install a fresh copy of El Capitan and
Server, youll first want to make sure
the disk is formatted for use with El
Capitan.
1. Plug the disk into your Mac.
2. Open the Disk Utility app. Youll
find it in the Utilities folder in your
Applications folder.
El Capitan has a new version of
Disk Utility that looks and works
134

differently than did previous versions

of the app.
1. Locate and select the external
volume you just plugged into
your Mac.
2. Click the Erase button at the top
center of Disk Utility.
3. Name your new volume.
4. Select OS X Extended (Journaled) as the Format.
5. Select GUID Partition Map as
the scheme and click the Erase
button.

INSTALL EL CAPITAN
1. Locate and double click the El

Capitan installer in your Applications

folder.
2. Click Continue and agree to the
license terms.
3. Click the button that says Show
All Disks.
4. Select the volume you just
created for this primer and click
install.
5. Type the Administrator name
and password for your computer and
press the Return key.
6. Wait for El Capitan to finish
installing on your external drive.
7. Once El Capitan finishes the
installation, follow the steps for

135

WORKINGMAC PROFILE MANAGER: THE SETUP

setting up your fresh installation of

the OS.

INSTALL THE SERVER APP

If you havent already purchased
Server youll need to purchase and
download a copy from the App
Store. If youve purchased the app
previously, youll need to click the
Purchased tab and then locate and
download the app.
When the Server app has downloaded, drag the app to the Dock and
open it. Once the Server app opens:
1. Click the Continue button.

2. Agree to the license terms, you

can leave the check in the box that
says, Use Apple services to determine
this servers Internet reachability.
3. Authenticate as an Administrator and click the Allow button.
Server will begin setting up
services. Once the setup is complete,
the Server apps window will open
and an OS X Server Tutorials window
will open as well. Feel free to have a
look around the Server tutorials,
especially the section titled Manage
Devices. This will be perfect preparation for the next Primer episode.

136

PLAYLIST

Everything You Need to Know About iPods,

iTunes, and Mac-Based Entertainment

How to set up an iTunes

library on a networkattached server
Free your iTunes media from the shackles of a hard drive on your Mac.
BY KIRK McELHEARN

138

f you have a large iTunes library, you may have reached the
point where you need to offload some of your media files to
another drive. There are several ways you can do this. You can
connect an external hard drive to your Mac, and use that to
store your iTunes Media folder. If you use an iMac, this is probably
the easiest choice.

However, if you use a laptop, you may

not want the hassle of connecting and
disconnecting an external drive
whenever you want to use iTunes.
Another option is to use a networkattached storage device, or NAS.
This is a storage device that your
Mac connects to over your network
usually via Wi-Fi, but you can also
use Ethernetand that can give you
vastly more storage, especially if your
Mac has an internal SSD.
If you use both iTunes and another
network device or appsuch as Plex
(go.macworld.com/plex4-rvw), a hi-fi
media streamer, or Sonos wireless
home audio systemyou can use the
NAS to store media that other devices
can access too. You wont need to
ensure that your Mac is always on.
In this article, Ill discuss how you
can set up iTunes to use a NAS, and
Ill point out some issues you need to
be aware of to ensure that iTunes
works correctly.

CHOOSING A NAS
There is a plethora of NAS devices
available, from simple, single-drive

units to larger, multi-drive

RAID-capable storage
devices. Depending on your
needs, you may spend a
couple hundred dollars for a
simple NAS without drives
(you may have some hard
drives you can recycle), or
much more for a unit with
five drives and RAID capabilities. Remember that if
you get a simple NAS with a
single drive, you still need to
consider adding an additional
external hard drive to back up the
files on the NAS itself.
I recently bought a WD MyCloud
Ex2 NAS (go.macworld.com/mycloudex2nasrvw). This two-bay device is
available without drives, selling for
around $159, and it allowed me to use
two 2TB hard drives I had in a closet,
having upgraded another storage
device to 4TB drives. (The MyCloud is
also available in versions with drives,
with capacities from 4TB to 10TB.)
If youre going to choose a NAS to
store your iTunes library, first consider
what other way you can use the
139

PLAYLIST

NAS iTUNES LIBRARY

device. I use one

of the hard drives
on my NAS for
my MacBooks
iTunes library,
and the other for
Time Machine
backups. Many
NAS devices
support Time
Machine backups, so if you
want a device for
this purpose,
check its specs.
The MyCloud, like some other NAS
devices, also has an iTunes server
feature, which lets you stream music
from the device to a computer
running iTunes or to an Apple TV.
This means that any computer in your
house can stream your media files,
without the Mac whose library is
stored on the NAS running.

MOVING YOUR
iTUNES LIBRARY
When youve chosen your device
and set it up, its time to move your
iTunes library. There are two ways
you can do this, and each option has
pros and cons.
> You can move just your media
files to the NAS, and keep your
iTunes library files on your Mac.
> You can move all your iTunes files
(media and library files) to the NAS.

MOVE JUST YOUR

MEDIA FILES
In your home folder is a Music folder,
and, in that, an iTunes folder. This
contains a number of files, such as
your actual iTunes library file and
some support files. Theres also an
Album Artwork folder (which caches
artwork from your media files), and an
iTunes Media folder, which contains
sub-folders for different types of
media: Music, Movies, TV Shows, etc.
If you move just your media files,
then your Mac retains your iTunes
library file, as well as some other files;
all those in the screenshot above,
other than the iTunes Media folder. The
advantage to keeping these files on
your Mac is that when iTunes updates
its library filewhich happens any time
you make changes to any files in your
iTunes librarythis process wont be
140

THESE ARE THE files in

your iTunes folder.

slowed down by your network.

However, if you have a fast Wi-Fi
router, such as a recent AirPort
Extreme, you shouldnt notice any lag.
However, if you move just your
media files, you must ensure that
your NAS (or any external drive) is
mounted when iTunes launches. If
iTunes doesnt see that drive, it will
search in your Music folder for your
media, and wont find it. It will then
switch the location of the media
folder in its preferences to that local
folder, and copy any new files there.
And this gets messy.
If you want to move just the media
files, do the following:
1. Back up all your files; because
accidents happen.
2. Ensure that the NAS is mounted
in the Finder.
3. Create a new folder on the NAS;
call it iTunes, or something similar.
Launch iTunes.
4. Choose iTunes Preferences,
and then click Advanced.
5. In the iTunes Media folder
location section, click Change.
6. Navigate to the folder you
created in step 3 and click Open, and
then click OK.
7. Choose File Library Organize Library, and check Consolidate
files. This tells iTunes to copy all the
media files currently on your Mac to
the new location. This may take a
while, depending on how many files

you have, and how fast your network

is. This may mean allowing the copy
to run overnight.
When the copy is finished, you can
play music, watch movies, and listen
to podcasts from your copy of iTunes
as if the content was on your Mac.
One tip for this scenario: when the
NAS is mounted in the Finder, open
System Preferences Users &
Groups, and click your account. Click
Login Items, and drag the NAS
volume to that list. This ensures that
your Mac mounts the volume when
you start up your Mac and log in.

MOVE YOUR ENTIRE

iTUNES FOLDER
This is a simpler process. Just copy
141

CHANGE THE
LOCATION of your
iTunes Media
folder in the iTunes
preferences.

PLAYLIST

NAS iTUNES LIBRARY

the iTunes folder in your home folders

Music folder to the NAS. The copying
process may take a long time.
The first time you launch iTunes after
the move has completed, press the
Option key immediately after clicking
the iTunes icon. Click Choose Library,
and then navigate to the iTunes folder
on the NAS. iTunes will then use this
library, and, if its not available on the
network, will alert you. It wont revert its
settings to your local drive.
However, if you have a slow network, you may have issues with
searches and you may see a bit of lag
when making changes to files or their
tags. Also, you need to ensure that not
only your media files but your iTunes
Library file gets backed up regularly.
Leaving the non-media files on your
Mac ensures that Time Machine backs
them up; putting all these files on the
NAS means that you need to set up
another backup routine.

WHATS NEXT?
Once your iTunes media files (or all your
iTunes files) are on the NAS, you use
iTunes exactly as before. As long as the
NAS is mounted, iTunes uses that
library. The only difference youll see is
when you copy files to your iTunes
libraries. You wont notice much delay

with music files, but youll definitely see

that movies take a lot longer to copy to
the NAS over your network.
Syncing to iOS devices will also be
slower. Again, you wont notice this if
youre only syncing some new music,
but if you set up a new iOS device,
and sync a lot of content, this will
take quite a while.
Using a NAS, you can have a large
iTunes library accessible from a
laptop with a compact SSD, and, as I
pointed out earlier, also access that
content easily from other hi-fi streaming devices that can read files from a
network volume. Just remember to
back up your iTunes library on the
NAS, especially if youve moved all
your files to the device. If not, and
you lose files, you may have trouble
rebuilding your iTunes library and
playlists.

142

THIS TELLS iTUNES

to copy all the
media files
currently on your
Mac to the new
location.

This is how you say

its going to be okay.
Every 8 minutes the American
Red Cross responds to a disaster
and makes this promise. This holiday
season, you can help us keep it.

Donate today at redcross.org

PLAYLIST

How to stream content

from your iTunes library
to the Apple TV
The secret lies in the Computers tile on the Apple TV home screen.
BY KIRK McELHEARN

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF APPLE

144

hen Apple introduced the latest version of the

Apple TV, a lot of people were worried that they
would no longer be able to stream content from
their iTunes libraries. In the screenshots on the
Apple website, the Computers tile isnt shown, and on the Tech
Specs page (apple.com/tv/specs), nothing said that you could still
use Home Sharing to access your iTunes library.
Well, rest assured; nothing much has
changed. You can still stream music
and videos from your iTunes library, as
you have been able to do for years.
You can watch movies and TV shows,
you can stream music, and you can
listen to podcasts and audiobooks on
the Apple TV. Heres how you set up
and use the Apple TV to access
media in your iTunes library.

SET UP HOME SHARING

Home Sharing is Apples method of
authenticating you so you can access

content from your iTunes library on

other devices. This feature uses your
Apple ID, the one linked to your iTunes
Store account. To activate it, go to
iTunes and choose File Home
Sharing Turn on Home Sharing. Enter
your Apple ID and password, and
iTunes will be ready to serve up audio
and video to other Apple devices.
Home Sharing works with other
computers (iTunes), iOS devices (the
Music or Videos apps), and the Apple
TV. On the latter, go to Settings
Accounts Home Sharing, and enter
ACCESS MEDIA IN
your iTunes library
from the Computers
tile.

145

PLAYLIST

STREAM iTUNES TO APPLE TV

your credentials. If you have more

than one Apple TV, enter the same
credentials on each of the devices so
they will be able to access your
iTunes library. Remember that each
device that will access your library
has to be set up to use the same
Apple ID for Home Sharing.

STREAM CONTENT WITH

HOME SHARING
Home Sharing lets you stream media.
Even though the new Apple TV
contains either 32GB or 64GB flash
storage, you cant send files from
your iTunes library to the device, as
you could with the very first Apple
TV, which synced content from your
iTunes library. That device was more
like an iPod in the living room; the
current Apple TV (and the secondand third-generation models) pull
media from your iTunes library, or
from the cloud.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF APPLE

To use Home Sharing to access

content from your iTunes library,
select Computers on the Apple TVs
home screen, and then select a
library. If you have more than one
computer running iTunes, and Home
Sharing is active on each of them,
they will all display here.
Select a library, and youll then see
the types of content available:
Drill down through your music and
videos, and choose what to play. If you
dont have all of these media kinds in
your iTunes library, the
Apple TV will only display
those available, though my
MacBooks library shows a
listing for Home Videos,
even though I dont have
any on that device.
One good thing about
Home Sharing is its ability
to access multiple
devices. For example, you
may have your music
library on the computer
146

IF YOU HAVE more than

one library available,
you can select one
here. If not, youll go
straight to the content
type list, as in the
screenshot on the
next page.

BROWSE THE DIFFERENT

types of content in
your shared library.

you use regularly, but store your

videos on a dedicated device, such as
a Mac mini. If so, you can select either
device from the Apple TV and access
its content. In fact, if youre running
out of storage on your Mac and have
another older Mac, it would be useful
to convert it to a media server. Set up
iTunes on the old Mac, perhaps add
an external hard drive, and add, say,
all your videos to that iTunes library.
Since videos take up so much space,
you could still have room on your
main Mac for your music.
Home Sharing has not been
without problems over the years.
Sometimes the Apple TV can no
longer see your iTunes library. Ive
had to do one or more of the following at different times to get Home
Sharing to work again (though Apple
may have improved Home Sharing
for the new device):

> Quit and relaunch iTunes on

my Mac.
> Restart my Apple TV.
> Sign out of Home Sharing on my
Mac or Apple TV, then sign in again.
> Restart my router.
You may also need to tweak your
computers security settings. Home
Sharing uses TCP port 3689 and
UDP port 5342, and if you have a
firewall on your computer, youll need
to make sure these ports are open.
An Apple support document (go.
macworld.com/homesharingports)
explains what you need to do.
While the Apple TV is great for
getting content from Apples cloud, it
also lets you use the music and
videos in your iTunes library. Use
Home Sharing to access all your stuff,
and enjoy your movies, TV shows,
and music on your TV set.

147

PLAYLIST

Create Smart Playlists to find

which of your songs are Apple
Music, in the cloud, and more
Apple Music, your iTunes library, iCloud Music library, iTunes Match...where are
your tracks being stored?

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF APPLE

BY KIRK McELHEARN

148

ince the launch of Apple Music, your iTunes library can

contain several different types of music files, and they
can be stored in different locations. You may have files
that youve ripped from CDs, which are stored on your
Mac. Your library probably holds some music that you bought
from the iTunes Store, which may be on your Mac, or may be in
the cloud.

And if youve signed up for Apple

Music, you might have added some
music to your iTunes library. It may be
local, or it may be on Apples servers.
All this can be a bit confusing. While
you dont always need to know which
tracks are on your Mac or in the cloud,
it can be useful. For example, if you
decide to not opt for an Apple Music
subscription after your three-month
trial expires, youll want to check and
make sure that none of the music
youve added from Apple Music to
your iTunes library remains there. Or, if
you need to make space on your
drive, you might want to find which of
your tracks are Apple music tracks or
purchased tracks stored in the cloud,
and delete the local copies.
You can find out where any tracks
are stored using smart playlists.

(or press Command-Option-N).

Create a playlist with the following
conditions:
Media Kind is Music
iCloud Status is Apple Music

(Click the + button after the first

condition to add the second.)
Make sure that Live Updating is
checked; this means that each time
you view the contents of this smart
playlist it will show you the latest
tracks youve added to your Music
library. Click OK to save the playlist.
Youll see, when you look at this
playlist that it contains all of your
Apple Music tracks, and that some of
its tracks display cloud icons; this
tells you that the tracks arent on
your Mac, but that you can down-

APPLE MUSIC TRACKS

To find which tracks in your iTunes
library come from Apple Music, go to
your Music library, and then click
Playlists in the navigation bar.
Choose File New Smart Playlist
149

FIND WHICH TRACKS are

Apple Music tracks.

PLAYLIST

SMART PLAYLISTS

load them if you wish.

If you only want to find which of
your Apple Music tracks are on your
drive, taking up space, you can alter
the smart playlist by adding the
following condition:
Location is on this
computer

If you want to delete some of

these tracks from your Macbut not
from your iTunes libraryselect one
or more tracks, right-click, and then
choose Remove Download.
If you want to delete all your Apple
Music tracks, press Command-A to
select all the tracks in this playlist,
and then press Option-Shift-Delete.
iTunes will ask you to confirm that
you want to delete these tracks.

TRACKS IN THE CLOUD

If youre using iCloud Music Library or
iTunes Match, you can create a smart
playlist to show you which of your
tracks are stored on your Mac, and
which are in the cloud. You might want
to do this to delete some of the local
tracks to free up space on your Mac.
Create a smart playlist with the
following condition:
Location is on this computer

Press the Option key and click the

+ button to add another, nested
condition, then click the + button to
add two more:

THIS SHOWS YOU which Apple Music tracks are on your Mac.

THIS SMART PLAYLIST shows which tracks are available in the cloud, but have
been downloaded to your Mac.

iCloud Status is Matched

iCloud Status is Purchased
iCloud Status is Uploaded

Make sure that Match All of the

following rules is selected at the

top of the playlist, and that Any of

the following are true is selected

for the second group of conditions.

As above, you can delete the local
copies of these tracks by selecting one
or more of them, right-clicking, and
then choosing Remove Download.
Smart playlists are quick and easy
to create, and they help you free up
space, or delete Apple Music tracks.

150

6$9($/,)('217'5,9(+20(%8==('
%8==(''5,9,1*,6'581.'5,9,1*

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

The problem with iCloud Photo Library

and Family Sharing
Steve Gentile writes in with a question that, in similar language, many readers
have. He wants to be able to maintain essentially a family iCloud Photo
Library. He upgraded to 200GB of iCloud storage and has about 20GB in his
own Photos library. He and his wife both sync to their own iCloud accounts,
and they have a Mac with Photos on it as well.

152

Q: The problem now is that

although we want all photos
synced to the cloud, we dont want
to have three duplicates of 20GB
on each machine. My wifes iPhone
is running low on space. What is the
best way to sync our iPhone photos
to the cloud but not need to store
them all?
Steve Gentile

A: Unfortunately, you and many

others are running up against an odd
limit that continues to plague Apple:
while it offers Family Sharing (apple.
com/icloud/family-sharing) in iCloud,
this is mostly about sharing purchases, location, and a group photo
album, rather than syncing or sharing
data to a common location. The
common photo album works (go.
macworld.com/commonphotoalbum)
just like another iCloud Photo
Sharing (go.pcworld.com/icloudphotoshare) album, but its labeled
specially and created automatically.
However, you have to add items into
it; it doesnt sync for you.
Apple doesnt let families or
households purchase blocks of cloud
storage or coordinate or pool any
syncing. This is true of nearly all
cloud-based storage aimed at
consumers: the storage is locked to
an account, but you can share or
invite people in.
You probably dont want to use the

same iCloud account for all your

devices. (If you do, however, set one
or more devices to use optimized
storage, and then you wont download full-resolution versions of all
photos to every device that uses the
same account. In Photos for OS X, go
to Photos Preferences iCloud and
select Optimize Mac Storage. In iOS,
go to Settings iCloud Photos and
select Optimize iPhone Storage.)
The alternative is to create an
account at another cloud-storage
photos site. Amazon Cloud Drive
(amazon.com/clouddrive/pricing) is
probably the best deal at $12 a year
for unlimited photos (and 5GB for
videos and other data) or $60 a year
for unlimited everything. It comes with
a three-month free trial, and the
153

PHOTOS OFFERS A
choice between
optimized and fullresolution originals
when syncing through
iCloud Photo Library.

HELP DESK

MAC 911

photos tier is free for Amazon Prime

subscribers.
You can set up Amazons iOS app
to upload new photos automatically,
but youll have to delete them occasionally after uploading, as Amazon
cant remove pictures its added.
Theres a desktop OS X uploader that
requires manually adding images. Its
not ideal, but it might provide you with
the right combination of sharing,
storage, and price.

How to replace El Capitans missing Secure

Empty Trash
Q: Secure Empty Trash: We lost
that option with El Capitan; how
could we get it back?
Yves Laurin

A: Ive seen this question come up a

number of times since late in the El
Capitan public beta cycle, and you
can find hundreds of postings about
it on Apples forums and elsewhere.
People have a concern about this
option having gone missing, even if
they used it as an extra measure of
security, rather than ever having had
a breach due to not using it.
Secure Empty Trash was originally
designed around hard-disk drives
(HDDs). When you perform a normal
Empty Trash operation, the file isnt
immediately overwritten on your

HDD; rather, the disks index, created

as part of the formatting operation,
has its entry for that file removed.
The space is available for other files,
but someone could still recover the
data from magnetic spinning media, or at least
read some of the
deleted filesusing basic
disk repair or disk
analysis software.
Secure Empty Trash
wouldnt just delete the
files index, but also
would overwrite it a single time with
zeroes. While its well-known and
proven by academic and private
researchers that overwriting a
magnetically-stored 0 or 1 once
doesnt mean it cant be read as an
electromagnetic ghost later, someone casually interested in your files
cant recover them. Youd need to fall
afoul of a government agency or be
the target of a high-end criminal
enterprise.
However, Solid-State Drives (SSDs)
dont store data in the same fashion
as HDDs. Because each erasable area
of memory suffers from wear-and-tear
with each write (which includes
erasure), SSD management software
tracks usage unit by unit, rotating
through available storage to distribute
wear across an entire drive, dramatically improving its life expectancy.
Depending on the SSD controller
154

SECURE EMPTY TRASH

(hold down the
Command key while
emptying the Trash) is
no longer available in
OS X El Capitan.

and other factors, it can be impossible to assure that the specific

memory locations were erased,
which provides a slight but reasonable chance of recovering (go.
macworld.com/ssdrecovery) parts of
deleted files. Apple opted to remove
Secure Empty Trash because it
couldnt assure users that deleted
files were, in fact, securely overwritten. In its El Capitan security release
notes (go.macworld.com/elcapsecuritynotes), it said:
Description: An issue existed in
guaranteeing secure deletion of
Trash files on some systems, such as
those with flash storage. This issue
was addressed by removing the
Secure Empty Trash option.
Yes, I know that sounds hilarious
on its face: We cant make it work,
so we fixed the problem by removing
it. And Apple could have left the
option in place for HDDs, although
there are known conditions in which
bad HDDs sectionsas little as the
smallest unit of HDD storagecould
be noted as bad without the data
being deleted from them.
Further, in updating Disk Utility,
Apple removed separate options for
a similar reason: Zero Out Deleted
Files, 7-Pass Erase of Deleted Files,
and 35-Pass Erase of Deleted Files.
These are unreliable on SSDs and
have a deleterious effect on their life

spans as well.
Apple was justified in disabling
Secure Empty Trash (at least for
SSDs). But youve got options.

FileVault 2 to secure a
whole drive
For SSD-based Mac owners, the best
course if you want to be sure files are
unavailable to anyone else is to
enable FileVault 2 (go.macworld.com/
fvault2). FileVault 2 uses whole-disk
encryption to read and write every
chunk of data securely. With an HDD,
especially a 5400-rpm disk, it might
slow you way down. But with an SSD,
you wont notice it.
As long as youre powered up, the
files are available to someone who
gets a hold of your computer and

155

FILEVAULT CAN BE
activated in OS X
El Capitan through
the Security &
Privacy system
preference pane.

HELP DESK

MAC 911

thus deleted files on an SSD have the

same remote potential to be recovered. But whenever the computer is
shut down, all files and former file
traces are strongly encrypted.
Using screen lock or logging out
makes it harder for files to be
accessed, but without shutting down,
the filesystem is decrypted, and
lesser protections prevent access.

Command-line
secure erasure
If you still have an HDD or a Fusion
drivewhich uses a small amount of
SSD alongside an HDD to speed up
overall performanceyou can resort
to the Terminal to use the nowremoved commands. (If you have
backup archives of files, mind that
those are secured in some other
fashion, too, or securely deleted!)
Warning: You can really mess
things up forever by using these
commands. Be very, very careful
what you type, and make sure this
is within your comfort level.
Launch the Terminal from Applications Utilities. The srm command is
secure remove (normal remove in
Unix is rm). It will attempt to overwrite
a deleted file with other data, either 1,
7, or 35 times. By default, the command uses 35 passes of a variety of
different bytes, including some
random. You can control via command-line flags whether to use 1 or 7

passes and whether to overwrite with

just zeroes instead of these more
complicated patterns. You can delete
individual files or entire directories. (I
suggest using the -v or verbose flag
so youre better informed about
whats happening, too.)

WARNING: YOU
CAN REALLY
MESS THINGS UP
FOREVER BY USING
THESE COMMANDS.
BE VERY, VERY
CAREFUL WHAT
YOU TYPE, AND
MAKE SURE THIS
IS WITHIN YOUR
COMFORT LEVEL.
You need the entire path to a file
to perform this correctly. These Unix
paths can be inserted by OS X by
dragging a file or folder into Terminal
after entering a command.
Erase one file securely with zeroes
in one pass by typing the following
and pressing Return:
srm -zsv /path/to/file

Youll see something like:

Mininum-Minival:~ glenn$ srm
-zsv foo.txtremoving foo.
txtdoneMininum-Minival:~ glenn$

Erasing a folder requires a

recursive erase, which starts at the
bottom of the folder, its lowest156

nested files and folders, and erases

all the way to the topthe folder you
specify. Get this wrong, and, wow,
you can delete a lot of material. So be
even more careful.
Erase a folder of files with seven
random passes:
srm -rmv /path/to/folder/

If youve gotten this far, you can

use man srm to find more options
available. Id suggest testing on an
external drive or even a flash drive
(yes, it uses SSD, but youre only
doing a little bit of testing) if youre
uncomfortable in the least.

Zero out empty space

occasionally
Theres one more plan you could carry
out, which is to set yourself a reminder
and occasionally delete unused
space. The Disk Utility option removed
in El Capitan can be triggered from the
command line. It looks like this:
diskutil secureErase
freespace 0 /Volumes/Glenn\
External \Drive

The 0 location is where you enter

the level of erasure. With 0, diskutil
uses the fastest and easiest method:
all empty space is overwritten with
zeroes in a single pass. You can pick
1 for a random overwrite, 2 for a
Department of Defensecompliant
7-pass erasure, 3 for a complicated
35-pass wipe, and 4 for the Department of Energys 3-pass spec.

For most of us, seven passes

should be seven times too many, but
enough to prevent all but the information youre deleting that a
national-security agency
would want from being
recoveredand even
then, youre probably
safe. (If thats what youre
deleting, what files are not
deleted on your computer
that put you at risk?)
The path to a drive is specified
either as / for your boot drive or /
Volumes/ plus the drives name,
including backslashes for spaces.
You can drag your drive into
Terminal to have it drop in the right
encoding, as with files and folders.
My drive Four Terabytes appears as
/Volumes/Four\ Terabytes, for
instance.

What to do when mobile

Time Machine backups
linger and fill storage space
After reading the case of the missing
El Capitan hard-disk space(go.
macworld.com/missingdiskspace) and
following all the advice in that column,
Jim Williamsstill had an inexplicable
300GB that had no reason to exist.
He ran a disk analysis program that
showed that a hidden Unix directory
named.MobileBackups.trash
What is it and can he get rid of it?
This is a side effect of Time
157

HELP DESK

MAC 911

Machine, of all things. When one of

your Time Machine targets is a drive
that isnt currently connected to your
Mac, the backup system will continue
to generate system snapshots up until
all but 20 percent of drive storage is
filled. After that point, Time Machine
starts to delete snapshots and is more
aggressive if you have very little
storage available (less than 10 percent
of drive capacity or less than 5GB).
As Apple documents (go.macworld.com/localsnapshots), these
temporary snapshots remain retrievable locally until such point as you
reconnect to one or more Time
Machine drives. Then the snapshots
are copied to that backup drive or
those drives and then deleted from
local storage.
In Jims case, he has a drive that
reports almost 680GB in capacity
drive but only a bit over 70GB free.
That brings us to the .trash part of
the directory. After the snapshots
arent needed, theyre supposed to be
deleted, and OS X accomplishes that
by renaming the .MobileBackups
directory to .MobileBackups.trash,
and then progressively removing
unneeded files and hard linksa
special kind of Unix link that points to
files on a disk without taking up
additional storage.
OS X users have been reporting
problems related to .MobileBackups
since 2011, as far as I can tell, and the

only way you wind up noticing the

issue is when something goes wrong.
This apparently can happen if you or
someone else renames the Time
Machine drive that the OS X system
expects to copy its local snapshots to;
if that drive goes unavailable; or you
switch to a new drive. The.trash
directory can apparently also get

stalled and remain in place though it

should be automatically deleted
without additional effort. It just doesnt
always happen.
You should be able to see if local
snapshots are a problem by selecting
the Apple menu About This Mac and
clicking the Storage tab. Youll see a
colored bar labeled Backups (colored
red) if there are local snapshots.
If these files persist, you can get rid
158

OUR READER FOUND

300GB occupied
inexplicably.

of them from Terminal. As with any

Terminal operation, take exquisite care
that you, first, have a full backup of
everything and, second, follow
instructions carefully. In this case,
mistyping could delete many files and
require a restore.
1.
Launch Applications Terminal.
2. Copy the following and paste it,
ensuring a return at the end:

a few minutes, all the storage should

be freed up.
You can prevent Time Machine
from making local snapshots at all by
entering the following in Terminal;
youll have to re-do this command
with every OS X update (from 10.11.0
to 10.11.1, for instance):
sudo tmutil disablelocal

sudo rm -rf /.MobileBackups.trash

3.

Enter your administrative

password for your OS X
account when prompted.
If youd like to pursue a method thats
less fraught, in step 2, copy instead:
sudo mv /.MobileBackups.trash
~/Desktop/MobileBackupsTrash

This will move the directory to your

currently logged-in Desktop as
MobileBackupsTrash, and then you
can drag the folder to the trash and
empty the trash. You will likely be
prompted again to enter an administrative username and password.
Whichever method you choose, in

Ask Mac 911

Were 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.
(Well be experimenting with some
audio in the future, and may put
your question on the air.)
Mac 911 cant provide direct email
responses or answers for every
question. For that, turn to AppleCare, an Apple Store Genius Bar, or
the Apple Support Communities.

159

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